Thti barbarities wbieli were ofticially inllicted on iuilivi<lnuls anil families, in many instances only for an ujiiuiim extorted by tbeir iK-rsecntors, witlii>ut an overt aet or tbe inclination to commit one, as tliose barbarities have iM'en ollicially recorded, were jH^rfectly shocking; ; and some of those which were intllcted on residents of Westchester-eonnty, under the guidance of such notable \Vest«-hester-ei»iinly men as .John .lay and Gouverneur Morris, will find places in other parts of this narrative.

2(17

Peiin.sylvania, as its Secretary.'^ The history of its doings, generally, is known to every intelligent i)erson, and need not be re[)eated, unless in such instances as particularly related to Westchester-county or to those who were within the bounds of that County, during the period of the War of the Revolution.

On Monday, the twenty-second of May, 1775, a number of those who had been designated as Deputies from the several Counties of the Colony, assembled at the Exchange, in the City of New York, for the purpose of forming a Provincial Congress ; but, because they conceived there was not a sufficient number of Deputies present, they adjourned until the following day, without having attempted to organize. On the latter day, [Tucsdai/, Ma;/ 23, 177-'),] those Deputies who were then }>resent assembled at the Exchange, " the Deputies of a majority of the Counties " having appeared; and a "Provincial Congress for the " Colony of New-York " was organized by the election of Peter Van Brugh Livingston -- one of the most violent of the former " Committee of Corres()ondence," a brother of the Lord of the Manor of Livingston, and a brother-in-law and partner in business of that Earl of Stirling, so called, who figured so largely in the military history of the War of the Revolution -- to be its President ; and John McKesson and Robert Benson, the latter a brother of that Egbert Benson whose extraordinary election as a Deputy from Duchess-county to the earlier Provincial Convention, has been already noticed, were elected to be ils Secretiiries.-' Although the doings of that body are less generally known than those of the Continental Congress, the purposes of this work will not require any further reference to them, than to such portions as relate ])articularly, to Westchester-county or to those who were within that County, and to such other portions thereof as, in tlieir effects, affected that County or its inhabitants, during the period of the War of the Revolution.