It will be remembered by the reader that, in 1774, when the County of Westchester was invited, by the Committee of Fifty-one, in the City of New York, to
1 Conmiodore Hotham did not reach New York until the twelfth of August, as will be seen, hereafter.
^General Uoice to Lord George Germain, "Staten Island, "th July, " 177C."
See, also, [Captain Hall's] Hinlnnj of the Civil War in America, i., 174 ; Stednian's History <>/ the Americutt ]r«r, i., luO, I'Jl.
Stedniaii said, " the troops thus landed," [on Staten /sluiirf,] "consisted "of two Battalions of Light Infantry; two of Grenadiers; the Fourth, "Fiftli, Tenth, Seventeenth, Twenty-second, Twenty-third, Twenty sev- "enth, Thirty-fifth, Thirty-eighth, Fortieth, Forty second. Forty-third, " Forty-fourth, Forty fifth, Forty-ninth, Fifiy-second, Fifty -sixth, Sixty- " third, and Sixty -fourth Regiments of Foot ; parts of the Forty-six.th " and Seventy first Regiments ; and the Seventeenth Regiment of Light " Dragoons. There were, besides, two Companies of Volunteers, raised " at JJew-Vork, consisting of one hundred men each. The total amount "was nine thousand men" -- in which latter statement, in general terms, he is contradicted by General Howe, in his Observntiong, {vide puges, 3ti7, 308, ante.) although he gave the aggregate, including the Officers and Staff, while General Howe included only "the Itank and File of his command.
unite with that Committee in sending a Delegation to the proposed Congress of the Continent which had been called for the purpose of securing a proper and united opposition to the measures of the Ministry and, lis far as possible, a redress of the grievances of the Colonies, the great body of the farmers in that County disregarded that invitation ; and that the very few who accepted it, either personally or by their local Committees, assembled at the Court-house, in the White Plains ; called one of the principal landholders of the County, who was, also, at that time a Representative of the County in the General Assembly of the Colony, Frederic Philipse by name, to the Chair ; and signified the opposition to the measures of the Home Government, of, at least, those who were present, by authorizing the Delegation who had been elected to represent the City and County of New York, to represent, at the same time, the County of Westchester, in that general assemblage of Delegates.^