History of Westchester County, New York, Vol. I

refused to be made tools for their inquisitorial practices, were ordered to be imprisoned " until they "should make discovery or declaration aforesaid."^ Arrests were made by military officers, even for alleged civil offences ; ^ and, of course, the arbitrary arrests of those who were obnoxious to members of the several County Committees were continued, without abatement* -- the Committee of the City of New York assumed authority to pass over the Hudsonriver, into New Jersey ; to arrest six persons, " in " Bergen Woods, near Bull's Ferry ; " and to bring its prisoners over the river, and imprison them in the Jail of the City.* Occasionally, food was provided for those who were thus seized and confined ; ® but such a favor was exceptional : in some instances, the expense of being confined was increased by official extras ; ' but there was an instance, also, wherein a prisoner, arrested by order of the Commander-in- Chief, was liberated from confinement, by the Convention, and given the largest liberty, with no other condition than that of an elastic parole, only because of his "connection with a large family of well-attached, "warm Whigs," and because it would be "the most "politic course to do so;"* and a second instance, wherein "a person of equivocal character," in Westchester-county," and who.se name was included in the List of Suspected Persons on which Frederic Philipse's name also appeared,'" and who was ostentatiously summoned to appear before the notorious " Committee to "detect Conspiracies," of which his half-brother and