He quotes Cadwallader Colden, who, in October, 1753, wrote to his wife of having rested at it on a journey to New York, when it was " very well kept by a Dutchman named Vanderventer, and our food and lodgings were very comfortable." Tradition says that General Heath occupied it for his headquarters in October, 1776, and that Washington and Lee met there on the morning when they followed the American army and journeyed together to the Bronx. It was the headquarters of the Hessian Colonel Ralle after the assault on Fort Washington. One of his aides fell in love with the pretty sister of young Vanderventer, and promised to remain in America if she would marry him. Her mother and Ralle favored the union, and despite the opposition of her brother, they were married in Ralle's own

3 The abundant references for this theory include the records of the Van Olilem's tract. Gauthier's survey of the northern part of New York Island, nuule by onler of Lord Percy, in Xovendier, 1770, locates the " Blue Bell on the west of the roa<l on the lane leading to Fort Washington. In 1848 John Macdonald made the note that "the olrl stone house in the field west of the road at Fort Washington was the ' Blue Bell ' tavern of the Revolutionary war, kept by Jacob Moore."'

* Applclmi'$ Joimiitl, December 13, 1873.

472/

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

room by his chaplain the night before his departure 1 from the " BUie Bell." The young husband was made | prisoner by Washington at the battle of Trenton, and j refusing to be exchanged took the oath of allegiance to the United States, and settled in East Jersey.