Fowler, although he had signed <i recantation of expressed views of a similar character, was still regarded with a good deal of suspicion. The three men were leading representatives of the disaffected classes who wTere giving so much trouble to the Revolutionary committee in Westchester County, and Sears conceived the idea that their simultaneous arrest by means of a dashing expedition would exert a wholesome influence toward the proper regulation of that much Tory-ridden region. Captain Isaac Sears was a picturesque Revolutionary personage. In the French and Indian War he was in command of a privateer sloop, with which, although it carried but fourteen guns, he attacked a French ship of twenty-four, grappling with it three times but finally being compelled by a storm to abandon his bold attempt. Later, he engaged in shipping pursuits in New York of a more or less ques-

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

tionable character. At the beginning of the Stamp Act troubles he took the leadership of the Sons of Liberty in that city, and through his many exploits in this connection he came to be popularly known as King Sears. At the time of the Golden Hill conflict between the citizens and the soldiers, in 1770, he was in the thick of the fray, and, finding himself confronted at one stage of it by a fierce grenadier with a bayonet, with great presence of mind and precision of aim hurled a rani's horn at the unfortunate man, which struck him full in the forehead and put him liors de combat. Wherever there was an affray Sears was sure to be, always rough and ready and always victorious. As time sped on to the Revolution, he sought to give to his country's cause the benefit also of his co-operation in council, but received not overmuch encouragement in that line from the aristocratic yHp iMcwmcU wnty --