With sixteen mounted and armed men, described by a New Haven newspaper of the day as " respectable citizens of this town," Sears set out on the 20th of November for the avowed purpose of an expeditionto " East and West Chester, in the Province of New Yrork, disarm the principal Tories there and secure the persons of Parsonto Seabury, Judge Fowler, and Lord Underbill." On the way they were joined by Captains Richards, Silleck, and Mead, with about eighty men. At Mamaroneck they burned a sloop that had been purchased by the British governor to convey provisions to the man-of-war 'kAsia." A detachment of forty men, commanded by Captain Lothrop, was sent to WTestchester, which without ceremony took Seabury and Underbill in custody, the main body meantime proceeding to Eastchester and securing Judge Fowler. The three prisoners were dispatched with a guard of twenty to Connecticut. This completed Sears's business in Westchester County, but he had still another reg-

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ulating duty to perform. He had long been displeased with the editorial conduct of Rivington's New York Gazetteer, and he now rode with his remaining men, a troop of about seventy-five, down to the city, "which they entered at noon-day, with bayonets fixed and the greatest regularity, went down the main streets, and drew up in close order before the printing office of the infamous James Rivington.,,1 They completely wrecked the establishment, demolishing the presses and taking away the types; and, having so successfully completed this final part of their mission, remounted, struck up the tune of " Yankee Doodle," and amid the cheers of the populace returned whence they came. Some incidents of Sears's raid suggest that it was not exclusively an enterprise of patriotic enthusiasm. Certain acts of indecorum were committed, to characterize them by no harsher term.