No one went to his bed but under the apprehension of having his house plundered or burnt, or himself or family massacred, before morning.-' The following picture of the times is from the " Bevolutionary Services and Civil Life of General William Hull," who was an officer on duty in Westchester County during a portion of the war:

41^

HISTORY

WESTCHESTER

COUNTY

called Refugees, ranged The Cowboys and Skinners ravaged the whole region/" The first, cattle and driving them themselves on the British side. They were employed in plundering called Skinners, while latter, The . occupation their from derived is name their ; city the o to indiscriminate robbery, murprofessing attachment to the American cause, were devoted seemed, like the savage, to have der and every species of the most brutal outrage. They inflicted. Oftentimes they left then- wretched learned to enfoythe sight of the sufferings they all, hung up by their arms and sometimes by victims, from whom they had plundered their that had been inflicted to tneir thumbs, on barn doors, enduring the agony of the wounds relieved M>y our frequently were beings miserable These wrest £1 them their prop'erty. But unhappily the military patrols who every night scoured the country from river to river. and the vigilance its by although needed, much so succor the force IT too small to render kept in check, to a certain extent, tins lawinfliction less race of severe men. punishment on the offenders, it

beThe fmures of comparative population in Westchester County In ant. signific ngly exceedi are ion Revolut the after fore during and next census, 1756 the population of the county was 13,257, and at the After in 1771 it was 21,715-- an increase of 8,148 in fifteen years. ants 1771 no' enumeration was taken until 1700, when the total inhabit n year s preof the county were 21,003, only 2,258 more than ninetee to 1800, viously, before the war started.