History of Westchester County, New York, from its Earliest Settlement to the Year 1900
He was one of the leaders of the patriot party in our county before the war, sat in the assembly in 1778 and in the State senate from 1780 to 1783, and was appointed county judge in 1784. His home, on the Tuckahoe Road, was the post for a detachment of Revolutionary troops dependent upon the " lines" above, and as such it was attacked several times. Upon one occasion the American force stationed in and around it was attacked by a strong British expedition under Captain Campbell. The American commander was ready to surrender, when an unlucky shot was fired from one of the windows, and Captain Campbell fell dead. Many Americans were slaughtered in revenge, and twentyseven were taken away prisoners. But the place was again garrisoned, and it was then decided by the enemy to burn the house. This was done in November, 1778, the sidings, doors, windows, and shutters being hist removed. They were transported to Kingsbridge and used in building barracks for the British troops. The ''' Babcock's House Affair " is one of the most interesting Revolutionary episodes connected with the history of Yonkers. A strong and pleasing element of romance attaches to it. " Babcock's House " was none other than the parsonage of Saint John's (Episcopalian)
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name, Church, and the Rev. Luke Babcock, from whom it took its April, of o manifest Tory the signed who n clergyma was the same as 1775, and whom Colonel Lewis Morris scornfully characterized " the Reverend Mr. Luke Babcock, who preaches and prays for Colonel the Philips and his tenants at Philipsburg." Like his compatriots, oi Reverends Samuel Seabury, of Westchester; Epenetus Townsend, perwas Salem; and Ephraim Avery, of Rye, the Yonkers parson severing in his devotion to the British cause, and suffered accordingly.