Abbatt shows that it consisted of eight, whose names are accurately given by Mr. Couch. Mr. Abbatt says that "the party was actually under the direction of one of their number, who was a veteran," and that " he alone of the party was not a private " -- Sergeant John Dean. The part of Dean in the affair is overlooked, or only very inadequately referred to, in most accounts of tin1 capture of Andre. As this is a matter of no small interest, and especially deserving of attention in a History of Westchester County, a somewhat particular notice of it is appropriate here.1 1 For our account of John Dean and his connection with the affair, we are indebted to Ins descendant, Prof. Bashford Dean, of Columbia University.

CAPTURE

AND11E

John Dean was a descendant of Samuel Dean, an early landholder of Jamaica, Long Island (165G). Isaac, one of the three sons of Samuel, settled in our present Town of Greenburgh about 1750, and John (born in 1755) was his grandson. At the age of twenty John Dean served as private in Colonel Holmes's regiment in the Montgomery campaign against Canada; he was next on Long Island under Colonel Putnam, and was at the battle of White Plains; promoted to sergeant, he served (1777-79) in the company of Westchester County Rangers commanded by his uncle, Captain Gilbert Dean.1 He was quartermaster of Colonel Graham's regiment (during 1778), ami was in Youngs's house at the time of its attack by Major Bearmore on