A lawless assault on the persons or the properties of the conservatives and the loyal, by the promptings of i-mbittered human nature and the unwritten law of retaliation, was followed, sooner or later, by equally lawless assaults on the persons or on the families or on the properties of those, of the opposite party, who had been the original aggressors ; and, very seldom, on those occasions, was a tooth or an eye regarded as a sufficient equivalent for the tooth or the eye which had been taken. "They hunted every man his " brother with a net ; " the reign of peace, of happiness, and of prosperity -- the era of good-feelings between neighbors, of regard among friends, of affection in families -- in the old agricultural County of Westchester was ended ; and partisan strife and personal and domestic misery and general waste and ruin prevailed.

Rye, even at a later period, was noted for its solid, unyielding conservatism ; J and, in Rye and throughout Westchester-county, generally, the Purdys were

1 " The People of Rye being wholly devoted to the Interest of the " Crown shut their Eyes and Ears against reason and knowledge " * * (Petition of George- Harris, " Haerlem, August 26, 1776 "-- Historical Manuscript*, etc. : Petitions: xxxiii., 158.)

peculiarly noted for their unfaltering loyalty. 2 Early in September, 1775, before the passage of the enactment by' the Provincial Congress, to which reference has been made, could have become generally known throughout that " border Town,'' Godfrey Haines, an unmarried man, was at the house of Daniel Purdy, in Rye ; and, in conversation, he condemned the reorganization of the Militia, by the Provincial Congress ; declared he would not perform any duty in the new-organized Company; and denounced the Congresses and Committees, generally, saying " he had as " leave be in hell as in the hands of any of them," an opinion which was, probably, confirmed, very soon afterwards.