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. He evidently looked forward to an expected movement of the Home Government, for the maintenance of its authority ; he wished the men-ofwar would move up the Sound ; and, in his youthful outburst of indignation, he said he would be one of those who would indicate the persons on whom the Government should first lay the weight of its retributive power.

Of that Godfrey Haines, nothing is now definitely known beyond the facts, told by himself, 3 that he was tolerably well educated, but was without any available property ; but it can be learned, from the papers in the case, that he was not a stranger in that neighborhood nor in that house. He was evidently a young man, suffering from wrongs already inflicted on him or on his personal friends, possessing a fiery temper, and warmly indignant at the movements and the threats of the revolutionary faction. He undoubtedly knew that he was among those who enter' tained opinions and preferences which were similar in their character to those which he had declared ; but the latter may have been less willing to declare what they preferred and what their opinions were, concerning the doings of those who were, then, aspiring to the Government of the Colony -- he was, however, lesB fortunate than they, in the expression of his opinions in the presence of one who, either through ignorance or malevolence, was mean enough to betray him.