Y.\lexti>;e's Hill, Jan't 2Tth, 1777. These may ccrtif}-, that on or about the 25th day of October last, I ordered Thomas Valentine's one yoke of oxen and cart, to be taken for the public service. They carried a load to j-e White Plains. There I discharged them. I am informed they were further taken on their return, and that Mr. Valentine hath not received them. g LIXCOLV.

a Stfcini.'ua's Ui3C. ol the Anerlcan ■vrar.

THE TO\\'N OF YONKERS. 605

On tlie 6th of June, 177S, Sir William Erskine fell back towards Valentine's Hill. The Queen's Rangers encamping on Odell's Hill, soon after, these corps formed a part of an escort which accompanied the Knglish commander-in-chief to the \Vhite Plains," 1778. Lieutenant- Colonel Tarleton was ordered, with the whole of the English cavalry, to tliis hill, for the puq:)ose of covering the right, when they endeavored to surprise General Gist in the parsonage. The same year, upon the retiring of Lieutenant-Colonel Simcoe, the Continental forces again took possession of the hilL

On the i6th of September, 1782, (says General Heath), the enemy made a grand forage near Valentine's Hill ; Sir Guy Carleton was out in person, as was the young Prince, (William Henry, Duke of Clarence, aftenvards King William the Fourth). The covering party, it was said consisted of five or six thousand men.^

During the absence of the armies, Valentine's Hill was much exposed to the depredations of gangs of outlaws called Cow Boys and Skinners, who roamed the country in search of plunder. On one occasion, a party of the former forced their entrance into the Valentine House; seizing the proprietor, Thomas Valentine, they demanded his life or money; whereupon, disbelieving, or affecting to disbelieve him, they threatened, on his again refusing, to hang him instantly. Obtaining no satisfactory answer, they carried him to the foot of a cherry tree, still standing, near the comer of the old garden, and had placed the cord around his neck, when he suddenly threw it off, exclaiming, "Don't be