In the spring of 1766 Prendergast led an angry group of approximately 200 men to New York City to free rioters that authorities had imprisoned. 32 Prendergast and the mob threatened to burn down New York City if the men were not released. 33 Governor Moore acquiesced to the rioter's demands to deescalate the situation, but because of landlord pressure, soon reneged on his word and proceeded to put a bounty on Prendergast's head and the rest of the rioters. 34 Prendergast was captured a few months later in July and on Aug. 6, 1766, was sentenced to: "...be hanged by the neck, and then shall be cut down alive, and his entrails and privy members shall be cut from his body, and shall be burned in his sight, and his head shall be cut off, and his body shall be divided in four parts, and shall be disposed of at the King's pleasure." 35

In a dramatic last ditch attempt to save her husband, Prendergast's wife, a Quaker named Mehetibal Wing, rode non-stop over 70 miles to personally petition the Governor to save her husband. 36 Her tear-

**Handlin and Mark state in the Introduction to their 1964 paper that the narrative they present is taken from an anonymous firsthand source that evidence indicates was a young, lawyer from CT sympathetic to the Wappinger (believed by Dutchess Historian, Henry Noble MacCracken, to be Asa Spalding, the attorney who represented the Wappinger in 1767). Handlin and Mark's version is based on a Library of Congress transcript of the original manuscript located in the British Museum. Henry Noble MacCracken, Old Dutchess Forever! The Story of An American County (New York: Hastings House), Thomas F. Maxon, Mount Nimham: The Ridge of Patriots, Historical Timeline (New York: Thomas Maxon, 2009), 27. https://www.pawlingrecord.org/single-post/2018/08/18/The-Heroine-of-Quaker-Hill https://prendergast-rent-war.blogspot.com/2015/05/from-peaceful-farmer-to-rebel-leader.html Thomas J.