Battin told John Macdonald that he was in his 98th year at the time of his interview on October 23, 1849. He served in the 17th Light Dragoons of the British army during the Revolutionary War but remained in New York after the end of the conflict. He died on June 29, 1852. According to historian Benson Lossing, Battin was aged "one hundred years and four months" at the time of his death and was "probably… the last living relic of the British army in America." See Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1852), II, p.827.

BATTIN, Joseph

See BATTIN, John

BAYLES, Nathaniel

Although John Macdonald indicated that Nathaniel's surname was Baylies, it was actually spelled Bayles. He indicates that he drew up the will of Isaac Van Wart, one of the three captors of British Major John André. He is listed as a 58-year-old resident of the Town of Greenburgh, New York, in the 1850 United States Census. His tombstone in First Methodist Episcopal Cemetery in New Rochelle indicates that he died on December 6, 1874, aged 83 years, 2 months, and 10 days (WCHS Book #18, p.92).

BAYLIES, Nathaniel

See BAYLES, Nathaniel

BEAGLE, Mary

No information exists regarding a Mary Beagle in Westchester County during the 1840s. She may be Mary Bedell, who is listed as an 84-year-old resident of the Town of Cortlandt, New York, in the 1850 United States Census. A Mary Bedell who died on April 18, 1869, at the age of 90 is buried in the East-Yard Cemetery in Yorktown, New York (WCHS Book #44, Section 2, p.4).