Davis, Zipporah Miller, 1768-1850
John M. McDonald interview — 1845-11-06
Zipporah Miller Davis (1768-1850) was the daughter of Elijah Miller and Ann Fisher. She recalls that her family’s home in North White Plains was used by American General Charles Lee as his headquarters prior to the Battle of White Plains. Lee urged the Millers to leave the house. While fleeing northward, the family saw the fight on Chatterton Hill from a distance. She recalls the destruction that the family found when they returned to the house, and notes that her sister Sarah was able to save a set of bed curtains that Lee’s tailor was attempting to make into a cloak. Mrs. Davis recalls the family of Joseph Youngs of Youngs’ House in present-day Valhalla, and notes that George Washington used the Miller home as his headquarters for one day. Mrs. Davis gives her recollections of the Duke de Lauzun (misspelled here as Lauzerne), and notes that the wounded from the Battle of Pell’s Point were taken to the Miller home and thence to North Castle Church. She also notes that American generals Horatio Gates and Alexander McDougall used her family’s home as a headquarters, and concludes by providing a description of Tim Knapp.
Manuscript page facsimiles
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Transcription
240. 263 128. 1845 November 5th. Zipporah Davis (wife of Abraham): "General Lee's Head-quarters were at my mother's (Annatije Millers) a day or two before the battle of White Plains, and that morning or the day before he advised us to move back, observing: 'If you stay here you'll have a very troublesome time.' We started in the morning in an ox cart with beds, &c horses &c, and some of our furniture for North Castle where we remained eight or ten days, stopping not long after we left home upon a high hill where we saw the fight on Chatterton Hill. When we returned our waggon and chairs were broken, and almost everything about the house destroyed. My eldest sister, Sarah Mott, has spun and woven a set of home [page break] 264 243 129. 1845 linen damask bed curtains, chequered blue and white, which we left behind for General Lee. Mrs. Mott returned either with or before us, to recover her curtains and found them in the hands of General Lee's tailor who was making a cloak for him, and in the very act of cutting up the curtains for lining. Both tailor and general were very unwilling to give up the curtains at first, but Mrs. Mott at length regained possession of them. The family of Joseph Young's (father of Sam) was very respectable and polished. General Washington had his Headquarters at our house for one day, and slept there one night when my mother gave him her own bed, the only time she ever resigned it. [page break] 244 265 130. 1845 All I recollect of the Duke de Lauzerne consists in these particulars, viz: that he was a very polite, had a handsome person, wore moustaches, was liberal with money, and resided at a house where John Norton now lives. After the battle at East Chester (Pelham, October 18th) the American wounded, or at least some of them were brought first to our house, for some days, and then to the hospital, viz. North Castle Church." [page break] 246 267 [margin: see preceding page] 132 1845 Nov. 5th. Mrs. Zipporah Davis. "When General Gates HeadQuarters were at my mother's, he told her she must expend nothing for the house for that he would furnish provision for the whole household, but this was after they had consumed all we had. General &c Dougall's HeadQuarters were also at my mother's. Tim Knapp was illegitimate, the only child of his mother, and remarkable for unusual personal beauty. His untimely death was much lamented."