Chadeayne, Samuel
John M. McDonald interview — 1848-10-20
Samuel Chadeayne (c.1770-c.1854) describes the wounding of Eden Hunt, an American guide, by Loyalist troops. He tells John Macdonald that he will ask the Underhill family if British Major John André and Joshua Hett Smith had breakfast at the house of Isaac Underhill on September 23, 1780, the day of André’s capture. Chadeayne also explains the killing of Thomas Gibson by William Dalton of the Bedford Skinners. He concludes by identifying Abraham “Brom” Barrett as the man hanged by Fade Donaldson.
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Transcription
- Hufeland Index Page 734 -
October 20th. Samuel Chadeayne of Yorktown, residing with his nephew Leonard Chadeayne: “Eden Hunt, a guide, returning from below with others, was waylaid and shot by some Refugees who were posted for that purpose on a high bank on the south side of the old Sing Sing and Mount Pleasant road. He recovered although shot through the body. – (See Thatcher’s Journal.) The precise [spot] where this happened is between Leonard Chadeayne’s and Jesse Ryders. I will ascertain of the Underhill family whether Andrè and Smith breakfasted at the house of their ancestor Isaac Underhill, September 23, 1780, and the evidence. With regard to the death of Thomas Gibson in the paper I furnished you with, the Bedford
- Hufeland Index Page 735 -
Skinners came upon and captured him within a mile of this place (Mr. Leonard Chadeayne’s) and captured him. William Dalton, one of the Bedford party, an Irishman and extremely wicked and blood thirsty, said to Gibson whose hands were tied behind him: ‘You have threatened to take my life.’ ‘That is not so,’ answered Gibson, ‘I never threatened to kill you.’ ‘Yes,’ you did,’ replied Dalton, and thereupon shot the poor prisoner dead. The man hanged by Fade Donaldson and others, I have always heard, was Abraham Barrett. I have never supposed he was, though he might have been, an Irishman. I don’t know what countryman he was. He has been generally known as Brom. Barrett.”