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November 8. Abigail Park: “My maternal grandmother’s name was Mary Lyon, wife of Israel Lyon. She resided two miles south (on the Post Road) of Bedford Village, and was burnt out on Sunday morning soon after daylight on the 11th. of July, 1779. My mother went up on the next day, but my grandmother had then removed to Ridgebury in Connecticut. During all the Revolutionary war my parents lived in Rye or Harrison, and I state these facts and incidents as I have often heard them from my father and mother whose memories were unusually good. My father was intelligent and had been schoolmaster in Rye. Colonel Simcoe, I have always understood, commanded the detachment which destroyed Bedford. The soldiers were the Leather Caps (Queen’s Rangers?) They retired soon after firing

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the village, and burnt the principal farm houses of whigs along the Post Road to White Plains. My father and mother then lived in Harrison near the Four Corners formed by the White Plains and Sawpitt road and Purchase Street. My mother heard of the destruction only on the day it happened and went up to Bedford next morning. Simcoe on his return the same day halted before our door, and being thirsty after [X] my mother for a bowl that he might drink from the well, but she refused, saying, “Good for nothing cruel fellows like you who go about burning people’s houses ought to drink like cattle out of the brook upon all fours – Away with you!” &c. She rated him so severely that he lost his temper and seeing my father in the house and learning his relationship he ordered

[X] asked

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his soldiers to take him prisoner and resumed his march with these words: ‘Now termagent, I’ve got your husband!’ They carried my father several miles when Hackaliah Carihart, an officer or guide of Simcoe, (?) and an an intimate acquaintance, came up and enquiring the cause of my father’s captivity, interceded and obtained his liberation. But when he let him go, Simcoe made him promise ‘never to sleep again with that cursed rebel scold.’ My grandmother said she could have extinguished the fire at her hearth house with a single pail of water after they were gone had she not been prevented by a soldier whom they left behind to see their work finished. This man staying too long was killed by the American militia who advanced in considerable force as soon as they could collect, and

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hung upon the British rear on their retreat – November 11th. Among those who drove cattle below to the enemy was a farmer of Greenwich, Connecticut, named Jabez Huested, who on one occasion had collected a drove with which he was going below in the night. Passing through Rye, on the Post Road, he was informed that Captain John Thomas with a company of thirty or forty militia had taken a position on the road to intercept parties and droves going down. Huested was so situated that he could not return, and knowing when he was to encounter resorted to a successful stratagem. When he approached Thomas’s ground he drove his cattle furiously onward, making a great noise and uttering bloody threats: ‘Here boys! here the rascals are! – Kill them every one! – No quarter! –

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Push on!’ &c. When the Captain heard this he supposed the Refugees were coming on in force and retreated with his company to Beaver Swamp, in North Street. near John Haight’s old place. For this conduct Captain John Thomas was tried, broken, and had his command taken away. Mary Sniffen, with a party of friends from near Round Hill or thereabouts, forming a considerable company, was killed at Rye Neck in 1777.(?) The party escorting her were driving cattle below and stopped a moment at Stoneybrook to water when they were fired upon by some militia under John Maynard of Purchase Street near Merritt’s corner (that is, below) who were lying in ambush. Her friends escaped but she was thrown from her horse and afterwards killed by a bayonet

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thrust through the temple, (as her friends said and thought). She was engaged to marry Jacob Tier of New York, and was going below to take some money to her father (who was confined in the old Provost) to effect his liberation, and to make some further preparations for her marriage. Maynards party robbed her of part of her dress, and carried her pockets (at that time worn outside of the dress) on the points of their bayonets as a trophy, saying they belonged to a spy killed by them. The money on her person was saved, being concealed in her hair at that time worn high. Her family was indignant and bent on revenge. [This is the account of N and M Brown of King Street – though it was generally considered an accident, and Maynard

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always protested he didn’t kno there was a female in the company.] The escort from Round Hill reached Sniffen’s Hill late at night and as the evening advanced Mary was extremely anxious for their arrival in order to proceed on her journey chiding her escort’s tardiness and displaying great uneasiness. She had prepared her wedding dress, and for half a century afterwards it was preserved and shown by her family. Her death was much lamented. The party that burnt Bedford advanced by the North Castle Church or West road, and retired to the Post Road, probably. The above facts in relation to Mary Sniffen I have often heard from her mother who always said that Mary was killed by a bayonet wound through the temple – she lay on the ground, the horse having thrown her when Maynard’s men fired and her escort having sought safety in flight.”