Merritt, Robert, b.1771
John M. McDonald interview — 1848-12-06
Robert Merritt (b.1771) was a son of Robert Merritt and Phebe Merritt. He discusses a skirmish in Sawpitt (present-day Port Chester) in which a force of American soldiers pursued a party of Loyalist cavalry that had stolen cattle in Connecticut. Merritt believes that the Americans recovered the cattle. He notes that Hessian soldiers twice took a horse from his family’s property, and that his mother was able to reclaim the second horse by speaking to Lieutenant Colonel Andreas Emmerich. He concludes the interview by discussing the activities of whaleboat men Valentine Ryder and Fade Donaldson, and notes that his own father was politically neutral, but “reputed a tory.”
Manuscript page facsimiles
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Transcription
- Hufeland Index Page 887 -
<left margin> (Augustus Mead near the Turnpike gate.) <left margin>
Decr. 6th Robert Merritt, of Rye. “I am in my 78th year. In the latter part of the Revolutionary war, there was a skirmish in the village of Sawpitt between a party of Refugees who had been into Connecticut, and were taking a drove of cattle below, and a party of Continentals and militia who pursued. The Refugees were compelled to abandon the cattle. One Refugee had his horse shot whereupon he jumped up behind one of the others. One of the cattle was killed in the skirmish and afterwards butchered by the continentals. The cattle were all, I believe, retaken. We had a fine young horse taken by the Hessians when they lay on Griffen’s hill which we never got again. Another was taken and my mother went below to reclaim it. Col. Emmerick said, “the woman shall have her horse,” and my mother got him. The whaleboat was Valentine Ryders.
- Hufeland Index Page 888 -
Fade Donaldson and others used to come up Byram river and lay near our house which was the dwelling nearest to the Sound. They frequented our house very much. My father was neutral and reputed a tory.