Dawson, Henry B. Westchester County, New York, During the American Revolution. Morrisania, NY: (privately printed by the author), 1886.

The dissolution of the first Provincial Congress, which occurred at about the close of the first halfyear of the entire and, as far as the Colonial and Home Governments were concerned, of the undisputed, domination of the revolutionary faction of the purely aristocratic portion of the Colonial party of the Opposition and its plebean auxiliaries, over the vastly greater body of …

' Journal of the Provincial Congress, May 22, until July 8, 1775. 'Journal of the Committee of Safety, July 11, until July 25, 1775. » Journal of die Provincial Congress, from July 26, until September 2, 1775. * Journal of the Committee of Safety, from September i, until October 3, 1775. 6 Journal of the Provincial Congress, from October i, until November 4, 1775, methods of …

At that time, there was no newspaper-press in the Colonies which was conducted with greater ability than Rivington's New- York Gazetteer ; or Connecticut, Hudson's River, New-Jersey, and Quebec/: Weekly Advertiser, which was published, weekly, by James Rivington, in the City of New York. It was a newspaper, in the proper sense of the word ; and it published the news of the …

It was evidently determined, therefore, that James Rivington should be silenced; and that his only means for inflicting pain on the persons of those who favored the Rebellion should be taken from him. There was, also, at that time, no one, in the Colony of New York, who possessed greater intellectual and executive abilities combined with superior scholastic attainments, than …

He was learned, as was well-known : he was fearless in the declarations and support of his wellconsidered opinions, as was known to his neighbors and friends: that his convictions led him to support the conservative portion of the Opposition, led by his friend, Isaac Wilkins, is more than probable : that the same convictions led him to oppose, within the circle of his …

The political Parson, therefore, was very offensive to those of the revolutionary faction who were not his neighbors -- " in justice to the rebels of East and West " Chester, I must ssty,".he wrote, in 1776, " that none " of them ever offered me any insult or attempted to do " me any injury that I know of" -- and it was evidently determined that he, also, like James Rivington …

He was known, subsequently, as one of those blustering, reckless, law-defying leaders of the floating denizens of the docks, in New York, ready to disregard all Rights, all of every thing excepttheir own wills, in acts of which only the traditional pirates and banditti were supposed to have been capable of performing, whenever, and only whenever, in his judgment, those acts …

He had never possessed the entire confidence of the leaders of the revolutionary faction of the Opposition, in the City of New York : he had never been taken into the sanctum sanctorum of that coterie of Livingstons and of Smiths and of Scotts, whose had been the unseen master-hands by whom such puppets as he had been handled and made conspicuous : he had never been permitted …

He called himself a Merchant, in the City of New York ; but he had been more conspicuous in shipping Merchandise and Provisions to the eastward, clandestinely, when such shipments to the eastward were interdicted, than in any more legitimate business. He had been a member of the recently dissolved Provincial Congress, during a portion of its existence ; but, in entire harmony …

1 A letter from John Case, from the County of Suffolk, on Long Island, "to the Printer of the New-York Gazetteer,'' and published in Riuiugton's New-York Gazetteer, No. 511, New-York, Thursdaj', January 12, 1775, narrated the method in which those who wore not inclined to favor the theories and practises of the revolutionary faction were invoigled into (hat Tavern, and, there …

On Monday, the twentieth of November, 1775, that cowardly ruffian, Isaac Sears, accompanied with sixteen others of the same class, all of them mounted, left New Haven, in Connecticut, for the purpose of regulating Westchester-county. 1 It had become a favorite pastime, among the rowdies on the borders of Connecticut, as it has been a favorite pastime among Texan rowdies of a …

The avowed purpose of that band of acknowledged "banditti"' 2 was "to disarm the principal tories " there," [at East and West Chester,] " and secure the "persons of Parson Seabury, Judge Fowler, and "Lord Underhill," three residents of Westchestercounty ; and it is said they were joined, on their way, by other parties of men, numbering about eighty, under the leadership of " …

3 In the preceding September, Lord Dunmore, then at Norfolk, in Virgiuia^had helped himself to the type and printing-press of John Holt, in that Town ; and it was said of the thief and his confederates, " a few " spirited gentlemen in Norfolk, justly incensed at so flagrant a breach "of good order and the Constitution, and highly resenting the conduct "of Lord Dunmore and the …

It was not pretended that any of the proposed victims, in the instance under notice, had said or done anything, in opposition to the Rebellion, which had made them amenable to the unbridled caprices of those who were in rebellion ; and it was evident that, had those proposed victims thus transgressed against the " Associations " or the " rec- " ommendations " or the " …

It pillaged the farm-houses ; and, at Mamaroneck, it burned a small sloop which belonged to one who was assumed to have been a friend of the Government. 5 A detachment of about forty men, under a Captain Lothrop, appears to have been pushed forward to the Town of Westchester, where, on Wednesday, the twenty-second of November, it seized the person of Nathaniel Underhill, the …

Hinman published in his Historical Collections of the part sustained by Connecticut during the War of the Itevolution; and that it is very probable that these three " Captains," like that other " Captain " who led them, on that occasion, possessed no other warrant than that of "courtesy," so called, for the privilege of carrying the title. * It left New Haven on Monday, the …

a Boarding-school and Rector of the Established Church, in the same place, the former, as was subsequently seen, only because he had signed the Declaration and Protest, at the White PlainB, in the preceding April, 1 the latter, because he was more obnoxious to those who were in rebellion, in consequence of his greater intellectual power and of his decidedly greater bravery in …

The contemporary records do not present the circumstances which attended the seizure of the Mayor of the Borough of Westchester ; but it is probable they were similar to those which attended the similar seizure of Judge Fowler and that of Mr. Seabury -- the banditti undoubtedly ransacked the house and examined his papers and helped themselves to such articles of his movable …

In hia Memorial to the General Assembly of Connecticut, Seabury expressly stated that he was arrested by a detachment ; that the main body of the party was subsequently joined, by the detachment ; and that ail, then, returned to East Chester. 8 Memorial of Samuel Seabury to the General Assembly of Connecticut, December 20. 1775. See, also, The Connecticut Journal, No. 424 …

Of course, the Boarding-school for Boys, which he had organized and established with so much labor, 6 for the better support of his family, was broken down ; and the pupils, five of whom were from Jamaica and one from Montreal,, the parents of four others being in Europe, besides " others from " New York and the country," were necessarily scattered, inflicting an irreparable …

^ TTATH opened a School in that Town, and offers his Service to -L-L " prepare young Gentlemen for the College, the Compting- " House, or any genteel Business for which Parents or Guardians may "design them. Children who know their Letters will be admitted to " his School, and taught to read English with propriety, and to write it " with a fair Haud, and with grammatical …

'■ Proper attention will be paid to the young Gentlemen, that they be " kept clean and decent, and that they behave with propriety ; and as " the most essential Part of Education is to qualify them to Discbarge "the Duties and Offices of Life with Integrity and Virtue, particular "Care will he taken to explain to them the Principles of Morality, and "the Christian Religion, by …

Livingston, John and Joshua Hett Smith -- the latter so conspicuous, subsequently, in the interviews between General Arnold and Major Andre and in the evident exposure of the latter to arrest -- and a number of others, their confelerates if not their tools, were assembled on Hanover-square, on which the Bookstore and Printing-office of James Rivington were situated, apparently …

With its escort of local sympathizers, its progress was not obstructed; and, on Thursday, the twenty-third of November, at noon, when it reached the Square, it " drew up, in close "order, before the . printing-office of the infamous " James Rivington," * those who had already assembled there, evidently for the purpose of covering it, if not for the purpose of doing more than …

2 Jones's History of New York during the Revolutionary War, i., 66. 8 Manual of Che Corporation of the City of New-York for 1855, 511. 4 " The main body, consisting of 75, then proceeded to New- York, 11 which they entered at noon-day on horseback, with bayonets fixed, and "in the greatest regularity, went down the main street, and drew up in " close order before the printing …

It is said that three quarters of an hour were spent in that work of reckless destruction, without the slightest attempt by either the Municipal or the Colonial authorities, legal or revolutionary, to interfere, for the preservation of the peace or for the protection of the property of the citizen or for that of the freedom of the Press ; and, consequently, after its appetite …

5 "A small detachment entered it," [the printing-office,] "and in about " three-quarters of an hour brought off the principal part of his types, "for which they offered to give an order on Lord Dunmore " [who had previously stolen John HoWs type andpress, at Norfolk.'] (The Connecticut Journal, No. 424, [New Haven,] Wednesday, November 29, 1775.) They "entered his" [Rivington' …

The despatch of Governor Tryon to the Earl of Dartmouth, No. 22, "On Board the ship "Dutchess of Gordon New York Harbour 6 th Dec* 1 1775," described the raid on Westchester-county as well as that on the City of New York, and narrated the blustering threats which were made by Sears, to return with "a more numerous body of the Connecticut Rioters and to take "away the Records …

To prevent interruption, he called 1 "out and told them that if they attempted to oppose him, he would "order his men to fire on them; and preparation was made for doing it, " in case it should be needful. This appearance instantly cleared the " street, when Captain Sears and his party rode off in triumph, with the " booty they were pleased to take away." Dunlap, (History of …

Rivington " aided by hiB Royal Gazetteer," was very influential ; that he had no regard for the truth nor for "common fairness ; " that Sears had gone to Connecticut " to plan schemes for the future with ardent Whigs ; " that the type which was stolen from Eiviogton was converted into bullets; etc. ; but the truth is that the Royal Gazette was not established until December …

Governor Trumbull, after having snubbed General Washington by sheltering and justifying the wholesale desertion of the Connecticut troops which the latter had denounced, (Compare General Washington's letter to Governor Trumbull, "Cambbibge, December 2, 1775," with the reply, "Lebanon, December "n, 1775 ; " that of the former, " Cambridge, December 5, 1775," with (hereply …

It was afterwards, however, known to have aided the Amer- "icans much, and was under the control of Washington himself. The "hostile appearance of the sheet, however, deceived the Americans as "well as their enemies, and about half a dozen Greenwich men resolved that the press should be stopped; they stole into the City, destroyed the press, and bagged the type, which they …

After the type was brought to Greenwich, it was totally destroyed, except enough toprint each of the company's names, which "the veterans kept for a long time in memory of their exploit." One might readily suppoBe this latest tidbit of what has currency as history was written in China or Timbuctoo ; but the curious reader may find it in an elegant and expensive History of …

The procession moved through nearly every street in the Town, stopping at every comer, in order that the crowds might gaze on the victims and jeer at and insult them ; and, after having quartered the latter, at their own expense, at one of the Taverns, the successful banditti, sustained by what there was of the ignorance and lawlessness of the New Haven of that period, spent …

" Captain Sears returned in company with the other gentlemen, and "proposes to spend the winter here, unless publick business should re- " quire his presence in New-York.-- Seabury, Underhill, and Fowler, " three of the dastardly protestora against the proceedings of the Conti- " nental Congress, and who it is believed had concerted a plan for kid- " napping Captain Sears, and …

"Whereas I.Jonathan Fowler, Esq., one of His Majesty's Judges of " the Inferior Court for the County of WestcheBter, in the Province of " New- York, did, some time ago, sign a Protest against the Honourable " Continental Congress, which inconsiderate conduct I am heartily sorry "for, and do hereby promise for the future not to transgress in the view " of the people of this …

He received only one. letter from his "family, and that was delivered to him open, though "brought by the post." Indeed, with characteristic bravado, and entirely conscious of his influence among those, in Connecticut, who were Ihen controlling the Rebellion, Sears told his only remaining victim -- the others having ransomed themselves from the hands of their captors with …

At that time, and, indeed, until 1818, the Government of Connecticut, under her Charter, like that of Rhode Island, was based on the Sovereignty of the King of Great Britain ; and the lawlessness of the Rebellion had not been permitted to disturb the forms and formalities of either her Executive or Legislative or Judicial Departments of Colonial Government -- adroitly securing …

"As witness my hand : "Jonathan Fowler. "New-Haven, November 29, 1775." II. "Whereas I. Nathaniel Underhill, of Westchester, in the Province of "New-York, did, some time ago, sign » Protest against the Resolves of "the Honourable Continental.Congress, which inconsiderate conduct I " am heartily sorry for, and do hereby promise, for the future, riot to "transgress in the view …

The Governor, also, disregarded his demand; and when the banditti who continued to hold him, a captive, in the midst of that Capital-town of the Colony, consented that he should memorialize the General Assembly of the Colony, which does not appear to have been, then, in Session, 2 no benefit to the memorialist, from the Legislature of the Colony, could have been intended. 3 …

Hinman, who was Secretary of State, with the original Journals before him, in his carefully-made synopsis of the doings of the General Assembly, from the opening of the May Session, 1774, until the close of the February Session 1778, stated that the Special Session of the General Assembly, which was assembled by special order of the Governor, on the fourteenth of December …

Johnson was Chairman, was appointed for an entirely different purpose ; and that the Session of the General Assembly which next succeeded that which was adjourned on the fourteenth of December, 1775, was not commenced until the ninth of May, 1776. (Historical Collections of the part sustained by Connecticut m the War of the Revolution, 198, 200.) General Peter Force, who …

* Besides the unceasing attempts to encroach on the territory of New York, and, in other ways, to invade the Eights of the ColoniBts, in that Colony, which Connecticut and men from Connecticut were constantly making, Isaac Seal's, on the occasion now under notice, with the evident purpose of throwing all the titles of properties, in New York, and all the domestic and business …

In the evening of the day on which the outrage on James Rivington was committed, {Thursday, November 23, 1775,] Lancaster Burling and Joseph Totten, members of the General Committee for the City and County of New York, offered a Resolution, in that body, citing Isaac Sears, Samuel Broome, and John Woodward to appear before it, to answer for their conduct in entering the City …

Three days after the event, John Jay, with more self-respect and, certainly, with more respect for the honor of the Colony, notwithstanding he, also, appeared to take no interest in any other portion of the general subject, wrote a letter to the President of the former Provincial Congress, in which he warmly condemned the proceeding ; 3 but, as has been stated, there was …

* * * " The New-England exploit is much talked of, and conjec- " tures are numerous as to the part the Convention will take relative to " it ; some consider ft as an ill compliment to the Government of the " Province, and prophesy that you have too much Christian meekness " to take any notice of it. For my own part, I don't approve of the " feat ; and I think it neither argues …

" A Draft of a Petition to the honourable the Provincial Congress for " the Province of New-York, was read, and is as follows, viz. . " ( rr- THE Honourable the Provincial Congress for the Prov- ' ' ince op New- York. '"The Petition of the General Committee for the City and County of " ' New-York, humbly shewcth : "'That a body of troops,* from a neighbouring Colony, did …

Four days subsequently, [December 12, 1775,] a Report was made by the Committee, with a draft of a letter to be addressed to the Governor of the Colony of Connecticut, "on the subject matter of the Gen- " eral Committee's Petition," both of which were violently opposed by those who were most revolutionary in their inclinations. The debates were continued through two Sessions …

And being apprehensive that such Incursions, " * should they be repeated, will be productive of many great and evil con- ' ' ' sequences to the Inhabitants of such place wherein they may be here - ' ' after made, your Petitioners do therefore conceive it highly necessary, '" in the present situation of publick affairs, as well for the sake of inter- " ' nal peace and harmony …

" ' Your Petitioners do therefore most humbly pray, that this honour- "' able House of Delegates would be pleased to take the premises into " ' their consideration, and devise some expedient to prevent, for the " ' future, the Inhabitants of any of the neighbouring Colonies " ' coming into this, to direct the publick affairs of it, or to destroy the " 'property or invade the …

"New-York, 12th Deer., 1775. "Sir: "It gives us concern that we are under the necessity of addressing been a regular military operation : that the fact was, then, unknown, thnt it was only an inroad of banditti, winked at, it is true, but without any authority, legal or revolutionary : that the Committee did not even suspect that the raiders were only an organized band of …

" While we consider this conduct as an insult offered to this Colony, we "are disposed to attribute it to an imprudent though well-intended zeal " for the public cause ; and cannot entertain the most distant thought "that your Colony will approve of the measure. It is unnecessary to "use arguments to show the impropriety of a proceeding that has a "manifest tendency to …

It is our earnest desire that you would take " the most effectual steps to prevent any of the people of your Colony "from entering into this, for the like purposes, unless invited by our " Provincial Congress, a Committee of Safety, or the General Commit- " tee of one of our Counties, as we cannot but consider such intrusions " as an invasion of our essential rights, as a …

If such should be the case, we must " entreat your friendly interposition for his immediate discharge ; the " more especially as, considering his ecclesiastical character, which, per- " haps, is venerated by many friends to Liberty, the severity that has "been used towards him may be subject to misconstructions prejudicial "to the common cause, and the more effectually to …

1 It is proper to say, in this connection, that the insincerity of the Pro vincial Congress was never more boldly presented than in its Order concerning the disposition Which was to be made of the letter which it had just ordered to be written to the Governor of Connecticut, in the matter of the raid of Connecticut's ruffians -- instead of ordering it to be forwarded to the …

under the leadership of Thomas Smith, one of the distinguished body of political acrobats of that name 2 -- made no reply whatever to its letter, until the following June, when he adroitly turned the scale against the complaining Provincial Congress, by reminding it that the leader of the banditti was a resident of the City of New York, 3 doing business in that City, and …

The long process of intercolonial diplomacy, on what, in this instance, would have been an interesting topic, had the parties in that diplomatic correspondence been honest and consistent, might have been productive of useful results ; but they were neither consistent nor honest; and, like the greater part of other diplomacy, it consisted of little else than empty words, really …

5 The Provincial Congress evidently called the attention of the Delegation in the Continental Congress to the subject, as it promised to do, in its letter to Governor Trumbull ; and on the eleventh of January, 1776, the Delegation wrote, in reply : "We highly applaud the spirit, " and, at the same time, respectful manner in which you have supported "the dignity and …

The Governor of Connecticut having, meanwhile, taken no notice whatever of the letter which the Provincial Congress had written to him, in the preceding December, on the 8th of March, 1776, the latter informed the Delegation from New York in the Continental Congress, of that fact, (Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Veneris, " 10 ho., A.M., March 8, 1776 ; ") but there …

As a matter of favor, however, he was permitted to memorialize the General Assembly of the Colony within which he was held in captivity, although that Assembly had been dissolved by Proclamation of the Governor, six days previously; and, because that Memorial is a portion of the revolutionary literature of Westchester-county, to say nothing of its importance as an authority in …

"That on Wednesday, the 22d day of November "last, your Memorialist was seized at a house in " West Chester where he taught a grammar school, by "a company of armed men, to the number, as he " supposes, of about forty ; that after being carried to "his own house and being allowed lime to send for " his horse, he was forced away on the road to Kings- " bridge, but soon meeting …

BeardBley, D.D , in bis Life and Correspondence of the Right Eevej-end Samuel Seabury, D.D., (Second Edition, 36-42,) published as nearly a complete and accurate copy of it as those who printed his book would permit him'to give to his readers. It is believed that, with his kind assistance, we have the privilege of laying an entirely accurate and complete copy of the original …

That during this time your Memor- " ialist hath been prevented from enjoying a free inter- " course with his friends ; forbidden to visit some of " them, though in company with his guard ; prohibited " from reading prayers in the church, and in perform- "ing any part of divine service, though invited by "the Rev. Mr. Hubbard so to do ; interdicted the use " of pen, ink, and …

That a quilt in the " frame on which the daughters of your Memorialist " were at work was so cut and pierced with bayonets " as to be rendered useless. That while your Memo- "rialist was waiting for his horse, on the said 22d day " of November, the people obliged the wife of your " Memorialist to open his desk, where they examined "his papers, part of the time in presence of …

" he, the said Sf eloy, had been accused by some peo- " pie of pointing a bayonet at the breast of a daughter " of your Memorialist, desiring your Memorialist to ex- " culpate him from the charge, to which request your " Memorialist replied that he was not at his house but " at his school house when the affair was said to have " happened ; but that a daughter of your …

That several questions were asked " him, to some of which he gave the most explicit "answers, but perceiving some insidious design "against him by some of the questions, he refused to "answer any more. That Captain Sears then ob- " served to him, if he understood him right, that they "did not intend to release him, nor to make such a " compromise with him as had been made with …

"That your Memorialist had neglected to open his " church on the day of the Continental Fast. "And that he had written pamphlets and ncvra- " papers against the liberties of America. "To the first and last of these charges your "Memorialist pleads not guilty, and will be ready to "vindicate his innocence, as soon as he shall be "restored to his liberty in that province to …

Farmer" [a Westchester Farmer] which were published in 1774, and which created such an intense excitement among the revolutionary faction, were written by Isaac Wilkins, of Westchester, and not by the Rev. Samuel Seabury, also of Westchester, to whom they had been generally attributed. Several years afterwards, those conclusions secured the respect and deference of one whose …

" What wild confusion, rout and hobble, you " Made with his farmer, Don A. W." (Trumbull's Origin of McFingal, 31, 32 ;) and within six months after Trumbull's publication, Samuel Seabury, in that portion of his Memorial to the General Assembly of Connecticut which is now under notice, added his very clear, very precise, and very unequivocal testimony, on the same interesting …

But we are constrained to say that, whether the paper is what it purports to have been or not, and whether it was copied and delivered to the' Commissioners or not, of both of which we have grave doubts, there are evidences within itself of its entire untrustworthiness, in its recital of known facts ; that we do not believe, therefore, that it was written by Samuel Seabury …

We are not insensible of the fact that a great-grandson of Samuel Seabury, in a paper which was published in The American Quarterly Church Review, for April, 1881, without any supporting testimony which any Bench in the country would have received as evidence, in any case, undertook the ungracious task of showing, by argument, that Samuel Seabury was not sincere, when he wrote …

" or, if the regulations of Congress be attended to, " must he be dragged from the committee of his own " county, and from the Congress of his own province, " cut off from the intercourse of his friends, deprived " of the benefit of those evidences which may be " necessary for the vindication of his innocence, and "judged by strangers to him, to his character, and " to the …

If " he is to be judged according to the regulations of the "Congress, they have ordained the Provincial Con- " gress of New York or the Committee of the county " of West Chester, to be his judges. Neither the "laws of either colony nor the regulations of the " Congress give any countenance to the mode of " treatment which he has met with. But considered " in either light, he …

1 The reader of the two preceding paragraphs, in which the captive responded to the first and fourth of the charges which his captors had presented against him, cannot fail to find evidence, of tbo highest character, that, in his political opiDions, Samuel Seabury was, at that time, as he had previously been, in exact accord with Isaac Wilkins and Frederic Philipse, also of …

In common with the groat body of the Colonists, throughout the entire Beaboard, he was sincere in his convictions that the Colonies were sufforing from the wrongs which had been inflicted on them by the Mother Country ; and be was willing to resort to all lawful means for their relief. But when the entire machinery of the party of the Opposition was Beized by those who only …

Some time in the beginning of April, as " your Memorialist thinks, the people were invited to " meet at the White Plains to choose delegates for a " Provincial Congress. Many people there assembled "were averse from the measure. They, however, gave " no other opposition to the choice of delegates than " signing a Protest. This Protest your Memorialist "signed in company with …

" The other crime alleged against your Memorialist is "that he neglected to open his church on the day of the " Continental Fast. To this he begs leave to answer : " That he had no notice of the day appointed but " from common report : That he rec< ived no order " relative to said day either from any Congress or " committee: That he cannot think himself guilty of " neglecting …

Whatever he may have subsequently become, and the persecutions to which he was subjected by those of the opposite faction of the Opposition would have soured the most amiable of dispositions and have transfoi med those who were more opposed to the Government than he into active " friends of the Government," when this Memorial was written, and previously thereto, Samuel …

" That a complaint was exhibited against your " Memorialist to the Provincial Congress of New " York, by Captain Sears, soon after the neglect with " which he is charged, and that after the matter was " fully debated, the complaint was dismissed : ' That " he conceives it to be cruel, arbitrary, and in the " highest degree unjwt, after his supposed offense has " been examined …

That as a clergyman he " has the care of the towns of East and West Chester. " That there is not now a clergyman of any denom- " ination nearer than nine miles from the place of " his residence, and but one within that distance " without crossing the Sound ; so that in his absence "there is none to officiate to the people in any " religious service, to visit the sick, or bury …

That he had five young gentlemen from " the Island of Jamaica, one from Montreal, four " children of gentlemen now in England, committed " to his care, among others from New York and the " country. That he apprehends his school to be "broken up and his scholars dispersed, probably " some of them placed at other schools, and that it " may be difficult, if not impracticable …

The reader may gather from those facts, without resorting to that general fact of the disappointment of Sears, in his scramble for "a high office in the American Navy," of which Bancroft has made mention, just what was the reason that that ruffian was so zealous, in his pursuit of the two who had so signally defeated him. 2 Vide pages 128, 130, ante. " be liable, to such …

He thinks he can give a good account " of his conduct, such as would satisfy reasonable " and candid men. He is certain that nothing can " be laid to his charge so repugnant to the regula- " tions of the Congress, as the conduct of those " people who in an arbitrary and hostile manner " forced him from his house, aud have kept him now "four weeks a prisoner without any means …

3 We are not insensible of the fact that Hinman, in his Historical Collections of the part sustained by Connecticut during the War of the Revolution, {page 548,) stated that Samuel Seabury "brought his petition on the "20th day of December, T77o',* to the General Assembly of Connecticut, " then sitting at New Haven ; " and, further, {page 551,) that " the peti- " tion, in the …

Seabury addressed his Memorial " To "the Honorable the General Assembly * * * now sitting in New " Haven, in said Colony, by special Order of his Honor, the Governor," (vide page 136, ante.) But the Journal of that Special Session, called by the Governor, and sitting at New Haven, shows " the General Assembly " was adjourned by Proclamation, on the 14th day of December, 1775 …

On the contrary, it is evident that his captors had become tired, since they found that an able and courageous prisoner, such as Samuel Seabury was, was not likely to be useful to either the general cause of the Rebellion or to those who held him ; and, therefore, without any official action which has been recorded, either by the official pens or by the traditional stylus of …

He reached Westchester, on his return, on the second of January, 1776 ; ' but his private affairs were very much disturbed; 3 his School, on which he largely depended for the payment of his debts and for the more comfortable support of his family, was broken up ; 4 his present means were very limited -- the expense of his month's confinement, in the hands of the banditti, had …

that he was unable to discharge his official duties with propriety and accuracy ; 6 he and his family were subjected to constant annoyances and insults ; ' his house was occupied, soon after, by a Company of Cavalry, who consumed or destroyed all the products of his Glebe, on which, to a considerable extent, his family was made dependent ; 8 he was thus made entirely dependent …

On the fourth of December, 1775, also during the period between the dissolution of the first and the organization of the second of the series of the Provincial Congresses, the Governor of the Colony, William Tryon, from his shelter, on board the ship Dutchess of Gordon, lying in the harbor of the City of New York, evidently and reasonably encouraged by the backwardness of the …

Samuel Seabury, the Committee of Safety, Ave of the Westcheater-county members being present, directed Colonel Joseph Drake, forthwith, to remove him from his home to the house of Colonel John Brinckerhoff, at Fishkill, to remain there till the further order of the Convention or the Committee of Safety ; and that he be not permitted to leave the farm of the said Colonel …

It was written in a spirit of kindness and regard for the welfare of the country, probably as a feeler, and certainly after consultation with some of the leaders of the Rebellion ; and it was well-calculated to lead the revolutionary portions of the Colonists back to their duty and to peace, in which it appears to have been quite effective -- ''several of the Delegates" [in …

It was not, then, generally known, but the revelations made by the publication of the records of that period have recently shown, that that letter was introductory to a movement toward a peaceful solution of the political troubles of the Colonies, which, if the letter should be well-received, the very able family of Smith, who had been among the originators and most earnest …

" I take this public Manner to signify to the Inhabitants of this Prov- " ince, that his Majesty has been graciously pleased to grant me his " Boyal Permission to withdraw from the Government ; and at the same " Time to assure them of my Readiness to perform ever Service in my " Power, to promote the common Felicity. If I am excluded from " every Hope of being any Ways …

" I owe it to my Affection to this Colony, to declare my wish, that " some Measure may be speedily adopted for this purpose ; as I feel an " extreme Degree of Anxiety, in being Witness to the growing Calamities " of this Country, without the Power to alleviate them: Calamities " that must increase, while so many of the Inhabitants withhold their " Allegiance from their …

He had been associated with William Livingston and John Morin Scott, in the historically famous "triumvirate." He had professed to approve the usurpations of legislative authority and other questionable doings of the Continental Congress of 1774 ; and he is known to have been an outside adviser of the factious minority of the General Assembly, with whom and with whose …

He was, also, at the same time that he was thus masquerading as a confidante and an adviser of those who were leading the Rebellion and as a sympathiser with and promoter of the Rebellion itself, a Member of the Colonial Council of the King; an intimate friend and confidential adviser of the Governor of the Colony, William Tryon -- whose leanings toward the pretensions of the …

There was some action, in the Provincial Congress, on collateral subjects; but it was not until a much later period that that body was dissolved -- on the fourth of November, either because of the absence of a quorum or for some other reason, no record of a formal adjournment having been made, the Provincial Congress ceased to exist ; and the works which it had done as well as …

Whatever may have been the form and character of the document, it is evident, however, that such an Ordinance was really adopted and promulgated,' and that, agreeably to its provisions, on the seventh of November, a meeting was held at the White Plains, for the election of Delegates from the County of Westchester, to the' coming Congress. 3 It is not stated in what manner nor …

1 In the Journal of the Provincial Congress, of the sixteenth of October, it is said the Report was made "on the eighth of Jwfy last ;" in the Journal of that body, of the eighteenth of October, it is said the Report was made "on the eighth of June last ;" and in a memorandum appended to the Journal of that body, of the nineteenth of October, stating that the Report was …

" We the Committee for the County of Westchester do humbly certify " that at the Election of delegates to represent the said County in the " Next Provincial Congress to be held at New York the 14"> instant, " which was this day held at the Court House of the said County, Colonel "Lewis Graham, Stephen Ward, EBq., Col. Joseph Drake, Robert Graliam, " Esq., John Thomas, Jun' …

Graham, Stephen Ward, Esq., Colonel Joseph Drake, Robert Graham, Esq., John Thomas, Junior, Esq., William Paulding, Major Ebenezer Lockwood, Colonel Pierre Van Cortlandt, and Colonel Gilbert Drake* were elected; and that any three of these should have authority to represent Westchester-county in the coming Provincial Congress -- Gouverneur Morris, James Van Cortlandt, Philip …

They amused themselves by dictating letters to the Committees of the faltering Counties, urging the attendance of their several Delegations, " in order that the business of the great cause " we are engaged in may be no longer delayed or "'neglected." 5 Threats were made, in some instances, that " the Continental Congress'' might "find " it necessary, for the public service and …

*It will be seen that eight of the nine Delegates thus elected carried titles with their names-- the terms "Esq." and "Mr." at that time, having recognized places in the order of rank-- and that only one of the nine, William Paulding, was low enough, in the social rank, to be a plain, untitled mam. 'These words, taken from the letter sent to the Delegates-elect of …

" a Convention of the Deputies is absolutely necessary, ■' with the utmost despatch." To these pressing words, the following threat was appended : " But if, after " such repeated applications to your County, to be in " Congress, by their Deputies, if you continue to ne- " gleet a measure so necessary for your reputation and " safety, you must not complain if the Congress de- " …

1 Letter to the Committee of Orange-comity, " New- York, December 1st, "1775." 2 Letter from Paul Mieheau to Robert Benson, " Kichmonb-county, De- "ceraber 1st, 1775." . » " The evil consequences that will attend the not having a Provincial " Congress to determine on the measures necessary to be adopted and " carried into execution, at this unhappy crisis, are more easily con …

Israel Putnam was too highly appraised for the Boyal shambles, and so remained in the market, until, on the demand of the Livingstons, he was placed where he could do no further harm. The greater success of Benjamin Pratt, of Boston, and, subsequently, that of Daniel Horsmauden, in the race for the place of Chief Justice of the Colony of New York, when James De Lancey died …

On the first of December, competent Delegations appeared from the five Counties of New York, Albany, Westchester, Ulster, and Suffolk, with insufficient Delegations from Kings and Duchess, and no portions of such Delegations from Richmond, Queens, Orange, Tryon, Cumberland, Gloucester, and Charlotte-counties ; and, consistently with usage and the Rules of the preceding …

W. Livingston, Captain in Fanning's King's American Regiment, were not the better exponents of the real opinions of that office-seeking family of Livingstons ; and who can doubt, with the roster of subsequent office holding Livingstons before hiin, that much of additional influence, in favor of the Home Government, might have been secured from that family and its adherents …

What was thus called a Provincial Congress, elected Colonel Nathaniel Woodhull, of the County of Suffolk, to be its President ; and John McKesson and Robert Benson, the Secretaries of the former Provincial Congress, were elected Secretaries of that. 2 It assembled, day by day, until the twenty-second of December, when it took a recess, leaving a Committee of Safety to …

Peter Clowes was said to have represented "Goshen Precinct in Orange- " county ; " but the Credentials which were filed from Orange-county declared that two Delegates should be required to represent that County ; and that only when one such Delegate should appear in the Congress from "the North side of the Mountains" [the Highlands] and one from the " South side " of those …

'•> Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Sabhati, 9 ho., A.M., March "10th, 1776." "as well to the United Colonies, in general, as to this, " Colony, in particular, rendering it necessary for a " speedy meeting of the Provincial Congress of this "Colony, the Committee of Safety, therefore, ordered Circular Letters to be sent to all the mem- "bers, requesting their …

6 That old story of the dilatoriness of the country members, even in the face of the most pressing necessities and of the most urgent calls, certainly confirm the reports that the great body of the Colonists, especially that of the country-people was lukewarm and indifferent, if they were not positively unfriendly, to the Rebellion. If the leaders among the disaffected, and …

There is no record of a formal adjournment ; and it looks very much as if the end of this Congress was like its beginning, without arquorum. The Committee of Safety to General Schuyler, " In Committee of "Safety, New York, 17th Jany., 1776," and General Schuyler's reply, " Albany, January 26, 1776 ;" Journal of the Committee of Safety, " 4 ho., "P.M., Feb. 10, 1776 ;" etc. 10 …

11 " We would beg leave to mention it as necessary to employ as many " of the Carpenters of this City, as possible " [in the construction of batteaux, for the Northern Army] " to prevent theln and their families "from starving by means of the staguation of business, which is more "severely felt in this City than in any other part of the Province," (The Committee of Safety to …

their troubles, the troops from Connecticut, who had been unnecessarily brought to the City of New York -- " the movement seemed to have for its end to coerce " rather than to defend New York ' " -- who were unemployed, endeavored to make additions to their military pay, by underbidding the local mechanics, for work to be done, in that City : 2 and the Provincial Congress was …

2 " The Eegiment here, from Connecticut, can turn out many Carpen- " tera, who consent to work upon much more reasonable terms than the "artificers of this City. It would, I imagine, be worth while to pro- " vide, if possible, a sufficient number of tools : when the present work 1 ' is done, these tools cannot be considered an idle purchase : they will " always be useful," …

s Journal of the Committee of Safety, "Die Sabbati, 3 ho., P.M., Feby. 3, "1776 j" the same, "Die Veneris, 10 ho., A.M., Feb. 9, 1776;" Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Veneris, 4 ho., P.M., March 8, 1776." ' Monies were also " advanced to the distressed wives and friends of sun- " dry soldiers, now in Canada, in the service of the united Colonies," (Journal of tlie …

" This City is in Terror and confusion : One half of its inhabitants " have withdrawn with their effects, hundreds without the means to "support their families, 1 ' (Governor Tryon to the Earl of Dartmouth, "Ship Dutchess or Gordon off New York 8 th Feby 1776.") See, also, the Order of the Provincial Congress to the male Refugees, to return to the City-- Journal of the …

Indeed, the extent and character of the sympathy with the Rebellion, as a matter of principle, which prevailed among the Colonists, generally, may be seen, very clearly defined, in their hesitation ti take the field in support of it, even where no enemy was and where none was expected, 10 and in their precision of movements, homeward, when the terms of service of those who had …

10 In Orange-county, "none but the lowerclass of mankind will enlist; "and these were conceived not to be the men to be depended on," (Elihu Marvin, Chairman, to the Provincial Congress, "In County Com- "mittee, Oxford, Feb. 15, 1776.") In Duchess-county, enlistments could be made only on the stipulation that the men thus enlisted should not be required to do service outside …

12 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Jovis, 3 ho., P.M., December "14, 1775 ;" tlie same, "Die Veneris, 10 ho., A.M., Deer. 15, 1775 ;" tlie same, "Die Mercurii, 10 ho., A.M., Feb. 21, 1776;" tlie same, "Die " Luna.', 3 ho., P.M., March 4, 1776 ; " the same, " Die Mercurii, 10 ho., "A.M., March 13, 1776 ;" Journal of the Committee of Safety, "4 ho., "P.M., Feb. 10 …

The local Committees, sometimes, consequentially assumed to interrupt their traffic ; * and the Committee of Safety, in order to prevent "sundry persons from Connecticut" from purchasing, for the evident purpose of forestalling the market, "requested the Committee of the County " of Westchester to take effectual means to prevent " the sale and transportation of any barrelled …

The same local terrorism which had prevailed, throughout the County, under the auspices of the former Provincial Congress, was continued, with the sanction of this; 3 numbers of the inhabitants of the County were seized, only on information secretly conveyed by unseen accusers, and cast into prison, without a hearing ; 4 and some of them were severely the period now under …

Thomas Merritt was arrested and taken before the Committee of Safety, in the City of New York, "on information of persons from "Westchester-county, that he had declared he had seen people casting ''great quantities of Bullets, to kill the Whigs; and that he knew "where great quantities of those Bullets were"-- a trumped-up charge, which was so entirely transparent that, after …

Godfrey Haines, Bartholomew Haines, Isaac Gedney, and -- -- Palmer, .all of them of Rye or Mamaroneck, are already known to the reader, in the sad story of the Sloop Polly and Ann, {page 119, ante ;) and James and William Lounaberry ; Isaac, John, and Joshua Gedney ; John Fowler ; Isaac and Peter Valentine ; Isaac, Joseph, and Joshua Purdy ; William Armstrong ; William Sutton …

The opening of the new year -- the exact date does not appear, if it was ever definitely known -- witnessed a transaction by which the lower portion of the County of Westchester, especially the Towns of Mamaroneck, Eastchester, Westchester, and Yonkers, was greatly disturbed ; and yet it was an occurrence rested in connection with spiking of the Cannon, near Kingsbridge, of …

Colonel Waterbury, who accompanied General Lee, through Westchester-county, acknowledged his possession of thirty Guns, two pairs of Holsters, nine Cutlasses, and three Pistols -- how many more he had seized, and retained or sent back into Connecticut, are now unknown ; and no record was taken of the names of those who had been thug plundered. They must have been taken …

9 " Resolved and Ordered, That Colonel Joseph Drake and Colonel " Thomas Thomas, of Westchester-county, do draft out of their Regiments "two hundred men, in the following proportions, to wit: Two Compa- " nies of sixty-five Privates each, besides the Captains and other inferior " Officers, out of Colonel Joseph Drake's Regiment ; and one Company "of Bixty-five Privates, with …

Colonel Samuel Drake's Regiment, referred to in this Order, was the skeleton Regiment of Westchester-county Minute-men, which whs then in the Continental Service, and posted at Hoern's Hook, on the Island of Manhattan, at the mouth of the Harlem-river, and opposite to Hell-gate, where was one of the passes to Long Island. We have not found any record of the three Companies …

It is not clear what good was expected to be derived from those movements of the guns ; but it is very clear that, before the close of the year 1775, between three and four hundred Cannon, of all calibres, grades, and conditions -- some of them good and serviceable ; others, less valuable and less useful ; the greater number, honeycombed and worthless, unless for old iron …

2 " While this immaculate General " [Cliarles Lee,] " had the command " in New York, about 200 pieces of heavy cannon which were mounted "in Fort George and upon the Battery, were forcibly taken away by " his orders, and lodged upon the Common," [the Parh,\ "facing his " Quarters. But, lost upon the arrival of the British Army, they " should be retaken, he ordered them to be …

" I counted two hundred and eighty pieces of Cannon, from twenty- " four to three poundera, at Kingsbridge, which the Committee had se- " cured for the use of the Colonies," {Doctor Benjamin Church's treasonable letter, intercepted in July, 1775.) ^Stephen Ward to the Provincial Congress, " March 6, 1776." * Journal of the Committee of Safety, " Die Mercurii, 10 ho., A.M …

Among those who were thus selected to face the ordeal of that Committee, in which the great professional experience of John Morin Scott was combined with the savage coldness of Alexander McDougal and John Brasher, were John Fowler, Peter Valentine, William Lounsberry, James Lounsberry, Joseph Purdy, William Armstrong, William Sutton, John Flood, Isaac Purdy, John Gedney, John …

On the thirty-first of January, 1776, the Committee of Safety directed Jacamiah Allen to remove those of the guns which were near Kingsbridge, as well as those which were near John Williams's, "to the " larger parcel at Valentine's, so as to have them all " brought together, for the greater convenience of "guarding them and drilling out the spikes;" and/ at the same time, the …

On the twenty-second of January, one of the Independent Companies of the City of New York, 1 probably ,( The Bbc-WN Btjffs," commanded by Captain Jonathan Blake, 2 was ordered into the service of the Colony, for the protection of the guns ; but a draft was subsequently made from the Minute-men of the County, to discharge that service, 3 a Captain, a Lieutenant, two Sergeants …

1 The Committee of Safety to Lieutenant-colonel Graham, " In Commit- "teb of Safety, New-York, Jany. 22, 1776." 2 Compare Captain Jonathan Blake's letter to the Committee of Safety "Head Quarters in Westchester, Jany. 31, 1776," with the Roster of Colonel Maloom's Regiment, -- Historical Manuscripts relating to the War of the Revolution, in the Secretary of State's Office …

It will he remembered that James Varian, the favored commander of the Guard, in this instance, with eighteeen others, had been constituted a full-fledged Company of Westchester-county Minute-men. on the fourteenth of February preceding {vide pages 108, 109, ante;) and it will be Been, from that letter which has been quoted, how soon and in what manner those nineteen …

ings per week ; and, of course, Barclay was superseded and the coveted job was given to the last comer. 8 Very reasonably, Barclay complained to the Congress, and made a counter-offer which was more favorable than the offer on which Allen had been employed; and, of course, the latter was ousted, leaving him in possession 9 -- an illustration of what material the newcreated …

In the prosecution of the duties to which General Lee had been thus assigned -- in his enlistment of men into the service of the Continent ; in his appointment of the ruffian, Isaac Sears, to a high military office ; in the barbarities inflicted on the inhabitants of Queens-county, by his authorized representative, Sears ; in his haughty disregard of the local authorities …

It is not within the purposes of this publication, however, to take more than a passing notice s Journal of the Committee of Safety, "Die Luna;, 4 ho., P.M., March "18, 1776;" and the same, "Die Martis, 4 ho., P.M., March 19, 1776." » Journal of the CommUlee of Safety, " Die Sabbati, A.M., March 23, "1776." "> General Washington to the President of Congress, " Cambridge, 4 …

Notwithstanding, within the preceding six or seven weeks, the farmers who lived along or near the line of the Post-road had been visited by Sears and his gang of Connecticut banditti, both on their way to the City of New York and on their return, thence, to Connecticut, by whom, on each occasion, they had been ruthlessly plundered, 1 they were again visited, during that march …

Indeed, notwithstanding the recent visitation of his ruffianly countrymen to each of these peaceful families and the reckless depredations of those cowardly banditti, Colonel Waterbury, who commanded the Regiment whom General Lee had mustered into the Continental service -- himself, as was subsequently seen and heard, in the City of New York, as fine a specimen of the same …

An amusing instance of the consequential airs assumed by the petty local Town-committees, in Westchester-county, in whom had been vested such extraordinary powers over the persons and properties of those who lived within the several Towns in which 1 Vide pages 129, 132, ante. « The associations and conduct of Colonel Waterbury, while he was in the City of New York, to say …

those Committees were respectively located, was seen in the action of '' the Committee of Observation for " the united Town of Bedford and Precinct of Pound- " ridge and Salem, in Westchester," on the tenth of January, 1776, in which that pompous body, " con- " ceiving that bad consequences do arise to this distressed country from supplying the markets, at New " York, on …

In obedience to that local law, it appears that Jonathan Booth, a drover, while on his way to New York with a drove of Cattle, was detained at Bedford, by the Committee of that Town; but, personally, he evidently pushed forward to the City of New York ; and, on the twenty-fifth of January, 1776, he laid the subject belore the Committee of Safety, which was then in session, and …

Very promptly, that body took the subject into consideration; and, without much, if any, discussion, the Committee "came to a "Resolution," which was delivered to the anxious drover, for his comfort and relief -- the Committee of Safety was not inclined to concur in the questionable theory of "patriotic'' economy which was maintained by its subordinate Committee in Bedford …

4 Holt's New-York Journal, No. 1725, New Yobk, Thursday, January 25, 1776; Journal of the Committee of Safety, "Die Jovis, 10 ho., A.M. " Jany. 25, 1776." WESTCHESTEE COUNTY. "service against the Liberties of America; nor in "such case any longer than until such Committees " respectively shall, in c.ases where such proof shall "have been made, have duly certified this …

In the latter instance, the obstructed drover returned to Newtown ; procured a Certificate from the Committee of that Town, declaring that he "had "lately served his country as a faithful friend and "soldier in the northern Army, under General Schuy- "ler; that he had suffered by the stoppage of his "Cattle, at Bedford, on the way to the New- York " market ; that he is the …

"Besolved and Ordered, That no obstruction " whatsoever be given to any person or persons in " passing and re-passing through any of the Counties " in this Colony, with fat Cattle, Sheep, Hogs, or any " kind of Provisions, for the purpose of supplying the " inhabitants of the said City of New-York or the " Continental Army, in and near the said City, unless "such person or …

The facts are thus related in the official records of the Committee of Safety ; 3 and the reader may judge therefrom, something concerning the animus of the Committee of Bedford, when, on the second occasion, it interfered with the disposition of the products of Connecticut, within the Colony of New York, while the disposition of the products of farms in Bedford and its …