Macdonald, John. Interview with Carpenter, Elizabeth Field, 1771-1854; (1848). John M. McDonald Interviews, 1844-1851, WCHS item 895. Westchester County Historical Society. Transcribed by history.croton.news April 2026.
[marg: x My Sister-in-law, Widow of Aaron Field in King Street. She is 4 or 5 years older than me.]
Elizabeth, wife of John Carpenter:
"My name was Elizabeth Field, and my father lived in the first house above Tommy Clapp's at the head of King Street being the first house above, that is, north of Clapp's. Bearmore stopped at our house the day Bedford was burnt. My father had taken his papers out …
Totten saw him half a mile off,
ran to the adjacent fields, bridled and saddled
his horse and put his horse to his utmost
speed, but the horse fell and one of the
Refugees alone was near and in a moment
came up. This was by Benjamin Clapp's
where Sheldon at the time lay. Clapp's and
Sheldon's men secured the horse and retreated
towards Byram river and Totten escaped
in the fields. Sheldon's retrea…
Esq Benjamin Clapp's house was, probably, burnt in February 1781 by Major Hungerford, though I had supposed it was fired on the same day Bedford was burnt.
The house of Henry Dusenbury where Mosier was when surprised &c, is the house you saw in the fields south of Merritt's corner, and east of the road now now untenanted and surrounded by locust trees. There was at that time a lane running from t…