Hudson Valley

April 10, 2016

Traitors in Kingston

 

18th century gallows

“Old Ulster Tories”

Excerpted from Olde Ulster: An Historical and Genealogical Magazine, October 1906

 The Clinton papers contain many accounts of courts-martial to to try Tories.  A number were convicted and sentenced to confinement and a less number to the gallows but only two suffered capital punishment for their offenses.  These were Jacob Middagh and Jacobus Roosa, who were hung on May 12, 1777.  They had been scouring the county for recruits for the British army and promising all manner of pecuniary reward to those whom they could delude into stealing through the American lines to take service in the ranks of the king.  When captured they were piloting quite a company over mountain and through woodland paths to the same service.  They received three dollars in gold therefor and were to have an allotment of the lands of the patriots when the latter were subdued.

Years ago a question arose as to the spot upon which Roosa and Middagh had pad the extreme penalty of the law.  The late Charles McEntee some eighty years ago interviewed Abraham Slecht regarding his recollections of the burning of Kingston.  Slecht was a young man of twenty-two on that October day of 1777 and had watched the landing of the troops of Vaughan from his father’s house on the south side of Rondout creek and had followed in their rear up the hill of Rondout.  His description was that he first caught sight of the burned town from the two big pines upon which the Tories had been hanged.  The stone houses seemed still standing until after he had crossed the intervening plain, when he found that what he had seen were but the naked walls of the burned buildings.  When asked where those pines stood he replied that they were where the wooded knolls ended and the sandy, open plain began along the road from the Strand to Kingston, and located them on the knoll in the O’Reilly grove opposite the Kingston entrance to the present City Hall.

It is probable that Roosa and Middagh, leaders though they were in deluding the rabble and selling them to the British service, might have had their punishment commuted to imprisonment as was done to the others, had public sentiment not been so strong.  Had none suffered the extreme punishment lynch laws would have assaulted the jail and Fleet Prison for victims.  Official documents give evidence of this.

Barber and Howe’s “Historical Collections of the State of New York” published many years ago, in speaking of this execution says:

“Judge Hasbrouck, of Kingston, who was at this time a lad, says that two of them were hung on the first hill from the landing.  It appears that these unfortunate men expected to be reprieved; when they drew near the gallows and saw the preparations for their execution they became overwhelmed with a sense of their awful situation and exclaimed: ‘Oh, Heer!  vergeeveen onze sonde!’ (Oh, Lord! forgive our sin!)  The father of Judge Hasbrouck, one of the principal men of the place, although a firm friend of the American cause, was opposed to the execution, and suffered much anguish of mind on account of these harsh and bloody measures.  These men, although Tories, were persons of respectability, who had families.  Between twenty and thirty royalists who were taken up, enlisted in the American army and thus saved their lives.”

The cost of the execution was paid by the Council of Safety.  The bill rendered for the services is a curiosity:

1777 May 13th – The State of New York

To Collo. Jacob Hoornbeek for executing

Jacobus Rosa and Jacob Medeagh

To Disguising the Hangman and other Necessaries……………                     £4.0.0

To 2 Coffins……………………………………………………                     3.0.0

To paid to persons to Bury the above Criminals………………                     1.0.0

To John McKneel for Erecting the Gallows &c……………….                    1.0.0

To Jacobus Louw for Disguising the Hangman and other Necessaries            0.10.0

To money Expended for Collo. Hoornbeck for

himself & Egbert Dumond (the Sheriff) in

attending said Execution……………………                                2.0.6

 

The above account is just and true

By me, Jacob Hoornbeck

In Council of Safety &c. Sept’r 3d, 1777 – ordered that the above Acct. be referred to the Auditor Gen’l that the audit the same for payment –

Rob’t Benson, Secr’y

Audited and paid Sept. 3, 177

 

The following is from the Revolutionary Papers, State of New York, Vol. II

 To the Honorable the Convention of the State of New York

            The Humble Petition of Jacobus Rose and Jacob Midah, two unhappy Prisoners, was by order of your House under sentence to be Hanged this Day Most Humbly Showeth,

That altho their Consciences doth not in the least accuse them of being Guilty of any sin against God or their Country, by doing what they are condemned to suffer Death for, yet your Petitioners are heartily sorry for having incurr’d the Displeasure of your House in so sensible a manner.  That as sinfull men it is an awfull and Dreadfull thought to be so suddenly sent to Eternity without any time to Repent of the Sins of our past Lives, and to make our peace with that God who must finally judge us all for the Deeds done in the flesh, that therefore to prepare for this great and awfull trial your Petitioners most Humbly beg they may have a Repsite of a few Days, and your Petitioners as in Duty bound shall in the mean while earnestly pray.

Jacobus Rose

Jacob (his mark) Midagh

Kingston, May 13, 1777

Petition Rejected

 

 

October 21, 2013 Image

Nathaniel Booth Diary – Aug. 24, 1844 (painting by George Innes)

Nathaniel Booth Diary - Aug. 24, 1844 (painting by George Innes)

24.
Recollections
The style of the following was suggested by heaving Cookmans (I think) celebrated song called “analization” – I have endeavored to imitate it as much as possible in style as in idea – It was written years since.

“What is Saugerties made of?
Of the beautiful Hudson Esopus Creek too
Of Highlands and valleys a beautiful view
Of large manufactories – of streamers and clocks
Of a picturesque bridge and canal through the rocks
Of the cloud reaching “Catkills” so bold in the west
And out beautiful girls though last not the least
And of such is Saugerties made of.

What is Esopus Creek made of?
Of a beautiful lake and of streams from the hills
Of rapids and falls of mill seats and mills
Stony Point when in time of the cholera was put
A well waded cannon to keep vessels out
Of a hospital built so far out on a flat
Neither doctor or anyone else could get at
Of steamboats and sloops that are warranted sound
And a light house to keep them from running aground
And of such is Esopus Creek made of.

What is Red Hook made of?
Of a landing for steamboats a ferry too
On which you may cross for a shilling ’tis true
Of fisherman, fisheries and fish beyond number
Of negroes and grogshops and plenty of lumber
The Natives ashamed of the place by the ___________
Have transformed Red Hook into “Tivoli”
And such is Red Hook made of.

What is Hunter made of?
Of mountains and rivers – moschitoes and swamps
Of sawmills and tanneries – Bad colds and cramps
Of streamlets where trout can be caught with a fly
Of a “clove” where there’s plenty of ice in July
If you walk in the woods you will surely get lame
And make game of yourself if you seek there for game
And such is Hunter made of.

What is Elmira made of?
Of sweet Clinton Island – the river Cheneng
Which means “Big Horn” in the Indian tongue
Tis a place where the Indians did meet with great hopes
And where Sullivan cut all the throats of his “Hosses”
It has churches and houses the usual variety
And boasts of its “Young Mens Debating Society”
And of such if Elmira made of.”

I will analize Georgetown when I leave it till which “Requicseat in pace”

October 7, 2013 Image

Revolutionary War letter: June 29, 1777

Revolutionary War letter: June 29, 1777

Letter to Peter Van Gaasbeek in Kingston from Col. Jacobus Bruyn at Fort Montgomery, June 29, 1777. Bruyn was also a Kingston native, but was defending Ft. Montgomery in the Hudson Highlands in June of 1777. Just 4 months after this letter was written, on October 6, 1777, Bruyn was captured at the Battle of Fort Montgomery and held prisoner on board a British prison ship almost until the end of the War.

Dear Sir
As I was enumerating the many Circumstances, that seem to conspire against my Peace in this Life, it struck my mind that in some of my Observations for this While past I had Reason to suspect an Indifference in your Behaviour to me, which I must confess (tho’ I scorn an Intimacy without mutual Attraction) gave me no little concern when I considered that the same might have arose either from a wrong Construction of Appearances or some Artifice of treacherous and deluding Persons; but having carefully perused your favour of the 29th Ul.t wherein you have fully testifyed the Sincerity of your Regard, I think I should be unworthy a place in your Esteem, did I not in some manner retaliate the good Offices you have lately done me and which I cannot avoid assuring you have in a great Measure contributed to any comfortable Satisfaction ~ I should enlarge a good deal upon this Subject with an Addition of my own Sentiments respecting some matters Matters in which you have been lately entrusted as a Confident and which tell then I could not be justifiable in communicating, but here I must beg your Pardon and break of 10th it, as I am just now furnished with a Letter directed to me by Capt. Jansen, upon Perusal of which I am much surprized to find that that Gentlemen disregarding all his Protestations of sincere Friendship (not to mention his blackguard Language) has so far forgot himself as to deviate from those Principles of Truth Honor and Equity which I ever expected would have marked his conduct as a gentleman if not that of a Friend But to say no more till I have further Satisfaction respecting the Matter I shall conclude with my Respects to Miss Blandma if that will not be too much of a trouble and accept of the same yourself
From your Friend
and humble Sv’t
Ja’s Bruyn

October 2, 2013 Image

Transcript from Harry Rigby’s WGHQ radio show, “What’s the Answer,” April 18, 1960

Harry Rigby, Jr.’s, “What’s the Answer” April 18, 1960

It had been a momentous Spring in that year of 1782, even more pregnant with promise than the blessed Spring usually is!
Nature, as usual, had awakened from her long Winter dormancy and had breathed new life into all the green things that promised warmth and a full belly in the few short months to come. New entities were being launched for the first time in this world in the form of the seedlings and saplings whose lives were truly new and not just renewed.
Nature, however, took second billing to men and freedom’s work in America…and particularly in the Hudson Valley…on a notable 19th of April of 1782. The eight thousand ragged, hungry and disillusioned men encamped along the low line of hills back of Newburgh were ordered to pass in review on the parade ground before the Temple of Virtue that morning. It was the eighth anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the battle that had proved to be the powder-train leading to rebellion, a rebellion that a few of these same miserable soldiers had embarked upon with zest, enthusiasm and chivalrous high ideals. Eight long years of hunger, defeat after defeat, bone-chilling cold without clothing or shoes enough to keep the cold out, and now sullen muttering about the ingratitude of a people for their privations and a threat to mutiny and seize the government to enforce pay arrearages and a future proper regard for the military as the saviours of their country, had taken much of the bloom off the high ideals. Consequently, the demeanor of the men was cynical and slovenly. The old solider quenched the enthusiasm of the recruit with a curl of his lip and, with a splat of tobacco juice planted neatly two paces before ranks, the remark that in all probability the Commander-in-Chief was merely using the anniversary to make another appeal to their flagging spirits.
“B’God, ‘taint goin’ to work forever, not even for ol’ George Washington, ‘taint”, said the old veteran. Then, as General Washington appeared with his staff, the oldtimer nudged the recruit by his side and hissed out of the side of his mouth, “Straighten up,
sonny, and leastways try and look like a soldier! If ‘ol George is goin’ to take more of their guff, leastways you an’ I are goin’ to stick it out with him!”

General Washington gravely unrolled a parchment roll, reached for the spectacles he had been forced to assume for reading within the last month, and started to read to a patently disinterested army.
Before he was half-way through, an electric thrill passed through the massed ranks of men before him. Within a moment, figuratively, the rags and marks of privation had dropped from them, and the esprit de corps of a crack military unit had been restored to the steadfast ranks. Within another moment, huzza upon huzza resounded from the encircling hills and the order of dismissal was shouted, and order already disregarded as hardened men, tears of joy streaming from their eyes, pounded each other upon the back.
It was over! The army that had never really won a battle had won a war! A few days before, the French ship, “Triomphe” docking at Philadelphia had brought the news that on the 20th of January, the Treaty of Paris had been signed, recognizing the independence of America by the British Crown and the sovereignty of the new nation over all lands from the Canadian border to the Floridas and west to the fortst in the Ohio country.
Now, at long last, the swards could be beat into plowshares and the Spring had new meaning to the countryman poorly masquerading under each ragged uniform.