Life of Count Rutnford. 137 



his severity, Benjamin F. Thompson, Esq.,* repeats 

 the substance of the above charge against Colonel 

 Thompson, as made by Wood, and adds that, instead 

 of listening to the entreaties and remonstrances of the 

 inhabitants, " he compelled them to assist in pulling 

 down the Presbyterian Church to furnish materials for 

 the building of the fort." 



This namesake of the Colonel brings the further alle- 

 gation against him, that on his return to England 

 " he received the enormous sum of .30,000 sterling 

 for his military services, and was also knighted by the 

 King." I may as well make an exhaustive exhibition 

 of the reproach heaped upon Colonel Thompson by 

 those who have had occasion to chronicle the matter ; 

 so I will quote a third repetition of the censure, with 

 aggravations, from a later historian of Long Island, 

 Mr. Nathaniel S. Prime.f 



After copying in an early part of his volume what 

 has been above transcribed from Wood, and affirming 

 that no town on the island suffered so much as Hun- 

 tington from the insolence and outrages and oppression 

 of the Tories and the British soldiers, Mr. Prime 

 continues : 



" The seats in the house of God were torn up, and the 

 building converted into a military depot. The bell was taken 

 away, and though afterwards restored, it was so injured as to 

 be useless. Subsequently (1782) when the contest was virtually 

 ended, the church was entirely pulled down, and the timber used 

 to erect block-houses and barracks for the troops. And to 

 wound the feelings of the inhabitants most deeply, these struct- 

 ures were erected in the centre of the burying-ground, the 



* T.he History of Long Island, from its Discovery and Settlement, &c. By Ben- 

 jamin F. Thompson. Second Edition. 1843. Vol. I. pp. 21 1, 478. 



t A History of Long Island, from its first Settlement by Europeans to the year 

 1845, &c. By Nathaniel S. Prime. New York, 1845. pp. 65, 66, 251. 



