THE TOWN OK POUNDRIDGE. 113 



SKETCH OF MAJOR EBENEZER LOCKWOOD. 



BY HIS SON, HON. EZKA LOOKWOOD. 



Ebenezcr Lockwood, late of Poundridge in Westchester County, de- 

 ceased, was born in Stamford, Conn., on the 31st of March, 1737, and 

 was the fourth son of Joseph Lockwood, who emigrated to Poundridge 

 in the spring of the year 1743, and settled in the central part of the 

 town (now village) on a right of land belonging to one of the original 

 proprietors of the Stamford Patent, so called, and which fell within the 

 jurisdiction of New York. 



He continued on the farm with his father engaged in agricultural pur- 

 suits, during his minority ; but soon after engaged in various other pur- 

 suits of extensive usefulness. 



Soon after the demise of his father, which occurred June 15, 1757, the 

 paternal patrimony consisting of some four or five hundred acres, was 

 divided between his older brother and himself, being the only surviving 

 sons, which still remains in the possession of the descendants after the 

 lapse of a century. It was the circumstance of a pound being erected 

 on that handsome ridge of land now owned by one of his sons, that 

 gave to the town the name of Poundridge. At the age of twenty-five 

 he was engaged in merchandise and was appointed one of his Majesty's 

 Justices of the Peace, and one of the Quorum, which office he held 

 until the commencement of the Revolutionary war. At the breaking 

 out of hostilities, to wit, on the 19th October, 1775, he was commissioned 

 a major in the regiment of Westchester County Militia, commanded by 

 Col. Thomas Thomas ; and was in active service during most of the 

 campaign of '76, when the enemy took possession of the lower part of 

 Westchester County. 



In the month of May, '76, he attended the Provincial Congress, then 

 sitting in New York, having been elected to that office on the third 

 Tuesday in April previous, for one year ; and was in continued service 

 from that period until the close of the war, either as Major, Member of 

 the Provincial Congress, or Committee of Safety and other posts of active 

 duty in favor of American Independence until its final acknowledgement 

 by Great Britain in 1783. 



After the Declaration of Independence he was elected a member of 

 the Provincial Convention for forming a Constitution of Government for 

 the State, and as such, aided in the formation and adoption of the first 

 Constitution, and was returned as a Member of the Legislature for 

 several years after the close of the war. 



Other stations of public employment also engaged much of his time 

 and called him from the domestic circle at considerable sacrifice of in- 

 terest and comfort. His unwearied zeal and activity in the American 

 cause, also was accompained with much pecuniary loss and sacrifice of 

 property. 



In the year 1779, when the whole county of Westchester was the 

 theatre of blood, rapine and plunder, and life and property, endangered 

 from foes without and traitors within, his hospitable dwelling was opened 



