3S2 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



gress rt to Governor Trumbull, who demanded Mr. Seabury's ' immediate 

 discharge.' The more especially as, considering his ecclesiastical charac- 

 tnr. which, perhaps is venerated by many friends to liberty. 6 The 

 severity that has been used towards him may be subject to misconstruc- 

 tions, prejudicial to the common cause. Mr. Seabury was accordingly 

 set at liberty and returned to his parish. 



The Venerable Society's abstracts for 1777, say: — 



"Three letters have been received from the Rev. Dr. Seabury; the first of 

 them, dated December 29th, 1776, gives an account of the great distresses he 

 had encountered, greater than he can describe, greater, he believes, than he could 

 well support again. In the preceding year, he had been carried away by force 

 into Connecticut*. After his return to his mission, he continued tolerabl}* quiet 

 for a few weeks ; but after the King's troops had evacuated Boston, he was per- 

 petually insulted by the rebels, on their way from thence to New York. This 

 lasted about a month. After the Declaration of Independency, an edict was 

 published at New York, making it death to support the King or any of his 

 adherents. Upon this he shut up his church ; fifty armed men being sent into his 

 neighborhood. On the arrival of the British troops at Staten Island, and of two 

 ships of war in the Sound, the coast was constantly guarded, and the friends of 

 Government seized, so that his situation became critical, as he was particularly 

 obnoxious to the rebels. After their defeat on Long Island, a body of them fixed 

 themselves within two miles of his house, so that he thought it prudent to con- 

 fine himself; for it appeared he would otherwise be seized, frequent enquiries 

 being made for him, and his house being examined by the rebels. 



On the 1st of September, it happened that they withdrew their guard from a 

 neighboring point of land on the coast, and the guard that was to replace it, mis- 

 taking their route, gave him an opportunity of effecting his escape to Long 

 Island. The rebels, finding they had missed him, vented their rage on his church 

 and his property, converting the former into an hospital, tearing off the covering 

 and burning the pews : and damaging the latter to the value of three hundred 

 pounds currency. 



He accompanied the army into Westchester, and returned for one week to his 

 family ; but, on the army quitting those parts, he thought it prudent to retire with 

 his family to New York. He assures the Society that he did not leave his mis- 

 sion so long as it was practicable to stay." d 



a The petition of the Rev. S. Seabury, presented to 'he Governor of Connecticut in 1775, for 

 :id protection, shows that he received anything but gentle treatment at the hands of 

 his enemies. He defended himself against their charges, arid pronounced his arrest " a high 

 infringement of that liberty for which, the SODS of America were then so nobly struggling." 

 er might have beeo bis private views and feelings, he seems to have been a conscien- 

 tious and Indistrions man; more heedful of the welfare of his ilock and family, than of his 

 country's political relations. Among other things he stated m bis petition, "that to discharge 

 his deli'- tened a grammar school, and had made £100, York money, the previous 



year, and was in a fair way of discharging his debts.— that he had five voung men from the 

 Df Jamaica, one from Montreal, fonr children of a gentleman then in England, with 

 others in his care from New York and the countrv,— that it might be impossible to recover 

 his Bchool, in which case he should be entirely at the mercy of his creditors."— Extract from 

 an address delivered In St. Peter's church, Cheshire, Conn., October, 1844, bj Rev. CE. 

 Beardsiev, AM The site of Mr. Seabury's grammar school, is still called Seabury Hill. 

 b Journal of N. Y. Prov. Con. vol. l, 'J14, 492. 



. History oi X. Y.. vol. II 

 d Printed Abstracts of Ven. Prop. Soc. 



