752 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 



place and tend to the obligations of religion. And blessed be God, I have this 

 satisfaction, that the Church people in all my parishes have almost unanimously 

 (there being but three or four exceptions) maintained their loyalty from the first, 

 for which many of them suffered greatly. 



In May, 1776, I was called before the Rebel Committee of Cortlandt's manor, 

 who invited me to join their association ; upon which I told them freely that I 

 esteemed their resistance of his Majesty's authority to be repugnant to the pre- 

 cepts of the Gospel, and, therefore, could not give ifr my countenance. I was 

 soon after required to furnish some blankets for the use of the Rebel soldiers; 

 which, not consenting to do, I was sent under guard to the Committee, and, at 

 the same time, a guard was set at my house, who, after their savage manner, 

 were very lavish of their insults to Mrs. Townsend. The Committee, after hav- 

 ing in vain endeavored to pursuade me to furnish the blankets, gave orders to 

 search my house and get them ; but the proper steps having been taken, none 

 were found. The next time the Committee met, they ordered me to pay up- 

 wards of thirty shillings to these guards, which I refused; and was again put 

 under guard till I did pay it. I was soon after sent to the County Committee of 

 Westchester, on a complaint from the Committee of Cortlandt's manor, that I 

 entertained principles inconsistent with the American cause. The County Com- 

 mittee referred the matter to the Provincial Committee ; but as my principles 

 were only complained of, without any part of my conduct being impeached, and 

 the Declaration of Independence being then just at hand, which, it was thought, 

 would bring the clergy in general under persecution, I was, for that time dis- 

 missed. 



"I continued the services of the Church within my mission for three Sundays 

 after the Declaration of Independence by the Congress, and should have pro- 

 ceeded still and took the consequences, but I was informed that all the clergy, 

 in this and the neighboring provinces, had discontinued the public service till it 

 might be performed under the protection of his Majesty, excepting only Mr. 

 Beach, of Connecticut, who hath continued his church till very lately. Under these 

 circumstances, I considered that my dissenting from the practice of my brethren 

 would not only set me up as a single mark of vengeance — and as every appearance 

 of disunion among the clergy might be disadvantageous to the Church hereafter ; 

 viewing the matter in this light, I thought it best to comply with the general 

 practice of the clergy. On the 21st of Oct. I was made a prisoner and sent to the 

 Court of Fishkill as an enemy to the Independence of America, when (except 

 that sometimes I was indulged to visit my family a few days) I was kept on pa- 

 role through the winter at my own expense, which was very great. The shock- 

 ing insolence and inhumanity of the Rebels toward the friends of Government of 

 which I was a daily spectator, rendered the place of my imprisonment very dis- 

 agreeable; and the cruel treatment which my family received from them in my ab- 

 sence, was exceedingly distressing. They had taken me from a wife and four small 

 children the two youngest not sixteen months old, which was my whole family — 

 and during my confinement they forbade people coming to my house, and they 

 threatened all that should assist the family in any respect ; by this means they 

 suffered much for want of free intercourse with their friends, those that would 

 gladly have assisted them, not daring to do it unless when it m ight be done private- 

 ly. In this situation I know not how they could have long subsisted, had it not been 



