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Presented to the LIBRARY ofthe UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO by Ontario Legislative Library / S TH REFUGEES '1776' rom LONG ISLAND TO CONNECTICUT By FREDERIC GREGORY MATHER Compiler and Editorof "New York in the Revolution " and "New York '" the Revolution Supplement" MemberoftheSons oftheReoolution in the State ofNew York;theNewYorkHistorical Society;theConnecticutHistoricalSociety;theLongIslandHistoricalSociety;theSuffolk County,N. Y.,HistoricalSociety;theNew YorkGenealogical andBiographical Society;theNewEnglandHistoric GenealogicalSociety;andtheSociety for the Preseroation ofNew EnglandAntiquities;President of theStamford, Conn., HistoricalSociety ALBANY, N. Y. J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS 1913 Entered,accordingtoActofCongress,intheyearonethousandninehundredandthirteen By FREDERIC GREGORYMATHER IntheofficeoftheLibrarianofCongress,atWashington INTRODUCTION The late Mr. Berthold Fernow was the Archivist, or custodian, of the Original Documentsrelating tothehistoryof the Provinceand Stateof New York. His office was held under the direction of the Board of Regents of the University. Down to the year 1882, but little had been done in the wayofpublishingtheDocumentsrelatingtotheRevolutionaryWar. Indeed, there was no printed information as to the contents of those Documents. In this respect the State of New York was far behind her neighbors. But, withtheCentennialof 1776, therecamearevivalof theRevolutionaryspirit; and New York shared in this, along with the other States which succeeded to the 13 original Colonies. So,intheyearfirstnamedabove,theBoarddirectedMr.Fernowtoexamine the MS. Records, and to cull therefrom all items relative to the Military establishment during the War. In 1887, the results of this work were pub- lished in a quarto entitled: "Vol. I of New York State Archives New Yorkin the Revolution." Theeditor drewupon the Proceedings of the Pro- vqiunoctiealdCloibnegrraelslsy,ftrhoemCtohmemi"tMtieseceolflaSnaefoeutsy Paanpdertsh,e"Ctohneve"ntAisosnemobflNyePwapYeorrsk;" and other Original Documents in preparing the New York Line of the Con- tinental Army; and provided an Alphabetical Roster of the State Troops. The work was well done; but it had the serious defect of three separate Indexes, instead ofone General Index covering the whole. During the progress of Mr. Fernow's work I was a resident of Albany. I made frequent visits to his office, took part in his investigations, and felt that I was of some value to him. The office was in the South-East corner of the third floor of the State Building, on Eagle St. On the same floor, in the North-West corner, there was a room which had been, and still is, used for storage purposes by the State Comptroller whose main offices are on the first floor. At that time neither Mr. Fernow, nor I, nor any one else, knew thatthestore-roomcontainedRevolutionaryWarDocumentsquite as impor- tantasanywhich were passing through our hands. 'Nor did I dream that, more than ten years later, I should be doing for those yet undiscovered papers what Mr. Fernow was then doing for the papers which were under his control. The newDocuments were finally discovered when Hon. James A. Roberts was Comptroller. They consisted, mainly, of the receipts of soldiers for their pay, with an occasional pay-roll. These Documents were in the care of the Comptroller because they were vouchers for money paid out by the Auditor-General, the predecessor of the Comptroller as the financial agent of the State. (Pages 134-137) Mr. Roberts at once realized the value of the papers; and he secured the services of Col. Charles O. Shephard to aofrrtahnege"aRnedvoclluatssiiofnyartyheWm.arCMoSlS..S,h"epwhiatrhdapcraerpdarIenddaebxotuott1h0eFsoalmioe;Voalnudmehes found that the State should be credited with 41,633 soldiers, instead of the 17,781 allowed by Gen. Knox at the end of the War. He had not finished his inquiry when the Legislature demanded something in the way of a book toshowforthe appropriation. Of coursethe demand had to beconsidered, or there would have been no funds for continuing the work. Therefore, iSnta1t8e97",wtahse FpirrisntteEdd.itiIotnwoafs"iNnecowmpYloertke ianstthoe Rtehveolpuatpieorns,wahsicCholhoandybaenedn looked over; and it had no Index. At this point, Col. Shephard had other engagements which madeit impos- si_ble for him to continue the work. Mr. Roberts then called upon me to continue and to finish it. Fearing that some papers had been overlooked, I explored every corner of the store-room. In this way I secured all Docu- mentswhichhad a bearing on the War whether or no they related to the service of the soldiers. The mounting of all Documents of this nature in (5) 6 The Refugees of1776fromLongIsland to Connecticut aofptehrem"anMeSnSt.,f"orwmithwaascocrornetsipnouneddinugntiinlc,reaatsetihnetehnedc,artdheIrnedewxe.reT5h2eVnoulmubmeers of soldiers to be credited to the State also arose to 51,972. (Page 1046) T"hNeewLegYiosrlaktuirnethhaeviRnegvolmuatdieon,fuerttch.e,r" awpapsroppurbilaitsihoends,, uandSeercomnyd Eeddiittoirosnhipo,f in 1898. This contained much additional matter, and it was provided with a General Index. In regard to terms of service, it was not so full as Mr. Fernow's book; but it had a much longer list of soldiers, and the proof of ethveiidrepncaeyoifnstehreviircoewinnstihgenaWtaurresb.y sIotlpdireorvsefdrtoombte,heanStdaittestoifllNise,wthYeosrtka.ndaArsd such,itcontinuestobethechiefrelianceofthosewhoseektojointheseveral Patriotic Societies. In theold store-room there were also Documents of quite as much interest as the ones whichwere used in preparingtheSecondEdition; fortheythrew side-lights on the source of supplies, the confiscation of property and the general conduct of the War within the confines of the State. This material wassogood that I suggested to Mr. Roberts the publication of another book which should give certain hitherto unknown phases of the struggle. With Mr. Roberts' hearty co-operation and that of the successive Comptrollers William J. Morgan,Theodore P. Oilman and Erastus C. Knight andaided bwyhesnev"erNaelwLeYgoirslkaitnivteheapRpervooplruiattiioonns,Stuhpeplweomrekntw"aswacsonptuibnluisehdedu,ntoiflw1h9i0c1h, I was also the editor. It is with much satisfaction that I look back to the fouryearswhich were spent in the production of the two books; for all of the statements therein were based upon Original Documents which had not been available down to that time. Many thousands of the books have been printed since they werFeorfiarsntupmubbleirshoefdyearas,ndthwei5t2hoVuotlcuhmaensgeo,fa"sRtehveoleurtrioorsnaarryeMnSegSl.ig"ibalen.d the card Index remained in the main office of the Comptroller. It was not a wise move to take them from a place of comparative safety to the more dangerous surroundings of the State Library. Yet this was done just before the fire of March 29, 1911, destroyed the greater part of them. If, only, they had been allowed to stay where they were until the new Education Building was ready! It is fortunate that the more valuable contents of the Documents had been preserved in the two books named above; and that certain other of the Documents, in their entirety, are preserved in the work whichIamnowpublishing. InordertodowhatIcantomakeupfortheloss, mmayWrhkdieelpdeos"iptrRieeopfnaurwgiienlelgsatpfhpreeoam"rLSoounpnpPglaegImeselan1n5t,d,."a"ttIhFeocreanmwdeaonfatctrohofessTsapnabculeme,eorfIoCuwosanstebunutnnsad.bllees toprintbutafewofthepapers,togetherwithanimperfectlistoftheRefugees. ("Supplement," pp. 127-133) TheRefugeessympathizedwiththeAmerican cause; and were not Tories, as is often supposed. The papers were Claims againsttheStateofNewYorkforexpensesofremovaltoConnecticut,in1776, justafter the Battle of Long IslandhadlefttheRefugeesatthemercyof the enemy. Three copies of all the Claims were made, and compared carefully with the originals. My first thought was to present the copies to certain Historical Societies. But, before doing this, I made further inquiry; and Ifoundthatverylittlehadbeenwritten, oreven recorded, astothoseunfor- tunate people. The several Historians of Long Island had mentioned them; but, in nearly every case, there was a quotation from the epigrammatic Notes of Henry Onderdonk, Jr. (Pages 986-988) The question then was: "where is the material on which Onderdonk drew for his Notes"? The State Library, at Albany, could not answer. I looked at the printed and MS. matter in the Library, dated 1776-1800; and what little wasfound atphepeSatrasteinofApNpeenwdiYxoerskAc.oualnddfuBr.nisTh.hisTwoasApaplle,nadsiixdeA.frwoemrethaedCdleadimesx,trtahcatts from the Census of 1776 (taken just before the flight), which were of great value. The Claims were called, tentatively, Appendix C.; for I had not thought, down to that time, of expanding the subject into a book. Before Appendix C. was closed, a number of missing parts were supplied by the Connecticut State Library and by individuals.