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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. 
 
Copyright, February, 1909 
 
 The We^che^er Pres 
 
 Rye. New York 
 
WESTCHESTER COUNTY 
 
 JIND THE 
 
 TOWN OF RYE 
 
 (1 
 
 AN ADDRESS BY 
 
 A. OUTRAM SHERMAN 
 
 (!] 
 
 Delivered before 
 
 THE WOMAN'S CLUB OF PORT CHESTER. N. Y. 
 
 FEBRUARY 8, 1909 
 

 LIBRARY Of CONGRESS 
 Two Couies Received 
 
 MAh 18 1^09 
 
 CLASS O- AXc. ?i. 
 
 -2.3 2.104 
 COPY a. 
 
 "No 1 Time, thou shalt not boast that I do change ; 
 Thy pyramids built up with newer might, 
 To me are nothing novel, nothing strange: 
 They are but dressings of a former sight. 
 Our dates are brief, and therefore we admire 
 What thou dost foist upon us that is old. 
 And rather make them born to our desire, 
 Than think that we before have heard them told. 
 Thy registers and thee I both defy. 
 Not wondering at the present nor the past ; 
 For thy records and what we see doth lie. 
 Made more or less by thy continual haste: 
 This I do vow, and this shall ever be, 
 I will be true, despite thy scythe and thee." 
 
 — Shapespeare's Sonnets. 
 
WESTCHESTER COUNTY 
 
 AND THE TOWN OF RYE 
 
 "^^^^-^HE subject, "Westchester County and the Town of Rye," 
 ■ j would furnish, had one the requisite knowledge, 
 ^^^^ material for a course of lectures, for a library of books 
 wherein true romance and tragedy would have their 
 part, the history of religious liberty and human freedom would 
 be largely recounted and the story of America's struggle for 
 independence told at length. 
 
 Westchester lay between the Dutch and the English. Here 
 the Puritan found the High Church Episcopalian and here they 
 bitterly opposed each other. Here, midway between the spire 
 of Trinity and the meeting houses of Connecticut, was founded 
 a French colony at New Rochelle of liberal and enlightened 
 Huguenots. Here Ann Hutchinson fled to escape her Puritan 
 persecutors, and here the would-be aristocrats hoped to control 
 princely domains, as lords of the manor, but could not overcome 
 the growing power and intelligence of what, one of their number 
 called "the lower order of mankind." * Here in Westchester 
 County, in the Town of Rye, arose "one of the most remarkable 
 boundary disputes on record." ** 
 
 (a) "The remains of it" (the English Constitution), "however, will give the wealthy 
 people a superiority, this time; but, would they secure it, they rnust banish all 
 Schoolmasters and confine all Knowledge to themselves. This cannot be. TTie Mob bepns 
 to think and reason. Poor Reptiles !" Gouverneur Morns to Mr. Penn. Dawson s West- 
 chester County in the Revolution," p. 12. . ^ . , . . .v c. * 
 
 (b) Report of the commissioners appointed to ascertain the boundary between the Mates 
 of New York and Connecticut, April 9, 1856. Senate Document No. 165. "Baird s History 
 of Rye," p. 105. 
 
When our country was first taken possession of, the settlers 
 were accustomed to bound their territory about in this way: 
 "A line from a bush heap to a pile of stones on the north, marked 
 trees on the south, the blue sky and the two seas.'' Naturally 
 claims conflicted and Yankees killed Quakers in Pennsylvania 
 for years over their conflicting' claims to the Valley of Wyoming, 
 and the Virginia legislature, after the Revolution, refused by 
 one vote Washington's request ^ to reward a resident of West- 
 chester County, New York, with $10,000 for his services in the 
 Revolution, because he had written a pamphlet adverse to Vir- 
 ginia's claims to a territory which he showed would include by 
 the description, a part of the Arctic Circle and the rest of the 
 hemisphere north of the north line of Georgia and west of New 
 York, b 
 
 I shall not attempt, therefore, in the short period allotted to 
 me this afternoon, to go at length into any branches of so wide 
 a subject, but refer to a few facts of interest, and some aspects 
 of history a little out of the general or popular theory, and that 
 you may have a confidence in the correctness of these statements 
 greater than the mere publication of them by any individual, I 
 wish to say that I am prepared to support every material fact, 
 not from the deductions of historians but by reference to the 
 testimony of the actors in the events themselves. 
 
 (a) "Sir, can nothing be done in our Assembly for poor Paine? Must the merits and 
 services of 'Common Sense' continue to glide down the stream of time unrewarded by this 
 country? His writings certainly have had a p»«erful effect upon the public mind. Ought 
 they not, then, to meet an adequate return . . . . " Washington to Madison, 
 June 12, 1784 (similar letters to Patrick Henry and Rich. H. Lee). "The 
 Writings of George Washington" (W. C. Ford), Vol. X., p. 393. "I have therefore to 
 repeat, sir, that the sanction which your judgment gave to the propriety of rewardmg 
 the literary services of Mr. Pavne led to an attempt in the House of Delegates for that 
 purpose." Madison to Washington, August 12, i7^4- "Writings of Madison," Vol. II., 
 p. 63: "I still hope something will be done for Paine. He richly deserves it; and it will 
 give a character of littleness to our state if they suffer themselves to be restrained from 
 the compensation due for his services by a paltry consideration that he opposed our riRht 
 to the Western Country. Who was there out of Virginia who did not oppose it? Place 
 this circumstance in one scale, and the effect his writings produced in uniting us in inde- 
 pendence in the other, and say which preponderates. Have we gained more by his advocation 
 of independence than we lost by his opposition to our territorial rights? Pay him the 
 balance only." "Writings of Thomas Jefferson," Vol. IV., p. 17. 
 
 (b) "Beginning at the cape or point of land called cape or point Comfort, thence all 
 alons the sea coast to the northward 200 miles, and fvom said point or cane Comfort, all 
 
In the years 1640 and 1649 ^^e Dutch India Company pur- 
 chased from the Indians all the territory between Norwalk and 
 the North River; this comprehended most of Westchester 
 County. The land was called Ubiequaeshook or Weckquaskeck. 
 Gov. Peter Stuyvesant of the New Netherlands in 1650 came to 
 a provisional arrangement with New England as to the boundary 
 line between the Colonies, which began at the west side of Green- 
 wich Bay, four miles from Stamford, and ran northerly to within 
 ten miles of the Hudson River. This agreement was never 
 sanctioned by the home governments or respected by the Eng- 
 lish ; for settlers from Connecticut went as far as Eastchester, 
 or Oost-dorp, and settled, the Dutch not objecting. A second 
 conference occurred in 1663. In 1662 Charles II gave to Con- 
 necticut all the land east and west between Massachusetts on 
 the north and the sea on the south, between Narragansett Bay 
 and the South Sea (meaning the Pacific Ocean). This may 
 have left the Dutch Manhattan Island, but not much more. 
 
 A few months afterward Charles got a generous fit again, 
 and he gave his brother, the Duke of York, that part of the con- 
 tinent east of Massachusetts now comprising New Brunswick 
 and the State of Maine, also Long Island, which he had just 
 given to Connecticut, "together with all the river called the Hud- 
 son River and the land from the west side of the Connecticut 
 River to the east side of Delaware Bay." He overlooked the 
 Dutchman's claims and made his grant to his Connecticut sub- 
 jects look like what the boys now call "a lemon." However, the 
 Duke of York's man, Richard Nicolls, made the Dutch see that 
 they were mistaken in thinking they had any rights, and had 
 even called their land by a wrong name ; New was well enough 
 but York looked better than Netherlands. Governor Nicolls had 
 power, with three of his officers, to settle all boundary disputes, 
 and the Connecticut Yankees came down to talk it over and they 
 agreed that the line between the two, now English Colonies, 
 should start from where the fresh water falls into the salt 
 on the east side of the Mamaroneck River and run north-north- 
 
 7 
 
west to the Massachusetts line. This line was presumed to, and 
 they had agreed it should, run twenty miles to the eastward and 
 parallel with the Hudson River. Thus our western boundary 
 was described in 1664. 
 
 When Rye was purchased by John Coe, Peter Disbrow, 
 Thomas Stedwell and John Budd, who came from Connecticut 
 (the last, at least, from near Rye, England^) it was established 
 as an English Colony. In the year 1680 some of the inhabitants 
 of Rye attempted to occupy and settle on land along the Hudson 
 and complained to their Connecticut legislature that they were 
 opposed. They not only did not get what they petitioned for, 
 but on the new settlement the line was defined at about its 
 present point on the Byram River, and the people of Rye found 
 themselves turned over to New York. They refused to pay 
 taxes for awhile in either colony and did not accept the situation 
 until 173 1. This boundary has not, to this day, been definitely 
 and satisfactorily fixed and a commission is now at work on it. 
 In 183 1 when the United States Government purchased a part 
 of Captain's Island for its light house it took a grant from both 
 Connecticut and New York, as it was doubtful to which state 
 the island belonged. New York claimed jurisdiction over it as 
 a part of the Town of Rye down to 1883. Long Island Sound 
 was called at one time The Devil's Belt. ^ The great original 
 proprietors of Westchester County, were six in number. Rye, 
 which included White Plains and Harrison, was never the pos- 
 session of one man. 
 
 Cortlandt Manor was owned by Stephen Van Cortlandt, and 
 Philipseburgh Manor by Frederick Philipse, whose heirs lost 
 
 (a) "John Budd, the elder, and Joseph Budd came to this country about the 
 year 1632. On the records of London, is Joseph Budd's name, age 15, sailed for New 
 England. They arrived in New Haven and John Budd's name occurs on the records of New 
 Haven in 1639 as one of the first planters of the place. (New Haven Colonial Record, 
 Vol. I., 7-425.) 'The Budd Family' (by Col. Enos Coble Budd, Press of F. W. Sonneborn, 
 10 Warren st., New York, 1881), p. 4; "The regular line of descent from Rye, Sussex 
 County, Rngland, in 1632, to Hartford, Conn.," Szc, id., p. 40. "Washington's Head- 
 quarters at Morristown was given to one of the Ford family by judge Wm. Budd in con- 
 sideration of improving the same, and Sussex County was named after old Sussex County 
 in England." Id., p. 41. 
 
 (b) On a map of e^rl^ 4ate in the possession of the writer it is so designated. 
 
 8 
 
most of their holdings on account of their being loyalists in the 
 Revolution. Fordham Manor was established by John Archer; 
 Morrisania Manor w^s owned by the Morrises and part of it was 
 confiscated on account of the loyalist tendencies of some of the 
 family; Pelham Manor was purchased by Thomas Pell, and the 
 Manor of Scarsdale was owned by Caleb Heathcote, most of 
 whose heirs, the Delanceys, lost their land, the family being most 
 active Tories. ^ 
 
 Although the Dutch India Company purchased from the 
 Indians about all Westchester County in 1640, as I have stated, 
 actual settlers when they arrived purchased anew from the sav- 
 ages. Thus John Richbell purchased his "Three Necks and 
 twenty miles into the woods from the Westchester Path." This 
 included Mamaroneck and, in fact, all the land between Rye and 
 Pell's purchase. There is a most interesting document owned by 
 Dodd Mead & Co., which gives the details of a dispute between 
 subsequent owners of Richbell's necks, wherein much light is 
 thrown on the feeling against the few rich men who were trying 
 to buy up the county and the farmers who were seeking homes, 
 free from rent charges to any landlord. There were eight 
 plaintiffs, four of whom were Palmers, a family yet numerous 
 in Mamaroneck, in this law suit decided in 1726, and the de- 
 fendants were Jacobus Van Cortlandt and Adolph Philipse. 
 These "lords of the manor" were defeated, but the farmers were 
 not contented with this victory, and published the findings of 
 the court and their contentions in parallel columns with the 
 defendants testimony to prove apparently that somebody lied. 
 I wish our county historical society could own this document. 
 It was for sale for $300, so I was contented and thankful for a 
 hasty reading of it which was kindly allowed me by the owners. 
 The whole reason for the dispute over the title to the territory 
 of White Plains is also largely explained in this document. 
 
 Caleb Heathcote afterward obtained possession of much of 
 
 Sabine) 
 
 (a) "Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution," &c. (Lorenzg 
 ne). Vol. I., pp. 363-372 ; "Public Papers of George Clinton," Vol. III., p. 3SS- 
 
Richbell's lands and added it to his Manor of Scarsdale, so called 
 from the Heathcote home in England. It was a custom with 
 the early fathers to attach to their new surroundings names that 
 recalled the familiar scenes at their old homes across the seas. 
 The preamble to an act of 1657 giving to New London its name 
 states this as being "a commendable practice of ye inhabitants of 
 all the colonies of these parts," and I would like to call attention 
 at this point to what I believe is an error, and that is the state- 
 ment ^ that the Byram River derived its name from an alleged 
 circumstance, of which there is no proof, that the Indians used 
 to come to the locality to buy rum. The true reason why the 
 river, called by the Indians Armonck, was called by the English 
 Byram or Bairam, was that on the northeast of Rye Port harbor 
 in England was a rocky point called "Barham rocks," ^ and 
 Thomas Brown from the English Rye owned seven lots along 
 this river which he doubtless named, together with the point 
 nearby, Barham or Byram. It is spelled differently in different 
 deeds, &c. A rocky point is in the same location in both Rye Port 
 harbors. If everywhere the Indians came to buy rum the name 
 had attached, it would have been much more common. 
 
 In the present Village of Rye is preserved, through the gen- 
 erosity of a few of our public spirited citizens, '^ the old Square 
 House which General Washington mentions as having sheltered 
 him on two occasions. The old house by the Byram bridge was 
 the place where La Fayette stopped in 1824 and is said to have 
 scratched his initials on a pane of glass. From this house he 
 sent a note of sympathy to Catherine Thomas, widow of Major 
 General Thomas, who had died that year. ^ 
 
 Until a few years ago the Town of Rye had standing along 
 the Post Road from Mamaroneck River to Byram bridge at the 
 end of each mile an old mile stone, six in all. I regret to say 
 
 (a) "A History of the Town of Greenwich" (Daniel M. Mead, 1857), p. 56. 
 
 (b) "The History and Antiquities of the Ancient Town and Port of Rye in the County 
 of Sussex FKngland]'^' (by William Holloway, London, 1867), p. 348. 
 
 (c) John E. Parsons, William H. Parsons, J. Howard VVhittemore, as a memorial to 
 their grandfather, Ebenezer Clark. 
 
 (d) See Baird's "History of Rye," pp. 147, 380. 
 
 10 
 
that the one that stood in Port Chester about where the First 
 National Bank building stands, has disappeared, but I hope is 
 not destroyed and that an effort will be made to find it and have 
 it set up in place again. The Town of Rye was the only town 
 that of late years possessed a complete set of these stones. 
 There is one on Third avenue in New York, around which an 
 iron frame has been placed so that it shall not be touched, and 
 it is treasured as a great relic. The twenty-fourth mile stone, 
 opposite John Jay's gateway, I fortunately discovered, had been 
 torn up two or three years ago and rescued it from destruction 
 among a pile of stones. These mile stones were erected largely 
 through the instrumentality of Alexander Hamilton, probably 
 at the suggestion of Benjamin Franklin, v^^ho himself measured 
 many miles of roads by a device he describes for counting the 
 revolutions of his buggy wheel. * At the end of each mile Frank- 
 lin would set up a mark and an ox team would follow along with 
 men to set the stones. On March 9, 1774, the New York Provin- 
 cial Government passed an act for the protection of mile stones. 
 It states: "Whereas, The erection of mile stones, hands, pointers 
 or any other monuments erected for the direction of travelers 
 along the public road contribute greatly to the convenience of 
 travelers and. whereas, a number of them have been put up in 
 different parts of this colony now. therefore, &c." These mile 
 stones were doubtless the ones erected in 1774 as they stood 
 along the main thoroughfare from New England to New York. 
 Washington and La Fayette happened to record one of their 
 journeys along this road, but I believe that every public char- 
 acter in history, active in the events that occurred throughout 
 .this community, traversed this route many times, and from his 
 weary horse's back many a dust begrimed patriot has counted 
 these mile posts and read the numbered miles. I will read you a 
 proof of this from a memorandum book lately found. It has lain 
 unseen a century or more in an old house in New England. It is 
 
 (a) "Home Life in Colonial Days" (by Alice Morse Earle, McMillan, 1898), p. 335, 
 and "Stage Coach and Tavern Days" (same author and publisher, 1890), p. 353- 
 
 11 
 
in the handwriting of my great grandfather, an ancestor of mine 
 of whom, being an American, of course I am entitled to be very 
 proud. It reads: "May 3, 1775, To expenses to Philadelphia in 
 company with other delegates attended by militia from Stamford 
 to Kingsbridge,"^ and April 4, I776,the entry shows that he again 
 passed here on his way to the great meeting in Philadelphia to 
 be appointed on the committee and to work for the adoption of 
 Independence. On the i6th of September, 1774, Samuel and 
 John Adams, Thomas Cushion and Robert T. Paine arrived in 
 New Haven. ^ Roger Sherman called on them, but it does not 
 appear that he proceeded with them to Congress that day, but 
 these four passed here together and arrived at Kingsbridge on 
 the 20th, guided by these mile stones along the way. Surely we 
 should treasure these old monuments. An odd instance in rela- 
 tion to the stone markers came to light a few years ago. The 
 Rye Free Reading Room owns and occupies the old Purdy 
 homestead in the village, in repairing which, a mile stone similar 
 to those now standing, was found in the wall of a cellar window. 
 This stone was made for the twenty-ninth mile from New York, 
 which ends just over the Connecticut line. So doubtless Purdy 
 took it home to utilize in his building rather than go beyond the 
 jurisdiction of this colony. The Purdys were several of them 
 supervisors and held other town offices. 
 
 Westchester County's position, in regard to national inde- 
 pendence and the war with the mother country, was peculiar in 
 many respects. The first action was taken on the recommenda- 
 tion of a committee of fifty-one appointed in New York City at a 
 meeting held first at the coffee house on Wall street and after- 
 wards at Fraunces Tavern. It must not be forgotten that at 
 first even Washington hoped that the differences with the King 
 could be settled without separation from England. The New 
 
 (a) "May 6. — This afternoon arrived at New York from the eastward, on their way for 
 Philadelphia, to attend the Continental Congress the Hon. John Hancock and Thomas Gush- 
 ing, Esqs. ; Samuel Adams and Robert Treat Paine, Es<is. ; delegates from the I'rovjnce of 
 Massachusetts Bay ; and the Hon. Eliphalct Dyer, Roger Sherman, Esq. and Silas Deane, 
 Esq., delegates for the Colony of Connecticut." "Rivington's Gazetteer," May ii, 1775. 
 (Moore's "Diary of the Revolution," V^ol. I., p. 75.) 
 
 (b) "Thf Declaration of Independence Its History" (John H. Hazelton), p. 4. 
 
 12 
 
York meeting- was called first by the merchants and men of 
 power and importance, but the citizens generally insisted on 
 being heard, and it is well they did. The chairman of the meet- 
 ing could not have had his whole heart in the cause for he after- 
 wards became a loyalist and had his property confiscated.* New 
 York's delegation were the last to sign the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, and only signed on July iSth.** This delay was due to 
 the fact that they could not get authority from the Provincial 
 Assembly. On May 31, 1776, John Jay writes: "I do not learn 
 that a word has been said in our convention( meaning the Pro- 
 vincial Congress) upon the subject of a Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence;" but the people were ready if the politicians were 
 not, for the "Committee of Mechanics in Union" addressed the 
 Provincial Assembly thus : "For ourselves and our constituents, 
 hereby publicly declare that, should you, gentlemen of our hon- 
 orable Provincial Congress, think proper to instruct our most 
 honorable delegates in Continental Congress to use their utmost 
 endeavors in that august assembly to cause the United Colonies 
 to become independent of Great Britain, it would give us the 
 highest satisfaction; and we hereby sincerely promise to en- 
 deavor to support the same with our lives and fortunes." To 
 which the Provincial Congress replied : "that they could not 
 then presume to instruct the delegates of the Colonies on the 
 momentous question." Westchester County, by action in its 
 different towns, replied to the circular letter of the committee of 
 fifty-one from New York by choosing the delegates selected in 
 New York to represent them also in Philadelphia. The people 
 of Rye called a meeting at White Plains and appointed John 
 Thomas, Jr., a brother of General Thomas of Rye Woods, and 
 several others, to advise on the course to be adopted. They 
 likewise recommended the endorsement of the delegates already 
 appointed. Some of the persons assembled at White Plains 
 
 (a) "Biographical Sketches of Loyalists," &c. (Sabine), Vol. II., p. 32, and Dawson's 
 "Westchester in the Revolution," p. 10. 
 
 (b) Signing as a whole state delegation. Thornton, of New Hampshire, sigfned on Novem- 
 ber 4th. "The Declaration of Independence Its History," pp. 200, 207. 
 
 13 
 
signed the resolutions and afterward withdrew their names. 
 The Rector at Rye wrote a letter on the subject and finally be- 
 came an outright Tory and went to Canada. 
 
 The causes that influenced tlie people to make the final break 
 with the old country are much more complicated than we gen- 
 erally are led to believe. The preamble of the Declaration does 
 by no means tell the whole story. We get the general idea at 
 school that a heavy tax on tea was the main issue, but it was 
 not a question of tax laws so much as of the navigation laws. 
 American merchants were not allowed to import goods except 
 from England and her colonies, but the practice had long been 
 to import and smuggle in an inferior tea from Holland. English 
 tea carried an export tax of a shilling a pound. This was not 
 increased but reduced to 3 pence a pound, which was to be levied 
 at the port on this side, as an import duty, and the smuggling of 
 contraband goods England determined to stop. John Hancock 
 signed the Declaration of Independence first. He was being 
 sued by the Crown at that very time in the Admiralty Court for 
 nearly half a million dollars for violations of the statutes. If 
 independence was secured he not only won freedom of trade for 
 his country, but saved himself from financial ruin. ^ 
 
 Superior English tea with a tax of 3 pence was actually 
 cheaper and more desired by the farmers of Westchester than 
 the smuggled Holland article, but the merchants of Boston and 
 New York had their grievances on this subject. Westchester 
 County farmers had others and were ready to stand by them for 
 freedom from all oppression. New York Province had no 
 charter. It was governed by appointed representatives of the 
 Crown. Large land ovvaiers called lords of the manor, not such 
 in fact, smacked of feudal England. An aristocracy of the old 
 colonial families was growing up, office was largely becoming 
 in fact hereditary, and lastly the people, nine-tenths dissenters, 
 Presbyterians, Quakers and of other persuasions, had been 
 
 (a) "Writings of Thomas Jefferson," Vol. IV., pp. 302-3; Dawson's "Westchester County 
 in the Kevolution," p. 8; "Loyalists of the American Revolution" (Historical Essay), Vol. I., 
 pp. 8-9 and 13. ^ 
 
 14 
 
tricked not only into a forced support of the English established 
 church but property paid for by the contribution of dissenters 
 for meeting houses and the support of their ministers was seized 
 by the clergy. 
 
 A flagrant instance of this occurred in Rye. Governor 
 Fletcher with the help of Lewis Morris and Caleb Heathcote 
 arranged the plans. The act of 1693, ^^^ ^ tax to support a 
 minister, did not state what kind of a minister, and after its 
 passage the governor interpreted it as meaning a minister of 
 the established church, whereupon the Assembly, the next year 
 passed an act interpreting the first to mean a minister of the 
 people's choice, but the governor vetoed this. Col. Lewis 
 Morris thus exultingly writes in 171 1 : "James Graham, Esq., who 
 was then speaker of the Assembly, and had the drawing of their 
 bills, prescribed a method of induction and so managed it that it 
 would not do well for the dissenters, and but lamely for the 
 Church, though it would do with the help of the governor — and 
 that was all; but it was the most that could be got at that time, 
 for had more been attempted the Assembly had seen through the 
 artifice, the most of them being dissenters, and all had been 
 lost." ^ 
 
 Great strife and bitterness was engendered by this foolish 
 action. Heathcote was a fine character and an able man. 
 Colonel Morris said that the Church of England would have 
 been better off had it never been attempted.'' The Presbyterians 
 paid their tax and voluntarily supported a minister of their own 
 choice beside, and two Presbyterian churches were built in Rye 
 before the Episcopal Church was finished. "It was strongly sus- 
 pected by the clergy when the Revolutionary War broke out," 
 says Bolton, "that the Eastern Provinces were not only aiming 
 at independence, but at the subversion of the church likewise." 
 "The clergy," wrote Mr. Inglis, "used their influence to allay our 
 
 (a) Bolton's "History of the Church in Westchester County," pp. xiv., xxii., 
 and 319; see also "Civil Status of the Presbyterians in the Province of New York," Charles 
 W. Baird, "Magazine of American History," October, 1879. 
 
 (b) Baird's "History of Kye," p. 319. 
 
 15 
 
heats, and cherish a spirit of loyalty among the people."^ Some 
 clergymen were pulled out of their reading desks because they 
 prayed for the King. 
 
 Crown appointed officers, landed estates and established 
 church livings were a great inducement to many to become 
 Loyalists or Tories. New York was, therefore, the Loyalist 
 stronghold and contained more than any other colony. This 
 state furnished the Queen's Rangers, the New York Volun- 
 teers, the Westchester Volunteers and De Lancey's Battalions; 
 all Tory soldiers fighting against their countrymen. The De 
 Lancey family furnished for active service Oliver Jr., James of 
 New York, and James of Westchester, the latter was the famous 
 commander of the Cowboys, who used to harass this county, 
 driving off the cattle to New York, leaving children to starve for 
 milk; another James of New York, John, son of Peter of West- 
 chester, John Peter, and Stephen, commander of the New Jersey 
 Volunteers, and Warren, who distinguished himself for bravery 
 at the battle of White Plains against his country, and for his 
 King. If their zeal and bravery had been for our country's cause 
 Westchester could be proud of this family, ^ but now beside the 
 site of the family mansion — 
 
 "Where gentle Bronx clear winding flows 
 
 The shadowy banks between, 
 Where blossomed bell or wilding rose 
 
 Adorns the brightest green, 
 Memorial of the fallen great, 
 
 The rich and honored line, 
 Stands high in solitary state 
 
 De Lancey's ancient pine." 
 
 It is not for us now to judge harshly those who differed 
 from the majority, who being reared under the English govern- 
 
 (a) Bolton's "History of the Church in Westchester," p. xxii. 
 
 (b) "Public Papers of George Clinton," Vol. III., p. 355- 
 
 16 
 
ment, staid loyal to their training. Where was there a greater, 
 or stronger patriot than Benjamin Franklin? Yet his own son 
 was led a captive through Westchester and confined a prisoner 
 in Connecticut, a rank Tory all through the war. One author- 
 ity estimates that 25,000 Americans fought against their country. 
 Previous to the Evacuation, and in September, 1783, upward of 
 twelve thousand men, women and children shipped for Nova 
 Scotia and the Bahamas, from New York, and I want to quote 
 a passage here to you from a description which shows how much 
 greater was woman's part in this tragedy: "Among the ban- 
 ished ones thus doomed to misery were persons whose hearts 
 and hopes had been as true as Washington's own; for, in the 
 divisions of families which everywhere occurred, and which 
 formed one of the most distressing circumstances of the conflict, 
 there were wives and daughters who, although bound to Loyal- 
 ists by the holiest ties, had given their sympathies to the right 
 from the beginning; and who now, in the triumph of the cause 
 which had had their prayers, went meekly — as woman ever 
 meets a sorrowful lot — into hopeless interminable exile." ^ 
 
 The great drama in our country's early history, the struggle 1 
 for independence, was staged upon the whole Atlantic border \ 
 from Boston to Georgia. The curtain rose upon the first act at 
 Lexington and revealed the thrilling scenes of Marion's midnight 
 raids upon the enemy from the southern swamps, but interludes 
 were frequent and often the actors left the stage at these places, 
 but in bleeding Westchester County the curtain never fell 
 throughout the long-drawn years of war; when the greatest 
 actors, the chi^f commanders of the armies, retired to other 
 stations, minor forces clashed and warred here, and if they rested 
 upon their arms awhile, a horde of fierce desperadoes fought and 
 pillaged all alike, until ruin and desolation marked this fair 
 county. The "neutral ground" it was called, across which con- 
 tending armies glared at one another and made sallies back and 
 
 (a) "Loyalists of American Revolution," pp. 438-444, 70, 91. 
 
 17 
 
forth until the inhabitants, then mostly, the young, the aged and 
 the women, lost all sensation except fear and dread. The lines 
 of the British were at Kingsbridge and the Americans at Byram 
 River. The Cowboys and the Skinners preyed upon the inhab- 
 itants, their homes were ruined, the furniture plundered or 
 broken, their cattle were gone, hay was allowed to rot in the 
 fields, the very roads were overgrown with grass. This condi- 
 tion was so described by a resident in 1777. ^ That year Judge 
 Thomas was captured in the old house you may see still 
 standing but falling to pieces near Harrison avenue. He was 
 carried to New York and imprisoned in the Provost prison soon 
 to die and be buried in Trinity churchyard. The next year his 
 son, then Col. Thomas Thomas, was captured in the house in 
 Harrison, a spy bringing the news that he was sleeping there 
 that night. Lieut. Col. Simcoe marched all night with Em- 
 merick's and the Queen's Rangers and surrounded the Thomas 
 house by daybreak. One shot was fired from the window and 
 killed a man by the side of Simcoe. The house was forced and 
 officers shut the doors of the different rooms to prevent the 
 irritated soldiers from avenging their unfortunate comrade. 
 The man who fired the shot was the only person killed, but 
 Thomas ran upstairs and stepped out of a window onto a piazza 
 and sprang over the soldiers who were below; jumping over 
 some fences he would have certainly escaped, notwithstand- 
 ing most of Emmerick's riflemen fired at him, had not an Hussar 
 leaped after him and cut at him with his sword (which he 
 crouched from and luckily escaped) when he surrendered. 
 Thomas escaped from Long Island. He was charged with 
 breaking his parole, but he was in charge of an officer when he 
 escaped and therefore not under parole. He got over to New 
 York and one of his adventures was getting under a hogshead 
 upon the upturned bottom of which a faithful American woman 
 
 (a) Bolton's "History of Westchester" (1848), Vol. I., pp. xvl., xvii. 
 
 18 
 
spread a bushel of salt, so that the searching officers did not stop 
 to examine the hogshead thinking it full of salt. ^ 
 
 Col. Thomas' brother was the John Thomas, Jr., who was 
 the head of the committee at the White Plains meeting. The 
 colonel became a major general. He was fighting constantly 
 and representing the needs of Westchester County to the gov- 
 ernment. At the battle of White Plains he held an important 
 command and protected the transfer of ammunition. He died 
 in 1824 and lies buried with all his hopes, six children, who pre- 
 ceded him in death, a few feet from the house where through the 
 bullets of Emmerick's riflemen he tried to escape the enemy. 
 Here, the year before, the enemy had come and captured his aged 
 and patriotic father, leading him away to die within forty days 
 in the fearful Provost. In the year 1849 ^^^s grand nephew, laid out 
 in small farms, and filed a map of the estate of the Rye Woods ^ 
 north of Harrison avenue, and the lane through which the 
 British had twice marched th'at extended from Harrison avenue 
 to his door and to his tomb, his nephew called "Thomas street." 
 It was extended to Westchester avenue some years later and the 
 name changed to Lincoln avenue. Think of it — such associa- 
 tions — such a noble life lived and risked and ended here, and 
 posterity did not know the meaning of the name. Ladies, I 
 want to see you join in an effort to restore the name of Thomas 
 to this historic road. Let us find some other fitting memorial 
 to our immortal Lincoln whose name should never be used to 
 dim unnecessarily the fame belonging to a noble patriot and 
 soldier. 
 
 The majority of mankind (and I trust this audience will 
 understand that I realize and am conscious of the fact, so often 
 stated that mankind embraces woman), a great majority, I say, 
 live upright and good lives from the beginning and are entitled 
 
 (a) Simcoe's "Militaiy Journal" (1844), pp. 92. i03- 321; s-^e Col. John Bcatty, 
 commissioner of prisoners in "Public Papers of. George Clinton, War of the Revolution 
 Series," Vol. V., pp. 212, 221. 
 
 (b) "Map of the Property of Thomas T. Ferris, in the Town of Harrison, Westchester 
 County, the late homestead of Major General Thomas Thomas, surveyed October, 1848, by 
 Stephen Brown (of PeekskilD." Map No. ^7^. Register's office, White Plains, N. Y. 
 
 19 
 
to whatever reward is prepared for the just, but to be distin- 
 guished above others it is necessary to be, not alone upright, but 
 also to occupy a conspicuous position during life. Such a posi- 
 tion however carries with it care and criticism and a less placid 
 and agreeable existence, so it is well to render unto those who 
 "bore the whips and scorns of time" undaunted while accom- 
 plishing most in their generation, homage ever, and preserve and 
 recount often their achievements, so that the present generation 
 may be stimulated to noble efforts, by examples from the past 
 and may be supported through criticism and discouragement 
 with the knowledge that they will be remembered and applauded 
 some day for the purity of their hearts and sacrifice of their com- 
 fort to noble purposes, believing too, that if success shall crown 
 their efforts they will live in the memory of posterity. 
 
 There is also another reason, beside duty to them and profit 
 to ourselves, why we should dwell upon the noted characters of 
 the past and especially on any that belong particularly to our 
 own community. Among the vast multitude of living men, 
 among the multitude of multitudes who have lived, infinitesi- 
 mally few in proportion are those who have risen far above the 
 high average of humanity, so that we may well be proud if we 
 can claim any of this exalted few as more particularly our own, 
 or can attach to our community any associations with the great. 
 The truth of all this was realized where "Rival cities fought for 
 Homer dead through which the living Homer begged his bread." 
 General Putman, that picturesque character of the Revolution, 
 was, I saw by the local paper, claimed as a Sawpit hero and the 
 claim is correct. Greenwich has endeavored to appropriate him 
 as her own. His history is too well known and too long for me 
 to go into now, but I merely want to say to Greenwich that the 
 General would prefer to have his exploits here, rather than what 
 he did in their town, support his fame, for he fought in Rye and 
 ran away in Greenwich. 
 
 This is a great year for centennial anniversaries. Poe, the 
 
 20 
 
poet, lived in Westchester County, and though his residence has 
 now been included in New York's extended boundaries, we still 
 have in the county and in the Town of Rye a spot hallowed by 
 his poetic presence. We have his "dim Lake of Auber, In the 
 Ghoul-haunted Woodland of Weir." He used to take long ex- 
 cursions into the country and it is very probable that the claim is 
 well founded that if you walk south along the tide-water creek 
 back of Lawrence's Hotel, just this side of Mamaroneck, you 
 will find a scene which fits his description in Ulalume — 
 
 "We passed to the end of the vista 
 
 But were stopped by the door of a tomb, 
 
 By the door of a legended tomb." 
 
 The spot with the "cypress alley" is the Guion burial ground 
 beside the water. There is a right of way into it from the Post 
 Road and it is a most romantic and picturesque scene. 
 
 There is a grave and a monument in this county, and the 
 earth was shoveled o'er the dead one hundred years ago next 
 June. This audience knows the dead man's name, but I believe 
 few of you know the true history of the man who is one of the 
 great characters of the world, and I am going to read you now 
 extracts from some letters that were written to him and let the 
 writers testify before you as to his true character and his 
 achievements. 
 
 "September lo, 1783. Dear Sir — If you will come to this 
 place, and partake with me, I shall be exceedingly happy to see 
 you. Your presence may remind Congress of your past services 
 to this country; and if it is in my power to impress them, com- 
 mand my best services with freedom, as they will be rendered 
 cheerfully by one who entertains a lively sense of the importance 
 of your works, and who with pleasure, subscribes himself 
 "Your sincere friend, 
 
 "G. Washington."" 
 
 (a) "The Writings of George Washington" (W. C. Ford), Vol. X., p. 317. 
 
 i .'■• 21 
 
"March i8, 1801. 
 
 "You expressed a wish to get a passage to this country in 
 a pubhc vessel. Mr. Dawson is charged with orders to the 
 captain of the Maryland to receive and accommodate you back 
 if you can be ready to depart at such short warning. * * * j a^jjj 
 in hopes you will find us returned generally to sentiments worthy 
 of former times. In these it will be your glory to have steadily 
 labored, and with as much effect as any man living. That you 
 may long live to continue your useful labors and to reap the 
 reward in the thankfulness of nations, is my sincere prayer. 
 Accept assurances of my high esteem and affectionate attach- 
 ment. 
 
 "Thomas Jefferson." * 
 
 Then President. 
 
 "September 18, 1794. 
 
 "It is unnecessary for me to tell you how much all your 
 countrymen, I speak of the great mass of the people, are inter- 
 ested in your welfare. They have not forgotten the history of 
 their own Revolution, and the difficult scenes through which they 
 passed; nor do they review its several stages without reviving in 
 their bosoms a due sensibility of the merits of those who served 
 them in that great and arduous conflict. The crime of ingratitude 
 has not yet stained, and I trust never will stain, our national 
 character. You are considered by them, as not only having ren- 
 dered important services in our own Revolution, but as being on 
 a more extensive scale, the friend of human rights, and a distin- 
 guished and able advocate in favor of public liberty. To the wel- 
 fare of" "the Americans are not and cannot be indifferent. 
 
 Of the sense which the President has always entertained of your 
 merits and of his friendly disposition towards you, you are too 
 well assured to require any declaration from me. 
 
 (a) "Writings of JeiTerson," Vol. VIII., p. i8. 
 
 22 
 
"With great esteem and respect consider me personally 
 your friend, 
 
 "James Monroe." ^ 
 Benjamin Franklin/ for thirty years his intimate friend, 
 Samuel Adams, ^ James Madison, ^ Robert Morris, Chancellor 
 Livingston, * R. H. Lee, Col. Laurens, Gen. Greene and Dicker- 
 son, can also be quoted in endorsement of this man's title to honor 
 and greatness— and yet. today, one hundred years after his 
 death, before this intelligent audience I hesitate to speak his 
 name. Before I do, I want first to show by some of his own 
 words the gentleness of his spirit, the purity of his soul : 
 
 can never Took back I^ fhl Z'"''°%' J?^' ^ "- P" ,^96- "The citizens of the United States 
 of other di^Hnm,ifhi^ P ^^■^.^^'"l °^ *^^"" °^" revolution, without remembering, with those 
 them in the r ffr!^^t ^^'"vk"' /''^u "^'"^^ °i Thomas Paine. The services which he rendered 
 era^d whilst thev^^rnnHn ''^f '^ ^^^^ I"""^^. ^" impression of gratitude which will never be 
 Kmes Monroe's l^P«^rt„Vl° "T?"^ ^^^ character of a just and generous people." From 
 
 "Wrhings°or%'mes"Mon?oe?Vo?"L:"p^.%°6.' ''^""^^ ^"^^^^' ^^"^' ^"^^""^^^ '' ''''' 
 of AU7'V\:^e'wVonwaT)!Tol.^?V^^ J°^" ^'^^'°"^' ^°'- '^- P' ''' • "^"''"^^ 
 
 your^adoofed' ronnf^ frequently with pleasure reflected on your services -to my native and 
 ffic mind anH^l7Vt, """^ ^S"""]?" ^^"'?, f""^ yo"^ 'Crisis' unquestionably awakened the 
 I therefore V.t^^J^H ^ P^°P'^ '"""^'y, *-° S^" ^°' ^ declaration of our national independence. 
 X therefore esteemed you as a warm fnend to the liberty and lasting welfare of the human 
 Adams," Vol'. IV., p 4,3 ^"*'' N°veniber 30, 1802. "The Writings of Samuel 
 
 vour^1Lo?nf^'?hr'^' ^,u\ ^' '784- .To Gen. Washington. Dear Sir: The sanction given by 
 Sense' has Ipd tn. \J^ f° "^ desire of remunerating the genius which produced 'Common 
 that the merftJnf h.^ VT ^^^ ^regislature for the purpose .... Should it finally aopear 
 
 he snirit of TnH^LnH ^"■' Tu°'^ wr.tmgs have so much contributed to infuse and foster 
 beneffcenre th^ w^M "^'^^ 'l" ^u^ F^°^\'' of America, are unable to inspire them with a just 
 ^rrfitn^e f; M • f' *i " %u^ ^''?';^^' .^i'.' ^'^« "^ ^s little credit for our policy as for our 
 
 thf S^.t. , particular. The wish of Mr. Paine to be provided for by separate acts of 
 
 t mfih L?n t ^^'i" -^^ Congress, is, I think, a natural and just one. In the latter case 
 likrihP ri^nrn.^f .1"!,° f^^ '^f^'^'' °^ ^ mercenary writer. In the former, it would look 
 bv Mr P^ nl ^„ Jl,f ? k"^ ^T voluntary services. Upon the same principle, the mode wished 
 VV.1t' ^ q ^qI *°c^^ preferred by the States themselves." "Writings of James Madison," 
 r^L '• PP.'r -f^' c -ru ^'1? ■^^J° *^« voluntary nature of Paine's services, ^foncure D. 
 
 Th^^t^ P ■ " r°p 7^°™^^ Paine" (Putnam, 1S92), Vol. 1., pp. 205-211, and "Writings of 
 Ihomas Paine (Putnam, 1902), Vol. IV., p. 430. «-r j . s, 
 
 (e) "Life of Thomas Paine" (Conway), Vol. I., pp. ,82, 193, 195; letters to Paine from 
 >J^"\rr.^^"f ^"1 Col. Laurens in "A Friend of Rhode Island and the Union," "Providence 
 Gazette of February i, 1783 (Lenox Library): "February 27.— The pamphlet entitled 
 
 Common sense is indeed a wonderful production. It is completely calculated for the 
 meridian of .\orth America. The author introduces a new system of politics, as widely 
 ditterent froni the old, as the Copernican system is from the Ptolemaic. The blood wantonly 
 spilt by the lintish troops at Lexington, gave birth to this extraordinary performance, which 
 contains as surprising a discovery in politics as the works of Sir Isaac Newton do in 
 philosophy. This animated piece dispels, with irresistible energy, the prejudice of the mind 
 against the doctrine of independence, and pours in upon it such an inundation of light and 
 truth, as will produce an instantaneous and marvellous change in the temper — in the views 
 and feelings of an American," .... "Constitutional Gazette," February 24, 1774. 
 
 Frank Moore s Diary of the Revolution," Vol. I., p. 208, and "Patrick Henry's Life," &c . 
 Vol. I., p. 371. 
 
 23 
 
"To Mrs. Few, daughter of Commodore Nicholson, on her marriage he wrote: 
 
 "Though I appear a sort of wanderer, the married state has 
 not a sincerer friend than I am. It is the harbour of human life, 
 and is, with respect to the things of this world, what the next 
 world is to this. It is home; and that one word conveys more 
 than any other word can express. For a few years we may 
 glide along the tide of youthful single life and be wonderfully 
 delighted; but it is a tide that flows but once, and what is still 
 worse, it ebbs faster than it flows, and leaves many a hapless 
 voyager aground. I am one, you see. that have experienced the 
 fate I am describing. I have lost my tide; it passed by while 
 every thought of my heart was on the wing for the salvation of 
 my dear America, and I have now as contentedly as I can, made 
 myself a little bower of willows on the shore that has the solitary 
 resemblance of a home. Should I always continue the tenant 
 of this home, I hope my female acquaintance will ever remember 
 that it contains not the churlish enemy of their sex, not 
 the cold inaccessible hearted mortal, nor the capricious tem- 
 pered oddity, but one of the best and most afifectionate of their 
 friends." * * * * 
 
 "When we contemplate the fall of Empires and the extinc- 
 tion of nations of the ancient world, we see but little to excite 
 our regret than the mouldering ruins of pompous palaces, mag- 
 nificent monuments, lofty pyramids, and walls and towers of the 
 most costly workmanship. But when the Empire of America 
 shall fall, the subject for contemplative sorrow will be infinitely 
 greater than crumbling brass or marble can inspire. It will not 
 then be said, here stood a temple of vast antiquity, — here rose 
 a Babel of invisible height, or there a palace of sumptous ex- 
 travagance; but here, ah painful thought! the noblest work of 
 human wisdom, the grandest scene of human glory, the fair 
 cause of freedom rose and fell ! Read this and then ask if I 
 forget America?"^ 
 
 (a) "Writings of Thomas Paine" (Conway), Vol. IV., pp. 433-S- 
 
 24 
 
I was led to mention to you all this because in opening 
 Bolton's history of Westchester County at this man's name, 
 I read two pages of the worst of slanders, which Bolton 
 had copied from the writings of one who was at the time of this 
 man's death a defendant in an action for libel for printing some 
 of these very falsehoods; at the death of his adversary he lied 
 without fear. Bolton even recounts one of the noblest acts ever 
 performed by man in a way to make it appear a crime, and, as I 
 read, I thought, "you know the truth, why should these slanders 
 stand uncontradicted?" Then I recalled another fact; Robert 
 Fulton was his friend and he aided Fulton in his invention that 
 we are to celebrate the anniversary of so soon. I turned to his 
 will. It happened to be the same date one hundred years ago to 
 a day, January i8, 1809. "The last will and testament of me, the 
 subscriber, Thomas Paine, reposing confidence in my Creator, 
 God, &c., author of 'Common Sense,' 'The Crisis,' 'The Rights of 
 Man,' &c." ^ "I will make my confession of faith," he wrote 
 when death seemed approaching; "and I do this with all that 
 sincerity and frankness with which the mind of man communi- 
 cates with itself. I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope 
 for happiness beyond this life. 
 
 "I believe the equality of man, and I believe that religious 
 duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring 
 to make our fellow-creatures happy." ^ 
 
 My friends, I shall not mention more on the one subject that 
 has been attached to this man's name, to the exclusion of all else. 
 
 (a) "Writings of Thomas Paine" (Conway), p. 507. Recorded Surrogate's office N. Y. Co. 
 
 (b) "The^ Age of Reason," Part I., Chap. I. "Writings of Thomas Paine" (Conway), 
 IV., p. 21. "'Above all, Paine was a profoundly religious man— one of the few in our 
 Revolutionary era of whom it can be said that his delight was in the law of his Lord, and 
 in that law he did meditate day and night. Conseijuently, he could not escape the imme- 
 morial fate of the great believers, to be persecuted for unbelief — by believers." In these truly 
 amazing words does Mr. Conway sum up (II. 404) the result of his patient and long- 
 continued research into the life and writings of Thomas Paine. Amazing wc call them, 
 because they will certainly amaze: they express the e.xact contradictory of what n^rly 
 everybody believes about the author of 'Rights of Man' and 'The Age of keason.' Amazing 
 they are again, because in spite of that almost universal mis.iudgment they are when 
 properly understood emphatically true. Put first let us heartily thank Mr. Conway for this 
 thoroughly excellent piece of work. It may almost be considered the first Life of Paine. 
 What has been published already under that title has been scarcely more than mere raw 
 material of a biography, or. worse still, deliberate, impudent and malicious slander," &c. 
 "The Churchman," July 23, 1892. 
 
 25 
 
but I would like to recount some of his other marvelous achieve- 
 ments, not things we suppose from circumstances to be his 
 achievements, not from his own claims, but his, from indisputa- 
 ble positive evidence existing in spite of the most malignant 
 enemies. I have spoken of Robert Fulton. He was experi- 
 menting with a submarine boat on the Seine in 1797 and Thomas 
 Paine then in Paris, was his constant advisor and friend, for 
 Paine had discussed the subject ten years before. How do we 
 know? Henry, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the first American 
 steamboat experimenter, records the fact that he told Fitch, the 
 man who made the unsuccessful steamer on which Fulton had 
 ridden, that he, Fitch, was not the first man to think of this 
 plan, but that Thomas Paine had, while at his house in 1778, 
 spoken to him on the subject, but both Henry and Paine 
 agreed, as they had never published their plans, to leave the 
 whole credit to Fitch, and Fitch publicly expressed his gratitude 
 to Paine. Fulton never claimed anything other than successful 
 application of the principle. 
 
 A remarkable thing is that Paine's biographer in 1892 re- 
 marks "Paine contemplated a turbine application to the wheel." 
 Since that date a turbine has been perfected.^ Paine was the first 
 to build an iron bridge, for which he received a patent in Eng- 
 land. England has within two years adopted an old age pension 
 system, the plan of which was entirely developed and recom- 
 mended by Paine in his "Rights of Man," for which England 
 made him an outlaw and had her war vessels patrol the seas to 
 capture him. 
 
 Paine experimented with gun powder, exploding it in small 
 quantities, to make power, the very principle on which the gaso- 
 line engine is run today; ^ but these experiments' were the man's 
 amusements. His political writings were his great achieve- 
 ments. Benjamin Rush says: "They burst from the press with 
 
 (a) "Life of Thomas Paine" (Conway), Vol. II., p. 280. 
 
 (b) Id., Vol. I., pp. 240-1. "Writings of Thomas Paine" (Conway), Vol. IV., p. 438; 
 "History of the Growth of the Steam Engine," pp. 252, 253. 
 
 26 
 
an effect that has rarely been produced by type and paper in any 
 age or country." ^ Gen. Lee said : "He has genius in his eyes," ^ 
 and "I own he has convinced me." Joscpli Hawley writes 
 (February i8, 1776, to Eldridge Gerry) : "I have read the 
 pamphlet, entitled, 'Common Sense, Addressed to the Inhab- 
 itants of America,' and every sentiment has sunk into my well- 
 prepared heart." "^ Franklin said: "It has had a prodigious 
 effect."^ Ramsay the historian said: "He deserves a statue of 
 gold." ^ Washington said: "It contains sound doctrine and un- 
 answerable reasoning," and, "had a powerful effect." ^ John 
 Adams writes to his wife : "I sent you a pamphlet entitled 
 'Common Sense,' written in vindication of doctrines, which there 
 is reason to expect, that the further encroachments of tyranny 
 and depredations of oppression will soon make the common 
 faith." ^ That brilliant woman, after the receipt of the pamphlet, 
 wrote: "'Common Sense,' like a ray of revelation, has 
 come in season to clear our doubts and fix our choice." ^ 
 John W inthrop said : "If Congress should adopt its sentiments, 
 it would satisfy the people." ' "Colonel Gadsden brought the 
 first copy of 'Common Sense' into Congress March 8th," says 
 Hazelton in his late history, "and boldly declared himself in 
 favor of Independence." The members had no thought of it 
 and his statement came like an "explosion of thunder."^ 
 Adam's "Life of Gallatin" says : "It is now almost forgotten 
 that Thomas Paine in 1787, before he went to Paris, was a fash- 
 ionable member of society, admired and courted as the greatest 
 
 (a) "Declaration of Independence Its History" (John H. Hazelton), pp. 406-7. 
 
 (b) "Letters of John Adams Addressed to His Wife" (by Charles F. Adams ,iS6i), 
 
 Vol. I., p. 105. "Declaration of Independence Its History," p. 70. 
 
 (c) Id., p. 49; "The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke" (Garland, 1855), p. 52. 
 
 (d) "Works of Benjamin Franklin," Vol. IX., pp. 367, 372. 
 
 (e) "Declaration of Independence Its History," p. 89. 
 
 (f) "The Writings of George Washington" (Ford), Vol. III., p. 396; Vol. IV., p. 5. 
 
 (g) "Letters of John Adams Addressed to His Wife," Vol. I., p. 84. 
 (h) "Declaration of Independence Its History," p. 50. 
 
 (i) Id., p. 50. 
 
 (j) Id., p. 88. See Conway's "Life of Paine," Vol. I., p. 78; "Rev. John Drayton's 
 Memoirs," &c., p. 172. 
 
 27 
 
literary genius of his day." His "Rights of Man" had a like 
 efifect in England, A bitter enemy of Paine writes in 1843* 
 "It is idle to deny that Paine made an impression in Great 
 Britain. There is abundant proof that he did. His pamphlet 
 was read in the streets of London, at Strawberry Hill, in palaces 
 and in gin shops, by old and young, by rich and poor." Another 
 man who slandered him admits "that in factory towns in Eng- 
 land, Paine was considered by the ignorant as an apostle of 
 freedom." The people used to sing "God Save Great Thomas 
 Paine, his 'Rights of Man' proclaim from Pole to Pole." ^ The 
 House of Lords has lately adopted as the law of the realm what 
 the ignorant applauded over a hundred years ago. 
 
 Bolton says "he was a companion of the detested Robes- 
 piere and was on the trial of the innocent Louis XVL" 
 
 He had been elected in France by four different Departments 
 to represent them in their government. The terrible madness 
 had seized the French. The King was to be tried, with the mob 
 it was: "Crucify! Crucify him!" as with the mob of old. Paine, 
 though he knew that he took his life in his hand, stood before 
 those murderers and declared in effect: "Kill the King! Kill the 
 King! But save the man. He did not make himself a King. 
 Why kill him for it? He was the friend of America and I plead 
 for his life as our friend." The story is long and dramatic. 
 Paine was imprisoned for nearly a year and only by a chance 
 escaped death. *= "The companion of Robespiere!" He was the 
 first and only man who dared, while Robespiere was supreme, to 
 look him and death in the face and stand up for right. "Greater 
 love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his 
 friend." Yet Bolton distorts a glory into a crime with a sneer. 
 Inventor, and patriot of the world, was he not a poet? Listen 
 to this: 
 
 (a) "Address by John Alberger," 1843. (Contains a repetition of Cheetham's libels, as 
 facts.) 
 
 (b) James Cheetham — in the preface to his slanderous edition of "Paine's Life;" as to 
 the character of Cheetham and his book, see Conway's "Life of Paine," and "Life of Paine" 
 (by G. Vale), p. 163, &c. 
 
 (c) Conway's "Life of Paine," Vol. II., Chap. i. 
 
 28 
 
WHAT IS LOVE? 
 
 'Tis that delightsome transport we can feel 
 
 Which painters cannot paint, nor words reveal, 
 
 Nor any art we know of can conceal. 
 
 Canst thou describe the sunbeams to the blind, 
 
 Or make him feel a shadow with his mind? 
 
 So neither can we by description shew 
 
 This first of all Felicities below. 
 
 When happy Love pours magic o'er the soul, 
 
 And all our thoughts in sweet delirium roll ; 
 
 When Contemplation spreads her rainbow wings, 
 
 And every flutter some new rapture brings; 
 
 How sweetly then our moments glide away, 
 
 And dreams repeat the raptures of the day: 
 
 We live in ecstacy, to all things kind, 
 
 For Love can teach a moral to the mind. ^ 
 
 The name of Rye is of great antiquity; before the Conquest 
 it was written Rie or Rhie. Some derive it from the French 
 word Rey, meaning a ford, and cite the fact that Queen Elizabeth 
 wrote in 1573 of "bending toward the Rye" on her way toward 
 Dover, meaning the ferry which was at Rye, but the concensus 
 of opinion derives the name from Rie — old French — for a bank 
 of the sea. '' 
 
 On this continent, until the coming of the European, man 
 ran in primeval forests like the brute, the record of one, multi- 
 plied by the number of his days, giving the whole story of his 
 life so that 
 
 "History not wanted yet, 
 Leaned on her elbow, watching time, whose course, 
 Eventful, should supply her with a theme." 
 
 (a) For remaining verses and other poems see "Writings of Thomas Paine" (Conway). 
 Vol. IV. 
 
 (b) "History of the Town and Port of Rye [England]" (Halloway), p. j. 
 
 29 
 
but meanwhile, on the southern coast of England, there jutted 
 into the Channel Sea a rocky hill inhabited by a hardy race that 
 furnished history with a theme eight hundred years or more ago, 
 for early in the history of the English people, the waves that 
 tossed about their island home, bore often many cruel enemies 
 to prey upon the dwellers of the unguarded coast, but bands, of 
 the bravest of the land, stationed themselves at the most ex- 
 posed portion of the shore, that lying nearest the European 
 enemy, and building rude ships ever patroled the Channel Sea, 
 the sentinels and watch-guard of their home. 
 
 These settlements known as the "Cinque Ports" were hon- 
 ored above all communities in the kingdom, as the birthplace and 
 home of the English navy, and to this day their representatives 
 walk on either side of the King at his coronation, in recognition 
 of the fact that they were ever the protectors of England. 
 
 This honor the Five Ports have held, "till man's memory 
 runeth not to the contrary," for in the reign of Edward the Con- 
 fessor, in the year 1050, one of them is spoken of as "Ye ancient 
 towne of Rye." Nearby one of its sister Ports was known as 
 "Hastings." 
 
 Early in 1600 some of the hardy inhabitants of Rye and 
 Hastings came to America to seek new homes undaunted by 
 strange and savage foes. 
 
 They purchased from the aborigines three tracts of land: 
 Manursing Island, Poningoe on the mainland, and Apawamis to 
 the westward, and ever mindful of the precious history of their 
 ancient dwelling place they called Manursing Island, Hastings, 
 and Poningoe and Apawamis, Rye, and when asking for a grant 
 of these lands this reserva4:ion was appropriate : "Always reserv- 
 ing out of this our present grant all such fir trees and pine trees, 
 or roots as or shall be fit to make masts or to make planks or 
 knees for the use of our royal navy only." 
 
 In Rye Records Liber A. (now unfortunately lost) appears, 
 under date of July 26, 1662, this "Agreement and Orders" : "We 
 do agree that for our land bought on the maynland, called in the 
 
 30 
 
Indian Poningoe, and in English Biaram land, lying between the 
 aforesaid Biaram River and the Blind Brook, bounded east and 
 west with these two rivers, and on the north with Westchester 
 path, and on the south with the sea, for a plantation, and the 
 name of the town to be called Hastings, 
 
 "And now lastly wc have jointly agreed that he that will 
 subscribe to these orders, here is land for him, and he that doth 
 refuse to subscribe hereunto we have no land for him." 
 
 It was ordered by the General Court of Assembly, holden 
 at Hartford, May ii, 1665: "That the villages of Hastings and 
 Rye shall be for the future conjoined and made one plantation, 
 and that it shall be called by the appellation of Rye, and that 
 Mr. Gold" and others "are appointed to go and settle the differ- 
 ences between the inhabitants of Hastings and Rye." They 
 must have succeeded in their mission, for in the Probate records 
 of the following year, in Fairfield County, we find that, "John 
 Budd Sen. of Rye sells his lands, divided by agreement of the 
 men of Hastings, now called Rye, to George Kniffen of Strat- 
 ford, the house being situated in the town formerly called 
 Hastings." 
 
 Thus by authentic record does the history of our town go 
 back, generation before generation, like links in an unbroken 
 chain, does it stretch backward; beyond the birth of America, 
 which stands as a modern incident on its tabulation of events, 
 back past the discovery of the Western hemisphere, backward 
 still backward through the history of England, until its begin- 
 ning we find traced amid the legends of our race, and even there, 
 more distinct appears the story of "Ye ancient towne of Rye" 
 than many of these gleanings from the lost records of human 
 existence. * 
 
 (a) King Richard I. granted Rye permission to build a wall about the town and 
 March 28, 1 194, signed a Charter written on a small piece of parchment, only twelve inches 
 long and three inches wide. This precious relic of the past still exists, after neaHy seven 
 hundred years." "Ancient Rye," a lecture by Rev. A. T. Saville, 1890. See also Ilalloway 
 "History," &c., p. 274, and Adams' "Guide to Rye." 
 
 on 
 les 
 .-en 
 
 31 
 
We have a heritage who live amid so many hallowed places 
 made glorious by associations. Some day distant people of our 
 country will seek these scenes, as now we visit the historic places 
 of the world outside, and if we neglect to preserve and mark 
 them well, we will have been unfaithful stewards of a trust. 
 
 s^i^ 
 
 Orwne ofHg 
 
 C 239 89 'i 
 
 32