James Marcus Prevost, his family, and his acquisition of property in Bergen County

(Laurie, 50-1; Bergen County Road Returns, B24;; “The Hermitage: Historical Analysis,” 8 - get full citation for last 3 items; Edward Williams, “The Prevosts of the Royal Americans,” The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, Vol 56, No. 1, January 1973, 2-21; Evelyn Bartow, “The Prevost Family in America,” The NY G & B R (check-) January 1882, 27; Nicholas Stillwell by John Stillwell, 1929; Williams, 16, 26; Bartow, “The Prevost Family,” 27 - check notice of his departure and of the visit; Rivington’s New York Gazetter, #22, Sept. 16, 1773, NJA, NE X, p. 23; New York Gazette and the Weekly Mercury, #1161, Jan. 24, 1774, NJA, NE Series 1, X, p. 213; NJA, XXIX, Nov. 12, 1772, p. 333-4)

Augustine Prevost remained active in the Royal American Regiment

After his recovery from injuries at Quebec, he was sent, in 1761, to the Caribbean where he took part in the siege of both Martinique and Havana and was promoted to lieutenant colonel. He again was assigned to New York, returned to England, and then married Ann Grand in 1765. She was born in Lausanne, the daughter of General Grand who served in the Dutch army and then became a financier in Amsterdam. He would, in the next decade, assist in financing the Americans in their Revolution. Augustine and Ann established an estate in England, but were in North America, in part involved in land speculation, in the late 1760s with the Grands. His brother, Jacques Prevost, accompanied them for at least part of the time.

Nicholas Stillwell and his children

Nicholas Stillwell after he arrived in Virginia in 1638 was able to acquire a modest piece of land and then a somewhat larger tract on the York River. Nicholas became a pioneer tobacco farmer and was named a tobacco inspector. He was drawn into the militia, attained the rank of lieutenant and took part in a number of campaigns against Native Americans. From his activities in a series of engagements he was recorded as "Valiant Stillwell." When Nicholas supported his commanding officer in resisting the transfer of Kent Island in the Chesapeake Bay, where they both were involved with a trading post, from Virginia to Maryland, Stillwell found himself in trouble with the colonial authorities.

Consequently, in 1645 Nicholas sailed north to the port of New Amsterdam, at the time still under the control of the Dutch West Indies Company. Shortly, he was able to obtain a grant of land in Gravesend, located in the southwestern section of Brooklyn bordering on the Outer Bay. Here he established a pioneer farm and with his English wife Anne raised 11 children. Nicholas also became a magistrate, again joined the militia and was involved in fighting Native Americans up the Hudson River Valley in the Esopus area. He supported the Dutch, who had given him settlement opportunities and advancement, against the English takeover in 1664. He did, though, adapt to the new authorities in New York, obtained a larger tract of land on Staten Island and moved his family there. The children of Nicholas and Anne settled on Staten Island and Long Island and in Monmouth and Cape May counties in New Jersey.

The oldest son, Richard Stillwell, (Theodosia Stillwell Bartow's great grandfather) born between 1633 and 1638, like his parents, had a farm first in Gravesend and then on Staten Island, but his farms were more developed and better equipped. He also was a magistrate, held various court positions, was a captain in the militia, was an arbitrator in municipal boundary disputes, and was an interpreter and intermediary in dealing with Native Americans. He married Mary Cook, the daughter of another magistrate in Gravesend. With her, and perhaps a second wife, Richard had 15 children. He died in 1688.

Richard Stillwell and his family

Richard and Mary Stillwell's second son, another Richard Stillwell (Theodosia's grandfather), was born in 1672. He turned to commerce and became a successful, affluent merchant in New York City. Richard was one of the founders and an important supporter of the Presbyterian Church in Manhattan. He married Lydia Bowne of Gravesend, but she died before they had any children. Richard then married Mercy Sands (Theodosia's grandmother) around 1708. Mercy was born in1693 of a well-to-do Long Island family.

Mercy Sands' grandfather was Captain James Sands (Theodosia's great, great grandfather), who was born in 1622 in Reading, Berkshire, England, sailed to Plymouth, Mass. in 1658, resided in Taunton, and then in 1660 became one of fifteen purchasers and one of first settlers of Block Island. He commanded a militia in the King Phillips War, a series of bitterly fought and often cruel campaigns that destroyed Native American power in New England. He also was a farmer, a leading citizen of Block Island where he served as a constable, and was a member of Rhode Island's General Assembly. The family held slaves (probably Native American slaves). Captain Sands' wife was Sarah Walker (Theodosia's great, great grandmother), the sole midwife and doctor on Block Island. She was a relative of William Hutchinson, the husband of Ann Hutchinson, the Massachusetts dissenter who would be exiled to Westchester County and be killed there by Native Americans. The Sands had at least six children. Three of the males, including Samuel Sands settled on Long Island.

Samuel Sands married Dorothy Ray (Theodosia's great grandparents) whose family had come from England to Massachusetts, acquired large land holdings, became officials in the Plymouth Colony, had a brother who married into the family of Roger Williams and had two nieces who married governors of the Province of Rhode Island. Dorothy and her husband Samuel had six children. They also had Native American slaves. It was one of their daughters, Mercy, who married Richard Stillwell (Theodosia's grandparents) around 1708. (John Stillwell, Colonel Richard Stillwell and His Descendants, 1930, 229-31; Malcolm Sands Wilson, Descendants of James Sands of Block Island.

Mercy and Richard had 8 children, 6 girls and 2 boys, between 1710 and about 1726. Mercy seems to have assisted her husband in his mercantile business and her extant letters indicate a marked skill in writing. Their business dealings reached beyond New York City into New Jersey. There is record of Richard's dealings with Peter Somans, one of the Proprietors of East Jersey. This Stillwell family then bought a sizeable estate in Shrewsbury on the Navasink River. While Richard seems to have continued his business in New York City, the children were brought up primarily in Shrewsbury. As a sign of affluence and because of monetary resources, the family acquired a number of African American slaves. Mrs. Stillwell lost one in the Negro hysteria in New York City in 1641, but owned at least one other male slave and a number of female slaves. In his will Richard gave one female slave to each of three daughters. When he died in 1743 at age 71, Richard left an estate worth over 5,000 pounds which include fine china, silver, silks and paintings, an estate of 450 acres with a new house, an orchard, barns, livestock and cultivated farmland. Mercy died three years later at the age of 53. (Colonel Richard Stillwell and His Descendants)

The upward mobility of the Stillwell family through its first three generations in America provided Richard's and Mercy's eight children, by the mid-seventeenth century, with an education by tutors, an advantaged position in the society of the greater New York/New Jersey region, and a degree of economic affluence. ( Nicholas Stillwell and Richard Stillwell and His Descendants.)

The Family of Theodosius Bartow

Theodosius was second generation in America. His grandfather, Thomas Bartow, was a physician in Crediton, Devonshire, England and was descended from a French family that had come to Britain, after the anti-Protestant St. Bartholomew Day's Massacre, in the late 16th century. One of the children of Thomas and his wife Grace was John Bartow, Theodosius' father and Theodosia's grandfather.

John, who came to America, was born around 1673. He was educated by a tutor and then at Christ Church, Cambridge. After graduation he studied for the Church of England ministry and served at Pampisford, Cambridgeshire. The Propagation Society of London, after receiving a request for a minister from the inhabitants of Westchester, New York, chose John Bartow to establish a church there. He agreed, was licensed to officiate in the Province of New York by Henry, Bishop of London, and arrived there in 1702. His parish included Westchester, Eastchester, Yonkers and the Manor of Pelham. That area had a population of about 2,000 persons. The Rev. Bartow was assigned a salary of fifty pounds, given a house and a lot and later a more extended adjoining piece of wilderness property. He, at times, also gave missionary service to a number of places on Long Island and in New Jersey including Amboy, Shrewsbury and Freehold.

At the latter place he met and married Helena Reid (Theodosia's grandmother). She was born at Shanks, Scotland in 1680 and came to America with her parents at age three. Her father, John Reid, like his father and grandfather, studied to be a gardener and landscaper. He was brought up at Niddrew Castle near Edinburgh, gained employment as gardener to Sir George MacKenzie, the Lord Advocate of Scotland, and wrote a book entitled The Scots Gardener. In 1678 at age 23 he married Margaret Miller, had three children and then decided to come to America in 1683. He moved to New Jersey, worked as a surveyor, became one of the first settlers in Freehold, was elected to the New Jersey Assembly, became the Surveyor General of the Province, was named a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, became President of the Provincial Council, was appointed Commissioner of Highways, and acquired an extensive amount of land for himself and his family.

John Reid also was interested in reading and education. He assembled a personal library of more than 80 books. His children, including Helena, were sent to local schools, and then to Philadelphia for additional learning. Helena married the Rev. John Bartow in 1705 and moved with him to New York. (Anna Bartow Cumyn, The Bartow Family: A Geneology, Privately Printed, Montreal, 1984, 121-4; Jeannette Blair, Freehold Township: The First 300 Years, 4)

Back in Westchester John Bartow built a parish church, purchased a nearby farm, and, through his wife's family, came to own much land in New Jersey. It would be an important part of what he was able to will to his sons. Helena and John had 10 children, all boys, six of whom lived to adulthood. The Rev. John Bartow died in 1725.

It was their third son, Theodosius, who married Ann Stillwell. On his father's death, he inherited an estate in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, the surrounding meadow and an additional tract of land. He moved there, practiced law, married, and died prior to the birth of his only child, Theodosia.

The five adult brothers of Theodosius, born between 1709 and 1720, were Theodosia's uncles. Thomas was well versed in the classics, became a lawyer, inherited 1100 acres in Monmouth County, moved and practiced law in Amboy, New Jersey. Here he also was Clerk of the Supreme Court and for a time Surveyor-General of East Jersey. He lived for a while in Philadelphia and died in Bethlehem, Pa. in 1782. In his will, among his bequests, he wrote, "I give...the sum of one hundred pound...to be paid into the hands of my niece, Theodosia Prevost, for the use of her children." Thomas and his wife had one son also named Thomas.

Then there was Uncle John Bartow who also was a lawyer. He inherited land in Barnegat, East Jersey and in Westchester and decided to live and practice in the latter location. John also taught school, was a Surrogate and was a Clerk of Westchester County. For a time he also ran a mill. John did not marry, and he died in 1802.

Another of Theodosia's Bartow uncles was Anthony. He inherited land in New Jersey and Westchester and lived as a farmer in the latter area near a number of his brothers. Anthony for a time was an Alderman in Westchester. He and his wife Charity had 11 children , 4 sons and 7 daughters. He died in 1790.

Basil, also an uncle of Theodosia, inherited the homestead after his mother died. He was appointed schoolmaster of the Westchester parish by the Propagation Society. He had 6 children by his second wife, Clarina, daughter of Rev. Ebenezer Punderson. Only two lived into adulthood.

Theodosia's remaining Bartow uncle was Theophilus. He inherited a saw mill and 1000 acres in Monmouth County as well as the 250 acre Westchester farm his father purchased in 1722. He chose to remain in Westchester and married Bethseba Pell. She was the daughter of Thomas Pell (1675-1752), the third Lord of Pelham Manor. (Rev. Evelyn Bartow, The Bartow Family, 1886; 21-50)

The Pell Family of Westchester

The first Lord of this Manor was Thomas Pell, Sr. who was born in Sussex, England into a family of French ancestry, was a Gentleman of the Bedchamber of King Charles I, came to Connecticut, married Lucy Brewster of New Haven, settled in Fairfield, Conn., and then bought 9,000 acres in Westchester from the Indians in 1654. Before he died in 1669 without issue, he persuaded his nephew John Pell, born in London in 1643 and who was an Ordinary to King Charles II to come to Westchester and to take over his property there as second Lord of Pelham Manor. He married Rachel, daughter of Philip Pinkney, from Fairfield and an early grantee of Westchester land from Thomas Pell. It was John's son, Thomas, born in 1675 who became the Third Lord and who married Ann, an Indian Princess, probably the daughter of Wampage, the Chief of the Westchesters. They had ten children.

One was daughter Bethseba who married Theodosia's uncle Theophilus Bartow. Another was Mary who married Samuel Sands, brother of Theodosia's grandmother, Mercy Sands. Another sister of Bethseba, Ann Pell married Samuel Bradhurst. The latter couple helped their son Samuel establish an estate, Pinehurst in Harlem Heights, and they were the grandparents of Samuel Bradhust III who became a doctor, a Revolutionary War officer and who married Mary Smith, niece of Ann Stillwell and cousin of Theodosia, at the Hermitage in 1778. Bethseba and Theophilus had ten children. At least two of them died as infants. The children in this family were those cousins of Theodosia who were in part of Native American ancestry. (Morgan Seacord, Biographical Sketches and Index of Hugenot Settlers in New Rochelle, 1697-1776, The Huguenot Society of New Rochelle, New Rochelle, 1941; Richard Bolton, History of County of Westchester, N.Y., Alexander Gould, 1848, 144-210; Lockwood Barr, Ancient Town of Pelham, Dietz Press, Richmond, 1946, 2-16; J. H. French, Gazetteer of State of New York, 1860, 46-53; Records of the Town of Eastchester...1666-1835, transcribed 1952, p. 3; James Saunders, The Pelham Manor Story, Village of Pelham Manor, 1991, 21-31; Alex Hurst, "Re, Augustus James Frederick Prevost," Hermitage Archives)

Augustine Prevost

The younger Augustine was born in 1744 in Geneva and was sent to an English military school at an early age. A cousin, the daughter of his father's sister Jeanne, also went to England where she married James Achard of London. Mrs. Achard kept in touch with the Prevosts and their relatives in America.

After finishing school, Augustine joined the Royal American Regiment and obtained the rank of lieutenant in 1761. After the Ohio campaign in 1764, he was assigned to a detachment that spent the winter in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Here he met and married at Carlisle in April 1765 the fifteen year old Susannah Crogan. Her father, George Croghan, was the Deputy Indian Agent for William Johnson, the major British official dealing with the native Americans who had his headquarters in the Mohawk Valley of New York. Croghan was engaged in extensive trade with the Native Americans and in land speculation, owning at times many millions of acres in Pennsylvania, New York and western Virginia. Croghan had another daughter, Catherine, by a Native American wife. Catherine married Joseph Brandt, a famous Indian warrior. Thus, there was for Theodosia an association by marriage with a Native American through the Prevosts in addition to the one she already had through the Bartows and Pells. Her family would remain in contact with the Brandts for many decades.

Augustine, after doing military service in Albany and Canada, settled from 1767 to 1772 with his wife Susannah on a 6,000 acre tract on Lake Otsego (near Cooperstown), a gift from the elder Crogan. Here he built a log house and cleared some 16 acres of land. Augustine also had a grant of property in Greene County, New York, and he engaged in land and financial dealings with William Johnson, Governor William Franklin of New Jersey, and Bernard Gratz of Philadelphia. (Williams, 14-26; Bartow, "Prevost Family in America," 27; Nicholas Wainwright, George Croghan, Wilderness Diplomat, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 1959, 34, 138, 185, 191, 223, 255-6, 262-4, 272, 283, 298)

Theodosia's Stillwell relatives and the American Revolution

Uncle Richard, the oldest brother of Theodosia's mother Ann, was born in NYC in 1710, studied medicine, and developed a practice in Middletown, New Jersey beginning in 1736. He became very successful and was summoned frequently for consultations. He also became an Assessor for Poor Rates in Middletown. In 1736 he married Mary, 24, daughter of Obediah Bowne, Esq. She and Richard had three children, but only one daughter, Mary, lived into adulthood. She remained a resident of Middletown and did not marry. Mary, the mother, died at 31 in 1743. Richard then married Lydia Leonard of Shrewsbury in 1752. They had four children, two of whom lived to be adults, Gershom who became a doctor and had property in Keyport and Middletown and Mercy who married John Ferra, a New York City merchant in 1778. Richard Stillwell died just before the Revolution in 1773 and was buried in the Presbyterian Churchyard in Middletown. At his death he had a house in Shrewsbury Township and farmland and a house at Waycake, both in New Jersey and a house and a lot in New York City. His widow Lydia then moved to New York City and at her death was buried in the Trinity Churchyard in Manhattan. Her presence in New York during the War might indicate that she and perhaps her daughter and the Ferras were pro-Loyalist or were neutral. Dr. Gershom, meanwhile stayed in New Jersey during the War and was a member of the Monmouth County militia. He was, though, criticized for making visits across enemy lines into New York.

Mary, the oldest sister of Ann, born in 1714, married Captain Thomas Clarke born in England in 1692. He had a military career and had served in the royal provincial forces in North America in wars against France. At the time of their marriage in 1745, she was 31 and he was 53. When he was kidded about being caught so late in life, he is reported to have said, "the Clarkes Sir never reach their prime Sir till they touch sixty." He had accrued a considerable amount of wealth and so was able to buy a fine piece of property in 1750 on the Hudson River north of the city. He called his estate Chelsea which would give the area in which it stood its future name.

The Clarkes had four children, between 1747 and 1752. They were brought up with much wealth and privilege, part of the time in England and part in New York. Mary, the first to marry eventually lived in England and became a part of aristocratic society there. Her first marriage in 1770 in New York City at 22 was to Richard Vassell, age 38, a rich merchant of Jamaica, West Indies. He came from a successful English mercantile family that also was engaged in land speculation. On his father's death in 1776, he and his sister inherited large land holdings in Maine and elsewhere. His sister had married the Honorable John Barrington in England and their son Capt. William Barrington was stationed in New York City during the Revolution. Meanwhile, Richard Vassell took his bride, Mary Clarke, to Jamaica and they had a daughter Elizabeth there.

Back in New York Capt. Clarke in his eighties, died in early 1776. His widow Mary Clarke with her three remaining children were facing the outbreak of the Revolution. When the Continental Army moved from Boston to New York in spring 1776, the Widow Clarke welcomed its officers, including Major Aaron Burr. However, when the British were preparing their attack on New York and American soldiers were billeted with the Clarke's, Mary Clarke sent a complaint to General Washington, who visited the house and removed the soldiers. After the British succeeded in occupying New York, the Clarke's seemed happier to have a number of Hessian soldiers billeted with them. In fact they became very friendly with the commanding officer of the Hessians.

Mrs. Clarke also welcomed British officers. Daughter Maria Theresa now 28 met Capt. William Barrington of the 70th British Regiment, the son of her sister's brother-in-law. They were married in 1778, and he became the fourth Viscount Barrington. They then sailed for England, but the vessel foundered and passengers and crew, including Lord and Lady Barrington, perished.

In the same year, 1778, daughter Charity Clarke, born in 1747 married Reverend Benjamin Moore born in 1748 in Newtown, Long Island. He was of English descent with some Irish, Scot, and French heritage in his family background. The family had migrated from Massachusetts to eastern and then western Long Island. Benjamin's father, Captain Samuel Moore, was a successful farmer. He had the opportunity to have in his home the Duke of Clarence on his visit to America. The Duke became King William IV and a daughter married a niece of Charity and Benjamin Moore. However, before his marriage Benjamin attended King's College and graduated in1768. He studied theology with the Reverend John Ogilvie of Trinity Church in Manhattan and then went to England for further study and ordination. In 1774 he was ordained by the Bishop of London and became a priest in the Church of England which required an oath of allegiance to the Crown. The new presbyter returned to New York and was named an assistant at Trinity Church in Manhattan. Through the war he tried to maintain both some neutrality and at the same time friendship with the British who were occupying New York. He also was visiting Chelsea and courting Charity Clarke. In 1779, a year after their marriage they had their first and only child Clement Clarke Moore. Finally, the only son of Colonel Thomas and Mary Stillwell Clarke, Clement, born in 1752, was educated at Kings College in the same class with Benjamin Moore, and married a Miss Bayard in the West Indies. (Samuel Patterson, The Poet of Christmas Eve: A life of Clement Clarke Moore, 1779-1863, Morehouse-Gorham Co., New York, 22-36)

Samuel Stillwell, born in 1725, was the second brother of Ann Stillwell DeVisme. He became a merchant in New York with a store on Dock Street as of 1757. During the French and Indian War he owned the brigantine, General Amherst, carrying six guns and the sloop, Charming Betsey with eight guns. He sold property in Shrewsbury and an apothecary, dwelling houses and property in New York City. He married, but to whom the record is not clear nor is there record of any children. He died in Philadelphia in 1765 at age 41. In his will he left a 1000 pounds to his sister Deborah and to three other sisters including Ann one third each of the remainder of his estate.

Another sister of Ann Stillwell DeVisme, Catherine, born in 1716,married around 1753 the Reverend Ebenezer Pemberton. He was born in 1704, the son of pastor of Old South Church in Boston, graduated from Harvard College, entered the ministry, and was chosen pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City in 1727. Soon after the death of his first wife in 1751, he married Catherine Stillwell. Then he moved with his new wife to Boston where he became pastor of New Brick Church. However, she died shortly thereafter with out any issue. The Reverend Pemberton went on to another marriage, had the British appointed Governor Hutchinson in his congregation and would side with the Loyalists as the Revolution unfolded in Boston. (Richard Stillwelland His Descendants)

Ann also had a sister, Deborah. She was born in 1718 and married Richard Smith in 1740 in Monmouth County. He apparently came from a family with roots in both Westchester County and on Long Island. Richard became a merchant in New York City, was named a Freeman in New York in 1742 and in 1758, during the French and Indian War, was commissioned a Captain in a New York Militia by the Governor of the Province, James De Lancey. The couple had six children. Then Richard died in 1761. Deborah seems to have raised her children who were not yet adults as a single mother, probably in New York City or perhaps in Shrewsbury where she was buried after she died at 73 in 1791. During the Revolution, at least one and perhaps more of her children stayed for a time at their aunt's and cousin's Hermitage in Bergen County. It is not clear what side mother Deborah took during the War, but one of her daughters married a Whig officer and one of her sons, the Rev. John Smith moved to England. Another son, an artist, died in Florence, Italy in the early 19th century.

Ann Stillwell DeVisme's second youngest sister, Elizabeth, was born sometime between 1719 and 1723. She married twice, both times to British Army officers. Her first wedding was to Captain Peter Wraxall in 1756. He came from a well placed Bristol family. In America he raised a military company on Long Island in 1746 for an expedition against the French in Canada, was appointed in 1750 Secretary for Indian Affairs for the Governor of the New York Province, was versed in Indian dialects and conferred with leaders of various tribes, worked with Sir William Johnson, and translated works on Indian law and treaties in Dutch manuscripts. In 1755 he was aide-de-camp to General Johnson and was wounded in the Battle of Lake George against the French. In the year of his marriage in 1756 he produced a major report on British Indian interests in North America. He was garrisoned at Fort Edward in 1757 when its defenders suffered heavily. Peter Wraxall died in 1759. He left a legacy to his wife Elizabeth.

After four years as a widow, Elizabeth married a friend of her late husband, General John Maunsell, at Trinity Church in Manhattan in 1763. She was in her early 40s and he was 39. His father was from Limerick, Ireland and was a member of Parliament for 20 years. John was born in County Tipperary and from a young age his whole life had been associated with military service. He rose from an ensign in the British Army in 1742 to a major in the Royal American Regiment in 1761 to major general in 1781. He was at the battles at Louisbourg, Quebec, Montreal, Martinique and Havana. His was twice wounded in the attack on Quebec in the French and Indian War.

After John Maunsell's marriage to Elizabeth Stillwell Wraxall, he bought in 1766 a seventy-six acre estate at Harlem in northern Manhattan. It was adjacent to the estate of Robert Morris (later called the Jumel Mansion) and to Pinehurst the estate of the Bradhurst family, relatives of the Pells of Westchester. He also had invested in land in upstate New York and in Vermont. After the battle of Lexington, Maunsell, realizing that conflict could evolve into an all-out war, and not wishing to fight against family and friends of his wife, he asked for an alternative post. He, thus, for the duration of the Revolution, was given a commissaryship in Kinsale, Ireland. John was accompanied there by his wife Elizabeth.

After the Revolution the couple returned to America. As a British military officer, Maunsell had to forfeit much of his properties in the new United States to the worth of some 10,000 pounds. However, he did retain his Harlem estate and he had enough resources to buy a residence for himself and his wife in New York City. John lived until 1794 and Elizabeth until 1805. Elizabeth, since she was childless, distributed through her will a sizeable legacy that included crested china, silver and other accouterments of wealth among the many children of her Stillwell brothers and sisters.

Anne Stillwell's youngest sister was Lydia born in 1726. She married John Watkins from Glanmorganshire, South Wales. He had been a merchant in St. Christophers in the West Indies and then a shipping merchant in New York City. Lydia and John spent time in England in 1761. His successful ventures enabled him in 1767 to buy 140 acres on Harlem Heights just north of the Maunsell estate and to build an attractive homestead there. John and Lydia had six children, two girls and three boys who lived into adulthood.

During the Revolution John Watkins went to the British Isles in order to protect interests he had just inherited. He thought that the war would be of short duration and that a way would be found to reconcile differences between the American provinces and the mother country. However, as the war continued and he being abroad, Lydia took charge of the family. Since the Harlem area was in British hands and at least one of her sons, John, enlisted in the Whig military, Lydia found it advisable to take her family across the Hudson and locate in Paramus near the home of her mother and sister in New Jersey.

John Watkins, Jr., who had developed some skills as a surveyor, became an officer, a captain in Malcolm's regiment which in fall 1777 was stationed in the Clove under the command of Colonel Aaron Burr. Later Watkins was appointed an assistant to General Robert Erskine, the cartographer for the Continental Army, at Ringwood. Watkins helped develop some of the maps of northern New Jersey that clearly located the Prevost property. After Erskine's death from a fever, Watkins applied for the post of chief Continental Army cartographer. In support of this application, he drew up a proposed fortification of the Paramus Reformed Church. When he failed to attain this post, he became an aide-de-camp to Major General William Alexander, known as Lord Stirling, of the Continental forces. In 1780 Watkins married Judith, the fifth daughter of William Livingston, the War Governor of New Jersey. (Albert Heusser, The Forgotten General: Robert Erskine, F.R.S. (1735-1780), The Benjamin Franklin Press, Paterson, N.J., 147, 195)

Theodosia's Bartow and Pell Relatives and the American Revolution

Among Theodosia's Bartow relatives, mostly located in Westchester County, there seems to have been a limited involvement on the Whig side of the Revolution. There is no known loss of property due to confiscation. Theodosia's uncle Anthony was robbed and beaten by Loyalists. Three of his children, Phoebe, Thomas and William married into families that included Whig officers. A fourth, Mary, married near the end of the War a native of Scotland, John Reid, who came to America as an "overseer of arificers in His Majesty's Engineers." Most of Uncle Anthony's other children and all of Basil's children were too young to serve in the war years.

Thomas, the only son of Uncle Thomas, had moved to Philadelphia from Amboy, became a merchant there, gained considerable wealth, and was able to build a handsome three story home in that city. He married a Moravian woman born in France, and he joined that faith.

Some of the children of Theophilus and Bethseba were more actively Whig. Son Theophilus, was a quartermaster in the first regiment of field officers of Westchester, beginning in October 1775.

Mary married Thomas Pell son of Joseph, the fourth Lord of Pelham Manor. Thomas became a Whig and bought the Pelham Manor after it was lost by his Tory brother Joseph, the fifth and last Lord of the Manor. The building was damaged during the War. Then Mary's brother John Bartow, a Whig who gained considerable wealth and who married Thomas and Joseph Pell's sister Ann Pell, also a Whig, bought the Manor property from Thomas and Mary. John and Ann then built a mansion on the property. Three other children of Theophilus and Bethseba, and thus also cousins of Theodosia about whom less is known, were Euphemia who married D. White a physician, Helen who married E. White, a lawyer, and Theodosius who was first a lay reader and then an ordained Episcopal minister. These were all the partially Native American Bartow-Pell cousins of Theodosia

Among the Pell's, three leading males were active Tories. Bethseba's nephew, Joseph the fifth Lord of Pelham Manor was apprehended as a Tory very early and died in prison in 1776 at age 36. His wife, Mary, and their 8 children and 6 slaves sought refuge under the British on City Island. Joshua, Sr., brother of Bethseba, became a Captain in the Loyalist New York Militia. His son Joshua went to England in 1776 and returned to fight with General Burgoyne at Saratoga. Another nephew of Bethseba, John Pell, was an Ensign in the Queen's Rangers. This Loyalist corp engaged in a number of battles in Westchester. John and Joshua, Sr., died in New York City as did a distant cousin and his children. Before the War ended all these Pells had their properties confiscated.

One less affluent brother of Bethseba, Thomas Pell, had four of his sons in the service of the Revolution. Three joined the Westchester County Militia. The most active was Samuel Pell who first served as a lieutenant in the 4th New York Regiment in Canada in 1775. However, he was passed over in the appointment of officers for the New York regiments by Congress in 1776.

John Jay, with the New York Revolutionary Convention, wrote on July 6 of that year on behalf of a commission for Samuel Pell to John Hancock and the Congress:

He is a fine, spirted, young Gentleman...of an ancient and once oppulent Family in this Colony. His Connections are extensive in the County, and he seems to possess that generous kind of Ambition so essential to the Character of a good officer. What renders his Case the more unfortunate is, that he is almost the only one of his Family, who has discovered any great Degree of Ardor in the American Cause. His Promotion would have contributed as much to increase their Zeal, as his being laid aside may tend to diminish it.

Samuel served through the War in a New York Regiment of the Continental Line and became and attained the rank of Captain.

A distant second cousin, Philip Pell, a graduate of Kings College and a lawyer, a resident of Pelham, was elected a delegate to the Continental Congress, joined the Continental Army in 1776, was elected to the New York State Assembly 1779-81, and then was named Judge Advocate of the Continental Army, 1781-3. His brother, David was a Whig Colonel.

Sarah, the sister of Tory Joseph and Whig Thomas, two owners of the Manor, married William Bayley, a Whig Captain. (Pelliana, 1635-1799, Vol 1. # 1, 1934, 53-59; John Jay to John Hancock, July 6, l776, in Richard Morris, ed., John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary; Unpublished Papers, 1745-1780, Harper & Row, New York, check date, Vol. I, 292-4; French, Gazetteer of State of New York, 46-53; Saunders, The Pelham Manor Story, 26-31; Bolton, II, 40)

Through December 1776 the Rebels attacked Hackensack and the British and Tories attacked Paramus and Hopperstown

After the main body of British troops had left Bergen County to pursue the Continentals across New Jersey, Hackensack, with a considerable number of Tories, became a storage point for Tory supplies. This was countered when in late November the New York Committee of Safety decided to make Paramus a supply point for its troops stationed in various places in the Highlands. On December 11th General Charles Lee had a scouting party at Paramus and Hackensack. He observed that the supplies there were only lightly guarded. Consequently General Heath decided on an attack there. He moved his regiment from Haverstraw to Paramus on the 13th together with those of Colonel Joseph Vose, Colonel Jedediah Huntington and John Tyler. They attacked Hackensack on the following day and took off prisoners and considerable stores to Paramus. Heath was there on the 15th and was joined on the16th by General George Clinton with 500 New York Militia.


Huntington on the 19th wrote from Paramus:

I have the pleasure to inform you that last Sunday We had the Satisfaction of marching into Hackinsack, in which Place we found many Arms & C and warlike stores a few. Rum. Sugars, and a Great plenty of Wine. About 60 disafected persons were taken up in a few hours, but the Gen finding so great a number of these People, that it would take all his division to guard them, we took about 89 Prisoners of War in and about the Place....

 

The Militia took a large drove of Cattle and sheep from the Regulars, 317 sheep and the Rest Cattle they had Collected for the use of their army. Last Night we had intelligence that the Enemy were marching to Hackinsack from New York, and had got to a ridge within about 5 mile of Hackinsack...We have no reason to doubt the truth of it, and without doubt I may be able in my next to give you some account of an Action between the Division of Gen Heath and their party under Col Leslie. (Eb. Huntington to Jabez Huntington, Pararmus, Dec. 19. 1776 in "Letters of Ebenezer Huntington," The American Historical Review, Vol. V, #, 3, April 1900, 717-8; Jared Lobdell, "Paramus in the War of the Revolution," PNJHS, 162-4, Adrian Leiby, The Revolutionary War in the Hackensack Valley, Rutgers Univ. Press, New Brunswick, 1962, 90-97)

There was a confrontation and the Whigs took some 23 prisoners including three Loyalists from Paramus. Clinton withdrew his main force to the Clove, but had two companies scouting in the Paramus area on December 23rd. Then British and Tory troops that had reoccupied Hackensack attacked American troops at Hopperstown and Paramus. They carried off Garret Hopper and a number of other Whig farmers from that area as prisoners.

Clinton wrote:

A number of the enemy...amounting to between five and eight hundred, consisting of Regulars and Buskirk?s Regiment {arrived at Hackensack}, imprisoned and otherwise insulted the few friends we left there, and soon after came to Paramus, plundered some of the inhabitants of that place and took the Hoppers and others of that neighborhood, who are now confined in Hackensack jail, and have since committed many acts of cruelty on the inhabitants. I keep out large patrolling parties every night in that neighborhood for the protection of the inhabitants, but the enemy have so good intelligence of our thoughts and every motion that it is beyond my power to give protection to the well disposed inhabitants in any other way than by routing the enemy from their present quarters, which I have hitherto not had strength to attempt with a probability of success.(General Clinton Papers, 216 (misdated Jan. 1, 1776) in Leiby, 98-9, Lobdell, 164)

In April 1777, the Loyalists attacked Leonia, Paramus and Allendale.

The British, after defeats at Trenton and Princeton, pulled their troops back to New York City in January 1777. In April, with the coming of spring, a Loyalist force of a few hundred men struck into Bergen county to Leonia, Paramus and Allendale. They carried off some Whigs and some supplies. Among the Whigs captured was John Fell from his home just to the north of the Hermitage. He, like the residents of the Hermitage, had come to Bergen County from New York just a few years before the Revolution. There he was a successful merchant. Despite being a newcomer and despite affluence gained outside of the area, he became a major leader among the rebels in Bergen County and his loss was a blow to the rebel cause in the area. In the following month, the New Jersey Loyalist Volunteers attacked and scattered a Whig force at Paramus Church. In July, Lord Stirling with a force of Continentals moving from Peekskill to Bound Brook, camped in Paramus on 29th and 30th . (Leiby, 116-125; Lobdell, 165-6; New Jersey Archives, 2nd Series, Vol 1, 54)

Samuel Bradhurst

His great grandparents were Thomas and Anna Pell, and there was a family relation by marriage to Theodosia's grandmother, Mercy Sands. The daughter of Thomas and Anna married the first Samuel Bradhurst, a New York silversmith. The next generation of the Bradhurst family acquired property in Harlem Heights called Pinehurst. They thus were neighbors of the Watkins and Maunsell relatives of Theodosia and near the estate of Robert Morris (Loyalist who left for England with the Maunsell's at the outbreak of the War and whose home later became the Jumel Mansion, briefly the home of Aaron Burr in his old age - and now an historic site).

Samuel Bradhurst the third, the Revolutionary war officer, was born in 1749. He was sent for schooling to the academy in Hackensack where he gained his diploma in 1771 at age 21. Bradhurst then studied medicine in New Jersey and was admitted to the practice of "Physic and Surgery" by a judge of New Jersey Supreme Court in Newark in 1774. In December 1776, Dr. Bradhurst joined the New Jersey Militia and was made an officer. In an encounter in mid-1777, while attending the wounded, he was captured by the British. It was then that he was placed under house arrest at the Hermitage. He was kindly received by Theodosia and the De Vismes. (New York Journal, November 10, 1774 in Richard Stillwell, p. 111; A. Maunsell Bradhurst, My Forefathers, 27-33).

Colonel Aaron Burr  

Aaron Burr was of distinguished heritage. On his father's side, the first Burr, Jehu, a carpenter, came to Massachusetts Bay in 1630 on a ship in Winthrop's fleet. Before some five generations in England, the Burr's had origins in Ireland. In America, Jehu and his family moved from Roxbury inland to Agawam (later Springfield) and then to Unuowa (later Fairfield) in Connecticut. It was in Fairfield that Aaron Burr's grandfather, Daniel Burr, had a good sized farm. His wife was Elizabeth Pinkney, also of Fairfield, although her parents moved to Eastchester in New York. They were one of ten families that obtained land from the extensive holdings of Thomas Pell, first Lord of Pelham Manor. A daughter of the Pinkney's, Rachel, a sister of Elizabeth, married John Pell, second Lord of Pelham Manor. Three generations later a Burr descendant, Aaron, would meet the descendants of John and Elizabeth in Westchester, on the battlefield and in amity. (Records of the Town of Eastchester...1666-1835, transcribed in 1952, Westchester Historical Society Archives)

One of eleven children of Daniel and Elizabeth in Fairfield was the first Aaron Burr. He attended Yale College in New Haven, was affected by the beginnings of the Great Awakening and influenced by the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and decided to enter the ministry. After a number of apprenticeships, he received a call to the First Church in Newark, New Jersey. Here he was well received and with Rev. Jonathan Dickinson helped to found the College of New Jersey (Princeton). Dickinson, its first president, died within five months of the College's founding in Elizabethtown in 1746 (fourth oldest college in the English North American colonies). Then Burr moved its 8 students to Newark. As second president he oversaw a steadily growing student body. With need for more space and with help from abroad, Burr decided to move the college to Princeton and, with the completion of the imposing Nassau Hall, did so in 1756. (Lomask, 7-9, 17)

Meanwhile, in 1752, The Reverend Aaron Burr married Esther Edwards, daughter of famed preacher and theologian Jonathan Edwards of Stockbridge, Massachusetts. On the paternal side, the Edwards first came from England to Hartford, Conn. in 1635. The last Edwards in England was an Oxford graduate and a minister. The succeeding male line were coopers and merchants in America until Timothy Edwards, who graduated from Harvard in 1694, became a minster and served in East Windsor, Connecticut. His son Jonathan, born in 1703, graduated from Yale and married Sarah Pierpont whose father was a minister and professor at Yale. Esther, the daughter, was one of eleven children. (Ola Winslow, Jonathan Edwards, 1703-1758, A Biography, Octagon Books, New York , 1973, 5-23)

Esther and Aaron had two children in Newark, first Sally in 1754 and then Aaron in 1756. In 1758 both parents died in Princeton from a smallpox epidemic. Dr. William Shippen (1712-1801), who was a friend of the family and had treated the father, took the two children to his home in Philadelphia. William was a member of one of the wealthiest and most influential families in that city. His father Joseph (1679-1741) and his father's brother Edward (1703-1781) had gained affluence through inheritance, as merchants and through real estate activities. Edward's son Edward (1729-1806) had a daughter Peggy (a niece once removed of William Shippen) born in 1760, when Aaron and Sally were in Philadelphia with the William Shippen family. While William Shippen and his son William would serve the Whig cause during the Revolution, Edward's side of the family wavered from neutral to pro-British. Daughter Peggy, as a teenager, became a friend of the British officer Major Andre when Philadelphia was occupied by the English in 1777, after which she married the American General Benedict Arnold.(Randolph Klein, Portrait of an Early American Family: The Shippens of Pennsylvania Across Five Generations, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1975)

After three years with the Shippens, the orphaned Burr children were taken into the home of Timothy Edwards, the oldest brother of their deceased mother. He had graduated from the College of New Jersey, became a merchant in Elizabethtown and married Rhoda Ogden. She was a member of one of the most politically powerful and affluent families in Elizabethtown and in the Province of New Jersey. Her kinsmen had been merchants, land holders, mine owners, and members of the Provincial Assembly. Timothy and Rhoda had, in addition to the Burr children, several other sisters and brothers from the deceased Jonathan Edwards family and 15 of their own children (Lomask, 21).

In Elizabethtown, Aaron became close to Matt Ogden, brother of Rhoda, who later accompanied Burr on the attack on Quebec and who became a brigadier general in the Revolution. In terms of schooling, Burr, for a time studied at the Presbyterian Academy in Elizabethtown, the same institution that would later be attended by Hamilton when he was first sent north from the West Indies and before he attended Kings (Columbia) College in New York. At other times Aaron and his sister Sally would study with tutors such as Tapping Reeves. Tapping would become a lawyer and would marry Sally. They moved to Litchfield, Connecticut where Tapping established the first law school in the United States in 1784.

Aaron was restless in the large Edwards household, tried unsuccessfully to become a ship's cabin boy at age 10, tried to enter the College of New Jersey at 11 and then was admitted at 13. Here he would make friends with William Paterson, born in Ireland and raised in New Jersey; two future ministers, Allen Moses from Georgia and Samuel Spring from Massachusetts; Brockholst Livingston of the affluent and influential New York-New Jersey family; and Henry Lee to be known as Light-Horse Harry in the Revolution and James Madison, later to become fifth United States president, both from Virginia. (Lomask, 20-28)

After graduating from the College of New Jersey in 1773 at age 16, Burr gave some thought to a ministerial career, but turned slowly to the law. He spent some time in Litchfield with his brother-in-law Tapping Reeves, but spent more time with the local girls there than with the law. He also made frequent visits to his cousin Thaddeus Burr in Fairfield in order to spend time with Dorothy Quincy, a summer guest, who was the fiancee of John Hancock, a wealthy Boston merchant who had been a friend of Aaron's father and who soon became the President of the Contintental Congress.

However, the coming conflict with the mother country proved more interesting than the law or other local distractions. Thus, after learning about the Battle of Bunker Hill, Burr together with Matt Ogden, headed to the Cambridge headquarters of the newly arrived General of the Whig Continental Army, George Washington. They had a letter of introduction from Elias Boudinot of Elizabethtown who was a member of the Continental Congress. Burr would soon be involved in a two-pronged attack on Canada. He was part of the invasion that arduously plodded through the Maine wilderness to Quebec. These troops, weakened by the trek and with inadequate supplies, and despite the aggressiveness of officers like Burr, failed in the attack on that city. This thwarted effort also resulted in the death of the American commander, General Montgomery. Burr gained notoriety by carrying Montgomery's body back to the American line. On his return from Canada, Burr was assigned briefly to Washington's staff and then to that of General Putnam in the Hudson Highlands. So began Burr's military career that would take him to Bergen County and the Hermitage. (Lomask, 31-35)

By September 1777 Burr had been promoted to lieutenant colonel and was assigned to command Malcolm's Regiment encamped along the Ramapo River in the Clove, some 10 miles from Paramus. While there Burr led an attack on a British picket near Hackensack bringing off some 29 prisoners to Paramus. During his stay of only about a month, before being ordered to proceed with his regiment to Valley Forge, it is believed that he visited Theodosia and her family at the Hermitage. This may have been facilitated by the fact that Burr had visited the home of Major Thomas and Mary Clarke in Chelsea in Manhattan several times in 1776. Mary was a Stillwell, the aunt of Theodosia and sister of her mother Ann. Additionally, Theodosia's cousin, Capt. John Watkins, the son of Lydia, another sister of Ann, was serving in Burr's Malcolm Regiment in September 1777. (Statement of Judge George Gardner, Newburgh, December 20, 1813 and of Lt. Robert Hunter to Gabriel Furman, Esq, member of Assembly, New York, January 22, 1814, Israel Putnam, M.G. to Burr, Peekskill, September 27, 1777, in Davis, I, 112-117; Lomask, 50; Captain Richard Stillwell..., p. 45)

Battle of Monmouth

By the end of April 1778, the British with some 18,000 troops still occupied Philadelphia. The Continental Army under Washington was encamped at Valley Forge with an effective force of some 14,000 soldiers. On May 1 the rebels received, with great celebration, the news that France had declared war on Great Britain and was now their active ally. Meanwhile the authorities in England had decided to replace the indecisive General Howe with General Henry Clinton as commander of their troops in Philadelphia. He arrived in that city on May 8, and on May 23 he received orders from London directing him to evacuate Philadelphia and proceed to New York to strengthen the British position there.

Clinton sent part of his equipment north by boat. However, he did not have enough water transportation for his whole army and not wishing to wait for boats that might come under attack from an approaching French fleet, he decided to march across New Jersey toward waters close to New York City. The British left Philadelphia on June 17 and crossed the Delaware into New Jersey.

On June 19th Washington ordered Benedict Arnold, still suffering wounds received at Saratoga, to command a force that would be stationed in Philadelphia. On the same day the main Continental Army broke camp at Valley Forge. They headed north and crossed the Delaware into Lambertville, New Jersey. The New Jersey militia under General Philemon Dickinson destroyed bridges to slow the British with 1,500 wagons of baggage and in other ways harassed them. When the English forces stretched 12 miles between Monmouth Courthouse and Freehold, the Continentals were ready to strike. They did so on June 28th and the Battle of Monmouth was fought in 97 degree heat. It was a fiercely fought battle. Each side had approximately 12,000 troops in the field. Had not General Charles Lee, second in command of the Continental forces, called for a retreat against orders at a crucial point in the engagement, the Americans might have won a major victory. Instead, although a major portion of the Continentals stood up to the well trained English and Hessians troops and inflicted serious losses on them, the British were able to continue their march to the sea and to New York. In the battle Colonel Burr and his Malcolm Regiment fought aggressively. Burr had his horse shot out from under him and suffered badly from the excessive heat. Nevertheless, he was sent toward New York to spy on the retreating English and to observe their actions in New York harbor. He thus did not accompany the march of the Continental forces into northern New Jersey and across the Hudson. In the battle itself the British and the Americans each suffered approximately 360 casualties. These losses, together with those taken prisoner and desertions, left the British with some 1,500 less troops when they arrived in New York from those that had left Philadelphia. (Stryker, The Battle of Monmouth, Kennikat Press, Port Washington, N.Y., 1927, 1970; Lord Stirling to Burr, New Brunswick, July 4 and two on July 6, and Tench Tilghman to Burr, Newark, July 8, 1778 in Davis, I, 129-130)

The march from New Brunswick and the Great Falls of the Passaic toward the Hudson Highlands

After the battle, Washington headquartered at Englishtown five miles west of the battle. When General Lee received criticism of his actions during the battle, he asked for a court martial by which he believed he could exonerate himself. Washington agreed and established a court, headed by General William Alexander, that would hold hearings as the army moved.

On July 1 Washington left Englishtown and the army marched to Spotswood and then on the following day to New Brunswick. There the Commander rested his army and celebrated the Fourth of July. The left wing of the army began moving north on the 5th and the rest followed by the 7th. They proceeded through Scotch Plains, Springfield, Wardiston and Aquackanonk to Paramus. Washington and some of the troops came by way of Newark. In the process they passed by the Great Falls of the Passaic River, the second most important waterfall in the then United States after Niagara. Hamilton was with Washington at the Falls, and this visit may have contributed to his interest, after the Revolution, in this place as a site for industrial development. (William Stryker, The Battle of Monmouth; L. G. Shreve, Tench Tilighman: The Life and Times of Washington?s Aide-de-Camp, Tidewater Publ., Centreville, Md., 100-106; William Baker, Itinerary of George Washington, Hunterdon House, Lambertville, N.J., 135-8)

Washington and Congress after the Battle of Monmouth

From The Hermitage Washington did thank Henry Laurens, the President of Congress, on July 11 for his personal congratulations on "my conduct in our late rencounter with the British Army," and on the 12th he thanked Congress for it's commendation on his activities since leaving Valley Forge and particularly at Monmouth. (Resolution by Congress, July 7, 1778; George Washington to Henry Laurens, Paramous, July 11, 1778; and Washington to the President of Congress, Camp at Pyramus, July 12, 1778 in John Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writing of George Washington, Vol 12, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, 165-6 & 173-4)

Washington sent congratulations to the Admiral and two of his aide-de-camps, John Laurens and Alexander Hamilton

Washington immediately made inquiries about ship pilots who could lead the French into New York harbor. While the French had superior fire power, the British would have an advantaged defensive position inside the harbor. Congress suggested, as an alternative, an attack on a smaller English fleet and army located in Rhode Island. On July 14th Washington wrote from "Pyramus," a letter of congratulations to d'Estaing, informing him of the location of his army and introducing him to his aide Lt. Col. Laurens who was assigned to carry this letter to the Admiral. Hamilton also was sent to meet with the d'Estaing. Additionally, Lafayette, sent a letter from Paramus to the Count, a distant relative. (From Paramus, Washington on July 11, 1778 to General Benedict Arnold and to Governor George Clinton; on July 12 to the President of Congress; on July 13, to Brigadier General David Forman; and on July 14 to Major General Horatio Gates, to Count D'Estaing, to the President of Congress, to Lt. Col. Francis Barber, and to Governor Jonathan Trumbull, in Fitzpatrick, vol 12, 168-180; Henry Laurens to Washington, July 11 in papers of the Continental Congress, 313, Fitzpatrick, vol. 2, 174; Lafayette at camp near Paramus to Comte d'Estaing, July 14, 1778, Louis Gottschalk, ed., The Letters of Lafayette to Washington, 1777-1799, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 1976, 102-107; Louis Gottschalk, Lafayette Joins the American Army, University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 237-9)

Washington's additional correspondence while at The Hermitage

He sent letters to General Gates then located with troops to the north of Paramus and to New York Governor George Clinton that provided information on the current location of the Continental forces and on the arrival of the French fleet and that sought advice on the best future encampments in relation to the British in New York and their possible next moves. There also was a letter to Baron de Kalb giving him orders for the location across the Hudson for an advanced wing of the Continentals. Washington received letters from John Cleves Symmes from Minisink reporting Indian attacks into that section of New York and into Pennsylvania and asking for military assistance. Washington wrote that recent deployments and losses prevented him from sending troops to Symmes and that his intelligence reported an Indian pullback. However, he wanted Symmes to keep him informed about the enemy's Number, Situation and intention.  He also sent a letter of thanks to William Drayton, a Congressman from South Carolina. In addition, Washington in his General Orders for July 12th announced the decision in two court-martials held on July 9th. (Washington at Paramus, July 10 to John Cleves Symmes; July 11 to George Clinton and Major General Horatio Gates; July 12 to William Henry Drayton, July 13 to Baron De Kalb; July 14 to Gates and Symmes, and General Orders, Paramus, July 12, in Fitzpatrick, vol 12, 165-180)

Additional letters

In addition to letters sent by Washington and Lafayette, there were several others of which there is knowledge that were sent from Paramus at this time by Continental officers. John Laurens on July 13 informed his father Henry Laurens about his assignment to meet with Admiral D'Estaing. General Nathanael Greene in Paramus, put down in writing for Washington his opinions about a coordinated American and French attack on New York City and on Newport. Hamilton, in Paramus, put in writing for General William Alexander some additional information for the court-martial of General Charles Lee. (John Laurens to Henry Laurens, President of Congress in Philadelphia, July 13, 1778, in The Army Correspondence of Colonel John Laurens in the Years 1777-8, New York Times and Arno Press, 205-6; General Nathanael Greene to George Washington, July 12-14, 1778, in Richard Showman, ed., The Papers of General Nathanael Greene, Vol III, University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill; Alexander Hamilton to Major General William Alexander, Lord Stirling, July 14, 1778, in Harold Syrett, ed., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, Vol I, Columbia University Press, New York, 1961, 522-3)

Court Martial of General Charles Lee

There were 3 sessions at New Brunswick, 6 at Paramus, 3 at Peekskill, and 14 at North Castle in New York. Washington named General William Alexander, a friend of both himself and of General Lee, as the president of the court which also consisted of Generals Smallwood, Poor, Woodford and Huntington and Colonels Grayson, Johnston, Wigglesworth, Febiger, Swift, Angel, Clarke, and Williams. Witnesses against Lee included Generals Lafayette, Von Steuben, Scott, Wayne, Forman and Maxwell and some 20 colonels and majors, included Matthias and Aaron Ogden and most of Washington's aides-de-camp. Witnesses for Lee included Generals Duportial and Knox and some 11 colonels, captains and majors. Most of these persons were at the Paramus encampment and some were among those who visited at the Hermitage. (Stryker, The Battle of Monmouth, 241-57; Alan Valentine, Lord Stirling, N.Y., Oxford Univ. Press, 1969, 234-5; Shreve, Tilghman, 104-7; Alexander Hamilton to Major General William Alexander, Lord Stirling, Paramus, July 14, 1778, in Syrett, Hamilton, 522-3)

Washington's aide-de-camps were men of current and future renown

• James McHenry was a Scotch Irish immigrant who came to Baltimore, studied medicine under Dr. Rush in Philadelphia, and was a surgeon with the Continental Army before his appointment as a secretary to Washington. After the war McHenry was elected to the Maryland legislature, was a delegate at the Constitutional Convention, and a Secretary of War in the Washington administration. Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor was named for him.

• Laurens was from a wealthy Charleston, South Carolina family. His father, Henry Laurens, was the presiding officer of the Continental Congress. John, later, in a southern campaign, as aide-de-camp to General Lincoln, was responsible for carrying his commander's response to an ultimate to General Augustine Prevost. Laurens also traveled to France to gain financial aid for the new country and then died in a skirmish in his home state in 1782.

• Richard Meade came from an estate in Virginia, had early become an officer in the First Virginia Regiment and was an accomplished horseman. After the war, Meade returned to farming on an estate in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.

• Hamilton was the illegitimate son of a West Indies planter who was sent to Elizabethtown for schooling, graduated from Kings College, and joined the Continental Army in New Jersey. After the war he married well, became a very successful New York lawyer, played an important role in the calling of the Constitutional Convention, was named Washington's Secretary of the Treasury in which position he was the key person in the forming of the new nation's economic policies, and then died in a duel with Aaron Burr.

• Harrison was a lawyer from Alexandria, Virginia who hunted with Washington and was at times one of his legal advisors. After the war he was a judge in Maryland.

• Tilghman came from a wealthy Maryland family, became a merchant in Philadelphia, joined the Pennsylvania Militia and then the Continental Army where he became the personal and military secretary to Washington. He died shortly after the War.

(Dictionary of American Biography, Tench Tilghman, Vol IX , 545; James McHenry, Vol VI, 62-3, John Laurens, Vol VI, Alexander Hamilton; Emily Whiteley, Washington and His Aides-De-Camp, New York, Macmillan, 1936; C. E. Godfrey, The Command-in-Chief's Guard, Washington, 1904, p. 281; Jared Lobdell, "Paramus in the War of the Revolution," PNJHS, LXXVIII, July 1960, 168; Alex Hurst, "George Washington Stepped Here," Hermitage Round Table, 4/29/98)

In addition to these aides, other top officers visited the Hermitage. These included Lafayette and General William Alexander (Lord Stirling), a descendant of Scottish aristocracy, had become a large New Jersey landowner, a Proprietor of East Jersey, a member of the Governor's Council and then a rebel general. After participating in many battles, he died the year the War ended. His aide-de-camp was Colonel James Monroe from Virginia and a recent graduate of the College of New Jersey who later would become ambassador to several countries and then the country's fourth president. Major General Nathaniel Greene of Rhode Island was with the Continental army at this time in Paramus.. (DAB, William Alexander, Vol I, 175-6, James Monroe, Charles Lee, Vol VI; Richard Showman, ed. The Papers of General Nathanael Greene, Vol II, U. of N.C./ Press, Chapel Hill, N.C., 1980; Lomask, p. 65; Bernardsville History Book Committee, Among the Blue Hills...Bernardsville...a History, Hill Press, Bernardsville, 1974, 38-41)

Gift from the French Queen for Mrs. Washington

Some weeks after leaving Paramus, Washington requested Lafayette to inquire with care about the truth in this matter.

He wrote:

Apropos, can you, my Dear Marquis, through the medium of your lovely lady (if she is at the Court of Versailles) or by any other indirect means, discover whether there is any truth in the information given to me at Paramous by Mrs. Watkins & other ladies, that your admiable Queen had honored Mrs. Washington with an elegant testimonial of her approbation of my conduct. These Ladies asserted, so confidently, that a present from her Most Christian Majesty, to Mrs. Washington had been taken by the Enemy, carried into New York, & there sold at public auction for the benefit of the Captors; that altho? it was too great an honor to be expected, I could not forbear giving credence to the report; and am anxious to know the truth, that if I am indebted to her Majesty for such distinguished honor; I may get some friend of yours to lay my thanks at her feet, with an assurance of such perfect respect & attachment as you know I have always professed & felt for your Queen, on account of her virtues - her sentiments in favour of America and the general rights & liberties of Mankind.

The reason, my Dear Marquis, for wishing that this enquiry may be carried on in an indirect wasy, is obvious, for altho? I should prize such a testimonial (if it has really happened) above rubies, and would prostrate my grateful thanks at the Queens feet, for the honour intended; yet, I would not, if the case is otherwise, invite by the most distant hint, nor even accept, from the Empress of the universe, a present, if I should conceive that it was not prompted by an act of the will.? (Washington to Lafayette, White Plains, August 10, 1778, in Gottschalk, The Letters of Lafayette to Washington, 136-7)

 

 

Letter of November 8, 1778 from Colonel James Monroe to Theodosia Prevost

This is a letter in which Monroe not only reveals much of himself and the mores of elite revolutionary society, but gives us some insight into the life, character, and difficulties of Theodosia at the Hermitage in midst of the Revolution. Monroe expressed his perplexities, concerning a young woman, name unknown, but apparently residing in Basking Ridge whom he may have met at the Hermitage and with whom he had developed an amorous relationship. He also indicated his interest in representing the United States in France. And again he related his efforts, mostly thwarted, in behalf of Theodosia's property.

A young lady who either is, or pretends to be, in love, is as you know, my dear Mrs. Prevost, the most unreasonable creature in existence. If she looks a smile or a frown, which does not immediately give or deprive you of happiness (at least to appearance) your company soon becomes very insipid. Each feature has its beauty, and each attitude the graces, or you have no judgement. But if you are so stupidly insensible of her charms as to deprive your tongue and eyes of every expression of admiration, and not only to be silent respecting her, but devote them to an absent object, she cannot receive a higher insult; nor would she, if not restrained by politeness refrain from open resentment.

Upon this principle I think I stand excused for not writing from B. Ridge. I proposed it, however; and, after meeting with opposition in ----, to obtain her point , she promised to visit the little "Hermitage," and make my excuse herself. I took occasion to turn the conversation to a different object, and plead for permission to go to France. I gave up in one instance, and she certainly ought in the other. But writing a letter and going to France are very different, you will perhaps say. She objected to it, and all the arguments which a fond, delicate, unmarried lady could use, she did not fail to produce against it. I plead the advantage I should derive from it. The personal improvement, the connexions I should make. I told her she was not the only one on whom fortune did not smile in every instance. I produced examples from her own acquaintance, and represented their situation in terms which sensibly affected both herself and Lady C----. I painted a lady full of affection, of tenderness, and sensibility, separated from her husband, for a series of time, by the cruelty of the war her uncertainty respecting his health; the pain and anxiety which must naturally arise from it. I represented, it in the most pathetic terms, the disquietudes which, from the nature of her connexion, might possibly intrude on her domestic retreat. I then raised to her view fortitude under distress; cheerfulness, life, and gayety, in the midst of affliction.

I hope you will forgive me, my dear little friend, if I produced you to give life to the image. The instance, she owned, was applicable. She felt for you from her heart, and she has a heart capable of feeling. She wished not a misfortune similar to yours; but, if I was resolved to make it so, she would strive to imitate your example. I have now permission to go where I please, but you must not forget her...She and Lady C----promise to come to the Hermitage to spend a week or two. Encourage her, and represent the advantage I shall gain from travel. But why should I desire you to do what I know your own heart will dictate? for a heart so capable of friendship feels its own pain alleviated by alleviating that of another.

But do not suppose that my attention is only taken up with my own affairs. I am too much attached ever to forget the Hermitage. Mrs. Duvall, I hope, is recovering; and Kitty's indisposition is that of my nearest relation. Mrs. De Visme has delicate nerves. Tell me her children are well, and I know she has a flow of spirits, for her health depends entirely on theirs.

I was unfortunate in not being able to meet with the governor. He was neither at Elizabethtown, B. Ridge, Princeton, nor Trenton. I have consulted with several members of Congress on the occasion. They own the injustice, but cannot interfere. The laws of each state must govern itself. They cannot conceive the possibility of its taking place. General Lee says it must not take place; and if he was an absolute monarch, he would issue an order to prevent it.

I am introduced to the gentleman I wished by General Lee in a very particular manner. I cannot determine with certainty what I shall do till my arrival in Virginia.

Make my compliments to Mrs. And Miss De Visme, and believe me, with the sincerest friendship,

Yours, James Monroe

(Monroe to Mrs. Prevost, November 8, 1778 in Davis, I, 184-6, Monroe to Mrs. Prevost, Oct. 31, 1778, Monroe Papers, NYPL, referred to in Harry Ammon, James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity, McGraw-Hill, New York)

 

 

On the trip down the Hudson River

The sloop stopped at Haverstraw on August 7th and 8th so William Smith could obtain goods from his home. They all met his brother Thomas, a lawyer, who also had his home there, and with whom Burr later studied law in 1780. (Robert Benson to Burr, White Plains, August 2; Extracts from the Minutes of the Meeting of the Board of Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies, Teunis Tappan, Secretary of the Board, Poughkeepsie, Aug 3; Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies to Burr, Poughkeepsie, Aug 3 in Davis, I, 131-33; W.C.Ford, ed., "Some Papers of Aaron Burr," Proceedings of American Antiquarian Society, 1919, p. 39; Nathan Schachner, Aaron Burr, A. S. Barnes, New York, 1961, p. 60 & 522; Historical Memoirs of William Smith, p. 1-2; Wendell and Minnigerode, I, 87)

William Paterson and Colonel Robert Troup

Paterson was a fellow student with Burr at the College of New Jersey, had become a lawyer and was then the Attorney General for the State of New Jersey. Col. Robert Troup was a fellow military officer with Burr and had been an aide-de-camp to General Gates. (John O'Connor, William Paterson: Lawyer and Statesman, 1745-1806, Rutgers U. Press, N.B., 1979)

William Paterson to Aaron Burr, January 29, 1779

I am at the Hermitage, my dear Burr, and cannot forbear writing you a few lines....Mrs. Prevost informs me that there is the most flattering prospect of your soon being reinstated in your health. The intelligence gives me real pleasure, and the more so, because, until Mrs. Prevost told me, I had no idea of your disorder being so rooted and dangerous. May health soon revisit you, my good friend; and when it does, may it continue with you for years. I am pleased with the hope of seeing you in Jersey early in the spring. I shall be this way again in March, when perhaps I shall meet you at this place. I write this standing in the midst of company. I am called off to court, and therefore, for this time, adieu.

(William Paterson to Burr, Hermitage, January 27, 1779 in Davis I, 148-9; Burr to Sally Reeves, Hermitage, November 5, 1778 in Geissler, 168)

 

 

Burr Commands Rebel Westchester Line, January to March 1779

As in Bergen County, Westchester was a contested area between the British from New York City and rebels in command south of the Highlands. The citizens of this area, again like those in Bergen, were divided between Tory and Whig and American forces were continually concerned about depredations against rebel partisans and ongoing trade between persons in Westchester and the enemy in New York. Burr got high praise for increasing the discipline of the troops under his command on this line, for having them stop the plundering and trade by both Loyalists and Whigs, for forcing a retreat of some 2,000 British and Loyalist troops from Connecticut, and for engaging successfully with the Tory Queens Rangers. In one of these skirmishes Joseph Pell, a wealthy distant Westchester relative of Theodosia, was wounded. It was noted that Burr was absent from camp on two nights and for a brief period in late February. There has been a long standing speculation that he was visiting the Hermitage on these occasions. (Burr to General McDougall, White Plains, January 12, 13, 29, McDougall to Burr, Jan. 15, 1779, Statement of Samuel Young, Davis, I, 140-145, 158-66; McDougall to Parsons, Jan. 9, 1779, McDougall Papers and Burr?s Orderly Books, New York Historical Society in Schachner, 59-66, 522; James Saunders, The Pelham Manor Story, 26-31; Lomask, 62)

Letters between Burr and Washington, Spring 1779

(Burr to Washington, Phillipsburgh, March 10, Washington to Burr, Middlebrook, April 3, 1779 in Davis, I, 168)

Letter from Paterson to Burr, March 1779

My stay here will be uncertain. At home I must be by the beginning of April. I should be happy in seeing you before my return, but how to effect it is the question. If I could possibly disengage myself from business, I would take a ride to Paramus. My best respects await on Mrs. Prevost; and every thing you think proper to the mistress of your affections.

I am married, Burr, and happy. May you be equally so. I cannot form a higher or a better wish. You know I should rejoice to meet you. Tell Mrs. Prevost that I shall take it unkindly if she does not call upon me whenever she thinks I can be of any service to her. To oblige her will give me pleasure for her own sake, and double pleasure for yours. This is a strange, unconnected scroll; you have it as it comes

I congratulate you on your return to civil life, for which (I cannot forbear the thought) we must thank a certain lady not far from paramus. May I have occasion soon to thank her on another account; and may I congratulate you both in the course of the next moon for being in my line: I mean the married. Adieu? (Paterson to Burr, The Ponds, March 18, 1779 in Davis I, 169-70)

 

Dom Tetard, tutor at The Hermitage

The employment of Tetard as a tutor for Theodosia's daughters and perhaps for her half sister, Caty, seems to have been arranged and maybe even financed by Burr, although Tetard may also have been known to Theodosia?s Westchester and Harlem Heights relatives. Who was this tutor? Dominie Tetard was born in 1722 in Switzerland. He was educated at the University of Lausanne and was ordained a Protestant minister. He came to New York in the 1750s, served at the French church there, and then became a pastor in Charleston, South Carolina. Finding the climate there affecting his health, he returned to New York in 1763. Here he married a widow, Frances Elliston Dupuy. Her father, Robert Elliston, was the royal comptroller of customs in New York and vestryman of Trinity Church. Frances? first husband, John Dupuy, was a doctor and the son of a doctor, but he died at age 27. Frances brought to her marriage with Tetard a number of New York City properties. The Dominie sold them and bought a 60 acre farm in the Manor of Fordham near Kings Bridge. Here he opened the first French school in New York. One of his young pupils was Gouverneur Morris who used the French he learned there later in negotiations for the United Sates with France. One of Tetard's neighbors in the Bronx was Richard Montgomery. When the latter was named General and the commanding officer for the rebel invasion of Canada in 1775, he had the Provincial Congress of New York appoint Tetard the chaplain of the New York troops and French interpreter for General Schuyler with the rank of Major. It was on this ill-fated invasion that Tetard met Colonel Aaron Burr. When Tetard returned from the expedition he found that his home had been burned, his farm ruined, and his slaves were gone. He nevertheless continued as a chaplain to the New York Continental line. However, lacking compensation, Tetard fell into extreme poverty. He spent late 1778 into early 1779 with Robert Livingston. The latter wrote to John Jay urging him to have Congress appoint Tetard as a translator or to some other paying position. This advocacy seems to have failed, and it is probable that at this time, perhaps through his having known Burr and perhaps with Burr's financial assistance, that Tetard gained employment as a tutor for Theodosia's children at the Hermitage. A few years later, in 1784, he became the first professor of French at Columbia College, a position he held until his death in 1787. He was buried in the Trinity churchyard. (Charles Dupuy, A Genealogical History of the Dupuy Family, J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1910, 20-26; Robert Livingston to John Jay, 1779, in Richard Morris, John Jay: The Making of a Revolutionary: Unpublished Papers 1745-1780, Harper and Row, New York 584-5; Scharf, History of Westchester County, New York, Preston & Co., Philadelphia, 1886, I, 749)

Washington's reply to Theodosia's request for aid in release of her imprisoned half brother, Peter De Visme

It is much to be regretted that the pleasure of obeying the first emotions in favour of misfortune is not always in our power. I should be happy could I consider myself at liberty to comply with your request in the case of your brother, Mr. Peter De Visme. But, as I have heretofore taken no direction in the disposal of marine prisoners, I cannot, with propriety, interfere on the present occasion, however great the satisfaction I should feel in obliging where you are interested. Your good sense will perceive this, and find a sufficient excuse in the delicacy of my situation.  (Washington to Mrs. Prevost, Middlebrook, May 18, 1779 in Davis, I, 186)

 

Efforts of William Paterson on behalf of Theodosia and her property

In a letter to Burr in September 1779, Paterson wrote:

I cannot tell you what has become of Mrs. Prevost's affairs. About two months ago I received a very polite letter from her. She was apprehensive that the commissioners would proceed. It seems they threatened to go on. I wrote them on the subject, but I have not heard the event. I am at this place, on my way to a superior court in Bergen. If possible, I shall wait on the good gentlewomen. At Bergen, I shall inquire into the state of the matter. It will, indeed, turn up of course. You shall hear from me again. Adieu. (Paterson to Burr, Morristown, September 29, 1779 in Davis I. 188)

 

 

Colonel Robert Troup  

Robert Troup, the son of a commander of a privateer, had graduated from Kings College in 1774. He began to study law first under Thomas Smith in Haverstraw and then under John Jay. Like Burr he became an officer in the Continental Army and rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. Troup, became an aide-de-camp to General Horatio Gates, and was in a number of battles. In January 1780 he was serving as the secretary to the Congressional Board of Treasury. Some time before this he had met Theodosia and her step-sister at a social event at the home of Governor Livingston.

Troup, in January 1780 wrote to Burr: "Watkins was kind enough to deliver me yours of the 8th of December, written, I presume, at Paramus. I almost envy the happiness you have enjoyed. From the first moment of my acquaintance with Mrs. Prevost and her sister, I conceived an admiration for them both, which is much increased by the opinion you entertain of them." He then stated: "I am happy to find our plan of studying together appears more and more rational to you....I am inclined to believe it would be best for us to study the law with Mr. Stockton, at Princeton....the practice of Connecticut differs so materially from the practice of New-York and New-Jersey, that we should lose time by being with Mr. Osmer." Troup realized that Princeton presented temptations because of its active social life and a number of unmarried young women from such influential families as the Livingstons and the Stocktons. He planned to lodge out of town and wrote that he had "made a solemn league and covenant with my own mind to seclude myself from the pleasures of the world." Troup continued, "My happiness and my improvement in the law, depend entirely upon pursuing my studies with you." He concluded his letter, "Pray present my best respects to Tetard, and assure him of my wishes to serve him at all times, and on all occasions."  (Troup to Burr, Philadelphia, January 16, 1780, in Davis I, 188-91)

In a February 1780 letter, Troup, while continuing to strongly urge Burr to join him in Princeton, seems to have realized Aaron's reluctance to study in that location. He wrote; "I am very much afraid that Princeton will be disagreeable to you on many accounts, and particulalry on account of the number of acquaintances you have in and near it." If he were to come, Troup wanted Burr to "bring Mr. Tetard with you to perfect us in the French language." His further comments indicate that while Troup favored Burr's relation with Theodosia, he was not unaware of the husband. He concluded his letter: "It is reported, and pretty generally believed, that Sir Henry Clinton, with the fleet that came from New-York about six weeks ago, has touched Georgia; taken Prevost's troops with him, and gone either to St. Augustine or the Havannah. This is very important news, if true; but it seems to wait confirmation."  (Troup to Burr, February 14 1780, in Davis, I, 192-3)

Letters in late winter 1780 show Burr torn between a desire for tranquility for study and the need to improve his health. He wrote to Paterson from Middletown, Conn., on February 16nh, "The prospect of peace is still distant. It is an object of importance with me to be not only secure from alarms, but remote from the noise of war. My present situation promises at least those advantages" However, he also stated to Paterson that Troup was "the companion I would wish in my studies. He is a better antidote for the spleen than a ton of drugs. I am often a little inclined to hypo." He added: "My health, which was till of late very promising, seems to decline a little."  (Burr to Paterson, Middletown, February 16th, 1780 in Davis, I, 193-4)

We learn in a letter written by Troup on February 29 that Burr was working to restore his health by using the mineral springs in the Clove - some 10 miles north of the Hermitage. (Troup to Burr, Philadelphia, February 29, 1780 in Davis, I, 194-7)

In April Troup wrote that he was now a guest in the home of his good friend General Morris, but that he planned to leave Princeton. His lodging arrangements did not work out and Stockton was ill. He sent the letter to Connecticut, but in case it might miss Burr he sent a copy "to Mrs. Prevost, who will be kind enough to give it to you the moment you arrive there." In May Burr tells Troup he plans to end his studies with Titus Homer in Connecticut and will talk to him about future plans.  (Paterson to Burr, Rariton, April 14, 1780, Troup to Burr, Princeton, April 27, 1780, Burr to Troup, Fairfield, May 15, 1780, Troup to Burr, at General Morris's near Princeton, May 16, 1780, Troup to Burr, Society-Hall, General Morris's, May 23, 1780)

Aaron Burr and the Livingston daughters

Before leaving central Jersey to meet with Burr, Troup wrote from Baskenridge to inform his friend that he, Burr, continued to attract the interest of Governor Livingston's daughters and that Caty De Visme had admirers.

The Miss Livingstons have inquired in a very friendly manner about you, and expect you will wait upon them when you pass this way. Since I have been here, I have had an opportunity of removing entirely the suspicion they had of your courting Miss De Visme. They believe nothing of it now, and attribute your visits at Paramus to motives of friendship for Mrs. Prevost and the family....The girls here think ...handsome, genteel, and sensible, and say positively he is no longer engaged to Miss Shippen. He has frequently spoken to them in raptures, latterly of Miss De Visme, and once declared he was half in love with her. I have taken care to touch this string with the greatest delicacy....

Present my most respectful compliments to Mrs. Prevost and the family, and also the ladies on the hill. Miss Susan Livingston desires her complments to you and the two families. So do Susan and Eliza Baskenridge.

 

Susan Livingston married John Jay. Another Livingston daughter, Judith, in 1780, married John Watkins, Theodosia's cousin and an officer with Burr in Malcolm's Regiment.  (Troup to Burr, Baskenridge, June 27, 1780 in Davis, I, 198-205; Robert Stillwell, 117)

William Smith in Haverstraw

Aaron Burr and Robert Troup decided to pursue their legal studies vigorously with Thomas Smith a lawyer then living in the Hudson River town of Haverstraw, New York. Smith had previously practiced in New York City, and he was the brother of William Smith the attorney general in New York before the war. Burr had met Thomas Smith when he stopped at Haverstraw while escorting brother William into New York City under the truce flag in 1778. Troup had studied briefly with Thomas Smith before he entered the army. At first, since there seemed danger of a British attack on the Highlands, he suggested that they study at "Mrs. De Visme's place." However, it was then decided that Haverstraw was safe enough. Besides Smith had a good library at Haverstraw which he had moved there from New York City.

On March 1, 1781 Smith wrote to Burr:

As it is your object to fit yourself as soon as possible for admission to the bar, without Submitting to the drudgery of an attorney's office, in which the advancement of the student is but too often a secondary consideration, I should cheerfully devote a sufficient part of my time to lead you through the practice of the law in all its parts; and make no doubt, with close application on your part, I should be able in a short time to introduce you to the bar, well qualified to discharge the duties of the profession, with honour to yourselves, and safety to your clients.(Thomas Smith to Burr, Haverstraw, March 1, 1781 in Davis, I, 223)

Rebel troops were stationed almost continually in the Paramus/Hopperstown area

In December 1778, two revolutionary North Carolina regiments were posted at Paramus for the winter. In July 1779, General Wayne left from here for his attack on the Bull's Ferry blockhouse, located south of Fort Lee. On August 1779 General Light Horse Harry Lee led his troops from the Clove to an encampment two miles north of Paramus, close to the Hermitage, from which he launched a successful surprise attack on the British fort at Paulus Hook (Jersey City). In fall 1779 a Virginia Division, troops under General Alexander, and also soldiers under General Wayne spent some time in the Paramus area. In December a detachment from the Second New Jersey encamped for at Paramus, then in January the Second Rhode Island Regiment was there. In March 1780 the Fifth Pennsylvania regiment was stationed at this location. Albert Klyberg, "Action at Paramus (March 23, 1780)," Bergen County Historical Society Papers, 1960, 1-5).

British forces engaged rebel contingents in the Paramus/Hopperstown area

Through February 1780 the British planned an attack on the rebel forces stationed in the Paramus/Hopperstown area. Their preparation included detailed reports from Tory agent A.Z. (thought to be Albert Zabriskie) who through his Loyalist informants in that area was able to provide the British military with information on the houses in which each Whig officer and soldier was quartered - mostly around the Paramus Church, but some also along the road to and in Hopperstown. A.Z. also suggested the best routes from the Hudson River into this area. Two British attacks, one in March and another in April, brought destruction and death. On March 23 there was a two pronged British incursion into Bergen County. One unit landed at Closter, marched through Pascack and Weirmus and at the Paramus Church scattered the revolutionary troops that were stationed at that site and attacked a picket near Hopperstown. A second unit struck from the south and inflicted extensive damage on Hackensack, including the burning of the county court house. Here they captured a number of Whig supporters. The invaders then advanced to the Paramus Church where they met the other British unit. When the British began their return march, the revolutionary soldiers regrouped and harassed the enemy along the route to New Bridge. There were casualties on both sides.

In the following month with the Third Pennsylvania Regiment at the Paramus/Hopperstown post, the English with 120 cavalry and 312 infantry launched another attack into that area. They overran a rebel picket stationed at the bridge over the Saddle River just below the Paramus Church. At Hopperstown, less than a mile south of the Hermitage, they surprised the Pennsylvania troops in their scattered lodgings and put a headquarters house under siege, finally burning the occupants out. The British shot the commander, Major Thomas Byles, and then plundered the area. Again the invaders were harassed by rebel soldiers on their march from Paramus to Fort Lee. Both sides suffered casualties, and the British took some fifty prisoners.

(Governor William Tryon to Lord Germain, New York Colonial Documents, VIII, 780m, # 89, Secret Intelligence, #s 13-18 in Klyberg, 4-13; NJA, Second Series, IV, 307-8; John C. Becica, The Revolutionary War in Ho-Ho-Kus: Military Encounters at Hoppertown/Paramus, 1776-1781, printed privately, 1998, 12-25; Jared Lobell, ed., "Action at Hopperstown: April 15, 1780," Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society LXXX, # 4, October 1962, 261-6; Jared Lobell, "Paramus in the War of the Revolution," Ibid., LXXVIII, July 1960, 162-177; Jared Lobell, "Hopperstown, April 16, 1780: A Note," New Jersey History, LXXXVIII, # 1, Spring 1970, 43-48; The New York Packet, and the American Advertiser, April 20, 1780, # 169, in NJ Archives, Second Series, Vol IV, 321; The New-York Gazette: and the Weekly Mercury, March 27, 1780, #1484, in Ibid., 252; Adrian Leiby, The Revolutionary War in the Hackensack Valley, Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, 1962, 191, 223-4, 327, 240-5, 247-51; Frederick Bogert, Paramus: A Chronicle of four Centuries, Paramus Free Public Library, Paramus, 1961, 52-56 )

Theodosia's June 1780 letter to Burr's sister Sally Reeves

In June 1780, Theodosia on learning that Burr's sister was ill wrote to her:

Your health, my Dear Madam, has given me the utmost concern and anxiety. Though I have not the happiness of a personal acquaintance, As the sister of my inestimable friend, you are justly entitled to my highest regard and attention....I flattered myself with the hope of seeing you with Mr. Reeve at the Hermitage....You will find a sympathizing friend who would feel a singular pleasure to be in the smallest degree conducive to your recovery, who would treat you with the familiarity of a sister that wishes to cultivate your friendship.  (Theodosia to Sally Reeves, June 16, 1780 (misdated 1770), Burr Family Papers, Yale University, in Lomask, 71; Wandell and Minnigrod, 86)

 

 

Letter from Troup

In an August 21 letter, Troup wrote to Burr:

When you come, remember to bring with you the book you took with you on our way to Paramus....I am greatly indebted to the good family (at the Hermitages) for their favourable sentiments, which, as I said once before, must proceed more from affection to you than what they find meritorious in me. I am certain, however, that their esteem for me cannot exceed mine for them, and this you will be kind enough to hint to them when you present my respectful compliments. Assure Dom. Tetard of my friendship for him.  (Troup to Burr, Rariton, August 21, 1780 in Davis, I, 209-10)

 

 

Paterson, in a letter to Burr on August 31, again pledges his service in Theodosia's behalf.

 

I hope you go on gaining strength, and that you will in a little while get the better of your disorder. The mind and the body affect each other extremely. To a person in your state, hilarity, cheerfulness, a serene flow of spirits, are better than all the drugs in a doctor?s shop. I hope you are not wanting in any of these. If you are, I cannot easily pardon you, because they are all within your power.

Make my compliments acceptable to the family at the Hermitage. I have a high regard for them, and sincerely wish their happiness. I really pity and admire Mrs. Prevost. Her situation demands a tear; her conduct and demeanour the warmest applause. Tell Mrs. Prevost that she must remember me among her friends; and that I shall be happy to render her all the service in my power.  (Paterson to Burr, Morristown, August 31, 1780 in Davis, I, 211-3; Lomask, 70-72; Documents Related to the Revolutionary History of the State of New Jersey, V, 1780-2, p. 124)

 

 

Inquistions

(Court of Common Pleas, State of New- Jersey, Bergen County, November 13, 1780, NJA, Second Series, vol V, 124)

A letter of advocacy by Troup to an unidentified person of influence in New Jersey

 

I feel irresistibly impelled by a perfect confidence in the intimacy subsisting between us to recommend to your kindest attention one of my female friends In distress. I mean Mrs. Prevost, who has been justly esteemed for her honor, virtue and accomplishments.... During the whole course of this war she has conducted herself in such a manner as proves her to possess an excellent understanding as well as a strong attachment to our righteous cause. My character of this lady is drawn partly from the information of the most respectable Whigs in the State. Impressed with those sentiments, I am not ashamed to confess that I feel an anxiety for her welfare....Without the least deviation from truth, I can affirm that Mrs. Prevost is a sincere and cordial well wisher to the success of our army, which will be an additional reason with you for showing her all the civilities in your power.  (Wandell and Minnigerode, Aaron Burr, I, 87-88)

 

Prevost's report

(Prevost to Amherst, July 26, 1780, Amherst Papers, PRO, in Lomax, p.70, 79-80)

Account of Peggy Shippen Arnold's Visit to The Hermitage

(Carl Van Doren, Secret History of the Revolution, New York , 1941, 250-51; Willard Randall, Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor, William Morrow, New York, 1990, 571-2).

Washington and Lafayette at Parmus, fall 1780

(Baker 193; Lobdell, "Paramus," 175-6; Lafayette to Washington, Paramus, November 28, 1780 in Gottschalk, The Letters of Lafayette to Washington, 130-31)

Burr and Thedosia's Two Sons

By the beginning of 1781 Theodosia's two young sons, Frederick and John, had returned from the south after their father's regiment in which they were ensigns had been reassigned to the Caribbean. Burr quickly took a liking to the boys and sought out an additional tutor for them. He tried, unsuccessfully, to interest a friend, Major R. Alden who after four years of service obtained a discharge from the army and was about to embark on the study of law.

Burr wrote:

The two boys I wish you to instruct are of the sweetest tempers and the softest hearts. A frown is the severest punishment they ever need. Four hours a day will, I think, be fully sufficient for their instruction....Your salary shall be a genteel maintenance....You shall have sixty Pounds, New-York currency, which is more than I expend here. You will find it impossible to spend a farthing except board and clothing....I propose bringing the boys here the beginning of April. Be here by then, if possible....My health is nearly established.  (Burr to Major R. Alden, Rariton, February 15, 1781 in Davis, I, 221-2)

 

 

Letters between Theodosia Prevost and Aaron Burr, February and June, 1781

In the February letter, Theodosia continued:

Your opinion of Voltaire pleases me, as it proves your judgement above being biased by the prejudices of others. The English, from national jealousy and enmity to the French, detract him. Divines, with more justice, as he exposes himself to their censure. It is even their duty to contemn his tenets; but, without being his disciple, we may do justice to his merit, and admire him as a judicious, ingenious author.

I will not say the same of your system of education. Rousseau has completed his work. The indulgence you applaud in Chesterfield is the only part of his writings I think reprehensible. Such lessons from so able a pen are dangerous to a young mind, and ought never to be read till the judgment and heart are established in virtue. If Rousseau's ghost can reach this quarter of the globe, he will certainly haunt you for this scheme - 'tis striking at the root of his design, and destroying the main purport of his admirable production. Les foiblesses de l'humanite, is an easy apology; or rather, a license to practice intemperance; and is particularly agreeable and flattering to such practitioners, as it brings the most virtuous on a level with vicious. But I am fully of opinion that it is a much greater chimera than the world are willing to acknowledge. Virtue, like religion, degenerates to nothing, because it is convenient to neglect her precepts. You have, undoubtedly, a mind superior to the contagion.

When all the world turn envoys, Chesterfield will be their proper guide. Morality and virtue are not necessary qualifications - those only are to be attended to that tend to the public weal. But when parents have no ambitious views, or rather, when they are of the more exalted kind, when they wish to form a happy, respectable member of society - a firm, pleasing support to their declining life, Emilius shall be the model. A man so formed must be approved by his Creator, and more useful to mankind than ten thousand modern beaux.

If the person whose kind partiality you mention is Paterson, I confess myself exceedingly flattered, as I entertain the highest opinion of the perspicuity of his judgment. Say all the civil things you please for his solicitous attention to my health. But if it should be Troup, which I think more probable, assure him of my most permanent gratitude.  Affectionately (Theodosia to Burr, Litchfield, February 12, 1781, in Davis, I, 224-5)

In March Theodosia wrote:

----Where can----be? Poor suffering soul; worthy of better fate. Heaven preserve him for his own sake; for his distressed mother's I pity her from my heart, and lament my inability to alleviate her sorrows. I invoke a better aid. May her "afflicted spirit find the only solace of it woes" religion, Heaven's greatest boon to man; the only distinction he ought to boast. In this he is lord of the creation; without it, the most pitiable of all created things.

How strangely we pass through life! All acknowledge themselves mortal and immortal; and yet prefer the trifles of to-day to the treasures of eternity. Piety teachers resignation. Resignation without piety loses its beauty, and sinks into insensibility. Your beautiful quotation is worth more than all I can write in a twelvemonth. Continue writing on the subject. It is both pleasing and improving. The better I am acquainted with it, the more charms I find. Worlds should not purchase the little I possess. I promise, myself many happy hours dedicated at the shrine of religion.

Yours, affectionately

(Theodosia to Burr, Litchfield, March 5, 1781, in Davis I, 225-6)

 

And in May:

You speak of my spirits as if they were at my command, or depressed only from perverseness of temper. In these you mistake. Believe me, you cannot wish their return more ardently than I do. I would this moment consent to become a public mendicant, could I be restored to the same tranquillity of mind I enjoyed this time twelvemonth.

The influence of my letters may have on your studies is imaginary. The idea is so trite that I was in hopes it was worn from your mind. My last year's trials are vouchers. I was always writing with a view to please you, and as often failed in the attempt. If a desire for my own happiness cannot restore me to myself, pecuniary motives never can. I wish you to study for your own sake; to ensure yourself respect and independence; to ensure us the comforts of life, when Providence designs to fit our hearts for the enjoyment. I shall never look forward with confidence till your pride extends to that. I had vainly flattered myself that pride was inseparable to true love. In your I find my error; but cannot renounce my idea of its being a necessary support to, and the only security for, permanent affection.

You see by the enclosed how ready my friends are to receive you, and promote your interest. I wish you may be fortunate in executing aunt Clarke's business. My health and spirits are neither better nor worse than when you left me. I thank you for your attention to Bird's prescription.

Adieu
(Theodosia to Burr, Litchfield, May 1781, in Davis, I, 226-7)

 

Likewise in May, Theodosia, after a visit with the Reeves, wrote to Sally's husband, Tapping:

I lament with you the indisposition of our dear Sally. If a tender feeling for her sufferings, a most ardent wish for her recovery, & your mutual happiness, are a recommendation to your esteem, I have an undoubted claim.  (Theodosia to Tapping Reeve, may 29, 1781, Tapping Reeve Papers, Yale University, in Schachner, 75)

 

On June 5, Burr in a letter from Albany on business to Theodosia, comments on a number of somewhat disguised (probably because of the unreliability of hand delivered mail) persons and on some aspects of life in general)

Uniformity of conduct and great appearance of moderation are all that can be put in practice immediately. The maxim of a man whom neither of us esteem very highly is excellent on this occasion “suaviter in modo, fortiter in re.” See, my dear Theodosia, what you bring upon yourself by having once piddled a Latin. The maxim, however, would bear sheets of comment and days of reflection....

The mind is truly great which can bear with equanimity the trifling and unavoiidable vexations of life, and be affected only by those events which determine our substantial bliss. Every period, and every Situation, has a portion of these trifling crosses; and those who expect to avoid them all, or conquer them all, must be wretched without respite.

Yours
(Burr to Theodosia, Albany, June 1781 in Davis, I, 230-1)

 

 

Letters between Theodosia Prevost and Aaron Burr in December 1781

Through December 1781 Burr indicated in almost daily short notes for Theodosia some of his activities and inactivities, some of his frustration, aspects of his character that mixed solicitude and an inclination to domineer, and through all a cementing of his relationship with her.

A day completely lost, and I, of course, in ill humour with every thing but thee (4th)....

A sick headache this whole day....I thought, through the whole day, that if you could sit by me, and stroke my head with your little hand, it would be well; and that, when we are formally united, far from deeming a return of this disorder un malheur, I should esteem it a fortunate apology for a day of luxurious indulgence, which I should not otherwise allow myself or you (5th)

These two days past I have been studying the second volume of Rousseau....How could we forget Latimer? He sung Theodosia’s praise among the southern army in terms which her best friends must be pleased....An old, weather-beaten lady, Miss Depeyster, has given the whole history of Burr, and much of Theo, but nothing unfavourable. In a place where Burr thought himself a stranger, there is scarce any age or sex that does not, either from information or acquaintance, know something of him....I am surprised I forgot to advise you to get a Franklin fireplace. They have not the inconvenience of stoves, are warm, save wood, and never smoke....I am in doubt whether it will be best to have it in the common room or one of the back rooms. The latter will have many advantages. You may then have a place sacred to love, reflection, and books. This, however, as you find best....It is of the first importance that you suffer as little as possible the present winter. It may, in a great measure, determine your health ever after. I confess I have still some transient distrusts that you set too little value on your own life and comfort. Remember, it is not yours alone....I am not certain I shall be regularly punctual in writing you in this manner every day when I get at business; but I shall, if possible, devote one quarter of an hour a day to you. In return, I demand one half of an hour every day from you; more I forbid, unless on special occasions. This half hour is to be mine, to be invariably at the same time, and, for that purpose, fixed at an hour least liable to interruption, and as you shall find most convenient. Mine cannot be so regular, as I only indulge myself in it when I am fatigued with business. The children will have each their sheet, and, at the given hour, write, if but a single word Burr. (6th)

I keep always a memorandum for you, on which, when I think of any thing at any time of day that I wish to write, I make a short note in a manner which no other person would understand. When I sit down to write I have nothing to do but look at my memorandum . I would recommend the same to you, unless you rather choose to write at the moment when you think of anything....The Springs are but twenty eight miles from Albany; I will meet you there. (7th)

I have been looking over Rousseau’s 4th volume. I imagine ____ gathered thence his sentiments on the subject of jealousy. It so, he has grossly mistaken the ideas of Rousseau. Do you discover a symptom of it? Far otherwise. You see only confidence and love. That jealousy for which you are an advocate, he condemns as appertaining to brutes and sensualists. Discard, I beseech you, ideas so degrading to true love. (On another point Burr quotes Rousseau with approval) “ How cordially do men prize them, when a woman knows how to render them estimable.” (8th)

When you reads my letters I wish you would make minutes at the time of such facts as require an answer; for, if you trust your memory till the time of writing, you will omit half you would otherwise say. (10th)

Van Rensselaer...proves to be a phenomenon of goodness and (can you believe it) even tenderness. Tenderness, I hear you cry, in a Hoolandois! But hold your injustice; the character and fine heart of Van Rensselaer will, I think, in future, remove your prejudice, especially when you add to this his marked attention and civility. (11th)

Van Rensselaer has succeed perfectly to my wish. I am with two maiden, aunts of his, obliging and (incredible!!) good natured. (13th)

Since I left you, I have not taken pen in hand without intending to write you. (14th)

I perceive this letter-writing will not answer; though I write very little, it is still half my business; for whenever I find myself either at a loss what to do, or any how discomposed or dull, I fly to these sheets, and even if I do not write, I ponder upon it, and in this way sacrifice many hours without reflecting that time passes away. (16th)  (Burr to Theodosia, December 3 to 16, 1781, in Davis, I, 232-238)

 

On December 23rd Burr wrote a longer letter to Theodosia. He combined compliments and irritations, caring and seemingly unfeeling criticism. These may well be the expressions of one experiencing frustrations in Albany and also one facing a number of new beginnings.

My Dear Theodosia is now happy by the arrival of Carlos. This was not wishing you a happy Christmas, but actually making it so....I see mingle in the transports of the evening the frantic little Bartow. Too eager to embrace the bliss he has in prospect; frustrating his own purposes by inconsiderate haste; misplacing every thing, and undoing what he meant to do....

You wrote me too much by Dom. I hope it was not from a fear that I should be dissatisfied with less. It is, I confess, rather singular to find fault with the quantity, when matter and manner are so delightful. You must, however, deal less in sentiments and more in ideas....I think constantly of the approaching change in our affairs, and what it demands. Do not let us, like children, be so taken with the prospect as to lose sight of the means.

Remember to write me facts and ideas, and don’t torment me with compliments, or yourself with sentiments to which I am already no stranger.... I do not know for what reason, Theodosia, but I cannot feel my usual anxiety about your health, though I know you to be ill, and dangerously so. One reason is, that I have more belief in your attention to yourself.

Your idea about the water was most delightful. It kept me awake a whole night, and led to a train of thoughts and sensations which cannot be described. Indeed, the whole of your letter was marked with a degree of confidence and reliance which augurs every thing that is good. The French letter was truly elegant....

Pardon me for not answering your last. My mind is so engrossed by new views and expectations, that I cannot disengage it. I have not, these five days past, slept more than two hours a night, and yet feel refreshed and well. Your presentiments of my illness on a certain evening were wide from truth; believe me, you have no talent that way. Leave it to others.

I think, if you keep Carlos two nights, it will serve; but keep him longer rather than fatigue yourself. Carlos was Burr’s personal slave.
(Burr to Theodosia, December 23, 1781, Albany, in Davis, I, 241-3)

 

 

Theodosia and Aaron learn of death of Theodosia’s husband James Marcus Prevost

(Catherine De Visme to Burr, December 30, 1781, Paramus Gratz collection, HSP and Royal Gazette (New York City), December 19, 1781, both in Lomask, 79)

Theodosia’s and Aaron’s marriage certificate

(in Worthington Ford, “Some Papers of Aaron Burr,” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society, New Series, vol 29, April 1919, 92)

Letter from Theodosia to Sally Reeves July 1782
(Theodosia to Sally Reeves, Albany, July, NJHS, quoted in W & M, 98-9)

Letter from Governor William Livingston to Aaron Burr, July 1782

(Richard Stillwell, 104-5; W & M, 99)