January
Some people in New York City freeze to death for want of firewood.
Jan 29
A record five-week cold spell bottoms out at -20° at Hartford,
Connecticut, and 16° in New York City. New York's harbor is
frozen over.
Feb 1
New York State cedes all of its western lands to Congress.
Feb 22
Surveyor William Peacock is born near New York City.
April
A spy named Huddlestone is hanged at Poughkeepsie by U. S. forces.
Apr 2
Captain Alexander Harper, leading a 14-man force (including brothers
Freegift and Isaac Patchin, Ezra Thorp and lieutenant Henry Thorp)
from the Schoharie region, arrives near the head of the Delaware
in search of Loyalists and to make maple syrup. A snow storm dumps
three feet on them.
May
Loyalist John Cumming and his family arrive in New York City from
the northern part of the colony, to take ship for Scotland. **
Stores in the Chatham area are reported to be about out of supplies.
Continental currency is depleted.
Jun 8
Sir Henry Clinton and Major André return to New York, leaving
General Cornwallis in charge of the southern campaign.
July
A new tavern opens near the Tea Water Pump, north of the eastern
outlet of the Fresh Water (Collect) Pond.
Aug 3
General George Washington gives Benedict Arnold the command at
West Point.
Sep 18
Minister to Spain John Jay writes to New Yorker Egbert Benson,
calls citizens, seeking liberty while denying it to blacks, impious.
Sep 20
Major John Andre and Benedict Arnold meet at Haverstraw and plot
the betrayal of West Point to the British.
Sep 23
André is captured by three irregulars in Tarrytown, revealing
Arnold's plot.
Sep 25
Arnold narrowly escapes capture, on the British ship Vulture.
Oct 2
Major André is hanged by the rebels as a spy on Garret
Smith's farm near Tappan. Avon, New York, physician Timothy Hosmer
pronounces André dead.
Oct 25
Future New York City mayor Philip Hone is born on Dutch Street.
December
James Whitelaw writes to his sponsor, the Scots American Company
of Farmers recommending they liquidate their holdings in Ryegate,
Vermont. ** William Coon is chosen preacher of the Seventh Day
Baptist Church in North Berlin; it's the first church in the Rennselaer
County Town of Berlin.
Dec 14
Alexander Hamilton marries Elizabeth Schuyler in Albany.
City
A two-month spring drought affects the city. ** The city council
calls for the dumping of all garbage into Beekman's Swamp, on
the east side, north of today's Fulton Street.
State
George Washington's Newburgh headquarters, the Jonathan Hasbrouck
House, is demolished. ** British forces under Sir John Johnson
and Joseph Brant attack the settlement at Schoharie, are beaten
off. ** Indians settle in the area of the future Buffalo. ** The
Council House at Caneadea is built by British troops from Fort
Niagara for the Seneca. ** Joseph Brant and his prisoner Captain
Alexander Harper pass through the Genesee Valley on their way
from Schoharie to Niagara. ** Connewango pioneer Rufus Wyllys
is born in Massachusetts. ** Moses Hale, MD, first Secretary of
the Renssalaer School, is born. ** The legislature agrees to set
aside bounty lands for veterans. ** Ship's captain William Henry
Stewart is born in Inverness, Scotland. ** Indians attack the
Van Campen farm in Northumberland, Pennsylvania, kill the father
and younger son. They capture the older brother Moses along with
two other white men and carry them all off to the Genesee Valley.
** The Washington County Town of Hebron gets its first church,
an Associated Reformed Presbyterian, with the Reverend Dr. Gray
as pastor. ** A second Militia Act revision requires Associated
Exempts, militia members between the ages of 50 and 60, to cross
state borders if necessary. The amount Quakers have to pay for
conscientious exemption is raised from £10 to £80.
Public school teachers are made exempt if actively hired for a
full year. ** Sir John Johnson takes Caughnawaga and Canajoharie.
** Washington has his headquarters at Tappantown for a while.
** The state legislature meets for the first time in Albany. **
Ontario County's population reaches 1,075. ** The Beach family,
Connecticut transplants to Otsego, discover a large chest holding
three spinning wheels, hidden by fleeing Loyalists.
Mar 1
New York presents its western lands to Congress, which uses them
to provide Pennsylvania with a corridor to Lake Erie.
April
Washington approves plans to build a prison on Pollopel Island
in the Hudson. Nothing comes of the plan. ** The Vermont legislature
calls for a convention be held at Cambridge the following month,
to decide whether parts of New York's Albany County should be
united with Vermont.
May
58 Scots immigrants petition Governor Clinton for permission to
return to Scotland. He refuses permission.
Aug 3
A Ryegate general meeting decides to begin the liquidation of
the Scots American Company's holdings.
Aug 12
Rochambeau breaks camp at Newport, Rhode Island, and sets out
to join Washington in White Plains.
Aug 20
Congress orders New York State to relinquish her claims to present-day
Vermont.
Aug 21
Washington leads Clinton to believe that New York City will be
attacked, then moves toward Philadelphia and later to Virginia.
Sep 9
A second French fleet arrives off the Chesapeake. Admiral Graves
takes his fleet toward New York.
Oct 19
Cornwallis and his 17,000 troops surrender at Yorktown, Virginia.
Oct 24
Washington wants to attack New York, but the French want to leave
American waters.
November
New York public records are unloaded from the British ship Duchess
of Gordon, where they had been placed for safekeeping in December
of 1775, at New York City. Many of them are badly damaged.
State
Cornplanter, Red Jacket and Handsome Lake help Johnson massacre
Mohawk Valley settlers. ** John Lansing is elected to the state
assembly. ** Lawyer George Hosmer is born to Avon doctor and judge
Timothy Hosmer and his wife. ** Unclaimed military lands and land
between Seneca and Cayuga lakes fall under a survey grid plan
of seven square -mile townships and 500 acre plots.
North Carolina
Merchant and veteran Nathaniel Rochester moves to Hagerstown,
Maryland, where he sets up a nail factory, a flour mill and a
ropewalk.
England
Scots captain Charles Williamson sells his commission and travels
to America, with letters of introduction to General Cornwallis.
He's captured at sea by the Yankee ship Marquis of Salem
and spends the rest of the war living with the family of Ebenezer
Newell at Roxbury, Massachusetts. He will marry the daughter Abigail
Newell.
Feb 24
Rochester tinsmith and village treasurer Ebenezer Watts, Jr.,
is born in Boston, Massachusetts.
March
Early Connewango settler Benjamin Darling is born in Windsor,
Vermont.
Mar 26
The Columbia County town of Hillsdale is formed from Claverack.
Apr 16
George Washington establishes his headquarters at Newburgh.
June
The 4th Massachusetts Regiment of Foot, with Private Shurtleff
(a disguised Deborah Sampson), leaves Worcester, Massachusetts,
to march to West Point, New York. ** A party of British and Indians
arrive at Chautauqua Lake to build a dam across the outlet, create
a flood and sweep down the Alleghany River to attack Fort Pitt.
July
The force on Chautauqua Lake leaves without attempting their attack.
** The New Military Tract is formed from Indian lands, to award
to Revolutionary War veterans.
Jul 2
In a double wedding New York lawyer Aaron Burr marries widow Theodosia
Bartow Prevost at the Hermitage in Paramus, New Jersey, as her
half-sister Catherine de Visme marries British-born doctor Joseph
Browne.
October
Retreating British troops destroy Fort Number 8 at Fordham, the
Bronx.
Oct 29
Congress accepts New York State's western lands.
Dec 5
Martin Van Buren is born in Kinderhook, to Abraham and Maria Hoes
Van Buren, becoming the first president born in the United States.
City
When wells run dry Hessian soldiers dig forty-foot holes in an
unsuccessful attempt to find water. ** State senator Myndert Van
Schaick is born.
State
Ebenezer "Indian" Allan, former lieutenant in the British
Indian Department under Sir John Johnson, leads a raiding party
into Sussex County, New Jersey. He retreats to Gardeau Flats,
on the Genesee River near Mount Morris, for the winter and is
assigned to watch the movements of the Seneca and the settlers.
** The approximate date Charles Willson Peale paints financier
Robert Morris's portrait. ** A third revision is made to the 1778
Militia Act. Quakers are required to pay £10 for exemption
from all military service. Gaolers are once again made exempt.
** Otsego County landholder John Morton dies of apoplexy one week
after his New Jersey home is plundered by thieves. ** Hudson Valley
aristocrat Stephen Van Rensselaer graduates from Harvard. ** George
Washington visits Schenectady, worships at the First Reformed
Church.
Jan 6
Officers at Newburgh petition Congress for back pay.
Jan 14
General William Alexander, Lord Stirling, dies in Albany.
March
The New York legislature passes an act to aid those wishing to
settle in central New York.
Mar 10
Anonymous U. S. officers issue the Newburgh Addresses, threatening
to mutiny if they don't begin receiving back pay.
Mar 11
Washington forbids meetings of discontented officers at Newburgh.
Mar 12
The officers reassert the validity of their claims. Washington
condemns the tone of the Newburgh Addresses.
Mar 15
Washington, recognizing the validity of their arguments, urges
dissatisfied army officers to trust in Congress to see that they
are paid.
Mar 16
General Greene expresses the fear that discontent may spread to
southern officers.
Mar 22
Congress votes officer compensation.
Mar 30
Washington advises the Newburgh officers of Congress' favorable
decision.
Apr 3
Washington Irving is born in New York City to merchant Deacon
William Irving and Sarah Sanders Irving.
Apr 16
General Jedediah Huntington recommends a military academy at West
Point.
Apr 23
British general Sir Guy Carleton requests Congress' aid in evacuating
New York City.
Apr 24
Congress appoints three commissioners to aid Carleton.
Apr 26
7,000 Loyalists leave New York City for Canada and Europe.
May 9
The first British prisoners are released, in New York City.
May 13
Commissioned army officers, including general Henry Knox, organize
the Society of Cincinnati, at Newburgh.
May 22
A skirmish between British and U. S. ships in New York Harbor
is narrowly averted.
Jun 13
Washington disbands his army, at Newburgh.
Jul 12
New York City museum owner Gardner Baker marries Mary Wrighton.
Jul 21
The British 7th Regiment stages a ceremonial review in New York
City.
Aug 10
Major Benjamin Mooers and seven associates settle at Point au
Roche on Lake Champlain. The site will become the Clinton County
town of Beekmantown.
Aug 21
The deadline for Loyalists to receive permission to evacuate New
York.
Sep 3
Great Britain and the U. S. sign the peace treaty in Paris. Great
Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, at Versailles,
ceding Florida to Spain. Spain returns the Bahamas to England.
France returns Minorca and Montserrat, in the Leeward Islands,
to Great Britain, which also receives Saint Kitts-Nevis. The northern
boundary of New York State is confirmed as the 45th parallel.
Great Lakes boundary lines are set. Great Britain cedes most of
the Alabama and Wisconsin areas to the United States. Britain
and the U. S. receive navigation rights on the Mississippi River.
Sep 27
Visiting surveyor Robert Lettis Hooper, Jr. writes to Philadelphia
acquaintance James Wilson from Albany, describing the land hunger
and high amounts of speculation in the region.
Sep 29
A band of arsonists is discovered trying to torch several New
York City buildings.
Oct 8
George Washington asks Congress to limit the West Point garrison
to 500 troops.
Oct 14
Governor George Clinton expresses impatience with delays in the
final treaty.
November
The Peggy sails out of Staten Island for Nova Scotia, with
many ex-slaves aboard. ** Twenty-year-old John Jacob Astor embarks
from London on the (North) Carolina for New York with a
consignment of his company's flutes.
Nov 20
Washington announces the formal discharge of enlisted men at Newburgh.
** Eleanor Lytle is reunited with her parents Sarah and John at
Oswaya.
Nov 21
The British complete their withdrawal from northern Manhattan.
Nov 24
Washington meets with General Carleton to finalize New York evacuation
plans.
Nov 25
The final regiments of the British army leave New York. In the
future the day will be celebrated as Evacuation Day. George Washington
enters the city on horseback along with governor George Clinton
and others. Thirteen guns are fired as the rebel flag is raised.
The day concludes with a public dinner at Fraunces Tavern.
Nov 30
A small, loud earthquake measuring the equivalent of 5.3 on today's
Richter Scale strikes the area around Morris County, New Jersey,
and is felt as far away as New York City.
December
The British arrest Ebenezer "Indian" Allen, imprisoning
him first at Fort Niagara, then at Montréal and Kingston.
Dec 2
A fireworks display is held in New York City.
Dec 3
The New York Gazetteer begins publication.
Dec 4
Washington bids farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in
New York City, leaves for Mt. Vernon. ** The British evacuate
Long Island and Staten Island.
State
Andrew Brock becomes assessor for Ryegate. Whitelaw is named deputy
to Vermont's surveyor general and quits his post as Ryegate's
assessor. ** Quaker merchants found the town of Hudson. ** The
town of Veedersburg (Amsterdam) is founded. ** Future Syracuse
pioneer Comfort Tyler becomes a surveyor and schoolteacher at
Caughnawego, on the Mohawk. ** Ebenezer "Indian" Allen
carries messages between the Iroquois and British prisoner Rev.
Joseph Bull, a Moravian missionary held in Philadelphia, fostering
a peace plan. Allen moves from Gardeau Flats along the Genesee
River to nearby Mount Morris, where he opens a trading post. **
Horticulturist Alexander Walsh is born. ** General Washington
visits Albany, is given freedom of the city. ** The Indian Committee
of the Continental Congress urges that the tribes surrender part
of their lands to the U. S. as part of a final peace agreement.
The New York Assembly advocates expelling all Iroquois tribes
that sided with the British, and moving the Oneidas and Tuscaroras
to then-vacated Seneca lands in the western part of the state.
** Whig settlers begin returning to Otsego County. Traveler Richard
Smith passes Cokhouse, on the upper Delaware, reports that the
new white settlers there are inferior to Indians. ** Peter Schuyler
constructs a bridle path from his estate on the Hudson to the
Saratoga springs. ** George Washington attempts to purchase the
Saratoga springs.
Geography
New York and Massachusetts appoint commissions to settle the final
boundary between them, but no consensus is reached. ** Qualifications
for veterans of the Revolution for the acquisition of lands in
the New Military Tract are established. They range from 500 acres
for a private to 5,500 acres for a major general.
Loyalists
As many as 32,000 may have fled the U. S. by this date, a third
New Yorkers.
January
The approximate date New York City's Hardenbrook family announces
they will be selling the Tea Water Pump property by April.
Jan 24
The city becomes the capital of New York State. Colonial public
records will be moved here from Poughkeepsie.
February
The (North) Carolina arrives in Chesapeake Bay from England,
becomes frozen in the ice. Eventually some passengers walk ashore
across the ice. ** New York City passes a fire prevention
law. Water carriers are not mentioned in the legislation, rendering
it useless.
Feb 22
The Empress of China sails from New York City with a cargo
of ginseng, seeking to open trade with China. The cargo will sell
for $30,727.
March
John Jacob Astor gives in and walks ashore from the (North)
Carolina. He sets out for New York overland.
Mar 15
The Bank of New York is organized, the first bank incorporated
in the state.
April
The Hardenbrooks fail to find a buyer as they had originally planned.
Apr 2
The name of Tryon County is changed to Montgomery County. It's
divided into five districts - Canajoharie, German Flats, Kingsland,
Mohawk and Palatine. ** Charlotte County is renamed Washington
County.
Apr 6
The state legislature passes An Act to Provide for the Incorporation
of Religious Societies. ** The legislature passes a
bill authorizing £200 for repairs to the Kings County courthouse/jail
in Flatbush, Brooklyn, which was damaged by the British.
May 6
The southern part of Westchester County is taxed £2,000
to pay expenses of the Revolution.
May 11
The state creates Commissioners of the Land Office to control
bounty lands transactions resulting from the Revolution.
June
New York City butcher Henry Astor marries Dorothea Pessenger,
daughter of a Fly Marker meat seller.
Jun 9
The Bank of New York opens, in New York City.
Jul 17
The approximate date John Jacob Astor crosses over by ferry from
New Jersey to Manhattan.
Jul 25
Rochester merchant Silas O. Smith is born in New Marlboro, Massachusetts.
August
Christopher Colles returns to New York City, claiming £450
from the common council for work on the water supply system. He
will receive £300 in about two-and-a-half years.
Aug 26
Albany's Lutheran church is reorganized.
Sep 20
John Jacob Astor advertises German flutes in the New York Packet.
October
A group of property lots between the Tea Pump and the Collect
Pond is advertised for sale. ** Lieutenant Ebenezer "Indian"
Allen, freed by the British, is dismissed on half pay from their
Indian Department.
Oct 5
Dr. John Henry Livingston is appointed professor of theology by
the Dutch Reformed Church Synod, establishing the first theological
seminary in America, in New York City.
Oct 22
The Six Nations of the Iroquois sign the Treaty of Fort Stanwix
(Rome), surrender all
claims to the Northwest territory in exchange for protection of
an Indian zone in western and central New York, western Pennsylvania
and eastern Ohio, from whites. To help protect local Indian lands
the state constitution will forbid the sale of their lands to
individuals.
Oct 25
Rochester botanist, minister and educator Chester Dewey is born
in Sheffield, Massachusetts.
November
The state legislature, meeting in New York City, hears a plan
by Christopher Colles for improving Mohawk River navigation. He
intends to bypass the Cohoes Falls with a 4 1/2 mile-long canal
with 20 locks. Nothing comes of the plan.
Nov 2
Griffith Evans, traveling along the Susquehanna River, visits
Otsego Lake, is impressed.
Dec 17
North Tarrytown is incorporated as a village within the Town of
Mount Pleasant.
City
Lawyer James Duane, just out of Congress, is appointed mayor
for each of the next five one-year terms. ** Christopher
Colles petitions the city council for £600, for himself
and contractors, for the reservoir, well and pumping engine for
his waterworks. ** The council reinstates street cleaning
regulations from before the war and appoints three commissioners
to oversee compliance, but the laws prove insufficient. **
Authorities appoint a committee to lay out streets around the
Collect Pond.
State
The legislature moves to New York City. ** The University
of the State of New York is formed. ** A Mrs. Farmer, grand-daughter
of Dutch governor Jacob Leisler, donates portraits of Christopher
Columbus, to be hung in Albany's State House. ** American
Revolution heroine Sybil Ludington marries a lawyer and moves
from Fredericksberg to Unadilla. ** Simeon De Witt is named
State Engineer and Surveyor. ** Future governor Enos Thompson
Throop is born in Johnstown to George B. and Abiah Throop.
** Benjamin Keyes purchases land from Oliver Phelps that will
soon become East Bloomfield. ** The Long Island town of
North Hempstead is taken off Hempstead. ** The state legislature
fines Long Island for slacking off during the American Revolution.
** The township size in Jessup's Patent and in unappropriated
state lands is reduced from 7 square miles to 6. Lot size remains
at 500 acres. ** "Mother" Ann Lee, founder of
the Shakers, dies at the Watervliet colony, in her late forties.
** A commission is put into place to obtain title to Indian
lands. ** Connecticut resident Hugh White settles on the
Mohawk River at Sedaghquate (the village of Whitesboro in the
future Oneida County Town of Whitestown). He's the first European
settler in the whole territory between German Flats and the Niagara
frontier. ** New England squatters begin moving into the
Otsego area this year and next. ** The Beach family, Connecticut
transplants to Otsego, discover a large chest holding three spinning
wheels, hidden by fleeing Loyalists. ** French diplomat
François Barbé de Marbois begins traveling through
the U. S., spending the next five years exploring the new nation,
with an emphasis on the Iroquois.
Maryland
Nathaniel Rochester and Thomas Hart begin a flour milling business
at Hagerstown.
Massachusetts
The state petitions Congress to resolve their land dispute with
New York State.
@2005 David Minor / Eagles Byte