Tory popularity declines
Part 2
After the Lexington and Concord battle the committee of One Hundred called for a convention and appointed yet another committee (of 60 members) to rule the county during the revolution. They called for 28 total companies of militia from the various communities. The Dusenberry Tavern was located near Peekskill in the upper western part of the county near to the Hudson. The local militia captain was Col. Pierre Van Cortlandt of Cortlandt manor whose heavily populated area was called upon to supply 8 companies.
The Committee of Sixty appointed a committee of Inspection and Observation to keep an eye on the Loyalist population. Beginning in May of ‘75, they actively enforced the ‘General Association’. The association was a type of loyalty oath passed by Congress for people to sign and swear allegiance to the cause of non-importation against the tea tax. Congress requested each county report a list of those who failed to sign. Those who did refuse could count on having all their personal property seized and faced a very good chance of a firsthand tar and feather experience. Within a few months, all ‘non-associators’ would be disarmed and labled as “enemies to their country”.
Loyalist authors equated subservience to the committee as slavery. Rev. Seabury wrote, “Will you submit to them should they be chosen by the weak, foolish, turbulent part of the country people? Do as you please; but by him who made me, I will not. No, if I must be enslaved, let it be by a king at least and not by a parcel of upstart, lawless committee-men.”
As if to prove the Westchester Farmer’s impact on the county, only 3 companies of men turned out for militia service and they proved of little use beyond making life miserable for the local tories. They routinely searched the homes of loyalists for weapons and evidence of sedition but rarely balked at taking whatever else might be handy. Perhaps some clothing or furniture the committee men could seize by claiming recent manufacture in Britain and therefore against the boycotts.
Alarmed by the strength of Loyalism in Westchester county (likely a majority of the people were Loyalists), the mob leader from New York city, Isaac Sears, led a group of men to West Chester community and kidnapped the parson Seabury, Judge Fowler, and Lord Underhill, all known leaders among the loyalists. A few guards took the hostages off to prison in Connecticut, while the remaining mob members carried forward to destroy the printing presses and shops known to produce pamphlets not flattering to the cause of Independence.
Jails in New York, Connecticutt, and Massachusetts were soon overrun with Loyalists. So much so the committee began paroling anyone willing to sign an oath or ‘associate’. All Tories were ordered disarmed and kept under watch. Anyone not outspoken enough about the cause carried a certificate to show they had taken a loyalty oath or were free on parole.
Little is known of Stephen Dusenberry during these years but the Dusenberry Tavern near Van Cortlandt Manor lay very close to the sight of several secret (but known thru informants) loyalist gatherings. Stephen should have been in his middle 20s at the time and was assuredly very interested in the current events. A number of his neighbors had been recently incarcerated by order of the committee but, oddly enough, had been given over to the care of the county sheriff who was the notorious tory leader, James Delancey. Secret meetings had been held and preparations were under way to organize loyalist militia units as soon as the British army could arrive. French & Indian War hero Robert Rogers organized the first group of rangers for use in upstate campaigns.
On July 9, 1776, Independence was declared in New York with much celebration and, at least in the eyes of the loyalists, much rioting and lawlessness. Almost at the same moment, the British landed on long island in preparation for the battles of New York.
Elijah