FOREWORD.

TH

HE pages that follow are the outgrowth of the writer's wish that all who are interested may have, in readily accessible form, the information that he has gathered concerning Rev. John Moffat and his descendants.

Errors in a work of this kind are inevitable, and their correction will be gladly welcomed. And should anyone to whom these pages may come have information, from family records or otherwise, which should have been included in this edition but was not, it is sincerely hoped that such information will be communicated to the writer to the end that a larger knowledge of those who have gone before may be preserved for those who are to come hereafter.

63 WALL STREET, NEW YORK,

December 31, 1909.

R. B. M.

TH

PART I.

The locus in quo.

HE first twelve counties of the Province of New York were established in 1683 and included the counties of Ulster and Orange; but from the earliest period of English rule until shortly after the Revolution, civil divisions of outlying territory throughout the province were known as "precincts." The precinct was not the forerunner of the "town," for the town, as such, was recognized as a unit of government in New York, in the "Duke's Laws," as early as 1665. The precinct comprised a number of scattered settlements with intervening territory, which were originally identified with some comparatively nearby town or village for the purposes of assessment and local government; and the outlying settlements might thus, in a sense, be said to be within the precincts of the town or village to which they were respectively attached.

At first of a sparse and widely scattered population, the area of the precinct was large and its boundaries were not clearly defined; but as population increased and the need of closer affiliation for the purposes of government became more pressing, the earlier precincts would be subdivided into smaller ones, with boundaries more clearly defined, and these in turn would be further subdivided and new precincts created from them as need might from time to time arise. The distinction, however, between the town, to which the precinct was attached, and the town itself came in later years to be a distinction more of name than of substance; and in 1788 the precinct, as such, passed from the statute books.

The Precinct of the Highlands was established in 1743 and included all that part of Ulster County which lay along the Hudson River between the mouth of Murderer's Creek' (see

From its junction with Cromeline Creek east to the Hudson, wrote the late E. M. Ruttenber in 1881, in his History of Orange County (page 69), the Otterkill loses its name and is called Murderer's Creek -softened in more recent years by the poet Willis to Moodna Creek. It was known as the "Murderer's Creek," as early as 1656. Historians differ as to why it was so called, some regarding it as pointing to an early Indian massacre, others being equally certain that it came from its earlier Dutch name of Martelaer's Rack.

map) and New Paltz, and extended westerly to the precincts of Wallkill and Shawangunk. Its southerly boundary was the dividing line between the counties, as then constituted, of Ulster and Orange, being approximately the same line as is shown on the map as the southern boundary of the present town of New Windsor and its extension westerly.

In 1762, the precinct of the Highlands was divided into the Precinct of New Burgh and the Precinct of New Windsor, the dividing line commencing at the mouth of Quassaick Creek (see map) and continuing westerly along substantially the same line as now separates the towns of Newburgh and New Windsor, and continuing on through what is now the town of Montgomery to the precinct of Wallkill.

The Precinct of Wallkill was divided, in 1772, into two parts, the westerly part retaining the name of Wallkill and the easterly being called the Precinct of Hanover. But the inhabitants of the easterly part were filled with loyalty to the patriot cause, and wishing to evidence their detestation of things British as well as their appreciation of the heroic services of General Richard Montgomery, caused the name of their precinct to be changed, in 1782, from the Precinct of Hanover to the Precinct of Montgomery; and so it remained until 1788 when the word "precinct" was abandoned, and the precincts already mentioned were erected as towns under the names, respectively, of Newburgh, New Windsor, Montgomery and Wallkill. All four lay within the limits of Ulster County, as then constituted, and continued so until 1798 when, by act passed on April 5th of that year, they were taken from Ulster and annexed to the county of Orange.

The town of Crawford was created out of the town of Montgomery in 1823; and the town of Hamptonburgh was created in 1830 from parts of Goshen, Blooming Grove, New Windsor, Montgomery and Wallkill.

Within the original limits of Orange County, the Precinct of Goshen included, up to 1764, all that territory shown on the map as the present towns of Highland, Cornwall, Blooming