to ignore the popular demand, and he acquiesced as gracefully as circumstances would permit.

Four days later, the 9th of July, the Provincial Congress convened in the Court House at White Plains, Westchester County; but there were no deputies from Richmond County in attendance. At this meeting the Declaration of Independence was received and read. It was also officially reported that "the British had taken possession of Staten Island without opposition, and detachments had advanced toward Bergen Point and Elizabeth-Town." The Declaration having been read, it was unanimously adopted, and the Congress passed a resolution to support the same, "at the risk of our lives and fortunes." It was ordered to be published. It was then

"Resolved and Ordered, that the style or title of this House be changed from that of the Provincial Congress of the Colony of New York,' to that of The Convention of the Representatives of the State of New York.'"

6

The convention recognized the impracticability of electing senators and members of assembly in the southern district of the State, Westchester County excepted; but as it was

reasonable and right that the people of the district should be entitled to representation in legislation, they proceeded to appoint these officers. Joshua Mersereau and Abraham Jones were appointed for Richmond County; but the latter was subsequently denied his seat, on account of his sympathy for the en

emy.

GENERAL WILLIAM HOWE.

After this the county does not appear to have been represented in the Legislature of the Colony or State for a long time. There were representatives who were entitled to their seats; but they were not permitted to leave the Island. Communication with the mainland or with New York or Long Island, was prohibited, forbidden, except by permission, and consequently in the succeeding sessions of the Legislature the name of a representative from Richmond does not appear.

Sir William Howe and his generals read the Declaration of Independence in the old Rose and Crown farm-house, at New Dorp. A staff officer, writing of the incident to a friend in England at the time, said:

"I was sitting beside his Excellency, who was engaged in earnest conversation about building redoubts at various points on the Island. General Cleveland, who had, on the day previous, been appointed the chief engineer of His Majesty's army in America, was designating certain points which he deemed practicable to defend. Two or three

locations had been pointed out, when General Vaughan approached in a somewhat excited manner, so as to attract the instant attention of all present, and without even stopping to salute his superior officer, handed him a newspaper.

"Sir William at first seemed a little amused at General Vaughan's unusual condition-for he was one of the coolest of men-and smiled greatly when he read the heading in the newspaper: Declaration of Independence.' He read a paragraph or so, and his expression changed to one of marked seriousness. Then handing the paper over to General Cleveland, requested him to read it aloud, which he did.

"Sir William fixed his gaze down across the tented fields that spread out between headquarters and the bay and remained perfectly silent until fully a moment after the reading was finished.

"Then breaking the deep silence he said in a subdued tone: Those are certainly determined men.'

"A slight wave of the hand, indicated that there were more serious thoughts in his mind than the building of redoubts, at that moment, and General Cleveland folded the map and laid it on a chair standing beside him.

"Our commander took the paper again in his hands and scanned the list of names carefully-it seemed to me that he must have read them all over three or four times.

"His face was a subject to study. There was a struggle between a smile and a frown; but the latter seemed to prevail. Tossing the paper to the chair where the map was lying, he started to speak to General Vaughan, who was still standing in front of him. 'General,' he said, and then hesitated. The sentence was never finished. There was an animated council of war at headquarters that evening, every one present seeming to realize that the situation was becoming more and more critical."

Lord Howe arrived at Staten Island on the 12th of July, 1776, six days after his brother, Sir William, had read the Declaration. Cannons boomed, bands played and there was every other mark of honor shown the distinguished officer at New Dorp. He at once became his brother's guest at the Rose and Crown. It was there that he, too, read the full text of the famous document. On the following day, the 13th, the two commanders called their chief officers together, and nearly the whole day was consumed in planning for the immediate future.

On the 14th, they issued a proclamation, inviting all persons to return to their allegiance to the King. Their combined forces reached nearly thirty-five thousand men, though only about half were encamped on the Island. The first object to engage the attention of General Howe was the conciliation of the American loyalists, and, to this end, he had several interviews with Governor Tryon and other prominent men in New York and New Jersey, "all of whom led him

to believe that large numbers of the people were anxious to flock to his standard the moment it was unfurled."

Delancey, of New York, was appointed a brigadier-general; Skinner, of Perth Amboy, a colonel, and Billopp, of Staten Island, a lieutenant-colonel of the native loyalists or tories. Proclamations were issued promising protection to the people so long as they remained peaceably at home and manifested no sympathy for the rebels or their cause. Misled by the specious promises which Howe had promulgated, a large number of the whig inhabitants of Staten Island remained peaceably at home to reap the fruits of their credulity in having soldiers quartered upon them-in enduring, submissively, the insults and outrages committed upon themselves and families, their houses and barns openly and defiantly plundered, their cattle driven away or wantonly killed, their churches burned, and, not infrequently, some of their own number barbarously, and without provocation, murdered.

There were many, however, who had no faith in the protestations of the British commander, and also had too much manhood to conceal their sentiments; to these the political atmosphere of the Island was very uncomfortable, and they had to escape with their lives.

The building of forts, or redoubts, at once attracted the attention of the British army. As before stated, the first were the two at Holland's Hook. Then General Cleveland, the chief engineer, set to work in great earnest. The Hessians were employed chiefly to do the manual labor. Three redoubts were built at Richmond-one on Richmond Hill, three hundred yards or so from St. Andrew's church; another, which is still standing, about a third of a mile west, and another on the hill overlooking the meadows, west of Richmond, where the Bedell homestead graveyard was afterward established. Along the shore below New Dorp, for a mile or so, there was a chain of earth-works, calculated to defend the encampment on the plain back of it.

An important redoubt was built about where the Westfield entrance to the Fresh Kill bridge is located, and another at Blazing Star [Rossville], in the vicinity of Mr. H. H. Decker's residence. On the elevation at Kreischerville, about where the Kreischer cottages stand, was a large redoubt. Near the Billopp House was a stone fort and earth-work; at Prince's Bay, several feet out in front of the Red Bank lighthouse, was a plain earthen redoubt, capable of accommodating several guns. Just to the east of Purdy's Hotel, at Prince's Bay, was a small redoubt.

6 The land on which this redoubt stands belongs to Mr. Joseph Simonson, of Port Richmond. He has the deed, given some time prior to the Revolution, in which there is a proviso that "if the owner of the property goes out of sight of the same, he shall forfeit

his right and title." The owner did "go out of sight" in a very hasty manner, however, on the arrival of the British, and thus forfeited his claim. Being a “rebel," it is safe to assume that he recovered title when peace was established.