History of Fairfield County, Connecticut

I Two years later, in the month of July, 1779, Tryon made another descent upon the defenseless towns of the Connecticut coast. With an imposing force of forty-eight ves,sels and aliout three thousand soldiers, he first pillaged New Haven and then set sail for Fairfield. The weather was foggy, so that the ap- proach of the fleet was not jierceived on shore until it cainc to anchor oft" the town. Then, of course, an alarm was raised, bells were rung, guns fired, and cx- jires-ses despatched to Stratfield, Stratford, MiUord, and all the neighboring towns for such aid as could be alforded. The British column disembarked on the BRIDGEPORT. 81 westorii sliciri' nt' the tuvvii, at :i jihiri' rallnl Ivciizic's I'diiit, anil marchod up the beai'li until ii|i|i(isiti.> the i-ciurt-hi)usc, severely fjalleil the while Uy the artil- lery-tire from a little fort on (Jrover's Hill, overhiok- iufr Black Koek Harbor, whieh was held that day hy Lieut. Isaac Jarvis with a force of <]nly twenty-three men. Meanwhile, the vilhi^re militia eompany had formed on the green, and liy a lively musketry-tire ami several charfjes of round-shot and {rrape kept the invaders in check for a short time, when they were forced to retreat to Holland Heights, leaving the lnwu in full jiossession of the British. During tie- next twenty-four hours every house in the village, wlntlier the |>roperty of Whig or Tory, was plumlcred from cellar to roof-tree, and everything that could not he carried off was broken or destroyed. Several inof- fensive citizens were killed, and the handful nt' women and ihildri'U who n-mained in the place, though not treated with actual violence, were exposed to indig- nity and insult. The few protections granted by Tryon were disregarded by his men, ami when shown were rudely snatched away and ti>rii in pieces, '['n- wards nightfall the town was set on lire by Tryon's orders. Kev. Dr. Dwight. afterwards a resident of Greenfield Hill, thus describes the scene: " While the town wa> in tlamc^ a tliundcr-storiu overspread the heavens ju -t a^ night came on. The couHa.irration of near two hundred houses illumined the earth, the skirts of the clouds, ami the wavi's of the Sound with a union of gloom and grandeur at once awful and magnificent. .Vt intervals the light- inng blaziMl with a livid and awt'id s|ilendor. The thunder rolU'd above; lieneath, the roarini;' of the tires tilled up the interval with a deeii and hollow sound. .\dd to this the sharp sound of muskets oc- casionally <lischarged, the groans here and there of till' wounded anil ilying, and the shouts of trium|di, then place before your eyes crowds of the miserable sufl'erers, mingled w'ith bodies of the militia, taking from the neighboring hills a farewell iirospect of their property and their dwellings, their happiness and their hojies, and yon will form a just but im- ])erfect picture of the burning of Fairfield." Among those most active in carrying the torch were a luimber of Tory refugees, who had aciMjmpanieil Tryon upon this expedition. Besides dwelliiig-hou-es, stores, etc., tlu' court-house, jail. scho(d-house, and two churelu's were destroyed, Mr. Sayre. the I^pisco- pal missionary for Fairfield and Stratfield, ]deading in vain with Tryon to spare any |iortion of tlie town. Mindful of former experiences, Tryon did not attempt any movement inland upon this .occasion, but i-e-cm- barkcd before a sufiicient force of Americans could be eollected to ottiLT him battle. Throughout the wdiole Revolufiou the people nl'our shore-towns had to suffer not oidy from actual inva- sion anil the destruction of their ]iro|ierty by oriraniz.ed bodies of troops, but also from marauding attacks by .small parties of Tories and refugees from Long Isl- and. ( bi one occasion a whole congregation was sur- prised at Darien while engaged in worshi]i n])on the Sal)bath, and, after being ]>lunilered of every article of value, the.Eev. Moses Mather, D.D., with his dea- cons and the male members of his church, fifty in luimber, went that Sunday on a sailing-party to Long Island, from whence they were all subseipiently trans- ferred to a British prison in New York. Sometimes the attack was made at night, as was the case in May, 177i», wdien Gen. Sillinmn's house on Holland Heights was broken into by a party guided by one Glover, a Newtown Tory, who had been em]doyed as carpenter bv the general, and was conseipuntly familiar with the ]iremises. (ien. Silliman's gun missed fin-, anil he and his eldest son were both seized, hurried to the water's edge, and fiirced to endiark for Long Island. This successful raid of the Tories of course occasioned some excitement here, and, as the Americans held no officer of rank wdio could be exchanged fin- Gen. Sil- liman, it was decided to attempt to kidnap .Tudge Thomas Jones, of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, a leading Tory, wdiose residence was at Fort Neck, on Hempstead Plain, L. I. For this pur- pose a party of twenty-five volunteers, commanded bv ('apt. David Hawley. set out from this harbor one evening in November. 17711. Landing at Stony P>rook, thev concealed their boats in the bu>lie^, and after a toilsome night-march over by-roads and through the woods reached their destination just forty-eight hours from the time they started. There was a ball at the residence of .Tudge Jones that evening, and no one will wonder that the old iicHtleman was reluctant to leave the festive scene, with its music and pleasant company, for a fifty-mile tram]i on a frosty night through woods and swamps, with the prospect of a prison at the end of the route, but his visitors would take no denial. < >n their way back, the party jiassing near the camp of a royal regiment, the judge coughed loudly to attract the attention of the sentinels, nor wrndd he be silent until (.'apt. Hawley threateiu'd him with instant death. The march was a severe one, and several nu.'mliers of the party straggled, through fatigue, and were captured by the enemy's light-horse ; but the main body reached their boats and crossed in safety to Black Rock with their juisoner. Invited to dine with Mrs. Silliman, Judge Jones did not display the urbanity which nnder other circumstam-es he might have manifested, Init is said to have been reserved and svdlen in his demeanor. He was ordered to Mid- dh-town fa- confinement, but after a few months was exehan.ired for Ch-n. Silliman. Our record of Revolutionary incideids would be in- complete without further reference to the services of the gallant naval officer already nu-nfioned, ('apt. David Hawley, of Stratfield. Early in the war Capt. Hawley sailed to the West Indies for a cargo of gun|)owdi-r, w-hicli uiion his re- turn was divided between the towns of Stratford and 82 HISTORY OF FAIRFIKLD COUNTY, COiVNECTICUT. Fairfield, a part of it being stored for a time in Nichols' tavern, on North Avenue. In March, 1776, he sailed again from Stratford in command of a pri- vateer sloo|), but was captured when four days out by the Rritisli man-of-war " IJellona." Large induce- ments were ottered liini by his captors to change his allegiance and act us ])ilot to the British fleet, but these were firmly declined. He was taken to Halifax, but after a captivity of only two weeks made his es- cape with eight companions in a small boat, and at length found his way back to Connecticut. In Aug- ust, 177(), Cai)t. Hawley was commissioned by the Legislature to raise a naval detachment for service upon Lake Charaplain, and a few months later he took part in the disixstrous action fought upon this lake between the Uritish and American flotillas. After this affair Long Island Sound was his cruising- ground, and, besides capturing Judge Jones, we find him in May, 1777, and again in August of tlie same year, bringing a nundier of prizes into Black Kock Harbor. After the war Capt. Hawley resided in Bridgeport until his death, in 1807. He built on the corner of Water and Clilbert Streets the first brick house erected within the city limits. One of his neighbors was Stephen Hull, who wa.s one of the party that conducted the unfortunate Maj. Andr6 from the place where he was apprehentled, to Washington's headquarters. After the war Mr. Hull settled in Bridgeport, where he built a house on the corner of Main and Wall Streets, on the site of the building now owned and occupied by the Connecticut National Bank. Another neighbor was Major Benjamin Muirson Woolsey, whose home wsw on the east side of Main Street, a little north of the Bridgejiort National Bank. He wjus a Tory from Long Island, served during the war as an officer in the cavalry regiment called the Queen's Rangers, and was one of the pursuers of (Jen. Putnam, when the latter made his famous ride down the stone steps at Greenwich. At the close of the war he went to New Brunswick, where he held the rank of major in the militia, but subsequently re- turned and settled in Bridgeport, — or Newfield, as it was then calleil, — and engaged in the dry-goods and milling business. Major Woolsey received a i)ension — said to liavc been a crown a day — from the British government for his services. He died in 1818, aged about fifty-six years. Another royalist of note, referred to in the petition copied above, was David Mathews, the Tory mayor of New York, who in June, 177(i, was arrested for com- plicity in a plot for the a.ssassination of (Icn. Wiush- ington. More than a hundred and fifty Toricj-, many of them persons of wealth and good social ])osition, were concerned in this villainous .scheme, which was originated by Governr)r Tryon, then a refugee upon the British man-of-wur " Asia." Witshington once disposed of, in the opinion of the conspirators the dream of independence indulged in by the culunial