Catharine W. Livingston to John Jay and Sarah Livingston Jay, 21 November 1777
Catharine W. Livingston to John Jay and Sarah Livingston Jay
Persippiney Novr. 21st 1777
My Dear Sister & Brother
It is with very great pleasure I announce to you, the recovery of your little Boy from the Small Pox;—please to accept of the Congratulations of the Family on the happy event:— No person ever was more favor’d in that disorder, he had only one pustle, & scarce a days illness— The Dr. bid me tell you that he ^had^ behaved Manfully thro the whole— He intends sharing the Thousand pounds with Hannah.1 If Sally ^you^ have at any time felt a regret at having left him least he should be spoil’d, be assured there never was a better Child, I have my doubts if ever any equaled him in goodness, I have but one Complaint to lodge against him, & that is that is, that we cannot make him talk;—it is something very extraordinary in our Family; but I flatter myself he will prattle every thing before he leaves us— I have more than one
reason for wishing that to be the case— I hope to morrow’s Post will bring some tidings of your return to Fish Kill; only two Letters, one from each of you, since your absence has come to hand, this is the fifth from Persippiney,2 I hope this & those already sent will share a better fate than yours I am convinced have— This Evening we received a Letter from Pappa, he informing us that we have lost Fort Mifflin,3 with about thirty men killed, before our Troops evacuated the Garrison, & seventy wounded. The wounded with the rest of the Troops made their escape before the Enemy took possession;4 Our Men were so galled by the grape shot of a large India Man who came within one hundred yards of the Fort, that it was impossible to stand it; they removed, all the Stores & fired the Barracks, when they found the place no longer tenable—
Gen: Washington is reinforced with two Thousand Troops from the Southward, & Five from the Northward & some hundreds from this State, of the Militia, of the Pensylvania Militia only twelve hundred have lent him their assistance—5 The Philadelphians have ^lent^ Gen: Howe twenty thousand pound sterling & He has given the Old Money of Pensylvania, New Jersey, & New York a Currency—6 The Quakers mount guard & do all Military duty that is required of them—7 Billy Allen is full Col: in the Enemys service, & is to raise his Regiment in his native State— Young Nat Phillips died in Philadelphia of the wound received at Brandy-Wine.8 They write from our Camp that the Philadelphians come out in shoals, that some of them had not bread for several days before they left the City— Gen: Clinton9 did not Sail with the fleet, he has been seen very lately at New York, & ^on^ Staten Island— Lord Petershem is gone with Bure: dispatches,10 He has said that if he should lose them he would not ^be^ believed in England—^he intendd. joining the Minority as he is convinced of the impossibility of their conquering us^. I hope our successes to the Southward will be ^yet^ more favorable than those to the Northward, but I fear something serious will happen before the close of the Campaign tho it is late in the Season— I wish I had Duche’s Letter11 to Gen: Washington to send it to you, the like I believe you never saw, it is a most insolent performance
Yesterday I returned from Elizth. Gen: Dickenson is at that Post with between eight hundred & ^a^ Thousand Troops— My Fathers House for six weeks was ^made^ a Guard House, for a Bullock Guard the first instance I believe of a Governors House being so degraded, I do not exaggerate In telling you the Guards have done ten times the Mischief to the House that the Hessians did, they have left only two locks in the House taken off many pains of glass, left about a third of the paper hanging, burnt up some mahogany banisters, a quantity of timber, striped the roof of all the lead, one of the men was heard to boast that he had at one heat taken 30 pd. of Lead off— The furniture that Mamma left there when Sally & myself was last down is stolen except a few things of which there is only some fragments—it is as in the time of Pharoah what the Canker worm dont eat the Locusts destroy—
Mr. Hood of Brunswick & Uncle Ph: French & many others have Petition’d Gen: Dickinson12 to ^let them^ return to this State— Cousin Clarkson has at length obtain’d a permit to go in to New York— Aunt Van Horne & Uncle Clarkson13 have differed, the Consequence she is removed to a House formerly belonging to Mr. Cruger. I feel much Compassion for her, & the girls, tho I can’t approve their conduct, they have now thrown themselves out of the Protection of all their Friends. David14 called on us in his way ^to^ the Southard, he passed thro Kent, & was extremely sorry he did not know of your being there, He gave us a horrid description of the Place— In my last I inform’d you that we had not in a long time heard of ^nor from^ Brother B: no Letters from him, or Matt15 have since that come to hand. B: we are told has had a Duel on hand, & acquited himself with honor, & is now in Boston—16 I wish he would return to us, we are quite lon[ely in] Billy’s absence—17 Govneur is at present in the neighbourhood & has paid us several Friendly visits, his sudden Gravity I am at a loss to account for— I have imperceptibly got to the last side of my paper, you can’t complain of ^postage for^ blank paper, perhaps more would be agreable. The least intimation of which will be carefully observed by your truly Affectionate Sister.
The Family join with ^me^ in offering respects to your Worthy Father with his Family, & their Affectionate regards to yourselves—
AL, NNC (EJ: 8085). Addressed: “Honble. John Jay Esqr. / To the Care of Mr. Louden / Fish Kill.” Endorsed by JJ: “Kitty Livingston 21 Novr. 1777.” E, NN: Bancroft (EJ: 2828).
1. Hannah Benjamin was Peter’s nurse. The figure of £1,000 cannot refer to the cost for inoculating young Peter, even considering inflation. In fact, John Adams records in his diary that he paid £2 to be inoculated in Philadelphia in mid-1775. In addition, members of his family were inoculated in the Boston area in mid-1776 at an approximate cost of a little over £1 apiece. , 2: 167; L. H. Butterfield et al., eds., Adams Family Correspondence (2 vols.; Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 2: 37.
2. The other extant 1777 letters from Catharine W. Livingston are to SLJ, 1 Nov. (NN, EJ: 8083) and n.d. Nov. 1777 (NN, EJ: 8326), both ALS; from the Jays, the only extant letters in 1777 are JJ’s letters to Catharine W. Livingston dated 20 Jan. (MHi, EJ: 4653) and 21 Dec. 1777 (MHi, EJ: 4654).
3. Fort Mifflin on Port (or Mud) Island in the Schuylkill River was evacuated on 16 Nov. , 12: 283.
4. Actually, the Americans suffered 250 wounded and killed; the British suffered only 12 casualties. , 1: 377.
5. Washington had issued a call for reinforcements in order to concentrate his forces against Sir William Howe. See Washington to Major General Israel Putnam, 4 Nov. 1777, , 12: 126–27.
6. The occupation of Philadelphia by British forces put a “Total stop” there to the Continental and state currencies issued since the start of the Revolution and, given the shortage of specie, would have left the city without an adequate circulating medium and hindered all trade and finance. The merchants remaining in Philadelphia, who still had large amounts of colonial currency on hand, therefore sought approval from Howe for a subscription under which they agreed to receive legal paper money issued before the Revolution at specie value. The subscription paper was lodged at the Merchants’ Coffee House for the merchants and traders to sign their agreement and was published with their signatures under a dateline of 1 Oct. 1777. Most of the signers were Quaker or Loyalist merchants. See the subscription notice in the Pennsylvania Ledger, 12 Nov. 1777, and the letters to the editor from “The supporters of the old legal money” printed in the Pennsylvania Evening Post, 27 Nov. 1777, and the Pennsylvania Ledger, 3 Dec. 1777.
7. The Quakers in Philadelphia were generally suspected of Loyalist sympathies. Many had declined to participate in any way in the American war effort because of their pacifist religious beliefs; their willingness to undertake some military tasks for the British seemed to confirm American suspicions regarding their true motives.
8. William Allen of Pennsylvania had served in the Continental army (1775–76) before defecting to Howe. In 1778 he raised and commanded a Pennsylvania Loyalist corps. , 1: 157. Nathaniel Philipse (1756–77) graduated King’s College in 1773.
9. General Sir Henry Clinton.
10. Charles Stanhope, Viscount Petersham (1753–1829), aide-de-camp to Burgoyne, returned to England in December 1777 with news of the surrender at Saratoga and was a principal witness in the inquiry about the disaster. He voted against the administration on 3 Mar. 1779 on a motion of censure against the Admiralty. Sir Lewis Namier and John Brooke, The House of Commons, 1754–1790 (3 vols.; New York, 1964), 3: 462–63.
11. The Reverend Jacob Duché (1738–98), formerly chaplain of the Continental Congress, turned Loyalist. On 8 Oct. 1777 he wrote Washington a long letter on the hopelessness of the American war effort and urged him to convince Congress to stop hostilities, revoke the Declaration of Independence, and begin negotiations for peace with Britain. After his letter was widely circulated, Duché met with such hostility that he was forced to flee to England in December 1777. , 11: 430–37.
12. Brigadier General Philemon Dickinson of the New Jersey militia.
13. Ann French Van Horne, widow of David Van Horne (1715–75) of New York, was Catharine Livingston’s and SLJ’s aunt. David Clarkson (1726–82), merchant, married Elizabeth French, sister of Mrs. Ann French Van Horne and Mrs. Susannah French Livingston (SLJ’s mother). “Cousin Clarkson” probably refers to either their son David Clarkson (1751–1825) or Freeman Clarkson (1756–1810). In the summer of 1776, the Clarksons, with Mrs. Van Horne and her daughters, fled from New York to New Brunswick, N.J. In the spring of 1777, Clarkson, although a Whig, was permitted to go to his summer home in Flatbush, accompanied by the Van Hornes. Reynolds, Family Hist. of So. N.Y., 3: 1025.
14. Probably David Clarkson, a son of the David Clarkson referred to in note 13, above, or David Van Horne Jr. (1755–1801).
15. Probably Matthew Clarkson, another son of David Clarkson and an aide to General Benedict Arnold. Reynolds, Family Hist. of So. N.Y., 3: 1026.
16. “Brother B” is Henry Brockholst Livingston, who was involved in a duel with Major Chester, which, however, had no serious consequences. Edwin B. Livingston, The Livingstons of Livingston Manor (New York, 1910), 251.
17. William Livingston (1754–1817), SLJ’s brother.