One of the most influential Loyalists imprisoned by the New York authorities was Cadwallader Colden II (1722–97), son of the former lieutenant governor. Although he repeatedly insisted that he be classified as a neutral, Colden felt himself bound by his oath to the king and was openly hostile to the notion of independence. If left at large, many Whigs believed he could become a focal point for disaffection or even an active counterrevolutionary. Colden, like many of the other elite imprisoned Loyalists, was accustomed to deference, and he felt free to complain and demand special consideration even when confined in jail. Some of his requests were directed to John Jay, who treated Colden with respect and humanity but who was unprepared to offer him anything beyond minor concessions from general policies toward prominent Loyalists.1

Colden’s difficulties began on 4 July 1776, when, during investigations launched in the Hudson Valley in the aftermath of the Hickey Plot, the Ulster County Committee of Safety charged him with disloyalty. He entered a cycle of detention and parole that was to last until his exile in August 1778. In November 1776 the Committee for Detecting Conspiracies arrested and examined him and decided that he was too dangerous to be left at large. The committee sentenced him to exile in Boston, but the decision was not enforced, and after an appeal to the provincial convention he was eventually allowed to return home. Arrested again in March 1777 after reports of a visit from his Loyalist son Thomas, who served with the British army, Colden was held for a time at Fort Montgomery and released. At that time he officially transferred his Coldengham estate in Ulster County to his Patriot son, Cadwallader Colden III. Colden was arrested again on 1 May, after it was alleged some of a group of armed Loyalists seeking to escape to the British lines to join the British army had stopped at his house, where Colden warned them they could not safely reach the British regulars because of the guards. At that time Colden also allegedly advised a British officer carrying dispatches for General Howe how to get through the lines successfully. On 2 May 1777 he was confined to the Kingston prison, where he lodged with active Loyalists, some of whom had been condemned to death. After a brief parole, he was transferred to the Fleet Prison in Rondout Creek at Esopus, where he remained until he was paroled in October and allowed to go to nearby Hurley. After another round of imprisonment and parole, in August 1778, after he refused to take a new oath of loyalty required by the state government, Colden was exiled to New York City with some family members. The patriotic leanings of Cadwallader III, left behind at Coldengham, saved the property from confiscation, and Colden was able to return there after the war.2

The documents on his case that are printed below all date from 1777. The first is Colden’s letter, written in May almost immediately after he was sent from Fort Montgomery to Kingston, in which he makes an unsuccessful plea for the lives of two of his fellow prisoners. Although Colden had himself originally requested assignment to the Fleet Prison because he feared a change in jailers at Kingston would result in mistreatment there, he complained on 31 May, during a brief period on parole, about the order to confine him to one of the ships, his preferred jailer having by that time been again transferred. Although he himself was lodged with eight others on a separate, relatively comfortable ship and well provided for by friends and relatives, on 14 June he wrote to complain about the lack of food and other poor conditions he and his fellow prisoners were facing. On 18 June, Jay visited the prison as one of a committee from the Council of Safety that subsequently promised to improve conditions and to facilitate provisioning of the prisoners. When Jay saw the prisoner again at Esopus on 27 July, he suggested the possibility of parole, but on neither occasion did he show any willingness to discuss complete freedom. In August, Colden again wrote Jay, reminding him of his promise to seek parole for him to Hurley.3