Above you have a Copy of my last to you—1 I left with my Friend in Phia. a Bill of Exge. drawn on you for £50 Stg. in favour of ______ at Sixty days sight, & dated the 9th. Inst— Bills being very low, and as I could not dispose of it to any Person while in Phia. is the reason of my leaving it with my Friend & the name to be inserted whenever he disposed of it—

From several letters received from you I find to my great mortification that you had not received from me any Acct. of the Robbery we met with at Fishkill, tho’ I wrote you a long letter on that Subject soon after it happened2 I will now relate to you the particulars of that cruel affair—on the 12th April a Party of thirty armed men surrounded the House, twelve of them entered with fixd Bayonets & so silent that I did not discover them ’till they had me in Custody—this done they seized all the Arms & then fell a plundering every thing they could lay hands on—all the Plate that we had (except one Tea pott which Mrs. Jay put into the Stove) together with every Farthing of hard & paper money they could find (of which they got the greater part) and they took from us—they left me but one shirt, which I had on—my shoe buckeles, hatt &ca. did not escape them—in short they compleatly strip’d me of almost every thing that I had—they took no Cloathing from any other Person, except a waistcoat from Peter & a few Shirts from Sir James. they continued with us from 8 oclck ’till near one in the Morning & after putting me upon Parole (wch. I never answered) bid us good Night, & happy was we to get rid of such Company. a few days after a Party of ours fell in with them near Dobbs Ferry, killed one & retook the greater part of the Plate, a Sword & some small articles which we again got after paying nearly the Value— None of the Family received any personal insult from them, Mrs. Jay received a slight wound in her Arm by a Bayonet & I beleive by Accident—we lost no papers

Finding it necessary to remove Mrs. Jay & myself from so dangerous a situation (especially as I did not answer my parole) we thought it most prudent to purchase a place in this town and to reduce the Family as small as possible—however I must confess this plan did not altogether please me, however ^but^ as Papa Peter & Nancy did not rest easy, I thought it best to comply with their wishes, (though a loss to me) & we accordingly purchased the place of Mr. John Davies, about two or three Acres of Land & w[h]ere we are pretty comfortable & happy—we have got rid of some of our servants— Gasieda is sold, old Plato and Zilpha Papa has given Free, tho she at present lives with us Moll & Susan are put out in good comfortable places, Phoepe is dead & London with us— The Elder Mary being very unwell owing to a cold she got at her laying in is at Dr. Van Wycks, she will be an Invalid as long as she lives— The Younger Mary is out and will be sold— I have also put out Kingston during the pleasure of the Knight,3 so that we now have a family of five whites exclusive of my little Son4 & Six servants & I am in expectation we shall make out pretty well, tho’ our Situation is not so advantagious to me as I could wish, however as I have already sacraficed my all for the sake of the Family, I am determined to remain with them as long as Papa lives— I could say a great deal to you, but as it would rather give you pain than pleasure, shall omit troubling you with it ’till I have the pleasure of seeing you.

Sir James is still with us & intends returning soon to Phia. to learn Politicks— Mrs. Munro is in good Lodgings which is much better than having her here. Gussey behaves well— I cannot conclude this letter without assuring you that your Son reads well for a Child of his age & much better than I would have expected as he could not read a line when I brought him here. he is fond of learning & has got a very great memory— Papa Peter & Nancy enjoy their health as usual, Peggy never more hearty, and was my situation such as would admit of my doing business I should be happy— Remember me to all you Family & believe me to be Dear Brother Your Sincerely