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Minutes of the Committee for Detecting Conspiracies, 21 December 1776

Minutes of the Committee for Detecting Conspiracies

[Fishkill], 21 December 1776

Present: Leonard Gansevoort, Chairman; Zephaniah Platt, John Jay, William Duer, Esqrs.

. . . Whereas this Committee have been credibly informed and have good Reason to believe that David Van Schaack1 & Peter Van Schaack Esqrs., Messrs. John Stevenson,2 Cornelius Glen3 of the City & County of Albany have long maintained an equivocal Neutrality in the present Struggles and are in General supposed unfriendly to the American Cause and from their Influence are enabled to do it essential Injury—

Resolved that the Committee of the City & County of Albany be requested to summon the said Persons to appear before them to ask them whether they respectively consider themselves as Subjects of the State of New York or of the King of Great Brittain, if they answer that they consider themselves as Subjects of the State of New York then to tender to them the Oath of Allegiance and on their taking ^and Subscribing^ the same to Discharge them, but if they should answer that they consider themselves as Subjects of the King of Great Brittain or refuse to take the Oath aforesaid then to remove them, under the Care of some discreet Officer to the Town of Boston at their own Expence and there to remain on their Parole of Honour ’till the further Order of this Committee or the Convention or future Legislature of this State—and that Copy of their parole be sent to the Select Men of the said Town of Boston

Resolved that a Copy of the Oath of Allegiance and the Parole aforesaid be sent to the Committee of the City and County of Albany—

Ordered that the Chairman write to the said Committee and inclose the above.

D, NHi (EJ: 3617).

1. David Van Schaack refused to take the oath of loyalty at Albany in September 1778. He was held under arrest there and in Fishkill and Goshen before being turned over to the British in an exchange of prisoners. He was allowed to return to New York in 1784. PPGC description begins Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York (10 vols.; Albany, N.Y., 1899–1914) description ends , 4: 58; 6: 142–43, 232–34, 514, 517–19; Sabine, Biographical Sketches description begins Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (2 vols.; New York, 1864) description ends , 2: 381.

2. The name of John Stevenson, merchant, appears on a 4 Aug. 1778 list of men who had refused to take the oath in Albany. He was apparently banished, because there is a record of his being allowed back into the state in 1784. PPGC description begins Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York (10 vols.; Albany, N.Y., 1899–1914) description ends , 3: 605; Sabine, Biographical Sketches description begins Lorenzo Sabine, Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (2 vols.; New York, 1864) description ends , 2: 582.

3. Cornelius Glen, another Albany merchant, was cited on 4 Aug. 1778 for refusing to take the oath. PPGC description begins Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York (10 vols.; Albany, N.Y., 1899–1914) description ends , 3: 605.

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    Title
    Minutes of the Committee for Detecting Conspiracies, 21 December 1776
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    21 December 1776

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    “Minutes of the Committee for Detecting Conspiracies, 21 December 1776,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jay/01-01-02-0195. [Original source: The Selected Papers of John Jay, vol. 1, 1760–1779, ed. Elizabeth M. Nuxoll. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010, pp. 319–320.]