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Thursday, May 10, 2012

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1778-1779


1778
March                 
New York ’s Secretary of State and various county clerks are advised to pack up all government records, in case it becomes necessary to evacuate them.

Mar 7
The Richmond County (Staten Island) town of Northfield is formed; it includes several small islands in Newark Bay and Staten Island Sound.

May
Ethan Allen is exchanged for Colonel Campbell, a British prisoner in New York City.

Jun 18                 
Sir Henry Clinton’s forces evacuate Philadelphia, begin marching to New York.

Jul 5                 
Clinton’s forces embark in barges from New Jersey’s Sandy Hook, headed for New York City.

Aug 31                 
British commander John Graves Simcoe and his Queens Rangers defeat 17 Mohican Indians fighting on the Patriots’ side along with their chief Abraham Nimham, at Woodlawn in the Bronx. The Indians are massacred. The Devoe family, owners of the site of the fighting, bury the Indians in the future Van Cortlandt Park area to be known as Indian Field.

City
Trinity Church, destroyed by fire in 1776, is rebuilt.    **     The New-York Insurance Office opens at the Coffee-House to underwrite maritime insurance.



1779
Jul 15                 
Professor of literature Clement Clarke Moore is born on New York City’s Moore family estate - Chelsea - to Benjamin and Charity Clarke Moore.   

Oct 15                 
Sullivan and Clinton’s forces arrive back at Easton, Pennsylvania.

Oct 22
Congress passes ”An Act for the forfeiture and sale of the estates of those who have adhered to the enemies of this state.”  City properties will be included.

Oct 23                 
British captain John André is promoted to major, to serve as deputy adjutant general under Henry Clinton, in New York City.

City
Dissatisfied customers in the balcony at the Theatre Royal on John Street throw apples at the performers.    **    The Watts’ family main house - on today’s East 29th Street - on their Rose Hill farm is destroyed by fire.

Bronx
Benjamin Palmer and his family, owners of City Island (the former Great Minneford’s Island) are captured by the British and forced to leave the island.   


©  2012  David Minor / Eagles Byte

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