NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1777

January

New York State Loyalist John Cumming goes into New York City to discover how to handle his delicate political situation, refuses a commission in the British army.    **    New York rebels fire a cannon on British troops from a hill in the Bronx, with little success.    **   Patriot general William Heath recaptures the land owned by blacksmith Isaac Valentine, near the future Reservoir Oval in the central Bronx, from British and Hessian forces. One of his ensigns and a militiaman are killed.

Jan 2                 

Cornwallis heads south out of New York.

March

John Cumming is arrested and jailed by New York as dangerous to the rebellion.

Mar 4                 

The Reverend Samuel Auhcmuty, rector of New York’s destroyed Trinity Church, dies at the age of 55.

July

George Clinton takes office as New York State's first governor.

Jul 23                 

Admiral Richard Howe sails from New York to capture Philadelphia.

September

John Cumming escapes and is recaptured.

Oct 3                 

General Henry Clinton moves north out of New York City to attack forts Montgomery and Clinton up in the Hudson valley three days later.

November        

American rebels cross the Hudson from New Jersey one night and attack the home of Loyalist Oliver DeLancey in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Mrs DeLancey runs out of the house and hides. The rebels set fire to the house, beat and terrorize daughter Charlotte and her friend Elizabeth Floyd. The two girls flee and hide in a nearby swamp. An older daughter also escapes but gets lost trying to locate a British encampment. The raiders return to the west side of the river.

Nov 1                 

New York City’s African Free School is opened.

City

The Council of Appointment is formed, to appoint the city’s mayors.    **    In the Lower Manhattan gardens of Burns’s Coffee House Royal Navy captain Tollemache and Coldstream Guards aptain Penington fight a duel with swords. Tellemache is killed and will be buried in Trinity Churchyard.    ** General Howe assigns the position of second assistant manager of the Court of Police to Upper West Side mansion owner Charles Ward Apthorp.   

Bronx

The Hadley family, in the future Riverdale section, uses their two-story home on the Boston Post Road as a garrison for patriot volunteers.    **    The British complete Fort Number 8, on the east side of the Harlem River, the future New York University Fordham campus.

Paris

Benjamin Franklin hires sculptor Jean-Jacques Caffiéri to create a monument to American general Richard Montgomery, killed in December of 1775 at Québec. The work will be installed in ten years on the front façade of Lower Manhattan’s St. Paul’s Chapel.

© 2012  David Minor / Eagles Byte