The Loyal Queens County Troop of Horse

 There is a coatee from the collection of the Bayville Historical Museum that is presently stored within the Oyster Bay Historical Society Archive that appears to be a genuine uniform from the American Revolution. It is speculated to have belonged to a soldier from the Loyalist militia of Queens County, New York and possibly that of a mounted cavalryman from its troop of light horse. The provenance of the relic is yet to be confirmed. This militia troop of horse acted successfully to bolster British defenses and to aid in policing Long Island in the difficult war years. The story of this cavalry unit is mostly unknown today, even on Long Island.

Long Island’s militia units were established in the New York region with rising tensions between opposing sides in the years leading up to the Revolutionary War. The County of Queens in the northwestern portion of the island was situated close to New York City and had strong loyalist ties. Queens County was divided into districts and each district was assigned a militia captain that was active in that area. This captain kept a list of the men in each district that were able to bear arms. There were regular field days that everyone was required to attend; citizens who failed to attend were fined for non-compliance.[1]

In 1775 and early 1776 the Queens County Militia was a made up of men fighting for liberty. When the island became occupied British territory in the fall of 1776 the militia was re-formed into a loyalist force and aided British army forces. The island was under British martial law, and policing and the courts were non-existent. The Queens County Militia were active in collecting, organizing, monitoring, and guarding supplies for the British army. They also aided in collecting requisitions from the inhabitants of Long Island. [2]

The Queens County Militia was commanded by Colonel Archibald Hamilton of Flushing, New York, a former officer of the British Army in the colonies. In 1776 he was arrested by congress but was later free to return to Long Island. He was put at the head of the Queens militia force and served as its commander throughout the war.[3] The unit became very substantial in numbers, reaching a size of seventeen militia companies.[4] Officers had to provide themselves with a scarlet uniform with blue facings and silver buttons.[5] The unit drew old muskets with wooden ramrods and old cartridge boxes formerly used by troops of Oliver Delancey’s brigade.[6] The militia also formed three troops of light horse and which begin to appear in the records of 1777. The tradition of the light horse is that it began to be used effectively in the Seven Years War. Troopers had lighter horses and equipment than regular dragoon units.[7] The role of the light horse on Long Island was typical of other regular British cavalry units in the region. With the rising need to protect the island from continuous raiding parties, these cavalry troops proved invaluable in the patrol of the island’s coasts.

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Shortly after the Battle of Long Island in August 1776, Americans acting under commissions from the governors of New York and Connecticut cruised the Long Island Sound seeking out British vessels to menace.[8] They used whaleboats as their means of transport and between 1778 and 1783 their actions escalated to become significant raids on inland parts of Long Island. Many Patriot refugees who left the island early in the war were involved in these raids. This struggle across the sound at times involved local townsmen who had taken refuge in Connecticut and were seeking retribution on former neighbors who remained on Long Island. The predators sought out persons that had significant possession of money and valuables.

The island’s inhabitants lived under a constant fear of these raids:

People would sometimes take a spy-glass and climb on the roof of their houses, and if they saw any whale-boats in the bay, they would remove their valuables to a hiding place, leaving only a few articles in the house. The robbers would then ransack the house, curse them for their poverty, and depart. Stores were often emptied in this way of an afternoon, and the goods replaced next morning. But if the owners were once caught, they were likely to be tortured till the goods were forth-coming. The alarm was spread by guns or horn-blowing.[9]

Benjamin Tallmadge, a former Long Island native with the continental army on the mainland, wrote, “There are some men on this side of the Sound who behaved most villionously towards the inhabitants of Long Island by lying on the road and robbing the inhabitants as they pass.”[10] The whaleboat raiders also kidnapped prominent Long Island loyalists. The prisoners were turned over to military authorities for the purpose of making exchanges for similar captives held by the British.

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The Queens County Militia’s three troops of horse were commanded by Capt. Daniel Whitehead, Capt. Stephen Hewlett and Capt. Israel Youngs.[11] The composition of the troops was described by the militia’s commanding officer:

Colonel Hamilton therefore orders that Capt Hewlett’s Troop furnishes one Captain, one Lieutenant, one Cornet, one QuarterMaster, two Sergeants, two Corporals and Thirty two privates: that Captain Israel Young’s Troop and Captain Whiteheads, furnish one Captain and the same number of officers, non commissioned officers and privates.[12]

Another record of a return of Captain Youngs’ Troop of Horse describes “One captain, one Lieutenant, one Quartermaster, one Clerk, four sergeants, one corporal and twenty-six privates.”[13]

Each troop had a specific region in which it was active. According to orders in December 1779, Captain Whitehead’s Troop patrolled in the areas of Newtown and Flushing, and in case of alarm was to rendezvous at Gen. William Tryon’s quarters at Jamaica. Captain Hewlett’s Troop was active in defending areas closer to Hempstead, and was to rendezvous in the case of alarm at Brig. Gen. Oliver Delancey’s quarters at Westbury. Captain Youngs’ Troop acted more on the eastern and northern boundaries of Queens County and in western Suffolk County, and was to assemble at Huntington in case of alarm.[14]

As the war progressed it seems that the defense of the extreme north shore of Long Island became increasingly urgent. Maj. John Kissam of the militia received the following orders in March of 1778:

It is Colonel Hamilton’s orders that the Captains of the Regiment of Queens County Militia in the Parishes of Oyster Bay and Hempstead, do immediately meet and settle a proper mode for establishing sufficient guards on Great Neck, Cow Neck and Matinecock Point, or any other place that may require it for the defence of that part of the Island.[15]

Similar orders issued in May stated:

The guards from Red Spring Point to Oak Neck are to be strict in their duty. They are to seize all persons and boat coming from the Rebel shore, and keep them in custody, reporting them to Colonel Hamilton, and waiting for his directions.

The urgency appears again in orders from Gov. Archibald Robertson of New York:

Innerwick, 9th Dec. 1780
By order of His Excellency Lt. General Robertson no Trooper or his Horse, in the Light Cavalry, belonging to the Regiment of Queens County Militia is to be pressed upon any account as they are liable to be called upon service at a moments warning. Arch. Hamilton, Colo. Commdr. Q.C.M.Aid de Camp to His Excellency Governor Robertson.[16]

The patrols were well received by the inhabitants of Long Island, as stated in a report by Colonel Hamilton to General Delancey in 1781:

I returned last night from encircling the County and have established the Militia Patrols of Horse and Foot agreeable to your Orders, I was much satisfied to find the People so pleased and happy with the orders: the Patrols all went last night and some the night before, indeed in some of the Districts they had very Judiciously established Guards & Patroles them.[17]

In September 1778, an early record states that a party of whaleboat men from Connecticut landed in Oyster Bay, plundered William Cock’s house, and made his family carry the plundered goods nearly two miles to their whale boats. Whaleboat men also plundered the houses of Jacob Carpenter and John Weeks of Red Spring. They returned again to Oak Neck and robbed two unprotected weavers.[18]

In 1779 and 1780 raids also began on the south shore of the island, with whaleboat men attacking from the area of New Brunswick in New Jersey. In July 1779, an attack by Capt. Alexander Dickey was made at Merrick near present day Freeport, Long Island.

John Jackson’s store, west of the mill-dam, at Merrick, was robbed by some whale boats under Capt. Dickie, who came up Jackson’s Creek. Jackson was carried off with them, but the weather being unfavorable for going out, they hauled up at Crow Island House. The alarm was spread east and west, and the militia went in pursuit. The western division consisted of a hay boat full of men, well armed, under Joseph Raynor. The eastern division, of a boat likewise filled, in which was my relator, G. Hewlett. When the boat from the east was seen coming down, Dickie determined to launch his boat and secure his plunder from the house, and try to escape. All hands were set to work. Shortly after the western boat hove in sight, when Dickie finding himself cut off, resolved to give battle, and formed his men, but on the nearer approach of the boats, finding himself so inferior in numbers, he concluded to surrender, and stacked his arms before the landing of the militia. The prisoners were sent to New-York.”[19]

The store that was robbed near the mill-dam was very close to the home of Captain Stephen Hewlett one, commander of one of the troops of light horse. Captain Hewlett was a veteran of the French and Indian War and as a young man fought alongside his brother Col. Richard Hewlett.[20] He owned the mill and house adjacent to the mill pond in partnership with his brother George. Stephen Hewlett’s house was the headquarters and mustering point of his troop. This troop was the force that apprehended and arrested this group of raiders.[21]

An order given by Maj. Gen. Friedrich Rediesel in 1781 shows that the militia was also involved with tracking and arresting potential spies on Long Island.

Brooklyn, June 4, 1781.
To Col. Hamilton, Sir: —Having received His Excellency the Commander in Chief’s commands, I have to request that you will direct the proper officers of militia under your orders to make a search through all the roads, woods, houses, huts, & c. in Queens County on the night of Wednesday to Thursday next, and take up all persons under the following descriptions:
1. People who may appear to belong to the navy;
2. All stragglers who are not inhabitants of L.I. or not well known by respectable characters for being quiet subjects;
3. Such as had not passports as Refugees, from His Majesty’s officers or others authorized to give certificates;
4. Anyone that cannot produce some kind of warrantable “Protection” from faithful loyal subjects, to testify and prove their characters.[22]

With the war’s end in 1783, the Queens County Militia was on the losing side. Many infantry officers in the militia had a strong affinity for the island, and many family generations had settled there. Most of them chose to stay on the island and there are no records suggesting that they were treated with any malice by the island’s inhabitants after the war.

As for the captains of the light horse, their acceptance in the post war period by their countrymen appears to have been mixed. Capt. Israel Youngs was plundered, treated cruelly and robbed of 1,100 guinies and 43 half Johanneses in August 1783 by a party of armed men belonging to Huntington Township.[23] The attacks happened between August and September 1783 when a number of riots and disturbances occurred in the area.[24] The robbery of Israel Youngs almost ended his plans for relocating to Nova Scotia.[25] He had little money and fled to New Jersey to avoid the hostilities toward him. Youngs was able to relocate to Annapolis, Nova Scotia.[26] He did return at some point to New Jersey and died in 1790 in Barnegat Shore.[27]

Capt. Stephen Hewlett and Capt. Daniel Whitehead both stayed on Long Island after the war. Both men were from staunch loyalist families and both had siblings who remained strong in their political beliefs even until the end. Stephen Hewlett’s brother Col. Richard Hewlett went to Nova Scotia as did Daniel Whitehead’s brother Benjamin.[28] Stephen Hewlett remained in the vicinity of Merrick, New York until his death in 1809.[29] Daniel Whitehead remained in the vicinity of western Queens County in Flushing at least until the 1790 census, but there is no record of him after that. [30]

The history of the militia light horse on Long Island is part of a growing collection of narratives that surround the experience of living in Queens County during the Revolutionary War. Queens County was caught in the crosshairs of many differing factions and forces all wishing to either control or reduce the powers maintained over the county and its citizens. It is appropriate to say that the establishment of the militia forces in the area was at a minimum an honest attempt to strike a balance between all these differing parties and their strife.

[1] F. Ray, J R. Elting, and H. .I Shaw, “Loyal Queen’s County Militia,” Military Collector and Historian, Vol. XIII (Spring 1961), 20-21.

[2] Captain Daniel Youngs Order Book, Long Island Studies Institute, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY.

[3] E. B. O’Callaghan, J. Romeyn Brodhead, Documents relative to the colonial history of the state of New-York: procured in Holland, England and France (Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons & Co., 1857), 8:755.

[4] Henry Onderdonk, jr., Documents and Letters Intended to Illustrate the Revolutionary Incidents of Queens County: With Connecting Narratives, Explanatory Notes, and Additions (New York: Leavitt, Trow and Company, 1846), 240.

[5] Regimental order book of Col. Archibald Hamilton, Commandant, Queens County Militia, Innerwich, 1779-1780, The Center for Brooklyn History, Brooklyn, N.Y.

[6] Ray, Elting, and Shaw, “Loyal Queen’s County Militia,” 21.

[7] Robert Hinde, The Discipline of the Light-Horse (London: W. Owen, 1778), 46.

[8] Wallace Evan Davies, “Privateering Around Long Island during the Revolution,” New York History 20, no. 3 (1939): 283–94.

[9] Onderdonk, Documents and Letters, 201.

[10]Benjamin Tallmadge to Abraham Woodhull, April 21, 1779, in Morton Pennypacker, General Washington’s Spies on Long Island and in New York (Brooklyn, NY: Long Island Historical Society, 1939), 240-41.

[11] Regimental order book of Col. Archibald Hamilton.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Henry Onderdonk, Queens County in Olden Times (Jamaica, NY: C. Welling, 1865.) 55.

[14] Regimental order book of Col. Archibald Hamilton.

[15] Henry Onderdonk and John C. Smith, Documents and Letters Intended to Illustrate the Revolutionary Incidents of Queens County, N.Y.: With Connecting Narratives, Explanatory Notes, and Additions (L. Van de Water, 1884), 32.

[16] Regimental order book of Col. Archibald Hamilton.

[17] Ibid.

[18] H. A. Stoutenburgh, A Documentary History of Het [the] Nederdeutsche Gemeente Dutch Congregation of Oyster Bay Queens County Island of Nassau Now Long Island (n.p., 1902), 795.

[19] Onderdonk, Documents and Letters, 194.

[20] “A Step Back in Time: Introducing Captain Stephen Hewlett,” The Leader, September 5, 1991.

[21] Onderdonk, Documents and Letters, 54.

[22] Ibid., 54.

[23] Ibid., 230.

[24] William Stephens Smith to George Washington, October 3, 1783, founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-11896.

[25] Report on American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain (London: HMSO, 1983), 3:277.

[26] “Muster Rolls of Discharged Officers and Disbanded Soldiers and Loyalists Taken in the County of Annapolis Between the 18th and 29th Days of June, 1784,” Library and Archives Canada.

[27] “Israel Youngs,” Long Island Surnames, longislandsurnames.com/getperson.php?personID=I17842&tree=Youngs.

[28] “Benjamin Whitehead Sr,” WikiTree.com, www.wikitree.com/wiki/Whitehead-2521.

[29] “Stephen Hewlett,” Quilted Family Trees, www.quiltedfamilytrees.com/getperson.php?personID=P2421&tree=001.

[30] “Daniel Whitehead,” FamilySearch.org, www.familysearch.org/search/collection/1803959.