LO N I A 1 
 
 AND 
 
 REVOLUTION 
 
 ES 
 
TRINITY COLLEGE 
 LIBRARY 
 
 DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 RecM . NOV 1 2 1902 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2017 with funding from 
 Duke University Libraries 
 
 https://archive.org/details/catherineschuyle01 hump 
 
IVOMEN OF COLONIAL AND 
 REVOLUTIONARY TIMES sss 
 

 

 WO* OMIT*IA<l JIO VU- MOSW SaiYUHDa 30 riA«1M'.»*l 
 
 -5WOY WrJZ .*OTO*!7Sfl 30 ..Q.'iii ;J‘[ I .'ijh 1 ,- • j;h“ yg u-i/'.vo 
 
•o 
 
 PORTRAIT OF CATHERINE SCHUYLER. FROM AN OIL PAINTING NOW 
 OWNED BY PHILIP SCHUYLER. ESQ., OF IRVINGTON. NEW YORK. 
 
WOMEN OF COLONIAL AND 
 REVOLUTIONARY TIMESES— 
 
 CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 BY MARY GAY HUMPHREYS 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT 
 
 O 
 
 0 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 NEW YORK 
 
 MDCCCCI 
 
Copyright, t8q 7, by 
 Charles Scribner's Sons 
 
 ffitnf&rrsftg prrss 
 
 John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U. S.A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The period embraced within the years of 
 Catherine Schuyler's life is the most exciting in 
 American history. In its military aspect it 
 comprehends the French and Indian War and 
 the Revolution. In its political aspect it includes 
 the life of the Colony and the beginnings of the 
 Nation. 
 
 Through the position of her own family and 
 as the wife of General Philip Schuyler , she is a 
 representative figure among the ivomen of the 
 Dutch Colony and the matrons of the Revolution. 
 At the same time , in her own character she was so 
 domestic , retiring , and unobtrusive that many of 
 the details of her life can only be discovered indi- 
 rectly and with difficulty. The impression which 
 a study extending over a considerable period 
 of all the authorities has left will be discovered in 
 this volume. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The authorities mainly responsible are the 
 records of the Van Rensselaer family ; Lossing's 
 Biography of General Philip Schuyler and 
 Field Boole of the Revolution ; Schuyler’s Colo- 
 nial New York; MunselVs Annals of Albany ; 
 the Correspondence of John Jay ; the Letters of 
 Abigail Adams ; the Diary of Tench Tilghman ; 
 the Rutherford Papers ; The Story of an Old 
 Farm ; Mrs. Lamb's History of the City of New 
 York ; the Life of Sir William Johnson , by 
 William L. Stone; The Republican Court; 
 Marshall's Washington ; the Travels of de Chas- 
 teleux , Brissot de Warville, and de Rochefou- 
 cauld- Liancourt ; The Sexagenary ; Thacher's 
 Military Journal ; Autobiography of John Trum- 
 bull ; the Correspondence of Baron Steuben , 
 Greneral Cates , and Ceneral Charles Lee , in the 
 Historical Society Library of New York City ; 
 the newspapers of that period , and more particu- 
 larly The Memoirs of an American Lady , by 
 Mrs. Grant of Laggan. 
 
 The thanks of the author are due to the gen- 
 erous co-operation of Miss Fanny Schuyler , 
 through the papers of her brother , John Schuyler , 
 
 of the elder branch ; to Miss Georgina Schuyler , 
 vi 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Mrs. Howard Townsend , Miss Cornelia Cruger , 
 Mrs. Sydney Morse , General John Cochran ; 
 and to Mr. Philip Schuyler for the opportunity 
 of examining the Correspondence of General 
 Philip Schuyler. 
 

CONTENTS 
 
 I— COURTSHIP AT ALBANY 
 
 Marriage in the Dutch Colony — Amusements of the 
 Young People — Education of Girls and Boys — Com- 
 parison between the Women of the English and 
 Dutch Settlements— Social Position of Catherine Van 
 Rensselaer 
 
 II— A SOLDIER’S WIFE 
 
 Opening of the Seven Years’ War — The Tragedy of 
 Maria Keith — The Commissioners at Albany — Philip 
 Schuyler and his Family — Jealousy between the Pro- 
 vincial and Royal Troops — The Battle of Lake George 
 — Marriage of Catherine Van Rensselaer and Philip 
 Schuyler — Wedding Ceremonies and Wedding Finery 
 of the Dutch Colonists 
 
 III— THE YOUNG MISTRESS 
 
 The Mother of Philip Schuyler — Madame Schuyler of 
 The Flatts — Description of her Household — Entertain- 
 ment of Guests — Slavery at Albany — Executive Abil- 
 ity of Dutch Housewives — Ann Eliza Bleeker as a 
 Literary Woman 
 
 IN— YOUNG MARRIED LIFE 
 
 The Theatre at Albany — Rev. Theodore Frelinghuysen 
 and his Fate — Lord Howe and the Schuylers — The 
 Defeat at Oswego — The “Indian Field” and its His- 
 tory — The Schuyler Bam — Charles Lee and Madame 
 Schuyler — The Defeat at Ticonderoga — Burial of 
 Lord Howe — The Marriage of Gertrude Schuyler . . 
 ix 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 is— THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSION 
 
 Capture of Frontenac — General Bradstreet and the 
 Schuylers — Philip Schuyler’s Voyage to England — 
 Building of the Albany Mansion — The Schuyler Pears 
 — A Colonial Woman’s Linen and Plate — The Markets 
 at Albany — Catherine Schuyler Shopping — Reading 
 among the Dutch Colonists — Death of Philip Schuyler’s 
 Mother — Funeral Customs at Albany in 1763 ... 60 
 
 VI— THE CHATELAINE OF SARATOGA 
 
 Views of the Colonists in respect to Land — The Found- 
 ing of the Saratoga Settlement — The Part of Catherine 
 Schuyler — The Country Seat at Saratoga — The Con- 
 veyance of the Estate to the Eldest Son — Philip 
 Schuyler’s Tribute to his Wife 79 
 
 VII— VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 A Sketch of Sir Henry Moore — Domestic Life at 
 Johnson Hall — The Hudson in 1763 — Sir Henry and 
 Lady Moore at Saratoga — The Schuylers in New York 
 — Court Life — Diversions of the Day — Visit to 
 Colonel Arent Schuyler — Clerical Politics .... 92 
 
 VIII— MAKING READY FOR THE STORM 
 
 Ladies learning to Spin — Economy the Fashion — The 
 New Hampshire Grants — The Journey to Boston — 
 
 Visit of the Cherokee Chiefs — Exchange of Stolen 
 Children at Albany — The Liberty Pole — Governor 
 and Mrs. Try on visit the Schuylers 112 
 
 IX— THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 The News of Lexington at Saratoga — Philip Schuyler, 
 
 Major General — Last Indian Council at Albany — 
 
 Tench Tilghman at the Schuylers’ — Catherine Schuy- 
 ler’s Journey to Ticonderoga — Plot to burn Saratoga 
 — Visit of Franklin and Charles Carroll 130 
 
 x 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 X— THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 
 
 General Schuyler superseded by General Gates — The 
 Murder of Jane McCrea — Catherine Schuyler bums the 
 Wheat — Entertaining Burgoyne at Albany — Madame 
 Riedesel’s Account of her Stay at the Schuylers’ — A 
 Housekeeper’s Trials — Visit of Chastellux and other 
 French Noblemen — The Rebuilding of Saratoga . . 150 
 
 XI— CAMPAIGNING AT MORRISTOWN 
 
 Gayety of Camp Life — Social Circle at Morristown — 
 
 A Brilliant Group of Aides-de-Camp — The Visit of 
 Elizabeth Schuyler — Courtship of Alexander Hamilton 
 — The Treason of Arnold — Hamilton’s Love Letter . 167 
 
 XII— THE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 The Romantic Girl of the Revolution — The Elope- 
 ment of Angelina Schuyler — Plot to abduct General 
 Schuyler — Elopement of Margaret and the Young 
 Patroon — Early Married Life of the Hamiltons — 
 Moonlight Elopement of Washington Morton and 
 Cornelia Schuyler — The Churches in London — The 
 Pranks of the Boys 186 
 
 XIII— THE FIRST ADMINISTRATION 
 
 The Importance of its Etiquette — The Dignity of the 
 Executive Household — The Extravagance of the Day 
 — Comparison of New York and Philadelphia Girls — 
 Washington’s Theatre Party — Social Life in New York 
 in 1793 . . 226 
 
 XIV— NEARING THE END 
 
 Catherine Schuyler and her Daughters — The Boys at 
 School — The Excitement of Political Life — The Fam- 
 ily Triumvirate — Hamilton’s Resignation — The Canal 
 Scheme — The Hospitalities of the Household — The 
 Question of the Beginning of the New Century — 
 
 Catherine Schuyler’s Death 240 
 
 xi 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 i 
 
 COURTSHIP AT ALBANY 
 
 u — with love to Peggy and sweet Kitty V. 
 R. when you see her.” No heroine of fiction 
 was ever more attractively presented for the 
 first time to public view than “ sweet Kitty 
 Y. R.” 
 
 The yellowed strip of paper bears the date 
 September 21st, 1753. It was written by a 
 careless, good-humored youth of nineteen, 
 Philip Schuyler, then in New York seeing the 
 sights, to his friend “ Brom,” in after days 
 General Abraham Ten Broek, at Albany. 
 
 Two years afterward in the family Bible that 
 belonged to Major General Philip Schuyler, is 
 found, inscribed in his own handwriting, this 
 record : 
 
 “ In the Year 1755, on the 17th of Septem- 
 ber, was I, Philip John Schuyler, married (in 
 the 21st Year, 9th Month, and 17th Day of his 
 Age) to Catherine Van Rensselaer, aged 20 
 
 i l 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Years, 9 Months, and 27 Days. May we live 
 In Peace and to the Glory of God.” 
 
 Catherine Van Rensselaer was the daughter 
 of Colonel John Van Rensselaer, the son of 
 Hendrick, the grandson of Killian, the first 
 Patroon, and of Engeltke Livingston, as An- 
 gelica was then written. Colonel John, whose 
 father was a younger son of the Patroon, occu- 
 pied what was known as the “ lower manor 
 house,” at Claverack, about forty miles from 
 Albany, and a few miles back from what is 
 now the town of Hudson. Here he held in 
 part those semi-manorial rights that went with 
 the land. It was a disturbed existence among 
 turbulent tenants, aspiring innkeepers, and rest- 
 less Indians, as one may read between the lines 
 of the dusty State records. That his daughter 
 made long and frequent visits to her rela- 
 tives in Albany, where she enjoyed the prece- 
 dence and pleasures that her birth and fortunes 
 entitled her, may be easily hazarded. Here 
 she was known as “ The Morning Star.” Such 
 a happy phrase implies a concord of graceful 
 traits, and renders unnecessary a good deal of 
 biographical detail. From it may also be in- 
 ferred the romantic temper of the times. 
 
 Marriage in the Colony was always early. 
 The organization of Dutch society seemed con- 
 structed toward that end. But the approach 
 2 
 
COURTSHIP AT ALBANY 
 
 gave as idyllic a playground to the affections 
 as any country or any period ever conceded! 
 Children of only five years entered into some 
 company, such as social restrictions or inclina- 
 tion indicated, the boys and girls being of 
 equal number. Each company had its leader, 
 according to that natural supremacy which 
 is undisputed among children, and this leader 
 was recognized and obeyed. A little English 
 maid, dwelling among them in after years, gave 
 a picturesque account of these companies. 
 
 “Every child was permitted to entertain the whole 
 company on its birthday, and once beside during 
 the winter and spring. The master and mistress 
 of the family were obliged to go from home on the 
 occasion, while some domestic of the family was 
 left to attend and watch over them, with an ample 
 provision for tea, chocolate, preserved fruits, nuts, 
 and cakes of various kinds, to which was added 
 cider, syllabub, for these young friends met at four, 
 and did not part until nine or ten, and amused 
 themselves with the utmost freedom and gaiety in 
 any way their fancy dictated, for no person that 
 does not belong to the company is ever admitted to 
 these meetings; other children or young people 
 visit occasionally, and are civilly treated, but they 
 admit no intimacies beyond the company. 
 
 “Each company at a certain time of the year 
 went in a body to gather a particular kind of berry, 
 to the hills. It was a sort of annual festival, at- 
 3 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 tended with religious punctuality. Every company 
 had a uniform for this purpose ; that is to say, very 
 pretty light baskets made by the Indians with lids 
 and handles, which hung over the arm, and were 
 adorned with various colors. The older members 
 were permitted to go off unattended in canoes among 
 the islands of the river. They would be off by 
 sunrise; at nine or ten they were landed. The 
 boys had their axes, and finding some umbrageous 
 spot would clear an opening, above which they 
 twined and bent the boughs to make a pleasant 
 bower, while the girls dried the branches for the 
 breakfast fire. A pinch of gunpowder supplied 
 the match. After breakfast the boys set out to fish 
 or hunt, while the girls sewed or knit, for the 
 Dutch girls were taught to bring pleasure to their 
 work and work to their pleasure. After the sul- 
 try hours had been thus employed, the boys brought 
 them their tribute from the river or the wood, and 
 found a rural meal prepared by their fair compan- 
 ions, among whom were generally their sisters and 
 the chosen of their hearts. After dinner they all 
 set out to gather wild strawberries or whatever fruit 
 was in season ; for it was accounted a reflection to 
 come home empty handed. When weary they either 
 drank tea in their bower or returning landed at 
 some friend’s on the way to partake of that 
 refreshment.” 
 
 Every family kept its gig, and another amuse- 
 ment was to go to the bush and combine 
 
 4 
 
COURTSHIP AT ALBANY 
 
 pleasure with charity by surprising some poor 
 farmer’s family with a visit. One would take 
 negus, another tea or coffee, a third a pigeon 
 pie. These visits were taken in good part. 
 The farmer’s wife would open her best room, 
 bring out her stores of cream, nuts, and fruit, 
 such as the bush provided, and the hosts and 
 guests share the meal with ease and frankness. 
 The exchange was more than equal on its 
 substantial side. But it afforded the young 
 people the opportunity of doing good without 
 humiliation, and what was doubtless at the 
 time of more moment, a dance in the wood 
 and moonlit rambles until the time of going 
 home. In the winter these amusements were 
 changed but not interrupted. The girls and 
 boys of the companies were off in sleighs by 
 night visiting distant friends and stopping from 
 house to house, whether or not they knew the 
 inmates, such was the good fellowship of the 
 times. But the great diversion of the times 
 was coasting. 
 
 “ Nick,” said Lafayette, on his last visit to 
 this country, to Colonel Nicholas Fish, as they 
 went up the Hudson, “ Nick, do you re- 
 member when we used to ride down those 
 hills on an ox-sled with the Newburgh girls ? ” 
 Thus it was at Albany down the broad street 
 that led from the Fort hill, now known as 
 
 5 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 State, the elders in the moon and starlit nights 
 huddled in furs on the porticos watching the 
 spectacle. 
 
 So exclusive were the intimacies of these 
 companies that “ it was reckoned a sort of 
 apostacy to marry out on one’s company.” 
 This rarely happened. The inclination of a 
 particular boy to a particular girl was a matter 
 of course. He was her cavalier; she his 
 stimulus to prowess of a manly sort. “ Of 
 love not fed by hope they had no idea,” says 
 the biographer of these fortunate young Al- 
 banians. If they made their last adventure 
 without the sanction of their elders they were 
 speedily forgiven. So admirable a matrimonial 
 system could scarcely end otherwise than well, 
 and we are told that marital infelicities were 
 rare. 
 
 But in the ordinary course of events, when 
 the youth felt himself deeply stirred, he put 
 aside his gun and fishing-rod, and asked of his 
 father some money, a slave, and a canoe. His 
 brow grew thoughtful, and he adopted a pipe. 
 With his money he purchased beads, trinkets, 
 blankets, guns, powder, not forgetting for vari- 
 ous reasons a supply of rum. With these he 
 purposed laying the foundations of his for- 
 tunes as an Indian trader. His pipe was 
 not so much an insignia of manhood, as a 
 6 
 
COURTSHIP AT ALBANY 
 
 defence against the ague of the swamps and 
 the insects of the woods. Dressing himself 
 in a backwoodsman’s dress of skins, accom- 
 panied by his negro boy, the canoe was 
 launched amid the tears of mother and sisters, 
 and among the weeping company was a maiden, 
 who well knew what prompted the hazardous 
 voyage. 
 
 It was necessary for the success of the en- 
 terprise to keep away from the beaten track 
 of the traders. The path must lead toward 
 distant hunting grounds and unknown tribes. 
 There were trackless swamps, unbroken woods, 
 long portages to make in which the canoe 
 and cargo must be borne on the shoulders, 
 dangers from wild beasts and snakes, hunger 
 to be appeased by fishing and hunting by day, 
 nights to be spent in the open air, work with 
 the ase for fire as a defence against wolves 
 and mosquitoes. When the destination was 
 reached, as far sometimes as Huron and 
 Mackinac, diplomacy, address, skill, patience, 
 were necessary in order to dispose of the cargo 
 to the wary savage, and to secure in return 
 skins and furs for the homeward journey. 
 
 The effect of this voyage was to change the 
 careless, pleasure-loving youth into the thought- 
 ful man. “ It is utterly inconceivable,” we 
 are told, “ how a single season spent in this 
 7 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 manner, ripened the mind, changed the whole 
 appearance, nay the very character of these 
 demi -savages, for such they seemed returning 
 from among their friends in the forest. 
 Lofty, collected, sedate, they seem masters 
 of themselves, and independent of others ; 
 sunburnt, austere, one scarcely knows them 
 until they unbend.” After the delights of 
 the safe return, the youth would go to New 
 York and dispose of his skins. The money 
 was laid out in stores for fresh adventure, 
 perhaps again to the woods, or, it might be, 
 to Bermuda on some light flying schooner, 
 bringing back in exchange a cargo of rum, 
 sugar and molasses. 
 
 Meanwhile the girl was perfecting herself in 
 the arts of housekeeping, so dear to the Dutch 
 matron. The care of the dairy, the poultry, 
 the spinning, the baking, the brewing, the 
 immaculate cleanliness of the Dutch, were not 
 so much duties as sacred household rites. In 
 comparison with these duties the interminable 
 knitting of scarlet clocks and other imposing 
 hosiery girt up with silver buckles, was but a 
 pleasant pastime, as were the leisure hours in 
 the garden under a widespreading calash with 
 basket and scissors among the flowers. 
 
 Notwithstanding the social rank of Philip 
 and Catherine Schuyler, they followed the 
 8 
 
COURTSHIP AT ALBANY 
 
 customs of their times. “ The Yan Rensselaer 
 women were all noted housekeepers,” says one 
 of their descendants. They were women of 
 homekeeping’ instincts, of executive ability 
 within their own domain, not ambitious, and 
 without distinctively intellectual acquirements. 
 Philip Schuyler was placed at sixteen in the 
 school of the Rev. Mr. Steuppe at New 
 Rochelle. The education of the young colonists 
 was largely in the hands of the French 
 refugees who fled to this country after the Revo- 
 cation of the Edict of Nantes. Parson Steuppe 
 was eccentric, his wife parsimonious. The boys 
 had hardly enough to eat. John Jay writes to 
 his mother of stopping up the broken panes of 
 glass with billets of wood to keep out the cold. 
 But here young Schuyler, notwithstanding 
 repeated attacks of his hereditary gout, devel- 
 oped his taste for mathematics, and acquired 
 that proficiency in French which was of 
 such service in the French and Indian war, 
 and in his intercourse with the foreign officers 
 in the Revolution. 
 
 The education of girls was by no means 
 so easily achieved. This was not more due 
 to lack of opportunity than to the indifference 
 of the Dutch colonists to the education of 
 their womenkind. Schoolmasters were among 
 other importations from Holland, pious men, 
 
 9 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 suitable also for “ comforters to the sick,” 
 which was part of their duty. “ Girls learned 
 needlework (in which they were indeed both 
 skillful and ingenious) from their mothers 
 and aunts ; they were taught too at that period 
 to read, in Dutch, the Bible, and a few Calvin- 
 istic tracts of the devotional kind. But in the 
 infancy of the settlement few girls read 
 English ; when they did they were thought 
 accomplished ; they generally spoke it however, 
 however imperfectly, and few were taught 
 writing.” William Smith, the historian of 
 New York, writing in 1756, adds further : 
 “ There is nothing they so generally neglect as 
 Beading and all the Arts for the improvement 
 of the Mind, in which, I confess we have set 
 them the Example.” The first commission to 
 teach English was given to one John Schutte, 
 whose name is suspiciously not English, before 
 1700. After the conquest of the Province by 
 the English, the Dutch guarded even more 
 tenaciously their customs and their speech. 
 So late as 1798 in one of the Yan Rensselaer 
 wills it is stated that the deceased left “ six 
 zoons and three doeghters.” Long after the 
 Revolution, moreover, “ Yah Mynheer ” and 
 “ Yah vrow ” were constantly heard in Albany 
 households. 
 
 The difference between the English and 
 10 
 
COURTSHIP AT ALBANY 
 
 Dutch settlements is not more emphasized than 
 in the status of the women. The Colonial 
 women of New England and the South were 
 inveterate letter writers and diarists. The 
 descendants of the Dutch were estimable 
 mothers and wives, but neither pen-women nor 
 talkers. It is doubtless due to this that the 
 dulness of Albany society has so impressed 
 foreign travellers of the time. “ The few I got 
 acquainted with looked extremely dull and 
 melancholy. They live retired in their homes 
 with their wives, who are sometimes pretty but 
 rather awkward in their manners, and with 
 whom they scarcely exchange thirty words a 
 day, although they always address them 
 as ‘ my love,’ ” comments de Rochefoucauld- 
 Liancourt. 
 
 The social position of Catherine Yan 
 Rensselaer brought her within the Court circle 
 and the gay society inspired by the presence of 
 English officers stationed at Fort Orange. The 
 intermarrying of Schuylers, Yan Cortlandts, and 
 Livingstons, with Yan Rensselaers had estab- 
 lished a numerous relationship at New York. It 
 was the custom to send the young girls of the 
 family at least once a year to visit their rela- 
 tives and acquire the polish of fashionable 
 society by appearing at the little Court which 
 moved about the presence of the Royal 
 11 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Governor. A number of Huguenot families in 
 New York contributed to this end. While 
 girls of the importance of Catherine Van 
 Rensselaer might not be educated in Eng- 
 lish beyond the Horn book and the abil- 
 ity to keep household accounts, they spoke 
 perfectly not only English but French, from 
 which amiable nation they not only acquired 
 dancing but deportment. There were peri- 
 patetic Frenchmen who went to Albany, fine 
 gentlemen, polished in manner, poor in purse, 
 who taught in private families the daughters 
 of the well-to-do burghers their little stock 
 of accomplishments, for with the continual 
 presence of a garrison, the occasional visit of 
 the commanding general and the Colonial 
 Governor, often accompanied by his family, 
 there were opportunities for the display of social 
 gifts at Albany only second to New York. 
 That Catherine Schuyler had more substan- 
 tial equipment than this, we are assured by her 
 daughters, who tell of lessons said at her side 
 while she cut out clothing to be sewed up for 
 the slaves, and gave out household orders. 
 
 It was to these matters, however, — the dairy, 
 the knitting, the cutting, the overseeing of 
 gathering in and preserving the fruits, — the 
 girl invariably returned. With our more re- 
 stricted idea of education and the specialization 
 12 
 
COURTSHIP AT ALBANY 
 
 of pursuits, we can scarcely realize how these 
 many-sicled interests contributed to the race 
 of men and women who brought about the inde- 
 pendence of the country. During the period 
 which Catherine Schuyler represents, life 
 itself was a continual emergency to be met 
 not only by calmness and fortitude, but by 
 capability, by being equal to the demands of 
 the moment. This might be a call for bread 
 for a billet of soldiers, the entertainment of 
 a Colonial dignitary or a foreign nobleman, 
 defence against an attack by Indians, the ap- 
 proach of a hostile army ; now contriving the 
 safety of a friend, now offering hospitality to 
 an enemy ; quickwitted as Mrs. Robert Murray 
 was, joking over cakes and wine with Governor 
 Tryon to allow the American army to escape ; 
 braving personal danger as did Catherine 
 Schuyler in defence of her home. 
 
 An event which in our more prosaic times 
 would distinguish a life was then but one of 
 a series. The importance of to-day effaced the 
 importance of yesterday. But an heroic occa- 
 sion was no excuse for letting the kettle boil 
 over. Such was the discipline of the times. 
 
 13 
 
II 
 
 A SOLDIER’S WIFE 
 
 The hereditary enmity between France and 
 England concerned no one more nearly than a 
 young man and maid in Albany in the year 
 1755. That magnificent drama known as 
 “The Seven Years’ War” was now to be un- 
 folded. In Europe Maria Theresa was making 
 ready for her last heroic effort to wrest Silesia 
 from the great Frederic. In America George 
 II. and Louis XY. were preparing for their 
 last contest for the supremacy in Canada. But 
 war had two meanings. On one side of the 
 water it was the organized pastime of kings ; 
 on the other, with its trackless woods, lonely 
 streams, cataracts, rocky defiles, stealthy, 
 naked, painted warriors, and ominous war- 
 whoop announcing the unexpected presence of 
 the foe, war had the gloomy picturesqueness of 
 a great tragedy. 
 
 “ Our Northern frontier demands your most 
 serious attention,” wrote Governor Golden to 
 the Provincial Assembly. “ The city of Albany 
 
 14 
 
A SOLDIER’S WIFE 
 
 is in such condition as draws reproach upon 
 us from our own Indians, at the same time it 
 greatly discourages them.” Mrs. Livingston 
 wrote from the manor below : “ We are in con- 
 stant terror from the savages sneaking about 
 the grounds of the manor.” The same story 
 came from all the out-lying districts. Mothers 
 yet shuddered at the tragedy of Maria Keith a 
 few years before. Living eighteen miles above 
 Albany, with the neighborliness of those days, 
 she was one of the belles of the town. 
 
 At fifteen she married her cousin and went 
 to live at Dutch Hoosic. One morning their 
 house was visited by a band of Indians. They 
 were entertained at breakfast, and their leader 
 in token of friendliness gave Mrs. Keith a belt 
 of wampum, exclaiming in the exalted language 
 of the red man, “ I will trample down the briars 
 around your house lest you hurt your feet.” 
 Shortly after, Mr. Keith went to the wood with 
 his brother, who was shot from behind a tree. 
 He fled to the house, but still believing in the 
 good will of the Indians toward his family, 
 left the women while he went for wagons to 
 take them for safety to Albany. While he 
 was gone the Indians returned, scalped Mrs. 
 Keith’s sister-in-law, and ripping her open took 
 her unborn child and brandished it in the air. 
 Mrs. Keith gathered her children about her, 
 
 15 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 and showing the belt of wampum recalled the 
 promises of the morning. 
 
 “ You shall be saved to dance around the 
 council fire with me in Canada,” the savage 
 replied. 
 
 They then set fire to the house. Mrs. Keith’s 
 daughter Anna, a girl of twelve, preferring 
 death to capture, broke from the Indian who 
 was carrying her away, and rushing back into 
 the flames was burned to death before her 
 mother’s eyes. 
 
 The same tribe of Schagticoke Indians which 
 committed these ravages was again on the war 
 path. Dutch Idoosic, about thirty miles from 
 Albany, was burned, and the half-naked, 
 wretched survivors fled to Albany for help. 
 The militia responded, and the savages with 
 piercing yells retreated to the woods, where 
 the soldiers could not follow them. 
 
 The Commissioners of the Colonies were 
 then in session at Albany. It was a remark- 
 able gathering of distinguished men. Chief 
 among them was Benjamin Franklin, who then 
 proposed his scheme of federation, which antici- 
 pated the compact afterward fulfilled, that 
 gave birth to the Nation. The call for a Coun- 
 cil of the Six Nations was tardily fulfilled. 
 Only a handful took part in the deliberations. 
 Hendrick was there, the great chief of the 
 16 
 
A SOLDIERS WIFE 
 
 Mohawks, and Sir 'William Johnson. The 
 contrast was ominous to those present remem- 
 bering the great council of a few years before, 
 when Sir William, painted and dressed like an 
 Indian, appeared at the head of a great train 
 of warriors, marched into Albany and saluted 
 the Fort, which threw open its sally-port, and 
 the Indians, entering, feasted, and renewed 
 their friendly covenant with the whites. 
 
 The speech of Hendrick, the old man elo- 
 quent, distinguished the occasion : “ It is your 
 fault brethren that we are not strengthened by 
 conquest. We would have gone and taken 
 Crown Point, but you hindered us. We had 
 concluded to go and take it, but we were told 
 that it was too late, that the ice would not bear 
 us. Instead of this you burned your own fort 
 at Saratoga, and ran away from it which was 
 a shame and a scandal. Look around your 
 country and see : you have no fortifications 
 about you — no, not even to this city. It is 
 but a step from Canada hither, and the French 
 may easily come and turn you out of doors. 
 You are desirous that we open our mind and 
 hearts to you. Look at the French. They are 
 men ; they are fortifying everywhere. But — 
 we are ashamed to say it — you are like women ; 
 bare and open without any fortifications.” 
 
 While they talked the news had come of 
 2 17 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 the defeat of young Colonel Washington at 
 Fort Duquesne. The scalping knife was un- 
 sheathed from the Monongahela to the St. 
 Lawrence. 
 
 In the midst of these alarms, under the 
 shadow of these grave dangers, a young man 
 arrives at his majority, and a young woman is 
 preparing her wedding clothes. Philip Schuy- 
 ler, that easy-going good-humored young man, 
 so inattentive to those instructive conversations 
 that distinguished life at The Flatts, of which 
 Mrs. Grant of Laggan writes, is now the head 
 of the family. With great nobility of mind 
 and an unusual sense of justice, although the 
 laws of primogeniture were in force, he divided 
 the estate to which he now fell heir equally 
 between his brother and sisters. With these 
 and his mother he lived in the house in which 
 he was born. It was a Dutch gabled house, 
 built of brick from Holland, and stood a half- 
 mile from the stockade in a pasture which is 
 now the busy site of State and Pearl Streets, 
 and gave its name to the young heir, Philip of 
 the Pasture. 
 
 The responsibilities of life were gathering 
 quickly about him. He was soon to marry. 
 There was a call to arms in defence of the 
 frontier. The young men of the Colony were 
 exhorted to patriotism. Philip Schuyler was 
 18 
 
A SOLDIER’S WIFE 
 
 the first to respond. To him Governer DeLancy 
 issued the first commission. One hundred of 
 the first young men of the district enrolled 
 under him. Ann Shirley, daughter of the Colo- 
 nial Governor, writes lamenting that not a 
 beau will be left. Ann herself is about to be 
 married. We may imagine that Catherine 
 Van Rensselaer shared her feelings, but with 
 that composure that distinguished the Dutch 
 girl from her lively English contemporaries. 
 
 The departure of the troops drew near. At 
 length, on the eighth of August, they left Albany 
 for Fort Edward, commanded by Sir William 
 Johnson, whose title, though eminently near, 
 had not yet descended, and among them the 
 company of Captain Philip Schuyler. A youth 
 who had followed the trail, visited in the Indian 
 camps of the frontier, and rallied to midnight 
 alarms from the savages, was not new to the 
 dangers of the forest, the privations of the 
 camp, or the fatigues of the march. But this 
 was war. They were to meet the trained army 
 of the most warlike nation of Europe, en- 
 trenched and on its own ground. There were 
 many jealousies between the Provincial and the 
 Royal troops. The young men of the Colonies 
 with their homely customs, simpler manners, 
 had retreated before the gay young officers of 
 the King, whose glittering gold and red and 
 
 19 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 dashing manners had challenged their more 
 modest dress and demeanor in the official 
 society at Albany. It was to be seen whether 
 they would suffer equally in the competition 
 of the field of war. The officers treated the 
 Americans with contempt. “ The ministry 
 were determined to employ their own troops 
 to fight their battles in America rather than 
 let the colonists feel their own strength.” On 
 the other hand Abercrombie writes to Gates: 
 “ the provincials are averse to junction with 
 the king’s troops .... but have regulars at 
 hand to secure the fools in case he should be 
 repulsed.” 
 
 The fools were going to fight this battle. 
 All these influences conspired to make the 
 expedition to Lake George a proud and anxious 
 moment to the young Captain and the girl 
 he was going to marry. The fight took place 
 on the seventh of September. It was a mem- 
 orable battle for several reasons. Sir Wil- 
 liam Johnson wished to divide his forces. Old 
 Hendrick, the Mohawk chief, putting three 
 sticks together, said, “Unite them you cannot 
 break them.” Then taking them one by one 
 he broke them and cast them on the ground. 
 The greatest of Indian warriors, practically in 
 command, Hendrick fell at the first fire. Soon 
 after, Colonel Ephraim Williams fell mortally 
 20 
 
A SOLDIER’S WIFE 
 
 wounded, leaving his fortune to found Williams 
 College, which bears his name. Sir William 
 Johnson was wounded several times, earning 
 his title. But the French were routed, and 
 Baron Dieskau, the commander of the French 
 forces, was taken prisoner. 
 
 Several days after it was the pleasing duty of 
 Captain Schuyler, whose knowledge of the 
 French language had made him useful in the 
 matter, to be detailed to arrange for the recep- 
 tion of the French prisoners at Albany. It 
 may be imagined what a home-coming this 
 was to be to the ardent mind of a young man. 
 He was to bear in his person the honors of a 
 successful campaign. War has its glories 
 even in defeat; but this was victory. The 
 despised Provincials had overcome the accom- 
 plished and dreaded Frenchmen. The battle 
 of Lake George gave to the Americans the first 
 sense of their own power, and of it was born 
 the later and greater victory that ended in 
 independence. Of the reception of the young 
 soldier at Albany there is no record, but the 
 marriage of Philip Schuyler and “ sweet Kitty 
 V. R.” took place on the seventeenth of Sep- 
 tember, nine days after the battle of Lake 
 George. Such a concourse of events is of itself 
 eloquent. There are supreme moments in life. 
 A young man who comes to his bridal bringing 
 21 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 the honors of war, and with a captive general 
 in his train, and the young creature who is 
 awaiting him, may surely be said to have 
 tasted these. 
 
 At this time Philip Schuyler is described as 
 a fine, well-developed person with perfect com- 
 mand of his temper, prompt and accurate in 
 his affairs, but easily relapsing into that com- 
 radeship “ which is the privilege of easy disen- 
 cumbered minds.” Catherine Van Rensselaer, 
 according to the unfriendly testimony of a Tory 
 historian, was “ a lady of great beauty, shape 
 and gentility.” This is confirmed by Lossing 
 with enthusiastic detail. “ She was delicate 
 but perfect in form and feature ; of medium 
 height, extremely graceful in her movements 
 and winning in her deportment ; well educated 
 in comparison with others, of sprightly tem- 
 perament, possessed of great firmness and 
 will, and was very frugal, industrious and 
 methodical.” 
 
 The marriage of two young people of such 
 importance in a community, in which all roads 
 led to marriage, was inevitably an event. The 
 preparations for a wedding in a Dutch com- 
 munity were deliberate and thorough. The 
 trousseau was confided to the tailoress, as- 
 sisted by the mantua maker, who got up the 
 outside garments and the millinery. This 
 22 
 
A SOLDIER'S WIFE 
 
 work was conducted at the home of the bride, 
 and the members of the family took part. 
 The pattern and materials were imported from 
 Eng-land and Holland. 
 
 The reigning modes were transmitted through 
 dolls sent over to the Colonies instead of fashion 
 plates. A glimpse of the styles may be found 
 in the facetious correspondence of the day. 
 There is something very modern in the spirit 
 of such extracts as these : “ The petticoats 
 which began to heave and swell before you 
 left are now blown up into an enormous con- 
 cave, and rise more and more every day. 
 These foreign invaders made their first attack 
 upon the stays, so as to diminish them down 
 to the waist, exposing the breast and shoulders. 
 Next to the caps, cutting off the lappets and 
 tabs, bored and padlocked the ears. Next 
 came the hoops and Frenchpocket holes, and 
 last of all have shortened the rear so that the 
 ankles and heels are exposed to the very calves 
 and clocks.” Such were the English influ- 
 ences over these staid days when the Rev. 
 Everardus Bogardus sued for slander a certain 
 Hendrick Janse because he appeared before 
 the Secretary of the Colony and certified that 
 the wife of the Rev. Everardus Bogardus drew 
 up her petticoat a “ little way.” 
 
 The women wore striped skirts, short gowns, 
 
 23 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 bordered caps, and ribbed stockings with low 
 shoes having silver buckles. The buckles it 
 was customary for the lover to give after be- 
 ing accepted, as the engagement ring is now 
 given. In the portrait of Mrs. Schuyler the 
 bodice shows something of those innovations 
 that the “ foreign invader ” complained of has 
 introduced. The new corset has raised the 
 bust and narrowed the substantial Dutch waists. 
 The plastron of the body suggests the tablier 
 of the “ tufted skirt,” desired by Mrs. Washing- 
 ton, from London. Over this, lifted on the 
 hips, as with the Dolly Vardens of later days, 
 spread the lustrous brocades and lutestrings. 
 English fashions doubtless prevailed in Cathe- 
 rine Van Rensselaer’s trousseau, considering 
 her intimacy with the Governor’s circle and 
 her frequent visits to New York. 
 
 Scarcely less important than the wedding 
 dress was that to be worn at church the Sunday 
 after the wedding. The reason appears in a 
 letter written by the fashionable Ann Shirley 
 after her own marriage. “ Last Sunday I 
 attended Miss Shirley (that was) to church, 
 and accordingly there were a great many peo- 
 ple there to look at the bride. Her dress was 
 a yellow lute string trimmed with silver lace 
 with one flounce which was esteemed by every 
 body to be very genteel, and I was not a little 
 
 24 
 
A SOLDIER’S WIFE 
 
 pleased with it as it was in a measure my 
 taste.” Dutch girls did not have many frocks. 
 Three were thought to be a sufficient number, 
 and the best was carefully kept for company. 
 But a young woman of Catherine Van Rensse- 
 laer’s social importance would doubtless have 
 an allowance of “ sattin tabbys,” and puckered 
 petticoats befitting her position. The hair 
 at this time was tufted, crimped, and powdered, 
 the hair dresser an important person. The 
 hair sleek with pomatum banded beneath the 
 cap was worn by the Dutch matrons, but on the 
 heads of the young and fashionable were reared 
 the “ Ladies Tatematongues and Towers after 
 the manner worn at Court,” which the barbers 
 of the day include among their announcements 
 of wigs and bob-perukes. 
 
 When the wedding day approached the banns 
 were called three times in church. After the 
 first time a dance was usually given to the 
 young people, and as soon as the newspaper 
 appeared betrothals were freely commented on. 
 “A lady of great merit with every accomplish- 
 ment to render the connubial state happy,” 
 appended to such an announcement in the first 
 Albany journal published, reads like modern 
 journalism, except for its more pretentious 
 form. Marriages were never celebrated in 
 church. The invitations were written, but 
 
 25 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 without formality. Thus writes the old 
 burgher Jelles Fonda: 
 
 Sir, — I should be Glad of your Company as 
 also that of Mrs Sanders, your Brother and Sister 
 Pedgee to see my Daughter Pedgee married next 
 Tuesday at 12 o’clock. 
 
 I am your sincire Friend and Humble Sev. 
 
 Jelles Fonda. 
 
 Although a few years later, so quickly polite 
 forms are assimilated, we find Miss Maria 
 Gansvoort requesting the company of Miss 
 Van Rensselaer in a truly elegant manner to 
 see her married. 
 
 “ They seldom admitted strangers to their 
 marriages, but the day after the groom gave a 
 cold collation to which any of his friends could 
 come without an invitation. They had punch, 
 wine, and appointed a Dictator, and it was a 
 disgusting feast.” This is the unfriendly de- 
 scription by a traveller of the custom of keeping 
 open house by the groom’s father, while the 
 bride’s mother at the same time received the 
 congratulations of her friends. At a period 
 when rum and Madeira mellowed every occa- 
 sion from a church-raising to a funeral, and 
 humor was none too delicate, such excesses may 
 have occurred. But “ one guardian genius 
 watched over the community with unremitting 
 diligence ” in these as in all other matters. 
 
 26 
 
A SOLDIER’S WIFE 
 
 The Dutch Reformed Church of Albany was 
 the nursery of liberty, the promoter of educa- 
 tion, the guardian of society and the home. 
 Quaint woodcuts of its exterior and interior 
 have come down from the earliest times. It 
 contained a pulpit and canopy which cost 
 twenty-five beaver skins in Holland, — beaver 
 skins being the gold of the Colony, wampum 
 the silver. A beaver skin was estimated at 
 two guilders. There were seats for the deacons 
 and magistrates and nine pews for the congre- 
 gation. In time a gallery was added. This 
 with the ceiling was painted sky blue. Addi- 
 tional adornment was made in the coats-of- 
 arms of the Van Rensselaers, Scliuylers, Living- 
 stons, and Van Cortlandts, and other prominent 
 families placed in the windows. The women 
 sat in the gallery while the men sat below and 
 smoked during the sermon. The women went 
 to church attended by slaves bearing foot- 
 stoves. These were replenished as often as 
 necessary from the great stove below. Cathe- 
 rine Van Rensselaer occupied as a girl pew 35. 
 It was the custom for these sittings to descend 
 from mother to the eldest daughter, while the 
 eldest son inherited the seat of his father. 
 Later it is recorded that “ the following women 
 folk took seats in the first pew opposite to that 
 of the elders, aggreeing to relinquish it four 
 27 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 times a year on the occasion of celebrating 
 the Lord’s Supper. Gertrude Yan Rensselaer, 
 Catherine Schuyler, Margarieta Livingston, 
 Maria Lansingh, Nellie Schuyler, Gertrude 
 Bleeker.” The Patrooness had four sittings 
 allotted to her. 
 
 It is doubtful whether the congregation had 
 an opportunity to enjoy the wedding finery of 
 Philip and Catherine Schuyler. Amiable 
 couples, it was said, used to come late to church 
 that the congregation might see their finery. 
 In the “History of Westchester County” Mrs. 
 Vanderbilt describes a bride who wore a fawn- 
 colored silk over a light blue damask petticoat, 
 while the groom wore a waistcoat made of the 
 •same light blue damask. In the Long Island 
 Historical Society Collection is a manuscript 
 commonplace book which tells of one groom who 
 appeared on the first Sunday after his marriage 
 in white broadcloth ; on the second in blue and 
 gold ; on the third in peach blow with pearl 
 buttons. But military orders did not comport 
 with such display. There were graver matters 
 stirring. The groom was off and to the wars 
 again, and the bride had new duties now 
 waiting. 
 
 28 
 
m 
 
 THE YOUNG MISTRESS 
 
 A 'week is a brief honeymoon. Only this space 
 was allotted to an event that among the Dutch 
 involved elaborate festivities and the celebra- 
 tion of many time-honored customs. It was 
 necessary for Captain Schuyler to hurry back 
 to Lake George to take charge of the transpor- 
 tation of the troops. The bride went to her 
 new home. Philip Schuyler, having renounced 
 his rights as the oldest son, lived with his 
 mother, brothers, and widowed sister Gertrude 
 and her daughter in the ancestral home. His 
 mother, Cornelia Van Cortlandt, was a daugh- 
 ter of one of the aristocratic Dutch families of 
 the Province, and possessed in her own right 
 a large inherited estate. She was a woman 
 of great force of character, and had carefully 
 trained her son with reference to his duties as a 
 landed proprietor and as the head of the family. 
 She was herself a woman of affairs. The State 
 records show that after the death of her hus- 
 band she took out a patent for thirteen hundred 
 29 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 acres of land. This in her will, dated five 
 years after the marriage of her son, she be- 
 queaths equally to Philip and Stephen, her sons, 
 leaving to her daughter Gertrude houses and 
 lots on Queen Street, New York, and to her 
 youngest son, Cortlandt, £1800 in money, with 
 a residue to be equally shared. 
 
 Blit the young bride had not only the influ- 
 ence and example of so accomplished a mother- 
 in-law, but of that other matron, the arbiter of 
 elegance and morals in Albany, Madame Schuy- 
 ler. Of her she saw much, since Philip Schuyler 
 was a nephew in whose welfare the older lady had 
 concerned herself, and subsequently was one of 
 her heirs. Catherine Schuyler has left behind 
 her a well-founded impression of sweetness of 
 temper and mental composure. One may fancy 
 a young impressionable woman surrounded by 
 two such striking individualities as this mother 
 and aunt. Though the ensign of the Comman- 
 der of the Royal Arms floated from Fort Orange, 
 and though the Governor of the Province be in 
 residence, Aunt Schuyler, as the distinguished 
 mistress of The Flatts was called, was still the 
 reigning power. Even her sister, Mrs. Cuyler, 
 the wife of the mayor, first gained her consent 
 before deciding who of the officers of the King 
 or of the gay young commissaries should be 
 admitted to municipal society. 
 
 30 
 
THE YOUNG MISTRESS 
 
 Albany was then a semi-rural village, each 
 house surrounded by grounds, in front of each 
 house a portico, or in the vernacular, a “ stoop,” 
 where in the cool of the evening the inhabitants 
 gathered. That of Aunt Schuyler took the 
 form of a levee. “ Aunt Schuyler is out ” 
 passed from door to door when that lady ap- 
 peared. Then a succession of visitors passed 
 in review, each too considerate to encroach at 
 any other time upon the attention of so impor- 
 tant a person, but each eager to exchange a 
 word with her. While Madame Schuyler was 
 receiving the tribute of the dignitaries of the 
 town and of her neighbors, the younger mem- 
 bers of her family sat humbly on the lower 
 steps and looked and listened. 
 
 She had no children of her own, but always 
 had with her some of the young people of the 
 large circle of her relations in preparation for 
 their future duties in life. The position was 
 no sinecure. 
 
 “No one better understood nor more fully appre- 
 ciated the duties of housekeeping,” writes her 
 biographer. “Thus young females who had the 
 happiness of being bred under her auspices, very 
 soon became qualified to assist her instead of en- 
 croaching much upon her time. The example and 
 conversation of the family in which they lived was 
 to them a perpetual school for useful knowledge, 
 31 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 and manners easy and dignified, though natural 
 and artless.” 
 
 It is pardonable to continue this description 
 of a household which was the model, and which 
 must have been the despair, of all the young 
 matrons of the town, as it sets forth in so in- 
 teresting a manner the domestic life of the time 
 under its happiest conditions : — 
 
 “Aunt was a great manager of her time, and 
 always contrived to create leisure hours for read- 
 ing; for that kind of conversation which is properly 
 styled gossip she had the utmost contempt. Light 
 superficial reading, such as merely fills a blank in 
 time was little known there; for few books crossed 
 the Atlantic, but such as were worth carrying for 
 their intrinsic worth. . . . She was too much ac- 
 customed to have her mind occupied with objects 
 of real worth and importance to give it up to frivol- 
 ous pursuits of any kind. She began the morning 
 with the reading of the Scriptures. They always 
 breakfasted early and dined two hours later than 
 the primitive inhabitants who took that meal at 
 twelve. This departure from ancient customs was 
 necessary in the family in order to accommodate 
 the great number of British as well as strangers 
 who were daily entertained at her liberal table. 
 This arrangement gave her a longer forenoon to 
 dispose of. After breakfast she gave orders for 
 the family details of the day, which without 
 32 
 
THE YOUNG MISTRESS 
 
 scrupulous attention which fell more properly under 
 the notice of these young friends, she always regu- 
 lated in the most judicious manner, so as to prevent 
 all appearance of 1 lurry and confusion.” 
 
 “There was much rivalry among domestics whose 
 sole ambition was her favor; and who had been 
 trained up from infancy, each to their several duties, 
 so that excellence in each department was the re- 
 sult both of habit and emulation; while her young 
 protegees were early taught the value and impor- 
 tance of good housewifery, and were sedulous to 
 little matters of decoration and elegance which 
 her mind was too engrossed to attend to; so that 
 her household affairs, ever well regulated, went on 
 in a kind of mechanical progress, that seemed to 
 engage little of her attention, though her vigilant 
 and overruling mind set every spring in motion. 
 Having thus easily and speedily arranged the 
 details of the day she retired to read in her own 
 closet, where she generally remained till about 
 eleven ; when being unable to distant walks, the 
 colonel and she, and some of her elder guests passed 
 some of the hotter hours among those embowering 
 shades of the garden, in which she took great pleas- 
 ure. Here was their Lyceum; here questions of 
 morality and religion too weighty for table talk 
 were leisurely and coolly discussed; and plans of 
 policy and various utility arranged. From this 
 retreat they adjourned to the portico; and while 
 the colonel either retired to write or went to give 
 directions to his servants, she sat in this little 
 33 
 
 3 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 tribunal, giving audience to new settlers, follow- 
 ers of the army left in hapless dependence, and 
 others who wanted assistance and advice, or hoped 
 she would intercede with the colonel for something 
 more peculiarly in his way, he having great in- 
 fluence with the Colonial government.” 
 
 Dinner, as was observed, was at two, and 
 usually assembled a large party, some being 
 friends and relations, others strangers, friend- 
 less travellers, on the score of hospitality, who 
 if they proved valuable acquisitions were invited 
 to remain as guests, and lastly the military, of 
 which there were always some in garrison, and 
 were chosen, we are assured, with “ some dis- 
 crimination on account of her young friends 
 whom they wished not only to protect, but 
 cultivate by improving associations.” In the 
 afternoon there was another set of guests, 
 visitors from Albany who drove out to take 
 tea, three or four in open carriages. Tea was 
 early, and accompanied by the pasties and pre- 
 serves which the Dutch housekeepers were so 
 skilled in making. These guests fell to the 
 younger members to entertain. Their diver- 
 sions took the form of rambles or boating, a 
 visit to the beautiful wooded island in the river 
 opposite, while Madame remained on her portico 
 “ engaged in what might be called light read- 
 ing, essays, biography, poetry,” till the younger 
 34 
 
THE YOUNG MISTRESS 
 
 party returned and with her shared another 
 light repast on the portico or within. 
 
 To live up to so perfect an esaxnplar was 
 indeed a difficult task for the young bride. 
 But the first act recorded of Catherine Schuy- 
 ler in her new estate is of this gracious charac- 
 ter. The wounded Baron Dieskau was brought 
 to Albany by batteau and litter during the 
 week of the wedding festivities. The Baron 
 was a charming companion, and Philip Schuyler 
 had grown intimate with him in their enforced 
 companionship. Before leaving Albany to 
 rejoin Sir William Johnson at Lake George he 
 commended the wounded French general to 
 the attention of his mother and wife. Shortly 
 after, in a lively letter to Captain Schuyler 
 from Bernier, the aide-de-camp of Dieskau, 
 he says : — 
 
 “One can add nothing to the politeness of 
 Madame, your mother and Madame, your wife. 
 Every day there comes from them to the Baron 
 fruits and other rare sweets, which are of great 
 service to him. He orders me on this subject to 
 express to you all that he owes to the attentions 
 of these ladies. If it was permitted me to go out 
 I should have already been often to present to 
 them his respects and mine.” 
 
 The demands of the time grew rather than 
 diminished. The succeeding years enlarged 
 
 35 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 the duties of the women of the frontier towns 
 and restricted their supplies. The differences 
 in the development of the Dutch women and 
 those of New England and the South were not 
 purely racial. There was less time for that 
 instructive reading that beguiled Aunt Schuy- 
 ler’s leisure. There were no hotels, and the 
 hospitalities of the great houses had to be 
 extended to a larger number of guests, as the 
 war clouds thickened. Meanwhile the min- 
 istrations to the poor and unfortunate in- 
 creased. These occurred on so large a scale 
 that an observant visitor writes : — 
 
 “ I know the utmost they could derive from 
 their lands, and it was not much; some money 
 they had, but nothing adequate to their manner of 
 living, and the very large family they drew about 
 them. But with regard to the plenty, one might 
 almost call it luxury of the table, it was supplied 
 from a variety of sources. Indians grateful for 
 numerous benefits were constantly bringing the 
 smaller game and in winter and spring loads of 
 venison.” 
 
 Visitors from New York, we are told, would 
 send in return oysters and other shell fish, be- 
 sides tropical fruits, plenty and cheap through 
 the constant commerce between Jamaica and 
 New York. The boys never went out without 
 
 36 
 
TUB YOUNG MISTRESS 
 
 their guns or rods and never came home empty- 
 handed. Presents of wine were almost part 
 of the etiquette of society. There was little 
 money, but the kindly exchange of gifts pre- 
 vailed, as in all primitive communities. There 
 was plenty of china and plate, portraits of 
 bewigged gentlemen and much beruffed ladies, 
 and fine old pieces of tulip wood and mahogany, 
 to give dignity and even elegance to the 
 hospitalities of the household. There was 
 a retinue of servants attached to each of 
 the prominent houses. Slavery preserved in 
 Albany in great measure its patriarchal form. 
 In the Schuyler household the slaves all de- 
 scended from two old women brought from 
 Africa when they were young. Mrs. Grant 
 gives an amusing account of the “ rivalries in 
 excellence ” between these two tribes. “ Diana 
 was determined that in no inspect of excellence 
 Maria’s children should surpass hers ; and 
 Maria was equally determined that Diana’s 
 brood should not surpass hers. If Maria’s 
 son Prince cut down wood with more dex- 
 terity and despatch than any one in the 
 province, the mighty Caesar, son of Diana, cut 
 down wheat and threshed it better than he. 
 His sister Betty, who to her misfortune was 
 a beauty of her kind, and possessed wit equal 
 to her beauty, was the best seamstress and 
 37 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 laundress I have known, and plain unpretend- 
 ing Rachel, sister to Prince, wife to Tytus alas 
 Tyte, and head cook, dressed dinners that might 
 have pleased Apicius.” 
 
 For every department of the household there 
 was a slave allotted. They hoed, drilled, shod 
 horses, made cider, raised hemp and tobacco, 
 looked after the horses and the garden, made 
 and mended the shoes, spun, wove, made nets, 
 canoes, attended to the fishing, carpentering, 
 each household sufficient unto itself. Slavery 
 probably never took a more unobjectionable 
 form. The negroes were treated with even 
 familiarity ; each was allowed his own garden, 
 and was encouraged to raise pets. As in the 
 South, each boy had his boy, and each girl her 
 maid who was given to her on her marriage. 
 Here they lived, and multiplied to old age, no 
 slave being sold unless he proved unmanageable 
 or to be a corrupt influence ; and in this case, 
 the threat to send the refractory one to 
 Jamaica or the Barbadoes was usually suffi- 
 cient. Later, in the more demoralizing days 
 following the Revolution, there were negro 
 troubles at Albany similar to those in earlier 
 times in New York. Such a period was in 1793, 
 when the “Bet of Philip Yan Schaick, a hand- 
 some wench,” and Dinah, prompted by Pomp, a 
 favorite Albany negro, carried coals in a shoe 
 
 38 
 
THE YOUNG MISTRESS 
 
 and occasioned one of the famous fires of 
 Albany. The two girls were tried, sentenced, 
 and speedily executed, in accordance with the 
 summary judgment of the times. Pomp, from 
 his great popularity, had a stay, but subse- 
 quently suffered the same fate. Pinxter, one 
 of the three Dutch fetes of the year, belonged 
 to the negroes. It was observed the Monday 
 following Whitsunday, and generally continued 
 through the week. There was a colored harle- 
 quin. For many years this was personated 
 by a well-known Guinea negro known as King 
 Charley. Dressed in a cast-off coat of the 
 military, decked out with colored ribbons, his 
 legs bare and a little black hat with a pompon 
 on one side, he was seated on a hollow log, 
 which had each end covered with skins and 
 served as a drum for dancing. Other negroes 
 had eel pots covered with skin which they 
 beat with their hands while they sang a song 
 that had a refrain “ Hi-a bomba bomba,” 
 which it was supposed was brought over from 
 Africa. To this music the negroes danced. 
 There were also gingerbread booths and side 
 shows, and under the charge of the elderly 
 women all the young gentry were taken out 
 to see the sights. 
 
 The administration of these households fell 
 into the hands of the mistress, whose husband 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 was about the affairs of the Colony civil or mili- 
 tary, and in the intervals of his public duties 
 was engaged in the larger matters of his estate, 
 or matters of commerce with New York or 
 the sea islands. One finds no evidence of 
 concern among the men about matters of 
 the feminine toilet in Dutch Colonial papers. 
 The marriages of Washington and Philip 
 Schuyler occurred about the same time. A 
 thread of domesticity runs through Washing- 
 ton’s diary. He has the air of close familiarity 
 with “ real minnekin pins and satin tabbies,” 
 orders perfumed powder for the family, and 
 wrestles with the spelling of “ jackeynot- 
 muslin” and “corded dimothy,” doubtless 
 taken from the lips of Mrs. Washington seated 
 by his side. With great perspicuity he writes to 
 London about “Mrs. Washington’s green sack, 
 which is to be cleaned, or fresh dyed the same 
 color ; made up into a handsome sack again ; or 
 if it wont afford that to be thrown in to a genteel 
 night gown.” Again, he is distressed about a 
 housekeeper for his wife, wages no consider- 
 ation, to spare her additional weight. Elias 
 Boudinot writes to his wife about the preserv- 
 ing, and remarks that the “ Kitchen gentry 
 very much needs a mistress,” while gently 
 reproaching her for not writing to him. 
 
 The distribution of affairs was more clearly 
 
 40 
 
THE YOUNG MISTRESS 
 
 established in the Albany households. There 
 is no record that Philip Schuyler, Abraham 
 Ten Broek, or Stephen Van Rensselaer knew 
 anything of real minnekin pins, of the dif- 
 ference between Callimanco and Callimanca, 
 of Thickset and Jackeynot. The households 
 were administered by the mistresses ; into 
 their hands fell the rearing of the children, 
 their education, the hospitalities, and the 
 responsibility of the dependents both of the 
 family and of the poor. For the differences 
 of fortune induced by the manorial privileges 
 gave a certain feudal aspect to the community, 
 and its responsibilities. On the other hand 
 these frugal, industrious, self-sufficient house- 
 wives, as has already been intimated, were not 
 literary women. They rarely wrote letters, and 
 there are Dutch receipt books in existence 
 which disclose the precarious spelling of the 
 writers. The only poetess they can claim is 
 the unfortunate Ann Eliza Bleeker, born a 
 Schuyler, the quality of whose verse remains 
 in a slender book from which such lines of 
 observant detail may be gleamed : 
 
 “ Where hid the elusive watermelon lie 
 Sportive make incisions in the rind, 
 
 The riper from the immature to find. 
 
 Then load their tender shoulders with the prey 
 And laughing bear the tender fruit away.” 
 
 41 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 This and much more, describing the ramblings 
 of the children about her loved Tomhannock. 
 
 Such gentle dabbling with the Muse is not to 
 be compared with the Odes of Annis Stockton 
 congratulating the Commander-in-Chief on his 
 victories nor with Mrs. Mercy Warren’s pen, 
 alike vigorous in politics and poetry. Nor 
 is there among them a gossipy penwoman like 
 Mrs. Abigail Adams. The distinguishing 
 trait of the women of the Dutch Province 
 is found in the unobtrusive manner in which 
 they performed their share of the mutual 
 contract. To it frequently in the emergencies 
 of the time were added the larger matters of the 
 estate. Several women in the Schuyler family 
 have left a record of their successful manage- 
 ment of affairs. Margaret Van Sclilictenhorst, 
 the wife of the progenitor of the family, took 
 the active management of her husband’s es- 
 tate after his death and largely increased it. A 
 daughter of Peter Schuyler successfully negoti- 
 ated with the Indians in 1772, as a clause from 
 a letter of her husband quoted by Mrs. Earle 
 indicates : — 
 
 “ Since you left us my wife has been in the 
 Indian country, and Van Slyk had purchased what 
 he could at the upper end of the land; she pur- 
 chased the rest from Ignosedash to his purchase. 
 She has gone through a great deal of hardship and 
 42 
 
THE YOUNG MISTRESS 
 
 trouble about it, being from borne almost ever since 
 you left us; and prevailed with tbe Indians whilst 
 there with trouble and expense to mark out tbe 
 land where mine is into the woods. Mrs. Feather 
 has been slaving with her all this while, and hard 
 enough to do with that perverse generation, to 
 bring them to terms.” 
 
 These emergencies were not only matters 
 of trade, such as were accomplished by 
 Madame Proovost, who as Madame James 
 Alexander, the mother of Lord Stirling, 
 “ within a few hours of being brought to bed 
 was in her shop ” and “ The very next day 
 after She was brought to Bed she Sold goods 
 to above thirty pounds in value.” Sometimes 
 these emergencies involved acts of heroism and 
 courage. It is somewhat irritating to observe 
 how little these women seemed to comprehend 
 the part they played in the great drama then 
 unfolding. Everything their capabilities spared 
 the men was that much given to the country. 
 When this or that deed was done they re- 
 sumed without celebration or comment the 
 charge of household and children. It is in this 
 respect that Catherine Schuyler is the most 
 distinguished representative Dutchwoman of 
 her time. 
 
 43 
 
IV 
 
 YOUNG MARRIED LIFE 
 
 In a week the young Captain was back at 
 Lake George among his boats and supplies, 
 and his bride was undergoing her novitiate 
 between these two households. It was an 
 inglorious period in military affairs. The 
 victory on Lake George was not followed up. 
 General Abercrombie had established head- 
 quarters at Albany, and with ten thousand 
 men in camp awaited the arrival of Lord 
 Loudoun. This delay was bitterly opposed by 
 the Provincials. The burden of maintaining 
 the military without corresponding advantage 
 was sturdily objected to by the Dutch burghers. 
 Every household had its billet of soldiers. 
 There is a piteous appeal of the Council to the 
 military authorities to “ metigate said order.” 
 
 But there were other objections to the 
 presence of the soldier than those of expense. 
 The gay young red-coated officers created 
 havoc among the hearts of the demure Dutch 
 girls. Both men and women imitated the 
 
 44 
 
YOUNG MARRIED LIFE 
 
 dress and manners of tlie English. The tone 
 of society at least now was not dull. Madame 
 Schuyler and her husband, the Colonel, were 
 on a visit to their friends in New York, and 
 thus the watchful eye and vigorous hand of 
 that lady were wanting. There remained how- 
 ever, the Rev. Theodore Frelinghuysen, the 
 pastor of the Dutch church, who married, bap- 
 tized, and buried all the gentry young and old 
 of Albany, and hitherto the official guardian of 
 manners and morals. 
 
 Among the new diversions introduced by the 
 English was the play. Young Phil Schuyler 
 in the same letter written to his friend “ Brom ” 
 of his sweetheart, speaks of going to the 
 theatre, evidently for the first time. “ We had 
 tea at five o’clock and befor sundown we were 
 at the theatre for the players commence at 
 six. A large green curtain hung be fore the 
 players until they were ready to begin, when 
 at the blast of a whistle, it was raised and 
 some of them appeared and commenced acting. 
 The play was called 4 The Conscious Lover,’ 
 written by Richard Steele, Addison’s help in 
 writing the Spectator.” However, except by 
 those families who visited New York, a play had 
 never before been seen. The piece was “ The 
 Beaux’ Stratagem,” and was acted by the 
 officers themselves in a barn. This was so 
 
 45 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 well attended that another night “ The 
 Recruiting Officer ” was given. 
 
 Great was the scandal in the church and 
 among the burghers. Their indictment was 
 searching. “ Officers familiar with every vice 
 and disguise, had not only spent a whole night 
 in telling lies in a counterfeited place, the 
 reality of which never existed, but that they 
 themselves were a lie, and had degraded man- 
 hood by assuming female habits ; that they had 
 not only told lies, but cursed and swore the 
 whole night ; and assumed the characters of 
 knaves and fools and robbers, which every 
 good man held in detestation, and no man 
 would put on unless they felt themselves easy 
 in them.” Moreover, they painted their faces, 
 which was against God and nature. The 
 occurrence called for public rebuke. This the 
 Rev. Theodore Frelinghuysen knew himself 
 competent to administer. On the one hand 
 the parents ranged themselves in line with the 
 preacher. On the other, the young people 
 entrenched themselves in their disobedience. 
 The harmony which distinguished Dutch fami- 
 lies was broken. Young men withstood their 
 fathers, and daughters defied their mothers. 
 At length some mischievous person laid at the 
 dominie’s door a club, a pair of shoes, a piece 
 of black bread, and some silver. The meaning 
 
 4G 
 
YOUNG MARRIED LIFE 
 
 was plain: it was desired that he should depart. 
 The club was to support his steps, the shoes to 
 wear on the road, the bread and money to 
 nourish him on his journey. 
 
 In the midst of this clamor Aunt Schuyler 
 returned from New York. Her wisdom in the 
 choice of friends had guarded her own little 
 flock of nephews and nieces from contamina- 
 tion. Her efforts were devoted to soothing the 
 wounded spirit of the dominie, whose young 
 flock had revolted. She was not successful. 
 He determined to return to Holland, and 
 accordingly set sail in an opportune Dutch 
 vessel. He was never heard from again. At 
 length the news came that in a fit of melan- 
 choly he walked overboard and was lost at sea. 
 It was variously believed. Romantic stories 
 clustered about his memory. Now he was 
 heard of as a hermit on some distant isle of the 
 sea. Again his return was anticipated after 
 long wandering among unknown lands. 
 
 The Schuyler family had been too intimately 
 associated with the English, both publicly and 
 in social life, to share the more violent preju- 
 dices of the Dutch. In the effort to allow for 
 greater freedom while restraining it within 
 decorous bounds they were supported by Lord 
 Howe, who in the intimacy of camp and family 
 had become like a brother to Philip Schuyler. 
 
 47 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Instead of living with his brother officers in 
 town he occupied a tent with his brigade below 
 town, where we find him endeavoring to set an 
 example of temperance and economy to his 
 brother officers, and protesting against the sale 
 of liquor to the men. In the morning it was 
 his custom on rising to mount horse and ride 
 up to his friends’ to breakfast, and after an 
 hour’s familiar intercourse over the table, ride 
 back to his military duties again. Philip 
 Schuyler himself was rarely there. During 
 these disturbed times in the social life of 
 Albany he was at Fort Edward building bat- 
 teaux, making roads and bridges for the cam- 
 paign confidently expected to open in the spring. 
 In all the gay doings Catherine Schuyler had 
 but little part. On February 22, 1756, a little 
 daughter was born. According to the custom 
 of the Dutch families she was named Angelica, 
 after that Engeltke Livingston who was her 
 grandmother. Many years later in a letter to 
 her daughter Mrs. Cruger this same Angelica 
 wrote of another member of the family : 
 
 “I regret that she did not give her daughter her 
 mother’s name, and her son that of his grandfather, 
 the founder of the family in this country. I am 
 sensible that this is an old fashioned aristocratic 
 notion and family pride, and you must excuse me 
 for it — to others.” 
 
 48 
 
YOUNG MARRIED LIFE 
 
 In the spring the young husband and wife 
 were united, but not for long. The disgust of 
 the Provincials at the inaction and profligacy 
 of the King’s troops “ fattening at the tables of 
 their hosts ” increased. “ Go back to your 
 own country,” said Mayor Cuyler ; “ we can 
 defend our frontiers ourselves.” The dissatis- 
 faction was made stronger by a decree that the 
 regulars should outrank the militai’y of the 
 Province, — a decree, however, which it was not 
 thought prudent to enforce. These difficulties 
 but stimulated the Colonists to new efforts. 
 Among the intimates of Aunt Schuyler was 
 General John Bradstreet, quartermaster gen- 
 eral of the English army. Captain Schuyler 
 had been with him at Fort Edward, where he 
 had observed “ the perfect command of temper, 
 acuteness and despatch of business ” that dis- 
 tinguished this young man of twenty-two. Pie 
 accordingly made him his secretary and deputy. 
 It was a notable friendship, long enduring and 
 faithfully preserved. Bradstreet was in charge 
 of the expedition preparing for the relief of the 
 fort at Oswego, now threatened by Montcalm 
 and his Indians. With her baby but a few 
 months old Catherine Schuyler was again 
 obliged to see her husband set off on another 
 perilous campaign. 
 
 The expedition arrived too late. The Rangers, 
 
 4 49 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 as the farmer backwoodsmen who reinforced 
 the Provincial troops were called, were defeated. 
 The garrison fled to the river, where Captain 
 Schuyler and his boats received them, and a 
 terrible fight took place in the water. How- 
 ever, they successfully made away and reached 
 Albany in safety. Defeat, however, had brought 
 a personal victory, and the young soldier’s 
 reputation had sensibly increased through his 
 promptness and skill in the emergency. The 
 gratification of Madame Schuyler at her neph- 
 ew’s brave conduct of affairs has been made 
 known. It may be inferred that that of his 
 wife was no less. There were stories of per- 
 sonal heroism. A Frenchman wounded in the 
 pursuit was about to be scalped by an Indian, 
 when Philip Schuyler interposed. The terri- 
 fied man begged not to be left behind, but the 
 boats being full his protector took him in his 
 arms and swam the Oswego. It completes 
 this story of generosity and chivali'y toward 
 a foe to add that during the Revolution, when 
 in Canada, this rescued Frenchman made 
 himself known to General Schuyler, as he had 
 then become. There is every evidence that the 
 Dutch women bore themselves with serenity dur- 
 ing the vicissitudes of those days, but such inci- 
 dents must have contributed to the joys of a safe 
 return and ameliorated the pain of separation. 
 
 50 
 
YOUNG MARRIED LIFE 
 
 During this year the husband of Aunt 
 Schuyler died, and the brief epoch of domestic 
 life was spent for the most part at the hospi- 
 table mansion known as The Flatts, where 
 Aunt Schuyler in her grief clung more closely 
 to her young people. The Flatts is four miles 
 above Albany, opposite to what was then a 
 beautiful wooded island in the Hudson, now 
 long since covered with smoke-producing mills. 
 The house remains beneath lofty forest trees, 
 with a soft green lawn, much as it was ; but the 
 busy road on the river’s edge along which the 
 armies marched from Fort Orange to Fort 
 Edward, to Saratoga, and to Ticonderoga, is 
 long since swallowed up by the waves. The 
 house has the character of the time. The walls 
 are two feet thick ; the solid Dutch shutters 
 still show where a Tory bayonet of ’76 tried 
 to force entrance. The kitchen is dismantled 
 of its fine old fireback, hearing in relief the 
 English coat-of-arms, with its long-reaching 
 crane. These now after a life of hospitable 
 cares are preserved for the curiosity of the 
 idle visitor by the descendants of Pedrom, 
 its owner’s brother, still in possession. 
 
 On the other side of the low-lying orchard 
 another sort of hospitality was practised. 
 Here was a large open field known as the 
 “ Indian Field.” Under the shade of the 
 
 51 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 overhanging trees the friendly Indians were 
 accustomed to plant their wigwams, sharing 
 in the benefits of the great house. Here the 
 children of both races were accustomed to play 
 together, the boys learning the arts of wood 
 and field from the Indian boys, the girls pick- 
 ing up all sorts of tricks in weaving and plait- 
 ing from the Indian girls, and all talking a 
 curious language of English, Dutch, and Indian. 
 There was mutual commerce of this sort 
 among the older women. Dutch babies were 
 cradled in birchbark cradles, such as the 
 Indian women made for their babies. The 
 negro women on their part learned how to 
 economize time by strapping the babies on 
 their backs pappoose fashion. Killian Yan 
 Rensselaer, afterward private secretary to 
 General Schuyler, said he well remembered 
 being strapped on to his old nurse Dinah’s 
 back while she went on with her scrubbing. 
 
 During this year and amid these surround- 
 ings, another baby girl came to the young 
 couple. She was christened Elizabeth, and 
 her father makes another entry in the family 
 Bible: “Elizabeth. Born August 9th, 1757. 
 Lord do according to thy will with her.” 
 From a bill of a subsequent date the physi- 
 cian on such occasions appears to have been 
 that Dr. Stringer, in whose cause during the 
 52 
 
YOUNG MARRIED LIFE 
 
 Revolution General Schuyler addressed one 
 of those caustic letters to Congress which 
 he knew how to write. The bill was for 
 <£37. This must not he taken for the price 
 of medical knowledge or the physician’s atten- 
 tions. The doctor’s office supplied spices, which 
 on the occasion of funerals was a thriving busi- 
 ness. The physicians of those days were ac- 
 customed to practise by the year, and presented 
 their bill with commendable deliberation. Ja- 
 cob Rosenbaum, a doctor prominent in the 
 records of church and Colony, “ for services 
 from the year 1742 to the year 1764 at 12 
 shillings per annum” receipts a bill for £13 
 4s, Od., which for twenty-two years seems 
 neither impatient nor exorbitant. 
 
 After the defeat at Oswego there was great 
 anxiety lest Montcalm should attack Port 
 Edward, and Albany be laid open to the always 
 threatened descent of the French. Instead he 
 turned his Indian allies into the fertile valley 
 of the Mohawk. The little Elizabeth was only 
 two months old when occurred the massacre 
 of the German Flats, a peaceful farming region 
 settled by the Germans. The settlers who 
 escaped the tomahawk fled to Albany for 
 safety. The big barn at The Flatts was turned 
 over to the women and children, and the men 
 encamped on the Indian Field. This barn is 
 
 53 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 historic. In it were quartered troops ; refugees 
 were sheltered there ; in it the helpless women 
 and children left behind in the army’s march 
 found a home ; the children of the family 
 played in it between rows of cattle ; in it the 
 family took exercise in bad weather ; now it 
 resounded with the cries of the wounded, now 
 with the lowing of the cows and the cooing of 
 the doves in the eaves ; again the preacher 
 lifted up his voice. The Rev. Samuel Chandler 
 writes in his diary : “ preached in Coll. Schuy- 
 ler’s barn in the Threshing Floor. Very Com- 
 modious. Text Gen. 15-i. family attended. 
 Dined with them, he sent me in his chair to 
 Coll. Lydius.” 
 
 The frightened, half-clad people, crying for 
 husbands and children slain and captured, 
 made a piteous sight. In ministering to them 
 Aunt Schuyler forgot her grief, and the young 
 Major’s wife, for such was now his title, put 
 aside her babies. The disgust and impatience 
 of the people at the incapacity and rapacity of 
 the Royal troops, devouring their substance and 
 giving nothing in return, increased. The town 
 was filled with army traders, adventurers from 
 no one knew where, who were enriching them- 
 selves both off the inhabitants and the King. 
 Lord Loudoun, who had been introduced into the 
 household by General Bradstreet, had the bene- 
 
 54 
 
YOUNG MARRIED LIFE 
 
 fit of the views of the mistress of The Flatts, 
 who was usually the spokesman of the commu- 
 nity, on the situation. At length the town was 
 relieved in a measure by the commander billet- 
 ing some of the soldiers on New York, to the 
 anger of the community there, and finally the 
 whole Colony was relieved by his departure with 
 the army on the famous cabbage-planting expe- 
 dition to Halifax. 
 
 General Abercrombie, however, was still 
 “ wining ” in Albany, as the records complain, 
 when a change of ministry gave a new impetus 
 to affairs. Albany now swarmed with engi- 
 neers, boatbuilders, architects, preparing for the 
 opening of the campaign in the North. Gen- 
 eral Bradstreet again called to his side young 
 Schuyler, the mathematical bent of whose mind 
 and whose knowledge of pioneering had already 
 distinguished him in this branch of the service. 
 These were sorrowful days in the Schuyler 
 household. These observant women had little 
 confidence in an army that had lain supine for 
 months and steeped in the vices of idleness and 
 the profligacy of the town, to encounter the un- 
 seen difficulties that lay between Montcalm 
 and his dreaded Indian allies, entrenched and 
 upon their own ground. They had frequent 
 intercourse with General Abercrombie, for all 
 the superior officers were visitors at The Flatts 
 
 55 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 and army matters were freely discussed. It was 
 this opportunity, in fact, which taught them 
 how little the advice of the Provincials, know- 
 ing both the country and the foe, was taken 
 into account by the Royal troops, relying on 
 their superior military science. 
 
 There were other and more specific trials. 
 Colonel Charles Lee was sent to join Abercrom- 
 bie. His detachment lay in the Indian Field 
 outlying the house. Charles Lee was never a 
 persuasive character. Now with volleys of 
 oaths, and without the customary warrant, he 
 laid hands on horses, wagons, oxen, right and 
 left, for the use of the army. Probably for the 
 first time in her life the mistress of the house 
 met a man who ignored her place in the com- 
 munity. There is unfortunately no record of 
 the dispute between these two when Madame 
 Schuyler attempted to stand up for the rights 
 of herself and neighbors, but one may imagine 
 the outraged dignity and moral reflections with 
 which she met his conversation punctuated with 
 oaths. 
 
 Lee was followed the next day by Lord Howe 
 and his command, and his sympathetic indig- 
 nation brought balm to the household. There 
 is something beautiful and pathetic in the rela- 
 tion of the young nobleman to this family. 
 His upright soul and chivalrous manner made 
 
 56 
 
YOUNG MARRIED LIFE 
 
 him very dear to these women. To Philip 
 Schuyler his influence and example was that of 
 an elder brother. Of this last interview Mrs. 
 Grant of Laggan writes : — 
 
 “ They had a long and very serious interview 
 that night. In the morning his lordship proposed 
 setting out very early; but when he arose he found 
 Madame waiting and breakfast ready ; he smiled 
 and said he would not disappoint her as it was hard 
 to say when he might breakfast again with a lady. 
 Impressed with an unaccountable concern about 
 the fate of an enterprise in which he was embarked, 
 she again repeated her counsels and her cautions; 
 and when he was about to depart embraced him 
 with the affection of a mother and shed many tears, 
 a weakness which she did not often give way to.” 
 
 The young wife had her own forebodings in 
 the midst of this general gloom. She had two 
 children, the oldest scarcely over two years 
 old, and another child was soon expected. 
 Margaret was in fact born two months after the 
 realization of their worst fears. Defeat meant 
 the laying open the valley of the Hudson to the 
 ravages of the French army and the scalping- 
 knives of the savages that had laid waste the 
 German Flats. The scenes of mourning a few 
 months before in the Indian Field were not 
 forgotten. No mother with her helpless chil- 
 dren about her could fail to realize what defeat 
 
 57 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 might mean. The story of Ticonderoga, its 
 picturesque opening that fair day in July, and 
 the frightful scenes of its close is too familiar 
 to be repeated here. In the afternoon of that 
 day a man was seen galloping furiously 
 toward the house without his hat. One of the 
 family ran out to meet him for news. Without 
 stopping he called out that the army was de- 
 feated and Lord Howe killed. The house re- 
 sounded with the shrieks of the terrified 
 women ; servants and even the children too 
 small to comprehend the meaning of it all 
 added to the sounds of grief. 
 
 But these were not days when tears could be 
 shed for long. The next day came word of the 
 disaster, and that the wounded in charge of 
 Philip Schuyler’s boats were being conveyed to 
 Albany. The women set about transferring the 
 great Schuyler barn into a hospital. The 
 sheets and table-cloths were torn up for ban- 
 dages. The negro women became cooks for the 
 wounded. Madame Schuyler and her nieces, 
 Catherine Schuyler and Gertrude, and the two 
 Misses Cuyler, the daughters of the mayor, 
 were the nurses. Among the wounded was 
 Charles Lee, prostrate but as vehement as ever. 
 The late disagreement was not referred to by 
 his gentle nurses. But now, with a knowledge 
 of Heaven to which no one had known he could 
 
 58 
 
YOUNG MARRIED LIFE 
 
 claim, he swore that there was a place reserved 
 in the better land for Madame even if no other 
 woman got there, and that he should want 
 nothing better than to share it with her. 
 
 These ministrations were too important to 
 be interrupted even by the burial of Lord Howe. 
 A more melancholy spectacle the town had 
 rarely seen. The body arrived under the es- 
 cort of Philip Schuyler, in the boats with the 
 wounded. He had led the advance and fell at 
 the first fire. He was buried with military 
 honors in the chancel of St. Peter’s, the Eng- 
 lish church, where his body still lies. These 
 days of mourning and sorrowful duties were 
 eventually brightened by the marriage of Ger- 
 trude Schuyler, the sister of Philip, to Dr. 
 John Cochrane. A friendship had been formed 
 between the men during the disastrous cam- 
 paign. The cares of the wounded detained the 
 physician in Albany, and the enforced com- 
 panionship resulted in the happy and auspi- 
 cious marriage. 
 
 59 
 
V 
 
 THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSION 
 
 The time of fearing and mourning in the 
 Schuyler household was brief. The disgust 
 of the Provincials at the incapacity of Aber- 
 crombie and at the defenceless condition of the 
 frontier now took active form. General Brad- 
 street begged permission to undertake the cap- 
 ture of Frontenac, a French fortress on Lake 
 Ontario. He took only Colonial troops in his 
 army of three thousand, men, among them his 
 now constant co-adjutor and friend Major 
 Schuyler. “ Bradstreet went on wings ” was 
 the saying of the day. In August he presented 
 himself before Frontenac ; in a few days it capit- 
 ulated, and the victors came into possession not 
 only of its armament and garrison but a large 
 and valuable collection of furs. 
 
 It was a joyful home-coming. The wife not 
 only welcomed a young soldier flushed with 
 victory, the more prized following as it did the 
 defeat at Tieonderoga, and achieved by the Pro- 
 vincial arms, but he was present to welcome 
 60 
 
THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSION 
 
 the expected child, which proved to be another 
 daughter, “ Margaret,” born September 25, 
 1758. Now, for the first time since her mar- 
 riage, Catherine Schuyler had the companion- 
 ship of her husband for a longer time than a 
 few weeks. General Abercrombie being re- 
 called, Lord Amherst, who had retaken Ticon- 
 deroga and Crown Point on his way to Albany 
 through Canada, had amved. The dangers 
 from the advance of the French army in that 
 direction was now dispelled, but the western 
 frontier was still in the hands of the enemy. 
 The Colonials, still under the inspiration of 
 Frontenac, desired to undertake the recapture 
 of the fort at Oswego. The impetuous General 
 Bradstreet was again in command. Philip 
 Schuyler was now detailed to remain in Albany 
 and attend to the boats and supplies. It may 
 be assumed that a wife and three small girls 
 whom the father scarcely knew were a deter- 
 mining factor in this arrangement. General 
 Bradstreet was intimate with the household 
 and knew how hard the fortunes of war had 
 borne on this little family. At the same time 
 he further showed his confidence in executing 
 a paper in which, aware of the perils of the 
 enterprise, he commends in the interest of 
 his wife and daughter his affairs to Philip 
 Schuyler, 
 
 61 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 General Bradstreet’s life touches that of this 
 family at many points. His family came to 
 Albany from Boston, but did not remain. 
 Soon after Mrs. Horatio Gates, then stopping at 
 Bristol, received a letter from her mother, Mrs. 
 Ann Phillips, sent by the hand of Mrs. Brad- 
 street and her daughter returning to England. 
 It is well known that General Bradstreet was 
 alienated from his wife, and that he identified 
 himself with the Provincial arms, although 
 he by no means at first held such opinions of 
 the value of the native soldiers. This family 
 disagreement doubtless caused him to send 
 his deputy Philip Schuyler to England to make 
 the final adjustment of his accounts as quarter- 
 master general of the Royal troops that same 
 year. 
 
 Twelve months had passed peacefully at 
 Albany with Catherine Schuyler, broken only 
 by the birth and death of another child, 
 the first boy, christened John Bradstreet 
 after the father’s sturdy friend. Experiences 
 clustered quickly around this young couple. 
 The separation that now menaced them was 
 as full of peril, and less familiar than an Indian 
 campaign. A voyage to England in those days 
 consumed a month ; a letter announcing the safe 
 arrival occupied an equal length of time. Lord 
 Amherst, then in New York, writes that failing 
 
 C2 
 
THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSION 
 
 to secure passage on a man-of-war for Mr. 
 Schuyler he has spoken to the captain of the 
 General Wall, and will have a letter ready for 
 the young envoy to secure his good attentions. 
 William Smith also desires that he purchase 
 him a stair carpet in London and send it by the 
 first ship. In February they set sail. They 
 were not long out when the captain died. Philip 
 Schuyler’s interest in mathematics had led him 
 to study navigation as a pastime on board. In 
 this extremity he was made captain. While 
 thus in command they came across a slaver in 
 distress. The crew had abandoned it, leaving 
 the cargo of slaves imprisoned below. Through 
 the interposition of the new captain the vessel 
 halted and the hatches were opened that the 
 unfortunates might have a chance of life. Suc- 
 ceeding this adventure they were captured by 
 a French privateer, and the captain and the 
 crew ironed. With his command of French 
 young Captain Schuyler was able to explain 
 his position and was released from confinement. 
 Eventually they were recaptured by an English 
 frigate ; and at length a voyage that did not 
 lack for incident was brought successfully to 
 an end. 
 
 “ I congratulate you most heartily,” his friend 
 William Smith wrote, “ on your escape and 
 arrival and extreme good fortune in saving 
 
 63 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 your papers. Col. de Lancy forwarded your 
 letters to Mrs. Schuyler and Gen. Bradstreet 
 by express, before I got borne from the Post. 
 I shall write her by the first post.” 
 
 The discipline and novitiate of these brief 
 years of married life, filled with perils and 
 anxieties, now disclosed their value. That able 
 social general and housewife, Madame Schuyler, 
 was growing old with her griefs and responsi- 
 bilities, which did not lessen as children rapidly 
 appeared upon the scene and parents disap- 
 peared from it. The mother of her husband, 
 Cornelia Schuyler, that active woman of affairs, 
 had taken her place as a grandmother. Cath- 
 erine Schuyler was now left with her three little 
 girls and a large share in the conduct of her 
 husband’s affairs, which in the interval of peace 
 had become considerable. By the murder of 
 his uncle Philip by Indians he had come into 
 a large estate at Saratoga, in addition to the 
 family property left by his father. He had 
 also acquired a great deal of land through 
 dealings with the Mohawks in connection with 
 General Bradstreet. 
 
 During the year her husband was in Europe 
 the family was installed in the house hereafter 
 known as the family mansion, still standing 
 at the head of Schuyler Street, Albany, and 
 now the home of the Sisters of St. Francis de 
 
 G4 
 
THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSION 
 
 Sales. The confusion concerning the building 
 of this house cannot be definitely settled. 
 It is variously ascribed to General Bradstreet 
 and to Catherine Schuyler. That its archi- 
 tecture and character are English rather than 
 Dutch, indicates the influence of the English 
 taste of the General rather than the Dutch 
 predilections of the Yan Rensselaers and Schuy- 
 lers. The traditions of the family are that 
 Catherine Schuyler superintended the building 
 of the house. This is probable ; it is also prob- 
 able that General Bradstreet advised and as- 
 sisted her, even as he was accustomed to inter- 
 est himself in her husband’s affairs. This view 
 is strengthened by a letter from Lord Amherst 
 at this period, in which he commends General 
 Bradstreet for using the carpenters collected 
 for the use of the army and now idle. This, 
 however, it was not uncommon to do. After 
 the burning of Madame Schuyler’s home at The 
 Flatts, the mechanics of the army were im- 
 pressed into her service by General Bradstreet 
 and the house speedily rebuilt. 
 
 “ A handsome house half way up the bank 
 opposite to the ferry seemed to attract atten- 
 tion and to invite strangers to stop at Gen. 
 Schuylers, who is the proprietor as well as 
 architect,” writes Count de Chastellux a few 
 years later, controverting this view. “ The 
 
 5 65 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 house is imposingly placed on high ground at 
 that time in full view of the river.” Elkanah 
 Watson, intent on canal business, writes of the 
 approach by river from Albany : “ They are a 
 number of gentleman’s very elegant seats in 
 view from that part of the river before the 
 Town, among them I think General Schuyler’s 
 has the preference.” 
 
 It is still to-day a notable house, honestly, 
 sturdily built after the custom of the times, 
 with walls that will serve for defence, and 
 stout brass locks whose keys must turn twice 
 before they will give entrance. It is built 
 of yellow brick. On each side of the hexa- 
 gonal vestibule are three windows ; above these 
 are seven windows measuring the unusual 
 breadth of the house. Within is a spacious 
 hall sixty feet long, to which the windows on 
 each side of the door give light. It is a noble 
 room wainscotted in white. Doors lead on one 
 side into the sitting-room, on the other into 
 the drawing-room, splendidly lighted, with deep 
 window seats and broad mantels handsomely 
 carved. In the drawing-room two notable 
 weddings have taken place. The first was that 
 of Elizabeth Schuyler to Alexander Hamilton ; 
 the other that of Mrs. McIntosh, who then 
 owned the house, to Millard Fillmore. The 
 main hall is divided from the back hall, which 
 66 
 
THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSION 
 
 is entered by a fine old Colonial door with fan 
 and side lights enriched by delicate tracery, 
 and making an attractive feature of the larger 
 hall. The back hall receives the staircase, not 
 more remarkable for its historic incidents than 
 for the beautiful sweep of its lines and the 
 fine carving of its spindled balustrade. 
 
 Behind the sitting-room is the dining- 
 room, the scene of forty years of generous 
 hospitality. On the other side the drawing- 
 room leads into a private hall, and a room that 
 in those days of rapidly increasing children 
 was used as a nursery. Behind this was the 
 library. Here there is the story of a bricked 
 up enclosure which formerly led to a subter- 
 ranean passage in connection with the river, 
 to be used in case of surprise. The staircase 
 leads to the upper hall, now occupied by rows 
 of little white cots in which homeless babies 
 sleep, where the merry and gay young Schuyler 
 girls used to dance with the uniformed gallants 
 in the intervals of the War of Independence. 
 This was used as a ball-i’oom, and on either 
 side are the chambers in which cluster so 
 many historic reminiscences. The view from 
 these rooms is so fine that one may readily 
 enter into the enthusiasm of the travellers who 
 visited the house when the grounds sloped 
 down toward the river and the forest-trees 
 
 67 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 adorned the slopes. One of these in the 
 “ Gentleman’s Magazine” in 1790 writes: “The 
 grounds are laid out in all the elaborate art 
 of French landscape gardening with here and 
 there parterres some of which are nicely 
 lawned. Beyond the Western shores of the 
 Hudson, the Heidelberg, precipitous and 
 scraggy, sweep in a majestic range, while 
 further in the distance are the blue peaks of 
 the Catskills.” 
 
 The grounds are still attractive. The lilac 
 hedge and the row of chestnuts still remain. 
 The Schuyler garden was famous for its fruits, 
 especially for its pears and plums. The Schuy- 
 ler gage has a history. This was raised by 
 General Schuyler from the common plum. 
 It was a long yellow oval with crimson streaks. 
 Many were the ruses to obtain a graft from it. 
 The General’s rival, Isaac Denniston, made 
 many efforts to secure it, which the General 
 delighted to frustrate. When the place fell into 
 other hands the possessor, John Bryan, guarded 
 it as carefully as did the original owner. The 
 Albany women were famous gardeners and 
 florists. There are pleasant pictures of them 
 drawn by gossipy old travellers bending over 
 their tulip beds and garden borders, shaded by 
 the wide-spreading calash or wagon bonnet. 
 
 The installation into a house of such dignity 
 68 
 
THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSION 
 
 •would have been a serious matter to any but 
 a Dutch housewife and one so ably trained. 
 The furniture that has come down from that 
 period is retained in the different branches 
 of the family. The large dining-table of 
 polished mahogany which divides in two and 
 folds on brass hinges, the substantial mahog- 
 any chairs with leather seats, the slender 
 legged sideboards with cellarets, the consoles 
 and dressers, the Lowestoft and gilded china, 
 the mirrors surmounted by eagles, the brass 
 sconces, the eight-day clocks, the Turkey car- 
 pets, were part of the furnishing of all the 
 great houses of that day. Conspicuous among 
 these is the four-posted bed with its tester and 
 gilded wreath, beneath which Washington and 
 Lafayette and other great ones of the earth 
 slipped their dignities with their clothes and 
 slept like natural men. 
 
 The Dutch housewife had her treasures of 
 linen as part of her bridal trousseau. An old 
 time-stained record contains the inventory of 
 “ 35 homespun Sheets, 9 Fine sheets, 12 Tow 
 Sheets, 13 bolster-cases, 6 pillow-biers, 9 diaper 
 brakefast cloathes, 17 Table cloathes, 12 damask 
 Napkin, 27 homespun Napkins, 31 Pillow-cases, 
 11 dresser Cloathes and a damask Cupboard 
 Cloathe.” Mrs. Grant speaks of the impressive 
 scriptural paintings, the portraits and the plate 
 
 69 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 that had been brought over from Holland and 
 divided among the members of the family. 
 A quantity of the General’s silver was stolen 
 during the Revolution and carried to Canada. 
 A soup tureen was subsequently encountered 
 there bearing his name. There still remain 
 numerous pieces — pierced baskets of great 
 beauty, salvers, punch-brewing apparatus, tank- 
 ards, pitchers and, the rarest of all, the 
 Queen Anne vase presented to Colonel Peter 
 Schuyler. 
 
 Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, who visited 
 Albany in 1749, gives a mournful account of 
 the food eaten by the inhabitants. Mrs. Grant 
 on the other hand sets forth an abundant and 
 attractive table. At dinner there was always 
 game or poultry and shell fish when in season. 
 The young men and the slaves kept the house- 
 holds supplied with Avild turkeys and ducks. 
 Beef, mutton, and fowls were supplied in the 
 markets, which Avere rigidly supervised. The 
 prices were established by ordinance. “ Beef 
 4<7, mutton 4 d. hapenny, fowls, 6c?.” These 
 prices as they are found in the old city records 
 scarcely vary from year to year. Ten shillings’ 
 fine was levied for violation of this ordinance. 
 
 Tea,” says Mrs. Grant, “ was a perfect regale ; 
 accompanied by all sorts of cake unknown to 
 us, cold pastry, and great quantities of sweet- 
 
 70 
 
THE MISTRESS OF TEE MANSION 
 
 meats and preserved fruits of all kinds, and 
 plates of hickory and other nuts cracked. In 
 all manner of confectionary and pastry these 
 people excelled ; and having great fruit in 
 abundance, which cost them nothing, and 
 getting sugar home at a easy rate in return 
 for their exports to the West Indies, the 
 quantities of these articles used in families, 
 otherwise plain and frugal was astonishing.” 
 
 The characteristic dish of the natives was 
 “ suppawn.” That observing young aide-de- 
 camp, Tench Tilgliman, when visiting in Albany 
 and doing the honors to Mrs. Huger and Miss 
 Lynch, some South Carolina ladies, promised 
 them a dish of “ suppawn,” which he fulfilled, 
 to their great entertainment. This was a spe- 
 cies of mush of Indian meal eaten with milk, 
 and does not seem to differ greatly from the 
 hasty pudding of New England. The Schuy- 
 ler wine cellar is invariably praised by guests. 
 Young Tilghman is enthusiastic over the 
 Madeira, which he says was much better “than 
 in our province.” Chastellux also speaks of 
 the Schuyler Madeira. Holland gin, rum, and 
 the cider made in the Colony were the accus- 
 tomed drink. The libations were frequent. 
 Everything served as an excuse. One of the 
 early Labadist travellers speaks of seeing min- 
 isters in the pulpit worse for liquor. Mrs. Earle 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 has unearthed the liquor bill attested by Dominie 
 Megaliopensis at the raising of his church, and 
 “ each rafter is steeped in liquor.” It must 
 be confessed that they bore the burden man- 
 fully. Chastellux, after leaving the Schuylers 
 one cold morning in winter, said that everybody 
 he met on the streets was drunk, but great was 
 his wonder at the way they conveyed them- 
 selves safely over the steep slippery inclines 
 of the Albany streets. 
 
 There is no evidence that Catherine Schuyler 
 ever delegated any of the responsibilities that 
 now heaped upon the mistress of so important 
 a mansion. The reputation of her frugality 
 and good management have come down, to- 
 gether with her unobtrusive, kindly spirit and 
 many charities. We may imagine her, in the 
 costume of the time, looking well to the ways 
 of her household. This was not that of the 
 Dutch matron, except as it was modified by the 
 English fashions of the day. The women of 
 the upper class adopted the Stuart dress as 
 soon as it was imported. The short gown and 
 petticoat of the vrouw was exchanged for the 
 English pointed bodice and hoop, the Dutch 
 cap for one of the neAv bonnets, the skimmer 
 hat with a low crown and broad flat brim, the 
 Bath bonnet, which folded like a modern crush 
 hat, the white beaver, which tied under the 
 72 
 
THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSION 
 
 chin, the mush-melon, the calash, and the wagon 
 bonnet, or the only straw hat worn, which 
 was called the bee-hive. The only wrap was a 
 loose cloak called the cardinal, or capuchin, 
 which in the rain was exchanged for a camlet. 
 The insignia of the married state was a gayly 
 embroidered or brocaded bag, in which were the 
 household keys, snuff box, needlebook, and 
 piece of sweet flag to keep off qualms. At the 
 side hung pincushions and little scissors swung 
 from silver chains. Thus we discover the mis- 
 tress shopping at James Gourlay’s in Cheap- 
 side Street next door to the King's Arms, 
 among his “ Scotch Snuff, Tobacco, Bibles & 
 Testaments, Spelling Books, Green & Bohea 
 Tea, Chocolate, Playing Cards, Shirt Buttons, 
 Curtain Callicoes, Pink Powder and Knee 
 Garters.” 
 
 There were many errands to tempt ladies of 
 her position abroad. Near the Dutch church 
 Mr. Thomas Berry kept “ Love Ribbons, Fiddle 
 strings, Ratinets, Shalloons, Tobacco boxes & 
 best China, Enticks Pocket Dictionaries & 
 Snuff.” A visit to Ezra Ames was interesting. 
 His studio, as it would now be called, was in 
 Mark Lane. Ezra called it plainly his shop, 
 at the sign of “ Raphael’s Bust.” There he 
 solicited the patronage of “ Admirers of the 
 Fine Arts. The Painting of Portraits, Minea- 
 
 73 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 tures, Hair Devices and Standards executed in 
 the most elegant taste and stile ; also Free 
 Masons Aprons, Sashes, and Ornamental Paint- 
 ings done in the best manner and on the most 
 reasonable terms.” The favorite work of art 
 was the silhouette. Ladies out shopping were 
 notified that J. Wood “would occupy but 5 
 minutes making their ‘ Physiognotrace ’ at 
 the cost of 5 crowns.” In none of the old 
 advertisements or records are any books an- 
 nounced for sale except Bibles, Spelling books, 
 and in one case Entick’s Dictionary. The 
 Dutch were more zealous for their schools than 
 the English. After the English rule obtained 
 the schools languished, if the lighter accom- 
 plishments flourished. “ Neither the perils of 
 war, nor the busy pursuit of gain, nor the 
 excitements of political life ever caused the 
 Dutch to neglect the duty of educating their 
 offspring to enjoy the freedom for which their 
 fathers had fought. Schools were everywhere 
 provided at the public expense.” Wagon-loads 
 of spelling books were sent by them through 
 the country in order to supply the farmers and 
 the frontier families. Later Monsieur Dupan- 
 loup opened his dancing school, a “ guinea 
 entrance fee and a guinea a quarter for 
 instruction,” which seems to indicate a fash- 
 ionable and exclusive enterprise. 
 
THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSION 
 
 Other books were imported. These were all 
 of a serious nature. The favorite poets, says 
 the sprightly Eliza Quincy in her day, were 
 Shenstone, Milton, and Dodsworth ; the fash- 
 ionable novels were “ The Search after Happi- 
 ness,” by Hannah More, and the works of 
 Madame de Genlis, and these were only in the 
 possession of such blue stockings as Annis 
 Stockton. The family of Elias Boudinot, one of 
 the most literary of the day, sat down in the 
 evening to the entertainment of sacred histo- 
 ries and biography read aloud. “ If I were 
 Cowley or some modern wit,” writes Josiah 
 Quincy, indicating the melancholy character of 
 the humor of the time. Little Miss McVickar, 
 to be sure, read Shakespeare at The Flatts, be- 
 fore its destruction by fire in 1768, and gives a 
 spirited account of her absorption in “ Othello,” 
 while seated on a nest of young snakes, to the 
 indignation of their mother, who finally chased 
 her away. But she makes it clearly under- 
 stood that Shakespeare was a questionable 
 author at The Flatts, where the plays were 
 considered grossly familiar, and by no means 
 to be compared to “ Cato,” which Madame 
 Schuyler greatly admired. The “ Essay on 
 Man ” was also in high esteem with this lady, 
 who led the taste in books, as in other matters. 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 She also found great entertainment in Burnet’s 
 Memoirs. 
 
 After a year and a half in England, Philip 
 Schuyler returned, his business successfully 
 accomplished, having seen the sights, and with 
 his mind stored with suggestions for future 
 use. The canal of the Duke of Bridgewater 
 had particularly made an impression on a mind 
 alert to the needs of his own country. His 
 body, however, was not in condition. Lord Am- 
 herst writes to General Bradstreet, November 
 21, 1762: “His sickness is a very good excuse 
 for taking the shortest way home.” Wife, 
 children, and the new home may have been 
 equal reasons for not stopping over military ac- 
 counts in town. 
 
 The new year brought sorrow and new 
 responsibilities in the death of Cornelia Van 
 Cortlandt, the mother, who had remained 
 with her daughter, now Mrs. Cochrane, in the 
 family mansion. Death among the Dutch 
 involved much besides mourning. “ Bring 
 me a Barrel of Cutt Tobacco, some long 
 Pipes, I am out also 6 silver Tankards. 
 Bottles, Glasses, Decanters, we have enough. 
 You must bring Cinnamon & Burnt wine, 
 for we have none,” writes Will Livingston in 
 1756 on the death of his mother. Among 
 
 76 
 
THE MISTRESS OF THE MANSION 
 
 the Schuyler papers of the elder branch is the 
 following bill headed 
 
 “Funeral Feb 27th 1763”. 
 
 Tobacco 2, 
 
 Fonda for Pipes , 14s. 
 2 casks wine 69 gal 11, 
 
 12 yds Cloatk 6. 
 
 2 barrels strong beer 3. 
 
 To spice from Dr Stringer 
 
 To the porters 2s. 
 
 12 yds Bombazine 5, 17s. 
 2/ Tammise 1, 
 
 1 Barcelona handkerchief 10s. 
 
 2 pr black chamois Gloves 
 6 yds crape. 
 
 5 ells Black Shalloon. 
 
 Paid Mr. Benson his fee for opinion on will £9. 
 
 Many of the houses had a room set apart 
 called the “dead room.” Here the body lay 
 in state, for a funeral was an occasion. The 
 women did not attend, but remained in an 
 upper room. English fashion apparently had 
 left Dutch customs untouched in this respect. 
 Some years later Tench Tilghman describes 
 a funeral among the other diversions in which 
 he participated at Albany : — 
 
 “This morning” he writes, “I attended the 
 funeral of old Mr. Doer the father of Mr. Commis- 
 sioner Doer. This was something in a stile new 
 77 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 to me. The Corpse was carried to the Grove and 
 interred with out any funeral Ceremony, the Clergy 
 attended. We then returned to the home of the 
 Deceased where we found many tables set out with 
 Bottles, cool Tankards, Caudles, Pipes & Tobacco. 
 The Company sat themselves down and lighted 
 their Pipes and handed the Bottles & Tankards 
 pretty briskly. Some of them I think rather too 
 much so. I fancy the under takers had borrowed 
 all the silver plate of the Neighborhood. Tankards 
 and Candle Sticks were all silver plated.” 
 
 There were special cakes served on such 
 occasions. Sanders Lansing was celebrated 
 for her “dead cakes,” bearing the monogram 
 of the dead. Mourning rings were frequently 
 distributed, and another souvenir known as 
 monkey spoons, the figure of an ape adorning 
 the handle. There are stories of unseemly 
 drinking at the Albany funerals, and this with 
 the expense led to a movement to curtail the 
 extravagance of funerals. This, however, 
 was at a much later date. 
 
 Mrs. Cornelia Schuyler left a large property 
 in her own right. In the division of the Van 
 Cortlandt manor estate her share was over 
 seven thousand acres, estimated at that time 
 worth £1018. To this she added by transac- 
 tions in land on her own account. 
 
 78 
 
VI 
 
 THE CHATELAINE OF SARATOGA 
 
 The Colonists of the Dutch Province, as the 
 English Tories, believed that the source of 
 political power lay in the land. To acquire 
 acres was the ambition of every young Pro- 
 vincial. The greatest of the landowners were 
 the ancestors of Catherine Schuyler. The 
 manor of Van Rensselaerwyck was twenty- 
 four miles square. The original grants con- 
 ferred the land “together with the produce, 
 superficies, minerals, rivers and fountains 
 thereof, with high, low and middle jurisdic- 
 tion, hunting, fishing, fowling, milling.” This 
 jurisdiction, “high, low, middle,” gave the 
 right of appointing officers and magistrates. 
 The Patroon, as he was called, received the 
 oath of allegiance from his tenants, adminis- 
 tered justice, and punished crime. He re- 
 ceived the tenth of the increase of wood, field, 
 and stream, like a feudal lord. Her own 
 inheritance through her father, a younger son, 
 was considerable. Philip Schuyler inherited 
 
 79 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 landed property from his father, from his 
 uncle Philip, who was murdered on his estate 
 at Saratoga, and from his mother. To his 
 inheritance he was adding new purchases of 
 land, now with General Bradstreet and now 
 with the new Colonial governor, Sir Henry 
 Moore, a young man of his own years, of gay, 
 lovable temperament, and an intimate friend. 
 
 The English sojourn had been prolific in 
 new ideas. While there on the King’s busi- 
 ness he had made the acquaintance of various 
 members of the Society of Arts, and had 
 informed himself on different agricultural 
 matters, evidently with a view of carrying out 
 a project that had been maturing in his mind. 
 “My hobby,” he wrote to John Jay some 
 years after, “ has always been a country home 
 life. I dismounted with reluctance, and 
 now saddle him again with a considerable 
 degree of satisfaction, and hope to canter him 
 gently on to the end of the journey of life.” 
 This hobby, which the Revolution had caused 
 him to dismount, was undertaken in 1783 on 
 the property at Saratoga bequeathed by the 
 murdered uncle. It was only thirty miles 
 from Albany, within easy reach of the hand- 
 some town house in which the mother and her 
 young family were now installed. 
 
 Another little girl had been added to the 
 80 
 
THE CHATELAINE OF SARATOGA 
 
 household, and had welcomed her father’s re- 
 turn from England. She was called after her 
 grandmother, Cornelia. This period of hope and 
 prosperity was the most peaceful of Catherine 
 Schuyler’s life. For the first time she had 
 the continued companionship of her husband 
 without realizing that it was to be compara- 
 tively brief. An interesting little family was 
 springing np about her. There was no longer 
 fear of the midnight Indian nor of the mid- 
 day French. The sorrowful scenes brought 
 alike by victory and defeat no longer defaced 
 the day. She had, moreover, new opportuni- 
 ties for the triumphs of matron and Dutch 
 housewife, which belonged to the traditions 
 of the women of her class. In the project of 
 her husband she had equal share. This share 
 she performed, as the story of her life reveals. 
 It was a difficult part. “ This new settlement 
 was an asylum for every one who wanted bread 
 and a home, ” writes a contemporary. “ From 
 the variety of employments regularly dis- 
 tributed, every artisan found here lodging 
 and occupation; some hundreds of people are 
 employed at once. Those who in Winter 
 engaged at the sawmills, were in summer 
 equally engaged in the large and productive 
 fishery. The artisans got lodging and firing 
 at first for two or three years, besides being 
 6 81 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 very well paid for every thing they did. Flax 
 was raised and dressed, and finally spun and 
 made into linen there ; and as artisans were 
 very scarce in the country, every one sent 
 linen to weave and flax to raise in the Colonel’s 
 colony. ” 
 
 For all these purposes there were mills to 
 raise, tenant houses to put up, and sheds to 
 build. The boat and bridge builders that had 
 been got together for the campaigns against 
 Ticonderoga and Oswego were now employed in 
 putting up the buildings for the extensive op- 
 erations contemplated. The Seven Years’ War 
 was scarcely concluded by the peace of Paris, 
 when the peaceful arts immediately engaged the 
 men who had laid down their arms. These put 
 up the family residence on the site at Sara- 
 toga of the old house destroyed by fire in the 
 Indian raid that had massacred its owner. 
 This was a long two-storied house with a row 
 of imposing pillars in front extending its 
 entire length from ground to roof. The 
 architecture was very much like that of Mount 
 Yernon, which the organization of its home 
 life greatly resembled. This house stood at 
 the head of a sloping lawn, through which 
 the romantic Fish Kill made a circular sweep 
 at the foot, breaking on the way into two 
 waterfalls and tiny wooded islands in the 
 82 
 
THE CHATELAINE OF SARATOGA 
 
 most approved manner of landscape garden- 
 ing. In the rear was the master’s office, where 
 he met his tenants and mechanics about the 
 affairs of the Colony. The cook houses were 
 detached in Southern fashion; still further 
 on was the laundry, long presided over by an 
 ancestral servant, and mistress of her own 
 domain. Here also were the vegetable gardens 
 laid out by the English gardeners. Each bed 
 was bordered with wide parterres of flowers 
 between paths wide enough to allow for the 
 carts. The grounds extended to the brink of 
 the flats extending for three miles along the 
 Hudson, whose overflow had fertilized it 
 beyond the memory of man. Here were the 
 historic fields of grain that enriched the 
 settlement. In later years General Schuyler’s 
 long-cherished dream of a canal connecting 
 tide-water with the upper lakes was realized. 
 This was carried through the grounds in the 
 rear of the house, and the approach of the 
 weekly canal packet tooting merrily, with flags 
 flying to salute the house, was the delight of 
 grandchildren and pickaninnies. 
 
 The house was designed for hospitalities. 
 In the centre was a great hall, where stood a 
 gigantic stove. In each room was a wide- 
 mouthed fireplace, to receive the big logs cut 
 and stored for the family use. To the ministry 
 
 83 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 of these fires for the cool mornings and even- 
 ings of autumn and spring negroes were 
 detailed at stated hours, making the house 
 sparkle with dancing flames. It was furnished 
 according to the generous ideas of the time, in 
 which mahogany, Turkey carpets, and chintz- 
 curtained four posters were not more impor- 
 tant than the wide-mouthed fireplace of the 
 kitchen, with its tin oven, where a small 
 darkey watched the spit, and its able aid, the 
 Dutch oven, in which on special occasions 
 could be drawn those great drafts of bread, 
 cakes, and pies that made large and prompt 
 hospitality possible. There were provisions 
 for “killing time,” that yearly festival when 
 the meat were to be cured for the year’s eat- 
 ing, for soap making, for candle-dipping, for 
 making cider, for spinning, weaving, dyeing. 
 
 While the husband brought those soldierly 
 qualities of method and discipline to bear on 
 his little colony, his wife had her no less 
 onerous duties as chatelaine. He personally 
 superintended the launching of rafts, the 
 loading of the fleet of little sloops that car- 
 ried his grain and produce to New York, 
 attended to the packing and salting of fish, 
 filled orders for pine barrels, the getting out 
 of lumber, the grinding of grain, correspond- 
 ing at the same time with his London friend, 
 
 84 
 
THE CHATELAINE OF SARATOGA 
 
 Professor Brand, as to the best manner of 
 pulling out stumps, the hackling of flax, 
 reading a paper before the Society for the 
 Promotion of the Arts in New York on flax 
 culture, and urging the cultivation of silk- 
 worms. She ruled over a numerous house- 
 hold, and observed the duties of the lady of 
 the manor toward the wives and families of 
 the farmers and mechanics on the place. It 
 was she who overlooked the preservation of 
 the fruits, the gathering in and storing of the 
 winter vegetables, the putting away of the 
 meats, and all those matters that looked 
 toward the comfort of the family and depend- 
 ants, and making ready for that exercise of 
 hospitality which then and thereafter knew no 
 bounds. 
 
 The fate of this estate of Saratoga is 
 inseparably woven with one of the most inter- 
 esting chapters of the thrilling story of 
 American independence. But before those 
 eventful days there were a few happy years in 
 which the peaceful arts flourished. The fields 
 responded to the tilling, and the trees of the 
 virgin forest lay choking the streams as logs, 
 to be sent to the mouth of the Hudson and 
 thence to Bermuda and the Indies. “It is 
 inconceivable what dexterity, address, and 
 deep policy were exhibited in the management 
 
 85 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 of the new settlement; the growth of which 
 was beyond belief. Every mechanic ended in 
 being a farmer ; and new recruits of artisans 
 chiefly supplied their place, nourished with 
 the golden dews which the sagacious pro- 
 prietor could so easily command,” writes at 
 the time an observer of the colony building 
 at Saratoga. There is nothing that goes to 
 the upbuilding of a state more attractive to 
 the mind than this young couple, under thirty, 
 with their children still about their knees, in 
 the first breathing spell after separation and 
 perils by land and by sea, mutually taking 
 part in such an enterprise. In the language 
 of the day it was called “ a nursery of the 
 arts.” This was something more than a 
 high-flown phrase. It indicates a larger 
 spirit than that prompted by the balance in 
 the ledger. Much of the work was experi- 
 mental, and could have only been attempted 
 by people so happily placed. There was no 
 prevision in the effort to make the Colonies 
 self-sufficient ; but in other directions as well 
 as at Saratoga mental stimulus and conscious 
 pride in the country took this form. 
 
 In the same year their first living son and 
 heir was born. In the family Bible is recorded 
 “1763, John Bradstreet Born July 20th Do 
 with him according to thy will 0 Lord. Be 
 86 
 
THE CHATELAINE OF SARATOGA 
 
 with him living or dying.” This was the 
 third son named John, the others dying at 
 birth, and in accordance with the Dutch cus- 
 tom he was named after his grandfather, to 
 which was added Bradstreet, the name of the 
 family friend. Although Philip Schuyler had 
 relinquished the law of primogeniture in his 
 own case, he still respected it. Twenty-one 
 years after, the Saratoga estate was made over 
 to this son on coming of age. It was regarded 
 as a landed estate, and as such for the carry- 
 ing down the family name and importance. 
 The document, which is long and unfolds 
 decorously according to the methodical, logi- 
 cal mind of the writer, reflects in an interest- 
 ing manner the standard of morals and 
 manners, the parental indulgence and dis- 
 cipline of the time. It is filled with maxims 
 of conduct, as well as the most clearly defined 
 and minute directions for carrying on the 
 estate. 
 
 It begins with a certain note of pathos : “ I 
 resign to your care and for your sole emolu- 
 ment a place on which for a Series of years I 
 have bestowed much of my care & attention, 
 and I confess I should part from it with many 
 a severe pang did I not resign it to my child.” 
 Concerning the virtues of the upright citizen 
 he adds : “ Good faith and a punctual dis- 
 87 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 charge of Social Duties contains certain 
 Results and an internal Satisfaction that no 
 temporal Calamities can ever deprive you of.” 
 The discharge of “social duties” in those 
 days found a place among the higher virtues, 
 such as good faith. “Be indulgent,” he con- 
 tinues, “my child, to your inferiors, affable 
 and courteous to your equals, respectful not 
 cringing to your Superiors, whether they are 
 so by superior Mental abilities or those 
 Necessary distinctions which Society has 
 established.” There is no clearer formula- 
 tion of the views held by the governing class 
 in the Colonies than these. They were not 
 merely held but practised. Later Montgomery 
 writes : “ Why cannot we have gentlemen 
 for officers ? ” Catherine Schuyler’s father, 
 Colonel John Yan Rensselaer, is greatly dis- 
 tressed because an innkeeper has been made a 
 colonel. Grayson gives a graphic account of 
 General Schuyler’s treatment of a Yankee 
 officer at Ticonderoga, whose entrance into 
 the room did not comport with the soldierly 
 standards of the commander. The never 
 silent ill-feeling between the New York and 
 New England troops during the Revolution 
 was due to the different degrees in which all 
 men were held to be free and equal in the 
 English and Dutch Provinces. The preamble 
 
THE CHATELAINE OF SARATOGA 
 
 to the Declaration of Independence had but 
 vague meaning for a long time to many of the 
 Federalists. At the same time the unfailing 
 courtesy that distinguished General Schuyler, 
 and makes passages of the Revolution read 
 like tales of chivalry, could have scarcely 
 permitted him to echo that other Federalist 
 lament to Surgeon-General Cochrane that the 
 sad days had come when a Federalist could 
 not knock a Democrat down without getting 
 arrested. 
 
 What concerns us more nearly is the tribute 
 to his wife, which mingles with the sternness 
 of one of the most affectionate of fathers : “ I 
 must not omit to inform you that the Income 
 of all my Estate, except what your Brothers 
 & Sisters actually occupy at my decease will 
 be enjoyed by your dear Mama. She merits 
 this attention in a most eminent degree and 
 I shall give her a Power to change my dispo- 
 sition of that part of the Estate, the Income 
 of which she will enjoy should unhappily the 
 Conduct of my Children be such as to render 
 it necessary, but I trust they will be so deeply 
 impressed with a Sense of the Infinite obliga- 
 tions they are under to her as not to give her 
 a moments uneasiness.” This power to 
 change the disposition of his estate must 
 be regarded as significant at a time when 
 
 89 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 the laws of inheritance took comparatively 
 small account of wives except as mothers of 
 heirs. It is an indication rarely found in the 
 form of words of the part that Catherine 
 Schuyler took in the affairs of her husband. 
 When he was absent she was his representa- 
 tive, acting not upon orders but according to 
 her judgment. Of this there was frequent 
 occasion in the vicissitudes which befell the 
 little community when the days grew darker. 
 In the gossipy reminiscences of the Revolu- 
 tion we are told of the dependence placed by 
 these on the news bringing comfort or dismay 
 received at the great house, where the settlers 
 gathered to listen to letters and receive advice 
 and encouragement. There were fathers whose 
 sons were in the army; wives whose husbands 
 were carrying muskets ; children who were 
 fatherless, and all leaning on and trusting in 
 the wife and the mother who was herself alone 
 and with a group of children at her skirts. 
 Among the Revolutionary correspondence of 
 the descendants of the Saratoga estate there is 
 evidence of this in the appeal of George 
 Smyth : — 
 
 “Madame,” he begins, “I wrote to Philip 
 P. Lansingli a Saratoga by a Taylor who was a 
 Countryman of mine reccommending him to work, 
 the man was taken up and put in Geol as an Enemy 
 90 
 
THE CHATELAINE OF SARATOGA 
 
 & I was obliged to give Bail. Tbe Court coming 
 on I was discharged. This Day it was ordered by 
 Dr Stringer, Jerry Ranslaer and Mr Beekman that 
 I should be confined, which I have avoided till I 
 beseech your influence with Jerry [and] Dr Stringer 
 not to put me in Prison as my Weakly Constitution 
 is not fit to Bear Such I have committed nothing 
 that deserves imprisonment and if they are in 
 doubt of me I shall give them Security. The 
 Gen 1 w'as once my friend, I hope Madame you will 
 be mine in this and serve me again. Your 
 “ most obdt servt. 
 
 “ George Smyth.” 
 
 si 
 
VII 
 
 VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 At Saratoga, the family country seat, the 
 summer of 1776 opened gayly, notwithstanding 
 “ all the talk was of tyranny and taxes, ” and 
 mutterings of discontent filled the air. The 
 new English Governor had arrived, and so 
 soon made it clear that he was willing that 
 the venerable Cadwalader Colden as Lieuten- 
 ant-Governor should do the work and enjoy 
 the power while he amused himself. A de- 
 mure little critic, Anne McVickar, has left 
 this sketch of Sir Harry : — 
 
 “Sir Harry had never a thought of business in 
 his life; he was honorable as far as a man could he 
 so, who always spent more than he had; he was 
 however gay, good natured, well bred, affable, 
 courteous in a very high degree, and if the business 
 of the governor was merely to keep the governed 
 in a good humor, no one was titter for the office 
 than he, the more so that he had sense enough to 
 know two things of importance to be known; one 
 was that a person of tried wisdom and experience 
 92 
 
VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 •was fitter to transact the business of the province 
 than any dependant of his own; the other that he 
 was unfit to manage it himself. The Government 
 house was the scene of frequent festivities and 
 weekly concerts, Sir Henry being very musical 
 and Lady Moore peculiarly fitted for doing the 
 honors of a drawing room or entertainment. They 
 were too much hurried to find time for particular 
 friendships, and too well bred and good natured to 
 make invidious distinctions, so that without gain- 
 ing either very much of esteem or affection they 
 pleased every one in the circle around them; and 
 this general civility of theirs in the storm about to 
 arise around them had its use.” 
 
 With the Schuylers, who were about the same 
 age, Sir Henry and Lady Moore did form an 
 agreeable friendship. Early in the summer Sir 
 Henry, Lady Moore and their daughter Henri- 
 etta visited Saratoga, where the ladies remained 
 while the two men were off to Johnson Hall, 
 visiting Sir William, looking after Indian af- 
 fairs, and jointly buying land of the Mohawks. 
 Ladies were rarely received at Johnson Hall 
 owing to its peculiarly organized menage, which 
 added greatly to the gossip of the Province. 
 Sir William’s honest Dutch wife had left two 
 daughters, who were brought up in strict seclu- 
 sion in one corner of the house under the care 
 of an officer’s widow. 
 
 93 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 “ In the morning ” we are told, “ they rose early, 
 read their prayer book, I believe, but certainly their 
 Bible, fed their birds, tended their flowers, and 
 breakfasted; then were employed some hours with 
 unwearied perseverance at fine needle work, for the 
 ornamental parts of dress which were the fashion of 
 the day without knowing to what use they were to 
 be put as they never wore them ; and had not at the 
 age of sixteen ever seen a lady, excepting each other 
 and their governess; they then read as long as they 
 chose the voluminous romances of the last century; 
 of which their friend had a large collection, or 
 Bollin’s ancient History, the only books they had 
 ever seen; after dinner they regularly in summer 
 took a long walk, or an excursion in a sledge in 
 winter with their friend; and then returned and 
 resumed their wonted occupations, with the sole 
 variation of a stroll in the garden in the summer, 
 and a game at chess or shuttlecock in winter. 
 Their dress was to the full as simple and uniform 
 as everything else ; they wore wrappers of the finest 
 chintz and green silk petticoats and this the whole 
 year round without variation. Their hair which 
 was long and beautiful was tied behind by a simple 
 ribbon; a large calash shaded each from the sun, 
 and in Winter they had long scarlet mantles that 
 covered them from head to foot.” 
 
 The occasion of this seclusion was the fact 
 that the mistress of Johnson Hall was Molly 
 Brant, the sister of Joseph Brant, the greatest 
 
 94 
 
VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 of Indian dandies. With her Sir William had 
 fallen deeply and romantically in love. Lady 
 Susan O’Brien, the sister of Lady Harriet 
 Ackland, who, having married an actor, was 
 sent to this country by her family, visited 
 Johnson Hall, and has recorded her opinion 
 that “Molly B. is a well-bred pleasant lady.” 
 Notwithstanding this expert opinion the ladies 
 of the Province did not visit Johnson Hall, and 
 the circumstances were doubtless fully ex- 
 plained to Lady Moore by her hostess during 
 the pleasant days of their stay together. 
 Catherine Schuyler was neither gay nor 
 fashionable in the English manner, or even 
 in that of the New York court circle, but the 
 manorial families felt themselves the equals 
 of the English gentry, and the two ladies 
 evidently enjoyed their long summer days’ 
 companionship, since the intimacy was con- 
 tinued. There was another visitor that sum- 
 mer, Miss Kitty Watts, who subsequently 
 became the wife of Sir John Johnson, Sir 
 William’s heir. She possessed much beauty, 
 we are told, as well as understanding and 
 vivacity. “Her playful humor exhilerated 
 the whole household.” The next time they 
 were to meet was under terms no less hos- 
 pitable on the part of the Schuylers, but more 
 unwillingly on the part of Lady Kitty, who 
 
 95 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 was under a very unruly parole, and for whose 
 safekeeping General Schuyler was responsible. 
 It was a pretty quarrel, and in it the lady 
 was quite capable of holding her own. 
 
 There were the usual summer visits from 
 relatives in New York, where there were hosts 
 of Van Cortlandts, Livingstons, Yan Rens- 
 selaers, and New Jersey Schuylers. William 
 Smith was up in June, shaking off the fever. 
 This was after “ Granny Livingston flew to 
 the stars,” whose flight he relates; but 
 apparently his illness was not the result of 
 grief. There is talk about politics, promising 
 if Phil will only remain one more term in the 
 Assembly, to leave him afterward to “his 
 wolves, foxes, snow (a small vessel), mills, 
 fish, & lands at Saratoga.” Miss Smith also 
 makes a visit and succeeds in shaking off 
 “the intermittent.” Apparently the neigh- 
 boring springs, whose virtues were then well 
 known, assisted in making Saratoga a popular 
 place of sojourn. The trip up the river by 
 sloop in summer was one of the pleasures of 
 the town. These packets were very com- 
 fortable. Brissot de Warvillc speaks of fif- 
 teen berths kept clean, and a very good table. 
 The journey varied from three to five days, 
 according to wind and tide. Burr writes of 
 being detained three days under the lee of 
 
 96 
 
VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 West Point by contrary winds. The beauty 
 of the Hudson was as fully appreciated at 
 that time as it ever has been since. Mrs. 
 Anne Grant gives the following vivacious 
 account of her last trip: — 
 
 “My voyage down the river, which by contrary 
 winds was protracted to a whole week, would have 
 been very pleasant could anything have pleased me. 
 I was at least soothed by the extreme beauty of 
 many scenes on the bank of this fine stream I was 
 fated never more to behold. Nothing could exceed 
 the soft verdure that met the eye on every side as 
 we approached New York; it was the beginning of 
 May, the great orchards which were on every side 
 were in bloom, and the wood of poplars beyond 
 them had their sprouting foliage tinged with a 
 lighter shade of fresher green. Staten Island rose 
 graceful from the sea in which it seemed to float, 
 and was so covered with innumerable trees in full 
 blossom that it looked like some enchanted forest.” 
 
 There was much human commerce on these 
 trips, like that now in an ocean crossing or 
 down the long stretch of the Mississippi. 
 Friendships were made and cemented, and 
 pleasant acquaintances formed within the nar- 
 row confines of the Albany sloops. The for- 
 eign visitors of the time have invariably much 
 to say of this journey, both of the scenery 
 and of the passengers. 
 
 7 97 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 In the autumn Sir Henry Moore and his 
 wife returned to Saratoga for a brief visit to 
 the Schuylers. With them was Sir Guy 
 Carleton, on the way to inspect the forts and 
 troops at Ticonderoga and the North. Again 
 the gentlemen were off together while their 
 wives kept one another company at the hos- 
 pitable country seat. It was the time of the 
 ingathering of the fruits and the vegetables. 
 So frugal a mistress as Catherine Schuyler 
 was not likely to allow anything to interpose 
 in the way of these important duties. It is 
 a pleasant picture, that of the lively, amiable 
 Lady Moore and Catherine Schuyler, “quiet, 
 unobtrusive, kindly,” as she has been de- 
 scribed, sauntering about the wide garden 
 paths, and under the trees of the orchard, 
 where “Cuff and John, Peter and Bett,” 
 whom General Schuyler retained for his own 
 use when he turned over Saratoga to his heir, 
 are preparing the winter stoi'es. There were 
 drives in the afternoon to the Hudson, taking 
 on the full glory of its autumnal foliage, a 
 sight new to the English visitors, and over 
 to those curious mineral springs, which after- 
 ward Washington desired to make the property 
 of the country. In the evening the first chill 
 of the season sent them indoors, where the 
 house was aglow with the early fall fires. 
 
 98 
 
VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 There was, however, one unpleasant inter- 
 ruption to this visit. This was the tenant 
 riots on the Tan Rensselaer manor, including 
 that part occupied by Colonel John, Cathe- 
 rine Schuyler’s father. There were several 
 skirmishes with the sheriffs’ posse, and finally 
 a company of regulars was sent by General 
 Gage to the scene of action. In one of these 
 fights Cornelius Ten Broek, a relative of 
 Abraham Ten Broek, our former friend 
 “Brom,” was killed. The leader of the 
 rioters, named Pendergast, was at length 
 taken, and having been tried for treason by 
 the chief justice, was sentenced to be executed, 
 and sixty of his followers to be “ fined impris- 
 oned and pilloried. ” The excitement was 
 great. Albany was full of important visitors 
 from New York called thither by the matter. 
 James Livingston, the sheriff, advertises 
 that “any person inclined to assist at the 
 execution of Pendergast will meet with good 
 reward, and shall be so disguised so as not 
 to be known, and secured from insults. ” 
 This barbarous sentence, however, was not 
 carried out. Sir Henry Moore reprieved 
 Pendergast, awaiting the pleasure of the King, 
 and Lady Moore did herself the pleasure of 
 paying the debts of all the others confined for 
 less than thirty pounds. As these offences 
 
 99 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 were against the relatives of their hosts, we 
 may conclude that the gentler spirits of the 
 ladies doubtless had their way, and the 
 clemency was not without the amiable co- 
 operation of the hosts. 
 
 When the military inspection was over the 
 Schuylers, with their eldest daughter Angelica, 
 accompanied Sir Henry and Lady Moore back 
 to New York, and visited them at Government 
 House. The Court circle was very gay under 
 the fashionable leadership of Sir Henry Moore. 
 Maunsell, an English officei’, writes to Colonel 
 Gates, then in England, and gives an amusing 
 sketch of the contests between Lady Moore 
 and Mrs. Gage as to whether the wife of the 
 Colonial Governor or the wife of the Com- 
 mander of the Royal troops should take pre- 
 cedence. Their places even, it is seen, was 
 contested by a certain Mrs. Roberts, of whom 
 we know no more than her ambition. 
 
 “ The devil’s to pay,” writes this military gos- 
 sip, taking breath from graver affairs, “among 
 the ladies for the precedency. Roberts would 
 go to England were it not that the Queen and 
 two or three more would rank her.” There 
 was also the family of “Old Dry Goods,” as 
 Governor Boone calls Lord Stirling, notwith- 
 standing his rank stanchly asserted in the 
 teeth of the Heralds’ College, at the head of 
 100 
 
VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 the mercantile aristocracy, whose importance 
 was becoming so marked that the writer con- 
 cludes that “ if he [Lord Stirling] conducts 
 his affairs so smoothly will get the Govern- 
 ment in his own hands. ” 
 
 None of these intrigues for place affected 
 Jane Colden, notwithstanding her father was 
 Lieutenant-Governor, and still held the actual 
 power in his trembling hands. Jane, as 
 her father, was devoted to science and her 
 studies, the blue stocking of her day. She 
 was an accomplished botanist, a correspondent 
 of many learned societies, and Linnasus names 
 for her a genus Coldenella. 
 
 In these social controversies Catherine Schuy- 
 ler had no more interest than Jane Colden. 
 The landed proprietors held their own place ; 
 this was freely recognized by the English Court 
 contingent, even though there might be some 
 private scorn of the “ Provincial.” Not a few 
 of these captured the hearts of the “ Red Coats,” 
 as the dashing young officers were called. Miss 
 Watts, the sister of Lady John Johnson, became 
 the wife of Captain Archibald Kennedy, after- 
 ward the second Earl of Cassilis, whose first 
 wife was Gertrude Schuyler of New Jersey ; Sir 
 William Draper married Susanna De Lancy. 
 
 These two families then lived opposite one 
 another at the foot of Broadway. It was an 
 101 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 aristocratic neighborhood. Fort George stood 
 at the foot of Whitehall Street, and extended 
 to Pier 1, North River, under our present 
 nomenclature. The centre of fashion was of 
 course Government House, in one corner of 
 the fort, where the Royal representative lived. 
 On the corner of what is now Broad and Pearl 
 Streets was the great yellow brick residence of 
 the Yan Cortlandts. Opposite to this was the 
 mansion of Sir Edward Pickering, with gardens 
 sloping to the river. The west side of Broad- 
 way was the most fashionable, as it lay within 
 easy distance of North River. Along its 
 banks were the homes of the Lispenards, the 
 luxurious house and grounds of Lady Peter 
 Warren, where now Bleeker Street meets the 
 river, and enclosing the boundaries of Varick 
 and Charlton Streets, Richmond Hill, so long 
 occupied by Aaron Burr in after years. Above 
 these were the country places of the De 
 Lancys, Bayards, Clarks, Scotts, Jauncys, and 
 Keteltas. The fine mansion of “Boss” Wal- 
 ton, as he was called, was the show house of the 
 town. This stood on Franklin Square. At No. 
 8 Cherry Street was the Walter Franklin house, 
 the first of Washington’s homes during the 
 first administration. Hanover Square and Wall 
 Street were the homes of the rich merchants, 
 fashionable boarding houses and shops. 
 
 102 
 
VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 The Mall in front of Trinity Church was the 
 fashionable promenade of the day. Here every 
 fine afternoon the aristocracy of the town dis- 
 ported itself, the Eng'lish officers making them- 
 selves agreeable to the Dutch belles, and the 
 fine ladies leaning from their chairs for passing 
 gossip with one another. King’s College, as 
 Columbia was then known, stood on Church 
 Street and Chapel, as West Broadway was 
 called, and between Murray and Mortlake, a 
 name we have changed to Barclay. Burnaby, 
 the English traveller, speaks of it with the river 
 at the foot of its ample grounds filled with 
 trees as the “ most beautiful site for a college 
 in the world.” Just beyond, at the foot of War- 
 ren Street, extending to Chambers Street, was 
 Yauxliall Gardens, running down to the river, 
 and between Duane and Worth, the Ranelagh, 
 a summer garden, wdiere later stood the New 
 York Hospital, of which Governor Tryon, the 
 last English ruler, laid the corner stone. 
 
 The taverns occupied a prominent place in 
 the social life of the day. The “ Queen’s 
 Head,” kept by Sam Fraunces, afterward 
 Washington’s steward, stood at the corner of 
 Pearl and Broad, opposite the Yan Cortlandt 
 house. This was the Delmonico’s of the day. 
 Here the Social Club met, which numbered 
 all the wits and bloods of the town. “ The 
 
 103 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 King’s Arms,” the rendezvous of the dashing 
 young Red Coats and Provincial dandies, was 
 on Crown Street, which we now know as 
 Liberty. In the rear was a broad piazza which 
 overlooked the river and gardens. It was a 
 favorite place for entertainments. Once a 
 creature advertised in the New York “ Gazette ” 
 as a Japanese was exposed for the curious to 
 see. Another time a “ white negro,” for which 
 we have the more imposing name of “ albino,” 
 was on exhibition. The “ City Arms,” on 
 the present site of the Boreel buildings, dis- 
 putes with Faneuil Hall the title of “ Cradle 
 of Liberty.” Here, in the “ Long Room,” over 
 two hundred merchants met to protest against 
 the Stamp Act. In this same room were held 
 the dancing assemblies, which “ Ed.” Willetts 
 managed at eight shillings a head. Here Mr. 
 Hulett gave those famous concerts. No less 
 necessary to the gayety and life of the time 
 was Burns’s Coffee House on Bowling Green. 
 The Bowling Green was the city’s first pleasure- 
 ground, leased by John Chambers, Peter Bay- 
 ard, and Peter Jay for one peppercorn. It then 
 lay open, but a few years later, when the 
 equestrian statue of George III. was erected, 
 was enclosed with an iron fence. At the 
 coffee house was heard the gossip of the 
 town. Writing to Sir Philip Francis, a young 
 
 104 
 
VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 cousin visiting New York complains of the 
 click of backgammon, “ a dozen tables going 
 all day long.” Here one got the latest news 
 from the mains, for fighting cocks was a 
 favorite amusement of the idle gentry. The 
 returns of the smack of the fishing club organ- 
 ized by Lord Amherst were first known here, 
 and the result of the race between True Briton 
 and Selim for one thousand guineas at the 
 Philadelphia course. There was something 
 more than sport in this race, and party feeling 
 ran high. True Briton was English born 
 and owned by an Englishman named Walton. 
 Selim, from the Arabian Godolphin, was Ameri- 
 can born, the property of Sam Galloway of 
 Maryland. Selim won, — happy omen! Burns’s 
 Coffee House drank deep when the news came. 
 Here the triumph of Lewis Morris’s Fancy 
 was discussed, and the 100 guinea prize won by 
 James De Lancy’s newly imported horse, Lath. 
 On the site of the old “ Herald ” building, and 
 where the aspiring St. Paul building now rears 
 its head, stood Mrs. Montanye’s public house, 
 standing under the shadow of the Liberty Pole, 
 identified with the rising tide of the Revolution 
 as Hampden Hall, the headquarters of the Sons 
 of Liberty, and even at this time making the 
 town reasonably full of life. 
 
 The New Yorker of the time began the day 
 
 105 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 early. Usually he was about his affairs before 
 breakfast. As his store or office was com- 
 monly in the lower story of his home, this 
 does not imply much effort on his part. 
 Dinner was from one to three o’clock. Tea 
 he took at twilight, and later had a supper 
 of crabs, scalloped oysters, bread and cheese 
 at some tavern where he could meet his friends 
 and learn the news of the town. The women 
 dressed quietly at home, always wearing caps, 
 hut were gayly disposed on the promenade in 
 brocaded skirts gathered back over puckered 
 petticoats, with high-heeled shoes and tower- 
 ing hats. There were diversions in plenty. 
 Of the theatre in John Street we have heard 
 from young Phil Schuyler. Here the Ameri- 
 can company was playing Farquhar’s come- 
 dies. The play began at six o’clock, and it 
 was the custom among the fashionable folk 
 to send negroes ahead to keep their places. 
 Hitherto the audience not infrequently invaded 
 the stage. But this custom was now forbidden, 
 also the throwing of eggs as a mark of disap- 
 proval from the gallery. The news of the day 
 was sometimes announced from the stage, — 
 notably the repeal of the Stamp Act. At this 
 time “ songs in praise of Liberty ” were ven- 
 tured. Dancing was universal. Only two years 
 before, 'William Smith writes of the death of 
 
 10G 
 
VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 Chancellor Morris, who “ at a dance at Red 
 Bank led out the parson’s wife, danced down 
 six couples and fell dead.” In the summer 
 were tea, ices, and mead at Vauxhall and Rane- 
 lagh. Famous fish dinners were given at an 
 inn on Brooklyn Heights. At Turtle Bay, 
 now the Thirty Fourth Street Ferry, turtle 
 feasts took place twice a week. An important 
 part of the routine was the return over the 
 “ Kissing Bridge,” where “ it was part of the 
 ettiquette of the occasion to salute the lad} r 
 who had put herself under your protection.” 
 At Jones’s Wood flocks of wild ducks sometimes 
 obscured the sky, and woodcock abounded. 
 Down at Moriches and Islip there were snipe, 
 plover, partridge, and quail hiding in numbers 
 among the salt grass. There was a famous 
 race-course at Hempstead Plains, and much 
 nearer a course on Church’s farm, a “ stone’s 
 throw from the Astor house.” On Long Island 
 there was fox hunting for three days during 
 the season. Apropos one of the jeu d'esprits 
 of the day, from the pen of a witty woman, 
 unfortunately unknown, is worth quoting. 
 
 “ A fox is killed by twenty men. 
 
 That fox perhaps had killed a hen. 
 
 A gallant act no doubt is here. 
 
 All wicked foes ought to fear, 
 
 When twenty dogs and twenty men 
 Can kill a fox that killed a hen.” 
 
 107 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 The rich families had barges gayly covered 
 with awnings for water parties. In addition 
 to all these pleasures for our visitor there were 
 numerous kinsmen and their hospitable homes 
 to enjoy. Across the river on the Passaic, at 
 Belleville, was the ancestral home of Colonel 
 Arent Schuyler. This was a stately house 
 built of brick and stone, in the midst of fine 
 gardens and against a lofty wooded hill. 
 Close by his father, that Colonel Peter who 
 spent his money so freely relieving the pris- 
 oners in Canada during the French War, him- 
 self a prisoner, and whose release New York 
 thought worth an illumination, had built two 
 churches, English and Dutch. A short dis- 
 tance away were two deer parks, enclosing 
 nearly two hundred deer. A mind so full of 
 schemes for the development of the country’s 
 resources as that of Philip Schuyler would find 
 much of interest in the copper mines owned 
 and worked by his relative. The ladies had 
 much in common in the household matters of 
 which each was an expert. Of Mrs. Arent 
 Schuyler’s skill we have the eloquent testimony 
 of young Lieutenant Bangs about that time, on 
 a visit to the copper mines, which excited gen- 
 eral curiosity : — 
 
 “Notwithstanding they have so large a family 
 to regulate (from 50 to 60 blacks) Mrs. Schuyler 
 108 
 
VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 seeth to the Manufacturing of suitable Cloathing 
 for all her family, all of which is the product of 
 her Plantation in which she is helped by her Mama 
 & Miss Polly and the whole is done with less 
 Combustion & noise than in many Families who 
 have not more than 4 or 5 Persons in the whole 
 Family.” 
 
 There were other things besides social pleas- 
 ures taking place during this visit. The 
 bishops had just carried an election. The 
 church and the merchants since the repeal 
 of the Stamp Act were in close alliance. 
 “ The election of the church party,” writes 
 Peter Yan Schaak, subsequently banished as 
 a Royalist, “ is a triumph of the Mercantile 
 Spirit. A tradesman as a candidate is a con- 
 dition of every party.” In the letter of Sir 
 Philip Francis’s young kinsman, already quoted, 
 he adds, — 
 
 “The zealous members of the Church of England 
 are full of apprehension at the growing power of 
 the Presbyterians. Dont imagine that I mean any 
 matter relating to Salvation. That might shift 
 for itself until Doomsday. The alarm was taken 
 at an election recently ; since when the par- 
 ties have raged with violence. The Presbyterians 
 should not be allowed to grow too great. They are 
 all of Republican principle The Bostonians are 
 Presbyterians.” 
 
 109 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 The writer, it will be observed, confounds in 
 a term all the churches allied against the en- 
 croachments of the English Church, for whose 
 support they were taxed. At the head of this 
 alliance against the church party were the 
 landed families, — the Van Rensselaers, the 
 Livingstons, the Schuylers. There were three 
 English churches at the time : Trinity, on 
 its present site, King’s Chapel in the fort, 
 and St. George’s Chapel, on Beekman Street. 
 There were also three Presbyterian churches : 
 one on Wall near Broadway, whose pastor, 
 Dr. Rodgers, the first vice chancellor of 
 King’s College, in his stately dress, with gold- 
 headed cane, on the promenade, bowing right 
 and left, was one of the figures of the town ; 
 the others were the Brick Church, where the 
 “ Times ” building now stands, and the Scotch 
 Presbyterian, on Little Queen Street, now Cedar. 
 The Dutch church stood near the Exchange, 
 and the Middle Dutch church on Garden Street 
 leading into Bi’oad. This had a lofty tower, 
 and in it Franklin conducted his first experi- 
 ments in electricity. The North Dutch church, 
 which, within the memory of man, was known 
 as the Federal Post office, on the corner of 
 Fulton and William, was not built until 1769. 
 The Baptists had a church on Gold Street ; the 
 Friends’ meeting house stood on Little Crown 
 no 
 
VISITING AND RECEIVING VISITS 
 
 Street, now Liberty Place ; the Huguenot 
 Church was on Pine, fronting the Treasury 
 building, and the Jewish synagogue on Mill 
 Street, running into Hanover Square. 
 
 The alliance of these non-conformist churches 
 had become threatening. The triumph at the 
 election of the church party was accordingly 
 great. 
 
 Of these matters no one was a more inter- 
 ested spectator than Philip Schuyler. At this 
 moment he was organizing with William 
 Livingston the “New York Journal,” pub- 
 lished by Holt, henceforth to be the organ of 
 the American party. 
 
 Ill 
 
VIII 
 
 MAKING READY FOR THE STORM 
 
 Important matters now pertained to the 
 settlement at Saratoga. To these Philip and 
 Catherine Schuyler now returned, leaving 
 their daughter Angelica, a girl of ten, for sev- 
 eral weeks longer with Lady Moore. 
 
 Sir Henry keeps her parents informed of 
 their daughter’s happiness, and Miss Angelica 
 now “ desires her duty to papa and mama” in 
 the most respectful maimer, and again gayly 
 sends word that “ Miss Schuyler is extremely 
 shocked that Col. Schuyler makes no men- 
 tion of his sending his duty to her.” 
 
 The friendship of these two families, whose 
 varied interests were now so clearly diverg- 
 ing, remained uninterrupted to the end. New 
 demands for quartering troops both in Albany 
 and New York had been resisted. In return, 
 all legislation was denied the Province until it 
 submitted. The country had iron, but was not 
 permitted to manufacture it for its own use. 
 Beaver must go to England before the Colonists 
 112 
 
MAKING READY FOR THE STORM 
 
 could wear hats. Wool must not leave the 
 Province in the form of cloth. Trade was pro- 
 hibited with other nations, and goods bought 
 from other countries must first go to England 
 and pay duty there. In resisting these measures 
 the Colonists were not more influenced by the im- 
 portance of becoming less dependent on the 
 mother country for their supplies, than by the 
 importance of demonstrating that they existed 
 not so much for her interests as for their own. 
 This was not the accepted view of the relation 
 of a Colony to the United Kingdom. 
 
 Colonel Lewis writes to Gates, then colonel 
 of the Royal troops in England : “ People here 
 are collecting themselves into a Society for 
 establishing full Economy in their dress and 
 family expenses, which is already entered into 
 with that Zeal that many of the Principal 
 families has totally expunged English beer, 
 cheese &c. from their tables and as many as 
 can procure it cloath themselves in Wollen 
 and Linon of American manufacture.” In 
 order to procure the necessary wool, mutton 
 was banished from Colonial tables. Spinning 
 became a fashionable employment, and daintily 
 turned wheels the ornament of drawing-rooms. 
 The Society for the Promotion of the Arts 
 employed “ Mrs Gall at the New Gaol & 
 Mrs Wood at Fresh Water to teach ladies at 
 
 8 113 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 six shillings a head.” Premiums were offered 
 by the Society for the best linen thread, the 
 largest yield of hemp and flax. At the Decem- 
 ber meeting of the Society in 1767, Philip 
 Schuyler informed them that he had in the 
 present year erected a flax mill at Saratoga, 
 and the Society adjudged him “ a medal and 
 their thanks.” Thus chronicles “ The Mercury ” 
 of Hugh Gaines. The same newspaper is full 
 of advertisements from William Gilliland of 
 the Lake Champlain Colony offering induce- 
 ments to “ Industrious Farmers,” on the plan 
 of Saratoga. There were other colonies intent 
 on developing the resources of the Province in 
 other directions. All of these in the language 
 of the day were termed “ Nurseries of the 
 Arts.” Every form of economy was practised. 
 Men and women wore homespun. Sassafras 
 and sage were used instead of tea. Irish 
 butter, hitherto imported in great quantities, 
 was discarded. Gaines’s “Mercury” says, 
 “Funerals without Mourning or the giving of 
 English Gloves has become so fashionable that 
 there has been but one Funeral, that of a 
 negro in the old way.” It declares that in 
 this manner alone £ 10,000 has been saved the 
 town. 
 
 Nor was the agitation all industrial. Philip 
 Schuyler had been recently made Colonel by Sir 
 
 114 
 
MAKING READY FOR THE STORM 
 
 Henry Moore of a regiment of militia intended 
 to keep order among the turbulent settlers of 
 ■what was known as the New Hampshire 
 Grants. The confusion concerning the divid- 
 ing line between New York and New England 
 created endless disturbances between the set- 
 tlers who held their land under the Duke of 
 York’s patent, and that obtained by the New 
 England Colonies. This disputed line ran 
 about twenty miles from Albany. The conflict 
 raged to such an extent that a species of 
 border warfare was begun, which resulted on 
 the one hand in the Green Mountain Boys, 
 who went cattle-lifting like Highlanders, and 
 on the other in such moving stories as that of 
 Captain Remembrance Baker, told in the annals 
 of Vermont. Captain Baker had built some 
 thriving mills on property claimed by some of 
 the New York grantees. For this he was de- 
 cided to be a felon, and Captain John Munro 
 with ten men set out to capture and bring him 
 to Albany. “ After a Lord’s Day Consultation 
 in plotting this wicked Design, they surprised 
 Baker in his Dwelling House about the first 
 Appearance of the Morning light. After making 
 an effort to discharge their Fire Arms through 
 Baker’s house, and finding them missing fire 
 Munro with his attendants did with axes 
 forcibly break & enter Baker’s House with 
 
 115 
 
CAT BERIME SCHUYLER 
 
 weapon’s of Death, Spread destruction around 
 the room, cutting with swords & bruising with 
 Fire Arms and Clubs men, women & children 
 swearing that he would have Baker dead or 
 alive & that he would burn the House, Baker 
 wife, children & all their Effects, Conveyed 
 fire from the Hearth to the cupboard, When 
 the Spirit of plunder over-balanced his wretched 
 noddle.” While he was searching the house, 
 Baker, who was hid upstairs, broke a board 
 from the gable and jumped out. His pursuers 
 seeing him, Munro fired and “ set on him a 
 large wilful spiteful very malicious dog, edu- 
 cated and brought up according to their 
 Notions. He was like all the Servants of the 
 Devil at that time all obedience.” Poor Baker 
 was caught and carried off to Albany. 
 
 Little Miss McVickar, whose papa had money 
 invested in the same debatable country, pur- 
 chased from New York, gives Mr. Munro, “ par- 
 ticular friend of my father, a worthy upright 
 man &” an entirely different character. 
 “ These incendiaries [the Green Mountain 
 hoys] trusting to their superior numbers and 
 the peaceable disposition of our friend came 
 out to oppose him ” in the defence of his mills 
 and settlements. To adjust differences which 
 produce such varying estimates of character 
 was indeed a difficult task. The air was full 
 
 116 
 
MAKING READY FOR THE STORM 
 
 of litigation when not of violence. The scorn 
 of the Dutch at Albany for their New England 
 neighbors, as for a humbler and less civilized 
 people was not strictly concealed. In the light 
 of after events the part Philip Schuyler had 
 to take in this matter was the most unfortu- 
 nate duty he had ever to perform for his State, 
 since the unhappy feeling his partisanship 
 created followed him persistently throughout 
 the Revolution, and triumphed so far as sec- 
 tional feeling could go. It was, however, the 
 occasion of the first considerable journey of 
 Catherine Schuyler from home and her little 
 family. This was to Boston, where her hus- 
 band was called to confer on the question of 
 the boundary lines. The other commissioners 
 were officials and men of dignity, and the asso- 
 ciation with these of so young a man was not 
 an inconsiderable honor. Travel was as yet in 
 a primitive condition. The Boston Post road, 
 which passed through Hartford, Springfield, 
 Worcester, had hardly yet escaped from its 
 early title of “Path.” The stage coach 
 between New York and Boston “ set out from 
 Fowler’s tavern at Fresh Water, near Centre 
 st & Pearl, once a fortnight, coming on Sat- 
 urday evening setting out by way of Hart- 
 ford on Monday morning and stopping at the 
 best houses on the road for entertainment, at 
 117 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 a cost of 4d a mile.” It was the day of inns. 
 The keeping of the inn was compulsory at 
 Hartford, and the duty of the innkeeper care- 
 fully outlined in the Connecticut Blue Laws. 
 The traveller was welcome not more for his 
 money than for his bundle of news and gossip. 
 A few years after Lafayette writes : “ Host and 
 Hostess sit at table with you and do the honors 
 of a comfortable meal, and on going away you 
 pay your fare without higgling.” The roads 
 were in such condition that when the stages were 
 started with relays it was not possible to make 
 over eighteen miles a day. When Josiah 
 Quincy and his bride Eliza Morton made their 
 wedding journey from New York to Boston 
 after the new Connecticut Post road was 
 opened, the journey required five days. People 
 of such quality had their own chariot, calash, 
 or coach, and travelled in a good deal of state. 
 This included four horses, postilion, and out- 
 riders. 
 
 Of the particulars of this journey we have 
 no knowledge. It was doubtless accompanied 
 by a good deal of sight-seeing, and the usual 
 amount of dining and wining. One thing, 
 however, was accomplished. They brought 
 back with them the Rev. Mr. Drummond, 
 apparently not more intended for the church 
 at Saratoga and the souls of the settlers than 
 118 
 
MAKING READY FOR THE STORM 
 
 for the growing needs of the young family. 
 “I think it a good circumstance,” writes 
 William Smith, who seems to have discovered 
 him, “that he was ordained in Scotland, for 
 you know that the National Establishment is 
 closely connected with that of the Nether- 
 lands. Mr. Drummond is a good scholar, and 
 may be useful to your boys.” Another boy 
 had been added to the family, and according 
 to the custom of the family, in which Philip 
 and John alternate, he was called Philip Jere- 
 miah, and his birth is piously recorded with 
 the prayer, “ May the Lord grant that he grow 
 up for the glory of God and his happiness.” 
 
 The family had scarcely settled itself for 
 the winter in the commodious Albany house 
 when it was called upon to receive some dis- 
 tinguished visitors. These were the nine 
 Catawba warriors from South Carolina, on 
 their way to ratify a covenant with the Six 
 Nations at the close of the Cherokee War. 
 At their head was the chief, Attakulakulla, 
 or Little Carpenter. They had stopped pre- 
 viously at New York, where Lieutenant- 
 Governor Bull had asked Walter Rutherford 
 to do their shopping. This consisted of the 
 purchase of some wampum belts. These, as 
 they were essential to all formal negotia- 
 tions, and their color and the dispositions of 
 
 119 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 the periwinkle shells of which they were com- 
 posed were as intelligible as a ritual, were ap- 
 parently kept in stock. He also desires some 
 deer skins as a present to Governor Clinton, 
 and that an ox be roasted whole at the meet- 
 ing, that the etiquette of the occasion might 
 be fulfilled. They were met at the wharf by 
 Philip Schuyler, who took them to his house. 
 Indian visitors were no strangers at the 
 prominent houses. The Schuylers had always 
 been known as the friend of the Indian. It 
 was Colonel Peter Schuyler who took to Eng- 
 land the “Indian Kings,” as Queen Anne’s 
 Court delighted to call them. It was in com- 
 memoration of this event that the “ Schuyler 
 Vase” was presented by the Queen, and his 
 portrait full length in court dress painted by 
 Sir Godfrey Kneller, still cherished by his 
 descendants at Albany. The silver chain 
 which represented the covenant then made, in 
 after years served to cut the teeth of succeed- 
 ing generations of infant Schuylers. Their 
 host had gained the friendship of the Indians 
 on his own part by defending their interests 
 in a land trade in one of his early ventures 
 into the forest. No less considerate had been 
 Catherine Schuyler in the friendly commerce 
 of mansion and wigwam across Aunt Schuyler’s 
 orchard, and as a girl at Claverack. 
 
 120 
 
MAKING READY FOR THE STORM 
 
 The visiting strangers were not likely to be 
 embarrassed by their surroundings. All the 
 dealings between the red man and white were 
 conducted as between two high contracting 
 parties. Charles Lee, writing to his sister in 
 England, says : “ I assure you if you were to 
 see the young Warriors dress it out and 
 armed you would never allow that there was 
 such a thing as gentility at the Court of St 
 James. You may perhaps think I am joking, 
 but I give you my word and honor that I am 
 serious; for whether it is from their dress 
 which has no ligatures, or from their con- 
 tinued exercise in hunting I cannot tell, but 
 they acquire something of artistic gracefulness 
 in their walk which is not to be met else- 
 where ; their dress I like most wonderfully 
 but dont know how to describe it ; they wear 
 a sort of mantle thrown over their right 
 shoulder, their right arm is bare. This 
 mantle is generally laced, and generally red 
 & green mixed or black and yellow. They 
 have only one lock of hair upon their heads, 
 which they turn up with feathers and paint it 
 as they do likewise their faces and necks ; 
 their complexion is deep Olive, their eyes and 
 teeth fine, but their Skins most inexpressibly 
 soft and silky.” Tench Tilghman gives an 
 enthusiastic account of their dignity and per- 
 121 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 feet manners. Such guests, it may be inferred, 
 would not disturb greatly a household accus- 
 tomed to sudden demands on its hospitality. 
 Even table manners not altogether aboriginal 
 might be expected from Indian ambassadors 
 who occasionally met at table governors and 
 other high officials. 
 
 Not long before there had been another 
 Indian gathering of a different but even more 
 interesting character. This was after the 
 close of the war with Pontiac, brought to an 
 end by their friend General Bradstreet in 
 1765, when the exchange of stolen children 
 took place. This occurred in the orchard of 
 Aunt Schuyler, who was instrumental in 
 having it take place at Albany, where the 
 Schuyler influence with the Mohawks could 
 be used in learning where the children were, 
 and how they could be reached. Against this 
 exchange the Indians themselves had some- 
 thing to say. But an eye-witness relates this 
 interesting story : — 
 
 “In the first place they [the Indians] had grown 
 very fond of them; and again because they thought 
 the children would not be very happy in our mode 
 of life, which appeared to them both constrained 
 and effeminate. This exchange had a large retro- 
 spect. For ten years there had been every now and 
 then, while the Indians were in the French inter- 
 122 
 
MAKING READY FOR THE STORM 
 
 est, ravages upon the frontiers of the different 
 provinces. In many instances these children had 
 been snatched away while the parents were working 
 in the fields, or after they were killed. A certain 
 day was appointed on which all who had lost chil- 
 dren, or sought those of their relations were ap- 
 pointed to come to Albany in search of them; 
 where on that day all the Indians possessed of 
 white children were to present them. Poor women 
 who had traveled one hundred miles from the back 
 settlements of Pennsylvania and New England ap- 
 peared here with anxious looks and aching hearts 
 not knowing whether their children were alive or 
 dead, or how to identify their children if they 
 should meet them. I observed these apprehensive 
 tender mothers were, although poor people all 
 dressed with peculiar neatness and attention, each 
 wishing the first impression her child should re- 
 ceive of her might be a favorable one. 
 
 “ On a gentle slope near the Fort stood a row of 
 temporary huts built by retainers to the troops; 
 the green before these buildings was the scene of 
 these pathetic recognitions which I did not fail to 
 attend. The joy of the happy mothers was over- 
 powering and found vent in tears ; but not the tears 
 of those who after long travel 'found not what they 
 sought. It was affecting to see the deep silent sor- 
 row of the Indian women and of the children, who 
 knew no other mother, and clung fondly to their 
 bosoms from whence they were not torn without * 
 bitter shrieks. I shall never forget the grotesque 
 123 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 figures and wild looks of these young savages; nor 
 tlie trembling haste with which their mothers ar- 
 rayed them in the new clothes they had brought for 
 them, as hoping with the Indian dress they would 
 throw off their habits and attachments. It was in 
 short a scene impossible to describe and most 
 affecting to behold.” 
 
 Philip Schuyler was nominated and elected 
 to the Assembly in the autumn of 1768. 
 Preparations were made to spend the winter 
 in New York. He had applied to his rela- 
 tive, Elizabeth Livingston, who recommended 
 the Widow Grant in Hanover Square for board 
 for his children. She signifies her willing- 
 ness to take “two of the children for 50 a 
 year, two pounds of tea, one of loaf sugar 
 each, their stockings & shoes mended, but 
 new work must be paid for the making.” 
 The three girls had previously been in New 
 York at school. James Livingston previously 
 reports that “the young ladies are in perfect 
 health and improve in their education in a 
 manner beyond belief, and are grown to such 
 a degree that all the tucks in their gowns had 
 to be let out some time ago.” 
 
 The Assembly, however, was not called 
 together. Since the Province refused to 
 quarter more troops, England proposed to 
 punish the Colonists by depriving New York 
 
 124 
 
MAKING READY FOR THE STORM 
 
 of the power to make laws. In this case an 
 idle and possibly saucy Assembly might inter- 
 fere materially with the peace of the Colonial 
 Governor, who was above all things amiable 
 and diplomatic. Meanwhile the controversy 
 was able to rage around the Liberty Pole, the 
 vicissitudes of which recorded the temper of 
 the community and the progress of events. 
 The Liberty Pole was first erected to celebrate 
 the repeal of the Stamp Act. It was a pretty 
 piece of diplomacy on the part of the Royal 
 Governor to unite the celebration with the 
 honors of the King’s birthday. An ox was 
 roasted whole, barrels of beer, a hogshead of 
 rum, and unlimited punch, a bonfire, salvos of 
 artillery, and with “ God Save the King, ” the 
 pole was dedicated to George III., Pitt, and 
 Liberty. The complaisance of this union 
 could not hold for long. The cutting down 
 of the pole by the troops, the raising of it by 
 the excited patriots, the street skirmishes, 
 the broken heads, the chapel bell sending out 
 night alarms about the “consecrated spot,” 
 as the devotion of the town finally termed it, 
 made the nights lively. The marching from 
 “ Hampden Hall of enthusiastic citizens to the 
 Liberty Pole,” thence down Beekman Street, 
 thence to Queen and the Coffee House, then 
 up W all Street to Broadway, and again to the 
 
 125 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Liberty Pole to disband, while heads of pa- 
 triot wives and daughters were thrust out of 
 upper windows, enlivened the day. The 
 women sometimes took a more energetic part. 
 At Kinderliook a committee of women entered 
 the shop of a tea dealer, bound him, and 
 appointing one of themselves a weigher, 
 another a treasurer, weighed out the tea, 
 apportioned it, and deposited the money at 
 their own price in the till. On the whole 
 there were stirring times, in which one may 
 be sure the King’s College boys, — Gouverneur 
 Morris, Gulian Verplanck, Robert Livingston, 
 Egbert Benson, and Benjamin Moore, who 
 had not yet taken their degrees, — and young 
 Alexander Hamilton, took a certain part. 
 
 When the Assembly was called, it precipi- 
 tated after all new troubles on Sir Henry, 
 desiring above everything else an amicable 
 time. That famous election which brought in 
 
 “ Measter Walton, DeLancy 
 Measter Cruger & Jauncey ” 
 
 of the Tory party was the occasion of Assembly- 
 man Philip Schuyler and his family coming 
 to town. One of the first acts of the Assembly 
 was to grant £200 for the support of two 
 battalions of troops according to the Royal 
 desire. It was in protest against this grant 
 126 
 
MAKING READY FOR THE STORM 
 
 that the famous meeting in the Fields called 
 by order of “Vox Populi ” was held. It was 
 this meeting that was the cause of Philip 
 Schuyler’s maiden speech in the Assembly. 
 The proclamation of “Vox Populi ” was held 
 by the Assembly to be an “infamous libel,” 
 and its author, Alexander McDougall, was 
 thrown into jail. It was in opposition to this 
 charge that the new member spoke, and his 
 voice alone was raised. Later when Captain 
 Sears, associated with McDougall, asked to 
 be heard by the Assembly in his own defence, 
 George Clinton and Nathaniel Sears ranged 
 themselves by Philip Schuyler in support of 
 his plea. Gossip raged through the town. The 
 Church party with all its social power was 
 allied with the Crown. Meanwhile forty of 
 the first ladies of the opposite party, led by 
 the intrepid Mrs. Malcolm, visited McDougall 
 in prison in a body. Here he held daily 
 levees, feasted on fruits and wines, and doubt- 
 less took amiable views of his confinement. 
 
 The resolute stand of the young Assembly- 
 man made him a no less notable figure. These 
 differences, however, did not alter the friendly 
 relations existing between the Moores and the 
 Scliuylers. These, however, were shortly 
 terminated by the death of Sir Henry, which 
 occurred suddenly that same year. He was 
 
 127 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 succeeded by Governor Tryon, bringing with 
 him an amiable wife and daughter. Shortly 
 after this note was received in Albany : “ Mrs. 
 Tryon desires me to present her compliments 
 to you and to inform you that she accepts the 
 invitation of becoming your guest in Albany.” 
 There was some anxiety about finding a com- 
 fortable sloop for the journey, Catherine 
 Schuyler making inquiries about dates of 
 sailing. The Tryons came late in June. 
 They were taken to the Schuyler country place 
 after some gala making at Albany. Sara- 
 toga was looking its loveliest: its orchard 
 and flower beds in bloom, the lawns verdant 
 down to the foaming Fish Kill, whose islands 
 were covered with verdure, and its trees fes- 
 tooned with the fragrant wild grape, now in 
 bloom. Here Mrs. Tryon stayed while the 
 Governor and his host were off on one of the 
 land-purchasing expeditions which none of 
 the Colonial governors were known to neglect. 
 Vast purchases were made. Governor Tryon 
 acted as agent for a number of foreign noble- 
 men. His fees alone amounted to £22,000. 
 “A good summer’s work,” Philip Schuyler 
 wrote to his friend William Duer, and con- 
 tinues facetiously : — 
 
 “A large premium is offered by the land jobbers 
 in New York to an ingenious architect who shall 
 128 
 
MAKING READY FOR THE STORM 
 
 contrive a machine to waft them to the moon. 
 Should Ferguson, Martin or any eminent astrono- 
 mer assert that they had discovered large vales of 
 land in that luminary I would apply to be commis- 
 sioner for granting land, if I knew to whom to 
 apply for it.” 
 
 During this period General Bradstreet, 
 their lifelong friend, died in New York, 
 where Philip Schuyler hastened to his bed- 
 side. General Bradstreet never rejoined his 
 family in London. When in Albany he passed 
 his time in the Schuyler family. When he 
 died Philip Schuyler was his executor. His 
 death closed a period which in the retrospect 
 was a training-ground for the more stirring 
 events of the Revolution, soon to follow. 
 
 9 
 
 129 
 
IX 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 The snn shone brightly that peaceful Sun- 
 day morning in May 1775. The Rev. Mr. Drum- 
 mond, now installed over the little community 
 at Saratoga, had finished his sermon. The con- 
 gregation, doubtless greatly refreshed, gathered 
 about the door for that friendly visiting and 
 exchange of news, which was then as now the 
 custom in country parishes. As they talked, 
 a horseman dashed up and handed a message 
 to a man easily distinguished as the most 
 prominent person present. It was Philip 
 Schuyler, and he read to his neighbors as they 
 gathered about him the news of the battle of 
 Lexington. The scene was afterward described 
 by an old man, — a boy then present : “ He 
 was the oracle of the neighborhood. We 
 looked up to him with respect and affection. 
 His popularity was unbounded ; his views on 
 all subjects were considered sound and his 
 anticipations prophetic.” Now anxious faces 
 were turned to him to interpret the meaning 
 
 130 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 of this news. While he talked they listened. 
 At length the excited congregation separated 
 to their own homes, convinced that the period 
 of dissatisfaction, protest, turbulence was past. 
 This at last was war. The text and the ser- 
 mon found no place that day at these dinner 
 tables. In the household at Saratoga events 
 hurried. 
 
 The guns of Lexington shattered the tardy 
 indecision of New York. There had been 
 none down the valley of the Hudson, where the 
 influence of the Livingstons, the Van Rens- 
 selaers, the Schuylers, and the other Hutch 
 families was felt. Congress was to convene 
 May 10. Philip Schuyler, who was to serve 
 his first term, left the day before on the Albany 
 sloop for the six days’ journey to Philadelphia. 
 One month hence a notable procession started 
 northward. Prominent in it was Major- 
 General Philip Schuyler, accompanying the 
 Commander-in-Chief of the American army, 
 and Major-General Charles Lee to New York. 
 They were escorted out of Philadelphia by a 
 number of gentlemen on horseback, and they 
 were met at New York by nine companies of 
 troops and a number of distinguished citizens. 
 General Schuyler stopped with his old friend 
 William Smith on Broad Street. This was 
 opposite the house occupied by Governor 
 
 131 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Ti’3 r on since the Colonial residence in the fort 
 was destroyed by fire. The evening was spent 
 in discussing military affairs with General 
 Washington, who the next day started with 
 General Lee for Cambridge, to take charge of 
 the army. There was much to do in New 
 York. A review of the regiments took place ; 
 but so far as Madame and the young ladies 
 were concerned, nothing of more importance 
 occurred than the engagement of handsome 
 Dick Varick as military secretary. There is 
 a story that, clad in his new blue and buff, 
 General Schuyler went across the street to 
 call on his friend the Royal Governor. “ Gen- 
 eral Schuyler? I know no such person,” 
 was the answer Governor Tryon returned, 
 declining to see him. 
 
 But there was a proud and eager family at 
 Saratoga to greet Major-General Schuyler. 
 This family included, besides his wife, three 
 spirited daughters, the oldest, Angelica, now 
 a young woman of nineteen; Elizabeth, eigh- 
 teen ; Margaret, seventeen ; three boys, the son 
 and heir, John Bradstreet, thirteen yeai's old; 
 Philip Jeremiah; and Van Rensselaer, now a 
 boy of two. Together they went to Albany, 
 where fresh honors were waiting. There was 
 a procession and an address at the City Hall 
 by our good Dr. Stringer. The distinguished 
 
 132 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 guest was then escorted to his home by the 
 citizens. At night the town was illuminated 
 in his honor. War and its horrors were not 
 new to Catherine Schuyler. Danger from open 
 and stealthy foe had encompassed her from 
 her cradle. But moments such as these were 
 among the compensations of a future of anxi- 
 ety and responsibility, and it was a proud and 
 united family that gathered in the Albany 
 home that night. 
 
 The next day she and her children went 
 back to Saratoga for the final leavetaking. 
 That night at midnight the family were awak- 
 ened by the news that eight hundred savages 
 under Walter Butler and Brant, the brother 
 of Molly Brant of Johnson Hall, were coming 
 down the valley. The rival influences of the 
 Schuylers and the Johnsons over the Six 
 Nations, in view of the coming struggle, was 
 now indeed an important matter. The John- 
 sons were Tories, and their affiliations with 
 the Indians and their semi-entrenched position 
 at Johnson Hall gave them a tremendous ad- 
 vantage. The utmost that could be hoped was 
 to induce the Indians to remain neutral. The 
 journey to Ticonderoga, which was the head- 
 quarters of the Army of the North and again to 
 be the scene of action, was delayed for several 
 days in order to set in motion the arrange- 
 
 133 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 ments for an Indian council. This took place in 
 August, General Schuyler returning from Sara- 
 toga to take part. One of the participants was 
 a young aide-de-camp of General Washington 
 from Maryland, named Tench Tilghman. The 
 journal he then kept for his family relates 
 picturesquely the events of the Council, and 
 at the same time affords an entertaining 
 glimpse of the family and social life of the 
 Schuylers. A gallant young Southerner could 
 scarcely be brought into the presence of a 
 group of girls without setting down his im- 
 pressions. This he does. The Commissioners 
 first went to Saratoga, and were greatly 
 interested in the saw and grist mills, and the 
 evidences of industry and prosperity of the 
 colony. Here they were “ very genteely enter- 
 tained by the General and his Lady.” The 
 young ladies were at Albany, where he was 
 soon to meet them, with some South Carolina 
 friends he was so fortunate as to find. 
 
 “I spent the greatest part of the morning,” he 
 writes, “in a visit to the Ladyes, where I had the 
 pleasure of being introduced to Miss Ann Schuyler 
 the General’s oldest daughter. A very Pretty 
 Young Lady. A Brunette with dark eyes and 
 a countenance animated and sparkling, as I am told 
 she is.” In the afternoon he adds : “Having taken 
 leave of my host I called at the General Schuylers 
 134 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 to pay my compliments to the Gen. his Lady and 
 Daughter. I found none of them at home but 
 Miss Betsey Schuyler, the General’s 2nd Daughter 
 to whom I was introduced by Mr. Commissary 
 Livingston who accompanied me. I was prepos- 
 sessed in favor of this Young Lady the moment 
 I saw her. A Brunette with the most good natured 
 dark lovely eyes that I ever saw, which threw 
 a beam of good temper and Benevolence over her 
 entire countenance. Mr. Livingston informed me 
 that I was not mistaken in my Conjecture for she 
 was the finest tempered Girl in the World.” 
 
 The young man was not inclined to lose the 
 opportunities her further acquaintance pre- 
 sented, and gayeties were immediately organ- 
 ized. One was a picnic to Cohoes Falls above 
 Albany. They started early in the morning 
 — “ Mrs Lynch & Mrs Cuyler in a Post- 
 Chaise, Miss Betsey Schuyler & Mr Cuyler in 
 a kind of a Phaeton. Miss Lynch and Mr 
 Tilghman in a third.” They reached the 
 Falls about eleven, where Miss Betsey aston- 
 ished the young Southerner by clambering 
 unaided over the rocks, “for she disdained 
 all assistance and made herself merry at the 
 distress of the other Ladyes. ” Shortly after 
 the manner of all picnickers, they “ refreshed 
 themselves with the Sherbet and Biscuit I 
 lay in.” On the drive back to town, they 
 
 135 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 stopped at a farm-house, and bespoke dinner, 
 and got back to town in time to see the recep- 
 tion of the Indians who had come to the 
 Council. Two fires were lighted in the middle 
 of the street. Around these the Indians, 
 nearly naked, danced, beating time with their 
 drums, and striking sticks together while they 
 sang, sometimes in a low and mournful strain, 
 and sometimes in a lively manner at the 
 warlike deeds the recital demanded. The 
 dance concluded about ten o’clock, “and being 
 entirely novel was the more entertaining to 
 the Ladyes. ” 
 
 The next day the ladies from the Carolinas, 
 the Commissioners, and several generals from 
 the neighboring Provinces dined with General 
 and Mrs. Schuyler. “He has a palace of a 
 house and lives like a Prince,” writes the 
 enthusiastic young man. There was much 
 gay talk. Among other things they were to 
 meet some of the “Indian Princes” in the 
 evening. He was asked if he had an Indian 
 name. It was the custom for the Indians to 
 adopt likely young men into the tribe. In 
 order to do this they must take an Indian 
 name and an Indian wife. This young Tilgh- 
 man agreed to do, “Miss Betsey Schuyler 
 and Miss Lynch agreeing to stand brides- 
 maids.” All this was agreeably carried out 
 
 136 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 during the evening. The chief of the Onon- 
 dagas adopted the young man, christening 
 him “ Teo-ko-ko-londe, ” a name signifying 
 great courage, but literally meaning “having 
 horns.” “The christening cost a bowl of 
 punch or two, which I believe was the chief 
 motive of the institution,” adds the astute 
 young man. 
 
 His account of the Council is worth trans- 
 cribing, since it was the last Council ever 
 held at Albany, and closes a picturesque form 
 of negotiation which played an important part 
 in the history of the country, and of which 
 since the formation of the Colony Albany was 
 the centre. 
 
 “The Treaty was opened with great form. 
 The Pipe of Peace smoked, and General 
 Schuyler delivered the preparatory speech. 
 These matters took us up to four o’clock when 
 the meeting adjourned. ” This continued for 
 several days, “owing to the delay and diffi- 
 culty of getting what you say delivered to the 
 Indians. The speech is first delivered in 
 short sentences by one of the Commissioners, 
 their interpi’eter tells an Indian what has been 
 saying. After this has been repeated to the 
 Indian he speaks it to the Sis Nations. So 
 that a speech that would take twenty minutes 
 will require two or three hours. The speech 
 
 137 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 is written by Congress but has to be put into 
 form so that the Indian understands it. In 
 its original form you might ,as well read a 
 Chapter of Locke on the Understanding.” 
 This slowness was afterward appreciated by 
 the astonished writer. When the answer 
 was received several days later the Indians 
 had remembered every word said to them. 
 “The speech would have made 9 or 10 folio 
 pages, but when they came to answer they did 
 not omit a single head, and on most repeated 
 our own words, for it is a Custom with them 
 to Recapitulate what you have said & give 
 answer. They are Thoroughbred Politicians. 
 They know the Proper time of making demands. 
 They ripped several old grievances and de- 
 manded redress.” The influence of their 
 women was recognized by a paragraph ad- 
 dressed to them by General Schuyler: “Your 
 women have sent us their belt. We beg of 
 you to answer them of our regard, and to 
 entreat them to prevent your warriors from 
 doing anything that would tend to incur our 
 resentment or interrupt the harmony which 
 we wish may endure to the end of time.” 
 After the deliberations of the day the evening 
 would be varied with sports. “Not in the 
 formal, but in the agreeable accidental man- 
 ” One of these evenings the writer 
 
 138 
 
 ner. 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 describes with his accustomed ingenuousness, 
 and it is left for an astonished posterity to 
 comment on the taste of the time, for there is 
 no reason to think that the ladies absented 
 themselves from these sports. 
 
 “We turned out a bull for the young 
 Indians to hunt and kill after their manner 
 with Hachetts & knives. The Beast was not 
 of the fiery Spanish breed for he suffered 
 himself to be despatched without even turning 
 upon his assailants.” After this pastime, 
 “we put up two laced hats and a silver arm 
 band to be run for. I think I have seen white 
 men who would have outstripped these Cham- 
 pions, as their mode of running seemed more 
 calculated for long distance than for swift- 
 ness. ” After the amusements of the evening, 
 the enthusiastic young man exclaims: “There 
 is something in the behavior of the Gen. his 
 Lady and Daughters that makes one acquainted 
 with them instantly I feel easy and free from 
 restraint at his seat as I feel at Cliffden where 
 I am always at a second home.” But the 
 General was obliged to go back to Ticon- 
 deroga, and his wife and daughters were to 
 return to Saratoga. The familiar hospitality 
 of the household the impetuous Marylander 
 goes on to illustrate: “went out to Breakfast 
 with the Gen 1 and to take my leave of the 
 
 139 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Ladyes. I found the girls up & ready for the 
 March Breakfast was on the Table and down 
 I sat among them like an Old Acquaintance 
 tho’ this is only the Seventh day since my 
 Introduction It would be seven years before I 
 could be so intimate with half the world But 
 there is so much frankness and Freshness in 
 this family that a man must be dead to every 
 feeling of Familiarity who is not familiarized 
 the first hour of being among them.” 
 
 This is agreeable testimony. Nor was so 
 appreciative a guest deprived of further view. 
 Still delayed on Indian affairs we find him 
 again recording, “ Who should bless my eyes 
 again this Evening but good natured agreeable 
 Betsey Schuyler just returned from Saratoga 
 With her was Miss Ranslaer with whom she 
 is staying.” This young lady, it appears, 
 was quite pretty, and liked to be teased about 
 her beaux. As he had heard of her triumphs 
 he rejoices that he “ could talk on such agree- 
 able matters Lamenting my short stay out of 
 Compliment to her & such common place 
 stuff. But I told Miss Schuyler so with 
 Truth for I am under infinite obligations to 
 the kindness of her & her Family.” 
 
 The fast-flying summer brought an end to 
 these gayeties. General Schuyler at St. 
 Johns had been seized by his old enemy, the 
 140 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 gout, combined with rheumatic fever drawn 
 from the swamps and chill autumn rains. 
 There were vexations in camp, however, 
 harder to bear than these twinges of pain. 
 “No arms, no powder, no blankets; officers 
 — no commissions; treasury — no money,” 
 writes the Commander of the Army of the 
 North. There were jealousies between the 
 Provinces ; jealousies between the officers and 
 the men. “The Connecticut privates are all 
 generals,” writes Montgomery, worn out in 
 flesh and spirit. “The troops carry the spirit 
 of freedom into the field and think for them- 
 selves. ... 1 wish some method could be fallen 
 upon of engageing gentlemen to serve ; a point 
 of honor and more knowledge of the world 
 would greatly reform discipline and render the 
 troops more tractable. ... I have sent back 
 ten boats with the naked and lazy,” he writes 
 to his chief. To the methodical mind of 
 General Schuyler, whose military experience 
 had taught him the value of discipline, and 
 whose views of society insisted on ranks and 
 conditions, the situation was more insupport- 
 able than the gout. “If Job had been a 
 general in my situation his memory had not 
 been so famous for patience,” he writes to 
 Congress. His letters to Washington reiter- 
 ate these complaints, and are echoed by the 
 
 141 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Commander-in-Chief at Cambridge, who had 
 his own troubles in kind. At length the 
 burden of illness and vexation became too 
 great, and Mrs. Schuyler was sent for, the 
 General being carried back to Ticonderoga, 
 which, “in the name of the Great Jehovah 
 and the Continental Congress,” had been 
 captured some time before by Colonel Ethan 
 Allen, who seems to have had an eye for 
 dramatic effect. 
 
 The itinerary of this dangerous and melan- 
 choly journey has been made out. It is a 
 romantic region, as every tourist knows who 
 has made the journey from Saratoga through 
 Glenn’s Falls to Caldwell and the head of 
 Lake George. But the picturesque head-waters 
 of the Hudson and the primeval forest were 
 at the time not so much objects of beauty and 
 grandeur as sources of horror associated with 
 the bloody scenes of the French and Indian 
 War. Mrs. Schuyler, accompanied only by 
 an aide-de-camp, went in an open wagon to 
 McNeill’s ferry, where they were taken across 
 the Hudson in a flat-bottomed boat. Resum- 
 ing the wagon they drove to Fort Miller, six 
 miles up the river, where the troops of Sir 
 William Johnson and Baron Dieskau were 
 wont alternately to muster. Leaping down 
 from the mountains in sparkling cascades 
 
 142 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 Bloody Run empties here into the Hudson. 
 Here, in 1759, while a party of soldiers from 
 the fort were fishing for trout, the Indians 
 secreted in the dense wood stole out upon 
 them, and scalped nine before the alarm could 
 be given. This tragedy gave the name to the 
 pretty stream. At this point they took 
 bateaus for Fort Edward. The passage was 
 so dangerous at this point, owing to the rapids, 
 that Congress had put the transportation into 
 the hands of a company of picked men. Thus 
 provided, it took four hours to make Fort 
 Edward, but seven miles distant. 
 
 The fort had been destroyed by fire some 
 time before, but a regiment was encamped 
 here, and the travellers dined with it on bears’ 
 meat, the only delicacy it had to offer. From 
 here the road led through the dense forest, 
 and had been cut by the artillery into such 
 deep ruts that not more than a mile an hour 
 could be made. After dining at Wing’s 
 tavern, the journey led through the swamp, 
 where young trees had been cut and laid in a 
 rude corduroy track to make progress possible. 
 The journey was full of painful reminiscences. 
 Here was Williams Rock, on which Colonel 
 Ephraim Williams fell when with his detach- 
 ment he met Baron Dieskau’s army in the 
 rocky defile, the old sachem Hendrick by his 
 
 143 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 side. A short distance from Williams Rock 
 lay Bloody Pond, a peaceful lily-covered pool, 
 which the French made a sepulchre for the 
 slaughtered troops on the fatal day that Lord 
 Howe fell. Their blood stained its waters 
 for many a day, tradition said, and hence its 
 name. For many years the spot was the scene 
 of many a dark story. In one of the poems of 
 the day the heroine 
 
 “ left Saratoga at break of day 
 Where the troops of Vaudreuil with dread Indian allies 
 Scalped hundreds of Britons ta’en there by surprise, 
 
 And dropped there as she passed a tear.” 
 
 The journey continued through the Bloody 
 Defile, as the gorge through which the English 
 army retreated was subsequently called. Here 
 the savages with Montcalm, disappointed in 
 the terms of the surrender, fell on the troops, 
 butchered and carried away fifteen hundred 
 captive. The time was not so remote that 
 Catherine Schuyler could have forgotten the 
 anguish and distress that followed Ticonde- 
 roga, and the improvised hospital in the great 
 barn of The Flatts. Fort George was at length 
 reached and a bateau secured. It was an open 
 boat, an awning the only shelter during the 
 chill October night, a blanket the only sail. 
 Thus in time the lake w r as traversed, and the 
 wife arrived at Ticonderoga, where her lius- 
 
 144 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 band lay. Here she cared for him until he was 
 able to resume his duties, and then hastened 
 back to her Albany home. General Schuyler’s 
 restoration was not permanent. In December 
 he was again so ill that he petitioned Congress 
 to appoint General Lee in his place. Leaving 
 Montgomery in command, he returned to 
 Albany, where his health was so dangerously 
 affected that prayers for his recovery were 
 desired by Congress. Everything in Albany 
 was now devoted to caring for the sick man, 
 whose mind as well as body was sick with the 
 disturbed state of affairs. It had required 
 both the persuasions of the Commander-in- 
 Chief and of Congress to keep both General 
 Schuyler and Montgomery from resigning. 
 
 Meanwhile there were things of moment at 
 Albany, which sick or well required atten- 
 tion. Captain Mann, one of Sir John John- 
 son’s adherents, had summoned the inhabitants 
 of Scoharie Valley to swear allegiance to 
 George III. Day after day the farmers and 
 honest yeomanry were obliged to parade in 
 red caps and cockades, as much of a uniform 
 as the enthusiastic Captain Mann could hastily 
 get together, while Neckus, a Mohawk chief, 
 hastened enrolment with his upraised toma- 
 hawk. The news reached Albany, and Cap- 
 tain Woodhull, with a troop of horse, was 
 
 10 145 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 sent by the General to disperse this unwilling 
 Royal army and allow the farmers to resume 
 their own hats and caps. Mann fled, but 
 Neckus was captured and paid the penalty of 
 too much zeal. A more exciting rumor came 
 on the heels of this event. Sir John Johnson 
 was said to be arming five hundred Indians to 
 assist the English troops. General Schuyler 
 rose from his sick bed, and calling upon the 
 farmers and citizens, with this improvised 
 soldiery went to Johnson Hall, where the 
 arms were captured and Sir John Johnson 
 released on parole. Danger now came nearer 
 home. The family was at Saratoga, and a 
 plot was formed to burn the house and murder 
 the master. It succeeded so far that an 
 Indian posted near the house with his arm 
 raised to fire on the General, when he appeared, 
 let it fall, the memory of past favors over- 
 coming him. “ I have eaten his bread. I 
 cannot kill him,” is the story recorded. 
 
 It is impossible to disentangle a wife whose 
 husband has been near death and burdened 
 with responsibilities, with a large family and 
 two important households, from the quick 
 succession of events such as these. Catherine 
 Schuyler’s life was one of constant ministry. 
 There is no record of anything ever demanded 
 for herself, although there is every evidence of 
 
 146 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 the gratitude her ministrations and self-sacri- 
 fice called forth. To these troubles was added 
 the death of Montgomery at Quebec. Aside 
 from the lovableness of his nature, the com- 
 munity of desires and sentiments between the 
 two men, and the harmonious relations be- 
 tween the chief and his subordinate, the wife 
 of General Montgomery, a daughter of Robert 
 R. Livingston, was a kinswoman, and his loss 
 was not more a public than a private grief. 
 The strain of this situation, felt keenly in the 
 Albany home, was diverted early in April by 
 the visit of the three Commissioners appointed 
 by Congress to visit the Army of the North, 
 in response to the entreaties of both General 
 Schuyler and Montgomery. These were 
 Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase, Charles 
 Carroll, and the Rev. John Carroll, his 
 brother, a Catholic priest. Charles Carroll 
 has left an interesting diary of this trip, 
 including the perils of the trip up the Hudson. 
 
 The Commissioners started with the inten- 
 tion of making themselves comfortable, by 
 taking with them their servants and their 
 bedding. They left New York with their 
 beds and servants the afternoon of April 
 2d, and proceeded only as far as Yonkers, 
 where they were obliged to cast anchor for 
 the night. The next day’s run took them 
 
 147 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 to St. Anthony’s Nose, where they encoun- 
 tered such winds that they split their main- 
 sail, and had to turn back and lay all night 
 and the next day at anchor in Thunder 
 Hill Bay. The next day they made a fine 
 run. On the evening of the fifth day they 
 arrived at Albany, where General Schuyler 
 met them at the wharf, and took them to his 
 house. “He lives in pretty style, and has 
 two daughters Betsey and Peggy, lively agree- 
 able gals,” one of the Commissioners writes. 
 The next morning the Commissioners, Mrs. 
 Schuyler, and the two girls set out in an open 
 wagon, attended by General Schuyler on horse- 
 back, for Saratoga. The journey of thirty-two 
 miles took all day. Poor Dr. Franklin was 
 so used up that it was necessary to remain at 
 Saratoga a week to allow him to regain suffi- 
 cient strength to finish his journey. He was 
 in fact in such straits that he thought it might 
 he necessary to arrange his affairs for the final 
 journey. He writes to Josiah Quincy grate- 
 fully of the care of “ good Mrs. Schuyler in 
 his extremity.” One would give a good deal 
 for a record of this week between the philoso- 
 pher and his nurse. In the mean time Charles 
 Carroll, gallant even to old age, when Josiah 
 Quincy describes him at eighty running down 
 the steps bareheaded in winter to open the 
 
 148 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE 
 
 carriage door for a lady, was enjoying liimself 
 mightily, and confides to his journal that 
 “ the lively behavior of the young ladies makes 
 Saratoga a most pleasing sejour.” 
 
 At length Franklin was able to resume his 
 journey, and the Commissioners rejoined 
 General Schuyler at Wing’s Tavern over the 
 same road Mrs. Schuyler had so painfully 
 made her way the preceding autumn. The 
 fatigues of this journey, the voyage down the 
 lake in an exposed boat, and the jolting over 
 the roads to Ticonderoga were too much for 
 Franklin, no longer young, and he returned 
 to Albany, where he placed himself again 
 under the care of “good Mrs. Schuyler.” In 
 time he reached New York, from whence he 
 writes to the General: “We arrived here safe 
 yesterday evening in your Post-Chaise driven 
 by Lewis. I was unwilling to have given so 
 much trouble, and would have borrowed your 
 sulkey and have driven myself, but good Mrs. 
 Schuyler insisted on a full compliance with 
 your pleasure as signified in your letter, but 
 I was obliged to submit, which I afterwards 
 was glad of, part of the road being very stony 
 and much gullied, when I should have prob- 
 ably upset and broken my bones, all the 
 dexterity of Lewis [the Schuyler coachman] 
 being no more than sufficient.” 
 
 149 
 
X 
 
 THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 
 
 At the battle of Saratoga, there were other 
 triumphs than those of arms. The gold medal 
 presented by Congress to the general in com- 
 mand has not commemorated this event in so 
 significant a manner as certain acts of courtesy 
 and disinterestedness here to be set down. 
 The summer previous, General Schuyler had 
 sent word to his wife that if rumors be true, 
 when he returned home it would not be as the 
 General commanding the Army of the North. 
 To this his secretary replies on the part of the 
 family : “ All well and only waiting the pres- 
 
 ence of Philip Schuyler, Esq. to make them 
 happy.” 
 
 General Gates was ordered to Albany. Im- 
 mediately Mrs. Schuyler, with that courtesy and 
 nobility of mind which characterized her acts 
 during this trying period, invited General Gates 
 to stop at her house. He was accompanied 
 by his secretary Jonathan Trumbull, arriving 
 
 150 
 
THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 
 
 after a journey of between seven and eight days 
 by sloop. “ The General landed in the even- 
 ing,” Trumbull writes, “ and went immediately 
 to visit General Schuyler whom we found with 
 his family just seated at supper. I was much 
 struck with the elegant style of everything I 
 saw.” The next morning, they started for the 
 North. Kumor, however, was not altogether 
 correct. General Schuyler was still in com- 
 mand. Ticonderoga was to be provisioned and 
 reinforced, money to be raised to pay the troops 
 on his own recognizance, Congress failing to 
 provide, and the approach of Burgoyne through 
 the thickets and across the bridgeless streams, 
 to be checked by disputing every inch of ground, 
 and making it impassable for his artillery. All 
 these duties left but little time for military 
 politics, which were none the less active. “ I 
 will find elbow room at Albany,” Burgoyne 
 consoled himself, as his army painfully made 
 its way through the obstructed defiles and over 
 the tortuous roads. Albany realized its danger. 
 The army being out of ammunition, General 
 Schuyler appealed to the citizens, who stripped 
 the lead from their roofs and windows to make 
 into bullets for their defence. The mournful 
 battle of Oriskany brought new dangers from 
 St. Leger and his Indians. The murder of 
 Jane McCrea struck terror to every household. 
 
 151 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 It is an old story, and has been told in many 
 languages with many accompaniments of ro- 
 mantic detail. Nothing, however, can add to 
 the pathos of the simple facts. 
 
 Jane McCrea was the daughter of a Scotch 
 Presbyterian minister of Jersey City, then visit- 
 ing Mrs. McNeill, a Tory friend near Fort 
 Edward. She was betrothed to one of the Tory 
 youth of the neighborhood, Lieutenant Jones, at 
 that time with Burgoyne’s army. On the ap- 
 proach of the British troops, her brother, a 
 patriot, sent for her to come to Albany ; but 
 in the hope of meeting her lover she delayed, 
 Mrs. McNeill, her friend, being a cousin of 
 General Fraser, commanding a corps with Bur- 
 goyne. On the morning of July 27th, a negro 
 boy belonging to the house saw some Indians 
 hiding among the bushes. He gave the alarm, 
 and the two women with the negro nurse and 
 the children fled to the cellar. Here the 
 Indians found them, the negro woman and the 
 children in the darkness escaping detection. 
 With the two women, the Indians started for 
 Burgoyne’s camp. Finding they were pursued 
 by a rescue party from the fort, Jenny was 
 placed on a horse in waiting, and Mrs. McNeill, 
 dragged away by her captors to a safe distance, 
 was stripped to her chemise and led to the 
 British camp. The fate of Jenny was soon 
 
 152 
 
TEE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 
 
 learned by the return of the savages, holding 
 for ransom her bleeding scalp. Her body was 
 found by the Americans lying naked under the 
 old pine-tree near Fort Edward, which so long 
 as it stood recorded the numerous pilgrimages 
 made to the melancholy spot. In 1826, the 
 body of Jane McCrea was taken up and rein- 
 terred, followed by a long train of young men 
 and women with touching funeral ceremonies. 
 She now lies beside the body of her friend, Mrs. 
 McNeill. Her lover purchased her scalp, and 
 deserting the army retired to Canada, where 
 he lived to old age, avoiding as far as possible 
 all communication with his fellow creatures. 
 
 The excitement at Albany over the murder 
 of Jane McCrea was intense. The roads were 
 filled with fleeing households, among them, suf- 
 fering terrible privations, Eliza Ann Bleeker, 
 the poetess, with her children, one dying by the 
 way. The country home at Saratoga lay in 
 the path of the army. Catherine Schuyler, 
 always unobtrusive when not called upon for 
 action, had the quiet determination and execu- 
 tive capacity of a trained and orderly mind. 
 Saratoga was filled with things dear to her 
 housekeeper’s heart. These she determined to 
 rescue before the army arrived. Putting aside 
 entreaties and tales of danger, she set out on 
 her perilous journey from Albany, accompanied 
 
 153 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 by only one armed man. On the road she met 
 the fugitives, the murder of Jane McCrea on 
 every lip, and each entreating her to turn back, 
 for Mrs. Schuyler was known to every one. 
 “ A general’s wife should not know fear,” she 
 answered, and pressed on. 
 
 Saratoga was in its summer luxuriance. It 
 perhaps never looked fairer to its mistress’s 
 eye than now. On the flats below, lay the rich 
 fields of ripening grain. General Schuyler had 
 warned her not to allow anything of value to fall 
 into the hands of the British troops. She de- 
 termined to fire the fields. Taking with her a 
 negro to wield the torch, she descended to the 
 flats below. Here the black’s courage failed 
 him. “ Very well, if you will not do it, I must 
 do it myself.” While he clung to her, crying, 
 “ Missy, don’t, Missy, don’t,” she flung the blaz- 
 ing torches right and left among the grain, and 
 the labor of months was destroyed. There is 
 an engraving of this incident, after a painting 
 by Leutze, which occasionally drifts into view. 
 The painting cannot be traced. With her val- 
 uables Mrs. Schuyler retook her journey and 
 arrived safely at Albany. But there were 
 other trials in store, and borne with the same 
 composure of mind. Three days after the 
 battle of Bennington, General Schuyler was 
 about to mount his horse to take charge of the 
 
 154 
 
THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 
 
 troops going in defence of Fort Schuyler, when 
 General Gates arrived, presenting an order 
 from Congress directing the command of the 
 army to be turned over to himself. 
 
 The evacuation of Ticonderoga by St. Clair 
 had assisted the intriguers against General 
 Schuyler in Congress and without. Of these 
 he had been warned by John Jay, William 
 Duer, and Gouverneur Morris in a characteris- 
 tic bit of advice. “ You know Congress like 
 an hysterical woman wants cordials. Write 
 truths without making any reflections of your 
 own,” alluding to the General’s strictures on 
 the supreme authority for its treatment of Dr. 
 Stringer in the medical department, he being 
 the family physician who, having brought into 
 the world General Schuyler’s thriving family, 
 had earned gratitude thereby. 
 
 The supreme virtue of good taste has rarely 
 had more perfect illustration than in these try- 
 ing events. Turning to General Gates, the 
 retiring commander put his knowledge of the 
 condition and the resources of the army into 
 his successor’s hands, adding : “I have done 
 all that could be done so far as the means were 
 in my power to injure the enemy and to inspire 
 confidence in the soldiers of our own army, 
 and I flatter myself with some success ; but the 
 palm of victory is denied me and it is left to 
 
 1 55 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 you, general, to reap the fruits of my labors. I 
 will not fail, however, to second your views ; 
 and my devotion to my country will cause me 
 with alacrity to obey your orders.” To Con- 
 gress he wrote : “ I am sensible of the indig- 
 
 nity of being ordered from the command of 
 the army when an engagement must soon take 
 place,” but to Washington lie adds: “I shall 
 go on doing my duty and endeavoring to de- 
 serve your esteem.” Of this scene, Wilkinson 
 writes, “ I loved Gates but I loved justice bet- 
 ter and my heart bled for Schuyler obliged to 
 resign the fruits of his labors and sorrowfully 
 lay down his command.” 
 
 At Albany the indignity was keenly felt, but 
 no expression was allowed to assert itself above 
 the general welfare, now of supreme importance. 
 The story of the battle of Saratoga is too well 
 known to require repetition here. “ The even- 
 ing before the battle,” wrote one of the Hes- 
 sian officers, “ Schuyler’s home was illuminated 
 with singing and laughter and the jingling of 
 glasses. There Burgoyne was seated with 
 merry companions at a dainty supper at which 
 the champagne was flowing.” On the next day 
 the house and mills were burned by the British 
 commander on the pretext that they sheltered 
 the American troops from the fire of his artil- 
 lery. With Burgoyne’s army were a number 
 156 
 
THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 
 
 of the wives of officers. Among them was 
 Lady Harriet Ackland, the sister of that high- 
 spirited Lady Susan O’Brien, who had eloped 
 with the actor and visited Johnson Hall a few 
 years before. Another was the Baroness Ried- 
 esel, the wife of the Commander of the Hano- 
 verian troops in Burgoyne’s army. Lady Har- 
 riet Ackland was the wife of a major of 
 grenadiers, who was wounded and captured, and 
 her story is full of romance. It is worth relat- 
 ing here that Major Ackland’s gratitude for 
 the kindness he and his wife then received 
 ultimately caused his death, since he was killed 
 in a duel for speaking in defence of the Ameri- 
 cans after his return home. 
 
 The Baroness Riedesel is the most interest- 
 ing historian that the battle has produced, and 
 with her account we have something to do. 
 General Schuyler remained with the army after 
 he was superseded by Gates, but his citizen’s 
 clothes denoted the absence of rank. It is a 
 pleasure here to recount Baroness Riedesel’s 
 simple narrative : — 
 
 “Mv husband sent a message for me to come 
 over to him with my children. I seated myself 
 once more in my dear caleche and then rode through 
 the American camp. As I passed I observed, and 
 this was a great comfort to me, that no one eyed 
 me with looks of resentment, but they all greeted 
 157 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 ns, and even showed compassion in their counte- 
 nances at the sight of a woman with small children. 
 I was I confess it afraid to go over to the enemy, 
 as it was quite a new sensation to me. When 
 I drew near the tents a handsome man approached 
 and met me, took my children from the caleclie, 
 and hugged and kissed them, which affected me 
 almost to tears. ‘You tremble,’ he said, addressing 
 me, ‘be not afraid.’ ‘No,’ I answered, ‘You seem so 
 kind and tender to my children it inspires me with 
 courage.’ He now led me to the tent of General 
 Gates, where I found General Burgoyne and Phil- 
 lips, who were on a friendly footing with the 
 former. Burgoyne now said to me, ‘ Never mind. 
 Now all your sorrows have an end.’ I answered 
 that I should be reprehensible to have any cares as 
 he had none; and I was pleased to see him on such 
 a friendly footing with General Gates. 
 
 “The same gentleman who had received me so 
 kindly now came to me and said, ‘You will be 
 embarassed to eat with all these gentlemen; come 
 with your children to my tent, where I will pre- 
 pare you a frugal dinner and give it to you with 
 a free will.’ I said, ‘You are certainly a hus- 
 band and a father you have shown me so much 
 kindness.’ 
 
 “I now found that he was General Schuyler. 
 He treated me with excellent smoked tongue, beef- 
 steaks, potatoes and good bread and butter. I never 
 could have wished to eat a better dinner; I was 
 content; I saw all around me were so likewise; 
 
 158 
 
THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 
 
 and, what was better than all my husband was 
 out of danger. 
 
 “When we had dined he told me that his resi- 
 dence was in Albany, and that General Burgoyne 
 intended to honor him as a guest, and invited 
 myself and my children to do likewise. I asked my 
 husband how to act; and he told me to accept the 
 invitation As it was two days journey there he 
 advised me to go to a place which was three hours 
 distant. 
 
 “Some days after this we arrived at Albany; 
 where we so often wished ourselves; but we did 
 not enter it as we wished ourselves — victors. We 
 were received by the good General Schuyler, his 
 wife and daughters, not as enemies but as kind 
 friends; and they treated us with the most marked 
 politeness, as they did General Burgoyne who had 
 caused their beautifully finished house to be burned. 
 In fact they all behaved like persons of exalted 
 minds, who determined to bury all recollections of 
 their own injuries in contemplation of our misfor- 
 tunes. General Burgoyne was struck with General 
 Schuyler’s generosity, and said to him, ‘ You show 
 us great kindness, though I have done you so much 
 injury.’ ‘That was the fate of war,’ replied the 
 brave man. ‘Let us say no more about it.’ ” 
 
 General Burgoyne’s brief testimony is no 
 less convincing. 
 
 ‘ ‘ The first person I saw after the convention was 
 signed was General Schuyler. I expressed my 
 159 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 regret at the event which had happened, and the 
 reasons which had occasioned it. He desired me to 
 think no more about it; said the occasion justified 
 it, according to the rules and principles of war and 
 he should have done the same. He did more he 
 sent an aide de camp to conduct me to Albany in 
 order as he expressed it to procure me better quar- 
 ters than a stranger might be able to find. This 
 gentleman conducted me to a very elegant house 
 and, to my great surprise, introduced me to Mrs. 
 Schuyler and her family; and in this house I re- 
 mained during my whole stay in Albany, with 
 a table of twenty covers for me and my friends, 
 and every demonstration of hospitality.” 
 
 That nobility of mind and distinguished 
 courtesy, remarked by every historian and 
 traveller who has related these incidents, would 
 have been ineffective but for the social general- 
 ship of the mistress of the household, suddenly 
 obliged to call upon all the resources of her 
 household to entertain a company of such 
 quality and such size. “ Generals Burgoyne 
 and Riedesel are all here with their retinues,” 
 writes Richard Yarick, the aide who accom- 
 panied them to Albany, “ and they give Mrs. 
 Schuyler no small trouble. The former’s des- 
 patches are not yet completed. On Saturday 
 he mentioned to Mrs. Schuyler with tears in 
 his eyes, his situation, and that he had re- 
 160 
 
THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 
 
 ceived so much civility from you, and again 
 from Mrs. Schuyler, whose property he had 
 destroyed, but pleaded that he thought it ne- 
 cessary to save the army. He behaves with 
 great politeness.” This politeness under the 
 circumstances seems scarcely surprising. But 
 Burgoyne had an unenviable reputation among 
 the housewives, according to Mrs. Abigail 
 Adams, who tells how he spoiled mahogany 
 tables of her friends by cutting up meat oil 
 them, and exposed their best damask curtains 
 to the rain. 
 
 There are other troubles and annoyances, not 
 historic perhaps but important to the economy 
 of the household, and pertain to these hospi- 
 talities. Varick writes : “ The riflemen and 
 Light Infantry encamped on the hill back of 
 the house render the tenure on which the 
 potatoes are held exceedingly precarious. 
 General Burgoyne’s suite and visitors have en- 
 tirely discomposed the economy of the family 
 and have given no small trouble to Mrs. 
 Schuyler. They will remain until Wednes- 
 day.” Shortly after, another letter adds, “ Mary 
 is much at a loss to know what to do with the 
 cows, which are daily milked bj r some rascals 
 before the men get to them which she sends 
 for the purpose.” Twenty visitors and “ras- 
 cals ” stealing the milk ! 
 
 11 161 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 To these details the Marquis de Chastellux 
 adds other interesting information concerning: 
 a visit which finds no parallel in the history 
 of war. 
 
 “Burgoyne was extremely well received by Mrs 
 Schuyler and her little family. He was lodged 
 in the best apartment in the house. An excel- 
 lent supper was served him in the evening, the 
 honors of which were done with so much grace, 
 that he was affected even to tears, and could not 
 help saying with a deep sigh, ‘ Indeed this is 
 doing too much for a man who has ravaged their 
 lands, and burnt their home.’ The next morning 
 he was reminded of his misfortunes by an incident 
 that would have amused any one else. His bed 
 was prepared in a large room, but as he had a 
 numerous suite several mattresses were laid on 
 the floor for some officers to sleep near him, Schuy- 
 lers second son, a little fellow of seven years old 
 very arch and forward as all the American children 
 are, but very amiable, running about the house all 
 morning opened the door and seeing all the Eng- 
 lish collected shut it after him exclaiming ‘ Ye are 
 all my prisoners.’ This innocent cruelty rendered 
 them more melancholy than before.” 
 
 There were other innocent prattlers in the 
 house recorded by Walter Rutherford, whose 
 conversation reflects some light on the hopes that 
 lured the Hessians to ally themselves with what 
 162 
 
THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 
 
 was not expected to be a losing cause. With the 
 Baroness Riedesel were two little girls, Caro- 
 line and Frederica. Impressed with the ele- 
 gance of the house and its surroundings, doubt- 
 less the more so after the privations of camp 
 and the miseries they have passed through, the 
 eldest girl, twitching at her mother’s sleeve, 
 exclaimed, “ Mother, mother, is this the palace 
 father was to have when he came to America ? ” 
 It would be interesting to have a familiar record 
 of these little Hanoverians and the irrepressible 
 Van Rensselaer, whose pranks diversify the 
 correspondence of the General’s aides, but the 
 details so far as they are known come almost 
 altogether from the foreigners, the family cor- 
 respondence being singularly restrained. Six 
 years later, on the eve of the return of General 
 Riedesel to Germany, he expresses once more, 
 in declining a visit to Saratoga in June, his 
 thanks for the civilities his family and him- 
 self then received, with the hope of returning 
 them in Germany. 
 
 Of all the battles of the Revolution none has 
 excited such widespread interest. For many 
 years the field of Saratoga was the pilgrimage 
 of every distinguished visitor to this country, 
 and the host and hostess have become insepar- 
 ably connected with the first brilliant triumph 
 of the American arms. Chastellux, Brissot de 
 
 163 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Warville, and de Rocliefoucauld-Liancourt have 
 each left interesting records of their visits and 
 of the hospitality they experienced. The visit 
 of Chastellux was made in winter, and illus- 
 trates the differences of travel at the time. 
 He was accompanied by Count de Hamas and 
 Viscount de Noailles, fresh from fiddling for 
 the Philadelphia girls to dance, after listening 
 to Miss Shippen sing and Miss Rutledge play 
 on the harpsichord. Count de Damas had 
 preceded the rest of the party, which was 
 stopped by the ice and had to put up at some 
 wretched ale-house while he was enjoying the 
 comfortable cheer at General Schuyler’s. At 
 length they reached the town. “ Chevalier 
 was waiting with the General’s sledge,” Chas- 
 tellux continues, “ and we were conveyed 
 speedily into a handsome salon near a good 
 fire with Mr Schuyler, his wife and daughters. 
 Whilst we were warming ourselves dinner was 
 served to which every one did honor, as well as 
 to the Madeira which was excellent and made 
 us forget the rigors of the season and the 
 fatigues of the journey. General Schuyler’s 
 family is composed of Mrs Hamilton, his second 
 daughter, who has a mild agreeable counten- 
 ance ; of Miss Peggy Schuyler, whose features 
 are animated and striking ; of another charm- 
 ing girl only eight years old and of three boys, 
 
 164 
 
THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA 
 
 the eldest of whom is fifteen and are the hand- 
 somest children you can see.” 
 
 The charming girl of eight was Cornelia, 
 who was added to the family in the year of In- 
 dependence, and whose father piously records 
 her birth with the prayer “ Bless her 0 Lord 
 and give her Peace.” The third son was named 
 Van Rensselaer, and at the time was sis years 
 old. The French visitors stayed several days at 
 Albany, the Viscount and de Chastellux going 
 over the details of the campaign with General 
 Schuyler in the library, while the younger 
 members stayed in the drawing-room with Mrs. 
 Schuyler and her daughters, who we have 
 reason to know were lively company. 
 
 The house at Saratoga had been rebuilt im- 
 mediately after the battle. A detail from 
 Gates’s army had been set to work. Henry 
 Livingston, aide-de-camp, writes of sending 
 down blacksmiths under guard to ensure them 
 getting there. There are hurried calls for 
 chimney irons and other necessary articles. 
 In fifteen days, we are told, the trees were cut 
 down, the lumber sawed out, and the house 
 erected. A new record of hospitality was 
 begun, and also a new record of perils. Two 
 years before the visit of the Frenchmen Gov- 
 ernor Clinton tells of spending two evenings 
 at Saratoga, the family well though somewhat 
 
 165 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 in fear, “ however they had taken precautions 
 against the worst.” The French visitors now 
 set out in five sledges, General Schuyler accom- 
 panying them. The Hudson was frozen over, 
 and for a mile they went on the ice, when 
 Major Popham, who was escorting them, had 
 the misfortune to have his horses break through 
 the ice. This was not an unusual occurrence. 
 General Knox, once visiting the Schuylers, 
 suffered the same calamity. The method of 
 rescue by poles under the horses and prying 
 them out of the water was the same, and full 
 of interest to the Frenchman, who describes it 
 in detail. They first made their way through 
 the dense pine forest to Schenectady, then 
 celebrated for its Indian massacre, and its 
 name, which baffled all the penmen of the day. 
 From thence they returned to Saratoga, where 
 fires were set roaring, and the travellers were 
 up until all hours in agreeable conversation to 
 the clinking of glasses, “ for,” and Chastellux 
 makes this strange statement, “ General Schuy- 
 ler like many European husbands is still better 
 company when away from his family.” 
 
 166 
 
XI 
 
 CAMPAIGNING AT MORRISTOWN 
 
 It is agreeable to discover how much gayety 
 accompanied the privations of the Bevolution. 
 If our forefathers bled and suffered, they also 
 danced and feasted. Nor were our foremothers 
 less light of heart and foot. Our own civil war 
 was a gloomy function compared with the war 
 of ’76. The military letters of the young aides- 
 de-camp are enlivened with the gayety and 
 gossip of the war. Even amid the gloom of 
 Valley Forge there were tea drinkings from 
 cabin to cabin, dinners of compliment to the 
 visiting foreigners, and rallies in barracks 
 “ when everybody who could sing, sang.” No 
 sooner was the army in winter quarters when 
 the ladies began to appear. Babies were born 
 in camp ; children died and were buried there. 
 Mrs. Washington did not delay to make her 
 appearance at Cambridge at the beginning of 
 the war in a coach and four, with postilions in 
 scarlet and white. Lucy Knox followed the 
 camp-fire as certainly as the drum. Mrs. 
 
 167 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Greene always enlivened headquarters, usually 
 with a pretty girl or two in her train. Mrs. 
 Gates with her English riding habit, whose 
 mannish cut at first scandalized the camp a 
 little, would be there with Bob, the only well- 
 beloved son. 
 
 Here is the brief record of a week at Morris- 
 town : — 
 
 “Yesterday a Christmas dinner in compliment 
 to the Washingtons at the Chevaliers. Next 
 Thursday he gives a ball to thirty ladies; tomorrow 
 another at Mrs Holkers. His Excellency intends 
 having concerts once a week at his house, he enter- 
 taining generally with elegance. I have seen him 
 wear cloathes of the Countess de Lauzun work, 
 which does that lady great honor. Last Thursday 
 the Assemblies commenced & there are private 
 dances one a week; Tomorrow there is one at the 
 City Tavern.” 
 
 There is a record of a dinner given by 
 General Knox at Pluckemin in honor of the 
 French alliance. It was served at four, and 
 for dessert the servant strewed the cloth with 
 cherries and strawberries. In the evening 
 there were symbolic fireworks, and after those 
 a ball in which General Washington led out 
 Mrs. Knox. At West Point the garrison with 
 General Malcolm, and notably his sprightly 
 wife, who led the charmed hosts to visit Mc- 
 168 
 
CAMPAIGNING AT MORRISTOWN 
 
 Dougall in prison, was distinguished for the 
 beauty of its entertainments. Engineer Yille- 
 franche of the French army for one of the fetes 
 built an arbor sis hundred feet long and thirty 
 feet wide out of cedar-trees cut for the purpose. 
 These were roofed with green branches, and the 
 forty-eight pillars that supported it were sur- 
 rounded by stacked muskets and wreathed with 
 cedar. In this arbor tables were set for feast- 
 ing. Afterward there was a dance on the 
 grass, the Commander-in-Chief and the large 
 but light-footed Mrs. Knos dancing down twenty 
 couples. 
 
 The most brilliant social season of the army 
 of the Revolution was at Morristown, the 
 winter of ’79 and ’80. It was a pleasant region, 
 as we know it to-day, and the society of the 
 county made a fine background for the mili- 
 tary and foreign notables brought there by 
 the exigencies of the war. At Baskingridge 
 was the stately home of Lord Stirling, whose 
 daughters, Lady Kitty and Lady Mary, were 
 among the belles of the time. Near by was 
 Liberty Hall, the home of Governor Livingston 
 and his bevy of girls, whose names recur in 
 every story of camp gayety. Sarah, the eldest, 
 was married to John Jay, then Minister at 
 Madrid, and in the lively letters of her sister 
 Kitty we are kept informed of the doings in 
 
 169 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 camp. In the same neighborhood was the 
 home of the rich merchant John Morton, 
 whose daughter Eliza afterward married Josiah 
 Quincy in great state, and of whose younger 
 brother, Washington, we are yet to hear more. 
 Petted by everybody was Susan Boudinot, 
 a charming girl of fourteen, the daughter of 
 Elias Boudinot, “ my one ewe lamb,” as her 
 father called her. Nor must be forgotten her 
 aunt, Annis Stockton, who read Cowley and 
 Young’s Night Thoughts, who quoted Dods- 
 worth and Milton, who owned engravings of 
 Claude, and who wrote poetry herself about 
 the victories and virtues of the Commander-in- 
 Chief, which brought out some of his most 
 interesting correspondence. There were also 
 the daughters of Abraham Lott, “ four or five 
 young ladies of delicate sentiments and polite 
 education,” as described by General Greene to 
 his wife. 
 
 “ General Green is at Arnolds, General Knox 
 at Duchmans, General Smallwood at Kembles, 
 General Gates at Chatham,” writes Kitty Liv- 
 ingston to her sister. Headquarters was at 
 the old Ford House. Mrs. Washington, who 
 once said that she always heard the first and 
 last guns of every campaign, arrived in her 
 usual state, but so plainly attired that when 
 she first alighted from her coach, her dignity 
 
 170 
 
CAMPAIGNING AT MORRISTOWN 
 
 was mistaken. The ladies of the neighbor- 
 hood made haste to pay their duty. Arrayed 
 in their finest clothes they called in a body. 
 They found “ the Generals Lady ” in a speckled 
 homespun apron, knitting stockings. She re- 
 marked that while their husbands were exam- 
 ples of patriotism, all wives should be examples 
 of industry. In illustration she showed them 
 a dress she had made out of the ravellings of 
 an old brocaded red satin set of chairs, woven 
 in alternate stripes of red silk and white cotton. 
 She was not much of a talker, but liked to tell 
 of her home life and the sixteen spinning wheels 
 she kept running. 
 
 “ Headquarters was always the last place for 
 mirth,” writes Captain Ben Walker to General 
 Steuben. “ You know with what reserve the 
 General conducts himself with those in much 
 higher station than myself, will hardly suppose 
 he enters into conversation with me except at 
 table. His inquiries there are confined to ask- 
 ing, 4 Have you heard from the Baron to-day ? ’ ” 
 He gives an amusing account of his games of 
 chess with Mrs. Washington in the evening, 
 “ one thinking too much of her home ; the 
 other making verses to himself during the 
 play and waiting for a chance to slip away and 
 seek some neighbor’s daughter pour passer le 
 temps'' This was at West Point. At Mor- 
 
 171 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 ristown the household was more brilliantly 
 organized. Here the two aides-de-camp were 
 Alexander Hamilton, young, handsome, bril- 
 liant, with the complexion of a girl and the 
 distinguished air of a man of the world, and 
 Tench Tilghman, the gallant young Marylander, 
 something of whose social qualities we already 
 know. These young men occupied the ends of 
 the table, the General and Mrs. Washington 
 seated opposite one another in the middle. 
 There were almost always guests disposed be- 
 tween, and the burden of the entertainment 
 was undertaken by the young men. Another 
 of this group of young men was William Col- 
 fax, the captain of Washington’s body-guard, 
 a company of two hundred and fifty picked 
 men. He was a fine young fellow, for whom 
 Mrs. Washington showed her partiality by 
 knitting him a linen bag for his queue, at that 
 time an object of much solicitude to young- 
 men. He was singled out also in another di- 
 rection. It was not a long distance over the 
 Jersey hills to Colonel Arent Schuyler’s, where 
 a dark-eyed Hester awaited his coming. They 
 were subsequently married, and thus became 
 the ancestors of Schuyler Colfax, afterwards 
 Vice-President of the United States. A fourth 
 was a slender, fiery-eyed stripling who had 
 already distinguished himself in Canada. His 
 
CAMPAIGNING AT MORRISTOWN 
 
 name was Aaron Burr, whose father, the Rev. 
 Aaron Burr, and mother, the beautiful Esther 
 Edwards, lived at the College of New Jersey, 
 of which the Reverend Aaron was president, 
 in Prince Town village. But “ the bright par- 
 ticular star was Hamilton,” writes a contem- 
 porary. The news of the American camp 
 drifted over to New York, then in the hands of 
 the British, and was commented on in kind in 
 Rivington’s “ Gazette ” : — 
 
 “Mrs Washington has a mottled tom-cat (which 
 she calls in a complimentary way, Hamilton) with 
 thirteen stripes around the tail, and its flaunting 
 suggested to Congress the thirteen stripes for the 
 flag.” 
 
 The military family was reinforced by the 
 presence of the Duke de Lauzun with his six 
 hundred hussars, picked men, in uniforms the 
 splendor of which gave many a young Conti- 
 nental a jealous pang. Nor behind these in 
 splendor and gallantry was Baron Steuben, 
 gay, witty, covered with foreign orders, speak- 
 ing delightfully bad English, and the personifi- 
 cation of a social Mars. If he recommends a 
 boarding-house lie is apt to add, “ vous trouvez 
 une jeune veuve charmante,” or some young 
 lady “ with a beautiful waist, a reason the more 
 for you to hurry your departure.” To him his 
 173 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 aides confide their love affairs, confident in the 
 advice of such a veteran. 
 
 For a brief time the lion of the camp was a 
 Spanish grandee, Don Juan Mirralles, who had 
 come over with the French Minister, M. Gerard, 
 to visit the new nation. All the resources of 
 the camp were brought forward to do him 
 honor. The ball went on at Morris’s Hotel, 
 but the guest could not be present, being laid 
 up with a cold on his lungs. It proved fatal, 
 and he himself furnished in his funeral a finer 
 pageant than the review. 
 
 “The corpse was dressed in rich state and ex- 
 posed to public view, as is customary in Europe. 
 The coffin was most splendid and stately, lined 
 throughout with cambric, and covered on the out- 
 side with black velvet, ornamented in a superb 
 manner. The top of the coffin was removed to dis- 
 play the pomp and grandeur with which the body 
 was decorated. It was in splendid full dress, con- 
 sisting of scarlet suit embroidered with rich gold 
 lace, a three cornered gold laced hat, and a genteel 
 cued wig, white silk stockings, large diamond knee 
 and shoe buckles; a profusion of diamond rings dec- 
 orated the fingers, and from a superb gold watch set 
 with diamonds several rich seals were suspended. His 
 Excellency General Washington with several other 
 general officers and members of Congress attended 
 the funeral and walked as chief mourners. The 
 174 
 
CAMPAIGNING AT MORRISTOWN 
 
 other officers of the army and numerous respectable 
 citizens formed a splendid procession extending 
 about a mile. The pall bearers were six field offi- 
 cers, and the coffin was borne on the shoulders of 
 artillerymen in full uniform. Minute guns were 
 fired during the procession which greatly increased 
 the solemnity.” 
 
 There seems to have been a general sense of 
 satisfaction that the struggling country could 
 perform the last rites of hospitality in so fine 
 a manner. But the putting away of so much 
 splendor under ground at the time of great 
 physical suffering among the troops carried 
 a certain risk, and a guard of soldiers was 
 detailed to protect the grave. 
 
 There was deeper sorrow when General and 
 Mrs. Knox buried their little daughter Julia, 
 another of the large family of little ones that 
 Mrs. Knox, notwithstanding her splendid 
 vitality, lost in following the army. At Mor- 
 ristown also that winter, Baby Nat Greene was 
 born, the father of the General’s biographer, who 
 still lives a contemporary at ninety-six. It 
 was a cold winter. Teams drove from Staten 
 Island to New York and Elizabeth on the ice. 
 This easy travel facilitated sudden dashes 
 between the two armies. Lord Stirling stole 
 over to Staten Island one night and captured 
 some sorely needed blankets and stores from 
 
 175 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 the enemy. In retaliation the British made a 
 sally, and captured a picket guard consisting 
 of a major and forty men. Frequently at the 
 sound of night alarms, the ladies had to draw 
 the covers over their heads while their rooms 
 were filled with armed men mustered in 
 defence at their windows, and the snow drifted 
 across the room. 
 
 In the same measure, however, the snow 
 and ice inspired sleighing parties between 
 hospitable country houses and camp. There 
 were subscription balls in the commis- 
 sary store house, at which Washington in 
 black velvet, the foreign commanders in all 
 their gold lace, General Steuben being par- 
 ticularly resplendent, and the ladies in 
 powdered hair, stiff brocades, and high heels, 
 made a brilliant company. The Tories in 
 town heal'd of these gayeties. Rivington’s 
 “ Gazette ” is moved to say, “ 50 females it is 
 said were picked up for these dances, and his 
 departure (de Lauzun) will leave scarcely a 
 gill of taffie in the camp of the pious friend 
 of St. Patrick.” At the same time they were 
 having their own amusements in the Tory 
 society of New York, where Major Andrd was 
 writing satirical poems at the expense of the 
 Provincials, which all the town was praising, 
 and Miss Rebecca Franks of Philadelphia and 
 
 176 
 
CAMPAIGNING AT MORRISTOWN 
 
 the Van Home girls were coquetting in fine 
 style with the Red Coats. 
 
 One of the most hospitable houses in camp 
 was that of Surgeon General Cochrane. His 
 jovial temper amused the commanding gen- 
 eral, and his care of Lafayette during the 
 almost fatal illness he suffered at Fishkill the 
 previous year cemented their friendship. At 
 their convivial meetings the doctor had a 
 favorite song, of which the refrain was 
 “ Bones. ” The name attached to him. “ The 
 good doctor Bones,” Lafayette addresses him. 
 To him Washington wrote the only playful 
 letter of which there is any record, inviting 
 Mrs. Cochrane and her daughter Mrs. Walter 
 Livingston to dine with him on his meagre 
 camp fare at West Point. Mrs. Cochrane, it 
 will be remembered, was the widowed sister 
 Gertrude of Philip Schuyler. Since their mar- 
 riage they had lived at New Brunswick, and 
 there are numerous records of friendly visiting 
 and household exchange. Mrs. Schuyler is 
 now sending to New Brunswick “ a barrel of 
 rusk ” from the ample Dutch oven at Saratoga, 
 and Mrs. Cochrane despatching a “keg of 
 pickled Jersey peaches ” to Albany. 
 
 General Schuyler even before his vindication 
 by court martial in the matter of the surrender 
 of Ticonderoga had been vindicated by his 
 
 12 177 
 

 CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 neighbors, who elected him to Congress. Mrs. 
 Schuyler with her youngest girls had accom- 
 panied the General to Philadelphia. The boys 
 were presumably at Kingston, under the care 
 of a famous schoolmaster of the day, John 
 Addison. At least he consents “to take the 
 two sons of General Schuyler under his care 
 if they will be content to lodge at the pious, 
 cleanly, and careful Widow Ellings who will 
 give them in lieu of tea and sugar, sepawn 
 and sweet milk in the morning, as good if not 
 better for boys of their age,” and in a subse- 
 quent letter expects to receive them. Miss 
 Betsey had stayed at home, coming later with 
 Mrs. Carter. General Heath at the Highlands 
 announces that they had passed the ferry one 
 November morning, and that he had sent down 
 an assistant quartermaster to render them 
 every assistance in his power. As the river 
 below was in the hands of the enemy, the 
 journey was cross country inland. Writing to 
 General Steuben about some wolf skins he had 
 promised to secure for him, General Schuyler 
 commends to “ one of the most gallant men in 
 camp ” his daughter Elizabeth, the bearer of 
 the letter, who was going to Morristown to visit 
 her aunt, Mrs. Cochrane. General Steuben, 
 however, was off on an inspection tour, and 
 the letter was opened by his aide-de-camp, 
 178 
 
CAMPAIGNING AT MORRISTOWN 
 
 Ben Walker, who sent it to him, deploring 
 that his own shabby coat and hat forbade him 
 taking the General’s place. The advent of 
 Miss Betsey is noticed as an event in the cor- 
 respondence of the time. Miss Kitty Living- 
 ston hastens to remark upon it as an addition 
 to society at Morristown. At headquarters 
 was young Tench Tilghman, who having spent 
 several busy days at Albany in Miss Betsey’s 
 society, regarded himself as an old friend. 
 There was also Alexander Hamilton, whom 
 she had already met in Albany, when he came 
 to arrange about forwarding the prisoners cap- 
 tured at Saratoga. 
 
 The visit of Miss Betsey was fortunately 
 prolonged by the request of the Commander- 
 in-Chief to Congress that General Schuyler 
 might come to Morristown as a military 
 adviser. General and Mrs. Schuyler accord- 
 ingly came to Morristown, took a house, and 
 established another centre of gayety. The 
 renewal of the acquaintance of Colonel Hamil- 
 ton and Miss Schuyler soon assumed a form 
 sure to be remarked in camp. The young 
 officer’s evenings were usually spent at the 
 Schuyler headquarters. Of one of these even- 
 ings Judge Ford, at whose father’s house 
 Washington and consequently his military 
 secretary lived, relates this story. He was 
 
 179 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 then a lad, and in order that he might play in 
 the village after the guard was posted, the 
 General would confide to him the countersign. 
 On this evening he was coming home when he 
 heard the sentinel challenge some one. “ Who 
 comes there? ” The voice that tried to give the 
 word was that of Hamilton. Vainly the young 
 Colonel strove to recall the countersign, as the 
 soldier presented his bayonet. He told who he 
 was, but it had no potency. At last, recognizing 
 young Ford making his tardy way homeward, he 
 called to him and whispered, “ Give me the 
 countersign.” The boy did so, and Hamilton, 
 stepping in front of the sentinel, presented it. 
 The sentinel, who was doubtful of the legality 
 of such proceedings, at last consented to allow 
 the absent-minded young lover to pass. 
 
 Colonel Hamilton pressed and won his suit, 
 and the engagement of two young people of 
 such distinction was announced in every letter 
 sent from camp, where engagements in fact 
 were no novelty. What was thought of it by 
 those most concerned is made clear in the 
 letter of General Schuyler to his future son- 
 in-law: “You cannot, my dear sir, be more 
 happy at the connexion you have made with 
 my family than I am. Until the child of a 
 parent has made a judicious choice, his heart 
 is in continual anxiety ; but this anxiety was 
 180 
 
CAMPAIGNING AT MORRISTOWN 
 
 removed the moment I discovered on whom 
 she had placed her affections. I am pleased 
 with every instance of delicacy in those who 
 are dear to me ; and I think I read your soul 
 on that occasion you mention, I shall therefore 
 only entreat you to consider me as one who 
 wishes in every way to promote your happi- 
 ness ; and I shall. ” These were halcyon days. 
 The Schuylers remained in Morristown until 
 summer. In May there was an imposing 
 review given by General Steuben of the army 
 at Bound Brook, for Chevalier de Luzerne, 
 the new French Minister. All the ladies were 
 there, Mrs. Washington arriving in her coach- 
 and-four; the Generals with their wives and 
 daughters; Mrs. Knox with Betty and Sally 
 Winslow, — “ the younger a lively little hussy 
 Governor Livingston and his family of girls; 
 Lady Kitty and Lady Mary, the daughters of 
 Lord Stirling; and all the neighboring gentry ; 
 Mrs. Schuyler and Mrs. Cochrane, with Miss 
 Betsey wearing doubtless the new head-dress 
 sent her by Mr. John Bonfield from Paris. 
 The description is not given, but it was one 
 adopted by the Queen of France in honor of 
 America, and called “a la Bostonne. ” The 
 review was led by Light Horse Harry Lee, 
 with his legion of Virginians in green and 
 white. Equally prominent was Captain 
 181 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Colfax, with the body-guard of the command- 
 ing general, in blue coats faced with buff, 
 with red waistcoats, buckskin breeches, white 
 belts, and black cocked hats with cockades and 
 bound with white tape. Among the distin- 
 guished company were the soldier priest 
 Muhlenberg, and the bravest of all, to one at 
 least, the boyish Hamilton, with his aristo- 
 cratic features and graceful bearing. After 
 the review the notables and the ladies were 
 entertained by General Steuben at dinner, the 
 host resplendent in the bediamonded decora- 
 tion of the Order of Fidelity given him by the 
 great Frederic, that he commonly wore. 
 
 The summer was fruitful in events. Mrs. 
 Schuyler before returning home went to Phila- 
 delphia to visit her married daughter, as we 
 learn from a letter of General Schuyler: 
 “Mrs. Schuyler proposes a jaunt to Phila- 
 delphia; if she goes I shall accompany her 
 and have the pleasure of seeing you. She 
 joins me in every friendly wish, please to 
 make my respects to your lady and her amiable 
 sisters.” This letter was addressed to Bene- 
 dict Arnold, for whose bravery and conduct 
 at Saratoga the General had great admiration, 
 and possibly some sympathy in the court mar- 
 tial Arnold had just undergone, conscious in 
 his own case how easily charges were made. 
 
 182 
 
CAMPAIGNING AT MORRISTOWN 
 
 The subsequent events, Arnold’s treason and 
 Andre’s capture touched this family closely 
 through Elizabeth’s engagement to Hamilton. 
 Hamilton’s letters to his betrothed at this 
 time are in fact part of the history of the 
 time. “ I had Schuyler’s company last night, ” 
 Arnold writes shortly before, from West Point, 
 where he was in command. 
 
 Hamilton with his chief was breakfasting 
 with Arnold on the morning that the news of 
 Andre’s capture was received. When the 
 certainty of Arnold’s treachery and flight were 
 assured, it was he who conveyed the news to 
 Mrs. Arnold, then in bed upstairs. “It was 
 the most affecting scene I ever witnessed,” he 
 writes to Miss Schuyler. “She for a con- 
 siderable time entirely lost her self-control. 
 The General went up to see her. She up- 
 braided him with being in a plot to murder her 
 child. One moment she raved, another she 
 melted into tears. Sometimes she pressed her 
 infant to her bosom and lamented its fate, 
 occasioned by the imprudence of its father in 
 a manner that would have pierced insensibil- 
 ity itself.” The young aide-de-camp had a 
 heart easily moved, and felt deeply the poign- 
 ancy of the situation. He adds: “Could I 
 forgive Arnold for sacrificing his honor, 
 reputation, duty, I could not forgive him for 
 
 183 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 acting a part that must have forfeited the 
 esteem of so fine a woman. At present she 
 almost forgets his crime in his misfortunes ; 
 and her horror at the guilt of the traitor is 
 lost in her love of the man.” There were 
 other painful moments he transcribes in these 
 letters. Such was his last visit to Andr6 on 
 the day of his execution. “ Poor Andr6 suffers 
 to-day,” he concludes. “Everything that is 
 amiable in fortitude, in delicate sentiments 
 and accomplished manners pleads for him; 
 but hard-hearted policy calls for a sacrifice. 
 ... I urged compliance with Andre’s request 
 to be shot,” he adds, that “his Eliza might 
 not think him unfeeling.” 
 
 The end of the year brought happier mo- 
 ments. The Schuylers were back at Saratoga ; 
 Cornelia had the ague ; the little boys would 
 not obey their grandfather, Colonel John van 
 Reusselaer ; there were more Indian scares, the 
 house was kept in a state of semi-siege ; Gen- 
 eral Schuyler was being talked of for governor. 
 But all these matters were unimportant in 
 comparison with the preparations going for- 
 ward for a certain event. Meanwhile the 
 household was kept informed of all that was 
 going forward in army affairs, varied with 
 such private and pleasant dallying as this from 
 the young lover : — 
 
 184 
 
CAMPAIGNING AT MORRISTOWN 
 
 “I would not have you imagine Miss that I 
 write you so often to gratify your wishes or please 
 your vanity; hut merely to endulge myself, and to 
 comply with that restless propensity of my mind 
 which will not be happy unless I am doing some- 
 thing, in which you are concerned. This may seem 
 a very idle disposition in a philosopher and a 
 soldier; hut I can plead illustrious examples in 
 my justification. Achilles liked to have sacrificed 
 Greece and his glory to a female captive; and 
 Anthony lost the world for a woman. I am very 
 sorry times are so changed as to oblige me to go to 
 antiquity for my apology, but I confess to the dis- 
 grace of the present that I have not been able to 
 find as many who are as far gone as myself in the 
 laudable Zeal of the fair sex. I suspect however that 
 if others knew the charm of my sweetheart as I do, 
 I could have a great number of competitors. I 
 wish I could give you an idea of her. You have 
 no conception of how sweet a girl she is. It is 
 only in my heart that her image is truly drawn. 
 She has a lovely form and still more lovely mind. 
 She is all Goodness, the gentlest, the dearest, the 
 tenderest of her sex — Ah Betsey, how I love her.” 
 
 The marriage of Elizabeth Schuyler and 
 Alexander Hamilton took place December 14, 
 1780, at the family residence in Albany. Out 
 of this family of attractive girls this was the 
 only wedding celebrated there. But so re- 
 markable a fact requires a chapter. 
 
 185 
 
XII 
 
 THE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 The independence of the modern girl seems 
 pale and ineffectual beside that of the daughters 
 of the Revolution. The modern mother has 
 an easy task rearing her children compared 
 with that of the women of ’76, as their diffi- 
 culties are reflected in the correspondence of 
 the day. Freedom was in the air and young 
 aides-de-camp in and out of the house. The 
 careful preparation of a girl of to-day contrasts 
 in an interesting manner with the summary 
 way in which young people then undertook 
 their own careers. This was usually but in 
 one direction. The opportunities except by 
 way of marriage were circumscribed. The 
 romances of the day seized upon their minds 
 as small boys are now possessed by dime 
 novels. Clarissa Harlowe was their concep- 
 tion of a heroine; a post-chaise and moonlight 
 the ideal setting of a marriage. The girl 
 with whom we are acquainted is a prosaic 
 186 
 
THE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 creature compared with the young women we 
 know as ancestors. 
 
 When the little Schuyler girls were standing 
 by their mother’s side learning to read and 
 to hem, Henrietta Moore, the daughter of 
 Sis Henry, climbed over the garrison wall 
 and eloped with a captain in the Royal com- 
 mand. Miss Angelica, who was visiting 
 shortly before at the Government House, 
 although only a girl of ten, must have seen 
 something of the love affair. Even before this 
 time Henry Cruger had sought General 
 Schuyler’s counsel about his own runaway 
 girl. Miss Cruger had eloped with Peter 
 Yan Schaack. General Schuyler’s interests 
 were for the impetuous young people, and 
 he mediated so successfully that the grieved 
 father wrote in reply: — 
 
 “ The approbation of good men is a powerful 
 incentive to virtue. You have expressed the sen- 
 timents of my heart. However happy her presence 
 would make me without her affections I would not 
 want her person, or to assert my legal right to it 
 on conditions that would evermore be secondary 
 to me.” 
 
 These efforts General Schuyler must after- 
 ward have grimly recalled. The gossip of 
 Peggy White’s elopement with Peter Jay 
 
 187 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Munro ; of Susanna Reid, the daughter of the 
 General, and one of the Alexander heiresses, 
 making off with an unknown Dr. Robert- 
 son; and of Harriet Van Rensselaer’s escape 
 by window with her cousin Sol, entertained at 
 times both Albany and New York. Punctuat- 
 ing the military and familiar letters of the 
 period are accounts of similar flittings. “John, 
 I fancyed, had been married some time, but it 
 appears it was only recent,” wrote Dr. 
 Cochrane of his stepson, John Schuyler. In 
 the Schuyler household elopements assumed 
 the virulence of an epidemic. Out of five 
 daughters, four arranged and took charge of 
 their own marriages. As results proved, the 
 wisdom and experience of their parents could 
 have scarcely done better for these hasty 
 young women than they did for themselves, 
 and their example rises to confound the 
 prudent. 
 
 At the same time the anxiety expressed by 
 the father in his letter to Hamilton seems 
 reasonable enough. To the mother, with her 
 many cares, the charge of a large and turbu- 
 lent young family, the confidant of her hus- 
 band’s anxieties, the coadjutor in his business 
 affairs, these important decisions of her strong- 
 willed daughters must have brought some 
 sorrow. It was a period requiring constant 
 188 
 
THE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 watchfulness. Attractive young officers had 
 the run of the house. The services of an 
 aide-de-camp, as they were interpreted, 
 brought him into close relations with his 
 chief and his family. Captain Ben Walker 
 complains of his shabby uniform, and General 
 Steuben sends him another in answer to a 
 request for a cockade, a pair of gloves, and “ 2 
 or 3 yds of hair ribbon.” Captain John 
 Lansing, Jr., acting as aide at Albany, asks 
 his general, who is in New York, to order him 
 a coat of superfine cloth, “ any fashionable 
 color (scarlet excepted).” Captain Ben 
 Walker, in Steuben’s absence, confides even 
 to the revered Washington his love troubles, 
 and receives the somewhat cold-blooded reply, 
 “Women do not die of such trifles. Write to 
 her and add another chapter to her book of 
 sufferings.” Colonel Ned Varick and Colonel 
 Henry Livingston continually record escorting 
 Miss Angelica, Miss Betsey with their mama 
 to and fro between Albany and Saratoga. 
 A deserter is brought in and Miss Betsey, 
 learning that he is a tailor, proposes keeping 
 him as useful in the family. Colonel Varick 
 makes himself essential in the family affairs. 
 Now he is hunting for the curtains of the 
 General’s field bed, and can’t find the key, 
 now transporting garden seeds and cuttings 
 
 189 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 to Saratoga. He has even more important 
 commissions. His sister writes : — 
 
 “ You mention in your last about Miss Schuy- 
 ler’s stays. I ’ve no opportunity to inquire yet, 
 but will get Mr. Elting to do it in the morn- 
 ing.” Another aide, Captain Lewis, is en- 
 trusted to see about Mrs. Schuyler’s silk dresses. 
 Indeed, the only letter of Catherine Schuyler 
 that can now be traced “ begs the favor of Cap- 
 tain Varick to purchase two thousand oysters 
 and to get Mrs. Vernon or somebody that un- 
 derstands it to pickle them.” 
 
 Saratoga for some time served as a garrison 
 with General Starke in command. This was 
 a fine opportunity for the lively young women, 
 who went out with their mother to assist as 
 usual in preparing the winter stores of the 
 orchard and garden and field. Caleb Starke, 
 the General’s son, was in particular very 
 attentive, but with such discretion that he 
 won the approval of the father and mother, 
 who had their own reasons for discrimination 
 in this matter. The General was moved in 
 fact to express his commendation of young 
 Caleb’s behavior to General Starke by let- 
 ter : “With my compliments please advise 
 Major Starke that I feel with pleasure his 
 polite attentions both as it endears him to 
 me, and that such a line of conduct is ever 
 
 190 
 
THE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 attended with happy results in a young 
 gentleman. ” 
 
 Shortly before the battle of Saratoga General 
 Schuyler announced the marriage of his eldest 
 daughter Angelica by letter to his friend 
 William Duer : “ Carter and my eldest daughter 
 ran off and were married on the twenty-third 
 of July. Unacquainted with his family con- 
 nections and situation in life the matter was 
 exceedingly disagreeable and I signified it to 
 them.” William probably recalled, if his 
 correspondent did not, that only the year 
 before Mr. Carter bore to Albany his own 
 letter of introduction to General Schuyler, 
 commending the stranger who “though young 
 in years is an old fashioned english Whig.” 
 However, the deed was done. The situation 
 was alleviated somewhat by the young couple 
 going to the house of the Patroon to be mar- 
 ried. The Patroon was but a young boy, and, 
 as subsequently proved, without prejudice. 
 His mother had married Dominie Westerlo, 
 who succeeded the lamented Frelinghuysen. 
 Thus the elopement had one corner of the 
 family mantle thrown over it. The mystery 
 concerning Carter proved to be alarming only 
 in the fact that it was a mystery. He had 
 left England on account of a duel, assuming 
 the name of Carter for that of John Barker 
 
 191 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Church, which he subsequently resumed. At 
 the time he was Commissary for Rochambeau, 
 and was afterward associated with General 
 Wadsworth in the same department. In this 
 capacity he had the opportunity of amassing a 
 large fortune, and the wayward couple became 
 prominent in the social life of New York, 
 London, and Paris. 
 
 Immediately after their marriage they went 
 to Boston about army affairs. Here they met 
 Madame Riedesel, who has left her impres- 
 sions of the lady’s amiability, and of the zeal 
 with which the young Englishman had espoused 
 the American cause. Amicable relations with 
 the bride’s family were immediately resumed. 
 There were frequent visits back and forth. 
 Betsey and Peggy go to Boston, and Mrs. 
 Carter returns home with them, making the 
 journey in ten days. Again, Mrs. Carter 
 regrets that her mother does not come while 
 the sleighing is so fine. She is a dashing 
 bride, and carries her own spirit and elegance 
 into the commissary itself. Chastellux re- 
 lates: “Mrs Carter, a handsome woman told 
 me that going down to her husbands office in 
 rather elegant undress a farmer who was there 
 on business asked who the young lady was. 
 On being told that it was Mrs Carter, said 
 loud enough for her to hear, 4 A wife and a 
 
 192 
 
THE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 mother has no business to be so well dressed. ’ ” 
 This was at Newport, amid the gayeties of the 
 French occupation. Subsequently they went 
 to Philadelphia, where Catherine Schuyler, as 
 we have seen, contemplated visiting her that 
 winter when army affairs brought her husband 
 to Morristown. In due time Mrs. Carter 
 brought their first grandchild to the Albany 
 home. The boy, according to the family cus- 
 tom, was named for his grandfather Philip. 
 She was at Albany when the attempt was made 
 to capture General Schuyler in his home in 
 the summer of 1782, and unconsciously facili- 
 tated the attempt. There had been several 
 previous efforts by agents of the British to 
 capture General Schuyler, both at Saratoga 
 and in Albany, owing to his influence with the 
 Indian allies. The house was guarded by 
 sis men. Their guns were stacked in the 
 hall, the guards being outside and the relief 
 asleep. Lest the small Philip be tempted to 
 play with the guns his mother had them 
 removed. The alarm was given by a servant. 
 The guards rushed for their guns, but they 
 were gone. The family fled upstairs, hut 
 Margaret, remembering the baby in the cradle 
 below, ran back, seized the baby, and when she 
 was halfway up the flight, an Indian flung his 
 tomahawk at her head, which, missing her, 
 
 13 193 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 buried itself in the wood, and left its historic 
 mark to the present time. There was great 
 consternation in Congress over this attack, 
 and Washington writes begging General 
 Schuyler “to strengthen his guard.” 
 
 Margaret, the heroine of this story, was 
 then, according to the testimony of Chastellux 
 and other French noblemen competent to 
 express an opinion, a charming young woman, 
 and destined to further distinction. It was 
 but shortly after when she ran away and mar- 
 ried the Patroon, Stephen Van Rensselaer, 
 who assisted at the improvised wedding of her 
 sister Angelica at the manor house a half 
 dozen years before. In the natural course of 
 events there was no reason why these young 
 people, she daughter of a man of distinction, 
 he the heir to great wealth, should not marry. 
 His father had died when Stephen was a boy 
 of five. He had been brought up by his mother, 
 now Mrs. Westerlo, and his guardian and 
 uncle, General Abraham Ten Broek. Sent to 
 college at Princeton, under the personal care 
 of Dr. Witherspoon, the President, the ap- 
 proach of the British induced him to take his 
 young charge to Cambridge. At Harvard he 
 made the acquaintance of a student named 
 Harrison Gray Otis. It is indeed from the 
 private correspondence of this young man with 
 
 194 
 
THE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 Killian Van Rensselaer, who had also been a 
 Harvard student, and was now the private sec- 
 retary of General Schuyler, that we learn 
 most of these stirring family events. Killian 
 feels himself to be under a cloud with his 
 chief, owing to his friendship with Stephen, 
 whom in fact he had vainly tried to dissuade 
 from the elopement with Miss Peggy Schuyler, 
 and seeks the sympathy of young Mr. Otis, 
 their mutual friend. The sentiments of Mr. 
 Otis in reply are so estimable that they may 
 be transferred entire : — 
 
 “Stephen’s precipitate marriage has been to me 
 a source of surprise and indeed of regret. He 
 certainly is too young to enter into a connection of 
 this kind; the period of his life is an important 
 crisis; it is the time to acquire Fame, or at least 
 to prepare for its acquisition. It is the Time to 
 engage in a busy life, to arouse the Facultys 
 into action, to awake from a lithargic Inattention, 
 which is generally the consequence of youthful 
 pleasures, and make a figure upon the active Thea- 
 tre. Instead of this our friend has indulged the 
 momentary impulse of youthful Passions, and has 
 yielded to the dictates of Remorseful Fancy.” 
 
 It discourages prophecy to observe how this 
 discreet young man’s forebodings proved 
 untrue. Stephen arrived at his majority the 
 same year, and the occasion proved to be a 
 
 195 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 great fete, celebrated with roast oxen and 
 tenant feasts, bonfires, and a great flow of 
 beer and punch, amid speech-makings and 
 happy congratulations. The young couple, 
 handsomely entrenched in wealth and posi- 
 tion, were doubtless speedily forgiven, as well 
 they might be. Neither fame nor happiness 
 passed by their married life, which was only 
 too brief. Mrs. Stephen Van Rensselaer, the 
 wife of the Patroon, is still the lively Peggy, 
 the favorite of dinner-tables and balls. The 
 next year she sends by mama, the “barer,” 
 again on a motherly visit to Mrs. Church at 
 Philadelphia, a letter to Colonel Dyer Wads- 
 worth, begging him to remember that he “has 
 many friends in this part of the world, one in 
 particular. Dont forget your promise to send 
 your picture. There is no impropriety,” adds 
 this youthful sage. Throughout the first 
 administration she remains a beautiful and 
 charming young figure, while her husband 
 rises from one distinction to another. 
 
 The one occasion on which the Albany home- 
 stead took on the festal character that be- 
 longs to weddings has been related. The 
 year before, Elizabeth, the Betsey of her 
 contemporaries, was married in the large 
 drawing-room to Alexander Hamilton, where 
 years after Millard Fillmore found a wife. 
 
 196 
 
THE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 The marriage took place with all the distinc- 
 tion that parents of reputation and means can 
 give to a marriage of which their hearts and 
 minds can approve. Dutch weddings were 
 still celebrated at home, although they had lost 
 some of their convivial features. The young 
 couple returned to headquarters until an 
 incident between Washington and his secre- 
 tary brought the younger man’s military 
 career for a time to a close. 
 
 It is an old story, but brings a not unwel- 
 come touch of our common humanity. Hamil- 
 ton had gone downstairs for a paper, and 
 stopped to answer some questions addressed 
 by Lafayette on the way, while his chief 
 waited at the head of the stairs. Impatient 
 of delay, Washington rebuked his secretary 
 for disrespect when he reappeared. The dia- 
 logue was brief. Hamilton resigned. The 
 breach was inevitably painful to the three 
 families, who had tender ties of friendship. 
 Yet to us in the lengthening perspective their 
 subsequent reconciliation brings out the nobler 
 qualities of each. The immediate result was 
 the return of the young couple to Albany, 
 where, living for a time at the paternal man- 
 sion, Hamilton studied law. There was 
 another young lawyer in Albany at this time, 
 who spent a good deal of time at the Schuyler 
 
 197 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 house. That same year Alexander McDougall, 
 the same Alexander who had been imprisoned 
 in the affair of the Liberty Pole, and for a 
 time was the lion of the town, and was now 
 General McDougall of the army of the Revo- 
 lution, gave a letter of introduction to Aaron 
 Burr, “who goes to Albany to solicit a license 
 in our courts.” To him General Schuyler 
 gave the freedom of his library, unusually 
 large and valuable for the time. Although 
 Burr “is rarely seen, living with a tidy little 
 widow,” according to one of the gossips of 
 the time, he did spend a great deal of time 
 consulting the Schuyler library. His mar- 
 riage to the tidy little widow was celebrated 
 in Albany the same year. 
 
 This was probably the happiest period of 
 Catherine Schuyler’s life. Her three daugh- 
 ters, if precipitately, were at least happily 
 and prosperously married. To General Schuy- 
 ler Hamilton was not more a beloved son than 
 a valued friend and political ally. His chiv- 
 alrous manner and devotion to her daughter 
 was exceedingly agreeable to the reserved 
 tastes of Mrs. Schuyler and to her tender- 
 ness as a mother. Here their first child was 
 born. This happy period is reflected in a 
 letter from Hamilton to Meade, one of the 
 army family : — 
 
 198 
 
THE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 “ You cannot imagine how domestic I am becom- 
 ing I sigh for nothing but the company of my 
 wife and baby. Betsey is so fond of your family 
 that she proposes to form a match between her boy 
 and your girl.” 
 
 The attractions of this young suitor he 
 playfully sets forth : — 
 
 “He is truly a very fine young gentleman, the 
 most agreeable in his conversation and manners of 
 any one I ever saw, nor less remarkable for his 
 intelligence and sweetness of temper. You are not 
 to imagine by my beginning by his mental quali- 
 fications that he is defective in personal. It is 
 agreed on all hands that he is handsome; his feat- 
 ures are good, his eye is not only sprightly and 
 expressive but full of benignity. His attitude in 
 sitting is by connoisseurs esteemed graceful, and he 
 has a method of waving his hand, that announces 
 the future orator. He stands however rather awk- 
 wardly, and his legs have not all that delicate slim- 
 ness of his father. It is feared that he may never 
 excel in dancing, which is probably the only accom- 
 plishment in which he will not excel. If he has any 
 faults in his manners, he laughs too much. He is 
 now in his seventh month.” 
 
 To Lafayette at the same period Hamilton 
 ■writes : “ I have been employed for the last ten 
 months in rocking the cradle and studying 
 
 199 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 the art of fleecing my neighbors.” These are 
 the letters of a happy man. They were poor, 
 but that was not a matter of the first consid- 
 eration. Shortly after they took a house near 
 that of the Schuylers. The Saratoga fields 
 yielded bountifully; the dairies and orchards 
 overflowed. As the households of her chil- 
 dren sprang up about her the motherly eye of 
 Catherine Schuyler was constantly alert con- 
 cerning their comfort. There are frequent 
 records of potatoes, cheeses, and other house- 
 hold produce sent by messenger and sloop 
 from the abundant family stores. There was 
 still a young family at home. In 1781 another 
 baby had been added to the household, a girl 
 named Catherine for her mother, and chil- 
 dren and grandchildren growing up together 
 brought mother and daughters very near. 
 
 Meanwhile the years had been busy, and 
 another daughter had arrived at a marriage- 
 able age. There are glimpses of Miss Cornelia. 
 Young Nick Visscher, writing to his friend 
 Bob Yan Rensselaer, then in London, has 
 seen Miss Cornelia and her friend Miss 
 Westerlo on an Albany sloop as they were 
 escorting some New York friends part of the 
 way home. He is mollified that he does not 
 know these fashionable young women, as he 
 would have liked to introduce them to some 
 
 200 
 
THE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 young men with him. There is evidence that 
 Miss Cornelia conducted herself with some 
 haughtiness from young Bob himself in his 
 letters to his sister “Arriet,” in which he 
 contrasts her sister Mrs. Church, “an angel 
 all affectionate politeness towards a cousin 
 who trudges out to her country seat on foot, 
 walking being more suitable to an American 
 purse.” Mr. Carter on going back to London 
 had resumed his name of Church, and had 
 become a figure in the London world. He 
 was at this time a member of Parliament, and 
 lived at Downe, near Windsor. Here he kept 
 a fine establishment. “Mrs Church gave a 
 fine ball at which were the Prince Regent & 
 all the Notabilities,” Bob continues. There 
 were further civilities: “Mrs. John Church is 
 uncommonly polite and attentive to me she 
 has given me an offer which I sometimes 
 embrace of going to the Drury Lane Theatre ; 
 whenever they feel disposed, they have a 
 private box. This Evening I am going with 
 her Ladyship & Miss Church but not until the 
 play is half over It being unfashionable going 
 before.” Jonathan Trumbull, who has gone 
 abroad to study art, experiences the same 
 hospitality. He is invited to dine in the 
 company of Sheridan and of Pox at Downe, 
 and Mr. Church has offered to be his banker. 
 
 201 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Against testimony of this sort, Miss Cornelia 
 would indeed have to be amiable. 
 
 At the Morton home in New Jersey there 
 had been a notable wedding, that of Eliza 
 Morton to Josiah Quincy of Boston. The 
 Rev. Samuel Smith of Princeton College 
 performed the ceremony before all the aris- 
 tocracy of the time. After the wedding the 
 young couple left in a coach-and-four, attended 
 as far as Harlem by their bridesmaids and 
 groomsmen on their five days’ journey to 
 Boston. Among the guests was Miss Cornelia 
 Schuyler. The bride had a brother, Washing- 
 ton Morton. He made himself prominent as 
 a lad during the British occupation by losing 
 a darning needle which, being the only one in 
 the neighborhood, accordingly had to be loaned 
 from house to house. He was now one of the 
 young bloods of the time. One of his recent 
 enterprises had been a walk to Philadelphia 
 on a wager. He was accompanied by various 
 young men on horseback and in carriages. 
 That night he gave them a dinner at Philadel- 
 phia, and was one of the liveliest of the com- 
 pany. He was of superb figure and very 
 athletic. The admiration of Miss Schuyler 
 and Mr. Morton was mutual and prompt. He 
 followed the young lady to Albany and declared 
 his attentions to her father. His walk had 
 
 202 
 
TEE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 given him much distinction, but it was not of 
 the sort likely to win the approval of so strict 
 a disciplinarian as General Schuyler, or the 
 championship of so considerate a mother as 
 his wife. 
 
 The young man’s suit was refused. “He 
 had not taken that place which befitted a mar- 
 ried man,” and the General, to make sure of 
 his position, led the young man to the wharf 
 and saw him aboard the New York sloop. Re- 
 turning home he called his daughter into the 
 library and told her what he had done. “My 
 wishes will be respected ? Promise me to 
 have nothing to do with him by word or 
 letter. ” 
 
 “I cannot.” 
 
 “ What ! do you mean to disobey me ? ” 
 
 “I mean I cannot bind myself; I will not.” 
 
 The issue was made. What steps were 
 taken to secure obedience do not appear. In 
 time, however, the impatient lover found 
 opportunity to send his love a letter, and one 
 moonlit evening two muffled figures appeared 
 under Miss Cornelia’s window. At a low 
 whistle the window softly opened and a rope 
 was thrown up. Attached to the rope was a 
 rope ladder, which making fast like a veri- 
 table heroine of romance the bride descended. 
 They were driven to the river, where a boat 
 
 203 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 was waiting to take them across. On the 
 other side was the coach-and-pair. They 
 were then driven thirty miles across country 
 to Stockbridge, where an old friend of the 
 Morton family lived. It was Judge Theodore 
 Sedgwick, not unknown to General Schuyler 
 in Congress and about the troublesome bound- 
 ary commissions. The affair had gone too 
 far. The judge sent for a neighboring min- 
 ister and the runaways were duly married. 
 So flagrant a breach of the parental authority 
 was not to be hastily forgiven. Philip and 
 Catherine Schuyler had had various expe- 
 riences in kind, but this transcended every- 
 thing out of fiction, from which in fact it 
 seemed to have been carefully copied. It was 
 some months before the young couple was 
 pardoned, by the stern father at least, for the 
 mother’s heart quickly responded to the hap- 
 piness of her children, even though they had 
 been so wilful. As in the case of the other 
 runaways, the youthful Mortons disappointed 
 expectation, by becoming important house- 
 holders and taking a prominent place in the 
 social life of New York, where Washington 
 Morton achieved some distinction at the bar. 
 
 General Schuyler was a stern father. He 
 brought to the performance of his own duties 
 an orderly mind and prompt execution. The 
 
 204 
 
THE GIRLS AND BOYS 
 
 same qualities he demanded in others. Aris- 
 tocratic in feeling, and convinced of the pro- 
 priety of etiquette and the observance of 
 dignities, he required their observance in 
 others. In the army we know how strenuously 
 he insisted on these matters, and the price he 
 had to pay for this insistence. This concep- 
 tion he brought into his own household, and 
 it was not inconsistent with the utmost kind- 
 liness. Catherine Schuyler had the soft man- 
 ners of a gentlewoman and the tender heart 
 of a mother, although, as we know, she could 
 show energy of action and force of character 
 when the occasion demanded it. In the 
 family, however, it was her place to soothe 
 and to minister. There was ample oppor- 
 tunity for her gentle interposition. There 
 were four boys, and if the sentences with 
 regard to them that creep into the letters of 
 the various aides are an indication, they were 
 high-spirited, mischievous young fellows, en- 
 joying themselves mightily among the soldiers 
 and the attractions of camp life, of which at 
 Saratoga as well as at Albany they saw a good 
 deal. John Lansing recounts their contests 
 with their grandfather, “neither whose per- 
 suasions nor authority availed,” and urges 
 that they be sent to remoter Claverack. 
 Colonel Yarick says Miss Betsey will send 
 
 205 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Van Rensselaer by the Major. He is full of 
 “his pranks as ever. Caleb Starke writes 
 Master Van Rensselaer has made a general 
 acquaintance and is loath to leave.” These 
 were fine times, but “there are Latin books, 
 coming from Philadelphia for my boys,” and 
 the Rev. Mr. Drummond and John Addison, 
 schoolmaster, with other ideas than fife and 
 drum and soldier clothes. The father was a 
 martinet at home. He demanded that his 
 sons should appear in the morning booted and 
 spurred for the enterprises of the day. If an 
 order was to be sent to mill or field the boy 
 was expected to mount at command. “But 
 father it is raining,” the youth might plead. 
 “ What has that to do with it, Sir ? ” and the 
 boy was off. Van Rensselaer, whose childish 
 antics entertained the foreigners, and with 
 whom the aides had their own affairs, con- 
 tinued full of boyish pranks. For these he 
 was obliged to copy so many pages of William 
 Smith’s “History of New York.” In conse- 
 quence, for some time he was able to enjoy the 
 reputation of a youthful historian, for on 
 being asked what he was doing by interested 
 friends he was accustomed to reply, “Writing 
 a history of New York.” 
 
 206 
 
XIII 
 
 THE FIRST ADMINISTRATION 
 
 The Declaration of Independence was a 
 simple act compared with the launching of a 
 new government after the peace of 1783. The 
 grave questions of state that more than once 
 put the country in peril were not more per- 
 plexing and difficult to adjust than the out- 
 ward observances and minor forms by which 
 the hierarchy of dignities were to be mani- 
 fested. It was scarcely possible that com- 
 munities brought up under Royal governors 
 and their little courts should not associate 
 the routine of these with the proper and 
 becoming expression of authority. “ The Re- 
 publican Court,” “the levees,” “the drawing- 
 room,” “Lady Washington,” “His Excel- 
 lency,” are legacies of speech from the Colo- 
 nial government, vainly used, as time has 
 proved, to indicate the new order of things. 
 The intoxication of responsible power after it 
 was bravely achieved is discovered both in 
 the speech and acts of the time. “ Oh Goddess 
 207 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 of Etiquette assist me,” William Maclay, 
 cries out in his diary between gout and dis- 
 gust, endeavoring to set down the wrangles 
 in Congress over these matters. One of the 
 first acts of Congress was to discuss the terms 
 by which the President was to be addressed, 
 and “His Mightiness,” “His Highness,” and 
 “ His Elective Majesty ” were mercifully voted 
 down. 
 
 In the simplicity of the executive functions 
 to-day and the absence of state in its sur- 
 roundings, we can scarcely realize what a 
 feature of social and public life was the first 
 administration, and with what pride it was 
 regarded by what may be termed the Court 
 pai'ty. If Washington had been nothing more 
 than a figure-head, he could hardly have been 
 better chosen for his place in the pageant. It 
 is no exaggeration to say that he had an august 
 presence. His tall, commanding figure was 
 surmounted by a dignified yet benign counte- 
 nance that inspired reverence as well as 
 admiration. He rarely walked. In public he 
 was usually on horseback, attended by his 
 aides and preceded by outriders in livery. 
 When he “exercised with Mrs Washington 
 in a coach,” it was drawn by six horses with 
 two postilions in livery, cocked hats, cock- 
 ades, and powder. He went to church in only 
 208 
 
THE FIRST ADMINISTRATION 
 
 less state, followed by a post-chaise, in which 
 were the gentlemen of his family. With a 
 Virginian’s love of horses, these were the 
 finest that could he procured, and were kept 
 with human care. The night before the 
 famous white chargers were to be used they 
 were covered with a white paste, swathed in 
 body clothes, and put to sleep on clean straw. 
 In the morning this paste was rubbed in, and 
 the horses brushed until their coats shone. 
 The hoofs were then blacked and polished, the 
 mouths washed and their teeth picked. It is 
 related that after this grooming the master of 
 the stables was accustomed to flick over their 
 coats a clean muslin handkerchief, and if this 
 revealed a speck of dust the stable man was 
 punished. 
 
 The first executive mansion was the Osgood 
 House in Cherry Street, just out of Franklin 
 Square. It was so small that three of the 
 secretaries had to sleep in one room. As 
 Colonel Humphreys was a poet, and when the 
 muse was upon him would rise at any hour to 
 recite his verses in a loud voice while striding 
 up and down the room, and having wakened 
 his colleagues hopelessly, would lie down and 
 sleep sweetly after the inspiration had passed, 
 he effectually cured two young men of their 
 love of poetry for the rest of their lives. 
 
 14 209 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 The executive household was organized 
 with dignity. The President had one levee a 
 week. On Thursday he received the ambas- 
 sadors and visitors who wished to be pre- 
 sented. On Thursday the State dinners took 
 place. On Friday evenings Mrs. Washing- 
 ton held her drawing-room. At his levees the 
 President wore a black velvet coat, black satin 
 breeches, silk stockings with diamond knee 
 buckles. His hair was powdered and drawn 
 into a black bag tied with ribbons. He wore 
 at his side a slender dress sword in a green 
 shagreen scabbard. His guests were dressed 
 with equal care. No one was expected to be 
 present whose position did not entitle him to 
 social or official recognition. The effort to 
 create an aristocracy of a kind, to which the 
 newly organized Society of the Cincinnati 
 contributed, was apparent in every direction. 
 Mrs. Washington’s drawing-room was attended 
 by all the rank and fashion of the town. The 
 ladies sat in a circle according to their rank. 
 The President regarded himself as a private 
 person, and early paid his respects, bowing 
 to each of the ladies in the circle. 
 
 “You will see no such formal bows at the 
 Court of St. James,” writes James Pintard to 
 his sister after taking tea at Mrs. Washington’s 
 New Year levee. The gayeties were not has- 
 210 
 
THE FIRST ADMIN IS TRA TION 
 
 tened by the President’s wife. Before her ar- 
 rival the Inauguration Ball took place, at which 
 the President distinguished Mrs. Hamilton and 
 Mrs. Van Brugh Livingston by dancing with 
 them. A few nights after Madame de Mous- 
 tier, the wife of the French minister, gave a 
 famous ball, at which, to celebrate the friend- 
 ship between France and the young Republic, a 
 special cotillion was danced. Four gentlemen 
 in French uniforms and four in blue and buff, 
 accompanied by four ladies with headbands of 
 white worn with the lilies of France and four 
 with blue, to indicate the American preference, 
 entertained all the rest of the gay company. 
 
 “ If there is a town on the American conti- 
 nent where English luxury displays its follies 
 it is New York,” writes that discriminating 
 observer, Brissot de Warville. “In the dress 
 of the women you will see the most brilliant 
 silks, gauzes, hats, and borrowed hair. ” The 
 “New York Gazette” of May 15, 1789, de- 
 scribes some of these dresses with admirable 
 particularity. 
 
 “A plain celestial blue satin with a white satin 
 petticoat. On the neck a very large Italian gauze 
 handkerchief with white satin stripes. The head 
 dress was a puff of gauze in the form of a globe on 
 a foundation of white satin having a double wing 
 in large plaits with a wreath of roses twined about 
 211 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 it. The hair was dressed witli detached curls, four 
 each side of the neck, and a floating chignon 
 behind. 
 
 “Another was a periot made of gray Indian taf- 
 fetas with dark stripes of the same color with two 
 collars, one white, one yellow with blue silk fringe 
 having a reverse trimmed in the same manner. 
 Under the periot was a yellow corset of cross blue 
 stripes. Around the bosom of the periot was a frill 
 of white vandyked gauze of the same form covered 
 with black gauze which hangs in streamers down 
 her back. Her hair behind is a large braid with a 
 monstrous crooked comb.” 
 
 “Luxury is already forming in this city a 
 very dangerous class of men, namely the 
 bachelors, the extravagance of the women 
 makes them dread marriage,” writes one of 
 the visiting Frenchmen. Yet the men do not 
 seem so far behind. John Ramage, a famous 
 miniature painter of the day, we are told, 
 wore “ a scarlet coat with mother-of-pearl 
 buttons, a white silk waistcoat embroidered 
 with colored flowers, black satin knee breeches 
 with paste knee and shoe buckles, a small 
 cocked hat on the top of his powdered hair 
 leaving the curls at his ears displayed, a gold- 
 headed cane and gold snuff-box.” A critical 
 observer in the “Gazette” complains of some- 
 thing which he calls a “bishop,” and adds, 
 212 
 
THE FIRST ADMINISTRATION 
 
 “the young ladies have laid aside all manner 
 of deception ; cork and wool are no more seen 
 in the dress of a fine woman, while the young- 
 bucks and petits maitres are metamorphosing 
 themselves into lusus naturae, and their tailors 
 into upholsterers. ” One tailor indeed adver- 
 tises one hundred and thirty-eight varieties of 
 cloth, another the embroidering of buttons 
 with any flower desired, an opportunity for 
 nice personal taste or the exercise of senti- 
 ment. Thomas Garris, as “ shoemaker to the 
 nobility,” will make men’s shoes for six 
 dollars and ladies’ shoes for six dollars and a 
 half. Charles McCann offers to dress hair by 
 the year for fifteen dollars, and Nat Smith, the 
 city perfumer, offex’S a pomade de grasse for 
 “thickening the hair,” as well as a nervous 
 essence for the toothache. John Greenwood 
 announces that he will pay a guinea each for 
 live teeth, and will transplant them for four 
 guineas. Mr. Gi'eenwood, it was well known, 
 had made a set of sea horse teeth for the 
 President. Jacob Astoi’, on his part, offei-s 
 “ an assortment of piano fortes which I will 
 sell on reasonable tenns, also buys and sells 
 for cash all sorts of furs.” 
 
 “In point of hospitality New York is 
 exceeded by no other town in the counti’y,” 
 was the opinion of Noah Webster, “and con- 
 213 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 trasts favorably with Philadelphia in the 
 mingling of classes.” Mrs. William Smith, 
 the daughter of John Adams, on the other 
 hand, writes her mother, “You would not be 
 pleased with society here, it is quite enough 
 dissipated.” Miss Pranks, who we know was 
 even a more severe critic : “ Here you enter a 
 room with a formal set curtsy and after the 
 ‘How-dos ’ things are finished ; all a dead calm 
 until cards are introduced when you see 
 pleasure dancing in the eyes of all the matrons 
 and they seem to gain new life ; the maidens 
 decline for the pleasure of making love. 
 Here it is always leap-year. For my part 
 I am used to another style of behavior.” 
 She further remarks, in comparison with the 
 Philadelphia girls, of whom she is one : “ They 
 have more cleverness in the turn of the eye 
 than those of New York in their whole com- 
 position.” Governor Livingston, however, 
 takes another view, and remarks in a letter to 
 his daughter Kitty that “the Philadelphia 
 flirts are equally famous for their want of 
 modesty and want of patriotism in their over 
 complaisance to red-coats,” alluding to the 
 English officers, newly released prisoners, 
 “ who could not conquer the men of the country 
 but everywhere they have taken the women 
 almost without a trial — damn them.” Card- 
 
 214 
 
TEE FIRST ADMINISTRATION 
 
 playing was certainly a favorite amusement. 
 “Mary was asked to Church’s to a great 
 Twelfth Night Ball,” writes Walter Ruther- 
 ford. “Apropos the day I dined there the 
 Rest of the Company stayed and played Brag. 
 It is reported that C lost 1500dds and Phil on 
 one card. It is reported from John street 
 that Mrs. Sterret on one evening lost $50 and 
 another lady $400 at cards, tell Lewis to 
 beware of vingt’une. ” Governor William 
 Livingston adds his further testimony. “ My 
 principal Secretary of State who is one of my 
 daughters has gone to New York to shake her 
 heels at the balls and assemblies of a metrop- 
 olis which might be better employed, more 
 studious of taxes than of instituting expensive 
 diversions.” William Maclay, who enjoys 
 himself most when damning everything, im- 
 proves the death of a certain Mrs. Baxter to 
 add : “ She too was gay and she is yet young. 
 Useful lesson to the females of the neighbor- 
 hood, if lessons will be of service in these 
 giddy times.” Brissot de Warville, who is 
 apt to show his kindliness in deploring our 
 faults, observes that the low dresses of some 
 of the ladies are unbecoming a republic. 
 
 Gouverneur Morris, who was one of the most 
 light-hearted youths of the day, gives a pleas- 
 anter retrospect of the gayeties of the town. 
 
 215 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 “You must remember,” lie writes, “the Misses 
 White so gay and fashionable, so charming in con- 
 versation, with such elegant figures — I remember 
 going one night with Sir John Temple and Henry 
 Remsen to a party at their house. I was dressed 
 in a light French blue coat, with a high collar, 
 broad lapels, and large gilt buttons, a double- 
 breasted Marseilles vest, nankeen colored cassimere 
 breeches, with white silk stockings, shining pumps 
 and full ruffles on my breast and at my wrists with 
 a ponderous white cravat with a pudding in it, as 
 we then called it ; and I was considered the best 
 dressed man in the room. I remember to have 
 walked a minuet with much grace with my friend 
 Mrs. Verplanck, who was dressed in hoop and pet- 
 ticoats; and singularly enough I caught cold that 
 night from drinking hot Port Wine Negus and 
 riding home in a sedan chair with one of the 
 glasses broken.” 
 
 At the same time the first lady of the land 
 plaintively writes : 
 
 “I lead a very dull life here and know nothing 
 that passes in the town. I never go to any publick 
 place — indeed I think I am more like a state 
 prisoner than anything else there is a certain bound 
 set for me which I must not depart from, and as 
 I cannot doe as I like I am obstinate and stay 
 home a great deal.” 
 
 Yet Washington’s diary reveals a busy and 
 decorous social life. One evening he has a 
 216 
 
THE FIRST ADMINISTRATION 
 
 dinner and theatre party consisting of “ Gen- 
 eral Schuyler and Lady, Maj. Butler and 
 Lady Col. Hamilton and Lady and Mrs. 
 Greene.” Mrs. Butler was unfortunately ill 
 and could not come. The President dined at 
 four o’clock. Sam Fraunces, “ Black Sam,” 
 was the steward and his sister the housekeeper. 
 The table was an oval with Mrs. Washington 
 seated at the head, Colonel Humphreys or one 
 of the aides at the foot, while the President sat 
 midway in easy distance from his guests. As 
 decorations on the table were silver waiters 
 forming parallelograms with oval ends. On 
 these were grouped little mythological figures, 
 “ but none to offend,” we are assured. With 
 these were mingled artificial and natural 
 flowers. The dishes were uncovered outside. 
 The family plate and china had been brought 
 from Mount Yernon. There were various wines, 
 but the host contented himself with a silver 
 mug of beer and afterward one glass of wine. 
 The dinners are greatly commended, although 
 at times there were certain contretemps. 
 Mrs. Roger Morris speaks of an elegant trifle 
 that came on the table at the “ Presidoliad,” as 
 the Executive Mansion was sometimes called. 
 It had been made from bad cream. She tasted 
 it and warned the President, who hastily put 
 down his spoon. Mrs. Washington, however, 
 
 217 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 calmly ate all her helping. Mrs. Morris as- 
 signed the impossibility of getting good cream 
 in New York as a reason for moving the capi- 
 tal to Philadelphia, the discussion being then 
 at its height. 
 
 The theatre was in John Street. The Pres- 
 ident had a bos decorated with the national 
 emblems and frequently occupied it. On this 
 evening the play was “ Darby’s Return,” a piece 
 by Wignall, having great vogue. Darby was 
 an Irish boy who had left his farm and gone 
 to be a soldier. After the war he went back 
 home and is relating his experiences to his 
 old friends. Many of the lines were significant. 
 
 “ A man who fought to free the land from woe 
 Like me had left his farm a-soldiering to go.” 
 
 His neighbors desire to know something of 
 this man, and Darby continues, while every 
 eye was fixed on the President in his box. 
 But the event of the evening was the playing 
 for the first time of the “ President’s March,” 
 which we better know as “ Hail Columbia.” 
 The enthusiasm was immense. We are further 
 informed by the “ New York Gazette” of the 
 week that : “ our Beloved Ruler seemed to 
 unbend for the moment and give himself to the 
 pleasures arising from the gratification of the 
 two most noble organs of sense, the Eye & 
 218 
 
TEE FIRST ADMINISTRATION 
 
 the Eai\” Washington was fond of the theatre. 
 There are numerous records of theatre parties. 
 ]\fr. Sheridan’s new play “ The School for Scan- 
 dal ” was then the fashion. It was not received 
 with unqualified approval. At one of the Presi- 
 dent’s parties, when it was played, a guest 
 confides to his diary that “ The School for 
 Scandal ” is “ no decent representation before 
 ladies of virtue. Would have preferred The 
 Conscious Lover in which mox*e prudential 
 manners are inculcated.” Probably sug- 
 gested by Colonel Humphreys, who was then 
 writing his play “ The Widow of Malabar,” 
 there were frequent theatricals in the garret 
 of the President’s house. William Duer tells 
 of playing Brutus there to the Cassius of 
 George Parke Custis, Washington being one 
 of the select audience. 
 
 The day after the President’s theatre party 
 he made a call upon the Schuylers. General 
 Schuyler, who had been in politics continuously 
 since he left the army, was now a member of 
 the first Senate. The Albany family was 
 closely allied with the administration. Aside 
 from campaigning and similar military expe- 
 riences, Washington and General Schuyler, in 
 their love of country life and interest in agri- 
 culture, enjoyed that friendship which springs 
 from similar tastes. Hamilton, moreover, who 
 219 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 had become the most brilliant figure in political 
 life and was now Secretary of the Treasury, 
 was General Schuyler’s son-in-law. Father 
 and son never acted more spontaneously from 
 a single impulse than these two. “ You know 
 how I loved him,” General Schuyler writes 
 afterward, broken with grief at his untimely 
 loss. 
 
 It is not known where the Scliuylers lived 
 at this time. The Hamiltons lived at No. 58 
 Wall Street, a few doors from the home of 
 Richard Varick, who had married the daughter 
 of Isaac Roosevelt, who was now Mayor of 
 New York. Around the corner, at No. 45 
 Broadway, was the home of General Knox, the 
 Secretary of War, a four-story brick house, 
 with a wide piazza in the rear, from which was 
 a beautiful view of the North River. The Vice- 
 President, John Adams, lived at Richmond 
 Hill, now the corner of Varick and Charlton 
 streets, then a country residence of whose 
 charms Mrs. Adams writes : “ The venerable 
 oaks and broken ground covered with wild 
 shrubs which surround me give a natural beauty 
 to the spot which is truly enchanting. The 
 partridge, the woodcock, the pigeon tempt the 
 sportsman’s gun.” Richmond Hill was after- 
 ward better known as the home of Aaron Burr. 
 Subsequently, the President moved to the 
 220 
 
THE FIRST ADMINISTRATION 
 
 McComb mansion below Trinity Church, and 
 became also a neighbor of the Hamiltons. Not 
 far distant on Broadway the home of the 
 genial Cochranes was a rallying-place for the 
 numerous Schuylers and Livingstons. At Mrs. 
 Dunscomb’s boarding-house lived Robert Liv- 
 ingston, Fisher Ames, and Theodore Sedgwick. 
 
 Mrs. Hamilton, Mrs. Jay and Mrs. Knox 
 were the leaders of official society. Mrs. Knox, 
 old campaigner, fat, lively, if somewhat inter- 
 fering, was a general favorite. Mrs. William 
 Smith, formerly Miss Abigail Adams, made 
 some caustic comments to be sure, and other 
 ladies remarked that she was more prominent 
 at the drawing-rooms, where there was usually 
 a lively contest for recognition, than they 
 desired ; nevertheless, Mrs. Knox was a con- 
 spicuous feature in the success of the first ad- 
 ministration. Mrs. Jay, the daughter of Gov- 
 ernor Livingston, and who had spent some time 
 at the most formal court in Europe, was em- 
 inently adapted for her place. 
 
 Mrs. Hamilton had the advantages of youth, 
 charm, and position. No one was better fitted 
 for the part she was now called upon to per- 
 form. Accustomed to meeting in her father’s 
 house distinguished people from evei’y country, 
 trained by a careful mother to meet the de- 
 mands made by large hospitality on the 
 221 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 resources of a household, she added to this 
 equipment an engaging personality. “ A 
 charming woman who joined to all the graces 
 the simplicity of an American wife,” Brissot de 
 Warville describes her. The Hamiltons were 
 poor. “ I have seen one of the wonders of the 
 world. I have seen a man who made the for- 
 tune of a nation laboring all night to support 
 his family,” writes Talleyrand, who had 
 brought over letters to the Hamiltons from 
 their sister Mrs. Church, and passing the house 
 late at night and early in the morning, saw the 
 lamp burning in Hamilton’s office. The estate 
 at Saratoga contributed largely to the New 
 York household, and Catherine Schuyler was 
 frequently a visitor in her daughter’s home. 
 There was much in the society of her daughter, 
 her young family and surroundings to contrib- 
 ute to the pride and happiness of the elder lady. 
 On the Fourth of July, the Society of the Cin- 
 cinnati held a celebration in St. Paul’s. The 
 orator was Alexander Hamilton, the subject 
 General Greene, not long dead. Washington 
 was too ill to be present, but the procession 
 passed his house, and he presented himself at 
 the door in full regimentals. The church was 
 filled with the rank and fashion of the town. 
 So fine an audience was rarely before seen. 
 
 The wife of each member of the Cabinet had 
 
 222 
 
THE FIRST ADMINISTRATION 
 
 an evening. Wednesday was Mi's. Hamilton’s, 
 Thursday, Mrs. Jay’s, Friday, Lady Christina 
 Griffin’s, the wife of the Speaker of the House, 
 Saturday evening belonged to Mrs. Knox. 
 The diplomatic corps was equally hospitable. 
 Miss Yan Berchel, the daughter of the Belgian 
 Minister, had her reception day. Madame de 
 Moustier was a popular and spirited hostess. 
 With her was her sister-in-law, the Countess 
 de Brehan, a miniature painter, to whom the 
 President gave many sittings, groaning in spirit. 
 She was a masterful person, and the Legation 
 was “ entirely governed by this little, singular, 
 whimsical, hysterical old woman, whose delight 
 is in playing with a negro child and caressing a 
 monkey.” This at least is the character given 
 her by General John Armstrong. 
 
 The home of the Hamiltons was the scene 
 of much hospitality. The popularity of the 
 host and hostess without the official seal would 
 have made it a social centre. There are rec- 
 ords of famous dinners, one to Mr. Jefferson, 
 newly arrived from France, in a blue coat with 
 large bright buttons, his vest and small-clothes 
 of crimson. His animated countenance was of 
 a brick-red hue, his bright eye and foxy hair, 
 his tall, gaunt, ungainly form and square shoul- 
 ders, in perfect contrast with the small, 
 graceful Hamilton, his great antagonist. The 
 
 223 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 Patroon and liis wife, Margaret Schuyler, were 
 among the guests. It was a brilliant company. 
 Mr. Jefferson led the talk, which was afterward 
 well remembered for his sympathies with the 
 French people and his desire that they should 
 abolish the monarchy. Another memorable 
 scene was the dedication of Trinity Church, 
 rebuilt after the fire. The President sat in a 
 canopied pew, and all the officials were present, 
 while Dr. Auchmuty preached the sermon. 
 After the services General and Mrs. Schuyler 
 went to the President’s to dine. 
 
 Mrs. Van Rensselaer and the Patroon, young, 
 handsome, distinguished, rich, were frequent 
 visitors to town. The President’s diary re- 
 cords that “ Schuyler & Wife, Mrs. Van Rens- 
 slaer, dined with Mrs. Knox, Baron Steuben, 
 and others” at the Executive mansion. Mrs. 
 Yan Rensselaer’s presence is noted at a 
 drawing-room, inasmuch as it interfered with 
 “ Rutherford’s wife having a talk with my 
 lady.” Meanwhile, the coalition in politics of 
 General Schuyler and his sons-in-law Ham- 
 ilton and the Patroon obtained some formid- 
 able elements. The presence of two daughters 
 in social life was subsequently reinforced by a 
 third. Mr. and Mrs. Church returned from 
 England with all the prestige of a successful 
 private and public career. 
 
 224 
 
THE FIRST ADMINISTRATION 
 
 Returning to live in this country, they took 
 a fine house and lived in great style. Ap- 
 parently Mrs. Church brought with her the 
 latest novelties. Walter Rutherford remarks 
 “ a late abominable fashion from London, of 
 Ladies like Washwomen with their sleeves 
 above their elbows, Mrs. Church among others ” 
 — this among the comments on her dinner 
 party. 
 
 It was remarked by Noah Webster, that the 
 Dutch leaven of sobriety, economy, and deco- 
 rousness was still felt in New York, notwith- 
 standing the natural reaction after an exhausting 
 war, followed by a triumphant peace. Official 
 society during the first administration was so 
 formal, that the Democrats, daily becoming 
 more important by their charges of the mon- 
 archical tendencies of the time, obliged Wash- 
 ington, though privately, to make a defence of 
 the routine he had been compelled to exact and 
 follow. The glimpses of domestic life are pic- 
 tures of peace and contentment. Such is that 
 of Mrs. Hamilton “ seated as her wont at the 
 table, with a napkin in her lap, cutting slices 
 of bread and spreading them with butter for the 
 younger boys, who standing by her side read 
 in turn a chapter in the Bible or a portion of 
 Goldsmith’s Rome. When the lessons were 
 finished the father and the elder children were 
 
 15 
 
 225 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 called to Breakfast after which the boys were 
 packed off to school.” 
 
 At length, the Government bore away to 
 Philadelphia its pageantry, its social struggles, 
 and its own troubles. General Schuyler had 
 drawn the short term as Senator, and as candi- 
 date for re-election had been defeated by Aaron 
 Burr. The family had returned to Albany and 
 resumed its life. 
 
 226 
 
XI V 
 
 NEARING THE END 
 
 Political storms continued to rage, but 
 through them all Catherine Schuyler main- 
 tained that intense personal family life which 
 tends to promote the larger affairs of men as 
 well as contributes to domestic happiness. No 
 men were ever better entrenched for political 
 conflict than Schuyler and Hamilton. Their 
 homes were centre of peace ; their material 
 considerations guarded. Whatever strength 
 they had was for the fray. Nothing could be 
 more unlike the contest between Federalist 
 and Democrat than the simple domestic record 
 of these two households. The affectionate in- 
 tercourse between children, parents, and grand- 
 parents reflected in all the correspondence 
 accessible makes an effective contrast to the 
 feverish state of public opinion and the contro- 
 versies then raging. Nowhere would one find 
 a more ideal illustration of the place home 
 and family ties should supply as an alleviation 
 
 227 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 for the turmoils and disappointments of public 
 life. 
 
 Catherine Schuyler and her elder daughters 
 were brought very near together by their 
 children. Catherine, her last born, was younger 
 than Philip, her daughter Angelica’s oldest 
 son, and scarcely older than Philip Hamilton, 
 her daughter Elizabeth’s oldest son. The pleas- 
 antest commerce existed between the house- 
 holds at Albany and New York, where Mrs. 
 Church and young Mrs. Morton were now 
 living, and Philadelphia, where the Hamiltons 
 had followed the Government. Captain Bagg’s 
 sloop is called upon to deliver twenty bushels 
 of potatoes to be divided between them, 
 “ mama sends some starch to Cornelia.” Cathe- 
 rine is visiting at the Hamiltons, and is ad- 
 vised to consult Alexander as to the books 
 she should read, and the propriety of study- 
 ing French. Angelica Hamilton is studying 
 French, — Angelica the “ very dear daughter ” 
 of whom there are pleasant pictures as she sits 
 at the piano playing while her father sings, 
 and whose death sent her into a sudden and 
 permanent melancholy. The grandchildren are 
 never forgotten. Lottery tickets were not 
 held in disrepute by the earlier generation. 
 Philip Hamilton is grateful “for three receipts 
 for shares in the Tontine Tavern amounting 
 
 22S 
 
NEARING TEE END 
 
 to £500 ” from Albany with a letter containing 
 good advice, “ which I am very sensible of its 
 being very necessary to me to pay particular 
 attention to in order to be a good man.” At an- 
 other time “ your mama sends her two grand- 
 daughters some trifles from the convent at Mon- 
 treal, Birch bark worked with moose hair.” 
 
 Or it is for her daughters : “ your mama 
 will strive all in her power to procure for you 
 a good wench, they are rare to be met with.” 
 She is visiting her daughter Mrs. Church in 
 New York, and General Schuyler writes : 
 “ My love to your dear Mama, she will pardon 
 me for not writing [he had been suffering 
 with gout] as It will be of benefit to her to 
 enjoy the company of children so dear to her 
 & me. Try to prolong her stay as much as 
 possible.” John Bradstreet, the eldest son, to 
 whom the estate of Saratoga was given, had 
 married Elizabeth Van Rensselaer, the sister 
 of the Patroon Stephen, the husband of 
 Margaret Schuyler. His married life was brief. 
 He died a few years after, leaving a boy, Philip, 
 to be the representative of the name. This 
 boy was sent to the Hamiltons’, and with young 
 Cortland Schuyler and the Hamilton boys went 
 to Bishop Moore’s school for boys on Staten 
 Island, returning to New York Friday even- 
 ings to spend Sundays with the Hamiltons. 
 
 229 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 There was another guest about this time. 
 This was George Lafayette, the son of General 
 Lafayette, whose father had sent him to his 
 old friend Hamilton that he might escape the 
 perils of the French Revolution, in which he 
 himself was involved. Hamilton received him 
 like a son, and he made one of this interesting 
 group of young people. At this moment there 
 was nothing but happiness and hope in con- 
 templating them. Whatever might be the 
 stress of public affairs, the education, manners, 
 and morals of these young people received 
 attention. This was united with a polite con- 
 sideration for their desires which does not 
 always find a place in discipline. “ Let me 
 know what is most pleasing to you,” “ a 
 promise must never be broken,” are expres- 
 sions that find place as often as admonition. 
 “ We hope you will in every respect behave 
 in such a manner as will secure you the good 
 will of and regard of all those with whom you 
 are. If you happen to displease any of them, 
 be always ready to make a frank apology. 
 But the best way is to act with so much polite- 
 ness, good manners and circumspection as 
 never to have any occasion to make an apol- 
 ogy.” Extracts such as these pass from parent 
 to children, coupled with the expressions of 
 deepest affection. 
 
 230 
 
NEARING THE END 
 
 General Schuyler had been defeated for the 
 Senate by Burr, who during the first adminis- 
 tration was quietly practising law at Albany 
 and writing impassioned letters to Theodosia 
 in New York as if there was no such thing as 
 politics in existence. The Albany house had 
 long been the rallying-place for the party. In 
 its library Hamilton wrote many of the sections 
 of the Constitution of the United States, for 
 whose adoption he pleaded with such passionate 
 eloquence in the Convention. It is difficult 
 now to realize that the Empire State entered 
 into the Union only after a stubborn contest 
 and with only a majority of three votes. The 
 triumph was all the more complete. Nowhere 
 was it celebrated with greater enthusiasm than 
 in Albany. There was a great parade of citi- 
 zens, in which General Schuyler and Hamilton 
 walked at the head, and the house burst forth 
 into an illumination so brilliant that all the 
 town came to see. In comparison with this, 
 “ Hamiltonopolis,” as New York was satiri- 
 cally called by the Democrats, was gloomy and 
 uninspiring. 
 
 In the same library Hamilton worked out a 
 large part of his financial policy, while small 
 feet were pattering through the halls, and in 
 the midst of a warm, sustaining, affectionate 
 family life. Whatever debt the nation or the 
 
 231 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 State owes to the most brilliant statesman New 
 York has produced, it must be shared with 
 those protecting influences which freed his 
 mind from sordid cares ; for the Hamiltons 
 were poor, and the wants of a rapidly in- 
 creasing family pressing. Another son-in-law, 
 Stephen Van Rensselaer, made a third of this 
 powerful triumvirate. He was nominated for 
 Lieutenant Governor on the State ticket with 
 John Jay at the head. Young, rich, powerful, 
 allied with one of the foremost men of the 
 State, and full of honors, it was a memorable 
 campaign. The memorandum books of the 
 gentlemen are filled with bets on the issue. 
 Beaver hats and silk stockings, for it was 
 still the day of knee breeches, are the favorite 
 wagers. The Federalists triumphed. There 
 were great rejoicings. In New York a public 
 dinner was given to General Schuyler, Hamil- 
 ton, and the Patroon. Tickets were four dol- 
 lars, and it was hoped that the President would 
 come. In 1795, however, Hamilton resigned 
 his seat in the Cabinet. His reasons are given 
 in a letter to his wife’s sister, Mrs. Church : 
 
 “To endulge my domestic happiness more freely 
 was the principal motive for relinquishing an 
 office in which it is said I have gained some glory, 
 and the difficulties of which had just been subdued. 
 Eliza and her children are here with me at your 
 232 
 
NEARING THE END 
 
 fathers house, who is himself in New York attend- 
 ing the Legislature. We remain here until June, 
 when we become stationary at New York, where 
 I resume the practice of law. For, my dear sister 
 I tell you without regret what I hope you antici- 
 pate, that I am poorer than I went into office. 
 I allot myself four or live years of work than will 
 he pleasant, though much less than I have had for 
 the last five years. 5 ’ 
 
 With the increasing years Catherine Schuy- 
 ler had become very stout, and her short stat- 
 ure did not allow her to carry her new burden 
 with ease. Always gracefully self-possessed 
 and accustomed to mingling largely in social 
 life, and to exercising hospitality of the wid- 
 est, most varied character, she was without 
 social ambitions, and her natural inclinations 
 remained retiring and domestic. Now that 
 her place could be taken by daughters who had 
 pronounced social taste she mingled less and 
 less with the world outside of her own house. 
 Hither, however, the world continued to come. 
 General Schuyler was on the Canal Commis- 
 sion. The feasibility of connecting the sea 
 with the great lakes had never been relin- 
 quished since when a young man he saw in 
 England the Duke of Bridgewater’s canal. 
 Now Catherine Schuyler was called upon to 
 entertain Elkanah Watson, associated with her 
 
 233 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 husband in the project. The Commissioners 
 spent the summer preparing for the undertak- 
 ing. One of their duties was to gain the good 
 will of the stolid Dutch farmers on the Mohawk, 
 who could not be made to believe that water 
 could run up hill. After an evening of argu- 
 ment it was found that words were not ade- 
 quate. Wearied with talk, they all went to bed. 
 General Schuyler could not sleep. Getting up 
 he went out doors and spent the night con- 
 structing a series of locks out of earth and 
 shingles. When done he routed out the Dutch- 
 men and showed them how water could be made 
 to run up hill. The thing was confessed with 
 many grunts and gutturals, but their opposition 
 was withdrawn. Associated with the Commis- 
 sioners in the scheme were the Swedish en- 
 gineer William Seaton, and Brunei, the young 
 Frenchman, afterwards knighted for building 
 the Thames tunnel. Both of these were famil- 
 iar visitors at the Schuyler mansion. There 
 were great formal occasions when General and 
 Mrs. Schuyler, as was their custom, entertained 
 the Supreme Court and the Court of Chancery 
 in a body when sitting in Albany, among them 
 Jay, Kent, Livingston, and Lansing. 
 
 The estate at Saratoga, after the death of 
 their eldest son and during the minority of the 
 heir, still remained the family home for part of 
 
 2.34 
 
NEARING TEE END 
 
 the year. After the perils and fatigues of war, 
 after the storm and stress of political life, there 
 remained the peaceful pleasures of the garden 
 and fields. The harmony of tastes between 
 the Washingtons and Schuylers in the love 
 of country life finds expression in their corres- 
 pondence after the President had retired to 
 Mount Vernon. During the war he had twice 
 visited Albany : once in his tour of military 
 inspection in 1783 with his generals, Knox, 
 Greene, Steuben, and Governor Clinton, while 
 the army was at Newburgh. At Albany Mayor 
 Ten Broek gave them a dinner at Hugh Don- 
 nithorne’s tavern, and in the evening they 
 attended a brilliant reception at the Schuy- 
 lers’. The next year Washington paid an- 
 other visit to Albany, and after spending the 
 evening in consultation with General Schuyler 
 on public affairs, remained the night. Mrs. 
 Schuyler and Mrs. Washington knew one an- 
 other well in the intimacy of camp life and 
 through the alliances of politics. Both were 
 domestic in their tastes, and devoted to their 
 country homes. Washington now desired to 
 repay the civilities he had received at the 
 Schuylers’, and invited the General and his wife 
 to visit Mount Vernon. General Schuyler, 
 whose attacks of gout had become more fre- 
 quent and more painful, was unable to accept, 
 
 235 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 although he writes to his daughter at this 
 time, “ Your mama looks as young as she 
 did fifteen years ago.” In reply Washington 
 says : “ I persuade myself that it is unneces- 
 sary to add that if ill health and under other 
 circumstances had permitted you and Mrs 
 Schuyler to visit Mrs Washington and myself 
 it would have been a most pleasing evidence of 
 your regard ; and the more so as neither she nor 
 I had ever expected to be twenty-five miles away 
 from home again in our lives.” Washington 
 at the time of writing was in Philadelphia, 
 called thither on military embroilments, and 
 General Schuyler, in spite of his ailments, was 
 undergoing a political campaign which resulted 
 in his election to the United States Senate. 
 Thus both had been taken away from the 
 peaceful arts of agriculture to which their 
 hearts inclined. 
 
 Whatever might be the vicissitudes in affairs 
 the improvement of the Saratoga estate was 
 carried forward. During the anxieties that 
 preceded the battle of Saratoga Mrs. Schuyler 
 is sending to “ Mr. Robert Morris Merchant at 
 Philadelphia,” for large strawberry plants. 
 Now willow cuttings are being forwarded, and 
 garden seeds occupy a certain part of the 
 correspondence of the various aides. John 
 Grahame, the gardener, keeps Mrs. Schuyler 
 
 236 
 
NEARING THE END 
 
 informed of the progress of things when she 
 is not there, “ and would be very sorry if the 
 General or Madame should see it, so overgrown 
 is the garden until it is in better order.” Such 
 reputation has the place achieved that there is 
 a request for “ White pine, balm of Gilead, 
 sugar maple, ash, white and black, swamp elm 
 for the garden of king George IV,” with the 
 assurance that any choice plants that the King 
 has will be given in exchange. 
 
 At length the shadows began to gather. 
 General Schuyler’s health became so precarious 
 that he was obliged to resign his seat in the 
 Senate. “ I hear that Schuyler has lost his 
 eyesight,” Walter Rutherford wrote in 1797. 
 However that might be, he prepared about this 
 time a paper which at this moment has a curi- 
 ous interest, and this is in his own handwrit- 
 ing. His daughter, Mrs. Church, had put to 
 him the perplexing mathematical question con- 
 cerning the beginning of the century, which 
 was then near at hand, and a question which 
 has arisen again to confound the present gen- 
 eration. In answer he wrote a long document 
 accompanied by a diagram, which is now lost. 
 His opinion was demonstrated and fortified 
 from every point of view and covers a number 
 of closely written foolscap pages. One of 
 these explanations supposed a series of mile- 
 237 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 stones to be erected from the City Hall, New 
 York, to Albany, with the remark that if the 
 figure 1 be placed on the stone at the City Hall, 
 the figure 2 on the second milestone could not 
 in the face of facts imply that it registered two 
 miles from the City Hall. This illustration he 
 continues throughout the series of milestones 
 all the way to Albany, where the last milestone 
 stands for the last date of the century pass- 
 ing out. 
 
 In the letter from W ashington quoted he adds : 
 “ Your grandson has all the exterior of a fine 
 young man and from what I have heard of his 
 intellect and principles will do justice to and re- 
 ward the precepts he has received from yourself, 
 his parents and Uncle Hamilton. So far then as 
 my attentions to him will go, consistent with my 
 duties, he may assuredly count upon.” This 
 youth was Philip Church, who had been educated 
 at Eton and was now on Hamilton’s staff in the 
 Whiskey insurrection that had been engaging 
 attention in Pennsylvania. The promise of 
 Washington was afterward handsomely ful- 
 filled when the young man married Ann Stuart, 
 the daughter of General Walter Stuart, and the 
 President gave the bride away and presented her 
 with his miniature surrounded with diamonds. 
 But before this young Church was the second 
 of Philip Hamilton in the duel in which he lost 
 
 238 
 
NEARING THE END 
 
 his life. It was a boyish affair with another 
 student, but plunged two households in grief, 
 for whatever touched the Hamiltons struck at 
 the devoted parents. The next year Margaret, 
 the wife of the Patroon, the bright, high- 
 spirited, generous Margaret, died, leaving one 
 child. It was a cruel stroke, and made a pro- 
 found impression among the large circle of 
 kinspeople up and down the Hudson. The 
 pomp and circumstance of her funeral at the 
 manor house, with the retinue of tenants in 
 mourning and their subsequent entertainment, 
 is among the traditions of Albany. 
 
 In the long, varied, active life of Catherine 
 Schuyler there is no record of anything 
 claimed for herself, even for the attentions 
 which illness may reasonably exact. She had 
 fourteen children, but these are recorded as 
 achievements, as valued possessions, as cher- 
 ished gifts from Heaven. There is neither 
 word nor line to indicate that their mother 
 ever relinquished any duty or failed to perform 
 any part of the routine of her life, by reason of 
 either the bearing or rearing of children. When 
 death came into the household it was met ap- 
 propriately, without moan or complaint. Sud- 
 denly, in 1803, she died of apoplexy. The best 
 tribute to her life, and the best evidence of what 
 it was to those about her, may be learned from 
 
 239 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER 
 
 one who knew her best, her husband. General 
 Schuyler, in his grief, turns to Hamilton : — 
 
 “Every letter of yours affords a means of conso- 
 lation and I am aware that nothing tends so much 
 to the alleviation of distress as the personal inter- 
 course of a sincere friend and the endearing atten- 
 tions of children. I shall therefore delay no longer 
 than is indisputably necessary my visit to you. 
 My trial has been severe, I shall attempt to sustain 
 it with fortitude, I hope I have succeeded in a 
 degree, but after giving and receiving for nearly 
 a half a century, a series of mutual evidences of 
 affection and friendship which increased as we ad- 
 vanced in life the shock was great and sensibly 
 felt, to be thus suddenly deprived of a beloved wife, 
 the mother of my children, and the soothing com- 
 panion of my declining years. But I kiss the rod 
 with humility. The Being that inflicted the stroke 
 will enable me to sustain the smart, and progres- 
 sively restore peace to my wounded heart, and will 
 make you and my Eliza and my other children the 
 instruments of my consolation.” 
 
 In her death she was mercifully preserved 
 from two afflictions that swiftly followed, — the 
 untimely death of Hamilton in his duel with 
 Aaron Burr, and that of her husband, both of 
 which occurred the ensuing year. She lies in 
 the cemetery at Albany, her husband by her 
 side, and under the shadow of his name. 
 
 240 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abercrombie, General, at Al- 
 bany, 44 ; at The Flatts, 55, 
 recalled, 61. 
 
 Ackland, Lady Harriet, 157. 
 
 Adams, Abigail, as a penwoman, 
 42 ; on Burgoyne, 161 ; on 
 Richmond Hill, 220. 
 
 Adams, John, 220. 
 
 Albany house, description of, 
 
 66 . 
 
 Alexander, Madame James, 43. 
 
 Allen, Ethan, 142. 
 
 Ames, Fisher, 221. 
 
 Amherst, Lord, arrives, 61 ; 
 writes of Schuyler, 62 ; letter 
 to Bradstreet, 76 ; his fishing 
 club, 105. 
 
 Amusements, among the Dutch, 
 3 ; in New York City, 104- 
 107. 
 
 Andre, Major, 176; Hamilton 
 on, 183. 
 
 Armstrong, General John, 223. 
 
 Arnold, Benedict, Schuyler to, 
 182 ; treason of, 183. 
 
 Arts, Society of, 80 ; medal to 
 Schuyler, 114. 
 
 Astor, Jacob, 224. 
 
 Auchmuty, Dr., 224. 
 
 Baker, Captain, remembrance, 
 story of, 115. 
 
 Bangs, Lieutenant, 108. 
 
 Barn, at The Flatts, 53 ; hospi- 
 tal, 58. 
 
 Bayards, home of, 102. 
 
 Benson, Egbert, 126. 
 
 Bernier, to Schuyler, 35. 
 
 Berry, Thomas, 73. 
 
 Betting on elections, 232. 
 
 Bleeker, Ann Eliza, poet, 41 ; 
 her escape, 153. 
 
 Bleeker, Gertrude, pew of, 28. 
 
 Bogardus, Rev. Everardus, 23. 
 
 Boone, Governor, 100. 
 
 Boudinot, Elias, to his wife, 40 ; 
 reading of family, 75. 
 
 Boudinot, Susan, at Morris- 
 town, 170. 
 
 Bradstreet, General John, at 
 Oswego, 49 ; introduces Lord 
 Loudoun, 54 ; sends for 
 Schuyler, 55; takes Fronte- 
 nac, 60 ; defeat at Oswego, 
 61 ; family affairs, 62 ; and 
 Albany house, 65 ; land 
 owner, 80; against Pontiac, 
 122 ; death of, 129. 
 
 Brand, Professor, 85. 
 
 Brant, Joseph, 94; asaTory,133. 
 
 16 
 
 241 
 
INDEX 
 
 Brant. Molly, 94. 
 
 Brehan, Countess de, 223. 
 
 Brissot de Warville, on the Hud- 
 son, 96 ; on luxury of Ameri- 
 cans, 211; on low dresses, 
 215 ; on Mrs. Hamilton, 222. 
 
 Brunei, engineer, 234. 
 
 Bull, Governor, 119. 
 
 Burgoyne, at Saratoga, 156 ; at 
 Albany, 159. 
 
 Burns’s Coffee House, 104. 
 
 Burr, Aaron, home of, 102; at 
 Morristown, 172; elected to 
 the senate, 226; in Albany, 
 231; duel with Hamilton, 
 240. 
 
 Burr, Mrs., letters to, 231. 
 
 Cari.eton, Colonel Guy, 98. 
 
 Carroll, Charles, at the Scliuy- 
 lers, 147 ; on the young 
 ladies, 148. 
 
 Carroll, Dr. John, 147. 
 
 Carter, John B. (see Church). 
 
 Chandler, Rev. Sam, 54. 
 
 Chase, Samuel, 147. 
 
 Chastellux, on Burgoyne’s 
 stay at Schuyler’s, 162; 
 visits Albany, 163 ; on Mrs. 
 Church, 192 ; describes Mar- 
 garet, 194. 
 
 Cherokee chiefs, visit of, 119. 
 
 Church, Angelica Schuyler, 
 birth of, 48; visits Lady 
 Moore, 100; message from, 
 112; her marriage, 191; 
 farmer’s comment on, 192; 
 birth of son, 193 ; Churches 
 in London, 201 ; her ball, 225 ; 
 living in New York City, 228 ; 
 visited bj- her mother, 229; 
 letter from Hamilton, 232; 
 letter from her father, 237. 
 
 Church, Dutch Reformed, at 
 Albany, 27. 
 
 Church, John Barker, marriage, 
 191 ; in London, 201 ; returns 
 from England, 224. 
 
 Church, Philip, at Albany, 193; 
 Washington on, 238. 
 
 Claverack, lower manor house, 
 
 2 . 
 
 Clinton, George, at Indian 
 Council, 120 ; at Saratoga, 
 127. 
 
 Cochran, Gertrude Schuyler, 
 marriage, 59; death of her 
 mother, 76; at New Bruns- 
 wick, 177; Washington’s in- 
 vitation to, 177 ; visited by 
 Elizabeth, 178; at review, 
 181. 
 
 Cochran, Dr. John, marriage, 
 59; “Bones,” 177; on his 
 stepson, 188. 
 
 Colden, Cadwallader, to Assem- 
 bly, 14. 
 
 Colden, Jane, 101. 
 
 Colfax, William, captain of 
 Washington’s body guard, 
 172 ; at Bound Brook review, 
 181. 
 
 Cruger, Henry, 187. 
 
 Cruger, Miss, 187. 
 
 Cruger, Mrs., letter to, 48. 
 
 Custis, George Parke, 219. 
 
 Cuvier, Mayor, 49. 
 
 Cuyler, Mrs., 30. 
 
 Cuyler, Misses, 58. 
 
 Damas, Count de, at Albany, 
 164. 
 
 Dancing, in New York, 106. 
 
 “ Darby’s Return,” played at 
 John Street Theatre, 218. 
 
 DeLancy, James, his horse, 
 105. 
 
 242 
 
INDEX 
 
 DeLancr, Stephen, 19; home 
 of, 102. 
 
 DeLancy, Susanna, 102. 
 
 Denniston, Isaac, 68. 
 
 Dieskau, Baron, at Lake 
 George, 21; prisoner, 35. 
 
 Donnitkorne, Hugh, innkeeper, 
 235. 
 
 Draper, Sir William, 101. 
 
 Drummond, Rev., at Saratoga, 
 118. 
 
 Duer, William, playing Brutus, 
 219. 
 
 Dunscomb, Mrs., her boarding- 
 house, 221. 
 
 Dupanloup, M., dancing mas- 
 ter, 74. 
 
 Dutch women, in affairs, 42; as 
 florists, 68; education of, 9; 
 household effects of, 69 ; dress 
 of, 72. 
 
 Economy, among the colonists, 
 113. 
 
 Extravagance, in New York 
 City, 212. 
 
 Fashion, in the Colonies, 23. 
 
 Fillmore, Millard, 66. 
 
 Fish, Colonel Nicholas, 5. 
 
 Flatts, The, household at, 33; 
 description of, 51. 
 
 Fonda, Jelles, 26. 
 
 Francis, Sir Philip, his rela- 
 tive writes, 105; on politics, 
 109. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, scheme of 
 Federation, 16; experiment- 
 ing, 105; at Albany, 147; 
 sick at Saratoga, 147 ; to pri- 
 vate Quincy, 148; letter to 
 Schuyler, 149. 
 
 Franks, Rebeeca, on New York 
 girls, 224. 
 
 Fraunces, Sam, hotel of, 103; 
 Washington’s steward, 217. 
 
 Frelinghuysen, Rev. Theodore, 
 guardian of morals, 45; ad- 
 ministers reproof, 46; leaves 
 Albany, 47. 
 
 Funerals, among the Dutch, 76. 
 
 Gage, General, 99. 
 
 Gage, Mrs., struggles for pre- 
 cedence, 100. 
 
 Gaines’s “Mercury,” on econ- 
 omy, 114. 
 
 Gall, Mrs., teaches spinning, 
 113. 
 
 Galloway, Sam, owns horse 
 Selim, 105. 
 
 Gansvoort, Maria, invitation 
 to wedding, 26. 
 
 Garden, at Albany, 68. 
 
 Garris, Thomas, 213. 
 
 Gates, General Horatio, at 
 Albany, 150;. supersedes 
 Schuyler, 155. 
 
 Gates, Mrs., 62; her riding- 
 habit, 168. 
 
 “ Gazette,” New York, de- 
 scribes dresses, 211 ; com- 
 plains of extravagance, 212 ; 
 on the President at the 
 theatre, 218. 
 
 George III., statue of, 104. 
 
 George IV., desires plants, 237. 
 
 Gilliland, William, 114. 
 
 Girls, their household duties, 
 8 ; of the Revolution, 186. 
 
 Grahame, John, 236. 
 
 Grant, Mrs., on amusements at 
 Albany, 3 ; on Lord Howe, 57 ; 
 on household at The Flatts, 
 69; on table, 70; on Sir 
 Henry Moore, 92; on the 
 
 243 
 
INDEX 
 
 Hudson, 97 ; on Green Moun- 
 tain Boys, 115; on stolen 
 children, 122. 
 
 Grant, Widow, 124. 
 
 Greene, General, to his wife at 
 Morristown, 170; Hamilton’s 
 oration on, 222; reception at 
 Schuylers, 235. 
 
 Greene, Mrs., at Morristown, 
 167; baby born, 175; at 
 Washington’s theatre party, 
 217. 
 
 Green Mountain Boys, 88. 
 
 Greenwood, John, 213. 
 
 Griffin, Lady Christina, her re- 
 ceptions, 223. 
 
 Gourlay, James, 73. 
 
 “Hail Columbia,” first 
 played, 218. 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, marriage 
 of, 66; aide-de-camp, 172; 
 at Albany, 179; goes court- 
 ing, 179; engagement to 
 Elizabeth, 179; at Bound 
 Brook review, 182 ; love 
 letter of, 185 ; quarrel with 
 Washington, 197 ; living at 
 Albany, 197 ; letter to Meade, 
 198; to Lafayette, 199; 
 at Washington’s theatre 
 party, 217; home of, 220; 
 Secretary of Treasury, 220; 
 Talleyrand on, 222; dinner to 
 Jefferson, 223; advice to his 
 son, 230; in Schuyler library, 
 231; public dinner to, 232; 
 letter to Mrs. Church, 232 ; 
 Schuyler’s letter to, 240 ; 
 death of, 240. 
 
 Hamilton, Mrs. Alexander, 
 born Elizabeth Schuyler, 52; 
 described by Tench Tilgh- 
 man, 135; at Morristown, 
 
 178; Hamilton’s courtship 
 of, 180 ; her head-dress, 181 ; 
 letters from Hamilton on 
 Arnold’s treason, 183; love 
 letter to, 185; dining with 
 Washington, 211; at Wash- 
 ington’s theatre part}', 217; 
 with her daughter, 225 ; living 
 in Philadelphia, 228; leader 
 in official society, 221; des- 
 cribed by Brissot de War- 
 ville, 222 ; her reception, 
 223. 
 
 Hamilton, Angelica, playing 
 the piano, 228. 
 
 Hamilton, Philip, 228 ; killed 
 in a duel, 238. 
 
 “ Hamiltonopolis,” 231. 
 
 Hampden Hall, 125. 
 
 Hendrick, Mohawk chief, 16; 
 speech of, 17 ; at Lake 
 George, 20. 
 
 Historical Society of Long 
 Island, description of cos- 
 tume, 28. 
 
 Hospital, New York, laying the 
 corner-stone, 103. 
 
 Hospitality, Dutch, 36. 
 
 Hotels in New York, 103; 
 Lafayette on, 118. 
 
 House at Albany described, 
 67. 
 
 Howe, Lord, intimacy with the 
 Schuylers, 56; interview with 
 Madume Schuyler, 57 ; death 
 and burial, 58, 59. 
 
 Huger, Mrs., of South Caro- 
 lina, 71. 
 
 Huguenots, influence of, 12. 
 
 Hulett, Mr., concerts of, 104. 
 
 Humphreys, Colonel David, 
 as a poet, 209 ; at Presi- 
 dent’s table, 217 ; writes a 
 play, 219. 
 
 244 
 
INDEX 
 
 Indian Council, at Albany, 16, 
 137. 
 
 Indian Field, 151. 
 
 Indian Kings, 120. 
 
 Indians, relations with, the 
 Schuylers, 51; Lee’s descrip- 
 tion of, 121; described by 
 Tench Tilghman, 121. 
 
 Indian traders, boys as, 6. 
 
 Janse, Hendrik, sues for slan- 
 der, 23. 
 
 Jay, John, at school, 9 ; letter 
 to, 80; candidate for gov- 
 ernor, 232; of Supreme 
 Court, 221. 
 
 Jay, Mrs., at Madrid, 169; 
 leader of society, 221; her 
 receptions, 223. 
 
 Jay, Peter, 104. 
 
 Jauncy’s, home of, 102. 
 
 Jefferson, dines at Hamiltons’, 
 223. 
 
 Johnson, Sir John, marries 
 Kitty Watts, 95; a Tory, 
 133; arms the Indians, 146. 
 
 Johnson, Sir William, at In- 
 dian Council, 17; at Lake 
 George, 20; at Johnson Hall, 
 93 ; daughters of, 94. 
 
 Jones, Lieutenant, lover of 
 Jane McCrea, 152. 
 
 “ Journal, New York,” origin 
 of, 111. 
 
 Kalm, in Albany, 70. 
 
 Keith, Maria, tragedy of, 15. 
 
 Kennedy, Captain Archibald, 
 
 101 . 
 
 Keteltas, home of the, 102. 
 
 Knox, General, dinner at Pluck - 
 emin, 168; at Schuylers’, 
 235; house in New York, 
 220 . 
 
 Knox, Mrs., in camp, 167; 
 dancing with Washington, 
 168; loves her daughter, 175; 
 guests of, 181; leader in 
 society, 221; her receptions, 
 223. 
 
 Lafayette, George, 230. 
 
 Lafayette, on coasting, 5 ; at 
 Schuylers’, 69; on inns, 118; 
 friend of Hamilton, 230. 
 
 Lake George, battle of, 20; 
 Lane, Ezra, his studio, 73. 
 
 Lansing, John, secretary of 
 General Schuyler, judge, 
 234. 
 
 Lansing, Maria, pew of, 28. 
 
 Lansing, Sanders, 78. 
 
 Lauzun, Chevalier de, 173. 
 
 Lee, Charles, Colonel, and Ma- 
 dame Schuyler, 56; wounded, 
 58; on Indians, 121; major- 
 general, 131. 
 
 Leutze, picture of Catherine 
 Schuyler, 154. 
 
 Lewis, Colonel, letter to Gates, 
 113. 
 
 Lexington, battle of, 130. 
 
 Liberty Pole, 125. 
 
 Lispenards, home of, 102. 
 
 Livingston, Elizabeth, letter 
 from, 124. 
 
 Livingston, Engeltke, mother 
 of Catherine Schuyler, 2. 
 
 Livingston, Grann} 7 , 96. 
 
 Livingston, Henry, aide-de- 
 camp, 165. 
 
 Livingston, James, sheriff, 99; 
 letter from, 124. 
 
 Livingston, Kitty, at Morris- 
 town, 169; letter from her 
 father, 214. 
 
 Livingston, Margarieta, pew in 
 church, 28. 
 
 245 
 
INDEX 
 
 Livingston, Robert, at college, 
 
 22; home in New York, 221; 
 at Schuyler reception, 231. 
 
 Livingston, William, funeral 
 supplies for, 76; in “New 
 York .Journal,” 111. 
 
 Livingston, Governor William, 
 of Liberty Hall, 169; on 
 frivolity in New York, 215; 
 on Philadelphia girls, 211. 
 
 Livingston, Mrs. Van Brugh, 
 
 211 . 
 
 Livingston, Mrs. Walter, 21. 
 
 Lott, Abraham, daughter of, 
 
 171. 
 
 Loudoun, Lord, arrival of, 11; 
 talks with Madame Schuyler, 
 
 51. 
 
 Lynch, Mrs., at Albany, 135. 
 
 Maceay, William, on etiquette, 
 
 209 ; on frivolity of New 
 Yorkers, 215. 
 
 Madeira, Schuyler, 71. 
 
 Malcolm, General, 168. 
 
 Malcolm, Mrs., visits Mc- 
 Dougall, 127 ; at West Point, 
 
 168. 
 
 Mann, Captain. Scoharie Tory, 
 
 115. 
 
 Marriage, among the Dutch, 2. 
 
 Maunsell, to Gates, 100. 
 
 McCann, Charles, 213. 
 
 McCrea, Jane, story of, 152. 
 
 McDougall, Alexander, in 
 prison, 127. 
 
 McIntosh, Mrs., 66. 
 
 McNeill, Mrs., 152. 
 
 McVicar, Anne (see Grant, 
 Mrs.). 
 
 Meade, letter from Hamilton, 
 199.' 
 
 Megaliopensis, Dominie, 72. 
 
 216 
 
 “ Mercury ” of Hugh Gaines 
 (see Gaines, Hugh). 
 
 Mirralles, Don Juan, funeral of, 
 171. 
 
 Montanyne, Mrs., public house 
 of, 105. 
 
 Montgomery, General, on Yan- 
 kee officers, 88; letter to 
 Schuyler, 111; death of, 127. 
 
 Moore, Bishop, as a college boy, 
 126 ; school of, 229. 
 
 Moore, Sir Henry, land owner, 
 80; sketch of, 92; at Sara- 
 toga, 98 ; clemency of, 99 ; 
 and Liberty Pole, 125; and 
 Assembly, i26 ; death of, 127. 
 
 Moore, Lady, at the Schuylers, 
 93; pays fines, 99; struggles 
 for precedency, 100. 
 
 Morris, Gouverneur, as college 
 boy, 126; to Schuyler, 155; 
 on the White party, 215. 
 
 Morris, Lewis, 105. 
 
 Morris, Robert, sends straw- 
 berry plants, 236. 
 
 Morris, Mrs. Roger, 217. 
 
 Morristown, a week’s gayeties 
 at, 168. 
 
 Morton, Cornelia Schuyler, 
 birth of, 81; on sloop, 200; 
 elopement of, 202-204; liv- 
 ing in New York, 228. 
 
 Morton, John, home of, 170. 
 
 Morton, Washington, in Mor- 
 ristown, 170; elopement, 202- 
 204. 
 
 Moustier, Madame de, gives a 
 ball, 223; her reception, 223. 
 
 Munro, Captain John, 116. 
 
 Munro, Peter Jay, 187. 
 
 Murray, Mrs. Robert, 13. 
 
 Necicus, Mohawk Tory, 145. 
 
 New Rochelle, school at, 9. 
 
INDEX 
 
 New York in 1T63, 102-111; 
 society in 1793, 209-225. 
 
 Noailles, Viscount de, 164. 
 
 O'Brien, Lady Susan, 95. 
 
 Osgood House, President’s 
 home, 209. 
 
 Oswego, defeat at, 53. 
 
 Otis, Harrison Gray, letter of, 
 195. 
 
 Pendergast, rioter, 99. 
 
 Phillips, Mrs. Ann, mother of 
 Mrs. Gates, 62. 
 
 Pickering, Sir Edward, 166. 
 
 Pintard, James, at the New 
 Year’s levee, 210. 
 
 Plums, Schuyler, 68. 
 
 Popham, Major, at Alban}’, 166. 
 
 President’s March, first played, 
 218. 
 
 “Presidoliad,” Executive Man- 
 sion, 217. 
 
 Proovost, Madame, 43. 
 
 Quincy, Eliza, on favorite 
 poets, 75; marriage of, 75. 
 
 Quincy, Josiah, marriage of, 75; 
 letter to, 148. 
 
 Eamage, John, fine clothes of, 
 212. 
 
 Rangers, farmer soldiers, 49. 
 
 Reid, Susanna, 188. 
 
 Remsen, Henry, 216. 
 
 Richmond Hill, 17 ; home of 
 Vice-President, 220. 
 
 Riedesel, General, letter to 
 Schuyler, 163. 
 
 Riedesel, Madame, account of 
 visit to the Schuylers’, 157- 
 159. 
 
 Robertson, T)r.,188. 
 
 Roohefoucauld-Liancourt, de, 
 164. 
 
 Rodgers, Rev. Dr., 110. 
 
 Roosevelt, Isaac, 220. 
 
 Rosenbaum, Dr. Jacob, bill of, 
 53. 
 
 Rutherford, Walter, on Chero- 
 kees, 119; on Riedesel chil- 
 dren, 162; on card plajring, 
 215; on ladies’ sleeves, 225; 
 on General Schuyler’s eye- 
 sight, 237. 
 
 Rutledge, Miss, 164. 
 
 Saratoga, estate of, 64, 80; 
 settlement at, 81; bequest to 
 John Bradstreet, 87 ; springs 
 of, 96; in Autumn, 98; flax 
 mills at, 114; in June, 128; 
 Sunday at, 130; plot to burn, 
 146; before the battle, 165; 
 Frenchmen at, 166; care of 
 estate, 236. 
 
 “School for Scandal,” 219. 
 
 Schools, at Albany, 74. 
 
 Schoolmasters, among the 
 Dutch, 9. 
 
 Schutte, John, first English 
 schoolmaster, 10. 
 
 Schuyler, Angelica (see 
 Church). 
 
 Schuyler, Colonel Arent, home 
 of, 109. 
 
 Schuyler, Mrs. Arent, 108. 
 
 Schuyler, Catherine, daughter 
 of Catherine Schuyler (see 
 Cochran). 
 
 Schuyler, Catherine, record of 
 marriage, 1; social rank, 8; 
 education of, 12; personal 
 appearance, 22 ; portrait of, 
 24; pew in church, 27; visits 
 Baron Dieskau, 35; repre- 
 sentative Dutch woman, 43; 
 during the siege of Oswego, 
 49; caring for fugitives, 54; 
 
 247 
 
INDEX 
 
 forebodings of, 57 ; nursing 
 the wounded, 58 ; Albany 
 house of, 64; management of 
 household, 72; as land owner, 
 79; share in Saratoga, 81; 
 father of, 88; her husband’s 
 representative, 90 ; entertains 
 Lady Moore, 95 ; visits Lady 
 Moore, 98 ; returns to Sara- 
 atoga, 112; goes to Boston, 
 117 ; knowledge of Indians, 
 120; entertains the Tryons, 
 128; fears of savages, 133; 
 entertains the Commis- 
 sioners, 136 ; journey to 
 Ticonderoga, 142 ; responsi- 
 bilities of, 146 ; nurses 
 Franklin, 148; entertains 
 Gates, 150; on the road to 
 Saratoga, 153; burns the 
 grain, 154; entertains Bur- 
 govne and the Riedesels, 
 159; Chastellux on, 164; at 
 Philadelphia, 178; at review 
 of army, 181; goes to Phila- 
 delphia, 182; back at Sara- 
 toga, 184; letter to Varick, 
 190; forgives runaways, 205; 
 at Washington’s theatre 
 party, 217; visits the Ham- 
 iltons, 222; dines with the 
 President, 224; personal life 
 of, 227 ; sends presents to 
 grandchildren, 229; grown 
 stout, 233 ; entertains El- 
 kanah Watson, 233 ; hos- 
 pitalities at Albany, 234 ; 
 friendly relations with Mrs. 
 Washington, 235; youthful 
 looks, 235; invited to Mount 
 Vernon, 235; letter from 
 gardener to, 236 ; character 
 of, 239 ; death of, 239 ; buried 
 at Albany, 240. 
 
 Schuyler, Cornelia Van Cort- 
 landt, mother of Philip 
 Schuyler, 29 ; a grand- 
 mother, 64; death of, 76; 
 her estate, 78. 
 
 Schuyler, Cornelia Morton 
 (see Morton). 
 
 Schuyler, Cortlandt, son of 
 Catherine Schuyler, 229. 
 
 Schuyler, Elizabeth (see Ham- 
 ilton). 
 
 Schuyler, Gertrude Cochran 
 (see Cochran). 
 
 Schuyler, John Bradstreet, 
 birth of, 62 ; bequest to, 87 ; 
 marriage of, 227 ; death of, 
 227. 
 
 Schuyler, Madame, aunt of 
 Philip, 30 ; her position in 
 Albany, 31; at New York, 
 45; her return, 47; pleased 
 with Philip, 50; death of her 
 husband, 51; activity in 
 military affairs, 54; shelter- 
 ing fugitives, 54; interview 
 with Charles Lee, 56; nurses 
 Lee, 58; growing old, 64; 
 taste in reading, 75; arranges 
 exchange of stolen children, 
 122 . 
 
 Schuyler, Nellie, pew of, 28. 
 
 Schuyler, Colonel Peter, 70; 
 prisoner in Canada, 108. 
 
 Schuyler, Peter, “Quidor,” 
 
 120 . 
 
 Schuyler, General Philip, a 
 youth of nineteen, 1; record 
 of marriage, 1; at school, 
 9; inherits Saratoga, 18; 
 “Philip of the Pasture,” 18; 
 as captain, 19; marriage, 21; 
 at Lake George, 21 ; brings 
 French prisoners, 21; personal 
 appearance, 22; on the thea- 
 
 248 
 
INDEX 
 
 tre, 45; at Fort Edward, 
 48; at Oswego, 50; rescues 
 Frenchman, 50; brings home 
 wounded, 58; at Frontenac, 
 60; the charge of Bradstreet’s 
 affairs, 61; goes to England, 
 62; captured by privateer, 
 63 ; plums of, 68 ; returns from 
 England, 76; as land owner, 
 80; letter to Jay, 80; letter 
 to his son, 87 ; to Yankee 
 officer, 88; tribute to his 
 wife, 89; buys a newspaper, 
 111; flax mill of, 114; on 
 boundary matters, 117 ; elect- 
 ed to Assembly, 124; defends 
 McDougall, 127 ; letter to 
 Duer, 128; Bradstreet’s ex- 
 ecutor, 129 ; hears of Lexing- 
 ton, 130 ; made major-general, 
 131 ; calls on Governor Tryon, 
 132; gout at St. Johns, 140; 
 letter to Congress, 141 ; begs 
 to resign, 145 ; asks for lead, 
 151 ; at Saratoga, 157 ; super- 
 seded by Gates, 159 ; Chas- 
 tellux on, 166 ; letter to Steu- 
 ben, 178; at Morristown, 179; 
 letter to Arnold, 182; letter 
 from H. Cruger, 187 ; letter 
 to Starke, 190; letter from 
 Duer, 191; plot to abduct, 
 193; Washington to, 194; 
 interview with Cornelia, 203 ; 
 as a father, 204; with his 
 boys, 206; at Washington’s 
 theatre party, 217 ; elected to 
 the senate, 219; on death of 
 Hamilton, 220; in politics, 
 224; dines with the President, 
 224 ; defeated for the senate, 
 226 ; writes of his wife, 229 ; 
 parades in Albany, 231 ; pub- 
 lic dinner to, 232 ; canal com- 
 
 missioner, 233 ; convinces 
 Mohawk Dutchmen, 234 ; in- 
 vited to Mount Vernon, 235; 
 attack of gout, 235; rela- 
 tions with Washington, 235; 
 elected to senate, 236; re- 
 signs, 237 ; on the beginning 
 of the new century, 237 ; eye- 
 sight of, 237 ; on death of his 
 wife, 240. 
 
 Schuyler, Philip, son of John 
 Bradstreet. 
 
 Schuyler, Philip Jeremiah, birth 
 of, 119; Chastellux on, 165. 
 
 Schuyler, Van Rensselaer, at 
 two, 132; with English offi- 
 cers, 162; Chastellux on, 165; 
 at garrison, 205; with his 
 father, 206. 
 
 “ Schuyler Vase,” 120. 
 
 Scott, John Morin, 102. 
 
 Sears, Nathaniel, 127. 
 
 Seaton, William, 234. 
 
 Sedgwick, Theodore, receives 
 the runaways, 204; home in 
 New York, *221. 
 
 Seven Years’ War, 14. 
 
 Shirley, Ann, laments beaux, 
 19; her dress, 24. 
 
 Shippen, Miss, 164. 
 
 Slavery at The Flatts, 38; at 
 Albany, 73. 
 
 Smith, Miss, has the intermit- 
 tent, 96. 
 
 Smith, Mrs. Abigail Adams, 
 321; on society, 49. 
 
 Smith, William, history of 
 New York, 10; desires a 
 stair carpet, 63; letter to 
 Schuyler, 63; writes of 
 Granny Livingston, 96; on 
 Morris’s death, 106 ; on Drum- 
 mond, 119 ; house in New 
 York, 131. 
 
 249 
 
INDEX 
 
 Smith, Rev. Samuel, 75. 
 
 Smyth, George, letter of, 90. 
 
 Starke, General, 190. 
 
 Starke, Caleb, 190. 
 
 Stirling, Lord, “ Old Dry 
 Goods,” 100 ; Baskiugridge, 
 169; daughters of, 169. 
 
 Stockton, Anuis, a blue stock- 
 ing, 75; at Morristown, 170. 
 
 Stuart, Ann, 238. 
 
 Stuart, General Walter, 238. 
 
 Suppawn, described by Tilgh- 
 man, 71. 
 
 Talleyrand, on Hamilton, 
 
 222 . 
 
 Temple, Sir John, 216. 
 
 Ten Broek, Abraham, letter 
 to, 1; guardian of Patroon, 
 194; mayor of Alban}', 235. 
 
 Ten Broek, Cornelius, 99. 
 
 Theatre plays at Albany, 45; 
 customs at, 106; John Street 
 Theatre, 218. 
 
 Theatricals at the President’s, 
 219. 
 
 Ticonderoga, defeat at, 58. 
 
 Tilghman, Tench, on funerals, 
 77 ; on Indians, 122; his visit 
 at the Schuylers’, 134; at 
 Morristown, 179. 
 
 Trinity Church, dedication of, 
 224. 
 
 Trumbull, Jonathan, visit to 
 Albany, 150 ; visits the 
 Churches in London, 201. 
 
 Tryon, Governor, lays corner- 
 stone, 103; visits Albany, 
 128; buying land, 132; on 
 Schuyler’s visit, 201. 
 
 Tryon, Mrs., visits Albany, 
 128. 
 
 Van Berchel, Miss, 223. 
 
 Van Cortlandt, Cornelia, mother 
 of Philip Schuyler, 29 (see 
 Schuyler). 
 
 Van Rensselaer, women as 
 housekeepers, 9; wills of, 10. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Catherine, 
 (see Catherine Schujder). 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Elizabeth, 227. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Gertrude, pew 
 in church, 28. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Harriet, elopes 
 with her cousin, 188; letters 
 to, 201. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Colonel John, 
 younger son of Patroon, 2; 
 on inn keepers, 88; troubles 
 with tenants, 99; managing 
 the boys, 184. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Margaret 
 Schuyler, birth of, 61; mar- 
 riage of, 193; rescuing her 
 sister, 194; letter to Wads- 
 worth, 196 ; dines at Hamil- 
 ton’s, 224; dines with the 
 President, 224; death of, 
 239. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Robert, letters 
 from London, 20. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Solomon, 188. 
 
 Van Rensselaer, Stephen, at 
 Harvard, 194; marriage of, 
 193 ; dines at Hamilton’s, 
 224; in politics, 232; public 
 dinner to, 232. 
 
 Van Rensselaerwyck, manor of, 
 79. 
 
 Van Schaak, Peter, 109. 
 
 Van Schlictenhorst, Margaret, 
 42. 
 
 Varick, Richard, military secre- 
 tary, 132 ; on Burgoyne at 
 Albany, 160; on trouble of 
 guests, 160; letter from his 
 
 250 
 
INDEX 
 
 sister, 190 ; letter from Cath- 
 erine Schuyler to, 190 ; house 
 of, 220. 
 
 Verplauck, Gulian, 126. 
 
 Verplanck, Mrs., 216. 
 
 Villefranche, engineer, 169. 
 
 Visscher, Nick, 200. 
 
 Wadsworth, General Dyer, 
 196. 
 
 Walker, Captain Ben, 171. 
 
 Washington, defeat at Fort 
 Duquesne, 18; extracts from 
 his diary, 40; on springs at 
 Sarotoga, 98 ; home of in New 
 York, 102; Commander-in 
 Chief, 131 ; letter to Schuy- 
 ler, 141 ; dancing with Mrs. 
 Knox, 168 ; on plot to abduct 
 Schuylers, 195 ; horses of, 
 209 ; his theatre party, 216 ; a 
 table, 217 ; calls on the 
 Schuylers, 219 ; fond of the 
 theatre, 219; moves to Mc- 
 Comb house, 220; neighbor 
 of Hamilton, 221; before 
 Society of Cincinnati, 222; 
 his miniature painted, 223 ; 
 at dedication of Trinity 
 Church, 224 ; expected at 
 public dinner, 231 ; invites 
 
 the Schuylers to Mt. Vernon, 
 235 ; harmony of tastes, -23h ; 
 letter to Schuyler, 238; letter 
 from General Schuyler, 238. 
 
 Washington, Mrs., tufted skirt 
 of, 24; green satin sack of, 
 40 ; in camp, 167 ; receives 
 the Morristown ladies, 171; 
 drawing room of, 210 ; writes 
 of loneliness, 216; eating her 
 trifle, 217; at table, 217; 
 friendship with Mrs. Schuy- 
 ler, 235. 
 
 Watson, Elkanali, on Albany 
 house, 66. 
 
 Watts, Kitty, at Albany, 95. 
 
 Watts, Miss, 101. 
 
 Webster, Noah, on New York 
 hospitality, 213 ; on deco- 
 rousness of society, 225. 
 
 Weddings, ceremonies at, 25. 
 
 Westerlo, Mrs., mother of the 
 Patroon, 194. 
 
 Westerlo, Miss, 200. 
 
 Westchester County, History 
 of, 128; white Peggy, 187. 
 
 Widow of Malabar, Colonel 
 Humphreys’s play, 219. 
 
 Wignall, author of “ Darby’s 
 Return,” 218. 
 
 Witherspoon, Dr., 194. 
 
 251 
 
“These volumes form a valuable contribution to the lit- 
 erature of the history of this Nation.” — The Outlook, 
 
 WOMEN OF COLONIAL and 
 EE Y 0 LUTION ARY TIMES 
 
 The Set Complete : 
 
 Catherine Schuyler 
 
 By Mary Gay Humphreys 
 
 Margaret Winthrop 
 
 By Alice Morse Earle 
 
 Eliza Pinckney 
 
 By Harriott Horry Ravenel 
 
 Martha Washington 
 
 By Anne Hollingsworth Wharton 
 
 Mercy Warren 
 
 By Alice Brown 
 
 Dolly Madison 
 
 By Maud Wilder Goodwin 
 
 Each with photogravure portrait or facsimile reproduction, 
 gilt top, uncut edges. Si. 2 5 
 
 SIX VOLUMES IN A BOX, $7.50. 
 
 “A Booh for all True American Women.” 
 
 From The Dial (Chicago). 
 
 E should like to see the admirable little 
 series of biographies of ‘Women of 
 Colonial and Revolutionary Times,’ 
 now issuing from the press of Messrs. Charles 
 Scribner’s Sons, placed within reach of every 
 American woman. The books have the right 
 ring. Their tone is sympathetic, yet critical ; 
 they are evidently the fruit of patient reflection 
 and research. They present, in a concise and 
 attractive way, facts which a true American 
 woman should blush to be ignorant of. Patriot- 
 ism needs, as it craves, a past of its own, — a 
 national Golden Age of exemplary deeds and 
 virtues, a heroic era which looms larger through 
 the mists of time. It is not enough to feed the 
 imagination on the annals of Greece and Rome. 
 That America too has a past to be proud of, that 
 American women need not look abroad for pat- 
 terns of high conduct in the day of trial, these 
 beautiful little volumes abundantly attest.” 
 
CATHERINE SCHUYLER (daughter of John 
 Van Rensselaer and Engeltie Livingston, and 
 wife of Major-General Philip Schuyler). By 
 Mary Gay Humphreys. With Portrait in Pho- 
 togravure, 12mo, 61-25. 
 
 This is the sixth and final volume in a series 
 designed to portray, through the careers of some 
 of the famous women of those epochs, the social 
 and domestic life of Colonial and Revolutionary 
 times. Mrs. Schuyler’s life touched upon the 
 most important events of her day, and furnishes 
 an interesting and valuable series of pictures of 
 the manners and customs of her time in Albany, 
 in the old Hudson River manor houses, in New 
 York City, in camp, etc. 
 
 I — Courtship at Albany 
 II — A Soldier’s Wife 
 lit — The Young Mistress 
 IV — Young Married Life 
 V — The Mistressof theMan- 
 sion 
 
 VI — The Chatelaine of Sara- 
 toga 
 
 VII — Visiting and Receiving 
 Visits 
 
 VIII — Making Ready for the 
 Storm 
 
 IX — The Beginning of the 
 Struggle 
 
 X— The Battle of Saratoga 
 XI — Campaigning at Morris- 
 town 
 
 XII — Girls and Boys 
 
 XIII — The First Administration 
 
 XIV — Xearing the End 
 
 “It is to be hoped that American girls are reading this series of biog- 
 raphies .” — Boston Journal. 
 
 MARTHA WASHINGTON. By Anne H. Wharton. 
 
 With Portrait in Photogravure, 12mo, 61.25. 
 
 I — A Little Virginia Maid VI — A Journey to Cambridge 
 
 II — An Early Marriage VII — Camp Life 
 
 III — The Young Virginia VIII — After the War 
 
 Colonel " " IX — Life in New York. 
 
 IV — EarlvDavsat Mt. Vernon X — Philadelphia the Capital 
 
 V — The Shadow of Coming XI — Last Days at Mt. Vernon 
 
 Events 
 
 “The task has been well performed. A mono- 
 graph on Mrs. Washington has been needed, and 
 we have it here written with animation and with 
 skill.” — New York Tribune. 
 
 “None of the preceding volumes has surpassed 
 this in importance or interest.” — Chicago Inter- 
 Ocean. 
 
MARGARET WIRTHROP (wife of the Gover- 
 nor of Massachusetts). By Alice Morse Earle, 
 With Facsimile Reproduction, 12mo, $1.25. 
 
 I — A Puritan Wooing VIH — Woman Friends and 
 
 II — Margaret Winthrop’s Neighbors 
 
 Home IX — Religious Life in Boston 
 
 III — The Puritan Housewife X — Mistress Anne Hutchin- 
 
 IV — Conclusions for New son 
 
 England XI — Acadia and New England 
 
 T — Separation and Reunion XH — Public Events and Clos- 
 VI — Home Life in Boston mg Days 
 
 Vli — Social Life in Boston 
 
 “ The volume is history, biography, romance com- 
 bined. It is accurate in its descriptions, author- 
 itative in its statements, and exquisitely charming 
 in its portraiture. Mrs. Earle has already done 
 some excellent work; but her ‘Margaret Win- 
 throp ’ is her best, and can hardly fail to become 
 a classic.” — Boston Advertiser. 
 
 “ The series introduced by Messrs. Scribner’s Sons is admirable in 
 intention , and so far excellent in execution , and ice may safely predict 
 tho it will prove a valuable element in the education of the American 
 girl.” — JTew York Times. 
 
 DOLLY MADISOR (wife of James Madison). 
 By Maud Wilder Goodwin. With Portrait in 
 Photogravure, 12mo, $1.25. 
 
 I — Childhood VIII — War Clouds 
 
 H — A Quaker Girlhood IX — The Burning of Wash- 
 
 HT — Friend -John Todd ington 
 
 IV — “The Great Little Mad- X — Peace 
 
 ison ” XI — Life at Montpellier 
 
 V — The New Capital XII — Virginia Hospitality 
 
 VI — Wife of the Secretary XIII — Last Days at Montpellier 
 of State XIV — Washington Once More 
 
 VLL — In the White Honse XV — Old Age and Death 
 
 “This is something more than an account of a 
 person ; it is a sketch, done in careful but still 
 easy fashion, affording glimpses of life and man- 
 ners in Virginia and in Washington during the 
 last half of the eighteenth and the first half of 
 the present century. ... We repeat, that this is 
 an unusually good piece of biographical work. 
 It is well written, and it displays an admirable 
 sense of what is worth while. Mrs. Goodwin is 
 to be congratulated.” — New York Sun. 
 
 3 
 
MERCY WARREN (sister of James Otis). By 
 Alice Bro\frn. With Portrait in Photogravure, 
 12mo, $1.25. 
 
 I— In the Beginning VIII— The History of the Revo- 
 
 II — Barnstable Days lution 
 
 III — Life at Plymouth IX — An Historical Difference 
 
 IV — The Testimony of Letters X — Thought and Opinion 
 
 V — The Woman’s’ Part XI — The Beloved Son 
 
 VI— Early American Literature XII — On Milton Hill 
 
 VII — Literary Work XIII — Terminus 
 
 “ But the beauty of her life has not departed, and 
 she is remembered now by her genius for making 
 friends, her skill in portraying them, and the 
 sense and sensibility which runs through her 
 letters and which ruled her life.” — The Speaker 
 (London). 
 
 “ A very entertaining book.” — Chicago Inter- 
 Ocean. 
 
 “ Of all the ‘ historical series * lately 'projected there is none that pos- 
 sesses greater interest than the Women of Colonial and Revolutionary 
 Times.” — Albany Journal. 
 
 ELIZA PINCKNEY (wife of Chief- Justice 
 Pinckney, of South Carolina). By Harriott 
 Horry Ravenel. With Facsimile Reproduction, 
 12mo, $1.25. 
 
 I — First Years in Carolina IX — Death of Chief Justice 
 
 II — Manners and Customs Pinckney 
 
 III — A Country Neighbor- X — The Indian Wars 
 
 hood XI — LetterstoEnglishFriends 
 
 IV — Marriage XII — Domestic and Social De- 
 
 V — The Pinckney Family tails 
 
 VI — Early Marrie’d Life XIII — Beginning of the Revo- 
 
 VII — Motherhood lution 
 
 VIII — Visit to England XIV — End of the Revolution 
 
 XV — Old Age and Death 
 
 “Mrs. Ravenel’s book is of quite exceptional 
 value, and depicts in great detail and with an 
 indescribable charm the manners and customs of 
 a past generation. It has a decided historical 
 as well as an intimate personal interest.” — Phil- 
 adelphia Press. 
 
 Charles Scribner’s Sons, Publishers 
 153-157 Fifth Avenue, New York 
 
 4 
 
?20>7 S39?h 
 
 chreya 
 
 16346 
 
 . 0 -t t >? r j n i S ghuy 1 cyr - 
 
 920.7