Tag: Revolutionary War

Thomas Hughson – William Hughson – Thomas Hughson – Cornelius Edward Hughson

Thomas A. Dignacco has researched the early Huson’s and provides the information included in this section. The progenitor of this branch of the Hughson family was THOMAS HUGHSON, born about 1670, who came from England or Scotland about 1690 and settled at Dobbs Ferry, on the East bank of the Hudson River, in the Philipsburg Manor in Westchester County, in the colony of New York. Little is known of his origins except for traditions passed down in various branches of the family. One story, written down by John Ward Hughson in 1964 is that the Hughsons were Scottish, and came to America via England, settling first on Staten Island. “Finding that place too windy, they moved inland up the Hudson River…..” Another story, passed on by Edward Byron Huson is that the first Hughson immigrant was the son of an “English Lord” who bequeathed money to his son in America which was never claimed because Father and Son took opposite sides in some conflict involving the British. Still another legend, told by Hobart Huson, Sr. is that the Hughsons were French Huguenots (Calvinist Protestants) who fled to England following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685) and thence to New York.

Regardless of these stories, it seems clear that THOMAS HUGHSON was an English-speaking immigrant who gave English names to all of his children. He married about 1694 MARIA DOBBS, daughter of Walter Dobbs and Mary Merritt. The parents of Walter Dobbs are said to have come from New England but no trace of this family name has been found there. Mary Merritt is said to have been born in England. However, there were Merritt families in Westchester County in 1670 and it is certainly possible that Mary Merritt belonged to one of these families. One John Merritt served on a New York (city) grand jury in 1641; a Thomas Merritt, 1634-1725, lived in Rye, New York, and a William Merritt was Mayor of New York in 1695. Which of these (or another) may have been the family of Mary (Merritt) Dobbs is unknown.

Walter and Mary (Merritt) Dobbs’ son John Dobbs was born about 1675 on Barren Island, Flatlands, Long Island, and did not settle at Wysquaqua (later Dobbs Ferry) until about 1698. THOMAS HUGHSON may have met and married Maria Dobbs at Flatlands, Long Island.

The births and baptisms of several of THOMAS HUGHSON’s children and grandchildren were recorded in the Church Record Book of Philipsburg between 1706 and 1754. THOMAS HUGHSON’s home is said to have been located at what is now the corner of Broadway and Cedar Street in Dobbs Ferry.

In the period 1698-1740 the Philipsburg Manor was controlled by the family of Frederick Philipse, whose Castle was just north of Dobbs Ferry and Tarreytown at Sleepy Hollow. Life on the Manors of New York was far less regulated than on the feudal manors of Europe. Land was cheap and plentiful in New York, and settlers were consequently reluctant to become tenant farmers on these vast tracts of granted land. In fact, Frederick Philipse often let families settle on his land without charge, as did Stephanus Van Cortlandt on his manor to the north, in return for their improving the land and helping to defend it against the French and the Indians. This cheapness of land and the high cost of labor was responsible for New Yorkers having to import many Negroes from Africa to supply their labor needs, a situation that later brought grief to the Hughson family. It is reported that the Manor of Philipsburg had only 20 tenant farmers in 1700, in an area that spanned much of Westchester County.

THOMAS HUGHSON’s death is unreported, but probably occurred soon after 1741.

Children:

1. Thomas, b. About 1695
2. John, b. about 1700
3. WILLIAM, bapt. Philipsburg 13 Aug. 1706
4. Richard, bapt. Philipsburg 13 Aug. 1706
5. Mary, bapt. Philipsburg 16 June 1707
6. Abigail, bapt. Philipsburg 10 Aug. 1708
7. Benjamin, b. New York
8. Walter,
9. Nathaniel,

Thomas Hughson (WILLIAM’s brother)

Thomas Hughson (WILLIAM’s brother), born about 1695 in the colony of New York, married about 1715 Christina (Neythäber?). He is said to have resided in Dobbs Ferry on Broadway just below the present junction with Ashford Avenue. Christina’s family name remains unknown with any certainty. It is possible she had some New York Dutch ancestors, as some descendents in this branch of the family claim to a partial Dutch ancestry.

Henry Z. Jones, in his book on the Palatine immigrants to New York argues that Thomas Hughson married Christina Catherina Neythäber (Neidhöfer, Neidthöffer), who was baptized, 24 November 1689, daughter of Quirinus and Maria Elisabetha (Beck) Neythäber of Phillipsburgh. Quirinus (or John Quirinus) Neythäber was born possibly in Singhofen (5 kilometers south-east of Nassau) in 1666-67, a son of Johan Emrich Neidthöffer and married at Frücht (10 km. west of Nassau) 12 October 1686, Maria Elizabetha, daughter of Johan George Beck. This couple, members of the Lutheran church, was in the first Palatine arrivals at London in 1709. Quirinus was naturalized at New York City, 10 January 1715/16.

The baptism of only three children of Thomas and Christina Hughson is recorded in the Church Record Book of Philipsburgh. However, it seems likely that they had at least one other son, Thomas, and possibly other children, in order to account for the large number of Hughson’s living in Philipse Patent (southern Dutchess County) prior to the Revolution. The dates and places of death of Thomas and Christina have not been found. Thomas was not impeached at the time of the 1741 “conspiracy” trial and so he may have left Westchester County by this time, possibly settling in the Lake Mahopac area in Dutchess County (now Putnam County), where his son George lived.

Children:

1. George, bapt. Philipsburgh 23 Apr. 1717
2. Thomas, (possibly), b. about 1720
3. Christina, b. about 1721
4. Jeremiah (possibly), b. about 1722-1725
5. Walter (possibly), b. about 1726
6. 6. Elizabeth, bapt. Sleepy Hollow Church, 11 Oct. 1729
7. 7. Isaac, (possibly) bapt. 1738 Records of the old Church (now Terrytown, N.Y.)

George Hughson (WILLIAM’s nephew), baptized at Philipsburgh 23 April 1717, married Susannah ________. She was born, about 1717. Her maiden name is still unknown. They were the first white family to settle (about 1740) in the region of Lake Mahopac (called Hughson’s Pond prior to the revolution), in the Philipse Patent in the southern precinct of Dutchess County. His farm was on the ridge just north of the lake, now in Carmel Township, Putnam County. George died about 1769 at Hughson’s Farm.

According to William J. Blake’s HISTORY OF PUTNAM COUNTY, the first settlement (in Carmel Township) was made by George Hughson, who located on the ridge just north of Lake Mahopac and west of the residence of Nathaniel Crane about 1740. Anthony Hill, who came from Holland to New York City about 1720 and had made a settlement at Fox Meadows (Westchester County), sent his two oldest sons Uriah and William (born 1728) to clear up a tract of land he had just bought from the Indians. One night young William Hill was pursued by wolves while searching for his cow. He escaped them by making a circuit to the north side of Lake Mahopac where early in the morning he came to the log house of George Hughson. This was the first he knew of a white man residing there. Hughson told William Hill that he had settled there about a year earlier.

The Philipse Patent, also known as the Highland Patent, was purchased in 1697 by Adolph Philipse, son of Frederick Philipse, baron of the Philipsburgh Manor. Adolph died in 1749 intestate, and the estate descended to his nephew Frederick, son of Philip Philipse. Frederick died in 1751, leaving his “Upper Patent” plus the immense Manor of Philipsburgh in Westchester County in parts to his sons Frederick and Philip and his 3 daughters. The portion including the Lake Mahopac Hughson settlement came into the hands of daughter Mary Philipse, born 1730, who married Col. Roger Morris. Following the Revolution, in 1782, Morris’ share was confiscated and sold in forfeiture.

Settlement of the colonial manors of New York became more rapid after 1750. The rugged highlands of Putnam County presented less attraction to farmers and were slower to be settled than Westchester to the south and Dutchess to the north. In 1766 some of the manor landowners tried to affirm their ownership of the unsold portions of their patents. In March 1766, the Philipse family tried to evict tenants in the Philipse Patent who had purchased their land directly from the Indians or in other ways had settled on Philipse land without paying rent. During what became known as the “Tenant Uprising of 1766,” George Hughson and James Livingston were two who testified (in September 1766) that they had never recognized the Philipses’ title to their land; had never paid or received demand for rent, and had never been registered on the rent rolls of the Philipses.

It is a legend among horse experts that the first begetter of the famous Dutchess horses was the beautiful white stallion of the Marquis de Montcalm of Quebec. Given as one of the spoils of the war against the French (1754-60) to Major Roger Morris, he was put to stud on the Hughson farm, perhaps about 1762.

George Hughson died in mid or late 1769. His wife Susannah died in 1771 or 1772  Both are presumed buried in the Hughson family plot on the Hughson farm near Carmel. His will, dated 25 April 1769, witnessed by Thomas Hughson, Eborn Haight and Robert Weekes, mentions only his sons Robert, James and Joshua, besides his wife Susannah, who is to “bring up my family”. It seems likely however that he had several children. A memorandum written by David T. Huson (1808 – 1889) and found in 1891 suggests that Thomas, James, Nathaniel, and possibly Elizabeth Land were brothers and sister.  No vital records for Fredericksburgh have been found for this period. The Thomas Hughson who witnessed his will may have been his son Thomas, or a younger brother.

Children:

1. Robert, b. about 1739
2. Thomas, b. 17 Jan. 1740
3. John (possibly), b. about 1742
4. George Thomas (possibly), b. circa 1745
5. James, b. about 1746 in New York.
6. Joshua, b. about 1749-53
7. Nathaniel, b. 16 Jul. 1755
8. Rachel (probably), b. 2 April 1758
9. Sylvanus (possibly), b. circa 1759-60
10. Chloe, b. circa 1762 in New York
11. Elizabeth (possibly), b. circa 1765
12. (possibly 0thers)

The New York Conspiracy of 1741

John Hughson (b. abt 1700), second son of THOMAS (b. abt 1670) became embroiled in a terrible episode which is still one of the most extraordinary events in American colonial history. Like the Salem witch trials, but much more murderous, the New York Conspiracy of 1741 led to the trials of 20 whites and more than 150 slaves accused of conspiracy. Eventually 35 persons were hanged or buried alive, and more than 70 were banished from British North America, including the HUGHSON family. The story is told in a recently reprinted rare book, originally written in 1741 by Daniel Horsmanden, one of the judges at the trials. The story provides an excellent but dreadful example of the destruction that may result when fear and hysteria grow in a populous and deeply suspicious society. The events began with a robbery involving both blacks and whites and a series of fires which, compounded by uneasiness over an unpopular war with Spain and anti-Catholicism, intensified the existing fear of a slave uprising. On 6 April 1741, when Cuffee, a slave of Adolph Philipse, was seen fleeing from the scene of a fire, a shout went up “that the negroes were rising.” Two days after this, John Hughson, alehouse keeper, and his wife Sarah were arrested for receiving goods stolen from Robert Hogg’s shop. Earlier, Caesar, another slave, was arrested after also being found with goods stolen from Hogg’s. The investigation of the connection between these two blacks and Hughson produced evidence that confirmed in some minds the suspicion that the fires and robberies were part of some concerted criminal activity. On 21 April, a grand jury was summoned and charged to consider the “many frights and terrors which the good people of this city have of late been put into, by repeated and unusual fires and burning of houses.”

The investigation into this affair interrupted the normal routine in New York for more than six months. Emotional excitement ran high; historians have characterized the mood of the populace as “hysterical” or “a plague of popular frenzy,” with a search for scapegoats. Undeniably, John Hughson entertained and served liquor to groups of blacks at his alehouse. Ten other alehouse keepers in New York were similarly found to be in violation of the law. In those times, it was illegal for slaves to be out unidentified at night, to travel through the city without permission, to meet in groups of more than three, and it was illegal for whites to serve liquor to slaves, although many alehouse keepers did.

The trial proceedings attracted controversy. While some people declared that no plot or conspiracy had existed at all, and others saw the affair as a public search for scapegoats and a product of mass delusion, most of the citizens of New York, who remembered a slave uprising in 1712, saw evidence of conspiracy in every testimony describing an incident in violation of the law.

From Horsmanden’s contemporary account of the proceedings, we learn several details about the life of the Hughson family in 1741. The book confirms that there were, living in the New York area at that time, THOMAS HUGHSON, yeoman, and his six sons, John (married with at least 3 children), Nathaniel, Walter, WILLIAM, Richard, and one other son (unnamed) who stood clear of impeachment. All the sons indicated that they had families. John’s daughters Sarah and Mary were both single in 1741. John’s wife Sarah had a sucking child at her breast at the Supreme Court hearing on June 4, 1741. John and Sarah had an indentured servant, Mary Burton, age 16, living with them and working as a maid in their public house. Mary had come to work for the Hughsons about mid-summer, 1740. Mary Burton’s testimony against the Hughsons was instrumental in their being jailed and convicted. Also lodging at John Hughson’s house was one Margaret Sorubiero, alias Salingburgh, alias Kerry or Carey, called “Peggy”, an Irish girl from Newfoundland, age 21-22, who was described as a prostitute. John Hughson is reported to have moved to his house at the north river in May 1738. His house was large, with several rooms, an upstairs, and cellars. John is reported to have had a boat, which he regularly used on the Hudson river. His daughter Sarah reported that they had lived at Ellis’s dock about a year earlier. His next-door neighbors included Francis Silvester and Geraldus Comfort.

Sarah’s mother (John’s mother-in-law), Anna Elizabeth Luckstead, was depicted in the trials as an elderly woman who told fortunes. The Hughson’s daughter, Sarah, insisted that she did not know of a plot, until she was sentenced to death and offered a pardon if she would confess, at which point she confessed to a plot involving her parents and several negroes. Their daughter, Mary, who would have been only about 12, was never arrested or interviewed.

Throughout the proceedings, the Hughsons maintained their innocence. Mary Burton, who was not indicted and who moreover was rewarded for her testimony, claimed that the Hughsons had conspired to burn the town down and murder all the white people, and set up a new colony with Hughson as king. Several slaves testified with similar stories.

John Hughson’s neighbor, Francis Silvester, testified that “when John Hughson lived next door to him on the dock, he reproached Hughson about keeping such a disorderly house” (dancing, and entertaining negroes after curfew). and Hughson replied that it was his wife’s idea to leave the country, where he sustained his family well by his shoemaker’ craft and his farm, and come to the city, but his wife felt they would live much better in town. Hughson told Silvester that he wished to return to the country again, for they hadn’t done that well in town, and his family was so large. Hughson said that his wife was the chief cause of having the negroes at his house, and he was afraid that some misfortune would happen to him. Others who testified for the Hughsons included Andrew and Eleanor Ryan, Mr. Blank, Peter Kirby, Adam King, Gerardus Comfort. Some of these testified that they had seen no gatherings of negroes at Hughson’s house; others that they had seen Hughson give a dram (of liquor) to a negro, but that Hughson was a civil man.

The prosecution charged that Hughson and the other prisoners “had entered into a most wicked and hellish plot to set on fire and lay in ashes the king’s house (Fort George, the residence of the royal governor), and this whole town, and to kill and destroy the inhabitants.” The court found some 33 persons, including John and Sarah Hughson, guilty as charged.

John Hughson, brother of WILLIAM, and John’s wife and Margaret Kerry were hanged on 12 June 1741. John Ury, a Roman Catholic school teacher, who insisted to the end that he didn’t know and had never met John Hughson, was hanged August 29. In addition, some 150 slaves were tried and 31 hanged or burned at the stake or buried alive. The slaves who were accused of conspiring to revolt for their freedom, ironically, were those who lived well and enjoyed considerable freedom of movement in New York. The names of the owner of the slaves involved in the plot read like a “Who’s Who” of colonial New York families: Roosevelt, DeLancey, Courtlandt, Jay, Livingston, and Philipse.

THOMAS HUGHSON, the father, and his sons Nathaniel, Walter, WILLIAM and Richard, who were all arrested June 12 or 13, 1741. On September 24, while still imprisoned in Westchester county jail, they petitioned the judges of the supreme court as follows:

“May it please your honours, our being so long confined in prison, and at this season of the year (harvest), has almost reduced our families to become a public charge, and we are likely to perish should we be continued here the approaching winter. We are innocent of the crime laid to our charge, and hope it would appear, were we to be tried: and we humbly pray, that if the law will admit of it, we may be delivered to bail, which we can procure, until you shall think proper to try us. But if the law will not admit us to be bailed, rather than to suffer here, and our wives and children should perish at home, or be burthensome to their neighbours, we are willing to accept of a pardon, to prevent our being further molested on account of the indictment found against us, and to depart this province, and never to make any settlement any more therein; and we humbly pray your honours to procure the same for us, and in such manner that we may be released as soon as possible; we remain, your most obedient, though distressed, humble servants, Thomas Hughson, Richard Hughson, William Hughson, Nathaniel Hughson, Walter Hughson.” (hors,mck)

THOMAS HUGHSON, and his sons Nathaniel, Walter, WILLIAM and Richard, were pardoned on 21 October 1741, on condition that they depart the province (of New York).

John Hughson (WILLIAM’s brother)

Children of John and Sarah (Lockstedt) Hughson:

1. Sarah, bapt. Sleepy Hollow, 4 Sept. 1725
2. William, bapt. Sleepy Hollow, 29 June 1728 or 1729
3. Mary, bapt. Sleepy Hollow, 11 Oct. 1729
4. Jane or Janet, b.
5. possibly Jeremiah, b. Jan 1732
6. Elizabeth, bapt. Sleepy Hollow, 21 Aug. 1734
7. Margaret, bapt. Sleepy Hollow, 20 Nov. 17
8. possibly Martha, b.
9. possibly Samuel, b. New York, 1739
10. possibly Lewis, b. New York, 1741

WILLIAM HUGHSON

WILLIAM HUSON was born about August 13, 1706 in Dobbs Ferry, Putnam County, New York. He married Mary Dobbs in Philipsburgh, New York.

They had several children, and it is believed that THOMAS HUGHSON was the second son, and it’s not yet known whether Levi or Tartullis were born first.

1. Levi, died in Revolutionary War as a Loyalist.
2. Tartullis, died in Revolutionary War as a Loyalist.
3. Mary, born about 1733
4. THOMAS, born Jan 17, 1739/40
5. Nathaniel, born about 1743, and possibly died before 1755.
6. William, born about 1745
7. Caleb, born about 1748
8. Nathaniel, born about 1755

WILLIAM HUGHSON died in 1754 in Courtland Manor, New York.

THOMAS HUGHSON, born, 17 January 1740, in Fredericksburg, Dutchess County, New York.  It seems most likely that the Thomas Hughson who witnessed George Hughson’s 1769 will was his son, as there is no evidence yet found for a Thomas of an earlier generation. The earliest appearance of his name is as a taxpayer in Fredericksburg, Southern Dutchess County (today Putnam County), from 1767 to 1771. Certainly the children of Thomas considered themselves to be close relatives of the descendants of James Hughson, and Nathaniel Hughson.

This Thomas Hughson is possibly the same young man as the Thomas Hughson, born Philipsburgh 1739-40, who served in the New York Provincial Troops in 1760 and 1761. A Thomas Hughson, age 20, laborer, born Philipsburgh, Westchester County, standing 5′ 8″, with black hair and dark eyes, enlisted in Westchester County, 25 May 1760, into Capt. Tredwell’s Company, raised for Capt. Bayeux. He enlisted the same day, and into the same company, as his cousin Richard Hughson. Thomas re-enlisted in Westchester County, 11 April 1761, at age 22, standing 5′ 8 ½”, into Lieut. Horton’s Company and was a part of Capt. Jonathan Haight’s Company, 1 June 1761 as a private. However, Grenville Mackenzie’s manuscript places this Thomas as a son of William and Mary Hughson of Philipsburgh. William and Mary did indeed have a son Thomas, of about the same age as Nathaniel Hughson, listed his brother Thomas along with his sisters Abigail and Mary in his 1761 will.

We are fortunate that a letter has been preserved, written by John Thomas Huson in 1899, concerning his grandfather and his family. John wrote:

Thomas Huson, [was] born June 17th, 1740, I think in Manchester, England, and Jane Thompkins, his wife, born October 31st, 1745… My Grandfather, Cornelius Huson, was his son… Gen. Thomas Huson, when he became of age, being a second son of the family, had for his inheritance a commission in the British Army, and was stationed in command of the fort near Lake Ontario, and was killed about the close of the Revolutionary war at the battle of the White Plaines; hence at the close of the Revolutionary war they [the children of Thomas] were compelled to go to Canada in order that they might draw their pension and inheritance. All went but my grandfather, Cornelius Huson, who remained and preferred to be bound out to blacksmith. When of age he married Sarah Wing…. My father, Thomas Huson, moved into Erie County… in 1816. In about one year afterwards my grandfather and family came to him and bought land adjoining my father’s… We live within 40 or 50 miles of our relatives in Canada. We knew of them by hearsay only; never had any correspondence, for the reason that they urged my grandfather to come to Canada and claim his inheritance. That he could not do without taking the oath of allegiance to the King, which he never would do, and he pledged his entire familly never to do it, for he said he was American born.

In 1834 a young man by the name of Levi Huson, about 23 years old, came to us claiming that he came from Canada. He told us all about our relatives, and how they were prospering. He stayed about a year and a half. We have always had the greatest respect for our relatives in Canada….

A similar account was written by Allie Byron Huson, in  October 1964:

I know this much about the Huson family, it is a very old family. An old English family and goes back beyond the War of 1776. My grandfather [Byron Franklin Huson] did not mention the old family in the family record, and I don’t know why. According to my father [Byron Huson], the family record was a subject close to my grandfather’s heart.  …Although I cannot remember all the details [my father told me], being only a young boy and not too interested, I will write down what I do remember, and it is still very plain in my memory.

In the first place, our grandfather in the 5th or 6th place was an English lord. He was a great man and very wealthy. That was before the great war of 1775. This grandfather had a son, we do not know his name. This son came to this country before the Revolutionary War and settled, as far as I can find out, in New York State.

He was an independent sort of chap, and very hardy, as they had to be in those days in order to survive. Anyhow, when the Revolutionary War broke out, he joined the army against Great Britain. His father sided with his country Great Britain, of course, and .. they had harsh words, by letter of course. From that time on, father and son were enemies. The son refused to have anything to do with his father. In fact, he was so bitter that he changed our name.

Lord Hughson eventually died and left all his property, which was considerable, to his, I believe, only son. Some of his property was in today the heart of London. The son refused to claim the money, saying he did not want any filthy blood-stained English money, and there things stood. The son fiinallly died, and the money continued to grow as it piled up in interest. Several times English lawyers tried to settle the estate with the heirs, but the Husons were just not interested in English money,

Finally, Lord Hughson’s property was sold and all the money was deposited in the Bank of England where it grew so large the bank was forced to stop the interest on the principal. According to my father, it was in the millions of dollars.’

Finally, one of the Husons, a lawyer, decided it would be nice to have, and he set about collecting all the evidence the family would need to prove they were the legal heirs to the fortune. According to my father, he made a trip to London. He finally assembled all the proof, went before the family, and argued that he had gathered all the proof, and spent a lot of money, so they would have to give him the bulk of the fortune. The others told him they would give him his share plus a rich fee for his work. He angrily told the family they could come to his terms or they would not get anything. They refused to  come to his terms, so there things stood. Some time later this lawyer died, but before he died he burned all the records he had collected, stating that nobody would get anything, and there the matter stands to this day. No one has tried to get the money since. … According to my father, the lawyer was my father’s uncle”.

This story has interesting similarities to the story told in the paragraph on Gabriel Huson, concerning a Drake family estate. One possibility is that two (or more) stories are confused and intermixed here. First, the story of Lieut. THOMAS HUGHSON and some of his sons, who did indeed take opposite sides during the Revolution. The sons who took land in Canada as Loyalists probably did try to entice their American brothers to come to Canada and claim their lands as the sons of Loyalists. The second story mixed in here might be a much older legend concerning THOMAS HUGHSON the English immigrant, who was nick-named the “Earl of Warwick” in the 1710’s and might have come from a landed gentry family in England. It’s also remotely possible that Gabriel Huson (1738-1826), who was clearly a colorful character, contacted some of his American cousins to try to enlist them in his wild claims against Great Britain.

THOMAS married, 25 September 1765, JANE TOMPKINS, who was born, 31 October 1745. Her parents are not yet identified, but she might be related to the Joseph Tompkins Jr. who served in 1761-63 as executor to the will of Nathaniel Hughson. Descendent John Thomas Huson reported in 1899 that “Thomas, being a second son of the family, had for his inheritance a commission in the British army, and was stationed in command of [a] fort near Lake Ontario.” From the story passed down by other descendants, Thomas and “his elder sons” were Loyalists in the war of the Revolution, “yet did not rise in open war with their neighbors, or act as auxiliaries to the Indians, but their proclivities were against the struggle for liberty.” Thomas’s son Elijah claimed in 1798 that Thomas Hughson “served as a Lieutenant in Colonel Robeson’s Corps [Col. Beverly Robinson?] during the late War in America and was killed by the Enemy near the White Plains, when commanding a scouting party, and acting at that time as a Captain.” We assume that he died circa 1776-80. The Battle of White Plains, won by the British, was in October 1776. No record of Thomas appears in Fredericksburg after 1775.

THOMAS’ widow, JANE, married second Lieut. Richard Peters, who was born in 1748. Richard had first married Jerusha Sutton, who must have died young. Richard is said to have been a Revolutionary War soldier from New York State. In Elijah’s 1798 petition, Richard is said to have been “a very great sufferer during the late War in America.” Whether Jane lived in New York City or came to Canada is unknown.

Children of THOMAS and JANE (TOMPKINS) HUGHSON:

1. Caleb (son), b. 21 May 1766 prob. in Dutchess Co.; went to Canada
2. Nathaniel (son), b. 22 Jul. 1767 in Fredericksburg, N.Y.
3. Levi (son), b. 17 Nov 1768 in Fredericksburg, N.Y.
4. Tartullus (son), b. 27 Nov. 1770
5. CORNELIUS (son), b. 30 Oct. 1772 in Dutchess County
6. Elijah (son), b. 24 Sep. 1774 in N.Y. State; went to Canada
7. Thomas (son), b. 9 July 1776; died at childbirth.

Children of Richard and Jerusha (Sutton) Peters:

1. Phebe (daughter), b. circa 1775
2. probably others

Children of Richard and Jane (Tompkins) Peters:

1. Unknown

 

Sources:

• 1THE HUGHSONS by Thomas A. Dignacco, et al