Jan Kelsey’s recent talk at the library described the hardships endured during the Revolution by residents of Rye and other parts of Westchester County that have been collectively called the “Neutral Ground.” However, actual neutrality never existed there, as neither the British nor Americans could maintain control of the area. Depending on their loyalties, residents suffered often from physical and property abuse by both armies as well as two principal bands of marauders.
Colonel Thomas Thomas, a resident of the Purchase section of Rye Town, commanded a Westchester regiment that fought the British and protected the county from British and Loyalist troops as well as marauders. The British officer most feared for guerrilla operations in Westchester was Colonel James DeLancey, who commanded the Westchester Refugees, a Loyalist brigade. His men collected forage and provisions for the British army, took prisoners for exchange, captured British deserters, and protected Loyalist residents and their property.
James DeLancey was a nephew of Brigadier General Oliver DeLancey, Sr., the most senior Loyalist officer in the British forces. Oliver was a prominent New Yorker whose family had been very influential in the colony for many years. At the conclusion of the Revolution, Oliver and James De Lancey and their families escaped to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada, with some family members moving from there to England.
Oliver DeLancey’s property in Mamaroneck, “Heathcote Hill,” was once part of the estate of Caleb Heathcote, who was the founder of Scarsdale Manor. It was confiscated after the Revolution under New York’s laws of attainder and confiscation.
However, John Peter DeLancey was able to acquire the property in the 1780s, apparently because he was part of a younger generation and a less prominent supporter of the British than his grandfather and uncle. In 1792 he built a new DeLancey house on the original manor site in Mamaroneck and the same year, his daughter, Susan Augusta DeLancey was born.
In 1811, Susan DeLancey was married to James Fenimore Cooper at the family residence by the Reverend Samuel Haskell, rector of Christ’s Episcopal Church in Rye. Haskell had recently become Rector of Christ’s Church, where the family of John Jay were prominent parishioners, according to “Blessed by God, The History of Christ’s Church, Rye, New York.”
The Coopers’ daughter Susan recalled in her memoir that, “when out in the gig, we frequently met the Rector of the Church at Rye, the parish to which the family at Heathcote Hill belonged.” She also says that her DeLancey family had a close friendship with “the Jays at Rye.” The elderly Mrs. Jay, who was then living in the home on the Boston Post Road, known as the “Locusts,” was the widow of Peter Jay, Jr., a brother of the Founding Father John Jay.
Part 2 of this column will describe how the “Neutral Ground” played a key role in “The Spy,” an important novel written in 1821 by James Fenimore Cooper.
