Boscobel

St. Philip’s as it appears today.

St. Philip’s in the Highlands is an Episcopalian church that was originally founded by Beverly Robinson, one of the Hudson Valley’s most prominent loyalists. A devout Anglican, Robinson built the chapel to service the other Anglicans living on his 60,000 acre estate in lower Dutchess (now Putnam) County. The estate included the entirety of the modern town of Putnam Valley, and parts of Philipstown, Kent, Patterson, and Garrison.

            St. Philip’s suffered from a turbulent beginning. Opening its doors in 1771, the small congregation was quickly divided by the American Revolution. The Wardens and Vestrymen of the Revolutionary Generation were divided almost evenly by the war, with members rising to prominence on both sides of the conflict. Most famous of these was Beverly Robinson himself, who raised a loyalist regiment (the Loyal Americans) to fight for the King and was intimately involved with both the treason of Benedict Arnold and attempts to lure Vermont’s Ethan Allen to the British cause.

Colonel Beverly Robinson, from Benson Lossing’s Fieldbook of the American Revolution

            Robinson ultimately suffered for his allegiance to the Crown. He was attainted (declared an outlaw) by New York State in 1777, and as such was subject to be executed on site and buried “without benefit of clergy” should he ever be found in New York again. His home and property were confiscated in 1779, an estimated value of ₤148,000 (by way of comparison, States Dyckman was able to live comfortably in London on ₤200 a year). Robinson settled in England after the war, and died in Bath on April 9, 1792.

A memorial plaque dedicated to Beverly Robinson that hangs near the baptismal font at St. Philip’s.

            St. Philip’s fared little better than its chief benefactor during the War. The chapel closed its doors in 1774 when its minister, John Doty, fled the area for Schenectady in the face of the Revolution.  The vacant church grounds were used by as a camp ground by the American and French armies, due to the abundant timber resources in region and the church’s location directly across from West Point. The American forces were largely made of New England Congregationalists, who had little love of the Anglican Church. The church was gravely damaged by these troops, who its fencing and walls for firewood or the construction of winter “hutts.” From this period in the Church’s history comes one of its most famous stories: Supposedly, as a band of drunken New Englanders were on their way to burn down the chapel, George Washington himself ran ahead of them, stood in the doorway of the church, and boldly declared “This is my church!” A stained glass window by the church’s door marks this event; however, it is somewhat unlikely that it ever occurred. A history of the church, written by E. Clowes Chorely in 1912, makes no mention of an attempt to burn St. Philip’s down. Rather, Chorely reports that Washington, an Anglican himself, commented on the church being his own when one of his aides picked it out as “a Tory church.”

The aforementioned stained glass window.

            After the war, the parishioners of St. Philip’s struggled to rebuild. Funding to rebuild the church was raised by two of Robinson’s more affluent tenants, William Denning and Mr. Olgive. However, St. Philip’s struggles were not over. In the 1790’s, the local Presbyterian congregation, which had aided in the reconstruction, attempted to seize possession of the chapel. The congregation also had trouble securing a stable minister, with several rectors leaving St. Philip’s for successful careers elsewhere in the Episcopal Church. In 1862, the rebuilt wooden chapel was replaced by a stone structure that still stands today.

            To learn more about the history of St. Philip’s in the Highlands, please visit their website at http://stphilips.highlands.com/

     The above house is Boscobel, a mansion built by States Dyckman between 1804-1808. As my research project is based out of Boscobel, this seemed to be a natural place to start this blog.

     States Dyckman was born in 1755 to a Harlem innkeeper, Jacob Dyckman.  By the time the American Revolution broke out, States had relocated to Albany, had made friends with several governmental officials there. On the night of June 4, 1776. States, Abraham Cuyler (the Royal Mayor of Albany),  Stephen DeLancey (of the powerful Westchester clan), and Benjamin Hilton (a particulary vociferous Tory), and several others went to Cartright’s Inn to celebrate the birthday of George III. However, thier toast wishing “Damnation to the enemies  of the King” did not sit well with the rebellious populace of the city.  A mob gathered around the inn,  and arrested. Though he refused to sign an Association that pledged his support to the rebel cause, Dyckman was eventually freed while his more notable friends were deported to Hartford, Connecticut. After his release, the historic record becomes a bit spotty, but it is reasonable to assume that States sought refuge with his family in Westchester county.

     Wherever he stayed after leaving Albany, States met with his friend Abraham Cuyler in Fishkill in January of 1777. Together, the men fled to British-held New York City. There, States found work as a clerk in the quartermaster department of the British Army, starting a carreer that would span over two decades and would win him two fortunes.

     Specifically, Dyckman was tasked with monitoring the hiring of wagons by the army. This was a section of the Quartermaster’s Department long known for its corruption, and the its conduct during the Revolution would prove no different. It was common practice for the Quartermaster General to purchase a wagon company when they assumed thier command, which they then contracted with to transport supplies. Free on any form of supervision, this system lent itself to corruption, as the quartermasters would falsify pay rates and the number of wagons being hired. States was tasked with preparing a clean set of books for official scrutiny, while keeping another set that more accurately tracked where the money was going. In this capacity, he entered into association with Quartermaster General Sir William Erskine and his successors, Lord Cathcart and General John Dalrymple, as well as several other officers in the department, namely Lieutenant Colonel William Sherriff and Deputy Quartermaster Henry Bruen. His accountant’s salary was supplemented by financial gifts from these men, allowing him to live in comfort in the occupied city.

     To this point States’ story and duties had been fairly unremarkable. This changed in the summer of 1779, when General Erskine invited States to travel with him to England to help him prepare his accounts for audit. Here, States enjoyed several things that proved to be rarities to other American exiles: access, success, and employment. While many other Americans (including several from much higher station than he) spent thier exile relying on government handouts and seeking a way to gain the ear of the the government. When he was not working or enjoying British high society (but strictly as a guest of General Erskine; a man of his station would not dare to view himself as an equal of the London aristocracy), States spent much of his time with other exiled New Yorkers. Most notable of his friends was Peter Van Schaack, a friend of John Jay’s from Kinderhook. He used some of the stipend he recieved to purchase clothes from William Butler, a tailor from Western New York.

     Dyckman spent three years in England during his first vist there. By all accounts, his work was immpecable. Of the 600,000 some pounds Erskine had spent, a mere 801 were contested by the government’s auditors. Such was Dyckman’s success that he was sent back to New York to lead the defense of the quartermasters from a military investigation into their conduct ordered by the Treasury Department. After an uneventful voyage, he arrived in New York in July of 1781.  Ever the businessman, States brought back over six hundred pounds worth of cloth and garments with him.   This was only the beginning of States’ career as a small time trafficker in luxuries. His fine tastes would continue to supplement (and, at times, drain) his income and would make Boscobel one of the most beautifully furnished homes in America.  

     Once again, States preformed ably before the auditors, and the court of inquiry adjourned on December 1, 1781 without taking action against the Quartermasters. However, each successive investigation made the Quartermaster Department more and more of a target for a government and people looking for an explanation to Britain’s costly and time-consuming defeats in America. During States’ trip to New York, Parliament created the Commission to Examine, Take, and State the Public Accounts of the Kingdom and charged it with investigating in detail the activities of the quartermasters. States was quickly recalled to London to face this new threat, arriving in July of 1782, a month after the Commission published their Seventh Report. It accused the quartermasters of committing “numberless…frauds and impositions” against the government, and dismissed the findings of previous, less forceful investigations. Frighteningly, the Commission was the first to strike at the heart of the corruption in the Department, and thus at States’ livelihood: the ownership of the wagon trains by the quartermasters’ themselves.

     Dyckman would continue his work in England for another six years, once again ably defending his clients. He earned substantial pensions from both Lord Catchart and General Dalrymple, given out of gratitude and enforced by Dyckman’s retention of incriminating documents. By 1788, however, he was ready to return to America. Surprisingly, he was the last of his emigre friends to return to America. Many of States’ closest friends returned to America in the years immediatly following the Revolution. From there, they, along with States’ family, kept up a steady writing campaign aimed at luring Dyckman home. His other loyalist friends described in generally positive terms thier expierences in the new nation, and very quickly re-established themselves. States’ relatives were able to purchase a small farm for him by King’s Ferry, near one of his brothers and far away from Albany, where he had been arrested as a known Loyalist.  His future apparently secure, States left England in December of 1788 and returned to New York by way of Lisbon, Madiera, Jamaica, and Charleston. He brought with him, or had shipped back, a great number of books, fine clothing, and other luxeries that would both furnish his new house and supplement his income through sale.

     States lived for several years in the quietude of his new home. In 1794, he married Elizabeth Corne Kennedy, the granddaughter of one of his neighbors, Peter Corne. Peter had also been a Loyalist during the war, as were Elizabeth’s parents, though the historic record is very unclear as to thier fates. Elizabeth was many years Dyckman’s junior, and her propertied family seem to take exception to her marriage to a particularly well-to-do accountant. In an effort to prove his worth, States began a series of improvements to his house and property. The improvements proved costly, so much that States was forced to sell many of his prized possesions, most notably his 1,400 book library. Crisis came when one of States’ main benafactors, General Erskine, died, and his heirs stopped thier payments.  Faced with bankrupcy, States was obligated to return to England in 1799.

     States’ stay in England proved to be longer than expected. While there, a new round of investigations were opened into the quartermasters’ accounts, and Dyckman was once again pressed into service to defend them. The proceedings played out over the next four years, earning States another fortune and renewed annuity payments. In 1803, once again a wealthy man, States sailed for home.

      Upon his return, States chose to spend his fortune builiding and furishing an entirely new farmhouse, further north than his previous home at King’s Ferry. The new house was to be named Boscobel, taking its name from a town that hid King Charles II in a large oak tree as he fled from the forces of Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War. In commemoration of both his politcal leanings and the construction of his new home, he had two snuff boxes constructed from the Boscobel Oak, one of which he gave to Peter Corne. One of these boxes is still on display at Boscobel, which has been rebuilt at Garrison, New York, 15 miles north of it’s original location. The learn more about Boscobel and the amazing story of it’s salvation and reconstruction, please visit thier website, www.boscobel.org .

     States Dyckman died from gout, a disease that plauged him for much of his adult life, on August 11, 1806. Two years later, Boscobel was completed. States may be unique among the Loyalists of the Hudson Valley. No one else that I have come across seems to have been a confirmed opponent of the Revolution, worked for the British army, lived in exile, and returned home to live in prosperity with few if any words said of his politcal leanings.  Despite his troubles, States Dyckman stands as an impressive and resiliant success, finding some measure of happiness throughout a turbulent life. His papers, which still surive, offer a great insight into life in exile during the Revolutionary War, and will be a great resource for further research into the history of the Loyalists of the Hudson Valley.