Historical Society talk considers 18th century loyalist experience

AMENIA — Continuing observance of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the Amenia Historical Society attracted more than 80 members, residents and friends on Saturday, Sept. 27 at the historic Smithfield Church to hear a talk titled, “The Plight of a Loyalist in Revolutionary New York.”

Michigan author, historian and genealogist Jay A. Campbell presented a talk based on the journal of British loyalist Cadwallader Colden Jr., spanning the period of 1777-1779 — a period of imprisonment and frequent periods of exile into a variety of remote regions in New York, including Amenia.

With ancestral ties to the area, Campbell specializes in Hudson Valley history, and the stories of Revolutionary era families.

Colden Jr. was a Montgomery, New York, surveyor, farmer, mercantilist and the son of a New York Lieutenant Governor. His fortunes changed dramatically with the dawn of the Revolutionary War when he remained loyal to the British Crown. An arrest came in 1776, just before the start of his journal.

Part of the journal was written during Colden’s imprisonment in the jail located in the basement of the Kingston Courthouse.

Colden’s father had been a surveyor of the Oblong, the disputed area of land between Connecticut and New York, settled by the Treaty of Dover. In his journal, the subject of the talk, Colden Jr., sought to explain his decision to remain loyal to the Crown, without actively opposing the move toward independence. He sought to remain neutral.

“What to do with people like Colden,” was a question that plagued the authorities, Campbell explained. His father had been a well-respected intellectual and physician, but son was not much like father, instead becoming a farmer and merchant with a popular and necessary general store.

After being arrested for the second time and imprisoned for a few months in Fishkill, Colden was paroled and sent back to his farm and store to continue his sentence at home on the honor system, a common pattern in those times.

The stone home still stands, although it is now in overgrown ruins. It was stabilized in 2012, but nothing has been done with it since, Campbell said.

In 1776, Colden’s daughter died, leaving two children in the household. “Family relationships were complicated back then,” Campbell explained as relatives came and went from the household.

“Conscience comes up often in Colden’s journal writings,” Campbell said. “He had made an oath to the King.”

“The Revolution was more than a battle between patriots and redcoats,” Campbell observed. “It divided neighbors and families over loyalties.”

“Colden had done a lot of good things in his life,” Campbell said.

The program was introduced by Town Historian Betsy Strauss, who introduced Judy Westfall, soon to assume the duties of President of the Historical Society.