Capt. John Hulbert Journey Bills • Southampton, NY

Picking up the place we left off with Captain Hulbert and his troops . . .

RECAP: On the heels of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, in July 1775, Capt. John Hulbert, a leather-based items tradesman and later a Town Justice of the Peace, turned chief of NYS 3^rd Regiment firm of 72 native males who enlisted for a six-month tour.  

The firm was first known as to East Hampton after which marched on to Montauk, fearing aggression upon listening to that British troops had anchored in Gardiner’s Bay. Two months later, Hulbert’s firm was summoned to New York City and proceeded to Albany, Fort George, and eventually Ticonderoga, the place they remained for a time beneath the command of Gen. Philip Schuyler. While there, they had been ordered to take cost of about 170 prisoners who had been captured at Fort Chamblee in Canada on October 20, 1775, as half the marketing campaign to liberate the Champlain Valley.

As the Americans retreated south to Fort Ticonderoga, Hulbert and his troops escorted the British prisoners to a fortress dubbed Fort Constitution on Constitution Island on the Hudson River.

On November 20, 1775, Hulbert reported to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia after depositing the prisoners in Trenton, New Jersey. He was paid $120 and after returning to Fort Constitution, stationing his troops as garrison, he was given a 10-day go away. 

THE STORY CONTINUES: Hulbert and his troops’ subsequent steps one month later had been nicely documented in a journey expense document* dated January 8, 1776 — 250 years in the past. 

From Fort Constitution, they marched to Lt. Miles Oakley’s tavern in White Plains, arriving the following day. Oakley supplied a “carriage from White Plains to Rye” in Westchester County. Upon arriving in Rye, they had been greeted by Captain Jagger and supplied liquor and provisions, “pork and bread,” to be particular. Next was to see Capt. Carpenter about “ferrage” throughout Long Island Sound from Rye to Huntington, L.I., the place they employed two wagons from a gents named Williams and proceeded on to Smithtown. At Smithtown, they took on extra liquor and provisions, and wagons to move the troops to Benjamin Havens’s institution in Moriches, identified at this time because the Ketcham Inn historic website. There Havens (1712- 1797) was a gracious host to the weary, well-travelled troops at their final cease earlier than they employed wagons to proceed to Southampton.

The Ketcham Inn Historic Site, previously Benjamin Havens Inn, Center Moriches, on a chilly winter’s night. 

The troops had been discharged at Southampton, fulfilling their six-month dedication. All returned house, apart from some who had turn out to be sick and had been discharged earlier. Mission completed, or so that they thought. The Declaration of Independence was nonetheless being negotiated, the Battle of Long Island was nonetheless seven months away, and the following years-long British occupation of the East End couldn’t have been predicted by the returning patriots. 

Above doc held within the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.

MORE OF THE 250^th INDEPENDENCE ANNIVERSARY TO COME…

Happy New Year!

 

Julie B. Greene

Town Historian

Southampton Town

116 Hampton Road

Southampton, New York 11968