Ancestors Behaving Badly: Seth Chase

Seth Chase's Tavern in White Creek

 Seth Chase had immigrated from the Beekman Patent in Dutchess County to Washington County, New York sometime between 1761 and 1763. We know he renewed his license to operate a tavern in September 1789. These licenses were for multiple years, thus he must have been operating a tavern for many years. In fact, some testimony proves that he was operating it during the War for Independence.

The tavern in Washington County was in a small settlement called White Creek. Most, if not all of the settlers in the vicinity of White Creek at the time were Quakers. Seth was a member of the Society. This, in part, sets the stage for some of the questions we have about Seth Chase. The Society of Friends, as the Quakers were officially named, were pacifists by nature. They chose to keep the peace and not take sides in disputes, particularly military matters.

Washington County is in the northeastern part of New York State. It lies north of Albany, where the settlements of the Hudson River tended to become sparser as they reached northward. To the east are the Green Mountains of Vermont. To the west are the Adirondack Mountains of New York State. This description is given to say that this settlement was small and off the beaten path. However, even there, the war touched the inhabitants.

Correspondence with friends and relatives elsewhere in the colonies, of course, would bring news of what was happening. Even people who tried to remain neutral would be drawn into thoughts and debates over what should be done. Should we remain neutral? Should we side with the Loyalists and stay with Great Britain? Should we side with the rebels and create our own country? Those thoughts were going through everyone’s minds.

During all this, the Battle of Bennington was fought on August 16, 1777. Bennington is a town in Vermont, however, the battle was actually fought in Walloomsac, approximately 10 miles to the east in New York. Part of the Saratoga Campaign, the battle was a strategic success for the American cause. Why is this so important? Looking at the maps of where the battle was and where Seth Chase’s Tavern was, you will see that they are separated by not miles, but perhaps hundreds of feet. His farm was the first one north of the battlefield. Just over a rise of a hill, or just beyond the trees behind the tavern perhaps, troops could be seen moving around. Careful plotting would be needed to discover just how close they were, but they were not very far off.

This battle and the usual gossip around a tavern would have caused at least some trouble for an innkeeper. It would be hard to keep quiet and not express some opinion on the matters at hand. For Seth Chase, this would result even previous to the battle, in him being considered a Tory and in October of 1776 he was sent for 14 days in Albany goal and then to Exeter, New Hampshire for a year, where he was kept confined with other “traitors to the American Cause.” He would not have seen the troop movement of the Battle of Bennington himself, but the family living there likely would have. What a difficult time this must have been for the entire family!

So, the question as always in the relatives behaving badly series: Was Seth Chase behaving badly? Was he a traitor to the American Cause? The testimony that sent him first to Albany and then to Exeter definitely indicates that he was on the side of the Tories and was trying to help the British in their battles. His wife, upon his direction, pulled a paper from her bossom that gave the countersigns to get people safely to the King's Army. I would say he was behaving badly, as was Sarah, his wife. However, unlike many loyal to the British cause, he kept his property and continued living there for many years before moving to Peru, in Clinton County, where he died. He never fled to Canada at the end of the war and his punishment seems light compared to others. I wonder if the fact that he was an innkeeper in an area that tried to remain neutral, but of course, would have pressure from both sides, had anything to do with this?

Map Showing His Land

Wordless Wednesday: Fort Ticonderoga

 

Catamount Tavern

 

The Catamount

 “Ethan needs us at Ti! Ethan needs us at Ti!” 

The shouts rang out throughout the countryside. But what did this mean and where was it?

Ethan Allen needed troops to take Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain in New York State. The time was May 1775 along the border of New York State in what would become Vermont. Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain boys would mount a dawn attack taking back the fort from a British garrison. This would be the first battle won by the Americans in the Revolutionary War.

Why were riders sent out across the countryside with such a cry? The Green Mountain Boys were not a regular army. They were more like Bo and Luke Duke from the 1970’s tv show The Dukes of Hazzard. They were good old boys— a group of men coming together for a cause they believed in. Originally formed in 1770, their initial goal was to defend the rights of property owners. They were mostly farmers with tradesmen thrown in as well. They came from the farms in the hills and mountains of Vermont as well as some areas in the easternmost part of New York. All of them rallied under the leadership of Ethan Allen.

Only about a hundred men were rounded up for that early dawn siege. However, it was enough and the British fell. Not only a strategic spot at the south end of Lake Champlain but cannons from Fort Ticonderoga were also used the following spring in the successful siege of Boston. It was a morale booster and provided key artillery for the Continental Army.

How was this all planned and where was it all planned? Men met in a small tavern on the hill on the edge of Bennington Vermont. It was the headquarters for Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys. The tavern was the Catamount tavern owned by Stephen Fay and originally called simply Fay’s Tavern. However, when New York was trying to take over the land of present-day Vermont, a stuffed catamount was placed in front of the tavern and it became better known by that name. What is a catamount? It is a mountain lion, a wildcat, or a bobcat, or probably at least a dozen different names in different regions of North America.

Bennington, Vermont is better known today as the site of the battle of Bennington, which actually took place across the border in New York You will find on the street that leads to the famed Bennington Monument a granite and copper statue of a catamount. Looking away from the street, you will find a stately house built likely during the Victorian period. The tavern was built on this site in 1769 and stood until a fire destroyed it in 1871. General John Stark planned the Battle of Bennington in this tavern. As well, in 1775, the Vermont Council of Safety— Vermont's only independent form of government— met here.

The Catamount Tavern was an important part of the Revolutionary War in this part of our new country. For me, the tavern has some different connections that make it important.

The first connection is that of the tavern keeper, Stephen Fay. He was the grandson of John Fay and his first wife, Mary Brigham. John would later marry Susanna Shattuck and one of their four children was David. David who was the father of Deacon John Fay. Deacon John surely must have at least known of his cousin in Bennington. He lived in Southborough, Massachusetts in the eastern part of the state. Did these cousins ever meet? I wonder because Deacon John was my 5th great-grandfather.

And that battle that John Stark planned. The battle, that before it he famously stated: 

"There are your enemies, the Red Coats and the Tories. They are ours, or this night Molly Stark sleeps a widow!" 

Spoiler alert: Molly Stark slept just fine, she was not a widow that night. The Battle of Bennington took place a few miles west of the tavern in an area known as White Creek in present-day Washington County, New York. There is a park there today, and the land touches on the land once owned by Seth Chase. His tavern is less than a mile off the battlefield, and they must have seen at least some of the battle that day. Seth Chase is yet another of my 5th great-grandfathers.

Seth Chase's Tavern today

So much history is tied up in that one tavern that existed during the Revolutionary War, both the countries and my own personal history.

Wordless Wednesday: Amish in New York