Micajah Bullock Chapter, NSDAR

 Raleigh, NC

John Cromwell

John Cromwell resided in the town of Purchase in Westchester County, New York at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.   As a Patriot, he was employed as a teamster in 1777 to assist in removing forage and other stores that could have fallen into the hands of the enemy and to assist in the removal of “well-affected inhabitants”.He also provided boarding to members of the Provincial Congress of New York’s Committee of Safety and gave them hand-cuffs and nails. 

Because of his devotion to the cause of American Independence, he suffered maltreatment at the hands of the British and their allies the Cow Boys.   Charles W. Baird’s Chronicle of a Border Town: History of Rye, Westchester County, New York 1660 – 1870 (p. 460) relates the following: 

Once, it is said, a party of Cow Boys entered his house, and demanded that he should tell them where he kept his money concealed.   Upon Mr. Cromwell’s refusal, they seized him, and heating a shovel red-hot in the kitchen fire, applied it to his naked person.   Mr. Cromwell lived to relate various incidents of his experience during the war, with much satisfaction, in a good old age.   He died in 1805, aged seventy-eight.

 John Cromwell was married to Anna Hopkins, who was from Long Island, New York.   Family lore says that Anna also contributed to the American Cause by caring for sick and wounded patriot soldiers in the area.   The Cromwells were Quakers, and lived directly across from the Quaker Meeting House in Purchase, which was used as a hospital.   The story goes that Anna made broths and soups in her big iron kettle and took them to feed the sick soldiers.   As she was caring for the soldiers, John was assisting General Washington himself, guiding him through the area as he planned routes through Westchester County.   Another mention of the Cromwells and their devotion to “the Cause” appears in James Waylen’s The House of Cromwell: A Genealogical History of the Family and Descendants of the Protector, which says that John “entertained at his house near ‘Rye Pond,’ New York, Generals Washington and Lafayette”.   Oh, to have been present during that visit!

 I’m very proud that even though my ancestor was prevented by his religious beliefs from becoming a soldier, he was still able to find ways to express his loyalty to the Patriot cause.   It’s certainly true what we say in the DAR Ritual each month – yea, I have a goodly heritage!