Litchfield enquirer., 1877-02-22

light on his movements at the time. In l the summer of l781, Theodosia Provost widow of Colonel Provost, of the British. army, and then Burris afianced wife, l spent several months here as the guest of
 Mrs. Reeve. Among many other distin-
 guished visitors at this hospitable house
 was General Lafayette, who spent night l there during the war while Oh his way to
 the Hudson with train of stores for the
 French army. A characteristic anecdote
 of him has been handed down. Feeling
 thirsty in the night, and fearful, if he
 called servant, of disturbing Mrs. Reeve,
 who had long been an invalid, the gallant
 Frenchman went down stairs in his stock ings, and drew water from the we'll with
 his own hands.
 1 The Talmadge house, in North Street.
 was for more than fifty years the resi-
 dence of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge,
 conspicuous in the Revolution as major of sheldon's Light Dragoons-a regiment house was built in 1775 by Thomas Shel- don, brother of Colonel Sheldon, and was l purchased in 17S2 by Colonel Tallmadge, about year before he retired from the service. Colonel Tallmadge participated
 in several of the principal battles of the Revolution, and received the thanks of
 Washington and of Congress in 178O for
 successful expedition across Long Island 1 Sound in which he captured Fort George, on the south side of Long Island. and destroyed many buildings, much ship ping. and large quantity of stores.
 When Major John Andre was captured by Paulding, Van Wart, and Williams, he was brought to the head quarters of the | Light Dragoons. then stationed at North Castle, and but for the earnest remon- strances of Major Tallmadge. would have been sent back to Arnold. He was with the prisoner almost continuously. and l led to suspect his military character from his walk as he paced the floor of his | room. When Andre saw that his dis guise had been penetrated, he wrote the | letter to Washington acknowledging his rank, and handed it, open, to Major Tall madge. who read it with emotions which | execution he walked with the prisoner to the scaffold. In after-years, says Kill bourne, he wrote: ''I become so deeply attached to Major Andre that I can re- member no instance where my affections were so fully absorbed in any man. When I saw him swinging under the gibbet, it seemed for Q time as if I could not SUD- port it. All the spectators seemed to be overwhelmed by the affecting spectacle, and the eyes of many were sufused with tears" Colonel Tallmadge was elected in 1901 to Congress, where he served for sixteen successive years. His residence is still in the possession of his descendants.
 Hard by the Tallmadge place is the Gould mansion. remarkably well-p served specimen of the square gambrel- roofed house. with shingles. It was erec- ted in 176O by the Hon. Elias Sheldon of the famous dragoon regiment. It pass ed in 1902 into the hands of Judge Gould, who occupied it until his decease. Like several other houses in the village, it too claims to have entertained the fsth- CT of hls country.
 Thh old Seymour house, the birthplace of so many distinguished men of the name, was demolished in 1855, when con- siderably more than a century old, to make room for more pretentious suc- cessor, Major Moses Seymour, who oc- cupied it during the revolution, served throughout the war as captain of the fifth Regiment of Connections cavalry. Dur ing the greater part of the time he was stationed in Litchfeld as commissary of supplies for the army. In 1776 David Matthews, the royalist Mayor of New York, was arrested for reasonable designs, and sent to Litch6eld. where Captain Sey- mour kept him under surveillance in his own house for several months. He was allowed the privileges of the village, but under. certain restrictions. It appears from hls own letters that he was suspect ed of being concerned in a plot "to as- sassinate General Washington, and to blow up the magazine in New York" He seems to have entertained an idea that his life was in jeopardy, and he expresses fear that he may be fired at from be- hind barn or stone fence:" In another letter he says: ''They insist that can blow up this town. o that I could I would soon leave them to themselves. "Tra- dition says that although he did not accom- plish his incendiary desires, he did ''leave them to themselves" for while taking his customary walk for exercise one 'day, he the first ever brought into the town, was T presented by him to Mrs. Seymour, and was in use as late as 1872. The May or's travelling trunk left behind in his flight, is still in possession of the Sey- mour family, and was. exhibited in the collection of Revolutionary relics shown in the village on the Centennial Fourth of July. .:-.
 &moDg other prisoners sent to the Hill for safe keeping during the war was William Franklin, son of Dr. Benjamin Franklin and royalist Governor of New Jersey from 1763 to l777. In the latter year Congress recommended the conven- tlon of New Jersey to imprison him some- where out of the State, and he was ac. cordingly sent to Connecticut, and con- fined for time at Wallingford and Mid dletown. In 1777 resolution was pass ed that Governor Trumbull be informed | that 1t had undoubted information that | Governor Franklin was employing him. self in distributing ''the projections of Lord Howe and General Howe, styled | the kings commissioners of granting pardons," and recommending that he be put into close confinement and prohibited the use of pen, ink, and paper. He was l removed under guard to Litchfield, and | confined in the jail there until 1779, the | year that his father was sent as minister | to France, when he was exchanged for | Mir. M Kinley. President of Delaware. | He after~ard lived in New York until | 1782, when he went to England, 4nd | spent there the remainder of his life, a pensioner of the British Government.
 The Hill boasts other centenary build l ings. and few of even greater antiquity. l It claims, too, to have been the birthplace of more noted men and women than any | other place of it's population in the coun- trv. Both the east and the west burial l grounds are rich in the tombs of those who have been prominent in both civi- and political life, but they are to numer- ous to permit even the bare mention of l their names. We may be pardoned, how ever for giving in full the inscription | from the head-stone of one of the an- cient mothers of Litehfield, who still l lives in many distinguished descendants:
 ''Here lies the body of Mrs. Mary wife of. Deacon John Bue', Esq She died November 4th, 176s. aged 90-having had 13 Children, 101 Grandchildren, PAT Great Grand Children. and 49 Great Great Grand Children total 40. Three hundred and thirty-six survived her." fi
 GOSHEN Feb. 10th 1877
 N. WY Al. l