The dissenting churches were generally devoted to military purposes, ** and the spacious sugar-houses, then three in number, were made prisons for the American captives, when the cells of the City Hall and the provost prison were full. *** Looking with contempt upon the rebels in field and council, the British felt no anxiety for their safety, and every pleasure that could be procured was freely indulged in by the army.
A theatre was established, tennis courts and other kinds of amusements were prepared, and for seven years the city remained a prey to the licentiousness of strong and idle detachments of a well-provided army.
This was the head-quarters of British power in America during that time, and here the most important schemes for operations against the patriots, military and otherwise, were planned and put in motion. The municipal government was overthrown, martial law prevailed, and the business of the city degenerated almost into the narrow operations of suttling.
* Sir Henry Clinton occupied No. 1 Broadway, and Sir William Howe the dwelling adjoining it. Toward the close of the war, Sir Guy Carleton (Lord Dorchester) also occupied No. 1. General Robertson resided first in William, near John Street, and afterward in Hanover Square. Knyphausen, when in the city, occupied Verplanck's house in Wall Street, near the Bank of New York, where also Colonel Birch, of the dragoons, resided. Admiral Digby and other naval officers, and also Prince William Henry (afterward William the Fourth of England), when here, occupied the city mansion of Gerardus Beekman, on the northwest corner of Sloat Lane and Hanover Square. Admiral Rodney occupied a house, now 256 Pearl Street, and Cornwallis's residence was three doors below it. Carleton's country residence was the mansion at Richmond Hill, corner of Variek and Charlton Streets, long the property of Colonel Aaron Burr. Admiral Walton occupied his own house (yet standing in Pearl Street, number 326, opposite the publishing house of Harper and Brothers), and there he dispensed generous hospitality.
** The Middle Dutch church (now the city post-office), on Nassau, Liberty, and Cedar Streets, was converted into a riding-school, where the British cavalry were taught lessons in horsemanship. The French Protestant church (Du St. Esprit), built by the Huguenots in 1704, near the corner of Pine and Nassau Streets, and the North Dutch church, corner of William and Fulton Streets, were converted first into prisons and then into hospitals. The quaint old church edifice which stood on the corner of William and Frankfort Streets until 1851 (when it was demolished, and a large hotel was placed upon its site), was a hospital for the Hessians, and all around the borders of the swamp close by, many of the poor Germans were buried.
*** These, and the events connected with them, will be noticed under the head of "Prisons and Prison-Ships," in the Supplement.
Counterfeit Continental Bills.—Expedition to Staten Island.—Second great Fire in New York.