1777. The British under governor Tryon burnt the houses at Philip's manor, N. Y., with circumstances of great barbarity; the women and children being turned out in a severe cold night, almost naked, and the men made prisoners and led with halters round their necks in triumph to the British camp.
1777. William Bowyer, an eminent English printer, died. He was noted for the accuracy of his editions, and was a
distinguished member of the antiquarian society, whose transactions he enriched with many valuable communications.
1784. M. le Roy fixed a conductor on the Etoile galley, being the first conductor of lightning that had ever been placed on a French ship.
1785. Mrs. Kelly, the noted Irish fairy, died. She was only 34 inches long. Her child, which lived only two hours, was 22 inches.
1789. John Elwes, the celebrated English miser, died, worth nearly five millions of dollars. This singular man, although he denied himself the necessaries of life, served twelve years in parliament, a most independent and incorruptible member. He would travel a whole day, eating only a hard boiled egg, and at night play for thousands in the most splendid apartments from whence he has been known to issue at four in the morning, and stand in a cold rain to dispute with a butcher for a shilling a head on his cattle.
1793. Battle of Bliescastle; the French general Pichegru stormed the Prussian camp.
1793. Battle of Dol; the French royalists defeated the conventional troops.
1803. Cape Francois surrendered to the blacks under Christophe.
1804. Philip Schuyler, a major general in the revolutionary army, died at Albany, aged 73. He was a member of the old congress, and of the federal congress.