FOOTNOTES to “TOWNSEND’S PERSONALITY”:
[25] There is but a single recorded instance when Samuel was treated roughly by the British. It was written for posterity in 1876 by Solomon Townsend, his grandson, who was a nephew of Robert Townsend, and is as follows:
“I am induced to pen these lines that the record of the arrest of Saml. Townsend may be transmitted to another centennial as faithfully as is possible under the light of the testimony of those who were eye witnesses of the scene—and from whose lips the narrator heard it.
“On a bright September afternoon in the year 1776, a troop of horse whose helmets were just before seen reflected in the sun’s rays as they galloped down South Street wheeled up in front of the house of Jacob Townsend—whose daughter Thomas Buchanan had wedded—and enquired for Saml. Townsend. They were directed to the next house, upon the piazza of which that gentleman was seated.
“He had been 30 years a Magistrate, and then a Member of the Colonial Assembly and was then one of the Provincial Congress, Committee of Safety, and of the Convention that was deliberating upon the first Constitution of this State—that of 1777—wherein the mind of John Jay, and other distinguished Statesmen, was said to have outlined the Constitution of the United States as inaugurated at Philadelphia a dozen years later.
“The subaltern in command—asked whether ‘Sam’ Townsend was home and the reply being ‘I am the man,’ with great discourtesy—accompanied with an oath, directed him to get himself ready to accompany them to the Provost (the Prison Ships, &c.) at New York. Mr. T. hoped they would wait till he had time to send a servant to an outlot for a saddle horse, a request that was rudely yielded with another blasphemous expression.
“During this brief delay—the young upstart strutted over the Hall, taking from one of the mantels a fowling piece and shattering it, denying the right of a rebel to have in possession even such a weapon. In the parlor the Portrait of Capt. Solomon Townsend—taken in Portugal in 1772—when in command of one of Mr. Buchanan’s ships—the Glasgow—attracted the young martinet’s attention, and he expressed his regret that it was not in his power to wreak the vengeance of his superiors upon him also.
“Whilst these scenes were enacting within doors, and Mr. Townsend’s wife and his young daughters—Sarah and Phebe, were almost frantic at the rudeness exhibited towards the venerated husband and parent—the neighbors collected in front and when the agony of the family was witnessed, their sympathy even to tears was excited, Tories as most of them were in their political affiliations. My authority—outside the family for this incident (Miss Elizabeth Wooden, deceased some 20 years), and whose family took the Tory side—said that altho’ among the crowd of neighbors were some of the instigators of the arrest—they claimed that Mr. Townsend was not regarding his pledged word to remain neutral—when they witnessed their really loved and respected neighbor torn from his family under such painful circumstances, openly regretted that their political animosity had contributed to produce so sad a scene.
“Provided with only a change of clothing, Mr. T. was soon taken by the Troop on their way to the superior officer whose quarters were then in the vicinity of Jericho. On ascending the hill at the southern terminus of ‘Pine-hollow’—then and long afterwards known as the ‘Great Hill,’ Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan in their Phaeton and Miss Audrey, Mr. Townsend’s eldest daughter met them—Mr. Buchanan at once enquired into the surprising circumstances, and taking the saddle horse of Miss Townsend—sent the ladies home, whilst he accompanied the cavalcade on the route. Arrived at the quarters of the superior officer he became responsible to the extent of several thousand pounds, that the prisoners should be produced upon a notice of six hours.
“The two gentlemen then returned to their homes reaching the village at a late hour of the evening and thus allaying the alarm and distress of their families.