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A Divided Hempstead

With the colonies on the brink of revolution, political differences split a Long Island town

By George DeWan | Staff Writer

In 1775, civil war erupted in the Town of Hempstead. It was a war of words between Loyalists in the south and Patriots in the north, but it was nasty enough to permanently split the town.

The issue came to a head that April when a Hempstead Town meeting controlled by those loyal to George III voted to swear allegiance to the king rather than support the Continental Congress. Outraged at the decision, Patriots in the northern part of the town, then part of Queens County, voted to support the Congress.

In September, the northern residents published their declaration of independence. Claiming they were in a ``distressed and calamitous situation,'' they seceded from the Town of Hempstead, with a border to be a certain ''country road,'' generally, today's Old Country Road. Soon after the war, the State Legislature made it official, dividing Hempstead Town into North Hempstead and South Hempstead, which became simply Hempstead in 1796.

This political split mirrored the antagonism in the colonies as a whole between American Loyalists (also known as Tories) who supported King George III and American anti-British Patriots (known as Whigs), who by this time were on the verge of revolution. Although estimates vary, as much as a fifth of the population in the colonies was thought to be Loyalist. But nowhere was Loyalist sentiment stronger than in Queens.

``Queens County was the stronghold of loyalism in New York,'' wrote State historian Alexander Flick in his book, ``Loyalism in New York.'' ``Its inhabitants were a standing menace to the American cause and an encouragement to the British. They caused the Continental Congress, the Provincial Congress and Gen. George Washington more anxiety and trouble than the loyalists of any other county.'' Queens County at that time included all of what is now Nassau County.

New York State, probably the most Loyalist state in the colonies, furnished 15,000 men to the British army and another 8,000 to local militias, according to one historian, and Long Island contributed undocumented thousands to these numbers. Seven of the military units that operated on Long Island, and especially harassed the heavily Patriot Suffolk County residents, were composed of Loyalists, rather than British soldiers.

Alarmed at Hempstead's refusal to support the Patriot cause, the Continental Congress in early 1776 ordered Col. Nathaniel Heard to take 500 or so of his New Jersey militia and disarm every dissenting Loyalist. Heard and his men cut a wide swath through Jamaica, Hempstead, Jericho and Oyster Bay, forcing 500 Tories to sign a loyalty oath and collecting a wide assortment of muskets, blunderbusses, swords and cutlasses.

The foray into Queens resulted in a famous piece of Loyalist doggerel making fun of Heard, sung to the tune of ``Yankee Doodle'':

Colonel Heard has come to town
In all his pride and glory.
And when he dies he'll go to hell
For robbing of the Tory.

One of the most prominent Queens Loyalists was Richard Hewlett, who was among the plotters in a bungled attempt in 1776 to kidnap Washington and assassinate his chief officers. Born in 1729 in Hempstead, Hewlett later moved to New Rockaway, which is now East Rockaway. Strong-willed and arrogant, he despised what he saw as the rabble that opposed the king. By 1777 he was a colonel of a regiment of Tory soldiers.

Early in 1777, Hewlett, with 260 men, took possession of the Presbyterian Church at Setauket, fortifying the church with a stockade and several cannons. On Aug. 22, about 500 raiders from across Long Island Sound moved in and demanded that Hewlett surrender. The following exchange is said to have taken place:

Hewlett: ``Soldiers! Should we surrender?''

Men: ``No!''

Hewlett: ``Then I'll stick to you as long as there's a man left!''

As it turned out, little injury was done to either side, and the Americans retreated when several British ships appeared in the Sound.

It became clear early in the war that taking sides, whether Loyalist or Patriot, would have consequences well beyond the years of the war itself. The Loyalists found this out to their sorrow. After ratifying the Declaration of Independence, the Convention of the newly proclaimed State of New York decreed that all persons in the state owed allegiance to the laws of the state, and those who helped to make war on the state were guilty of treason. This meant Loyalists.

Those who chose Loyalism, including large numbers of Long Islanders, were to face severe penalties when the war was over. Personal property was confiscated, homes seized and reputations destroyed. Many of them fled to other parts of the world, never to return.