Lt. Colonel Richard Hewlett's name can be found in the National Archives of Canada, Ward Chipman Papers, MG 23, D 1, Series I, Volume 30, Part 2, page 198. - Roll of Men's Names Discharged & to Remain in this Country [2d Battalion, DeLancey's Brigade] Camp New Town Creek 8th Sept. 1783.  He himself however departed to Canada.  Richard Carman "the Loyalist" was later a Lieutenant and given charge of a Refugee Company, and more than likely, departed with Hewlett for Canada.

"The name of Hewlett has been emblazoned in large letters on the life of Brooklyn and Long Island and since the Revolutionary days, when members of the ancestry, being wealthy and influential residents, owned beautiful estates. Theirs was probably the most noted Tory family on Long Island, as well as one of the oldest. They were feared by the patriots, for they were among the most powerful Loyalists and leaders of the section. Like so many of the representative and cultured families at that time, they were in sympathy with the king's cause and looked upon the "rebellion" as unwarrantable impertinence to England and an unjustifiable assumption of authority.

Richard Hewlett of Hempstead heads this list. A noted ranger and fighter and a veteran of the French and Indian wars, he planned a coup that almost succeeded in capturing George Washington, after which Washington ordered that he be taken "dead or alive" (didn't happen).

A story told of Hewlett when he was besieged at Setauket by General Parsons shows his caliber. In a feeble entrenchment, surrounded by three time their forces, resistance seemed to offer poor success. Hewlett asked his soldiers if they wished to retreat. Their response was a decided "No". "Then I'll stick to you as long as there is a man left," answered the doughty colonel. The repulse of the assaulting party and its withdrawal from the island was the result."

Of Richard and Mary (Townsend) Hewlett's children:

12/18/2005