"Simon Cortelyou attracts our special attention. In the first place, he was of the fifth generation to live at the Narrows, at the spot where the pioneer
Jacques located in 1656-7. Secondly, it was Simon's lot to live there during the stirring days of the American Revolution, when, repeating the tactics of 1664, a British expedition, bent upon the capture of New York, chose the vicinity of the Cortelyou home as a base and continued to use it as a point of operation straight through until the evacuation in 1783. And, in the third place, this Simon Cortelyou was so prominent locally that numerous records pertaining to him have survived, thus making it possible to reconstruct many of his activities. At the start of the Revolution, Simon was a young man of thirty with a wife and four small children, the eldest of whom was his daughter Agnes, twelve years of age. No sensible man in such a situation will openly oppose established authority, no matter what his leanings and beliefs may be, especially when the forces of government dominate him and his surroundings. And such was the case not only with Simon but also with the great majority of his neighbors. To avoid greater evils, when the Revolution engulfed them most of the inhabitants of that section, although patriots at heart and always suspected by their conquerors, made their submission and took the oath of allegiance to the Crown at the Flatbush church. Among those who took the oath in November, 1776, were
Jacques Cortelyou and his father, Peter Cortelyou. The names of Simon and Isaac are not on this list."
"At the time of the Revolution great-grandfather Simon was neutral. But this did not save the family from annoyance. Fearing that trouble might develop, Simon arranged with his wife, Sarah, that she should put a pillow in a dormer window if she needed help. One day when Simon was away from the house--probably looking after fish nets--he saw this signal and hastened back.
He found that Hessian soldiers, on a plundering expedition, had forced their way into the house and taken linen from the press. This led to their discovering a quantity of silver dollars which were kept in the drawer under the linen. The soldiers grabbed the money. Mrs. Cortelyou also grabbed some and knocked some from the hands of one of the Hessians. She was a determined woman but could not prevent their taking clothing and other things, which they tied up in sheets and took away in their skiffs.
Simon and his brother Jacques were forced to accompany the soldiers in the latter's boats. When they got in the middle of the river, the Hessians opened the parcels and spoke of what they had gotten. Simon asked them if that was all they had taken,--telling them that he could have directed them where to get some bags of
gold -- three or four -- containing $500 each, which had recently come into his possession. This made the soldiers so angry that it seemed as though they might pitch Simon overboard. But they rowed on till they reached the Jersey shore.
Another thing which the Hessians stole from Simon's house was some liquor (which Simon kept by the barrel). They had been drinking this, so that by the time the boats got to land the men were too drunk to get out and lay in the bottom of the boat. Simon and
Jacques saw their opportunity to escape, but, before leaving, Simon wanted to drop some stones into the boat, so that it would sink and drown the soldiers..."
"An interesting tale of Simon Cortelyou's
family concerns the landing of the British forces. Oddly enough, this story
gives Simon a daughter named "Nancy." He did have daughters named
Agnes, Hannah and Sarah who were young girls at the beginning of the war, but
there was no Nancy, unless this was a nickname. Nor was there a Nancy in either
of the other two Cortelyou families living nearby. As we have no original source
document against which to check this, it is taken verbatim from Manor Houses and
Historic Homes of Long Island and Staten Island.
"According to tradition, when the British ships
of war were at anchor in the bay, Nancy Cortelyou, who was strongly Loyalist in
her sympathies, impulsively rushed out on the high ground near her home, and,
using a red petticoat as a flag, waved it as a signal when it was a favorable
time for the Royal troops to disembark.
"Another version is that Nancy waved her
petticoat as a gesture of welcome, after the soldiers had actually begun their
landing. In any event Nancy and her red petticoat seem to be established facts
of history."
The anecdote is a good one, and, if the name of
Agnes, Hannah or Sarah is substituted for "Nancy", no Cortelyou
descendant is likely to object to its acceptance as an "established fact of
history."
