tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post835292665536773019..comments2024-03-28T04:26:30.557-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: “Azor Betts be sent to Ulster county jail”Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-88574997274447564232021-07-04T22:32:39.776-05:002021-07-04T22:32:39.776-05:00One of Dr. Betts’s complaints reveals that the bus...One of Dr. Betts’s complaints reveals that the business the Patriot government had barred him from was smallpox inoculation. Evidently that was the lucrative part of his practice. J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-64345639607084605232021-07-04T22:12:40.039-05:002021-07-04T22:12:40.039-05:00Excerpt from the Intoductory Narrative of the book...Excerpt from the Intoductory Narrative of the book The Battle of Long Island<br />By Thomas W. Field:<br /><br /> Christopher Duyckinck paid no further attention to Congress, entertaining, as he had the undoubted right to do, a sovereign contempt for its authority. The Jocobin leader was not, however, averse to using the power of the Congress whose authority he derided, to crush a tory enemy; for the journals of the Committee of Safety record, that on the 17th of January he brought before it an unhappy loyalist, charged with the heinous crime of cursing the Congress with a heartiness which, in one of his proclivities, indicated a dangerous enmity. This was a liberty which Duyckinck reserved to himself; and the pestilent tory was laid by the heels for assuming the royal prerogative.<br /><br /> The half crazed tory shopkeeper [doctor], who had been ruined by one of the military measures of Congress, admitted his disrespectful objurations, and it was therefore<br /><br /> "Resolved, That the said Azor Betts be sent to Ulster county jail, to be there confined in close jail until the further orders of the continental or provincial Congress, or of this committee."<br /><br /> Kingston jail was at this time crowded with fever-stricken and famishing prisoners, and it is probable that the profane Azor Betts took his portion there as just punishment for a contempt of Congress, which Christopher Duyckinck had proclaimed with impunity.Les Haskellnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-61422403150619282872021-07-04T22:07:27.210-05:002021-07-04T22:07:27.210-05:00It is no surprise that this happened in January. T...It is no surprise that this happened in January. The Committees of Safety had been given license which they took as their Patriotic duty to harass, disarm, plunder, and imprison Loyalists by the Tory Act on January 2. Dr. Betts wasn't just damning the Congresses and Committees on principle. Duyckinck's accusation indicates that Dr. Betts was reacting to previous actions taken by the Committee.<br /><br />"Azor Betts was next brought before the Committee, and charged by Christopher Duyckinck with having, in his presence, damned the Congresses and Committees, both Continental and Provincial, and said that they were a set of damned rascals, and acted only to feather their own nests, and not to serve their country; that they had shut up his shop, but that he hoped to see the day when he would shut them up, or overturn them . . . "Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-89024727159246235472021-07-04T21:09:49.244-05:002021-07-04T21:09:49.244-05:00Dr. Betts is my 4th great grandfather. His daughte...Dr. Betts is my 4th great grandfather. His daughter Fanny Matilda Betts (born in New Brunswick) married Caleb Haskell, son of Patriot soldier Caleb Haskell of Newburyport, Massachusetts in March 1815.ZombyDawghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01608480990735480437noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-62173671387063806492021-05-24T23:18:39.294-05:002021-05-24T23:18:39.294-05:00I don't either, and I've lived in New York...I don't either, and I've lived in New York since 1986...Mikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-90928393215796084472021-05-24T21:38:28.790-05:002021-05-24T21:38:28.790-05:00Thanks for the link to that April 1776 broadside a...Thanks for the link to that <a href="http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbpe.10901000" rel="nofollow">April 1776 broadside</a> about the New York election. I still don’t understand New York politics.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-80300327807081733892021-05-24T21:35:06.550-05:002021-05-24T21:35:06.550-05:00A closer look at the New York committee of safety ...A closer look at the New York committee of safety journal shows that it heard testimony about men going to meet with Gov. Tryon at the same session when it considered Dr. Betts. However, no one accused him of that. So it was definitely a concern for the New York Patriots. Just not in his case, though he adopted that crime later. J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-9762762706686271252021-05-24T13:44:11.812-05:002021-05-24T13:44:11.812-05:00It could be related to the Provincial Congressiona...It could be related to the Provincial Congressional elections held in New York the day after Duyckinck's broadside was dated. Link to a broadside issued the previous week with a list of recommended candidates in the Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/rbpe.10901000/Mikenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-67529456410991229112021-05-23T04:54:23.017-05:002021-05-23T04:54:23.017-05:00A great many loyalists in Fairfield County, CT (a ...A great many loyalists in Fairfield County, CT (a dozen?) were accused of visiting Tryon on the Duchess of Gordon or Captain Vandeput on the Asia in late 1775 and very early 1776. The suspicion was less spying and more conspiring and then, recruiting for British service. A number of indictments survive in the CT state archives. I'm not sure what court records may exist in New York.Seldennoreply@blogger.com