Person Page - 180

148. Hon. Nathaniel Sackett, 1737–1805, of Fishkill, Dutchess County, N. Y., son of (32) Rev. Samuel and Hannah Hazard Sackett, was married, Jan. 3, 1759, to Mary Rogers, daughter of Ananias Rogers and his wife Prudence Carle. Nathaniel Sackett developed at an early age an aptitude of trade, and declared his determination to become a merchant. His decision in that respect evidently met the approval of his father, who, in his efforts to give the lad a practical education along lines bearing on the life work he had chosen, was greatly aided by his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Hazard, then a successful merchant of New York City. There now lies before the writer an original letter, yellowed by over a century and a half of time, which reads as follows:     At the time of above transaction Nathaniel Sackett was but a little over 12 years of age. When he was about 17 years of age he went to New York and served an apprenticeship in his uncle's store. On reaching his majority he located at Fishkill, in Dutchess County, N. Y., and there engaged in business on his own account. According to early records of Fishkill, he was the proprietor of the first general store opened in that town.
     The part taken by Nathaniel Sackett in the long and desperate struggle of the colonies for independence shows him to have been a purely unselfish patriot and should not be forgotten by his descendants. He was in New York City on business in the latter part of the memorable year 1775, when its patriotic citizens were electrified by startling news of the battle of Lexington. Returning in haste to Fishkill, he called together several prominent citizens in whose patriotism and judgment he relied, and they together prepared and issued the following call:     The original draft of this call, as well as the following memoranda, prepared as a guide to the presiding officers in the organization and conduct of this most important gathering, together with notes of vital matters to be considered, are in the handwriting of Nathaniel Sackett, and were found folded together in a package of his papers relating to the Revolutionary period.     Endorsed on the paper containing the above memoranda are the names of the forty patriots who responded to the call, including Col. Brinkerhoff, who came from adjoining precinct to arrange for a county meeting to be held at Paughkeepsie, to which the proposed election of a delegate to represent Rombout precinct in the Provisional Congress was on motion referred.
     The meeting held at Fishkill, May 5, 1775, resulted in a permanent organization, since known to history as the Fishkill (or Rombout Precinct) Committee of Safety: and from the day of its inception to the end of the long but finally triumphant struggle for national independence, the course pursued by Nathaniel Sackett was that of a fearless patriot who unhesitatingly risked his all for the sacred cause he had espoused and was ever ready and willing to undertake any duty, no matter how laborious or hazardous, in response to his country's call. Elected a delegate to the First New York Provisional Congress, we find him present at its initial gathering and never absent from a recorded roll call; and scanning the records we learn of his activity in preparations being made for the inevitable conflict. On the 21st of September, 1776, by act of Provisional Congress, he was appointed, together with William Duer, John Jay and several others, a committee for detecting and defeating conspiracies against the liberties of America. On this committee almost unlimited powers were conferred, including the raising and arming of troops at the State's expense, and the arbitrary arrest, examination and imprisonment of any and all persons suspected of disloyality [sic].
     For several months after the creation of this committee its arduous duties were shared to some extent by all of its members, but gradually its labors and responsibilities were delegated to Nathaniel Sackett, who by authority of the governing powers of the State exercised them with discretion and success until the close of the war.
     To attempt to designate the position of greatest responsibility or to name the act of most marked importance, held or performed by Nathaniel Sackett, of Fishkill, N. Y., during the Revolutionary War, is to undertake a difficult task. For a portion of the period mentioned he would seem to have been the active quartermaster of commissary of a considerable portion of the patriot army, operating on the banks of the Hudson River; at another the recognized chief of Washington's secret service corps; to-day attending a session of the Provisional Congress, and to-morrow present at a session of the General Committee of Safety. At one time consulting with his associates of the committee for detecting and defeating conspiracies, ant another issuing orders to armed bodies of troops; and again consulting with the Commander in Chief, or hastening off on some specially hazardous duty needing his personal direction. Space will not admit of following his eventful career from the beginning to the end of his patriotic struggle for the independence of his country.
     A few extracts from official colonial records and the copies of a few original documents given in chronological order, and covering a comparatively short period of time, will have to suffice:     The following letter discovered not long since in the family of one Captain Van Gasbeck's descendants, living near the City of Kingston, Ulster Co., N. Y. effectually sets at rest the long disputed question as to the identity of Harvey Birch, the hero of Cooper's famous historical novel, "The Spy":     From journal of Committee of Safety.     Commission in hand writing of General Washington.     From journal of Committee of Safety.     To understand the full purport of the foregoing documents and extracts, as to their bearing on the services rendered his country by Nathaniel Sackett, it is well to remember that when the New York Provisional Congress was not in session, as such, the State Government was administered by less than a quorum of its specially designated under the title of "General Committee of Safety" and this latter body was frequently made up solely of the members of the yet smaller and more active sub-committee appointed for "Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies," and that Nathaniel Sackett, an active member of all these bodies, was not unfrequently the only member remaining on duty with authority to act as emergency might require.
     With these facts before us the following document, which with several of the foregoing I copy verbatim from the original, is more readily understood:     The public career of Nathaniel Sackett is worthy of more attention than any historian has yet given it. Without title, and, so far as known, without hope of personal reward, he served his country for his country's sake. In close touch with the Legislature of his State, of which he was long a member, and with Washington the commander in chief and his leading generals; ever at the post of duty and frequently assuming responsibilities the very thought of which would have made a coward tremble; a soldier without rank whose orders were obeyed without question by the duly commissioned leaders of organized bodies of troops; feared by the secret emissaries of Great Britain; hated alike by Tories on the banks of the Hudson and England's Secretary of State, whose secret schemes for England's advantage he was continually thwarting; loved and honored by his loyal countrymen - respected and implicitly trusted to the last by the glorious band of associate patriots by whose valor and united efforts the United States of America gained her independence, surely Nathaniel Sackett is deserving of a prominent place in the annals of his country as well as of his kinsmen.
     After the close of the war he served one term in the State Legislature and then retired from public life; and with his fortune greatly reduced by reason of service in the cause of independence, he returned to his store and his farm. He died at the home of one of his sons near Sackett's Lake in Sullivan County, N. Y. No monument marks his last resting place, and even the locality of his burial is unknown.     461. Ananias R. Sackett, b. Jan. 23, 1760, d. Sept 2, 1838; m. Eunice Meeker.
     462. Samuel Sackett, b. Aug. 12, 1762, d. Sept. 9, 1841; m. 1, Polly Halstead.
     463. Nathaniel Sackett, b. Oct. 21, 1769; m. Elizabeth Ter Boss.
     464. Hannah Sackett, b. Oct. 2, 1771, d. Dec. 19, 1832; m. Joshua Arkills.
     465. Elizabeth Sackett, b. Nov. 2, 1778, d. Feb. 3, 1862; m. Eleazer Crosby.

153. Deborah Sackett, 1746–1769, daughter of (32) Rev. Samuel and Hannah Hazard Sackett, was married, Nov. 11, 1766, to Benjamin Peck, 1740–1806, of Greenwich, Conn., son of Theophilus Peck and his wife Elisabeth Mead.
William Peck, about 1600–1694, the colonist ancestor of Benjamin Peck, the husband of Deborah Sackett, was bred a merchant in England. He came from London to Boston in 1637, and settled at New Haven in 1638. he was chosen deacon of the church there in 1659, and was long known as Deacon William Peck, of New Haven.
Rev. Jeremiah Peck, 1623–1699, son of above, was born in England and died at Waterbury, Conn. He was married, Nov. 12, 1656, to Johannah Kitchell, of Guilford, Conn., where he was at the time teaching school. He subsequently taught in the grammar and Colony school at New Haven, after which he became a minister of the Congregational Church. He preached at Saybrook, Conn., from 1761 (sic) to 1765 (sic), and then for about a year at Guilford, after which he removed to Newark, New Jersey, and became interested in a large tract of land in Elizabeth, N. J. In 1672 he became one of the twenty-seven proprietors of the common lands in Greenwich, Conn. He subsequently preached for about a year at Greenwich and then located at Waterbury.
Samuel Peck, 1659–1696, son of Rev. Jeremiah and Johannah Kitchell Peck, was married to Rachel Ferris. They resided at Greenwich and were the parents of Theophilus Peck, of Greenwich, born in 1701, who was the father of Benjamin Peck who married Deborah Sackett.

154. Capt. Samuel Sackett, 1749–1780, of Westchester County, N. Y., son of (32) Rev. Samuel and Hannah Hazard Sackett, died unmarried, after a lingering illness resulting from wounds received and disease contracted in the service of his country. Shortly after attaining his majority he accompanied a party of adventurous young men of Westchester County and Long Island, to the West Indies, and there engaged in business. A letter dated March 3, 1774, written by his cousin Amy, wife of Capt. Richard Lawrence, to his sister Hannah, wife of Stephen De Lancey, mentions having heard from him through a friend just arrived from Santicroix, who told of his being located there in good health and doing a lucrative business.
     But previous to the breaking out of the Revolution he returned to Westchester County. And the official army records of the period show that he was one of the first young men of that vicinity to openly espouse the cause of American liberty and to take up arms in its defence. On June 28, 1775, the New York Provisional Congress, of which his brother Nathaniel was a active member, issued a warrant constituting him a First Lieutenant of the New York Line. He was immediately thereafter assigned to duty with the 4th Regiment and accompanied the expedition ordered to Canada, where, serving under the brave and experienced soldier, General Richard Montgomery, he participated in the taking of the Fortress of St. John, in the capture of Fort Chamley and in the investment of Montreal, which resulted in its capitulation on Nov. 13, 1775: two days after which General Montgomery issued a special order promoting him to the rank of Captain for conspicuous gallantry in action, and honor, so far as shown by records, conferred on no other American officer during that campaign.
     At Quebec, where General Montgomery was killed, Capt. Sackett was so severely wounded that for several months he was obliged to remain in Canada, where he was devotedly nursed and tenderly cared for by the nuns of the Ursuline Convent. His subsequent return by way of the rough military roads through the intervening wilderness to Albany, in his weakened condition, was a painful and tedious journey, which still further undermined his constitution. He, however, anticipated a speedy recovery and insisted on remaining in the service. And on the reorganization of the New York Line in 1776, his irregular promotion by General Montgomery was duly recognized and he was commissioned accordingly with rank from date of the General's order and assigned to recruiting service. In a letter dated "Albany, 27 September, 1777," written to his sister, Mrs. De Lancey, who appears to be his special favorite, he says:
     Capt. Sackett never regained his health sufficiently to permit his again taking the field. Over two years after date of foregoing letter he writes to the same sister saying:
     Capt. Sackett had no need of exchanging his Continental horse for a better one. The above was probably his last letter. He lingered, growing daily weaker and weaker, until Apr. 15 following, when death ended his service and his sufferings.

157. James Sackett, M. D., 1756–1791, youngest child of (32) Rev. Samuel and Hannah Hazard Sackett, served both as a regimental and hospital surgeon during the War of the Revolution; after which he became a successful practitioner in Dutchess County. He died very suddenly from some mysterious and unascertained cause at a time when to all appearances he was in the enjoyment of vigorous health. He is reputed to have been "a close student, a ripe scholar, unmarried, and greatly respected by a large circle of friends." At the time of his death he was the Surgeon of Dutchess County Regiment commanded by Colonel John Drake.