NOTE CONCERNING DAVID HAYS AND ESTHER ETTING HIS WIFE, AND MICHAEL HAYS AND REUBEN ETT- ING, THEIR BROTHERS, PATRIOTS OF THE REVOLUTION. BY SOLOMON SOLIS-COHEN, Philadelphia. From the Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, No. 2, 1894. PRESS OF THE FRIEDENWALD COMPANY, BALTIMORE. NOTE CONCERNING DAVID HAYS AND ESTHER ETTING HIS WIFE, AND MICHAEL HAYS AND REUBEN ETTING, THEIR BROTHERS, PATRIOTS OF THE REVOLUTION.* Solomon Solis-Cohen, Philadelphia.f The modest record of humble duty, simply done, which is here presented, is gathered partly from traditions preserved by my mother,J who heard them from her mother,§ the daughter and niece of the subjects of this sketch, and partly from books, letters, deeds and other documents in the possession of my mother and sister, and of my kinsman, Daniel Peixotto Hays, Esq., of New York.|| Fire, water, and the tooth of time, incarnate in the form of a small rodent, have unfortunately destroyed many papers and so mutilated others as to render the data fragmentary and imperfect. Westchester County, New York, by reason both of its strategetical importance and of the large number of Tories scattered among its patriotic population, was the scene of almost constant warfare, regular and irregular, during the whole period of the British occupation of New York. In that county lived and wrought the subjects of this sketch. At the outbreak of the Revolution Michael Hays was a farmer at Northcastle,T[ and his youngest brother David, who had *Presented at the meeting held at Philadelphia, December 15,1892. f Great-grandson of David and Esther Etting Hays. X Judith Simha Solis, wife of Myer David Cohen, and daughter of Jacob da Silva Solis and his wife Charity Hays. § Charity HayslSolis. I Son of David Hays and Judith Peixotto, his wife ; David Hays being the son of Benjamin Etting Hays and Sarah Myers, his wife ; Benjamin Etting Hays being the son of David Hays and Esther Etting, his wTife. tin a deed dated 1774 he is described as “ yeoman”; in previous deeds (1753 and 1765), as “trader” and “merchant.” 64 American Jewish Historical Society: served in the New York contingent at Braddock’s field, had returned to peaceful occupations as a farmer and storekeeper at Bedford. Michael was a man advanced in years ; David was in the prime of life, having been born in 1732. From a fragment of a memorandum in the handwriting of Michael Hays it appears that in 1776 or earlier he was driven from his farm, which remained for six years in the hands of the enemy.* With the farm the enemy likewise took possession of 74 head of cattle and other stores, the list of which was upon the missing fragments of the record. It is possible that these stores had been gathered for the Colonial army, and that their presence at Hays’s farm was the cause of the enemy’s descent thereon; for the tradition concerning the burning of David Hays’s house at Bedford in 1779 connects the absence of one of its protectors, the eldest son Jacob (afterwards High Constable of the city of New York), with a successful attempt to drive cattle through the enemy’s lines to the army of the United States. Concerning this same burning of the village of Bedford, I am fortunately able to correct one of the statements in Bolton’s History of Westchester County. It is there statedf that on July 2d, 1779, Lieut.-Colonel Tarleton with a party of British light horse rode into Bedford and fired it; although according to the testimony of Mrs. Patty Holmes, given when ninety years old,J it would appear that on that day the British burned only the meeting-house and the residence of Colonel Holmes, then occupied by Benjamin Hays,§ setting fire to the village nine days later. * According to a letter written in 1782 he was again at Northcastle in that year. f Robt. Bolton, The history of the several towns, manors and patents of the county of West Chester, etc. Edited by C. W. Bolton, New Rochelle, N. Y., 1881, p. 91 seq. 11 bid., p. 94. § A brother of Michael and David was named Benjamin and is possibly the person referred to. David Hays and Esther Etting—Solis-Cohen. 65 Among the papers of D. P. Hays is a mutilated memo- randum in the handwriting of David Hays, of which nearly all of the superscription is illegible except the words “ when the enemy came to Bedford and burned my house on the eleventh of July, 1779.” This, it would seem, fully corroborates Mrs. Holmes’s statement that nine days elapsed between the seizure of the village, marked by firing its meeting-house (public prop- erty) and the house of Colonel Holmes (a Tory commander expelled by his fellow-citizens) as acts of terrorization, and the burning of the other houses. Concerning the purpose of the raid, and of the delay of nine days in firing the village, nothing is said either in Bolton’s narrative or in his citation from Mrs. Patty Holmes. Traditions of the Hays family supplement the published account as follows: David Hays and most of the other heads of families were absent with the patriotic army. Jacob Hays was one of a party of young men and boys that had undertaken to get through the enemy’s lines and into the American camp the cattle that had been collected for this purpose at Bedford. The British raid may well have been for the purpose of pre- venting this, and the delay of nine days in firing the village may have been granted in hope of discovering by treachery or otherwise the whereabouts of the herd and effecting its capture. Be this as it may, Mrs. Hays was at the time of the British raid lyiug upon a sick bed with anew-born infant* at her breast. Her husband and eldest son were with the army, and she with her daughters and her baby boy were attended by an old negro slave named Darby and his wife, whom she had brought with her from Baltimore, her home * Benjamin Etting Hays, who at the time of his death at Pleasant- ville, Aug. 13th, 1858, was supposed to be the “ last Jewish farmer in the United States,” and who during his life was known as “ Uncle Ben the Jew, the best Christian in Westchester County.” The old homestead and a portion of the farm is now in the posses- sion of his grandson, I). P. Hays, Esq. 66 American Jewish Historical Society. prior to her marriage. Not British soldiers, but Tory neighbors,* entered the house on that eleventh day of July, 1779, and demanded of the sick woman information she was supposed to possess concerning the patriotic plans. On her refusal to play traitor, the house was fired with a brand from its own hearthstone. The mother and children were con- veyed by the faithful negroes to a shelter in the woods and there cared for until succor came to them and to the others who suffered from Tory malice. Esther Etting, the cousin and wife of David Hays, was not the only one of Asher Etting’s children that dared to suffer for the right. When the echoes from the guns of Lexington reached Baltimore, her brother Beuben, then clerk in a bank at that place, although but 19 years of age, immediately threw down his pen and hastened northward to join the patriots. He was taken prisoner at Charlestown, and when the British learned that he was not only a rebel but a Jew, they gave him for food only pork, which he refused to eat, subsisting, until exchanged, on such morsels of unforbidden food as he could obtain from his fellow- prisoners. Weakened by confinement and privation, he died of consumption soon after his release. Another brother, Benjamin Etting, was among the patriotic merchantsf of New York city who were forced to flee before the British troops. Many prominent Jews came at that time to Phila- delphia, but Etting was one of a number who took refuge in Norwalk, Connecticut, where he died May 24th, 1778, leaving Mrs. Hays the only surviving member of her family.J *This finds corroboration in Bolton’s statement that the Tory Colonel Holmes was among the firing party. f He was in partnership with his uncle, Isaac Adolphus, at whose house it is probable that David Hays and Esther Etting first met. t Moses Etting, another brother, had died some time previously at Easton, Pa., where he resided with I. Moses, and was engaged in merchandising in partnership with Nathan Bush, as appears from a letter written by Solomon Simson from Norwalk, June 4, 1778, to Mr. Bush, “in care of Mr. Myer Hart, merchant at Easton.” In Mr. Moses’s letter announcing Moses Etting’s death, it is said that “ in the morning he seemed cheerful and said his prayers as usual.” David Hays and Esther Etting—Solis-Cohen. 67 Michael Hays appears to have been a man of some conse- quence in his community. Tradition relates that he was concerned in the drafting of the constitution of the state of New York, and my brother, Dr. J. Solis-Cohen, remembers to have seen documentary evidence that supports the tradi- tion; none of this evidence remains, however, unless we admit as such a mouse-eaten fragment among the papers of D. P. Hays which contains some undecipherable allusions to restrictions that ought to be placed upon the “ powers of the general government.” That he was active in public affairs, however, appears from a letter dated September 20, 1782, from a correspondent at New Haven whose signature Time’s tooth aforesaid has neatly gnawed out. The writer complains that “ the people here are more speculators than politicians—they are bound to pursue commerce, let the world wag as it will.” The following letters bearing upon Michael Hays’ political activity are, perhaps, not unworthy of transcription as illustrative both of differences and resem- blances between the conduct of public affairs in the last century and at the present day :