ster Light Horse was a
nephew of the senior General Oliver De Lancey, and a cousin of the
Major Colden of this narrative. His troop was not "a battalion in the
brigade of his uncle," Bolton's statement that it was so being
incorrect; its operations were limited to Westchester County. It
raided and fought for the King untiringly, until it was almost
entirely killed off, at the end of the war, by the persistent efforts
of our troops to extirpate it.

The members of this corps were called "Cowboys" because, in their duty
of procuring supplies for the British army, they made free with the
farmers' cattle. Like the other conspicuous Tories, this James De
Lancey was attainted by the new State Government, and his property was
confiscated. Local historians draw an effective picture of him
departing alone from his estate by the Bronx, turning for a last look,
from the back of his horse, at the fair mansion and broad lands that
were to be his no more, and riding away with a heavy heart. He went,
with many shipfuls of Tory emigrants, to Nova Scotia, and became a
member of the council of that colony. His uncle went to England and
died at his country house, Beverly, Yorkshire, in 1785. I allude to
the case of this family, because it was typical of that of a great
many families. The Tories of the American Revolution constitute a
subject that has yet to be made much of. They were the progenitors of
English-speaking Canada.

The act of attainder that deprived the De Lanceys of their estates,
deprived Colonel Philipse of his. It was passed by the New York
legislature, October 22, 1779. The persons declared guilty of
"adherence to the enemies of the State" were attainted, their estates
real and personal confiscated, and themselves proscribed, the second
section of the act declaring that "each and every one of them who
shall at any time hereafter be found in any part of this State, shall
be, and are hereby, adjudged and declared guilty of felony, and shall
suffer death as in cases of felony, without benefit of clergy." Acts
of similar import were passed in other States. Under this act,
Philipse Manor-house was forfeited to the State about a year after the
time of our narrative. The commissioners whose duty it was to dispose
of confiscated property sold the house and mills, in 1785, to
Cornelius P. Lowe. It underwent several transfers, but little change,
becoming at length the property of Lemuel Wells, who held it a long
time and, dying