The Treason of Jacob Roosa (1740 - 1777)

Historical Note:

Aldert Roosa had eight children and the story of his son Arien is part of the Rose Chronicles. Arien would eventually have a son named Samuel. At some point he left Kingston in the new territory of Vermont. While there he had a son named Cornelius (1757). 

Cornelius and Jacob lived far apart and even though they were cousins would not have known each other. Even so, their fates were intertwined because, like so many others in this period, they had different allegiance to England. And, as young men, they fought on opposite sides. 

Most interesting of all is that Jacob would one day be accused of treason for his loyalist beliefs, not just because of that but because he was convinced to be a spy for the British, using his name and his family to conscript colonists for King George. in May of 1777, court documents and firsthand accounts tell the story. He would ultimately be hanged in the public square as a warning to others. 

The New York Journal was the local newspaper in Kingston. It was published by a famous patriot named John Holt. Though he did not publish his first edition until September of 1777, the treason and hanging of Jacob Roosa was still very fresh in all their minds. It is possible Holt would have covered it in a retrospective editorial in that first edition. The following articles reflect a historically grounded dramatization of that first edition, published in September of 1777. Reflecting the actual format and style of the New York Journal, it would consist of four pages. The first page was always devoted to formal legal notices. The second and third pages of Holt’s publication were passionate, patriotic editorials. This could have been where the treason story was detailed. The last page included more legal and public notices, such as the audit details of the public hanging of Jacob Roosa just a few months before. 

COUNCIL OF SAFETY, for the State of NEW-YORK.

WHEREAS information hath been received, that diverse evil-minded Persons, disaffected to the Liberties of America, have lately gone through the Country, under various Pretences, with Intent to seduce the weak and unwary from their Allegiance to this State, and to enlist them into the Service of the cruel and implacable Enemy:

RESOLVED, That all such Persons, so offending, are guilty of High Treason against the People of this State; and that the several Committees of Safety and Officers of the Militia be, and they are hereby strictly charged and required, to apprehend and secure all such Offenders, that they may be brought to speedy and condign Punishment.

By Order of the Council, PIERRE VAN CORTLANDT, President.

THE NEW-YORK JOURNAL

MONDAY, JULY 7, 1777

By John Holt 

IT IS with a most righteous Satisfaction that the Friends to American Liberty look back upon the swift and exemplary Justice lately executed in this Town upon those incorrigible Traitors, Jacobus Roosa and Jacob Middagh. As the Council of Safety continues its vigilant Labours to purge this State of internal Enemies, it is well to record the full and black History of that late desperate Conspiracy, known to many as the Marbletown Disaffection, that all who secretly harbour the Vipers of Toryism may take timely Warning.

The ringleader of this parricidal Band, the late Jacobus Roosa—a Man who wickedly trampled upon his former Oath to the Militia of this County—had for some Time acted as a principal Tool of British Tyranny. Having previously sneaked into the Hudson Highlands, Roosa did there pilot seventeen local Men down to New-York City, delivering five or six of those deluded Wretches directly into the Service of the notorious Loyalist Colonel Fanning.

Emboldened by this first Success, and greedy for the Bounty promised by the Enemy for every local Soul enlisted, Roosa returned to Ulster County early in April last. Moving like a Thief in the Night, he sought to gather a formidable Body of fifty or more Men from their Houses and secret Hiding Places. In this unique and unfortunate Corner of our Province, where the Seeds of Disaffection have run deep, Roosa made his Appeal by Word of Mouth. With a devilish Subtlety, he rent entire Families asunder; Fathers and Sons were induced to enlist and serve together, and Brothers went secretly, the one to the other, plotting to steal away quietly from their honest Neighbors.

Their march toward the British Lines began with open Outrage. Proceeding first to Wallkill, the audacious Roosa did personally assault and disarm a Rebel Sentry, leaving the poor Man only upon a strict Promise to remain quiet. Soon after, the Band encountered two of our mounted Militia. In the Scuffle that ensued, both Militia-men were violently dismounted, and Lieutenant Terwilliger was shot through the Arm. Not content with this Bloodshed, the Traitors did likewise wound Major Strang and his Brother at another Point upon their Route.

For Days, this dangerous Body of Insurgents marched from one Tory House to the next, skulk’d in the deep Woods by Day, and waded through Creeks and mountain Trails under the Cover of Night. We are well informed that during their Flight, they were joined by a most singular and mysterious Character—a British Officer standing some five Feet ten Inches high, blind in one Eye, who was making his Way from Niagara or Quebec to New-York, heavily laden with a Bundle of secret Dispatches for the Enemy.

News of so large and desperate a Band of Traitors soon spread Terror through the Rebel Posts and honest Households of the Countryside. The Alarm being sounded, our brave Militia flew to Arms. Brigadier General James Clinton, commanding at Fort Montgomery, reports that Colonel Woodhull’s Men happily caught up with the flying Loyalists somewhere near New-Paltz on the 29th of April. After a few sharp Shots were exchanged, the entire Tory Party was either captured or scattered into the Wilderness.

The Day following their Capture, the Process of Justice began at Fort Montgomery, where these miserable Captives were brought before a Court Martial to answer for their Lives, standing without Hope of Counsel or favorable Witnesses. At the first Sitting of the Court, ten were instantly sentenced to the Gallows, with but one recommended to Mercy. Between the 2nd and 6th of May, twenty more Members of the Party, together with their Families and sundry Persons who had given them Comfort, were likewise brought to Trial.

Of these, four were acquitted for Want of sufficient Evidence; eleven were found guilty of the highest Crime of Levying War against the United States of America; and five others were convicted of Aiding, Assisting, and giving Comfort to the Enemy. All sixteen found guilty were sentenced to death by Hanging, though the Court mercifully recommended seven to a Reprieve. So vast was the Number of Traitors brought in by Colonel Woodhull, that the Guard-House at Fort Montgomery could scarce contain the Multitude of them.

The Sentences being duly confirmed by the Convention at York—save for one Death Sentence commuted to Prison for the Duration of the War—General Clinton ordered the Prisoners removed to Kingston, with a strict Recommendation that their Executions be speedily carried out. Thus ended that grand and wicked Design; and thus may the Gallows ever stand ready for those who would sell the Liberties of their Native Country for British Gold.

In May when these unfortunate Men drew near the Gallows, which had been erected upon the first Hill from the Landing, they appeared fully to expect a Last-Minute Reprieve from the Crown they had so blindly served. Upon seeing the awful Preparations for their immediate Death, they became utterly overwhelmed with a Sense of their Situation. In their Terror, they cast aside all Treasonous Pride and cried out in their native Dutch Tongue: 'O Heer! vergeeven onze zonde!'—begging that Lord for Forgiveness whose earthly Laws they had so violently broken. Let it be known that while twenty or thirty of their deluded Followers wisely repented, enlisting into our American Army to save their Lives, these two Ring-leaders paid the full and bloody Price. They leave behind Families who must now bear the heavy Shame of their Memory."

PROCEEDINGS of the COUNCIL OF SAFETY.

KINGSTON, September 3, 1777.

ORDERED, That the following Account of Colonel JACOB HOORNBEEK, for Services rendered to the State of NEW-YORK in May last, be referred to the Auditor General, and that the same be audited and paid out of the Public Treasury.

ROBERT BENSON, Secretary.

The STATE of NEW-YORK, To Collo. JACOB HOORNBEEK, Dr. For executing Jacobus Rosa and Jacob Medeagh, May 13th last past:

• To Disguising the Hangman, and other Necessaries … £4. 0. 0

• To 2 Coffins for said Criminals … 3. 0. 0

• To paid to sundry Persons to Bury the above … 1. 0. 0

• To John McKneel, for Erecting the Gallows, &c. … 1. 0. 0

• To Jacobus Louw, for Disguising the Hangman, &c. … 0. 10. 0

• To money Expended for Collo. Hoornbeek for himself and Egbert Dumond, Esq; (the Sheriff) in attending said Execution … 2. 0. 6

The above account is just and true. By me, JACOB HOORNBEEK.

Historical Note: 

Such a notorious event as a public hanging was a matter of conversation in Ulster County for generations. Thanks to the meticulous war records of George Clinton many details of this story are preserved today. A genealogical magazine from 1906 called “Olde Ulster.” referenced the Clonton papers and even some firsthand accounts of the hanging. 

The Clinton papers contain many accounts of courts-martial to to try Tories.  A number were convicted and sentenced to confinement and a less number to the gallows but only two suffered capital punishment for their offenses.  These were Jacob Middagh and Jacobus Roosa, who were hung on May 12, 1777.  They had been scouring the county for recruits for the British army and promising all manner of pecuniary reward to those whom they could delude into stealing through the American lines to take service in the ranks of the king.  When captured they were piloting quite a company over mountain and through woodland paths to the same service.  They received three dollars in gold therefor and were to have an allotment of the lands of the patriots when the latter were subdued.

Years ago a question arose as to the spot upon which Roosa and Middagh had paid the extreme penalty of the law.  The late Charles McEntee some eighty years ago interviewed Abraham Slecht regarding his recollections of the burning of Kingston.  Slecht was a young man of twenty-two on that October day of 1777 and had watched the landing of the troops of Vaughan from his father’s house on the south side of Rondout creek and had followed in their rear up the hill of Rondout.  

His description was that he first caught sight of the burned town from the two big pines upon which the Tories [Middaugh and Roosa] had been hanged.  The stone houses seemed still standing until after he had crossed the intervening plain, when he found that what he had seen were but the naked walls of the burned buildings.  When asked where those pines stood he replied that they were where the wooded knolls ended and the sandy, open plain began along the road from the Strand to Kingston, and located them on the knoll in the O’Reilly grove opposite the Kingston entrance to the present City Hall.

It is probable that Roosa and Middagh, leaders though they were in deluding the rabble and selling them to the British service, might have had their punishment commuted to imprisonment as was done to the others, had public sentiment not been so strong.  Had none suffered the extreme punishment lynch laws would have assaulted the jail and Fleet Prison for victims.  Official documents give evidence of this.

Barber and Howe’s “Historical Collections of the State of New York” published many years ago, in speaking of this execution says:

“Judge Hasbrouck, of Kingston, who was at this time a lad, says that two of them were hung on the first hill from the landing.  It appears that these unfortunate men expected to be reprieved; when they drew near the gallows and saw the preparations for their execution they became overwhelmed with a sense of their awful situation and exclaimed: ‘Oh, Heer!  vergeeveen onze sonde!’ (Oh, Lord! forgive our sin!)  

The father of Judge Hasbrouck, one of the principal men of the place, although a firm friend of the American cause, was opposed to the execution, and suffered much anguish of mind on account of these harsh and bloody measures.  These men, although Tories, were persons of respectability, who had families.  Between twenty and thirty royalists who were taken up, enlisted in the American army and thus saved their lives. The cost of the execution was paid by the Council of Safety.