Inhabitants of New York, 1774-1776 - Thomas B. Wilson

Orchard, Joseph N[ew York] New York 75-T, 76-A

75-T: Rivington’s New York Newspaper, Excerpts from a Loyalist Press 1773-183, by Kenneth Scott.
76-A: Address to Admiral and General Howe, 16 October 1776. (New York City During the American Revolution, Mercantile Library Association of New York City, 1861, pp.117-137). A memorial to Admiral Lord Richard Howe and General Sir William Howe signed by 948 inhabitants of the City and County of New York expressing loyalty to King George the Third and praying that they, the Howe‘s, would restore this city to His Majesty‘s protection and peace.

American Migrations 1765-1799 - Peter Wilson Coldham

The lives, times and families of colonial Americans who remained loyal to the British Crown before, during and after the Revolutionary War, as related in their own words and through their correspondence.

Orchard, Joseph of NYC, baker. Memorial undated [1790]. For several years he was Superintendent of Bakers in NYC responsible for supplying bread to the Army: he made bread from rye, Indian corn, pease, and oatmeal, but from April 1779 to November 1781 he used his own flour. In July 1779 he bought from Brigadier-General DeLancey his farm at Bloomingdale*, intending to cut and sell the wood growing there, but was prevented by the Army from doing so, except for that required for his own family‘s use: soldiers were sent in to cut the remainder. He frequently took intelligence on board the Dutchess of Gordon at great risk to himself. His wife and six children have been separated from him for three years and without help he cannot send for them to come to England. Claim for flour wood. Evidence: Letter 11 May 1789 Ightham, Kent, from John Milner to the Commission that he well knew the claimant from the time of his first arrival in America to the disgraceful loss of it, and was a near neighbour. Examination 1 May 1789 of John Barrow, formerly baker of NYC, re prices of flour there. (12/73/319; 13/7/384-425. 88/184-185, 94/378-381).

Canada Loyalist Claim For Joseph Orchard

The Oliver De Lancey Farm

The country seat of Stephen De Lancey the elder, called Bloomingdale, became the Oliver De Lancey farm. It comprised lots 8,9, and 10 of the "Thousand acre tract". No deeds to Stephen De Lancey have been found either recorded or unrecorded.

The four most northerly lots of the thousand acres belonged to Egbert Wouterse and Jan Vinge, but the allotments to these two patentees cannot be proved. From incomplete evidence, the theory has been deduced that lots 7 and 8 fell to Egbert Wouterse, lots 9 and 10 to Jan Vinge.

Lots 7 and 8 were probably sold to Thomas Hall. Hall was dead by Nov., 1669...

His widow made her will in August, 1669. In it she manumitted her slave and left him "aparcell of her lands layeing about the Great Kill". This lot has been identified as lot 7 (see Teunis Somarindyke farm). In a deed of that lot, Brandt Schuyler is recited as the owner of lot 8. No other evidence of Schuyler's ownership has been found.

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Oliver De Lancey built his own house near the river, at the upper end of his farm. He had probably finished it before he sold the old Stephem De Lancey house to Apthorp in 1763. This new house was attacked by a party of Continental soldiers on the night of Nov.26, 1777, plundered and set on fire. - See Chronology for details.

The mansion seems to have been destroyed, but the farm buildings were left standing. The following advertisement proves that Oliver De Lancey had conveyed the farm to his daughter, no doubt to avoid its confiscation.

1779, March 31."To be Sold at private Sale. The Farm so delightfully situated at Bloomingdale, on the Island of New-York, six miles from this city, belonging to Miss Charlotte De Lancey, commonly called De Lancey‘s Farm, bounded northerly by Mr. Apthorp‘s Farm, easterly by the Commons, southerly by Judge Bayard‘s, and westerly by Hudson‘s Rover, containing one hundred and eighty-three and one-half acres, having two large kitchen gardens well fenced and in good order, sundry orchards, a farm house and two barns thereon, one with sheds and other buildings, forty acres of extraordinary fine wood land on one parcel, four acres in another and several small pieces..." Applications to be made to Jhn Kelly, Notary Public or Brig. Gen. De Lancey. - Royal Gaz., March 31, 1779.

It will be noted that this advertisement recites no dwelling house.

Charlotte De Lancey, or her representatives, sold this property to Joseph Orchard of New York, a baker. The deed has not been found.

Sept. 11. 1781. Joseph Orchard mortgaged the land "Known as the De Lancey Farm," about 183 acres, to Daniel Cock and Daniel Underhill, both of the Township of Oyster Bay, farmers, for 2500 Spanish Milled dollars. - Lier Deeds, XLI: 73 (New York). The mortgage did not recite a dwelling house: merely "buildings, offices, gardens," etc.

The old Bloomingdale Road, which was at this point ran east of the later road, as shown on the map, divided Joseph Orchard‘s land into two farms. He conveyed the 40 acre farm west of the old road to John Lovell, April 12, 1785 "With the dwelling house, Buildings, offices, and gardens." - Ibid., XLII: 360.

These recitals prove that on this 40 acres between the road and the river, Orchard had a dwelling house, before 1785, although there was none there in 1781.

A comparison of the advertisement with the Randel Map shows that the physical situation had changed very little in thirty years. Orchards had evidently rebuilt on the sote of the mansion destroed in 1777. The new house, a large one with a hipped rooof, stood on a knoll about 400 feet from the river, a long distance back from the road. To the north of the house, a farm house and other buildings, accurately described in the advertisement on 1779. A dock is shown on the Randel Mao. Perhaps it was the landing place of the troops on that November night in 1777.

On the present city plan, the house would be south of 88th St., about 100 feet east of Riverside Drive; the farm house in the block above; the barn, "with sheds and other buildings," in the bed of Riverside Drive at 89th St.; the other barn 100 feet to the east, partly in the bed of 89th St.

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From:    Stokes, I. N. Phelps The iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909  -  Pages 94-96