[Peter Cutul (2025)] An American County (New York: Hastings House), 209 29 Thomas F. Maxon, Mount Nimham: The Ridge of Patriots, Historical Timeline (New York: Thomas Maxon, 2009), 27. 30 https://www.pawlingrecord.org/single-post/2018/08/18/The-Heroine-of-Quaker-Hill 31 https://prendergast-rent-war.blogspot.com/2015/05/from-peaceful-farmer-to-rebel-leader.html 32 Thomas J. Humphrey, Land and Liberty, Hudson Valley Riots In The Age of Revolution (Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press), 69. 33 https://www.pawlingrecord.org/single-post/2018/08/18/The-Heroine-of-Quaker-Hill 34 https://www.prendergastlibrary.org/local-history/mehitable-wing-prendergast/ 35 https://www.pawlingrecord.org/single-post/2018/09/14/The-Heroine-of-Quaker-Hill 36 https://www.prendergastlibrary.org/local-history/mehitable-wing-prendergast/ fueled, dramatic appeal worked as the Governor issued a stay of execution for Prendergast, awaiting word from the King as to his ultimate fate. Sometime in late January or early February of 1767 word arrived from the King declaring, “His Majesty has been gratiously pleased to grant him [Prendergast] this pardon, relying that this instance of His Royal clemency will have a better effect in recalling these mistaken people to their duty than the most rigorous punishment.” 37 Although Prendergast was now free, stripped of any ability to lead the insurgents, the rioters were ultimately put down for good in two skirmishes involving British regulars that occurred in Patterson, and near Quaker Hill, NY, not far from Prendergast’s home. Although two British soldiers were wounded in the Patterson battle, the rioters nonetheless were successfully dispersed and the movement quashed. The Wappinger Response and a Second 1767 Land Hearing The Wappinger, although allied with the insurgent tenants, interestingly steered clear of the violent uprisings. Likely aware that violent measures would backfire, the Natives chose to navigate their quarrel through the proper channels of the courts and legal system. Demoralized, but not defeated, in 1766, as the anti-rent riots in the Hudson Valley reached their climax, Chief Nimham, along with six other Wappinger (four men and three women in total), largely funded by their sympathetic tenants, sailed to England to take their case directly to the King. Although “graciously received and maintained at the Government’s expense,” because they had arrived without the invitation of the King and had no letter of introduction from New York authorities, the Natives were met by the Lords of Trade instead of the King himself. 38 Nonetheless, the Secretary of State and the Lords of Trade viewed the Wappinger and their cause in a favorable light. On behalf of the King, Secretary Shelburne instructed Governor Moore to “take under your most serious consideration the case of these distressed people and turn your thoughts to every possible measure that may obtain for them a just and lasting satisfaction and that you will take on yourself as far as justice and the reason of the thing shall demand the office of their advocate and protector.” 39 With this promising resolution Nimham and the rest of the group set sail to return home in late September, likely right around the time Prendergast had received his death sentence. On their return sometime in the fall of 1766, Nimham refiled his claim against the landlords’ land grab. A trial was scheduled for March of 1767. Nimham struggled to find an attorney as all local attorneys had been put on retainer by Morris and Robinson. 40 Finally, just a week before the trial, Nimham was able to hire a bright young lawyer, a Yale graduate from Connecticut named Asa Spalding. Considering the circumstances Spalding argued an impressive case for the Wappinger, bringing forth “clouds of witnesses,” some of which gave quite damning evidence against the landlords. A Daniel Townshend stated how when he first moved on to the land in 1738 he had to reach an agreement with the Wappinger. Tenant farmer James Philips, “found a wigwam on his land” and was forced to make an 37 https://www.pawlingrecord.org/single-post/2018/10/26/The-Heroine-of-Quaker-Hill-Part-V-%E2%80%93Happily-Ever-After 38 Oscar Handlin and Irving Mark, “Chief Daniel Nimham v. Roger Morris, Beverly Robinson, and Philip Philipse - An Indian Land Case in Colonial New York, 1765-1767”, Ethnohistory, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Summer 1964), Published by Duke University Press: 210. 39 Henry Noble MacCracken, Old Dutchess Forever! The Story of An American County (New York: Hastings House), 293. 40 Oscar Handlin and Irving Mark, “Chief Daniel Nimham v. Roger Morris, Beverly Robinson, and Philip Philipse - An Indian Land Case in Colonial New York, 1765-1767”, Ethnohistory, Vol. 11, No. 3 (Summer 1964), Published by Duke University Press: 211. agreement with the Wappinger. Further, he “lived peaceably, and quietly under them for the space of about seventeen years; and that in all his life he never saw Mr. Adolph Philipse, to his knowledge.” An old, well-respected, attorney and local resident, James Brown testified that years earlier Adolph Philipse himself had stated that “the land was never owned by him.” A local judge, Judge Terbos, who even had learned to speak the language of the Wappinger, affirmed that Adolph Philipse had wanted to meet with the tribe to discuss land purchase but never did: “...Mr. Philipse told the said Sachem that he and his Tribe must all come