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David Mathews Biography & Facts

David Mathews (c. 1739 – July 28, 1800) was an American born British lawyer and politician from New York City. He was a Loyalist during the American Revolutionary War and was the 43rd and last Colonial Mayor of New York City from 1776 until 1783. As New York City was the center of British control of the Colonies during the war, he was one of the highest ranking civilian authorities in the Colonies during this period. He was accused of supporting a plan led by Thomas Hickey to kill the Revolutionary General George Washington. He resettled in Nova Scotia after the war, and became a leading political figure in the Cape Breton colony that was created in 1786. Early life and education Mathews was born in New York to Vincent Mathews and Catalina Abeel, the daughter of Johannes Abeel, the second Mayor of Albany and Catherine Schuyler. He earned a Master of Arts degree from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1754. He was admitted to practice law in Orange County, New York in 1760, and was the County Clerk of Orange County from 1762 through 1778. Career Mathews was in 1770 one of the founders of the Moot Club, a forum for legal discussion, whose members consisted of William Livingston, James Duane, Gouverneur Morris, Stephen DeLancey, John Jay, Egbert Benson, and Robert R. Livingston. John Jay would later be one of the signatories of Mathews' arrest warrant in 1776. He was appointed Mayor in February 1776 by William Tryon, Governor of the Province of New York, replacing Whitehead Hicks. Mathews lived in Manhattan but maintained a summer residence in Flatbush, located approximately at the intersection of Flatbush Avenue and Parkside Avenue, and where he conducted much of his business while Mayor. Alleged plot to kill George Washington Mathews, in 1776, was implicated in a plan to kidnap George Washington, the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army. Mathews and William Tryon, the governor of the Province of New York, were also accused of being involved, as was a member of Washington's Life Guard, Thomas Hickey, who would eventually be executed for his role. After John Jay interviewed many witnesses regarding the payments made by the British to recruits, he as head of the Committee of Conspiracies of the New York Provincial Congress, and after consultation and approval by Washington, ordered Mathews' arrest for "being engaged in a Conspiracy against the Authority of the Congress and the Liberties of America." Mathews was arrested at his Flatbush home on June 22, 1776 by Lieutenant Colonel Ezekiel Cornell. On July 8, the New York Provincial Congress, after Mathews was found guilty of treason and subversion, was sentenced to death and was to be executed on August 25. He was first sent to Hartford, Connecticut under the care of Abraham DePeyser, and then sent to Litchfield, Connecticut on July 21 and placed under house arrest in the home of Major Moses Seymour, whose orders were as follows: you are directed and required to take him under your Care and him safely convey from Hartford in Hartford county to Litchfield ___ aforesaid and him there hold and keep in safe Custody permitting him only to walk abroad for the Benefit of the Air in the Day Time and to attend Divine Service at some place of public worship and that under your law or that of some other trusty keeper on the Sabbath Day, until you secure further Orders from me or from the Provincial Convention of the State of New York. Mathews, in a letter to a college classmate written during his imprisonment, denied his involvement in the plot against Washington: I have made so many fruitless applications lately that I am almost discouraged putting pen to paper again. [It]...is verily believed throughout this Colony, that I was concerned in a Plot to assassinate George Washington and blow up the Magazine in New York? The Convention well knows such a report prevails. They also know it is false as hell is false. The charges were never proven. Mathews, in his claim for compensation to the Royal Commission in London for the forfeiture of his estate in the colonies, had it written that "He had formed a plan for the taking of Mr. Washington and his guard prisoners, which was not effected by an unforeseen discovery that was made." Mathews later took advantage of a greater level of freedom from a minor parole to meet with other Loyalists, including Joel Stone, who helped Mathews escape. On November 27, Major Seymour placed the following notice in the Connecticut Journal seeking help in recapturing Matthews for the reward of $50 ($1,568.98 as of 2021). The notice read as follows: New York under British control Mathews subsequently resumed his office as mayor in late 1776, returning on December 2, during which time New York was firmly in British control. His house was located on Water Street. General Howe, in late 1776, awarded Mathews all of the profits from the city's ferries, markets and slips, for his own personal use. Previously these funds were reverted to the corporation of the City of New York Mathews was also given command of two military units, the Loyal Volunteers of the City of New York and the Mayor's Independent Company of Volunteers, and was often referred to as Colonel. In 1778, a party of twenty men "with their faces blacked and otherwise disguised" led by Captain John Schenck went to Flatbush as part of the Whaleboat War in a failed attempt to capture Mathews. They instead took away Major James Moncrief. In August 1778 Mathews sustained injuries in assisting British military and Manhattan residents in extinguishing a fire on what is now Front Street along the East River. In June 1779 an attempt by Loyalists to kidnap New Jersey Governor William Livingston, a distant Schuyler cousin of Mathews, failed. Mathews was suspected to have organized this plot. The New York Assembly, on October 22, 1779, in an Act of Attainder, declared Mathews to be one of 59 state felons who was to be executed if found in the state. His property, which totaled nearly 27,000 acres, was confiscated. In his father Vincent Mathews' will, he was not mentioned and only his children were listed as inheritors. It is likely that Mathews was at least complicit in the handling of colonial military prisoners, who were not considered Prisoners of War until months after the British defeat at the Battle of Yorktown. Over 10,000 colonial soldiers died as prisoners during the American Revolutionary War, most of them in New York and on prison ships in the East River, more than the men who died in combat. Mathews is on record as a visitor to colonial prisoners and in fact helped to produce affidavits denying allegations of abuse and neglect from half a dozen British officials swearing that American prisoners were fed and comfortable. Mathews' character was considered questionable not just by Patriots but by fellow Loyalists as well. Former Chief Justice of the Province of New York and fellow Loyalist William Smith wrote that Mathews.... Discover the David Mathews popular books. Find the top 100 most popular David Mathews books.