Revolutionary War
Testimony, Roelof Josiah Eltinge. 1776-10-26. HHS.
In the Fall of 1776, the American Revolution was just a year and a half into its eight-year span. Although New Paltz didn’t see any battles or house George Washington, its inhabitants would not go through this period untouched by the changing world around them.
In October of that year, Roelof Eltinge was brought before the Committee for Defeating and Detecting Conspiracies for refusing to accept Continental currency as payment at his store. Printed by the Continental Congress to fund the war against the British, not accepting the cash was automatic grounds for being branded a Tory, exiled, and imprisoned. Roelof’s brother Solomon would face the same fate only two weeks later.
Both Roelof and Solomon were tried by a jury of their peers—a self-selected committee. After regional and local colonial governments collapsed, many such committees formed across the colonies. They filled a necessary role, but the New Paltz Committee concerning the Eltinges has always been contentious. As the story goes, Jacob Hasbrouck Jr. served on the committee but might have held some prejudice against Roeloff and Solomon due to a land dispute with their uncle. Jacob’s daughter was one of those from whom Roeloff refused to take continental currency. Whether this did or did not factor into the decision to banish the Eltinge brothers cannot be proven but adds an interesting lens through which to view these committees.
In 1778, two years into his banishment, Solomon wrote in a letter to his father from New York:
“I will write nothing Concerning the war, but I
hope that the Lord will at the appointed time show
that he is a helper of them that Call upon him,
therefore let us although we are parted from one
another join our hearts in prayers to the Lord that
we may [be] Protected by the powerful hand of the
Lord, so that when this Dark Cloud is past, we shall
Praise the Lord for his Goodness towards us.”
Interestingly this is the only letter we have from Solomon to his father during that time that is written in English. The Elting family was of Dutch origin and all other letters in the collection from Solomon are written in Dutch. A link to New York’s Dutch past, further work will be needed to translate these letters into English.
While the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1784, called for Loyalists to be freed with no future consequences as a result of their status as Tories, New York still required banished Tories to petition the state legislature to be allowed to return home. Solomon and Roelof sent their petition on February 12, 1784.
On May 12, 1784 the New York State Legislature passed a law to restrict the enfranchisement of loyalists and continue their banishment. In this act, however, a special permit was granted to 27 men to be able to return to their homes. In the undated document below, twenty-six of the twenty-seven men are listed, among them Solomon and Roelif Elting. We do not know the exact date the brothers returned home.
Permission for banished persons to return home, unsigned and undated. Circa 1785. HHHC.