. History of the city of New York: its origin, rise and progress . Brunswick, NewJersey ; his wife wasaccompanied by her wid-oweil sister, Mrs. DavidVan Home, and fivehauilsome, well-bred young lady daughters. The Hessian soldiers entered,and amused themselves with plundering Clarksons vacant home. Theydiscovered his choice imjwrted wines, and exhibited a royal drunkenfrolic on the back piazza and in the yards. This large dwelling wassul)sequeutly converted into a hospital by the enemy. A trusty slave,in the moment of danger, managed to secrete a large amount of silverplate and other family tr
. History of the city of New York: its origin, rise and progress . Brunswick, NewJersey ; his wife wasaccompanied by her wid-oweil sister, Mrs. DavidVan Home, and fivehauilsome, well-bred young lady daughters. The Hessian soldiers entered,and amused themselves with plundering Clarksons vacant home. Theydiscovered his choice imjwrted wines, and exhibited a royal drunkenfrolic on the back piazza and in the yards. This large dwelling wassul)sequeutly converted into a hospital by the enemy. A trusty slave,in the moment of danger, managed to secrete a large amount of silverplate and other family treasures, which were thereby preserved to latergenerations. Scarcely had Clarkson heard of the disasters attending thebattle of Long Island, when the great fire destroyed his elegant cityresidence with all its contents, portraits and ancient relics, and he wasreduced from the greatest affluence to comparative penury. He hadstill quite a numl)er of houses in the city from whicli lie might havederived a tolerable revenue, but his real estate was seized, and he was. General Matthew Clarkson. a painting by Stuart, in posstsaion of Matthew Clarkson.] 102 HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. kept out of his income until the end of the war.^ His two sons were inactive service; David was captain of a company, under Colonel JosiahSmith, to which jNIatthew was attached as a volunteer, and met the Britishon the 27th in the memorable battle of Long Island. Matthew (after-wards General) was a youth of brilliant parts, handsome, engaging, and ofgreat strength and beauty of character.^ He was shortly promoted, acquit- ting himself noblyhalf a subsequentuseful and public- throughout the struggle, and for nearlycentury was one of Xew Yorks mostspirited citizens. Washingtons deficiency infinhting material at this cri-sis was only equaled bythe lack of military coun-sel upon which he couldrely. Few of his offi-cers were known to havesuperior capacity forwar; the majority ofthem were untrained,and some
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