Increase Carpenter

Increase Carpenter (20 Aug 1736-20 Apr 1807) was a Minuteman and American revolutionary war patriot who was born in Jamaica, Queens, NY. He was an Elder in the church and a butcher and Innkeeper. He participated in the Revolutionary War as a First Lieutenant from New York. Carpenter wore the uniform of the Jamaica Minutemen, served on the Committee of Correspondence, and also served time as a prisoner of war. He was at one time a Commissary of the Army.[1]

Carpenter av, at 197th st and Jamaica Ave, Hollis Queens is named for Increase

Increase Carpenter kept an Inn a mile east of “Rustdorp” (Jamaica Village) on Fulton St (Jamaica Ave). A protest meeting of the Sons of Liberty was held there in 1774 to discuss the Tea Act Tax.[2] The colonists elected no members of Parliament, and so it was seen as a violation of the British Constitution for Parliament to tax them. Throughout the colonies, members of the middle and upper classes of society formed the foundation for these groups of resistance and soon called themselves the Sons of Liberty. The term "sons of liberty" had been used in a generic fashion well before 1765, but it was only around February 1766 that its influence extended throughout the colonies as an organized group using the formal name "Sons of Liberty", leading to a pattern for future resistance to the British that carried the colonies towards 1776.

Tea Party Revolutionary

The Boston Tea Party was a political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea from China in American colonies without paying taxes apart from those imposed by the Townshend Acts, thus undercutting local tea merchants: Demonstrators, some disguised as Native Americans, destroyed an entire shipment of tea sent by the East India Company. The Tea Party was the culmination of a resistance movement throughout British America against the Tea Act, which had been passed by the British Parliament in 1773. Colonists objected to the Tea Act because they believed that it violated their rights as Englishmen to "no taxation without representation". This meeting of the sons of liberty cemented his role as a patriot.

On 27 March 1776, a company of Colonial Militia was formed in Jamaica consisting of 40 persons with Ephraim Baylis as captain and Increase Carpenter as his first lieutenant. In August, following a buildup of troops on Staten Island prior to the Battle of Long Island, a flanking maneuver by British General Howe up Kings Highway captured Long Island and left the Continental army in disarray, fleeing by cover of fog west to the mainland. At the time, it was the largest battle ever fought in North America.[3]

Carpenter and his brother Nehemiah fled to Manhattan with George Washington and the Continental army and later up the Hudson. Their property was confiscated by the British. For the duration Carpenter served as a Quartermaster in the army, and Nehemiah Carpenter also served in the same company.

At the conclusion of the war the family regained possession of the Hollis, Queens Inn, where the meeting was held in 1774. Following the battle, General Nathaniel Woodhull was captured there and severely injured.

The capture of Nathaniel Woodhull

Capture of General Woodhull

The Middle Dutch Church is where some of the enlisted men captured at the Battle of Long Island were imprisoned. The Sugar House also became a prison as the British captured more of Washington's soldiers during the retreat from New York. The site today is the location of the Chase Manhattan Bank.[4]

General Nathaniel Woodhull was given orders to herd all cattle in the area away from the advancing British forces, a task made difficult by a summer thunderstorm. Stopping at Carpenter's Tavern a mile east of Jamaica Village, on August 28, 1776, he was captured and injured by British dragoons. According to lore, when one of their officers demanded allegiance by saying "God save the King!", Woodhull responded, "God save us all!". The dragoon then slashed at the General's head and arm with a cutlass until a second British officer intervened. The wounded American general was then incarcerated on one of the notorious prison ships in Wallabout Bay, where his condition deteriorated for lack of a surgeon to amputate his mangled arm. Mrs. Woodhull petitioned to obtain her husband's release so that an operation might be performed, but the late amputation failed to stop the gangrene that had spread, and the 54-year-old general died of his injuries three weeks after the attack. Today, a pair of winding streets in Hollis commemorate both Woodhull and Carpenter.

Family Life

His wife Mary (Baylis) passed on 23 January 1823. They had three daughters, Mary Baker, Jane Wicks, and Nancy Smith: and four sons, Samuel, James, George, and David. Increase Carpenter is buried in Prospect Cemetery, on the campus of York College, in Jamaica, Queens.

Descriptive plaque for Prospect Cemetery, over 50 veterans of the war for independence are buried here, on the campus of York College.

In Pop Culture

The Sons of Liberty are referred to in the 2015 Broadway show Hamilton. In the song "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)," the character Hercules Mulligan sings, "I am runnin' with the Sons of Liberty and I am lovin' it."

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Increase Carpenter b. Aug 1736 Jamaica, Queens Co., LI, NY d. 20 Apr 1807 Jamaica, Queens Co., LI, NY: Long Island Surnames". longislandsurnames.com.
  2. ↑ "About Us". Increase Carpenter Chapter Queens, New York.
  3. ↑ https://unifiedqueens.com/blogs/news/liberty-calls-to-battle-the-56-minute-men-of-jamaica-queens
  4. ↑ Lewis, Charles H. (2009). Cut Off: Colonel Jedediah Huntington's 17th Continental (Conn.) Regiment at the Battle of Long Island August 27, 1776. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-7884-4924-6.
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