Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies

Perhaps I am dating myself, but there is nothing quite like the process of combing back and forth through actual books checking indexes and following page numbers, reading surrounding texts and making connections. 

Today I sat with The Minutes of the Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies in the State of New York Albany County Sessions 1778-1781 looking for info about our Revolutionary War soldiers.

After a general flipping through of pages I hopped right to the index and the letter "B" for Bethlehem of course.

There is exactly one entry for "New Bethlehem in the Manor of Rensselaerwyck" and it is regarding the "numbers of Torys...collecting in the night time." Seth Perry was directed to apprehend "all such disaffected persons".

Other local place names in the book include Coxsacki, Onesquethaw, Norman's Kill, and New Scotland. But the big winner is The Helderbergs. As described in the introduction in the book, "the Helderbergs and adjacent regions were regular nests of robbers and hatcheries of treasonable designs."

There are plenty of local people in the books as well. Remember Cornelius Glenn from a previous blog post? His flip flopping on whether to join the rebellion or not is pretty clear just in the index entries (see picture below.) 

I haven't written about him yet but John Leonard has an interesting interaction with the Commissioners. He was almost kidnapped!

I also haven't written about the Haswell family yet (I will - there is some good stuff there!), but there is a notation in the minutes for when John Haswell bailed out a suspected Tory named John Harrison who had been "taken by the Party of Oneyda Indians a Prisoner."  

The Haswell family papers on file with the Town Historian's office contain a reminisce about Haswells during the Revolution. It asserts that there was a nest of Tory's on Meads Lane and that Beckers were Torys.  While I didn't find any Becker's in this book (and our list of Rev. War soldiers includes Dirck and Wouter Becker) I found so many Hoogtelings that were Torys. For example, Jacobus was apprehended as a robber and a follower of Butler and Brant. And William of Rennselaerwyck Manor who declared himself a "King's man."

But what exactly were the Commissioners for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies up to?

For years the provincial government of New York was concerned about "intestive enemies." (That's a quote from a May 1776 committee appointed to deal with such folks).

Feb. 5, 1778 saw the passage of the law that established the commission that this book is concerned with. Let me just quote it from page 12:

In the original legislative act creative of the commissioners whose Albany proceedings constitute   these volumes, the reasons given are "the present invasion of this State;" "the disaffection of sundry of the Inhabitants of the same," and to guard and secure effectually the peace of the State "against the wicked Machinations and Designs of the Foreign and Domestic Foes thereof."

The commissioners' functions were defined as having the power "to send for Persons and Papers, and administer Oaths; to apprehend and confine...as necessary for public safety... all Persons whose going at large shall appear dangerous to the Safety of the State...

And there you have it about the Commission for Detecting and Defeating Conspiracies. Basically a commission with the power to round people up who were thought to be against the Revolution. They could detain people and demand bail money for their release but could not perform any corporal punishment.  I wonder about the amount of paranoia that must have been running rampant in the county. 

Have I got you intrigued about this set of meeting minutes? You can read them online here but it is not the same as flipping actual pages!

https://archive.org/details/minutesofcommiss0000newy/page/n17/mode/2up

Land Bounty Rights

 

Something that keeps coming up in my exploration into Revolutionary War soldiers "from" Bethlehem is the topic of Land Bounty Rights.  You can see this phrase on a couple of local historic markers including Patrick Callanan's at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in South Bethlehem. 

But what does it really mean? 

For soldiers of the Line, i.e. New York Continental regiments under the command of George Washington, things are pretty straight forward. After the war, cash was in short supply, so New York gave out plots of land to compensate its soldiers. The Balloting Book provides lots of details on the patents to land that were granted. 

The Balloting Book has a wealth of information about Continental regiments
but not a word about militia units. 

This is how The Balloting Book describes one of the initial acts made by the New York Assembly:

An act to appropriate the Lands set apart for the use of the Troops of the Line of the State, lately serving in the Army of the United States and for other purposes therein mentioned passed February 28, 1789.

The lands were surveyed and gridded out as seen in the map below.

The three Continental soldiers on our "from" Bethlehem list, Peter Boise, John Sager and James Selkirk each received a land bounty patent. And we can find them on the map. Here are Sager's and Selkirk's.

John Sager's 600 acre lot in Tully is marked in blue.

James Selkirk's 600 acre lot in Locke is circled in blue.

Now did they actually physically get the land and maybe go check it out? Probably not. Soldiers often sold their land grant sight unseen to brokers for cold hard cash. For example, The Balloting Book tells us James Selkirk's patent was received by James McKie for William McGill and John Sager's was received by James Sadler for James Caldwell.*

But what about those militia units? Here we turn back to New York in the Revolution which provides some clarity. 

I placed the whole section above to provide context, but basically, at the end of the war New York militia men, including many of ours "from" Bethlehem, asserted a claim for Land Bounty Rights. 

Here is the pertinent part:  

They were signed directly before the close of the war, and there is no evidence in these documents to show that they ever saw actual service. They were however ready to serve; and the fact that they may not have been called upon to serve should not detract from the credit due them. Still, it would be unfair to incorporate their names in the regiment proper...

The author goes on to assert that the real standing of all the cases must be settled with original documents and additional proof.  Basically, more research needed!

So far I haven't seen any evidence of Bethlehem's militia men actually receiving a land grant, or bounty, or patent.  Maybe that info is out there somewhere?

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* Do you remember Zimri Murdock from a previous post? I was surprised to see his name turn up twice in The Balloting Book, both times receiving patents that had been granted to other folks. 

In the section Delivery of Patents for Lands in the Military Tract, Zimri turns up as having received the patent of William Hudson and then again as receiving the patent of Peter Oosterhoudt, dead. 

It seems like rarely is the patent delivered to the person who earned it. Look for the word "Himself".

Just a snippet from The Balloting Book showing 2 patents delivered to the person who earned them with the military service. 

 Addendum (April 22, 2026)

While looking for something else, I came across this great map that shows you the context of where the military tract was.  It is the green grid in the middle.

Image from Richard's Atlas o f New York State, published by Frank E. Richards in 1965

David Niver and Peter Flansburgh - Revolutionary War Veterans maybe?

 

The Argus, October 22, 1903

This obituary for Peter Niver (1810-1903) recalls his grandfathers, David Niver and Peter Flansburgh, both of whom are stated to be soldiers of the Revolutionary War. The trouble is that I can't definitively document that service in the historical record. Sigh.

Let's start with David Niver. 

This is what the obit has to say

Niver was a subaltern officer, first sergeant in Captain Conrads Van Dalsten’s company, under General Schuyler, and was present at the surrender of General Burgoyne at Stillwater, October 27, 1777.

David Niver does turn up on our list of Revolutionary War soldiers "from" Bethlehem. 

Where he does not turn up is in New York in the Revolution or any other pension, payroll, or muster roll that I can find including the D.A.R. and the S.A.R.

The Nivers* that do turn up are William (The Line, 5th Regiment), Jacob (Dutchess County Militial)  and Michael (DAR says Albany County Militia but he is not in NY and the Rev).  Also Johannis Nives served with the Albany County Militia (Land Bounty Rights, 10th Regiment) under Capt. Conrad Cline. There is also a Marks Nives in that same company. 

An unpublished genealogy from the family says that Johann Michael Neifer (and his wife Margerita Gehring) had six kids, one of whom was Johann David Neifer. 

Johann David Neifer and his wife Margarite (or Grite) Wagonor were definitely in the Bethlehem area by the early 1790s as they served as witnesses to the baptism of children at the First Reformed Church and the Jerusalem Reformed Church.  Also, according to the obit, David "purchased a tract of land in colonial times lying partly in the towns of Bethlehem and Coeymans, then a primeval forest" that in part of which was still in the family in 1903.

So I'm thinking Joannis Nives, Johann David Niefer and David Niver are all the same person. Maybe.

Other details about David's service from the obit are interesting.  Col. Philip P. Schulyer and his 3rd Regiment, Albany County Militia were definitely at the Battle of Saratoga but I can't find a Niver or a Van Dalsten listed. 

There is a John Van Dalfsan from Coeymans who is listed as part of Albany County Militia, land bounty rights, 11th regiment. Van Dalfsan - Van Dalsten - maybe? The whole obit entry is just so specific, you'd think I'd be able to track it down in the record.  But nope.

The thing to remember is that the obit was written when no one living had actual first hand knowledge of the soldiers mentioned. Maybe Peter Niver knew his grandfather and heard his stories, but he would have been very young, (Peter was born about 1810, his grandfather (if he was Johann David) died in 1816 when Peter was 6 years old.) 

Oh, and what about Peter Flansburgh? Was he a Revolutionary solider "active in service on our northern frontier a long time" as the obit says? He is not on our Bethlehem "from" list and nor on the Coeymans "from" list.

 But low and behold, there is a Peter Flansburgh serving under Col. Schuyler in the 3rd Regiment Albany County Militia.  Along with Peter, there is a David, Denal and John Flansburg.

And remember Captain Winne's company on the west side of the river?  It lists Sgt William Flansburg, and privates Matthew F., Daniel, Peter and Peter Jr. 

So why didn't Peter Flansburg make our "from" the list? 

List of the Names belongs to Capt William D Winne Company

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*And yes I tried to check every alternative spelling: Kniver, Niver, Neuffer, Nifer, Niser, Knyver, Neifer, and Niphes 

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And a fun little Niver/Flansburg family tidbit... the guy above with the obituary, Peter Niver, his parents were John Niver and Elizabeth Flansburgh. His aunt and uncle were Margarita Niver and John Flansburg. John and Margarita were siblings and Elizabeth and John Flansburg were siblings.