1805 Advertisement Reveals Much About the Pelham Farm of Rem Rapelje

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Rem Rapelje was born in Brooklyn, New York during the mid-1700s.  He lost his father as a young child.  His mother remarried but his relationship with his stepfather was quite poor and, according to his son, George Rapelje, Rem "sought for friendly aid elsewhere."  As a young man, Rem Rapelje hustled for his living.  As a very, very young man, he was a ship owner.  He also dealt in general merchandise and kept a store on Maiden Lane in New York City "directly in rear of his dwelling."  An uncle who was in the "corn, grain, and flour business" and owned a store for the business took him into the store "which was at the fork of Maiden Lane and Crown Street."  Soon, on behalf of the business, he was sent in a schooner to Curacao. 

Rem Rapelje was a Loyalist, but he remained in the New York region after the Revolutionary War.  When the war ended, he purchased a farm known as "Glass House Farm" located along the Hudson River about three miles from New York City. 

By 1790, according to both the 1790 U.S. Census and a plan of pews for St. Paul's Church in Eastchester, Rem Rapelje had moved to Pelham.  See Wed., Aug. 15, 2007:  Plan of Pews in St. Paul's Church 1790.  He purchased a massive 300 acre farm on Pelham Neck and the surrounding region.  He had a brother-in-law named John Hardenbrook who also resided in Pelham.  He lived in Pelham on that farm until his death in about 1805.

I have written about Rem Rapelje, his son George, and the Rapelje farm on Pelham Neck a number of times.  See, e.g.:

Fri., Jan. 08, 2016:  Pelhamite Rem Rapelje, a Loyalist, Was "Rode on Rails" During the Revolutionary War.

Wed., Oct. 03, 2007:  Book by George Rapelje, Pelham Resident Along With His Father, Rem Rapelje, Published in 1834. 

Mon., Feb. 27, 2006:  Another Description of the Farm of Rem Rapelje of Pelham Published in 1806. 

Wed., Aug. 24, 2005:  1807 Advertisement for Sale of Property of Rem Rapelje in Pelham.

A very interesting and detailed advertisement offering Rem Rapelje's Pelham farm for sale was published in early January, 1805, shortly before Raelje's death.  The advertisement sheds fascinating light on the farm, its layout, its farmhouse (and the layout of that home), outbuildings and more.

According to the advertisement, the Rapelje farm contained 350 acres, "70 of wood, 60 of salt meadow, 50 of fresh meadow, 30 of arable land, and 40 of pasture."  The advertisement touts the farm's 60 acres of salt meadow.  During the colonial era, proximity to salt marshes was considered important because the salt hay grass that grew there was harvested for bedding and fodder for farm animals and for use as garden mulch.  Additionally, in those days ordinary hay was much less likely to be bailed and stored under cover.  Consequently, when the hay stacks were left in the fields, salt hay grass was used to top the hay stacks to help protect the underlying hay from the elements.

The farm included extensive apple and peach orchards.  According to the advertisement, there were three "young" apple orchards containg about 450 trees "of the best grafted fruit."  Additionally there was "a large peach orchard, and large garden, filled with every kind of fruit in its season of the most delicate sort."  There also was an orchard nursery grafted the previous year (1804) containing "500 apple trees, fit to be transplanted."  

The main home on the farm was described in detail in the advertisement.  It was described as "commodious" with a cellar and two stories with a garret (small attic) above.  There were four rooms on the ground floor and "several rooms" on the second floor.  

The outbuildings were surprisingly numerous and extensive.  There was a kitchen with a servant's room.  There was a bake house.  The farm also included a dairy house and an overseer's house that had "several rooms and kitchen, and dairy room."  There also was a "large" barn that was 105 feet long, "with every convenience for hay and cattle."  In addition there was a "large coach house and stable" as well as a wagon house, a cart house, a work shop, a fowl house, a corn crib, a granery and "other out houses."  In short, in addition to the main house, there were more than a dozen outbuildings on the extensive Rapelje farm.  

The advertisement touted the farm as perfect for the farmer or a gentleman.  As the ad put it:  "The farm altogether has a superior advantage to most others, either for the farmer or gentleman, being surrounded with fish and game."  The ad also offered for sale the stock, the farming utensils, and "part" of the household furniture in exchange for a "fair valuation."  

In short, the advertisement published on January 8, 1805 sheds fascinating light on a large Pelham farm constructed over the period from roughly 1790 -- only two years after the Town of Pelham was formed by statute -- to about 1805.   

1805 Advertisement Offering Rem Rapelje Farm in Pelham

for Sale.  Source:  FOR SALE, The Evening Post [NY, NY],

Jan. 8, 1805, p. 4, col. 2 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access

via this link).  Text of Advertisement is Transcribed Immediately Below

to Facilitate Search.  NOTE:  Click on Image to Enlarge.

"FOR SALE, the Farm of the subscriber at Pelham, West Chester county, 19 miles from New-York, and 2 miles from the Boston post road, nearly surrounded by water, East Chester Bay on the southerly side, and New Rochelle Bay on the northerly and easterly side.  The Farm contains about 350 acres, 70 of wood, 60 of salt meadow, 50 of fresh meadow, 30 of arable land, and 40 of pasture.  The land is superior to most in the state, wanting no manure.  There are 3 young bearing apple orchards, containing about 450 trees of the best grafted fruit; also, a large peach orchard, and large garden, filled with every kind of fruit in its season of the most delicate sort.  There is also a nursery, grafted a year ago, of 500 apple trees, fit to be transplanted.  On the premises is a commodious dwelling, containing 4 rooms on the lower floor, a cellar underneath, several rooms upstairs, and a garret above; also, a kitchen and servants room, a bake house and dairy house, an overseer's house, with several rooms and kitchen, and dairy room, a large barn, 105 feet long, with every convenience for hay and cattle, and a large coach house and stable, a waggon house, cart house, work shop, corn crib, fowl house, granery, and other out houses -- The farm altogether has a superior advantage to most others, either for the farmer or gentleman, being surrounded with fish and game.  Any person purchasing, may have the stock and farming utensils, and part of the household furniture at a fair valuation.  A small part of the purchase money to be paid on delivery of the deeds, the residue secured by bond and mortgage.  Apply to

REM. RAPELJE,
On the premises, or
GEORGE RAPELJE,
13 Hudson-st head of Jay-st. New-York.

Who has also for sale,

A full blooded three years old stud HORSE, 18 hands high, the largest horse of his age ever seen in America.  For pedigree and terms apply as above.

Also, to Rent, from the first of April nexxt, the Country Seat where the subscriber formerly resided at Greenwich, joining the North-river, about a mile above the state prison, occupied last summer by Mr. Gilbert Robertson.

Also to Rent, joining the above, about 16 acres of Land, with house and barn, occupied several years past by a gardener.  They will be let separate or together.  Apply as above, to 

G. RAPELJE.
Jan. 3 cad 2w"

Source:  FOR SALE, The Evening Post [NY, NY], Jan. 8, 1805, p. 4, col. 2 (Note:  Paid subscription required to access via this link).  

Detail of Map Prepared in 1853 Showing Pelham Neck and Lands

Owned by the Rapelje Family. Source: Dripps, Matthew & Conner,

R.F.O., Southern Part of West-Chester County N. Y. (1853) (Museum

of the City of New York, No. 29.100.2628). NOTE: Click on Image to Enlarge.

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Abel Deveau, An American Skirmisher on Rodman's Neck as British and Germans Landed Before the Battle of Pelham

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Early on the morning of October 18, 1776, Col. John Glover stood on a hill overlooking the Hutchinson River near today's Memorial Field in Mount Vernon, New York.  He looked across the rolling hills and what he saw caused a chill up his spine.  Thousands of British and German troops were landing on the western shore of Pell's Point (today's Rodman's Neck) from ships anchored in Eastchester Bay 

The story of Col. John Glover and the few hundred men that he led that day in a successful effort to slow the advance of the British and German troops in their effort to cut off the withdrawal of George Washington's army toward White Plains is well known.  Surprisingly little, however, is known about the details of the battle with only a couple of brief eyewitness accounts known to exist. 

As luck would have it, we now know a little about the American skirmishers who first met the British and German troops as they landed on Pell's Point.  A local resident named Abel Deveau was among the group of skirmishers located on Pell's Point charged with the task of slowing the British advance along Rodman's Neck and alerting the distant American troops that a battle likely was imminent.

Detail from Map by Charles Blaskowitz Depicting

the Landing Area of the British and German Troops

Before the Battle of Pelham on October 18, 1776.

Source:  Blaskowitz, Charles, A Survey of Frog's Neck
and the Rout[e] of the British Army to the 24th of October
1776, Under the Command of His Excellency the Honorable
William Howe, General and Commander in Chief of His
Majesty's Forces, Manuscript (1776) (Library of Congress
Geography and Map Division Washington, D.C.; Library
of Congress Catalog No. gm71000648; Library of Congress
Digital ID g3802t ar115200 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.gmd/g3802t.ar115200

Typically, skirmishers are infantry or cavalry placed ahead of, or alongside, a larger body of friendly troops. They are usually placed in a skirmish line to harass and slow the advance of the enemy as the main body of friendly troops prepares to meet the enemy.  Often skirmishers will harass the enemy troops as they fall back to their own main line of troops to join the fight.

In the nineteenth century, a local resident named Abel Deveau often related stories of how he and others served as skirmishers who met the mass of 4,000 British and German troops as they landed on today's Rodman's Neck in advance of the Battle of Pelham on October 18, 1776.  Robert Bolton included a brief reference to Deveau's account of his exploits in his two volume revised history of Westchester County published in 1881, shortly after Bolton's death.  The brief reference is quoted immediately below, followed by a citation to its source.

“Deveau town is a small scattered hamlet in this vicinity, so named after Abel Deveau, an old whig of the Revolution, and proprietor of a small estate. This individual was proud of relating how he and others were deployed as skirmishes [sic] to way-lay the British near the causeway, after their landing on Pelham Neck, in 1776, firing behind the rock near Rapelye’s and retiring, as they advanced, towards Eastchester. The late Abel Deveau, of Pelham, was his son; and one of his grandsons is the present Richard Deveau, of New Rochelle.” 

Source: Bolton, Robert, History of the Several Towns, Manors, and Patents of the County of Westchester, From Its First Settlement to the Present Time, Carefully Revised by Its Author, Vol. II, p. 100 (NY, NY: Chas. F. Roper, 1881) (Edited by Cornelius Winter Bolton).

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