Hudson County NJ Archives Biographies.....Archibald KENNEDY ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nj/njfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 November 9, 2008, 2:28 am Author: Rev. Joseph F. Folsom KENNEDY, Archibald, Revolutionary Soldier. Archibald Kennedy, who after the death of Peter Schuyler, his father-in-law, became possessed of Petersborough, on the Passaic, opposite Newark, had a New York house at 1 Broadway. Just before the Revolutionary War he apparently left his town house to remain in New Jersey. Petersborough became known as Kennedy's Farms. Kennedy was suspected of being in sympathy with the British and was, in 1778, ordered to remove to Sussex county. Later he was permitted to return to his estate. He had been a captain in the royal navy, but in 1765 was relieved of his command for refusing to take stamped paper on his frigate. His New York home is said to have been "one of the finest houses in the city, being a spacious two-story-and-attic building, with the entrance in the middle and two windows on each side of it, the frontage on Broadway being fifty-six feet." This mansion escaped the fire of 1776. It was occupied during the war by Mrs. Long, who kept a boarding house. After the Revolution, Isaac Sears, a merchant, popularly known as "King" Sears, occupied the house. About 1789 the mansion was rented for a time to Don Diego de Gardoqui, the Spanish representative in the United States. In 1790 it became a fashionable boarding school for young women, the school being conducted by Mrs. Graham. Later it became the residence of Nathaniel Prime, and still later was converted into the Washington Hotel. It finally was demolished and the present Washington building was erected on the site. Regarding the home of Colonel Peter Schuyler, Petersborough, across the Passaic from New York, the book, "Land Titles in Hudson County," by the late Charles H. Winfield, gives this important information: A part of the Sandford tract, which I take to be the farm and meadow named in Sarah Sandford's will, was purchased by Colonel Peter Schuyler, and thenceforth called Petersborough. By his will, dated March 21, 1761, proved May 28, 1762, Schuyler gave it to his only child, Catherine, wife of Archibald Kennedy, Earl of Casselis. Kennedy and wife conveyed to James Duane June 13, 1765, the farm on New Barbadoes Neck (Petersborough), also two tracts near Secaucus, between the line of the Bergen lots and Pin-home's creek and Cromkill, also Colonel Schuyler's interest in the commons (?) in trust for themselves. Duane reconveyed to them and to the survivor, June 15, 1765. The earl outlived his wife, and by will dated January 19, 1794, left his property in America to his sons, John and Robert. I do not know how the interest of John passed to Robert, but in 1803 he sold the tract, where East Newark now is, to William Halsey. It was then a part of what was known as "Kennedy's Farm." In 1804 the name was changed to Lodi. Halsey laid out a part of his purchase into ninety building lots, of at least one acre each. The site of Petersborough, the home of Colonel Peter Schuyler, was doubtless about opposite a point between Gouverneur street and Fourth avenue. It was very near, if not actually on the spot, where the Kearny Thread Mills stand. There is in the "New Jersey Archives" an advertisement of a plot for sale, copied from the "New York Mercury" of May 1, 1769, that would seem to locate quite accurately the site of Colonel Peter's place. The plot of land advertised is said to be "lying on the banks of the Passaick about one mile from the church at Newark," and that it "commands a most extensive view of the river, and overlooks Captain Kennedy's farm, garden and deer park at Petersborough, to which it is opposite." That Captain Archibald Kennedy's farm once belonged to Peter Schuyler is obvious, when it is remembered that Kennedy married Schuyler's only daughter, and through her acquired Petersborough. Oddly enough, the same issue of "The Mercury" contains the announcement of the marriage of Kennedy to Nancy Watts, his second wife. Through the Watts family the Kearnys became possessed of this estate, and General Philip Kearny in time came to occupy the land of Colonel Peter Schuyler. Kearny Castle still stands, but Petersborough is gone forever. The ground on which at present stands the Kearny castle in Kearny was a part of the Petersborough land. It is all plain enough when the records are examined. Schuyler's daughter Catherine married Archibald Kennedy, and the place became known as Kennedy's Farms. After her death, Kennedy married Miss Nancy Watts, of New York. The estate passed to the families of Watts and Kearny, and was last occupied by J. Watts Kearny, son of General Philip Kearny. During the Revolutionary War, Captain Kennedy, who was on half-pay in the British army, was placed by the Americans on parole. Attorney-General (afterward Governor) William Patterson seems to have been suspicious of the captain. He wrote October 18, 1777, to Governor William Livingston a letter in which he said: "The well-affected in Newark are very uneasy about a certain Captain Kennedy who was laid under parole by the late convention. The uneasiness increases owing to the enemy's having a few days ago driven seventy or eighty head of fat cattle from his farm." The site of Peter Schuyler's house, Petersborough, has been wrongly located by many writers, and sometimes confused with that of Colonel John Schuyler, lying opposite the mouth of Second River. The house of John is still standing, a handsome colonial mansion, but that of Peter has long since disappeared. The "New York Mercury" of December 6, 1762, contained this advertisement: "To be sold at public vendue, on Monday the 13th inst, A lot of land, in Newark, lately belonging to James Still, lying for 8 acres, be the same more or less, whereon is a stone dwelling-house, situate very pleasantly on Passaick River, nearly opposite the dwelling-house of the late Col. Peter Schuyler, deceased, which is commodious either for a private gentleman, for a merchant, or for ship-building." Schuyler died March 7, 1762. J. F. F. Additional Comments: Extracted from: MEMORIAL CYCLOPEDIA OF NEW JERSEY UNDER THE EDITORIAL SUPERVISION OF MARY DEPUE OGDEN VOLUME III MEMORIAL HISTORY COMPANY NEWARK, NEW JERSEY 1917 This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/njfiles/ File size: 6.7 Kb This file is located at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nj/hudson/bios/kennedy-a.txt