The British Occupation

In 1775, Oyster Bay was divided, with only 20 percent of its people supporting American independence; among them was local merchant and politician Samuel Townsend, owner of what is today Raynham Hall Museum. In 1776, British troops expelled the rebel army from Long Island, and for the next seven years the British Army controlled the island from Brooklyn to Orient Point. In the fall of 1778, Lieutenant-Colonel John Graves Simcoe and more than 400 members of the Queen’s Rangers arrived in Oyster Bay to establish winter quarters and man an existing hilltop fort. Simcoe used the Townsends’ home as his headquarters for the winter, while junior officers and enlisted men were quartered in other homes around the village, including the Earl Wightman House. The Queen’s Rangers left Oyster Bay exactly six months after their arrival.

Oyster Bay, New York · United States