By Bob Singleton, Executive Director, Greater Astoria Historical Society
Ebenezer Stevens was a member of the Sons of Liberty, a loosely organized, clandestine, sometimes violent, political organization. He began his career with the likes of Paul Revere and, together with other members, participated in the Boston Tea Party. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Company of Rhode Island Artillery in May 1775 and fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill.
Stevens was personally selected by George Washington to raise battalions against a campaign to invade Quebec, Canada. He was present at the surrender of the British General Burgoyne at Saratoga, New York, on October 17, 1777, and served under the French general the Marquis de Lafayette in Virginia with distinction.
John Delafield, the man who invited him to sit at his table also had a most extraordinary past. He was among the first Englishmen to settle in America as the Revolutionary War was ending. He arrived in New York City in the spring of 1783, while British control was winding down. Delafield arrived as one of New York’s wealthiest individuals, but of far greater importance, was a very significant document he had in hand.
It was the first copy of the provisional treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain.
Delafield would go on to a successful life in America later earning the title “one of the fathers of Wall Street.” His mansion, located at Hallets Cove across the East River from New York City, was the heart of a grand estate where he lived with his wife, Ann Hallett – who was from a notable Revolutionary family. They would have eleven children.
It was even more ironic that he would live at Hallets Cove just across the road from Stevens of Boston Tea Party fame! It must have been an extraordinary event for the two men, who had placed their lives in danger to support their beliefs, to amiably sit down at a table and to savor looking at a document that ended a Revolution – and gave birth to a great nation!
It was a remarkable time.
