Draft:Increase Carpenter

Increase Carpenter kept an inn a mile east of “Rustdorp” (Jamaica Village) on Fulton Street (Jamaica Avenue). A protest meeting of the Sons of Liberty was held there in 1774 to discuss the Tea Act Tax.{{cite web|url=http://www.increasecarpenterdar.org/about-us.html|title=About Us|website=Increase Carpenter Chapter Queens, New York}} The colonists elected no Members of Parliament, and so it was seen as a violation of their rights as Englishmen to "no taxation without representation".https://bklyn-genealogy-info.stevemorse.org/Queens/history/jamaica.html HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY

with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals.New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882.

pp. 193-257. Sec:REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS IN JAMAICA.

file:BattleofLongisland.jpg

On March 27, 1776, a company of colonial militia was formed in Jamaica, consisting of 40 persons, with Ephraim Baylis as captain and Increase Carpenter as his first lieutenant. They designated the military company "The Defenders of Liberty", with the leader Elias Bayles, chairman of the patriot committee, calling in April for men and arms to aid the committee. "Should ‘any officers in the service of Congress meet with insults

in the discharge of their duties the offenders were ordered to be treated as enemies to their country."https://bklyn-genealogy-info.stevemorse.org/Queens/history/jamaica.html HISTORY OF QUEENS COUNTY

with illustrations, Portraits & Sketches of Prominent Families and Individuals.New York: W.W. Munsell & Co.; 1882.

pp. 193-257. Sec:REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS IN JAMAICA. In August, following a buildup of troops on Staten Island prior to the Battle of Long Island, a flanking maneuver by British General Howe up Kings Highway captured Long Island and sent the Continental Army fleeing in disarray under cover of fog west to the mainland. Carpenter and his brother Nehemiah fled to Manhattan with George Washington and the Army and later up the Hudson. Their property was confiscated by the British. For the duration. Carpenter served as a quartermaster in the Army. Nehemiah Carpenter also served in the same company.

At the conclusion of the war, the family regained possession of the Hollis, Queens inn, where the 1774 meeting was held. Built in 1710, it remained standing until 1921, ending as Goetze's Hotel.{{Cite book |last= |first= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fBwzAQAAIAAJ |title=Historic Buildings Now Standing in New York, which Were Erected Prior to Eighteen Hundred |date=1914 |publisher=Bank of the Manhattan Company |language=en}}

File:Nathanial Woodhull.jpg

File:Old Stone Church -Jamaica.jpg

General Nathaniel Woodhull was given orders to herd all cattle in the area away from the advancing British forces, a task made difficult by a summer thunderstorm. Stopping at Carpenter's Tavern a mile east of Jamaica Village, on August 28, 1776, he was captured and injured by British dragoons. According to lore, when one of their officers, Captain Sir James Baird demanded allegiance by saying "God save the King!", Woodhull responded, "God save us all!" The dragoon then slashed at the general's head and arm with a cutlass until a second British officer, Major Delancey, intervened. The wounded American general was then transported to the old stone church in Jamaica, which the British had converted into a prison.{{cite book |last=Lossing |first=Benson J. |title=The Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution Vol II|url=https://archive.org/details/fieldbookeleven02lossrich/page/n9/mode/2up|publisher=Harper & Brothers |year=1860 |location=Franklin Square, New York |pages=605 |isbn= }} He was later incarcerated on one of the notorious prison ships in Wallabout Bay, Brooklyn where his condition deteriorated for lack of a surgeon to amputate his mangled arm. Mrs. Woodhull petitioned to obtain her husband's release so that an operation might be performed, but the late amputation failed to stop the gangrene that had spread, and the 54-year-old general died of his injuries three weeks after the attack. Today, a pair of winding streets in Hollis commemorate both Woodhull and Carpenter.{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/historicalmiscel00wern | page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalmiscel00wern/page/17 17] | quote=carpenters tavern jamaica, long island built before 1710. |title = Historical Miscellanies Relating to Long Island| publisher=Priv. print. |last1 = Werner|first1 = Charles Jolly|year = 1917}} On May 23rd, 1912, a plaque depicting the events at Carpenter's Inn (by then the Goetze's Hotel) was erected near the spot where he was ignominously attacked and wounded, by the Sons of the Revolution. It was placed in the then largest school in Hollis, P.S.35 (built 1895), which also had on-site a parrot Rifle, a cannon with the granite inscription 'WOODHULL'.File:WoodhullTabletPS35 20230215 143046.jpg The Goetze hotel site has been recognized as where the first revolutionary meetings were held on Long Island prior to the war for independence and a venue for patriots. It served as a roadside tavern for 209 years. {{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/historicalmiscel00wern | page=[https://archive.org/details/historicalmiscel00wern/page/20 20] | quote=carpenters tavern jamaica, long island built before 1710. |title = Historical Miscellanies Relating to Long Island| publisher=Priv. print. |last1 = Werner|first1 = Charles Jolly|year = 1917}}

File:Woodhull HistoricMarker FultonSt.jpgIn 1935 the state education dept erected a historical marker near the site, it was vandalized in the 90's and is awaiting repair at the Queens Historical Society in Flushing.

File:Plaque detail 20180821.jpg

Increase Carpenter is buried in Prospect Cemetery, on the campus of York College, in Jamaica, Queens.

His wife Mary (Baylis) died on 23 January 1823. They had three daughters (Mary Baker, Jane Wicks, and Nancy Smith) and four sons (Samuel, James, George, and David).

• Sidewalk clock on Jamaica Avenue

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Category:1736 births

Category:1807 deaths

Category:People from Jamaica, Queens

Category:New York (state) militiamen in the American Revolution

Category:18th-century American businesspeople

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