Roelof Josiah Elting: Loyalism in Colonial New Paltz?

Roelof Josiah Elting: Loyalism in Colonial New Paltz?

Scan of the letter Roelof wrote to Maria in 1784

While interning at Historic Huguenot Street this summer, my project focused on the life of a resident of New Paltz during the American Revolution, Roelof Josiah Elting. Huguenot Street had previously done an exhibit on him last summer and wanted to find more information on his life that was rooted in archival sources. To accomplish this, Carrie and I spent time digging through the Roelof J. and Ezekiel Elting Family Papers collection box. We found some interesting information about Elting’s life and his time spent away from New Paltz while in exile in Fishkill, New York and Exeter, New Hampshire. Elting was exiled due to the suspicion that he harbored loyalist sympathies after refusing to accept continental currency at his general store in the now named Bevier-Elting House. While reading through his letters, I found a lot of information about his life and the treatment of exiles by the early U.S. government. It was not until about a month into my internship that I uncovered a letter written by Elting himself while I was flipping through a large stack of eighteenth century documents.

The most interesting letter that I read and transcribed of Elting’s was a letter from January 11, 1784 to his wife, Maria. This letter was written months following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the formal end to the American Revolution. Elting writes of his hope that he will be able to return home now that the war has ended, but he must wait for New York state to ratify the treaty and sanction his return. The transcript of the letter reads as follows:

“Acquackonanck January 11, 1784

Loving wife take this opportunity to acquaint your that I and Brother Solomon are, by the Blessing of God in good health and am in hopes to hear the same from you and family. I have wrote to you by Mr. Colden a few days ago in which I have mentioned to you that I expected I would not be able to come home as soon as I had expected, on account of the Definitive treaty not being published by authority, and not knowing, as got word the assembly have made a house or not, or [woathor?] they will or can do anything for us. Before the definitive treaty is published by authority is a matter in doubt with mo. So that I am at a lost at profound what to advise you, about coming to see me for I expect it will not be long before he assembly will meet and then if the will do anything in behalf of us, we will soon come home, and if not, we must wait till [thog or?] the definitive treaty gives us liberty. And if it is not done soon, I am afraid it will be some time before I will be able to come home therefore I must leave it to you to take your opportunity to come to me when you think proper. If you undertake to come I think it is best to come by the way along Mr. Colden and so though Donth come soon, I shall expect that you will write to me by the first opportunity. No more at profont by remember my love to you and family and all friends. I am your loving husband.

Roelof Josiah Elting

To Ms. Maria Elting

In the New Paltz

P.S. Solomon defers you would bring his [whig or pruks?] a long or send it with a safe hand.”

(This letter can be found at: https://www.hrvh.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/hhs/id/2996/rec/8)

Home that Roelof lived in on Huguenot Street.

Unfortunately for Elting, New York state chose not to allow exiles to return home immediately following ratification. Elting and his brother, Solomon, returned home later in 1784 after months of waiting. Once home, Elting became a prominent figure in New Paltz town politics until his death in 1795. I found this letter to be most poignant out of all the ones I read due to his desire to see his family after so many years apart. Elting’s wife and children stayed in New Paltz for the entirety of his exile and never knew when or how he would return to them. While reading this, the sadness and humanity of his story became tangible because of the emotion present in his writing. Before this letter, I had only read the written statements of generals and aide-de-camps about his situation and nothing of his own hand. When doing archival research like this, it is important to read letters like this to make a connection with the emotion of the subjects for which you are studying. Elting may well have been a Tory (I’m not so sure he was) and on the “wrong side of history” but his story provides a human connection to the political divide that encompassed the lives of colonists during America’s birth as an independent nation.

Further Reading:

“A Suspected Loyalist in the Rural Hudson Valley: The Revolutionary War Experience of Roeloff Josiah Eltinge” by Kenneth Shefsiek

http://www.hudsonrivervalley.org/review/pdfs/hrvr_20pt1_shefsiek.pdf