William Booth, ^

1747 - 1823  (76 years)

• Name	William Booth  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
  Suffix	^
  Birth	25 May 1747  [8, 9]
  Gender	Male
  Death	20 Dec 1823	Neelyville, Orange, NY   [9, 10]
  	Cause: Æ 76 y 6 m 35 d (g.s.)
  Person ID	I11705	My Genealogy
  Last Modified	17 Sep 2023

  
  

  Father	George Booth, >,   b. 7 Sep 1722, Southold, Suffolk, NY d. Bef 1800 (Age < 77 years)
  Mother	Sarah Bull, >,   b. 1 Sep 1725, Hamptonburg, Orange, NY d. 19 Feb 1810, Wallkill, Orange, NY (Age 84 years)
  Marriage	1743	Orange Co., NY   [11]
  Family ID	F5238	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	Lydia Booth(),   b. 1751, Orange Co., NY d. 1836, Neelyville, Orange, NY (Age 85 years)
  Marriage	1771	Goshen, Orange, NY   [9, 12]
  Children	1. Charles Whittlesey Booth, <,   b. 4 Feb 1772, Orange Co., NY d. 21 May 1846 (Age 74 years)   2. Sarah Booth, <,   b. 24 Sep 1775, Orange Co., NY d. 24 Sep 1855, Neelyville, Orange, NY (Age 80 years)   3. Ann Booth, <,   b. 1 Jan 1777, Orange Co., NY d. Yes, date unknown   4. Eunice Booth, <,   b. 1779, Orange Co., NY d. Yes, date unknown   5. Mary Booth, <,   b. 1823, Montgomery, Orange, NY d. Yes, date unknown   6. George Booth, <,   b. 1825, Montgomery, Orange, NY d. Yes, date unknown
  Family ID	F5237	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	27 May 2025

  
  

• Notes

  The Mysterious William Booth Various Revolutionary war era accounts of activities in Suffolk County, NY, particularly that of Maj. Benjamin Tallmadge's successful raid on Fort St. George, have mentioned a William Booth, son of George Booth, and a nephew to John Booth. One historian has labeled him "mysterious."  While only briefly mentioned in early accounts, he seems to have had a pivotal role in the success of the Tallmadge raid.  I believe that this record likely places him in the extensive family of Booths descended from Ensign John Booth, one of the early settlers of Southold, Suffolk, NY, and accounts for his seeming elusiveness. On 27 August 1776, Long Island came under British control when the Continental Army was driven out of New York City during the Battle of Long Island. Many Long Island patriots were forced to flee their homes. William Smith, then Lord of the Manor of St. George, his son General John Smith, and their families abandoned their estate on Mastic Neck on the south shore of Suffolk County. William Booth is said to have been the caretaker of the Manor for the Smith family during this period.*  William's presence on Long Island during the war years is still mysterious (his wife gave birth to two children during this period, including one in 1779, not long before the Tallmadge raid.)  Why William would have been living in Tory occupied territory while he had family in the relative safety of upstate New York, and have been a caretaker for the huge Smith estate is still unanswered. Sometime after 1776, the British established a fort at Smith's point on the site of the Smith Manor house, from which they gained control over the eastern Great South Bay and an inlet that then existed to the ocean.  They called it Fort St. George. Thus protected, the Tories began to cut wood and otherwise provisioned the British Army in New York City.  In order to keep an eye on the estate for the Smith's, William Booth seems to have ingratiated himself with the Tory occupiers, and because of this there was scuttlebutt that he himself was a Tory. In 1780, with the encouragement of General Smith and permission from General George Washington, Major Benjamin Tallmadge undertook a raid from his base in Connecticut to harass the British at the fort.  This was part of a general plan of harassments (guerrilla warfare) of the British on Long Island.  William Booth provided reconnaissance assistance, perhaps under instructions from the Smith family.  He is said to have provided sketches of the Fort's defenses to Tallmadge for the raid's planning, and was a guide for Tallmadge during the actual skirmish. After the war, Tallmadge (and apparently the Smiths) provided affidavits affirming William Miller's patriotism. William's uncle John (his father's brother) was known to be a Tory, and he was forced to flee to Canada with his family after the war. He was in ill health, and died soon after his exile. William returned to Orange County, NY, and seems to have become quite prosperous there. It was William's grandfather Charles and family who first removed to Orange County in 1741.  William does not seem to have had any descendants on Long Island. The 19th century Booths who lived in Fire Place, South Haven and Yaphank were not his descendants, but descendants of the immigrant Ensign John in another line. Statements by Martha Smith "Tangier," one of the last Smiths to live in the Manor house, that his descendants were living in Brookhaven/Fire Place several generations later does not appear to be true. * That the relationship between William Smith and William Booth was not as friends, but as employer-employee, is evidenced by what appear to be the somewhat churlish comments by William Smith concerning their "trespassing" and the seemingly minor use of his vast meadows and woodlands for their personal benefit during the hardships of the war years (see Osborne).

  
  

• Sources

  [S41] Ancestry.com, Genealogy Trees, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/1597179/person/-825982976. Numerous family trees at Ancestry.com contain entries for a William Booth, with father George Booth, that appear to be the present William and family. They are without source references, and appear to be largely derivative. These entries generally show William Booth to have been born 25 May 1747 in Bradford, Yorkshire, England, and to have died 20 Dec 1823 in Neelytown, New York. That he would have been born in Bradford, England is questionable without further explanation. Neelytown is in the Town of Hamptonburgh, Orange County, just to the south of the Town of Montgomery, Orange County, where the present William Booth was found in various censuses. He is recorded as having married about 1771 Lydia Booth. That Lydia's birth surname was Booth may very well be true, as it is said that he married his first cousin; but a first cousin could have been on his mother's side of the family—Bull. In reviewing the available record of both his father's and mother's siblings, I have not found an off-spring Lydia that could have been William's first cousin. (November 2009) [S257] International Genealogical Index [IGI] (Salt Lake City: Family History Library), http://www.familysearch.org/eng/search/frameset_search.asp?PAGE=/eng/search/ancestorsearchresults.asp. [S127] Frederic Gregory Mather, The refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut (Albany, N.Y.: J.B. Lyon Co., printers, 1913 (reprinted 2006)), Available online: http://www.archive.org/details/refugeesof1776fr00mathuoft, p. 232 ff; http://www.archive.org/stream/refugeesof1776fr00mathuoft#page/232/mode/2up. [S127] Frederic Gregory Mather, The refugees of 1776 from Long Island to Connecticut (Albany, N.Y.: J.B. Lyon Co., printers, 1913 (reprinted 2006)), Available online: http://www.archive.org/details/refugeesof1776fr00mathuoft, p. 1080; http://www.archive.org/stream/refugeesof1776fr00mathuoft#page/1080/mode/2up. "William Booth. He acted as a guide at the time Maj. Tallmadge captured Ft. St. George. (Mather Page 233) When his enemies circulated a report that he was a Tory, Maj. Tallmadge certified that he was loyal to the Americans, and that he was a guide, as stated above. The original of the certificate is owned by the Tangier Smiths, of Manor of St. George. William Booth owned land in the Town of Brookhaven, village of Fire Place. His descendants still occupy the property. (Miss Martha T. Smith)." [Miss Martha T. Smith was among the last of the Smiths to live at the Manor of St. George, and four generations removed from Judge William Smith, Lord of the Manor at the time of the Revolutionary War. How she would know of the descendants of William Booth is not explained. William Booth apparently removed to Orange County after the Revolutionary War. I have found no evidence that any of his descendants remained on Long Island.] [S1331] McWhorter, Emma. The history and genealogy of the William Bull and Sarah Wells family of Orange County, New York : the first six generations in America and Canada / by Emma McWhorter, Dolly Booth, Philip Seaman, and other Bull family members. Authors: M, p. 160. Snipit only. "He became superintendent of the Manor of St. George at Brookhaven (sic), LI, and during the Revolution was considered a staunch Tory by his British associates. However, when an expedition of continental troops under Col Tallmadge ..." [snipt ends]. [S1332] Henry Phelps Johnston, editor, Memoir Of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, Online image (New York: Gilliss Press, 1915), ; digital images, Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org/details/memoirofcolonelb027409mbp : accessed ., Downloaded copy; November 2009; p. 58 ff; http://www.archive.org/stream/memoirofcolonelb027409mbp#page/n107/mode/2up. [S1333] Osborne, Chester G.: "Long Wood," Long Island Forum 1960. Transcription at LongIslandGenealogy.com, 1968, http://longislandgenealogy.com/longwood/longwood.html. "[William] Smith [Lord of the Manor] was far from his Manor for most of the war, serving in the Senate of the State of New York. In his absence, management of the place went first to his son John; and when John was forced to flee the Island as a much-wanted rebel, supervision was in the hands of a mysterious figure named Willam Booth. Booth it was who helped turn over the British fort to Major Benjamin Tallmadge in the famous raid of November 23, 1780. And Booth is mentioned in the next Long Swamp fragment, a report in Judge Smiths handwriting on "several persons tresspassing": 'Gilliad Mills informs me that when I had desired him to Aquint any person that was about to Assist in getting off or receive any of the Grain Growing t h e n at ye long Swamp--that he told Elnathan Davis he must not Assist Zacha. Booth any way about the Grain then at the long Swamp. Christopher Moger and Stephen Randal being then present --he told the Same to Daniel Terry before he went to work for Zack Booth. He also informs me that Daniell Terry kept his horse in my pasture while he was at work for Booth--he bePeves that Wm. Davis son of Elnathan Davis knows where the Grane went. 'John Booth Says the hay on the beach was judged to be 10 (?) load 2 he brought off Capn. Rose ½ a load also that Morris Homan drove Cattle to the long Swamp to pasture in the Year 1782. Also that he warned Stephen Ran-do! not to Ditch on Wm. Smiths Meadow, that Randal said he did not regard it. for Cohl. Floyd was able to leave (?) him harmless, and pay all Dammage. The same he told Richard Floyd, & he thinks he told the Same also to Daniell Petty. 'He says further that he saw William Booth bring as he thinks 30 or 40 Logs at least he was told the logs w a s booths, and he Saw him Actually Cuting and Carting Some of the loggs. "he informs also that West Sell pastured under Zack Booth between fifteen and twenty Cattle the Season at the long Swamp also informed that Mordicai Homan living at Yaphank drove cattle, that is four stears if they did not belong to him, he also informs that Daniel Rose pastured three horses at the Swamp, and that Doctor Punderson had one horse pastured there from ye first of May untill ye 22nd July, also a pair of oxen belonging to John Jones and Joseph Scribner of Winthrops Patent. And a Maire and Colt from the old mans that he Dont know the oners Name.' "Old Mans" may be a location in this reference; it was the name for Mt. Sinai. The Judge refers to many of the individuals in his account books. Christopher Moger, for instance, lived at Long Swamp; in April, 1785, he paid Smith ten bushels of rye for a years rental of a place there." [S41] Ancestry.com, Genealogy Trees, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/1597179/person/-825981262. [S1331] McWhorter, Emma. The history and genealogy of the William Bull and Sarah Wells family of Orange County, New York : the first six generations in America and Canada / by Emma McWhorter, Dolly Booth, Philip Seaman, and other Bull family members. Authors: M, p. 160. Snipit only. [S41] Ancestry.com, Genealogy Trees, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/1597179/person/-825982976. [S41] Ancestry.com, Genealogy Trees, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/1597179/person/-825982982. [S41] Ancestry.com, Genealogy Trees, http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/1597179/person/-825981277.