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).
1747 - 1823 (76 years)
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