David Williams (October 21, 1754 – August 2, 1831) was a

militiaman A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

from the state of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

during the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

. In 1780, he was one of three men to capture British Major

John André John André (2 May 1750/1751''Gravesite–Memorial''
Westmi ...

, who was convicted and executed as a spy for conspiring with treasonous Continental general and commandant of

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

Benedict Arnold Benedict Arnold ( Brandt (1994), p. 4June 14, 1801) was an American military officer who served during the Revolutionary War. He fought with distinction for the American Continental Army and rose to the rank of major general before defect ...

.Raymond, pp. 11-17 Williams should not be confused with, and is not related to, David Williams (1759–1836) of Massachusetts, a participant in the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea ...

Biography

Born in

Tarrytown, New York Tarrytown is a village in the town of Greenburgh in Westchester County, New York. It is located on the eastern bank of the Hudson River, approximately north of Midtown Manhattan in New York City, and is served by a stop on the Metro-North ...

, Williams had been a farmer before joining the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

in 1775. Serving under Gen.

Richard Montgomery Richard Montgomery (2 December 1738 – 31 December 1775) was an Irish soldier who first served in the British Army. He later became a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and he is most famous for l ...

, he took part in several campaigns. He was forced to leave active service in 1779 after his feet were badly frozen, leaving him partially disabled for life. Despite this condition, Williams continued to lend his support to the volunteer forces in his native area: overnight on September 22–23, 1780, he joined militiamen

John Paulding John Paulding (October 16, 1758 – February 18, 1818) was an American militiaman from the state of New York during the American Revolution. In 1780, he was one of three men who captured Major John André, a British spy associated with the treas ...

and

Isaac Van Wart Isaac Van Wart (October 25, 1762May 23, 1828) was a militiaman from the state of New York during the American Revolution. In 1780, he was one of three men who captured British Major John André, who was convicted and executed as a spy for conspir ...

as part of an armed patrol.Raymond, pp. 11-17Cray, pp. 371-397 The three men seized British officer Major John André at a site in Tarrytown, now called

Patriot's Park Patriot's Park (originally referred to as Brookside Park) is located on U.S. Route 9 along the boundary between Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is a four-acre (1.6-ha) parcel with a walkway and se ...

. Williams searched André and discovered, hidden inside his boots, the documents of his secret communication with Continental officer

. The militiamen, all yeomen farmers, refused Andre's bribe and took the officer to Continental Army headquarters. Arnold's plans to surrender

to the British were revealed and foiled, and Williams was among the witnesses when André was hanged as a spy. With George Washington's personal recommendation, the United States Congress awarded Williams, Paulding and Van Wart the first military decoration of the United States, the silver medal known as the

Fidelity Medallion The Fidelity Medallion is the oldest decoration of the United States military and was created by act of the Continental Congress in 1780. Also known as the "André Capture Medal", the Fidelity Medallion was awarded to those soldiers who parti ...

. Each of the three also received federal pensions of $200 a year.

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

awarded them valuable farms. The three militiamen were highly celebrated in their lifetimes: commemorations large and small abound in Westchester (see below), and can be found in many disparate parts of the early United States. Among other honors, each of the men had his name given to a county in the new state of Ohio (1803): Williams County is in the extreme northwest corner of the state. Still, Williams and the others did see their reputations impugned by some. André at his trial had insisted the men were mere brigands; sympathy for him remained in some more aristocratic American quarters (and grew to legend in England, where he was buried in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

). Giving voice to this sympathy, Representative

Benjamin Tallmadge Benjamin Tallmadge (February 25, 1754 – March 7, 1835) was an American military officer, spymaster, and politician. He is best known for his service as an officer in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He acted as leade ...

of Connecticut persuaded Congress not to grant the men a requested pension increase in 1817, publicly assailing their credibility and motivations. Tallmadge, in 1780 a major, was the officer to whom André was taken after his capture, and he said he believed André's account over that of the three captors. He said Williams and the other two were "of that class of people who passed between both armies, as often in one camp as in the other." He said that "when Major André's boots were taken off by them, it was to search for plunder, and not to detect treason." He asserted that "if Andre could have given to these men the amount they demanded for his release, he never would have been hung for a spy, nor in captivity.." Despite the slight, the men's popular acclaim continued to grow throughout the 19th century to almost-mythic status. Some modern scholars interpreted the episode as a major event in early American cultural development, representing the apotheosis of the common man in the new society, even if that means both ignoring contemporary accounts of their character and actions and subsequent inflation of both during the nineteenth century. Williams is buried in the Old Stone Fort Cemetery in

Schoharie, New York Schoharie ( ) is an incorporated town in and the county seat of Schoharie County, New York. The population was 3,299 at the 2000 census. The Town of Schoharie has a village, also called Schoharie. Both are derived from the Mohawk word for dr ...

, southwest of Albany.David Williams
at

Find A Grave Find a Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. Its stated mission is "to help people from all over the world work together to find, record and present fin ...

The inscription on his obelisk reads: "He with his compatriots John Paulding and Isaac VanWart on the 22nd of September 1780, arrested Major John Andre and found on his person treasonable papers in the handwriting of Gen. Benedict Arnold, who sought by treachery to surrender the military post of West Point into the hands of the enemy. In resisting the great bribes of their prisoner for his liberty, they showed their incorruptible patriotism; the American army was saved and our beloved Country became free."

Legacy

Williams is honored on the monument erected at the site of Major Andre's capture in

, on the east bank of the Hudson. The community has streets named for all three men. Three streets in nearby

Elmsford, NY Elmsford is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. Roughly one mile square, the village is fully contained within the borders of the town of Greenburgh. As of the 2010 census, th ...

, are also named for them - although Williams Street was virtually eliminated in the 1960s by construction of I-287; it remains only as a short service road between the highway and Route 9A. Ohio's Williams County is also named after David Williams (see also Van Wert and Paulding Counties, also in Ohio.)

References

Works cited

*Williams' account of the capture. Online

Hudsonrivervalley.net. *''Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley'' (1913) Volume II, p. 457 *Lossing, Benson John, ''The Pictorial Field-book of the Revolution''. Harper & Bros., 1852. Online

University of Michigan. * Marcius D. Raymond, Raymond, Marcius Denison
David Williams and the capture of Andre: A paper read before the Tarrytown Historical Society
Tarrytown: Tarrytown Argus - 1903 - approx. 35 pp. *Bolton, Robert, ''A History of the County of West Chester''. Gould, Alexander S., 1848. Online

Harvard University. *Half Moon Press, "Cemeteries and Notable Burial Sites in Westchester County". NY, 2003. Online

Hudsonriver.com. *ed., ''The Builders of the Nation'', National Cyclopaædia of American Biography. Stanley-Bradley Publishing Co., NYC, 1892. Online

New York Public Library. *Cray, Robert E. Jr., "Major John Andre and the Three Captors: Class Dynamics and Revolutionary Memory Wars in the Early Republic, 1780-1831", Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 17, No. 3. Autumn, 1997. University of Pennsylvania Press. *Denslow, William R., ''10,000 Famous Freemasons, Vol. III''. Kessinger; Trenton, MO; 2004. Online

GoogleBooks. {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, David 1754 births 1831 deaths Continental Army soldiers New York (state) militiamen in the American Revolution People from Tarrytown, New York Williams County, Ohio Burials in New York (state) People of the Province of New York