Provincial Exile: Roelof J. Eltinge's Banishment from the Paltz

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Provincial Exile: Roelof J. Eltinge's Banishment from the Paltz
Order of Confinment, 1777 - Image Source

Collection Facts

Extent:
21

Historical Context

While no Revolutionary War battles took place in the village of New Paltz, the fight against the British drastically altered the life of one person: Roelof Josiah Eltinge. Eltingue was born in New Paltz on January 7, 1737. He married Maria Louq in 1760 and fathered eleven children.

His troubles began in 1776, when he refused to accept Continental currency in his storefront at the house we now call Bevier-Elting. According to resolutions passed by the New York Provincial Congress in 1775, those who refused currency issued by either the Continental or Provincial Congress were to be imprisoned and treated as enemies. Eltinge was thus brought before the Ulster County Committee of Safety (charged by the Provincial Congress with suppressing Tories), which imprisoned and then exiled him from Ulster County until the end of the war in 1783.

Scope of Collection

This collection includes documents related to Roelof Josiah Eltinge’s legal troubles after being an accused loyalist during the Revolutionary War. It includes, among other items, his parole orders after being released from jail, the order exiling him from New Paltz, and his petition to the New York State Legislature to return home.