Since the year AD 1758 June" Transcribed by Brigid Allen

855 West End Avenue, Apt. 1B New York, N. Y. 10025

Dutchess County Historical Society, c/o Mr. Frank V. Mylod, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Dear Sir:

I am sending you the enclosed MS in case you would be interested in publishing it in the Yearbook of the Dutchess County Historical Society. I transcribed it while cataloguing the papers of the Mayor's Court of New York City, which at the moment are deposited in the Historical Documents Collection at Queens College of the City University of New York at Flushing, New York. I have not annotated it, since its interest seems to be self-evident.

Yours truly, (Sgnd.) Brigid Allen

The following document, which properly belongs to the papers of the court of Common Pleas of Dutchess County, was found among the papers of the Mayor's Court of New York City. Its presence there is clearly accidential, since it deals with a matter outside the jurisdiction of the Mayor's Court. It has been transcribed with its original spelling and capitalization.

Brigid Allen.

A COPY OF AN AFVIDAFIT OF THE ACTIONS AND BEHAVIOUR OF THOMAS VORCE SINCE THE YEAR AD 1758 JUNE.

He told me that he was first griped under one of his apple trees and that there Kept about 20 flying person about his Barn Which gave him wisdom and Knowledge above all other persons and he Told me that there was three or four Rounds of the world one above the other which he could preceive to grow Day after Day and he has taken me to the Door for to Look and I Told him I could not see it and he said he could see them grow as plain as the Sun Shines and afterwards Told me that he had about 20 powers within him Which he oftencaled them young Thomases and Kept in his Synews and caused that he could not work Because they had Not got their growth they were very young and Growing Very fast and caused a pain But when they had their growth he would be well and them powers Learnt him to Speak twenty four Languages and to Sing 21 Hymes which No other person could Speak Nor Sing but him and has often Sung them in my hearing but I could Not understand them and has Stood and acted and kept his Body Very Strangely and Held his Breath and Burst out with a Strange Noise and asked me what it was I Told him it was his Breath But he Said it was Not but that it were them powers or young Thomases with in him And that his Son John has Been Struck with many a Stroke and that he is Never to Die and said that I Shall Never Die and has Mentioned Several other persons that are Never to Die and that he has More Knowledge and wisdom than all the Lawyers

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and Ministers in the world and Now he said you Know More then Ever you Did and I can tell you a Great Deal More but you must Say Nothing for that Reason I was put in Irons if they Knew it they would put me in again for am the Benjamin and that is more then Ever you Knew as I was Standing by my crackel Light came and Spoke to me and Said Look in the Bible and another time comeing from Poughkeepsie upon the hill by palies by the side of a black oak Tree Light Spoke to me and told me I was the Benjamin but you must say Nothing for that Reason I was put in Irons and told me there is a River acomeing from the Southwest from the City of Manassah and from the City of Benjamin and from Shatarah where all the Brick Housen are and has told me to make him about 100 plow Sheirs to take with me for there is None in about Eight Days or a fortinet the River will be here for I can perceive it a coming Nearer Every Day there is a very fine Land where we Sow but once and then it grows always . . . And he Said that that River will Take away his farm and Turn Down to the North River where Hoffmans Mills Stand and Take them away and pretend that he is Equal with God that he can condemn whom he will of Save them and Say that he is as young in years as My child of about Eight years Old and he told me I was unwise for Building and clearing ground for the River will Take part of my farm away and Says that his father was the King But had done Some crime and then joined Capt. Kidd and came up the North River by the twalf kill and Buried Seven Vessels Loaded with money which them powers Told him and his father Being Dead and he Being his fathers olde Son the Title of the King belonged to him and that there is No other King and I Live Near him and See him often and have Much Conversation with him and that he always has Such Discourse and if any person came in he would Drop his Discourse and talk Reasonal for a Short Space and Shewing how them power work his Body and what Voice they make and then he would Look Smiling and Look upwards and whispering and he would pretend that them powers Told him What to Say and then he would Say Do you See Now they tell me what I must Say and I very often Seen him alone but Never otherwise then in Strange actions by Griping and pointing with his hands and flinging his head Backward and forward and Taking his hat of and Bowing Down to the ground and very often cursing I was once at his house helping John Crandull with a coal Kiln Thomas Being about three or four hundred yards from Me and I heard a very Strang Noise and I asked John Crandul what it was he said it was uncle Thos. I Said Let us go and See and We went when we Saw him we Stept out of the way and he comeing along Griping and Snorting and making a very Strange Noise and Cursing at a Dredful Rate and as Soon as I Spoke to him it was all over and I asked him what was the Matter he Said if I knew what was Round me I would Not ask him and then I walked with him to the House and he Seemed to be well and Reasonal and Since he gave his farm to John Crandull I asked him what Made him wrong his children so for his children were poor and one a cripple that he would have Done better to have it to his childn. he told

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me he could Do better by them and Said he Did Not count that farm worth Six pence For in about Eight Days the River from the Southwest will be here and take away my farm and part of yburs and you had Better to go with me to them cities what Do I count that Land Since I have Money Enough to Bury you and my children a Thousand times under it and that will be better for them than that Land if it was Not So Do you think that I would be Such a fool as to give it to John Crandul and he Said you Must Let Bill and Betsey Live with Helmas and Molley in that house of yours about Eight Days and then the River will be here and then we will all go to them cities Let John Crandull Stay here He was at my house 25 Day of December 1767 he Said he had Rather his children Should Live on that farm and he with them if it could be So but it could Not be So Now But he Did Not chuse them to Live there there was too Much hard work on that Land Since he had So Much money as to Bury Me and his children that was Better for them and I Told him his Daughter Molly Suffered he Said it will be but for a Short Time I Expected we Should have been gone before Now Do you think that I Should been Such a fool as to Let John Crandull have that place if I had Not So much No that I would Not But he Said that I understood that the people was agoing to put france Laroyon on my place and therefore I thought to Secure it I Should Have liked to have Helmas & Money to have Lived with me But then his Mother would have Been there too and flys from your house to mine and from Mine to yours and all over but you Must provid for Molley and I will give you for Every Shilling five and for Every pound five after a while I am very Rich and So are my Childn if they Did but Know it and he has often told me that he Had as Live gave me a Deed of his farm as John Crandull for he Did Not Value it for he had Enough — and I Look on him to a man Deprived of his Reason from Date of this and that he is yet so Deprived of his Reason that he is Not capable to take care of his Business

May ye 26th 1769 Dutchess County

Personally appeared before me Peter Harris Esqe., One of his Majesty's Justices of the Peace for Said County John Tearpeny who was duly Sworn that the Contents of the within Written, Actions, Discours, & behaviour of Thomas Vorse is a full & true account there of from time to time to the best of his ye 27 May 1769 Peter Harris

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