The Arrest of Peter Poillon

Poillon Farmhouse (now known as the Olmsted House). Photo by Nicholas Matranga, all rights reserved.

General Washington wrote to the Committee of Safety, informing
it that “Peter Poillon, of Richmond County, had been arrested for
supplying the king’s ships with provisions.”  On the 5th, Poillon was
taken before the Committee and examined. He did not deny the
charge; but pleaded in extenuation that “the regulations for preventing intercourse with the King’s ships had not been published in Richmond County until the 2d or 3d of that month, and that therefore he was ignorant of them.” He stated further that ”he left home
with a considerable sum of money, to discharge a debt in Kings County, together with some articles of provision for New York market, of the value of about three pounds”; that “while passing the warship ‘Asia,’ at as great a distance as he safely could, he was fired at and could not escape.” He proved further, by reputable witnesses, that he “was a respectable man, and had always been
esteemed a friend to the liberties of his country.” Poillon was discharged, with a caution “hereafter to keep at a safe distance from the King’s ship, and to warn his fellow-citizens of Richmond County to do the same.”

Addendum: There may be some dispute as to which Poillon house George Washington may have stopped at for his reconnoissance of Staten Island.

The other historic Piollon house which was in Great Kills was destroyed by fire in 1989.

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Quoted From: Morris, I. K. (1898). Morris’s memorial history of Staten Island, New York. New York: Memorial Pub. Co.

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