Murray Hill Myth

MURRAY HILL MYTH. Historians have contended that after his landing at Kips Bay on 15 September 1776, Sir Henry Clinton could have moved promptly across the island of Manhattan, a mere three thousand yards, and captured a large portion of the American army. The story of Mary Murray first appeared in Dr. James Thacher's A Military Journal during the American Revolutionary War (2d ed., 1827) and seemed so plausible that other writers picked it up. After the landing the American militia fled in panic, isolating General Israel Putnam's thirty-five hundred Continentals. At this point Mrs. Murray, a Quaker and wife of the merchant Robert Murray, invited General William Howe and Governor William Tryon (and in some versions, General Clinton as well) in for some wine and cakes. Apparently the British army ground to a halt while their commanders enjoyed Mrs. Murray's Madeira and witty conversation, and Putnam's troops made good their escape. As Thacher wrote in his journal on 20 September 1776, "It has since become a common saying among our officers that Mrs. Murray saved this part of the American army."

Historians disagree about these events. Almost all early American scholars from Benson Lossing to George Bancroft to John Fiske accepted the story without question. Most contemporary popular histories of the Revolution also repeat the story as fact. More careful scholars, such as Samuel Willard Crompton, argue that the evidence leaves little doubt that Mary Murray entertained the British commanders at her house on Murray Hill, but that these refreshments in no way stopped the British army from performing its duties. Putnam's escape has more to do with the American's evasive skills and with the realities of securing the ground after a successful landing. There is absolutely no evidence that Mary Murray, whose husband had Loyalist leanings, had any ulterior motive.

SEE ALSO Kips Bay, New York.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Thacher, James. A Military Journal during the American Revolutionary War, from 1775 to 1783. 2d ed. Boston: Cottons and Barnard, 1827.

                            revised by Michael Bellesiles