History of New Britain, (Columbia County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

Charles Clinton, immigrant, was born in county Longford, Ireland, in 1690; son of James and Elizabeth (Smith) Clinton. Becoming a Dissenter and incurring the hostility of the ruling party, he resolved to immigrate to America with a party of friends numbering nearly two hundred, who had chartered a vessel. They set sail from Dublin, May 20, 1729, with the intention of landing at Philadelphia and joining the Scotch-Irish settlers in Pennsylvania. They were 139 days crossing the ocean and lost ninety-six of their number by death before landing at Cape Cod, Mass., where the captain had carried them in order to exact a ransom from the survivors or possibly to rob them of their entire possessions. Greatly reduced by starvation they were unable to offer resistance and after recuperating their strength they located, in the spring of 1731, on the Hudson river, and the names Orange and Ulster counties bear witness to this Scotch-Irish immigration. Charles Clinton settled in a hilly district about six miles west of New Windsor on the Hudson, sixty miles north of New York, which place was laid out by Clinton in 1749, and called New Britain. He was a magistrate and a land surveyor, and in the course of time was lieutenant-colonel of the Ulster county militia and judge of the common pleas. He served in Colonel De Lancey's regiment and under Colonel Bradstreet in the capture of Fort Frontenac, in 1758. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander Denniston, a native of Ireland. He died at New Britain, N.Y., Nov. 19, 1773.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

James Clinton, soldier, was born in New Britain, N.Y., Aug. 9, 1736; third son of Col. Charles and Elizabeth (Denniston) Clinton; and grandson of James Clinton and of Alexander Denniston, both natives of Ireland. His great-grandfather, William Clinton, was born in England and was the grandson of Henry, 2nd earl of Lincoln. He received a good education and at an early age was appointed an ensign in the 2nd regiment, Ulster county militia, succeeding his, father as lieutenant-colonel in 1773. He was a captain at the siege of Fort Frontonac, and captured a French sloop-of-war on Lake Ontario. In June, 1775, he accompanied Montgomery to Quebec as the colonel of the 3rd New York regiment. In 1776 he was made a brigadier-general, and in the following year held command of Fort Clinton, one of the two forts which had been erected a few miles below West Point to dispute the advance of the British into the Highlands. George Clinton, his brother, afterward governor of the state, commanded Fort Montgomery, where 600 men could do but little in resisting 3000, the flower of the English army. They were soon surrounded and but few of the more daring escaped. General Clinton received a bayonet wound, fled on horseback to a precipice which he slid down and in the valley captured a stray horse and rode to his home at New Britain. In 1779, at the head of 1600 men, he took part with General Sullivan in the expedition against the Six Nations. Proceeding up the Mohawk to Otsego lake in bateaux, he fought a decisive battle at Newtown, on the present site of Elmira, inflicting upon the Indians terrible loss, destroying their villages and forcing the survivors to take refuge with the British at Fort Niagara. For his service he was made a major-general in the Continental army, and during much of the remainder of the war held chief command of the northern department at Albany, N.Y. He took part in the siege of Yorktown and witnessed the evacuation of New York by the British. He was subsequently a member of the state legislature, 1788-92; of the convention that ratified the Federal constitution in 1788; and of the New York constitutional convention in 1801. He was twice married: first, in 1764, to Mary, daughter of Egbert De Witt; and secondly, to Mrs. Mary Gray. He died at his home in Little Britain, N.Y., Dec. 22, 1812.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor