This lady was Mrs. Margaret Hill Morris, who lived in Burlington. She
was a Quaker lady, and must have been a person of considerable wealth;
for she had purchased the house on Green Bank, one of the prettiest
parts of Burlington, overlooking the river, in which Governor Franklin
had formerly resided. This was a fine house, and contained the room
which afterwards became celebrated under the name of the "Auger Hole."
This had been built, for what reason is not known, as a place of
concealment. It was a small room, entirely dark, but said to be
otherwise quite comfortable, which could be approached only through a
linen closet. In order to get at it, the linen had to be taken from the
shelves, the shelves drawn out, and a small door opened at the back of
the closet, quite low down, so that the dark room could only be entered
by stooping.
In this "auger hole," Mrs. Morris, who was a strong Tory, but a very
good woman, had concealed a refugee who at the time was sought for by
the adherents of the patriotic side, and who probably would have had a
hard time of it if he had been caught, for he was a person of
considerable importance.
The name of the refugee was Jonathan Odell, and he was rector of St.
Mary's Church in Burlington. He was a learned man, being a doctor as
well as a clergyman, and a very strong Tory. He had been of much service
to the people of Burlington; for when the Hessians had attacked the
town, he had come forward and interceded with their commander, and had
done his work so well that the soldiers were forbidden to pillage the
town. But when the Hessians left, the American authorities began a
vigorous search for Tories; and Parson Odell was obliged to conceal
himself in good Mrs. Morris's "auger hole."
Mrs. Morris was apparently a widow who lived alone with her two boys,
and, having this refugee in her house, she was naturally very nervous
about the movements of the American troops and the actions of her
neighbors of the opposite party.
She kept a journal of the things that happened about her in those
eventful days, and from this we will give some extracts. It must be
understood that in writing her journal, the people designated as the
"enemy" were the soldiers under Washington, and that "gondolas" were
American gunboats.
"From the 13th to the 16th we had various reports of the advancing
and retiring of the enemy; parties of armed men rudely entered the
town and diligent search was made for tories. Some of the gondola
gentry broke into and pillaged Rd Smith's house on the bank. About
noon this day [16th] a very terrible account of thousands coming
into the town, and now actually to be seen on Gallows Hill: my
incautious son caught up the spyglass, and was running towards the
mill to look at them. I told him it would be liable to
misconstruction."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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