Shelter Island and the American Revolution: Heroes, hardships and resilience

Islander Anna Havens Fosdick (1729-1782) was a devoted wife, mother, and daughter during the American Revolution. Her headstone in the Presbyterian Church’s historic burying ground, which is partially readable, was reclaimed by preservationists Joel Snodgrass and Zachary Studenroth in June 2023.

Anna’s headstone was sunk deep into the ground of the Presbyterian Church. The preservationists dug a trench around the headstone, using a metal tripod. They then gingerly pulled on a metal chain to hoist up the large, beautifully-carved brownstone. Anna’s is now the tallest headstone in the oldest section of the burying ground.

She was married to Captain Thomas Updike Fosdick, who served as a surgeon’s mate for 30 days under Colonel Holden Parsons in 1775 in the 6th Connecticut Regiment. Discharged in 1776, Captain Fosdick died in April 1776 from pleurisy, at age 51.

Together, Thomas and Anna weathered the challenges of war and family life, enduring the hardships faced by Shelter Islanders during the six-year British occupation. She bore 11 children in 19 years, demonstrating remarkable resilience.

Anna’s father, Jonathan Havens II, was the grandson of early settler George Havens and Ellenor Terry Havens. He inherited the family’s 1,000 acres.

Anna’s mother, Catherine Nicoll, was the daughter of Wlliam Nicoll and Anna Van Rensselaer. William Nicoll was a well known lawyer, attorney general for the province of New York, and a patentee of Islip Grange. Anna’s lineage connected her to influential figures in New York’s history. The Fosdick children were the great-grandchildren of Ruth Brewster, granddaughter of Elder William Brewster of the Mayflower. 

As told in a March 28, 2024 story in the Reporter, by editor Ambrose Clancy, Anna and Thomas’ older two sons, Captain Thomas Updike Jr (1754- 1811) and Captain Nicoll Havens Updike (1750-1821), were heroes and officers in the nascent American Navy. As privateers the brothers commanded privately owned and armed vessels commissioned to destroy enemy ships.

Thomas, whose headstone is a few feet from his mother, was a Yale graduate and husband to Sarah Howe. He served in the militia company of Captain Nathan Hale, the same Nathan Hale, executed at age 21, famous for saying: “I regret I have but one life to give for my country.”

Thomas served in Hale’s unit’s exploits prior to Hale’s execution in September 1776. A month before, in August 1776, prior to the Battle of Fort Washington, Thomas Fosdick received a commendation from General George Washington for attempting to drive his sloop deep into the British forces assembling for battle. Taken prisoner at the battle of Fort Washington in November, Thomas was later held a prisoner in the notorious prison ship “Jersey.”

Thomas’s brother, Captain Nicoll Fosdick, wrote a letter to Thomas, which survives today from 1783, recounting maritime news and mentioning successful arrivals of other privateers from the West Indies. The survival of the letter is remarkable because it contains precise information on battles at sea during the Revolution, which could have put both brothers in danger if intercepted by British agents.

These two Shelter Island leading families, the Havens and Fosdicks, imparted a legacy that serves as a testament to the strength and resilience of those men, women and children who lived through the tumultuous times of the American Revolution.

Thanks to the Shelter Island chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, over 100 historic headstones and monuments in the Presbyterian burying ground have been lovingly cleaned and restored over the past decade. These efforts allow us to honor and learn more about the lives of our Island’s founding families and Revolutionary Patriots.

This writer has conjectured that Anna and members of her Fosdick and Havens family took refuge in one of the Nicoll/Havens family homes, possibly on the farm of Nicoll Havens and his wife Sarah Fosdick — parents of Jonathan Havens (1747-1799). The Nicoll Havens house, referred to as “The Great Central Mansion,” currently located off Cobbetts Lane, was rebuilt after a fire with the remains of the original house.

During the British occupation of the Island in 1776, Reverend Jacob Mallman’s book indicates 11 people living on the 1,000-acre farm, among multiple buildings and 14 enslaved people.

Mallman goes on to quote that on the date of Sept. 15th, 1781: “… the British ransacked the house of Nicoll Havens on Shelter Island, took two fowling pieces, a silver hilted sword, a silver mounted hanger, some tea etc.”