The township suffered severely during the War of Independence on account of the frequent quartering of American troops within its borders, the depredations of bands of lawless men after the occupation of New York by the British in 1778 and its invasion by the British in 1779 (February 25) and 1781 (December 5).
Middleton, with Archbishop Sharp, misgoverned the country, established a high court of commission, exiled the fiercest preachers to Holland, whence they worked endless mischief by agitation and a war of pamphlets; irritated the Covenanting shires, Fife and the south-west, by quartering troops on them to exact fines for Nonconformity, and so caused, during a war with Holland, the Pentland Rising (November 1666).
I've watched the barn owl quartering the fields most afternoons when I've been working there; which makes for a pleasant interlude.
The war with France at the beginning of this reign, with its attendant evils, quartering of troops, conscription and levies of money, joined with cattle disease and scanty harvests in plunging the land again into distress, from which it recovered very slowly.
The country was flooded with Jesuits and friars, whose arguments were reinforced by quartering troops, veterans of the Indian wars in Mexico, on the refractory inhabitants.
