#declaration of dependence

I lost count of my own

And somehow

I must find it alone

24 and blooming like the fields of May

25 and yearning for a ticket out

Dreams burn

But in ashes are gold

"Our ancestors often believed in fate, and so do I. It was fate one day that brought me to the Fraunces Tavern in New York City. Fate that day that the waiter overheard me talking to my daughter. Fate that that same waiter told me of the museum on the top floor of the Fraunces Tavern. Fate that allowed me fifteen minutes prior to closing to view the museum.

In those fifteen minutes I scanned the exhibits and discovered a small posting regarding a declaration signed by 547 Loyalists in late November 1776 which declared their loyalty to the Crown and Great Britain. The voices of my ancestors and their friends kept calling to me from that document, asking me to not forget them, and to search out their names and signatures. To discover their lives, beliefs, and reasons for their actions.

After searching and making inquiries through social media, phoning museums and not giving up, two and a half years later I finally found someone, who on February 11, 2015, knew what I was talking and asking about. Charles Casimiro of Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site, New York, informed me the document, the Declaration of Dependence, was housed in the New-York Historical Society. 

The Declaration of Dependence was signed by 547 Loyalists from New York and surrounding areas. The signers were merchants, yeomen, freed slaves—basically a mixed representation of people all wishing to remain loyal to the Crown.

The signing of this valuable document took place in Fraunces Tavern, located at 54 Pearl Street at Water Street in Lower Manhattan. The City Hall was situated on the north side of the street. At the time, the tavern sign read “Sign of Queen Charlotte,” or the Queen to King George III. Commonly it was referred to as the “Queen’s Head Tavern.”

The signers are too numerous to list; here are a few of the more prominent:

Frederick Philipse. The house that Frederick Philipse once occupied is now a Historic Site, the Philipse Manor Hall in Yonkers, New York. The family lived in luxury. Rent from many tenant farmers who worked their lands helped pay for this lifestyle. As those around Frederick Philipse III began to rebel against Great Britain, he defended the Crown. George Washington did not approve of having such a strong-willed Loyalist at large and ordered Frederick Philipse III arrested in 1776, but he and his family fled to British occupied New York. His signature can be seen prominently in the middle of page one, column five. Frederick Philipse III had a sister Susannah Philipse. She married Col. Bevereley Robinson, a prominent Loyalist officer in whose home Benedict Arnold made his headquarters. From the strong Loyal bonds of this marriage was born Frederick Philipse Robinson, who began his career in the British army as a young officer in the American Revolution and eventually rose to the rank of major general. His portrait is found in the hallway of Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario. He was provisional lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada in 1815. Eventually the lands and the Manor of Frederick Philipse III were confiscated and sold at public auction by the New York State Legislature. The last “Lord of the Manor”, died of a broken spirit and poor health in England, 1786.

Samuel Cox. Samuel Cox was a native of Bermuda, described as 5’10” in stature with a brown complexion, light brown hair, and about twenty-five years of age. On June 1, 1776, he set sail from Halifax as the Master of the transport sloop Charlotte, among approximately 130 ships carrying about 10,000 sailors that set sail that day from Halifax under the command of Lord Howe, carrying the British army that would land on Staten Island. On board Charlotte was a cargo of entrenching tools, spikes, Cheveaux-de-Frise, and mantelets, essential components for constructing field fortifications in the upcoming campaign. The American armed sloop Montgomery intercepted Charlotte on June 28, 1776. Samuel Cox was transported as a prisoner and carried to Fire-Island Inlet south of Long Island as a prisoner of war. He was released on parole on July 6, to return to his residence in Bedford Township in Westchester County, New York. He later became a member of a Loyalist regiment, Butler’s Rangers, and settled in the Niagara Region of Ontario.

Samuel Wood. Samuel Wood was fifty-one years old when he signed the Declaration in 1776. Born in 1725 in New York, he married Amy Brundage about 1754 in Westchester County. Together they had fourteen children. After being imprisoned and suffering the loss of his Westchester County farm, his wife Amy refused to follow him when he fled from the United States in 1785. Perhaps she was too old and tired, or perhaps she chose to remain with her other twelve children. Samuel’s daughter Amy Wood Bedford and his son Peter Wood went to Nova Scotia with their father, later to be joined by their sister Rachel Wood Clark. Perhaps Rachel’s husband penned one of the two Clark signatures found on the Declaration. Compensation was granted by the British, and together Samuel Wood and his son Peter built a home on the Maccan River in Nova Scotia. It would appear that he died a broken man as his wife still refused to move to Nova Scotia with their remaining children. Both Wood and his son were buried in the Harrison burial ground, which sadly is now a farmer’s field."

The Declaration of Dependence was signed over a period of three days, ending November 28, 1776. The Declaration was signed by 547 Loyalists from New York. The signers were merchants, yeomen, freed slaves – basically a mixed bag of people all wishing to remain loyal to the Crown. The Declaration of Dependence has 491 more signatures than its counterpart which was signed earlier in 1776, though it should be noted the purpose of signing was different (government ratification v public subscription to a cause).

The Declaration of Dependence is in the library of the New York Historical Society.

Transcription

To the Right Honorable Richard Viscount Howe, of the Kingdom of Ireland, and His Excellency The Honorable William Howe, Esquire, General of His Majesty's Forces in America, the Kings' Commissioners for restoring Peace in His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations in North America &c. &c. &c.

May it please your excellencies.

Impressed with the most grateful sense of the Royal Clemency, manifested in you Proclamation of the 14th. Of July last, whereby His Majesty hath been graciously pleased to declare, "That he is desirous to deliver His American subjects from the calamities of War, and other oppressions, which they now undergo:" and equally affected with sentiments of gratitude for the generous and humane attention to the disposition "to confer with His Majesty's well affected subjects, upon the means of restoring the public Tranquility, and establishing a permanent union with every Colony as a part of the British Empire."

We whose names are hereunto subscribed, Inhabitants of the City and County of New-York, beg leave to inform your Excellencies: that altho most of us have subscribed a general Representation with many other of the Inhabitants; yet we wish that our conduct, in maintaining inviolate our loyalty to our Sovereign, against the strong tide of oppression and tyranny, which has almost overwhelmed this Land, may be marked by some line of distinction, which cannot well be drawn from the mode of Representation that has been adopted for the Inhabitants in general.

Influenced by this Principle, and from a regard to our peculiar Situation, we have humbly presumed to trouble your Excellencies with the second application; in which, we flatter ourselves, none participate but those who have ever, with unshaken fidelity, borne true Allegiance to His Majesty, and the most warm and affectionate attachment to his Person and Government. That, notwithstanding the tumult of the times, and the extreme difficulties and losses to which many of us have been exposed, we have always expressed, and do now give this Testimony of our Zeal to preserve and support the Constitutional Supremacy of Great Britain over the Colonies; and do most ardently wish for a speedy restoration of that union between them, which, while it subsisted, proved the unfailing source of their mutual happiness and prosperity.

I'm letting go to see if you'll hold on to me

It will only make you cry

What is given can't be returned

The cards are in our hands

All that is living can be hurt

And that's the end of innocence

킹스 오브 컨비니언스는 노르웨이 출신의 듀오이다. 어딘가 루즈해 보이는 인상의 두 사람, 아이릭 글람벡 뵈(Eirik Glambek Bøe)와 얼랜드 오여(Erlend Øye)로 구성된 이 그룹은 무척 차분한 포크 음악을 들려준다. 사이먼 앤 가펑클(Simon & Garfunkel)이 연상되는 전통적인 포크 음악이지만 시적인 가사와 거기에 담긴 고뇌가 올드함보다는 젊음과 맞닿아 있음을 느끼게 한다.

그룹은 2001년 첫 앨범 <Quiet Is the New Loud>를, 2004년 두 번째 앨범 <Riot on an Empty Street>를 발표했다. 2집의 히트곡 Cayman Islands의 잔잔한 분위기와 파이스트(Feist)가 객원 보컬로 참여한 Know-How, 레트로풍 댄스 트랙 I’d Rather Dance with You 등은 킹스 오브 컨비니언스만의 색깔을 잘 보여주는 매력적인 트랙들이었다. 보편적으로 듣기 편안한 이들의 음악은 우리나라에서 광고 음악으로도 많이 쓰였다.

3집 <Declaration of Dependence>는 5년 만에 세상 밖으로 나왔다. 커버 사진을 보면 1집과 2집에서 두 사람 사이에 있던 여성이 사라졌음을 알 수 있다. 그녀를 대신해 바다와 악기, 해변가의 낭만적인 풍경이 사진을 가득 채우고 있다. 그러나 커버에 보이는 이미지와는 다르게 가사들에서는 여전히 여성으로 비춰지는 대상을 그려 넣고 있다. 대부분의 경우 가사에 등장하는 여성 캐릭터는 창의적인 자아를 가진 ‘나'와 대립하는 것처럼 보인다. Mrs. Cold에서 경계에 선 ‘당신이 내 곁에서 약해지는 걸 알아서 그러기를 꺼려 하고 있었다(You were fronting because you knew you’d find yourself vulnerable around me)’라고 이야기하고, Boat Behind에서 ‘우리’는 많은 굴곡을 거쳐 다시 만나게 되었지만, 화자는 ‘나는 절대 네 사람이 될 수는 없을 거야(I could never belong to you)’라는 구절을 되풀이한다. 이 곡에서는 업라이트 베이스와 비올라가 첨가되어 멋진 하모니를 들려주지만 곡이 말하는 현실은 그다지 조화롭지 못하다. 24-25에서는 ‘그녀는 곧 사라질 거야 / 당신은 나를 가질 수 있어(She’ll be gone soon / you can have me for yourself)’라고 서술한다. 

My Ship Isn’t Pretty와 Renegade는 보다 느린 전개를 취한다. 이 곡들에선 어떤 대상과 나의 관계는 희미해지고 내면의 의식이 더 세심히 조명되고 있다. 2집의 타이틀과 같은 Riot on an Empty Street에서는 두 사람의 목소리가 중첩되어 흐른다. 타이틀과 동일한 곡 제목이라 왠지 여기에 비밀이 숨겨져 있지 않을까 하는 생각이 들기도 했다. ‘텅 빈 거리의 폭동’은 겉으로는 어떤 내색을 하지 않지만 속으로는 소용돌이 같은 혼돈을 품고 있는 그들의 노래를 의미하는 것 같다. 이들의 음악 속에는 두 대의 기타가 그리는 포근하거나 복잡한 텍스처와 갈등의 순간을 예민하게 포착하고, 고뇌에 찬 생각들로 채워진 내면이 녹아 있다.