THE ZABRISKIE HOMESTEAD & ABIGAIL LEFFERTS LOVE STORY


	Bateman LLYOD wooed lovely Abigail LEFFERTS almost under the very 
eyes of her father, at whose house on the comer of the cross-roads he was 
billeted for meals when a prisoner in Flatbush. The young officer, only 
nineteen years old when the war began, advanced from the rank of lieutenant 
to that of captain in the American army, and remained in the town a prisoner 
from February 27, 1776, until April 1, 1781. Though probably lodged for 
the greater part of the time as prisoner in the county jail, he was given 
the freedom of certain parts of the town; and it is not strange that during 
his solitary walks he met Miss Abigail, whose beauty had attracted him at 
her father's house.  To be sure, Mr. LEFFERTS was a Tory, and there may 
have loomed before the lovers the monstrous prejudices they would have to 
over come.

	How the love affair would have progressed, had it not been for an uncle of 
Abigail's who had no Tory scruples, cannot be surmised. It is safe to assume 
that the youthful prisoner broke his parole, and that the most of his courtship 
was done at the home of the young woman's uncle, Mr. Jacobus VANDEVENTER. She 
left home one afternoon ostensibly to call on her relative, whose home was 
near what is now Mount Vernon Avenue and the main street. 
A clergyman happened there at the same time, also Mr. Bateman LLYOD. The following
morning Mr. VANDEVENTER appeared at the home of Mr. Jacob LEFFERTS, 
on the comer of what is now Flatbush and Church Avenues, then known 
as the cross-roads.

	"Is Abby at your house?" asked Mr. LEFFERTS.
	"Yes, and her husband also," was the unexpected response. 
	"Now, now, now," he may have continued, on seeing wrath flame up in the
good Tory's face, "better allow them to go in peace."

	The family was soon reconciled, the young couple given a paternal blessing, 
and Mr. Jacob LEFFERTS and his son-in-law became friends for life.

	Mr. LEFFERTS' house was sacked and robbed by Hessians during the Revolutionary 
War. Word had come to him that the redcoats were not far djstant. The family 
were about to eat dinner, and, leaving their meal untouched, they took only 
time enough to drop the family silver down the well. The house was one of the 
first seized by the enemy when the troops entered the town. The LEFFERTS 
family went to stay with friends at Jamaica; and later, on returning to Flatbush, 
they found their house and furniture in a state of confusion and wreck.
Realizing they were at the mercy of a merciless enemy, they took the oath 
of allegiance to King George.

	This old house has come down in history as the ZABRISKIE bomestead, named for 
the well-known family who own the estate at the present time. The early history 
of the house is not known. Tradition says it was older than the old STRYKER house 
that stood opposite, constructed about 1696. Changes were made in the homestead 
when Jacob LEFFERTS bought it, and he largely rebuilt it. 
A Dr. NEWBURY may have been the first owner, prior to the occupancy of Jacob 
LEFFERTS, who in his turn in 1802 conveyed the estate to his son-in-law, 
Bateman LLYOD.  Under the ZABRISKIE ownership the estate was broken up, and
residences erected for members of the family.

	A famous linden-tree stood by the side of the house, and beneath it, during 
Revolutionary times, Major David LENOX, when urged by his brothers to abandon
the Patriot cause and swear allegiance to King George, firmly refused. 
"I will never do it," he asserted, with tears in his eyes. The tree perished 
during a severe winter, and the homstead some years ago gave way to a later 
ZABRISKIE home.  All that remains of old associations is a cluster of aged 
honeysuckle on the lawn.



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