If you haven't already seen Patriots of Hudson in the Revolutionary War, the exhibition celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence created by the History Room at the Hudson Area Library, you are encouraged to visit. It provides a wealth of information about the people who, at the end of the American Revolution, founded the City of Hudson.
Here's something you may not have known. What do a sea captain shipwrecked off the Barbary Coast and captured to be sold into slavery and the adopted child of the British character actress Margaret Ruthford, who has raised as a boy but lived as a woman, have in common? The short answer is: Hudson. Dawn Langley Simmons owned and resided in Laban Paddock's house. Judah Paddock was the sea captain who was eventually ransomed and returned to Hudson to join his brother Laban and their father, Stephen Paddock. Stephen and Judah were both patriots of the American Revolution.
Stephen Paddock
Nantucket Selectman, Sail Maker,
Hudson Proprietor
While serving as a Selectman of Nantucket, Stephen Paddock signed a letter in 1775 pleading with the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts to exempt Nantucket from representation in the Continental Government. The letter outlines the specific difficulties of the people of Nantucket.
"Our local situation is peculiar, and our circumstances in several respects different from any other place in America . . . placed on an Island, detach'd at least Thirty miles from any part of the Continent, whose production is insufficient to support one third part of its Inhabitants with the Necessaries of life, and laying open to any Naval power, to stop all supplies with a small armed force by sea, the only channel by which we can receive them; The Inhabitants are the greater part, of the people call'd Quakers, whose well known principles of Religion, will not admit of their taking up arms in a military way in any case whatever. . . ."
However, at some point during the war Paddock was moved to serve, as [a] document from the New York State Archives requesting recompense for his service shows.
After the war, Paddock moved to Claverack Landing, and at the invitation of Colonel John Van Alen, stayed in his home until his own house on Front Street was erected. Later Paddock built a larger home at First and Warren Streets.
In 1787 Paddock partnered with Seth Jenkins on a sailmaking factory they built on Third Street. They sold sails in New York City and to shipbuilders in Hudson. Paddock also received a license in 1786 "to retail all kinds of spirituous liquors."
He was treasurer of the Hudson Aqueduct Company, a project that began in 1785 to develop a water system with wooden pipes in the city. On behalf of the association, he purchased land with rights to both the Ten Broeck Spring and the Hyuck's Spring, later known as Hudson Fountain. Jasper Danckaerts, visiting the colonies in the late 1600s wrote of the springs: "Large clear fountains flow out of these cliffs or hills; the first real fountains, and the only ones, we have met in this country." Paddock served as alderman 1785-1792 and 1795-1796. He also served in county government as Supervisor and Moderator for Hudson, and as moderator in 1810 when the Proprietors' Organization was dissolved.
Judah Paddock
Businessman, Sailor,
Sold into Slavery and Escaped
Judah, the son of Stephen Paddock, was a sea captain and had many seafaring adventures. A sword given him by the Empress Catherine of Russia as a tribute for his rescue of a Russian man-of-war ship was once displayed in the Hudson Masonic Lodge and later given to General William J. Worth when he visited Hudson. On another trip Judah was shipwrecked, captured sold into slavery and ransomed.
He was not only an adventurer but a key leader in the development of Hudson. Judah had a lucrative business sailing to the West Indies, Russia, and Liverpool and established a general freighting business between Hudson and New York City. It began with sailing cargo ships and transformed into the New York and Hudson Steamboat Company.
He was a director of the Hudson Aqueduct Company, on the building committee of the Almshouse erected at 4th and State Streets and on the committee to create a canal through Middle Ground Flats to expedite the Hudson Athens Ferry service.
Judah Paddock was one of the early supporters of the Lancaster School in Hudson, a school for the education of the children of the poor. . . .
Judah Paddock's Ordeal
In 1800 Judah sailed on the Oswego, delivering flax seed and staves to Cork, Ireland. He then sailed to Cape Verdi Island and loaded his ship with salt and skins for his return voyage, but was driven off course by a storm and ended up on the Barbary Coast. He and his crew were captured by slave traders and sold into slavery. After six weeks in captivity he was ransomed and returned home. His account of this episode, A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Oswego: On the Coast of South Barbary, was published and is available in the History Room collection.
"All that I was able to learn while a slave in Barbary confirmed my belief that many unfortunate mariners have been wrecked on that shore and there perished, who were supposed by their relatives and friends to have foundered at sea." --Judah Paddock, A Narrative of the Shipwreck of the Oswego
Laban Paddock
Stephen Paddock's second son was also seafaring and became quite wealthy. Laban (1770-1861) became the president of the Hudson Whaling Company in 1829. He was also president of the Bank of Columbia. He had a house built at what is now 117 Union Street and could watch his ships returning from a lookout at the back of the house.
In 1981, with proceeds from the published biography she wrote of her adoptive mother, British Academy Award-winning actress Margaret Rutherford, Dawn Langley Simmons (1922-2000) purchased 117 Union Street "as is" for $11,500. She moved there with her "daughter, a dog, a cat and a pet rabbit" from New York City. Dawn was raised in England as a boy, but identified as a woman and was described a in a New York Times obituary as "a person around whom legends swirled." She found a home in Hudson, as so many have, for a time.
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