Biography
Peter Van Schaack was a distinguished New York lawyer who, though sympathetic to many American grievances, could not in conscience take up arms against the Crown and refused the revolutionary oath of allegiance. Summoned before the commissioners for detecting conspiracies at Albany, he again refused the oath in July 1778 and was banished from the state. He spent seven years in exile in England — much of it going blind — before New York restored his rights in 1784 and he returned home.
