After purchasing Rose Hill from New York State, John Watts Jr. retained the
southwest portion as his country estate and sold most of the property to the
merchant Nicholas Cruger in 1786. Cruger does not appear to have lived at
Rose Hill, but he rebuilt the estate house and farm buildings destroyed during
the Revolution. The land was offered for sale in the New York Daily Advertiser
on February 2, 1790:
Rose Hill, a farm of 92 acres on the East River, three miles from this
City, is advertised for sale. There is an elegant dwelling house of 50 feet
by 37 feet, a commodious farm-house of 50 by 20 feet, an excellent barn with
carriage houses and stables, 80 by 40 1/2 feet.
The farm was not purchased but instead leased in September 1790. The new resident of Rose Hill, the former home of a British Loyalist, was retired General Horatio Gates, a hero of the American Revolution. Gates commanded American troops at the Battle of Saratoga in upstate New York, a major American victory that halted the British advance from Canada.
At Rose Hill, General Gates and his wife Mary received many prominent visitors, including the writer Thomas Paine and General Tadeusz Kosciuszko. A Polish military engineer who served in the American Revolution, Kosciuszko designed American forts such as West Point and served with Gates at Saratoga. Arriving at Rose Hill
