As tensions rose between the American colonies and the British government in the 1770s, John Watts, the owner of Rose Hill, saw the future prosperity of New York in strong ties to Britain and remained loyal to the Crown. Shortly after the first shots of the American Revolution were fired at Lexington and Concord in April 1775, Watts and a number of other prominent Loyalists who feared violence at the hands of American rebels fled New York for Great Britain.
While Watts was in England, the Revolutionary War came to New York and Rose Hill. In August 1776, the British drove American forces from Brooklyn to Manhattan during the Battle of Long Island. In September, British troops landed at Kip's Bay, near present 34th Street, where they skirmished with American forces under the command of General George Washington before driving them north to Harlem and eventually out of Manhattan.
A witness wrote of the events of September 1776 near Rose Hill:
Whereas the troubles of War were now near Watts' House, Phil. Sypher fetched his wife, child and goods back from thence to town...and it was just high time, else they might have been lost; for this house soon after was plundered by the Kings' troops.
