Shortly thereafter, the New York Mercury reported that on September 28, 1779:
The countryseat of John Watts, three miles from town, is destroyed
by fire.
It may have been just as well that the Rose Hill estate was destroyed during
the American Revolution. Having fled to England, Watts and other Loyalists
were declared traitors by the New York Assembly, which confiscated their
property
and threatened them with death should they return. Writing to his sons,
who remained in New York, Watts stated that the Assembly "cruelly proscrib'd
me from returning ...under pain of Death."
The Assembly rejected petitions by John Watts' sons to allow their father
to return to New York, but they were allowed to purchase Rose Hill from the
State for 2,000 pounds. Watts lamented his inability to return to Rose Hill,
writing from England:
Once I thought to have spent my last breath there, but since providence has otherwise ordain'd it, I am content, and must finish my days among strangers.
John Watts died in Britain in 1789.
