Udney Hay

Scottish-born Udney Hay was a timber merchant in Quebec who joined the 2nd Canadian Regiment of Colonel Moses Hazen in January 1776 to support the American colonies in the fight for independence. He was appointed assistant deputy quartermaster general for the Northern Department in July 1776 and breveted a lieutenant colonel in January 1777 at the recommendation of General Horatio Gates. Hay served under General Arthur St. Clair in 1777 when Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence fell to the British. In 1780, New York Governor DeWitt Clinton chose Hay as the state agent for the Continental Army. General George Washington wrote Benedict Arnold in September 1780 that Udney Hay was a “faithful and indefatigable Officer.” After the Revolutionary War, Udney Hay became involved in politics. He authored the constitution for the Democratic Society of the County of Chittenden in 1794 and was a member of the New York Democratic Society. In 1795, Hay replaced DeWitt Clinton as a second for James Nicholson for a duel proposed by Alexander Hamilton. The dispute was resolved through negotiation between Hamilton's and Nicholson's seconds. Hay moved to Underhill in 1796. He was elected as selectman and served as State legislator from 1798 to 1804. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1802. He was on the fifth Council of Censors, charged with determining if the government had conformed to constitutional limits. Hay died in Burlington in 1806.