July Issue: Pirate Festival

Plunder Boys

"Forget Johnny Depp. In fact, forget the Caribbean. The area’s true swashbucklers are going to be at Philipsburg Manor for Pirates of the Hudson: The Siege of Sleepy Hollow from July 2 to July 4. (Because nothing says patriotism like a little piracy.)

Pirates, after all, have been known to sail the Hudson—and cause consternation for Frederick Philipse, the Lord of the Manor. 'The Philipse family businesses involved, among other things, trading on the high seas, and piracy was a huge issue,' says Rob Schweitzer, spokesperson for Historic Hudson Valley. 'Legend holds that Frederick Philipse and Captain Kidd were, indeed, friends, and Kidd would land at Kingsland Point to meet with Philipse and trade with him, likely from his prizes as a legal privateer. When Kidd was named a pirate in 1698, Kidd and Philipse’s friendship would have greatly hurt Philipse’s name, and it may or may not have been used by then-Governor of New York Lord Richard Bellomont in kicking Philipse off the Governor’s Executive Council.'”


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Photo by  Bryan Haeffele