Introduction

Every year in October the Lower Manhattan Historical Association holds its Saratoga/Yorktown celebration in Trinity Churchyard to celebrate the American victories at the Battles of Saratoga and Yorktown.

At that ceremony wreaths are lain on the graves of Revolutionary War figures associated with those battles — Horatio Gates, Alexander Hamilton and Marinus Willett. Of these heroes, Marinus Willett is the least well-known of the three. However, Willett is arguably of equal if not more importance to the history of the City of New York, as General Gates or perhaps even Alexander Hamilton.

Today Willett is better known for his relatively brief time at the Battle of Fort Stanwix (where the Marinus Willett Visitor Center greets you to the National Park Service facility) and his later defense of the Mohawk Valley during the Revolution. He was later an important politician and diplomat who played a critical role in the history of the nation and the City for almost fifty years after the Revolution.

Probably his most historically important achievement was his successful effort in 1790 to negotiate the Treaty of New York with 27 Muscogee Creek leaders. This treaty, which was one of the few treaties negotiated in the city of New York, was one of the early diplomatic triumphs for the nascent American government, and in certain respects would have major implications for the city’s future.