Mathews was in 1770 one of the founders of the Moot Club, a forum for legal discussion, whose members consisted of
William Livingston,
James Duane,
Gouverneur Morris,
Stephen DeLancey,
John Jay,
Egbert Benson, and
Robert R. Livingston. John Jay would later be one of the signatories of Mathews' arrest warrant in 1776. He was appointed Mayor in February 1776 by
William Tryon, Governor of the
Province of New York, replacing
Whitehead Hicks. Mathews lived in
Manhattan but maintained a summer residence in
Flatbush, located approximately at the intersection of
Flatbush Avenue and Parkside Avenue, and where he conducted much of his business while Mayor.
Alleged plot to kill George Washington Mathews, in 1776, was implicated in a plan to kidnap
George Washington, the
Commander in Chief of the
Continental Army. Mathews and
William Tryon, the
governor of the Province of New York, were also accused of being involved, as was a member of
Washington's Life Guard,
Thomas Hickey, who would eventually be executed for his role. After John Jay interviewed many witnesses regarding the payments made by the British to recruits, he as head of the Committee of Conspiracies of the
New York Provincial Congress, and after consultation and approval by Washington, ordered Mathews' arrest for "being engaged in a Conspiracy against the Authority of the Congress and the Liberties of America." Mathews was arrested at his Flatbush home on June 22, 1776 Mathews, in a letter to a college classmate written during his imprisonment, denied his involvement in the plot against Washington: I have made so many fruitless applications lately that I am almost discouraged putting pen to paper again. [It] ... is verily believed throughout this Colony, that I was concerned in a Plot to assassinate George Washington and blow up the Magazine in New York? The Convention well knows such a report prevails. They also know it is false as hell is false. The charges were never proven. Mathews, in his claim for compensation to the Royal Commission in London for the forfeiture of his estate in the colonies, had it written that "He had formed a plan for the taking of Mr. Washington and his guard prisoners, which was not effected by an unforeseen discovery that was made." Mathews later took advantage of a greater level of freedom from a minor parole to meet with other Loyalists, including
Joel Stone, who helped Mathews escape. On November 27, Major Seymour placed the following notice in the
Connecticut Journal seeking help in recapturing Matthews for the reward of $50 ($1,568.98 as of 2021). The notice read as follows:
New York under British control Mathews subsequently resumed his office as mayor in late 1776, returning on December 2, during which time New York was firmly in
British control. His house was located on Water Street.
General Howe, in late 1776, awarded Mathews all of the profits from the city's ferries, markets and slips, for his own personal use. Previously these funds were reverted to the corporation of the City of New York Mathews was also given command of two military units, the Loyal Volunteers of the City of New York and the Mayor's Independent Company of Volunteers, and was often referred to as Colonel. In 1778, a party of twenty men "with their faces blacked and otherwise disguised" led by Captain
John Schenck went to Flatbush as part of the
Whaleboat War in a failed attempt to capture Mathews. They instead took away Major
James Moncrief. In August 1778 Mathews sustained injuries in assisting British troops and Manhattan residents in extinguishing a fire on what is now Front Street along the
East River. In June 1779 an attempt by Loyalists to kidnap New Jersey Governor
William Livingston, a distant Schuyler cousin of Mathews, failed. Mathews was suspected to have organized this plot. The
New York Assembly, on October 22, 1779, in an Act of Attainder, declared Mathews to be one of 59 state felons who was to be executed if found in the state. His property, which totaled nearly 27,000 acres, was confiscated. In his father Vincent Mathews' will, he was not mentioned and only his children were listed as inheritors. It is likely that Mathews was at least complicit in the handling of colonial military prisoners, who were not considered Prisoners of War until months after the British defeat at the
Battle of Yorktown. Over 10,000 colonial soldiers died as prisoners during the
American Revolutionary War, most of them in New York and on prison ships in the
East River, more than the men who died in combat. Mathews is on record as a visitor to American prisoners of war and helped to produce affidavits denying allegations of abuse and neglect from half a dozen British officials testifying that American prisoners were well-fed and comfortable. Mathews' character was considered questionable not just by Patriots but by fellow Loyalists as well. Former Chief Justice of the Province of New York and fellow Loyalist
William Smith wrote that Mathews "sends out Parties to the Country to plunder & he has a Share of it," even alleging that he had clearly lied about magnanimously sending stolen goods on the Poor House. Smith then contemplated that "If these Charges are true this Man must dread the restoration of the Peace of his Country & the Re Establishment of order."
Thomas Jones described Mathews as "a person low in estimation as a lawyer, profligate, abandoned, and dissipated, indigent, extravagant, and voluptuous as himself." Peter Dubois, fellow magistrate of Mathews, spoke of him as a "profligate and villain" who took advantage of his status and position by taking possession of stolen household goods and even goods that were destined for people in poorhouses.
Arrival in Nova Scotia It is unknown when Mathews and his family left New York; there is a record of his presence in England in 1784. In November 1784 Mathews arrived in Halifax,
Nova Scotia. Failing to gain an appointment as that province's attorney general, he traveled to
Cape Breton Island, which in 1786 was administered as a separate colony. There he was appointed Attorney General and a member of the Executive Council by Lieutenant Governor
Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres. Although an elected house of assembly was to have been established, this did not occur, and Mathews became a leading and divisive figure in the small colony's politics. He had a difficult relationship with both DesBarres and his successor,
William Macarmick, who eventually left the colony in 1795, leaving Mathews, as senior counselor, as interim administrator of the colony. Mathews then packed its government with friends and business associates. When he was succeeded as administrator by
John Murray, the latter dismissed him from the post of attorney general. Mathews made common cause with the
Duke of Kent, who had a personal dislike of Murray, and engineered Murray's replacement. While living in Nova Scotia the
Mi'kmaq native peoples would periodically use his home to live in during leaner times; discouraging or rebuffing these requests ran the risk of inciting conflict. == Death ==