Deputy Sheriff Isaac Smith was fatally shot in West-farms, New York, on May 17, 1792, while serving as a New York City deputy sheriff. According to contemporary accounts, Smith — a Revolutionary War veteran who also worked as a farmer, doctor, and politician — was attempting to serve a writ and arrest a man for disturbing the peace outside a tavern at Delancey’s Mill when the man shot him. The shooter was identified as a known British loyalist and fled to Canada after the killing. He was eventually captured, tried, and executed by hanging on October 2, 1793. Smith was survived by his wife and two children. For a long time his death was considered the first line-of-duty death in American law enforcement history, though that distinction is now attributed to a different officer.

Did anyone have ancestors or local records that recall the tavern at Delancey’s Mill or the events surrounding Smith’s arrest attempt?