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The address on the top of the letter is "Cow Neck," which was the name settlers gave to the peninsula that juts into Manhasset Bay to the west, Long Island Sound to the north and Hempstead Harbor to the east.

Note: Birdsall owned a general store in Jerusalem (present-day Wantagh), N.Y. He was also a surveyor, a partner in a grist mill, a teacher in the Jerusalem school, and a lieutenant in the loyalist militia.
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