Udney Hay

Udney Hay (also spelled Udny) (1739 – September 6, 1806) was an American deputy quartermaster general during the American Revolutionary War. He was later a politician from Vermont.

He was born in Scotland in 1739. In 1775–76, before his war service, he was a timber merchant living in Quebec and sustained financial losses supporting the revolution.

Military service
In January 1776, he joined the 2nd Canadian Regiment of Colonel Moses Hazen. In June, Brigadier General John Sullivan assigned him to take on the duties of deputy quartermaster general from Donald Campbell. On January 9, 1777, as recommended by General Horatio Gates, the Continental Congress appointed him lieutenant colonel and assistant deputy quartermaster general at Fort Ticonderoga.

After the resignation of Thomas Mifflin, the first quartermaster general, George Washington highly recommended Hay on January 1, 1778 to Henry Laurens, president of the Congress, noting that his generals thought him the "best qualified of any man upon the Continent for the office." However, Congress did not agree, and instead appointed Nathanael Greene quartermaster general on March 2.

On April 15, 1780, his brother, Charles Hay, was arrested by Frederick Haldimand, governor of the Province of Quebec, and not released until May 2, 1783. Udney wrote to Washington to provide a character reference for his case in London.

On June 24, 1780, Hay was appointed by George Clinton, the first governor of New York, as the state agent to supply provisions for the Continental Army.

In 1780, he purchased a house from Hugh Van Kleeck, now called Clinton House, in Poughkeepsie, New York. In 1783, the house was destroyed by fire and he rented the nearby Glebe House. To assist in rebuilding the house, he requested permission from Washington for army craftsmen, which was received.

Public service
After the war, in 1786, Hay moved to Underhill, Vermont, and entered public life. He was a member of the Vermont Council of Censors chosen in 1806. From 1798 to 1804, he represented the town in the state assembly. In 1802, he lost the election for the United States House of Representatives as a Democratic-Republican candidate on the third ballot to Martin Chittenden.

Private life
Hay had one child, a daughter, Jane Hay, born January 23, 1778, in Albany, New York. She married Reuben C. Hyde and they had seven children. A son, Udney Hay Hyde (1808–1883), became a conductor on the Underground Railroad in Mechanicsburg, Ohio.

Hay died on September 6, 1806 in Burlington, Vermont and was buried at the North Underhill Cemetery in Underhill, Vermont.