A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, Volume I.
by Stephen M. Ostrander · English · Gutenberg #41979 · 409,057 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County, Volume I.
Author: Stephen M. Ostrander
Editor: Alexander Black
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HISTORY OF THE CITY OF BROOKLYN AND KINGS COUNTY, VOLUME I. ***
[Illustration: (signed) Stephen M Ostrander]
A HISTORY
OF THE
CITY OF BROOKLYN
AND
KINGS COUNTY
BY
STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER, M.A.
LATE MEMBER OF THE HOLLAND SOCIETY, THE LONG ISLAND HISTORICAL
SOCIETY, AND THE SOCIETY OF OLD BROOKLYNITES
_EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY_
ALEXANDER BLACK
AUTHOR OF "THE STORY OF OHIO," ETC.
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME I.
BROOKLYN
Published by Subscription
1894
Copyright, 1894,
BY ANNIE A. OSTRANDER.
_All rights reserved._
This Edition is limited to Five Hundred
Copies, of which this is No. 21.
PREFACE
At the time of his death, in 1885, Mr. Ostrander had completed
considerable MS. for a history of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County;
had prepared many chronological notes with a view to fuller writing, and
had accumulated a mass of material in the form of transcripts,
references, newspaper and other reports. It was his own understanding
that a first volume of a proposed two-volume history might be regarded
as well in hand, and that the wherewithal for the remaining chapters was
advanced toward completion.
At the outset of his undertaking the editor met the embarrassment of not
finding any outline which might reveal the precise form in which the
author intended to cast his work. Mr. Ostrander worked with a definite
idea, but did not formulate this idea in writing, and only the completed
expressions of this idea remained for the guidance of the editor. It
became apparent that the author intended to rearrange and extend the
matter for the earlier chapters. This matter was preserved in the form
of a series of articles published in the Brooklyn "Eagle," during
1879-80, covering the period from the discovery by Hudson to the
beginning of the Revolution. The degree of attention which these
articles attracted induced Mr. Ostrander to extend the series far beyond
the range he originally intended to give to them. As a result these
articles were not precisely consecutive, nor was the matter so ordered
as to adapt itself to book chapters without material changes. Without
knowing the author's design in detail, it was exceedingly difficult to
effect these changes save upon lines which the natural symmetry of such
a work seemed to suggest, and the editor has had no hesitation in so
rearranging the material, and in changing such features of the narrative
as had been temporarily essential to serial publication.
For the middle period, extending from the opening of the Revolution to
the time of the consolidation of Brooklyn, Williamsburgh, and Bushwick,
the author left a full narrative, and considerable collateral material.
Beyond this point the chapters were in an unfinished sketch. In putting
together the elements of this part of the work, the editor has been
actuated by a wish to follow, so far as it might be apparent, the
author's aim and plan. Possibly there is no occasion to offer apology
for those passages in the body of the work, and particularly in the last
chapter on modern Brooklyn, in which the editor has carried the
narrative beyond the date of Mr. Ostrander's death. The few instances in
which this occurs are obviously justified by the exigencies of the work.
Nor should there be need for any defense on the part of the editor for
the proportions of different elements of the work as now presented. No
two historical writers would agree as to essential proportions in such a
matter, and, without consultation with the author, no editor could hope
to do more than compromise between such intent as appeared in unfinished
work before him, and such ideal as to himself seemed wise.
Both author and editor have incurred obligations to Stiles's histories
of Brooklyn and Kings County; to the "Notes" of Furman; Field's
"Historic Scenes"; the Collections of the Long Island Historical
Society; the histories of Thompson and Prime, and to other authorities
to whom acknowledgment is offered in the notes and in the body of the
work. The editor is indebted to the excellent almanacs of the "Eagle"
and of the "Citizen"; to the "Brooklyn Compendium," compiled by John
Dykeman, Jr., and published by order of the Common Council in 1870; to
the recent compilation, "The Eagle and Brooklyn," edited by Henry W. B.
Howard and Arthur N. Jervis; and to various local reports and
publications which do not call for enumeration here.
A. B.
BROOKLYN, N. Y., _March 5, 1894_.
CONTENTS
PAGE
STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER xi
CHAPTER I
THE REGION OF BROOKLYN AT THE TIME OF THE DISCOVERY
Geology and Conformation of Long Island. Evidences of the
Glacial Period. Theory of the Glacial Action. "Back-Bone"
of the Island. Earliest Historical Description. Trees.
Animal Life. Indian Tribes: Their Subjugation by the
Iroquois; Habits and Habitations 1
CHAPTER II
DISCOVERY AND FIRST SETTLEMENTS
Early Voyagers. Henry Hudson. Attitude of Holland and Spain.
Motives of Holland. Hudson's Reports. West India Company.
Dutch on Manhattan Island. The Walloons and the Wallabout.
Derivation of the Name Wallabout. First authentically
recorded Settlements on Long Island. The Van Corlaer
Purchase. Bennett and Bentyn's Purchase. Joris Jansen de
Rapalje. Van Twiller. West India Company's Purchases
on Long Island. East River Lands 16
CHAPTER III
THE INDIANS AND THE EARLY SETTLERS
The Dutch Policy toward the Indians. Puritan and Dutch Policy
contrasted. Long Island Indians: Their Relations with the
Whites. Kieft's Attacks on Pavonia and Corlaer's Hook.
Uprising on Long Island. Overtures for Peace. Mission to
Rockaway of De Vries and Olfertsen. Restoration of Friendly
Relations 42
CHAPTER IV
THE BEGINNINGS OF BREUCKELEN
1643-1647
The Ferry and the Ferry Road. Settlement of Flatlands.
Flatbush. Lady Deborah Moody and the Settlement of
Gravesend. Early Settlements. The Name of Breuckelen.
Henry C. Murphy's Comments. First Schepens and Schout.
Commission from the Colonial Council. The Removal of Kieft.
Arrival of Stuyvesant 53
CHAPTER V
DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE UNDER THE DUTCH
1647-1664
Beginning of Stuyvesant's Administration. Condition of the
Colony. Character of the Early Dutch Houses. Household
Arrangement. Dress. Funerals. Marriages. The Mixture of
Races. Slavery. Religion. Attitude of Stuyvesant toward
Sects other than Dutch Reformed. Triumph of Liberal Ideas.
First Churches in Kings County. Troubles over the Church
Tax. First Schools. The Dutch and Popular Education. End of
Dutch Rule 69
CHAPTER VI
KINGS COUNTY AFTER THE ENGLISH CONQUEST
1665-1700
Assembly at Hempstead. The "Duke's Laws." Lovelace. New York
retaken by the Dutch. Colve becomes Governor. Return of
English Rule under the Treaty of 1674. Dongan and the
Popular Assembly. De Sille. Journal of Dankers and Sluyter.
The Ferry. A Dutch Dinner. The Schoolmaster and the
Constable. William and Mary and the Leisler Revolution.
Sloughter appointed Governor. Execution of Leisler, and
Subsequent Honors of a Public Reinterment. Long Island
receives the name of Nassau. Development of Privateering.
Captain Kidd visits and buries Treasure on Long Island.
Bellomont and the Suppression of Piracy. First Trial for
Treason 106
CHAPTER VII
BROOKLYN BEFORE THE REVOLUTION
1701-1775
Brooklyn becomes the Largest Long Island Settlement.
Division of the Common Lands. Regulations as to the Cutting
of Lumber. The King's Highway laid out. Brooklyn Officials
at the Opening of the Century. Lord Cornbury's Proclamation
to Long Island Justices. Slavery. Encroachments on the
Common Highway. The Trial of Zenger. Population in 1738.
Fortifying Long Island. Newspaper Glimpses of
pre-Revolutionary Life. Ferries. Kings County in the
Assembly and the Provincial Convention. Philip Livingston.
General Town Meeting in Brooklyn 157
CHAPTER VIII
KINGS COUNTY DURING THE REVOLUTION
1775-1783
Kings County at the Opening of the Revolution. Participation
in Events leading to the Crisis. Military Officers. Long
Island Tories. The Continental and Provincial Congresses.
Fortifying. Declaration of Independence. General Greene on
Long Island. Draft in Kings County. Landing of the British
at Gravesend. The Battle of Brooklyn. The Night Retreat.
British Occupation of the County. Temptations to Disloyalty
toward the American Cause, and Action of the People under
British Pressure. The County in Congress. Losses in the
Battle. Incidents. Prisoners billeted on the Inhabitants of
Kings County. Long Island Refugees. Conspicuous Figures of
the Period. Peace 211
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME I
PORTRAIT OF STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER _Frontispiece_
THE FIRST BROOKLYN FERRY _Facing page_ 38
THE FERRY IN 1746 102
BROOKLYN CHURCH AND DUFFIELD HOUSE IN 1776. (Drawn from
Illustrations in Stiles's History of Brooklyn) 174
FIRST FIRE ENGINE USED IN BROOKLYN. (Drawn from
lithographic illustration in Manual of the Common
Council, 1863) 206
BROOKLYN DURING THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR. (From the Map by Gen.
Jeremiah Johnson) 260
STEPHEN M. OSTRANDER
The name of Stephen M. Ostrander has been honored in the city of
Brooklyn as that of a man whose career exemplified a stainless
citizenship. The honors have been not those of public favor offered in a
citizen's lifetime, nor of memorials after he has passed away, but the
monuments of a cherished memory, the recognition of a generous and
wholesome personality.
Stephen M. Ostrander was born February 3, 1832, in the city of Brooklyn.
He was of Dutch stock, his earliest ancestor in this country being
Pieter Ostrander, who came to America in 1659. When Pieter Ostrander
reached America with his wife and three children--a son, Pieter
Pieterszen,[1] and two daughters, Tryutje and Geertje--Peter Stuyvesant
was Governor of New Amsterdam, and the settlement on Manhattan Island
occupied a small patch of land on the southern point of the land now
occupied by the vast metropolis of New York. Settlers had been living on
the Brooklyn side of the East River for a little more than twenty
years, and the Indians were still a formidable obstacle to the peace of
the struggling young communities. Dutch immigration had not yet been
checked by that bloodless conquest of the British, which five years
later transformed New Amsterdam from a Dutch to an English colony, and
changed its name to New York.
We afterward find Pieter Pieterszen living at Kingston. This second
Pieter among the American Ostranders was born at Amsterdam, Holland, in
1650, and before coming to this country with his father had been
enrolled as a cadet in the army of the Dutch king. In 1679 he married
Rebecca, daughter of William Janszen Traphagen and Joostje Willems Van
Northwyck. Among the children from this marriage was Hendrick Ostrander,
born at New Hurley, N. Y., in 1693. Hendrick acquired the ownership of
two thousand acres of land at Plattskill, which were evenly divided
among his ten children. He was "a staunch adherent of the Reformed Dutch
Church,"[2] and served in the army previous to the Revolution. His
marriage to Elizabeth Van Bommel, of Kingston, took place in 1724. His
son Christoffer, born and died at Plattskill, was the father of Stephen
Ostrander, born at Poughkeepsie in 1769, and afterwards of Pompton
Plains and Brunswick, N. J., who was an eloquent minister of the Dutch
Church. An illustration of the conditions prevailing at this period is
offered by the fact that Stephen Ostrander preached in both English and
Dutch.
The clerical Ostrander, who made an interesting reputation as a preacher
in the early part of the present century, married Maria Duryea in 1796.
His son, Abraham Duryea Ostrander, born at Pompton Plains in the
following year, came to New York in his twelfth year, and began an
energetic business career. From his earliest years he was of a studious
tendency, and his self-acquired learning gave him an excellent mental
equipment. He became a ripe scholar and influential citizen. For many
years he led the first Sunday school in the Reformed Dutch Church of
Brooklyn (corner of William and Fulton streets), walking to the
meeting-place from his home at Flatbush. In 1820, he married Margaret T.
Wilson, daughter of Peter Wilson, LL. D., of Columbia College, the tutor
of Charles Anthon and other well-known scholars, and distinguished for
having drawn up the constitution of the State of New Jersey.
Abraham Duryea Ostrander's three sons were Peter Wilson, George A., and
Stephen M. Ostrander. George A. Ostrander, a graduate of Columbia
College and of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, was the first
house surgeon of the Long Island College Hospital. The other two
brothers became lawyers, and it is among the interesting traditions of
the Kings County bar that they were frequently in opposition in the same
case. Under such circumstances their professional steel clashed
brilliantly, but the firm affection between the brothers had no hint of
strife or rivalry.
Stephen M. Ostrander, born 1831, was educated in this city and at
Columbia College. He was admitted to the bar and began the practice of
law while a decidedly young man, but soon made his personality felt in
the life of the city. If his tastes led him to a studious life at home,
his gifts and ambitions drew him into those features of political
activity which demand voice as well as counsel. He championed the
Democratic party, and until the close of his life he spoke his loyalty
in no uncertain tones. He became one of the "war horses" of the party in
campaign times, and was a respected adviser in those political times of
peace when parties prepare for war. He would have made an admirable
public servant, but party conditions did not bring him to the front as a
candidate, though they welcomed his voice on the platform. He wished to
be surrogate, but the nomination he sought was given to Jacob I. Bergen.
He was not an insistent candidate within his party, and the rewards
which might reasonably be considered to have belonged to him had not
been bestowed at the time of his death.
As a lawyer, Mr. Ostrander was conscientious, painstaking, forcible. His
genial personality made him popular wherever he appeared. His strong
figure fitted his character, which was staunch and equable. By
temperament he was inclined to see the whimsical side of things, while
quick to exclude any element of this sort from matters commanding his
serious thought.
Stories concerning him reveal his quick humor. One day a witty but not
especially well-versed Irish lawyer called upon him for assistance in
preparing a case. One point of perplexity with the inquirer was as to
the motive power on the ferries before the use of steam. Knowing
Ostrander's familiarity with early Brooklyn history, the inquiring
lawyer demanded information as to this point. "Before the days of
steam," said Ostrander, "they used to have horse boats." "Horse boats?"
queried the lawyer, with a look of continued perplexity. "Yes." "Did the
horses swim ahead of them?" "No," solemnly returned Ostrander, "they had
four holes cut in the bottom of the boat; the horse's legs passed
through these holes, permitting him to walk on the bottom, and thus
propel the boat." "Good!" said the listener, "I'll win the case." And he
did.
Mr. Ostrander's interest in American history was perhaps a natural
result of his ancestry and his tendencies as a student. He early began
the accumulation of historical material, and finally formed a definite
plan for writing a history of the city of Brooklyn and Kings County. He
was an active member of the Society of Old Brooklynites, frequently
addressing that body, and as a member of the Long Island Historical
Society,--in whose handsome hall, on Pierrepont Street, he was the first
to lecture under the auspices of the society,--he found many
opportunities to further his hobby of historical investigation. He also
entered that fraternity of descendants of Dutch stock, the Holland
Society of New York.
During the later years of his life he was a frequent contributor to the
newspapers and local magazines, generally upon topics directly related
to local history. Debated questions as to historical matters always
interested him, and his pen was ever ready with a casual comment. He was
a good debater, though not pugnacious, and never an ungenerous opponent.
In his profession, in his political associations, in his relations with
his fellow-citizens and with fellow-members of the different societies
to which he was attracted, he was always well poised, highly respected,
uniformly welcomed. His catholic tastes and sympathies gave him many
interests, as they gave him many friends. It was as natural that he
should be prominent in the Presbyterian Church, which he attended, as
that he should be a leading figure in the Masonic fraternity, to which
he was proud to own allegiance. His commanding figure, good voice, and
easy manner made him a popular speaker on social as well as public
occasions.
Mr. Ostrander married Annie A. Hammond on August 7, 1866. His domestic
relations were in keeping with the fine symmetry of his character. No
marriage could have been happier. In the preparation of the historical
work which was incomplete when his short illness closed his life, he had
the loyal appreciation and assistance of his wife.
He died on November 19, 1885. The extent of his practice and income
might have indicated the probability of a considerable fortune, but he
was too open-handed to have become a rich man. He died worth a good
name.
HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
CHAPTER I
THE REGION OF BROOKLYN AT THE TIME OF THE DISCOVERY
Geology and Conformation of Long Island. Evidences of the Glacial
Period. Theory of the Glacial Action. "Back-Bone" of the Island.
Earliest Historical Description. Trees. Animal Life. Indian
Tribes: Their Subjugation by the Iroquois; Habits and
Habitations.
The geology of Long Island has always been regarded as a particularly
interesting theme for those concerned in the study of such matters,
since the examination of its phases brings into view so many and such
various points of speculative interest. Prime in his "History of Long
Island"[3] remarks that "when we consider the retired situation of Long
Island, and how little it has excited the notice of travelers, it is not
surprising that its geological character as well as other peculiarities
should have remained so long unexplored. Until quite recently very few
scientific men have even deigned to give it a passing notice, though the
assertion may be safely hazarded that scarcely any other tract of land
of equal extent on the American Continent furnishes more abundant room
for the _imagination_ of geologists to play upon, or that imposes a
stronger necessity for _conjecturing_ the operation of some tremendous
agency, which in its freaks had invaded the domains of both the land and
the ocean, and after completing its sport had silently retired without
leaving a track to determine its origin or identify its form."
The geologist of the present day does not seem to regard the field as
one calling in the same degree for the exercise of the imagination,
though the more definite knowledge acquired and made familiar since the
time of the publication just quoted has in one sense vastly extended the
opportunity for speculation. Certainly it no longer can be said that
scientific men have neglected the investigation of the subject.
Commenting on the investigations of Dr. Dwight, Prime says:--
"From all these considerations, the inference has been regarded
as legitimate that Long Island was once through its whole extent
attached to the main; and some powerful agency, the form of
which is now left entirely to conjecture, forced the separation
which is now marked by the intervening Sound. One of the most
plausible suppositions is that the separation has been effected
by some resistless torrent of water, which, under peculiar
circumstances that it is impossible now to determine, has swept
out the intervening land, and left its channel to be occupied by
the waters of the ocean."
Thus vaguely were the early speculations set forth. With a well
developed glacial theory to aid him the modern geologist is able to
present a fairly circumstantial picture of probable conditions in the
past. We now know with reasonable certainty that Brooklyn rests on soil
that is a monument to a vast force quite different from any that were
included in the hesitating speculations of the early writers.
In an admirable review of the subject written by Charles M. Skinner we
are presented with a picturesque outline of the glacial theory. We are
reminded that Brooklyn stands on rubble that was rolled down from the
New England mountains to the northward by a glacier larger than the
combined areas of all the glaciers now existing on the earth. How many
thousands of years ago this great glacier began its work we may only
guess within somewhat liberal margins. This continent of ice covered the
whole of the northern part of North America, burying mountains beneath
its bulk and hollowing the beds of the great fresh-water seas that
Chicago and its sister cities front upon to-day, burying, too, for aught
we know, the remains of civilizations, though nothing at present has
been taken out of the glacial drift, except rude stone implements, to
show what the probable condition of man was at that time.
This ice lay so deep that not even Mount Washington barred its advance,
and to-day geologists find the summit of this mountain heaped with
blocks of stone that were dragged from other points and left there when
the ice melted; for glaciers are not stationary, like ice on ponds and
marshes, but have an onward movement toward their point of melting that
varies, with the slope of their beds, from six to thirty-six inches a
day. In Greenland the whole interior is covered with ice thousands of
feet thick, the movement of which is hindered by a wall of mountains
that nearly surrounds that island, but wherever a valley opens a way for
it the ice sends down a tongue to the sea, and from these tongues the
ocean currents break off the icebergs that float down the Atlantic. In
their descent these glaciers act as plows, wearing off so much earth and
rock from the hills that the icebergs are freighted with them, and where
they melt their stony burdens sink to the bottom of the sea, forming the
Grand Banks of Newfoundland.
The ice that buried upper North America acted in the same manner as the
Greenland ice to-day: it eroded the mountains, it sent off bergs, and
the rocks and gravel that it tore from the hills by a pressure of a
thousand tons to the square yard were dropped at its foot, where they
formed a moraine, as it is called. These moraines, which may be seen at
the feet of the glaciers in Switzerland and British Columbia, and that
sometimes make heaps and hills of rock, like rude forts, forty and fifty
feet high, are trifling affairs to the shoals left by the great glacier
of the ice age, for that can be traced from the Atlantic coast nearly to
the Mississippi River. Long Island, measuring approximately 120 miles in
length, is a small part of the dump of this glacier, and it is
sometimes possible to tell where the stones came from that are found on
the surface. For example, there are in Brooklyn anthophyllite from
Westchester county, feldspar and green mica from Fort George, basalt
from the Palisades of the Hudson, and a block of labradorite was found
on Myrtle Avenue that had been carried down from the Adirondacks, three
hundred miles.
The members of the United States geological survey, supported by the New
York and other state surveys, have studied into the course and volume of
the glacier and mapped its moraine from Montauk Point westward nearly
half across the continent. By this survey we learn that the gneiss that
crosses under the East River and approaches the surface at Astoria, is
the only bed rock to be found on Long Island, Brooklyn resting on a
cushion of glacial drift that in some places is three hundred feet deep.
Originally there were cliffs of gneiss edging the Atlantic, but the
great glacier shaved these down to mere ledges. Central Park, New York,
preserves a number of these ledges, rounded off into "sheep backs" and
scratched by the pieces of stone that formed a grinding surface to the
under side of the ice, while every now and then a boulder comes to the
top of the ground in Brooklyn that is scored and almost polished by
rubbing against those ledges. Pieces from that very outcrop in Hell Gate
are found in Brooklyn streets.
We are also reminded in Mr. Skinner's review that manufacturers of
brick, tile, terra cotta, pottery, and porcelain in other states have to
rely in part on the clay beds that environ Brooklyn for their material,
and, in fact, that clay and sand are the only economic mineral products
of Long Island. The explanation of this is that Brooklyn clays are rich
in silica, which is apt to be deficient in the clays of New Jersey.
Without silica the clays are weak, and bricks and utensils made from
them readily crack and crumble; but by mixing properly the best results
are obtained. Excellent sand for glass-making is also found in and near
Brooklyn.
There are many evidences in support of the theory that since the
completion of the great glacier's work the surface of Long Island has
subsided considerably. A recent writer[4] on the geology of Long Island
says:
"The shore at the west end of the island has also undergone
decided changes--even within the memory of persons now living.
Personal witnesses have testified that about the first of this
century Coney Island was composed of high and extensive sand
hills, which have since been flattened down to a low beach,
sometimes covered by the tides. About the same time salt
meadow-grass was annually cut on a part of the beach now far out
into the ocean. We are also informed that cedar-trees were cut
for fence-posts, and other timber for firewood, about 150 years
ago, on land which is now submerged by the ocean a mile and a
half or two miles from the shore. There was also a house
standing upon what was known as Pine Island, the site of which
is now beneath the breakers, at a considerable distance from the
present shore."
Within the range of Kings County a stratum of salt meadow has been found
at a depth of one hundred and twenty feet, and at other points within
the county shells have been found fifty and sixty feet below the
surface. What is generally called the "back-bone of Long Island" is a
ridge of low hills beginning at the western end within the limits of
Kings County and running almost the whole length of the Island. Of the
boulders or erratic blocks found on the Island in this central range of
hills and between them and the north shore, Mr. Bayles writes:--
"The boulders or erratic blocks found upon the Island are mostly
met with on the central range of hills and between them and the
north shore. They are often contained in a stratum which is
interstratified with deposits of sand, clay, and gravel, and is
often exposed along the coast. Some of the blocks, when first
disinterred, exhibit scratches upon one or more of their sides.
Rocks of the same constituent formation are found in Rhode
Island, Connecticut, and along the Hudson River. And those of
the Island, in their variations, correspond so accurately with
the rocks of the localities mentioned that it seems probable
that they came from those localities. For example, the boulders
on the east end are like the granite, gneiss, mica slate,
green-stone, and sienite of Rhode Island and the east part of
Connecticut; opposite New London and the mouth of the
Connecticut River are boulders like the granites, gneiss, and
hornblende rock of those localities; opposite New Haven, are
found the red sandstone and conglomerate, fissile and micaceous
red sandstone, trap conglomerate, compact trap, amygdaloid and
verd antique; opposite Black Rock are the granites, gneiss,
hornblende, quartz, and white lime-stone, like those in
Fairfield County; and from Huntington to Brooklyn, hornblende,
crystalline lime-stone, trap, red sandstone, gneiss, and
granite, are the same in appearance as those found in the
vicinity of the Hudson River."
The earliest historical description of Long Island, in Daniel Denton's
"A Brief Description of New York, formerly called New Amsterdam,"
published in London in 1670, remarks that "the greatest part of the
Island is very full of timber, as Oaks, white and red, Walnut-trees,
Chestnut-trees, which yield stores of Mast, etc." The same record says:
"For wild beast there is Deer, Bear, Wolves, Foxes, Raccoons,
Otters, Musquashes, and Skunks. Wild fowl there is a great store
of, as Turkeys, Heath-hens, Quails, Partridges, Pigeons, Cranes,
Geese of several sorts, Brants, Widgeons, Teal, and divers
others. Upon the south side of Long Island in the winter lie
store of Whales and Grampusses, which the inhabitants begin with
small boats to make a trade, catching to their no small benefit.
Also, an innumerable multitude of seals, which make an excellent
oyle; they lie all the winter upon some broken Marshes and
Beaches or bars of sand before mentioned, and might be easily
got were there some skilful men would undertake it."
Prime (1845) mentions the "remarkable fact in the natural history of
this small territory, that of all the _land-birds_ belonging to the
United States, either as resident or migratory, two thirds of them are
to be found on Long Island; of the _water-birds_ a still larger
proportion."
It is estimated that at the time of its discovery representatives of
thirteen different Indian tribes occupied Long Island. The region of
Kings County was occupied by the Canarsie tribe, which included the
Nyacks at New Utrecht, the Marechawicks at Brooklyn, and the Jamecos at
Jamaica. The headquarters of the tribe was in the vicinity of modern
Canarsie. From the names of the other tribes scattered over the
Island--the Rockaways, Montauks, Merricks, Manhassets, Patchogues,
Shinnecocks, etc.--many of the town and village names of the Island are
drawn. The names Paumanacke and Seawanhacka have been applied both to
the grand sachems elected by all the Indian tribes and to the Island
itself, which has also been given the title of Wamponomon.
The last mentioned name was evidently suggested by the fact that the
chief business of the tribes in this region was the making of _wampum_,
the shell-money of the Indians, and an article of manufacture for
ornamental purposes also. The Island was rich in shells, and these were
ground, polished, pierced for stringing. In the earlier tradings for
land the red men were eager to get _runxes_, a brad awl with which they
pierced the shell. They made various forms of earthenware for domestic
purposes; their war implements were often of admirable workmanship; and
their canoes were of a size and strength demanded by the hazards of the
journeys they undertook upon sea and Sound.
"In regard to their religion," says Prime, "the Long Island
Indians were polytheists and idolaters. Besides the good and the
evil spirit, to each of which they seemed to ascribe supreme
power, they had a god for each of the four corners of the earth,
the four seasons of the year, the others of the elements of
nature, the productions of the earth, the vicissitudes of day
and night, besides a number of domestic deities. The good deity
they called _Cauhlantoowut_, and the evil spirit was named
_Mutcheshesumetook_; to both of which they paid homage and
offered sacrifices. They had small idols or images which, they
supposed, were acquainted with the will of the gods, and made it
known to the _pawwaws_, or priests. These possessed unbounded
influence, from their supposed intercourse with the gods and
knowledge of their will. Their religious festivals were attended
with the most violent gesticulations and horrible yells, as well
as other disorders. They firmly believed in a future state of
existence, in a far distant country to the west, where the brave
and good would enjoy themselves eternally in singing, feasting,
hunting, and dancing; while the coward and traitor, the thief
and liar, would be eternally condemned to servile labor--so much
despised by the Indian--which in its results should be attended
with endless disappointment. The dead were buried in all their
personal attire, and, if warriors, in their arms. The body was
placed in a sitting posture, and after being covered up, a bowl
of _scaump_ (pounded corn) was placed on the grave to support
the occupant on his imagined journey. The period of mourning
continued a full year, the close of which was celebrated with a
feast, accompanied with dancing that continued from the setting
to the rising of the sun. It was a peculiar custom of this
singular people never to mention the names of their departed
friends after their remains were deposited in tombs, and it was
regarded as an insult if repeated by others. Every wigwam in
which death occurred was immediately demolished, and a new one,
if needed, erected in its stead."
The wigwams of the Indians were designed each to accommodate a number
of families, the bark-covered frame being of eighteen to twenty feet in
width, and a length of one hundred and fifty feet or more, as might be
required by the number of the families that were to occupy it. An
opening at the ridge gave escape to the smoke from the family fires.
The Long Island Indians, notwithstanding the strength which might be
presumed to have resulted from their insular position, were under the
rule of the masters on the continent. The tribes to the east yielded to
the New England Pequods. The Canarsies bowed to the majestic despotism
of the Iroquois.[5]
Under the species of "protection" enforced by the Iroquois, the
Canarsies were obliged to pay regular tribute for the privilege of being
unmolested, and much of this tax was doubtless paid in wampum. The
collection of this tax seems at the time of the first white settlements
to have been intrusted to the Mohawks, who were members of the
confederacy. When the tax was due it had to be delivered, or the
debtors were likely to hear from headquarters. Samuel Jones, writing in
1817, says[6] that there is no evidence that the Indians on Long Island,
eastward of about thirty miles from New York, were tributary to the Five
Nations; and adds that "we have no reason to believe that the Five
Nations had any war with the Indians on Long Island after it was settled
by Europeans." Furman[7] regards this statement as extraordinary, and
offers evidence of the fact that farmers coming to New York city in the
fall of the year from the east end of Long Island, during the early
period of settlement, brought with them quantities of wampum to be
forwarded as tribute to the Iroquois masters at Albany. It has
frequently been claimed by historical writers that the consistory of the
Dutch Church at Albany were for many years the agents for the receipt of
tribute from the Montauks and other Indians on the eastern end of Long
Island, which, if a fact, was, as we shall see, entirely consistent with
the conservative attitude of the Dutch pioneers.
CHAPTER II
DISCOVERY AND FIRST SETTLEMENTS
Early Voyagers. Henry Hudson. Attitude of Holland and Spain.
Motives of Holland. Hudson's Reports. West India Company. Dutch
on Manhattan Island. The Walloons and the Wallabout. Derivation
of the Name Wallabout. First authentically recorded Settlements
on Long Island. The Van Corlaer Purchase. Bennett and Bentyn's
Purchase. Joris Jansen de Rapalje. Van Twiller. West India
Company's Purchases on Long Island. East River Lands.
It is possible that in the voyages of the Cabots, Long Island was
sighted if not touched; and the voyage of Esteben Gomez in 1524, "to
find a way to Cathay," may leave the same possibility. There is every
probability that the Spaniard, Giovanni da Verrazano, who in 1524 made a
voyage to this country in the interest of France,--the first official
French exploration in this direction,--entered New York harbor. From the
account of this mariner it appears likely that he skirted the coast of
Long Island, saw Block Island, giving to it the name of Louisa, mother
of Francis I., and anchored in the harbor of Newport. Those who care to
speculate as to possible visitors early in the sixteenth century, may
take account also of the voyage of Lucas Vasquez de Aillon and Matienzo,
made in 1526.
That one at least of the early Spanish voyagers, all of whom were
looking for a passage to India, had seen the region of the coast on
which Long Island lies, is indicated by the presence in England of a map
which was in existence before Henry Hudson made his first voyage. In
this map the name Rio de San Antonio is given to the river afterward
named after Hudson.
This being the case it is not to be considered as certain, if it is to
be considered as likely, that Henry Hudson really sailed across the
Atlantic with any idea of finding either a northwest passage to India,
or in hope of finding somewhere under 40° north latitude any passage to
the western ocean.
Why Henry Hudson should formally have pretended to seek such a passage
will appear from a glance at the political situation at the time of his
voyage.
When Hudson left Europe, Holland and Spain were at swords' points.
Carlyle has pithily summed up the case: "Those Dutch are a stirring
people. They raised their land out of a marsh, and went on for a long
period of time herding cows and making cheese, and might have gone on
with their cows and cheese till doomsday. But Spain comes and says, 'We
want you to believe in St. Ignatius.' 'Very sorry,' replied the Dutch,
'but we can't.' 'God! but you _must_,' says Spain; and they went about
with guns and swords to make the Dutch believe in St. Ignatius. Never
made them believe in him, but did succeed in breaking their own
vertebral column forever, and raising the Dutch into a great nation."
The Dutch were well acquainted with the work of the Spanish explorers,
and the idea of contesting with Spain for a share in the profits and
advantages of transatlantic discovery grew out of the war with Spain. At
this time international law gave to a sovereign any new land discovered
in his name, and not already laid hold upon by any Christian prince. If
Holland was to fight Spain in America it would be useful to have at
least the shadow of a tenable international claim; and so Hudson ignored
the earlier Spanish voyages in assuming to discover the river to which
his name was given, and the land thereabouts which the Dutch, with
beautiful political audacity, first claimed to own by right of
discovery, and afterward claimed to own through Spain as "first
discoverer and founder of that New World."
The first proposition to make a Dutch expedition to America came from an
Englishman, a sea captain named Beets. The States-General refused this
offer, but jealousy of Spain's resources in the New World kept alive the
ambitions of the Dutch and finally resulted in the formation of the West
India Company.
The theory of this company was both commercial and political. The scheme
was first broached by an exiled Antwerp merchant, William Usselinx, in
1592. Before it came to completion a Greenland Company came into
existence, and, while feigning to hunt up a northwest passage, its ships
are said to have sailed into the North River, and to have landed on
these shores in 1598. It was not until 1606 that Usselinx's ideas were
formulated in a working plan. The company might then have been fully
formed had not talk of a peace with Spain made it politically unwise to
risk the adventure.
When in 1609 Henry Hudson, the English sailor, who already had made
several voyages across the Atlantic, offered his services to the West
India Company, it was ostensibly to seek a passage to India. The
Amsterdam chamber of the company fitted out Hudson in the "Half Moon,"
which sailed out of the Texel on April 4, 1609.
Whatever may have been Hudson's intentions as to any search for a
northwest passage, he abandoned such a search in favor of one for a more
southerly passage, having, it is said, been told by Captain John Smith
"that there was a sea leading into the Western Ocean by the north of
Virginia."
After landing at Newfoundland, at Penobscot Bay, and at Cape Cod, Hudson
found Delaware Bay; but a week later, realizing that he was too far
south, he steered the Half Moon into the "Great North River of New
Netherland." It is the tradition that during the exploration of the
great bay and river a boat's crew from the Half Moon made its first
landing on Long Island, at the sandy shore of Coney Island; but there
might seem to be a likelihood that a landing would be made further to
the north.
The Long Island Indians whom Hudson met were representatives of the
Canarsie tribe. These Indians visited the Half Moon without fear, and
gladly welcomed the strangers, doubtless looking upon them with much
awe. Hudson says "they brought with them green tobacco to exchange for
knives and other implements. They were clad in deerskins and expressed a
wish to obtain a supply of European clothing." Some of them were decked
in gay feathers and others in furs. Hudson refers to the stock of maize
or Indian corn, "whereof they make good bread." It thus would appear
that the Island had a good reputation two hundred and seventy years ago
for corn, which it still maintains. They also had a good supply of hemp
which they offered in trade, and must have understood its manufacture in
a rude way.[8]
Hudson remarks, "that upon landing he saw a great store of men, women,
and children, who gave them tobacco." In his account he describes the
country "as being full of great tall oaks." He says "the lands were as
pleasant with grass and flowers and goodly trees as ever they had seen,
and very sweet smells came from them."
The pleasant relations between Hudson and the Indians did not continue
very long. Hudson does not state how the difficulty arose, but one of
his men was killed with an arrow and two others wounded. The
unfortunate man was buried on the point of Coney Island, which Hudson
named Colman's Point, in honor of the dead seaman.
Hudson remained for a month, pursuing his explorations of the river
which has since carried his name, and then set sail for Holland. The
news which the explorer brought home was of a sort to arouse the
interest of the Dutch people.
Hudson told of a rich region alive with fur-bearing animals,--an
important circumstance to speculators in a cold country like that of
Holland, where the question of warm clothing was always to the fore. The
immediate result of Hudson's reports was the launching of many private
ventures and an urgent movement to complete the organization of the West
India Company. It was not until 1621 that the States-General at last
signed the charter, and meanwhile traders had established themselves on
Manhattan Island.
Although the English in Virginia were beginning to express their
theories of claim to the Hudson region, the West India Company went into
possession in 1623, sending as director, Adrien Jorissen Tienpont, who
made stronger the fortification at Manhattan Island, and built a new
fortification near that placed by the advance guard of Dutch traders (in
1618) near Albany. This post was called Fort Orange.
Tienpont was succeeded in 1626 by Peter Minuit, who was not long in
making a bargain with the Indians for the whole of Manhattan Island. The
price paid was about twenty-four dollars.
In making this significant purchase Minuit and those whom he represented
had in mind to make the Manhattan Island settlement the principal centre
of trade and colonization, if anything like colonization may be said to
have occupied the attention of the Dutch at the time. There was, indeed,
a passage in the charter of 1621, by which the company was required "to
advance the peopling of these fruitful and unsettled parts," but actual
colonization was not a matter of much thought until the later exigencies
of trade made the subject important. Followed as it was by the
organization under a charter of a council with supreme executive,
legislative, and judicial authority, the movement under Minuit is to be
regarded as the foundation of the present state of New York.
It was shortly before the appointment of Minuit as Director of New
Netherland that a number of Walloons applied to Sir Dudley Carleton,
principal Secretary of State to King Charles I., for permission to
settle in Virginia.
"These Walloons," says Brodhead, "whose name was derived from
their original 'Waalsche' or French extraction, had passed
through the fire of persecution. They inhabited the southern
Belgic provinces of Hainault, Namur, Luxemburg, Limburg, and
part of the ancient bishopric of Liège, and spoke the old French
language. When the northern provinces of the Netherlands formed
their political union at Utrecht, in 1579, the southern
provinces, which were generally attached to the Romish Church,
declined joining the confederation. Many of their inhabitants,
nevertheless, professed the principles of the Reformation.
Against these Protestant Walloons the Spanish government
exercised the most rigid measures of inquisitorial vengeance,
and the subjects of an unrelenting persecution emigrated by
thousands into Holland, where they knew that strangers of every
race and creed were sure of an asylum and a welcome. Carrying
with them a knowledge of the arts, in which they were great
proficients, they were distinguished in their new home for their
tasteful and persevering industry. To the Walloons the Dutch
were probably indebted for much of the repute which they gained
as a nation in many branches of manufactures. Finding in Holland
a free scope for their religious opinions, the Walloons soon
introduced the public use of their church service, which to this
day bears witness to the characteristic toleration and
liberality of the Fatherland."
The Virginia company, whether for want of cordiality or other reason,
did not attract the colonizing ardor of the Walloons, who turned to New
Netherland, and a party of them came over with Minuit.
The lands first allotted to the Walloons were on Staten Island. It is
possible that this situation seemed to the French exiles too remote from
the protection of the Manhattan Island fort. However they may have been
influenced, certain of the new-comers chose rather to settle at Fort
Orange and others at that bend in the East River which has since been
known as the Wallabout.
Various explanations of the name Wallabout have been offered. That of a
derivation from _wahlebocht_, bay of the foreigners, has been favorably
received; but Stiles[9] quotes Samuel Alofsen [from the "Literary
World," No. 68, May 20, 1848] as maintaining that the locality was named
by the early Dutch settlers prior to the arrival of the Walloons; that
the name is derived from _een waal_, basin of a harbor or inner harbor,
and _een bogt_, a bend, and that, like its European namesake in the city
of Amsterdam, it signifies "The Bend of the Inner Harbor."
Notwithstanding the indications which several writers have assumed to
find of settlement at the Wallabout during or shortly after the year
1623, there is an absence of definite evidence of any actual settlement
at any date so early, and probabilities are entirely against a
settlement at that time so far from the fort. There were early
hunting-lodges and temporary trading-houses incidental to the shooting
and trading trips of those occupying the Manhattan Island settlement,
and there is the possibility that unrecorded residence by the Walloons
or others may have been established at the Wallabout before the recorded
grants. But for definite evidence of a first settlement in the shape of
an authoritative taking of land we must turn to the purchase by Jacob
Van Corlaer in 1636.
Van Corlaer was an official under the administration of the new
Director of New Amsterdam, Van Twiller. The Director himself, who had
been a clerk in the West India Company's office, had great eagerness for
acquiring territory. He bought from the Indians a part of Connecticut,
and planted near the present site of Hartford a fort, which he could not
but understand would be a thorn in the side of the English. Not only did
he freely spend the government's money in buying land and strengthening
fortifications on a most ambitious plan, but he granted to himself and
favored officials associated with him choice pieces of land on Manhattan
Island, and across the river on Long Island. The year following the Van
Corlaer grant, Van Twiller's conduct, which all but ruined the company,
resulted in his recall, and the appointment of William Kieft as his
successor.
At this time the settlement on Manhattan Island occupied only a very
small region below the present Battery Place. Its main feature was the
fort, whose protecting presence was one of the inducements which the
Company extended to colonists. A decree issued in 1629 declared that any
member of the West India Company who, under certain easy conditions,
should form a settlement of not less than fifty persons, none of whom
should be under fifteen years of age, should be granted a tract of land
fronting sixteen miles upon the sea or upon any navigable river (or
eight miles when both shores of the river were occupied), and extending
thence inland indefinitely; and that the _patroons_ to whom such grants
of land should be made should exercise manorial rights over their
estates.
The provisions were sufficiently liberal to assure the making of many
minor settlements, and it was natural that many eyes should be turned
toward the softly undulating country on the southeast of the East River.
The official land-grabbing under Van Twiller retarded rather than
advanced colonization. Indeed, the company scarcely fulfilled the
obligations of the charter in sending colonists to the new region.
The grant to Van Corlaer appears as a purchase from the Indians of a
"flat" of land called "Casteteeuw, on Sewan-hackey, or Long Island." The
same date is given to grants to Andries Hudde and Wolfert Gerritsen of
flats to the west of Van Corlaer's, Van Twiller himself getting the
desirable land to the east.
These purchases, amounting to 15,000 acres, were in a level region,
reported already to have been cultivated to some extent by the Indians,
and appealing to men brought up in a flat country, and unaccustomed to
wood-clearing, as superior to the regions having a heavy tree growth.
Plows were soon at work, and from the settlement thus begun grew the
village of "New Amersfoort," now the town of Flatlands.
In the same year (1636) the Indians sold to William Adriaense Bennett
and Jacques Bentyn a tract of 930 acres at Gowanus, a region so named by
the Indians. The tract extended from the vicinity of Twenty-eighth
Street, along Gowanus Cove and the bay, to the New Utrecht line. The
transaction is described in the following record:--
"On this 4th day of April (English style), 1677, appeared before
me Michil Hainelle, acknowledged as duly installed Clerk and
Secretary, certain persons, to wit: Zeuw Kamingh, otherwise
known in his walks (or travels) as Kaus Hansen, and Keurom, both
Indians, who, in presence of the undersigned witnesses, deposed
and declared, that the limits or widest bounds of the land of
Mr. Paulus Vanderbeeck, in the rear, has been or is a certain
tree or stump on the Long Hill, on the one side, and on the
other the end of the Indian foot-path, and that it extends to
the creek of the third meadows, which land and ground, they
further depose and declare, previous to the present time, was
sold by a certain Indian, known as Chief or Sachem Ka, to
Jacques Bentyn and William Adriaense (Bennett), the latter
formerly the husband of Marie Thomas, now the wife of Mr. Paulus
Vanderbeeck; which account they both maintain to be the truth,
and truly set forth in this deposition.
"In witness of the truth is the original of this with the said
Indians' own hands subscribed, to wit: By Zeuw Kamingh or Kaus
Hansen, with this mark ( ) and by Keurom with this mark ( ) in
the presence of Lambert Dorlant, who by request signed his name
hereto as a witness. Took place at Brookland on the day and date
above written.
"Compared with the original and attested to be correct.
"Michil Hainelle, _Clerk_."
Three years afterward Bentyn sold to Bennett all or nearly all of his
share of the land acquired in this early sale.
The purchase by Bentyn and Bennett is to be regarded as the first
exchange of property looking to a settlement within the limits of the
present city of Brooklyn. It was in the following year that a second
purchase was made by Joris Jansen de Rapalje, who was one of the
Walloon emigrants who came over with Minuit in 1623. Rapalje's first
residence after reaching this country was at Fort Orange (Albany). In
1626 he removed to New Amsterdam. In June, 1637, he bought a tract
adjoining the Rennegackonk, a little Long Island stream entering the
East River at "the bend of Marechkawieck," at the Wahlebocht or the
present Wallabout. There were about 335 acres in the purchase, part of
the land now being represented by the grounds of the Marine Hospital.
At this time Rapalje lived on the north side of the river road, now
Pearl Street, and on the south side of the fort. Writing of this period
Thomas A. Janvier says:--
"Actually, only two roads were established when the town of New
Amsterdam was founded, and these so obviously were necessary
that, practically, they established themselves. One of them, on
the line of the present Stone and Pearl Streets,--the latter
then the waterfront,--led from the Fort to the Brooklyn Ferry at
about the present Peck Slip. The other, on the line of the
present Broadway, led northward from the Fort, past farms and
gardens falling away toward the North River, as far as the
present Park Row; and along the line of that street, and of
Chatham Street, and of the Bowery, went on into the wilderness.
After the Palisade was erected, this road was known as far as
the city gate (at Wall Street) as the Heere Straat, or High
Street; and beyond the wall as the Heere Wegh--for more than a
century the only highway that traversed the Island from end to
end."
Rapalje followed the example of the colonists in general in snuggling
close to the Fort. The writer just quoted remarks:--
"Upon the town rested continually the dread of an Indian
assault. At any moment the hot-headed act of some angry colonist
might easily bring on a war. In the early autumn of 1655, when
peaches were ripe, an assault actually was made: being a
vengeance against the whites because Hendrick Van Dyke had shot
to death an Indian woman whom he found stealing peaches in his
orchard (lying just south of the present Rector Street) on the
North River shore. Fortunately, warning came to the townsfolk,
and, crowding their women and children into the Fort, they were
able to beat off the savages; whereupon the savages, being the
more eager for revenge, fell upon the settlements about Pavonia
and on Staten Island: where the price paid for Hendrick Van
Dyke's peaches was the wasting of twenty-eight farms, the
bearing away of one hundred and fifty Christians into
captivity, and one hundred Christians outright slain."
During a part of the time that he lived in New Amsterdam Rapalje was an
innkeeper. He appears to have been a man of the people, for in August,
1641, he was one of twelve men to represent Manhattan, Breuckelen, and
Pavonia in considering measures necessary in dealing with the Indians.
It was at about 1654 that he began living at the Wallabout. Certainly he
lived on Long Island in 1655, for in that year he began serving as a
magistrate in Breuckelen.
It once was customary to assert that Rapalje's daughter Sarah was the
first white child born on Long Island. The fact is that Sarah Rapalje
was born during the residence of her parents at Fort Orange. The error
arose from the supposition that Rapalje settled at the Wallabout upon
his arrival in this country in 1623. Of Sarah Rapalje, who may probably
be said to have been the first white female child born in the New
Netherland Colony, one of her descendants, the author of the History of
the Bergen Family, says:
"The early historians of this State and locality, led astray by
a petition presented by her, April 4th, 1656, (when she resided
at the Walle-boght,) to the Governor and Council, for some
meadows, in which she states that she is the 'first-born
Christian child in New Netherlands,' assert that she was born at
the Walle-boght. Judge Benson, in his writings, even ventures to
describe the house where this took place. He says: 'On the point
of land formed by the cove in Brooklyn, known as the
Walle-boght, lying on its westerly side (it should have been
_easterly_), was built the first house on Long Island, and
inhabited by Joris Jansen de Rapalje, one of the first white
settlers on the Island, and in which was born Sarah Rapalje, the
first white child of European parentage born in the State.' In
this, if there is any truth in the depositions of Catalyn or
Catalyntie Trico (daughter of Jeremiah Trico of Paris), Sarah's
mother, ... they are clearly mistaken. According to these
depositions, she and her husband, Joris Jansen de Rapalje, came
to this country in 1623; settled at Fort Orange, now Albany;
lived there three years; came, in 1626, to New Amsterdam, 'where
she lived afterward for many years; and then came to Long
Island, where she now (1688) lives.' Sarah, therefore, was
undoubtedly born at Albany, instead of the Walle-boght, and was
probably married before she removed to Long Island, there being
no reason to suppose that she resided there when a single woman
without her husband."
The family record gives the time of her marriage as between her
fourteenth and fifteenth year. Mr. Stiles remarks:
"While, therefore, Albany claims the honor of being her
birthplace, and New Amsterdam of having seen her childhood,
Brooklyn surely received most profit from her; for here in the
Wallabout, she was twice married, and gave birth to fourteen
children, from whom are descended the Polhemuses, the Bergens,
the Bogarts, and many other of the most notable families of
Kings County."
At the time of Rapalje's purchase at the Wallabout it began to appear to
the land speculators that Long Island was a desirable field. The
Director[10] himself made haste to secure the island called "Pagganck,"
lying close to the Long Island shore south of Fort Amsterdam. The island
was thickly covered with nut-trees, which brought it the title of
"Nooten" or Nutten Island. In due time this became known as "the
Governor's island," and this name has become permanent.
Van Twiller's successor was not less appreciative of the value of land
on Long Island, but his purchases seem to have been made in the interest
of the company. In August, 1638, he bought for the West India Company
land adjoining Rapalje's farm and extending between Rennegackonck Creek
(at the Wallabout) to Newtown Creek, and inland to "the Swamps of
Mespaetches" (Maspeth).
This important sale to Kieft, representing approximately the area of the
present Eastern District of Brooklyn, was made by "Kakapoteyuo,
Manquenw, and Suwvian, Chiefs of Keskaechquerem," who received "eight
fathoms of duffels, eight fathoms of wampum, twelve kettles, eight
adzes, and eight axes, with some knives, beads, and awl blades."
By other purchases, at Jersey City and elsewhere, the West India Company
sought to extend its dominions and increase the population of the
colony. The States-General gave some attention to the colony, and by a
proclamation in September, 1638, the Amsterdam Chamber threw open New
Netherland to trade by all inhabitants of the United Provinces and of
friendly nations, "in the company's ships," with an import duty of
fifteen per cent., and an export duty of ten per cent. Every immigrant
was to receive from the Director and Council "according to his
condition and means, with as much land as he and his family can properly
cultivate," the company reserving a quit-rent of a tenth. To these
inducements was added that of free passage over the Atlantic.
The favorable result of these offers soon appeared in the increased rate
of immigration and in demand for land. The Director and Council soon
found it to be desirable to buy more Long Island land, which they did in
January, 1639. By this purchase the company secured the tract extending
from Rockaway eastward to "Sicktew-hackey," or Fire Island Bay; thence
northward to Martin Gerritsen's, or Cow Bay, and westward along the East
River to "Vlaack's Kill"--in other words nearly all the land comprised
in the present County of Queens.
In August of the same year (1639) Antony Jansen van Vaas of Saleé
received two hundred acres resting within the present towns of New
Utrecht and Gravesend. In November a patent was granted for "a tobacco
plantation" on the beach, "hard by Saphorakan" (presumably at Gowanus)
adjoining the land of Bennett. Another neighbor to Bennett came in the
person of Frederick Lubbertsen, who, in May of the following year
(1640), received a patent for land extending northerly from Gowanus
Cove, and representing a large part of what is now known as South
Brooklyn.
Lubbertsen, who had been chief boatswain to Kieft in 1638, was an
ambitious and politically disposed man. Two years after this big
purchase he was one of twelve men chosen by the commonalty of New
Amsterdam. He did not remove to Long Island until 1653, in which year he
was chosen to represent the young town of Breuckelen at the New
Amsterdam convention. He became a local magistrate in 1653, served
several terms thereafter, and filled other political posts.
[Illustration: THE FIRST BROOKLYN FERRY]
As the lands of western Long Island represented by the present area of
Kings County began to increase in value by increase of settlement and
competition in purchase, persons who had merely availed themselves of
"squatter" privileges began to see the advisability of taking out formal
patents. There had been particularly numerous instances of "squatting"
in the region of the Eastern District in a radius from the Wallabout
inlet. Among the patents issued in 1640 was one to Abraham Rycken, for a
plantation of considerable extent in this region, and in 1641 a piece
of land on the East River legally passed into the possession of
Lambert Huybertsen.
Adjoining the land of Joris Rapalje at the Wallabout was an extensive
piece of farm land occupied by Rapalje's son-in-law, Hans Hansen Bergen.
On Wallabout Bay lay the tobacco plantations of Jan and Peter Montfort,
Peter Cæsar, and other farmers. Between the Bay and the East River end
of the Lubbertsen purchase came the land sold to Claes Jansen van
Naerden (Ruyter), Jan Mauje, and Andries Hudde, all of which was
afterward sold to Dirck Janse Waertman, who held it until the sale to
his son-in-law, Joris Remsen, in 1706.
Meanwhile (in 1640) the first permanent English settlement on eastern
Long Island had been made by Lyon Gardiner on the island which afterward
received his name. This settlement, and others which followed it, were
distasteful to the West India Company, which, having secured control of
the entire western end of the Island, from Cow Bay on the Sound to
Canarsie Bay on the ocean side, began to regard itself as entitled to
claim jurisdiction over the entire area. When in 1641 emigrants from
Lynn, Mass., undertook to settle at Schout's Bay, within Queens County,
they were driven off by soldiers who had been sent out by Kieft for the
purpose.
The English colonists did not leave the Island, but settled at
Southampton, in Suffolk County. The fact that other New England
settlers, who planted Southold, were not attacked seems to show either
that Kieft scarcely regarded the territory beyond the Queens County line
as worth fighting for at this time, or that he came to regard the
new-comers as accepting his authority.
The settlement at Southold by emigrants from New Haven was indicative of
conditions within New England to which later settlements on Long Island
may be attributed. The extreme severity of the Puritan religious temper
found expression in distressing exactions and persecutions. Driven from
England by intolerance, the Puritans, when placed in control of social
and political conditions, exhibited a degree of paternalism not less
despotic than that from which they themselves had suffered. And as the
Puritans of England had found shelter and liberty in Holland, the
victims of Puritanical intolerance in America fled to the friendly
support of Dutch authority within the New Netherland jurisdiction.
In fact, shortly after 1640 the Dutch government granted favoring
patents to emigrants from New England. The Rev. John Doughty and his
followers were welcomed at Maspeth, and provision for other comers
(among them Anne Hutchinson and her family) was made at Throg's Neck and
New Rochelle.
CHAPTER III
THE INDIANS AND THE EARLY SETTLERS
The Dutch Policy toward the Indians. Puritan and Dutch Policy
Contrasted. Long Island Indians: Their Relations with the
Whites. Kieft's Attacks on Pavonia and Corlaer's Hook. Uprising
on Long Island. Overtures for Peace. Mission to Rockaway of De
Vries and Olfertsen. Restoration of Friendly Relations.
These numerous settlements had not been accomplished without the
encountering of Indian difficulties. In general the Dutch policy toward
the Indians was business-like and reasonable, contrasting favorably with
policies prevailing elsewhere among American new-comers. The Dutch were
not so social as the French, but their attitude was more fraternal than
that usually observed among the English colonists. Douglass Campbell,
who is to be regarded as a strong partisan of the Dutch as opposed to
the Puritan system, but whose exhaustive studies both of the Puritan and
of the Dutch people gave him an unusual grasp of the situation, thus
contrasts the policy of the two peoples:--
"Why the Puritans were involved in ceaseless wars can be read in every
line of their history. As they could not make of the Indian a red
Puritan, he was a spiritual outcast, whom it was their duty to
exterminate. Three years after the landing of the Mayflower Miles
Standish and seven of his companions murdered three native chiefs in
cold blood. It was this event which led the devout John Robinson to say,
'How happy a thing it would have been if you had converted some before
you killed any.' In 1637 the white settlers of Connecticut put a red
captive to death by dragging him limb from limb by ropes fastened to his
arms and legs. Bancroft tells us that the Puritans bought the Indians'
land, except that of the Pequots. Look at their laws and see. In 1633
Massachusetts passed a statute in relation to land titles. It confirmed
to the Indians the little patches around their wigwams on which they
raised their corn, but declared that the rest belonged to the whites on
the authority of the first chapter of Genesis 'and the invitation of the
Indians.' But murder and robbery of their land all pale before the
crowning infamy which drove the red man to despair. Above all things he
prized personal liberty; slavery to him was a thousand fold worse than
death. And yet to this fate the settlers consigned thousands of the
natives, sending them to the West Indies to work on the sugar
plantations. Among these victims was the little grandson of the good
king Massasoit, who had welcomed the Pilgrims and been their life-long
friend. Look at the records of Massachusetts, and there you will find
statute after statute offering bounties for Indian scalps, the prices
fixed being from twenty-five to one hundred pounds for males, from
twenty to sixty for women, and from ten to twenty for children under ten
years of age. These same statutes provided that females and children
taken prisoners should belong to the captors, 'to be sold out of the
province.' I mention these facts in no invidious spirit, but in justice
to the red man, who has been called treacherous and cruel. He resented
such conduct; and can you wonder at it? He had no redress except by
arms, and he has written the story of his vengeance all over the face of
New England. What could the Indians think of the gospel of Jesus Christ
and the white man's God? What was true of the New England colonies was
true of the southern colonies as well. The course pursued by Penn can
hardly be taken as a criterion, for he dealt with the Delaware Indians,
who had been conquered by the Iroquois, deprived of the use of arms, and
forced to accept the opprobrious epithet of 'women;' and Penn, in
purchasing their lands, only followed out the example which had been set
by the Dutch.
"Turn now to New York, and see what the Indian was under different
conditions. The upper Hudson and the valley of the Mohawk were first
settled by the Dutch. They simply treated the Indian as a man. Tolerant
in religion, they respected his rude faith; truthful among themselves,
to him they never broke their word; honest in all their dealings with
him, they kept good faith. They suffered from no thefts, because they
took nothing except by purchase. Their land titles were respected,
because for every tract they had an Indian deed. They were scourged by
no massacres, save from the enemy across the border, because they
committed no robbery or murder. This was the whole secret of their
policy. It is easy to belittle it, as historians have done, by saying
that upon no other conditions could they have lived among the natives.
Of course it was politic, but the world has discovered that honesty is
the best policy, without concluding that it is any the less a Christian
virtue. These early settlers in New York were traders, offshoots from
what was the greatest commercial nation of the world. They made no
pretense of doing missionary work. They were simply in pursuit of gain.
But they had learned that the only permanent success in life rests on
honesty and justice. This is the lesson that commerce teaches, and
because it does so it has been the civilizer of the world. After the
English conquest in 1664 the same policy was continued, thanks to the
presence of the Dutch, who still formed the majority of the population.
The Six Nations then placed their lands under protection of the crown
and were recognized as appendant to New York. The burden thus cast upon
the province was very heavy. For more than a century New York kept their
alliance by heavy subsidies and by contributions of men and money for
their defense against the French."[11]
The Indian policy of the Dutch has, indeed, been credited with a most
important influence upon American history. But sagacious as it may have
been as a broad plan of action, there was no way of obviating the
difficulties arising from local and individual blunders. Considering the
number of special provocations to revolt, it is remarkable that Indian
troubles were not more frequent and more serious, and that the storm did
not break sooner and more fiercely than it did. Prime remarks that the
conduct of the Long Island Indians toward the whites is "without a
parallel in the history of the country."
"The Indians on Long Island," says Silas Wood, "seem to have been less
troublesome to the whites than those north of the Sound.... [They]
sometimes committed depredations on the property of the whites.... It
does not appear that they ever formed any combination against the
first settlers, or materially interrupted the progress of their
improvements.... The security of the whites must be ascribed to the
means they employed to preserve peace with the Indians."
When the storm of Indian anger and revenge broke over New England in
1643, New Netherland did not escape a similar if not equally terrible
visitation. If the settlers in New Amsterdam began to experience
anxiety, something like a panic seized upon the settlers of outlying
regions. The Long Island settlers were perhaps less ill at ease than
others at an equal distance from the Fort, so friendly had been their
relations with the Indians; but individual offenses of the settlers and
individual offenses by the Indians produced a strained relation in
certain quarters, and when the excuse came the hot-heads among the Long
Island settlers made trouble.
At New Amsterdam the trouble began when the Mohawks descended upon the
river tribes in retaliation for local offenses, and the river Indians
flocked to the vicinity of the Fort for protection. At "Corlaer's
Bouwery," on Manhattan Island, a group of Long Island Indians, under the
chief, Nainde Nummerius, had encamped. An ill-advised appeal to Kieft
resulted in an impulsive decision on the part of the Governor, who, in
spite of wiser counsel, sent out two secret expeditions on the night of
February 25, 1643, one against the refugees at Pavonia, the other
against the encampment at Corlaer's Hook. The attacks were merciless.
Eighty Indians were slaughtered at Pavonia, and forty at the Hook.
This unfortunate blunder resulted in acts which still further excited
the anger of the Indians. Long Island settlers asked Kieft for
permission to attack the Marechawieck tribe; but Kieft, possibly because
he had already begun to realize the influence of the outrage he had
committed, denied permission on the ground that the Long Island red men
had given no sufficient cause for offensive action. Nevertheless, the
Governor did not deny to the Long Island settlers any retaliatory steps
that might at any time seem necessary. Shortly after this communication,
two wagon-loads of corn in charge of a party of Indians were seized, and
when the Indians resisted the act of plundering, three of them were
killed.
If the massacre on Manhattan Island had caused among the Long Island
Indians a general resentment against the white men, the murders on the
Island itself made their hostility specific and local; and it is not
surprising that many of the Long Island tribes joined hands with the
river Indians. The tragedies which followed belong to the annals of a
"year of blood."
Terror seized the Long Island settlers in common with all outlying
colonists, many of whom lost no time in seeking the shelter of the Fort.
Kieft was bewildered by the consequences of his act. Realizing that the
chief offenses had been against Long Island tribes, he sent to these a
propitiatory message, which was met by shouts of "corn thieves!" by the
Indians. Those settlers who held their posts on Long Island were forced
to adopt measures of fortifying their homes, which they did after the
methods of inclosure peculiar to the time, and to preserve the utmost
vigilance to save their lives. From a number of families women and
children were sent to the Fort, the men remaining to guard the property.
The advent of spring, bringing to the home-staying Indians of this
region, as well as to the white men, the necessity for planting corn,
suggested an effort toward permanent peace. Brodhead's narrative says:--
"Three delegates from the wigwam of Penhawity, their 'great
chief,' approached Fort Amsterdam, bearing a white flag. 'Who
will go to meet them?' demanded Kieft. None were willing but De
Vries and Jacob Olfertsen. 'Our chief has sent us,' said the
savages, 'to know why you have killed his people, who have never
laid a straw in your way, when none has done you aught but good?
Come and speak to our chief upon the sea-coast,' Setting out
with the Indian messengers, De Vries and Olfertsen, in the
evening, came to 'Rechquaaike,' or Rockaway, where they found
about three hundred savages and about thirty wigwams. The chief,
'who had but one eye,' invited them to pass the night in his
cabin, and regaled them with oysters and fish. At break of day
the envoys from Manhattan were conducted into the woods about
four hundred yards off, where they found sixteen chiefs of Long
Island waiting for their coming. Placing the two Europeans in
the centre, the chiefs seated themselves around in a ring, and
their 'best speaker' arose, holding in his hand a bundle of
small sticks. 'When you first came to our coasts,' slowly began
the orator, 'you sometimes had no food; we gave you our beans
and corn, and relieved you with our oysters and fish; and now,
for recompense, you murder our people;' and he laid down a
little stick. 'In the beginning of your voyages, you left your
people here with their goods; we traded with them while your
ships were away, and cherished them as the apple of our eye; we
gave them our daughters for companions, who have borne children,
and many Indians have sprung from the Swannekens; and now you
villainously massacre your own blood.' The chief laid down
another stick; many more remained in his hand; but De Vries,
cutting short the reproachful catalogue, invited the chiefs to
accompany him to Fort Amsterdam, where the Director 'would give
them presents to make a peace.'
"The chiefs, assenting, ended their orations, and presenting De
Vries and his colleague each with ten fathoms of wampum, the
party set out for their canoes, to shorten the return of the
Dutch envoys. While waiting for the tide to rise, an armed
Indian, who had been dispatched by a sachem twenty miles off,
came running to warn the chiefs against going to Manhattan. 'Are
you all crazy, to go to the Fort,' said he, 'where that
scoundrel lives who has so often murdered your friends?' But De
Vries assured them that 'they would find it otherwise, and come
home again with large presents.' One of the chiefs replied at
once: 'Upon your words we will go; for the Indians have never
heard lies from you, as they have other Swannekens.' Embarking
in a large canoe the Dutch envoys, accompanied by eighteen
Indian delegates, set out from Rockaway, and reached Fort
Amsterdam about three o'clock in the afternoon."
The result of this conference was the reëstablishment of peaceful
relations, the Long Island red men aiding in the making of terms with
the river Indians. When, in the following September, trouble broke out
again, Kieft sought to keep the Long Island tribes as allies, but,
before terms could be made, attacks were made at Maspeth and Gravesend,
as well as at Westchester; and the ensuing winter was full of distress,
most of the settlements becoming almost wholly deserted.
The Government, at its wits' end, appealed to New Haven, and finally to
the States-General in Holland itself. In the spring (of 1644) the Long
Island Indians were placated; but with the remainder of the hostiles
Kieft showed no ability to treat, and the wars lasted until the
following year, when the long strain upon Fort Amsterdam was agreeably
broken.
CHAPTER IV
THE BEGINNINGS OF BREUCKELEN
1643-1647
The Ferry and the Ferry Road. Settlement of Flatlands. Flatbush.
Lady Deborah Moody and the Settlement of Gravesend. Early
Settlements. The Name of Breuckelen. Henry C. Murphy's Comments.
First Schepens and Schout. Commission from the Colonial Council.
The Removal of Kieft. Arrival of Stuyvesant.
Near the site of the present Peck Slip, New York, there lay, in 1642, a
farm owned by Cornelis Dircksen, who kept an inn, and conducted a ferry
between a point of land at Peck Slip and a point on the Long Island
shore represented by the present location of Fulton Ferry. Dircksen
owned land on the Long Island side also, close to the ferry. When he
sold this tract in 1643 to William Thomasen, he sold with it the right
to run the ferry.
Clustered about the ferry on the Long Island shore were a number of
cabins, and the little settlement which grew up there became known in
popular parlance as "the Ferry." Crossing the river in the small and
rudely built boats of the period was no easy matter, particularly when
the tide was in full motion; and the place of crossing was naturally
chosen, as at a later time in the building of the great bridge, at the
narrowest part.
The irregular road, which wound its way from the ferry on the Long
Island side, straggled to the east of the rising ground called by the
Indians "Iphetanga," and now known as the Heights, and reached the
little settlement of Breuckelen lying at a point closely corresponding
to the present City Hall. In fact, the old road followed the general
direction of busy Fulton Street of later days.
Before the Indian war of 1643 there were only one or two cabins in this
region. To the south lay the first settlement within the limits of Kings
County--Amersfoort, or Flatlands. The first recorded purchase of land in
this region was by Andries Hudde and Wolphert Gerretsen in 1636. The
first plantation here was called Achtervelt, and the house which marked
the first settlement is described by Teunis G. Bergen as being
twenty-six feet long, twenty-two feet wide, and forty feet high, with a
roof "covered above and around with plank; two lofts, one above another,
and a small chamber on their side;" while adjoining was "one barn forty
feet long, eighteen feet wide, and twenty-four feet deep; and one
_bergh_ with five posts, forty feet long," the whole surrounded with
"long, round palisades."
The road running to Amersfoort turned off at an angle corresponding to
the present line of Flatbush Avenue. The road made another turn a short
time later, and reached the settlement of Midwout or Flatbush (called by
the Dutch _'t Vlaacke Bos_). The actual first settlement of Flatbush, as
of the other towns within Kings County, is frequently estimated to have
been as early as 1624; but as in the other cases we are obliged to
depend for definite knowledge upon records of purchase, which, although
they undoubtedly follow, sometimes by a period of several years, the
planting of the first habitation, give indication of the time when
permanent settlement had begun to be a fact. The town patent from the
Director was not secured until 1651.
The ferry road ultimately found its way to the then far town of Jamaica.
Meanwhile, upon that part of Long Island first trodden by the feet of
white men had begun the town of Gravesend. The region of Gravesend,
including Coney Island (called by the Dutch _'t Conijnen Eylant_) and
much of the Bay coast, differed from other regions of the county in
being first settled by English people.
Among those who were driven from Connecticut by Puritan intolerance was
Lady Deborah Moody. Lady Moody was a daughter of Walter Dunch, a member
of the English Parliament in the time of Elizabeth, and widow of Sir
Henry Moody of Garsden, in Wiltshire, who had been knighted by King
James in 1622. She emigrated to America in 1640, and settled at
Swampscott, near Lynn. In her expectation of religious liberty she was
disappointed, for the authorities were not long in discovering that she
did not regard infant baptism as an ordinance of Divine origin. In those
days children a few days old were baptized at church fonts in which the
ice had sometimes to be broken before the function could proceed, and
the ceremony was regarded as absolutely essential to salvation. Lady
Moody was first "admonished," and afterward "presented" to the Quarterly
Court for sinfully doubting the wisdom of infant baptism. Excommunicated
from the church, and thereby placed in an ostracized position, the
distressed English gentlewoman, accompanied by her son, Sir Henry, John
Tilton and his wife, and by a few other friends, came to New
Amsterdam.[12]
Here she was agreeably surprised to find a few English people who had
been living some distance above the Fort, opposite the lower end of
Blackwell's Island, but who were at the time of her coming huddled under
the walls of the Fort under the terror of the prevailing Indian wars.
A consultation between the Moody party and the Manhattan Island
wanderers from New England resulted in the appointment of a committee to
select a new site for a settlement. The choice fell upon the Gravesend
region, for which Kieft gave a patent in the summer of 1643.
The circumstances under which Gravesend was settled were thus of a
promising character, for the party was made up of people who, like Lady
Moody, were seeking permanent homes, and were likely to make temperate
and energetic citizens. The leader in this band of pioneers was a woman
of exceptional force and refinement.
"For sixteen years," says Stiles, "she went in and out among the people,
prominent in their councils, and often intrusted with important public
responsibilities, which prove the respect and confidence of her
associates. She seems also to have enjoyed the friendship of Governor
Stuyvesant, who several times sought her advice in matters of great
public importance. Even the nomination of the three town magistrates
was, on one or two occasions, intrusted by the Director-General to her
good judgment. He also availed himself of her kind offices, on another
occasion, in quelling an incipient rebellion, raised by some of her
English associates against the Dutch authority."
Whether the name Gravesend was derived from the town of the same name on
the Thames, or from the Dutch town Gravensande, is not known, but the
stronger reasons are offered for the latter supposition.
Thus, at the close of the Indian wars the meagre settlement of
Breuckelen had for company within the area of the present county the
hamlets at Flatlands and Gravesend, the farms at the Wallabout, possibly
a habitation at Flatbush, and some trading quarters and modest houses at
the Ferry. New Utrecht, Bushwick, Williamsburgh, and New Lots had yet
to be settled formally, though squatters, the date of whose coming is
impossible to set, began, as soon as the Indian hostilities ceased, to
enter upon desirable pieces of land wherever this could be done without
local opposition.
The settlement which received the name of Breuckelen was made in the
maize region lying between the Wallabout and Gowanus--the latter the
place of the first purchase (by Bennett and Bentyn) within the present
limits of the city. Portions of this tract were taken by settlers under
the Dutch patents from the West India Company. In July, 1645, Jan
Evertsen Bout settled here. He was followed a few months later by Huyck
Aertsen, Jacob Stoffelsen, Peter Cornielessen, Joris Dircksen, Gerritt
Wolfertsen, Cowenhoven, and many others. They located themselves on the
road leading from the Ferry to Flatbush, which was then the most
important place. A village was formed, which had for its central point
the present location of Smith Street and Fulton Avenue.
Henry C. Murphy, writing from Holland at the time of his sojourn as
American Minister to that country, describes the Breukelen of Holland as
a very old place, containing about 1,500 inhabitants. The houses were
old fashioned, and the streets irregular. The people seem to lack thrift
and enterprise. The Dutch church was an imposing edifice. Mr. Murphy's
impression of the place was not pleasing. Outside of the village he
found comfortable dwellings, surrounded with flowers and duck ponds, and
everything in perfect neatness and order. On one side of the village was
the park, a place laid out with walks and shrubbery, and containing
about half an acre of land. He crossed the bridge which spans the Vecht,
which connects the two communities, Breukelen Nijenrodes and Breukelen
St. Pieters. He speaks of the view as charming. The Vecht is about 100
yards wide, and its waters flow lazily along. "The name Breuckelin," he
says, "means marshland." This is the meaning given by the Dutch
authorities. Mr. Murphy quotes from one author who says the name has the
same origin "as _maarssen_, merely from its marshy and watery turf
lands;" and although the name is spelled on ancient documents and
letters Bracola, Broecke, Broeckede, Broicklede, and Broeklundia, they
all indicate the same origin. Mr. Murphy draws a striking comparison
between the character and situation of the two places, showing a
wonderful similarity and appropriateness of name, arriving at the
conclusion that it was selected on account of the corresponding
conditions of the two places. As the Holland Brooklyn was spelled in a
variety of ways, so, too, Mr. Murphy says, it has been with our own fair
city. He states that the record shows it to have been called Breucklyn,
Breuckland, Brucklyn, Broucklyn, Brookland, and Brookline. It was during
the close of the last century that its orthography became fixed as
Brooklyn.
The circumstances attending the settlement of Breuckelen as a town
were associated with a critical turn in the affairs of Kieft's
administration.
Kieft's tyrannical methods of government, a form of self-willed
procedure absolutely grotesque in many respects, had been sufficiently
recognized before the Indian war. After his infamous blunder at
Corlaer's Hook his unpopularity increased. Before the war began, Kieft
had been compelled to call a Council of Twelve[13] from the people. The
Twelve, being chosen by the people, constituted the first illustration
offered in New Netherland of representative government. This board,
soon after the war began, was abolished in a peremptory way; and not
long afterward Kieft undertook once more to call upon its advisory aid.
When the board objected to certain taxes (on wine, beer, brandy, and
beaver skins), he remarked that he still was master, and published his
proclamation levying the tax, with the statement that this was done by
advice of the council chosen by the commonalty.
To these elected representatives of the people such acts naturally were
intolerable, and it was not surprising that they should set themselves
to secure the removal of Kieft. A memorial sent to the West India
Company asked for his recall and for the introduction of the system of
government prevailing in Holland. The College of Nineteen made a report
upon the case to the States-General, mentioning incidentally that the
colony, started as a commercial enterprise, had cost the West India
Company, over all profits, more than 550,000 guilders. The resulting
reform considerably modified the theory if not the practice of
government in New Netherland. The College of Nineteen decreed a "Supreme
Council" for New Netherland. Government was placed in the hands of a
council consisting of the Director, a Vice-Director, and a Fiscal. The
people were to have a right to representation in the council, such being
desirable "for mutual good understanding, and the common advancement and
welfare of the inhabitants."
In the code of general instructions which the West India Company had
sent for the guidance of the Provincial Council, those in authority were
urged "to do all in their power to induce the colonists to establish
themselves in some of the most suitable places, with a certain number of
inhabitants, in the manner of towns, villages, and hamlets, as the
English are in the habit of doing." It was pursuant to the policy of
this code that Bout and his associates declared their intention to
"found a town at their own expense."
It fell to the people who were to organize the town of Brooklyn to
choose _schepens_;[14] and at this first election they selected as their
representatives Jan Evertsen Bout and Huyck Aertsen. Bout was a
well-to-do farmer and one of the original settlers. In 1646, he was
chosen a schepen to decide questions which might arise in Breuckelen. He
took a patent from Governor Kieft "of land at Marechkaweick, on the
kill of the Gowanus, as well the maize land as the wood land, bounded by
the land of Huyck Aertsen." It adjoined the land of Van Cowenhoven, and
embraced within its limits the mills which were designated as Frecke's
and Denton's. Those mills, situated near each other, are vividly
remembered by many Brooklyn citizens. They were reached by a bridge from
Butler street. Crossing over the bridge and passing the first mill the
road wound around the water's edge.
The commission from the Colonial Council read, as follows:--
"We, William Kieft, Director General, and the Council residing
in New Netherland, on behalf of the High and Mighty Lords,
States-General of the United Netherlands, His Highness of
Orange, and the Honourable Directors of the General Incorporated
West India Company. To all those who shall see these presents or
hear them read, Greeting:--
"Whereas, Jan Evertsen Bout and Huyck Aertsen, from Rossum, were
on the 21st May last unanimously chosen by those interested of
Breuckelen, situate on Long Island, as Schepens to decide all
questions which may arise, as they shall deem proper, according
to the Exemptions of New Netherland granted to Particular
Colonies, which election is subscribed by them, with express
stipulation that if any one refuse to submit in the premises
aforesaid to the above mentioned Jan Evertsen [Bout] and Huyck
Aertsen, he shall forfeit the right he claims to land in the
allotment of Breuckelen, and in order that everything may be
done with more authority, We, the Director and Council
aforesaid, have therefore authorized and appointed and do hereby
authorize the said Jan Evertsen and Huyck Aertsen to be Schepens
of Breuckelen; and in case Jan Evertsen and Huyck Aertsen do
hereafter find the labor too onerous, they shall be at liberty
to select two more from among the inhabitants of Breuckelen to
adjoin them to themselves. We charge and command every
inhabitant of Breuckelen to acknowledge and respect the above
mentioned Jan Evertsen and Huyck Aertsen as their Schepens, and
if any one shall be found to exhibit contumaciousness toward
them, he shall forfeit his share as above stated. This done in
Council in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland."
Before the ensuing winter had passed, the schepens found their labors
sufficiently arduous to justify an appeal to the Director, which
resulted in the appointment of a _schout_, or constable. The new
commission said:--
"Having seen the petition of the Schepens of Breuckelen, that
it is impossible for them to tell cases occurring there,
especially criminal assaults, impounding of cattle, and other
incidents which frequently attend agriculture; and in order to
prevent all disorder, it would be necessary to appoint a Schout
there, for which office they propose the person of Jan
Teunissen. Therefore we grant their request therein, and
authorize, as we do hereby authorize, Jan Teunissen to act as
Schout, to imprison delinquents by advice of the Schepens, to
establish the pound, to impound cattle, to collect fines, and to
perform all things that a trusty Schout is bound to perform.
Whereupon he has taken his oath at the hands of us and the
Fiscal, on whom he shall especially depend, as in Holland
substitutes are bound to be dependent on the Upper Schouts or
the Bailiff or Marshal. We command and charge all who are
included under the jurisdiction of Breuckelen to acknowledge
him, Jan Teunissen, for Schout. Thus done in our council in Fort
Amsterdam, in New Netherland, the first December, Anno,
1646."[15]
Thus began the official existence of Breuckelen, which at this time was
distinct from the hamlets of Gowanus, the Ferry, and the Wallabout.
Governor Kieft saw on the Breuckelen shore signs of agricultural
activity at various points from Gravesend to beyond the Wallabout. In
March, 1647, Hans Hansen Bergen bought a large tract of land adjoining
the farm of his father-in-law, Joris Jansen de Rapalje. The water
frontage of this tract was from the Wallabout Creek to the line of the
present Division Avenue. Other purchases on the shore probably completed
the chain of private ownership along the river and bay fronts between
the points above named. A second tier of patents represented land back
of the river parcels, and sometimes running in very eccentric lines.
Although these patents antedated in many instances by several years the
actual settlement by the owners,[16] the increasing number gave
indication of the stimulus that came with the end of organized Indian
hostilities. The cessation of these hostilities brought new life to the
people of New Netherland, and induced them to look more critically at
the urgencies of their political as well as their domestic situation.
The movement looking to the removal of Kieft, which first resulted in
modifications in the form of government, and which had never slumbered,
at last succeeded, and in May, 1647, Kieft was succeeded by Peter
Stuyvesant.
CHAPTER V
DOMESTIC AND SOCIAL LIFE UNDER THE DUTCH
1647-1664
Beginning of Stuyvesant's Administration. Condition of the Colony.
Character of the Early Dutch Houses. Household Arrangement.
Dress. Funerals. Marriages. The Mixture of Races. Slavery.
Religion. Attitude of Stuyvesant toward Sects other than Dutch
Reformed. Triumph of Liberal Ideas. First Churches in Kings
County. Troubles over the Church Tax. First Schools. The Dutch
and Popular Education. End of Dutch Rule.
When Stuyvesant, followed by the principal burghers, made his first
public appearance in New Amsterdam, the people saw that the new Director
had but one leg, the other, which he had lost in the wars, having been
replaced by a wooden affair, laced with silver bands. His manner was
soldierly, and excited from those who looked askance at him the remark
that his stride was "like a peacock's, with great pomp and state."
Moreover he was accused of keeping the burghers bareheaded for several
hours, though he was covered, "as if he were the Czar of Muscovy."
Peter Stuyvesant[17] was the son of a clergyman of the Reformed Church.
He was a "self-made" man, having had a hard struggle from his boyhood.
He had fought in the service of the West India Company against the
Spaniards and Portuguese in South America. For a time he was Governor of
the Island of Curaçoa, and it was while making an attack, during this
command, on the Island of St. Thomas that he lost his leg. He had
married, at Amsterdam, Judith, the daughter of Balthazzar Bayard, a
French Protestant who, like so many others who came to America, had fled
to Holland to escape persecution.
When Stuyvesant declared in his first speech at the Fort that he would
govern the colony "as a father does his children," he gave some hint of
the view of the situation which he was inclined to take. However
fatherly and generous were his feelings toward the people whom he was to
preside over, he intended to be master of the situation.
The people who greeted the new Director with much cordiality, and who
in this demonstration were influenced as greatly by the feeling that any
change must be for the better as by any definite expectation that
Stuyvesant would be better than Kieft, had suffered from so many
influences that tended to disorganize and disconcert them that the new
Director found them in no very promising state. Indeed, he found New
Netherland in a "low condition."
Breuckelen and her sister settlements were as yet merely farming
communities. New Amsterdam itself had begun to present some of the
characteristics of a town. Extending as far as the present line of Wall
Street (from which fact the street gets its name), it was thickly
settled within a narrow area toward the point. The houses were rough,
the streets unkempt. "Pig-pens and out-houses were set directly on the
street, diffusing unpleasant odors. The hogs ran at will, kept out of
the vegetable gardens only by rough stockades."[18]
If the physical condition of the town offended Stuyvesant, so, also, did
the moral condition. The new Director called for a "thorough
reformation." There must be an end of drunkenness, Sabbath-breaking, and
the selling of liquors to the Indians. Stuyvesant saw the necessity of
conciliating the Indians, and the efforts which he made to this end were
gratifying to the Long Island settlers.
To protect the outlying settlements from the incursions of the savages,
and to provide means for the payment of the annual presents and
perquisites to the Indians, Stuyvesant consented to give the various
towns representation in the government. The grand old democratic
principle of taxation and representation going hand in hand was thus
recognized. It was these sentiments, which early took root in
Breuckelen, that resulted in the Revolutionary War, and established the
fact that taxation without representation was unjustifiable. As a result
of this consent, an election was held in Breuckelen and the other towns,
and eighteen of the most respectable and honored men in the community
were chosen, from whom nine were selected by the Director and Council as
an advisory board. They were to confer with the Director and Council and
to promote the welfare of the people. They were also to consult upon all
measures proposed by the Director and Council, and to give their advice.
The Director was empowered to preside at all meetings of this board.
The members held seats in the Council, taking turns weekly, three
sitting at a time; on court days acting in a judicial capacity to try
cases and render judgment.
The administration, at least in its earlier years, saw an increase in
the rate of immigration. During Stuyvesant's administration many stone
houses appeared in New Amsterdam, and on Long Island came an improved
class of habitations.
The houses of the Dutch period, and of the later period that imitated
the primitive architecture of that time, are among the most interesting
objects of study that remain on Long Island. The first Long Island
houses had resembled those of the Indians. Very soon afterward the
character of the dwellings became more solid and permanent, and after
the Indian war came comfortable one-story houses, thatched with straw,
and with big stone chimneys. Most of the Dutch houses on Long Island,
even in later times, were of wood. A brickyard was established at New
Amsterdam in 1660; but in those days it was thought that the baking of
brick of greater thickness than two inches could not be effectual, and
building with such small brick as then came from the maker was very
expensive.
The one-story Dutch houses generally had an "overshoot" roof, which
formed now one and now two piazzas. Very often a seat was placed at each
end of the porch; and when the weather permitted, this sheltered place
was generally occupied by the family and visitors of an evening. There
are a number of these fine old Dutch houses still standing within the
limits of the county and city.
The interior of the Dutch houses was generally as solid and simple as
the exterior. The big fireplace was one of the most important features
of the house. Those who could afford it often had the mantel front set
about with glazed Holland tiles. These tiles had pictures moulded on
them, and very often the whole series of pictures around the fireplace
opening would tell stories from the Bible. "The children grew to know
these pictures, and the stories they told, by heart; and when they
gathered about the hearth of an evening, and the tile pictures glimmered
faintly in the light of the big wood fire, grandfather would open the
great family Bible on his knees and read some of the stories over again
for the hundredth time."
In the best room of the house stood the mountainous bedstead, as grand
as the owner could afford to make it. Underneath was the trundle-bed,
which was pulled out at night for the children to sleep on.
"The pillow-cases were generally of check patterns; and the
curtains and valance were of as expensive materials as their
owner could afford; while in front of the bed a rug was laid,
for carpets were not then in common use. Among the Dutch the
only article of that sort, even up to the time of the
Revolution, was a drugget of cloth, which was spread under the
table during meal-time when, upon 'extra occasions,' the table
was set in the parlor. But even these were unknown among the
inhabitants of Breuckelen and the neighboring towns. The uniform
practice, after scrubbing the floor well on certain days, was to
place upon the damp boards the fine white beach sand (of which
every family kept a supply on hand, renewing it by trips to the
seashore twice a year), arranged in small heaps, which the
members of the family were careful not to disturb by treading
upon; and on the following day, when it had become dry, it was
swept, by the light and skillful touch of the housewife's broom,
into waves or other more fanciful figures. Rag carpets did not
make their appearance in this country until about the beginning
of the present century."[19]
The Dutch did not use tables save for the kitchen or for the service of
meals. The table dishes were of wood and pewter, though a few people
kept some china on the sideboard for "company." As tea was a luxury
which very few had much of, the tea cups were very small. For display,
silver tankards, beakers, porringers, spoons, snuffers, and candlesticks
were in favor. Clocks were extremely rare, the primitive hour-glass
doing service in most houses. "Of books," says Stiles, "our ancestors
had but few, and these were mostly Bibles, Testaments, and Psalm-Books.
The former, many of which still exist among the old families, were
quaint specimens of early Dutch printing, with thick covers, and massive
brass, and sometimes silver, corner-pieces and clasps. The Psalm-Books
were also adorned with silver edgings and clasps, and, when hung by
chains of the same material to the girdle of matrons and maidens fair,
were undoubtedly valued by their owners quite as much for the display
which they made as for their intrinsic value."
In every family was a spinning-wheel,--sometimes four or five. The dress
of the people, like so many other Dutch things, closely resembled that
of Hollanders at home. The ordinary dress for men was a blouse or
jacket, and wide, baggy trousers. Justices and other officials wore
black gowns. The Sunday clothes of men as well as women were often
gorgeous in color and effect. The ladies frizzed and powdered their
hair, wore silk hoods in place of hats, and squeezed their feet into
very high-heeled shoes. The dandies of the day wore long coats with
silver lace and silver buttons, bright vests or waistcoats, velvet
knee-breeches, black silk stockings, and low shoes with silver buckles.
On holidays the people made a gay-looking company. Christmas was a happy
festival with them always. In those early days people had to depend upon
such family festivities even more than do later generations having many
sources of amusement away from home. It was from the Dutch that American
children learned to say Santa Claus, and it was from them that Americans
learned that fashion, which has still not entirely died out, of making
calls on New Year's Day.
One of the prudent customs of the Dutch settlers was to begin, so soon
as they came of age, to lay by money for their funeral expenses. No
Dutchman wanted to be a burden upon any one if he could help it, even
when he died, and this practice of laying by gold or silver pieces to
pay the expenses of proper burial became very general. A Dutch funeral
was one of the most singular features of life among the people. After
the minister had seated himself beside the coffin and the company was
duly assembled, the sexton or servants would appear with glasses and
decanters, and wine would be given to such of the guests as cared to
drink. Funeral cakes and other victuals were handed about in the same
way, and then pipes and tobacco were brought in. The eating, drinking,
and smoking being finished, the minister would rise and make his address
and prayer, and then the sexton and minister would lead the procession
to the burying-ground.[20]
A people so prudent about matters of funeral expenses were likely to be
prudent about other affairs of life coming earlier in the list. Young
men were generally careful about saving money with which to get married,
and the young women spun and sewed for many months getting ready the
linen which they were in the habit of providing for the housekeeping.
Furman instances this inventory of the goods a Breuckelen bride brought
to her husband: "A half-worn bed, two cushions of ticking with feathers,
one rug, four sheets, four cushion covers, two iron pots, three pewter
dishes, one pewter basin, one iron roaster, one schuyrn spoon, two cowes
about five years old, one case or cupboard, one table."
That the course of true love, as it is observed after marriage, did not
always run smooth, is shown by the early appointment in New Amsterdam of
a "First Commissary of Marriage Affairs."
In this era marriage was surrounded with many difficulties, and required
both time and patience to secure its accomplishment. The following
curious document is the form which was used in 1654 to secure a marriage
license:--
_To the right Honourable the Lordships the Magistrates of
Gravesend:_
DEAR FRIENDS--Whereas, on the date of this 10th day of February,
1654, a peticion is presented to the cort hereby, Johannes Van
Beeck, that the banns (of matrimonie) between him and Maria
Varleth, may bee hear registered and bee properly proclaimed,
and wee hav understoode that the same Johannes Van Beeck ande
Maria Varleth had prevusly too this maide procklemation of thare
banns throgh youre cort att Gravesende wich (under Koncison) is
contrarie too the stile and customes of oure Faderland. Itt is
oure requeste to youre honourable cort in case such an ockacion
should ockur in futur, that wee mai bee inn formed kincerneing
the same, inn order on ether sydde to preventee all
impropriertys, which allso wee engaige too doo on our parte
spechally iz the praktize and custome off our Faderland that any
one shal maike three procklamations inn the plaice ware his
domercile is, ande then he maye bee maryed werever hee pleases,
wherein wee ar ande remaine your right Honourable Lordships'
affectionate friend.
ARENT VAN HATTAN.
Bye order of thee Burgomasters and Shepens of New Amsterdam.
Attest
JACOB KIPP, Sec'ty.
AMSTERDAM IN NIEW NETHERLANDS, this 10th day of February, 1654.
The next step taken by the candidates for matrimony was their appearance
before the Court. This event in the old manuscripts is recorded as
follows:--
"Casper Varleth and Johannes Van Beeck appeared inn cort and
praed most ernestly thatt onn thee perticion and remonstrance
konserning the marriage between Johannes Van Beeck and Maria
Varleth presented too the Burgomasters and Schepens may be
disposed off, and in konsequence of the Bench note being
kompleate itt iz posponed untill Thursda next, soe az inn thee
meantime too notifie the other Lordships.
"Johannes Van Beeck appeared in cort and requested az before
thatt acion maye bee had onn his peticion, offering furthermore
iff thort nesary att thee time ande the okeacion too bee readie
to affirme under oathe whatt he stated inn his peticion,
repeating especially three conversacions hadd with his
Excellencie Petrus Stuyvesant."
The subject-matter of the petition was important, and could not be
hastily passed upon. The Burgomasters deliberated for three days, and
doubtless viewed the subject in every phase and light imaginable. At
last they reached a conclusion which cannot be better presented than in
the precise language of the decision rendered:--
"Bye the Burgomasters and Shepens of niew amsterdam--having been
seen and examined the peticion as presentede too our cort, onn
the 10th ande 16th days of this month, tochinge the bonds off
matrimonie between Joh Van Beeck and Maria Varleth. Tharefore
wee inquire into,
"First--Who frome the beginning was the institutor of marriage,
ande also whot the apostels off thee Gentiles teaches thareon.
"Secondly--The proper and attaned age of Johannes Van Beeck ande
Maria Varleth.
"Thirdlie--Thee consente off the Fathure ande Mothure off the
Dauter.
"Forthly--The distance and remoutnes beetweene this and oure
Faderland, together withe thee calamiters relacion betweene
Holland and England.
"Fifthly--Thee danegur in such case arisienge ffrom long
retardacion, betweene these too younge persons beecominge
publick blame being attachede to the fammelys onn either sidde.
"Our Shurlogans ande wise Jurists doo saye korectly onn such
mattus, that wee must nott commit any lesser sinns too avoyde
grater ones; tharefore wee thinke (with due submission) thatt
bye suteable marrage (the apostel inn his epistel to the
Heebrues calls the bedd undefiled honurable) both thee lesser
ande thee grater crimes are preevented. Tharefor thee
Burgomasters and Shepens off the city of Niew Amsterdam doe
judge thatt thee afforeseyde younge persons haveing mayde thare
proper Ecklisiastical proclamations with the earlyst
opportunitie, and that they folloe it upp with thee bonds of
matrimonie immediatelie tharafter.
"Done at the Stadt House inn Niew Amsterdam in Niew Netherlands
this 19th Feberary, 1654.
"ARENT VAN HATTAN,
P. L. VANDUGRIST,
PIETER WOLFERSON,
MARTIN KRIGIER,
WILH. BEECKMAN,
JOSH. P. R. RUYTER,
OLOFF STEVENSEN."
The social life of the New Netherlands was in many respects
characteristic of the hard conditions of life in any new country, but in
many respects it was peculiarly different from that of New England. "The
sharp and strong contrasts in social position," says Mr. Roosevelt,[21]
"the great differences in moral and material well-being, and the variety
in race, language, and religion, all combined to make a deep chasm
between life in New Amsterdam and life in the cities of New England,
with their orderly uniformity of condition and their theocratic
democracy." In fact, democratic as the Dutch theory was, the actual
condition of the Dutch colony was aristocratic in its characteristics.
"The highest rank was composed of the great patroons, with their feudal
privileges and vast landed estates; next in order came the well-to-do
merchant burghers of the town, whose ships went to Europe and Africa,
carrying in their holds now furs or rum, now ivory or slaves; then came
the great bulk of the population,--thrifty souls of small means, who
worked hard, and strove more or less successfully to live up to the law;
while last of all came the shifting and intermingled strata of the evil
and the weak,--the men of incurably immoral propensities, and the poor
whose poverty was chronic."
The picturesqueness of the population was accentuated by the presence of
a growing number of negro slaves which a Dutch vessel had been the first
to bring to America.[22] But, as we shall see later, slavery never was
welcomed as an institution in this region, and never gained a firm
foothold. Tobacco culture and other causes, which operated to the
encouragement of slavery in Virginia and Maryland, did not appear in the
northern colonies; where, moreover, the temper and taste of the people
were not such as to make easy the development of slavery.
As in early New England, the domestic and social affairs of the Dutch
colony were always intimately associated with religious traditions, and,
as in New England, the theory of religious liberty found a varying and
often a grotesque application.
The early theory of the colony was that of complete religious liberty,
and at no time was there an intolerance comparable to that which
prevailed among the Puritans, who sought liberty but yielded little; but
the laws of the colony favored the Protestant Reformed Church, and it
alone. To be sure, the West India Company commended freedom of belief,
and the early Governors, partly, doubtless, because they were too busy
with other matters, and partly because occasion had not yet arisen,
caused little trouble by any attitude toward questions of faith or
worship. But when the colony grew to considerable proportions, and the
mixture of races brought about by the advertised liberality of the Dutch
settlements began to bring up the social and religious questions
inevitable in such a community, there were many clashings and disputes
and bitternesses.
Stuyvesant was as definite and immovable in his ideas about church-going
as about everything else. He believed in established authority, and
personally resented the impertinence of people who saw fit to take a
position at variance with what seemed to be set forth and settled by the
established power. When the Lutherans, in 1654, sought to hold meetings
of their own, Stuyvesant reminded them of the duty of attending the good
Dutch church, and refused them premises for their meetings.
Appeal to Holland, whose position Stuyvesant's mental methods certainly
did not represent in this instance, forced the Director to let the
Lutherans alone; and possibly the rebuke was responsible for the fact
that the Anabaptists on Long Island escaped serious trouble shortly
afterward. But Stuyvesant hated the "cursed Quakers," with whom he had
many bitter differences, going so far as to hang up one preacher by the
arms and lash him for defying his authority.
Of Catholics Stuyvesant had an even greater horror. In 1654, he passed
an ordinance forbidding the keeping of Ash Wednesday and all other holy
days, as "heathenish and popish institutions, and as dangerous to the
public peace."
To the intermittent religious squabbles brought on by the determination
of Stuyvesant to stick to the letter of the law rather than to take the
popular Dutch view of moderate leniency, the West India Company finally
put a stop by ordering Stuyvesant to "let every one remain free so long
as he is modest, moderate, his political conduct irreproachable, and as
long as he does not offend others or oppose the Government." These
terms, rather than any ever offered by Stuyvesant, represent the real
sentiment prevalent among the Dutch people.
In the ship which brought over Governor Minuit, in 1626, came two
_ziekentroosters_, or "comforters of the sick," who were frequently
found filling positions as assistants to ordained clergymen. By these
two men the early religious services of the New Amsterdam colony were
conducted until 1628, when another ship from Holland brought out Jonas
Michaelius, who was sent by the North Synod of the Netherlands. It was
Michaelius who "first established the form of a church" at Manhattan. He
was succeeded five years later by Everardus Bogardus, whose congregation
left the upper loft of the horse-mill for a small building dedicated to
church service. In 1642, a new stone church was built within the Fort,
and in the year of Stuyvesant's coming Bogardus was succeeded by Dominie
Johannes Megapolensis, who led the church for twenty-two years.
Meanwhile the Long Island settlers who wished to attend divine service
were obliged to cross the river to New Amsterdam. In 1654, however,
Midwout (Flatbush), which had begun to assume an importance as a
settlement that promised to give it the position that Breuckelen
afterward assumed, established a church. An order was issued in
February, 1655, requiring the inhabitants of Breuckelen and Amersfoort
(Flatlands) to assist Midwout "in cutting and hauling wood" for the
church. The Breuckelen people objected to working on the minister's
house, but were forced, under the Governor's order, to assist throughout
the work.
This first church in Kings County, built under the supervision of
Dominie Megapolensis, John Snedicor, and John Stryker, occupied several
years in the building; but that it was used before its completion is
indicated by the fact that in August, 1655, Stuyvesant convened the
inhabitants to give their opinion as to the qualifications of the Rev.
Johannes Theodorus Polhemus as a "provisional minister," and to decide
what salary they would pay him. The report of the Schout was that the
people approved of Mr. Polhemus, and that they would pay him 1,040
guilders (about $416) a year.
Polhemus belonged to "an ancient and highly respectable family" in the
Netherlands, had been a missionary in Brazil, and had come from that
country to New Amsterdam. He was a devout Christian, and his
faithfulness does not seem to have been questioned, but when, in 1656,
the magistracy of Midwout and Amersfoort sought permission to request
voluntary contributions from the three Dutch towns, Breuckelen
protested, declaring that "as the Rev. John Polhemus only acts as a
minister of the Gospel in the village of Midwout, therefore the
inhabitants of the village of Breuckelen and adjacent districts are
disinclined to subscribe or promise anything for the maintenance of a
Gospel minister who is of no use to them." By way of showing their good
will to Mr. Polhemus personally, they urged that the minister might be
permitted to preach alternately in Breuckelen and Midwout. If this were
done they were "very willing to contribute cheerfully to his support,
agreeable to their abilities."
The Director and Council replied that they had "no objection that the
Reverend Polhemus, when the weather permits, shall preach alternately in
both places;" but although Midwout consented, Gravesend and Amersfoort
objected, these villages having contributed to the support of the
Midwout church, and Breuckelen being "quite two hours' walking from
Amersfoort and Gravesend, whereas the village of Midwout is not half so
far and the road much better." To this was added: "So they considered it
a hardship to choose either to hear the gospel but once a day, or to be
compelled to travel four hours, in going and returning, all for one
single sermon, which would be to some very troublesome, and to some
utterly impossible."
As a way out of this difficulty the Director and Council decided that
the morning sermon should be at Midwout, which was about the same
distance from each of the three other towns, and that the afternoon
service should be changed to an evening service to be held alternately
in Breuckelen and Amersfoort. In recognition of the situation of
Midwout, that village was to give annually 400 guilders, and Breuckelen
and Amersfoort each 300 guilders for the support of the minister.
This seemed like an amicable settlement, and might have remained such
had not Breuckelen been dissatisfied with the preaching of Mr. Polhemus.
The dissatisfaction expressed itself in a protest sent to the Director
and Council, in which the people of Breuckelen reminded the Director
that they had never called the Reverend Polhemus, and had never accepted
him as their minister. "He intruded himself upon us against our will,"
said the protest, "and voluntarily preached in the open street, under
the blue sky; when to avoid offense, the house of Joris Dircksen was
temporarily offered him." Moreover, Mr. Polhemus was accused of offering
"a poor and meagre service," giving, every fortnight, "a prayer in lieu
of a sermon," by which they could receive "very little instruction."
Often, when they supposed this prayer was beginning, it was "actually at
an end." This they experienced on the Sunday preceding Christmas, when,
expecting an appropriate sermon, they heard "nothing but a prayer."
"Wherefore," continues the protest, "it is our opinion that we shall
enjoy as much and more edification by appointing one among ourselves,
who may read to us on Sundays, a sermon from the 'Apostles' Book,' as we
ever have until now from any of the prayers or sermons of the Reverend
Polhemus." All this, the protest hastened to say, was intended in no
offense to the preacher, whose inabilities were recognized as resulting
naturally from the fact that in his advanced years "his talents did not
accompany him as steadily as in the days of yore."
To this protest Stuyvesant responded merely by directing the sheriff to
"remind those of Breuckelen, once more, to fulfil their engagement, and
to execute their promise relative to the salary of Mr. Polhemus." Amid
their discontent, and in consequence also of the poverty of many of his
parishioners, the poor preacher suffered not a little for want of the
ordinary necessities of life. In the winter of 1656, his house being not
yet completed, he and wife and children were forced to sleep on the
floor. When Sheriff Tonneman complained to the Council of having been
abused while attempting to collect the odious tax, Lodewyck Jong, Jan
Martyn, "Nicholas the Frenchman, Abraham Janesen the mulatto, and Gerrit
the wheelwright," were each fined twelve guilders ($4.80); and when Jan
Martyn sought to hire the public bellman to defame Tonneman, he was
"obliged to beg pardon, on bended knees, of the Lord and of the court,
and was fined twenty-five guilders ($10) and costs."
Wearied of his efforts to coax and threaten the Breuckelen opposition
into paying the tax, Stuyvesant at last (in July, 1658) forbade all
inhabitants of the three towns to remove grain from their fields until
all tithes were taken or commuted. There was no escape from this, and
the tax was paid.
Two years later Breuckelen secured a preacher of her own in the person
of the Rev. Henricus Selyns,[23] a preacher whose ancestors had been
prominent in the earliest days of the Dutch Reformed Church, and who had
been reared in the traditions of this flourishing denomination. He
engaged to serve Breuckelen for four years.
When, in September, 1660, Dominie Selyns preached his first sermon in
the Breuckelen barn which served as a house of worship, the population
of the village was one hundred and thirty-four persons, representing
thirty-one families. The preacher had been promised a salary of one
hundred florins, but when an effort was made to raise funds the
magistrates found themselves under the necessity of appealing to the
Director for aid. Stuyvesant offered to pay one hundred and fifty
guilders, provided Mr. Selyns would also preach every afternoon at his
"bouwery" on Manhattan Island. This arrangement was duly made. In 1661,
when Breuckelen received from the West India Company, by request
of Dominie Selyns, a bell for the church, there were fifty-two
communicants. Meanwhile, Mr. Selyns was living at New Amsterdam, and in
1662 an effort was made to induce the preacher to live in Breuckelen, on
the theory of the schepens that, if he did so bring himself among them,
"the community would be more willing and ready to bring in their
respective quotas." It does not appear that the Dominie found it
convenient to live in Breuckelen, but there is no doubt of his zeal nor
of his popularity. When, in 1664, the Dominie returned to Holland, it
was with the regrets and good wishes of the little band of Breuckelen
parishioners.
The Dutch attitude toward education was in many respects very different
from that which prevailed among the English. At the time of the
settlement of New England and New Amsterdam, Holland was far in
advance of other European states in ideas of popular education. Mr.
Campbell[24] places Holland two hundred years in advance of any other
country in Europe at the time of the Puritan emigration. There was,
indeed, an extraordinary contrast between "the free cities" of the
Netherlands and their neighbors at this time. "The whole population,"
says May,[25] "was educated. The higher classes were singularly
accomplished. The University of Leyden was founded for the learned
education of the rich, and free schools were established for the general
education." Common schools had, indeed, been founded in the sixteenth
century, and in the seventeenth the children of all classes were taught
at the public expense.
Such ideas of educational democracy had not appeared in England at the
time when education first began to be considered in this country. Mr.
Draper[26] notes that there was no school but the Latin school in Boston
for thirty-five years after the passage of the so-called compulsory
education law of 1647. Nor did the early Massachusetts schools receive
all the children of the people. "No boys were received under seven years
of age till 1818. No girls of any age were admitted prior to 1789. It
was one hundred and forty-two years after the passage of the so-called
compulsory school law of 1647 before Boston admitted one girl to her
so-called 'free schools,' and it was one hundred and eighty-one years
thereafter before girls had facilities equal to those enjoyed by their
brothers."
On the other hand, New Amsterdam had a professional schoolmaster as
early as 1633, and with him popular common school education began in
this country. Prior to 1662, there were as many as ten persons licensed
to keep private schools or to teach on their own account, and Furman
states that young men from both the New England and the Virginia
colonies came to New Amsterdam to be educated. Speaking of the movement
of 1658, looking to the establishment of a Latin school at New
Amsterdam, and of the comment thereon by Mr. George H. Martin,
representing the State Board of Education of Massachusetts, Mr. Draper
says:--
"Mr. Martin seems to make much of the fact that the petition for the
sending over of a Latin master stated that there was no Latin school
nearer than Boston, but overlooks the fact that there had previously
been a Latin school at New Amsterdam, and also the other fact that there
was no school at Plymouth, and none but a Latin school at Boston, and
that it received only a few of the brighter boys of the wealthier
families, to prepare them for college and the ministry."
The earliest laws of the colony show that for the support of schools
"each householder and inhabitant should bear such tax and public charge
as should be considered proper for their maintenance."[27]
The first schoolmaster in Breuckelen made his appearance in 1661, on the
4th day of July, in which year the following petition was presented:--
_To the Right Hon. Director-General and Council of New
Netherland:--_
The Schout and Schepens of the Court of Breuckelin respectfully
represent: That they found it necessary, that a court messenger
was required for the Schepens Chamber, to be occasionally
employed in the Village of Breuckelin, and all around, where he
may be needed, as well to serve summons, as also to conduct the
service of the church, and to sing on Sunday; to take charge of
the school, dig graves, etc.; ring the bell and perform what
ever else may be required. Therefore, the petitioners, with your
Honours' approbation, have thought proper to accept for so
highly necessary office a suitable person who is now come before
them, one Carel Van Beauvois, to whom they have appropriated
the sum of fl. 150, beside a fine dwelling; and whereas the
petitioners are apprehensive that the aforesaid C. V. Beauvois
would not and cannot do the work for the sum aforesaid, and the
petitioners are not able to promise him any more; therefore the
petitioners, with all humble and proper reverence, request your
Honours to be pleased to lend them a helping hand, in order thus
to receive the needful assistance. Herewith awaiting your
Honours' kind and favorable answer, and commending ourselves,
Honorable, wise, prudent and most discreet gentlemen, to your
favor, we pray for your Honours God's protection, together with
a happy and prosperous administration, unto salvation. Your
Honors' servants and subjects, the Schout and Schepens of the
village aforesaid. By order of the same,
[Signed] ADRIAEN HEGEMAN, Secretary.
The Directors granted the petition and agreed to pay fifty guilders
annually in wampum for the support of the precentor and schoolmaster.
The first school was set up in the little church, which stood near the
present junction of Fulton and Bridge Streets. The second public school
within the county was opened in the new village of Bushwick.
The area of the county represented by the town of Bushwick had, as we
have seen, been purchased by the West India Company in 1638. In 1660 the
Wallabout residents had built a block-house on the high point of land
overlooking the East River, known as the "Kiekout,"[28] or "Lookout." At
about the same time (in the month of February), "fourteen Frenchmen,
with a Dutchman named Peter Janse Wit" and an interpreter, called upon
the Director to lay out a town plot east of the Wallabout settlement. On
February 19 the Director, with the Fiscal, Nicasius de Sille, Secretary
Van Ruyven, and the sworn surveyor, Jaques Corteleau, came to a spot
between "Mispat (Maspeth) Kill," Newtown Creek, and "Norman's Kill,"[29]
Bushwick Creek, to "establish a village." Here a survey was made, and
twenty house lots laid out. The first house was at once erected by Evert
Hedeman, and others soon appeared.
In March of the following year "the Director-General visited the new
village, when the inhabitants requested His Honour to give the place a
name; whereupon he named the town Boswijck," the Town of the Woods. The
people of the new village then selected six of their men, from which the
governor chose three, to be magistrates, the town remaining subject to
the schout of Breuckelen, Amersfoort, and Midwout.
Thus when the first public school was opened in Bushwick, the hamlet
scarcely contained twenty houses, a fact which may illustrate the
attitude of the Dutch and French in this part of the country toward the
question of popular education. The first schoolmaster in Bushwick was
Boudwyn Manout, who took charge on December 28, 1662.
The setting up of the third school within the county was effected in a
new village called Bedford, lying southeast of the Wallabout and east of
Breuckelen. The settlement of this village dates from 1662, in which
year, in the month of March, Joris Jan. Rapalje, Teunis Gysbert
(Bogaert), Cornelis Jacobsen, Hendrick Sweers, Michael Hans (Bergen),
and Jan Hans (Bergen) asked the Director for a grant of unoccupied
woodland "situated in the rear of Joris Rapalje, next to the old Bay
Road." The Director made the grant, with the stipulation that the
petitioners should not make "a new hamlet."
The little settlement thus formed was adjacent on the south to another
known as Cripplebush[30] (variously spelt in the Dutch orthography of
the early days), and lay at the intersection of the Jamaica highway,
the Clove Road running to Flatbush, and the Cripplebush Road running to
Newtown.
The Bedford school-house was placed in the heart of the village, at the
cross-roads. This school, beginning in the year 1663, afterward,
according to the records of Teunis G. Bergen, became the present Public
School No. 3, and had an interesting history.
[Illustration: THE FERRY IN 1746]
Throughout the whole of Stuyvesant's directorship, the quarrels between
him and the people were of frequent occurrence, and gained rather than
diminished in violence. As we have seen, the tendency observable in the
colony was aristocratic, and Stuyvesant fostered such a tendency to the
utmost. At one time he sought to institute a division of the burghers
into two classes, major and minor, the rights of the major burghers to
be hereditary, and to include the sole right to hold office. He had an
honorable sense of justice; but his method of exercising justice was
eminently paternal. He regarded complaint against a magistrate as
nothing less than treason. With his Council, the "Nine Men," he had one
wrangle after another. Both the Nine Men and himself repeatedly sent
protests to Holland, and the West India Company chose to let the
pugnacious Director and his people fight the thing out among themselves.
This indifference on the part of Holland, which plainly took nothing
more than a commercial interest in the colony, naturally inspired little
loyalty toward the home government. The nation that ignored their
protests, let their fortifications crumble from lack of repair, and
refused to guard them by proper numbers of soldiery, could expect no
ardor of patriotism from those who were so treated.
Meanwhile trouble began to show itself between the Dutch and the
Connecticut colony. The latter claimed authority over the English towns
on Long Island, and threatened also to take possession of the Dutch
settlements. The English were jealous of the rich territory of the
Dutch. They beheld the valuable trade which had sprung up through the
instrumentality of the Dutch West India Company. They were inclined to
consider the Hollanders intruders. The English claimed the entire
continent as their domain by virtue of the discovery made by their
navigator, Cabot. Efforts were made to settle the disputes and
differences, without success. All negotiations proved futile. With the
Indians on one side and the English on the other the situation for the
New Netherlands was perilous indeed. At last the Long Island towns, with
Haarlem, New Amsterdam, and Bergen, assembled in convention and prepared
a remonstrance to the home government, charging all their disasters to
the lack of interest manifested by the mother country in their welfare.
The colonists divided into two parties, one favoring adherence to
Holland, the other favoring the acceptance of English rule.
In 1664 Charles II. granted to his brother James, the Duke of York and
Albany, a patent of all the territory lying between the Connecticut
River and Delaware Bay, in which was included the whole of the Dutch
possessions. The Duke immediately dispatched four ships, with 450
soldiers, under command of his Deputy Governor, Colonel Richard Nicolls,
to take possession of the territory. The squadron anchored at Nyack Bay,
between New Utrecht and Coney Island, in August, 1664. The block house
on Staten Island was captured, and all communication between Manhattan
and the neighboring colonies was effectually intercepted.
The people were not prepared for this invasion. The very liberality the
Dutch loyalists had exercised toward other nations was to seal their
doom. The English settlers whom they had welcomed with open arms were
anxious for a change of government, and the arbitrary conduct of the
Dutch officials induced many of the Hollanders to coincide with the
wishes of the English. Stuyvesant was powerless; the Fates were against
him, and resistance was useless. Yet he would have refused to surrender,
and was for making the best possible fight. But the people refused to
rally under his leadership, and without the striking of a blow the Dutch
colony fell under English rule.
CHAPTER VI
KINGS COUNTY AFTER THE ENGLISH CONQUEST
1665-1700
Assembly at Hempstead. The "Duke's Laws." Lovelace. New York
Retaken by the Dutch. Colve becomes Governor. Return of English
Rule under the Treaty of 1674. Dongan and the Popular Assembly.
De Sille. Journal of Dankers and Sluyter. The Ferry. A Dutch
Dinner. The Schoolmaster and the Constable. William and Mary and
the Leisler Revolution. Sloughter appointed Governor. Execution
of Leisler, and Subsequent Honors of a Public Reinterment. Long
Island receives the name of Nassau. Development of Privateering.
Captain Kidd visits and buries Treasure on Long Island.
Bellomont and the Suppression of Piracy. First Trial for
Treason.
When Nicolls assumed control as Governor of New Amsterdam, under the
patent to the Duke of York, he considered it best to act in a liberal
spirit toward the Dutch, and endeavored to gain their good will and
esteem. Indeed, this was the wise English policy which he represented.
So conciliatory was his administration that the Dutch element did not
appear to be affected by the change. The trade with Holland was
continued without interruption. The Dutch were permitted to elect all
minor officials and to observe the customs of the fatherland. New York
received a new charter, and the government was placed in the hands of a
Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriff, appointed by the Governor. The legislative
power was vested in the Governor and Council, who alone possessed the
power to impose taxes.
The titles to property in the province were not in any way disturbed.
The Council was careful to confirm and declare legal all grants,
patents, and other evidences of title which had been derived through the
Dutch government. New grants in confirmation were given, and additional
expense in consequence was imposed upon the owners. Large sums were also
expended in repairing the forts in and about the harbor to resist any
attempt which might be made to retake the city.
Measures were also adopted to provide a more perfect and uniform system
for the government of the towns on Long Island. In order to reconcile
differences, and establish laws which should control in each town,
Nicolls organized an Assembly of delegates, composed of representatives
from each town. The Assembly thus formed, met in Hempstead in 1665.
Breuckelen was represented in that body by two of her well-known
citizens, in the persons of Frederick Lubbertsen and Evertsen Bout. The
Assembly adopted a code of laws which were called the "Duke's Laws."
Considering the state of the times and the varied conditions of the
people, the code thus adopted was reasonable and just to all. These laws
continued in operation with slight amendments until 1683, when Governor
Dongan convened his provincial Assembly. The actions of Governor Nicolls
gave the delegates satisfaction and pleasure, and they became his fast
friends. They expressed their admiration of his actions by an address of
congratulation to the Duke of York, which was characterized by an
exceedingly deferential tone toward the new authority. Many of the
people objected to the tone of this address, and gave vent to their
feelings in outspoken language against the delegates. So fearless and
indiscreet was the language used, and so imminent did the violence
threatened by the anti-English element appear, that the Government was
constrained to take notice of the same. At a court held in 1666, a
stringent act was passed to prevent a repetition of the slanders against
the delegates.
In 1665, Long Island, with Staten Island, was created a shire, and
called Yorkshire, as a token of respect to the proprietor, the Duke of
York. The shire thus formed was divided into districts, which were
denominated ridings. The towns included in Kings County, Staten Island,
and Newtown, were called the West Riding. Nicolls displayed much wisdom
in the management of the colony, and thereby won the respect of the
people. He did not, however, remain long in service. Being anxious to
return to Europe, in 1668 he bade farewell to the New World, and set his
face eastward. Upon his return to his native land he engaged in his
country's service in the war with Holland, and gave his life in
defending the flag in a naval engagement in 1692.
Nicolls was succeeded by Governor Francis Lovelace, whose administration
was a striking contrast to that of his predecessor. Despotic, arrogant,
and self-willed, Lovelace was born to be a "paternal" ruler, and ever
manifested a domineering spirit. The inhabitants had always claimed the
right to levy and impose their own taxes, and protested against taxation
without representation. To all protests he paid no attention except to
"pronounce their complaints as scandalous and seditious." His frequent
remark was, "the people should have liberty for no thought but how to
pay their taxes." In order to carry out his views, and to display his
power, he imposed a duty of ten per cent. upon all imports and exports
arriving at or going from the province.
In 1672, Charles II., instigated by the French, proclaimed war against
Holland. This rupture led the Dutch to conceive the idea of regaining
their lost possessions. A squadron consisting of five vessels was fitted
out, and placed under the command of Admirals Beuckes and Evertson. The
fleet thus prepared sailed from Holland and appeared off Sandy Hook on
the 29th of July, 1673. The news of the expedition reached the city long
before the arrival of the fleet. Governor Lovelace had no adequate idea
of the importance and necessity of preparation to resist the attack. He
left the city and proceeded to Albany to regulate the difficulties with
the Indians, and placed the fort in charge of Captain Manning. When the
news reached the city that the Dutch fleet was approaching, Manning sent
messengers to Governor Lovelace, requesting him to return speedily. He
came, and at once commenced active defensive preparations. The fort was
manned, and soldiers were mustered into service and drilled. The enemy
not appearing, the Governor disbanded his forces and went to
Connecticut. When the fleet reached Sandy Hook, Manning again informed
the Governor and requested him to return, and in the mean time employed
himself in collecting recruits. He was not successful. The love of
fatherland could not be obliterated from the hearts of Dutchmen. They
refused to volunteer against their own flesh and blood, and instead
spiked the guns of the fort to prevent any resistance to the fleet. The
soldiers in the fort were but amateurs, and having had no experience
were of but little service. The fleet anchored in New York Bay, July 30,
1673.
Manning lacked courage, and did not possess any attribute fitting him to
properly defend the city. In his dilemma, and not having the aid and
assistance of the Governor, he found himself powerless to act as the
occasion demanded. He sent a messenger to the fleet to inquire their
object in disturbing the peace of the colony. In the morning, the
admirals dispatched an officer to demand the immediate surrender of the
fort. Manning, anxious to gain time, requested that he might have until
the following day to give his answer. This was refused, and he was
notified that unless the city was surrendered in half an hour the fort
would be bombarded. To this notification no reply was received. The
Dutch, true to their word, commenced a cannonade which resulted in
killing and wounding a number of men. The salute of hot shot was not
returned. Captain Colve, with a band of six hundred men, landed, and the
attacking force was ranged in line of battle in front of the fort, and
prepared to make a triumphal march through the city. Manning became
agitated and frightened. He commenced negotiations, but, as he had no
power to enter into any agreement, he was compelled to surrender.
The city, again in the possession of its original settlers, was called
New Orange, and the fort was named Fort Hendrick. Some of the English
soldiers taken as hostages of war were sent to Holland.
It may well be supposed that this successful capture produced a deep
sense of mortification to the English Government and the New England
colonies. Manning was subsequently court-martialed and tried for
cowardice and treachery. His defense was mainly that he had no time to
put the fort in a proper condition of defense--that the enemy were
eight hundred strong, while he had but eighty men in the fort, and that
he sought to delay capitulation, hoping that help might arrive. He was
found guilty by the court. Through the influence of friends his life was
spared, but he was compelled to suffer the ignominy of having his sword
broken over his head by the executioner in front of the City Hall, and
he was declared incapable of ever holding any office, either civil or
military, in the gift of the Crown. Governor Lovelace also was severely
reprimanded, and all his property was confiscated to the Duke of York.
It would appear that the conduct of the Governor was more reprehensible
than that of Manning. Manning was merely a subaltern, and Lovelace being
Governor, it was his duty to exercise proper care in defending the
territory committed to his control. He was twice notified by Manning of
the intended attack, and seemed by his actions either to manifest but
little interest, or not to realize the importance of defensive measures.
Captain Colve now assumed control of public affairs. Fearing that the
English might endeavor to regain the territory, he repaired and
strengthened the fort, and put the city under military protection. A new
charter was given to the city, and the old forms of government
readopted. Courts were established at various points, and all the
magistrates were required to appear at New Orange, and swear allegiance
to the Dutch Government.
Colve received his commission as Governor of the New Netherlands from
the admiral of the fleet. He was very energetic, fortifying weak points,
and asserting the claim of the Dutch to all the territory which Governor
Stuyvesant had controlled. The fort was repaired in a substantial
manner, and every precaution taken to effectually resist any attack
which might be made. Colve directed that the provisions of the city
should be securely kept, and prohibited the exportation of wheat and
grain. In order to prepare the people for active service, he organized
companies and had them drilled daily by competent officers in the manual
of arms. The city under his administration assumed a military
appearance. Parades and drills were of daily occurrence. The city was
carefully guarded by watchmen ever on the alert.
While Governor Colve exercised authority in the province, he took
occasion to visit Flatbush with his officials, where by his direction
the magistrates of the various towns on Long Island had assembled. He
conveyed to them the intelligence that troops were on the way from New
England to assail the town, and that it was necessary to make
preparations for resistance. He commanded them to hold themselves in
readiness to proceed to the city whenever he should require their
presence. Many of the people considering it prudent to move to the city
for safety, obtained permission to do so, and the Governor appointed a
committee to secure proper accommodations for them.
A general exodus from Breuckelen and the other towns was the result. The
inhabitants of the west end of the Island were eager to move, and in
order to prevent depopulation, Governor Colve issued another order,
stating that it was necessary for a portion of the males to remain in
the towns to protect property and prevent invasion, and he directed that
one third of the military force should remain.
The Dutch during their control of New York won for themselves the
respect of all onlookers. In their management of the colony,
notwithstanding many defects, they were more liberal than any of their
neighbors. They were a hard-working, painstaking, thrifty class of
people, whose sterling virtues have left upon the character of New York
an impress that can never be obliterated. The character and principles
of the Dutch, handed down from one generation to another, have done much
to mould the great western commercial centre into the cosmopolitan
metropolis it is to-day. The Knickerbocker patience and perseverance
under trials, the honesty and integrity of the Dutch, their love of
education and independence have been of incalculable value to the State
and nation.
The Dutch were not to be surprised by any English force. The difficulty
was settled by the treaty of peace between the States-General and
England, signed at Westminster on the 9th of February, 1674. The terms
of the treaty provided for the restoration of New York to the English.
This was accomplished on the 10th of November, 1674, when the fort was
surrendered to Major Edward Andros, the Governor appointed by the Duke
of York.
Thus New York again passed from the control of the original settlers
into the hands of their conquerors. The fort again assumed the name of
Fort James, and the city resumed the name of New York. The inhabitants
were required to swear allegiance to the King of England, and the form
of government established by the English was restored.
Governor Andros also restored the titles, grants, and privileges which
the towns had enjoyed under the English Government, and furthermore
declared all legal proceedings which had been taken during the
reoccupation by the Dutch to be legal and valid.
Andros was arbitrary and oppressive in his conduct, and did all in his
power to prevent efforts on the part of the inhabitants to obtain
representation in the councils of the government. In 1680, charges were
preferred against him in which he was accused of interfering with the
privileges of New Jersey, and he was summoned to England to answer. He
was acquitted, and returned to be still more oppressive. In 1683, he was
removed, and Colonel Thomas Dongan was appointed his successor, with
directions to convene a popular assembly.
This Assembly was composed of the Governor, Council, and seventeen
members elected by the people, and held a session commencing October 17,
1683, which lasted seventeen days. The Assembly adopted wise measures,
which were called "the charter of liberties." This charter provided that
the supreme authority should be vested in the Governor, Council, and
Legislature elected triennially by the people. The right of trial by a
jury of twelve men was guaranteed, and the liberty of the citizens was
secured. Protection and freedom of religious belief were also assured.
The County of Kings was organized, and comprised the five towns of
Breuckelen, Bushwick, Flatlands, Flatbush, and New Utrecht. Queens
County was also organized. The province was divided into counties. These
counties were: New York, Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Richmond, Westchester,
Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, and Albany. In each county a court of sessions
was to meet twice a year, and the Court of Oyer and Terminer annually.
The offices of assessor and supervisor were also created.
The first town clarke (as it was then spelt) of which there is any
record was Heer Nicasius De Sille.[31] He was appointed in 1671, and
acted in that capacity for four years. Michil Hainelle succeeded him in
1675, and held office until 1690. During the administration of De Sille,
Frederick Lubbertsen and Peter Perniedeau were trustees and overseers.
In 1676 we find Teunis G. Bergen and Thomas Lambertsen filling the
offices of trustee and overseer.
Of New York and Brooklyn immediately after the establishment of English
rule we find some interesting glimpses in the journal of Jasper Dankers
and Peter Sluyter, published in the collections of the Long Island
Historical Society.[32] These two Dutch travelers were members of the
sect founded by Jean de Labadie, and known as Labadists. The Labadists
had found shelter in tolerant and enlightened Amsterdam when persecuted
in France. The new faith was embraced by many of the Walloons at
Rotterdam and elsewhere. A community, resembling in many respects those
of the Quakers, was established at Wiewerd, and the promoters resolving
upon colonization in America, Dankers and Sluyter were sent to New York
on a tour of investigation. After their first tour, of which their
journal speaks, they were again sent to New York in 1683, to establish a
colony.
The Labadists give a detailed account of their experiences in New York
and on Long Island. They make a natural comment on the name "river" for
the strait separating Long Island and Manhattan Island. "There is a
ferry, ... for the purpose of crossing over it, which is farmed out
by the year, and yields a good income, as it is a considerable
thoroughfare, this island being one of the most populous places in this
vicinity."
The ferry at this time was patronized by both white men and Indians,
though the Indians usually economized by using their own boats in
carrying to New York their fish, fowl, or furs. The fare on the ferry
was "three stuivers in zeewan for each person." A "stuiver in zeewan"
was equivalent to less than half a cent of our money.
Going up the hill from the ferry the travelers passed through the "first
village called Breuckelen," in which they saw "a small and ugly little
church standing in the middle of the road." Here they turned off to the
right and reached Gowanus, where they were entertained by Simon Aertsen
De Hart. After speaking of the large and remarkable oysters, "fully as
good as those in England, and better than those we eat at Falmouth," the
travelers give this description of the Dutch dinner: "We had for supper
a roasted haunch of venison, which he had bought of the Indians for
three guilders and a half of seewant, that is, fifteen stuivers of Dutch
money [fifteen cents], and which weighed thirty pounds. The meat was
exceedingly tender and good, and also quite fat. It had a slight spicy
flavor. We were also served with wild turkey, which was also fat and of
a good flavor; and a wild goose that was rather dry. Everything we had
was the natural production of the country." The guest adds: "We saw
here, lying in a heap, a whole hill of watermelons, which were as large
as pumpkins, and which Symon was going to take to the city to sell....
It was very late at night when we went to rest in a Kermis bed, as it is
called, in the corner of the hearth, alongside of a good fire."
These visitors did not entertain a very warm appreciation for what the
journal describes as "a miserable rum or brandy which had been brought
from Barbadoes and other islands, and which is called by the Dutch
_kill-devil_. All these people," continues the same narrator, "are very
fond of it, and most of them extravagantly so, although it is very dear
and has a bad taste." At New Utrecht, however, they drank "some good
beer a year old."
The writers comment upon Coney Island in these words: "It is oblong in
shape, and is grown over with bushes. Nobody lives upon it, but it is
used in winter for keeping cattle, horses, oxen, hogs, and others, which
are able to obtain there sufficient to eat the whole winter, and to
shelter themselves from the cold in the thickets."
The Fort Hamilton region, called Najack (Nyack), after the Indian tribe
of this name living in the vicinity, is spoken of as an island, it being
surrounded by a marsh.
These and other records of the period indicate how little the early
influence of the English rule affected the Dutch manners and customs,
particularly on Long Island. The new rulers might introduce the English
system of weights and measures, and adopt a new nomenclature for
officials and civic systems, but for a long time, and far into the
eighteenth century, Dutch life on Long Island remained singularly like
all that it had been in the fatherland and in the pioneer homes.
An annual fair was established in Breuckelen in 1675. It was provided
that there shall be kept "a ffayre and market at Breucklin, near the
ffery, for all grain, cattle, or other products of the country, too be
held on the ffirst Munday, Tusday, and Wenesday inn November, and in the
City off New York the Thursday, Ffriday, and Saturday following."
To meet the necessary expenses of possible war, it was ordered that in
case there should happen a war with the Indians, for the better carrying
on of the same, one or more rates should be levied as there shall be
occasion, an account whereof to be given to the following Court of
Assizes.
At the same time it was ordered "that in all cases the magistrates
through the whole government are required to do justice to the Indians
as well as to the Christians."
In 1675, by reason of the fact that Long Island and Staten Island were
separated by water, it was provided that Staten Island should have
jurisdiction of itself, and be no longer dependent on the courts of Long
Island, nor on the "Milishay."
The overseers and trustees were required to take an oath to administer
the laws, without favor, affection or partiality to any person or cause,
and, when required, to attend to the private differences of neighbors
and endeavor to effect a reconciliation.
Slight allusion has heretofore been made to the schoolmaster. He was an
important element in the community. As his labors were various, and much
more irksome than at the present time, the following agreement, executed
by the schoolmaster at Flatbush, in 1682, will be read with interest:
Article 1. The school shall begin at 8 o'clock, and goe out att
11; shall begin again att 1 o'clock and ende at 4. The bell
shall be rung before the school begins.
2. When school opens one of the children shall reade the morning
prayer as it stands in the catachism, and close with the prayer
before dinner; and in the afternoon the same. The evening school
shall begin with the Lord's prayer, and close by singing a
Psalm.
3. He shall instruct the children inn the common prayers, and
the questions and answers off the catachism, on Wednesdays and
Saturdays, too enable them to saye them better on Sunday in the
church.
4. He shall be bound to keepe his school nine months in
succession from September to June, one year with another, and
shall always be present himself.
5. Hee shall bee chorister of the church, ring the bell three
times before service, and reade a chapter of the Bible in the
church, between the second and third ringinge of the bell; after
the third ringinge, hee shall reade the ten commandments, and
the twelve articles of ffaith, and then sett the Psalm. In the
afternoon, after the third ringinge of the bell, hee shall reade
a short chapter or one of the Psalms of David, as the
congregation are assemblinge; afterward he shall again sett the
Psalm.
6. When the minister shall preach at Broockland or Utrecht, hee
shall bee bounde to reade from the booke used for the purpose.
He shall heare the children recite the questions and answers off
the catachism on Sunday and instruct them.
7. He shall provide a basin of water for the baptisme, ffor
which he shall receive 12 stuyvers in wampum for every baptisme
ffrom parents or sponsors. Hee shall furnish bread and wine ffor
the communion att the charge of the church. He shall also serve
as messenger for the consistorie.
8. Hee shall give the funerale invitations and toll the bell,
and ffor which he shall receive ffor persons of 15 years of age
and upwards, 12 guilders, and ffor persons under 15, 8
guilders; and iff he shall cross the river to New York, he shall
have four guilders more.
The school money was paid as follows:
1. Hee shall receive ffor a speller or reader 3 guilders a
quarter, and ffor a writer 4 guilders ffor the daye school. In
the evening, 4 guilders ffor a speller and reader, and 5
guilders ffor a writer per quarter.
2. The residue of his salary shall bee 400 guilders in wheat
(off wampum value), deliverable at Brookland ffery, with the
dwellinge, pasturage, and meadowe appertaining to the school.
Done and agreede on inn consistorie inn the presence of the
Honourable Constable and Overseers this 8th day of October,
1682.
Constable and The Consistorie.
Overseers.
CORNELIUS BERRIAN, CASPARUS VANZUREN,
RYNIERE AERTSEN, Minister,
JAN REMSEN, ADRIAEN RYERSE,
CORNELIS BAREN VANERWYCK.
I agree to the above articles and promise to observe them.
JOHANNES VAN ECKKELLEN.
In those days the duties of a constable in Brooklyn were not confined to
the present requirements. In 1670, a law was enacted, whereby his
duties were defined. As the order is peculiar, it is here inserted:--
"Ordered that the constable of the towne of Breucklyne doe
admonish the inhabitants too instruct theire children and
servants, in matters of religione and the laws of the country.
"Ordered that the constable doe appoynte a suytable person too
recorde every man's particular marke, and see such man's horse
and colt branded.
"Ordered that the overseers and the constable doe paye the value
off an Indyan coat ffor each woolf killed, and they cause the
woolf's heade to be nayled over the doore of the constable,
theire to remayne, and alsoe to pull off both eayres inn token
that the heade is boughte and payed ffor."
In 1695 the Court of Sessions of Kings County "ordered that the
constables of this towne shall on Sundaye or Sabbath daye tayke lawe
ffor the apprehending off all Sabbath breakers, searche all ale houses,
taverns, and other suspectede places ffor all prophaners and breakers
off the Sabbath daye, and bringe them before the justice too bee dealt
with accordinge to lawe."
As a penalty for refusing so to do, it was further "ordered thatt ffor
every neglect or deefault the constable shall paye a fine of six
shillings."
At the same session it was "ordered that mad James bee kepte by Kings
County in general and thatt the deacons of each towne within the sayde
county doe fforthwith meete together and consider about theire
proportions ffor the maintenance of sayde James."
Disputes having occurring between Brooklyn and Flatbush relative to
their boundary or town lines, reference was had to the Court of Sessions
and action was had thereon, as will appear by the record of its
proceedings:
"Att a Cort of Sessions held ffor the West Riddinge of
Yorkshire, uppon Long Island, the 18th day of December, 1677,
the following order was mayde: There being some difference
between the towns of Fflackbush and Brucklyne conserninge theire
boundes, the which they are both willing to reffer to Captain
Jacques Cortelyou and Captain Richard Stilwell too decyde, the
Cort doe approve thereoff, and order theire report too bee
determinative."
These Commissioners took five years and a half to perform their labors,
and then reported the result of their deliberations, as follows:--
_To the Worshippful Cort of Sessions nowe sitting at Gravesende,
June 21, 1683_:
These maye certiffie thatt inn obedience too an order ffrom
sayde Cort and bye consente of bothe townes of Breucklyn and
Ffackbush, too run the lyne twixt the sayde townes, which are
wee underwritten, have done and markt the trees twixt towne and
towne, as witness our hands the daye and yeare above written.
JACQUES CORTELYOU,
RICHARD STILLWELL.
The surveyor, Philip Wells, gave his certificate that he found the line
run by the Commissioners to be just and right. These certificates were
recorded by order of the court.
In 1671 one Thomas Lambertsen and wife sued John Lowe for defamation of
character. The defendant confessed that he was drunk, "and was verry
sorry for defaminge the plaintiff's wife," and begged his pardon in open
court. They "ordered him to paye the costs off the plaintiff's
attendance, and keepe a civill tongue in his heade."
Some of the orders made by the Court of Sessions, as contained in the
ancient records, are very interesting at this period, and express in a
great measure the character of the early settlers:--
"At a Court of Sessions held at Gravesend the 16th day of June
by His Majesty's authority in the twenty-first year of the reign
of our Sovereign Lord Charles the second, by the Grace of God of
Great Britaine, Ffrance and Ireland, King, Defender of the
ffaith, in the year of our Lord, 1662. Present: Mathias Nichols,
Esquire, President; Mr. Cornelis Van Ruyter, Captain; John
Manning, Mr. James Huddard, and Mr. Richard Betts, Justices.
"Weras during this Court of Sessions their have been several
misdemeanors committed in contempt of authority in the towne of
Gravesende, by one throwing down the stocks, pulling down of
fences and such like crimes; the court also find that there was
noe watch in the town which might have prevented itt, and being
the offenders cannot be discovered, itt is ordered that the
towne stand fined five pounds till they have made discovery of
the offenders."
The penalty in slander cases was very light, as appears by a verdict
rendered in an action for defamation in 1699. The verdict was as
follows: "At a cort of General sessions, held att Gravesende, December
1, 1669, John Ffurman, plf., vs. Adraiaen Ffrost, def't. The Plaintiff
declared in an action of defamacon, how that the defendant reported him
to be a purjured person, and common lyer, which was sufficiently
proved, and also confessed by the defendant. The Jury brought in the
verdict for the plaintiff, with five pounds damages and costs."
Among the measures marking the progress of the county was a provision by
which all the highways in the region were to be laid out four rods wide.
When, in 1685, the Duke of York succeeded to the throne of England under
the title of James II., he instructed Governor Dongan to assert the
prerogative of the Crown as a natural right, to impose taxes, and also
prohibited the establishment of printing presses in the colony. He was
opposed to the diffusion of information, and evidently thought that
education and knowledge would weaken and destroy his power over the
people. Thus, selfishness marked his whole course. In August, 1685, the
provincial council was dissolved by order of the Governor, and no other
was chosen or summoned. This course was adopted to lessen the influence
of the people, and concentrate the entire management and control in the
hands of the Governor.
On the 3d of May, 1686, an important event occurred for Brooklyn. It was
the issuance of a patent whereby all the rights and privileges granted
by Governor Nichols in 1667 were fully confirmed and ratified. Dongan,
in the same year, also granted a charter to the city of New York,
confirming the franchises previously granted to the corporation, and
placed the government upon a solid foundation. The Governor, however,
still retained the appointment of mayor, under-sheriff, clerk, and all
other important officials, merely giving the people the right to choose
their aldermen, assistant aldermen, and minor officials, at an annual
election to be held on St. Michael's day. This patent of 1686 was a very
important document for New York City. Upon this document New York based
its claims to ownership in the Brooklyn shore. It was this charter which
made sailors on board of United States vessels at the Brooklyn Navy Yard
citizens of New York City, and gave them the right to vote in the
seventh ward of New York.
Dongan was a fast friend of the Indians, and during his administration
secured their good will by counsel and assistance. He had their
confidence, and in various ways they manifested gratitude. They called
him the "white father," and he was long held in remembrance by the
savage tribes, who appreciated his many kind acts to them. He succeeded
better with the Indians than he did with the whites.
The King was anxious to introduce the Catholic religion, in opposition
to the wishes of the colonists. The feeling between the two parties
formed as a result of this threat became very bitter. Dongan quickly saw
that the policy of intolerance would jeopardize the perpetuity and peace
of the English possessions, and opposed the measure. The Crown officers
appointed by the home government were all Catholics, and in order to
appease popular prejudices, Dongan selected his councilors from among
the best known and foremost Protestants. This judicious policy was not
approved by the King, and in 1688 Dongan was recalled, and Francis
Nicholson assumed the management of affairs.
In the mean time, Sir Edward Andros had been appointed royal governor of
New England and New York. Nicholson, as his deputy, acted during his
absence. The troubles which assailed the people in consequence of the
arbitrary acts of the King were not to last long. The hour of
deliverance was at hand. The dismal forebodings of the people were
removed when the intelligence was received that the King had abdicated
his throne, and that the reign of William and Mary had begun. This was
in 1689. The citizens of New York thereupon assumed the power to remove
and depose all the officials who had been appointed through the
instrumentality of the late king. The authority of Deputy Nicholson was
questioned. Each sovereign had adherents. Parties were formed among the
people. One sustained the late sovereign, while another supported the
new potentates. Political and religious discussion waxed warm, and the
two parties became known as the democratic and aristocratic classes.
Some maintained that the change of sovereigns in no way affected the
colonial government, and that the commissions granted by James were
valid until set aside and declared illegal by the new power. Others
considered the change in England as a complete revolution, which
extended to every province belonging to the kingdom. They held that all
things were in a state of anarchy, and that no one possessed the power
to control; that all officials were _functus officio_, and consequently
the power rested with the people, and that they alone could devise
measures or means of government, until the sovereign will should be
expressed.
As a result of this condition of affairs the inhabitants of Long Island
deposed their magistrates and elected others to fill the places of those
they had removed. They also took occasion to send a large body of
militia to New York to aid the popular party in that city, which was led
by Jacob Leisler. He held the position of captain, was an old, wealthy,
and respected citizen, a firm Protestant, and an opponent of the
Catholics. The public money was deposited in the Fort, and the people
were anxious to secure its control. A detachment of forty-seven men
repaired to the Fort, obtained possession without resistance, and
Captain Leisler became the acknowledged and recognized leader of the
revolutionary movement. He assumed control in behalf of the new
sovereigns, and at once took measures to protect the public property.
The defenses were strengthened, and a battery of six guns erected. The
erection of this battery was the beginning of the public park long known
as the Battery.
As everything was in a chaotic state, it was deemed advisable to
organize a Committee of Safety, whose first act was to place the city
under the command of Leisler. Subsequently the authority of Leisler was
confirmed by a dispatch directed to the late Governor, or to such other
persons as might be in command, requiring such person to assume the
entire control of governmental affairs. Thereupon Leisler took the title
of Lieutenant-Governor, and appointed his advisory council, consisting
of eight well-known citizens, to aid him in the discharge of his trust.
Having entire and complete supremacy, he resolved to place the city in
an orderly condition, and to accomplish this purpose took active
measures. His conduct did not please the people. Some were jealous of
his power, and began to stir the people into rebellion. This was
accomplished with but little effort, and resulted in a street riot, from
which the Governor barely escaped with his life. The services of the
militia were called in requisition, and for a short time the result was
uncertain. The riot, however, was subdued. Several of the ringleaders
were captured, thrown into prison, and a court summoned to try them for
treason. The chief leader, Nicholas Bayard, was kept in the cells of the
City Hall for a period of fourteen months, until released by Governor
Sloughter.
In 1691, General Henry Sloughter was appointed Governor by the sovereign
authority. Upon his arrival he demanded the surrender of the Fort,
which at first was refused. Major Ingolsby, who had been appointed by
him Lieutenant-Governor, at once landed his forces and blockaded the
Fort. In this work Ingolsby was aided and urged on by the enemies of
Leisler. For seven weeks the city was kept in this state. Leisler
refused to surrender his authority until the commission of the new
governor was produced. At the same time, however, he declared himself
willing to surrender possession to any one duly authorized and deputed
to take his place. Ingolsby, still urged on by Leisler's foes, did all
he could to irritate and annoy him.
On the 19th of March, 1691, Sloughter was met by a delegation consisting
of Philipse Van Courtland and others, representing the anti-Leislerian
party, which expressed to him a cordial greeting and loyalty. With his
escort from the city he proceeded to the City Hall, exhibited his
commission, and took the oath of office. It was late at night when he
reached the Hall, and although it was near midnight he dispatched
Ingolsby and a party of soldiers, at the instigation of Van Courtland
and his friends, to demand a surrender of the Fort. Leisler was
suspicious, and thinking that all was not right, refused to surrender,
and sent a letter by one of his men who had known Sloughter, with
directions to ascertain if he was really present and had issued the
order, or whether it had been prepared by some one who had assumed the
rôle of authority. This act angered Sloughter, and he at once told the
messenger that he intended to make himself known in New York. Major
Ingolsby was again directed to return and take possession of the Fort,
and to release Bayard and the other prisoners who had been committed by
Leisler for treason. Upon their release and restoration to freedom they
were elevated to the position of members of the Council. This augured
ill for Leisler. The new Governor summoned Leisler and his son-in-law,
Milburne, to appear before him without delay. Leisler refused to give up
possession and still held the Fort. He, however, sent Milburne and
Delanoy to the Governor to obtain the assurance that his life would be
spared. The messengers sent to make terms were imprisoned, and another
demand was made to surrender. Leisler became frightened; matters were
becoming exceedingly hot and disagreeable. Resistance could not be kept
up much longer, and he feared his life would be forfeited in consequence
of his disobedience to the lawfully constituted authority. He deeply
felt the necessity of reconciliation, and sent a letter of apology to
the Governor for holding the Fort. He admitted that his action had been
unwise, and excused himself on the ground that he feared the people
would take his life if he gave up control to Ingolsby. This letter was
treated with contempt, receiving no consideration at the hands of the
Governor or his Council. Sloughter convened his Council at the City
Hall. All of its members were enemies of Leisler. Leisler, deserted by
the soldiers of the Fort, was brought a prisoner before Sloughter, and
imprisoned with several others in the guard-house.
At this meeting of the Council the Governor appointed John Lawrence
Mayor of New York.
Leisler with his fellow prisoners remained in the guard-house four days,
when the Governor and Council again met to consider the propriety of his
removal to prison. On the following day a court was organized to try the
prisoners for murder and rebellion. The court met on the 30th day of
March. Leisler refused to put in any plea, maintaining that the court
had no jurisdiction of the case; that the sovereigns alone had the
right to decide whether he had acted without legal authority. The judges
were unwilling to assume the power to decide the question, and submitted
it to the Governor and Council, who held that the point was not well
taken. Thereupon Leisler was found guilty on the 13th day of April,
declared to be a usurper, and with Milburne was condemned to death.
The Governor did not at once sign the death warrant. He was not
satisfied with the situation, and feared to incur the displeasure of the
King. The enemies of Leisler urged him to the act, without success. At
last, after a month had passed away, they adopted a new method to gain
their desire. A feast was prepared, to which the Governor was invited.
They again urged upon him his duty in the matter, and at last by the use
of flattery, and while the Governor was under the influence of the good
wine which had been provided for the occasion, succeeded in their
endeavor.
The anti-Leislerian party, having accomplished the desire of their
hearts, could not rest until the warrant was put into execution. They
feared that the Governor might relent and revoke his order. Nicolls, Van
Courtland, Bayard, and those of their adherents who had been imprisoned
by the direction of Leisler, were burning for vengeance, and nothing but
his ignominious death would allay their fury.
The warrant having been signed, the festal board lost its attractions.
An officer took possession of the document and carried it to the City
Hall. Orders were issued to lead out the prisoners to instant execution.
In order to keep the matter from the ears of Sloughter, some remained at
the entertainment and kept the Governor in good humor and forgetfulness
with wine. The day of execution was cold and dismal. In the drizzling
rain the prisoners were led out to meet their fate. The scaffold was
erected in the park opposite the City Hall. Friends of Leisler gathered
round him in the trying hour, bewailing the doom of their leader, and in
bitter words execrated those who had sought and obtained the death
warrant. Leisler lamented the fate of his son-in-law, and with his dying
breath addressed his son and friend in words of tenderness. Turning to
Milburne he said: "Why must you die? You have been but a servant doing
my will. What I have done has been in the service of my King and Queen,
for the Protestant cause and for the good of my country; for this I
must die. Some errors I have committed; for these I ask forgiveness, and
I entreat my children to do the same."
Thus perished the last Dutch Governor of New York.[33] His remains were
interred in his own ground near the location of old Tammany Hall. The
treatment he received was unjust. He had assumed the reins of government
at the behest of the people, when they had no ruler, and continued to
act in that capacity, considering the open letter of the new sovereigns
as a sufficient authorization. He was condemned unheard, receiving the
treatment of a common malefactor. It is but just to say of him that he
resigned his authority to the new government as soon as the Council had
been sworn in, and as soon as he was properly apprised of his
supersedure. He was prejudged by a court composed of his enemies, some
of whom, on account of malice, were not qualified to try him. In 1695
his estate, which had been confiscated, was restored to his family.
Subsequently Parliament declared that Leisler had held under proper
authority, set aside all acts of attainder and judgments which had been
passed against him and his associates, and the bodies of Leisler and
Milburne received the honor of a public reinterment. It was but tardy
justice.
During Sloughter's administration many important changes were made. The
government was placed upon a firm basis, and various courts were
organized. Courts of Common Pleas and General Pleas were organized in
every county, and the town governments assumed in a measure their
present form. The number of supervisors was reduced to one from each
town, with three surveyors of highways.
In May, 1691, the General Assembly confirmed all previous grants and
patents. The grants to Breuckelen were thus again confirmed.
Governor Sloughter died suddenly July 23, 1691. Some supposed that he
was poisoned by the friends of Leisler, whose bitterness was ever
manifested toward him. The theory of poisoning, however, was not
supported by the _post mortem_ examination.
If religious questions had been at the bottom of the democratic revolt
led by Leisler, the triumph of the aristocratic class did not close the
religious differences.[34] Benjamin Fletcher, who succeeded Sloughter as
Governor, was a man of limited education, narrow views, self-opinionated
obstinacy, and always questionable personal sincerity. It was a darling
project with him to introduce the English language and the Episcopalian
forms of worship. To accomplish this purpose he made strenuous efforts,
bringing to bear every influence within his power. The Hollanders were
wedded to their own peculiar forms of church government, and regarded
their church as best entitled to be considered the established form of
religious worship. Vigorous efforts were consequently made to retain its
supremacy, and great opposition was manifested toward the proposed
change. The Dutch language was long successfully retained in the Dutch
churches. It was not until 1767 that the English language was
introduced, causing great dissatisfaction among the old Knickerbocker
stock. The tenacity displayed in retaining the language of the
fatherland, and the refusal to provide English services, drove many
young people into the Episcopalian fold. To this circumstance may be
ascribed the reason why to-day so many Dutch families are found
connected with that denomination. Had the fathers gratified the wishes
of their children by providing services in the English language, the
Reformed Dutch Church would have retained many families that found their
way into the Episcopalian Church.
William Bradford, of Philadelphia, in 1693, established the first
printing-press in New York City, and had the exclusive contract from
the city government to print the laws, ordinances, and corporation
advertising. He had no competitor, and must have enjoyed a rich harvest.
To Bradford belongs the credit of establishing the first newspaper ever
printed in the province. His effort in this direction proved eminently
successful. The paper was first given to the public in 1725, and was
called the "New York Gazette." At first it was merely a weekly paper,
printed on a small half sheet, containing only two pages. As his
business increased it was enlarged to four pages.
In 1693 Long Island received a new name, being designated as Nassau
Island. The change met with but little favor, and although the name
Nassau is intimately associated with the history of the island and with
local institutions, it failed to become permanent.
During this period a system of privateering came into vogue, which in a
great measure received encouragement from the authorities. The entire
coast was infested by daring buccaneers and pirates, who plundered the
shipping, making serious depredations upon the commerce of the country.
The province suffered greatly from these freebooters, and, although
complaint was made from time to time to the constituted authorities, no
redress or protection was received. The officials themselves were
corrupt, and participated in the profits derived from the nefarious and
infamous business. Governor Fletcher fell under strong suspicion of
complicity. Legitimate trade was destroyed, and many embarked in the new
calling who under other circumstances could not have been induced to
pollute themselves by engaging in so vile a traffic.
The English government at last became alarmed. Trade was suspended and
merchants were afraid to send their vessels and wares over the ocean.
They were unwilling to risk their property in so dangerous and hazardous
an enterprise. It became necessary to adopt active means to suppress
piracy. The Governor could not be trusted, and, in order to break up
this evil, Governor Fletcher was recalled in 1695, and Lord Bellomont
appointed in his stead.
Lord Bellomont did not enter upon the discharge of his duties until
1698. He was a man of quick perception, and was convinced that active
measures were necessary. To carry out his views he urged the Government
to equip an armed naval force to cruise in the western waters and
capture the human sharks who were pillaging vessels and destroying the
commerce of the nation. England at that time was engaged in a war with
France, and had not the means or equipments to respond to the appeal.
She required all her naval vessels to defend herself against her
neighbor. Bellomont was determined to accomplish his laudable
undertaking to destroy piracy in American waters, and, as he could
receive no aid from the Crown, resolved to organize a stock company for
the purpose. He was encouraged in his effort by the King, who approved
the plan, and, with the Duke of Shrewsbury and others of the nobility,
became a shareholder in the company thus formed. The object of the
company was to build and man vessels to capture the pirates. A sum of
money amounting to about $30,000 was raised. A fine and strong vessel
called the Adventure Galley was placed in commission. She carried sixty
sailors and mounted thirty guns.
Captain William Kidd, a bold and adventurous officer, was placed in
command of the ship thus equipped. In order to encourage him in his
labor, it was provided that his share in the enterprise should be one
fifth of the proceeds. He was a man of large experience, having been
engaged in the West Indian and New York trade for many years, and having
at various times been employed as captain of packet ships. His
experience and knowledge of the coast preëminently fitted him for the
undertaking. He had lived in New York a long time, owned considerable
property, and was looked upon as a man in every way worthy to discharge
the duties assigned him. Bellomont and Robert Livingston had the utmost
confidence in him, and gave him a warm recommendation for the position.
He married a lady of high social rank in New York, and was privileged to
move in the best circles of the city.
The vessel sailed under flattering auspices in April, 1699, from
Plymouth, England, for New York. Arriving at the latter port, Captain
Kidd shipped ninety additional men, and proceeded to the Indian seas in
search of pirates. Kidd soon found that his own seamen sympathized with
the buccaneers, and were far from unwilling to assume the rôle of
pirates. It will never be known what arguments induced him to turn aside
from the path of duty, and join the band of pirates he was sent to
destroy. The fact is that he was led to abandon his enterprise, and
became the most daring and bold robber on the sea that ever trod the
quarter deck. Reckless and energetic, he soon enriched himself with
booty taken from merchantmen upon the high seas. It is said that he
would often return to the shores of New York and Long Island, and bury
his ill-gotten gains for future use.
Kidd not only buried treasure on Long Island, but, if romantic
traditions are to be believed, visited the island under certain
sentimental conditions. He is credited with having made early visits to
Bushwick in attendance upon a pretty young woman whose family resided in
that region, and with having sought hospitality at the "Kiekout," on the
way to and from the home of the lady.
Even after the character of his undertakings became known, Kidd ventured
to return to Long Island. After capturing a large frigate he landed at
Gardiner's Island, and buried a quantity of treasure. After dividing
some of the ill-gotten gains with his crew, he discharged them, and went
to Boston to reside, under an assumed name, hoping that he would not be
discovered. In this expectation he made a great mistake. A man like him
could not pass long unnoticed. His past career rendered his detection
sure. Bellomont was in Boston attending to certain affairs of state,
and, meeting Kidd in the street, at once recognized him, and speedily
caused his arrest. It was a proud and happy day for Bellomont, and
proved to be a crowning effort in his life. His wish was accomplished!
He had found and with his own hand arrested the notorious pirate. The
prisoner was at once sent to England on a charge of murder and piracy,
was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death, and executed on the
12th of May, 1701. Kidd's family continued to reside in New York,
feeling keenly the disgrace which had been brought upon them.[35]
Diligent search was now made for his buried treasures. A large quantity
of valuable jewels and gold and silver was found at Gardiner's Island.
The excitement on the subject became intense. Bellomont and Livingston,
having recommended Kidd for appointment as commander of the expedition
against the pirates, and in consequence of their former friendliness for
Kidd, were accused unjustly of having connived at and participated in
his spoils. Had this charge been true, Bellomont would hardly have been
so ungrateful or imprudent as to arrest him in the streets of Boston and
transport him to England for trial and execution.
Bellomont, in the administration of the affairs of state, allied himself
with the democratic faction. Bayard, Van Courtlandt, and the other
members of the Council who had opposed Leisler, were removed, and their
places filled by the former adherents of Leisler. A new Assembly was
called in May, 1699. Bellomont opened it with a speech calculated to
please and encourage the people. He told them that he came with a firm
determination to be just to all interests; that the public money should
not be squandered by any one, and that all officials should be held to a
strict accountability. The address gave satisfaction to the Assembly.
Acts were passed for the suppression of piracy, regulating elections,
and for the indemnification of those who had been excluded from the
general pardon which had been previously granted. Bellomont instituted
and initiated many reforms. Markets were erected at Coenties Slip, and
at the foot of Broad Street. Streets were opened and paved, and
provision was made for keeping them clean. A house was secured and used
as a hospital for the sick poor of the city.
The ferry between Breuckelen and New York was leased for a period of
seven years, and the rates of fare fixed. The fare for a single person
was eight stuyvers in wampum, or a silver twopence; a shilling for a
horse, twopence for a hog, and a penny for a sheep. By the terms of the
lease the city of New York was to build a commodious ferry-house on the
Breuckelen side, which was to be kept in repair by the ferryman.
The jurisdiction of Bellomont was enlarged by his appointment as
Governor of Massachusetts as well as of New York. He was greatly
interested in the Navigation Acts; but his efforts to enforce them were
resisted by the residents and merchants of New England, and met with
opposition in New York. The merchants of New York were incensed at his
conduct, and made a vigorous complaint to the Board of Trade and
Parliament. The matter, however, was never investigated, as he was
released from trial, by the hand of death, in 1701.
In 1697, a mob of Kings County people, who resented the spirit of the
English Government, assembled, "armed, at the Court House of Kings
County, where they destroyed and defaced the King's arms which were
hanging up there." Among those who so convened were the familiar names
of John Rapalje, Jacob Ryerse, Garrett Cowenhoven, Jacob Bennett, and
John Meserole, Jr.
In November, 1697, negroes were not allowed to be brought from New York
on the Sabbath unless they were provided with passes. During the
succeeding years similar legislation was enacted, and the liberty and
freedom of the negro were still more restricted. He was "forbidden to
run about on the Sabbath." The regulations with regard to the observance
of the Sabbath were very stringent. One of the legislative enactments
provided "that no people should pass on the Sabbath day unless it be to
go to or from church, or other urgent and lawful occasions according to
act of Assembly upon penalty of fine and imprisonment."
In 1693 one of the first trials for treason in the New World was held in
Kings County. In those days petit magistrates, clothed with a little
brief authority, became arbitrary, and often imagined that criticism and
words uttered concerning the way they discharged their duties had a
tendency to exasperate the people against the constituted authorities.
They would often cause the arrest and confinement of citizens on
frivolous and baseless charges, and denounce them as guilty of treason.
Such a case was the trial of John Bibaut for "treason." The action taken
by the justices clearly shows that it was a matter of but little moment,
and fraught with no danger to the community. The following order shows
the nature of the case:--
"October 11, 1693. Att a meeting of the Justices off Kings
County, held att the County Hall.
"Present, Roetiff Martense, Nicholaus Stillwell, Joseph
Hagerman, and Henry Ffilkin, Esquires, Justices.
"John Bibaut, off Brookland, inn the county aforesayde, wee aver
being committed bye the said justices too the common jail of
Kings County, ffor divers scandalous and abusive words spoken by
the sayde John against theire majesties authority, and breache
of the peace; the said John having now humbly submitted himself
and craves pardon and mercy off the sayde justices ffor his
misdemeanor, is discharged, paying the officers ffees, and being
on his good behaviour, till the next co
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