USA > Connecticut > Colonial Days And Ways: As Gathered from Family Papers > Part 10
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a wilderness where Indians hunted the deer, or sometimes fired the hut and took the scalp of a too adventurous pioneer.
Robert Livingston was a far-seeing, politic man. As much as might be, he made friends of the wild tribes, paying them fairly for their lands, without regard to the fact that the royal grants were sup- posed to preclude any such necessity, and himself learning, and causing his sons to learn, the Indian tongues, that they might be delivered from the misunderstandings which were so frequent when the several parties to any agreement were depen- dent upon the not always certain loyalty of the interpreters.
Nothing in North America was then so plenti- ful as land, and under the conditions imposed by the royal grants a poor man could not have af- forded to accept a gift of the lordliest manor of them all. Within a specified time a certain num- ber of families had to be brought from Europe and settled upon the granted territory, and their main- tenance for the first few years assured. It is true that the settlers thus brought were expected to pay back at least a part of the first expenditure, but for the time the outlays were heavy, and com- paratively few of the settlers made the losses good.
Farms were leased for long terms, usually for two lives and a half, a period which at that time was said to have averaged about fifty years.
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In his novel of " Satanstoe," one of the most re- liable of historical tales, Cooper says: " The first ten years no rent at all was to be paid; for the next ten the land [five hundred acres] was to pay sixpence currency per acre, the tenant having the right to cut timber at pleasure; for the remainder of the lease sixpence sterling was to be paid for the land and £40 currency or about $100 per year for the mill site. The mills to be taken by the landlord, at 'an appraisal made by men,' at the expiration of the lease ; the tenant to pay taxes." The mill was evidently to be built by the tenant, " who had the privilege of using, for his dams, buildings, etc., all the materials that he could find on the land." To the landlords belonged the duty of constructing roads and bridges, and of making all improvements of a public nature. The rents were usually if not always paid in the produce of the land, which the manor's lord was obliged to get to market at his own expense in order to obtain the necessary cash for his varied undertakings. Such an arrangement would certainly seem to have . been very liberal toward the tenant, and was doubt- less so esteemed at the time, but in after years, when the descendants of the first tenants had for- gotten the heavy advances which had been made by the ancestors of their landlords, and saw how easily the more recent settlers could make homes for themselves in the West, they considered them- selves unjustly treated, and instituted the struggle
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for possession which is known to history as the "anti-rent war."
Of course, nothing of all this was foreseen at the beginning. The first manor lords undoubtedly thought that they were here founding immense holdings after the fashions of the motherland, and they proceeded in a thoroughly businesslike way to make all things secure for the prosperity of their heirs, who, when their time came, did not fail to appreciate what had been done for them.
Governor William Livingston of New Jersey, writing to his brother, the third lord of the Up- per Manor, in 1775, remarked : " Without a large personal estate and their own uncommon industry and capacity for business, instead of making out of their extended tract of land a fortune for their descendants, our grand-parents and parents would have left us but a scant maintenance."
In this expression Governor Livingston seems to have included the manor ladies as well as their lords, and indeed it is plain that the very desirable "capacity for business " was equally needed by both, and the "hand of the diligent that maketh rich " is not an exclusively masculine possession.
The first lady of the manor of Livingston was Alida, the daughter of Philip Pieterse Schuyler, and widow of the Rev. Nicholas Van Rensselaer. Whatever dower in money or lands she may have brought to the aid of her astute second husband, she surely brought one still better in the sturdy
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Dutch qualities of fidelity, thrift, and management. For warmth and strength of family affection, both Mr. and Mrs. Robert Livingston were long remem- bered among their descendants. Mrs. Livingston had come honestly by her executive and adminis- trative ability. Her father had been a man of much influence in the colony, and her mother, née Van Slichtenhorst, survived her husband for twenty- eight years, so managing his large estate, over which she had full control, as to be reckoned the foremost woman in a colony which numbered many women of proved business ability.
The year of this marriage, 1683, was that in which young Robert Livingston made his first pur- chase of land from the Indians-a tract of two thousand acres. Two years later more land was added by purchase, and still one year later came the grant from the crown, when the whole was erected into a lordship or manor, conferring the "Court-Leet," "Court-Baron," and other rights and privileges which were for a long time more visible on the parchments than elsewhere.
On this estate of more than one hundred and sixty thousand acres,1 on the banks of a small but for a short distance navigable tributary of the Hud- son, was erected the first Livingston manor-house. Its last vestige disappeared more than a hundred
1 Charles Carroll of Carrollton, writing in 1776, says that the Livingston Manor then comprised over 300,000 acres. This must have included almost 150,000 acres which had been gradually added by purchase to the original manorial grant.
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years ago, when the present family residence, known as Oak Hill, was built, a mile or more from the ancient site.
Of the first house we only know that it was " thick walled, low browed and heavy raftered," af- ter the then prevailing Dutch farm-house type, only much larger than was usual. We do not know that it was constructed in any way for defense, al- though it well might have been. Probably its builder trusted to keep the peace by his just and friendly dealings with the Indians, and he may also have been prepared for defense. He certainly had good reason to trust somewhat to the number of retainers gathered around him, a majority of whom, like all frontiersmen, would pretty surely be well armed against " big game," which would as surely include aggressively inclined Indians, if any there were; but this does not appear. From the rear of the broad-roofed dwelling stretched away the quarters of the slaves, the other outbuildings, and several barns, some of which were larger than the house itself.
There was much building of houses at various suitable points for the use of the tenant farmers and craftsmen brought from Great Britain, Hol- land, and Germany. To supply the timber for these dwellings sawmill machinery was imported and set up on the banks of the streams in the midst of the forests. Near these mills little settle- ments grew up with a celerity that was remarkable for the time, and spoke volumes for the executive
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and administrative ability of the manor's active lord. In a long, semi-detached wing of the manor- house carpenters and masons were fed and lodged during the long winters, while they did such pre- paratory work as might be possible to forward building operations in the various settlements in such moments as the weather would permit. With the adaptability of all true pioneers, these men could turn their hands to many things, and they manufactured in the manor's workshop and smithy many of the tools which otherwise must have been imported, as well as much of the rude furniture for the pioneer houses. Near by was the grist-mill which supplied flour and Indian meal to all the near settlements, as well as to many outside the manor for perhaps thirty miles up and down the river. On the home farm hundreds of swine and beef cattle were raised, slaughtered, and cured to supply scores of resident families and also for ex- portation. Here the wool of many hundreds of sheep was sheared, carded, spun into yarn, and woven into blankets and cloths to be used for the manor household and by those of the tenants not sufficiently " forehanded " to do this work for themselves.
In one room of the " great house" were held courts where all the difficulties common to fron- tier populations were adjusted, and in the same room were carried on the primitive banking opera- tions of the newly opened region.
Near by were the docks, whence, when the
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river was open, sloops were weekly departing, laden with salted meats, grains, peltries, and lum- ber, or returning with cargoes of all the countless things which could not yet be produced at home. Among these were many articles of luxury and rich household furnishings which must have seemed a trifle incongruous with their new sur- roundings.
Not far away stood the big "store," where all sorts of things, from wrought-iron nails to silks, and from " West Indian sweetmeats " to Dutch garden seeds, were sometimes sold for money, but oftener bartered for country produce and peltries, which would soon find their way to New York, and some ultimately to England, in ships owned by the enterprising Robert Livingston.
All these various branches of business implied the coming and going of many persons, and en- tailed an open-handed hospitality of the widest kind. For this the principal care and oversight fell upon the capable shoulders of Mrs. Livingston. It is traditionally related that the number of per- manent dwellers which the manor-house roof shel- tered during the first twenty years of the eighteenth century averaged something over thirty persons- this being exclusive of slaves, of whom there were more than a hundred having outside quarters, and of white employees. As strangers were always welcome, it was the custom to have beds of all sorts in a state of complete readiness for at least ten
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unexpected guests, while, at a pinch, a good many more could be accommodated without great in- convenience.
Among the dwellers in the manor-house was always the dominie, who, before the erection of the manor church in 1721, held services every winter Sunday in the great kitchen and adjoining dining-room, and in summer on the threshing-floor of the biggest barn. On each Sunday he preached one sermon in Dutch and another in English, and during the week he acted as tutor for Mr. Living- ston's children and young relatives, as well as exer- cised a pastoral care over the members of his congregation. Other inmates were several more or less distant relatives of both Mr. and Mrs. Liv- ingston, all of whom were probably expected to make themselves more or less useful in one way or another, for very few drones could have been tolerated in such an industrious hive.
Robert Livingston was a man of unusual culti- vation for his time. It is said that he was a good classical scholar, and there is proof that he spoke and wrote the English, French, and Dutch lan- guages with fluency and clearness. Both he and his wife had bright, quick, active minds, "were witty and wise," and both were possessed of much personal grace and charm, so that their house was regarded as a delightful home where all other attractions were added to the grace of hospitality.
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The first manor of Livingston, with its many activities, its profuse hospitalities, and its strong contrasts, reminds one of Scott's descriptions of the rude baronial halls in the remote Scotch dis- tricts a few scores of years earlier than this. In the new land there was almost as much feudal authority over more diverse retainers, a greater display of costly plate, tapestries, and rich furni- ture, and the same lack of what were even then considered essential comforts for persons of like social position in regions less remote.
The wide hall and the long drawing-room of the big farm-house were wainscoted in panels. The mantels above the tile-bordered fireplaces were fan- cifully carved, and the walls were hung with costly Flemish tapestries; yet it is doubtful if, during the first three or four decades, any of the floors were carpeted, while that of the dining-room was certainly sanded, and a row of sheepskins, dressed with the wool on, was laid around the table in winter for foot-warmers. At the same time the table was laid with the finest naperies and much solid silver, interspersed with pewter and wooden dishes. During the earliest years there probably was not a single fork, and it is almost certain that there were few if any articles of china, and not many of earthenware. A dozen silver porringers bearing the original crest of the Livingstons, show- ing that they had been brought from Scotland by the first Robert, and a dozen goblets, or tumblers,
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I am not sure which, bearing the same mark, were inherited as their share of the original plate, which was divided by weight, by two of my grandmother's brothers, who were descendants of the fifth genera- tion, and who, it is grievous to know, had them melted to make handsomer but certainly less precious articles. As these persons were but two of the scores of Robert Livingston's descendants among whom his plate had been successively divided, some idea may be formed of its first amount.
The life led by Lady Alida Livingston in her wilderness manor-house was busy, bustling, dominant. Her household was kept well in hand, and so were her husband's business operations ; not merely when he was present to guide them with his own masterful hands, but also during his long absence at his place in the colonial councils, or on his several journeys to England. Mrs. Livingston's family of six sons and daughters received every at- tainable advantage both in learning and accom- plishments. Both she and her husband felt their responsibility as the founders of a family destined to honor and power. They gazed far into the future and builded wisely, yet they did not dream of a result to which their labors were tending.
Their descendants of the third and fourth gener- ation, then grown to be a large, wealthy, keen-wit- ted, and "clannish clan," were, with very few ex- ceptions, found among the strongest opponents to
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British power during the struggle of the colonies for independence, though well knowing that with their success would perish all dreams of the new- world baronies. The course of the three great manor families of Van Rensselaer, Van Cortlandt, and Livingston is alone a sufficient answer to the calumny that "great estates always made active Tories."
CHAPTER XII
PROSPEROUS DAYS ON A LATER MANOR
CHAPTER XII.
PROSPEROUS DAYS ON A LATER MANOR.
Increase of the Clan in Numbers and Wealth. Education. Margaret Beeckman Livingston, Last Lady of the Manor of Clermont.
T HE period from the founding of the first manor in the colony of New York to the beginning of the War of the Revolution was not quite a century, yet during the last third of that time home life on all the manors had greatly changed. What in the later time was held to be vast wealth had resulted from the wise plans and incessant labors of the founders, acting with the natural growth of the country. To such pleas- ant features as had existed in the earlier days many others had been added, while much of that which was unpleasant had disappeared. For miles along the eastern bank of the Hudson, above and below what is now Rhinebeck, almost every sightly eminence was capped with the fine residence of one of the grandchildren of the first lord and lady of the Livingston Manor. At all of these man- sions cordial hospitality, abundant cheer, and all of what was then esteemed splendor, were to be found. There were at this time two Livingston manors, as a portion of the first (which was subse- quently called the Upper Manor) had been set off
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to the founder's third son Robert as a reward for peculiarly important services. This segregated portion was indifferently called the " Lower Manor of Livingston " or "Clermont" until after the colonies had become States, when it became definitely known as Clermont, one of the most celebrated country-seats in America.
The manor ladies of the third generation and their successors of the fourth (though the title of these last had become one of courtesy only) were well-nigh queens on their own domains ; but, like all queens who are not mere figureheads, they had many cares, which they accepted as frankly as they did the pleasures of their position.
Notions of political independence had for many years been growing through all the colonies, but of social equality there was scarcely a whisper. Certainly it was far from the thoughts of those who had belonged to good families in the old countries and had here been held in honor and had pros- pered to the extent of founding families of wealth. Perhaps no more frankly fervent aristocrats ever lived than the owners of the great colonial estates, whether these were situated on the banks of the James and the Chesapeake or on those of the Hud- son. They were free from most of the restraints and traditions which often hung like fetters on the limbs of the kindred class in the motherland, and thus they were at liberty to enjoy their rank, wealth, and cultivation with an almost childish
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naïveté. Of this happy liberty they took the fullest advantage.
From the extreme limits of Van Rensselaer's manor on the north to that of the Van Cortlandts on the south, the eastern bank of the Hudson River from Albany to New York, and for a distance of from fifteen to thirty miles back from the river, was dotted by the handsome residences of as care-free, healthful, fine-looking, and happy a class as prob- ably the society of any country has ever known. Its members were not driven by the fierce compe- tition which embitters so many lives to-day, yet they had abundant and satisfying occupations. They had intermarried so freely that they seemed one great cousinry, all having a serene confidence in the invulnerability of their social position, which left them free to be jovial, hospitable, good-hu- mored, and withal public-spirited to an unusual de- gree. The men had their offices, and their business hours in which to confer with their stewards and tenants, or with the men who conducted large en- terprises of many sorts upon the strength of their capital and under their guidance. Into their ca- pable and willing hands official positions naturally fell and were faithfully filled; but all these things were done in an atmosphere of large leisureliness, consequent upon the slow means of communica- tion between distant points, which is almost beyond the conception of any in these electric days.
The men rode a great deal, or hunted after the
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manner of their English cousins, or they made long expeditions into the unexplored regions of northern and western New York, partly, no doubt, with an eye to present profit or to future invest- ments, but largely to gratify their innate love of adventure. Many of the sons were sent to the English universities of Cambridge or Oxford; but even if his college training had been received at King's (now Columbia) College, the education of no young man belonging to a wealthy and cul- tivated family was considered complete until he had made a tour of Europe, from one to three years being frequently consumed in this way.
Probably owing to the many dangers and the very serious discomforts which then beset an ocean voyage under the most favorable conditions, the sisters seldom accompanied their brothers, though there are a few known instances of daughters who went to England with their fathers, and there and in Scotland were most hospitably entertained by their more or less distant but ever "kindly kin." I have had the pleasure of reading some remark- ably vivacious and charming letters from one such fortunate maiden, as they were copied by my rela- tive, Mr. Livingston Rutherfurd, into his valuable but privately printed volume concerning the Rutherford family in America.
During the long absences of the male heads of the manor families the administration of their home affairs was left in the hands of capable stew-
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ards, who were always under the supervision of the manor ladies Margaret Beeckman, the wife of Judge Livingston, second (and last) lord of the Lower Manor, was the mother of Chancellor Liv- ingston and of nine other goodly sons and daugh- ters, most of whom eventually became distin- guished persons. She displayed remarkable ability not only in fulfilling the duties of her high position during the lifetime of her husband, and in the management of his great estate after his decease, but also in the wise upbringing of her large family. An account-book kept in her own hand, with copious notes relating to crops and stock on her many farms, and to contracts with dealers in lum- ber, wools, and furs, as well as to the more inti- mate matters of household economy, shows a mind of much more than common business ability and breadth of view. The household supplies of every sort were on a scale commensurate with the family's social position, and would in themselves make most interesting reading for one who loves to make the past seem present by recalling the homely details of domestic life.
All the manor families had always encouraged what were then " home industries" in a strictly literal sense. But there were many things which the largest private expenditure could not produce in the new country, and Mrs. Livingston's old ac- count-book shows that persons of wealth did not, for this reason, deprive themselves of much which
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they desired to possess. The things sent for from England, France, and Holland were varied, nu- merous, and costly. Great treasures of tapestries, pictures, inlaid cabinets, jewels, satins, velvets, and laces, as well as old wines, delicate porcelains, and expensive plate, must have been lost when the Clermont manor-house was burned by the British during our Revolutionary War. Among the imported articles were " An eboney Cabinet garnished out with Silver," which cost £40, and another of "Tortus Shell, garnished with Silver Guilte," costing £65 15s. "Two setts of bed cur- tayns broidered, lined & fringed," were £40 each. " Thirty six yards of Broussells carpett with bor- der," £36. These prices probably covered freight charges as well as the original cost. All of these were great treasures for their day, and many such had been imported by Judge and Mrs. Livingston ; but they exist no longer, save on the yellow but strong paper and in the good black ink of the leather-covered account-book kept for many years by Mrs. Margaret B. Livingston.
CHAPTER XIII
A COUNTRY PARSON'S WIFE
CHAPTER XIII.
A COUNTRY PARSON'S WIFE.
Lake, Gallup, Chcse- brough, and Worthington; Elliott, Chauncey, Hop- kins, Ely, and Goodrich. The Parsonage and its Furnishings. Fire and Flint.
T 6 HE roots of a strong character draw their nutriment from far beneath the surface; therefore it is less amiss than it might seem that we begin the simple story of this country pastor's wife by referring to that of another woman, who preceded her by more than a century.
During the twenty-five years which intervened between the landing at Plymouth and the battle of Naseby, New England had become the place of refuge for many of those to whom the mother- land had ceased to be home save in fond remem- brance. Among these self-exiled were many who fled from the choice which they must make, if they remained in England, between their faith on the one hand and an inborn and inbred loyalty to their king on the other.
Of these was one Mrs. Margaret Lake, who is mentioned in our chapter on "A Pioneer Home." She was one of the original grantees of the town- ship of New London, Connecticut, "sharing in all the grants and divisions of land made to the other settlers." Beyond this fact, and that she was a sis-
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ter of the second Governor Winthrop's second wife, little more than is told in that chapter is known concerning her. The father of Mrs. Win- throp and Mrs. Lake belonged to that class which has ever furnished the backbone of old England -the frequently gentle born though often far from wealthy class of hereditary landowners, living at a distance from courts and fashions, but availing themselves of the best educational advantages afforded in their time. Many of this class fought and died for the worthless Stuarts, and to it also belonged the most upright and humane portion of Cromwell's ever-valiant forces.
The years from 1645 onward to 1675, the date of the battle with the Pequots known as the Great Swamp Fight, were full of danger to the New England colonists. Whatever their tender-hearted descendants may think about the matter in these days of security, there is no doubt that to our an- cestors the Indian was a continual menace and ter- ror, and no man gained more of the admiration of his fellows than he who best held in check this formidable foe. Among such defenders none in what is now known as New London County, Con- necticut, was held to be stronger of arm and more dauntless of soul than Captain John Gallup, the son of a father equally renowned in the same line.
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