USA > New Jersey > Hudson County > Paper read before the historical society of Hudson County. 1908 > Part 4
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prayed their governor to do nothing rash. The old soldier had at first refused to surrender and threatened to blow up the fort with all within it; but better councils prevailed, and without firing a gun New Amsterdam capitulated.
While this squadron of conquest was still on the water, James, the Duke of York, conveyed to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, afterwards Lord Carteret, all the territory ly- ing between the Hudson and the Delaware, and as Carteret was born in the island of Jersey and was governor of that island, which took its name from Cæsar during the Roman Conquest of Great Britain, our State was duly christened "Nova Cæsarea," or New Jersey. It is wonderful that a single stroke of a pen could create a State and give it an enduring name.
Governor Nichols, who commanded the attacking fleet, had already named the lands lying on the west of the river Albania, after the Duke of Albany; but as Sir Philip Carteret, younger brother of the Lord, arrived as governor in July, 1665, the name by which the province had been baptized was confirmed in all his documents, and by reason of his imperial orders we are living to-day in New Jersey.
Governor Carteret established his capital at Elizabeth, and at once confirmed the charter of Bergen, which recognized all Dutch titles and re-organized its court. A tribute of £15 an- nually was paid by Bergen, in consideration of such concession.
A singular document was issued by Peter Stuyvesant on October the twenty-sixth, probably of the year 1665. The year date is so obscure as to remain in doubt. It is a retroactive decree. It seems that the early patents by which land was held individually in Bergen and vicinity had been lost, and this certificate was issued by Stuyvesant as the former Governor of the New Netherlands to form the basis for the subsequent de- crees of Carteret, re-affirming the rights of individuals within the territory of New Jersey.
On the 13th of August, 1665, magistrates were appointed for the re-organized court under the English rule. We recog- nize two names of former City Father's-Harman Smeeman and Caspar Steinmets, and two new names, Elias Michaels and Ide Van Voorst, the son of Cornelius Van Voorst, the original fac- tor of the patroon, whom we met in the earlier history, as the lit- tle boy captured by the Indians during the first Indian war. He had returned to Pavonia and purchased a large farm, form-
34 ing in after days the township of Van Voorst, long afterwards to be included in the corporation of Jersey City.
What the earlier setlers did for their "booze" is not record- ed. It is hardly probable that they were total abstainers. There were many hard drinkers among the early colonists, and, as we found, the vice of intemperance had made great in- roads in New Amsterdam. But according to the record Bergen waited six years for its tavern, and then one Christian Pieters was licensed to keep it. Where it was situated I am not able to state; but the old house on the corner of Bergen and Glen- wood Avenues, opposite the Armory, is built upon the site of a former tavern, which was owned by the Stuyvesants, and Anna Stuyvesant, said to be the sister of old Peter, was a. member of the Bergen Reformed Church in 1664. I have re- cently seen a mortgage by a Peter Stuyvesant in 1811, proba- bly descended from Old Peter, who could not write his name.
I have included these years, from 1664 to 1673, in "The Story of the Dutch Beginnings," because at this time the Eng- lish influence was hardly felt in Old Bergen.
In 1668 delegates were elected to the First Provincial As- sembly in Elizabeth; but the Dutch School and the Dutch Church under its voorleser, with the assistance of the ministers of New York, continued; and the Dutch language was spoken in the homes and the market-place. By this time danger from the Indians had ceased. Sullenly they had removed away to remote regions, and Dutch and English were left in full control.
On St. Bartholomew's Day, 1667, the Peace of Breda for- mally ceded the New Netherlands to the English, and on the following New Year's the peace was proclaimed in New York. Thereafter the colonists calmly accepted the situation and pre- pared to make themselves comfortable under His Majesty, Charles the Second.
In the policies of Europe there was a close alliance be- tween England, Sweden, and Holland, for the purpose of curb- ing the aggressions of Louis the Fourteenth; but the alliance was scarcely two years old, when the weak and fickle King of England, tempted they say by a French mistress, broke away from the Triple Alliance and joined hands with his old enemy of France to declare war upon Holland.
The Dutch despatched a fleet magnificent for the day, of
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23 warships carrying 1,600 troops, as well as the crews, to prey upon the English shipping upon the coast of America. During the hot weather of August, in the year 1673, the vic- torious fleet paid a visit to New York. After a brief exchange of volleys with the fort, which had been christened Fort James, the troops landed above the city, marched triumphantly to the gateway on Bowling Green, and in a few minutes the fort had a new name, Fort William Hendrick, after the new Staatholder ; while the New Netherlands and New Amsterdam, afterwards New York, were christened over again New Orange.
Carteret sullenly remained in his domain on the Achter- koll, but his dominion had ceased, and Anthony Colve, a cap- tain of infantry, was made Governor of the New Netherlands.
The inhabitants of Bergen and vicinity gladly heeded the summons to surrender. Their representatives speedily crossed the river to lay their submission before the new governor, and, according to his orders, one Sunday morning after service, the officers of the law appeared, and all the citizens, summoned by blast of trumpet, took the oath of allegiance to submit to the States-General in Holland and to their appointed representa- tives in New Orange. We can imagine the rejoicing among the old Dutch families! The Cross of St. George came down, and proudly floated the insignia of their fatherland. The little cannon for defence against the Indians boomed out the salute to the flag, and the townspeople of Bergen crowded the Square with the warmest congratulations on the triumphs of their be- loved country across the sea.
Again there were edicts issued, re-organizing the courts and confirming titles. The lawyers were busy making good the tenure of farms and town land. An ordinance by the Council of Bergen, concerning the observance of the Sabbath, was amended in New Orange to legalize work of charity and necessity.
The second occupation by the Dutch, however, was of short duration. Spain cast in her lot with her old enemy of the Netherlands as a diplomatic manœuvre to prevent the disinte- gration of Spanish territory by the King of France, and all parties being tired of war, a treaty was signed at Westminster between the British King and their High Mightinesses of the Hague, which re-established peace and ceded forever to the English the provinces of the New Netherlands.
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It required a new grant from Charles the Second to the Duke of York to return to the status previous to the Dutch conquest, and a new, though reluctant, grant from the Duke of York to his old friends, the proprietors of New Jersey. The status of our State was re-established, New Jersey remained a British province until the revolution and the Declaration of In- dependence. The domination of the English was not unwel- come to the colonists. Statesmen of even Dutch birth or par- entage perceived the impossibility of continuing a Dutch prov- ince between the growing and prosperous New England colon- ies and the enlarging boundaries of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. The Frenchmen were threatening from the north. There was perpetual bickering between the authorities of New England and the New Netherlands. There were troubles on the Delaware with everybody except William Penn, and peace was impossible without an English master. Moreover, Carteret had treated the people of New Jersey with ex- treme liberality, and the Dutchmen who had founded their new homes in the western wilds, were above all desirous of the peaceful possession of their bouweries.
Therefore, as the curtain rings down upon the Dutch rule in America, we behold the unification of the colonies on the Atlantic seaboard under one flag; and in view of the succession of events in the next century, we gratefully acknowledge the kind Providence which cemented this union as a preparation for the closer confederation of the Revolution and the birth of the "United States of America, by the grace of God, free and independent."
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THE DUTCH UNDER ENGLISH RULE, 1674-1775.
Paper read before "The Historical Society of Hudson County" by Daniel Van Winkle
No. 2. Thursday evening, April 23d, 1908.
S we have learned, the transfer of allegiance of the inhab- itants of the province of New Netherlands to the Eng- lish, under the Treaty of Westminster in 1674, was effected without any unusual commotion.
The Dutch were a philosophic as well as a phlegmatic peo- ple, and so long as their personal rights and privileges were kept inviolate, they pursued their avocations with complacency regardless of the political changes that were going on about them. A natural reverence for lawful authority constrained them to submit, and the oath of allegiance to the English king was taken with a facility equalled only by their renunciation of the same obligation but one year previous.
They had left the fatherland, lured by the glowing accounts of the riches of the new world, expecting to gain there the wealth and comforts for which they had been striving under less favorable conditions. They were essentially a home-mak- ing as well as a home-loving people, and, influenced in part perhaps by their faith in the promise that "the meek shall in- herit the earth," submitted to the change of administration with becoming resignation. Be this as it may, they continued the even tenor of their way, cultivated their fields, disposed of their produce in the neighboring city, and accumulated their guilders with genuine Dutch pertinacity and satisfaction.
In this cheerful submission they were amply justified by the liberal terms of capitulation, which stated that "all people shall continue free denizens and shall enjoy their houses, lands, and goods wheresoever they are within this country, and dispose of them as they please. The Dutch here shall enjoy their own customs concerning their inheritance," &c.
These liberal concessions were afterward supplemented in the pronunciamento of Governor Carteret, as will be seen here- after, and doubtless aided much in the peaceful establishment of the English rule.
In order to obviate any difficulty of title to the New Neth-
F14-2 H&HG
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erlands that may have arisen through the successive ownerships, Charles II. June 29, 1674, made a second grant to the Duke of York of the territory previously conveyed, and which was some- what indefinitely described as "All the property from the city of New York eastward to the Connecticut River. Westward along the coast beyond the Delaware River, and to the northward up Hudson's River so far as Schenectady, and from thence to the lakes of Canada, and thence westward so far as the Senecas' land or the Indians' hunting reacheth."
It will be recollected that Lords Berkley and Carteret had appointed Sir Philip Carteret, Governor over the province of New Jersey, and he, as Governor, had published his concessions defining the rights and privileges granted thereunder. These were of so liberal a character, that settlers were attracted and drawn even from the New England provinces. Note the set- tlement and growth of Newark and Elizabethtown.
Notwithstanding this, envious eyes were cast upon the fair province of New Jersey. The Royal Governors of New York did not relinquish their efforts to secure the re-annexation of the territory and continued their attempts to exercise jurisdic- tion over it.
Governor Andros in 1678, and in 1687 his successor, Gov- ernor Dongan, urged the claims of the royal government, and prayed His Majesty "to add to New York: Connecticut and Rhode Island, for the reason that as Conn. now lies it takes away from us almost all the land of value that lies adjoining to Hudson's River; and as for East Jersey, it being situate on the other side of Hudson's River and between us where the river disembogues itself into the sea, paying no custom and having likewise the advantage of having better land, and most of the settlers there out of this government, we are like to be deserted by a great many of our merchants who intend to set- tle there if not annexed to this government. Goods are being run there without the payment of His Majesty's customs, and no way of preventing it. And as for beaver and peltry, it is im- possible to hinder it being carried thither; the Indians value not the length of their journey, so as they can come to a good market, which these people can better afford them than we, they paying no custom or excise inward or outward."
"Privateers and others can come within Sandy Hook and take what provisions and goods they please from that side. Of-
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ten ships break bulk there and run their goods into that colony, with intent afterward to import same privately at more leisure into this province. And indeed to make Amboy a port will be no less inconvenient for the same reasons. Neighboring col- onies being not come to that perfection, but that one fort may sufficiently serve them. We of this government look upon that bay that runs into the sea at Sandy Hook to be Hudson's River, thererefore as my instructions are that all vessels that come into Hudson's River shall enter at New York, I claim impost of all entering Sandy Hook."
And again Governor Sloughter presents in 1691 an addi- tional remonstrance. After alluding to the grants of King Charles to the Duke of York, he continued: "Out of this," that is, the New Netherlands, "the Duke of York granted a certain tract of land unto Lord John Berkley and Sir George Carteret, limited and bounded by Hudson and Delaware Rivers. The revenue that is established in this province is of such a nature that if the encroachments and pretences of our neighbors be removed, it will not only be sufficient to defray the charge of Your Majesty's government, but also bring profit into Your Majesty's coffers."
"East Jersey is situate on Hudson's River over against . Long Island, Staten Island, and New York, and they pretend by the aforementioned grant to be a free place and have free ports to trade as they please, which if admitted, must certainly destroy Your Majesty's interest and revenue here; for what merchant will come to New York and trade and pay to Your Majesty 2 and 10 per cent. with the excise and Your Majesty's duty settled here, if they can at two or three miles distance over against the same place go and be free from any duty or imposition whatsoever? Wherefore we ask that these territories be re-annexed to Your Majesty's province."
Certainly cogent and substantial reasons, and New York has never lessened her demand for tribute from other territory down to the present time. However, the fiat had gone forth and the rights of East Jersey were successfully maintained.
But to retrace our steps somewhat. In 1676 the province of New Jersey had by various transfers come into the posses- sion of Sir George Carteret, E. Billinge, William Penn, Gar- ven Lawrie, and Nicholas Lucas, and on July Ist of that year, what was called the Quintipartite Deed, was agreed upon and
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signed by these five men, dividing the province into East and West Jersey. The line of partition, as described and laid down was "from the east side of Little Egg Harbor, straight north through the country to the utmost branch of the Delaware River, with all powers, privileges, and immunities whatsoever." By this conveyance Sir George Carteret became sole owner of East Jersey, while West Jersey fell to the ownership of the other four. A controversy arose between the owners of these sections questioning the justice of the division, the West Jersey owners complaining they had not received an equitable share, and efforts were made for a re-adjustment of the dividing line that resulted in a final determination in 1719.
The uncertainty of boundary lines and the indefiniteness of grants and patents caused much difficulty in the early days of the province. The Dutch burgher brought with him an in- herited love of his "home acre," and he not only clung to it with a peculiar tenacity, but strove to increase its bounds whenever practicable. The very indefiniteness of the grants, made it not difficult for the more shrewd, to circumvent his less favored neighbors. Even as late as 1732 Governor Colden reports:
"As no special quantity of land or definite bounds appear in the grants, the extent of the claim appears to have been guaged by the avarice of the grantee. I have heard of one in- stance, at least, where the patent grants 300 acres, and the patentee now claims upwards of 6,000 within the bounds of his grant. Others suspecting that such disproportion between the real quantity, and the quantity expressed in the grant might invalidate the patent, gave the description, for example, 1,000 acres of profitable land besides woodland and waste, and yet, where the lands are granted, perhaps there were not 10 acres that was not woodland. Oftentimes, to guard against any rigid interpretation of the grant the words, 'Be it more or less,' were inserted, and consequently ten times as much as was in- tended was successfully claimed." He continues :
"Their boundaries are generally expressed with much un- certainty by the Indian names of brooks, rivulets, hills, ponds, falls of water, &c., which are known to few Christians," and then plaintively sets forth that "It is too well known that an Indian will show any place, by any name you please, for the small reward of a blanket or a bottle of rum," and naively adds :
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"These things supposed, I can make no doubt of a remedy in the common course of law, but, notwithstanding of this, I apprehend that it will be accompanied with so many difficulties that it will be better to think of some other; for few grants in America are made with such skill and care, that some flaw may not be found in them by a strict and legal search. So that every man will be apt to look upon any attempt of this kind as in some measure his own case, and those that are really con- cerned will use all their art to stir up the people to make it a county quarrel."
Sir George Carteret, by will dated December 5, 1678, de- vised all his interest in East Jersey to trustees to be sold for the payment of his debts. Two years later, in 1680, this was done, and the title to the territory became vested in the twelve men who purchased it and who were known as "The Twelve Proprietors of East New Jersey." In 1683 these Twelve Prop- rietors conveyed by special deed one-half their respective inter- ests to twelve others, whereupon East New Jersey was now owned by twenty-four Proprietors, each of whom held in fee one twenty-fourth part of the territory so described. The property sold by these Proprietors, from time to time, was sub- jected to an annual rent of one halfpenny per acre, and con- firmatory grants of previous conveyances were made subject to the same rental. The property lying within the limits of Ber- gen was included under this charge, which was afterward com- pounded to £15 sterling per annum. The payment of this be- ing neglected, a controversy arose between the freeholders of the township of Bergen and the Lords Proprietors. Smarting under the injustice of this charge, and feeling that the rights as granted to them under the Dutch government and afterward explicitly confirmed by the Carteret Charter, was being ignored, the indignation of the burghers became intense, and they ut- terly refused to comply with the unjust demand. Whereupon one of their number was seized to ensure the payment of the claim. A compromise was afterward effected and a gen- eral release and quit-claim deed was given to the freeholders, through which such annual rental was extinguished for the consideration of $1,500.
The Proprietory government seemed to have cared lit- tle for the true welfare of their constituents, for in 1700 we find a remonstrance from the people of East Jersey to King
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William, complaining "that notwithstanding the settlers had purchased lands at their own cost, the Proprietory government or their agents, without any pretended process of law, have given and granted great parts of said lands by patent, to several of the said proprietors and others as they see fit, and that al- though there was a pretense of government, they were without defence or magistrates to put the laws into execution : and pray for a fit person for Governor qualified according to law, who as an indifferent judge may decide the controversies and settle all differences. That there did not remain among them the shadow of law or gospel, having neither judge or priest."
In 1682 East Jersey was divided into four counties-Ber- gen, Essex, Middlesex, and Monmouth. Bergen County is de- scribed as follows: "That on the eastern division the county shall begin at Constable Hook and so run up along the Bay and Hudson's River to the partition point between New Jersey and New York, and along that division line to the division line between the east and west sections of the province to the Pe- quannock River, and thence by such river and the Passaic to the Sound (or the Achter Kohl), and thence by the Sound to Constable Hook where it began." Out of this territory the present counties of Passaic, Bergen, and Hudson were erected, the latter being practically identical with the old Indian grant to Peter Stuyvesant in 1658, and the townships of Harrison and Kearney. It is this territory with which we are mostly concerned in our investigations, although it may be necessary, from time to time, in order that the then existing conditions may be understood, to include other territory.
At this time there were 70 families at and about Ber- gen town; 40 at Communipaw; about 20 at Bayonne and Green- ville; I at Paulus Hook ; 5 or 6 at Aharsimus; 2 or 3 at Hobo- ken and above, with a few additional scattered throughout the country.
In the early days the dwelling houses of the settlers were congregated within the towns of Bergen and Communipaw, while their farms extended out over the outdrift (or Buyten Tuyn), as the outlying territory was called. But after all dan- ger from Indian incursions was past, farmhouses were erected in different sections of the county, and until within the last half century their vine-covered walls and quaint gabled
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roofs tinged with the moss of years, added much to the pictur- esqueness of the landscape.
The great fertility of the soil and its proximity to a never- failing market attracted many thrifty settlers, and the whole county became a noted farming district. Much of the territory, however, especially the northern portion, retained its primeval aspect and was covered with dense woods. These furnished abundant supplies for fuel, and the fences that marked the boundary lines of the individual farm lands. Much of the Fall was spent in cutting the trees into suitable lengths, which were transported during the Winter on a sled, and stacked in great heaps convenient for use. There were then no air-tight fur- naces or steam-heating refrigerators, to excite to a righteous in- dignation the long-suffering householder, but just large wide- open fireplaces, whose cavernous mouths ever yawned for asupply of nutriment from which to extract the grateful warmth that struggled with the icy blasts roaring about the wide chimney- tops, at times scattering the sparks and ashes over the well- scoured floor. In the early Springtime, farming duties were supplemented by, and intermingled with fishing and oyster in- dustries, and the early reputation of the bay as being "the abode of numberless edible fish of divers sorts and kinds" was long sustained. Shad, sturgeon, and salmon were taken in abund- ance, while the oyster beds were divided and their boundaries designated and clung to with as great pertinacity as those of the farm lands.
April 15, 1702, the Proprietors surrendered the government to the crown, and Lord Combury was constituted Captain-Gen- eral and Governor-in-Chief. He arrived in 1703. Long and protracted negotiations were entered into without result. He was succeeded by Lord Lovelace, who summoned the Council to meet him at Bergen, December 20, 1708, and the following Spring met the Assembly at Perth Amboy. His death occurred shortly after, and Robert Hunter, appointed as his successor. Negotiations which had been far advanced by Governor Love- lace were resumed and progressed favorably.
In 1709 Bergen is described as follows: "In situation on Hudson's River, opposite and adjacent to New York, it opens an advantageous intercourse with that market. Their lands are generally good for grass, wheat, or any other grains. The Schuylers have here two large parks for deer. The inhabitants
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