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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02233 6975
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A SKETCH OF
FRAUNCES TAVERN
and those connected with its history
BY
HENRY RUSSELL DROWNE
Secretary of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of New York
"For the life-thread of its site runs brightly back almost to the be- ginnings of the city, and the experience of its walls has struck almost every tone in the wide gamut of the city's social, commercial, civic and political career."
MRS. M. F. PIERCE.
"The ancient and famous inn where the Commander-in-Chief tenderly parted with his officers." GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS.
FRAUNCES TAVERN NEW YORK
1919
Copyright 1949 by HENRY RUSSELL, DROWNE
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FRAUNCES TAVERN
Broad & Pearl Streets New York City
Our story starts at a very early period in the history of this great city, for historians tell us that shortly after Hudson returned to Holland with the "Half Moon," five trading vessels were sent over here, among them the ""l'iger," commanded by Captain Block. The "Tiger" caught fire and was completely destroyed in 1613, and a new ship was finished and launched the next spring (1614) called the "Onrest" (Restless), which was built on the site of what is now Fraunces Tavern. This was the first ship built here, and the third on the American Continent.
The plot of ground upon which this building stands was diagonally
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across the way from the site of the original "Stadt Huys" of New Amster- dam and was a water lot granted to Stephanus Van Courtlandt by the Mayor and Alderman of the City of New York, Nicholas Bayard, Mayor, on November 19, 1686 (Liber A of Water Grants, Page 22-23). It is described as bounded westerly by Prince's Graft Street (now Broad) and northerly by Strand Street (later Dock, Queen and lastly Pearl), originally the line of the strand at high water. On every 25th of March the rent was to be one peppercorn, if same be legally demanded.
This was the twelfth grant, dated November 19, 1686, made by the Corporation under the power conferred by the Dongan Charter of April 27, 1686.
Stephanus Van Courtlandt is recorded as having been, at the age of thirty-four, the third Mayor of the City in 1677, and again in 1686 and 1687, and was the first Mayor who had been born in America; the date of his birth being May 7, 1634. The family came from Keurtlandt (Cort- landt) in Holland, and they adopted van (from) Cortlandt as a surname.
His father was Olof Stevensen Van Courtlandt, who bought the op- posite corner of Broad and Pearl Streets as early as February 24, 1665, which plot belonged to the family until 1785. He was made Commissary of the Customs Office of the Dutch West Lidia Company in 1639 and had charge of the public stores until 1648. He then became a merchant, later was one of the richest men in the community, and in 1642 married . Annetje I,oockermans. In 1654 he was appointed Burgomaster of New Amsterdam, remained in office almost continuously until 1664, when the colony was surrendered to the British. He died in 1687.
The origin of the name Stone Street is said to be from the fact that he established his home and had a large brewery in Brouwer Street, where the dust raised by his great wagons so vexed his good wife that she persuaded him to lay a stone pavement before their property. This ex- cited so much curiosity and comment that it was soon called "Stone Street," which name it still bears.
Stephanus Van Cortlandt married Gertruyd, daughter of Philip Pieterse Schuyler, in 1671 and died in 1701. They lived in New York until his estates were erected into a manor by patent from William III, King of
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England, on June 17, 1697, after which time he built the first Cortlandt Manor house on the shore of Croton Bay. This manor was held by a feudal tenure, for which the rent of forty shillings (about $10) was paid annually to the crown on the feast day of the Annunciation. During the Revolution the proprietors of Van Cortlandt Manor were Pierre, grandson of Stevanus, and his son, Philip Van Cortlandt. They espoused the Amer- ican Cause and were among the staunchest allies of Washington, despite the fact that the Phillipses and younger branches of the Van Cortlandt family were Tories.
New York was, about 1680, a city of some three thousand inhabitants and comprised some three hundred and fifty houses. Pearl Street was first known as "The Strand" and faced the river, as indicated by the name.
On April 11, 1700, Colonel Stephanus Van Cortlandt gave the lot on which Fraunces Tavern now stands to the husband of his daughter Anne, who had married in 1699 Etienne (or Stephen) de Lancey, a merchant (it is recorded in Liber 23 New York Deeds, page 147), and then described as being at the corner of Broad and Dock Streets. Etienne de Lancey, a French Huguenot, born in Caen, Normandy, October 24, 1662, came to this country in consequence of the repeal of the "Edict of Nantes." It is said that his mother gave him her jewels, which he took to England and sold for three hundred pounds. With this little fortune he came to New York in 1686, and started in business as a merchant. He was a member of the Assembly for some twenty-six years and at the time of his death, in 1741, was buried in Trinity Churchyard.
The house was built by him in 1719, and was then one of the finest residences in the city, and during his occupancy historians say no hostess was more hospitable, gracious or popular than Mrs. Stephen de Lancey -- the year is confirmed by the Minutes of the Common Council of New York under date of April 14, 1719, as, "Mr. de Lancey applies for a small strip of land to make his lot more regular in shape, as he is now going to build a large brick house, etc.," -- and was granted three and a half feet at one corner to straighten the lot and for the better regulating of said street and building.
Just beyond on the water front were the two great sea basins which
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had been enclosed for the better loading and unloading of vessels and near by was the Royal Exchange, and later the Exchange Coffee House.
It is not known when Stephen de Lancey ceased to use the house as a residence, but it is said that he built a new house on Broadway about 1730* and possibly soon after that it was used for public purposes, for in 1737 Henry Holt, a dancing master, announced that a ball would be given in Mr. de Lancey's house.
Pantomine entertainments were given in Holt's Long Room in 1739, called "The Adventures of Harlequin and Searamouch or the Spaniard Trick'd," to which was added "An Optick representing several of the most noted cities and remarkable places in Europe, America, etc.," for which tickets were sold at five shillings each.
The property was inherited by James de Lancey, Chief Justice, Lieu- tenant Governor and Acting Governor of New York, who died in 1760, and his brother, Oliver de Lancey, who, being a royalist, removed to England at the close of the Revolution and died there in exile.
Susannah, the daughter of Stephen de Lancey, was married to Sir Peter Warren, a Knight of the Bath, Vice Admiral of the Fleet and later Member of Parliament, whose epitaph is to be found in Westminster Abbey, London. While a captain in charge of a squadron at the Iceward Islands, he took some twenty-four prizes in less than four months. The captured ships were sent to New York and Messieurs Stephen de Lancey & Co. became his agents for the sale of his French and Spanish loot. They are thought to have been married in the de Lancey Mansion, and later set- tled in Greenwich Village, where they owned a tract of three hundred acres along the Hudson, which was laid out as an English park and where they made their home until he was elected to Parliament some years later. Warren, Abington, Fitzroy, and Skinner Streets all derived their names from this branch of the family.
Following the occupancy by Henry Holt, the property was leased to Colonel Joseph Robinson, who was born in 1683 and came to New York shortly after 1700. He married, before 1710, Mary, daughter of Leonard Huggens De Kleyn (her sister Elizabeth married Anthony
* This was just north of Trinity Church, became the "Province Arms" in 1754 and was the Cape's Tavern referred to at the close of the Revolution at which the French Ambassador was entertained.
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Lispenard). An obituary notice of Colonel Robinson, who died March 16, 1759, appeared in "The New York Mercury," which mentioned him as a gentleman of unblemished reputation, a merchant, and a warden of Trinity Church, from 1724 to 1756.
The house was offered for sale, by advertisement in "The New York Mercury," on January 22, 1759, at public vendue at the Merchants Coffee House and was quoted as "the corner being near the Long Bridge, * wherein Colonel Robinson now lives," and while no transfer is recorded, it is thought to have been purchased by de Lancey, Robinson & Company, the firm consisting of Oliver de Lancey, Beverley Robinson and James Parker, for it was soon after occupied by them as a store and warehouse; their advertisement appears in "The Mercury" of May 28, 1759, as hav- ing moved into Colonel Robinson's late dwelling, being the corner house next to the Royal Exchange, ** where they sold all sorts of European and East India goods, army and ship stores, etc., and was doubtless used by them until their partnership expired in December, 1762. Col. Beverley Robinson was born in Virginia in 1723, served under Wolfe at Quebec, was prominent in New York as a loyalist during the Revolution, and died in Thornbury, England, in 1792. He married Susammah Phillipse, of Yonkers, daughter of Frederick Phillipse, sister of Mary Phillipse, whom. Washington admired. Mary was married in 1758 to Captain Roger Morris, who, being a royalist, the house he built for her was confiscated and occupied by Washington as his headquarters in September, 1776. This is the Roger Morris House, now called "Washington's Headquarters," more commonly known as the Jumel Mansion. It may be interesting to mention that the celebrated Madam Jumel was originally Betts Bowen, of Providence, R. I., who, as a young girl, was bound out from the poor- house there, as was customary in those days, to the writer's great-great- grandfather, Oliver Carpenter, from whose home she later ran away and started on her career.
* The bridge formerly crossed the canal in Broad Street from near the present location of Stone and Bridge Streets.
** This building, in its day one of the most imposing in the city, was also known as the Merchant Exchange. It was a brick structure on arches erected in 1752 on the site of the old Market House, and stood in the middle of Broad Street, near Water. In the large room on second floor the first plays that New York ever saw were produced; the Chamber of Commerce used it from 1770 to 1795, when the Tammany Society occupied it as a Museum until it was finally torn down in 1799.
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In 1762 the property was sold by de Lancey, Robinson & Company for for two thousand pounds (deed dated January 15, 1762) to Samuel Fraunces a man of French extraction from the West Indies. Fraunces, who had been an innkeeper in New York since 1755, took possession early in 1763, when he opened the place, calling it the "Queen's Head Tavern." His advertisement first appears in "The New York Gazette" of April 4. 1763. It was named after Queen Charlotte, the young wife of George III of England, who, as a girl of seventeen, was promoted to the honor of being Queen of England in consequence of an essay which she had written ad- dressed as a letter to Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, on "The Hor- rors of War." This touched the heart of George III and she became his wife the year before Fraunces took possession.
The property has ever since been a Tavern, covering a period of one hundred and fifty-six years, and being a large house, was very well suited for the purpose of giving public entertainments as its "Long Room" could hardly be surpassed. It was patronized by the best people in New York and proverbial for its good Madeira.
The year 1765 finds it leased by Fraunces to John Jones, and in 1766 to Bolton and Sigell, whose advertisement can be found in Holt's "New York Journal" of January 15, 1767. Fraunces at that time continued his business at the "Vauxhall Gardens," which was located on the Trinity Church farm at the corner of Greenwich and Warren streets, overlooking the Hudson River, comprising twenty-seven and a half lots of ground, and was later known as Mount Pleasant. This establishment he ran from 1765 until 1774, and it was there that "for four shillings magnificent wax figures were exhibited," etc.
As early as March, 1764, a call was issued asking the merchants of the city, who had been gradually becoming united in protests against gov- ernmental action, to meet at the "Queen's Head Tavern," as well as on sub- sequent occasions; and on April 5, 1768, when the tavern was kept by Bolton & Sigell, the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York was founded in the "Long Room," consisting of twenty members with John Cruger as President, who were doubtless inspired with the idea of a commercial union for the protection and promotion of their business interests. The organization continued to meet there until it secured a room of its own in February, 1769, at the Royal Exchange.
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Meetings were also held there by the New York Merchants on April 25, 1768, to consider the Non Importation Agreement, and again on March 13, 1769, by the subscribers to the agreement, when a committee was appointed to inquire into and inspect all European importations. Richard Bolton was the sole proprietor after February 5, 1770, his succession to the business being announced in Holt's "New York Journal" of February 8, and during his occupancy the "Long Room" was the favorite place for dancing parties, concerts and charitable entertainments.
Fraunces again took possession of his property in May, 1770, and "The New York Society," an organization for the discussion of financial and economic subjects, which had met there when he was landlord in 1765, again resumed its meetings in the "Long Room." It was also opened for "the Polite and Rational Amusement of Philosophical Lectures, etc.," for which tickets were sold. On April 23, 1771, the occasion being Saint George's Day, an elegant entertainment was given on the premises to over one hundred and twenty persons. John Tabor Kempe, his Majesty's Attorney General, presided, the guests of honor being the Earl of Dunmore, General Gage and the gentlemen of the Council.
One of the best organizations that then met at the Tavern every Satur- day evening was "The Social Club," a full list of the members of which has been preserved and is now in the possession of the New York His- torical Society, and shows many prominent citizens on the roll. They continued to meet until December, 1775, when, its membership con- sisting of both loyalists and patriots, it naturally came to an end.
In 1775 Samuel Fraunces offered the "Queen's Head" for sale, but did not succeed, and continued as landlord until the British Army entered the city. He was a tavern keeper without a peer and when the time came to decide, struck for Liberty and Independence, abandoned his property and stuck to the colors, like a true patriot, and went out in 1776, presuma- bly with General Putnam's division. He appeared later, enlisted as a Private in Colonel Malcolm's First Regiment of New York State Troops in Continental service 1780-1781. It would seem that he may have been in New York some portion of the time during the British occupation, for the reason that in consequence of his generous advances and kindness to American prisoners and secret services he received a vote of thanks in
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July, 1782, and £200 as a gratuity from Congress. His daughter Phoebe was Washington's housekeeper in the Mortier House on Richmond Hill, occupied by the Commander-in-Chief as Headquarters, in June, 1776, and it was she who revealed the plot to assassinate Generals Washington and Putnam, which led to the apprehension of her lover, an Irishman named Thomas Hickey, a British deserter, then a member of Washing- ton's bodyguard, in consequence of which he was promptly executed on June 28, 1776 .*
In this connection it may be of interest to listen to two letters written to his home in Providence, R. I., by the writer's great-grandfather, Dr. Solomon Drowne, a Surgeon of the Revolution, who was then stationed in the General Hospital on Chambers Street in this city. This brings us in close touch with the incidents of the day and the sentiments of the time: "NEW YORK, June 24, 1776. Dear Sister Sally:
I cannot let this opportunity slip without scribbling you a few lines, tho' I have but little time to do it in. It is now past ten; Mr. D. Smith told me he should set away home tomorrow or next day; and tomorrow morning I expect to go to Elizabeth Town, on some business of my own, and to serve my friend, Captain Timothy Hughs, who expects to set out for Canada in a day or two. He and I are now in possession of Mr. Gano's house, who has gone into ye country, to see Mrs. Gano, etc. Not one of ye family is in ye city.
A most infernal plot has lately been discovered here, which, had it been put into execution, would have made America tremble, and been as fatal a stroke to us, this Country, as gun powder treason would to England, had it succeeded .. The hellish conspirators were a number of Tories (the Mayor of ye City among them) and three of General Washington's Life Guards. The plan was to kill Generals Washington and Putnam, and as many other Commanding Officers as possible. I should have men -.
. * Orderly Book, Friday, June 28, at New York.
"The unhappy fate of Thomas Hickey executed this day for Mutiny, Sedition and Treachery: the General hopes will be a warning to every soldier in the Army to avoid those crimes and all others. so disgraceful to the character of the soldier and pernicious to his country, whose pay he receives and bread he eats." Thomas Hickey, one of Washington's Guard, was tried by court-martial and sentenced to death, the plot being traced to Governor Tryon, Mayor David Matthews having been the principal agent.
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tioned at first,-to set the city on fire in nine several places. To spike up the cannon. Then to give a signal to the Asia and ships expected ;- and blow up the Magazine. They had a large body of men, which were to attack ours amidst their confusion. The whole was discovered (as I am informed) by a Sergeant of ye Guards, whom they wanted to take into ye plot, and who, having got what he could from them, discovered all to the General .- The Drummer of ye Guards was to have stabbed ye General. The pretty fellows are in safe custody, and I hope I shall be able to give you a better account of them in my next. This morning a large Guard went to take two hundred Tories, who are under arms not very far from this City.
I wish you would excuse me to Mr. J. Dabney for not writing to him. I intended to, and am sorry I have not time. I enquired at several shops for the buttons he desired me to get him; but could find none. My duty to Dad, and Mama, Love to Sister Aplin, Billy, etc. I shall be very glad of a letter from each of you; for I have not received one since I have been here.
Yours, SOLOMON."
The second letter is as follows:
"N. YORK
General Hospital, July 13, 1776.
Dear Billy:
I received yours by Mr. Arnold some time since, and about a week after, that by Mr. Green, tho' of an earlier date than ye other .- I was glad to hear all friends were well, both in town and country. It is now almost midnight, and but a little while since I returned to my chamber from carrying medicine to one of ye wards I have ye care of,-and applying a poultice to a man's foot, over which a gun carriage run yesterday, in the battle of ye ships, for a further account of which see Sally's letter. So you may judge how much time I have to write. I saw Mr. Glover here some time ago, who told me you was in Newport when he was there. I hope little Amy is well. You requested to know upon what terms I en- tered ye Hospital. I have as good a birth as I desired. Our pay is twenty dollars par. mouth and 2 rations a day. We expect it will be raised soon in consequence of a petition to Congress for ye purpose.
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I heartily congratulate you, my dear Brother, on being an inhabitant of ye Free and Independent States of America. I herewith send you a Gazette, which contains ye Declaration; and also an extract of a letter from Phila- delphia, which, if you have not had yet, should be glad you would show Tommy Russell. The Declaration was read, agreeable to general Orders, at ye head of ye Brigade, etc., this week; and loud Huzzas expressed the approbation of ye Freeborn Bands. The night following, the famous, gilded equestrian Statute of ye British King, in this city, was levelled with ye dust; his head taken off, and next morning, in a wheel barrow carried to His Excellency's Quarters, I was told. There is a large quan- tity of lead about it, which is to be run into bullets to destroy his Myrmidons.
I suppose you have heard of ye execution of one of the General's Guards, concerned in ye hellish plot; discovered here some time past. There was a vast concourse of people to see ye poor fellow hanged.
Sally wrote me that you had listed: should be glad if you would explain that matter in your next.
14th. I heard this evening, that Lord Howe had sent a Flag, with a letter directed to George Washington, Esq., and that it was returned un- opened because he gave him not his proper title; tho' ye Captain that brought it said its contents were of the utmost importance, and that Ld. Howe was very sorry he had not arrived a few days sooner. (Perhaps before Independence was declared; for 'tis said he is invested with un- limited power.) This may learn him a little manners, well ;- two ships & 3 tenders up N. River ;--- Communication with Canada by water cut off: Something important will turn up soon.
Mr. Arnold has not returned from Philadelphia yet; perhaps I may write by him. I am very tired, and it is past midnight. Write often to your Friend & Brother, SOLOMON.
Give my love to friend Harry. I wish I had time to write to him. Remember me to ye lads."
It is interesting to know that this is the only account of what was done with the head of the Statue of King George III, which was located on the . present Bowling Green; the remainder was taken to the Wolcott place at
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Litchfield, Connecticut, and there nearly all melted into bullets. Three pieces, however, of this statue, as well as the slab on which it stood, have been preserved, and can be seen in the museum of the New York His- torical Society in this City, and while all the pictures representing the scene of its destruction show the head of the British King as wearing a crown, it has lately been developed that the Statue of George III was modelled after that of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius in Rome, and that he was dressed in a toga, wearing a wreath on his head.
Fraunces, after serving in the army, had gone back to New York on the news of the cessation of hostilities and preliminary treaty of peace, April 19, 1783, to reclaim his abandoned property. On some two or three oc- casions in 1783, he came up from the city to provide for the American officers and their British guests, who met to arrange matters relative to the withdrawal of British troops in the vicinity of New York. In May, 1783, when General Washington and Sir Guy Carleton met near Tappan, a Philadelphia newspaper comments on the expense of the entertainment as amounting to the modest sum of five hundred pounds. *
On the 4th of May, 1783, General Washington, Governor Clinton, General Scott, Lieutenant Colonels Trumbull, Cobb, Humphreys and Varick, after having visited General Knox, then in command at West Point, were furnished on their arrival at Tappan, with a repast provided by Fraunces. On the 6th of May also, the meeting quoted as taking place at Orangetown about 4 P.M .--- General Washington, Governor Clinton, Egbert Benson, John M. Scott and Jona. Trumbull, Jr., being present "when a most sumptuous dinner was served to about thirty who ate and drank in the Peace and good fellowship, without drinking any toasts." Following this a subsequent conference and dinner was given by the English on board the "Perseverance," when a salute of seventeen guns was fired on the arrival and departure of the party. "This was the first complimentary salute fired by Great Britain in honor of an officer of the United States and virtually the first salute to the nation."
Samuel Frances, in 1789, left his Jersey farm, to which he had re-
* This probably alludes to the depreciated paper money of the period. The writer has two bills to Dr. Solomon browne, dated June 27, 1780. The amount of one is stated as 600 paper dollars or eight silver dollars, and it is receipted as paid in full by 300 paper dollars and four hard dollars, and the other reads for 30 pounds or 2 dol- lars in silver.
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