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V.2
THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
LIBERTAS
ENDOWED BY THE DIALECTIC AND PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETIES
F129 .A3 M9 v. 2
UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 10001556399
This book is due at the LOUIS R. WILSON LIBRARY on the last date stamped under "Date Due." If not on hold it may be renewed by bringing it to the library.
DATE DUE
RET.
DATE DUE
RET.
DEC 3 0'82
JAN 1 0 1995
AN 24'95
AUG 3 3
1997
MIR 25 97
Forn No 513
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Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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VIEW OF ALBANY FEDM BATH
الكريم
Fla A3 Mª
THE
ANNALS OF ALBANY.
BY JOEL MUNSELL.
VOL. II.
Pui Real -
ALBANY: J. MUNSELL, 58 STATE STREET. 1850.
SECOND VOLUME
PREFACE.
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It is with no small diffidence that the compiler presents to the public the second volume of what he has been persuaded to term the Annals of Albany, lest what he has been able to collect and arrange amid the distractions of a multifarious business, should fall short of fulfilling the expectations that might arise from so imposing a title. But it was found necessary to depart from the plan of the Annual Register, on which the work was begun ; and being "a thinge of mere industrie, a collection without wit or invention," it is thrown out as the best which opportunity would admit of.
He desires to acknowledge the courtesy that has been ex- tended to him by those from whom he has had occasion to solicit information and assistance. By permission of Dr. O'CALLAGHAN nearly all that relates to the city of Albany and the Manor of Rensselaerswyck has been copied from his valuable History of New Netherland, forming a very important portion of the follow- ing pages. By the favor of Mr. HOLSTEIN, the efficient clerk of the common council, facilities were afforded for procuring a decade of the earliest city records that are written in English. It is purposed to continue the publication of these, in similar portions, from year to year, and also to accomplish the transla- tion of the earlier ones from the Dutch. Another portion of the records of the Dutch Church has been furnished by Mr. S. V. TALCOTT. There are many who have occasion to consult these; and it is presumed that their publication in so convenient a form will be appreciated. The notes from the newspapers were prepared some years ago by the compiler. This department might be made much more complete, and thereby measurably more entertaining, as well as of greater value to the future anti-
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Preface.
quarian, if some one having the time would give the necessary patience and labor to searching the files of newspapers in the State Library. Unfortunately those who have the leisure have not the disposition, and the work is entirely beyond our own opportunities.
It has been truly remarked, that retrospection lingers with melancholy delight on the places to which learning and piety and worth once gave importance; it can therefore be no unpro- fitable employment to commemorate deserving events, or pass in review the localities of the most ancient city in the republic, and point out who lived here, and there, so many years ago. We have already to regret the loss of the memory of many such abiding places. The diligence given to this pursuit is not without its discouragements, not only from its being often un- appreciated, but because the motive is frequently misconstrued. While it is designed neither to conceal nor falsify historical facts, it will be equally the study of the compiler to avoid the insertion of any impertinent episodes of a personal nature.
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CONTENTS.
Wampunı, . . 5
Colony of Rensselaerswyck, 1646 to 1664, 13
Description of Albany and manners of the inhabitants, 1764, 53
Return of Abercrombie's army,. 60 Charter of the city of Albany, 61
'The city records,. 88
Baptisms in the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church, from 1683 to 1693,. 146
Convention on the state of the province, 175
Philip Pietersen Schuyler,. 177
Commission of Gerrit Swart of Rensselaerswyck, 178
A governor's marriage license, 182
Indian disturbances, . . 183
Form of oath to the patroon, 184
List of freeholders in 1742, 186
Game in the creeks, 190
The Fuyck, . 190
Notes from the newspapers,
191
Lancasterian school,
212 216
Ancient funeral custom,
The Dutch language, . Dutch names for Albany and vicinity, 217 226 227
Origin of Yankee Doodle,
Salmon in the Hudson river,. 229 Castle Island, 231
Indian names of Albany and vicinity, 232
Caldwell mathematical medal, 234
Van Rensselaer classical medal,. 239
Dutch names for the fish in our river,. 240
Annals of the year 1849-50,. 141
Statistics, .
281
ANNALS OF ALBANY.
WAMPUM.
This article, more frequently called sewant in the pages which follow, particularly in the old city records, is said to be derived from wampi,* signifying, in the Massachu- setts Indian language, white, the color of the shells most frequent in wampum belts. It was strung, and sometimes formed into a broad belt, to be worn as an ornament. One of the sea coast terms of the Algonquins for this ar- ticle was peag, t and it is frequently called wampumpeage. It was the first money in use in New Netherland and in New England.# Scawant was the generic name of this In- dian money, of which there were two kinds ; wompam, com- monly written wampum, which signifies white, and suck- hanock, sucki signifying black. Wampum or white money, was originally made from the stem or stock of the metean- hock, or perriwinkle ; suckhannock, or black money, was made from the inside of the shell of the quahaug, com- monly called the hard clam. Specimens of a similar article are numerous in the Indian cemeteries of this state, formed of bone and mineral. The material from which the figure pied, is the red west, so much
here given is co- pipe.stone of the valued ; it is per- forated longitudinally, and was evidently worn about the neck and breast, like the modern article of wampum.
* Encyclopedia Americana, article Wampum.
+ Schoolcraft's Notes on the Iroquois, p. 244.
# Gabriel Furman, in Gowans's Bibliotheca Americana, i, 42.
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Wampum.
The Indians had various kinds of ornaments strung in a like manner, some of which were worn, as represented in the engraving, for a defence against witchcraft. This.
also, was formed of the red pipe-stone of the Coteau du Prairie, west of the Mississippi, and its disinterment from Indian graves in the state of New York, denotes an early traffic or exchange of the article, Mr. Schoolcraft thinks. Other species, assuming a great variety of shapes, and formed of as many kinds of material, including native copper, seem to have been worn with the object of pro- ducing a jingling sound, or to inspire fear by the tread.
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Wampum.
The above are a few of the specimens given by Mr. Schoolcraft, composed principally of shells. These, how- ever, are not known to have served the purpose of money.
The manufacture of wampum by the Indians, before the appearance of Europeans, was necessarily laborious, with the rude implements which they employed. They broke off about half an inch of the purple color of the in- side of the shell, and converted it into beads .* These, before the introduction of awls and thread, were bored with sharp stones, and strung upon the sinews of animals, and when interwoven to the breadth of the hand, more or less, were called a belt of seawant, or wampum. A black bead, of the size of a large straw, about one third of an inch long, bored longitudinally and well polished, was the gold of the Indians, and always esteemed of twice the va- lue of the white; but either species was considered by them, of much more value than European coin. An In- dian chief, to whom the value of a rix dollar was ex- plained by the first clergyman of Rensselaerswyck, laughed exceedingly to think the Dutch should set so high a value upon a piece of iron, as he termed the dollar. Three beads of black, and six of white, were equivalent, among the English, to a penny, and among the Dutch to a stuyver. But with the latter the equivalent sometimes varied, de- pending upon the finishing of the seawant. Seawant was also sometimes made from the common oyster shell, and both kinds made from the hard clam shell.
The use of wampum was not known in New England until it was introduced there in 1627, by Isaac De Razier, secretary of New Netherland, while on an embassy there
* Gowans's Bibliotheca Americana, i, 42.
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Wampum.
to settle a treaty of amity and commerce between the two colonies. He carried with him wampum and goods, and with them purchased corn. To this introduction of wam- pum into New England, Hubbard attributes all their wars with the Indians which afterwards ensued. "Whatever were the honey in the mouth of that beast of trade, there was a deadly sting in the tail. For it is said they (the Dutch) first brought our people to the knowledge of wam- pum-peag ; and the acquaintance therewith occasioned the Indians of these parts to learn the skill to make it, by which, as by the exchange of money, they purchased store of artillery, both from the English, Dutch and French, which proved a fatal business to those that were con- cerned in it .* "
Although the general distinction of this seawant was black and white, yet that in use in New England was black, blue and white ; and that of the Iroquois of a pur- ple color. A string of this shell money, one fathom long, varied in price from five shillings, among the New Eng- landers, to four guilders among the Dutch, or one dollar and sixty-six and a half cents of our present currency. The process of trade was this ; the Dutch and English sold for seawant to the Indians of the interior, their awls, knives, combs, scissors, needles, looking-glasses, hatchets, guns, black cloth, and other articles of aboriginal traffic, and with the seawant bought the furs, corn and venison from the Indians on the seaboard, who also with their shell money bought such articles from the aborigines re- siding farther inland; and by this course the white men saved the trouble of transporting their furs and grain through the country. Thus, by this circulating medium a brisk commerce was carried on, not only between the white people and the Indians, but also between different tribes among the latter. So much was this the circulat- ing medium, that the colonial governments found it neces- sary to make regulations on the subject. In 1641 Gov. Kieft and his council, in view of the fact that a vast deal of bad seawant, "nasty rough things imported from other places," was in circulation, while the "good, splendid
Hubbard's History of New England.
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Wampum.
seawant, usually called Manhattan's seawant, was out of sight, or exported, which must cause the ruin of the country!" therefore, in order to remedy the evil, it was ordained that all coarse seawant, well stringed, should pass at six for one stuyver only, but the well polished at four for a stuyver, and whoever offered or received the same at a different price, should forfeit the same, and also ten guilders to the poor.
The Connecticut Code of 1650 ordained "That no peage, white or black, bee paid or received, but what is strunge, and in some measure strunge sutably, and not small and great, uncomely and disorderly mixt, as formerly it hath beene."
Massachusetts colony passed a law in 1648, declaring that wampumpeag should pass current in the payment of debts to the amount of forty shillings ; the white at eight for a penny, and the black at four for a penny, "if entire, without breaches or spots ; except in payment of county rates to the treasurer." This law was repealed in 1661, yet seawant continued to form a part of the circulating medium of the colony for a long period afterward.
The wampum currency appears sometimes to have been measured by the fathom, in New England. The Pequot Indians, in the year 1656, paid as a tribute to the united colonies of New England 215 fathoms of wampum; of which amount Thomas Stanton, the agent among the In- dians, was paid 120 fathoms for his salary, and the re- maining 95 fathoms, together with 51 fathoms at New Haven, in all 146 fathoms, was divided among the united colonies, according to the number of males enumerated in the year 1655, in the following manner, being the first distribution of public moneys in the good old time of our history.
To Massachusetts, 94 fathoms.
Plymouth, . . 18 fathoms.
Connecticut, 20 fathoms.
New Haven, 13 fathoms.
The governor and council in the city of New York, in 1673, made an order, declaring that by reason of the scarci- ty of wampum, that which had hitherto passed at the rate
10
Wampum.
of eight white and four black pairs, for a stuyver or penny, should then pass at six white and three black pairs for a stuyver, "and three times so much the value of silver." At this period there was little "certain coin in the govern- ment" of'N. York and wampum readily passed as change for current payment in all cases. This seawant, or wampum, was the only Indian money ever known in North America ; it was not only the money of the Indians, but also the or- nament of their persons. It distinguished the rich from the poor, the proud from the humble. It was the tribute paid by the vanquished to those, the Five Nations for in- stance, who had exacted contribution. In the form of a belt it was sent with all public messages between the Indian tribes, and preserved as a record of all public transactions among the aboriginal people. If a message was sent without the belt, it was considered an empty word, unworthy of remembrance. If the belt was returned it was a rejection of the offer or proffer accompanying it. If accepted, it was a confirmation, and strengthened friend- ship, or effaced injuries. These shells, indeed, had more virtue among the Indians, than pearls, gold and silver had among Europeans. Seawant was the seal of a contract, the oath of fidelity. It satisfied murders, and all other injuries, purchased peace, and entered into the religious as well as the civil ceremonies of the aborigines. A string of seawant was delivered by the orator in public council, at the close of every distinct proposition made to others, as a ratification of the truth and sincerity of what he said, and the white and black strings of seawant were tied by the pagan priest, around the neck of the white dog suspended to a pole, and offered as a sacrifice to Tha- loughyawaagon, the upholder of the skies, the god of the. Five Nations .*
The article continued to be manufactured in different parts of the state of New York until a comparatively re- cent period. Smithf mentions, that a short time previous. to writing his work, several poor families at Albany made
* See Yates and Moulton's History of New York.
+ History of the Province of New York.
¿ Travels through the Middle Colonies in North America, 1760.
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Wampum.
their living by its manufacture. Burnaby, ¿ mentions that in journeying from Philadelphia to New York, he passed through Statten Island, and had an opportunity of seeing the method of making wampum, the process of which he thus describes : " It is first chipped to a proper size, which is that of a small oblong parallelopiped, then drilled, and afterwards ground to a round smooth surface and polished. The purple wampum is much more valuable than the white ; a very small part of the shell being of that color." In the summer of 1831, several bushels of wampum were brought from Babylon, on Long Island, and the person who had them, stated that he had procured them for an Indian trader, and that he was in the habit of supplying those traders with wampum. The best wampum is at this day manufactured on Long Island, to be sent to the western states and territories, for the purpose both of a circulating medium, and of conventions and treaties .*
Wampum is also manufactured at the present day in Bergen county, New Jersey, for the Indian traders of the far west. It has been manufactured by the females of that region from very early times, of the thick and blue part of the sea-clam shell. The process is simple, but requires a skill attained only by long practice. The in- tense hardness and brittleness of the material render it impossible to produce the article by machinery alone. It is done by wearing or grinding the shell. The first process is to split off the thin part with a light sharp hammer. Then it is clamped in the sawed crevice of a slender stick, held in both hands, and ground smooth on a grindstone, until formed into an eight-sided figure, of about an inch in length, and nearly half an inch in diameter, when it is ready for boring. The shell then is inserted into another piece of wood, sawed similarly to the above, but fastened firmly to a bench of the size of a common stand. One part of the wood projects over the bench, at the end of which hangs a weight, causing the sawed ori- fice to close firmly upon the shell inserted on its under side, and to hold it firmly, as in a vice, ready for drilling.
* Gowans's Bibliotheca Americana, i, 41.
t Barber and Howe's Historical Collections of New Jersey, p. 72.
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Wampum.
The drill is made from an untempered handsaw. The operator grinds the drill to a proper shape, and tem- pers it in the flame of a candle. A rude ring, with a groove on its circumference, is put on it; around which the operator, who is seated in front of the fastened shell, curls the string of a common hand-bow. The boring commences, by nicely adjusting the point of the drill to the centre of the shell; while the other end is braced against a steel plate, on the breast of the operator. About every other sweep of the bow, the drill is dexterously drawn out, cleaned of the shelly particles by the thumb and finger, above which drops of water from a vessel fall down and cool the drill; which is still kept revolving, by the use of the bow with the other hand, the same as though it were in the shell. This operation of boring is the most difficult of all, the peculiar motion of the drill rendering it hard for the breast : yet it is performed with a rapidity and grace interesting to witness. Peculiar care is observed, lest the shell burst from heat caused by friction. When bored half way, the wampum is reversed, and the same operation repeated. The next process is the finishing. A wire about twelve inches long, is fastened at one end to a bench. Under and parallel to the wire is a grindstone, fluted on its circumference, hung a little out of the centre, so as to be turned by a treadle moved with the foot. The left hand grasps the end of the wire, on which is strung the wampum, and as it were, wraps the beads around the fluted or hollow circumference of the grindstone. While the grindstone is revolving, the beads are held down on to it, and turned round by a flat piece of wood held in the right hand, and by the grinding soon become round und smooth. They are then strung on hempen strings, :. bout a foot in length. From five to ten strings are a day's work for a female. They are sold to the country merchants for twelve and a half cents a string, always command cash, and constitute the support of many poor and worthy families.
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COLONY OF RENSSELAERSWYCK.
From O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland, Vol. 2.
1646 To 1664.
Johannes Van Rensselaer, heir to the patroonship of Rensselaerswyck, being a minor at his father's decease, the care of his interests devolved on his uncle Johannes Van Wely and Wouter Van Twiller,* executors to the last will and testament of the first patroon, who immediately rendered fealty and homage for the colonie to their high mightinesses, in the name and on the behalf of their ward.
The immediate management of this estate was entrusted to Brant Arent Van Slechtenhorst of Nieukerke in Guilder- land, who was appointed director of the colonie, president of the court of justice, and superintendent of all the bou- weries, farms, mills, and other property belonging to the patroon, at a salary of seven hundred and fifty florins ($300) per annum, to reckon from the date of his arrival out, to- gether with a house, four milch cows, two horses, four morgens of tillage and four morgens of pasture land. He was specially charged to uphold, maintain and defend the freedoms and privileges with which the colonie was in- vested, to promote the interests and advance the settlement of Beverwyck and its immediate neighborhood, and to ac- quire by purchase the lands around Katskill, for the greater security of the colonie, inasmuch as the colonists, through a notion of acquiring property in that quarter, were form- ing companies or associations to remove thither and abandon Rensselaerswyck. He was further ordered to explore the country for minerals, and to report to his superiors in Hol- land whatever success might crown these labors. Thus commissioned and instructed, the newly appointed director sailed with his family and servants for Virginia. He pro- ceeded thence in another vessel to the Manhattans, where
* Van Twiller died in Holland in 1656, or 1657. Van Wely died 19th March, 1679, aged 82 or 83 years.
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Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
he landed after a passage of four months, and finally arrived in the colonie in the latter part of March. His son, Gerrit Van Slechtenhorst, was to act as officier or schout-fiscaal, at a salary of six hundred florins ; but he filled the office only two months, when it was merged in that of the di- rector
From the moment that colonies began to be planted by patroons in New Netherland, the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber became jealous of their existence and opposed to their continuance. They considered them injurious to the settlement of the country and the increase of its popula- tion.t By the repurchase of Pavonia and Zwanendaal in 1634, they took the earliest means to check the evil. In the prosecution of their policy, they endeavored to induce the patroon of Rensselaerswyck to cede to them his rights, privileges and possessions also ; but having failed in effect- ing this, they now changed front, and determined to cir- cumscribe a jurisdiction and weaken a power which they could not buy off, and which they wished to destroy. Gen. Stuyvesant and Brant Van Slechtenhorst were the cham- pions of these hostile interests and opposing views. The former claimed to be supreme ruler of the whole country, irrespective of the special rights and feudal privileges granted, as well by the charter of 1629, as by the civil law, to the local authorities of independent fiefs. The latter, thoroughly conversant with the immunities claimed for manors and municipalities in continental Europe, recog- nized the exercise of no authority within his limits save that of his patroon, or such as was approved and sanc- tioned by his legal reprensentatives. Whatever orders or placards the director-general might issue were, he main-
* Gerrit Van Slechtenhorst married Aeltje Lansing, by whom he had four children, viz: Hellegonda, Gerrit, Rachel and Gouda. He was one of the commissaries of Schenectady in 1672, after which he removed to Kingston, Ulster co., where he died 9th January, 1684, N. S. The other children of Brant Fan Slechtenhorst, were Mar- garet and Alida. The latter was born in Beverwyck, and married Gerrit, son of Goosen Gerritsen Van Schayck, by whom she had no issue. She lost her husband 11th November, 1679, after which she married Pieter Davitse Schuyler, son of David Schuyler.
t Alb. Rec. iv., 199.
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Colony of Rensselaerswyck.
tained, null and powerless, unless so endorsed and counter- signed by his commander and executed by the officers of his court. It was easy to foresee that pretensions so oppo- site could not fail to lead to collision, and Slechtenhorst had not been much more than a month at his post when an ex- plosion took place.
A copy of a proclamation ordering the first Wednesday in May to be observed by a general fast and the perform- ance of public worship in the several churches of New Netherland was duly forwarded to Rensselaerswyck. It was received by the authorities of that place, not in that spirit of submissive obedience which the director-general demanded for all his orders, but as an invasion of the rights and authority of the lord of the manor, against which Van Slechtenhorst forthwith protested .*
This proceeding did not comport with Stuyvesant's ideas either of law or propriety. To correct the abuse he resolved to visit the colonie, where, accompanied by a military escort, he soon after landed, his arrival being most loyally greeted by salvos from the patroon's artillery.t Summon- ing Van Slechtenhorst, he called in question his preten- sions, and charged him with infringing the company's sovereignty. But the sturdy commander retorted : " Your complaints are unjust ; I have more reason to complain, on behalf of my patroon against you." The director-general fulminated, thereupon, a lengthy protest, in which Van
* This 26th April, 1648, hath the director Slechtenhorst protested against a certain writing of the Right Hon P. Stuyvesant, concern- ing the publication of a day of fasting and prayer, whereby it is un- derstood, that the right and authority of the Lord Patroon are invaded. This document was handed in only before the sermon, so that there was no time to have it read .- Rensselaerswyck MSS.
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