A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 29

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188

USA > New York > A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 29

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In August, 1675, a boat arrived in New York Bay from New England, having on board eleven Quakers who had been expelled from that colony. Two of them, women, as soon as they landed in New Amsterdam, began preaching on the streets to the astonishment and disgust of old Peter Stuyvesant, a straight-laced, single-minded supporter of the Dutch church. He did not understand the Quakers' theology, and as they seemed to him to mix questions of public policy along with their religion he soon pronounced their senti- ments and ongoings seditious, heretical and abominable. That settled the Quaker ques- tion and peace of mind in New Amsterdam for the time being.

The Quaker visitors soon scattered in pur- suance of their mission to disseminate their doctrines, but at least one of them, Robert Hodgson, went to Long Island and as he jour- neyed held conventicles by the way. He was arrested for this at Hempstead and promptly lodged in jail, along with two women who had entertained him in their home. Stuy- vesant at once ordered the three prisoners to be sent to New Amsterdam, where he seems to have released the women after giving them the supreme benefit of a piece of his mind. Hodgson, however, was to feel the full force of the ire of the doughty Governor. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment at hard labor or pay a fine of 600 guilders. Such a fine was beyond his power to liquidate and he

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was quickly put to the alternative. Chained to a wheelbarrow, he was ordered to work, but refused, and was thereupon lashed by a negro until he fainted. He remained in prison for some months, scourged at frequent intervals until insensibility rendered the infliction of further pain unnecessary, and was humiliated in many ways. The cruelty practiced toward him was brutal in the extreme and its effects were threatening even his life. Then from sheer pity at his awful condition the Gover- nor's sister interposed on his behalf and he was released, under a new sentence of banish- ment from the province.

The Governor seems never to have lost his enmity to the Quakers ; but it is possible that his venom was aroused by his political notions and by reasons other than religious. He cer- tainly did not love their religious views, yet had they entertained these quietly it is pos- sible he would not have bothered his head about them. But he hated to see women preaching in public, and especially in the public streets, and he was opposed to conventicles or unauthorized religious meetings, because such gatherings, especially among people of English birth or New England associations, might be used to hatch conspiracies against the State or colony. So he determined to stamp out conventicles whenever he found them, paying particular attention to Long Island, which was peculiarly subject to infec- tion from Connecticut and Rhode Island. Prosecutions were accordingly directed from time to time against William and John Bowne, Henry Townsend, John Townsend, Samuel Spicer, John Tilton, William Noble, Edward Hart and Edward Feake, all of whom openly confessed their adherence to the doctrines of the Quakers. Most of these (including Spicer, Tilton and the Bowne family) were residents of Gravesend, and several, it is said, had accompanied Lady Moody from New England. In fact her ladyship's home was the headquarters of Quakerism, although she did not seem to have embraced all its teaclı- ings until a later period in her career.

The Townsends belonged to Flushing and the story of their persecution was different from that of the others, inasmuch as it evoked a spirited protest from their fellow citizens. On September 15, 1657, Henry Townsend was adjudged guilty of calling conventicles and fined eight pounds (Flanders), with the alternative of leaving the province. On the news of this becoming public the people of Flushing and Jamaica held a public meeting and drew up a remonstrance to the Governor in which they admonished him that Scriptur- ally he was wrong in his policy of suppression, and that he was also acting in disregard of the laws of the Province, and against the tenor and the purport of the patent under which these two communities were prospering. This document was signed by Edward Hart, the clerk of the meeting, Tobias Feaks, the local Sheriff, and by William Noble, Nicholas Par- sell, William Thorne, Sr., Michael Milner, William Thorne, Jr., Henry Townsend, Nich- olas Blackford, George Wright, Edward Terk, John Foard, Mirabel Free, Henry Bamtell, John Stoar, N. Cole, Benjamin Hubbard, Ed- ward Hart, John Maidon, John Townsend, Ed- ward Farrington, Philip Ed, William Pidgion, George Blee, Elias Doughtre, Antonie Field, Richard Horton, Nathaniel Coe, Robert Field, Sr., and Robert Field, Jr.

As will be seen by these names the Dutch population seemingly took no interest in this affair and it was left for those of British stock to take the initiative in this skirmish for religious liberty. Very likely all of those who signed the document were themselves Quakers, or had pronounced leanings toward Quakerism ; but be that as it may there is no reason to doubt that so far as the Dutch were concerned they were heartily in accord with the position assumed by Stuyvesant. Sheriff Feaks presented the remonstrance to the Gov- ernor and was promptly arrested. Farring- ton and Noble, two of the signers who held office as Magistrates, were arrested as soon as possible after the redoubtable Governor Peter had deciphered their names in the re-

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monstrance, or Nicasius De Sille, his Attorney General, had deciphered them for him. Clerk Hart was also called in question, admitted drawing up the remonstrance and was there- upon promptly arrested. Townsend was again fined. On January 8, 1658, the Magistrates of Jamaica (Rustdorp) turned informers and conveyed word to the irate Governor that Henry Townsend was still having conventicles in his house. So he was cited to appear be- fore Stuyvesant. His brother John was also cited, but as his connection with the whole matter was not clear he was held under only £12 bail to ensure his appearance when de- sired by the authorities.

The position of Henry was more grave, and we quote from Thompson :

On the 15th of January Henry Townsend attended and was told by the Attorney General that as he had treated the placards of the Di- rector General and Council with contempt and persisted in lodging Quakers, he should be condemned in an amende of £1oo (Flanders) to be an example for other transgressors and contumelious offenders of the good order and placards of the Director General and Council in New Netherland, and so to remain ar- rested till the said amende be paid, besides the costs and mises of Justice.

On the 28th Sheriff Feaks was brought from prison, and "though," says the record, "he confessed he had received an order of the Director General not to admit into the afore- said village (Jamaica) any of that heretical and abominable sect called Quakers, or pro- cure them lodgings, yet did so in the face of the placards, and, what was worse, was a leader in composing a seditious and detestable chartabel, delivered by him and signed by him, and his accomplices, wherein they justify the abominable sect of the Quakers, who treat with contempt all political and ecclesiastical author- ity and undermine the foundations of all gov- ernment and religion." He was therefore de- graded from his office and sentenced to be banished or pay an amende of 200 guilders.

On the 26th of March, 1658, the Gover-

nor, in order to prevent as much as possible the consequences of Quaker influence among the people, resolved to change the municipal government of the town of Flushing, and therefore, after formally pardoning the town for its mutinous orders and resolutions, an- nounced that "in future I shall appoint a sheriff, acquainted not only with the Dutch language but with Dutch practical law, and that in future there shall be chosen seven of the most reasonable and respectable of the in- habitants to be called tribunes or townsmen, and whom the sheriff and magistrates shall consult in all cases; and a tax of twelve stivers per morgen is laid on the inhabitants for the support of an orthodox minister, and such as do not sign a written submission to the same in six weeks may dispose of their property at their pleasure and leave the soil of this government."

On the council records of January 8, 1661 (says Thompson), it is stated that the Gov- ernor addressed the people of Jamaica, in- forming them that he had received their peti- tion for a minister to baptize some of their children, and their information that the Qua- kers and other sects held private conventicles. He tells them that he had dispatched his deputy sheriff, Resolve Waldron, and one of his clerks, Nicholas Bayard, to take notice thereof, and requiring the inhabitants to give exact information where and in what house such unlawful conventicles were kept, what men or women had been present who called the meeting, and of all the circumstances ap- pertaining thereto. In consequence of this inquisitorial espionage of the Governor's dep- uty, Henry Townsend was a third time dragged to the city and again incarcerated in the dungeons at Fort Amsterdam. On the day following he and Samuel Spicer, who had also given entertainment to a Quaker at his mother's house in Gravesend, were brought from their loathsome prison. It was proved by witnesses procured for the occasion that Townsend had given lodging to a Quaker, and besides notifying his neighbors had even allowed him to preach at his house and in his presence, also that Spicer was present both at the meeting at Jamaica and Gravesend and procured lodging for the Quaker at his

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mother's house. They were accordingly con- demned in an amende of 600 guilders eaclı, in conformity to the placard respecting con- venticles, and to be imprisoned until such amende be paid. And further, that Henry Townsend be banished out of the province, for an example to others. The widow Spicer. mother of Samuel, was also arrested, accused and condemned to an amende of £15 (Flan- ders ).

The case of John Tilton and his wife, Mary, is also interesting. Tilton settled in Gravesend at the same time as Lady Moody and probably accompanied her from New Eng- land, where doubtless he got his first impres- sions of the doctrines of the Friends, the "abominable sect," according to Stuyvesant, "who vilify both the political magistrates and the ministers of God's holy Word." Tilton and his wife were arrested October 5, 1662, and lodged in the prison at Fort Amsterdam. They remained in durance vile for a few days, when they were brought before the Council, found guilty of entertaining Quakers and at- tending conventicles and ordered to leave the province before the 20th of November fol- lowing, under the alternative penalty of being publicly whipped. Their sentences seem to have been remitted, however, probably through the influence of Lady Moody, for Mary Tilton continued to reside at Gravesend until her death, May 23, 1683, and John Tilton also maintained his home there until he, too, passed away, in 1688. He was, we take it, a man of deep religious sentiment and so continued to the end, most probably becoming more and more devoted to Quakerism as the time went on, for by his will, which he had drawn up about a year before his death, he bequeathed a piece of land as a burial ground "for all persons in ye everlasting truthe of the Gos- pel."

In many ways the most notable of all Stuyvesant's experiences with Quakers lay around the case of John Bowne, of Flushing, not only because the extreme measure which he adopted showed the malignancy of his feel-

ings toward these people, but because it brought down upon him, what he probably felt more keenly than he could any other forni of misfortune, a clear-cut rebuke from his home Government and the nullification of the sentence he imposed.

On September 1, 1662, Bowne was ar- rested, and on the 14th of that month the Governor and his Council considered his case and imposed a fine of £25 on his being found guilty of lodging Quakers and permitting conventicles to be held in his house. Being a man of substance, he was permitted at once to go at large ; but as he showed no intention of paying his fine he was again arrested. On Bowne peremptorily refusing to pay, the Gov- ernor determined to make a terrible example of him and ordered him to be deported to Holland and there be punished by the highest authorities and in a manner in keeping with the enormity of the case. Accompanying Bowne was a formal letter on his offense, drawn up by the Governor and Council and addressed to the Directors of the West India Company, "honorable, right respectable gentle- men," Stuyvesant called them.

In the communication the authorities were told how the Governor's "placards" against Quakerism were treated with contempt, how the local authorities complained about the "unsufferable obstinacy" of these people, and so forth. "Among others as one of their principal leaders, named John Bowne, who for his transgressions was, in conformity to the placards, condemned in an amende of 150' guilders in seawant, who has been placed un- der arrest more than three months for his unwillingness to pay, obstinately persisting in his refusal, in which he still continues, so that we at last resolved, or rather were com- pelled, to transport him in ship from this province in the hope that others might, by it, be discouraged. If, nevertheless, by these means no more salutary impression is made upon others, we shall, though against our in- clinations, be compelled to prosecute such persons in a more severe manner, on which

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we previously solicit to be favored with your honors' wise and far-seeing judgment."

Bowne's case was patiently investigated by the West India Company at Amsterdam, and he was finally set at liberty and declared free to return to his home across the sea whenever he so listed. Besides, the company sent the Governor a letter, dated Amster- dam, April 6, 1663, conveying a most severe and pointed rebuke for his entire policy against the Quakers, saying, "Although it is our anxious desire that similar and other sec- tarians (Quakers, etc.) may not be found among us, yet we doubt extremely the policy of adopting rigorous measures against them. In the youth of your existence you ought rather to encourage than check the popula- tion of the colony. The consciences of men ought to be free and unshackeled as long as they continue moderate, peaceable, inof- fensive and not hostile to the Government. Such have been the maxims of prudence and toleration by which the Magistrates of this city have been governed, and the consequences have been that the oppressed and persecuted of every country have found among us an asylum from distress. Follow in the same steps and you will be blessed."

The blood in Peter Stuyvesant's veins doubtless bounded with such vigor when he read this stinging but polite rebuke that he must have felt it circulate even in the silver ferrule of his wooden leg! We can imagine how he swore; but it was the beginning of the end; his reign was virtually over and his whims and prejudices and opinions were be- ginning to lose their authority. Unknown to him then, the enemy was almost at his gates, and by the time John Bowne reached New Amsterdam on his return from Europe the Province was in the hands of the British and Stuyvesant had retired to his Bouwerie, to nurse his wrath and moralize over his fallen greatness as best he could. It is said that he afterward acquired a measure of respect for Bowne and was impelled to regard him as a good, honest citizen. That we doubt. But

the Governor was himself an honest man, a man of undoubted courage, and he probably could not help entertaining a feeling of ad- miration for the man who had worsted him in the height of his power and had drawn down upon him the frowns of those whom he duteously regarded as "the salt of the earth."

But Governor Stuyvesant was not the only persecutor of the Quakers in Long Island. The same prejudice existed in the eastern di- vision of the island against these people that existed in the west where the Dutch ruled, possibly because the people in the east were in touch with the dwellers in New England, and the stories of the doings of, and against, these religious enthusiasts aroused the same sentiment of animosity east of Oyster Bay that existed in Boston and Rhode Island. We find a notable instance of this in the history of Southold. One of the most outspoken and troublesome of the New England Quakers, Humphrey Norton, made a name for himself there by the force of his denunciations against the Puritan preachers and by the assiduity with which he wrote insulting letters to the Magistrates wherever he sojourned. He had . no sooner reached Southold on his travels than he went to its church, interrupted good old Dominie Youngs in his discourse, denounced the local authorities, and raised a disturbance all around. This was more than Southold could endure : so Norton was at once placed in confinement and as soon as possible sent to Connecticut for trial. That event took place in March, 1658, when he was duly convicted, after conducting himself in "an insolent and boisterous" way in the presence of the judges. After careful consideration these Solons de- clared that "the least they could do and dis- charge good conscience towards God" was to- order Norton to pay a fine of £20, to be severely whipped, to be branded with the letter H upon his hand, and then to be banished from the jurisdiction of the court. This was a pretty cumulative array of punishments; but certainly Norton's manner and methods were not such as to inspire much sympathy

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for his religious views; and in his case, at all events, he was probably punished as much for being a general disturber of the peace, and for his outspoken contempt for the lawful rulers of the people, as for his theological tenets. In the eastern end of the island the Quakers were regarded as malefactors and as people to be shuned, but this seems to have been the only instance when the law was invoked against one of them and pushed to its limit. But it was not for nearly a century later that the animus against the Friends sub- sided, and by that time these people had them- selves thrown off much of the vehemence and angularities which had for a long time raised up enemies against them wherever they went.

Under the British Government they found no more scope for their antics than they had experienced under doughty old Peter. In the opening of the eighteenth century we read of a case which created a great deal of interest in its day, and with a recapitulation of its in- cidents we may fittingly close this section of the present chapter.

One of the strangest and most erratic of the early preachers in America was George Keith, who was born at Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1645. He was educated at Mareschal College, with the view of becoming a Presbyterian clergyman. Soon after he was graduated, Keith renounced Presbyterianism and joined the Society of Friends. He was then induced by the leading Quakers in his native city to emigrate to America, with the view not only of improving his own temporal position but also of helping to spread their doctrines in the New World. He arrived at New York in 1684, and for four years was Surveyor of New Jersey. In 1689 he removed to Phila- delphia, where he conducted a Friends' school, but that occupation was too quiet and monot- onous to suit his notions, and he soon gave it up. We next find him traveling through tlie country like a Quaker Don Quixote trying to win people over to the views of the Society. In New England he engaged in heated con- troversies with Increase Mather, Cotton

Mather and others, and he made considerable commotion, but, so. far as can be made out, few converts. On his return to Philadelphia, being in a belligerent mood, he quarreled with the Quakers there, the quarrel being undoubt- edly caused by his own infirm temper, his own sense of the failure of his mission, and to some peculiar innovations he advocated and which none of the brethren seemed disposed to listen to. Then he went to England and laid his whole case before William Penn; but that leader denounced him as an apostate and Keith was excommunicated from the Society, as completely as the gentle Quakers could excommunicate anybody.

Then Keith founded a religious denomina- tion of his own, which he called the Christian or Baptist Quakers (properly called the Keithians), and in which he had a chance for ventilating some original views he held on the millennium and concerning the transmi- gration of souls. The Keithians, however, did not hold long together, and in 1701 its founder was a full-fledged and enthusiastic minister of the Church of England! Here, probably, because years had softened the natural con- tentiousness of his disposition, or the church itself allowed more latitude for individual views on various doctrinal matters, he found a secure foothold. Nay, more, he found an opportunity for repaying the Society of Friends for its rather summary treatment of him. He was sent as a missionary to Penn- sylvania and New Jersey, with the view of converting, or perverting, as many Quakers as possible, and he afterward was wont to- boast that in that expedition some 700 Friends were by his instrumentality received into com- munion with the English Church. It was then that he visited Long Island. Soon after his return to England he was appointed vicar of Edburton, in Essex, and in that beautiful parish his declining years were spent in tran- quillity.

Keith was a man of a decidedly superior cast of intellect, an eloquent and attractive speaker and preacher, an able and ready con-

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troversialist, and, but for his choleric disposi- tion, would have lived a life of more than ordinary usefulness and might even have at- tained to real power and eminence. He was a voluminous writer, and in the fifty or more volumes, some in bulky quarto, or pamphlets which we know to have come from his pen, we can trace the current of his religious views through all their changes. He appears in them all to have been singularly honest, made 10 attempt to conceal or belittle his own de- nominational changes and even published re- tractions of his own published writings. His later works were mainly taken up with what he regarded as the fallaciousness of Quaker- ism, and he attacked the Society of Friends from every point of view and with the utmost savagery !

On March 24, 1702, Samuel Bownas left England, as a missionary from the Society of Friends, and landed at Baltimore. From there after a while he started out on a preaching ex- pedition, but wherever he went he was fol- lowed by Keith, who by that time had fairly entered upon his campaign against his former co-religionists, and the two passed through Pennsylvania and New Jersey to Long Island, the one preaching the Gospel of love, the other virtually the "gospel" of hate. At Hempstead, on November 21, 1702, Bownas preached in the home of Thomas Pearsall. Then know- ing the despicable attitude of the reigning Governor, Lord Cornbury, toward all shades of sectarianism, Keith, finding he could silence Bownas in no other way, manipulated matters so that information of the meeting should be laid before the magistracy. As a result Bow- nas was arrested on November 29, while en- gaged in a "conventicle" in a house at Flush- ing. He was taken to Jamaica and given an examination before Justices Joseph Smith, Edward Burroughs, John Smith and Jonathan Whitehead; but the result of the hearing was never in doubt, although it is said that White- head not only sympathized with the prisoner but would have set him at liberty. He was ordered to give bail in £2,000 to answer, but

he replied that he would give no bail, not even were it reduced to three-half pence. Justice Whitehead expressed his willingness to pro- vide the bail, but the prisoner remained ob- durate and was sent to prison for three months. He passed the days of his incarcera- tion in learning how to make shoes, in which he ultimately became so proficient that he was able to earn fifteen shillings a week and so support himself wherever he went.

In February, 1703, Bownas was duly brought to trial at a special Oyer and Ter- miner Court held in Jamaica, with Chief Jus- tice Bridges and Justices Robert Miller, Thomas Willet, John Jackson and Edward Burroughs as associates. A grand jury was impanelled, consisting of Richard Cornell, Ephraim Goulding, John Clayer, Isaac Hicks, Robert Hubbs, Reginald Mott, Richard Val- entine, Nathaniel Coles, Joseph Dickerson, Isaac Doughty, Samuel Emery, John Smith, John Sering, John Oakley, Samuel Hallet, Richard Alsop, John Hunt, James Clement and William Bloodgood, men whose memory should ever he held in honor by all who value the blessings of religious liberty and tolera- tion. An indictment against Bownas was pre- scribed to this Grand Jury for consideration and approval, but it was returned to the bench indorsed "Ignoramus," the legal term formerly used on a bill of indictment when there was not deemed sufficient evidence to convict or sufficient ground to form an of- fense. The Judges appear to have stormed and threatened, but the members of the Grand Jury not only remained unmoved but even threatened the Judges in their turn. Bownas was re-committed to prison, Judge Bridges ordering him to be confined more closely than ever and threatening even to send him to Eng- land in chains. The little crisis created quite a commotion and Keith made it the excuse for issuing a pamphlet on the case full of the vituperation of which he was such a master and which so vilified Bownas that it defeated its purpose and added to the number of the Quaker's friends. One of the Grand Jurors,

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A history of Long Island, from its earliest settlement to the present time, Part 29

Author: Ross, Peter. cn Publication date: 1902 Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 1188

Author: Ross, Peter. cn
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: New York ; Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 1188