USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > A history of the city of Brooklyn and Kings county, Volume I > Part 6
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The Director and Council replied that they had " no objection that the Reverend Polhe- mus, when the weather permits, shall preach alternately in both places; " but although Mid- wout consented, Gravesend and Amersfoort ob- jected, these villages having contributed to the support of the Midwout church, and Breuck- elen being "quite two hours' walking from Amersfoort and Gravesend, whereas the village of Midwout is not half so far and the road much better." To this was added: "So they considered it a hardship to choose either to hear the gospel but once a day, or to be com- pelled to travel four hours, in going and re- turning, all for one single sermon, which would be to some very troublesome, and to some utterly impossible."
As a way out of this difficulty the Director and Council decided that the morning sermon should be at Midwout, which was about the same distance from each of the three other towns, and that the afternoon service should be changed to an evening service to be held alternately in Breuckelen and Amersfoort. In recognition of the situation of Midwout, that village was to give annually 400 guilders, and Breuckelen and Amersfoort each 300 guilders for the support of the minister.
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This seemed like an amicable settlement, and might have remained such had not Breuckelen been dissatisfied with the preach- ing of Mr. Polhemus. The dissatisfaction ex- pressed itself in a protest sent to the Director and Council, in which the people of Breuck- elen reminded the Director that they had never called the Reverend Polhemus, and had never accepted him as their minister. " He in- truded himself upon us against our will," said the protest, " and voluntarily preached in the open street, under the blue sky; when to avoid offense, the house of Joris Dircksen was temporarily offered him." Moreover, Mr. Pol- hemus was accused of offering "a poor and meagre service," giving, every fortnight, "a prayer in lieu of a sermon," by which they could receive " very little instruction." Often, when they supposed this prayer was begin- ning, it was " actually at an end." This they experienced on the Sunday preceding Christ- mas, when, expecting an appropriate sermon, they heard "nothing but a prayer." "Where- fore," continues the protest, "it is our opinion that we shall enjoy as much and more edifica- tion by appointing one among ourselves, who may read to us on Sundays, a sermon from the ' Apostles' Book,' as we ever have until now
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from any of the prayers or sermons of the Reverend Polhemus." All this, the protest hastened to say, was intended in no offense to the preacher, whose inabilities were recognized as resulting naturally from the fact that in his advanced years "his talents did not accom- pany him as steadily as in the days of yore."
To this protest Stuyvesant responded merely by directing the sheriff to "remind those of Breuckelen, once more, to fulfil their engagement, and to execute their promise rela- tive to the salary of Mr. Polhemus." Amid their discontent, and in consequence also of the poverty of many of his parishioners, the poor preacher suffered not a little for want of the ordinary necessities of life. In the winter of 1656, his house being not yet completed, he and wife and children were forced to sleep on the floor. When Sheriff Tonneman com- plained to the Council of having been abused while attempting to collect the odious tax, Lodewyck Jong, Jan Martyn, “ Nicholas the Frenchman, Abraham Janesen the mulatto, and Gerrit the wheelwright," were each fined twelve guilders ($4.80) ; and when Jan Martyn sought to hire the public bellman to defame Tonneman, he was " obliged to beg pardon, on bended knees, of the Lord and of the court,
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and was fined twenty-five guilders ($10) and costs."
Wearied of his efforts to coax and threaten the Breuckelen opposition into paying the tax, Stuyvesant at last (in July, 1658) forbade all inhabitants of the three towns to remove grain from their fields until all tithes were taken or commuted. There was no escape from this, and the tax was paid.
Two years later Breuckelen secured a preacher of her own in the person of the Rev. Henricus Selyns,1 a preacher whose ancestors had been prominent in the earliest days of the Dutch Reformed Church, and who had been reared in the traditions of this flourishing denomination. He engaged to serve Breuck- elen for four years.
When, in September, 1660, Dominie Selyns preached his first sermon in the Breuckelen barn which served as a house of worship, the population of the village was one hundred and thirty-four persons, representing thirty-one families. The preacher had been promised a salary of one hundred florins, but when an effort was made to raise funds the magistrates
1 The call of the Breuckelen Church to Dominie Selyns was by him accepted, and approved by the Classis of Amsterdam, February 16, 1660(-61). - Brooklyn Church Records.
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found themselves under the necessity of appeal- ing to the Director for aid. Stuyvesant offered to pay one hundred and fifty guilders, provided Mr. Selyns would also preach every afternoon at his "bouwery" on Manhattan Island. This arrangement was duly made. In 1661, when Breuckelen received from the West India Company, by request of Dominie Selyns, a bell for the church, there were fifty- two communicants. Meanwhile, Mr. Selyns was living at New Amsterdam, and in 1662 an effort was made to induce the preacher to live in Breuckelen, on the theory of the sche- pens that, if he did so bring himself among them, " the community would be more willing and ready to bring in their respective quotas." It does not appear that the Dominie found it convenient to live in Breuckelen, but there is no doubt of his zeal nor of his popularity. When, in 1664, the Dominie returned to Hol- land, it was with the regrets and good wishes of the little band of Breuckelen parishioners.
The Dutch attitude toward education was in many respects very different from that which prevailed among the English. At the time of the settlement of New England and New Amsterdam, Holland was far in advance of other European states in ideas of popular
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education. Mr. Campbell1 places Holland two hundred years in advance of any other country in Europe at the time of the Puritan emigration. There was, indeed, an extraordi- nary contrast between " the free cities " of the Netherlands and their neighbors at this time. " The whole population," says May,2 " was edu- cated. The higher classes were singularly accomplished. The University of Leyden was founded for the learned education of the rich, and free schools were established for the gen- eral education." Common schools had, in- deed, been founded in the sixteenth century, and in the seventeenth the children of all classes were taught at the public expense.
Such ideas of educational democracy had
1 Mr. Campbell and other recent writers, actuated doubtless by some resentment toward the complacency of New England, have unquestionably exaggerated in certain respects the essen- tial position of Holland in educational advancement, and offered a somewhat stronger plea for the leadership of the Dutch in popular education on this continent than a strictly judicial examination of the case seems to justify ; but there can be no reasonable doubt in the minds of impartial students that serious misconceptions have existed, and that these jus- tify the championship of the Dutch, of which Mr. Campbell's The Puritan in Holland, England, and America is so brilliant an example. The early claims for English and for Puritan educational traditions not only ignored but excluded the Dutch, and it was inevitable that the effort to do justice to Holland's remarkable services for popular education should result in occasional overstatement.
2 Democracy in Europe, vol. ii. pp. 67-72.
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not appeared in England at the time when education first began to be considered in this country. Mr. Draper1 notes that there was no school but the Latin school in Boston for thirty-five years after the passage of the so-called compulsory education law of 1647. Nor did the early Massachusetts schools receive all the children of the people. " No boys were received under seven years of age till 1818. No girls of any age were admitted prior to 1789. It was one hundred and forty- two years after the passage of the so-called compulsory school law of 1647 before Bos- ton admitted one girl to her so-called 'free schools,' and it was one hundred and eighty- one years thereafter before girls had facilities equal to those enjoyed by their brothers."
On the other hand, New Amsterdam had a professional schoolmaster as early as 1633, and with him popular common school education began in this country. Prior to 1662, there were as many as ten persons licensed to keep private schools or to teach on their own ac- count, and Furman states that young men from both the New England and the Virginia colonies came to New Amsterdam to be edu-
1 Public School Pioneering in New York and Massachu- setts.
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cated. Speaking of the movement of 1658, looking to the establishment of a Latin school at New Amsterdam, and of the comment thereon by Mr. George H. Martin, represent- ing the State Board of Education of Massa- chusetts, Mr. Draper says : -
" Mr. Martin seems to make much of the fact that the petition for the sending over of a Latin master stated that there was no Latin school nearer than Boston, but overlooks the fact that there had previously been a Latin school at New Amsterdam, and also the other fact that there was no school at Plymouth, and none but a Latin school at Boston, and that it received only a few of the brighter boys of the wealthier families, to prepare them for college and the ministry."
The earliest laws of the colony show that for the support of schools "each householder and inhabitant should bear such tax and public charge as should be considered proper for their maintenance." 1
The first schoolmaster in Breuckelen made his appearance in 1661, on the 4th day of July, in which year the following petition was pre- sented : -
1 New York Colonial Documents, vol. i. p. 112.
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To the Right Hon. Director - General and Council of New Netherland : -
The Schout and Schepens of the Court of Breuckelin respectfully represent: That they found it necessary, that a court messenger was required for the Schepens Chamber, to be occa- sionally employed in the Village of Breuckelin, and all around, where he may be needed, as well to serve summons, as also to conduct the service of the church, and to sing on Sunday ; to take charge of the school, dig graves, etc .; ring the bell and perform what ever else may be required. Therefore, the petitioners, with your Honours' approbation, have thought proper to accept for so highly necessary office a suita- ble person who is now come before them, one Carel Van Beauvois, to whom they have appro- priated the sum of fl. 150, beside a fine dwell- ing; and whereas the petitioners are appre- hensive that the aforesaid C. V. Beauvois would not and cannot do the work for the sum aforesaid, and the petitioners are not able to promise him any more; therefore the peti- tioners, with all humble and proper reverence, request your Honours to be pleased to lend them a helping hand, in order thus to receive the needful assistance. Herewith awaiting your Honours' kind and favorable answer, and commending ourselves, Honorable, wise, pru- dent and most discreet gentlemen, to your favor, we pray for your Honours God's protec-
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tion, together with a happy and prosperous administration, unto salvation. Your Honors' servants and subjects, the Schout and Sche- pens of the village aforesaid. By order of the same,
[Signed] ADRIAEN HEGEMAN, Secretary.
The Directors granted the petition and agreed to pay fifty guilders annually in wam- pum for the support of the precentor and schoolmaster.
The first school was set up in the little church, which stood near the present junction of Fulton and Bridge Streets. The second public school within the county was opened in the new village of Bushwick.
The area of the county represented by the town of Bushwick had, as we have seen, been purchased by the West India Company in 1638. In 1660 the Wallabout residents had built a block-house on the high point of land overlooking the East River, known as the " Kiekout,"1 or " Lookout." At about the same time (in the month of February), “four- teen Frenchmen, with a Dutchman named
1 The river farm, which included the " Kiekout " bluff, is first found in the possession of Jean Meserole, who came from Picardy, France, in 1663, and from whom is descended Gen. Jeremiah V. Meserole, President of the Williamsburgh Sav- ings Bank, first colonel of the Forty-seventh Regiment, N. G. S. N. Y.
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Peter Janse Wit" and an interpreter, called upon the Director to lay out a town plot east of the Wallabout settlement. On February 19 the Director, with the Fiscal, Nicasius de Sille, Secretary Van Ruyven, and the sworn surveyor, Jaques Corteleau, came to a spot between " Mispat (Maspeth) Kill," New- town Creek, and " Norman's Kill,"1 Bushwick Creek, to "establish a village." Here a sur- vey was made, and twenty house lots laid out. The first house was at once erected by Evert Hedeman, and others soon appeared.
In March of the following year " the Direc- tor-General visited the new village, when the inhabitants requested His Honour to give the place a name; whereupon he named the town Boswijck," the Town of the Woods. The people of the new village then selected six of their men, from which the governor chose three, to be magistrates, the town remaining subject to the schout of Breuckelen, Amers- foort, and Midwout.
Thus when the first public school was
1 So named from Dirck Volckertsen, surnamed "the Nor- man," to whom was granted in 1645 land on the East River between Bushwick Creek and Newtown Creek, now within the seventeenth ward of the city of Brooklyn, and still known as Greenpoint. Volckertsen lived in a stone house on the north- erly side of Bushwick Creek near the East River. The house was standing until after the middle of the present century.
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opened in Bushwick, the hamlet scarcely con- tained twenty houses, a fact which may illus- trate the attitude of the Dutch and French in this part of the country toward the question of popular education. The first schoolmaster in Bushwick was Boudwyn Manout, who took charge on December 28, 1662.
The setting up of the third school within the county was effected in a new village called Bedford, lying southeast of the Wallabout and east of Breuckelen. The settlement of this village dates from 1662, in which year, in the month of March, Joris Jan. Rapalje, Teunis Gysbert (Bogaert), Cornelis Jacobsen, Hen- drick Sweers, Michael Hans (Bergen), and Jan Hans (Bergen) asked the Director for a grant of unoccupied woodland " situated in the rear of Joris Rapalje, next to the old Bay Road." The Director made the grant, with the stipula- tion that the petitioners should not make "a new hamlet."
The little settlement thus formed was ad- jacent on the south to another known as Cripplebush 1 (variously spelt in the Dutch orthography of the early days), and lay at the
1 Early section names within the township of Breuckelen were Gowanus, Red Hook (lying west of the Ferry), the Ferry, Wallabout, Bedford, Cripplebush. All of these, save the last, have survived as designations of regions in the present city.
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intersection of the Jamaica highway, the Clove Road running to Flatbush, and the Cripple- bush Road running to Newtown.
The Bedford school-house was placed in the heart of the village, at the cross-roads. This school, beginning in the year 1663, afterward, according to the records of Teunis G. Bergen, became the present Public School No. 3, and had an interesting history.
Throughout the whole of Stuyvesant's direc- torship, the quarrels between him and the peo- ple were of frequent occurrence, and gained rather than diminished in violence. As we have seen, the tendency observable in the col- ony was aristocratic, and Stuyvesant fostered such a tendency to the utmost. At one time he sought to institute a division of the burgh- ers into two classes, major and minor, the rights of the major burghers to be hereditary, and to include the sole right to hold office. He had an honorable sense of justice; but his method of exercising justice was eminently paternal. He regarded complaint against a magistrate as nothing less than treason. With his Council, the "Nine Men," he had one wrangle after another. Both the Nine Men and himself repeatedly sent protests to Hol- land, and the West India Company chose to
THE FERRY IN 1746
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let the pugnacious Director and his people fight the thing out among themselves.
This indifference on the part of Holland, which plainly took nothing more than a com- mercial interest in the colony, naturally in- spired little loyalty toward the home govern- ment. The nation that ignored their protests, let their fortifications crumble from lack of repair, and refused to guard them by proper numbers of soldiery, could expect no ardor of patriotism from those who were so treated.
Meanwhile trouble began to show itself be- tween the Dutch and the Connecticut colony. The latter claimed authority over the English towns on Long Island, and threatened also to take possession of the Dutch settlements. The English were jealous of the rich territory of the Dutch. They beheld the valuable trade which had sprung up through the instrumen- tality of the Dutch West India Company. They were inclined to consider the Hollanders intruders. The English claimed the entire continent as their domain by virtue of the discovery made by their navigator, Cabot. Efforts were made to settle the disputes and differences, without success. All negotiations proved futile. With the Indians on one side and the English on the other the situation for
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the New Netherlands was perilous indeed. At last the Long Island towns, with Haar- lem, New Amsterdam, and Bergen, assembled in convention and prepared a remonstrance to the home government, charging all their dis- asters to the lack of interest manifested by the mother country in their welfare. The colo- nists divided into two parties, one favoring adherence to Holland, the other favoring the acceptance of English rule.
In 1664 Charles II. granted to his brother James, the Duke of York and Albany, a patent of all the territory lying between the Connect- icut River and Delaware Bay, in which was included the whole of the Dutch possessions. The Duke immediately dispatched four ships, with 450 soldiers, under command of his Dep- uty Governor, Colonel Richard Nicolls, to take possession of the territory. The squadron anchored at Nyack Bay, between New Utrecht and Coney Island, in August, 1664. The block house on Staten Island was captured, and all communication between Manhattan and the neighboring colonies was effectually intercepted.
The people were not prepared for this inva- sion. The very liberality the Dutch loyalists had exercised toward other nations was to seal
DUTCH MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 105
their doom. The English settlers whom they had welcomed with open arms were anxious for a change of government, and the arbitrary conduct of the Dutch officials induced many of the Hollanders to coincide with the wishes of the English. Stuyvesant was powerless ; the Fates were against him, and resistance was useless. Yet he would have refused to surren- der, and was for making the best possible fight. But the people refused to rally under his leadership, and without the striking of a blow the Dutch colony fell under English rule.
CHAPTER VI
KINGS COUNTY AFTER THE ENGLISH CONQUEST
1665-1700
Assembly at Hempstead. The "Duke's Laws." Love- lace. New York Retaken by the Dutch. Colve be- comes Governor. Return of English Rule under the Treaty of 1674. Dongan and the Popular Assembly. De Sille. Journal of Dankers and Sluyter. The Ferry. A Dutch Dinner. The Schoolmaster and the Constable. William and Mary and the Leisler Revolu- tion. Sloughter appointed Governor. Execution of Leisler, and Subsequent Honors of a Public Reinter- ment. Long Island receives the name of Nassau. Development of Privateering. Captain Kidd visits and buries Treasure on Long Island. Bellomont and the Suppression of Piracy. First Trial for Treason.
WHEN Nicolls assumed control as Governor of New Amsterdam, under the patent to the Duke of York, he considered it best to act in a liberal spirit toward the Dutch, and endeav- ored to gain their good will and esteem. In- deed, this was the wise English policy which he represented. So conciliatory was his ad- ministration that the Dutch element did not appear to be affected by the change. The trade with Holland was continued without in-
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terruption. The Dutch were permitted to elect all minor officials and to observe the cus- toms of the fatherland. New York received a new charter, and the government was placed in the hands of a Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriff, appointed by the Governor. The leg- islative power was vested in the Governor and Council, who alone possessed the power to impose taxes.
The titles to property in the province were not in any way disturbed. The Council was careful to confirm and declare legal all grants, patents, and other evidences of title which had been derived through the Dutch government. New grants in confirmation were given, and additional expense in consequence was im- posed upon the owners. Large sums were also expended in repairing the forts in and about the harbor to resist any attempt which might be made to retake the city.
Measures were also adopted to provide a more perfect and uniform system for the gov- ernment of the towns on Long Island. In order to reconcile differences, and establish laws which should control in each town, Ni- colls organized an Assembly of delegates, composed of representatives from each town. The Assembly thus formed, met in Hemp-
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stead in 1665. Breuckelen was represented in that body by two of her well-known citizens, in the persons of Frederick Lubbertsen and Evertsen Bout. The Assembly adopted a code of laws which were called the " Duke's Laws." Considering the state of the times and the varied conditions of the people, the code thus adopted was reasonable and just to all. These laws continued in operation with slight amendments until 1683, when Governor Don- gan convened his provincial Assembly. The actions of Governor Nicolls gave the delegates satisfaction and pleasure, and they became his fast friends. They expressed their admiration of his actions by an address of congratulation to the Duke of York, which was characterized by an exceedingly deferential tone toward the new authority. Many of the people objected to the tone of this address, and gave vent to their feelings in outspoken language against the delegates. So fearless and indiscreet was the language used, and so imminent did the violence threatened by the anti-English ele- ment appear, that the Government was con- strained to take notice of the same. At a court held in 1666, a stringent act was passed to prevent a repetition of the slanders against the delegates.
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In 1665, Long Island, with Staten Island, was created a shire, and called Yorkshire, as a token of respect to the proprietor, the Duke of York. The shire thus formed was divided into districts, which were denominated ridings. The towns included in Kings County, Staten Island, and Newtown, were called the West Riding. Nicolls displayed much wisdom in the management of the colony, and thereby won the respect of the people. He did not, however, remain long in service. Being anx- ious to return to Europe, in 1668 he bade farewell to the New World, and set his face eastward. Upon his return to his native land he engaged in his country's service in the war with Holland, and gave his life in defending the flag in a naval engagement in 1692.
Nicolls was succeeded by Governor Francis Lovelace, whose administration was a striking contrast to that of his predecessor. Despotic, arrogant, and self-willed, Lovelace was born to be a " paternal " ruler, and ever manifested a domineering spirit. The inhabitants had al- ways claimed the right to levy and impose their own taxes, and protested against taxation without representation. To all protests he paid no attention except to " pronounce their complaints as scandalous and seditious." His
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frequent remark was, "the people should have liberty for no thought but how to pay their taxes." In order to carry out his views, and to display his power, he imposed a duty of ten per cent. upon all imports and exports arriving at or going from the province.
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