USA > New York > A short history of New York State > Part 8
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75
During the third quarter of the eighteenth century these factions fought a politico-religious battle of great bitterness. The sharpest skirmish- ing came over the chartering of King's College in 1754. Trinity Church, which was already famous for its holdings of Manhattan real estate, offered a tract to the college provided that the president would be an Anglican and that the college services follow the Book of Common Prayer. The triumvirate of famous lawyers, William Livingston, John Morin Scott, and William Smith, Jr., attacked the charter and the pro- posed grant of public aid, but Lieutenant Governor James de Lancey forced through the charter although the amount of public aid was cut. King's College remained firmly under Anglican direction until after the Revolution. In 1784 it became Columbia College.
The establishment of an American bishopric was another issue which stirred the Presbyterians to violent protest. In general, the Presbyterians were most active in the movement against British taxes and regulations, whereas the Anglicans tended to uphold the concept of imperial control.
The Lutherans were fourth in church membership, following the Dutch Reformed, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians. During Governor Stuyvesant's regime German settlers had called for a minister, but the Lutheran denomination did not spread upstate until the Palatine im- migration after 1708. Quaker and Baptist missionaries invaded the prov- ince before 1700 and met some persecution from the authorities. Nevertheless, the Quakers established several meetinghouses on Long
67
COLONIAL SOCIETY AND CULTURE
Island and in the Westchester area near Quaker Hill. The Friends gave up some of their more distinctive customs with the passage of time. Only a handful of Methodists, Roman Catholics, and Jews settled in New York prior to the Revolution.
Estimates of church membership in most periods are notoriously guesswork, but Augustus Shearer's reckoning of the number of congre- gations is probably a good guide to the relative strength of the various denominations in 1776: Dutch Reformed, 81; Presbyterian, 61; Epis- copalian, 30; Quaker, 26; Lutheran, 22; Baptist, 16; Congregationalist, 5; Associate Presbyterian, 2; Covenanter, 1; Moravian, 3; Methodist, 1; Jewish, 1.
Probably a majority of the children of colonial New York never saw the inside of a schoolhouse, and the favored minority received little more than an introduction to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Night schools remedied some of the neglect, especially for apprentices whose indentures called for basic instruction in reading and writing. In general, parents had to rely upon private agencies for the education of their children. A few towns on Long Island with Yankee traditions set up elementary schools. Other towns and the provincial government also granted some support to private schools.
The elementary school run by the Dutch Reformed church in New York City continued to instruct boys and girls in the Dutch language until 1772, when the conservative group finally permitted the use of English. Other Dutch centers, such as Albany and Kingston, also had schools run in connection with the Reformed church. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel promoted several schools which instructed some charity scholars. A few wealthy families hired tutors, but the middle class and gentry usually sent their children to masters who set up private schools.
The handful of lads preparing for college studied with tutors or at- tended the few grammar schools. A scattering of young men prepared for the Dutch Reformed ministry at the University of Utrecht, and a few sons of the aristocracy attended Oxford and Cambridge. In the New World Yale was the favorite, or for many years the most convenient, college for New Yorkers. Its orthodox Calvinism irked "New Light" Presbyterians, who sent their sons to the College of New Jersey after 1746. The Anglicans also distrusted Yale. They, accordingly, pressed for the establishment of King's College. Samuel Johnson, the first presi- dent of King's College, and his successor, Dr. Myles Cooper, made this institution a center of Anglican and Loyalist sentiment.
Culturally, New York City lagged behind Boston and Philadelphia throughout the colonial period. The American Gazetteer of 1762 com- plained about New York:
68
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
Through a long shameful neglect of all the arts and sciences, the common speech is extremely corrupt, and the evidences of a bad taste, both as to thought and language, are visible in their proceedings public and private. There is nothing the ladies so generally neglect as reading and indeed all the arts for the improvement of the mind-a neglect in which the men have set the example.
In 1725 William Bradford founded the New York Gazette, the fifth colonial newspaper, and the first in New York. Bradford not only trained scores of printers but also published books and ran a bookshop. He sold Bibles, prayer books, textbooks, and classical works. A few printers set- tled in New York City and published books on various topics. Probably the first important book was Cadwallader Colden's History of the Five Indian Nations (1727). Almanacs were a staple item published by printers of this period.
Music, painting, and architecture followed the trends in England. In the 1750's William Tuckey, organist and concert master, gave many concerts with his choir at Trinity Church. The merchants and landlords sought out portrait painters. Probably the ablest artist before John Copley was Robert Feke of Long Island, who tried to go beyond a mere photographic reproduction of his subject. Benjamin West painted in New York City for over a decade after setting up his studio in 1758. Copley after 1771 found himself besieged by merchants eager to have their portraits painted.
The Dutch after 1664 continued to build houses characterized by gables turned toward the street and handsome roofs that curved out- ward, forming an overhang beyond the wall. With increasing prosperity the Dutch built larger houses, adopting such features as the two-pitched gambrel from New England and introducing Renaissance notes of décor, especially in the interior trim.
Georgian architecture, to use a loose term, gradually spread through the province, finding its fullest expression in the houses of the merchants and landlords. The merchants built square brick houses with stone trimmings and triangular, semicircular, or broken pediments above windows and doors. Other typical features were pillars framing the door- ways, fanlights, and balustraded roofs or simple gables with dormer windows. Schuyler Mansion (1762) in Albany is interesting for its hipped gambrel roof and Chippendale railing. Landlords in the country fre- quently built their houses of wood and added small porches.
The élite followed the fashions of London in their house furnishings, clothing, and amusements. The influx of hundreds of British officers during the French and Indian War gave a stimulus to social life. The gentry consulted The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Directory put out by Thomas Chippendale to select their house furnishings. They usually
69
COLONIAL SOCIETY AND CULTURE
imported their furniture from England, although local cabinetmakers had begun to copy the elegant rococo chairs, with their Chinese frets and friezes. The walls of drawing rooms were paneled or covered with hangings.
The style of living was luxurious enough to evoke favorable comment by visitors from England and other colonies. Householders had Negro slaves to serve as butlers, footmen, cooks, coachmen, and maids. The ladies entertained their friends on Staffordshire or Wedgwood china and brought out their collection of silver teapots and cutlery. In their clothing and personal adornment they mirrored London drawing rooms. Their gowns were made of alamode or paduasoy, and their hair was drawn up on frames. The men were equally desirous of keeping up with London fashions and they ordered their suits and wigs from agents in England.
The rich diverted themselves by riding, hunting, and boating. During the 1730's public balls and the theater became fashionable. In 1750 Thomas Kean presented Richard III, and three years later the Hallam Company of London gave New Yorkers their first real season of drama. David Douglas, the founder of America's first permanent theater in Philadelphia in 1766, brought his company to New York a short time later.
The life of the aristocratic minority was quite different from that of the farmers and middle class, not to mention the servants, workers, and slaves. Farm families were largely self-sufficient, the men building houses, barns, and some furniture, the women making homespun and "putting down" much meat for the winter. Servants had virtually no home life of their own and wore the castoffs of their masters. Altogether life for most New Yorkers was grim. Nevertheless gaiety and laughter burst through. Men of all classes found relaxation in groghouses and flocked to the horseraces and cockfights. The lower-class women enjoyed their pipes and gossiped on their front stoops.
Social life centered around the taverns, of which there was one for every fifty-five inhabitants of New York City in 1772. The best inns had long rooms useful for musical parties, balls, political and fraternal meet- ings, and dinners. The larger taverns were information centers supplying papers from other cities and entertaining travelers from other colonies. Persons engaged in various trades or activities had their favorite taverns. The aristocracy and the cliques around the governors patronized Todd's Sign of the Black Horse, while the opponents of Cosby in the 1740's met at D'Honneurs' Tavern. The lower classes found dozens of groghouses ready to serve them. .
Science and experimental knowledge made widespread advances dur- ing the eighteenth century, in colonial America as well as in the Old
70
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
World. No scientists stood forth as prominently in New York as Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia or John Winthrop at Harvard. Cadwallader Colden, amateur philosopher and historian, dabbled in Linnaean botany and medicine and corresponded regularly with Franklin and scientists in other colonies. Colden, who had studied medicine at Edinburgh, wrote many articles on medical topics and urged the establishment of a medical society in New York. Progress in medicine, however, was slow, and the only important gain was the growing practice of inoculation for the prevention of smallpox.
New York remained a cultural fief of Great Britain and western Europe throughout the colonial period. The intellectual currents flowing from Europe reached New York through various channels: newspapers, books, traders, clergymen, and amateur scholars. The rationalism of the Enlightenment won converts among the educated class, who in turn influenced the thinking of the populace through their speeches and writ- ings. The scientific mentality and secularism, in all branches of knowledge and the arts, made their influence felt in New York as they did in all parts of Europe and America during the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century.
Chapter 7
Landlords and Farmers in Colonial New York
And every year the Young people go from this Province and Purchase Land in the Neighboring Colonies, while much bet- ter and every way more convenient Lands lie useless to the King and Country. The reason for this is that the Grantees themselves are not, nor never were in a Capacity to improve such large Tracts and other People will not become their Vas- sals or Tenants for one great reason . . . leaving their na- tive Country, was to avoid dependence on landlords, and to enjoy in fee to descend to their posterity that their children may reap the benefit of their labor and Industry.
-CADWALLADER COLDEN, 1732
NEW YORK had probably the most aristocratic social structure of all the British American colonies. Landlords in alliance with Manhattan merchants dominated the political scene, overawing royal governors and the common folk alike. In their manor houses they aped the genteel man- ners of their English compeers. In order to understand the political and social structure of colonial New York, one must therefore examine the land system.
The Duke of York as proprietor took title to all unclaimed lands in 1664 after recognizing the validity of titles granted by the Dutch com- pany. His governors made a few relatively small land grants such as Fordham Manor in 1671. After James rose to the throne in 1685, Gov- ernor Dongan granted lands more liberally. In that year he confirmed the landed rights of the Van Rensselaer family, although he limited their political privileges and denied to them control over Albany. The next year he authorized Livingston Manor, which eventually included 160,000 acres in Columbia County.
The squandering of the royal domain on a prodigal scale really began
71
/Ft. Stanwix
Ft. Stanwix Treaty Line of 1768
ROYAL GRANT
COSBY
MANOR
.Johnstown STONE ARABIA PAT
Saratoga
Mohawk R.
Cherry Valley
Schenectady
Otsego L.
CROGHAN PATENT
Schoharie Cr.
MANOR OF
Albany RENSSELAERSWYCK
Unadilla R.
LIVINGSTON MANOR
-
-
HARDENBERGH PATENT
Kingston.
Hudson R.
GREAT NINE PARTNERS PATENT
Delaware R.
MINNISINK PATENT
Newburgh-
PHILIPSE'S HIGHLAND PATENT
WAYWAYANDA PATENT.
CORTLANDT MANOR
.White Plains
PHILIPSBOROUGH MAN.
PELHAM MANOR FORDHAM MANOR MANOR OF MORRISANIA
Long Island
Map 3. Land pattern of colonial New York. Only the major grants and patents are shown.
BEEK- MAN PAT.
H 0 01 ELSELONG PATEN THE OB
DUANES. BURG
KAYADEROSSERAS PATENT
SARATOGA PATENT
73
LANDLORDS AND FARMERS
with Governor Fletcher (1692-1698), who, in return for bribes, awarded huge tracts. His successor, Governor Bellomont (1698-1702), temporarily stopped this practice. He was determined to end the lavish policy which had placed three-fourths of the province in the hands of ten or eleven men. He annulled Fletcher's grants west of the Hudson, persuaded the Board of Trade to limit any one individual holding in the future to two thousand acres, and urged that all tracts pay quitrents and be im- proved within three years. His reforms alarmed the landlords, who blocked all moves to vacate their grants east of the Hudson River.
Governor Cornbury (1702-1708) worked hand in glove with the land jobbers, distributing as much land as all his predecessors combined. His most flagrant grant was the Hardenbergh Patent (over a million acres ) which covered most of present-day Ulster, Delaware, Sullivan, and Greene counties. Furthermore, the Cornbury patents were vaguely de- fined, encouraging landlords to "stretch" their claims. This resulted in decades of litigation. After Cornbury's extravagance there was a com- parative lull for twenty years, partly because most of the choice lands in eastern New York had passed into the hands of speculators.
During the 1730's royal officials and land jobbers turned their eyes to the Mohawk country. Governor Cosby (1732-1736) irritated speculators in New York City, Albany, and along the Hudson River by using his of- fice to secure choice tracts for himself. Because of his highhanded tactics, his rivals supported Peter Zenger's attacks on the governor. Lieutenant Governor George Clarke (1736-1743) acquired over 100,000 acres through the use of dummy partners. Governor George Clinton (1743- 1753) and Sir William Johnson, arriving in America in 1738, also built up large estates through their contacts with the Mohawks and through the use of dummy partners. Sir William owned upward of half a million acres of land in modern Herkimer, Oneida, Fulton, and Otsego counties.
Between 1763 and 1775 speculators sought tracts in the upper Susque- hanna Valley and especially in the region between Lake Champlain and the Connecticut River which the charter of 1664 and the rulings of the Privy Council had assigned to New York. But fee-hungry Benning Went- worth, governor of New Hampshire, had already sold scores of townships in that region to Yankee speculators. The endless controversy over these claims will be discussed in the chapter on the American Revolution. Suffice it to say that the four governors of New York in the decade preceding the Revolution handed out over two million acres, upon which they collected a fortune in fees.
The greed of officials and the rapacity of speculators thus broke down the policy of the British government against the creation of speculative landholdings. Although competing at times for certain tracts, these two groups co-operated to circumvent troublesome provisions in the land
74
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
laws: the limit of acreage to any one individual, the requirement for "seating" settlers on tracts, and the payment of quitrents. It should be noted, however, that the tendency of the colonial officials to build up their private fortunes at public expense was in keeping with the accepted practices of the time. They did not regard themselves as dishonest nor were they so regarded by the public.
The rather complicated procedure by which patents were granted favored speculators, who had access to high officials and had funds to pay the necessary fees. The grants were made by the governors, acting with the advice of their Council. To obtain a grant a speculator needed permission to buy the land from the Indians. He also needed a warrant to survey the land and a second warrant from the governor directing the attorney general to prepare a patent. Fees and fraud attended every step. Legal fees included those to the surveyor general, attorney general, the secretary, and the governor. Speculators got around the restriction of two thousand acres by using indentured servants, tenants, and soldiers as "dummy partners." After the patent was granted, the "partners" re- leased their shares. The purchase of Indian claims was also the occasion for fraud and chicanery. In 1755 an Oneida sachem said to William Johnson as he pointed to a land shark from Albany:
Brother. You promised that you would keep this fire place clean from all filth and that no snake should come into this Council Room. That man sitting there . .. is a Devil and has stole our Lands, he takes Indians slyly by the Blanket one at a time, and when they are drunk, puts some money in their Bosoms, and perswades them to sign deeds.
The landlords with the help of lawyers and judges ( themselves knee deep in land deals) also framed the real property law in such a way as to guard their interests. The most unusual development was the erec- tion of manors. In the county of Westchester a mere six manors con- trolled more than half the acreage. Pelham, Fordham, and Morrisania were comparatively small manors in the southern part of the county, but Scarsdale, Cortlandt Manor, and Philipsborough Manor farther north included approximately four hundred square miles. In Albany County were Van Rensselaer and Livingston manors. Historians and lawyers are in disagreement as to whether these manors possessed genuine feudal powers. It can be argued that as a conquered country New York was not subject to parliamentary acts of 1290 and 1660 which limited the Crown's powers to grant feudal rights in England. Certainly the legal and political aspects of the manors were suspiciously similar to the traditional feudal practices. Manorial privileges included the right to hold courts leet and baron and representation in the assembly in the case of Rensselaer, Livingston, and Cortlandt manors. In actual practice
75
LANDLORDS AND FARMERS
the court privileges were seldom exercised, largely because town and county administrations supplanted them. The payment of a quitrent tended to confirm the feudal nature of the grants, although nonmanorial landholders also paid quitrents. The landed proprietors resisted every effort to make them pay quitrents, not only because they wished to avoid payment but also because the revenue might make the governor more independent of the financial grants of the Assembly.
Whether they enjoyed manorial rights or not, the landed proprietors exercised great economic and political power. In general, the landed class believed that the best way to develop an estate was to lease, rather than to sell, the land. Conditions for the tenants on the patents were hardly preferable to those endured by manorial tenants, although tenants on the patents usually paid cash rents, avoided clauses providing for quarter sales, services, and water reservations, and escaped the direct supervision of the landlord. Leases varied from patent to patent and even on the same estate, but in general there were two main types: the perpetual lease and the lease for life (the lifetime of the two or three persons named in the leases ).
Perhaps a brief description of the manor of Rensselaerswyck will illustrate some of the features of the land system. From the days of the first patroon, the Van Rensselaer family ordinarily did not sell their lands. At first, they offered short-term leases, but in the eighteenth century they adopted "durable" leases. These "durable" leases were in reality freehold estates in perpetuity to which were attached certain restraints on alienation and the payment of perpetual rent. In the lowland town-' ships of Albany County the leases usually called for an annual payment of ten bushels of winter wheat per hundred acres, four fat hens, and three days' service with a team of horses or oxen. Other obligations were more burdensome. When a tenant sold his farm, he had to pay one- fourth of the money to the patroon, or, in some leases, an extra year's rent. In addition, the patroon reserved the right to seize property for nonpayment of rent, the right to cut timber, and all milling and mining rights. The tenants were also responsible for all taxes.
The real property law protected and perpetuated the privileges of landlords. Acts intended to ensure security of tenure to landlords with weak titles received speedy approval by the Assembly. The law of in- heritance prohibited the division of real property and required that the estate pass to the eldest son.
The land pattern and land policy of New York was a deterrent to settlement, since neither Yankees accustomed to outright ownership nor Europeans fleeing from landlord exactions wanted to become tenants in the New World. Governor Bellomont in 1700 was only anticipating the conclusions of later officials when he noted, "What man will be such a
76
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
fool as to become a base tenant to Mr. Delius, Colonel Schuyler, Mr. Livingston ... when, for crossing Hudson's River that man can for a song purchase a good freehold in the Jersey's [sic]."
Political power and social prestige awaited those who acquired large holdings. The New York aristocracy, using the English nobility for their models, reproduced a genteel society along the banks of the Hudson in which family pride, Anglicanism, and conservative principles were judiciously fused. Generations of intermarriage created a tightly knit clique with an intense class loyalty. The Schuylers, to take but one family, were related to the Van Cortlandts, Van Rensselaers, Livingstons, Verplancks, Bayards, De Peysters, De Lanceys, Beekmans-all landhold- ing as well as commercial families. The provincial aristocracy also had ties with prominent families in other colonies and in Britain. For example, William Johnson's uncle, Sir Peter Warren, married Susan de Lancey, who was the sister of Lieutenant Governor James de Lancey. William Johnson's son, John, married a daughter of Councilor John Watts, him- self married to a De Lancey.
Although landlords were admittedly unscrupulous both in acquiring tracts and protecting their holdings, a sense of public responsibility accompanied their drive for power, and a spirit of paternalism softened their relations with the lower classes. The landed families provided the bulk of local and provincial officials, and their sons served as officers in the militia. They supported charitable organizations and gave their aid to the Anglican church and King's College. Probably no group of Negro household servants in America was treated more kindly than those serv- ing the landed families of New York.
The aristocracy's hearty dislike of New England contrasted with its emulation of the English nobility. Since most of them belonged to the Church of England, they hated "dissenters" not only because of Crom- well and the Civil War in England but also because the Calvinists in both New England and New York were fighting an American episcopate. As officials they disliked the Yankee's challenges of New York's claims along its eastern border and especially in the Vermont area. As land- holders they feared the spread of "leveling" ideas by Yankee farmers who contested land titles and led antirent wars. As true monarchists they looked askance at the republican principles which had made great strides in New England. As a proud caste they resented the cultural arrogance of New Englanders such as John Adams, who claimed there was not a cultured man in New York. No one has better expressed this fear and contempt for New England than Lewis Morris, Jr., did in his will, dated 1760. Morris directed that his son Gouverneur never be sent to Connecticut for his education,
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.