USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > Albany bi-centennial. Historical memoirs > Part 32
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civil purposes, what authority is there for making it white any more than red or blue?
It may not be a very material issue to raise, but it is nevertheless curious to know that the State of New York floats a flag of a color for which there is no statutory warrant.
We distinguish the State flag from the regimental standards or colors. .
Chap. xii, of the Laws of 1778, entitled “ An act further to organize the government of this State," passed March 16, 1778, contains the following :
" And whereas, arms have been devised for this State, be it therefore further enacted by the authority aforesaid, that the said arms * * shall be and they are hereby declared to be the arms of this State."
Within three weeks from that time, on April 3rd, 1778, an act was passed " regulating the militia of the State of New York," which contained the following :
" VI. That each regiment shall be provided with a Standard or Colours at the Expense of the Field Officers."
One of these flags carried by the 3rd New York regiment, commanded by Col. Peter Gansevoort, Jr., in 1778 and through the Revolutionary war, is now in the possession of the colonel's descendants in Albany.
It is of blue silk, with the then newly adopted arms painted in the centre thereof.
There are a number of statutes fixing the arms and seals of the State, but none establishing either State or regimental colors, and the question arises,
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DES ASSIDUITY.
18
17
A
why and by what authority was the color of the regi- mental flag made blue, and the State arms put on the same in preference to any other device, or if the flag carried by Col. Gansevoort's regiment was a State and not a regimental flag - and there having been no distinction between the two until the military regulations of 1859, by what authority was the dis- tinction in color made, and when was it adopted, by the State ?
The regimental flags have been of a blue color since the foundation of the Government, and are so to-day, and many elegant specimens bearing honor- able scars won in the service of the Union during the Rebellion, can be seen daily in the upper corridors of the Capitol in Albany.
The municipal flag of Albany is similar in purpose and intent to the State flag, denoting the municipal sovereignty of the city. It is of white with a city coat of arms in the center in blue and is floated over the City Hall in Albany on all occasions of municipal ceremony and on State and National holidays.
Figure 18 is the Bi-centennial flag of Albany, de- signed by the writer, as a standard, bearing on its folds the political and dynastic history of Albany for two hundred and seventy-nine years, to mark the celebra- tion of its Bi-centenary as a chartered city.
It holds in combination the flags before repre- sented.
Next to the staff is the tri-color of the States Gen- eral, in its two-fold form of yellow, white and blue and red, white and blue representing the period of the Dutch supremacy which, during all the time suc-
413
ceeding, had its influence over Albany's history and its people and which holds fast the subsequent periods represented in the quarterings.
The first quarter contains Albany's municipal flag, representing the local history of the place and its city government; the second quarter is the old British jack denoting the days of English ascendency; the third quarter is the jack of the best recognized colonial flag, representing the colonial period ; and the fourth the union of the stars and stripes, repre- senting the period of free government under the Constitution and Laws of the United States - never to be changed.
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No. 1.
THE
SEAL OF
ANY
O
1686.
C
R
RT
No. 2.
No. 3.
THE CITY SEALS OF ALBANY.
Prior to 1686, Albany was a town governed by Justices of the Peace, under commissions issued by the colonial Governors.
As such it had no seal.
The Dongan Charter, signed July 22, 1686, which made Albany a city, authorized it to have and use a corporate seal in the words following: "the said Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of Albany, and their successors shall and may forever hereafter, have one common seal to serve for the sealing of all and singular their affairs and business touching or concerning the said corporation. And it shall and may be lawful to and for the said Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the said city of Albany, and their successors, as they shall see cause, to break, change, alter and new make their said common seal, and as often as to them shall seem convenient."
Prior to the granting of the charter, which at first the Van Rensselaers opposed, they released all their title to the vacant lands within the corporate limits of the new city as fixed by the charter and vested it in the new corporation, a portion of which lands in order to meet the expenses attending the procurement of the document were ordered to be sold " att a publike vendu or outcry in ye Citty Hall on Wednesday, ye first day of December " ( 1686).
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A deed from the city of Albany, bearing date in December, 1686, describing a certain “ lott of grounde on ye hill where ye gallows stande " sold at public auction pursuant to the above order and signed by Peter Schuyler, the first Mayor for the city, and attested by the city seal, is in existence. The city seal is firmly and clearly impressed on the paper in red wax, and is reproduced in figure I.
It is octagonal in shape, with the letters A. L. B. in monogram as depicted, with a crown over them.
If the design has any meaning, or there were any special reasons why it was adopted, they are not now known.
A copy or description of it was not known until the above deed was found among the old papers of a lineal descendant of the grantee, after a careful search made at the request of the writer in 1886.
Munsell, in his valuable and hardly enough appre- ciated books on Albany, has no description or picture of it, although he has engraved all other seals.
During the Bi-centennial year several others were found, one appearing on a grant of the freedom of the city given in 1736.
The letters must be an abbreviation of the name of the city. We cannot learn that the crown has any heraldic significance ; it is hardly a kingly crown, nor in shape like a coronet, the head attire of the nobility.
The first public seal of the province of the New Netherlands, granted by the State's General, had a coronet for a crest; so had the second, granted by the Duke of York to the province of New York by royal warrant, dated February 9, 1662.
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This latter seal being the royal arms of the house of Stuart, bore as a crest, a coronet composed of crosses and fleurs de lis, and was the seal of the prov- ince of New York in 1686, and it is probable that the city followed the colonial seal and the custom of the day, and used the crown as a crest, or charged the monogram of the city with a crown, to show its dependence and loyalty.
The city records have little to say concerning the seal; it seems to have been ambulatory, for at one time the clerk was forbidden to carry it about with him to the detriment of public business.
In 1740 the Common Council forbade its use ex- cept when the city fathers were in session, but in 1741 this rule was so far relaxed that the Mayor could seal "Tavern Keepers Lycences." In 1742 the aldermen who seemed to be then, as now, jealous of their privileges, re-enacted the rule of 1740, evi- dently intending that if any tavern keepers' licenses were to be granted and sealed (which sealing under the charter was necessary to their validity), they would be on hand and participate in the event.
It seems from that and what follows, that some revenue was attached to the use and possesion of the city seal, and the Common Council, the city clerk and the Mayor were fighting for its custody, with the victory in the hands of the aldermen, who forbade its use except when they were in session.
But a reformer appeared on the field in the person of Jacob C. Ten Eyck, who was elected Mayor in 1748. He went before the Board of Aldermen im- mediately after his election, produced the city seal
417
and laid it before the Common Council. He said : " that Dirck Ten Broek, Esq., had delivered the same to him, as was formerly usual for the Mayor going off to do to the new Mayor, but as the present Mayor's opinion was that the city seal should be de- livered to the keeping of the clerk of the Common Council, he desired the consent of the Board that the same may be delivered to Mr. Philip G. Livingston, the present clerk."
It was so ordered, and a resolution was passed by the board regulating the use of it by the clerk, and requiring him to use it in certain matters in the pres- ence of three aldermen. The Mayor was forbidden " for the future to have the keeping of the city seal, unless in the absence of the clerk."
At a meeting of the Common Council, held April 28, 1752, the following was passed :
" Resolved and ordered by this Board -That the old seal of this corporation, now in the hands of the Mayor, be changed and altered, and that there be a new seal in its place, which new seal, being now pro- duced to this board and approved of by them, the same is ordered to be lodged in the hands of our present clerk in his office for the use and behoof of this corporation, and that the present now new seal be henceforth our seal and called, deemed and esteemed the common seal of this corporation until it be altered and changed and the aforesaid former seal be null and void and dead in law to all intents and purposes whatsoever ;" and again re-enacted the ordinance of 1740, which prohibited its use, "except it be in our Common Council."
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The new seal above mentioned is represented in figure 2.
It displays the Albany beaver, but looking in the original, more like a drowned cat than the fat and sleek animal, it was intended to represent, with the word "Albany " over, and the figures of the year 1752 under it.
Neither the resolution nor the records state why the change was made.
Albany was certainly more English in 1752 than in 1686, and why the English crown of the latter year should have been changed for the Dutch beaver in 1752 is not apparent, especially as the reason could not have been artistic, for the first seal is certainly handsomer in appearance than the second; nor because they were tired of it, for it became again in use a few years later.
On June 30, 1752, the new seal was ordered to be used on all public documents, and it was ordained that there should be paid to the Mayor or aldermen three shillings for their fees for its use, and to the clerk for putting the seal to any instrument six shil- lings for the use of the corporation, and one shilling to the clerk for his own use.
On May 3, 1755, the Common Council passed the following resolution :
" Resolved, By this Board, that the old seal now in the custody of the Mayor with the letters thereon, shall be used by the Mayor to lyscense Carmen and Tavern Keepers and to nothing else, and shall be called the publick seal of this city."
Thus was the old Dongan seal, a few short years
419
before declared "dead in law," resuscitated ; and Albany had two seals, a city or corporate seal, and a public seal.
This state of affairs did not last long, for at a meet- ing of the Common Council held October 16, 1761, the city clerk was allowed one shilling for affixing the city seal to each freedom or other instrument issued by the city, and for each license given to any tavern keeper, and that none be valid without the seal.
The old seal here disappears from history. The seal of 1752 continued to be the corporate seal of Albany for many years, and why or when it was changed and the present seal adopted cannot be defi- nitely stated.
There is no record, changing either the seal of 1752 or adopting the one now in use.
The earliest copy of the shield on the seal (No. 3) is found on an old map of a portion of Albany, made by Simeon De Witt, a brave revolutionary sol- dier on Washington's staff and Surveyor-General of the State, dated in 1790, and now on file in the city surveyor's office.
It is the shield of the arms of the city of Albany, for which there also seems to be no record authority, and is described by Mr. Howell, in heraldic language, as follows : " Party per fess argent and gules. Above, a beaver gnawing at the stump of a tree prostrates both proper ; below, two garbs, proper. Crest, a sloop under sail, proper. Motto, Assiduity."
The arms, as depicted on the map of 1790, show supporters, dexter, a farmer, whose left hand sup-
420
ports the shield and whose right rests on his hip with a sickle hung on his wrist; the sinister is an Indian, his right hand supporting the shield, and his left sus- taining a bow, one end of which rests on the ground.
But little attention has ever been paid by the city fathers to the duty of maintaining the arms of Albany as originally designed or according to heraldic rules.
The city arms next appear on a map dated in 1795 with variations; each succeeding artist or engraver taking liberties with the picture, especially the artist who painted the official copy now in the Mayor's office in the City Hall, until the arms as now used have lost all their original significance and point; new additions of landscape and figure have been added without authority, and to cap the climax, the sup- porters have been comfortably seated, in violation of the first principles of heraldry.
The present city seal (No. 3) must have been adopted some time between 1790, the date of the above map, and 1795, the date of a city lease in the chamberlain's office, where it appears for the first known time.
It has been used as depicted in figure 3 since its first adoption without alteration. It is typical of Albany. The beaver is displayed at work-historical in its connection with the early name, history and wealth of the people of Albany-and their industry ; the rich, harvested grain appears, indicative of its agricultural wealth; the crest is a Dutch sloop, de- noting Albany's supremacy at the head of the sloop navigation of the Hudson River, and its commercial importance, and the motto, "Assiduity," appropriate
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to a city noted for the diligence and the close atten- tion to business of its inhabitants.
A few years ago the arms of the State of New York, established by authority in 1778. fell into the same condition through neglect that the arms of the city of Albany are now in, and the State thought it of sufficient importance to appoint a commission to re-establish them as they were first designed, and their labors found fruition in the passage by the legislature of chapter 190 of the Laws of 1882, entitled "An act to re-establish the original arms of the State of New York and to provide for the use thereof on the public seals."
The State arms are fixed by law, engraved accord- ing to rule, and can never be changed.
Few American cities have arms charged on a shield, upheld by supporters; according to some authorities none except the cities of New York and Albany, and their readoption in a fixed form and their preservation as an honor unique in American municipal history, and as a matter of local pride should engage the attention of our city fathers, as an outcome of Albany's Bi-centenary as a chartered city.
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W GOVERNOR DONGAN
THE CHA
--
THE BI-CENTENNIAL MEDAL.
The committee having in charge the celebration of Albany's Bi-centenary as a chartered city, determined to signalize the event by issuing a medal that would be a credit to the occasion, and a reminder of the event for all time.
It resulted in the artistic and appropriate medal represented in the engraving. It is two inches in diameter, and one-eighth of an inch thick. A few of a greater thickness were struck off specially.
The die was cut by George H. Lovett of New York, one of America's celebrated medalists, noted for the fineness of his engraving. This medal is distinguished for its artistic finish, correctness of detail, historical accuracy, and for the strength and character of its workmanship.
The obverse of the medal contains a picture of Governor Dongan signing the parchment which made Albany a city, in the presence of Peter Schuyler and Robert Livingston, and the legend : "PIETER SCHUY- LER RECEIVING THE CHARTER FROM GOVERNOR DONGAN, JULY 22, 1686."
The scene was suggested to the writer, who devised the detail of the medal, by the following extract from the minutes of the city of Albany (vol. i, p. I) :
" In Nomine Domino Jesu Christo. Amen.
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" Att a meeting of ye justices of ye peace for ye County of Albany, ye 26th day of July, A. D. 1686.
"Pieter Schuyler, gent., and Robert Livingston, gent., who were commissionated by ye towne of Albanie to goe to New-Yorke and procure ye charter for this citty, wh. was agreed upon between ye magistrates and ye right hon'l Col. Tho. Dongan, Gov. Gen'll, who accordingly have brought the same along with them, and was published with all ye joy and acclama- tions imaginable, and ye said two gent'm. received ye thanks of ye magistrates for their diligence and care in obtaining ye same."
To write the history of Schuyler and Livingston would be to write the history of New York during their time, for no more influential mnen lived in the colony.
Peter Schuyler was a merchant of Albany, and lived in 1703 on Broadway, where Van Benthuysens' print- ing office now stands, his lot extending back to the river.
He was first Mayor of Albany, Colonel of the Mili- tia of the county, President and Member of the Gov- ernor's Council, Indian Commissioner, Judge of the Court of Oyer and Terminer, etc., and the most valu- able man in the colony of New York by reason of his great influence over the Indians.
He visited England in 1710 with a delegation of Indians, and was received by Queen Anne, who ordered his portrait painted by the court painter after he had refused the offer of knighthood from her hands.
The painting is still in existence in the posses-
424
sion of his descendants in the town of Watervleit, and the picture of Schuyler in the medal is based upon that portrait. Schuyler died in 1724.
Robert Livingston was born at Anacram, Scotland, December 13, 1654; emigrated to America in 1674, and settled in Albany.
He was made town clerk of Albany by the charter of 1686, which office he resigned in 1721; he was also collector and receiver of public moneys, sub- collector of customs at Albany, Indian Commissioner, etc. He married Alida Schuyler, widow of Rev. Nicholas Van Rensselaer, and had seven children. He was the progenitor of the celebrated Livingston family ; lived where Tweddle building now stands, and died April 20, 1725.
There is a picture of him extant representing him to be a swarthy man, with long black hair, wearing the hat and costume then worn by the Dissenters.
His portrait has been followed as closely as possi- ble; the pose and costume being from Boughton's celebrated picture entitled: "The Return of the Mayflower."
Thomas Dongan, subsequently Viscount Dongan, and second Earl of Limerick, was, prior to his ap- pointment as the colonial Governor of New York, a brave and gallant colonel in the Irish contingent, serving in the French army. He was made Governor- General by King James II, in August, 1683, and was the chief magistrate of the colony on July 22, 1686, and as such signed the charter which made Albany a city. He was a wise and beneficent Governor, just in his dealings with the colonists and the Indians, and
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noted for the fairness with which he treated all people in matters of conscience.
He was superseded in 1688, and died in London in 1703.
The charter which he signed is now among the records of the city of Albany, and consists of several sheets of parchment rolled, with a very large colonial seal attached.
Great attention was paid to the historical detail and accuracy of costume and furniture in the engraving, and it is considered a masterpiece of its kind.
The reverse of the medal has in the center the shield and crest of the arms and seal of the city of Albany, described in the article on " The City Seals of Albany," and the legend : " IN COMMEMORATION OF THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CITY OF ALBANY, N. Y., 1886."
The number of medals struck from the die, which was defaced on the 22nd day of July, 1886, is as fol- lows : Ten gold medals; eight silver medals; thirty- six in bronze, gilded with a Florentine finish ; thirteen hundred in bronze, and eleven thousand in white metal. The medals thus described were one-eighth of an inch in thickness.
A few, three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness, were issued as follows : one in copper, three in bronze and thirty-six in bronze struck up in gold.
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-
The
ASSIDUITY
1686
1.
......
PK. QUAYLE ALBANY NY.
JULY TWENTY S
do hundredth
CITY OF ALBANY. NEWYORK.
.. .
NID
1886)
-
THE BI-CENTENNIAL CARD.
This card, a copy of which printed on thin paper, is inserted in this book, was issued by the committee as a memento of the anniversary and sent to all sub- scribers to the celebration fund and to distinguished guests. It is a fine steel plate and was printed, for distribution, on very thick card-board of the size eight by eleven inches with gilt beveled edges. The legend is: "THE TWO HUNDREDTH ANNI- VERSARY OF THE CITY OF ALBANY, NEW YORK, JULY TWENTY-SECOND, 1886." It shows a copy of the arms of Albany, in the degenerate form, spoken of in the article on "The City Seals of Albany ;" the card having been engraved before the general interest in old Albany, aroused by the Bi-centennial celebra- tion, had contrasted the arms of Albany now in use, with the original design found on Simeon De Witt's old map of Albany, dated 1790. We regret that the committee did not have a copy of the proper arms engraved for this book; but a general idea of their appearance can be had from an inspection of the Bi-centennial flag (flag No. 17), where they are re- produced, and from the shield in the engraving of the Bi-centennial medal.
In the flag the supporters are standing, according to heraldic rules, not sitting as in the card, and there are no details of landscape in the correct arms. The errors are not the fault of the engraver, but of the authorities which allowed the arms to degenerate.
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.
The center of the card contains a contrast between old and new Albany, 1686-1886.
In 1695 Rev. John Miller visited Albany, and the account of his visit was published in a book entitled : " Description of the Province and City of New York, with the plans of the city and several forts as existed in the year 1695," and accompanying the book there was a map or plan of the city of Albany, drawn with great circumspection and detail. Describing Albany he says : " It is in circumference about six furlongs, and hath therein about 200 houses, a fourth part of what there is reckoned to be in New York.
"The form of it is septangular, and the longest line (is) that which buts upon the river running from north to south. On the west angle is the fort, quadrangular, strongly stockadoed and ditched round, having in it twenty-one pieces of ordnance mounted.
" On the north-west side are two block-houses, and on the south-west as many; on the south-east angle stands one block-house; in the middle of the line from thence northward is a horned work, and on the north-east angle a mount. The whole city is well stockadoed round, and in the several fortifications named are about thirty guns."
The artist has endeavored, by closely following the map accompanying the book, to give an idea of Albany as it appeared in 1686, and from the letter-press description accompanying the map, has fairly suc- ceeded in his task.
The largest picture is a view of Albany in 1886, looking from Bath ; it illustrates, by the contrast with the 1686 picture, Albany's material growth in two
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hundred years, and its beauty as a city in the Bi-cen- tennial year.
In the lower vignette is an idealized picture of Dongan, Schuyler and Livingston, meeting in Albany in 1686.
The house, upon the stoop of which Dongan stands, is a correct drawing of the entrance to the celebrated Lydius house, built of bricks brought from Holland in 1657, which stood on the north-east corner of State and Pearl streets (Dexter's corner, so called). It was torn down in 1832. Opposite is the Schuyler house, lately known as the Staats corner, demolished in 1887 to make room for the Albany County Bank building.
The card is an excellent specimen of steel engrav- ing and a credit to Albany art in 1886.
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DONGAN CHARTER.
I. THOMAS DONGAN, Lieutenant and Governor of the Province of NEW-YORK, and Dependencies in AMERICA, under his most sacred Majesty, JAMES the Second, by the Grace of God, of ENGLAND, SCOT- LAND, FRANCE and IRELAND, King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth, and Supreme Lord and Proprietor of the said Province of NEW-YORK, and its Depend- encies :
To all persons to whom these Presents shall or may come, or in any wise concern, SENDETH GREETING :
2. WHEREAS the town of ALBANY is an ancient town within the said Province, and the inhabitants of the said town have held, used and enjoyed, as well within the same as elsewhere within the said Province, divers and sundry Rights, Liberties, Privileges, Franchises, Free Customs, Preheminences, Advantages, Jurisdictions, Emoluments and Immunities, as well by prescription as by Grants, Confirma- tions and Proclamations, not only by divers Governors and Commanders-in-Chief in the said Province, under his said Majesty ; but also of several Governors, Generals and Commanders-in-Chief of the Nether Dutch nation, whilst the same was or has been under their power and subjection. AND WHEREAS divers lands, tenements, and hereditaments, jurisdictions, liberties, immunities and privileges, have here- tofore been given and granted to the inhabitants of the said town, sometimes by the name of the Commissaries of the town of Beverwyck ; sometimes by the name of the Com- missaries of the town of Albany ; sometimes by the name of Schepenen of William-Stadt ; and sometimes by the name of fustices of the Peace for the town of Albany ; and by divers, other names, as by their several grants, writings, records and minutes, amongst other things, may more fully appear. AND WHEREAS the inhabitants of the said town
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