USA > New York > Westchester County > Rye > Chronicle of a border town : history of Rye, Westchester county, New York, 1660-1870, including Harrison and the White Plains till 1788 > Part 6
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Three years pass, and these divisions are still unhealed. The inhabitants of Rye and one Richard Bullard have petitioned the General Court to interpose. October 8, 1668, ' This Courte sees cause to desire and appoynt Lat Richª Olmsteed, Mr. Tho: Fitch and Mr. John Holly to goe to Rye speedily, to heare and labour to issue and compose such differences as are amongst them respect- ing land or other matters, and make returne of what they shall doe, vnder their hands to the next Court.' 3
What were these differences ? One might imagine from such frequent orders respecting the new town, that its inhabitants were ' all by the ears,' in some quarrel that threatened to break up the little settlement. But fortunately, we have the petition which explains the whole matter, and shows that these repeated orders related to one lengthened dispute. The following, dated October 2, 1668, is-
' The humble petition of the inhabitants of the town of Rye, to the Right Honorable the Governor and the rest of the gentlemen of the General Court at Hartford.
1 Public Records of Connecticut, vol. ii. p. 16.
2 Ibid. p. 25.
3 Ibid. p. 96.
39
UNWELCOME NEIGHBORS.
' May it please your Honor, with the gentlemen of the General Courte, to understand that about four years since, that John Budd did present a paper with several names to it, of inhabitants on his neck or island, so called and patented. It was for the settling of himself and children ; on which we conceived had it been performed it had done noe great injury to the towne ; but he noe ways pretended it, as doth agree. but hath and doth dayley let it and settle people upon it, ex- treamely prejuditiall to the towne, without the towne's approbation, which wee humbly conceave may be our injury if not speedily pre- vented ; Doe humbly request that neck of land may be delivered up to the town, we paying him by Indian purchases with interest, he abat- ing for what land he hath sold, if not prejuditiall to the towne. And them that are prejuditiall, may be removed, and that you would be pleased to depute two or three persones whom you shall think meet, to come and settell amongst us with what speed may be. Soc we rest your humble petitioners.1
PETER DISBROW, WILLIAM WOODHULL,3 ROBERT BLOOMER,
RICHARD VOWLES,2 JOHN BRONDIG. STEPHEN SHERWOOD,
TIMOTHY KNAPP, THOMAS BROWNE, GEORGE LANE.'
The origin of this difficulty with Mr. Budd has been related in a previous chapter. About the time when he engaged with Dis- brow, Coe, and Studwell in the purchase of Peningo Neck, he bought from the Indians a tract of land on the opposite side of Blind Brook, which was subsequently known as Budd's Neck. This transaction seems to have been not altogether pleasing to his companions. Perhaps they were somewhat disappointed to find that he proposed to hold these lands in his own right. The other purchases had been made by the associates in common ; or when effected by one alone, had been transferred to the body of proprie- tors. Perhaps it was expected that like Disbrow, Mr. Budd would regard himself as an agent simply, and retain only his share of the purchase.
No breach, however, occurred for a few years. In 1663, the in- habitants of Hastings made choice of their ' nayghbar John Bud' to go up to Hartford and urge their claim to be taken under the colony's care. In 1664, he was chosen as their deputy to the General Court. But a new grievance arose when this neighbor began to dispose of portions of his land without the consent of the town. The planters were exceedingly jealous of their right to
1 This document is given as above by Mr. Bolton. History of Westchester County, vol. ii. p. 38. I have not learned where the original is to be found.
2 Richard Coules, in Bolton, an evident misprint.
3 One of the variations of the name Odell.
40
MR. JOIIN BUDD'S IMPROVEMENTS.
admit or reject strangers who came among them. The new set- tlers on Budd's Neck were in close proximity to the village, and indeed they seem to have considered themselves as within the limits of the town of Rye. Yet they had never been formally admitted to the privileges of freeholders.1
We are not told how the visit of Messrs. Law and Olmstead resulted, nor what success they met with in the endeavor to 'com- pose ' these differences. But either their efforts were ineffectual, or a new controversy arose ; for in May, 1671, a large committee - 'Capt" Nathan Gold, Mr. Tho : Fitch, Mr. Holly, Lut Richard Olmstead, and Mr. John Burr' - are appointed. "They, or any three of them, are desired to repayre to the sayd Rye as soone as may be, and to endeavoure a comfortable composure and issue of such differences as are among the people there,' and also to aid them in procuring a minister to settle among them.2 And finally, all these efforts failing apparently, more stringent measures are adopted. October 14th, 1672, the Court . order that Mr. Bird [Budd] and those of Rye that have impropriated the lands of Rye to themselves shall appeare at the Generall Court in May next, to make appeare their right, for then the Court intends to setle those lands according to righteousness, that so a plantation may be en- couraged, and plantation worke may go forward to better sattisfac- tion than formerly.' 3
The person thus summoned to Hartford was John Budd, junior ; his father having died in 1670. We do not learn how the con- troversy was ended, for the minutes of the next General Court contain no mention of the case. The following order, however, seems to bear upon it, and implies that the matter was considered and determined at that meeting : -
' This Court orders that all grants of land made to any perticuler
1 Some of these transfers of land, complained of by the people of Rye, are on record.
In 1665, 'John Bndd of Rye in the jurisdiction of Connecticut in New England,' sells to John Morgan and John Concklin of Flushing in the county of Yorkshire, Long Island, a certain tract of land in Rye. (County Records, vol. B. p. 101.) Samuel Linds was another purchaser. In 1670, ' shortly before his death,' Mr. Budd sold another tract to one Jonathan Selleck : and in the same year another to John Thomas. (Rye Records, vol. B. pp. 9, 34, 150.)
These are all transient names.
On the other hand most of the lands conveyed by Mr. Budd to his family appear to have been held permanently. John Ogden, Joseph Horton, and Christopher Youngs, his sons-in-law, with John Budd, junior, cach had a tract of land on Budd's Neck.
2 Public Records of Connecticut, vol. ii. p. 150.
8 Ibid. p. 187.
41
DIFFERENCES COMPOSED.
person, not yet taken up and layd out, shall be taken up in one intire peice, in a comely form, except by speciall liberty from this Court ; and that all former grants that are or shall be layd out by order shall be sufficiently bownded, and so mayntayned as to prevent all future trouble.' 1
The decision of the Court, whatever it may have been, seems to have terminated the dispute relative to Budd's Neck. That territory was incorporated into the town of Rye, while the claims of Mr. Budd as proprietor were allowed. There is no evidence that a distinct patent for the tract was obtained from Connecticut. And it was not until the year 1720 that Joseph Budd, grandson of the first purchaser, obtained a patent for his lands from the government of the province of New York.
After the settlement of the dispute concerning Bndd's Neck, the jurisdiction of the town appears to have been unquestioned. Local officers were sometimes appointed specifically for the ' east side of Blind Brook,' and the ' west side.' And in the year 1700 we meet with the following record : -
' At a towne meeting held in rye august the 2, the towne in ienerall doth grant unto the inhabitaince of the neck of appoquamas the Liberty to haue a pound and pounders and fence viewers.'
1 Public Records of the Colony of Connecticut, vol. ii. p. 200.
The Old Fort.
CHAPTER VI.
PERILS OF THE WILDERNESS.
1669-1689.
O UR little town was founded in troublous times. It is not easy for us to realize now the anxieties and fears that must have occupied the minds of its early settlers ; nor to credit them with the degree of courage and resolution which they showed in establish- ing themselves here amid such discouragements. Let us briefly notice the events that, within the first thirty years of the settle- ment, brought alarm and even suffering to the firesides of these pioneers.
The Indians dwelling along the shores of the Sound proved from the first to be pacific and friendly toward the settler ; and our inhabitants probably felt little apprehension from them until the outbreak of war, in the year 1675. But in that year, King Philip, of Mount Hope, a chief of the Pokanokets, succeeded in uniting the tribes of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in a desperate effort to exterminate the English. The conflict lasted about two years, and it did not actually spread into the territory of Connecticut, yet every town in that colony shared in the anxieties and sorrows pro- duced by the fearful struggle.
43
KING PHILIP'S WAR.
The news of the outbreak reached our town early in July, 1675. On the third or fourth of that month, we may suppose, the towns- men - Joseph Horton, Thomas Brown, and John Brondige - called the inhabitants together, and read to them the following let- ter, just received from the Governor and Council of the colony : -
' HARTFORD, July 1, 1675.
' HONRD SIRS : We have received intelligence by letters post from Ston- ington and New London that the Indians are up in arms in Plimoth and in the Narrogancett Country, that they have assaulted the English, slayn about thirty, burnt some houses, and still are engaging the Indians rownd about by sending locks of some English they have slayn, from one place to another. The people of Stonington and New London send for ayd ; and accordingly we purpose to send them forty-two men to-morrow ; and have given order to the several plantations here to put them in a posture of defence speedily ; and these lines are to move yourselves forthwith to see that the same care be taken in your parts for your security ; and that all plantations have notice hereof, both Guil- ford and so on to Rye, that they also be compleat in their arms, with · ammunition according to law. Here is inclosed coppys of some letters we have received from Stonington, &c. Please to peruse them, and hasten the posting of the letter to Governor Andross.' 1
The scene of the conflict soon removed from Rhode Island and Plymouth to the central and western parts of Massachusetts. By the first of September, all the towns along the Connecticut River were in danger. Deerfield and Hadley had been attacked, and Northfield, the uppermost settlement on the river, was abandoned by its inhabitants. On the ninth of that month, the commissioners of the three colonies now united met at Boston for the first time after the formation of the confederacy. They agreed to prosecute the war vigorously, and ordered ' that there be forthwith raised a thousand soldiers, whereof five hundred to be dragoons or troopers with long arms.' Of this force, Connecticut was to supply three hundred and fifteen men. Rye probably furnished its quota of seven or eight,2 who joined the Connecticut corps under brave Major Treat.
In the latter part of this month, tidings came from the army of the sad affair of September 18th, between Deerfield and Hadley. A party sent to convey provisions to the latter place had been sur-
1 Public Records of Connecticut, vol. ii. p. 332.
2 The militia of Connecticut, in 1675, amounted to 2,250 men, according to Trum- bull, who reckons the population of the colony from these figures, supposing every · fifth man to have been a soldier. In 1677, Rye contained thirty-eight persons owning real estate, or about two hundred inhabitants in all.
44
PERILS OF THE WILDERNESS.
prised by a band of seven or eight hundred Indians, and almost the whole had been slain. Reinforcements arrived too late, and these too would have been cut off, but for the timely arrival of Captain Treat, with one hundred and sixty English and friendly Mohegans, who put the enemy to flight.1
Every week now brings tidings of alarm and disaster to our settlers. On the tenth of October, a messenger rides through the town, with a despatch from Governor Andros of New York to the authorities at Hartford, bearing the superscription, ' To be forth- with posted up to the Courte, - post, haste, post, night and day.' He stops only to give the warning, that ' an Indian has told, under pretence of friendship, that there is an extraordinary Confederacy between all your neighbouring Indians and eastward (in which your pretending friends to be included) and designed this light moone to attack Hartford itself and some other places this way as far as Greenwich.' At the same time comes the report that Springfield has been attacked and partly burned, by Indians with whom the planters had always lived on the most friendly terms. Distrust and anxiety prevail in every settlement. No Indian is allowed to approach the towns, and a strict watch is kept night and day. The first Wednesday of every month is observed, by public appointment, as ' a day of humiliation and prayer in view of these alarms and troubles.' 2
In the winter campaign that followed, the Connecticut force suf- fered more than any others. Forty men, out of three hundred, were killed, and as many more were wounded in the attack upon the Narrangansett fort, December 19.3 As the bitter and anx- ious season wore on, tidings came to our inhabitants of the ravag- ing and burning of town after town, in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Although Connecticut continued to be spared, the fears of its inhabitants were unquelled, and suspicion still prevailed as to the fidelity of the neighboring tribes of Indians. It was during this period of danger, - on the fifth of March, 1676, - that the town of Rye adopted the following action : -
' Thomas Lyon and Thomas Brown are appointed to choose a house or place to be fortified for the safety of the town. Also the young men who come into the fortification, and remain during the troubles
1 Trumbull's History of Connecticut, i. 334.
2 Colonial Records of Connecticut, vol. ii. 355.
% I have surmised that among those who went from Rye, to join the expedition, was John Purdy, and that he lost his life in this or some subsequent engagement. The time of his death, and the manner in which it is referred to in various places in the town records, appear to me to favor this conjecture.
45
THE DUTCH AGAIN.
are to have an equal proportion of the undivided lands ; provided they be such as the town approve.' 1
A few weeks after this date, the severity of the conflict began to abate, and in the course of the following summer it was brought to a close. The exhausting effects of this savage war, however, were long felt. Though Connecticut had suffered little in com- parison with the other colonies, yet every settlement within its borders shared in the burdens which the struggle involved. ' About a seventh part of the whole militia,' says Dr. Trumbull, ' was out upon constant service, besides the volunteers. A large proportion was obliged to watch and guard the towns at home. The particular towns were necessitated to fortify themselves with an inclosure of palisades, and to prepare and fortify particular dwellings for garrison houses, which might, in the best manner, command the respective towns ; and to which the aged people, women, and children might repair and be in safety in the time of danger. For three years after the war commenced, the inhabit- ants paid eleven pence on the pound, exclusive of all town and parish taxes. After the war was finished, they had a considerable debt to discharge.' 2
Just after the close of King Philip's War, there came to Rye one who had actually participated in the sufferings which the con- flict involved, to settle among the people as their first pastor. In October, 1677, the General Court at Hartford, hearing . that Mr. Thomas Denham is likely to settle at Rye as minister there,' granted him the sum of ten pounds, to be paid out of the town rate for that year, ' for his incouragement to setle there, and in regard of his late loss by the war.' 3
Two years before the outbreak of King Philip's War, the in- habitants of Rye had been alarmed by danger from another quar- ter. England was at war with Holland ; and the colonies had good reason to fear that the Dutch would embrace the opportu- nity to attempt the recovery of their North American possessions. On the thirtieth of July, 1673, a fleet of twelve Dutch vessels ap- peared in the bay of New York, and landed a force of eight hun- dred men. The town was surrendered to them with little show
1 Rye Records, vol. i. p. 73 (quoted by Mr. Bolton, History of Westchester County, vol. ii. pp. 46, 47).
2 History of Connecticut, i. 351. The disbursements for the war, by the three colonies, were estimated at more than one hundred thousand pounds. The portion raised by Connecticut was over twenty-two thousand pounds. (Palfrey's History of New England, iii. 216, 217, note.)
3 Records of the Colony of Connecticut, edited by J. H. Trumbull, vol. ii. p. 321.
46
PERILS OF THE WILDERNESS.
of resistance, and in a few days Albany, and most of what was formerly New Netherland, came again under the dominion of Holland. The towns on Long Island were summoned to submit, and those nearest to New York did so without objection. The others were threatened with hostilities if they held out. For sev- eral weeks the inhabitants of both shores were kept in uneasiness by the appearance of a number of small Dutch vessels cruising along the Sound, and occasionally capturing ships belonging to the English. Connecticut, after sending remonstrances to the Dutch commander at New York, which were received with coolness and indifference, made preparations for war. The several towns of the colony were ordered to provide means of defence.
Rye, as a border town, was all alive to the danger. It was ex- pressly excused from the requirement to raise men and arms for the emergency, on account of its ' being near ' 1 to the enemy. But doubtless every able-bodied man was on duty here. The adjoining town, Mamaroneck, had submitted to the Dutch. Four of the in- habitants had gone down to New York to present themselves be- fore the commander, and give in their adhesion to his government. Two of them, John Basset and Henry Disbrow,2 had been ap- pointed magistrates of the town under the new order of things. The people of Rye appear to have remained firm. One of their leading men, Mr. John Banks, took a prominent part in the events that followed. On the twenty-first of October the General Court sent him from Hartford to New York with a letter to the Dutch commander, Monsieur Anthony Colve, protesting against his course. Nearly a month elapsed before Mr. Banks' return. He informs the Council that Monsieur Colve, who had detained him under restraint fifteen days, ' is a man of resolute spirit and passionate. He is in expectation of strength from foreign parts, upon whose arrival he seems to be resolved to subdue under his obedience what he can. He saith he knows not but he may have Hartford before long.'
A few days after Mr. Banks' return, news comes by a post from the town of Rye. Five vessels -supposed to be the Snow, and four ketches in company with her, -passed by here on Saturday, on their way westward. Two men were sent from Rye to Frog- morton's Point, ' to gayne a more certain knowledge ' of the mat- ter. They report that they well preceived one of the vessels to be a vessel of about eight guns, which they concluded to be the
1 Public Records of Connecticut, vol. ii. p. 209.
2 New York Colonial MSS., vol. ii. p. 655. The names are given as John Busset and Henry Pisbrow.
47
BURNING OF SCHENECTADY.
ship Snow, having four ketches under her command, to which at that point she made signs to come up to her ; and they came under her lee, and suddenly sailed away toward New York. One Loveall, a Frenchman, who came from Yorke, as he relates, Mon- day last, affirms that the Snow had arrived there, bringing in four ketches, - prizes, - but what they were, and where taken, he knows not.'1 All through that fall and winter, our people must have felt great uneasiness regarding the designs of their unwel- come Dutch neighbors at New York. In December, Rye united with Stamford and Greenwich in supplicating the General Court in Boston for help. Till now, they say, they have kept silent, expecting that forces would come 'against this open declared en- emy.' But the long delay renders them fearful that this project has been laid aside. Should this be, they declare, ' we shall be much endangered if not ruined, if your honours do not by some speedy means relieve us : for we are frontiers, and most likely assaulted in the first place.'
This war-cloud was soon dispelled by the return of peace be- tween England and the United Provinces. In June of the fol- lowing year the Dutch evacuated New York, and all other places which they had regained in America, in accordance with the treaty which had been signed. The people of Rye could at least con- gratulate themselves that they were not to belong to the territories of Holland ; though the arrival of Major Andros, at New York, but a few weeks after, gave them new cause for apprehension, in view of the claims which, as we have already seen, were now set up by a new master, the Duke of York.
Another wave of political trouble reached our town in the year 1689. It is strange that this feeble and obscure settlement in the western world could feel the remote effects of the great contests and rivalries that were agitating Europe. But doubtless every colonist of Connecticut, in the seventeenth century, had shared in the apprehensions that were caused by the policy of France. The designs of the French upon Canada and the valley of the Missis- sippi, and the progress of their plans for the occupation of so large a part of the continent, were topics of village and house- hold debate. But in 1689 France declared war against England. One of the earliest measures of this war, which lasted nine years, was an attempt to conquer the province of New York. In the dead of winter, a party of Frenchmen and Indians fell upon the village of Schenectady, and surprised its defenceless inhabitants in
1 Records of the Colony of Connecticut, vol. ii. p. 565 (Appendix).
48
PERILS OF THE WILDERNESS.
their midnight slumbers. Sixty persons were cruelly put to death, and the rest fled in terror, half naked, to Albany. The New England colonies were called upon to raise a force to repel the invasion of the province. Connecticut was especially active in this expedition ; and among the volunteers that joined it were a number of the inhabitants of Rye. In a 'list of soldiers for ye Expedition of Albany,' who left Fort William on the second of April, 1689, occur the names of Jacob Pearce, Richard Walters, Jonas Stevens, and John Bassett, all ' of Rye ; ' together with others that are not so designated, but whom we recognize as persons from this town : John Boyd, Philip Travis, Philip Galpin.1
The weather was extremely severe when our soldiers set out for Albany. Captain Milborne received word as they were starting, that he must bring ' as many duffels as he could get.' 'Yesterday evening,' wrote the aldermen, ' the soldiers tormented us consider- ably for blankets, as it was very cold. We went everywhere and could not find any. Blankets are not to be had here.' 2 Whether from exposure or some other cause, one at least of the soldiers from Rye lost his life in this expedition. 'The inventory of Jacob Pierce's Estate (deceased) who dyed intestate at Albany, 1689,' is entered on our county records.3
An interesting memento of these troublous times in the early settlement, has lately disappeared from our village. The ancient stone house, known as 'Van Sicklin's,' was undoubtedly the ' fortified place ' referred to in 1676. Many a visitor of Rye will remember the pride with which its denizens were accustomed to call attention to their single historic edifice - the ‘ old Indian fort,' with its round window in the gable end, said to have been the port-hole through which a beleaguered garrison had poured forthi its volleys upon the enemy. It is true, our informants would differ as to the persons thus besieged -some supposing that the aborigines themselves had built the fort for their own protection, and others that the white settlers made their retreat within these massive walls. The simple truth, however, appears to be that this house was fortified during the Indian troubles, as a precaution against an emergency which never occurred. The Indians in this
1 Documentary History of New York, vol. ii. pp. 12-15. Their pay was to be 25s. per month, which was paid partly in stores, as appears from the list: 'Jacob Paers [Pearce], of Rye; 9s. in money. Richard Walters, of Rye ; 9s. in money, and 10s. in duffels [blankets]. Jonas Stevens, of Rye: 1 pr. shoes, and 1 piece of eight, and 9s. in money, and 12s. 6d. in duffels. John Barsett [Basset], of Rye ; 1 pr. shoes and 9s. in money.'
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