USA > New York > Colonial records of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1768-1784 : with historical and biographical sketches > Part 23
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" On the night of the great fire, the mahogany case containing the char- ter, was seen in the room occupied by the Chamber at the Exchange. As everything portable was supposed to have been removed from the building before its destruction, I indulged for some time a confident hope of being able to recover the old charter. In this, I regret to say, I have been dis- appointed. If it was saved from the fire, it has ever since been so carefully guarded that the most diligent research has not been successful in tracing its whereabout. Like the old seal, it may yet turn up in some unexpected manner, and then our memorials of an existence of fourscore years will be complete."-Letter to Hon. Charles King, N. Y., Nov. 20, 1848. (See * p. 371.)
NOTE 51, PAGE 96. THE STREET CALLED BROAD .- Originally the line of a brook or inlet. Its early name was the " Heeren-gracht," or Gentlemen's Canal. It was called the Moat in the time of Governor Kieft, and the Great Dyke at the close of the English Governor Lovelace's ad- ministration (1672), when it was ordered to be cleaned, and when also the streets of the city were paved. The Dutch called it Breede-gracht (Broad- Canal), as well as Heeren-gracht. Three years after this view (viz., 1676), the gracht (canal) was ordered to be filled up and the street levelled and paved .- Moulton's New Orange, P. 31.
NOTE 52, PAGE 99. SALARY OF THE SECRETARY .- This seems to have been a nominal sum to cover the expenses incurred for clerk-hire.
NOTE 53, PAGE 99. ANNUAL DINNER OF THE CHAMBER (Tuesday, 9th May, 1770) .- No notice of this entertainment appears in the public prints of the day.
NOTE 54, PAGE 99. MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, 1769-1775 .- The last Assembly which sat in the colony of New York under Colonial authority. Summoned by writ of Sir Henry Moore, Governor of the
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Province, in 1769, this Assembly organized with the election of John Cruger as Speaker. During the excited period which preceded the Revolution, it held a middle course. Although it lost the popular favor by its compliance with many of the obnoxious requirements of the "Mutiny Act," it was by no means pliant or submissive to the exactions of the Crown, and owed its long duration to the fears which the Governors entertained of the result of a new election. It was never prorogued, but adjourned, sine die, on the 3d of April, 1775.
LIST OF THE ASSEMBLY :- John Cruger, James De Lancey, Jacob Wal- ton, and James Jauncey, Esquires, city and county of New York ; Jacob H. Ten Eyck and Philip Schuyler, Esquires, city and county of Albany ; Jaco- bus Mynderse, Esquire, town of Schenectady ; Abraham Ten Broeck, Es- quire, manor of Rensalaer ; Robert R. Livingston, Esquire, manor of Liv- ingston ; Charles De Witt and George Clinton, Esquires, Ulster County ; Leonard Van Kleeck and Dirch Brinckerhoff, Esquires, Dutchess County ; Jo. De Noyells and Sam. Gale, Esquires, Orange County ; John Thomas and Frederick Philipse, Esquires, Westchester County ; John De Lancey, Esquire, Borough of Westchester ; Piere Van Cortlandt, Esquire, manor of Cortlandt ; Jo. Rapalje and Simon Boerum, Esquires, King's County ; Dan. Kissam and Zea Seaman, Esquires, Queen's County ; William Nicoll and Jesse Woodhull, Esquires, Suffolk County ; Benjamin Seaman and Chris- topher Billop, Esquires, Richmond County.
In 1772, Isaac Wilkins replaced Piere Van Cortlandt, Esquire, as repre- sentative for the manor of Cortlandt ; Samuel Wells and Crean Brush, Es- quires, were chosen as representatives of Cumberland County. In 1774, Guy Johnson and Hendrick Fry, Esquires, were chosen as representatives for Tryon County.
NOTE 55, PAGE 99. SECRETARIES OF THE COUNCIL .- In the year 1770 these gentlemen were-Secretary and Clerk of the Council, George Clarke, Esq., continued in office until the close of the war ; Deputy Clerk of the Council, Goldsborow Banyar, Esq., succeeded by Samuel Bay- ard, Jun., Esq., in 1774, who retained the post till the close of the war.
NOTE 56, PAGE 99. THE GENERAL AND HIS SUIT .- General and Commander-in-Chief, his Excellency the Honourable THOMAS GAGE, Esq. In 1770 his Aids-de-Camp were Capts. Stephen Kemble and Henry Dobson ; Secretary, Gabriel Maturin, Esq. In 1773 Major Kemble was promoted to the post of Deputy-Adjutant-General. In 1774 the Aids of General Gage were Major Robert Donkin and Lieut. Harry Rooke. In the spring of 1774 General Gage was appointed Military Governor of Massa- chusetts, and transferred his head-quarters to Boston.
NOTE 57, PAGE 99. CAPTAINS OF HIS MAJESTY'S SHIPS .- A list of Ships in commission, with their commanders, at Stations in the North America, in the year 1770 : Romney (50 guns), Samuel Hood; Com- inodore, Captain John Cosner ; Rippon (60), Samuel Thompson ; Berlin (32), Sir Tho. Adams ; Garland * (20), -; Launceston * (44), John Gill ; Deal Castle (20), M. Jacobs ; Glascow* (20), William Allen ; Squirrel (20), J. Botterell ; Viper (10), Robt. Linzee ; Beaver (14), H. Bellew .- Schom- berg's Naval Chronology.
The vessels [ * ] thus marked are those which appear in New York history.
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NOTE 58, PAGE 99. PRINCIPAL OFFICERS OF THE CUSTOMS. -Collector of Customs and Receiver-General of the Quit Rents, Andrew Elliott, Esq., appointed 1764, continued in office until 1783. Deputy Col- lector, John Moore, Esq., continued in office till 1783. Comptroller, Lambert Moore, Esq., continued in office till 1783. Naval Officer, Charles Williams, Esq., succeeded in 1773 by Peter De Lancey, Esq., and in 1774 by Samuel Kemble, Esq. Surveyor and Searcher, Alexander Colden, Esq., succeeded in 1773 by Richard Colden, Esq., and in 1777 by Samuel V. Bayard.
NOTE 59, PAGE 100. THE TITLE OF HONORABLE .- This title was in the Colony only accorded to the members of the Council. At this time Hugh Wallace and Henry White were both members of the Council.
NOTE 60, PAGE 104. [ACCOUNT.]-An omission here occurs in the minutes, which this word, from the context, properly supplies.
NOTE 61, PAGE 104. JERSEY MONEY .- The rate at which the paper money of New Jersey should be taken was before the Chamber as early as June, 1768 (page 10), and its consideration postponed to July of the same year (page II). Here introduced, July, 1770, in a definite form, its consider- ation was again postponed to August (page 106), and September (page 107). For the action of the Chamber, see Note 88 to page 143.
NOTE 62, PAGE 105. L (ONG) I (SLAND) .- These letters set against the name of absent members indicate that they were at the time of meeting in Long Island, six miles distant from the city, which exempted from fine under the rule. (See page 7).
NOTE 63, PAGE 106. NOTICE OF RESOLUTION AS TO HALF JOES .- This advertisement, signed by Anthony Van Dam, Secretary, may be seen in the issue of Thursday, August 16, 1770, of Holt's New York Fournal, or the General Advertiser (No. 1441).
NOTE 64, PAGE IIO. STOVE FOR THE CHAMBER .- This now common convenience of modern times was a comparatively recent invention at this time (1770). Benjamin Franklin, in "an account of the new-invented Pennsylvania Fire-places, Philadelphia," 1744, describes the fire-places before in use as follows : " I. The large open fire-places used in the days of our fathers and still generally in the country and in kitchens. 2. The newer-fashioned fire-places, with low breasts and narrow hearths. 3. Fire-places with hollow backs, hearths and jambs of iron (described by M. Guager in his tract en- titled La Mécanique de Feu), for warming the air as it comes into the room. 4. The Holland stoves, with iron doors opening into the room. 5. The German Stoves, which have no opening in the room where they are used, but the fire is put in from some other room, or from without. 6. Iron pots, with open charcoal fires, placed in the middle of a room." In his auto- biography, Franklin gives the year 1742 as that of his invention. The Franklin Stove, as it is now called, was soon in general use through all the Colonies. Those for public buildings he describes as "in the form of temples cast in iron, with columns, cornices, and every member of elegant archi- tecture."-Sparks's Life of Franklin, vi. pp. 34, 38, 398.
NOTE 65, PAGE IIO. FLOUR EXPORTS .- From the earliest period of the English settlement, Flour was one of the chief products of New
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York. "The petition of the merchants " to Lord Cornbury, in 1702, com mences with the statement : "That the principall staple of the Trade of this Province is the manufactory of wheat, expended chiefly in the West Indies by the English," &c .- Col. Doc. iv. 1133.
" Flour is also a main article (of our Exports), of which there is shipped about 80,000 barrels per annum."-Description of the Colony, 1756, in Smith's New York, 2, 331.
" The natural produce and Staple Commodities of this Province are Wheat, Indian Corn, Oats, Rye, &c., &c."-The Report of Governor Tryon to the Earl of Dartmouth on the Province of New York, Col. Doc. viii. 449.
NOTE 66, PAGE IIO. FRENCH BURR STONES .- The Burr Stone, or "Buhr Stone," a hard silicious stone, remarkable for its cellular structure and rough surface, however worn and levelled .- Bigelow.
A sub-species of silex or quartz, occurring in amorphous masses. Com- pact like horn-stone, but containing a greater or less number of irregular cavities. It is used for mill-stones .- Cleaveland.
The French stone has preserved its superiority, and is at this time one of the regular imports to the United States from Havre.
NOTE 67, PAGE III. INSPECTION OF POT-ASHES .- The Gene- ral Assembly, on the 19th December, 1766, passed "an Act to prevent Frauds by the Adulteration of Pot-Ash and Pearl-Ash," which, in its pre- amble, recites "that the Manufacture of Pot-Ash and Pearl-Ash hath been lately introduced into this Colony, and is likely to become a considerable Article of Remittance to Great Britain," and provides measures to punish offenders. On the 12th March, 1772, a further Act appointed an Inspector, and allowed a charge of " Four pence for every Hundredweight ; one half to be paid by the Purchaser, and the other half by the Vender."-Gaine's Laws of New York, 486 & 655.
NOTE 68, PAGE 113. GERMAN MILL SCREENS .- The use of this improvement for the cleaning of flour is another evidence of the effort made by the New York Colony to keep up the character of this important staple.
NOTE 69, PAGE 113. APPLICATION TO ASSEMBLY FOR ONE INSPECTOR .- This application does not appear upon the Minutes of the Assembly. Other regulations, adopted at the Twenty-ninth Session, 1770- 1771, provided for greater strictness on the part of the Inspectors .- Gaine's Laws of New York, p. 610.
NOTE 70, PAGE 114. LAW AS TO BRANDING OF FLOUR .- The General Assembly, on the roth of February, 1771, passed "an Act further to regulate the Inspection and Branding of Flour."
The third section enacted " That from and after the first day of June next, no Inspector of Flour, appointed for the City of New York, shall brand or mark, as inspected, any Cask of Flour whatever, manufactured, unless the initial Letter of the Christian Name, and the Sirname at Length of the manufacturer are first branded thereon,-this Act to remain in force until the first day of January one thousand seven hundred and seventy- five."-Gaine's Laws of New York, p. 608.
NOTE 71, PAGE 114. ADVERTISEMENT AS TO FLOUR .- Cham- ber of Commerce, Tuesday the 16th of November, 1770-Mr. Francis Mars- chalk, Inspector of Flour, produced to the Chamber several samples of flour,
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and bread made of it. He informed the Chamber that of late, several millers had much improved in the manufacture of flour, particularly those who used French burr stones for grinding, and German skreens for cleaning the wheat. AGREED, that the members of this Corporation will give all the encouragement in their power to the makers of good flour, by giving their marks a due preference, and will carefully avoid buying any flour of an in- ferior quality. AND, Mr. Marschalk was desired to attend the Chamber at their monthly meetings to inform the Corporation what improvements have been made, and to leave in writing the names and brand marks of the makers of good and bad flour .- ANTHONY VAN DAM, Secry .- Hugh Gaine's New York Gazette, November 19, 1770.
NOTE 72, PAGE 119. STERLING IRON WORKS .- "The Stirling Iron Works are still in operation. They are situated on the outlet of Stir- ling Pond, about five miles southwest of the Sloatsburgh Station on the Erie Railway. They are owned by descendants of Peter Townsend, and have now been in operation about one hundred years." These works were run during the Revolution for the Continental Army. On the 2d of Febru- ary, 1778, a contract was entered into with Noble Townsend, the proprietor, by order of Genl. Putnam, for the celebrated chain stretched across the Hudson River from West Point to Constitution Island .- Boynton's West Point, p. 56.
NOTE 73, PAGE 119. HACKENSACK .- The port and county-town of Bergen County, on the right bank of the Hackensack river, fifteen miles from its mouth, twelve from New York, and sixty-three from Trenton .- Gordon's Gazetteer of New Jersey.
NOTE 74, PAGE 120. IMLAY-TOWN, ON CHALEUR BAY .- Chaleur Bay, in Lower Canada, projects west and northwest from the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It has the British Province of New Brunswick on the south, and the district and county of Gaspee on the north. On its north there are the townships of Hopetown, Cox, Hamilton, North Richmond, Maria and Carlton. The river Ristigouche empties into this fine bay .- Morse's American Ga- zetteer, 1804.
Imlay-Town must have been an unimportant place, as it neither appears here nor on the celebrated chart, The Atlantic Neptune of 1778.
NOTE 75, PAGE 120. EXPENSES OF REFERENCE AND AWARD .- From this it appears that the arbitrators received a fee for their services. The same policy has been renewed by the Chamber, and the amounts received are set aside to increase its Library of Mercantile Law.
NOTE 76, PAGE 12I. S(ick) .- This letter set against the name of an absent member, indicated absence on account of sickness and an exemp- tion from fine.
NOTE 77, PAGE 122. STANDARD GOLD SCALES .- As no public notice appears of this standard, it is probable, if adopted at all, that its use was confined to the members of the Chamber.
NOTE 78, PAGE 122. ADVANCE PAY OF SEAMEN .- An early ' effort to check the desertion of Seamen before sailing. The ships of war, always in want of seamen, would never return a sailor to a merchant-vessel.
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NOTE 79, PAGE 122. FREIGHT ON MOLASSES CASKS .- The custom of the present day is to pay freight on the gross gauge of the casks, at a price for each 110 gallons of such gross gauge.
NOTE 80, PAGE 126. PICTURE OF COLDEN .- This portrait, a full length, may be fairly claimed as a fine specimen of early American Art. The artist, Matthew Pratt, was a native of Philadelphia, who painted por- traits occasionally in New York .- Dunlap's Arts of Design in the United States, p. 101 ; see also page 167 of Register of Proceedings.
It originally hung in the Long Room over the Exchange which was occupied by the Chamber from 1770 till 1775. Whether on the renewal of meetings at the Merchants' Coffee House, in 1779, it followed its owners, is not now known. If so, it was removed at the close of the war, and appears to have fallen into the keeping of the family of the Lieutenant Governor. On the first day of February, 1791, it is recorded on the minutes of the Chamber : "Mr. Vice-President Murray gave information that a picture of Cadwallader Colden, Esq., Lieut. Governor of the late Province of New York, who originally incorporated this Chamber, and which had been drawn by order and at the desire of its members, was now in good preservation and in hands which were willing to restore it to the former owners." Whereupon the Chamber resolved that the President be requested to write to the person in whose possession the Painting is, and ask its restoration to this Corpora- tion. On the 7th May, 1793, the Records show that the picture was returned by Mr. Cadwallader Colden (son of the Lt. Governor). The picture was then placed upon the walls of the room used by the Chamber in the Merchants' Coffee House, and afterwards, on their changing their place of meetings to the Tontine Building, in 1795, it was removed to that place.
On the 15th April, 1817, the American Association of Fine Arts request- ed the loan of this, and the fine full-length of Hamilton, by Trumbull, also the property of the Chamber, as the Representative of the Merchants of New York for whom it was painted, and the two portraits were placed in their hands under certain agreements. They continued for many years to make a part of the exhibition of the Academy.
On the Ist of May, 1827, the Chamber having taken rooms in the Mer- chants' Exchange, it was ordered that the pictures should be repaired, their frames re-gilded, and that they be hung in their hall, which was on the lower floor of the building, on the right of the main entrance.
On the morning of December 16th, 1835, the second day of the Great Fire, they were saved from the flames which consumed the building, and, covered with canvas, were deposited in the garret of a store in Wall Street (the memory of the precise number of which is now lost ; it was between Water Street and the River), where they lay for many years. When Mr. Prosper M. Wetmore was appointed Secretary of the Chamber, in 1843, he instituted a search for the old properties of the Corporation, and accidentally fell upon a clue which led to their recovery. So quickly, in the stir and movement of this busy city, things of yesterday pass from memory and sight. It was only known then of the package, that it contained pictures which were supposed to belong to the Chamber. The canvas had never been opened.
The pictures were again repaired and hung in the Room occupied by the Chamber in the Merchants' Bank.
On the 6th February, 1844, they were again transferred, in accordance with the following order : Resolved-" That the Secretary be authorized to deposit for safe keeping and due preservation, in the Library of the New York Historical Society, the full-length portraits of Lt. Gov. Colden and General Alexander Hamilton, belonging to this Chamber, the same to be re-
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turned to the possession of the Chamber whenever it shall desire to reclaim them.
On the removal of the Historical Society to its fire-proof building in the Second Avenue, corner of Eleventh Street, these portraits were transferred, and now form part of its fine and growing gallery of American portraits, awaiting the time when the merchants of New York shall erect a building for the Chamber, worthy of its ancient honor and present usefulness.
NOTE 81, PAGE 128. ANNUAL DINNER of the Chamber, May, 1771 .- No notice of this entertainment appears in the public prints of the day.
NOTE 82, PAGE 128. THE GOVERNOR AND HIS SECRETARY. -" On Thursday morning last, October 17, 1770, his Excellency, the Right Honorable, the Earl of Dunmore, the Governor, arrived at Sandy Hook, in his Majesty's ship, the Tweed, ... and about three in the after- noon landed at the White-Hall, accompanied by Sir William Draper, Lord Drummond, the Commander of the Tweed, and Capt. Foy, his Lordship's Secretary."-Holt's New York Journal, for Thursday, October 25, 1770.
NOTE 83, PAGE 128. FIELD OFFICERS ON DUTY IN NEW YORK .- The 6th Regiment was at this time stationed in New York. The Field Officers were Colonel John Scott, with the rank of Major General, Lieut. Colonel D. Templer, and Major Charles Preston .- Gaine's New York Almanac for 1771.
NOTE 84, PAGE 132. MAIL FOR THE PACKET FOR ENGLAND. -" The names of his Majesty's Packet-Boats with their Commanders, that are stationed between Falmouth and New York : The Earl of Halifax, Bal- derson ; the Harriott, Oake ; the Duke of Cumberland, Goodridge ; the Lord Hyde, Goddard. (And a fifth one building in our yards.)
" The mail for North America is made up at the General Post Office in London, the first Wednesday in every month, and the mail for England is made up at the Post Office in New York the first Tuesday in every month, and dispatched from each office without delay."-Gaine's Almanac for I772.
The mail had been previously made up on the first Saturday in every month .- Gaine's Almanac for 1771.
A notice of a change to Wednesday first appears in 1774 .- Gaine's Almanac for 1774.
NOTE 85, PAGE 141. TONNAGE OF THE PORT .- This word is here used in a restricted sense, different from its present meaning. It refers to the tonnage of goods by weight or measurement, and not to the capacity of vessels.
NOTE 86, PAGE 142. WINCHESTER MEASURE .- "A standard English Dry Measure originally kept at Winchester, in England, and used till 1826, when the imperial bushel was introduced."-Worcester.
"The Winchester bushel is 183 inches wide and 8 inches deep, and con- tains 2150.22 cubic inches ; while the imperial Standard Bushel contains 2208.1907 cubic inches."-Simmons.
NOTE 87, PAGE 142. PELTRY .- Edward Phillips, in his New World of Words (1720), defines Pelt as the "Skin of a Beast,"-Peltry, a word
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so often met with in Colonial history does not appear in Phillips, Bailey, or Johnson. Webster quotes Smollett as authority, and defines it as " the skin of animals producing fur."
"The fur trade, though very much impaired by the French wiles and encroachments, ought not to be passed over in silence. The building of Oswego has conduced, more than anything else, to the preservation of this trade. Peltry of all kinds is purchased with rum, ammunition, blankets, strouds, and wampum, or conque-shell bugles. (It is computed that for- merly we exported 150 hogsheads of beaver and other fine furs per annum, and 200 hogsheads of Indian-dressed deer skins, besides those carried from Albany into New England. Skins undressed are usually shipped to Hol- land."-Description of the Colony in 1756 ; Smith's New York, 11, 332.
NOTE 88, PAGE 143. RESTRICTION UPON TAKING OF JERSEY MONEY .- This subject had been several times brought before the Chamber, and as often postponed (see pages 10, 11, 104, 106, 107). It was, November 5, 1771, again introduced. Again postponed, a vote was at last taken, 3d March, 1772, when, by a majority of 19 to 16, the restriction was imposed. So many of the members resigned in consequence, that on the 4th January, 1774 (page 187), the vote was rescinded.
The General Assembly of New York took up the subject on the 9th March, 1774, and passed "an Act to prevent the depreciating the Paper Currency of this Colony."
" WHEREAS the Paper Currency or Bills of Credit issued in the neighbor- ing Colonies are not made a legal Tender by any Act of this Colony and yet for Convenience do pass therein as money, and are often received in this Colony at a higher Value than they were emitted for by the Colony issuing the same, to the great Discredit and Depreciation of the Bills of Credit of this Colony, the Prejudice of Individuals, the draining the Colony of their Gold and Silver imported therein, and to the obstruction and detriment of Commerce.
"Be it therefore Enacted, &c., That after the first day of May next no person shall either pass, exchange, pay or receive any Bill of Credit of any of the neighboring Colonies for any sum or at any Rates more than the sum payable therefor at the Treasury of that Colony in which the same was issued, upon Pain of forfeiting a sum equal to the value of the Bills so passed, &c." The following are the Rates at which they are to pass : Jersey Bill for £6, in N. Y. currency £6. 8 ; for £3 in N. Y. currency, £3. 4, &c., &c .- Gaine's New York Gazette, May 2, 1774.
NOTE 89, PAGE 144. SOCIETY OF PROPRIETORS OF NEW JERSEY .- The original Lords Proprietors of East Jersey were Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, to whom the Duke of York on the 24th June, 1664, granted the portion of his tract since known by this name. In 1680, shortly after the death of Sir George Carteret, the property was offered at public sale-" William Penn, with eleven associates of the Quaker persua- sion becoming the purchasers for £3,400. . . . Their deeds of lease and release were dated Ist and 2d February, 1681-2, and subsequently each of them sold one half their respective rights to a new associate, making in all twenty-four proprietaries."-Whitehead's East Jersey under the Propri- etary Governments, vol I. p. 83.
For many years the Province was under the rule of the Proprietors, who chose their own Governor, but so much dissension occurred that, in 1702, the " pretended right of Government," as it is designated in the act of sur- render, was yielded to the Crown. The Jerseys were united with New
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York under one Governor, during the administration of Lord Cornbury. Upon the surrender the proprietors secured valuable concessions .- Doug- lass' British Settlement (1755), p. 281.
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