USA > New York > Colonial records of the New York Chamber of Commerce, 1768-1784 : with historical and biographical sketches > Part 40
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COLONIAL NEW YORK.
"'Twas better for each British Virgin, When on roast Beef, strong Beer, and Sturgeon, Joyous to Breakfast they sat round, Nor was ashamed to eat a Pound. These were the Manners, these the Ways, In good Queen Bess's golden Days."
The tea-table is now a recognized institution the world over, and that region is indeed benighted which has not been visited by some John Bull with his national tea-pot and felt the influence of the fragrant plant.
The business of Insurance which MR. VAN DAM under- took was quite different from what it is at the present day. The mutual and the company systems are the pro- duct of a later age. The "Office" was the rendezvous of the rich and adventurous, who would underwrite risks in full or in part at rates agreed upon with the shippers or owners of vessels.
There is still in existence, in the Walton family, a Book of Insurance kept by William Walton from 1773 to 1776, and by Jacob Walton from 1777 to 1781. Some of the entries in the first part are in the writing of MR. VAN DAM, clerk of the office.
The care and precision of MR. VAN DAM rendered him a most suitable person for certain kinds of business, and his well-known probity ensured him employments of public trust. On the 20th January, 1763, he was commissioned, by Lieutenant Governor Colden, Master and Warden of the Port, and held the office for seven years, until 1770. There were seven Wardens in the City at this time.
The store of MR. VAN DAM was on the water, and near the Ferry Stairs.
On the organization of the Chamber of Commerce, in the spring of 1768, MR. VAN DAM was one of the founders, and was chosen its Secretary. The fair and exact minutes
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
still remain to testify to the faithfulness and care which he brought to the execution of his duties.
The meetings of the Chamber in the last century were of a different fashion from that of the present day. Pleasure and business were joined together in these gatherings of the solid men of old New York. The hour of meeting was at six o'clock, and the debates were held over long tables, where "Bread and Cheese, Beer, Punch, Pipes and To- bacco," were regularly provided by the Treasurer, as ordered in the By-laws. The pipe was still in fashion among the old Knickerbockers; not the modern meerschaum, but the good old Dutch clay of Holland, hogsheads of which ap- pear in the lists of importations. Cigars were then uncom- mon, if at all known, to New Yorkers. How the practice of smoking, in New York, appeared to strangers, is amus- ingly shown in the narration of Brissot (Warville), of his voyage in the United States in 1788. " The habit of smok- ing has not disappeared from the town with other customs brought in by its first Dutch founders. They chiefly smoke cigars from the Spanish islands: These are leaves of a fra- grant tobacco six inches in length which are smoked without the aid of any instrument. This habit shocks the French. It must be distasteful to women, as it destroys the sweetness of the breath. It will be condemned by the Philosopher as a superfluous want. But it has one merit. It tends to meditation; it checks loquacity; the smoker asks a ques- tion; the reply does not come for two minutes after, and is a sound one. The cigar performs the part which the Philosopher drew from the glass of water which he drank when angry."
At a much later time the cigar was little known. It has no mention in the gastronomical works which appeared from 1800 to 1815. Even Brillat Savarin, the famous
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COLONIAL NEW YORK.
author of the Phisiologie du Goût, passes by in silence this now common part of a well-ordered feast.
Who will say in this latter day that the inevitable cigar of the great soldier of the Republic had not a share in his victories !
The business of MR. VAN DAM, from this period, appears to have been chiefly confined to the products of the West India and Cape de Verde Islands. An advertisement in " Holt's New York Journal " of April 5th, 1770, is a fair example of this. In it he offers " Madeira wine of the vin- tage of 1765, 1767, and 1768, West India Rum, Musco- vado Sugars, Mollasses, Cotton, Cocoa, and Deer Skins in the hair."
There was a great intimacy, perhaps some nearer tie, between MR. VAN DAM and the Walton family. On the 15th March, 1770, the Land Papers show that Letters Patent were granted to William Walton, Gerard Walton, and ANTHONY VAN DAM for a tract of land on the south side of the Mohawk River, in what is now known as Dela- ware County.
MR. VAN DAM took no active part in the politics of the time. When the citizens seized the City, he was elected one of the Committee of One Hundred who took charge of the Government until a Provincial Congress was assembled; but this appears to be the only instance in his career. An unflinching loyalist, he remained in the City during the British occupation. On the 1st September, 1779, he was again appointed one of the Wardens of the Port by Gene- ral Pattison, and had charge of the military patrol for the safety of vessels at the wharves, from the Fly Market to the Old Slip. The Fly Market was at the foot of Maiden Lane.
When the Chamber resumed its meetings, in 1779, he
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
returned to his old post, and faithfully attended to its du- ties. He was last present on the 6th May, 1783. Mr. John Pintard, who knew him well, bore testimony to his precise and methodical habits. As an instance of his econ- omy and carefulness, he related of him, that for his engross- ing he used but one pen a year. His long service, cover- ing the whole Colonial period of the Chamber, is evidence of the esteem in which his fellow merchants held him.
Towards the close of the war, he is noticed in Gaine's New York Gazette, April 8th, 1782, as having removed to 13, corner of Nassau and Crown Streets, near the new Dutch Church. On the evacuation of New York by the British, MR. ANTHONY VAN DAM retired to England, where he is said by Sabine to have been an agent of the Under- writers at Lloyd's.
He never married. The London Annual Register for 1808 announced his death, in Guilford Street, at the age of seventy-seven. Some years later, a tablet was erected to his memory on the south side wall of the chancel of St. Paul's Church in New York. It is said to have been put up under the direction of Mr. John Pintard. It bears this inscription :
" Sacred to the Memory of ANTHONY VAN DAM, Esq., Grandson of the Honourable Rip Van Dam, President of the Council of the Province of New York, 1731. He was for many years a Vestryman of Trinity Church. Dis- tinguished for his attachment and services. The earliest part of his life he passed in his native city. From the year 1788 he resided in London, where he died on the 25th September, 1808, in the 77th year of his age. Highly esteemed by a large circle of friends. His remains were interred in the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital in that city. This Monument was erected by his affectionate sur- viving sister Catharine Van Dam of London, A. D. 1824."
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
OF THE
MEMBERS OF THE NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
1768-1784.
ALEXANDER ROBERT .- Of the firm of Thompson & Alexander, merchants. He married Jane Willett on the 5th March, 1772; and on the 22d April of the same year sailed in the Ship Britannia, Captain Thomas Miller, for London. He visited England again in 1774, taking passage for Bristol on the 16th June, "with his lady," in the Ship Grace, Capt. William Chambers. His house, during the War, was styled Robert Alexander & Co., their office at 917 Water Street. Their business was in provisions, chiefly Irish beef, wines, and bottled beer. On the 16th April, 1783, he was appointed by General Carleton one of five commissioners to act as a Board for the settling and adjusting all matters of debt, case, or accounts, of the value of Ten Pounds or upwards, contracted by any of the inhabitants at New York since the first day of November, 1776. He was in business in Augusta, Georgia, in 1800, and lost his wife there in that year.
ALLICOCKE JOSEPH .- A dealer in Wines, Spirits, Teas, &c. He was one of the Sons of Liberty and a member of its chief Committee in 1766. On the organization of the Committee of Correspondence, 30th May, 1776, it was resolved to appoint a Secretary not of the Board, and MR. ALLICOCKE was chosen ; but on the 20th June he "requested, for particular reasons, to resign." He was at this period Inspector of Pot and Pearl Ashes. He was also Secretary of the United Whaling Company. He remained in the City during the War. A letter to Lieut. Butricke, of the Royal Irish Fusileers, August 23, 1775, published in the Correspondence of the Provincial Con- gress, alludes to his "expensive family." A daughter, Sarah, was married to James Bouchier, Commander of the Raynham Hall Indiaman, at New York, July, 1781.
ALSOP JOHN .- The family of Alsop in America is descended from Richard Alsop, who emigrated from England towards the close of the sev- enteenth century, and under the patronage of Thomas Wandell, a brother of his mother, settled at Mespat Kills, since called Maspeth, and now known as Newtown, Long Island. Mr. Wandell, dying without issue, left his estate in Newtown to his nephew, who continued to reside upon it until his death. By his wife, Hannah, who is said to have been a Dutch lady, he left a nu- merous issue. His third son, John Alsop, was bred to the legal profession, and early located himself at New Windsor, in Orange County, New York ; but soon removed to the City of New York, where he was admitted a free- man, in 1749. He continued in the practice of his profession until his death, in 1761. He married Abigail, daughter of Joseph Sackett, of Newtown, by whom he had two sons, John and Richard, both of whom survived him.
JOHN ALSOP was the eldest son of John Alsop and Abigail Sackett.
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COLONIAL NEW YORK.
The precise date of his birth is not known. He was brought up as a merchant, as was also his brother Richard ; the latter in the counting-house of Philip Livingston. For a time young ALSOP seems to have transacted busi- ness alone, as his name appears signed JOHN ALSOP, JUNIOR, to the agree- ment entered into by the principal merchants of the city in December, 1753, "not to receive Copper Halfpence otherwise than fourteen for a shilling." About this time the two brothers engaged in business together under the firm of John & Richard Alsop, and were for some time engaged in the importation of dry goods. Their partnership was dissolved on the 30th September, 1757- Richard removing to Middletown, Conn., and JOHN continuing the business in New York in his own name. He soon reached the first rank among the merchants of the City. During the period which preceded and followed the passage and repeal of the Stamp Act in 1765 and 1766, he was active with his fellow merchants in measures of resistance to the oppressive laws of the Brit- ish Parliament, and in May, 1769, was chosen to read the acknowledgment of the merchants of the resolution adopted by the Assembly, thanking them for their faithful observance of the Non-Importation agreements. He was then a member of the Chamber of Commerce, which he had aided in founding the year before. In 1770 he was one of the Committee of Inspection to en- force the agreements which were still continued. When the news of the pass- age of the Boston Port Bill reached New York, in May, 1774, and a commit- tee of correspondence was raised to concert measures of resistance, JOHN ALSOP was the first named of the fifty-one members ; and on the organiza- tion of the committee was chosen deputy chairman. In the summer of the same year he was elected one of the New York Delegates to the First Conti- nental Congress. In May, 1775, he was one of the committee of One Hun- dred chosen by the citizens to take charge of the Government till a conven- tion could be assembled : the following year he was re-elected to Congress. On the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, and its immediate ratifi- cation by the Provincial Convention of New York, MR. ALSOP resigned his seat. In a letter to the Convention he expressed surprise and indignation at the slight put upon the New York Delegation in leaving it without instruc- tions on this point, although such instructions had been repeatedly sought for, and disapprobation as to the course of Congress in closing the door against reconciliation with Great Britain. Withdrawing to Middletown, where his brother's family was settled, he resided there until the close of the War. On his return to the City in 1784, he renewed his connection with the Chamber of Commerce, and was one of the petitioners for a confir- mation of the Charter from the State in April of that year. On the reor- ganization of the Chamber he was the unanimous choice of his fellow mer- chants for the Presidency of the Chamber-a high tribute, from men who had not always agreed with him in opinion, to the integrity of his character and the fidelity of his attachment to his native land. In 1785 he declined a re-election, owing to his failing health and advanced years, and he gradu- ally withdrew from business, in which he had been largely engaged, as well as in underwriting, from which he reaped large profits.
MR. ALSOP was, for many years, a Vestryman of Trinity Church ; Presi- dent of the Society of the New York Hospital from 1770 to 1784 ; and also served as Governor from 1784 to 1788. He was one of the incorporators of the Hospital.
MR. ALSOP married on the 8th June, 1766, Mary Frogat, who died on the 14th April, 1772, at the early age of 28 years, leaving to his care an only child, Mary, who was married 30th March, 1786, to Hon. Rufus King, then a Delegate from Massachusetts to the Congress sitting in New York. MR. ALSOP died on the 22d November, 1794, " at an advanced age."
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
The descendants of JOHN ALSOP are well known in New York. Hon. John Alsop King, formerly Governor of the State of New York ; Hon. Charles King, LL.D., late President of Columbia College ; Hon. James Gore King, of the great banking house of Prime, Ward & King, and Rep- resentative for New Jersey in the 31st Congress ; he was also President of the Chamber of Commerce in 1845 and 1848.
The name of ALSOP, extinct in the line of John, is sustained by the de- scendants of his brother Richard. His son, Richard, was distinguished for his literary culture and poetical productions ; and his grandson, Richard, was a distinguished merchant of Philadelphia, and the founder of the great house of Alsop & Chauncey, which, with its connections on the west coast of America, has carried the name of Alsop to the four corners of the earth, and made it a familiar sound on the commercial marts of the eastern and western worlds.
AMIEL JOHN .- Was engaged chiefly in the grocery trade. His store was in Smith Street in 1768. In May, 1770, he married Elizabeth Farqu- har, and in 1774 was still importing and selling groceries at his old stand. He remained in the city during the British occupation, and was one of the loyal addressers of Lord and General Howe in 1776. He was Major of the City Volunteer Corps raised by General Robertson in 1780.
ASHFIELD VINCENT PEARCE .- Was descended from the Right Hon. Richard Ashfield, a member of Cromwell's Parliament and colonel in the army of the Commonwealth, and Patience Hart, of Enfield, England, sister of Thomas Hart, a merchant of the same place, and one of the twelve original proprietors of East Jersey. Upon his death, Richard Ashfield, a merchant of New York, inherited the proprietary right from his mother. He married Isabella Morris, daughter of Lewis Morris, first Governor of New Jersey. Their issue were Lewis Morris Ashfield, Richard, who died young, and Vincent Pearce Ashfield. The last named was the first Presi- dent of the Marine Society, which was incorporated in 1770. He was lost at sea on a visit to England, the vessel on which he sailed being never heard from. His wife survived him but a short time, and died in 1779.
VINCENT PEARCE ASHFIELD, the member of the Chamber of Commerce, was son of Lewis Morris Ashfield. He is styled Captain in the list of officers of the Marine Society given by Gaine in 1778, where he appears as Vice-President.
The name of Ashfield is now extinct, the only descendants being in the female line .- Communicated by Dr. Samuel Corp Ellis.
BACHE THEOPHYLACT .- Fifth President of the Chamber of Com- merce. (See Sketch of Life, page 41, ante.)
BACKHOUSE WILLIAM .-- He was one of the addressers of Lord Howe in October, 1776. In 1778 he was engaged in trade, chiefly domestic, under the firm-name of William Backhouse & Co. The first New York Di- rectory, published in 1786 by David Franks, gives his place of business as 163 Water Street. The next year he appears at 14 Duke Street. In 1790 he made a partnership with William Laight, under the firm of BACKHOUSE & LAIGHT. The business was carried on at the old store of Mr. Laight, No. 200 Queen Street.
WILLIAM BACKHOUSE died suddenly Saturday morning, 25th August, 1792. An obituary notice in the N. Y. Journal styles him "one of the oldest and most respectable merchants in the City."
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COLONIAL NEW YORK.
BAYARD SAMUEL, JR .- He appears as a merchant 24th July, 1769. In 1774 he was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Province-an office which he held till the close of the War. On the 9th December, 1775, he deposited the Records of Patents and commissions and the minutes of the council with Governor Tryon on board the Duchess of Gordon, then lying in the bay under the guns of the Asia. In 1776 he appears again in charge of a portion of the Records under guard at the house of his kinsman, Nicho- las Bayard. He entered the British Army, and was commissioned Major of the King's Orange Rangers, February 9, 1781. On Sunday, the 26th April, 1778, he married Catharine Van Horne.
BEEKMAN GERARD WILLIAM .- Was the second son of Dr. William Beekman and Catharine Peters de la Noy. He was born at Jamaica, Long Island, December 13, 1718, and married Mary Duyckinck in 1751. Of his ten children, only five survived their infancy. During the War his family resided in Philadelphia. He had been engaged in an im- porting and commission business until the breaking out of hostilities. His abandoned residence on the corner of Sloat Lane and Hanover Square became the abode of many of the British naval officers. Here Admiral Digby entertained as a ward or pupil Prince William Henry, afterwards King of England. The young Prince was a frequent skater on the Kolch Pond, surrounded by a crowd of curious city boys and better skaters.
Cornelia, the sister of Gerard W. and William Beekman, was the wife of William Walton, who built the Walton House, still standing in Franklin Square .- Communicated by Hon. James W. Beekman, of New York City.
BEEKMAN JAMES .- Was born in New York, March 5th, 1732. He was the fifth son of 'Dr. William Beekman and Catharine Peters de la Noy. Before he was twenty-one years old he married, in October, 1752, Jane Keteltas, who was also a native of New York. JAMES BEEKMAN was the great-grandson of William Beekman, the first of the name, who emigrated from Holland, and arrived in New Netherlands, in the year 1647, with Petrus Stuyvesant.
At the breaking out of the War of the Revolution, JAMES BEEKMAN took open part with the Whigs. He was one of the General Committee of One Hundred chosen, May Ist, 1775, to take control of the City until a Provincial Congress should be assembled. He served as 2d Lieutenant in Captain Lott's Company (called the Sportsman's Company), in a Battalion of Independent Foot raised in New York.
When the British took possession of the city, he gathered the remains of his fortune, and, hiring a farm at Esopus, devoted his entire estate to the education of his children. Seven years afterwards, when the family re- turned to the city, both girls and boys were ready to enter college. His wife, a very clever and accomplished woman, superintended the instruction of her children.
The author of "An Excursion to the United States," published in 1794, mentions a dinner-party at the country house of Mr. Bridgens, three miles out of New York, on the East River (Rose Hill). He says, " there was an addition to our party at tea-a Mrs. Beekman, the mother of twelve sons and daughters. Three of the Miss Beekman's accompanied their mother, one of whom, it was said, was well skilled in Greek and Latin."
During the War, JAMES BEEKMAN'S country house was the quarters of several British officers. By a record of the successive tenants, kept by the Gardener, it appears that General Howe occupied the place seven months ; General Clinton more than three years and six months ; General Robertson
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
until May Ist, 1782 ; General Carleton five months, to the evacuation of the city by the English troops. The Baroness Reidesel resided here during the summer of 1780. She speaks of the visit paid her while there by Gene- ral Clinton, " accompanied by the ill-fated Major André, who on the suc- ceeding day set out upon the fatal expedition." Family traditions point out the room in which Major Andre passed the night before he went forward into Westchester. During September, 1776, in the greenhouse, which at that season was emptied of plants, sat the Court Martial which tried and condemned to death Nathan Hale the patriot, who afterwards suffered such cruelties at the hands of Provost Cunningham, and who died "regretting that he had but one life to give for his country." On " Evacuation Day," November 25th, 1783, punch was made from the lemons that grew in this greenhouse, and General Washington and his staff were entertained at the house while the American army marched by on their progress to the city. While residing at Esopus he was again called upon to serve his country, and sat as a member for the City and County of New York in the Conven- tion which assembled at Kingston, Ulster County, on the 20th April, 1777, to frame a constitution for the "State of New York."
With the return of peace JAMES BEEKMAN again engaged in commerce. His wife took upon herself the duties of bookkeeper, for no salaries could be afforded ; and so well qualified was she for the office, that on one occa- sion, when a ship arrived in her husband's absence at Philadelphia, she had transacted all the customs' business perfectly before his return.
His place of business was in Hanover Square ; the family lived in the same building. By diligent industry he retrieved his fortunes. It is said of him, that having remitted over sixty thousand dollars to London at the breaking out of the War, he found at its close that the money had not been received. He paid the debt again, but not without very severe exertion and economy. After a time, his family resided through the year at his country seat, called " Mount Pleasant," and his habit was, when business had de- tained him late, to pass the night at his compting house in Hanover Square. Next morning, by dawn of day, he walked four miles to surprise his wife and children before they had risen, and after breakfasting with the family, he would walk back in good season for business. In 1784 he formed a partnership with his sons, and, under the name of JAMES BEEKMAN & SONS, carried on a dry-goods importing business at 241 Queen Street.
He died in New York, April 6th, 1817, at the age of eighty-two .- Com- municated by Hon. James W. Beekman of New York City.
BOGART HENRY C .- The son of Cornelius Bogart, of New York. He was descended from one of the French Huguenot refugees, who aban- doned his native land for conscience sake, and came to this country on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Cornelius Bogart, the father of HENRY C. BOGART, was born in 1699, and became during the first half of the suc- ceeding century a large land-holder in the City of New York, and carried on an extensive mercantile business. At a later period he withdrew from active connection with commercial affairs, and left his large trade to his sons- HENRY C. and Nicholas. Cornelius died on the 19th April, 1793, at the great age of ninety-four years.
HENRY C. BOGART, the elder son of Cornelius, was born in 1733. He is said to have been " a man greatly admired for the elegance of his person, his accomplished manners, and the sterling integrity of his private and pub- lic character." He seems to have confined his business chiefly to trade with the West Indies, the English Colonies of which he is known to have visited. His place of business was in Smith Street.
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COLONIAL NEW YORK.
In 1771 he married Helena Van Wyck, of Bergen, New Jersey-the record of New York marriages giving the date of license March 4th, 1791. His marriage was of short duration. He died on the 30th May, 1774, at the age of 41, and was buried in the family vault in the New Dutch Church. An obituary notice said of him : " It may with the greatest propriety be said that he was an affectionate husband, a dutiful and obedient child, and indul- gent master ; a very useful member of the community by his extensive con -. nection in trade, and a friend to all who stood in need of his assistance ; benevolence and charity sat perching on his right hand ; the fatherless and widow have tasted of his unceasing bounty. He bore his long illness with the patience of a Christian and the fortitude of a good man.
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