USA > New York > Courts and lawyers of New York; a history, 1609-1925, Volume I > Part 15
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2. In the quality aforesaid, he shall convoke the meetings of the Burgo- masters and Schepens and preside thereat, also propose all matters which shall be brought there for deliberation, collect the Votes and resolve ac- cording to the plurality thereof.
3. He shall, ex officio, prosecute all contraveners, defrauders and trans- gressors, of any Placards, Laws, Statutes and Ordinances which are already made and published, or shall hereafter be enacted and made public, as far as those are amenable before the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens, and with this understanding that, having entered this suit against the aforesaid Contraveners, he shall immediately rise, and await the judg- ment of Burgomasters and Schepens, who being prepared shall also, on his motion pronounce the same.
4. And in order that he may well and regularly institute his complaint, the Sheriff, before entering his action or arresting any person, shall perti- nently inform himself of the crime of which he shall accuse him, without
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his being empowered to arrest any one on the aforesaid information, unless the offence be committed in his presence.
5. He shall take all his information in the presence of two members of the Board of Burgomasters and Schepens if the case shall permit it, or otherwise in the presence of two discreet persons who, with the Secretary or his deputy shall sign the aforesaid information.
6. Which aforesaid Secretary with the Court Messenger are expressly commanded to assist and be serving unto the Sheriff in whatever relates to their respective offices.
7. He shall take care in collecting and preparing informations to act impartially, and to bring the truth as clear and naked as possible to light, noting to that end all circumstances which in any way deserve consideration and appertain to the case.
8. Item. The aforesaid Sheriff, on learning or being informed that any persons have injured each other, or quarrelled, shall have power to command the said individuals, either personally or by the court messenger, or his deputy, to observe the peace, and to forbid them committing any assault, on pain of arbitrary correction at the discretion of the Burgomasters and Schepens.
9. He shall not have power to compound with any person for their com- mitted offences, except with the knowledge of the Burgomasters and Schepens.
10. He shall take care that all Judgments pronounced by the Burgo- masters and Schepens, and which are not appealed from, shall be executed conformably to the above mentioned Instruction given to the same, ac- cording to the style and custom of Fatherland, and especially the city of Amsterdam.
II. In like manner, that authentic copies of all the Judgments, Orders, Actes and Resolution to be adopted by the aforesaid Burgomasters and Schepens shall be communicated once every year to the Director-General and the Council of New Netherland.
12. And in case he receives any information or statement of any of- fences which from their nature, or on account of the offending person are not subject to his complaint, he shall be bound forthwith to communicate the same to the Fiscal (Schout-Fiscal) without taking any information him- self, much less arresting the offender, unless in actual aggression to prevent greater mischief, or hinder flight in consequence of the enormity of the crime.
13. Which being done, he shall as before surrender without any delay the apprehended person with the information taken to the Fiscal, to be perceeded against by him in due form as circumstances demand.
14. In order that the aforesaid Sheriff shall be the more encouraged hereunto, he shall enjoy, etc.
15. Should the Sheriff violate any of these Articles he shall be prose- cuted on the complaint of the Fiscal before the Director and Council, to be punished according to the nature of the case .- "Dutch Records, Letter V," 1652-63.
15. The next year (1657) a ship arrived at New Amsterdam having on board several of the "cursed sect of heretics," as Quakers were called in the Massachusett statute. Some of this company had been banished from Boston the year before, and were now on their way to Rhode Island, "where
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all kinds of scum dwell," wrote the Dominies Megapolensis and Drisius, "for it is nothing else than a sink of New England." Among them were two women . . . Dorothy Waugh and Mary Witherhead. . . . When they landed at New Amsterdam, they . . . asked neither for a place of public worship, nor for permission to preach, but, going from street to street through the town, they announced the new doctrine and declaimed against the steeple-houses, the hireling priesthood, and their pernicious teachings. . . . But the preaching nevertheless was a defiance of authority and law which the Dutch Director was as little disposed as any Puritan governor to brook. The women were seized and thrust into separate prisons -"miry dungeons," they are called-infested with vermin. After eight days' endurance of this punishment, their hands were tied behind them and they were sent back to their ship, to finish their voyage to Rhode Island.
With another of the company, Robert Hodgson (or Hodshone), it fared still worse. He proposed to remain in New Netherland, and was welcomed at Heemstede by a few of his own way of thinking, with whom he soon held a meeting. He was arrested, and word sent to Stuyvesant, who ordered him to be brought to New Amsterdam. Tied to the tail of a cart in which rode two young women, one with a baby at her breast, of- fenders like himself, and under a guard of soldiers, he was driven, pinioned, in the night time and through the woods, "whereby he was much torn and abused" to the city. On his arrival, the gentle Friend was led by a rope, like some dangerous criminal, to the prison, "a filthy place full of vermin."
. Hodshone's principal accuser seems to have been Captain Willett (of Massachusetts) associate of Standish. He "had much incensed the governor against the prisoner, it is said, though it is easy to conceive that Stuyvesant's rage would need no prompting in an encounter with one of that sect who feared no wrath but the divine wrath, and respected no authority but the authority of God. A prisoner who would not remove his hat in the presence of the court would seem to such a judge as the Director as hardly deserving of other consideration than that hat and head should come off together.
The forms of law were of little moment with an offender of this kind. No defence was permitted him, and his sentence was read to him only in Dutch. Its meaning, however, was not long left in doubt; he was to pay a fine of six hundred guilders; for two years his home was to be a loath- some dungeon; his days were to be passed at hard labor, with a negro, chained to a barrow. When he pleaded that he was never brought up to nor used to such work, a negro beat him with a tarred four-inch rope till, as the narrative says, "Robert fell down." "Thus he was kept all that day in the heat of the sun, chained to the wheelbarrow, his body being much bruised and swelled with the blows, and he, kept without food, grew very faint and sat upon the ground with his mind retired to the Lord and resigned to his will, whereby he found himself supported.
So resigned, he endured such punishment for three days. . . . Again he was taken before the Director, less able than ever to work, as little dis- posed as ever to submission.
"What law have I broken?" he demanded. He should work, he was told, or be whipped every day. Again he was chained to the barrow and threatened with even worse punishment if he dared to speak to any one. But the threats did not move him: "He did not forbear to speak to some that
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came to him so as he thought meet and convenient." The worse punish- ment followed: hung up by the hands, his feet tied to a log, his bare back was torn with rods till he became almost insensible to torture. Many even among the Dutch were moved with pity.
When sentence was first pronounced upon him it was displeasing to many of the Dutch, as "did appear by the shaking of their heads." More scandalous and inhuman it seemed to many of them when, after the cruel and repeated punishment of one whose sole offence was obedience to his own conscience, he was again led out, still chained to his barrow, to labor upon the public highway. . .. Among those who exerted themselves on his behalf was the widow Anna Bayard, a sister of the Director. She was full of compassion, perhaps indignation, and at her prayers and expostulations her stern brother relented. Hodshone was released at length, and the fine remitted, but he was banished from the colony-Sewell's "History of the Quakers : An Abstract of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers for the Testimony of a Good Conscience." London, 1733.
16. Not long after the organization of this court (New Amsterdam) by Stuyvesant, courts of the same popular character were established in several towns on Long Island, and these received powers similar to those granted to that in New Amsterdam. Before this time, Brueckelen had a court of schepens which was dependent on the court at Fort Amsterdam. Now her magistrates were increased from two to four, and Midwout (Flat- bush) obtained the right to three schepens, while to Amersfoot (Flatlands) two schepens were granted. In all matters relating to police, peace and security in their several towns-which extended in criminal matters over cases of fighting. threatening, etc .- these courts had separate jurisdiction. Offences of a graver character were reported to the director and council at Fort Amsterdam. In civil matters these courts could take cognizance of suits to the amount of fifty guilders. In excess of this sum to a further definite amount, an appeal lay to a superior district court. The latter court was composed of magistrates delegates from each town court, and a schout, who acted also as a clerk. To this district court was also commit- ted the superintendence of such affairs as were of common interest to the several towns represented in it, that is the laying out of roads, the observ- ance of the Sabbath, and the erection of churches, schools, and other public buildings. It was also to a certain extent a court of records.
David Provoost, who had been commissioner of Fort Good Hope, on the Connecticut River, was the first schout, or sheriff, of this district court. In January, 1656, he was succeeded by Pieter Tonneman, who acted until August, 1660, when Adriaen Hegeman was appointed. The salary of the office was two hundred guilders a year, with one-half of the civil fines im- posed by the court, and one-third of the criminal fines levied by each town, together with certain fees as clerk for entries and transcripts. In 1661, courts similar to those in Brueckelen, Midwout and Amersfoort were estab- lished at Bostwyck (Bushwick) and at New Utrecht. These towns were then formed into a district which was called the "district of the five Dutch towns." The several town courts still continued to exercise their indepen- dent jurisdiction, but there was one schout for the district, and he resided in Brueckelen.
Courts were established, by virtue of grants from Stuyvesant, among the English settlers in Canorasset, or Rutsdorp (Jamaica), in 1656, and in
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Middleburg (Newtown) in 1659. In 1652 Stuyvesant established a court in Beverwyck (Albany), independent of the patroon's Court of Rensselaerwyck. The courts which have thus been enumerated and described, including the patroon courts and the appellate court in New Amsterdam, which was composed of the governor and council, constituted the judicial tribunals of New Netherland until the colony passed into the hands of the English .- Chester's "Legal and Judicial History of New York," Vol. I, 86.
CHAPTER XII. THE FIRST CONVENTION AND ITS RESULT .*
Early in 1653 the people of New Amsterdam looked for- ward hopefully to the future which, so far as local government went, they thought, would be in their own keeping. After three years of agitation and remonstrance, Van der Donck had brought back to New Amsterdam the instructions of the States General, through the West India Company, to Director- General Stuyvesant to institute in New Netherland a system of popular government in local affairs like that then prac- ticed in the municipalities of the home provinces. Burgher government was to be constituted by elective means, indicat- ing that henceforth the people, through their elected represen- tatives-burgomasters and schepens-would be able to curb inclinations to arbitrary rule by their Governor. Alas! the instructions to Stuyvesant were ambiguous; and he was, before all else, the agent of a commercial company, whose primary object was the making of money. So, although he bowed to the authority of the States General and, much against his will, brought New Amsterdam under burgher gov- ernment on February 2, 1653, Stuyvesant gladly grasped the opportunity of nullifying the triumph of the people, for a time, by appointing the burgomasters and schepens himself, instead of permitting the new order to come into effect by elective means. Moreover, he went directly against Dutch practice of that time in permitting the schout-fiscal to also hold the office of city schout.
There was keen disappointment among the thinking people. Their expectation that a new and brighter era would dawn
*AUTHORITIES-Underhill's "Manifesto"; O'Callaghan's "History of New Netherland"; "Hartford Records"; Bryant's "History of the United States"; Werner's "New York Civil List," 1888 ed .; Hawthorne's "History of the United States"; Chester's "Legal and Judicial History of New York."
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with the incorporation of New Amsterdam passed when they read the Governor's placard. They demurred more against the method of establishing the burgher government than they did against the men appointed. All the burgomasters and schepens were of reasonably good record, and might be ex- pected to side with the people against executive tyranny ; and they showed where their sympathies were when they all em- phatically protested against the presence of Cornelis van Tien- hoven, as schout, in the schepens' court. He was known to be but the mouthpiece of Stuyvesant, and his private life was such that one would not look for scrupulous justice in a court over which he presided. However, Stuyvesant had declared his will, so Van Tienhoven became schout. Fortunately, he was not given the full status of a city schout ; he was not per- mitted to preside, nor was he given a vote. Nevertheless, the confidence of the people was shaken, and popular outcry against this irregular appointment was heard even in Holland. The citizens of New Amsterdam would no doubt have taken a more determined stand against him had not another much more absorbing and vital question then been uppermost in the minds of all classes in the province. England was at war with Holland, and the little province of New Netherland stood in imminent danger of being absorbed by the powerful New England colonies, if allied against New Netherland.
Officially, Stuyvesant assured Virginia and the New Eng- land colonies that the feeling of the Dutch of America toward their English neighbors was cordial; and he hoped that the friendly relations would not be interrupted. Nevertheless, rumors reached New England that the Dutch were urging the Indians to attack the English settlements, and even though leading Indian chieftains flatly denied the existence of any plot, the commissioners of the United Colonies of New Eng- land were apprehensive. Indeed, they recommended war against the Dutch. Fortunately for New Netherland, Massa- chusetts would not contribute her quota for such a war, and
PETER STUYVESANT
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the other colonies were not strong enough for independent action.
So the situation cleared, Stuyvesant profiting by the scare. John Underhill, of Long Island, was lodged in jail at New Amsterdam for a while, "for asserting within their own towns that the Dutch were in league with the Indians against the English"; and the Governor had also been able to get the burgher government of New Amsterdam to pass, as one of its first measures an ordinance providing ways and means of completing the fortifications at New Amsterdam. The pass- ing of the English scare was followed by complication with John Underhill, who had been released.1 And after he had been again arrested and again released, this time being ban- ished, he succeeded in so arousing the sympathy of the gov- ernment of Rhode Island with the English of Long Island, oppressed "by the cruell tirannie of the Dutch power at the Manathoes," that the General Assembly of Rhode Island re- solved to declare war against New Netherland, and commis- sion John Underhill as commander of the land forces, "to bring the Dutch to conformitie to the Commonwealth of England."2 His campaign lasted for two months, during
I. In troubled waters no head was so sure to come to the surface as that of John Underhill. . . . If New England was not ready for a war with the Dutch, that was no reason why John Underhill should not declare it on his own account. He hoisted the colors of the Parliament at Flushing and Heemstede ; issued a manifesto in which great crimes, such as the unlawful imposition of taxes, the appointment of magistrates over the people without election, the violation of conscience, the conspiring with the Indians to murder the English, the hampering of trade, and other acts of tyranny, even to the striking an old gentleman of his Council with a cane, were charged upon the administration of Peter Stuyvesant; and both Dutch and English were called upon "to throw off this tyrannical yoke." It shows how far Stuyvesant was from wishing to provoke a collision with the English that, instead of hanging Underhill for this second offense, he only banished him .- See O'Callaghan's "History of New Netherland," Vol. II, p. 225, for full text of Underhill's manifesto.
2. Underhill took the field. Marching to Fort Good Hope on the Connecticut, once held by the Dutch, but now empty, he posted upon the door a notice that he "Io. Underhill (did) seaze upon this hous and lands thereunto belonging, as Dutch goods claymed by the West India Company,
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which he succeeded, with his army of twenty warriors, in cap- turing the untenanted Fort Good Hope on the Connecticut. But certain maritime operations by the commanders of Rhode Island's navy developed not much greater magnitude than those of the land forces, so Stuyvesant was not helped, in his internal troubles, much thereby.
The war was ended before the fortifications of New Am- sterdam had been completed, and the citizens, no longer afraid of an attack by the English, refused to be further taxed to complete the work. And Stuyvesant found that the burghers and schepens of New Amsterdam sided with the people. The latter half of the year 1653, as a consequence, witnessed some animated scenes in the capital. If the people of New Amster- dam, who would benefit most by the fortifications, were un- willing to contribute toward their completion, how much more reluctant must have been the citizens of outlying parts of New Netherland, who were far from Fort Manhattan, and were ever dreading Indian warfare.
The Long Island towns were the most rebellious. It is true they were peopled largely by English settlers, but they were also the most exposed to attack by Indians and by cer- tain "gangs of lawless men," who took whatever they fancied from the farmers. In October, a convention of four English towns on Long Island-Hempstead, Gravesend, Flushing and Middleburgh (Newtown)-was held, to consider what com- mon action they should take. It was resolved to call another convention, to meet on November 25, in the Stadt Huys at New Amsterdam, to further consider measures that were nec- essary "for the welfare of the country and its inhabitants, and
in Amsterdam, enemies of the Commonweal of England." Having done this much for the Commonwealth and the conquest of New Netherland, the Commander-in-Chief of the land forces of Rhode Island disbanded his army-of twenty volunteers. The conquered territory-about thirty acres-he sold, on his own account, first to one man for twenty pounds sterling, and two months later to another. giving a deed to each .- Hart- ford Records.
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to determine on some wise and salutary measures to arrest these robberies." The delegates duly assembled in New Am- sterdam, much to the perturbation of the Governor, who probably was not in one of his most amiable moods, for on that very day, after a long fight with the burgomasters and schepens of New Amsterdam, he had surrendered to them his assumed prerogative of imposing and applying excise duties in the municipality, at least on beer and wine, though he con- soled himself, perhaps, by imposing an additional provincial duty on wines and distilled liquors, which, he said, "are used in this country in the greatest profusion." As to the conven- tion, he expressed himself in emphatic words. It was irreg- ular ; illegal; he had not authorized the gathering ; and no cit- izens could assemble for political purposes without his sanc- tion, properly and regularly had. This convention in the Stadt Huys, in fact, "smelt of rebellion, of contempt of his high authority and commission."3 The delegates demurred
3. The discontent on Long Island, both among Dutch and English, took a formidable shape. Alarmed at the continuance of Indian hostilities, and disgusted at the want of prosperity generally, which they attributed to the arbitrary and unwise rule of the Director, they united with the popular party in opposition to his administration. A meeting of delegates under the leader- ship of two Englishmen, George Baxter and James Hubbard, assembled at the Stadt Huys in New Amsterdam in November. On the plea of devising some means for the general welfare, Stuyvesant had been consulted with regard to this meeting, and two of his Council, La Montagne and Van Werckhoven, took seats in it, as the representatives of that body and the Director-General. But the presence of Van Werckhoven especially was objected to. The delegates of the towns declared they would have nothing to do with him, and that neither the Director-General nor any of his Council would be permitted to preside over the convention. As the object of the meeting was to provide for the common defence, they were willing to unite with the municipal government of New Amsterdam-which was also repre- sented in the body-and to continue under the rule of the States-General and the Company ; but they would not submit to the Director and Council who could not protect them. "We are compelled," they said, "to provide against our own ruin and destruction, and therefore we will not pay any more taxes."-Bryant's "History of U. S.," Vol. II, Chap. VII.
3. Protection in return for taxation is one of the simplest of proposi- tions. . . . The towns went still further. They made propositions for a "firmer union" with the magistrates of the city, who replied that they must first consult with the Director and Council. Stuyvesant responded that he
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when Stuyvesant assigned two of his Council to sit in the convention; which increased the chagrin of the Governor. Nevertheless, when he was informed that the delegates were determined to hold even another meeting, and to expand the scope of the convention, admitting delegates from the four Dutch towns also, and that they would meet whether he sanc- tioned the gathering or did not, Stuyvesant probably recog- nized that the popular agitation was stronger than he could combat by arbitrary means. At all events, he recognized the assembly by promising to formally convene delegates for the December gathering they had decided to hold. Finding some satisfaction in the fact that at this convention the Dutch dele- gates could outvote the English, the Governor issued writs on December 8, for the assembling of delegates on December 10. Accordingly, nineteen representatives gathered. Ten were Dutchmen from the four Dutch towns-New Amster- dam, Breuckelen, Amersfoort (Flatlands) and Midwout (Flat- bush) ; and the four English towns of Flushing, Middleburgh or Newtown, Heemstede and Gravesend, sent nine English delegates. Among them was George Baxter, a former Eng- lish secretary of New Netherland. He had drafted a remon- strance, which was adopted, and delivered to Stuyvesant. In fundamentals, the remonstrance was against taxation without representation, which the delegates believed could not be genuinely attained by an appointive system.4 Stuyvesant, in
had no objection to their uniting with the English towns, and stated that "as they could not out-vote the latter now, it was his intention to grant, at the next election, courts of justice to the villages of Amersfoort (Flatlands), Breukelen and Midwout, so as to possess with Fort Orange, on all future occasions, an equal number of votes."-Werner, in "New York Civil List," 1888 ed., p. 38.
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