USA > New York > Courts and lawyers of New York; a history, 1609-1925, Volume I > Part 19
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13. Ibid.
C.&L .- 13
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the younger son the eastern portion (mainly in Rensselaer County). An effort was made to collect arrearages from the tenants, but the latter, "fearing a quarter sale forfeiture, which had never been exacted by the late patroon,"14 organ- ized to protect their own interests. They tried to purchase all the reservations of their leasehold properties, and terminate the tenure. The landlords, however, declined to consider any such proposals. Then the attitude of the tenants became sterner. The Anti-Rent Association was organized in 1839, and the agitation went from bad to worse, being extremely heated between 1843 and 1847-attended, indeed, by blood- shed. It became almost a State-wide political issue, for it is said that "in the Legislature of 1842 to 1847, about one-eighth of the members were elected in the interests of the Anti- Renters."15 Two of the rioters were sentenced to be hanged, but were reprieved ; and while the judicial proceedings chilled the Anti-Renters, it was quite evident that the manorial sys- tem was not likely to have much longer life. The Governor, Silas Wright, who reprieved the convicted rioters, commut- ing their punishment to imprisonment for life, condemned the manorial system of land tenure "as inconsistent with other institutions of the State." He recommended that an amicable
14. Stephen Van Rensselaer, the last patroon in full authority, was born in New York, Nov. 1, 1764. He was fifth in descent from the first Killian. His father, and namesake, replaced the original manor house with a finer one in 1765, and took the patriot side in the struggle with Great Britain. . Though his lordship (patroonship) had ended with the colonial gov- ernment, his estates . . . were enormous, including at his death over 3,000 farms in Rensselaer and Albany counties, or some 436,000 acres. These were charged at a moderate annual payment, which he was often careless in
collecting. . He did nothing to amend the cumbrous system of land tenures on his enormous estates, nor to mitigate the grievances of his tenants, except to be easy with the unfortunate. At his death, arrears of rent were said to amount to $400,000. These were not remitted as the farmers ex- pected, and the troubles at once began, which are famous in the history of the State, and as a result of which the estate was broken up .- E. P. Cheyney's "Anti-Rent Agitation," 1887, quoted by "Nat. Cyclop. of Am. Biography," 2. 397.
15. "History of Troy and Rensselaer County, N. Y." (1925), p. 49.
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and constitutional" way be found to end it, and suggested that renewed efforts be made by the tenants to become the owners in fee. Subsequently, Governor Young pardoned the leading Anti-Renters on the ground that their offenses were political. The Van Rensselaers were unable to collect their rents, and in 1854 were so tired of the strife that they sold most of the manor to Walter S. Church, of Albany, "who brought at least one thousand suits of ejectment in Rensselaer County and recovered many judgments."16 Stephen van Rensselaer, the last of the patroons, died in 1868, and the remainder of the manor then passed out of the possession of the Van Rensselaer family. During the last fifty years most of the leases. have been legally discharged, "but in many instances ground rents are still being paid or remain as a bar to clear titles."17
It is of interest to state that the original manor house of the Van Rensselaer family is still standing. In 1886, the his- oric structure was marked, a tablet being then placed on one of its walls to show the unique place of the Van Rensselaer homestead among historic buildings. The tablet reads :
Supposed to be the oldest building in the United States and to have been erected in 1642, as a manor house and place of defense; known as Fort Crailo. Abercrombie's headquarters while marching to attack Fort Ticonderoga in 1758, where, it is said, at the Contonment east of this house near the old well the army surgeon Richard Shuckburg composed the popu- lar song of "Yankee Doodle."
The house was offered in 1924, as a gift, to the State, and was formally accepted, as a historical memorial, on June 3, 1924, an enabling act having been passed by the Legislature.18
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. In Rensselaerswyck manuscripts, the name of the farm on which this fortified Manor house stood is variously given: Cralo, Crailo, Kraelo, Caryloo and Krayloo, the latter corresponding nearly to the modern Dutch form "Kraailoo," which means "crow's woods." The property was named after the Patroon's estate near Huizen, in Holland, which he purchased in 1628. It is probable that only part of the original building remains, and the
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Two other patroons of the Dutch period call for notice. The parts taken by Cornelis Melyn and Adriaen van der Donck in the government of New Netherland entailed greater personal risk than that by Kiliaen van Rensselaer, who, indeed, never left Holland. Patroons Melyn and Van der Donck risked even their heads in championing the cause of the people against the arbitrary wills of the vindictive Kieft and the despotic Stuyvesant. Melyn probably was the greater sufferer, though Van der Donck suffered many indignities. Their lives are not here reviewed extensively, because it seems better to reserve such biographical matter for the chapter which deals with the men who were prominent in the legislative bodies that were drawn from the commonalty- the Boards of Twelve, Eight and Nine Men-in the function- ing of which the Patroons Melyn and Van der Donck come most worthily into New Netherland records.
wings were evidently erected at different periods. Brodhead, in his "His- tory of New York" states that "When the Indians attacked and massacred many of the inhabitants of Wiltwyck (Esopus), June 17, 1663, the farmers round about fled to Fort Crailo for protection." Hendrick van Rensselaer made this building his home and died there July 4, 1740, and subsequently his eldest son, Colonel Johannes van Rensselaer, born there in 1708, occupied the building until his death in 1783. Robert, Henry, and James Van Rens- selaer, who were born in this building, became brigadier-general, colonel and major, respectively, in the Continental army. For a large part of its exist- ence, the building remained in the possession of descendants of the Van Rensselaers until Mrs. Susan de Lancey van Rensselaer Strong offered it in 1924 as a gift to the State, if provision would be made for its mainten- ance and preservation as a historical memorial .- Ibid, p. 67.
CHAPTER XIV. DUTCH MAGISTRATES. The Governor's Council .*
With the coming of Peter Minuit, as Director-General, in 1626, all governmental authority-executive, legislative and judicial-was vested in the Director and Council. The Court of Director and Council was the only one in the province, and appeal from its judgments lay to the States General, or the Court of Holland. In 1629 the system of Patroon courts was authorized, and appeals from them lay to the Court of the Director and Council, With the expansion of the judicial system in subsequent years, the Governor's Council became the highest court of the province, with appellate and admiralty jurisdiction. Appeals lay to them from decisions of local or inferior courts. The members of the Council of the Director- General could not be sued before, and were not amenable to the municipal courts.1 Although the councillors held office only at the pleasure of the Director, and had little indepen- dent authority, the body contained some capable men. The
*AUTHORITIES-Werner's "Civil List of New York," 1888 ed .; "Collec- tions of New York Historical Society," Second Series; "Report of Andraes Hudde Dutch Colonial Records," N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll .; "History of New Netherland," by O'Callaghan; "Legal and Judicial. History of N. Y.," by Chester ; "Albany Records and Holland Documents"; Brodhead's "History of New York"; Bryant's "History of United States"; Westervelt's "Indians of Bergen County, N. J."; Hallam's "Constitutional History of England"; Smith's "History of New York"; "Voyages of De Vries," Collections of N. Y. Hist. Soc .; Chamber's "Encyclopedia"; "Minutes of the Court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck, 1652-56, 1657-60," by Van Laer, published by Univ. State of N. Y., 1920, 1923.
I. Appeals lay to them from decisions of local or inferior courts. The members could not be sued before, and were not amenable to such inferior courts. Their independence of the Governor was, however, very trifling ; they may be said, indeed, to have held their office purely at his pleasure, as in one instance he caused a file of soldiers to eject summarily the Vice- Director . .. from the council chamber, for opposition to his will, and, on a different occasion, it is alleged, he caned another member of the Board .- Werner's "Civil List of N. Y .. " 1888 ed., p. 361.
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members of this highest court of the Dutch period were as follows :
1626-Isaac de Rasieres, Peter Blyvelt, Jacob Elbertsen Wissinck; Jan Jansen Brouwer, Symon Dircksen Pos, Rey- nert Harmansen.
1630-Peter Blyvelt, Reynert Harmansen, Jan Jansen Myn- dertsen, Jacob Elbertsen Wissinck, Symon Dircksen Pos.
1636-Jacob Jansen Hesse, Martin Gerritsen van Bergen, Andries Hudde, Jacques Bentyn.
1636-Andries Hudde, Claes van Elslant, Jacobus van Curler.
1638-Johannis la Montagne.
1639-Johannis la Montagne, Ulrich Lupold.
1642-Johannis la Montagne.
1647-William Kieft, ex-director; Lubertus van Dincklage, vice-director; Johannis la Montagne, Brian Newton, Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist, Jacob Loper, Jeimer Tomassen, Jan Claessen Bol, Adriaen Keyser.
1648-Lubertus van Dincklage, Johannis la Montagne, Brian Newton, Paulus L. van der Grist, Adriaen Keyser.
1650-Lubertus van Dincklage (forcibly expelled Feb. 28, 1651) ; Johannis la Montagne, Brian Newton, Adriaen Keyser. 1652-Johannis la Montagne and Brian Newton.
1653-Johannis la Montagne, Brian Newton, Cornelis van Werckhoven, who returned to Holland in 1654, Nicasius de Sille, first councillor.
1655-Nicasius de Sille, Johannis la Montagne (appointed Vice-Director at Fort Orange, Sept. 28, 1656).
1657-Nicasius de Sille, Peter Tonneman.
1658-Nicasius de Sille, Peter Tonneman, Johannis de Decker.
1659-Nicasius de Sille, Peter Tonneman (went to Holland in fall of that year), Johannis de Decker (absent from the country from July 29, 1659, to July 12, 1660), Cornelis van Ruyven.
1660-Nicasius de Sille, Johannis de Decker, Cornelius van Ruyven.
1664-1673-Under English rule.
1673-Cornelis Evertse, Jacob Benckes, Anthony Colve, Abraham van Zyll (a naval officer), Cornelis Steenwyck (Sept. 19).
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Isaac de Rasieres, the first name listed above, was the first Provincial Secretary. He came out with Minuit in 1626, but returned to Holland in 1628. While in the colony, however, his record was good. He was a Walloon, protege of a direc- tor of the West India Company, Samuel Blommaert, who was one of the first to grasp a patroonship. There was friction between the Plymouth Plantation and New Netherland, and after some unsatisfactory diplomatic correspondence between the two governors, Minuit and Bradford, De Rasieres was deputed by Minuit to head a Dutch commission to New Ply- mouth. He entered that plantation with all the dignity of a prince. "When they landed near one of the outposts of the Plymouth colony, the echoes of the forest and the attention of the Pilgrims were awakened by the braying of trumpets at the lips of sturdy Dutchmen." With the same ceremony the commissioners entered New Plymouth, a graphic description of which De Rasieres has left. For two days he sat at the table of Governor Bradford, having the company also of Elder Brewster, Miles Standish, and other passengers of the "May- flower." Bradford describes De Rasieres as "a man of fair and genteel behaviour." The two were able to establish a better understanding between the colonies, although the Dutch commissioner could not induce Bradford and the Pil- grims to "leave their more sterile soil and make their home in the beautiful and fertile country on the banks of the Fresh- Water River, under the jurisdiction of New Netherland."
It is to be regretted that the opinions recorded of most of the early officials of New Netherland are found in remon- strances, wherein faults are shown, and extenuating circum- stances or better qualities obscured. The Remonstrance of the Nine Men said of Brian Newton, who for many years was a member of the Council, that he could say nothing but "yes" to all recommendations of the governor. Adrian Keyser "lets God's water run over God's field." Jelmer Thommassen and Paulus Lenaertsen were sea captains, and could hardly
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have graduated in law at sea. Monsieur La Montagne, an- other member of the Council, was "very much suspected by many," seeing that he was "very much indebted to the Com- pany."2 On the other hand, Van Tienhoven when in Hol- land as attorney for Stuyvesant replied to the Remonstrance of 1649 by pointing out that "Those who complained about the haughtiness of Stuyvesant are such as seek to live without law or rule.", In condemnatory reference to the signers of the Remonstrance, members of the Board of Nine Men, he continues : "Van der Donck had been in the service of the proprietors of Rensselaerwyck," but had not been retained long ; Stevenson "had profited in the service of the Company"; Elbertson was "indebted to the Company," and would be "very glad to get rid of paying"; Loockermans had been "a cook's
2. Sometimes the Commissary, Adrian Keyser is admitted into the Council, who came here as Secretary. This man had not forgotten much law, but says that he "lets God's water run over God's field." He cannot and dares not say anything, for so much devolved upon him that it is best that he should be silent.
The Captains of the ships, when they are ashore, have a vote in the Council: as Jelmer Thommassen and Paulus Lenaertsen, who was made Equipment Master upon his first arrival and who has always had a seat in the Council and is a free man. What knowledge these people who all their lives sail on the sea, and are brought up to ship work, have of law matters and of the disputes of landsmen anyone can easily imagine. Besides the Director keeps them so in debt that they dare not speak in opposition to him. . . . But they have not fared badly; for though Paulus Lenaertsen has small wages, he has built a better dwelling house here than anybody else. How this has happened is mysterious to us; for if the Director has knowledge of these matters, he is nevertheless as quiet as Paulus Lenaert- sen rises as he is inattentive to anybody else, which causes suspicions in the minds of many.
Monsieur La Montagne had been in the Council in Kieft's time, and was then very much suspected by many. He had no commission from the Fatherland, was driven by the war from his farm, is very much indebted to the Company, and therefore is compelled to dissemble. But it is suf- ficiently known from himself that he is not pleased and is opposed to the administration.
Brian Newton, lieutenant of the soldiers is the next. This man is afraid of the Director and regards him as his benefactor; and besides is very simple and unexperienced in law. As he does not understand our Dutch language, he is scarcely capable of replying to the long written opinions, except that he can and will say yes .- Collections of New York Historical Society, Second Series, Vol. II, 305.
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mate," and for his elevation to the status of a prosperous trader he "owed gratitude to the Company, next to God"; Kip was a tailor who, having nothing had never lost anything. Most of the opinions were given in the heat of partisan strife, and thus are unreliable.
Taking the Council as a judicial unit, its functioning does not bring as honorable a record into New York law as that of the inferior courts. From the beginning to the end of Dutch rule in New Netherland, the Council was dominated by the Directors-General, who did not hesitate to interpret the law to meet their own desired ends. Hence, while those members of the Council who served long were probably capable men, one cannot evade the thought that they were probably not scrupulously honest. Dr. Johannis la Mon- tagne, "a learned Huguenot physician," was a member from 1638 to 1656, when he was appointed Vice-Director at Fort Orange. During the administration of William Kieft he was the only councillor, which status can hardly be placed to his credit, when one remembers that the notoriously unfair and narrow-minded governor, Kieft, held two votes to his one, and so "enacted laws, levied fines, or inflicted penalties ac- cording to his will." Dr. la Montagne, therefore, did not im- prove his record during the Kieft administration. But nine years of subservience to Stuyvesant brought him promotion to the Fort Orange command, where he could more freely exercise his own will.2a
2a. Johannes la Montagne, as Vice-Director at Fort Orange, was Presi- dent of the Court at Beverwyck, which to all intents superceded that of Rensselaerwyck in 1652, when Stuyvesant, by proclamation on April 10, 1652, erected the court of Fort Orange and the village of Beverwyck in the main settlement of the colony of Rensselaerswyck. In the two volumes of his translations of the minutes of the court of Fort Orange, 1652-1660, State Archivist Van Laer writes :
"The erection of the court was the final act in the high-handed pro- ceedings whereby Director Stuyvesant brought to a close the long standing controversy between the Dutch West India Company and the authorities of the colony of Rensselaerswyck regarding the jurisdiction of the territory around the fort.
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The governors seemed very reluctant to leave authority to the Council. When Conrad Notelman arrived in New Am- sterdam in 1631, to supercede Minuit's schout, Lampo, he also brought letters recalling Minuit. When the governor de- parted early in 1632, he resigned his authority to his Council, but placed his secretary, Van Remund, at its head, although the latter was not regularly a member of the Council.
Of the Council it may be said that it was a convenient place in which to deposit the chronic office-holder. Several who were appointed by the governor to the Council graduated to it from some other government office, or from it to some other official post. In the final analysis, they were "Company ser- vants"; and their decisions in this, the highest, court do not show independent opinion, save that of the Director-General.
Fortunately, for personal record, some of the magistrates of this court had more scope in other courts and public re- sponsibilities. Several found independence and credit in the
"The newly created court, which was termed a Kleine Banck van Justitie, an inferior bench of judicature, was a court for the trial of civil and minor criminal causes, from which an appeal lay to the Director-General and Council of New Netherland. The court was composed of the commies, or commissary of the fort, afterwards bearing the title of vice-director, and a variable number of commissarissen, or local magistrates, often designated in English documents of the period as 'commissaries.' Of these, the commies, who acted as prosecuting officer, and who represented the company, was ap- pointed for an indefinite term of years directly by the Director-General and Council of New Netherland, while the magistrates, at least in theory, rep- resented the people, and were appointed annually from a double number chosen by the inhabitants. When sitting as a criminal court, the officer (Vice-Director or Commies) presided and demanded justice of the magis- trates, who not only found whether the accused was guilty, but also deter- mined the penalty that should be imposed (upon) him.
"The jurisdiction of the court comprised Fort Orange, the village of Beverwyck, Schenectady, Kinderhook, Claverack, Coxsackie, Catskill, and, until May 16, 1661, when a court was established at the Esopus, also the region around Kingston. Excluded from the jurisdiction was the colony of Rensselaerswyck, which maintained its own court, side by side with that of Fort Orange and the village of Beverwyck until 1665, when, by order of Governor Richard Nicolls the two courts were consolidated. A record of the court of Rensselaerswyck for the period 1648-52, when it was presided over by Van Slichtenhorst, has been preserved, but no record exists of judicial proceedings after the last mentioned date. Considering that the
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citizens' bodies, the Board of Twelve, Eight and Nine Men, or in the inferior courts. Reference will be therefore found in succeeding chapters to the public service of Dr. Lubbertus van Dincklagen, Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist, Peter Tonneman, Jacobus van Curler, Nicasius de Sille, and others.
Andraes Hudde, of the Council of 1636, succeeded Jan Jansen as commissary at Fort Nassau in 1645 and had a some- what exciting year or so of negotiation with the encroaching Swedes. When he attempted to begin a new settlement near the site of the present city of Philadelphia, only a mile or so north of Fort Nassau, on the west shore of the river, he was ordered to desist by a deputy of the Swedish governor, who was surprised that Hudde had shown not "the least respect to Her (Swedish) Majesty's magnificence, reputation and highness," by such "gross violence" upon her domain.3 Hudde had to retreat from this position, but held tenaciously to trading operations along the river until the Dutch, in 1655, ousted the Swedes altogether and ended the history of New Sweden. In that responsibility, Andraes Hudde probably did better than as a member of the Council. He was Provincial
majority of the tenants of the patroon had become burghers of Beverwyck and had their cases tried before the local court, it is fair to assume that the court of the colony of Rensselaerswyck was rarely, if ever, called upon to exercise its judicial functions after 1652, and that therefore no record was kept."
Vice-Director La Montagne erected the second courthouse at Bever- wyck, beginning that work in 1657. He was the third to preside over the court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck. Johannes Dyckman, who was Commissary at Fort Orange from 1651 to June 1655, was President of the Court from its establishment to the latter date; Johan de Deckere was the next presiding commissary, his name first appearing on the minutes of the court on July 13, 1655, and disappearing on July 17, 1656. Johannes la Montagne "offered to go to Fort Orange on August 22, 1656, was appointed the same day and received his commission as Vice-Director on September 22nd of that year." His name was first signed to the minutes of the court of Fort Orange on October 13, 1656, the entries being in the handwriting of Johannes Provoost, who was clerk of the court during the administration of La Montagne .- See Van Laer's "Translations of the Minutes of the Court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck, 1652-56, 1657-60." Vol. I-8.
3. Hudde's Report, from Dutch Colonial Records, in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., Vol II, 431.
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Secretary in 163-, and Surveyor-General from 1642 to 1648, and again in 1654. Claes van Elslant was Surveyor-General from 1648 to 1654.
Adriaen Keyser was Provincial Secretary under Stuyve- sant, and followed the line of least resistance. Cornelis van Werckhoven was a patroon for a few years. "His Honor, the Councillor Johan de Deckere" was a conscientious magistrate ; he once refused to give his opinion of an instrument approved by Governor Stuyvesant, "because the said proposition were addressed only to the Honble Director-General of New Neth- erland, and not to the Noble Director-General and the Hon- orable Council, as it ought to have been." He probably was the "Jonas de Decker," who is listed in State Records as "Comptroller" of the Port of New York in 1657. For a year he was the commissary at Fort Orange-July, 1655, to July, 1656,-and during that year presided over the court of that place. Cornelis Steenwyck, whose name is last in the last Council (1673) of New Netherland, has a worthy record of public service. Like many other New Netherlanders, he was not unwilling to serve the province to the best of his ability, even after the government had passed to the English. He was several times mayor of New Amsterdam and New York, and once, in the absence of Governor Lovelace, was appointed acting governor. In the latter responsibility he thought it to be his duty to appeal to the citizens to aid in fortifying the town, even though the fortifications might be used only in re- pulsing attack by Dutch forces. Addressing the citizens in English, he said :
"As the Governor has been pleased to put the Honourable Mayor and Aldermen for to look to the best of the town and the inhabitants of t'same, what they sall thing fit for the best thereof, he being but ordered sall always be found a willing and faithful subject."
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