USA > New York > Courts and lawyers of New York; a history, 1609-1925, Volume I > Part 24
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20. In the autumn of 1653 the outlying settlements sent delegates to a conference which considered what measures should be taken to guard their homes against Indian attack. There were other reasons, the whole bound in the chafing of the commonalty under the despotic rule of the Director- General. The first representative assembly held in New York developed
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of Vice-Director, but eventually returned, with those who remained of the colonists to New Amsterdam, this ending Dutch occupation of the Delaware region. Under English rule he was sent to the Esopus country as schout, or sheriff, returning to New Orange in 1673. In the next year, after the Dutch had returned and retaken New Amsterdam, he became burgomaster. Nevertheless, he was esteemed by the British, and was not barred from office thereafter. He was mayor of New York under the British, and alderman in 1686. He died in 1707, aged eighty-four years. Ten years after his death his valuable New York City land21 was divided into city lots and so sold. William Beeckman was "one of the most faithful magistrates of the city." He also was a large land owner outside New York, having acquired the Corlaer's Hook estate of Jacob van Corlaer.
Jacobus van Curler (Corlaer) was of a family that was prominent in the affairs of New Netherland. He was a com-
out of that first meeting, at which they resolved to meet in December, whether the Governor sanction the gathering or did not; and that if Stuyve- sant would not remedy their condition, they would carry their grievance direct to the States General. Stuyvesant forbade them to meet, after read- ing an offensive, "treasonable" petition that set forth six grievances, re- sulting from his maladministration, that called for "categorical answer" from him.
William Beeckman was deputed to deliver this Remonstrance into the hands of Stuyvesant. He sat calmly in the presence of the Governor as he raved. Lossing writes :
"The Convention was not to be silenced by bluster or threats. They told the governor by the mouth of Beeckman . . . that if he refused to consider the several points of the remonstrance, they would appeal to the States General. At this threat the governor took fire, and, seizing his cane, ordered Beeckman to leave his presence. The plucky ambassador folded his arms and silently defied the magistrate. When Stuyvesant's wrath had subsided, he politely begged the representative to excuse his sudden ebulli- tion of passion and receive assurances of his personal regard."-Lossing's "History of the United States," Book III, Chap. 15.
21. He received a patent of land beyond the fresh water, or Collect, pond, June 20, 1655, and built a fine residence where Beekman and Cliff streets intersect, and where St. George's Chapel was afterward erected.
. His property was first divided into city lots, and so sold in 1717, . shortly after his death, which occurred in 1707 .- "Nat. Encyc. Am. Biog.," Vol. XII, 58.
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missary under Van Twiller, one of the latter's most capable officials. In 1633 he was sent by Van Twiller up the Fresh- Water River to more obviously establish the claim of the Dutch to Connecticut, into which the English were planning to encroach. With this object Van Curler bought the title from the Indians, and completed a redoubt on Dutch Point, named it Fort Good Hope, and armed it with cannon. Van Curler, in 1633, threatened to train one of those guns upon a suspicious little bark then sailing up the river if its captain did not "Heave to!" But the ship passed the fort, and the English landed from it above the fort and soon raised the first house (at Windsor) built by the English in the Connec- ticut Valley. The leader of the English party would not heed Van Twiller's demand, through Van Curler, that he "depart forthwith with all his people and houses." He answered: "I am here in the name of the King of England, whose servant I am, and here I will remain." The matter was referred to Amsterdam, but, in the meantime, Van Curler became in- volved in another more exciting experience. Some English traders who had come to the Dutch post to trade had been ambushed and massacred by Indians. Whereupon Van Curler seized the sachem and some other Indians and promptly hanged them. The Pequots flew to arms, and set up an oppo- sition which was not ended until 1644, when Underhill gave the Indians such a terrible lesson near Stamford. But this action by Jacobus van Curler, in 1633, probably had impor- tant part in the ultimate loss of Connecticut by the Dutch, for they soon had to abandon Fort Good Hope. Jacobus van Curler was a member of Van Twiller's Council in 1636. The name Corlaer comes up as a place name several times in New York records. Corlaer's Hook, for instance, is associated with Jacobus van Curler (Corlaer), who interested himself, in later life, in the settlement of New Utrecht; he was a member of the first Schepens Court of that municipality in 1659. Ulti- mately, his Corlaer's Hook estate passed, by purchase, to William Beeckman.
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There were several members of the Van Curler family in New Netherland during the administration of Van Twiller. Arendt van Curler was at Rensselaerswyck, as assistant com- missary and later as commissary, for about a dozen years, from 1634. And in that capacity he was the most important official of the upper Hudson region. He was a cousin of Patroon Van Rensselaer, whose interests at that time seemed to be more powerful than those of even the West India Com- pany. The governor, Van Twiller, was even subservient to Van Rensselaer. At least, he was a nephew of the patroon, and owed his appointment as governor to him. And even Van Twiller, as governor, seemed to have little control over the Van Curlers. One Corlaer, who was trumpeter at Fort Manhattan, was of such independent mind that on one occa- sion, at the regular hour for trumpeting, he blew a blast of customary volume from the proper corner of the ramparts, even though at that moment some of the guests of the gov- ernor were banqueting in that corner, and angrily protested against such braying so close to their ears. So angry were they that they reached for their swords. But the trumpeter also was angry ; very angry, indeed, and he used his fists with such vigor and effect that he was able to retire "in good order." No subsequent punishment came to him for this in- dignity upon the guests of the bibulous governor.
Arendt van Curler has a good record as an Indian medi- ator. The colony of Rensselaerswyck served at least one good purpose to the province; it was at least a strong bulwark against hostile Indians and French pretensions; and Arendt van Curler had a share in maintaining it as such. He had much influence over the Mohawk Indians. It is said that once in 1642 he "rode into the Mohawk country to rescue three French prisoners from their captors. This was the first of many successful efforts by which Europeans were saved from death by torture. He learned the Mohawk tongue, sat at their council fires, smoked the calumet with them; and later, for the English governors, carried out the same policy
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of amity." In 1661 he bought the "Great Flat" of the Mo- hawk River from the Indians, led a land of settlers from Albany, and founded Schenectady in 1662, "the first agricul- tural settlement in the province in which farmers could hold land in fee simple, free from feudal annoyances, such as pay- ing rent to a patroon." "So great was his reputation among the (Mohawk) Indians that for many years, even after his death, they always addressed the Dutch and English gov- ernors as Corlaer. By the French the town he founded was also called Corlaer. In 1667, being invited to visit the French governor of Canada, he, while on his way to Quebec, was drowned off Split Rock, in Lake Champlain."22 Peru Bay, in Essex County, New York, was known as the "Baye Corlaer" to the French; and the English at one time knew Lake Cham- plain as Corlaer's Lake. Arendt van Curler was probably a magistrate of the Patroon's Court at Rensselaerswyck for some years, and until the coming of Van der Donck, in 1641, as schout-fiscal, or officer of justice of the Rensselaers- wyck court, Van Curler was the chief of three gecommitteerden, or commissioners, who administered justice in that colony. He was a good executive, and quite possibly his management of the business affairs of the patroonship had as much to do with the outstanding success of Van Rensselaer's manor as had the wealth and political influence of the first patroon. After the death of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, Arendt van Curler became one of the guardians of the young patroon, Johan. By his diplomatic and considerate treatment of the Indians Van Curler kept Rensselaerswyck prosperous, and in a com- parative state of peace while other parts of New Netherland were being swept by marauding bands of Indians. During Kieft's administration there was serious trouble with the Indians, but it would have been far more serious had the powerful Iroquois nations not been held passive and well dis- posed by Van Curler and others. In 1660, Van Curler signed
22. "Chambers Encyclopaedia."
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the treaty concluded with the Esopus Indians ; he signed as "deputy of the Colony of Rensselaerswyck."
Allard Anthony, another of the Nine Men of 1652, was destined to come notably into the administration of New Amsterdam, as a municipality. In 1654 Arent van Hattem, one of the first burgomasters of New Amsterdam, returned to Holland, and Allard Anthony was appointed to his office. He was continued as burgomaster in 1655, 1656, 1657, and was again elected in 1660 and 1661. His salary as burgomaster was three hundred and fifty guilders, or about $140; and he probably acted as city treasurer for some time, for that was the office to which burgomasters, upon retirement, were ap- pointed, in rotation. As burgomaster he was, of course, one of the chief magistrates of the municipal court; and was also ex officio orphan master in 1654, with duties like those of a surrogate in the Orphans' Court. Under the English he was sheriff of New York, 1665-67, and 1671-73; and in this con- nection gained the nickname of "The Hangman." For many years he was a merchant in New Amsterdam, his store being at the corner of Whitehall and Marketfield streets. He ac- quired much wealth, and had much influence in the city, although many were more popular than he. "His fellow cit- izens did not regard him as a man of the highest morality"; as a magistrate his record is not enviable; but he was evi- dently a capable business man. One writer describes him as "rich, influential, conceited and unpopular." He had a farm- ing estate outside city limits, in addition to his city property. He died in 1685, "in middle age."
Most of the last Board of Nine Men, that of 1652, were later connected with the municipal administrations in New Amsterdam. In addition to Beeckman and Anthony, Isaac de Foresst, Arendt van Hattem, Paulus L. van der Grist were prominent in the City Schepens Court. Isaac de Foresst became a large land owner and was a schepen in 1658.
Arendt van Hattem was one of the two burgomasters for the first year (1653) of New Amsterdam under burgher gov-
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ernment. He had been long in the province, and gave most of his time to fur trading. Most of the magisterial duties during 1653 and 1654 must have devolved upon the other burgomaster, Martin Cregier, for Van Hattem was often "up- country" on fur-trading expeditions, and in 1653 was in Vir- ginia with Provincial Secretary van Tienhoven, the both act- ing as commissioners of New Netherland. In 1654 he went to Holland, and Allard Anthony took his place as burgo- master.
Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist was one of the adven- turous sea captains of the West India Company's service. He may have been in New Netherland earlier than the time of Director-General Kieft, for he is recorded as the owner of "considerable property" in New Amsterdam in 1644. In 1646 he was in command of the West India Company's ship the "Great Gerrit," one of the four vessels assigned to constitute the fleet of Stuyvesant when the latter was appointed Direc- tor-General of New Netherland. Under Stuyvesant's admin- istration Captain van der Grist was equipage master or naval agent. He was probably the Captain van der Grist who, at Stuyvesant's command in 1647, "cut out" the "St. Beninio" at New Haven,23 which high-handed act caused Governor Eaton, of New Haven, to write Stuyvesant as follows :
We have protested, and by these presents do protest against you, Peter Stuyvesant, Governor of the Dutch at Manhattans,
23. In the first year of Stuyvesant's administration he made it com- pulsory that all traders in New Netherland ports or territory be licensed. Hearing that a Dutch ship was at New Haven, taking in a cargo without a permit from New Amsterdam, and in this way evading the legal duties. he at once declared that the trader was a smuggler, Stuyvesant considering that New Haven was Dutch territory. He decided to seize the ship. Fortune seemed to point his way, for shortly before his case of smuggling arose the West India Company had sold one of their old vessels, the "Zwol," to a trader at New Haven. The "Zwol" was at that moment in New Amsterdam, ready for delivery to the new owner. So into its holds were stowed a company of soldiers, under the command of Captain van der Grist. The "Zwol" reached New Haven on the "Lord's day," and veered alongside the "St. Beninio." The surprise was complete, and the "St. Beninio" sailed out of New Haven in command of the former crew of the "Zwol" before the astonished Englishmen of New Haven could come
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for disturbing the peace between the English and Dutch in these parts .... by making unjust claims to our lands and plantations, to our havens and rivers, and by taking a ship out of our harbor, without our license, by your agents and com- mission; and we hereby profess that whatever inconveniences may hereafter grow, you are the cause and author of it, as we hope to show and prove before our superiors in Europe.
Notwithstanding which, Stuyvesant promptly confiscated ship and cargo, as detected in smuggling and legally seized within New Netherland boundaries. Captain van der Grist, assuming that he and Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist were one and the same, which seems highly probable, took up per- manent residence in New Amsterdam in 1648. He had a farm "in the suburbs," and a city home "between Broadway and the North River." He owned a sloop, which he used in his trading in New York waters ; and he conducted a general store business in the city. He was a member of the first Schepens Court (1653) of New Amsterdam, was burgomaster in 1657 and 1658, being elected to the same office again in 1661 and 1662. In 1663 he became burgomaster in place of Martin Cregier, when the latter entered military service for the Esopus campaign, Van der Grist being continued as chief magistrate in 1664, the last year of consecutive Dutch rule. Van der Grist had part in the several councils held with Esopus sachems in 1663 and 1664, witnessing the treaty of May 16, 1664, as "P. L. van der Grist." He took no part in colonial affairs after New Netherland passed to the English ; indeed, he returned finally (in 1669) to Holland. He was one of the orphan masters of New Amsterdam in 1656, 1659, 1660. Earlier he had been a member of Stuyvesant's Council, having had a seat in this court in 1647, 1648, 1649.
to the rescue of the owner and captain of the "St. Beninio." Upon arrival at New Amsterdam, the ship and cargo were confiscated, Stuyve- sant claiming that it was legally seized within New Netherland territory, which he asserted embraced the whole country from Cape Cod to Cape Henlopen. Later he reduced the northern boundary to Point Judith .- See Bryant's "History of U. S."; Smith's "History of New York"; Brod- head's "History of N. Y."; O'Callaghan's "History of New Netherland."
CHAPTER XVI. DUTCH MAGISTRATES AND LAWYERS. Municipal Courts .*
A chapter has already been devoted to burgher govern- ment. In it the movement which resulted in the erection of a court of burgomasters and schepens in New Amsterdam, followed by the expansion of the system in other municipal- ities of New Netherland was traced; but little was therein written of the personalities of the local magistrates and law- yers who made the municipal courts the most creditable of those of the Dutch period in New York State.
As stated in Chapter XI, the government of New Amster- dam by a court of two burgomasters and five schepens, under guidance of the schout-fiscal of the province, came into effect following proclamation of Director-General Stuyvesant on February 2, the day of the Feast of Candlemas, 1653. With this court began "the real existence of law courts based on the popular will." "They were the first judges in the colony in any way independent of the proprietary company." The system was not in the first years quite as independent as later development made it, for the burgomasters and schepens until 1658 were appointed by the Director and Council, and until 1660 the schout-fiscal was also the city schout, thus carrying into the local court, in his opinions, the views of the
*AUTHORITIES-"Messages and Papers of the Presidents (U. S.)"; Chester's "Legal and Judicial History of New York"; Bryant's "History of the United States"; Innes' "New Amsterdam and Its People"; Werner, in "New York Civil List," and "Constitutional History of the Colony and State of New York"; "National Cyclopedia of American Biography" (White) ; Daly's "State of Jurisprudence During the Dutch Period," "His- tory of Bench and Bar of New York"; O'Callaghan's "History of New Netherland"; Scott's "The Courts of the State of New York"; Van Laer's "Translations of the Minutes of the Court of Fort Orange, 1652-60"; also of the "Minutes of the Court of Rensselaerswyck, 1648-52."
C.&L .- 17
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Director-General and Council. However, the schout-fiscal had no power in the local court other than that which his legal opinions could influence, for he had no seat on the bench; but when Pieter Tonneman became city schout in 1660 the municipal court reached its fullness of regular opera- tion. It then became known as the Court of the Schout, Bur- gomasters and Schepens, with the schout as the presiding officer ; formerly it had been the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens.
The schout and burgomasters were, in effect, the chief Magistrates, of the city. With five schepens as associate mag- istrates, they constituted a court with civil and criminal juris- diction in New Amsterdam, appeal from their decisions being to the Director and Council, who constituted the highest court. The Court of Schout, Burgomasters and Schepens succeeded the Board of Nine Men, for that popular body did not function after 1652.
The burgomasters were, in effect, the mayors of the city, and had many responsibilities.1 The schepens constituted, . in effect, the City Council with the burgomasters as ex officio members. , As a whole, they were representative of the municipality, men of broad mind, who came more into con- tact with the problems of every-day life than with the theories of political government and jurisprudence. Most of them were men who had succeeded in commercial life.2
I. They were ex officio, chief rulers of the city; principal church war- dens; guardians of the poor, of widows and of orphans; without their consent no woman or minor could execute any legal instrument. They assisted in the enactment of city laws, held any city property in trust, farmed the excise, and were keepers of the city seal. Each Burgomaster attended daily, in rotation, during three months in the year, at the City Hall for the despatch of public business ; and at the end of the quarter called a meeting of the acting and ancient Burgomasters, to whom he reported the state of the city. Each Burgomaster was allowed a salary of 350 guilders, equal to $140. One Burgomaster retired annually from office, and then became City Treasurer for the next year .- Werner, in "New York Civil List," 1888 edition, p. 62.
2. "Here, then, in the Stadt Huys of New Amsterdam, the worthy mer-
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The burgomasters of New Amsterdam, from 1653 to 1674, were as follows :
1653, Arent van Hattem and Martin Cregier; 1654, Arent van Hattem, until November, when he returned to Holland ; Martin Cregier, Allard Anthony, vice Van Hattem; 1655, Allard Anthony and Oloff Stevensen van Cortland; 1656, Al- lard Anthony and Oloff Stevensen van Cortland ; 1657, Allard Anthony and Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist; 1658, Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist and Oloff Stevensen van Cortland ; 1659, Oloff Stevensen van Cortland and Martin Cregier ; 1660, Martin Cregier; 1660, Allard Anthony and Oloff Stevensen van Cortland, in absence of regular burgomaster, Martin Cre- gier; 1661, Allard Anthony and Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist ; 1662, Oloff Stevensen van Cortland and Cornelis Steen- wyck; 1663, Oloff Stevensen van Cortland and Martin Cregier, Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist taking the place of the latter when called into military service; 1664, P. L. van der Grist and Cornelis Steenwyck.
During the first period of English occupation, 1664-73, the mayors were :
Captain Thomas Willett, 1665; Thomas de Lavall, 1666; Thomas Willett, 1667; Cornelis Steenwcyk, 1668; Thomas de Lavall, 1671 ; Mathias Nicolls, 1672; John Lawrence, 1673.
chants and brewers, Indian traders and ship captains, who usually com- posed the body of burgomasters and schepens of the little municipality, met and passed their ordinances for the government of the town, or sat as a court of justice to consider the numerous and sometimes queer con- troversies which were brought before them. Naturally, they were not men who were overstocked with legal lore. Ponderous folios and quartos, in hog-skin, of the civil and imperial laws, of the ordinances of the States General, and of the States of Holland, and the well-thumbed 'Rosebooms rescued' of the Statutes and Customs of Amsterdam, lay before the magis- trates, inviting them to lose themselves in the mazes of those abstruse treaties ; they preferred, however, as a rule, to render their decisions by the aid of what is known as 'horse sense.' They were fond of settling cases informally, by inducing parties to accept advice before going to trial; fail- ing this they were apt to send their cases for arbitration to one or two good men; whom they could select out of the community, with instructions to reconcile the contending parties, if possible; in one case, in the year 1662, when a question of the sewing of linen caps was involved, the court went so far as to appoint certain 'good women' as arbitrators."-J. H. Innes, in "New Amsterdam and Its People," page 188.
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During the second Dutch period the burgomasters were :
Johannes van Brugh, Johannis de Peyster, and Egidius Luyck, in 1673; William Beeckman and Johannis van Brugh, in 1674.
The schepens of New Amsterdam, during the Dutch ad- ministrations, were, as given in Chester's "Legal and Judicial History of New York," pp. 124-125.
Paulus Lindersteen van der Grift, Maximilianus van Gheel, Allard Anthony, William Beeckman, Pieter Wolfertsen Cou- wenhoven, Joachim Pieter Kuyter, Oloff Stevensen van Cort- landt, Johannes Nevius, Johannes de Peyster, Johannes van Brugh, Jacob Stryker, Hendrick Hendricksen Kip, Govert Loockermanns, Adrien Blommaert, Hendrick Jansen van der Lin, Cornelis Steenwyck, Isaac de Foreest, Johannes Pietersen van Brugh, Jeronimus Ebbingh, Jacob Kip, Timotheus Gabry, Jacobus Bancker, Isaac Gravenraet, Jacques Cousseau, Nico- laeus Meyer, Christoffel Hoogland, Lourens van der Spiegel, Gelyn Verplanck, Francis Rombout and Stephen van Cort- landt.
Several members of the New Amsterdam Schepens Court were of the inferior court it succeeded, the Board of Nine Men; therefore, in Chapter XV biographical reference has been made to Arendt van Hattem, Allard Anthony, Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt, Paulus Leendertsen van der Grist, William Beeckman, Pieter Wolphertsen van Couwenhoven, Joachim Pieter Kuyter, Hendrick Hendricksen Kip, Govert Loockermans, and Isaac de Foresst. Cornelis Steenwyck first comes into the record as a member of the Director's Council; biographical reference to him will be found in Chap- ter XIV. The only burgomaster of those who held office during Stuyvesant's time, whose public life has not yet been reviewed, is Martin Cregier.
Martin Cregier (Marten Kregier), who was one of the two burgomasters chosen to bring the system into operation in New Amsterdam, in 1653, had been long in New Nether- land. He was in the service of the West India Company
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when he first came to the province, which was in the early days. After some time he became an independent trader, and owned and sailed a sloop, trading mostly between Albany and New Amsterdam. In 1643 he received a grant of land, and from that year lived in New Amsterdam. He was an innkeeper owning a tavern opposite Bowling Green. During the period of Indian unrest, he took active military part.
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