USA > New York > New York City > Historic tales of olden time; concerning the early settlement and advancement of New York city and state. For the use of families and schools > Part 12
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OF OLDEN TIME.
The North Dutch church in William street was entirely gutted of its pews, and made to hold 2000 pri- zoners.
The Quaker meeting in Pearl street was converted into an hospital.
The old French church was used as a prison.
Mr. Thomas Swords told me they used to bury the prisoners on the mount, then on the corner of Grace and Lumber streets. It was an old redoubt.
Cunningham was infamous for his cruelty to the prisoners, even depriving them of life, it is said, for the sake of cheating his king and country by continuing for a time to draw their nominal rations ! The prison- ers at the Provost, (the present debtors' prison in the Park) were chiefly under his severity, (my father among the 'number for a time.) It was said he was only re- strained from putting them to death, (five or six of them of a night, back of the prison-yard, where was also their graves) by the distress of certain women in the neighbourhood, who, pained by the cries for mercy which they heard, went to the commander-in-chief, and made the case known, with entreaties to spare their lives in future. This unfeeling wretch, it is said, came after- wards to an ignominious end, being executed in Eng- land, as was published in Hall and Sellers' paper in Philadelphia. It was there said, that it came out on the trial that he boasted of having killed more of the king's enemies by the use of his own means than had been effected by the king's arms !- he having, as it was there stated, used a preparation of arsenic in their flour !
Loring, another commissary of prisoners, was quite another man, and had a pretty good name. Mr. Len-
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nox, the other, being now a resident of New-York, I forbear any remarks.
There was much robbing in the city by the soldiery at times. In this, Lord Rawdon's corps and the king's guards were said to have been pre-eminent.
The British cast up a line of entrenchments quite across from Corlear's Hook to Bunker's Hill, on the Bowery road, and placed gates across the road there. The Hessians, under Knyphausen, were encamped on a mount not far from Corlear's Hook.
Mr. Andrew Mercein, who was present in New- York when most of the above-mentioned things occurred, has told me several facts. He was an apprentice with a baker who made bread for the army, and states, that there was a time when provisions, even to their own soldiery, was very limited. For instance, on the occa- sion of the Cork provision fleet over-staying their time, he has dealt out six penny loaves, as fast as he could hand them, for "a hard half dollar a-piece !" The baker then gave $20 a cwt. for his flour. They had to make oatmeal bread for the navy. Often he has seen 7s. a pound given for butter, when before the war it was but 2d.
When Cornwallis was in difficulties at York Town, and' it became necessary to send him out all possible help, they took the citizens by constraint and enroled them as a militia. In this service Mr. Mercein was also compelled, and had to take his turns at the fort. There they mounted guard, &c. in military attire, just lent to them for the time and required to be returned. The non-commissioned officers were generally chosen as 'T'ories, but often without that condition. Mr. Mer- cein's serjeant was whiggish enough to have surrender-
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ed if he had had the proper chance. There were some independent companies of Tories there.
It was really an affecting sight to see the operations of the final departure of all the king's embarkation ; the royal band beat a farewell march. Then to see so many of our countrymen, with their women and chil- dren, leaving the lands of their fathers because they took the king's side, going thence to the bleak and barren soil of Nova Scotia, was at least affecting to them. Their hearts said, "My country, with all thy faults I love thee still."
In contrast to this, there followed the entry of our tattered and weather-beaten troops, followed by all the citizens in regular platoons.
"Oh ! one day of such a welcome sight,
Were worth a whole eternity of lesser years."
Then crowded home to their own city, all those who had been abroad, reluctant exiles from British rule ; now fondly cherishing in their hearts, " this is my own, my native land."
The Hessian troops were peculiarly desirous to de- sert so as to remain in our country, and hid themselves in every family where they could possibly secure a friend to help their escape. "Iwas a lucky hit for those who succeeded, for they generally got ahead as tradesmen and farmers, and became rich. The loss to England in the "wear and tear" of those Hessians formed a heavy item. It is on record that the Land- grave of Hesse was paid for 15,700 men lost, at £30 a head, £471,000 (being more than two millions of dol- lars) ; paid to his agent, Mr. Van Otten, at the bank of England in 1786.
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It is estimated that 11,000 of our Americans were interred from the British prisons at the Wallabout, the place of the present Navy Yard. In cutting down the hill for the Navy Yard, they took up as many as thir- teen large boxes of human bones ; which, being borne on trucks under mourning palls, were carried in proces- sion to Jackson street on Brooklyn height, and interred in a charnel house constructed for the occasion beneath three great drooping willows. There rest the bones of my grandfather, borne from the Stromboll's hospital ship three days after his arrival.
" Those prison ships where pain and penance dwell, Where death in tenfold vengeance holds his reign, And injur'd ghosts, there unaveng'd, complain."
Two of the burnt hulks of those ships still remain sunken near the Navy Yard; one in the dock, and one, the Good Hope, near Pinder's Island-all " rotten and old, e'er filled with sighs and groans."
Our ideas of prisons and prisoners, having ourselves been never confined, are two vague and undefined in reading of any given mass of suffering men. To enter into conception and sympathy with the subject, we must individualize our ideas by singling out a single captive ; hear him talk over his former friends and happy home ; see him pennyless, naked, friendless, in pain and sick- ness, hopeless, sighing for home, yet wishing to end his griefs by one last deep sigh. With Sterne's pathos, see him notch his weary days and nights ; see the iron enter his soul ; see him dead ; then whelmed in pits, neglected and forgotten. Such was the tale, if indi- vidually told, of 11,000 of our suffering countrymen at at New-York.
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OF OLDEN TIME.
Our officers had far better fare ; they had money or credit ; could look about and provide for themselves : could contrive to make themselves half gay and spor- tive occasionally. Capt. Graydon of Philadelphia, who has left us amusing and instructive memoirs of sixty years of his observing life, having been among the officers and men (2,000) captured at fort Washington near New-York, and held prisoners, has left us many instructive pages concerning the incidents at New- York while held by the British, which ought to be read by all those who can feel any interest in such domestic history as I have herein endeavoured to pre- serve.
Having thus introduced Capt. Graydon to the reader, I shall conclude this article with sundry observations and remarks derived from him, to wit :-
After our capture (says he) we were committed, men and officers, to the custody of young and insolent offi- cers ; we were again and again taunted as " cursed re- bels," and that we should all be hanged. Repeatedly we were paraded, and every now and then one and an- other of us was challenged among our officers as de- serters ; affecting thereby to consider their common men as good enough for our ordinary subaltern officers. Un- fortunately for our pride and self-importance, among those so challenged was here and there a subject fitted to their jibes and jeers. A little squat militia officer, from York county, with dingy clothes the worse for wear, was questioned with " What, sir, is your rank ?" when he answered in a chuff and firm tone, " a keppun sir ;" an answer producing an immoderate laugh among " the haughty Britons." 'There was also an unlucky militia trooper of the same school, with whom the offi-
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„cers were equally merry, obliging him to amble about for their entertainment on his old jade, with his odd garb and accoutrements. On being asked what were his duties, he simply answered, "it was to flank a little and bear tidings." It must be admitted, however, that there were, at the same time, several gentlemen of the army into whose hands he afterwards fell, or with whom he had intercourse, who were altogether gentlemanly in their deportment and feelings.
At this beginning period of the war, most things on the American side were coarse and rough. Maryland and Philadelphia county put forward young gentlemen as officers of gallant bearing and demeanor ; but New England, and this, then seat of war, was very deficient in such material. In many casessubaltern officers at least could scarcely be distinguished from their men other than by their cockades. It was not uncommon for colonels to make drummers and fifers of their sons. Among such the eye looked around in vain for the leading gen- try of the country. Gen. Putnam could be seen riding about in his shirt sleeves, with his hanger over his open vest : and Col. Putnam, his nephew, did not disdain to carry his own piece of meat, saying, as his excuse, "it will show our officers a good lesson of humility." On the whole Capt. Graydon says, "I have in vain en- deavoured to account for the very few gentlemen, and men of the world, that at this time appeared in arms from this country, which might be considered as the cradle of the revolution. There was here and there a young man of decent breeding in the capacity of an Aide-de-Camp or Brigade Major ; but any thing above the condition of a clown in the regiments we came in contact with, was truly a rarity." Perhaps the reason
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was, that when the people had the choice of their offi- cers, they chose only their equals or comrades. A letter of Gen. Washington to Gen. Lee makes himself merry with such mean officers ; and Gen. Schuyler, who was of manly and lofty port, was actually rejected for that reason by the New England troops as their command- er. [Vide Marshall's Washington.] Even the De- claration of Independence, when read about this time at the head of the armies, did not receive the most hearty acclamations, though ostensibly cheered for the sake of a favourable report to the world. Some under voices were heard to mutter, "now we have done for ourselves." It was a fact, too, that at this crisis Whig- ism declined among the higher classes, and their place was seemingly filled up by numbers of inferior people, who were sufficiently glad to show uniforms and epau- lettes as gentlemen who had never been so regarded be- fore.
As the prisoners were marched into the city, they disparagingly contrasted with their British guard. Our men had begun to be ragged, or were in thread-bare flimsy garments; whereas every thing on the British soldier was whole and complete. On the road they were met by soldiers, trulls, and others, come out from the city to see " the great surrender of the rebel army." Every eye and every person was busy in seeking out " Mr. Washington." There he is, cried half a dozen voices at once. Others assailed them with sneers. When near the city, the officers were separated from the men, and conducted into a church, into which crowded a number of city spectators. There the offi- cers signed paroles, and were permitted afterwards to take their lodgings in the city. The men were confined
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in churches and sugar houses, where they suffered much.
The number of American officers who were thus brought into New-York was considerable, and many of them boarded together at Mrs. Carroll's, in Queen- street, a winning cheerful lady, who had enough of in- fluence and acquaintance with Col. Robertson, the com- mandant of the city, to get hold of a good deal of news calculated to interest and serve her lodgers. In the city at this time were such American officers as Colonels Magaw, Miles, Atlee, Allen, Rawlins, &c. ; Majors West, Williams, Burd, De Courcey, &c. ; and Captains Wilson, Tudor, Davenport, Forrest, Edwards, Lennox, Herbert, &c.
Such officers took full latitude of their parole, in tra- versing the streets in all directions with a good deal of purposed assurance. One of them, on one occasion, wearing his best uniform, to the great gaze and wonder- ment of many, actually ventured disdainfully to pass the Coffee House, then the general resort of the British officere. At other times, when the Kolch water was frozen over, and was covered with British officers, who thought themselves proficients in skating, it was the malicious pleasure of some of our officers to appear and eclipse them all. The officers occasionally met with cordial civilities and genteel entertainment from British officers with whom they came in contact ; for, in truth, the latter valued their personal gentility too much to seem to be in any degree deficient in politeness and courtesy when they inet with those whom they thought sufficiently polished to appreciate their demeanor. Yet it was obviously the system of the British army to treat them as persons with whom to maintain an in-
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tercourse would, on their part, be both criminal and de- grading.
Our officers, it seems, but rarely visited their country- mer .- prisoners, saying, as their reason, " to what purpose repeat our visits to these abodes of misery and dispair, when they had neither relief to administer or comfort to bestow. They rather chose to turn the eye from a scene they could not ameliorate." It was not without remark, too, that there was an impediment to their release by exchange maintained by the American rulers them- selves, who were either unable or unwilling to sustain a direct exchange, because they foresaw that the British soldiers, when released, would immediately form new combatants against them ; whereas our own men, espe- cially of the militia, were liable to fall back into non- combatants, and perhaps, withal, dispirit the chance of new levies. Perhaps the stoical virtues of the rigorous times made apathy in such a cause the less exception- able. On the other hand the British wished the pri- soners to apostatize ; and nothing was so likely to in- finence defection as the wish to escape from sickness and starvation.
RESIDENCES OF BRITISH OFFICERS.
" In all the pomp and circumstance of war."
As it aids our conceptions of the past to be able to identify the localities where men conspicuous in our
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annais of the revolution dwelt, I set down the mansions which some of them then occupied.
General Gates, before the revolution, dwelt in the large house, now Young's cabinet rooms, No. 69 Broad street. There Gates had that house splendidly illumi- nated in 1762, for the news of the Stamp Act repealed. probably as a measure to conciliate the people. In the same house once dwelt Gen. Alexander, afterwards our Lord Stirling.
Governor Tryon lived, after his residence in the fort was burnt, in the house now the Bank of New-York, at the corner of Wall and William streets.
Gen. Robinson, commandant of the city, lived at one time in William street, near to John street. At another time he lived in Hanover Square, now the premises of Peter Remsen & Co. No. 109. He was an aged man, of seventy-five years of age.
Col. Birch, was also commandant of the city a long while, and lived in Verplank's house, the same site on which the present Bank of the United States, in Wall street, stands.
The residence of Admiral Digby, and indeed of all · naval officers of distinction arriving on the station, was Beekman's house on the north-west corner of Sloate lane and Hanover Square. There dwelt, under the guardian- ship of Admiral Digby, Prince Wm. Henry. The same now king of England. What associations of idea must be produced in the minds of those who can still remem- ber when he walked the streets of New-York in the common garb of a midshipman's "roundabout," or when they saw him a knocked-kneed lad, joining the boys in skating on the Kolch pond. Could he again see New-York, he would not know the rival London.
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OF OLDEN TIME.
Gen. H. Clinton had his town residence at N. Prime's house, (first built for Capt. Kennedy), at No. 1 Broad- way, on the Battery. His country-house was then Doct. G. Beekman's, on the East River, near Bayard's Place.
Sir Guy Carlton also occupied the house of N. Prime; and for his country residence, the house at Richmond Hill, on Greenwich street, afterwards the residence of Col. A. Burr. Lord Dorchester also dwelt at the latter house. It has now been lowered 22 feet, to make it conform to the surrounding new streets and improvements.
Gen. Howe dwelt in N. Prime's house at the south end of Broadway, next to the Battery.
Gen. Knyphausen, commander of the Flessians, dwelt in the large house, even now grand in exterior ornaments, &c., in Wall street, where is now the Insu- rance Co., next door eastward from the New-York Bank.
Admiral Rodney, when in New-York, occupied for his short stay the house of double front of Robert Bowne, No. 256 Pearl street.
Governor Geo. Clinton had his dwelling in the pre- sent " Redmon's Hotel," No. 178 Pearl street. It was splendid in its day, of Dutch construction ; it had a front of five windows and six dormer windows; its gardens at first extended through to Water street, which was ' then into the river.
All along the front of Trinity church ground, called " the English church" formerly, was the place of the military parade, called by the British " the Mall." There the military band played, and on the opposite side assembled the spectators of both sexes.
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" I bestowed unusual pains to ascertain the residence ant conduct of the traitor Gen. Arnold. I found such variety and opposition of opinion, as to incline me to be- Leve there was some intentional obscurity in the resi- dence, as a better security to his person against capture. The weight of evidence, however, decides me to believe he dwelt at two places in New-York; and that his chief residence, as a separate establishment, was at the west side of Broadway, and at the third house from the river. There Mr. Rammay said he dwelt, and had one sentinel at his door ; whilst Sir H. Clinton, at Prime's house at the corner, had two. John Pintard Esq. told me of his being present at Hanover Square when his attention was called by whispers, "not loud but deep," of, "see the traitor-general !" He saw it was Arnold. coming under some charge from Sir Henry Clinton at the Battery, to Gen. Robertson, then understood by Pin- tard to be the commandant of the city. It was said, that after the usual salutations with Robertson, he re- quested his aid Capt. Murray, a dapper little officer, to show Gen. Arnold the civilities and rarities of the place. The spirited captain strutted off alone, saying, " Sir, his Majesty never honoured me with his commission to be- come gentleman-usher to a traitor !"
There seems almost too much point in the story to be strictly true, but it was the popular tale of the day among the Whigs incog. Mr. L. C. Hamersley told me he saw Arnold at Verplank's house in Wall street, where is now the United States Bank; and then he thought Arnold lived there with Col. Birch. Robert Lennox, Esq. thought he lived with Admiral Digby.
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OF OLDEN TIME.
As it may interest some of our readers to know something of the personal appearance of officers about whom they have so often heard and read in our history, we here add some brief notices described by an accurate observer, to wit :-
Sir Wm. Howe was a fine figure, full six feet high, and admirably well proportioned. In person he a good deal resembled Washington, and might have been mis- taken for him at a distance. His features, though good, were more pointed, and the expression of his counte- nance was less benignant. His manners were polish- ed, graceful, and dignified.
Sir Henry Clinton was short and fat, with a full face, prominent nose, and ananimated intelligent countenance. In his manners he was polite and courtly, but more for- mal and distant than Howe ; and in his intercourse with his officers, was rather punctilious and not inclined to intimacy.
Lord Cornwallis in person was short and thick set, but not so corpulent as Sir Henry. He had a hand- some aquiline nose, and hair, when young, light and rather inclined to sandy ; but at the time of his leaving here it had become somewhat gray. His face was well formed and agreeable, and would have been alto- gether fine had he not blinked badly with his left eye. He was uncommonly easy and affable in his manners, and always accessible to the lowest of his soldiers, by whom he was greatly beloved. With his officers he used the utmost cordiality.
Gen. Knyphausen, who commanded the Germans,
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· was a fine looking German, of about 5 feet eleven, straight and slender. His features were sharp, and his appearance martial.
Tarleton was below the middle size, stout, strong, heavily made, with large legs, but uncommonly active. His eye was small, black, and piercing ; his face smooth, and his complexion dark ; he was quite young, proba- bly about twenty-five.
Col. Abercrombie, who afterwards gained so much eciat in Egypt, where he fell, was one of the finest built men in the army ; straight and elegantly propor- tioned. His countenance was strong and manly, but his face was much pitted by the small pox. When here he appeared to be about forty.
ANCIENT EDIFICES.
The venerable pile, by innovation razed.
THE Walton House, No. 324 Pearl street, was deemed the nonpareil of the city in 1762, when seen by my mother, greatly illuminated in celebration of the Stamp Act repealed. It has even now anair of ancient state- ly grandeur. It has five windows in front, constructed of yellow Holland brick ; has a double pitched roof covered with tiles, and a double course of balustrades thereon. Formerly its garden extended down to the river. The family is probably descended of the Wal- ton, who, a century ago, gave the name of " Walton's Ship Yard" at the same place. Wm. Walton, who
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OF OLDEN TIME.
was one of the council, and the first owner of the above house, made his wealth by some preferences in the trade among the Spaniards of South America and Cuba.
There are at present but four or five houses remaining of the ancient Dutch construction, having "pediment walls" surmounting the roof in front, and giving their gable ends to the street ; a name once almost uni- versal.
In 1827 they took down one of those houses in fine preservation and dignity of appearance, at the corner of Pearl street and the Old Slip, marked 169S. About the same time they also took down another on the north- east side of Coenties Slip, marked 1701. The opposite corner had another, marked 1689.
In Broad street is one of those houses marked 1698, "occupied by Ferris & Co., No. 41. Another, appearing equally old, but of lower height, stands at the north- east corner of Broad and Beaver streets. These, with , the one now standing, of three stories, No. 76 Pearl street, near Coenties Slip, are I think the only ones now remaining in New-York. "The last" of the Knicker- bockers. The passion for modish change and novelty is levelling all the remains of antiquity.
. The ancient " Stadt Huys," formed of stone, stood originally at the head of Coenties Slip, facing on Pearl street towards the East River, is now occupied by the houses No. 71 and 73. It was built very early in the Dutch dynasty, 1642, and became so weakened and impaired in half a century afterwards, as to be recom- mended by the court sitting there to be sold and another to be constructed. The minutes of common council, which I have seen in Gen. Morton's office, are to this effect :- In 1696 it is ordered that inquiries be made 17*
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how the " City Hall," and the land under the trees by Mr. Burgher's path, would sell." In 1698 they agree to build the " new City Hall" by the head of Broad street, for £3,000 ; the same afterwards the Congress Hall, on corner of Wall street.
In 1699 they sell the old City Hall to John Rodman, for £920, reserving only "the bell, the king's arms, and iron works, (fetters, &c.) belonging to the prison," and granting leave also to allow the cage, pillory, and stocks before the same, to be removed within one year ; and the prisoners in said jail within the said City Hall, to re- main one month." In front of all these on the river side, was placed the Rondeal or Half Moon fort, where it probably assisted the party sheltered in the City Hall while the civil war prevailed.
All these citations sufficiently show that here was really a City Hall as a court of justice, with the prison combined. All the tradition of the old men has been, that " there was once the old jail." We know from Dutch records that there was an earlier prison than this once within the fort, say in 1640. We know also, that this Stadt Huys was originally constructed by or- ders of Gov. Keift, for a Stadt Herberg or City Tavern. Soon after it was made to serve both for the company's tavern and City Hall at the saine time. Here the par- tizans in the civil war held their fortress, and at them balls were fired from the fort; one of which, driving into a neighbouring wall, I have lately seen. In time the numerous persons crowding the courts held in it weakened the building, and made it needful to take it down in 1700. It would seem, that as " it was old and run to decay," a second building had supplied its place
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