History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 9

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 868

USA > New York > Dutchess County > History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 9

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Thus the colonization of New York may be said to have fairly begun at three detached points along the Hudson in 1614; though, up to this time, and for some years later, the energies of the Dutch were directed more to commerce than colonization. This was six years before the establishment of the Plymouth Colony ; sixteen years before Governor Winthrop founded Boston ; twenty-one years before the settlement of the Connecticut Valley was begun by William Pynchon and his followers at Spring- field, and Thomas Hooker and his band at Hart- ford; sixty-eight years before Penn concluded that famous treaty with the Lenni-Lenape tribes, which remained inviolate during his life-time ; and sixty- nine years before the founding of Philadelphia by the same admirable man.

The Dutch establishment at New Amsterdam increased, and the fur trade became so profitable that at the expiration of their charter, the States General refused to renew it, giving instead a tem- porary license for its continuance. It had become sufficiently attractive to tempt the avarice of English capitalists. In 1620, James I. granted all the ter- ritory between the 40th and 48th degrees north latitude, extending from ocean to ocean, to Ferdi- nando Georges and his commercial associates, and in their interest Capt. Dermer appeared at Man- hattan and laid claim to all the territory occupied by the Dutch. This claini was strengthened by

instructions to the English ambassador at the Dutch capital to remonstrate against Dutch intrusion. Notwithstanding this remonstrance, however, June 3, 1621, the States General chartered the Dutch West India Company, an armed mercantile associa- tion "designed to co-operate in extending national commerce, in promoting colonization, in crushing piracy, but, above all, in humbling the pride and might of Spain," and gave them exclusive jurisdic- tion for a period of twenty years over the province of New Netherland, with power to appoint govern- ors, subject to the approval of the State, to colonize the territory, and administer justice.

By virtue of this charter the company took pos- session of New Amsterdam in 1622-'3. The exec- utive management was entrusted to a board of directors, distributed through five separate cham- bers in Holland. The charge of the province devolved on the Amsterdam chamber, which, in 1623, sent out a vessel under the direction of Capt. Cornelissen Jacobson and Adriaen Jorissen Tien- pont, with thirty families, most of whom were in the company's service, for colonization. A portion of these settled on the Connecticut ; others on the Hudson, at Albany, where, in 1624, they built Fort Orange ; and the remainder on the Delaware, near Gloucester, where, the same year, (1624,) Fort Nassau was built. This was the first settlement on the Delaware. In May, 1626, Peter Minuit arrived in New Netherland as Director General or Gover- nor of the Province.

No systematic attempt was made to promote colonization until 1628. March 28th of that year, the "Assembly of XIX." referred to a committee for examination, the draft of a "charter of privi- leges and exemptions," which, after revision and amendment, was agreed to June 7, 1629. This secured certain privileges to patroons, masters and individuals who planted colonies in New Nether- land under its provisions, and "transplanted to the free soil of America the feudal tenure and feudal burdens of continental Europe."* "While it secured the right of the Indian to the soil," says Moulton, "and enjoined schools and churches, it scattered the seeds of servitude, slavery and aristocracy. While it gave to freemen as much land as they could cultivate, and exempted colonists from taxa- tion for ten years, it fettered agriculture by restrict- ing commerce and prohibiting manufacture."

But the very provisions of this charter defeated the object of its projectors. The patroons who acquired titles to lands under it, were not less eager

* History of New Netherland I., 120.

PERNICIOUS FEATURES OF DUTCH COLONIZATION.

than the Dutch West India Company to drive a profitable trade with the natives. They were, in- deed, directors of that company, which, though it introduced a few settlers, offered few inducements to tliem to remain. Up to 1633, the company, though its establishment gave it more of the charac- ter of an independent sovereignty than a chartered mercantile society, had scarcely secured a solitary agricultural settler to fell the forest or reclaim the wilderness. Had they been disposed even to make colonization their chief object, the jealousy en- gendered between the company and the patroons would have neutralized their efforts in that direc- tion; for each accused the other of having en- croached upon its special privileges, and the con- sequence was fatal to the prosperity of the country. The spirit of monopoly which breathed throughout that charter, discouraged private enterprise and industry, so that individuals who were inclined to em grate abandoned their design "and durst venture nothing." In these elements lay the weak- ness of the Dutch colony; and in them it is prob- able, we may trace its ready submission to the supplanter in 1664. While the English colonists sought this country for the purpose of establishing homes, the Dutch were only desirous of availing themselves of the profitable trade with the natives, and while the former were becoming thrifty and populous through agricultural enterprises, the latter, after fifteen years' operations by the company, were decreasing in number, and the wide extent of territory claimed by the Dutch government, was "removed scarcely a degree from its primitive state of wilderness, uninhabited, except by a few traders and clerks in the employ of a distant corporation, its rich and luxuriant soil almost wholly uncultivat- ed and unreclaimed, for the number of farms as yet amounted to not much more than half a dozen around Fort Amsterdam, and the same number around Fort Orange. It afforded evidence every- where of mismanagement."*

The States General saw the error and, though late, endeavored to apply the remedy. It was at this critical juncture that William Kieft assumed the duties of Director General of the Province, arriving at Manhattan, March 28, 1638. The monopoly of the West India Company was abolish- ed in 1638, and the privilege of trade, as well as the cultivation of the soil, was extended to all un- der certain regulations and restrictions. Emigra- tion was encouraged by liberal assistance rendered those who chose to avail themselves of its benefits.

These measures stimulated individual enterprise, and increased the population. They attracted "whole towns" from New England, who sought to " escape from the unsupportable government" of that province, and the religious persecutions which the intollerant majority inflicted on the minority.

But these advantages were not without their at- tendant evils. They offered temptations to the avaricious and unscrupulous fur traders, who insin- uated themselves among the Indians in their re- mote villages, to facilitate the pursuit of their vocation ; and provoked collisions between the natives and the scattered Dutch planters, whose unguarded cattle destroyed their unprotected corn- fields. These encroachments, added to the harsh and inconsiderate measures of Director Kieft, who also, under instructions from certain of the Dutch authorities, attempted to make the natives pay tribute in corn, furs or wampum, for the pretend- ed protection afforded them by the construction of forts and maintainance of an armed force, soon provoked the just resentment of the Indians, with whom they had hitherto lived on amicable terms, and involved the colonists in a war with the latter which continued, with some interruptions, during the remainder of the Dutch occupancy, and jeopardized the very existence of the colony.

These hostilities, which ravaged with merciless hand the settlements about New Amsterdam and in Ulster county, have only an indirect reference to this county, which had not a single white settler during the whole period of Dutch occupancy. They involved, however, to some extent the native tribes. In August, 1643, the Wappingers, with whom the Dutch had had no dispute, were the first to break the peace concluded April 22 of that year, a peace suggested by the necessities of the Indians, and gladly assented to by Director Kieft, who was smarting under the humiliating reproaches of his countrymen, whom his indiscretion and cruelty had outraged. They attacked an open boat, laden with four hundred beaver skins, en route from Fort Orange to the Manhattans, and murdered one of the crew. The booty thus acquired tempt- ed others to make similar attacks on two other boats, which were also overpowered ; but in the attempt to surprise a fourth the savages were re- pulsed with a loss of six men. Nine white people lost their lives in these encounters, and a woman and two children were made captives. Numbers of others were murdered about this time by Indians, who came under the guise of friendship ostensibly to warn the settlers of approaching danger.

*History of New Netherland 1, 157, 177, 178.

HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

Neither the Mahicans nor Wappingers took any general part in the Esopus wars though nine of the latter aided the Esopus Indians in the second Esopus war. Both tribes were, however, repre- sented by their chiefs in the intercessions with the Dutch, in behalf of the Esopus Indians, and participated in the negotiations by which those wars were terminated. It was also a Wappinger Indian who guided Capt. Krygier's forces in the expedition which "virtually annihilated" the Esopus Indians in 1663, and it was through the friendly offi- ces of a Wappinger chief that some of the captives taken by the Indians in the attack on Wiltwyck, June 7, 1663, were restored. At a treaty of peace concluded with certain tribes of the River Indians March 6, 1660, by Peter Stuyvesant, the last of the Dutch governors of New Amsterdam, who suc- ceeded Director Kieft in that office, March 11, 1647, Goethals, a Wappinger chief, " requested that the Esopus savages should be included in the treaty." But a treaty of peace with the latter was not concluded till July 15, 1660. Eskryas alias Apie and Ampumst represented the Mahicans, and Isseschahya and Wisachganio, the Wappingers.

June 7, 1663, the Esopus Indians, who, by an unusual manifestation of friendship, had gained the confidence of the inhabitants of the village of Wiltwyck, (now Kingston,) made a sudden attack on that village while the male portion of its inhab- itants were at work in the fields. Twelve houses were burned, and, with the exception of a new uncovered barn, not a building was left standing in the "new village." The loss in both villages (Kingston and Hurley) was twenty-four killed, eight severely wounded, and seventy missing, forty- five of the latter of whom, principally women and children, were taken into captivity, though most of them were recaptured or ransomed.

A month after the occurrence of this tragedy, (July 7, 1663,) two Wappinger Indians arrived at the beleaguered fort at Wiltwyck with a deer and some fish. Being distrusted, they were detained. The next day five others came to inquire after their brethren. Being assured that no harm should befall them if they were friendly, they retired. The elder of the two told the commandant the same day that a party of twenty-eight Esopus Indians (eight men, nine women and eleven child- ren,) were living "back of Magdalen Island on the main land in the rear of a cripple bush on the east side of Fort Orange river."* On the evening

of the ninth Sergeant Christian Niessen and Peter Wolfertsen (Van Couwenhoven) with twenty sol- diers and twelve Indians, were sent under the guidance of the elder Wappinger Indian to sur- prise them. The guide "led them astray and missed the houses," thus preventing a surprise ; but they returned on the twelfth, having killed five men and a woman, including the Esopus captain, ( Weldoverste,) whose hand they cut off and brought with them. They routed the rest, and plundered their huts, and brought back with them a squaw and three children whom they captured, and " nineteen blankets, nine kettles, a lot of sewan and four muskets " as booty.

Efforts ensued to effect the release of the cap- tives held by the Esopus Indians, and through the friendly intercession of five Mohawk Indians were partially successful. Tired with fruitless parleying it was resolved to attempt their rescue by force. After some delay occasioned by wet weather, and the return without success of an expedition designed for this purpose, Capt. Krygier set out on the 3d of September with a force of one hundred and twenty-five men, guided by the younger of the Wappinger Indians detained on the 7th of July, who was promised his liberty and a "cloth coat" if he directed them "truly to the Esopus Indians." Besides inflicting heavy losses on the Indians, the expedition returned with twenty-three Christian prisoners ; and the following October their un- finished fort, huts and crops were destroyed and much booty secured. October seventh, after the return of the latter expedition, a girl escaped from her Indian captor, with whom she had cohabited, and returned to the fort. November seventh Peter Wolfertsen brought in two children whom he received in exchange for a squaw and Indian girl. He also brought two Wappingers, one a chief, who engaged to return a Christian woman who was detained by his tribe, having been bought from an Esopus squaw, which he did on the thir- teenth. On the fourteenth he was presented with an "Esopus squaw and a little sucking infant," " also with two pieces of cloth in token of friend- ship." He requested that the Dutch "should live with him in friendship, which should be preserved by him." He gave in token thereof a bow and arrow, and said, " I will not make war against the Dutch but live in peace with them." He further promised to obtain from the Esopus Indians the remaining prisoners held by them. On the twenty- eighth he returned with a quantity of venison, and said that, but for the misfortune of having "burnt

* Magdalen Island is opposite the town of Red Hook, between the upper and lower landing-Tivoli and Barrytown ; hence this incident transpired in Red Hook.

THE ENGLISH OBTAIN CONTROL OF NEW NETHERLAND.

his buttock," he should have secured the captives. Six of them, he said, "were together at the river side," and the seventh-" Albert Heyman's oldest daughter-he "gave ten fathom of sewan to an- other Indian to look up." He promised positively to restore all the Christian prisoners in three days, " provided it did not blow too hard from the north ; otherwise, he could not come before the fourth day." Having sold his venison he departed. He returned December 3d with two captive children, saying, that, owing to absence and detention, he had been unable to fulfill his promise in respect to the remaining five. But he promised to renew his efforts, and all, "except three," were subse- quently recovered .*

A treaty of peace was concluded with the In- dians, including the remnant of the Esopus tribe, May 16, 1664, in which Tseessaghgaw, a chief of the Wappingers, participated in behalf of that tribe. This was the last treaty concluded by Stuyvesant with the Indians; and though he was impelled to it by the necessities of the Dutch colonists, who were sorely harassed on every hand, and contrary to instructions of the company whose interests he represented, it put an end to Indian hostilities in this State until the Revo- lution.

Events were culminating which were destined to terminate the occupancy of New Netherland by the Dutch, who were menaced and their territorial rights violated almost continually from the time they took possession ; first by the Connecticut col- onists upon the north and east, and later by the Swedes and Marylanders on the Delaware. O'Cal- laghan's commentary on the administration of Di- rector Stuyvesant is not less applicable to the whole period during which the Dutch struggled to main- tain a colony in America. It was, he says, "one of trouble and anxiety. Discontents and broils were its sponsors ; clamors and disaffections its pall-bearers ; whilst scarcely an hour of its exis- tence was free from menace and danger from its neighbors, whether savage or civilized. Lacking those impulses which filled other colonies so rap- idly, whatever advantages the Dutch province pos- sessed from nature were seriously counterbalanced by the vicious system under which it was colonized, and the institutions under which it was governed, which would convert settlers into serfs, and by con- stant petty intermeddling, hamper their exertions and paralyze their energies. In no department

were these baleful influences more palpable than in the settlement of the country."*

On the 12th of March, 1664, Charles II. of England, conveyed by patent to his brother James, Duke of York, all the country from the River St. Croix to the Kenebec, in Maine, also Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Long Island, together with all the land from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay. The Duke sent an English squadron, under Admiral Richard Nicolls, to secure the gift, and on the 8th of September following, Governor Stuyvesant ca- pitulated, and the territory till then held by the Dutch, passed into the hands of the English, who changed the name of New Amsterdam to New York. The victory was an easy one, for restricted in their rights and liberties, and desirous of enjoy- ing the privileges accorded to the neighboring English colonists, the Dutch settlers refused to contest the supremacy, and Stuyvesant unsupport- ed was obliged, though reluctantly, to yield. The country thus surreptitiously acquired remained in possession of the English till the Revolution, except that, for a short period, it was again in pos- session of the Dutch, who, being at war with Eng- land, sent a small squadron which arrived at Staten Island, July 30, 1673, and to this, Captain Man- ning, who in the absence of Governor Lovelace had command at New York, surrendered most in- gloriously with but little effort at resistance. By the treaty of peace concluded between the Dutch and English in 1674, New Netherland was restored to the English.

CHAPTER VII.

TITLES TO THE SOIL-EXTINGUISHMENT OF THE IN- DIAN TITLE-LAND PATENTS-HOW ACQUIRED AND RIGHTS CONFERRED-DUCHESS COUNTY LAND PATENTS-ROMBOUT PATENT-EARLY AND DIS- PARAGING ESTIMATE OF THE VALUE OF ITS LANDS -COPY OF INDIAN DEED THEREFOR -- SCHUYLER'S PATENT-GREAT OR LOWER NINE PARTNERS' PATENT-POUGHKEEPSIE PATENT-RHINEBECK PATENT-BEEKMAN PATENT-LITTLE OR UPPER NINE PARTNERS' TRACT-OBLONG PATENT- DISPUTED BOUNDARY LINE BETWEEN NEW YORK AND CONNECTICUT-THE OBLONG GRANTED TO ENGLISH AND AMERICAN PATENTEES-DEFECTIVE TITLES -ANTI-RENT DIFFICULTIES.

T HE Indian title to lands within Duchess County was extinguished at different times by various individuals to whom they were patented,

* Journal of the Second Esopus War, Doc. Hist. IV., 49-98. History of New Netherland, II., 477-482 ..

*History of New Netherland, II., 539.

HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

or by whom they were subsequently acquired, and it is a congratulatory fact that in this acquisition no injustice was inflicted on the natives, who received satisfactory remuneration for their fair possessions. In this respect it presents a contrast as marked as gratifying with the adjoining county of Putnam, which formerly belonged to Duchess, in which Philipsburgh, which was patented to Fred- erick Philipse, April 1, 1680, was the subject of a long and bitter controversy, but out of which jus- tice to the red man was never evolved.

During the Dutch regime, lands were sometimes granted in the colony without the formalities of Indian purchase. Not until 1650, we believe, were any measures taken to regulate the purchase of Indian lands. It had then become necessary, owing to the disposition manifested by several in- dividuals to acquire large tracts of wilderness, not with a view to improvement, but for speculative purposes. May 24, 1650, all persons were forbid- den to buy land from the natives without the con- sent of the Director and Council, on pain of for- feiture. The titles derived from the Dutch Gov- ernment were confirmed by the English when they succeeded to the possession of the country in 1664. The third article of the terms of capitulation stipu- lated that "All people shall continue free denizens, and shall enjoy their lands, houses, goods, where- soever they are within this country, and dispose of them as they please." The English Government also adopted similar provisions with respect to the acquisition of Indian lands. In January, 1665, a law was passed, requiring the approval and signa- ture of the Governor to all deeds of lands purchased from the Indians, in order to render the titles valid. This was necessary, as the Indians fre- quently sold the same tract of land to different in- dividuals.

" Purchases from the Indian natives, as of their aboriginal right, have never been held to be a legal title in this province," says Governor Tryon, in his report to the Captain General and Governor-in- Chief of the Province of New York, in 1774, "the maxim obtaining here, as in England, that the King is the fountain of all real property, and from this source all titles are to be derived."

Patents for lands were generally issued by the Colonial Government under the great seal of the Province, pursuant to the powers conferred on the Governors. "It was customary," says French, "to apply to the Governor and Council for leave to purchase. If granted, a treaty was held and an Indian deed obtained, a warrant was issued to the

Surveyor General for a survey, and the map and field notes were reported. The Attorney General was then directed to prepare a draft of a patent, which was submitted to the Governor and Council, and, if approved, was engrossed upon parchment, recorded, sealed and issued. The fees incident to procuring a patent were important sources of rev- enue to the officers concerned. Only one thous- and acres could be granted to one person ; but this rule was evaded by associating great numbers of merely nominal parties ; and the officers through whose hands the papers passed were often largely interested in the grants. The Colonial Govern- ment in this respect became exceedingly corrupt, and stood greatly in need of a reform like that wrought by the Revolution. * The grants

were 'in fee and common socage' * * * and included with the land all 'houses, messuages, ten- ements, erections, and buildings, mills, mill-dams, fences, inclosures, gardens, orchards, fields, pas- tures, common of pastures, meadows, marshes, swamps, plains, woods, underwoods, timber, trees, rivers, rivulets, runs, streams, water, lakes, ponds, pools, pits, brachen, quarries, mines, minerals, (gold and silver [wholly or in part] excepted,) creeks, harbors, highways, easements, fishing, hunting and fowling, and all other franchises, profits, commodi- ties, and appurtenances whatsoever.' This enumer- ation of rights, more or less varied, was embraced in all land patents. Colonial grants were usually conditioned to the annual payment of a quitrent, at a stated time and place named in the patent. This payment was sometimes due in money, and often in wheat or other commodity. Others were conditioned to the payment of the skins of animals or a merely nominal article, as simply an acknowl- edgment of the superior rights of the grantors. The quitrents formed an important source of rev- enue, and, after the Revolution, became due to the State. In 1786, it was provided that the lands subject to these rents might be released upon pay- ment of arrears, and fourteen shillings to every shilling of the annual dues. Large amounts of land upon which arrears of quitrents had accumu- lated were sold from time to time ; and laws con- tinued to be passed at frequent intervals for the regulation of these rents until 1824, when an act was passed for the final sale of all lands which had- not been released by commutation or remitted by law. Such lands as then remained unredeemed were allowed to be released by payment of $2.50 to each shilling sterling due. The last sale took place in March, 1826. The arrears for quitrents,

THE ROMBOUT PATENT.

then amounting to $53,380, were in 1819 taken from the general fund and given in equal portions to the Literature and School Funds." *

Under these provisions all the lands in Duchess County were taken up in large tracts, less than a dozen in number, by individuals who undertook "to settle, build up, and cultivate the new coun- try," and let them, wholly or in part, for a term of years, at a nominal rent, or merely for the payment of the taxes.

The first tract of land granted within the present limits of Duchess County was the Rombout Patent, which embraces the present towns of Fishkill, East Fishkill and Wappinger, the westerly part of La Grange, and nine thousand acres within the south- ern limits of the town of Poughkeepsie. For this immense tract, covering eighty-five thousand acres, the patentees were required to pay to the Gover- nor, "six bushels of good and merchantable winter wheat every year ; but, if tradition speaks truly, even that might then have been regarded as ample compensation ; for it is said that some of the Dutch burghers from Ulster came over to see the country, but returned and reported that the land was not worth crossing the river for.f

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 9

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 868

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 868