USA > New York > New York City > History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch, Vol. I > Part 20
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To the eastward, in the mean time, the English continued their encroachments. They no longer looked on the Connecticut as their western boundary. They longed. for the fertile lands be- tween that and the North River, and accordingly had, already, established themselves on a spot called Roodeberg, or Red Hill, by the Dutch; but to which the English gave the name of New Haven.2 They purchased, likewise, several tracts
toe niemant maeckten aldaer te verblyven tot dat zyn verbonden tyt uyt- souden zyn, en daerover de culture van't lant Inttel achten ; jae selffs de colo- nie van Rensselaerswyck was noch van cleyne consequentie ; maer sooras als 't selve was toegelaten, veele dienaars die te goet hadden by de compagnie, sochten haer paspoort, boude huyzen, ende maeckten plantagies, verstrooide haer wyt ende breet, yder soeckende het beste lant, ende naest gelegen te zyn van de Wilden omme alsoo bequaemlyk met haer te connen handelen; an- dere koften barcken omme daermede om Zuydt ende Noordt te vaeren coop- manschappen ; ende alsoo de Heeren Bewinthebberen vrye passagie gaven van Hollant herwaerts aen, heeft ter oock eenigen doen comen : D'Engelsche aen d' anderesyde quamen mede beyde van Virginia als Nieuw Engelant. Eerste- lyck veel servaants, die haer tyt by haer meesters uytgedient hadden, omme goede gelegentheyt van alhier taback tecomen planten ; daernaer de huys- gesinnen, ende entelyck by heele colonie, selffs gedwongen van aldaer te ver- trekken, soo omme vryheid van conscientie te genieten, also het insupportabel gouvernement van Nieuw Engelant te ontgaen." Journael van Nieuw Neder- lant, 1647 ; Report and Advice, Appendix E.
1 A complete list of those who subscribed this oath does not appear on the Record, owing to the ravages of time. The following are the only names appended to it :- John Hathaway, Richard Brudnell, Abraham Lowmay, Francis Leslie, Edward Willson, George Homes, William Williamson. The three last attached their marks. Alb. Rec., ii. Abm. Page, Tomas Belcher, Peter Buyley, "from Newheert, in Somersetshire," and Richard Pither, Irishman, are also mentioned as residents under the Dutch at this time. George Homes and Thos. Hall built a house this year, at a place which they called Hopton, near the Deutel Bay, two miles above Curler's Hoeck, now corrupted to " Turtle" Bay.
' " They desired that their friends at Connecticut would purchase of the na-
209
NEW NETHERLAND.
from the Indians in the adjoining districts, north, east, south, CHAP. and west, on which they planted numerous towns. So rapidly I. did their settlements fill up, that Hartford already contained, at 1639. this period, a fine church, and more than one hundred dwell- June 9. ings, and the infant city of New Haven, a handsome place of worship, and more than three hundred houses. Strong in their numbers, they now absolutely denied to the Dutch all right or title to any possessions on the Fresh River, and carried their pretensions to the length even of ploughing and sowing the company's lands around Fort Good Hope, where they vio- lently assaulted, and severely wounded, some of the men in charge of that post, whom they found at work in the fields.
Gysbert op Dyck, who had command of some fourteen or fifteen soldiers here, promptly protested against this unwar- rantable aggression : but the English governor attempted to justify the encroachments of his countrymen on Dutch terri- tory by saying, that the lands lay uncultivated-that the Dutch had been there already several years, and had done nothing to improve the country ; and that " it was a sin to leave such valuable lands uncultivated, when such fine crops could be raised from them ;"1 a course of reasoning which, however conclusive it may appear to the party using it, cannot very safely be received as a justification of the proceedings for which it was intended as an apology ; since, if admitted, it would at once afford to every person, who may incline to covet his neigh- bor's goods, a satisfactory plea to appropriate them to his own use.
It became now evident, that the spirit which had overrun the main, would not allow itself to be stayed by the narrow channel which intervened between that and the opposite and tempting shore of Long Island. The plea which justified the seizure of the Connecticut would be equally valid here, for here, also, "the lands lay uncultivated." Even were it not sufficient, an additional pretext was afforded by the fact that the Plymouth Company had taken upon itself to grant, at the
tive proprietors for them all the land that lay between themselves and Hudson e River, which was in part effected." Magnalia, B. i., c. 6.
1 De Vries.
27
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HISTORY OF
BOOK III. 1639.
request of Charles I., in 1635, the whole of Long Island to William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, who, in the early part of the following year, appointed an agent to dispose of the lands, thus conveyed to him, to all who were desirous to purchase and settle them.
Kieft clearly saw, soon after his assumption of the govern- ment, the necessity of securing, by additional purchases from the Indians, this island, which the Dutch esteemed " the crown of the province," and which lay so contiguous to Fort Amsterdam. He therefore purchased, in the beginning of this Jan. 15. year, from the native proprietors, that portion of the island ex- tending from Rockaway eastward to Sicktew-kacky on the south side, and thence across to Martin Gerritsen's, or Cow Bay, on the north shore; by which purchase, and that of the preceding year, he embraced within the company's jurisdiction nearly the whole of the present county of Queens.1
The first English settlers from the main land crossed the Sound, shortly after this, and began a plantation at the eastern extremity of Long Island, where Lyon Gardiner purchased, this year, from Lord Stirling's agent, for a trifle, the island of Monchonock, containing an area of over three thousand acres. This was the first English settlement within the present limits
1 Mechoswodt, chief of Marossepinck, Sinksink, otherwise called Schont's Bay, [now Manhassett,] and the dependencies thereon, sells to the W. I. Co., with the consent of Piscamoc, his cousin Swatterwochkouw, Kackpohoc, Ketachqnas- was, joint owners, all the lands to them belonging on Long Island, beginning on the south side of said island, from Reckouw-hacky to Sicketew-hacky, and the said Sicketew-hacky in its breadth to Martin Gerritsen's (or Cow) Bay, and from thence in its length for the most part on and along the East River to tho Vlaeck's kill, the ahove Indians to have the privilege to plant maize, hnot and fish on said lands. 15th January, 1639. Alb. Rec. GG, 59, 60; xxii. 8. The Rockaway Indians (says Thompson) were scattered over the southero part of the town of Hempstead, which, with part of Jamaica and the whole of Newtown, were the bounds of their claim. The greater part of the population was at Near Rockaway, and as far west as the present site of the Marine Pa- vilion. Those Indians who resided at the head of Maspeth Creek in Newtown were a portion of this tribe. Hist. Long Island, i. 92. Martin Gerritsen's bay lies west of Oyster Bay. Three creeks empty themselves into it, two of which are navigable. On the smallest of the three was situated the lodian village of Mattinekoock, which consisted, in 1650, of thirty Indian families. Previous to that date there was a vast number of natives settled hereahont, but they gradn- ally disappeared. VAN TIENHOVEN. Hol. Doc. v., 137; Alb. Rec. xx., 1.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
of this state ; and the place has ever since been called Gardi- CHAP. ner's Island, after the original purchaser.1 The Dutch, whose settlements on Long Island had preceded those of the Eng- lish by many years, were equally active on the western ex- tremity. Grants were made in the village of Breuckelen to sundry individuals ; we find a farm in progress this year at Gowanus ; and a commencement made in Gravesend, in which town Anthony Jansen of Sallee, a French Huguenot of re- spectability, who arrived in the country, with his brother, in 1630, obtained a grant of one hundred morgen, or two hundred acres of land.2
Little else worthy of note occurred during the remainder of the year, if we except the execution of one of the soldiers for mutiny against the Director, and the removal of Ulrich Lu- pold, the Fiscaal, or Attorney-general, from office. He was succeeded by Cornelis van der Huygens, who came out from July Holland with a commission from the directors of the company 13. as Schout-Fiscaal of New Netherland, at a yearly salary of three hundred and sixty florins, and an additional sum of three hundred for board. Lupold continued, however, in the public service as commissary of wares and merchandise, and occasionally assisted as member of the council. Some addi- tional regulations were made to enforce order and regularity Aug. among the mechanics and laborers in the company's employ, 11. who were directed to proceed to and cease from work only " at the ringing of the bell." Gillis de Voocht was appointed superintendent over them. Claes van Elslant and Wybrant Pietersen were removed, in the course of the winter, from office as inspectors of tobacco, and commissaries Jacob van Curler and David Provoost appointed in their stead ; but the latter subsequently lost his place as commissary, on charges of neglect of duty, and being incorrect in his accounts, and was succeeded by his assistant Mauritz Jansen. Oloff Ste- vensen, who had arrived in the colony in 1637, attached to the military service of the company, was transferred in the July 1.
1 A lineal descendant of this gentleman was married recently to Mr. Tyler, late President of the United States.
" Thompson's Long Island, i. 304 ; ii., 170, 218; Alb. Rec. i., 116; Wood's Long Island, 9.
1. 1639.
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HISTORY OF
BOOK course of this summer to the civil department, as commissary III. of cargoes, at a salary of thirty guilders, or $12, per month.1 1639.
: Alb. Rec. ii., 57, 61, 83, 99, 132. OLOFF STEVENSEN, Or OLOFF STEVENS VAN CORTLANDT, as he subsequently signed his name, left the company's ser- vice in 1648. On becoming a freeman he embarked in trade, built a brewery in New Amsterdam, and became wealthy. He was Colonel of the Burghery, or city trained bands, in 1649, in which year he was also appointed one of the NINE MEN. He was one of the signers to the Remonstrance transmitted to Holland against the maladministration of Director Kieft, and the high-handed measures of Director Stuyvesant. In 1654 he was elected Schepen of the city of New Amsterdam, and in 1655 appointed Burgomeester, which office he filled almost uninterruptedly to the close of the Dutch government. His place of residence was in the Brouwer-straat, now Stone-street. He had the char- acter of being a worthy citizen, and a man most liberal in his charities. He had seven children, viz .: Stephanus, who married Gertrude Schuyler ; Maria, who married Jeremias van Rensselaer, twelfth of July, 1662; Catherine, who married, first, John Derval, and secondly, Frederick Phillips ; Cornelia, who married Barent Schuyler ; Jacob, who married Eva Phillips ; Sophia, who married Andrew Teller ; and John, who died unmarried. Oloff Stevens van Cortlandt died some time subsequent to 1683, leaving his son, Stephanus, then a highly respectable merchant in New York.
On the death of his brother-in-law, Jeremias van Rensselaer, in 1675, the affairs of the colonie of Rensselaerswyck were administered conjointly, during the minority of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, (then twelve years old,) by the Rev. Nicolaus vau Rensselaer, Mde. Maria van Rensselaer, and Stephanus van Cortlandt. Nicolaus had the directorship of the colonie ; Mde. van Rensselaer was the treasurer ; and Stephanus van Cortlandt had the charge of the books. Four hundred schepels of wheat were appropriated to defray the yearly ex- penses of this administration, of which Dom. Nicolaus (who then officiated as second clergyman in Albany) received one half. The remainder was divided between Mde. van Rensselaer and her brother. Dom. Nicolaus dying in 1679, the chief management of the minor's affairs devolved on his mother and uncle.
Stephanus van Cortlandt purchased, in the year 1683, large tracts from the Indians, in what are now the counties of Westchester, Putnam, and Duchess, for which he obtained a patent from Gov. Dongan in 1685, whose fees for the north half alone are said to have amounted to three hundred pieces of eight. Those lands were erected into what has since been called the Manor of Cort- landt. He died leaving twelve children, who intermarried with the De Peysters, Beekmans, Skinners, Bayards, De Lanceys, and Van Rensselaers. Though the manor has, in consequence of alienations and sales, long since ceased to exist except on parchment, the Van Cortlandt family continues to be one of the most respectable, as it is one of the most ancient, in this state. At the breaking out of the Revolution, one of the branches of the family was resident in England, the descendants of which have eince intermarried with many members of the British nobility.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
1640.
The spring of 1640 opened with a renewal of the dif- CHAP. ferences between the English and the Dutch on the Con- 1. necticut River, touching the title to the soil around Fort Hope. Commissary op Dyck being about to make preparations for sowing the ground in the rear of that post, advised Mr. Hop- April kins, governor of Hartford, of his intention, and warned him, 23. at the same time, against permitting any of his people to in- terrupt him. Hopkins, however, pertinaciously denied the validity of the Dutch title to the land, and maintained that the English had acquired their title from the right owners- that he was prepared to prove, by a chief of the Morahtkans, residing near the Pequods, that the latter never owned the soil, and that the right owners had left for the purpose of ob- taining assistance from their friends. Op Dyck, on the con- trary, insisted on the superior right of the company-referred to their long possession, which dated many years before the English knew of the existence of the river, and to their pur- chase, which had been made with the approbation of the na- tives. Whereupon the English governor called on the Dutch commissary to exhibit his title. "Show your right," said he, " we are prepared to exhibit ours ;" adding, at the same time, that he was desirous to live in peace with the Dutch. To all this op Dyck responded in suitable terms. He wished only to use the company's lands. But to this neither the gov- ernor, nor the English people, would in any wise consent. On the contrary, the constable was sent with a posse of some ten or eleven men, who attacked the Dutch on the following April day, while engaged ploughing the field in dispute, beat the 24. horses, and frightened them so that they broke loose. They then returned next morning, and sowed the ground which the Dutch had ploughed. Commissary op Dyck protested forth- April with, but Governor Hopkins refused to make any reply to this 25. protest, " as it was written in Low Dutch." He called again on the commissary to produce his title. " The king," he said, " would support the English in their right as firmly as the Prince of Orange would the Dutch." The commissary main- tained that he was not bound to produce his title ; and as for the king of England, he well knew that his majesty did not desire to do any thing that should injure another. Hereupon
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HISTORY OF
BOOK he took his departure, and sent a party to plant barley in the DI. field. These were also driven off. Op Dyck then went him- 1640. self to do the work, but the English remained on the watch, and would not suffer him to proceed. Evert Duyckingh, another of the company's servants, having, in the mean time, succeeded in getting into the field with a hat full of barley, commenced sowing the grain ; but had not proceeded far when he was knocked down with an adze, from which he re- ceived a severe wound on the head. Op Dyck was, thereupon, obliged to withdraw his men, having previously warned the English of the injury and wrong which his masters had sus- tained at their hands. These criminations and recriminations did not terminate here. The English were, evidently, de- termined to hunt the Dutch from the river. They, therefore, continued their aggressions in every possible shape during the May remainder of the year. They seized the horses and cows be- 30. longing to Fort Good Hope and impounded them for trespass. June 21. The clergyman of Hartford seized a load of hay, which a Dutch driver was conveying to the fort, and applied it to his own use without giving any thing in return; and when the crop became ready for the sickle, the English drove off the Aug. men sent by the Dutch commissary to cut it down, and har- 15. vested it themselves.1 It was in vain that op Dyck protested, or the Director-general remonstrated. They lacked either the will, or the means to vindicate their rights, and the people of Hartford treated them accordingly. Op Dyck proceeded, Oct. 25. some time after this, to Fatherland ; and Jan Hendricksen Roesen was appointed commissary of Fort Hope, with a salary of thirty-six guilders per month, equal to $173 per an- num, and his board .?
The Director and council were, in the mean time, actively engaged purchasing the claims of the Indians to the soil in the neighborhood of the island of Manhattans. In the hope of staying the incursions of the English, who continued to extend their settlements westward, and in order "to maintain the charter and privileges granted by their High Mightinesses to
1 Hol. Doc. ix., 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197.
9 Alb. Rec. ii., 104.
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NEW NETHERLAND.
the Noble the West India Company, in New Netherland," CHAP. Cornelis van Tienhoven, secretary of the province, was dis-
1640. April 19.
I. patched early in the spring to the " Archipelago," to purchase that group of islands, which lay at the mouth of the Norwalk River, "and all the adjoining lands, and to erect thereon the standard and arms of the High and Mighty Lords the States General ; to take the savages under our protection, and to pre- vent effectually any other nation encroaching on our limits, or making incursions on our land and territory." In further obe- dience to instructions directing the purchase, in the names of the States General, of the Prince of Orange, and of the West India Company, of all lands deemed proper for tillage and pasture, Director Kieft bought, in the following month, from May " the great Chief Penhawitz," head of the Canarsee tribe, all 10. the land left to him by his father on Long Island, with all his hereditary rights and titles thereto.1 This purchase, together with that from the Rockaway Indians, before mentioned, com- pleted the Dutch title to all the lands bounded on the west by the East River, and on the east by the present county of Suf- folk, which two points embraced all the territory on Long Island, over which the Dutch ever exercised jurisdiction.2
While Director Kieft was fancying that he had thus secured himself against all further encroachments on the part of the English, a Scotchman, named Farrett, presented himself at Fort Amsterdam, and claimed Long Island, under a commis- sion from the Earl of Stirling. But his pretensions were utterly disregarded and himself dismissed, and forced to with- draw, followed by the jeers of the mob.3 He was, however, not well gone, when a party of emigrants from Lynn, in the
1 Alb. Rec. ii., 78, 83. The Canarsee tribe claimed the whole of the lands now included within the limits of Kings County, and a part of the town of Jamaica. Thempsen, i., 93.
2 The Hen. Samuel Jones, in his Notes on De Witt Clinton's Discourse, says, " The possessions of the Dutch on Leng Island never extended above thirty miles east of New York." N. Y. Hist. Soc. Trans. iii., 324.
3 In den jaar 1640 is by den Directeur Kieft gecomen een Schotsman, met een Engelse commissie en pretendeerden dit Lange Eylandt ; doch zyn pretens warde niet veel geacht ; dus vertreck hy weder sender yetwes nytterechten, als alleenlyck dat hy het slechte volck wat induceerden. Van der Donck, Ver- toogh van N. N.
216
HISTORY OF
1640.
BOOK colony of Massachusetts, crossed the Sound, and landed at the III. west side of Cow Neck, on territory belonging to the Dutch, where they commenced a settlement. They were not May far advanced in their operations, when Sachem Penha- 10. witz gave information to the authorities at Fort Amsterdam, " that some foreign strollers had arrived at Schouts Bay, where they were actually engaged building houses, felling trees, and that the said vagrants had even hewn down the arms of their High Mightinesses." Doubtful of the correctness of this un- expected intelligence, Director Kieft immediately sent Com- missary van Curler to inquire into, and report on the matter. This messenger corroborated, on his return, the information given by the sachem. The arms of the High, and Mighty Lords the States General had been contumeliously torn down, and a fool's head carved, in derision, on the tree to which they had been affixed.
This intelligence created considerable sensation at Fort Am- sterdam. Secretary van Tienhoven was ordered to proceed, without delay, with an armed force to the ground, "to surprise and surround the English, but to avoid having recourse to arms ; to inquire who pulled down the escutcheon of their High Mighti- nesses ; by what authority it was done, and to bring the tres- passers to the fort to defend their conduct, taking beforehand an inventory of their goods." If, however, there was no hope to conquer the English by force, the secretary was then to avoid bloodshed by all means, and to protest against the in- truders.
May 14. 15. At the break of day, Secretary van Tienhoven departed, accompanied by the under-sheriff, a sergeant and twenty sol- May diers, and arrived, at the same hour on the following morning, on the ground where the English had commenced their settle- ment. He found one house built, and a second in progress of being raised. Howe, the leader of the squatters, had, how ever, withdrawn from the threatened danger, with all his party, except " eight men, one woman, and a babe," whom he left to answer for the trespass and outrage which had been commit- ted.
On demanding the authority under which they had acted, this party answered that they were empowered to settle there
217
NEW NETHERLAND.
by a Scotchman named Farrett, Lord Stirling's agent, who CHAP. left for the Red Hill, after he had thrown down the Dutch 1. arms. Thereupon six of the trespassers, viz. Job Cears, George Wells, John Farrington, Philip and Nathaniel Cartland, or Kertland, and William Archer, or Harcutt, were conveyed to Fort Amsterdam ; two men, the woman and child having been left behind in charge of the property. Van Tienhoven and his prisoners arrived at the fort on the 15th May.
1640.
On the following day, the prisoners were examined on in- May terrogatories before the Director and council. It appeared that 16. they came originally from Buckinghamshire in England, and that they had been afterwards induced by Howe and Farrett to remove from Lynn, in Massachusetts, to Long Island. Their innocence of any intentional trespass having become manifest, they were liberated by the Director-general a couple of days May afterwards, " on condition that they should leave the territory 19. of their High Mightinesses." This they engaged to do under their signatures.
Director Kieft forwarded a statement of these proceedings to Governor Dudley at Boston, and took occasion at the same time to complain of this invasion of the Dutch territory. But the English governor represented that he had no authority over those people. They had voluntarily departed from his juris- diction.
Howe and his associates returned to Long Island again in the fall. Immediately after their ejection, Farrett granted them a tract of land "bounded between Peaconeck and June the easternmost point of Long Island, with the whole breadth from sea to sea," " in consideration," as he acknowl- edges, " of barge-hire, and of having been driven by the Dutch from the place where they were by me planted, to their great damage, together with a competent sum, amounting to four hundred pounds sterling," for which he gave his receipt. Here they planted the flourishing town of Southampton, in the possession of which they remained undisturbed. The ad- joining town of South Old, on the north side of the island, was settled about the same time by some people from New England, without any opposition from the Dutch, who seem to have paid no attention to that section of the country. This
12, O. S.
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218
HISTORY OF
1640.
BOOK III. indisposition did not extend, however, to the parties who had established themselves east of the Manhattans, on the main, in the spring of this year, at Petuquapaen, now called Green- wich. Director Kieft protested against them, and warned them that they should be driven from their holdings, if they did not submit to the authority of his government. Such were some of the salutary effects of the firmness exhibited by the States General in 1638, and of the determination which they then expressed, to protect New Netherland against the attacks and invasions of foreign princes and potentates.1
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