USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V. 2 > Part 29
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* Rec. of N. Y. Burg. and Schep., i. of 201, 250 ; v 207, 576. Van Leuwen, book 5, chap. 23. t Rec. of N. Y. Burg. and Schep., iv., 1659. Rec. of Mayor's Court, 1., 333.
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widow, to relieve herself from certain obligations, desired to renounce her hus. band's estate, it is, in all such cases, recorded, that the intestate's estate " has been kicked away by his wife with the foot," and that she has duly " laid the key on the coffin."* The court also exercised a peculiar jurisdiction, that of summoning parents or guardians before them, who, without sufficient cause, withheld assent to the marriage of their children or wards, and of compelling them to give it.t It also granted passports to strangers, or conferred on them the burgher right, a distinction which, now that it has ceased to be attended with any practical advantage, is still kept up in the custom of tendering or pre- senting the freedom of the city to strangers, as a mark of respect. It may not be uninteresting, moreover, to state, that the origin of a fee bill, for regulating. by a fixed and positive provision of law, the costs of attorneys and other public officers, is to be traced to Stuyvesant. On the 25thi of January, 1658, he put forth what is known in Holland as a placard, that is, a proclamation or ordi- nance emanating from some legislative or executive authority, having the force of law, by which he established a regular tariff of fees. In England, the fees of attorneys and other officers of the court has always been regulated by the court, and not by any public act. In New York, however, the fees of pub- lic officers have been a matter of statute regulation from a very early period. Ten or twelve years after the restoration of the province to the English, they were regulated by an ordinance of the Governor, and afterward by acts of the General Assembly ; and there is every reason to believe that the practice, especially as respects the fees of attorneys and officers of the court, was derived from the Dutch.#
A copy of Stuyvesant's ordinance remains in the records of the burgomas- ter and schepens, and as the preamble to the document is of interest as a legal curiosity, we shall take the liberty to insert it : " Whereas the Director-general and Council of New Netherland have sufficient evidence, from their own expe- rience, in certain bills of costs which have been exhibited to them, as well as by the remonstrances and complaints which have been presented to them by others, of the exactions of scriveners, notaries, clerks, and other licensed per- sons, in demanding and collecting from contending persons excessively large fees and money, for writing for almost all sorts of instruments, to the manifest, . yea, insufferable expense of judgments and judicial costs, some of whom are led by their covetousness and avarice so far as to be ashamed to make a bill or specify the fees they demand, but ask or extort a sum in gross. There- fore, to provide for the better and more easy administration of justice, the Director-general and Council do enact." etc .; after which follow provisions requiring the licensing of the officer entitled to take the fees, the keeping of a record of all fees charged by them, and prohibiting champerty and other abuses. It is then provided, that the officers enumerated shall serve the poor gratis, for God's sake, but may take from the wealthy the fees specified. Each particular service is then enumerated in the manner of our former fee bills, with the number of stivers allowed for each. Among the provisions is the
* Rec. of N. Y. Burg. and Schep., ii., 323.
t Rec. of N. Y. Burg. and Schep .. vols. i., ii., ill., iv., v., vi.
# Ordinance and Table of Fees in first edition of the Colonial Laws, by Bradford, 169! ; · Charter Book and Acts of Assembly of 1683, in office of Secretary of State ; Laws of 1709, ordi uance regulating fees.
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following entry : "No drinking, treats, presents, gifts, or doucers shall be inserted in any bill, or demanded ;" and the ordinance concludes by directing that it shall be read once every year in the court, upon a day specified, to the officers enumerated, who were thereupon to be sworn faithfully to observe it ; any officer-being subject, for a violation of its provisions, to a fine of fifty guilders, or the loss of his office .*
In criminal cases, the schout prosecuted as plaintiff on behalf of the community. At his requisition, and upon the inspection by a magistrate of evidence sufficient to warrant a belief that an offense had been committed, the offender might be arrested or summoned according to the discretion of the magistrate; though where the culprit was detected in the actual perpetration of the deed, or where, in the judgment of the schout, there was strong ground of suspicion against him, and, in his opinion, the public interest demanded it, he might direct his immediate arrest ; but in all such cases the schout was obliged to give notice of the arrest to the magistrate within twenty-four hours, who was thereupon bound to investigate the matter-a provision that practically dispensed with the necessity of the writ of habeas corpus, so familiar in the history of the English law.t Bail was allowed, except in cases of murder, rape, arson, or treason. There were two modes of trying the prisoner ; either publicly upon general evidence, which was the ordinary mode, or by examining him secretly in the presence of two schepens, in which written interrogatories were pro- pounded to the prisoner, to which he was obliged to return categorical answers. The Dutch law then adhering to the general policy of the civil law in respect to extorting confessions from offenders, and making use of the torture and of all those inquisitorial aids and appliances which have cast such a blemish upon the criminal jurisprudence of Europe.#
The torture, however, was not used, except where the presumptive proof amounted almost to a certainty ; and but one case has been found upon the records in which this cruel and unnecessary test was resorted to. Criminal prosecutions were not frequent, nor were the offenses generally of a grave character. The punishments were by fine, which were distributed in three . equal parts, to the schout, to the court, and to the poor; by imprisonment, whipping, the pillory, banishment from the city or the province, or death, which, however, could not be inflicted without the concurrence of the Governor and his Council.§
Courts of the same popular character were established upon Long Island,1 shortly after the erection of the one at New Amsterdam.
.A court with two schepens existed at Breuklin (Brooklyn) before 1654, which in that year was increased to four schepens. There was one at Midwout (Flatbush)> with three schepens, and another at Amersfoort (Flatlands). David Provoost, who had been a notary at New Amsterdam, was made schout of Breuklin, and a district court was established, composed of the schout of
* Placards of Stuyvesant in Rec. of N. Y. Burg. and Schep.
t Ordinances of Amsterdam, p. 46, and seq. Ed. of 1644.
# La Practique et Eacheridon des Causes Criminills, Louvain, 1555. Van Leuwen, book 5, chaps. 27, 28.
§ Rec. of N. Y. Burg. and Schep., iv., 141.
I Thompson's History of Long Island, 96. 2 O'Call. 313, 323.
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Breuklin, and of delegates from these three tribunals, which was continued until 1661.
In that year similar courts were established at Boswyck (Bushwick), and at New Utrecht, and the whole were formed into a district known as " the five Dutch towns," to which there was attached one schout, residing at Breuklin, each town having its separate courts .* Courts were also established by virtue of a grant from Stuyvesant among the English settlers at Carorasset (Jamaica), in 1656,t and at Middleburgh (Newtown), in 1659.4 In 1652 Stuyvesant, by the simple exercise of his prerogative, established a court at Beverwyck (Albany), independent of the Patroon's Court of Raensellervyck.§ It was held at the house of the vice-director, upon the second floor, in a room directly under the roof, without a chimney, and to which access was had, by a straight ladder, through a trap-door. The courts thus enumerated, including the patroon courts already referred to and the Supreme or Appellate Court at New Amsterdam, composed of the Governor and Council, constituted the judicial tribunals of New Netherland, until the colony passed into the hands of the English.
* Brodhead, 580.
t Thompson's History of Long Island, 96.
# Riker's Annals of Newtown.
§ Albany Rec., 183. Records of Mortgages, Albany, book A. 2 O'Call., 183.
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APPENDIX VIII.
THE FIREMAN'S LYCEUM.
LETTER FROM COLONEL T. BAILEY MYERS.
FIREMAN'S LYCEUM, 127 MERCER STREET, NEW YORK CITY, December 1st, 1871.
DEAR SIR-In compliance with your request that I should send you a brief historical sketch of the origin and scope of the Fireman's Lyceum, I give you a few facts, which I trust will cover the ground. The change from the Volun- teer to the Paid Department involved new duties imposed upon a few men selected to take the place of many, whose whole time belonged to the public, and was spent at the apparatus-houses waiting for duty. Idleness in quarters, in military life, is an evil which has been apparent in every service, and under the new system of a paid department, the life of the fireman nearly assimilated to that of a soldier in garrison. How to occupy the time of the men while waiting for the alarm-signal which might at any moment summon the com- pany to duty, became at an early day a subject for consideration with the Board of Commissioners. The connection of some industrial pursuit with the duty, as is the case in other countries, which, while lessening the expenses of the department, would employ the time of the men, was considered as a means of affording the needed occupation ; but for reasons on which it is not necessary to Onlarge, that course was deemed at present impracticable, especially in the face of a constant agitation by local politicians (seeking votes amongst the force), of an increase of the pay of the firemen from $1,000 to $1,200 per annum, a proposition always popular with the men, and not objectionable to legislatures, more intent on gratifying their colleagues (when it could be done at the expense of the tax payers of the city alone, whom they apparently represent), than on an economical administration of public affairs ; and therefore difficult to be opposed by commissioners themselves holding office by a feeble tenure, and subject at any time to be legislated out of their control.
Under the new system the Department was placed upon a semi-military
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basis, the strictest discipline preserved in service or in quarters, and requisitions. reports, and other written forms introduced, involving a large amount of labor and requiring clerical skill in the officers not heretofore generally necessary. For many of these strict military details, unpopular and subjects for ridicule at the time, as being in direct opposition to the personal independence and licensed freedom of the volunteer system, and necessarily incident to unpaid serv. ice, but which have tended greatly to the present efficiency and compactness of the force, the public are indebted to the perseverance and talent for organi- zation possessed by General Shaler, with whom they originated, and who urged the necessity of their adoption. They are now sanctioned by usage, and are not likely to be abandoned. Their effect has been to reduce the material of the Department to the efficiency and prompt, quiet, concerted action of regular bat- teries of artillery, with the substitution of the apparatus for field-pieces. These changes necessarily called the attention of the Board to the means of elevating the educational standard of the men.
After much consideration the Board, on the 27th of December, 1867, passed a resolution authorizing me, as a member of the Board, to take possession of the large hall above the head-quarter offices of the Department, and to organize a lyceum and library for the use of the men, provided the same should be done without expense to the public. In compliance with this resolution I proceeded at once to interest the insurance companies and a few personal friends in the enter- prise, and soon secured the moderate sum of money necessary to accomplish it. To do this it was necessary to husband our resources, and make our pur- chases at book sales only. which were attended for that purpose very faithfully by Mr. C. E. Gildersleve, at that time secretary of the Board. Subsequently. as the collection increased, a formal trust was created, by which I hold the prop- erty so acquired for the use of the firemen of the city of New York. The col- lection of books has gradually increased, until, at the present time, it includes 4,873 volumes belonging to the library, and 1,500 deposited for reference by the trustee. The cases in which these books are contained are of walnut, with sliding wire-doors and improved fastenings, and are the work of the men of the Department, and compare very favorably with those in any public library- the materials for these cases is the only expense to which the Department has . been in any way subjected. The furniture, some of which is antique, and all suitable to the use, together with a collection of curiously engraved portraits of distinguished Americans, appropriate views, historical documents, autographs. maps, Revolutionary currency, &c., &c., have been deposited in the library for its use from the private collection of the trustee. To this has been added an engine in use by the Department early in the century, and various flags. lanterns, certificates, obsolete implements and apparatus, together forming a not uninteresting collection, and intended to remind the men not only of the past achievements of the Department, but also of the great men, and remark- able events connected with the general history of the country, and which is constantly increasing by the contributions of old firemen and others. The library is divided into chapters of geography and travel, history, biography, natural science, and carefully selected fiction, and includes such works as are most likely to entertain and improve the leisure hours of the inen. Mr. Burns, the librarian, attends at all hours of the day, and the officers and men are ena- bled to draw such books as they may select from the printed catalogues for use
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at their quarters, which is generally done through one member representing his company. The books have been largely and steadily used, about two hundred volumes being drawn in each month, and they afford great satisfaction to the members. It is scarcely necessary to say that there are some of the older members who cannot avail themselves of the use of books from the want of education, but in the case of all the appointments made for the last four years, to be able to read has been an indispensable requisite in a department where every member is eligible as a candidate for competitive examination for officers, in which position these qualifications are absolutely necessary. The Lyceum room, which is also used for the weekly trial terms held by the Board, is con- stantly resorted to by strangers and visitors, as a pioneer effort in the way of a Department Library. The Lyceum was formally dedicated on the 27th of December last, in the presence of a large audience, on which occasion Chief- Justice Daly delivered an able address, and the Bennett Gold Medal-for the the endowment of which Mr. James Gordon Bennett had intrusted me with one thousand dollars, and which is held in trust for that purpose by Messrs. James M. McLean, Robert S. Hone (whom I associated with me), and myself, as trustees-was conferred on two meritorious officers of the Department for gallant efforts in the cause of humanity in saving life.
. In giving you, as requested, the particulars of this little collection, I trust I have not made more than the necessary allusion to the part I have had in its formation, for which I have been amply rewarded by the success it has attained, and the evidences of the good it has already accomplished ; and I sincerely trust that in whatever vicissitudes the Department may in the future be placed, and by whomsoever controlled, the Lyceum will continue to. be the subject of their care, and the same facilities afforded to its trustee to make it an object of instruction and amusement to the gallant and useful body of men for whose benefit it was founded.
Very truly, your obedient servant,
T. BAILEY MYERS. .Wyr. L. STONE, Esq., New York City.
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APPENDIX IX.
HALL OF RECORDS,
FORMERLY THE DEBTORS' PRISON.
[From the Evening Post, of December 14th, 1871.]
THE community was startled a few days ago by the announcement that the Grand Jury had found an indictment against the Hall of Records, on account of its manifest unfitness as a repository of the public papers. It was generally supposed that the recent repairs, for which, of course, the city paid, had put the building in good condition, and a knowledge that records of such value as those relating to the property of this city were in danger caused much uneasiness. We propose to give, therefore, a brief history of the building in question, with a statement of its contents and the amount of money recently expended on it.
The house was erected as a jail long before the Revolutionary war. It was known for many years as the "New Jail," prisoners having formerly been confined in a building at the corner of Dock Street and Coenties Slip, and also in the basement and attic of the City Hall, in Wall Street. The structure was originally almost square, considerably smaller than at present, and three stories in height. Its walls were of rough stone, and it was surmounted by a large cupola rising from the center of the roof. In January, 1764, the " New Jail" was the scene of a riot. Near it, on the northern side of the Park, or " The Fields," as it was then called, ran a long row of wooden barracks, where the British troops were quartered. One Sunday evening a large party of the soldiers, armed with muskets and axes, made an attack on the jail for the purpose of rescuing a certain Major Rogers, who was there imprisoned for debt. After maltreating the jailer for refusing to give up the keys, they forced the locks of all the doors in the building, and would have released all the prison- ers had not most of the latter preferred to remain where they were. The disturbance, which occasioned great excitement and alarm in the city, was terminated by the intervention of the militia. During the Revolution, after the occupation of the city by the British, the building became known as the
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" Provost," from the fact that it was under the charge of the notorious William Cunningham, the British provost-marshal. Cunningham's quarters were on the right of the entrance, and the guard-room on the left. Two sentinels were stationed at the entrance night and day, and numerous others were posted through the building, which was then used chiefly for the confinement of captive patriots. The main room on the second floor was called "Congress Hall," and was appropriated to prisoners of the higher class, who were here so densely packed together that, it is said, when they lay on the floor at night the men could not change their posture unless the same movement was made by all simultaneously. In addition to this hardship, they were half-starved and otherwise shamefully abused ; being given impure water when abundance of good was at hand, neglected in sickness and denied all intercourse with their relatives and friends. Two pounds of hard biscuit and two pounds of raw salt pork a week were the allowance of food for each man, without fuel for cooking. Among the prisoners thus treated here were Ethan Allen, Judge Fell, of New Jersey, and other prominent persons.
After the Revolution the building was used as a prison for debtors, common felons being confined in the old Bridewell, also in City Hall Square, which was erected in 1775 and torn down in 1838. On the first floor three wards for prisoners were ranged on each side of a long corridor passing through the center, and the second story was similarly arranged, with the exception that the greater part of one side was fitted up as a chapel, where prayers were said every Thursday. A watchman was kept in the belfry to look out for fires, and in consequence the jail bell was always the first rung when an alarm was given. In this event also a long pole with a lantern was extended from the belfry in the direction of the fire, thus guiding the firemen and citizens generally to the place where their services were needed. This lantern-pole was known as the " pointer," and its direction was always the first subject of inquiry when the fire-bells rang. When the jail was remodeled for other purposes, the alarm- bell so long connected with it was placed upon the Bridewell, and on the destruction of the latter building, being held in high regard by the firemen of the time, it was removed to the roof of the house of the Naiad Hose Company, in Beaver Street, with which it was destroyed in the great fire of 1845.
In June, 1830, when the jail contained only thirty-five debtors, the Common Council received a communication from Jameson Cox, the Register, calling attention to the need of providing a fire-proof building for the safe keeping of the public records. The subject was referred to a committee, in accordance with whose report, in the July following, the Common Council decided to remodel the Debtors' Prison as a building for the Register's and other county offices, and voted an appropriation of $15,000 for that purpose, Several other appropriations were subsequently made, amounting to about $15,000 more. The building was reduced in height by one story, the cupola torn down and the roof covered with copper. A portico was added at each end, supported by .. six massive columns of marble from the Sing Sing quarries. The interior was extensively altered, and the exterior was stuccoed in imitation of marble. 'The Temple of Diana at Ephesus was taken as the model of the structure, which was considered at the time of its completion as the most perfect piece of architecture in the city. During the cholera season of 1832, while yet unfin- ished, the building was used as a cholera hospital. It was soon afterwards
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APPENDIX IX.
completed, and the offices of the Register, Comptroller, Street Commission, and Surrogate established in it. The Register's office occupied only the west side of the first story, which then amply accommodated the comparatively small number of records. As the work of the office increased and documents accu- mulated, this space became much too narrow, and in 1858 the rooms of the Surrogate, on the same floor, were appropriated to the use of the Register. The Street Department was moved in the following year, leaving the whole upper story for the Comptroller's office, which, in the fall of 1869, was trans- ferred to the new County Court-house.
In 1869 it was determined to devote the whole building to the use of the Register, and on May 18th, 1869, the Supervisors passed a resolution ordering the issue of not over one hundred thousand dollars in bonds, to be known as "New York County Repair of Building Stock," and to be used for the repairs of this building. In 1870 a further appropriation of $40,000 was made for "refitting the Register's office," and bills for this amount were made out to A. J. Garvey for ostensibly performing the work. The iron stairway outside the northern end of the building, which formerly led to the Comptroller's office, was taken away and a wooden stairway erected inside the hall. Besides this, all that can be shown as the result of this expenditure are some gas-fixtures in the walls of the third story, a few desks, and a quantity of common wooden book-racks, which were placed in the second story and have never been used. No use whatever has ever been made by the Register of either the second or third story, because as it is constantly necessary to refer from one volume of the records to another, their dispersal over different floors would most seriously embarrass and delay the work of the office. .
The hall running through the middle of the first story is used for maps, powers of attorney, discharges of mortgages, and indexes. On the west side are three rooms occupied for conveyances, and on the east side four rooms which are used for mortgages and by the recording clerks and searchers. All of these rooms are lined with combustible wooden book-racks, which contain the titles to all the real estate on Manhattan Island. There are twelve hundred large volumes of conveyances and nearly as many of mortgages, and the discharges, powers of attorney, indexes, etc., swell the total number of volumes to nearly twenty-eight hundred. The earliest Dutch records are at Albany, in the office of the Secretary of State, but the documents here extend as far back as 1665. The space is so inadequate that many volumes are stowed away in racks under the desks of the clerks, and unless other accommodations are afforded it will soon be necessary to pile them in heaps on the floor. The number of volumes has doubled during the last fifteen years, and the present increase is at the rate of a hundred volumes a year. The Register's office contains nearly eight hundred maps of real estate in this city, which are put away in wooden pigeon-holes, exposed not only to dust and the danger of fire, but to the attacks of mice, which abound all over the building, and are frequently seen running about the floor. These animals, attracted by the paste with which the paper surface of the maps is fastened to the muslin backs, have already mutilated a large number, rendering some absolutely worthless. Many of these maps are of great value, as references are made to marks and numbers upon them in important conveyances and mortgages, and their destruction might seriously affect the title to large amounts of real estate.
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