USA > New York > New York City > History of New York city from the discovery to the present day, V.1 > Part 11
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" In the same year the city received a new seal from the home government. This still preserved the beaver of the Dutch, with the addition of a flour-barrel and the arms of a wind-mill, in token of the prevailing commerce of the city. The whole was supported by two Indian chiefs and encircled with a wreath of laurel, with the motto, SIGILLUM CIVITATIS NOVI EBORACI.
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" In 1687, Stephanus Van Cortlandt was again ap- pointed Mayor. During his Mayoralty, it was determined to enlarge the city by building a new street in the river along the line of Water Street, between White- 1687. hall and Old Slip, and water-lots were sold by the corpo- . ration on condition that the purchasers should make the street toward the water, and protect it by a substantial wharf from the washing of the tide, in imitation of Waal (or sheet-pile) Street, extending along the line of Pearl street, from Broad to William Street, in front of the City Hall. , It was not, however, until some years after, that this scheme was carried into effect, and the projected street rescued from the waters.
" Measures were also taken to enlarge the city still further by placing the fortifications further out, and lay- ing out Wall Street thirty-six feet wide. The fortifica tions, indeed, were now worse than useless. The palisades which had been erected in 1653 along the line of Wall Street had fallen down, the works were in ruins, the guns had disappeared from the artillery-mounts, and the ditches and stockades were in a ruinous condition. Their imme- diate removal was determined on and ordered, but was delayed by the revolution which followed soon after. When war broke out between France and England in 1693, they were again repaired to be in readiness for the expected French invasion, and it was not until 1699 that their demolition was finally accomplished. Wall Street, however, was laid out immediately, and it was not long before it became one of the most important thoroughfares in the city. During the same year, a valuation was made of the city property, which was estimated on the assessor's books at £78,231." *
Many other municipal regulations concerning huck-
* Miss Mary L. Booth's History of New York.
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sters, bakers, butchers, and others, were established -- then esteemed of vital importance, but a repetition of which would only weary. A single item, however, deserves no- tice, as illustrating the punishments practiced in olden times. A pillory, cage, whipping-post,f and ducking- stool were set up in the vicinity of the City Hall, and hither were brought all vagrants, slanderers, pilferers, and truant children, to be exposed to the public gaze, and to . receive such chastisement as their offenses might warrant.
Meanwhile, William and Mary had been proclaimed King and Queen of England in place of James II, who, having abdicated the throne, had become a wanderer on the Continent. This change in the home government from a Catholic to a Protestant one, necessitated a correspond- ing change in the Governor at New York. Colonel Slough- ter was, accordingly, commissioned to the government of New York in January, 1689, but did not arrive until the 19th of March, 1691. The selection of Slough- 1691. ter was not fortunate. According to Smith, he was utterly destitute of every qualification for government : licentious in his morals, avaricious, and base. Leisler, who had administered the government after a fashion, since the departure of Dongan, intoxicated with power, refused to surrender the government to Sloughter, and attempted to defend the fort, in which he had taken refuge. Finding it expedient, however, very soon to abandon the fort, he was arrested, and, with his son-in- law, Milburne, tried and executed for treason. Still, on the whole, the conduct of Leisler during the revolution had been considered patriotic. and his sentence was deemed very unjust and cruel. Indeed, his enemies could not pre- vail upon Sloughter to sign the warrant for his execution until, for that purpose, they got him intoxicated. It was
* A whipping-post, put up in 1630, is still standing on the Village Green, in Fairfield, Connecticut.
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a murderous affair. Sloughter's administration was short and turbulent. He died July 23d, 1691.
On the death of Sloughter, Richard Ingoldsby, the captain of an independent company, was made president of the council, to the exclusion of Joseph Dudley, who, but for his absence in Boston, would have had the right to preside, and upon whom the government would have devolved. But although Dudley very soon returned to New York, he did not contest the authority of Ingoldsby, who administered the government until the arrival of Colonel Fletcher, with a commission as governor, in August, 1692. In the preceding month of June, 1692. Ingoldsby met the Five Nations in council at Alba- ny, on which occasion they declared their enmity to the French in the strongest possible terms. Their expressions of friendship for the English were also renewed. "Brother Corlaer," said the sachem, " we are all the subjects of one great king and queen ; we have one head, one heart, one interest, and are all engaged in the same war." They nevertheless condemned the English for their inactivity, "telling them that the destruction of Canada would not make one summer's work, against their united strength, if ingeniously exerted."
In conducting the Indian affairs of the colony, Colonel Fletcher took Major Schuyler into his councils, and was guided by his opinions. "No man understood those affairs better than he; and his influence over the Indians was so great, that whatever Quider,* as they called him, either recommended or disapproved. had the force of a law. This power over them was supported, as it had been obtained, by repeated offices of kindness, and his single bravery and activity in the defense of his country."t Through the in-
* Quider, the Iroquois pronunciation of Peter. Having no labials in their language, they could not say Peter.
& Smith's History of New York.
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fluence of Quider, therefore, Colonel Fletcher was placed upon the best footing with the Indians, by whom was conferred upon him the name of Cayenguinago, or " The Great Swift Arrow," as a compliment for a remarkably rapid journey made by him from New York to Schenec- tady on a sudden emergency .*
Despairing, at length, of accomplishing a peace with the Five Nations, Count Frontenac determined to strike a blow upon the Mohawks in their own country-which pur- pose was securely executed in the month of February, 1693. For once this vigilant race of warriors were taken by surprise, two of their castles being entered and cap- tured without much resistance-the warriors of both hav- ing been mostly absent at Schenectady. On assailing the third or upper castle, however, the invaders met with a different reception. The warriors within, to the number of forty, were engaged in a war-dance, preparatory to some military expedition upon which they were about entering; and though inferior in force, yet they yielded not without a struggle, nor until thirty of the assailants had been slain. About three hundred of the Mohawks were taken prison- ers in this invasion, in respect to which the people of Schenectady have been charged with bad conduct. They neither aided their neighbors, nor even apprised them of the approach of danger, although informed of the fact in due season themselves. But Quider, the fast friend of the Indians, took the field at the head of the militia of Albany, immediately on hearing of the invasion, and harassed the enemy sharply during their retreat. Indeed, but for the protection of a snow-storm, and the accidental resting of a cake of ice upon the river, forming a bridge for their . escape, the invaders would have been cut off.
Fletcher was by profession a soldier, a man of strong
# Colden's Six Nations.
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passions and inconsiderable talents ; very active, and equally avaricious. His administration was so energetic and successful the first year, that he received large sup- plies, and a vote of special thanks from the Assembly. He was a bigot, however, to the Episcopal form of church government, and labored hard to introduce into the prov- ince the English language, to encourage English churches and schools. On this account he was soon involved in a violent controversy with the Assembly, who were at first inclined rather to favor the Dutch churches. But in 1693 an Assembly was found who, more pliant, 1693. passed an act " Providing for the building of a church in the city of New York, in which was to be settled a Protestant minister"-the word Protestant being tacitly understood to mean Episcopal. This was the origin of Trinity Church,* which was forthwith begun in 1696, and finished and opened for public worship, 1696. February, 1697, under the auspices of Rev. William Vesey. The church itself, which was a very insig- nificant building, resembled its present namesake 1697. on the same site in nothing save in having a very tall spire. Certainly it did not resemble the present Trinity in having set apart in it (as it did) a pew for the Mayor and Common Council, to whom a sermon was annually preached, on the day of the city election.
Fletcher was succeeded by Richard, Earl of Bella- mont, who was appointed Governor of New York, Massa- chusetts, and New Hampshire, in May, 1695, but did not arrive in New York until May, 1698. He 1698. was appointed by King William with a special view to the suppression of piracy in the American seas-New York, at that time, having been a commercial depot of
* This church was destroyed by fire in 1776, and lay in ruins until 1788, when it was rebuilt. In 1839 it was torn down to build the present edifice, which was opened in 1846.
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the pirates, with whom Fletcher and other officers in the colony had a good understanding. Kidd was fitted out with a ship by Bellamont, Robert Livingstone, and others, including several English noblemen. Turning pirate him- self, Kidd was afterward arrested in Boston by the Earl, and sent home for trial. The Earl was a nobleman of polite manners, a great favorite of King William, and very popular among the people both of New York. 1701. and Boston. He had been dissipated in his youth, but afterward became penitent and devout. He died in New York in March, 1701.
On the death of Earl Bellamont, the government devolved upon Mr. Nanfan, the Lieutenant-Governor, until the appointment of Lord Cornbury in 1702.
1702. A public dinner was given in honor of his arrival; he was presented with the freedom of the city, in a gold box; and a congratulatory address was tendered him by the city authorities. It was not long, however, before his true character appeared. He was a very tyrannical, base, and profligate man, and was appointed to the government of New York by King William as a reward for his desertion of King James, in whose army he was an officer. He was a savage bigot and an ungentlemanly tyrant He imprisoned several clergymen who were dissenters, and robbed the Rev. M. Hubbard, of Jamaica, of his house and glebe. He was wont to dress himself in women's clothes, and thus patrol the fort. His avarice was insatiable, and his disposition that of a savage.
The only things worthy of note during his adminis- tration are : First, the establishment by the corporation of the city of a free grammar-school ; and, second, the rag- ing of a malignant epidemic, which strongly resembled the yellow-fever. The terror-stricken citizens fled to the shores of New Jersey and Staten Island; and Lord Cornbury, with his council, took up his quarters at Ja-
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maica, Long Island. But the inhabitants of New York had a worse plague than even the pestilence, in Corn- bury ; who, at length, becoming an object of uni- versal abhorrence and detestation, was superseded 170S. by Queen Anne, who, in the autumn of 1708, appointed John, Lord Lovelace, Baron of Hurley, in his place.
Lovelace, however, did not long enjoy either the cares or pleasures of office. He died on the 5th of May in the next year, of a disorder contracted in crossing the ferry on his first arrival in New York. On the death of his lordship, the government once more devolved upon Richard Ingoldsby, the Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, until the arrival of Governor Hunter, in the summer of 1710.
1710.
Hunter was a Scotchman, and when a boy, an ap- prentice to an apothecary. Leaving his master, he entered the army, and, being a man of wit and beauty, gained promotion, and also the hand of Lady Hay. In 1707, he was appointed Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia, but being captured by the French on his voyage out, on his return to England he was appointed to the govern- ment of New York and New Jersey, then united in the same jurisdiction. Governor Hunter was the man who brought over the three thousand Palatines from Germany, by whom the German settlements in the interior of New York and Pennsylvania were founded. He administered the government of the colony " well and wisely," as was said to him in an affectionate parting address by the General Assembly, until the summer of 1719, 1719. when he returned to England on leave of absence, as well on account of his health as to look after his private affairs. He intimated, upon his departure, that he might return to the government again, but did not. The chief command on his departure devolved on the Hon. Peter Schuyler, as the oldest member of the council, but only
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for. a brief period. He, however, held a treaty with the Six Nations at Albany, which was considered satisfactory; yet it would have been more so had his efforts to induce the Confederates . to drive Joncaire, the agent of the French, out of their country, been successful. This Jesuit emissary had resided among the Senecas from the begin- ning of Queen Anne's reign. He had been adopted by them, and was greatly beloved by the Onondagas. He was incessant in his intrigues in behalf of the French, facilitating the missionaries in their progress through the country, and contributing greatly to the vacillating course of the Indians toward the English. Schuyler was aware of all this; but, notwithstanding his own great influence over the Six Nations, he could not prevail upon them to discard their favorite. In other respects the government of Schuyler was marked by moderation, wisdom, and integrity.
About this period a " new market was established at the upper end of Broad Street, between the City Hall and Exchange Place, and permission was given to the resi- dents of the vicinity to erect stalls and sheds to suit their convenience, under the direction of the Clerk of the Market. Country people were also permitted to sell meat at wholesale or retail, as they pleased, subject to the same supervision ; and bakers were required to brand their loaves with their initials, under penalty of forfeit- ure of the bread. In the spring of the same year (1711), it was resolved that a meeting of the Common Council should be held at the City Hall on the first Friday of every month ; and the treasurer was also ordered to pur- chase eighteen rush-bottomed chairs and an oval table for their accommodation.
In regard to the appearance of the city itself at this time we are not left entirely to conjecture. In the month of October 1704, Miss Sarah Knight, a Boston lady of considerable shrewdness and observa-
1704.
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tion, and who was connected with some of the old New- England families, traveled on horseback from Boston to New York, on a visit to some of her friends. During her journey she kept a journal, in which she jotted down her experiences of men and things noted by the way. This journal, which has recently been printed for private cir- culation, contains the following quaint passage, descriptive of the city at this period :
" The Citie of New York is a pleasant well compacted place, situated on a commodious River, wch is a fine harbour for shipping. The Building Brick Generaly very stately and high, though not altogether like ours in Boston. The Bricks in some of the Houses are of divers Coullers and laid in Checkers, being glazed, look very agreeable. The inside of them are neat to admira- tion, the wooden work, for only the walls are plastered, and the Sumers and Gist * are plained and kept very white scowr'd as so is all the partitions made of Bords. The fire-places have no Jambs (as ours have) But the Backs run flush with the walls, and the Hearth is of Tyles and is as farr out into the Room at the Ends as before the fire, wch is Generally Five foot in the Low'r rooms, and the peice over where the mantle tree should be is made as ours with Joyners work, and as I suppose is fasten'd to iron rodds inside. The House where the Vendue was, had Chimney Corners like ours, and they and the Hearth were laid wth the finest tile that I ever see, and the stair cases laid all with white tile which is ever clean,t and so are the walls of the Kitchen, whch had a Brick floor. They were making Great preparations to Receive their Governor, Lord CORNBURY from the Jerseys, and for that End raised the militia to Gard him on shore to the fort. #
"They are Generaly of the Church of England and have a New-England Gentleman § for their Minister, and a very fine church set out with all Cus- tomary requisites. There are also a Dutch | and Divers Conventicles, as they
* Summers and joist. The Summer. a word now not in very common use, was a central beam supporting the joist, such as is now sometimes called the bearing beam.
t The tiles were set into the wall, forming, as it were, a continuous border or row of the width of one tile (or perhaps sometimes of more) close to the upper line of staircase. The Coeymans house, standing on the bank of the Hudson, just north of the village of Coey- mans, still shows most of these peculiarities of building mentioned by Mme. Knight; the staircase laid with tiles, no plaster except on the walls, and heavy floor-timbers, strengthened at the ends by solid knees, planed and " kept very white scoured."
* On the block beween Bowling Green, Whitehall, Bridge, and State Streets .- Valentine's History of New York, 28.
§ William Vesey. previously "a dissenting preacher on Long Island He had received his education in Harvard under that rigid Independent. Increase Mather, and was sent thence by him to confirm the minds of those who had removed for their convenience from New England to this Province. * * * But Col. Fletcher, who saw into his design, took of Mr. Vesey by an invitation to this living ; * * * and Mr. Vesey returned from Eng- land in Priest's orders."-Documentary History of New York, III, 438.
! The Reformed Dutch Church, built in 1693. in what is now Exchange Place .- Greenleaf's History of N. Y. Churches, 11.
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call them, viz. : Baptist,* Quakers,t &c. They are not strict in keeping the Sabbath as in Boston and other places where I had bin, But seem to deal with great exactness as far as I see or Deall with. They are sociable to one another and Curteos and Civill to strangers and fare well in their houses. The English go very fashernable in their Dress. But the Dutch, especially the middling sort, differ from our women, in ther habitt go loose, were French muches wch are like a Capp and a head band in one, leaving their ears bare, which are sett out wth Jewells of a large size and many in number. And their fingers hoop't with rings, some with large stones in them of many Coullers as were their pendants in their ears, which You should see very old womens wear as well as Young.
" They have Vendues very frequently, and make their earnings very well by them, for they treat with good Liquor Liberally, and the customers Drink as Liberally, and Generally pay for't as well, by paying for that which they Bidd up Briskly for, after the sack has gone plentifully about, tho' sometimes good 'penny worths are got there. Their Diversions in the Winter is Riding Sleys about three or four Miles out of Town, where they have Houses of entertain- ment at a place called the Bowery, ; and some go to friends' Houses, who handsomely treat them. Mr. BURROUGHS carry'd his spouse and Daughter and myself out to one Madame DOWES, a Gentlewoman that lived at a farm House, who gave us a handsome entertainment of five or six Dishes and choice Beer and metheglin, Cyder, &c., all which she said was the produce of her farm. I believe we mett fifty or sixty slays that day ; they fly with great swiftness, and some are so furious that they'll turn out of the path for none except a Loaden Cart. Nor do they spare for any diversion the place affords and sociable to a degree, they'r Tables being as free to their Naybours as to themselves."
William Burnet, son of the celebrated prelate of that name, who flourished in the reign of William and Mary, succeeded Hunter in the government of the colony, in the year 1720; and of all the colonial Governors 1720. of New York, with the exception of Colonel Don- gan, his Indian and colonial policy was marked by the most prudent forecast and the greatest wisdom. Imme- diately after the peace of Utrecht a brisk trade in goods for the Indian market was revived between Albany and
* Greenleaf, however, gives 1799 as the first Baptist preaching-that of Wickenden. A petition of Nicholas Eyres states that in 1715 his house was registered for an Anabaptist meeting-house .- Documentary History of New York, III, 480.
t The first Friends' Meeting-house-a small frame building, standing on Little Green Street-is said to have been erected in 1696 or 1705 .- Greenleaf. 116.
* ** A small tavern stood on the banks of the Harlem River. This tavern was the occa- sional point of excursion for riding parties from the city, and was known as the . Wedding. place." One or two small taverne were on the road between the town and the Bowery."- Valentine's History of New York, 69.
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Montreal, the Caughnawaga tribe of the Mohawks resid- ing near Montreal serving as carriers. The chiefs of tlie Six Nations foresaw the evil and inevitable consequences to result from allowing that trade to pass round in that direction, inasmuch as the Indians would of course be drawn exclusively to Montreal for their supplies, to be received immediately at the hands of the French, and they cautioned the English authorities against it. Mr. Hunter had indeed called the attention of the General Assembly to the subject at an antecedent period; but no action was had thereon until after Mr. Burnet had as- sumed the direction of the colonial administration. The policy of the latter was at once to cut off an intercourse so unwise and dangerous with Montreal, and bring the entire Indian trade within the limits and control of New York. To this end an act was passed, at his suggestion, subjecting the traders with Montreal to a forfeiture of their goods, and a penalty of one hundred pounds for each infraction of the law. It likewise entered into the policy of Mr. Burnet to win the confidence of the Caughnawagas, and reunite them with their kindred in their native valley. But the ties by which the Roman priesthood had bound them to the interests of the French were too strong, and the efforts of the Governor were unsuccessful.
In furtherance of the design to grasp the Indian trade, not only of the Six Nations, but likewise that of the re- moter nations of the upper lakes, a trading-post was established at Oswego in 1722. A trusty agent was also appointed to reside at the great council-fire of 1722. the Onondagas, the central .nation of the Confederates. A congress of several of the colonies was held at Albany to meet the Six Nations, during the same year, which, among other distinguished men, was attended by Gov- ernor Spottswood, of Virginia, Sir William Keith, of Penn- sylvania, and by Governor Burnet. At this council the
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chiefs stipulated that in their Southern war expeditions they would not cross the Potomac; and in their marches against their Southern enemies, their path was to lie westward of the great mountains, meaning the Allegha- nies. Mr. Burnet again brightened the chain of friend- ship with them on the part of New York, notwithstand- ing the adverse influences exerted by the Chevalier Jon- caire, the Jesuit agent residing alternately among the Senecas and Onondagas.
The beneficial effects of Mr. Burnet's policy were soon apparent. In the course of a single year more than forty : young men plunged boldly into the Indian country as traders, acquired their language, and strengthened the precarious friendship existing between the English and the more distant nations ; while tribes of the latter pre- viously unknown to the colonists, even from beyond the Michilimackinac, visited Albany for purposes of traffic.
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