History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals., Part 5

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co.
Number of Pages: 703

USA > New York > Queens County > History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals. > Part 5

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Rev. Paul Cuffee was another Indian preacher on the island. He was buried about a mile west of Canoe Place, where the Indian meeting-house then stood, and a neat marble slab has been erected to his memory by the Mis- sionary Society of New York, which employed him. The writer has conversed with persons who gave testimony to his piety and the fervor of his eloquence.

The Indian kings at Montauk have for a century and more borne the name or Pharoah or Pharo. This was doubtless conferred upon them by the first misssionaries, who are also responsible for Solomons, Tituses and other Christian and classic names. A squaw who died recently at Easthampton at a very advanced age was named Han- nah Hannibal. One of the Montauk Pharoahs died about three years ago and his brother succeeded him. He bore the traits of pure blood in the sallow complexion and long straight hair of his race. With the advance of settlements on the island the Montauks have faded away, till but a remnant of scarcely a dozen pure bloods remains on the reserved "Indian fields " on the promontory of Montauk. Subject to their reservations the whole promontory was

recently sold in partition sale of the property to Arthur W. Benson, of Brooklyn, for $151,000.

The influence of their friends at Easthampton kept these Indians from taking part in King Philip's and other wars, and from being violently blotted out like most of their brethren. Elsewhere many of them have succeeded in whaling enterprises, and they have been ingenious in basket making. Some of those remaining around Mon- tauk are useful sailors or domestics.

The Shinnecock tribe, much modified by negro inter- marriages, still cluster about Southampton to the number of about 200. They are in general a worthy and indus- trious people, with a good school and much pride of character. Many will recollect the mourning which went abroad on the loss, in the wreck of the "Circassia," of that fine corps of sailors of the Shinnecock tribe, whose courage and manliness were of a high heroic type.

CHAPTER III.

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT OF LONG ISLAND-HISTORY OF COLONIAL TIMES.

HE names by which Long Island was called by the Indians were various. Among them were Mattanwake, Meitowax, Sewanhacky (Island of Shells), Paumanake, etc. By rea- son of its form the early settlers applied to the island its present name. The colonial Legis- lature in 1693 changed it to Nassau, in honor of William of Nassau, Prince of Orange, and required that all legal instruments should recognize that name. It never acquired more than a partial use, and though the act is unrepealed the name is obsolete.

There have been traditions that this island was visited by Europeans prior to its discovery by Hudson; but these are probably no more reliable than similar traditions concerning other regions. An account of a voyage by John de Verazzano, in 1524, was published, and from his description it is believed by some that he entered the harbor of New York. Others insist that his journal gives no foundation for such a belief.

The first discovery of Long Island by Europeans was made early in September 1609, by Henry Hudson, an Englishman in the employ of the Dutch East India Company. He had sailed in the "Half Moon " from Amsterdam on the 25th of the preceding March in search of a northwest passage to India. After touching at var- ious points on the coast north he sailed south to the mouth of Chesapeake Bay; then, passing north, entered Delaware Bay, from which he again sailed northward and entered New York Bay on the 3d of September. During the week that he remained there a boat's crew, engaged in making explorations, landed at Coney Island-the first portion of Long Island pressed by the foot of a white

DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT.

man. On the 6th, John Colman, of a party that was sent up the river to sound and explore, was killed and two others were wounded by a party of twenty-six savages in two canoes. The next day Colman's body was buried on the shore, and the place of his interment was named Col- man's Point. By some this is believed to have been Sandy Hook; by others, Coney Island. After the discovery of the island by Hudson the region was visited by private adven- turers to trade, but in 1614 a decree of the States General forbade this and gave to the East India Company monopoly of this trade. In that year Adrian Block and Hendrick Christiance visited this region under the East India Com- pany and built a fort and some dwellings on the island of Manhattan or Manhattoes, as it was called by the Indians. Captain Block passed with his vessel through Hell Gate and sailed through the sound, and first discovered the insular condition of Long Island. Block Island, which was called by the Indians Manissees, was named in honor of him. It is said that his vessel was accidentally burned, and that he built another on or near Manhattan in the summer of 1614. If so, it was the first vessel built in the United States.

When English settlements were made in New England a rivalry at once sprang up between the English and the | they be redressed. To this no reply was given, though a Dutch, each power striving to strengthen its authority by protest was entered on their minutes against the meeting. When, in the same year, a second meeting assembled, the governor ordered them " to disperse and not to as- semble again on such business." extending its settlements. Under these circumstances the settlement of the western end of the island by the Dutch commenced. It is not known who was the first actual settler on Long Island. Settlements were made in Flat- A line had, in 1650, been established between the Dutch towns on the west and the English on the eastern end of the island by four commissioners-two from the Dutch government and two from the united colonies of New England, although the New England colonists had at that time no jurisdiction on the island. This line ran southward across the island from the " westernmost part of Oyster Bay." Notwithstanding this arrangement the Dutch governor continued to claim jurisdiction over Oyster Bay. lands, Kings county, as early as 1636, possibly earlier. It is not probable that any settlement was made at the Wallabout prior to 1636. The name of this bay is cor- rupted from " Wahle Bocht" or "Waale Boght," which according to the late Hon. Teunis G. Bergen means "the Beach or Shore of the Cove;" Samuel Ogden renders it "the Bend of the Inner Harbor." Settlers came and located as caprice or circumstance seemed to dictate, without any provision for local government. At nearly the same time permanent settlements were made on the The people at about this time were sorely troubled by what were known as "land pirates" or outlaws, who had been banished from New England, and against these the Dutch governor failed to afford them protection. west end of the island by the Dutch and on the east by the English. Both purchased their lands from the Indians; the English directly, and the Dutch through their governors, who first extinguished the Indian title, then parceled out the land to individuals in various ways, or gave permits to purchase from the Indians.

On the west end of the island the Dutch in 1636 set- tled Brooklyn, first named Breuckelen after a town of that name in the province of Utrecht, in Holland; Flatlands, first New Amersfort, after a place of the same name in Holland, also in 1636; Flushing, or in Dutch Vlissingen, also after a place of the same name in Holland, 1645; Flatbush, originally Midwout, after Midwout in Holland, 1651; New Utrecht in 1657, and Bushwick or Woodtown in 1660.

English immigrants were permitted to settle on territory claimed by the Dutch on taking the oath of allegiance to the Dutch government. Of the English towns under the jurisdiction of the Dutch Hempstead was settled in 1643; Gravesend in 1645; Jamaica, originally Rusdorp,

in 1655, and Newtown, first called Middlebury, in 1656. The jurisdiction of Oyster Bay, which was settled in 1653, was not during many years determined, but it finally came under Connecticut.

The Dutch towns appear to have been wholly under the control of the governor, whose will in all matters -- general and individual, civil and ecclesiastical-was ab- solute. The English towns under Dutch jurisdiction were allowed to choose their own officers, subject to the approval of the governor, to hold their town meetings, and manage their own matters as nearly like the eastern towns as circumstances would permit.

It was hardly to be expected that in the exercise of power so nearly absolute the representatives of their High Mightinesses, as the States General was termed, should not at times yield to their caprices, their sympathies or an- tipathies, and do arbitrary and oppressive acts. In the case of Governor Stuyvesant his tyrannical disregard of the people's rights led to the assembling, in 1653, of delegates from New York, Brooklyn, Flatbush, Flatlands, Graves- end, Newtown, Flushing and Hempstead, and the adoption of an address to the governor and council and States General, setting forth their grievances, and asking that

It may here be remarked that the administration of Governor Stuyvesant, from about 1656 to the conquest in 1664, was disgraced by a degree of religious intolerance, and especially by persecution of the Quakers, which rivaled but which did not equal that of the Puritans of New England, of whom it may truly be said that the principle of religious liberty never dawned on their minds. For this persecution he was rebuked by the authorities in Holland. These persecutions were renewed about the commencement of the eighteenth century under the ad- ministration of Lord Cornbury, who in religious intoler- ance was fully equal to Peter Stuyvesant.

In 1662 a new charter was granted to Connecticut, and this charter was interpreted to include the whole of Long Island. The eastern towns gladly availed themselves of this interpretation, and in 1663 the English towns under Dutch jurisdiction resolved to withdraw from that juris-

GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND.

diction and place themselves also under Connecticut. Soon afterward two commissioners were appointed by Connecticut to organize the government of that colony in these towns; but it does not appear from history that they fulfilled their mission, and the unsatisfactory con- dition of things continued till the conquest in 1664.

As has been stated, the settlements of the Dutch were limited to the western end of the island, and their juris- diction to a comparatively small portion of that end. The eastern end was settled by English immigrants, un. der different auspices, and its settlement commenced a few years later.

In 1620 King James I. of England granted to the Plymouth Company a charter for all the land between the 40th and 48th degrees of north latitude, extending from "sea to sea", which territory was termed New England. In 1636, at the request of King Charles I., the Plymouth Company conveyed by patent to William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, the whole of . Long Island and the adjacent islands. Earl Stirling appointed James Farret his attorney for the sale of his real estate, and authorized him to select for himself twelve thousand acres of the territory. Farret selected Shelter Island and Robin's Island in Peconic Bay, and in 1641 sold these to Stephen Goodyear, of New Haven. Soon after the death of Earl Stirling and his son in 1640, the heir of the latter, grandson of the earl, for a consideration of three hundred pounds, surrendered to the crown the grant from the Plymouth Company, and it was embodied in the grant to the Duke of York, April 2nd 1664, which thus described it: "And also all that island or islands commonly called by the several name or names of Meito- wacks, or Long Island, situate, lying and being toward the west of Cape Cod and the narrow Higansetts, abut- ting upon the mainland between the two rivers there called or known by the several names of Connecticut and Hudson's River."

In 1662 the Connecticut colony claimed Long Island under that clause in their charter of that year which in- cluded the "islands adjacent," and in 1664 sent a com- mission to the island to assert jurisdiction. The conquest in that year put an end to their proceedings. With this ex- ception no claim was made by any power to the eastern portion of the island between the years 1640 and 1664.

The eastern towns were settled by the English as fol- lows: Gardiner's Island (annexed in 1680 to Easthamp- ton) in 1639. It was purchased in that year by Lion Gardiner from the attorney of Lord Stirling. Mr. Gar- diner had previously purchased it from the Indians. This was the first English settlement, and Mr. Gardiner was one of the first English settlers in the State of New York. Southampton and Southold were settled in 1640, East- hampton in 1648, Shelter Island in 1652, Huntington and Oyster Bay in 1653 though the latter was claimed by the Dutch, Brookhaven in 1655, and Smithtown in 1663.

Most of the settlers in these towns were previous im- migrants in New England, who crossed the sound iu larger or smaller companies and established independent settlements, which as their numbers increased came to be

little republics, completely independent of all other powers. Although there were differences in the details of the government of the different towns, there was a general similarity among them. Each had its legislative, executive, and judicial department. The people assem- bled in town meeting constituted the legislative depart- ment, and in important cases the judicial also. In that case the assembly was sometimes termed the general court of the town. Two or three magistrates, a clerk, and a constable usually constituted the ordinary judicial and executive functionaries of the town. Of course the people required no bill of rights or constitution to pro- tect them from oppression by their rulers, for they were their own rulers. They organized companies of citizen soldiers, erected and garrisoned forts when necessary, enacted and enforced laws to regulate not only civil but also social and religous matters, and to guard against threatened vices as well as to restrain existing evils churches were erected, schools were established, and ministers and teachers were supported by taxes on the property of the citizens, imposed by the people them- selves in their legislative character.

It is hardly necessary to say that these original settlers were l'uritans, and that, although they were not guilty of such manifestations of bigotry and intolerance as disgraced the Puritans of New England, they jealously guarded against the introduction among them of innovations which would exert what they deemed a deleterious influence. They required of those who proposed to settle among them a probation of from three to six months. and if at the end of that time they were not satisfactory to the people they were notified to leave within a specified time. They were thus able to prevent undesirable people from coming among them, and to maintain their religious faith free from contamination by those holding heterodox opinions. To guard against the evils of intemperance the sale of intoxicating drinks was restricted under heavy penalties. The profanation of the Sabbath, lying, profane cursing and slander were penal offences in most of the towns, and the whipping post, the stocks, pillory, etc. were in common use. Thus, each town managed its own affairs, without any combination with neighboring towns, till the island came to be a part of New York in 1664.

In view of their exposed situation and the difficulty of defending themselves against hostile attacks by the Indians or invasions by the Dutch, these towns one by one placed themselves under the protection of the New England colonies; without, however, subjecting themselves to tax- ation by those colonies, or relinquishing to the slighest extent their self-government. Southampton did this in 1644, Easthampton in 1657, Brookhavan in 1659, and Huntington in 1660. These came under the protection of Connecticut. Southold and Shelter Island assumed the same relation to New Haven in 1648. Connecticut and New Haven became united under a new charter in 1662, and these towns became a part of the new colony of Connecticut, sent representatives to the colonial As- sembly, and contributed toward the expense of the gov-

UNDER THE DUKE OF YORK.

ernment. In the same year Oyster Bay also assumed this relation.

The oppression to which the people in the towns under the jurisdiction of the Dutch were subjected has been spoken of. The inhabitants of both the Dutch and English towns had submitted to the tyranny of their rulers be- cause they saw no way of escape. In November of 1663 the people of the English towns held a mass meeting at Jamaica to consider their condition and devise means for their relief; but, although no attempt to disperse them was made, no results were accomplished. They were therefore ready to welcome anything which promised relief.

Early in 1664 Charles the Second of England granted to his brother James, Duke of York, territory which in- cluded New Amsterdam and all of Long Island. An ex- pedition was at once fitted out and sent under Colonel Richard Nicolls, who was commissioned deputy governor, to take possession of the colony. On his arrival at New York in August of that year he demanded of Governor Stuyvesant the surrender of his possessions, which was refused. Colonel Nicolls and the commissioners, Robert Carr, George Cartwright and Samuel Maverick, who had been sent with him to assist in the government of the colony, landed at Gravesend, and, at a meeting held for that purpose, consulted with the people, and with Gov- ernor Winthrop of Connecticut, and exhibited to them the royal grant to the Duke of York. He also issued a proclamation promising protection and all the privileges western towns of the island. After consultation with his burgomasters and the people Governor Stuyvesant, find- ing that the current of popular opinion set strongly in that direction, reluctantly consented to a surrender, and thus, without bloodshed, the government passed to the English.

of English subjects, and sent officers for volunteers in the changed to the present ones at this meeting, it is sup-

The people of the towns on the west end of the island acquiesced in the change, relying on the promise of Gov- ernor Nicolls and the commissioners that they should enjoy all the privileges of English subjects-a promise which was not fulfilled. The eastern towns, however, which had been independent, and which were then a part of Connecticut, were not willing to sever their political relations with that colony and become subject to the Duke of York, and Connecticut at first maintained her claim to them. Governor Winthrop, who had been one of the commissioners to arrange the terms of surrender, "informed the English on Long Island that Connecticut had no longer any claim to the island; that what they had done for them was for the welfare, peace and quiet set- tlement of his Majesty's subjects, they being the nearest organized government to them under his Majesty. But now that his Majesty's pleasure was fully signified by his letters patent their jurisdiction had ceased and become null."

In March 1665 a convention of delegates from the towns assembled at Hempstead, in accordance with a proclamation of Governor Nicolls, "to settle good and known laws within this government for the future, and receive yor best advice and information at a genall meet-

ing." At this convention the boundaries and relations of the towns were settled and determined, and some other matters adjusted. New patents were required to be taken by those who had received their patents from the Dutch authorities, and it was required that patents should be taken by those who had never received any, as was the case with the eastern towns. These required a quit-rent -a relic of fendal customs-which was the source of much trouble, and the subject of abuse afterward. A code of laws for the government of the province was also promulgated. These, which had been compiled at the dictation. of the governor, were termed the duke's laws. They contained many of the provisions which had been adopted by the eastern towns, and many of the enact- ments would be looked on at the present day as curios- ities. With some modifications they were continued in force till 1683, when the first provincial Assembly held its session. Thompson says: "In addition to other mat- ters which occupied the convention at Hempstead in 1665, Long Island and Staten Island (and probably Westchester) were erected into a shire, called after that in England Yorkshire, which was in like manner divided into sep- arate districts denominated ridings; the towns now in- cluded in Suffolk county constituted the East 'Riding;' Kings county, Staten Island, and the town of Newtown the 'West Riding,' and the remainder of Queens county the 'North Riding' of Yorkshire upon Long Island." The word " riding " thus used is a corruption of trithing -a third. The original names of some of the towns were

posed. So highly pleased were the delegates at this con- vention with the prospect before them, under the assur- ances of the governor, that they adopted and signed an address to the king, pledging loyalty and submission in terms that were not pleasing to the people and that were criticised with such severity that the court of assize is- sued an edict forbidding further censure of these dep- uties, under penalty of being brought before the court " to answer for the slander."

Under the duke's laws the justices-one in each town -were appointed by the governor, as was also the high sheriff of the shire, and a deputy sheriff for each riding. Each town elected at first eight and afterward four over- seers and a constable, who constituted a town court, with jurisdiction limited to cases of £5 or less. They also assessed taxes and regulated minor matters. Each riding had a court of sessions consisting of the justices, with whom the high sheriff, members of the council, and sec- retary of the colony were entitled to sit. It had criminal jurisdiction, and in civil cases its judgments were final in cases less than £20. The court of assize, which con- sisted of the governor, council and an indefinite number of magistrates, had appellate jurisdiction in cases from inferior courts, and original jurisdiction in suits for de- mands above £20.

No provision was made for a legislature; and, while this court of assize was nominally the head of the gov- ernment, the governor, who appointed the members of it, and who could remove most of them at his pleasure,

GENERAL HISTORY OF LONG ISLAND

really possessed unlimited legislative, executive and ju- dicial authority. Thompson says : "In this court the governor united the character of both judge and legislator. He interpreted his own acts, and not only pronounced what the law was but what it should be."

Although the people on the western end of the island became aware that the government under the Duke of York was framed on no better model then that under the Dutch governor, and those in the English towns that they were shorn of all their former privileges, Governor Nicolls exercised his powers so carefully and judiciously as to allay their discontent.

He relinquished the reins of government in 1668 and was succeeded by Francis Lovelace, who during his administration acquired the almost unanimous ill- will of the people. When, in 1670, a levy was made on the towns to raise money for repairing the fort at New York, nearly all the English towns, by vote, refused to obey the order for the contribution or levy unless "they might have the privileges that other of his Majesty's sub- jects have and do enjoy." Thompson says: "The English colonists on Long Island brought with them the doctrine that taxes could only be imposed with the con- sent of the people by their representatives in a general assembly." It is not known that this tax was ever col- lected in those towns. This was the first open manifes- tation in this country of a spirit of resistance to the in vasion of this right-a resistance which led, a century later, to the American Revolution.

The resolutions of refusal were laid before the governor and council, and were by them ordered to be publicly burned before the town house of the city. It is said of Governor Lovelace that in 1668 he wrote to Sir Robert Carr in New Jersey, that to keep people submissive the best method was "to lay such taxes upon them as may not give them liberty to entertain any other thoughts but how they shall discharge them."

Had not the administration of Governor Lovelace come to an end by a sudden and unexpected event, he would probably have suffered the full consequences of the pop- ular indignation which his disregard of the people's rights aroused. " The country, which had now been nine years governed by the Duke of York's deputies, and experienced in very full measure the ill effects of ignorance and indis- cretion in the conduct of its rulers, came once more under the government of their ancient masters, the Dutch."

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History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals., Part 5

Author: Publication date: 1882 Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co. Number of Pages: 703

Author:
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: New York : W.W. Munsell and Co.
Number of Pages: 703