History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals., Part 55

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 55

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JACOB HUNTER.

Jacob Hunter, who was the last representative in the original family line of ownership associated with Hun- ter's Point, was a gentleman of quiet, genial nature, pos- sessed of excellent financial abilities and a soundness of judgment that caused him to be much valued as an ad- viser and friend. In personal appearance he was exceed- ingly fine looking, with a dignity of manner that beto- kened a gentleman of the olden school. His life proved a singularly fortunate one in every respect. He seemed one of those who are born to success in whatever they undertake. At the time of his death he was the posses- sor of a goodly share of real estate in the city of New York. Honorable and benevolent in all his dealings, his popularity was often shown by the avidity with which his fellow citizens would have placed him in of- fices of trust and responsibility, whose honors he in- variably declined; not because he did not appreciate the high esteem in which he was held by his coadjutors, but from a modesty peculiar to his nature, which fain would have thrown the official mantle upon shoulders which he deemed better fitted to wear it. The only pub- lic position which he was ever induced to accept was an office in the eleventh regiment New York State artil- lery, of which he became commander at an early period of his life. He seems thus to have been the only one of his family who had inherited the proclivities of their ancestor, Captain Peter Praa. Born in the year 1791, we find him when scarcely out of his boyhood serving actively in the war of 1812. When the war was ended he continued to belong to the military corps, serving in an official capac- ity with such men in his ranks as Prosper M. Wetmore, Thomas M. Adriance and Joseph Hopkins, who, contin- uing to serve until toward the close of his life, became commander-general of all the forces of New York city. In the year 1821 the cares of business obliged Mr. Hun- ter to resign his position as captain in the eleventh regi- ment of artillery, which was in later years merged in Company D) of the New York seventh. His sincere re- gret on leaving is expressed in a letter which has been carefully preserved, and in which he says: "Circum- stances over which I have no control oblige me to take this step, while inclination strongly pleads to detain me in the ranks. But rest assured that while absent from

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my accustomed post I shall still watch with interest from the distance, and should any emergency occur I can only add that when my country calls it will ever find me ready to follow." That pressing hour of need came not again until the war of the Rebellion, when Mr. Hunter was 70 years old, and consequently too far advanced in life to take any active part in the contest. Thus the antique sword rested in its scabbard, watched over and cared for as a family relic, until about a year ago, when it was thought best to accept an honorable abiding place offer- ed it in the relic-room of the veterans of the New York seventh regiment at their new and elegant armory at the corner of Sixty-seventh street and Fourth avenue, New York city. In the year 1815 Mr. Hunter married Miss Charlotte Lahy, a young English lady of ancient and noble family connections, her father being the nephew and adopted son of General Gwynn, who was aide de camp in the courtly retinue of King George JII. Outliving his wife ten years, Mr. Hunter died September 30th 1875, when he had attained to the advanced age of 84 years. A family of four children survived him, one of whom still resides in the old fam- ily mansion in Twenty-ninth street, purchased by her father more than a quarter of a century since. These, with their own especial connection and descendants, were from the only family of the name known in connec- tion with the earlier history of the metropolis and its immediate vicinity.

WILLIAM HALLETT.

The " out plantations" received a valuable accession to their population in the person of William Hallett, who, December Ist 1652, obtained a brief for a hundred and sixty acres of land which had previously been in posses- sion of Jacques Bentin (Bentyn) a member of Director- general Van Twiller's council. It was described as "a plat of ground at Hellegat, upon Long Island, called Jacques's farm, and, beginning at a great rock that lies in the meadow, goes upward southeast to the end of a very small swamp, two hundred and two rods; from thence northeast two hundred and thirty rods; on the north it goes up to a running water, two hundred and ten rods." Mr. Hallett was born in Dorsetshire, England, in 1616; he emigrated to New England, settling at Greenwich, Conn .; thence he removed to Hell Gate about the date mentioned. In 1655 his house and other buildings there were destroyed by the Indians and he removed to Flushing. The next year he was appointed sheriff, but "was deposed by Stuyvesant," says Riker, "fined and imprisoned for entertaining the Rev. William Wickenden from Rhode Island, allowing him to preach at his house, and receiving the sacrament of the Lord's Supper from his hands. Dis- gusted at this treatment, Mr. Hallett, on the revolt of Long Island from the Dutch, warmly advocated the claims of Connecticut; and, being sent as a delegate to the general court of that colony, he was appointed a commissioner or justice of the peace for Flushing. After- ward he again located at Hell Gate." The date of his

return is perhaps indicated quite nearly by an additional land purchase which he made later.

LAND PURCHASED AT HALLET'S COVE AND ELSE- WHERE.

Mention is made of the " purchase by William Hallett sen., of the town of Flushing," August ist 1664, of "a large tract of land near Hallett's Cove, from Shawestcont and Erramorhar, Indians residing at Shawcopshee, upon Staten Island, upon authority of Mattano, then sagamore, and in the presence of two Indians, Warchan and Kethcanaparan, and Randell Hewitt, John Coe, Jonathan Rite and Edward Fisher." It is described as "beginning at the first creek, called Sunswick; westward below Hell Gate, upon Long Island, and from the mouth of the aforesaid creek south to a markt tree fast by a great rock; and from that said markt tree southward, fifteen score rods, to another markt tree, which stands from an- other little rock a little westward, and from that markt tree east right to the point of an island which belongs to the poor's bouwery; and from the point of the island be- longing to the poor's bouwery round by the river, through Hell Gate, to the aforesaid creek westward, where it be- gan. Also an island which is commonly called Hewlett's Island, which island the aforesaid Hewlett did formerly live upon; as also all other islands within the tract of land aforementioned." December 5th 1664 the sagamore Mattano, " chief of Staten Island and Nyack," confirmed the above sale and acknowledged to have received in full payment for the land " fifty-eight fathom of wampum, seven coats, one blanket and four kettles." This trans- action is recorded in the office of the secretary of state, Albany (Deeds, II., 74, 75.) This tract was called by the Indians "Sintsinck," and it embraced nearly the whole of Hell Gate Neck. It (or so much of the aforesaid In- dian deed or purchase as had not been disposed of to others by ground-brief or patent) was afterward con- firmed to Hallett by the English governors Nicolls and Dongan. Therefore this sale did not affect the several grants to individuals lying within the limits of this terri- tory described. In 1667 Mr. Hallett began a suit against Captain Thomas Lawrence for the recovery of Berrien's Island, which the latter had obtained a patent for, but Hallett's claim was not admitted. As Mr. Hallett no longer held himself amenable to the government of New Netherland, it is improbable that he consulted Stuyves- ant in making this purchase.

ABRAHAM RYCKEN-THE HEWLETT FAMILY.

That he did not do so is indicated by the fact that on August 19th 1664 Abraham Rycken, a planter on the northern border of the town, obtained from the director- general a patent for Hewlett's Island. This island was so named in honor of the ancestor of the Hewlett family of Long Island (probably Lewis Hewlett, a native of Buckinghamshire, England), who at an earlier day had been driven from it by the Indians, who destroyed his house and other property. Recognizing the authority

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EARLY RESIDENTS OF LONG ISLAND CITY.

of the Dutch governor to dispose of the island, Governor Nicolls confirmed it to Rycken, December 24th 1667. It was afterward owned by the descendants of the origi- nal patentee, and has long been known as Riker's Island, the old name having gone out of use.

THE SITE OF ASTORIA-INDIAN OWNERS.

Hallett's purchase at Hell Gate Neck included much of the territory later incorporated as the village of Astoria. The original proprietor lived there to the age of about ninety, and was foremost in many early improve- ments. He divided his property at that point in 1688 between his sons William and Samuel, the former re- ceiving the lands south of the road since forming Greenoak street, St. George's Place, Welling and Main streets and Newtown avenue, the latter the lands lying north of that road.

It is probable that the Indians who sold Hell Gate Neck to William Hallett were of the Canarsie tribe, a clan of reputed power whose jurisdiction extended over the whole of Kings county, the islands in Hell Gate, and, O'Callaghan says, some part of Newtown. A large tract of land including the southwestern portion of the pres- ent city was deeded "to the inhabitants of Newtowne, alias Middleburg," by Pomwaukon and Roweroenesteo of the above tribe, July 9th 1666.

PLANTATIONS AT GREEN HOOK.

In the direction of Newton's Point, or the Green Hook, thirty years ago the property of Mr. Woolsey, were the small plantations owned by Jan Jacobson Car- penel (otherwise called Jan Van Haerlem) Adrian Derickse Coon, Hendrick Jansen Van Dueren, Lieven Jansen and Simon Joost. These five lots, contained in strips of about fifty acres each, abutted on the river or meadow, and extended back west-southwest some three hundred Dutch rods, to the Great Swamp, also called Lubbert's Swamp. The briefs for these lots all bore date in 1653 or 1654, and were afterward bought up by Major Thonias Lawrence, who also obtained from Governor Nicolls, August 23d 1665, a patent for the small island adjoining, commonly called " Round Island," now known as Berrien's Island; which, together with "a neck of land" included in the patent to Adriaen D. Coon, was afterward possessed by Ezra N. Berrien. Thomas Lawrence was the youngest of three brothers. The others were John and William, who came to America from England in 1635, landing in Massachusetts, but soon removing to New York. Both were men of ability and enterprise. Thomas came at a later date and became, as has been seen, a somewhat extensive landowner in the northern part of the present city. He was very prominent in military matters, locally, during the stormy times consequent upon the removal of Gov- ernor Andros. Berrien's Island was purchased of Timothy Wood, in 1727, by Cornelius Berrien, and has since been known by his name.

GERARDY-CRAYE-THE GREENOAKS-OTHER PIONEER

NAMES.

The Green Hook, since known as the G. M. Woolsey farm, was patented to Jean Gerardy, November 5th 1653. On the same day Teunis Craye took out a brief for the Polhemus estate, and another had been granted three days earlier to Philip Gerardy for the Dr. Ditmars farm. March 7th 1654 Annetie Jans Bogardus obtained a patent for forty-two morgen and fifty-four rods of land lying adjacent to the Pot Cove, and which later was in- cluded in the estates of 'Squire John and Major Richard Lawrence.

John Greenoak, the ancestor of the family of that name, came to Newtown early in the eighteenth century, from England, and in 1717 married Mary Lawrence, who after his death married Joseph Hallett in 1728. His son John Greenoak located on the farm near Hallett's Cove afterward owned by the Messrs. Higgins, carpet manu- facturers. He was three times married, his first wife having been Jemima Hallett. His son John Greenoak came into possession of an estate at Hallett's Cove, after- ward known as the H. F. Blackwell place. His wife was Lydia Hallett.

Nothing more has been attempted in the foregoing sketch than to give some account of the early settlement of the territory now included within the borders of Long Island City. No effort has been made to pursue the subject beyond what may properly be termed the pioneer period. The date of beginning was so remote and the sources of information have been found so meagre that no claim is made that all who deserve mention in the preceding pages have been referred to. What has been written is offered with the explanation that it is as nearly complete as it can be made, and in the hope that it will in some measure add to the interest of an article which has been prepared more especially to trace the growth and development of Long Island City than to give an account of early affairs of old Newtown. Among the more prominent families in different portions of what is now Long Island City in the past may be mentioned the Blackwells, Halletts, Lawrences, Lents, Ditmars, Suy- dams, and Greenoaks, of Astoria; the Bennetts and Hunters, of Hunter's Point; the Paynters, Tottens, Mil- lers, Delafields, Gibbses, and Parcells, at Ravenswood; the Van Alsts, Bragaws, Rapelyes, De Witts, Brinker- hoffs, De Bevoises, Duryeas, Morrells, Alsops, Polhe- muses, and Van Marters, of Dutch Kills, and the Wil- lings, of Middletown. Of many of these families des- cendants are now living in the city, and some of them rank among its most prominent citizens.

EARLY LAND TROUBLES.

The year 1700 gave, says Riker, " publicity to a dis- satisfaction of certain inhabitants of Hell Gate Neck because they were excluded from a voice in the disposal of the common land of the town; a right which the original purchasers, their heirs or assigns, had hitherto continued exclusively to enjoy. A bill was accordingly

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brought before the Assembly, on the 30th of October mon amongst the rest of the patentees; but so it is, inay 1700, entitled ' An act for quieting, settling and confirm- ing the legal rights and possessions of Thomas Lawrence, William Lawrence, Robert Burgess, Bergoon Bragaw, Henry Martensen, George Van Alst, John Lawrence, Andrew Van Alst, Johannes Van Alst, John Parcell and other ancient freeholders, possessors of land and inhab- itants of Hell Gate Neck, within the bounds of New- town, on Long Island, now called the Island of Nassau; and vacating all under patents, privately obtained, of any of the said land, against the just rights of said freehold- ers, and other the inhabitants of Newtown having rights.' After the third reading this bill was rejected on the first of November.

" The same bill, or one with a similar title, was intro- duced to the Assembly September 23d 1701 and submit- ted to a committee, which reported in favor, provided that nothing therein contained should be understood to affect the patents of the towns of Flatbush and Brook- lyn, with which the people of Newtown were yet at issue. The bill accordingly passed the Assembly, on the 14th of October, but it met with defeat in the council. Upon this second failure a bill was filed in the court of chancery. The purchasers of Newtown took prompt measures to resist this procedure, and met on February 9th 1702; the record of which meeting states that Cap- tain Thomas Lawrence and certain other persons have put a bill in chancery against several of the freeholders' patents within the township of Newtown, and, as is sup- posed, against the patent that includes the whole town, in order to destroy the said patents and make them void and of no effect; to prevent which the town chose a committee of three to employ counsel and act in their defense. The means thus taken were successful, and the residents of Hell Gate Neck, determined not to be thwarted in their purpose, drew up the following peti- tion, and presented it to the governor and council on the IIth of May 1703:

"To his excellency Edward Viscount Cornbury, Her Majesty's Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the province of New York, and territories depending there- on, in America, and Vice-Admiral of the same, &c., in council: The humble petition of several of the free- holders and inhabitants of the town of Newtown, in Queens county, on the Island of Nassau, sheweth: That Richard Nicolls, Esq., in the year 1666, being governor- general of this province under the Duke of York, granted unto Captain Richard Betts, Captain Thomas Lawrence, and others, as patentees for and on behalf of themselves and their associates, the freeholders and inhabitants of said town, their heirs, successors, and assigns, a parcel of land then commonly called by the name of the town of Newtown, bounded as in the said patent is more partic- ularly expressed, given to the said patentees and their associates, their heirs, successors and assigns forever. That your excellency's petitioners, or those they claim under, being at and before the time of the granting of said patent actually possessed of and entitled to houses, lands tenements, and hereditaments within the bounds of the said patent, as well as several other persons, and thereby equally entitled with them to such lands which were then unpossessed and remained in common, hoped and be- hooved to have had the advantage of said patent in com-

it please your excellency, that Samuel Moore, Thomas Stevenson, Joseph Sackett, Edward Hunt and John Way, with several of the inhabitants of the said town, of their own heads, without any power or authority for their so doing, have from time to time, as they think fit, assembled and met together, and given away. sold and disposed of great parts of the said town lands lying in common, as aforesaid, without the consent of your excel- lency's petitioners, or without any allowance to thein for their right and interest therein, contrary to all justice and equity. Your excellency's petitioners therefore humbly pray that your excellency in council will please to order the said persons to be summoned before your excellency, and require them to bring with them all such books, papers or other things as are in their or either of their custody, possession or power, relating to the prem- ises, in order that the sume may be fully discovered, and that your excellency, being particularly informed of the hardships your petitioners lie under, may grant them such redress as in your wisdom you may think fit. And your excellency's petitioners, as in duty bound, shall ever pray, &c."

" This petition was signed by William Lawrence, John Lawrence, John Van Alst, George Van Alst, William l'ar- cell, John Parcell, Jacob Fyn, Roelof Pietersen, Thomas Skillman, Cornelius Bries, Andrew Van Alst, Peter P'raa, Daniel Lawrence, Jonathan Lawrence, Syrach Titus, Peter Lott, Teunis Titus, William Post, John Coe, Ja- cobus Harcks, John Hart, Robert Coe, Jonathan Coe, and David Coe.

" Pursuant to the prayer of the petitioners the council summoned the clerk of Newtown to produce the books and papers of the town, which were given into the hands of three gentlemen of the council to examine the same and report 'how far the said books and papers do make out the allegations contained in the petition.' These gentlemen rendered a report on January 6th 1704, upon which the council directed a second examination of the records to be made by a new committee." The members of the first committee were Rip Van Dam, Gerard Beek- man and Caleb Heathcote. The second was composed of Sa. Sh. Broughton, Thomas Wenham and Matthew Ling. They rendered a report to Lord Cornbury, dated New York, February 3d 1704, in which, after referring to the report of the former committee and the " allega- tions of the petitioners and those petitioned against," they stated:

"We find that before the granting of Colonel Nicolls's patent to the town of Newtown a society of people had purchased and did occupy and enjoy a parcel of land commonly called and known by the name of the town of Middleburg, and that the said Colonel Richard Nicolls, by his patent bearing date the sixth day of March one thousand six hundred and sixty-six, did confirni to them the said purchase, and adjoin certain out plantations, not any ways concerned in the purchasing of the aforesaid tract of land, and made them all one township without any distinct reservation of the properties of the said purchasers entire to themselves; notwithstanding which the inhabitants of Middleburg (afterward called New- town) have acted distinct as to the sale and disposal of the lands purchased by them, or those under whom they claim, and have by themselves, at their own proper charges, maintained suits at law to maintain the bounds and title of their said purchase, without any contribu-

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MURDER OF THE HALLETT FAMILY.

tion from the out-plantations. And we do further find that the Lawrences and Coes and some few others of the petitioners were original purchasers of the said town of Middleburg, and have had their proportionable shares of the said purchase laid out to them; and particularly that the father of William Lawrence, one of the petitioners, hath transferred his right in the said purchase to one George Wood, as appears by the books of said town; that it appears to us that the matters complained of now by the petitioners were stirred in Colonel Dougan's time, who, by his patent dated the five-and-twentieth day of November one thousand six hundred and eighty-six, like- wise makes them one township, but reserves to the orig- inal purchasers of the town of Middleburg their distinct right to the said lands to them and their heirs only. And we do further find that the books of the town of New- town have been very imperfectly kept, but that on the whole it does appear to us that the said patent granted by the said Colonel Dongan was issued on mature con- sideration, and that ever since the granting thereof the patentees have acted according to the settlement of the said patent, and that all parties have rested satisfied un- der the said grant without any complaint made by them until the exhibiting of the said petition. They do not seem to us to be guilty of the matters therein alleged against them."

February 10th 1704 a final hearing of the case before the council was had, when it was decided that " the sub- ject matter of the petition was frivolous " and it was re- jected. This seems to have been one of those unfortu- nate disagreements which seem almost inseparable from the process of settling new sections and vesting the title to the land in individuals after it has long lain in a body under the ownership of a company or association. That the inhabitants of Hell Gate Neck imagined themselves really wronged is more than indicated by the persistency with which they all and severally urged their claim. Once settled, the disagreement was soon lost sight of in the march of improvement.

A TRAGEDY OF LONG AGO.

The following account of the cold-blooded murder of seven people, committed within the present borders of Long Island City nearly a century and three quarters ago, is extracted from Riker's " Annals of Newtown ": "Very near the present settlement of Middletown there lived a thrifty farmer, William Hallett jr., who held a portion of the land which his paternal grandfather had purchased of the natives. Near neighbors there were few or none, but his domestic hearth was enlivened by the presence of five children and a fond wife who was expected soon to add another to their store of conjugal comforts. In the family were two colored slaves, a man and wife, the former an Indian. Incensed, as was said at the time, because they were restrained from going abroad on the Sabbath, the woman meditated revenge and assured her husband that if he would only kill the whole family then the farm and everything pertaining to it would become his own. He at last yielded to the wicked suggestion and accomplished the atrocious deed while his victims were asleep. It was on Saturday night, the 24th of Janu- ary 1708. Hoping to screen themselves from suspicion they concluded to be the first to announce the tragedy,

and with this intent the female fiend, the prime instigator of the deed, set out early the next morning for Hallett's Cove. Entering a house, her first exclamation was: " Oh, dear! they have killed master and missis and the children with an axe, and only Sam and I have escaped." The truth, however, was too palpable and the guilty creature soon confessed who was the real murderer. Both were straightway arrested and lodged in Jamaica jail. Tidings of the affair were at once sent to Governor Cornbury, who immediately issued a special warrant to the judges, before whom, at Jamaica, the prisoners were arraigned for trial, and being found guilty they were executed on the plains east of that village, on Monday February 2nd in the presence of a large concourse of spectators. The woman was burnt at the stake. Her accomplice was hung in gibbets and placed astride a sharp iron, in which condition he lived some time; and in a state of delirium which ensued, believing himself to be on horseback, would urge forward his supposed animal with the frightful im- petuosity of a maniac, while the blood oozing from his lac- erated flesh streamed from his feet to the ground. How rude the age that could inflict such tortures, however great * Mr. Hallett was a son

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History of Queens County, New York : with illustrations, portraits, and sketches of prominent families and individuals., Part 55

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