USA > New York > Staten Island > History of Richmond County (Staten Island), New York : from its discovery to the present time > Part 9
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The latter paragraph appears as an endorsed memorandum, with the signature of Francis Lovelace attached to it.
Several young Indians were not present at the time the above conveyance was made, accordingly, in order to secure their firm understanding and approval it was again delivered on the 25th of April, and in their presence. They made their marks upon it as witnesses. The names of those who thus subscribed were- "Pewowahone, about 5 yeares old, a boy ; Pokoques, about 8 yeares old, a girle; Shirjuirneho, about 12 yeares old, a girle ; Kanarekante, about 12 yeares old, a girle ; Mahquadus, about 15 yeares old, a young man; Ashehanewes, about 20 yeares old, a young man."
This was the final sale of the island by the Indians, and we have no knowledge of any claim ever being made by them to its soil from that time forward to the present. It has already been said that the Indians were always ready to sell the island. In 1636 they sold it to Michael Pauw ; shortly after they sold a part to David Pietersen de Vries ; in 1641 to Cornelis Melyn ; in 1657 to Baron Van Cappelan, and in 1670 to Governor Love. lace. To this last sale they were obliged to adhere ; there was probably more ceremony about it. which rendered the transac- tion more impressive. In delivering possession, they presented
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a sod and a shrub or branch of every kind of tree which grew upon the island, except the ash and elder (some say ash and hickory).
The administration of Governor Lovelace was brought to an unexpected end by the surrender of the colony to its former masters, the Dutch. Rumors of anticipated troubles in Europe reached America, and Lovelace immediately began to make preparations for the worst, so far as his means permitted ; he strengthened the defenses of the fort, organized several military companies in the metropolis, and other places in the province, repaired arms and laid in a large quantity of ammunition and other warlike stores. In April, 1672, England and France de- clared war against Holland ; in Europe, the war was chiefly naval, and the English and French fleets suffered severely at the hands of De Ruyter and Tromp. On the 7th day of August, 1673, a Dutch fleet of twenty-three vessels arrived in New York bay, and anchored under Staten Island. Soon after their arrival they made a raid upon the plantation of Lovelace, and carried off sufficient cattle and sheep to make a breakfast for the 1,600 men on board the ships of the fleet. This arrival produced the greatest consternation in the city and neighboring villages. Lovelace himself was absent from the city at the time, and when the demand was made for the surrender of the fort, it was yielded without the firing of a gun. Captain Manning, the commandant of the fort, was afterward tried for treachery and cowardice, and sentenced to have his sword broken over his head.
The conquest having been consummated Anthony Colve was immediately appointed governor of the colony, and at once commenced the work of obtaining the submission of the people to his authority, and reorganizing the government according to his own notions. But the Dutch rule was of short duration. On the 9th of February. 1874, peace was concluded between England and the states general, by the treaty of Westminister, and according to its terms the colony reverted to the English. Major Edmond Andros, of Prince Rupert's dragoon regiment, which had been disbanded, was selected as the proper person to proceed to America and receive the province from the Dutch. Armed with the proper authority from the Dutch government, which had been furnished at the request of the English king, he arrived in the Diamond frigate in October, 1674, and an- chored under Staten Island. A correspondence was at once
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opened between him and Colve, which resulted in a surrender of the province on the 10th day of that month.
Andros having received his commission as governor, caused the oath of allegiance to be administered to the people ; the English government was once more established, and so con- tinned for a century thereafter. The Duke of York, apprehen- sive that the validity of his title might be called in question, in consequence of the province having been in the possession of a foreign power, received a new patent from the king.
Andros having been recalled, Brockholst administered the government until the arrival of Colonel Thomas Dongan, who, though commissioned September 30th, 1682, did not arrive until the 25th of the following August. Ile was a professed papist, but is said to have been a "wiser man than a master." The people of Staten Island are more directly interested in him than in any other governor of the province under either nation- ality ; having the whole country before him, from which to select his residence, he made choice of Staten Island, and the evidences of his residence here are still, in some measure, per- ceptible.
Let us pause in our narrative for a brief space, to take a view of the condition of the island at this early period. The first dwelling houses erected on the island after the removal of the Walloons to Long Island, were in the vicinity of the Narrows, or between that and Old Town, which is so called, probably, from that circumstance, and were not more than five or six in number. There was one, probably, at the extreme south end, and one or two at Fresh kill. Subsequently, in 1651, when the Waldenses arrived, and, after them, the Huguenots, the settlements at Old Town and Fresh kill received accessions. Before their arrival there were no roads, except, perhaps, foot-paths through the forest, between the two last-mentioned localities ; there was no need of any, for the intercourse of the islanders was with New Am- sterdam. After the settlements at Old Town and Fresh kill had received accessions, intercourse between them became more frequent, and, in due course of time, the road from the one to the other was constructed ; particularly after the Waldenses had built their church at Stony Brook, and the Hugnenots their at Fresh kill.
The houses were built in clusters, or hamlets, for convenience
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in nintual defense and protection. Tradition says that one of the first dwellings on the island was situated on the heights at New Brighton, and was constructed of bricks imported from Holland, and occupied, for a time at least, by a prominent of- ficial of the government. If there is any truth in the tradition, the house was, probably, the residence of de Vries, who, feel- ing secure in the friendship of the Indians, ventured to erect his dwelling in that beautiful, but remote, locality. That the builder's confidence in the Indians was not misplaced, the same tradition further says that, in 1655, when the great Indian war broke out, and the island was nearly depopulated, this house and its occupants were spared. In the latter part of the last century, and in the beginning of the present, all the territory embraced in the first, and most of the second wards of the present village of New Brighton constituted farms owned by the families of the Van Buskirks, Crocherons and Vreelands ; these farms extended from the kills one mile into the country. Abra- ham Crocheron, the owner of one of them, erected a grist mill in the valley east of Jersey street, relying for a supply of water on the spring now known as the Hessian spring ; but this not proving sufficient, he converted his grist mill into a snuff mill, for which the supply was abundant. About the same time Captain Thomas Lawrence built a distillery on a small wharf which now forms a part of the present large New Brighton wharf. Long before this part of the island was patented to any individual, and laid out into farms, and while it was yet covered with the original forests, there was a deep ravine, extending from the spring mentioned above to the kills, into which the tide ebbed and flowed, and which, in the days of the Dutch and early English governors, afforded a place of concealment for the smugglers who infested the coast. The face of the country has now become materially changed, by cutting down the hills and filling up the valleys.
In process of time, as settlers arrived, they located along the shores, and roads became a necessity ; these at first were con- structed along the shores, until at length cross roads for con- venience of communication between the several settlements were constructed. Some of these old roads have been closed, and the Clove road is the only original one now left.
In regard to the character of the early settlers, a writer of that century said : " As to their wealth and disposition thereto,
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HISTORY OF RICHMOND COUNTY.
so high, no one will live there, the creeks and rivers being so serviceable to them in enabling them to go to the city, and for fishing and catching oysters, and for being near the salt meadow. The woods are used for pasturing horses and cattle, for, being an island, none of them can get off. Each person has marks upon his own by which he can find them when he wants them. When the population shall increase, these places will be taken up. Game of all kinds is plenty, and twenty-five or thirty deer are sometimes seen in a herd. A boy who came in a house where we were, told us he had shot ten the last winter himself, and more than forty in his life, and in the same manner other game. We tasted here the best grapes. There are now about 100 families on the Island, of which the English constitute the least portion, and the Dutch and French divide between them about equally the greater portion. They have neither church nor minister, and live rather far from each other, and inconveniently to meet together. The English are less disposed to religion, and inquire little after it; but in case there was a minister, would contribute to his support. The French and Dutch are very desirous and eager for one, for they spoke of it wherever we went. The French are good Reformed church-men, and some of them are Walloons. The Dutch are also from different quarters. We reached the Island, as I have said, about 9 o'clock, directly opposite Gouanes, not far from the watering-place. We pro- ceeded southwardly along the shore of the highland on the east end, where it was sometimes stony and rocky, and sometimes sandy, supplied with fine constantly flowing springs, with which at times we quenched our thirst.
" We had now come nearly to the furthest point on the south- east, behind which I had observed several houses when we came in with the ship. We had also made inquiry as to the villages through which we would have to pass, and they told us the ' Oude Dorp' would be the first one we would come to; but my comrade finding the point very rocky and difficult, and believ- ing the village was inland, and as we discovered no path to follow, we determined to clamber to the top of this steep bluff, through the bushes and thickets, which we accomplished with great difficulty and in a perspiration. We found as little of a road above as below, and nothing but woods, through which no one could see. There appeared to be a little foot path along
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the edge, which I followed a short distance to the side of the point, but my companion calling me, and saying that he thought we had certainly passed by the road to the Oude Dorp, and observing myself that the little path led down to the point, I returned again, and we followed it the other way, which led us back to the place where we started. We supposed we ought to go from the shore to find the road to Oude Dorp, and seeing here these slight tracks into the woods, we followed them as far as we could, till at last they ran to nothing else than dry leaves.
" Having wandered an hour or more in the woods, now in a hollow and then over a hill, at one time through a swamp, at another across a brook, without finding any road or path, we entirely lost the way. We could see nothing but the sky through the thick branches of the trees over our heads, and we thought it best to break out of the woods entirely and regain the shore. I had taken an observation of the shore and point, having been able to look at the sun, which shone extraordi- narily hot in the thick woods, without the least breath of air stirring. We made our way at last, as well as we could, out of the woods, and struck the shore a quarter of an hour's distance from where we began to climb up. We were rejoiced, as there was a house not far from the place where we came out. We went to it to see if we could find any one who would show us the way a little. There was no master in it, but an English woman with negroes and servants. We first asked her as to the road, and then for something to drink, and also for some one to show us the road, but she refused the last, although we were willing to pay for it: she was a cross woman. She said she had never been at the village, and her folks must work, and we would certainly have to go away as wise as we came. She said, however, we must follow the shore, as we did. We went now over the rocky point, which we were no sooner over than we saw a pretty little sand bay, and a small creek, and not far from there, cattle and houses. We also saw the point from which the little path led from the hill above, where I was when my comrade called me. We would not have had more than three hundred steps to go to have been where we now were. It was very hot, and we per- spired a great deal. We went on to the little creek to sit down and rest ourselves there, and to cool our feet, and
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then proceeded to the houses which constituted the Oude Dorp. It was now about two o'clock. There were seven houses, but only three in which anybody lived. The others were abandoned, and their owners gone to live on better places on the Island, because the ground around this village was worn out and barren, and also too limited for their use. We went into the first house, which was inhabited by English, and there rested ourselves and eat, and inquired further after the road; the woman was cross, and her husband not much better. We had to pay here for what we eat, which we have not done before. We paid three gnilders in seewan, although we only drank water. We proceeded by a tolerable good road to Nieuwe Dorp, but as the road ran continually in the woods we got astray again in them. It was dark, and we were com- pelled to break our way out through the woods and thickets, and we went a great distance before we succeeded, when it was almost entirely dark. We saw a house at a distance to which we directed ourselves across the bushes; it was the first house of the Nieuwe Dorp. We found there an Englishman who could speak Dutch, and who received us very cordially into his house, where we had as good as he and his wife had. She was a Dutch woman from the Manhatans, who was glad to have us in her house.
"12th, Thursday .- Although we had not slept well, we had to resume our journey with the day. The man where we slept set ns on the road. We had no more villages to go to, but went from one plantation to another, for the most part belonging to French, who showed us every kindness because we conversed with them in French. .
" About one-third of the distance from the south side to the west end is still all woods, and is very little visited. We had to go along the shore, finding sometimes fine creeks well pro- vided with wild turkeys, geese, snipes and wood-hens. Lying rotting on the shore were thousands of fish called marsbaucken, which are about the size of a common carp. These fish swin close together in large schools, and are pursued by other fish so that they are forced upon the shore in order to avoid the mouths of their enemies, and when the water falls they are left to die, food for the eagles and other birds of prey. Proceeding thus along, we came to the west point, where an Englishman lived alone, some distance from the road. We ate something
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here, and he gave us the consolation that we would have a very bad road for two or three honrs ahead, which indeed we experi- enced, for there was neither path nor road. He showed us as well as he could. There was a large creek to cross which ran very far into the land, and when we got on the other side of it we must, he said, go outward along the shore. After we had gone a piece of the way through the woods, we came to a valley with a brook running through it, which we took to be the creek or the end of it. We turned around it as short as we could, in order to go back again to the shore, which we reached after wandering a long time over hill and dale, when we saw the creek, which we supposed we had crossed, now just before us. We followed the side of it deep into the woods, and when we arrived at the end of it saw no path along the other side to get outwards again, but the road ran into the woods in order to cut off a point of the hills and land. We pursued this road for some time, but saw no mode of getting out, and that it led fur- ther and further from the creek. ' We therefore left the road, and went across through the bushes, so as to reach the shore by the nearest route according to our calculation. After continu- ing this course about an hour, we saw at a distance a miserably constructed tabernacle of pieces of wood covered with brush, all open in front, and where we thought there were Indians, but on coming up to it we found in it an Englishman sick, and his wife and child lying upon some bushes by a little fire. We asked him if he was sick ? 'I have been sick over two months,' he replied. It made my heart sore, indeed, for I never, in all my life, saw such poverty, and that, too, in the middle of the woods and wilderness. After we had obtained some informa- tion as to the way, we went on, and had not gone far before we came to another house, and thus from one farm to another, French, Dutch, and a few English, so that we had not wandered very far ont of the way. We inquired, at each house, the way to the next one. Shortly before evening we arrived at the plantation of a Frenchman, whom they called La Chaudronnier, who was formerly a soldier under the Prince of Orange, and had served in Brazil. He was so delighted, and held on to us so hard, that we remained and spent the night with him.
" 13th, Friday .- We pursued our journey this morning from plantation to plantation, the same as yesterday, until we came to that of Pierre Gardinier, who had been in the service of the
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Prince of Orange, and had known him well. He had a large family of children and grand-children. He was about seventy years of age, and was still as fresh and active as a young per- son. He was so glad to see strangers who conversed with him in the French language that he leaped with joy. After we had breakfasted here, they told us that we had another large creek to pass called the Fresh Kill, and then we could perhaps be set across the Kill Van Koll to the point of Mill Creek, where we might wait for a boat to convey us to the Manhatans. The road was long and difficult, and we asked for a guide, but he had no one, in consequence of several of his children being sick. At last he determined to go himself, and accordingly carried us in his canoe over to the point of Mill Creek in New Jersey, be- hind Kol [Achter Kol.] We learned immediately that there was a boat upon this creek loading with brick, and would leave that night for the city. After we had thanked and parted with Pierre le Gardinier, we determined to walk to Elizabethtown, a good half hour's distance inland, where the boat was. We slept there this night, and at 3 o'clock in the morning set sail."
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CHAPTER IV.
THE COLONIAL PERIOD-1683 TO 1775-
Erection of Richmond County .- Arrival of Huguenots .- Division of Richmond into Towns .- The Claims of New Jersey .- Patents and Land Grants .- Establishment of the Colonial Government .- Administration of Justice .- The Time of the French War .- Colonial Description .- Colonial Customs .- Statistics.
I T seems convenient and appropriate in treating this subject to regard the colonial period proper as beginning with the administration of Governor Dongan, although it had in many respects begun several years before. In 1683 Colonel Thomas Dongan, having received the appointment of governor, took the position on the 27th of August. He came with instructions from the duke to call a general assembly of the people's repre- sentatives. This he did, and the first assembly of the colony of New York convened in the city on the 17th of October, 1683. This assembly adopted a "bill of rights," repealed some of the most obnoxious of the duke's laws, altered and amended others, and passed such new laws as they judged the circumstances of the colony required. During the session an act was passed abolishing the ridings, and organizing in their stead the counties, with some alterations in the constitution of the courts.
The " Act to divide this province and dependences into Shires . and Counties," dated November 1, 1683, contains the following in reference to Staten Island:
"The county of Richmond to conteyne all Staten Island, Shutter's Island, and the islands of meadow on the west side thereof."
The county at this time contained some two hundred familios. It was allowed two representatives in the colonial assembly, and the next year, for the first time, a county tax was imposed, amonnting to fifteen pounds.
The colonial assembly met again in October, 1684. Among the acts passed at this session was one by which the court of
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assize was abolished. The election of a new assembly took place in September, 1685, and in the following month it was organized. Only two or three unimportant acts of this as- sembly remain on record, and it is probable that whatever other acts it may have passed, if there were any, were never enforced. On the death of Charles Il, the Duke of York ascended the throne of Great Britain with the title of James II. He now abolished the colonial assembly of New York, and re-estab- lished the governor as the supreme head of the colony, subject only to such instructions as the king himself might from time to time dictate.
We now come to a period in the civil and religious history of Staten Island of great and even romantio interest ; the arrival of the French Protestants or Huguenots. Years before, it is true, some had emigrated with the Dutch from Holland, but now they landed on these shores in considerable numbers, bringing with them useful arts, a knowledge of gardening and husbandry, and above all, their own well known virtues, with a pure, simple, Bible faith. Many of the descendants from this noble stock now remain to honor the island of their birth with the sterling character which they have inherited from their an- cestors.
'Though the Protestants of France had, under the famous "Edict of Nantes," enjoyed the free exercise of their religion for a time, yet after the death of Henry the Great the merciless fires of persecution were once more kindled-the rack, the gib- bet and the galley again began their sanguinary work all over the country, and with increased fury. The "Edict of Nantes " was formally revoked, when the Huguenots had now presented to their choice three things : to go to mass, sacrifice their lives and their property, or fly from their homes. Too true and in- dependent to do otherwise they chose the latter expedient, and half a million of them left beautiful but bigotted France for foreign lands. Every Protestant kingdom in Europe received them with open arms, where they soon became the most valu- able citizens, and many imitating the example of the Puritans, embarked for an asylum of safety to the new world, and to this island.
These settlers were celebrated for their industry and frugal- ity, and commenced the cultivation of the earth. Brave and independent, they imparted the same excellent traits all around
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them, and above all things else they cherished their religious duties and pious customs. It is a pleasant fact in the history of Staten Island, that the ancestors of the present population, whether from Holland, France or England, each were careful to maintain pure and evangelical principles in their families. Their churches were established here at an early period. The follow- ing record pertaining to the Huguenot church is so much of a curiosity that we take the liberty to insert it in full, as it ap- pears on one of the earliest books of record of the county.
" This following deed of Gifte was recorded for the french Congreygashone Residing with In the Countey of Richmond on statone Island the 22 day of may Annoque dom : 1698.
" To all Christiane peopell To whome Theas present wright- ing shall Come John bevealle Seanior of the Countey of Rich- mond and provence of new yorke weaver and hester his wife sendeth Greeting In our Lord God Eaver Lasting now know yee that wheare as Townas Ibbosone of the Countey of Richmond yeoman did by his certen wrighting or deed pole under his hand & sealle bearing date The seaventh day of feberary and in the third yeare of the Reign of our souvring Lord william the third by the Grace of God of England scotland france & Irland King annoque dom 169{ Grant bargone sell and convay unto John belvealle of the Countey of Richmond & provence of new yorke weaver his heirs Exekitors Admsios And asignes A serten trakt or parcell of Land sittiate Lying and being on the west side of statones Island neare the fresh killes begining by the medow and strechig in to the wood by the Lyne of fransis oseltone dyrekt south three hundred Rood from thence west six degrees & northerly thirtey six Rood thence dyrekt north by the Lyne of Abraham Lacmone three hundred Rood thence East thirtey six Rood Containing In all sixtey arcres as by the Recited deed pole Relashone theareunto being had doth and may more fully and att Large Appeare Now Know yee that the said John belvealle of Statone Island And provence of New Yorke and hester his wife Testified by her being A partey to the Ensaling and delivery of thease presents for the Reaell Loufe and Afeccone that they beare to the ministrey of Gods word and the savashone of yeare soules do firmley by theas presents firmley freeley & absolewtly Give Grante Rattifie & Confirme un to the french Congereygashone or Church upon Statones Island within the Countey of Richmond wone Arcer of
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