USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester County, New York, from its earliest settlement to the year 1900 > Part 9
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
the whole district Pavonia. Westchester County, as an inviting lo- cality for a patroonship, did not immediately claim notice; but, as we shall see, it received in due time its share of attention in this regard, becoming the seat of one of the most noted of all the patroons, Adrian Van der Donck.
Much discontent arose among the general membership of the West India Company on account of the land-grabbing operations of the wealthy directors, which was intensified as time passed by continuing evidences of the self-seeking and general thriftiness of the patroons. It was charged that the latter paid little or no heed to the plain spirit of the charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, which in creating the patroons had in view essentially the development of the country granted to them; and that, instead of settling the land in good faith, they sought principally the profits of trade, coming into conflict with the interests of the company. One result of the controversy was the recall of Minuit, who was supposed to have shown too much partiality for the patroons and too little zeal for the protection of the company against their personal enterprises. This happened in 1633. The next director-general was Walter Van Twiller, who remained in of- fice until 1638, being dismissed for promiscuous irregularities of con- duct, both official and personal.
From the pages of De Laet, the historian of the West India Com- pany, we obtain an interesting statement of the fiscal affairs of New Netherland to the close of Minuit's directorship-that is, to the end of the first term of organized government. The total exports of the Province of New Netherland from its foundation to the beginning of 1633 amounted in value to 454,127 florins. The value of the imports during the same time was 272,847 florins. Thus for the nine years the company realized a profit on trade transactions of 181,280 florins, or about $8,000 annually. This was an exceedingly trifling return on a capitalization of nearly three millions of dollars, and it is no wonder that the practical-minded merchants who controlled the com- pany began to look in a decidedly pessimistic spirit at the whole New Netherland undertaking, and as time went by conceived a fixed indif- ference to the local welfare of such barren and unprofitable settle- ments. On the other hand, the company was carning magnificent sums in prize money from its captures of the enemy's merchant ships, and was drawing handsome revenues from the newly conquered dominions in South America and the West Indies. The contempt in which New Netherland came to be held because of its unproductive- ness is strikingly illustrated by the selections of men to manage its affairs. Van Twiller, who succeeded Minuit, was a mere coarse buf- foon; and Kieft, who followed Van Twiller, was a cruel and vulgar
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despot, who from the first regarded his position as that of sovereign lord of the country, and proceeded to rule it by his arbitrary will, dis- pensing with a council. It is sufficient to contrast these selections of rulers for New Netherland with the choice of Prince Maurice of Nas- sau for governor of the Province of Brazil, to appreciate the compar- atively low and scornful estimation placed upon the North American realms in the inner councils of the West India Company after due experience in their attempted exploitation. According to an explicit " Report on the Condition of New Netherland," presented to the States-General in 1638, the company declared that up to that time it had suffered a net loss in its New Netherland enterprise; that it was utterly unable to people the country; and that " nothing now comes from New Netherland but beaver skins, minks, and other fnrs."
Closely following the submission of this significant report came a new departure in policy as to colonization, which had far-reaching ef- feets, and under which before long a tide of immigration began to roll into our section.
Realizing at last that the splendid scheme of patroonships, or a landed aristocracy, instituted in 1629, appealed only to a limited class of ambitions and wealthy men, who could never be relied upon to per- form the tedions and financially hazardous work of settling the coun- ury with a purely agricultural population, the States-General on Sep- tember 2, 1638, at the instance of the company, made known to the world that henceforth the soil of New Netherland would be open to all comers, of whatever position in society, whether natives of the home country or inhabitants of other nations not at war with the Netherlands. The specific terms attached to this very radical propo- sition were the following:
" All and every the inhabitants of this State, or its allies and friends," were invited to take up and cultivate lands in New Nether- land, and to engage in traffic with the people of that region. Per- sons taking advantage of the offer of traffic were required to have their goods conveyed on the ships of the West India Company, paying an export duty of ten per cent. on merchandise sent out from the ports of the Netherlands, and an import duty of fifteen per cent. on merchandise brought thither from New Netherland. These certainly were not onerous customs exactions. Respecting individuals, of whatever nationality, desiring to acquire and cultivate land, the di- rector and council were instructed " to accommodate everyone, de- cording to his condition and means, with as much land as he can prop- erly cultivate, either by himself or with his family." The land thus conceded was to become absolute private property, and to be free from burdens of every kind until after it had been pastured or culti-
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vated four years; but subsequently to that period the owner was to pay to the company " the lawful tenths of all fruit, grain, seed, to- bacco, cotton, and such like, as well as of the increase of all sorts of cattle." Those establishing themselves in New Netherland under this offer were bound to submit themselves to the regulations and orders of the company, and to the local laws and courts; but there was no stipulation for the renunciation of allegiance to foreign potentates. Considering the illiberal tendency of international relations prevalent in the seventeenth century, and the native self-sufficient character of the Dutch race, this whole measure is remarkable for its broad and generous spirit. There was no allusion in it to the subject of religious conformity, and the per- feet toleration thus implied afforded a strong in- dneement to persons growing restive under the narrow institutions of the English colonies. This element, migrating from New England, found the shores of Westchester County most con- venient for settlement, and became one of the most important and aggressive factors of our early population.
The noteworthy measure of 1638, whose pro- visions we have just analyzed, was supple- mented in July, 1640, by an act of the States- General effecting a thorough revision of the charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629. The patroonships were not abrogated, but the right to be chosen as patroons was no longer confined to members of the company, and the privileges and powers of the patroons were sub- DUTCH COUNTRY PEOPLE. jected to considerable modification. The legal limits of their estates were reduced to four English miles along the shore, although they might extend eight miles landward in; and the planting of their " colonies " was required to be completed within three instead of four years. Trade privileges along the coast outside of the Dutch dominions were continued as before; but within the ter- ritory of New Netherland no one was permitted to compete with the ships of the company, excepting that fishing for cod and the like was allowed, on condition that the fisherman should sail direct to some European country with his catch, putting in at a Netherlands port to pay a prescribed duty to the company. In this act much greater rela- tive importance was attached to the subject of free colonists, or colo- nizers other than patroons, than in the original charter of 1629, the object manifestly being to assure the public that New Netherland was
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not a country set apart for lords and gentlemen, but a land thrown open in the most comprehensive way to the common people. Free colonists were defined to be those who should " remove to New Netherland with five souls above fifteen years," and all such were to be granted by the director-general " one hundred morgens (two hun- dred aeres) of land, contiguous one to the other, wherever they please to select." The colonists were put on precisely the same footing as the patroons in matters of trade privilege, and, in fact, enjoyed all the material rights granted to the patroons except those of bearing a title and administering great landed estates, which, however, were equally within their reach in case of their ability to comply with the require- ment for the transportation from the old country and introduction' into the new of fifty bona fide settlers. The company assumed the responsibility of providing and maintaining " good and suitable preachers, schoolnasters, and comforters of the sick "; and it ex- tended to the free colonists, no less than the colonists of the patroons, exemption from all taxes for a certain period. The former clause regarding negroes was renewed in about the same language, as fol- lows: " The company shall exert itself to provide the patroons and colonists, on their order, with as many blacks as possible, without, however, being further or longer obligated thereto than shall be agreeable."
Thus from 1629 to 1640 three distinct plans for promoting the set- tlement of New Netherland were formulated and spread before the public. The first plan, after being tested for nine years, was found a complete failure, because based upon the theory that colonization should naturally and would most effectively proceed from the patron- age of the rich, who, acquiring as a free gift the honors of title and the dignities of landed proprietorship, would, it was thought, readily support those honors and dignities by the substance of an established vassalage. It was soon found that such a theory was quite incapable of application to a country as yet undeveloped, and that the sole reli- able and solid colonization in the conditions which had to be dealt with would be that pursued on the democratic principle and under- taken in their independent capacity by citizens of average means and ordinary aims. It stands to the credit of the West India Company and the Dutch goverment that, having discovered their fundamental error of judgment in the first plan of settlement, they lost no time in framing another, which was made particularly judicious and liberal in its scope and details, and was as successful in its workings as the original scheme had been disappointing.
We have now arrived at the period indicated at the beginning of this chapter as that of the appearance of the first known settlers
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY
within the original historie borders of our County of Westchester. The attention of the Dutch pioneers on Manhattan Island had carly been directed to this picturesque and pleasant region, and it is a pretty well accepted fact that some land purchases were made from the Westchester Indians antedating 1639, although the records of these assumed transactions have been lost. The most ancient deed to Westchester lands which has been preserved to the present day bears date of August 3, 1639, and by its terms the Indians dispose of a tract called Keskeskeck; the West India Company being the pur- chasers, through their representative, Cornelius Van Tienhoven, pro- vincial secretary to Director Kieft.
In the next year Van Tienhoven was dispatched by Kieft on similar important business to this same section; and, April 19, bought from the Siwanoy Indians all the lands located in the southeastern portion of Westchester County, running as far east ward in Connecticut as the Norwalk River. The instructions under which he acted directed him to purchase the archipelago, or group of islands, at the month of the Norwalk River, together with all the adjoining territory on the main- land, and " to erect thereon the standard and arms of the High and Mighty Lords States-General; to take the savages under our protec- tion, and to prevent effectually any other nation encroaching on our limits." The purchase of 1640 was in the line of state policy, being conceived and consummated as a countercheck to the English, who, having by this time appeared in considerable numbers on the banks of the Connectient River, were making active pretensions to the whole western territory along the Sound and in the interior, and were thus seriously menacing the integrity of the Dutch colonial empire.
We may here appropriately pause to glance at some pertinent as- perts of British colonial progress in New England - aspects with which, we shall be bound to grant, those of contemporaneous Dutch development in New Netherland do not compare over-favorably.
The Pilgrims of the " Mayflower" landed on Plymouth Rock late in the month of December, 1620, a little more than two years before the original company of Walloons came to New York Bay on the ship "New Netherland." The first British settlement in New England and the first Dutch settlement in New Netherland were thus inaugurated almost simultaneously, the former having a slight advantage as to time, and the latter a considerable one in the possession of a more genial climate, a less stubborn soil, and a superior natural location, as also in the enjoyment of a more powerful, interested, and liberal home patronage. From the parent settlement at Plymouth, the Eng- lish not only rapidly advanced into the whole surrounding country. but in the course of a few years sent colonizing parties to quite remote
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localities; and wherever an English advance colony gained a foot- hold, there permanent and energetic settlement was certain very speedily to follow. As early as 1633 a number of Englishmen from Massachusetts, desiring to investigate the Indian stories of a better soil to the south, came and established themselves in the Connecticut Valley. Shortly afterward a patent for this region was obtained from the British crown by Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook. and others. In 1636 John Winthrop, son of Governor Winthrop, settled on the Connecticut with a goodly company; and in 1638 Theophilus Eaton, with the noted Rev. John Davenport, led a large band of settlers to the same locality, planting the New Haven colony. Rhode Island was brought under settlement also at that period by Roger Williams and other dissidents from the intolerant religious institutions of Massachusetts.
Now, the English, in establishing important and flourishing settle- ments throughout Connectient and Rhode Island. were, technically speaking, not in advance of the Dutch. The Dutch were the undis- puted first discoverers of the entire Connectient and Rhode Island coastline, along which the intrepid navigator Block sailed in 1614. Later, Dutch voyagers returned to those shores and trafficked with the natives; and finally, in 1623, when Director May arrived in New York harbor on his mission of colonization from the West India Com- pany, he dispatched a number of his Walloon families to the month of the Connecticut River. At the same place the arms of the States- General of the Netherlands were formally erected in 1632, and in 1633 Director-General Van Twiller bought from the Indians a tract of land called Conmittelsock, situated on the western Connecticut bank, on which tract, at a point sixty miles above the mouth of the stream, a Dutch fort and trading-house, named Good Hope, were built. In- deed, the English pioneers of 1633, proceeding down the Connecticut, found the Dutch already in possession there.
But the Dutch occupation of the month and valley of the Connec- tient River was never otherwise than merely nominal, a fact which, in view of the easily conceivable future importance of that quarter in connection with the maintenance of Dutch territorial claims, is cer- tainly striking, and characteristically illustrates Dutch deliberation and inefficiency in colonizing development as contrasted with English alacrity and thoroughuess. Moreover, all the connecting circum- stances indicate that the establishment by the Dutch of a fort and trading-post on the Connecticut was not prompted by serions designs of consecutive settlement, but was a pure extemporization in the in- terest of ultimate insistence upon lawful ownership of that region. From 1623, the year in which Manhattan Island was regularly settled,
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until 1639, a period of sixteen years, not a single Dutch colony had been founded, and probably not a single Dutch family had taken up its abode, in all the country intervening between the Harlem and the Connecticut Rivers-a country splendidly wooded and watered, with a highly interesting coast and rich alluvial lands, and vastly im- portant as an integral and related portion of the dominions of New Netherland. It may perhaps be replied that the whirlpool of Hell Gate presented a natural obstacle to convenient intercourse with the shores of the Sound, and consequently to advantageous settlement in the entire trans-Harlem country. But if the Manhattan Island col- ony had been animated by any noticeable spirit of progress, it would not have allowed sixteen years to pass without finding access to this region, either from the northern extremity of Manhattan Island or from the Long Island side. The truth is, there was no general devel- opment by the Dutch even of Manhattan Island during the period in question. Only its southern end was occupied by any regular aggre- gation of settlers, and this aggregation still existed mainly for the business of bartering with the Indians and sending to Holland " beav- er skins, minks, and other furs," the only products which, as declared in the " Report of 1638 on the Condition of New Netherland," were afforded by the province.
To review the comparative situation in 1640, while the English had steadily and systematically advanced as an earnest and practical col- onizing people, covering the land from Plymouth Rock to the Sound with organized settlements which sought the immediate development of all its available resources, the Dutch had remained stationary, with only a single settlement worthy of consideration. It is true they had located and occupied a few trading-posts in and around New York Bay, as well as in distant parts of New Netherland-in Delaware Bay, on the upper Hudson at Albany, and on the Connecticut River. But these enterprises represented in no case ereditable colonizing en- deavor.
It has been seen that, in the years 1639 and 1640, Cornelius Van Tienhoven, as the representative of Director-General Kieft, purchased from the Indians, first, a large Westchester traet called Keskeskeck. and, second, lands covering generally the southeastern section of this county and extending to the Norwalk River. This was done to fore- stall English claims to priority of possession, at that time conspicu- ously in course of preparation. But even in this matter of land pur- chases the Dutch were scarcely aforetime of the alert English. To the latter, also, the Indians executed a deed of sale, embracing exten- sive portions of Westchester County, and nearly as ancient as the first Dutch land deed. On July 1, 1640, Captain Nathaniel Turner, in be-
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half of the New Haven colony (Quinnipiacke), bought from Ponus, sagamore of Toquams, and Wascussue, sagamore of Shippan, lands running eight miles along the Sound and extending sixteen miles into the northwestern wilderness. This tract was comprehensively known by the name of " The Toquais." Ponus prudently reserved for him- self " the liberty of his corn and pasture lands." It included, in Con- nectient, the present Town of Stamford, as well as Darien and New Canaan, and parts of Bedford and Greenwich; and, in Westchester County, the Towns of Poundridge, Bedford, and North Castle, either in whole or in part. On the basis of this purchase, the settlement at Stamford, Conn., was laid out in 1641. In 1655 the bargain of 1640 was reaffirmed by a new agreement with the Indians respecting the same distriet. No early settlements in the Westchester sections of the tract were attempted by the English; but it is an interesting point to bear in mind that the interior sections of this county bordering on Connecticut were first bought from the Indians not under Dutch but under English auspices, and thus that the English fairly share with the Dutch the title to original sovereignty in Westchester County, so far as that title can be said to be sustained by the right of mere purchase.
There was a second English purchase from the Indians in 1640, which constructively may have included some parts of Westchester County. Mehackem, Narawake, and Pemeate, Indians of Norwalk, agreed to convey to Daniel Patrick, of Greenwich, all their lands on the west side of " Norwake River, as far up in the country as an Indian can goe in a day, from sun risinge to sun settinge," the consid- eration being " ten fathoms wampum, three hatchets, three bows, six glasses, twelve tobacco pipes, three knives, tenn drills, and tenn needles."
It was a year or two previously to 1640 that Jonas Bronck, gener- ally regarded as the first white inhabitant of Westchester County, came across the Harlem River to take up land and build a home. He was not a native Hollander, being, it is supposed, of Swedish extrac- tion. But he appears to have made his home in Amsterdam, where he was married to one Antonia (or Teuntje) Slagboom. While there is no evidence that he was a man of large wealth, it is abundantly manifest that he was quite comfortably circumstanced in worldly goods. Unquestionably his sole object in emigrating to New Nether- land was to acquire and cultivate land, probably under the liberal general offer to persons of all nations proclaimed by the States-Gen- eral in 1638. He was, therefore, one of the first of the new and more substantial class of men who began to remove hither after the substi- tution by the West India Company of a broad and democratic plan of
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colonization for the old exclusive scheme of special privileges to the patroons. Sailing from Amsterdam in a ship of the company's, with his wife and family, farmhands and their families, domestic servants, cattle, and miscellaneous goods, he landed on Manhattan Island; and, not caring to purchase one of the company farms there (the whole island having been expressly reserved to the private uses of the West India Company), proceeded to select a tract in the free lands beyond the llarlem. Here, pursuant to the enstom peremptorily required by Dutch law, he first extinguished the Indian title, purchasing from the native chiefs Ranachqua and Taekamnek five hundred acres "lying between the great kill (Harlem River) and the Ahquahung " (now the Bronx River). An old " Tracing of Broncksland " is still preserved in the office of the secretary of state at Albany, upon which the house of Jonas Bronck is located. Its site as thus indicated was not far from the present depot of the Harlem River branch of the New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, at Morrisania. This dwelling is described as of " stone," covered with tiles, and had connected with it a barn, tobacco-house, and two barracks. As the Dutch word for stone (steen) is always ambiguous unless accompanied by a descrip- tive prefix, it is uncertain what kind of building stone, whether brick or the native rock of the country, was used by Bronek. In view of the generally provident character of the man, it is a reasonable supposi- tion that he brought a supply of brick with him from Holland; and thus that the first house erected in the county was made of that re- spectable material. To his estate he gave the Scriptural name of Emmaus. From the inventory of the personal property which he left at his death, it is clear that he was a gentleman of cultivation. His possessions included pictures, a silver-mounted gun, silver cups, spoons, tankards, bowls, fine bedding, satin, grosgrain suits, linen shirts, gloves, napkins, tablecloths, and as many as forty books. The books were largely godly volumes, among them being Calvin's " Insti- tutes," Luther's " Psalter " and " Complete Catechism," the " Praise of Christ," the " Font Ends of Death," and " Fifty Pictures of Death."
Bronck died in 1643. The celebrated Everardus Bogardus, the Dutch domine on Manhattan Island and husband of Anneke Jans, superintended the inventorying of his estate. His widow married Arent Van Corlaer, sheriff of Rensselaerswyck. Jonas Bronck left a son, Peter, who went with his mother to her new home, and from whom the numerons Bronx family of Albany and vicinity is descended. The Bronck property on the Harlem was sold on July 10, 1651, to Jacob Jans Stall. One of its subsequent owners was Samuel Edsall, a beaver-maker and man of some note in New York City, who had trade transactions with the Indians, became versed in their language, and
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