History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 42

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354

USA > New York > Westchester County > History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I > Part 42

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Bnt the teachers who seeing these points with the people, and in private and public discourse taking care that they should not fail of appreciating them, the more courageously and effectively delivered and urged the Word of God. In the month of July 1719, Rev. Johu Bartow, taking for his text, Jeremiah xiv. 22: " Are there any among the vanities of the Gen- tiles that can cause raiu? or can the heavens give showers? Art not thou he, O Lord, our God ; there- fore we will wait upon thee, for thou hast made all these things." Taking up the words of his text, evi- dently upon the last expression, he commeuts as follows: "Now, by waiting upon God, in the Pro- phet's phrase is undoubtedly meant, The making our humble addresses day by day unto ye most wise and perfect being, who is endowed with Infinite power and goodness, the author of our life and well-being, who formed our bodys of the dust and created our sonls out of nothing, who in his unsearchable provi- dences placed us in this material world and controuls

influences and directs every accident that can befall us, whilst we continue here, and therefore to wait upou God in ye actual exercise of such desires and affections as acknowledge God to be the author and giver of all things is most reasonable and tending to our own comfort in all our temporal and Eternal Interests." Worldliness and vice were thus by public seutiment under the ban and the maxims and manuers that are so elevating countenanced.

It is but fair to remember these gentlemen in the difficulties they met with. Isolated, meagrely support- ed, separated from each other, if not by distance, more by questious that did not allow of confidence, with so many frowns upon them, either from the people or from the ruling power in the colony, they yet went on quietly iu their work, to the untold advantage of the County. The Rev. Dr. Johnson, President of King's College, in a sermon at East Chester, in 1755, from Heb. xiii. 14: " For here have we uo continuing city, but we seek one to come" urges, " Let us not be so foolish as to raise any great expectations from this fleeting uncertain world for we shall be wretchedly frustrated and the greatness of the misery of our dis- appointment will be proportioned to the greatuess of our expectations." It is, moreover, to be remarked that the influence thus exerted is in a degree to be referred to the extended pastorates of a number of the clergy, half a dozen of them at least lasting over thirty years.

It is also suggested with no little pleasure that what Dr. Douglass, quoted by William Smith, the historian of New York, absurdly proposes in order to increase the usefulness of the clergy, was realized for their people in the intermarriage of their children. "Our missionaries," says this far-sighted propagand- ist, " may procure a perpetual alliance and commer- cial advantages with the Indians, which the Roman Catholic clergy cannot do, because they forbid to mar- ry. I mean our missionaries may intermarry with the daughters of the Sachems, and other considerable Indians, and their progeny will forever be a certain cement between us and the Indians." Contempt for such insolence !! 1 But as from the fireside of a Bartow, a Wetmore, a Smith, a Sackett, a Mead, a White, a Thomas, a Monroe went forth son or daughter, to be joined unto godly wife or husband, to perpetuate the principles and heart wishes of their devoted fathers, date the commence- ment of influences for the highest welfare of the peo- ple, which in their effects are scen as visibly in the post-Revolutionary periods as in the years before the strife. Nor is it amiss in this connectiou, when speak- ing of the usefulness of the Westchester clergy, to mention the moral support which they received from the efforts and assistance of prominent citizens of the county and province during these eighty years. Col. Caleb Heathcote here readily recurs to mind. He was

1 Smith's New York Carey Ed. p. 247. Douglass, Sam. & C., vol. ii. p. 138, Boston Edit. 1753.

175

THE COLONIAL PERIOD.

a conscientions and devout gentleman, whose convic- tions of truth and dnty were definite and decided. His philanthropy was broad and absorbing; but his courage was ever moderated by his prudence. " Art- ful," he was never. No good man ever misunderstood him, nor without regret withstood him. He was the friend of all that were striving for the public good, and it is not too much to say that the dissenting preacher as well as the Church of England priest had a kind and a wise word from him. Throughout this county the odor of his good work was sprcad, to the discomfort at the time of none, but the benefit of all. The attempt to change the color of a life, which has been preserved undimmed with one hundred and fifty years of cherishcd admiration, affords little evi- dence of sagacity. It is far better to account for its successes, if not by the truth of the principles which swayed it, then by the purity and loveliness of that natural character which they brought to such per- fection and winning attractiveness.

But we must not omit hcre the judicious use which the Church of England clergy made, through the liberality and wisdom of the Society for Pro- pagating the Gospel, of two instrumentalities- schoolmasters and religious books-in furthering the best interests of the people of the county. West- chester, East Chester, Rye, New Rochelle, North Castle, Yonkers, Mile Square, White Plains, at the instigation and under the direction of the elergy, were provided almost continuously with school ad- vantages. Says Dr. Berrien, in his "History of Trinity Church, New York," "There is nothing with which I have been so much struck as the zcal, the earnestness and devotedness of the school-mast- ers and eatechists of that day. The former seem to have been selected from among the laity with great caution and care. . . Some of these were men of liberal edueation. . . . Intellectual was not then, to the extent that it is now, separated from religious improvement, but both went hand in hand throughout the week."1 What the wise Rector of Trinity says of the schoolmasters of his parish was equally trne of those whose work was in Westchester County. In answer to the question of the society, " Have you in your parish any public school for the instruction of youth ? If you have, is it endowed, and who is the master?" the Rev. John Bartow answers: " We have a public school in Westchester, of which Mr. Forster is the society's schoolmaster, and we have private schools in other places-no endowment. Some fam- ily of the name of Pelham that are adjacent come to East Chester Church." 2

The following are the names of some of the school- masters of the county in colonial times: Delpech, Forster, Cleator, Collier, Dwight, Purdy, Timothy Wetmore, James Wetmore, Basil Bartow, Thomas

Huddlestonc, John Carhart, William Sturgeon, John Rand, John Avery, Daniel Clarke, Charles Glover, Nathaniel Seabury, George Yonng, Mr. Gott.

The presence of these edueated men in the com- munity as levers of usefulness was not a little aided by the eirculation among the people of books of sterling merit on theology and practical religion and smaller essays treating on subjects of passing interest.3 Some of these treatises were controversial, which characteristic in those days was not at all incon- genial; many of them would be regarded in our times as very dryly written, but not so by those early settlers. Among the volumes known to be furnished by the Society, were Beveridge's several works, Lewis' Catechismns, Taylor's Holy Living and Dying, The Whole Duty of Man,4 Leslie's Discour- ses, Bishop Potter on Church Government, Dr. Bray's books, Hooker's Eccles. Polity, Hoadly vs. Calamy.

Of course there were other books which were reach- ing the people, some of lowering tendeney, some with teachings that the books spoken of were to antidote ; but it must be evident, that all this reading, limited as compared with that of our day, both as to range and extent, must have quickened the intellectual and elevated the moral tone. The elergy here were giving the same direction to the thought of the people, towards the true, the good and the useful, that they were pursuing and urging in their dis- courses.

RELATIONS OF THE COUNTY TO THE COLONY .- It will be quite evident from what has been presented that the county of Westehester occupied no passive position in the progress of the colony of New York, but largely assisted in the development of the eity and the regions upon which it was continually advaneing. What must be said of the influence of the towns upon each other is true also of their bearings upon the intellectnal, social and religious condition of the whole Province. The energy, sturdiness, promptness and firmness of the inhabitants were everywhere ap- preciated, and while much was received, ninch was communicated. Sometimes the excessive ardor of the populace found its check in the sober thoughtfulness, the festina lente temper of their country neighbors on the north, and sometimes the dormant sensibility to justice and right was stirred to activity and fervor by boiling floods of resentment pouring down from onr Westchester hills. But the relations between these portions were too eontinnously intimate to allow much of spasmodic action. A more correct statement of what was taking place is that the different portions of the province were all contributing to the making up of its general character and fortune, and this connty was among the most potential.

1 Pages 86-87.

" New York history from archives at Fulham, Vol. 1, 635.

3 Vide Henderson Walker Letter to Ld. Bp. London, Prot. Episc. Ilist. Soc. Coll., vol. 1851, p. 182.

+ This book was widely disseminated, and I have under my eye a very fine quarto edition of this early date.

176

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

At this time, New York, though not as thickly set- tled as her eastern or western neighbors, was the cen- tre of influence. Her geographical position, with the broad Hudson and the great bay at its mouth divid- ing the colonies, made her the key of the Continent. Her exposed situation as the great border bulwark against the encroaching French and their Indian allies was a source of constant care both to the colo- nies and the Home Government. Upon her safety depended the framework of British colonization. " Whatever happens in this place," wrote Colden to Secretary Conway, "has the greatest influence in the other colonies. They have their eyes perpetnally upon it and they govern themselves accordingly." On the other hand, no colony was in so direct sympathy with England. New York was not a chartered gov- ernment, bnt a province of Great Britain. The leading merchants were Britons born, and held close relations with their kindred in the old conntry. Moreover, the salubrity of the climate and the natural charms of the favorite city of the continent rendered it even then

the preferred choice of Brit-

AMERICA

0:0:

II SHIL

LIOS INOM

ENSE

LLI

BRITISH STAMP.

ish officials. The markets then, as now, abounded in the choicest provisions, native and tropical, and there was an elegance and luxury in life which was not only entirely unknown in some of the other colo- nies, but was a sonrce of surprise even to English visitors, who fonud the rcs- idences and tables of the

New York gentry not in- ferior to those of the better classes at home. Between New York and the English ports there was a constant and rapid communication by swift sailing-vessels, whose arrival was eagerly looked for on either sidc. Even the local clections in Great Britain excited as much attention and interest in New York and in Westchester Connty as in many of their own boronghs. Visits to the old country were frequent ; nothing was more common than notices in the journals " of gentle- men intending for Great Britain by the next packet." Freqnent intermarriages added family ties to commer- cial intercourse.

When the differences with the mother country began, New York being the most English in senti- ment of all the colonies, was naturally selected for the place of meeting of a Congress, the declared purpose of which was a loyal demand for redress of grievances. The "Stamp Act Congress" met on the 7th o October, 1765. There were present delegates from nine colonies. John Crnger, one of the oldest and best known, a leading merchant, who for ten years had held the office of mayor of the city; Philip Liv- ingston, also a merchant of great wealth, later signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Robert R.

Livingston, known as Judge Livingston, the soul of the opposition to the ministry, worthily represented New York. After a brief session of several days the Congress adjourned on the 25th of October, after adopt- ing an address to the King, a memorial and petition to the Lords, and a petition to the House of Commons.

While the delegates were thns engaged in their en- deavor to reach a pacific solntion of the differences with the Home Government, the mass of the people were not idle. The years which immediately followed the French War were years of great distress in the colonies. The war period was one of abnormal and unnatural excitement in all kinds of trade, which, ceasing all at once with the peace, was followed by the usual depression. In their distress and discontent, the people, as much from necessity as from choice, began to look about them and to study how they conld supply themselves from their own resources, indepen- dent of Great Britain. This was the beginning of home mannfactures. In this the colonies were encouraged by the arrival of skilled artisans from England.

In May articles began to appear in the papers con- gratulating the public on the patriotic and frugal spirit that was beginning to reign in the province of New York. The principal gentlemen of this city clad themselves in conntry manufactures or turned clothes, the material of which was largely made by the industrions farmers of Westchester County. Spinning was daily in vogue by the people of West- chester. Materials being more wanted than indus- trious hands in the city, the farmers of Westchester soon supplied this necd by sowing more flax-seed and raising more sheep. At this time sassafras, balm and sage were greatly in nse instead of tea, and the patriotic inhabitants declared it to be more wholesome. Funerals and monrning, which were then expensive luxnries, were modified and their extravagance cur- tailed. In September we find it announced that women's shoes were made cheaper and better than in England, and that there was a good assortment on hand; wove thread stockings were made in snndry places ; the making of linen, woolen and cotton stuff's was fast increasing; gloves, hats, carriages, harness and cabinet-work were plenty. The people were now self-dependent ; cards now appeared recommending that no trne friend of his country should buy or im- port English goods, and the dry-goods men were warned that their importations would lie on hand, to their cost and ruin. At a general meeting of the Merchants and Traders of the City of New York, held on November 7, 1765, it was resolved by them (and to strengthen their resolutions they entered into the most solemn engagements with each other) that they wonld not import any goods from Great Britain nntil the Stamp Act was repealed, and the inhabitants of Westchester Connty were not behind any class in the province in patriotism and sacrifice.

The hated stamps reached New York later than the / other colonies. They were brought over in the ship .

177

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

" Edward," which arrived on the 23d October, but the people openly resisted their distribution by violence. The attitude of the other colonies being equally firm, the English ministry were compelled to yield and finally repealed the act. The news of the repcal reached New York on May 20th, simultaneously by expresses from Boston and Philadelphia, and diffused great joy among all classes of the people. On the anniversary of the Kiug's birthday, June 4, 1766, there were outbursts of popular rejoicing throughout the province, and loyal toasts were druuk. The gratitude of the people to Pitt was everywhere displayed, and New York erected a statue of the great commoncr at the inter- section of Wall and Smith (now William) Streets, in the city of New York, ou the 7th of September, 1770.1

Tant Coffey .

CHAPTER VI.

WESTCHESTER-COUNTY, NEW-YORK, DURING THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION.2

BY HENRY B. DAWSON, Corresponding Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Etc.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by Henry B. Dawson, in the office of the Librarian of Congress in Washington, D. C.

During the entire period extending from the first settlement which was made by Europeans, within that portion of New Netherland which, subsequent to the first of November, 1683, was known as the "COUNTY "OF WESTCHESTER," in New York, until within the memory of living men, the inhabitants of that portion of the country, with rare exceptions, were either cul- tivators of its soil or employed in other occupations which werc, then, necessary for the comfort and well-being of such a purely agricultural community.3 A very large proportion of those farmers, however,

1 John Austin Stevens, Magazine of American History, June, 1877.

2 This clear, complete and interesting chapter on the American Revo- Intion, in Westchester County was written expressly for this work by the eminent historian, Henry B. Dawson, of Morrisania. No person in the United States is more thoroughly acquainted with the history of the sub- ject here treated, or more competent to discuss it in an original and com- prehensive manner than Mr. Dawson. We regret that the want of space has compelled us, with Mr. Dawson's consent, to omit from his chapter a few details which, we think, helong more properly to the history of the City and State of New York than to the County of Westchester. As it is, the reader will find that the entire subject is clearly unfolded before him in a new and original manner from the store-house of history at the command of this ahle writer .- EDITOR.

3 "The Inhabitants indeed live all upon their own ; but are generally "poor."-Rev. John Bartow to the Venerable Society, " WESTCHESTER IN "NEW YORK PROVINCE, 4th Nov., 1702."

" The people of this County, having generally land of their own, al-

" though they dont want, few or none of them much abound." -- Colonel

especially during the earlier Colonial period, was not composed of owuers, in fee-simple, of the soil which they cultivated, that having been held, in such iu- stanees, on Leases from the Lords of the several Manors iuto which the County was largely divided ; 4 but those Leases were generally for long terms of years, on easy terms of rental, with liberal provisions for renewals; and those who held them were seldom disturbed in their continucd and quiet possession of their respective properties.5

Caleb Heathcote to the Venerable Society, " MANOR OF SCARSDALE, NOV. "9, 1705."

In 1711, Rev. John Bartow wrote to the Venerable Society, from West- chester, which was, then, the County-seat and principal Village : "The "Inhabitants of our Parish live scattered and dispersed up and down in "the Woods, so that many cannot repair constantly to the Church, by " reason of their great distance fromit."-Quotedby Mr. Bolton, Ilistory of Westchester County, Second edition, i., 340. The "Parish" referred to, included, then, the more recent Towns of Westchester, West Farms, Morrisania, Kingsbridge, Yonkers, East Chester, Pelham, aud New Ro- chelle.

See, also, the letters of Rev. Robert Jenney to the Venerable Society, ". RYE, Dec. 15, 1722 ;" Rev. John Bartow to the Bishop of London, " WEST- "CHESTER, IN THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK, IN AMERICA, July 13, 1724 ; " Rev. Robert Jeuney to the same, "AT RYE, IN THE PROVINCE OF NEW "YORK, July 18, 1724 ;" Rev. Peter Stouppe to the Venerable Society, "NEW ROCHELLE, Dec. 11, 1727 ; " Rev. James Wetmore to the same, " RYE February 20, 1727-28;" etc.

" As the people of this Country are all farmers, they are dispersed up "and down the Country ; and even in Towns every one has a plott of at " least ten acres, which distances his neighbor from him."-Rev. Thomas Stannard to the Venerable Society, " WESTCHESTER, Nov. 5, 1729."

See, also, letter of Rer. James Wetmore to the Venerable Society, " RYE, " March 25, 1743 ;" The Parish of Rye to the same, " PROVINCE OF NEW " YORK, BENFORD, March 6, 1744;" Rev. Joseph Lampson to the same, "NORTHICASTLE, IN THE PARISH OF RYE, February 10, 1746-47; " Rev. Ebenezer Dibble to the same, "STAMFORD, IN CONNECTICUT, IN NEW ENG- "LAND, March 25, 1761 ; " Rev. Hurry Monro to the same, " PHILLIPS- "BURGH, February 1, 1766 ;" Rec. Epeuetus Townsend to the same, "' SALEM, " WESTCHESTER COUNTY, March 25, 1771; " etc.

1n 1811, Rev. Timothy Dwight, President of Yale-college, passed through Westchester-county, and wrote, of the Town of Eastchester, ex- cept " a small scattered Village," "the rest of the Township is covered "with plantations"-Travels, iii., 486-and, of the Town of Mamaroneck, "it is wholly a collection of plantations; and can scarcely he said to " contain even a hamlet. It is set, however, with a number of good houses "and excellent farms."-Ibid, iii., 487 .-- Of the County, as a whole, he wrote thus : " It is universally settled, so far as the nature of the ground " will admit ; and is almost merely a collection of Farms."-Ibid, iii., 489.

We have resorted, also, to our own recollections of Westchester-county, which extend far beyond that day when the quiet and the morals of the County were first disturbed by the rush of a train of railroad.cars and the screeching of a locomotive, within its territory.

4 In the Autumn of 1769, it was stated in the Assembly that the Manors of l'hilipsehorough and Cortlandt, exclusive of all other portions of the County, contained " one-third of the people in the County ;" but the number of Freeholdlers was somewhat increased, during the later Colonial period, as it was the practice of the greater number of the Proprietors to sell the fee-simple, whenever it was applied for .-- Edward F. de Lancey to Henry B. Dawson.

5 Aninstance of the permanence of occupation, by tenants on the Manors, is seen in the case of the Anjevines, thus referred to by Mr. Bolton : " Under the Heathcotes and De Lanceys, the Anjevines held " the large farm," [in Scarsdale, ] " bearing their name, How owned by " Alexander M. Bruen, M.D., for four Generations."-History of West- chester County, second edition, ii., 231.

Although the Manors of Livingston and Rensselaerwyck und the Scott and Blenheim and Duanesburg and Clark and Kortright and Harden- burg and Desbrosses and Livingston and Montgomery and Armstrong and Banyar and IIunter and Overing and Lewisand Verplanck and other Patents were not in Westchester-county, the relations of landlord and tenant were the same, unless in the rentals, in all ; aud they were the same as those which generally prevailed on the Manors aud other largo estates, in Westchester-county. The student who shall desire to learn more on that subject of American feudalism, as it existed before and since the American Revolution, may find very much which will be use- ful to him, in the Report on the Dificulties existing between the Proprie-

178

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

With the exception of the frequently seen Grist- mills and Sawmills and an occasional Fullingmill,1 the aggregate amount of whose manufactured pro- ducts did not gencrally exceed the demands of the several neighborhoods in which they were respec- tively situated, there were no Manufactories of any kind, within the County ; and those who owned and ran the Mills to which we have referred, when those Mills were not owned and managed in the interest of the Lords of the Manors iu which they were respec- tively seated,2 more frequently than otherwise, were also occupants and cultivators of adjacent farms. The Blacksmiths and the Wheelwrights, the Masons and the Carpenters, the Tailors and the Shoemakers, the Storekeepers on the roadside and the Tavernkeepers on the corners, all of them reasonably regarded as peculiarly necessary portions of every rural commu- nity, were, very often, in this, also farmers on a smaller scalc.3 The Market-sloops which, then, made their periodical trips between the many land- ing-places, on the North-river or on the Sound, and the neighboring City, affording the only means, unless those which were supplied by teams, for the transpor- tation of passengers and freight, which the County then possessed, were generally owned, wholly or in part, by well-to-do farmers living in the vicinity of the landing-places from which they respectively sailed ; and, not nnfrequently, those Sloops were nav- igated by younger members of their owners' families or by the young sons of some of their neighbors, of whom one, in every instance, discharged the double duty of "Captain " and Markctman.4 Even the little Villages which were, then, scattered over the County, some of them made famous iu the history of the world because of notable events which have occurred near them, were inhabited, principally, by those aged or more than usnally wealthy people-the greater portion of them also cultivators as well as owners of neighboring farms-whose more abundant means en- abled them to spend their days, more agreeably than on their own farms, in the enjoyment of the greater social privileges afforded in a country village lifc.5 In

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 42

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co. Number of Pages: 1354

Author: Scharf, J. Thomas (John Thomas), 1843-1898, ed
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.E. Preston & Co.
Number of Pages: 1354