History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 7

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 7

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The Euglish settlements along the Sound steadily grew and soon assumed cousiderable importance. Locations were choseu at the heads of the numerous bays putting in from the Souud, where water com- munication was available and where the surrounding lands could be easily rcached. The old "Westchester Path " had loug been used by the Iudiaus aud fur- nished the whites with the best iuland commuuica- tiou. The fields that the Indians had cultivated were already cleared for the whites, and enabled them at once to raise the necessary food for their support. Gradually the settlers pushed inland and made additional purchases from the Indians. In 1683 the inhabitants of Rye bought lands about White Plains. Their claims to these were disputed by John Richbell; but Rye settlers went upon them and considered White Plains a portion of their ter- ritorv.

While the southeastern portions of Westchester Couuty were being peopled from Connecticut, the more northeru portious also received similar atten- tion. The people of Stamford followed the Indian trail leading inland, aud came to the attractive lands at the bend of the Mianus River, near the present village of Bedford, where the Indiaus had a village and cultivated their fields of maize, pumpkins and sieva beans. They purchased of the Indians, iu 1655, lauds about Bedford in addition to those pur- chased by Nathau Turuer, in 1640, and, subsequently, other minor purchases were made. In 1680 the tract known as the Hop Ground was bought, aud John Cross, going up from Staruford to inspect it, described the river that has since borne his name. In the spring of 1681 twenty-four Stamford men and their families moved to these lands, and the village of Bedford was

begun. Poundridge and Salem were settled from the same source.

While the growth of these settlements was not rapid, it was steady and healthful. The people grad- ually became rooted to the soil. After wandering so far, they were content to remain in the quiet enjoy- ment of their new homes. Nearly all those who set- tled in the eastern portion of the county were Dis- senters, who afterwards became Presbyterians when that order of church government was established. They considered themselves a part of the colony of Connecticut and their locatiou within the Connecti- cut jurisdiction. The boundary between the two colonies was not then established, and when New York attempted to enforce its claim to this section, the people of Rye, White Plains and Bedford stoutly protested. They long sent delegates to the Connec- ticut Assembly and were an integral portion of that people. Continued controversies with the Dutch and with the English authorities of New York had led them to entertain no friendly feeling toward that col- ony, and when at length they were compelled to sub- mit to its authority they felt sorely aggrieved. They were an intelligent, sturdy, enterprising aud pious people, with the true Puritan sternness of morals and devotion to duty. Wherever they located, the church and the school-house were immediately erected. England never sent across the Atlantic bet- ter material for plauting hier colonies and extendiug her civilization.

Beside the Puritans, who came from Connecticut, another English element came into Westchester County after the transfer of New York to the Eng- lish, in 1664. The Governors sent over by the Duke of York were accompanied by numerous officers aud retainers, who were no sooner established in their new positions than they began to look about them for lands for themselves and their families. Naturally, Westchester County offered an inviting field for their purpose and many of themu settled there. They were nearly all Episcopalians, and through their influence many of the Protestaut Episcopal Churches upon Manhattan Island and in this county were established.

They were compelled to purchase lands from those who had obtaiued titles before them. The Philipse and Van Cortlandt manors occupied the territory along the Hudson and across the northern portion of the county, north of the Croton River, and the New Eng- land purchases covered all the lands along the Sound and up the Connecticut border. But the idea was somehow started among the New York officials that there was still some unoccupied and uuclaimed terri- tory in the central portion of the county. This was hastily sought for by numerous parties, and land grants and patents were obtained far in excess of the available lands, and which overlapped each other in a manner that makes it impossible now to map them. The most of these ceutred about the present town of North Castle.

THE DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT.

THE HUGUENOT SETTLEMENT .- Simultaneously with Luther's work in Germany thereformed ideas were widely spread in France. They were born on Freuch soil, but were greatly strengthened by the progress of the Reformation in Germany, and grew rapidly un- der the active influences of Geneva. French Prot- estants were not long in drawing into two classes,- the Lutherans and the Huguenots. Their numbers increased so rapidly that, in the reign of Henry II., they entertained hopes of becoming the dominant political party, aided, as they were, by the fact that several members of the royal family and numerous high officials were united with them. Their greatest strength was with the upper classes. Iu 1569 it was recorded that one-thirtieth of the common folk and one-third of the nobles were Huguenots. The union of political ambition and religious faith was unfor- tunate, but uuavoidable in that age. The more nearly even the balance of power, the more eager were the rivalries and the more bitter the animosities. Now the Protestauts were persecuted and then they were encouraged.

In 1572 the King's sister became the wife of Henry of Navarre, who was the Huguenot leader. The lead- ing Protestants were invited to Paris to the nuptials, where, on the night of St. Bartholomew, a general massacre of the Protestants was begun, instigated by Catharine de Medici, the Queen mother. The Hu- guenots stoutly defended themselves throughout France, although great numbers were slain. The tide of their fortunes constantly ebbed and flowed. Iu 1598, Henry IV. issued the famous Ediet of Nantes, which was helpful to both Catholics and Protestants, reproducing the more favorable and tolerant of for- mer edicts. Under Louis XIII. their rights were again attacked, which led to an unlucky league with England, and resulted in the siege and capitulation of their city of Rochelle. Then their treatment was agaiu tolerant, and they loyally fought for Louis XIV., which that sovereign illy repaid by the revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685.

Before this crowning iujustice great numbers had escaped from their inhospitable country. Over one million of the best and thriftiest citizens of the land now sought refuge elsewhere, and more than one-half of the commercial and manufacturing industries of the kingdom were crushed, resulting in stagnation and dis- tress on every hand. Thus France at once suffered for her cruelty and wrong.

The Huguenots scattered throughout the world, blessing every country they visited by the addition of their intelligence, refinement, virtue and industry. Great numbers went to England, causing silk manu- facture and other important industries to flourish there; others went to Ireland, making her liuen and poplin manufactures the most important in the world; some went to Switzerland and some to Germany, and many crossed the Atlantie to seek peaceful liomes and assured liberty in the New World.

Their trials and sufferings and heroic steadfastness, with the blessings they carried to many lands, make the story of the Huguenots one of the saddest and, at the same time, one of the brightest known to his- tory.

Of those who crossed the Atlantic, many settled in South Carolina, aud gave to that colony and State much of their prominence. A few settled in Virginia and a few in Delaware and Pennsylvania, and more in Maryland. A considerable number went to Massa- chusetts ; an important settlement was made by them in Ulster County, N. Y., and a goodly number came to Westchester County.

As has already been stated, the purchase of lands from the Indians by Thomas Pell, of Fairfield, Conn., was confirmed to him by Governor Nichols, in 1666. In 1669, Thomas Pell devised the manor of Pelham to his nephew, Johu Pell, and this was eon- firmed by Governor Dougan in 1687. At this time a remarkable man had attained prominence in the city of New York,-Jacob Leisler-who was a native of Germany. He came to America in 1660 as a private soldier in the service of the Dutch West India Com- pany. Leaving the army, he engaged in the Indian trade, with great success, and acquired a considerable fortune. Under Dougan's administration, in 1683, he was appointed one of the commissioners of the Admi- ralty Court, and, when Dougan was succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson, Leisler, as captain of the militia, intimidated Nicholson so that he left the province and went to England.

A committee of safety appointed Leisler "Com- mander-in-Chief of the Province," and when, in De- cember, 1689, a communication was received from the English crown, addressed "to such as, for the time being, takes care for preserving the peace and admin- istering the laws in his majesty's province of New York," Leisler construed it as an appointment of him- selfas the King's Lieutenant-Governor. He assumed the dignity and authority of this position, and when, in the spring, Slaughter arrived with a commission as Governor, Leisler questioned his identity and refused him recognition. He was arrested and imprisoned, tried for treason, and most unjustly condemned, and was executed on the 17th of May, 1691.

On the 20th of September, while Leisler was exer- cising the full power of a Governor in all civil and military matters, John Pell, lord of the manor of Pel- ham, conveyed to him for the consideration of six- teen hundred and seventy-five pounds and five shillings sterling, "all that tract of land lying and being within said manor of Pelham, containing six thousand acres of land, and also one hundred aeres of land more, which the said John Pell and Rachel, his wife, do freely give and grant for the French church erected, or to be erected," etc. This tract eon- stitutes the present township of New Rochelle.

Leisler had shown in New York great interest in the Protestant religion, and to him a company of

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

Huguenots, who had been eight years in England, made application to secure for them a location in the province of New York. Their attention had been at- tracted to this locality in previous years. Individual Huguenots had purchased several parcels of land here in 1686 and succeeding years, when their set- tlement began. Leisler's purchase was made for the Huguenots. In the following year he conveyed these lands to them, wheu his connection with the settle- ment ceased.

Some of the Huguenots came here by way of the West Indies, but the greater portion came from Eng- land. The main company landed at what is known as Bonnefoy's Poiut, in Echo Bay, adjoining Daven- port's Neck. Numbers continued to arrive until the year 1700. Their new home was named in honor of that from which many of them had been driven,-the city of La Rochelle, in France.

Bound together by the memories of bitter suffer- ings, endured in common by their religious interests and by warm friendships, and separated from their neighbors by a different language, the Huguenots long remained a compact body in New Rochelle. In after- years numbers settled iu the northern portious of the county, where many of their uames are still found.

The influence of the Huguenots upon the people of Westchester County has been important. Their earnest religious faith, their sterling integrity, their energy of character and their intelligence, refinement and courtesy have left most valuable impressions that still remain.

THE QUAKER SETTLEMENT .- The Society of Friends, called Quakers, was the outcome of the religious awakening that followed the Reformation in England. The changes from the Roman Catholic Church were variously graduated by different Pro- testant believers. The Quakers carried the princi- ples of the Reformation to their logical conclusion. Claiming the complete spirituality of the gospel dis- peusation, they deuied all outward rites and cere- mouies, and insisted that the types of the Jewish ritual werc fulfilled and ended in Christ. They acknowledged no order of priesthood but the uni- versal priesthood of believers. They held that Christ as the head of His church chose and commissioned whom He would to preach His gospel, and that no human ordination was of auy avail ; and they taught the doctrine of the immediate and perceptible in- fluence of the Holy Spirit upon the individual soul of man. These positions were so radical that many good people thought them dangerously wild, and, as a consequence, the Quakers were almost everywhere persecuted.

George Fox, the founder of the sect, was born in Leicestershire, England, in 1624. After he began to preach, in 1647, his life was little more than a journey from one prison to another. But this attracted the public attention, so that great numbers flocked to hear him when opportunity offered. His converts came from

nearly every rank of society, and the kingdom seemed to swarm with them.

Quakers first came to America in 1656. They at- tempted to settle in Massachusetts. The story of their persecutions there is well known. Remembering the age and the temper of the times, we must judge these persecutions leniently. From the Puritan standpoint, the Quaker had no right to go there. The Puritans had come to Massachusetts to establish a religious, not a civil, commonwealth. Only members of their church were eligible to citizenship. The Quakers claimed that, as Englishmen, they had a legal right to visit and to live wherever the English flag pro- claimed English jurisdiction. This claim rested upon the clause in the Massachusetts charter which ex- pressly guaranteed "all liberties and immunities of free and natural subjects of the realm to all English- men 'which shall go to and inhabit' Massachusetts, or which shall happen to be born there, or on the seas in going thither or returning from thence." The re- sult of the contest was one of those sad episodes in history over which, in this age, it is better to throw the mantle of charity, with devout thankfulness that our lot is cast in better times.

The persecutions of the Quakers in Massachusetts turned the stream that continued to cross the Atlantic, and led to their settlement in Westchester County. That settlement was almost entirely made by the way of Long Island. Very naturally, the Quakers looked to the Dutch for religious toleration. The Puritans themselves had gone to Holland to find religious lib- erty when they had been compelled to flce from Eng- land. Many others besides Friends came to Long Island from Massachusetts to escape the religious re- straint there. The first of these, who afterward be- came connected with Friends, was Lady Deborah Moody. She settled at Lynn, in Massachusetts, in 1640, and received a grant of four hundred acres of land. Governor Winthrop thus speaks of her in his journal : "In 1643, Lady Moody was in the colony of Massachusetts, a wise and anciently religious woman, and being taken with the error of denying baptism to infants, was dealt withal by many of the elders and others, and admonished by the church of Salem, whereof she was a member, but persisting still, and to avoid further trouble, etc., she removed to the Dutch, against the advice of her friends." On the 19th of December, 1645, Governor Kieft, of New Amsterdam, issued a general patent for the town of Gravesend, Long Island, to Lady Deborah Moody, Sir Henry Moody, her son, George Baxter aud James Hubbard, their heirs and successors, " to have and enjoy free lib- erty of conscience, according to the customs and man- ners of Holland, without molestation." Gravesend was planted entirely by Euglish settlers from Massa- chusetts, and, unlike the "five Dutch towns," which constituted the rest of Kings County, the records, which are still well preserved, were kept from the com- mencement of the settlement in the English language.

THE DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT.

Friends came to Gravesend in considerable numbers in 1657. Many of the inhabitants embraced their doctrines, and their first religious meeting on Long Island was established there. It was recorded that " meetings were held at the house of Lady Moody, who managed all things with such prudence and ob- servance of time and place as to give no offense to any person of another religion ; so she and her people re- mained free from molestation."

Flushing was similarly settled by refugees from Massachusetts. They were careful to have inserted in their charter, granted by Governor Kieft on the 10th of October, 1645, a clause permitting them "to have and enjoy the liberty of conscience according to the manner and custom of Holland, without molesta- tion from any magistrate or any ecclesiastical minis- ter that may pretend jurisdiction over them." In 1657 Friends came to Flushing with several able preachers among their number. Many of the other inhabitants attended their meetings. Governor Stuy- vesant had failed in his efforts to induce the people to accept and support a minister whom he had sent there, and he soon commenced a persecution of the Quakers only second to that so much better known in Massachusetts. Iu the official instructions given by the dircetors of the Dutch West India Company, the official oath required "the maintenance of the Re- formed Religiou in conformity to the word and the decrees of the Synod of Dordrecht, and not to tolerate in public any other sect."

Flushing was the headquarters of the Quakers, and from that town the principal emigration to West- chester County took place. In the autumn of 1672 two Quaker ministers visited Rye, "in Governor Winthrop's government," and held meetings there. The first who settled here located in the town of Westchester. When the first mnecting was held there we cannot learn, but one was in existeuce in 1685. Soon afterward numbers of Quakers settled in Mama- roneck. In 1695 a step was taken that proved of great moment in the future settlement of Friends in Westchester County. John Harrison, of Flushing, purchased of the Indians a tract of land about nine

miles in length and nearly three in width, “ bounded on the north by the Rye Ponds, on the east by Blind Brook, on the west by Mamaroneck River, and on the south by the lands of Joseph Budd." The Indians reserved "such whitewood trees as shall be found suitable to make canoes of." In the same year Governor Fletcher ordered the survey of the purchase, and soon after Harrison, and four others associated with him, received a patent for the whole tract. The people of Rye claimed this land as a part of their territory ; but, as they had takeu no patent for their lands from the government of New York, their claimns was not regarded. In 1685, Governor Dongan had ordered the inhabitants of Rye to appear and prove their title to their lands; but, considering themselves under Connecticut jurisdiction, they disregarded the order. Harrison's purchase was made for the settle- ment of Friends from Long Island. They called it "The Purchase," and it is still so known. The emi- gration begau as soon as the interests of the patentecs who were not Friends were purchased, and the neccs- sary arrangements completed. Large numbers then came across the Sound. In 1704 the Court of General Sessions recorded the places where the Quakers hield public meetings for worship, as directed by act of Parliment for all Dissenters, as being at Westchester and Mamaroneck. Soon afterward two other meet- ings were established in Harrison's purchase.

As soon as the lands of Harrison's purchase were occupied, a movement began that placed the Quakers In this the Governor had an excuse for his treat- ment of the Quakers. Some were imprisoned for a long time. Some were severely flogged, and a prom- inent member was sent to Holland to be tried before the company's college. He was at once released by the college and returned to his home, while a severe reprimand was sent to Stuyvesant. An ordinance of the New Amsterdam Couneil, enacted in 1662, provided ship by any "besides the Reformed religion." The Quakers rapidly increased in numbers, and meetings were established at Flushing, Oyster Bay, The Farms, The Kills, Newtown, ete., in quick suecession. In the year 1672, George Fax, the founder of the seet, visited America and attended the mectings ou Long Island. in possession of a large portion of the central line of the county. The Dutch, who had settled aloug the Hudson River, and the English, who occupied the towns along the Connecticut border, entertained no very friendly feelings for each other. Their enmity and jealousies kept them apart, and, on this account, a district of considerable width running north and south between them had remained comparatively un- severe penalties for holding public meetings for wor- > occupied. Into this the Quakers rapidly pushed, pur- chasing the lands from those who had obtained titles therefor. The line of settlement ran through the pres- ent towns of Harrison, North Castle, New Castle, York- town, Lewisborough and North Salem, and through Putnam, Dutchess and Columbia Countics. In the town of Harrison, and in some of those just named, the Quakers constituted for a considerable time a majority of the inhabitants, while a great number afterward emigrated to the northern and eentral portions of the State.

NEGROES .- In the West India Company's charter of "Privileges and Exemptions" for the Patroons, for the purpose of encouraging agriculture, the company agreed to furnish the colonists with "as many blacks as they conveniently could." These they brought from the West Indics, and negro slavery existed in Westchester County almost from its first white settle- ment. The English settlers were not adverse to availing themselves of the supposed advantages of negro labor. The Quakers brought slaves with them

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

from Long Island. While slavery thus existed throughout the county, the number of slaves was never large. About the year 1698 a cargo of negroes brought from the coast of Guinea was landed at Rye, in the interest of Frederick Philipse, of Philipse manor.

Slavery continued to exist, without any protest against it, until the Qnakers took action to free the slaves held by their members. In 1767, Purchase Quarterly Meeting sent the following minute to the Yearly Meeting, then held at Flushing: "If it is not con- sistent with Christianity to buy and sell our fellow- men for slaves, during their lives and their posterity after them, then whether it is consistent with a Christian spirit to keep those in slavery that we have already in our possession by purchase, gift or auy other ways." This was just twenty years before Wilberforce took his first step in England against the slave trade. The subject was continually before their mectings uutil the last slave held by a Friend was set free, in 1779. But they did not leave the matter there. In 1781, Purchase Monthly Meeting, in session at Chappaqua, decided "to appoint a number of solid, judicious Friends as a committee to perform a visit to such Friends who have set their negroes free, and inspect into the circumstances of such negroes and afford them advice, both with respect to their spiritual and their temporal good, as they may be enabled to do; and endeavor to find what in justice may be due to such negroes as may have spent the prime of their days in the service of their masters." The comunittee were directed to determine the amount so due, where the late inasters were willing to leave it to their judg- ment. They were also directed to see that provision was made for the proper education of the negro youth. Reports were made from time to time of the progress of this work, until, in 1784, it was recorded that "proper settlements had been made between the Friends who had set their negroes free and the negroes so set free."

Others followed the example set by the Quakers in freeing their slaves, so that, by the end of the century, but few slaves remained in the county. All slaves in the State of New York were made free by law on 4th of July, 1827.

When the Quakers of Purchase liberated their slaves they settled them upon their rough lands in the northwestern portion of the town of Harrison, and thus the negro community, still existing north- east of the village of White Plains, was begun. Some of the slaves liberated in the northern portion of the county collected into a smaller settlement near the village of Bedford. These were the largest colonies of uegrocs in the county.

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History of Westchester county : New York, including Morrisania, Kings Bridge, and West Farms, which have been annexed to New York City, Vol. I, Part 7

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