USA > New York > New York City > History of the New Netherlands, province of New York, and state of New York : to the adoption of the federal Constitution. Vol. I > Part 5
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The various distractions in Holland prevented any regu- lar attempt at colonizing New Netherland until 1621, and
Hudson's river was for a time called Mauritius, in com- pliment to prince Maurice.
On the third of June 1621, the States General of Holland granted a charter to the Dutch West India Company, (to which additions were made two years after,) and in February 1623 an act of amplification was given. By this charter and amendment a company was authorized to trade with the West Indies, Africa and other places ; and all other inhabitants of the United Nether-
* Volume 4. p. 25.
t Schenectady was commenced shortly after Christianse planted a colony at Fort Orange, acting under the edict of 1614. It appears that this name had been applied by the Iroquois to the site of Albany. By degrees the Dutch pushed their settle- ments up the valley of the Mohawk to Caughnawahga. But the name of the German Flatts evinces the settlement of another race. In the reign of Queen Anne about 1709, three thousand Palatines were transported to America. Those who made New York their home, first resided at East Camp, (in the county of Columbia) many of them pitched their dwellings rear Scoharrie Creek ; and in 1720 they spread over the German Flatts. The meeting of West Canada Creek with the Mohawk, formed a bottom land which attracted others of the same race.
: Judge Benson has suggested that instead of the entrance to Erebus, the Dutch navigator called the passage between Long and Manhattan Islands, Helle-gat, or beau. tiful pass.
40
DUTCH WEST INDIA COMPANY.
. lands were prohibited from trade with those places for twenty-four years under certain penalties. Articles were agreed upon between the Dutch West India Company and the States General, and approved by the Prince of Orange. In consequence of the above, the city of Amsterdam and the West India Company entered into articles of agreement with all colonists wishing to go to the New Netherlands, by which the burgomasters of the city bound them- selves to find shipping on reasonable terms for the colonists, and whatever they may carry with them ; to send a schoolmaster and religious reader ; to make advances for clothing and other purposes ; to erect public buildings and fortifications ; to establish a go- vernment, wherein the citizens shall choose their burgomasters, their magistrates, and (when there shall be 200 families) a repre- sentative council of twenty delegates to be chosen annually. Courts of justice were provided, agriculturists were warranted as much cultivable land as they could till, free from certain taxes for ten years, and from others for twenty .*
Thus we see that the first government of New York was repre- sentative in part : the colonists governed themselves by magistrates elected annually, except as the Director General, or as the agent of the West India Company had a supreme control, and the common law of the Netherlands was in force. . Such was the gov- ernment, until overthrown by the English, when the colony was subjected to a Governor, appointed by James Duke of York, and to the laws called the Duke's Laws. The colony had by this time increased, and many English families had mingled with the Dutch in New Amsterdam and on Long Island, where townships of English from Connecticut, and other parts of New England, had been formed. The Duke's government, while he remained a sub- ject, was mild : when he ascended the throne of England, it was tyrannical. Chancellor Kent, in his anniversary discourse before the New York Historical Society, (to whose library I am indebted for much information relative to this work,) says, " If i do not greatly deceive myself, there is no portion of the history of this country, which is more instructive or calculated to embellish our national character, than the domestic history of this state," speak- ing of the state of New York. Again he says, " Our history will be found, upon examination, as fruitful as the records of any other people, in recitals of heroic actions, and in images of respler dant virtue. It is equally well fitted to elevate the pride of ancestry, to awaken deep feeling, and enkindle generous emulation."
In pursuing the history of New York it will be necessary to note the colonization and progress of other provinces on this con-
* See Appendix F.
41
FIRST COLONIZERS.
tinent, and particularly those of New England, whose descendants form at this time so great a portion of the population of the state. The original settlers of New York were such as may be boasted of by their descendants ; and the second race that flowed in upon them, and mingled with them, was such as is now remembered with just pride : they brought from their native country an equal portion of the germs which form our present prosperity.
The causes which produced emigration to the different colonies of America, and the various classes of people, as well as motives which induced men to leave their European homes, are subjects of curious inquiry, and edifying speculation. The puritans, or pilgrims, who sought a new home, for conscience sake, were pco- ple of property and education ; and although some among them were men who had attained a degree of eminence, equality of rights was the distinguishing feature of their society. The first eastern colonists had the advantage over all the others in those qualities which form a republican government, or democracy, except the companions of William Penn, who settled Penn- sylvania and West Jersey. The first visiters, and settlers of New York, those brought out by Block and Christianse, were mere traders ; colonization was not their object. 'Traffic alone induced them to build huts and store-houses, with a fort to protect the goods they brought from home, or those procured by barter from the natives. That spirit, which now fills our streets with ware- houses that emulate castles, and dwellings that are palaces ; which cucumbers our pavements with the most costly fabrics of Europe and the Indies ; which has produced banking-houses whose vaults overflow with the precious metals, and send forth bills of credit that can only be counted by millions and billions ; began its operations here, at the south-west extremity of Pearl street, (so called as if by inspiration,) and on the banks of the North river, conducting its bargains with strings of wampum cut from mussel and clam shells.
Commerce (the parent of national prosperity, both here and in the fatherland, Holland ; the root of that prosperity which has creat- ed navies, not to destroy but bless mankind,) began its operations here, at the point of the island of Manhattan : it has covered the black rocks with pleasure-walks and groves, the whole island and its surrounding waters with fixed or floating palaces, and no lon- ger confined to the Copsey-point, extends its influence to every region of the globe.
VOL. I.
6
42
NEW ENGLAND.
CHAPTER III.
Colonization of New England-Intimate connection with the Dutch of New York-Massachusetts-Permanent settlement of New Netherland-Silas Wood-Long Island-The Patroons -- Peter Minuits - Van Twiller - The Swedes - Gustavus Adolphus.
WE will now turn to the east, and note the colonization 1610 of New England. The royal and ecclesiastical tyranny in England, drove Mr. Robinson and his congregation to Leyden, where they found an asylum with the Dutch protestant republicans. Cardinal Bentevoglio denominates these pious and exemplary people, " a body of English hereticks, called Puritans, who had resorted to Holland for the purposes of commerce." The intention of many puritans of England was to seek a refuge in Virginia ; but a royal proclamation forbade any of the king's subjects to settle in that country without express permission from their master, James the first.
The Mayflower arrived at Plymouth in the year 1620. 1620 The puritan colony saw in the land of their exile nothing to cheer them ; but they had that within which supported them under all trials, and " passeth show."
On the eleventh of November the pilgrims had landed some men at Cape Cod, but relinquishing this as the place of settle- ment, they, on the eighth of December, set foot on Plymouth Rock. Of one hundred and one who then arrived, only fifty-five survived to the following March .*
* There is a story told by J. Grahame, and others, that the Dutch captain who carried the puritans from Leyden, had been bribed by the government of Nether- land or the West India Company, to carry the pilgrims, contrary to their intention, to the north of New Amsterdam. They give as authorities, Mather, Noal, Huchinson, and Oldmixon. But the patent of the pilgrims contradicts the falsehood ; as does their declaration to the envoy sent from New Netherland to congratulate them on their arrival. There are many assertions in MSS., and in print, against my opinion, which my readers may examine, as ". Morton's Memorial,". " History of the Puri- tans," " New England Chronology." " Huchinson's Massachusetts," " Holmes' An- nals," " Massachusetts History," &c. But I hold to my assertion both as consonant to the Dutch character, and to the truth. Many of these fables were propagated at a time when the Dutch and English claims to New Netherland were subjects of bitter controversy. See likewise, "l'Histoire Generale des Voyages, tom. 21, p. 260," where the reader will find it said that the puritans had chosen for themselves between Connecticut river and the Hudson, near the county of Fairfield.
.
43
THE MAYFLOWER.
'The second vessel, the Fortune, arrived in 1622, and 1622 only brought mouths to be fed by those who had no bread. On hearing that three hundred and forty-seven of the Vir- ginia colonists had been cut off by the natives at Jamestown, the pilgrims built themselves a fort, the lower part of which was a place of worship : they prospered through all difficulties; they were a democracy; their government, the whole people assembled. Standish was elected their military chief .* Bradford was 'chosen a magistrate.t
The pilgrims came to find a place of refuge from European oppressors : to live and be free. The original compact had been signed on the deck of the Mayflower, by all the males of adult age, and the first signer was the chosen governor, Carver : this continued long to be the constitution of Plymouth colony.}
The Dutch of New Netherland sent an honourable agent, shortly after the arrival of their friends at Plymouth, to congratu- late them, by speech and letters, on their happy establishment, and offered them assistance, good will and brotherly intercourse. The agent was received with honour and cordiality, the English puritans returned a friendly answer, and expressed their gratitude for the hospitality experienced from the Dutch when received, protected and employed by them in their native land. This alone is sufficient to contradict the notion of the pilgrims having been betrayed and misled to a country at a distance from New Nether -. land, a story repeated even by the historian Robertson : but Mr. Robinson, and all his intelligent people, knew full well the extent of the Dutch claims in America, and the state of their colony, and sought for themselves a place of refuge, in which to establish a civil and religious government according to their own notions, and distinct from any then existing. They solicited, and obtained the sanction of England to their intended colony, and they pro- cured a patent from the Plymouth Company of a place under English jurisdiction. A few years after, an association of puri-
* His sword is preserved by the Massachusetts Historical Society, as is that of Smith, by the Historical Society of Virginia.
+ Peregrine White was the first English child born in the colony, and lived until 1704.
# Carver and Standish were elected magistrates by the majority. Trial by jury was ordained in 1623 : the first offence tried was murder, and the criminal was executed. A legislative assembly for all the Plymouth towns was held in 1637. In 1643 took place the union or confederacy of the New England towns or colonies, for already the English had extended far to the south. This was the first step to the union of independence. In 1691 the old government of Plymouth merged at the age of 71 into the colony of Massachusetts. The New Netherlands had so much to do with New England, that to understand the history of New York, the eastern settle- ments must not be neglected.
44
PURITANS.
tans was formed by the reverend Mr. White, a noncon- 1627 forming clergyman of Dorchester, who applied to the same company from which the settlers of Plymouth had obtained their patent, and purchased a tract of land (not on Hudson's river or near it) lying from three miles north of the river Merrimack, to nine miles south of Charles river in Massachusetts bay, "and ex- tending from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean." These men evi- dently avoided, and meant to avoid interference with the Dutch of New Netherland. John Endicot led them safely to Massachu- setts, where others joined them, and a charter was obtained from Charles the first, so liberal as only to be accounted for by suppos- ing that at this period he wished to get rid of troublesome enemies to his ecclesiastical pretensions. This policy was not subsequently followed by Charles, or he would not have retained to his cost, Cromwell, Hampden, Hazelrigg and Pym. Another company of puritans settled at Salem, and adopted the rules for civil and reli- gious government of their brethren of Plymouth ; but two of the emigrants dissented from the rest and were sent back to England. It was at this time believed possible that all the members of a community could think alike ; and differences of opinion were not tolerated.
It is to be remembered that in 1629 the English took 1629 Quebec,* and almost immediately restored it to France by the treaty of St. Germains. Thus Charles, by confirm- ing the French power in Canada, planted the tree of evil whose fruits were shed liberally over New England and New York.
In 1630 the general court of Massachusetts chose their 1630 own governor and council. Boston and the neighbouring towns were settled by emigrants from England. The small- pox swept off the natives, and made room for the strangers who had purchased their lands, and introduced pestilence among them without any ill design in either.
* Kirk was the English commander that at this time took Quebec. Champlain proposed to surrender on the nineteenth of July 1629, provided, first, that Kirk showed his commission, second, that a vessel should be given to the French to go home ; not only for the garrison, but for the priests, jesuits and two squaws that had been given to Mr. Champlain two years before by the Indians. Third, that the garrison should go out with arms and every kind of moveables without hindrance. Fourth, that provisions should be furnished for the voyage to France in exchange for furs. Kirk replied that his commission was at Tadoussac, a trading port lower down the St. Lawrence, where the French were to enibark for Europe, and there his brother would show it ; that he could not give the French a vessel, but they could engage one at Ta- doussac. for their purpose, first to carry them to England and then to France ; " As to the squaws," he says, " I cannot let them go, for reasons which I will tell you when I sec you ; as to arms and baggage, and furs or skins, I grant that these gentlemen (Champlain and De Pont) shall take the arms, clothes and skins belonging to thein ; the soldiers each one his clothes. with one robe de castor and nothing else; as to the fathers, they . must be content with their cassocks and their books."
45
CARE FOR EDUCATION.
1
The freedom of the colony was denied to all who were not re- ceived into the church : thus the ministers were vested with power not purely spiritual. The amiable Robinson had admonished his people that more truth would come. He did not think that it, or the bearers of it, should be rejected : yet Roger Williams, the good, the liberal, the charitable, could not be endured. Williams had found more truth, and brought it to the puritans ; but they could not receive it, (or could not see it,) and he became the bene- factor of Rhode Island. He planted the tree of toleration, whose fruits have blessed the land which drove him forth. - By rapid progress the English spread until they encountered the Dutch settlers on Fresh river; (now the Connecticut) Long Island and New Haven.
This brief notice of the progress of New England is far from being foreign to my main subject, before returning to which I must notice that in 1630 the inhabitants of Massachusetts yet struggling for bread, devoted 400 pounds sterling to the establishment of the University of Cambridge. But ten years had passed from the arrival of the Mayflower and first settlement of Plymouth, when the puritants amidst every difficulty that surrounded them, remem- bered that education could alone be the foundation of a republic. They proved that they deserved, and they were determined, to be free.
To return to the Manhattoes. In the same year that 1610 Hudson sailed on his last voyage, some of the merchants of Amsterdam sent out a ship for traffic, to the country claimed by Holland in virtue of the great navigator's discovery in 1609. The trade for peltries was profitable, and other adven- turers followed. Next year Block and Christianse brought out more adventurers protected by an edict of the States-ge- 1614* neral, and shortly after the settlement on the island called sometimes Castle Island in the Hudson, (which led to the beginning of Albanyt on the main land a little further north,) was commenced.
1623
The year 1623, as already remarked, may be consi- dered as the era of permanent settlement in the New Ne- therland, Peter Minuits, the agent of the Dutch West
* 1614. When Block's vessel was burnt by accident at Manhattan, he built a vatch. 38 feet kecl, 445 feet on deck and 113 feet beam; and with this vessel De Laet says, "he sailed through Helle-gat into the great bay," the Sound. He was joined by Christianse off Gape Cod, they discovered as they thought, Rhode Island t The site of Albany was called by the Iroquois Scaghneghtady. Castle Island was abandoned in 1617, when found to be subjected to the floods of the river. An important event now took place, which was a solemn league of friendship between the Netherlanders and the Iroquois. The latter gained the use of fire-arms to re- pluse their Canadian enemies, and the French ; the latter, besides the advantages of trade, made friends, who were long a rampart to the New Netherlands and New York.
46 .
MINUITS.
India Company was governor, or Director-general for six years, under the grant from the States-general in the year 1621. Corne- lius Mey (who has left his name on one of the capes) visited South river, since known as the Delaware, the same year that Minuits came out, and Mey built fort Nassau on Timber Creek, which enters the river a few miles below Cambden.
The colony of New Netherland increased under the 1625 government of Minuits ; and the city of New Amsterdam grew under the government established, which was as re- publican as could be where the chief executive magistrate was appointed by others. After the Dutch under the West India Com- pany, had. permission from the natives to build a fort on the island of Manhattan, which I presume to have been under the govern- ment of Minuits, they erected a regular square, as the reverend Mr. Abeel tells us in his MS. which I find in the New York His- torical Library. This corresponds with my opinion that the wall, or foundation which was discovered near the bank of the river on the site of the present cemetery of Trinity church, was part of the fort erected about the year 1623. But it is not likely that the first traders were altogether without defence, and I find that they had a stockade enclosure on the bank between the above square fort and the point of the island ; for the idea of fortifying the bluff was not suggested until the time when Van Twiller erected the permanent fortress called Fort Amsterdam. The government under Minuits was according to the plan proposed by the city of Amsterdam .* The people, that is, the freeholders, chose the schepen and the council of twenty, and it was only the Director-general who was appointed, independent of their will, by the authorities in Europe; but his powers were so great that when the English conquest took place, and the colony was transferred to James Duke of York, the people willingly underwent the change. But under Minuits none of the inhabitants of New Netherland had cause to complain except the beaver and others whose skins enriched the Dutch merchants : the slaughter of these increased rapidly, notwithstanding which the Dutch West India Company failed in about ten years after taking charge of New Amsterdam.
Few agriculturists yet came to the new colony, but among them was, in 1625, a colony of Walloons who took up lands and began to cultivate at the Wallabout on Long Island ; and from them the name is derived (Waale boght.t) Thus, at this time was the city of Brooklyn begun; and the same year the first white child born in New Netherland saw the light, at the Waale
+ See Appendix F.
t Het-waale Boght, meaning the Walloons bay.
47
WALLABOUT.
Boght ; this was Sarah Rapelye* the daughter of John ; the second was given to the same Walloon family at the same place, and from her is descended the present worthy mayor (1839) of the city of Brooklyn.i
The Honorable Silas Wood, whose authority is unquestionable, tells us, that when Europeans first saw Long Island it was very clear from wood, in consequence of the Indian custom of burning off the brush and underwood.
I find from another record a memorandum of the manner in which agricultural, or farming transactions were carried on in these primitive times. " Wouter Van Twiller let George Jansen de Rapelye have two cows for four years, and then to be returned with half the increase."}
'The Dutch colonists of New Netherland sent the second in command as their envoy to the Plymouth colony with congratu- lations, and friendly offers of intercourse and assistance. M. De Razier was received with honour by the pilgrims, who acknow- ledged their former obligations to the Dutch, and professed their gratitude. The courteous envoy invited the English to a better soil than they were cultivating, denoting that of Hartford; and the English advised their neighbours to secure their claim to the Hudson, by application to England and a purchase or treaty, for they were not ignorant that their country claimed the Dutch pos- sessions, on the ground of first discovery by Cabot. Every friendly demonstration attended the visit of De Razier ; but the pilgrims requested the Dutch not to send their skiff's into the Nar- agansetts for beaver skins.
. Peter Vroom of Raritan, in a letter to Egbert Benson, dated November the cochteenth 1813 says, " vour Society (the Historical of New York. ) have pub- lished the day of the birth of Sarah Rapelye, the first white child born in the vicinity of New York. An account not only of her birth and marriages, but also of the num- ber and names of her immediate descendants, with other particulars, having been found among the papers of my father-in-law, Guysbert Bogart, deceased, a great grandson of the said Sarah Rapelye by her second marriage, I apprehend it might af- ford the society some pleasure to have a few of the particulars, I have therefore made the following extract from the same. Sarah Rapelye was born on the seventh of June 1625, (differing two days from the account published) and was twice married. The first husband was Hans Hanse Bergen, by whom she had six children, named Michael Hanse, Jan Hanse, Jacob Hanse. Brechje Hanse and Marytje Hanse. Her second husband was Teunis Guysbertse Bogart, by whom she had also six children, nomed Aurtia Bogart, Antje Bogart, Neelje Bogart. Aultje Bogart, Catelyntje Bogart and Guvsbert Bogart, who was the grandfather of my father-in-law Guysbert Bogart. 'T'he account also contains the names of the persons to whom eleven of her children were married, and where they settled, and states that the twelfth. namely, Brechje Hanse, removed to Holland." In the Dutch records, letter P. or Vol. eleven. at Al- banv. it is stated that this same Sarah the first, was a widow by the name of Forey, with seven children ; and at the age of thirty-one in consideration of her situation
and births, Governor Stuyvesant granted to her the valley adjoining her patent.
+ General Jeremiah Johnson.
: See Appendix G.
- 48
THE PATROONS.
'The Dutch West India Company, by authority of the States, granted to certain persons, on condition that any one of them should, within four years, plant a colony of fifty persons over fif- teen years of age, within the New Netherland, lands to the extent of sixteen miles in length, or if. on a river, eight miles on each bank, (the width in the interior undefined,) the Indian right to be purchased from them by the grantee ; and the island of Man- hattan reserved to the company. These leaders of colonies were called Patroons .*
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