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. II > Part 36
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Courts .- To be held in each riding three times a year. Many necessary regulations are made relative to the administration of ' justice. Every town to provide a " pair of stocks for offenders," and a pound for cattle. Prisons and pillories are likewise to be provided where courts are held.
Public charges .-- " Every inhabitant is to contribute to all churches, both in church and colony."
Records to be kept at New York city. .
L'oters are freeholders and householders.
Wolres .- Wolves heads paid for to Christian or Indian to the value of an " Indian coat."
Richard Nicolls added explanations and amendments ; and in 1666, Matthias Nicolls, secretary to the Court of Assizes, pub- lished further amendments : and again in 1672, and in 1675.
APPENDIX S .- Vol. I., p. 246.
1 Copy of a Letter from Earl Bellomont to Col. Abraham De Peyster.
" BOSTON, 4th Sept. - 99.
" SIR,-I cannot perform my promise of looking over your ac- count, as yet, for I am engaged at present, and have been so all
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, this last week, in writing packets or volumes of letters to England by a ship that stays for me.
" ] writ to my cousin Nanfan last post, to let the city of New- York have the stones of the old bastions or batteries, to build their Town-house. I am not dissatisfied with the sheriffe, since my cousin Nanfan and you vouch so much for his honesty ; but he should have taken more care of Brickmaster.
" I have writ to my cous. Nanfan, this post, my reasons why it will not be fit to continue the same mayor and sheriffe another year for the city of New York. As soon as you receive the original or a copy of the letter to Dellius from the French woman at Canada, I ·desire you will not fail to send it to
" Your affectionate servant, " BELLOMONT. " Our service, I pray, to Madame De Peyster.
" Mr. Leisler tells me an ugly story of Mr. Graham's design of cheating him of a house and lot at New York. I desire you will send for Mr. Walters privately, and advise him to caution old Mrs. Leisler (with whom her son has left a general letter of attorney) not to part with that piece of ground to Graham, nor any thing else. That man will undo himselfe with his knavish tricks. One would thinke he has guilt enough on his head for being the principal au- thor of the murther of Leisler and Milbourne; but it seems bathing his hands in the blood of the father is not enough, but he will also cheat the son. I am content that you show this letter to Mr. Wal- ters, and pray get him to send me his affidavit of Mr. Graham's insinuations to his father, Leisler, and himselfe, to procure their interest to be chosen a member of the assembly ; which they were prevailed with to do, and afterwards he became Leisler's and Mil- bourne's mortall enemy. This account Mr. Walters told me once or twice.
" Dr. Staats also told me how he was affronted and threatened by a papist, in the field, when the election was of members to serve for New York in that very assembly that worried Mr. Leisler and Milbourne to death, under the conduct of Mr. Graham. Let me also have Dr. Staats's affidavit of that, and some proof of Major Tredwell's imprisonment, to hinder either his being chose or his sitting in assembly after he was chose. If it be possible, let me have these evidences next post."
Copy of a Letter from Earl Bellomont to Col. Abraham De Peyster.
" SIR,-I have received yours of the 4th inst., and will not fail to write to England about your affair with Van Sweeten, with this packet, which I am to send away within four or five days. I am very sorry I have not the letter to Dellius to send home. I desire
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. you will speak to Mr. Walters to deliver you upon oath what was transacted between Mr. Graham and him at the time Graham pre- vailed with Captain Leisler and him to make an interest for Gra- ham's being chose of the assembly, that press'd Coll. Sloughter to take away the lives of Capt. Leisler and Mr. Milbourne, as I writ to you in my last letter. And pray get Dr. Staats's affidavit, as I desired in that letter. "T'is wonderful to me that Dr. Staats and the rest of Leisler's party have not in all this time got counter-sub- scriptions signed by their party at Albany, against Dellius-as the other party got subscriptions in favour of Dellius. They are just the people that will. Nichols paints Staats to be, in his pamphlet, Impenetrable B.
" When you hear any news from Schermerhorn about the trees for masts, pray let me know it. My wife's and my service to Ma- dame De Peyster. .
" I am your affectionate friend, and servant,
" BELLOMONT.
" I have writ to Coll. Courtland to pay you my arrear of salary, and for the time to come to pay it to you monthly, as it grows due. " COLL. D'PEYSTER."
APPENDIX T .- Vol. I., p. 247.
Abstract from the Records of the Corporation of New York.
1701 September 29th .-- The usual return of aldermen and assistants for next year, is : Dock Ward-Philip French and Robert Livingston. South Ward-Nicholas Rosevelt and Hendrick Jellison. West Ward-David Provoost, Jun., and Peter Williamse Roome. East Ward-Johannes De Peyster and Abraham Brazier. North Ward-Jacob Barker and Garret Ocle- berg. Out Ward-Martin Clock and Abraham Mesier. A war- rant under the hand and seal of the honourable lieutenant-gover- nour read, etc., appointing persons to examine into the election of aldermen. Whereupon, ordered, that the recorder and Alderman De Peyster be a committee forthwith to acquaint his excellency that the common council of this city are the sole judges of their due elections, and returns of the magistrates and officers for their corpo- ration. The committee report that Governour Nanfan is gone abroad, and it is adjourned to to-morrow. Lawrence Van Hook is appointed high constable by the mayor.
October-The lieutenant-governour and council appoint Thomas
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Noel, Esq., mayor for next year. The committee appointed to inform Governour Nanfan that the common council are the sole judges, etc., report, " that they acquainted him with the opinion of this court, and gave him the warrant which he had directed to Wil- liam Sharpe and Barne Cossens, who put the warrant into his pocket and told them he would consider the matter, and give an answer in a day or two."
October 4th .- Complaints made of undue returns by Alderman De Peyster. A committee appointed to examine.
10th .- The committee report that the returns are right, and the court approve. The mayor, Dr. Rheiner, produces six writs of mandamus, requiring the mayor, aldermen, and recorder to swear John Hutchins alderman of the West Ward, Brandt Schuyler of the South, and William Morris of the East : and Jeremiah Tothel assistant of the East Ward ; Johannes Johnson, of the South ; and Robert White, of the West. Ordered, that the common council make return of the said writs cum protestando of misnomer, and all the defects of the same, and that the mayor fee council for the city .*
14th .- The new Mayor, Noel, sworn before Governour Nanfan.
November 11th .- Thomas Noel, Esq., mayor, acquainted the court that from the day he was sworn in, " for want of a settled magistracy, he had kept a memorandum or journal of several mat- ters that had been transacted within this city which related to the publick." This is read and entered on the records.
Abstract of the memorandum .- That he was sworn the 14th of October, before Nanfan, lieutenant-governour, at Fort William, with due solemnity, and went through the usual formalities which . are enumerated.
That upon his ordering the recorder to swear the new alder- men, he said they were already sworn by the old mayor, except Mr. Phillip French and Mr. Lurting, whereupon they were sworn; that then there were delivered to Noel six of her majesty's writs of mandamus directed to the mayor and recorder for the time being, one of which was for swearing Brandt Schuyler alderman of the south ward, and naming the persons appointed as above: these writs being openly read by many people in the room, several dis- putes thereupon arose, several affirming that the aldermen and assis- tants sworn by the old mayor were not legally sworn, it being contrary to the ancient rights, privileges and customs granted by the charter, and contradicting the usage in such cases; it being the usage that the new mayor swear the new aldermen and assistants ;
* Here we have the mayor in office and connnon council, beginning opposition to the lieutenant-governour and the Leislerian party.
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and that those sworn by the old mayor had illegally returned them- selves, and the persons named in the mandamus were legally elect- ed ; and great heats arose, " and I" said Noel, " thought it conve- nient to leave the chair and dissolve that assembly to prevent the danger that seemed to threaten." ".Upon which the multitude dispersed." He says, that the aldermen and assistants were always sworn by the new mayor, and by the books " there is not one pre- cedent that the old mayor took that authority upon him." That he (Noel) called the common council " on Monday the 20th October," in order to swear the aldermen mentioned above as opposed to Dr. Rheiner's party ; that he went into the court room and told the gentlemen what he intended to do ; they answered, they were already sworn ; " I answered, not by me or my consent, and I could not consent to set with them." Noel offered the oaths and they refused them : he desired them not to come upon the bench ; they said they were duly sworn and had a right to sit there. Noel left the room telling them he could not act with them. "Mr. David Provoost answered, that he would not be sworn by me, and thereupon I went home."
On the 21st he says, that he and Alderman French went to the City Hall, in order to adjourn the Mayor's Court, "when I found Messrs. Depeyster, Provoost and Roosevelt, who followed me up into the court-room, and there stood until I and Alderman French opened and adjourned the court, and then went away."
That he told the recorder that he would swear the alderman and assistants that were returned without dispute if they would admit of it ; which done, there would be a sufficient number to hold a common council for the renewal of the city laws, and he proposed to the recorder to join him in this business.
On the 22d the recorder told Noel, at his house, that he could not assist him in this plan. Noel proceeded on the scrutiny, and appointed Rip Van Dam and others to scrutinize, and accordingly issued a warrant for the said persons to act. The persons so call- ed on by Noel's warrant would not serve or obey, except Rip Van Dam and Matthew Long ; and before them certain persons swore they were not of lawful age when they voted, and others did not reside in the wards where their votes were taken.
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APPENDIX U .- Vol. I., p. 254.
" LORD Cornbury's father, the Earl of Clarendon, adhered to the cause of the late abdicated king, and always refused the oaths both to King William and Queen Anne ; but the son recommended himself at the revolution by appearing very early for the Prince of Orange, being one of the first officers that deserted King James's army. King William, in gratitude for his services, gave him a commission for this government, which, upon the death of the king, was renewed by Queen Anne, who at the same time appointed him to the chief command of New Jersey, the government of which the proprietors had lately surrendered into her hands. As Lord Corn- bury came to this province in very indigent circumstances, hunted out of England by a host of hungry creditors, he was bent upon getting as much money as he could squeeze out of the purses of an impoverished people. His talents were perhaps not superiour to the most inconsiderable of his predecessors ; but in his zeal for the church he was surpassed by none.
" His lordship, without the least disguise, espousing the anti- Leislerian faction, Atwood, the chief-justice,* and Weaver, who acted in quality of solicitor-general, thought proper to retire from his frowns to Virginia, whence they sailed to England : the former concealing himself under the name of Jones, while the latter called himself Jackson. Colonel Heathcote and Doctor Bridges suc- ceeded in their places at the council board.
" The following summer was remarkable for the uncommon mnor- tality which prevailed in the city of New York, and makes a grand epoch among our inhabitants, distinguished by the ' time of the great sickness.'t On this occasion, Lord Cornbury had his residence and court at Jamaica, a pleasant village on Long Island, distant about twelve miles from the city.
" The inhabitants of Jamaica consisted, at that time, partly of original Dutch planters, but mostly of New England emigrants, en- couraged to settle there, after the surrender, by the Duke of York's conditions for plantations, one of which was in these words : 'that
* " He was at the same time judge of the Vice Admiralty, and published his case in England, of which the assembly, in May, 1703, assert that it contained scandalous, malicious, notorious untruths, and unjust reflections on persons then in the admin- istration of the province."
t "The fever killed almost every patient seized with it, and was brought here in a vessel from St. Thomas, in the West Indies, an island remarkable for contagious diseases."
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every township should be obliged to pay their own ministers, ac- cording to such agreements as they should make with him: the minister being elected by the major part of the householders and inhabitants of the town.' These people had erected an edifice for the worship of God, and enjoyed a handsome donation of a parson- age house and glebe, for the use of their minister. After the min- istry act was passed by Colonel Fletcher, in 1693, a few episco- palians crept into the town, and viewed the presbyterian church with a jealous eye. The town vote, in virtue of which the building had been erected, contained no clause to prevent its being hereafter engrossed by any other sect. The episcopal party who knew this, formed the design of seizing the edifice for themselves, which they shortly after carried into execution, by entering the church between the morning and evening service, while the presbyterian minister and his congregation were in perfect security, unsuspicious of the zeal of their adversaries, and a fraudulent ejectment on a day con- secrated to rest.
"Great outrage ensued among the people, for the contention be- ing pro Aris et Focis, was animating and important. The original proprietors of the house tore up their seats, and afterwards got the key and the possession of the church, which were shortly after again taken from them by force and violence. In these controversies the governour abetted the episcopal zealots, and harassed the others by numberless prosecutions, heavy fines, and long imprisonments- through fear of which many who had been active in the dispute fled out of the province. Lord Cornbury's noble descent and educa- tion should have prevented him from taking part in so ignominious a quarrel; but his lordship's sense of honour and justice was as weak and indelicate as his bigotry was rampant and incontrollable ; and hence we find him guilty of an act complicated of a number of vices, which no man could have perpetrated without violence to the very slightest remains of generosity and justice. When his excellency retired to Jamaica, one Hubbard, the presbyterian min- ister, lived in the best house in the town. His lordship begged the loan of it for the use of his own family, and the clergyman put him- self to no small inconvenience to favour the governour's request ; but in return for the generous benefaction, his lordship perfidiously delivered the parsonage-house into the hands of the episcopal party, and encouraged one Cardwel, the sheriff, a mean fellow, who after- wards put an end to his own life, to seize upon the glebe, which he surveyed into lots, and farmed for the benefit of the episcopal church. These tyrannical measures justly inflamed the indigna- tion of the injured sufferers, and that again the more embittered his lordship against them. They resented, and he prosecuted ; nor did he confine his pious rage to the people of Jamaica : he detest- ed all. who were of the same denomination : nay, averse to every
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sect except his own, he insisted that neither the ministers nor schoolmasters of the Dutch, the most numerous persuasion in the province, had a right to preach or instruct without his gubernato- rial license ; and some of them tamely submitted to his unauthori- tative rule .*
" The royal instructions required the governours of the planta- tions to give all countenance and encouragement to the exercise of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, as far as conveniently, might be in their respective provinces, and particu- larly directed, ' That no schoolmaster be henceforward permitted to come from this kingdom, and to keep school in that our said province, without the license of the said lord bishop of London, and that no other person now there, or that shall come from other parts, shall be admitted to keep school in your province without your license first obtained.' There is reason to think this instruc- tion has been continued from the revolution to the present time, to the governours of all the royal provinces.
" A general account of his lordship's singular zeal is preserved, under the title of the Watch Tower, in a number of papers pub- lished in the New York Weekly Mercury for the year 1755.
" While his excellency was exerting his bigotry during the sum- mer season at Jamaica, the elections were carrying on with great heat for an assembly, which met him at that village in the fall. It consisted principally of the party which had been borne down by the earl of Bellomont and his kinsman ; and hence we find Philip French, who had lately been outlawed, was returned a representa- tive for New York, and William Nicoll elected into the speaker's chair.
" Several extracts from his lordship's speech are proper to be laid before the reader, as a specimen of his temper and designs. ' It was an extreme surprize to me (says his lordship) to find this province at my landing at New York, in such a convulsion as must have unavoidably occasioned its ruin if it had been suffered to go on a little longer. The many complaints that were brought to me against persons I found here in power, sufficiently proved against
* "It had been made a question in King William's reign, whether the keeping of schools was not by the ancient laws of England, prior to the reformation, of ecele- siastical cognizance. It was thought by some that a schoolnaster might be prose- cnted in the ecclesiastical courts, for not bringing his scholars to church, according to the 79th canon in 1603. Treby, chief-justice, and Powell, justice, were of opin- ion, that being a layman, he was not bound by the canons.
"In 1700, one Case was libelled for teaching school at Exeter without the bishop's license, and though it was admitted that the canons did not bind the laity, yet it was conceived that the crown, since the reformation, had authority to vest the superin- tendency of schools in the ordinary, but a distinction was taken between grammar schools and schools for inferior instruction. A prohibition issued as to the teaching of all schools except grammar schools .- Vol. I., P. Williams' Rep. 29-33."
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them ; and the miserable accounts I had of the condition of our frontiers, made me think it convenient to delay my meeting you in general assembly, till I could inform myself in some measure of the condition of this province, that I might be able to offer to your con- sideration some few of those things which will be necessary to be done forthwith, for the defence of the country.'
" He then recommends the fortifying the port of New York and the frontiers ; adding, that he found the soldiers naked and un- armed ; after which, he proposes a militia bill, the erection of publick schools, and an examination of the provincial debts and accounts ; and not only promises to make a faithful application of the moneys to be raised, but that he would render them an account. The whole speech is sweetened with this gracious conclusion :- ' Now, gentlemen, I have no more to trouble you with, but to assure you in the name of the great queen of England, my mistress, that you may safely depend upon all the protection that good and faith- ful subjects can desire or expect from a sovereign whose greatest delight is the welfare of her people, under whose auspicious reign we are sure to enjoy what no nation in the world dares claim but the subjects of England : I mean the free enjoyment of the best religion in the world, the full possession of all lawful liberty, and the undisturbed enjoyment of our freeholds and properties. These are some of the many benefits which I take the inhabitants of this province to be well entitled to by the laws of England ; and I am glad of this opportunity to assure you, that as long as I have the honour to serve the queen in the government of this province, those laws shall be put in execution, according to the intent with which they were made; that is, for the preservation and protection of the people, and not for their oppression. I heartily rejoice to see that the free choice of the people has fallen upon gentlemen whose con- stant fidelity to the crown and unwearied application to the good of their country is so universally known.'
" The house echoed back an address of high compliment to his lordship, declaring, 'That being deeply sensible of the misery and calamity the country lay under at his arrival, they were not sufficiently able to express the satisfaction they had both in their relief and their deliverer.'
" Well pleased with a governour who headed their party, the assembly granted to him all that he desired : £1,800 were raised for the support of one hundred and eighty men to defend the fron- tiers, besides .£2,000 more as a present towards defraying the ex- penses of his voyage. The queen, by her letter of the 20th of April, in the next year, forbade any such donations for the future. It is observable that though the county of Duchess had no repre- sentatives at this assembly, yet such was the then known indigence
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of that now populous and flourishing county, that but £18 were apportioned for their quota of these levies."*
APPENDIX V .- Vol. I., p. 298. 4
ON the 9th of June, 1734, Messrs. Smith and Murray appeared as required before the assembly, to argue the subject of the esta- blishment of a court of equity (or chancery) in this colony without the consent of the legislature. Smith advocated the popular side, and insisted that as in England, such a court could not be established contrary to the will of the people as represented in parliament, so here, the colonists having the rights of Englishmen, they must consent by their representatives to said establishment. In short, that not being represented in parliament, they were not to be bound by its decisions. Murray, on the contrary, insisted that what was law in England, was law here-or, the colonists, as Englishmen, were bound by all laws of England. He shows that a court of equity existed in 1702, William Atwood, Abraham De Peyster, and Robert Walters, being the judges, and also adduces decisions of Lewis Morris, James De Lancey, and Frederick Phillipse, judges in equity.
* Smith's History of New York, Vol. I. pp. 168-175.
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APPENDIX referred to .- Vol. I., p. 319.
Copy of a Letter from the Hon. Cadwallader Colden to William Smith, Esq., author of the History of New York, relative to er- Tours and misrepresentations contained therein. Original in the Library of the New York Historical Society.
" FLUSHEN, January 15th, 1759. " To William Smith, Jun., Esq.
"SIR,-I did not see your History of New York till last week. The account you give (page 179) of the transactions between the government of New York and Captain Laughlin Campbel is in every circumstance a misrepresentation of facts. It is in the prin- cipal part absolutely false, and an egregious calumny of the persons who at that time had the administration of government in their bands.
" It is now about twenty years since that affair happened. Many of the circumstances I cannot with sufficient certainty recollect, and it is probable, thiat none who were not immediately concerned in that affair can at this time remember them. I shall content myself therefore with giving you a summary account of that affair, so far as, I doubt not, can be proved by living evidence.
" It is true that Captain Campbel imported a number of families from Scotland, a great part of which (I believe the greatest) had paid their own passage, and were at liberty to dispose of themselves after they arrived in America as they thought fit. The others were bound by indenture to Captain Campbel to serve him or his assigns some certain number of years, in consideration of the expense of transporting them to America, or under some other obligation to repay that expense with a profit to him.
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