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 37
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" Soon after their arrival, Captain Campbel presented a petition to Lieutenant-governour Clark in council, setting forth in substance (so far as I can remember) that he had imported some certain num- ber (which I have forgot) of families or persons, in order to culti- vate or improve some part of the vacant lands of this province, and prayed the grant of a large tract of land (probably 30,000 acres, as you remember) to him, his heirs, and assigns, in order to settle thereon those families and persons which he had imported for its cultivation and improvement. This petition, and the import of it, became immediately the subject of common discourse in the town. Whereupon the persons who came with Captain Campbel and had paid their own passages, met together in companies in the streets,
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LETTER OF CADWALLADER COLDEN.
. and where they loudly exclaimed against it, saying, they had left Scotland to free themselves from the vassalage they were under to their lords there, and they would not become vassals to Laughlin Campbel in America. The governour being informed of this, ordered the persons to be called together and to be interrogated on this head. They jointly and severally to a man declared they would not become tenants to Laughlin Campbel. It being like- wise doubted whether Captain Campbel was in capacity to settle a sufficient number of persons to have so large a tract cultivated pur- suant to the directions in the king's instructions. He said, that as his settling on the frontiers towards Canada would be a considera- ble additional defence of the province, he expected that the assem- bly would bear the charge of supporting the families that were to settle upon it, till they could support themselves by their own labour, and that he had or would present a petition for that pur- pose. The assembly knowing the aversion which the people who came over with Captain Campbel had to him, for it was notorious, did not enter on the consideration of his petition ; and I firmly be- lieve that he gave in no other petition to the assembly.
. " These transactions were publick, and the subject of common discourse, yet I never heard Mr. Clark or any other person in the administration blamed at that time by any indifferent person of Captain Campbel's petition, that it was not granted.
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" This being the state of the case, I leave it to you to say whether Lieutenant-governour Clark could, consistently with the trust re- posed in him, grant 30,000 acres of land to Laughlin Campbel; or whether it would not have been a lasting obstruction to the set- tlement of the frontiers, to grant 30,000 acres of land there, to any person who was in no capacity to settle and improve so great a tract. I likewise leave it to others who are better acquainted with Captain Campbel's character than you are, to say whether it be in the least probable that Captain Campbel would have refused a share in that grant to any person who had influence to procure it for him under colour of the pretences which he made.
" Captain Campbel might have had 2,000 acres of land for him- self on the frontiers, and the others quantities in proportion to their abilities ; but they chose to settle on the inhabited parts of the coun- try. In short, Captain Campbel had conceived hopes of erecting a lordship for himself in America. He imagined that the people whom he had enticed over with him, would have become his ten- ants on condition of being supported till they could maintain them- selves, and an easy rent afterwards. His disappointment come from these people absolutely refusing to become his tenants on any terms, and from the assembly's being unwilling to support them at the expense of the people and the province, and not from Mr. H
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APPENDIX.
Clark's refusing them land, for they might have had it as before- mentioned, but none were willing.
" So far as I know, this story which you tell was not propagated till since Captain Campbel's death, at a distance of time when these transactions are forgot by people who had no concern in them ; and were propagated by his family after they were reduced to distress by his misconduct, in order to move the compassion of some per- sons who had it in their power to advance them, and they have suc- ceeded. As these stories were only propagated in private, it was not easy to take public notice of them ; but now that you have published this calumny in Europe and America, a public redress is become necessary.
" This public defamation being an egregious injury to the public faith and honour of the government of New York, you know the proper method for redress that may be taken. But as I think that your writing of this, and publishing it, has only arisen from your credulity in some who do not deserve the confidence you placed in their veracity, and from a generous indignation at what you thought a base breach of trust in the lieutenant-governour and others, I shall at present leave it to you to propose what you think may be an adequate redress of so publick an injury.
" No doubt several of the persons who came over with Captain Campbel, and were not servants, are still alive; from them you may learn the truth of the principal facts which I now affirm. Per- haps some of them may now live in the city. I have forgot all their names except one Montgomerie, brother-in-law to Captain Camp- bel, who lately lived at Cackeyat. I shall expect your answer without delay, and that thereby the opinion will be confirmed of your sincerity and integrity which has been hitherto entertained by "Sir, your most humble servant,
" CADWALLADER COLDEN."
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APPENDIX.
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APPENDIX referred to .- Vol I., p. 369.
Account of the circumstances attending the death of Sir Danvers Osborn.
" MR. CLINTON was at Flushing, in Queens county, where he had resided the whole summer, when Sir Danvers Osborn* arrived to succeed him in command, which was on Sunday, the 7th of Oc- tober, 1753. He was met at Whitehall by the council, mayor, ' and corporation, and chief citizens, and attended to the council chamber ; and, in the absence of Mr. Clinton, took up his lodging at Mr. Murray's, whose wife was a daughter of Governour Cosby, and a distant relation of Sir Danvers' deceased lady, a sister to the Earl of Halifax. Mr. Clinton waited upon him the next day, and - they both dined at an entertainment provided by the council. On Wednesday morning they assembled the council at the fort, for . administering the oaths, and then began the usual procession for reading the commission at the town-hall. The indecent acclama- tions of the populace, stimulated by the partizans of the late troubles, induced the old governour to take leave of his successor at a short distance from the fort, while Sir Danvers stalked along with the council and magistrates, rather serious than cheerful, amidst the noisy shouts of a crowded throng.
" After his return to the council chamber, he received the address of the city corporation, of which he had a copy, and with difficulty restrained his intention of begging the alteration of a passage in it, which he thought expressive of jealousy. The words were : ' We are sufficiently assured that your excellency will be as averse from countenancing, as we from brooking, any infringements of our inestimable liberties, civil and religious.'
" These particulars are mentioned with the more minuteness,. on account of the tragical end to which this unfortunate gentleman was approaching.
" He told Mr. Clinton, with disapprobation of the party exulta- tions in his progress to, and return from the town-hall, 'that he ex- pected the like treatment before he left the government.'
" While at a splendid dinner given to the two governours and the council by the corporation, there was every demonstration of joy> The city was illuminated, cannon were discharged, and two bonfires lighted up on the common, in the evening. Sir Danvers took no part in the general joy. He retired early in the afternoon,
* "Mr. Charles, in his letter of the 11th of June, 1753, informed the speaker that Sir Danvers was a gentleman of great worth, a member of parliament for Bed- fordshire, and brother-in-law to the Earl of Halifax."
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APPENDIX.
. and continued at his lodgings, while the whole town seemed aban- doned to every excess of riot. The last act of Mr. Clinton's ad- ministration was the delivery to Mr. Delancey of a commission to be lieutenant-governour. This had been done in the presence of the council, immediately after he gave the seals to Sir Danvers, and it contributed much, with the discovery now made of Mr. Clin- ton's letter to the lords of trade respecting the Jersey claim, to the mad transports of the populace in the streets and commons.
"Sir Danvers rose early on Thursday morning, and before the family were about, had, alone, patrolled the markets and a great part of the town. He complained of being somewhat indisposed; and at dinner, said, with a smile, to Mr. Delancey, 'I believe I shall soon leave you the government. I find myself unable to support the burden of it.' He had convened the council in the afternoon, and appeared in some perturbation at their first assembly, espe- cially when he found that M. Pownal, who had the key of the ca- binet, was not within. He was desirous to show them his instruc- tions. He informed them, that he was strictly enjoined to insist upon the permanent indefinite support of government, and desired their opinions on the prospect of success. There was a general declaration, that the assembly could not be brought to adopt that scheme. With a distressed countenance, and in a plaintive voice, he addressed Mr. Smith, who had not yet spoke a word :- ' What, sir, is your opinion ?'-and when he heard a similar answer, he sighed, turned about, reclined against the window-frame, and ex- claimed, ' then what am I come here for ?'
"In the evening he had a physician with him, talked of ill health, was disconsolate, and retired to his chamber, and at midnight dis- missed his servant. While the house was preserved the next morn- ing in the utmost silence, upon an apprehension that he was still asleep, an account was brought that he was hanging dead against the fence at the lower end of the garden. A vein was opened, but to no purpose.
" The malevolence of party rage would not at first ascribe this event to the insanity of the deceased ; but threw out insinuations, that he had been brought to his end by foul means, and that the criminals were some of those who could not suppress their joy to see Mr. Clinton a private character, and Mr. Delancey at the helm ; nor did these unjust suspicions soon subside.
" The council was immediately summoned to Mr. Murray's house, where the tragedy was acted, and every circumstance in- quired into, for the satisfaction both of liis relations and the crown, and the vindication of the party led by the new lieutenant-governour to such lengths against Mr. Clinton, who was then preparing for his voyage.
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DEATH OF SIR DANVERS OSBORN.
"On the top of the fence was a row of large nails inverted, to exclude thieves from the garden, over which he had cast a silk hand- kerchief tied at the opposite ends, and had elevated his neck to it by a small board, which was found near him over his hat upon the ground.
" After his servarit left him, he had consumed a vast number of private, but no publick papers, endorsed others, which he pre- served ; wrapped up a sum of money, borrowed since his arrival, and directed it to the lender. There was lying on the table a .. paper, written in his own hand, quem deus vult perdere, prius demen- tut, and the coroner's inquest believed his testimony, for they found him a lunatick.
" A man who, before the light of that day, passed the river in a boat under the fence, heard the noise of his heels against it in his last struggles. But Mr. Pownal's testimony surmounted every obstacle in the minds of all persons of candour. This gentleman (since so well known in the characters of lieutenant-governour of New Jersey, assistant to the Earl of Loudoun, in the war of 1756, governour of Massachusetts Bay, commissary in Germany, and a member of the British parliament) came out as a guide and assis- tant to Sir Danvers Osborn, and revealed the secret, that the ba- ronet had been melancholy ever since the loss of his lady, whom he most passionately admired, and that he had before attempted his own life with a razor; adding, that Lord Halifax, by whose interest he obtained the government, had hopes that an honourable and active station abroad might have detached him from the con- stant object of his anxious attention. As it may be interesting to know every thing relating to this unfortunate gentleman, and as Mr. Smith was at that time one of the council, and under no bias to the party calumniated at his death, and his diary kept with such secrecy that none of his children ever knew in his life time that he had one, for the sake of truth these passages are inserted, that the most scrupulous may be satisfied.
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" Wednesday, 10th October, 1753-Sir Danvers Osborn pub- lished his commission, took the usual state oaths and that relating to trade, and received the seals from the hands of Governour Clin- ton, who then (pursuant to an order from the Duke of Newcastle to deliver the commission of lieutenant-governour before his excel- lency left the government, to James Delancey, Esq.,) delivered the same in council accordingly, and Sir Danvers took the oath of governour and chancellor, or keeper of the great seal. The commission was afterwards published at the City Hall. The cor- poration treated the new governour and council at Burns's ; and the whole was conducted, and the day and evening spent, with ' excessive shoutings, two bonfires, illuminations, ringing of the
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APPENDIX.
church bells in the city, drunkenness, and other excessive demon- strations of joy.
" Thursday, lith October .- Sir Danvers appeared very un- easy in council.
" Friday, 12th October-Alarined by the door-keeper of the council, about eight o'clock, desiring me to come to Mr. Murray's, saying, 'the governour had hanged himself?' Went and found it awfully true. He had been found in Mr. Murray's garden hang- ing in his handkerchief, fastened to the nails at the top of the fence. On the first discovery, his body was found quite cold, and upon two incisions no blood issued. He was brought into the house and laid on the bedstead, where I saw him, a woeful spectacle of human frailty and of the wretchedness of man, when left to him- self. The council went from Mr. Murray's to the fort, where Chief Justice Delancey published his commission, and took the oaths. in our presence, and received the commission of Sir Dan- vers and seals and instructions, by order of council, from Thomas Pownal, Esq. ; but took not the oath of chancellor, lest it might supersede his commission of chief justice, till this point be con- sidered. His commission, after it was read in council, was pub- lished only before the fort gate, without any parade or show, because of the melancholy event of this day.
" The character of Sir Danvers Osborn, baronet of Chichsands, in the county of Bedford, as far as I could observe, having been every day since his arrival with him, was this :- he was a man of good sense, great modesty, and of a genteel and courteous beha- viour. He appeared very cautious in the wording of the oaths, particularly for observing the laws of trade enjoined by the statute of 7th and Sth William III. He appeared a very conscientious man to all the council in that particular. A point of honour and duty, in a foreseen difficulty to reconcile his conduct with his ma- jesty's instructions, very probably gave his heart a fatal stab, and produced that terrible disorder in his mind which occasioned his. laying violent hands on himself.
" He was found between seven and eight in the morning, hang- ing about eighteen inches from the ground, and had been probably. · some hours dead. His secretary told me, this morning, he had often said to him, he wished he was governour in his stead. He or somebody else desired me to observe the ashes in the chimney of his bed-room, as being necessary to be observed to excuse his producing of any papers that might be expected to be produced by him, and he showed me two pocket-books in which there was nothing remaining. He said, that when the copy of the episcopal church address was shown yesterday, he observed to Sir Danvers, that he would have an opportunity here, by going to church, to act according to his own mind, and that he (the secretary) with the
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DEATH OF SIR DANVERS OSBORN.
gentlemen should wait on him. To which (says Mr. Pownal) he gave me this shocking answer, 'you may, but I shall go to iny grave.'
" A committee of Mr. Alexander, Mr. Chambers, and the mayor, are appointed to take depositions concerning the facts and circum- stances attending his death. The jury have found Sir Danvers (as is said) non compos mentis. Mr. Barclay* was sent for into council to desire him to read the burial service. He objected, as the letter of the rubric forbids the reading it over any that lay vio- lent hands on themselves. Agreed in council, that the meaning ought to be regarded more than the words. I said, qui hæret in litera, hæret in cortice, and if the jury on inquest found Sir Danvers non compos, his corpse had as much right to christian burial as the corpse of a man who had died in a high fever. This seemed to satisfy Mr. Barclay, coming from me, seeming worth more of his regard, than if it had come from another.t He said he had not any scruples of conscience, but he desired to avoid censure, as we have people of different opinions amongst us.
" Sabbath, 14th October, 1753 .- Last evening attended the fu- neral of Sir Danvers Osborn, as a bearer, with five others of the council, and Mr. Justice Horsmanden, and Mr. Attorney-General ; and this day, in the old English church, heard a sermon from Hebr. 10th chap. 24th verse-' And let us consider one another, to provoke unto love and to good works.' "#
* "This gentleman, who served as a missionary to the Mohawks, was. on the death of Mr. Vesey, in 1746, called to be rector of Trinity church in the metro- polis. His arrears of twenty pounds were provided for in the support bill of that year, and there has been no provincial allowance since that time towards the propagation of christianity among the Indians."
t " Mr. Smith was a member of the presbyterian congregation in communion with the church of Scotland."
# Smith's History of New York, Vol. II, p. 182-190.
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APPENDIX W.
APPENDIX W .- Vol. I., p. 3S9.
175S THE following memoranda taken from the periodicals of this year, will throw some light upon the spirit of that stir- ring period :
March 23d .- The legislature resolved to raise 2,6S0 effective men; £10 offered as bounty for each able bodied man, and 20s to the officer enlisting lim.
Killing and scalping at the German Flats by the French and Indians.
A " battle between the famous Rogers, and the enemy." He left Fort Edward with a party of rangers on a scout, March 10th, and encamped for the night on the road to Lake George. He marched with every precaution towards the enemy; and on the 13th, he came upon and beat their advance guard, but soon found himself overmatched. The account is signed " Robert Rogers," · and the major makes the best of his story ; but the amount is, he was beaten with considerable loss. 22d, the President of Princeton College, Jonathan Edwards, died.
The assembly of New Jersey resolve that the regiment of the colony be recruited to 1,000 men. Pay of the colonel, £20 2s. per month ; lieutenant-colonel, £1S; major, £15; each captain, £10; each lieutenant, £7 10s 9d ; each ensign, £6 14s. Sergeants, corporals, and drummers, £2 10s 3d ; privates, €1 13. A chap- lain, £10, a surgeon £15, surgeon's mate £9. Massachusetts resolved to raise 7,000 men.
April 17th .- Lieutenant-governour Delancey, by proclamation gives notice that persons "employed on board of vessels laden with provisions for Halifax, will be free from all impress." [Did not he know of the statute of Anne ?] He further declares that any person concealing any seaman or deserter belonging to king's ships or transports shall be prosecuted. Another proclamation encourages those who come forward to enlist to bring their own . guns, as they may be more used to them, and they may be lighter. [From this, we see that uniformity was not contemplated.] They are encouraged to bring powder-horns and shot-bags likewise. The Indians kill and scalp between Saratoga and Fort Edward.
May 1st .- Transports and ships of war fall down to the Hook, and Lord Loudon having embarked on board a ship of war lying in the North River, was saluted in his going off, by a discharge of the cannon on Flat Rock Buttery.
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APPENDIX W. .
On the 23d of April, Sunday, about two o'clock in the morning, Captain Jasper Farmer, of the militia train, with a number of his company went on board the Snow Charming Jenny, Captain Scott, then lying along the new dock, in order to impress men for the transport service. Farmer, having impressed several, four of the crew more obstinate than the rest, retired into the round house and there armed themselves with blunderbusses, and although Captain Farmer and a magistrate then standing on the deck desired them in an amicable manner to surrender, promising they should not go on board the men-of-war, but serve on board the transports, yet they obstinately refused, and fired their blunderbusses through the loop- holes, and wounded Captain Farmer in the neck, of which wound he languished till ten o'clock of the evening of the same day, when he died. The fellows did not surrender till an officer with a party of regulars came down and fired a volley into the round house, which not damaging any of them, they were seized and are all in custody. The coroner's inquest having sat two days, brought in their verdict murder in four persons belonging to the Snow. The same morning also, about five o'clock, as another part of the militia were looking for sailors in the outskirts of the city, they fell upon a house wherein nine Dutchmen were lodged, (they lately being brought in by some of the privateers) who at first would not sur- render, whereupon an officer with a party came to the house and ordered his men to fire, although two of the Dutchmen in the gar- ret would have surrendered and come down, the other seven having secreted themselves ; the party accordingly fired, and instantly killed one Hans Jansen Ramsburgh, the ball entering just under his chin and going through the upper part of his head, the soldiers having fired up a kind of stair-case, or rather trap-door. His com- rade was wounded, and remains dangerously ill ever since. The coroner's inquest having sat two days, brought in their verdict, murder in the officer, and divers other persons to the jurors un- known.
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[This, it will be observed, was in the city of New York, on a Sunday-the militia under arms impressing men-the regulars as- sisting. All this, and the proclamation of Governour Delancey above, was in direct violation of the statute of Queen Anne.]
May Sth .- The New York troops embarked on Saturday, for Albany, as did General Abercrombie and his officers. Sir William Johnson with 200 Mohawks had gone to Onondaga.
May 14th .- Rogers and his scouts are announced as taking four men on the east side of Lake Champlain, who were tilling and sowing when taken ; and Captain Jacobs with seventeen Stock- bridge Indians, fired upon a party of men who were landing oppo- site Ticonderoga, seven of whom Jacobs killed and scalped.
May 15th .- By advertisement, the quarter-master general offers
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APPENDIX W. .
10s a day for waggons, and horses, for the service of the army, and 1.0s for every twenty-five miles, in coming to or going from Albany.
A writer in the American Magazine for April says, " the en- croaching French, have extended their new usurped title" from the Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi, and built a " capital city named New Orleans." Thus by seizing the Missisippi the French are joining their Canada to what they call Louisiana ; " thereby to surround all the English colonies, and (if their as- piring attempt be not prevented) to murder the inhabitants or drive them into the sea : or what is a thousand times worse, to enslave them to French tyranny and Popish superstition."
" The province ship of war King George" returns to Boston from a cruise. We read also of the Pennsylvania frigate going from the Delaware on a cruise.
"The New Jersey forces, of between eleven and twelve hundred of the likeliest well-set men for the purpose, as has perhaps turned out on any campaign, passed by this place for Albany. They were under Colonel Johnson, their uniform blue faced with red, grey stockings and buckskin breeches."
May 1Sth .- Lieutenant-governour Delancey presented to the mayor a letter stating that General Abercrombie represented to him the difficulty in supplying the provincial troops with arms-those ordered by the crown not having arrived, he therefore requests the loan of the 1,000 stand belonging to the common council for the New York regiment under Colonel Delancey. To this the com- mon council answer, that as those arms were bought for the defence of the city in case of invasion, they regret that they cannot comply with the request, having no power so to do.
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