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 53
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In April, the fortifications, etc., at Crown Point, were destroyed by the accidental blowing up of the powder magazine.
May 13th .- In Rivington's Gazette, of this date, appear the two following curious stories :
" Advertisement. Bush Creek, Frederick county, Maryland, October 11th, 1771. Run away from the subscriber, a convict servant maid, named Sarah Wilson, but has changed her name to Lady Susanna Carolina Matilda, which made the publick believe that she was his majesty's sister. She has a blemish in the right eye, black rolled hair, stoops in the shoulders, makes a common practice of writing and marking her cloathis with a crown and a B. Whoever secures the said servant woman, or takes her home, shall receive five pistoles, besides all costs and charges .- William Duvall.
" I entitle Michael Dalton to search the city of Philadelphia and from thence to Charleston for said woman .- William Duvall."
This Sarah Wilson was an attendant upon Miss Vernon, a maid
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of honour to the queen, and found means to break open a cabinet of the queen's, and abstract several jewels, and her majesty's pic- ture. She was tried, and condemned to death, but the sentence softened to transportation to the colonies. She was exposed to sale, and was purchased by Duvall, from whom she escaped and travelled through Virginia and the Carolinas, as above stated ; having carried off cloaths, and preserved jewels and the queen's picture, which supported her claims to be not the king's, but the queen's sister. She was received as a sprig of royalty from house to house, and condescended to permit the masters to kiss her hand. They entertained her with honours, and she promised to some, governments, and to others, various civil appointments, and to the officers of the army and navy, promotion. She borrowed consid- erable sums of her dupes, or the dupes of their own folly. Dalton pursued her to Charleston ; but she had departed to a plantation on a visit. Here the account ceases. But in the Gazette for Sep- tember 2d, 1773, is the following paragraph :
" Tuesday last, arrived in this city a person who styles herself the Marchioness De Waldegrave," and the account goes on to say that she is supposed to be the person mentioned in the papers as Sarah Wilson, alias Lady Carolina Matilda. "She still insists on the reality of her high pretensions, and makes the same impressions on many as she did in the south."
We observe, that in October 11th, 1771, she is advertised as a runaway slave, and in September 2d, (nearly two years after) 1773, she is announced, or a person supposed to be the same, as having arrived in New York, and playing the same part of nobility. How did she escape the pursuit of Dalton? Where was she in the interim ? What her subsequent fate ? What a ground-work for romance !
The story of James Hutchinson is a romance of another kind. HIe was a planter of Barbadoes, and made a practice of securing in his " pen" any animals which strayed from the neighbouring plantations. He became rich. His neighbours very mysteriously disappeared. Finally, 'T. Cadwallader lost a jack ass, and traced the stray to Hutchinson's pen. Cadwallader called on him, and stated the fact ; to which the reply was, that he should take home his property. Hutchinson took his gun, and led Cadwallader to the pen, and there, instead of restoring the beast, took the opportu- nity of the man's turning from him to shoot him. He then cut off the head, and dragging the body to the cliffs, precipitated it into a chasm, (it is to be supposed after rifling it of any money.) The head was thrown into a cave at a distance. It happened that a free white person was sick, and lodged at Hutchinson's, who, hearing the report of the gun, crawled out, and witnessed enough of the transaction to convict the murderer on trial, and he was hanged.
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A number of heads or skulls were found in the cave, and the traces of many bodies that had been thrown down the precipice. A part of Cadwallader's clothing was identified, from hanging on a projecting rock and recovered, and his head was likewise proved to be among the skulls in the cave. The murderer's slaves knew of his guilt, but dared not accuse him ; neither would they have been competent witnesses against him.
May 26th .- The mayor produces an address to Gage. It laments his departure-expresses their sense of obligation to him for his performance of the arduous task of commanding " an army in that critical hour when the several branches of the empire, rent by unnatural discords, seemed to be upon the point of dissolving the union to which they owe their safety, their glory, and their happinesss."
' November 1Stli .-- Charles Clinton, the father of George Clin- ton, member for Ulster county, departed this life at his seat in Little Britain, aged S3. He arrived here from the north of Ireland, in 1732, and was long employed in this province as a surveyor. He was lieutenant-colonel of one of the regiments in Ulster county, and first judge. He commanded a regiment at the reduction of Fort Frontignac, under General Bradstreet, when near 70 years of age.
In November, Rivington publishes (in consequence of a threat,) a handbill which had been circulated, (and Gaine and Parker and Anderson are requested to publish the same.) It is an address to the Sons of Liberty and Commerce, criminating William Kelly for not adhering to the non-importation resolutions, and for saying " that there was no danger of the resentment of the people of New York, if it should be as high as it was at the time of the stamp act. That then they had an old man (C. Colden,) to deal with ; but now they have Governour Tryon, (a military man) who had sup- pressed the insurrection in North Carolina, and he would cram the tea down their throats." The friends of liberty and commerce, considering the above declaration of William Kelly as inimical to America; and as encouraging the ministry in their diabolical plans of enslaving the country, hung him in effigy, after carting it through the streets with labels affixed, and between the hands a tea cannister, labelled, " tea, 3d. sterling, duty," and " the infamous Kelly." The multitude huzza during the procession to the gallows, and shouted " No tea !" The image was burnt opposite the Cof-
fee-house, Wall street. A gentleman then addressed the people, saying, "If we had the base original, we would serve him the same;" and then advised them to go peaceably home. About this same time, while his effigy was burning in New York, Kelly married a lady of fortune in London, and shortly after was defeated in his efforts for a seat in parliament.
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December 16th .- Robert R. Livingston for the first time appears as Recorder.
Negro slavery, a favourite measure with England, was rapidly extending its baneful influence in the colonies. The American Register, of 1769 gives the number of negroes brought in slavery from the coast of Africa, between Cape Blanco and the river Con- go, by different nations in one year, thus :- Great Britain, 53, 100; British Americans, 6,300; France, 23,520 ; Holland, 11,300 ; Portugal, 1,700; Denmark, 1,200 ; in all, 104,100, bought by barter for European and Indian manufacturers -- £15 sterling being the average price given for each negro. Thus we see that more than one half of the wretches who were kidnapped, or torn by force from their homes by the agents of European merchants, (for such those who supply the market must be considered) were sacri- ficed to the cupidity of the merchants of Great Britain : the tradick encouraged by the government at the same time that the boast is sounded through the world, that the moment a slave touches the sacred soil, governed by those who encourage the slave-makers, and inhabited by those who revel in the profits derived from mur- der, he is free. Somerset, the negro, is liberated by the court of king's bench, in 1772, and the world is filled with the fame of English justice and humanity ! James Grahame tells us that Somerset's case was not the first, in which the judges of Great Britain counteracted in one or two cases the practical inhumanity of the government and the people ; he says, that in 1762, his grandfather, Thomas Graliame, judge of the admiralty court of Glasgow, liberated a negro slave imported into Scotland.
It was in vain that the colonists of America protested against the practice of slave dealing. The governours appointed by Eng- land were instructed to encourage it, and when the assemblies en- acted laws to prohibit the inhuman traffick, they were annulled by the vetos of the governours. With such encouragement, the reck- less and avaricious among the colonists engaged in the trade, and the slaves were purchased when brought to the colonies by those who were blind to the evil, or preferred present ease or profit to ail future good. Paley, the moralist, thought the American revolution was designed by Providence, to put an end to the slave trade, and to show that a nation encouraging it, was not fit to be entrusted with the government of extensive colonies. But the planters of the southern states have discovered, since made free by that revo- lution, that slavery is no evil; and better moralists than Paley, that the increase of slaves and their extension over new regions, is the duty of every good democrat. The men who lived in 1773, to whom America owes her liberty, did not think so.
Although resistance to the English policy of increasing the num- ber of negro slaves in America agitated many minds in the colonies,
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opposition to the system of taxation was the principal source of action ; and this opposition now centered in a determination to baffle the designs of Great Britain in respect to the duties on tea. Seventeen millions of pounds of tea were now accumulated in the warehouses of the East India Company. The government was determined, for reasons I have before given, to assist this mercan- tile company, as well as the African merchants, at the expense of the colonists of America. The East India Company were now authorized to export their tea free of all duty. Thus the venders being enabled to offer it cheaper than hitherto to the colo- nists, it was expected that it would find a welcome market. But the Americans saw the ultimate intent of the whole scheme, and their disgust towards the mother country was proportionably increased.
1774 January 12th .- Governour Tryon, in his speech to the assembly says, with the utmost agony of mind for the safety of my family, I lately beheld my own interest and the Province House involved in one common ruin ! particularly, he says, after their liberal grant for the repair of the building ; he tells them the boundary line between New York and Massachusetts was settled by the commissioners appointed ; that with Canada not yet so ; that in consequence of the outrages committed by the New Hamp- shire men on the settlers under the New York government, (in what is now Vermont,) he has been ordered to England.
His majesty's "most dutiful and loyal subjects," in answer, lament the calamities of the fire in the fort, and those in " that corner of the colony which has been for so many years disquieted by unjustifiable claims under the province of New Hampshire." They lament the governour's departure, although they rely upon his exertions in remedying the evils which " a confederacy of in- surgents" have brought upon an extensive territory, clearly within the ancient grant of the colony, solemnly adjudged to be a part of it by the royal decision, and afterwards graciously distributed to the brave officers, etc. This is signed, John Watts, speaker.
March 5th .- A committee report to the assembly facts respect- ing outrages committed by lawless persons, " calling themselves the Bennington mob," who have assumed military commands and judicial powers. They name as ringleaders, Ethan Ellen, Seth Warner, and six others.
14th .- James Jancey, Jun., was appointed master of the rolls, by Tryon.
April 25th .- The Bridewell lottery is mentioned. Both King's College and the Bridewell were built by funds derived from the infamous source of lotteries : but this source was not so considered in the " good old times."
June 27th .--- The Records of the corporation of New York are
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suspended at this date, and are not resumed until February 10th, 1784, thus leaving a cliasm of nearly ten years.
. August 1st .- Measures are taken to elect representatives for the city to the ensuing congress. Philip Livingston, John Alsop, Isaac Low, and John Jay, publish, that if elected, they will advo- cate an agreement not to import goods from Great Britain, as being the most efficacious means to procure redress of grievances.
25th .- A congress of deputies assembled in North Carolina from the counties and towns of the province, and among other acts indicative of their love of liberty, passed this resolution, " that they will not import any slave or slaves, nor purchase any slave or slaves imported or brought into this province by others, from any part of the world, after the first day of November next." Happy would it have been if this resolution had been carried into such effect, as to influence the conduct of the sons of these wise men.
2Sth .- Gage proclaims all town meetings called without the governour's consent illegal, (except the annual meetings,) and pro- hibits all persons from attending on peril of the consequences.
September 5th .- The delegates from the city of New York departed for Philadelphia to the congress. John Jay's departure was unknown at the time, but Isaac Low was accompanied to Paulus Hook ferry by the people with colours flying, musick play- ing, and huzzas. The inhabitants then returned to the Coffee- house, " in order to testify the like respect to James Duane, Philip Livingston and John Alsop, Esqrs." They were accomn- panied by the inhabitants in procession to the Royal Exchange, where Mr. Duane addressed the people. They embarked at the foot of Broad Street, and they were saluted with discharges of cannon, huzzas, etc.
25th .--- General J. Bradstreet died, aged 63. He had been quartermaster-general at the reduction of Louisbourg, under Shir- ley, in 1745 ; in 1758 he took Cadaraqui. The civil and military officers, and the 47th regiment, attended his corpse to Trinity Church.
October 31st .- Is published Israel Putnam's vindication of him- self from the charge of alarming the country unnecessarily by his letter in September, which stated that he was informed that the British had attacked Boston, etc. ; this letter had been reprinted and ridiculed ; the vindication is long, and though signed, was not written by Israel.
November 7th .- It is stated that 23 ships, 5 snows, 22 brigs, 9 schooners, 31 sloops, were in the harbour, and 5 vessels on the stocks.
December .- The Flying Machine (a great improvement in the
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rapidity of travelling) still continues to carry passengers in two days from New York to Philadelphia.
In December certain arms and ammunition were seized by Andrew Elliot, collector, as not being on the ship's cocket, and conveyed to the custom house ; (where was it ?) On the 27th a threatening letter was sent to Elliot saying, " by this act you have declared yourself an enemy to the liberties of the country," and threatening to call upon him for these arms, and prohibiting their being sent away. They say his former good conduct and genteel behaviour entitle him to this notification, otherwise they would wreak their resentment on him.
Elliot published a moderate and firm answer, saying he had done and should do his duty. The merchants expressed their appro- bation of his conduct : but that night handbills were published repeating threats and accusations. 'The next morning the mer- chants waited on him and assured him of their support. They accompanied him to the Coffee-house, where the people cheered him. He returned thanks, but assured them he should continue to do his duty. Elliot's place of residence was what was after- ward known as the Sailor's Snug Harbour, (two miles from town then) and he to avoid " the troubles" moved to Perth Amboy, until the British took possession of New York. He then returned and occupied his house, and received the appointment of lieutenant- governour or head of the police.
Part of a Song published this year in a handbill : Tune, King John and the Abbot of Canterbury.
I sing not of conquests obtained in the field, Nor of feats when proud Trulla made Hudibras yield ; But the total defeat of those heroes I sing,
That would fix a Republic in lieu of a King, Derry down, etc.
First observe Johnny Scott, so courageous and stout, He swore the committee should all be turn'd ont, In all their proceedings he'd find out some Haw ; What's the body of Merchants compared to the Law.
Then Sawney McDongall, so grave and so wise, With a face like an owl, and the same blinking eyes, Advancing his sage, Puritanical phyz,
Cries out for Agricola ! Lo, here he is !
Agricola came. most determined of men, With a wand that he wields in the shape of a pen ; From the freedom of which such enchantments arise, That sedition once touch'd, it immediately dies.
King Sears, thy great merit must not be held back, When like a parch'd pea, thon did'st whiz, jump and crack, From this party to that-still engaged as a tool, Till he found troubled waters to leap in and cool.
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Should Peter Van Brook not be sung in his turn,
The sons of sedition full sorely might mourn ;
But his deeds must not pass, while connected with theirs', Nor his follies be sanctified by his gray hairs.
As for lesser retainers, I think 'twould be wrong That their names should immortalized be in my song ; I therefore dismiss both the great and the small, Lambs, wolves, and tall errand-boys; Starchem and all.
1775 January 13th .- Governour Franklin addressed the le- gislature of New Jersey, convened at Perth Amboy, warning them not to sanction certain proceedings connected with the di -- putes between the colonies and the mother country, and assures them that their grievances will be redressed on petition. The council return a complacent answer ; but the assembly sarcastically tell him that they know of no improper proceedings, sneer at his not naming the acts he deems improper, and sarcastically observe that they cannot see why the petition of one colony should be more attended to, than the petition of all the colonies. Lieutenant- governour Colden's address is in the same style, and he has more success with the New York assembly.
In January, Rivington appears bolder, and no doubt the tories were encouraged. The pieces against the continental congress and the cause of America were multiplied in his Gazeteer; and his paragraphs were openly advocating the parliamentary tyranny. For example-we are informed that the popular faction appears to lose ground. Again, the demagogues are losing ground very fast. Yet the madmen of Marblehead are preparing for an early cam- paign against his majesty's troops, etc. He published scur- rilous verses on Hancock, Adams, and Cooper, the Boston town clerk. The majority of the New York assembly agreeing not to send delegates to the congress in May, caused great triumphi to the tories ; and the Gazeteer rejoices in these verses-
" And so my good masters I find it no joke, For YORK has step't forward and thrown off the yoke Of congress, committees, and even K-g S-s, Who shows your good nature by showing his ears." etc.
In the remainder Hancock and Adams, etc., are consigned to Gage.
February 23d .- The tories triumphed in the vote of the ma- jority of the New York assembly not to send delegates to congress. The majority had Walton, Jancey, Brinckerhoff, Colonel Seaman, (whose daughter married Billop) Brush, Delancey, Vankleeck, Rapelye, Nicolls, Billop, Phillips, (Phillipse) Ten Eyck, Wills, Wilkins, Kissam, and Gale. The whigs were Clinton, Wood- hull, Thomas, Boerum, Captain Seaman, Colonel T'en Broeck, De Witt, Colonel Schuyler, and Colonel P. Livingston.
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March 13th .- The committee of observation nominate Isaac Low, Philip Livingston, James Duane, John Alsop, John Jay, L. Lispenard, Alexander McDougall, and some others, as candi- dates for the continental congress at Philadelphia. The five first were closen.
18th .- A letter, real or pretended, from an American in London says, that several of the members of the New York assembly, who voted not to take into consideration the proceeding of " your con- gress" are to be rewarded. " The Delanceys, Watts, Coldens, and the leaders of the party, are to be rewarded much higher, by places of honour, profit, and pensions, viz : Watts, to be lieutenant- governour, in the room of old Colden, who resigns on a pension. Cruger to be of the council, also a young Colden, McEvers, and some of the Watts. Large grants of land are likewise to be given ; and in a little time, a Bishop will certainly be appointed for Ame- rica. Dr. Cooper, of New York, is fixed for the man, who is the ministerial writer there." He says, " plans for disuniting America are communicated officially to the ministry by Colden, and privately by Parson Vardill, a native of New York, who has been here a twelvemonth, a ministerial writer, under the signature of " Coriola- nus," lately appointed king's professor in the college of New York, with a salary of £200. sterling ; and a Major Skene, from New York, who is appointed governour of Crown Point, and surveyor of the woods, with a grant of 120,000 acres of land." This was the Skene, of Skenesborough, now Whitehall, Lake Champlain.
April 20th .- Marinus Willet and John Lamb are denounced as having been chairmen of a popular meeting to overhant persons who had sent on boards, etc. for the British army at Boston. Sears is said to have made a motion that every man should provide him- self with four and twenty rounds. At another meeting, Sears was taken (as is said) by a warrant, and carried before the mayor, and ordered to jail, but rescued by the people, and carried in tri- umph through the town. Ivers, Alner, Richard Livingston, and Roorbach are mentioned as attending on Sears, with colours flying. At 6 P. M. in the fields Sears addressed the people : Alexander McDougall and Mr. Pardon Burlington, supported Sears. They stopped (as I gather) a vessel with boards, intended for Boston.
23d .- When the news of the Lexington affair reached New York, Isaac Sears and John Lamb took measures for stopping all vessels in the harbour that were about sailing for Quebec or any other ports where British troops predominated, and wrote to the committee of Philadelphia, avowing what they had done. They assembled the people, and demanded the keys of the custom-house of Mr. Elliot, who delivered them up.
May 5th .- The committee of 100 address the lord mayor and common council of London. They assert their rights-declare
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" that Americans will not be deceived by conciliatory assurances, while it is evident that the ministers are aiming at a solid revenue to be raised, by acts of parliament." They say, " the minions of power in New York may inform the administration that this city is as one man in the cause of liberty."
'This address was signed by Isaac Low, chairman, John Jay, Francis Lewis, Jolin Alsop, Philip Livingston, James Duane, E. Duyckman, William Seton, William W. Ludlow, Cornelius Clop- per, Abraham Brinckerhoff, Heury Remsen, Robert Ray, Evert Bancker, Joseph Totten, Abraham P'. Lott, David Beeckman, Isaac Roosevelt, Gabriel H. Ludlow, William Walton, Daniel Phoenix, Frederick Jay, Samuel Broome, Jolin De Lancey, Augustus Van Horne, Abraham Duryee, Samuel Verplanck, Rudolphus Ritze- man, John Morton, Joseph Hallet, Robert Benson, Abraham Bra- sher, Leonard Lispenard, Nicholas Hoffman, P. V. B. Livingston, Thomas Marston, Lewis Pintard, John Imlay, Eleazer Miller, jr., Jolin Broome, Jolin B. Moore, Nicholas Bogert, John Anthony, Victor Bicker, William Goforth, Hercules Mulligan, Alexander McDougall, John Reade, Joseph Ball, George Janeway, John White, Gabriel W. Ludlow, John Lasher, Theophilus Anthony, Thomas Smith, Richard Yates, Oliver Templeton, Jacobus Van Landby, Jeremiah Platt, Peter S. Curtenius, Thomas Randall, Lancaster Burling, Benjamin Kissam, Jacob Lefferts, Anthony Van Dam, Abraham Walton, Hamilton Young, Nicholas Rosevelt, Cornelius P. Low, Francis Basset, James Beeckman, Thomas Ivers, William Denning, John Berrien, Benjamin Helme, William W. Gilbert, Daniel Dunscomb, John Lamb, Richard Sharp, John Morin Scott, Jacob Van Voorhis, Comfort Sands, Edward Fleni- ing, Peter Goelet, Gerret Kettletas, Thomas Buchanan, James Desbrosses, Petrus Byvanck, Lott Embren.
I copy these names as a memento of men and families then in New York. I know that all of them did not join as one man in the cause of liberty, and I doubt whether they all signed this address.
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