USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 12
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Dyre, together with the letter to the secretary of state, were sent to England by the ship Hope. On the same vessel went a petition from the court and the grand jury, to the duke, setting forth the burdens under which the colony labored while the people were denied the rights enjoyed by Englishmen at home or in other colonies; and asking for a government con- sisting of a governor, council, and an assembly to be chosen by the free- holders. Before any reply to this document could have been received, a commission came from Governor Andros to Brockholls, making him receiver general to collect the duke's revenues. Upon the strength of this, Brockholls ordered excise to be collected at Albany. An Englishman of that place refused to pay, and the matter was referred to a jury, which found that there was no law requiring excise to be paid, unless the orders of the governor were to be esteemed as law, in which latter case they would find for the plaintiff; and upon that question they referred the case to the higher authorities in New York. All around there was a spirit of discontent and revolt. Brockholls, in letters to Andros, complained that the government had been subverted and the social condition was one of confusion, disorder, and contempt of authority; and he also told of the general outcry for an assembly.
Even the Provincial Council was inharmonious, and Brockholls deposed William Dervall from its membership, leaving Van Cortlandt and Philipse as his only councilors. John Lewin, the duke's agent, had continued his
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COLLECTOR DYRE'S CASE DISMISSED
investigations, and had much incensed the officials, by ignoring them and taking depositions under oath without any authority from the provincial or local government ; and on that charge Lewin was summoned, on complaint of Councilor Philipse, before the Mayor's Court, over which the deputy mayor, William Beekman, presided. Lewin admitted the charge, and the court drew up a declaration, which they forwarded to the duke, declaring that notwith- standing their willingness to aid the agent, he had ignored them, and had preferred to get his information in a clandestine and extrajudicial manner, and that his methods had stirred up scandal and disorder. Lewin soon after re- turned, with his report, to England.
The complaints against Sir Edmund Andros and Captain Dyre were referred to George Jef- freys (afterward the ill-famed chief justice, but then solicitor general for the duke), and to John Churchill, then the duke's attorney-general, but later the great Duke of Marlborough. They examined Matthias Nicolls, secretary of the Province of New York; Lewin, the duke's agent, and several others; and not only acquitted them, but commended them both for efficient service. This, however, did not include the high treason OLD DUTCH CHURCH IN GARDEN STREET Erected in 1696 charge against Dyre; which languished, because Winder did not appear to prosecute. After wait- ing a long while, Dyre having in the meantime been released on bonds, the case was dismissed.
With reference to the customs the duke wrote to Brockholls, bidding him to continue them by some temporary order, and also promised that he would take steps toward the amelioration of conditions in New York. Meanwhile he desired him to keep all magistrates in their places, even though their terms might expire, until further orders from England. But in spite of the duke's orders, the New York merchants paid no more customs duties until they were imposed by a representative assembly. Relief to the strained conditions came with Colonel Thomas Dongan, whom the duke appointed to be governor of New York, with authority to create an assembly.
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C H A PTER
TWELV E
THOMAS DONGAN, THE FIRST NEW YORK ASSEMBLY, AND THE CHARTER OF LIBERTIES AND PRIVILEGES
The new governor, Colonel Thomas Dongan, was a member of a promi- nent Irish Catholic family. He was the youngest son of Sir John Dongan, Baronet of Castletoun, in the County of Kildare; and his older brother, William, who had been created Baron Dongan and Viscount Claine, in the peerage of Ireland, became Earl of Limerick in 1685, on the accession of James II to the throne. His mother's brother, Richard Talbot, was the boon companion of the Duke of York in his younger days, and having become Earl of Tyrconnel, was appointed by James, after his accession to the throne, as viceroy of Ireland, to carry out the plans of the king to drive the Protestant religion out of Ireland.
Colonel Dongan, who was born in 1634, was bred to the profession of arms, chiefly in France, whither his family had gone after the beheading of Charles I, in 1649. He received a commission from Louis XIV in an Irish regiment made up of adherents of Charles I, becoming its colonel in 1674, and taking part in the campaigns against the Netherlands. After the Treaty of Nimeguen, in 1678, when Charles II ordered home all British subjects serving under the French crown, he left that service, in spite of liberal offers if he would remain in the army of Louis XIV. For his loyalty to the Stuarts, and his refusal to continue in the French army, he was commanded to leave France in forty-eight hours; Louis at the same time refusing to pay the sum of sixty-five thousand livres which was due him for arrears of pay, and for recruits.
When he reached London, the Duke of York and the king both honored him. He was given an appointment as colonel in the English army, in 1678, and to compensate him for his losses in France, an annual pension of £500 was settled upon him; and he served for two years as lieutenant governor of Tangier, returning in 1680. He made a short visit to Ireland, then went to London at the invitation of the Duke of York, to whom he became socially attached.
When it had been determined that Sir Edmund Andros was not to go back to New York as governor, the duke selected Dongan to be his successor; and his commission as such was dated September 30, 1682, although he did not arrive in New York for nearly a year later. James, in selecting Dongan, probably had in view plans for the extension of the Catholic religion in the province; but he was, doubtless, actuated by a reali-
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zation that this man had many special qualifications for the place. His experience in Tangier had given him some knowledge of administration; he was a soldier of excellent training and record; and he had a knowledge of the French and Dutch languages, which would give him certain advantage in connection with complications over Indian and other questions which had arisen between New York and Canada; and in governing the Dutch residents of New York.
Governor Dongan reached Nantasket, Massachusetts, August 10, 1683, and made the journey from there overland; from Boston he and his consider- able retinue were accompanied by several Boston gentlemen and a troop of Boston militia. Crossing the Sound, he found much discontent among the people in the towns of eastern Long Island, who had ever since their separation from Connecticut, maintained a continuous agitation for a repre- sentative assembly. These he assured with the statement, that no laws or rates for the future should be established, except by the action of a General Assembly; and on Saturday, August 25, 1683, he arrived in New York.
The following Monday he met the Common Council and other officers at the City Hall, which was then in Coenties Slip, and published his com- mission; also announcing the duke's instructions that he should give and confirm to the city all the rights and privileges now enjoyed, and such others as might be necessary. The records say that the magistrates escorted the governor back to the fort, and on Tuesday he dined with the corporation at the City Hall, where he also met several of the "old magistrates and ancient inhabitants."
At the time of Dongan's arrival, New York had about four thousand inhabitants. The coming of the new governor practically stopped the dissen- sions in the province. The duke had given instructions for the reappoint- ment of Anthony Brockholls as chief councilor, and of Frederick Philipse and Stephanus van Cortlandt, and other "eminent inhabitants," not exceeding ten in number. The duke also ordered that John Spragge, who came with Governor Dongan, should succeed John West as secretary, and that Lucas Santen should take the place of William Dyre as collector and receiver general. Governor Dongan added John Young to the membership of the Council and later Lewis Morris, who was also a member of the Council of East Jersey.
Although the duke's written orders in regard to the government of the province were quite explicit, they contained no word in regard to religion; a feature which caused much anxiety among the inhabitants, and particularly the Dutch. The pastor of the Dutch Church at this time was Domine Selyns, who had served congregations on Long Island and at the Bouwerie Village, but had returned to Holland in 1664. He had served parishes in the Father-
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land, and had resisted all invitations to return to New Netherland; but when on Domine Van Nieuwenhuysen's death, there had come a call from the New York Church, he had accepted, and came to the city in 1682. He, with the other earnest Protestants, had heard with misgiving that the new governor was a Roman Catholic; which feeling was much accentuated when it was found that the private chaplain who came with Governor Dongan, Father Thomas Harvey, of London, was a Jesuit priest. To the governor went the good domine, with some trepidation, and asked as to the plans he had in regard to freedom of religion. He came away from the interview fully reassured, the governor saying that the orders of the duke contemplated full liberty of conscience; and much impressed with the knowledge, refinement and modesty of the new ruler of New York. Besides Domine Selyns, who held two services in the church on Sunday, there was a French congregation which met after Selyn's second service; its pastor being Domine Pierre Daillé, who had been a professor in the Huguenot College at Saumur, France, and had been sent out by the Bishop of London to serve the French congre- gation. Immediately after Selyn's morning service, Rev. John Gordon, a presbyter of the Church of England, who had been sent out by the Bishop of London to serve as chaplain of the garrison at Fort James, held a service in English every Sunday for members of the Anglican Communion. These four services in one church building represented a degree of intersectarian toler- ance which could be found in no other part of old or New England at that time.
Governor Dongan, pursuant to the duke's orders, called for the election of a General Assembly, which convened October 17, 1683. It was to have been composed of eighteen members, but only seventeen responded. The journal of the proceedings of this important body is lost, so that it cannot be told who was the absent member. Matthias Nicolls, one of the four members from Manhattan, was chosen speaker of the Assembly, and among the other members were Henry Beekman and William Ash- ford of Esopus; Giles Goddard of Pemaquid, and Samuel Mulford of Easthampton, L. I., who was one of the two members from the East Riding of Yorkshire. John Lawrence, of the city, was a member either of this assembly or the second one, which met in 1685, and probably of both; and William Nicolls, who was a son of Matthias Nicolls, and a lawyer, was also, in all probability a member from the city; for he claimed in after years to have been author of the principal act of the assembly which was entitled "The Charter of Liberties and Priviledges Granted by His Royal Highnesse to the Inhabitants of New-Yorke and Its Dependencies."
This was a bold and progressive pronouncement for those days; its first declaration being that "the supreme legislative authority under His Majesty and Royal Highness James, Duke of York, Albany, etc., Lord Proprietor of
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the said province, shall forever be and reside in a Governor, Council and the people met in General Assembly." This is notable as being the first time "the people" were ever mentioned in a legislative declaration of the ruling powers in government. This charter guaranteed to every freeholder the right to vote freely for members of assembly; provided for the holding of a session of the General Assembly once in three years at least; forbade the governor to take any action without the advice of his council; provided for the districting of the province into twelve counties, and specified the number of their represen- tatives. The other provisions of the charter took the character of a bill of rights and evidently had their inspiration in the Petition of Rights, which received the assent of Charles I in 1628; guaranteeing against arbitrary taxation, arbitrary arrest, martial law, the billeting of soldiers and marines in the time of peace, and granting the ancient English rights of trial by jury, and of grand inquest in grave criminal or capital cases. It provided for religious liberty of all classes of Christians, providing that "no person or persons which profess faith in God by Jesus Christ shall at any time be any ways, molested, punished, disquieted or called in question for any difference of opinion or matter of religious concernment, who do not actually disturb the civil peace of the province." Each town might by a two-thirds vote, establish any communion it pleased, and all inhabitants were then obliged to contribute to the support of that communion, whether they chose to set up other churches in the town or not. The "Charter of Liberties and Privileges" was passed by the Assembly, October 26, 1683, assented to by the governor and Council October 30th, and thus became a law, subject only to the veto of the Duke of York.
The Assembly also passed a revenue bill, which provided for an excise on liquors, export and import duties; and this bill, proclaimed by the governor November I, stopped all cavil about the rights of the duke's collector. The Assembly passed an act creating twelve shires or counties. Duke's County comprised Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket; Cornwall County was the Pemaquid region in Maine; and the other ten counties, which, with some changes in boundary are still in existence, were New York, Richmond, King's, Queen's, Suffolk, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Ulster and Albany. Also a naturalization law; a law for registration of land papers having to do with property worth £50 or more; and other Acts relating to courts, to criminal offenses, to rewarding the killers of wolves; an act fixing the allowance to representatives, at ten shillings a day for each day of service and for sixteen days of travel, to be paid by the respective counties. In all there were fifteen bills which were passed; and Captain Mark Talbott, appointed as a special messenger for the purpose, left early in December, carrying copies of these enactments to London for the approval of the duke
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NEW YORK BECOMES A ROYAL PROVINCE
and the king. The documents were first submitted to the duke's advisers, and then to those of Charles, who were much more critical, preparing a document of "Observations" with regard to the charter in which several objections were embodied, covering every provision of the charter except that providing for religious liberty; the chief implications of these criticisms being that the charter emphasized too much the power of the people, and minimized too much the authority of the governor in council.
Charles II died February 6, 1685, and the Duke of York became King James II. New York was no longer a proprietary, but a royal province. So the "Observations," intended to be advisory to Charles, went to James, March 3, 1685; and the king decided not to confirm the charter. This did not invali- date the charter, but left it in full and binding effect until the king should take up the matter again and veto the bill, should he desire to do so.
The accession of James II was celebrated in New York on April 23, 1685, the date of the coronation of the new king and his queen, Mary of Modena, the militia parading in honor of the event. The governor in council, meeting May 12, drew up an address to the king, to whom Governor Dongan personally addressed a letter of congratulation.
The legislature had met in a second session in October, 1684, Matthias Nicoll again being speaker, and Robert Hammond being clerk, in place of John Spragge. It made thirty-one laws, chiefly in relation to legal matters and the procedure of courts, but also including laws in regard to marriage; regulating brewing; one forbidding slaves and bond servants to engage in trade, and prohibiting all persons from trusting them for drink or other com- modities, and authorizing justices to impress men, horses and boats, to capture and return slaves who should escape from bondage.
Following the custom in England, where the tenure of the House of Commons expired at the death of the king, Governor Dongan dissolved the Assembly, but immediately after its dissolution, he issued writs to the sheriff's of each of the twelve counties, in accordance with the law passed in 1683, for the election of a new assembly. This assembly met in October, 1685, and passed some laws concerning the courts, and penalizing drunkenness, Sabbath breaking and profanity, which were approved by the governor, and others which he vetoed. The speaker of this assembly was William Pinhorne, an English merchant. No list of the members has been preserved.
William Beekman was succeeded, under Dongan's appointment, by Cornelis Steenwyck as mayor, in 1683, and James Graham, a Scotchman, was appointed to the office of city recorder, John West being continued as clerk. In October, 1684, occurred the first election for aldermen, assistants, con- stables and assessors. One of those elected was Nicholas Stuyvesant, second son of Governor Stuyvesant. As provided by law, the magistrates submitted
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to the governor a list of seven names from which a mayor should be chosen, and he selected Gabriel Minvielle, a French merchant, who had married a daughter of John Lawrence. In October, 1685, Nicholas Bayard became mayor of the city.
Although in New Netherland burgher government for the city had been granted by Governor Stuyvesant at the command of the West India Com- pany, and it had been organized in 1653, it was a city without a charter, and one absolutely under the autocratic supervision, first of Stuyvesant, and afterward of the English governors. During thirty-three years there had been a demand for representative government and a charter; but neither the Dutch West India Company nor the Duke of York were in favor of any large measure of popular government. To Governor Dongan was left the honor of giving to New York its first charter, ever since prized by the city as a part of its inheritance of freedom. The charter, which bears date April 22, 1686, is in the City Hall, preserved in a tin box, which also contains the later Montgomerie Charter.
The charter runs from "Thomas Dongan, Lieutenant-Governor and Vice Admiral of New York and its Dependencies, under His Majesty James (the second) by the Grace of God, of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, King and Defender of the Faith, Supreme Lord and Proprietor of the Colony and Province of New York and its Dependencies in America." It recites that New York is an ancient city within said province, and that the citizens of the said city have anciently been a body politic and corporate and have enjoyed divers and sundry rights, liberties, privileges, etc .; not only from divers governors and commanders in chief of said province, but also of the several governors and directors of the "Nether-Dutch Nation," while the same was under their power and subjection; also that divers lands, tenements and hereditaments, etc., had been granted to the citizens and inhabitants of that city ; sometimes by the name of schout, burgomasters and schepens of the city of New Amsterdam, sometimes by the name of the mayor, aldermen and com- monalty of the city of New York and other names; and had built several enumerated public buildings, bridges, wharves and docks; had established a ferry, and that the inhabitants of the city and "Manhattan's Island" held various lands, messuages, etc., from and under His Most Sacred Majesty.
All these enumerated rights, liberties, privileges, lands and properties were by the charter confirmed to the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of New York. The charter also provided that the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of New York should form a body corporate and politic, to be composed of a mayor, recorder, town clerk, six aldermen and six assistants; that there should also be a chamberlain or treasurer, one sheriff, one coroner, one clerk of the market, one high constable and seven subcon-
PROVISIONS OF THE DONGAN CHARTER 129
stables and one marshal or sergeant-at-mace. Nicholas Bayard, then mayor, was designated as mayor; James Graham, recorder; John West, town clerk; Andrew Brown, John Robinson, William Beekman, John Delavall, Abraham de Peyster, and Johannes Kip, aldermen; Nicholas de Myer, Johannes van Brugh, John de Brown, Teunis de Key, Abraham Corbit, and Wolfert Webber, assistants; Peter de Lanoy, chamberlain; John Knight, sheriff; Jarvis Mar- shall, marshal; and directed that the high constable should be appointed by the mayor. The charter provided for the annual election in each of the six wards of the city, on the feast day of St. Michael the Archangel, of one alderman, one assistant and one constable for each ward, and one constable for each division of the out ward.
Besides the confirmation of the title of the city to all of its property then held, it also gave the city title to all the waste, vacant, and unappropriated lands on "Manhattan's" Island, extending to low water mark; and all waters, rivulets, coves, creeks, ponds, water courses in the city and island, and all hunting, fishing and mining privileges; for which an annual quitrent of one beaver skin per year was to be paid. The indorsement on the back of the charter, of these quitrent payments until 1773, is an interesting detail of the original document now in the City Hall. Excepted from the transfer were Fort James, a piece of ground by the gate called the Governor's Garden, and, without the gate, "the King's Farm, with the swamp next to the same land by the Fresh Water," the latter being the property granted in 1705 to Trinity Church. The charter gave the mayor, recorder and aldermen the right to hold a court of common pleas for cases of debt and other personal actions. It went into numerous details in reference to the powers and duties of the municipality. The document was prepared with great care, and dealt in a liberal and enlightened spirit with corporate and private rights. Though dated April 22, it was actually signed by the governor April 27, 1686. Albany received a charter July 22, following, with Peter Schuyler as its first mayor.
In England trouble was brewing for the colonies in America. James and his advisers had devised plans for closer royal control of these colonies. To carry out this idea the eastern colonies had been consolidated into the "Terri- tory and Dominion of New England in America," of which Sir Edmund Andros was commissioned as "Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief." A new commission was also issued to Dongan, dated June 10, 1686, creating him the king's Captain General and Governor in Chief over his "Province of New York and the territories depending thereon in North America."
Instructions from the king, dated May 29, 1686, reached Dongan with his new commission. They included a veto of the Charter of Liberties and Privileges, passed by the General Assembly of New York, in 1683, and
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declaring its repeal; but continuing in force all other laws of the province. The instructions also were, that all legislative power should be in the hands of the governor and Council; and at a meeting on December 9, 1686, the Council decreed that the revenue, and all other laws passed since 1683, except those which His Majesty had repealed, should continue in force until further consideration; and on January 20, 1687, issued a proclamation declaring the dissolution of the General Assembly of the Province of New York. The king's instructions further charged the governor that "as much as great inconvenience may arise by the liberty of printing within our Province of New York" he should provide that no person should keep any printing press or do any printing without his special leave or license. Still another pro- vision contained an inhibition against trading in the river of New York by East Jerseymen or others, and required that all goods passing up the Hudson River should pay duties at New York.
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