USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 13
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82
The latter provision was intended to remedy a condition which was found very prejudicial to the welfare of New York, from which much trade was deflected, because by land and sea goods found their way to New Jersey, where there was neither excise, customs or export duties.
By this time New York had grown to an important city of eighteen thousand inhabitants. In February, 1687, Dongan made a comprehensive report to the Plantations Committee in London, descriptive of the city and the entire province; its conditions and problems. He said that it was his belief that not more than twenty English, Scotch or Irish families, had arrived in New York from England; but that many French families had come from St. Christopher's and from England, and many Dutch families from Holland; in fact the foreigners in the Province of New York so outnumbered the native-born subjects of His Majesty that he recommended the adding of the government of New York to that of the neighboring colonies in order that a more equal balance might be kept between the natural born and foreign elements, the latter being the prevailing part in New York. As to the distribution of the population religiously, he said: "New York has a chaplain belonging to the fort, of the Church of England; secondly a Dutchi Calvinist; third, a French Calvinist; and a fourth a Dutch Lutheran. Here be not many of England; a few Roman Catholics; abundance of Quaker preachers, men and women-Singing Quakers, Ranting Quakers, Sabbata- rians, anti-Sabbatarians ; some Anabaptists, some Independents, some Jews; in short of all sorts of opinions there are some, and the most part of none at all."
Dongan's view was that the Jersey Provinces and Connecticut should be annexed to New York, and Pemaquid to Massachusetts. When Sir Edmund Andros came to take his government of New England, he asked Connecticut to surrender her charter and become part of New England, to which Pemaquid
131
GOVERNOR DONGAN AND THE INDIANS
had been added. Governor Dongan contended that having lost Pemaquid, he should be compensated by the annexation of Connecticut to New York; but as the king decided the question, Andros took into his hands the government of Connecticut, October 31, 1687; annexing it to Massachusetts and other colonies of New England under the rule of Andros as captain general.
Dongan's attention was much taken up, during this period, with the Indian problem, and French aggression in the Indian Country, which he handled in a masterly way. The French had pursued the Iroquois Indians in New York territory, had seized fifty Indians and sent them to France to serve in the galleys. Dongan held a conference with the Indians, at Albany, in August; and agreed to supply them with arms and ammunition, though he would not agree to aid them with white troops. The French had threatened to destroy Schenectady and Albany; and Dongan determined to spend the winter in Albany, leaving Major Brockholls in charge of his duties in New York City, and admitting James Graham as a member of the council. Before he left he appointed Stephanus van Cortlandt to be mayor of the city, and in September had sent John Palmer to England to lay before the king the Indian situation, and the conduct of the French in Canada. Dongan held to the view, originally formulated by Governor Andros, that the Five Nations were British subjects, and this theory being adopted by King James, he wrote, November 10, 1687, instructing Dongan to defend and protect the Iroquois Indians from the Canadians, to build all necessary forts, to employ the militia of New York, and to call on all the neighboring English colonies for aid.
On the other hand, the French king complained to James of the actions of Dongan; and James, who was anxious to be on good terms with Louis, consented to an agreement by which English and French commanders in America were directed to commit no act of hostility against the territories of either of the kings. Notwithstanding this agreement, the French became troublesome in the spring, and in May, 1688, Dongan again went up the river with a force of soldiers to watch the enemy; appointing Stephanus van Cort- landt, Frederick Philipse and Nicholas Bayard to take charge of provincial matters as temporary administrators.
James, the king, had in the meanwhile been working on the problems of consolidation of his dominions in America. The New England colonies were assuming an independent attitude; were wedded to ideas of representative government very obnoxious to a Stuart, for it was through such ideas at home that James' father had lost his head. Dongan's recommendation about New Jersey and Connecticut had made an impression on him, but Connecticut had already been joined to New England by Sir Edmund Andros. He there- fore decided to join New York and New Jersey to the other colonies absorbed
132
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
by New England, and issued a new commission to Sir Edmund Andros, March 23, 1688, to be governor general of the entire "Territory and Dominion of New England, covering all of British North America from Pas- samaquoddy to Delaware Bay and across the continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, only excepting "our Province of Pennsylvania and Country of Delaware." The king wrote, April 22, 1688, to Governor Dongan instructing him to turn over to Governor-General Andros the seals and records of the Province of New York, when he should come to the city to receive them. This letter reached Dongan in July. He ordered the letter read in council and spread upon the records of the province, but continued to govern the province for some weeks afterward; his last official act on the record being a law made by him and promulgated August 2, 1688, prohibiting shoemakers to use "the mystery of tanning hides." When Governor- General Andros arrived, August 1I, 1688, he was received by an infantry regiment commanded by Colonel Nicholas Bayard, and a troop of horse. Governor Dongan then resigned his authority to Andros.
Dongan, in compensation for his loss of his governorship, was offered by the king the command of a regiment with the rank of major general; but the offer was declined by him, because he had a great liking for New York, and property interests in the city and neighborhood which required his attention. He had a home in the city, and a beautiful garden, of several acres, fronting on Broadway, between Maiden Lane and Ann Street; where he spent many of his leisure hours among his flowers. He had also purchased, in 1687, a manor house with about twenty-five thousand acres of land on Staten Island, which he formed into the "Lordship and Manor of Cassiltowne," named after his father's estate at Castletoun in the County of Kildare. He is also said to have owned several plots on Manhattan Island, and some land on Martha's Vineyard.
After the flight of King James to France, a rumor was prevalent in New York that some of the Jacobins in New York had plotted to seize the colony; and because of Dongan's well-known loyalty to the Stuarts, and the fact that he was a Roman Catholic in religion, a rumor was abroad that he was at the head of a conspiracy to burn the city; and that he was harboring a band of "Papist" co-conspirators on his Staten Island estate. There were no concealed Papists, and there was no conspiracy; but when Jacob Leisler assumed control of New York he had Dongan's hunting-lodge on Staten Island searched for arms. Four guns found there were regarded as evidence of guilt, and Dongan went into hiding. He had a brigantine in the bay and had hoped to sail in it for England, but the weather was bad and so he made his way overland to New London, where he was joined by Sir Edmund Andros. He afterward returned to Hempstead, Long Island, but warrants
133
GOVERNOR DONGAN RETURNS TO ENGLAND
having been issued for him and other coreligionists, in 1690, he went to New Jersey and thence by sea to Boston, from which place he sailed to England, in 1691.
His brother, Earl of Limerick (created 1685), followed James to France and died at Saint Germain, in 1698; but his estates were confiscated and given to the Earl of Athlone; so Thomas Dongan succeeded to his brother's title without the estates. The estates were afterward restored to him upon condition that he should redeem them by paying those who had purchased parts of the estate from the Earl of Athlone. This charge, and his brother's debts, left him a very meager income, and only a portion of the amounts due him for advances made when governor of New York, and for his arrears of pension. He died in London, December 14, 1715, and he lies buried in the churchyard of the parish church of St. Pancras in that city.
His property in America had been in charge of agents, but he later had transferred it to his nephews Thomas, John and Walter Dongan. His nephew Thomas sold the farm at Hempstead to pay the governor's debts, and the three brothers retained the Staten Island property, which descended to the heirs of Walter Dongan, because his brothers died without issue.
Governor Dongan's administration was marked by many excellencies and few defects that were chargeable to him personally. He was generous and tolerant, just and urbane, desirous not only to be a faithful servant of his royal master, but also to promote the peace and happiness of the people under his government, whose rights and liberties he respected and upheld. None of the royal governors excelled him in the essential qualities of states- manship and administrative ability.
134
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
NEW YORK BAY FROM STATEN ISLAND, OVER FIFTY YEARS AGO
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
END OF STUART RULE IN NEW YORK THE LEISLER TROUBLES, AND GOVERNOR SLOUGHTER'S ADMINISTRATION
When Sir Edmund Andros arrived in New York, August 15, 1688, the change of governors created no dissatisfaction, because he was personally a very popular man. It did not please the people, however, that the Province of New York should be merged with the other colonies as a part of New England. Andros was, however, well received during his short stay, which was ended by Indian troubles on the frontier between New York and Canada. When he left New York he went to Albany to resume his old friendship with the Iroquois, and to give the Indians assurance of cooperation against the French.
Lieutenant-Governor Francis Nicholson, who had been left in charge at Boston, was sent for by Andros to go to Albany and take part in these negotiations; and when they were completed Andros ordered Nicholson to New York, and himself went to Boston, where his presence was needed because of Indian troubles in Maine.
Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson arrived at New York, October 1, 1688, and took up the reins of government, aided by the council, which was com- posed of Frederick Philipse, Stephen van Cortlandt, Nicholas Bayard and Joseph Dudley. Nicholson was favorably received, but many of the people were, soon afterward, considerably alarmed when Father Thomas Harvey, the Jesuit priest who had come from England as the private confessor and chaplain of Governor Dongan, was permitted to equip an apartment with images of saints, and to minister publicly to Roman Catholic worshippers.
King James had aroused Protestant resentment in England by his acts aiming at the reestablishment of Roman Catholicism in England. In America the feeling against him was especially strong in the New England colonies, where anything that favored Catholicism was frowned upon, and there was, in fact, little toleration in that region for any religion or sect except Congre- gationalism. In New York, as has been shown, there had been great toler- ance, and under Dongan, himself a Catholic, none of the Protestant denomi- nations had anything to complain of, so far as any hostility on the part of the provincial government was concerned. Dominant factors in the gov- ernmental policy of James II were the desire to reestablish the Catholic Church as the State Church of England, and the upbuilding of kingly as opposed to parliamentary power. Of a piece with his policy at home was that applied to the colonies, as manifested by his dissolution of the New
136
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
York Assembly and combining all power in the governor in council, and by his consolidation of New England under one government, with Sir Edmund Andros in viceregal charge.
On November 5, 1688, William of Orange landed in England at Torbay; in the following month James II fled to France, and February 13, 1689, William and Mary were proclaimed king and queen of Great Britain. When the news reached Boston there was "a buzzing among the people," so Andros said; that the buzzing became a roar, and in two days grew to a revolution; and on April 18, 1689, he was deposed and imprisoned. The following year he was sent to England under charges made by a committee of colonists, but it was thought impolitic to pursue the matter further, and he was never brought to trial. He became governor of Virginia from 1692 to 1698, and of the island of Jersey from 1704 to 1706, and died in London in 1714. The administration of Andros as governor- general of New England has been condemned by history; but it was an administration of obedience to a royal master; the hand was the hand of Andros, but the acts were the acts of James. In his previous government of New York his administration was that of a benevolent autocrat and left him personally popular with the people, and later, in Virginia, he was a popular governor.
The news of William's landing, and the flight of James, reached New York by way of Boston. The people of New York were of various shades of religious belief, but they were in a large majority Protestant. The anti- Catholic movement, from their standpoint, crystallized about the persons of James II and Louis XIV. James had taken away their representative gov- ernment and had consolidated their province with New England, much against their will, and was now rumored to be in a "Popish" plot with Louis XIV; one of the supposed details of which included the capture of New York by the French and Indians under the Count de Frontenac. Such rumors were especially alarming to the Huguenots, who formed a consid- erable part of the population of New York; for the events following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, only four years before, were firmly fixed in their memories.
Besides the matter of religion, there was one of nationality. The popu- lation of the province was chiefly Dutch, and so of the city, in even larger proportion. William of Orange was a great name with people of that nation- ality. To pass from the rule of James to that of William was, with the Dutch settler, almost an ideal culmination. As for James II, he had few friends outside of the lieutenant governor and councilors, who were all his own appointees. Being such appointees they could not abandon his authority until they knew that another had succeeded him upon the throne; and the
137
JACOB LEISLER CALLED TO LEAD
news of the landing of William and the flight of James did not, they felt, absolve them from their allegiance. They were, therefore, placed in an unenviable position during the time following the news of these events and that when the tidings of the joint coronation of William and Mary arrived in New York.
The news was unofficial, but convincing, and there was much excitement in the city. The people generally were rejoiced at the Protestant accession, and pleased on their own account, because James, the embodiment of autocracy, was no longer to be their sovereign. Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson and his council, composed of Stephanus van Cortlandt, mayor of the city; Nicholas Bayard, colonel of the city militia; Frederick Philipse, and Joseph Dudley, wealthy citizens, insisted that the Revolution had not over- thrown the colonial government, which should hold authority until further advices from England.
By far the greater part of the people held a different view. Although Nicholson and his councilors professed themselves loyal to William and Mary, there was general distrust of them, and doubt as to their sincerity. The fact that Nicholson was of the Catholic faith had a tendency to accentuate this distrust, which was fanned into a flame by various rumors of Catholic plots, in which the names of Ex-Governor Dongan, Governor Nicholson, Father Harvey and others were freely used. The rumors were groundless, but they were effective. Several of the magistrates on Long Island were deposed by the people, who elected others in their stead.
Although Nicholas Bayard was colonel of the City Troop, the senior captain, Jacob Leisler, was its idol; and was also looked up to as a leader by the populace. One especially persistent rumor was that the "Papists" had plotted to massacre the Protestants while at service in the church in the fort, to take possession of the government and erect the standard of King James and the Pope. A large concourse of the citizens assembled, with the five militia companies, and surrounded Leisler's house, and requested him to take command of the fort.
Jacob Leisler was a native of Frankfort on the Main, born in 1640, son of Rev. Jacob Victorian Leisler ; and had lived a life of adventure. He had come to New Netherland in 1660, as a soldier, in the service of the Dutch East India Company, soon after which he left the army. He engaged in the Indian trade, and amassed a considerable property, and he married Elsje Loockermans, widow of Cornelis Vandeveer, and thus became uncle by marriage of both Stephanus van Cortlandt and Nicholas Bayard, who were afterward his greatest enemies. When the city was ceded to the English he took oaths of allegiance to the new government, and was among those who contributed, in 1672, toward the repairs of Fort James. In 1674 he was
138
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
appointed one of the commissioners for the forced loan levied by Colve, at which time his property was assessed on the basis of a valuation of fifteen thousand guilders. He was one of the two prosecutors (his son-in-law, Jacob Milborne, being the other) who made the charge against Rev. Nicholas van Rensselaer "for dubious words spoken in a sermon" at Albany, for which Leisler and Milborne were condemned to pay the costs, as related in a former chapter. Leisler had endeared himself to the common people by his charitable interposition in behalf of a family of French Huguenots that had been landed on Manhattan Island so destitute that a public tribunal had ordered that they should be sold into slavery to pay their ship charges. Before the sale could be held, Leisler purchased the freedom of the widowed mother and her son.
Governor Dongan had appointed Leisler one of the commissioners of the Court of Admiralty in New York, but he had impressed himself upon the popular mind as a champion of the people and the Protestant religion. Thus it was that he became the choice of those who distrusted the Jacobite officials, and the people became divided into parties; one called the Aristocrats, including Nicholson, his council, and their adherents; and the Democrats, or Leislerians, including a large majority of the people. When, on June 2, 1689, the popular gathering asked Leisler to be their leader in the overthrow of the appointees of James II, he at first refused, but finally acceded to their request and about an hour afterward received the keys of the fort, which had mean- while been seized on behalf of the democratic faction by Ensign Stoll.
A strong point in favor of the Leislerians was that the fort contained all the public funds, the return of which Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson in vain demanded. The news of the actual accession of William arrived upon the 6th of June, 1689, and the public would have none of the Jacobite office- holders, though when this definite news that William was indeed king arrived, the officials all protested their full allegiance to the new monarch. When Leisler had refused to deliver the money in the fort upon the order of Nicholson and his council, who designed to remove it to the house of Frederick Philipse, they had endeavored to secure the customhouse revenues; but they found that there were no customhouse receipts, because the people had already refused to pay dues to Matthias Plowman, upon the pretext that he was a Catholic and therefore should not be permitted to collect money for a Protestant sovereign.
Although the people had called Leisler to be their leader, and he had taken charge of the fort as senior captain, he did not set himself up as a military dictator; but in view of the fact that the nominal rulers had lost control of the civil authority he, with the other captains, on June IO, called a convention of delegates to meet on the 26th and choose a Committee of
139
COMMITTEE OF SAFETY APPOINTED
Safety. The committee so chosen included Samuel Edsall, Richard Denton, Theunis Roelofse, Pieter de Lanoy, Jean Marest, Matthias Harvey, Daniel le Klercke, Johannes Vermilye, Thomas Williams and William Lawrence; representative of Dutch, Huguenot and English, in whose hands the con- vention reposed the temporary government of the province.
So far as actual government is concerned, the old officers were practically deposed. Nicholson, finding his authority disregarded, departed to lay his case before the home authorities; and Philipse, Bayard and Van Cortlandt were left to deal with the problems of disaffection and revolt. At a council held on the 25th of June, they removed Plowman, the Catholic collector, wishing, as they declared, "to quiet a restless community." They sent Bayard, a day or two later, with some others, to take charge of the Custom House, but found that the Committee of Safety had already appointed a collector of their own, who was accounting to that body for the customs receipts. When Bayard and his supporters acted as if they would try to take possession of the Custom House, they were handled roughly by the crowd. None of them were seriously hurt, but Bayard, finding his presence obnoxious to the people, concluded to seek safety in Albany, where his brother-in-law, Peter Schuyler, was mayor. From there Bayard claimed to be at the head of the government of the province and denounced Leisler as "an arch-rebel."
The Committee of Safety took charge of affairs in the province and its authority was readily acknowledged in various counties except Albany and Ulster, which were under the control and authority of Schuyler, Bayard and the Jacobites. They made Jacob Leisler "captain of the fort," and on August 16, authorized him to act as commander in chief of the province until further instructions should come from London. New England approved the selection, and the General Court of Massachusetts sent two deputies to New York with the congratulations of that province, and with offers of such assistance as he might need to maintain his authority as the representative of the new Protestant government. These deputies brought to New York the first copies of the proclamation of William and Mary on their accession, which Leisler ordered proclaimed at the sound of the trumpet at the fort and the City Hall.
News also came that the French court had taken up the cause of the deposed monarch, James II, and that war with France must soon ensue. Leisler set about repairing the fortifications, stockaded the fort and erected a battery of seven guns to the west of it, the public park in that location retaining the name of "the Battery" to this day. The Jacobite officials who had gone to Albany were still defiant to the claims of Leisler, and the conflict of authority in that region, which was threatened by prospects of an Indian
140
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
attack, made matters more difficult. In November, Leisler sent his son-in- law, Jacob Milborne, with an armed force to render such assistance in the defense of Albany as might be necessary, provided that Leisler's authority was recognized by placing the fort under command of Milborne. The Jacobite officeholders refused, and Milborne returned.
Early in December the Committee of Safety requested Leisler to take the duties of lieutenant governor and to appoint a council to act with him until definite instructions should be received from King William. Acting upon this request he chose eight members of the Committee of Safety to be his council, including Peter Delanoy, Dr. Samuel Staats, Henry Jansen and Johannes Vermilye, from the county and city of New York; Captain Gerardus Beeckman, M.D., from Kings; Samuel Edsall, from Queens, and William Lawrence from Orange. In many of the histories of this period, Leisler has been pictured as a traitor and a demagogue, whose support came only from the rabble; but his councilors were citizens of repute and standing, and among them were the ancestors of families who have stood and still stand with the best in New York and other States. The council thus constituted was the most democratic in its organization that had yet been appointed in New York; having been called with the understanding that the acts of a majority were to be the acts of all.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.