USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, 1609-1909 > Part 14
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
About the time of the organization of this council, there came from William and Mary a letter, dated July 4, 1689, addressed "to Francis Nicholson, Esquire, Our Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief in Our Province of New York, and in his absence, to such as, for the time being, take care for preserving the peace and administering the laws." As Nicholson was gone, Leisler took this as giving him authority, until superseded. On January 22, 1690, Nicholas Bayard, who had continued his agitation against Leisler, was arrested, and imprisoned in the fort. Two days later he wrote a letter addressed "To the Hon. Jacob Leisler, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor of the Province of New York, and the Hon. Council," stating that he is sick, acknowledges his error, craves pardon and humbly petitions for release from prison. The petition was not granted, and Bayard remained in the jail for a year, nursing his vengeance.
Bayard's recognition of Leisler in his petition, however unwillingly made, was soon followed by similar action on the part of the authorities at Albany, who, facing an Indian uprising, gladly welcomed Jacob Milborne and his troops, though it involved recognition of Leisler and his government.
The Count de Frontenac, who had been reappointed governor of Canada by Louis XIV, in October, 1689, entered upon a course of aggression against New York. Canada had suffered much by the invasion of Indians from New York, and Frontenac's royal master had definitely taken the side of James
141
THE SCHENECTADY MASSACRE
against William and was at war with England. Frontenac, though seventy years of age, planned an active campaign against the British colonies by land and sea. The first movement was to mobilize the Mohawks who had been converted by the Jesuits and who had settled near Montreal. This force, with numerous Frenchmen, was put in marching order, and after a march of twenty days through the deep snow, approached Schen- ectady, which was a Dutch village in the vicinity of Al- bany, first settled by Arent van Curler in 1661. It con- sisted of about forty houses, 9 enclosed in a palisade; but in 7 the dead of winter amid heavy snow, the inhabitants had no apprehension of danger. The gates had been left open and all the inhabitants were asleep when, on the night of Feb- ruary 8, 1690, the French and OLD DUTCH HOUSE OLD DUTCH HOUSE IN PEARL STREET Built, 1626. Demolished, 1828 IN BROAD STREET Built, 1698 Indian invaders entered by the gates and divided into several small bands, to make a simultaneous attack. At the signal of the shrieking war-whoop doors were broken open and the terrible massacre began. Sixty men, women and children were killed, twenty-seven were taken prisoners, while the torch was applied to every house. Those who escaped from the invaders fled, half naked, sixteen miles through a blinding snowstorm to Albany, where many arrived with their limbs so frost-bitten that they had to be amputated.
From Albany went the news, by quick courier, to Leisler; and the French Huguenots of New York were almost panic-stricken at the news of the massacre and burning of Schenectady, because they knew that Fronte- nac's success, if continued to New York, would mean the utmost disaster for them; for the deep hostility of Louis XIV toward French Protestants was well known. . Leisler showed himself equal to the situation, for as soon as the story of the burning of Schenectady reached him, he hurried a force of one hundred and sixty men to Albany and, that being done, sent ten delegates to confer with the other colonies and devise plans to repel the French invaders.
He called a Provincial Assembly -- the second of its kind, the earlier one having been long before abolished by order of James-to provide means for the war, and his delegations to the other colonies bore fruit, in answer to his
142
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
call, in the convening in New York, in May, of the first Colonial Congress, which apportioned to each of the colonies the number of troops each should furnish, of which the quota of New York was four hundred men.
Leisler also equipped, and dispatched against Quebec, the first fleet of men-of-war that had been sent from the port of New York; and according to De Peyster, spent a large part of his own estate in this public enterprise. Leisler was democratic in his principles, and influenced the subsequent history of New York, by his recognition of the idea of a representative assembly as the seat of legislative authority, and the source of taxation; for although Leisler was overthrown, the Provincial Assembly was continued.
While Leisler was thus caring for the interests of the province, events occurred in England which were soon to bring him disaster. King William commissioned Colonel Henry Sloughter to be governor of New York, and ordered Major Ingoldesby, with an independent company of British regulars, to come to New York for the defense of the province. These two officials were on separate ships, but were parted in a storm and Major Ingoldesby, with his troops, arrived three months earlier than did the new governor.
When Major Ingoldesby reached New York Bay, in January, 1691, his first visitors were Philipse, Van Cortlandt and others of the anti-Leislerians, who stated their side of the case. Ingoldesby had no credentials or authority either from the king or Governor Sloughter to decide upon Leisler's claims to hold the place of lieutenant governor, under the king's letter, before men- tioned, as well as by the election of the Committee of Ten, which he believed gave him the right to act until his successor should present his credentials. Therefore when Major Ingoldesby demanded of him the possession of the fort, Leisler replied, requesting to see his orders either from the king or the governor. Ingoldesby, ignoring this request, sent the brusque reply: "Pos- session of His Majesty's fort is what I demand." Leisler replied that as he had seen no credientials, he would not deliver the fort, but that he would provide all courtesy and accommodation for his troops.
The people finding a controversy between their popular governor and this new-arrived soldier who had, as an introduction, been consorting with the much-disliked Jacobite officials, became greatly excited; and according to the narrative of Domine Varick, who was an eye-witness of the scene, they ran from all the houses toward the fort as if to repel a public enemy, and opened a brisk fire, and in the mêlée two persons, one a soldier and one a negro were killed. Concerning this reception, Ingoldesby wrote an angry letter to Leisler, who returned a reply, saying that having investigated and found the charge true he would punish the offenders if they could be found.
For three months affairs went on in this manner, Leisler, with his council and nearly all the people maintaining Leisler's authority, while Philipse, Van
143
EXECUTION OF LEISLER AND MILBORNE
Cortlandt and Ingoldesby were defiant of it. Though there was much excite- ment, there was no bloodshed. Finally Governor Sloughter arrived in the bay, March 19, 1691, was rowed in a barge to the landing, where he was met by Ingoldesby and the anti-Leislerian leaders, with whom he proceeded to the City Hall. There, messengers from Leisler came, and were arrested by order of Sloughter, who took Leisler's letter from them and pocketed it without reading. He then installed a Council, and ordered that Leisler and the mem- bers of the Leisler council be arrested. Ingoldesby executed the order, and the nine men were imprisoned.
Brought to trial on the charge of treason and murder (the latter charge referring to the killing of the soldier, Josias Browne, in the conflict which had occurred upon Ingoldesby's arrival), Leisler and Milborne refused to plead until the court should decide the one question-Whether the king's letter received by him (addressed to Nicholson), had given him the authority to assume the government in Nicholson's absence? This question was referred by the court to the governor and Council-Sloughter, Philipse, Van Cortlandt, Minvielle and the others-Leisler's worst enemies, and of course they decided against him. The trial proceeded and Leisler, his son- in-law, Milborne, and six members of the council were convicted and sen- tenced to death; Leisler and Milborne having refused to plead and being tried as mutes.
After conviction, they asked reprieve until the king shall be heard from, to which Sloughter verbally agreed. Domine Daillé presented a petition on Leisler's behalf, signed by eighteen hundred people. But the few on the other side had the ear of His Excellency, who decided to leave it to the Council. In the Council on May 14, 1691, Philipse, Bayard, Van Cortlandt, Nicolls and Minvielle, declared it "absolutely necessary that the execution of the principal criminals (Leisler and Milborne) should take place at once." On the next evening, Thursday, May 15, there was a festive gathering in Bayard's house. Many chroniclers say that wine (of which Sloughter was overfond) Alowed freely, and that he was under the influence of that fluid when, much persuaded, he signed the death warrant for Leisler and Milborne, late Thursday night; and on Saturday, May 17, these two men of blameless private lives were first hanged and then beheaded. Leisler, in his last address, protested his devoted loyalty to the king, and declared that he would have lelivered the fort to Ingoldesby if that soldier had presented his credentials. Ie met his death calmly and bravely. His son-in-law, Jacob Milborne, was to less brave, but not so calm as his chief; and seeing in the crowd Robert Livingston, who had been one of the bitterest of the enemies of Leisler, said o him from the scaffold: "Robert Livingston, for this I will implead thee t the bar of God!"
144
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
The killing of these men was a judicial murder; and in the cases of the other condemned men the judgments were finally set aside, while the estates of Leisler and Milborne, which had been forfeited by attainder, were restored to their families. The bodies of Leisler and Milborne, which were, immediately following their execution, buried on Leisler's property, near what is now the corner of Spruce Street and Park Row, were taken up and buried, in September, 1698, in the cemetery of the Reformed Dutch Church in Garden Street, now Exchange Place.
Governor Sloughter's career as governor was short. In compliance with instructions from King William he had called, upon his arrival, a Provincial Assembly, which convened April 9, 1691, and in a brief session passed fourteen laws, of which the most important was one to establish a Supreme Court for the province, under which the governor appointed Joseph Dudley as chief justice; Thomas Johnson, second justice; and William Smith, Stephen van Cortlandt and William Pinhorne, associate justices, to compose the first bench of the new court.
In this administration, also, the "Test Act" was enforced, by which every civil and military officer was required to take the oaths of allegiance to and supremacy of the king's authority; to publicly receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, according to the usage of the Church of England, and to subscribe a declaration against the Romish doctrine of Transubstantiation.
The Provincial Council, by appointment of William III, consisted of Frederick Philipse, Stephen van Cortlandt, Nicholas Bayard, William Smith, Gabriel Minvielle, Chidley Brooke, William Nicolls, Nicholas de Meyer, Francis Rombouts, Thomas Willett, William Pinhorne and John Haines.
Four months and four days after his arrival-on July 23-Governor Sloughter was taken suddenly ill and died within a few hours. Those about him, who had been the enemies of Leisler, suggested that some of Leisler's adherents had bribed a negro to put poison in the governor's coffee, but a post-mortem examination showed that the death was from natural causes. He was one of those needy adventurers, immoral in private life and notoriously intemperate, who, for some reason, usually through the influence of some court favorite who wished them across seas, were foisted in important positions upon the colonies in America. He was weak and easily controlled, and so was made the instrument for the carrying out of the plans of Leisler's enemies.
Major Richard Ingoldesby was appointed by the Provincial Council to act as governor in Sloughter's place until the king should name his successor, and served thirteen months without important incident, until the arrival of the new governor, Colonel Benjamin Fletcher; when Major Ingoldesby returned to his former post as commandant at the fort.
CHAPTER FOURTEE N
BENJAMIN FLETCHER'S ADMINISTRATION THE FIRST PRINTER-FOUNDING OF TRINITY CHURCH-FLETCHER AND THE PIRATES
The ship Wolf, bringing Colonel Benjamin Fletcher, the new governor of New York, arrived off Sandy Hook on Sunday, August 28, 1692, and flag signals from the Narrows told the news to Fort William. The next morning, a large concourse assembled at the landing place, headed by Chief Justice Joseph Dudley, the mayor, Abraham de Peyster, the Provincial Council and the Common Council of the city, with all the militia regiments in arms and a large company of citizens. With salutes from guns and acclamations from the people the procession moved to the Council Chamber where the new governor's commission was read and the council sworn in; the membership now being Joseph Dudley (chief justice), Frederick Philipse, Stephen Cort- landt, Nicholas Bayard, William Smith, Gabriel Minveille, Chidley Brooke, William Nicolls, Thomas Willett, William Pinhorne, Thomas Johnson, Peter Schuyler, John Lawrence, Richard Townley and John Young. A year later, Caleb Heathcote replaced Joseph Dudley in the council, and William Smith was appointed chief justice in place of Dudley, who returned to England, and was appointed governor of the Isle of Wight. William Pinhorne, the recorder, moved to New Jersey and was succeeded by James Graham.
The City Council at this time consisted of Abraham de Peyster, mayor, and common councilors William Beekman, Alexander Wilson, William Merritt, Thomas Clarke, John Merritt, Garrett Dow, Johannes Kip, Robert Darkins, Peter King, Brandt Schuyler and Stephen De Lancey.
Upon the arrival of Governor Fletcher in New York, he at once aligned himself with the anti-Leislerians. The six associates of Leisler, who had been sentenced to death but not executed, were still in prison when he took office, but orders came from King William that Fletcher should pardon them, which he did; but first tried to exact from them a confession of guilt, which hey refused, then he secured from them a promise not to leave the province vithout his consent, which they gave, though the king's order had attached to such condition to their pardon. Though his personal relations were chiefly vith Leisler's enemies, he found that the feeling of resentment on the part of he populace in general was very strong, and as there were several of the sup- orters of Leisler, besides the condemned men in jail, who had been placed nder recognizances upon various charges during the administration of 'loughter and Ingoldesby, he discharged all these obligations and dismissed ll proceedings growing out of the Leisler movement. While he spoke fair
10
146
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
to the Leislerians of influence, and expressed himself in a letter to former Chief Justice Dudley as greatly gratified over the peace that had come between the two factions, his personal association continued to be with Leisler's enemies, who still held the reins of the provincial government.
The lull of public discontent which inspired this feeling of serenity in the governor, was soon dissipated. Throughout the province men discussed with anger, the retention of "the old King James Council," who had compassed the death of Leisler, and there was a general demand that reparation should be made; that Leisler's and Milborne's estates should be restored to their families, and that punishment should be meted out to his persecutors. Abraham Gouverneur, one of the paroled prisoners, escaped in a fishing boat bound for Boston, where he arrived after being wrecked on Nantucket Shoals. He wrote a letter from Boston to his parents, telling of his adventures and how he had been kindly received by Sir William Phipps, the Governor of Massachusetts, who praised Leisler and declared the necessity for the ousting of the Jacobite council at New York. This letter fell into Fletcher's hands and brought from him an angry response addressed to Governor Phipps, rebuking him for speaking ill of a neighboring and friendly government, and demanding that Gouverneur be returned to New York as a fugitive from justice. Phipps denied using the words attributed to him but declined to sur- render Gouverneur, who went soon after to England and aided Leisler's son in his long efforts to have the attainder of Leisler reversed, and at the same time to discredit Fletcher before the king and influential officials of the government.
The Assembly, which met soon after Governor Fletcher entered upon his administration, abolished the monopoly granted to New York, in 1678, of bolting and baking. It had been very lucrative to the millers and bakers of New York, but a burdensome exaction to the people of the other towns in the province. Fletcher had much trouble with fiscal matters, there being a pro- vincial debt of £3000, and the burden of the Indian War had been largely thrown upon New York; the other colonies making no provision to help in that direction. The people were taxed to the limit, and this, together with the Leisler question, made Fletcher's way difficult. He called another assembly to take up the matter, but that body, despite Fletcher's insistence, added little to the tax burden.
Fletcher took prompt action in the Indian troubles when a French and Indian force swooped down upon the neighborhood of Schenectady, and with forces including the commands of Colonels Bayard and Lodowick from New York, Colonel Cortlandt, of Kings, Colonel Willett of Queens, Major (and Mayor) Peter Schuyler, of Albany, and Lieutenant-Colonel Beeckman, of Ulster, soon drove back the enemy. The governor held a grand council
147
THE BEGINNING OF TRINITY CHURCH
with the Five Nations and River Indians, which extended from June 23 to July 6; at which important treaties were concluded, and a stronger alliance of the Indians with the British authority was secured. Fletcher's prompt and efficient service in this connection was recognized by the Common Council on his return, by an address of congratulation, and by an order entered upon the minutes of the council, July 14, 1693, that a gold cup should be presented to His Excellency, on behalf of the city, as a token of their gratitude. Six days later Mayor De Peyster reported that he had bought twenty ounces of gold for the cup, of Peter Jacob Marius, and had delivered it to Cornelius Vanderburgh to be made.
There was no object for which Governor Benjamin Fletcher worked more zealously than the establishing of the Church of England in New York. It was among the chief items in his instructions, and he tried to impress it upon the Assembly in session soon after his arrival, but without success, and with the next Assembly to no more purpose. Most of the members were either Dutchmen, aligned with the Reformed Dutch Church, or New Englanders of Congregationalist antecedents and membership, neither class being favorable to episcopacy. But the next Assembly, which met in September, 1693, was more favorable to the project, and passed a law known as the "Settling Act," providing for the building of a church in the city of New York, two in Suffolk, two in Westchester and one in Richmond counties, and providing for the installing in each of a Protestant minister whose salaries, ranging from forty to one hundred pounds per annum were to be paid by a tax levied on the freeholders.
A petition was presented, March 9, 1696, to Fletcher, for a license to purchase a small piece of land without the North Gate "between the King's Garden and the burying-place" to build a church for the use of the Protestants of the Church of England; to solicit and receive voluntary con- tributions and to perform other acts necessary for these purposes. The petitioners, who described themselves as inhabitants of the city of New York and members of the Church of England, were Thomas Clarke, Robert Leveting, Jeremiah Tothill, Caleb Heathcote, James Evetts, William Morris, Ebenezer Willson, William Merritt, James Emott and R. Ashfield. Governor Fletcher not only granted the license, but in a proclamation commended the project; and the managers met with great success in their subscription, in which all classes took part, even the five Jewish merchants giving their aid to the project.
The managers, having nearly completed the church, applied May 6, 1697, for a charter under the "Settling Act," for the yearly maintenance for the minister provided in that Act, and for such lands as His Excellency and the Council thought fit. The Charter of Incorporation was granted, and
148
HISTORY OF NEW YORK
the King's Farm was leased to the corporation for seven years from August 19, 1697, the yearly rental being fifty bushels of wheat. When the lease expired in 1704, Queen Anne granted the land in fee simple to the church, known then and ever since as Trinity Church. The King's Farm was bounded on the east by Broadway, extending from what is now Fulton Street north to a line between Chambers and Warren Streets and extending west to the North River. North of this tract was the "Domine's Bouwerie," com- prising about sixty-two acres on Broad- way from Warren to Duane Streets, and northwesterly from Broadway along the river. This farm was also granted by Queen Anne to Trinity Parish, and a complication in the title has in our own time made it famous in litigation in what is popularly known as the "Anneke Jans case," mentioned in a former chapter.
The first rector of Trinity was Rev. William Vesey, who was born in Brain- tree, Massachusetts, in 1674. He was graduated from Harvard in 1693, and began the study of theology in Boston, under Increase Mather, and he afterward was a minister over a congregation of TRINITY CHURCH, 1737 (rear view) Puritans on Long Island. He afterward took orders in the Church of England, in which he was ordained to the priest- hood by the Bishop of London, August 2, 1697; was invited by Governor Fletcher, the magistrates, vestrymen, and wardens to become rector of Trinity Church in New York, the induction occurring in the Reformed Dutch Church on Garden Street, on Christmas Day, 1697. Two Dutch clergymen, Rev. Henricus Selyns of New York, and Rev. John Peter Nucella, of Kingston, New York, took a principal part in the exercises. The Church of England congregation afterward held one service in the Dutch Church, and on March 13, 1698, they held their first service in the Trinity Church building. Mr. Vesey held the rectorship of the church until his death, July 18, 1746. He was also appointed commissary to the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and in that capacity planted twenty-two Anglican churches in his jurisdiction. Vesey Street was named in his honor.
Besides being appointed Governor of the Province of New York, special commissions gave Colonel Fletcher authority over the militia of Connecticut
149
NEW YORK'S FIRST PRINTER
and Rhode Island and East and West Jerseys; and also as full authority over Pennsylvania and Delaware as over New York. He met with a rebuff when he went to Connecticut, and none of the New England colonies would furnish troops to Governor Fletcher to prosecute the war against Canada. He went to Philadelphia, in April, 1693, to assume the government, which was at once surrendered to him; summoned the Assembly of Pennsylvania and demanded money to defray the expenses of the expedition against the French in Albany. The result was that the assembly passed a bill for a tax of a penny in the pound for the support of the government and a poll-tax of six shillings, which yielded $700. Fletcher appointed William Markham as deputy governor of Pennsylvania.
Among the acts of Governor Fletcher while in Philadelphia, was to pre- side at the trial of William Bradford, the printer. He had printed a pamphlet by George Keith, which accused the Quaker authorities of Pennsylvania of violating their pacific principles by aiding in the capture of a privateer; and in consequence, Bradford's press and materials were seized, and he was thrown into prison. He was acquitted at the trial, but felt discouraged from further activity in Philadelphia. Governor Fletcher, however, persuaded him to remove to New York, where the Provincial Council had passed a resolution to employ a public printer and pay him a salary of £40 per annum. He was appointed Royal Printer, and entered upon his duties, April 10, 1693, and served for over fifty years, dying in New York, May 23, 1752, aged 89 years.
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.