USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 10
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At this time, but a small part of the island was under cultivation. The greater part of it lay waste and com- mon. The lots below Wall street were large enough for garden-plots and orchards. Every settler kept his cows, and a herdsman was appointed by the city to drive them
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to the public pasture-the present Park and the land in its vicinity. Every morning, this functionary passed through the streets of the city, blowing a horn to warn the inhabitants of his approach. Collecting the cows that were turned out at the gates in a common herd, he drove them through the city gates at Wall street ; then, guiding them along the crooked Pearl street, he turned them into the inclosure, and drove them back at night to their owners. As the city increased, the inhabitants built along the beaten track, which came to bear the name of "the Cow Path."
The village was now growing into a city, and the inhabitants began to feel the need of a good road for pleasure riding. The upper part of the island was still wild and rocky, and the governor resolved to found a village there, to be called New Harlaem, and to open a good road thither from New Amsterdam. To encourage a speedy settlement, he offered to give the villagers a ferry to Long Island, with a court and clergyman of their own, as soon as they numbered twenty-five families ; but few were willing to live so far in the country, and two years passed before the village was large enough to profit by his offer. In 1660, an inferior court was organized, and the village thus received a partial incor- poration. In the same year, a second survey was made of the city, which was found to contain three hundred and fifty houses.
From this time the colony flourished. The wise policy of the Company induced them to use every effort to encourage emigration, and thus to increase their strength and prosperity. The strife between the people and the
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governor was the principal drawback to the prosperity of the colony. The West India Company wished to rule supreme over the settlement which they had founded, and which they regarded as their own peculiar property, and Stuyvesant, their representative, was not the man to bate one jot of their pretensions. The people, on the other hand, were of the freest nation in Europe, they had lost none of their native independence in this new clime, and they demanded the right to choose their own rulers ; a demand which, step by step, they obtained. In 1660, the Company yielded the last point, and permitted them to have a schout of their own, appointed to the office by the Amsterdam chamber. Pieter Tonneman filled the office. Less religious toleration prevailed now than formerly. Stuyvesant, a fanatical Calvinist, de- tested all dissenters, and persecuted the Quakers for a time with rigor ; but he was soon checked in this intol- erance by the commands of the Company, who, while they wished to establish the Reformed Dutch religion in the province, were anxious at the same time to pre- serve the spirit of religious freedom which character- ized the Fatherland.
In 1661, the Company bought Staten Island from Melyn and Van de Capellen, its former owners, and made grants of land thereon to various colonists; and a small settle- ment was founded a few miles south of the Narrows, by several families of French Huguenots. In the same year, Jacques Cortelyou founded the settlement of New Utrecht, to which, a few months afterwards, Stuyvesant granted a village charter, as also to the village of Boswyck or Bushwick, which had been settled the year before.
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Boswyck, New Utrecht, Breuckelen, Amersfoordt and Midwout were placed under the jurisdiction of a single schout, each having separate schepens of its own, and were, known henceforth as the " Five Dutch Towns."
But danger was menacing the province from without. The English, who laid claim to the whole continent as having been discovered by Cabot, were slowly but surely extending their rule, while, surrounded on all sides by their colonies, and under the protection of a private trading company instead of a powerful government, New Netherland was. ill prepared to defend her rights. The English had long looked with a covetous eye upon the rich possessions of their Dutch neighbors ; the time had now come to attempt their conquest. Despite the threats and protests of Stuyvesant, the Dutch colonies in Dela- ware and Westchester and on Long Island successively fell into their hands, and he saw that they would be content with nothing less than the whole of New Nether- land. It was not long before affairs reached the crisis In 1664, Charles II. granted to his brother, James, Duke of York and Albany, a patent of the territory lying between Connecticut River and Delaware Bay, including the whole of the Dutch possessions in America, together with a part of the same territory in Connecticut which had been previously granted by him to Governor Win- throp.
Upon receiving the patent, and without giving any notice to the government of Holland, the Duke of York immediately dispatched four ships with four hundred and fifty soldiers, under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls, his deputy governor, to take possession of his
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newly acquired territory. Sir Robert Carr, Colonel George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick accompanied the expedition as commissioners to visit the New England colonies. The squadron separated on the coast in a fog, the ship with the deputy governor on board put in at. Boston, and the others anchored at Piscataway. Having procured supplies, they proceeded on their way, and anchored in Nyack Bay, between New Utrecht and Coney Island, in the month of August, 1664; then immediately took possession of the block-house on Staten Island, and intercepted all communication between Man- hattan and the neighboring shores.
On hearing of the intended invasion, the citizens had hastily fortified the city, and increased the military force as much as they were able. But they were ill-prepared to stand a siege. Not more than four hundred men were able to bear arms, and for these there were but six hundred pounds of powder. The fort and the wall of palisades which had defended them so well against the Indians, would avail them nothing before their civilized foes. They were exposed on both rivers, and there was no hope that they could possibly resist an assault. Besides, a large proportion of the inhabitants were English- men, who were secretly longing for the triumph of their countrymen ; while the Dutch themselves, wearied with the arbitrary exactions of the Company, fancied that good might result from a change of masters. The brave old Stuyvesant would willingly have rallied his people and stood a siege ; but his efforts were in vain, the time had come for the fall of New Amsterdam.
On the morning after the arrival of the squadron,
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Nicolls sent a summons to the city to surrender, prom- ising the inhabitants protection of life, liberty and pro- perty. Hastily convening the council and city authorities, Stuyvesant informed them of the summons, but refused to let the people know of the proffered terms, lest they might force him to yield the city. This the burgo- masters sharply opposed, and after an animated debate, the director was forced to accede to their wishes.
While they were thus debating the surrender, Nicolls sent another letter to Winthrop, the aged governor of Connecticut, who had joined the squadron, begging him to assure Stuyvesant that the privileges of the Hollanders should in no wise be restrained, but that they should continue to have full liberty to settle at Manhattan and to go and return thither in ships of their own country. Winthrop at once visited the city under a flag of truce, and delivered the letter to the governor, who vainly endeavored to withhold it from the people. The burgo- masters insisted that it should be publicly read, when Stuyvesant, incensed beyond all expression, tore it in pieces before their eyes. The news was soon carried to the citizens at the palisades, who, abandoning their work, rushed to the stadt-huys, crying, " the letter ! the letter !" Resistance was in vain, and a copy was made from the carefully collected fragments and given to the people. In answer to the summons to surrender, Stuyvesant returned a long defence of the Company's right to the province ; while he secretly sent his last dispatch under cover of night to Holland.
Irritated at this long delay, Nicolls landed the soldiers from two of his ships at Breuckelen to storm the city by
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land. The others sailed up the bay, and anchored in front of Fort Amsterdam. With the muzzles of their loaded cannon pointed at the ships, the soldiers of Stuy- vesant awaited the command to fire. It would have been the signal for the destruction of the city. Men, women, and children flocked around the director, beseeching him to desist and to surrender. "I would rather be carried " out dead," was his reply. But he was at length
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Old Stuyvesant Pear-tree (now standing.)
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obliged to yield. The people refused to obey his summons, the principal citizens, including his own son, implored him to submit, and at last the brave old Stuyvesant sadly consented to deliver up the fort, on condition that it should be returned again in case the difference of the boundaries should be settled by England and Holland.
On the morning of the 8th of September, 1664, Stuyvesant marched his soldiers out of Fort Amsterdam with all the honors of war. At the same time, the Eng- lish troops marched in triumph into the city, and run up the English flag upon the fort, which they christened at once by the name of Fort James. Nicolls was pro- claimed as deputy governor, and the city of New Amster- dam was transformed into NEW YORK.
Stuyvesant remained a resident of his beloved city, where he died and was buried in the family vault within the walls of the church which he had built at his own expense upon his extensive farm. The church is now gone, and its place is occupied by the church of St. Mark. In the outside wall of the latter, may be seen the original tablet with the following inscription :
In this vault lies buried PETRUS STUYVESANT late Captain General and Commander-in-Chief of Amsterdam in New Netherland now called New York and the Dutch West India Islands, died in August A D. 1682 aged 80 years.
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Just without the graveyard inclosure, on the corner of Thirteenth street and Third Avenue stands a fine old pear-tree, which still bears fruit, and which was brought from Holland and planted there by Stuyvesant's own hands. Nearly two hundred years have since rolled by, the English rule, in turn, has passed away, and a new republic has risen from its ashes. Dimmer, day by day, grows the memory of the past, the old landmarks of the Knickerbockers have, one by one, crumbled into dust, their language, manners and customs, have all passed away, and naught remains to us of New Amsterdam and all its memorials save this single vestige of the Dutch dynasty and the brave old director, Petrus Stuyvesant.
See Appendix Note E.
CHAPTER IV.
1664-1674.
New York under the English Government-Recapture of the Province by the Dutch, and subsequent Retrocession.
THE English having thus succeeded in their long-cherished project of expelling the Dutch from their American pos- sessions, Colonel Nicolls took possession of the conquered province as deputy-governor in behalf of the Duke of York. The people, in fact, cared little for the change. They had been oppressed by the Dutch governors ; taxes had been levied on them without their consent ; they had been denied that direct share in the government which they claimed as their right, in conformity with the municipal institutions of the Fatherland ; and the few privileges which they enjoyed had been wrung with difficulty from their despotic rulers. Yet the Dutch government was at this time the most liberal of any ; but the province had been abandoned to the tender mercies of a selfish trading company, instead of being fostered by the protecting care of the States General. Besides, the English element now mingled largely in the city. The settlers who had come from New England and Virginia, retaining their predilection for their native
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institutions, rejoiced in the change; and the Dutch themselves were not greatly affected by it. Their trade with Holland was not interrupted ; they were still allowed to choose their inferior officers and to preserve their customs of inheritance ; their liberty of conscience was respected, and they were exempted from all danger of impressment, either for the army or the navy. The most oppressive grievance of which they had to complain was a law declaring all titles of land granted by the Dutch government to be invalid, and exacting large fees for their renewal.
The governor made it his policy to conciliate his new subjects, and it was not until the following year that he deemed it prudent to meddle with the form of govern- ment, and to substitute new officials for the schout, burgomaster and schepens. On the 12th of June, 1665, he issued the first English charter, since known as the Nicolls Charter, which revoked the form of the muni- cipal government, and placed the executive power in the hands of a mayor, five aldermen and a sheriff, accord- ing to the English custom of incorporation ; said officers to be appointed by the governor. Thomas Willett was appointed mayor ; Thomas Delavall, Oloffe Stevensen Van Cortlandt,* John Brugges, Cornelius Van Ruyven and John Lawrence, aldermen, and Allard Anthony, sheriff. Thomas Willett, the first mayor of New York city, and great-great-grandfather of Col. Marinus Willett of Revolutionary memory, who held the same office a hundred and forty-two years after, was one of the Ply-
* See Appendix, Note F.
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mouth Pilgrims. He had emigrated from England in 1629, and soon after engaging in trade with New Amsterdam, had purchased land in the city, and finally become a permanent resident. He was a popular man among his fellow-citizens, and this fact, joined with the judicious mingling of Dutch and English in the appoint- ment of the other officials, disposed the people favorably towards the new government. Soon after, jury trials were established in the city. The governor retained the right to himself and his council to impose taxes and to enact or modify laws as they might deem proper. This last clause was distasteful to the people, and occasioned much complaint during his administration.
The city records were now ordered to be kept both in Dutch and English, and Nicholas Bayard was appointed assistant clerk to the Common Council ; the principal secretary, Johannes Nevins, being imperfectly versed in the English language .*
At this time, the city contained about fifteen hundred inhabitants, consisting of people of every sect in the nation. The only church, however, in the city, was the stone edifice within the walls of the fort, erected by Wil- helm Kieft, in which the Dutch Reformed service had hitherto been performed. The service of the Church of England was now introduced, and Nicolls, who appears to have been a man of liberal sentiments, gave the Lutherans permission to erect a church for themselves and to send to Europe for a preacher of their own denomination, which they had sought in vain from Stuy-
* See Appendix, Note G.
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vesant. They availed themselves of this, and built a small church in which the Rev. Jacob Fabritius, who arrived in 1669, officiated as the first minister. It was not long before dissensions arose between him and his charge, who accused him of grave misdemeanors, which seem to have been substantiated, as, on inquiry, the governor and council suspended him from the ministry, permitting him only to preach a farewell sermon and to install Bernardus Arent as his successor. Fabritius soon after returned to Holland. On the recapture of the province by the Dutch, this church was removed by the orders of Governor Colve. It was rebuilt after the retrocession on the site of the future Grace Church on the west side of Broadway, for which a patent was obtained from Governor Dongan. The first churches were but temporary buildings. The structure in Broad- way, which was destroyed by the fire of 1776, was built in 1710, soon after the commencement of the adminis- tration of Governor Hunter, and chiefly through the efforts of the newly-arrived Palatines.
Oid Lutheran Church in Frankfort Street. Erected in 1767.
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Soon after the capture of the province by the English, the territory forming the present State of New Jersey, which had hitherto belonged to New Netherland, was granted by the Duke of York to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret as a distinct and separate province. The boundaries between New York and Connecticut were also defined by commissioners appointed for the purpose, and Long Island was adjudged the property of the former.
In the meantime, this invasion of the Dutch possessions in a time of profound peace had caused a war between England and Holland, and a rumor that a hostile squad- ron under the command of the formidable De Ruyter had been dispatched by the States General to recapture the lost province gave the governor great alarm. He imme- diately set about strengthening the fortifications, which were very much out of repair, and making preparations for defence ; and summoned the citizens to aid him in the work. This they were reluctant to do. A few, indeed, offered to assist him, but the majority were not at all inclined to war against their own countrymen, how- ever indifferent they might be to the result of the strug- gle. But, ere long, peace was declared, and by the treaty of Breda in 1667, the province of New Netherland was ceded to the English government in exchange for Suri- nam, though many of the English grumbled at the exchange, and complained that their countrymen had been overreached in the bargain.
After administering affairs with considerable sagacity for three years, Colonel Nicolls determined to return to Europe, and, having asked and obtained his recall,
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set sail on his homeward voyage in August, 1668. He engaged in the subsequent war against Holland, and was killed in a naval engagement in 1672. Colonel Francis Lovelace was appointed his successor.
The change of rulers was not to the advantage of the people. Lovelace proved far more despotic than Nicolls had been. The people had long since demanded the right of levying their own taxes, and of controlling their own affairs ; but the governments, both Dutch and Eng- lish, had decided that their only right was to obey, and had made it their settled policy to force them to submis- sion. This, Lovelace determined to do in the most effect- ual manner. He ordered his deputy in the territory west of the Delaware to carry out his measures in that section of the country by levying such taxes on the peo- ple as might give them "liberty for no thought but how " to discharge them ;" and proceeded himself to impose a duty of ten per cent. upon all imports or exports to or from the province. Contending for the rights of free- born Englishmen, among which, they claimed, was a par- ticipation in legislation, several of the Long Island towns, together with West and East Chester, petitioned for a redress of grievances, but to no effect.
In 1690, Lovelace ordered the towns of Long Island to contribute to the repairs of the fort at New York. This they positively refused to do unless they were admitted to a share of the government. Flushing, Hemp- stead and Jamaica protested against this tyrannous pro- ceeding ; for their sole answer, the governor and council ordered the protests to be publicly burned by the hands of the hangman.
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In 1669, a public seal was transmitted by the Duke of York to the city authorities, together with a silver mace, and gowns for the municipal officers. During the same
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year, Lovelace established a meeting for merchants on Fridays, between the hours of eleven and twelve, near the bridge which crossed the sewer near the foot of Broad street. This was the site of the future Exchange. The hour of meeting was announced by the ringing of
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the stadt-huys bell, and the mayor was ordered to see that no one disturbed the assembly.
In the same year, an incident occurred which proves how absolute was the authority exercised by the gover- nor and council. Marcus Jacobson, a Swede from Dela- ware Bay, who had shown himself refractory under the new regime, was brought to Manhattan, tried by a spe- cial commission, and sentenced to death-then whipped, branded and sent to Barbadoes to be sold into slavery- his first sentence having been commuted through the mercy of the governor.
In 1670, Lovelace purchased Staten Island from the Indians, who complained that they had never received full payment from the Dutch, for the consideration of four hundred fathoms of wampum, together with several axes, kettles and coats, and thus secured the island to the property of the English government. He also approved the race-course which had been instituted by Nicolls at Hempstead, and directed that races should take place there in future during the month of May. In 1673, he established the first mail between New York and Boston, consisting of a single messenger, who was ordered to go and return with letters and packages once within a month, for a "more speedy intelligence and " dispatch of affairs."
In 1672, Charles II., at the instigation of the French government, proclaimed war against Holland. The Dutch availed themselves of the opportunity to endeavor to regain their lost province, and fitted out a squadron of five ships, under the command of Admirals Benckes and Evertsen and Captains Colve, Boes and Van Zye, to
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sail against New York. The news of the expedition soon reached the city. Instead of making preparations to resist it, the governor placed the fort in the hands of Captain John Manning, and set out for Albany to regu- late the Indian difficulties which had sprung up in that quarter. News was soon received that the Dutch fleet had already arrived off the coast of Virginia, and Man- ning immediately dispatched a messenger to the gover- nor, who was then visiting in Westchester county, to hasten *his return. He came at once, and commenced preparations for defence. The fort, which numbered forty-six guns, was placed in a posture of resistance, a force of four or five hundred men was mustered from among the citizens, and the volunteers were drilled in order to be in readiness for the expected attack. But the enemy did not make their appearance ; and after waiting a short time, the governor disbanded the troops and set out on a journey to Connecticut. He had not waited long enough. On the 29th of July, 1673, the hostile fleet appeared off Sandy Hook. Manning instantly dispatched a messenger with the news to the governor, and set to work to beat up recruits, both in the city and country. His efforts were unavailing ; the settlers in the country refused to aid him, while the city volunteers, who themselves were Dutch, went to work to spike the guns, and to render all possible assistance to the enemy. The fort contained but about fifty sol- diers, most of whom were ignorant of the art of war, and the city was in a defenceless condition. The ships, meanwhile, quietly sailed up the bay, and anchored at Staten Island on the 30th inst.
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The position of affairs certainly seemed hopeless enough, and Manning, who lacked both energy and courage, was not the man to retrieve it. He dispatched a messenger to the ships to inquire why they came in so hostile a manner to disturb the peace of his majesty's subjects ; while, at the same time, the admirals of the expedition dispatched a trumpeter with a summons to the said subjects to surrender. The messengers crossed each other on the way. Manning at once acknowledged the receipt of the summons, and promised to give them a definitive answer on the return of his messengers. By way of reply, the Dutch admirals weighed anchor and sailed up the bay ; then, anchoring opposite the fort, they sent word to Manning that half an hour would be given him to answer their summons. He asked till the following morning to consider. The request was refused him, and he was told that, after half an hour, a fire would be opened upon the fort. The half-hour passed without reply, when the Dutch kept their word, and opened a heavy cannonade on the English, which killed and wounded several of their men. Though many of the guns were in order, and an effective fire might have been poured on the ships, not a shot was fired in return. It was not long before six hundred men, under the command of Captain Anthony Colve, landed on the island, and ranged themselves on the Commons prepara- tory to marching into the city. The terrified Manning beat a parley, and sent Captain Carr, Thomas Lovelace, and Thomas Gibbs, to negotiate with Colve ; but as they had nothing definite to offer, that functionary detained Lovelace and Gibbs as hostages, and sent Carr back to
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