USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 11
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the fort, with a summons to Manning to surrender within a quarter of an hour. But this summons was never received. Carr, thinking it his best policy to pro- vide for his own safety, made his way to the city gates, and fled from the town without troubling himself about his master. At the end of the time appointed, a trum- peter was sent for an answer to the summons, and was told in reply that none had been received. "This is " the third time they have fooled us," exclaimed Colve in a passion, as he ordered his men to march without delay. They proceeded down Broadway, and, as they approached the fort, were met by a messenger from Manning, offering a full surrender on condition that the garrison should be allowed to march out with all the hon- ors of war. To this Colve assented, and after witness- ing the exit of the English intruders, the Dutch troops continued their march down Broadway and again took possession of the fort and of New York. The name of the city was changed to New Orange, while the fort became Fort William Hendrick. But the Dutch did not keep their promise. The English soldiers were seized and imprisoned, their baggage plundered, and many of them carried away to foreign parts in the Dutch ships of war. The governor was permitted to return with the Dutch admirals to Europe. %
The news of so easy a capture occasioned the deepest mortification to the English government, as well as to the absent governor and the New England colonies, and on the recovery of the province in 1674, Manning was tried in New York, by court-martial, for cowardice and treachery. The charges brought against him were, that
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he had not put the garrison in a fitting state of defence ; but treated with the enemy, suffered their ships to ap- proach and to send their boats ashore without firing upon them ; and, finally, struck his flag and surrendered the city, although the fort was in a tenable condition and the garrison desirous to fight, and let in the enemy without conditions, unless to himself. It was also said, and believed by many, that he had been bribed by the Dutch to surrender the city. In defence, he alleged that he had no time to put the fort in a defensive posture ; that he treated with the enemy in hopes to delay their attack until aid should arrive ; that he did not fire because his ambassadors were on board ; that their landing was unknown to him, and that they were eight hundred strong, while he had but seventy or eighty men in the fort ; that it was for this reason that he ordered a flag of truce to be raised, but that the English flag was struck without his consent ; and that he made no conditions in his own favor, but only demanded that the garrison should march out with the honors of war. His defence, though rea- sonable in many points, proved unavailing ; the English were smarting under the insult which they had received, and piqued that one of their forts should have fallen so easy a prey to the enemy ; and Manning was found guilty of the charges brought against him. His interest at court saved him from the sentence of death, but he was adjudged to have his sword broken over his head by the executioner in front of the City Hall, and to be forever incapable of holding any civil or military office in the gift of the crown. Lovelace was also reprimanded by the English government,
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and his estate ordered to be confiscated for the benefit of the Duke of York.
The Dutch having thus regained possession of the city, the commanders of the fleet issued a new charter, restoring the former municipal government. Anthony De Milt was appointed schout, with three burgomasters and five schepens. Courts of Justice were established at Delaware Bay, Albany, and Esopus, and the magis- trates of the provincial towns were required to appear at New Orange and swear allegiance to the Dutch government. The squadron soon returned to Holland accompanied by Lovelace, leaving Captain Anthony Colve in command of the province.
The Dutch now reasserted their right to the province of New Netherland, as defined by the boundaries agreed upon in the Stuyvesant treaty, and Colve received a commission from Benckes and Evertsen, the admirals of the fleet, authorizing him to govern the said territory. His rule was brief, but energetic. Taking a lesson from the condition in which the fort had been left by his pre- decessor, he determined that the next assailant should not find it so easy a capture, and vigorously set to work to place it in a defensive condition. The city palisades and the works of the fort were repaired, the buildings and inclosures that had accumulated about and crowded upon the latter were ordered to be removed, the guns were put in order, the ammunition looked to, and the citizen companies and watch drilled for active service. All exportation of provisions from the city for the next eight months was forbidden, not more than two of the sloops usually engaged in trading on the shores of the
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Hudson were suffered to be absent at the same time, and every precaution was taken to strengthen the city and enable it to resist an attack. It was supposed, and not without reason, that the English would not give up this coveted territory without a struggle, and Colve, himself a military man, resolved that this should not be an easy one. Everything assumed a military character. The Commons became the place of general parade. The schout, at the head of the general militia, reviewed them every day before the stadt-huys at the head of Coenties Slip. Every evening, at six, he received the keys of the city from the officers of the fort, and proceeded with a guard of six men to lock the gates and to place a sentry of citizens at the most exposed points. At sunrise, he went the rounds again, unlocked the gates, and restored the keys to the guard at the fort. At this time the city con- tained three hundred and twenty-two houses.
Soon after Colve assumed the reins of government, a charge of witchcraft was brought before him against a woman of the city, but the brave old soldier treated it with the contempt it deserved. New York was never much infested with this plague, which spread so widely in the New England States. Yet it is probable that some were infected with the contagion, for in 1665, Ralph Hall and his wife, residents of Setauket on Long Island, were arraigned before the city court of assizes on a charge of having caused the death of George Wood and his child by sorcery. The court, having faith in the black art, bound them both over to appear at the next sessions, but the affair coming to the ears of Nicolls, they were released from all recognizances, and acquitted of the
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charge. In 1670, a similar accusation against a widow named Katharine Harrison residing in Westchester, was brought before the court. This woman had formerly been a resident of Weathersfield, Connecticut, where she had been tried for witchcraft, found guilty by the jury, pardoned by the judge, and ordered to remove from the colony. The odium followed her to her new abode ; and her neighbors, fearful of the presence of so dangerous a person, entreated that she might be driven from the town. She was ordered by the court to give security for her good behavior, and the proceedings against her were finally dropped. Such was the rise and progress of witchcraft in New York. Two other cases occurred on Long Island which were referred to the New England courts for trial, but they resulted in nothing.
Under the energetic rule of the warlike Colve, it is probable that the English would have had some difficulty in retaking the city by force of arms. But the days of the Dutch rulers were numbered. On the 9th of Feb- ruary, 1674, a treaty of peace between England and the States General was signed at Westminster, which stored the country to its former possessors. It was not, however, until the 10th of November of the same year that the city was finally ceded to the English, and the Dutch definitively dispossessed of the beautiful province which they had discovered and peopled, and of which they had retained possession for nearly sixty years. On that day the fort was surrendered to Major Edmund Andros, who had been appointed governor by the Duke of York. The fort again became Fort James, and the inhabitants of the province were absolved from their
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oaths of allegiance to the States General, and required to swear fealty to the King of England. The new governor and his council, which consisted of John Lawrence, Captain Brockholst and Captain Dyre, met immediately after the surrender of the fort, and restoring the English form of municipal government, ordered that the magis- trates who were in office at the time of the capture of the city should continue their duties six months longer. In the course of the following year, Andros appointed William Dervall, mayor ; Gabriel Minvielle, Nicholas De Meyer, Thomas Gibbs, Thomas Lewis, and Stephanus Van Cortlandt, aldermen ; and John Sharpe, sheriff. He also decreed that four aldermen should constitute a court of sessions.
It may not be amiss to close this chapter with a notice of the early settlers who successively filled the may- oralty from the appointment of Thomas Willett in 1665 to the recapture of the city by the Dutch, and whose names have been omitted in the rapid progress of our history. Names and documents are always uninter- esting unless connected with events and associations ; and mere lists of city officials can have little interest for the general reader. Thomas Delavall, the successor of Willett in 1666, and who afterwards filled the mayor's chair in 1671 and 1678, was a captain in the English army, who accompanied Nicolls in his invasion of the city, and soon became a prominent man in the province. He engaged in mercantile pursuits, and purchased seve- ral estates in Manhattan and the vicinity, among which were Great and Little Barent's, now Barn Islands, in the Hellegat ; together with a cherry orchard of several
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acres in the neighborhood of Franklin Square. From this orchard, Cherry street derives its name. He died in 1682, leaving several children, who married and became permanent residents of the city.
Cornelius Steenwyck, mayor in 1668-69-70-82-83, was a thorough-bred Netherlander, strongly attached to all the customs of the Fatherland, and distinguished for his inflexible integrity. He was a merchant, and one of the wealthiest and most influential men in the colony. His popularity was unbounded, as well among the English as the Dutch portion of the community ; on one occasion, he was appointed governor pro tem. during the tempo- rary absence of Lovelace, and he was always found faith- ful to his oaths of allegiance. He died in 1684, leaving several children. His widow afterwards married Domine Selinus, the clergyman of Brooklyn.
Matthias Nicoll, an English lawyer, who emigrated from Islip in Northamptonshire in 1660, was Steen- wyck's successor. He held the office but for one year. Previously to this appointment, he had officiated as the first English secretary of the province under Col. Nicolls. He afterwards became one of the judges of the Supreme Court, and removed to Queens county, where he pur- chased large tracts of land, and died in 1687, leaving numerous descendants.
John Lawrence, mayor of the city at the time of its surrender to the Dutch, and subsequently in 1691, emi- grated from England to the province during the admin- istration of Kieft, and became one of the patentees of the towns of Hempstead and Flushing. He took up his residence in the city, where he had a house and store on
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the river shore, between Hanover and Wall streets ; and engaged in trade on the Hudson River. He died in the city in 1699, leaving several children.
William Dervall, the first mayor of the city after its restoration, was an English merchant who had removed from Boston to New York during the administration of Nicolls, and set up a store in company with his brother near the lower end of Pearl street. His wife was the daughter of Mayor Delavall, from whom he inherited Great Barn Island, together with a large estate at Har- lem. He was shrewd but upright, and was much esteemed by his fellow-citizens.
The province thus passed away forever from the hands of its Dutch rulers, but many years elapsed before the Holland manners and customs were uprooted, and New York became in truth an English city. Indeed, some of them linger still, and New York yet retains a marked individuality which distinguishes it from the eastern cities, and savors strongly of its Dutch origin. The memorials of the Dutch dynasty have fallen one by one ; the Stuyvesant pear-tree is the only token now in being of the flourishing nation which so long possessed the city of New Amsterdam-the only link that connects the present with the traditional past-and this must soon fall before the slow decay of age. But the broad and liberal nature of the early settlers is still perpetuated in the cosmopolitan character of the city, in its freedom from exclusiveness, in its religious tolerance, and in its extended views of men and things. Though New York has many faults, yet they are not petty ones. There is . no city on the western continent in which men more
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naturally find their own level. Deeds find more respect than persons, and each one rises and falls, if not by his own merit, at least by his own endeavors. Most of the other cities of the United States have descended in a direct line from the pioneer settlers, retaining all the types of the character which first gave them birth ; in New York, this primitive type, instead of being predo- minant, is blended with all the races of the earth ; and if it be true, as one of our most eminent philosophers asserts, that a mixture of many materials makes the best mortar, there is no reason to regret it. The Dutch lan- guage has disappeared, the Dutch signs have passed away from the streets, and the Dutch manners and cus- toms are forgotten, save in a few strongholds of the ancient Knickerbockers. But the Dutch spirit has not yet died out-enough of it is still remaining to enable New York to trace its lineage in a direct line to its parent-New Amsterdam.
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New York in 1674.
CHAPTER V.
1674.
New Amsterdam in the Old Dutch Colony Times.
BEFORE proceeding further with the thread of our his- tory, it may be well to glance at the condition of New Amsterdam in the old Dutch Colony times, before its primitive manners and customs had been adulterated by English innovations. In the beginning of the settlement, the people had been forced to accommodate themselves to the necessities of a new country, and their houses, furniture and apparel had necessarily been of the rudest kind. But, at the time of which we write, the city had grown into a state of comparative wealth, and the inhabitants were beginning to enjoy the comforts of affluence, according to the standard of the times. This differed somewhat from the modern estimate ; a burgher worth a thousand dollars was esteemed rich ; and his neighbor worth five hundred, a man in easy circum- stances. But money has but a relative value, and expenses were graded in conformity with the standard of wealth.
In the beginning of the settlement, as we have
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Household in the old Dutch Colony times.
already said, the houses were one story in height with two rooms on a floor. The chimneys were of wood, and the roofs were thatched with reeds and straw. The furniture was of the rudest kind, carpets were unknown, as indeed they continued to be for many years after ; the stools and tables were hewn out of rough planks by the hands of the colonists ; wooden platters and pewter spoons took the place of more expensive crockery, and naught but the indispensable chest of homespun linen and a stray piece of plate or porcelain, a treasured memento of the Fatherland, was seen to remind one of civilization.
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As the forests became cleared away, and the colony increased, the style of living experienced a material change. The straw roofs and wooden chimneys were deemed unsafe, and were ordered to be removed; and the settlers commenced to build their houses of brick and stone. For some time, the bricks were imported from Holland ; in the administration of Stuyvesant, how- ever, some enterprising citizens established a brick-yard on the island ; and the material henceforth became pop- ular in the colony. The northern part of the island fur- nished abundance of stone. Many of the wooden houses had checkerwork fronts, or rather gable ends of small black and yellow Dutch bricks, with the date of their erection inserted in iron figures, facing the street. Most of the houses, indeed, fronted the same way ; the roofs were tiled or shingled, and invariably surmounted with a weathercock. The windows were small and the doors large ; the latter were divided horizontally, so that, the
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Dutch Grocery in Broad street.
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upper half being swung open, the burgher could lean on the lower and smoke his pipe in peaceful contempla- tion. Not less comfortable were the social "stoeps," and the low, projecting eaves, beneath which the friendly neighbors congregated at twilight to smoke their long pipes and discuss the price of beaver-skins. These institutions have come down to our own times, and are still known and appreciated in the suburbs of the city.
Every house was surrounded by a garden, varying in size according to the locality, but usually large enough to furnish accommodations for a horse, a cow, a couple of pigs, a score of barn-door fowls, a patch of cabbages, and a bed of tulips. Owing in part to the short-sighted policy which discouraged the introduction of English horses and cattle into the province, the stock had greatly deteriorated. The horses were branded with the name of the owner, and turned out in summer to graze on the waste lands in the upper part of the island, where they bred rapidly ; then were again collected and housed in autumn. At a later period, horses were imported from the New England settlements, particularly the Narra- gansett pacers, which were the most highly valued. Carriages were unknown, and it was not until after the Revolution that these came into general use. Lum- ber wagons and sleighs were the only modes of convey- ance in the old Dutch colony times. In 1696, the first hackney coach was introduced into the city ; later, one horse chaises came to be used by the wealthiest inhabi- tants ; but, with one or two exceptions, none but the royal governors aspired to the luxury of a private carriage.
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Carpets, too, were almost unknown in the colony up to the period of the Revolution. Now and then, a piece of drugget, ostentatiously dignified by the name of car- pet, and made to serve for the purpose of a crumb- cloth, was found in the houses of the wealthiest burghers, but even these were not in general use. The snow-white floor was sprinkled with fine sand, which was curiously stroked with a broom into fantastic curves and angles. This adornment pertained especially to the parlor ; a room that was only used upon state occasions. The first carpet said to have been introduced into the city was found in the house of the pirate, Kidd, this was merely a good-sized Turkey rug, worth about twenty-five dollars.
The most ornamental piece of furniture in the parlor was usually the bed, with its heavy curtains and valance of camlet and killeminster. Mattresses were as yet unheard of; in their stead was used a substantial bed of live geese feathers, with a lighter one of down for a covering. These beds were the pride of the notable Dutch matrons ; in these and the well-filled chests of home-made linen lay their claims to skill in housewifery.
The beds and pillows were cased in check coverings ; the sheets were of home-spun linen, and over the whole was thrown a patch-work bed-quilt, made of bits of calico cut in every conceivable shape, and tortured into the most grotesque patterns that could possibly be invented by human ingenuity.
In a corner of the room stood a huge oaken, iron- bound chest, filled to overflowing with household linen, spun by the feminine part of the family, which they
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always delighted in displaying before visitors. At a later date, this gave place to "the chest of drawers " of our grandmothers' times-huge piles of drawers, placed one upon the other and reaching to the ceiling, with brass rings over the key-holes to serve as knobs. The escri- toire, too, with its complication of writing-desk, drawers, and mysterious pigeon-holes, came into use about the same time; but both of these were unknown to the genuine Knickerbockers.
In another corner stood the Holland cupboard, with its glass doors, displaying the family plate and porcelain. The latter was rare, and, as a general rule, was " wisely " kept for show." Plate was more common, and there were few wealthy families that had not their porringers, tankards and ladles of massive silver, for plated ware was then unknown. A few had tea-services of china- tea-pots and sugar-bowls the size of a nut-shell, with cups and saucers that might have served for a fairy, adorned with quaint devices of men and things in the most impossible positions, which all can appreciate who have borne witness to the extreme fidelity of the paint- ings of the Celestials. But more generally, the fragrant bohea was sipped from the humbler pewter mugs, which were ranged in shining rows upon the kitchen dressers. Wooden-ware, too, was in universal use, and it was not until several years after that even the coarsest delf oi earthen-ware was imported into the colony. Glass-ware was almost unknown ; punch was drank in turns by the company, from a huge bowl, and beer from a tankard of silver. Sideboards were not introduced until after the Revolution, and were exclusively of English origin.
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Sofas, couches, lounges, and that peculiarly American institution, the rocking-chair, were things unknown to our Dutch ancestors. Their best chairs were of Russia leather, profusely ornamented with double and triple rows of brass nails, and so straight and high-backed as to preclude the possibility of a moment's repose. Besides these, the parlor was commonly decorated with one or two chairs with embroidered backs and seats, the work of the daughters of the family. After the capture of the province, cane-seat and mahogany chairs were intro- duced, but these were unknown to the primitive Hol- landers. The kitchen chairs were usually rush-bottomed. Couches and high-backed settees were introduced about the time of the Revolution-sofas are an innovation of modern times, Mahogany had not yet come into use ; nearly all the furniture was made of oak, maple, or nut- wood.
Tables were not yet ranked in the category of orna- mental furniture. The round tea-table, indeed, with the leaf turning up perpendicularly, like a Chinese fan, occu- pied a conspicuous place in the corner of the parlor ; but this room was sacred to the social gatherings, so much in vogue among the Knickerbockers, denominated "tea- parties," which may account for its presence. The great, square dining-table, with leaves upheld by extended arms, stood in the kitchen for daily use. Japanned tea- tables and card-tables were introduced at a later date.
Some half-dozen clocks were to be found in the settle- ment, with about the same number of silver watches ; but as these were scarcely ever known to go, their exist- ence was of very little practical consequence. No watch-
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maker had yet found it to his interest to emigrate, and the science of horology was at a low ebb in the colony. The flight of time long continued to be marked by sun- dials and hour-glasses ; indeed, it is only since the Revo- lution that clocks have come into general use. About 1720, the corner-clocks, consisting of cases reaching from the floor to the ceiling, with the dial at the top and the pendulum swinging almost at the bottom were introduced. These were all imported, nor were any manufactured in the country until within a comparatively recent date.
Small looking-glasses in narrow black frames with ornamented corners were in general use. Two or three of the wealthiest burghers were the possessors of large mirrors, in two plates, the upper one elaborately orna- mented with flowers and gilding ; but these were objects of luxury to which but few could aspire. Pictures were plentiful, if we may believe the catalogues of household furniture of the olden times ; but these pictures were wretched engravings of Dutch cities and naval engage- ments, with family portraits at five shillings a head, which were hung at regular intervals upon the parlor walls. The window curtains were generally of flowered chintz, of inferior quality, simply run upon a string. Yet among these, as in the wearing apparel and the hangings of the beds, were sometimes found specimens of costly India stuffs, which had found their way, through the Dutch East India Company to these distant shores, and many rare articles of Eastern luxury thus floated in the wake of commerce to the homes of the wealthy burghers.
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