USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 15
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impossible ; the papers were in the hands of Sloughter, and Ingoldsby had no credentials whatever in his posses- sion. Under these circumstances, it was but natural for Leisler to refuse his demands ; but, urged on by the oppo- site party, he issued a proclamation, calling on the people and magistrates to aid him in enforcing the royal commis- sion, and branding all as traitors who refused to obey. Leisler, in turn, replied by another proclamation, protest- ing against his proceedings, and warning him, at his peril, not to attempt any hostility against the fort or city.
Ingoldsby immediately landed his soldiers, and pro- ceeded to blockade the fort by land and sea, while Leisler gathered his friends about him, and prepared for future action. For seven weeks the city was thus blockaded. During this time, the conduct of Leisler seems to have been prudent and courteous. A shot was fired at Ingoldsby's troops as they were returning one night to their ship- he used every effort to detect the offender. He ordered the soldiers to be quartered in the City Hall and entreated the citizens not to molest them. While he steadfastly refused to deliver the fort to Ingoldsby until he should produce a royal commission, he constantly spoke of him in respectful terms, and declared his entire willingness to surrender the fort to any one authorized to receive it. Ingoldsby, on his side, .who was wholly under the empire of the anti-Leislerian party, spared no pains to annoy and irritate the gov- ernor. He paraded his soldiers about the fort, shut out supplies, interrupted the mayor and common council while engaged in the discharge of their duties, and endeavored by a thousand petty annoyances to provoke.
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Leisler to open combat. His efforts were unavailing ; the governor intrenched himself in the fort and patiently awaited the coming of Sloughter to free him from all perplexities. He little dreamed of the manner in which this would be accomplished.
On the 19th of March, 1691, the vessel of Sloughter entered the harbor. Philipse, Van Cortlandt, and others of their party, hastened on board, and, greeting him with the warmest protestations of fidelity, escorted him to the City Hall, where he published his commission and took the oaths of office at eleven o'clock at night. Without heeding the lateness of the hour, he immediately dis- patched Ingoldsby with a party of soldiers to take pos- session of the fort. Leisler, who did not know Sloughter, and who suspected some snare, instead of surrendering the fort in obedience to the order, sent a letter, written in broken English, by Ensign Stoll, to the governor, charg- ing Stoll, who had seen Sloughter in Europe, to look at him well, and be sure that he was no counterfeit, got up for the occasion. Sloughter, who suspected something of this, informed Stoll that he intended to make himself known in New York as well as in England, and ordered Major Ingoldsby to go a second time to take possession of the fort, and at the same time, to release Colonel Bayard and Mr. Nichols from their imprisonment to attend his majesty's service, they having been appointed members of the council. He also ordered Leisler, Milborne, and the others " who called themselves the council," to come to him at once, without loss of time. Leisler refused either to surrender the fort or to release the prisoners, but sent Milborne and Delanoy to make terms with the
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governor, and to endeavor to procure some security for his own safety, which he felt was in imminent danger. Sloughter at once imprisoned the envoys, and sent Ingoldsby a third time to take possession of the fort, which Leisler again refused to him.
Early the next morning, Leisler sent a letter to the governor, surrendering the fort, and apologizing for hold- ing it after his arrival. That he had done so, was unwise, but certainly not indicative of treasonable designs. He had hoped to retain possession of it, that he might in some degree counteract the influence of his enemies by a personal surrender. He well knew that to yield it to Ingoldsby would be to place his life in the power of the opposite faction ; but the delay by which he sought to escape was made the most effectual instrument of his ruin.
No notice whatever was taken of the letter. Sloughter and his friends met at the City Hall, where a council was sworn in, consisting of Joseph Dudley, Frederick Phil- ipse, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, Gabriel Minvielle, Chud- ley Brooke, Thomas Willett, William Pinhorne and William Nichols-all sworn foes of Leisler. This done, twenty-nine papers from the English government rela- tive to Leisler, which had been first sent to England from Albany, were delivered to the secretary, and Jacob Leis- ler was brought in a prisoner. The king's letter, from which he claimed to derive his authority, was taken from him, and he was committed to the guard-house with eleven of his adherents. At the same meeting, the gov- ernor appointed John Lawrence mayor of the. city.
Leisler and his companions remained in the guard-
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house until the 23d of March, when the governor and council met at the fort, and appointed a committee to examine them with a view to their removal to the city prison. The next day the council met again, and organ- ized a special court of eight members for the trial of the prisoners. Sir Robert Robertson, William Smith, Wil- liam Pinhorne, John Lawrence, Jasper Hicks, Richard Ingoldsby, Isaac Arnold and John Young were ap- pointed judges by the governor, for the trial of the prisoners on a charge of murder and rebellion.
On the 30th of March, the court met for the trial of the prisoners. Leisler refused to plead, alleging that the court had no jurisdiction in the case, but that it belonged to his majesty himself to declare whether he had acted under legal authority, and insisting that the letter addressed to Nicholson, or, in his absence, to the chiefs of the government, had entitled him to act as lieutenant- governor. The pliant judges, instead of deciding the question, submitted it to the opinion of the governor and council. They decided in the negative ; Leisler was pro- nounced a usurper, and, on the 13th of April, both he and Milborne were condemned to death as rebels and traitors.
Notwithstanding the prejudices of Sloughter against Leisler, he feared to risk the displeasure of the king by summarily putting to death the man who had first raised his standard in New York, and who had constantly professed to act under his authority. He hesitated, talked of a reprieve, and flatly refused to sign his death- warrant until it had first received the sanction of the king. But the enemies of Leisler were thirsting for his blood. Bayard, embittered by his long imprisonment, burned for
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revenge, and Nichols and Van Cortlandt were not slow to second him. On the 14th of May, the council met and urged the governor to carry the sentence into execu- tion. The next day, the petition was seconded by the new assembly, the speaker of which was a declared enemy of Leisler. But Sloughter still hesitated, and the council determined to gain by stratagem what they could not by entreaty. Knowing the weakness of the governor, they invited him to a feast ; then, when he was overcome with wine, cajoled him into signing the death-warrant.
The fatal signature once procured, they dared not await the possibility of its revocation. An officer stole with it from the scene of festivity to the city prison, and ordered the victims to be led out for immediate execu- tion. The council, meanwhile, plied the governor with wine, and amused him into forgetfulness of the fate of the prisoners.
In the midst of a cold and drizzling spring rain, Leisler and Milborne were led out for execution. The scaffold was erected in the square at the lower end of the Park, on his own grounds, in full view of his country-seat. The weeping people thronged about him, execrating those who had deprived them of their leader. A few members of the council stole from the scene of revelry, and came to witness the consummation of their vengeance. Leisler's dying speech was full of humility and forgive- ness. "Why must you die ?" said he to Milborne. "You "have been but a servant, doing my will. What I have " done has been but in the service of my king and queen, " for the Protestant cause, and for the good of my coun- "try ; and for this I must die. Some errors I have
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" committed ; for these I ask pardon. I forgive my "enemies as I hope to be forgiven, and I entreat my " children to do the same." Not so humble was the youthful Milborne. Turning to Robert Livingston,* who had stationed himself near the scaffold, he said to him fiercely : "You have caused my death, but for " this will I implead you before the bar of God."-The drop fell ; the populace rushed forth with shrieks and groans to snatch some relic of their martyred leader, and the last act was ended of one of the most eventful dramas ever enacted within the city of New York. The bodies were taken down, and interred, by Leisler's own request, in his garden near the site of Tammany Hall. Thus perished the last Dutch governor of New York.
Leisler was truly a martyr of the people. They had chosen him to stand at their head and to aid them in preserving their civil and religious liberty when left with- out a ruler and in danger of falling a prey to a clique of ambitious men. Under their authority he acted until it was, as he thought, confirmed by the king. On the arrival of the new governor, he surrendered the fort on the day that the council was sworn in ; and they had no right to demand it before. Yet he was immediately arrested without a hearing, thrown into prison like a common malefactor, and sentenced to death, not by the judgment of the court that had been appointed for his trial, but by the decision of a council composed of his bitterest enemies. But it was the people instead of Leisler who were struck at, in truth. It was then, as
* See Appendix, Note J.
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later, the policy of the English government to crush every symptom of popular liberty in her colonies, and to rule them with a rod of iron. Jacob Leisler and Jacob Milborne were the first victims in the cause of freedom, and the pioneers of the long train that fol- lowed on the fields of the Revolution more than a century after.
Four years afterwards, the son of Jacob Leisler did justice to the memory of his father by prosecuting the appeal which had been denied him. On the 11th of March, 1695, the Lords Commissioners of Trade, to whom it had been referred, decided that the deceased had been condemned and executed according to law, but that their families were fit objects of royal compassion, and ordered the confiscated estates to be restored. But this did not satisfy the friends of the victims, who appealed from this decision to Parliament, and by the aid of powerful influence, obtained the same year a reversal of the attainder. This act stated explicitly that Leisler had been appointed commander-in-chief until their majesties' pleasure should be further known ; that he was afterwards confirmed in his authority by their majesties' letter, dated July 30, 1689 ; that, while he held this power, by virtue of said authority, Major Ingoldsby had arrived in January and demanded the surrender of the fort without producing any legal authority ; that Leisler, pursuant to the trust reposed in him, kept possession of the fort until the following March, when Henry Sloughter arrived late in the even- ing ; that Leisler, having received notice of his com- ing, delivered the fort to him early the next morning ;
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and consequently, that all acts, judgments and attainders were declared reversed by the decision of parliament. Three years after, the bodies of Leisler and Milborne were disinterred and reburied with great ceremony in the old Dutch church in Garden street.
Sloughter was now firmly established as governor, and affairs began to assume a settled aspect. But the rancor of the late struggle did not soon die out, and for the next. quarter of a century, the supremacy of the city was warmly contested by the Leislerians and anti-Leis- lerians. The parties transmitted the feud to their children, and the vestiges of it are even now to be found among the descendants of these early colonists.
As may readily be inferred from preceding events, the first Assembly that met under the new administration was wholly devoted to the interests of the governor. The laws which they framed, and which came to be recognized as the first acknowledged code in the province, were molded to suit his interests, and to make him wholly independent of the people, by granting him a permanent revenue, together with the sole right of issu- ing warrants for moneys from the public treasury. The Charter of Liberties, which had been granted by the Duke of York in Dongan's administration, was declared null and void. The single popular law passed by them, declaring that it was the people's right instead of privilege to be represented in general assembly was vetoed by the king. The old Court of Assizes was abolished, and a Supreme Court, consisting of five judges, instituted in its stead. Of this, Dudley was made chief-justice with a salary of a hundred and thirty pounds, and Johnson,
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Smith, Van Cortlandt, and Pinhorne were appointed his associates.
In 1691, Abraham De Peyster, captain of one of the train-bands, and a friend of Leisler, was appointed to the mayoralty. Mr. De Peyster had taken an active part on the side of the people in the late agitation, and his ap- pointment was well calculated to meet their favor. He held the office for three years, after which he received the appointment of treasurer which he held until his death in 1721.
Comparative tranquillity being now restored, the citi- zens began to turn their attention to public improvements. Water street was extended from Old Slip to Fulton street, and Pine, Cedar, and the neighboring streets were laid out through the old Damen farm. Two markets for meat were established, the one in Broadway, opposite the fort, and the other at Coenties Slip ; and no cattle were per- mitted to be slaughtered within the city gates.
The city determined to assume the support of the public paupers, and each alderman was ordered to make a return of the poor in his ward. Several were soon recommended as objects of charity, to whom a pittance was granted from the public treasury, no house being as yet provided for their reception. The poisonous weeds, stramonium and others, that grew in such abundance on the island, were ordered to be rooted up from the high- ways, and every citizen was directed to keep the street clean before his door
In the same year, it was decided to build another church up-town, and the officers of the church of St. Nicholas purchased a building-lot in Garden street, now
16
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Exchange place, 125 feet front by 180 feet rear, for which they paid a hundred and eighty pieces of eight, on which a church was soon after erected.
Many other municipal regulations, concerning huck- sters, bakers, butchers and others were established, which were then esteemed of vital importance, but the minutiæ of which would now be wearisome to the general reader. A single item we must notice as conveying an idea of the punishments practised in olden times. A pillory, cage, whipping-post, and ducking-stool were set up in the vicinity of the City Hall, and hither were brought all vagrants, slanderers, pilferers, and truant children to be exposed for public show, or to receive such severer chastisement as their offences might warrant.
Residence of N. W. Stuyvesant.
CITY OF NEW YORK.
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WHITNEY-JOCELYN.N.Y
Old Dutch Church in Garden Street. Erected in 1696.
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On the 23d of July, 1691, Sloughter died suddenly. So hostile was the spirit of the times and so bitter the animosities that existed against him, that it was at first asserted that he had been poisoned by the Leisle- rians, but this charge was disproved by a post mortem examination. His remains were deposited in the Stuy- vesant vault, next to those of the old Dutch governor, The charge of affairs devolved upon Major Ingoldsby and Dudley, to whom it belonged of right, being absent in Curaçoa.
CHAPTER VIII.
1692-1702.
Administration of Fletcher-Progress of the City-Piratical Depredations-Lord Bellamont Governor.
ON the 29th of August, 1692, Benjamin Fletcher, the newly-appointed governor, arrived at New York. He was also invested with the government of Pennsylvania and Delaware, of which Penn had recently been deprived by reason of suspicions of his loyalty, and was commis- sioned to command the militia of Connecticut and New Jersey-a duty which he found it somewhat difficult to perform. The frontier warfare still continued, and New York, who, from her geographical position, became the English bulwark against the French in the Canadas, had petitioned that the other colonies should contribute to her defence. The request was granted, and Fletcher came instructed to require the southern and eastern pro- vinces to furnish their quota of men and money towards carrying on the war. The order was grumblingly received ; the Quakers excused themselves under pretext of conscientious scruples, but finally voted a small sum on condition that it should not be used for the war ; Vir- ginia raised five hundred pounds as the extent of her
2 6
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resources ; Maryland furnished a small sum under pro- test, Connecticut sent no money under plea of an empty treasury, but promised to supply volunteers when needed, and Massachusetts flatly refused to furnish either, alleging that she had her own frontier to defend. The whole burden of the war was thus thrown upon New York, despite her exhausted treasury, and her population, decimated by the tragedies lately enacted on the frontier.
The new governor was despotic, passionate, avaricious and fanatical withal, it being his darling project to make the Church of England the established church of the land. He at once attached himself to the anti-Leislerians, and continued a sworn friend to them during his admin- istration. He retained the council of his predecessor with the exception of Joseph Dudley and William Pin- horne, who were replaced by Caleb Heathcote and John Young. Dudley was also superseded in the chief-justice- ship by William Smith. He returned at once to England. when he obtained the governorship of the Isle of Wight.
On the arrival of the new governor, the mayor and corporation of the city met and appropriated twenty pounds from the public treasury towards a public dinner in his honor. This was a politic movement on their part ; they were anxious to dispose him favorably towards a petition which they had to offer. Vigorous efforts were being made by the towns outside to break up the mono- poly of bolting flour and making bread for exportation, which had been granted to the city several years before, and which had grown to be so valuable a privilege. The numerous laws that had been passed to prevent its infringement had proved unavailing, and the citizens
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hoped to obtain the concurrence of the governor in securing this right exclusively to the city. The dinner was followed by an address entreating the governor to petition to their majesties for a confirmation of the city charter, and for the continuation of the bolt- ing and baking monopoly ; and also entreating that the duties of clerk of the market, water-bailiff and coroner might be included in the functions of the mayoralty.
That nothing might be spared to secure the governor's assistance in the matter, the city authorities presented another address to him a few days after, couched in the most flattering terms, in which they expressed their joy that so wise and pious a governor should have been set to rule over them, and entreated him to take the decay- ing state of their afflicted city into favorable considera- tion, and become its benefactor by securing to it that monopoly without which it must perish. The recorder was also directed to prepare an address to William and Mary, thanking them for the blessing which they had con- ferred on the province by appointing Fletcher the gov- ernor thereof. Nor did their efforts stop here. On his return from a subsequent voyage to Albany whither he had gone to direct matters in respect to the frontier war- fare, the mayor and corporation appropriated one hun- dred pounds for the purchase of a gold cup, to be presented to him in testimony of their joy at his safe arrival. They let slip no opportunity to load him with fulsome compli- ments, and to testify to their approbation of all his acts. But this servility availed them nothing; in the autumn of 1696, the bolting-act was repealed by the
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Assembly, and the commerce in bread and flour thrown open to all competitors.
News having been received of a projected French invasion, it was determined, soon after Fletcher's arrival, to erect a new line of fortifications across the island in the place of those now in ruins, and a hundred pounds were appropriated for the purpose by the corporation. All Indians and negroes who were not already engaged. in military service were ordered to assist in the work, and the citizens generally were directed to give it all the assistance in their power. It was also determined to erect a battery upon a platform laid upon the point of rocks under the fort, so as to command both rivers ; and the filling in of the present Battery was also com- menced. Orders were given to see that the guns of the fort were mounted and fit for use, and that there was a sufficiency of ammunition.
In 1693, William Bradford, the Philadelphia printer, having become involved in difficulties in consequence of his connection with George Keith, who had attempted to produce a revolution in Quakerism, removed to New York, and established the first printing press in the city. He was at first employed by the city authorities to print the corporation laws, and a few years after estab- lished a newspaper, which proved a successful specu- lation .*
* New York was the third of the Anglo-American colonies in which printing. was introduced-Massachusetts and Pennsylvania preceding it. The first thing printed in this city was a small folio volume of the laws of the colony, executed by Brad- ford in the first year of his arrival. The next of which we have any account was a small 24mo. volume of 51 pages, entitled, " A Letter of Advice to a Young Gentle- man leaving the University, concerning his Behavior and Conversation in the World,
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In 1694, Charles Lodowick, whom we have already seen as captain of the train-bands in the affair of Leisler, was appointed mayor. Mr. Lodowick was a prominent merchant, the son of one of the early traders in the city. He retained the office for but one year, after which he received the appointment of lieutenant-colonel of the province. He subsequently removed to England, where he died.
The chief aim of Fletcher, next to his personal aggran- dizement, was the introduction into the province of the English church and the English language. This was contrary to the wishes of the majority of the inhabitants, who still spoke the Dutch language and adhered to the Dutch church, which they regarded as the established church of the province. This church was attached to the Classis of Amsterdam, which was made a pretext by Fletcher for substituting the Church of England in its stead. The first Assembly that convened after his arri- val, though they approved his conduct, and supplied him liberally with money for the defence of the frontiers, refused to listen to his intimations on this head. The next Assembly, which convened in the September of 1693, proved more compliant. Besides granting him a permanent revenue for five years and giving him control of the treasury, they passed an act providing for the
by R. L. Printed and sold by W. Bradford, Printer to His Majesty, King William, at the Bible in New York, 1696." A copy of this rare work was quite recently sold at the auction sale of the library of the late E. B. Corwin, for the low sum of $12 50. On the 16th of October, 1725, the first newspaper in the city of New York was issued by Bradford, with the following heading : "NEW YORK GAZETTE. From Monday, Oct. 16th, to Oct. 23d, 1725." The paper was issued weekly, and was printed on a small foolscap sheet.
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building of a church in the city of New York, another in Richmond, two in Westchester, and two in Suffolk, in each of which was to be settled a Protestant minister on a salary of from forty to a hundred pounds, to be paid by a tax levied on the inhabitants. This was less than the governor desired-he returned the act, which had been sent to him for approval, with an amendment granting him the power of inducting every incumbent, which the Assembly refused to pass. Upon this he called them before him, and angrily broke up the session, telling them that he would let them know that he would collate or suspend any minister that he chose, and that, while he stayed in the government, he should take care that neither heresy, schism, nor rebellion should be preached among them. The bill subsequently passed without the amendment, and the word Protestant being construed to mean Episcopal, all the inhabitants were compelled to support the Church of England, whatever might be their religious opinion. In 1696, Trinity church was begun under the provisions of this act, and was completed and opened for worship on the 6th of February of the following year by the Rev. William Vesey. The church was a small square edifice, with a very tall spire. A pew in it was appropriated to the mayor and common council, and a sermon was annually preached to them on the day of the city election. In 1703, a cemetery was donated it by the corporation, on condition that it should ever after be kept neatly fenced, and that the burial fees should not exceed eighteenpence for children and three shillings for adults ; and so great was the immigration into this city of the dead, that, at
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