USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York, from its earliest settlement to the present time > Part 19
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right of planting these in case of necessity. The quit- rent was fixed at ten shillings over and above the for- mer quit-rents. Such was the substance of the con- ditions of the Montgomerie charter .*
In the first year of Montgomerie's administration, a Jewish cemetery was first established in the city. This was bounded by Chatham, Oliver, Henry and Catherine streets, and was given in 1729 by Noe Willey of London to his three sons, merchants in New York, to be held as a burial-place for the Jewish nation forever. But the eye of the old Hebrew could not pierce into futurity ; the trust was violated many years ago, and warehouses now cover the site once destined as a final resting-place for the Jewish Rabbis. Several years previously, a Jewish synagogue had been erected in Mill street.
The city was gradually extending its limits, and the powder-house which had been built a few years before on the Commons began to be considered as an unsafe place of deposit for the powder which was stored there. A new magazine was accordingly determined on, and after some deliberation, the corporation selected a pretty little island in the Fresh Water Pond as the most available location, and erected a storehouse there in 1728 for the safe keeping of the explosive material.
The Garden street church having become full to over- flowing, a portion of the congregation determined to colonize, and, in 1726, purchased a lot of ground on the corner of Nassau and Liberty, then Crown street, and commenced the erection of the Middle Dutch church.
* For further details see the original charter, Appendix, Note A.
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But ere long the undertaking came to a full stop for want of funds, and, in 1729, the congregation applied to the governor for a license to make a collection in aid of its completion. This was granted ; the money was soon raised, and the church was finished and opened in the course of the same year. It was at first without a gallery; the pulpit was on the east side, and two doors opened on the west. For the first thirty years, the ser- vices were performed exclusively in the Dutch language, after which the English service was used half the time, much to the dissatisfaction of the sires of the congre- gation. In 1776, the pews were torn out and used for fuel, while the church became the prison-house of three thousand Americans. When no longer desired for this purpose, it was converted into a riding-school for the British cavalry, and the walls which had so often reëchoed the fervent prayers of the pious dominies now rang with the caracolling of steeds and the jests of the soldiery. Adjoining it, in Liberty street, stood the old sugar-house, built in 1689 in the days of Leisler, and also
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LOSSINĆE BARRITT
Old Sugar House in Liberty Street, the Prison House of the Revolution.
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This CHURCH
The Rev
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M.Henry Boel
Ministers
To the Honourable RIP VAN DAM. Esa PRESIDENT of His Majesty's Council for the PROVINCE of NEWYORK This Vien ofthe Ausw uth Church is most humbly : Dedicatedby your Longues most Obedient Sert Y" Burgis
. Middle Dutch Church in Olden Time. ( Now the Post-office.)
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transformed into a prison for the patriots. After the close of the war, both buildings returned to their original use. The sugar-house was levelled in 1840 before the march of modern improvements ; the church still stands, the general post-office of the city of New York.
Soon after the erection of the Middle Dutch church, it was proposed to extend the city on the west side by rescu- ing Greenwich and Washington streets from the waters ; and they were ordered to be surveyed and laid out above the Battery along the lines of high and low-water mark ; the high-water mark to be the centre of one street, and the low-water mark, the centre of the other. It was also determined to establish three new slips, one opposite Morris street, another opposite Exchange Place, and a third opposite Rector street. The streets, however, were not built upon until several years after. A line of stages was established between New York and Phila- delphia, to run once a fortnight during the winter months, and proposals were issued for a foot post to Albany.
In 1729, a library of 1,622 volumes, which had been bequeathed by the Rev. John Millington, Rector of New ington, England, to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, was presented by them to the city for a public library. To these was added a col- lection presented in 1700 by the Rev. John Sharp, chap- lain of Lord Bellamont, and the whole was opened to the public under the supervision of the latter gentleman as "the Corporation Library." But the librarian died soon after, and the books were neglected and almost for- gotten until 1754, when a number of public-spirited citizens organized themselves into a body and founded
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the Society Library, obtaining permission from the Com- mon Council to add the Corporation Library to their col- lection and to deposit their books in the City Hall. Here the library continued to increase and prosper. In 1772, a charter was granted it by George III. under the name of the New York Society Library, and under the new impetus given it by this incorporation, it flourished till all thoughts of literary enterprise were banished by the general stagnation of the Revolution. The city fell into the hands of the British and the library into the hands of the British soldiery ; and, in the scenes of Vandalism which followed, the choice and valuable collection which had been gathered with so much care, was scattered, mutilated and almost totally destroyed. For fourteen years, the library was neglected by its founders in the excitement of the struggle for liberty ; then, in 1783, when peace was finally declared, the scattered elements of the society reunited, and, reviving their charter, once more commenced the collection of books. In 1793, a library building was erected in Nassau street, which was at that time considered one of the architectural lions of the city. But the collection soon outgrew its new quar- ters, and, removing temporarily into the Mechanics' Society building in Chambers street, continued there until the completion of the new library on the corner of Broadway and Leonard streets in 1840. Hardly was it established here when the upward rush of business forced it again to vacate this and to seek a new resting-place in the upper part of the town. For a time, it established itself in the Bible House in Astor Place, then removed, in 1857, to its new edifice in University Place between
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party, and he and his descendants Long continued to exert a powerful influence on the affairs of the province.
The first act of Governor Hunter's administration was to join with the New England States in a project for the conquest of Canada. This had always been a favorite scheme of the English ; and the citizens of New York were especially interested in its success. Acadia had just been conquered by Francis Nicholson, the governor of Virginia, and its inhabitants expelled without striking a blow ; and the door seemed thus opened to an easy victory. The Assembly, on being convened, heartily sanctioned the proposed expedition, and appropriated ten thousand pounds towards defraying the expense. To raise the money, bills of credit were issued, and paper money was thus first introduced into New York. A large body of troops, raised from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, assembled at Albany under the com- mand of Nicholson, where they were joined by a rein- forcement of eight hundred Iroquois. These were to march to attack Montreal, while the fleet and army which had been sent from England should at the same time assail Quebec. The city was in a state of intense excitement. The people were deeply interested in the enterprise, they saw themselves in fancy already masters of Canada, and eagerly awaited the news of the victory. They were doomed to disappointment.
Nothing but judicious management had been spared to secure the success of the expedition. A fleet of fif- teen ships of war and forty transports, well manned and provided with all the necessary munitions, had been dis- patched from England with instructions to touch at Bos-
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ton for the Massachusetts reinforcements, then to sail at once to attack Quebec. But a month was wasted in Boston harbor in embarking the colonial troops and pro- viding supplies, which, after all, were totally inadequate to the wants of the expedition. After this long delay, the ships set sail for the St. Lawrence ; but hardly had they arrived in the mouth of the river when the fleet became enveloped in a dense fog. The American pilots advised that the ships should lie to with their heads to the south, but the admiral obstinately refused to permit this, and commanded them to keep on their course to the north- ward. It was not long before they found themselves lost among the rocks and islands of the northern shore. The men-of-war escaped from the tortuous channels, but eight transports were driven on the rocky shoals, and went down, burying eight hundred and sixty men beneath the waters. Dismayed at the fruits of his own obstinacy, the admiral hastily put about and returned to Spanish River Bay, where he held a council of war, and, finding that they had but ten weeks' provisions, deter- mined at once to abandon the expedition. On hearing of the misfortunes of the fleet, the land force returned disconsolate to the city, and the vision of the conquest of Canada, on which the colonists had expended so much hope and treasure, vanished in thin air from before their expectant eyes.
The ill success of this expedition cast a deep gloom over the city, and did not dispose the people to second the governor's plans for their future course of action. He had warmly urged the Assembly that had convened in the spring of 1711 to grant a permanent revenue for the
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support of the government, pleading that such were the instructions of the queen, but this they persistently refused to do, and granted appropriations for a single year instead. The point was warmly contested by the governor and council, but neither party could be per- suaded to yield.
The session of 1712 was equally stormy in its charac- ter. The Assembly repaired the fortifications and kept up the military force in compliance with the exigencies of the war, but steadily refused to grant anything more than an annual appropriation for the support of govern- ment. The state of affairs was gloomy enough. The Iroquois, who had hitherto been their fast friends, were growing distrustful ; rumors were afloat of a projected attack by sea, and the recent failure of the Canadian expedition had weakened the faith of the people in their own resources. At this juncture, a new source of trouble arose. Ever since the introduction of slavery by the Dutch West India Company, the traffic in negroes had gone on continually increasing, till in numbers they began to rival the whites. In the midst of the general panic, the attention of the citizens was suddenly arrested by some mysterious movements on the part of the slaves. The danger to which they were hourly exposed from this host of oppressed and hitherto despised people, which had silently been growing up in their midst, now flashed upon them. Rumors circulated of an intended negro insurrection, some real or imaginary evidences of a con- certed plot were discovered, and the whole city was seized with alarm. How much the real danger was mag- mified by the fears of the inhabitants can never be
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known ; certain it is that a riot occurred in which a house was burned and several white men were killed. A general arrest of negroes followed. Nineteen of the unfortunate wretches were tried and executed for their supposed complicity in the plot, and there the matter rested, to be revived again a few years after in a still more terrible aspect.
In the following year, the peace of Utrecht terminated the war, and brought peace and rest to the harassed colonists. By this treaty, France ceded the territory of Hudson Bay, together with Newfoundland and Acadia, to England ; but, as the boundaries of these were not defined they became the source of fruitful dissensions, and were made the pretext for a continual frontier war- fare as long as the Canadas remained in the hands of the French.
Meanwhile, the contest between the governor and the Assembly in respect to a permanent revenue had increased in bitterness. It was the fixed policy of the English government to weaken the power of the people and to strengthen that of the crown, and Hunter, though far more liberal and judicious than most of his predeces- sors, left no means untried to establish this end. What they had failed to accomplish by force, he effected by persuasion, and, having succeeded by the aid of his friend, Lewis Morris, in convening an Assembly favorable to his interests in 1715, he prevailed on them to grant a revenue for three years, and thus to render the officials for that time independent of the people. Previously to this, he had established a Court of Chancery, assuming the office of Chancellor himself, and appointing as regis-
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ters, Frederick Philipse and Rip Van Dam, both mem- bers of his council. The Assembly protested loudly against this innovation, and the affair was referred to the Lords of Trade, who, ever obsequious to the interests of the crown, sustained the action of the governor, and decided that her majesty had an undoubted right to establish as many courts as she thought proper in her own dominions. Gratified at this victory, the governor made several important concessions to the people. He permitted the naturalization of the Dutch inhabitants, imposed taxes on British imports for the benefit of the province, and levied tonnage duties on foreign vessels. Lewis Morris was made chief justice in reward for his services, continuing, meanwhile, to retain his seat in the Assembly. In the following year, the city wit- nessed the arrival of two new-comers, destined to enact an important part in her future history. These were James Alexander, the father of Lord Stirling of Revo- lutionary memory, and William Smith, the father of the future chief-justice and historian of New York ; both eminent lawyers, who soon carved their way to positions of honor and profit in their adopted city.
Despite Hunter's rigid observance of the instructions of his royal mistress, he was popular among his subjects, and seemingly disposed to further their interests when they did not conflict with those of the English govern- ment. But his administration was drawing to a close. His health soon after failed him, and he was ordered by his physicians to seek a warmer climate. Surrendering the government into the hands of Peter Schuyler, the eldest member of the council, the office of lieutenant-
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governor being at that time vacant, he set sail for Europe on the 31st of July, 1719, bearing with him the sincere regards of his subjects. He afterwards sought and obtained the government of Jamaica.
Having thus followed Governor Hunter through his general career, in which the histories of the city and the province are too closely interwoven to be wholly divorced, let us take a retrospective view of municipal affairs during the seventeen years of his administration. He arrived at New York in the closing months of the term of office of Mayor Wilson. In 1710, Jacobus Van Cortlandt, son of the well known Oloffe Stevensen Van Cortlandt, and brother of the ex-mayor Stephanus Van Cortlandt, was appointed to the mayoralty. Mr. Van Cortlandt was a wealthy merchant, and a prominent member of the anti-Leislerian party, having already represented the city in Sloughter's Assembly of 1791; and was allied to several of the leading families of the city. In the year of his election to the Assembly, he married the daughter of the wealthy Frederick Philipse, with whom he received a large estate on the shores of the Hudson in the vicinity of Yonkers. This. estate fell, at his death, into the hands of his son Frederick, who had married the daughter of Augustus Jay, the Huguenot ancestor of the celebrated John Jay of Revolutionary memory .*
About the same time, a new market was established
* Mr. Van Cortlandt died in 1739, leaving four children: Frederick, whom we have already mentioned; Margaret, who married Abraham de Peyster, son of the ex-mayor; Ann, who married John Chambers ; and Mary, who married Peter Jay .- See Appendix, Note L.
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3
NORR -CO.
Augustus Jay, Born at La Rochelle, 1665 ; died at New York, 1751.
From the Portrait belonging to the Jay Family, at Bedford, Westchester County, N.Y.
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at the upper end of Broad street, between the City Hall and Exchange Place, and permission was given to the . residents of the vicinity to erect stalls and sheds to suit their convenience under the direction of the clerk of the market. Country people were also permitted to sell meat at wholesale or retail as they pleased, subject to the same supervision ; and bakers were required to brand their loaves with their initials, under penalty of forfeiture of the bread, and to conform strictly to the legal assize.
The laws relating to indentured apprentices were also amended. The term of apprenticeship was extended from four to seven years, at the expiration of which time, the master was bound to purchase for his appren- tice the freedom of the city.
The winter of 1711 seems to mark the first appear- ance of rowdyism in New York. A gang of men and boys fell into the habit of amusing themselves by taking midnight rambles, and throwing stones on their way at the windows of the houses ; and so annoying did this practice become, that the city authorities were finally obliged to offer a reward for the apprehension of the offenders. The evil was finally checked, and we find no repetition of it for several years to come.
In the spring of the same year, it was resolved that a meeting of the Common Council should be held at the City Hall at 9 A. M. on the first Friday in every month, and the treasurer was ordered to purchase eighteen rush-bottom chairs, and an oval table, for their accom- modation. The municipal ordinances of the preceding year were rehearsed by their titles, and ordered to be
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continued. The market-house at Wall street slip was appointed as a public market-place for slaves-the first that had ever been instituted in the city. A record, dated the 1st of June of the same year, continues the widow of Andreas Donn, deceased, in the office of scaven- ger of Broad street for one year at a salary of eleven pounds sterling-a curious proof of the estimate of the sphere of woman by the city fathers of the olden time.
In 1711, Caleb Heathcote, who had long mingled actively in the politics of the province as one of the leaders of the anti-Leislerian party, and had served as a member of the council of Fletcher in 1692, and again of Cornbury in 1702, was elected mayor. Mr. Heathcote was a merchant, son of the mayor of Chester in England, who, having been supplanted by his brother in the affections of his betrothed, had come to America to forget his disappointment in the excitement of new scenes. He took up his residence in the family of his uncle, George Heathcote, one of the wealthiest mer- chants of the city, who had emigrated from England in 1674, and soon became absorbed in the politics of the province. His brother, meanwhile, won a fortune in the mother-country, and became Sir Gilbert Heathcote, the founder and first president of the Bank of England, and Lord Mayor of London. Caleb learned to forget his perfidious love, and espoused Margaret Smith of Long Island, daughter of the ex-governor of Tangiers, familiarly styled "Tangier Smith" by his neighbors, the better to distinguish him from his scores of name- sakes. He retained the mayoralty for three years, after which he retired to his estate at Mamaroneck and built
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Portrait of Caleb Heathcote.
there the well-known Heathcote Hall, where he died in 1721, leaving two sons and four daughters to inherit his vast estates.
Little worthy of note in respect to municipal affairs occurred during his administration. In 1712, Broadway was levelled between Maiden Lane and the present Park, and speculators began to look forward to the time when these up-town lots would be of value. During the same year, the negro plot which we have already mentioned broke out, but was quickly sup- pressed by the citizens.
The number of the city watch was soon after increased
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from four to six. The paupers were now beginning to be both numerous and troublesome, and it was proposed, instead of maintaining them by weekly pittances as had hitherto been done, to provide a house where they could be cared for at the public expense and be made to contri- bute somewhat towards their livelihood. This scheme, however, was not carried into effect until 1734, when a commodious house was erected on the commons, in the rear of the present City Hall, and well supplied with spin- ning-wheels, shoemakers' tools, and other implements of labor, to make it in some sort a self-sustaining institution. During the same year (1714) an application was made to the colonial government for permission to raise a yearly tax of one hundred and fifty pounds sterling for the city treasury ; but the request was refused. A census taken at this time showed the city to contain five thousand four hundred and eighty inhabitants.
In 1716, John Johnston, a shipping merchant of the city was appointed mayor. Mr. Johnston was an active politician and a member of the governor's council during the last year of his mayoralty. He retained the office for five years. But few changes took place in the city during his administration. In the first year of his rule, the City Hall was graced by the first public clock ever put up in the city. This was a gift from Stephen De Lancey,* who, having been paid fifty pounds for his services as representative in the Assembly, invested the sum in a clock, which he presented to the Corporation for the use of the city.
* See Appendix, Note M.
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In 1717, the Long Island ferry was leased for a term of five years commencing from the 5th of March, 1718, the landing-places remaining the same. A new ferry was also established, the landing-places on the New York shore being at Hanover Square, and at the Great Dock, near Broad street. This dock extended along Pearl street from Whitehall to Coenties Slip. The Broad street sewer flowed through it and emptied into the river.
In 1718, Gilbert Livingston, Thomas Grant, Patrick Mac Knight and John Nicolls purchased a piece of ground in Wall street, near the City Hall, for the site of a church in behalf of the Presbyterians of the city ; and asked permission of the Corporation to hold reli- gious service in the hall until their church should be finished. The request was granted, on condition that they should in no wise interfere with the courts. The structure was erected the following year, and was the first Presbyterian church ever built in New York.
In 1718, the first ropewalk was built along Broadway, between Barclay street and Park Place. These institu- tions afterwards became popular in New York and its vicinity, and formed the basis of a flourishing trade. About the same time, another boon was conferred upon this country by the introduction of the potato into America by a colony of Irish emigrants who had settled at Londonderry, in Maine. The culture was rapidly extended, and it was not long before the valuable esculent became naturalized among the farmers of Manhattan, and ranked among the choicest products of their soil.
During the thirteen months that intervened between
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the departure of Hunter and the arrival of the new governor, the government of the province was adminis- tered by Peter Schuyler with great good sense and judgment. Schuyler was a veteran in public affairs ; he was popular among the Indians, to whom he had ever been a faithful friend, and his influence over them, joined with his counsels to the royal governors, had many times saved the infant settlements from destruc- tion ; and he now showed himself as well fitted to rule as he had been to counsel. He cemented the league anew between the English and the Iroquois, which had well- nigh been broken during the late warfare, and exerted himself to the utmost to promote the peace and pros- perity of the province.
In 1719, Jacobus Van Cortlandt was again appointed mayor. He held the office for but one year-long enough, however, to witness the installation of the new governor. On the 17th of September, 1720, William Burnet, the newly-appointed governor of New York and New Jersey, arrived at New York. Peter Schuyler immediataly resigned the direction of affairs, a new council was chosen, and Governor Burnet assumed the charge of the welfare of the province and city.
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