USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York in the seventeenth century Vol. II > Part 18
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In June, 1675, a band of colonists led by Major John Fen- wick, one of the Quakers to whom Berkeley had transferred his interest in New Jersey, having no grant from the king and holding under the Duke of York by virtue only of his first and now obliterated patent, entered the Delaware and settled opposite New Castle, originally New Amstel, where the deputies of Governor Andros were just then reorganizing the government of the Delaware dependency of New York. In 1676 New Jersey was formally divided, the line run- ning from Little Egg Harbor to the Delaware Water Gap. Thenceforward the portion to which Delaware Bay and its river gave access was called West Jersey, Sir George Carteret's portion, approached through the Bay of New York, East Jersey. As Sir Edmund's commission gave him author- ity over all the territories named in the duke's patent he felt bound to assert it in both the Jerseys. And it was advisable to insist upon the enforcement of his custom-house regula- tions lest the commerce of New York be injured by the devel- opment of ports in neighboring districts where, were they left to themselves, lower duties or none at all would undoubtedly be exacted.
When Fenwick arrived with his party, asserted powers in
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government as well as in the disposition of lands, and, it was said, dispossessed some settlers who considered themselves within the jurisdiction of New Castle, Andros directed that he should submit to the customs regulations of New York and should grant lands by the authority of its government. Fenwick declined to obey any orders except from the king or the duke. Andros then ordered his arrest. He was tried before a special session of the court of assizes at New York and, failing to produce any deed from Berkeley and refusing to give bonds for his good behavior, was kept for a time in custody and then released on parole, giving bonds not to assert any powers in government. In 1678 he asserted such powers, appointing officials and demanding from settlers an oath of fidelity. Summoned again to New York he was again arraigned for conveying lands in the province without the permission of its government. Again the court of assizes pronounced against him and, moreover, denied his right to appeal to the king. In England the proprietors vigorously protested, yet during the rest of his administration Andros seems to have exercised fiscal control over West Jersey.
Meanwhile during the first years of his administration he had made no effort to interfere in East Jersey, possibly be- cause it had no port of its own, and associated on the most friendly terms with Governor Carteret. In 1676 Sir John Werden wrote him, pledging him to secrecy, that the duke was not at all inclined 'to let go any part of his prerogative'; he was trying to 'soften things' in respect to Sir George Car- teret, but those who might succeed Sir George would have to be content with 'less civility' as things now intended as 'favors' might redound to the prejudice of New York. When Andros visited England he was ordered again to be strict in the exaction of customs dues. In 1679 he sent Collector Dyre to London for further instructions; and undoubtedly he got them from Werden although the duke was in Brussels whither the king had forced him to seek safety from the violent storm excited by the supposed Popish Plot.
In this same year Governor Carteret, supported by the
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assembly of East Jersey which hotly resented the imposition of any taxes without its consent, proclaimed free trade for his province - which meant that there would be no burdens on its trade save such as the Navigation Acts imposed. In 1680 Sir George Carteret died. Evidently thinking the time propitious for a sterner assertion of the duke's claims, Andros then challenged Carteret's authority in general, saying that he was acting as governor without legal warrant. Con- ferences in which each exhibited his credentials effected noth- ing. Carteret and his subordinates ignored Sir Edmund's orders to use no authority without his sanction, and Carteret declared that he would resist Sir Edmund's design to build a fortification at Sandy Hook on the soil of East Jersey. Finally Andros directed Captain John Collier, the military commander and deputy-collector of customs in the Delaware dependency, to arrest 'Captain Carteret' and bring him to New York. This was done by a band of soldiers who, as Carteret declared in a written account of the affair, broke open his doors in the 'dead time of night' and so maltreated him that he feared he would 'hardly be a perfect man again.'
Thrown into jail at New York, in May he was brought to trial before a special session of the court of assizes for illegally and riotously exercising jurisdiction within the domains of the Duke of York. Although Andros presided in the court and all its members were his appointees the outcome showed that his people were not afraid to mark and to maintain the difference they perceived between Carteret's case and Fen- wick's. The jury acquitted Carteret and persisted in its verdict although, to quote the prisoner again, Andros sent it out 'twice or thrice,' each time charging it afresh. Carteret was released yet the court obliged him to give bonds not to exercise any authority until the question be settled in Eng- land. Certain contemporaneous accounts say that the gov- ernor of New York then escorted the deposed governor of East Jersey back to Elizabethtown with much state; but a little journal written by Secretary Nicolls says nothing of Carteret. when it describes how Sir Edmund made the trip to Elizabeth-
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town in his sloop with his councillors, 'several of the gents' of New York 'to attend him,' and 'my Lady Andros attended by nine or ten gentlewomen,' among them Nicolls's wife. The assembly now recognized Sir Edmund's authority, presenting its laws for his approval. He appointed civil and military officials for the various parts of East Jersey, and after he had dined at Carteret's table parted from him on amicable terms. In October justices from East Jersey as well as from Pemaquid and Nantucket sat with the other members at the regular session of the New York court of assizes, making their number thirty-one in all.
It has sometimes been said that the conduct of Andros in this affair justifies the portraits that were soon to be painted of him by the chroniclers of New England. But some parts of the story no documents make clear. It is probable, for instance, although not certain that there was in East Jersey a party of malcontents, as strongly opposed to Governor Car- teret as they had been before the Dutch reoccupation, who gave Andros to understand that with their aid he could regain the province for the duke. In any case it seems evident that, except for the brutal treatment of Carteret by the soldiers from the Delaware which Sir Edmund cannot have foreseen, nothing more was done than the duke or his secretary had ordered or suggested. James, indeed, afterwards denied all responsibility, but the word of a Stuart carries small con- viction. Moreover, Carteret himself had been the first to threaten a resort to force, and had appeared with a large body of armed men at a conference where Andros stood un- guarded. And in judging either James himself or his execu- tive it should not be forgotten on the one hand that he had given no definite rights in government to the proprietors of the Jerseys, on the other hand that every one in New York believed that the city would surely be ruined should these proprietors sanction free trade.
In England, however, their prayers and protests and the personal influence of William Penn, himself concerned in their enterprises, quickly prevailed. The duke confirmed
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Governor Carteret's authority, forbidding the government of New York to interfere with him; and for both East and West Jersey he gave new grants conveying without reserve powers in government as well as lands, and thus definitively effecting that alienation of the territories of New Netherland against which Governor Nicolls had so instantly and vigor- ously protested. This the duke did in deference to an opin- ion rendered by Sir William Jones, the leading lawyer of the kingdom, to whom, although politically his enemy, James had consented to submit the whole contention. Not long before, Jones had decided in regard to Jamaica that parlia- ment could impose taxes anywhere within the dominions of the crown but the crown could not grant a commission to levy money from its subjects without their consent. Now he did not positively deny the right of the Duke of York to do just this thing; but he said that he was not satisfied that the duke could 'legally demand' customs or any other duties from 'the inhabitants of those lands,' the case against him being all the stronger because in the patent originally given to Berkeley and Carteret there had been 'no reservation of any profits or so much as of jurisdiction.' It will be noticed that this decision, treating the matter as one never before settled, implied no censure of Sir Edmund's course, and that the giving of new deeds, and the desire of the proprietors to get them, tacitly justified his point of view.
In the meantime the duke had sent to New York a certain John Lewen, or Lewin, with a commission as his special agent and a summons to Governor Andros to return at once to England committing his government to the care of Lieutenant Brockholls. Both the duke and his secretary wrote to Sir Edmund in very friendly terms, and neither laid much stress upon the many and loud complaints that had poured in about the Jerseys. The duke, he wrote, having received proposals for farming his revenue in New York, wished to make in- quiries into that and some other particulars regarding Sir Edmund's government; and he thought it necessary for Sir
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Edmund to come home at once so as to have the satisfaction of refuting charges which, however little deserved, might if unanswered leave 'some blemish' upon his reputation. About the revenue of the province, wrote Werden, reports had been received 'vastly differing' from the governor's; therefore the duke had thought best to send Lewin, as a person 'wholly unconcerned,' if only to justify the governor and the officers under him, which Werden believed would be the outcome of the 'scrutiny.' The actual charges against Sir Edmund came from some private persons, from Captain Billop a military subordinate whom Andros had suspended for misconduct in the Delaware dependency and the duke had refused to re- instate, and from the 'anger of the Quakers,' presumably the proprietors of West Jersey. According to these various com- plainants Sir Edmund had favored 'Dutchmen before English in trade,' had made laws hurtful to the English in general, had admitted Dutch ships 'directly to trade' at New York, had detained ships for private reasons, and - a defiance of the orders given to all governors - had traded himself 'in the names of others.' From other sources it appears that he was accused of showing special favor in the custom-house to Van Cortlandt and Philipse and of being in actual partnership with Philipse. Therefore, wrote Werden,
I verily believe it is best for you to be here, as well that you may vindicate yourself from the charges as once for all to beget among us here a right understanding of these and such other points as relate to your government of which I, for my part, must acknowledge to have but loose and scattered notions.
Lewin's commission directed him to report upon the trade of all parts of the province, 'all parts and branches . . . cer- tain and casual' of the duke's revenue, and the methods and results of taxation, to examine all official books and papers, and to detect possible frauds in the custom-house. These and other similar tasks he was to perform with a minuteness that a single quotation may sufficiently illustrate: he was to discover what quit-rent or tax 'every house at New York,
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Esopus, Albany, Long Island' and elsewhere 'doth or ought to pay by the year.' To facilitate his work he was to be per- mitted to examine officials and private persons under oath.
Andros was at Boston dealing with Indian problems when, in October, 1680, Lewin reached New York. As soon as he got back he ordered that Lewin's commission be published in the city 'by ring of bell' and be communicated to the courts in other parts of the province, and proposed that he himself should set sail at once. Urged by the council first to put the government in such order that it would not suffer by his absence, he summoned all the justices to meet him in the city in November. All who could come at that season upon such short notice then reported to him upon the condition of their districts. To Lieutenant Brockholls, who was called the commander-general when in charge of the province, he issued a special commission as chief of the militia; to Lewin he ren- dered all the aid he could; and on January 11, 1681, he em- barked. Perhaps he expected shortly to return, for he left Lady Andros in New York, giving her a power-of-attorney to administer his private affairs.
REFERENCE NOTES
PRINCIPAL PUBLISHED DOCUMENTS : Col. Docs., III, IX, XII, XIII, XIV (398) ; Cal. of Council Minutes (142) ; Minutes of the Com- mon Council (409) ; Papers Relating to the Restoration of New York to the English (415) ; Report of State Historian, 1897, Appendix L (454) ; Cal. of Hist. MSS., English (390); Cal. S. P. Col., 1675, 1676 and 1677-1680 (485).
GENERAL AUTHORITIES: Brodhead, Hist. of New York, II (405) ; histories of Long Island.
DUKE OF YORK'S PATENTS : see Reference Notes, Chap. XV. COLDEN (quoted) : his Letters on Smith's History (407).
ANDROS'S COMMISSION AND INSTRUCTIONS: in Col. Docs., III, and in Cal. S. P. Col., 1669-1674.
STIRLING : Col. Docs., III.
COMMITTEE OF TRADE AND PLANTATIONS: Col. Docs., III; Andrews, British Committees, Commissions, etc. (77).
CORRESPONDENCE OF ANDROS, THE DUKE OF YORK, AND WERDEN : in Col. Docs., III.
ANDROS : Cal. S. P. Col., 1669-1674; Whitmore, Preface to Andros Tracts (56) ; Notes to O'Callaghan's ed. of Wolley, Two Years' Journal in New York (256) ; Biographical Note to Petition of the Dutch Burghers of New York in Col. Docs., II [with further refer- ences]; CHANNING, Hist. of the United States, II (502).
GOURDON : Cal. S. P. Col., 1669-1674.
WILLIAM DYRE: J. G. Leach, Major William Dyre of New York in American Historical Register, 1894 (51) ; J. O. Austin, Genea- logical Dictionary of Rhode Island, Albany, 1887. - His RHODE ISLAND COMMISSION : J. R. Bartlett, A Naval History of Rhode Island in Historical Magazine, 1870 (213). - COUNCIL OF TRADE (quoted) : Cal. S. P. Col., 1669-1674. - DYRE'S PETITION : ibid .; G. H. Moore, Work and Materials for American History in His- torical Magazine, 1867.
CUSTOMS RATES : in Instructions for Governor Andros in Col. Docs., III. VAN CORTLANDT: Schuyler, Colonial New York (395).
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PHILIPSE: ibid .; Allison, Hist. of Yonkers (542) ; Dankers and Sluyter, Journal of a Voyage to New York (530).
ANDROS'S FIRST PROCLAMATION : in Col. Docs., III, and in Col. Laws of New York, I (272). - SECOND PROCLAMATION: MS., State Library, Albany.
CITY GOVERNMENT : Minutes of the Common Council, I.
CITY ACCOUNTS : Valentine's Manual, 1858 (508).
MANNING'S TRIAL: Papers Relating to the Restoration of New York to the English; Cal. of Council Minutes. - CARR'S LETTER: in Report of State Historian, 1897, Appendix L. - WOLLEY (quoted) : his Two Years' Journal in New York. - BLACKWELL'S ISLAND : Notes to O'Callaghan's ed. of Wolley; Records of New Amster- dam, I (360).
LOVELACE : Col. Docs., III, XIII : Report of State Historian, 1897, Appendix L; Cal. S. P. Col., 1675-1676. - DELAVALL'S PETITION : Cal. S. P. Col., 1675-1676.
DUKE'S FARM : see JANS, ANNETJE, in Reference Notes, Chap. V. ANDROS ON LONG ISLAND: Matthias Nicolls to Governor Winthrop in Winthrop Papers in Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, 3d Series, X.
BURGHERS AND OATH OF ALLEGIANCE : Minutes of the Common Council, I; Cal. of Council Minutes; Records of the Court of Assizes in Report of State Historian, 1897, Appendix L. - PETITIONS TO ANDROS AND TO STATES GENERAL: in Col. Docs., II.
THOMAS CASE: Records of the Court of Assizes in Report of State His- torian, 1897, Appendix L.
NICHOLAUS VAN RENSSELAER : Col. Docs., III; Cal. of Council Min- utes; Ecc. Records, I (167) ; Manual of the Ref. Church (96) ; Papers Relating to the Restoration of New York to the English; Colden, Letters on Smith's History. - His PETITION: in Report of State Historian, 1897, Appendix L. - NIEUWENHUYSEN (quoted) and VAN ZUEREN (quoted) : in Ecc. Records, I. - WIL- LIAM SMITH (quoted) : his Hist. of New York (420).
LEISLER : see Reference Notes, Chap. XXV.
MILBORNE: Col. Docs., III. - SUITS AGAINST GOVERNORS IN ENG- LAND: Douglass, Summary . . . of the First Planting . . . of the British Settlements (78).
COLONIAL LEGISLATURES : Osgood, The Proprietary Province (448).
CONNECTICUT BOUNDARY : Col. Docs., XIV; Baird, Hist. of Rye (541) ; and see Reference Notes, Chap. XVI.
KING PHILIP'S WAR: Col. Docs., III, XIII, XIV; Records of Con- necticut Colony (125) ; Records of Plymouth Colony (442) ; Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, I (116); De Forest, Hist. of the Indians of Connecticut (237) ; T. Church, Hist. of Philip's War . . . of 1675, 1676, Exeter, 1829; Ellis and Morris,
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King Philip's War (258). - RANDOLPH (quoted) : in Col. Docs., III, and in Hutchinson, Original Papers (311). - ACCOUNT OF THE IROQUOIS INDIANS : in Cal. S. P. Col., 1681-1685. - ANDROS TO THE MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNMENT: in Col. Docs., XIV.
SMITH (quoted) : his Hist. of New York.
PEMAQUID: Papers Relating to Pemaquid (435).
FRENCH AND INDIANS : Col. Docs., IX, XIII; Parkman, La Salle (191). ANDROS'S REPORT, 1678 : his Short Account of the General Concerns of New York in Col. Docs., III, and in Doc. Hist., I (397).
CHARGES ABOUT INDIANS : Col. Docs., III; Orders in Council in Mass. Hist. Soc. Collections, 4th Series, II; Cal. S. P. Col., 1677-1680; W. Nelson, Edward Antill ... and His Descendants, Paterson, N.J., 1899. - RANDOLPH (quoted) : in Col. Docs., III.
FRIGATE "GOLDEN FLEECE": Abstracts of Wills, III (546) ; Cal. of Council Minutes. - RANDOLPH (quoted) : in Col. Docs., III. RHOADE AND THE DUTCH IN ACADIA : Papers Relating to Pemaquid; C. W. Tuttle, The Dutch Conquest of Acadie in his Historical Papers, Boston, 1889; J. W. De Peyster, The Dutch at the North Pole and in Maine, New York, 1857; J. Sullivan, Hist. of the Dis- trict of Maine, Boston, 1795. - WEST INDIA COMPANY: Col. Docs., II.
SAUREL TO DUCHESNEAU : in Col. Docs., IX.
WEST AND EAST JERSEY : New Jersey Archives, I (374) ; Col. Docs., III, XII, XIII; Minutes of the Common Council, I; Cal. of Council Minutes; Cal. Hist. MSS., English; Cal. S. P. Col., as above; Dankers and Sluyter, Journal of a Voyage to New York; Whitehead, East Jersey under the Proprietary Governments (375), and The English in East and West Jersey (377) ; Tanner, The Province of New Jersey (379) ; Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, II. - WERDEN (quoted) : in Col. Docs., III, and in Whitehead, East Jersey. - MATTHIAS NICOLLS'S JOURNAL: MSS., State Library, and as Account of Governor Andros' Visit to New Jersey to meet the Assembly in New Jersey Archives, I.
OPINIONS OF SIR WILLIAM JONES : Col. Docs., III; Cal. S. P. Col., 1677-1680; Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, II.
LEWIN'S COMMISSION : in Col. Docs., III, and in Cal. S. P. Col., 1677-1680.
CHAPTER XXI
A GROWING CITY; A CITY IN REVOLT
1674-1683
(GOVERNOR ANDROS; COMMANDER BROCKHOLLS)
Authority and magistracy is grown so low that it can scarce main- tain the public peace and quiet of the government. ... I shall never make a perfect good settlement 'till orders from his Royal High- ness for the more strengthening and continuance or alteration of the government as established, which is much disliked by the people who generally cry out for an Assembly. - Commander Brockholls to Sir John Werden. 1681.
CITY and province had thrived under the care of Governor Andros and the city magistrates. The functions of the general and of the municipal government were by no means clearly differentiated, and the governor seems to have felt himself as responsible as the mayor for the right management of even the smallest local matters while the magistrates con- cerned themselves with commercial questions affecting the province at large. Ordinances of local or of wider bearing were issued by the governor acting alone, or by the magis- trates, or by the governor in council, or by the governor and the magistrates together.
In the autumn of 1675, at the close of the term of the magistrates appointed by Andros on his arrival, he followed the precedent set by Lovelace, choosing their successors in the Dutch manner from a double number of candidates of their own nomination. In 1676 he enlarged the powers of the corporation, directing it to choose a city treasurer whose pay should be five per cent of the sums collected. Nicholas
VOL. II. - P
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De Meyer took office as mayor at this time with three English and three Dutch aldermen. One of the aldermen, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, succeeded him in 1677 -the first mayor who was native born.
The city was still rigorously guarded. The watch was set at eight in the evening, the gates were locked at nine and opened at daylight. Sea-captains and residents were obliged to report the arrival of any stranger, and every stranger had to give an account of himself. In 1675 the justices of the neighboring districts were called in to consult about fortifying the harbor.
The province, said Andros in the report he presented at London in 1678, contained twenty-four towns and villages. A merchant worth £1000 or £1500 was accounted 'a good substantial merchant.' All estates in the province might be valued at £150,000. This seems a rather low estimate if judged by a city tax-list of 1676 which names three hundred persons with property amounting to £99,695, Frederick Philipse still far in the lead with £13,000 and Cornelis Steen- wyck standing next with £4000. The tax, one penny half- penny in the pound, was laid to reduce the debt incurred for city improvements, and was the first direct municipal tax which was not disguised as a forced loan but based on a formal if rough valuation of property. The list of the assessed is alphabetically arranged according to the initials of their Christian names, showing how slowly surnames grew in im- portance. The list for another 'rate of taxation,' imposed for the same purpose in 1677 upon 'houses and vacant lands,' groups the names according to streets, forming a reasonably complete little city directory.
By 1680 the city of New York had more than 3000 inhabit- ants. Boston had between 4000 and 5000. According to Edward Randolph some thirty merchants in Massachusetts possessed estates of £10,000 or more. According to the agents of the colony in England not half a dozen were so wealthy.
London, it may be said in comparison, is thought to have held in 1666 almost half a million people but only four other
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English towns held more than 10,000. Gloucester had about as many inhabitants as Boston, Derby as many as New York. Bristol, which stood next to London in size, was the chief focus of commerce with the colonies.
By the year 1675 New York's opposite neighbor, Breucke- len, had climbed up to the first place among the Five Dutch Towns, having sixty taxpayers. Its first weekly market was established at this time. An annual fair for cattle and produce was held in the autumn for three days at Breuckelen and for three in the city.
In 1676 the aspect of the heart of the city was greatly changed. The governor then directed the towns of the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, twelve in number, to con- tribute 'stockados, posts, and timber work' as their share toward making ' a harbour afore this city,' an improvement which would be to the advantage of the whole province and particularly of all traders. The dock at the mouth of the Heere Gracht or Great Canal was then transformed into two large basins protected by a mole. The bridge where vessels discharged their cargoes was allowed to remain, but not so the Heere Gracht itself, now no longer needed. The property owners along its course were ordered to fill it in and to pave with stones the spaces before their holdings. Nothing was left of it but the sewer which still runs under Broad Street, and the testimony to its existence that may be read in the exceptional width of the street. Heere Graft as well as Heere Gracht it had been called, and for a time Broad Street was called Graft Street.
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