USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York in the seventeenth century Vol. II > Part 21
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In the meantime the grand jury and the court which had been convened for a single definite purpose had concerned themselves with wider matters, much as Kieft's Twelve Men and Stuyvesant's Nine Men had done in earlier years. On the day when the grand jury indicted Dyre it presented the lack of a general assembly to the consideration of the court, in the customary English form as a 'grievance.' The court ordered Young the high sheriff of Yorkshire to draw up a petition to the duke, approved of it, and signed it by the hand of John West. It is a brief document including no such illus- trative details or personal charges as swelled the appeals of
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New Amsterdam to its fatherland. It bases its demands not upon the inalienable rights of man but solely upon the estab- lished rights of Englishmen. And it accentuates the fact that it speaks with the voice of all the superior officials of the province who were all appointees of the duke or of his representative the governor, beginning :
The humble petition of the council of the province, the aldermen of New York, and of the justices assembled at a special court of assize. . ..
These officials urge as the 'only remedy and ease' for heavy burdens long endured the establishment of 'an assembly of the people.' For many years, they explain (identifying themselves with the people at large), they have been in a 'miserable and deplorable' condition, groaning under 'inex- pressible burdens' by reason of the 'arbitrary and absolute power used and exercised over us.' A yearly revenue, they say, is exacted 'against our will,' trade is grievously ham- pered by 'undue and unusual customs' imposed 'without our consent,' and
. the inhabitants wholly shut out and deprived of any share, vote, or interest in the government, to their great discouragement and con- trary to the laws, rights, liberties, and privileges of the subject; so that we are esteemed as nothing and have become a reproach to the neighbors in other his Majesty's colonies who flourish under the fruition and protection of his Majesty's unparalleled form and method of gov- ernment in his realm of England, the undoubted birthright of all his subjects.
Upon these grounds the petitioners humbly beseech the Duke of York that the government of his province may for the future consist of
. . . a governor, council, and assembly, which assembly to be duly elected and chosen by the freeholders of this your Royal Highness's colony as is usual and practicable within the realm of England and other His Majesty's plantations.
Many historians explain that Dyre was arraigned on a charge which was palpably absurd, while Chalmers says that
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he was indicted not for an offence against 'the statute of treasons' but for 'the ancient and exploded crime of encroach- ing power by collecting taxes without authority.' It is needless, however, to discuss the indictment from legal points of view for, like the revolt of which it formed a feature, it was intended simply to accentuate the verbal demands of the people of New York. It was merely the best object-lesson they could devise for the enlightenment of the Duke of York - an ingenious object-lesson, for it professed to defend while it really flouted the authority of proprietor and king.
The petition to the duke and the letter to the secretary of state were sent by the trading-pink Hope which carried Dyre himself. The skipper, Heathcote, was that rare thing among mariners, a Quaker, and was a freeman of the city of New York. He must have been pleased with his errand, for in 1676 he had been condemned to pay a fine of £20 with £61 costs for saying that he had not in New York the privileges of an Englishman.
The customs and all other 'public duties' were 'wholly destroyed,' wrote Brockholls to Andros on July 21. Nothing was left but the rates on Long Island which it was doubtful whether the people would pay. There was no income to main- tain the garrison; to find food for it Brockholls had been obliged to disburse his 'particular estate' which he would not long be able to do. Dyre had been sent home because the question was 'too high for us to meddle in.' Since then the 'distractions' had 'much increased,' and those in authority were discouraged by the 'daring insolence of some scurrilous persons' who were daily bringing charges of treason and say- ing that things were acted contrary to Magna Carta, which had frightened many of the ignorant and produced 'such discord and confusion as the public peace of the government cannot be maintained without great trouble and difficulty.' To Sir John Werden the commander wrote that he could never make 'a perfect good settlement' unless the duke would either strengthen or alter the government, for it was
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much disliked by the people 'who generally cry out for an assembly.' To that effect a petition had been sent to his Royal Highness 'from and in the name of the court of assizes.'
Long before the news of all this reached Andros, evidently still considered the governor of New York, he had signed a com- mission empowering Brockholls as receiver-general to collect the duke's revenues. When Brockholls received it in August he ordered that the excise be collected at Albany. An English- man there refused to pay and demanded that judgment in the matter be pronounced, setting forth his reasons in a paper which, with much more to the same effect, asked whether the New Yorkers were the king's free-born subjects or, if not, when and how they had been 'made otherways,' and at what time the King, Lords, and Commons had invested any one in the province with 'the power to tax which belongs to all three.' The deputy-collector then bringing suit against the protestant, the jury decided :
That they cannot find in the laws that are here that such excises shall be paid as are demanded, but if the orders of Governors must be esteemed as a law, then we find for the plaintiff.
The court pronounced that the power of interpreting this verdict belonged to itself but that it thought best to refer it to the 'high authorities in New York.'
In September one of these authorities, Councillor Philipse, complained to the city magistrates that John Lewin was taking depositions under oath without their authority. Sum- moned before them - William Beekman presiding as deputy- mayor - Lewin confessed the fact; and they then drew up an indignant Declaration saying that although they had been ready and willing to aid the duke's agent he had never asked their assistance but had received 'clandestine and private oaths ... tending to the scandal, blemish, and disparage- ment of several of his Majesty's subjects,' which 'extrajudicial and illegal course' they judged to be the occasion of the 'great disorders and confusion' that had happened in the province since his arrival. At this time Brockholls deposed William
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Dervall from the council for some sort of misbehavior, prob- ably sedition, and was left with Van Cortlandt and Philipse as his only councillors. Not nominally but actually the duke's government had collapsed; it had no money and it had no power. Again Brockholls wrote to Andros:
Nothing is paid in by any ... the merchants taking advantage of Courts who, being scared, refuse to justify and maintain my orders . . here it was never worse. A government wholly overthrown and in the greatest confusion and disorder possible.
On Long Island there were riotous meetings to resist the collection of the excise, and among the Dutchmen and the many Frenchmen who had settled in recent years at Esopus 'undue and unlawful gatherings.' The officials who composed the court of assizes which in the beginning had served as a willing mouthpiece for the spirit of revolt were now alarmed by the widespread insubordination. When the court met in regular session in October it tried to dam the current to which it had given impetus in June, ordering that persons should be proceeded against who presumed to question or to try to in- novate upon the government as settled and established, and announcing that it was resolved to maintain this government and all inferior officers in the exercise of their duties and trusts until further orders should come from his Majesty. It also ordered that as several persons had presumed to exhibit in the courts throughout the province 'causeless and vexatious accu- sations and indictments' against magistrates and others con- cerned in public affairs, no one should thereafter offer any such accusation or indictment unless the grounds thereof had first been examined and pronounced sufficient by two justices of the peace.
What the court meant by vexatious indictments, what Brockholls meant when he wrote about charges of treason and alleged infringements of Magna Carta, may be read in the account of a case first brought before the court at the special session in June. The grand jury then returned a true bill against Francis Rombouts, recently mayor of the city, for
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that with his associates then in office he had, 'as a false traitor' to his Majesty, plotted and practised innovations in govern- ment and the subversion of the known ancient and funda- mental laws of the realm of England, denying trial by jury to John Tuder, a 'born subject' of the king and an attorney living in the city. Upon Rombouts's petition his trial was referred to the next session of the court. Then, in October, he pleaded to the insufficiency of the indictment, saying that it was founded on a judgment given against Tuder in the mayor's court of which he himself was but a single member. The court of assizes acquitted Rombouts, upholding the de- cision of the mayor's court against Tuder 'in restoring the money he got at play of Abraham Smith,' and pronouncing that it was 'not treason or any crime but justice done to the party concerned therein.'
While the government of the Duke of York was thus held back from disintegration not by his representative in the governor's chair but by the lesser officials who were of the people of the province, James himself was in exile in Scotland. The king had sent him there again in 1680, and in 1681 had appointed him lord high commissioner, the representative of the crown in its northern kingdom. He was concerned about the future of his American province. In August his secretary wrote to his treasurer in London that the effect of the recent grants to the proprietors of the Jerseys would be the 'certain loss of the trade and revenue at New York.' At the moment, Werden explained, this loss seemed 'a little hastened' by an oversight on the part of the customs officers or by the 'scruples' of the commander-in-chief. But in any case the 'inconvenience' could not have been long delayed, for even if in future the duke might lawfully impose customs -which in view of Sir William Jones's opinion Werden thought doubtful - it would ruin New York should he exert this 'legal authority.' It would drive out the inhabitants, who would merely have to cross the river to East Jersey where they could 'trade freely without being liable to any such public payments.'
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Writing himself to Brockholls the duke reproved him for not renewing the customs rates, bade him continue them by 'some temporary order' as, he said, he had in mind 'several things' which should tend to the 'good and satisfaction' of the people, and directed him to continue all magistrates in their places even though their terms should expire.
As soon as Sir Edmund Andros reached London he had asked for a full inquiry into the charges against him. William Dyre had also asked at once for an inquiry, being accused not only by the people of New York through Samuel Winder of high treason but also by individuals of specified acts of malad- ministration in the custom-house. The absence of the duke caused delay. In September, 1681, nothing having been heard of Samuel Winder, Dyre was discharged from custody on bail. John Lewin returned from New York toward the end of the year with a report which, he averred, was unsatisfactory because important sources of information, including the city records, had not been opened to him. Some of the charges against Andros he confirmed. Item by item Sir Edmund refuted them in writing. It was at this time that Jacob Milborne successfully brought suit against him for false im- prisonment in New York.
Both Sir Edmund's case and Dyre's were referred at last to the duke's solicitor-general, George Jeffreys who was after- wards the infamous chief-justice, and his attorney-general, John Churchill who became the famous Duke of Marlborough. Their report, prepared after an examination of Lewin, Mat- thias Nicolls, and other witnesses, carefully considered many charges against the accused and acquitted them of evil deed and intent, declaring that they had both behaved 'very well . in their several stations.' Andros was not restored to his government but was made a gentleman of the king's privy chamber. His wife had followed him to England and prob- ably he did not wish to go back to New York.
The chief charge against Dyre, however, had not been dis- posed of, for Winder had not yet appeared to prosecute him
VOL. II. - R
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for high treason. Winder's failure to appear has sometimes been attributed to a feeling among his backers in New York that it would be wise to let the prosecution drop. Certain papers in the Public Record Office make a different reason plain. More than once Dyre petitioned that, as Winder could not be found or heard of, he be released from his bond and wholly cleared from suspicion. Finally the Lords of Trade ordered that an advertisement directing Winder to give bonds to pursue his prosecution at the next term of the court be printed in the Royal Gazette, published at the Royal Exchange, and made public at Southampton where Winder was known to have landed. When this advertisement brought no reply Dyre secured from the deputy-mayor of Southampton a cer- tificate stating that Winder, accused of infamous conduct toward 'a maid of repute' in that place, had promised her for satisfaction five pounds and, not having the money, was ar- rested but escaped and had not since been seen. Then, in September, 1682, Dyre was released from his bond, exonerated, and given permission to take 'legal remedy' against Winder in New York. Soon afterwards he was appointed an inspector of customs offices for the king's American plantations. In 1684 he reported from Boston that he was sending to England great quantities of 'piratical plundered gold,' having seized the privateer La Trompeuse 'of the first magnitude, famous in bloodshed and robberies,' whose captain was reputed a French- man while the crew of 194 men included 'French, Scotch, Dutch, English, Spaniards, Portugals, Negroes, Indians, Mullatoes, Swedes, Irish, Jersey men, and New Englanders.' In 1685 Dyre was appointed the king's collector of customs for Pennsylvania and the Jerseys. He then removed to the Delaware country and at the time of his death in 1688 repre- sented Sussex County on the council of Pennsylvania. His will named Sir Edmund Andros as one of the trustees of his large estate, which embraced as a minor item Dyer's Island, still so called, in Narragansett Bay.
By 1683 Samuel Winder was again in New York. In June of that year Brockholls wrote to the justices of the peace at
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Gravesend that he had heard that Winder intended to appear as attorney in their court but that they were not to suffer him on any account to speak 'unless when judicially constrained in his own case.' His 'false and malicious accusations' against Captain Dyre had put the country to great trouble and charge; he had behaved with 'baseness and scandal' in England, never appearing to maintain his accusations although pledged to do so; and therefore he was justly thought to de- serve the 'ill opinion and disrespect of the whole country' and was unfit to appear in any court within the government, 'his contempt and abuse of the same having been already too great.' In 1684, when a new governor was in office and Staten Isl- and had become Richmond County, Winder was appointed county clerk and register. Then marrying and moving to East Jersey he there became attorney-general and a member of the council by appointment of his father-in-law Governor Thomas Rudyard.
By the beginning of the year 1682 the fortunes of the Duke of York had notably improved. A reaction had set in when the agitation over the alleged Popish Plot died down. The tide of popular favor turned in the king's direction; and in this new channel it flowed strongly after the discovery of the Rye House Plot, a Whig conspiracy to bring about the king's death. The duke returned from Scotland. In February, 1682, his secretary and in March he himself wrote to Brockholls that he had decided to grant his subjects an assembly pro- vided they would securely settle funds for the future support of the government and the garrison and would discharge all the public debts incurred by reason of the 'obstructions' they had put to the collection of the public revenue. Brockholls, said the duke, must urge those of 'best note and estate' to dispose themselves and their friends to 'a cheerful compliance in this point.' He was seeking, he declared, the good of the country before 'any advantage' to himself.
Yet he had his own advantage in mind. He was consider- ing whether he might better yield to his people's demands or
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sell his province. It was reported from London, Wait Win- throp wrote from Boston in the autumn of this year to his brother Fitz-John, that 'Major Thompson' and one or more others had offered the duke £13,000 for New York - mean- ing probably a Colonel Thompson of London who had long been an active friend of the New England colonies. The duke did not sell the province, but he did at this time lose other portions of it which were known to be almost as valuable as the Jerseys and were soon to prove of even greater worth.
In March, 1681, William Penn obtained in lieu of a great debt that the king had owed his father, Admiral Penn, the wide lands which in honor of the admiral Charles named Pennsylvania. The duke relinquished all claim to them. On June 21 Commander Brockholls announced in New York this disposition of a region 'formerly under the protection and gov- ernment of his Royal Highness.' The agent whom Penn at once sent out reached Manhattan while the trial of Captain Dyre was going on. The charter was less favorable to popular rights than earlier proprietary patents, for, although it ex- pressly renounced the right of the crown to lay taxes, as ex- pressly it said that taxes might be laid by the proprietor or by the governor and assembly or by act of parliament. On the other hand the Frame of Government which Penn soon published gave the people exceptional powers, creating a council and an assembly both of which were to be elected bodies. Philadelphia was founded in 1682, fifty-six years after the founding of New Amsterdam.
Understanding that his province could not flourish, could hardly hope to live, without free access to the Atlantic, in 1682 Penn induced the duke to cede to him the Delaware dependency of New York. Embarking then to visit his vast domain he reached New Castle in October and took possession of the country. Governor Andros, building on foundations laid during the Dutch reoccupation, had administered it as three judicial districts. As the Three Lower Counties it was soon annexed to Pennsylvania; and to-day these three coun- ties constitute the State of Delaware. When, a few months
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after his arrival, the Quaker proprietor visited Manhattan to present his credentials to the representative of the king and the duke, Brockholls wrote home that what was left of New York, he feared, could not repay the cost of governing it.
Governor Carteret of East Jersey, which had now passed into the hands of twenty-four proprietors, died at this time. He had found a wife in New York, and his will directed that he should there be buried in General Stuyvesant's vault or, if this proved impossible, in the church in the fort.
In the summer of 1682 a curious case came before the city court, Captain Jarvis Baxter, an officer of the garrison, being arraigned for stabbing 'Mr. James Graham, one of the alder- men of this city, . .. by which he is dangerously wounded.' The two, it appears, had been drinking and conversing amicably together on the previous night at the house of Dirck Van Cliff - a tavern keeper from whom Cliff Street took its name - when Baxter, desiring Graham to walk aside a little and 'seeming to kiss the said Graham,' drew his sword and stabbed him under the collar-bone. In court he declared that he remembered nothing of the matter. He was bound over to appear if Graham should die. Graham did not die, both he and Baxter soon grew conspicuous in public affairs, and within a few years they were sitting together at the gov- ernor's council board.
This incident is not to be taken as a sign of a general law- lessness. In their personal and private affairs the people seem to have gone on pretty much as before. But if they knew of the duke's intention to give them an assembly it did not tempt them to surrender. They paid no customs dues and few taxes of any kind. Nor in other directions was there any rest for Commander Brockholls. The Iroquois were trouble- some again, so harassing the Chesapeake country that Mary- land was forced again to send agents to Albany. The Con- necticut government protested when Frederick Philipse bought lands along the Hudson near the site of Tarrytown, saying that they were Connecticut lands as the persons who
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had run the line agreed upon with Governor Nicolls had found that it passed to the south of the point in question. Brock- holls refused to consider the complaint; it was ungrateful, he said, thus to try to cheat his Royal Highness whose accept- ance of the twenty-mile line really accepted by Nicolls was so gracious an act. During the summer of 1683 he was obliged to send out an armed sloop to check 'several pirates and sea-rovers,' Englishmen from the more southerly coasts who were raiding the shores of Long Island. Later, he sharply reproved the commissioners at Albany for writing him as though they designed simply to affront himself and the councillors; and to Pemaquid he wrote in great anxiety about the reports he had received of 'debaucheries' and 'looseness and extravagancy' in the management of its affairs.
When the court of assizes met in October, 1682, say its minutes, the letter written by the Duke of York in March was read,
. . . wherein was the promise of an assembly and such privileges and liberties as other plantations enjoy; only, a fund is expected to be provided for the necessary support of government, maintenance of the garrison, and payment of arrears, for which gracious promises the court return their hearty thanks to his Royal Highness.
Several persons previously bound over to good behavior, having lived peaceably meanwhile, were now 'acquitted by proclamation.' Several negroes charged with breaking jail and stealing a boat from the harbor were found guilty by a jury and sentenced to be tied to a cart-tail and to receive ten lashes on the bare back 'at each corner round the city and to be branded on the forehead with a letter R.' And during this session of the court that was a quasi legislature was issued the first New York ordinance in regard to the disciplining of slaves. As they met, it said, in great numbers on the Lord's Day and at other unseasonable times and engaged in rude and unlawful sports and pastimes, to the dishonor of God and the disturbance of the peace of his Majesty's subjects 'many of whom were drawn aside and misled to be spectators of their
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evil practices,' it was ordered for all parts of the province that no negro or Indian slave should leave his master's house or farm at the indicated unseasonable times without the master's written license explicitly dated. Any slave found at large without such a 'ticket' should be arrested and brought before a magistrate or justice who was to order him to be severely whipped and to direct the master to pay such fees and charges as were proper. Persons entertaining slaves or trafficking with them without the knowledge of the master were to be fined five pounds.
As the time for the inauguration of new city magistrates was now at hand the commander in council, in accordance with the duke's general order, continued in office the actual incum- bents. William Beekman, the deputy-mayor, thus kept his place as acting mayor.
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