USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York in the seventeenth century Vol. II > Part 39
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At daybreak a wounded fugitive on a half-dead horse brought the news to Albany through terrible drifts of snow. The disaster, wrote Schuyler to Governor Bradstreet of Massachu- setts, was due to the 'factions and divisions' among the people which made them so disobedient to their officers that they would not stand guard or even see that the gates of the stockaded village were kept shut. So 'bigotted to Leisler' were the people, said Livingston in a letter to Andros, that they would obey no one else; and after the massacre his 'seditious' letters which 'perverted that poor people' with notions of free trade and a general liberty to bolt flour were found 'all bloody' in the streets. On the other hand, when Leisler heard of the calamity he attributed it to the support given to his enemies at Schenectady by the Albany convention and 'Colonel Bayard's faction.' He had sent up a commission, he wrote to the governors of Maryland and Barbadoes, for an officer and twenty-five men to join with the
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Mohawks in watching the trails from the north, but the authorities forbade. Whoever may have been most to blame, the town was certainly left unguarded. Schuyler declared that three gates were found open. An official French report described how the raiders, finding one gate open, fell upon the houses before any one suspected their presence. Then the houses were set on fire to occupy the savages who would else have taken to drinking.
The weather soon growing warmer the whole country be- came an almost impassable swamp. Yet fifty young men from Albany with a hundred and fifty Mohawks managed to follow the retreating marauders to the borders of Canada, capturing some Frenchmen but rescuing no captives. Every- one believed that a large French army was close at hand in- tending to fall upon Albany. Never was a place in worse estate, wrote Schuyler to Bradstreet: 'No governor, nor command, no money to forward any expedition, and scarce men enough to maintain the city '; much reason, moreover, to fear that the Iroquois, hitherto 'the bulwark' of New York, might now make peace with its enemies and help to destroy it. Without the aid of New England and of the fifty men who had been sent from Manhattan, Albany could not maintain itself should an enemy come. Yet, he added not quite reasonably, it was the 'distractions and revolutions' on Manhattan that had brought about this ' miserable con- dition.' More exactly, the condition had not been caused but had been aggravated by the fact that New York and Albany could not agree. And now Ulster County reported that the men whom Albany hoped it would send could not be raised because of the divisions among the people, some holding for the old magistrates, some for the 'new leaders.'
Nevertheless the people of Albany were not disheartened. Daily, wrote their mayor, they were praying for the advent of the governor whom they believed to be already on the ocean; meanwhile Massachusetts must make ready to invade Canada in the spring. All the colonies must thus prepare themselves, said the convention, resolving to write to Virginia and Mary-
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land as well as to New England and to ' the civil and military officers' at New York. Again the Mohawks promised to help against Onontio. They would see, they said, that the ' upper nations' were ready to attack him; and as for the English :
Let them be ready also with ships and great guns by water and we will plague him by land. We are resolved not to go out a-hunting but to mind the war, for the sooner the French be fallen upon the better, before they get men and provisions from France.
In a second petition prepared by Colonel Bayard in his prison, a very long one addressed like the first to Lieutenant- Governor Leisler and his council, he said that it cut him to the heart to be accused of bringing about such a thing as the Schenectady massacre by trying to excite sedition. Since leaving Albany he had sent nothing thither but harmless private letters; and, as their Honors desired, he would now give a truthful account of his conduct there during the past summer, begging their pardon should they find that he had in any way done amiss. In this account occurs the passage that has already been quoted about the arrival of John Riggs with the king's packets. Bayard had then, his petition goes on to explain, been so 'unhappy ' as to hold the opinion that the royal instructions were meant not for Leisler but for the councillors and justices, wherefore in his letters to John West he had 'most unadvisedly and in his foolish passion' stated this view 'in such severe and unbecoming expressions to the disgrading of your Honors' authority.' But never had he thought of overturning Leisler's government by force; and so he hoped that his 'unbecoming and disgrading expressions,' and also the 'particular disgusts' which had passed between himself and Leisler, might be forgotten or remembered only as 'events of his foolish passion,' and that their Honors' ‘distressed sick prisoner ' might be admitted to bail or other- wise preserved from ' perishing in this dismal confinement.'
Less than ever was Leisler in the mood to release the most energetic of his antagonists, one in whose apologies and prot-
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estations he can have put no shadow of faith. Believing that the ruin of Schenectady was due in part to 'too great a correspondency' kept between the French and the dis- affected in New York, he issued warrants for the arrest of all reputed papists, of all who persisted in retaining commissions given by Andros or Dongan, and of certain specified persons ; and a few days later he ordered that Colonel Dongan, Brock- holls, Plowman, Van Cortlandt, and 'all their accomplices' should be apprehended, with the use of force if needful. All these prominent persons managed to escape; some of the smaller fry were enmeshed.
Colonel Dongan, who appears to have done nothing what- ever to warrant Leisler's suspicions, went to East Jersey, made his way to Boston, and there took ship for England, seemingly at some time during the year 1691. In August of this year his uncle Tyrconnel died while still desperately try- ing to hold Ireland for King James. Naturally the nephew did not fare as well at the hands of King William as did Governor Andros. No notice seems to have been taken of his offers to serve the new sovereigns - in the colonies, of course, for as a Catholic he was barred from office at home. His brother the Earl of Limerick, who had followed James into exile and thereby lost his estates, died at St. Germain in 1698. The colonel succeeding to the title, William then received him gra- ciously. But small results followed his prolonged efforts to recover the confiscated estates in Ireland and some £17,000 which he had advanced for the public service in New York. The government of New York appears to have given him nothing although once at least it considered his accounts. Parliament recognized his claim but granted him only £2500 in tallies and, in 1702, permission to buy back if he could his Irish acres from their actual owners. Meanwhile William had ordered that, as the Earl of Limerick could not without aid support himself in England but was willing to live on an estate he owned in America, he should be granted a small prize-ship to take him there and to remain his property. This
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scheme fell through. In 1704 he petitioned Queen Anne say- ing that if a third of what was due him were paid he would release the rest. Ten years later he petitioned the commis- sioners of the treasury, again in vain although he declared that after paying his brother's debts and his own he had very little left. According to the witness of the stone set above his grave in St. Pancras' churchyard in London, he died in 1715 aged eighty-one. The stone is no longer to be identified, for the churchyard is now a public park where many of the old monuments have been gathered into cairn-like piles which growths of ivy half conceal.
While thus impoverished by his faithful service as the champion of English rights in America, and forgotten by the province that he had guarded and the crown whose interests he had excellently served, Dongan can have profited very little by his many acquisitions of land in New York. Most of his Wall Street property he had sold in 1689 to Nicholas Bayard and Abraham De Peyster. In 1696 he conveyed to William Penn for £100 great tracts in the Susquehanna country which, says the deed, he had 'purchased of or had given him by' the Indians. The rest of his American pos- sessions he bestowed shortly before his death upon three nephews, then in New York, by a conveyance which explained that, having no other heirs, he hoped thus to 'preserve, up- hold, and advance the name and family of Dongan.' One of the nephews sold the Hempstead farm to pay the governor's debts. The Staten Island estate, the Manor of Castleton, passed to the children of Walter Dongan, the other brothers leaving no heirs. One of Walter's descendants was killed at the head of a troop of Tory volunteers when General Sullivan attacked Staten Island in 1777. Another represented Rich- mond County in the assembly from 1786 to 1789. If the 'name and family of Dongan' still survive in New York it is but obscurely.
As promptly as Leisler tried to get his chief enemies within four walls he gave orders for the relief of Albany. Major
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Beekman of King's County and Major Thomas Lawrence of Queen's were each to raise fifty men, and Major Cuyler was to draft one man in ten from the city militia under his com- mand. Then the lieutenant-governor in council ordered the election of representatives to an assembly which should de- bate and conclude 'all such matter and things' as might be necessary 'for the supply of this government.' The writs were issued on February 20 under Leisler's hand and seal and in the name of King William. The need to summon an as- sembly was obvious: no funds could otherwise be obtained. Their right to summon it the Leislerians based, as they had based other powers that they assumed, upon their belief that the Charter of Liberties of 1683 was still, or was again, in force.
It was now, Leisler felt, more than ever necessary to get control at Albany. Late in February he sent Milborne and two others to lay before the Connecticut authorities a paper asking for their help in appointing agents to treat with the Five Nations and for advice upon various matters. By the hand of Secretary Allyn they replied that they could not interfere in the divisions in New York further than to urge ' Captain Leisler and the government at New York in present power' to come to a peaceful understanding with the ‘Albani- ans' who were so well acquainted with the Five Nations; the number of troops required and the concurrence of Massachu- setts were questions for New York itself to settle; Connecti- cut must recall the soldiers it had sent to Manhattan but would come to its defence should a foreign force appear. In a postscript it was added oracularly that, the writers having seen his Majesty's letters in the hands of Leisler's envoys, they thought that the Albanians might 'find sufficient reason to comply with you in the same when they shall receive due information thereof.'
The hot reply returned to this cool and non-committal letter was signed by Milborne as clerk of the council; its good Eng- lish as well as its tenor and its temper show that it was com- posed by him; but when filed away in the archives of Con- necticut it was indorsed as Leisler's 'scolding letter.' With
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'coldness, contempt, and disdain,' it said, the overtures and requests of New York had been met; the government of Con- necticut had increased the trouble at Albany by sending troops to be put under command of the 'rebels named a con- vention'; the chief responsibility for this lay upon John Allyn who in 1688 had 'traitorously' joined with Andros and his 'wicked council' in levying money under an arbitrary, illegal commission from King James; therefore the Connecticut authorities must be esteemed aiders and abettors of rebellion and their forces at Albany enemies to the king's peace, and John Allyn must be secured 'in order to be proceeded against for his traitorous offence.'
This 'angry letter stuffed with unjust collumniating charges' brought forth an answer mild and dignified in tone if marked by an orthographic wildness in which few Dutch-American pens could rival John Allyn's. It said that the charges against Allyn, which involved of course all who had sat on Sir Edmund's council, were too foolish to be noticed; no animosities were so important at this critical time as that men should be kept in office at Albany who could maintain good correspondence with the Five Nations; Connecticut had not advised Albany to contend against the 'present power at New York' but to submit to it; and it was great ingratitude for that power to heap unjust charges upon those who had spent money and blood in defence of the king's subjects and had always shown themselves loving neighbors.
Mayor Schuyler was beyond a doubt as loyal from the first to William and Mary as was Leisler himself. There was more question of the whole-heartedness of Robert Livingston who had been so notably favored with places of profit by Andros and Dongan. According to a number of affidavits Livingston had spoken of the expedition of the Prince of Orange as an enterprise of rebels or of robbers and predicted that he would come to the same end as Monmouth. Speci- fying this offence in the warrant, on March 1 Leisler ordered Livingston's arrest as a 'rebel' who had caused great dis-
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order at Albany and in the whole province, and sent officers to apprehend him to Hartford and to Boston whither Living- ston had carried the prayer of the Albany convention that New England would help it with money and provisions and would 'rig out vessels toward Quebec.' Governor Treat acknowledged the validity of the order, but Livingston was not apprehended nor did he cease to urge that such directions might be sent from New England as would put a stop to Leisler's 'cruelty and oppression' and to the 'dangerous practises' of Milborne who was said to be on his way to over- throw the government at Albany.
Leisler also was asking help of Massachusetts, explaining that Connecticut had refused to consult with him, and of Maryland and Virginia. And, while all others delayed, he was sending help to Albany - to be bought, however, at the price of submission to his government. Early in March Mil- borne, De Bruyn, and Johannes Provoost who had recently been added to the council, embarked with 160 men, a quan- tity of linen, serge, and stockings for the Schenectady sufferers, and presents for the Five Nations. Their commission em- powered them to take over Fort Orange from 'a certain number of people terming themselves the convention,' to command all the forces at the north, and to 'direct, order, and control' the public affairs of Albany and Ulster Counties. Arriving at Albany on the 17th they took over the fort upon written conditions which, it was said, they soon violated. That is, they dismissed such of King James's regulars as still formed part of the garrison, telling them that they must claim their back pay from the Albany authorities who had promised it. Van Cortlandt wrote to Andros that Milborne turned out all the magistrates, imprisoned some, and so exasperated the people that he had to flee for his life to Esopus. This was not true. The convention, indeed, expired; but all magistrates were by proclamation confirmed in their offices; and upon pain of punishment all persons were forbidden to 'asperse' or 'reproach' in any way their former antagonists. The commissioners ordered a strict collection of the excise
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and forbade all sales of rum as 'very pernicious' to the soldiers and so to the public peace. Guards were sent to the outlying settlements and a watch-party to the foot of Lake Champlain. Then Milborne executed his orders in Ulster County and, after going for reinforcements to New York where he remained only one day, returned to his post at Albany.
Albany had held out against Leisler, Livingston said, until deserted by all New England: Connecticut and Massachusetts had both advised submission, calling Leisler lieutenant-gov- ernor, and Connecticut had recalled Captain Bull and his men. The commissioners had continued the old magistrates in office 'out of mere fear and terror of the Indians,' and managed most affairs without consulting them except such 'as they knew not how to proceed on without their advice.' Nevertheless, he wrote to Andros, the two factions agreed 'well enough . . . concerning the carrying on of the war.'
The Connecticut authorities had, in truth, recalled their troops from Albany. Thus they got their revenge for Leisler's insulting letter. They called Bull home, they explained, because, as Leisler had charged them with abetting 'those rebels of the convention,' they wished to prevent anything that might 'look like encouragement to them.' So, they hoped, they would satisfy Captain Leisler. As Leisler had now got control at Albany he was as much dissatisfied as Livingston.
On and near Manhattan his authority must still have been acceptable to the bulk of the people, for two hundred men had volunteered or consented to be drafted for the hardships and dangers of frontier service at a moment when the pay that was promised them, 25 shillings a month and provisions, can have seemed by no means sure. A Boston letter written at this time to England says that some one who had recently visited Leisler pronounced him a 'madman.' Another says that some or most 'sober persons' had a good opinion of his proceedings but that the 'Tory party' gave him an exceed- ingly bad character. This is a very early instance of the use in America of 'Tory' to denote a conservative or anti-popular party.
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The French prisoners brought in by the Mohawks asserted that a great expedition was being prepared at Montreal to descend upon New York in the spring. As Denonville had felt that the only way to subdue the Five Nations was to con- quer New York, so New York now felt that the only way to keep their friendship and to save itself was to conquer Canada. It was the Mohawks who first urged for this purpose a union of the colonies, it was the Albany authorities who first sup- ported the suggestion, Livingston who first set it forth in ur- gent appeals admirably conceived and written, and Leisler who pushed the plan to consummation.
Massachusetts listened coldly to Livingston's pleadings, partly because Leisler's agents had tried to discredit him, partly because it had its own borders to guard and, moreover, was planning a naval expedition against Acadia, a neighbor that was weak enough to be hopefully attacked and was trouble- some and dangerous as a source of supply for hostile Indians and a shelter for French privateers. Yet Livingston prevailed in so far that Massachusetts decided that an intercolonial convention ought to be held to discuss military measures, named Rhode Island as the place of meeting, and asked Leisler to invite the southern colonies. The capital of New York, Leisler insisted, was the proper meeting-place. Massachusetts consenting to the change, he sent letters of invitation to all the colonies north of Carolina. Pennsylvania and the Jer- seys paid no heed; Virginia declared that it would do noth- ing until his Majesty's pleasure was known; Maryland an- swered with cordial promises. It would be well, Livingston advised Massachusetts, to invite persons from Albany to en- lighten the delegates, and it would be well to 'check' Leisler lest he 'ruin' all. In reality, but for Leisler, but for his dili- gence in correspondence, the eagerness and insistence of his pleas, there would have been no meeting at all.
At the end of March he wrote briefly to the king saying that he had fully explained the condition of the province to Bishop Burnet. To Burnet he wrote of the Schenectady disaster and the preparations for war, and complained of
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Connecticut for recalling its men from Albany, of East Jersey for welcoming the disaffected from New York. The city, he said, was able to repel any attack from a small French squadron which was expected to visit it in the spring. At the north a descent of 2500 Frenchmen and many allied Indians was daily looked for, and if the other colonies did not 'bestir them- selves' there was danger that 'all the king's footing in that part of America' would be lost. In his own colony the people were very slack in 'bringing up money' and in returning members for an assembly through which it might be ob- tained, yet he hoped to get enough. Under stress of need and in the king's name he had taken some guns from a Dutch ship; he hoped that the owners would be reimbursed and that the king would forthwith send aid, especially in the shape of ammunition. 'That which gives life to us chiefly,' he added, 'is the assistance we expect from his Majesty.' The ship that carried these letters, sailing from Boston, was captured by a French privateer.
The courts of judicature, Leisler also informed Burnet, were for the time suspended in New York because of the in- sistence of military affairs. Suspended likewise was the ac- tivity of the common council. Once in November, once in December, and twice in January Mayor Delanoy and his col- leagues met to deal with local affairs. The lack of later min- utes, in a book also used by their successors, shows that they never met again. One of their last ordinances directed that, as several persons in the city were in want and there were no means provided for their relief, the constable in each ward should make 'a collection of a free gift from all the inhabit- ants . by which the said poor may be maintained.' Another ordinance directed the publication of the acts of assembly of Dongan's time concerning the keeping of the Sabbath and the treatment of servants and slaves. The very last appointed five 'brant masters' or fire-wardens.
Now that Milborne was at Albany, Leisler's correspondence with Hartford resumed a friendlier tone. His scribe was probably young Abraham Gouverneur who was deputy-
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secretary of the province under Milborne. At the beginning of April Leisler asked for and obtained permission to beat up for volunteers in Connecticut. On the 19th he heartily thanked Governor Treat for the news that his colony meant again to send troops to Albany, promised to supply them with ammunition, and enumerated the large supplies of food already sent up from Manhattan. A village only twelve miles from Albany had been raided and destroyed. This, Leisler said, would encourage the enemy unless Canada were vigorously attacked, as New York was fully determined it should be.
The first step was to get money. Again Leisler issued the writs for an assembly, and then all the counties except Suffolk held elections. Suffolk, as the justices of Easthampton explained, had asked the king to join it to Connecticut; therefore Leisler was not to impute their refusal to concur with him to 'any disaffection' to his person, 'much less' to his authority ; they prayed God for his good success in the place he held. The sheriff of Ulster informed Milborne that he had not obeyed the first writs because, although he knew the election ought to be 'free for all classes,' he had been loath to admit those who had refused to take the oath to Leisler's government ' lest so much leaven might taint that which is sweet.'
There is no way even to guess how large a proportion of the freemen went to the polls in any county; and there is no full list of the members of the only assembly unauthorized by a ducal or royal proprietor that met in New York before the time of the Revolution. Albany, it is known, returned Jan Jansen Bleeker, one of the militia captains who had always inclined to Leisler; Schenectady returned Ryer Schermer- horn; Westchester, Thomas Browne; Queen's, Nathaniel Piersoll, or Pearsoll; and New York three of its aldermen - Walters, Spratt, and Cornelius Pluvier - with William Beek- man, the old Dutchman who must by this time have acquired prestige as one of the few persons still living who could re- member the infant days of New Amsterdam.
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Piersoll declined to serve; after events explain that he was a Quaker who would not make oath. Beekman begged to be excused because of his age and infirmities. The other dele- gates, meeting on April 24 at Walters' house, chose as speaker John Spratt. No official record of what they did remains - no record at all except brief references in Leisler's letters and a paragraph in one of Van Cortlandt's. Writing to Andros, Van Cortlandt related that after the members had sat for a few days
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