USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. I > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59
Vice-Director Van Dincklagen had had no voice in the matter, and was greatly offended. The "Nine Men " declared that "the governor had ceded away territory enough to found fifty colonies each four miles square." There was a grand union of sentiment that it was an insult to the Dutch for Englishmen to be appointed to fix the English bounda- ries. Stuyvesant remained in Hartford some days after his business was accomplished, hoping to make arrangements whereby the Indians should be placed upon a permanent footing of good behavior. He was treated by his well-bred neighbors with a distinguished attention, at which he was much pleased. His return voyage was exceedingly rough, and his wel- come home by an angry community anything but cordial. The freedom of speech of the "Nine Men" was so exasperating, that he threatened the body with dissolution. At the next election, he absolutely refused to select from the nominations to fill vacancies in their board. Again they appealed to the States-General for the reformation of this " grievous and unsuitable government "; and Melyn, at the Hague, used his influence to the utmost against the New Netherland governor.
G
SIGI
O
Seal of New Netherlands, 1623.
150
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
CHAPTER X
1650 - 1654.
THE SPIRIT OF POPULAR FREEDOM.
THE CONFISCATED VESSEL. - GOVERNOR STUYVESANT'S BODY-GUARD. - RENSSELAERSWICK. - THE SCHUYLER FAMILY. - THE NAVIGATION ACT. - REV. SAMUEL DRISIUS. - AFRICAN SLAVERY. - THE BIRTH OF THE CITY. - THE FIRST CITY FATHERS. - ALLARD ANTHONY. - WILLIAM BEEKMAN. - THE PRAYER OF THE CITY FATHERS. - MILITARY PREPARATIONS. - VAN DER DONCK. - HON. NICASIUS DE SILLE. - THE DIET OF NEW AMSTERDAM. - OLIVER CROMWELL. - PEACE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND.
O UR great Muscovy duke keeps on as of old; something like the wolf, the longer he lives the worse he bites." Thus wrote Van Dincklagen to Van der Donck. The West India Company, unwilling to relinquish any of its power, was arrayed like a bulwark of iron against the spirit of popular freedom which the colonists were urging 1650. and which was countenanced by the States-General. It was a struggle for the elective franchise, and its long subsequent effects were of such a character that, while few portions of our history are more obscure, none are more important or instructive.
In this extraordinary controversy, the governor, the West India Com- pany, and the English residents of New Netherland were on one side, and the States-General and the Dutch colonists on the other. "The power to elect a governor among ourselves would be our ruin," was the expression of the English residents, in a Memorial sent to the company. " I shall do as I please," was Stuyvesant's reply more than once, when his attention was called to some order or suggestion from the States- General which had not been indorsed by the Amsterdam Chamber. His mind was vigorous and acute, and he never lacked the courage to carry out to the very letter the peculiar policy of his immediate employers.
Van Dincklagen was a constant thorn in the governor's side. He was a quick-witted, sagacious politician, - a man who was considered eligi- ble to the highest office, and who had accepted a subordinate position with
151
THE CONFISCATED VESSEL.
a bad grace. He stood ready to seize upon every mistake of executive judgment, and, with caustic satire, to hold it up to the popular view in its most unfavorable light. He was an advocate of no mean pretensions ; and when Melyn arrived in the New Netherland's Fortune, it was he who investigated the cause of the unusually long voyage. He discov- ered that boisterous seas had delayed the vessel, that "water had fallen short," and the "last biscuit been divided among the passengers," and that the captain had been obliged to put into Rhode Island to refit and replenish his stores. Stuyvesant took his seat upon the bench beside Van Dincklagen, and pronounced a remarkable decision. It was one of the regulations of the West India Company that vessels should not " break bulk " between Holland and New Amsterdam; and he took the ground that the delay in this case was " needless and unjustifiable," and proceeded to seize the ship and cargo, supposing them to belong to Melyn. The ship was sold to Thomas Willett, who sent it on a voyage to Vir- ginia and Holland. At the latter place it was replevied by Baron Van der Capellen, and after a protracted litigation the company was obliged to pay heavy damages.
Melyn again took possession of his lands on Staten Island, which, in order to promote his greater security, Van Dincklagen had formerly purchased of the Raritans in the name of Baron Van der Capellen ; but he was presently summoned to New Amsterdam by the governor to answer to various charges. Dreading the encounter, he failed 1651. to obey ; and, in consequence of this, his house and lot in the city were confiscated and sold by the government. Expecting that an effort would be made to arrest him at his country-house, he established and fortified a manorial court on one of the petty eminences overlooking what is now the village of Clifton. He was not disturbed, but he was soon after accused of trying to influence the Indians against Stuyvesant, and the council were induced to pass a resolution that the governor should henceforth be constantly attended by a body-guard of four halberdiers.
Van Dincklagen ridiculed this action on the part of his colleagues. He denied the absurd stories in regard to Melyn. He even volunteered to bring the chiefs of the Raritan and other tribes to the fort, to prove the falsity of the charge that " one hundred and seventeen savages had been supplied with arms and ammunition !"
About the same time, Van Dincklagen, with the assistance of Van Dyck, prepared and sent an elaborate protest to the States-General, in which he claimed to picture the popular griefs and the general dissatisfaction of the colonists with the administration. When it Feb. 28. came to the knowledge of Stuyvesant, he was thoroughly enraged.
152
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
Without a moment's hesitation, he ordered Van Dincklagen to be expelled from the council board. The Vice-Director flatly refused to leave, on the ground that his commission was from the same supreme authority as that of the governor himself. However that might be as a question of law, Stuyvesant waited only until a file of soldiers could be summoned, before ordering Van Dincklagen to be dragged from the room and thrown into prison. The affair created an intense sensation. Van Dincklagen's wife and daughter went to the prison to see him, and were denied admittance. Stuyvesant was denounced by many as jealous and exacting, and by others warmly applauded for his prompt action. He was sustained by the majority of the council. In the course of a few days, Van Dinck- lagen was released from confinement, but was allowed no further par- ticipation in the government. He retired to Melyn's manor-house on Staten Island, where he met with cordial sympathy. Van Dyck, because of the part he had taken in the complaint, was removed from office ; and the lawyer, Schelluyne, who attested the protest, was forbidden to practice his profession. Loockermans and Heermans, who lent some assistance, were prosecuted and heavily fined.
While these and similar events were agitating Manhattan, Van Tien- hoven, at Amsterdam, was amusing himself by playing the gallant lover to the pretty young daughter of a respectable fur-merchant. Pretending to be a single man, he won her affections under promise of marriage, and finally persuaded her to elope with him to America. Having sub- mitted an able defense of Stuyvesant and his officers to the States- General, he was about to embark, when a message sent in hot haste to the Amsterdam Chamber ordered him to report immediately at the Hague for examination by their High Mightinesses. The summons re- quired also the presence of his father-in-law, Jan Jansen Dam. The pro- test of Van Dincklagen had been received, and Van der Donck had replied to Van Tienhoven's defense in a spirited and effective manner. Greatly annoyed at the delay, Van Tienhoven proceeded to the Hague. He was arrested, the very evening of his arrival, on the charge of adultery. In the course of two or three days he made his escape, and reached the vessel bound for New Amsterdam in time to secure his passage. The capture of the cargo of a Portuguese merchant-vessel on the voyage is supposed to have subsequently secured his acquittal ; but he was hope- lessly disgraced. His return to New Amsterdam was a misfortune to the community. He was likened to "an evil spirit scattering torpedoes."
Rensselaerswick was so far from the capital that it was not affected by these disturbances. It continued to grow, while the progress of New Amsterdam was seriously retarded. Van Slechtenhorst had stood
153
RENSSELAERSWICK.
out boldly against the governor, and extended the limits of the patroon's colony, until he had at last been arrested and imprisoned for four months in the fort at New Amsterdam. He made his escape by secreting him- self on a sloop bound for Albany, the skipper of which he had fully indemnified against possible harm. Stuyvesant arrested the skipper on his return, and fined him two hundred and fifty guilders and costs. Van Slechtenhorst estimated the whole expense of his luckless trip down the Hudson at about one thousand guilders. He soon after issued an order that all the householders and freemen of his colony should take the oath of allegiance to the patroon and his representatives. The occasion of this was the fear that Stuyvesant would execute his threatened pur- pose of extending the jurisdiction of Fort Orange, and so sever- Nov. 28. ing from the colony the populous little village of Beverwyck,
which lay close to and around the citadel, and which was every day becoming more valuable. Among those who bound themselves " to maintain and support offensively and defensively " the interests of Rensselaerswick, was John Baptist Van Rensselaer, a younger half- brother of the patroon, who had just been appointed to the magis- tracy of the colony.1 Philip Pietersen Schuyler, the ancestor of the American family of Schuylers, had been in Rensselaerswick a little more than a year, and had also taken the oath of allegiance to the patroon. He had recently married Margritta, one of the daughters of the cool and fearless Van Slechtenhorst. He was a young man of ability, and was already actively assisting in the management of public affairs. To prepare the reader for an acquaintance with the different members of his family as they shall be introduced from time to FiLyP PIETERSEN SCHVYLER COMMISSARIS 1656. time in future chapters, we digress a moment to speak of his ten children.2 Guysbert was the eldest son, - a man of whom very little is known. Gertrude Schuyler Arms on Window. was the eldest daughter, beautiful, edu- cated, and high-bred, - indeed, the belle of Rensselaerswick, prior to her marriage and removal to New Amster- dam as Mrs. Stephanus Van Cortlandt. Alida, the second daughter, was scarcely less attractive than her sister. She married, when only seven-
1 Holgate's American Geanology.
O' Callaghan, II. 174, 177. 2
La Potherie's History of North America.
154
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
teen, the Rev. Nicolaus Van Rensselaer; and, after his death, the famous Robert Livingston. Peter, the next son in the order of age, was the first mayor of Albany. He was the great colonel whose wise counsels and personal exertions at one period preserved the prov- ince from an Indian war ; and who, at another, es- corted five Indian chiefs to England to persuade the government to drive the French out of Canada. In 1719, as the oldest member of the executive council, he assumed, for a Schuyler Mansion at the Flats In 1875. ment of New Netherland.1 nius for trade than for quite young, to New Amsterdam, season, the entire govern- Brandt, who had more ge- command, went, when where he married, in 1682, Cornelia Van Cortlandt, the daughter of Oloff S. Van Cortlandt, and sister of Stephanus. Arent likewise took up his abode in the metropolis.2 Sibylla died in infancy. Philip settled in Albany. John, the youngest son, held a captain's commission in 1690, when only twenty-three years of age, and led into Canada an expedition which achieved a brilliant victory over the French and Indians. He was the grandfather of General Philip Schuyler, of Revolutionary memory. The youngest daughter was Mar- gritta. The elder Schuyler died at Albany, March 9, 1684. His will bears date May 1, 1683, O. S.
On New Year's evening, the soldiers at Fort Orange became hilarious, and a few of them started out on a frolic. Coming in front of the house 1652. of Van Slechtenhorst, they ignited some cotton and threw it upon Jan. 1. the roof. The inmates almost immediately discovered the fire, and by active exertions saved the building from destruction. The next day, a son of Van Slechtenhorst met some of the soldiers in the street, and Jan. 2. accosting them in relation to the mischief they had occasioned, threatened them sharply; whereupon they charged upon him, threw him down, and having severely beaten him, dragged him through the mud. Schuyler hastened to the assistance of his brother-in-law ; but Dyckman, the commander of the fort, who stood by, swore he would run him through with his drawn sword if he did not keep out of the way. Others who rushed into the fray received severe blows.
1 He married, Oct. 25, 1672, Maria, daughter of Kilian Van Rensselaer.
2 The ancestor of the New Jersey branch of the family.
155
EDICTS OF STUYVESANT.
The friends of Van Slechtenhorst vowed revenge; and, this coming to Dyckman's ears, he ordered the guns of the fort to be loaded with grape and turned upon the patroon's house, declaring he would batter it down. While things were in this chaotic state, there arrived from Stuyvesant some placards, which declared the jurisdiction of Fort Orange to ex- tend over a circumference of six hundred paces (about one hundred and fifty rods) around the fortress. These Dyckman was ordered to publish. With nine armed men, the military commander proceeded to the court- room where the magistrates of the colony were in session, and de- manded that the placards should be published through the colony Feb. 8. with the sound of a bell. As it was contrary to law for any man to enter another's jurisdiction with an armed posse without the previous consent of the local authorities, Van Slechtenhorst ordered the intruder to leave the room, exclaiming, " It shall not be done as long as we have a drop of blood in our veins, nor until we receive orders from their High Mightinesses and our honored masters."
Dyckman retired, but returned presently with an increased force. He ordered the porter to ring the bell, and that being vigorously opposed, he proceeded to the fort and caused the bell there to be rung three times. He then returned to the steps of the court-house and directed his deputy to read the placards. As the latter was about to obey, Van Slechtenhorst rushed forward and tore the paper from his hands, “ so that the seals fell on the ground." Some violent words followed; but young Van Rensselaer, standing by, said to the crowd, "Go home, my good friends ! 't is only the wind of a cannon-ball fired six hundred paces off.'
A messenger was sent down the river to Stuyvesant, who at once for- warded another placard to Dyckman, with orders to publish it, and also to affix copies of it to posts erected on the new line, north, south, and west of the fort. Within these bounds, for the future, no house was to be built, except by the consent of the governor and council, or of those authorized to act for them. This act, severing forever the village of Beverwyck from Van Rensselaer's colony, was pronounced illegal, and in direct violation of the sixth article of the charter of 1629. Van Slechtenhorst sent a constable to tear the posters down contemptuously, and drew up a long remonstrance against the unbecoming pretensions of the governor, who he declared had no authority over the colony whatever. The patroon's lands, he said, had been erected into a perpetual fief, which no order emanating from the West India Company was sufficient to April 1. destroy. This paper was denounced by the governor and coun-
cil as a "libellous calumny." Dyckman set afloat a rumor that Stuy- 10
156
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
vesant was about to visit Fort Orange, and that he was preparing a gal- lows for Van Slechtenhorst, his son, and young Van Rensselaer.
Stuyvesant, after dealing with a number of refractory persons in New Amsterdam, some of whom he put in confinement and bastinadoed others with a rattan, repaired to the troubled regions at the north. He sent a party of soldiers to Van Slechtenhorst's house with an order to the patroon to strike his flag, which the latter peremptorily refused to do. They then entered the inclosure, fired a volley from their loaded muskets, and hauled down the flag themselves. Stuyvesant immediately erected a court of justice in Beverwyck, apart from and independent of that of Rensselaerswick ; but the notice of this, having been affixed to the court- house of the latter colony, was torn down, and a proclamation asserting the rights of the patroon posted in its place. The next day, nine armed men broke into Slechtenhorst's house and forcibly conveyed him to Fort Orange, where neither his wife, children, nor friends were allowed to speak with him. His furs, his clothes, and his meat were left hanging to the door-posts. It was not long ere he was conveyed to New Amsterdam ; but he was not confined in the hold of the fort there, as has been asserted. He was under " civil arrest," and spent a portion of his time on Staten Island.
John Baptist Van Rensselaer took Van Slechtenhorst's place provision- ally, and was afterwards formally appointed commander of the col- April 18. ony by the patroon. Gerrit Swart succeeded to the office of sheriff; Rev. Gideon Schaets was installed as clergyman, and retained that posi-
tion for over thirty years. His salary was $ 380 per annum. Sept 2. Before returning to New Amsterdam, Stuyvesant confirmed the authority of the West India Company by issuing patents to some of the principal colonists for tracts of land within the confines of Beverwyck. It was thus that the germ of the present city of Albany was rescued from feudal jurisdiction.
On the 28th of March, Van Tienhoven was appointed to the office of
sheriff, which had been made vacant by the removal of Van Dyck. Mar. 28. "Were an honorable person to take my place, I should not so much mind it," bewailed the latter ; " but here is a public. notorious, and convicted whoremonger and oath-breaker, who has frequently come out of the tavern so full of strong drink that he was forced to lie down in the gutter, while the fault of drunkenness could not easily be imputed to me."
Carel Van Brugge succeeded Van Tienhoven as secretary of the prov- ince, and Adriaen Van Tienhoven became receiver-general, in place of his brother.
The death of William II., Prince of Orange, in 1650, left vacant the
157
THE NAVIGATION ACT.
office of stadtholder, and that dignity remained in abeyance during the minority of William III. This event led to the recognition of the Eng- lish Commonwealth by the Dutch Republic in January, 1651. Delegates were sent from England to the Hague to negotiate a league of amity and confederation between the two nations. Some of the visionary enthusi- asts in Parliament even entertained the idea of making the two republics one, to be governed by a council sitting at London, composed of Dutch- men and Englishmen. To effect this, the embassy was instructed to use the most adroit diplomacy ; but their first act was to demand that all the English fugitives should be expelled from Holland. This decided the matter. The Dutch government at once assumed a haughty air. The people of the Netherlands were attached to the house of Orange, and did not relish the presence of the executioners of the unhappy grandfather of William III.1 They openly, and on every possible occasion, insulted the ambassadors, who finally returned to England, determined to de- stroy the commercial ascendency of the Dutch.2 The celebrated Act of Navigation was accordingly carried through Parliament. Hencefor- ward the commerce between England and her colonies, as well as that between England and the rest of the world, was to be conducted in ships solely owned and principally manned by Englishmen. Foreigners might carry to England nothing but those products of their respective coun- tries which were the established staples of those countries. The act was leveled at the commerce of the Dutch, and destroyed one great source of their prosperity, while some letters of reprisal issued by English mer- chants brought eighty Dutch ships as prizes into English ports. The act was, after all, but a protection of British shipping. It contained not one clause which related to a colonial monopoly, or was specially inju- rious to an American colony. In vain did the Dutch expostulate against the breach of commercial amity. England loved herself better than she loved her neighbors. But, as might have been expected, a naval war was the consequence. The first battle between the forces of the Neth- erlands and the English Commonwealth was fought in the Straits May 29. of Dover, on the 29th of May, 1652. Other battles followed in which the Dutch were victorious, and the triumphant Van Tromp sailed along the English coast with a broom at his masthead, to indicate that Dec. 9. he had swept the Channel of English ships.
The States-General had remonstrated so often and so earnestly with the
1 Aitzema, III. 638-663. Thurloe's State Papers, I. 174, 179, 182, 183, 187 -195. Verbael Van Beverning, 61, 62.
2 Common's Journal, VII. 27. Anderson, II. 415, 416. Lingard, XI. 128. Davis, II. 707-710. Bancroft, I. 215, 216.
158
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
West India Company in regard to the mismanagement of New Nether- land, that the Amsterdam Chamber finally deemed it wise to pour a little oil upon the bleeding wounds of the colonists. They took off the export duty from tobacco; reduced the price of passage to New Amsterdam ; allowed the colonists to procure negroes from Africa ; sent supplies of ammunition to be distributed at a " decent price "; assented to April 4. the establishment of a public school ; and granted a burgher gov- ernment to New Amsterdam, similar to that of the cities of the Father- land. In the vessel which brought these dispatches were several dis- tinguished passengers, among whom was Dominie Samuel Drisius, a learned divine, who could preach in English, Dutch, and French, and who came to New Amsterdam as colleague to Dominie Megapolensis, at a. salary of $ 580 per annum.
The public school was opened in one of the small rooms of the great stone tavern, and Dr. La Montagne offered to teach until a suitable master could be obtained from Holland. Meanwhile the States-General had re- solved to recall Governor Stuyvesant. They prepared their mandate and intrusted it to Van der Donck, who was about to sail for New Amsterdam. This extraordinary measure aroused the Amsterdam Chamber; they in- terfered, and at last persuaded the States-General that, in view of the rupture with England, they needed a man of Stuyvesant's military char- acter and experience to guard their American possessions. A messenger was therefore sent to Texel, where Van der Donck was upon the eve of sailing, and the letter of recall was obtained and destroyed. Thus April 27. Stuyvesant received nothing of his threatened humiliation. An order reached him, however, that Schelluyne should be unmolested in his. practice of notary-public.
The towns of Middleburg and Flatbush were commenced this year .. There were also large tracts of land ceded to different parties on Long- Island, in New Jersey, and on the banks of the North River. But pros- perity was not ready to bless the slow-growing community, and its off- shoots and branches developed with strange tardiness. One of the great- est wants of the colony was skilled labor, and, indeed, labor of every kind. Efforts had been made to procure it from Holland, but with very little: success. Negroes had occasionally been brought to Manhattan and sold, but the demand for servants was far beyond the supply. The new law of the company, which permitted the colonists to equip vessels and sail to the coasts of Angola, in Africa, to procure negroes for themselves, was the. signal for the fitting out of several vessels exclusively for the slave-trade: and the bringing to New Netherland of a large invoice of the colored population of the torrid zone. Every family who could afford it invested
159
AFRICAN SLAVERY.
in this branch of industry. But it was wretchedly unsatisfactory. The slaves were ignorant and intensely stupid. Twenty-five of such as were imported at that time could hardly perform as much work as three, a hundred years later.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.