USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. I > Part 33
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
313
SCENES AND INCIDENTS.
audibly, "Yes, yes, with all my heart." "Shall I bring a priest ? " asked James. " Do, brother, for God's sake do, and lose no time ; but no, you will get into trouble "; and his voice grew fainter. " If it costs me my life, I will bring a priest," exclaimed the Duke, with great feeling.
The gentlemen standing about the room were not aware of the purport of the conversation. To find a priest for such a purpose at a moment's notice was no easy thing to do. As the law then stood, it was a capital crime to admit a proselyte into the Roman Catholic Church. A Portu- guese nobleman, who was present, undertook to find one of the queen's chaplains ; but none of them understood English or French sufficiently. The French ambassador was about to go to the Venetian minister for a clergyman, when they learned that there was a Benedictine monk at Whitehall, named Huddleston, who had, after the battle of Worcester, risked his life to save that of the king, and had ever since been a priv- ileged person. When the nation had been goaded to fury and proclama- tions issued against popish priests, Huddleston had always been excepted by name. He was willing to put his life in peril again for the king he loved ; but he was so illiterate that he had to have instructions as to what was proper to say on such a momentous occasion. He was brought by a confidential servant up the back stairway. The Duke requested all present, except three noblemen whom he dared trust, to withdraw. Then the back door was opened and the monk, whose sacred vestments were concealed under a cloak, entered. When he was announced, Charles faintly answered, " He is welcome." Huddleston went through his part better than was expected, pronounced the absolution, and administered extreme unction. He asked if Charles wished to receive the Lord's Sup- per. "Surely, if I am not unworthy," was the quick reply. Mean- while, the courtiers in the outer room were whispering their suspicions, with significant glances. The door was opened, and once more they stood around the king's bed. He retained his faculties during the entire night, conversing at intervals with different persons. Once he apologized for being such an unconscionable time dying, and hoped those who had stood about him so long would excuse it. Soon after daylight his speech failed, and about noon he passed away.
In a quarter of an hour, James came out of the closet, whither he had retired when all was over, and the Privy Counselors, who were assembled in the palace, proclaimed him king. Usage required a speech, and the new monarch expressed a few words of touching sorrow for the loss just sustained, and promised to imitate the singular lenity which had distin- guished the late reign. He said he had been accused of an over-fondness for power ; but that was one of many falsehoods which had been told
314
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
of him. He would maintain the established government both in Church and State, and, knowing the Church of England to be eminently loyal, should specially care for, support, and defend it. And he should with his life defend the rights and liberties of his people.
The lords were delighted with his sentiments. When his speech was made public, it produced a pleasing impression. A king, whose very first act was to defend the Church and strictly respect the rights of his people, was certainly fit to wear a crown. His worst enemies did not regard him as one likely to court public favor by professing what he did not feel, or by promising what he had no intention of performing. He would probably have kept his word, had it not involved complicated rela- tions which his mind could not grasp. At a later period, he stated that his unpremeditated expressions touching the Church of England were too strong, and had been made without due consideration.
James knew, when he ascended the throne of England, that it was liable to be overturned in an hour, and his face was fixed on France, in an agony of supplication. His new ministry, of which Halifax was Lord President, in spite of old quarrels, urged the call of a Parliament. There was no other safe course. The customs had been settled for life on Charles only, and could not be legally exacted by the new king. James issued the call, and then apologized deferentially to Louis for taking such a step without coming to him for advice. He asked the French king for a subsidy, and his wants were promptly supplied. When the money was put into his hands, he actually shed tears of gratitude. He became the slave of France. The degrading relation galled him, and he looked about in vain for some way in which to break loose from his thralldom. He grew haughty, punctilious, boastful, and quarrelsome, and evinced tokens of indecision and insincerity. Those who were without the clew were puzzled by his extraordinary conduct. Even Louis could not compre- hend the ally, who passed, in a few hours, from homage to defiance and from defiance to homage. It was only within narrow limits that he could conform his actions to a general rule. It was not long before he was assuring the United Provinces, that, as soon as the affairs of England were settled, he would show the world how little he feared France. The patience of the nation caused visions of dominion and glory to rise before his mind.
A little oratory had been fitted up in the palace for Mary, while Duchess of York, and James was in the habit of hearing mass with her there in private. Soon after he became king, he shocked his Protestant subjects by erecting a new pulpit, and throwing open the doors, so that all who came to pay their duty to him might see the Catholic ceremony.
315
INCONSISTENCIES OF JAMES II.
There was a sensation in the antechamber, the Catholics falling on their knees and the Protestants hurrying away. During Lent, a series of ser- mons was preached there by popish divines, and a little later the rites of the Church of Rome were once more, after an interval of a hundred and twenty-seven years, performed on Easter Sunday at Westminster with regal splendor. The Tories were in the ascendant ; hence zealous church- men brooded over England's wrongs in dignified silence. But, on the day of his coronation, James committed what, in Roman Catholic estima- tion, was little short of an act of apostasy. He made an oblation on the altar, joined in the litany as chanted by the bishops, received the unction typical of divine influence, and knelt with the semblance of devotion, while that society of heretics (as he believed the Church of England to be) called down upon him the Holy Spirit, of which they were in his opinion the malignant and obstinate foes.
The inconsistencies of James II. furnish a key to the succession of dis- asters which befell New York. He was quite another person from what he had been as Duke of York. Not less active, if possible more industri- ous, and equally disposed to manage and control ; but his interests were divided, and despotism appeared in the ascendant. The first time after his accession that the affairs of New York were discussed, he presided in person over the Plantation Committee. He re-examined the Charter of Privileges, which he had sealed but never delivered to New York City, and discovered that it was too liberal in its construction. He declined to confirm it, because it tended towards an abridgment of his power ; although it was in force until such time as he should see fit to commu- nicate his disapproval to Dongan. He thought it would be well to consolidate New York and New England under one government, and a constitution was discussed, although not acted upon at that time.
A letter bearing his royal signature directed that all men in office in New York should so continue until further orders. It contained no allusion to an Assembly, which accordingly was called in Octo- March 3. ber, and William Pinhorne was chosen speaker. But it was the Oct. 20. last representative body permitted to New York, or indeed to any of the American colonies, during the reign of James II. It accomplished very little business of importance. Immediately after its adjournment, a day of thanksgiving was proclaimed by the governor, for the king's victory over the rebels under Argyll and Monmouth. Nov. 20.
In 1685, Nicholas Bayard was the mayor of the city and also one of Dongan's council. James Graham was appointed attorney-general of the province, and Isaac Swinton was made clerk in chancery. About this time, Collector Santen proved unfaithful to his trust, and was ordered 20
316
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
before the governor and council with his books and accounts, which were rigidly examined. He was a hypochondriac, subject to fits, careless in his business habits, boundlessly arrogant, and extremely violent in tem- per. He was testy about explanations and was severely reprimanded. He was allowed to execute the duties of his office a short time longer ; but charges accumulated against him, and he was finally suspended, arrested, and sent to England. Stephanus Van Cortlandt and James Graham were appointed to manage the king's revenue until further orders. Dongan wrote to James, asking the privilege of naming a collec- tor from among the old residents of the city, "because," said he, "those who are sent over for the purpose expect to run suddenly into great. estate."
It was found necessary to establish a Court of Exchequer, to be held in the city of New York on the first Monday in each month, for the pur- pose of determining royal revenue cases. There was great hazard in leaving such questions to country juries, who were ignorant, and gener- ally linked together by affinity or swayed by particular humors and inter- ests. Dyer, who was now Surveyor-General of the customs in America, complained that the juries in New Jersey found verdicts in opposition to. the most undoubted facts. He also wrote to the Plantation Committee in regard to the mixed condition of affairs in the whole revenue department.
When James found breathing space amid the putting down of the vari- ous rebellions which menaced his throne, he gave attention to his Ameri- can affairs. A temporary government was arranged for Massachusetts,. and Joseph Dudley,1 for whose loyalty Dongan vouched, was appointed president over seventeen counselors. The case of William Penn and Lord Baltimore was next in order. The rival claimants were politically equal, one being a Roman Catholic and the other a Quaker, and their- territorial dispute was settled as impartially as possible under the circum- stances. It was decided that Delaware did not form a part of Maryland ; and the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland was run from Delaware westward by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, and has ever. since been known as " Mason and Dixon's Line."
James regarded the Quakers with a feeling akin to tenderness ; partly because they had never been implicated in any conspiracy against the
1 Joseph Dudley was the son of Governor Thomas Dudley of Massachusetts. He was born in 1647 ; graduated at Harvard in 1665 ; was agent of Massachusetts in England in 1682 ; president in 1685 ; one of Andros's council in 1689 ; one of Governor Sloughter's council, and. Chief Justice of New York in 1691. In the latter capacity, he tried and condemned Leisler. He was afterwards member of the British Parliament, lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Wight, and, from 1702 to 1715, governor of Massachusetts. He died in 1720. Hutchisson's. Mass., II. 193.
317
WILLIAM PENN'S INFLUENCE AT COURT.
government, but more particularly as the direct result of a potent advo- cacy at court. William Penn lived in the highest circles and had con- stant access to the royal ear. His father had held various positions of honor, had sat in Parliament, and had been knighted. The son had a high reputation and many virtues. He was every day summoned from the gallery into the closet, and spent hours with the king, while many a peer was kept waiting in the antechamber. His integrity was not en- tirely proof against the temptations of that polite but deeply corrupted court, where intrigues of one sort and another were constantly fermenting. His own sect grew suspicious of him, notwithstanding that they received indulgences similar to those granted to the Roman Catholics, while the intermediate or Puritan order of religionists were suffering beyond meas- ure. On one occasion, a list of Quakers against whom proceedings had been instituted for not taking the oaths and for not going to church was made out, and every individual of them discharged. It was generally remarked that William Penn had more power at Whitehall than any of the nobles. It is quite apparent that he knew how to influence James to his own private advantage, for when the plan was matured for consoli- dating the colonies in America, Pennsylvania alone escaped the forfeiture of her charter. Printing was also permitted in that province at a time when freedom of type was by no means a popular idea in high cir- Aug. 6. cles. William Bradford, a young man of twenty-two, a namesake
and favorite of William Penn, who had been apprenticed to a Quaker printer in London and had married his daughter, was allowed to set up a printing-press in Philadelphia. His first work was an almanac for the year 1686, which is at this date (1876) a very unique and interesting curiosity. Hitherto, the only printing-press in the English colonies had been in Massachusetts and under Puritan censorship.
The year 1686 was distinguished by the granting of the "Dongan Charter " to the city of New York. It was drafted by Mayor Nicholas Bayard and Recorder James Graham, and was one of
1686. the most liberal ever bestowed upon a colonial city. By it sources of immediate income became vested in the corporation. Subsequent char- ters added nothing to the city property, save in the matter of ferry rights, in immediate reference to which the charters of 1708 and 1730 were obtained.
The Dongan charter confirmed all former " rights and privileges," and conveyed specifically to the corporation the City Hall, the two market- houses, the bridge into the dock, the great dock and wharf connected therewith, the new burial-ground, the ferry, and the waste, vacant, un- patented lands on Manhattan Island reaching to low-water mark, together
318
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
with the rivers, rivulets, coves, creeks, ponds, waters, and water-courses not before mentioned.1
It is an interesting document and is recited at large in the charter of 1730. It is the more remarkable from the fact, that, at the very moment of its creation, James and his ministers were waging war against all chartered rights and privileges throughout the British dominions. The marked partiality thus displayed for New York may be imputed more to the personal character and influence of Dongan, and the spirit and far- sighted intelligence of the leading citizens of the metropolis, than to any private preference on the part of the king. The instrument was the basis of a plan of government for a great city. It was cautiously worded, and shows that the minds in which it originated were possessed of a broad and enlightened sense of the sanctity of corporate and private rights, and by no means disposed to neglect provident guards for their security. It is in itself an ample foundation, and we shall see how it was built upon as exigencies demanded.
Before the end of the year, a new city seal was presented to New York. It was richer and more elaborate than the old Dutch city seal ; but it preserved the beaver, with the addition of a flour-barrel, and the arms of a wind-mill, signifying the prevailing commerce and industry. The whole was supported by two Indian chiefs, and encircled by a wreath of laurel, the motto being, Sigillum civitatis Novi Eboraci.
Soon after signing the metropolitan charter, Dongan went up to Albany, and executed a charter agreed upon between himself and May. the magistrates of that city, giving the corporation large fran- chises, including the management of the Indian trade. He appointed Peter Schuyler its first mayor ; Isaac Swinton, recorder ; and Robert Livingston, city clerk and sub-collector of the king's revenues at that place. The aldermen and assistants were to be chosen annually by the inhabitants on the Feast of Saint Michael, the 29th of September.
Livingston discovered the peculiar value of the lands south of Van Rensselaer's property, which had never yet been granted by the govern- ment to any one, and entered into negotiations with the Indians for their purchase. They conveyed to him, July 12, 1683, just prior to his mar- riage with Alida, the widow of Rev. Nicolaus Van Rensselaer, two thou- sand acres on Roelof Jansen's Kill. The deed was executed by two Indians and two squaws. The payment consisted of "three hundred guilders in sewan, eight blankets and two children's blankets, five and
1 Col. Doc., III. 360 - 495 ; IV. 812 ; V. 369. Council Minutes, V. 155. Minutes of Com- mon Council, I. 272-300. Valentine, Man. 1844, 318 ; 1858, 13-24. Booth's Hist. N. Y., Appendix. Dunlap, II. Appendix. Patents, V. 381-406. Kent's Book of Charters, 210.
319
THE LIVINGSTON MANOR.
twenty ells of duffels, and four garments of strouds, ten large shirts and ten small shirts, ten pairs of large stockings and ten small pairs, six guns, fifty pounds of powder, fifty staves of lead, four caps, ten kettles, ten axes, ten adzes, two pounds of paint, twenty little scissors, twenty little looking-glasses, one hundred fish-hooks, awls and nails of each one hun- dred, four rolls of tobacco, one hundred pipes, ten bottles, three kegs of rum, one barrel of strong beer, twenty knives, four stroud coats, two duffel coats and four tin kettles."
During the next two years, Livingston secured the Indian title to, in all, one hundred and sixty thousand acres of the finest land on the Hud- son, and in the midst of scenery unsurpassed by any in Europe. He then obtained from Dongan a patent, with manorial privileges, dated July 22, 1685 ; and this grant was confirmed by royal authority in 1715, with the additional privilege of electing a representative to the General Assembly.
Thus Livingston was one of the largest landholders in New York. His manor was not, however, as rich and valuable as that of Van Rens- selaer. It belonged strictly to that class of institutions called close boroughs, which necessarily gave way before the equalizing influences of republicanism. The manor-house which he built on the Hudson, forty miles south of Albany, was for several generations the seat of a princely hospitality. The governors of the province were always entertained there on their trips up and down the river ; and every foreigner of dis- tinction who visited this country was cordially welcomed within its walls.
Philip Livingston, the eldest son of Robert, and heir to this great manorial estate, was born at Albany in 1686. He was unlike his fa- ther in many re- spects, - was less bold, less subtle, less persevering, less of financier, and a much handsomer man. In his youthful days, Clermont. The Lower Manor-House. he was dashing and gay ; he had a winning manner with women, and went about breaking
320
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
hearts promiscuously. In the course of time, however, he wedded Cath- arine, the pretty daughter of Peter Van Brugh of Albany. He was by no means destitute of rank and consequence. He was, for several years, deputy agent of Indian affairs under his father, and, from 1722, sole secretary. He was at the taking of Port Royal in 1710; a colonel of militia, a member of the Assembly, and, for many years, one of the gov- ernor's council. He lived in a style of courtly magnificence.
He was the eldest of five sons and four daughters. Two of the sons and two of the daughters died unmarried ; but he, with his two brothers, Robert and Gilbert, survived to a good old age. Robert, the second son, received from his father thirteen thousand acres of the main estate, as a special reward for having discovered and frustrated an Indian plot. This formed the lower manor of Clermont. A large stone house was built upon it, which, towards the close of his life, he gave to his son Judge Robert R. Livingston, the father of Chancellor Livingston. Gilbert re- ceived a large estate near Saratoga, and married Cornelia Beekman. He was the ancestor of a large family, among whom was Rev. John R. Liv- ingston, the celebrated divine.
AM=ARNOLD SC.
Livingston Manor-House in 1876.
[Robert, eldest son of Philip, and third lord of the manor, divided the estate (in 1784) equally between his four sons. Walter subsequently conveyed his portion of the manor to his brother Henry, who built the present structure.]
321
CATHOLICISM IN NEW YORK.
CHAPTER XVIII.
1686-1689.
EFFECTS OF THE MEASURES OF JAMES II.
CATHOLICISM IN NEW YORK. - ABSURD ALARMS. - PERSECUTION IN FRANCE. - THE ASSEMBLY ABOLISHED IN NEW YORK. - SIR EDMUND ANDROS IN BOSTON. - CONNECTI- CUT AND HER TWO WOOERS. - CONNECTICUT LOSES HER CHARTER. - THE POST-ROUTE. - GOVERNOR DONGAN A STATESMAN. - ALBANY IN DANGER. - THE ENGLISH, FRENCH, AND IROQUOIS. - CONSOLIDATION OF THE COLONIES. - NEW YORK SWALLOWED BY NEW ENGLAND. - SIR EDMUND ANDROS. - THE EXILED HUGUENOTS. - EXTRAORDINARY ACTS OF JAMES II. - THE SEVEN BISHOPS. - BIRTH OF THE PRINCE OF WALES. - MARY, PRINCESS OF ORANGE. - THE CHARACTER OF WILLIAM III. - THE POLITICAL MARRIAGE. - A DOMESTIC ROMANCE. - WILLIAM'S PURPOSES. - WILLIAM'S EXPEDI- TION TO ENGLAND. - REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. - THE KING'S DESPAIR. - ABDICA- TION OF THE THRONE BY JAMES II. - WILLIAM'S RECEPTION IN LONDON. - WILLIAM AND MARY CROWNED SOVEREIGNS OF ENGLAND.
TT would seem as if the whole world was just at this moment in a religious ferment. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, in 1685, caused a simultaneous cry of grief and rage through the whole of Protestant Europe. The courts of Spain and Rome, not usually 1686. backward in applauding a vigorous war upon heresy, were amazed at the injustice of the French king, and took the side of religious liberty. Eng- land was filled with dismay. She began immediately to scrutinize the recent acts of her own king. He had ordered the organization of a large military force, and, in defiance of the law, had officered it chiefly with Roman Catholics. Why might it not be employed in England for the same wretched work which the dragoons of Louis had performed in France ? James had publicly promised to respect the privileges of his Protestant subjects ; but had not Louis in like manner pledged himself ? Was there, after all, any reliance to be placed upon kings ?
New York caught the alarm, and suffered, as a feeble child, much more severely than its parent. The rumor was started that James had communicated to Governor Dongan an intention to establish the Roman Catholic religion there. A new Latin teacher who was said to be a Jesuit
21
322
HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
having been employed in the school, many of the children were hastily removed, and some of them sent to the New England schools. The Catholic officers of the government were watched with jealous eyes, and every movement of the governor was criticised. All confidence in rulers seemed to be fast fading away. A gentleman from London arrived about this time and was hospitably entertained by Governor Dongan. The two appeared together on the streets, and dined with Frederick Philipse and with Nicholas Bayard. It was absurdly reported that the strange guest was a Catholic priest in disguise, sent over on private busi- ness by the king ; and the rumor, fostered by that kindly entertainment always furnished in such cases by small communities, speedily assumed the importance of an acknowledged fact. If James himself was consti- tutionally treacherous, how could any member of his church be trusted ? What sense was there in calling a monarch who rejected the English com- munion " the Defender of the Faith " of the Episcopalians ! Supposing that he did wear a crown which he owed to the Anglican clergy, and that every tie of gratitude and decency bound him to their support, it was clear that he only waited for some plausible excuse to trample them all under his feet.
Meanwhile James publicly expressed disapproval, and was really at heart distressed by the outrages which Louis was visiting upon the Huguenots. Men and women of all classes were stripped of their pos- sessions, hunted from place to place without sleep and without food, and subjected to the most violent persecution ever recorded upon the pages of history. Men in power even set themselves at work to invent new methods of cruelty. Nothing could exceed the fury of the inquisitors. Such of the persecuted as attempted to escape were seized, the men com- mitted to the galleys, and the women immured in nunneries, where they were starved, whipped, and otherwise barbarously treated. Those who died were denied burial. And yet thousands upon thousands succeeded in escaping ; the best blood of France was on the wing ; persons of great fame in war, in letters, in the arts, and in the sciences, dressed like the humblest peasants, wandered from place to place, engaging in the most menial occupations, until ingenuity could devise some method of crossing the frontiers. Many reached England, and James assisted them from his own private purse. He did not like to have it appear that Catholics were intolerant. All this came upon him just as he had made up his mind to ask of his Protestant Parliament the fullest toleration for Roman Catholics in England.
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.