USA > New York > New York City > History of the city of New York : its origin, rise, and progress. Vol. I > Part 7
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The scheme was a charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, ma- 1629. tured and adopted by the company, and confirmed by the States- June 7. General, on the 7th of June, 1627. It comprised thirty-one important articles, and was remarkable for being tinctured with the peculiar social ideas of that era, and of promising to transfer to America the most ob- jectionable features of the modern feudalism of Continental Europe.
It offered to any member of the West India Company who should found a colony of fifty adults in any portion of New Netherland, -except Manhattan Island, which was re- served to the company, - and satisfy the Indians for a tract of land not exceeding sixteen miles on one side or eight miles on both sides of a navigable river, and extending inland Dutch Wind-Mills. indefinitely, the title of Patroon, or feudal chief of such colony or territory ; and the colonists under such patroonships were to be for ten years entirely free from taxation, but would 4
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
be bound to the patroon in almost absolute servitude. The chief him- self would be invested with full property rights, and granted freedom in trade, - except furs, which the company reserved to themselves, - with sundry and various limitations, restrictions, and duties, and the privilege of hunting and fishing within his own domain. The company prohibited manufactures under penalty of the law, but promised protection to the colonists and defence against all enemies ; the completion of a suitable citadel on Manhattan Island; and a supply of negro servants. Each patroon was required to provide, immediately, for the support of a min- ister and schoolmaster, and to make an annual return of the condition of his colony to the local authorities at Manhattan, for transmission to the company. In all its provisions, the charter carefully recognized the com- mercial monopoly and political supremacy of the West India Company, and was in harmony with the aristocratic sentiment which grew with the acquisition of wealth in Holland. Almost all the real estate there, out- side the walls of the towns, was in possession of old families of the nobility, who were unwilling to part with any portion of it. In the wonderful new country it was very apparent that a man might become an extensive landholder and a person of importance with compara- tive ease. While the company thus made great show of caring for the rights of the aboriginal owners, and held out inducements of labor, capi- tal, religion, and education, it selfishly scattered the seeds of slavery and aristocracy.
As might have been expected, there were men among the directors of the company who stood ready to seize upon the choicest localities, to the discouragement of independent emigrants for whom the charter was intended. Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert, who had had agents prospecting for months, purchased through them a beautiful tract of land extending from Cape Henlopen thirty-two miles up the west shore of Delaware Bay, and opposite sixteen miles square, including 1630. Cape May. They called it Swaanendael. The title was attested June. by Governor Minuet and his council at Manhattan, July 15, 1630, and is the only instrument in existence which bears the original signa- ture of that august body.1 The purchase was actually effected on the 1st day of June, 1629, seven days before the bill became a law, and was registered at Manhattan on the 19th of the same month.
Kilien Van Rensselaer was one of the oldest and wealthiest of the directors. He had been for many years a pearl and diamond merchant,
1 This original patent was found by Mr. Brodhead in the West India House, at Amster- dam, in 1841, and is now deposited in the secretary's office at Albany. It has the only sig- natures known to exist of Minuet and his council. Brodhead, I. 200. O'Callaghan, I. 122.
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KILIAEN VAN RENSSELAER.
and had taken a very active part in the formation of the West India Company. Several of his own vessels had been placed at the disposal of the corporation, and he had twice advanced money to save its credit, and hasten its final organization. He was descended from a long line of honorable ancestors, and was himself an educated and refined gentle- man of the old school. Early in life he had married Hellegonda Van Bylet, by whom he had one son, Johannes. In 1627, he was married the second time, to Anna Van Wely, and by her he had four sons and four daughters.1 In the mean time he had sent an agent to New Netherland, and traded with the Indians for land upon the west side of the Hudson River, from about twelve miles south of Albany to Smack's Island, "stretching two days into the interior." Soon after, he concluded the purchase of all the land on the east side of the same river, both north and south of Fort Orange, and " far into the wilderness." This great feudal estate included the entire territory comprised in the present counties of Albany, Columbia, and Rensselaer, and was named Rensselaerswick. Van Rensselaer himself remained in Holland, but managed his affairs through a well-chosen director. His sons took up their abode here after his death, and were successive lords of the colony. Jeremias 2 married Maria, daughter of Oloff S. Van Cortlandt ; and Nicolaus married Alida Schuyler. The Van Rensselaer name has been handed down to us through every generation of men who have since had their day in New York, and is interwoven with all that is historical in city and State. The family brought with them the social distinctions of the Fatherland. They brought massive and elaborately carved furniture, and large quantities of silver-plate which bore the family arms. They brought portraits of their ancestors, executed in a
1 The names of the children of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer were : 1st, Johannes, who married his cousin, Elizabeth Van Twiller ; 2d, Maria ; 3d, Jeremias, who married Maria Van Cortlandt ; 4th, Hellegonda ; 5th, Jan Baptist, who married his cousin, Susan Van Wely ; 6th, Elenora ; 7th, Susan, who married Jan De Lacourt ; 8th, Nicolaus, who married Alida Schuyler ; 9th, Rickert, who married Anna Van Beaumont.
2 Jeremias Van Rensselaer and Maria Van Cortlandt had a daughter Anna, who mar- ried her cousin, Kiliaen, the son of Johannes Van Rensselaer. He died shortly after, and she was married the second time to William Nicolls of New York. Her daughter Mary, in 1713, became the wife of Robert Watts, the ancestor of the Watts family in this country, Jeremias Van Rensselaer and Maria Van Cortlandt had also a son Kiliaen, who married his cousin, Maria Van Cortlandt, and who died in 1701, leaving sons, Jere- mias and Stephen, successive lords of the manor. Stephen died 1747, and left a son Stephen, who married Catharine Livingston, and died in 1769. The son of this last was General Stephen Van Rensselaer, who was born in 1764, and who was lieutenant-gov- ernor of New York in 1795 and 1798. His first wife was Margaret Schuyler, and their son Stephen was the late patroon. His second wife was Cornelia Patterson, and they had nine children. The other branches of the Van Rensselaer family we shall refer to hereafter.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
superior manner for the period, and many original paintings. A manor- house was erected, which in its internal arrangement and finish was. very similar to the Holland residence of the Van Rensselaers. There the lord resided among his tenantry, and maintained the same dignity and authority as the landed lords in Europe.
Van Rensselaer Manor-House in 1874.
Van Rensselaer had pe- culiar facilities for peopling- his new dominion, and sent. out his own ships with la- borers and emigrants and implements of husbandry. There was system in his management, and there was: order and method in the en- tire regulation of the colony itself. Hence it was pros- perous, while the rest of the province was disturbed by faction, inefficient rulers,. and Indian wars.
About the same time that Rensselaerswick was founded, Michael Pauw purchased Staten Island, Hoboken, Paulus Hook, and the Jersey shore: opposite Manhattan, extending inland a great distance. He gave it the pleasant-sounding name of Pavonia. He planted a little colony, which was called The Commune, and the point where they first settled is com- memorated by the present romantic little village of Communipauw.
Thus three of the most important localities in the province were art- fully secured before the rest of the company were fairly awake. The storm of discontent which arose has scarcely been equalled in the history of private corporations. The new patroons were accused of fraud and double-dealing, and the quarrel assumed alarming proportions. There was. an indignant denial of any endeavor to take an unfair advantage of the spirit of the charter, and, as a process of conciliation, other members of the company were taken into partnership in the speculation. Van Rensselaer divided his purchase into five shares, retaining two for himself. He sold one to John De Laet, the historian, and two to Samuel Blommaert. Godyn and Blommaert divided their Delaware property with Van Rens- selaer, De Laet, and Captain David Pietersen De Vries. The latter had. just returned from a three-years' voyage to the East Indies, where he had been engaged in several notable maritime enterprises. By request of the new firm, he took charge of an expedition to the Delaware, conveying
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THE GREAT SHIP.
thither thirty settlers, with all the necessaries for the cultivation of tobacco and grain. He landed them, directed in the work of preparing their fields, and not until their first seed was sown did he turn 1631. his face again to Holland. It was the purpose of these patroons to prose- cute the whale-fishery on the Delaware coast, copying after the French, who had made the business so lucrative in a more northern latitude.
This matter of feudal estates took up the whole attention of the com- pany for a time. Manhattan Island was scarcely noticed, and improve- ments were entirely ignored. The houses which were standing were only sufficient for the actual accommodation of the people; and, as we have seen, they were exceedingly simple in construction. The best of them were of hewn plank, roofed with reeds. Many were built entirely of bark. But few trees as yet were cut away, except for shipment to Holland. Not a ridge was smoothed down, and only a few little patches of earth had been brought under cultivation. The fur-trade absorbed what there was of energy and industry.
It was soon found that the patroons were trading with the Indians independently of the corporation. Another quarrel ensued, this time more immediately among the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber. It was finally referred to the College of the XIX. The patroons were self- willed and self-opinionated. They had enormous interests at stake, and they persisted in their right to the fur traffic, under a too liberal con- struction of the charter. Able lawyers were employed on both sides, and the dispute became so violent that for a long time bloodshed was apprehended.
Meanwhile, two Belgian ship-builders visited Manhattan and tried their skill in converting some of the fine timber into an immense ship. Minuet encouraged them, and supplied them from the company's funds. They accomplished the undertaking ; and a vessel of eight hundred tons' burden, which carried thirty guns, was launched in New York Bay. It proved before it was finished more costly than had been expected; and when the bills came before the directors of the company in Holland, the whole proceeding was severely criticised. The States-General regarded it as a sample of the bad management of the corporation. The shareholders grumbled because they were obliged to help pay for such an exhibi- tion of folly. The press censured the Amsterdam Chamber in un- ยท sparing terms ; and the people talked about the ship in their work- shops and stores, and speculated upon the wonderful trees in America. It was full two hundred years, however, before another vessel of such mammoth proportions was built in this country. The fame of this extraordinary naval architecture was, as a matter of course, car-
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
ried to the ends of the earth, and excited the envy of all the Euro- pean powers. And it paved the way for the States-General to enter into a rigid examination of the affairs of the West India Company. They decided against the patroons, who were accused of being vastly more interested in filling their coffers with the proceeds of private trade with the Indians, to which they were not entitled, than in the proper colonization of the country. Minuet was suspected of working in their interests, as he had officially ratified their purchases; and the company was advised to recall him. It was accordingly done. Conrad Notleman was appointed sheriff of New Netherland, and sent over to supersede Lampo ; he was intrusted with letters, instructing Minuet to report him- self immediately in Holland.
1632. Minuet left his government in the hands of his council, of March 19. which Jan Van Remund was secretary, De Rasiers having fallen into disgrace with the governor some time before. He sailed in the Eendragt, March 19, 1632. Lampo and a number of discontented families were also passengers. They were driven into Plymouth, Eng- land, by a terrible storm, and were detained there on a charge of illegally trading in King Charles's dominions.
Minuet promptly communicated the intelligence to the com- April 8. pany, and also to the Dutch minister at Whitehall. The latter hastened to Newmarket, where the king and his court were at that moment, obtained audience of his Majesty, and remonstrated earnestly against the injustice of the whole proceeding, asking for an order for the Eendragt's immediate release. Charles declined giving it, on the ground that he " was not quite sure what his rights were."
The main features of the minister's interview with the king were soon laid before the States-General. It provoked another spirited correspond- ence between the two nations. The Dutch statesmen claimed that they had discovered the Hudson River in 1609; that some of their people had returned there in 1610; that a specific trading charter had been granted in 1614; that a fort and garrison had been maintained there until the formation, in 1623, of the West India Company, which had since occupied the country ; and great stress was laid upon the pur- chase of the land from its aboriginal owners.
The English based their claims upon the discovery of America by May 5.
Cabot, and upon the patents granted by James I. They declared that the Indians were not bona fide possessors of the soil, and that even if they were, they could not give a legal title, unless all of them jointly contracted with the purchaser. They kindly offered to allow the Dutch to remain in New Netherland if they would submit themselves to the
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WRANGLING AMONG THE DIRECTORS.
English government, otherwise they would not be permitted "to encroach upon a colony of such importance as New England."
Sir John Coke was the author of most of the English state May 27. papers relating to this subject ; but in June of the same year, Sir Francis Windebanke was appointed Secretary of State. It was hardly considered advisable to embarrass the foreign relations of a country, when its own private affairs were already sufficiently complicated : hence Charles contented himself with the assumption of superiority, and did not press the question for a settlement. In the course of a few weeks the Lord Treasurer quietly released the Eendragt.
The interference of the States-General did not settle the unfortunate disputes among the directors of the company. Upon Minuet's arrival in Holland, commissaries were dispatched to New Netherland to post in every settlement the company's proclamation, forbidding any person, whether patroon or vassal, to deal in sewan, peltries, or maize. The large appropriations of territory were bad enough, but not half so exasperating as individual interference in a trade which was the company's only source of profit, and through which alone it could hope to recompense itself for the expenditure already occasioned by the unprofitable province of New Netherland. "But," said Van Rensselaer, "we patroons are privileged, not private persons." Again and again were the various clauses in the charter analyzed and interpreted. It was a knotty tangle; and amidst the wrangling over the water, the population of Manhattan Island diminished rather than increased.
Purchase of Manhattan Island.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
CHAPTER V.
1633-1638.
GOVERNOR VAN TWILLER.
WOUTER VAN TWILLER. - CAPTAIN DE VRIES. - VAN TWILLER AND THE ENGLISH VESSEL. - CAPTAIN DE VRIES AND THE GOVERNOR. - THE FIRST MINISTER. - THE FIRST CHURCH AND PARSONAGE. - THE FIRST SCHOOLMASTER. - BUILDINGS AND IM- PROVEMENTS. - NEW AMSTERDAM. - BEGINNINGS OF HARTFORD. - TROUBLES WITH THE ENGLISH. - QUARRELS WITH THE PATROONS. - QUARRELS WITH THE ENGLISH. - FORT AMSTERDAM. - EXCESS AND IRREGULARITIES. - PURCHASE OF LANDS. - GOV- ERNOR VAN TWILLER'S RECALL.
T HE Amsterdam Chamber, having at last, as was believed, obtained mastery over the patroons, decided to establish forts and mills in New Netherland, in order to give wider scope to their mercantile oper- ations. Despite his private interests, Van Rensselaer had great
1633. influence among the directors, and succeeded in procuring the appointment of Wouter Van Twiller, one of his relations by marriage, to the command of the colony. It was a politic measure as far as he was concerned ; and it was a stupid concession on the part of the company. Van Twiller had been a clerk in the com- pany's warehouse at Amsterdam for nearly five years, and in the mean time had made two voyages to the Hudson River in the employ of Van Rens- Autograph of Van Twiller. selaer, who had select- ed him as a fit person to attend to the shipment of cattle to Rensselaers- wick. Van Twiller claimed to know all about affairs in New Netherland. He was in point of fact a shrewd trader; but he had no practical knowledge of government, and was ill-qualified to manage the general concerns of a remote province, shaken with internal jealousies and threatened with out-
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WOUTER VAN TWILLER.
side aggressions. He was a short stout man, with close-cropped sandy hair, small pale-blue eyes set deep in a full round face, and an uncertain mouth. He was good-natured and kind-hearted, but irresolute, easily swayed by stronger wills, narrow-minded, slow of thought, word, and deed, and grievously deficient in his understanding of men and their motives.
He arrived at Manhattan early in the spring. His vessel, the Zoutberg, captured a Spanish caravela during the voyage, and anchored it safely in front of Manhattan Island. The new governor was attended by one hun- dred and four soldiers, the first military force which landed upon our shores. His advent was hailed with cheers and enthusiasm; and with much wine and ceremony he was ushered into authority. His council consisted of Jacob Hansen Hesse, Martin Gerritsen, Andries Hudde, and Jacques Bentyn. They were men of comprehensive minds, who had been reared to habits of industry in Holland, and were able to render material assistance to the heavy, indolent Van Twiller. The secretary of the colony, Van Remund, was intelligent, and also helped towards smoothing the pathway of that dull-witted ruler and inexperi- enced traveler on the road to fame. Cornelis Van Tienhoven, a bright young man of good education, was appointed book-keeper of monthly wages, and Michael Paulusen was made commissary of Pauw's colony at Pavonia. Paulus Hook, now Jersey City, derived its name from him.
A few days after the arrival of Van Twiller at Manhattan, a April 16. yacht was seen coming into the bay; and ere the sun set Captain
De Vries announced himself at the fort. He had left Holland some time before the sailing of the Zoutberg, as early as November, and when he had reached Swaanendael, found the little post destroyed, and the ground bestrewed with the heads and bones of his murdered people. After various stratagems, he succeeded in persuading some of the Indians into coming on board his vessel, and through attractive presents drew from them the story of a terrible tragedy. The Dutch, in keeping with their time-honored customs, had erected a pillar, and fastened to it a piece of tin, upon which was inscribed the arms of Holland. An Indian chief, thinking it no harm, had stolen the shining metal to make himself a tobacco-pouch. Hossett, the commander of the post, was indiscreet enough to express great indignation, and thereupon some Indians who were particularly attached to him killed the chief who had confiscated the tin. Hossett rebuked them for committing such a crime, and they went away. But a few days afterwards the friends of the murdered chieftain resolved to be revenged, and, coming suddenly upon the men as they were at work in the tobacco-fields, massacred them all. De Vries wisely treated with the same Indians for peace; and when they were
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
at last induced to bring with them their chief, he formed a circle after their own fashion, and gave them blankets, bullets, axes, and trinkets, with which they were greatly pleased, and they went away promising that he should not be harmed.
March 11. He then tried to establish a whale-fishery, but after spending some time in fruitless efforts, decided that it would not prove paying business there, and sailed to the James River, where he was cour-
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Portrait of De Vries.
teously received by Sir John Harvey, the governor of Virginia. He re- mained several days, greatly admiring the country, which was already under a high state of cultivation, with well-stocked gardens, and Prov- ence roses, apple, cherry, pear, and peach trees about the houses.
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CAPTAIN DE VRIES.
Harvey, with genial frankness, produced a map, and tried to convince De Vries that the whole country in the region of Swaanendael was the property of the king of England; but he was very amiably disposed towards the Dutch on the North River, notwithstanding, and a pleasant intercourse was opened between the two colonies.
Captain De Vries was a bronzed, weather-beaten sailor of the old school, without family ties, who had seen the world from many points of observation, and had been on terms of intimacy with the most culti- vated men and the rudest barbarians. He was tall, muscular, and hard- visaged, but soft-voiced as a woman, except when aroused by passion. He was quick of perception, with great power of will, and rarely ever erred in judgment. He was the guest of Van Twiller while stopping at Manhattan, and a more striking contrast than the two men presented could hardly be imagined.
The second day after his arrival, the English ship William April 18. anchored in the bay ; and it was soon discovered that Eelkins, who had been dismissed from Fort Orange for misconduct some years before, was on board as supercargo. The governor and several of his officers were invited to dine on the vessel, and were accompanied by Captain De Vries. The immoderate use of wine and consequent disorder astonished the English sailors, who were under strict discipline, and measured the authority of the feeble Dutch governor accordingly. They stayed some days in front of the little town, and then announced their intention of sailing to Fort Orange, and trading with the Indians, with whom Eelkins was well acquainted. Van Twiller was startled as from a dream, and issued orders to the contrary ; but the William quietly weighed anchor, and went on her way in the most defiant manner. We clip the following from the deposition of one of her crew, as it best explains the scene : -
" The Dutch there inhabitinge send and command all our companye (excepte one boye) to come to their forte where they staide about twoe houres, and the governor commande his gunner to make ready three peeces of ordnance, and shott them off for the Prince of Orange and sprede the Prince's coloures, where- upon Jacob Eelekins the merchant's factor of the shippe the William commande William fforde of Lymehouse (the gunner) to goe abord the shippe and sprede her coloures and shoote off theire peeces of ordnance for the king of England."1
Van Twiller regarded the audacious movement with incredulous won- der. Then he ordered a barrel of wine to be brought and opened, and, after drinking, waved his hat and shouted, "All those who love the Prince of Orange and me, emulate me in this, and assist me in repelling the violence of that Englishman !"
1 N. Y. Coll. MSS., Vol. I. 74.
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HISTORY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK.
But the Englishman was already out of harm's way, sailing up the river, and the crowd only laughed and filled their glasses, saying, they "guessed they would not trouble the English who were their friends. As for the wine, they knew how to get to the bottom of a barrel; if there were six they could master them."
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