USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 34
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 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84
* De Vries,'164 ; Journal van N. N. ; Hol. Doc., iii., 107, 146, 166, 371 , Alb. Rec., ii., 202 ; iii., 25; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 9.
t Hol. Doc., iii., 106, 107 ; Col. Rec. Conn., 71, 73 ; Winthrop, ii., 78, 79, 80-84 ; Trum- bull, i., 121 ; Hutchinson, i., 108, 109 ; Hubbard's Indian Wars, 42.
C
331
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
could no longer remain usurpers against the "lawful CHAP. X. rights" of the Dutch, on account "both of the strifes of the English, the danger consequent thereon, and these 1642. treacherous and villainous Indians, of whom we have seen sorrowful examples enough." Patrick, therefore, went to 9 April. Fort Amsterdam, and, for himself and his associates at Greenwich, swore allegiance to the States General, the West India Company, and the Dutch colonial authorities, upon condition of being protected against their cnemies as much as possible, and of enjoying the same privileges "that all patroons of New Netherland have obtained agree- ably to the Freedoms."*
The Puritan colonists, who, in their new home in Amer- Religious ica, were exulting over the fall of Laud, had, meanwhile, of Massa- been reading a significant lesson to the world. In their chusetts. turn, the founders of Massachusetts became persecutors ; and, so far from recognizing the grand principle of the freedom of every one's conscience, required the submission of all to their peculiar ecclesiastical system. "The arm of the civil government," says Judge Story, " was constant- ly employed in support of the denunciations of the Church ; and, without its forms, the Inquisition existed in substance, with a full share of its terrors and its violence."t
A shining mark was soon offered. Among the carliest who followed Winthrop to Massachusetts was Roger Will- Roger iams, "a young minister, godly, zealous, having many Williams. precious parts." Revolving the nature of intolerance, his capacious mind found a sole remedy for it in " the sanc- tity of conscience." "The civil magistrate should restrain crime, but never control opinion." The mind of Williams, however, was in advance of the spirit of his neighbors. His ideas of "intellectual liberty" shocked the religious despotism of Massachusetts ; and the General Court sen- 1635. tenced him to depart out of their jurisdiction within six weeks, "all the ministers, save one, approving the sen- tencc."# Flying to the South, the exile wandered through
* Hol. Doc., ix., 204 ; O'Call., i., 252 ; Hazard, ii., 214 ; ante, p. 296. "Captain's Isl- and," on which stands the light-house off Greenwich, no doubt derived its name from Captain Patrick. t Story's Miscellanies, 66. # Winthrop, i., 171.
intolerance
October. Exiled from Mas- sachusetts.
332
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1636. January. June. Founds Provi- dence.
CHAP. X. the forests, in mid-winter, for fourteen weeks, until at last he found a refuge in the wigwam of the chief of Pokano- ket. The next summer, the father of Rhode Island laid the foundations of Providence; desiring, he said, "it might be a shelter for persons distressed for conscience."*
Anne Hutchin- son.
August. November. Banished.
24 March. Rhode Isl- and found- ed.
The banishment of Williams was soon followed by oth- er persecutions in Massachusetts. Anne Hutchinson, for maintaining "the paramount authority of private judg- ment," was denounced as "weakening the hands and hearts of the people toward the ministers," and as being 1637. " like. Roger Williams, or worse." She was, therefore, ex- communicated, and, with several of her friends, banished, as "unfit for the society" of their fellow-citizens. The ex- iles instinctively followed the footsteps of Williams. His 1638. influence aided them in obtaining from the chief of the Narragansetts the cession of the island of Adquidnecke, which, from its "reddish appearance," its early Dutch discoverers had named the "Roode," or Red Island, A 1641. form of government, resting on " the principle of intellect- ual liberty," was soon established ; and the first Demo- cratic Constitution of Rhode Island nobly ordained that " none be accounted a delinquent for doctrine ;" and de- clared that "liberty of conscience was perpetuated."t
March.
Proposed emigra- tions from Massachu- setts to New Neth- erland.
6 June. Liberality of the Dutch pro- vincial ernment.
The same spirit which had driven Williams and Hutch- inson from Massachusetts soon brought to Manhattan "a number of Englishmen" from-Lynn and Ipswich, to " so- licit leave to settle" among the Dutch, and to treat with the director for a patent for lands on Long Island. Kieft readily agreed to grant them all the franchises which the charter of 1640 allowed. Upon condition of their taking an oath of allegiance to the States General and the West India Company, they were to have the free exercise of re- ligion, a magistracy nominated by themselves and approved by the director, the right to erect towns, lands free of rent for ten years, and "an unshackled commerce, in conform- ity to the privileges of New Netherland."#
* Bradford ; Winthrop, i., 171; Backus, i., 94 ; Bancroft, i., 366, 367, 379.
Hutchinson, ii., 447 ; R. I. Records ; Bancroft, i., 388, 392, 393 ; Chalmers, 271 ; ante, # Alb. Rec., ii., 122, 123, 169 ; O'Call., i., 237. p. 58.
333
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
These "very fair terms" delighted the English appli- CHAP. X. cants. The General Court of Massachusetts, however, of- fended at the thought of their " strengthening the Dutch, October. 1641. our doubtful neighbors," and at their being willing to re- Opposition of the Gen- eral Court of Massa- chusetts. ceive from thein a title for lands which the king had granted to Lord Stirling; but, above all, at their " binding themselves by an oath of fealty," sought to dissuade them from their purpose. The arguments of the court prevail- ed, and the discontented colonists " were convinced, and promised to desist."*
Early the next year, Francis Doughty, a dissenting 1642. clergyman, while preaching at Cohasset, was dragged out Francis Doughty betakes of the assembly for venturing to assert that " Abraham's himself to children should have been baptized." Accompanied by Richard Smith, and several other liberal-minded men, Doughty came to Manhattan, to secure a happy home. He betook himself to the protection of the Dutch, "that he might, in conformity with the Dutch Reformation, have freedom of conscience, which, contrary to his expec- tation, he missed in New England." Kieft received the 28 March. strangers kindly, and immediately granted to Doughty and his associates "an absolute ground-brief" for more than thirteen thousand acres of land at Mespath, or New- town, on Long Island. The patent guaranteed to them . the freedom of religion, and all the political franchises which had before been offered to the people of Lynn, and Ipswich, "according to the immunities granted and to be granted to the colonists of this province, without any ex- eeption."+
In the autumn of the same year, John Throgmorton, John whom Hugh Peters had judged " worthy of the same per- ton and his Throgmor- secution that drove Williams to Providence," came to Man- tle them- hattan to solicit a residence under the jurisdiction of the Throg's selves at States General. Kieft readily listened to Throgmorton's 2 October. Neck. request ; and granted him permission to settle himself, " with thirty-five English families," within twelve miles
* Winthrop, ii., 34.
+ Vertoogh van N. N., in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 301, 333 ; Lechford, 40, 41 ; Alb. Rec. G. G., 49 ; O'Call., i., 425 ; Thompson, L. I., il., 70 ; Riker's Newtown, 17, 413.
the Dutch.
Patent for espath, or Newtown.
friends sct-
334
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. X. of Fort. Amsterdam, "to reside there in peace, and enjoy
1642. the same privileges as our other subjects, and be favored with the free exercise of their religion."* The refugees selected for their home the lands on the East River, now known as West Chester, which the Dutch appropriately Vredeland. named " Vredeland," or the "Land of Peace;" and the next summer, Throgmorton obtained a patent for a por- tion of the territory where he and his companions had found an asylum.t
Anne Hutchin- son re- moves to Even Rhode Island seemed hardly as desirable an abode as New Netherland. Becoming dissatisfied with her first New Neth- retreat, and fearing that the implacable vengeance of Mas- erland. sachusetts would reach her even there, the widowed Anne Hutchinson, in the summer of 1642, removed, with Col- lins, her son-in-law --- " a young scholar full of zeal"-and all her family, beyond New Haven, into the Dutch terri- tory, and chose for her residence the point now known as Pelham Neck, near New Rochelle, a few miles eastward of Throgmorton's settlement. The spot was soon called " Annie's Hoeck ;" and a small stream, which separates it from the town of East Chester, still preserves in its name, " Hutchinson's River," the memory of the remarkable woman who there found her last home .;
Settlement at "Annie's Hoeck."
Motives to the large emigra- tions from New En- gland.
These large emigrations to New Netherland, where five English colonies were soon established, did not fail to at- tract the notice of the Puritan authorities. The "unset- tled frame of spirit" of many was attributed to the sudden fall of land and cattle, and the scarcity of foreign commod- ities ; and there was "much disputation" in Massachusetts " about liberty of removing for outward advantages."§ There were doubtless some who emigrated merely to en- large their estates. But there were many others, whose only motive for the change was the religious intolerance
Alb. Rec., ii., 185.
t Alb. Rec. G. G., 98, 173, 174 ; Winthrop, i., 42; Hutchinson, i., 371 ; Benson's Mem- oir, 121 ; Bolton's West Chester, ii., 145, 146, 152. The point now known as "Throg's Neck" was comprehended within this grant, and, no doubt, derives its name from Throg- morton. 1
# Winthrop, ii., 8, 39, 136 ; Neal, i., 178 ; Hutchinson, i., 72, 73 ; Bolton, i., 514, 515.
§ Winthrop, ii., 85, 87 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 6.
335
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
of their own countrymen. They left New England to seek, CHAP. X. in New Netherland, " freedom to worship God."
Besides the numerous strangers whose "insupportable government" drove them to seek permanent homes in the Dutch Province, there flocked from Virginia and New En- gland many fugitive servants, "who too often carry their passports with them under the soles of their shoes." Their conduet at Manhattan was soon found to occasion mischief and complaint. Kieft, therefore, issued a proc- 13 April. lamation forbidding the inhabitants to harbor any stran- regula- gers, or give them more than one meal or a single night's tions. lodging, without notifying the director, and furnishing hin with the names of the new-comers .*
The constant intercourse at this time between New England and Virginia brought many transient visitors to Manhattan. On their way to and from Long Island Sound and Sandy Hook, the coasting vessels always stopped at Fort Amsterdam; and the increasing number of his guests occasioned great inconvenience to the director, who fre- quently could afford them but " slender entertainment." Kieft, therefore, built " a fine hotel of stone" at the com- Kieft pany's expense, where travellers "might now go and stone hotel builds a lodge." This hotel, or "Harberg," was conveniently sit- lers. for travel- nated on the river side, a little east of Fort Amsterdam, near what is at present known as " Coonties Slip."+
The old church had now become dilapidated ; and De A new Vries, dining with Kieft, told him it was a shame that the posed. English, when they visited Manhattan, "saw only a mean barn in which we preached." "The first thing they built in New England, after their dwelling-houses, was a fine church ; we should do the like," urged De Vries: " we have fine oak wood, good mountain stone, and excellent lime, which we burn from oyster-shells-much better than our lime in Holland." "Who shall oversee the work ?" asked Kieft, whose anxiety " to leave a great name after him" was the more earnest, as a church was then in
church pra-
* Journal van N. N., in Hol. Doc., iii., 93 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 6 ; Alb. Rec., if., 161. t De Vries, 163; Winthrop, ii., 96 ; Moulton's New Orange, 21.
1642. The num- bers of strangers at Manhat-
tan con- stantly in- creasing.
New police
336
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Church
masters ap- pointed.
CHAP. X. contemplation at Rensselaerswyck. "There are friends 1642. enough of the Reformed religion," answered De Vries, who immediately subscribed one hundred guilders, upon condition that the director should head the list. Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, " a devout professor of the Reformed re- ligion," and Jan Jansen Dam, who lived "close by the fort," were immediately appointed, with De Vries and Kieft, church masters to superintend the building ; toward the cost of which the director agreed to advance " some thousand guilders" on the company's account. For great- er security "against all sudden attacks of the Indians," the church was ordered to be erected within the fort. This decision, however, was not satisfactory ; for as it was to be built chiefly by public subscription, the people thought that it should be placed where it would be gen- erally convenient. Besides, the fort was small enough already, and a church within it would be "a fifth wheel to a wagon." It would intercept, too, the southeast wind, and prevent the working of the grist-mill hard by. But Kieft insisted, and all objections were overruled .*
Subscrip- tions ob- tained.
It only remained to secure the necessary subscriptions. Fortunately, it happened that the daughter of Domine Bo- gardus was married just then ; and Kieft thought the wed- ding-feast a good opportunity to excite the generosity of the guests. So, " after the fourth or fifth round of drink- ing," he showed a liberal example himself, and let the other wedding guests subscribe what they would toward the church fund. All the company, with light heads and glad hearts, vied with each other in " subscribing richly." Some of them, when they went home, "well repented it;" but " nothing availed to excuse.""
May.
A contract was made with John and Richard Ogden, of Stamford, for the mason-work of a stone church seventy- two feet long, fifty wide, and sixteen high, at a cost of twenty-five hundred guilders, and a gratuity of one hund- red more if the work should be satisfactory .. The walls 1
* De Vries, 164; Vertoogh van N. N., 293. '
t Vertoogh van N. N., in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 293.
337
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
were soon built ; and the roof was raised and covered by CHAP. X. English carpenters with oak shingles, which, by exposure to the weather, soon " looked like slate." The honor and 1642. Church in Fort Am- sterdam. the ownership of the work were both commemorated by a square stone inserted in the front wall, bearing the am- biguous inscription, " Anno Domini, 1642, William Kieft, Director General, hath the Commonalty caused to build this Temple."*
The Provincial government before long felt some in- convenience from "the large number of Englishmen" who daily came to reside in New Netherland. Though Kieft himself was " roughly acquainted with the English lan- guage," his subordinate officers were not; and the En- glish strangers knowing the language of the province as little as the Dutch did of that of the new-comers, it was found necessary to have an official interpreter. One of George 11 Dec. the exiles from New England, George Baxter, was ac- pointed En- Baxter ap- glish secre- cordingly appointed " English secretary," at an annual sal- tary. ary of two hundred and fifty guilders.t
The party which Lamberton had sent, the previous Affairs our summer, from New Haven to the South River, having, in River. the South violation of their pledge, established themselves upon Dutch territory, " without any commission of a potentate," Kieft, on finding how he had been cajoled, determined " to drive these English thenee in the best manner possi- ble." The yachts Real and Saint Martin were therefore 22 May. dispatched to Jansen, the commissary at Fort Nassau, tion dis- patched who was instructed to visit the intruders, and " compel from Man- them to depart directly in peace." Their personal prop- hattan.
An expedi-
* Alb. Rec., iii., 31 ; lIcl. Doc., iv. ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 382; ii., 293 ; O'Call., i., 262 ; Breeden Raedt, 22. It appears, from the Breeden Raedt, that the church was not inclosed until 1643. When the fort was demolished in 1790, to make way for the Gov- ernment House, which was built on the site of what is now the " Bowling Green," the stone with the inscription was found among the rubbish. The following paragraph from the " New York Magazine" for 1790, records the circumstance : "June 23. On Monday last, in digging away the foundation of the fort in this city, a square stone was found among the ruins of a chapel (which formerly stood in the fort), with the following Dutch inscription on it : ' Ao. Do. MDCXLII. W. Kieft Dr. Gr. Heeft de Gemeenten dese Tem- pel doen Bouwen.'" This stone was removed to the belfry of the Reformed Dutch church in Garden Street, where it remained until both were destroyed in the great fire of Decem- ber, 1835 .- ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 328; Benson's Mem., 103 ; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 402. t Alb. Rec., ii., 202.
Y
338
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. X. erty was not to be injured ; but the commissary was to
1642.
"remain master," and, above all, "maintain the reputa- tion of their High Mightinesses, and the noble directors of the. West India Company."
The En- glish settle- ments broken up.
28 August. Lamberton compelled to account tan.
Jansen executed his orders promptly. The settlement on the Schuylkill was broken up at once. That on the Varkens' Kill, or Salem Creek, was next visited, and, with the hearty co-operation of the Swedes, who had agreed with Kieft "to keep out the English," the intruders were expelled. The trespassers were conveyed to Fort Amster- dam, and from there sent back to New Haven. Lam- berton, however, persisting in trading at the South River, was soon afterward arrested at Manhattan, on his return to New Haven, and compelled to give an account of his pel- tries, and pay duties on his cargo. The New Haven peo- ple protested, and threatened retaliation. But Kieft fur- nished the Dutch who had occasion to visit the " Red Hills" with passports, in which he boldly avowed his own responsibility for all that had happened. The damages which the English sustained at the South River were es- timated at one thousand pounds ; but though they com- plained bitterly, they never obtained redress .*
Difficulties at Hartford.
The difficulties between the Dutch garrison at the Hope and the English at Hartford continued unabated. Eve- ry vexation that ingenuity could contrive was practiced against the Hollanders, who, on the other hand, were charged with enticing away and sheltering the servants of the English colonists ; with helping prisoners in jail to escape; and with purchasing and retaining goods stolen from the English. Under these circumstance's, Kieft, find- ing that his protests were of no effect, had recourse to re- taliatory measures ; and all trade and commercial inter- course with the Hartford people, in the neighborhood of the Dutch post, was formally prohibited.t
3 April. Kieft for- bids inter- course with Hartford.
* Alb. Rec., ii., 162, 164, 177, 185; Acrelius ; i., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 413 : ii., 281 ; O'Call., i., 254 ; Hazard, ii., 164, 214; S. Hazard, Ann. Penn., 61, 62; Ferris, 59, 60 ; Trumbull, i., 122, 123.
t Alb. Rec., ii., 157, 158 ; Hazard, ii., 216, 265 ; i., N. Y. H. S. Coll., 276 ; Trumbull, i., 122.
339
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
It was not long before the Hartford authorities felt the CHAP. X. inconvenience of their position. The General Court, there- fore, ordered that the magistrates " shall have liberty to 11 May. 1642. agitate the business betwixt us and the Dutch, and, if they think meet, to treat with the governor concerning the same."* Under this authority, Whiting, a magistrate, Delegation and Hill, a deputy of Hartford, came to Manhattan, to ar- ford visits from Hart- range with the director for the purchase of the West In- July. dia Company's lands around the Hope. Kieft, after ex- 9 July. plaining in detail the antiquity of the Dutch title, offered to lease "the field at Hartford" to the English, for an an- nual rent of a tenth part of the produce, as long as they should occupy it. The delegates, on their return, sub- The Dutch initted these conditions to the General Court. But notions. proposi- abatement of annoyance followed. The coveted field was again despitefully plowed up by the Hartford people, who even prevented " cattle that belonged not to them" from being driven toward New Netherland.t
Manhattan.
There was a strong, though not, perhaps, an honorable motive for this system of petty annoyance. Hopkins had now returned from London, bringing with him Boswell's letter to Wright. The recommendation of the British min- Policy and ister at the Hague, " Crowd on-crowd the Dutch out," the Ilart- motives of was now to be the system by which New Netherland was, by degrees, to be dismembered of her territory, and grad- ually separated from Holland. The General Court direct- 29 Sept. ed that " a letter be returned to the Dutch, in answer to their letter brought by Mr. Whiting ;" and also that let- ters should be written to Dudley and Bellingham, the for- mer governors of Massachusetts, " concerning what the Dutch governor reporteth that they have wrote to him about our differences." Dudley, in 1640, had written to Kieft in conciliatory terms ; and Bellingham, the next year, had advised moderation on both sides ;# but the Hart- ford authorities now seemed apprehensive that Massachu-
ford people.
* Col. Rec. Conn., 72.
+ Hazard, ii., 265 ; i., N. Y. H. S. Coll., 276 ; Col. Rec. Conn., 72 ; Alb. Roc., ii., 171, 172; Smith, Hist. N. Y., i., 6.
# Winthrop, ii., 7, 32 ; Col. Rec. Conn., 75, 566 ; ante, p. 299, 322.
340
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. X. setts had committed herself to more liberal views than those which suited the policy of Connecticut. 1
1642. Puritan agents in England.
23 July.
Lord Say's letter to the Dutch am- bassador.
The agents in England, in the mean time, had not been unsuccessful. Though Peters failed in his undertaking to " pacify" the Dutch West India Company, the New En- gland delegates, acting on Boswell's advice, succeeded in inducing "persons of quality", to communicate with the representative of the States General at London. Lord Say, as one of Lord Warwick's original grantees, was warmly interested ; and, in the course of the summer, he addressed a letter to Joachimi, the Netherlands' ambassa- dor, in which he strenuously advocated the cause of the Connecticut colonists, and severely censured the Dutch. They, he said, had protested and threatened, and used " haughty arguments" against the English ; yet, though there were only five or six Netherlanders residing on the river, "where there are more than two thousand English," no violent proceedings had been taken against the Dutch, who, it was asserted, had been treated "with all civility." The Pequod Indians, of whom the Hollanders claimed to have purchased a portion of the land, "had no other than a usurped title." The " weakness" of the Dutch title was inferred, because " the English having addressed sundry letters to their governor, William Kieft," he had refused to accept their proposal to refer the settlement of the ques- tion to impartial arbitrators. The Dutch should be or- dered to demean themselves peaceably, and be content with their own limits, " or to leave the river." This last suggestion would "tend most to their master's profit," as the returns from their post never had, and never would re- pay expenses. "Moreover," added Lord Say, "they live there in an ungodly way, in no wise beseeming the Gos- pel of Christ. Their residence there will never produce any other effect than expense to their masters and trouble to the English." Other influential persons in London, moved by the representations of the New England agents, openly threatened that, before the end of the year, the Hollanders should be utterly expelled from the valley of
Threats against the Dutch.
341
WILLIAM KIEFT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
the Connecticut. Joachimi therefore sent Lord Say's com- CHAP. X. munication to the States General ; and, in subsequent dispatches, explained the irritated feeling which existed 1642. among the friends of the Puritan colonists, and urged the king should be asked to command his New England sub- jects not to molest the Dutch, who had possession of New Netherland before the English ever came there. "For such commands must proceed from his majesty ; and it might be taken ill that redress should be sought from the House of Parliament, whose orders would probably not be received in those far-distant quarters." The Dutch am- bassador at London, however, little knew the temper of the men of New 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.