USA > New York > History of the state of New York Vol I > Part 68
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
In the mean time, active measures had been taken by the city of Amsterdam, whither Van Sweringen had gone, " to remonstrate the condition" of its colony. A full re- 9 March. port was made to the burgomasters; and the West India Company, on its part, readily agreed to modify the condi- 21 March. tions under which New Amstel had been conveyed in 1656. These changes, which promised great advantages, were ap- proved by the city government ; and the burghers of Am- sterdam were invited to take an interest in its colony.
Public attention was soon drawn toward the South Riv- er, and various plans of emigration were proposed. The region between New Amstel and Cape Hinlopen being
* Alb. Rec., xvii., 100, 112, 124, 127, 129, 142, 146, 377; xviii., 146; S. Hazard, Ann. Penn., 320-330 ; Smith's N. Y., i., 13; McMahon, 25 ; Bancroft, ii., 236, 309.
1661. Confirma- tion of the Maryland patent. 21 July. Stuyve- sant's dis- patch to the W. I. Com-
698
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XX. almost unoccupied, seemed to present special attractions, 1661. and a number of Mennonists, or Anabaptists, proposed to establish themselves in a colony at the Horekill. A corre- Mennon- ists pro- pose to em- igrate. 1662. 10 Jan. Articles of associa- tion for the Horekill colony. spondence with the burgomasters resulted in the forma- tion of a company, and the adoption of one hundred and seventeen articles of association for the government of the proposed settlement, which are among the most extraor- dinary of the early memorials of American colonization. The associates were to be either married males, or single men twenty-four years old, who were free from debt. Each was to bind himself to obey the ordinances of the so- ciety, and not to seek his own advancement over any other member. No clergymen were to be admitted into the so- ciety. Religious services were to be as simple as possible. Every Sunday and holiday the people were to assemble, sing a psalm, and listen to a chapter from the Bible, to be read by one of the members in rotation ; after which an- other psalm was to be sung. At the end of these exer- cises, the court was to be opened for public business. The object of the association being to establish a harmonious society of persons of different religious sentiments, it was determined to exclude from it "all intractable people- such as those in communion with the Roman See; usurious Jews; English stiff-necked Quakers; Puritans ; fool-hardy believers in the Millennium; and obstinate modern pre- tenders to revelation." Laws were to be ordained by the votes of two thirds of the members ; but they must be ap- proved by the authorities of the city of Amsterdam before they could become binding. Ten persons were to be an- nually proposed as officers, of whom the burgomasters of Amsterdam were to select five, to serve for one year. Dur- ing the first five years after their arrival, the emigrants were to live in common. At the end of that time the prop- erty was to be divided, and each head of a family to re- ceive his proportionate share. Idle and dissolute persons. might be expelled by a vote of two thirds of the members. The laws of Holland, and especially those of the city of Amsterdam, were to govern the new association, and no
699
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
magistrate was to receive any compensation, "not even a CHAP. XX. stuyver."
1662.
These singular articles, together with a description of Publication the country and various papers and arguments in favor of fthe Korte Verhael.
Agreement
the project, were published in Holland ; and the city gov- ernment granted an advance of two hundred guilders each 20 April. to twenty-five families of Mennonists about to emigrate to New Netherland. A few months afterward, articles were 9 June. agreed upon between the burgomasters and Pieter Corne- between Amster- lis Plockhoy, as the leader of the colonists, to whom was dam and granted a tract of land at the Horekill, to be free from tax- nonists. the Men- es for twenty years. The emigrants were to establish for themselves such laws as they thought proper, provided they did not conflict with the general "conditions" which the city had published in 1656. Arrangements were made for the transportation of the colonists ; and twenty-five hund- red guilders were loaned to the association, for the repay- ment of which the whole body was to be bound .*
The condition of New Amstel and Altona, however, had Affairs at not improved. The officers of the city's colony became stel and Al- New Am- daily more independent, refusing to publish Stuyvesant's 12 March. tona. thanksgiving proclamations, and requiring vessels to lower their colors while passing New Amstel. Hinoyossa de- 15 May. nounced the provincial government, and threatened that if the burgomasters of Amsterdam did not support his au- thority he would follow the example of Minuit, " who, in consequence of the ill treatment he had received from the company, had brought the Swedes to the South River." Beeckman, on his part, charged Hinoyossa with pecula- tion ; and Van Sweringen, having accidentally shot one of 21 Jane. the company's soldiers, was protected by the city's director against the criminal process of New Netherland. Mean- while, religious ordinances were discontinued, for there
* Hol. Doc., xv., 37-51, 123-133 ; xvi., 231-235 ; Alb. Rec., iv., 377 ; viii., 335-337 ; xviii., 195; Lond. Doc., iv., 177 ; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 345; Wagenaar, i., 595 ; O'Call., ii., 461-469. These articies form a part of the Appendix to a small quarto pamphlet of 84 pages, com- piled from De Laet, De Vries, and the Vertoogh, entitled " Korte Verhael van Nieuw Ne- derlandts Gelegenthied," &c., &c., printed in 1662. The copy which I procured in Hol- land is in the library of the N. Y. Historical Society ; and a translation will probably be included in its collections.
700
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XX. were no clergymen to baptize the children or administer 1662. the communion. It was now evident that either the com- pany or the city must be supreme there. To accomplish this object, earnest representations were sent to Holland ; September. whither Hinoyossa announced that he would return by way of Virginia, "to give an accurate description of the colony to his lords and patrons, and to convince them of the necessity of obtaining possession of the South River."*
Want of re- ligious services.
Hinoyossa visits Hol- land.
June. Sir George Downing British am- bassador at the Hague.
In the mean time, the relations between England and 1661. the Netherlands had been far from harmonious. Charles, indeed, had paid the Dutch the compliment of accrediting to them the first ambassador whom he sent to a foreign court after his Restoration. But the king's choice was singularly infelicitous. The new ambassador was Sir George Downing. He had been educated in Massachu- setts, and was one of the earliest graduates of the college at Cambridge in the year 1642. Going over to England, Downing entered Cromwell's army, and was afterward sent by the Protector as ambassador to the States General. In this position he had conducted himself with great haugh- tiness toward the republic, and had become personally ob- noxious to the Dutch statesmen. Changing with the change of the times, he recommended himself to the vers- atile king, who reinstated him in his former post. On his return to the Hague, Downing became still more arrogant. Able and bold, but faithless and unscrupulous, his charac- ter had already become a proverb among his countrymen, who were used " to say of a false man who betrayed his trust, that he was an arrant George Downing."t
It was no wonder that the negotiations for a treaty of commerce and alliance between England and the United Provinces were protracted. Besides embarrassing ques- tions arising out of the new Act of Navigation, there were other reasons why Charles was not anxious for a definitive arrangement with the Dutch. Lord Baltimore had already
* Alb. Rec., xvii., 151-247 ; xviii., 195 ; O'Call., ii., 464, 465 ; S. Hazard, Ann. Penn., 330-341.
t Hutchinson, i., 107, 444 ; Savage's Winthrop, i., 49 ; ii., 240-242 ; Lettres d'Estrades, ii., 364 ; Basnage, i,, 634 ; Brieven van De Witt, iv., 139; Davies, iii., 20, 21.
701
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
appealed to him in behalf of Maryland ; and now Henry, CHAP. XX. the third Earl of Stirling, urged his petition that, in any treaty which might be made with the Netherlands, the 1662. Dutch upon Long Island should be required to submit 31 May. themselves to English authority. The king's obvious pol- 10 June. icy was procrastination. Not so that of the Dutch. The States General, wearied with delays, at length sent orders March. to their ambassadors to conclude the treaty which had been so fully discussed, or else leave London. The ambassadors were put off some time longer; but, in the end, a conven- 14 Sept. tion was signed at Whitehall. At first the alliance seem- tion be- Conven- ed to promise well ; the Dutch fulfilled their stipulations United tween the with promptness and honor ; and the king declared that and Great Provinces as they had been the first to execute, so he would be the Britain. last to violate the treaty. But the event did not verify the royal word. A bitter, hereditary jealousy of the Dutch was deeply seated in the minds of the English people. Amsterdam had overshadowed London ; the commerce of Holland had prospered more than that of England; Dutch fleets had humbled the arrogance which claimed to rule the seas ; and Saint John's vindictive Act of Navigation had been followed up by the still more selfish statute of the Twelfth of Charles the Second. That act contempla- ted the total exclusion of all foreigners from any trade or commerce with the British colonies. Though its restric- tions violated the rights of mankind, they were looked upon with less repugnance in New England, where envy of the Dutch in New Netherland predominated, than in Virginia, where a more magnanimous policy obtained. The inter- colonial treaty which Stuyvesant had negotiated with Berkeley in 1660 had given satisfaction to the people of both provinces. The new Act of Navigation was felt to be a serious grievance, and its provisions were virtually evad- ed. Dutch ships continued to convey to foreign markets the tobacco which otherwise would have been the prize of monopoly at London or Bristol ; and Governor Berkeley Berkeley agent of
was sent to England as agent of Virginia, to ask relief Virginia. from commercial oppression. But the king was indiffer-
702
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XX. ent, and Parliament was inexorable. At the very time the 1662. 25 August. 4 Sept. treaty with the Netherlands was matured, the council for Foreign Plantations was considering the question of the se- cret trade between the Dutch and the English colonies in 12 Sept. America ; and Berkeley was presently instructed to cause The Navi- gation Act ordered to the Act of Navigation to be "carefully and faithfully ex- be observed ecuted and observed" in Virginia, where the government in the En- glish colo- nies. had certain knowledge that "very much tobacco is shipped in that our colony in Dutch vessels." Well might Stuyve- sant inform the Amsterdam Chamber that Berkeley had "effected very little in favor of the English Virginians."*
23 April. Royal char- ter of Con- necticut.
Bounda- ries.
Connecticut was more fortunate in her agent than was Virginia. Though the son-in-law of the executed Hugh Peters, Winthrop, by his personal character, talents, and lit- erary attainments, soon commanded respect and won con- fidence.' Before long a royal charter passed the great seal, by which "the governor and company of the English colony of Connecticut, in New England," were incorporated, and invested with jurisdiction over all the territory bounded on the east by the Narragansett Bay, on the north by the south line of Massachusetts, on the south by the sea, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean ; together with "the islands thereunto adjoining." Thus the " careless benevolence" of Charles the Second gave to Connecticut the whole of New Haven, besides the greater part of New Netherland, including Long Island, then claimed by Lord Stirling; and the coveted possessions of the Dutch appeared at last to be within the grasp of those who had striven so long to ap- propriate the territory of their "noxious neighbors," and " crowd out" the original discoverers of the land.t
Encroach- es on New Nether- land.
The next autumn, the charter was presented and read September. at the annual meeting of the commissioners of the United Colonies ; and the English settlers at the eastern end of Long Island hastened to acknowledge their allegiance to
* Lond. Doc., i., 110-123 ; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 39-44; Alb. Rec., xviii., 157, 158, 197 ; Chalmers, 242-244; Hazard, ii., 610; Brieven van De Witt, iv., 221-304; Aitzema, iv., 1111-1114 ; Basnage, i., 665 ; Bancroft, ii., 69, 198, 309 ; Verplanck, in iii., N. Y. H. S.Coll., 87 ; ante, p. 683, 685.
t Hazard, ii., 597-605 ; Chalmers, 293 ; Bancroft, i., 425 ; ii., 51-54 ; Trumbull, i., 249 ; ante, p. 262, 324, 695. .
703
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
Connecticut. Southold chose Captain John Young as her CHAP. XX. deputy to the next General Court at Hartford. Young's previous proceedings had awakened the attention of the 1662. New Netherland government; and Stuyvesant now inform- 13 October. ed the Connecticut authorities that they were " an absolute sant's let- Stuyve- breach and a nullification" of the boundary treaty of 1650, General ter to the and that they gave the States General and the West India Connecti. Court of Company a just ground to demand and recover all their cut. ancient rights to the territory between Greenwich and the Fresh River. The General Court was, therefore, request- ed to return its "categorical answer" about Young's "se- ditious doings." This was soon given. The charter was % Oct. exhibited to Captain Nicholas Varlett, who had brought his brother-in-law's letter, and the court desired that Stuyve- Reply of sant " would not in any wise incumber or molest his maj- cut. Connecti- esty's subjects comprehended within the extent of our pat- ent by any impositions, that thereby more than probable inconveniences may be prevented." Southold was received under the protection of the court, and Young was admitted a freeman of the corporation. West Chester was declared 23 October. to be included in Connecticut, and the inhabitants were ter, Green- West Ches- required to send deputies to its next General Court. Green- the Long wich, and wich was also accepted, and annexed with West Chester to towns an- Island the jurisdiction of the local court at Fairfield. The settle- nexed. ments at Huntington, Setauket or Ashford, and Oyster Bay, were notified to choose constables ; and " all the Planta- tions on the island," including Jamaica, Flushing, Graves- end, Heemstede, and Middelburgh, were ordered to " at- tend the established law of this colony for the rule of rat- ing," and to appear at the General Assembly to be held the next May .*
Religious zeal had, meanwhile, been animating the Jes- uits in Canada to new efforts for the conversion of the sav-
* Alb. Rec., iv., 379, 382 ; xviii., 218, 219 ; xx., 249, 253, 263 ; xxi., 97-101 ; Dunlap, ii., App. xxix. ; Hazard, ii., 467 ; Hartford Rec., i., 12 ; ii., 1, 168; Col. Rec. Conn., 384-390 ; Bolton's West Chester, ii., 20, 162, 163; Riker's Newtown, 54. The particular reason why Captain Varlett went to Hartford was because his sister Judith had been imprisoned there, on a "pretended accusation of witchery ;" and the Dutch director's letter warmly urged her release. Judith afterward married Stuyvesant's nephew, Nicholas Bayard, and in 1686 resided in the " Hoogh Straat," or High Street, in the city of New York.
704
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1661. Le Moyne among the Iroquois. 12 August.
CHAP. XX. ages, and Father Le Moyne once more visited the country of the Iroquois. Though the Mohawks were implacable, the Western tribes showed friendship; and deputies from the Senecas, Cayugas, and Onondagas, assembled at the sound of the bell, which had once summoned the faithful to worship in the deserted chapel of the Jesuits. The coun- cil seemed inclined to peace ; but the Western nations could 1662. not influence the fiercer Mohawks, and the next spring Le Moyne returned to Canada. ...
Returns to Canada.
After having crushed the Hurons, the Mohawks execu- ted their threatened design against the Eastern savages, 30 April. Mohawks and a formidable war party visiting the English traders on on the Ken- the Kennebeck, forced them to an unwilling traffic. Thence nebeck. they proceeded to the Penobscot fort, where they surprised 3 May. Surprise the Abena- quis and and captured a party of Abenaquis, who had come thither to trade. On their return, the Mohawks killed the cattle rob the En- of the English, and robbed their store-houses "to the value glish. of three hundred pounds." To obtain redress for these aggressions, delegates from Boston accompanied Captain Thomas Breedon, the governor of Nova Scotia, to New Am- 27 July. sterdam; and the director at once proceeded with the En- glish agents to Fort Orange. The Mohawk sachems offer- ed an atonement of wampum, but would surrender no pris- oners ; and, abruptly breaking up the conference, they threatened, unless the English declared themselves satis- 3 August. Stuyvesant arranges an accom- modation. fied, to ravage the borders of Connecticut. At length Stuy- vesant arranged an accommodation, and purchased by pres- ents the release of some of the captives. Breedon, how- ever, still unsatisfied, complained to the commissioners at Boston that "no recompense" could be obtained ; and the 12 Sept. Measures Board, apprehending "the insolencies and wrongs done by of the N. E. the aforesaid Indian Mohawkes have been very great," rec- commis- sioners. ommended the several colonies to allow the governor of Nova Scotia to enroll volunteers within their jurisdictions " for his just relief and satisfaction."
At the very moment Stuyvesant and the English dele- gates were negotiating with the sachems at Fort Orange, a war party of Mohawks and Oneidas was threatening
705
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
Montreal. A post near its gates was attacked, and the CHAP. XX. garrison killed or captured. Father Vignal was slain ; Brignac was burned at the stake. Three of the prisoners escaping with great difficulty, after nine days of constant
1662. 12 August. Iroquois again in- suffering and peril, reached Fort Orange, where they were vade Can- ada. hospitably entertained and clothed. Thence. they were conveyed to New Amsterdam, and finally reached Quebec by way of Boston. The situation of Canada was now, in- deed, alarming. Reduced to forty-five associates, the im- poverished and disheartened proprietaries of New France resigned all their rights to the king; and the surrendered Reorgani province was soon afterward conveyed by Louis XIV. to the govern .. zation of the new and wealthier West India Company, which his New ment of France. great minister Colbert had organized, and under whose auspices Alexander de Prouville, Marquis de Tracy, was 1663. commissioned as French viceroy in America .* 19 Nov.
Stuyvesant had scarcely returned from Fort Orange when he felt himself called upon to interfere again, to check the progress of Quakerism on Long Island. And now the scene of persecution was at Flushing. Among the early emigrants thither was John Bowne, t a plain, strong- John minded English farmer. His wife soon became attached Flushing. to the society of the Quakers, who, owing to the severe measures of the provincial government, were obliged to hold their meetings privately, in the woods and solitary places. Bowne, out of curiosity, having attended some of these meetings, invited the Quakers to his house, and, before long, joined their society. The magistrates of Jamaica, faith- 24 August. ful to their promise, informed the director that Bowne's and fined Arrested for harbor house had become a "conventicle" for the Quakers of all ing Quak. the neighboring villages ; and the new convert, upon being ers.
Bowne, of
* Alb. Rec., iv., 423 ; xx., 178, 184-194 ; Hol. Doc., xi., 211 ; Hazard, ii., 462, 463 ; Re- lation, 1660-1, 1661-2, 1663-4, 1664-5 ; Charlevoix, i., 348-380 ; Bancroft, iii., 148 ; O'Call., ii., 452, 453 ; Hildreth, ii., 91 ; ante, p. 647, 682.
t Bowne was born at Matlock, in Derbyshire, in 1627. He came over to Boston in 1649, and soon afterward settled himself at Flushing, where, in 1656, he was married to Hannah, a daughter of Robert Field, and a sister of Elizabeth, the wife of Captain John Underhill. In 1661, Bowne crected a fine dwelling-house at the eastern end of Flush- ing, where it may still be seen. Near this house were two large oak-trees, under which George Fox preached in 1672. One of these trees was blown down in September, 1841 ; the other, still standing, is supposed to be at least four centuries old.
YY
706
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. XX. arrested, confessed his offense. To punish Bowne's con- 1662. tempt of authority, Stuyvesant condemned him to "an amend" of twenty-five Flemish pounds, and threatened 14 Sept. him with banishment.
21 Sept. New proc- lamation against sectarian- ism and se- dition.
The next week, a new proclamation declared that the public exercise of any religion but the Reformed, “in houses, barns, ships, woods, or fields," would be punished by a fine of fifty guilders ; double for a second offense ; and for the third quadruple, with arbitrary correction. The im- portation or distribution of all seditious books was forbid- den, under penalty of fine and confiscation. Strangers ar- riving in the province were to report themselves within six weeks to the secretary, and take the oath of allegiance. And magistrates who permitted the violation of this proc- lamation were threatened with immediate removal from office. But the threat of punishment did not repress the 5 October. zeal of the Quakers. John Tilton, and Mary his wife, and Michael and Samuel Spicer, of Gravesend, persisting in fre- quenting conventicles, were ordered to leave the province before the twentieth of November. Meanwhile, Bowne, refusing to pay his fine, had remained imprisoned at New Amsterdam; and, at the end of three months, " for the wel- 14 Dec. Order in council against Bowne. fare of the community, and to crush as far as it is possi- ble that abominable sect who treat with contempt both the political magistrates and the ministers of God's holy word, and endeavor to undermine the police and religion," an or- der was made in council " to transport from this province the aforesaid John Bowne, if he continues obstinate and pervicacious, in the first ship ready to sail, for an example to others." The Quaker convert, however, remaining firm, 1663. the director executed his threat. Bowne was ordered on 9 Jan. Bowne banished. board the Gilded Fox; and Stuyvesant wrote to the Am- sterdam Chamber that the contumacious prisoner had been banished as a terror to others, who, if not discouraged by this example, would be dealt with still more severely.
But the banishment of Bowne was the harbinger of a better day for New Netherland. On reaching Amsterdam, the exile "manifested his case" to the directors of the West
707
PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.
India Company, who did not utter " one word tending to CHAP. XX. the approval of any thing" that their provincial govern- ment had done against the Quakers. So far from justify- 1663. ing Stuyvesant, they thus rebuked him in their next dis- patches. "Although it is our cordial desire that similar 16 April and other sectarians may not be found there, yet as the Company The W. I. contrary seems to be the fact, we doubt very much wheth- eration. enjoins loj- er rigorous proceedings against them ought not to be dis- continued ; unless, indeed, you intend to cheek and destroy your population, which, in the youth of your existence, ought rather to be encouraged by all possible means. Wherefore, it is our opinion that some connivance is use- ful, and that at least the eonsciences of men ought to re- main free and unshackled. Let every one remain free as long as he is modest, moderate, his political eonduet irre- proachable, and as long as he does not offend others or op- pose the government. This maxim of moderation has al- ways been the guide of our magistrates in this city ; and the consequence has been that people have floeked from ev- ery land to this asylum. Tread thus in their steps, and we doubt not you will be blessed." This reproof was effect- Persecu- ual. Persecution eeased in New Netherland; and Bowne, tion ceases returning after two years absenee, met Stuyvesant as a pri- vate citizen, who "seemed ashamed of what he had done."*
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.