History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 70

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n
Publication date: 1871
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Number of Pages: 844

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Stuyvesant

Calvert vis -

718

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. XX. pealed to Stuyvesant for some official employment under the Provincial government, on the North River .*

1663.

Meanwhile, the West India directors, mistrusting Win- throp, with whom they had conversed at Amsterdam, had instructed Stuyvesant to "explore his mind," and effect, if 6 Sept. Stuyvesant possible, a definitive settlement with Connecticut. The di- visits Bos- rector accordingly visited Boston, to meet the commission- ton. ers of the United Colonies. Appearing before them, he 19 Sept. Negotia- tion with the N. E. Commis- sioners. complained of the non-observance of the Hartford treaty, particularly with respect to West Chester, and demanded whether they considered it still in force. Winthrop and Talcott, the commissioners for Connecticut, asked a respite of the question until the next year. The other commission- ers declared that, saving their allegiance to the king, and his majesty's claim, and the rights of Connecticut under her late charter, they held the Hartford treaty binding, and would not countenance its violation. At the same time, they advised that the case should be fully heard at the next annual meeting ; and that, in the mean time, "all things may remain and be according to the true intent and mean- ing of the aforesaid articles of agreement." This evasive reply, which practically gave Connecticut all that she re- quired, a year's delay, was a severe mortification to the 21 Sept. Dutch director. He replied that the postponement asked was "frivolous ;" yet, holding the Hartford treaty binding, he offered to submit all questions in dispute to "any im- partial committee not concerned in either right." But the 23 Sept commissioners were inexorable ; and Stuyvesant, finding their "demands so great and heavy," proposed to refer "the matters unsettled to both superiors ;" and that, in the mean time, there should be a free intercolonial trade in the prod- ucts of the colonies, and a " neighborly confederacy and union against so great multitude of barbarous Indians as the Christian people of both nations are dispersed among." 25 Sept. The commissioners rejoined that they would willingly see

* Alb. Rec., xvii., 276-298, 309-311, 317, 318; xxi., 443-445 ; xxiv., 286 ; Acrelius, 423- 425 ; Chalmers, 361, 634 ; Smith's N. Y., i., 13; Bancroft, ii., 309; O'Call., ii., 470-472 ; S. Hazard, Ann. Penn., 343-356. Hudde, the former commissary on the South River, died at Apoquinimy, on his way to Maryland, on the 4th of November, 1663.

719

PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

a " correspondency in traffic," not contrary to the late Act CHAP. XX of Parliament, and would submit to their respective gov- ernments the proposition for a general union against the savages .* Thus ended the last conference between Stuy- of stuyve- vesant and the commissioners of the United Colonies.

On his return to New Amsterdam, the baffled director found that fresh difficulties had occurred. After executing Difficulties his commission in West Chester, Talcott had crossed over Island. on Long to Long Island, and through his agent, James Christie, had announeed to the people of Gravesend, Heemstede, Flush- ing, and Jamaica, that they were now under Connecticut, and no longer subject to New Netherland. Christie, how- 23 Sept. ever, was promptly arrested by Stillwell, the sheriff of rested at Christie &r. Gravesend, and sent a prisoner to New Amsterdam. This Gravesend. exasperated the villagers, and a mob searched the dwelling of the obnoxious offieer. Finding that he had escaped to New Amsterdam, they wrote to the council accusing him 26 Sept. of having caused the hubbub; and the people of Middel- burgh, still more excited, threatened retaliation unless Christie should be discharged. But the council, approv- 27 Sept. ing Stillwell's conduet, ordered all the English villages to arrest and send to New Amsterdam any seditious emissa- ries. The representations of the Connecticut agent, how- ever, produced their effeet. Several English inhabitants 29 Sept. of Jamaica, Middelburgh, and Heemstede signed a petition 9 Oct. etition of to the General Court at Hartford, complaining of their Long Ist- and towns " present bondage," and praying that Connecticut would to Connec- ticut. cast over them " the skirts of its government and protee- tion." This petition was dispatched to Hartford by a "trusty messenger," Sergeant Hubbard, whom Stuyvesant had released from imprisonment in 1656, upon his promise of good behavior. Besides submitting the petition, Hub- bard demanded that the General Court should take steps to reduce, under their authority, the adjoining Dutch vil- lages on Long Island. And to prepare the way for this Midwout change, an armed English party, headed by Richard Pan- threatened.

* Alb. Rec., iv., 382, 405, 424 ; xii., 329 ; xviii., 224 ; xxi., 287-290 ; Hazard, ii., 479- 483 ; ante, p. 700.

1663. Unsatisfac- tory result

sant's visit.

720

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. XX. ton, threatened the people of Midwout with the pillage of 1663. their property if they should refuse to take up arms against the Dutch provincial government.

' Stuyvesant now appointed Secretary Van Ruyven, Bur- 13 October Dutch com- gomaster Van Cortlandt, and John Lawrence, a burgher missioners of New Amsterdam, commissioners to the government of sent to Hartford. Connecticut. At the same time, he drew upon the com- pany for four thousand guilders, to meet the pressing ne- cessities of his government. But the public credit had fallen so low, that the director could find no one to cash his bill until he pledged four of the brass guns of Fort Am- sterdam as security for the repayment of the advance .*

15 October. The Dutch commissioners, setting sail from Manhattan, in two days landed at Milford. Procuring horses with some difficulty, they rode on to New Haven, where. they 18 October. Negotia- tion with the General lodged. The next day they reached Hartford, and found the General Assembly in session, rejoicing in the recent Assembly. return of Winthrop, their successful agent. The Assem- bly appointed Allen, Talcott, and Clarke as a committee of conference, and a long negotiation followed. The Dutch 19 October. agents urged the Hartford treaty, and the recent advice of the commissioners of the other three New England colo- nies ; the Connecticut committee declined to yield to that advice, and sheltered themselves behind the royal patent. 21 October. In vain did Winthrop himself expressly declare "that the intent of the patent was by no means to claim any right to New Netherland, but that it only comprehended a tract 23 October. of land in New England." The committee replied, "the governor is but a man alone," and "our patent not only takes in that, but extends northward to the Boston line, and westward to the sea." "In case there was another royal patent, between where would New Netherland then lie ?" demanded the Dutch agents ; and the Connecticut committee, without hesitation, answered, " We know of no " No New Nether- land." New Netherland, unless you can show a patent for it from his majesty." This reply was nearly that of Calvert to

* Alb. Rec., xxi., 303-341 ; Letters in Stuyvesant's time ; Aitzema, iv., 1121 ; Hartford Rec., i., 13, 18 ; ii., 6 ; Col. Rec. Conn., 410 ; O'Call., ii., 483-487 ; Riker's Newtown, 55; ante, p. 619.

721

PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

Heermans and Waldron four years before. The Dutch CHAP. XX. agents appealed to the charter of the West India Com- pany, and the approbation of the Hartford treaty by the 1663. States General. "They answered," is the record of the embassy, " that the eharter is only a charter of commeree,* and the said settlement of the limits was only conditional : if you can not show a special patent for the land, it must fall to us. We said that the right of their High Mighti- nesses was indisputable, as appears by the first discovery, the purchase from the natives, the oldest possession, &c. They answered that they would let us keep as much as was actually possessed and oeeupied by our nation, but that we could not hinder them from possessing that which was not oceupied by our nation."

The fruitless negotiation ended with a proposition of the Demands Hartford committee that West Chester and all the territo- ticut. of Connec- ry eastward should belong, "till it be otherwise issued," to Connectieut, which would abstain from exereising author- ity over " Heemstede, Jamaica, &c.," provided the Dutch would likewise forbear to coerce "any of the English plant- ations upon Long Island." This the Duteh agents deemed "wholly unreasonable;" but, by way of concession, they proposed that West Chester should, for the present, " abide Proposi- under Connecticut," while the disaffected towns on Long Dutch. tions of the Island should remain under New Netherland. Even this was not enough ; several of the Hartford men declared that "they knew of no New Netherland provinee, but of a Duteh governor over the Dutch plantation on the Manhattans, that Long Island was included in their patent, and that they would also possess and maintain it." In the evening, the 23 October. secretary handed a letter from the Assembly, addressed to Stuyvesant merely as " Director General at the Mana- Return of dos," to the mortified Duteh agents, who, leaving Hart- agents. the Dutch ford the next morning, after three days' travelling reached 26 October. New Amsterdam.

More clearly to define their position, the General Assem-

* The charter of the West India Company was certainly much more ample than the English affected to consider it, for it bound the directors to "advance the peopling of those fruitful and unsettled parts ;" see ante, p. 135. 136, 666.

Z z

722

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

- CHAP. XX . bly declared that West Chester and Stamford belonged to 1663. Act of Con- necticut re- specting West Ches- ter and the Long Isl- and towns. Connecticut; and resolved that for the present they would " forbear to put forth any authority over the English plant- ations on the westerly end of Long Island, provided the Dutch forbear to exercise any coercive power toward them. And this court shall cease from further attendance unto the premises, until there be a seasonable return from the General Stuyvesant to those propositions that his messen- gers carried with them, or until there be an issue of the differences between them and us."*

While Stuyvesant was thus endeavoring to stay the prog- ress of Connecticut encroachment, the internal condition of the Dutch province was becoming more and more alarm- ing. Her treasury was exhausted, Long Island in revolt, and the Esopus war not yet ended. But if New Nether- land was too feeble successfully to resist, unaided, her En- glish neighbors, as well as the savages, it was not because "the province had no popular freedom, and therefore had no public spirit." The hour of trial again suggested an appeal to the people; and the municipal government of 22 October. New Amsterdam called upon Stuyvesant to summon a Conven- tion called at New Amster- dam. "Landt's Vergaderinge," to deliberate on the affairs of the country. Letters were accordingly sent to the neighboring villages, enjoining each to depute two delegates to a con- vention at New Amsterdam. It was too late in the year to secure the attendance of deputies from Rensselaerswyck, Fort Orange, or Esopus. But Breuckelen, Midwout, Am- 1 Nov. ersfoort, New Utrecht, Boswyck, Bergen, Haerlem, and New Amsterdam were all represented. The convention adopt- 2 Nov. Remon- strance to the Amster- dam Cham- ber. ed an earnest remonstrance to the Amsterdam Chamber, in which the disastrous situation of the province was main- ly attributed to the mismanagement and supineness of the authorities in Holland. The people of Connecticut were enforcing their unlimited patent "according to their own interpretation," and the total loss of New Netherland was threatened. "The English, to cloak their plans, now ob-

* Alb. Rec., xvi., 292-315 ; Hazard, ii., 623-633; Aitzema, v .; 64 ; Col. Rec. Conn., 410, 411, 415, 416 ; Trumbull, i., 260 ; O'Call., ii., 487-490 ; Bancroft, ii., 310; Bolton, ii., 169.

723

PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

ject that there is no proof, no legal commission or patent CHAP. XX. from their High Mightinesses to substantiate and justify our rights and claims to the property of this province, and 1663. insinuate that, through the backwardness of their High Mightinesses to grant such a patent, you apparently in- tended to place the people here on slippery ice, giving them lands to which your honors had no right whatever ; that this, too, is the real cause of our being continually kept in a labyrinth, and of the well-intentioned English settled under your government being at a loss how to acquit themselves of their oaths." Stuyvesant himself dispatched this re- 10 Nov. monstrance to the Amsterdam Chamber, and at the same sant's dis- Stuyve- time urged that the boundary question should be settled ; patch. that the States General should send letters to the English villages on Long Island, commanding them to return to their allegiance, and to the Dutch villages, cxhorting them to remain loyal ; and, that the objections of Connecticut might be met, the original charter of the West India Com- pany should be solemnly confirmed by a public act of their High Mightinesses under their great seal-" which an En- glishman commonly dotes upon like an idol."*

At this very moment a revolution was in progress on Long Island. News soon reached the capital that Anthony 9 Nov. Waters, of Heemstede, and John Coe, of Middelburgh, with the English Names of a force of seventy or eighty men, had visited the English Long Isl- villages on settlements, changed the names of several, proclaimed the changed. and king, appointed new magistrates, and threatened the Dutch villages. Gravesend and Heemstede retained their old names ; but Flushing was called " Newarke ;" Middel- burgh, "Hastings ;" Jamaica, " Crafford ;" and Oyster Bay, " Folestone." Stuyvesant, now thoroughly alarmed, dis- patched Fiscal De Sille with some soldiers to protect the Dutch villages. He also wrote to the authorities at Hart- 15 Nov. ford, accepting their proposition respecting a mutual for- surrenders Stuyvesant them and bearance of jurisdiction, which the Dutch agents had de- West Ches clined. By this step the director virtually surrendered to ter.

* New Amst. Rec., v., 333-353 ; Alb. Rec., xxi., 351-376 ; Hol. Doc., xii., 291, 346, 363 ; ('Call., ii., 490-494 ; Bancroft, ii., 311.

724

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. XX. Connecticut West Chester and the English villages on Long Island. These villages had grown rapidly ; and at 1663. Meeting- house at Jamaica. Jamaica a " meeting-house," twenty-six feet square, was built this year, in which Zachariah Walker, who had been educated in the college at Cambridge, but had not been ordained, preached for some time.

English party on the Raritan.

6 Dec.

8 Dec.

The next month, some twenty Englishmen from Graves- end, Flushing, and Jamaica, went secretly in a sloop to the Raritan River, for the purpose of buying land from the Nev- esincks and Raritans. As the Dutch had already made large purchases there, Stuyvesant dispatched Kregier, Loockermans, and Cortelyou, with some soldiers, through the "Kil van Kol," to prevent the proceedings of the En- glish. Finding that they had gone up the Raritan, "Hans the Indian" was sent to warn the sachems, and arrived just 10 Dec. in time to stop the sale. The English now went down the bay, " between Rensselaer's Hoeck and the Sandy Hoeck," The project whither they were followed by Kregier, who forbade their defeated. purchasing any land from the savages, as the largest part of it already belonged to the Dutch. "Ye are a party of traitors, as ye act against the government of the state," said Loockermans ; and the English replied, "The king's pat- ent is quite of another cast." The Dutch sloop now re- turned to New Amsterdam; and the next day, some In- dian sachems came to the capital to sell to the Dutch the remainder of the Nevesinck lands. A provisional agree- ment was soon made ; and Stuyvesant, to ratify it on his part, gave the savages presents of blankets and frieze " for their great chief Passachynon." *;

12 Dec. Purchase of the Neve- sinck lands.

24 June. 4 July. Instruc- tions of the Privy Council to enforce the Navigation law in the Planta- tions.

In the mean time, the English Privy Council had ad- dressed a circular letter to the governors of the American colonies, warning them against any further contempt of the law, which the statesmen of England generally esteem- ed "essential to its power," by trading "into foreign parts, from Virginia, Maryland, and other plantations, both by sea and land, as well into the Monadoes, and other plantations

* Alb. Rec., iv., 444 ; xviii., 238, 240 ; xxi., 382-385, 418, 431-435 ; Hol. Doc., xii., 369; Hartford Rec. Col. Bound., ii., 8 ; Whitehead's East Jersey, 22, 177-179 ; O'Call., ii., 495, 496 ; Thompson's L. I., ii., 97-101 ; Riker's Newtown, 59 ; ante, p. 313, 537.

725

PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

of the Hollanders, as into Spain, Venice, and Holland." The CHAP. XX. possession of New Netherland by the Dutch was, in truth, the main obstacle to the enforcement of the restrictive co- 1663. lonial policy of England ; and the attention of the Plant- ation Board was accordingly directed to the situation of the obnoxious province.

The tidings of the Restoration had attracted over from America several prominent colonists, among whom were George Baxter and John Scott, who had both been con- cerned in the troubles in 1654. Recommending himself as a zealous Royalist, Scott petitioned the king to bestow upon him the government of Long Island, of which he claimed to have "purchased near one third part," or to grant the inhabitants liberty to choose a governor and assistants yearly. This petition was referred to the Council for For- 26 June. eign Plantations, which had already been ordered to con- 5 July. sider Lord Stirling's opposing elaim. Upon hearing Scott's Scott's complaint, "that the Dutch have of late years unjustly in- to the complaint truded upon and possessed themselves of certain places on Board. Plantation the main land of New England and somne islands adjacent, as, in particular, on the Manahatoes and Long Island, being the true and undoubted inheritance of his majesty," the council, suspecting "that the good intention of the late Act of Navigation is in great part frustrated by their practices," ordered Scott, together with Maverick of Boston, and Bax- 16 July. ter, to prepare a statement of the English title ; of the required Statement "Dutch intrusion;" of their "deportment since, and man- Maverick, agement of that possession, and of their strength, trade, and government there ;" and, lastly, " of the means to make them acknowledge and submit to his majesty's government, or by force to compel them thereunto or expulse them."*

from Scott,

and Baxter.

Returning to America, Scott brought out with him the Scott re- council's instructions regarding the Navigation Laws, and New En- turns to royal letters recommending him to the New England gov- gland. ernments. New Haven received him with favor, and en- deavored to engage his assistance in procuring a patent for

* Lond. Doc., i., 119-129 ; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 43-46 ; Alb. Rec., xviii., 168 ; Chalmers, 242, 260-262 ; Hutch. Coll., 380, 381 ; ante, p. 671.

726

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP, XX. the lands they coveted upon the Delaware, declaring that 1663. in England he had been a good friend of that colony. But Scott's chief object now was to promote his private inter- est, in securing the ascendency of the English over Long Island. He accordingly offered his services to the govern- Scott a commis- sioner at Setauket. ment of Connecticut, which appointed him a commissioner at Setauket or Ashford, with the powers of a magistrate throughout the island, in conjunction with Talcott, Young, and Woodhull. The oath of office was administered by . Winthrop ; and Scott earnestly set about the work of free- 14 Dec. ing those whom he described to Under-secretary William- son as " inslaved by the Dutch, their cruel and rapacious neighbors." His first business was to arrange the difficul- ties in the English villages, which, by Stuyvesant's accept- ance of the terms offered at Hartford, were no longer under the jurisdiction of New Netherland. These villagers, how- ever, were not unanimous. Those in favor of annexation complained that they received nothing but " if-so-be's and doubtings" from Connecticut, while the Baptists, Mennon- ists, and Quakers dreaded a Puritan government. They,

13 Dec. 1664. Visits the English v lages.

therefore, invited Scott to "come and settle" their troubles.

4 Jan. " Combina- ion" ed, and ed ·Presi- dent.

11 Jan.

Upon visiting them, Scott announced that the king had granted Long Island to the Duke of York, who would soon make his intentions manifest. Heemstede, Gravesend, Flushing or Newarke, Middelburgh or Hastings, Jamaica or Crafford, and Oyster Bay or Folestone, therefore formed a "combination" to govern themselves independently of Connecticut, and empowered Scott "to act as their Presi- dent until his Royal Highness the Duke of York or His Majesty should establish a government among them." Aft- er proclaiming the king, the new president, at the head of one hundred and seventy men, set out to reduce the neigh- Scott's con- boring Dutch villages. Coming to Breuckelen, he fruit- duct at the Dutch vil- lages. lessly attempted to withdraw the inhabitants from their allegiance, and avenged himself by striking Captain Kre- gier's little son, who refused to take off his hat to the royal flag. Advancing to Midwout, Scott harangued the people "like a quacksalver," but could not shake their fidelity.

727

PETER STUYVESANT, DIRECTOR GENERAL.

Amersfoort was equally loyal ; and New Utrecht refused CHAP. XX. to recognize the king, though the English forces took pos- session of the block-house, and fired a royal salute. 1664.

The director immediately sent Secretary Van Ruyven, with Van Cortlandt, Kregier, and some others, to Jamaica, where a conditional arrangement was made with Scott, 14 Jan. Condition- who, announcing that he would return in the spring, warned al arrang .. ment at J ..

the Dutch delegates that the Duke of York was determined maica. to possess himself not only of Long Island, but of the whole of New Netherland. Disorders, however, still continued ; several Dutch families were obliged to abandon their dwell- ings; and the schout and magistrates of the "Five Dutch 27 Feb. 'Towns," meeting at Midwout, drew up a spirited remon- strance of Remon- strance to the Amsterdam Chamber .* the Dutch towns.

Stuyvesant now demanded the advice of the council and the municipal authorities of New Amsterdam. The bur- 8 Feb. gomasters and schepens recommended that the capital, mendations Recom- of New which "is adorned with so many noble buildings, at the Amster- expense of the good and faithful inhabitants, principally dam. Netherlanders, that it nearly excels any other place in North America," should be completely fortified, and its military force be increased, so as to "instill fear into any envious neighbors," and protect the province, which would soon become " an emporium to Fatherland." For this pur- pose, the municipal government offered to appropriate all its revenue, and also raise a loan, if the excise should be given up to the city. This the director and council agreed to, upon condition that New Amsterdam should enlist two hundred militia-men, and also maintain one hundred and sixty regular soldiers. In a few days, a loan of nearly 22 Feb. thirty thousand guilders was subscribed, at an interest of raised for Loan ten per centum ; to secure which scaled letters surrender- the capital fortifying ing the excise were handed to the burgomasters. While the city authorities thus took prompt measures for the safe- ty of the metropolis, they held that the West India Com-

* Lond. Doc., i., 132; N. Y. Col. MSS., iii., 48 ; Hazard, ii., 498 ; Col. Rec. Conn., Towns and Lands. i., 21, 25, 30; Alb. Rec., xviii., 237, 242 ; xx., 374 ; xxii., 68, 69 ; Hol. Doc., xi., 253-259 ; xii., 303-327 ; xiii., 83 ; Bushwick Rec., 35-39; O'Call., ii., 498-502 ; Thompson's L. I., il., 321 ; Riker's Newtown, 60-62.

728

HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.

CHAP. XX. pany, which, instead of applying its revenue from New 1664. Netherland to the defense of the province, expended it in Holland, was chiefly responsible for the disorders on Long. Island.

3 March. Agreement between Stuyvesant and Scott. -

Opinions, however, differed respecting the course to be pursued respecting "the usurper," John Scott. At length, Stuyvesant, believing it best to ratify the conditional ar- rangement which had been made in January, went with a military escort to Heemstede, where he met the president and deputies of the English towns. Burgomaster Van Cort- land, with Jacob Backer and John Lawrence, were appoint- ed commissioners on the Dutch side, and Captain Under- hill, with Daniel Denton and Adam Mott on the English, and a formal agreement was concluded. The English towns on Long Island were to remain, without molestation, under the King of England for twelve months, and until his majesty and the States General should settle "the whole difference about the said island and the places adjacent;" the Dutch towns were to remain for the same term under the States General, "his majestie's royalties excepted ;" and the English were to have " free egress and regress" to and from New Amsterdam and all the Dutch towns, according to the arrangement in January, while the Dutch were to enjoy similar freedom in the English towns, "according to the laws of England."*

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History of the state of New York Vol I, Part 70

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n Publication date: 1871 Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers Number of Pages: 844

Author: Brodhead, John Romeyn, 1814-1873. 4n
Publication date: 1871
Publisher: New York : Harper & Brothers
Number of Pages: 844