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25 LIarch. The impor- tance of New Neth- erland.
Finding how the case stood, the West India Directors represented to their High Mightinesses that they had rear- ed New Netherland " like a foster child," at an "excessive expense," for forty-six years, and urged that its restitution by England should be insisted upon. To this was append- ed a memorial from many prominent merchants of Hol- land, setting forth the importance of regaining New Neth-
* Col. Doc., il., 361-378, 419-425, 427-458; ante, p. 60, note.
133
RICHARD NICOLLS, GOVERNOR.
erland, possessed by the Dutch for nearly half a century CuAr. III. "by a just and indisputable title," and "inhabited by more than eight thousand souls, consisting of about fifteen hun- 1667. dred families, all natives and subjects of this state, who went thither formerly to gain a livelihood and to settle, on a promise of being sustained and protected." Its restora- tion by treaty was urged, " the rather that in case the afore- said country be left to and remain in the power and hands of the English nation, it could gain and obtain therefrom, in time of war, considerable advantages over this state and its inhabitants, as well because it will be able to draw and receive thence, and therefore from its own lands and colo- nies, almost all the wares which, being necessary for its equipments, it has hitherto been obliged to obtain from the Baltic, as that, whenever it shall possess and be master of nearly the entire northern part of America (for the French will be illy able to hold Canada against that nation), it can, without people here in Europe having the least knowledge of the circumstance, fit out a considerable fleet of large and small ships there, * * * whereby said English nation then would found, and extend considerably, its pretended do- minion over the sea.""
But these statesmanlike arguments were now too late. Charles accepted the alternative which he pretended the 33 April. States General had proposed, " namely, that each party should remain in the possession of all things which had been acquired on one side or the other during this war." On the other hand, the States instructed their ambassadors 5 Mar. at Breda to adhere to their offer actually made on the tion- at Negotia- sixteenth of the previous September, namely, "that it be Breda left to Ilis Majesty's choice to make peace by a reciprocal restitution, on both sides, of what is seized by force of arms or detained from the other, either before or after the com- mencement of the war; or else that the one party retain what it hath taken by force of arms, or otherwise seized from the other, as well before as after the commencement of the war." The plenipotentiaries were also directed to procure, if possible, from the King of France, the cession to the republic of some of the colonies which he had taken from the English, as some equivalent for the relinquish-
* Col. Doc., ii., 401-515 ; Res. Holl., 1667, 120, 133.
134
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. In. ment of New Netherland by the Dutch, which sacrifice Lonis had first suggested .*
1667.
1666. 13 Novem. Talon wishes France to gain New Nether- land.
By this time the real importance of New York had be- come better appreciated by the European powers which were chiefly interested in its fate. From Quebec, Talon had suggested to Colbert that Louis should, after an ar- rangement with the Dutch government, procure the cession from England of New Netherland to himself, by which means he " would have two entrances into Canada, and would thereby give the French all the peltries of the North -of which the English have now partly the advantage, by means of the communication with the Iroquois which they possess by Manatte and Orange-and would place those barbarous tribes at His Majesty's discretion ; who could, moreover, approach New Sweden when he pleased, and hold New England confined within its limits." This idea Talon reiterated the next year; but Colbert was obliged to content himself with directing the subjugation of the Iro- quois by the French. Louis, now engaged in active hos- tilities in the Spanish Netherlands, could do nothing to ob- tain the cession of New York either from Holland or En- gland, and limited his efforts to regaining Acadia, which Cromwell had wrested from France.t
1667. 27 October. 6 April.
20 May.
A difficult point soon occurred at Breda. The Dutch offer was craftily misstated by Charles, and the negotiations were delayed. Observing this, De Witt, who could not for- get his vow to avenge the outrage which the English had perpetrated the year before at Schelling, thought that the time had come for a memorable retaliation. The large sums voted by Parliament for the fleet had been squander- ed by the king on his unworthy favorites, and most of the English ships were laid up in ordinary. The Grand Pen- The Dutch sionary accordingly dispatched De Ruyter and Cornelis de Witt to the Thames. Sheerness and the dock-yard at Chat- ham were surprised ; several of the finest vessels in the En- glish navy were burned; and the "Royal Charles," which had brought back the restored king in triumph from Sche- veningen, was carried off as the chief prize of the Dutch
in the Thames. 32 June.
* D' Estrades, v., 115, 201 ; Aitzema, vi., 27-31; Sec. Res. Holi., ii., 528-552; Col. Doc., il., 516, 517; Rapin, il., 645 : Martin, i., 275; Courtenay's Temple, i., 100; ante, p. 151. t Col. Doc., ix., 50, 57, 58, 00; D'Estrades, v., 151, 20$, 250, 333, 344.
C-1
1
3
£
135
RICHARD NICOLLS, GOVERNOR.
avengers .* London was deprived of its supplies, and CHAr. IN threatened for several weeks by the blockading Holland- ers, who, had they been better informed of the condition of 1667. Fright in the capital, and acted with prompt vigor, might from the Lendoa. White Tower have dictated their own terms of peace to the fugitive sovereign at Windsor. While his ships were burning at Chatham, Charles was gayly supping with his parasites at Whitehall, and all were " mad in hunting of a poor moth." But the nation felt, with Evelyn, that En- glishmen had suffered " a dishonor never to be wiped off." Well might Nicolls, at New York, after waiting the whole summer for a ship from England, apprehend that "some 12 Novem. extraordinary disaster" had befallen his majesty.t
De Witt's galling success in the Thames had a marvel- ous effect at Breda. The English ambassadors agreed to Effect at the principle that each party should retain the places it had 3 June. occupied, and Charles was obliged to reeede from his posi- tion and accept the terms insisted upon by the Dutch. A treaty between England and Holland was soon concluded. 3} July. By the third article it was stipulated that "each of the said inde. parties shall hold and possess in future, in perfect right of sovereignty, propriety, and possession, all such countries, islands, towns, forts, places, and colonies, and so many as cach, whether during this war or before, in whatever time it may have been, shall have taken and retained from the other, by force and by arms, or in whatever mauner it may have been, and that in the same manner as they shall have occupied and possessed them on the 38th of May last, none of the said places excepted." The same day another treaty was signed between France and England, by which Acadia Aendiar was restored to Louis, in exchange for Antigua, Montserrat, Iran. and a part of Saint Christopher's .;
By the treaty of Breda the Dutch West India Company Nor Ses. lost New Netherland, while the East India Company gained int; ]s
. A part of the stern of the Royal Charles is still preserved as a trophy in the dock-yard at Rotterdam.
+ Aitzema, vi., 33-46, 100-120; D'Estrades, v., 246-361, SS2, 390; Kennett, ifi., 965; 1 i>. for'e Clarendon, ii., 376-391; iii., 454-403 : Basnage, i., 803, 804; Evelyn, ii., 97. 2 : ti. #14; Pepys, iii., 142-155, 164; Rapin, ii., 645 ; Burnet, i., 250; Clarke's James II .. i., 4.5, 4.6; Martin, i., 986; Col. Doc., iii., 167; ante, p. 125, 131.
: Dumont, vil., 45; Aitzema, vi., 55; D'Letrades, v., 353, 284, 995, 402, 404, 476 ; P.s. nage, i., 806, SGT ; Temple. i., 451 ; Courtenay's Temple, i., 112 ; Li-ter's Claren in. B . k1: 11% Witt, il .. 537; Charlevoix, il., 204: Hume, vi., 400.403; Lingard, xii , 211-215 ; I.zaru's 1%%. Penn., iv., 120; Rapin, it , 045, 646; Anderson, ii., 4 2, 433; Martin, i .. 257.
136
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. III. Poleron. Surinam, having been conquered before the 10th 1667. of May, was also confirmed to the United Provinces. Its acquisition somewhat reconciled the Dutch people to the loss of New Netherland ; and all, except the West India shareholders and the regents of the city of Amsterdam, 4August. seemed to be content when the peace was proclaimed at the Hague.
Feeling in London. But in London the feeling was very different. The church-bells rang out merry peals. Yet no bonfires show- ed the national joy -- " partly," wrote Pepys, "from the dearness of firing, but principally from the little content most people have in the peace." They lamented "the giv- ing away Poleron and Surinam, and Nova Scotia, which hath a river 300 miles up the country, with copper-mines, more than Swedeland, and Newcastle coals, the only place in America that hath coals that we know of; and that Cromwell did value those places, and would forever have made much of them." In this feeling Massachusetts shared when it became known that England had parted with "a place so profitable to them, from whence they drew great quantities of beaver and other peltry, besides the fishing for cod." Public sentiment, both in and out of Parliament, strongly condemned the king. A scape-goat Fall of Clarendon. became necessary at Whitehall ; and Clarendon, who had served his sovereign with austere fidelity, was meanly de- 30 August. prived of the great seal, which, at the very moment it was demanded from him, he was affixing to the proclamation of the Peace of Breda. This was followed by a quarrel between the Duke of York and his secretary, Sir William º Septem. M. Wren the duke's secretary. Coventry, who gave up his place, and was succeeded in it by Matthew Wren, a son of the Bishop of Ely, and secreta- ry to the fallen chancellor, upon whose recommendation James made him his own most confidential officer .*
The Peace of Breda finished the controversy between the West India Company and Stuyvesant. As the fatherland had relinquished its ancient province to England, the vete- ran felt no seruple about ending his days under a govern-
* Lambrechtsen, Số; Aitzema, vi., 54; Basnage, i., 800, 810; Lingard, xii., 215-220; Hume, vi., 402-400; Li-ter, il., 383-414; Chalmers, Ann., i., 293, 578; Rev. Col., i., 118; Pepys, il , 261; ilf., 227, 233-236, 240, 242, 244, 247 ; Evelyn, i., 335, 400; Campbell's Chan- cellors, ili., 232 ; Clarke's James IL., 1 , 426-433; Col. Doc., iii., 241 ; Hutch. Coll., 432 ; Life of Clarendon, Cont. (Oxf.), ilf., 192, 293, 204.
137
RICHARD NICOLLS, GOVERNOR.
went to which he had already sworn a temporary alle- CHAP. III. Fiance. But, before returning to America, he tried to obtain a relaxation of the English navigation laws in favor of New 1667. York by allowing it a direct commerce with Holland ; urg- Stuyvesant ing to the Duke of York that the capitulation should be free trade. ratified, and that its sixth article especially-which allowed a free trade with the Netherlands in Dutch vessels-should le "observed, or in some measure indulged." This was very necessary, because the Indians, in trading their bea- wers, especially prized Holland duffels and Utrecht iron- ware, and, for want of them, would traffic with the French of Canada, " who are now incroached to be too neare neigh- hours unto us ;" and because, as no ships were to go to New York from England this season, there would be destitution unless it should be relieved from Holland. Stuyvesant therefore asked permission to dispatch two Dutch vessels from Holland to New York, that so "the inhabitants, being plentifully supplied, may cheerfully follow their vocations, and bless God for the opportunity of enjoyment of all peace and plenty under the auspicious wings of your Royal High- hess's paternal care and protection.""
As the Duke of York could not grant such a request, Stuyvesant petitioned the king in council. On the report of a special committee, without reference to the Council of IT Cet. Trade, Charles ordered that "a temporary permission for 230.t. seven years, with three ships only," be granted to the Dutch given. " freely to trade" with New York ; and the duke was author- ized to grant his license to Stuyvesant pursuant to Nic- « He's passport. The capitulation of New Netherland was hot formally ratified, but it was recognized as obligatory. Having gained for his countrymen this concession in their Stuyve. favor, Stuyvesant returned to spend the remnant of his days turn t. calmly in New York.t
Permission
raDt's Te.
New York.
The Peace of Breda brought welcome relief to Nicolls. Niolle re- The duke yielded to his many requests to be recalled from Reved. an administration which he had conducted so well. It was difficult to find a proper successor in a court thronged with tedy place-hunters, few of whom were qualified to govern 32 American province. James selected Colonel Francis
* Col. Doc., ii., 251 ; ifi., 163, 164; ante, vol. i., p. 762.
+ (cl. Doc., ifL, 164-167, 175-179, 237 ; v., 406; vii., 5SC ; Val. Man., 1847, 370.
138
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1667. Lovelace.
CHAP. IL !. Lovelace, a brother of John, Lord Lovelace of Hurley, ani a favorite of the king, of whose "honorable privy cham- ber" he was one of the gentlemen. It seems to have bee! Lovelace's chief " affliction" that at his departure from En- gland he was unable to sce Secretary Arlington."
1668. 1 January. l'eace pro- claimed in New York.
At length official intelligence of the Peace of Bred .. reached Nicolls, whose pleasant duty it was, at the open- ing of the new year, to announce the good news in his gov- ernment. This was done by warrants addressed to cach justice, requiring a general publication of the proclama- tions announcing the auspicious cvent. t
Commer- cial enter- prise.
A new order of things at once opened. The success of Stuyvesant at London aroused the repressed commercial enterprise of the Dutch merchants; of whom Van Cort- landt, Cousseau, Ebbing, and others set sail for Holland during the summer, to settle old accounts and prepare for increasing trade.#
Grants of land. 3 Febr'y.
The peace also enabled Nicolls to reward some of his English subordinates. Among the effects of Dutch sub- jects which had been confiscated by the decree of 10th of October, 1665, were Hog Island, and the two "Barent's" Islands in the East River. Hog Island was now granted to Captain John Manning, whom the governor had just before appointed sheriff of New York. The Barent's Isl- ands were at the same time patented to Collector Thomas Delavall .;
Martha's Vineyard and Nau- tucket.
A question respecting the jurisdiction of New York was now settled by Nicolls. The islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, although contiguous to the coast of New Plymouth, were included by name in the Duke of York's patent. In 1641 they had been conveyed by Stirling and Gorges to Thomas Mayhew and his son, who, after 1651. finding that they were out of the jurisdiction of Massa-
* Chalmers, i., 5TS, follows the error of Smith, i., 42, in stating that Lovelace assumed the administration of New York in May, 1667. He appears to have arrived at New York in t !! spring of 1063, and did not relieve Nicolle until August of that year. See N. Y. Surrogate's Record4, Wills, i., 25; Val. Man., 1947, 362; Col. Doc., ii., 580; iii., 174.
t Ord., Ware., «te., ii., 123; Col. Doc., il., 522.
$ Col. Doc , ili., 173. § Patente, i., 129, 131; OrJ., Warr., Lett., ii., 177; Col. Doc., ii., 654; Val. Man., 185. 351; 1553, 830; 1505, 493-497; Smith, i., 299 ; Hoffman's Treatise, i., 147, 148; Benson' Mem., 96; C. Wolley, 90; ante. p. 91. Hog Island was known as Manning's Island, an. afterward a+ Blackwell's Island. The "Barent's Islands" became Englished into Gre !! and Little " Barn" I-lands, one of which is now known as Ward's Island, and the other a. Randall's Island. All the three now belong to the city of New York. See the " Nicolis Map," Val. Man., 1803.
€
885
139
RICHARD NICOLLS, GOVERNOR.
chusetts and New Plymouth, exercised a kind of independ- Cuar. III. ent government in their remote habitations. An English vessel having been driven ashore on one of the neighboring 1668. Elizabeth Islands, and seized by the Indians, the matter was reported to Nicolls, who sent a special commission to May- 3 January. hew, and instructed him to summon the offending sachems before him at "Martin's Vineyard," and also to request Governor Prince, of New Plymouth, to reprove the disor- derly savages within his jurisdiction. "I have not been forward," he added, "in trivial cases, to contest for my master's bounds ; knowing, however, that all the islands, except Block Island, from Cape Cod to Cape May, are in- cluded in my master's patent. The first scruples will be soon removed ; however, in cases of this consequence, I must declare myself both in point of power and readiness to protect and defend my master's honor and interest."
Another case of "scruple" was decided without ditli- culty. A few miles from Stonington, in Connecticut, is an island, about nine miles long and one broad, which the Dutch discovered in 1614, and named the " Visscher's" Fisher's or Fisher's Island. As it was near the mouth of the Mys- granted to Izland Winthrop. tic, John Winthrop obtained a grant of it in 1640 from Massachusetts, and in the following year the assent of the Ilartford Court; and in 1644 he bought it from the sav- ages. But, as it was included in the Duke of York's patent, Winthrop procured from Nicolls a confirmation to himself 23 Must. of Fisher's Island " as an entire enfranchised township, manor, and place of itself; and to have, hold, and enjoy equal privileges and immunities with any other town, en- franchised place, or manor, within the government of New York ; and to be in nowise subordinate or belonging unto, or dependent upon any riding, township, place, or jurisdic- tion whatsoever." In vain Connecticut afterward attempted to assert her authority over Fisher's Island. It still forms part of Suffolk County, in the State of New York, and was, until recently, owned by Winthrop's descendants.+
For some time after his arrival at New York, Lovelace
* Col. Doc., iii., 108-170; Hongh's " Nantucket Papers," x .- xv., 1-22, 70; Masz, Ree., iv.
(4 ), 10); Palfrey, il., 106, 330; Hutch. Mass., i., 161; Mather's Mag., il., 424, 427.
* I'atenta, ill., 5: C.1. Ree. Conn., 1, 64, 65; ill., 64, 283; Mass. ltec., i., 801; Mass. H. S.
* AL. xxx .. 54, 73; xxxvi., 968; xxxvii., 83; Palfrey, ii., 234, 624; Thompson, i., 553-4. 0, N. Y. Rev. stat., iii., 2; ante, vol. i., 57.
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140
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. III. occupied himself in becoming familiar with the govern-
1668. ment he was soon to administer. One of his duties was to
13 April. preside in the Admiralty Court; and a case having been Admiralty removed from the Mayor's Court to that tribunal, Lovelace Court in New York. took his seat with Nicolls on the bench. A controversy had arisen between the owner of the ship Cedar and the privateers who went in her to Acadia the year before, and who had taken a Spanish prize which they brought into New York. After several hearings the court pronounced 18 April. a sentence, a remarkable feature of which was, that an Indian man, who had been taken " as part of their prize," should be sold, to defray the charges on both sides .*
Delaware affairs.
21 April.
Affairs on the Delaware had meanwhile gone smooth- ly along. A new church had been built by the Swedes in 1667 at Crane Hook, near Fort Christina or Altona, now known as Wilmington, in which Lokenius, the Lutheran clergyman, who appears to have led rather a godless life, continued to minister. By an order of Nicolls, the local government of the Delaware territory was now regulated more clearly. Captain John Carr was to remain as com- mander-in-chief at Newcastle, assisted by Alricks and oth- ers as counselors, and the Duke's laws were to be publish- ed and observed. In all cases of difficulty the directions of the governor and council at New York were to be sought and followed. Not long afterward, the Mantes, or Red Hook Indians, having committed several murders, Nicolls and Lovelace, in a joint letter, directed Carr and his coun- selors to make all necessary rules for the government of both Christians and Indians, and report them to New York for confirmation.t
S June.
Military arrange- ments in the prov- ince.
The military establishment of the whole province was now settled. The garrison at Newcastle was to have a lieutenant, a corporal, and eighteen men ; that at Esopus, a sergeant and twenty-one men ; and that at Albany, a lieu- tenant, a sergeant, a gunner, a druinmer, and twenty men. At Fort James, in New York, there were to be a lieutenant,
· N. Y. Surr. Rec. Wille, 1, 25-51; Val. Man., 1847, 362-369 ; Col. MSS., xxii., 46-49 ; Ord., Warr., Lett., ii., 191; an'", p. 127. Captain Richard Morris, formerly of Barbadoes, first ap- pears as a New Yorker in connection with this matter of the ship Cedar : compare Dunlap, i., 272 ; Bolton's Westchester, ii., 264, 286; Col. Doc., il., 535, 619.
t Ord., Warr., Lett., ii., 207, 208: S. Smith, 51, 52; S: Hazard, Ann. Penn .. 140, 332, 34S, 371, 372: Rez. Penn .. i .. 37. 38; iv., 14 ; Proud, i., 124; Upland Records, 24, 23 ; ante, vol. i., 225, 248, 511, 010, 631, 734.
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: RICHARD NICOLLS, GOVERNOR.
an ensign, a gunner, a marshal, a surgeon, four sergeants, CHAP. III. four corporals, and eighty men. As a special encourage-
ment to the settlement of the newly-purchased country 1668. back of Esopus, Nicolls granted thirty lots of thirty acres 6 April. cach to the soldiers in the garrison there.">
After the recall of the royal commissioners, Massachu- setts extended her authority over Maine, which drew from Nicolls a strong remonstrance. But this was unheeded. In 12 June. a farewell letter the Governor of New York sharply admon- 30 July.
Massachu-
Nicolle's ished the Boston Court, avowing himself " concerned dur- letter to ing life in the affairs of New England;" adding, " You know setts. that my station hath been a frontier place towards the In- dians, who had too much influence upon the spirits of the Dutch in former times, but are now in a competent meas- ure reduced to a better compliance in their behaviours to- wards us, and have given me some testimonies of their de- sires to live in peace with our nation ; for they have made me a present of two youths which have been their prison- ers a few years : they were taken in Maryland. Also they have promised to bring me another young man remaining with them. So that though they have a warr with the En- glish in Maryland, because the English there do take part with their Indians, yett you may guesse these heathens are vet desirous of peace with the English, of which Ihave long since advertised the Governour of Maryland."+
In company with his successor, Nicolls made a last visit t July. to Albany, against the monopoly of the Indian trade at which place the magistrates of New York had protested. While there, the two governors jointly issued new instrue- Arees. tions to Captain Baker for the regulation of the garri-on for. and in regard to transactions with the Indians, and other matters growing out of the treaty of Breda. There was now to be a general amnesty and oblivion of all "seeds of distrust and jealousy ;" and, in future, no complaints were to be brought before the governor at New York " but such n- are of high nature, and the proofs grounded upon suffi- cient testimonies."
Albany ef.
· Col. MSS., xxIi., 50 ; Ord., Warr., etc., ii., 206 ; Coll. Ulster II. Soc., i., 50, 72; ante, 9). + C.A. Doc .. ili., 170-173; Hutch., i., 200-207; Coll., 427, 428 ; Mass. Rec., iv. (ii. ) 300.073, 420, 404; Chalmers, i., 484; Palfrey, ii., 032-634; Williamson, i., 431-408.
: \n.l., Warr., etc., ii., 229-233; Col. MISS., xxii., 10; Munsell, vii., 100, 101; New Y rx 1, By Ree., vi., 357; ante, p. 83.
142
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
8 August.
CHAP. III. On his return to New York, Nicolls prepared to take leave 1668. of his government. His predecessor Stuyvesant, having ir- regularly sealed some patents after the surrender of New Netherland, received a formal pardon for himself and his secretary Van Ruyven. A new patent was also given to 15 August. De Sille, Cortelyou, and others, confirming the town privi- leges of New Utrecht. At the same time, Samuel Edsall received a patent for Bronck's land, opposite Haerlem. As 21 August. a crowning act of grace and justice, Nicolls released Ralph Case of Hall. HIall and his wife from the recognizances which they had been required to give when charged with witchcraft in 1665," there having been no direct proofs nor further pros- ecution of them, or either of them, since."*
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