USA > New York > History of the state of New York. Vol. II, Pt. 1 > Part 37
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14 Nov.
* Hennepin's Louisiana, 43-50; Nouvelle Dicouverte, 97-121 ; New Discovery, 63-73, 314; Lou. Hist. Coll., i., 199, 200; La Potherie, il., 136 ; Col. Doc., ill., 273; ix., 115, 167, 204, 211, 216, 382; Shea's Discovery, 69, 90, 91, 154; Missions, 411, 412; N. Y. II. S. Coll , ii., 22>- 231 ; Sparks's La Salle, 22-26; Bancroft, iii., 164; Hist. Mag., v., 198.
t Col. Doc., ix., 128-130, 149, 411, 795; Martin's Louis XIV., i., 121, 490; ii., 1.
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327
SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR.
The Jesuit missionaries among the Iroquois were now CuAr. VII. somewhat changed. Bruyas, to whom Andros had always been civil, left Tiomontoguen, where he was replaced by 1679. Jesuits among the Iroquois. the Father Vaillant de Gueslis, and took charge of the Res- idence at the Sault Saint Louis, in place of Fremin, who returned to France. James de Lamberville remained at Caghnawaga. Millet continued in charge of the Oneida mission. John de Lamberville, the superior of the Iro- quois missions, labored at Onondaga. Carheil ministered quietly to the Cayugas. Pierron having left the Senecas, Garnier and Raffeix remained in charge of all the villages of that nation. At this period the "Relations" close, and we miss hereafter their interesting details."
The Governor of Maryland had meanwhile written to New York that " strange Indians" had again done mischief along the Susquehanna ; and Sir Edmund had assured him 1678. that the Senecas and Mohawks, "having been always very 23 August. Correspon- Hence with Maryland Fir- good and faithfull to this Government," could not have been the offenders. Colonel Herbert Jeffreys, the acting governor of Virginia, also complained of the mischiefs ginia. done to that colony and Maryland by " unknown Indians," in breach of Coursey's treaty ; and Andros sent the two In- dian interpreters, Arnout and Daniel, in the depth of win- ter, to invite the Iroquois to Albany. Swerise, one of the 1679. sachems of the Oneidas, accordingly came there, and ex- Iroquois at cused his nation by laying the blame on the people of Albany. Schenectady, who, they said, had misrepresented the de- signs of the English. Some captives were restored, and Andros received the thanks of Virginia and Maryland. A few months afterward the Oneidas again visited Al- 24 Muy. bany, and Swerise, as their spokesman, declared to Sir Edmund's commissioners, " Corlaer governs the whole land "Corlaer from New York to Albany, and from thence to the Sene- the whole governs ca's land; we, who are his subjects, shall faithfully keep land." the covenant chain." * * * * "Corlaer's limits, as we have said, stretch so far even to Jacob my Friend, or Jacob Young." But, as the Onondagas and Cayugas claimed the land lying on the Susquehanna River by right of conquest
* Col. Doc., iv., 603; ix., 129, 130, 171, 124, 239, 720, 762, 838; Rel., 1673-9, 140, 204, 283; Douniol'e Missione, ii., 196, 197, 359; Shea's Missions, 274, 277, 256, 280, 293, 294; ante, 200, 207. Colden, i., 44, errs in stating that in 1679 there were French priests among the Quei- Jas, Onondagas, and Cayugas only, and none among the Mohawks and Senecas.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Cuar. VIL. from the Andastes or Conestogas, they now transferred it to the government of New York " to rule over it," so that 1679. it could not be sold "without Corlaer's order.""
01 July. 5 August. Virginian agente in New York and Al- baby.
Virginia, being still troubled, sent Colonels William Ken- dall and Southley Littleton to confer with the New York Indians. They were courteously received by Andros and his Council, and then went up to Albany, where Salisbury was instructed to aid them all he could. The Iroquois were accordingly summoned to a conference; but they were delayed by the small-pox, which desolated their vil- lages, and Littleton died at Albany before the savages ar- rived. Kendall, however, renewed a peace with the Onei- das, Mohawks, and Senecas. The Onondagas came later, and Kendall addressed them as he had done their breth- ren. Yet, in spite of all promises, the young Iroquois braves could not be restrained from new incursions to- ward the South.t
5 Novem.
August. Andros at Pumaquid.
By advice of his Council, Andros meanwhile visited Pemaquid to " take order about the settlement of planters or inhabitants, trade, and all other matters." On his re- turn to the metropolis, after attending to local affairs, and the autumn session of the Court of Assizes, the governor went up to Albany, where Iroquois complications and the regulation of the frontier towns of the province demanded his personal presence.t
Oktober. At Albany.
13 Septem. Dankers and Sluy- ter in New York.
In the autumn of this year two Dutch " Labadists," Jas- per Dankers and Peter Sluyter, came from Wiewerd, in Friesland, to view the New World, and select a place to es- tablish a colony of their religious community. These Lab- adists were disciples of Jean de Labadie, a French enthu- siast, holding the doctrines of the Reformed Dutch Church, but adopting other opinions and practices not recognized by that Church. The travelers were shrewd and observ- ing men, and the narrative of their journey is an interest-
Labadists.
" Col. Doc , iii., 271, 277, 278, 322, 417; Council Min., iii. (ii.), 182 ; Col. MSS., xxviii., 2 ; Colden, i., 38-42, 55; first edit., 32-42, 64; Doc. IIist., i., 201; Hennepin, Nouv. Dec., 20; Chalmers, i., 350, 351 ; ante, 102, 257, 509. Jacob Young was an Indian interpreter who lived at the head of the Chesapeake Bay, back of Newcastle: Col. Doc., ili., 392, 323, 341; S Hazard, Ann., 473.
t Col. Doc., ix., 120, 131; Col. MSS., xxviii., 120-122, 125, 131 ; Colden, i., 42, 43, 44; first ed., 42-43. Neither Beverley nor Burk notice this mission from Virginia.
# Connell Min., ffi. (ii.), 18); Pemaquid Papers, 32, 33; Col. Doc., iii., 272: Col. MSS., xxvill., 2, 123, 131-134; R. I. Rec., iii., 51; Arnold, i., 435; Dankers and Sluyter's Journ., 111, 16%, 258; ante, 319.
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SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR.
ing contemporancous account of the condition of New CHAP. VII. York and its neighborhood .*
1679.
The four Dutch ministers in the province were now call- ed on to perform a very important office. Before the ar- rival of Van Gaasbeeck, the church at Kingston had been supplied by Petrus Tesschenmaeker, a young " Proponent," Petrus or licensed Bachelor in Divinity, who had recently been macker. Tesschen- graduated from the University of Utrecht, and had come from Guiana to New York in the spring of 1678. The following autumn Tesschenmacker went to Newcastle, where the congregation called him to be their minister, al- though he had never been ordained. To remedy this, the delegates from that church asked the provincial Dutch clergymen to form themselves into a " Classis" and ordain the candidate, without obliging him to go to Holland for holy orders. This was a novel question. Up to this time the Classis of Amsterdam alone had sent over Dutch min- isters to New York, and those now settled there did not as- sume the power of ordaining others. Andros, who was anxious to have a Dutch clergyman settled on the Dela- ware, relieved the New York domines from responsibility by an official direction to Van Nieuwenhuysen, and "any so Septem. three or more of the Ministers or Pastors within this Gov- rects the Andros di- ernment," to examine Tesschenmaeker, and, if they should tion of examina- find him qualified, to ordain him "into the ministry of the maeker. Tesschen- Protestant Reformed Church." Accordingly, the Dutch clergymen, Schaats of Albany, Van Nieuwenhuysen of New 9October. York, Van Zuuren of Long Island, and Van Gaasbeeck of ministers The Dutch Esopus, met at New York, with their elders ; formed them- Tesschen- ordain selves into a Classis ; and, after examining Tesschenmacker, macker. ordained him as a minister of the Gospel, according to the ritual of the Reformed Dutch Church. None of the other provincial clergymen assisted ; neither the English chap- lain Wolley, nor the Lutherans Arensius and Lokenius, nor the Presbyterians on Long Island. It was wholly a Classis of the Reformed Church of Holland -- the first ever held in America-and its proceedings, which had been originated by the Episcopalian governor of New York, were approved
* The Journal of Dankers and Sluyter, in 1679 and 1680, was published in 1867 by the Long Island Historical Society, under the supervision of Mr. Henry C. Murphy, who procured the original manuscript in Holland, and translated and annotated this precious memorial with excellent scholarship.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Cuar. VII. by the supreme ecclesiastical judicature at Amsterdam charged with the affairs of colonial Dutch churches." -
17 Decem.
S Jan'y. Cooper's fined for unlawful combina- tion.
1679. The law of New York was now settled ou an important point. Twenty-one metropolitan coopers signed an agive- ment to charge certain prices for their labor; and that, if any of them should sell his work under their own arbitrary prices, he should be fined fifty shillings "for the use of the 1680. poor." For this agreement the conspiring laborers were summoned before the governor and council, and Mayor Rombouts, who adjudged them guilty of an unlawful com- bination, and sentenced each signer to pay a fine of fifty shillings "to the church, or pious uses." This decision was founded on the laws of England, which declared such confederating modern "strikers" to be " infamous," and punished them by fine and imprisonment.t
17 Jan'y. 20 Jan'y. New regu- lations about bolt- ing and ex- porting flour.
The previous legislation in regard to the bolting and in- spection of flour having been ineffectual, and complaints being made of the loss which trade suffered, it was ordered in council that for the future no mills be allowed to bolt, nor flour to be packed for exportation, but at the city of New York; and that all bolting or exporting that com- modity must be freemen or burghers. This new regula- tion was strictly enforced. For fourteen years the me- tropolis enjoyed a monopoly which helped her inevitable growth, and especially advantaged her coopers, who had just been punished for " striking." But her shoemakers were forbidden to tan hides ; and it was proposed to require all leather to be imported. Happily, this restriction-intend- ed to benefit the merchant at the expense of the producer -was not carried into effect.+
24 Jan'y. Shoemak- ers not to tan hidez.
An important measure in regard to Indian slaves was now adopted. It had been the practice to discriminate be-
* Corr. Class. Amst., Letters of 25 October, 1679, 2 April, 1680; Dankers and Sluyter's Jour., 111, 222 ; Col Mss., xxviii., 132; Gen. Ent., xxxii., 61; Doc. Hist., iii., 553, noe; Murphy's Selyns, 82, 101 ; Demarest's Hist. Ref. D. C., 183, 184; N. Y. Christ. Int., 19 Oct., 1565; Hist. Mag., Nov., 1965. Laurentius van Gaasbeeck came to Kingston as the success- or of Blom in September, 1678, at the request of the elders and deacons of the Dutch Chair '? there, with the approbation of Andros, and under the authority of the Classis of Amster- dam : Cor. CI. Amst., MSS. ; O'Call., ii., 42. Van Gaasbeeck died in February, 1650, and was succeeded by Johannes Weecksteen, from Harlaem, in 1651: Col. MS., xxix., 295; D.c. Hist., iii., 543; Cor. Cl. Amst. ; Dankers and Sluyter's Journal, 276; Hist. Mag. (ii.), i., 33 % t Col. MSS., xxix., 2, 3, 19 ; Val. Man., 1850, 425. 426 : Statutes 2 and 3 Edw. VI., cap. 15, 22 and 23 Charles II., cap. 19 ; Saint Paul's Epistle to Timothy 1, iii., 3, and to Titus, i .. ..
# Col. MSS., xxix., 2, 19, 29, 32, 39, 84, 137; Minutes of Com. Council, i., 143; Col. D.r., {if., 315, 339, 251, 797 ; v., 57, 58; Dankers and Sluyter's Jour., 354-257; Dunlap, ii., Apr., cxxvi .; ante, 318.
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SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR.
tween the free natives of New York and others, especially CHAP. VII. those of the Spanish West Indies, many of whom were held in bondage. It was now resolved in council that all 1€79. 5 Decem. Indians are free and not slaves, and can not be forced to be servants, unless those formerly brought from the Bay of Campeachy or other foreign parts. This was followed by a formal order " That all Indians here have always been and 1680. are free, and not slaves, except such as have been formerly 20 April. Imported dian slaves de- brought from the bay or other foreign parts. But if any shall be brought hereafter into the government, within the clared frec. space of six months, they are to be disposed of, as soon as may be, out of the government. But after the expiration of the said six months, all that shall be brought here from those parts and landed, to be as other free Indians."*
The Dutch Church in the fort had now become too small to accommodate its congregation, and its present condition was not convenient either for the people or for the government. At the suggestion of Andros, a meeting 30 June. was held to consider the best means to build a new one, ments for which was attended by several members of the council and other leading citizens, besides Domine van Nieuwenhuy- sen and the Episcopalian chaplain Wolley. It was deter- mined, by a vote of ten to three, to raise money by " free will or gift," and not by a public tax; but, if that should fail, to appeal to the governor. It was agreed that the new church should be a quarter larger than that in the fort, which was fifty-four feet wide. Andros, warmly ap- proving the project, directed that the surplus moneys raised under his letter of August, 1678, for the redemption of the captives in Turkey, should be applied toward the new church, and contributed fifty pounds himself. The mayor and aldermen also appropriated certain fines, and a plot of ground was selected on which to build the church as soon as possible.t
Wolley, the duke's Episcopalian chaplain, soon after- ward went home to seek preferment in England, with a
* Col. MISS., xxviii., 161, 173; xxix., S6; Min. of N. Y. Com. Council, i., 142; Dunlap, ii., App., cxxix. ; ante, 140. Notwithstanding this order, foreign Indians were for a long time held as slaves in New York, as they were in Massachusetts and other English dependencies. + Doc. Ilizt., iii., 944, 265; Col. MISS., xxviit., 26, 27: xxix., 141; Gen. Ent., xxxii., 65; Col. Doc., ili., 315, 415, 717 ; Letter of Selyns to Classis, 28 October, 1652; ante, 319. Dr. De Witt, in his sermon (August, 1356, p. 26), erroneously places "the first steps" in 1057: see Records of the Collegiate Dutch Church, Liber A., p. 161, 16 ?.
Arrange- building a new Dutch church.
332
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VII. certificate from Andros that he had "comported himself un-
15 July. Chaplain Wolley re- turas to England.
1650. blameable in his life and conversation." After his return Wolley prepared " A two years' Journal in New York." etc., which was published in London in 1701. Encumbered with pedantry, and fuller of detail about the native savages than the European colonists, Wolley's Journal, nevertheless, gives valuable information concerning the province in 1650. In respect to the metropolis, where he lived for two years, the lately returned chaplain declared New York to be "a place of as sweet and agreeable air as ever I breathed in, and the inhabitants, both English and Dutch, very civil and courteous, as I may speak by experience, amongst whom I have often wished myself and family, to whose tables I was frequently invited, and. always concluded with a gen- erous bottle of Madeira."*
3 April. Trouble be- York and New Jer- zey.
1679. The Duke of York's customs' regulations had mean- while proved so annoying to East Jersey, that its Assembly passed an act to indemnify any vessel which, coming into tween New that province by way of Sandy Hook, and entering and clearing at Elizabethtown, might be seized by the govern- ment of New York. Carteret accordingly proclaimed that all bottoms coming to East Jersey should be free. Upon this, one Mr. Hooper ordered a ketch from Barbadoes to go thither ; but Andros made her enter and pay duties in New York before he would allow her to proceed to Jersey and land her cargo of rum. Sir Edmund also sent Collector Dyer to England to answer any complaints. The Duke of York being absent in Flanders, Secretary Werden appears to have given directions to Dyer, with which he returned to New York in the following December. Andros soon afterward went over to Staten Island, and invited Carte- ret to meet him there, "to negotiate in peace and friend- 1680. ship." The Jersey governor having declined this over- ture, Sir Edmund sent him copies of Charles's patent to James, and of the duke's commission to himself; and he directed Carteret to forbear exercising "any jurisdiction"
8 March. Andros notifies Carteret.
* Gen. Ent., xxxii., 93, 94 ; Hist. Mag., i., 371; ante, 318. A reprint of Wolley's Journal was published by W. Gowans (who misprints the name '. Wooley") in 1500. It does not equal in interest the contemporaneous observations of Dankers and Sluyter; but, in connection with that book, and Secretary Nicolla's account in Scot's " Model" (128-144), it leaves little unknown about New York and New Jersey in 1680. I regret that the limits of this volume do not allow me to quote some interesting descriptions of the metropolis, and of Esopus, Al- bany, and Long Island, their people, magistrates, and others.
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SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR.
in any part of the territory thus granted by the king to the CHAP. VII. duke, without due authority recorded in New York. More- 1680. over, Andros added, " it being necessary for the king's sery- Andros
ice, and welfare of his Majesty's subjects living or trading proposes beacons in these parts, that beacons for land or sea marks for ship- ping sailing in and out, and a fortification, be erected at Hook. Sandy Point, I have resolved it accordingly ;- but, having due regard to all rights or proprieties of land or soil, shall be ready to pay or give just satisfaction."*
and a fort at Sandy
This letter made a hubbub at Elizabethtown. After ad- vising with his council, Carteret informed Andros that if 20 March. he attempted to build a fort at Sandy Hook he would be reply to resisted until the proprietor's pleasure be known, " he hay- Andros.
Carteret's
ing reserved that for a fortification, when the king shall command it." In the mean time, Sir Edmund had sent 13 March. Secretary Nicolls with a proclamation forbidding Carteret proclama- Andros's from exercising any jurisdiction within the duke's prov- tion. ince, and commanding all persons to submit "to the king's lawful authority" as established in New York. On receiv- ing this, Carteret protested, and appealed to the king, " who 20 March. only can determine this matter."+
Andros soon went over to New Jersey. The rumor of his coming went before him, and Carteret gathered a large force to oppose the Governor of New York. But, as he came without soldiers, Andros was invited ashore with his i April. attendants, and went up to Carteret's house. Patents and Elizabeth- Andros At commissions were produced on each side, and long argu- town. ments followed, without result. After dinner, Carteret ac- companied Sir Edmund Andros back to his sloop. Three weeks afterward, having tried various devices, Governor 30 April. Andros ordered some soldiers to Elizabethtown, who broke open Carteret's house in the dead of night; "halled" him out of his bed; and brought him a naked prisoner to
* Leaming and Spicer, 112-137, 673; Col. MISS., xxix., 55; Col. Doc., iii., 203, 322 ; iv., 332; Warr., Ord., Passes, iii., 63, 254; Chalmers, Ann., i., 618; Index N. J. Col. Doc., "; Whitehead's E. J., 70, 77-79, $2 ; Hatfield's Eliz., 159, 190; Evelyn, ii., 186; Dankers and Sluyter, 196, 255, 261, 347; ante, 261-270, 303, 305, 312. It is stated, in Collins's Peerage, iv., 212 (2d ed., 1741), that the king's vice-chamberlain, Sir George Carteret, died on the 13th of January, 1079, in the eightieth year of his age. There seem to be some writers who do not yet apprehend that the "old style" prevailed in England until 1753; so that the English year 1670 ended on 24 March, 1650, " new style," and that consequently Sir George Carteret died 13 January, 1680, according to our present reckoning.
+ Gen. Ent., xxxii., 72, 73; Col. MSS .. xxix., 61-64, 68, 69; Min. of N. Y. Common Coun- cil, i., 137, 138; Leaming and Spicer, 674-677; Whitehead, 71, 72; Newark Town Ree., 3S; Dankers and Sluyter, 277, 347.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. VII. New York. There, ill and forlorn, Carteret was committed to the custody of Sheriff Collyer, on a charge of unlawful- 1680. ly assuming jurisdiction over the king's subjects. A spe- 1 May. Carteret a prisoner in New York. 27 May. 28 May. cial Court of Assizes was ordered; before which Carteret was arraigned for trial, on an indictment for riotously pre- suming " to exercise jurisdiction and government over his Majesty's subjects within the bounds of his Majesty's letters Patents granted to His Royal Highness." Sir Edmund was conducted by trumpeters to the tribunal, over which he presided on a higher seat than usual. Carteret protest- ed against the jurisdiction of the New York court. Being overruled, he averred his conduct as Governor of New Jer- sey " to be legal, and by virtue of power derived from the King." His commission and other documents were sub- mitted to the jury, which brought in a verdict of "Not Guilty." This did not satisfy Andros, who sent the jurors out twice and thrice ; each time with new charges." At length a verdict of acquittal was recorded. Nevertheless, Carteret was obliged to give security that, if he went to New Jersey, he would not " assume any authority or juris- diction there, civil or military."+
Carteret tried and acquitted.
2 June. Carteret again in New Jersey.
Sir Edmund, accompanied by Lady Andros, now escort- ed Carteret back to Elizabethtown with great pomp, and endeavored to induce the Assembly to confirm his procced- ings, and adopt the Duke's Laws, in force in New York, with such amendments as might be desirable. The Jersey Assembly, however, adhered to their own laws, which they presented to Andros for his approval. Yet the authority of the Governor of New York was not disputed, and civil and military officers were commissioned by him to act in Newark, Elizabethtown, Woodbridge, Burlington, and else- where. An account of these transactions was sent by the deposed governor to Lady Carteret ; and Bollen, who was now in London, was desired to move the Commissioners of Customs and others in favor of East Jersey, and watch Dyer, who was intending to return to England, "that he
11 June. Andros's govern- ment. 9 June. 25 July. & July.
. It was said that "one Jackson, a juryman, occasionally speaking to the Governor, said that he hoped they had the same privileges as the other Plantations. The Governor an- swered that their privileges hung on a slender thread, and that he was chidden for giving them such liberties." But Andros afterward denied that he "ever spoke any such words :" and Nicells and Dyer, who were present in court all the time, heard nothing from the gov- ernor to any such purpose: Col. Doc., iii., 315.
t Leaming and Spicer, CT8-654; Gen. Ent., xxxii., 17, 78 ; Col. MSS., xxix., TS, 93, 102- 104; Whitehead, 73, 74; Dankers and Sluyter, 317-351.
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BRNOTRIIT
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SIR EDMUND ANDROS, GOVERNOR.
doth not swear and romance against us, as he did the time Cuar. VII. before."*
1680.
The spring of this year was marked by an attempt of Connecticut to include Fisher's Island within her jurisdic- tion. Andros at once wrote to Leete that the island had 29 March. been granted by Nicolls to the late Governor Winthrop, Idand. Fisher's and that any proceedings "intrenching" on the authority of New York must be forborne, "to prevent greater incon- veniences." The Connecticut court resolved that they 20 May. would exercise government over the island, and prohibited obedience to Sir Edmund. This bluster ended the matter. The son of Winthrop was obliged to recognize the juris- 24 June. diction of New York, under which the island has ever since remained without question.t
The affairs of Pemaquid requiring attention, Knapton, 26 June. the late commander, and John West, were commissioned as and West
Knapton special justices of the peace, and Henry Jocelyn and others quid. s &t Pema- appointed a Court of Sessions. The commissioners were also directed to visit Fisher's Island, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket, and see that proper officers were establish- ed there. On their return, Knapton and West reported 14 Septem. their proceedings; and Ensign Thomas Sharpe, the pres- ent commander at Pemaquid, and the justices there, were ordered to inform the Eastern savages that the governor 15 Septem. had forbidden the Mohawks to make incursions, and that there must be no more " warring" between the Indians subject to New York.#
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