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23 August. These very advantageous and conciliatory terms were TS.piem. explained to the burgher authorities at the City Hall on
* This "old mill," which was the nearest point on Manhattan to " the ferry" at Brooklyn, was on the shore of the East River, near what is now the foot of Roosevelt Street, but then at the outlet of a brook running out of the " Kolek," afterward vulgarly called "the Col- lect :" see Valentine' : Manual, 1850, 551, and 1863, 621, and the maps appended; ante, vol. i., p. 167, note. We owe the recovery of these maps to the research and care of George II. Moore, the present librarian of the New York Historical Society.
. + Gen. Ent., L. 23-26, 33 ; Col. Doc., il., 250-253, 414; Smith, i., 27-32; S. Smith, 43-44; Hazard's Reg. Penn., iv., 43; Holl. Merc .. 1664, 153, 154; Alb. Rec., xviii., 325 ; Col. MES., xv., 145; Chalmers's Aua., i., 574 ; O'Call., i., 532-535; ante, vol. i., 742, 762.
37
THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF NEW NETHERLAND.
Sunday afternoon, "after the second sermon." It was the CHAP. I.
last religious service that was expected to be celebrated under the Dutch flag in Kieft's old church in Fort Amster- 1664. Terms ex- dam. The next morning Stuyvesant and his council, hav- plained to ing ratified the articles of capitulation, exchanged them the people. with Nicolls, who, on his part, delivered the stipulated doc- 20 August. uments ; and thereupon New Amsterdam was surrendered, 8 Septem. Articles and "the English, without any contest or claim being be- Now Am- fore put forth by any person to it, took possession of a fort sterdam built and continually garrisoned about forty years at the ed. surrender- expense of the West India Company.""
The story of the reduction of Long Island and New Amsterdam has now been minutely told : the unexpected blockade of the port by the English; the overwhelming force of the invaders; the weakness of Fort Amsterdam and its garrison ; the almost solitary heroism and loyalty of Stuyvesant ; the natural resentment of the city burghers against the authorities in Holland, who had left them un- protected against surprise ; their common prudence, which preferred the easy terms offered by the English command- er to the consequences of an unavailing resistance and a capture by storm ; their reasonable dread of being plun- dered by the English colonial volunteers from the east ; the inevitable capitulation of the metropolis, and the con- sequent surrender of the whole Dutch province. There was, indeed-as Stuyvesant reluctantly confessed-" an ab- The Dateb province solute impossibility of defending the fort, much less the defense. city of New Amsterdam, and still less the country."+ lees.
On the part of England this conquest of New Nether- land was an act of peculiar national baseness. It was a scandalous outrage. It was planned in secret, and was ac- The con- questa complished with deliberate deceit toward a friendly gov- scanda! ". ernment. None but Englishmen had the impudence to do outrage. so vile a wrong. Its true motive was carefully concealed
* Col. Doc., il , 414, 415; Alb. Rec., xviii., 323, 324, 326 : Col. MISS., xv., 145; Gen. Ent., 1., 31, 32 ; ante, vol. i., 763. Smith, i., 32, errs in stating that Stuyvesant refused, for two days, to ratify the articles, because they were "very disagreeable" to him. The true rea. fon was that a Sunday intervened, and the articles themselves provided for their due exe- cation on Monday.
t Col. Doc., ii., 366. The first dispatches which Nicolls sent home, containing an account of his transactions with the New England colonies and the surrender of New Netherland, were lost at s-a in the Elias frigate, as will be stated hereafter: see Col. Doc., fil., CS, 92, 1º3; Pepys, ii., 185; post, p. 50, note.
38
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
1664.
CuAr. I. in all the diplomatic statements which attempted to justify the deed. The navigation laws of England, which were chiefly meant to cripple the commerce of her great mari- time rival, could not be enforced in America as long as that rival possessed so important a province there. The intensely selfish spirit of those laws eagerly employed the most unjustifiable means to maintain them. Because En- gland coveted New Netherland, and not because she had any rightful claim, she treacherously seized it as a prize. The whole transaction was eminently characteristic of an insolent and overbearing nation. On no other principle than that which frequently afterward governed the preda- tory aggressions of England in India and elsewhere can her conquest of the Dutch province be defended.
The event inevitable.
Nevertheless, unjustifiable as was the deed, the tempta- tion to commit it was irresistible. Its actual execution was probably only a question of time. The event itself could hardly have been avoided by the Dutch goverment, unless all their previous policy had been reversed, and the holding of New Netherland at all hazards against any enemies been made an indispensable obligation. But this could not have been expected. Neither the West India Company-now on the brink of bankruptcy-nor the States General adequate- ly valued their American province. It was not until toward the end of their rule that the importance of New Nether- land and the necessity of securing it seriously engaged the attention of the authorities in Holland. Even then their ap- parent indifference encouraged the mousing designs of En- gland. Charles the Second decreed that the United Neth- erlands should no longer have a foothold in North America. The decree was executed ; and the Dutch province became the easy prey of undeclared enemies, who sneaked, in time of peace, into her chief harbor. New York replaced New Netherland on the map of the world. Although wars in Europe followed, the result in America was the same. Holland retired from the unequal strife, leaving France and Spain to contend for a season with England for ulti- mate supremacy in North America.
What En- gland gain- r.d.
By the conquest of New Netherland England became the mistress of all the Atlantic coast between Acadia and Florida. On the north and west her colonies were now
39
TIIE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF NEW NETHERLAND.
bounded by the French possessions, on the south by those CHAP. I. of Spain, on the east by the ocean. Yet, although the British American dominions thus became geographically 1664. united, they were neither homogeneous in character nor sympathetic in feeling. The Puritan colonies, while they rejoiced in the subjection of their "noxious neighbors" to the crown of England, had themselves no respect for their own ungodly sovereign. The aid which they had given to the royal commissioners was a fatal political mistake, if any purpose of independence was really cherished. They thus lost the best opportunity they ever had of securing their local governments, because the king was now inaster of the most advantageous position on the continent, from which he could, if necessary, direct military and naval op- erations for their reduction in case of revolt. Maryland, equally removed from Puritan severity and Cavalie. license, was content that its territorial dispute should at all events be adjourned. Virginia, perhaps, felt less interest in the event, although the prompt loyalty of her people, who had hastened to proclaim their restored sovereign, was natural- ly gratified at the extension of his dominion over all the neighboring coast between Cape Henlopen and Montauk Point.
In the progress of years, a common allegiance and com- mon dangers produced greater sympathy among the Anglo- American plantations. Nevertheless, although incorpora- ted into the British colonial empire, New York never lost Prevailing her social and political identity and her salutary moral in- New York. fluence. It was her lot to sustain fiercer trials, and gain a more varied experience, than any other American state. It was equally her destiny to temper the narrow character- isties of her English sister colonies with the larger ideas which she had herself derived from Holland. Midway be- tween New England and Virginia, she stood for nearly a century guarding her long frontier against the attacks of Canada ; and at length she became the PIVOT PROVINCE, on which hinged the most important movements of that sublime revolt against the oppression of England, the only parallel to which was the successful struggle that the fore- fathers of her first settlers maintained against the gigan- tie despotism of Spain.
influence of
40
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. I.
1664. Liberal pol- icy of the Duke of York.
The terms of capitulation offered by Nicolls and accept- ed by Stuyvesant were, perhaps, the most favorable ever granted by a conqueror. In theory, the king only resumed his rightful authority over a province which had been in- trusively occupied and improved by the Dutch. Once re- duced under his own proprietary rule, the Duke of York hoped that it would become not only profitable to himself, but a valuable accession to the colonial dominions of the crown, to which he was the presumptive heir. His policy, therefore, was to obtain peaceful possession of the territory, and at the same time induce its Dutch inhabitants to re- main there and become loyal English subjects. Indeed, the duke's patent authorized him to govern British subjects only. The most liberal inducements were accordingly of- fered to the people of New Netherland, with ostentatious benevolence. On the other hand, the Dutch colonists, cha- grined at the imbecility and seeming indifference of the authorities in the fatherland, and having many causes of complaint against their own provincial government, accept- ed the change of rulers calmly and hopefully, if not with positive satisfaction.
Yet, by becoming British subjects, the Dutch inhabitants The people of New Netherland did not gain political freedom. Fresh ing by the names and laws, they found, did not secure fresh liberties. gain noth- change. Amsterdam was changed to York, and Orange to Albany. But these changes only commemorated the titles of a con- queror. It was nearly twenty years before that conqueror allowed for a brief period to the people of New York even that faint degree of representative government which they had enjoyed when the three-colored ensign of Hol- land was hauled down from the flag-staff of Fort Amster- dam. New Netherland exchanged Stuyvesant, and the West India Company, and a republican sovereignty, for Nicolls, and a royal proprietor, and a hereditary king. The province was not represented in Parliament; nor could the voice of its people reach the chapel of Saint Stephen at Westminster as readily as it had reached the chambers . of the Binnenhof at the Hague.
Nevertheless, to all the changes which befell them, the Loyalty of Dutch colonists of New York submitted with characteristic the Dutch. good faith. No more loyal subjects than they were ever
a
LETH
41
THE ENGLISH CONQUEST OF NEW NETHERLAND.
brought under the British crown. Yet it was not pleasant for them to watch the red cross of England waving where the emblems of the Netherlands had floated for fifty years. To Holland they felt a deep, unalterable, hereditary attach- ment. Nor have the vicissitudes of time extinguished that sentiment in their descendants. Two centuries have scarce- ly weakened the veneration which citizens of New York of Dutch lineage proudly cherish toward the fatherland of their ancestors. Year by year the glorious and the genial memories of Holland are renewed by those whom long generations have separated from the country of their fore- fathers. But colonists usually retain more affection to- ward their fatherland than those who remain at home ever feel toward the emigrants who leave its shores. As years roll on, the contrast becomes more marked. Two centil- Holland ries have almost wiped out of the recollection of Holland forgets the once familiar name of New Netherland. A few of the land. more curious of her scholars and her statesmen may some- times, by careful search, discover the meagre paragraphs in which her ponderous histories dismiss the story of her an- cient trans-Atlantic province. But the people of the Low Countries scarcely know that New York was once their own New Netherland, or that they have any right to the glory of having laid the foundations of the mightiest state in the American Union, and the metropolis of the Western World.
CHAP. I. 1664.
42
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAPTER II.
1664-1665.
CHAP. II.
1661. 29 Angust. 8 Septem.
The Dutch march out of Fort Amster- dam.
The En- glish flag hoisted.
Ox Monday morning, the twenty-ninth of August, six- teen hundred and sixty-four, Peter Stuyvesant, having per- formed his last official act as Director General of New Netherland by ratifying the articles of capitulation, placed himself at the head of his garrison, and marched out of Fort Amsterdam with arms fixed, colors flying, drums beating, and matches lighted. Wheeling to the left, the veteran led his sullen troops down the Beaver Street to the North River. From there they were hurried on board the West India Company's ship Gideon, which was preparing . to sail for Holland. This was so arranged because the Dutch soldiers were enraged at not being allowed to strike a blow, and the British infantry were prudently kept out of sight until they were safely embarked. In the mean time the English regulars had taken post near the old mill. The Long Island and New England auxiliaries, by previous agreement between Stuyvesant and Nicolls, were kept to- gether on the Brooklyn side of the river, and were not al- lowed to enter the city, because the burghers "were more apprehensive of being plundered by them than by the oth- ers." As the Dutch garrison marched out, the ensign of the United Provinces was hauled down, and an English corporal's guard took possession of the fort and hoisted the British flag, which Nicolls had borrowed from the frigate Guinea. Leaving Colonel Cartwright with his company, which was stationed at the ferry, to occupy the city gates and the City Hall, Nicolls advanced at the head of his own and Sir Robert Carr's companies, and, accompanied by the burgomasters, marched into the fort. After being formal- ly inducted by the civic authorities, who "gave him a wel- come reception," the English governor performed his first
43
RICHARD NICOLLS, GOVERNOR.
official act by directing that the city of New Amsterdam CHAP. Ii. should thenceforth be called "New York," and Fort Am- sterdam "Fort James."" 1664.
New York
The surrender being thus accomplished without blood- and Fort James shed, Nicolls at once dismissed the Long Island and New named. England volunteers. The Massachusetts delegates were sent back, with the thanks of the royal commissioners to 29 August. her General Court. The governor also addressed a letter and and Long INI- to Captain John Younge, of Southold, who commanded New En- gland vol- the Long Island militia, desiring him to make out a list dismissed. of those who had taken up arms " for their king and coun- try," so that they might be suitably rewarded, and promis- ing that deputies from the several towns should, "in con- venient time and place, be summoned, to propose and give their advice in all matters tending to the peace and benefit of Long Island."+
The new provincial government was now organized. The governor's subordinate, Captain Matthias Nicolls, of Nicolls'a Islip, in Northamptonshire, who had accompanied him eruciut. from England, and was a lawyer, was appointed secretary of the province. Captains Robert Needham and Thomas Delavall, also from England, together with Secretary Nicolls, Thomas Topping, of Southampton, and William Wells, of Southold, were named counselors. On extraor- dinary occasions, Stuyvesant's late secretary, Cornelis van Ruyven, and Schepen Johannes van Brugh, were some- times called on to assist. Delavall was also appointed col- lector and receiver general of New York and its neighbor- hood.#
The Dutch municipal officers were continued in their places by virtue of the articles of capitulation. The day after the surrender, the Court of Burgomasters and Sche- pens of the city of New York assembled to transact their 30 August. ordinary business, and proceeded to administer justice as if 9 Septem.
* Alb. Rec., xviii., 326; Col. MSS., xv., 145; Gen. Ent., i., 32, 55; Hazard's Reg. Penn., Jr., 3); New Amst. Rec., v., 567-570 ; Val. Man., 1800, 502, 503; Col. Doc., ii., 250-253, 415, 4:2. 41, 415, 446, 501, 502, 509, 744; Bushwick Rec. ; Thompson, ii., 165: ante, vol. 1, 742, :14. 163. As the old style was used in England, it was now introduced into New York. I «had therefore follow that supputation, adding, whenever necessary, the corresponding Cer' In the new style in a line under the old. The historical, and not the English legal 2 av. will, however, be used between 1 January and 25 March.
* Gen. Eat, 1, 21, 30; Thompson, i., 127 ; Smith, i., 22.
: Puente, i., 3; Drede, ii .. 21; S. Wood, 144; Thompson, il., 300; Val. Man., 1847, 351, *** , 1:52, 381 ; 1533, 350, 283.
44
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. II. nothing unusual had occurred. A few days afterward
1664. £. Septem. City offi- cers contin- they wrote to the West India Company, by the ship Gid- eon, which, with a pass from Nicolls, took home the late garrison, under the command of Ensign Nyssen, describ- ued. ing the surrender, and adding that, " since we have no lon- ger to depend upon your honor's promises or protection, we, with all the poor, sorrowing, and abandoned commonalty here, must fly for refuge to the Almighty God, not doubt- ing but He will stand by us in this sorely afflicting con- juncture." By the same vessel Stuyvesant and his late coun- if Septem. cil also sent the company an official account of the capitu- Letters to Holland. lation, and declared " that they would prefer to suffer ship- wreck in the empty praise and esteem of the world, than, waiting to the last moment without hope of relief, subject every thing to bloodshed, or at least to the danger of being plundered."" Domine Samuel Drisius, one of the collegi- 15 Septem. ate ministers of the Dutch Church, also wrote an interest- ing letter to the Classis of Amsterdam, detailing the circum- stances of the surrender.t
For the first time, the English Episcopal service was English now celebrated in New York. The articles of capitula- and Dutch Church service. tion expressly declared that all public buildings should continue in their previous uses, and that the Dutch should enjoy their accustomed divine worship and church disci- 11 October. pline. Provision was accordingly made by the burgomas- ters and schepens for the due support of the Domines Megapolensis and Drisius, until the governor should make farther arrangements. The chaplain of the English forces had, however, no proper place in which to celebrate divine service, except in the Dutch Church in the fort. It was very cordially arranged that after the Dutch had ended their own morning worship in their church, the British chaplain should read the Church of England service there to the governor and the garrison. This was all the footing that the English Episcopal Church had in New York for more than thirty years .;
· Gen. Ent., i., 34, 35, 141; New Amst. Rec., v., 555, 560-570; Val. Man., 1860, 592, 523; Col. Doc., it .. 422, 504, 744; Mass. Hist. Soc., Trumbull Pap., xx., 73; Col. MSS., x. (iii.), 323. t A translation of this letter, which gives several details heretofore unknown, was pub- lished for the first time in the Appendix to Brodhead's Oration on the Conquest of New Netherland, delivered before the New York Historical Society on 13 October, 1564.
+ Doc. Hist. N. Y., ili., 265; Col. Doc., ili., 262, 415; iv., 525, 526; New Amst. Rec., s .. 539; Hist. Mag., i. (ii.), 322; Beneon's Mem., ii. N. Y. II. S. Coll. (ii.), 103; Humphreys's
45
RICHARD NICOLLS, GOVERNOR.
Meanwhile, Fort Orange and Esopus, although included CHAP. II. in the capitulation, remained to be reduced under the duke's authority. Accordingly, as soon as the Gideon had 1664. 9 I'g Septem. sailed for Holland with the Dutch garrison, and the safety of the capital was thus assured, Nicolls commissioned his colleague, Colonel Cartwright, to go up the river with his &; Septem. company and occupy those places. The authorities and to Fort Expedition inhabitants of Fort Orange were required to aid him in Orange. obtaining quiet possession, and to obey him according to the governor's instructions, especially "in case the Mo- hawks or other Indians shall attempt any thing against the lives, goods, or chattels of those who are now under the protection of his majesty of Great Britain." Van Rensse- laer was also directed to bring the title papers respecting Rensselaerswyck down to New York for the governor's in- spection, and, in the mean time, to obey Cartwright's or- ders. In order to secure the transfer to the English of the friendship which the Iroquois had cherished toward the Dutch, Nicolls requested some persons who had experience in dealing with the savages to accompany the military offi- cers of the expedition. One of these was Willett, of Plym- outh, and the other was Captain Thomas Breedon, of Bos- ton, formerly governor of Nova Scotia, who had visited Fort Orange in 1662. Cartwright's chief military subor- dinates were Captain John Manning and Captain Daniel Brodhead. Manning seems to have formerly commanded a trading vessel between New Haven and Manhattan, but was now in the regular service. Brodhead was a zealous Royalist, of Yorkshire, England, where his family had lived " in the credit and reputation of gentlemen," and who, hay- ing a captain's commission from the king, embarked with his household for America in the expedition of Nicolls."
When Cartwright reached Fort Orange, he found that September. De Decker, one of Stuyvesant's late plenipotentiaries at the capitulation, had hurried up thither from New York,
1.1. A.c., 201 : Thompson, ii .. 205; Christian Journal, quoted in Dr. Berrian's sketch of Trinity Church, 11. The names of the earliest chaplains of the English forces in New York * nxt known. The first that has come down to us is that of the Rev. Charles Wolley, a waste of Cambridge, who officiated from Aug., 1658, to July, 1680: Hist. Mag .. v., 153, 182. * Gra. Ent., i., 34, 35, 141 ; Renss. MISS. ; Col. Doc., i., 456; ii., 422, 502; iii., 39-41, 65, 11. 140. 270; ix . 75: Munsell's Ann., vii., 97; Morton's Mem., 311, note; Hatch. Mass., i., ., fat, 124, 225; Mass, Rec., iv. (ii.), 60, 75; Hazard, ii., 462, 463 ; Palfrey, i., 163; ii., 4 . 4.5. 555; New Haven Rec., il., 63-75; Josselyn's Voyages, 153; ii. N. Y. H. S. Coll , (, ** 1; (1900), 16, 27, 57, 537, ante, vol. 1., 519, 525, 579, 585, 704, 736, 743.
46
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. II. and was endeavoring "to alienate the minds of his majes- ties' Dutch subjects from that happy reconcilement with-
Fort Or- ange sub- mits.
1664. out bloodshed upon articles so lately made." But the counselor's efforts were vain. La Montagne and the mag- istrates had no disposition to resist. Little change was made except in the name of the place, which was thence- N'amed Al- forth to be called " Albany," after the Scotch title of the Duke of York. All the inferior officers and civil magis- trates were continued in their places. An English garri-
bany.
Manning son occupied the little fortress, which was named "Fort
command-
er. Albany," and placed in charge of Captain Manning. Soon 24 Septem. afterward, several Mohawk and Seneca sachems appeared First En- at the fort, and signed with Cartwright the first treaty be- glish treaty with the Iroquois. tween the Iroquois and the English. It was covenanted that the Indians should have all the commodities from the English which they formerly had from the Dutch; that offenses should be reciprocally punished ; and that the Riv- er Indians, and those below Manhattan, should be included 25 Septem. in the treaty. The next day it was farther agreed that the English should not assist the hostile Eastern tribes, that they should make peace for the Iroquois with the nations down the river, that the Iroquois should have free trade, and "be lodged in houses" as formerly, and that, if they should be beaten by the Eastern tribes, they should "re- ceive accommodation" from the English. The friendship thus established continued to be maintained with remark- able fidelity on both sides for more than a century, until the American Revolutionary War.
On his return from Albany Cartwright landed at Eso- pus. As at Albany, care was taken to conciliate the in- habitants. William Beekman was retained in his place as schout, or sheriff, while Thomas Chambers remained com- missary, and Matthys Capito secretary of the village of Brodhead in com- mand at Esopus. Wildwyck. A garrison of regular soldiers occupied the fort, under the command of Captain Brodhead. The only opposition which Cartwright experienced during his expe- dition was from De Decker, at Albany; and Nicolls, on 30 Septem. learning his conduct, ordered the too patriotic Hollander to leave the government within ten days. The deputies who 10 October. accompanied Cartwright from Albany agreed to written articles with Nicolls that the inhabitants there " should en-
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