USA > New York > History of the state of New York. Vol. II, Pt. 2 > Part 11
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Randolph now urged that "a temporary Government" is August. should be established in Massachusetts, by the king's com- advice. mission, " to the best disposed persons upon the place, until such time as his Majesty's Governor General shall be dis- patched from hence to take upon him the government of all the Colonies in New England." He even named candi- 2 Septem. dates for offices, and suggested a joint Assembly, in which the people of Massachusetts, Plymouth, Maine, and New
* Col. Doc .. iii., 361, 362, 303; Chalmerz, i., 2;8, 297, 301-304, 371, 621; Arnold, i., 481 ; Palfrey, iii. . 482, 505. 508 : R. I. Rec., il., 175-178; Col. Rec. Conn., iii., 347-352 ; Dalrymple, ii., 53; Burnet, i., 647-651; Wodrom, iv., 216-223; Mackintosh, 14; Macaulay, i., 565, 628- 630; ante, 426, 432.
II .- E E
Island, Jer-
Randolph's
434
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. IX. Hampshire should be represented. But, in spite of the 1685. opinions of Sawyer and Finch, his attorney and solicitor general, James expressly directed "that no mention of an 9 Septem. Assembly be made in the Commission." This, however, was only following out the order of the late king in No- vember, 1684. Joseph Dudley, for whose loyalty Dongan 97 Septem, vouched, was accordingly appointed president, and seven- 8 October. New En- gland reg- ulated. teen others counselors, of that part of New England in- cluding Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Maine, and the Narragansett Country, or the King's Province, to govern the same until the "chief Governor" should arrive. As his special reward, Randolph had his previous appointment 21 Septemn. by Charles confirmed by James's commission to be "Seere- tary and sole Register" of this territory. Moreover, as the Duke of York's personal interest in the revenues of the post-office was now vested in his crown, Lord Treasurer 19 Novem. Randolph deputy postmaster in North America. Rochester appointed Randolph, whose attention had been awakened by Dongan's movement, to be deputy postmaster of New England -apparently the first instance of the kind in American colonial annals .*
Septem. Baptism of negroes in the I'nglish Planta- tions.
While thus arranging a temporary goverment in New England, James took care to announce in his Privy Coun- cil his resolution "that the negroes in the Plantations should all be baptized; exceedingly declaiming against that impiety of their masters prohibiting it, out of a mis- taken opinion that they would be, ipso facto, free." This determination of the king was afterward practically en- forced in the Instructions to his colonial governors. It ap- pears to have been suggested by the second article of the famous "Code Noir," which Louis had just published at Versailles, and which required all slaves in the French col- onies to be baptized and taught in the Catholic religion.+
The King of France now took a step which moved both
* Col. Doc., iii., $50, 301, 365, 579 ; Chalmers, i., 417, 418, 419, 463 ; R. I. Rec., ifi., 175, 125, 196, 200; Mass. H. S. Coll., v., 244; xxvii., 148, 149, 161, 162; Hutch. Mass., i., 341 ; Coli., 513, 357, 559, 560 ; Belknap, 1., 185, 156 ; Douglas, i., 413 ; Palfrey, iii., 395, 482-485; Force's Tracts, iv., No. 8, p. 13, 14; ante, 419.
t Evelyn, ii., 245; Anderson's Col. Ch., ii., 303; Long's Hist. of Jamaica, iii., Appendix ; Oldmixon, ii., 130; Burk, if., 129, 130; Martin's Louis XIV., i., 450, 490; Hurd's Law of Freedom and Bondage, i., 165, 155, 186, 210, 281; Col. Doc., iii., 374, 547. In Valentine's Manual for 1861, 640-664, are numerous instances of the marriages of negroes with begre-s. es by the Dutch ministers in New York, from 1642 to 1693; and several children of such marriages appear to have been baptized : Val. Man., 1963, 738-834. In 1667, Virginia .n. acted that baptism did not free slaves from bondage : Hening, il., 260; Hurd, i., 222: in derson's Col. Church, IL, 344.
435
THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
Europe and America. His grandfather, Henry the Fourth, CHAP. IX. had made an edict at Nantes in 1598, which granted to Protestants full liberty of conscience, and many privileges 1685. they had not before enjoyed in the French kingdom. This edict had been respected by Louis the Thirteenth, by Riche- lieu, and by Mazarin. But, after the death of Colbert, and the secret marriage of Louis the Fourteenth with Frances de Maintenon, a great change happened. Roman ideas took the place of Protestant ideas. Huguenots, protected by Henry, were persecuted by Louis, who sent his dragoons to convert them to the Romish doctrine. At last the king 17 October. revoked his predecessor's Edict of Nantes. The conse- vokes the Louis re- quences of this act were immediate and immense. Brutal Nantes. Edict of persecutions drove more than two hundred thousand of her million and a half of Protestants out of France. The ref- ugees sought new homes in England, Holland, Prussia, and America, where they introduced unknown French arts and industry. Scorning thraldom, genius renounced allegiance; and Schomberg, Basnage, Rapin, with a host of others, un- der freer skies, gave their talents and their gallantry to help the retributive humiliation of the vainglorious perse- cutor of their faith .*
William Penn had meanwhile been employed in helping Penn suc- himself at Whitehall. Penn was an uncommonly adroit with Jatues cessful and selfish Englishman. He knew where, when, and how gland. in En- to touch his sovereign's weaknesses. And he had the Inck to touch James, to his own great gain. Yet, in his contro- versy with Lord Baltimore about the undefined boundaries of Maryland, William Penn had on his side the advantage of historical truth. When the case was brought to the king for decision, the rival claimants were politically equal. One was a Romanist, the other a Quaker. So James took up the question. As Duke of York he had, since 1669, denied Baltimore's claim to the Delaware territory ; and in 1682 he had conveyed it to Penn. After patient hearings, the Plantation Committee reported that Lord 8 Norem. Baltimore's patent granted " only land uncultivated and in- habited by Savages;" whereas the territory in dispute had
* Anderson on Commerce, il., 569.571 : Lavall'e, iii., 257-263, 316 ; Martin's Louis XIV., 1., 534 -558; ii., 30-56; Anderson's Col. Ch., il., 322-331 ; Wodrow, iv., 349-331; Burnet, i., 655; Macaulay, il., 13-17 ; iii., 124; Evelyn, il., 253, 254; Arnold, i., 476, 497; Palfrey, ili., 453; N. Y. Col. Doc., ill., 309, 426, 450, 050; ix., 309, 312, 425, 509, 5-10, 549.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Cuar. IX. been inhabited and planted by Christians before his grant. Delaware, therefore, did not form a part of Maryland.
13 Novem. Decision about the Delaware territory.
1655. But, to end differences, the committee recommended that the land between the Chesapeake and the Delaware should be divided into two equal parts, of which the half nearest the Delaware should belong to the king (or to Pen), and that nearest the Chesapeake remain to Lord Baltimore. This report was approved by James in council, who order- ed the division to be made accordingly. This decision es- tablished the original title of the Dutch as they maintain- ed it in 1659 ; while it denied the rightfulness of the Duke of York's patent for New Netherland in 1664, and "inval- idated the reasonings upon which England had always con- tended for American sovereignty.""
2 July. Prees cen- vived in England.
Perhaps the most important result of Penn's visit to En- gland was the introduction of the art of printing into the middle colonies of British America. Up to this time the only printing-press in the English-American Plantations had been the one in Massachusetts, which had always been under Puritan censorship. A new act of Parliament had just revived the censorship of the English press, which had worship re- expired in 1679. Freedom of printing was not one of the ideas of that age. But the necessity of the printer's art was every where felt. That necessity had moved the council of Pennsylvania, when, in July, 1684, they " left to the Governor's discretion to have the laws and charter printed at London." So the proprietor, while there, en- gaged "a friend," William Bradford, to set up a printing- press in Philadelphia. Bradford was then twenty-two - years old, born in Leicestershire, and said to have gone, as a stripling, to Pennsylvania with Penn in 1682. He was now married to a daughter of Andrew Sowle, a distin- guished Quaker printer, of Grace Church Street, in Lon- don, to whom he had been an apprentice. George Fox 6 August. therefore wrote to several eminent Quakers in America, that "a sober young man, whose name is William Brad-
* Col. Doc., il., 88-100 ; ilf., 186, 339, 340, 312-347, 362, 363; Chalm., i., 371, 650, 651, 663; Hazard's Reg. Penn., ii., 202, 203, 225; Proud, i., 290-295; if., 208-211: Grahame, i., 227, 329, 521 ; Bancroft, il., 308, 393, 334; Dixon, 222-227 ; Macaulay, i., 502-505, €50; ante, 159. 164, 367, 393 ; vol. i., 606-669. The boundary between Pennsylvanin and Maryland wox run from Delaware westward, between 1763 and 1768, by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dit- on, and is now popularly known as " Mason and Dixon's line :" see interesting papers cn this subject in Hist. Mag., il., 37-42; v., 199-202.
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THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
ford, comes to Pennsylvania, to set up the trade of print- Cusr. IX. ing Friends' books." On reaching Philadelphia, Bradford quickly started his press ; the first work of which seems to
1685. Bradford have been an Almanac for the year 1686, compiled by begins to Samuel Atkyns. This almost unique curiosity at this day print in Philadel- phia. was sharply censured by the critics of Pennsylvania. It stated, as a chronological fact, that at a certain day in 1682 was "The beginning of government here by the Lord Penn." These words provoked much Quaker wrath; and the temporary subordinate of the absent proprietor-with- out whose active friendship many probably would never 1686. have seen Philadelphia-ordered Atkyns "to blot out the 9 Jan'y. words Lord Penn" from his Ahnanac, and charged Brad- ford " not to print any thing but what shall have license from the council."*
Meanwhile an order of the New York Council in March, 1684, requiring the several towns in the province to renew their patents, had caused much anxiety. Dongan had a double motive to enforce it; for the king's revenue from the new quit-rents would be increased, and he would him- self gain a harvest of fees. The towns did not delay when they saw they must act. Hempstead and Flushing made Dongan large grants of land to the governor, and obtained advan- land by granted tageous patents. Flatbush also got a new charter. After and Flush- Hempstead a long negotiation about boundaries, Newtown likewise fug. procured Attorney General Graham's approbation to a pat- ent, which the council resolved should be the model after 20 Febr'y. which all those for other townships should be drawn. ente for New pat- Accordingly Brooklyn, and all the other towns on Long towns. Island, with the exception of Huntington, in the course of May to this year obtained new patents from the governor. This. December. result, however, was not gained without opposition. East- hampton was especially stubborn ; and Mulford and others riotously protested against any interference with their old 6 October. patents. James, the minister of the town, preached a stir- 17 October. ring sermon against those who acted under the governor's order. The offenders were summoned to New York, 19 Novem. Easthamp- where Attorney General Graham filed informations against ton.
' Penn. Col. Rec., i., 74, 82, 117, 165; Historieat Mag .. iv., 52; vif., 70, 71; vill., 274-276; Thomas's Hist. Print., il, 5, 6, 91; Dixon, 208; Penn. H. S. Mom , i., 104, 105; Wallace's Address, 1863, 20-27; Statute 1 James II., cap. 17; Macaulay, 1., 249, 379, 580; Lingard, xiil., 165, nete ; ante, 80, 145, 336.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
Cam. IX. them. They came accordingly, and humbly asked pardon for what they had done, which was granted; and, in the 1686. end, Easthampton was glad to take out "a more full and liberal" patent from Dongan."
9 Decem.
24 April.
The Corporation of New York had for some time de- sired a new charter from the king, confirming their old privileges, and granting to them all the vacant land in and about the city. As Bayard, its mayor, was one of the council, and Graham, its recorder, attorney general of the province, a draft of the desired patent was quickly submit- ted to the municipal authorities, who agreed to give Don- gan three hundred pounds, and Secretary Spragg twenty- four pounds, as their official fees. The engrossed charter, having been read and allowed in council, was accordingly signed by the governor, who caused it to be sealed with the old provincial seal which the Duke of York had sent out to Lovelace in 1669, and which was yet the only one that could be used. The instrument itself is too familiar to need a particular description here .;
27 April. New char- ter for the city of New York.
May. Soon after signing the metropolitan charter, the govern- or went up to "settle his Majesty's business" at Albany, the inhabitants of which were anxious to be incorporated. Renase- lnerwyck patent. Dongan had granted a patent for Rensselaerwyck on the 4th of November, 1685, to its Dutch proprietors, for which they paid him two hundred pounds. But after their pat- ent was sealed it was found inconvenient, because it in- cluded Albany, which, being the second town in the gov- ernment, should not " be in the hands of any particular 20 July. " men." Through the influence of Graham, Palmer, and Release of the Van Rensse- laers. Van Cortlandt, the Van Rensselaers now released " their pretence to the town, and sixteen miles into the country for Commons to the King."}
The governor accordingly executed a charter agreed upon between himself and the magistrates at Albany, for
* Council Min., v, 63, 145, 161, 183, 158; Col. MISS., xxxi., 121; xxxii., 26; xxxiii., 66- 80,99; Doc. Hist., ili., 213-213; Wood, 41, 103, 104; liedges' Address, 20, SS-95; Themp- con, i., 315, 330, 414, 403 ; ii. , 14-17, 82, 105, 185, 193, 223; Riker's Newtown, 106-113; Stley's Brooklyn, i., 200-202; Hoffman, i., 95; Patents, vol. v .; Col. Doc., iii., 333, 401, 412.
+ Col. Doc., ill., 360, 361, 365, 412, 425, 427, 495 ; iv., 812; v., 360; Council Min .. v., 135; Min. of N. Y. Common Council, i., 272, 292, 300; Val. Man., 1844, 318; 1558, 13-94; Drin- lap, il., App. cxxxiv .; list. Mag., vi., 275; Doc. Hist., iv., 1"; Patents, v., 361-400; 11 - man's Treatise, i., 20 ; ante, 159, note. 400, 427.
+ Patents, v., 228-235; Munsell's Annale, iv., 145; Barnard's Sketch, 130-133; Dex. list., iii., 552; Col. Doc., il., 553; ili., 224, 225, 269, 270, 351, 491, 410, 411, 455, 495 ; ante, vol. 1. 535; ii., 259, 257.
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THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
which they promised him three hundred pounds. By this CHAP. IX. instrument Dongan incorporated the "ancient town" of 1686. Beverwyck, or Willemstadt, or Albany, as a city, with large 22 July. franchises, including the management of the Indian trade ; Albany in- corporated and appointed Peter Schuyler to be its first mayor; Isaac as a city. Swinton, its recorder; Robert Livingston, its clerk; Dirck Wessels, Jan Jansen Bleecker, David Schuyler, Johannes Wendell, Levinus van Schaick, and Adrian Garritse, its al- dermen ; Joachim Staats, John Lansing, Isaac Verplanck, Lawrence van Ale, Albert Ryckman, and Melgert Wi- nantse, its assistants; Jan Becker, its chamberlain ; Richard Pretty, its sheriff; and James Parker, its marshal. The mayor and the sheriff were afterward to be appointed an- nually by the governor; the recorder and the town clerk to hold office during his pleasure; and the aldermen and assistants to be annually elected by the inhabitants on the Feast of Saint Michael, or the twenty-ninth day of Sep- tember. The charter, being brought up to Albany, " was 26 July. published with all the joy and acclamations imaginable ;" bany char- The Al- and the officials named in it were duly sworn .* ter publish :- ed.
Dongan also appointed Robert Livingston to be sub-col- 12 July. lector and receiver of the king's revenues at Albany, which, Livingston Robert with his place as town clerk, " might afford him a compe- fortable. made coni- tent maintenance." Appointed by Andros to be secretary of his Indian Commissioners at Albany in 1675, Livingston secured colonial position by marrying, in 1683, Alida, wid- ow of Domine Nicolaus van Rensselaer, and a sister of Peter Schuyler. Gifted with remarkable acquisitiveness, and enjoying peculiar official advantages, he learned that . there were valuable lands on the east side of the IJudson, just below those of the Van Rensselaers, which had never been granted by the government of New York. So Liv- ingston quietly secured the Indian title to all the territory from Roeloff Jansen's Kill, opposite Catskill, to a point op- posite the Saugerties' Kill, with all the lands further cast-
* Patents, v., 416-478; Munsell's Annals, il., 02-92; viii., 205-216; Col. Doc., ill., 401, 407, 411, 426, 494. As to the families of Bleecker, Van Schaick, and Livingston, see Holgate, 87-98, 141-200; and as to that of Schuyler, sve Mansell, ii., 177; O'Call., ii., 177. Denon- ville, the governor of Canada, writing to Seignelay from Montreal, in August, 16ST, report- ed that, by his charter to the city of Albany, Dongan had, "for money, divested himself of the finest right he posses-ed -- that of nominating the magistrates and other officers, where- by he was enabled to execute the orders of the King of England. Thus he is no longer mas- ter of the merchants:" Col. Dec., ix., 237.
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1
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. Ix. ward toward Massachusetts and Connecticut, called " Tach-
1686. kanick." He then got Dongan to give him a patent for
22 July. Living- ston's pat- ent. S May. Denon- ville's Ca- nadian pol-
this vast region, with manorial privileges; and thus the shrewd Scotch clerk of Albany became one of the largest landowners in New York."
jcy.
After his first winter's experience, the new governor of Canada informed Seignelay of Dongan's enterprise in trad- ing with the Western savages by Albany parties, led by Canadian deserters. The only way to check this would be to establish a strong French post at Niagara. Moreover, Fort Frontenac, at Cataracony, should be made a magazine to aid an attack on the Senecas, who must be humbled. The Iroquois, he declared, "maintain themselves only by the assistance of the English." Again, Denonville insisted " that the English are the principal fomenters of the inso- lence and arrogance of the Iroquois, adroitly using them to extend their sovereignty," which they pretended covered Lakes Ontario and Erie, " and the whole territory towards the Miscissippi."t
19 June.
.
15 April. The Five Nations summoned to Albany.
To counteract Denonville's policy, and to maintain his own, Dongan summoned the Five Nations to meet him at Albany. A new order had been made, forbidding all traffic with the Indians, unless the governor's license had been obtained. The commissaries there represented that its trade had been diminished by the intrigues of the French among the Indians, and asked to have the French priests removed from their castles, and to have them replaced by "English, capable to instruct and continue them in the knowledge of the Christian religion." Dongan according- ly promised to establish a church at "Serachtague," or Saratoga, for such Iroquois as should come back from Can- ada, and to ask King James to send over English priests as soon as possible. IIe also warned the Five Nations of Denonville's purpose to attack them ; and, promising his friendship, advised retaliation. Lamberville, the elder French missionary at Onondaga, had endeavored to pre- vent this meeting at Albany, and appealed to Dongan's re-
May. Dongan glish Jesu- its to re- place the French among the Pavages.
10 May.
* Pat., v., 451-499 ; Doc. Hist., iii., 367-455; Col. Doc., ill., 401; iv., 251, 514, 791. 822: Col. MSS., xxxiii., 266; Council Min., v., 117; Ord., Warr., etc., xxxiix, 13, 14; & dx- wick's Liv. ; Hunt's Liv. ; ante, 287, 200.
t Col. Doc., ix., 287-206; Quebec MSS. (i ), v., 180-252; Doc. Hist., i., 126-128; Charle- voix, il., 321, 328, 232 ; ante, 405, 420, 432.
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THOMAS DONGAN, GOVERNOR.
ligious sympathy. The governor replied that he would CHAP. IX. protect him from any danger he might apprehend from the 16S6. Indians ; the question as to the dominion over whom must 20 May. be left to the kings of England and France. At the same time he invited the younger Lamberville to Albany, and even asked the Onondagas to send him there; but the mis- sionary staid at his post. Dongan also wrote to Denon- 22 May. ville that his preparations at Cataracouy had alarmed the wa Dongan
Denon-
Iroquois ; and he warned him not to attack "the King of ville. England's subjects," nor to build his intended fort "at a place called Ohniagero [Niagara], on this side of the Lake; -within my master's territories, without question." War would not begin on the side of New York; and the gov- ernor of Canada should "refer all questions home, as I have done."*
Denonville now appealed to Dongan, as a Roman Cath- 5 June. olie, for aid in converting the savages, and asked him to to Dongan. Denonville return deserters from Canada; promising reciprocity, and alleging that he had done all he could to find and send back two New York negroes, whom Tesschenmaeker, the Dutch clergyman at Schenectady, supposed to be harbored in .Canada. A few days afterward, Denonville asserted 20 June. that the supplies sent to Cataracony should give no um- brage ; that the Iroquois were treacherous; and that the pretensions of the English to their country were not as good as the actual possession by the French, who had long maintained establishments there, in regard to which "our masters will easily agree among themselves, seeing the union and good understanding that obtain between them." Dongan, in reply, complimented Denonville at the expense 26 July. of De la Barre, and promised to do all he could to pre- reply to Dongan's vent the Iroquois harming the French missionaries, and ville. also to surrender all refugees from Canada.t
Informed by the Minisinks of the designs of the French, 7 August Dongan summoned the Five Nations to send delegates to
* Col MSS., xxxill., 234 ; Col. Doc., ili., 304, 355, 415, 419, 454, 455, 456, 464 ; ix., 206, 207, 311, 802; Doc. Ilist., i., 128, 120; Charlevoix, il., 329, 330, 331, 332; Shea's Missions, 314. Colden does not mention this meeting at Albany. The date of Dongan's reply to Lamber- ville's letter, in Col. Doc., iii., 404, and Doc. Ilistory, i., 143, 144, is wrongly given as 16ST instead of 1650 : compare Col. Doc., ix., 311. Dongan was not at Albany in May, 16ST : Col. MSS., xxxV., 61.
+ Col. Doc .. iii., 493-461; ix., 297, 312: Doc. Hist., L., 199, 130; 131; Charlevoix, ii., 320- 301; Shea's Missions, 214; Warburton, i., 400; ante, 380, 432.
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HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CHAP. IX. New York. A conference was accordingly held at Fort James, when the governor told the Iroquois that the King 1686. 30 August. Dongan's conference with the Iroquois at Fort James. of England would be their "loving father ;" that they should not meet the French at Cataracouy ; that no Euro- peans would be allowed to go to the Susquehanna River and trade there withont Corlaer's consent; that he was about sending other expeditions to the Western savages, and wished some from each Iroquois nation, especially the Senecas, to accompany them; that he would provide good land and an English Jesuit priest for all the Iroquois Chris- tians at the Sault Saint Louis who would return to New English in- stead of French Jes- uits. York ; that he would also establish English Jesuits among the Five Nations, who, he wished, would dismiss their French missionaries; that they should send to him all Frenchmen who should visit their country ; and finally he said that if they were attacked by the Governor of Canada, "Let me know ; I will come ; it will be with me he shall 1 Septem. Reply of the Five Nations. have to settle." The next day the several nations answer- ed in their turns. Although Albany was the "appointed place" to talk, they had cheerfully come to New York ; and they were glad that they were to be " no more Brothers, but looked upon as children." As to trading on the Sus- quehanna, they avoided committing themselves; but the An English Mohawks-from whom most of the proselytes at the Sault priest wanted at Saratoga. Saint Louis had gone -- earnestly desired that Dongan would "order that land and a Priest may be at Saraghtoge."*
October. Lamber- ville de- ceived by Denon- ville.
Detecting this movement, Lamberville hastened to De- nonville, who sent him back, with instructions "to assem- ble all the Iroquois nations, next spring, at Cataracouy, to talk over our affairs;" and also to dispatch his younger brother James to Canada, while he remained alone among the Onondagas. "The poor father knows nothing of our designs," wrote Denonville to Seignelay, " and I am sorry to see him exposed." And well might the marquis-gov- ernor feel " sorry;" for his purpose was to use the adroit but sincere missionary as the instrument to accomplish one of the vilest stratagems which ever marked the policy of France in North America.t
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