USA > New York > History of the state of New York. Vol. II, Pt. 2 > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38
* Col. Doc., iii .. 503, 504, 640, 668; Doc. It-t., H., 8, 902, 243; Hutch. Mass., i., 35, sote ; N. Y. H. S. Coll. (190-1, 292.
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
CEAs. X1. Of the events which now strode on in New York, Jacob Leisler must be considered the chief mover. Although 1689. commonly called a Dutchman, Leisler was no Hollander
ler. except by association. He was a German, born at Frank- A German fort-on-the-Maine, and he had first come to New Netherland Patchman. as a stipendiary soldier of the Dutch West India Company. For nearly thirty years he had lived in New York, where, from his first condition as a mercenary private, he had grown to be a prosperous merchant. By marriage he had become connected with both Bayard and Van Cortlandt; but he had been involved in lawsuits with them and others whom he felt to be his superiors in education and in social position. A rankling envy of these New York gentlemen moved Leisler, as it always moves those brutal natures which count elbows and impudence better than refinement. Leisler was a fair sample of his class. HIis nature was coarse and vulgar ; his mind vigorous, but narrow ; his tem- per hot, stubborn, and vindictive ; his prejudices ungovern- able; his vanity inordinate ; his education very defective ; his deportment presumptuous and overbearing ; his person- al integrity as unquestionable as was his active benevolence toward poor Protestants, and his blazing zeal against popery. Wanting judgment and discretion, but supercharged with unscrupulous boldness and low cunning, Leisler had many of the characteristics of a successful demagogue, but few of the qualifications of a statesman.
Leister's · haracter.
Paliar The peculiar position of New York offered Leisler an ad- situation of New York. mirable opportunity. The province had never liked its an- nexation to New England, yet its form of government had not been changed by James's arbitrary measure which de- stroyed its old identity. It had no charter, as had Mas- sachusetts, and Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Its people were glad when the New England colonies seceded from the dominion established by their king, although they would never have revolted themselves. Every one of them felt that New York must follow the fate of England, and that the sovereign of that country must be their sovereign, un- less the province was independent. But the absence of di- rections from England, and the imprisonment of Andros in Boston, could not fail to produce disorder in New York. The only wish of Nicholson and his counselors was to keep
1
565
FRANCIS NICHOLSON, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR.
the old province in peace until orders should come from CHAP. Xl. the actual sovereign of England. Such orders they would gladly have obeyed. But they were sworn royal officers, 1689. and they could not act without their sovereign's instruc- tions, which of course would be communicated-as in fact they had been-to his imprisoned governor general at Bos- ton. Their situation was certainly trying. If Nicholson was an English Episcopalian, Phillipse, Van Cortlandt, and Bayard, his counselors, were eminent Dutch Calvinists, and these New York gentlemen all had strong sympathies with William of Orange. Yet, as royal counselors, they could not recognize an English sovereign whose accession had not been officially notified to them. But there was al- patch in- ways a powerful Dutch under-current in New York, which New York. fluence in now ran very strong. William of Orange was known to be the actual King of England; why should he not be proclaim- ed king in New York? But if official forms restrained Nich- olson and his Dutch counselors, no such reserve affected the people of New York. Of these, the German Leisler now took the lead. Leisler had never been in the royal council, nor had he ever held any important provincial of- fice; but he supposed that if he should exhibit headlong zeal for the Prince of Orange, it would help him with Wil- liam as king. IIis narrow logic argued that if the prompt adherence of Lovelace, and Cornbury, and others in Devon- shire contributed to the success of William the Third in En- gland, so the prompt adherence of Jacob Leisler to William in New York would, in some degree, affect the great result. And so Leisler forgot that a towed yawl must follow the tacking of her ship .*
Near the Cape of Good Hope there is a growth of prick- ly briers which sorely trouble incautious visitors. Long before Portuguese or Dutch saw these ugly brambles, the natives of Africa carefully avoided them. When the Hol- landers first encountered these thorns, and found that they hindered the bold wayfarer who would dash through, they gave them an expressive name, " Wacht een beetje," which "Wacht in English means Wait a little bit. The Dutch were a pro-je" verbially cantious people. If Leisler and his confederates had profited by this suggestive hint from the Cape of Good
' Chalmers's Annals, il., 35; Palfrey, fil., 49); Col. MISS. ; ante, 534, 540, 513.
ren bett-
08301
£
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
ser. M. Hope, they would have shown wisdom, and have avoided much misery which their precipitate folly inflicted on New York.
10:3.
JI May.
The design imputed to Nicholson, of making the next Sunday another Saint Bartholomew's Day in New York. was so generally reported by Leisler's friends, and so read- ily believed by the people, that on Friday, the last day of May, the metropolis was in a great commotion. The lieu- tenant governor came from Fort James to meet the Coun- cil and the militia captains, who were all present at the City Hall except Leisler. All were " Protestants and prin- cipal freeholders." Nicholson explained to them what had occurred at Fort James the night before, and denied the truth of Cuyler's story. But Cuyler maintaining his ver- sion, Nicholson told him, " Go, fetch your commission ; I discharge you from being Lieutenant any more." Upon this, Captain De Peyster took his lieutenant's part, and re- tired in anger. The drums were soon beat, and groups of citizens appeared in arms. The first among them were those of Leisler's company, who mustered tumultuously be- fore their captain's door. Leisler, however, declining to head them, left the command to his sergeant, Joost Stoll, the keeper of a dram-shop, who quickly led them into Fort James, shouting " we are sold, betrayed, and to be murder- ed; it is time to look for ourselves !" Leisler now girt on his sword, and joined his company in the fort. Colonel Bayard, his superior officer, at the desire of the Convention sitting at the Town Hall, went there to bring Leisler's mu- tineers to reason, but their drunken Sergeant Stoll answer- ed that they " disowned all the authority of the govern- ment." As the evening came on, Captain Lodwyck's com- pany took its turn in mounting guard, and the people in. sisted on having the keys of the fort, which Nicholson kept with him at the City Hall. Sergeant William Churcher, of Leisler's company, was sent with an armed force to de- mand them, and the lieutenant governor was obliged to give them up, which he did to Captain Lodwyck. The six cap- tains now agreed that each would take his daily turn in commanding the fort until orders should come from En- gland. \ " Declaration," drafted by Leisler, was also sigu- ed by some of those who had seized the fort, in which, aft-
Motins in
31 May. Leider's " Ix clara-
...
tion."
£
567
FRANCIS NICHOLSON, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR.
er referring to Dongan's " Popish" government, and charg- CuAr. XI. ing Nicholson with having threatened to "set the city on 1689. fire," they announced that they were " entirely and opeuly opposed to Papists and their religion, and therefore, expect- ing orders from England, we shall keep and guard, surely and faithfully, the said Fort, in behalf of the power that now governeth in England, to surrender to the person of the Protestant Religion that shall be nominated or sent by the power aforesaid."*
The next day there was a reaction, and Bayard was asked 1 June. to take the "sole command" against the lieutenant gov- ernor. Leisler, seeing that he was being deserted, started fresh rumors that Nicholson and his Dutch counselors were papists, rogues, and traitors, who intended to secure the gov- ernment for the late King James. These and other " fal- ceties" were circulated verbally, and by " Pamphlets in writing," throughout the city, which then enjoyed no print- ing-press. The following day was Sunday, on which it was ? June. Leisler's turn to guard the fort, and he determined " not to Fort leave it until he had brought all the train-band fully to join Jaines. with him." IIe caused to be noised around that the Prot- estant religion and the government were in immediate dan- ger, and that the inhabitants would meet " to sign and pre- vent the same." The militia companies were warned to come to the fort the next morning at a certain signal, and not to obey their officers if they should attempt to prevent them. Accordingly, on Monday morning, a sloop from 3 June. Barbadoes arrived near Coney Island, and a rumor was spread over New York that French ships were inside of Sandy Hook. Leisler gave the concerted signal from Fort Fate James, and the parade-ground in front of it was quickly fill- about the Alarm ed with train-bands. The falsity of the alarm being soon French. discovered, Colonel Bayard ordered the captain whose turn it was to go with his company to work on the city fortifi- cations, and the others, to dismiss their men. Instead of obeying their colonel, the train-bands, instigated by Ser- geants Stoll and Churcher, of Leisler's company, pressed
* Col. Doc., ill., 5$5, 503, 504, 629, 634, 637, 639. 6 'S, 660, 763; Doc. Ilist., ii., 3, 7, S, 245; Chalmers, i., 521. 610; Smith, i., 91; Hutch., i., 355, note; Hist. Mag., v., 151; N. Y. H. S. Coll. (1968), 268, 258, 345, 346. This declaration was printed several weeks afterward by Samuel Greene, at Boston, Bayard, in saying that it was "antedated," confounds it with n second paper, signed on the 3d of June : Thomas , Ifi.t. Print., ii., 256; Col. Doc., iii., 629, 030, 639 ; po', p. Dos.
Leişler in
£
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
(w. x! into the fort, reluctantly followed by their captains, who were told that, unless they also went in, their houses would
16.3. be pulled down, and their lives jeoparded. Shouts and huz- ! AtJamce zas welcomed them within the gates, and a paper which Leis-
Icider's proclama- tion.
3 June. ler had prepared was offered for their signature. It was a proclamation, declaring that they held the fort "till the safe arrival of the ships that we expect every day from his Roy- al Highness the Prince of Orange, with orders for the gov- ernment of this country, in the behalf of such person as the said Royal Ilighness had chosen and honored with the charge of a Governor, that as soon as the bearer of the said orders shall have let us sec his power, then, and with- out any delay, we shall execute the said orders punctual- ly." This ill-worded document was quickly signed by all the six New York captains, and by four hundred of their men. Few of them really knew that they had actually signed a declaration that they would obey only the orders of the Prince of Orange, and not those of the crown of En- gland. It was, in truth, a thoroughly Dutch movement. Most of the signers were Hollanders, " a notion being put in many of their heads that, by a vote of Parliament, all charters and Privileges were to be restored to all places of the Dominions, and they be put in the same state as they were in the year 1660. And by consequence this govern- ment to be restored to the Dutch; and therefore no orders from the authority or crown of England, but only from his Royal Highness the Prince of Orange, would sorve their terms." This absurd idea grew out of the inconsequential resolution of the English House of Commons in the pre- vious March, of which some inkling had reached America .*
3 June.
If this idea existed, it was quickly corrected. The same afternoon, copies of the London Gazette containing the proclamations of William and Mary of 14 February, for continuing all " Protestants" in office in England, was re- ceived in New York. It was not yet known there that, in obedience to the dispatches brought over by Phipps and addressed to Andros, those sovereigns had been proclaimed at Boston, and that the English Privy Council had directed
* Col. Doc., ill., 384, 596, 504, 505, 030, 037-039, 669, 670; Doc. ITist., ii., 3, 4, 9, 66; Col. Rec. Conn., in., 406; Hatch., i., 855, note; N. Y. I. S. Coll. (1985), 200, 289; Smith, i., 92, 350 ; ante, 541.
509
FRANCIS NICHOLSON, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR.
that "all persons" in the colonies should retain their offices. Cuar. XI. Two days afterward, Philip French, who had come from England in the same ship with Phipps, reached New York, 5. 1689. Junc. and Leisler, who was now really at the head of affairs, Letters "made bold" to open and read publicly in the fort all the Leisler. opened by letters which he had brought addressed to Nicholson, Bay- ard, and Van Cortlandt."
Had Nicholson been equal to his position, he might have saved New York and her Dutch king from much trouble. But the lieutenant governor was a regular parade soldier. Nicholson's Withont the directing mind of Andros, he shrunk into in- weakness. significance. Ilis resident counselors were provincial gen- tlemen, conservative, and disliking public broils. Such con- troversies generally benefit impudent officials, who, if their schemes turn out well, make fortunes out of the plunder of their fellow-citizens. Such antagonism Nicholson and his advisers wished to avoid; but they had not the energy and skill to cope with the occasion, and so, by mere imbe- cility, they lost their opportunity, and left a vulgar, vigor- ous, and despotic usurper master of the field.
Leisler's proceedings at New York were quickly commu- nicated to the leading insurgents in Connecticut, her next colonial neighbor. The German captain now in command I June. of Fort James wrote to Major Nathan Gold, at Fairfield, that he wanted to have "one trusted man sent to procure in England some privileges," and, assuming to speak for New York, he added. " I wish we may have part in your charter, being, as I understand, in the latitude." This was just such a display of folly as an ignorant demagogue would exhibit. It was followed by an address of " the militia and Leister's other inhabitants" of New York to William and Mary, which William. gave "a tedious, incorrect, ill-drawn" narrative of recent provincial events, and promised entire submission to their majesties' pleasure. The address was signed by Captains Leisler, De Peyster, Lodwyck, De Bruyn, and Stuyvesant, their colleague Minvielle having declined to act further with them, and obtained his discharge from Nicholson. Copies of the address and other papers were sent to some 11 June.
* Col. Doc., iii., 533, 554, 59-538, 505, 720; 1v., 806: Dor. Hist., il., 4; Chalmers's Ann, i .. 409 : 11., 29, 37; N. Y. HI. S. Coll. (1568), 22, 57, 269 ; Ilatch., i., 357, 597 ; Wood, 110; ante, 539, 555.
Connecti- ut appeal- ed to.
address to
008
B
070
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
ces. Dutch merchants in London, who were asked to deliver it to the king, and put in " a seasonable word" if they could."
6 Jun .. Nicholson
leave New York.
i) June. Letter of the New York Coun- cil to the English govern- ment.
16:3. After Leisler and his adherents took possession of Fort James, the lieutenant governor lodged at the house of Coun- selor Phillipse, and kept up the show of his authority, which a little timely vigor would have secured. If, when he re- ceived the London Gazette announcing the accession of William and Mary, Nicholson had at once proclaimed them king and queen in New York, official forms might have been violated, but much provincial trouble would have been avoided. He knew that those sovereigns had been pro- claimed at Boston on the arrival of Phipps with the Privy Council's dispatches for Andros. But Nicholson was a fair example of a straightforward English official bound by "red tape." He had no instructions from his immediate chief, and would not act without them. Subordinate to the imprisoned Andros, and hampered, perhaps, by his consery- ative provincial advisers, Nicholson did not dare to take the bold steps which the unfettered Leisler trod. Upon these steps the fortunes of New York were for some time to de- pend. The lieutenant governor unwisely determined to go to England, " to render an account of the present deplor- able state of affairs here." In the mean time, he deputed Counselors Phillipse, Van Cortlandt, and Bayard "to pre- serve the peace during his absence, and until his Majesty's pleasure should be known." These three counselors wrote by him to Secretary Shrewsbury that news had come to New York from Barbadoes and Boston of the proclamation of William and Mary in England, and that they "were in daily hopes to be so happy as to receive the suitable orders for to observe the same solemnities here. But before we could be made partakers of those our happy desires, it has come to pass that, by the means and ill contrivances of some disaffected and dangerous persons, all manner of govern- ment is totally overthrown here, in like manner as to that of Boston." And they expressed their belief " that although orders from his now Majesty should arrive for the contin- uing of the persons formerly entrusted in the Government, that no such orders would be obeyed." Several confirma-
* Col. Doc., If., 333, 534, 505, 600, 679; Doc. ITist., il., 3, 4, 9 ; Col. Rec. Conn., ill., 403, 401 ; Smith, i., 92; N. Y. H. S. Coll. (15CS), 270, 271, 290, 201.
4
£
£
£
571
FRANCIS NICHOLSON, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR.
tory document's accompanied this letter, among others a Chip. XI. Latin certificate by Domine Selyns and his Consistory, of the good standing of Counselors Van Cortlandt and Bay- 11 1689. 11 June, ard in the Reformed Dutch Church. Innis, the Episcopa- Innis. lian chaplain at Fort James, also provided himself with the attestation of the Dutch and French ministers at New York of his being a good Protestant, and accompanied Nicholson to England. But feeling ran so strong that they were re- fused a passage by the captains of the ships which carried out the papers sent by Leisler. Nicholson therefore bought a share in Dongan's brigantine, in which he had returned from sea, and after some delay set sail for London. Don- 21 June. gan, however, having suffered from sea-sickness, determined to remain for the present in New York .*
Nicholson's desertion of his post gave Leisler an unex- pected advantage. Assuming the lead, the bold German 12 June. captain invited each of the counties and neighboring towns sumes the to send two delegates to New York on the 26th of June, command. to form " a Committee of Safety," as well as two men from each to guard the fort, the name of which was now changed again from "James" to " William," which it had borne in 1673. Leisler also tried to put out of office the Roman Catholic collector Plowman, to whom he was obliged to pay duties on his imported liquors, but his colleague-cap- tains would not help him in this personal spite. Finding 13 June. that Leisler answered all objections with " What, do you talk of law ? the sword must now rule," and declared that all commissions under the authority of James the Second " were utterly void," the city magistrates prudently " re- solved to be passive."t
Connecticut having now proclaimed William and Mary, 13 June. appointed Gold and Fitch to go to New York and give such of Connec- advice and promise such assistance as might be necessary. ticut. Secretary Allyn also advised that no Roman Catholic be allowed to enter the fort, or keep arms within the city or government of New York. Learning that the Connecticut messengers were expected, Van Cortlandt and Bayard, with others, went to meet them at Colonel Morris's house, in 2) June.
* Col. Doc., ili., 382, 512. 555, 536, 589, 535, 599, 613, 615, 616. 618, 630, 637, 6-19, 655, 6C), 655. 731; Doc. Hist., if., 2. 19, 38: Hutch., i , 3% ; Chalmers, i., 431 ; N. Y. IT. S. Coll. (196s), 270-972, 288-602: Smith. L, 93; Wool, 105; ante, 555.
1 Col. Doc., ill., God, 614, 011, 671 ; Doc. Ilist., ii., 3, 4; Wood, 105, 110 ; ante, 350.
Leider as-
5 of
512
HISTORY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
* Jane.
William und Mary proclair in New York.
Gur ar. Westchester; but Gold .and Fitch went directly on to the fort, and gave Leisler a copy of the printed English proc- lamation of the accession of William and Mary. The next morning, Mayor Van Cortlandt and his fellow-counselors asked the Connecticut delegates for their papers, so that the king and queen might be proclaimed in the city "with such honor and splendor as the occasion required." But Gold and Fitch replied that they had come "to the persons that had the fort in custody," and that they had already confer- red with Leisler. A little while afterward the drum was beaten, and the king and queen were proclaimed by the Ger- man captain in the fort "in the most meanest manner." In the afternoon, Leisler, with Lodwyck, De Bruyn, and De Peyster, and their companies, marched from the fort to the City Hall, where the proclamation was repeated " with all the demonstrations of joy and affection they were capable of." Mayor Van Cortlandt, and his associate counselors Bayard and Phillipse, all of them Dutch gentlemen of New York, and well disposed toward William and Mary of Or- ange, were thus made to appear more lukewarm than Leis- ler's followers. A fire, timely discovered in the turret of the church in the fort, under which the powder was stored, was charged by Leisler as " a papistical design," and added to the excitement of the eventful day .*
And so Leisler prevented the royal counselors in New York, who represented English sovereignty, from proclaim- ing William and Mary as they desired. Yet he failed in one important point. He did not publish the royal procla- mation of the fourteenth of February, which confirmed all Protestant English officers in their places. It was not then known in New York that on the nineteenth of February all persons were confirmed in their offices in the English colonies; but Mayor Van Cortlandt, having received a copy, convened the municipal authorities at the City Hall, and published the royal proclamation continuing "all Protest- ants" in office. This made Leisler very angry, for it con- firmed the authority of Phillipse, Van Cortlandt, and Bay- ard, all of whom were members and some of them officers of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church. So he charged
* Col. Doc., ill., 589, 505, 001, 014-617, 641, 071. 738, 764; Doc. Ilist., il., 10, 13, 215; Col. Rec. Conn., fif., 253, 255, 407, 463; Trumbull, i., 377, 373.
Leisler's error. 21 June.
£
£
£
573
FRANCIS NICHOLSON, LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR.
that all magistrates who would not join with him were " Po- CHAP. XI. pishly affected." On the other hand, the Dutch royal coun- selors and their friends likened the German Leisler to the 1689. Italian Masaniello, and declared that "not one Papist, or popishly affected, throughout this their Majesty's Province, were in commission of the Peace, and that many whom he hath thus wickedly scandalized have always been of far greater reputation both in Church and State than himself." The next day the acting counselors removed the Roman 25 June. Catholic collector Plowman, and appointed Counselor Bay- ard, Alderman Richards, with Thomas Wenham and John Haynes, merchants, to act in his stead as " Commissioners of the Customs" until other orders from England. Leisler, Leider's however, came with armed men and forcibly drove them audacity. out of the custom-house, in which he installed Peter de la Noy as collector. Bayard, the especial object of Leisler's rage, was obliged to escape secretly to Albany." 2S June.
In the mean time, some of the counties and towns, in Leisler compliance with Leisler's invitation, had chosen delegates Conven- to a Convention. Brooklyn, Flatbush, Flushing, Newtown, 19 Staten Island, Orange, Westchester, and Essex in New Jer- sey, each sent two, while New York was represented by Pe- ter de la Noy and Samuel Edsall. The delegates were " the greatest Oliverians in the Government," some of whom openly declared that " there had been no legal king in En- gland since Oliver's days." Not a third of the inhabitants of the province "condescended" to vote. Most of the towns in Queens and New Jersey, and all in Suffolk, Ul- 20 June. ster, and Albany, would " not meddle themselves." The ster, and people of Suffolk county not only refused, but asked Con- will not Albany necticut to take them under her jurisdiction, because, after meddle. observing Leisler's conduct in seizing the fort, they "dis- trusted the purity of his motives." Connecticut, however, resolved to keep safely within her charter boundary, and declined to exercise authority in Long Island.t
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.