Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 5

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1374

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And now, after four years of strife and vain struggle against powers that were two strong for him, Van Slechtenhorst's term of power drew near its close. Nine armed soldiers forcibly entered his dwelling and without showing authority for their act, dragged him out, a prisoner, and

took him to the fort "where neither his children, his master nor his friends were allowed to speak to him, and his furs, his clothes, and his meat were left hanging to the door posts." Taken on board a sloop he was conveyed to New Amsterdam, "to be tormented, in his sickness and old age, with unheard-of and insufferable prosecutions by those serving a Christian government, professing the same religion, and living under the same authority." He was succeeded in his official position by Jan Baptiste Van Rensselaer, with Gerrit Swart as sheriff (schout-fiscaal) of Rensselaerwyck.

When information of Stuyvesant's operations reached the patroon and his partners, they sent to the Amsterdam Chamber a long remon- strance, of which the following is the substance:

1st, That the Director-General had dared to intrude in their colony, and had commissioned the patroon's flag to be hauled down.

2d, That he had caused timber to be cut on the complainant's lands without either their knowledge or their permission.

3d, That he had claimed for the West India Company the right of jurisdiction and property over all the land within a circumference of 150 rods of Fort Orange, where he had erected a court of justice, notwithstanding the soil had been purchased from the right owners by the patroon, with the jurisdiction thereunto belonging, whereby the colonists were reduced to a state of dependency, absolved from their oaths, " transformed from freemen to vassals, and incited to disregard their former solemn compacts and their lord and master."

4th, He had, moreover, discharged Sheriff Swart from his oath of office, and obliged him to swear allegiance to the Company ;

5th, Demanded copies of all the rolls, protocols, judgments, resolutions and papers relative to the colony and its affairs;

6th, Ordered his Commissary to force Van Slechtenhorst's house, and to toll the bell at the publication of his illegal placards ;

7th, Arrested by force and arms the Director of the Colony, had him conveyed to the Manhattans, where he illegally detained him in custody ;

8th, Taxed the colony to swell the Company's revenues, licensed those who quit the patroon's service to sell articles of contraband to the savages, and, in addition to the exaction of the tithes, had raised a tax by farming out the excise on wines and beers, "thus, in every respect and everywhere using violence and infringing rights, jurisdictions and pre-eminences, apparently determined to take our goods and blood, contrary to all laws, human and divine; declaring, over and above all this, that he is continued in his administration solely in the hope and consideration that before his departure he should ruin this colony."

The document closed with avowals of their intention to maintain and preserve their rights and privileges, and demanding that if their op- ponents thought they had just cause of complaint, they should appear in any court and make good their claims,

The reply by the directors was vague and unsatisfactory, and, there- fore, the patroon and his friends addressed a memorial directly to their High Mightinesses, the States-General, demanding justice for their cause. After some delay a reply was received referring to a part of the charges against Stuyvesant, and denying all knowledge of many of them; they knew nothing of the insult to the patroon's flag, of his colonists having been released from their oaths, of his lots being taken from him, or of the establishment of a court at Fort Orange. As to cutting timber, it was taken from so limited a section that no one was injured, while the claim that the jurisdiction of Fort Orange had been extended was without foundation, as that jurisdiction was fixed "before the colony of Rensselaerwyck was granted." Gerrit Swart, it was held, had not been discharged from his oath to the patroon, but was simply compelled to take a second oath to the company. The demand for the rolls and other papers was authorized by the charter, and as Van Slechtenhorst would not toll the bell for publication of the placards, it was clear that some other person had to do it, while his arrest was justified as a necessary disciplinary measure. Authorizing the sale of arms to the Indians was admitted.

On the heels of this attempt at justification of all their acts, the di- rectors for the company now assumed the offensive and presented to the Amsterdam government counter-charges against the Rensselaerwyck authorities, rehearsing all the stock complaints with which the reader is now familiar. They had exceeded their limits; had unlawfully ex tended their trade along the North River; had refused passage to ves- sels by a " certain house called Rensselaers-Stein;" had exacted seven per cent. duty on each beaver and five per cent. on other goods, "en- forcing these pretensions with cannon shot, which they discharged into yachts which refused to come to;" they had endeavored "by perverse machinations " to possess themselves of Fort Orange, and when un- able to accomplish this purpose, illegally leased lots in its vicinity for the building of houses thereon; had forbidden colonists to move within the company's limits on pain of corporal punishment, confiscation of property and banishment; or to cut wood for the inhabitants of Fort Orange. They had declined to furnish records of their proceedings or judgments, or to make returns of writs of appeal; to publish placards; and, above all, the oath which the colonists were compelled to take was "seditious and mutinous," for no notice "is taken therein, either of their High Mightinesses or of the company." Continuing thus:

ISAAC W. VOSBURGH.

From all which flow, as a natural consequence, an insolent and overbearing de- meanor, on the part of their commanders, to their inhabitants; insufferable protests, injuries, menaces, disputes and provocations against the Company's ministers ; and, lastly, a general disobedience of all the Company's commands and ordinances, to such a degree that they would not permit the Director and Council to proclaim even a day of prayer in the colony in the same manner as in other parts of New Nether- land.

It will be seen from the foregoing that it was the same old difficulty and although from this distance it seems somewhat insignificant and largely fought on paper, it was, nevertheless, in those times and to those people a struggle of serious import.

The Fort Orange limits were still undetermined in 1654, and again Stuyvesant called on the agents of the patroon to fix on their "point of departure," so that he might allow them the charter stipulation of four miles on one side or two miles on both sides of the river, "without the limits of Fort Orange." The settlement of this matter was further de- layed for instructions from Holland. Fresh fuel was about this time added to the old fire by an order from Stuyvesant to his Fort Orange court to collect the duties on all wines, beers, and spirituous liquors sold at retail "within a circuit of 1,000 rods of the fort." The area in dispute was extending, and the colony was thus to be deprived of a very important source of revenue. Counter orders were given by the pa- troon's officers for the tapsters to refuse to pay the duties, as the gen- eral government had defrayed none of the local expenses.

By this time Commissary Dyckman had become insane, as his pre- vious conduct would seem to have foreshadowed, and he was succeeded in office by Johannes de Decker, vice-director, "to preside in Fort Orange and village of Beverwyck, in the Court of Justice of the Commissaries aforesaid, to administer all the affairs of police and justice, as circum- stances may require, in conformity with the instructions given by the Director-General and Council, and to promote these for the best service of the country and the prosperity of the inhabitants."

To enforce the collection of the liquor duties alluded to, the director and council issued orders for the arrest of the tapsters. The new offi- cial, De Decker, accordingly invited one of them to his house and there made him prisoner. Officer and prisoner occupied the same bed the ensuing night, but through the connivance of the soldier guard, the tapster escaped the next morning and proceeded to the house of the patroon. De Decker followed and ordered his return to the fort, which was refused. The other tapsters now armed themselves and

joined in the common cause. Just as the vice-director was preparing to execute the orders of arrest by force, John B. Van Rensselaer came forward and volunteered to go to Manhattan and arrange the matter satisfactorily. To avoid possible bloodshed De Decker agreed to this: but a few days later another order reached him to send down the taps- ters without delay. He now proceeded to the dwellings of the offend- ers with an armed squad, where he was met by Van Rensselaer and others whom he summoned in the name of the director and council to accompany him to the fort. All the tapsters referred the officer to Van Rensselaer, who again pledged himself to produce the tapsters whenever required. Van Rensselaer now went to New Amsterdam and protested against the course pursued by the government, going over all the old ground and adding such new complaints as came to his mind. However, to prevent further disturbance he would submit to the payment of the excise under protest, but would not accede to the payment of the tenths demanded, unless the director and council would refund the money if a decision against them was ultimately given. This remonstrance and proposal were pronounced frivolous by the director and council: their "high office and quality would not permit them to stoop so low as to enter the lists with their subjects and vas- sals, much less to answer their frivolous and unfounded protests with a pusillanimous diffidence." Their duty was rather "to correct such absurd assertions, and to punish the offenders," wherefore, as an ex- ample, the protestor was fined twenty guilders. They informed Van Rensselaer that his colonists were bound equally with other settlers in the province to contribute to the public revenue, and the excise due, amounting to fifteen hundred guilders, must be paid, with all damages accrued from the delay. The tapsters must, moreover, submit to the periodical guaging of their liquors as often as required, and as John Baptiste Van Rensselaer was to blame for the resistance of the tavern keepers, he was commanded to give a bond of 3,000 guilders for the appearance of the "contumacious tavern keepers," or otherwise to remain at Manhattan under arrest. The council also insisted on the payment of the tithes (tenths), but a stipulated sum would be ac- cepted from Mr. Van Rensselaer in lieu of these until instructions could be received from Holland. Other items in Van Rensselaer's remon- strance were denied in general terms by the director and council, from whom a proclamation was at once issued ordering all the towns and colonies in the province not to remove their crops until the tenths were

paid to the company's commissaries. When this document reached the Rensselaerwyck authorities they refused to publish it.

At about this time some of the tapsters who had been guarantied against loss by Mr. Van Rensselaer, proceeded to Manhattan and were there fined, one two hundred and another eight hundred guilders; both of these fines were subsequently made good by the patroon. The ques- tion of payment of tenths was not finally setted until 1658, when the colony compounded for them by the annual payment of three hundred schepels of wheat.

Father Isaac Jogues, one of the Jesuit missionaries mentioned in an earlier chapter, had labored among the Mohawks for three or four years during the period treated in the foregoing pages, but was treacherously murdered by the Indians in October, 1646. This chapter may be appropriately closed with his written description of Fort Orange and Rensselaerwyck.

There are two things in this settlement . . : 1st, a wretched little fort, called Fort Orange, built of stakes, with four or five pieces of cannon of Breteuil and as many swivels. This has been reserved, and is maintained by the West India Com- pany. This fort was formerly on an island in the river; it is now on the mainland towards the Iroquois, a little above the said island. 2d, a colony sent here from Rensselaer, who is the patroon. This colony is composed of about 100 persons, who reside in some twenty or thirty houses built along the river, as each one found it most convenient. In the principal house resides the patroon's agent. The minister has his apart, in which service is performed. There is also a kind of bailiff who ad- ministers justice. All their houses are merely of boards and thatched. As yet there is no mason work, except the chimneys. The forests furnish many large pines, they make boards by means of their mills, which they have for the purpose. They found some pieces of ground all ready, which the savages had already prepared, and in which they sow wheat and oats for their beer and horses, of which they have a great stock. There is little land fit for tillage, being crowded by hills, which are a bad soil. This obliges them to be separated one from the other, and they occupy already two or three leagues of territory. Trade is free to all. This gives the Indians all things cheaper, each of the Hollanders outbidding, and being satisfied, provided he can gain some little profit.

CHAPTER VI.

Important changes were now imminent. Jeremias Van Rensselaer succeeded his brother, Jan Baptiste, as director of the colony in 1658 and during the succeeding sixteen years conducted its affairs with dis- cretion and justice as far as he was able. He fostered the amicable relations of the settlers with the Indians, and gained a large influence with the French who were then firmly establishing themselves to the northward, thus laying the foundation of those conditions that in later years averted many of the disastrous consequences of the war between France and England. Stuyvesant's use of power had been just what might have been foreseen from a man of his attributes and sentiments. He was a stickler for the law, his rights and his dignity. To his mind all power lay in the executive, and on every occasion he checked the lean- ings of the Dutch towards that partial freedom which they craved and to which they had been accustomed at home. He denied the right of the people to assemble for the propagation of measures for the protec- tion of public liberty. " Magistrates alone, and not all men," he con- tended " are authorized so to assemble. We derive our authority from God and the Company, not from a few ignorant subjects, and we alone can call the people together." He thus assumed power and authority which he could not maintain.

Since 1654 English encroachments upon the Dutch, dating almost from the landing on Plymouth Rock, had constantly advanced. Con- necticut was consolidated in April, 1662, under a charter confirming the system already established. This charter came from Charles II soon after his restoration, and defined boundaries and enlarged privileges. In March, 1664, this sovereign granted a patent to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, for a large part of the present State of Maine, with Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Long Island, and the territory from the west side of the Connecticut River to the east side of Delaware Bay. Stuyvesant resisted the pretensions of the English as long as he was able, but was finally forced to accept a compromise embodying mutual forbearance and freedom for both the English and the Dutch towns respectively from interference from either government.

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This merely strengthened the claim which England had never once re- linquished and left her in possession of all she had thus far gained.

In April, 1664, a fleet of four ships, with a force of three to four hundred men, under command of Col. Richard Nicolls, acting as lieu- tenant-governor for the duke, sailed for New England. Nicolls was accompanied by Sir Robert Carr, Sir George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, commissioned to settle all the New England difficulties, and to take possession of the Dutch province and reduce its inhabitants to obedience. Arriving in Boston in July, the expedition sailed thence a month later for New Amsterdam. When the English flag ship sailed up the beautiful bay, Stuyvesant was at Fort Orange. He hastened down the river and on the 29th sent a deputation to Nicolls demanding an explanation of his intentions. These he very soon learned. New Amsterdam was practically defenseless against the invasion and surren- dered on the 8th of September, and Stuyvesant returned to Holland in the following year.

While warring with the Indians, vainly endeavoring to subjugate Connecticut, resisting the claims of the patroon of Rensselaerwyck and quarreling with his immediate officers, Stuyvesant had been steadily sacrificing his own welfare and tenure of office. Nothing now remained for the English but to take possession, and the colonial interests of Holland in the New World substantially ceased. When Stuyvesant came into power in 1647 the population of New Netherland was only about 1,000, a falling off of about 2,000 due to Kieft's folly, while the New England colonies had increased in the preceding five years to nearly 60,000. They came slowly on toward Manhattan, though more rapidly than the increase of the Dutch, and began the work that culminated in American freedom a hundred years later.

The province now had a population of full 10,000. New Amsterdam was given the name it has since borne-New York, while Fort Amster- dam was called Fort James. A trifling effort was made to resist the English on the upper Hudson, Johannes de Decker having come up the river and endeavored to persuade the garrison at Fort Orange to refuse to surrender, but was unavailing. While the settlers were satisfied with their trade and their farms, they did not like the previous gov- ernment and its opposition to the patroon. They were ready for a change. On the 10th of September Nicolls sent Sir George Cartwright with a small company of soldiers to Fort Orange with the following orders :

To the present Deputy Governor or the magistrates and inhabitants of Ffort Aurania:

These are to will and require you and every of you to bee ayding and assisting Col. George Cartwright in the prosecution of his Majesty's interest against all such of what nation so-ever as shall oppose the peaceable surrender and quiet possession of the ffort Aurania, and to obey him, the said George Cartwright, according to such instructions as I have given him in case of the Mohawks or other Indians shall at- tempt anything against the lives, goods or chattels of those who are now under the protection and obedience of his Majesty of Great Brittaine; wherefore you nor any of you are to fayle as you will answer the contrary at your utmost perills.

Given under my hand and seal att Ffort James in New Yorke on Manhattans Island, this 10th day of September, 1664. R. NICOLLS.

This document was presented to the vice-director, John de la Mon- tague, on the 24th of that month, who quietly surrendered the fort, and names of Beverwyck and Fort Orange at once gave way to Al- bany, while the fort was manned by English soldiers with Capt. John Manning in command. Dirck Van Schelluyne, who had held the office for Beverwyck, was made clerk of the Court of Albany which Stuy- vesant has established, and Jeremias Van Rensselaer took the oath of allegiance to King Charles II of England and the proprietor, James. Governor Nicolls reorganized the government himself, calling a con- vention for the purpose at Hempstead in March, 1665.

Upon this change in'the government some difficulty was met in ob- taining a patent for Rensselaer manor from the duke. Mr. Van Rens- selaer was counseled by influential friends to take out a patent in his own name, he being qualified as a British subject to hold real estate. To his honor it is recorded that he rejected the offer, for he was only co-heir and would not thus defraud his brothers and sisters. He was a man of great industry and high intelligence, and it was he who com- municated to Holland an account of various occurrences in this country under the name of the "New Netherland Mercury." He died on the 12th of October, 1684.

On the 7th of August, 1673, a fleet of twenty-three Dutch ships in need of wood and water, anchored just below Staten Island, the fleet being under command of Commodores Cornelius Evertsen and Jacob Benckes. Before such a fleet Manhattan Island was apparently defenseless, infor- mation of which fact was conveyed to the vessels by the Dutch inhabi- tants. The port was then under command of Capt. John Manning, captain of an independent company, who on the 9th communicated to the fleet a proposal to surrender, whereupon the vessels sailed up the harbor, anchored under the fort, landed their crews, and entered the

works without the firing of a shot on either side. For this surrender Manning was afterwards tried and condemned.1

On the 12th of August the commodores organized a council of war consisting of Capts. Anthony Colve, Nicholas Boes, and Abraham Ferd. Van Zyll. In the next month Captain Colve was appointed temporary governor and the fleet proceeded to its destination. The inhabitants rejoiced, but only for a short time, for while Colve was hurriedly re- storing the Dutch system, his government came to an abrupt close. New Netherland was conceded to the English by the peace of West- minster, March 6, 1674, and in June a new patent was issued to the Duke of York. On the 11th of July Colve officially announced that he must surrender the province on a duly authorized demand. Articles of capitulation were signed September 7; Fort Orange surrendered October 5, and the Dutch and Swedes on South River capitulated Octo- ber 12, and on the 10th of November Colve formally gave "New Nether- lands and dependencies" over to "Governor Major Edmund Andros, on behalf of His Brittanic Majesty."2

The administration of Andros was exceedingly unpopular. When a demand was made for popular assemblies, the Duke of York wrote Andros that such assemblies were dangerous, and when he attempted to force upon the colonists a law of his own manufacture establishing the customs rate for three years, his subjects were bitterly incensed, and on the expiration of this law the merchants refused to pay further duties. The Duke of York was now fearful that the expenses of the colony would come out of his own purse and sent out Colonel Don- gan as governor, with power to convene a General Assembly, which met at Fort James (New York) October 17, 1683, Dongan having arrived in August. The first act of this assembly was entitled "Char- ter of Liberties and Privileges granted by His Royal Highness to the Inhabitants of New York and its dependencies." which was a step on- ward in the march of important events. The charter, in reality, "burst the shell of feudalism," and set forth the rights for which the Dutch and English colonists had striven for nearly half a century. The death of the king raised doubt in Governor Dongan's mind as to the legality of the first assembly, and he therefore issued writs for the election of a new one, but King James II, however, abolished the General Assembly

I The voluminous papers relating to this trial may be found in Vol. III of Documentary His- tory, pp. 80-99.

2 See Vol. III, Doc. History, pp. 67-77,

June 16, 1686. Among other similar warrants for the assembly of 1683 was one which "ordered that the Sheriff of Albany and Rancelaers Colony cause the freeholders to meet and choose two persons to be their representatives in the General Assembly, to be holden at the City of New York, October ye 17th, 1683." This warrant was served by Richard Pretty, an Englishman, who was sheriff from October, 1680, to March, 1691. He died in 1695.

Among the acts passed by the assembly was one "To divide this province and dependencyes into shires and countyes" "for the better governing and setling the courts in the same." It was also enacted " that there shall be yearly and every year, an High Sherriffe consti- tuted and commissionated for each county, and that each Sherriffe may have his Under Sherriffe Deputy or Deputyes." The act divided the province into twelve counties, one of which was Albany county. The act recites :

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The County of Albany to containe the Towns of Albany, the Colony Renslaerwyck, Schenecteda, and all the villages, neighborhoods, and Christian Plantacons on the east side of Hudson river from Roeloef Jansen's Creeke, and on the west side from Sawyer's Creeke to the Sarraghtoga.

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Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 5

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1374

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1374