USA > New York > Rensselaer County > Landmarks of Rensselaer county, New York, pt 1 > Part 4
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The famous anti-rent troubles and their tragedies, which for years agitated not only the territory formerly known as the colony and later as the manor of Rensselaerwyck, but also a large section contiguous thereto, grew ont of the ill-advised, pernicious system of the lease-hold tenure of the soil which formed one of the principal institutions in the foundation of Rensselaerwyck. It was the one weak spot in the great plan of the promoters of the early settlement. It was not in accord with the principles for which the average immigrant forsook the Old World for the New, and in the natural order of things the system was doomed to fall. An idea of what this system was may be gleaned from the following, which is a copy of the lease granted to Arendt Van Corlear, by which he came into possession of the property on the west side of the Hudson, at Port Schuyler, which subsequently fell into the hands of the Schuyler family :
We, guardians and tutors of Jean Van Rensselaer, Patroon of the colonie called Rensselaerswyck, situate on the North River, in New Netherlands, &c., have Jeased
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LANDMARKS OF RENSSELAER COUNTY.
and farmed unto Arent van Curler, who hereby also acknowledges to have leased and farmed from us, under the following stated conditions, restrictions, and stipula- tions, the Bouwery named the Flatte (de Vlachte) and the hereafter mentioned ap- purtenances for the term of six successive years, the farm lease beginning and termin- ating on the first of September, and that of the house on the first of May, one thousand six hundred eight and forty.
I. Firstly, the Patroon retains for himself the tenths of all grain fruits, the products which shall be raised off this bouwery.
II. This bouwery contains about -- morgens of farm land, of which the lessce shall be bound yearly to cultivate morgens, and may, in addition, clear as much land as he shall be able to till with his people, without subletting or farming the same during the continuance of the lease, with the understanding that the lessee shall take the erops standing in the field on the commencement hereof, sneh as they are, paying the Patroon therefor according to the valuation of impartial persons, the Patroon agreeing on the other side to take the erops which shall be standing on the expiration of this lease at a valuation.
111. The lessee shall be entitled to so much pasture as he shall require for his cattle without paying any extra rent further than only one guilder for every swine that ranges in the woods.
IV. And for the cultivation of the said bouwerie there shall be delivered to him for his use six cows, two heifers (veers pincken), six mares, and two studs or oxen from among those on this bouwery, and that on halves, to wit, one-half the produce shall be for the Patroon, and the other half for the lessee, it being well understood that the lessee is bound to restore the given number, according to the choice of the Patroon, and to divide the remainder, half and half, without the lessee pretending to have any claim for their maintenance or payment, or for the above-mentioned restitution.
V. And it is specifically conditioned that the lessee shall not have power to keep on this bouwery any other cattle of private individuals, nor to lend, alienate, or give away during the continuance of the lease of this bouwery, any of the received stock, without our special consent, and he shall duly convey and ride all the manure on and over the land.
VI. For the use of which bouwery, and occupancy of the house, the lessee shall pay yearly to the Patroon the sum of God guilders [$200]; but for the first year a dednetion of 150 guilders [860] shall be made in regard that he convey his laborers thither at his ofen expense, -which payment shall be made, the first half in Novem- ber, and the other half in February, in merchantable beaver hides, at for guilders the pound, or in grain at the current rate as the same is sold in the colonie, or in ready current money.
VII. The lessee shall be holden to keep the houses an I buildings in good repair, and to preserve and maintain the bouwerye in good order, at his own expense, pro- vided the house shall be first delivered to him wind- and weather-tight, and at the expiration of the lease, he shall deliver it up in the same state.
VIII. It is well understood that the lessee is hoklen over and above the aforesaid rent, during the winter season, to cut in the forest for the Patroon, ten pieces of oak or fir wood, which shall be pointed out to him, and bring the same to the shore;
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CONDITION OF THE EARLY COLONISTS.
also, every year, to give three days' service with his wagon and horses, to the Patroon or his guardians; also, each year, to ent, split, and bring to the water-side, two fathoms of hickory or other fire-wood; further, to deliver yearly to the Director, as quit-rent, one-half mud (two bushels) wheat, five-and-twenty pounds of butter, and two pair of fowls.
IX. The lessee shall not lodge any strange traders in his house nor bring nor receive their goods, on pain of forfeiting all the conditions granted to him, and to be ejected as a perfidious man.
X. And in case any question should arise,between the lessee and others, the same shall be submitted to the commissioners there, without any appeal or further com- plaint being allowed,
X1. The lessee submits himself, moreover, as a faithful subject to all the regula- tions, orders, and conditions made by the Patroon, and read before him, regarding dwelling together, and to all the statutes and ordinances to be hereafter made.
XII. The lessee promising, on the passing of the aforesaid lease, to comport him- self faithfully in the said quality, and to fully follow the same; nor to defraud the Patroon in the least, nor in the most directly nor indirectly, all under mortgage of Ins person and goods, moveable and immoveable, having and to have, submitting the whole thereof, and the adjudication thereof, to the constraint of all laws and judges.
XIII. Finally, have the guardians and lessors reserved, in case the aforesaid bouwerye should be leased by the commissaries there, before the arrival of the lessee there, that this lease shall be null, and the aforesaid Curler being shown another bouwerye, the commissaries there shall in that case agree with him there- upon, wherewith Curler is satisfied and agreed.
A good idea of the condition of the Dutch settlements in Rensse- laerwyck and elsewhere along the Hudson river in their earliest days may be gleaned from the following contribution to a London publica. tion-the Planter's Plea-in 1630, from the pen of an Englishman :
This which they have settled in New England upon Hudson's river, with no extra- ordmary charge or multitude of people, is knowne to subsist in a comfortable manner, and to promise fairlie both to the state and undertakers. The cause is evident: The men whom they carrie, though they be not many, are well chosen, and knowne to be useful and serviceable; and they second them with seasonable and fit supplies, cher- ishing them as carefully as their own families, and employ them in profitable labors, that are knowne to be of speciall use to their comfortable subsisting.
This was the view taken by a disinterested eritie who evidently had learned much of the character of the persons who were to become colonists before the first expedition left Holland. The extraet quoted is of value in reminding us of the qualities of the early colonists and the care taken in selecting them and providing for them by the first patroon. Ten years after this was written the thrifty Dutchmen who had located on both banks of the Hudson, or North river, as it was com-
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LANDMARKS OF RENSSELAER COUNTY.
monly known in the earlier days, had become such a body of traders that they found it almost impossible to supply the Indians, particularly the ferocious Mohawks, with the muskets and powder which the latter sought with great avidity. The business grew to great proportions and for some time about every settler, whether a farmer or not, was a trader prineipally. The Indians willingly paid as much as twenty beavers for a musket, many times its worth, and from ten to twelve guilders or its valne in barter for a pound of gunpowder. As soon as the great profits accruing from these transactions became known outside the colony other traders from Holland brought over large quantities of guns and other munitions of war and the Mohawks, the best customers of the Dutchmen, soon became the best armed of the Indian tribes and made raid after raid upon neighboring tribes from the north end of Lake Champlain to the island of Manhattan,
From the original records of the transactions of the colony which have been preserved it is evident that one of the principal aims of the founders of the colony was to secure for themselves the valuable trade in furs, the principal market for which centered at the point where they made their purchases and began their settlement. To seeure to them- selves this trade they rigidly excluded from the colony all foreign and unlicensed traders. The Dutch West India company had ceased to keep Fort Orange supplied with foreign goods and the patroon and his partners were alone privileged to import foreign merchandise of any character, In the beginning all the colonists were bound under oath not to purchase any furs from the Indians without first having obtained a license so to do. It was comparatively easy to enforce this rule, by reason of an article in the charter defining the rights of the patroon in this direction. Later on most of the settlers procured this license and thereafter they were privileged to trade with the Indians in furs as well as other artieles. The patroon, however, under this arrangement retained half the profits of all the transactions for awhile, his agreement with the colonists, who became dissatisfied, subsequently entitling him to only one sixth of the beavers and one guilder duty on the other five-sixths. Under this plan prices became so high that the authorities of Fort Orange and Rensselaerwyck were obliged to fix a limit to the price to be paid and to prohibit one trader from taking advantage of another by going into the woods to trade, all the traders thereby being placed on an equal footing.
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EARLY RIVALRY IN TRADE.
The license system introduced by the patroon and the great profits which resulted ineited a number of private individuals to embark in the fur trade surreptitiously, in defiance of the restrictions imposed by the patroon. Within a short time the private traders secured prae tically all the benefits of exchange with the Indians by meeting the latter secretly, paying higher prices than the colonists were allowed to pay and seeuring all the most valuable skins, while the servants of the patroon and the company eould rarely buy a skin. Sailing vessels came up the river in defiance of the rules laid down and carried away thousands of furs, and the colony was soon on the verge of impoverishment. To put an end to this infringement on his charter rights the patroon caused to be erected a fortified trading post on Beeren island, the southern boundary of the colony, determined to prevent illicit traders from entering his domain. This plan eaused so much trouble that the council at Manhattan was compelled to interfere, on the ground that the patroon had no right to prevent vessels from navigating the Hudson, nor to impose any tax on them for so doing. The principle upon which the council stood was that the patroon had no authority over Fort Orange and that to interfere with traffic to and from that Fort would be disastrous to its interests. Notwithstanding this decision, over which there was much wrangling, the patroon con- tinned to hold the fort some time and to levy taxes upon all strangers who entered the colony by that route for the purpose of trade.
Although we have no positive record of the fact, the first white man to make a settlement in any part of what is now Rensselaer county was probably Gerrit Tunnis De Reue, who located opposite Fort Orange in the present town of Greenbush. That he had become established at that point and begun the tilling of the soil and the raising of stock even before the colony of Killiaen Van Rensselaer was founded is evidenced by the fact that as early as 1631, according to authentic information, his farming interests were well advanced. How many years before that time he actually took possession of the lands is not shown by any records extant. Judging frem accounts of the condition of his farm in 1631 it must have been under cultivation for three or four years when reference to it in existing records was made. Fort Orange was built in 1628. Previous to that time, however, the Dutch had made settle- ments on an island just south of Fort Orange, called Fort Nassau, and at the mouth of the Normans Kill; and it is highly probable that some
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LANDMARKS OF RENSSELAER COUNTY.
settlement was made on the east bank of the river fully as early. The fact that the settlers on both sides of the river-as is shown by the early records for many years-considered themselves as belonging to the same little colony wonld indicate that settlements were made on both the west and east banks at about the same time. It is certain, however, that Gerrit Tunnis De Reue had occupied his farm in Greenbush for one year, if not for three or four, when his name and property first appear upon the public records. Some writers have assumed that it would not be amiss to fix the date at 1628, but this question is one that never can be settled, nor is it of prime importance.
While there doubtless were several other settlements of land on the east bank of the Hudson earlier than 1646, the authentic records re- lating to them have been lost, with rare exceptions. In that year we learn that Thomas Chambers leased a bonwery between the Poestenkill and the Wynantskill, opposite the farm called the Flatt, which was leased to Arendt van Curler in 1647 and which afterward became the Schuyler farm. Chambers's farm occupied much of the land embraced in the site of the southern part of the city of Troy. The lease given to Chambers by the authorities of the colony of Rensselaerwyck has been preserved among the archives of Albany county. It reads as follows:
This day, 7th September, anno 16-16, the presiding officers of the colonie Rens- selaerwyck on one side, and Thomas Chamber on the other, have agreed and con- sented about a certain parcel of land, lying right opposite the bouwerie called the Flatt (de Vlachte), on the east bank of the river, between the two kills, which land he, Thomas aforesaid, shall oceupy as a bouwerie for the term of five successive years, commencing the 15th November, anno 16ti, on the following conditions:
Thomas Chamber shall build free of all cost and charges, and without claiming a doit in return from the Lord Patroon, at his own expense, a farm house sixty feet long, twenty feet wide in the clear, the projection and all in proportion, as occasion may require, all faithful and firm work, without further specifying the same ; but in all its parts and members similar to the barn of the Poenje. A dwelling house apart and separate from the barn, thirty-two feet long, eighteen feet wide, with a projee- tion on one side, the posts above the beams projecting two feet and a half, honest work, without specification, and without any expense to the Patroon as aforesaid. Further, the haggarts, palisades, and in fine everything free of charge to the Patroon.
On condition of receiving in hand two mares and two studs, and moreover, two milch cows, the increase being on halves; but herem he shall enjoy the privilege of the bouweries which shall be leased on the arrival of the Director; the risk is also half and half, except such as the Indians may kill, which shall be at the sole risk of the Patroon, on sufficient proof being brought thereof. In case any opportunity shall
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THE ORIGINAL CHAMBERS LEASE.
offer to ereet a mill on the aforesaid bouwerie, the said Thomas shall be preferred before all others, on the same condition as others, or as shall then be agreed upon. For the summer sowing of the year 1647 shall be given tenths, and therewith be quit. The last seed which he shall plant in the bouwerie he is at liberty to thresh without payment.
The tenths of the lease years remain, as on the other bouweries. The risk of the houses and barns remain at the charge of Thomas Chamber. The said Thomas shall preserve the said house and barns above and around, and within, in firm and fast repair, without allowing any damage to befall them, and the land all around, as far as is necessary, enclose with fences not over two years old, delivering up and transporting to the Lord Patroon, of his resident agent here, free of cost and charges, at the expiration of his lease. And the said houses, barns, and fences, shall be the l'atroon's rent for the aforesaid five years.
In case it should happen, which God forbid, that war should break out between us and the Indians, and Thomas be obliged to fly from the bouwerie, the time that he shall be absent shall be allowed him, and the time begin again when he shall return.
And whereas Thomas Chambers demands assurance that these conditions shall be ratified by the Lords Masters without diminution, addition, or annulment, therefore do we, in the name of the Lords aforesaid, promise and garanty to the said Thomas that there shall be no failure or neglect in whatever is mentioned and agreed upon here, but, on the contrary, all shall be maintained even as if our Lords aforesaid themselves drew them up.
Thomas Chambers shall yearly pay, as an acknowledgment, five and twenty pounds of butter, during his lease. He shall make use of his pasture above and below his bouwerie without let or hindrance.
Their worships, the presiding officers aforesaid, agree that he, Thomas, at the expiration of the above five successive years, shall cultivate the said bouwerie still three further years, provided he pay in addition to the tenths five hundred guilders yearly from the produce of the said bouwerie, at a valuation according to the rate that grain shall sell for at that time, and in addition to the aforesaid horses, one mare and one stud shall be delivered to him, according to agreement.
Chambers was a farmer of the first class; rich, for those days, and a man of influence. He paid his own expenses over from Holland and stocked his own farm. He was ambitions and consequently became restless and dissatisfied under the restraint to which he was subjected as a simple colonist in the feudal system established by the patroon. Less than six years after having obtained his valuable lease he left Rensselaerwyck with some of his neighbors and removed to Atkarkar- ton, or Esopus, he and his companions becoming the pioneer settlers of the county of Ulster. All other traces of the earliest occupation of lands within the limits of the county of Rensselaer are either de- stroyed or are so vague that nothing definite or satisfactory is to be gleaned from them.
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LANDMARKS OF RENSSELAER COUNTY.
CHAPTER IN.
The French and Indian War-Cause of the Hostilities-Expeditions Against Canada -Origin of Yankee Doodle-English Control of the Colony -- The Strife Over the Government of the Hampshire Grants-Outrages Committed by the Bennington Mob-Temporary Government Organized by the Insurgents.
The history of the tremendous struggle known as the French and Indian war, in reality a succession of wars extending over a period of about a century and a half, properly exploited, would require volumes in the telling. The part which Rensselaer county played in this long continued war was not of great importance, still it deserves a place in the archives of the county. The struggle was one for the control of the continent by three great nations. On the one hand were arrayed the Dutch and the English and their Indian allies in New Netherlands and New England; opposed to them were the French and their Indian allies in the north country, mainly the valley of the St. Lawrence. In reality it was the final struggle between France and England for co- lonial supremacy on the great American continent. A sense of com- mon danger led the colonists on the Atlantic coast in and about New York to unite to resist the impending domination of the French. The canses of the war were of long standing, but the actual contest did not begin until 1251. The territorial claims of the French and English conflicted on all sides. The sea coast had been colonized by Holland and England, and the Dutch, many years before, had surrendered the gov- ernmental functions in New Netherlands to the English and the colony had become New York. The interior of the continent had been col- onized by France, and England had few inland colonies. The French knew that if they eould obtain control of the great valley of the Ohio they could confine the provinces of Great Britain to the country east of the Alleghany mountains. To accomplish this became for the time the sole ambition of the French; to prevent the suecess of the scheme became the determination of the English. Thus matters stood at the opening of the French and Indian war.
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EARLY FRENCH AND INDIAN STRUGGLES.
The immediate cause of the hostilities was a conflict between colo- nists of the two nations on the frontier during the initial attempts to colonize Ohio. Each knew, in general, something of the designs of the other and there was a hot strife to see which should first success- fully occupy the land.
The troubles in the eastern part of the colony of New York began in 1665 or 1666. In the latter year two expeditions against the Mohawks left Canada. The first was under Governor Courcelle and left Quebec Jannary 9, but proved unsuccessful. The second left Fort St. Anne, on the Isle La Motte, at the northern end of Lake Champlain, in Octo- ber, under Marquis de Tracy, lieutenant-governor of New France, and was composed of 600 regillar troops. They passed through Saratoga county and reached the Mohawk valley not far from Schenectady. Their campaign was a triumphant one. Throughout the entire Mohawk valley they met with no opposition and they laid waste the Indian castles and cornfields, taking possession of the country in the name of France. They then returned unmolested to Canada and the savage Mohawks, now completely humbled, made no demonstration against any of their neighbors for a score of years.
From 1686 to 1695 the Mohawks and the French continued the strug- gle, which had been renewed by the former in revenge for the spoliation of their beautiful valley twenty years before. In August, 1689, the Mohawks, 900 warriors strong, journeying most of the distance in bark canoes through Lake George and Lake Champlain, invaded the very stronghold of the French on the island of Montreal, carrying death and destruction with them. Late in the following winter the bloody mas- sacre at Schenectady occurred, when Lieutenant Le Moyne de St. Helene, with a band of French soldiers and their Indian allies from the north, swept down upon the little hamlet at midnight on the 8th of February, 1690, slaughtered most of the inhabitants and drove the rest from their homes.
The first call for a general congress of the American colonies was made by Massachusetts in 1690 in accordance with a popular demand that the colonies should organize an armed force for common defence against the French and Indians. In accordance with the call commis- sioners from the colonies of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia and Maryland met in the city of New York May 1, 1690, and agreed to raise a force of 855 men to repel the French and Indian in-
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LANDMARKS OF RENSSELAER COUNTY.
vasion and if possible to wrest Canada from the French. The cam- paign was a disastrous one. In accordance with the suggestion of the congress an expedition was fitted out and placed in command of Gen. Fitz-John Winthrop of Connecticut. Winthrop left Hartford July 14, 1690, and August 2 met Major Peter Schuyler of Albany at Saratoga. They pushed on a short distance north, but finally aban- doned the idea of fighting, leaving the first expedition of the united forees a complete failure. A short time afterward, however, Capt. John Schuyler, brother of Peter, made a raid upon the Canadian settle- ment of La Prairie. The year afterward Major Peter Sehuyler at- tacked the same place; but the raid was of no practical benefit to the united colonies.
In 1709, during Queen Anne's war, another expedition against Can- ada was planned, and June 1 it started out in command of Gen. Nich- olson. Divisions of the little army were in command of Peter Philip Schuyler, now a colonel, and his brother, John Schuyler, who had be- come a lieutenant-colonel. They built several forts along the upper Hudson, which they named respectively Fort Ingoldesby, after the lieutenant-governor of the province of New York; Fort Saratoga, Fort Miller Falls, Fort Nicholson, in honor of the commanding general; and Fort Schuyler, later called Fort Anne. This expedition also was a failure. Aug. 24, 1711, Gen. Nicholson headed another expedition from Albany, but returned after reaching Fort Anne and learning that the English fleet in the St. Lawrence, which was to co-operate with him, had been almost destroyed by severe storms and 1,000 men lost. This ended this campaign, which the first continental congress thought would be successful, every expedition having accomplished practically nothing.
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