USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume I > Part 10
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As upon his assumption of the governorship Dongan read to the assembled citizens in front of the City Hall on Coenties Slip his in- structions, some of New York's leading men took notice that among them was one requiring the Governor " to consider and report upon the propriety of granting to New York City immunities and privi- leges beyond what other parts of my territory do enjoy." Before three months had passed a petition came before Dongan, signed by Cornelius Steenwyck. Johannes van Brugh. John Lawrence. John P. Morris, JJames Graham, and Nicholas Bayard. It recited the fact that the city had been incorporated under the present English form in 1665, and now begged that to " the ancient customs, privileges, and immunities " might be added certain others. They asked for a divi-
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sion of the city into wards, from which aldermen and assistant-alder- men might be elected by the people therein residing. While the mayor and sheriff and clerk should be appointed as before by Gover- nor and Council, they desired added to the officers a recorder and a coroner, also thus appointed; but that the corporation itself might select their own treasurer. Finally, they petitioned that these privi- leges and immunities be elaborated in a charter regularly signed and sealed by the sovereign, thus to be confirmed in perpetuity, as was the custom in England.
Demurring at first, Dongan very soon acceded to the desires of the petitioners. He had already appointed the mayor and aldermen for 1683; but in the autumn of 1684 he appointed only the Mayor, Gabriel Minvielle, while aldermen and assistants were for the first time elected by the people. James Graham was appointed Recorder in December, 1683. In order to enable the election to take place, the city had been divided by the previous mayor and akdlermen into six wards. The first, or South Ward, began at the river, and its bound- ary ran along the west side of Broad Street to Beaver; west along Beaver to Bowling Green; south past the fort to Pearl; east along the river to starting point. The second, or Dock Ward, extended from the river at corner of Pearl and Broad; along the then shore to Hanover Square; along William to Beaver, to Broad, and to the river again. The third, or East Ward, began at the corner of Pearl and Hanover Square, ran along shore to the " water gate" at the foot of Wall Street, along Wall to William, and followed the curve of William from Wall to Old Slip, or the river, as it then was. The fourth, or North Ward, boundary started at Beaver and William streets, ran along William to Wall, west along Wall to a point near where Nassau Street now begins, then along Broad to Beaver, and along the latter back to William. The fifth, or West Ward, ran from Beaver along Broad to Wall, along the palisades to Broadway, down Broadway to Beaver, and so back to Broad Street. The sixth, or Out Ward, was a bold excursion into the country; it comprised all the rest of the island above Wall Street, in which Harlem was now the only settlement.
The particular immunities and privileges asked for by the peti- tioners in November, 1683, had thus all been granted, and put into practical operation. It needed now only the charter to confirm them. In 1686 Nicholas Bayard, Mayor, and James Graham, Recorder, pre- pared a draft of such charter. This was approved by the Board of Aldermen and Assistants, and engrossed for presentation to the Gov- ernor and Council. On April 27, 1686, it was there duly read, ap- proved by the Council, and signed by the Governor. This interesting document is still preserved intaet in a tin box at the City Hall. It made the city a corporation under the style of " The Mayor, Aldermen. and Commonalty of the City of New York "; the officers were a Mayor,
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Recorder, Town Clerk, six Aldermen, six Assistant Aldermen, a Chamberlain, a Sheriff, and a Coroner. As already seen, the alder- men and assistants were to be elected by the people of each ward. The Mayor, Recorder, Town Clerk, and Sheriff were appointed by the Governor. The Mayor, Recorder, and Aldermen constituted a Court of Common Pleas for debts and other minor cases. The corporation was to " have perpetual succession. with power to get, receive, and hold lands, rents, liberties, franchises, and chattels, and to transfer the same." The fort, the Governor's garden, near its gate on the west, and the King's : EBORAC : SIGILL : CIVITA farm just outside the land-gate on Broadway, were excepted from the city's holdings or control. The city after whose municipal government that of New York was now modeled : AÓN 1883 was not old York, but Norwich, then the third city of England. Even in 1686 New York was the first incorpo- rated and chartered city in the Ameri- CITY'S SEAL OF 1686. can Colonies, although it might boast a much earlier existence as such. under the Dutch form since 1653, and under the English since 1665. As truly as of any city in the United States, it could be said of the metropolis what was said of it in the quaint phraseology of the charter even in 1686: " The City of New York is an ancient city within the said province, and the citizens of the said city have an- ciently been a body politic and corporate." Its antiquity could not have been very oppressive two hundred and eleven years ago, when a man born only five years after the discovery of its site was a hale and hearty citizen seventy-two years of age.
An event of some concern to the province and city of New York was the death of King Charles HI., in 1685. He was succeeded by his brother, the Duke of York, as James IT., and thus his property in Amer- ica became a crown possession. The chief influence upon the condi- tion of affairs in New York was that now it seemed possible to carry into effect a plan which Dongan had recommended. By reason of the different proprietorships of the various colonies, no uniform rule of import or export duties prevailed. An article heavily taxed in New York might be free in New Jersey or Connectient. The customs at New York suffered greatly, and trade was thrown into much confu- sion, by reason of vessels running over to the New Jersey shore of the river and there unloading their goods. These were gradually smng- gled into New York, and sold at a price below that of articles which had honestly passed the Custom House. Dongan, therefore, urged
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the expediency of consolidating all the King's colonies from the Dela- ware to and including Connecticut and Massachusetts. It was not regarded with much favor in New York City, either by the English or the Dutch. The English and Dutch in the provincial town harmo- nized well. There was much more affinity between these elements than between the Puritans of New England and the English citizens of New York. Yet the consolidation was finally effected. But Don- gan was recalled as the result of it. He was too much in favor of popular liberties, and had conceded too many privileges of that sort to promise to be a strong hand in administering this larger constitu- ency. Andros, now Sir Edmund Andros, was therefore intrusted with the government of the combined provinces of New Jersey, New York, and New England.
The only church in the place during most of this period was the old stone church in the fort. It had a shingle roof and a wooden tower, with a bell in it, and though it had no clock, a sun dial upon its southern side served to indicate the time of day. Still over the entrance was Kieft's stone with the inscription announcing that he had " caused the community " to build this church. On the Sunday this building was used by three different congregations, who wor- shiped in as many different languages. First came the Dutch ser- vices, beginning possibly at nine, if not half-past eight. The Dutch domines possessed the gift of continuance, and the sermon and psalms would not be finished inside of two hours. But by noon they had to be over, for then came the Walloons, and the refugee Hugue- nots, who had left France before, and especially after, the Revoca- tion of the Ediet of Nantes, in 1685. There was a service in French, which might last not much longer than two o'clock; for at 2.30 the English soldiers and the Governor, with family or retinue, would file into the same audience room to hear the English prayer-book read or hear an English sermon. In 1679 the Rev. Charles Woolley was chaplain in the fort. He preached to an average audience of some twenty-five or thirty people. Accordingly he must have had much leisure time on his hands, which he improved by writing a very good description of his experiences in the New World. This he published in 1701, under the title: " A Two Years' Journal in New York and Parts of Its Territories in America." He at one time enjoyed the priv- ilege of joining a party in hunting a bear which had strayed into an orchard between Maiden Lane and Cedar Street. It gave him " great diversion and sport." The French had no minister till 1682, when, at the request of the Dutch, Rev. Pierre Daille came over from London. His congregation was materially increased after the Revocation. In 1686 fifty or sixty Huguenot families had fled to New York from the French West Indies, and before Dongan left over two hundred fami- lies were settled there.
At the time of the surrender to the English in 1664, the Dutch
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church had three ministers: the two Megapolenses (van Meckelen- burgs, in plain Dutch), father and son, and Domine Drisins. For just one hundred years after this the congregation worshiped in Dutch, the first English pastor not being called till 1764. Yet even at this time some had in mind the inevitable change of language. The elder Megapolensis saw to it that his son could preach in English, and Drisius was called in 1652 for the express reason that he understood English well, and could preach in it if required. In 1669 the vener- able Megapolensis died; a year before his son had left to go and settle in Holland. Mr. Drisius was disabled by age and near his end, and no Dutch minister could be induced to settle in America among an alien people. So in 1670 Governor Lovelace took the matter in hand to secure for the Dutch congregation what they had failed to do for themselves. Ile sent word to the Classis of Amsterdam that he would pay any scholarly and godly minister whom they would recommend the sum of one thousand guilders ($400) yearly, and furnish him be- sides with a dwelling house, rent free, and free firewood. This brought over the Rev. William Nieuwenhuys, who was sensible enough to stick to his Dutch name and make no Novadomus of it. He was a short, corpulent gentleman, and those who did not like his doc- trine complained of his " slabbering speech." lle arrived just about when Domine Drisius died, in 1671, and held forth alone till his death, ten years later. Then was the Dutch church again pastorless until the Rev. Henriens Selyns came over in 1682. This was his second appearance in America. He had been pastor at Breuckelen from 1660 to 1664, and used to come over on week days and hold ser- vices at Stuyvesant's Bouwery. He was in many ways a notable man, and his connection with the church of New York marked an epoch in its history. Like Bogardus, he was a widower, and again, like this predecessor, he waited till he could find the likeliest and richest widow in the city before he consoled himself for his former loss. In 1684 Mayor Cornelius Steenwyck died, and two years or more later, Domine Selyns married Mrs. Steenwyck, no doubt carrying with her some of the Mayor's 50,000 florins, and some of that fine plenishing of the mansion on Whitehall Street. We have a list of church members and their addresses in his handwriting, dated 1686. He writes home to Holland of his gratification at the love of his people, who were building him a parsonage all of stone (or brick) three stories high. But he complains that the work is too much for one pastor. His list of members shows nearly four hundred families. Besides this, neighbor- ing communities were constantly asking his services on week days, in consideration of which these outlying settlements agreed to pay the minister. The Communipaw people gave the New York pastor thirty bushels of wheat for administering the Communion three times in the course of the year.
New York was cosmopolitan as to nationalities. It was so also as
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regards phases of religious belief. Dongan, himself a Roman Cath- olic, writes home: " New York has a chaplain belonging to the fort, of the Church of England; secondly, a Dutch Calvinist; third, a French Calvinist, and fourth, a Dutch Lutheran. There be not many of Eng- land; a few Roman Catholics; abundance of Quaker preachers, men and women; singing Quakers, ranting Quakers, Sabbatarians, anti- Sabbatarians, some Anabaptists, some Independents, some Jews; in short, of all sorts of opinions there are some, and the most part of none at all." The last was rather a gloomy view of the situation. perhaps not quite warranted by the facts, for all men were of some religious sect or other then, although not therefore the more pacific. Under the English regime the Luthe- rans were allowed to have their own minister, and they built a church near the fort. But Colve demolished the church because it was in the way of his gums, and under Lovelace their pastor, the Rev. Jacob Fabritius, had to be dismissed on account of bad conduct. On the basis of theological differences. he declined to exchange greetings on the street with Domine Nieuwenhuys; DE SILLE HOUSE. while a Voetian or Cocceian leaning set the hearts of the Dutch domines against each other. Perforce there was toleration of Jews and Catholics and Quakers and Baptists and Lutherans, because the English governors would not listen to anything else; especially under Dongan the policy was to tolerate everybody, because James himself wished to be tolerated at home for his Catholic faith. The Quakers, however, were fined for refusing to do military duty, but then this was a stretch of religion into civil life which could not be safely per- mitted by the magistrates. The Jews too labored under some restric- tions; they could not sell goods at retail, and when they asked for liberty to exercise their religion, it was officially or formally refused. But it was allowed informally, no interference being made with their religious services in a private house or hall. A few Catholics were in the habit of gathering with Governor Dongan in an apartment of the Governor's House in the fort, he having brought with him one Thomas Harvey, a Jesnit, as private chaplain.
A test of the enlightenment of a community in that age might well be made of the way that witchcraft was treated, and by this test New York comes out creditably. In 1667 Ralph Hall and his wife Mary, of Brookhaven, L. I., were tried on a charge of having procured the death of a man and an infant by wicked arts of the devil. Upon the jury served Jacob Leisler, a name later to become prominent in the annals of province and city. The jury gave a verdict of acquittal for the husband, but they had some doubts as to the wife, yet the only
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penalty inflicted was that he give bonds for her good condnet. In 1668 Nicolls cleared them even of this obligation. A year or two after, a case of witchcraft arose in Westchester, with the result that here too the accused was declared innocent. When Captain Colve ruled New York a case of witchcraft was brought before him, but he made short work of it. Balthazar Bekker, the Dutch clergyman, had not in vain labored to disabuse the minds of his countrymen of that foolish and wicked superstition which brought unjust misery and untold horrors and cruel death upon so many innocent persons, both in Europe and America. No small part of this enlightenment was due to schools. The opportunities for children to acquire the rudiments in the young city were quite abundant. We can, indeed, find no record of school buildings. But private houses were rented, or the church was util- ized for the purpose, and some teachers received classes at their own residences. A bill was brought in to the City Corporation in 1666 by one Casper Steinmets, who owned a house on the Brouwer Street, now Stone; the house had been rented for the use of a public school, and the bill for the year was 260 florins ($104). Evert Pietersen Keteltas was the teacher of this school, and exercised his profession until Don- gan's time. As he had been appointed and paid by the West India Company, the change of regime affected him closely. He was in no hurry, however, to get himself adjusted to the new environment. On September 19, 1665, he came before the mayor and council asking that a salary be paid him by the town authorities. Toward the end of his life an assistant was appointed. In 1679 we learn of one Abra- ham Lannoy, or de la Noy, brother of the collector of the port, who kept school, and also conducted the Catechism class, at which about twenty-five young persons attended. Indeed, the schoolmaster was a part of the church machinery; he not only taught the rudiments on week days, and instructed the children in the doctrines of the church, but on Sundays he was roorleser and precentor, reading the law and the creed and the scripture lesson for the minister; leading the sing- ing of the people, and for the consistory or board of elders he kept the record of baptism. De la Noy was made Keteltas's assistant in all these functions about the year 1686. The name of this early city ped- agogue would indicate that he must be regarded as the honorable an- cestor of a family prominent in New York society to-day.
CHAPTER IV.
A CLASH OF PARTIES.
SPECIAL Providence seems to have been at work to make it easy for the Dutch inhabitants of New York Province and City to submit to the inevitable in becoming English sub- jects. If there were any rankling sense of shame or annoy- ance by reason of the sudden incursion of the aliens and the half- forced surrender to them in 1664, it was amply avenged and wiped out by the brilliant success of 1673, in retaking what was their own by their gallant countrymen. This brief restitution of all things Dutch was indeed again superseded by the rule of the English, but there was no surrender to bring about the second occupancy; it was not by the force of arms, but by the terms of diplomacy. And scarce had their Lord Proprietor become a king, thus making their province a crown possession, when, who of all persons should ascend the throne of England but their own beloved Prince of Orange, in whose name their town had been retaken in 1673, and in whose honor it had been called New Orange.
It was a pity that a change in dynasty so gratifying to the prepon- derating element in our city's population should have entailed so much hurtful disturbance and have planted so many roots of bitter- ness within its limited boundaries. For the change of kings in Eng- land brought on here the eventful Leisler episode, a drama of several acts, of which the last was a tragedy. As the place of its enactment was our city, and all the chief personages residents of it, it deserves careful consideration as one of the most thrilling events in our city's history. It is significant also as the first uprising here of the people of moderate means and without political recognition-i.c., the so- called masses-against what had hitherto been the ruling class, the prominent and wealthy citizens, who now for a generation or more had been occupying positions of authority and power in the provin- cial or municipal government, only to be obtained by the favor of the Governor or King. Therefore the episode bore fruit in a long-standing antagonism between these orders of citizens, throwing the hitherto perhaps only apparent harmony of municipal life into the confusions of party conflict. Dislike and distrust may previously have smol- dered like hidden fires, or may have muttered words of anger under the breath. But after events had suddenly brought on the open and
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furious clash of parties, the ravages of the conflagration for a brief period disfigured the fair face of our city's peace, and the echoes of the explosion of pent-up wrath long resounded within the narrow precincts of the little colonial seaport.
Sir Edmund Andros had been invested with the office of Governor- General, or sort of viceroy, over the combined Provinces of New Eng- land, New York, and New Jersey. This appointment involved Don- gan's resignation as Governor of New York, on August 11, 1688. An- dros made Boston the seat of government, so as to be near the tron- blesome Indians in Maine, and Colonel Francis Nicholson was made Lieutenant-Governor over the Province of New York. The latter ar- rived in the city on Oc- tober 1, 1688, and his commeil was composed of Anthony Brockholls. a Catholic English gen- tleman, who had been a member of conneil mu- der former governors. and once or twice had acted as their lieuten- ant in their absence: and the three prominent residents of New York. Frederick Philipse (the PHILIPSE MANOR HOUSE. richest man in town). Stephen van Cortlandt. who was now the Mayor. and Nicholas Bayard, who was Mayor a few years before, and had occupied various other positions in provincial and city affairs. It is well to bear these names in mind.
On November 5, 1688, William of Orange landed in England. The Revolution was happily bloodless, and in February, 1689, William and Mary were proclaimed King and Queen. The news of the land- ing of William had been enough to determine the people of New Eng- land what action to take, and in April, 1689. Andros suddenly found himself deposed and a prisoner, while a government of their own was set up by the people. The news of the event in England, and of its con- sequence in Boston, came simultaneously to New York late in April. and it is no wonder that Nicholson received it with small equanimity. The Lieutenant-Governor drew his sword, and putting it to the breast of the excited Dutchman who brought it, threatened to run him through the body " if he would not be silent of it." Now, why this fear of publicity, which, of course, could not be prevented under any threats? The example of Boston might prove contagious. But why did Boston act as it did, and why should New York do likewise? The
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flight of the Catholic King James to France would let loose npon England and her colonies all the power of that alien country, with all the influence of the Catholic Church to back her. This was a formid- able threat in the days of Lonis XIV., with the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes only three years old; and France and Catholicism, with the resources of Louis XIV. behind them, were very close at hand in Canada. With James a refugee in France and the protégé of Louis, all of James's officials might be allies of so dreadful and so near an enemy. The safest policy was to deprive them of power be- fore waiting to see to whom they would be loyal. Hence Andros went down swiftly in Boston, and Nicholson might look for no better treatment here. Yet the people of New York did not act hastily. And Nicholson too at first showed tact in inviting the militia of the city to co-operate with the regulars in guarding the fort and the de- fenses of the town, and in consenting that the officers of the varions militia companies should take turns in commanding the watch.
It has been told how in the days of Andros's first terin the train- bands had been efficiently organized. There were now five companies of them, with Nicholas Bayard as their Colonel, and the Captains, be- ginning with the senior, Jacob Leisler, Abraham De Peyster, Nicholas Stuyvesant, Francis De Bruyn, Charles Lodowick, and Gabriel Min- vielle, all men of substance, good and true, of honorable name and doing. These citizen soldiers, as told before, were always to keep their firearms ready loaded in the house. In case of alarms, drums were to be beaten, whereupon each company was to repair at once to the residence of its captain, and form in front of his house. It was now arranged that each company in turn should go from day to day to the fort, its captain setting the watch from among his men; and thus, with some sense of security, the citizens awaited the dreaded on- slaught of the French, and hoped to avert some as greatly dreaded, but much less likely, plot of the handful of Catholics in the town. All went well until May 31, 1689. Nicholson on that evening complained of the posting of a certain sentinel. Captain De Peyster's company had the watch that night, and his Lieutenant, Henry Cuyler, replied that the sentinel was there by his Captain's or his own order. This reply irritated the Lieutenant-Governor; he flew into a passion and dismissed the militia officer from his presence with the perilons ob- servation " that he would rather see the town on fire " than be dic- tated to by them. Now the firing of the town by the adherents of James was the very thing looked for by the citizens, and here Nichol- son himself seemed to imply that he was contemplating its occur- rence. The drums beat ; all the other companies not on duty rushed to arms and formed in front of their Captains' houses. What was the matter? The word was passed around that Nicholson intended to fire the town. Small difference did it make that this was not altogether true in those inflammable times. What Nicholson had said was quite
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