USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume I > Part 16
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to Staten Island was established in 1713, the fare for a man alone, as well as with a horse, being six shillings. A ferry to the Jersey shore was established at the foot of Cortlandt Street. The fare to Long Island was three shillings the person; the old ferry was supplemented by a second, boats leaving from Hanover Square (or Old Ship) and foot of Broad Street, where was the great dock. In 1728 this ferry paid a lease of f258. On the Long Island shore stood now a goodly brick building three and a half stories high with crow-stepped gable, surrounded by commodions barns and outhouses, while under the shelter of the bold cliff now known as Brooklyn Heights was a pound for the reception of the cattle to be ferried across or just brought over from New York; a short wharf ran out into the river, and the one-
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BROOKLYN FERRY.
masted open sloop was kept busy conveying passengers of the human or brute species as fast as it could across the swift current of the East River.
Another source of income was the lease of market privileges. Mar- ket houses were built at various times and in different localities. A market house was erected on Broad Street, opposite the City Hall, on the slope from Wall Street to Exchange Place. The open space in front of the fort was no longer deemed suitable for a market; some genial citizens rented it for a nominal sum and converted it into a Bowling Green. In 1739 a large market house, 42 feet long by 25 broad, was built in the center of Broadway opposite Crown (Liberty) Street, presumably to accommodate the Jersey farmers and truckmen.
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One wonders whether it conduced to the comfort of Chief-Justice De Lancey, whose elegant house stood near it on the corner of Little Queen (Cedar) Street, where the Boreel Building towers to-day. A great variety of produce and provisions came in to these markets from the surrounding country. In addition to all the game, fruit, vege- tables, fish, and what not, of a former day, there was added the lobster in abundant quantities. It had not been caught in the vicinity of New York until a fortunate accident happened in Governor Hunter's time. A " well-boat," conveying a load of lobsters stored away in their native element, from the regions of New England to the New York market, struck a rock in the ever perilous Hell Gate. It went to pieces, and thus released its live freight, which ever after made the vicinity of New York their habitat. As for oysters, none better or bigger or more abundant were found anywhere else than in New York harbor. To preserve so delicious a staple the Assembly passed a spe- cial act, No. 9, of the year 1730. A too free access to the oyster beds was threatening the extermination of the bivalves. In 1745 Prof. Kalın, a Swedish scientist, descants on the excellence of the oyster, and says they were as big as a plate; presumably a dinner plate, and not a butter plate. It must be added that in 1732 a market was estab- lished at the foot of Fulton Street on the North River, and this must have been the beginning of the famous Washington Market. Indus- tries of various kinds were still in their infancy. In 1718 the first rope walk was built, extending along what is now Broadway, about the whole length of City Hall Park from Barclay Street or Park Place to Chambers Street. Many others soon sprang up. One ran all the way from Broadway to the river along Cortlandt Street, entting off abont fifteen feet from every lot on the north side; it was owned or leased by a citizen of the name of Van Pelt. It was doubtless in connection with this industry that the spirit of invention was stimulated, for we find one John Marsh asking the authorities for a patent for the space of fifteen years for a process of dressing hemp and flax by mill. Whales must still have made occasional visits to the bay or nearby ocean, for " James Cooper and Company " were given a license to catch them, in 1721, on condition of paying a tribute of five per cent. of what they got for the oil and whalebones. In 1726 one Lewis Hee- tor Piot De Langloserie was endned by legislative act with the sole right to catch porpoises; he doubtless made his harpoons of the proper length by painting his name in its full proportions along the shaft. Another act made a widow happy by allowing her to make lampblack exclusively for ten years; but a futile attempt having been made by a certain citizen to become a " sugar refiner," his monopoly was with- drawn in 1727. The map of 1728 showed that Bayard had a sugar house in Wall Street near the City Hall. It seems rather odd that the authorities, while thus encouraging industries of so many sorts, should have refused William Bradford, the printer, a monopoly for
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the manufacture of paper. He accordingly established a paper mill in New Jersey. In 1730 there was erected " on the fifth lot from the corner of Centre and Reade Streets " what is described as " a stone- ware kiln or furnace." It is claimed by some that this was the first smelting furnace for the reduction of iron ore in the United States. In 1842 some portions of one of the arches of this kiln were still in existence.
An evidence of the general condition of trade, commerce, and manu- factures is afforded by a list preserved among the records of the Chamber of Commerce, showing total imports and exports for several successive decades. From 1710 to 1720 the imports were £365,645; exports, £392,683. From 1720 to 1730, imports £471,342; exports, £518,830. From 1730 to 1740, imports, £660,136; exports, £670,128. Thus within these thirty years at least the balance of trade kept pretty well on the side of the colony. The Custom House stood on Pearl Street, between Whitehall and Broad, or what was then called Dock Street. Here duties were collected on a great variety of articles. Wigs were taxed to discourage the wearing of them. In 1734 the duty on tea was one shilling per pound, and on cider one shilling per barrel. Three shillings had to be paid on every barrel of pork, and two shill- ings on every barrel of beef imported. An annual tax of one shilling was laid on every slave owned; a duty of forty shillings being exacted for every slave imported from Africa direct, and one of four pounds for those brought from other places. A tax of three per cent. was im- posed on auction sales, and as vendues were very frequent in the city, a goodly sum must have been realized from this item alone. So con- fident were the authorities of good returns from all these duties and taxes that the £10,000 or £12,000 occasionally pledged for the Cana- dian campaigns, and covered by the issue of paper money, were ex- pected to be redeemed from their income. One very active depart- ment of trade was stopped by Governor Burnet. French traders were in the habit of buying goods for their Indian trade at New York. These they carried to Montreal or Quebec, and induced the Indians to come to those places for their supplies, bringing their furs in ex- change. Thus the French ingratiated the savages and made them dependent upon themselves alone, which was useful in the event of war. Burnet forbade the merchants of New York selling goods to these traders. It was a patriotic measure, but it roused the bitter an- tagonism of Philipse, De Lancey, and other great dealers. The In- dians were henceforth compelled to get their supplies from the Eng- lish, causing more friendly relations. It also sent enterprising young men from New York mercantile families into the woods to secure ex- changes of furs. This was of incalculable benefit to them in many ways besides commercial profits, and Burnet's act should have brought him lasting gratitude instead of hostility. Piracy was still active upon the high seas, and near the principal harbors, and did
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inch harm to commerce; but it was bona fide piracy, receiving now no countenance from royal governors or respectable New York mer- chants.
Turning from the material to the spiritual interests of the people, we note that the march of churches uptown-ward kept steadily on. Beginning with the church of 1633 in Pearl Street, the next was put up in the fort in 1642; and a third in Garden Street (Exchange Place) in 1693. We come upon a new edifice erected during this period on Nassau Street, on a lot reaching from Little Queen (Cedar) Street, to Crown (Liberty). The lot was bought for £575 in 1726, and in 1729 the building was ready for worship, but was not quite complete till 1731. It was a noble building for its day, one hundred feet long by seventy wide inside the walls. When it was all finished a copper plate was made of it, and as a member of the church was then acting Gover- nor, the plate was dedicated to him. This has led an excellent his- torian of our city to state that the church was dedicated to Rip Van Dam. Esq. In one corner of the picture we can just see the old French church in King (Pine) Street, facing with its odd tower toward Little Queen (Cedar). Here some trouble had ocenrred be- tween the elders aud one of the pas- tors. They had two pastors, the Rev. Mons. Rou and the Rev. Mons. Mouli- mars. The former was brilliant, but a little bad; the latter was good, but a trifle dull. The elders felt they must DUTCH CHURCH ON NASSAU STREET. 1731. get rid of Mons. Ron, and he appealed to Governor Burnet, who was a great chum of his, and who was quite ready to assume his seat upon the Chancellor's bench to try his case. There- upon the elders withdrew their canse, seeing too well what the issue would be. But what was worse, they withdrew from the church also. One of them was Stephen De Lancey; he became a deter- mined antagonist of the Governor's, a state of mind which was not mended when the latter called in question his citizenship. and would have excluded him from the Assembly to which he had been elected. There was no way of avoiding annoying inter- ference of the state with the church in these colonial days. The French church had found so to their cost; the Presbyterians had even a worse experience. In 1718 they bought a large lot on Wall Street, about opposite New Street. In order to hold this property and build a church on it, they wished to be incorporated. Their petition was refused. They tried again and again through a number of years, from 1721 to 1724. In vain. At last, in 1724, Gover-
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nor Burnet wrote to the Lords of Trade about it, and they referred it to their counsel, who wrote this opinion: " As there is no provincial act for uniformity according to the Church of England, I am of opin- ion that by law such patent of incorporation may be granted as by the petition is desired." Accordingly it was done. But the canny Scotch- men had meanwhile deeded their lot to the General Assembly in Scot- land, and in 1719 had put up a goodly building upon it. The Rev. Mr. Anderson was their pastor. It has to be said that the Episcopalians were responsible for this ungracious delay in giving the Presbyterians their rights. They would have it that theirs alone was the estab- lished church, that no others had a right to exist, or to draw suste- nance from the citizens. Mr. Vesey was led to say very hard things abont Governor Hunter because he sought to do justice to the Presby- terians of Jamaica, so iniquitously ejected from their property by Cornbury. Governor Burnet had the honor of finally settling the matter in the interests of the rightful owners in 1728. Stimulated by the activity of the Dutch in church building, the people of Trinity enlarged and embellished their church in 1737. A steeple one hun- dred and eighty feet high towered above all the rest of the steeples. Inside a fine altar piece was added. The tops of the pillars were adorned with gilt busts of angels, and a glass candelabra hung from the ceiling. Not to be behind its ancient sisters, the French church put on a new and handsomer form in 1741. As regards toleration the Quakers and JJews were given greater privileges than before. It is true that once at a contested election in Westchester, when it was a question whether Adolph Philipse was entitled to a seat in the Assem- bly, the Jews were counted ont as disfranchised; as were also the Quakers when a similarly hot contest at the polls was waged at Mor- risania between Morris, the ex-Chief-Justice, and De Lancey, the in- enmbent who had been put in his place. But the Quakers were dis- tinetly declared entitled to vote upon their affirmation, instead of an oath, when the excitement blew over. The Jews were allowed to build a synagogue in Mill Street, now South William; and also to hold in possession ground for a cemetery, the funds for which were given in 1729 by a Mr. Willey of London, whose three sons were merchants in New York. The cemetery was located in the block bounded by Chatham, Oliver. Henry, and Catharine streets, far ont in the conn- try then. As to schools, a draft for an act establishing a free Latin and Greek school was prepared by Adolph Philipse, and passed by the Assembly, and Alexander Malcom appointed the teacher of the same. His salary was £100, yet as some one wrote: " God kens, little he is skilled in Learning, yet they think him a highly Learned man." The preamble of this act caused much merriment at the time. Cooper introduces it in his " Satanstoe." and discusses it with all serionsness. It read: " Whereas the youth of this colony are found by manifold ex- perience to be not inferior in their natural geninses to the youth of any other country in the world, therefore be it enacted."
1
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Sanitary conditions were as yet very unsatisfactory in the little city, and frequent were the scourges of the pestilence. In Cornbury's time there was an epidemic. In 1725 a vessel with smallpox aboard arrived from Madeira, and one of the sick men came recklessly into town. He was quickly conveyed back aboard, and the ship ordered to anchor amid stream near Bedlow's Island. It does not appear that the infection spread this time. But in 1731 the smallpox visited the city, so that five hundred perished, and Governor Montgomerie was one of the victims. In 1737 yellow fever raged in the West Indies, and at once quarantine regulations were established. A sloop was sent out to meet vessels coming from West Indian ports, which were compelled to anchor off Bedlow's Island. In 1739 smallpox was again in the city, beginning in the spring. As it continued to rage up to the time set for the Assembly, the Council and Assembly met at the house of Harmanus Rutgers, on the Bowery Road, near the Collect Pond. Curiously enough this very pond had been complained of as a plague spot in Montgomerie's time. Rutgers applied for permission to put into operation a system of ditches and sluices whereby its waters could derive the benefit of the changing tides. This he pro- posed to do at his own cost if the surrounding land could be guaran- teed to him and his heirs in return. The territory must have been granted, and the result of the work done must have been satisfactory if in 1739 the neighborhood was considered a health resort. In 1742 yellow fever claimed two hundred and fifty victims in the city.
With some disadvantages like these, to which cities all over the world were then subject; with frequently unfit or corrupt men as governors; with much that was crude, primitive, tentative, uncertain of profitable results, threatening disaster, and promoting instability of fortune or prosperity; yet New York was a place worth coming to for those who found the ways to promotion and wealth closed to them at home. A relative of lawyer Joseph Murray urged brothers and sisters and friends to come to New York. Trades were good, wages high, provisions plenty and cheap, " a bushel of Indian corn for a day's work." Land was easily obtainable, " ten pounds per acre, and ten years to pay it in," so that small savings could soon make one a laud-holder. There was a chance for everybody. Servants who came indentured and had served their time out, were now Justices of the Peace. All that a man worked for was his own. No ravenous hounds " to rive it from us here." No one to take away your corn or potatoes. " Every yen enjoys his ane." No wonder that such a glow- ing description, based on facts, induced men to cross the ocean and settle in our good city of New York.
CHAPTER VI.
A COLONIAL CAPITAL.
T New York," writes the author of that charming biogra- phy, " An American Lady," " at New York there was al- ways a Governor, a few troops, and a kind of little court kept; there too was a mixed, and, in some degree, polished society. It was the custom of the inhabitants of the upper settlement [Albany] who had any pretensions to superior culture or polish, to go once a year to New York, where all the law courts were held, and all the important business of the province was transacted. Here, too, they sent their children occasionally to reside with their rela- tions, and to learn the more polished manners and language of the capital." A colonial capital,-that, then, is what New York was rec- ognized to be at this period in its history. But the time now is hasten-
ing on when there will cease to be a colony here. Ere the change comes let us take a good look at our city under this interesting aspect.
It is not surprising that there gathered about ESBIT I the Governor's mansion, in the fort, what might be called " a little court." The Governor was DEANE the representative of majesty, and the incum- COLONIAL COCKED 11AT. bents of the office were men sometimes of noble rank, and always of the circle of the court at home, favorites of royalty, attendants upon the King's person. The usages of English society were industriously adapted to social life at the capital, and these radiated from the Gov- ernor's mansion or Province House as a center and a source. The ap- pointments of the Governor's household exhibited the state which he affected. An inventory of Montgomerie's effects after his death is pre- served, and this shows what even a bachelor Chief Magistrate needed to set forth the dignity of his position. There were fine coaches and sixteen horses; blue cloth for liveries; elegant sets of harness for occa- sions of state; also a barge of state handsomely decorated and uphol- stered; and abundance of silver plate. Whenever the Governor rode out, servants in livery, and outriders, attested the importance of the personage approaching. Cosby especially made the Governor's man- sion the center of fashionable entertainments. However much he might have been detested by the common people, and by those in offi- cial life whom he found it expedient to antagonize, the gay and aspir-
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ing bon ton of the cosmopolitan town rejoiced in the frequent invita- tions to functions of importance and brilliancy at his house. These received particular eclat one winter by the appearance of one Lord Fitzroy, the son and heir of the Duke of Grafton. The sturdy Common Council, defying Cosby's commands to burn Zenger's paper by the hands of the common hangman, were quite obsequious when it came to a real live son of a duke. They waited upon the youth with great solemnity, and presented him with the freedom of the city, encased in a box of gold. Cosby's wife was an Earl's daughter, a sister of Lord Halifax, Minister for the Colonies. Fitzroy's real errand to New York was soon manifest, when he secretly married one of Cosby's daugh- ters. Another daughter married the lawyer Joseph Murray. In such circles the manners of the court at home were diligently followed, and their influence must have been felt in the homes of people of wealth throughout the city, so that a certain polish would be given to society at the capital, worth cultivating on the part of young people coming from Albany and elsewhere. A " little court " was kept. that was certain; but however little, it gave distinction to life in New York.
But while the Governor of New York might reign supreme as a social luminary, he found extremely little deference on points of public policy. No one experienced this more constantly and keenly than Governor George Clinton, who arrived at his post in 1743. and ruled the Colony exactly ten years. He came over with his wife and several children, among whom was the future Commander-in-Chief of the British forces during the War of the Revolution, Sir Henry Clinton. The Governor was a younger son of the Earl of Lincoln, and so far his appointment secured the maintenance of the traditions of the little court. He was a naval officer of high rank, and not at all fitted by his experience or temperament to deal with a colonial assem- bly that had had a taste of liberty, and the exercise of important pre- rogatives ever since the days of Cornbury. Then the representatives of the people had arrogated to themselves the right to vote supplies for the needs of government only from year to year, and had taken it upon themselves to appoint a provincial treasurer; all for the rea- son that Cornbury was not to be trusted. These privileges once exer- cised in an emergency such as the authorities at home doubtless rec- ognized, and on which account they tolerated them for the moment, were not now so easily to be wrested from the Assembly. Every Gov- ernor from Lord Lovelace to Clinton, and many an one later, was ex- pressly instructed to demand grants in the Immp sums, and for sev- eral years at once; it was of no avail. The New York Assembly was not to be moved from their position; indeed they became more ag- gressive. In the course of the controversy they even refused to grant money for salaries of officers, except by name; which amounted to an assumption of the appointing power, usually the province of the exec-
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utive alone. Holding the purse, they had a powerful advantage over the Governors, and instructions from the home government went for very little, or nothing.
Clinton's long term was one incessant contest with the Assembly, much aggravated by his constant want of tact. He gratified at first the soaring ambition of Chief-Justice De Lancey, but when he had alienated him in some hasty moment, this able man and all the in- fluential following he could command was turned against him. As a matter of course, after the stand he took during Cosby's term, De Lancey might be regarded as devoted to the " Court " party; and in the beginning Clinton was prepared to take things easy, and leave the real brunt of government to the Chief-Justice. During these days of friendship and harmony De Lancey constantly urged him to change the tenure by which he held his office from one " at the pleasure " of the Governor, to one depending upon " good behavior." The latter, of course, relieved the incumbent from dependence upon the caprice of the Governor; he could only be removed for cause, and not at a mere nod, as Morris had been. Whether De Lancey was only waiting for this change of temire in order to show his real hostil- ity. as Clinton charged, or whether some good cause for offense was given him, at any rate soon after the change had been effected the Chief-Justice made a complete turn about in his re- lations to the Governor. It was said they quarreled over their "cups." Little as the Assembly was disposed CADWALLADER COLDEN. to heed Clinton's instructions before, now, under the leadership of De Lancey and his adherents, the opposition was unremitting and often acrimonious. But as another result of this detachment of De Lancey from the court party, it must be noted that thereby, from their invet- erate antagonism to him, Smith and Alexander, of the popular party. were perforce driven to side with the Governor.
This shifting ground of politics also brings into relief another citi- zen of New York, who deserves more than a moment's notice, and will play an increasingly conspicuous part as the years run on toward the Revolution. Dr. Cadwallader Colden, after taking his degree in medi- cine at the University of Edinburgh, came to Philadelphia in 1716. Two years later he was induced by Governor Hunter to settle in New York. He soon turned from the practice of his profession to the more profitable business of landholder. He occupied various positions of honor and trust in the province. But while a man of affairs in the con-
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det of civil government, he was active also in the pursuits of science and literature. He wrote a " History of the Five Indian Nations," printed by William Bradford in New York in 1727, which was consid- ered an authority of the highest value. He kept up correspond- ence with men of learning and science, including Franklin him- self, and gained an enviable reputation both in Europe and America. In Cosby's time his liberal sentiments placed him on the side of Smith and Alexander, his fellow-countrymen; and after De Lancey's change of front, he still kept in line with them in their unnatural attachment to Clinton. It may be said right here, however, that before the end of Clinton's career as Governor of New York, even Colden had to withdraw his sup- port. But at first, in the dismay caused by De Lancey's sudden defection. Clinton turned to Colden and bestowed upon him that friendship and reliance which the other had forfeited and betrayed. Clinton had conceived an idea, which he was constantly pressing upon the Lords of Trade, that it would be highly beneficial to make the office of Lieutenant-Governor a permanent one concurrent with that of Governor. He was evidently bent on shifting the burdens of government as much as possible upon other shoulders than his own. That new office he had in- tended for the Chief Justice, who had been acting the part of it without the title. But when De Lancey turned ADMIRAL WARREN'S HOUSE AT GREENWICH. against him he thought at once of Colden for the position and urged his name. At the same time he argued that the commission as Chief-Jus- tice should be taken away from De Lancey, intending thus to humble his enemy in a double way; for even if the commission were not re- voked. Colden, as Lieutenant-Governor, would considerably reduce De Lancey's importance in the Colony. It must be said that the result of these machinations bore rather hard on the poor harassed Governor. De Lancey was a man of powerful connections. A private tutor of his while at the University was now Archbishop of Canterbury. Captain (later Admiral Sir Peter) Warren was the Imsband of one of his sis- ters. These men had a greater influence at court than Clinton. Hence the commission of Chief-Justice was not taken away from De Lancey; and while Clinton's desire to create the position of Lieutenant-Gover- nor was granted, it was not Colden who received the appointment, but again De Lancey. The only way in which Clinton managed to re- lieve this humiliating situation was to indulge in the somewhat petty spite of withholding the commission. It arrived in 1747, but not
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