USA > New York > New York City > Leslie's history of the greater New York, Volume II > Part 41
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
374
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
1755 a careful census revealed the fact that there were ninety-one male and seventy-two female slaves-negroes and Southern Indians -in the township. These people were usually treated with great kindness. They remained attached to the same families for genera- tions; they were regularly married, carefully instructed in religion. well fed and clothed, and given their leisure on Sundays and holidays. Yet resentment often bred thoughts of vengeance and cruelty in their hearts, which took shape in deeds of frightful violence at times, especially in the case of Indian slaves. Thus in the hamlet known as Middletown, near the junction of the present Broadway, in Long Island City, with the old Newtown Road, the family of one of the
Tor
IDAHO-O
MONTANA
PREGON
WISCONSIN
NEVA
O
A
INDIANA
VA
KANSAS
KENTLÊN
TENNESSEE NORTH CAROLINA
SOUTH
E
HAS
GULF
VORIDAS
ATLANTIC
MEXICO
OCEAN
PACIFIC OCEAN"
A
COLORADO
NEBRASKA
LLINOIS
FORNIA
DIZONA
NOI AN-
TERRITORY
TAKANSAS
GEORGIA
5
GULF OF CALIFORNIA
QUEENS COUNTY FAIR -- A CRAZY QUILT.
Halletts, father, mother, and five children, were ruthlessly murdered by an Indian woman and her husband, who were their slaves and who had been rebuked for some slight fault.
A bit of romantic interest enters into Newtown history in the year 1756, which connects it with the outside world. It was about this time that occurred the cruel transportation of the people of Nova Scotia, which has been immortalized in American literature by Long- fellow's " Evangeline." Of the nearly two thousand, thus deprived of their all and driven from their country, about a hundred and fifty arrived in New York in May, 1756. These exiles were distributed among the various surrounding townships. To Newtown was as-
PENN
375
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
signed Seres Etben, with his wife and eight children. The magis- trate of the town paid their board at Samuel Fish's inn, where they stayed for a considerable time, cheerfully supported by the sympa- thetie and benevolent Newtown people, until provisions could be made for their self-support. In the dearth of annals which empha- sized the happiness of the community keeping the even tenor of their way in this cool, sequestered vale, we may be pardoned for noting a Fourth of July made memorable just a score of years before Inde- pendence Day. On July 4, 1756, a tremendous hurricane swept through the township. It was a Saturday afternoon, when the ap- proach of the Sabbath was casting its customary spell of repose over the quiet villages and hamlets of the town. Of a sudden, about six o'clock, a curious formation of cloud, black as ink, was seen in the northern sky. A fearful gust of wind struck the town at Hell Gate, and raced directly southward across the entire island, its path no wider, however, than eighty rods. Before it houses and barns went down flat, immense oak and hickory trees were uprooted and piled in hundreds of pieces upon roads and farm lands. The hurri- cane lasted but half a minute, but it was time enough to work a havoc which cost the people between five and eight thousand dollars. Another detached event to be recorded as belonging to the period before the Revolution is the visit of George Whitefield to Newtown. in 1764. The spot where he held forth may be easily identified. As no church building in the village could hope to contain the audience that would flock together from far and near, the services were an- nounced to be held in the orchard belonging to the " corner house," later the Union Hotel, the corner being the southeast one formed by the present Hoffman Boulevard and Broadway. The Presbyterian parsonage to-day occupies the site of the orchard, so that it can be seen that it afforded a slight rise in the ground for the eminent evan gelist to occupy, thus being easily seen and heard by the crowding multitudes.
It is a good place to stop here and, before going on to the exciting civil affairs of the years immediately following, to turn back and survey the field of church history in Newtown. In our previous vol- ume (pp. 104, 105), was told the story of the treatment which two Presbyterian ministers experienced at the hands of the bigoted Corn- bury. Forbidden to preach without the Governor's consent in any of the churches of the city, and scorning to ask for it, the Rev. Francis Makemie preached in a private honse in New York, and the Rev. John Hampton preached at Newtown. For this heinous offense they were cast into prison by Cornbury, where they lingered seven weeks before they were acquitted. There was at this time but one church in the place, and that was the Presbyterian, built in 1660 or 1670, according as one follows Prime or Thompson. . As early as 1656 a Rev. Mr. Benjamin Moore preached to the Independents, but he is
376
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
not known to have administered the sacraments. The first regular minister, therefore, was the Presbyterian pastor, the Rev. William Leverich, or Leveridge, who came in 1670 and remained till 1692. Under the impulse of his presence the church was probably built, so that Thompson's date may be the correct one. A later authority still puts the erection of the church and the arrival of Mr. Leverich both in 1663, and we are inclined to put that date back as nearly as possible to the settlement of the English at Newtown Village, in 1652. Eleven years before a church was built is hard enough to under- stand. Yet other matters were tardy. Thus the government of the church was somehow managed without that sine qua non of Pres- byterianism-an eldership-until 1724. Before that date a Dutch Reformed Society had been organized. The date for this event seems to be also not without dispute. Prime puts it in 1704; Riker doubts it could have been very much prior to the erection of a church build- ing, several years later. The Dutch were few and scattered in New- town. They lived near the shores of Hell Gate, or East River, or Newtown Creek, and thus could easily pass over by boat to New York, Harlem, or Bushwick, to attend the churches there. Indeed it was not unusual for the good people of Newtown in their zeal to walk all the way to Flatbush to enjoy a solid Dutch discourse of an hour or more. When, about 1702. a Reformed Church was organ- ized at Jamaica, the Newtown people were relieved and were happy to attend services there, and in 1715 they even helped toward the building of a church. But as time advanced and population in- creased there seemed ample warrant for a church of their own. So, in 1731, at a meeting of Dutch townsmen at the house of Samuel Fish, a church building was determined on. It was to be fifty feet long and forty feet wide, on the land of Peter Berrien, near the townhouse. On August 30, 1735, it was ready for service, which shows a dignified deliberation in the construction of so small an edifice. It was of the regulation style : octagon in shape, roof rising to a point, surmounted by a belfry. Its cost was £277 12s., or not quite six hundred dollars, as pounds then counted. As to a pastor, the arrangements were similar to those of Kings County. At first the Newtown congregation, as well as Jamaica, were included with- in the circuit of the parish already including the five Dutch towns of Kings. But, in 1739, a collegiate compact was formed by churches all in Queens County,-Jamaica, Success, Oyster Bay, and Newtown, which lasted until their separation into individual pastorates in 1802. The Episcopalians did not build a church until 1735. By aid of Cornbury the Presbyterian Church was occasionally seized in or- der to do duty for the English Church; but such efforts to establish their services did more harm than good. By pursuing an entirely different policy, and seeking establishment and prosperity on grounds of Christian worth and good fellowship, much happier results were
377
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
attained, so that, in 1733, only five years after the affairs of Jamaica had been finally settled, and Cornbury's seizure of the Presbyterian Church had been declared invalid, the people of Newtown granted to the Episcopalians there a lot to build a church upon. Building went as slowly with them as with the Dutch, and not till 1740 was the church ready for occupancy. The society was served by one minister, in common with Jamaica and Flushing. In 1761 appli- cation was made to the Colonial Government for letters of incorpo- ration, so a separate minister might be called. But, though these were granted, the Newtown church did not call a separate rector till long after the Revolution. It is to be observed that these three churches-the Presbyterian, the Dutch Reformed, and the Episcopal, located at Newtown Village,-were the mother-churches for all those of their denominations throughont the township. We may men- tion that the history of Methodism on Long Island had its beginning in this township, though not in the village of Newtown. This dis- tinction may be claimed by the hamlet or settlement called Middle Village, near the better known Lutheran Cemetery. Here, in 1785, the Methodists erected their first church, later converted into a dwelling. It may also be mentioned in passing that there was once a Baptist Church in Newtown Village. It stood upon the same road or street (now Hoffman Boulevard), where stand the two Presby- terian churches now, and near it was the house of Bretonnier, where Howe made his headquarters, as we shall note presently. The church was organized in 1809, but in 1845 it was already extinct, and the church closed. On the other side of Bretonnier's, a little further away, stood the old Quaker meeting-house, erected in 1722. Before that time the Quakers of Newtown had formed one society with those of Flushing, using together the ancient structure on Broadway, built in 1695. But in 1722 the people at Newtown had increased in num- bers, and they felt justified and able to erect a place of meeting of their own. It was sold, however, in 1760, by which time most of the Quaker settlement had gravitated toward the English Kills, and, therefore, a meeting-house was put up on a plot of ground presented to them in Maspeth. But decline seemed to be the destiny of Quaker- dom in these regions, and not long after the beginning of the present century stated meetings ceased to be held even in the Maspeth house, which was later used for school purposes.
No doubt the boom of the cannon in the neighboring towns of Brooklyn and Flatbush, on the day of the Battle of Long Island, could be heard in Newtown. That battle meant a big change for its inhabitants, as well as for those of the other towns of Kings and Queens counties. Here, as in Kings, there was a strong Tory party. Earlier in the conflict between king and colonies there was a keen sense of the grievances put upon the country, and a disposition to re- sist encroachments upon their rights and privileges. But when the
-
378
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
mode of redress shaped itself inevitably along lines which meant armed resistance or separation in the end, there were many who weak- ened in their opposition. Patriots and Tories came out against. each other in resolutions and disavowals. A committee chosen by the frecholders, in December, 1774, drew up a series of five resolutions. expressing loyalty and devotion to the reigning house, but plainly indicating that the people were determined to retain and defend their rights, and closing with a cordial indorsement of the acts of the Congress which had met in Philadelphia in September. These were published in Holt's Journal. On January 12, 1775. Ricington's Gas- etteer contained the following: " Mr. Rivington : Reading in Mr. Holt's last Thursday's paper, certain resolves signed by Jacob Blackwell, Chairman, entered into by some inhabitants of Newtown, approving of the proceedings of the Continental Congress; you are hereby re- quested to inform the public that we, the subscribers, were no way concerned in those resolves, neither do we acknowledge any other representatives but the members of the General Assembly of the prov- ince." Fifty-six names were attached to this card, among whom were no less than ten Rapelyes, five Van Alsts, some Luysters, Debevoises. Van Dnyns, and Brinckerhofs,-showing that loyalty in the unpatriotic sense had struck deep among the Dutch settlers. In the course of the eighteenth century a great member of the numerous tribe of Joris Rapallo's descendants had spread from Brooklyn and Flatbush into Newtown. Meseroles COLDEN ARMS. also had come over the creek from Green Point. and one was found among the signers of this dis- avowal. Of the English settlers, Halletts and Moores and a Cornell were associated with the above, and, strangely enough, also a de- scendant of that sturdy opponent of Andros, John Burroughes.
As yet the war had been one of papers and protocols. After Lex- ington other weapons came into the foreground. Riker says that now " the opposition of the loyalists in Queens County grew formida- ble." The county voted three to one against sending deputies to an- other convention called by the patriots. "Not only so," the historian of Newtown continues, " but the leaders among thie disaffected be- gan to utter threats, and to procure guns and ammunition, and array themselves in arms to oppose the measures taken by the United Colo- nies for the preservation of their liberties." Such actions as these needed summary proceedings in return. The convention on January 3. 1776, directed Colonel Heard, of Woodbridge, N. J., to go with a force of militia into Queens County and disarm the malcontents. On January 19, Heard, with six hundred men of his own command, and three hundred of Stirling's battalion, crossed at the Hell Gate Ferry, and, passing through Newtown township, vigorously carried out the
379
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
directions of his superiors. A great number of the inhabitants were deprived of side arms, guns, powder, and lead, and were made to subscribe an oath of obedience to Congress.
The Battle of Long Island of course turned the tables completely, placing the Tories in power, and banishing the leaders of the patriot party; and the violence of the contention before explains the bitter- ness of the resentment afterward and the relentlessness of the per- secution which fellow-townsmen practiced against former friends and neighbors. Whether the boom of the cannon on the hills of Prospect Park and Greenwood were heard in Newtown or not, evi- dences of the results of that fateful day soon became apparent here. Early on the morning of August 29, the British light dragoons, who had captured and nearly murdered General Woodhull the day before at Jamaica, swept into Newtown from that direction, scouring the township for rebel leaders. They captured a few and missed others, but their laudable efforts were greatly aided by the Tories, who wore red ribbons in their hats, or red flannel rags about their arms. One George Rapelye guided the dragoons as far as the Poor Bowery and Hell Gate in pursuit of Doctor Riker, who fortunately escaped to Barn (or Randall's) Island before they came up with him. On Au- gust 30 the British army began to enter Newtown in force. Rumor had it that General Lee was preparing to descend npon Long Island from the direction of New England, and of course the point of attack would be at Hell Gate, where the mainland most closely approached the island. Hence the whole army of the enemy was massed within the boundaries of the township, with the exception of two Hessian brigades under Heister, who remained to occupy the heights of Brook- lyn, and one brigade of British left at Bedford. The vanguard was led by Major-General Robertson. Leaving Brooklyn on August 30, he marched through Bedford, along the Cripplebush Road to New- town, driving all the cattle before him that he could collect. Cross- ing Newtown Creek at Penny Bridge he passed through Maspeth and Middle Village, and at night encamped in the village of Newtown, where the cattle were left. On the morning of August 31 the march was resumed. Reconnoitering parties, thrown out in advance to Hal- lett's Cove and Hell Gate, saw no signs of Lee's approach. Resting his main body, therefore, in the vicinity of Middletown, at the june- tion of the present Broadway, or the older Ridge Road, and the New- town Road. Astoria, Robertson himself took up his headquarters at the house of William Lawrence, later Whitfield's, and, still later, Stephen A. Halsey's. This stood very near the junction of Newtown Road and the present Grand Avenue. A collection of about six pine trees marks the site of the house; to the right of it, or northwest, rose a slight knoll, from the top of which the lookouts could command a wide stretch of country in the rear, and also observe what was going on in the waters of the East River. The vanguard thus safely posted
380
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
in a position to observe the movements of the rebels and to oppose them promptly, other portions of the British army were disposed throughout the township and encamped at various points. Lord Cornwallis and the British reserves lay in the vicinity of Dutch Kills; General Leslie and the light infantry, along Newtown Creek; the Hessian grenadiers and chasseurs, or jagers, under Donon, north of Maspeth, in a line toward Middletown. All these forces were under the command of Lieutenant-General Sir Henry Clinton, whose head- quarters were at the house of Nathaniel Moore, later S. B. Townsend's, on the road that branches off from the one to Middletown, a little below that hamlet, and leads directly to the Poor Bowery, or Bowery Bay. The house was not far from the junction of this old road with the present Jackson Avenue, where to-day is found the depot of the Queens County Electric Railway. At the same time, Lord Percy, with his command, and General Grant, who had begun the attack on the 27th, were encamped near Newtown village, whither finally came also the Commander-in-Chief himself, Sir William Howe. On the street or road leading past the Presbyterian Church, opposite where a road branches off at right angles and crosses the Horse Brook, was put up the Baptist Church in 1809. Next to this still stood in 1850 a large house, then Bretonnier's, but in 1776 the property of Samuel Renne; church and house are both gone now, but the careful student can easily locate the sites whereon they stood. Here, at the " Big House," HIowe, a lover of ease and good living, made his headquarters. Scarce an eighth of a mile back of the house rose a rather high ridge of ground excellent for observation, and. in the shelter of which huts were afterward built for a more permanent encampment. At New- town, on September 3, was written Howe's official account of the Battle of Long Island, addressed to Lord Germain.
The next day after General Robertson's arrival, Sunday, Septem- ber 1, his cannon having come up, he planted a battery at Hallett's Cove (Astoria), on the projecting point where the ferry to 92d Street now lands its boats. All day long its fire was directed against the redoubt on Horn's Hook, or Gracie's Point, now a part of the East River Park, but not much damage was effected. No enemy appearing to be contemplating a crossing of Hell Gate and a descent from the north, Howe resolved upon an attack on New York City. On Septem- ber 12 the Rose frigate passed through Buttermilk Channel, passed the ships lying in the Wallabout, and anchored off the opening into Bush- wick Creek. A battery located at Stuyvesant's Point, on Manhattan Island, opened fire on the frigate, and of the nineteen shots directed against her, eighteen struck her hull. Only the first missed the hull, but that struck and shattered her rail, killing a cow just brought aboard by Jacob Polhemus. On September 15 all the ships that had passed the lower batteries and had taken shelter in the creeks and bays of the Long Island shore, came forward, and, lying opposite the
381
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
entrance of Newtown Creek, swept the shores of Kip's Bay with their cannon. At the same time a long procession of boats passed out of the creek, the forces lying in Newtown having embarked within the shelter of this deep inland channel. The rest of the story of the taking of New York we have already told. General Robertson, in concert with the movement on New York, left his position at Hell Gate, and marched to Whitestone to hold in check any possible diversions in that quarter. His headquarters were then occupied by General Heis- ter, whose Hessian brigades held the post at Astoria until Oc- tober 12, when the troops were called away from Hell Gate to join in Howe's march into Westchester County, which was checked by the drawn battle fought at White Plains on October 28, 1776.
And now for Long Island and all of the Greater New York territory began the British occupation of seven years. The wanton devastation of war made the necessaries of subsist- ence scarce and the prices high. Wheat was 8 shillings per bushel; rye, 5 shillings; a load of straw cost 10 shillings; elover and timothy hay was £6 ($15) per ton; Indian corn and onions cost 5 shillings per bushel, and potatoes 4 shillings. As everywhere else, dissenting churches fared hard in Newtown. A number of young Tories vented their spite against the Presbyterian Church, because most of its members were patriots, by saw- ing off the steeple. The interior was turned into a guardhouse and prison. Benwill Not satisfied with such desecrations. the authorities allowed it to be demol- MACOMB HOUSE, BROADWAY. ished bit by bit, and the woodwork of walls and pews to be converted into huts for the soldiers. So many of the Dutch families being loyalist, that church was spared. One of the collegiate pastors, however, Domine Froeligh, who resided at Jamaica but also ministered here, was a Whig. Ile had prayed the Almighty to sink the fleets of the invaders. and thus keep their feet from pollut- ing our shores; and it was noted as a striking coincidence at least, a case of post hoc if not of propter hoc, that a fleet of forty-three vessels, when five days out from Cork for Boston, with twenty-five hundred troops on board, had encountered a tremendous storm, scattering the ships and seriously delaying the expedition, resulting in the evacua- tion of Boston in March, 1776. Mr. Froeligh was, therefore, a marked man, and while his colleague, Rubel, might stay and preach, he had to go. He escaped from Jamaica into Newtown and found a hiding-place
382
HISTORY OF THE GREATER NEW YORK.
for one night at the house of one of the Rapelyes at Hell Gate, who conveyed him across the river the next morning. The enemy made good use of the loyalists for militia duty. They were organized into two companies to do patrol duty and prevent incursions, one of which had in charge the northern portion of the township, or the " north beat," and the other the " south beat." A body of light horse was also raised to scour the shores and head off whaleboat parties. The list of officers of both these arms of service presents a curious monotony of names. The " north beat " company had for its Captain George Rapelye; its Lieutenant, Daniel Rapelye (son of Abraham); its ensign, Jeromus Rapelye (son of Jeromus). The Captain of the light horse was Cornelius Rapelye (son of Daniel); the Lieutenant, Daniel Rapelye (son of John); the Quartermaster, Cornelius Rapelve (son of Jeromus). Thus this family in its representatives north of Newtown Creek differed considerably in political sympathies from those south of that stream. Only John Rapalye, of Brooklyn Ferry, stands con- spicuous for loyalty in Kings County; while the Rapaljes of New Lots, with Major Daniel Rapalje at their head, were true to their country's liberties.
The famous 42d Highland regiment was quartered during one win- ter in Newtown, and in the spring the obsequious loyalists presented an address to Col. Thomas Sterling, thanking them for " their very equitable, polite, and friendly conduct," saying that they parted from them " with regret, and wishing them glory and success." As they were then (1779) on their way to the campaign in the South, this wish expressed no great desire for the liberation of their own country. Pos- sibly the 42d deserved the encomiums heaped upon it, although in that case it must have differed radically in its conduct from the other troops of the enemy. But yet it seems incredible that nearly a hun- dred men could have been found in the township to give expression to sentiments like these.
In 1780 an event of an exciting nature for that day, and for many a day and year thereafter, occurred in Hell Gate, and thus entered into Newtown's own peculiar Revolutionary history. For some days an English frigate lay anchored in Hallett's Cove. It was the Huzza. which it was said was ordered to proceed through Hell Gate to New England, with pay for the detachments of British troops posted here and there along the Sound. She was destined not to accomplish her mission. Proceeding to thread the dangerous and intricate channel. the frigate struck with the full momentum of a swift tide upon Pot Rock. A hole was stove into her hull below the water line, but ere she filled enough to sink she floated as far as Riker's Island. In its vicinity she sank in deep water, so that not a vestige of her appeared above the surface. But the spot was noted, and her errand being remembered, diligent attempts were made for years afterward to secure the treasure supposed to have been aboard. As late as the
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.