USA > New York > Nassau County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 10
USA > New York > Suffolk County > Long Island; a history of two great counties, Nassau and Suffolk, Volume I > Part 10
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The Zee-hond, bearing Governor Colve's emissaries, weighed anchor at New Orange, May 31, "about noon, with a southerly wind, and were thrown ashore near Corlears hook-but throwing out the anchor we warped afloat, and sailed to the farthest point of Hellgate where we met the flood, so that we were compelled to return and anchor near Barentz Island."
The following day "the wind blew very hard from the east, so that we were compelled to remain at anchor." Through still another day they encountered "the wind as before, with rain and violent gusts. Broke our rope and exerted all our endeavors to recover our anchor, but could not find it."
On November 3, being the fourth day of this remarkable voyage, the frigate "again weighed anchor, and sailed against the tide through the Hellgate; towards noon the wind veered again to the east, and as the tide was against us we could not proceed further than the White Stone, where we cast anchor."
Not until the morning of November 6, seven days after sailing, did the Zee-hond reach "Pluymgat" off Orient Point, the easterly extremity of Long Island's north fork, from whence it crossed an arm of Peconic Bay to Shelter Island, only to find that representa-
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tives of the commonwealth of Connecticut had already arrived to oppose their mission.
Being informed by Commissioners Winthrop and Samuel Willis of Connecticut that the three easternmost towns had voluntarily returned into that commonwealth, the Dutch delegation nevertheless demanded that a meeting be called in order that the inhabitants might express their sentiment.
The meeting was held at Southold, at the home of Thomas Moore who had already been named a constable under the Dutch order. The opposing delegations were rowed from Shelter Island to Southold in separate boats, Winthrop and Willis flying the English flag as their boat led the way, while from the rowboat containing Councillor Steen- wyck and his party floated the colors of the United Netherlands' Prince of Orange. That an especially low tide necessitated both boats being pushed by waders as they approached the Southold shore did not add to the dignity of the procession.
Once ashore, as reported in the Zee-hond's journal, the delega- tions were met not only by a good part of the civilian population of Southold and some from other towns, but by a display of local militia, augmented by troops sent over from Connecticut, which must have added moral suasion to the Connecticut cause, as indeed it was meant to do. Furthermore, the Connecticut delegates were given horses on which to ride to the meeting place while the Dutch delegation was forced to trudge in the rear.
At Thomas Moore's house, when told of his appointment as con- stable, Moore declined to serve. One Isaak Aernouts, Dutchman though he was and who had already been sworn in as sheriff, now tendered his resignation. When finally Councillor Steenwyck began to read Governor Colve's proclamation, he was peremptorily told that these people, being subjects of the King of England, were in no way interested and would not listen.
The Zee-hond's journal goes into much detail in describing this meeting. As Councillor Steenwyck's party "resolved to depart out of the village," they were warned by one John Cooper of Southamp- ton to "take care that you come not with that flag within range of shot of our village," an admonition which was evidently not wasted, as, returning to Shelter Island, the Dutch delegation boarded their vessel and sailed away en route to New Orange.
The part played by the towns of eastern Long Island in the series of events which immediately followed Holland's conquest of New York went much further than to preserve their own English sovereignty. Their attitude towards the Dutch, reasons Morton Pennypacker, was in a measure responsible for the "surrender of New Netherland and the return of New York to the English in 1674." It must not be overlooked, however, that Connecticut on November 26, 1673, actually declared war against New Netherland and began prep- arations for a campaign, to such good purpose that Governor Colve ordered evacuation of his fleet from local waters for fear that it might fall into the hands of the New Englanders. As Southold, Southamp- ton and East Hampton had meanwhile become part and parcel of
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Connecticut, here is an instance of the east end of Long Island being at war with the westerly end.
Before open hostilities occurred on this side of the Atlantic, peace was restored between England and the United Netherlands. By the terms of the treaty, New Netherland was returned to England and on June 29, 1674, King Charles II granted a new and much more authori- tative patent to the Duke of York. Four months later, on October 31, the Duke's agent, Major Edmund Andros, assumed the governorship, only to find that the towns of eastern Long Island were quite as averse to returning to the Duke's fold as they had been to submitting to the Dutch. When they persisted in their attitude, Andros declared them rebels and threatened severe punishment should they not forth- with renounce their allegiance to the colony across the sound.
There can be little doubt that Andros had law and precedent on his side, a fact eventually admitted by Connecticut and more grudg- ingly by the towns in question, for the Duke of York's new patent specifically included all of Long Island within its bounds. Never- theless, there was never a time during Andros' stormy administration that he was on friendly terms with his east end constituents or, for that matter, with the inhabitants of the province generally.
Andros is credited with having endeavored to encourage the further development of Long Island. In 1677 he issued a license to Richard Woodhull, Samuel Edsall and other residents of the town of Seatalcott (Brookhaven) to establish a fishing industry in waters adjacent to that town. During his administration he granted the Winthrop patent for the area on which were to be established the communities of Blue Point, Patchogue and East Patchogue but which for some years thereafter did not become a part of the town of Brookhaven.
A less constructive action of Andros was to institute court martial proceedings against Captain Manning for his capitulation to the Dutch. Manning was eventually convicted, quite unjustly it would seem, and permanently expelled from His Majesty's service.
Still another incident typical of Andros' tenure was the imprison- ment without formal charge or trial of Isaac and Epenetus Platt, Samuel Titus, Jonas Wood and Thomas Wicks, highly reputed citizens of Huntington, presumably for participating in an inter-town meeting called in opposition to certain of Andros' tyrannical acts. This and other meetings finally resulted in a Grand Jury recommendation that a popular assembly be created and on June 29, 1681, a special court of assize accordingly appointed Captain John Youngs of Southold to draft a petition to the Duke of York seeking this reform.
It may be assumed that by this time the Duke had come to realize the impotence of Andros' despotic policies for the task of erecting such an assembly was entrusted to one Thomas Dongan who undoubt- edly had by then been decided upon as successor to Andros. In May, 1682, the latter quit his post and the country, leaving the affairs of government in the hands of Anthony Brockholst, president of the council.
Dongan was commissioned governor of New York September 30, 1682. He did not, however, arrive in America until nearly a year
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later-August 25, 1683-evidently putting the intervening time to good purpose in preparation of the constructive program which he was to inaugurate. His administration marked a new era in the development of the colony for he was the first of its long line of gov- ernors, Dutch and English alike, to subscribe to the principle that the people should have an important part in directing their colony's local affairs.
It is noteworthy that Dongan's program was framed along lines suggested by William Penn who visited the province and, having made a first hand study of its form of government, submitted a compre- hensive report embodying certain specific recommendations. These the new governor lost no time in putting into execution.
Dongan, a devout Roman Catholic, called upon the towns to elect deputies to represent them at a general assembly which convened in New York from October 17 to November 3. This assembly, consisting of the governor and council together with seventeen duly elected representatives of the people, became New York's first colonial legis- lature which, as it then decided, should have authority second only to the Duke of York. Having elected as its speaker the same Matthias Nicoll who had served as colonial secretary under Governor Nicolls, the legislature established a charter of liberties and privileges com- parable to those of Virginia and Massachusetts.
At this first session the three ridings created under Nicolls were abolished and the province was divided into shires or counties, twelve in number as follows: covering Long Island, the counties of Kings, Queens and Suffolk; on Staten Island, Richmond County; on Man- hattan Island, the county of New York, and elsewhere in the province the counties of Ulster, Albany, Dutchess, Westchester, Orange, Duke's and Cornwall.
By repeal, amendment and enactment, the existing laws were shaped to more equitably meet the needs of the people and, aiming to perpetuate the legislative body, it was decided that it should meet at least triennially. Town courts were created, to convene monthly, and for each county a court of sessions was established to meet annually. Suffolk County, for the convenience of its widely scattered inhabitants, was granted two courts, one at Southold; the other at Southampton. In Queens County the court was located at Jamaica while in Kings the location was Gravesend. Also created were a court of oyer and terminer with general jurisdiction, and a supreme court for the province, composed of governor and council, from whose verdicts appeals might be carried to the throne.
It was under Governor Dongan that the cause of religious free- dom was furthered in the colony by the assembly's enactment "that no person or persons which profess faith in God by Jesus Christ, shall at any time be any wayes molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question for any difference of opinion, or matter of religious concern- ment who do not actually disturbe the civille peace of the province, but all and every such may at all times fully enjoy his or their judg- ments or consciences in matters of religion."
Dongan also confirmed the previously issued patents of the various towns on Long Island and elsewhere in the province, at the
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sanie time increasing their local powers. It was he who in 1684 issued to William Nicoll a patent for what was to become the nucleus of the town of Islip. This was a period of accelerated growth on the island. In Hempstead Town further settlements were made on the south shore and in 1686 the town board granted to John Pine a five-acre tract on Millburn creek for the establishment of a grist mill, which incident is considered the first step in the birth of what is now the progressive village of Baldwin.
The assembly of 1685 made further changes in the laws, trans- ferred the Kings County court of sessions from Gravesend to Flat- bush, elected one William Pinhorne as its speaker, passed several desirable acts and adjourned never again to meet. That Charles II had died in 1685, to be succeeded by his brother, the Duke of York, just prior to this final session of the assembly may account for its demise. Although the new King, now to be known as James II, renewed Governor Dongan's commission in 1686, it was with drastic curtailment of the people's rights, even to a ban on printing presses. "And," declared Thompson, "there was now here 4,000 foot, 300 horses, and a company of dragoons, to keep the people in the most servile subjection." Nor was this the ultimate measure of oppression meted out to the inhabitants of the colony, for on July 28, 1688, Gov- ernor Dongan received instructions from James II to relinquish the reins of office to New York's former Governor Andros, now Sir Edmund, who since 1686 had been governor of all New England and whose jurisdiction was thus extended to include New York and New Jersey. Andros proclaimed one Colonel Francis Nicholson, of similar ilk, lieutenant governor, to act for him in New York, while Thomas Dongan, the victim of royal strife on the other side of the Atlantic, retired to his estate on Long Island, eventually to return to his native Ireland.
These were troublesome times for the American colonies as they were for England. Shortly after James II abdicated, to be succeeded early in 1689 by his daughter Mary and her husband, William, Prince of Orange, a Boston mob overthrew Governor Andros and thrust him into prison. In New York, Andros' lieutenant, Francis Nicholson, learning of his superior's fate, quickly boarded a ship bound for England, whereupon one Captain Jacob Leisler, supported by the militia, took over the fort and assumed control of the province.
Leisler, a successful merchant of some means, untrained and otherwise unsuited for a place of such authority but evidently urged to action by his son-in-law Milbourne, called a meeting to which the counties were asked to send delegates to participate in the formation of a committee of safety. Most of the counties, including Kings and Queens, complied but Suffolk, deciding to send no delegate, took this opportunity to again attempt a union with Connecticut.
Leisler, meanwhile, empowered by the committee of safety, con- tinued in control of the province and finally appropriated the post of lieutenant governor, vacated by Nicholson. With the implied author- ity which this office gave him, he formed a provisional government, perpetuated the committee of safety as an advisory body, named a council and other essential officers, and finally convened a general
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assembly for April 24, 1690. This supposedly legislative session accomplished little beyond naming as its speaker John Spratt from whom little more was ever again heard. During all these develop- ments, Suffolk County remained uncooperative. Unsuccessful in its attempt to unite with the colony beyond the sound, neither confirming nor denying the authority of Leisler's provisional government, it reverted for a brief spell to the self-governing status which had marked the beginnings of its earliest towns.
As Leisler's grasp tightened on the position which he had usurped, more and more despotic became his rule. Having reported his actions to England's new monarchs and received no reprimand nor, for that matter, any response, he may well have interpreted their silence as official endorsement. In any case, he at once assumed tlie role of dictator, summoning those who crossed his will to appear before the council, in one instance ordering the confinement of former Governor Dongan in his own home of retirement; in another, remov- ing Andrew Gibb as county clerk of Queens to make way for his own appointee, Daniel Denton.
For declining to acknowledge the new authority, Colonel Thomas Willet, Captain Thomas Hicks, Daniel Whitehead and Edward Antell, prominent residents of Queens County, were taken into custody by the sheriff, under Leisler's orders, and brought before him. When finally this self-appointed official suspended the court of oyer and terminer "until Long Island should be reduced to obedience," and directed his son-in-law, now Major Milbourne, to suppress what he termed a rebellion, the people of Hempstead, Jamaica and Flushing met and prepared a remonstrance which was forwarded to the King.
Less than three months later, Captain Richard Ingolsby brought a force of British troops to New York with orders to take over the fort, but Leisler refused to relinquish his control thereof. Only with the arrival on March 19, 1691, of Henry Slaughter as duly commis- sioned governor did Leisler surrender his civil authority while still for a brief spell retaining mastery of the fort. He and his son-in-law were promptly found guilty of high treason and as promptly executed, although some three years later, after reviewing the case, parliament restored their estates and, on royal recommendation, the colonial assembly voted one thousand pounds for the relief of Leisler's widow and children, to be provided by a tax upon the very freeholders whom the usurper had so harshly misgoverned.
Governor Slaughter's commission gave him full executive author- ity while sharing legislative powers with a council of seven, later twelve, members appointed by the King, and a popular assembly com- posed of deputies elected from each county subject to His Majesty's approval. This was a long step forward in representative govern- ment from the policies of Andros and Leisler, although not yet match- ing in liberality those of Thomas Dongan.
Under Slaughter, the assembly, which was now made a permanent body, enacted a measure "for settling, Quieting and Confirming unto the Cities, Towns, Manors and Freeholders within this Province, their several Grants, Patents and Rights respectively." The administration also took cognizance of the unlawfulness and public disorders which
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had reached a serious stage throughout the province especially on Long Island where smuggling and other forms of illicit trade, includ- ing barter with pirate ships, were of common occurrence.
Before the new governor could do more than denounce these unsavory conditions, however, his tenure was suddenly and unexpect- edly terminated. He died four months after taking office, to be suc- ceeded by Richard Ingolsby, whom the council appointed temporarily pending the arrival of Col. Benjamin Fletcher on August 30, 1692.
The term of Governor Fletcher marked the introduction of print- ing in the colony in April, 1693, by William Bradford, a political refugee from Pennsylvania whom Fletcher induced to come to New York by making him public printer. Bradford's first official assign- ment was to print the laws enacted by the Assembly from its incep- tion in 1691. Except for a few months, he held the office of public printer continuously from 1693 to 1752. On October 16, 1725, he established The New York Gazette, the city's first newspaper. In 1700 Bradford was dismissed from office by the then governor, Lord Bellomont, for vacationing on Long Island at a time when his services were needed for certain official printing. Reinstated shortly there- after by Bellomont's successor, Lord Cornbury, Bradford subse- quently cited his dismissal in support of his claim that he had been Long Island's first summer vacationist.
It was during Benjamin Fletcher's term, on March 22, 1692, that Long Island was officially renamed by act of the Assembly the Island of Nassau, an alteration, according to Thompson's history (1839) "which arose from political vanity, and was neither popular, nor generally adopted." The act, though never repealed, "was suffered to become obsolete by disuse". Another measure enacted during this administration was one providing for annual fairs in Kings, Queens and Suffolk Counties, and a public market to be operated every Thursday at Jamaica where livestock, farm products and other articles might be sold and exchanged. At this time Suffolk County had a population of about 8,000 which was approximately twice that of New York City.
In spite of his efforts to expand the business interests of the province, Fletcher was popular with neither his official associates nor the people generally, espousing as he did the cause of the wealthy landowners to the detriment of the rank and file. Never overlooking an opportunity to feather his own nest, he was, according to Thomp- son, "passionate, avaricious, and arbitrary, and a bigot to his own mode of faith (that of the Established Church of England)."
Fletcher's bigotry was especially manifested in an act passed at his insistence in 1693 for the public maintenance of the clergy. Apply- ing only to New York City and the counties of Westchester, Richmond and Queens (not Kings nor Suffolk), this measure, without allusion to any sect or denomination, nevertheless was framed in the exclusive interest of the Episcopal Church. It was a step in the program con- summated in 1695 to make the Church of England likewise the church of England's colonies in America. This plan was furthered by impos- ing a general tax on all freeholders, irrespective of their religious
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affiliations, for the public support of the Episcopal Church only, thus leaving other churches to be maintained, if at all, at the expense of their own members.
By the provisions of this legislation the Presbyterians of Hemp- stead in Queens County were forced to relinquish the town-owned building in which they had held their services from the very founding of the town, and meet thenceforth in the homes of members. At the same time they were obliged to dispense with a minister whose salary, until then paid by town tax, they were unable to raise among them- selves. Similar conditions prevailed at Jamaica and elsewhere in the colony and great bitterness was engendered between Presbyterians and Episcopalians here on Long Island.
It was Fletcher who issued patents to Colonel William (Tangier) Smith for a vast territory in Brookhaven Town, to be known as the Manor at St. George. As the town itself held patents for some of this territory, those issued by Fletcher became in time the cause of considerable litigation.
Benjamin Fletcher, who came to office when piracy was at its height, was not himself above profiting from its channels of illicit trade. From the earliest days of Dutch colonization piracy had steadily increased not alone in America but throughout the world. But on this side of the Atlantic, where European nations were con- stantly striving to outstrip one another in colonial trade with their inother countries, conditions were especially favorable to the growth of freebooting as a profitable expedient that often assumed the guise of patriotism and service to one's flag.
"For the first quarter century New Englanders deplored the high duties charged at New Amsterdam," declares Dixon Ryan Fox in Yankees and Yorkers, "but, of course, could find no basis for a legal complaint as to how the Dutch West India Company preferred to conduct its own business. The increment of cost on importations was charged to the New Netherland customers themselves. Both the Company and the Dutch population suffered by the proximity of New England and the circumstance that there were no customs duties there." Declared a Dutch petition to the States-General praying for free trade, "a great deal of fraud is committed in this way, because several ships go first to New England, and then skulk under our neighbors wings." Large quantities of goods were thus smuggled into New Netherlands.
The piracy of Fletcher's day was the natural outgrowth of privateering, a legitimate means of naval warfare employed by mari- time nations generally. Privateering offered the double opportunity of serving quite honorably in time of war one's country and one's self, the latter in bountiful spoils. But when war's end terminated privateering, many a ship owner with a well-organized crew of fighting men, finding no solace in the declaration of peace, turned to piracy as a suitable stop-gap between wars. Nor was any maritime nation, in that period of intermittent conflicts, blind to the advantage of thus having its privately owned and maintained naval auxiliary kept more or less intact and ready for future hostilities.
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By the same token a certain respectability was reflected upon piracy as a whole. Today's freebooter might very well be yesterday's and tomorrow's naval hero and national idol. There were, too, vary- ing degrees of piracy, ranging down the social scale from the reputable merchant who financed a voyage to produce merchandise for his clients, to the bloodthirsty adventurer who recognized no law nor honored any flag in his peacetime quest for plunder. There were those who left the lanes of legitimate commerce only occasionally, when an especially attractive or convenient opportunity chanced their way, and others who, having sailed with avarice aforethought, returned months later laden with loot, to enter New York harbor and, as any honest trader might, sell their wares to storekeepers who had eagerly awaited some such bonanza.
Long Island had a considerable number of businessmen who seldom spurned the opportunity to purchase shares in a piratical voy- age just as they had in time of war served England by purchasing shares in a private ship duly licensed to proceed against enemy com- merce. And piracy, with no official division to make nor any license fee to pay and with no international restrictions to observe, was usually more productive of dividends than privateering.
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