USA > New York > New York City > Old New York : a journal relating to the history and antiquities of New York City, Vol. I > Part 12
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General Matthew
20 John Forsyth.
Musqneto 17
Graham Barnes.
Eagle 20 Win. Raddon.
Surprise 20
John Watson.
King George
14
Stanton Hazard.
Sr. Win. Erskine 22
John McAlester.
Jason 20
Alexr. Porterfield.
Wake 18
Samnel Farlem.
Loyal Subject 24
Wm. Carmichael.
Mars
18
Robt. Cunningham.
Active
16
Laughlin MeGaun.
Harlequin
16
John Stout.
Porcupine
16
Henry Rogers.
Dunmore
14
Win. Goodrich.
Westmoreland
24
John Hylton.
Granby
16
John Henderson.
St. Patrick
S
Wm. Gibb.
Swift
10
James Hayt, Junr.
Friends 10
James Conn.
Liberty 26
Win. Lewis.
Genl. Howe 18
John Ceary.
Hammond 16
Briger Goodrich.
Bellona 20
John Buchanan.
Geo. & Eliz 18
Win. Van Assendelft.
Enterprise 30
Thoms. Jolly.
Tartar 36
Danl. Squier.
Adl. Gambier 12
Win. Pinkerton.
Columba 10
Richd. Brady.
Black Prince 10
Steph. Williams.
Friendship
Wm. Johnson.
Clinton
12
John Goodrich.
Gambier 14
James Carew.
Brittania 16
Alexr. Campbell.
Spitfire 20
Jolm Brown.
Prince of Hesse 14
Jolm Strictland.
Granby 10
Andrew Law.
Tryon 22
George Sibbles.
140
The Claims of Nicholas Jones.
Prince of Wales 12
Fitch Rogers.
Rover
10
Thoms. Muir.
Hawk
16
Thoms. Slater.
. Swift 18 Andrew Skeer.
Empress of Russia 36
John Kidd.
Rosshampton 26
Robt. Hunter.
George & Jno
22
Wm. Curling.
Genl. Leslie
14
Thoms. Dowe.
Vengeance 20
George Dean.
Thistle
10
Thoms. Pym Williams.
Chance
18
Thoms. Quill.
Speedwell
14
Robt. Casson.
Mars 16
Samuel Rogers.
Thomas
14
James Ramsay.
Molly.
1-1
John Lusk.
Queen Charlotte
14
Jolm Hall.
Union 26
Jolm Sibrell.
Experiment 10
Alexr. Mc Pherson.
Glanenr
18
Hamilton Foster.
Rose
20
Win. Lewis.
Nonsuch
20
Robt. Bland.
Lord North
14
Chas. McDonald.
Tryon
10
Fanci- Janaes.
Thames Ditton
14
George Smith.
Mulberry
S
Anthy. Langsfield.
Revenge
10
Anthy. Stewart.
Golden Pippin 10
Philip Ford.
Revenge 10
Thomas Millroy.
Genl. Campbell 18
John Martin.
Thomas Webster.
Neptune 14
James Neil.
British Tar 12
Thomas Wyer.
Sheelah 12
Henry Mckibben.
Minerva 24
John Sampson.
Castor 26
Danl. Brocklebank.
St. Andrew
Simon Donall.
Henry
14
Win. Me Eleloc.
Witch
10
Danl. Williams.
Castor 14
141
The Claims of Nicholus Jones.
Galatea 12
Stephen Hunt.
Norfolk Revenge
12
George Maise.
Germain
14
Robt. Campbell.
St. George
18
Jas. Carew.
Ariel 12
Saml. Duffey.
Rambler
16
Nathan Atkins.
Weazel
14
John Myer.
Bishop
12
Misper Lee.
Lively
14
Jacob Stout.
King George 20
David Fenton.
Hornet
6
George Douglas.
Light Bob
10
Ananias MeDougall.
Rose Bud
16
James Duncan.
Roval Charlotte
18
John McLean.
Mohawk
12
Joli Freeman.
Sally
10
Jolin Spelling.
Blakeney 20
John Pinder.
Auctioneer 16
Joseph Nash.
Refugee Revenge 18
John Cochran.
Maid of Honor
16 Richd. Blake.
Irish Hero
14
Michael Neil.
Roebuck 20
James Ross.
Pomona
20
Win. Nellson.
Game Cock
12
Chas. La Tellier.
Genl. Tryon
2S
Thoms. Harriott.
Pollux 18
Stewart Ross.
Vixen
8
Chas. Barnet Goff.
Jenny
20
Noble Caldwell.
Hibernia 16 Jolin Dempsey.
Jackall
14 Danl. Dorragh.
Trval
16
Robt. Wirling.
MINOR PARAGRAPHIS.
CALLIOPEAN SOCIETY .- The Calliopean Society, which Dr. Anderson says in his interesting Diary he was asked to join, was instituted, as I learn, on the 20th of November, 1:88. Its sole objects were the cultivation of friendship and improvement in literature. They met every Tuesday evening and elected quarterly. THERON.
CHAIR (Aug. 1889, p. 50) .- The word chair here is exactly synonymous with chaise, a carriage, and this is undoubtedly what is meant. This use of the word is so uncommon that I do not remember to have met with it before. On refer- ence, however, to Worcester I find the following extract from Warton :
E'en kings might quit their state to share Contentment and a one-horse chair. Q. A.
BELVEDERE .- This was on the cast side of the town somewhere this side of Grand street. It must have been on high ground, for there was a fine view from it. The following is a description, taken from Valentine's Manual for 1864, p. 747. Where that account was copied from does not appear :
Belvedere House is situated on the banks of the East River, about a quarter of a mile beyond the pavement of the eastern extremity of the city of New York. It was built in the year 1792, by thirty-three gentlemen, of whom the Belvedere Club i- composed. The beauty of the situation induced them to ex- tend their plan beyond their first intentions, which were merely a couple of rooms for the use of their Club ; and they erected the present building. as well to answer the purpose of a public hotel and tavern, as for their own ac- commodation.
The ball-room, which includes the whole of the second story of the east front, is an oblong octagon of forty-five feet in length, twenty-four wide, and seventeen high, with a music gallery. This room is occupied by the Club on their Saturday night meetings, during the Summer season ; the right to which on that day is the only exclusive privileges which the proprietors retain. The windows of this room open to the floor, and communicate with a balcony twelve feet wide, which surrounds the eastern division of the house, and affords a most delightful promenade. The style in which this room is finished and decorated has been very generally admired.
The room on the ground floor is of the same shape and dimensions of the ball-room, and is generally used as a dinner and supper.room for large com- panies and public entertainments.
The west division of the house is composed of two dining parlors, a bar room, two card rooms, and a number of bed-chambers. The west front opens into a small court-yard, flanked on each side with stables, a coach office and other offices.
The little grounds into which the east front opens are formed into a bowling- green, gravel walk-, and some shrubbery, in as handsome a manner as the very limited space would admit of.
143
Minor Paragraphs.
The want of extensive grounds is, however, much compensated for by the com- manding view which the situation gives of the city and adjacent country. The prospect is very varied and extensive ; a great part of the city, the Bay of New York, Long Island, the East River as far as Hell Gate, the Island of New York to the northward of the city, and a little of the North River, with its bold and magnitieent bank on the Jersey side, altogether eompose a scenery which the vieinity of few great cities affords.
On the demise of a proprietor, the vacant interest in the estate can only be purchased by a person eligible by a majority of votes as a member of the Club.
The present proprietors and members of the Club are
Mr. John Atkinson,
Mr. Joseph Searight.
Mr. Badcock,
Mr. Waldo,
Mr. Barrteto.
Mr. Reedy,
Mr. William Bell,
Mr. William Rogers,
Mr. James Constable,
Mr. Carlile Pollock,
Mr. Durie.
Mr. J. O. Hoffman,
Mr. Evers,
Mr. Augustus Van Horne.
General Fish,
Mr. Lawrence Yates,
Mr. Joseph Gouverneur.
Colonel Walker,
Mr. Henderson,
Mr. Corp,
Mr. Robert Kemble,
Mr. Boyle,
Mr. Gulian Ludlow.
Mr. Thomas White,
Mr. Mc Vickar.
Mr. James Me Evers,
Mr. Thomas Marston.
Mr. Pitcairn,
Mr. John Shaw, Mr. James Seton.
Mr. Henry Sadler.
Social clubs, on Saturdays, during the Summer months, are, with the citizens of New York. of ancient date. There is perhaps no great eity where invidion- distinctions are less thought of. However their interests may clash in com- mercial or speculative pursuits, they meet cordially on 'Change ; a good will to each other, and a continual interchange of domestie hospitality, no event ha- ever interrupted. In addition to the hospitable attentions which every stranger of character receives, these clubs, to which strangers are generally invited, are peculiarly calculated to give them a more general acquaintance than could be expected to result from private introduction. . SENEX.
BELVEDERE HOUSE .-- This house, famous in the closing years of the last een- tury and during many years in the present one, with the grounds on which it was erected and surrounding it, was the property of the Belvedere Club. This property was purchased and the house erected in 1792, by the club, consisting of thirty three gentlemen of the city. Two of these soon withdrew, or fell by the wayside, inasmuch as the number of proprietors had fallen to thirty-one in 1794. The house was erected on a high hill that sloped to the East River. only a short distance away; there was neither Water street nor South street in those days; and inland towards Grand street, and across the sites of the present Henry and Madison streets and East Broadway. It was east of the celebrated
144
Minor Paragraphs.
Rutgers mansion, and the cottage of Marinus Willett sometimes made available as a hotel, and farther away from "the pavement of the eastern extremity of the City of New York " than either of them.
The precise location of the Belvedere was on what is now the block bounded by Montgomery, Clinton, Cherry and Monroe streets. With the cutting away of the hill by driving streets through it, East Broadway and others, and the erection of numerous dwellings in its vicinity, the Belvedere ceased to be de- sirable as a pleasure resort; in fact, it had long before ceased to be the fashion. A walk to the Belvedere from the city had come to be only as a memory. The house was removed late in the twenties.
A story obtained eurrency during the last years of its existenee, and has come down to this time as a legend, that it had for a long time been the rendezvous of pirates and smugglers, in the cellars and imaginary caverns of which they had stored the spoils and booty of their voyages ; that murders and other atro- cious crimes had been committed there, and that the place was haunted. Therefore it came that it was avoided by the ignorant and superstitious and by timid folk. The story had no more solid basis than fabrication and the fact of non-use and natural decay of the main and outlying buildings. The careful provision made in 1792 by the club for the course of descent of the property to surviving proprietors was an effectual barrier to its being diverted to criminal uses. The names of the original proprietors of 1792-94, transmitted to us as they have been through almost a century of time, and now well borne by men honorably prominent in the citizenhood of this day, afford additional guarantees that the idle tales touching the later years of the existence of the Belvedere were but "vagrom fancyes." J. M. F.
THE STOCK EXCHANGE. - The first mention of the Stock Exchange in any contemporary documents that I have been able to find is the following notice, from Longworth's New York Directory for 1817:
The brokers of the New York Exchange Board meet every day at 12 o'clock for the transaction of business. The following is a list of members, viz. :
Leonard Bleecker,
Benjamin Butler,
Leonard A. Bleecker, William G. Bueknor, James & John Bleecker, Benjamin Huntingdon, Israel Foote, Ph. Kearny,
A. H. Lawrence & Co., Gordon S. Mumford,
R. II. Nevins, Seixas Nathan, Isaac G. Ogden & Co., Prime, Ward & Sands,
Bleecker & Lefferts,
Samuel I. Beebce,
Davenport & Tracy,
A. N. Gifford & Co ..
Bernard Hart,
Andrew Stockholm,
John Roe,
. F. A. Tracy, J. G. Warren,
W. H. Robinson,
W. I. Robinson,
Smith & Lawton,
HI. Post. Jr., Henry Ward.
T. R. A.
OLD NEW YORK.
OCTOBER, 1889.
NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF PRINTING IN NEW YORK.
III.
It is not to be supposed that Bradford received these strokes of adverse fortune with complacency. Keith, his fellow sufferer, who had stirred up this commotion, became involved in angry controversy with his late fellow sectaries, and finally gave them up altogether, becoming an Episcopalian. But Bradford was a young man with wife and children, and desired nothing more than quiet. Free management was essential to his livelihood. It was for these reasons he turned his eyes to New York. That town had been settled by the Dutch, who were of the Reformed Church; there were some Church of England people there, but they were very much in the minority, and there were many French Protestants, being those who had fled from France on the revocation of the Ediet of Nantes, a few years before. Besides, there were in the place New Englanders who had left a country of intolerance to find a better home elsewhere. No one sect contained all the forces of the community. and the popula- tion was composed of Dutch. English, French, New Englanders, Scotch, Irish. and Jews. the first making the largest fraction. The town was small. An enumeration made by the pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church. the only one then existing. seven years before, showed it had five hundred and sixty members, and a census of the whole town would, in 1693, have revealed only
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NEW YORK IN 1695.
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147
Notes on Printing in New York.
about four thousand persons, mainly gathered elose to the fort, where the steamship offices now front on Bowling Green. The list made by Domine Selyns shows that of his church only seventy-six communicants were beyond Wall street, and it is cer- tain some of these were farmers. Beyond Broadway on the west the city did not exist. The land there was either waste or under cultivation in fields. The houses were all on Broadway or east of it. The city formed a right angled triangle, the base being on Wall street, the perpendicular on Broadway, and the hypothenuse running from Pearl street and State street along the water side northeast up to a junetion with Wall. There was but one church, the one within the fort, near the residence of the Governor. The year that Bradford came here, the Garden Street Church was erected, and four years after this the first rector of Trinity was inducted into office .*
This American town was a veritable happy land to those who came here to avoid oppression, to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscienees, or to gain a livelihood for them- selves and families in peace. Denton declared of it in his descrip- tion, the first of printed books about New York:
"I must needs say that if there be a terrestrial Canaan 'tis surely here. The inhabitants are blessed with peace and plenty : blessed in their country. blessed in the fruit of their bodies, and the fruit of their grounds : blessed in their basket and their store :
" The following are the places marked upon the map on the opposite page :
1 The Chapel in the Fort of New York ; 2 Leyster's half moon ; 3 White- hall battery of 15 guns ; 4 The Old Dock ; 5 The Cage and Stocks ; 6 Stadt- house battery of 5 guns ; ? The Stadt (or State) house ; 8 The Custom house ; 8, 8 The Bridge : 9 Burghers, or the slip Battery of 10 guns; 10 The fly block house and half moon ; 11 The slaughter houses ; 12 The new Docks ; 13 The French Church ; 14 The Jews' Synagogue ; 15 The Fort, Well and Pump ; 16 Ellet's Alley ; 17 The works on the west side of the city ; 18 The northwest blockhouse ; 19, 19 The Lutheran Church and Minister's house ; 20, 20 The stone points on the W. side of the city ; 21 The Dutch Calvinist Church built 1692 ; 22 The Dutch Calvinist Minister's house ; 23 The burying ground ; 24 A Windmill ; 25 The King's Farm ; 26 Col. Dongan's garden ; 27, 27 Wells; 28 The plat of ground for the E Minister's house ; 29, 29 The stockade with a bank of earth on the inside ; 30 The ground proper for the building of an E Church ; 31, 31 Showing the sea flowing about N. York ; 32, 32 The City gates ; 33 A postern gate.
148
Notes on Printing in New York.
in a word, blessed in whatsoever they take in hand, or go about ; the earth yielding plentiful inercase to all their painful labor.
" Were it not to avoid prolixity I could say a great deal more, and yet say too little, to show how free are all these parts of the world from that pride and oppression, with their miserable effects, which many, nay almost all, parts of the world are troubled with. There a wagon or cart gives as good content as a coach, and a piece of their home-made cloth better than the finest lawns or richest silks ; and though their low roofed houses may seem to shut their doors against pride and luxury, yet how do they stand wide open to let charity in and ont, either to assist each other or to relieve a stranger! and the distance of place from other nations doth secure them from the envious frowns of ill affected neigh- bors, and the troubles which usually arise thence."
There cannot be much doubt that Bradford had looked at this eity with longing eyes for some time. As we know now, Denton's description was far beyond the truth, yet peace and security were as easily to be found here as in any place in the world. Although the city was not so large as Philadelphia, its prospects were bright. and whoever eame here, if he acted with discretion. could rely upon receiving a just and liberal recompense for his labor. Bradford undoubtedly had been here a number of times before the arrival of Fletelier, and during the part of the year which elapsed between his arrest and the restoration of his material he had repeated these journeys. The distance, even by the longest roads, is less than one hundred miles. He had probably met the Governor and agreed with him for his removal hither, before that official had even set ont for Pennsylvania.
The Society of Friends held a meeting and consented that he should depart. Their minutes say :
Monthly Meeting. 2 month, 29. 1692.
William Bradford proposing to this Meeting that if Friends saw it fitting he desired to be discharged from the engagement between Friends and him concerning the Press, Friends having considered the matter are very willing the said Bradford should be free so far as regards this Meeting. And the Meeting appoints Samuel Carpenter. John De La Vale, Robert Ewer and Alexander Beardsley to collect what is subscribed and due for the time past
149
Notes on Printing in New York.
within the limits of this Meeting, and pay the same to William Bradford and bring an account hereof to the next Monthly Meeting.
One of the English Governors before Fletcher had desired a printer, but could obtain none. It was in 1668, four years after the capitulation, that Sir Francis Lovelace sent to Boston for that purpose. In a letter written by him then he said :
"I am not out of hopes, ere long, to have a printer here of my own, having already sent to Boston for one; but whether I shall speed or no is uneertain."
At that time there was no printing press on this side of the water exeept in Cambridge. Boston had not yet attained to the dignity of one, and Philadelphia was a wilderness. When James the Second became king, the half liberal policy he had observed while Duke of York was changed, and he forbade the introduction of printing into his eolonies. His instructions the next year to Governor Dongan were very strict. He said :
" Forasmuch as great inconvenience may arise by the liberty of printing within our Province of New York, you are to provide, by all necessary orders, that no person keep any press for print- ing : nor that any book, pamphlet, or other matters whatsoever be printed-without your especial leave and license first obtained."
From this rule there had been no deviation. There were but few printers in England, and a long apprenticeship must be passed before journeyman's wages could be earned. There their wages were high, in comparison with those that the plonghman, the hod carrier, the shoemaker received. and the workmen could live in comparative luxury. Why should they move? Coming to America toil must be encountered without proper tools to work with, for each master was but little richer than his man. The emigrant in eoming here eut himself off from his relatives and his friends. and he believed also, unless extraordinarily well informed. that he would be murdered by Indians, who prowled through every set- tlement and village. Such were the stories eurrent in England.
Col. Fletcher landed in New York on the 30th of Angust, 1692. During the Winter his affairs in this colony kept him busy, as he was obliged to go to Albany to repel the attacks of the Indians, and as there was much other business to attend to.
150
Notes on Printing in New York.
Leisler's insurrection and his execution had embittered his ad- herents, and the party he belonged to and the anti-Leislerians were almost in a state of war. Fletcher therefore found no time to go to Pennsylvania, where he was also Governor, William Penn having been arbitrarily deprived of his authority there, until the Spring. His arrival on the Delaware was on the 26th of April, 1693, the Council being immediately called together. Among the matters discussed the next day was the seizure of Bradford's nten- sils. Fletcher took the printer's side, and it was ordered, on his suggestion, that liis tools should be given him at once, which was accordingly done.
It is probable that Bradford had already set his press in motion in this eity, not waiting for the decision of the Philadelphians. On the 23d of March, 1693, it was resolved in the Council that "if a Printer will come and settle in the City of New York for the printing of our Acts of Assembly and Publick Papers he shall be allowed the sum of $40 current money of New-York per an- num for his salary, and have the benefit of his printing, besides what serves the publick." The offer was accepted by Bradford. the researches of George II. Moore showing that his salary began, probably conenrrently with his labor, on the 10th of April, as a warrant was drawn on the 12th of October for six months. " due on the 10th preceding."
The tenth of April. 1693, may, therefore, be assumed as the date of the beginning of printing in New York. By Bradford's action Philadelphia was deprived of a press, none being again set up there for several years. Cambridge had been provided with one since 1639, and Boston since 1675. Connectient did not rise to this dignity till 1709. nor Maryland till 1726. Virginia had a printer as early as 1682, but what his name was is not known. He was soon stopped, and in 1683 Lord Effingham, in his instructions, was ordered " to allow no person to use a printing press on any occasion whatever." No other printer appeared in that province until 1729, when William Parks began his labors in Williams- burg.
Bradford could not have foreseen, nor could any one of that time, the prodigious extension of the art he followed that would take place in the two centuries which should next elapse, of which
151
Notes on Printing in New York.
we are at the limit, and we perhaps are just as unable to see the progress that will be made in the next century. The amount of work that could then be done in New York was very small. It was limited by the difficulty of getting printers' supplies, by the impossibility of circulation of printed matter at any great dis- tance from the place of publication, by its comparative costli- ness, and by having no custom of using this way of publicity. There were no roads ; pamphlets and newspapers could be sent easily only by water. Even in this century a sloop was sometimes eight days in going from New York to Albany. There were no practiced writers, nor had the public become accustomed to reading what one might say. There was no little jobwork with which the printer could fill in his odd time, and the paper and ink he bought were very dear. Up to 1832 a news- paper in this city was entirely too costly for a poor man to buy. Bradford could not have foreseen that in 1889 more than a thousand paper mills would be in operation in America, making their produet chiefly from the trees that were then an impediment to civilization ; that thirty type foundries and as many ink factories would be required to furnish the printers with type and ink ; that the printers would number a hundred thousand; that single offices would do more printing in a year than the whole of Great Britain did when he first trod these streets, and that Philadelphia and New York, towns in which Indians were at all times to be seen. the streets still unpaved and unlighted. their denizens dependent for their food upon the farmers who lived within a day's journey, and the places surrounded by solitudes so dense that bears, wolves, and foxes could be killed a couple of miles from the centre of population, and mocking birds could be heard in the streets, would within three lives after his be much greater than Paris or London then were and draw for their ordinary food supplies upon the whole world. Here is the place where the printing press, now a massive machine, built of iron. steel, and brass, and weighing many tons, instead of a tottering thing of wood, is at its greatest activity in the New World, only equaled by one city and only surpassed by one other city in the Old World.
It was thirty-two years before Bradford had a competitor ;
-
152
Notes on Printing in New York.
another third of a century was required to bring up the number to four or five ; and the round century showed less than a score of employers and a hundred journeymen. Since that time, however, the workmen have doubled every dozen years, and almost every year have begun new trades, branches of the old ones, separating still further one handieraft from the other.
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