USA > New York > Westchester County > Origin and History of Manors in the Province of New York and in the County. > Part 4
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7,246 Beaver skins. 178} Otter skins. 675 Otter skins. 48 Minck skins. 36 Wild cat skins. 33 Minckes. 34 Rat skins.
Considerable oak timber and hickory.
Herewith, High and Mighty Lords, be recom- mended to the mercy of the Almighty.
In Amsterdam, the 5th of November A. D. 1626. Your High Mightinesses obedient,
P. SCHAGEN."
It is endorsed, "Received 7th November, 1626."
This action of Director-General Minuit and the Council of New Netherland marks the beginning of the policy of the Dutch nation in its treatment of the Indians of America in the matter of their lands, and also its Christian character. This policy and all the dealings with the natives pursuant to it was based on
the principle, that the Indians were the lawful pro- prietors of their native land by original right of occu- pancy, and that it could only be alienated by their own act, and not taken from them by right of con- quest, or by rapine. Of no other of the nations of Europe which colonized America, except the Dutch, can it be truly said that this wise and Christian principle always governed them in their dealings with the Indians. Much has been written about William Penn as being the first to purchase their lands by treating with them. But Director Minuit on the banks of the Hudson preceded him in this honor- able and Christian treatment of the Indians by more than half a century. And the same policy and treat- ment was ever continued during the whole period of the Dutch possession of the Province of New Nether- land.
At the date of the purchase the Indian population of Manhattan Island is said by some writers to have been 200, men, women, and children, and by none has it been put at more than 300. The numbers of the Dutch, we know, were only 270.' So that the population on each side could not have been far from equal. A fact that speaks well for those early Dutch people, for from the discovery up to 1626 their pos- session of the island was only by the sufferance of the Indians, and during that whole time there was never a contest or a quarrel between them and the savages.
The price paid for the Island was a fair one, for the time, age, and place, for it was nothing but a little wild island on a coast almost unknown, of a continent entirely unknown. It was but one of hundreds and hundreds of small islands lying all along the Western shores of the Atlantic Ocean, with nothing to show it had any value at all except the prior occupation of one end of it as a trading post by the Dutch. And many of those same little islands in as out-of- the-way places, may be purchased to-day for a price almost as low.
De Laet in his history of the West India Com- pany gives a table of the annual exports and imports from, and into, New Netherland, from 1624 to 1635, from which it appears, that in 1626, the year of the purchase, but two ships came to, and went from, New Amsterdam, and that the value of the imports (sup- plies and goods) was 20,384 guilders, about 8,500 dol- lars, and that of the exports (furs and timber) were 45,050 guilders, about 14,000 dollars.“
It was simply as a station to collect furs from the Indians that Manhattan Island then had any value whatever. Such was the beginning of that "Prov- ince of New Netherland" in the year 1623, which 262 years later, in 1885, is the State and City of New York, the former with 5,000,000 of inhabitants, the latter with 1,250,000 people. And the island that was
1 The Dutch so named the Hudson after Maurice, the then Prince of Orange.
" A morgen, or Dutch acre, was two English acres ; "60 guilders" was 24 dollars of our money.
3 Wassenaer, III. Doc. Hist. N. Y., 47.
"De Luet, I. N. Y. Ilist. Coll., 2d series, 385. I. O'Call., 104.
45
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
then bought for 24 dollars, now has a value so high up. in the millions of dollars, that the mind with difficulty can take it in; while the city built upon it, is the third in importance, size, and wealth in the civilized world, and the chiefest in the western hemisphere.
The Walloons had moved in the matter of leaving Holland for America in the year 1621, two years be- fore the thirty families came out under Director May as mentioned above. They applied to Sir Dudley Carleton, British Ambassador at the Hague, to know, whether the King of England, James the First, would permit them "to settle in Virginia," in accordance with a petition setting forth the terms and conditions under which they desired to undertake the enterprise. This Petition of fifty-six heads of families, Walloon, and French, all of the Reformed Religion was pre- sented to, and left, with Carleton, who sent it to Eng- land, enclosed in a letter of his own favoring its object, dated the 19th of July. 1621. Accompanying the petition was a written covenant in these words ;- "We promise his Lordship the ambassador of the most serene king of Great Britain, that we will go to settle in Virginia, a part of his Majesty's dominions, at the earliest time practicable, and this under the conditions set forth in the articles we have communi- cated to his said lordship the ambassador, and not otherwise."
This paper bore the signatures of all the petitioners, attached in the form of a round-robin the centre of which was the above covenant; and it showed, be- sides the names of the signers, their occupations, and the number of the children of each. Among the names are those well known in New Amsterdam from that day to this, as De Forest, De La Montagne, Lam- bert, Le Roy, Du Puy, and others, as good, honest, upright people. The Lords in Council referred the application to the Virginia Company, who received it very coldly, suggested a few modifications and de- clined any assistance, in money or in transportation. This ended the matter with the English, and these "Walloons as well as French," afterwards made ar- rangements with the West India Company to go to New Netherland, which were carried out under May in 1623 as mentioned before.
This petition to the British King contained seven articles specifying in detail, the conditions and terms under which, these first colonists desired to enter upon the work of colonization, and is therefore of the great- est value as acquainting us, beyond cavil, with the views and ideas of those who actually did begin that work in what is now the City and State of New York.1
In this document appears the very earliest mention of the land tenure which the first colonists of New York desired and asked for. It was that with which they were familiar, and which they fully understood,
1 This petition is given at length, with an engraving of the "round robin" and its signatures, in the valuable "History of the Huguenot Emigration," by the Rev. Dr. C. W. Baird, vol. I. p. 158, just published.
and under which they had always lived, and was based on fealty, homage, and manorial rights, as fixed by the Roman law, with which alone they were ac- quainted, and which under the West India Company was established as the law of New Netherland, and governed it till its conquest by the English in 1664. The articles of this "petition" numbers five and six, are in these words (The whole is in French, and this is the translation) :
"VI. Whether he (His Britannic Majesty) would "grant them a township or territory, in a radius of " eight English miles, or say, sixteen miles in diameter, "which they might improve as fields, meadows, vine- "yards, and for other uses; which territory whether "conjointly or severally, they would hold from his "Majesty upon fealty and homage; no others being "allowed to dwell within the bounds of the said "lands, unless they shall have taken letters of citi- "zenship; in which territory they would reserve to "themselves inferior manorial rights; and whether it "might be permitted to those of their number who "are entitled to maintain the rank of noblemen, to " declare themselves such.
"VII. Whether they would be permitted in the "said lands to hunt all game whether furred or "feathered, to fish in the sea and the rivers, to cut "heavy timber, as well for ship building as for com- "merce, at their own will; in a word, whether they "could make use of all things either above or beneath "the ground, at their own pleasure and will, the royal "rights reserved ; and whether they could dispose of "all things in trade with such persons as may be per- "mitted them.
"Which provisions would extend only to said "families and those belonging to them, without ad- "mitting those who might come afterwards to the said "territory to avail themselves of the same, except so "far as they might of their own power, grant this to "them, and not beyond, unless his said Majesty should "make a new grant to them."
Such were the clear, undeniable wishes and desires, expressed in their own words, by those men who began the actual settlement of the region now known as New York, and which they did carry out, a little modified, by the Dutch system and rule.
The West India Company by its charter was bound to take measures for the increase of the population of its new Province, and the development of its agri- cultural resources. It found this a difficult duty to perform, mainly in consequence of two causes. The first was, the extreme profit of the fur trade which absorbed the general attention. The second was, that the farmers and laborers of Holland knew that they could do well enough at home. This fact is thus stated in a report of the Assembly of XIX. to the States. General in 1629, referring to the effect of a proposed truce with Spain, upon the interests of New Netherland.
46
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
"Moreover the colonizing such wild and uncul- tivated countries, demands more inhabitants than we can well supply ; not so much through lack of popu- lation, in which our provinces abound, as from the fact, that all who are inclined to do any sort of work here, procure enough to eat without any trouble; and are, therefore, unwilling to go far from home on an uncertainty." 1
This subject had engaged the attention of the Com- pany, and of the Chamber of Amsterdam especially, in 1627 and 1628. After much discussion, and long deliberations, it was finally determined in the Assem- bly of the XIX. that a plan should be prepared giv- ing special privileges, powers, and exemptions, to such members of the Company who would, at their own expense and risk, send out expeditions, and estab- lish separate and distinct plantations in any part of New Netherland, Manhattan Island excepted. The details were slowly and carefully determined, and not till the seventh of June, 1629, was the plan finally approved and adopted by the Assembly of XIX., and ratified and confirmed by their High Mightinesses the States-General.
This plan, or charter, as it sometimes styled, was entitled :-
"FREEDOMS AND EXEMPTIONS.
GRANTED BY THE ASSEMBLY OF THE XIX. OF THE PRIVILEGED WEST INDIA COMPANY, TO ALL SUCH AS SHALL PLANT ANY COLONIES IN NEW NETHERLAND."
It consisted of thirty-one articles, and was printed in a small quarto pamphlet of four or six pages and distributed throughout the United Provinces in 1630. Only three or four copies of this pamphlet are now known to exist, and it is so rare that within ten years a distinguished New York antiquarian reprinted it in fac-simile.
As it is the first instrument under which lands in the States of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, and Connecticut, were acquired, and on which titles rest, it is here given in full from the translation made by the late eminent historian of New Netherland. Dr. Edmund B. O'Callaghan, for his own great work, the " History of New Netherland; or, New York under the Dutch," first published in 1846-
"FREEDOMS AND EXEMPTIONS.
GRANTED BY THE ASSEMBLY OF THE XIX. OF THE PRIVILEGED WEST INDIA COMPANY, TO ALL SUCH AS SHALL PLANT ANY COLONIES IN NEW NETHERLAND:
"I. Such members of the said Company as may be inclined to settle any colonie' in New Netherland,
shall be permitted to send in the ships of this Com- pany going thither, three of four persons to inspect the situation of the country, provided that they, with the officers and ships company, swear to the articles, so far as they relate to them, and pay for provisions and for passage, going and coming, six stuyvers per diem; and such as desire to eat in the cabin twelve stuyvers, and to be subordinate, and give assistance like the others, in cases offensive and defensive; and if any ships be taken from the enemy, they shall re- ceive pro rata, their proportions with the ships com- pany, each according to his quality; that is to say, the colonists eating out of the cabin shall be rated with the sailors, and those who eat in the cabin with those of the company's men who eat at table and re- ceive the lowest wages.
"II. Though, in this respect, shall be preferred such persons as have first appeared and desired the same from the Company.
"III. All such shall be acknowledged Patroons of. New Netherland, who shall, within the space of four years next after they have given notice to any of the chambers of the company here, or to the Commander or the Council there, undertake to plant a colonie there of fifty souls, upwards of fifteen years old ; one- fourth part within one year, and within three years after the sending of the first, making together four years, the remainder, to the full number of fifty per- sons, to be shipped from hence, on pain, in case of wilful neglect of being deprived of the privileges ob- tained; but it is to be observed that the company reserve the island of the Manhattes to themselves.
"IV. They shall, from the time they make known the situation of the places where they proposed to set- tle colonies, have the preference to all others of the absolute property of such lands as they have chosen ; but in case the situation should not afterwards please them, or they should have been mistaken as to the quality of the land, they may, after remonstrating concerning the same to the Commander and Council there, be at liberty to choose another place.
"V. The Patroons, by virtue of their power, shall and may be permitted, at such places as they shall settle their colonies, to extend their limits four miles along the shore, that is, on one side of a navigable river, or two miles' on each side of a river, and so far into the country as the situation of the occupiers will permit; provided and conditioned that the company keep to themselves the lands lying and remaining be- tween the limits of the colonies, to dispone thereof, when, and at such time, as they shall think proper, in such manner that no person shall be allowed to come within seven or eight miles' of them without their consent, unless the situation of the land thereabout
1 I. Col. Hist. N. Y., 39 ; Ibid., 65.
" This word " colonie," pronounced in Dutch with the accent on the last two letters, does not mean "colony" in the English sense, but means a plantation, or settlement, and includes people, cattle, tools, stock of all kinda, as well as the lands on which all were to be placed.
" These are Dutch miles, one of which is equal to four English ones.
"Twenty-eight or thirty-two English miles.,
47
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
were such, that the Commander and Council for good reasons, should order otherwise; always observing that the first occupiers are not to be prejudiced in the right they have obtained, other than, unless the ser- vice of the Company should require it, for the build- ing of fortifications, or something of that sort; re- maining, moreover the command of each bay, river, or island, of the first settled colonie, under the su- preme jurisdiction of their High Mightinesses the States-General, and the company; but that on the next colonies being settled on the same river or island, they may, in conjunction with the first, appoint one or more council, in order to consider what may be ne cessary for the prosperity of the colonies on the said river and island.
"VI. They shall forever possess and enjoy all the lands lying within the aforesaid limits, together with the fruits, rights, minerals, rivers and fountains there- of; as also the chief command and lower jurisdic- tions,1 fishing, fowling, and grinding, to the exclusion of all others, to be holden from the company as a per- petual inheritance, without it ever devolving again to the Company, and in case it should devolve, to be re- deemed and repossessed with twenty guilders per colonie, to be paid to this Company, at the chamber here, or to their Commander there, within a year and six weeks after the same occur, each at the chamber where he originally sailed from ; and further, no per- son, or persons, whatsoever, shall be privileged to fish and hunt but the Patroons and such as they shall per- mit; and in case any one should in time prosper so much as to found one or more cities, he shall have power and authority to establish officers and magis- trates there, and to make use of the title of his colo- nie according to his pleasure and the quality of the persons.
"VII. There shall likewise be granted to all Pa- troons who shall desire the same, venia testandi, or liberty to dispose of their aforesaid heritage by testa- ment.
"VIII. The Patroons may, if they think proper, make use of all lands, rivers, and woods, lying con- tiguous to them, for and during so long a time as this company shall not grant them to other Patroons or particular individuals.
"IX. Those who shall send persons over to settle colonies shall furnish them with proper instructions, in order that they may be ruled and governed con- formably to the rule of government made or to be made by the Assembly of the Nineteen as well in the political as the judicial government; which they shall be obliged first to lay before the directors of the respective colleges [or chambers].
"X. The Patroons and colonists shall be privileged to send their people and effects thither, in ships be-
longing to the company, provided they take the oath 2 and pay to the Company for bringing over the people as mentioned in the first article; and for freight of the goods five per cent. ready money, to be reckoned on the prime cost of the goods here; in which is, however, not to be included such creatures and other implements, as are necessary for the cultivation and improvement of the lands, which the Company are to carry over without any reward if there is room in their ships. But the Patroons shall at their own expense, provide and make places for them, together with every thing necessary for the support of the crea- tures.
"XI. In case it should not suit the Company to send any ships, or in those going there should be no room ; then the said Patroons, after having communi- cated their intentions, and after having obtained con- sent from the Company in writing, may send their own ships or vessels thither; provided that in going or coming they go not out of their ordinary course; giv- ing security to the Company for the same, and taking on board an assistant, to be victualled by the Patroons, and paid his monthly wages by the Company ; on pain, for doing the contrary, of forfeiting all the right and property they have obtained to the colonie.
"XII. Inasmuch as it is intended to people the island of the Manhattes first, all fruits and wares that are produced on the lands situate on the North River, and lying thereabout, shall, for the present, be brought there before they may be sent elsewhere; excepting such as are from their nature unnecessary there, or such as cannot, without great loss to the owner there- of, be brought there; in which case the owners shall be obliged to give timely notice in writing of the dif- ficulty attending the same, to the Company here, or the Commander and Council there, that the same may be remedied as the necessities thereof shall be found to require.
" XIII. All the Patroons of colonies in New Nether- land, and of colonies on the Island of Manhattes, shall be at liberty to sail and traffic all along the coast from Florida to Terra Neuf, " provided that they do again return, with all such goods as they shall get in trade, to the Island of Manhattes, and pay five per cent. for recognition to the Company, in order, if pos- sible, that after the necessary inventory of the goods shipped be taken, the same may be sent hither. And if should so happen, that they could not return, by contrary streams or otherwise, they shall, in such case, not be permitted to bring such goods to any other place but to these dominions, in order that under the inspection of the directors of the place where they may arrive, they may be unladen, an in- ventory thereof made, and the aforesaid recognition
1 Under the Roman Dutch law.
" Of allegiance to the Company, and to the States General. " Stalls, or other accommodations.
‘ Newfoundland.
İ
1
48
HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
of five per cent. paid to the company here, on pain, if they do the contrary, of the forfeiture of the goods so trafficked for, or the real value thereof.
"XIV. In case the ships of the Patroons, in going to, or coming from, or sailing on, the coast from Florida to Terra Neuf, and no further without our grant, should overpower any of the prizes of the enemy, they shall be obliged to bring, or cause to be brought such prize to the college (chamber) of the place, from whence they sailed out, in order to be rewarded by them; the company shall keep the one-third part thereof, and the remaining two-thirds shall belong to them in consideration of the cost and risk they have been at, all according to the orders of the company.
"XV. It shall also be free for the aforesaid Pa- troons to traffic and trade all along the coast of New Netherland and places circumjacent, with such goods as are consumed there, and receive in return for them, all sorts of merchandise that may be had there, except beavers, otters, minks, and all sorts of peltry, which trade the company reserve to themselves. But the same shall be permitted at such places where the company have no factories,1 conditioned that such traders shall be obliged to bring all the peltry they can procure to the island of Manhattes, in case it may be, at any rate, practicable, and there deliver to the director, to be by him shipped hither with the ships and goods; or, if they should come hither, without going there, then to give notice thereof to the Com- pany, that a proper account thereof may be taken, in order that they may pay to the Company one guilder for each merchantable beaver and otter skin; the property, risk and all other charges, remaining on account of the Patroons or owners.
"XVI. All coarse wares that the colonists of the Patroons there shall consume, such as pitch, tar, wood-ashes, wood, grain, fish, salt, hearthstone, and such like things, shall be brought over in the com- pany's ships, at the rate of eighteen guilders ($7.20) per last; four thousand weight to be accounted a last, and the company's ship's crew shall be obliged to wheel and bring the salt on board, whereof ten lasts make a hundred. And in case of the want of ships, or room in the ships, they may order it over at their own cost, in ships of their own, and enjoy in these dominions such liberties and benefits as the company have granted; but in either case they shall be obliged to pay over and above the recognition five per cent., eighteen guilders per each hundred of salt that is car- ried over in the company's ships.
" XVII. For all wares which are not mentioned in the foregoing article, and which are not carried by the last, there shall be paid one dollar per each hundred pounds weight ; and for wines, brandies, verjuice, and
vinegar, there shall be paid eighteen guilders per cask.
"XVIII. The Company promises the colonists of the Patroons, that they shall be free from customs, taxes, excise, imposts or any other contributions, for the space of ten years; and after the expiration of the said ten years at the highest, such customs as the goods are taxable with here for the present.
"XIX. They will not take from the service of the Patroons any of their colonists, either man or woman, son or daughter, man-servant or maid-servant; and though any of them should desire the same, they will not receive them, nor permit them to leave their Pa- troons, and enter into the service of another. unless on consent obtained from their Patroons in writing; and this for and during so many years as they are bound to their Patroons; after the expiration whereof, it shall be in the power of the Patroons to send hither all such colonists as will not continue in their ser- vice, and until then shall not enjoy their liberty. And all such colonists as shall leave the service of their Patroons, and enter into the service of another, or shall, contrary to his contract, leave his service ; we promise to do everything in our power to appre- hend and deliver the same into the hands of his Pa- troon, or attorney, that he may be proceeded against, according to the customs of the country as occasion may require.
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