USA > New York > Westchester County > Origin and History of Manors in the Province of New York and in the County. > Part 7
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5
The Nature of the Dutch Systems of Government and Law established in New Netherland, and of the Patroonships there.
To comprehend the system of government, laws, and religion, established in New Netherland, through the West India Company, by the Dutch republic un- der these Charters of Freedoms and Exemptions, & brief account of that of the "Fatherland," or " Pa- tria," as that republic was called in its province in America, must be given.
The form of government of the Seven United Prov- inces was republican, the law was the Roman law, and the church was the established Reformed Church of Holland in accordance with the Synod of Dort .. All were transplanted to New Netherland, and there existed and flourished until its capture by the English in 1664. Nine years later when the Dutch re-con- quered it, all were re-introduced, a Dutch Governor re-appointed, and New Netherland replaced in its original position, except as to the names of its three largest towns which were changed. New York, as the English had called it, was re-named "New Orange," Albany was re-named " Willemstadt," and Kingston "Swanenburgh," instead of New Amsterdam, Bevers- wyck, and Wiltwyck, their original appellations.
The Province of Holland the largest of the seven United Provinces formed at an early period a por- tion of the Kingdom of the West Franks, and about the year 922 was conferred by Charles the Simple upon Count Dirk, who thus became the first " Count of Holland." In 925 Charles ceded it to Henry the Fowler, King of the East Franks, with the rest of the Kingdom of Lotharingia, the Count of Holland still being its own local sovereign. The successive Counts
1 I. Col. Hist., 401.
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
of Holland ruled over their little province, to which in the course of time they added the adjoining prov- ince of Zeeland, for four hundred years of unbroken male descent when their race died out, and the Count- ship passed into the hands of the Counts of Hainault. From them it devolved upon the Dukes of Bavaria, the last representative of which house was dispos- sessed by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who held the rest of the Netherlands under his rule. By the marriage of his daughter, Mary of Burgundy, with the Archduke Maximilian of Austria, the entire Netherlands passed from the House of Burgundy to the Imperial House of Austria. In 1496, Philip the Fair married Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile and Arragon, and the Netherlands, through this marriage came under the dominion of the Kings of Spain. Philip the Fair was succeeded by his only son, the Emperor Charles the Fifth, who was born in the Netherlands, and ruled the country as a part of his empire till 1555, when he abdicated in fa- vor of his son Philip II. By Philip II. as King of Spain, through savage persecutions and ferocious wara, were the people of the Netherlands driven into a rebellion and war of Independence, which after an heroic struggle of forty years continuance, was suc- cessfully terminated by the famous twelve years truce of 1609.1 .
One of the strange results of this truce, was the voyage of Hudson in search of a western passage to Cathay, and his momentous discovery of the Bay of New York and the magnificent river which has im- mortalized his name. Another remarkable result, was the establishment in the same year of the Bank of Amsterdam, which so long ruled the exchanges of Europe, and through which, the financial transactions of the first merchants and Patroons of New Nether- land were subsequently carried on.
During the whole period in which these different Princes, Kings, and Emperors, possessed the Nether- lands, they ruled the provinces of Holland and Zee- land, which together comprised about five-eighths of the area of the "United Provinces," not in their royal capacities, but as " Counts of Holland." These two Provinces with, Friesland, Groningen, Utrecht, Guelderland, and Overyssel, comprising the other three-eighths of the Netherlands, formed the "Seven United Provinces" of the Republic, which founded Christian government and Christian civilization in New York.
What was the nature and constitution of this Repub- lic? A Republic which not only established its own independent existence as one of the nations of Eu- rope, but humbled forever the pride and power of Spain then one of the greatest of those nations. A Republic which founded in the New World a system of government, the principles of which to-day form
the 'basis, upon which rests the constitution of that greater Republic which under the name of the United States of America dominates the Western Hemi- sphere.
The Republic of the Netherlands was a small coun- try, in area but a trifle larger than Wales, but its population of about two millions in 1609, of Teutonic origin, was dense, reliant, and self-supporting. Each of the seven provinces into which it was divided con- tained a number of cities and large towns, each gov- erned by a Board of Managers styled a 'Vroedschap.' These Boards of Managers were self-electing close cor- porations, the members of which were appointed for life from the general body of the citizens. Whenever vacancies occurred these Boards either filled them by a direct election of new members, or by making a double or triple nomination of names, and submitting them to the Stadtholder, or Governor, of the prov- ince, who selected one to fill the vacancy. This Stadtholder was, originally, the representative of the Count, or the Sovereign, but at the period of which we are treating, he was elected by a body called the "States-Provincial" of each Province, which con- sisted of deputies elected by the Boards of Managers and Nobles of the Province. These "States Provin- cial" managed all the affairs of each Province for it- self, the Provinces in their domestic concerns being entirely independent of each other. They were the representative assemblies of the numerous Munici- palities and Nobles of which each Province was com- posed. The "States Provincial" had also conferred upon them, another, and most important, power, one which then existed in no other part of the civilized world. For neither in the Swiss republic, nor in the Italian republics of the middle ages, did a precisely similar power exist. This was the election of envoys to the Supreme Legislature of the republic,-the States General. The members of this body so elected were not representatives in the usual sense of that term but envoys from their respective Provinces to the Su- preme Parliament of the nation, in which each Prov- ince, though it could have as many envoys asit pleased, had but one vote. These envoys were bound by in- structions in writing from their constituents the " States Provincial," whom they were obliged to con- sult in all doubtful or new matters before acting upon them. Neither war nor peace could be made, nor troops nor money raised, without a unanimous vote of the whole seven Provinces by their envoys in the States-General. The title of this Supreme Council of Parliament of the Republic, was "The High and Mighty Lords the States-General." It received am- bassadors, appointed its own to other nations, and conducted, wholly, the foreign relations of the repub- lic. Each Province, by one of its deputies or envoys presided in turn for a week. Its Greffier, or Clerk read all papers, put all questions to vote, and an- nounced the result. Its sessions were held at the Hague, in a very handsome oblong apartment in the
1 Maasdorp's Introduction to his translation of Grotius' treatise on Dutch Jurisprudence, p. iv.
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THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
Binnenhof, the old palace which formed a part of the ancient chateau of the Counts of Holland, which re- mains to this day.1
In these Independent "States Provincial," their representative envoys, and the States-General in which they sat, we see the origin of the Independent Sover- eign states of the Federal Constitution of 1787, the Senators who represent those Sovereign States, and that great body, the Senate of the United States of America, in which they sit. So ancient and honor- able is that system and doctrine of State rights, upon the continued preservation of which in their integrity depends the existence of the American Union.
The source of power in the "States Provincial " of Holland was in the constituencies of the deputies to them who were the Municipal Councils of the towns and cities, and the College of Nobles, by which the deputies were elected. To them was each deputy responsible, and under their instructions alone he acted.
Holland was an aggregate of independent towns and cities each administering its own taxation, finances, and domestic affairs, and making its own ordinances. Its inhabitants were not on an equality. To entitle a man to every municipal franchise, he must have ac- quired the greater or lesser burger-right-" burger recht"-either by inheriting it, by marriage, or by purchase. In the latter case a larger sum was re- quired for the great burger right and a smaller sum for the lesser. In either case, however, the amount was not very large. Only a year's previous residence was necessary for any foreigner to obtain it. The privileges it conferred were, freedom of trade, exemp- tion from tolls, special privileges and preferences in the conduct of lawsuits, and an exclusive eligibility of election to municipal office. The privileges of the two classes of burghers varied only in degree. The city and town governments consisted of a Board of Burgomasters and Schepens, and a Schout, that is a Board of magistrates and aldermen, and a sheriff who was also a prosecuting officer.
These Burgomasters and Schepens, provided for the public safety, attended to police matters, called out the military when needed, assessed all taxes, and ad- ministered all financial, and civic matters. They were elected either by the general body of the citizens possessing a small property qualification, or by the "Vroedschapen," or Boards of Managers mentioned before, who were themselves elected by the general body of qualified citizens, the custom varying in dif- ferent towns and Provinces.
Such was the form of political liberty which con- stituted the great strength of the Dutch Republic, by which it conquered its own independence of Spain, and which it carried to, and established in,
New York.' It is well summed up by Brodhead in these words, "The self-relying burghers governed the towns; the representatives, of the towns, and of the rural nobility, governed the several Provinces, and the several States of the respective Provinces claimed supreme jurisdiction within their own pre- cincts." The system of the Dutch Republic was a thorough system of town government, expanded to meet the needs of a national governmental organi- zation. It was also a strikingly conservative as well as effective form of government, and after the termina- tion of the twelve years truce with Spain in 1621, it enabled the Netherlands to carry on that brilliant series of hostilities against Spain which, in 1648, re- sulted in her final acknowledgment of the United Pro- vinces as an Independent Nation.' Subsequently to that event the Republic enlarged and increased the machinery of her government-developing it further upon the same principles to meet the enlarged sphere of action upon which she had entered, but this it is unnecessary to describe here.
There was in this system of government one princi- ple which must be particularly noticed, one which has had but scant mention from American historians, and yet upon it rests the system of colonization begun by the Dutch in New Netherland, and that is the rights, powers, privileges, and position of the nobles of the Netherlands in the government of their native land.
The Dutch people of the United Provinces at the date of Hudson's discovery of New Netherland, and during the period of its settlement and possession by that Republic consisted, by their own law, of two classes, "Nobles " and "Commoners." The Com- moners were subdivided into "Gentlemen by birth," and "Common people." Thus practically making three classes of Dutch citizens.
They are thus described, and the definition of each given, by the most famous of the great lawyers of Holland ;- ‘
"From descent comes the distinction whereby some are born Noble and some Commoners.
Noble by birth are those sprung from a father whose ancestors have, from times of old, been ac. knowledged as noble, or who was himself ennobled . by the sovereign.
For some families have held their rank for a period so far distant, and so fully acknowledged, that no proof is necessary. Other families have been en- nobled from services, or favors subsequently bestowed.
Commoners were formerly of two classes, such as Gentlemen by birth and the common people.
1 Maasdorp's introduction to his translation of Grotius, vi. I. Brod. Hist. N. Y., 454.
" First learned in Holland by the English self-exiled Brownists it was carried by them to Plymouth their new home across the Atlantic, and was thus the origin of the town and township system established in New England.
3 I. Sir Wm. Temple's Works, 68, 70, 126, 127, 131, 139-142. + Grotius, ch. XIV. : also note IX. to Benson's Memoir, II. N. Y. Hist. Coll., 2d series, p. 138.
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
It seems formerly that Gentlemen by birth were those who from generation to generation were de- scended from free and honorable persons. These, being favoured by different Counts [of Holland], and especially by Count Floris, who was disliked by the nobles (which gave rise to a conspiracy against him and ultimately to his death), had a right to wear arms publicly, as a token of descent, to ride with a spur, and be exempt from taxes. At present [1620, in which year Grotius wrote] all these matters, together with others, having become general by practice, the only distinction is, that those who are gentlemen born are selected as judges of the Bailiff's Court, in the place of vassals [or tenants], and were consequently exempt from serving in the office of schepens, or civic magistrates."
The Seven United Provinces were composed of the patroonships of nobles, cities, and towns, the two latter possessing municipal privileges, or rather, privileges as municipalities, similar to those possessed as individuals by the nobles. Both originated in the ancient Teutonic system of military tenures modified by the Roman law and the spirit of commercial enter- prise. There were then in the United Provinces, no small independent farms; isolated houses scattered through the country did not exist. The people dwelt in the towns and cities, and only the nobles on large estates in the country with great buildings, strong- holds, and sometimes churches, to accommodate themselves and their numerous retainers whom they were bound to protect. In the single province of Holland alone, the largest of the seven provinces of the republic, there existed, and had existed for more than a century prior to the Discovery of New Nether- land, three hundred of these Patroonships, or fiefs as they were called,1 to the mutual advantage of their owners and their tenants or vassals, as the then flourishing and powerful condition of the Dutch re- public fully proves.
There was no clashing of interests between the nobles, the commoners, and the municipalities. Each held their rights and privileges from the same sover- eign authority. The latter were in fact incorporated nobles, so to speak. The people of the towns, as the military features of the feudal system gradually weakened, demanded and obtained of the Sovereign authority, Count, King, or Emperor, the same rights and privileges as a body, which the nobles possessed individually. The Sovereign, as Lord Paramount, granted these as they were desired, for he was per- fectly willing that the people of the towns should commute. for specific annual sums the military and other feudal services to which he was entitled, just as the nobles did. The people, however, in the Dutch provinces, always claimed and demanded the right to fix the amount of these annual sums them- selves. This was always granted, and they ever held
tenaciously to this right of taxing themselves. In this manner town corporations and city corporations originated, in the Netherlands, and as such were in full vigor, with a happy, flourishing, and united population, not only when New Netherland was dis- covered, but for a very long period preceding that event. The magistrates of these municipalities, chosen by the people themselves, were the means by which they were united with the Sovereign power, and through which the latter communicated with the people of the municipalities themselves, just as the nobles were the point of union and communication between the same Sovereign power and their own vas- sals or tenants.
The nobles formed a distinct House or College in each province, and sent deputies to the States of the Province, and the States-General, and also to the three Councils, of State, Accounts, and Admiralty. In the Council of State their deputy was the President, and in the States-General his was the first vote? cast. "The Dutch Nobility " says the English author of the "Description of Holland " in 1743, seem to observe a medium between the loftiness of those of the same rank in some countries, and the meanness of others. The Italian Nobility do not scruple to trade: The French are nicer: yet they make no difficulty to marry a tradesman's daughter, if she be rich, and thereby capable of repairing a shattered Estate. The British Nobility do not differ from the French in this respect. The Germans abhor trade; and perhaps in effect of the general barbarous constitution of their country, Tyrant and Slave, disdain to mingle their blood with that of base plebeians, though their brethren of nature.""
It was this combined and harmonious system of mingled municipalism and aristocracy, which gave the United Netherlands their great power and made them such a strong, conservative, and successful nation. It was a system they had tried, and under which they had lived, for more than two centuries, which all classes approved, and with which they were fully satisfied and thoroughly familiar. Hence it was, that when the West India Company undertook to colonize New Netherland, they naturally adopted for that new possession the same system which they knew had always worked well in the old, which they had always been accustomed to, and which was in entire consonance with the views, habits, manners, and customs, of the people of the Batavian re- public.
It was not this system in New Netherland, but the ways and means of putting it into operation and carry- ing it out, which produced the delays, disputes, and changes, that began soon after the enactment of the charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, and only
" " Description of Holland," p. 76. This work, by an Englishman, resi- dent from infancy in Holland, was published in 1743, and is a full, fair and good account of that country.
8 1bid., 79.
1 I. O'Call. 1392.
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THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
ended with the adoption of the revised and amended charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1640.
It is needful to consider only the most salient features of these instruments, for a simple reading of documents themselves, as above given in full, will afford the best possible idea of the nature of the sys- tem of colonization, of which they were the foun- dation, and upon which rests that civilization, which, increasing and improving in the course of years, and modified, not abrogated, by a subsequent change of dominion and rulers, now constitutes the pride and glory of the great Empire State of New York.
They were drawn in accordance with the views and spirit of the age in which they had their birth, and should, and must, be judged in the light of that age if we would wish to form a fair and true opinion of them and the system they established. No more un- just, yet more common error, exists, than to make the views and spirit of this, our own age, the standard by which to judge the views, spirit, and actions of every age that has gone before it, and to praise or condemn, accordingly.
Judged by the lights of the seventeenth century these charters of Dutch Colonization were extremely free and liberal, far more so than those of any other nation at that time. It must be remembered, too, that, they were the work of an armed commercial organization, of the nature of those then existing, intent upon its own interests, as well as those of the nation to which it belonged; an organization equally well adapted to triumph in the pursuits of peace, or conquer in those of war.
Essentially monopolies, as were all the colonizing and commercial companies of that era in England, and in all the other European nations, the charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629 confined its benefits and privileges to the members of the Dutch West Indian Company by which it was granted. This was changed by that of 1640 which threw them open to, "All good inhabitants of the Netherlands and all others inclined to plant any colonies in New Netherland." The former acknowledged, and granted the rights, powers, and privileges, of Patroons, as they then existed in the United Provinces of the Netherlands, to those who would plant a "colonie," (that is estab- lish a plantation) of fifty souls above fifteen years of age, within four years in New Netherland, after noti- fying the proper authorities of their intention so to do. The latter reduced the time to three years, and by it all New Netherland was thrown open to the establishment of Patroonships, except the Island of Manhattan, which the Company reserved to itself.
All Patroons under the first charter (Art V.) were permitted, after settling upon a location, to extend the limits of their "colonies," or plantations, four miles Dutch, (equal to sixteen English) along the shore on one side of a navigable river, or two miles (eight English) on each side of the same, at their option.
This was restricted by the second charter, to one Dutch mile along a navagable river, or two miles landward.
The latter also provided for a class of colonists, not Patroons, in these words "For Masters or Colonists, shall be acknowledged, those who will remove to New Netherland with five souls above fifteen years; to all such, our Governor there shall grant in property one hundred morgens, (two hundred English acres) Rhine- land measure, of land, contiguous one to the other, wherever they please to select."
Thus were provided for New Netherland colonists of the two upper classes then dwelling in the Republic of the United Provinces, nobles and commoners of the first class, as before described. Both of these classes, brought out the third, the common people, the boerx, who were the men and women, whom they settled upon their "colonies" and farms.
All the colonists, whether the Patroons, or of the Masters of farms, "Free Colonists," as they were styled in the charter of 1640, were freed from customs, taxes, excise, imposts, or any other contributions for the space of ten years." 1
The special powers, rights and privileges of Patroons are set forth in articles VI, VII, VIII, and IX, of the charter of 1629, and as revised, and slightly altered, are thus stated in the charter of 1640 ;-
"The Patroons shall forever possess all the lands situate within their limits, together with the produce, superficies, minerals, rivers, and fountains thereof, with high, low, and middle jurisdiction, hunting, fishing, fowling, and milling, the lands remaining allodial, but the jurisdiction as of a perpetual hereditary fief, devolvable by death as well as to females as to males, and, fealty and homage for which is to be rendered to the Company, on each of such occasions, with a pair of iron gauntlets, redeemable by twenty guilders within a year and six weeks at the Assembly of the XIX here, or before the Governor there; with this understanding, that in case of divi- sion of said fief or jurisdiction, be it high, middle, or low, the parts shall be, and remain, of the same nature as was originally conferred upon the whole, and fealty and homage must be rendered for each part thereof by a pair of iron gauntlets, redeemable by twenty guilders as aforesaid.
And should any Patroon, in course of time, happen to prosper in his colonie to such a degree as to be able to found one or more towns, he 'shall have authority to appoint officers and magistrates there, and make use of his Colonie, according to the pleasure and the quality of the persons, all saving the Company's regalia .?
And should it happen that the dwelling places of private Colonists become so numerous as to be ac-
1 Charter of 1629, art. XVIII.
2 Rights of Sovereignty.
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
counted towns, villages, or cities, the Company shall give orders respecting the subaltern government, magistrates, and ministers of justice, who shall be nominated by the said towns and villages in a triple number of the best qualified, from which a choice and selection is to be made by the Governor and Council; and those shall determine all questions and suits within their district.
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