Revised History of Harlem (City of New York): Its Origin and Early Annals. : Prefaced by Home Scenes in the Fatherlands; Or Notices of Its Founders Before Emigration. Also, Sketches of Numerous Families, and the Recovered History of the Land-titles, Part 10

Author: Riker, James, 1822-1889
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: New York, New Harlem Pub.
Number of Pages: 926

USA > New York > New York County> Harlem > Revised History of Harlem (City of New York): Its Origin and Early Annals. : Prefaced by Home Scenes in the Fatherlands; Or Notices of Its Founders Before Emigration. Also, Sketches of Numerous Families, and the Recovered History of the Land-titles > Part 10

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HISTORY OF HARLEM.

Robinson's house, were engaged in printing religious books for the English dissenters. Being complained of by Sir Dudley Carleton, the English ambassador at the Hague, it devolved upon the University of which Brewer was a member to investigate the matter. The accused persons being exonerated, the affair was eclipsed by the graver agitations of the times; yet the fears which it excited gave spur to a movement now contemplated by the English congregation.

Robinson and his flock, feeling ill at ease in Leyden, had been led "both deeply to apprehend their present dangers, and wisely to foresee the future, and think of timely remedy." Having resolved upon a removal to some other place, they were look- ing toward America as their future home. But several years were spent in fruitless negotiation for aid with "The Virginia Company of London," and "The New Netherland Company" at Amsterdam. At length, obtaining the needed assistance from private sources, a good portion of the church, "the youngest and strongest part," after a farewell meeting at Robinson's house, departed from "that goodly and pleasant citie," July 21st, 1620, to embark at Delft Haven. "They that stayed at Leyden," says Winslow, "feasted us that were to go, at our pastor's house, being large, where we refreshed ourselves after tears with sing- ing of psalms, making joyful melody in our hearts, as well as with the voice. After this they accompanied us to Delft Haven."

So remarkable an exodus, its preparation, object, and destina- tion, being generally known throughout the city, had its influ- ence upon others, who like the former, "pilgrims," wearied and alarmed by the prevailing disorders, were casting about for a better home. It especially affected the French and Belgian refugees, to whom another cause of apprehension now presented itself. This was a threatened war with Spain, which, reviving gloomy recollections of former trials, set many to planning some way of escape from the dreaded atrocities of war, to which they were likely to be again exposed. Hence the subject of a removal to America began to be agitated also among the Walloons at Leyden, whose numbers were now daily and largely increasing by the arrival of other refugees, impelled by their fears to leave the southern provinces; and many needed only the necessary means or guarantees of protection, etc., to induce them to emi- grate. Of the number pledged to do so, were Jesse De Forest and his family, with two named Mousnier, or La Montagne, kins-

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men, one of whom was our Jean, "student of medicine," and the other an "apothecary and surgeon," like the former, single, and probably his brother.

For many years efforts had been making in Holland, by the more wealthy Walloon and other Belgian residents, to organize a "West India Company," to open up a trade with America. During the truce with Spain this project had slumbered, but was revived on the prospect of a renewal of the war; the States- General being now ready to encourage the formation of the com- pany, whose reprisals upon the settlements and commerce of the common enemy, by means of its armed vessels, would help to weaken his power.

But the company met with various hindrances, even after obtaining its charter in 1621, not the least of which was the want of sufficient capital. Tracts "for the instruction of the public," with which the press literally teemed, many from the forms of Elzevier, the University printer, set forth the grand undertaking in glowing terms, and urged the people to invest. But still subscriptions came in slowly ;, great doubt and uncer- tainty hung over "the long-expected West India Company"; inso- much that when, in 1621, the Walloons began, in imitation of Robinson's people, to make plans for their contemplated . emigration, the hope of aid from this source, especially in the tame work of planting a colony, was too faint to be seri- ously entertained. Therefore they resolved to apply to the English ambassador at the Hague in regard to emigrating to Virginia.

Jesse De Forest, whose standing among the Walloons and interest in the enterprise, marked him as a suitable person to present a letter of inquiry in their behalf, had been full twenty years in Holland. and well understood the condition and needs of his countrymen, as also their peculiar views and aims in respect to this movement. upon which so much was depending. In an ably drawn communication to Sir Dudley Carleton. about the first of August. 1621, he asks whether His Majesty of Eng- land will permit fifty or sixty families, Walloons and French, all of the Reformed religion, to settle in Virginia; will aid them with an armed vessel to make the voyage: will guarantee them protection in their persons and religion; grant them land to cultivate, and allow them to form a town and enjoy various specified

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rights and privileges pertaining to the soil and to a free com- munity .*

These inquiries being forwarded to England, were referred by the king to the directors of the Virginia Company, who, on August 12th, 1621, gave "so fine an answer,"-in the words of a letter conveying the news to their agent in Virginia,-"as we consider they will resolve to go." But the Walloons thought otherwise, for as the company "were contented to receive them upon certain conditions," and these quite different from their own, and could promise no aid in the way of providing ships, it virtually amounted to a refusal.

Jesse de forest

Autograph of Jesse de Forest. From an original of 1621, in the State Paper Office, London.

Jesse De Forest continued his calling, and when the people of Leyden were registered for a poll-tax in the autumn of 1622, the dyer, with his family, numbering his wife and five children, and their maid-servant, Margariete Du Can, still lived on the Breedestraat, within the Almshouse Quarter. The great theme which had absorbed his mind,-America,-was nevertheless not forgotten. Anon this wish of his heart was to be realized, but in an unexpected way.

The West India Company had so far succeeded in its organi- zation, and in raising the necessary amount of capital, as to begin operations, through its board of managers, chosen Septem- ber 17th, 1622. Under its patronage, and bound to a term of service, a company of Walloons, with their families, sailed for New Netherland early in the succeeding March; but De Forest and the Montagnes declined to accompany them, as did most of those who had subscribed to the Virginia project. This was not the inviting plan of free colonization which De Forest had pro-

* De Forest's letter, translated by Dr. O'Callaghan from the French copy in the Broadhead papers, is printed in "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York," vol iii, p. 9. The signature, as in the copy, is there erroneously printed Jose De Forest; see above, facsimile of the original autograph. from a tracing obligingly sent me by Mr. W. Noel Sainsbury, of Her Majesty's State Paper Office, London. The closing paragraph of this letter. in the original, reads thus:

"Sur ce que dessus mondict Seigneur I'Ambassadeur donnera avis s'il luy plaist comme aussi, si son plaisir de faire caredier le dict privilege en forme heur le plustost que faire se pourra a cause du peu de temps qui reste d'icy au Mars (temps commode pour l'embarquement) pour faire l'acceuil de tout ce qui est requis ce faisant obligera ses serviteurs a prier Dieu pour l'accomplissement de ses saincts descins et pour la sante et longe vic.

"JESSE DE FOREST."

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posed; and though the adventure was attractive for its very novelty, nothing probably but their necessities would have in- duced any of the Walloons to accept so tame a servitude, con- sidering their natural aversion to restraint and love of personal freedom. A new purpose soon usurped his mind,-perhaps it had already,-and the fortunes of Jesse De Forest were to take a sudden turn.

The lone ship dispatched with the Walloons, and other ves- sels sent out by the company soon after to the West Indies, were designed merely to secure possession of the country, and to fore- stall the trade. The grand business in hand was the conquest of Brazil. Invested with the control of the Dutch possessions in Africa and America, with ample powers to trade with and colonize those countries, expel the Spaniards, and prey upon their commerce, the company now began the most extensive prepara- tions to this end. The dockyards of Holland resounded with the noise of busy workmen, and loud was the call for seamen and soldiers to man the fleet. At length, a powerful armament was ready to sail. On December 21st and 22d, 1623, nineteen ships of war left the Texel and the Ems, with the Admiral Jacob Wille- kens, joined the next day by three more from the Maas, making twenty-two vessels of war destined to operate against the Spanish settlements in the West Indies and Brazil. This expedition, de- signed also to cripple the maritime power of Spain, and ultimately compel her, if not to yield her control of the Low Countries, at least to grant civil and religious rights to the inhabitants, and the restoration of their sequestered estates to the refugees, was in high favor with the Walloons, whose patriotism and martial spirit were aroused by this stirring call to arms. For some time Leyden had witnessed "nothing but beating of drums and preparing for war." Even the excellent Colonius, pastor of the Walloon church, had taken the field with Prince Maurice, the Stadtholder, against the Spaniards. And so Jesse De Forest, giving up his old occu- pation, enlisted in this grand naval expedition to Brazil. He had latterly occupied a house with his brother Gerard, on the Mare, a canal running north from the Rhine to the city gate called the Mare Port. Gerard was to continue the business, but was licensed only to dye in black. Appearing before the burgomasters, Jan- uary 4, 1624, and stating that his brother Jesse had "lately departed with the vessels for the West Indies," he requested to be appointed in his stead to dye serges and camlets in colors, as the number of dyers engaged in this specialty would not thereby be increased. And his request was granted.

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But here the veil drops over the career of our De Forest. The summer was not quite ended when the yacht De Vos brought news of Willekens' success in Brazil, but no good news of De Forest. He seems either to have fallen at the siege of St. Sal- vador, or to have otherwise perished during that arduous service; for the fact of his decease soon became known to his family in Holland. The sad tidings, as it reached Leyden, that Jesse De Forest, the dyer, was dead, must have caused many an honest regret; but a deeper sorrow, within that small circle of bereaved hearts, the desolate widow and orphans, whose wants could no longer be met by his provident care. But the breach in the social circle caused by the departure of even so good and useful a man, -what was it in the grievous mortality which visited Leyden in the years 1624 and 1625? Years roll on; and those whom he left enjoy the fruits of his patient labor ; but the voice of the lost husband and father comes back no more. Time buries alike his virtues and his foibles, and oblivion claims the memory of Jesse De Forest. Ah! not so; he still lives in his last ambitious ad- venture, to mould other destinies, which are yet in the unrevealed future.

Near the time De Forest went abroad, our Jean La Mon- tagne, latterly a boarder, with other "students," in the family of Thomas Cornelisz, on the Breedestraat, in Meat Market Row, is found to have quit the University. The coincidence, and at a juncture when physicians were needed for the fleet, almost forces the conviction that he too had joined the expedition .* But per- haps he had merely retired from Leyden to avoid the plague, which, as intimated, made fearful ravages in that city in the two ensuing years. Leaving this to conjecture, as we must, it at least appears that, after having been gone for some time, Mon- tagne returned to Leyden, and in order that he might continue his favorite studies, which had been interrupted by his absence, and also enjoy the various privileges of the University, which he seems to have valued very highly, was enrolled anew at that institution as a "student of medicine," July 7th, 1626. He had taken convenient lodgings with the widow De Forest,-now liv- ing on the Voldersgraft, the second street east of St. Peter's Church,-whose only daughter, the fair Rachel, had already stolen his heart, and to whom, with the approval of the family, as signified by her uncle Gerard, who was present, Montagne was united in wedlock by the pastor of the Walloon Church, De-

* One La Montagne, captain in the Dutch service in Brazil, was killed in the Portuguese assault upon Fort Hinderson, 1646.

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cember 12th, 1626. Living so near to St. Peter's, one of the principal churches in the city, it was here during the following year that they had the joy to present for baptism their little son, Jolant, their precious first-born, but alas ! destined soon to be taken from them.

Holland was now overflowing with people, all intent on mak- ing a livelihood, but "where one stiver was to be gained there were ten hands ready to receive it." Many, on that account, were leaving that country in search of other homes, where they might find better opportunities, and obtain a living more easily. The possessions of the Dutch in America, known as New Neth- erland, presented to such persons special advantages, and very alluring was the offer of the West India Company to grant each colonist as much land as he should be able to cultivate. So, while many of the sturdy sons of Holland were turning their faces thitherward, the subject was daily becoming of wider and more practical interest.

Often might have been noticed, poring over the musty tomes at the University library, a person of studious mien, known as Johannes De Laet, one of the several directors of the West India Company, who resided at Leyden. An elder of the church, and distinguished for learning, moderation, and probity, De Laet enjoyed the public confidence; and the two Synods of North and South Holland, by selecting him to write an ecclesiastical history, paid a high tribute to his judgment and impartiality: His pro- lific pen had done much to familiarize the public mind with the discoveries of the Dutch in America. One of his works, pub- lished at Leyden, entitled, "The New World; or a Description of the West Indies," having been five years in print, appeared in an improved form in 1630, and gave the first full and authoritative account of New Netherland, awaking a lively interest not only in the circles of Leyden, but throughout Holland.

While De Laet's first edition was yet in press, sundry letters had been received from the Walloons who had gone out in 1623 to Manhattan and Fort Orange (Albany), in which they spoke in glowing terms of their new home, extolling its "beautiful rivers and bubbling fountains," the excellence of its soil, and the abundance of its timber, fruits, game, and fish; then, urging their friends to come out with their families and enjoy the benefits of a country which fairly rivaled "the paradise of Holland."

The natural effect of these letters* was to induce not a few

. Quoted in the "Gedenkwaardige Geschiedenissen, zo Kerkelyke als Wereldlyke." or "Remarkable Events, as well Ecclesiastical as Secular, from 1603 to 1624," by Rev.

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persons here and there forthwith to emigrate, while in many others was awakened a keen desire for fuller information, such .as the work of De Laet was designated to gratify. The demand for the book became so great as only to be met by repeated edi- tions. With the original journals of Hudson and succeeding ex- plorers before him, many of the details presented were exceed- ingly entertaining.

Opening De Laet's vellum-bound, attractive folio, fresh from the press of the Elzeviers, the reader presently found his atten- tion drawn to the extraordinary advantages and resources of the country around the Island of Manhattan, and bordering the Great River of the Mountains. "This land is excellent and beautiful to the eye, full of noble forest trees and grape-vines; and want- ing nothing but the labor and industry of man to render it one of the finest and most fruitful regions in that part of the world."

He then condenses the accounts given by "our countrymen who first explored this river, and those who afterward made frequent voyages thither." The trees are "of wonderful size, fit for buildings and vessels of the largest class. Wild grape- vines and walnut trees are abundant. Maize or Indian corn, when cultivated, yields a prolific return; and so with several kinds of pulse, as beans of various colors, pumpkins,-the finest possible, melons, and similar fruits. The soil is also found well adapted to wheat and several kinds of grain, as also flax, hemp, and other European seeds. Herbaceous plants grow in great variety, bearing splendid flower;, or valuable for their medicinal properties. The forests abound in wild animals, especially the deer kind; with other quadrupeds indigenous to this part of the country. Quantities of birds, large and small, frequent the rivers, lakes and forests, with plumage of great elegance and variety of colors. Superior turkey-cocks are taken in winter, very fat, and the flesh of fine quality. Salmon, sturgeon, and many other kinds of excellent fish are caught in the rivers. The climate differs little in temperature from our own, though the country lies many degrees nearer the equator than the Netherlands. In winter the cold is intense, and snow falls frequent and deep, cov- ering the ground for a long time. In summer it is subject to much thunder and lightning, with copious and refreshing show- ers. Scarcely any part of America is better adapted for colonists from this quarter; nothing is wanting necessary to sustain life, except cattle, which can be easily taken there, and easily kept,

Wilhelmus Baudartius, of Zutphen: printed at Arnhem, 1624, in 2 vols. folio. See Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv. 131. Baudartius was grandfather of our Wilhelmus Beeckman.

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on account of the abundance of fodder growing naturally and luxuriantly.

"The Indians are indolent, and some crafty and wicked, hav- ing slain several of our people. The Manhattans, a fierce nation, occupy the eastern bank of the river, near its mouth. Though hostile to our people, they have sold them the island or point of land which is separated from the main by Hellgat, and where they have laid the foundations of a city called New Amsterdam. The barbarians are divided into many nations and languages, but differ little in manners. They dress in the skins of animals. Their food is maize, crushed fine, and baked in cakes ; with fish, birds and wild game. Their weapons are bows and arrows; their boats made from the trunks of trees, hollowed out by fire. Some lead a wandering life, others live in bark houses, their furniture mainly mats and wooden dishes, stone hatchets, and stone pipes for smoking tobacco. They worship a being called Manetto, are governed by chiefs called Sagamos, are suspicious, timid, re- vengeful and fickle; but hospitable when well treated, ready to serve the white man for little compensation, and susceptible of being imbued with religion and good manners, especially if colonies of well-ordered people should be planted among them, who would make use of their services without rudeness or abuse, and by degrees teach them the worship of the true God, and the habits of civilized life."

These accounts, here epitomized, were published in French, as well as in the vernacular tongue, and being eagerly sought for and read, proved a powerful incentive to emigration; turning the scale with many desiring a change in favor of that new country, whose superior advantages had been depicted with. so graphic a pen.

The same year in which the Walloon college was founded, a child was born in the city of Leyden, of Walloon parents, who being well-to-do, no doubt educated him in that school of learn- ing. This was Henry De Forest, the son of Jesse, and the brother of Rachel. Bereft of his father while yet under age, he had looked to his uncle, Gerard, for needed counsel; and there is pleasing evidence that the relations of the uncle and nephew were intimate and confiding. Time, with rapid flight and many a change, had ushered in the year 1636. Henry was now of the mature age of thirty years ; his brother Isaac,-an infant of four months when the bells rung for the great fire at the University, -had grown to be a young man of twenty; Jean, the eldest brother, a dyer by occupation, had recently taken a wife, and

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was living at the Hoogewoert in Leyden; while Jesse, the other brother, was spoken of tenderly,-he was dead.

Since that memorable day when the elder De Forest left the shores of Holland, never to return, his family had felt no com- mon interest in all that related to America. The favorite theme of the social hour, it lent a fascination to their dreams. As · seated around their smouldering turf fire they talked of the eventful past, and now of the flattering advantages to be en- joyed in New Netherland,-thought of the unwholesome air and prevalent agues of Leyden, and of the appalling scenes of the preceding year, when pestilence again raged around them, and many thousands of their neighbors and townsmen were swept off by the plague,-the two brothers, Henry and Isaac De Forest, resolved to turn their backs upon Holland, for a venture in New Netherland. There the tobacco culture now assumed new im- portance, and promised large profits to those who should engage in it, owing to the late failure of that crop in Virginia, as reported by vessels which had returned the preceding fall from James River, mostly without cargoes. This then was their opportunity. Aided in their plans and preparations by their uncle Gerard, whose son Crispin, it would seem, intended to make one of the emigrating party, their project doubtless had all the encourage- ment and support to be given it by their influential cousin, Mr. Johannes Panhuysen, of Leyden,-married to a daughter of Gerard De Forest,-who was then a director of the West India Company, and represented Leyden in the Chamber at Amster- dam, in which office he had succeeded Johannes De Laet. ' The plan seemed complete when their only sister, Rachel, and her husband, Dr. La Montagne, agreed to go; the doctor, under assurances of some preferment there, deciding to give up his practice, and his associations and membership at the University, which but lately,-that is, on March 3d, 1636,-he had renewed, as also his old home on the Kloksteeg, where he had for some years lived, at the sign of the Queen of Bohemia .*

But all things were not yet ready; others who were deeply interested in these plans were to be consulted. Across the Zuyder Zee, on the west coast of Freisland, and between and extending

* The Queen of Bohemia, a noble Christian woman, was long an exile in Holland, the object of profound respect and sympathy among all Protestants; hence her effigy upon Montagne's signboard. She was Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of James I. of Eng- land, and wife of Frederick V., Elector Palatine of the Rhine and King of Bohemia, who had been driven from his dominions by the Catholic powers in 1621. He died in 1632, leaving the Queen with a large family. Neal says they "were always the delight of the Puritans," the hope of Protestantism in England resting on their expected suc- cession to that throne; an event which happened not till 1714, when a grandson of the Queen of Bohemia was crowned as George I.

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nearly to the towns of Workum and Hindelopen, lies a pleasant grazing district called Nieuwlant. Here dwelt the respectable Dutch family of Bornstra, to one of whose members, a maiden of two-and-twenty years, named Gertrude, Henry De Forest was affianced. The same pleasing relations subsisted between her sister Margareta and Henry's cousin, Crispin. To marry, to leave the kindly covert of the parental roof, and go across the sea to a far country,-it was a bold adventure, to which the familiar passage of the Zuyder Zee, though that was often dan- gerous, was a trifling matter. But what confiding young bride ever refused to follow her Henry, wherever he might lead, and to feel safe under his protection? And so it was agreed that the nuptials in both cases should take place at the same time, and . in the seat of Dutch fashion, Amsterdam. Accordingly, on Sat- urday, June 7, 1636, the two happy pairs were there, and attended by Gerard De Forest, as voucher for his son and nephew, and having the written consent of the father of the brides, attested by Secretary Van Neck, of Nieuwlant, presented themselves in the chamber of the eminent regent and physician, Dr. Claes Tulp, and Jacob Bicker, both schepens, or magistrates, of the city, and also the "Commissaries of Marriages," to have their bans regis- tered as required by law, and to request the usual publication of the same. Names, residence, age, etc., being then recorded, and the record signed by the parties, this first public step toward their union, one so trying to bashful lovers, was taken. The next was to send notice to Leyden to have the bans published in the church on three succeeding Sundays; and this also having been done "without delay," the two couples, on Tuesday, July Ist, again attended by the father and uncle, Gerard, and by other friends, met in Amsterdam, and were married by Dominie Bau- dius, probably at the New Church, in the public place called the Dam, on whose register the event stands recorded.

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Revised History of Harlem (City of New York): Its Origin and Early Annals. : Prefaced by Home Scenes in the Fatherlands; Or Notices of Its Founders Before Emigration. Also, Sketches of Numerous Families, and the Recovered History of the Land-titles, Part 10

Author: Riker, James, 1822-1889 Publication date: 1904 Publisher: New York, New Harlem Pub. Number of Pages: 926

Author: Riker, James, 1822-1889
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: New York, New Harlem Pub.
Number of Pages: 926