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 3
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Let credit be given to those primary agencies which paved the way for the colonization of our country,-those hazardous but eventful voyages which began very early in the sixteenth century, when a new field for maritime adventure had but just been opened to Europe by the astounding discoveries of Columbus. It was the heroic enterprise of the merchants and mariners of the French seaports, Dieppe, Honfleur, St. Malo, Nantes, Rochelle, and others, which, favored by the national prosperity under Louis
" Oh, for a full toleration in that land with reason endeared to the American heart, when no such despotism shall tarnish the public character as the imprisonment of a Christian minister on the trivial charge ot exceeding his parish limits in the exercise of his functions ! We refer to the recent case of M. Lacheret (by report, not from him, but others), the excellent pastor of Maubeuge, on the Sambre, and a contributor of materials for this work. Quite too analogous, both as to spirit and locality, is this act of intolerance to others of past times recited in these pages. But we trust this enlightened nineteenth century will see that old and hideous blot upon the nation's honor effectually wiped out !
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XII., first thoroughly explored the North American coast, to find in the Newfoundland fisheries an exhaustless mine of wealth, and to ravish the popular mind with glowing fancies as to the char- acter and resources of the New World. Highly conducive to this were the several voyages of the Florentine Verrazzano, and Cartier of St. Malo, both sailing under the royal auspices of Francis I .: the former, after a visit to our coast and harbors in 1524, returning to Dieppe with report of his success; and the other, ten years later, the pioneer explorer of the bay and river St. Lawrence. And many a hapless expedition, as that of the Picard, Sieur de Roberval, and those growing out of the exigen- cies of the Huguenots prior to their first civil war, which, with the aid of Coligny and Calvin, undertook to plant colonies in Brazil and Florida, e'en by their misfortunes pointed most im- pressively to this remote land as the ultimate refuge for the oppressed of Europe. This idea of colonizing America, which in France slumbered during the civil wars, was revived in the time of Henry IV., and with greater promise under his en- lightened patronage; when the names of such daring spirits as De Vaux, Pontgrave and Champlain fill the page of maritime discovery, the last of whom in 1608 founded Quebec, the first permanent European colony in North America. The cotem- porary efforts of the Spaniards and English, in the same line of exploration, concern us less.
But Holland now appears, a rival in the field of discovery. Rife with the spirit of commerce, already enriched by her East India trade in spices, silks, and gems, and just concluding a fav- orable truce with Spain, which as the fruit of a glorious struggle was to virtually secure her independence, with the monopoly of this lucrative trade,-she opportunely joins in the arduous search . for that long-sought passage to the Indies by a western route, quicker, as was believed, than by the Cape of Good Hope. To this end was the voyage of Hudson from Amsterdam in 1609, which, though futile as to its specific object, startled the mer- chants and capitalists of Holland, alive to every new scheme of aggrandizement, with reports of the noble river explored by their bold English skipper and thereafter to bear his name; promising, in the affluence of its natural products, its forests of ship-timber, and its more valuable furs, to eclipse the fame of Newfoundland, and rival the wealth of the Indies. The importance of this dis- covery, confirmed by sundry trading voyages to Hudson's river, covering a series of years, led to the formation of the Dutch West India Company, under whose direction the first colonists pro-
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ceeded thither in 1623, composed chiefly of French or Walloons, who, driven from their own countries by war and persecution, had taken refuge in the free states of Holland.
From this small beginning, as we know, grew the flourishing states of New York and New Jersey, respecting whose origin the zeal and industry of the historian has left but little to be added, save in a knowledge of the pioneer colonists themselves. Of but few of the large number who came from the continental parts of Europe have we any personal account prior to their advent upon the American soil. Thrown upon these shores, as are the delicate sea-shells cast up by restless waves, whose alter- nate ebb and flow effaces their tiny furrows in the sand, our French and Belgic sires had emerged from rude billows of peril and conflict in their native lands, enough, in human view, to have swept away all trace of them there. We may follow them in their subsequent career, with rarely a failure, by means of scanty records ; but this opening chapter of their history, how difficult to recover it, especially where is missing the connecting link between the exile and his former home in the fatherland .*
To regain this lost link, this unknown page in the story of the colonist, so important a prelude to his after-life, and almost of necessity eventful and touching, became a prime object with the author. It was to trace these wanderers amid the scenes of their native lands and homes, where were their firesides, their altars, their fields of conflict, and to study them in the face of such circumstances as must have influenced their character and destiny. In resolving the causes that led them to abandon their native for a foreign soil, we should acquire the means wherewith to better apprehend them in their new sphere, which, however different, yet involved great sacrifice, danger, and hardship to themselves and families; insomuch that the problem of their strange exile could be clearly solved only by a knowledge of the rugged experiences which had impelled them thereto. Their antecedents must aid in forming an estimate of their personal worth, and in accounting for their peculiar tastes, habits, and attachments. Placing their simple virtues in bolder relief, even
* Tradition is rarely of much service in this connection. The extravagant stories that the worthy Demarest "purchased the whole of Harlem," and that the Benson ancestor, on coming here, "had the choice of the whole island." on which were "only five houses," are amusing specimens of the vague and unreliable utterances of tra- dition ! Demarest was a recently-arrived Huguenot exile, and as for Benson, he did not come to Harlem till sixty odd years after this settlement began.
It is quite natural to give credence to such traditions as are flattering to our ancestry. But few, comparatively, of our early colonists, on coming here, brought much wealth, and fewer, perhaps, had enjoyed rank and position in their own lands. Still, our colonists rise in the social scale with later investigations, and it becomes more apparent that wealth, rank, and culture were not such rare endowments with them as has been supposed.
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their foibles would seem more excusable, when viewed in con- tact with the sterner age in which they lived, the conflicts they had to wage, and the circumscribed light and advantages which fell to their lot.
So judging, the author was led to make such inquiries abroad as have resulted in the recovery of many interesting details touching the first settlers at Harlem prior to their emigration ; facts which, buried for centuries in the musty archives of the fatherlands, now come to us with all the novelty of an original narrative .*
Traced to many parts of Western Europe, from the sunny plains of France to the bleak, fir-clad hills of old Scandinavia, these founders of Harlem were neither exclusively nor mainly Hollanders, as has been the common opinion. From the last- named section came sturdy Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, in faith Lutherans, and inured to toil, with manners betraying the blood of the brusk Norsemen, once the scourge of France and the British Isles; but as the native asperity had been softened under ages of culture, so had hard fortune, in the case of these exiles, added its chastening effects. They were few in number,
. Baron W. J. C. Rammelman Elsevier, Archivist at Leyden, Holland, to whom I here express my thanks, has furnished materials of the utmost value, extracted, with much painstaking, from the ancient archives of the city, the University, and the Dutch and Walloon churches there. Mr. Frederick Muller, of Amsterdam, also heartily interested himself in causing similar searches to be made at Amsterdam, Slooterdyke, and Haarlem, by Mr. Magnin, Brother of the Order of the Netherland Lion, and former Archivist of Drenthe. Mr. Osgood Field, of London, who, in hours spared from mercantile duties, has proven his love for the historic field, also has my warm acknowledgments for aid in procuring, through Mr. H. G. Somerby, since deceased, important extracts from the registers of the Walloon churches of London and Canter- bury; as also other data from parish registers at Newcastle-on-Tyne, copied by Rev. R. Gould, of Earsdon Vicarage. Also Mr. W. Noel Sainsbury, of Her Majesty's State Paper Office, for materials in his custody. Thanks are due to Rev. N. Weiss, late of Paris, for the hearty interest he manifested in my labors, and who supplied some useful items from the records at Avesnes, obtained through the agency of M. Lacheret, pastor at Maubeuge; and also a valuable brochure upon the church of Le Cateau, besides many facts and suggestions pertaining to the general subject of the Huguenot refugees and the specific names submitted to him,-he also having the kindness, un- solicited, to lay one of my letters before the Societe de l'Histoire du Protestantisme francais, a member of which, M. Bordier, an able historian, politely lent his efforts to further its object. Also to Hon. Edward M. Smith, U. S. Consul at Mannheim, for instituting searches in that city; and to the gentlemen who engaged in them: Mr. Eduard Lemp, custodian of the city archives; Herr von Feder, Deputy of the Second Chamber and Historian of Mannheim; and M. Ruckhaber, pastor of the Concordia, late Walloon church. Also to M. Gerlach, pastor of the Walloon church, Middleburg, Zeeland, who sought to satisfy my inquiries, but found nothing in his registers. M. Louis Bardy, Mayor of Sedan, also politely attentive to my inquiries, assures me, with regret, that they have no registers for the period I had indicated. An article con- cerning the Carterets and Pipons, inserted in the British Press, island of Jersey. brought a response from a lineal descendant of Capt. James Carteret, Mrs. Braith- waite, of Terrace House, St. Helier, daughter of the late Gen. James Pipon, of Noir- mont, in that island, and whom I have to thank for several communications. And I am also happy to acknowledge the valuable aid given me in the specialite to which this note refers by the late lamented Professor Pierre Blot, and the artist, Mr. Ed. Kalshoven. of New York, but till recently of Amsterdam; as also by Mr. John Cal- lanan, of Binhamton, N. Y., deserving to be better known, and who loves to roam amid the florid scenes of his native isle. Jersey. His kindness has procured us the view of the St. Quen. or De Carteret Manor-House, obligingly furnished at his request by his friend, Philip J. Oules, Esq., of St. Helier, artist and author of "Scenic Beauties of the Island of Jersey."
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yet included several of undoubted worth and superior attain- ments.
Other exceptions there were; but the community was made up mainly and in about even proportion of Hollanders and French Huguenots: names than which none suggest a truer ideal of sterling character, of patriotism, exalted faith, and heroic suffering. Nor do our settlers cast discredit upon this general estimate of these classes. They and their families had sacrificed much in behalf of liberty and the reformed religion. They were men of probity, equal to those of their times in intelligence, edu- cation, and enterprise. Highly industrious, they scorned, even in poverty, any dependence upon the charitable, while they could practise an honest trade or handicraft, such as they invariably possessed. In a word, their record, though not faultless, well sustains this general good character. Tried men, used to con- quering difficulties, undaunted by the exposure and peril incident to a wild, a hostile land, theirs was the arduous work of con- structing a new society, a civilization to which despotic Europe was then a stranger, or which it could not tolerate. Its safe guards, invaluable even for the security of life and estate,-the church, the school, the civil magistracy,-they were careful to bring with them, to plant and nurture as on a more congenial soil; and which, deeply rooted, and with broad spreading branches, still yield for us their golden fruits. How and under what circumstances they acquired these valuable ideas which possessed them, this peculiar fitness for their high destiny as colonists and founders of empire, is surely a most inviting sub- ject of inquiry.
3. GLIMPSES OF THE FATHERLANDS.
To catch the spirit and genius of the times under review is to ignore such changes, political, moral, and physical, as three centuries have wrought; for Europe of to-day is not the Europe of the sixteenth century. By the light of the historic past, its wealth of significant fact and incident is more clearly revealed. In the land of the Huguenots the remote eras of the Gaul, the Roman, and the Frank yet lived in piquant story, and might be traced in existing monuments as well as in musty tomes. Still in popular use were the old provincial names, time-honored and interwoven with all the history of the country; for not yet had revolution stripped the French provinces of these means of iden- tity, in its well-conceived but too radical onslaught upon feudal
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rights and institutions. An exhaustless theme, with our Hugue- not refugee, was his dear old Picardie, or Artois, or Norman- die; the talisman which in his remotest wanderings, e'en till death closed his exile, recalled all that was endearing in the word home. In church and state the ancient regime was intact. The old provincial dynasties which had grown up and flourished under the feudal system, but whose lines of puissant counts and dukes were long since extinct, lived even yet in important senses, not only in monumental stones and structures, and in the local annals and traditions, but in countless charters, privileges, laws and usages still prized and cherished by the people. History, as if to deepen its impress upon the popular heart, had scattered its monuments over the soil with lavish hand; and around these, time,-which in the annals of Gaul meant a score of centuries,- had woven its weird and marvellous legends, often a tax upon credulity, but perchance too real: some tale of gallant heroism, of gentle piety, or dark superstition, touching the heart or quick- ening the blood, but, whether true or otherwise, a telling para- phrase upon the national traits or instincts. The old baronial castle proudly rearing its towers was rich in reminiscences of warlike feudal times. The razing its ponderous walls as mate- rial for the mason ?- sacriligious thought. Dingy cloisters, over whose turrets crept venerable ivy, still swarmed with pious monks, yet had come to be symbolic of that moral darkness which in the early ages first drove the gentle handmaids' religion and learning to the covert of such strong and friendly walls. Held by the masses in profound veneration, they evidenced the singular religious fervor of the race. But here's a touching emblem, the cross,- it is coarsely fashioned in stone,-which surprises one in some rural solitude, but near the highway, so none may fail to see it, and, kneeling, offer up a paternoster. Mute; yet it tells, maybe, the affecting tale of some early martyrdom, or of the gallant brave slain in battle, on this now sacred spot. How suggestive of that strong, unnatural alliance between war and religion ; whence bloody crusades against Turks, Albigenses, and Vaudois, and, we may add, the Huguenot wars.
Between.the cities or villages all is forest, or heath, or tilled lands, but alike a solitude, unbroken by cheery farm-houses or villas; no fences even, but rows of ancient yews, or hedge of flowering holly or thorn, or yet the natural streams, to mark the limits of estates. The farmer, however distant his acres, lives in town or hamlet. The wealth, industry and social life concentre in teeming cities or towns. These are mostly seated
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on the rivers,-the latter almost the only medium of domestic trade and travel,-or upon the old Roman. ways; cross-roads were few and neglected. Treasuries of all that was venerable and curious were these cities. Many had sprung from rude towns of the Gauls, and owed their first significance to Roman civilization and law and the architectural and other improve- ments then introduced,-still attested by noble ruins, found every- where, of fine structures, besides immense stretches of paved military roads, bringing the chief places into easier communica- tion. Shut up in massive walls, the city, each within itself, was a little world, sparing, beyond the necessities of trade, of any intercourse or sympathy with others around it. The older portions were easily told, the houses so antique, the streets nar- row and crooked, with a gutter running down the centre. Through others ran canals, lined with vessels receiving or dis- charging merchandise, and where stood the tiled houses, two or three stories high, occupied by merchants or traders, who mainly composed the burghery,-the enterprising and well-to-do middle class. More pretentious were the mansions of the lords and gentry,-the upper strata of society; the. lower,-the toiling ar- tisans and work people,-tenanting squatty, cottage-like houses, their low eaves overhanging the humble doorway, with windows, or little lookouts, not the best for admitting air or sunlight, but quite large enough in cold or stormy weather, since window- glass was too great a luxury for the poor. But the clergy often surpassed even the nobility in the richness and comfort of their abodes, which with monasteries and other houses of the religious orders, usually well endowed, engrossed a large area within the cities. Above the clustering gables arose the turrets and crosses of parish churches not a few, and the lofty spire and pinnacles of the stately cathedral; witnesses alike to the devotion and taste of their votaries, but the latter the crowning glory of the city, whether for the grandeur of its design, or for its wealth of sculptures, frescoes, and paintings. Within, its lofty solemn arches inspired the worshiper with reverence and awe; its very plan, a cruciform, told where his faith should rest; and even the dumb effigies of the noble dead, recumbent on their costly tombs in the silent transept, read him a lesson upon his own mortality. Still, in aid of his devotions, were images, tapers, and clouds of incense; with "sacred relics" in profusion, ac- credited with healing power and other miraculous virtues, and rarely excepting either a piece of "the true cross," or the denuded bones of the city's ancient patron, and still guardian
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saint. The citadel afforded secure quarters to the royal governor, who need fear no disaster incident to those times, as insurrec- tion, or those more dreaded from want of skill to cope with them,- fire, famine, and pestilence,-which often caused fearful ravages. But what recuperative energy had these cities, and to what un- wonted prosperity they attained, especially in the wool and flax working districts of the Netherlands and Northern France. Grand displays characterized the periodical fairs and the frequent religious festivals. Tournament and feats at arms were the high sport of the nobility; their pastime, hunting or hawking. Tennis or ball playing was the great popular game, and dancing the universal amusement for both sexes. Ancient and often grotesque customs were kept up with great spirit. Crowning the rosiere was a usage not only very ancient (instituted by St. Medard of Noyon, in Picardy, in the fifth century), but pretty and touching. It was the public presentation of a hat bedecked with roses to the most exemplary maiden of the town or village. The entire family of the recipient share the honor. "The crown of roses," says the Countess de Genlis, "is expected with emotion, awarded with justice, and establishes goodness, rectitude and virtue in every family."
One of the cities most closely identified with our refugees was Amiens. Within its encircling moat and high massive walls, strengthened at short distances by round abutments and towers, it was not then the open, airy town it now is, since its sombre walls have given place to a handsome boulevard; but it was noted "for the beauty of its buildings, and for the quality, industry and number of its inhabitants." The city lay south of the Somme, whose main channel formed a bend around its . northern part known as the Old or Lower Town, where three branches also entered it under arches in the wall, and which, diffusing into canals, threaded its narrow streets, here lined by low and antiquated dwellings and shops, and uniting again on the western side, escaped by a single outlet at St. Michel's Bridge. To this portion, which had led Louis XI. to call . Amiens his Little Venice, lay joining 'southerly a larger part known as the Upper Town, having broad and quite regular streets, fine houses, mainly two stories high and of uniform style, with two spacious squares "where seven fair streets centred." Henry IV. had built its city hall and citadel, the latter in the form of a star, with five sharp angles, command- ing the northern approach to the city, and though still incom- plete, deemed impregnable. But all its fine edifices, the bishop's
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palace not excepted, paled before its grand cathedral, Notre Dame, pronounced at that time "the fairest and most lovely structure in the West of Europe." In plan the usual cruciform, it dated from 1220, when its foundations were laid; excepting as to its western front, which was of later construction, very rich in Gothic decorations, and flanked by two massive unfinished square towers of unequal height. From over the transept arose a light and airy spire three hundred and seventy feet high. It would consume too much space to describe its interior magnifi- cence. Among its treasured relics was the decapitated head of John the Baptist, alleged to have been brought by a Picard crusader from Constantinople, after its capture in 1204. Its great value consisted in its entire genuineness, though this was not quite demonstrated till 1665, when done in a learned treatise prepared at the request of the chapter by the great savant of Amiens, Sieur du Cange! Another relic they had, equally reai, and hardly less valuable,-the finger of "doubting Thomas," which had restored his faltering faith by a touch of the Saviour's wounds! If aught could better show how strong a grasp old superstitions had upon the popular mind at Amiens, it needed but a stroll among its numerous abbeys and parish churches, or through its great cemetery of St. Denis, hard by the cathedral, where monumental crosses, antique and moss-grown, told the faith in which slept its dead of many centuries.
Amiens was the city of the brave Ambiani, who having sent a strong force to oppose the victorious Cæsar, were at last ob- liged to open their gates to this mighty conqueror. Galling as was the yoke, it was alleviated by the benefits of the Roman municipal government, with its magistracy and senate, having a share in enacting the laws and dispensing justice. Upon the introduction of Christianity the people chose their own bishops, -a right they had ever since exercised, save when obstructed by violence or arbitrary rulers. After the Frank conquest, near the end of the fifth century, the powers of the magistrates were extended, the senate was opened to all citizens, including the clergy; and the bishop, whose functions before were scarcely more than spiritual, became, by the elective vote of the people, president of the municipal body, and thus was invested with a temporal authority and a chief influence in all the affairs of the city. The Frankish kings also established in this, as in other principal cities, a civil and military governor, called a count, who exercised the powers of judge. Charlemagne, among other beneficial changes, created judges called scabini, who were
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elected conjointly by the count, the imperial officers and the peo- ple, by which the citizen acquired a new and valued right; the political and administrative power being now shared by the bishop, the count, and these judges. It was the suspension by the counts in feudal times of this important franchise, with other abuses of power, that led the burghers of Amiens to form that compact for their protection called the commune. This was effected at the beginning of the twelfth century (1113), when, revolting against the encroachments of the count and the exac- tions of the viscounts which he had arbitrarily substituted for the judges, the people, excited thereto by the bishop, and sus- tained by the king, Louis VI., constituted themselves an incor- poration, adopting a charter which served as a model for many other communes in the North of France. "The commune," says Thierry, "was sovereign, because it had the right of self-govern- ment by its proper laws, and the right of life and of death over all its members; it had, following the language of the ancient jurisprudence, high, middle, and low justice. Its power, legis- lative, administrative, and judicial, was delegated by it to a corps of elective magistrates, renewed each year, and whereof the head bore the title of mayor (maire), and the members that of echevin, or the joint titles of echevin and prevot." King Philip Augustus confirmed these rights by a charter in 1190, and this ancient form of government still subsisted at Amiens. How it had become a great commercial city, the struggles of its citi- zens in all the centuries past to preserve their privileges against domestic and foreign enemies, and countless other incidents of its history, are not essential to our present design.
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