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 45

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 45

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The high lands, stretching north from Van Huyse's line to Hendrick Bosch's farm at Moertje David's Fly (and which, being sold a few years later to Jacob De Key, became, after his time, the seats of the De Peysters and others, and on portions of which stand the Asylum for the Insane, and the Leake and

sold it the next year to John V'an Oblinus, the trusty friend of Marcus, and also his kinsman, if we are right as to the latter's parentage.

395

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

. Watts Orphan House), were yet in native woods; as was also the case with the greater stretch of heights and hollows which reached northerly from Harlem Plains to Sherman's Creek; but here the plough was soon to begin its work, in an Indian field, near the present Fort Washington, called the Great Maize Land .* Colonel Morris' trusty friend, William Bickley, had made an application, July 9, 1684, for a parcel of vacant land on the east side of the Harlem River, which, in the survey, made by Philip Wells, August 10, 1685, is described as :

A certain neck of land-lying upon the main, and adjoining upon Har- lem River; beginning at a certain spring or run of water to the south of Crab Island, which is the southwest corner of the land of John Archer, and runs into the woods by his line east, by a range of marked trees, forty chains, to a marked tree by a small run of water which is the west bounds of the land of Daniel Tourneur, and so by the run to a creek, t and so round by the creek to Harlem River, and then by the Harlem River to the said small spring or run of water to the south of Crab Island; the whole bounded north by the land of John Archer, east by a run of water, the west bounds of Daniel Tourneur, south by a creek, and west by Harlem River: containing in all one hundred and eighty-four acres and a half.

After an opportunity had been given for presenting objec- tions, a patent issued to Bickley May 13, 1686. Bickley sold this tract June 25, 1694, to Tourneur's son-in-law, Frederick De Vaux, whose descendants long owned it, and whence it was called De Voe's Point. Highbridgeville is on this tract.

* The Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty, of the city of New York, convey, July 21, 1701, to Jacob De Key, of the said city, bolter, for £237, "all that certain tract or parcel of land situate, lying, and being on the Island Manhattans, within the Out Ward of the city of New York, lying on the north side of the land of Teunis Ides, and beginneth at a certain old black oak tree marked with three notches, which stands in the southeast corner of the fence of Teunis Ides, and ranges along the fence of the said Teunis Ides northwest sixty chains to Hudson's River, and from thence along the said river northeast and by north (nearly) seventy chains, and from thence south- east and by east till it cuts the line of Harlem, ten chains, and from thence it runs directly south along the line of Harlem Commons eighty-eight chains to the place where it first began; containing in all two hundred thirty-five acres, three roods and eighteen perches, or thereabouts, all English measure; being bounded on the east by the Commons of Harlem, southerly by the land of Teunis Ides, and on the northwest side or thereabouts by Hudson's River, and upon the corner northerly by lands of Thomas Turneur; together with all and singular the pastures," etc .- Grants, City Comptroller's Office, vol. 2: 28.

t The Mannepies, or Cromwell's Creek, before named (see. pp. 251, 278) Crab Island, to which other references will be found, lay "in Harlem River, at or near the outlet of a small stream, near the old boundary line between Morrisania and the Manor of Fordham, which point is just below the Aqueduct or High Bridge." Com- municated, as the result of his inquiries, by Hon. Lewis G. Morris, and which is corroborated by the documents here quoted.

CHAPTER XXIII.

1685-1687.

WOLVES ; DELAVALL ESTATE : TENURES : TENTHS CANCELED: NEW STONE CHURCH ; GREAT MAIZE LAND; DONGAN'S PATENT : QUIT RENT ; CORPORATION RIGHTS : INDIAN CLAIM ; COMMON LAND : FRENCH GONE; DUTCH MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

A S the neighboring woodlands were gradually taken up, and here and there the ancient forest, subdued by the axe and burnings, gave place to new fallows and cornfields, it greatly disturbed the noxious animals still infesting this section of the island, and which, driven from their old haunts and feeding places, were led to prowl about the open fields in search of food or prey, and even to intrude within the paling of the barnyards. The wolves were especially annoying, and very destructive to the young cattle and stock running at large in the woods. The following order of the governor. authorizing a general foray upon these dangerous animals, to take place on the 6th of August. shows how serious was the evil, and no doubt afforded a day of rare and exciting sport for the young hunters of the town:

Upon the many complaints of the great mischief done by Wolves on the Island of Manhattans, and at the request and desire of several of the inhabitants of the said Island that they may have liberty and license to hunt and destroy the same: These may certify that liberty and license is hereby granted to any of the mhabitants of the said Island to hunt and destroy the said Wolves on Thursday next after the date hereof. Given under my hand at Fort James, this ist day of August, 1685.

THO. DONGAN.

Passed the office. J. SPRAGGE. Secretary.

There was a piece of woodland, about twelve acres, for which a bargain had been pending between the town and the late Cap- tain Delavall. the latter wanting it in exchange for two village lots. This bargain was now completed by John Delavall. On September 2, 1685, he and the town officers passed deeds in which they "acknowledge to have agreed upon an exchange of two

- 1

- - - -

397

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

house lots (erven), lying north of Johannes Verveelen,* and south of the highway. that belonged to Captain Delavall, which said house lots he, John Delavall, releases and delivers over to the aforesaid Constable and Magistrates, for the behoof of the said Town, for a parcel of woodland lying behind the lots of the said John Delavall, on Jochem Pieters, being the piece of woodland the before-named Captain Delavall applied for." This woodland, in a release of the "Three Lots," by Abraham Gouver- neur to Johannes Meyer, dated May 2, 1725, is referred to as "lands in possession of the heirs of James Carteret, deceased"; and by a subsequent division it came to be included, part with the Three Lots, and part with the Six Lots. Upon the lower end (defined by a double elbow in the old Harlem and Kings- bridge road, at 127th Street), the 7th Avenue and 128th Street cross each other, and upon the upper end, the 8th Avenue and 13Ist Street.

John Delavall, as heir at law, had succeeded to the remainder of all and singular the rights and prerogatives at Harlem which had pertained to his late father in his twofold capacity of free- holder and town patentee. As his sole executor he took the custody of all the lands and erven given by his father to his sons-in-law Carteret and Darvall. This last became necessary for the due discharge of his trusts as executor, the respective interests requiring adjustment, while the devise to Darvall was subject to the payment of certain debts due by the testator, in the settlement of which it was requisite for the executor to become a party. It does not appear that the disposition of his lands made by Captain Delavall, or his widow, ever pretended to any interest in these, after the 14th of January, 1687, when he gave Swynock and Milborne a full and absolute release of the lands conveyed to them conditionally by himself and Darvall, on the 24th of November, 1684. Although such claim must have been excluded under the rule which obtained in making the divisions, namely, that the common lands belonged only to those who held the erf and morgen rights.t

· Verveelen's lots on Van Keulen's Hook are here referred to. The house lots were afterward included in the John P. Waldron farm.

+ John Delavall, quite young when his father first came to this country, in 1664, probably remained in England, and arrived here with the family a few years later. He was brought up to a mercantile life in the city of New York, where he united with the Dutch church August 29, 1678. On October 14 ensuing, he sailed in the ship Blossom, upon a visit to England. Returning to his business here, his father, on November 24, 1680, in consideration of "natural affection and love," conveyed him a house and lot in Brewers or Stone street. After the death of his father, two -years later, the care of a large and somewhat involved estate did not hinder him from engag- ing in public duties. On September 10, 1684, he was commissioned captain of militia;

398

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

The kind of tenure under which the freeholders held their lands was justly regarded as of vital importance, and invites a notice. The grants made by government, both the Dutch and English, and whether to individuals or communities, were always conditional, imposing a counter obligation upon the grantee or grantees, to recognize the superior right of the lord or sovereign, and his claim upon their obedience and service. Some visible token of this was required annually, and whether the trivial gift of a peppercorn or fat capon, or a render of greater intrinsic value, it was none the less an act of homage, an acknowledgment of fealty on the part of the subject toward the superior. A rem- nant of feudal polity, it had this important advantage that the superior was no longer some imperious lord or suzerain, but a sovereign amenable to a constitution, and a government limited by laws framed with regard to the rights of the subject. So little of feudal law remained under the Dutch, as to impose few, if any, hard conditions upon the colonists, or to render the tenure of land in any degree precarious. But in the 12th year of Charles II., which was prior to the capture of New Netherland, the tenure by military service was abolished, and all sorts of tenures held of the king or others, with some unimportant exceptions, were converted into tenures by free and common socage, a species of tenure of great antiquity, and which, as then also modified, was neither military nor burdensome, but whose requirements were moderate, well-defined, and fixed. It was the specific nature of the service, duty, or render which made this species of tenure such a safeguard against the wanton cxactions of the feudal lords, and had given it an incalculable value with the English. When the service under this tenure was commutted to an annual pay-

but this honor he was soon constrained to renounce. It was consequent upon that radical change in his religious views which made him a non-combatant, a Quaker, and which is alluded to as follows, in a notice of the excellent woman who became his wife: "Being earnestly solicited in marriage by John Delavall, who, though a worthy man, was not at that time of the same religious communion, she, by her prudent con- duct and pious resolution to maintain the principles she professed, without deviating therefrom in a matter of such importance, did not agree thereto until he, after some time, embraced the truth in sincerity of heart, and bore his cross like an humble follower of Christ. He received a gift in the ministry, and continued faithful therein to his death." She was wont to say of him that "he never used to her an expression of anger, or the product of a disturbed mind." This lady, to whom he was married May 31, 1686, was Hannah, daughter of Thomas Lloyd, of New York, afterward gov- ernor of Pennsylvania. She was born in Wales in 1666, and was therefore some years his junior. Mr. Delavall subsequently removed to Philadelphia, where he continued his business, associated with Mr. John White, his late partner in New York. Here he died on August 10, 1693. "Faithful and zealous for the truth, a man of a tender, broken spirit," wrote one of Mr. Delavall who had known him personally, "he finished his testimony with a heart full of love to God and his people."

None of his children reached maturity. Eight years after his death his widow married Richard Hill, for some years Mayor of Philadelphia, and who survived her. She entered into rest February 25, 1727. (See Memorials, etc., of the People called Quakers; Phila., 1824. Also The Friend, Phila., vol. 27, p. 216). For the history of the property at Harlem, subsequent to the death of John Delavall, see The Delavall Lands, App. I.

399

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

ment in money or the produce of the land, such render was called Quit Rent.

The Tithes (or tenth part of the crop), which by arrange- ment between the freeholders of Harlem and Governor Stuy- vesant, the government was to receive annually, in and after the year 1666, were never exacted by the English rulers, and no specific charge of quit rent was made in Governor Nicolls' patents to said freeholders. Nor were they called upon to pay such rent till the time of Governor Dongan. But now, in order to enhance the revenues of his master, the Duke of York, and by his direct instructions, Dongan set about introducing a sys- tem of quit rents throughout the province, and making it retro- spective in its operation. The negotiations had with him by Harlem people on this subject resulted in a compounding for all back rents, for the full years expired since the English took pos- session of the country, beginning with 1665, at the nominal charge per year of one bushel of wheat. Having an obvious reference to the old claim for tenths above referred to, it at once took the place of and canceled every such claim, while it acquitted the inhabitants of all liability touching the same.

At a meeting of constable and magistrates, December 3, 1685, "for making up the quit rent for the Heer Governor," the lands were assessed at the rate of eight stivers per morgen, and the house lots, one guilder seventeen and one-half stivers each. Within a few days "this quit rent was paid to Mr. Cox, according to the order of the governor," and consisted of eighteen bushels of grain, which Adolph Meyer delivered, we presume at the mill on the Sawkill. This payment was in full up to (but not including) the year 1683, when Dongan became governor.

The tax list, which here follows, embraces only the erven actually built upon, and also excludes the half erven. As to the outside lands, Montagne's Flat is taken at the full number of morgen, less one vacant lot; the New Lots, at three morgen per lot, as far as assessed, those omitted being apparently such as were unimproved. At Spuyten Duyvel the rate is partial, as will be seen, and on Hoorn's Hook, only Peter Van Oblinus is assessed, his eighteen morgen being reckoned at half.

As exhibiting the state of the occupied lands, just prior to the granting of the Dongan patent, this list has special interest. Its value, with that of those previously given, may not indeed be at once apparent to the reader. Had the author's work been only for the present, and his object simply to gratify the popular taste for something novel and entertaining, he should hardly have

400

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

burdened his pages with these tables, much less have imposed upon himself the task of preparing them. But he has done both, and with the deliberate conviction that the exact information which these tables embody will prove them to be one of the most valuable features of this work. Time will not render them obsolete, so long at least as any question remains to be raised which will involve the landed rights of the Dongan patentees (and of those deriving under them) ; inasmuch as the estate of each patentee respectively, as exhibited in these tables, determined his share and interest in the vet undivided common lands. Taken in connection with lists of these lands given in the Appendix, they present a full and consecutive statement in regard to the original and early ownership, situation, quantity, etc., of the Harlem lands, such as in all probability can be shown of no other territory of equal extent, and undergoing like subdivision. Will someone, keeping the record. do as much for the lower section of Manhattan Island ?

At the meeting, December 3d, each householder was ordered to make a ladder to his chimney, within a month, or to be fined 6 gl., and Jan Nagel was mulct 25 gl. for putting his compost heap on the public street, contrary to the town regulation. In that era of straw roofs and wooden tenements special precaution against fire was necessary ; and several fires had actually happened in the village, causing great alarm and heavy losses.

This, no doubt, was one of the reasons which led to the gradual abandonment of the small village plots, and removal to their outside lands, for which we now observe a growing inclina- tion. Especially after the grants of 1677, the old rule against building out of the village, the necessity for which had ceased, fell into disuse, as it was found to seriously hinder the growth of the town, which could best be promoted by the occupation and improvement of the new lands as farms and homesteads. So the privilege to build was granted whenever applied for, usually by selling the party erf convenient to his land; the dwellings so erected on these farms being generally substantial stone houses, of which a very few are still standing. By a careful computation made at a meeting of the old and new magistrates, January 20, 1686, for laying a "repartitie," or assessment, to pay the parish clerk's salary due this date, "so are found 25 erven (house lots), and 393 morgen of land ; each house lot must pay 4 gl., and each morgen of land 101/2 st., for making up 300 gl."* This rate was

. This enumeration is valuable as embracing all the lands taken up, excepting the small parts of the three farms below Hoorn's Hook which lay within the patent line. The list of erven is obviously the same as that of December 3, 1685; the last

Owners, December 3, 1685.

Erven.

Morgen. |

Tax.

Joost van Oblinus.

f. 13 : 1712

Resolved Waldron.

II : .. 9/2

Barent Waldron

.. 9/2

Jan Nagel.

Daniel Tourneur.

512

Wid. Daniel Tourneur.

15 :

Jan Kyckuyt,1

1312

Laurens Jansen,

5/2

Arent Harmans,

: 5/2

Wid. Glaude Delamater

....

Adolph Meyer ...

7 : 1712

Cornelis Jansen,".

: 17/2

Johannes Verveelen. .

71/2

: 51/2

Jan Delamater

: 11/2

Maria Vermeije,

: 171/2

Jan Louwe,

51/2

Jan Dyckman

Pieter van Oblinus

912

William Haldron

171/2

John Delavall.

J. P., Nos. 14 to 22 @ 6 2-3 morgen; V. K. H., 21, 22.

William Cox ..

I : 171/2

Hoorn's Hook.

William Holmes.

I : 171/2

Hoorn's Hook.

Isaac Deschamps

I : 1712

Hoorn's Hook

I Brevoort.

2 Low.

Description of Property.

J. P., Nos. 7, 11, 13; V. K. H., Nos. 10, 11, 13, 16. V. K. H., Nos. 2, 3, 1/24, 1/29; N. L., Nos. 3, 4, 5, 9, 10. Gloudie's Point.

J. P., Nos. 6, 8, 9; S. D., 8 morgen. Montagne's Flat, 6 morgen.

J. P., No. 1 ; V. K. H., Nos. 17 double, 18, 19; M. F., 12 m. J. P., No. 5; V. K. H., No. 20; N. L., No. I. J. P., No. 2; V. K. H., 2-3 of 5, 6.

J. P., No. 12.

V. K. H., No. 12; M. Flat, 12 morgen (3 lots).

J. P., Nos. 4, 10; V. K. H., No. 14 J. P., No. 3; V. K. H., No. 15; M. F., 18 m .; N. L., No. 6. V. K. H., Nos. 7, 8, 129.

V. K. H., 1-3 of No. 5.

V. K. H., No. I.

Erf, since known as the Judah Plot.

Bogert's Point.

...

3 Bussing.

4 Kortright. 5 Widow Kip. 6 Bogert.

...

....

. . .

Johannes Vermelje.

...

V. K. H., 1/2 of 4, or 2 m .; M. F., 6 m .; S. D., 6 m. Hoorn's Hook.

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

401

402

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

levied, and received in grain. Also this year, as in the last, the inhabitants contributed toward Dominie Selyn's salary.

The care taken to keep up the common fences enclosing the farming lands appears in another order, needed to stay the dam- age being caused by swine.

There was good cause found by the Constable and the old and new Magistrates for an order in regard to the running of the hogs: So it was Resolved, to keep tight the fencing of Jochem Pieters up to the land of Capt. Delavall, and from the village to set it off till into the river; and to keep tight the fencing of Van Keulen's Hook from the village off till into the creek of the mill. And all shall be held within one year from the ensuing May, being the year 1687, to make the whole fencing around tight and sufficient. And if any hogs still be found out of the limits of the fencing, the owners shall be compelled to keep up their hogs-and shall continue till the year 1687. By order of the Constable. and Magis- trates, this 4th Feb., 1685-6.

Measures were now taken to build a new church. The old church was no longer adapted to the needs and improved tastes of the community, though still answering the purposes of a school-house. An invitation given them in 1680, to aid in the erection of a new church in the city, a work not yet begun, had perhaps suggested the present movement; and, not unlikely, it was part of a new agreement already made with Dominie Selyns, by which he was to administer the Lord's Supper at Harlem twice a year, in the spring and fall, during the intervals between its occurrence in New York. It was to be observed on a week- day, and this arrangement had gone into effect on Wednesday, April 22, 1685, when the first celebration of the Supper here, as a stated observance, took place. An extra large collection was taken by the deacons, Adolph Meyer and Jan Dyckman, amount- ing to 14 florins 9 stivers. On the next occasion, and for some years, while this arrangement lasted, the Supper was observed on Thursday, and the preparation for it the day before. From this time also obtained the practice of receiving new members here.

three on the said farms, being omitted. The list of morgen is made up as follows: Jochem Pieters Flat, 13 lots @ 6 morgen each. 78 m. do Delavall, 9 lots @ 6 2-3 m. 60 **

Van Keulen's Hook, 22 lots @ 3 m. 66 **

do for Tourneur's No. 17, add. 3

Montagne's Flat, 7 lots @ 6 m., 3 @ 4 m 54

Hoorn's Hook, 9 lots @ 4 m., I @ 6 m.

Bogert's Point ... 16 4

New Lots, 9 lots @ 4 m., 1 @ 6m. 42

Gloudie's Point, now rated at .. 12 "

Spuyten Duyvel, Dyckman and Nagel, 20

393

* Dyckman and Nagel owned 74 acres at Spuyten Duyvel. How they came to be rated at 20 morgen is shown in App. J.

403

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

The church was to be built of stone, and upon a new site; an arrangement being made with Laurens Jansen and the Dela- mater family, who gave up their two north erven for this pur- pose, and which also afforded ample ground for a new church- yard or cemetery. The community pledged themselves liberally, and assumed the labor of preparing and bringing the stone, lime, timber, shingles, lath, etc., all which was to apply on their sub- scriptions .* Tobias Stoutenburgh and Hyman Koninck, masons, the first brother-in-law to William Waldron, were employed, and by the 29th of March the foundation was begun; Resolved Waldron, with due ceremony, placing the first stone, and Johan- nes Vermelje the second. The following day the contract was made for the carpenter work with William Hellaker, of New York, half-brother of Teunis Ides, a good mechanic, and honest, though "a little rough." Here is the agreement :

Specification of the Church at Harlem: The size of the church, across it either way, is 36 Dutch feet; upon which William Hellaker under- takes to construct the roof, with an arch therein, and a small steeple upon it, and to cover all properly with shingles, and to make a scuttle thereto; upon condition that the people of the town shall be obligated to deliver the timber at the building place. For which the Constable and Magistrates promise to pay the aforesaid William Hellaker, the sum of Seven Hundred and Fifty Guilders, in Wheat, to be delivered at the current price. Thus arranged and agreed to in the presence of the after- named witnesses, and which, with our usual hand, is subscribed. Done at New Haerlem, this 30th of March, 1686.

Witnesses.

JOHANNES VERMELJE. RESALVERT WALDRON,

WILLEM HELLAKER,

JAN DE LAMETER, Constable,

DANIEL TOURNEUR,

JAN NAGEL.

Before me,

JAN TIBOUT, Clerk.

* Subscription for building the Church, 1686.

Daniel Tourneur.

f. 100

Jan Dyckman ...

100

Isaac Delamater ..

Cornelis Jansen Kortright.

100

Jan Louwe Bogert ..

100

Jan Hendricks Van Brevoort.

100

Jan Delamater ...

Barent Waldron

Laurens Jansen.

Jacques Tourneur

Adolph Meyer.

. Jan Nagel. ..

100

Joost Van Oblinus.

100

Arent Harmans Bussing 75

100

Abram Delamontanie

Thomas Tourneur. 25

Pieter Van Oblienis.

Johannes Vermelje.

f. 1365

Resolved Waldron ..

405

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

The walls, laid in good mortar, were soon up; the "bent timber" for the arch being placed in position, was well secured with clamps, the rafters were set, and the roof shingled. Wil- liam Haldron, the village smith, kept his forge and anvil busy on the iron work, of which he furnished 139 pounds, at 1 gl. IO st. a pound. And then came a proud moment for the vil- lagers ; it was when the gilded "haen," or weather-cock, with the cap on which it perched, was raised to its lofty position on the tip of the steeple .*

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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 45

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