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 47
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As rights and privileges within the township of Harlem very akin to some of these, and in some respects more ample, had heretofore been granted the inhabitants by the patent of Gov. Nicolls, its confirmation was now deemed imperative to pre- serve and insure these valuable franchises to them, their heirs, or successors. A pledge to bear equally the expense of the new patent had been circulated in the town, and signed by the whole community. This was entered on the records at the meeting held Nov. 4th, 1686, when the resolution passed to fence the churchyard.
To digress a little : At this time action was also taken for pro- tecting the common woodlands. "Whereas, great damage has happened therein by the destruction of the timber," so the order
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read, "every one is hereby forbidden to cut any wood within the limits of the Town more than he wants for his own use, under penalty of £5, being 200 guilders."
But the court on this occasion found itself "weakened by animosities." The old board had been invited to sit with the new ; but one from each, namely. Cornelis Jansen and his brother Laurens, were absent, the latter having just left on a visit to his kinsfolk, the Roosas, at Esopus, where he and his cousin Rever Michielsen had been only the year before .* Two of the other members had a quarrel, one of the old and one of the new board, Jan Nagel and Jan Dyckman, before such good friends-all be- cause a goose of Nagel's, getting into Dyckman's grain, had been bitten by his dog. To settle this weighty matter Joost van Oblinus and Adolph Meyer were. "for this time," called to the bench.
On further deliberation upon the subject of their patent. another paper, designed to amend the former action, was drawn up and signed by the inhabitants, as follows, and the value of which constituted in this, that it pledged them to a pro rata dis- tribution of the lands held in common, and which plan was adhered to in all the general allotments subsequently made. Those with the signs made their marks.
The underwritten Persons subscribe to pay according to their estates. and are to draw in proportion to their estates, of the common woods : >
Resalvert Waldron, Pieter van Oblienis,
Joost Van Oblinus.
Johannes Vermelje,
Daniel Tourneur,
Jan Delamater,
Jan Hendricks van Brevoort. 8.
Laurens Jansen, +
Arent Harmans. Abram de Lamontanie,
Isaac Delamater,
Jan Louwe Bogert,
Jan Nagel.
Jacqueline Tourneur.
Cornelis Jansen,
Jacques Tourneur, S T.
Jan Dyckman, Barent Waldron.
Hester Delamater. H.
Adolph Meyer, AD.
New Haerlem. 8th January, 1686-7.
JAN TIDOUT, Clerk.
* The Roosa family, since so multiplied in Ulster and adjacent counties, and known also as Rosa and Rose, came from Herwynen, Gelderland; sailing from Hol- land for this country, in the ship Bonte-koe. April 15, 1660. There were Albert Heymans Roosa, his wife, Weilke de Jonge, and eight children between the ages of 2 and 17 years. Directly on arrival, Roosa went to Esopus (no doubt at the instance of Roelof Swartwout. a fellow passenger returning to that place); where he and his wife united with the church, of which, two years later. he became an elder. Governor Stuyvesant giving a name to Wiltwyck. May 16. 1661, appointed Roosa one of his first schepens. flere he took up land, for which he got a patent August 10, 1664. Hle was a man of firm will and great energy. being also "wonderful strong and quick." Roosa died February 27. 1679, leaving a good estate to his children, who were: Hey- man, born 1643: Arien, born 1645, and Jan, born 1651-by all whom the name was perpetuated-and daughters, Ilke. Mary. Nceltic and Jannetie. The last was married to Matthys Ten Eyck, of New York, like to Roelof Kierstead, Neeltie to Henry Pawling, and Mary to Laurens Jansen, of Harlem.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
Meanwhile the new patent was drawn up. The names of those who had subscribed the paper of January 8th were entered as patentees, only that Jacqueline Tourneur stood also for her son Jacques, and Peter Parmentier took the place of Jan Louwe Bogert. Then four others were added, namely, John Delavall, in the stead of his father, the councilor Spragge, Johannes Verveelen, and William Haldron, the smith, all freeholders. Being submitted to the attorney-general, James Graham, who found "nothing contained therein prejudicial to His Majesty's interest," the patent was approved in council March 7th, and signed by the governor." It read as follows :
THOMAS DONGAN, Captain-General, Governor-in-Chief, and Vice-Admiral in and over the Province of New York, and its dependen- cies thereon in America, under His Majesty James the Second, by the Grace of God, of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland, King, De- fender of the Faith, &c., To all to whom these Presents shall come, sendeth Greeting :- Whereas Richard Nicolls, Esq., formerly Governor of this Province, hath by his certain writing or Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of October, Anno Dom. One Thousand Six Hundred Sixty-Seven, Did Give, ratify, confirm, and grant unto Thomas Dela- vall, Esq., John Verveelen, Daniel Tourneur, Joost Oblinus, and Re- solved Waldron, as Patentees, for and on the behalf of themselves and their Associates, the freeholders and inhabitants of New Harlem, their heirs, successors, and assigns, All that tract, together with the several parcels of land, which they then had, or after should be pur- chased, or procured, for and on the behalf of the said Town, within the bounds and limits hereafter set forth and expressed, vizt. That is. to say, from the west side of the fence of the said Town, a line being run due west four hundred English poles, without variation of the compass, and at the end thereof another line being drawn across the Island north and south with the variation, that is to say, north from the end of a cer- tain piece of meadow ground, commonly called the Round Meadow, near or adjoining unto Hudson's or the North River, and south to the place where formerly stood the Saw Mills, over against Verkens or Hog Island in the Sound or East River, shall be the western bounds of their lands. and all the lands lying and being within the said line so drawn north and south as aforesaid, eastward to the end of the Town and Harlem' River, or any part of the said River on which this Island doth abut, and like- wise on the North and East Rivers, within the limits aforementioned described, doth and shall belong to the said Town; As also four lots of meadow ground upon the Main, marked with Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4. lying over against the Spring, where a passage hath been used to ford
* John Spragge, being a member of the Governor's Council, and owning the Baignoux farm, managed to get his name into the Patent. He was present in Council when the Patent was passed upon, March 7, 1687, but diretly after sailed with dispatches for England, and appears not to have returned to this country. On Decem- ber 6, 7. 1690, he conveyed his farm aforesaid to Dr. Daniel Cox, of London, who, on April 28, 1692, empowered his agent, Jeremiah Bass, Esq., of New Jersey, to sell it. No common land was ever laid out within the Harlem Patent, in virtue of this freehold. The next two farms south of Spragge's, also partly within the patent line, fared no better; except that William Holmes drew a five-morgen lot in 1691. He owned the centre farm and had paid a small sum on the Patent. But in the subsequent divisions these three farms had no share; the rule obtaining that those only who had helped bear the expense of the general Patent, were named therein, and held morgen and erf rights under it (the three farms holding under special patents), were entitled to draw of the common land.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
over from this Island to the Main, and from thence hither, With a small Island commonly called Stony Island, lying to the east of the Town and Harlem River, going through Bronck's Kill, by the little and great Barn's Islands, upon which there are Also four other lots of meadow ground, marked with Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4; Together with all the soils, creeks, quarries, woods, meadows, pastures, marshes, waters, lakes, fish- ing, hawking, hunting and fowling, and all other profits, commodities, emoluments and hereditaments to the said land and premises, within the bounds and limits set forth, belonging, or in any wise appertaining, And also freedom of commonage for range and feed of cattle and horses. further west into the woods upon this Island, as well without as within their bounds and limits set forth and expressed; To have and to hold all and singular the said lands, island, commonage, hereditaments, and premises, with their and every of their appurtenances, and of every part and parcel thereof, unto the said Patentees and their Associates, their heirs, successors, and assigns, to the proper use and behoof of the said Patentees and their Associates, their heirs, successors, and assigns forever. And whereas Richard Nicolls, Esq., did likewise ratify, con- firm, and grant unto the said Patentees and their Associates, their heirs, successors, and assigns, All the rights and privileges belonging to a Town within this government, With this proviso. or exception, that in all mat- ters of debt or trespass of or above the value of Five Pounds, they shall have relation unto and dependence upon the Courts of this City, as the other Towns have upon the several Courts of Session to which they do belong: And that the place of their present habitation shall continue and retain the name of New Harlem, by which name and style it shall be distinguished and known in all bargains and sales, deeds, writings, and records; And that no person whatsoever should be suffered or per- mitted to erect any manner of house or building upon this said Island, within two miles of the limits and bounds aforementioned, without the consent and approbation of the major part of the inhabitants of the said Town; And whereas the said Town lies very commodious for a Ferry, to and from the Main, which may redound to the particular benefit of the inhabitants, as well as to a general good, the freeholders and inhabitants of the said town should, in consideration of the benefits and privi- leges therein granted, as also for what advantage they might receive thereby, be enjoined and obliged, at their own proper costs and charge, to build or provide one or more boats fit for the transportation of men, horses, or cattle, for which was to be a certain allowance given by each particular person, as should be then ordered and adjudged fit and rea- sonable; They, the said Patentees and their Associates, their heirs, suc- cessors, and assigns, Rendering and paying such duties and acknowledg- ments as then were or after should be established by the laws of this government, under the obedience of His Royal Highness, his heirs and successors, as in and by the said Patent, remaining upon record in the Secretary's Office, reference being thereunto had, doth fully and at large appear. And whereas, the present inhabitants and freeholders of the Town of New Harlem aforesaid have made their application unto me for a more full and ample confirmation of their premises to them, their heirs, successors, and assigns forever, in their quiet and peaceable possession : Now know Ye, that by virtue of the commission and au- thority to me derived, and power in me residing, in consideration of the premises. and of the Quit Rent hereinafter reserved, I have given, granted, ratified, and confirmed, and by these presents do give, grant. ratify, and confirm unto John Delavall, Resolved Waldron, Joost van Oblinus, Daniel Tourneur. Adolph Meyer, John Spragge, Jan Hendricks Brevoort, Jan Delamater, Isaac Delamater, Barent Waldron, Johannes Ver- melje, Lawrence Jansen, Peter van Oblinus, Jan Dyckman, Jan Nagel, Arent Harmanse, Cornelis Jansen, Jacqueline Tourneur, Hester Delamater,
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Johannes Verveelen, William Haldron, Abraham Montanie, Peter Par- mentier,* as Patentees, for and on behalf of themselves the present free- holders and inhabitants of the said Town of New Harlem, their heirs, successors, and assigns, All and singular the before recited tract ,parcel and parcels of land and meadow, butted and bounded as in the said Patent is mentioned and expressed, together with all and singular the mes- suages, tenements, houses, buildings, barns, stables, orchards, gardens, pastures, mills, mill-dams, runs, streams, ponds, woods, underwoods, trees, timber, fencing, fishing, hawking, hunting, and fowling, liberties, privileges, hereditaments, and improvements whatsoever to the said tract of land and premises belonging, or in any wise appertaining, or accepted, reputed, taken, or known, or used, occupied, and enjoyed, as part, par- cel, or member thereof, with their and every of their appurtenances ; Always provided, that nothing contained therein shall be construed to prejudice the right of the City of New York, or any other particular right; and saving to the said City of New York, and their successors forever, and also saving to every particular person, his heirs and assigns, that have any right, interest or estate within the limits of the said Town of New Harlem, as well as without the limits of the said Town of Harlem, full power, liberty and privilege to build, cultivate and im- prove all such tracts and parcels of land as the said City of New York now have, or hereafter shall have, within or without and adjacent to the limits of the Town of Harlem aforesaid; As also the commonage, of the Town of Harlem aforesaid, is to be confirmed within the limits above- said, and the right of commonage to extend no further, any grant or thing contained herein to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding : To have and to hold the said several tracts and parcels of land and premises, with their and every of their appurtenances, unto them the said John Delavall, Resolved Waldron, Joost van Oblinus, Daniel Tour- neur, Adolph Meyer, John Spragge, Jan Hendricks Brevoort, Jan Dela- mater, Isaac Delamater, Barent, Waldron, Johannes Vermelje, Lawrence Jansen, Jan Dyckman, Jan Nagel, Arent Harmanse, Cornelis Jansen, Peter van Oblinus, Jacqueline Tourneur, Hester Delamater, Johannes Verveelen, William Haldron, Abraham Montanie, Peter Parmentier, as Patentees for and on the behalf of themselves, their heirs, successors, and assigns, to the sole and only proper use, benefit, and behoof of the said Patentees, their heirs, successors, and assigns forever; To be holden of His Most Sacred Majesty, his heirs and successors, in free and common socage, according to the tenure of . East Greenwich, in the County of Kent, in His Majesty's Kingdom of England; Yielding, rendering and paying therefor, yearly and every year forever, on or before the Five and Twentieth day of March, in lieu of all services and demands what- soever, as a Quit Rent, to His Most Sacred Majesty aforesaid, his heirs and successors, or to such officer or officers as shall be appointed to re- ceive the same, Sixteen bushels of good winter merchantable Wheat, at the City of New York. In testimony whereof I have caused these presents to be entered upon record in the Secretary's Office, and the Seal of the Province to be hereunto affixed, this Seventh day of March, 1686, and in the Third year of His Majesty's reign .*
THO. DONGAN.
* These names are strangely distorted in the Patent, as "Recorded for the Inhabi- tants of Harlem," in Liber 6, page 192, of Patents, in the Secretary of State's Office, Albany; showing gross carelessness somewhere, either on the part of the recording clerk, the draftsman, or the person who made out the list. They are here corrected from indisputable data; and the entire document is also relieved from the crudities of the old spelling, which serve no purpose but to mar the text.
* The Manor of East Greenwich was an ancient Crown domain, which had been given successively to several monastic institutions, but was finally recovered from one of these, in exchange for other lands, by Henry VIII. in the 23d year of his reign. On the sale of the Crown lands, under Cromwell, this Manor was reserved for the use of the State, and at the Restoration fell again to the Crown, in which it con-
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
It now remained to discharge the arrears of quit rent, and pay for the patent. To this, for the time being, some of the payments on the church had to give way, as before stated. On March 29th Jan Louwe Bogert brought in his wheat to the constable, as did others on the same date, and on April 5th nearly all the rest. It was deposited in the loft of the town house, over 130 schepels, preparatory to being taken to New York: Constable Brevoort carted from the loft, April 29th, four bushels of wheat as the balance due for quit rent, under the commutation, to wit, for the years 1683 to 1686 inclusive.+ On June 3d William Holmes paid II florins on the patent, though not named as a patentee, for which he was allowed to draw of the common land in the first general allotment, in 1691. On October 18th Johannes Verveelen made the last payment, y florins, 12 stivers in money, by the hand of his daughter, Mrs. Meyer. The whole cost of the patent was something over 800 guilders.
The Dongan patent was professedly designed for quieting the freeholders and inhabitants in their ancient rights and priv- ileges. Save that it annuls the restriction upon the erection of buildings, and cuts off the outside commonage (a most unwar- rantable measure), it simply confirms what Nicolls' patent had granted. The several persons holding under Andros' grants to Elphinstone and others, and not named in the patent, were held to be thereby excluded from its provisions, and from any share with the other patentees in the common lands. The limits of the patent,' recited somewhat awkwardly, but never meant to be indefinite or uncertain, plainly included so much of Manhattan Island as lay to the east and north of the given line, and border-
tinued till the accession of James II. to the throne, in 1685, when it was bestowed on his queen as part of her jointure. It was apparently in compliment to the queen that it was now taken and cited as a pattern tenure, enjoying all the advantages of the free and common socage, briefly explained on a former page. The term socage as here used is derived by Blackstone from the Saxon soc, a privilege, and hence bere denoting a privileged tenure, but others very plausibly refer it to soca, a plough. (See Blackstone: the chapters on English Tenures.) The date of the above Patent is given in Old Style, by which the year began March 27. According to our present reckoning it should be 1687.
The Quit Rent charged by the Dongan Patent continued to be assessed upon the freeholders. and paid to the Receiver-General, down to the opening of the Revo- lution, from which time no further payments were made for a term of forty years. The State Legislature had passed a law, in 1786, providing for the commutation and collection of all quit rents due on the numerous land patents granted by the English colonial governors; but nothing was done in relation to the Harlem Patent till 1815. In this year it was advertised, with many others, to be sold for the arrearages; but the claim was then cancelled by the Comptroller of the city of New York, Thomas R. Mercein, who, on November 1, 1815. paid to the State Treasurer, in three per cent. stock, the sum of $547.50, in full satisfaction of all the quit rents which had accrued upon the Harlem Patent since March 25. 1774, and also in commutation of all the prospective rents. This exaction of the quit rent premises the validity of the early colonial patents: but this point is clearly admitted by the contitution of this State. which annuls all colonial grants and charters made subsequent to October 14, 1775, but affects none given prior to that date.
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ing upon the "Harlem River, or any part of the said river on which this Island doth abut, and likewise on the North and East Rivers." It expressly comprehended "all the soils, creeks, quarries, woods, meadows, pastures, marshes, waters, lakes, and all other profits, commodities, emoluments, and hereditaments to the said lands and premises, within the bounds and limits set forth, belonging, or in anywise appertaining."
If these premises be admitted, and if the vacant lands, etc., granted by Dongan's charter to the Corporation of New York, were, as that charter says, only those "not heretofore given or granted by any of the former Governors," we may fairly question whether Dongan did not violate the ancient rights of the Harlem people, not only as to their commonage, but in giving the Cor- poration the control of the water-line along the exterior shore of the Harlem patent. But while greater wrongs must inevitably follow any impairing of this now venerable and generally con- ceded prerogative, how can the claim hold that it extends alike to the interior vacant lands, creeks or marshes, the title to which we submit is rightfully vested in the heirs or assigns of the Don- gan patentees ?*
At the date of Dongan's patent all was woodland and com- mons north of Moertje Davids' Fly ( Manhattanville), that is, from what were called Jochem Pieters' Hills, all the way to Spuyten Duyvel; the claims of Dyckman and Nagel and the salt meadows owned by individuals excepted. To this section of the island the Indians still laid a claim, but which they surrendered to the town, in lieu of "sundries delivered to the natives" by Colonel Stephen Van Cortlandt, in behalf of the inhabitants, Feb- ruary 28, 1688, and a balance which was not made up till March I, 1715, when a tax was raised by the freeholders for that purpose.
Besides the above, the yet unappropriated woodlands em- braced a few inconsiderable parcels here and there on the Flats,
* This view is taken in an opinion, given by the late Hon. Murray Hoffman, March 13, 1873, respecting a piece of land owned by Mr. Voorhis, situate on Har- lem Creek, between 2d and 3d avenues, and extending from 108th street toward 109th. It lay in a cove of the creek and was part of the 12 arcres (two of the Van Keulen Hook lots) owned at an early day by Capt. Thomas Delavall, and sold to Benjamin Benson by Simon Johnson, 1747. We quote one or two paragraphs from the opinion. "We can here draw a natural and, we think, legal distinction between the River proper and a creek of it. The former is defined by the general course (filum) of the body of the stream, and such course is from point to point where there is an in- dentation into the land, properly a cove. The latter is that indentation. And we could very consistently hold that the land under water within the cove, between high and low water mark passed, but not outside of it. This view would be tenable even if that was an indentation from Harlem River; a fortiori when from Harlem Creek. But the creek itself, we contend, passed; and the case is then much stronger."
Again, alluding to the language of the Harlem Patent, quoted in the text, granting all the soils, creeks, etc., Judge Hoffman very pertinently remarks: "It would be difficult to get together terms which would more fully embrace anything of land, of water, and of any combination of the two."
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
a larger piece between Hoorn's Hook and the Bogert (since Benson or McGown) farm, and the tract lying between the vil- lage and Montagne's Flat, hitherto kept for pasturage, contain- ing some 250 acres. It was bounded east by Kingsbridge road, west by the creek, and stretched from where IIIth Street and Fifth Avenue now intersect (and where said creek was then assessed by the road from Harlem to New York), northward to 13Ist Street and Eighth Avenue. The allotments and sales made under the Dongan patent, in and between the years 1691 and 1712, disposed of most of this tract and nearly all the other com- mon land within the patent lines, though several small pieces were not sold till 1753. The exact plan and history of these several al- lotments, hitherto unknown to modern conveyancers, and which will be found in Appendix J, not only supply a vast deal of curious information upon a new subject, but, as we conceive, have an intrinsic and permanent value, in connection with the subsequent titles, on which they throw much light .*
There were now remaining here but few witnesses to those trials in Fatherland which had so largely contributed to people the town. Of the French refugees, filling heretofore so consid- erable a space in its history, nearly all were either dead or had gone with their families to other parts. Spirited and litigious as were these refugees, wearying the courts with their petty dis- putes, the recital of which may seem beneath the dignity of his- tory; they did not betray in all this the underlying national trait, extreme jealousy of their rights, the legitimate fruit of former and sharper conflicts. For them, in the fullest sense, "self-preservation was the first law of nature." But we may not forget their many good qualities, nor their valuable agency in building up the town, in which quickness of perception, promptitude and efficiency, whether in official or business rela- tions, and greater skill in various industries, supplied elements in which the Dutch were not their equal. A principal cause of the removal of so many of these families was the better facility for obtaining land in the places to which they went; but the fact is also obvious that they could not well fraternize with the Dutch, for while the latter were generally prosperous, the French were commonly "poor, and therefore forced to be penurious." Strongly attached, moreover, to their own frugal mode of living,
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