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 9

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 9

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Bruges was the last Flemish town as one approached the Dutch border, distant eight miles from the coast and ten south of Sluis. Very ancient, too, it was the veritable godfather of Flanders, to which it had given a name, originally Vlonderen, a Flemish term equivalent to Bruges (or Brugge, that is Bridges, as its Dutch people called it), and which it early took, from the many bridges in the town and environs. Once among the most commercial and opulent of the Netherland cities, it dared defy the Emperor Maximilian, whose vials of wrath vented upon it,

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

and its troubles under Alva, with the rivalry of its neighbors, Ghent and Antwerp, had ruined its industries. It was six years under Protestant rule, but on May 22d, 1584, submitted to the King of Spain. By degrees its Protestant population forsook it; and so did the good Jan Tibout, the Tiebout ancestor, for a dozen years town clerk and voorleser at Harlem, and also Joost Jansen Kockuyt, who belongs to its history.

Sluis was made very secure by the Dutch, after being wrested from the Spaniards in 1604, the latter trying in vain to retake it in 1621, on the renewal of the war at the end of twelve years' truce. Its gardens and bleaching grounds told the useful occupations of its people; but its air was so malari- ous, as in all that flat country, that strangers could not well abide there, even its garrison having to be changed every year. But it was the nearest Dutch town within reach of refugees from France and Flanders, and its strong walls offered them safety, so that many such,-and among them our Casier and Cresson,-found a temporary home here. Sluis castle had a reminiscence affecting to the refugees, for here the Admiral Coligny, taken by the Spaniards at the battle of St. Quentin, in 1557, was confined, and alone with his Bible in his cell, be- came a Protestant, going hence, indeed, to meet a cruel death in the St. Bartholomew, but not till he had nobly served the Huguenot cause, both in council and in the field. One who could wield with equal skill the sword of the Spirit came from Sluis at a later day : we refer to Guiliaem Bertholf, parish clerk at Harlem, before he entered the ministry to become the "Itiner- ating apostle of New Jersey." **

· Guiliaem Bertholf and his wife, Martina Hendricks Verwey, with letters from Sluis, joined the church at Bergen, N. J., October 6. 1684. He lived at Ackquackneck. In 1690 he removed to Harlem, continued there about a year and a half, and soon went to Holland for ministerial ordination. On his return he became pastor at Hackensack. in which service he ended his days, in 1724. Indefatigable in his work, he labored extensively among the surrounding churches, several of which he was instrumental in forming. Mr. Bertholf had three children when he came to this country, viz .: Sarah. Maria and Elizabeth, all born at Sluis; and afterward Hendrick, Corynus Jacobus. Martha and Anna. All were church members at Hackensack. Sarah married, 1698. David D. Demarest; Maria married. 1609, John Bogart: Elizabeth married, 1699, Jolin Terhune, in 1718, Roelof Bogart; Hendrick married, 1707. Mary Terhune; Cory- nus married, 1718, Anna Reyersen; Martha married, 1713, Albert Bogart; Jacobus married Elizabeth Van Imburgh; and Anna married, 1718. Abraham Varick, and in 1734. Peter Post. Some of this name we have known but to respect; an honor to an excellent ancestor.

CHAPTER IV.

HOLLAND : THE DE FORESTS AND LA MONTAGNE.

T HE final adieu to Europe marked a crisis of no trifling im- port, a grand turning- LEEUWARDEN point in the life and the HARLINGEN destiny of our colonists. 6 WORKUM 9. HINDELOPEN Cherished hopes of a ZWOLLE GRONINGEN return were seldom re- alized. That they were led to this decisive step HOORN DALFSEN by a wonderful series CHEST of providences, we have sought to show. So far TESSA HAARLEM KUINRE ZUYDER ZEE as signal and of general AMSTERDAN UWENNOVEN bearing, these are mat- BREYGORT · GARDEREN AMERSFOORT ters of common history ; ONAAC DELFT UTRECHT WAALD NYMWEGEN if less fortunate in our LECK LEERDAM ·SCHUSHREWD search for special causes, limited to precise times, POSSUM 0 .LENT TILBURG ĐƠN LE DỤC places and individuals, we must plead the diffi- SLUIS OANTWERP culties attending such AAS minute inquiry. But while the craving for such details of per- sonal experience can be but partially satisfied, our gleanings of this description, reserved for the present chapter and the next following, will include some touching passages of refugee life in Holland and elsewhere.

Holland, in natural features simply, had little that was winning : a boundless stretch of low pastures, which, walled in by lines of dykes, both from the sea and the internal network of sluggish rivers and artificial watercourses, formed the tame sur- rounding of the Zuyder Zce. The latter, the delight of the Hollander, of whose imperturbable nature its broad, glassy bosom in its unruffled repose presented a fit emblem, was changed from

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a lake to an inland sea by an inundation in 1282, which, break- ing through the narrow barrier on the north, united it with the German Ocean, but leaving, to guard its entrance, small patches of land, forming the Texel and several lesser islands. The Zuy- der Zee had on the west the peninsula of North Holland. On the opposite side, which swept in a half circle from north to south, it washed the shores of Friesland, Overyssel, Gelderland and Utrecht; the latter reaching westerly to South Holland, which with North Holland composed but one province. In the last-named was Amsterdam, the rich commercial emporium of the Dutch, seated in the mouth of the Y, an arm, or inlet, of the Zuyder Zee. With these five districts, which nearly encir- cled this inland sea, the Seven United Provinces also numbered Groningen, to the east of Friesland; and Zeeland, lying between South Holland and Flanders, but broken into several islands by the outlets of the Maas and Scheldt. Groningen, with Drenthe next southerly, and then Overyssel (of which Drenthe was usually reckoned a part), formed in conjunction with Zutphen, a section of Gelderland to the south of Overyssel, the great eastern boundary of the United Provinces along the German circle of Westphalia.

With all its monotony of landscape, Holland, even in the time of our colonists, bore witness to the indefatigable industry of its people, in its vast system of canals, extensive dykes and drainage, and thorough cultivation; the neatness and thrift of its towns and villages, and its incessant activities, domestic and maritime. Scarce enough of resemblance was found to ally it to the parent country we have so fully described; so striking was the difference, both in the temper of its people, and in the matters of government and religion; for in all that was essential to render its people both free and prosperous, the happy release from the double yoke of Spain and the papacy had wrought here a marvelous transformation. Its antique cloisters were now applied to secular uses, its venerable churches and cathe- drals devoted to the Reformed service, its dingy castles the merest relics of an expiring feudalism. And if the scarred walls of its cities told the tragic story of a recent desperate struggle, innu- merable crafts plying upon its canals and rivers, and shipping crowding every seaport, as plainly witnessed to its present pros- perity. Its glory now was in being free; the recognized home of civil and religious liberty !

But however worthy our study, Holland will now engage us only with reference to the homes or the movements of the par-

Burg. St. Pancras' Church.

Zaay Hall.

St. Peter's Church.

Leyden, from the Tower of the City Hall.

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ticular persons whose checkered story forms a part of the history we are writing. Every one of the United Provinces was repre- . sented in the original community at Harlem, though the settlers from those provinces hailed chiefly from cities or villages on or near the German Ocean and the Zuyder Zee. Naturally, the great cities of Amsterdam and Leyden gave the largest number, the · last-named place being situated but twenty-two miles southwest of the former, and at that day communicating with it by means of the Leyden Canal, the Harlem Lake, and the Y.

Leyden was unexcelled for the beauty of its surroundings, as Dutch beauty went. It stood in the midst of the Rhineland, a fertile flat, aptly called the Garden of Holland. On these broad meadows grazed numerous herds, the district being famous for its superior butter and cheese dairies. Directly environed by pretty villas and gardens, the city was inclosed by ramparts (since removed (around which ran a moat, crossed by seven draw- bridges leading to the city gates ; the approaches to these, arched with the foliage of overhanging trees, most agreeably impressing the visitor entering for the first time. The city was intersected by the river Rhine, which, rolling down from the classic Alps, through two hundred leagues of grandest highland scenery, but reft of force and volume by diversion in the lowlands, flowed placidly into the city in two branches, which uniting in one near the centre, slid on, six miles farther, to the German Ocean; it fed canals which traversed the town in all directions between lines of shade trees, and under numerous bridges. The thoroughfares were broad and cleanly, and the dwellings and shops,-built mainly of brick, and standing with gables to the street,-exhibited the true Holland style. The Dutch burghers and their vrouws were wont to resort for recreation to the shady walks upon the city walls; or to the battlements of the Burg, an old castle or fortress rising from a mound in the centre of the town, at a point where the Old and New Rhine joined ; and which afforded a picturesque view,-rows of curious notched gables, belfries and church steeples, with a wide and charming outlook over the country beyond. With the advantage of a clear atmosphere (an unusual condition in that moist climate) the eye might roam westerly to the ocean, see southerly the masts of Rotterdam, easterly follow up the tortuous course of the Rhine, descry to the northeast the shipping of Amsterdam, and catch glimpses of that great inland ocean, the Zuyder Zee ..

Leyden had early become a principal refuge for the perse- cuted. Its brave and effectual resistance during the Spanish

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

siege, in 1574, gave it pre-eminence as a place of strength and security, and attracted to its gates the flying multitudes driven by oppression from other lands. Of these the Walloon refugees were by far the most numerous, and being welcomed by the magistrates and people, they formed a church in 1584, the burgo- masters, at their request, giving them the permanent use of an old edifice erected in the fourteenth century on the Haerlemstraat, in the northern section of the city called Marendorp, and still styled as by its Catholic founders, the Lieve Vrouw Kerk, or the Church of the Virgin Mary. It was thence known as the French or Walloon Church. On a later influx of refugees, this building being found too small for the large increase of communicants, they were permitted to celebrate the Lord's Supper in the Gast- huys (or Almshouse) Kerk, which stood convenient to the other, on the north side of the Breedestraat (the main thoroughfare running east and west through the city), and attached to the St. Catharine Gasthuys, which occupied grounds in its rear. In 1606 the Walloons founded a col- lege, for the better training of their youth in their favorite Calvinistic theology, as the divinity school connected with Walloon Church at Leyden. the Leyden University, though now enjoying great patron- age, had become much distracted by the doctrinal contro- versy between its professors Gomarus and Arminius. Daniel Colonius, pastor of the Walloon Church, was made regent of the new college. The Walloons, nurtured, as we have seen, in the iron cradle of trial, bore with them into exile less wealth than virtue, but with the latter a remarkable degree of common sense and business energy. At Leyden their skill and industry soon told upon the commercial interests of the city, especially through the medium of the cloth trade, for which Leyden was now justly famed above all the other towns in Holland. Given its first im- petus by Flemish artisans from Ypres, in the fourteenth century, the woolen manufacture had grown to such magnitude as to en- gross a large share of the activities of the citizens; by more than three hundred busy hand-looms, turning out per annum fifty

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

thousand pieces of cloth-not to include flannels, carpets, baize, etc., amounting in addition to over nine thousand pieces a year. The older part of Leyden contained four "vierendeels," or quarters ; which districts, surrounded by the several enlargements of the city, made from time to time, formed the central part of the town, and stretched along the Breedestraat, two upon the north side and two on the south. One of the latter, called the Woolhouse Quarter, was so named because within its limits, on the north side of the Steenschuur Canal, stood the Zaay Hall, the great cloth emporium of the city of Leyden. This building, formerly, in popish times, a chapel of the St. Jacob brotherhood, had been vacated by this order, sold to the city, and for some time used for the storage of wool, whence it was called the Wool- house. About the year 1596, it was re- fitted and appropri- ated to the cloth trade. Here, before they could be sold, must be brought all the serges and camlets, broadcloths, single cloths and gentry cloths, with some The Zaay Hall. coarser sorts, which were made within the town, to be inspected and appraised, and have attached the in- dispensable "vent loot," or official leaden stamp. And here re- sorted the cloth manufacturers and drapers of Leyden,-the for- mer to display and sell their goods, the latter to buy. From the "zaays," or serges, the building took its name, the Zaay Hall. On every weekday in this great mart for trading was presented an ani- mated scene : the inspectors, as required by law, busily examining the white, black, or colored goods, to determine both quality and quantity ; the noisy klopper, with a blow affixing the proper stamp ; and the vociferous salesman, crying his price to the buyers who thronged the place; while, interrupting the buzz of voices, the two clocks overhead faithfully struck the hour and half hour, and anon, the chime of small bells which also adorned the tower, to

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

each its name, as the Weaver, the Dyer, etc., rung out a pleasing melody.

Another district, called the Gasthuys Vierendeel (Almshouse Quarter ), had on the north side the Rhine below the junction of its two branches, upon the south the Breedestraat, and to the east the Wanthuys Quarter. It took its name from the St. Catharine Gasthuys, which, with its kerk, before spoken of, stood within its limits, a little to the west of that antique and massive pile, the Stadt Huys, or City Hall. Through this quarter, along the west side of the Gasthuys kerk yard, a little street called the Vrouwsteeg (woman's lane) led northward across the Rhine to the Walloon Church, and was often devoutly trodden by the feet of the refugees.

In the Gasthuys Quarter lived a Walloon named Jesse De Forest. He was one of the exiles from Avesnes, in the prov- ince of Hainault, as already noticed, driven by the perils of the times to take refuge at Sedan: and whence the De Forests, after a sojourn there apparently of some years, had removed down the Maas to Holland.

Jesse, Jean, Michael and Gerard, recognized as brothers, are found at Leyden, with a sister Jeanne, whose husband was one Cartier, from Columbier, France. The De Forests stood promi- nent among the French refugees. Jesse and Gerard, of whom only we shall need to speak further, were by occupation dyers. It was their subtle art which imparted beauty and value to those useful fabrics displayed and sold at the Zaay Hall. Gerard, whose birthplace was Avesnes, married at Leyden, on August 12th, 1611, a young lady of French parentage, but born here, Hester, daughter of Crispin and Agnes de la Grange, the latter now a widow. Surviving his marriage forty-five years, he was blessed with a goodly competence and in seeing his children respectably married at Leyden. His brother, Jesse, had brought a wife with him to Holland. Marie Du Cloux, whom he probably married at Sedan, as his eldest son was born there. Five children that reached maturity came of this union, namely, Jean, Henry, Rachel, Jesse and Isaac. More than once, however, had death invaded their circle, taking little Israel and Philippe from their fond embrace. Yet having, for love to God, forsaken country and kindred, they could accept these painful visitations as the salutary chastenings of an All-wise Father, teaching them the lesson of resignation to His will, and inspiring a faith to look upward and beyond. Diligent also in his vocation, which had long ranked among the "Greater .Arts." Jesse De Forest, in the

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

easy position of a master artisan, was one of a limited number having license from the magistrates "to dye serges and camlets in colors." It was a tribute to his skill; for only the most expert and approved dyers were thus preferred, as on the beauty and permanence of the colors so largely depended the reputation and success of the cloth trade of Leyden. Plying his useful art, De Forest mixed his delicate tints, and among his steaming vats daily earned an honest living. His home was near the Walloon church, at which he and his Marie loved to offer up their devo- tions, and where from time to time they dedicated their offspring to God in baptism.

But Jesse De Forest had again fallen upon perilous times. Leyden was at this date rent by popular discords, which affected the whole country, but this city in particular. While the peo- ple of Holland were crushed and humbled by the Spanish war, and had to struggle for existence, they showed, as we have seen, the deepest sympathy for the victims of oppression who fled to their country for refuge. But once in the flush of enjoyment of peace and prosperity, and forgetful of their former trials, feelings of national pride prompted them to draw lines of social distinc- tion, especially between themselves and the foreign population, insomuch that the refugees now began to be eyed with contempt, treated as inferiors, and often refused employment. This intoler- ant spirit was also fostered by the parties and feuds which had sprung up in church and state. The old dispute about predestina- tion, which had arisen among the professors at the University, had proceeded from the schools into the pulpits, and the peo- ple readily took sides. Hence the controversy spread far and wide. The pastors of the various churches, as well as their flocks, became sorely at issue, many of both classes embracing the Ar- minian views; those holding these opinions being called Remon- strants. The famous Synod of Dort, convened November 13th, 1618, on account of these dissensions, remained in session for over six months, and handled the Arminian preachers with great severity. Its action being sustained by the government, a general crusade against the Remonstrants was instituted, and a large number of their ministers, men of undoubted talent and piety, were deposed and driven from the country. The Synod of South Hol- land, which met at Leyden in July following, though numbering but thirty ministers and ten elders, expelled about sixty Remon- strant preachers, who refused to subscribe to the canons adopted by the Synod of Dort. Many of this proscribed sect left the country, a part of whom retired to Denmark, and by favor of

University.

View on the Kloksteeg.

St. Peter's Church.

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

the Duke of Holstein, founded the town of Frederickstadt, in 1621, though, the troubles over, most of them returned to their native country.

At Leyden, where prior to the Synod of Dort the new sect had gained a multitude of adherents, including some of the city magistrates, everything was now done to suppress them. Ejected from their churches, they met for worship in a private house, only to be driven out by a mob. In vain they prayed the magis- trates to allow them the public exercise of their religion, urging that the Lutherans, English Puritans, and even the Jews, enjoyed that right unmolested. A burgher at whose dwelling they as- sembled upon a night in August was heavily fined, and expelled from the town for a year. Two months later a zaay-weaver, for having a meeting at his house, was mulcted two hundred and twenty-five florins, stripped of his rights as a freeman, and ban- ished from Leyden and the Rhineland. Some of the citizens were fined and imprisoned for collecting money in aid of the exiled pastors.

At the University a change was made in the faculty, by the removal of all the professors who were Remonstrants, and the appointment of approved Calvinists. Even after their ejectment they were followed with a malevolence which is in strange con- trast with our ideas of toleration. And it was but the culmination of this same politico-religious persecution that brought to the block that venerable and pure-minded patriot Oldenbarneveldt, May 13th, 1619, while the Synod was yet in session at Dort,-a cruel episode of the war upon the Remonstrants, and which thrilled the nation with horror. The severity toward that sect did not cease for some years after; several executions took place at Leyden, and this town was the last to grant them toleration. These party strifes and public tumults having a tendency to un- hinge society, to fetter speech and conscience, to check the indus- tries of the people and make a livelihood more difficult, greatly disquieted all classes, but more especially the foreign refu- gees.

While these things were transpiring, there attended the Wal- loon church a young Frenchman, who was a boarder in the family of one Robert Botack, a shoemaker on the Voldersgraft, and who was studying medicine under the learned Heurnius at the University, where he had been registered as a student November 19th, 1619, in the Latin style, Johannes Monerius Montanus, or as in French, Jean Mousnier De La Montagne. His surname might betoken social rank, or, as already suggested, point to a

HISTORY OF HARLEM.

family origin in La Montagne, or both, yet without doubt connects him with the talented family of that name which became so distinguished in the fields of theology, medicine, and literature, during the sixteenth century. Himself, as before seen, a refuge from Saintonge, he was twenty-four years of age on entering the University. It was directly after the aforesaid change in the faculty had taken place,-a change much approved by the French families, who as Calvinists were opposed to the former regime; and which may have had its weight with Mon- tagne in going thither, but more likely the better facilities aforded by a new edifice, with the other and peculiar advantages which a membership conferred .*

The University building stood in the southwestern part of the city, upon the west side of the street and canal called the Rapenburg, where it was crossed by the Nun's Bridge, upon the lane running east and west known as the Kloksteeg. The build- ing (a very plain structure, formerly a cloister of the White Nuns), being nearly consumed by fire November 11, 1616, had been rebuilt with more elegance and better accommodations, and adorned with a spire and clock.

From the eastern windows of the University, looking down the Kloksteeg, could often be seen a company of English dis- senters, assembling for worship at the dwelling of their pastor, John Robinson, on the south side of the street, opposite St. Peter's Church. Here were wont to gather the pious Carver, and Brewster, and Brewer, and Bradford, Winslow and Stan- dish, and many others of the "Pilgrim Fathers," to receive the word of life, "enjoying," says one of them, "much sweet and delightful society and spiritual comfort together, in the ways of God." Many of these persons working at honest employ- ments connected with the staple manufacture of the city, such as weavers, carders, dyers, etc., were almost as well known as was their pastor, Robinson, who was a constant visitor at the University, and a reader at the library, and who being "versed in the Dutch language," had "procured him much honor and respect," in the pulpit of St. Peter, by his defense of Calvinism in the recent discussions. And at the time Montagne entered the University, the affair of Brewer and his associate Brewster was in everyone's mouth. These worthy men, in a room near

* Montagne's age warrants the belief that he had finished a course of study else- where before coming to Leyden, and now attached himself to the University, as was a common practice, for professional improvement, as well as to secure other benefits and immunities which such connection conferred. All thus entering were termed students; and so Montagne was always enrolled "student of medicine," though his membership was three times severed and as often renewed in seventeen years.

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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 9

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