USA > New York > Bronx County > The Bronx and its people; a history, 1609-1927, Volume I > Part 18
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The individual chosen to put an end to this profitable custom was Captain William Kidd, who was recommended to the governor by Philipse, Livingston and others; but who, finding his crew willing, hoisted the black flag and began the career that has sent his name down the centuries. He was finally captured, tried, convicted, and hanged; but was reticent to the last and would not expose his backers. A large portion of his spoils could not be accounted for, which has led to the tradition that he buried them along the American shores, an especially favorite location being Gardiner's Island and other places in Long Island Sound. Probably the governor, Lord Bellomont, knew what he was talking about when he said the "Kidd's missing treasure could be readily found if the coffers of Frederick Philipse were searched." The connection of Philipse with this illegal traffic at last became so notorious that a petition, supported by depositions, asking for his removal from the council, was presented to the home govern-
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ment; and, anticipating his removal, Philipse resigned his membership in the council in 1698, retired to his manor and bent his energies to its development.
Patent of West Farms-The original patent of West Farins com- prised the territory -between the Fordham line on the north, the Bronx River on the east, the Sound on the south, and Bungay Creek and Morrisania on the west. On March 12, 1633, Edward Jessup and John Richardson of Westchester bought front nine Indians a tract of land west of the Bronx River, extending south to the East River, and northerly to about the middle of the present lower lake in Bronx Park; the westerly boundary was a small stream called Bungay Creek by the English, or "Sackwrahung" by the Indians; the eastern boundary was the middle of the Bronx River. The tract was subdivided into twelve farms, and was therefore called the "Twelve Farms," or since these lay to the west of West- chester, more commonly, the "West Farms." By confirmatory patent of Governor Nicholls, dated April 25, 1666, the tract was divided into two equal portions between the two original patentees. Jessup's daugh- ter Elizabeth married Thomas Hunt of the "Grove Farm" on Throgg's Neck; they came into possession of the Neck extending into the East River, which thus became known as Hunt's Point. This was by pur- chase from "Robert Beachem and Elizabeth, formerly the wife of Ed- ward Jessup," of "all those hoeing lands and accommodations that were formerly Edward Jessup's." The deed is dated June 20, 1668.
The land "on the main" at the time of the English occupation stood something like this: On the west, lying between the Hudson and the Bronx rivers, was Colen Donck; next came "Brouncksland," between the Harlem and the Bronx; next to the eastward came the West Farms ; east of this tract was Cornell's Neck; adjoining it on the north was Oostdorp, or Westchester; beyond, on the Sound, was Throgg's Neck; and north of Westchester was Pell's purchase of 1654. A portion of the Keskeskeck purchase of 1639 does not seem to have been taken up. The only settlement or town in the whole district was Westchester ; and the settlers here had an agreement with Pell, who claimed to the East River, by which they were to pay him a certain annual quit-rent. This they failed to do; and in acknowledgement of his right on June 14, 1664, they surrendered into his hands all right, title, and interest in the lands. This was a rather curious transaction, as at the time of it they were sworn to allegiance to the Dutch, whose jurisdiction they acknowledged. But being Connecticut men they were probably in- clined to further the claim of their native colony to the Atlantic Ocean,
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which they could do better by admitting Pell's supremacy than by up- holding the claim of the Dutch.
On August 16, 1680, the town of Westchester gave to Richardson and Jessup, the owners of West Farms, the privilege of locating a saw- mill and a grist-mill upon the Bronx River. On April 2, 1711, this privilege, together with one sawmill and three grist-mills, was con- veyed to Tryntje Byvanck, widow of Evert Byvanck, to William Provost, from whom it passed to the original Etienne, or Stephen De Lancey, who by will dated March 4, 1735, devised "unto my son, Peter, and to his heirs, all my mills, mill-houses, mill-boat, farm and land, and all and every the appurtenances thereunto belonging, situate and being in the county of Westchester, upon Bronck's River, lately known as the mills of William Richardson." In consequence of this inheritance the heir became known as "Peter of the Mills," and the locality as De Lancey's Mills, as well as West Farms. Later the most thickly popu- lated portion of The Bronx mainland was the section lying contiguous to the Sound: Westchester, West Farms, Throgg's Neck, and East- chester. Here the preponderating influence was that of the De Lancey family. In the spring of 1777, during the war, the British forces occu- pied the abandoned fortifications of the Americans on the mainland, restored and strengthened them, and built several new ones. Their line of outposts extended from Philipse's Manor or Yonkers through Mile Square, Williamsbridge, and Eastchester, with an interior line of posts at Kingsbridge, Fordham Heights, Morrisania, West Farms, and West- chester, while the various necks and points of land extending into the East River were not neglected. There was thus left between the two opposing armies a wide space of the county; which was subject to the forays and marauds of both sides. This constituted the famous Neutral Ground.
Grace Church, West Farms, was incorporated December 13, 1844. The credit of first attempting to establish an Episcopal Church in the village was due to Miss Margaret Hunt, daughter of Thomas Hunt, fourth in descent from Edward Jessup, one of the original patentees of West Farms. The corner-stone of the church was laid November 10, 1846, and the edifice was consecrated by Bishop De Lancey of Western New York, June 28, 1847. During the colonial period some of the churches in the northern part of the county were comprised within the presbyteries of Connecticut or of Dutchess (Putnam) County ; but even thirty years after the Revolution little or nothing was done in the lower part of the county, and it was considered a good field for missionary work by the New York Presbytery. In 1814 the Reverend Isaac Lewis divided his time between New Rochelle and
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West Farms engaged in such work; and in the following year, 1815, a church edifice was erected at West Farms. Four members organized the church on December 4, 1816; and the congregation was fully organ- ized by the election of officers on November 5, 1818. The ancient edi- fice, the oldest in the city belonging to the Presbyterians, and its church- yard, stand on East 180th Street, a short distance west of the Boston Road and the site of De Lancey's Mills. In 1903 Charles Bathgate Beck left a legacy to the church, and a fine stone edifice with an impos- ing tower was erected on the land directly opposite the old church building, which was for a time given over to a colored congregation. The new church is known as the Beck Memorial Presbyterian Church. Previous to 1858 the Pilgrim Baptist Church of New York opened a mission in what was called West Farms Hall, where services were held on Sundays by the Reverend Theodore Gessler and by a business man by the name of Halset Knapp. Success crowned their efforts and a number of converts were made who were baptized in the Bronx River. In January, 1858, the Baptists of West Farms, to the number of twenty- one, formed themselves into a distinct church and adopted the name of the Pilgrim Baptist Church of West Farms. In November of the same year a lot was purchased on the Boston Road at Bryant Street, and the erection of a small church edifice was begun shortly afterwards; a later edifice occupied the same site, though long unused, having been vacated on account of the noise of passing trolley cars and elevator trains. Soon after the close of the Civil War, in 1866, the Bathgate farm was ac- quired by the Jerome Park Villa Site Improvement Company, but the American Jockey Club soon became the lessee and laid out a track for racing purposes. The property lay in the town of West Farms, in the ancient manor of Fordham; and the site is now occupied by the Jerome Park distributing reservoir.
Houses of the Manor-Lords and Tenants-The houses of the manor-lords and the well-to-do Dutch and English men and women were substantially built of stone, or of black, yellow and red bricks es- pecially imported from Holland or England. They usually consisted of two stories and an attic, the latter for the use of the servants. The houses were large, comfortable, and roomy; the last often a necessity in the case of the Dutch, as indeed of the English, both of whom in colonial days had large numbers of children. Not only did the neces- sities of life abound, but many of the luxuries. The furniture was of mahogany, the rooms wainscoted, the fireplaces of tiles bearing extracts from the Scriptures or pictures illustrating biblical scenes, while silver and pewter utensils and fine Delft or other china were in constant use. In later times fine pictures by Allston, Sully, Peale, and other artists
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hung upon the walls, and some of the best European artists were rep- resented there. The manor-house of the Philipses at Yonkers remains as an example of many of these homes of the wealthy gentry. The carved oak and ornamental ceilings, doors, and walls, done by work- men imported for the purpose, show the taste and comfortable circum- stances of the owners. It must not be thought that these people be- longed to the idle class; on the contrary they were practical farmers, merchants, or professional men; for idleness was one of the deadly sins, and several European visitors, as well as the officers of the French army under Rochambeau, have left their testimony to the activity of the better-to-do of the American colonies. The pasturage was excel- lent and cattle, sheep and swine had free range of the woods. The Labadist missionaries who visited New York in 1679 expressed surprise at the number, size, and lusciousness of the peaches, and noted the fact that, while many of them lay upon the ground, the hogs paid little at- tention to them, as the hogs were apparently already gorged. The cat- tle not only furnished milk and meat, but their hides supplied the foot- wear of the family, being made into shoes by the itinerant shoemaker on his yearly or half-yearly visits. From the sheep was obtained wool, and flax was early planted and cultivated ; the hand loom stood in every household and converted them into woolen cloth and into linen thread and sheeting. The thread was of extraordinary strength and the linen of a satiny texture. His homespun cloth not only clothed the farmer and his family, but he was able to send his surplus to New York, whence it was sent to other parts of the coast and to Europe. Tobacco was also added to the planting field, as everybody smoked; and the Dutch were, beyond all others, consumers of the fragrant weed. Added to these the woods abounded in wild birds and game, and deer were plentiful. The waters of the Sound, the Harlem, and the Hudson, and of the innumerable brooks and streams supplied the settlers with fish; so that of food there was an abundance, even upon the tables of the poorest, while upon the tables of the well-to-do there was such a variety and profusion as to arouse comment of such Europeans as visited the colony.
The attire of the people was in keeping with their general circum- stances. The women and girls dressed plainly in serviceable and dur- able homespun. For Sundays and for "frolics" a ribbon or other gew- gaw could be purchased from the Yankee peddler who began to make his stated rounds with his pack. The ordinary dress of the yeoman was homespun in suminer. In winter his dress consisted of leather breeches and apron, as cloth was too expensive-about a guinea a yard. The stockings were made of wool raised on his own farm and knitted by his women folks. The Dutch adhered to their distinctive dress of
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voluminous petticoats and breeches, so humorously described by Irving ; but as time passed intermarriages began to be frequent among the different races, with the result that national characteristics became modified and amalgamated, and the population became more and more nearly homogeneous. The well-to-do classes dressed with an expendi- ture parallel to that which they made on food and habitation. They tried to follow the fashions of Europe, but necessarily they were a year or two behind. It was to be expected in an English colony that the social distinctions of England would be observed to a greater or less extent. There were then three classes in the social scale; the gentry, the tradesmen, and the yeomanry, of whom the last were, of course, the most numerous. The line between the gentry, those of landed estates or descended from those who were regarded as "gentlemen" in Europe, and the other classes was marked. While perhaps the upper classes were not supercilious nor the lower obsequious, there was condescension on the one hand and deference on the other. The influx of New Eng- landers, whose democratic ideas rendered them obnoxious to the phlegmatic Dutch as well as to the English New Yorker, tended to break this barrier, and the Revolution and the Constitution together swept it away at the end of the eighteenth century. The principal cause of the difference in caste lay in the land tenure. Many of the farmers were tenants of the landed gentry, occupying their lands on long and liberal leases, which did not at first begin to pay the landlords for their expense in obtaining settlers, but which, as time passed, became val- uable. The New Englanders frequently preferred the leasehold prop- erty to holding property in fee. In the former case they could if seized by that desire for improvement of which Irving speaks quit at the ex- piration of the lease or even before by disposing of their betterments to a newcomer and emigrating to "green fields and pastures new." If they were owners in fee they were to a certain extent bound to the land which they owned. There thus existed between landlord and tenant that relation which has prevailed in England since Saxon days, and which in the modern age has set off a class of people known dis- tinctively as the landed gentry.
Westchester County was not as distinctively Dutch as Rockland and other up-river counties, nor was the Dutch tongue spoken for so long a time. The Dutch settler usually built his house of stone with a large door, the lower half and the upper half being swung separately, so that the upper half could be opened for light and ventilation, while the lower half remained shut, to prevent the egress of the small children and the ingress of poultry, pigs, or other domestic animals. The windows were made of small panes of glass and were protected by strong shutters hung on heavy wrought-iron hinges, and kept open by a large catch,
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shaped like the letter "S." A porch, or stoep, extended, if not across the front of the house, at least in front of the doorway. In the kitchen was a huge fireplace which might consume a cord of wood a day, and within whose generous dimensions, in the winter time, the whole fam- ily, including the cat and the dog, could find accommodation. The beds were great four-posters, the bottom of sacking, through which stout ropes were drawn and fastened to pegs, on the frame, while upon this were piled the mattresses or feather beds. In poorer houses, clean straw or hay thrown upon the floor, or in shelves or bunks built for the purpose, answered all the purposes of beds.
Enforced Labor-It has been noted that slavery was introduced on the mainland of America by the Dutch, in the sense at least that a vessel of that nationality sold to the planters at Jamestown, Virginia, a number of negro slaves in 1619. One of the earliest promises held out to prospective settlers in New Amsterdam by the West India Com- pany was that a sufficient number of negro slaves would be furnished to the settlers. The institution of slavery existed all through Dutch and English days, and even after New York became a state. Slaves, how- ever, were not held in large number as in the southern colonies nor were they usually provided with separate quarters. They ordinarily slept in the attics or upper stories of the houses of their masters and ate their meals in the kitchen after their master and his family had finished. They were in a sense regarded as members of the family group and the farmer who owned one or two worked in the fields along- side of them, much as the small farmer works with his hired men. On the whole their owners treated them with kindness and did not have unlimited power over them in the way of punishment. They were flogged of course on occasion, but that was a form of punishment meted out to others also. The Dutch in particular had the repute of treating their black dependents with humanity. During the seventeenth century the value of a negro was about one hundred dollars in our money, and of a negress about two hundred dollars. The traffic began to decline in 1718; and in 1755 there were but seventy-three African slaves in the whole county of Westchester. When it was pretty certain that slavery was to be abolished in the State many of those who owned slaves sent them into the southern States for sale, so that there would be no loss of property or money. The plan of freeing the slaves was one of gradual manumission, and the last slave held in New York State was one belong- ing to the Morris family-this about 1827. Indians were also reduced to a condition of slavery in the early days of the colony, but the Indian has never shown himself greatly addicted to hard manual labor-that he left to his squaw.
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A different kind of enforced labor was also employed in the Colony, that of the indentured, or bond servant. This was a man or woman who, desirous of coming to the New World, received a passage from the ship-master, with the agreement that upon arrival his or her services were to be sold for a certain period, usually five years, to the highest bidder. The ship-master pocketed the sum paid and was thus reim- bursed for his trouble and expense. Sometimes persons were trepanned in England and disposed of in this way by persons whose interests would be favorably affected by the disappearance of the seized person. It may be noted that the uncle of David Balfour, in Stevenson's story, "Kid- napped," attempted to get rid of his nephew in this way. The person whose services were disposed of became legally bound to the buyer, who thus became in a sense the owner, and in any case the master, of the bond servant, until the expiration of the term of service; when the servant became capable of disposing of his or her own time. The same laws and penalties practically applied to a runaway bond-servant as to a runaway slave. The class of indentured servants was not composed of the vicious and the wicked. Most of them were merely poor and thought they could do better in a new land than in the thickly settled countries of Europe. Occasionally it was pique or some similar feeling that drove them to the step, sometimes disappointed love, or dissipation, or disap- pointment. But there was another class of servants made up of men and women condemned by law and sold into the plantation for life or for a certain period of time accordingly as it was determined by the judges who sentenced them. Some of these were actually criminals and malefactors; others of them were men of the loftiest character, patriots who fought against oppression, men who deliberately defied bad laws, others penalized by unjust judges or degraded men in author- ity, according to the usage in the bad old times that have been often too much praised. The services of these were sold to the highest bidder as in the case of the indentured servant. When we recall the number of offenses that were capital in England and in other lands where it was sought to impose English law, we may well believe that those who escaped the hangman were not usually guilty of what we would con- sider in these days very heinous crimes. Of these transported men and women comparatively few reached New York; there was a greater demand for them in the southern colonies and in the West Indies. In respect to crimes and misdemeanors the English laws prevailed, with such additions and modifications as the conditions of the new country would require. There was the same long, ghastly list of capital crimes ; and the stocks, the pillory, and the whipping-post stood always ready for the minor offenders. In the court records of the borough-town of Westchester is the case of one offender convicted of hog-stealing, who
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was sentenced to pay eleven pounds for the stolen animals, or to receive forty lashes upon the back. There is another record of one member of a jury "hanging" the jury and being fined by the court. The case of Judge Morris shows that there were honorable men on the bench, and this too at a time when the English judiciary had not lost its sub- serviency to the crown, nor completely departed from the brutal trucu- lence of which Jeffries was an example.
Education on the Manors-Much cannot be said for the education that was imparted in the Colonial period. There were schools in New Amsterdam and in Beverwyck, or Albany; but in the country districts the mother was the teacher and the Bible and catechism the only text- books; so that the Dutchmen, though in some cases not completely illiterate, were decidedly uneducated. The children of the better clas- ses, had naturally more advantages than those of the poorer classes and they were sometimes sent from New Netherland to the University of Leyden, especially in the case of young men who aspired to become dominies. The daughters were trained to be housewives and mothers ; to cook and to clean up, to sew and knit and spin and weave, and to take care of the poultry and the cattle and of the household generally.
Later in the days of English dominance some progress had been made and things were a little better. But it was a long time before anything better was developed than the rural school. In the more eastern portions of the county, adjacent to Connecticut, and settled by the people of that colony, the schoolhouse was established at an earlier date, the neces- sity for schools having been recognized by the General Court, or Leg- islature, of Massachusetts, as early as 1645-47, and carried by Winthrop, Davenport, and others into the Colony of Connecticut from the older colony. The Connecticut settlers of the "Ten Farms" at Eastchester set aside at an early date a piece of land for school purposes and erected a schoolhouse in 1683. The same site was occupied for school purposes for a period of about two hundred years. The English settlers of West- chester also established a school at an early date. The school and schoolmaster there were maintained by the Propagation Society, the latter being assigned from London and paid an allowance by the society. The inhabitants also contributed towards the support of both, and the schoolmaster assisted the rector by instructing his pupils in the Catechism. The first recorded schoolmaster in Westchester was Ed- ward Fitzgerald, in 1709. On October 30, 1709, the Reverend John Bartow writes: "We want very much a fixed school at Westchester; if Mr. Daniel Clark, my neighbor, now in England, should wait upon you, desirous of that employment, I recommend him as a person worthy of it; being of good report, a constant communicant, and, being a clergy-
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man's son, has had a pious and learned education." The recommen- dation was apparently effective, as Mr. Daniel Clark was schoolmaster from 1710 to 1713. In this latter year, according to the reports of the society : "Mr. Charles Glover is appointed schoolmaster at Westchester with a salary of £18 per annum, as he is recommended under the char- acter of a person, sober and diligent, well affected to the Church of England, and competently skilled in reading, writing, arithmetic, psalmody, and the Latin tongue, provided he comply with the Society's rules in sending certificates of the number of his scholars." He held the position until 1719. The society's abstracts for that year say : "To Mr. William Forrester, schoolmaster at Westchester, who has been rec- ommended as a person very well qualified to instruct the youth in the principles of religion and virtue, ten pounds per annum is allowed ; and a gratuity of £10 has been given him, in consideration of his past services and his present circumstances." In the abstract of the same year, Mr. Forrester reports : "I have at present thirty-five scholars, whoni I catechise every Saturday, and also every Sunday that Mr. Bartow goes to another part of the parish." Also from an extract of 1720: "from Mr. Forrester, schoolmaster at Westchester in the Province of New York, that he takes all the care he can of the children which are sent to him, and has upwards of thirty scholars, which he instructs in the Church Catechism." In 1722, Mr. Bartow reports "that they are re- pairing the church there (at Westchester) with the voluntary contribu- tions of the people, procured chiefly by the zeal and care of Mr. Forrester, the schoolmaster there." In 1724, in answer to questions from the society, Mr. Bartow gives an exact account of his cure. He writes :
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