The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume II, Part 10

Author: Wilson, James Grant, 1832-1914
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: [New York] New York History Co.
Number of Pages: 705

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1 Doc. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., 4: 1185.

2 Her name was the Queen Anne. She was ori- ginally an English packet-boat, but had been re- cently captured by the French in the West Indies and converted into a privateer.

8 The late General Jeremiah Darling, of New-

York city, once informed the writer that, when a lad of twelve, in 1813, he worked with his father all one night on earthworks at the upper end of New-York Island, in an emergency very similar to the one mentioned in the text.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CORNBURY

fortunate. He caught sight of the privateer on the afternoon of his leaving New-York, and after an exciting chase, which continued all night, came up with the object of his pursuit at early dawn. The Frenchman, which carried fourteen guns and one hundred and eighty men, made a gallant defense, but Captain Davis tenaciously held him engaged until sunset, when, the wind dying away, he took to his sweeps and escaped under cover of the night. The brave commander of the Triton's Prize, who had received during the fight an ugly, though

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CORNBURY DOCUMENT.

not a fatal, wound in the neck, lost no time in returning to the city with the welcome news that all danger, for the moment at least, was past. In consequence, however, of this narrow escape, the inhabitants lived in a state of continual alarm, verging, indeed, on panic. On the very next day (the 28th), for instance, the council received a despatch from Staten Island that ten large French privateers had made their ap- pearance inside of Sandy Hook. Nor was it until a general alarm had been issued, and orders sent to the several colonels of militia as far as Albany to march their regiments to the defense of New-York, that it was found that the supposed ten Frenchmen were prizes recently taken from the French by Captain Adrian Clavear, who was bringing them into port ! And after this, on as many as two other different occasions, friendly English merchantmen coming into port were again mistaken

HISTORY OF NEW-YORK

for sanguinary French privateers. In fact, one would suppose that during the years 1704-1706 an intense fear of a French invasion occu- pied the people to the exclusion of any other topic; and such a con- jecture is fully justified by the MS. council minutes (still preserved at Albany) which, during those years, relate almost entirely to the defense of New-York city.1

As soon as the immediate danger of an attack upon the city had passed, and the people had recovered from their fright, they began to realize the critical position in which they had so lately been placed by the cupidity of their governor ; and murmurs, loud and deep, against the criminal conduct of the latter were heard in all circles of society. This state of public feeling soon made itself felt both at the governor's council-board and in the assembly. The former body immediately caused an embargo to be laid upon all vessels in the port "until further orders," the collector, meanwhile, as the minutes read, being "instructed not to clear any vessel for any foreign port." The object of this action was to retain in port all seamen for impress- ment, in case of need, on board men-of-war. The council further ordered that the aldermen should solicit subscriptions from the citi- zens in their respective wards for properly fortifying the Narrows, a measure rendered necessary by the recent conduct of the governor. At the same time the assembly, acting, in this instance, in unison with the council, and convinced, moreover, that Cornbury was no

1 The following extracts from these minutes, fair samples of all the others, will serve to illus- trate the statement of the text:

"P. 25, July 4, 1706. His Excellency informed this Board that yesterday by a prize taken and sent into this port by Capt. Tongrelon commis- sioned as Commander of the Privateer New-York Galley October 13, 1705, he had a letter from the said Captain giving him an account that by a prize lately taken by him a little after her leaving Petit Guavas he had advice that Mr. Diberoille with seven French Men-of-War and several privateers were designed from that port for Carolina, but that he apprehended their designs might be rather against this place [New-York city] wherefore his Excellency acquainted this board that in regard the Assembly had taken no care of repairing this fort he would give the necessary directions for it that it may be in a condition of defense in case the enemy should attack us.

"P. 83, May 16, 1707 (Cornbury absent in N. J.) - Abraham Sandford of New-York, mariner being sworn, deposes that he being at Martinico about seven weeks since he met there with one Peter Cock master of a French privateer ship and hav- ing discourse with him the said Cock told him he designed to go upon the coast of Virginia and New England a privateering and that he then was fit- ting his ship for that purpose. Hereupon and upon advice that there has lately been seen a ship stand off and on this coast which is presumed to be a priv- ateer, this board sent for Captain Davis, comman-

der of her Majesty's ship Triton's Prize to know whether the said ship be in a condition to go to sea, who informed this Board that he wants 30 men to compleat his ship's company; the masters there- fore of severall vessells now riding in this har- bour being sent for and appearing offered to put on board her Mate said ship severall of their men amounting in all to the number of sixteen on con- dition they be restored to them when the said ship returns from her cruise which is hereby promised to them accordingly and to make up the deficiency of men for the said ship, the Mayor is ordered forth- with to impress twenty sea-faring men and put them on board Her Majesty's said ship whereby she may be capable to proceed on her cruise in pursuit of the said privateer. Ordered, that the collector du not clear any vessel for any foreign port till he receives further order.

"P. 84, May 17, 1707. Captain Davis commander of Her Majesty's ship Triton's Prize, having in- formed this Board that notwithstanding the mea- sures yesterday taken to complete the number of men appointed to be borne on board the said ship their twenty men yet wanting wherefore to prevent delay in this pressing juncture it is ordered that Captain Peter Matthews, commander of one of her Majesty's independent Companies, do make a draft out of the garrison of one Lieut., one Sargeant, one Corporal, and eighteen men, and forthwith send them on board the said ship (with their arms) that she may be capable to proceed on her intended cruise."

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CORNBURY

longer fit to be trusted with the public funds, insisted on appointing a treasurer of their own for the "receipt and disbursement of any moneys the Legislature might order to be raised for public purposes." Some of the members of the assembly, also, seeing in this crisis an excellent opportunity for insisting upon the right of the people, through their representatives, to vote supplies solely on condition of the governor's good behavior, declared that "the Assembly as Repre- sentatives of the people of this province are entitled to the same priv- ileges and have a right to the same powers and authorities as the House of Commons in England enjoy"; going, indeed, to the length of denying the right of the queen's council to make amendments to a money-bill. "If this doctrine [the right to amend money-bills] is suffered to go on," wrote Cornbury to the lords of trade, "all that the Governor and Councill can doe, will be to hinder the Assembly from doing mischief; but we shall not be able to do the good we could wish to doe, unless Her Majesty will be pleased to declare her pleasure upon this subject, which I will see punctually obeyed, and I believe that will be the shortest and best way to put an end to this method of proceeding, and will convince much the greatest part of the house that they have been misled and abused by two or three turbulent men, who never were nor never will be faithful to their Queen nor true to their country." The assembly even went so far as to pass an act whereby the queen was restrained in her royal prerog- ative either of "pardoning or reprieving her subjects in the Colony of New-York." These proceedings, it may readily be supposed, aroused the ire of Governor Cornbury to the highest degree; and he fought desperately to the last against these infringements of the royal pre- rogative, especially as the assembly's wish to have a treasurer inde- pendent of the chief executive placed an ineffaceable stain upon his personal honor.

Indeed, the years (1705-1708)' of Cornbury's administration were marked by increasing political excitement; and the dividing line of parties, involving the great principles of civil liberty on the one side and the prerogatives of 1pm Pourtres the crown on the other, was more distinctly drawn, perhaps, than at any antecedent period. The administrations

1 William Peartree was mayor in the years 1703 to 1706. Beginning life in the merchant marine as sailor and officer, Mr. Peartree soon established a profitable business for himself, and became the owner of a valuable estate in Jamaica, West In- dies. He finally settled in New-York, the relations of his house continuing mainly with the West In- dies. He at first lived in Beaver street, near New street ; a large garden surrounded his house. While he was mayor he lived in Broadway. The "War of the Spanish Succession " going on abroad, and

Queen Anne's at home, the mayor's duties were partly of a military nature. At one time he was intrusted with the conduct of an expedition fitted out by himself and other shipping merchants, and consisting of three small war-vessels, in order to stop the depredations of a French privateer cruis- ing just outside the harbor. It was during his mayoralty, too, that the Narrows were fortified. Mayor Peartree died in 1714, leaving an only daughter. EDITOR.

HISTORY OF NEW-YORK

of the earlier English governors, Nicolls and the elder Lovelace, were benevolent and almost parental. Andros, it is true, was unpopular; and during his administration parties were formed, as in England, upon the mixed questions of politics and religion, which dethroned the last and most bigoted of the Stuarts, and brought William and Mary to the throne. Dongan, however, the last of the Stuart governors in New- York, was, nevertheless, mild in the conduct of the government, and a gentleman in his feelings and manners. It was upon his arrival, in the autumn of 1683, that the freeholders of the colony were invested with the right of choosing representatives to meet the governor in general assembly. For nearly twenty years subsequent to the revo- lution of 1688, and during the entire administration of Cornbury, the colony was torn by personal as well as political factions, having their origin in the Leislerian controversy. These factions dying out, other questions arose, the principal of which was that important one which always, sooner or later, springs up in every English colony, involving on the one hand, as I have already said, the rights of the people, and on the other the claims of the crown. Invariably, almost, if not quite, the struggle originates upon some question of revenue, either in the levying thereof or in its disposition, or both. Thus in the origin of those political parties in New-York, which continued with greater or less acrimony until the separation from the parent-country, Sloughter and Fletcher had both endeavored to obtain grants of revenue to them- selves as representatives of the crown for life, but had failed. The assembly of 1705 pertinaciously insisted that they would vote the salaries for the officers of the crown only with the annual supplies. This was a principle which Cornbury, as the representative of the crown, felt bound to resist. Henceforward, therefore, until the colony cast off its allegiance, the struggle in regard to the revenue and its disposition was almost perpetually before the people in one form or another; and in some years, owing to the obstinacy of the representa- tives of the crown on one side, and the inflexibility of the representa- tives of the people on the other, supplies were not granted at all. This struggle was the forerunner of that of the Revolution.

The assembly, however, notwithstanding all the governor's efforts, was refractory ; and the latter, at length perceiving that his continued opposition to the appointment of a treasurer would probably result in his having no supplies whatever voted him, was forced to yield and submit the matter to her Majesty and council. The assembly thus won a great victory; for the answer of the home government to Cornbury was coupled with instructions-much to the latter's intense chagrin and mortification-"to permit the General Assembly of the province to name their own Treasurer when they raised extraordinary supplies for particular uses, such being no part of Her Majesty's

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CORNBURY

standing and constant revenue."1 On the promulgation of this order, three thousand pounds were at once voted for the defense of the city, and Colonel Abraham De Peyster appointed by statute to the respon- sible office of treasurer, the only condition attached to the appoint- ment being that the holder should be accountable for his disbursements to the general assembly, governor, and council. Nor was the letter which accompanied the "instructions" from the lords of trade cal- culated to lessen Cornbury's disgust. "We hope," concludes the let- ter, "that no occasion has been given by the Government for any just diffidence [distrust], and that your Lordship has and will lay before the Assembly an account of all monies raised by Acts of Assem- bly whenever they shall desire the same, that upon they being satisfied with the right application thereof they may be encouraged to raise further supplies toward their own support, whereby an end may be put to the demands your Lordship makes from hence of arms and ammunition for the defense of the country. And we further recom- mend that such moderate and persuasive means be used by your Lordship with the Assembly, that Her Majesty's subjects in that prov- ince may not be deprived of the succors that are necessary for their preservation." The governor, however, did not acquiesce in these suggestions with a good grace. On the contrary, he continually either refused or designedly neglected to sign acts passed by the legis- lature; until, finally, he was peremptorily ordered by the lords of trade to continue this conduct no longer.

Indeed, the entire course pursued by Cornbury in his dealings with the New-York assembly appears most singular. Certainly it was in direct opposition to the repeatedly expressed policy and wish of the parent government. His idea seems to have been to widen the breach, already broad, between the people and the crown, instead, as was the case with Andros and Dongan, of fostering a spirit of conciliation. Had Cornbury been governor under the reign of either of the royal brothers Charles and James, his action might be better understood. But whatever his motive, his efforts were aimed at alienating the colonies from the mother-country and crushing out the self-respect of the colonists. Indeed, it would seem from his correspondence with the lords of trade (and the letters of no colonial governor are more numerous and voluminous than are his) as if he made it a special study not how to render her Majesty's subjects more contented, but in what manner a spirit of rebellion could best be fomented. "In the country," he writes under date of July 18, 1705, "and especially in Long Island, most of the English are dissenters, being for the most part people who have removed from New England and Connecticut, who are in no wise fond of monarchy, soe that they naturally incline to encroach, as often

1 H. Walpole to the lords of trade, Doc. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., 5: 546.

HISTORY OF NEW-YORK

as they can, upon the Prerogative; soe it is no wonder if they are will- ing to extend the power of their Assembly as far as they can." Yet it must be admitted that the writer had a glimmering of the future independence of the colonies. "I declare my opinion to be," he fur- ther wrote in this same letter, " that all these collonys, which are but twigs belonging to the same Tree [England], ought to be kept entirely dependent upon, and subservient to, England, and that can never be if they are suffered to goe on in the notions they have, that, as they are Englishmen, soe they may set up the same manufactures here as people may doe in Eng- land. I am well informed that upon Long Island and in Con- necticut they are setting up a woolen Manufacture; and I, myself, have seen serge made upon Long Island that any man may wear. The conse- quence, therefore, will be that if once they see they can cloathe themselves, not only THE FRENCH HUGUENOT CHURCH IN PINE STREET, 1704.1 comfortably but handsomely too, without the help of Eng- land, they, who already are not very fond of submitting to Govern- ment, will soon think of putting in executions designs they have long harboured in their breasts. This will not seem strange when you consider what sort of people this country is inhabited by." But what Cornbury did not see-though neither did, for that matter, George III. and his ministers sixty years later-was, that had England en- couraged these manufactures and made her colonists feel that their interests were identical with those of the mother-country and they themselves component parts of the British realm, she would have held her colonies as with hooks of steel !

The conduct pursued by Cornbury with his New Jersey assembly was also of the same impolitic character. In 1705 his attempt to obtain from that body an annual salary of two thousand pounds for

1 The building illustrated in the text was erected on King street (now Pine), near Nassau, north side ; the laying of the corner-stone took place on July 8, 1704. Sixteen years before that the French Hu- guenots began to hold services in a small build- ing on Marketfield street, half-way between White- hall and Broad streets. The Pine street church was of stone covered with plaster. The burying- ground attached to it extended back to the next street (Little Queen, now Cedar). In 1776 the Brit- ish converted it into a storehouse, making it unfit

for use as a church without extensive repairs. These were not undertaken until 1796, when wor- ship was resumed under Huguenot forms. In 1803 the forms of the Episcopal Church were adopted. and have since continued, the church being known as "L'Eglise du Saint Esprit." In 1832 the con- gregation removed to a building on the southwest corner of Franklin and Church streets, whence another move was made in 1863 to the present edi- fice in Twenty-second street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues. EDITOR.

THE ADMINISTRATION OF LORD CORNBURY

twenty years had been thwarted by the Quaker, Samuel Jennings, who, in reply to his statement that the governor's salary was too small, curtly remarked, "Then thee must be very needy." Furious at this rebuff, he straightway dissolved the assembly, and, in the spring of 1706, called a new one with the specific object of having his salary both renewed and increased. Greatly to his surprise, how- ever, a majority of the newly elected members flatly refused to accede to his wishes; nor was his disappointment softened when he found not only that a late member of his New Jersey council-board, Colonel Lewis Morris (a former governor of New Jersey), was at the head of the opposition, but that Samuel Jennings, the sturdy Quaker, had also been chosen speaker. As soon as the house was organized, a peti- tion, setting forth the grievances of the colony, under the rule of Corn- bury, was prepared for presentation to the queen; and the governor, from being on the offensive, suddenly found himself placed on his defense. This petition, together with a remonstrance drafted by Morris, was read to him. In it he was accused, among other things, not only of accepting bribes, but also of "encroaching upon popular liberty by denying the freeholders' election of their representatives"; and as the reading progressed, different passages in it were com- mented on by the members accompanied by caustic remarks. " At the more pointed passages Cornbury, assuming a stern air of author- ity, would cry out : 'Stop! what's that ?' When thus interrupted Jennings would look steadily into the governor's eyes for an instant, and then meekly, but emphatically, reread the offensive paragraph, bringing out every shade of meaning with stinging fullness of articu- lation."1 Cornbury attempted a reply to this arraignment, but his arguments were such as relied for their effect on mere personal abuse. Finally, upon his charging the Quakers with disloyalty, that sect, in a second paper, replied to this charge in the words of Nehemiah to Sanballat: "There is no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart." Completely foiled, the gov- ernor returned to New-York.

Shortly after his controversy with the New Jersey assembly, Corn- bury suffered a severe domestic affliction in the death of his wife, who died on Sunday, August 11, 1706, in the thirty-fifth year of her age. Katherine, Lady Cornbury, was the daughter of Lord O'Brian, son of the Earl of Richmond of Ireland, and of Lady Katherine Stuart, sister of the Duke of Richmond and Lenox. She was mar- ried to Lord Cornbury July 10, 1688, and on the death of her mother became Baroness Clifton of Warwickshire, England. She accom- panied her husband to America, suffering from what seems to have been a pulmonary complaint, and was never well from the time of

1 Lamb's " History of New-York City," 1: 475.

HISTORY OF NEW-YORK

her landing until her death. She appears to have been an amiable woman, and to have exercised a restraining influence over her disso- lute husband. On one of his visits to Albany to attend an Indian council one of the River Indians presented her with a magnificent otter-skin for a muff, as a testimony from his tribe to her personal character; and she seems, also, to have inspired her dependents with affection. As her end drew near, her husband, who loved her devot- edly, "watched by her bedside night and day, and reprimanded nurses and servants for the most trifling negligence." By her mar- riage he had seven children, of whom only one son and two daughters survived their mother. Her funeral sermon (afterward reprinted in London) was preached by the Rev. John Sharp, chaplain of the fort; and her obsequies, which were conducted with much pomp and ceremony,' took place in Trinity Church.ª

The memory of his wife seems for a time to have had a chastening effect upon the governor. He was at first completely prostrated by his grief, and refused all consolation;' but it was not long ere his old habits resumed their sway, and he became even more dissipated than before his bereavement. ' At the same time he was most ostentatious in the performance of his formal religious duties, and apparently thought that the greater his zeal in the persecution of dissenters, the surer would be his ultimate reward. Imbued with this idea, he looked around to see in what way he could put his zeal into practice. Nor was it long before he saw his opportunity. His apparent success in

1 At least this is the inference when we read cannot be easily gainsaid : "The lady of this very (Doc. rel. Chl. Hist. N. Y., 5: 111) that three ban- dred pounds www paid to a Mr. Budinet froma all of crown lands in Bushwick. I. I .. as " due for part of Lady Chrabary's funeral." See also " An Arrivant of Maladministration in re thor- ernment of New-York, by ve late Chief Justice Momperson " (Doa. m. Chl. Hist N. Y .. .: - ) where this grant for lady Chrabury's funeral expenses, as well as otherx is among the pavots of this "maladministration. "

: In Ivember, Ista in the foundation of the more of Trinity ( harsh being removed a state was andwhich contained the fragments of a mitin. The large plate which had have placed on the lid was still intart, and perfectly logink, and whound the army of the family of kinhmind and the name of laly chantiers. How aga pedicion and date at hos decrease were wim sitron . A Text man was provided wherein these relics were in- FATTOR.

* da this lady's chorar nothing " the mails micoming features that is ar praved probable to nante to Int clarity- his

According Hat the following other hand ron in . Protenotion that come down from month in motich

just [a term used satirically, following an account of Corabury's defrauding of Mr. Bedlow's widow and heirs] nobleman was equally a character. He had fallen in love with her ear, which was very beautiful. The ear ceased to please, and he treated her with neglect. Her pin-money was withheld. and she had no resource but begging and steel- ing. She borrowed gowns and costs and never returned themn. As hers was the only carriage in the city. the mlling of the wheels was easily dis- tinguisbed and then the ery in the house was, . There comes my lady : hide this, hide that, take that away.' Whatever she admired in her visit she was sure to send for the next day. She had a faner w hare with her eight or ten young ladies, and make them do her sewing-work. for who could weduw their daughters to my lady ! My step-grand- mother was one of these favored girls." (Mrs. Ja- met Montgomery's Tupublished Memoirs, cited in " Biographies of Francis Lewis and Morgan Lewis," hy Mrs. Julia Delafield. 2 vols. New-York. 1877, 1 : 205. 206.1 Mrs. Monteromery was the sister of Mayor Edward Livingston, and the widow of General Reinhard Montgomery, who fell at Quebec, Tramber S1. 775. EDITOR

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The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume II, Part 10

Author: Wilson, James Grant, 1832-1914 Publication date: 1892 Publisher: [New York] New York History Co. Number of Pages: 705

Author: Wilson, James Grant, 1832-1914
Publication date: 1892
Publisher: [New York] New York History Co.
Number of Pages: 705