USA > New York > New York City > The Memorial History of the City of New York: From Its First Settlement to the Year 1892, Volume II > Part 23
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
Post-office), with good square shoulders lifts high above its French rival its open belfry supported upon columns, and surmounted by the inevitable chanticleer.' As the eye turns toward the outskirts of the city, the houses grow few and far between. Here the shipwrights have established themselves along the river's edge. But two fine mansions, which close the view at the northern extremity, would appear to have been the dwellings of well-to-do merchants of the town, who had chosen this delectable situation for their homes. A specimen of such home may be seen in the prints of Colonel Rutgers's house or country-seat upon the East River shore.
The observer of 1728, on his return to the city which he had thus surveyed, would have pro- ceeded to the ferry-house at the foot of the hill to his right. It EAST RIVER SHORE, NEAR THE RUTGERS HOUSE. stood upon the bank of the river, a substantial building of brick, three stories high, with pointed gables crow-stepped in the style ap- proved in Holland. Adjoining it stood a large barn or carriage-house and various sheds; while on the opposite side of the road, sheltered beneath an almost perpendicular bluff, was a pound for cattle and horses. A dock ran out a little way into the river, and here landed and departed the ferry-scow, square at both ends, but rigged with mast and sails. This was the beginning of Fulton Ferry. Had a vision of the great structure of the Brooklyn Bridge, now over- shadowing this very spot, been vouchsafed to the observer of that date, he would have classed it among the seven wonders of the world, or he would have supposed it utterly impossible of ever being real- ized in fact.
It is somewhat singular that at almost every stage in the history of our city that vanished feature of the "Kolk," or Collect-pond, or lake, or creek, should have to figure and to require notice. During Governor Montgomerie's term it was made the subject of an elaborate petition to the king on the part of Captain Anthony Rutgers, and the correspondence referring to this petition occupies several pages of the large quarto publication of the documents that relate to the colonial history of our state. The territory comprising it had formed part of those generous but reckless grants under Fletcher and In-
1 As may to some extent be gathered from pre- ceding pages, the rectors or pastors of these churches were -of Trinity, the Rev. William Ve- sey ; of the Presbyterian church in Wall street, the Rev. Ebenezer Pemberton; of the French
church in Pine street, the Rev. Louis Rou; of the Dutch church (comprising two edifices above mentioned), the Revs. Gualterius (Walter) Du Bois and Henricus Boel.
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THE CITY UNDER GOVERNOR JOHN MONTGOMERIE
goldesby which were measured by the score of square miles at once. These grants having been declared invalid by the council in England and by the assembly at home, and by the royal decree based on these, the lands which had entered into them had again become vacant. The petition urged that the pond itself, now freed from these liens upon it, and measuring about seventy acres, might be granted to Captain Rutgers in fee simple. The reasons brought for- ward why this petition should be granted, give us a graphic account of this natural feature of Manhattan Island, as well as of its actual condition and its effects upon the neighborhood. We learn that its waters and the swampy ground, which was half land and half water, extended very nearly from the North to the East River. From the former it was separated by about one hundred and fifty yards of a kind of salt meadow; from the East River by about three hundred yards of the same. Here a rail fence had to be placed to prevent cattle from straying upon the treacherous bottom and getting smoth- ered in the mud.
That beautiful and pellucid lake or stream, whose shores some im- aginations have peopled with delighted visitors, or anglers, appears in reality to have been a very common and a very offensive nuisance. The petitioner, Captain Rutgers, begged leave most humbly to inform George II. that "said swamp is filled constantly with standing water for which there is no natural vent." Bushes and small trees grew upon some of the submerged soil, producing in the midst of the stag- nation an added element of infection in the way of vegetable decay, making the Kolk indeed "exceedingly dangerous and of very per- nicious consequence " to all those dwelling within a short distance of it. The land in its vicinity was therefore occupied by the dwellings of those who were too poor to build or rent houses elsewhere; and so much sickness prevailed among these people, who belonged generally to the laboring classes, that a great part of their time and wages was constantly being lost. The larger landholders could not rent their farms located near by. All these sanitary facts and objections were supported by the affidavit of a physician. What was needed was a thorough system of draining. The tides only at specially high water would now flow back and forth between the rivers, meeting on the surface of the Kolk. But this chance of purification was too occa- sional; and even then the waters from the rivers came and went without carrying away the unhealthy stagnation. Yet by means of the ebb and flow of the tides, regulated by canals and a proper sys- tem of damming and sluicing, the water in the pond might be period- ically renewed and refreshed every day. This, however, demanded time and money. Captain Rutgers was willing to devote both to the beneficial object in question, if there were a reasonable expectation
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
that he and his heirs might enjoy the fruits, in possessing and inher- iting the property thus improved. Under no other conditions was it to be expected that any one else would take upon himself the salutary task.' The request was so reasonable that it did not fail of being granted, and it is somewhat remarkable that less than a year later the first assembly that met under the rule of Rip Van Dam con- vened at the house of Captain Rutgers, "near the Bowery Road." The Bowery Road ran past the Collect; and the reason the assembly met there was to avoid an epidemic of smallpox that was raging in the city. Hence the infectious district must have been very success- fully converted into one entirely safe for the health.2
Possessed of no talents to secure him distinction in affairs civil or military, yet Governor Montgomerie's name, by a happy fortuity, has become immortalized in the annals of New-York City. While he ruled here peacefully and good-naturedly, the time came about for the granting of another city charter, to supplement as well as to con- firm the one granted under Governor Dongan; and hence it has ever since been designated by his name. "This last charter," remarks Chancellor Kent, "is entitled to our respect and attachment, for its venerable age, and the numerous blessings and great commercial prosperity which have accompanied the due exercise of its powers."3 It deserves, therefore, more than a passing notice. The discussion of its legal aspects and effects belongs to another chapter of this volume. Here we are concerned only with its historical setting, and the data are fortunately at hand for presenting this circumstantially.
After the important charter of 1686, granted under Dongan, an- other one of less importance, referring exclusively to the single matter of ferry privileges, was granted just twenty-two years later, in 1708, under Lord Cornbury. Now, in 1730, and again, by a curious coin- cidence, twenty-two years after, the corporation of New-York became solicitous for a new charter. There had always been some legal diffi- culty in the minds of the magistrates, because while the charter of 1686 had received the impress of the ducal seal of York, James II. had failed to put the royal seal to it. Accordingly, on August 6, the corporation laid before the governor and his council a petition for the issue of a charter by the hand and under the seal of George II. The petition specified the grants and privileges which it was de- sired to have confirmed or to obtain in addition. It was referred to a committee of which James Alexander, the father of the Lord Stir- ling of Revolutionary fame, was chairman. A week later, on August 13, the committee were ready with their report. A few alterations had been made in the wording of the document, also in the figures
1 Doc. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., 5 : 914-917. 2 Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, "History City of New-York," 1 : 536. 3 " The Charter of the City of New-York, with notes thereon " (New-York, 1836), p. 120.
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THE CITY UNDER GOVERNOR JOHN MONTGOMERIE
set down for quit-rents and other matters; it was thereupon unani- mously agreed to grant or to recommend the granting of it as thus amended.' It was necessary, in the next place, to transmit the charter to England, to procure the approbation of the authorities there, and to receive the king's seal. Therefore it was not till February 11, 1732, that occur- red the formal pres- entation of the new charter to the city. To the citizens of the metropolis this must ever remain an occasion of deep in- terest. The date it- self is auspicious, being precisely one year before the birth of Washington.2
On the day men- tioned, the mayor, recorder, aldermen, and assistant alder- men appeared in a body before the gov- ernor and his coun- cil. Robert Lurting, named in the in- strument as mayor, stepped forward to receive the charter ANCIENT DUTCH TOWN, SHOWING CROW-STEPPED GABLES. from the hands of the governor, and took the oaths of office admin- istered by the latter. The mayor naming for the office of deputy- mayor one of the aldermen, John Cruger, his Excellency appointed him to the position at once. Next in the order of ceremonies was the reading of an address of thanks signed by all the members of the cor- poration, by Francis Harrison, the recorder. This historic paper, by reason of the importance of the occasion, is worthy of reproduction:
To his Excellency the Honble John Montgomerie Esquire Captain General, etc., etc., etc.
The goodness and indulgence which you have upon all Occasions express'd and Shewed to his Maties Subjects in this Province first Encouraged us under an Adminis- 1 Council Minutes, XVI : 31. year before February 11, 173}, which in the N. S.,
2 In the O. S. February 11, 173?, was just one adopted in 1753, has become February 22, 1732.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
tration woh Demonstrated your Paternal Love and Care for the people committed to your Government and Protection to become your Excellency's Humble Suitors for the Enlargement of the Rights Libertys Privileges & Franchises of this Corporation and Better and farther Security and Confirmation of the Severall Estates of many its worthy members upon all these Emergencyes your Excellency was Pleased to give us an uncommon Freedom of Access and his Majestyes royall and Most Gracious Charter will be a Lasting Monument of what your Excellency was frequently Pleased to Charge and inculcate to us that the Interest Honnour & Dignity of the Crown of Great Britain were the First and Principall things to be Considered in your own Pro- ceedings upon this Grant & ought to be so in all ours.
May it please your Excellency Though the Existence of this Corporation be antient yet it Seems to have Rec'd its full maturity under your Excellencyes Administration and if wee Reflect on the Pain and Struggle which the Nation has Suffered for the Security of Religion Liberty and Property since the Date of our First Charter So near that Ever memorable [event] the Coronation of our great Deliverer King William the Third of Glorious and Immortal Memory Even to this Day we who by our distant Situation feel not the Imediate Influence of our Countrys Councills and inimitable actions have the justest Cause of Joy and Gratitude while under the Best and Gratest of Monarchs and his Representative Truly worthy of that great Title we See all these Blessings which Peace or War have Procured for great Brittain Derived to us by your Generous and Liberall hand guided and influenced by the Example of your Excel- lency's Royall Master.
May it please your Excellency.
your Just good and wise Administration would admitt us to Carry this allusion much farther but to Dwell upon Particulars would swell our thanks to the bulk of Benefitts received, yet our gratitude will not Suffer us to be Silent or unthankfull upon the great Addition made to our Privileges the new and Beneficiall Extent of our Soil and Jurisdiction and your Excellency's good and Provident Concession that the Exer- cise of the Law our Comon Bulwark & Security Should not hereafter become a Burden upon those whom it was Intended to Protect We shall no Longer trespass upon your Excellency's Time than by desiring leave to Assure your Excellency that our Lives and Fortunes are devoted to the Support & maintenance of the Crown of great Brittain in his Majesties most Sacred person and the Protestant Succession in his Illustrious house which we pray may be Established to the End of time in a race of Princes De- scended from so great a Monarch and a Royall Consort the Ornament of her Sex and the Pattern and Example of all princely virtues we hope and Wee beseech Heaven for his Majesties Long life and Reign over us and that your Excellency may Continue his Representative here till he Shall call you to more arduous affairs and the blessing of a Nearer attendance on his Royall Person, We are etc. etc.
Signed by the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen & Common Council.
As the leading idea of this speech or address was that the good na- ture or indulgence of the governor had induced the corporation to petition for the new charter during his term, Montgomerie was much gratified. He replied to it in the following words:
I am very glad that it has been in my power to promote the prosperity and interest of the city of New-York, which I believe I have effectually done by now delivering to your Mayor the King's royal and most gracious charter. It gives me great satisfaction my being fully assured that the officers named in the charter are fit for their respective' trusts and will do their duty with a strict regard for his Majesty's service and the good of the city.1
1 Council Minutes, XVI : 76.
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THE CITY UNDER GOVERNOR JOHN MONTGOMERIE
Although this is not the place for treating of the charter in detail, a few points of a rather curious interest may be briefly noted. In the first place, we find that one ward has been added to the original six. It was parceled out of the generous proportions of the "Out Ward," and appropriately named, in honor of the present governor, the "Mont- gomerie Ward." But the Out Ward still remained, comprising all of Manhattan Island above Chambers street. It is distinctly laid down that the jurisdiction of the city shall extend across the waters on all sides of the island, to the low-water line on the Westchester, Long Island, and even New Jersey shores until op- posite Spuyten Duyvil Creek, including also the islands in the vicinity of the city. The members of the corporation are carefully enumerated to include one mayor, one recorder, seven alder- men, seven assistant A COLONIAL TEA-SET OF GOLD. aldermen, one sheriff, one coroner, one common clerk, one chamber- lain, one high constable, sixteen assessors, seven collectors, sixteen constables, and one marshal. If any person, after being appointed or elected to any of these offices, refused to serve, a fine of fifteen pounds ($75) was to be imposed, except in the case of such as had to furnish bondsmen. The mayor's office was not elective until more than a century later: he was appointed by the royal governor and later by the governor of the State; in 1834 occurred the first election of a mayor. But space will not allow, nor will it be neces- sary here, to pursue the summary of these minute details. The charter itself was a monumental factor in the development of the city. It stood through all the changes incident to the revolution- ary period and that of the formation of our Federal Union. The Revolution, which meant for New-York British occupation for sev- eral years, suspended its functions temporarily. Yet the State Con- stitution of 1777, and that of 1821, confirmed it in all its essential particulars, so that, as Chancellor Kent wrote in 1836 (words which may equally apply to the present day): "It remains to this day with much of its original form and spirit, after having received by statute such modifications and such a thorough enlargement in its legislative, judicial and executive branches, as were best adapted to the genius and wants of the people, and to the astonish- VOL. II .- 13.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
ing growth and still rapidly increasing wealth and magnitude of the city."1
According to many of the historians of our city, there are three main events which distinguished Montgomerie's brief administration: the granting of the charter, the founding of a library, which finally developed into the New-York Society Library, and the estab- lishment of a line of stages between New- York and Philadelphia. Due attention has been given to the first of these important matters. As to the third, it would appear from the latest history of Philadelphia pub- lished, that the date of the establishment of regular stage communication between New- York and that city must be placed at least two years after Montgomerie's death.2 The library is a subject which reaches through more than one administration, and will there- fore necessarily merit allusions or accounts more or less fugitive or detailed in subse- A NEW-YORK GENTLEMAN. quent chapters, as well as here.
In September, 1728, Governor Montgomerie received word that the private library of an English clergyman, the Rev. John Millington, had been bequeathed by him to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; and that the society - something like our present church boards of foreign missions, and evidently regard- ing New-York as included within its range of operations among the heathen -had decided to bestow Mr. Millington's gift of books upon the corporation of our city. There were a little over sixteen hundred of them, a fair number for a private library, but rather a modest be- ginning for a municipal one. Naturally the prevailing character was theological or devotional, though doubtless the "Wits of Queen Anne's Time"-Pope, Addison, Steele, Swift-found a place among them. These volumes, moreover, were not the first donation of this kind: a smaller collection, also formerly the private library of a clergyman, was already in the possession of the city. This had been presented in 1700 by the Rev. John Sharp, Lord Bellomont's chaplain in the fort. As this gentleman was still living, the authorities now gave into his charge the library as thus materially increased, quarters were assigned for it in the City Hall, and here access to it was given to the public at large. Mr. Sharp, however, being an aged man, did not long survive his appointment; and after his death no one was found
1 Kent's "City Charter," p. 120.
2 " History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884 " (Scharf and Westcott, Phila., 1884, in 3 vols), 1 : 206.
3 events
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THE CITY UNDER GOVERNOR JOHN MONTGOMERIE
either able or willing to take his place. Hence the City Library fell into sad neglect, until it was transferred to the keeping of the Society Library, organized in 1754, becoming thus the nucleus of the institu- tion that still exists and flourishes in this city to-day.
To these particulars of special interest may be added a few others that have not received much notice hitherto. One of these is a state- ment of the annual amounts of imports to and exports from New- York between the years 1723 and 1728. This table was made up in November, 1729, and covers the period from Christmas to Christmas in each year : 1
YEARS.
IMPORTS.
EXPORTS.
1723-1724
£21,191
£63,020
1724-1725
25,316
70,650
1725-1726
38,307
84,850
1726-1727
31,617
67,373
1727-1728
21,005
78,561
From this it can be seen, however limited the scale as compared with the prodigious figures of the present, that the business of New- York, while fluctuating from year to year during these five, yet was such that the balance of trade, or the amount of receipts, was always on the right side for the little colonial seaport, the exports being, by this showing, sometimes double, sometimes triple, and sometimes almost fourfold the imports. But taking the largest figure of these all, -the amount of exports for the year 1726, namely, £84,850, or roughly, $125,000,-what is that to the foreign commerce of the port of New- York according to the latest report, or $876,808,110? Turning to a subject of a more domestic interest, we find that during this admin- istration a law had to be enacted to preserve a favorite article of food -the oyster. In a letter of Governor Montgomerie to the lords of trade, December, 21, 1730, there is an enumeration of acts passed by the assembly. "No. 9" in this series is "an Act for the better preser- vation of the oyster." In commenting on it, the governor wrote: "There was an Act of this kind formerly past in this province, dur- ing the continuance whereof the Oysters encreased to that degree, that the City of New-York was constantly supplyed in the proper season at easie rates, but since the expiration of it, the people being under no restraint, the Banks are almost destroyed. To preserve what is left, and to procure an increase is the design of this Act, which will be greatly to the advantage of this City, if it be duely observed."" The working of this act must have been beneficial, for Professor Kalm, the Swedish traveler, about fifteen or sixteen years later, discourses of the consumption of oysters in New-York as a feature worthy of special
1 Doc. rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., 5 : 897. 2 Ib., 5: 905.
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HISTORY OF NEW-YORK
note in his book. Finally, there needs to be set down here, as belong- ing to this period, an event of decided interest in the history of Amer- ican manufactures. In the year 1730 there was built "on the fifth lot from the corner of Centre and Reade Streets " what is called in the records a "stone-ware kiln or furnace." It was in fact a smelting-fur- nace for the reduction of iron ore, the first not only in New-York City, but, it is claimed, in the United States. The lower portions of this structure, or the arch, were still to be seen under the foundations, or forming a part of the foundations, of the house occupying the spot in 1842, which was then in the use of the Manhattan Company.' Surely it is not well to despise the day of small things. What vast indus- tries, whose clangor rises upon the atmosphere from day to day, whose unremitting demands supply the means of sustenance to thousands of diligent wage-earners, have succeeded this little furnace near the cor- ner of Reade and Centre streets, whose black fumes were wont to hover over the still waters of the Kolk-pond!
On three different occasions the term of an incumbent of the gov- ernor's chair had been unhappily terminated by death. To that obit- uary list, comprising the names of Sloughter, Lord Bellomont, and Lord Lovelace, that of Montgomerie must now be added. There is no record of the cause of his decease; but in the summer of 1731 the frightful scourge of the smallpox, which so repeatedly visited both Europe and America and ruthlessly carried off multitudes before Jenner's day, again afflicted New-York. An epidemic which destroyed the lives of five hundred people out of a population of nine thousand, within comparatively a few weeks, was truly an appalling one. That plague which had not spared a queen upon her throne -for it was of the smallpox that Mary died in 1694-would not be unlikely to infect a governor's mansion. On June 20 he wrote his last letter to the authorities in England; and, curiously enough, in it he has occasion to mention the death of two councilors, one a member of the New-York council, the other of that of the province of New Jersey. His sickness must have been sudden and brief, for on July 1 he was dead; hence it is more than likely that he was attacked by the prevailing disease and fell a victim to its ravages. He died at five o'clock in the morning. The council had been summoned during the night, when it became imminent that his Excellency would pass away. At 6 A. M. they met in formal session in the council-chamber, with President Rip Van Dam in the chair; and the first act in the emer- gency was to consult Governor Montgomerie's instructions as to his successor in case of death. These were clear to the effect that until the next governor should arrive from England the duties of chief magistrate were to devolve upon the member who had been
1 See note accompanying the illustration in Valentine's Manual for 1854, opposite p. 542.
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THE CITY UNDER GOVERNOR JOHN MONTGOMERIE
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