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 33
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Apart from the quarrels of the provincial assembly, the Indian questions were calling for a rapid solution, as the never-ending in- trigues of the French to break the bulwark which the Six Nations formed were gradually succeeding. On the other hand, the English had pushed over the Alleghanies into the Ohio Valley, and thereby buttressed the sinking faith of the heroic Indians in the purpose of the English not to let the French complete the chain of forts in their rear. All that was needed to effect this was a strong governor in New-
GEORGE CLINTON AND HIS CONTEST WITH THE ASSEMBLY 281
York who could obtain sufficient supplies from his assembly. Clin- ton could not. He had antagonized the Dutch of Albany too severely, and Johnson's ability was disliked by them as much as he was dreaded by the assembly as Clinton's instrument. In consequence of this, the assembly, which the governor delayed summoning till the last moment, refused to provide for any of Johnson's In- dian expenses, and gave their partizans such allowances as they thought fit. This plan was checked by the council, now in Clin- ton's hands, and a deadlock arose because the council proposed a money bill. The gov- ernor dissolved the assembly, but did not expect a greatly different set of men to be returned. In fact, the conviction gradually seems to have grown on him that in spite of the personal behavior of the assemblies, nay in spite of their love for deals and jobs for their friends, the animating spirit of the fac- tion was the popular feeling that his asser- WALL STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. tion of the royal prerogative was out of date, and unsuitable to their surroundings and ideas. Therefore, his entire energy was directed to having the lords of trade either recall him, or give him such powers as to effectively deal with the faction. Of course the burden of his song was to demand permission not to deliver De Lancey's commission, and this the English government would not give. Yet they had not been idle, for after many years' deliberation new orders were passed in council, commanding the governors to en- force their commission. There was little consolation in this for Clin- ton, who by some chance had succeeded in obtaining his supplies for the year 1752, and who expected to be able to suspend De Lancey, appoint Colden, and return home before the supply bills expired in September. But again peremptory orders to stay in New-York ar- rested this plan. Clinton again told of his trials and of the unruly faction that made life miserable to him, and remained.
Now he discovered another element in the faction which must be suppressed. This time it was the mercantile class of New-York, who had grown rich by evading the customs duties, and had carried on trade with the continent. These were now represented as having all the vices and as being inspired by all the ill-will which formerly (ac- cording to Clinton) characterized in turn the rich and the poor; the Dutch of Albany, the English manor-lords, and the French of New- York; the tricky lawyers and the dull country storekeepers; the scheming city members and scatter-brained country representatives;
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who all had at one time or another been loaded with invectives for opposing the governor. Of course this proved but one thing to any fair-minded observer: that if Clinton was right and the entire prov- ince wrong, Clinton and not the inhabitants of the province should be removed. We have seen how doggedly the government allowed Clinton to struggle, and how little it aided him; now, with the same disregard of political consequences, they defeated one of Clinton's schemes and sent over William Kempe to be attorney-general, who with his family arrived on November 4, 1752. The ad interim holder of the office, William Smith, had worked hard and had not re- ceived any salary. Although herein Clinton felt himself aggrieved, worse news was awaiting him. On November 29, 1752, the lords of trade gave him a severe reprimand for the tone of his letters, and told him that not only must he stay and not consider his governorship of New-York a place of punishment, but that he must give up all idea of having Colden succeed him. In view of all that he had so effi- ciently shown in regard to the power of De Lancey's faction and the chief justice's hatred of him and of Colden and his party, it would be but inviting worse disorder to put Colden into temporary control of New-York, when to do this it would be necessary to divest De Lancey of his commission as lieutenant-governor. With the final order to stay till relieved, the lords of trade bade him farewell. Clinton re- signed himself as well as he could to his fate, and tried to keep his attention fixed on the Indian congress which now was to meet in New-York city. In June, 1753, there appeared at this council the several Indian chiefs who, with Hendrick, had preserved New-York from the French and had kept the lakes in the north from becoming part of French Canada. Besides the Indians, there was present the governor, whose council had been purged of the faction, as the mem- bers who attended were James Alexander, Archibald Kennedy, Mayor Edward Holland, and William Johnson, who all belonged to Clinton's party. The conference with the Indians in the main aimed at restor- ing confidence, promising them presents; but as Clinton probably intended to exhibit to the representatives of the Six Nations what a fine town New-York was, it may not be out of place to here show what changes had taken place during Clinton's administration.
New-York had grown very much, as several new streets were opened where formerly the farmers had only the easement of right of way. This was the origin of Beekman street, which was laid out and graded in 1752, although since 1656 the farmers had had the right to drive their cattle to the commons through it. A few years before this time (1750) Dey street, named after adjacent property-holders, had been opened. . Thus the city was extending more and more to the north; meanwhile Ferry street was added to the city, Thames street opened,
GEORGE CLINTON AND HIS CONTEST WITH THE ASSEMBLY 283
John street straightened, while Pearl street was graded down near Peck Slip, and regulated between (the modern) Franklin Square and Chatham street. Within very little time after their opening these streets were paved, of course only with river cobblestones.1 In regard to the public health our knowledge is negative, and it can be only as- sumed that the sanitary condition of the town was improved because the smallpox prevailed but once in the ten years of Clinton's rule. Although we have no reason to suppose that the streets were in any worse state than those of any EfFORland other small town of the time, it is gratifying to note that during this period we no longer hear of the Grand Jury presenting Beekman, Burling, the Fly, and Old Slips as nuisances, because of their general unsavory character, as had been the case in 1743. At that time the city ordained that no pigs or cattle were to be kept in the southern part of the town. North of it, every thing in sight was prairie and marsh. The water was very poor, and constant at- tempts were made to sink new wells; thus, in 1748, the corporation contributed toward two new wells, one on John street, near Broadway, and the other by the Spring Garden, near the Drivers' Inn, where Broadway diverges eastward to the Bowery (on the site of the Astor House). This period also saw the growth of a number of churches, for although the city members of the assembly were slow to open the public treasury for blockhouses on the frontiers, their constituents vied amongst themselves for the honor of having for each denomi- nation its own church. In 1747 the Presbyterian church was rebuilt, and four years later a Moravian church was erected in (the modern) Fulton street. In the year following (1752) St. George's Chapel was built by Trinity Church on the corner of Cliff and Beekman streets, and was ministered to by the Rev. Henry Barclay a former mission- ary among the Mohawks, but now [July 1, 1752] rector of Trinity Church.2 At first it had been intended to build this chapel on Nassau street, near Fair (now Fulton) street, and a lot was actually bought there. In 1749 the corner-stone was laid; the very next day the Rev. Samuel Auchmuty, Mr. Barclay's assistant, was married to a Mrs. Tucker. A few weeks previously the rector himself had been united in marriage to a daughter of Anthony Rutgers. Sir Peter Warren gave one hundred pounds toward the building of it, and a pew was assigned to him in recognition of the gift, which he never occupied. The chapel was a conspicuous object, as it stood almost alone in that vicinity. Dr. Stephen H. Tyng preached here until it was superseded
1 In the middle of the century there was only one coach in New-York, except Governor Clinton's, and that belonged to Lady Murray. At this date it was desirable, if not necessary, that the Dutch language be spoken, in order to deal advanta- geously in the markets. EDITOR.
2 In February, 1750, a fire broke out in the New Free School, of which Joseph Hildreth, clerk of Trinity parish, was the master. The church was in great peril, but was fortunately saved. All the archives of Trinity were, however, destroyed. EDITOR.
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by the handsome structure in Stuyvesant Square. The common council had, in 1747, already encouraged native industry and historical study by voting four pounds for the printing of fifty copies of a little " Essay on the Duties of Vestrymen."1 But its highest munificence was shown in 1752, when the corporation contributed a subscription of one hundred pounds toward the building of the first Merchants' Exchange, then at the lower end of Broad street, near Bridge, the one thoroughfare of our city which has never changed its name, except in translation.2
Clinton's administration had in fact benefited only those who had private ends to serve and who could cloak them under the guise of popular principles cleverly enough not to be detected. Gradually the vanity every partizan is shamed into by the repetition of his prin- ciples must have prepared move ments to which sincere men clung; but, in the main, the struggles for power of the De Lanceys, or of the opposition under the Livingstons and the Albany Dutch, or even of the avowed Toryism of Colden, were as little actuated by considerations of the rights of the people as were Clinton's efforts for the preserva- tion of a steady revenue, and a strongly centralized power of dis- Hen Barclay tributing the patronage. That, with all these ordinary motives, these times prepared the men of New- York for the storms of the Revolu- tion, and carried the political education of the great seaport into the rural districts, does not reflect upon the actors any merit or blame. Men in political life are no better than their surroundings ; and if New- York politics even at that period have a tinge of that political fever which in the first ten years after 1800 burned most fiercely in this city, it must be remembered that it was the outcome of a transplanted civilization, one of whose most familiar characteristics, on emerging from the first necessities of life, is to adopt the grossest or more
1 William Bradford, the father of printing in New-York, died during the year 1752, and was buried in Trinity churchyard. A representation of his tombstone, with fac-similes of the title-pages of many of his earliest publications, and of the first New-York newspaper, which he established in 1725, may be seen in the previous volume of this work. His son, Andrew Bradford (1686-1742), was the founder of the newspaper press in Penn-
sylvania, and his grandson, Colonel William Bradford (1721-1791), the patriot printer of the Revolutionary period, has been admirably com- memorated by his descendant, John William Wal- lace, for many years the President of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. EDITOR.
On the map of the city for 1789 it is named Wincom street; so that for a brief period the ancient name was in abeyance. EDITOR.
GEORGE CLINTON AND HIS CONTEST WITH THE ASSEMBLY 285
palpable political rottenness of the mother-country, because that ap- pears to be essentially human and the outcome of a high development. The New-York of Clinton's time was not more selfish than the Eng- land of George II., only very much cruder. Yet the fine art displayed by De Lancey, coupled with his firmness of grip, is traceable to an admirable mixture of French and Dutch blood. Besides the larger factions there were all those disappointed officers who had been balked in their hopes and baffled in their vengeance. All these tacitly agreed to wait till Clinton's successor should appear; then to begin afresh.
While Clinton was entertaining his Indian allies, the ministry had found his successor, and in July orders in council were issued for Sir Danvers Osborn's commission. At about the same time the crown lawyers, Ryder and Murray (Lord Mansfield), authoritatively gave the opinion that De Lancey's com- mission, issued during good beha- vior, had been well issued, and that Clinton could not revoke it without a misdemeanor proved. The last hope Clinton had of revenging him- self and Colden on their enemy now vanished, and when the new gov- ernor arrived in October, Clinton finally gave De Lancey his com- mission as lieutenant-governor, and retired to his country-seat at ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL. Flushing, Long Island, where he prepared to leave the country. In November Clinton returned to England, became a member of parlia- ment, and received a sinecure post as governor of Greenwich Hospital, which he held till his death, on July 10, 1761.
MAYOR JOHN CRUGER'S EXPERIENCE ON A SLAVE-SHIP.
In addition to the biographical notice already given of John Cruger (the elder), who was mayor at the time Governor Clinton's administration began, it may be both inter- esting and instructive to insert here his own account of an incident in the early part of his career. In 1698, while still a mere youth, he was appointed supercargo of the Prophet Daniel, Captain Appel, a regular " slaver." He made the following report :
"New York, Friday, 15th July, 1698, we weighed anchor bound for the island of Don Mascowrena ; 3d October, found ourselves under the island of St. Thomas, went in to water and clean the ship; 4th October, Captain Appel came on board and told me he would not go on board again before some of the people were out of the ship,
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and that I must find some way to pay their wages, so that I was forced to sell some rigging for said use, before Captain Appel would come on board; he left one man at said place, called Whiter, a very troublesome fellow ; 7th October, sailed from St. Thomas ; 20th February, 1699, Captain and Master judged themselves to leeward of the island Don Mascowrena; Sunday, 13th July, we arrived at Mattatana, (whither we had been compelled to turn our course,) and I went on shore to trade for negroes, but the harbor proving bad we were forced to remove from that place - I having pur- chased 50 slaves at St. Mattatana ; 24th August, arrived at Fort Dolphin ; 27th do., I acquainted Mr. Abraham Samuel, the king of that place, of my arrival, and came with him to a trade; 12th September, I went with Mr. Samuel twenty-five miles up in the country, and on the 14th in the morning, I got the miserable news that our ship was taken by a vessel that came into the harbour the night before. Whereupon I made all the haste down I could, when we got some of the subjects of Mr. Samuel to assist us, and we fired upon said pirate for two days, but could do no good. Then I hired two men to swim off in the night to cut their cables, but Mr. Samuel charged them not to meddle with them, (as I was informed, said Samuel having got a letter from on board the said pirates, in which I suppose they made great promises, so that he forbid us upon our lives not to meddle with any of said pirates). When said ship came in at an anchor they desired our boat to give them a cast on shore, they having lost their boats, and pretended to be a merchant ship, and had about 50 negroes on board. At night, said Captain of said ship desired that our boat might give him a cast on board of his ship, which was done, and coming on board he desired the men to drink with him, and when said men were going on board of our ship again they stopped them by violence, and at about 9 at night, they manned the boat and took our ship, and presently carried away all the money that was on board, rigging, and other things that they had occasion for, and then gave the ship and negroes, and other things that were on board to said Mr. Samuel. The Captain's name of the pirate was Evan Jones; Robert Moore, master ; John Dodde, quarter master; John Spratt, boatswain ; Thomas Cullins, Robin Hunt, from Westchester, New York, and others. Mr. Abraham Samuel took likewise away from me 22 casks of powder and 49 small arms, likewise all the sails belonging to the Prophet which were on shore, and then sold the ship again to Isaac Ruff, Thomas Welles, Edmd. Conklin and Edward Woodman, as it was reported, for 1,400 pieces of eight. The purchasers designed to go from Fort Dolphin to the island of Don Mas- cowrena, and thence to Mattatana, upon Madagascar, and so for America.
" Captain Henry Appel, Jacobus Meener and Isaac Sommers went along with them ; some days after there arrived at Fort Dolphin a small pinke, called the Vine, Thomas Warrent, master, from London, which took in slaves from said place, and bound for Barbadoes, in which I took my passage, and was forced to pay for the same 66 pieces of eight and two slaves.
"Saturday, 18th November, 1699, I departed from Fort Dolphin with four of the people more that belonged to the ship Prophet Daniel, in the aforesaid pinke Vine, for Barbadoes, leaving on shore, of the ship's company, only a mulatto boy, called Gabriel ; 22d December, 1699, arrived at the Cape of Good Hope, where the vessel took in water and provisions and departed 16th January, 1700; February 2d, arrived at St. Helena and departed 8th do .; 17th February, arrived at the island of Ascension, got turtle and fish and departed 18th do .; 24th March, arrived at Barbadoes; 17th April, 1700 departed from Barbadoes in the pinke Blossom, Robert Darkins, commander, bound for New York ; 11th May, 1700, I arrived at New York, and because I may not be censured an ill man, and that it may be thought that I have saved any thing that belongs to the owners of said ship, I do declare that I have not, directly nor indirectly, saved any thing that belongs to them, nor wronged them of the value of a farthing, but contrary, I have done all possible to serve their interest that I could.
"JOHN CRUGER."
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CHAPTER IX
SIR DANVERS OSBORN AND SIR CHARLES HARDY 1753-1761
JEDNESDAY, October 10, 1753, was a notable day in the history of colonial New-York. It marked the close of an administration longer than any since the days of Stuyve- sant, and one that, toward the end, had become offensive to the people of city and province. On that day Sir Danvers Osborn appeared before the retiring governor, George Clinton, and the coun- «il, and, after reading his commission from King George II., took the oath of office as governor. Then, while this ceremony was occurring within doors, the preparations for the more public induction into his office were also being made. Upon the "Parade " before the fort, on the site of what we know as Bowling Green to-day, were assembling the mayor of the city with the other officers of the corporation and the aldermen and assistant aldermen; in another group were gathered the officers of the militia or train- bands, the clergymen, and other gentlemen belonging to professional or mercantile cir- cles. Ere long this imposing assembly of · dignity and worth heard the beating of drums behind the walls of the fort, the gate Janver Osborn. " was thrown open, and, preceded by a com- pany of foot, the retiring governor, arm-in-arm with his successor, and followed by the members of the royal council, marched forth on the way to the City Hall. The procession, completed by the acces- sion of the city dignitaries and the other waiting groups of promi-
1 Sir George Robert Osborn, sixth baronet, to whom we are indebted for the portrait of his an- cestor, Sir Danvers, and also for the modern pic- ture of Chicksands Priory, near Shefford, Bedford County, died at the family seat January 11, 1892, aged seventy-nine. His grandson and successor,
Sir Algernon Kerr Butler Osborn, seventh baronet, was born August 8, 1870. From Miss Osborn, a daughter of Sir George, we received the pathetic letter written by Sir Danvers to his two sons which appears in fac-simile on another page of this chapter.
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nent citizens, defiled up the hill from the Parade-ground into Broa way, whose sides were lined by a great concourse of people. Flas waved from private houses, and windows and roofs were crowd J with spectators. Wheeling to the right as Wall street was reache the procession descend the slight declivity, ha ing before the City Ha and, forming in two link the governors passed - tween into the buildi :_ whence the commiss of Sir Danvers was rex BIRTHPLACE OF SIR DANVERS OSBORN.1 in the hearing of the as sembled people. No sooner was this done than cannon boomed and all the church bells of the town began to ring. It was indeed a gala- day throughout : when night descended bonfires cast a ruddy glar from several street corners, and colored lamps adorned the house of the more elegant and decorous citizens. Then there was feasting and banqueting, as there had already been for some days before.2
Sir Danvers Osborn was born at the family seat of Chicksand Priory, county of Bedford, on November 17, 1715, and was thus i: the thirty-eighth year of his age when he took charge of the govern ment of New-York. He came of a family which held by inheritance positions of trust near the king's person from the days of Edward VI Some of these functionaries were knighted, but in 1662 the bearer o the name and of the office was created a baronet. Sir Danvers suc ceeded his grandfather at the early age of five, his father having diec before the latter. He thus became the third baronet, while his rep resentative and descendant to-day, Sir Algernon, is the seventh ir succession. The mother of Sir Danvers was a remarkable woman She is known in history as the Honorable Mrs. Sarah Osborn, as of account of her husband's premature death she did not acquire the title of Lady Osborn. She was the daughter of Admiral Sir Georg Byng, afterward (1721) created. Viscount Torrington, and sister o that unfortunate Admiral Byng who was shot in 1757 for "error il judgement " in retreating before the French at Minorca. According to Macaulay, there seem to be strong reasons to suspect that he wa sacrificed for political considerations. His sister, Mrs. Osborn, mad every possible effort to move the king to exercise that mercy which the court-martial recommended, but in vain. His last letter was t
1 The southeast view of Chicksands Priory, in the county of Bedford, birthplace of Sir Danvers Osborn, Bart., as it appeared in 1730. Editor a study of Osborn's brief incumbene in manuscript, from which many valuable an in teresting details have been derived ; see alı 2 By the courtesy of Mr. Robert Ludlow Fow- "Documents relating to Colonial History of New ler, there has been placed at the disposal of the York," 6: 803, 804.
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her, and she also sacredly preserved a note of Voltaire's to the admiral, inclosing a letter to him of the Duke of Richelieu, the commander of the French fleet, exonerating his opponent from all blame, inasmuch as the forces at his command were utterly inadequate. Voltaire's note and its inclosure are still to be seen at Chicksands Priory. Truly this lady's lot was a hard one, for soon we shall have to record her son's violent end, when again, as in his own youth, the management of the estates of the baronetcy was thrown into her hands during a long minority.
At the age of twenty-five, in Sep- tember, 1740, Sir Danvers was mar- ried to Lady Mary Montagu, a daughter of George, Earl of Hali- fax, and sister of that Lord Halifax who was one of the lords of trade. To this lady he was devotedly at- tached. She bore him two sons, but immediately after the birth of the second, in 1743, Lady Osborn died, plunging him into an inconsolable grief, which threatened to unseat his reason. "Sir Danvers never seems to have recovered his spirits after his wife's death," writes a descen- Pry 1 dant. "For some years he led a rest- less and wandering life, . .. and was elected member of Parliament for the county of Bedford. . . . In 1745, during the rebellion of the young Pretender, he raised a troop of men, and led them in person to support King George. In 1750 he went to Nova Scotia for six months on a visit to the governor, Lord Cornwallis."" Finally his brother- in-law, Lord Halifax, then the president of the board of trade and plantations, exerted his influence to secure for him the position of governor of New-York. It was hoped the entire change of scene, as well as enforced activity, would prevent his mind from brooding over his sorrow. But the sequel proved that the step was ill-advised, and the kindly intentions were destined to be fatally disappointed.
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