USA > New York > Queens County > Newtown > The annals of Newtown, in Queens County, New York; containing its history from its first settlement, together with many interesting facts concerning the adjacent towns; > Part 6
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Richard Mills, the late schoolmaster of Middelburg, did much to forward the revolt at Westchester, of which place he had become a resident and the leading magistrate. Stuyvesant had him arrested, and he remained in prison for more than a month, but pleading with much importunity to be liberated, being " ancient and weakly," and intending in September to sail for Vir- ginia, the Council, on June 18th, 1663, passed an order for his release, and he, some time after, left the province.
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The people of Hastings were in the mean while not devoid of apprehensions. Stuyvesant having consented to a propo- sition of Connecticut, by which the jurisdiction of both pro- vinces over the English on the west end of Long Island, was suspended, these towns were left, by this arrangement, without a head to look to. They thereupon invited Capt. John Scott of Setauket, a person of great influence, to come and settle their government. On his arrival, Hastings, and four other towns entered into a combination, Jan. 4th, 1664, to manage their own affairs irrespective of Connecticut, until a government should be established among them by his Majesty of England, who, they were told by Capt. Scott, had granted Long Island to the Duke of York.
On the 4th of February ensuing, the inhabitants of Hastings met for the transaction of important business. They drew up and signed a compact, in which they set forth the grounds of their allegiance to England, with their determination to defend to any extremity the interests of their royal master, King Charles II. It ran as follows :
TO ALL CHRISTIAN PEOPLE in any parte of the world, knowe that we, the inhabitants of Hastings, otherwise called Middelburg, on Long Island, in the south parte of New England, doe declare that we are by our birthright privileges subjects of his Majesty, Charles the 2d. of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Kinge ; and within the discoverys of his Royall prede- cessors are providentially seated ; and by right of the natives, have to the soyle an absolute righte of inheritance in free socage, to us and our heyrs and assigns for ever, which right, interest and propryety, with his Majesty's Royalty of government we promise to maintaine against any usurpers what- soever, and will further and more particularly doe any thing whereby or wherewith our dread sovereigne and successors may be owned as absolute Emperor in poynt of civill judicature, as by establishinge an authority elected by the major parte of the freehoulders of this towne of Hastings aforesayd, yearly ; this very Island being bounded within the letters pattante granted by Kinge James, of glorious memory, the 18th year of his reigne, to George, Duke of Buckingham, James, Duke of Lennox, which pattante was bounded between 40 and 48 north lattitude, with all Islands ;1 and within the sayd
1 This was the patent granted in 1620 to the Duke of Lennox, Fernando Gorges and others, under the name of " The Council of Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for planting and governing New England, in America." From this company the Puritans of Plymouth colony obtained their patent in 1627. Two years later the company granted Long Island to William Alexander, Earl of Stirling.
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lattitude wee say our just propryetys of soyle being invaded, and his Majes- ty's rights usurped by ye Hollanders ; to the great scandall of government and discouragement of his Majesty's hopeful plantation, which we will for the futter defend as Englishmen, just propryetors and Loyall subjects, with our lives and fortunes ; in witness whereunto we have set to our hands this 4th of February, 1663.1 [1664, New Style.]
All the inhabitants, with a few exceptions, attached their signatures to this high-toned instrument. "James Way, Jona- than Hazard, William Lawrence, Samuel Moore, did not sub- scribe." The town proceeded to ballot for a president "for the ensuing year," and "Capt. John Scott, Esquire," received their unanimous vote for that office. Town officers were elected in the name of "his Majesty, Charles II." consisting of a clerk, constable and five townsmen. The latter were John Burroughes, Ralph Hunt, John Ramsden, Samuel Toe and John Layton. Richard Betts and John Coe were appointed magistrates for the ensuing year, and deputies to a convention to be held at Hempstead on the 20th inst., " to embrace a body of laws already established in the Council of Connecticut, and to add others for the benefit and advantage of the inhabitants of this Island, in the respective plantations, and any other things whereby his Majesty's royalty and the inhabitants' rights and proprieties may be preserved and farther advanced."
At this crisis, in order to prevent actual hostilities and " the effusion of blood," an agreement was entered into, on Feb. 24th, by Capt. Scott, as president of the English towns, and Director Stuyvesant, to preserve friendship and free in- tercourse for a year or longer, until the dispute respecting Long Island should be finally determined by his Majesty of England and the States General of the Netherlands. But Scott's authority was brief. The general court of Connecticut, jea-
1 Under the Dutch, the mode of reckoning time in this town was after the
- new style. Now the old style, which was in use among the English, was in- troduced, according to which the year was understood to commence on the 25th of March, and the month began ten (and on and after March 1st, 1700, eleven) days earlier than by the new style. In 1752, the new style was adopted in this province, by order of Parliament. That year began on Jan. 1st; and on Sept. 3d, following, the old style ended, the next day being considered the 14th, new style. In this work I adhere to the style in use for the time being, but in all cases begin the year with January.
5
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lous of his proceedings on Long Island, sent a company of soldiers to arrest him, and he was thrown into Hartford jail, and harshly used. This caused dissatisfaction in the English villages, but Gov. Winthrop came over to the Island and in- duced the people to submit to Connecticut. Scott's magistrates were deposed, and others appointed.
Prior to this, an account of the critical state of affairs had been transmitted to the Directors and States General, who in January, 1664, sent over a circular letter to the several dis- affected towns, in which, addressing them as their subjects, they commanded them to continue faithful, under penalty of incurring their utmost displeasure.
On the reception of one of these letters at Hastings, accom- panied by another from Stuyvesant himself, the town met on May 5th, and agreed to refer them to "Connecticut Court," and by direction, James Bradish, the town clerk, immediately forwarded them with a suitable letter on behalf of the town, complaining of several unreasonable demands of the Dutch governor, and praying the court to take "some speedy course for their futter peace and comforte.77 1
This letter was probably laid before the general court by Capt. John Coe, who the same month took his seat in that body as a deputy from Hastings. During the sitting of said court, the Rev. William Leverich, Richard Betts, Samuel Toe, Caleb Leverich, Ralph Hunt, John Burroughes, John Ramsden, Nicholas Carter, Gershom Moore, and James Christie, made application and were admitted as freemen of Connecticut.
The truce now subsisting, afforded the inhabitants of Hast- ings time to consult upon other and more local interests. "Upon several considerations, the town thought it good to settle the upland lying under the hills southward from the town place now seated." This was the tract reserved by the Indians in their deed to the town, which it was now deemed prudent to secure from the encroachment of their Dutch neighbors, by an actual possession of the premises. At a
1 This letter is printed in Bolton's Hist. of Westchester county, ii. 20, being supposed to refer to a portion of that county, but this is clearly a mistake. The original is preserved in the Secretary of State's office, Hartford.
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meeting of the inhabitants, on April 1st, it was resolved that such of the town-people as chose to locate there should each be allowed a six acre lot to build and plant upon, on condition that they should hold themselves as residents of the town, and pay their share of the public charges. But they were to admit no stranger from any other town as an inhabitant with them, unless he had been duly received by a major vote of the peo- ple of Hastings. And whereas the whole town possessed a common interest in this tract, it was further resolved that all should contribute equally to its purchase from the Indian owners, except such as should decline to hold a right in it. Samuel Toe and Ralph Hunt were appointed to view the pre- mises, on the 3d instant, and lay off lots for such as were to locate there, among whom were James Gideons and Thomas Moore, who by a vote then taken, were received as inhabitants.
At this time it was also in contemplation to buy from Ja- maica a part of the "South Sea Meadows," as they were termed, lying on the South Bay. This object was affected the succeed- ing fall, through a committee sent to Jamaica, to " agitate and agree " respecting the said purchase, who happily made a bar- gain for the third of a certain tract, called "Seller Neck," another third of which was sold about the same time to Brook- lyn. It lay east of and adjacent to Plunder's Neck, already the property of several inhabitants of Hastings.
Another purchase, not less interesting, was that effected August 1st, of this year, by " William Hallett, Sen., of the town of Flushing," of a large tract of land, near Hallett's Cove, from Shawestcont and Erramohar, Indians residing at Shaw- copshee, upon Staten Island, by authority of Mattano, their sagamore, and in the presence of two Indians, Warchan and Kethcaneparan, and Randell Hewitt, John Coe, Jonathan Rite, and Edward Fisher. It is described as " beginning at the first creek called Sunswick; westward below Hellgate, upon Long Island, and from the mouth of the aforesaid creek, south to a markt tree fast by a great rock, and from that said markt tree southward, fifteen score rods, to another markt tree, which stands from another little rock a little westward, and from that markt tree east, right to the point of an island which belongs to the poor's bouwery, and from the point of the island belong- ing to the poor's bouwery round by the river through Hellgate
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to the aforesaid creek westward where it began ; also an island which is commonly called Hewlett's Island, which island the aforesaid Hewlett did formerly live upon; as also all other islands within this tract of land aforementioned." On Dec. 5th, 1664, the sagamore, Mattano, "chief of Staten Island and Nyack," confirmed the above sale, and acknowledged to have received, in full payment for the land, " fifty-eight fathom of wampum, seven coats, one blanket, and four kettles."1 This tract, called by the Indians "Sintsinck," and embracing nearly the whole of "Hellgate Neck," was afterwards confirmed to Hallett by the English governors Nicoll and Dongan, or "so much of the aforesaid Indian deed or purchase, as had not before been disposed of to others by groundbrief or patent." It therefore did not affect the several grants to individuals, lying within its limits.2 As Mr. Hallett no longer held himself amenable to the government of New Netherland, he could not have consulted Stuyvesant in making this purchase. This is evident also, from the fact, that on August 19th, 1664, new style, Abraham Rycken, a planter on the north bounds of the town, obtained from the Director-general, (it being one of his last official acts,) a patent for Hewlett's Island, above named. It was so called from the ancestor of the Hewlett family, of Long Island, (probably Lewis Hewlett, a native of Bucking-
1 Recorded in Secretary of State's office, Albany, Deeds ii, 74, 75.
2 In 1667, William Hallett entered a suit against Capt. Thomas Law- rence, for the recovery of Berrien's Island, which the latter had obtained a patent for, but Hallett's claim was not admitted.
The residents near this island may congratulate themselves on the failure of the late attempt to convert it into a Potter's Field for the city of New- York, which (in the words of a resolution of the Board of Health of Newtown, prohibiting public burials of the city of New-York, upon said island,) " would be a public nuisance, prejudicial to the health, and endangering the lives of the citizens of the said town." It can scarce be doubted, especially if it were managed a la mode Randell's Island ! Then add to this the conse- quent depreciation of property, while the pleasant water communication and avenues conducting thither, and adorned with country seats, would necessarily become the daily resort of sepulchral processions, and we discover additional propriety in the objections raised to the measure. Among the peculiar circumstances connected with this affair, the most ludicrous was an effort of a committee of the N. Y. Corporation, to show that Berrien's Island lay within the bounds of the county of New- York ! See Document 6 of the N. Y. Board of Assist. Ald. for 1849.
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hamshire, England,) who at an earlier day had been driven from it by the Indians, with the destruction of his house and property. Gov. Nicoll, recognizing the authority of the Dutch governor, to dispose of the island, confirmed it to Rycken, Dec. 24th, 1667, and it is yet owned by the descendants of the original patentee, and known as Riker's Island.
CHAPTER IV.
Conquest of New Netherland by the English .- Assembly at Hempstead .- Name of Hastings changed to Newtown .- Decision respecting the meadows on Mespat Kill .- Overseers and Constable and their duties .- First militia officers under the English .- Swine driven to the South Bay to prevent damage to corn crops .- An instance .- Rules concerning fences, fields and highways .- The town buy the Indian reservation .- The Indian deed .- Some conjectures as to what tribe of Indians inhabited Newtown .- Gov. Nicoll's patent to the town .- Ja- maica paid for Seller Neck, and these meadows divided .- The town without a meeting-house or a pastor .- At a militia drill the people resolve to have a mi- nister if possible .- Nature of the militia service .- The constable's house burnt .-- Precautionary measures .- Improvement of the public land .- Surveyors chosen. -Road laid out through Hempstead Swamp .- Several landholders there .- Sickness at the English Kills .- Scudder's Pond .- Regulations respecting the public land .- Encouragement to mechanics and tradesmen .- Rev. Mr. Leverich recalled to the town .- Smith's Island occupied by order of the Purchasers .- Bushwick complains to the Court of Sessions .- Suit carried to the Council .- Referred to the Assizes .- Decided in Bushwick's favor .- Arbitrary course of the Colonial Government .- Newtown and others petition for redress .- It effects but little .- Roads laid out at the Dutch and English Kills .- Ferry and bridge over Newtown Creek .- Accidents occur on the latter .- Ordered to be repaired. -The first church erected in Newtown. 1664 to 1671.
King Charles II. having asserted a right to Long Island, the summer of 1664 witnessed the entire conquest of New Netherland by the English. His Majesty aiming at the total extinction of the Dutch power in North America, and having first purchased the claim of the Earl of Stirling in Long Island, executed an extensive grant of territory, including the whole of New Netherland, to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, by letters patent, dated March 12th, 1664. His High- ness, the Duke, thereupon despatched Col. Richard Nicoll to take possession of his new dominions, who in the month of
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August entered the harbor of New Amsterdam with a naval force, and demanding, received the surrender of the place, to which he gave the name of New-York. The whole of Long Island was now freely yielded up by Connecticut to Nicoll, who held the commission of deputy governor.
The distracted state to which the country had been reduced, under her late masters, rendered it necessary that the several portions of it should be properly organized under one system of civil government. With this intent Gov. Nicoll addressed a circular letter to the several towns, directing the inhabitants to elect delegates to a convention to be held at Hempstead, on Feb. 28th, 1665, to settle the affairs of the province.
This assembly met, and the town of Hastings was repre- sented by Richard Betts and John Coe. The inhabitants of the out-plantations, who were yet a separate community, also voted for delegates to this assembly, uniting for this purpose, it is presumed, with the town of Flushing.1
A code of laws, previously framed and agreeing with those then in practice in New England, save that they were less severe in matters of conscience and religion, were with sundry amendments, passed, and promulgated, and distinguished as the "Duke's Laws." A variety of concerns, affecting more or less the well being of the community, were acted upon. The province was erected into a shire, called after that in England, Yorkshire, which was subdivided into districts termed, re- spectively, the East, North, and West Ridings. Hastings was included in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the township was enlarged by the addition of the out-plantations, comprising the Poor Bowery, Hellgate-Neck, etc. The territory thus brought within the jurisdiction of the town was equal to about one-third of its previous area, and the township as thus consti- tuted received the name of "the New Towne," an appellation by which it had been previously known to some extent. That of Hastings was abandoned.
As one object of the Hempstead convention was to deter-
1 Major Daniel Whitehead deposes, Jan. 10th, 1704, "that at the time of the coming of Coll. Nicoll, Esq. then Governor of the province of New- York, his father and he, then living at Mespatt Kills, (then not belonging to Newtown, they then being distinct from the town of Newtown,) chose depu- ties to send to the general meeting at Hempstead, as other towns did."
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mine the limits of the several towns, the boundary between Newtown and Bushwick was considered on the 4th of March, when the latter town assumed the position of plaintiff, feeling herself aggrieved at the efforts of Newtown, to occupy the meadows at the English Kills and the upland lying south of them. After a hearing of their respective claims, the follow- ing decision was rendered :- "The meadow ground in question between Bushwick and New Towne, shall remain to the inha- bitants of the town of Bushwick, as properly, and of right belonging to them ; that is to say, the meadow lying on the west side of the most ancient Dutch house, situate on the east side of the head of Mespat Kills, and the inhabitants of New Towne are no way to molest the said town of Bushwick, in the peaceable en- joyment thereof. Touching the upland, the bounds specified in the Middelburg deed, will sufficiently regulate the same."
This appears to have been a compromise of the question, the assembly conceding the meadows to Bushwick, but to Newtown the upland, as bounded in their Indian deed. So well pleased were the inhabitants of Bushwick with this de- cision, that they entered it in the Dutch language upon their records; but strange to tell, two years later, resuming their old claim, they succeeded in obtaining a patent from Gov. Nicoll, which embraced both the meadows and the upland in question.
The Duke's Laws, by which the province was now to be regulated, erected an overseers' court in the several towns, whose jurisdiction should extend to actions of debt or trespass under five pounds ;- a court of sessions to be held in each riding triennially, for the adjudication of all actions or cases from the value of five to twenty pounds, as well as actions of assault or battery, breach of the peace, or crime ;- a court of oyer and terminer, when required, for the more speedy trial of capital offenders, who otherwise awaited the sitting of the court of assize, which was to be held annually in the city of New-York, and was a court of equity and the supreme court of the pro- vince. In this court was vested the legislative power, but being composed of the governor, and the justices who received their appointment from him, the people were still in truth without a voice in the enactment of the public laws, a fact that was no sooner understood by them, than it created the utmost dissatisfaction.
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It will be acceptable to my readers, I presume, to learn some of the leading provisions of the legal code now intro- duced, and by which the affairs of Newtown continued to be regulated till 1683. It enjoined upon each town or parish to build a church sufficient to accommodate two hundred persons; and each inhabitant was required to pay his proportion of the minister's salary agreed upon, yet they were to enjoy liberty of conscience, and neither to be imprisoned, fined, nor at all molested for differing in judgment in matters of religion, pro- vided they did not deny Christianity.
For the orderly management of all town affairs, including the building and repairing the church, maintaining the minister, and providing for the poor, it was directed that eight of the most able men of each town or parish be appointed overseers,' who were required to be " men of good fame and life, chosen by the plurality of voices of the freeholders in each town, whereof four shall remain in their office two years successively, and four shall be changed for new ones every year; which election shall preceed the election of constable in point of time, in regard the constable for the year ensuing is to be cho- sen out of that number which are dismist from their office of overseers." Before entering upon their office, they took the oath of allegiance, in the presence of the minister and the old overseers and constable, and then were presented by the said constable and overseers to the court of sessions next succeed- ing their election, and with the new constable took the oath of office, which was usually done at the June sessions. They were authorized, together with the constable, to hold town courts weekly or monthly, as was required, where six with the constable, or seven in his absence, were a competent jury, and upon an equal division, the constable had the casting voice. They were to report twice a year to the sessions; "all such abominable sinnes " as came to their knowledge, and had not been punished, including prophane swearing, sabbath-break- ing, and drunkenness. They were frequently to admonish the inhabitants to instruct their children and servants in matters
1 In Sept. 1666, the court of assize ordered that the overseers in each town be reduced to four, and that they have the same authority that the eight possessed ; any two of them, with the constable, being empowered to hold town courts.
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of religion and the laws of the country, and to bring up their children and apprentices in some honest and lawful calling or employment. They made all assessments or rates, which usu- ally consisted of three, namely, the minister's rate, the town rate, and the country rate, the latter for the support of the general government. They also appointed from time to time, two persons to be inspectors of pipestaves, a common article of manufacture and export at that day ; and they were like- wise empowered to appoint a sealer of weights and mea- sures, and a public packer or inspector of meat and fish, bar- reled for exportation. Any one of the overseers might act as constable, if the latter was indisposed, or on any emergency, provided he carried with him the staff of the office. From among the overseers, the constable selected the jurors who attended the courts of session and assize. And in all mat- ters, such as the disposing, building upon, planting, and the like, of their lands and woods, granting of lots, election of officers, assessing of rates, &e. a majority of the overseers, with the consent of the constable, were empowered to ordain such "peculiar constitutions" as were necessary for the wel- fare of the town, provided they were not of a criminal nature, and the penalties did not exceed twenty shillings for one offence, and were not repugnant to the public laws, and were confirmed by the court of sessions.
The constable was ordinarily chosen on the first or second day of April, yearly, by the major vote of the freeholders in the town, and was presented in person by the old constable and overseers to the next court of sessions ensuing, when he was sworn into office, the insignia of which was a staff about six foot long, with the king's arms on it. Thenee he was re- quired to attend each sitting of the court of sessions, unless an overseer, bearing the staff, should supply his place, or he be excused by the justices on the bench; under a penalty of five pound for every day's absence. The constable was to whip and punish offenders, raise the hue and cry after murder- ers, manslayers, thieves, robbers, and burglars; and also appre- hend without warrant such as were overtaken with drink, swearing, or sabbath-breaking, and vagrant persons, or night- walkers, provided they be taken in the manner, either by the
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