The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 39

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I > Part 39

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The free enjoyment of opinion in religious matters, the mild laws, the "freedom and exemptions " offered to settlers, the richness of the soil, and the salubrity of the climate, all rendered the Nieuw Netherlands an at- tractive place of settlement to those who, having left Old England for the purpose of obtaining religious freedom, had found, to their surprise and grief, in New England, the same intolerance from which they had thought to escape. The persecuted in England had, in turn, become the persecutors here, as soon as circum- stances afforded the opportunity. As has been well said by J. W. GERARD, Esq., in a discourse on "The Lady Deborah Moody," before the New York Histori- cal Society, May, 1880, " the practice and the princi- ples of the Puritan fathers became far from harmoni- ous. The rigid lines of their ecclesiastial faith were drawn as strictly and maintained almost as ruthlessly as in the fatherland ; and the governing authority ex- acted conformity in spiritual matters as the condition of civil freedom. Those who had been branded as heretics stigmatized others as heretics, for differences in theological abstractions, and even for non-conformity

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SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN.

to church-routine. * * * Inquisition was made into men's private judgments as well as into their declarations and practicc. * * Tolera- tion was preached against as a sin in rulers which would bring down the judgment of heaven upon the land. * * * Non-conformists were scourged and fined for their ideas, no matter how mildly ex- pressed; and even if they met together privately, to par- take of communion, they were disenfranchised and im- prisoned. * *

* Any sympathy expressed for the sufferings of the victims, or criticisms made on the severe action of the magistrates, was visited with fines and scourgings. Any question of the authority of any part of the Biblical history was visited with scourg- ing ; and a second offence with death. Many of the English colonists removed to the Dutch colony for freedom of conscience and liberty of worship."

Among those thus compelled to seek a new home was the Lady Deborah Moody, widow of Sir Henry Moody, of Garsden, in Wiltshire, and one of the baronets created by King James, in 1622. She was the daughter of Walter Dunch, a member of Parliament in Queen Elizabeth's time; as, also, was her uncle, at a later pe- riod. Both in and out of Parliament her father's fam- ily had been open and avowed champions of popular liberty and constitutional rights. Sir Henry Moody died about 1632. It is related in Lewis' History of Lynn, Mass., that in 1635, about five years before leav- ing England, Lady Moody had made herself obnoxious to the law by violating a penal statute which forbade any person residing beyond a specified time from their own home. This produced from the Court of the Star Chamber an order that "Dame Deborah Moody and others should return to their hereditaments in forty days, in the good example necessary to the poorer classes;" her offence being that she had simply gone from her country residence to live for a short time in London. It is not strange that she chafed under the unlawful restraints of such a civil and ecclesiastical despotism, and that she longed for a home in a land and among a people where the most sacred rights of humanity were properly respectcd. In 1640 she emigrated to Massachusetts, and April 5th united with the Church at Salem. May 13, 1840, the General Court granted her 500 acres of land for a plantation ; and, in 1641, she purchased the farm of Dep-Gov. John Humfrey, called Swampscott, near Lynn, for which she paid £1100. She soon found, however, that her hopes of religious peace and freedom were dclusive ; for, having imbibed the be- lief taught by Roger Williams, that infant baptism was not an ordinance of divine origin, and that it should be restricted to adults, she was duly " admonished." Being still unconvinced of the erroneous nature of her views, she was excommunicated. In 1642 she was "pre- sented " by the Quarterly Court for holding these views. Harrassed, annoyed, "admonished," cxcommunicated, " presented," in 1643 she, with her son Sir IIenry, John

Tilton and wife, and a few close friends, bade farewell to Massachusetts, and sought, among the strangers of Nicuw Amsterdam, speaking a language as foreign to her as were their manners and customs, an asylum where she might enjoy peace and happiness, without sacrificing her conscientious convictions. An extract from Gov. Winthrop's Journal indicates the high rc- gard in which she was still held among her New Eng- land neighbors, although " disfellowshippcd " by her own church. " The Ladye Moodye, a wise, an anciently religious woman, being taken with the error of denying baptism to infants, was dealt with by many of the eld- ers and others, and admonished by the Church of Salem (whereof she was a member) ; but persisting still, and to avoid further trouble, etc., she removed to the Dutch, against the advice of her friends." Here she found, to her surprise and joy, a number of her own countrymen, who had sought, near the fort, an asylum from savage hostilities. On the eastern shore of Manhattan Island, about opposite the lower end of Blackwell's Island, and at the place known as "Deutil Bay," had sprung up quite a settlement of English residents. Among the earliest of these was Nicholas Stillwell, or " Nicholas, the Tobacco Planter," as he is often called in the old records. His experience of England's and New Eng- land's intolerance had been similar to that of Lady Moody ; and he had secured here a plantation, on which he had erected a stone house, which became the nucleus of an infant settlement, known as "the English settle- ment at Hopton." But the policy of the Dutch Direc- tor-General, Kieft, toward the Indians, had precipi- tated a general war ; and the English settlers at Hopton had fled for safety under the walls of the fort at Nieuw Amsterdam. Here they were found by Lady Moody and her associates, and the two parties naturally fusing together, were invited by the Director-General to select from the unappropriated lands of the W. I. Co., a loca- tion for a new settlement. The present town of Grave- send was the site selected for their new home, by a com- mittee of their number appointed for the purpose, and a patent was issued by the Director-General and Coun- cil in the summer of 1643. Of this patent but little is known, as the original cannot be found ; but it is so re- ferred to in subsequent documents as to leave no doubt of there having been such a patent.

Thus began the settlement of the town, under the leadership of a woman of education and refinement, whose force of character, combined with her up- rightness of life, made her a power for good with those among whom she moved. Both by nature and grace she was fitted to be a pioneer in such an enterprise. For sixten years she went in and out among thie people, prominent in their councils, and often intrusted with important public responsibilities, which prove the re- spect and confidence of her associates. She seems, also, to have enjoyed the friendship of Gov. Stuyvesant, who several times sought her advice in matters of

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

great public importance. Even the nomination of the three town-magistrates was, on one or two occasions, intrusted by the Director-General to her good judg- ment. He also availed himself of her kind offices, on another occasion, in quelling an incipient rebellion, raised by some of her English associates against the Dutch authority.

She owned a large tract of land in Gravesend, as we shall hereafter see; and we find, by the old town-rec- ord, that in November, 1648, she rented all her " broken up" land, for three years, to one Thos. Cornewill, re- serving, however, one piece for her own use. She also furnished him with 4 cows and 4 oxen, receiving as rent, per year, 10 skipples of wheat for the land, and 60 gilders for the use of the animals.

Much doubt has existed as to the time and place of Lady Moody's death.

Some have thought it possible that she went from Gravesend to Virginia, with her son Sir Henry, and ended her days there. Others, that she went to Mon- mouth Co., N. J., with a colony from Gravesend, who obtained a patent for a large tract of land in the above county in 1665.

Among the old records of the town we have found some data which seem clearly to determine the fact of her death and burial in Gravesend. The record of the probate of the will of one Edward Brown, November 4, 1658, states that Lady Moody, with two other per- sons named, was " granted power by the Court to ad- minister upon the estate of the said Edward Brown." She must, therefore, have been living at the above date, and in Gravesend. It is also recorded that Sir Henry Moody, some seven months later, May 11, 1659, conveyed a piece of land to John Johnson, which is de- scribed as being " the gift of inheritance from his de- ceased mother, Deborah Moody, patentee."

Facsimile of signature of Sir Henry Moody, Junior.

This fixes, beyond question, the time of her death within seven months, viz., between Nov. 4, 1658, and May 11, 1659. The strong probability is, therefore, that she died at Gravesend, about the beginning of the year 1659, and was buried in one of the nameless graves of the old burial-place, which now, after more than two and a quarter centuries, retain no vestige of inscriptions to indicate whose dust slumbers beneath the sod.

Name .- With regard to the name, Gravesend, given to the town, Thompson, in his History of Long Island, states that it was so called, by the early English set- tlers, from the town of that name in England, from which they sailed on their departure for America.

This theory is plausible only upon the supposition that Lady Moody and her associates actually made Gravesend their point of departure for New England. Whether this be true or not, since Gravesend was an important commercial town on the river Thames, in the County of Kent, it would not be strange if the early English settlers should be desirous of transmitting the name to the new settlement which they were about to found on this side of the ocean. This seems all the more probable, since they evidently intended to make the modern Gravesend, from its favorable position, a commercial town of no little importance. There is, however, no corroborative evidence of this origin of the name. Another supposition, which we believe to be the true one, is that Gov. Kieft, when granting them permission to settle here, or later, when he issued the patent for the land, called the town Gravesend, from the old Dutch town, Gravensunde (the Count's beach), on the river Maas, in Holland, which may have been dear to the Governor as being the place of his nativity, or from early associations.

Pioneer Settlers .- Before the proper settlement of. Gravesend by Lady Moody and her associates, there were two persons who took up farms within what afterwards became the town-boundaries, and for which they held individual patents.

The first patent, or ground-brief, was issued by Gov. Kieft, May 27, 1643, giving possession (retrospectively from August 1st, 1639) to one Antonie Jansen Van Salee, 100 morgen (200 acres) of land, one part to be called the Old Bowery, and the other the 12 morgen.

hif

Jonjon marta

Facsimile of Anthony Jansen's mark.

According to an old map, now on file in the town- clerk's office at Gravesend, the " Old Bowery " part of this farm was situated at the western part of the town, now covered wholly, or for the most part, by the village of Unionville ; while the "12 mor- gen " (by which name the land is known to this day) lay a little distance from it in a south-easterly direction. Between these parcels of land lay a large strip of marsh or meadow-ground, worthy of special mention in con- nection with a certain "Neck " of land (or rather at that time of sand-hills) running south from the " Old Bowery," because of the legal efforts afterwards made for the possession of both.

This neck and meadow became a bone of contention for years afterwards between the inhabitants of Graves- end, on the one hand, who claimed it as belonging to their original patent ; and, on the other, Francis De Bruyn (afterwards called Brown), the successor of An-

159

EARLY SETTLERS AND PATENTS.

tonie Jansen Van Salee (Anthony Johnson), who also elaimed it as included in the 100 morgen granted to the latter.

Finally, June, 1669, by request of both parties to the suit, the matter was referred, by the Court of General Sessions, to Governor Lovelace, for decision. John Clanning and Jaeques Corteleau, the two referees appointed by the governor, reported that Mr. Brown ".hath no meadow in his patent, but is short of his 100 morgen of land which he purchased, and we do verily believe it doth not, in right, belong to Gravesend." They recommended, therefore, that one- third thereof be allowed to Brown," to make up his 100 morgen of land, and lying before his door, within a stone's throw, he paying for the ditehing which is yet to be done; that one-third go to Gravesend " for the ditching they have done," and the remaining one-third was left to his Excellency's disposal. In accordance with this report of the referees, Gov. Lovelace issued his " Edict," as it was ealled, a certified copy of which is before us, and is as follows :

"The Governrs Judgement & Determination concerning ye land in question, between ye Inhabitants of Gravesend and Francis Brown."

" Whereas there hath been a Controversary or Matter in Difference between ye Inhabitants of ye town of Gravesend & Francis Brown, alius de Bruyn, concerning a parcell of Meadow ground adjoining to Twelve Morgen of upland in ye pattent of ye said Francis Brown, specifyed, as also about a certaine Neck of land endorsed upon ye old ground brief of ye said Brown, but claymed [by ] ye [said] Gravesend as granted to them longe before, & being wthin ye lymitts of their pattent. Upon Examination and due consideration had of ye prem- ises, I do adjudge that if Francis Brown have his complemt of Twelve Morgen of upland, he hath no right or clayme to ye meadow, yett in regard a third parte or proportion thereof is already layd to him, he is to have and quietly enjoy ye land, and ye remainder or othr two third partes are to con- tinue and be to ye Inhabitants of Gravesend. And as to ye Neck of land Endorsed upon ye old pattent of the said Fran- cis Brown, & also claymed by ye said Inhabitants of Graves- end as aforesaid, I doe think fitt, since it hath hitherto or most usually been enjoyed in Common between ye Town & ye said Farm that it continue so still, and this shall be ye conclusion and final determination of ye said controversy or Matter in Difference unless both or either of ye partys think- ing themselves agrieved do sue for redress therein at ye next Cort of Assizes, where ye law is open for them, but after that tyme it shall be a barre to any further pretences.

Given undr my hand and seale at Fort James in New York, this 23d day of August, in ye 21 yeare of his Magties Raigne, Anno Dom. 1669.

Sgd FRANCIS LOVELACE."

This, however, did not prove to be the "eonelusion and final determination " of the matter; for, 120 years later, Albert Voorhees claimed an exelusive right to this ground, by virtue of purchase from Brown. He also attempted to enforce his claim by preventing Gravesend people from erecting their fish-huts, drying their nets, etc., on the beaelt along the property. This brought him in direct conflict with his fellow-citizens;

who claimed, by virtue of their patent, the right to "fish, hawk and gun along and upon" the property. To determine their several rights, Mr. V. brought an action for trespass against sundry townsmen, which was tried the 18th of September, 1789, in the Supreme Court, at Flatbush. Aaron Burr was the town's attor- ney, and the ease was tried before a jury of seven Queen's county men. The town was willing to eon- cede to Mr. V. a patentee's right, viz., 1 39 part of the eommonage, but not the exclusive right which he claimed. The trial resulted in a verdict for the town; the judgment being affirmed by the October term of the court, with eosts. Col. Burr's summing-up, as shown by his minutes, was elear and forcible; his charges (as per receipts, now extant) were £20, besides £15 "for advice lately given and as a general retainer." Mr. Crosby, hotel-keeper at Flatbush, also receipted for £30 " for entertaining the people of Gravesend;" and "also the aceount of Col. Burr;" and "40 shillings " from Mr. Roger Strong (a lawyer who assisted in the ease in behalf of the town), "for wine, punch, &c." How will this compare with some recent eivic law- suits ?

Thus the matter rested for about 50 years longer, when, in 1843, another law-suit was tried upon the question of title. David Davis, then in possession of the property, began an ejectment suit against Thomas Hieks and Coart Van Sieklen, as representing the town.

At a special town meeting held January 13th, 1843, a committee was appointed to defend the suit, and $350 voted for legal expenses. This trial, like the other two, was a complete vindication of the right of the town to use the ground for fishing-purposes.

In this ease Gabriel Furman was attorney for the town. The plaintiff, however, appealed the ease, and the town, for some reason, failed to meet it, and judg- ment was obtained against them by default. The mat- ter was finally settled by the town paying to the plain- tiff a sum of money sufficient to pay his eost of litiga- tion.

For the present time, and indeed for the last fifteen or twenty years, the town seems to have given up, by taeit eonsent, all her right and interest in the land in question; and the sueeessors of Francis de Bruyn and Albert Voorhees to-day hold quiet and undisputed pos- session. Indeed, the few who have used the ground for fishing purposes, for the last few years, have paid, without remonstranee, an annual ground-rent of from $5 to $30. It is probable, therefore, that whatever rights the town formerly had in this property, are now gone past recovery. Some of the suits which have arisen out of this matter are still pending.

The next patent, in order of time, was that granted by Gov. Kieft to Guysbert Op Dyck for Conyne (Coney) Island, and Conyne Hook, afterwards called Guysbert's Island. This patent bears date 1644, and was for 44 morgen, or 88 aeres, This land was also claimed after-

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

wards by the town as included in the patent of Graves- end. Op Dyek came to this country in 1635 ; in 1642 was Commissary of Provisions for the colony, and for some time had charge of the fort on the Connecticut river, where he made much trouble with the English. We mention him again, in connection with Coney Island.

Then eame the patent of Robert Pennoyer, dated Nov. 29, 1645. (State Secretary's office, Dutch Book of Patents, page 144.) We learn from a certified trans- lation of this patent, found among the old papers of the town, that the farm was " situated between the land of Antony Jansen and Meladie [My Lady ] Moody, amount- ing together to eighty-nine Morgen four hundred and forty rods," and the grant was made, " with this express condition and agreement, that he, Robert Pennoyer, shall aeknowledge the noble Lords Directors to be his Lords and Patrons under the Sovereignty of their High Mightenesses, the States-General, and hereto be obedi- ent to their Director and Couneil, as it becomes good and faithful citizens."

First Town Patent .- We now come to the first patent of the town of Gravesend, granted by Gov. Kieft, and dated Dee. 19, 1645. It is remark- able for being, probably, the only one of its kind, where a woman heads the list of patentees named. It is another evidenee, also, of the prominent position which Lady Moody held among the early settlers, and of the respeet shown her by the Duteh authorities. It is wor- thy of note that liberty of eonseienee was also freely coneeded to the first settlers of Gravesend ; they were granted by Gov. Kieft freedom of worship " without magisterial or ministerial interferenee."

This first patent of 1645 was confirmed by Gov. Love- lace in the year 1670, with the evident design of more clearly defining the town-boundaries, which had long been a matter of dispute because of the vagueness with which they were expressed in the first general patent of Gov. Kieft. After deseribing the town-bounds, in gen- eral terms, very similar to those used in the previous patent, it adds : " And all the meadow-ground and up- land not specified in the former Pattent, eoneerning which there has been several disputes and differences between the Inhabitants of Gravesend and their neigh- bor, Franeis Brown, the which in parte were settled both by my predecessor and myself, but sinee fully eon- cluded and determined between them by Articles of Agreement, The which Artieles I do hereby confirm and Allow."

Thus was this trouble, which had so disturbed the peace of the town, quieted for the time, only to break out again with unabated fury, a century further on.

Another confirmatory patent was issued, later still, by Gov. Dongan, in 1686, by which the town-lines were made definite and permanent; while, at the same time, they were somewhat extended beyond the limits des- eribed by the preceding patent. This patent also fixes

the amount of quit-rent to be paid yearly by the town, instead of the one-tenth of the product of the soil de- manded by Gov. Kieft, as follows: "paying therefor yearly and every year, on the five and twentyeth day of March, forever, in liew and stead of all services, dues and demands whatsoever, as a quit-rent to his Majesty's use, six bushels of good winter merchantable wheat, unto such offieer or offieers as shall be appointed to re- eeive the same at the City of New York."

These three original patents, written upon parchment, in an excellent state of preservation, are still to be found in the town elerk's office at Gravesend ; and (with the other town records), unlike those of the sur- rounding towns, are in the English, instead of the Duteh, language.

Thus furnished with the requisite authority, Lady Moody and her associates began in earnest the work be- fore them. In view of the natural advantages which the town possessed, they no doubt hoped to make it, at some future day, a large and important eommereial eenter. From its situation at the mouth of " The Narrows," and with a good harbor of its own; with the ocean on the one side, and the then-flourishing village of New Amster- dam (New York) on the other, there did indeed seem to be good ground for such an expectation. But un- fortunately, as the event proved, Gravesend Bay, though affording seeure anchorage for smaller eraft, would not permit vessels of large tonnage to enter its quiet waters with perfect safety. And so the idea of building a " city by the sea," which in extent, wealth, and business enterprise, should at least rival New Amsterdam, was reluctantly abandoned.

However, with this end in view, as the work begun would seem to indicate, they eommeneed the laying out of the village. Seleeting a favorable site near the een- ter of the town, they measured off a square containing about sixteen acres of ground, and opened a street around it. This large square they afterwards divided into squares of four aeres each, by opening two streets at right angles. through the center. The whole was then enclosed by a palisade-fenee, as a protection, both against the sudden attacks of hostile Indians, and the depredations of wolves and other wild animals which were then common upon the island. Upon one of the oldest inaps of the town, on file in the clerk's office, we find a perfeet representation of the village-plan as orig- inally laid out. From this we learn that each of the four squares was divided into equal seetions, laid off around the outside of each square and faeing the outer street. These were numbered from one to ten, in each of the four squares. This gave forty seetions in all; and thus one seetion was allotted to each of the forty patentees. By this arrangement every family eould reside within the village, and share alike its palisade- defenee. In the center of each square was reserved a large publie yard, where the eattle of the inhabitants were brought in from the commons, and herded for the

(Copied from the Original in the Town-Clerk's Office.)

Ye ANCIENT PLOT OF Ye LOWNE OF S' GRAVESENDE

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161

DIVISION OF GRAVESEND LANDS.

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162

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

night, for their better protection. At a later period, if not at this early date, a small portion of each square was devoted to public uses; on one was the church, on another was the school-house, on another the town- hall, and on the fourth the burying-ground. The orig- inal plan of the town is preserved, in its main features, to this day, after almost two hundred and fifty years.

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 39

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1114

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114