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 64

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 64

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Boswyck, like New Utrecht, having no schout of its own, was subject to the jurisdiction of Hegeman, the schout of Breuckelen, Amersfoort and Midwout, and the district became thenceforth known as the Five Dutch Towns.

The village seems to have had a rapid accession of new settlers, for in May, 1661, we find the magistrates preferring a request for the grant of new lots and the establishment of roads.

On the 28th of December, following (1662), " the magis- trates of the village of Boswyck, appeared before the council, representing that they in their village, were in great need of a person who would act as clerk and schoolmaster to instruct the youth ; and, that, as one had been proposed to them, viz .: Boudewyn Manout, from Crimpen op de Lecq [a village in Holland] they had agreed with him, that he should officiate as voorleser or clerk, and keep school for the instruction of the youth. For his [services] as clerk he was to receive 400 guilders in [wampum] annually ; and, as schoolmaster, free house rent and firewood. They therefore solicited, that their action in the matter might meet the approval of the Director General and Council in Nieuw Netherland, and that the Council would also contribute something annually to facili- tate the payment of the said salary."

The Council assented, and promised, that, after he had been duly examined and approved by the reverend ministers of the city, they would lighten the annual burden of the village by contributing annually f 25, heavy moncy.

Manout was afterwards appointed court clerk, upon which office he entered January 5, 1663. We present here a fac-simile, taken from the old Bushwick records,

Bfromout.

e Secry

of Manout's signature, curious for its combination of the date with the name.

It is noteworthy that, in December of this year, the Director and Council, hearing that Hendrick Barent Smith, "in contempt of the published and recently re- newed orders," continued to reside " on his separated plantation in the noghborhood of Boswyck, to the det- riment and injury of said village," ordered him to break up his building within twenty-four hours ; and in case of his default, the magistrates were empowered to de- molish it.

It appears from records that during the third year of the existence of the village, its prosperity was on the increase ; for, on the 8th of February, 1663, the magis- trates requested the Council to compel Jean Mailjeart, a Frenchman, to part with a few of his lots for the ac- commodation of new comers.

After a full hearing of the case, Jan Mailjaert, " as the welfare of the village of Boswyck requires it," was ordered to give up sufficient land for six lots, each lot being six rods broad, and five and a half rods long, on payment by the new comers of 25 guilders in seawant for each lot.

Amid the numerous evidences of increasing prosper- ity among the settlers of Boswyck, we must chronicle the gratifying and creditable fact that they voluntarily subscribed, March 30, 1662, the sum of forty-seven guilders, " to ransom Tunis Craeyen's son Jacob, then a prisoner among the Turks."

On page 28 of the old Bushwick record, is the follow- ing muster-roll of officers and soldiers of the town in 1663 : Captain, Ryck Lydecker (Schout) ; Ensign, Jan Tilje Casperse; Secretary, Boudwyn Manout; Sergeant, Evert Hedeman; Corporals, Pieter Jans Wit, Jan Hen- dricks, Alexander Conquerare ; Privates, Gysbert Tu- nissen (Schepen), Barent Joost (Schepen), David Joch- emsen, Hendrick Grever, Jan Mailjaert, Andries Ba- rentse, Jan Parys, Evert Mauritz, Charles Fountain, Jan Cornel Zeicuw, Corn. Jansc Zcicuw, Joost Caspersen, Johannes Caspersen, Melle Caspersen, Francois de Puj, Jan Williams Essellstein, William Traphagen, Barent Gerretse ; (Drummer), Dirck Volkertse, Volkert

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CIVIL AND ECCLESIASTICAL EVENTS.

Dirckse, Jan Botzer, Wessel Gerrits, Nicolaes Jones, Tunis Martin, Carel Carelsen, Claes Wolf, Wouter Gysbertsen, Jacob Gysbertsen, Cæsar Barentse, Carel Reyckwyl, Francois d'Meyer, Antoin d'Meyer.

Thus quietly engaged in agricultural pursuits, the little community of Boswyck maintained the even tenor of its way, until disturbed, in 1663 and 1664, by the political excitements which preceded the conquest of New Netherland, by the English. Throughout those times, Boswyck remained loyal to the States-General.

At a meeting of the magistrates of most of the Dutch towns in the province, convened on the 1st of Novem- ber, 1663, to discuss the condition and affairs of the country, Boswyck was represented by Ryck Lydecker and Gysbert Teunissen.

January, 1664. The Council received a petition from Abraham Jansen, carpenter, requesting permission to erect a mill near the village of Boswyck. He was re- quired to appear, together with the magistrates of that village, before the Council, and explain as to the pro- posed location, They did so, on 1st of February, and the magistrates of the town, on being interrogated, ex- presssd a cordial wish to have the water-mill erected on Mispat Kill, which was accordingly granted.

In February, 1664, William Traphagen, for insulting one of the magistrates of Bushwick, by calling him a false judge, was sentenced by the Governor and Coun- cil, to appear with uncovered head before the court of Bushwick, and, in the presence of the fiscal, to beg par- don of God, justice and the insulted magistrate ; and to pay, in addition, thirteen guilders to the overseers of the poor of the town, with costs.

In May, of the same year, Jan Willemsen Van Isel- steyn, commonly called Jan of Leyden, for using abu- sive language and writing an insolent letter to the magistrates of Bushwick, was sentenced to be fastened to a stake at the place of public execution, with a bridle in his mouth, a bundle of rods under his arm, and a paper on his breast bearing the inscription : " Lampoon writer, false accuser and defamer of its magistrates." After this ignominy he was to be banished, with costs.

On the same day, William Jansen Traphagen, of Lemgo, for being the bearer of the above insolent let- ter to the magistrates of Bushwick, as well as for using very indecent language towards them, was also sen- tenccd to be tied to the stake, in the place of public execution, with a paper on his breast, inscribed "Lam- poon carrier." His punishment, also, was completed with banishment and costs.

Bushwick was represented in the General Assembly of April, 1664, by Jan Van Cleef and Guisbert Teunis- sen. Although English authority was distasteful to the inhabitants of the town, they submitted to it with char- acteristic Dutch apathy ; but they soon found that the petulance of Stuyvesant was far preferable to the arbi- trary rule of the English governors. But little of in- terest is to be found in the town records of Bushwick

at that period, except evidences of the arbitrary rule of the English colonial authorities.

Jan Stryker and Guisbert Teunissen represented the town in the Hempstead Convention, at which the Duke's laws were promulgated.

Not only did Governor Nicols assume control of civil affairs in the town, but he issued orders regulating ec- clesiastical matters; appointing clergymen, and prescrib- ing the amount of salary to be paid by the town, and even designating the persons to assess and collect it.

" Anno 1665, the 27th of December, the minister, who was sent to preach by the Hon. Gov. Richard Nicolls, preached his first sermon at the house of Gys- bert Tonissen."

The name of the minister who preached the above mentioned " first sermon " is not given in the record ; neither does it anywhere appear who his successors were, or whether they were Dutch, English or French. It probably is sufficient for us now, as it was for the good people of Boswyck in their day, to know that they were the governor's favored gentry, and probably in his interest.

It is hardly necessary to say that it was the Church of England which the governor thus sought to impose on the people of Bushwick.

But, though obliged to pay the taxes, they would not attend the preaching of the person so officiously thrust upon them, and finally he and his "Beloved Roger " were withdrawn. This attempt to force an established church upon the town of Bushwick, was felt to be a galling injustice, and finally, with other infractions, led to a public meeting of the people of the county, held at Flatbush, in 1664, whereat were passed several strongly- worded resolutions, condemnatory of the English, for their faithlessness in violating the conditions of the treaty, and in compelling them to litigate in a language which they did not understand. A significant expres- sion of the feeling of the people on this point, is found in the fact that two cases then pending before the court of sessions, were withdrawn, and referred to arbitrators appointed by the meeting ; the parties alleging that they were Dutchmen, " and did not wish to have their rights adjudicated by an English court." It was, also, agreed by the meeting, that they would have nothing to do with the courts, and that they would settle all differences in future by arbitration. The inhabitants thereafter adhered so strictly to these resolutions, that the courts were seldom occupied by civil causes, and usually adjourned on the first day. No lawyer resided in the county before 1783 ; and the Episcopal Church was not established herc until 1776, during the occupa- tion of the town by the British, during the Revolution- ary war. The Dutch churches supported all the poor of the county; all who could labor being employed, and no poor-tax was raised in the county until the year 1785.

In February, 1687, Governor Dongan granted a pat-

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

cnt to the town of Bushwick (given at length in STILES' Hist. of Brooklyn, pp. 345-380), conferring on it the usual corporate privileges of towns in those days, and accurately defining its boundaries. These boundaries did not include the site of the subsequent village of Williamsburgh. This probably arose, not from any oversight, but from the fact that the site of Williams- burgh was originally surveyed and owned by the Dutch West India Company.

The good people of Bushwick, in common with other towns, had suffered so long from the misrule of the big- oted Duke of York, James the II, that the news of his abdication, in 1688, and the succession to the English throne of his daughter Mary, and her husband William, Prince of Orange, was received with a general outburst of heartfelt joy.

The misguided zeal or ambition, however, of certain persons who were impatient of delay, defeated the de- signs of the new government, and involved the province in scenes of turmoil and strife.

Although the Dutch inhabitants of Bushwick gener- ally were peacefully inclined, and patient under the ar- bitrary rule of the English governors, there were among them some who were less tractable ; and occa- sionally instances of disorderly conduct are recorded- noticeably in 1693, 1694 and 1697.

" On the 20th of August, 1693, Jurian Nagell, of Bushwick, together with two others of Brooklyn, endeavored to stir up sedition among the crowd, who had assembled at a general training of the Kings County militia, on Flatland plains. Captain Jacques Cortelyou deposed before the Court of Ses- sions, that, 'being in arms at the head of his company,' he heard Nagell say to the people then in arms on said plains, in Dutch, these mutinous, factious and seditious words, fol- lowing, viz. : 'Slaen wij-der onder, wij scijn drie & egen cen ;' in English : 'Let us knock them down, we are three to their one.' Nagell subsequently confessed his error, and was released with a fine.

The women, also, participated in the disorders of the times, for on the 8th of May, 1694, Rachel, the wife of John Luquer, and the widow Jonica Schamp, both of Bushwick, were pre- sented before the court of sessions, for having, on the 24th of January previous, assaulted Capt. Peter Praa, and 'teare him by the hair as he stood at the head of his company, at Boswyck.' They, too, were heavily fined, and released after making due confession of their fault."

The number of settlers in Bushwick during the Dutch Regime was probably less than twenty-five families, not exceeding a hundred people, including the fourteen French emigrants, that constituted the primary village. But thirty-three names were on the tax lists in the year 1703, over forty years after the English had possession of the country. Counting five to a family, would give a population of 165 ; which number was scarcely doubled at the beginning of the present century.

In 1706, the improved lands assessed in Bushwick, as then in fence, were as follows :

Hackert Hendrickse (widow), 186 acres ; Peter Praa. 68 ; Humphrey Clay, 52; Peter de Wit's widow, 96; Charles

Fountain, 50; Teunis Wortman, 97; Francis Titus, 126 ; James Bobyne, 50 ; John Meseroll, 170; Jurian Nagell, 95; Cornella Van Katts, 108 ; John Luquier, 108 ; John Luquier's Mill, 25 ; Philip Volkert's, 54; Peter Layston, 50; John Camp, 40 ; Jochem Verscheur, 60 ; Auck Hegeman, 40 ; Peter Williams, 60; Joost Dyeye, 107; Garret Cooke, 50; (Ja) Cobus Collier, 20 ; William West, 14 ; Derick Andriese, 14 ; Cornelius Laguson, 52 ; Hendrick Jansen, 54 ; Gysbert Bog- ert, 10; Dorothy Verscheur, 70 ; Gabon (or Galen) Laqiull, 36 ; Ann Andriessen, 30; Gabriel Sprong, 16 ; Teunis Titus, 47 ; Hendrick De Forest, 14; Jacobus Jansen, 20; Charles Folkerts, 110; John Hendrick, 26 ; Frederic Symonds, 61 ; Philip Nagell, 13. Total acres, 2,443.

CHAS. L. FOUNTAINE, PETER PRAA, PETER CORTILLEAU .- Surveyor. Assessors,

On the 12th of August, 1708, the town of Bushwick received from Gov. Cornbury, a new patent, confirma- tory of that previously granted by Gov. Dongan.

During the administration of Lord Cornbury, the colony was called upon to exert all its energy in furnish- ing men, provisions and munitions of war, for the earlier colonial wars. In connection with this war, tradition has preserved a most romantic and touching episode, which occurred in the town of Bushwick.

A prominent young man named Peter Andriese was about to be married to the daughter of Jan Stryker, of Flatbush, when he was induced to enlist in the army. The entreaties of his friends, and of his intended bride, failed to dissuade him from his purpose, and he departed with his comrades. Days, months and years passed, his fiancee every hour expecting to hear of her betrothed, but in vain. At last, overcome by sorrow and hope deferred, death made her his victim ; and on the very day of her burial, Andriese unexpectedly made his ap- pearance in town. For years he had been a captive among a tribe of the Northern Indians, and had returned too late.

Ecclesiastical History-1700 to 1824 .- In the absence of any ecclesiastical records, there is no evi- dence of the organization of a church, or the erection of a house of worship, in this town, prior to the com- mencement of the last century.

Mr. STEARNS thus remarks :

"Coming out of a storm of papal persecution, in their Fatherland, the settlers of Boswyck brought with them a high religious purpose to sustain the integrity of their reli- gious professions in this land of their adoption. But, they soon came in contact with the calculating political policy of the Dutch governors and the West India Company, to subor- dinate religion to the control and profit of the government. The laws enacted by Stuyvesant in 1656,against conventicles, show the temper of the Dutch Government-' That no person should exercise the office of a religious teacher, unless his credentials were issued by the civil authority.' The Reformed Religion as settled by the Synod of Dordrecht (Dort) was made the only religion to be publicly taught. Lutherans with the others were forbidden free public worship. And the settle- ment of Quakers and vagabonds, in the Province, without previous permission, was prohibited. With such conserva- tive supervision, it is not singular, that the volatile French settlers of Boswick found few inducements to a religious

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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

faith, whose services, if held at all, were conducted in a lan- guage they did not understand. And, while it was an offense, to be punished by the magistrate, if they met to compare views and instruct each other in religion, as they had learned it in France, it is not singular that religion degenerated among this handful of people ; so that, for near forty years, after the settlement of the town, no church seems to have existed in any form of visible organization. The Dominies from Brooklyn and Flatbush occasionally visited the place, and ' comforters of the sick ' visited the families and officiated at burials, from time to time. But this remote town realized more severely than other places, the general poverty of reli- gious privileges, prevailing in all the New Netherlands. The half-dozen religious teachers of the Reformed faith in all the province, seemed especially jealous of their faith or denomi- national interests, to the extent of sanctioning the acts of re- ligious persecutions, inaugurated by the government. They had neither the numbers nor the facilities for the religious teaching of the people ; and yet they were so fearful of con- venticles, or their fanaticisms, that they would constrain the people to a semi-heathenism, instead of allowing them any scope for personal inquiry and social worship. For all the forty years after the settlement of the town, there is scarcely a way-point of religious interest in its history. If preaching they occasionally had, in the town-house or private dwellings, it was doubtless of a stiff, unyielding character, more theo- logical than religious, more dogmatical than sympathetic, more speculative than practical. The few lights from the Holland schools came to demonstrate their pedantry among these remote people of the border, rather than to instruct their hearts in the duty and peace of love to God."

" A part of the communion service still in use," says PRIME, "bears the date of 1708, from which it is in- ferred that the church was formed about that time. There is also a receipt extant, for a church bell, dated in 1711, which renders it probable that the house of worship had been erected not long before." This edi- fice was octagonal in form, with a very high and steep pyramidal roof, terminating in an open cupola or bel- fry, the whole greatly resembling a haystack. Exter- nally, being constructed of frame work, it was dimuni- tive and rustie in aspect. Internally, it was a mere in- closure, without pews or gallery, till near the elose of the century; the congregation furnishing themselves with benches or chairs. In 1790, the building received a new roof ; and, in 1795, a front gallery was erected, and the ground floor furnished with pews. It was taken down in 1840.

The people of Bushwick constituted a part of the Collegiate church of the county, and, as such, were min- istered to by the pastors of the Five Duteh towns. Ae- cording to the preceding dates, of course, Messrs. Free- man and Antonides were the first pastors, and preached herc alternately every third Sabbath. There is still ex- tant a receipt from the former, for salary, in 1709.

In 1787, the Rev. Peter Lowe was installed here as collegiate pastor with the Rev. Martinus Schoonmaker, who resided at Flatbush. Having withdrawn from the oversight of this ehureh to the exclusive eliarge of the associate churches of Flatbush and Flatlands, he closed his labors here in the year 1808. He was sueeeeded in

1811 by the Rev. Dr. John Bassett, a native of Buslı- wiek, where he was born, October 1st, 1764; and a man of extraordinary crudition. He was an excellent Hc- brew seholar, as is attested by the fact that he was, in 1797, appointed by the General Synod of the Re- formed Protestant Duteh ehurch, to fill a professor's chair in Qucen's (now Rutger's) College, New Bruns- wick, N. J., which position he held for many years. During this period hc engaged the services of a eol- league, Rev. John Barent Johnson, likewise a native of Kings county, who was installed in 1796, and who sub- sequently became the pastor of the Reformed Duteh Church of Brooklyn. He was, also, a thorough elassi- eal seholar, and generally had several young men in his family and enjoying his instruction. Although not gifted with great powers of imagination or eloquenee, he was a sound and edifying preacher ; and the history of Brooklyn during the war of 1812, attests his fervent and lofty patriotism. It may be further mentioned as a proof of his ability, that being equally familiar with the Dutch, as with the English language, he undertook the translation of Vonderdonk's History of New Netherland, for publication; but by some means the manuseript was lost, and the task was subsequently re- peated by the late Gen. Jeremiah Johnson. Mr. Bas- sett, in 1824, was suspended from the ministry for intemperance, and died on 4th of February of that year.

During the Revolutionary War .- The Revolu- tionary history of the town is by no means so inter- esting as that of its neighbor, Brooklyn ; and its revo- lutionary spirit, outspoken and free at first, was, like that of Brooklyn, also, quickly nipped in the bud by the disastrous result of the battle of Long Island, in August, 1776. Previous to that event, during the year 1775, the popular sentiment and action was at onee loyal and energetie in behalf of the American cause. Bushwick was then represented in the First New York Provincial Congress, and also, at the subsequent ses- sions of the same body, in '75 and '76 ; and at the con- ventions of the State in 1776 and '77, by Mr. Theodorus Polhemus ; and many of her prominent citizens, sueh as Ab'm Ranst, Ab'm Luquere, John Titus, Joost Dur- yea, Alexander Whaley and others, were foremost in all county and local aetion which was ealculated to ad- vanee the interests of their country. At the battle of Brooklyn, and in the retreat which followed, Bushwick was represented by a militia company under command of Capt. John Titus. Also, in a list of officers chosen by the different companies in Kings County, who have signed the Declaration, and taken their commission, we find among the Light Horse, Jacob Bloom, 2d Lieuten- ant ; and Peter Wykoff, Quarter-Master ; Ab'm Van Ranst, 1st Lieutenant ; Peter Colyer, 2d Lieutenant ; John Skillman, Ensign. Wm. Van Cott, of Bushiwiek, shot a British officer who was engaged in reconnoiter- ing the American lines on Fort Putnam, and then put up his gun, saying he had done his part for that day.

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HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

Bushwick During the British Occupation, 1776-1780 .- After that unfortunate battle, the towu was subjected to all the inconveniences and evils of an armed occupation. In November, 1776, a regiment of Hessians, under Col. Rahl, had their winter quarters here, and construeted barracks on the land then be- longing to Abraham Luqnere ; the timber for said bar- raeks being taken with military freedom, from the Wal- labout swamp. Many of the troops were also billeted on the inhabitants. The leading patriots were either in active service, or had been obliged to leave their homes and estates to the tender mercies of the invaders; and, in some cases, to confiscation. Their families were sub- jected to the arbitrary authority of British officials, and to the insults or depredations of the soldiery who were quartered upon them. Their woodlands, brush-wood and fencing were rapidly appropriated to camp uses, their teams impressed iuto the king's service, and, in many ways, they were made to feel the power of their conquerors.

Of the auxiliary troops of the British army, Gen. JOHNSON's Manuscript Recollections of the Revolution says : " Col. Rahl took up his quarters in Bushwick, with a regiment of Hessians. They constructed bar- racks on the land of Abraham Luqueer, although many of them were also quartered on the inhabitants. The regiment of Col. Rahl made free use of the wood in the Wallabout swamp, which extended along north of the Cripplebush road, from the bay to Newtown ereck." In the humane treatment of the conquered enemy, the Hes- sian soldiers, after they became acquainted with the people of the island, would compare with the British, inneh to the disadvantage of the latter. The testimony of the prisoners of the Wallabout prison ships is often highly creditable to their humanity. They had first, however, to be disabused of the conviction so eraftily impressed by the British, of the barbarity and savage cruelty of the Americans. But their cupidity and proneness to commit petty robberies (appropriating every species of property upon which they could, with- out much personal risk, lay their hands) has begot for them the reputation of arrant thieves. " It was seldom, however," says FIELD, " that they wantonly injured the property of others, as they did in the case of Hendriek Suydam, situated upon what was then known as New Bushwick lane (now Evergreen avenue, in the Eigh- teenthi ward) which connected the Jamaica turnpike with the Cripplebush road to Newtown. His house, which still stands, is a venerable and well preserved specimen of Dutch architecture, the lower story built of stone of sufficient thickness, almost, to serve for the walls of a fortress; and lighted by small windows with long panes of glass set in heavy sash, which give it a quaint air of peering through spectacles. Its walls, ae- cording to the traditions of the family, were erected not less than one hundred and sixty years ago, and the house was located (according to the invariable practice of the

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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 64

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