USA > New York > Ulster County > Kingston > The history of Kingston, New York : from its early settlement to the year 1820 > Part 10
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The trustees named in the patent at once organized thereunder and designated the five magistrates ; but the entire record of their proceedings, both as trustees and as a local court, from their cre- ation until the month of October, 1713, has been lost, and is no- where to be found. Consequently their proceedings up to that time, except so far as they are developed in recorded deeds, have been swept into oblivion, and must be passed over by the historian in silence.
The French in Canada, together with the Indians under their influence, gave great annoyance to the frontier settlements ; and Albany and Schenectady were particularly exposed to their at- tacks, and were kept in an almost constant state of alarm. The military of Esopus were under frequent orders for their assistance.
In August, 1687, Governor Dongan, upon his return from Albany, after one of his visits there in reference to the French troubles, convened his council in regard to some expenses con- nected therewith. To meet such expenses, the governor and coun- cil made a levy of a penny on a pound upon the freeholders and inhabitants of Kings, Queens, Dukes, Duchess, Richmond, Orange, Westchester, and Suffolk counties ; but only a half penny on the pound upon New York, Albany, and Ulster counties, because they said " these three places are the only support of the Government."
In his report made in 1686 to the Privy Council upon the state of the provinces, the governor stated that the principal towns within the government were New York, Albany, and Kingston at
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Esopus ; that all the rest were country villages ; that the build- ings at New York and Albany were generally of stone and brick. In the country the houses were mostly new, having two or three rooms on a floor. He further reported that the Dutch were " great improvers of land."
King James, in the year 1688, united all the North American British possessions, except Pennsylvania, under one viceregal gov- ernment, and commissioned Edmund Andros as his "Governor- General over the whole territory and dominion of New England in America." Governor Dongan being thus superseded, the king tendered him the command of a regiment, with the rank of major- general of artillery, in the British Army.
The commission issued to Governor Andros was specific, and of very much the same character as the one given to Dongan. It vested the law-making power in the governor and council, subject to the royal approval. Captain Francis Nicholson, then in com- mand of a company of regular soldiers at Boston, was commis- sioned lieutenant-governor, with directions to observe the orders of his chief. The commission reached Boston in July, 1688, when Andros was proclaimed governor, and Francis Nicholson installed as lieutenant-governor.
On the 11th of August the new governor arrived at New York, and was appropriately received and escorted by a regiment of foot . and a troop of horse. The king's commission was then read at Fort James, and published at the City Hall. A proclamation was at once issued continuing all persons not removed by order of the king in their respective offices, and directing the taxes to be con- tinued.
The union was very distasteful to the Dutchmen of New York, but of course submission was the only alternative.
On the 30th of August the governor, accompanied by some of his counsellors, left New York by sloop for Albany, where he was met by the lieutenant-governor, and had a friendly conference with the Indians. On his way to New York from Albany he stopped at Kingston. There have no records been found of what transpired at that visit.
On his return to New York, the despatches awaiting him there in reference to Indian troubles in Maine compelled him to leave at once for Boston. He did so, and left the lieutenant-governor at the head of the colony of New York.
The unsettled state of affairs in England and the rebellion against King James encouraged the opponents and enemies of Governor Andros, in New England, to rebel against his rule. He was forcibly seized and imprisoned under fabricated charges, and thus deprived of the power of government.
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On the 22d of December, 1688, James abdicated the English throne, and was succeeded by William and Mary. The news of the revolution was received in America in the spring of 1689. That was the signal for trouble in the colonial government. Governor Andros was in prison at Boston, and the citizens were divided on the question of the right of Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson to rule. A part claimed that Nicholson and the council were legally invested with governmental powers ; while, on the other hand, a very large proportion, if not, in fact, a majority of the citizens, in- sisted that the abdication of the late king overthrew the whole machinery of the government, and Nicholson and his council were stripped of all authority. The controversy was very bitter, when finally, on the 2d of June, 1689, Nicholson delivered up the keys and left New York. Jacob Leisler, a German by birth, command- ing a company of soldiers, took possession of the fort. Thus New York was now left without any legitimate government.
Leisler, being in possession of the fort with his soldiers, issued a manifesto declaring that the fort was held by him in the interest of William and Mary, and would be so held until the arrival of a person properly constituted by the authorities of Great Britain to administer the government. He then sent invitations to the sev- eral counties and towns in the province of New York to choose and send delegates to meet in convention at Fort James, on the 25th of June, 1689, to take into consideration the present condi- tion of affairs. Delegates were chosen in some parts of the prov- ince, but Ulster, Albany, and Suffolk counties, with most of the towns in Queens, refused to respond.
The burghers of Kingston had contemplated with great pleas- ure and satisfaction the marriage of Prince William of Orange with the Princess Mary, and their accession to the throne ; but they were unwilling to recognize any self-constituted authority. They concluded to stand aloof, maintain the local government under their patent, and await the establishment of a legal govern- ment for the province.
On the 26th of June, 1689, twelve delegates met in convention at Fort James, in answer to Captain Leisler's request. After the first meeting two of the delegates withdrew. The remaining ten formed themselves into a Committee of Safety, and the next day signed a commission appointing Leisler "captain of the fort at New York, until orders shall be received from their Majesties." Under that authority Leisler at once assumed the powers of gov- ernment. Thus matters continued during the summer and fall.
Early in the month of December, 1689, a packet arrived from England, bringing two despatches-one from the king and the other from the Privy Council. They were respectively addressed as fol-
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lows : "Francis Nicholson, Esq., our Lieutenant Governor, and Commander in Chief of our Province of New York in America, and in his absence to such as for the time being take care for pre- serving the peace and administering the laws in our said Province of New York in America." Nicholson having left the province and abandoned the government, Leisler considered himself as in- cluded in the second clause of the address, and opened the des- patches.
The letter of the Privy Council directed Nicholson, as lieutenant- governor, "with the assistance of the principal Freeholders and Inhabitants of their Majesties Province in New York, to proclaim William and Mary," according to a prescribed form enclosed. The king in his letter authorized Nicholson to take on himself the government of the province, calling to his assistance such of " the principal freeholders and Inhabitants as he should see fit," and requiring him also, until further orders, "to do and perform all things which to the place and office of our Lieutenant Governor and Commander in Chief of the Province of New York doth or may appertain." Leisler, considering that he came within the contingent description in the address, and was thereby clothed with the authority conferred by the letter of the king, at once as- sumed the title as well as the authority of lieutenant-governor.
In February, 1690, he issued writs to the several precincts in the province for the election of representatives to meet in New York, "to consult, debate and conclude all such matters and things as might be thought necessary for the supply of this Government in this present conjunction."
Many of the counties failing to respond, he issued a second writ of the same purport as the first, dated the 8th day of April, 1690. There had been no election under the first call in Ulster County. After the receipt of the second writ, Roeloff Swartwout, the sheriff (schout), on the 11th of April, 1690, wrote a letter to Jacob Mil- borne, the private secretary and son-in-law of Leisler, in which, after advising him of shipments of grain to Albany, he added : " Touching the election of two delegates from our County, it shall be done on the 15 Instant. It was put off until your Honours arrival here ; I feared a contest. I admit it ought to be a free election for all classes, but I would be loth to allow those to vote or to be voted for who have refused to this day to take their oath, lest so much leaven might again taint that which is sweet, or our head men, which probably might happen."
Ulster was represented in the assembly, together with New York. Albany, Queens, and Westchester. The other counties did not elect. The names of the Ulster delegates are not known. There is no record to be found of their election.
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The assembly thus constituted passed an act ."to raise, through- out the whole government, a tax of threepence upon every pound of real and personal property, to be paid the first of June."
New York City having for some time, under some former ad- ministrations, enjoyed a bolting monopoly, to the prejudice of both Albany and Kingston, the members representing those localities succeeded in procuring the passage of a law by that assembly enacting " that all towns should have equal freedom to boult and bake and to transport where they please, directly to what place or country they think fit, anything their places afford, and that one place should not have any more privileges than another."
The assembly was then very suddenly prorogued until Sep- tember.
The French in 1690 organized three expeditions against the English colonies : one at Montreal, to invade New York ; another at Three Rivers, to attack New England, between Albany and Bos- ton ; and the other at Quebec, to ravage Maine.
The expedition against New York, consisting'of French and Indians, set out from Montreal early in February, and after a severe tramp through the snow in intensely cold weather, it reached Schenectady. The place was found entirely unprepared for an at- tack, the gates all open and no guard on duty. The place was burned, and the soldiers and nearly all the inhabitants were butch- ered. The first notice the inhabitants had of any danger was the dreadful warwhoop and the bursting in of their doors.
As soon as the news reached Albany, couriers were despatched in different directions to Kingston and other places for aid to pro- tect Albany. But the Indians came no farther than Schenectady. After enacting that scene of blood they started for their homes, carrying twenty-five captives with them.
This raid taught the New York colony the necessity of union and the healing of internal dissensions as a protection against the common foe, even if it necessitated submission to the rule of one whom they consi lered an usurper.
After the massacre at Schenectady an attempt was made to organize a joint expedition of the several provinces against Quebec. Arrangements were made to have Massachusetts and New York despatch some ships and soldiers by water, and New York and Connecticut send soldiers, with Indians, by land and Lake Cham- plain, to make a combined attack upon Quebec. Contrary to the wishes of Leisler, the command of the land forces was entrusted to General Winthrop, of Connecticut. The expedition proved a con- plete failure, apparently through the inefficiency of the command- ing officer. He returned without proceeding any farther than Wood Creek, a tributary of Lake Champlain at the southern end,
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and left the forces sent by sea wholly unsupported, to combat the entire strength of the Canadas.
Ulster County had furnished her quota of troops, and had also been called upon and forwarded troops for the defence of Albany ; and on the 11th of April, 1690, Kingston forwarded nine hundred and thirty-six schepels of maize to Albany for the support of the garrison.
The failure of the expedition against Canada, although in nowise attributable to any fault of Leisler, gave his enemies in the province a great opportunity to triumph over him. Had the expe- dition been successful. he would have been the exalted champion of the hour. With its failure, as there are strong grounds for belief, through the connivance of his enemies, overpowering weap- ons were forged for his destruction.
On the 16th of November, 1690, an order was issued by the governor and council directed to " Major Thomas Chambers and the rest of the military officers under his direction in the County of Ulster," requiring them forthwith "to select, out of the county of Ulster, one hundred or eighty at least good able men, complete in arms, which shall be transported to Albany for his Majesty's ·service, at or upon the first day of January next. And that, at all times before, upon notice of the Commissaries at Albany of the enemy's approaching, you send the said number of men or as many as can be obtained without delay."
There was also accompanying the same an order directed to Captain Barent Lewis, Mr. Schermerhorn, and their assistants to press twenty men with arms, and three hundred schepels peas, and two hundred and fifty schepels Indian corn, within the county of Ulster. for the expedition to Albany.
Although their Majesties, William and Mary, had executed a commission to Henry Sloughter as Governor of New York as early as the 4th day of January, 1689, still, two years subsequent thereto he had not arrived in New York, nor had Leisler, the act- ing governor, received any notice of his appointment.
In January, 1691, Captain Ingoldsby, with a company of sol- diers under his command, arrived in the ship Beaver from Eng- land, and announced the appointment of General Sloughter as governor ; also that he was on his way to assume the government. Captain Ingoldsby at once demanded possession of the fort from Governor Leisler. The acting governor refused to surrender pos- session on the ground that he did not produce any order from the king or the governor. Leisler properly demanded better authority or credentials than his mere word. Ingoldsby, imperious by nature, taught to look upon the colonists as inferiors, and accus- tomed as a military officer to order and be obeyed, was incensed at
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such refusal. The enemies of Leisler also were not idle, and they used every effort in their power to fan and stir the glowing embers. The justices of Long Island were called upon to aid the captain in storming and taking the fort.
Leisler, however, retained possession until the arrival of Gov- ernor Sloughter on the 19th of March. Unfortunately for Leisler, his opponents got the governor's ear, and things were so managed that Leisler and Milborne, his son-in-law, were arrested and thrown into prison, shortly afterward were brought before a court illegally organized for the purpose, and whose authority they denied by refusing to answer or plead or interpose a defence. They were convicted of high treason without trial.
Governor Sloughter hesitated about signing the death-warrants, wishing to refer the matter to the home government ; but it is said his signatures were procured at the close of a feast, when the governor was overpowered with wine ; and the men were executed before he recovered from his debauch sufficiently to realize what he had done. Whether the men were technically guilty of treason or not, their execution was politically a great mistake for the quiet of the province. Eventually it divided the colony into two bitterly hostile parties. The conviction was afterward reversed by the House of Lords, and the property restored to the heirs ; but the execution could not be recalled ; the men had been sent to the bourn whence there is no return.
The commission and instructions issued by their Majesties, William and Mary, to Governor Sloughter, were dated in Novem- ber, 1689. The commission, besides delegating to him the usual powers of governor, and designating the particular men to compose his council, declared, " And we do hereby give and grant unto you full power and authority, with the advice and consent of our said council, from time to time as needs shall require, to summon and call general assemblies of the inhabitants, being Freeholders within your Government, according to the usage of our plantations in America. . .
" And our will and pleasure is, that the persons thereupon duly elected, by the major part of the freeholders of the respective counties and places, and so returned, and having, before their sit- tings, taken the oath appointed by act of Parliament, . . . shall be called and held to be the general assembly of that one Province, and the Territories thereunto belonging.
" And that you, the said Henry Sloughter, by and with the consent of our said Council and Assembly, or the major part of them respectively, have full power and authority to make, consti- tute and ordain laws, statutes and ordinances, for the public peace, welfare and good government of our said Province, and of the
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People and inhabitants thereof, and such others as shall resort thereto, and for the benefit of us our heirs and successors. . . . Which said laws, statutes and ordinances are to be (as near as may be) agreable unto the Laws and Statutes of this our Kingdom of England."
The statutes were required to be transmitted within three months after their passage to England, subject to disallowance by their Majesties. The commission clothed the governor with the veto power, and also the right to adjourn, prorogue, and dissolve the assemblies.
It will here be noticed that there was again-and this time by the British crown-conferred upon the colony the important priv- ilege of a voice in legislation. The hopes in that behalf, there- fore, which the Dutch colonists had entertained in reference to King William, were not disappointed. Neither was this intended . to be an idle grant, for the governor-general, without delay, issued the necessary writs for the election in the several counties of dele- gates to an assembly to meet in the city of New York on the 9th of April, 1691.
The assembly met on the appointed day. The delegates from Ulster and Dutchess were Henry Beekman and Thomas Garton. This was the first assembly held under the direct authority of the British crown, and the first whose acts are recognized and pub- lished in the books of colonial statutes.
After organization, having elected James Graham as Speaker, the assembly, in connection with the governor and council, adopted and forwarded to England a loyal address to their Majesties, the king and queen.
One of the earliest laws passed by them was declaratory of the rights and privileges of the people. It declared the legislative power to be vested in the governor, council, and general assembly. The governor and council to be appointed by the crown. Dele- gates to the general assembly to be elected by the freeholders and freemen in any corporation. To constitute a freeholder, it was necessary to have forty shillings per annum in freehold. The act apportioned twenty-one representatives among the counties, allot- ting two to Ulster.
As to the manner of enacting laws, it declared that " all bills, agreed upon by a major part of the Representatives, should be presented to the Governor and Council for approval, and when approved by them, should be accounted the law of the Province until disallowed by the Crown."
The act, in its further provisions, was very full and explicit in setting forth the rights of the people, the right of trial by jury, and the rights of property ; and that no tax was to be levied ex-
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Cept by authority of the governor and council and the assembly ; and it also guaranteed full protection and freedom in religion.
A law was also passed establishing courts of justice in the sev- eral cities, counties, and towns in the province, to continue in force for two years. Under this statute a supreme court was created for the province, consisting of a chief-justice and four assistant jus- tices, together with an attorney-general.
County officers, such as sheriffs, county clerks, judges of the county courts, and justices of the peace, were to be appointed by the governor-general and council. Supervisors, assessors, and other town officers were to be annually elected by the freeholders of the respective towns.
Among the early laws passed was one confirming all patents, charters, and grants theretofore issued, notwithstanding any exist- ing informality. This law was passed to terminate various contro- versies and disputes which had arisen in regard to some public townships and private rights.
At the second session of the assembly, held in September, 1691, an act was passed dividing the province of New York into shires and counties. In that act. Ulster County is designated as follows : " The County of Ulster to contain the towns of Kingston, Hurley and Marbletown, Fox Hall, and the New Paltz, and all villages, neighborhoods and Christian habitations on the West side of Hud- son's river, from the Murderers Creek, near the Highlands, to the Saw yers Creek."
The county of Albany was described as extending to the Saw- yer's Creek on the south, and the county of Orange as extending to the Murderer's Creek toward the north.
Ulster County, as thus constituted, included a very large terri- tory. Besides its present contents, it covered Delaware and Sulli- van counties, and included Newburgh and all the towns in the present county of Orange lying west of Newburgh.
At the first session of the second assembly, and on the 11th of November, 1692, an act was passed "for settling of Fairs and markets in each respective city and County throughout the Prov- ince." In that act it was provided that there should be held and kept a public and open market on every Saturday in the week at Kingston, and also " two fairs yearly for the county of Ulster, the first to be kept at Kingston on the third Thursday in March and to end on the Saturday then next following, being three days in- clusive and no longer. The second fair to begin the second Thurs- day in October and to end the Saturday following."
The statute further declared that "all which Fairs, at the times and places aforesaid, in each County respectively, shall be holden together with a court of Pypowder, and with all liberties
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and free customs to such fairs appertaining, or which ought or may appertain, according to the usage and customs of fairs holden in their majesties realms of England." The governor or ruler of the fair, with power to hold a court of Pypowder, to be commis- sioned and appointed by the governor of the province.
These fairs and markets were institutions common in England, and under the English Government no person could claim a fair or market except by grant from the king or by prescription, which necessarily presumed a grant. These institutions were a great convenience in a sparsely settled country ; they afforded the pro- ducer a certain time and place for the disposal of his surplus pro- ductions, and the consumer a designated time and place for the supply of his wants.
It was incumbent upon the owner and governor of fairs and markets to take care that everything was sold according to just weight and measure. For that purpose it was the duty of the clerk of the fair or market to test and mark the weights.
The owner of the fair or market was entitled to charge- as " toll" a reasonable sum upon things tollable, or for stallage, pickage, or the like.
Fairs and markets could only be held upon the days and for the times specially designated.
A fair is described by the old English writers as a " solemn or greater sort of market." They were county institutions, and only permitted to be held annually or biennially, and were intended specially for the sale and exchange of real estate, horses, cattle, and produce in large quantities ; not excluding, however, articles of any character or quantity.
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