USA > New York > Ulster County > Kingston > The history of Kingston, New York : from its early settlement to the year 1820 > Part 11
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The Pypowder court referred to in the law was a court in con- stant session at fairs, held by the person appointed as governor of the fair, to administer justice to buyers and sellers, and for the redress of disorders committed in them. Its jurisdiction extended only to injuries done in that particular fair, and not to any previ- ous one. As to such injuries, its jurisdiction was exclusive. In reference to transactions and contracts at any such fair, the motto was, " If you have any fault to find, speak now or never." It is said that such court was given its peculiar name because "jus- tice was done in it as speedily as dust could fall from the foot."
Another statute passed at one of the early sessions was entitled " an act against profanation of the Lords day, called Sunday." It prohibited servile labor, fishing, hunting, travelling, and horse racing on the Lord's day, Sunday, under penalty of six shillings current money, or, in default of payment, to sit publicly in the stocks for three hours ; but if an Indian or negro slave, then the
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punishment to be thirteen lashes on the bare back. Travel to at- tend church was limited to ten miles.
The several laws passed at the several early sessions of the Leg- islature, bearing more immediately upon the administration of local matters, have been thus collated here, so as to place them in a con- nected series, and give a better understanding of the general sys- tem of government, although passed at different sessions and under different executives.
Under the administration of Governor Sloughter, the colony was much annoyed by the French and Indian inroads from Canada. In June, 1691, the governor, in order to prevent an expected de- scent, and to watch the enemy's motions, fitted out an expedition, consisting of Christians and Indians, to march to Canada and im- prove all opportunities for surprising, annoying, and destroying the Canadians and their Indian allies. The expedition set out on the 21st of June. The expedition was not as formidable in num- bers as was desired or expected. Some friendly Indians who had agreed to join them at certain places on the way failed to make their appearance, and besides, on their march, their numbers were greatly diminished by frequent desertions. On their arrival at Ticonderoga, on the 17th of July, the invading force numbered only two hundred and sixty Christians and Indians. Notwith- standing the manifest insufficiency of his force, Major Schuyler continued his advance toward Laprairie. The French, being ad- vised of his approach, met him on the route with a force consider- ably superior in numbers. After a desperate fight the French were defeated, but Schuyler learned that a force of French and Indians had been thrown in his rear to intercept his return. He therefore concluded to return and fight his way back to his canoes on the lake. On his homeward march he met the enemy prepared to dispute his progress. The little band fought through the enemy's ranks, then faced about and forced the French to retreat. It then continued its homeward march, and arrived without further adven- ture. Major Schuyler claimed that in that expedition, with the loss of very few men, they had killed about two hundred French and Indians.
While this expedition was out, and on the 2d of July, 1691, . Governor Sloughter died very suddenly. His administration was - thus very short, but at the same time troublesome. He was a man of very limited talents, and deficient in executive abil- ity.
Upon his decease, under the colonial laws the right of govern- ment devolved upon the council, of which Joseph Dudley was the president. Notwithstanding this, it was committed to Richard Ingoldsby, the captain of an independent company, who assumed
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the administration of the government on the 26th of July, 1691.
In September, 1691, a session of the Assembly was held, at which the law already referred to, dividing the province into counties, was passed. At the same session the Legislature appropriated fifteen hundred pounds for the payment of one hundred and fifty additional men, to be employed on the frontiers of Albany County.
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CHAPTER VII.
FROM 1692, ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR FLETCHER, TO THE ARRIVAL OF WILLIAM BURNET AS GOVERNOR IN 1720.
TN March, 1692, Colonel Benjamin Fletcher was commissioned as Governor of New York, and received instructions as such in the usual form. He arrived in New York on the 29th of August, and assumed the administration of the government. He found the province in a deplorable condition. Thrown entirely upon their own resources by the mother country, cursed by the ministry with incompetent and dishonest executives, kept in a constant state of. alarm by not only threatened but actual invasions and attacks upon their frontier settlements by the Canadian-French and Ind- ians, the colonists were reduced and worn out physically and finan- cially. They were in need of talent and good statesmanship, with honesty, in the gubernatorial office, not incumbents sent to mend their broken fortunes or make new ones by robbing the people and the public treasury.
The Assembly convened on the 17th of August. In his address to the Assembly Governor Fletcher notified them that to defray the debts of the government already contracted, and for the neces- sary charges for the defence of Albany for the then ensuing win- ter, seventy-five hundred pounds would be required to be raised forthwith, and complained of non-payment by the people of taxes already assessed.
The Assembly, before their adjournment, made provision for the raising of two hundred and twenty men to strengthen the gar- risons at the frontier posts, and also for eighty men from the county of Ulster to go and continue there during the time of the greatest danger.
About the 6th of February, 1693, a body of French and Indians surprised a settlement of friendly Mohawk Indians, and took about two hundred of them prisoners. As soon as news of this raid reached Albany, Colonel Schuyler at once, with two hundred vol- unteers, set out in pursuit of the enemy. He was soon re-enforced by three hundred Indians, and had several skirmishes with the retreating enemy. They succeeded, however, in making good their escape by crossing the upper branch of the Hudson upon a cake
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of ice, which, as soon as they had crossed, loosened from its moor- ings and floated away.
On the 13th of September, 1692, writs for a new election were issued, returnable the 24th of October. Thomas Garton and Jacob Rutsen were returned as delegates from the county of Ulster.
Several bills were passed at this session, among others the one establishing fairs and markets, as hereinbefore set forth. They ad- journed on the 14th of November to the 20th of March, 1693.
The Assembly convened again in March, pursuant to adjourn- ment. The governor, in his address at this as well as the previous meeting of the Assembly, urged the support of an established min- istry. The house, from their attachment to the Dutch language and the model of the Church of Holland, secured by one of the articles of surrender, did not comply with his recommendation.
At the close of the session he severely rebuked the Assembly for not acting upon his recommendation, and on the 27th day of July, 1693, dissolved it and ordered a new election, the writs to be returnable the 7th of September, 1693. Thomas Garton and Jacob Rutsen were re-elected as delegates from Ulster.
The new Assembly convened in September, and the governor, in his opening address, urged upon it the establishment of a ministry throughout the colony, the granting of a revenue to the governor for life, and the raising of money for the repair of the fort at New York and for the erection of a chapel.
In response the Assembly passed a bill establishing a ministry in some Church of England parishes in four counties, but ignored all the other matters. The bill passed was immediately returned by the governor and council for amendment. The Assembly re- fused to amend. On the 20th of September he summoned the As- sembly before him, and on their appearance lectured them severely upon their refusal to establish a ministry and to grant a permanent revenue for the executive. When he had finished his speech he immediately prorogued the Assembly, and a few days thereafter dissolved it and issued writs for a new election. The law went into effect, however, without the amendment.
The war between Governor Fletcher and the Assembly continued during his entire term, he proroguing and dissolving only to meet with similar opposition after new elections. It is a well-estab- lished fact that to accomplish his purposes he personally inter- fered with the freedom of elections, was privy to and countenanced great frauds therein. He was unquestionably one of the most dis- honest and avaricious governors among the needy adventurers foisted upon the colony to mend their fortunes. His patronage and power was in the market for the highest bidder.
Among other charges against Governor Fletcher was corrupt
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interference with legislation. If any act for the benefit of the people was desired, it must have its price ; and if the price was not paid, they must go without it. New York City for a long time enjoyed a monopoly in regard to bolting and shipment of flour, to the great prejudice of Ulster County, which was at that time the principal grain-raising region in the province. The people of Kingston, to break up that monopoly and procure the enact- ment of what was called . "the Bolting act," had to pay several hundred pounds. The individuals, however, who undertook to raise the money, being unable or failing to do so, it was " jumbled in with the public tax," and the governor got his price.
During the term of Governor Fletcher, and on the 11th of November, 1692, a law was passed, entitled an act for encouraging a post-office, under which it is believed the first post-office was established in this colony.
By the official reports of his immediate successors in office, it appears that Governor Fletcher "had embezzled and converted to his own use great sums of their public money," and that he was pecuniarily interested in piratical and smuggling operations on the seas. His corruption, of course, tainted the whole lump, so that, through the carelessness and corruption of the officers of the cus- toms and revenue, connived at by many of the governor's council concerned in the breach of the laws, to their pecuniary profit, the revenue had, with a fourfold increase of trade within ten years, diminished one half.
During the latter part of Fletcher's administration the Canadi- ans, French, and Indians gave the colonists a respite, in order that they might turn their attention to the subjugation of the Indians in the vicinity of the lakes. The French undoubtedly had in view their favorite plan of connecting Canada with Louisiana by a cordon of forts along the Ohio and Mississippi.
In 1697 the king announced his disapproval and consequent repeal of the law passed by the Colonial Assembly in 1691, herein- before referred to, declaratory of the rights of the people, thus placing himself in direct antagonism to the colonists upon the great principle of representation-the colonists claiming that represen- tation was an inherent right belonging to the people ; the king and his counsellors, on the contrary, that it was a privilege enjoyed through the grace of the crown. That in after years was the great question which lay at the foundation of the grand revolution, cul- minating in the independence of the provinces.
Richard Coote, Earl of Bellamont, succeeded Fletcher as gov- ernor of the province. Although appointed in 1695, he did not receive his commission until 1697. His commission and instruc- tions were similar in form to those of his predecessors, but they ex-
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tended his rule over Massachusetts and New Hampshire, as well as New York. He arrived at New York on the 2d day of April, 1698, and at once received the surrender of the government. He found it, as he represented in his despatches to the ministry, in a wretched condition, and so were the people through bad govern- ment.
The several administrations of Sloughter, Ingoldsby, and Fletcher were distinguished for nothing so much as corruption and maladministration, together with a tendency to excite and en- courage dissensions, party spirit, and disorder throughout the province. They had evidently not been promoted to the execu- tive chair on account of any capacity for the position. The Earl of Bellomont, on the contrary, was the antipode of his predeces- sors in the qualities necessary for good government. His admin- istration, though brief and terminated by an early death, verified the opinion expressed of him by the king, that he was " a man of resolution and integrity."
When he assumed the government the people were divided and distracted into two parties of the most violent description : one in support of and the other condemnatory of the proceedings against Leisler and his supporters ; added to which was the persistent and continued action of the government to force upon the Dutch Cal- vinistic community the support of a Church of England ministry. To add to his embarrassments, a majority of the council, his con- stitutional advisers, were largely and pecuniarily interested in frauds upon the customs revenue and the ill-gotten gain of pirates roaming over the seas, with licenses in their possession from his predecessors in office.
Immediately after entering upon the office, he issued writs for the election of a new Assembly. When the Assembly convened he ascertained that eleven out of the nineteen members owed their places to false and fraudulent returns made by the sheriffs. In his report to the Board of Trade he stated that one of the great difficulties encountered by him was that the sheriff's appointed by Fletcher were " of the Scum of the People." The Assembly thus organized so conducted itself that the governor dissolved it in a very short time, and charged the members with having " Sat near a month and done nothing, but vilainous tricks to justify the false- ness and unfairness of the Sheriff's returns."
The governor early in his administration turned his attention to and accomplished an exchange of prisoners with the Canadians, and had a satisfactory and friendly conference with the five nations of Indians at Albany.
Convinced that a large majority of the council were not in ac- cord with his views of reform, but had, in fact, connived at and
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participated in gross frauds upon the government, he made a sweeping change in the personel of the council, and issued writs for the election of a new Assembly. He also made changes in the shrievalties of several of the counties.
The Assembly then elected was composed almost entirely of Leislerians. They were convened and addressed by the governor on the 21st of March, 1699. The representatives from Ulster County were Jacob Ratsen and Abraham Hasbrouck.
Among the laws passed by that Assembly was one for the regu- lation and conduct of elections, and for the prevention of fraud therein. The law, on examination, will be found to contain many very salutary provisions, apparently guarding against fraud as effectually as human foresight could well do. It required the elect- ors not only to be possessed of a freehold of forty pounds and up- ward, but to be actual residents of the district from which they were returned.
He called the special attention of the Legislature to a number of extravagant grants of land which had been made by ex-Gov- ernor Fletcher to favorites for a mere nominal consideration, as tending not only to impede the settlement of the country, but also to estrange the Indians occupying a large portion of them, and from whom releases were alleged to have been procured through fraud and misrepresentation.
Among those grants was one to Captain John Evans, bearing date the 12th day of September, 1694, " containing all that tract and parcel of land situate, lying and being upon the west side of Hud- son's River, beginning from the south side of the land called the Pulse, now inhabited by French men, and extending thence South- erly along the said Hudson's-River to the land belonging to the Indians at the Murderer's Kill, and extending westward to the foot of the high hills called Pitkiskaker and Alaskawasting, and thence extending southerly all along the said hills and the river called Peakadasank, to a water pond lying upon the said hills, called Merchary ; comprehending all those lands, meadows and woods called Nescotonck, Chawangen, Memorasink, Kacogh, Getawan, Annuck, Gillatawogh, and all and every of them ; and the same erected into manor and Lordship of the Manor Fletcher- don ; To have and to hold the said tract of land and Manor of Fletcherdon, with the Appurtenances unto the said John Evans, his heirs and assigns forever under the rent reserved of twenty shillings, and one fat buck per annum."
The Legislature accordingly passed a law vacating, breaking, and annulling the above, with several other similar extravagant grants, which act was approved and went into effect the 12th of May, 1699.
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Thus are we to thank the beneficent administration of Governor Bellomont for the incalculable benefits showered, by the passage of that law, upon that large region of country embracing all Ulster County below New Paltz on the east side of the mountain, and a very large part of Orange County. When we consider the charac- ter of manorial tenures and the custom of the country at that time and for many years subsequent by individual owners of large tracts of land, there can be no doubt that if there had been no repeal those hundreds of square miles would have been brought under the scorching and blighting effects of landlordism.
It was therefore fortunate for that region of country that the morning star of Bellomont arose, and although in the ascendent for only a brief period, it dispelled the dark shadows, brushed away the blighting incubus, and declared the said grant to Evans, with certain other like grants, absolutely void, and that they were " broke vacated and annulled, and their registry should be obliter- ated, razed, defaced, and the memory and record of all the afore- said grants shall be reduced into oblivion and forgetfulness, as if no such grants had ever been made or registered."
The writer well recollects his visits in early life to Woodstock 'and Shandaken, in Ulster County, when that region, being part of an enormous grant of several hundred thousand acres, was prin- cipally covered by life leases, and where the continuance of the tenure of the occupant was dependent upon the uncertainty of the continuance of one or three lives named in the lease. Thus at any time an epidemic or other calamity might terminate the title of a whole neighborhood. One day they were freeholders, the next they might not be. All the interest of the inhabitants cen- tred in the present, to make the most out of the land they could, and with as little expense as possible. Their want of care for and interest in the future was shown by their dilapidated houses and out-buildings, their common and temporary fences. Paints and paint brushes were apparently almost unknown in that locality. The tenant's interest was in the uncertain continuance of life ; the landlord's, upon reversion in death. The whole face of the country told the sad story.
The inhabitants eventually rebelled against such tenures, and the rebellion resulted in their abolition. What a change in that country between then and now ! Thrift and prosperity now put forth their blooming and smiling faces in every direction ; comfort- able, pleasant, and indeed luxuriant homes can be seen on every hand, tempting the denizen weary of city life to come annually for a season to enjoy their comforts. This great change was ac- complished, as such radical changes frequently are, through the un- happy experience of resistance and opposition to the laws of the
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land, and even at times tainted with violence. How much more happy the Bellomont exterminating spade, before the seed had been sown or the blighting growth commenced !
At that session was also passed a law against Jesuits and popish priests, requiring them to leave the province by the 1st of Novem- ber following, under penalty of perpetual imprisonment, etc. It is true this apparently savored of bigotry and persecution, and has been so characterized by historians. Before passing such judgment, we must consider the exigency of the times, and the evil sought to be remedied by the enactment.
A large proportion of the inhabitants were those, or the imme- diate descendants of those, who came hither to escape the Roman Catholic persecutions in the Old World. There were no Roman Catholics settled among them in this province of which we have any knowledge. But the Canadian-French, their enemies on the north, were Roman Catholics of the most bigoted character, and they were flooding the remote parts of the province with Jesuit missionaries among the Indians ; " who," as alleged in the preamble of the act, " by their wicked and subtle insinuations, industriously labor to debauch, seduce and withdraw the Indians from their due obedience unto his most sacred Majesty, and to excite and stir them up to sedition, rebellion and open hostility against his Majesty's government ; for prevention whereof be it enacted," etc. It was, therefore, an act of self-protection. They had learned to dread the hostile warwhoop, and guard against the savage massacre. Bigotry and persecution formed no part of the foundation plank. In modern times, as well as ancient, death was recognized as the appropriate punishment for sedition and treason ; here it was only imprisonment.
Governor Bellomont died suddenly on the 6th of March, 1701, while the Assembly was in session. At the time of his death John Nanfan, the lieutenant-governor, was in Barbadoes. This gave the anti-Leislerians an opportunity to throw things into confusion by raising a contest as to what official was entitled to assume the reins of government. This controversy lasted and was unsettled until the first Monday of June, the Assembly adjourning from day to day, but transacting no business. By that time Lieutenant- Governor Nanfan had arrived and terminated the controversy.
Lieutenant-Governor Nanfan immediately on his arrival as- sumed the duties of his office, and very soon thereafter dissolved the Assembly and issued writs for a new election. At that election there was a very bitter contest, and a great struggle for the ascend- ency between the Leislerians and their opponents. The country was now reaping, in all its bitterness, the evil but inevitable result of the unfortunate condemnation and execution of Governor Leisler
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and his secretary, Milborne, by his hot-headed opponents. In the contest the Leislerians prevailed. The delegates from Ulster were Jacob Rutsen and Adrien Gerretson.
The newly-elected Assembly convened on the 19th of August, 1701. The contention was carried into the house, and Governor Nanfan excluded two of the returned members, Nichols and Wes- sels, on the ground of non-residence. That led to the secession of seven others.
It was the custom in the county of Ulster at that time to sur- round large quantities of contiguous cultivated land with an out- side fence, which they called a circular fence, thus saving all inter- mediate fences. Many of those owning and cultivating lands in the central parts of the tract, although enjoying the benefit thereof, refused to contribute toward the expense of its construction or maintenance. The Assembly being applied to for a remedy, on the 18th of October, 1701, passed a law requiring the owners of land in Ulster County within any such circular fence to pay their respec- tive proportions of the cost thereof, and if they refused, the law provided for an assessment by a justice of the peace, and process for the enforcement of its collection.
The Assembly about the same time passed another law making further provisions to secure regularity in elections, and appended a section thereto by which they provided "that to prevent all disputes relating to the Freeholders in Dutchess County, about the election of Representatives, the said county be and is hereby de- clared to be annexed to the county of Ulster, for the term of seven years, next after this present session ; and that the Freeholders of Dutchess County, qualified by law, shall and are hereby empow- ered to give their votes for Representatives in the county of Ulster, as if they actually lived in the said county."
Upon an appeal to the British Parliament by the heirs of Gov- ernor Leisler and Milborne, as has been before stated, the con- viction, judgment, and attainder passed by Sloughter's court against them was reversed. The Assembly, therefore, in pursuance of the recommendation of Lord Jersey, Secretary of State, ordered money to be raised and other measures taken to restore to the family of the executed Governor Leisler the rights of which they had been deprived by the vacated attainder and judgment.
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