USA > New York > Ulster County > Kingston > The history of Kingston, New York : from its early settlement to the year 1820 > Part 4
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Before them as a court all cases and questions relating to the po- lice, security, and peace of the inhabitants, and all suits between man and man, were to be brought, heard, examined, and determined. Their judgment in cases involving fifty guilders and under was final. In cases involving higher sums, the right of appeal to the director-general and council was given to the aggrieved party, pro- vided the appeal was taken within a specified time, and security
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
given for the payment of the costs. If, in the decision of any case, a difference of opinion existed in the court, the opinion of the majority was to control.
It was made the duty of the schout, as before stated, to preside at the court or meeting of the schepens, and until further ordered act as their secretary. Except, however, when acting in his own interest or in behalf of "the rights of the Lord Patroons," or as prosecuting officer, he should not preside nor officiate as a part of the court.
In such case one of the oldest schepens was directed to preside. The schout, as well as each of the schepens, were prohibited from officiating as a member of the court whenever personally interest- ed, or of near relationship or affinity to any of the parties.
These officers were required to hold their court every fortnight, harvest time excepted, unless necessity or occasion might other- wise require.
" All criminals and delinquents guilty of wounding, bloodshed, fornication, adultery, public and notorious thefts, robberies, smug- gling or contraband, blasphemy violating God's holy name and religion injuring or slandering the supreme magistrates or their representatives were required with informations affidavits and wit- nesses to be referred to the Director General and Council of New Netherland."
All lesser crimes, including " quarrels, injuries, scolding, kick- ing, beating, threatening," etc., were left to the adjudication of the aforesaid local court, with right of appeal reserved to the con- demned. In those cases the schout was required to act as prose- cutor.
The aforesaid officers were also empowered to make orders re- specting "public roads, enclosures of lands, gardens and orchards, and matters that might concern the country and agriculture : also relative to the building of churches, schools and other similar public works, as well as the means from which, and in what man- ner they shall be worked and regulated." But all such orders, before becoming operative or binding, were to be submitted, with their reasons, to the director-general and council, for " their con- firmation, approval, and command, if by them deemed necessary and useful."
These officers were also required to enforce obedience to " the law of our Fatherland and the ordinances and published plackards of the Director General and Council ;" and they were strictly en- joined to prosecute all transgressions thereof, and prohibited from . publishing any act of their own without the previous consent and approval of the director-general and council.
They were also required " to assist the Noble Lord Directors as
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
Lords and Patroons of the New Netherland Provinces under the Soverignity of the High and Mighty Lords of the Staats General of the United Provinces, and to assist in maintaining them in their high jurisdiction, rights, domains, and all their other pre-emi- mences."
The director-general, about the same time the said charter was granted, promulgated the following orders or by-laws :
1. No person was to work on the Sabbath.
2. No one should give an entertainment, sell spirituous liquors, or be intoxicated on that day, under pain of fine and imprison- ment.
3. For the prevention of fires, the construction of wooden chimneys was prohibited ; also the building of roofs covered with cane or straw, unless the garret floor was laid tight with boards.
4. The schout and schepens were to appoint fire wardens, who were to visit every house at least once in every month to see that they were properly built and cleaned.
Delinquents to be fined one florin for first offence, two for the second, and four for the third.
5. All persons to keep good fences and gates.
6. Every one to enclose his lot within four months and build a house on the same in one year or forfeit it.
7. The stockade to be kept in good order, and gates closed every night under a penalty of three guilders.
8. No one to propose a religious dispute under a penalty of three days in jail, on bread and water.
9. Every one must respect and assist in family worship.
Evert Pels, Cornelis Barentse Slecht, and Elbert Hymans Roose, were by the charter designated as the first board of schepens.
On the 27th of June, shortly after the promulgation of the charter, the director-general, in compliance with the aforesaid per- emptory order of the home directors, commissioned and adminis- tered the oath of office to Roeloff Swartwout, as schout, thus com- pleting the organization of the first village and first judicial tri- bunal in this section of the State.
The first meeting of the court was held on the 12th day of July, 1661, in Wiltwyck. It made an order to meet and hold court on Tuesday of every other week until further order from the director- general and council at New Amsterdam.
At that meeting it appointed Jacob Joosten as messenger for the court and the church, with an annual salary of two hundred guilders in sewan, subject to the approval of the director-general. No business of importance was transacted at that meeting, except, on the petition of the sergeant in command of the soldiers, it di-
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
rected Pieter Van Allen, the shoemaker, instead of shipping some wheat, to sell it to the sergeant, if he paid for it on delivery.
It being harvest, the court adjourned until the 13th of September.
The court met again on the adjourned day, and held its regular bi-weekly meetings during the rest of the year ; at which meet- ings it adjusted some trifling complaints that were brought before it, granted house lots to some applicants, and fixed the price of millers' toll at eight stivers in sewan per schepel, or the tenth when customers had no sewan.
Roeloff Swartwout, the schout, was born in Amsterdam in 1634, came to this country about 1655, and settled first at Fort Orange. He remained there only a very short time and went to Esopus, where he began farming on his own account. On the 13th of August, 1657, he married the widow of Anthony de Hooges and daughter of Albert Andrisen Bradt. It was said that it was the influence of his wife's and her first husband's families that secured him the office. He. lived the latter part of his life, after losing his office, on his farm at Hurley.
The three schepens were all old settlers of the country, emi- grating from Holland. Tryntje Tysen Bos, the wife of Slecht, was duly licensed by Stuyvesant as midwife as early as 1655. Slecht died in 1671 ; left a number of children, the youngest of whom, Petronella, was the wife of Jochem Hendrick Schoonmaker, who after his marriage moved to Mombaccus, now Rochester, and bo- came the progenitor of the Schoonmakers, now scattered in large numbers through different parts of this county and elsewhere.
We have no definite information of the number of inhabitants at Wiltwyck at this time. The best guide for an estimate that we have is a schedule of old and newly surveyed lots made out in the year 1662, for which purpose, and as furnishing reliable informa- tion of the names of some of the heads of families then residing there, it is given here entire.
Of course it does not contain the names of all the residents at that time, not even of all the heads of families, and certainly not of the unmarried men and farm and other laborers.
LIST OF OLD LOTS.
1. Thomas Chambers.
2. Evert Pels.
3. Balthazer Carel Stuyvesant.
4. Minister's house and lot.
5. Mrs. De Hulter's. 13. 66
6. Jacob Govier, little farm.
7. Jacob Jansen, 2d farm.
8. Hendrick Sewan Stringer.
9. Andries, the weaver.
10. Jan de Brabander.
11. Jan Broersen.
12. Michael Verre.
14. Jan Depuit.
15. Annetje Vandersluys.
16. House and lot of Geertrig.
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
NEW LOTS.
1. Hendrick, the smith.
2. Hendrick Martense.
. 3. Harmanus Hendrix Blew.
4. Jan Jansen, carpenter.
5. Jacob Barents.
6. Jan de Baker.
7 .. Jacob Joosten.
8. Willem Pauli.
9. Peter Van Alen.
10. Mattys Roelofson.
11. Jacob Burhans.
12. Gerret Van Campen.
13. Anthony Crispell.
14. Albert Gerretsen.
15. Dr. Gysbertsen " Van Im- borch."
16. Dirck Floriaen.
17. Mattys Capito.
18. Jan Laurensen.
.19. Casther, the Norman.
20. Barent Gerretsen.
21. The Church.
22. Hans Barentsen.
23. The Church.
24. Albert Heymanse.
25. Juriaen Westphael.
26. Nicholas Willem Stuyvesant.
27. Albert Gysberts.
28. Tjerck Claesen.
29. Peter Jacobsen.
30. Jan R.
31. Evert Petersen.
The fact, which appears upon examination, that it does not con- tain the names of the schout and of two of the schepens, Slecht and Roose, is strong evidence that it is not a complete record of all the dwellings. At this time, besides the various dwellings and the church, there was a small grist-mill in the neighborhood of where the tannery now stands in North Front Street, near the. corner of Washington Avenue. The mill pond extended up the low grounds toward the south, west of Green Street. The mill was owned by Slecht, the schepen, and his house was near it. It was run by Peter Jacobsen. The church was located on the northeast corner of what is now Wall and Main streets, being part of the lot on which the First Dutch Church now stands. The precise loca- tion of the houses cannot now be designated with any degree of certainty. Such had been the frequent difficulties with the Ind- ians, and continued apprehensions of trouble, that many of the set- tlers had not then as yet put up buildings of a permanent charac- ter. They were principally built of logs one story high, with a garret or loft, which was generally used as a sleeping apartment by at least a part of the family. The roof was covered with boards or thatched with reeds or straw. The chimneys were built of stone at one end of the house on the outside, with a large open fireplace open- ing inward. That there had been some stone dwellings erected is inferred from the remark made by Dominie Blom in his account of the burning of Wiltwyck by the savages a short time thereafter, that " the houses were converted into heaps of stones."
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CHAPTER III.
FROM THE ORGANIZATION OF WILTWYCK, 1661, TO THE SURRENDER TO THE ENGLISH IN 1664.
A LTHOUGH the treaty of peace had been formally made and assented to by the Indians as well as by the settlers, and hos- tilities had ceased, still there were frequent signs of discontent on the part of the savages. The unfortunate and, to use the mildest term, the unwise action of the director-general, in sending a num- ber of his captive savages to work in the mines in the tropics, and his inability thereby to restore them to their tribe, was not forgot- ten or forgiven by the Indians. It constantly rankled in their bosoms, and kept burning fiercer and fiercer, until it culminated, with other real or fancied causes of discontent, into a horrid butch- ery and another bloody war.
The inhabitants of Esopus, alarmed at evidences of dissatisfac- tion and unfriendliness on the part of the Indians, asked the direct- or-general for a guard, and also organized themselves into a mili- tary corps. Of the organized militia, Thomas Chambers was made captain, Hendrick Jochem Schoonmaker, lieutenant, and Roeloff Swartwout, Hendrick Jansen, Cornelis Barentse Slecht, and Peter Jacobsen, minor officers. An occasional drill gave them some knowledge of their duties to serve in case of an attack or danger.
In other respects matters passed along as usual in the settle- ment, the farmers, mechanics, and laborers performing their ac- customed duties, the schout and the schepens being called upon occasionally to administer even- handed justice, in which they some- times succeeded to the satisfaction of one of the parties and some- times to that of neither. Then, as is frequently the case in the ex- perience of the courts of the present day, the more even handed the justice is which is administered, the less probability there is of either of the litigants being satisfied.
The ministration of Dominie Blom in his holy calling had so far been productive of very satisfactory results : the membership of his church had increased in numbers during the first three years of his ministry from sixteen to sixty, and everything in church matters was well ordered and prosperous.
The settlement was now, however, on the verge of other and
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
more startling events, mingled with horrible scenes of savage cruelty and vengeance, the facts of which, as here detailed, are taken and gathered from the official reports made at the time, and are neither colored nor exaggerated : but they exhibit in strong colors the hardships and dangers attending a border life, particu- larly where the savage is left to feel that he is a victim of injustice.
The population of the village had rapidly increased, and a new settlement had been started at what is now called Hurley, about three miles farther in the interior, which was then designated as " the new village." The military by which they had been there- tofore protected had been withdrawn and only a small guard left, which was quartered at the redoubt or fort situated near the junc- tion of the Rondout stream with the river. The savages showed signs of dissatisfaction and hostility-complained that the cap- tives taken from them in the former war were not liberated and returned to them, and constantly muttered threats of vengeance. Stuyvesant was informed of this state of things, when he sent word that he would soon be up to make them presents and renew peace. This message was communicated to the savages by Thomas Cham- bers on the 5th of June, 1663; to which they replied that "if peace was to be renewed with them, the director-general should, with some unarmed persons, sit with them in the open field with- out the gate, as it was their own custom to meet unarmed when renewing peace or in other negotiations."
Thrown off their guard by such pacific reply, the inhabitants went about their ordinary avocations as usual, the farmers and workmen going to work upon their farms, and leaving their fam- ilies unprotected at their homes.
Suddenly, on the 7th day of June, 1663, while the greater part of the men were absent in the fields, the Indians entered the vil- lage about noon in bands through all the gates, and divided and scattered themselves through the houses and dwellings in a friendly manner, having with them some maize and a few beans to sell. After they had thus been in the place for about a quarter of an hour, some people on horseback rushed through the mill gate from the new village (Hurley), crying out, " The Indians have destroyed the new village." The instant that cry was heard, the Indians, who were scattered through Wiltwyck, began a general attack upon the people, murdering them in their houses with axes and tomahawks, and firing on them with guns and pistols. They ยท seized whatever women and children they could catch, and carried them prisoners outside the gates ; they plundered the houses and set the village on fire to the windward, the wind at the time blow- ing from the south. The remaining Indians commanded all the streets. Firing upon the inhabitants wherever they could see or
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
reach them, they killed and wounded a number. Providentially, when the flames were at their height and the destruction of the entire village appeared inevitable, the wind suddenly shifted to the west, stayed the progress of the fire, and saved a part of the village from destruction.
At the time of the attack very few men- less than a dozen -- were within the stockade, and they were scattered in different parts of the place. As soon as they could concentrate and rally together they seized whatever weapons they could and fought for their lives, and attacked the Indians vigorously.
The sight of the conflagration and the noise of the conflict alarmed those in the fields and brought them to the rescue. Lieu- tenant Schoonmaker was one of the first to arrive, and at once entered into the conflict. He was wounded twice, but fought on regardless of wounds or danger. Captain Chambers also soon arrived. He received a severe gunshot wound while on his way in, but notwithstanding rushed into the heat of the fray. Others also arriving from the fields near by, they were enabled to turn upon the Indians and put them to flight. They chased them without the gates, and found that the Indians who had charge of those taken prisoners had already moved them beyond reach. They then returned into the village, and their first care was devoted to the wounded and dying.
When all the absentees had reached the village, they mustered sixty-nine efficient men. They then repaired the damages to the stockade, and set and distributed a watch round the village for the night.
Dominie Blom, in his description of the massacre, says :
" There lay the burned and slaughtered bodies, together with those wounded by bullets and axes. The last agonies and the moans and lamentations of many were dreadful to hear. I have been in their midst, and have gone into the houses, and along the roads, to speak a word in season, and that not without danger of being shot by the Indians ; but I went on my mission, and consid- ered not my life mine own. I may say with Jeremiah, 'I am he who hath seen misery in the day of the wrath of the Lord.' .
" The burned bodies were most frightful to behold. A woman lay burned, with her child at her side, as if she were just delivered, of which I was a living witness. Other women lay burned also in their houses ; and one corpse with her fruit still in her womb, most cruelly murdered in their dwelling with her husband and another child. The houses were converted into heaps of stones."
In the attack upon Wiltwyck there were twelve men, includ- ing three soldiers and a negro, also four women and two children, murdered, eight men wounded, four women and four children
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
taken prisoners, and twelve houses burnt. At the new village there were three men killed ; one man, eight women, and twenty-six children taken prisoners. The new village was entirely destroyed ; every building was burned except a new unfinished barn.
The names of the murdered at Wiltwyck are given as follows : Barent Gerritson, Jan Albrechtsen, Lechten Derick, Willem Janse Hap, Jan, the smith, Hendrick Jansen Looman, Harry Olferts a negro belonging to Thomas Chambers, Willem Jansen Lebe. Soldiers Hendrick Martens, Dominicus and Christian Andriesen, were among the slain. Lechten Derick's wife was burned with her child ; Mattys Capito's wife was killed and burned in the house ; Jan Albrechtsen's wife was killed in the last stages of pregnancy. Peter Van Hart's wife was shot and burned in the house ; Jan Albrecht- sen's little girl was murdered with her father ; William Hap's child was burned alive in the house.
Those taken prisoners were Master Gysbert's wife ; Hester Douw and her daughter Sarah ; Grietje, wife of Dominic Laer, and child ; Femmitje, wife of Joost Ariaens ; the oldest daughter of Tjerck Clausen De Witt ; a daughter of Ariaen Gerretsen, and two little boys of Mattys Roeloffsen.
The wounded were Thomas Chambers, Hendrick Jochem Schoon- maker, Michael Freere, Albert Gerretsen, Andries Barents, Jan de Carle, Hendrick a servant of the director-general, and Paulus de Noorman.
The houses burned were those of Michael Freere, Willem Hap, Mattys Roeloffsen, Albert Gerretsen, Lechten Derick, Hans Car- olusen, Peter Van Haerlem, Jacob Boerhaus, Barent Gerretsen, Mattys Gerretsen.
Fortunately for the Dutch settlers in Wiltwyck, the Indians did not renew their attack, but left for their homes, carrying their captives with them. This gave the citizens an opportunity to send for re-enforcements and prepare for defence.
Information was at once sent to the director-general, and he promptly forwarded on the 12th a re-enforcement of forty-two men under Sergeant Niessen, who arrived at Rondout on the 13th or 14th of June, 1663.
Toward evening on the 16th of June Sergeant Niessen, with his command and three wagons, went to the redoubt to bring up am- munition. On their return they were, at the top of the first hill, attacked by the Indians, who attempted to capture the ammuni- tion. The sergeant divided his men into separate bodies and skir- mished with the Indians, until they reached beyond the second hill, so well and successfully that the wagons, with the ammunition, were all brought safely into Wiltwyck. The sergeant lost one man killed and six wounded. A number of the Indians were 3
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
killed, but how many is not known. The body of the dead man was brought in the next morning. It had been stripped naked by the Indians, and the right hand cut off.
Stuyvesant at once took active measures to send a large force to the assistance and defence of Wiltwyck. He issued a proclama- tion, inviting the colonists about Manhattan to enlist, offered them the pay of a soldier, what booty they took, and a pension of from four hundred to one thousand guilders if they were disabled. The chief men in the settlements on Long Island discouraged the raising of volunteers, and few were obtained there ; but a consider- able force was collected in New Amsterdam, and forty-six Marse- ping savages from Fort Neck were engaged as auxiliaries. The command-in-chief was intrusted to Burgomaster Martin Kregier as captain-lieutenant, under whom were Schepen Van Couwenhoven, Lieutenant Nicholas Stilwell, and Sergeant Pieter Ebel. The ex- pedition sailed in two sloops, landed at Rondout on the 4th of July, and marched up to Wiltwyck. Guarded wagons carried the sup- plies to the village which had been brought by the sloops.
Written instructions were given by the director-general for the guidance of the officers at Wiltwyck. Martial law was proclaimed and a council of war formed, to consist of Commander Kregier, Captain Chambers, and Lieutenant Hendrick Jochem Schoonmaker of the Burgher Guard, and the schout and schepens of the village. Mattys Capito was appointed secretary or clerk of the schepens. They were strictly enjoined to barricade all the gates, except the two used in driving cattle, not to allow any small parties to go out, and with any expedition that was sent out to send horses for the conveyance of rescued captives.
Through a Wappinger Indian, who had come into the fort, they ascertained that a party of the Esopus Indians were living on the east side of the river, upon the main-land back of Magdalen Island ; and they also learned from him that the hostile Indians were to- gether about two hundred strong, consisting of Esopus Indians and of Wappingers and thirty Manissings.
On the evening of the 9th of July, 1663, by direction of the council of war, a force of twenty soldiers and twelve Indians were sent out, under the command of Christian Wietsen and Peter Wol- vertsen, to endeavor to surprise and take the band of Indians lying back of Magdalen Island. By mistaking the route, they did not reach the place until mid-day, so that they failed to surprise them, but, on the contrary, found them posted and in arms. The soldiers immediately, however, attacked, routed, and pursued them. They killed five armed Indians and a woman. The Esopus chieftain was among the slain, and the soldiers took four prisoners. They plun- dered the huts, where they found nineteen blankets, nine kettles,
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HISTORY OF KINGSTON.
a lot of sewan, and four muskets, and on the 12th returned to Wiltwyck with their plunder and prisoners, consisting of a squaw and three children. They lost one man killed and one bitten by a rattlesnake.
An effort was made, through some friendly Indians, to procure the release of the prisoners taken by the Indians, but without suc- cess, except the release of a few women and children.
A ransom was paid, by the Indian messengers, and accepted for the release of Madam Gysbert Van Imbroeck, but at night the chief who had her in custody carried her off. He took her to the " Klyne Esopus," and kept her concealed there with him in a hut. She made one attempt to escape, but lost her way and went back. She was successful in her next attempt, and reached her friends at Wiltwyck.
1628841
Having failed in repeated efforts, through Jan Davids and some Mohawk Indians, to procure the release of any more prisoners, the Indians acting with great fierceness and even threatening to kill the emissaries, a council of war was convened, and it was unani- monsly determined to send an expedition the next day against the Esopus Indians.
Accordingly, the next day, the 26th of July, 1663, at about four o'clock in the afternoon, an expedition, about two hundred strong, set out, with Mrs. Gysbert Van Imbroeck, the returned prisoner, as their guide. They were provided with two pieces of cannon and two wagons. Each man was supplied with ammunition and rations. There were thirty-six soldiers and twenty-five free men left in garrison at Wiltwyck. The expedition made but little prog- ress that night, finding it very difficult to get through the woods at night with a cannon and wagon. They then bivouacked until daybreak. The next day they proceeded to the Indian fort, but found it deserted. They found three horses there and an old squaw, who had come to cut some maize in the field. They re- mained in the Indian fort that night, and the next morning a detachment was sent to the mountain, where they were informed the Indians had gone. That place was also deserted. After searching for them without success in one or two other places, they returned to the main body at the Indian fort. It was then determined to destroy all the plantations of maize in the vicinity and whatever supplies could be found, which was done, and they returned to Wiltwyck on the 31st of July at nine o'clock at night.
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