USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The history of the city of Albany, New York : from the discovery of the great river in 1524, by Verrazzano, to the present time > Part 11
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It was in Beverswyck on the twenty-ninth of January, 1663, that Anneke Janse Bogardus made her last will and testament, which more than a century and
1 The paper was signed and marked by "A. van Curlaer, Philipp Hen- dricksen Sander Leendertsen Glen, the mark of Simon Volckertsen, Pieter Sogemacklie, the mark of Teunis Cornelissen, the mark of Martin Cornelis- sen, Willem Teller, Gerret Bancker, Bastian de Winter for the widow of Arent Andriesen, Pieter Jacobsen Borsboom, Pieter Danielsen van Olinda, the mark of Jan Barentsen Wemp, and the mark of Jacques Cornelis.
2 Albany records. vol. xix. fol. 179, 180; vol vi. fol. 345 ; vol. xxi, fol. 135, 137, 139 ; vol xxii, fol. 169, 234. Papieren rackende Schaenhectady. Albany County Clerk's office. 1680-1685, fol. 297-301. Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. xiii. pp. 202, 203, 204, 215, 216, 219, 244, 253, 254.
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a half thereafter became famous in the suit to recover a part of the property in the city of New York that her heirs, on the ninth of March, 1671, had conveyed to Lieutenant-governor Lovelace. Her personal history is traceable to the year 1630, when she with her first Holland, to become colonists of Rensselaerswyck. In husband, Roelofl Jansen, emigrated from Maesterlandt, 1636, Roelofl Jansen, having removed from Rensselaers- wyck to the city of New Amsterdam, obtained, by letters- patent from Director-general Van Twiller, thirty-one morgens, or sixty-two acres of farm-land, lying north of the city, along the Hudson. After the death of her first husband, she married, about the year 1638, the Rev. Everhardus Bogardus, the pastor of the First Reformed church of New Amsterdam. After the latter's death in 1647, she purchased a house in Beverswyck, on the north side of Jonker Street, where now is the northeast corner of James and State streets, where she lived until she died in 1663. A short time before her death, while sick in bed, Dirk van Schelluyne, a notary-public of the village, wrote her last will and testament, which she signed in the presence of Rutger Jacobsen and Evert Janse Wendell. The land sold by her heirs in 1671, was first known as the Duke's farm, then as the King's, and then as the Queen's. The tract, described as bounded on the east partly by the street called Broadway, partly by the com- mon, partly by the swamp, and on the west by the Hudson, its southern and northern limits being respect- ively near the present lines of Warren and Christopher streets, was conveyed on the twenty-third of November, 1705, by letters-patent from Queen Anne to the corpora- tion of Trinity church, New York. The property was peaceably held by the church until the close of the revolutionary war, when Cornelius Bogardus claimed a
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sixth part of the farm under the plea that his right and title had never been transferred to the possessors of the land. He thereupon took possession of a house on the farm, and inclosed some of the land with a fence. The church-officers asserted the corporation's ownership of the land, and Cornelius Bogardus was evicted.
In 1830, John Bogardus brought an action against the corporation of Trinity church to recover one-fifth part of one-sixth of the sixty-two acres of land belonging to the farm. This descendant of Anneke Janse Bogardus "alleged that the undivided sixth part of the premises belonged to Cornelius Bogardus, the ancestor of the complainant, at the time of his death, in 1707, and was held by him as tenant in common with the corporation of Trinity church; that upon his death that sixth descended to his eldest son, the grandfather of the com- plainant, who had died in 1759 intestate; that on the death of the latter, it descended to the father of the com- plainant, who had died intestate in 1794, leaving the com- plainant and his four brothers and sisters his heirs at law ; hence as it was claimed, the complainant became entitled to one-fifth of that undivided sixth as tenant in common with his brothers and sisters and the corporation." When the court rendered its judgment against the complainant, the chancellor closed his opinion with these words : " Were it not for the uncommon magnitude of the claim, the apparent sincerity and zeal of the counsel who supported it, and the fact (of which I have been often- times admonished, by personal applications on their behalf), that the descendants of Anneke Janse at this day are hundreds, if not thousands, in number, I should not have deemed it necessary to deliver a written judgment. But the law on these claims is well settled ; and it must be sustained, in favor of religious
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corporations as well as of private individuals. Indeed, it would be monstrous, if, after a possession such as has been proved in this case, for a period of nearly a century and a half, open, notorious, and within sight of the temple of justice, the successive claimants, save one, being men of full age, and the courts open to them all the time (except for seven years of war and revolution); the title to lands were to be litigated successfully, upon a claim which has been suspended for five generations. Few titles in this country would be secure under such an administration of the law; and its adoption would lead to scenes of fraud, corruption, foul injustice, and legal rapine, far worse in their consequences upon the peace, good order, and happiness of society than external war or domestic insurrection." 1
The massacre of the settlers at Esopus, fifty-five miles south of Beverswyck, at noon, on the seventh of June, 1663, caused the alarmed inhabitants of the dorpe and colonie to take such steps as were necessary to render Fort Orange defensible .? Director Stuyvesant wrote the following week to the magistrates of Beverswyck and Rensselaerswyck, saying : "As we are informed that Fort Orange is bared of soldiers and destitute of the proper means of defense and hard to repair, we would consider it advisable that the company's stone-building only be fortified and all the wretched huts be removed with the least expense and the utmost expedition, which we leave to your honors' better experience and discretion. Your honors will have been taught, I trust, by the occurrence at Esopus, not to put faith in the Indians nor let them enter your houses in large numbers, much less provide them with strong liquor or ammunition, except
1 Paige's reports. vol. iv. Sandford's chancery reports. vol. iv. Collections on the history of Albany. Munsell. vol. iii. pp. 459-469.
2 Twenty-one persons were killed and forty-two taken prisoners.
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for saving the captive women and children, to do which the greatest effort must be made. Hereafter no yacht must sail up or down the river by itself unless well- manned." Four days later he again wrote to the magis- trates of the two courts to send to New Amsterdam, "at the first opportunity, three or four of the lightest cannon " to be used "at. distant outlying places," where they were much needed. Councilor Johannes de Decker was also sent to Fort Orange to obtain a number of resolute men, to be paid eight or ten guilders a month at the usual rate of sixteen pieces of wampum for a stiver, to serve as soldiers at Esopus, and if the magistrates thought it advisable "to induce the Maquaas or Senecas to capture some of the Esopus savages," who might be exchanged for the Dutch prisoners held by these savages. De Decker was also instructed "to request the courts, or, with the help of the deputies of the same, to ask some merchant to advance [the government] a sum of three or four thousand guilders, half in goods, half in wampum, either in the form of a loan, or at a fair rate of interest" if the money could not be returned within a year, for which the director-general and council of New Nether- land offered "to give as security not only the company's property, but their own."
Vice-director La Montagne, in a letter dated the twenty-third of June, wrote as follows to the officers of the government respecting Fort Orange : "It ought to be repaired and put in a defensible condition in a short time. *
The courts * * * have with me con- cluded to let the old houses and huts stand, and to repair only the bastions at the least expense and with the utmost expedition, for it would hardly be convenient for all the occupants to pull down their houses now and to move elsewhere. It would also be disadvantageous to the hon-
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orable company, for the people would have to be indem- nified, while my hands, to which the business would be intrusted, are, to my regret, closed. Now the people are deriding the honorable company for the condition of the fort. This ridicule cannot be tolerated any longer. Therefore I have undertaken to make a beginning, for the posts and the outside covering are ready and the burghers have offered to furnish daily eight or ten men. But plank for platforms, sills, rails for anchors, spikes, and especially two carpenters, are still needed." On the twenty-ninth he wrote : "The ordnance for which your honor calls is ready at your honor's pleasure, but I have no men to put it aboard a vessel nor money to pay the laborers. I pray your honor will consider that there are not more than eight cannon on the four bastions, besides a twelve-pounder that has never been mounted in my time. Mr. Rensselaer claims three of these pieces, and demands them immediately to place them in a little fort or fortifi- cation at Greenbush that they have built there, and if your honor takes four from those remaining not more than two would be left us. It is true that there are still three light pieces which the magistrates brought from Mr. Rensselaer's place in 1656, and placed on the church. These, the magistrates say, his honor had given them to use in the defense of the plank-enclosure. I dare not take these away from there without his honor's express order." Meanwhile the settlers of Rensselaerswyck living on the east side of the river had erected at Greenbush a small block-house called Fort Cralo, which was garris- oned for a short time by a number of colonists appointed by the officers of the manor to guard the settlement there. 1
1 Doc. hist. N. Y. vol. viii. pp. 155, 156, 250, 254-256, 258, 264. MSS, of Rensselaerswyck.
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At this time the affairs of New Netherland were in so deplorable a condition that the people determined to complain to the Holland directors of the West India Company. A colonial assembly (landts vergaderinge) was convoked. As it was too late in the year to secure the attendance of delegates from Esopus, Beverswyck and Rensselaerswyck, the convention, which began its sessions on the first day of November, in the city of New Amsterdam, was composed only of delegates from the settlements of Amersfoort, Bergen, Boswyck, Breucklen, Haerlem, Midwout, New Amsterdam and New Utrecht. The representatives of the people addressed a remon- strance to the Holland directors of the West India Com- pany, in which they reminded them of the promises made by them in the charter of privileges and exemptions of 1629 : "By the exemptions which your honors granted and published, encouraging the people to leave their dearly beloved Fatherland and to emigrate to this country, you publicly bound yourselves to keep your remonstrants in the peaceable possession of their prop- erty and of the lands they selected, settled, and occupied, and to protect them and the other inhabitants against all civil or foreign war, usurpation, and open force. To ac- complish this your honors were bound to obtain from their high mightinesses, the States-General, our supreme sovereigns, commissions and patents in proper form, substantiating and justifying your actual and legitimate jurisdiction over this province and its territory, so far as it extended."
They further asserted that "the English. to conceal their plans, now declare that there is no proof, no legal instrument or patent from their high mightinesses to substantiate and justify our rights and claims to the pos- session of this province, and insinuate that by the delay
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of their high mightinesses to grant such patent, you seemingly intended to place the people here on slippery ice, giving them lands to which your honors had no right whatever ; that this is, indeed, the real cause of our being kept continually in a labyrinth, and the reason why the well-intentioned English settled under your government are at a loss how to perform the obligations of their oaths."
They also accused the directors of failing to protect and defend New Netherland "with a sufficient number of good soldiers and the other necessary means which constitute the chief and entire foundation on which, other than God, peaceably repose the tranquility, safety, and security of this province and its people. * * * Sc that the good people are thereby reduced to a state nearly as deplorable as a flock without a shepherd, a prey to every one who will make use of the opportunity and attack them."
"There is no doubt then, at least the apprehension is very strong, that we must expect the loss of the whole of this province; or that it will be circumscribed with such narrow limits that it will resemble only a useless carcass, devoid of limbs and form, deprived of all its internal parts, its head separated from its trunk, and your remonstrants, consequently, so closely cooped up, if not entirely crushed, that they at last will be compelled, to their irreparable ruin, to abandon this country in despair, and become outcasts with their families."
They further declared that if the directors did not apply, "in the shortest way, the most efficacious means " to relieve them from their " calamitous and distressing condition " that they would, "by an imperative neces- sity," be compelled, in order to save themselves and
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families, to address the college of deputies of the respective departments, through whom they would make application to their high mightinesses, the Lords States- General, for speedy and effectual aid.
This urgent remonstrance was at once forwarded to the directors of the West India Company, at Amsterdam, where Jeremias van Rensselaer and Jacob Baker were to prevail upon the corporation to give immediate atten- tion to the matters set forth in it.1
While the people of the southern part of New Nether- land were discussing the probable action of the West India Company to redress the grievances of which they complained, the settlers of Beverswyck and Rensselaers- wyck were in great dismay on account of the rapid ravages of the small-pox. Vaccination was unknown, and the epidemic was wide-spread. In Beverswyck every family was afflicted with the " foul, putrid disease." The block-house church bell daily tolled the death of the victims of the virulent infection. A thousand Indians of the tribes of the northern part of New Netherland died with the loathsome disease. 2
During the winter of 1663-64, the condition of the affairs of the province became more alarming, and a second general assembly was therefore convened on the enth of April, 1664, in the city hall of New Amsterdam. Jan Verbeck and Gerrit van Slechtenhorst were delegates
1 Albany records. vol. xxi. fol. 351-355, 357, 361, 369-376. Hol. doc. vol. xii. fol. 291, 363.
2 Vice-director La Montagne thus speaks of the virulent disease, in a letter dated Fort Orange, November 4, 1663 :
"You have heard, no doubt, of the doleful situation of this place as respects the small-pox, which is still daily increasing. I learned yesterday that on the hill fifteen persons were so affected by the disease that they could not afford any relief to one another. At Willem Teller's seven are afflicted with it, and six in my family, my negro being the last. Twelve persons have died within eight days, chiefly children. The Lord God help us and stop its farther progress, and save you all from such a foul, putrid disease."- Albany records. vol. vi. fol. 409.
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from Fort Orange and Beverswyck ; and Jeremias van Rensselaer and Dirk van Schelluyne from Rensselaers- wyck.1 As Rensselaerswyck was the oldest colony in New Netherland, Jeremias van Rensselaer was chosen to preside during the deliberations of the assembly. After debating certain measures to protect the country and to defeat the machinations of "the malignant English " and the hostile Indians, the assembly adjourned for a week's recess. When it again convened dispatches had been received from Holland informing the director- general and council of New Netherland that the Lords- States General had reaffirmed on the twenty-third of January, 1664, the validity of the charter given by their high mightinesses to the West India Company on the third of June, 1621, and had more definitely defined the boundaries of New Netherland conformably to the agreement made and concluded at Hartford, on the nineteenth of September, 1650, and ratified by them on the twenty-second of February, 1656.ยบ Director Stuyve- sant at the same time received instructions from the directors of the West India Company to exterminate the
1 "April 3, 1664. On the summons of the lords director and council of New Netherland for a general assembly, dated March 19, to be held on the tenth of this month of April, their honors of the court of this colony have thereunto deputed Mr. Jeremias van Rensselaer, director, and Dirck van Schelluyne, secretary of the said colony, to advance the contents of the letter of credence placed in their hands to the advantage of this colony and the country, as they shall find necessary."-Resolutie boek van de Gecom- mitterde der Colonye Rensselaerswyck.
2 "1. That vpon long Island a lyne Runne from the Westermost part of the Oyster bay soe and in a straight and directe lyne to the Sea Shal be the bounds betwixt the English and Dutch there, the Easterly part to belong to the English the Westermost part to the Dutch.
"2. The bounds vpon the mayne to begin at the West side of Green- widge bay being about 4 miles from Stanford and soe to runne a Northerly lyne twenty miles vp into the Country and after as it shal bee agreed by the two governments of the Dutch and of Newhaven provided the said lyne com not within 10 miles of Hudsons River."-Articles of agreement made and concluded at Hartford, September 19th, 1650. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. vol. 1. p. 236.
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Indians who had taken part in the massacre of the people at Esopus, and to oppose with force the aggressive English. The assembly after considering these advices concluded that it would be useless to attempt to take up arms against the English settlers as they " were as six to one, and with aid from Hartford could easily overcome and massacre the few Dutch soldiers that could be brought against them." With the hostile Indians it was deemed best that a treaty of peace should be concluded without loss of time as it was learned that the English of Connecticut were tampering with them. When the assembly adjourned, Director Stuyvesant at once made the necessary overtures to the belligerent Indians, and on the sixteenth of May concluded a treaty of peace and amity, at Fort Amsterdam, with the chiefs of the River Indians. This event was celebrated by a general thanks- giving, the fourth of June being observed by the people of New Netherland conformably to the proclamation of the director-general and council, dated May 31, 1664. 1
1 Albany records. vol. xxi. fol. 351-355, 357, 361, 369-376 : vol. xxii. fol. 78-90, 105, 106, 145-167, 179-182 ; vol. iv. fol. 454-456, 459-463, 465 ; vol. xxii, fol. 182 ; vol. xviii. fol. 238-240; vol. xxii. fol. 119-180 227. 214-226, 245. Hol. doc. vol. xii. fol. 291, 363. Jeremias van Rensse- laer's letter to his brother Jan Baptiste, April 25, 1664.
CHAPTER VI.
ALBANY.
1664-1674.
New Netherland had been coveted for a long time by the English. They had early claimed its territory by the right of its assumed discovery by the Cabots. They affirmed that it was a part of the country granted in 1584 to Sir Walter Raleigh by Queen Elizabeth. They asserted that it was included in the domain conveyed by letters- patent to the English companies in 1606. They alleged that the Hollanders were interlopers, that the latter had taken possession of the region called by them New Neth- erland without any right or title whatever. They further declared that the Netherlanders had been formally warned by the people of the Plymouth colony to forbear trading on the "Manahata River," and not to make any settle- ments there as the territory belonged to the king of England, that the Dutch had replied "with proude and contumacious answers, (saying they had commission to fight against such as should disturbe their settlement,) " that they persisted in planting colonies and trading there, " vilefying" the English colonists in the hearing of the Indians, and "extolling their owne people and countrye of Holland." 1 Therefore it was not strange that Charles II. king of England was influenced by such arguments
1 John Mason's letter to Secretary Coke, April 2, 1632. Doc. colonial hist. N. Y. vol. iii. pp. 16, 17.
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as these and by other considerations to grant, on the twelfth of March, 1664, to his brother James, duke of York and Albany, all the territory of New England and "all that Island or Islands commonly called by the sev- eral name or names of Matowacks or Long Island," and the "River called Hudson's River, and all the land from the West side of Connectticut to the east side of Delaware Bay ; " nor was it unnatural for Charles II. to provide his brother with four men-of-war and a force of four hun- dred and fifty men under the command of Colonel Rich- ard Nicolls to take possession of the territory of New Netherland. 1
The first information received by the director-general and council of New Netherland respecting the fitting out and sailing of the English fleet was brought from Boston. Orders were at once given to put Fort Amsterdam in a defensible condition, and spies were sent to different places to gather further intelligence of the designs of the English. As soon as Director Stuyvesant conceived that the city of New Amsterdam would likely be the first place to be attacked, he wrote, on the eighth of July, to Vice-director La Montagne and Jeremias van Rensselaer, saying :
"These few lines only serve to communicate the information furnished to-day by different persons con- cerning the English frigates that have so long been spoken of. That they have already put to sea and are manned and armed as was admitted and confirmed is beyond a doubt, but their destination is still mere report as the inclosed information implies, yet from the circum- stances it may be presumed without difficulty that they might indeed come directly here to this river. We have thought it necessary to give your honor and those of the
1 Book of patents. vol. i. fol. 109-121. Hol. doc. vol. x. fol. 149.
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colony of Rensselaerswyck speedy notice and knowledge thereof, to the end that you and we may be on our guard and prepare for all possible resistance, and as it is apparent that this place may bear the first and the severest shock, and if lost, little hope would remain for the rest, we would therefore earnestly recommend you, with all possible speed, according to the promise given at the general assembly, to furnish such assistance, especially powder and lead, as circumstances may in any way permit, the sooner the better, for the need is pressing.
"At the same time we would recommend and pray you to negotiate a loan of five or six thousand guilders in wampum for the honorable company, and to send it down by the first opportunity to pay the laboring people. The obligations you may be assured will be repaid satisfac- torily, either in negroes or other commodities, in case the gracious God, as we hope and wish, will grant a favora- ble result." 1
Meanwhile the bloody tide of Indian warfare was deepening around Beverswyck and Rensselaerswyck. In June a number of Mohawks had been treacherously murdered by a party of Abenaquis. On the twelfth of July, several chiefs of the River Indians informed the authorities at Fort Orange that this massacre of the Maquaas had been instigated by the English. One of them said :
"Brothers, we will conceal nothing from you since you have lived among us a very long time and have had your wives and children among us, and you understand our language quite well. The English told and com- manded the savages to fight and kill the Maquaas and
1 Albany records. vol. xx. fol. 377 ; vol. xxii. fol. 271-273, 276. Hol. doc. vol. xi. fol. 219, 221, 236-239 ; vol. xii. 92-96, 117-119.
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the Dutch ; and the English threatened, that if they did not do it, to kill them. They further told that forty vessels are coming from Europe to wage war and demand the surrender of the country, and if we decline to surrender that they will kill us to the last man, and then the English will fight against the Dutch."
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