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 16
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iments of state-dignitaries and wealthy men. Leather- breeches and leggins, deer-skin coats, and fur caps were not infrequently worn by farmers and other out-door working-men.
The matrons and maidens made more noticeable displays of clothing. Many of their dresses were sleeveless. To give contour to waist and bust, some wore stomachers and bodices. Tastefully made caps, hoods, wide white ruffs, pretty laces, colored petticoats were attractive articles of female apparel. In winter the women wore mantles, cloaks, and other outer gar- ments, some of which were decorated with fur.
The church-services were conducted by the minister and the voorlezer. The latter read the lessons and led the singing. The long sermon was timed by the falling sand of an hour-glass placed at the side of the pulpit- desk. The deacons collected the contributions of the congregation, going along the aisles and passing small bags hung at the ends of long, slender rods, in front of the seated people. At one time a little bell was concealed in the tassel of the money-sack, the tinkle of which inti- mated to the contributors the approach of the collectors. Pewter and silver-plates were also used at one time in taking contributions.
Christmas-day (Kersdag), Easter-day (Paaschdag), Ascension-day (Hemelvaartsdag) and Whitsuntide (Pings- terdag), were observed with a religious enthusiasm peculiar to the people of Holland. Absence from church on these particular festival days, except by sickness, in- firmity, and accident, was regarded as discreditable to communicants. The magistrates of the court and the officers of the church were honored with prominent seats in front of the congregation,
The duty of attending the regular services of the
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church was deemed to be so obligatory that in the coldest weather large congregations compliantly assembled and sat in the unheated building. Personal comfort often caused Domines Schaets and Dellius to preach with their woolen caps on their heads and thick gloves on their hands. The men in the congregation wore their hats and caps, and many brought muffs in which they kept their hands. . Some of the women sat with their feet on small stoves conveyed to the church filled with live coals.
The church records contain considerable information respecting the affairs of the society.1 They not only disclose much that is interesting to those who are now members of the Reformed church, but they furnish many important facts relating to the early history of the village. +
1 The annual accounts of the different deacons generally begin with such prefatory paragraphs as the following : "Honor be to God in Albany and the colony of Rensselaerwyck, (Eere sij Godt jn Albanie en Colonie Rensselaers Wyck)." The contents of the treasury-chests, described by the deacons who took charge of it at the beginning of each year, were peculiar to the period. On the first of January, 1665, the church-chest con- tained loose zeewan (los sewaent) valued at three hundred and thirty guilders and four stivers, ($132.08,) strung zeewan (geregent sewant) valued at two hundred and twenty-eight guilders and six stivers, ($91.32,) sixteen obliga- tions (obligasse) amounting to two thousand eight hundred and twenty-nine guilders and thirteen stivers, ($1131.86,) four guilders and twelve stivers ($1.84,) in silver money (seelver gelt), making a total of thirteen hundred and fifty-seven dollars and ten cents. There were also in the church strong-box fifty-one ells of Flemish linen and nine pairs of Friesland stockings. Gener- ally the contributions of the people exceeded the current expenses of the church, and the officers frequently loaned its money to the members of the congregation at high rates of interest. Eight per cent. was sometimes paid for the use of such money. The zeewan or shell-money that formed a part of the contributions to the church was often sold at a premium. In 1683, Pieter Schuyler, the deacon keeping the accounts of the church, enters upon the account-book the loan of four thousand eight hundred guilders to Jacob Meuse, by the advice of the consistory. The expenses of the church on the thirtieth of January, observed as a day of fasting and prayer "to divert God's heavy judgment from falling" on the English nation for the execution of Charles I. of England, were seventeen guilders. In April, the Paasch day collections amounted to one hundred and ninety-one guilders and ten stivers
13
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When a death was announced by the slow ringing of the church-bell, the aanspreeker (the inviter), attired in black clothing, wearing a black hat around which a long projecting piece of crape of the same color was bound, visited the relatives and friends of the deceased person and requested them to attend the funeral. Before the burial of the corpse, a number of persons were selected to watch the body at night to detect any signs of life that might be manifested. The watchers, as was the custom, were liberally provided with various liquors, a number of pipes, a quantity of tobacco, some newly- baked cakes, and other refreshments. The funeral on the third or fourth day after the death of the person about to be buried was usually attended by a large con- course of people. The coffin, covered with a fringed black cloth, with corner-tassels, called the dood-kleed, (the dead-cover,) was borne to the grave-yard 1 on a wooden bier either resting on the shoulders of the bearers, or by the projecting arms of the frame-work grasped in the ($76 60). Five gallons of wine were used in the administration of the holy sacrament. Myndert Frederickse in August was paid four guilders ($1.60), for a ring for the collection bag and Jan Vinhagel received two guilders for making a new bag. In November, Maese Cornelissen was paid thirty-six guilders for seventeen candlesticks to be used in the church during the evening services. Twelve guilders was the price of a new Psalm-book for the pulpit. In December, six guilders and five stivers were disbursed for one and a half ankers (fifteen gallons) of beer for a pauper. For setting the communion-table during the year, Hendrick Roseboom was paid thirty guilders.
Among the things for which he was accountable, the deacon transferred to his successor a silver goblet, pawned for two hundred guilders and thir- teen and a half stivers, containing sixteen pieces of foreign money. From his custody was also transferred one new pall, two old ones, two communion- table cloths and seven napkins, two silver cups, one earthen can with a silver lid, a pewter can, an earthen one, two pewter basins and a large pewter plate, one cobweb-brush, and a scrubbing brush.
1 The grave-yard of the Reformed church was a plot of ground between Beaver Street and Hudson Avenue, Green and South Pearl Streets.
The burial-ground of the Lutherans was on the west side of South Pearl Street, between Howard and Beaver Streets.
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right or left hands of the carriers. After the burial the attending people returned to the house from which the corpse had been taken, where they were generously served with various refreshments of which liquors formed the greater part. In the church accounts for the year 1682, one hundred and fifty guilders and. eleven stivers are entered as the burial expenses of a church-pauper, of which amount twelve guilders were expended for five cans of rum, two pieces of eight and twenty-four guild- ers for the services of the bearers, twenty-four guilders and four stivers for fifteen gallons of beer.
Collections for the church -poor were frequently taken at marriage-services and at wedding-parties. When Stephanus van Cortlandt and Gertrude Schuyler were married in the Reformed church, on the third of October, 1671, thirteen guilders and six stivers were contributed to the poor-fund, and at the reception-party on the fol- lowing day, fifteen guilders and nineteen stivers were collected.
The change of government from that of the West India Company to that of the lord-proprietor, James, the duke of York and Albany, put in force a number of peculiar laws :
"If any person within this Government shall by direct exprest, impious or presumptuous ways, deny the true God and his Attributes, he shall be put to death."
"If any Child or Children, above sixteen years of age and of Sufficient understanding, shall smite their Natural Father or Mother, unless thereunto provoked and forct for their selfe preservation from Death or Mayming, at the Complaint of the said Father and Mother, and not otherwise, they being Sufficient wit- nesses thereof, that Child or those Children so offending shall be put to Death."
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"Ministers are to Marry Persons after legal publica- tion or Sufficient Lycence."
"Legal publication shall be so esteemed when the persons to be married are three Several Days asked in the Church, or have a Special License."
"Where no Church or Meeting place shall happen to bee, a publication in writing shall be first fourteen Days before Marriage upon three doors of each parish whereof the partyes Inhabit (viz.) one on the Consta- bles the other two upon any two Doors of the Overseers of the Parish unless they produce a Lycence from the Governour."
CHAPTER X.
THE CITY OF ALBANY.
1686-1688.
In May, 1686, when Governor Dongan was in Albany, a number of the principal men of the village solicited him to execute letters-patent under the seal of the province by which the place should be made a city with larger boundaries and particular privileges. The property-own- ers desired better and more satisfactory titles to what was possessed by them than had been given by the magis- trates of Beverswyck, by those of Albany after the sur- render of the province to the English in 1664, by those of Willemstadt, and by those appointed by Governors An- dros and Dongan.
The governor was also asked to set apart the stadt- house or court-house, the Reformed church, the grave- yard near the palisades, at the south side of the village, and the watch-house, for the use and benefit of the in- habitants. He was also requested to give the people the land commonly known as "the pasture," on the south side of the palisades, belonging to Martin Garretson, and also that of Caspar Jacobse. He was also begged to in- clude with the former the several pastures north of them, owned and occupied by Robert Sanders, Mindert Harmense, and Evert Wandall, and the several gardens possessed by Direck Wessels, Abraham Staets and Kiliaen
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van Rensselaer. He was also requested to give to the people the ferry from the village to Greenbush.
Willing to comply with the request of the people of Albany, Governor Dongan took steps to obtain from the Van Rensselaer-heirs a relinquishment of their claims to the territory that was to become a part of the city. In his explanations to King James's privy council, he thus speaks of the Van Rensselaer-claim to the land near the site of Fort Orange :
"It [the pasture] was never yet in the King's hands, but hee that was the commander [of the fort] took some Profits of it, which was a great grievance to the people it having been patented by Governor Nicolls to several people & by them built upon, whose Buildings have been since carried away by the overflowing of the River. It does not contain above fifteen or sixteen acres. * *
"The Town of Albany lyes within the Ranslaers Colony. And to say the truth the Ranslaers had the right to it, for it was they settled the place, and upon a peti- tion of one of them to our present King [King James II.] about Albany the Petitioner was referred to his Matys Council at Law, who upon perusal of the Ranslaers Papers, made their return that it was their opinion that it did belong to them. Upon which there was an order sent over to Sr Edmund Andros that the Ranslaers should be put in possession of Albany, & that every house should pay some two Beavers, some more, some less, according to their dimensions, Pr annum, for thirty years & afterwards the Ranslaers to put what rent upon them they could agree for .- What reason Sir Edmund Andros has given for not putting these orders into execution I know not.
" The Ranslaers came & brought mee the same orders which I thought not convenient to execute, judging it not for his Matys Interest that the second Town of the
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Government & which brings his Maty soe great a Reve- nue, should bee in the hands of any particular men. The town of itself is upon a barren sandy spot of Land, & the Inhabitants live wholy upon Trade with the Indians. By the meanes of Mr James Graham, Judge [John] Palmer & Mr [Stephanus van] Cortlandt that have great influence on that people, I got the Ranslaers to release their pretence to the Town and sixteen miles into the Country for Commons to the King, with liberty to cut firewood within the Colony for one & twenty years. Af- ter I had obtained this release of the Ranslaers I passed the Patent for Albany, wherein was included the afore- mentioned Pasture, to which the People apprehended they had so good a right that they expressed themselves discontented at my reserving a small spot of it for a gar- den for the use of the Garrison.
"That the people of Albany has given mee seven hun- dred pounds is untrue. I am but promised three hundred pounds which is not near my Pr quisits, viz. ten shillings for every house & the like for every hundred acres patent- ed by mee." 1
The charter by which the village of Albany became a city was signed by Governor Dongan on the twenty- second day of July, 1686. The territory of the city was limited by the following described boundaries : "On the cast by Hudsons River, so farr as low water mark ;" on " the south, by a line * * drawne from the south- ermost end of the Pasture at the north end of * Martin Garetsons Island, runneing back into the woods sixteen English miles due Northwest to a certain kill or Creek called the Sand-kill ; on the North " by " a line drawne from the post that was sett by Governor
1 Report of Gov. Dongan, Feb. 22, 1687. Doc. colonial hist. N. Y. vol. iii. pp. 410, 411.
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Stuyvesant near Hudsons river, runneing likewise North- west sixteen English miles ; and on the West by a straight line * * X drawne from the points of the said South and North lines."
The municipal officers were to be a mayor, a recorder, a chamberlain or treasurer, six aldermen, six assistant aldermen, a town-clerk, a sheriff, a coroner, a clerk of the market, a high constable, three sub-constables, and a marshal or "sergeant-at-mace." The mayor, the recorder, the aldermen and their assistants were during their terms of office to be "One Body corporate and Politick, in deed ffact, and name," to be known by "the name of the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of Albany." The governor named and constituted the following per- sons the first officers of the city : Peter Schuyler, mayor, Isaac Swinton, recorder, Robert Livingston, town-clerk, Direck Wessells, Jan Jans Bleeker, David Schuyler, Johannes Wendell, Levinus Van Schaick, and Adrian Geritse, aldermen ; Joachim Staets, John Lansing, Isaac Verplanck, Lawrence van Ale, Albert Ryckman, and Melgert Wynantse, assistant aldermen ; Jan Becker, chamberlain, Richard Pretty, sheriff, James Parker, mar- shal.
The mayor and the sheriff of the city were to be annually nominated "upon the ffeast day of St. Michael, the Archangel," [September 29th,] by the lieutenant-gov- ernor of the province. The recorder and town-clerk were also to be appointed by the lieutenant-governor, but no specified time was designated for their terms of office. The other officers except the chamberlain were to be elected by the majority of the voices of the inhabitants, annually on St. Michael's day. The chamberlain was to be chosen yearly on the same day by the mayor and three or more aldermen of each class.
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The mayor was given the sole power and authority to issue licenses under the seal of the city. He was to per- form the duties of the office of the clerk of the market and of those of the coroner. Once every fortnight, on Tuesdays, a court of common pleas was to be held, at which the mayor or the recorder, and two aldermen were to hear and determine pleas and actions. The mayor, the recorder, and the aldermen were to be justices of the peace and were to sit at the courts of sessions, or the county courts, and the courts of oyer and terminer, one of whom was to preside at such county courts.
The mayor or any three or more of the aldermen had "full power and authority under the comon seale to make free cittizens of the said citty and libertyes thereof; and no person or persons whatsoever other than such ffree cittizens" could exercise "any Art, Trade, mystery or manuall occupacion within the said citty, libertyes, and precincts thereof, saveing in the tymes of ffayres." To obtain such freedom of the city, the person desir- ing to pursue the business of a merchant or a trader was required to pay a sum not exceeding three pounds twelve shillings, and one wishing to engage in some some handicraft was to pay the sum of thirty-six shillings. Wednesday and Saturday in each week were to be the city market-days.
The mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city were granted "full liberty and lycense att their pleasure to purchase from the Indians, the quantyty of ffive Hun- dred Acres of Low or Meadow Land lyeing att a certeyne place called or knowne by the name of Schaihtecogue," and also "the quantity of one Thousand Acres of Low or Meadow Land, lyeing att a certeyn place called or known by the name of Tionondorogue," paying annually to his majesty's officer or receiver, in Albany, on the
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twenty-fifth day of March, a quit-rent of one beaver-skin,
The mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city were also granted forever by the charter "the sole and onely management of the trade with the Indians, as well within thiss whole County [of Albany] as without the same, to the Eastward, Northward, and Westward thereof as farr as his Majestyes Dominion " extended, " to bee managed and Transacted onely by the ffreemen, be- ing actuall Inhabitants within the said citty and within the now walls or stockadoes thereof, and not elsewhere." And "all and every the Inhabitants of the sayd Province of New York, (the Inhabitants of the said citty of Albany onely excepted)" were prohibited "to trade or traffique with any of the ffive Nations of Indians called the Sini- caes, Caijugaes, Onondagues, Oneides, & Maques, who live to the westward, or with any other Indian or Indians whatsoever within the county of Albany, or to the East- ward, Northward or Westward thereof, so far as his * * Majestyes Dominions " extended, "or to have or keepe in their houses or elsewhere any Indian goods or Merchandize, upon the payne and penalty of the ffor- feiture and confiscation of such Indian comodityes, whether the same be Bevers, Peltry, or other Indian comodityes whatsoever, (Except Indian corne, Venison, and dressed deer-skins)."
The mayor, recorder, aldermen and the assistant' aldermen, or the mayor and any three or more of the as- sistant aldermen were to be called the common council of the city, and they or the greater part of them had full power and authority to call and hold common council within the common council-house or city hall, and there to make laws, orders, ordinances, and constitutions in writing for the good rule, oversight, correction, and gov- ernment of the city.
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The charter provided that his majesty, his heirs, suc- cessors, assigns, commanders in chief, lieutenants, gov_ ernors, and the officers under them were not to be deprived of any rights and privileges which they had in Fort Albany and in the city.1
The following record discloses the action of the magis- trates and people on the reception of the charter at Albany :
"In nomine Domini Jesu Christi. Amen.
"Att a meeting of ye Justices of ye peace for ye county of Albany, ye 26th day of July, A. D., 1686.
"Pieter Schuyler, gent. and Robt Livingston, gent., who were commissionated by ye towne of Albanie to goe to New Yorke and procure ye Charter for this citty wh was agreed upon between ye magistrates and ye right hon1 Col. Tho. Dongan, Gov. Genll who accordingly have brought the same along with them, and was pub- lished with all ye joy and acclamations imaginable ; and ye said two gentm received ye thanks of ye magistrates and burgesses for their diligence and care in obtaining ye same."
Pieter Schuyler, "appointed and commissionated to be mayor and clerk of ye market and coroner of ye citty of Albany, as also coroner for ye sd county," took the oath, which was administered by one of the magistrates, and entered upon the duties of his office. The ordained alder- men were also sworn, as. also were Robert Livingston, town-clerk, Richard Pretty, sheriff, and James Parker, marshal.
The following minute of the mayor's court, held on the thirty-first of August, 1686, discloses the manner in which the laws were executed by the city officers : "The
1 The parchments on which the charter was engrossed are in the office of the city clerk.
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court of [the] mayor and aldermen having considered ye case of ye negroe of Myndert Frederikse called Her- cules, who hath stole a chest of wampum belonging to ye poor of ye Lutheran parich out of ye house of his mas- ter, where he went in a night throw ye window, all which he confesseth, and considering how evil consequence it is and how bad example it is for ye negers, the court have ordered ye sd neger Hercules to be whipt throw ye towne att ye cart tale by ye hands of ye hangman forthwith, for an example to oyrs, [others], and his master to pay ye costts."
It would seem that some of the city officers were tardy in attending the meetings of the common council, for it was ordered on the eleventh of September that any mem- ber that should " be absent at ye second ringing of ye bell, being in town, at any common council day," should "forfeit six shillings, toties quoties."
The city, for lack of water, being exposed to the dangers of fire, the common council took measures on the fourteenth of September to increase the supply. "Whereas it hath been found by experience that ye bringing in of ye fountain from ye hill into ye city hath not only been of great use to ye inhabitants for water butt the only means, under God, of ye quenching of ye late fyre, whh oyr wise by all probability had consumed ye whole towne ; and whereas ye spouts yt [that] convey ye water to the wells in some places are gone to decay or at least so leaky that ye wells are quite useless, the mayor, alder- men and commonalty of ye city have therefore thought convenient to appoint and order ye high constable, Isaak Verplank, forthwith to cause ye said spouts and wells to be repaired that they may be of like use as formerly, and to keep an exact account of what ye charge is, which shall be forthwith ordered to be paid ; and all laboring
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persons are hereby strictly charged to assist toward ye sd work as they will answer ye contrary att yr [their] perills ; and if the said high constable be found negligent yt he doth not hys duty herein, and yt ye work be not and all ye wells and spouts compleated in ye space of a fortnight, he shall forfeit forty shillings."
To defray the expenses of the county, the assessors were directed "to rate the county for the sum of 1600 guilders beaver, or £120;" and to defray those of the city, " £30, or 400 guilders beaver."
For the better regulation of the trade with the Indians, the common council, on the fourteenth of September, 1686, made a number of rules and orders to govern it. "No person or persons whatsoever," in the city " upon ye arrivall of any Indian or Indians" were allowed "to addresse themselves or speake to them of and concerning Trade," nor "to entice ym (them) either within or with- out ye gates of ye * * *
Citty, by Signs or oyrwise howsoever, to trade with themselves or any other Per- sones."
No person or persons were "to send out or make use of any Broakers, whether Christians or Indians, in ye management of ye Indian Trade ;" nor were they to " trade for or receive any Bevers, Peltry or other Indian " commodity " from any Indian or Indians after ye ringing of ye Bell" at eight "of ye Clock on ye night ;" nor were they to "trade or trafiqe with, or by any means whatsoever directly or indirectly entice any Indians soe to do upon ye Sabbath day."
It was also "ordered that for the future no person or persons whatsoever " were to "give any present or gift to any Indian or Indians," nor were they to "transport or cause to be transported any Wampum, Wampum pipes, Indian Jewells, or money " out of the city and county,
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