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 21
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THE ASSOCIATION.
" Whereas there has been a horrid and detestable conspiracy formed and carried on by Papists and other wicked and trayterous persons for Assassinating his Majesties Royal Person in order to Incourage an Invasion from ffiance to Subvert our Religion, Laws and Liberties, we whose names are underwritten do heartily, sincerely and solemnly profess, testify, and declare yt his present Majesty, King William is rightful and lawful king of these Realms, and we do mutually promise and engage to stand by and assist each other to ye utmost of our power in ye Support and Defence of his Majesties most
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sacred person and government against ye late King James ye pretended Prince of Wales and all theire ad- herents, and in case his Majesty come to any violent or untimely death (which God forbid) we do hereby freely and unanimously oblige ourselves to unite, associate, and stand by each other in Revenging ye same upon his enemies and all their adherents, and in ye supporting and defending ye succession of ye Crown according to an act in ye first year of ye Reign of King William and Queen Mary, instituted an act declaring ye Rights and Liberties of ye Subject, and settling ye succession of ye Crown."1
In order to lessen the expenses of the city during this period of peace, the fourteen soldiers who were oc- cupying the block-house near the south gate of the city, were by a resolution of the common council, on the twenty-ninth of November, 1699, to be lodged in the fort. At the same time, John Ratcliffe and Robert Barrett were appointed to perform the duties of the rattle-watch (Ratelwagh), for one year. They were to patrol the city every night from ten o'clock until day- light, with rattles and lanterns. Their round was or- dered to begin at the main guard-house near the south gate of the city and to extend along Brower (Broadway) Street to the bridge over the Rutten kill at Colonel Schuyler's house, thence through Jonker (State) Street to the corner where Johannes de Wandelaer lived, on the hill, near the fort, thence along the hill to the house of Alderman Johannes Roseboom's house, on the east side of Parrel (Pearl) Street, north of Rom Street, (Maiden Lane,) thence along Parrel Street to Gysbert Marselis's house, on the northeast corner of Parrel and Rom Streets, and thence along Rom Street to the house of Hendrick Bries, and thence to the guard-house.
1 Albany City records. vol. iv. p. 362.
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Whenever they saw a burning building, or thieves, they were instructed to raise an alarm. For their services during the year they were both to receive £22 16s.
The condition of the soldiers in Fort Orange was in 1700 a matter of much commisseration to the people of Albany. The governor, writing from New York to the lords of trade on the twenty-sixth of July, adverts to this fact : "Some of the Inhabitants of Albany who are now here, tell me the Soldiers there in Garrison are in that shamefull and miserable condition for the want of cloaths that the like was never seen. ** This * sad condition of the Soldiers does us great hurt with the Indians, whose chiefest resort being to that town, & they being a very observing people, measure the greatness of our King, and the conduct of affars by the shame- full ill plight of the Soldiers. These persons assure me that some of the old crafty Sachems of the Five Nations have ask'd 'em, whether they thought 'em such fooles as to believe our King could protect 'em from the French, when he was not able to keep his Soldiers in a condition as those in Canada are kept."
The governor relates in a postscript to his letter the following incredible stories which were then current among the people of Albany: "Decannissore, one of the Sachems of the Onondagas, married one of the praying Indians in Canada, (by praying Indians is meant such as are instructed by the Jesuits,) this woman was taught to poison as well as to pray. The Jesuits had furnish'd her with so subtill a poison, and taught her a leger de main in using it ; so that whoever she had a mind to poison she would drink to 'em a cup of water, and let drop the poison from under her nail (which are always very long, for the Indians never pare 'em) into the cup. "This woman was so true a disciple of the Jesuits,
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that she has poison'd a multitude of our Five Nations that were best affected to us. She lately coming from Canada in company with some of our Indians, who went to visit their relations in that Country who have taken sides with the French, And their being among others a Protestant Mohack, (a proper goodly young man) him this woman poison'd so that he died two days journey short of Albany, and the Magistrates of that town sent for his body and gave it a Christian burial. The woman comes to Albany, where some of the Mohacks happening to be, and among 'em a young man nearly related to the man that had been poison'd, who espying the woman, cries out with great horror, that there was that beastly woman that had poison'd so many of their friends, and 't was not fit she should live any longer in the world to do more mischief ; and so made up to her, and with a clubb beat out her brains."
"Aquendero the Chief Sachem of the Onondage Nation, who was Prolocutor [speaker] for all the Five Nations at the Conference I had two years ago at Al- bany, has been forc'd to fly from thence, and come and live on Coll. Schuyler's Land near Albany. Aquendero's son is poyson'd and languishes, and there is a sore broke out on one of his sides, out of which there comes hand- fulls of hair, so that they reckon he has been bewitch'd, as well as poyson'd." 1
In his letter of the seventeenth of October, 1700, to the Board of Trade, the earl speaks of his visit to Albany in August : "I cannot express the melancholy I was in after I got to Albany, for the Indians whom I feared would have been there before me, made me wait a fort- night for their coming ; so that truly I concluded them entirely lost to us. Some peopled fancied they were
1 Doc. colonial hist. N. Y. vol. iv. pp. 687, 689.
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tamper'd with by some of the angry party at Albany. The Interpreter who was sent to hasten the Sachems re- ported that their minds were so possess'd with a jealousy of my intending them mischief as the French had sug- gested to them, that they were all that while deliberat- ing whether to venture to meet me at Albany. My con- ference with the Indians *
* lasted seven or eight days, and was the greatest fatigue I ever underwent in my whole life. I was shut up in a close chamber with 50 Sachems, who besides the stink of bear's grease with which they plentifully dawb'd themselves were con- tinually either smoaking tobacco or drinking drams of rum. They seem'd sullen and out of humour at first, but by degrees I brought 'em to perfect good temper. I am told there never appeared so many Sachems at any conference as at this. There were above 200 men, women, and children, and 't was with some difficulty we could find 'em in victuals. * * *
"I am in hopes of bringing the Eastern Indians to come and settle at and about Schackhook with our River Indians ; 't is a project I have formerly acquainted your Lordships with, which if I can accomplish will be of very great use to strengthen our Five Nations and annoy the French whenever we have a war with France. Your Lordships will find our River Indians make me an overture to that purpose. * * * Our Schackhook or River Indians were of those Eastern Indians, but were driven from that country by the people of New England 26 years ago, in the war call'd King Philips war. Those Eastern Indians and our river Indians still retain their friendship and intermarry with each other.
"The Penicook and Eastern Indians were cunning enough to send ten or twelve of their people to be pre- sent at our conferences at Albany, to watch and observe
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whether the Five Nations were in good intelligence with me. One of 'em I remember'd to have seen in Boston ; he speaks good English and I discours'd him long. He told me the Jesuits made him and the rest of the In- dians his neighours believe the Five Nations were re- solved to decline meeting me at Albany this time, and would revolt to the Governour of Canada. I was glad to hear the Mohacks tell those Eastern Indians that if they liv'd not Peaceably with the English in New Eng- land, they would look on 'em as their enemies and cut 'em off. And indeed that is an unanswerable reason for the King's uniting the Province of the Massachusetts and New York always under the same Governor ; for otherwise the Five Nations can never be so manag'd as to suppress the rebellions of the Eastern Indians. I gave the Eastern Indians presents and they seem'd well pleased. *
"I had the two Companies at Albany, vizt. Major Ingoldesby's and Capt. Weemes's muster'd before me there. * * I never in my life saw so moving a sight as that of the Companies at Albany, half the men were without breeches, shoes, and stockins when they muster'd. I thought it shameful to the last degree to see English soldiers so abus'd. They had like to have mutinied. *
"I was in great hopes your Lordships would have directed me to fall immediately upon fortifying at Al- bany and Schenectady ; those forts are not only scanda- lously weak, but do us unspeakable mischeif with our Indians, who conceive a proportionable idea of the Kings power & greatness. The inhabitants came all about me at my leaving Albany and told me in plain terms that if the King would not build a Fort there to protect 'em they would on the very first news of a war
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between England and France desert that place and fly to New York rather then they would stay there to have their throats cut.
"There are half a dozen [persons] at Albany who have competent estates, but all the rest are miserable poor. * *
"Since I finish'd (as I thought) this letter, I have re- ceived from Albany the good news of the Eastern In- dians submission to the five nations. * This is a most lucky thing, and the people of New England have reason to bless God that they are for ever hereafter secure and safe from a people that have been cruell thornes in their sides." 1
In a return made of the number of the militia of the province of New York, in 1700, which embraced three thousand one hundred and eighty-two men, the city and county of Albany furnished three hundred and seventy- one militiamen. 2
1 Doc. colonial hist. N. Y. vol. iv. pp. 714, 715, 716, 718, 726. .
2 The regiment of the city and county militia was commanded by Colonel Pieter Schuyler, of which Dirck Wessells was major. The first foot-company of the city had the following persons for its officers : Johannes Bleecker, captain ; Johannes Roseboom, lieutenant ; Abraham Cuyler, ensign. The second foot-company : Albert Janse Ryckman, captain ; Wessel Ten Broeck, lieutenant ; Johannes Thomasse, ensign. The officers of the first foot-company of the county were : Martain Cornelisse, captain ; Andries Douw, lieutenant ; Andries Coeymans, ensign. Those of the second foot- company were : Gerrit Teunisse, captain ; Jonas Douw and Jochim Lam- erse, lieutenants ; Volkert van Hoesen and Abraham Hanse, ensigns. The officers of the troop of horse were : Kiliaen van Renssalaer, captain ; Johannes Schuyler, lieutenant ; Bennony van Corlaer, cornet, and Anthony Bries, quartermaster. The foot company of Schenectady had for its officers: Johannes Sanderse Glen, captain ; Adam Vroman, lieutenant, and Harmen van Slyck, ensign .- Doc. colonial hist. N. Y. vol. iv. pp. 807, 811.
CHAPTER XIII.
ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS.
1701-1721.
In the first year of Queen Anne's reign, 1702, on the third of May, Edward Hyde, Lord Viscount Cornbury, began his administration as governor of the province of New York. Early in July he visited Albany, when he found that Colonel Wolfgang William Romer, her maj- esty's engineer, had made preparations to build a new fort, and had provided about four hundred loads of stone and one hundred tons of lime for its construction. The garrison, commanded by Major Ingoldsby, was composed of one hundred and seventy-six soldiers besides officers. The governor was surprised to find the soldiers so scantily clad that many of them had nothing "wherewithal to cover their nakedness," and that they were "eight weeks in arrears of subsistance." The governor in his report to the Lords of Trade, on the twenty-fourth of Septem- ber, 1702, speaks of the defenses of Albany and the frontier, saying :
"The fort is in a miserable condition. It is a 'stock- adoed fort about one hundred and twenty foot long and seventy foot wide, the stockadoes are almost all roten to that degree that I can with ease push them down. There is but three and twenty guns in the fort, most of them un- serviceable, the carryages * * so honey-combed that they cannot be fired without danger.
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"Schenectady is twenty miles from Albany upon another river by which the french must come if they attempt anything on Albany. This is an open Village. It was formerly stockadoed round but since the peace no care having been taken to repair the stockadoes they are all down. There is a Stockadoed Fort but indeed it is more like a pound than a fort. There is eight Guns in it, not above three fit for service, no Garrison in it when I came, but a Serjeant and twelve men, no powder nor shot, neither great nor small, nor no place to put it into. The half moon [Waterford] is a place fourteen miles above Albany upon Hudsons River. There was [here] formerly a Stockadoed Fort made in Coll. Fletch- ers time. Nustigione [Niskayuna] is another place four- teen miles from Albany in the Woods where there was a pretty large Stockadoed Fort. But these two last for want of looking after are quite gone to ruine by which Albany is left naked upon those two sides. * *
"As for the Militia that is in as bad a condition as the rest, for they have never been once muster'd since Coll. Fletcher went from here. * *
* Indeed by Coll. Schuyler's care the Regiment of the Militia of the County of Albany is in pretty good condition but that is perfectly owning to his care. What remains upon this head is to acquaint your Lordship what we are doing in relation to our defence. In order thereto I must begin by acquainting you that Coll. [Romer] hav- ing been a year and a half (as he himself told me) pro- viding materials for building a Stone Fort at Albany was the week before I landed [on the third of May] gone to that place [Albany]. * * * It seems he has been very intent upon some Fortifications at Boston ; For when he came to me to York he was very desirous to go to Boston, Saying he had given the necessary orders
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for all things to be prepared at Albany against next Spring, and that then he would begin to build but that nothing could be done there till then. * * *
"On the 5th of July I got to Albany, but Mr. Romer was not come [as he had promised], nor no news to be heard of him. I went the next day to view the ground he had marked out, But I found that for the sake of having his Gate " to open on "the broadest Street in the Town he had carryed the Point of his South West Bas- tion into a bottom that was near the old Fort, where " he would have to raise the "foundation of Stone five or six and thirty foot high before it would have been even with the surface of the ground where the Fort must stand. By computation that corner would have cost 500€, however I was unwilling to alter any thing of his projection till he came, expecting every day he would come, till at last on the 8th of August a letter came to a man he had intrusted to take care to provide Materials for the fort, dated the 29th of June, from Boston, telling him that he " should "not be at Albany till September, which is a time which every body here knows to be too late for building because of the cold weather. Having seen this letter and being informed by some of the In- dians that the french were making great preparations at Montreal which can be designed against no place but Albany or Schenectady, And seeing I was not like to have Mr. Romer's Assistance this fall, I thought that it was to much time to loose I therefore made another draught of my own fort of which I herewith send your Lordships a Copy.
"By this draught I have removed the fort 40 feet from the bottom before mentioned, by which I shall save that vast expense which the point of this Bastion would have cost, and I have extended the Fort more North-
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wards, By which means I shall entirely cover the West side of the Town which is that which lies most exposed to danger. As soon as I had made my draught I in- quired for Masons and found eight which I set to worke. On Saturday the 15th of August * * I laid the first stone of Fort Anne and in 11 days they worked up all the materials that Mr. Romer had been a year and a half preparing, besides three hundred load of Stone that I had prepared while I was waiting for Coll. Romers coming. Thus we were busyed when Mr. Romer ar- rived at Albany, which was on the 19th day of August, by which time I had laid the foundation of two thirds of the Fort. And I do well hope that before the frost it will be five feet high, which will be a good Breast Work till next spring." For the want of money, how- ever, the building of the new fort was not prosecuted in the following year. In 1704, the old fort was stockaded with new palisades as was also the city.1
The board of aldermen, by a resolution offered by the mayor, Johannes Schuyler, voted, on the thirtieth of May, 1704, that a market-house should be erected in the middle of Jonker [State] Street, "opposite to ye lane between ye house of Maj. Dirk Wessel's and Evert Wendel, Senr. at ye Citty's charges." The residences of the persons mentioned in the resolution were on the first and second plats of ground immediately west of James Street. The building was a wooden structure, open on all sides, containing a number of butchers' stalls and several heavy tables for the use of persons selling but- ter, eggs, vegetables, and other produce. The market was held on Saturdays. The common council, on the fifth of September, 1704, ordered the property-holders in the city to lay pavements eight feet wide before their
1 Doc. colonial hist. N. Y. vol. iv. pp. 967-971 ; 1128.
18
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houses and lots, "upon penalty of forfeiting the summe of 15s for ye Behooffe of ye sheriffe," who was to sue for that amount.
As a number of negroes had obtained their freedom by escaping to Canada, which was regarded as a " very pernicious consequence to the whole province," the jus- tices of the peace of the city and county of Albany, at a court of sessions held in the city-hall, on the fifth of June, 1705, solicited the representatives of the city and county to lay before the assembly of the province then convened, the necessity of passing a law to protect the slave-owners from such loss of property. The request was made known, and the assembly enacted "that all and every negro slave or slaves belonging to any of the inhabitants of the city and county of Albany, who shall from and after the first day of August of this present year of our Lord, 1705, be found traveling forty miles above the city of Albany, at or above a certain place called Sarachtoge, unless in company of his, her, or their master, mistress, or such employed by them, or either of them, and be thereof convicted by the oaths of two or more credible witnesses before the court of sessions of the peace of this city and county shall suffer the pains of death as in cases of felony."
The right granted the city in the charter to purchase from the Indians five hundred acres of land at " Schaihte- cogue " was exercised on the twenty-eighth day of Feb- ruary, 1707. The land is described as situated on the east side of the Hudson River, above the Half-moon, and bounded on the west by the river, and on the south by the lands of Egbert Teunise and Barent Albertse Bratt, and extending northward two miles along the river from Schaghticoke creek. Thence it extended "into the woods by an east line twelve miles and on the south
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side by a southeast line fourteen miles, or so much farther that the line on the east side " included the third carrying place on the creek. A part of the first pay- ment included two blankets, twelve duffel-cloth coats, twenty shirts, two gunns, twelve pounds of powder, thirty-six pounds of lead, eight gallons of rum, two casks of beer, two rolls of tobacco, ten gallons of Ma- deira wine, and a number of pipes. The Indian proprie- tors were also to receive annually for ten years in the month of October, one blanket, one shirt, one pair of stockings, one lap or apron, one keg of rum, three pounds of powder, six pounds of lead, and twelve pounds of tobacco. Twelve acres of this tract were to be fenced by the city and set apart for the use of the Indians sell ing the land. In 1708, the land was surveyed and di- vided into farms, and some of them leased to a number of settlers. Among the latter was Johannes Knicker- backer,1 a miller, who, on the thirteenth of October, 1709, for the sum of sixteen pounds and ten shillings obtained a lease of thirty morgens of land, in two parcels. He and each of the other lessees were to pay "the yearly acknowledgement of thirty-seven & one-half bushels [of] good merchandable winter wheat unto the mayor, aldermen & comonalty in the months of January and February every year forever after the first day of May, 1715." 2
Lord Cornbury, in his report to the Board of Trade, in 1708, speaks thus of certain Indians who came to the city from the Far West : "During my stay at Albany, 12 of the far nations of Indians came to trade with our
1 Johannes Knickerbacker was the oldest of the seven children of Her- man Jansen Knickerbacker, who, it is said, was the first member of the Knickerbacker family that emigrated to America. The name " Knicker- bocker " was made notable by Washington Irving, who was a frequent guest of the Knickerbackers of Schaghticoke.
2 Albany records. 1708, 1709.
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people. There are two nations of them who are called Twigtwicks and Dionondadees ; the nearest of their castles is eight hundred miles from Albany. I have been these five years endeavoring to get these nations to trade with our people, but the French have always dissuaded them from coming till this year. And this year goods being very scarce, they came to Albany, where our people have supplied them with goods much cheaper than ever the French did, and they have prom- ised to return in the spring with a much greater number of their nations, which will be a very great advantage to this province."1
In the early part of the summer of 1709, a large number of soldiers and Indians was concentrated at Albany to invade Canada. The command of the provin- cial forces was given to Francis Nicholson. After advancing northward as far as Wood Creek, where three forts were built, the expedition was abandoned. It is said that there was not a man in the province, "who had more extended views of the importance of driving the French out of Canada than Colonel Schuyler," nor "did any person more heartily engage in the late expedition" than he. Although greatly chagrined when the undertaking was relinquished on account of the failure of the naval forces to cooperate with the troops that marched from Albany, Colonel Schuyler did not dismiss from his thoughts the necessity of immediate action to accomplish the subjection of Canada to the English crown. Taking with him five Indians, he sailed to England to urge the British ministry to favor another expedition.
It is related that the arrival of the Indians in Eng- land in 1710 "made a great bruit thro' the whole king- 1 Doc. colonial hist. N. Y. vol. v. pp. 64, 65.
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dom. The mob followed wherever they went, and small cuts of them were sold among the people. * * Sir Charles Cotterel conducted them in two coaches to St. James's ; and the lord chamberlain introduced them into the royal presence " of Queen Anne.
Colonel Schuyler succeeded in accomplishing the ob- ject of his visit. Five thousand troops from England and Flanders were sent to aid the provinces in another attempt to reduce Canada. On the thirtieth of July, 1711, a fleet of twelve men of war and forty-six small vessels sailed from Boston to the St. Lawrence River. About two thousand men and eight hundred Indians were assembled at Albany. At the end of August, Lieu- tenant-general Nicholson, having the command of this army, moved toward Lake Champlain. The fleet with which he was to co-operate in the attack on Montreal, having entered the St. Lawrence River, was driven during a thick fog upon some rocks. The loss of eight transports and eight hundred men caused the com- mander of the fleet to order its departure to England. When the news of this humiliating termination of the naval expedition reach the army at Fort George under the command of Lieutenant-general Nicholson, orders for an immediate retreat were issued. Thus ended the expedition of 1711.1
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