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 8
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When Father Jogues visited Fort Orange, in the sum- mer of 1646, Domine Megapolensis was still conducting the religious services of the settlers in his own house. The building designed for the church was already erected, and Willem Fredericksen, a carpenter, had almost finished making the furniture which was needed to com- plete it for the use of the small congregation that had been worshiping in the parsonage. The plain-built edifice with its vaulted ceiling contained a predickstool or pulpit, a seat for the magistrates, one for the deacons, nine benches and several corner-seats.2 The little church stood on a plot of ground a short distance northwest of the fort, near the line of Church Street, between Pruyn Street and Madison Avenue. 3
The wooden buildings forming the church-neighbor- hood stood near the bank of the river, between the fort
1 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.
2 In the ledger of the manor, (groet boek de colonie Rensselaerswyck,) page 56, is the account of the carpenter, Willem Fredericksz, who under the date of 1646 is credited as follows : " Voor dat hij in de kerck heeft gemaacht een Predickstool het verwulf, een stoel voor de overicheyt, een ditto voor de Diaconie, een cosijn met 2 lichten, een kruys cosijn dicht gemaacht, een daerin een kusje, een hoeckje nevens de stoel, met een banck in een winckelhaeck, en 9 bancken, te saemen voor 80 fl." About thirty-two dollars.
3 The name, Madison Avenue, was substituted for that of Lydius Street, May 20, 1867.
THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 85
and the patroon's trading-house, the latter being a short distance north of the former. South of the fort were several dwellings, one of which was the ferry-house, on the north side of the Bever kill. Inside the fort were the trading-house of the West India Company and a few cottages, one of which was occupied by Harmanus Myndertse van der Bogaert,1 who had succeeded Sebas- tiaen Jansen Crol, the company's commissary. On the fifth kill, beyond the patroon's trading-house, was one of the grist-mills of the manor. It had been out of repair for some time and as it had been thought to be too far from the people dwelling near the fort, another mill operated by two horses was constructed during the sum- mer in the pine-grove northwest of the church. 2
On the death of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, in 1646, Johan, his eldest son, became patroon. He was under age, and the management of the affairs of the colony was intrusted by the executors, Johannes van Wely and Wouter van Twiller, to Brandt Arent van Slechtenhorst of Nieukerke, Holland. While Van Slechtenhorst was preparing to remove to New Netherland, Anthonie de Hooges, the secretary of the colony, and Nicolaas Coorn the schout, had charge of the manor ; Arendt van Curler being in Holland.
In March, 1647, there was a great freshet, which almost washed away Fort Orange and the houses in the church-neighborhood. It is related that while the river
1 He sometimes wrote his name, Harmanus & Boghardij.
On the seventeenth of January, 1646, the house occupied by Adriaen van der Donck was burned to the ground, and he and his wife lived in one of the cottages within the fort until his term of office as schout-fiscaal of Rensselaerswyck expired, when, in April, at the opening of navigation, he removed to Fort Amsterdam-MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.
2 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Collections on the history of Albany from its discovery to the present time. By Joel Munsell, Albany, 1865- 1871. vol iii. pp.66, 67. Albany county records translated by Professor Jonathan Pierson of Union College, Schenectady, N. Y.
1
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overflowed its banks a number of whales ascended it, one of which was stranded on an island opposite Lansing- burgh, called afterward Walvish Eylant (Whale Island), now covered by the deep water of the state-dam. "This fish was tolerably fat, and although the people of Rens- selaerswyck boiled out a great quantity of train-oil, yet the water of the river (the current being still rapid) was oily for three weeks thereafter and covered with grease."1
Petrus Stuyvesant, the successor of Director Kieft, arrived at Fort Amsterdam on the eleventh of May, 1647. His policy was one of reform. He began his administra- tion by making' new laws to protect the commercial interests of the West India Company, and took steps to have them enforced in every part of New Netherland. The jurisdiction which he claimed to have over the people of Rensselaerswyck seemed to the settlers to be an unwarranted usurpation of the personal prerogatives of the patroon. When Brandt Arent van Slechtenhorst, on his arrival at Fort Orange on the twenty-second of March, 1648, entered upon the performance of his duties as director of the manor, he ignored the right of Director Stuyvesant to require obedience from the people of Rens- selaerswyck to the new laws enacted by the director and council of New Netherland, and took the first opportunity that was given him to show that he did not consider the people of the manor were subjects of the West India Company.2 When the director-general shortly afterward sent a proclamation to be read in the church at Fort Orange, setting apart Wednesday, the sixth of May, to be observed as a day of fasting and prayer by the people
1 Beschrijvinge van Nieuw Nederlant door Adriaen van der Donck. Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Second series. vol. i. pp. 140, 141.
2 Van Slechtenhorst sailed from Holland Sept. 26, 1647, for Virginia. The river being frozen he did not reach Fort Orange until March 22, 1648, with his family and servants.
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there and in the colony of Rensselaerswyck, and ordering a sermon on penance to be preached by Domine Megapo- lensis on the first Wednesday of each month, Van Slecht . enhorst protested against the publication of the proclam- ation, declaring that it was contrary to "the old order and usage," making it appear as if the director-general were the proprietor of the patroon's colony. 1 Although
Van Slechtenhorst resolutely contended that the patroon was vested with the sole jurisdiction of the colony, and that his authority was not subordinate to that of the director-general of the West India Company, nevertheless he willingly conceded to the latter the right to administer the affairs of the company elsewhere in New Netherland as he deemed most conducive to the interests of its directors. When Director Stuyvesant and some of the officers of the company visited Fort Orange in midsum- mer, Van Slechtenhorst took particular pains to honor the director-general's arrival and departure with a dis- charge of cannon, and to make his visit an event of considerable local importance to the settlers .? After the reception-ceremonies the director-general inspected Fort Orange and its surroundings. General Stuyvesant's military experience showed him that the fort could not be successfully defended against a force of Indians, for the buildings erected near its walls would advantageously
1 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Documents relating to the colonial history of the State of New York. vol. xiv. p. 92.
2 "July, 1648. Whereas, the council of the colony directed that the Heer General Pieter Stuyvesant should be honored, on his arrival and departure with several salutes from the Heer Patroon's three pieces of cannon, the director employed Jan Dircksen van Bremen and Hans Eencluys to clean the same, for they were filled with earth and stones, and to load them, in doing which they were engaged three days, to wit: one day in cleaning them, the second in firing, at the arrival, and the third at Stuyvesant's departure, for which Van Schlectenhorst purchased twenty pounds of powder . and expended ten guilders for beer and victuals, besides having provided the Heer General at his departure with some young fowls and pork."-MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.
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shelter the assailants. To keep the unoccupied ground around the fort free from further obstruction, he requested the authorities of Rensselaerswyck, on the twenty-third of July, not to erect any more buildings near the fort. "We request, by virtue of our commission, the com- mandant and court of the said colony to desist and refrain from building within a cannon-shot from the fort, until further orders or advice from our sovereigns or superiors, or to present to us special consent and authority signed by our sovereigns or superiors aforesaid, for both above and below [the fort] there are equally suitable, yea better building sites."
The implication that the patroon of Rensselaerswyck could not exhibit any document containing proof of his proprietorship of the ground immediately surrounding the fort, highly incensed Van Slechtenhorst, who in a protest, dated the twenty-eighth day of July, claimed that the ground belonged to the patroon, who had pur- chased it from the Indians. He also asserted that "the trading house of the patroon stood for a few years undis- turbed on the border of the moat of the fort or trading post," and that the land "all around the fort" had been for many years in "the quiet possession " of the patroon, who still occupied it. "Now comes General Petrus Stuyvesant," writes the irate director of the manor, "and attempts with improper means to prevent the infant patroon from improving or building on his own ground, which is over five hundred paces from the fort or trading post, within which space there are eight houses standing on the patroon's land ; and he threatens to bat- ter down these buildings with forcible means.
Therefore do I officially assert and protest that I am obstructed in the performance of my duty and business.
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"So far as regards the renowned fortress," remarks Van Slechtenhorst, "men can go in and out of it by night as well as by day." He further asserts that he had "been more than six months in the colony and the near- est resident to the fort, and yet he had never been able to discover a single person carrying a sword, a musket or a pike, nor had he heard or seen a drum beat, except when the director-general himself visited it, with his soldiers, in July."
Believing himself to be in the right in the matter of the ownership of the land around Fort Orange, Van Slechtenhorst undertook to erect a house within the range of a pistol-shot from its walls. When Director Stuyvesant learned, in September, of Van Slechtenhorst's open disregard of his recent order, he sent from Fort Amsterdam a number of soldiers and sailors to Fort Orange "to demolish the house with the smallest loss to the owners." He also instructed Carl van Brugge, 1 the commissary of Fort Orange, that if the director of Rensselaerswyck should attempt to oppose him in the execution of the order, that he should "arrest him in the most civil manner and detain him in confinement until he delivered to the commissary a copy of his commission and instruction, with a declaration that he, the com- mander " of the manor of the patroon, had "no other commission and instruction than those " he then ex- hibited.
When the people of the church-neighborhood heard of the intended demolition of the building, they mani- fested their partisanship by publicly declaring that if Van Brugge should undertake to carry out the instructions of the arbitrary officer of the West India Company, that
1 Carl van Brugge was appointed commissary of Fort Orange, November 6, 1647.
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they would offer an armed resistance. "Not only the colonists but also the Indians were in a great uproar." The latter were greatly offended with "Wooden Leg," (as they designated the director-general, who wore a wooden leg for a lost limb,) because he sent his dogs to destroy the house in which they intended to sleep when at Fort Orange. It is said that Van Slechtenhorst, during the fourteen days of the stay of the seven soldiers and five sailors from Fort Amsterdam, had four times more trouble to manage the Indians than his own partisans, and that he had to tell the former that they were misin- formed, that the house should continue to stand, and that they might sleep in it whenever they came to the fort. Van Brugge, perceiving that it would be impossi- ble for him to obey the director-general with so small a body of armed men, prudently wrote to Director Stuyve- sant that his orders could not be executed without loss of life and the shedding of blood. Having this information, the director-general discretely delayed taking immediate action in the matter and recalled the soldiers and sailors to Fort Amsterdam. He nevertheless sent an official order to Van Slechtenhorst to appear before him, on the fourth of April, at which time he would " be informed of the complaint against him." 1
In the summer of 1648, Domine Megapolensis, having served the people of the manor six years with Christian fidelity and pastoral love, asked for a letter of dis- mission, intending to return to Holland to settle the busi- ness of an estate in which he was interested. The mem- bers of his little congregation, however, with affectionate importunity prevailed upon him to remain with them another year. When, at last, in August, 1649, he took
1 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck. Albany records. vol. iv. fol 16; vol. v. fol. 72-83, 87-90 ; vol. vii. fol. 192-198, 204-206, 208, 217-219.
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his letter of dismission from the church of Rensselaers- wyck, he was so earnestly solicited by Director Stuyve- sant to become the pastor of the congregation at Fort Amsterdam that he accepted the call.1 He remained in charge of this pastorate until his death, twenty years later. The congregation of the church at Fort Orange, in the summer of 1650, requested the Rev. Wilhelmus Grasmeer of Grafdyck, a brother-in-law of Domine
Megapolensis, to fill the vacant pulpit. Although this clergyman had left Holland without the sanction of the classis of Alkmaar, he was nevertheless cordially received by the members of the little society, whom he zealously served, with marked acceptance, until he sailed for Holland, in 1651.2 While Domine Grasmeer was tem- porarily performing the duties of a pastor of the people of the manor, the latter held a meeting to consider the practicability of building a school-house in the church- neighborhood. The interested colonists willingly con- tributed the money that was needed, and shortly after- ward the school-house was erected and provided with suitable furniture. Andreas Jansen, on the ninth of September, 1650, was elected teacher of the children of the patrons of the school, who, in the following year, tend- ered him a gift of twenty dollars.3 Among the note- worthy incidents of the Christmas holy days (de heilige dagen van kersmis,) of 1650, was the marriage of Philip Pietersen Schuyler and Margritta van Slechtenhorst, the daughter of the director of the manor. As the church of Rensselaerswyck was without a lawfully called minister, the legal formalities, which constituted them
1 Correspondence of classis of Amsterdam. Letters of Megapolensis, Aug. 15, 1648. Letter of Stuyvesant, August, 1649. Albany records. vol. iv. fol. 16-23, vol. vii. fol. 229, 251-256.
2 Correspondence of classis of Amsterdam.
3 MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.
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husband and wife, were complied with, on the twenty - second of December, at the manor-house before Anthonie de Hooges, the secretary of the colony, in the presence of the officers of Fort Orange and Rensselaerswyck, and some of the residents of the church-neighborhood. 1
In 1651, Jan Baptiste, the third son of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, arrived at Fort Orange. He found the people of the colony and the officers and the garrison of the fort still at variance respecting their rights on the land sur- rounding Fort Orange. Denied the privilege of cutting fire-wood in the adjacent woods, forbidden the liberty of hunting and fishing within the limits of the manor, per- sonally estranged and prevented from mingling with the colonists by the animosity engendered by the continued disputes respecting the jurisdiction of the governor and of the patroon, the soldiers naturally became deeply em- bittered, and often manifested their vindictiveness by secret depredations on the property of the settlers, and by scurrilous vituperations when the latter came near the fort. The colonists were also culpable, for they not only insultingly called the soldiers "Wooden Leg's dogs," but they were gratified to see the Indians manifest their contempt for them. Meanwhile Van Slechtenhorst, who was under arrest at Fort Amsterdam for his contumacy toward the governor, secreted himself on a sloop and re- turned to the manor. The escaped director, in order to make the colonists more subservient to the interests of the patroon, induced a number of them to take the
1 Philip Pietersen Schuyler came from Amsterdam to New Netherland in 1650. The children by this marriage were : Guysbert, Gertrude, (who married Stephanus van Cortlandt in 1671), Alida (who first married the Rev. Nicolaas van Rensselaer, afterward Robert Livingston), Pieter, Brant, Arent, Sybilla, Philip, Johannes, and Margritta. Philip Pietersen Schuyler died at Albany March 9, 1684, and was buried two days afterward, in a vault in the Dutch church, which then stood at the intersection of the streets now called Broadway and State Street.
THE HISTORY OF ALBANY. 93
burgher-oath of allegiance, in accordance with the resolu- tion of the council dated November 23, 1651 :
"Resolved, that all householders and freemen of the colony shall appear on the twenty-eighth day of Novem- ber of this year, being Tuesday, at the house of the honorable director, and there take the burgerlijke oath of allegiance."
The oath was administered in the following form : "I promise and swear that I shall be true and faithful to the noble patroon and co-directors, or those who represent them here, and to the honorable director, commissioners, and council, subjecting myself to the court of the colony ; and I promise to demean myself as a good and faithful inhabitant or burgher, without exciting any opposition, tumult, or noise, but on the contrary, as a loyal inhabi- tant to maintain and support, offensively and defensively against every one, the right and the jurisdiction of the colony. And with reverence and fear of the Lord, and the uplifting of both the first fingers of the right hand, I say, So truly help me God Almighty."
On the appointed day forty-five of the colonists took the required oath at the house of Director Van Slecht- enhorst. 1
1 "Arendt van Curler, Johan Baptist van Rensselaer, Pieter Hartgers, Jan Verbeeck, Sander Leendertsz, Gysbert Cornelisz van Weesp, Willem Fred- ericksz, Jan Michelz, Rutger Jacobszen, Goosen Gerritsz, Andres Herbertsz, Cornelis Cornelisz. Vos, Jan van Hoesem, Jan Thomasz, Pieter Bronck, Jacob Jansz. van Nostrandt, Harmen Bastiaensz, Teunis Cornelisz, Jacob Adriaensz Raedmacker, Teunis Jacobsz, Rutger Adriaensz, Caspar Jacobsz, Abraham Pietersz. Vosburg, Everardus Jansz, Adriaen Pietersz. van Alk- maer, Thomas Jansz, Jochim Wessels Backer, Jacob Luyersz, Thomas Sandersz Smith, Evert Pels, - Hendricksz. Verbeeck, [A name obliter- ated]- van Es, Hendrick Westercamp, Thomas Keuningh, Cornelis Segersz, Cornelis Cornelisz. van Voorhout, Jan Ryersz, Jan Helms, Aert Jacobsz, Guysbert Cornelisz. aende Berg, Evert Jansen Kleermaker, Dirck Jansen Croon, Jacob Simonsz. Klomp, Volcker Jansz."-MSS. of Rensselaerswyck.
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CHAPTER V.
BEVERSWYCK.
1652-1664.
While the authorities of Rensselaerswyck were en- deavoring to strengthen the partisanship of the people of the church-neighborhood, the officers and soldiers of the West India Company grew more abusive and quar- relsome. Johannes Dyckman, the vice-director of the company,1 was not only rancorous, but so agressively malignant, that he became a personal terror to those who incurred his ill-will. The soldiers of the garrison meanwhile did many things to exasperate and shock the inhabitants of the manor. Permitted at night to go out- side the fort with loaded guns, they frequently congre- gated about the houses of the settlers, and loudly whooped and fired off their pieces in a manner so alarm- ing that often the people were as terrified as they would have been had their houses been surrounded by a band of revengeful savages. On the night of the first day of the year 1652, a party of soldiers, with hideous outcries, came before the patroon's house and began to fire their muskets. A piece of burning wadding fell on the reed- roof and set it on fire. Fortunately, only a small part of
1 Johannes Dyckman was stationed at Fort Orange as vice-director of the West India Company in 1651, and held this office until July, 1655, when he was incapacitated for the administration of its duties by insanity.
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the thatch had been consumed when the fire was discov- ered and extinguished. This hostile demonstration was the next day followed by an assault upon Van Slechten- horst's son. The soldiers "not only beat him black and blue, but dragged him through the mud and mire, in the presence of Johannes Dyckman, the vice-director, who repeatedly cried out, 'Let him have it, now, and the duivel take him !'" Philip Pietersen Schuyler attempted to rescue his brother-in-law, but Dyckman, seeing him running toward the soldiers, intercepted him, and draw- ing his sword threatened to run it through him if he advanced a step farther. This affray caused much excite- ment. Van Slechtenhorst's partisans made threats that they would avenge the outrage. Dyckman declared that he would retaliate any harm done his soldiers, and ordered the guns of the fort to be loaded and trained toward the patroon's house.
Director Stuyvesant still claimed that the patroon had no right to the ground surrounding the fort within the range of a ball fired from a cannon, or not nearer than six hundred paces. He sent a proclamation to Vice- Director Dyckman, in which it was declared that the described area of land around the fort was the property of the West India Company. To make known the order of the director-general, Dyckman with a small number of soldiers went to the manor-house where the magis- trates of the colony were in session. When Van Slecht- enhorst learned his mission, he forthwith ordered him to leave the room, telling him that he had no right to come within the limits of the patroon's jurisdiction with an armed body of men. Some days afterward, the commis- sary, with a large number of soldiers, again repaired to the manor-house to demand that the director-general's proclamation should be published to the colonists by the
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officers he found there. "It shall not be done as long as we have a drop of blood in our veins," they declared, "nor until we receive orders from their high mightinesses and our honored masters." Dyckman, not to be frus- trated, ordered the patroon's bell to be rung to collect the colonists, that he might read the proclamation to them. This privilege was denied him. He then proceeded to the fort, had the bell rung three times, and then returned to the stoop of the manor-house, where he ordered his deputy to read the placard to the assembled people. When Dyckman handed the document to his subordinate, Van Slechtenhorst, who was watching the proceedings, suddenly rushed to the side of the commissary's officer and snatched the director-general's proclamation from his hands, tearing it in such a manner "that the seals fell on the ground." While the exasperated commander of Fort Orange was loudly declaring that the patroon's agent should be made to suffer for this indignity, Jan Baptiste van Rensselaer sarcastically said to the laughing colonists : "Go home, good friends, it is only the wind of a cannon-ball fired six hundred paces off."
When Director Stuyvesant heard how despitefully his officers had been used by Van Slechtenhorst, he was greatly enraged, and on the fifth of March, 1652, sent an order to Vice-director Dyckman, instructing him to erect, at the distance of six hundred paces or about two hundred and fifty Rhineland rods1 from the walls of Fort Orange, a number of posts, marked with the com- pany's seal, and to affix to boards nailed on them copies of his proclamation, so that no person could plead ignor- ance concerning the boundaries of the West India Com- pany's land. In obedience to this order, Dyckman
1 A Rhineland rod equalled twelve Rhineland feet, and a Rhineland foot 12 36-100 English inches.
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planted several posts a short distance north of the present line of Orange street, north of Fort Orange, and several south of it, near the present line of Gansevoort street. As soon as these posts were planted, the magis- trates of Rensselaerswyck ordered the constable of the manor to remove them, and on the same day, the nineteenth of March, wrote a remonstrance "against the unbecoming pretensions and attacks of the director- general and council of New Netherland." This defiant conduct made the director-general the more pertinacious in his purpose to vindicate the company's right to the ground environing Fort Orange. He informed Vice- director Dyckman that he would shortly visit him and would personally enforce obedience to his proclamation. When it became known that Director Stuyvesant in- tended personally to take steps to have his orders respected by the authorities of Rensselaerswyck, it was rumored that Dyckman had instructions to erect a gallows on which the contumacious agent of the patroon, Van Slechtenhorst, his son, and Jan Baptiste van Renssel- aer were to pay the penalty of their rebellious disregard of the director-general's commands. When Director Stuyvesant arrived at Fort Orange about the end of March, he sent1 Sergeant Litschoe with a squad of soldiers to the director of the manor, ordering him to take down the patroon's flag, which was flying above the territory belonging to the West India Company. This Van Slechtenhorst emphatically refused to do, where- upon "fourteen soldiers, armed with loaded muskets " entered the yard of the manor-house, "and after firing a volley drew down the patroon's colors." The director- general then proclaimed that the space included within the boundaries prescribed by him was the property of
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