USA > New York > The history of the late province of New-York, from its discovery, to the appointment of Governor Colden, in 1762. Vol. I > Part 11
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28
As Fletcher, through the whole of his administra- tion, had been entirely influenced by the enemies of Leisler, nothing could be more agreeable to the numerous adherents of that unhappy man, than the earl's disaffection to the late governor. It was for this reason they immediately devoted themselves to his lordship as the head of their party.
The majority of the members of the council were Fletcher's friends, and there needed nothing more to render them obnoxious to his lordship. Leisler's advocates at the same time mortally hated them ; not only because they had imbrued their hands in the blood of the principal men of their party, but also because they had engrossed the sole confidence of the late governor, and brought down his resent- ment upon them Hence, at the commencement of the earl's administration, the members of the council had every thing to fear ; while the party they had depressed began once again to erect its head under the smiles of a governor who was fond of their aid, as they were solicitous to conciliate his favour. Had VOL. 1 .- 19
146
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
the earl countenanced the enemies as well as the friends of Leisler, which he might have done, his administration would doubtless have been easier to himself and advantageous to the province ; but his inflexible aversion to Fletcher prevented his acting with that moderation which was necessary to enable him to govern both parties. The fire of his temper appeared very early, on his suspending Mr. Nicoll from the board of council, and obliging him to enter into a recognizance in £2000, to answer for his conduct relating to the protections. But his speech to the new assembly convened on the 18th of May, gave the fullest evidence of his abhorrence of the late administration. Philip French was chosen speaker, and waited upon his excellency with the house, when his lordship spoke to them in the following manner :
" I cannot but observe to you what a legacy my predecessor has left me, and what difficulties to struggle with; a divided people, an empty purse, a few miserable naked half-starved soldiers, not half the number the king allowed pay for : the fortifications and even the governor's house very much out of repair, and in a word the whole government out of frame. It hath been represented to the government in England; that this province has been a noted receptacle of pirates, and the trade of it under no restriction, but
1 the acts of trade violated by the neglect and con- nivance of those whose duty it was to have pre- vented it."
After this introduction he puts them in mind that the revenue was near expiring. " It would be hard,
147
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
says he, if I that come among you with an honest mind and a resolution to be just to your interest, should meet with greater difficulties in the discharge of his majesty's service than those that have gone before me. I will take care there shall be no misapplication of the public money. I will pocket none of it myself, nor shall there be any embezzle- ment by others ; but exact accounts shall be given you when and as often as you shall require."
It was customary with Fletcher to be present in the field to influence elections ; and as the assembly consisted at this time of but nineteen members, they . were too easily influenced to serve the private ends of a faction. For that reason, his lordship was warm in a scheme of increasing their number at present to thirty, and so in proportion as the colony became more populous ; and hence we find the following clause in his speech " You cannot but know what abuses have been formerly in elections of members to serve in the general assembly, which tends to the subversion of your liberties. I do therefore recom- mend the making of a law to provide against it."
The house, though unanimous in a hearty address of thanks tothe governor for his speech, could scarce agree upon any thing else. It was not till the be- ginning of June that they had finished the contro- versies relating to the late turbulent elections; and even then six members seceded from the house, which obliged his excellency to dissolve the assembly on the 14th of June, 1698. About the same time the governor dismissed two of the council ; Pinhorne, for disrespectful words of the king, and Brook, the receiver-general, who was also turned out of that
1
148
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
office as well as removed from his place on the bench.
In July, the deputies from the French concerning the exchanging of prisoners, obliged his excellency to go up to Albany. When the earl sent the account of the conclusion of the peace to the governor of Canada, all the French prisoners in our custody were restored, and as to those among the Indians, he promised to order them to be safely escorted to Montreal. His lordship then added, " I doubt not, sir, that you on your part will also issue an order to relieve the subjects of the king captivated during the war, whether christians or Indians."
The count fearful of being drawn into an implicit acknowledgment that the Five Nations were subject to the English crown, demanded the French prison- ers among the Indians to be brought to Montreal ; threatening at the same time to continue the war against the confederates if they did not comply with his request. After the earl's interview with them he wrote a second letter* to the count, informing him that they had importunately begged to continue under the protection of the English crown, professing an inviolable subjection and fidelity to his majesty ; and that the Five Nations were always considered as subjects ; which, says his lordship, " can be mani- fested to all the world by authentic and solid proofs." His lordship added that he would not suffer them to be insulted, and threatened to execute the laws of England upon the missionaries, if they continued
* Charlevoix has published both these letters at large, together with count Frontenac's answer. I have had no opportunity of inquiring into the Jesuit's integrity in these transcripts, being unable to find his lordship's letters in the secretary's office.
.
149
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
any longer in the Five Cantons. A resolute spirit runs through the whole letter, which concludes in these words: "if it is necessary I will arm every man in the provinces under my government, to oppose you, and redress the injury that you may perpetrate against our Indians." The count in his answer proposed to refer the dispute to the commis- saries, to be appointed according to the treaty of Ryswick ;* but the earl continued the claim, insisting that the French prisoners should be delivered up at Albany.
The French count dying while this matter was controverted, Monsieur De Callieres his successor, sent ambassadors the next year to Onondaga, there to regulate the exchange of prisoners, which was accomplished without the earl's consent ; and thus the important point in dispute remained unsettled. The Jesuit Bruyas who was upon this embassage, offered to live at Onondaga, but the Indians refused his belt, saying that Corlear or the governor of New- York, had already offered them ministers for their instruction.
Great alterations were made in council at his ex- cellency's return from Albany. Bayard, Meinvielle, Willet, Townly, and Lawrence, were all suspended on the 28th of September; and colonel Abraham Depeyster, Robert Livingston, and Samuel Staats, called to that board. The next day Frederick Philipse resigned his seat, and Robert Walters was sworn in his stead.
* The count misunderstood the treaty. No provision was made by it for commissaries to settle the limits between the English and French possessions, but only to examine and determine the controverted rights and pretensions to Hud- son's Bay.
150
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
The earl assigned as reasons for Mr. Bayard's suspension, a
1. That he advised governor Fletcher to issue a proclamation for the currency of dog dollars, contrary to his oath and the king's instructions.
2. That he connived at an illegal commerce with foreign ships at New-York.
3. That he connived at Fletcher's granting com- missions to pirates manned here for the Red Sea ; procured protections from the governor, and re- ceived a reward ; advised to a piratical ship's being admitted into port with her spoils, and connived at Fletcher's receipt of presents from pirates.
4. That he advised to Fletcher's frequent misap- plications and embezzlements of the king's revenue, and other moneys appropriated by the assembly for special and public uses.
5. That he advised to extravagant grants, and took one to himself of land belonging to the Mo- hawks, as large as one of the middle counties in England, without referring a reasonable quit rent.
-
6. That he advised the governor's going into the field at elections, where he named members for the assembly with threatening and abusive language.
7. That he connived at the governor's neglect of the frontiers.
8. That he advised the printing a scandalous and malicious pamphlet, entitled a letter from a gentle- man of the city of New-York to another, concerning the troubles which happened in this province in the time of the late happy revolution, to stir up sedition and inflame the colony, in compliance with Fletcher's wicked designs, to gratify his own implacable malice
151
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
against those who were most active in the revolu- tion.
9. That a few days after his (lord Bellamont's) arrival, he confederated with several persons disaf- fected to his majesty's government, in an address to governor Fletcher, applauding his justice in counte- nancing illicit trade, and at the same time upbraided the earl as discouraging commerce by issuing his warrant for seizing the ship Fortune and goods un- lawfully imported in that bottom.
10. That contrary to his duty and oath he conspired against the king's government, by raising scandalous reports to misrepresent his lordship's government, and assisted in forging several false and groundless articles against his lordship, and without his know- ledge.
Mr. Bayard gave a written answer from New- Jersey on the 17th of October, 1698, thirteen days after he had a copy of the charges against him ; and intended, as it appears from his letter to his lordship, to sail for England. This defence follows the order of the impeachments. The proclamation he alleges was issued with the advice of the attorney-general as well as the rest of the council board, and fixed a dog dollar at five shillings and sixpence, though cur- rent in other colonies at six shillings. That this money had and retained a currency before and after the proclamation, and if the treasury had lost by the receipt of them, he offered to exchange them out of his own purse.
The second article he absolutely denies, and to account for the third, he says that several years pre- vious he had by letter to governor Fletcher, then at
152
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
Philadelphia, requested his favor in behalf of one Thomas Lewis, who had been abroad in a priva- teer, some of the crew of which had killed the mas- ter; and of one Barent Rynderson a comrade of Lewis. That the letter was written at the request of their neighbours Leenders Lewis and Samuel Staats ; the former a brother to Thomas Lewis, and the other brother-in-law to Barent Rynderson, and one of his lordship's new counsellors, and very soli- citous to procure governor Fletcher's licence for the return of their relations, and their settlement in New- York. That the governor granted the favour desired, and inclosed the licences to him, which he delivered to Leenders Lewis and Samuel Staats, who, unre- quested, offered him a bag of one hundred pieces of Eight for the governor, and eighteen or twenty du- cats for himself, both of which he refused to accept until he was importuned to gratify their desire of testifying their acknowledgment of the great favour they had received ; and for the confirmation of this narration he urges an examination of the four persons above named, all of them in town. He adds that the licences were upon condition of continuing in the province and being of the good behaviour, and at that day were commonly called protections.
4th. He denies this charge, declaring that he advised the borrowing money of the receiver-general about six years before, to repel the French who had advanced near to Schenectady, out of any funds in his hands, and had himself made loans to the public during the war, and bound himself to indemnify Mr. Livingston and other lenders, not disposed to rely on the justice of the country, for their disbursements.
153
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
5th. He owns his grant for Schoharie; thinks it no crime to accept the patent ; asserts that others who had governor Duncan's leave to purchase it, refused the price demanded, and that then he petitioned for it and drove the bargain with the Indians who never complained, " except the meanest," of the sale. He applauds the patents to colonel Schuyler and Don Dellius. The clamours against them he imputes to the envy of the Indian traders at Albany. Thinks our approaches to the Indians conducive to the spreading of christianity. Assigns the desertion of the Caghnuagas to the thirst of the Mohawks after instruction and the aid given to them by the French for obtaining it, conceives the settlement of the interior lands consistent with policy, as well as piety, in better watching the intrigues of the French.
6th. He admits the allegation that the governor had attended elections ; but he denies that it was with his advice, and he exculpates him from the charge of menacing the people, to whom he heard him recommend a peaceable ticket, which was slight- ed and the governor gone before the election.
7th. Acquitting the governor of any neglect of the frontiers, he refutes the accusation of his own con- nivance at this default, and observes that the advice of council on these subjects were nem. con. and would expose persons still retained at that board to as much censure as himself, who are nevertheless not blamed.
8th. He avers that the pamphlet excepted to contains nothing but the truth with respect to the revolution ; he informs his lordship that lieutenant governor Nicholson and the council changed the VOL. I .- 20
154
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
government by a convention of all the civil and military officers, for the purpose of executing mea- sures by them concerted till orders arrived from Eng- land. That this was communicated by express to the secretary of state and the lords of the plantation office, long before others applauded by his lordship thrust themselves into power for private ends, imposing reports upon the public of jacobites and papists, of whom there were not ten in the colony. He avows his own zeal for the revolution, but that he thought the operations here ought to have been conducted according to intimations from home, and according to the examples of Virginia, Barbadoes and Jamaica, without altering the colony constitution until orders were received for that purpose from England.
He recapitulates his sufferings under the ruling party, driven into exile and imprisoned after fourteen months, bail refused, fettered with irons, robbed, and that he still remains unredressed. -
And to the 9th and 10th articles he opposed a flat and peremptory denial of their truth.
The new assembly, of which James Graham was chosen speaker, met in the spring. His excellency spoke to them on the 21st of March, 1699.
As the late assembly was principally composed of anti-Leislerians, so this consisted almost entirely of the opposite party. The elections were attended with great outrage and tumult, and many applica- tions made relating to the returns ; but as Abraham Governeur, who had been secretary to Leisler, got returned for Orange county, and was very active in the house,* all the petitions were rejected without ceremony.
* Mr. Governeur married Milborne's widow.
155
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
Among the principal acts passed at this session, there was one for indemnifying those who were ex- cepted out of the general pardon in 1691; another against pirates ; one for the settlement of Milborne's estate ; and another to raise fifteen hundred pounds as a present to his lordship, and five hundred pounds for the lieutenant governor, his kinsman. Besides which the revenue was continued for six years longer. A necessary law was also made for the regulation of elections, containing the substance of the English statutes of 8 Hen. VI. Chap. VII. and the 7 and 8 Will. III.
This assembly took also into consideration sundry extravagant grants of land which colonel Fletcher had made to several of his favourites. Among these, two grants to Dellius, the Dutch minister, and one to Nicholas Bayard, were the most considerable. Dellius was one of the commissioners for Indian affairs, and had fraudulently obtained the Indian deeds, according to which the patents had been granted. One of the grants included all the lands within twelve miles on the east side of Hudson's river, and extended twenty miles in length from the north bounds of Saratoga. The second patent, which was granted to him in company with Pin- horne, Bancker, and others, contained all the lands within two miles on each side of the Mohawks' river, and along its banks to the extent of fifty miles. Bay- ard's grant was also for land in that country, and very extravagant. Lord Bellomont, who justly thought these great patents, with the trifling annual reserva- - tion of a few skins, would impede the settlement of the country, as well as alienate the affections of our Indian
156
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
allies, wisely procured recommendatory instructions from the lords justices for vacating those patents, which was now regularly accomplished by a law, and Dellius was suspended from his ministerial functions.
The earl having carried all his points at New- York, set out for Boston in June, whence, after he had settled his salary, and apprehended the pirate Kid, he returned here again in the fall.
The revenue being settled for six years, his lord- ship had no occasion to meet the assembly till the summer of the year 1700; and then indeed little else was done than to pass a few laws. One for hanging every popish priest that came voluntarily into the province, which was occasioned by the great number of French Jesuits, who were continually practising upon our Indians. By another provision was made for erecting a fort in the country of the Onondagas, but as this was repealed a few months after the king's providing for that purpose, so the former continues, as it for ever ought, in full force to this day.
The earl was a man of art and polite manners, and being a mortal enemy to the French, as well as a lover of liberty, he would doubtless have been of considerable service to the colony ; but he died here on the 5th of March, 1701, when he was but just become acquainted with the colony.
The earl of Bellomont's death was the source of new troubles, for Nanfan, the lieutenant governor, being then absent in Barbadoes, high disputes arose among the counsellors, concerning the exercise of the powers of government. Abraham De Peyster,
157
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
Samuel Staats, Robert Walters, and Thomas Wea- ver, who sided with the party that adhered to Leisler, insisted that the government was devolved upon the council, who had a right to act by a majority of voices ; but colonel Smith contended that all the powers of the late governor were devolved upon him as president, he being the eldest member of that board. Colonel Schuyler and Robert Living- ston, who did not arrive in town till the 21st of March, joined Mr. Smith, and refused to appear at the council board till near the middle of April. The assembly, which was convened on the 2d of that month, were in equal perplexity, for they adjourned from day to day, waiting the issue of this rupture. Both parties continuing inflexible, those members who opposed colonel Smith sent down to the house a representation of the controversy, assigning a number of reasons for the sitting of the assembly, which the house took into their consideration, and on the 16th of April resolved, that the execution of the earl's commission and instructions, in the absence of the lieutenant governor, was the right of the council by majority of voices, and not of any single member of that board ; and this was after- wards the opinion of the lords of trade. The dis- putes, nevertheless, continuing in the council strenu- ously supported by Mr. Livingston, the house, on the 19th of April, thought proper to adjourn them- selves to the first Tuesday in June.
In this interval, on the 19th of May, John Nanfan, the lieutenant governor, arrived, and settled the controversy by taking upon himself the supreme command.
158
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
Upon Mr. Nanfan's arrival, we had the agreeable news that the king had given two thousand pounds sterling for the defence of Albany and Schenectady, as well as five hundred pounds more for erecting a fort in the country of the Onondagas. And not long after an ordinance was issued, agreeable to the special direction of the lords of trade, for erect- ing a court of chancery, to sit the first Thursday in every month. By this ordinance the powers of the chancellor were vested in the governor and council, or any two of that board : commissions were also granted, appointing masters, clerks, and a register ; so that this court was completely organized on the 2d of September, 1701.
Atwood, who was then chief justice of the supreme court, was now sworn of the council. Abraham De- peyster and Robert Walters were his assistants on the bench; and the former was also made deputy auditor-general under Mr. Blaithwait. Sampson Shelton Broughton was the attorney-general, and came into that office when Atwood took his seat on the bench, before the decease of lord Bellomont. Both these had their commissions from England. The lieutenant governor and the major part of the board of council, together with the several officers above named, being strongly in the interest of the Leislerian party, it was not a little surprising that Mr. Nanfan dissolved the late assembly on the 1st of June last.
Great were the struggles at the ensuing elections, which however generally prevailed in favour of those who joined Leisler at the revolution; and hence, when the new assembly met on the 19th of August, 1701,
159
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
Abraham Governeur was elected for their speaker. Dutchess* was thought heretofore incapable of bear- ing the charge of a representation ; but the people of that county, now animated by the heat of the times, sent Jacob Rutsen and Adrian Garretson to represent them in assembly.
Mr. Nanfan, in his speech to the house, informs them of the memorable grant made to the crown, on the 19th of July, by the Five Nations, of a vast tract of land, to prevent the necessity of their sub- mitting to the French in case of a war; that his majesty had given out of his exchequer two thousand five hundred pounds sterling for forts, and eight hundred pounds to be laid out in presents to the Indians ; and that he had also settled a salary of three hundred pounds on a chief justice, and one hundred and fifty pounds on the attorney-general, who were both now arrived here.
The fire of contention which had lately appeared in the tumultuous elections blazed out afresh in the house. Nicoll, the late counsellor, got himself elected for Suffolk, and was in hopes of being seated in the chair ; but Abraham Governeur was chosen speaker. Several members contended that he, being an alien, was unqualified for that station. To this it was answered, that he was in the province in the year 1683, at the time of passing an act to naturalize all the free inhabitants professing the christian religion; and that for this reason the same objection against him had been overruled at the last assembly. In return for this attack, Governeur disputed Nicoll's
* That county, now so numerous and opulent, was assessed in the year 1702 below any other, contributing but £18 to a general tax of £2000.
160
HISTORY OF NEW-YORK.
right for sitting as a member of that house ; and succeeded in a resolve that he and Mr. Wessels, who had been returned for Albany, were both un- qualified according to the late act, they being neither of them residents in the respective counties for which they were chosen. This occasioned an imprudent secession of seven members, who had joined the interest of Mr. Nicoll, which gave their adversaries an opportunity to expel them and introduce others in their stead.
Among the first opposers of captain Leisler none was more considerable than Mr. Livingston. The measures of the convention at Albany were very much directed by his advice, and he was peculiarly obnoxious to his adversaries because he was a man of sense and resolution, two qualifications rarely to be found united in one person at that day. Mr. Livingston's intimacy with the late earl had till this time been his defence against the rage of the party which he had formerly opposed ; but as that lord was now dead, and Mr. Livingston's conduct in council, in favour of colonel Smith, had given fresh provoca- tion to his enemies, they were fully bent upon his destruction. It was in execution of this scheme, that as soon as the disputed elections were over, the house proceeded to examine the state of the public accounts, which they partly began at the late assembly.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.