USA > New York > New York City > The story of the city of New York > Part 8
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
tains the primitive ferriage fees. We will jot them down :
Fl. Stivers.
For each wagon or cart, with two horses or oxen . ·
2 IO
For one cart or wagon with one horse . For one cart or plow
2
I
For one pig, sheep, buck, or goat,-for two, eight stivers, and what is above that each 3
For every man, woman, Indian, or squaw, For two or more persons, each one .
6
For a child under ten years, half fare.
For one horse, or four-footed horned beast, I IO
For one hogshead of tobacco
16
For one tun of beer I6
For an anker with wine or liquor .
6
For a tub of butter, soap, or such like .
6
For a mud (four bushels) of grain 4
And what exceeds that is half a stiver per skeple. Packages of goods and other articles not specified herein, in proportion as parties shall agree.
One of the items provided that the lessee should be bound to accommodate passengers in the summer only from five o'clock in the morning till eight o'clock in the evening, "provided the windmill hath not taken in its sail."
The ferry-boat is an hour crossing. When it comes clumsily up to the other shore we find there a ferry-house and tavern, and little else. The site of the second greatest city of the Union is still covered with forest. There are a few farms here and there in the sheltered hollows, and considerable villages at the Wallabout, Hempstead, and Flatbush, but the Heights are silent and solitary.
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SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE.
One day we saunter round to the city court, which holds its sessions in the Stadt Huys every Monday in the year, except that it takes a recess from De- cember 14th until three weeks after Christmas. It is ten minutes of nine. Citizens are wending their way toward the Stadt Huys. Solomon La Chair, the notary, comes arm and arm with his confrère, Van der Veere, each with his Marsenaer's Praxis in hand. On the green before the City Hall, caressing his " cat," loiters "Big Pieter," the negro whipper and executioner. On the puy, or platform, on one side of the stoep stands a gray-haired old man, with a sort of skull-cap on his head and a bell in his hand- Stoffel Mighielsen, the town-crier. As we look he rings his bell three times, and reads a high-sounding proclamation from their High Mightinesses, the Director and Council at the fort. We will enter with the little stream of litigants and witnesses pour- ing in. It is a large square room, with the arms of New Amsterdam engraved on the lozenge-shaped window panes. Over the judge's bench are wreathed the orange, blue, and white colors of the West India Company, and the tricolor of father-land. On the bench are the stuffed red cushions we saw carried to the church on Sunday. The leather buckets kept by the city for putting out fires are hung on the sides of the room. Johannes Nevins, court secretary, is already at his desk turning the leaves of his book of minutes. On his right is a box containing the seal of New Amsterdam, on his left the half-hour glass which is turned precisely at nine, that all tardy members may be fined, -- one half hour late, six stivers; one hour late, twelve stivers: and who-
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
ever is wholly late, without reasonable excuse, forty stivers. Next to the secretary sits the Gerechts Boode, or court messenger. Pieter Schaffbauck, the jailer, is busy assigning seats to the visitors, and looks after a prisoner he has brought in from jail. There is one other court officer, Matthew de Vos, the bailiff, who is conversing with some clients. On a rack near by are the law books, the court armory, " The Placards, Ordinances, and Octroys of the Honorable, Great, and Mighty Lords of the States of Holland and West Friesland," "Dutch Court Practice and Laws," the " Practigke ende Hande Bouck in Crimineele Zoacken," by Dr. Van Brugghe, and others, heavy leather-bound tomes. Nine o'clock is struck. The court-house bell rings. Silence is proclaimed by the court messenger, and the judges enter at a side door in solemn procession, Nicasius de Sille leading, then the Heeren Burgomasters, Martin Cregier and Oloff Stevenson Cortlandt ; the schepens, Pieter Van Cowenhoven, Johannes Van Brugh, Jacob Kip, and Cornelis Steenwyck. The court is opened by Domine Megapolensis, who arises and offers a long and impressive prayer, of which we will quote the more material portion.
"We beseech Thee, O Fountain of all good gifts, qualify us by thy grace, that we may with fidelity and righteousness serve in our respective offices. To this end enlighten our darkened understandings that we may be able to distinguish the right from the wrong, the truth from the falsehood, and that we may give pure and uncorrupted decisions ; having an eye upon thy word. a sure guide, giving to the simple wisdom and knowl-
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SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE.
edge. Let thy law be a light unto our feet, and a lamp to our path, so that we may never turn away from the path of righteousness. Deeply impress on all our minds that we are not accountable unto men, but unto God, who seeth and heareth all things. Let all respect of persons be far removed from us, that we may award jus- tice unto the rich and the poor, unto friends and foes alike, to residents and to strangers according to the law of truth, and that not one of us may swerve therefrom. And since gifts do blind the eyes of the wise, and de- stroy the heart, therefore keep our hearts aright. Grant unto us also, that we may not rashly prejudge any one without a fair hearing, but that we patiently hear the parties, and give them time and opportunity for defend- ing themselves ; in all things looking up to thee for thy word and direction."
Without further formality, the court proceeds to business. A large legal-appearing document, super- scribed " Worshipful, Right Beloved Schout, Burgo- masters, and Schepens of the City Amsterdam in New Netherland," is handed in by the court mes- senger, and opened by the schout, who reads :
" WORSHIPFUL, RIGHT BELOVED :
" Considering, on the one hand, God's manifold mer- cies and benefits which in his bounty he hath from time to time not only exhibited, but also continued to this budding province ; and on the other hand, the resolution and order of the supreme authority of this province, adopted and executed for the further benefit and secu- curity of this province : We, the Director General and Council of this province, have, above all things, deemed it necessary to order and prescribe a general day of
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
fasting, prayer, and thanksgiving, which order we here- by send to your Worship, according to the form of our father-land, to the end that it shall be proclaimed and observed in your Worship's city, whereunto confiding we. are, and remain,
" Your Worship's good friends, " The Director General and " Council of New Netherland, " P. STUYVESANT."
The letter is ordered to be proclaimed from the puy after previous ringing of the bell. Several cases of assault, petty thieving, slander, and tapping on the Lord's Day are then disposed of, the schout- fiscal appearing as prosecuting attorney and examin- ing both prisoner and witnesses. At last the court comes to the case of Hend. Jansen Clarbout, on trial for a capital offence. .
The secretary reads the Herr Schout's demand against the prisoner, that the burgomasters and schepens vote each for himself for the conclusion of his sentence. The magistrates therefore write their judgment upon pieces of paper, which are collected by the secretary, who opens and reads them as follows :
"The Herr Burgomaster, Martin Cregier-' That he shall be whipped and branded, and banished for all his life out of the province of New Netherland.'
" The Herr Burgomaster, Oloff Stevenson Cortlandt- . 'Though he be worthy of death, yet from special grace he adjudges that he be whipped and branded and ban- ished.'
SOCIAL AND DOMESTIC LIFE. I2I
"The Herr Schepen, Pieter Van Cowenhoven-' He shall be put to death.'
" The Herr Schepen Johannes Van Brugh 'decides that he shall be whipped and branded, and banished the country.'.
" The Herr Schepen Hend. J. Vander Vin-' That the offender is worthy of death, and ought, according to the Herr Schout de Sille's demand, be punished until death follow, with the costs and mises of justice.'
" The Herr Schepen Jacob Kip-' The reasons being sufficiently discussed in complete court, and papers and confession being examined, he can, in conscience and conviction, not vote otherwise than that he, Hendrick Jansen Clarbout, ought according to law be executed by death.'
"The Herr Schepen Cornelis Steenwyck-' Decides that he be whipped and branded under the gallows, the halter being around his neck, and banished forever, and sent hence with his wife and children on pain of the gallows, thanking the magistrates on his bended knees for their merciful and well-deserved justice."
After the reading of these, a second vote is taken, and it is decreed-
"That the offender, Hendrick Jansen Clarbout, shall be brought to the place where justice is usually executed, and with the rope around his neck be whipped and branded, and banished the country, and condemned in the costs and mises of justice."
"I now ask," said the schout, "that the Herr Presi- dent Burgomaster, Martin Cregier, and the Herr Schepen, Cornelis Steenwyck, be appointed to wait on the Wor- shipful Director-General and Council to ask permission
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ما
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
to erect a gallows before the City Hall, and for power to banish from the District of New Netherlands."
The two messengers file slowly out and return in due time, bearing a written "apostille," which authorizes and qualifies the magistrates, for this time, not only to banish the apprehended Hendrick Jansen Clarbout beyond the city's jurisdiction, but also beyond the province of New Netherland ; "and they are likewise permitted to allow a half gallowe's to be erected before the City Hall, should that be necessary for carrying the judgment into effect."
With the concluding words the twelve great strokes of noon sound from the fort, and court is declared dismissed-dinner, with the burgomasters of New Amsterdam being a sacred office not lightly broken in upon by business or pleasure.
After a time it becomes necessary for us to do a lit- tle shopping, and we are directed to the store of the Heer Schepen Cornelis Steenwyck, the Macy's of New Amsterdam. The merchant we find a pleasant, agreeable man of the world, with a horizon much wider than most of his class. His career has been full of vicissitude. When quite a young man he had come to the city as mate of a trading vessel, and being smitten with the charms of a merchant's daughter, had cast in his fortunes with the young city. "The hand- some sailor," the ladies called him for years after his arrival. Perhaps for that reason they did most of their shopping at his store. It was not long before the Herr Steenwyck was known as the best dressed, most polite, and most popular man in New Amster-
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dam. Then he was made schepen, and, after the English came, mayor. He imported the newest goods from father-land and became rich. In his store, which filled the whole second floor of his dwelling, besides every thing in the hardware and grocery line, the fair shoppers might find the latest patterns in blue and red pennistoen, haft tyke, sarge, flannel, fryse, carsay, drugget, mopeling, camersche, canting, calko, garelet, hollands, ozenbergs, fouster, neppins cloth, licking, damask, esternyns, galoen, silk crape, callemink, silk-striped stuff, colored silks, bruston-stuff, runell, bangale, colored fustian, buck- ram, plush, gloves, stockings, tops, blankets, and ribbons.
We shall find the houses of the better class com- fortable and some even elegant. A wide, cool hall ex- tending through the centre of the house, with doors in front and rear, was a feature of all. These were hung with ancestral portraits, and furnished with a settee, and sometimes with a great Dutch clock with the family arms set in its case. The front room, or parlor, was usually furnished with a marble-topped table covered with a few devotional works and family heir-looms, with Russian-leather arm-chairs, a great square figured rug serving as a carpet, curtains of tabby cloth falling to the floor, a foot bench and cushion. The great chamber, or family room, in the rear was much more richly furnished. In one, we read, there were twelve Russian-leather chairs, two velvet chairs with fine silver lace, a cupboard of French nut-wood, a round table, a square table, a cabinet, a large looking-glass, a bedstead with its
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
two feather-beds and canopy, ten pieces of china- ware, five alabaster images, a piece of tapestry work, a flowered tabby chimney cloth, a pair of flowered tabby curtains, and a dressing-box.
The cabinet was filled with family jewels and with massive silver plate-the latter brought from father- land and often an heir-loom that had been treasured in the family for generations. Their plate was the pride and glory of the early Dutch families. There were pieces of superb workmanship then in the city, as is seen in the De Peyster family plate illustrated on another page. The "guest chamber," with its canopied bed, and nut-wood dressing-table, its Tur- key-leather chairs, and flowered cloth curtains, was also a feature of Dutch domestic arrangements.
The chief social amusements are dancing parties (at which only the decorous square dances are known, and which break up at eleven, after a frugal repast of bread and chocolate is served), and what the young people call "out parties," which are very much like the modern picnic. All along the shores of Manhattan are romantic coves, groves, and glens to which the young people of both sexes are fond of resorting. " The Locust Trees," a beautiful grove of locusts on a knoll near the North River, a little south of Trinity Church ; the umbrageous pathway known as the Maagde Paatje, with its attendant hill-side ; a little rock glen and clear-water brook on the present line of Gold Street ; and the beautiful sylvan lake called the kolch or fresh-water pond, near the present corner of Canal and Broadway, are all favorites with the sylvan excursionists.
DE PEYSTER PUNCH-BOWL ..
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
We regret that we cannot remain to share in the winter sports, of which our young friends give us sprightly accounts. They have been thus described :
"First, as the weather turns cold, is the skating on the kolch and neighbor ponds. Then comes the snow, and the young men arrange for a sleighing frolic by moon- light. Four horses they get and Jan Dericksen's long sleigh that holdeth ten couples, packed close, as it suiteth young men and maidens to ride, and away they go over the Kissing Bridge, and under the bended pine boughs, often, methinks, as far as to Harlem, where at Mynheer Borsum's tavern they have a dance and a supper, which by our custom may consist of naught but bread and a pot of chocolate.
" Again, though the Dutch be a sober folk, yet do they keep many festivals-Kerstrydt (Christmas), Nieuw Jar (New Year), Paas (Easter), Pinxter (Whitsuntide), and San Claas (St. Nicholas Day). Christmas comes first, and we also observe it as the anniversary of landing day. After the stockings are explored for whatever Santa Claus may have left there, the young people spend the morning skating on the kolch, or turkey-shooting in the forest ; at one the great ovens yieldeth up the Christmas feast, which all meet to enjoy. New Year is the greatest day in New Amsterdam. On that day no one does aught but call and receive calls. For days before, the house- wives have been brewing. baking, and mixing, and when the day cometh and thou goest to greet thy friend, thou findest the great logs crackling in the twelve-foot fire- place, and in the centre of the table, spread in the middle of the room, a mighty punch-bowl well reinforced by haunches of cold venison and turkeys roasted whole, and ornamented with cakes, comfits, confectionery, silver
770130
SIGIL
Seal of
New-Netherland
1623
TO 1664
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tankards, and bekers filled with rare Madeira and foam- ing ale. The good vrouw and her daughters, clad in their best, are there to receive one, and to dispense whole-hearted hospitality, smiles, and good wishes.
" Paas, which we observe on Easter Monday, may be traced back to the early Saxon, from whom the Dutch are sprung. Paas means 'egg cracking,' and a favorite game on that day is called 'playing for eggs.' Thy sweetheart holds an egg in her hand and challenges thee to break it by striking it with thy egg, the broken one belonging to that which remaineth whole. On that day, too, the shops are gay with boiled eggs, tied with red and blue ribbons, or colored by mixing potent pigments in the water which hath boiled them. On Paas Day no true son of St. Nicholas tasteth other food than eggs."
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PART II. ENGLISH RULE.
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129 -130
VI.
THE NEW FLAG.
RETURNING to take up the thread of our history, we find New Amsterdam under new rulers, with a new name. Henceforth, save for a brief period, she would be called New York, in honor of her new owner, James, Duke of York.
The fort also was given a new name, James ; a new flag waved over it, the Union Jack, a standard symbolical of the nation which had come to rule. The red cross on its white ground was derived from a union of the three crosses of St. George, St. An- drew, and St. Patrick, originally emblems of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, now united in one great nation-a nation of sailors, navigators, pioneers, with such genius for coloniza- tion that the sun never sets on its dominions ; a nation which, with those that have sprung from it, is now the dominant power on the globe. It must be admitted that the change was in many respects a beneficial one. Instead of a mere trading-post, the slave of a commercial monopoly, surrounded by enemy colonies, each superior to it in numbers and enterprise, New York became one of several prov-
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
inces, under the same general government, speaking the same language, having to a certain extent the same interests. We shall find that her rate of in- crease was much more rapid in the one hundred and eleven years of English rule, than during the half century of Dutch domination. Her progress was, how- ever, not so rapid as it should have been, considering the advantages she possessed, for it was the policy of her English rulers to shorten, as far as they dared, that strong arm of her power-her commerce. In treating of this period we shall notice only the more important events, and shall strive to give due prominence to its leading principle-the struggle of the people for their rights, and especially for the right to govern themselves.
Twenty royal governors, ruled New York while it remained a colony, under eight kings and queens- Charles II., James II. of the Stuart line, William and Mary of the House of Orange, Queen Anne of the Stuart line again, and lastly, the three Georges of the Brunswick line.
The names of these governors, and their terms of office, were: Richard Nicolls, 1664-1668; Francis Lovelace, 1668-1673 ; Sir Edmond Andros, 1674- 1682; Thomas Dougan, 1683-1689; Henry Slough- ter, 1691, died July 23, 1691 ; Benjamin Fletcher, 1692-1698; Earl of Bellomont, 1698, died March 5, 1701 ; Lord Cornbury, 1702-1708 : Lord Lovelace, 1708, died May 6, 1709 ; Robert Hunter, 1710-1719 ; William Burnet, 1720-1728 ; Lord John Mont- gomery, 1728, died July 1, 1731 ; William Cosby, 1732, died March 10, 1736; George Clinton, 1743-
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THE NEW FLAG.
1753; Sir Danvers Osborne, 1753, died October 12, 1753 ; Sir Charles Hardy, 1755-1757; Robert Monck- ton, 1761-1765 ; Sir Henry Moore, 1765-1770; Earl of Dunmore, 1770; Sir William Tryon, 1771, de- posed in the Revolution.
The interregnum between 'several of these dates was filled by lieutenant-governors or provisional governors. The average of these rulers in states- manship and patriotism was not high. Some were politicians merely. Some were old soldiers or sailors, who had to be provided for; and others, younger sons of titled families for whom places were desired. A few were men of sagacity and experience in public affairs, who were appointed for their fitness, or sup- posed fitness, for the position. Colonel Nicolls the first, was one of the most successful ; his position was one of great difficulty and delicacy. The Dutch citi- zens were to be placated, new and peculiar conditions were to be established, and special laws required to be made. In his treatment of these vexed ques- tions the Governor showed much tact and dis- cretion.
The Dutch were left in possession of their homes, business, religion, and for nearly a year, of their city government. At length the latter was changed to the English form-burgomasters, schepens, and schout giving place to mayor, aldermen, and sheriff. A code of laws was framed, called The Duke's Laws, which were certainly much more liberal in matters of faith and conscience than those of the iron Direc- tor, Stuyvesant. Trial by jury was established, a justice court for each town also, with right of ap-
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THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
peal to the Court of Sessions. Treason, murder, denying the true God, kidnapping, striking parents, and some other crimes were punishable by death. Slavery was allowed, but no Christians were to be made slaves except criminals sentenced by the lawful authority. No persons could trade with the Indians without a license. No Indian was allowed to " pow- wow," or perform incantations to the Devil. Churches were to be built and supported in each parish, but no sect was to be favored above another, and no Christian was to be fined, imprisoned, or molested for his religious opinions.
These were the main provisions of the new laws. There were many others relating to the settlement of estates, anniversary sermons, surgeons, orphans, servants, weights and measures, births, burials, drift whales, wrecks, sailors, laborers, some of which seem very needless and curious in our eyes.
The patents of the great patroonships were con- firmed under the titles of "manors." The Dutch still held their title to the old stone church in the fort, and continued to worship there, allowing the English congregation to hold its service in the after- noon. The English service was held on the first Sab- bath after the surrender, and this was the first time that that grand liturgy of the Anglican Church, which M. Taine pronounces the "national poem " of England, had been officially heard in New York, though travelling missionaries of the church had un- doubtedly read it in the city previous to this time.
Before affairs were fairly settled at home, Governor Nicolls was menaced from abroad. War had broken
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THE NEW FLAG.
out between England and Holland because of Nicolls' act,-a war in which France soon joined in favor of Holland, and an attack on New York might be made at any time by the great Dutch admiral, De Ruyter, whose fleet was known to be in the West Indies. De Ruyter, however, sailed for the home seas, where he arrived in time to gain fresh laurels in the war, at one time attacking and burning the English fleet in the mouth of the Thames itself. New York escaped for the time; and in 1667 the peace of Breda left the Duke in peaceable possession of his new territory.
In the interim (in 1666) had occurred the terrible plague and great fire of London. One hundred thou- sand people died by the former in five months; five sixths of the houses in London were swept away by the latter, leaving the people homeless and beggared. These national disasters, by paralyzing trade and emigration, had great influence on the fortunes of New York.
The French, too, who were by this time firmly es- tablished in Canada, and laid claim to all the terri- tory west of New York as far south as the Ohio River, required to be closely watched. These con- tinued anxieties, and the financial straits to which his generosity soon brought him, so wore upon the genial Governor that he wrote in 1668 asking to be recalled.
The Duke consented, and appointed Colonel Francis Lovelace governor in his place. Every one had a good word for the retiring Gov- ernor. Commissioner Maverick wrote to Lord Ar- lington : " He has kept persons of different judg-
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ments and of diverse nations in peace and quietness during a time when a great part of the world was in wars ; and as to the Indians, they were never brought into such peaceable posture and faire correspondence as they now are." As the time for the Governor's departure came a grand dinner was given him at the house of Cornelis Steenwyck; and when on the 28th of August, 1668, he took final leave, a grand proces- sion of military and citizens escorted him to the vessel which was to convey him home.
Colonel Lovelace, his successor, was an amiable, worthy gentleman, a favorite courtier of King Charles II., and one of his Knights of the Order of the Royal Oak. His administration is noteworthy only for the fierce civil and military commotions which disturbed Europe, and rolled across the Atlantic with such force as to depose Lovelace from his government, and for the moment even to overthrow British power in New York.
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