The history of the late province of New York

Front matter

Class Book

HISTORY

OF THE LATB

Part I

From the Discovery of the Colony to the Surrender, in 1GC4.

Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, employed by Ferdinand and Isabel, king and queen of Castile, was the first discoverer of America.* He sailed from St. Lucar in August, 1492, and made sight of one of the Bahama islands, on the eleventh of October following. Newfoundland, and the main continent, were discovered five years after, by Sebastian Gabato, a Venetian, in the service of Henry VH. of England, from the thirty-eighth to the sixty-eighth degree of north latitude.

On the tenth of April, 1606, King James I. for planting two colonies, passed the great north and south Virginia patent. To Sir Thomas Gates and others, leave was given to begin a plantation, at any place on the continent, they should think convenient, between the thirty- fourth and forty-first degrees of latiiude : and all the lands extending fifty miles, on each side, along the coast, one hundred miles into the country, and all the islands within one hundred miles opposite to their plantations, were

* Some authors alledge,that Columbus first offered his services to the republic of Genoa; tliento John II. of Portugal, and afterwards to our King, Henry VII. ; but this disagrees with Lord Bacon's account, who informs us, that Christopher Columbus sailed before liis brother Bartholomew had laid the proj';ct before the King, which was owing to his falling into the hands of pirates on his way to England.

2 History of New-York. [Part L

granted in fee, to be called the First Colony. By the game patent, a like quantity was granted to Thomas Henham, Esquire, and others, for a plantation between thirty-eiglit and forty-live degrees of latitude, under the name of the Second Colony. The first began a settlement in the great bay (Chesapeak) in 16U7. The latter was planted at Plymouth in New- England, 1620.

Henry lludison, an Englishman, according to our authors, in the year 1008,* under a commission from

* Charlevoix, a Ficnch Jesuit, author of the General History of New France, thinks this discovery was in 1609, vol. 1, 12nio. edition, p. 2'21. But Stith, Douglass, Oldinixon, and otiier Englisii writers agree, that Hudson's first voyage was in the proccdniir year. It wasthouglit to be a demonstration of a discovery of tlie country bei'ore tliis period, that tiic marks of a hatchet were found on the body of a tree in the sprintf of 1775, which liad been made in 1590. The block was brought to to.vn and shewn to the autiior. [But the discoverer abused the value :io had set u])Oii tins curiosity, to whom I observed, that the Indians, uj)on the autiiority of Slith's liistory, might have got the instrument from Canada, where Targues Carteu, according to de Laet, the discoverer, had watered in 1536, at St. Croix, a little above Quebec, and afterwards revisited tlio St. Lawrence in 1540 with five ships, and continued the crew at Chaslebourg above St. Croix to 1542, or from ihe Enghsh who came first to Wococon, or Ocacock, to the southward of Cape Hatteras on the second July, 1582, and a few days after entered Albemarle Sound. That they returned to it under Sir Richard Grenville on the 26th May, 1585; and, on his return that summer to England, left about one hundred persons at lloanoke, who expanded themselves southward and northward, and liad dealings witli the Indians above one hundred and thirty miles northwest into their country. Tliat Sir Francis Drake visited the new colony in 1586, after burning St. Antony Urlena, in Florida, where he found llie Spaniards had commenced settlements. That Sir Richard Grenville revisited that country the same year, and Capt. White with his company the next; and that in 1588 Sir Walter Raleigh had then expended forty thousand pounds upon the enterprise for planting a colony under the name of Virginia. — Sir Tliomas Smith's companj', after Raleigh's assignment, arrived August the 3d, 1598, the year designated on the block. INIr. Robert Yates, the surveyor, who brought it to town, gave me the following certificate of the discovery in a letter dated May the 3d, 1775 :

" Sir : In the course of the survey of the patent granted in the year 1672, to Van Hendrichy Van Baale, in the county of Albany, as claimed by the proprietors thereof, the surveyors were particularly directed by the arbitrators appointed for the determination of its contested boundaries to bore the marked trees standin-f on and at some distance from the lines. In consequence of it a number of trees were bored. Several, whereof, appeared to be cut or marked, whose respective ages, upon ascertaining the streaks grown over such marks, counted from 110 to 140 years. But what more piirticularly strikes my attention, and to which I can find no satisfactory solution is, that at the distance of about one mile south-west from a hill called Kych-Uyt, in a pine wilderness, remote from any settlement, one of the axe-men, for the sake of keeping him in employ, was ordered, on the seventh March, 1775, to cut a pitch pine tree of about two feet diameter, whereon there was little of any appearance of a mark — about six inches in the tree a cut or mark was discovered and the block taken out. In splitting it with the grain it opened to our view several cuts of an axe or other sharp iron tool, the dents whereof appeared as fresh and new as if the mark had been made wittiin a year. In counting of the rings or streaks grown over

Parti.] History of JVew-York. ' 3

the king his master, discovered Long-Lsland, New- York, and the river which still bears his name ; and afterwards sold the country, or rather his right, to the Dutch. Their writers contend, that Hudson was sent out by the East-India Company in 1609, to discover a north-west passage to China ; and that having first discovered Delaware bay, he came hither, and penetrated up Hudson's river, as far north as the latitude of forty-three degrees. It is said, however, these marks, it amounted to one hundred and eighty-five, so that the cut v.-as made in the year 1590, at least 17 years before H'u>r..^on's discovery of this country. It is well known that the natives had no iron tools before their acquaintance and mtercourse with the Europeans, and it is this circumstance that involves me in the difficulty of accounting for its mark at that early period. Proof of the number of streaks grown over marks has often in our courts been allowed to ascertain its iige. I liavc, therefore, been at some pains to discover its certainty, and can, from my own experience, declare that it amounts to demonstration. — Among the variety of instances, the two following are the most remarkable :— In the year 176'2, 1 was present when anumber of trees were marked on the survey of the township of Kinderliook. In the year 1772, 1 re-surveyed these lines, and ordered several of those marks to beop.^ned, and thereupon found that all those trees, though of difterent kinds, invariably counted ten streaks above the marks. I have, also, been employed in the year 17G8 to rc-survey the bounds of a patent, which appeared by the deputy surveyor's return to have been originally laid out for the patentee in the year 1738 : to satisfy myself as to the certainty of the trees which were shewn me as marked on his survey, I bored a beach tree, whereon the initial letters of his name appeared standing in the corner of one of the sides, and found that the streaks above it counted exactly thirty.

I am, sir, your most obedient servant,

New- York, May 3, 1775. ROBERT YATES.

On inspecting the block I observed, that tlie rings of growth differed in their distance from each other, probably according to the variety of the j'carsasmore or less favorable. But if the age of the tree is to be computed by the fourth part ofhs diameter acquired in one hundred and eighty- five years, and was consequently for twenty-four inches over seven hundred and forty years old, how venerable cur forests of pine in which there are many trees of three hundred and eighty-four feet in diamcter[ .' ], which must then be from one thousand to near fifteen hundred years old ; and how many more they continue at a stand and on the decline before they fall, none can presume. The land most abounding with pine is light, dry and sandy, and vv'iicre the trunks have rotted away tliey have knots which no weather seems to aficit ; yet in the repletion of Iho interstices with rosin or an unctuous substance that is very inflamable, and which the country people collect and use for lights to work by in long winter evenings. — These are found where there is not the least appearance of a hillock for tho trunk to which they originally belonged, and this leads to as remote antiquity for their first formation as for rocks and other permanent substances. Pliny says, " V' ita arborum qujerundarum immensa credi potest," but he mentions no species of trees with certainty of an age equal to what we conjecture of tiie American firs commonly called pitcli pine. There is a while pine tree on the banks of Batton creek, in the towns'iip of Cambridge, in this province, of the diameter of seven feet. No fir as yet discovered exceeds four.

4 History of JVew-York, [Parti.

that there was a sale, and that the English objected to it, though they for some time neglected to oppose the Dutch settlement of the country.

In 1610, Hudson sailed again from Holland to this country, called by the Dutch, New-Netherlands; and four years after, the States General granted a patent to sundry merchants, for an exclusive trade on the North River, who, in 1614, built a fort on the west side, near Albany, which was first commanded by Henry Christiaens. Captain Argal was sent out by Sir Thomas Dale, governor of Virginia, in the same year, to dispossess the French of the two towns of Port-Royal and St. Croix, lying on each side of the bay of Fundy in Acadia, then claimed as part of Virginia.* In his return, he visited the Dutch on Hudson's river, who being unable to resist him, prudently submitted for the present to the king of England, and under him to the governor of Virginia. The very next year, they erected a fort on the south-west point of the island Manhattans, and two others in 1623: one called Good-Hope, on Connecticut river, and the other Nassau, on the east side of Delaware bay. The author of the account of New- Netherlandf asserts that the Dutch purchased the lands on both sides of that river, in 1632, before the English were settled in those parts ; and that they discovered a little fresh river, farther to the east, called Varsche Kivier tie, to disUuguish it from Connecticut river, known among them by the name of Varsche Rivier, which Vanderdonk also claims for the Dutch.

* Charlevoix places this transaction in 1613. Vol. I. hist, of N. France in 12mo. p. 210. But Stith, wlioin I follow, being a clergyman in Virginia, had greater advantages of knowing the truth than the French Jesuit.

t The pamphlet is entitled, "Beschryvinghcvan Virginia, Neiuw Nedcrland," &c. and was printed at Amsterdam in 1651. It contains two descriptions of the Dutch possessions. The first is a copy of that published by John de Lact, at Leyden. The second gives a view of this country several years after, in 1 649. A short representation of the country of the Mahakuase Indians, written in 1644, by John Megapolensis, jun. a Dutch minister residing here, is anne.xed to that part ofthe pamphlet concerning New-Netherland.

Parti.] History of Kew-York, 5

Determined upon the settlement of a colony, the States General made a grant of the country, in J621, to the West-India Company. Wouter Van Tvviller, arrived at fort Amsterdam, now New- York, and took upon himself the government, in June, 1629. — His style, in the patents granted by him, was thus, *' VVe, director and council, residing in New-J\etlierland on the island Manhattans, under the government of their high mightinesses, the Lords States General of the United iNetherlands, and the privileged West-India Company." In this lime the New- England planters extended their possession westward as far as Connecticut river. Jacob Van Curlet, the commissary there, protested against it, and, in the second year of the succeeding administration, under

William Kieft,* who appears first in 1638, a prohibition was issued, forbiding the English trade at fort Good-Hope ; and shortly after, on complaint of the insolence of the English, an order of council was made for sending more forces there, to maintain the Dutch territories. Dr. Mather confesses, that the New-England men first formed their design of settling Connecticut river in 1635, before which time they esteemed that river at least one hundred miles from an English settlement ; and that they first seated themselves there in 1636, at Hartford, near fort Good-Hope, at Weathersfield, Windsor and Sj)ringfield. Four years after, they seized the Dutch garrison, and drove them from the banks of the river, having first settled New-Haven in 1638, regardless of Keitt's protest against it.

The extent of New-Netherland was to Delaware, then called south river, and beyond it ; for I find, in

* We have no books amon^ our Dutch records remaining in the Secretary's office, relating to slate matters, before Kieft's time, nor .-iiiy onrohnent of patents, till a year after VanTwiller arrived here. Mr. Jacob Goelet supplied us with several extracts from the Dutch records.

6 History of JS'ew- York, [Part I.

the Dutch records, a copy of a letter from William Kieft, May G, 1638, directed to Peter Minuit,* who seems, by the tenor of it, to be the Svvedisli governor of New-Sweden, asserting, " that the whole south river of New-Netherlands had been in the Dutch possession many years, above and below, beset with forts, and sealed with their blood." Which, Kieft adds, has happened even during your administration " in New-Netherland, and so well known to you."

The Dutch writers are not agreed in the extent of Nova Belgia or New-Netherland ; some describe it to be from Virginia to Canada, and others inform us that the arms of the States General were erected at Cape Cod, Connecticut, and Hudson's river, and on the west side of the entrance into Delaware bay. The author of the pamphlet mentioned in the notes gives Canada river for a boundary on the north, and calls the country, northwest from Albany, Terra Incognita.

In 1640, the English, who had overspread the eastern part of Long-Island, advanced to Oysterbay. Kieft broke up their settlement in 1642, and fitted out two sloops to drive the English out of Schuylkill, of which the Marylanders had lately possessed themselves. The instructions, dated May 22, to Jan Jansen Alpendam, who commanded in that enterprise, are upon record, and strongly assert the right of the Dutch, both to the soil and trade there. The English from the eastward shortly after sent deputies to New-Amsterdam, for the accommodation of their disputes about limits, to whom the Dutch offered the

* The anonymous Dutch author of the description of New-Netherland in 1649, calls him Minnewits ; and adds, that in 1638 he arrived at Delaware with two vessels, pretending that he touched for refreshment in his way to the West-indies; but that he soon threw of the disguise, hy employing his men in erecting a fort. The same historian informs us of the murder of several Dutch men at'South River, by the Indians, occasioned by a quarrel, concerning the taking away the States Arms, which the former had erected at the first discovery of the country ; in resenting whicli, an Indian had been killed. If Kieft 's letter alludes to this affair, then Minuit preceded Van Twiller, in the chief command here ; and being perhaps disobliged by the Dutch, entered into the service of the queen ofSweden.

Parti.] History of New-York. 7

following conditions, entered in their books exactly in these words :

We have no account that the English acceded to these proposals, nor is it probable, considering their superior strength, that they ever did : on the contrary they daily extended their possessions, and in 16-io, the colonies of the Massachusett's Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut and New-Haven, entered into a league both against the Dutch and Indians, and grew so powerful as to meet sliortly after, upon a design of extirpating the former. The Massachusett's Bay declined this enterprise, which occasioned a letter to Oliver Cromwell from William Hooke, dated at New-Haven, November 3, 1G53, in which he complains of the Dutch, for supplying the natives with arms and ammunition, begs his assistance with two or three frigates, and that letters might be sent to the eastern colonies, commanding them to join in an expedition against the Dutch colony. Oliver's affairs would not admit of so distant an attempt;* but

• The war between him and the States, which began in July, 1652, was concluded by a peace on the fifth of April, 1()54. The treaty makes no particular mention of this country. If any part of it can be considered as relatinjr to the American possessions, it is to be found in the two first articles, which are in these words : " Imprimis, it is agreed and concluded, that, from this day forwards, there be a true, firm, a:id inviolable peace, a smcere, intimate and close

8 History of New-York. [Parti-

Richard Cromwell afterwards drew up instructions to his commanders for subduing the Dutch here, and wrote letters to the English American governments for their aid ; copies of which are preserved in Thurloe's Collection, vol. I. p. 721, &c.

Peter Stuyvesant was the last Dutch governor, and though he had a commission in 1646, he did not begin his administration till May 27, 1647. — The inroads and claims upon his government, kept him constantly employed. New-England on the east, and Maryland on the west, alarmed his fears by their daily increase ; and about the same time Capt. Forrester, a Scotchman, claimed Long-Island for the dowager of Stirling. The Swedes too were perpetually encroaching upon Delaware. Through the unskilfulness of the mate, one Deswyck, a Swedish captain and supercargo, arrived in Raritan river. The ship was seized, and himself made a prisoner at New- Amsterdam. Stuyvesant's reasons were these. In 1651, the Dutch built fort Casimir, now called Newcastle, on Delaware. The Swedes, indeed, claimed the country, and Printz, their governor, formally protested against the works. Risingh, his successor, under the disguise of friendship, came before the fortress, fired two salutes, and landed thirty men, who were entertained by the commandant as friends ; but he had no sooner discovered the weakness of the garrison, than he made himself master of it, seizing also upon all the ammunition, houses, and other effects of the West-India Company, and compelling several of the people to swear allegiance to Christina, queen of Sweden. The Dutch, in 1655,

friendship, affinity, confederacy, and union, betwixt the repuWic of England and the Slates General of the United Provinces of tlie iNetherlands. and the land, countries, cities, and towns, under the dominions of each, without distinction of places, together with their people and inhabitants of whatsoever degree."

11. " That hereafter all enmity, hostility, discord, and contention, betwixt the said republics, and their people and subjects, shall cease, and both parties shall henceforwards abstain from the committing all manncrof mischief, plunder, and injuries, by land, by sea, and on the fresh waters, in all their lands, countries, domhiions, places, and governments whatsoever."

Part I.] History of JVeiv-York, 9

prepared to retake fort Casimir. Stuyvesant commanded the forces in person, and arrived with them in Delaware the 9th of September. A few days after, he anchored before the garrison, and landed his troops. The fortress was immediately demanded as Dutch property : Suen Scutz, the commandant, desired leave to consult Risingh, which being refused, he surrendered the 16th of September on articles of capitulation. The whole strength of the place consisted of four cannon, fourteen pounders, five swivels, and a parcel of small arms, which were all delivered to the conquered. Fort Christini was commanded by Risingh. Stuyvesant came before it, and Risingh surrendered it upon terms the twenty-fifth of September. The county being thus subdued, the Dutch governor issued a proclamation in favor of such of the inhabitants as would submit to the new government, and about thirty Swedes swore " Fidelity and obedience to the States General, the lords directors of the West-India Company, their subalterns of the province of New-Netherlands, and the director general then, or thereafter, to be established." Risingh and one Elswych, a trader of note, were ordered to France, or England, and the rest of the Swedish inhabitants to Holland, and from thence to Gottenberg. The Swedes being thus extirpated, the Dutch became possessed of the west side of Delaware bay, now called the three lower counties. This country was afterwards under the command of lieutenant governors, subject to the control of, and commissioned by, the director general at New- Amsterdam. Johan Paul Jaquet was the first vicedirector, or lieutenant governor, of South River. — His successors were Alricks, Hinojossa, and William Beekman. The posterity of the last remains amongst us to this day. These lieutenants had power to grant lands, and their patents make a part of the ancient titles of the present possessors. Alrick's commission; of the twelfth of April, 1657, lO History of Miv- York, [Part I.

shows the extent of tlie Dutch claim on the west side of Delaware at that time. lie was appointed " director-i,reneral of the colony of the South River of New-Netherlands, and the fortress of Casimir, now called Niewer Amstel, with all the lands depending thereon, according to the first purchase and deed of release of the natives, dated July 19, 1651, beginning at the w^est side of the Minquaa, or Christina Kill, in the Indian language named Suspecough, to the mouth of the bay, or river called Bompt-hook, in the Indian language Cannaresse ; and so far inland as the bounds and limits of the Minquaas land, with all the streams, «fec. appurtenances, and dependencies." Of the country northward of the Kill, no mention is made. Orders, in 1658, were given to William Beekman to purchase cape Ilinlopen from the natives, and to settle and fortify it, which, for want of goods, was not done till the succeeding year.

In the year 1659, fresh troubles arose from the Maryland claim to the lands on South River ; and in September colonel Natlianiel Utie, as commissioner from Feudal, lord Baltimore's governor, arrived at Niewer Amstel, from Maryland. The country was ordered to be evacuated, lord Baltimore claiming all the land between thirty-eight and forty degrees of latitude, from sea to sea. Beekman and his council demanded evidence of his lordship's right, and offered to prove the States General's grant to the West-India Company, theirs to them, payment for the land and possession ; and upon the whole, proposed to refer the controversy to the republics of England and Holland, praying at the same time, three weeks to consult Stuyvesant, the general. The commissioner, notwithstanding, a fev/ days after, warned him to draw off beyond the latitude of forty degrees : but Beekman disregarded the threat. — Colonel Utie thereupon returned to Maryland, and an immediate invasion was expected.

Parti.] History of JYew-York, \\

Early in the spring of the year 1660, Nicholas Varletli, and Brian Newton, were dispatched from fort Amsterdam to Virginia, in quality of ambassadors, with full power to open a trade, and conclude a league, offensive and defensive against the barbarians. William Berckly, the governor, gave them a kind reception, andapprovedtheir proposal of peace and commerce, which Sir Henry Moody was sent here to agree upon and perfect. Four articles to that purpose were drawn up and sent to the governor for confirmation. Stuyvesant artfully endeavored, at this treaty, to procure an acknowledgment of the Dutch title to the country, which Berckly as carefully avoided. This was his answer :

" Sir : I have received the letter, you were pleased to send me, by Mr. Mills, his vessel, and shall be ever ready to comply with you, in all acts of neighborly friendship and amity. But truly, sir, you desire me to do that, concerning your titles and claims to land, in this northern part of America, which I am in no capacity to do ; for I am but a servant of the assembly : neither do they arrogate any power to themselves, farther than the miserable distractions of England force them to. For when God shall be pleased in his mercy to take away and dissipate the unnatural divisions of their native country, they will immediately return to their own professed obedience. What then they should do in matters of contract, donation or confession of right, would have little strength or signification ; much more presumptive and impertinent would it be in me to do it, without their knowledge or assent. We shall very shortly meet again, and then, if to them you signify your desires, I shall labour all 1 can to get you a satisfactory answer.

" I am, sir,

'* Your humble servant,

"William Bercklt.

^'Virginia, August 20, 1660.*'

12 History of Mw'York. [Parti.

Governor Stuyvesant was a faithful servant of the West-India Company : this is abundantly proved by his letters to them, exciting their care of the colony. In one, dated April 20, 1660, which is very long and pathetic, representing the desperate situation of affairs on both sides of the New-Netherland, he writes, " Your honors imagine that the troubles in England will prevent any attempt on these parts : alas ! they are ten to one in number to us, and are able without any assistance, to deprive us of the country when they please." On the twenty-fifth of June, the same year, he informs them, "that the demands, encroachments, and usurpations of the English, gave the people here great concern. The right to both rivers, says he, by purchase and possession, is our own, without dispute. We apprehend, that they, our more powerful neighbours, lay their claims under a royal patent, which we are unable hitherto to do in your name."* Colonel Utie being unsuccessful the last year, in his embassy for the evacuation of the Dutch possessions on Delaware, lord Baltimore, in the autumn of 1660, applied by Capt. Neal,his agent, to the West-India Company, in Holland, for an order on the inhabitants of South River to submit to his authority, which they absolutely refused, asserting their right to that part of their colony.

The English, from New-England, were every day encroaching upon the Dutch. The following letter, from Stuyvesant to the West-India Company, dated July 21, 1661, shows the state of the colony at that time, on both sides : " We have not yet begun the fort on Long-Island, near Oysterbay, because

* If we should argue from this letter, that the West-India, Company had no grants of the New-Netherlands from the States General, as some suppose,wo discredit De Laet's liistory, dedicated to the States in 1624, as well as all the Dutch writers, and even Stuyvesant himself, who, in his letter to Richard Nicolls. at the surrender, asserts, that they had a grant, and showed it under seal to the English deputies. But the genuine construction of the Dutch governor's letter, is this, that in 1660, he had not the patent to the West-India Company, to lay before the English in America, who disputed the Dutch right to this county.

Parti.] History of Mew-York. 13

our neighbours lay the boundaries a mile and a half more westerly than we do, and the more as your honors, by your advice of December twenty-fourth, are not inclined to stand by the treaty of Hartford, and propose to sue for redress on Long-Island and the fresh water river, by means of the States' ambassador. Lord Sterling is said to solicit a confirmation of his right to all Long-Island, and importunes the present king, to confirm the grant made by his royal father, which is affirmed to be already obtained. But more probable, and material, is the advice from Maryland, that lord Baltimore's patent, which contains the south part of South River, is confirmed by the king, and published in print ; that lord Baltimore's natural brother, who is a rigid papist, being made governor there, has received lord Baltimore's claim and protest to your honors in council, (wherewith he seems but little satisfied) and has now more hopes of success. We have advice from England, that there is an invasion intended against these parts, and the country solicited of the king, the duke, and the parliament, is to be annexed to their dominions ; and, for that purpose, they desire three or four frigates, persuading the king, that the company possessed and held this country under an unlawful title, having only obtained of king James leave for a watering place on Staten-Island, in IG^S."

In August, 1663, a ship arrived from Holland at South River, with new planters, ammunition, and implements of husbandry. Lord Baltimore's son landed a little after, and was entertained by Beekman at Niewer Amstel. This was Charles, the son of Cecilius, who, in 1661, had procured a grant and confirmation of the patent, passed in favor of his father in 1632. The papistical principles of the Baltimore family, the charge of colonizing, the parliamentary war with Charles I. and Oliver's usurpation, all conspired to impede the settlement of Maryland, till the year 1661. And these considerations