See DELAWARE: A. D. 1638-1640.
NEW WORLD, The:
First use of the phrase.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1500-1514.
----------NEW YORK: Start--------
NEW YORK:
The aboriginal inhabitants.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES:
IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY, ALGONQUIAN FAMILY, HURONS, &c.,
HORIKANS; and MANHATTAN ISLAND.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1498.
Probable discovery of the Bay by Sebastian Cabot.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1498.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1524.
The Bay visited by Verrazano.
See AMERICA: A. D. 1523-1524.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1606.
Embraced in the territory granted by King James I.
of England to the Plymouth or North Virginia Company.
See VIRGINIA: A. D. 1606-1607.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1609.
Discovery and exploration of Hudson River by Hendrik Hudson,
in the service of Holland.
"Early in September, 1609, the ship 'Half-Moon,' restlessly
skirting the American coast, in the vain quest for a strait or
other water route leading to India, came to the mouth of a
great lonely river, flowing silently out from the heart of the
unknown continent. The 'Half-Moon' was a small, clumsy,
high-pooped yacht, manned by a score of Dutch and English
sea-dogs, and commanded by an English adventurer then in Dutch
pay, and known to his employers as Hendrik Hudson. … Hudson,
on coming to the river to which his name was afterward given,
did not at first know that it was a river at all; he believed
and hoped that it was some great arm of the sea, that in fact
it was the Northwest Passage to India, which he and so many
other brave men died in vainly trying to discover. … Hudson
soon found that he was off the mouth of a river, not a strait;
and he spent three weeks in exploring it, sailing up till the
shoaling water warned him that he was at the head of
navigation, near the present site of Albany. … Having
reached the head of navigation the 'Half-Moon' turned her
bluff bows southward, and drifted down stream with the rapid
current until she once more reached the bay. … Early in
October, Hudson set out on his homeward voyage to Holland,
where the news of his discovery excited much interest among
the daring merchants, especially among those whose minds were
bent on the fur-trade. Several of the latter sent small ships
across to the newly found bay and river, both to barter with
the savages and to explore and report further upon the
country. The most noted of these sea-captains who followed
Hudson, was Adrian Block."
_T. Roosevelt,
New York,
chapter 1._
ALSO IN:
_R. Juet,
Journal of Hudson's Voyage
(New York Historical Society Collection,
series 2, volume 1)._
See AMERICA: A. D. 1609.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1609-1615.
Champlain and the French in the North.
See CANADA: A. D. 1608-1611; and 1611-1616.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1610-1614.
Possession taken by the Dutch.
Named New Netherland.
"The gallant and enterprising people under whose auspices
Hudson had achieved his brilliant discovery [of the Hudson
River] had just emerged from a long, bloody, but glorious
contest for freedom, which they had waged with dogged
determination against Spain since 1566. …
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1562-1566, and after.
It was at this crisis, when peace had at length returned,
after an absence of more than forty years, and when numbers of
people must, by the transition, have found themselves deprived
of their accustomed active employment and habitual excitement,
that the intelligence of Hudson's discovery broke on the
public, affording to private adventure a new field. … The
commodities which abounded among the natives of the newly
discovered countries were objects of great demand in Europe.
The furs that the rigors of the northern climate rendered
indispensable to the inhabitants of Holland, and which they
had hitherto obtained through Russian and other traders, were
to be had now from the Indians in exchange for the veriest
baubles and coarsest goods. Stimulated by these
considerations, … a vessel was despatched by some Amsterdam
merchants, freighted with a variety of goods, to the
Manhattans, in the course of the following year [1610]. The
success of this venture seems to have given increased stimulus
to the spirit of enterprise.
{2325}
New discoveries were projected; licenses were granted by the
States-General, on the recommendation of the Admiralty, to two
ships, the Little Fox and Little Crane, ostensibly to look
again for a northerly passage to China; and the cities of
Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hoorn, and Enckhuyzen, as well as
several private merchants and citizens, applied for
information to the States of Holland and West Friesland,
relative to a certain newly discovered navigable river, and
the proper course to be steered in proceeding thither. These
ships proceeded, on procuring the requisite information, to
that quarter early in the ensuing spring; and of so much
importance was the country now considered, that the traders
erected and garrisoned one or two small forts on the river,
for the protection of the fur-trade. … The favorable
position of the island of Manhattan for commerce was easily
perceived by the Europeans from the first, and it soon became
the head-quarters of the traders. Their establishment in that
locality consisted now [1613] of four houses, under the
superintendence of Hendrick Corstiaensen, who, by means of his
trading-boats, visited every creek, inlet, and bay in the
neighborhood, where an Indian settlement was to be found, and
thus secured for his employers the furs and other valuable
produce of the country. But the growing prosperity of the
infant post was now fated to experience an unexpected check.
Captain Argal, of Virginia, returning in the month of November
of this year from a seemingly predatory visit to a settlement
which the French had made at Port Royal, in Acadia, touched at
the island of Manhattans, with a view, it is said, of looking
after a grant of land which he had obtained there from the
Virginia Company, and forced Corstiaensen to submit himself
and his plantation to the king of England, and to the governor
of Virginia under him, and to agree to pay tribute in token of
his dependence on the English crown. … Active steps were
taken, early in the next year, to obtain an exclusive right to
the trade of those distant countries," and in March, 1614, the
States General passed an ordinance conferring on those who
should discover new lands the exclusive privilege of making
four voyages thither before others could have admission to the
traffic. This ordinance "excited considerable animation and
activity among adventurers. A number of merchants belonging to
Amsterdam and Hoorn fitted out and dispatched five ships:
namely, the Little Fox, the Nightingale, the Tiger, and the
Fortune, the two last under the command of Adriaen Block and
Hendrick Corstiaensen, of Amsterdam. The fifth vessel was
called the Fortune also; she belonged to Hoorn, and was
commanded by Captain Cornelis Jacobsen Mey. The three
last-named and now well-known navigators proceeded immediately
on an exploring expedition to the mouth of the Great River of
the Manhattans, but Block had the misfortune, soon after his
arrival there, of losing his vessel, which was accidentally
burnt. … He forthwith set about constructing a yacht, 38
feet keel, 44½ feet long, and 11½ feet wide, which, when
completed, he called the 'Restless,' significant of his own
untiring industry. … In this craft, the first specimen of
European naval architecture in these waters, Skipper Block
proceeded to explore the coast east of Manhattan Island. He
sailed along the East River, to which he gave the name of 'The
Hellegat,' after a branch of the river Scheld, in East
Flanders; and leaving Long Island, then called Metoac, or
'Sewan-hacky, 'the land of shells,' on the south, he
discovered the Housatonick, or river of the Red Mountain."
Proceeding eastwardly, Block found the Connecticut River,
which he named Fresh River, and ascended it to an Indian
village at 41° 48'. Passing out of the Sound, and ascertaining
the insular character of Long Island, he gave his own name to
one of the two islands off its eastern extremity. After
exploring Narragansett Bay, he went on to Cape Cod, and there
fell in with Hendrick Corstiaensen's ship. "While these
navigators were thus engaged at the east, Captain Cornelis Mey
was actively employed in exploring the Atlantic coast farther
south. … He reached the great Delaware Bay, … two capes of
which still commemorate his visit; one, the most northward,
being called after him, Cape Mey; another, Cape Cornelis;
while the great south cape was called Hindlopen, after one of
the towns in the province of Friesland. … Intelligence of
the discoveries made by Block and his associates having been
transmitted to Holland, was received there early in the autumn
of this year [1614]. The united company by whom they had been
employed lost no time in taking the steps necessary to secure
to themselves the exclusive trade of the countries thus
explored, which was guarantied to them by the ordinance of the
27th of March. They sent deputies immediately to the Hague,
who laid before the States General a report of their
discoveries, as required by law, with a figurative map of the
newly explored countries, which now, for the first time,
obtained the name of New Netherland. A special grant in favor
of the interested parties was forthwith accorded … to visit
and trade with the countries in America lying between 40° and
45° north latitude, of which they strangely claimed to be the
first discoverers."
_E. B. O'Callaghan,
History of New Netherland,
book 1, chapter 4 (volume 1)._
ALSO IN:
_Documents Relating to Colonial History of New York,
volume 1, pages 4-12._
_B. Fernow,
New Netherland
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 4, chapter 8)._
NEW YORK: A. D. 1614-1621.
The first trading monopoly succeeded
by the Dutch West India Company.
"It was perceived that, to secure the largest return from the
peltry trade, a factor should reside permanently on the
Mauritius River [North, or Hudson, as it has been successively
called], among the Maquaas or Mohawks, and the Mahicans, at
the head of tide-water. Hendrick Christiaensen, who, after his
first experiment in company with Adriaen Block, is stated to
have made 'ten voyages' to Manhattan, accordingly constructed
[1614] a trading house on 'Castle Island,' at the west side of
the river, a little below the present city of Albany. … To
compliment the family of the stadtholder, the little post was
immediately named Fort Nassau. … It has been confidently
affirmed that the year after the erection of Fort Nassau, at
Castle Island, a redoubt was also thrown up and fortified 'on
an elevated spot' near the southern point of Manhattan Island.
But the assertion does not appear to be confirmed by
sufficient authority. … The Holland merchants, who had
obtained from the States General the exclusive right of
trading for three years to New Netherland, though united
together in one company to secure the grant of their charter,
were not strictly a corporation, but rather 'participants' in
a specific, limited, and temporary monopoly, which they were
to enjoy in common. …
{2326}
On the 1st of January, 1618, the exclusive charter of the
Directors of New Netherland expired by its own limitation.
Year by year the value of the returns from the North River had
been increasing; and the hope of larger gains incited the
factors of the company to push their explorations further into
the interior. … No systematic agricultural colonization of
the country had yet been undertaken. The scattered agents of
the Amsterdam Company still looked merely to peaceful traffic,
and the cultivation of those friendly relations which had been
covenanted with their savage allies on the banks of the
Tawasentha [where they had negotiated a treaty of friendship
and alliance with the Five Nations of the Iroquois, in 1617].
Upon the expiration of their special charter, the merchants
who had formed the United New Netherland Company applied to
the government at the Hague for a renewal of their privileges,
the value of which they found was daily increasing. But the
States General, who were now contemplating the grant of a
comprehensive charter for a West India Company avoided a
compliance with the petition." In June, 1621, "the
long-pending question of a grand commercial organization was
finally settled; and an ample charter gave the West India
Company almost unlimited powers to colonize, govern, and
defend New Netherland."
_J. R. Brodhead,
History of the State of New York,
volume 1, chapters 2-3._
NEW YORK: A. D. 1615-1664.
Dutch relations with the Iroquois.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES:
IROQUOIS CONFEDERACY, THEIR CONQUESTS.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1620.
Embraced in the English patent of the Council for New England.
See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1620-1623.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1621-1646.
Early operations of the Dutch West India Company.
The purchase of Manhattan Island.
The Patroons and their colonies.
"When it became evident that the war [of the United Provinces]
with Spain would be renewed, the way was opened for the
charter of a company, so often asked and denied. Just before
the expiration of the twelve years' truce, April, 1621, the
great West India Company was formed, and incorporated by the
States General. It was clothed with extraordinary powers and
privileges. It could make alliances and treaties, declare war
and make peace. Although its field of operations was limited
to Africa, the West India Islands, and the continent of
America, it could in case of war fight the Spaniards wherever
found on land or sea. And finally, it was permitted to
colonize unoccupied or subjugated countries. To it especially
were committed the care and the colonization of New
Netherland. The West India Company, after completing its
organization in 1623, began its work in New Netherland by
erecting a fort on Manhattan Island [called Fort Amsterdam],
and another on the Delaware, and by reconstructing the one at
Albany. It sent over to be distributed in these places 30
families, not strictly as colonists, to settle and cultivate
the land, but rather as servants of the Company, in charge of
their factories, engaged in the purchase and preparation of
furs and peltries for shipment. Some of them returned home at
the expiration of their term of service, and no other
colonists were brought out for several years. The Company
found more profitable employment for its capital in fitting
out fleets of ships of war, which captured the Spanish
treasure-ships, and thus enabled the Company to pay large
dividends to its stockholders. In 1626 its agents bought all
Manhattan Island of the Indian owners for sixty guilders in
goods on which an enormous profit was made; and about the same
time they purchased other tracts of land in the vicinity,
including Governor's and Staten Islands, on similar terms. The
Company was now possessed of lands enough for the
accommodation of a large population. They were fertile, and
only needed farmers to develop their richness. But these did
not come. … Accordingly, in 1629, the managers took up a new
line of action. They enacted a statute, termed 'Freedoms and
Exemptions,' which authorized the establishment of colonies
within their territory by individuals, who were to be known as
Patroons, or Patrons. An individual might purchase of the
Indian owners a tract of land, on which to plant a colony of
fifty souls within four years from the date of purchase. He
who established such a colony might associate with himself
other persons to assist him in his work, and share the
profits, but he should be considered the Patroon, or chief, in
whom were centred all the rights pertaining to the position,
such as the administration of justice, the appointment of
civil and military officers, the settlement of clergymen, and
the like. He was a kind of feudal lord, owing allegiance to
the West India Company, and to the States General, but
independent of control within the limits of his own territory.
The system was a modified relic of feudalism. The colonists
were not serfs, but tenants for a specified term of years,
rendering service to the Patroon for a consideration. When
their term of service expired, they were free to renew the
contract, make a new one, or leave the colony altogether. The
privileges of a Patroon at first were restricted to the
members of the company, but in about ten years were extended
to others. The directors of the company were the first to
improve the opportunity now offered of becoming 'princes and
potentates' in the western hemisphere. … In 1630, the agents
of Director Killian Van Rensselaer bought a large tract of
land on the west side of the Hudson River below Albany, and in
July following other tracts on both sides of the river,
including the present site of Albany. In July, 1630, Director
Michael Paauw bought lands on the west side of the Hudson
opposite Manhattan Island, and named his territory Pavonia. A
few months later Staten Island was transferred to him, and
became a part of his domain. … Killian Van Rensselaer also
formed a partnership with several of his brother directors,
among whom was the historian De Laet, for the purpose of
planting a colony on his lands on the upper Hudson, to be
known as the colony of Rensselaerwyck. He seems to have had a
clearer perception of what was required for such a work than
the other Patroons. The colony was organized in accordance
with the charter, and on business principles. Before the
colonists left Holland they were assigned to specific places
and duties. Civil and military officers were appointed,
superintendents and overseers of the various departments were
selected, and all were instructed in their duties.
The number of the first colonists was respectable.
{2327}
They were chiefly farmers and mechanics, with their families.
On their arrival, May, 1630, farms situated on either side the
river were allotted to them, utensils and stock distributed,
houses built, and arrangements made for their safety in case
the natives should become hostile. Order was maintained, and
individual rights respected. They were not long in settling
down, each to his allotted work. Year by year new colonists
arrived, and more lands were bought for the proprietors. In
1646, when Killian Van Rensselaer, the first Patroon, died,
over two hundred colonists had been sent from Holland, and a
territory forty-eight by twenty-four miles, besides another
tract of 62,000 acres, had been acquired. The West India
Company had changed its policy under the direction of new men,
and no longer favored the Patroons. The Van Rensselaers were
much annoyed, and even persecuted, but they held firmly to
their rights under the charter. Their colony was prosperous,
and their estate in time became enormous. … Of all the
Patroon colonies Rensselaerwyck alone survived. It owed its
existence mainly to its management, but largely to its
situation, remote from the seat of government, and convenient
for the Indian trade."
_G. W. Schuyler,
Colonial New York,
introduction, section 1._
ALSO IN:
_I. Elting,
Dutch Village Communities on the Hudson,
pages 12-16._
_J. R. Brodhead,
History of the State of New York,
volume 1, chapter 7._
See, also, LIVINGSTON MANOR.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1629-1631.
Dutch occupancy of the Delaware.
See DELAWARE: A. D. 1629-1631.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1630.
Introduction of public registry.
See LAW, COMMON: A. D. 1630-1641.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1634.
The city named New Amsterdam.
Soon after the appointment of Wouter Van Twiller, who became
governor of New Netherland in 1633, "the little town on
Manhattan Island received the name of New Amsterdam … and
was invested with the prerogative of 'staple right,' by virtue
of which all the merchandise passing up and down the river was
subject to certain duties. This right gave the post the
commercial monopoly of the whole province."
_Mrs. Lamb,
History of the City of New York,
volume 1, page 73._
NEW YORK: A. D. 1634-1635.
Dutch advance posts on the Connecticut.
See CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1634-1637.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1635.
Territory granted to Lord Lennox and Lord Mulgrave,
on the dissolution of the Council for New England.
See NEW ENGLAND: A. D. 1635.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1638.
Protest against the Swedish settlement on the Delaware.
See DELAWARE: A. D. 1638-1640.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1638-1647.
The colony thrown open to free immigration and free trade.
Kieft's administration, and the ruinous Indian wars.
"The colony did not thrive. The patroon system kept settlers
away, and the paternal government of a trading corporation
checked all vigorous and independent growth, while Van Twiller
[Wouter Van Twiller, appointed governor in 1633] went steadily
from bad to worse. He engaged in childish quarrels with
everyone, from the minister down. … This utter misgovernment
led at last to Van Twiller's removal. He retired in possession
of large tracts of land, which he had succeeded in acquiring,
and was replaced [1638] by William Kieft, a bankrupt merchant
of bad reputation. Kieft practically abolished the Council,
and got all power into his own hands; but he had some sense of
order. … Despite his improvements, the place remained a mere
trading-post, and would not develope into a colony. The
patroons were the curse of the scheme, and too powerful to be
overthrown; so they proposed, as a remedy for the existing
evils, that their powers and privileges should be greatly
enlarged. The Company had bought back some of the lands; but
they were still helpless, and the State would do nothing for
them. In this crisis they had a return of good sense, and
solved the problem by destroying their stifling monopoly. They
threw the trade to New Netherlands open to all comers, and
promised the absolute ownership of land on the payment of a
small quit-rent. The gates were open at last, and the tide of
emigration swept in. De Vries who had bought land on Staten
Island, came out with a company; while ship followed ship
filled with colonists, and English came from Virginia, and
still more from New England. Men of property and standing
began to turn their attention to the New Netherlands; fine
well-stocked farms rapidly covered Manhattan, and healthy
progress had at last begun. Thus strengthened, the Company
[1640] restricted the patroons to a water-front of one mile
and a depth of two, but left them their feudal privileges,
benefits which practically accrued to Van Rensselaer, whose
colony at Beverwyck had alone, among the manors, thriven and
grown at the expense of the Company. The opening of trade
proved in one respect a disaster. The cautious policy of the
Company was abandoned, and greedy traders who had already
begun the business, and were now wholly unrestrained, hastened
to make their fortunes by selling arms to the Indians in
return for almost unlimited quantities of furs. Thus the
Mohawks obtained guns enough to threaten both the Dutch and
all the surrounding tribes, and this perilous condition was
made infinitely worse by the mad policy of Kieft. He first
tried to exact tribute from the Indians near Manhattan, then
offered a price for the head of any of the Raritans who had
destroyed the settlement of De Vries; and, when a young man
was murdered by a Weckquaesgeek, the Governor planned
immediate war." Public opinion among the colonists condemned
the measures of Kieft, and forced him to accept a council of
twelve select-men, chosen at a public meeting; but "the
twelve," as they were called, failed to control their
governor. Acting on the advice of two or three among them,
whose support he had secured, he ordered a cowardly attack
upon some fugitive Indians from the River tribes, who had been
driven into the settlements by the onslaught of the Mohawks,
and whom De Vries and others were trying to protect. "The
wretched fugitives, surprised by their supposed protectors,
were butchered in the dead of a winter's night [1643], without
mercy, and the bloody soldiers returned in the morning to
Manhattan, where they were warmly welcomed by Kieft. This
massacre lighted up at once the flames of war among all the
neighboring tribes of Algonquins. All the outlying farms were
laid waste, and their owners murdered, while the smaller
settlements were destroyed. Vriesendael alone was spared.
{2328}
A peace, patched up by De Vries, gave a respite until summer,
and the war raged more fiercely than before, the Indians
burning and destroying in every direction, while trade was
broken up and the crews of the vessels slaughtered." Kieft's
life was now in danger from the rage of his own people, and
eight men, appointed by public meeting, took control of public
affairs, as far as it was possible to do so. Under the command
of John Underhill, the Connecticut Indian fighter, who had
lately migrated to Manhattan, the war was prosecuted with
great vigor and success on Long Island and against the
Connecticut Indians who had joined in it; but little headway
was made against the tribes on the Hudson, who harassed and
ruined the colony. Thus matters went badly for a long period,
until, in 1647, the Company in Holland sent out Peter
Stuyvesant to take the place of Kieft. "In the interval, the
Indian tribes, weary at last of war, came in and made peace.
Kieft continued his quarrels; but his power was gone, and he
was hated as the principal cause of all the misfortunes of the
colony. The results of his miserable administration were
certainly disastrous enough. Sixteen hundred Indians had
perished in the war; but all the outlying Dutch settlements
and farms had been destroyed, and the prosperity of the colony
had received a check from which it recovered very slowly. In
Connecticut, the English had left the Dutch merely a nominal
hold, and had really destroyed their power in the East. On the
South river [the Delaware] the Swedes had settled, and,
disregarding Kieft's blustering proclamations, had founded
strong and growing colonies. … The interests of Holland were
at a low ebb."
_H. C. Lodge,
Short History of the English Colonies,
chapter 16._
A more favorable view of Kieft and his administration is taken
by Mr. Gerard, who says: "Few proconsuls had a more arduous
task in the administration of the government of a province
than had Director Kieft. The Roman official had legions at
command to sustain his power and to repel attack; and in case
of disaster the whole empire was at hand for his support.
Kieft, in a far distant province, with a handful of soldiers
crowded in a dilapidated fort and a few citizens turbulent and
unreliable, surrounded on all sides by savages ever on the
alert for rapine and murder, receiving little support from the
home government, and having a large territory to defend and
two civilized races to contend with, passed the eight years of
his administration amid turmoil and dissension within, and
such hostile attack from without as to keep the province in
continuous peril. The New England colonies were always in a
state of antagonism and threatening war. … The Swedes and
independent settlers on the South and Schuylkill rivers were
constantly making encroachments and threatening the Company's
occupancy there, while pretenders under patents and
independent settlers, knowing the weakness of the government,
kept it disturbed and agitated. What wonder that mistakes were
made, that policy failed, that misfortunes came, and that
Kieft's rule brought no prosperity to the land? The radical
trouble with his administration was that he was under a
divided rule—a political governor with allegiance to the
States-General, and a commercial Director, as the
representative of a great company of traders. The
States-General was too busily occupied in establishing its
independence and watching the balance of European power to
give supervision to the affairs of a province of small
political importance—while the Company, looking upon its
colony merely as a medium of commercial gain, drew all the
profit it could gather from it, disregarded its true
interests, and gave it only occasional and grudging support.
… Towards the Indians Kieft's dealings were characterized by
a rigid regard for their possessory rights; no title was
deemed vested and no right was absolutely claimed until
satisfaction was made to the native owner. Historians of the
period have been almost universal in their condemnation of him
for the various contests and wars engaged in with the Indians,
and have put on him all responsibility for the revolts. But
this is an ex post facto criticism, which, with a false
judgment, condemns a man for the results of his actions rather
than for the actions themselves. Indeed, without the energy
displayed by the Director towards the aborigines, the colony
would probably have been annihilated. … Imprudence,
rashness, arbitrary action, want of political sagacity may be
imputed to Director Kieft, but not excessive inhumanity, nor
want of effort, nor unfaithfulness to his employers or to his
province. He has been generally condemned, but without
sufficient consideration of the trials which he experienced,
the anxiety to which he was subject, and the perplexities
incident to a government over discontented, ignorant and
mutinous subjects, and to the continued apprehension of
outside attack. Left mostly to his own resources, and
receiving no sympathy and little aid, his motives the subject
of attack from both tavern and pulpit, and twice the object of
attempted assassination, his rule as a whole, though
disastrous, was not dishonorable."
_J. W. Gerard,
The Administration of William Kieft
(Memorial History of the City of New York,
volume 1, chapter 6)._
ALSO IN:
_Mrs. Lamb,
History of the City of New York,
volume 1, chapters 6-8._
_E. B. O'Callaghan,
History of New Netherland,
book 2, chapter 7
and book 3, chapters 1-9 (volume 1)._
NEW YORK: A. D. 1640-1643.
Expulsion of New Haven colonists from the Delaware.
See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1640-1655.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1647-1664.
Peter Stuyvesant and his administration.
Peter Stuyvesant, the director or governor who succeeded
Kieft, "took possession of the government on the 11th of May,
1647. On his arrival he was greeted with a hearty and cordial
reception by the citizens, to which he responded by reciprocal
professions of interest and regard. He had for several years
been in the Company's service as Director of their colony at
Curaçoa, and was distinguished for his energy and bravery.
Having lost a leg in an attack on the Portuguese settlement at
St. Martin's, he had been obliged to return to Europe for
surgical aid, whence, still retaining his former commission,
he was sent to the charge of the Province of New Netherlands.
Immediately on his accession he organized a representative
Council of nine members from a list of eighteen presented to
him by the inhabitants of the province, and gave his assent to
various important provisions for the regulation of trade and
commerce. By a conciliatory and just treatment of the Indians
so recently in revolt he speedily gained their affection and
goodwill, and by his judicious measures for their mutual
protection restored peace and harmony among all classes."
_S. S. Randall,
History of the State of New York,
period 2, chapter 5._
{2329}
"The powers of government—executive, legislative, and
judicial—which he [Stuyvesant] assumed, were quite extensive,
and often arbitrary. Directly or indirectly, he appointed and
commissioned all public officers, framed all laws, and decided
all important controversies. … He directed churches to be
built, installed ministers, and even ordered them when and
where to preach. Assuming the sole control of the public
lands, he extinguished the Indian title thereto, and allowed
no purchase to be made from the natives without his sanction;
and granted at pleasure, to individuals and companies, parcels
of land, subject to such conditions as he saw fit to impose.
In the management of these complicated affairs the Director
developed a certain imperiousness of manner and impatience of
restraint, due, perhaps, as much to his previous military life
as to his personal character. … During the whole of his
predecessor's unquiet rule a constant struggle had been going
on between the personal prerogative of the Executive and the
inherent sentiment of popular freedom which prevailed among
the commonalty, leading the latter constantly to seek for
themselves the franchises and freedoms of the Fatherland, to
which, as loyal subjects, they deemed themselves entitled in
New Netherland. The contest was reopened soon after
Stuyvesant's installation, and the firmness of both Director
and people, in the maintenance of what each jealously
considered their rights, gave indication of serious
disturbance to the public weal." The governor, at length, in
1647, conceded "a popular representation in the affairs of
government. An election was therefore held, at which the
inhabitants of Amsterdam, Breuckelen, Amersfoort and Pavonia
chose eighteen of 'the most notable, reasonable, honest, and
respectable' among them, from whom, according to the custom of
the Fatherland, the Director and Council selected 'Nine Men'
as an advisory Council; and although their powers and duties
were jealously limited and guarded by the Director's
Proclamation, yet the appointment of the Nine Men was a
considerable gain to the cause of popular rights. … The
subsequent history of Stuyvesant's government is a record of
quarrels with colonial patroons, with the English in New
England, the Swedes on the South River, and last—not
least—with his own people. In fact, the government was by no
means well adapted to the people or adequate to protect them.
The laws were very, imperfect, and the Director and Council
either incompetent or indisposed to remedy the serious defects
which existed in the administration of civil and criminal
justice."
_H. R. Stiles,
History of the City of Brooklyn,
volume 1, chapter 3._
"Director Stuyvesant was recalled to Europe soon after the
surrender [to the English—see below], to vindicate his
conduct … and … found himself the object of serious
charges and most virulent attacks. He returned to this country
in 1668, and died on his bouwerie in 1672. … Throughout his
chequered life he exhibited a character of high morality, and
in his dealings with the Indians an energetic and dignified
deportment, which contributed, no doubt, considerably to the
success of his arms and policy. Alike creditable to his
talents are his negotiations with the neighboring English
colonies. His vindications of the rights of his country, on
these occasions, betoken a firmness of manner, a sharpness of
perception, a clearness of argument and a soundness of
judgment, combined with an extent of reading, which few of his
contemporaries could equal, and none surpass. … It would
afford pleasure were we justified in pronouncing a like
panegyric on other parts of his administration; but none can
review [his arbitrary resistance to just popular demands] …
and his persecution of the Lutherans and other Nonconformists,
without reprobating his tyranny, and regretting that a
character, so faultless in other respects, should be stained
by traits so repulsive as these, and that the powers of a mind
so strong should be exerted in opposing rather than promoting
civil and religious freedom. The hostility this part of his
public conduct evoked redounds most creditably to the
character of the settlers, whose struggles for freer
institutions cannot fail to win for them our sympathy and
regard."
_E. B. O'Callaghan,
History of New Netherland,
book 6, chapter 8 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_Remonstrance of New Netherlands
(Documents Relative to Colonial History of New York,
volume 1, pages 275-317);
also volume 13._
_G. P. Fisher,
The Colonial Era,
chapter 9._
_B. Fernow,
Peter Stuyvesant
(Memorial History of the City of New York,
volume 1, chapter 7)._
NEW YORK: A. D. 1650.
The adjustment of boundaries with Connecticut.
To settle the long pending controversy between Dutch and
English respecting the territory claimed by each on Long
Island and at the mouth of the Connecticut River, Governor
Stuyvesant went in person to Hartford, September, 1650, and
opened negotiations. His hands were tied from the beginning by
instructions from his company to press no claim to the
extremity of a quarrel, because the English were too strong in
America to be fought with. He assented, therefore, to the
appointment of two arbitrators on each side, and he named
Englishmen as his arbitrators. "The four agreed upon a
settlement of the boundary matter, ignoring all other points
in dispute as having occurred under the administration of
Kieft. It was agreed that the Dutch were to retain their
lands, in Hartford [the post of 'Good Hope,' established in
1633, and which they had continued to hold, in the midst of
the spreading English settlement]; that the boundary line
between the two peoples on the mainland was not to come within
ten miles of the Hudson River, but was to be left undecided
for the present, except the first 20 miles from the Sound,
which was to begin on the west side of Greenwich Bay, between
Stamford and Manhattan, running thence 20 miles north; and
that Long Island should be divided by a corresponding line
across it, 'from the westernmost part of Oyster Bay,' to the
sea. The English thus got the greater part of Long Island, a
recognition of the rightfulness of their presence in the
Connecticut territory, and at least the initial 20 miles of a
boundary line which must, in the nature of things, be
prolonged in much the same direction, and which in fact has
pretty closely governed subsequent boundary lines on that side
of Connecticut. If these seem hard terms for the Dutch, and
indicative of treachery on the part of their two English
agents, it must be borne in mind that, by the terms of his
instructions from his principals, Stuyvesant had to take the
best terms he could get. The treaty of Hartford was dated
September 19, 1650."
_A. Johnston,
Connecticut
(American Commonwealths),
chapter 10._
ALSO IN:
_E. B. O'Callaghan,
History of New Netherland,
book 4, chapters 1-9 (volume 2)._
_C. W. Bowen,
The Boundary Disputes of Connecticut,
part 1, chapter 1._
_Division of the Boundary in America
(Documents Relative to Colonial History of New York,
volume 1, pages 541-577)._
{2930}
NEW YORK: A. D. 1653.
The grant of municipal government to New Amsterdam.
"An interesting moment arrived. A new city appeared in the
annals of the world. Its birth was announced on the evening of
February 2, 1653, at the feast of Candlemas. A proclamation of
the governor defined its exceedingly limited powers and named
its first officers. It was called New Amsterdam. There was
nothing in the significant scene which inspired enthusiasm. It
came like a favor grudgingly granted. Its privileges were few,
and even those were subsequently hampered by the most
illiberal interpretations which could be devised. Stuyvesant
made a speech on the occasion, in which he took care to reveal
his intention of making all future municipal appointments,
instead of submitting the matter to the votes of the citizens,
as was the custom in the Fatherland; and he gave the officers
distinctly to understand, from the first, that their existence
did not in any way diminish his authority, but that he should
often preside at their meetings, and at all times counsel them
in matters of importance. … A pew was set apart in the
church for the City Fathers; and on Sunday mornings these
worthies left their homes and families early to meet in the
City Hall, from which, preceded by the bell-ringer, carrying
their cushions of state, they marched in solemn procession to
the sanctuary in the fort. On all occasions of ceremony,
secular or religious, they were treated with distinguished
attention. Their position was eminently respectable, but it
had as yet no emoluments. … There were two burgomasters,
Arent van Hattam and Martin Cregier. … There were five
schepens,—Paulus Van der Grist, Maximilian Van Gheel, Allard
Anthony, Peter Van Couwenhoven, and William Beekman."
_Mrs. M. J. Lamb,
History of the City of New York,
volume 1, chapter 10._
ALSO IN:
_D. T. Valentine,
History of the City of New York,
chapter 5._
NEW YORK: A. D. 1654.
Threatened attack from New England.
See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1640-1655.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1655.
Subjugation of the Swedes on the Delaware.
See DELAWARE: A. D. 1640-1656.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1664.
The English conquest.
New Amsterdam becomes New York.
The Navigation Act of Cromwell, maintained by the English
after the Stuart Restoration, was continually evaded, almost
openly, in the British American colonies; and it was with the
Dutch at New Amsterdam that the illicit trade of the New
Englanders, the Virginians and the Marylanders was principally
carried on. "In 1663 the losses to the revenue were so
extensive that the framers of the customs … complained of
the great abuses which, they claimed, defrauded the revenue of
£10,000 a year. The interest of the kingdom was at stake, and
the conquest of the New Netherland was resolved upon. … The
next concern of the Chancellor [Clarendon] was to secure to
the Crown the full benefit of the proposed conquest. He was as
little satisfied with the self-rule of the New England
colonies as with the presence of Dutch sovereignty on American
soil; and in the conquest of the foreigner he found the means
to bring the English subject into closer dependence on the
King. James Duke of York, Grand Admiral, was the heir to the
Crown. … A patent to James as presumptive heir to the crown,
from the King his brother, would merge in the crown; and a
central authority strongly established over the territory
covered by it might well, under favorable circumstances, be
extended over the colonies on either side which were governed
under limitations and with privileges directly secured by
charter from the King. … The first step taken by Clarendon
was the purchase of the title conveyed to the Earl of Stirling
in 1635 by the grantees of the New England patent. This
covered the territory of Pemaquid, between the Saint Croix and
the Kennebec, in Maine, and the island of Matowack, or Long
Island. … A title being thus acquired by the adroitness of
Clarendon, a patent was, on the 12th of March, 1664, issued by
Charles II. to the Duke of York, granting him the Maine
territory of Pemaquid, all the islands between Cape Cod and
the Narrows, the Hudson River, and all the lands from the west
side of the Connecticut to the east side of Delaware Bay,
together with the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
The inland boundary was 'a line from the head of Connecticut
River to the source of Hudson River, thence to the head of the
Mohawk branch of Hudson River, and thence to the east side of
Delaware Bay.' The patent gave to the Duke of York, his heirs,
deputies, and assigns, 'absolute power to govern within this
domain according to his own rules and discretions consistent
with the statutes of England.' In this patent the charter
granted by the King to the younger John Winthrop in 1662 for
Connecticut, in which it was stipulated that commissioners
should be sent to New England to settle the boundaries of each
colony, was entirely disregarded. The idea of commissioners
for boundaries now developed with larger scope, and the King
established a royal commission, consisting of four persons
recommended by the Duke of York, whose private instructions
were to reduce the Dutch to submission and to increase the
prerogatives of the Crown in the New England colonies, which
Clarendon considered to be 'already well nigh ripened, to a
commonwealth.' Three of these commissioners were officers in
the royal army,—Colonel Richard Nicolls, Sir Robert Carr,
Colonel George Cartwright. The fourth was Samuel Maverick. …
To Colonel Nicolls the Duke of York entrusted the charge of
taking possession of and governing the vast territory covered
by the King's patent. To one more capable and worthy the
delicate trust could not have been confided. … His title
under the new commission was that of Deputy-Governor; the
tenure of his office, the Duke's pleasure. … When the news
of the gathering of the fleet reached the Hague, and
explanation was demanded of Downing [the English ambassador]
as to the truth of the reports that it was intended for the
reduction of the New Netherland, he boldly insisted on the
English right to the territory by first possession. To a claim
so flimsy and impudent only one response was possible,—a
declaration of war. But the Dutch people at large had little
interest in the remote settlement, which was held to be a
trading-post rather than a colony, and not a profitable post
at best.
{2331}
The West India Company saw the danger of the situation, but
its appeals for assistance were disregarded. Its own resources
and credit were unequal to the task of defence. Meanwhile the
English fleet, composed of one ship of 36, one of 30, a third
of 16, and a transport of 10 guns, with three full companies
of the King's veterans,—in an 450 men, commanded by Colonels
Nicolls, Carr, and Cartwright,—sailed from Portsmouth for
Gardiner's Bay on the 15th of May. On the 23d of July Nicolls
and Cartwright reached Boston, where they demanded military
aid from the Governor and Council of the Colony. Calling upon
Winthrop for the assistance of Connecticut, and appointing a
rendezvous at the west end of Long Island, Nicolls set sail
with his ships and anchored in New Utrecht Bay, just outside
of Coney Island, a spot since historical as the landing-place
of Lord Howe's troops in 1776. Here Nicolls was joined by
militia from New Haven and Long Island. The city of New
Amsterdam … was defenceless. The Director, Stuyvesant, heard
of the approach of the English at Fort Orange (Albany),
whither he had gone to quell disturbances with the Indians.
Returning in haste, he summoned his council together. The
folly of resistance was apparent to all, and after delays, by
which the Director-General sought to save something of his
dignity, a commission for a surrender was agreed upon between
the Dutch authorities and Colonel Nicolls. The capitulation
confirmed the inhabitants in the possession of their property,
the exercise of their religion, and their freedom as citizens.
The municipal officers were continued in their rule. On the
29th of August, 1664, the articles were ratified … and the
city passed under English rule. The first act of Nicolls on
taking possession of the fort, in which he was welcomed by the
civic authorities, was to order that the city of New Amsterdam
be thereafter known as New York, and the fort as Fort James,
in honor of the title and name of his lord and patron. At the
time of the surrender the city gave small promise of its
magnificent future. Its entire population, which did not
exceed 1,500 souls, was housed within the triangle at the
point of the island. … Nicolls now established a new
government for the province. A force was sent up the Hudson
under Captain Cartwright, which took possession of Fort
Orange, the name of which was changed to Albany, in honor of a
title of the Duke of York."
_J. A. Stevens,
The English in New York
(Narrative and Critical History of America,
volume 3, chapter 10)._
ALSO IN:
_J. R. Brodhead,
History of New York,
volume 1, chapter 20._
_Documents Relative to Colonial History of New York,
volumes 2-3._
See, also, MASSACHUSETTS: A. D. 1660-1665.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1664.
The separation of New Jersey,
by grant to Berkeley and Carteret.
See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1664-1667.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1664.
The annexation of the Delaware settlements.
See DELAWARE: A. D. 1664.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1664-1674.
The province as the English received it.
Dutch institutions, their influence and survival.
"In the year 1664, when the government passed to the English,
New Netherland is said by the Chevalier Lambrechtsen to have
consisted of three cities and thirty villages. Its population
was then about ten thousand souls, exclusive of the Indians,
who were important auxiliaries for trade and peltries. The
inhabitants enjoyed a fair measure of freedom and protection.
High roads already existed, and there were numerous owners of
flourishing farms, or bouweries, and other real property,
while urban life was well policed by proper laws. The
treatment by the Dutch of the many English and other aliens
who already dwelt within the Dutch territory was rather in
advance of the age, while the jurisprudence established here
by the Dutch, being largely borrowed from the high
civilization of Rome, was certainly superior in refinement to
the contemporary feudal and folk law introduced by the English
in 1664. Theoretically, the administration of justice
conformed to a high standard, and both Dutch and aliens were
protected by adequate constitutional guaranties. We cannot for
an instant presume that the institutions which half a century
had reared were swept into oblivion by a single stroke of the
English conquerors in 1664. It would be more rational to
suppose that the subsidence of the Dutch institutions was as
gradual as the facts demonstrate it to have been. Negro
slavery was introduced by the Dutch, but it existed here only
under its least objectionable conditions. A large measure of
religious liberty was tolerated, although the Dutch Reformed
Church was the only one publicly sanctioned. On several
occasions delegates of the commonalty were brought into
consultation with the Director-General and Council, and thus,
to some extent, a principle of representative government was
at least recognized, although it was somewhat at variance with
the company's standard of colonial government, and savored too
much of the English idea and encroachment to be palatable. It
must not be forgotten that at home the Dutch were a
self-governing people and accustomed to that most important
principle of free government—self-assessment in taxation. In
common with all commercial peoples, they possessed a sturdy
independence of mind and demeanor. There is no proof that
these excellent qualities were diminished by transplantation
to the still freer air of the new country. New Netherland was
not altogether fortunate in its type of government, experience
demonstrating that the selfish spirit of a mercantile monopoly
is not the fit repository of governmental powers. Yet, on the
whole, it must be conceded that the company's government
introduced here much that was good and accomplished little
that was pernicious. In 1664 it certainly surrendered to the
English one of the finest and most flourishing colonies of
America, possessing a hardy, vigorous, and thrifty people,
well adapted to all the principles of civil and religious
freedom. History shows that this people speedily coalesced
with all that was good in the system introduced by the
English, and sturdily opposed all that was undesirable. … It
is certain … that after the overthrow of the Dutch political
authority the English proceeded gradually to introduce into
New York, by express command, their own laws and customs. Yet
it requires a very much more extended examination of original
sources than has ever been made to determine absolutely just
how much of the English laws and institutions was in force at
a particular epoch of colonial history. The subject perplexed
the colonial courts, and it is still perplexing."
_R. L. Fowler,
Constitutional and Legal History, of New York
in the 17th Century
(Memorial History of the City of New York,
volume 1, chapter 14)._
{2332}
"Although the New Netherland became a permanent English colony
under the Treaty of Westminster in 1674 [see below], its
population remained largely Dutch until nearly the middle of
the next century. The prosperity of New York, growing steadily
with the progress of trade and the exportation of grains,
attracted emigrants from Holland notwithstanding the change of
flag. Many families now living on Manhattan Island are
descended from Dutchmen who came out after the English
occupation. The old names with which we have become familiar
in the early annals of New Amsterdam continue in positions of
honour and prominence through the English colonial records. In
1673, we find among the city magistrates Johannes van Bruggh,
Johannes de Peyster, Ægidius Luyck, Jacob Kip, Laurans van der
Spiegel, Wilhelm Beeckman, Guleyn Verplanck, Stephen van
Courtlandt. In 1677, Stephanus van Courtlandt is mayor, and
Johannes de Peyster deputy mayor. In 1682, Cornelis Steenwyck
is mayor; in 1685, the office is filled by Nicholas Bayard; in
1686, by Van Courtlandt again. Abraham de Peyster was mayor
from 1691 to 1695; and in his time the following Dutchmen were
aldermen: W. Beeckman, Johannes Kip, Brandt Schuyler, Garrett
Douw, Arent van Scoyck, Gerard Douw, Rip van Dam, Jacobus van
Courtlandt, Samuel Bayard, Jacobus van Nostrandt, Jan
Hendricks Brevoort, Jan van Home, Petrus Bayard, Abraham
Wendell, John Brevoort. These names recur down to 1717. In
1718, John Roosevelt, Philip van Courtlandt, and Cornelius de
Peyster are aldermen. In 1719, Jacobus van Courtlandt is
mayor, and among the aldermen are Philip van Courtlandt,
Harmanus van Gilder, Jacobus Kip, Frederic Philipse, John
Roosevelt, Philip Schuyler. In 1745, Stephen Bayard is mayor.
During the last half of the eighteenth century the Dutch names
are more and more crowded out by the English. … By the
beginning of the nineteenth century, the Dutch names occur
only occasionally. These Dutchmen not only preserved their
leadership in public affairs, but carried on a large
proportion of the city's trade. New York was an English
colony, but its greatness was largely built on Dutch
foundations. It is often said that the city became flourishing
only after the English occupation. This is true, with the
qualification that the Dutch trader and the Dutch farmer after
that event had greater opportunities for successful activity.
… Dutch continued to be the language of New York until the
end of the seventeenth century, after which time English
contended for the mastery with steady success. In the outlying
towns of Long Island and New Jersey and along the Hudson
River, Dutch was generally used for a century later. … In
New York city the large English immigration, the requirements
of commerce, and the frequent intermarriages of Dutch and
English families had given to English the predominance by the
year 1750. … In New York city the high-stoop house, and the
peculiar observance of New Year's Day which continued until
1870, are two familiar relics of Holland. The valuable custom
of registering transfers of real estate has been received from
the same source."
_B. Tuckerman,
Peter Stuyvesant,
chapter 4._
NEW YORK: A. D. 1665.
The Duke's Laws.
"At a general meeting held at Hempstead, on Long Island [March
1, 1665], attended by deputies from all the towns, Governor
Nichols presently published, on his own and the duke's
authority, a body of laws for the government of the new
province, alphabetically arranged, collated, and digested,
'out of the several laws now in force in his majesty's
American colonies and plantations,' exhibiting indeed, many
traces of Connecticut and Massachusetts legislation. … The
code [was] known as the 'Duke's Laws,' which Nichols imagined
'could not but be satisfactory even to the most factious
Republicans.' A considerable number of immigrants seem to have
come in on the strength of it from the neighboring colonies of
New England,"
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
chapter 17 (volume 2)._
ALSO IN:
_The Duke of York's Book of Laws,
compiled and edited by S. George, et al._
NEW YORK: A. D. 1665-1666.
French invasions of the Iroquois country,
under Courcelles and Tracy.
See CANADA: A. D. 1640-1700.
NEW YORK: A. D. 1673.
The reconquest of the city and province by the Dutch.
The seizure of New Netherland by the English in 1664 was one
of several acts of hostility which preceded an actual
declaration of war between England and Holland. The war became
formal, however, in the following year, and ended in 1666,
ingloriously for England although she retained her American
conquests.