GOVERNOR BURNET and the FRENCH TRADERS
Governor William Burnet was the son of a celebrated bishop of England.
His early days were passed at the Court of William III., where he met
people of refinement and culture. Of an observing nature, and studying
a great deal, he came to be a man of deep learning, a good talker, with
manners that attracted attention wherever he went--so fine were they.
The city was gayly decorated in honor of his coming. Women looked from
their windows and waved their handkerchiefs. Men crowded the streets and
loudly shouted their welcome.
Soon after, he married the daughter of a leading merchant, and so
identified himself at once with the city's interests. He became the fast
friend of Chief-Justice Lewis Morris. Another friendship was that he
formed with Dr. Cadwallader Colden. We shall hear more of this man
later. Besides being a physician of note, he had a world-wide reputation
as a writer on many scientific subjects.
Along about this time the French were trying hard to get all the trade
with the Indians, not only in the province of New York, but in all the
lands as far west as the Mississippi country that was then wild and
unexplored. By this they could make a great deal of money, but, better
still, would make friends of the powerful Indian tribes. Then the French
hoped that the Indians would join with them against the English and that
they could conquer all the English lands in America.
The New York merchants were quite content to let the French do the
trading with the Indians, for the French traders bought all their goods
in New York, and the merchants in selling to them did not run the great
risk of being murdered, as they would in trading with the Indians in the
forests. But although the merchants were satisfied, Governor Burnet was
not. He realized the danger to the English provinces should the Indians
become enemies. So he decided to establish a line of English trading
stations that would enable the colonists to trade directly with the
Indians in safety. He also made it unlawful to sell goods in New York
to the French traders.
The merchants bitterly disapproved of these acts of Governor Burnet.
They believed that he had dealt a death-blow to their French trade, and
they became his bitter enemies. He tried hard to establish the line of
trading stations, but the English Government refused to help him with
money, and the project had to be abandoned, and the law against the
French trade, which had caused the trouble, was repealed. The trade was
once more carried on.
By this time George II. had become King of England, which was in the
year 1728. Influence was brought to bear, and Governor Burnet was
removed, and left the province a poorer man than he had entered it.
Toward the end of this same year Colonel John Montgomery was made
Governor.
He had been groom of the bedchamber of George II. when the latter was
Prince of Wales. He was a weak and lazy man, although he had been bred a
soldier. You may believe that he never did much in the soldiering line,
for a soldier's life is a hard one, and not likely to encourage a man
to be lazy. Montgomery was given a cordial welcome, however.
The year after he came, the first Jewish cemetery was established, the
remains of which may still be seen in the neighborhood of Chatham Square
in New Bowery Street. It has not been used as a graveyard in many a
year, and much of the ground is now occupied by buildings. But there
is still a portion, behind a stone wall, and crumbling tombstones have
stood there ever so many years longer than the dingy tenements which
hem them in on three sides.
In the days of Montgomery, New York was still a small village, for most
of the houses were below the present Fulton Street, and they were not at
all thickly built, so there was room enough for pleasant gardens around
them.
At this time the vacant space in front of the fort, which had been used
as a parade-ground and a market-place, was leased to three citizens
whose houses were nearby to be used as a Bowling Green. Its name came
from this and it still keeps it.
A fire department was organized and two engines were imported and room
made for them in the City Hall. Before this the department had consisted
of a few leather buckets and a few fire-hooks.
In 1731 Governor Montgomery died, and for thirteen months after, Rip Van
Dam, oldest member of the council, and a wealthy merchant, looked after
the province until the coming of William Cosby.