A History of the City of Brooklyn and Kings County Part 6

a.s.sembly at Hempstead. The "Duke's Laws." Lovelace. New York Retaken by the Dutch. Colve becomes Governor. Return of English Rule under the Treaty of 1674. Dongan and the Popular a.s.sembly.

De Sille. Journal of Dankers and Sluyter. The Ferry. A Dutch Dinner. The Schoolmaster and the Constable. William and Mary and the Leisler Revolution. Sloughter appointed Governor. Execution of Leisler, and Subsequent Honors of a Public Reinterment. Long Island receives the name of Na.s.sau. Development of Privateering.

Captain Kidd visits and buries Treasure on Long Island.

Bellomont and the Suppression of Piracy. First Trial for Treason.

When Nicolls a.s.sumed control as Governor of New Amsterdam, under the patent to the Duke of York, he considered it best to act in a liberal spirit toward the Dutch, and endeavored to gain their good will and esteem. Indeed, this was the wise English policy which he represented.

So conciliatory was his administration that the Dutch element did not appear to be affected by the change. The trade with Holland was continued without interruption. The Dutch were permitted to elect all minor officials and to observe the customs of the fatherland. New York received a new charter, and the government was placed in the hands of a Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriff, appointed by the Governor. The legislative power was vested in the Governor and Council, who alone possessed the power to impose taxes.

The t.i.tles to property in the province were not in any way disturbed.

The Council was careful to confirm and declare legal all grants, patents, and other evidences of t.i.tle which had been derived through the Dutch government. New grants in confirmation were given, and additional expense in consequence was imposed upon the owners. Large sums were also expended in repairing the forts in and about the harbor to resist any attempt which might be made to retake the city.

Measures were also adopted to provide a more perfect and uniform system for the government of the towns on Long Island. In order to reconcile differences, and establish laws which should control in each town, Nicolls organized an a.s.sembly of delegates, composed of representatives from each town. The a.s.sembly thus formed, met in Hempstead in 1665.

Breuckelen was represented in that body by two of her well-known citizens, in the persons of Frederick Lubbertsen and Evertsen Bout. The a.s.sembly adopted a code of laws which were called the "Duke's Laws."

Considering the state of the times and the varied conditions of the people, the code thus adopted was reasonable and just to all. These laws continued in operation with slight amendments until 1683, when Governor Dongan convened his provincial a.s.sembly. The actions of Governor Nicolls gave the delegates satisfaction and pleasure, and they became his fast friends. They expressed their admiration of his actions by an address of congratulation to the Duke of York, which was characterized by an exceedingly deferential tone toward the new authority. Many of the people objected to the tone of this address, and gave vent to their feelings in outspoken language against the delegates. So fearless and indiscreet was the language used, and so imminent did the violence threatened by the anti-English element appear, that the Government was constrained to take notice of the same. At a court held in 1666, a stringent act was pa.s.sed to prevent a repet.i.tion of the slanders against the delegates.

In 1665, Long Island, with Staten Island, was created a shire, and called Yorkshire, as a token of respect to the proprietor, the Duke of York. The shire thus formed was divided into districts, which were denominated ridings. The towns included in Kings County, Staten Island, and Newtown, were called the West Riding. Nicolls displayed much wisdom in the management of the colony, and thereby won the respect of the people. He did not, however, remain long in service. Being anxious to return to Europe, in 1668 he bade farewell to the New World, and set his face eastward. Upon his return to his native land he engaged in his country's service in the war with Holland, and gave his life in defending the flag in a naval engagement in 1692.

Nicolls was succeeded by Governor Francis Lovelace, whose administration was a striking contrast to that of his predecessor. Despotic, arrogant, and self-willed, Lovelace was born to be a "paternal" ruler, and ever manifested a domineering spirit. The inhabitants had always claimed the right to levy and impose their own taxes, and protested against taxation without representation. To all protests he paid no attention except to "p.r.o.nounce their complaints as scandalous and seditious." His frequent remark was, "the people should have liberty for no thought but how to pay their taxes." In order to carry out his views, and to display his power, he imposed a duty of ten per cent. upon all imports and exports arriving at or going from the province.

In 1672, Charles II., instigated by the French, proclaimed war against Holland. This rupture led the Dutch to conceive the idea of regaining their lost possessions. A squadron consisting of five vessels was fitted out, and placed under the command of Admirals Beuckes and Evertson. The fleet thus prepared sailed from Holland and appeared off Sandy Hook on the 29th of July, 1673. The news of the expedition reached the city long before the arrival of the fleet. Governor Lovelace had no adequate idea of the importance and necessity of preparation to resist the attack. He left the city and proceeded to Albany to regulate the difficulties with the Indians, and placed the fort in charge of Captain Manning. When the news reached the city that the Dutch fleet was approaching, Manning sent messengers to Governor Lovelace, requesting him to return speedily. He came, and at once commenced active defensive preparations. The fort was manned, and soldiers were mustered into service and drilled. The enemy not appearing, the Governor disbanded his forces and went to Connecticut. When the fleet reached Sandy Hook, Manning again informed the Governor and requested him to return, and in the mean time employed himself in collecting recruits. He was not successful. The love of fatherland could not be obliterated from the hearts of Dutchmen. They refused to volunteer against their own flesh and blood, and instead spiked the guns of the fort to prevent any resistance to the fleet. The soldiers in the fort were but amateurs, and having had no experience were of but little service. The fleet anch.o.r.ed in New York Bay, July 30, 1673.

Manning lacked courage, and did not possess any attribute fitting him to properly defend the city. In his dilemma, and not having the aid and a.s.sistance of the Governor, he found himself powerless to act as the occasion demanded. He sent a messenger to the fleet to inquire their object in disturbing the peace of the colony. In the morning, the admirals dispatched an officer to demand the immediate surrender of the fort. Manning, anxious to gain time, requested that he might have until the following day to give his answer. This was refused, and he was notified that unless the city was surrendered in half an hour the fort would be bombarded. To this notification no reply was received. The Dutch, true to their word, commenced a cannonade which resulted in killing and wounding a number of men. The salute of hot shot was not returned. Captain Colve, with a band of six hundred men, landed, and the attacking force was ranged in line of battle in front of the fort, and prepared to make a triumphal march through the city. Manning became agitated and frightened. He commenced negotiations, but, as he had no power to enter into any agreement, he was compelled to surrender.

The city, again in the possession of its original settlers, was called New Orange, and the fort was named Fort Hendrick. Some of the English soldiers taken as hostages of war were sent to Holland.

It may well be supposed that this successful capture produced a deep sense of mortification to the English Government and the New England colonies. Manning was subsequently court-martialed and tried for cowardice and treachery. His defense was mainly that he had no time to put the fort in a proper condition of defense--that the enemy were eight hundred strong, while he had but eighty men in the fort, and that he sought to delay capitulation, hoping that help might arrive. He was found guilty by the court. Through the influence of friends his life was spared, but he was compelled to suffer the ignominy of having his sword broken over his head by the executioner in front of the City Hall, and he was declared incapable of ever holding any office, either civil or military, in the gift of the Crown. Governor Lovelace also was severely reprimanded, and all his property was confiscated to the Duke of York.

It would appear that the conduct of the Governor was more reprehensible than that of Manning. Manning was merely a subaltern, and Lovelace being Governor, it was his duty to exercise proper care in defending the territory committed to his control. He was twice notified by Manning of the intended attack, and seemed by his actions either to manifest but little interest, or not to realize the importance of defensive measures.

Captain Colve now a.s.sumed control of public affairs. Fearing that the English might endeavor to regain the territory, he repaired and strengthened the fort, and put the city under military protection. A new charter was given to the city, and the old forms of government readopted. Courts were established at various points, and all the magistrates were required to appear at New Orange, and swear allegiance to the Dutch Government.

Colve received his commission as Governor of the New Netherlands from the admiral of the fleet. He was very energetic, fortifying weak points, and a.s.serting the claim of the Dutch to all the territory which Governor Stuyvesant had controlled. The fort was repaired in a substantial manner, and every precaution taken to effectually resist any attack which might be made. Colve directed that the provisions of the city should be securely kept, and prohibited the exportation of wheat and grain. In order to prepare the people for active service, he organized companies and had them drilled daily by competent officers in the manual of arms. The city under his administration a.s.sumed a military appearance. Parades and drills were of daily occurrence. The city was carefully guarded by watchmen ever on the alert.

While Governor Colve exercised authority in the province, he took occasion to visit Flatbush with his officials, where by his direction the magistrates of the various towns on Long Island had a.s.sembled. He conveyed to them the intelligence that troops were on the way from New England to a.s.sail the town, and that it was necessary to make preparations for resistance. He commanded them to hold themselves in readiness to proceed to the city whenever he should require their presence. Many of the people considering it prudent to move to the city for safety, obtained permission to do so, and the Governor appointed a committee to secure proper accommodations for them.

A general exodus from Breuckelen and the other towns was the result. The inhabitants of the west end of the Island were eager to move, and in order to prevent depopulation, Governor Colve issued another order, stating that it was necessary for a portion of the males to remain in the towns to protect property and prevent invasion, and he directed that one third of the military force should remain.

The Dutch during their control of New York won for themselves the respect of all onlookers. In their management of the colony, notwithstanding many defects, they were more liberal than any of their neighbors. They were a hard-working, painstaking, thrifty cla.s.s of people, whose sterling virtues have left upon the character of New York an impress that can never be obliterated. The character and principles of the Dutch, handed down from one generation to another, have done much to mould the great western commercial centre into the cosmopolitan metropolis it is to-day. The Knickerbocker patience and perseverance under trials, the honesty and integrity of the Dutch, their love of education and independence have been of incalculable value to the State and nation.

The Dutch were not to be surprised by any English force. The difficulty was settled by the treaty of peace between the States-General and England, signed at Westminster on the 9th of February, 1674. The terms of the treaty provided for the restoration of New York to the English.

This was accomplished on the 10th of November, 1674, when the fort was surrendered to Major Edward Andros, the Governor appointed by the Duke of York.

Thus New York again pa.s.sed from the control of the original settlers into the hands of their conquerors. The fort again a.s.sumed the name of Fort James, and the city resumed the name of New York. The inhabitants were required to swear allegiance to the King of England, and the form of government established by the English was restored.

Governor Andros also restored the t.i.tles, grants, and privileges which the towns had enjoyed under the English Government, and furthermore declared all legal proceedings which had been taken during the reoccupation by the Dutch to be legal and valid.

Andros was arbitrary and oppressive in his conduct, and did all in his power to prevent efforts on the part of the inhabitants to obtain representation in the councils of the government. In 1680, charges were preferred against him in which he was accused of interfering with the privileges of New Jersey, and he was summoned to England to answer. He was acquitted, and returned to be still more oppressive. In 1683, he was removed, and Colonel Thomas Dongan was appointed his successor, with directions to convene a popular a.s.sembly.

This a.s.sembly was composed of the Governor, Council, and seventeen members elected by the people, and held a session commencing October 17, 1683, which lasted seventeen days. The a.s.sembly adopted wise measures, which were called "the charter of liberties." This charter provided that the supreme authority should be vested in the Governor, Council, and Legislature elected triennially by the people. The right of trial by a jury of twelve men was guaranteed, and the liberty of the citizens was secured. Protection and freedom of religious belief were also a.s.sured.

The County of Kings was organized, and comprised the five towns of Breuckelen, Bushwick, Flatlands, Flatbush, and New Utrecht. Queens County was also organized. The province was divided into counties. These counties were: New York, Kings, Queens, Suffolk, Richmond, Westchester, Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, and Albany. In each county a court of sessions was to meet twice a year, and the Court of Oyer and Terminer annually.

The offices of a.s.sessor and supervisor were also created.

The first town clarke (as it was then spelt) of which there is any record was Heer Nicasius De Sille.[31] He was appointed in 1671, and acted in that capacity for four years. Michil Hainelle succeeded him in 1675, and held office until 1690. During the administration of De Sille, Frederick Lubbertsen and Peter Perniedeau were trustees and overseers.

In 1676 we find Teunis G. Bergen and Thomas Lambertsen filling the offices of trustee and overseer.

Of New York and Brooklyn immediately after the establishment of English rule we find some interesting glimpses in the journal of Jasper Dankers and Peter Sluyter, published in the collections of the Long Island Historical Society.[32] These two Dutch travelers were members of the sect founded by Jean de Labadie, and known as Labadists. The Labadists had found shelter in tolerant and enlightened Amsterdam when persecuted in France. The new faith was embraced by many of the Walloons at Rotterdam and elsewhere. A community, resembling in many respects those of the Quakers, was established at Wiewerd, and the promoters resolving upon colonization in America, Dankers and Sluyter were sent to New York on a tour of investigation. After their first tour, of which their journal speaks, they were again sent to New York in 1683, to establish a colony.

The Labadists give a detailed account of their experiences in New York and on Long Island. They make a natural comment on the name "river" for the strait separating Long Island and Manhattan Island. "There is a ferry, ... for the purpose of crossing over it, which is farmed out by the year, and yields a good income, as it is a considerable thoroughfare, this island being one of the most populous places in this vicinity."

The ferry at this time was patronized by both white men and Indians, though the Indians usually economized by using their own boats in carrying to New York their fish, fowl, or furs. The fare on the ferry was "three stuivers in zeewan for each person." A "stuiver in zeewan"

was equivalent to less than half a cent of our money.

Going up the hill from the ferry the travelers pa.s.sed through the "first village called Breuckelen," in which they saw "a small and ugly little church standing in the middle of the road." Here they turned off to the right and reached Gowa.n.u.s, where they were entertained by Simon Aertsen De Hart. After speaking of the large and remarkable oysters, "fully as good as those in England, and better than those we eat at Falmouth," the travelers give this description of the Dutch dinner: "We had for supper a roasted haunch of venison, which he had bought of the Indians for three guilders and a half of seewant, that is, fifteen stuivers of Dutch money [fifteen cents], and which weighed thirty pounds. The meat was exceedingly tender and good, and also quite fat. It had a slight spicy flavor. We were also served with wild turkey, which was also fat and of a good flavor; and a wild goose that was rather dry. Everything we had was the natural production of the country." The guest adds: "We saw here, lying in a heap, a whole hill of watermelons, which were as large as pumpkins, and which Symon was going to take to the city to sell....

It was very late at night when we went to rest in a Kermis bed, as it is called, in the corner of the hearth, alongside of a good fire."

These visitors did not entertain a very warm appreciation for what the journal describes as "a miserable rum or brandy which had been brought from Barbadoes and other islands, and which is called by the Dutch _kill-devil_. All these people," continues the same narrator, "are very fond of it, and most of them extravagantly so, although it is very dear and has a bad taste." At New Utrecht, however, they drank "some good beer a year old."

The writers comment upon Coney Island in these words: "It is oblong in shape, and is grown over with bushes. n.o.body lives upon it, but it is used in winter for keeping cattle, horses, oxen, hogs, and others, which are able to obtain there sufficient to eat the whole winter, and to shelter themselves from the cold in the thickets."

The Fort Hamilton region, called Najack (Nyack), after the Indian tribe of this name living in the vicinity, is spoken of as an island, it being surrounded by a marsh.

These and other records of the period indicate how little the early influence of the English rule affected the Dutch manners and customs, particularly on Long Island. The new rulers might introduce the English system of weights and measures, and adopt a new nomenclature for officials and civic systems, but for a long time, and far into the eighteenth century, Dutch life on Long Island remained singularly like all that it had been in the fatherland and in the pioneer homes.

An annual fair was established in Breuckelen in 1675. It was provided that there shall be kept "a ffayre and market at Breucklin, near the ffery, for all grain, cattle, or other products of the country, too be held on the ffirst Munday, Tusday, and Wenesday inn November, and in the City off New York the Thursday, Ffriday, and Sat.u.r.day following."

To meet the necessary expenses of possible war, it was ordered that in case there should happen a war with the Indians, for the better carrying on of the same, one or more rates should be levied as there shall be occasion, an account whereof to be given to the following Court of a.s.sizes.

At the same time it was ordered "that in all cases the magistrates through the whole government are required to do justice to the Indians as well as to the Christians."

In 1675, by reason of the fact that Long Island and Staten Island were separated by water, it was provided that Staten Island should have jurisdiction of itself, and be no longer dependent on the courts of Long Island, nor on the "Milishay."

The overseers and trustees were required to take an oath to administer the laws, without favor, affection or partiality to any person or cause, and, when required, to attend to the private differences of neighbors and endeavor to effect a reconciliation.

Slight allusion has heretofore been made to the schoolmaster. He was an important element in the community. As his labors were various, and much more irksome than at the present time, the following agreement, executed by the schoolmaster at Flatbush, in 1682, will be read with interest:

Article 1. The school shall begin at 8 o'clock, and goe out att 11; shall begin again att 1 o'clock and ende at 4. The bell shall be rung before the school begins.

2. When school opens one of the children shall reade the morning prayer as it stands in the catachism, and close with the prayer before dinner; and in the afternoon the same. The evening school shall begin with the Lord's prayer, and close by singing a Psalm.

3. He shall instruct the children inn the common prayers, and the questions and answers off the catachism, on Wednesdays and Sat.u.r.days, too enable them to saye them better on Sunday in the church.

4. He shall be bound to keepe his school nine months in succession from September to June, one year with another, and shall always be present himself.

5. Hee shall bee chorister of the church, ring the bell three times before service, and reade a chapter of the Bible in the church, between the second and third ringinge of the bell; after the third ringinge, hee shall reade the ten commandments, and the twelve articles of ffaith, and then sett the Psalm. In the afternoon, after the third ringinge of the bell, hee shall reade a short chapter or one of the Psalms of David, as the congregation are a.s.semblinge; afterward he shall again sett the Psalm.

6. When the minister shall preach at Broockland or Utrecht, hee shall bee bounde to reade from the booke used for the purpose.

He shall heare the children recite the questions and answers off the catachism on Sunday and instruct them.