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Colonial New York COLONIAL NEW YORK PHILIP SCHUYLER AND HIS FAMILY BY GEORGE W SCHUYLER IN TWO VOLUMES V OLUl\IE FIRST NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS r885 PREFACE. EIGHT years ago the genealogy of my family first ar­ rested my attention, and I began its study. Gradually my researches took a wider range, and inspired the hope that I might do something more than simply make a catalogue of names. I found that members of the first four generations had occupied more than ordinary posi­ tions in the communities in which they lived, and had rendered important services in the early history of the colony and the State. In view of these facts, I re­ solved to attempt brief biographical sketches of the more prominent persons of the family, and of those connected with it. But in doing so it would be necessary to write portions of the history of their times, which would require time and patience for the examination of the early rec­ ords, and perhaps involve the necessity of an extended course of reading. At my age this seemed difficult of ac­ complishment, but, as I was favorably situated for the examination of the records contained in the public offices of the State, and of the City and County of Albany, I re­ solved to employ my leisure in procuring all the informa­ tion possible, and, if need be, leave my notes to be di­ gested by another. After three years spent among the manuscript archives, I turned to the printed documents procured by the State from Holland, England, and France. After these were lV PREFACE. thoroughly studied, I read the publications of the New York Historical Society, the Massachusetts Historical Col­ lections, the early records of Connecticut, the archives of Pennsylvania, and of New Jersey, and the early stand­ ard histories of New York, New Jersey, and the New England States. I then arranged my notes, and, after putting aside a large mass of them, I began to write, with no expectation of doing more than enough for a thin octavo volume ; the present volumes are the outcome of my eight years' Work. Without any claim to be an his­ torian, I have written some fragments of the history of colonial times, which I have striven to make accurate and trustworthy. Portions of it differ from the accepted ver­ sions, but in all such instances the early records have been studiously followed as authority. Having no theories to establish, I have had no temptation to misinterpret facts. I have rejected traditions and "old mens' fables" as un­ trustworthy and illusory, confining myself to the plain meaning of the "written word." After all, I am conscious that the work is far from perfect ; but it may be of ser­ vice to some one, who may be inspired to do what has not yet been done-to write a full and faithful history of New York during the colonial period. Since I have drawn most of my material from the ar­ chives of the State, it may not be uninteresting to glance at their history. As the Dutch were always careful to record their transactions, it is fair to presume that the early direc­ tors of New Netherland kept records of their administra­ tions, written, as in succeeding administrations, on unbound ~heets of paper, and filed in appropriate compartments of their office. But if so, they are lost, except a few land­ patents. The records of the colony, as preserved by the State, begin with the year r638, when Director Kieft as­ sumed control over the affairs of New Netherland. Dur- PREFACE. V ing his government, and that of Director Stuyvesant, from 1638 to 1664, the records are apparently full and minute, all written in Dutch. After 1664, for more than a hundred years, the documents are voluminous, and full cf interest to the student of history. We miss, however, the letters of the English Government addressed to the colo­ nial governors. Unlike Director Stuyvesant, these Eng­ lish governors believed such communications to be ·their own property, and did not place them in the archives. In view of the danger of loss and destruction through which these records have passed, it is remarkable that so many of them have been preserved in such good con­ dition. \Vhen Director-General Stuyvesant surrendered to the English forces, in 1664, he made it one of the arti­ cles of capitulation, that "all public writings and records which concern inheritances of any people, or the regle­ ment of the church, or poor, or orphans, shall be care­ fully kept." Nine years afterward the Dutch recaptured the city. Without doubt they were as careful ro preserve the old records, as well the new, when in their own hands, as they were to provide for their safe-keeping when under the control of their enemies. But more than thirty years sub­ sequently Lieutenant-Governor lngoldesby wrote, "When the Dutch took this place (New York) several books of patents and other things were lost." In 1688, New York, New Jersey, and all New England were consolidated into one government, with Boston as the capital, to which place Governor Sir Edmund Andros removed the provincial records of New York. The next year, however, the democracy of Massachusetts deposed and imprisoned him, and after a time shipped him off to England. The consolidated dominion fell to pieces, each colony resuming its former independent position. The VI PREFACE. records of New York were not promptly returned, as they should have been. Perhaps the Bostonians, being curi­ ous, were holding them for examination with reference to the vexed boundary questions. It is fair to presume that those in Dutch did not give them much satisfaction. Notwithstanding the repeated demands for the surrender of the archives; they were held for about three years ; nothing short of the king's command was effectual. Governor Bradstreet, of Massachusetts, reported to Lord Nottingham, in May, 1691: "We have caused the records to be delivered, according to his majesty's command." In March, 174r, a fire occurred in the fort at New York, -which consumed the governor's house, in which the rec­ ords were kept. A month afterward Lieutenant-Governor Clarke reported, " Most of the records were saved, and I hope very few were lost."· At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, Governor Tryon, becoming nervous for his own personal _§afety, took refuge on board the ship Duchess of Gordon, 1ying in the harbor, and took the records with him. An effort was made by the city authorities to recover them, but Tryon refused to give them up, pledging his honor that "they should be kept in perfect security." How well he kept his word of honor we shall see presently. Tryon's fears mastered his judgment, and, lest the rebels should attack the Duchess of Gordon, a merchant-ship, he placed the archives on board the Asia, a man-of-war. When some months afterward she was about to sail for England, he ordered them to be put on another man-of-war, the Eagle. "Since which time," he wrote to Lord George Germaine, three years after, " I have never heard what was actually done with them." The truth is that they were carried to England, and it became the duty of Lord George Germaine to look them up. He succeeded in PREFACE. VII finding them, and sent them back. At the close of the war they were lodged with the secretary of State at Albany, and deposited without much order or care in temporary quarters. It was not until the present State House af­ forded them room that they were safe from the elements. It would not be singular, if, during these several removals, some of them should have been lost. For many years they were strangely neglected ; their value was not appreciated, and they were left without proper care. This, perhaps, was owing in part to the fre­ quent changes of the State officers, a thing that could not be avoided. It was not until the administration of Gov­ ernor DeWitt Clinton that they began to be valued as sources of history. By his appointment, Dr. Van der Kemp, a learned Hollander, translated the Dutch docu­ ments, which were bound into volumes and made acces­ sible to English readers. But the interest awakened at this time did not seem to be permanent: The late Dr. O;Callaghan informed me, that, when he was appointed keeper of the document-room, he found the records in great confusion ; some of them packed in boxes and stored in inconvenient places, while others were in heaps on the floor. He said, "that some papers had been taken from the files and used by the clerks for pack­ ing books and kindling fires." Perhaps it was in this way that at some former time the records of Minuit's and Van Twiller's administrations were lost. Written in " Black Dutch," to use the words on the cover of a book of Dutch records in the county clerk's office, the text seemed like birds' tracks to the learned clerks, and of no special use, except as waste paper. Dr. O'Callaghan's learning enabled him to understand the value of his trust. He began his work methodically, assorting and arranging the documents by their dates, Vlll PREFACE. placing the bound volumes on shelv~s, and pasting the loose papers in books prepared for the purpose. Students of our early history are infinitely indebted to him for his appreciative care ; and to the various secretaries of state for keeping him so many years in that department.
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