City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 1974 Placemen's Progress: The Governors of Provincial New York, 1717–1753 Neil Ovadia The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3909 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. 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The City University of New York, Ph.D., 1974 History, modem University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan COPYRIGHT BY NEIL OVADIA 1974 PLACEMEN'S PROGRESS: THE GOVERNORS OF PROVINCIAL NEW YORK, 1717-1753 Neil Ovadia A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York. 1974 This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in History in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Riilosophy. [Signature] shh? date Chairman of Examining Committee [Signature] 3 tH7^ date Acting Executive Officer [Signature] [Signature] Supervisory Committee The City University of New York TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................ 1 CHAPTER ONE: GOVERNMENT AT HOME AND ABROAD .... 9 CHAPTER TWO: THE ENGLISH GOVERNMENT AND THE COLONIES: AUTHORITY AND INDIFFERENCE...........................32 CHAPTER THREE: THE BOARD OF TRADE AND THE COLONIES: LIMITED AUTHORITY AND LIMITED INTEREST.......................82 CHAPTER FOUR: AN ENGLISH POLITICIAN IN THE NEW W O R L D .......................... 126 CHAPTER FIVE: BURNET AND MONTGOMERIE: A STUDY IN CONTRASTS........................ 154 CHAPTER SIX: COSBY AND CLARKE: TWO TYPES OF MANAGEMENT ...................... 194 CHAPTER SEVEN: GEORGE CLINTON: OVERCONFIDENCE, CHAOS, AND ACCOMMODATION............ 237 CONCLUSION.......................................... 281 APPENDIX ............................................ 284 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................ 2 85 INTRODUCTION This study examines the relations among the British government, her provincial governors, and the American colonists in mid-eighteenth century New York. The subject is worthy of intensive study because it provides insight into the functioning of the British imperial system, the colonial political system, and their interactions. Studies of the first British empire have emphasized the legislative and economic aspects of colonial adminis­ tration. ^ While these approaches to the history of the Old Empire are undoubtedly significant, they do not describe its actual workings with complete fidelity. Legislation and economic theories describe a nation's conception of the operations of its government; but they do not necessarily depict how it performs. In mid-eighteenth century Britain there was a considerable gap between the theory and practice of government. As this study will concentrate on examining the practice of politics in mid-eighteenth century New York, it will tend ^George Louis Beer, The Old Colonial System 1660-1754 (2 vols., New York, 1913, reprinted 1933). 1 2 to ignore laws and economic theories because they had little effect on the actual behavior of the British government, the colonial governors, and the New Yorkers. This approach will result in a picture of imperial administration which differs somewhat from that found in traditional studies. The Acts of Trade and Navigation, the Secretary of State for the Southern Department, and the Board of Trade will be reduced to a subordinate role in the narrative because, despite the volume of space they occupy in the records of the period, they had little affect on the government of New York. This emphasis on the practical aspects of colonial ad­ ministration leads to a re-evaluation of the role of the men who governed Britain's North American colonies. Most historians have based their evaluations of the governors on the formal descriptions of their duties and responsi- bilities, and as those formulations bore little resemblance to the actual functions of the office, the governors have been misunderstood by both students of the Old Empire, and by students of the individual colonies. Historians of the Empire have apparently regarded the governors as primarily local, American officials, and there­ fore studies of English colonial administration in the eighteenth century have generally ignored the contribution ^Leonard Woods Labaree, Royal Government in America (New Haven, Conn., 1930, reprinted 1958). 3 the governors made to the development and maintenance of the Empire. The monumental Cambridge History of the British Empire^ glosses over the role of the governors; they are almost totally ignored in Edward Raymond Turner's studies of the Privy Council and the Cabinet (the bodies which nominally supervised the activities of the governors), * and in The Secretaries of State, by Mark Thomson.-* Histories of British colonial administration have also slighted the governors. For example, the governors are treated only in­ cidentally in George Louis Beer's exhaustive examination of colonial policy and practices in the century between 1660 and 1754, and in Arthur Basye's study of the Board of Trade.® Even the recent intensive examinations of the role of patronage in the political system of mid-eighteenth century England have emphasized the machinations involved in ^The Old Empire: From the Beginnings to 1783, vol. I, The Cambridge History of the British Empire, J. Holland Rose, A.P. Newton, E.A. Benians, eds. (New York, 1929). ^Edward Raymond Turner, The Cabinet Council of England 1622-1784 (2 vols., Baltimore Md., 1930-2), The Privy Council of England, 1603-1784 (2 vols., Baltimore, Md., 1927-8). ^Mark A. Thomson, The Secretaries of State, 1681-1782 (Oxford, 1932). ®Arthur Basye, The Lords Commissioners of Trade azid Plantations (New Haven, Conn., 1925). 4 obtaining and retaining office, and ignored the actual work of the colonial administrators.^ Although historians interested in the development of the American colonies have not, for their part, neglected the governors, they too have distorted the governors' role. They have been so intent on examining the relations between the governors and the Assemblies that they have neglected virtually all other aspects of the governors' activities. The "Whig" interpretation of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries which frequently presented the governors as indigent, incompetent, dependents of British magnates who were dispatched to America because no suitable positions were available for them in England and Ireland® has gener­ ally been superseded with the more objective assessment of their abilities advocated by Leonard Woods Labaree. There is still, however, a strong tendency among students of the colonial period to regard the governors as passive figures whose role in the government was clearly subordinate to the ^James A. Henretta, "Salutary Neglect" Colonial Admin­ istration Under the Duke of Newcastle (Princeton, N.J., 1972), Stanley Nider Katz, Newcastle's New York (Cambridge, Mass., 1968). ®Edward Channing, A History of the United States, vol. II (New York, 1908, reprinted 1937), Herbert L. Osgood, The American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century (4 vols., New York, 1924-5,