Part 10 (1/2)
Some of the persons indicted, in connection with others who felt aggrieved and feared that they also might be placed in a similar unpleasant position, applied to the Colonial Legislature, and secured the pa.s.sage of a law on the 27th of July, 1721, ”to continue the common road or King's highway from the ferry toward the Town of Breuckland, on the Island of Na.s.sau, in the Province of New York.” The preamble was as follows: ”Whereas, Several of the inhabitants on the ferry on the Island of Na.s.sau, by their pet.i.tion, preferred to the General a.s.sembly, by setting forth that they have been molested by persecutions, occasioned by the contrivance and instigations of ill and disaffected persons, to the neighborhood, who would encroach upon the buildings and fences that have been made many years, alledging the road was not wide enough, to the great damage of several of the old inhabitants, on the said ferry, the said road as it now is, has been so for sixty years past without any complaint either of the inhabitants or travellers.”
The remaining sections of the law established the road ”forever,” as it then existed, from the ferry upward to the town of Breuckland, as far as the swinging gate of John Rapalje, just above the property belonging to James Harding. The unwillingness of the early settlers to part with their land, when land was so cheap, accounts in a great measure for our present narrow and crooked street. These early settlers, in their opposition to the widening of the street, might have desired to preserve some favorite fruit or shade tree. It has been given as a reason why Broadway, New York, makes a turn or diverges at Grace Church, that a Dutchman had a favorite cherry tree on the line of the thoroughfare as proposed, and, if the street was continued in a direct line, the tree would have felt the woodman's axe.
Another provision of this enactment was the privilege it gave that, if a majority of the inhabitants of the town should ”adjudge that part of the road near to the ferry to be too narrow and inconvenient,” they could take proceedings to have it widened. In order to secure this improvement, ”they might cause the sheriff to summon a jury of twelve men to appraise the value of land to be taken, and the amount of value so ascertained should be levied upon the towne, and collected and paid to the owners of the land so appropriated to street purpose.”
This provision of the law was never enforced. The people seemed to rest content with their narrow, winding, crooked lane, which in those days resembled a cow-path. The ”swinging gate” referred to, is said to have been located on the rise of the hill at or near the junction of Sands and Fulton streets.
The commissioners of highways laid out another important highway or road on the 28th of March, 1704. It led to the public landing place at the mills of Nehemiah Denton at Gowa.n.u.s. The record of this road is as follows:--
”One common highway to Gowa.n.u.s Mill, to begin from the northeast corner of Leffert Peterses ffence, and soe along the road westerly as it is now in use, to the lane yt parts the lands of Hendrick Vechte, and Abraham Brower and Nicholas Brower, and soe all along said lane, as it is now in ffence to the house of Jurian Collier, and from thence all along the roade, now in use to the said Gowa.n.u.s Mill, being in all four rod wide to the said lane, and that there be a convenient landing place for all persons whatsoever, to begin ffrom said southermost side of said Gowa.n.u.s Mill house, and ffrom said house to run ffour rod to the southward, for the transportation of goods, and the commodious pa.s.sage of travellers; and that said highway to the said Gowa.n.u.s Mill ffrom said house of said Jurian Collier, shall be but two rod only, and where it is now in use said common highway to be and continue forever; and ffurther that the ffence and gate that now stands upon the entrance into said mill neck, shall soe remain and be alwayes kept soe enclosed with a ffence and hanging gate; and the way to said mill to be thorou that gate only, and to be alwayes shutt or put to, by all persons that pa.s.ses thorou.”
In 1709 another road[40] and landing place had been laid out at or near the mill of John C. Friecke.
Brooklyn's political fortunes were at this period so intimately connected with those of New York city that the political history of one is, in general, the political history of the other; yet Brooklyn and Kings County held sufficiently aloof to justify the omission of any particular chronicle of the administration of Burnet and its quarrels with the French, or the circ.u.mstances attending the Governor's transfer to Ma.s.sachusetts by George II.
The next Governor, John Montgomerie, was instructed to continue the policy of Hunter, but he had not the firmness to do so.
The princ.i.p.al event in Montgomerie's administration, and one which is held in lasting remembrance in New York, was the grant of an amended charter to the city in 1730. This charter, as well as the Dongan charter, of which it was an amendment, is one which has always been of interest to Brooklyn, as it claimed to fix the limits of the city of New York. The limits thus embraced in the charter extended to low-water mark on the Long Island sh.o.r.e.[41]
On the death of Montgomerie, in 1731, the Governors.h.i.+p pa.s.sed temporarily to Rip Van Dam, senior member of the Council, in whose accession the Dutch elements in New York and Kings County rejoiced greatly.
Colonel William Crosby, who became Governor in 1732, was guilty of infamous tyrannies and usurpations, as in the Van Dam trial, and later in the persecution of John Peter Zenger, publisher of the ”Weekly Journal,” a newspaper started in opposition to the administration ”Gazette” and to voice the popular opposition.
Under Crosby's instigation the Council promulgated an order directing that the papers containing the obnoxious articles should be burnt by the hangman at the pillory. When this order was presented to the Quarter Sessions the Aldermen protested strongly against it, and the court thereupon refused to allow it to be entered on the records. The Recorder, Francis Harrison, was the only one who attempted to defend it, and he based its regularity upon former English precedents. The court also refused to allow the hangman to execute the order, and it was carried into effect by a negro slave, hired for the purpose. The negro did his work in the presence of the Recorder and other partisans of the government. The magistrates, with great and commendable unanimity, refused to attend, and evidently considered that the whole proceeding was but on a par with the former actions of the adherents of the Crown.
The burning of the papers did not satisfy the aristocratic party. They desired to be avenged, and, thirsting for a victim, shortly after caused the arrest of Zenger on the charge that he had been guilty of publis.h.i.+ng treasonable and seditious libels against the Government and her representatives. He was imprisoned on this complaint, and, while in jail awaiting the action of the grand jury, was treated in a cruel and inhuman manner by his jailers. The ordinary courtesies usually granted to unconvicted men were denied him. He was even refused the use of pen, ink, and paper. The jail of the city at that time was in the City Hall, in Wall Street. Here Zenger was imprisoned.
Application was made by his friends to have him submitted to bail, and for the purpose of having the amount fixed, he was brought before the court on a writ of _habeas corpus_. The court required him to give bail in the sum of 400, with two additional sureties in the sum of 200 each. This was virtually a denial of bail, as he could not procure the requisite amount. In his endeavor to get his bail reduced, he swore that he was not worth, exclusive of his trade tools, the sum of 40. On this affidavit he was remanded to his place of confinement.
The trial of Zenger occasioned great excitement on both sides of the East River. The acquittal brought immense enthusiasm and lavish honors on Andrew Hamilton, who brilliantly defended the popular publisher.
In the a.s.sembly called in 1737, under Governor Clarke, Kings County was represented by Samuel Garretson, Abraham Lott, and Johannis Lott.
Brooklyn's population in 1738 was 721. In the same year the population of the other settlements was as follows: Flatbush, 540; Bushwick, 302; New Utrecht, 282; Flatlands, 268; Gravesend, 235.
The breaking out of virulent smallpox in New York brought the a.s.sembly of 1745-46 to Brooklyn, a matter of momentous interest to the little hamlet. The house of ”Widow Sickle” was honored by the a.s.sembly as a place of meeting, and its great room was so occupied for several months.
During Governor Clinton's term smallpox appeared a second time in New York (in 1752), and the Colonial a.s.sembly again sought quarters in Brooklyn in which to hold their deliberations. The Legislature chose a house on Fulton Street near Na.s.sau. It was at this important session that, on the 4th of June, 1752, the Colonial Commissioners canceled bills of credit, issued by the Colony of New York, amounting to the sum of 3,602 18s. 3d. The a.s.sembly manifested no little acrimony toward the Governor and displayed a growing feeling of independence.
This independence of the representatives of the people appeared with increasing frequency, and signs of it so preyed upon gloomy Sir Danvers...o...b..rne, who succeeded Clinton, that he hanged himself with a handkerchief in his garden, shortly after his inauguration, leaving Lieutenant-Governor DeLancey[42] to a.s.sume control of the government.
Meanwhile one phase of Long Island's relations to New York should not escape notice. The position of Long Island made it natural that New York should look to it as in a measure a bulwark against attack from the sea, and various governors displayed an interest in repairing those harbor fortifications which rested on the Island.
Governor Clarke addressed the Legislature, in 1741, in the following terms: ”There is great reason to apprehend a speedy rupture with France; your situation ought therefore to awaken you to a speedy provision against that event, in fortifying the town in a better manner than it is at present by erecting batteries in proper places upon some of the wharves facing the harbor, others upon the side of the Hudson River adjoining the town, and one at Red Hook, upon Long Island, to prevent the enemy from landing at Nutten Island.”
Governor Clinton, on April 30, 1744, a.s.sured the Legislature in a special message that ”it was absolutely necessary there should be a battery of six guns at Red Hook, on Na.s.sau Island, which would effectually prevent the enemy's lying there, to bombard the city, or their landing any force or artillery on Nutten Island. In case of any such attack upon us, this battery might be easily supplied and maintained by the force of the country.”
Of life on Long Island and throughout the Colony during the period immediately preceding the Revolution we find many interesting glimpses through the medium of newspapers of the time.
The ”Weekly Post Boy” of June 18, 1753, contained an advertis.e.m.e.nt which was of interest to the citizens of Long Island:--
Notice is hereby given that the Ferry House from Long Island to Staten Island, commonly known by the name of the Upper Ferry, otherwise Stillwell's Ferry, is now kept by Nicholas Stillwell, who formerly occupy'd the same; he has two good Boats well accommodated for the safe Conveyance of Man or Horse across the Narrows. He also proposes to carry, if required, travellers either to Staten Island, Elizabethtown Point, Amboy, or New York, and that at the most reasonable terms. He continues to keep good entertainment for travellers.
NICHOLAS STILLWELL.