such as are approved by the inhabitants of Hemp-
stead." This contract was confirmed and still more
specified in some details as late as June 23, 1663.^
New measures were adopted by Stuyvesant for the
repression of the Quaker movement on Long Island in
January, 1661. Letters from Jamaica, Flushing and
Middelburg (Newton) had informed him, that the
Quakers had uncommonly free access to the house of
Henry Townsend, who had, therefore, been placed under
arrest. A good occasion to investigate the condition
of religion in the towns known to be infected was
offered, when some of the inhabitants of Jamaica
earnestly requested one of the clergymen of New
^ Court minute, April 18, 1658. Thompson, Hist, of Long
Island, ii, 12.
2 Recs. of the Towns of N. and S. Hempstead, i. 143-145;
Col. Docs. N. Y. xiv. 528-529.
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232 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
any equivocation to the charges of the pubHc prosecutor,
who demanded that the prisoners be condemned to a fine
of six hundred florins each, according to the ordinance
violated.^ Henry Townsend finally acknowledged that
he had lodged in his house some friends who are called
Quakers, and that he had assembled a meeting at his
house, at which one of them spoke, but he concluded
with the protest, that, although they might squander
and devour his estate and manacle his person, his soul
was his God's and his opinions his own. He refused
to pay the fine of twenty-five pounds to which he was
sentenced on January 20th, and languished in prison,
where he was daily supplied with food, which his nine-
year-old daughter Rose passed to him through the
gratings of the jail.^ Samuel Spicer was fined only
twelve pounds. An order was also issued for the
banishment of John Tilton of Gravesend and John
Townsend of Jamaica. Mrs. Micah Spicer was also
prosecuted for entertaining the Quaker, but she was
acquitted, as she did not know that George Wilson was
a member of that sect.^
Stuyvesant was now determined to enforce the ob-
servance of the ordinance against private conventicles,
especially in the village of Jamaica, where the move-
ment of Quaker dissent was most prevalent at this
time. Some of those who had been entrusted with
authority had been so unfaithful to their office as to
* Council minute, January 9, 1661, Col. Docs. N. Y. xii. 491.
2 Thompson, Hist, of Long Island, ii. 292-3; 295.
3Cal. of Dutch MSS., ed. O'Callaghan, i. 220-1; Col. Docs.
N. Y. 1. c, note. Thompson says, "The widow Spicer, mother
of Samuel, was also arrested, accused and condemned in an amende
fifteen pounds Flanders."
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234 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
furnished with decent meat and victuals by those who
still refused to concur in the desires of the government.*
When these men remonstrated, they were informed that
the soldiers would be withdrawn, as soon as they would
sign the pledge to inform against the Quakers. Most of
the recusants then sold out and removed to Oyster
Bay beyond the jurisdiction of the Dutch government.^
In spite of all vigilance, the magistrates of Jamaica
had to report, in August of the following year, to the
Director General, that the majority of the inhabitants
of the village were adherents of the abominable sect
called Quakers. They themselves could do nothing to
stop the increase of this sect, as the townspeople did
not assemble in forbidden conventicles within their
jurisdiction, but in a large meeting held every Sunday
at the house of John Bowne in Flushing, where the
dissenters gathered from the whole neighborhood.'
Stuyvesant then ordered all the magistrates and inhabi-
tants of the English towns in the jurisdiction of New
Netherland to assist the sheriff. Resolved Waldron, to
imprison all persons, found in a prohibited or an unlaw-
ful meeting.^
John Bowne^ first visited Flushing on the fifteenth
of June, 1 65 1, in company with his brother-in-law, Ed-
ward Farrington. There he was married to Hannah
^ Col. Docs. N. Y. xiv. 493
2 Onderdonck, H., Jr., Amer. Hist. Rec. i, 210.
3 Council minute, August 24, 1662; Col. Docs. N. Y. xiv. 515.
* Council minute, September 9, 1662, Ibid. 516.
^ For biographical data cf. Mandeville, Flushing Past and
Present, p. 96, etc.; Thompson, Hist, of Long Island, ii. 285-6;
388; Watkins, Some Early New York Settlers from New England,
in N. E. Hist, and Geneol. Reg., Iv. 300 (1901); Henry
Onderdonck, Jr., Amer. Hist. Rec, i. 8, note i. 49-50 (1872).
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236 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
he decided to leave the prisoner under guard till next
day. Meanwhile, Resolved Waldron went to the town
and in the evening returned with the Schout of Flushing.
Bowne then demanded the order of his arrest from the
sheriff, who at. first refused, but then handed it to him.
When John Bowne saw that it was not a special war-
rant, but the general commission of Stuyvesant, which
authorized Waldron to arrest any person found in an
unlawful assembly, he refused to go on foot to New
Amsterdam in virtue of that order, as the sheriff had
found him in no assembly of any kind, but the sheriff
threatened to carry him off bound hand and foot.
The next day he was transported thither in a boat and
imprisoned in the courthouse. He attempted to obtain
a few words with the Director General, whom he saw
mounting his horse, but Stuyvesant gave the sergeant
to understand that he would speak with Bowne only on
the condition, that he would put off his hat and stand
bareheaded in his presence, which Bowne declared he
could not do. Stuyvesant anticipated the same refusal
on the following day, when Bowne was brought for
trial to the court room. As soon as he heard the
approach of the prisoner, even before he came into view,
the Director General bade him to take off his hat, but,
before John Bowne could refuse, he commanded the
Schout to give him the necessary assistance to comply
with the demand. Stuyvesant himself read the ordi-
nance against conventicles to the prisoner, but Bowne
denied that he had kept meetings of "heretics, deceivers
and seducers", as he could not admit the servants of
the Lord to be such. Stuyvesant refused to argue and
bluntly asked if he would deny that he had kept con-
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238 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
and told him that he must remain until the fine was
paid. The next day official notice of the fine was
served on the prisoner, but he refused to pay anything
on that account.^
At Gravesend, John Tilton and Mary, his wife, were
also taken prisoners and transported to New Amsterdam
to be tried for having attended meetings and for having
lodged persons of the abominable sect of the Quakers.^
Goody Tilton was furthermore charged with "having,
like a sorceress, gone from door to door to lure even
young girls to join the Quakers."^ Two days after
these complaints were made before the court, the
Director General and Council issued an ordinance which
interdicted under severe penalties the public exercise
of any but the Reformed Religion, "either in houses,
bams, ships or yachts, in the woods or fields, the provi-
sion of heretics, vagabonds or strollers with accommo-
dations, and the introduction and distribution of all
seditious or seducing books, papers or letters." The
ordinance also required the registration of all persons
arriving in the province,within six weeks of their advent,
at the secretary's office, where they were also then to
take the oath of allegiance. The execution of the
ordinance was to be ensured by the provision, that all
magistrates conniving at the violation of this statute
were to be deposed from their office and declared
incompetent to hold any public trust in the future.*
Two weeks after the proclamation of this ordinance,
1 Journal of John Bowne, Amer. Hist. Rec. i. 4-8
2 Council minute, September 19, 1662. O'Callaghan, Cal. Hist.
MSS. (Dutch), i.240.
^Thompson, Hist, for Long Island, ii. 295.
* O'Callaghan, Hist of New Netherland, ii. 454-5.
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240 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
cause before the court, but Stuyvesant refused to
grant this request of the prisoner and insisted that he
either pay the fine or go into exile, but he allowed him
to go home for a chest and clothes. Later William
Leveridge was authorized to tell Bowne, that, if he
would promise to go out of the Dutch jurisdiction
within three months, he would be set free the next day,
but John Bowne refused to give any answer to this
proposition, except to the Director General in person.
William Leveridge neglected to deliver the message to
Stuyvesant, who now had the prisoner kept more
closely than before in his place of confinement. On
the last day of December, John Bowne was offered the
liberty to visit, for the first days of the new year, his
wife and friends, on the condition that he would
promise to return to New Amsterdam on the evening
of the third day. The Schout also told him that the
Director General was still willing to set him free, if he
would promise to remove with his family out of his
jurisdiction within a month, but John Bowne refused
to entertain this profi:er of Stuyvesant. Faithful to
his promise, Bowne returned to New Amsterdam before
the expiration of his leave of absence, and then was
allowed the freedom of the town. He could learn
nothing of the intentions of the authorities, although his
chest, clothes, and bedding were still retained in prison.
When a ship was about to sail, Bowne met Resolved
Waldron. Upon the enquiries of the Quaker, the Schout
saw the Director General, and then told Bowne to
bring his things from prison and to transfer them to
the boat. John Bowne now succeeded in obtaining an
interview with Stuyvesant, who was very moderate in
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242 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
should fail to deter these sectarians from further
contempt of authority in Church and State. ^
When the Directors at Amsterdam received Stuy-
vesant's letter, they felt that it was time again to
restrain the religious zeal of the Director General
within the limits which they thought would not injure
the interests of their colony. While they were also
heartily desirous of seeing the Province free from
Quakers and other sectarians, their zeal for the re-
ligious unity of the Province was tempered by the fear
that a too rigorous policy might diminish the popula-
tion and stop immigration, which had to be favored at
this early stage of the development of the colony.
Stuyvesant was, therefore, told, in the letter' of the
Directors of April i6, 1663, that he might shut his eyes
to the presence of dissent in New Netherland, or at
least that he was not to force the conscience, but to allow
everyone to have his own belief, as long as he
behaved quietly and legally, gave no offence to his
neighbors, and did not oppose the government. The
Directors referred Stuyvesant to the moderation, prac-
ticed towards all forms of dissent in the City of Amster-
dam, which made it the asylum of the persecuted and
oppressed from every country, with the result of a large
increase of its population. The same blessing would
follow an imitation of this policy of moderation in the
colony of New Netherland. The letter of the Directors
of the Amsterdam Chamber has generally been inter-
preted in the light of an edict of toleration extended to
the Province of New Netherland, with which all per-
1 O'Callaghan, Hist of New Netherland, ii. 456-7; Brodhead,
Hist, of New York, i. 706.
2 Col. Docs. N. Y xiv. 526.
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244 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
erates the command given repeatedly by the Directors
in previous letters on similar occasions, at least to
admit freedom of conscience, to allow every inhabitant
of the Province to have his own belief. A more liberal
interpretation of the letter also makes the conduct of
the Directors towards John Bowne unintelligible.^
When John Bowne arrived in Amsterdam, he went
to the West India House and submitted a petition to
the Directors, which they referred to a special com-
mittee. The festivities of the season delayed a hearing
of the case for two weeks, after which Bowne, with a
companion, William Caton, was summoned to appear
before the members of this committee, who, at the time,
were very moderate towards the Quaker, not speaking
one word in approval of Stuyvesant's persecution.
Nevertheless, when John Bowne demanded the revoca-
tion of the sentence of the Provincial Court, the com-
mittee declared that they had not the power to fulfill
his request, but that they would refer the matter to the
Company. New difficulties arose, when John Bowne
attempted to obtain his personal effects from the ware-
house of the West India Company. His petition to
this effect had been granted by the committee, but the
keeper of the warehouse with his subordinate officials,
refused to deliver his goods, unless he paid for his pas-
sage from New Netherland, for which they received
the approval of the Company.
Bowne also made an attempt to engage a passage
back to New Netherland, and the merchant consented
^ Journal of John Bowne, Amer. Hist. Rec. i. 4-8. The
Journal substitutes numbers for the names of the month and begins
the year in March, which is, therefore, the first month of the year
in Bowne's system of chronology.
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246 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
justice from the Directors of the Company, but only
beheld additional oppression. Although his perse-
cutors had thus mocked at the oppression of the
oppressed, and added afflictions to the afflicted, he still
prayed that the Lord would not lay this to their charge,
but give them eyes to see and hearts to do justice, that
they may find mercy with the Lord in the day of judg-
ment. As late as the ninth of June, he complained
in his letter ^ to his wife, that the Company detained
his goods and denied him a passage home except on
conditions, so gross and unreasonable, that he chose to
suffer want of the dear company of his wife and chil-
dren, imprisonment of his person, the ruin of his estate in
his absence there, and the loss of his goods here, rather
than to yield or consent to such injustice. At length,
Bowne did become quite free of the Directors, and he tells
us inhis journal that he again arrived at New Amsterdam
early in the year 1664. He immediately proceeded to
his home in Flushing, which was the first house he
entered in the country. It is said that John Bowne
again met the old Governor after the establishment of
the English rule, as a private citizen, who then seemed
ashamed of what he had done, and glad to see the
Quaker safe home again. ^
^ Letter printed in full in Thompson, Hist, of Long Island, ii.
386-7.
2 Basse, Sufferings of the Quakers, ii. 237, Besse's account,
of the Bowne case is inaccurate.
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248 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
Brazil, who, with the zealous support of the Classis of
Amsterdam, had forced the civil authorities, in 1638, to
forbid the free exercise of the Jewish religion in public,
that had been guaranteed them on the conquest of the
country by the Dutch. ^
Stuyvesant's opposition to the Jews was not
prompted merely by inborn prejudice. It was doubt-
lessly influenced by his unfortunate experience with
the Jewish colony, established in 1652 on the island of
Curagoa, which, with the adjoining islands of Aruba and
Bonaire, was subject to his authority under a vice-
director. The Directors of the Amsterdam Chamber
had entertained the thought of abandoning the island
of Curagoa, which yielded no satisfactory revenue,*
when a new opportunity to develop the resources of the
island was presented in its colonization with Jews.
Jan de Ulan, a Jew, was made a patroon of a colony on
making known to the Directors of the Amsterdam
Chamber his intention to transport a good number of
colonists of his own nation there to settle and cultivate
the land. Although the Directors suspected that he
and his associates were planning to trade from Curagoa
to the West Indies and the Main, they were willing to
make the experiment and time would show whether
they could succeed with this nation, characterized by
them as "crafty and generally treacherous."' Stuy-
vesant, far from being hostile to this enterprise, ex-
1 Netscher, Les Hollandais au Bresil, 94-95; for the action of
the Classis of Amsterdam, cf. Eccl. Recs. N.Y. i. 196; 204; 206. In
both reference is also made to the persecution suffered by Catholics.
2 Directors to Stuyvesant, March 21, 1651. Col. Docs. N. Y.
xiv. 135.
'Directors to Stuvyesant, April 4, 1652, Ibid. 172; also letter
cited above.
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250 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
Christian worship or giving any offense to the Christian
conscience/
In spite of these liberal conditions of their charter,
the Jewish colony proved rather detrimental than profit-
able to the Company, which had been deceived both
in regard to the resources of the projectors of this
Jewish colonization and also in regard to the inten-
tions of the patroon himself and his associates. Jan
de Ulan was deep in debt for the horses furnished him
by the Company for his colony, where there was nothing
which might be seized as security for its payment. The
Directors also then learned that his partners in Holland
possessed nothing. The Company owed him about
3,000 guilders for flour and clothing, which he had
delivered to its servants, but even after the deduction
Faith: "The Company shall appoint in the aforesaid Colony a
Schout for the maintenance of Justice and Police, provided the
state of the colony be such as shall justify the appointment of a
Governing Council, in which case the patroon or patroons shall
nominate two of the most able persons living in the Colony being
Dutch Christians of the Reformed Religion, through whom the
Schout, as representative of the Company, raay have supreme con-
trol in the country." This charter was modelled on the privileges
granted the year previous by the Zealand Chamber to the people
of the Hebrew Nation that had gone to the Wild Coast. The Eger-
ton MSS. No. 2395, Fol. 46 in the British Museum, discovered by Mr.
Lucien Wolfe of London, has been rightly identified by Oppenheim
as a translation of the grant of the Zealand Chamber to the Jews,
which was sent by some agent, probably to Thurloe. It is men-
tioned by Charles Longland in his letter from Leghorn to Crom-
well's secretary, John Thurloe. Cf. An Early Jewish Colony in
Western Guiana. Supplemental data, by Samuel Oppenheim.
Pubs. Amer. Jewish Hist. Soc, No. 17, p. 54. Pubs. Amer.
Jewish Hist. Soc, No. 16; Oppenheim, Early Jewish Colony in
Western Guiana. (The appendix contains important documents.)
Cf. also Report of U. S. Commission on Venezuela-British Guiana
Boundary.
1 Cone, G. Herbert, The Jews in Curagoa, Pubs. Amer. Jewish
Hist. Soc, No 10, pp. 148; Van der Kemp, Ms. Translation, Dutch
Recs. N. Y. viii. 34; O'Callaghan, Cal. N. Y. Hist. MSS. (Dutch),
i. 329.
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252 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
at an exorbitant price. They were selling old curtains
and other shreds at three times the price for which
they might have been obtained in Holland. Jan de
Illan in fact had asked the vice-director to credit the
Indian chief with one hundred and fifty R. Dall.,
which he claimed to have delivered him in goods. On
enquiry , it was learned that the value of the goods
delivered would not exceed the sum of fl.25.17 in the
fatherland. This was merely an example of a practise
common among the Jews. However, the vice-director
hoped to put a stop to such extortion, as Jan de Illan
would lose the privileges of his patroonship because of
his failure to fulfil its stipulations, which amongst other
things bound him to have fifty settlers in his colony
within four years. There were then not more than ten or
twelve, and these wished to leave him and become
planters under the direct jurisdiction of the Company.^
When the Directors of the Amsterdam Chamber received
a report of the conditions existing in the Jewish colony,
they decided to furnish the vice-director goods, with
which he might be able to supply the colonists at a
reasonable price and thus put an end to the extortion
of the Jews. However, they refused to permit the
colonists to leave the settlement of Jan de Illan until
the expiration of the time of their service, when they
would be free to go.^ Two years later the vice-direc-
tor Beck wrote Stuyvesant that three or four Jews
solicited permission to leave the island, to which he
readily consented, as their presence was more injurious
^ Vice-Director Rodenburch to Directors, April 2, 1654
Van der Kemp, 1. c, viii. 107, in Cone, 1. c, 152.
2 Directors to Vice-Director Rodenburch, July 7, 1654, Van
der Kemp, 1. c, viii. cited in Cone, 1. c, 152-3.
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254 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
expiration of this time, de la Motthe was authorized, in
case of non-payment within four days, to have the
goods of the two greatest debtors, Abraham Israel and
Judicq de Mereda, sold at public auction, and if the sum
thus realized proved insufficient, he was further-
more authorized to proceed in like manner with the
other Jewish passengers until the full acquittance of
the debt.* When the sale of these goods still left a
balance, the Court, at the request of the master of the
vessel, placed under civil arrest two Jews as principals,
David Israel and Moses Ambrosius, who were held
for the payment of the balance.^ The sailors now
brought a suit against Asser Levy, from whom they
demanded the payment of fl.io6 still remaining due,
but the Court upheld its previous decision, that the
two Jews, who had been taken as principals, were to be
held for the payment of the balance. Asser Levy had
made the plea that he was no longer bound to pay, as he
had offered to do so on the condition that his goods
should not be sold.^ This plea did not save him from
condemnation, when Rycke Nounes tried to recover
fl.105.18 from Asser Levy, as her goods had been sold
by auction to pay his freight over and above her own
debt.* The Court ordered him to satisfy her claims
within fourteen days. When the sailors promised to
wait for the payment of the balance of the freight of
the Jews until the arrival of ships from the fatherland,
^ Court minutes, September 10, 1654, Recs. New Amsterdam,
i. 241.
2 Court minutes, September 16, 1654. Ibid. 244.
* Court minutes, October 5, 1654. Ibid. 349.
* Court minutes, October 19, 1654. Ibid. 254.
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256 RELIGION IN NEW NETHERLAND
and passports to the Portuguese Jews to travel and to
go to reside in New Netherland." The Jewish mer-
chants of Amsterdam protested against this injury to
their nation, which would also turn out to the disad-
vantage of the Company itself. The Jews, who in
Brazil had risked their possessions and their blood in
the defense of the country, were now dispersed here
and there in great poverty and could only retrieve their
shattered fortunes in some Dutch colony under the
protection of the Company, as opportunities were not
sufficient for all in Holland, and they could not go to
Spain or Portugal on account of the Inquisition. There