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NEW AMSTERDAM
AND ITS PEOPLE
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NEW AMSTERDAM
AND
ITS PEOPLE
Studies^ Social and Topographical, of the Towti
wider Dutch and-Rarly E?iglish Rule
BY
J. H. INNES
WITH MAPS, PLANS, VIKVVS, ETC,
Maar gij, 6 wel, en alder-hf erlijks>t-Ldii.J,
Weest daakbaar, an dts mi'Jcn Gevers hand.
Die u als in een Lusc-hof hceft geplunt.
Die gij u kJnd'ren
Mviugt laten tot ten Ecuwig-eygendom,
Tot dat hec Zaad der Vrouvve wcderotn
Vcrschijn: tot ons verlosaing : Wcilckom!
Wie zal 't hdin hina'itn?
Jacob SxEtNUAM
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1902
f^
(^
%
Copyriq/i!, Tgo2,
Bv Chaki 1.S Sckiunlr's Sons
Publishn.1, October, i(y02
A,.
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UNIVERSITY PRi:SS • )OHt.' VVII.SOH
AND SON • CAMBRIUCi:, U.S.A.
PREFACE
IT is perhaps unfortunate, in some respects, that Washing-
ton Irving chose to employ his great talents in writing
the amusing " Knickerbocker History " of New York. A
burlesque history of New York does not seem to be called
for per se, any more than a burlesque history of the Plymouth
Colony, and the presentation of a fictitious type of the colo-
nists of the former is calculated to work the same sort of
inconveniences as would the selection, for example, of Colonel
Pride or of Praise-God Barebones as a type of the latter.
Readers of such works are supposed, it is true, to bear in
mind the fact that they are considering the humorous descrip-
tions of non-existent characters ; but when for any reason
the work becomes almost a classic, as it were, of the literature
of the country, the type therein portrayed passes insensibly
in the popular mind into something like the embodiment of
truth.
The superficial American who travels in England, or the
superficial Englishman who travels in America, when he
writes a book about his travels, is apt to set forth the few
people he has chanced to meet as representatives of national
types of character. Both of these worthies are even more
prone to do the same thing when they travel in a foreign
country with the tongue of which they are of necessity but
imperfectly acquainted, but in such cases their performances
usually fall beneath the dignity of criticism.
No community, however, can be rightly judged in this
manner, for in each one are to be found traits of character
almost as diverse and distinct as are the individuals who
compose it. New York is no exception to this rule. Within
vi PREFACE
the period of the first thirty or forty years of the colonization
of New Amsterdam there are to be met with, in the town,
representatives of every country of Europe west of the line of
the Slavonic peoples. The Dutch, of course, greatly predom-
inated, but their characteristics also are exceedingly varied.
In the public and private records of the colony there are to be
found traits of profound and of thoughtless men, men crafty
and men open-minded, mild or haughty, religious or profane,
moral or immoral, learned or ignorant, freedom-loving or
despotic, small-minded men in office, puffed up with notions
of their boundless importance, men of shrewd business ca-
pacity, and reckless speculators, — all very much as may be
found upon the island of Manhattan in this year of grace
nineteen hundred and two. About the only type which the
author has been unable to meet with in his researches is
the dunder-headed Dutchman of fictitious history and of his-
torical fiction, — the embodiment of the popular idea of the
Dutch phlegmatic temperament; a marvellous compound of
Captain Bunsby and the Fat Boy in Pickwick.
At a later period Mr. D. T. Valentine began the first really
earnest and systematic attempt to bring out the actual features
of the old Dutch establishment. The labors of this gen-
tleman were severe, though not very methodical, and he is
entitled to great credit for the mass of materials which he has
brought together out of their original obscurity. Mr. Valen-
tine, however, was not very well acquainted with the Dutch
language, and, worse than that, he was peculiarly prone to
giving fanciful explanations to imperfectly understood facts.
These sometimes led to the most extraordinary and absurd
conclusions. Thus, for example, when some years after the
surrender to the English, the ferry-master at Haarlem discov-
ered that he was being deprived of his legitimate fees by a
practice which had grown up among the drovers of driving
their horses and cattle through the woods to a ford across
the narrow Spuyten Duyvil Creek, near the present King's
Bridge, and there wading across at certain stages of the tide,
he applied for permission to erect a tavern at this spot for the
PEEFACE vii
purpose of watching the wading-place. Mr. Valentine appears
to have found a portion of the record granting the ferry-
master the privilege of establishing the tavern at what is
designated by the illiterate scribe as " the wedding-place,"
Thereupon Mr, Valentine has given a romantic account, to the
effect that tliis paltry tavern, in its lonely and then almost
inaccessible location in the wilderness, received its name
from being the favorite resort of wedding parties from New
Amsterdam.
Again, in the case of Gerrit Hendricksen, who was famil-
iarly called — in all probability from some peculiarity of his
person or habitual dress — " de blauw boer,'^ literally, the blue
boor or farmer, Mr. Valentine, having found certain deeds
in which the property is described as adjoining "de blauw
boer," has in some inexplicable manner translated the phrase
as " The Blue Boar,'' and (perhaps with visions of the Boar's
Head in Eastcheap in his mind) has gravely stated that the
premises referred to were occupied as a tavern with the sign of
the Blue Boar.
Many other examples of Mr. Valentine's inaccuracies might
be given, but the foregoing will suffice. They seem to have
been very carefully followed in many instances by subsequent
writers whose accounts are based upon his researches. Even
in the case of so graceful a writer as the author of the " Tour
around New York," his work is marred by numerous errors
whenever he quits the domain of personal reminiscences.
Since, then, Washington Irving has described New Amster-
dam, not as it was ; and since Mr. Valentine has described it,
in many respects as it was not, there seemed to be some room
for an attempt to extract from the original records something
which should more closely represent the actual conditions
existing in the Dutch town, — whence the present essay.
The work is mainly based upon topographical researches,
the dangerous field of family genealogy having been avoided
by the author as far as possible, except where it seemed
necessary to introduce genealogical matter in order to eluci-
date various portions of the text.
viii PREFACE
The especial acknowledgments of the author are due to
Mr. W. Eames, Librarian of the Lenox Library, for many
favors in the prosecution of his researches, and more particu-
larly for placing at his service the extensive and very valuable
Bancker Collection, so-called, of plans and surveys, in the
possession of the Library. These, though only of indirect
benefit to the author in the present work, are invaluable to
the student of the topography of New York in the later
Colonial period.
So, too, the especial thanks of the author are owing to his
friend, Mr. A. J. F. van Laer, Librarian of the Manuscript
Department of the State Library at Albany, for the unwearied
patience and courtesy with which he has met the author's
somewhat large calls upon his time and attention, and for the
valuable information received from him upon many points.
The enthusiastic interest which this gentleman has shown in
the history and antiquities of the offshoot from his native
country, which, planted upon the island of Manhattan in the
early portion of the seventeenth century, has grown from
feeble beginnings till it is threatening to rob London itself of
the municipal pre-eminence of the world, cannot but be grat-
ifying to a native New York student of the history of the
latter metropolis.
J. H. I.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
Page
Early Growth ok the Settlement. — The Common Pasture
Field. — Brugh Straet and Brouwer Straet. — Philip
Geraerdy and the White Horse Tavern 1
CHAPTER II
WiNCKEL Straet, and the House of Dominie Bogardus. —
The West India Company's Old Storehouse. — Schreyers
Hoek 13
CHAPTER III
The West India Company and its Colonial Officers. — The
Quarrel between Director Kieft and Dominie Bogardus.
— The Wreck of the "Princess" 21
CHAPTER IV
"The Five Stone Houses." —The Brugh Steegh, or Bridge
Lane. — The Brewery of the West India Company. —
PlETER CORNELISSEN AND HIS GARDEN. — HeNDRICK KiP,
The Tailor 31
CHAPTER V
Hendrick Kip and his House. — The Kip Cottages on Stone
Street. — Jan Jansen van St. Obin and the Slave Ship
"Gideon" 38
CHAPTER VI
The Water-side. — Dr. Hans Kiersted. — The Houses of
CORNELIS VAN StEENWYCK AND JOHANNES NeVIUS. — CaP-
tain Paulus Vandergrift. — The New Storehouse of
the West India Company. — The Warehouse of Augus-
tyn Heermans. — Secretary Van Tienhoven. — The Old
Church and Parsonage 45
CONTENTS
CHAPTER VII
Page
Adam Roelantsen, the First Schoolmaster in New Amster-
dam, AND HIS House on Stone Street. — Captain Willem
TOMASSEN 61
CHAPTER VIII
Surgeon Van der Bogaerdt and his House. — His Tragical
Death. — The Privateer "La Garce" and her Prizes. —
Isaac de Foreest 68
CHAPTER IX
The Van Cortlandt Homestead. — Catherine van Cort-
landt and her Church at Sleepy Hollow. — Van Couwen-
hoven's Houses on Stone Street. — Pieter Hartgers,
THE Wampum Commissioner 75
CHAPTER X
The "Ditch," or Graft. — Teunis Craie and his Houses on
THE Ditch. — The Jews in New Amsterdam. — Solomon
La Chair, the Notary, and his Tavern. — The Banish-
ment OF MiCHIEL PiCQUET 81
CHAPTER XI
CoRNELis Melyn, Patroon OF Staten Island. — The Indian
Troubles. — Jochem Pietersen Kuyter. — The Struggles
OF Melyn and Kuyter against the Colonial Authorities.
— The Baron Van der Capellen. — Sibout Claesen, of
HOORN 94
CHAPTER XII
Jacob Steendam, the Dutch Poet, and his House. — His
Poetical Works. — "Den Distelvink." — Poems on New
Netherland. — His Latter Years at Batavia .... 127
CHAPTER XIII
Jacob van Couwenhoven and his Brewery. — Prinse
Straet, and "The Gardens." — Slyck Steegh, or Mill
Lane. — The Bark Mill. — Dominie Michaelis and the
First Dutch Church. — Evert Duyckink 144
CONTENTS xi
CHAPTER XIV
Page
The Houses of Barent Jansen, Jan Nagel, Claes Carsten-
SEN, AND JOCHEM C ALDER. — PlETER AnDRIKSSEN AND HIS
Troubles with the Indians. — Nicholas de Meyer. —
Wessel Evertsen, the Fisherman. — Rut Jacobsen . . 161
CHAPTER XV
The "Great Tavern," afterwards the Town Hall. —
Its Historical and Political Associations. — Dominie
BoGARDUs's Party. — The Courts. — The Shirt Case. —
Governor Lovelace's Tavern 175
CHAPTER XVI
The "English Quarter," and the Grants to Thomas
Willet and to Richard Smith. — William Paterson,
THE Scotchman, and his Adventures. — Who was he? —
An Historical Problem 192
CHAPTER XVII
Hanover Square and Burger's Path. — Burger Jorissen,
the Smith. — The Thirty Years' War. — Hendrick Jan-
sen, the Tailor, and his Opinion of Director Kieft.
— Smith Street 223
CHAPTER XVIII
Govert Loockermans and his Family. — Elsie Leisler.
— The Loockermans' House and its Associations. —
Captain Kidd 235
CHAPTER XIX
Sergeant Daniel Litscho and his Tavern. — Andries Joch-
EMSEN. — The "Outhoek." — Wall Street and the
Palisades of 1653. — Tymen Jansen, the Ship Carpenter,
and his House 267
CHAPTER XX
The Smits Vly. — Hendrick Jansen's Grant. — Augustyn
Heermans and his House. — Maryn Adriaensen and his
Attack on Director Kieft 279
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXI
Page
The Maagde Paetje, or Maiden Lane. — Skipper Cornelis-
SEN. — Frederik Lubbertsen and his House. — Jan and
Mary Peeck. — Sander Leendertsen's House. — Jan
ViNJE, THE First White Child born in New Nether-
land. — Vinje's Brewery 236
CHAPTER XXII
Secretary Van Tienhoven's Bouwery of " Wallenstein."
— The Gouwenberg. — Van Tienhoven's Lane. — The
Vanderclyff Family 309
CHAPTER XXIII
The Hamlet at the Ferry. — Lambert Moll. — Hage
Bruynsen, the Swede. — Dirck Volckertsen and his
Brother-in-Law, Abraham Verplanck. — Thomas Hall's
Place 313
CHAPTER XXIV
The Town's End and Bestevaers Kreupelbosch. — Isaac
Allerton and his Warehouse. — Loockermans' Farm. —
The Ferry. — Harry Brazier's House. — Dirck, the
Potter 329
APPENDIX I
The Justus Danckers View of New Amsterdam .... 347
APPENDIX II
The Descendants of Cornelis Melyn 350
INDEX 357
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
View of New Amsterdam about 1650 Frontispiece
(Reversed from a copy of the etching of Justus Danckers' Amster-
dam, ill the author's possession.)
Plan of New Amsterdam about 1644 To face page 1
New Amsterdam about 1630 " 2
(From the View in Hartgers' " Beschrijvingh van Virginia,"
Lenox Library, New York City.)
Schreyers Hoek Toren, Amsterdam " 18
(From Wagenaar's " Amsterdam.")
The West India Company's House, Amsterdam . . " 22
(From a print of 1693.)
The West India Company's Warehouse " 24
(From a print in the author's possession.)
Plan of the Ground between Brugh Straet and the
East River, New Amsterdam, in 1655 .... " 44
Cornelis van Steenwyck " 48
(From the portrait in Manual of the New York Common Coun-
cil, 1864.)
View of the Marckveldt and 't Water, 1652 ... " 58
(Enlarged from the Justus Danckers and Visscher Views of New
Amsterdam.)
Plan of Brouwer Straet and Hoogh Straet from Fort
Amsterdam to the Stadt Huys " 80
View of the East River Shore in the vicinity of the
"Graft," 1652 ** 104
(Enlarged from the Justus Danckers and Visscher Views of New
Amsterdam.)
The Heere Graft, Amsterdam, 1795 " 122
(From an aquatint engraving in Ireland's " Tour through Hol-
land.")
View of the Southeast Corner of Broad and Stone
Streets " 124
xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Jacob Steendam — The Kooman Portrait . . To face page 130
(From a print in the Lenox Library, New York.)
South William Street — The Ancient Slyck Steegh . "150
View of the Oude Kerk, or Old Church, Amsterdam . " 156
(From Wagenaar's "Amsterdam.")
Stone Street " 170
The Old Stadts Herbergh, or City Tavern, Amsterdam " 176
(From Wagenaar's " Amsterdam.")
Plan of the Stadt Huys, or Town Hall of New Am-
sterdam " 178
The Stadts Herbergh and vicinity, 1652 "182
(Enlarged from the Justus Danckers and Visscher Views of New
Amsterdam.)
The Stadt Huys and Burgers Path, 1679 " 188
(From the Danker and Sluyter View, Memoirs L. L Historical
Society.)
Coenties Alley " 192
Portrait of William Paterson " 206
(From a Wash drawing in the British Museum.)
View of Old Slip " 222
Hanover Square " 224
Plan of New Amsterdam, from the Stadt Huys to the
Town Palisades, 1655 " 240
North Side of Wall Street " 272
Plan of New Amsterdam, from the Palisades to the
Ferry, 1655 " 278
Augustyn Heermans " 282
(From the Portrait b}' himself on his Map of Maryland, British
Museum.)
Looking up Maiden Lane from Pearl Street . ... " 296
View of Gold Street " 298
Intersection of John and Pearl Streets " 310
A Part of Van Tienhoven's Lane, 1902 "312
"The Swamp," 1902 "326
AUerton's Warehouse and the Old Ferry, 1679 . . " 336
(From the Danker and Sluyter View.)
NEW AMSTERDAM AND ITS PEOPLE
NEW AMSTERDA
AND ITS PEOPLE
CHAPTER I
EARLY GROWTH OF THE SETTLEMENT. — THE COMMON
PASTURE FIELD. —BRUGH STRAET AND BROUWER
STRAET. — PHILIP GERAERDY AND THE WHITE HORSE
TAVERN
Nor you, ye proud, impute to these the fault.
If mem'ry o'er their tomb uo trophies raise,
Where through the loug-drawn aisle and fretted vault
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
Gray.
THE city of New York has been fortunate in the pres-
ervation of the early records of its settlement. The
study of the beginnings of the great centres of population of
the world possesses a peculiar interest for many, but the early
history of some of these cities, such as Rome, London, and
Paris, is lost in the obscurity of ages long past ; while others,
such as St. Petersburg, and, to a certain extent, Berlin, built
in pursuance of a rigid, pre-arranged plan of the governmental
powers, possess no more of antiquarian interest than does the
growth of New York under the Commissioners' plan of 1807.
In New Amsterdam, however, the early growth of the town
was not only in accordance with the process of natural accre-
tion, but it was made under the auspices of the West India
Company, a private corporation, which kept a rather jealous
eye upon its officials and its colonists, and maintained a con-
stant intercommunication with them, by means of reports,
letters of instruction, and a system of records of even the
most trivial transactions. These documents, though most of
1
2 NEW AMSTERDAM AND ITS PEOPLE
the very earliest of tliem are supposed to have perished, are
quite complete and full from the year 1638, and from them it
is possible to gain a comprehensive view of New Amsterdam
at almost any subsequent period during the Dutch rule.
The early course of building at the new settlement is pretty
well known. The original log blockhouse, with its surround-
ing palisades, undoubtedly occupied a part of the site of the
later Fort Amsterdam ; that is to say, it stood within the space
embraced by the present Bowling Green, Whitehall, Bridge,
and State streets. Clustering around this structure were the
small cabins of the first settlers, most of whom were mere
Indian traders. Many of these cabins were doubtless de-
stroyed soon after the larger fortifications were " staked out,"
as it is expressed in a letter of 1626. The remainder of the
thirty dwelling-houses which had been built before the close
of that year were apparently scattered in the vicinity of the
blockhouse, in such positions as had been chosen by the
builders, no system of streets existing as yet, and the houses
possibly not being considered as permanent. Afterwards, in
a few instances these earhest settlers received grants of the
plots which they had thus pre-empted, in this way causing
some irregularity and inconvenience in the ground-plan sub-
sequently adopted.^ These early cabins are said to have been
" of bark." They were probably duly framed of hewn
timber, but owing to the lack of saw-mills at this time had
been covered, after the fashion of shingling, with the thick
bark of the chestnut or of other suitable forest trees. The
roofs were all thatched with the native reeds.^
^ See, however, the remarks in note, post, page 33, as to the indications of a
system of streets ; or rather lanes, earlier than that finally adopted.
2 It is the writer's opinion that the very valuable engraved view of New Am-
sterdam, usually spoken of as the " Hartgers view," which is su))posed to be
the earliest one extant of the settlement, is to be referred to the period above
spoken of in the text, and may be fixed with comparative certainty to some time
between the years 1628 and 1632, a date considerably earlier than is usually as-
scribed to it. A slight examination of tiiis view by any person acquainted with
the early topography of New Amsterdam \vU\ show that it is a reversed one,
and as such must, in all probability, have been taken by means of a plain
camera obscura, — no doubt from some point on the Long Island shore, — and
5
<1 &p
THE COMPANY'S BOUWERYS 3
Soon after the first body of agricultural settlers sent over
by the West India Company had arrived, at about the period
last mentioned, and after the Director, Peter Minuit, had
efifected the purchase of Manhattan Island from the Indians,
a body of negro slaves belonging to the Company was set to
work clearing a large space of ground east of the present
Bowery, and extending from a fresh-water swamp occup}^-
ing the site of the present Roosevelt and James streets to
Eighteenth or Twentieth Street. This tract was divided into
six " bouwerys " or farms, which, with the buildings erected
upon them by the West India Company, and with certain
stock furnished by that body, were leased to various tenants.
In addition to these farms, several clearings were begun by
individuals, who were promised grants of land on favorable
never restored to its true position. The correct view appears by simply holding
a mirror to the reversed one. Having been obtained by this method, it is evident
that the sketch must approach accuracy in its main details, subject, of course, to
some impairment owing to the small scale upon which the picture is drawn.
Examining it, now, closely, we find one of its principal features to be a row of
stepped gables running parallel with the east side of the fort, and belonging to
some buildings of more than ordinary size. These can be none other than the
Company's "Stone Houses" upon Wiuckel Straet. Between them and the river
shore no sign appears of the church, erected in 1633. A small cluster of cottages
is seen upon the westerly side of the Broad Street swamp and its ditch ; another
group near the inter.section of the present Beaver Street and Broadway ; and a
few more near the windmill upon the North River shore. The buildings shown
number about thirty or thirty-five. Upon the East River shore is shown the
bluff, just west of which the City Tavern was erected in 1641 ; a thicket or grove
upon its summit undoubtedly conceals from view a building of much interest, the
old bark mill, in its isolated location east of the swamp or Blommaert's VI3', in
the loft of wliich building the first church services were held. Most of these
localities will be treated of more in detail in the text. As for the matter which
seems to have .somewhat puzzled Mr. G. M. Asher in his " Essay on the Books
and Pamphlets relating to New Netherland," — that no buildings are shown
within the fort, the answer is that none were as yet built there ; and the main
design of the view is evidently to show the newly planned fortification, as oriqi-
naUy contemplated, for it will be noticed that the walls show embrasures, which,
as far as we are informed, never existed there, the structure as finished being
merely a sodded earthwork, upon which the guns were mounted en barbette.
There is also a fifth bastion shown, upon the south side of the fort, of M'hich
no mention is made in the records or in maps. It is not at all improbable that
this view was originally annexed to a plan, or report of the engineer, to the West
India Company.
4 NEW AMSTERDAM AND ITS PEOPLE
terms by the Company; while to aid in providing for the
maintenance of its officials and servants of various degrees,
the West India Company caused to be cleared and placed
under cultivation the tract extending from Fulton to Cham-
bers Street, and from Broadway to the North River, well
known at first as the " Company's Bouwery ; " then, after
the surrender, in 1664, as the "Duke's Farm," and the
" King's Farm," by virtue of its confiscation to the Crown ;
and later as the " Cliurcli Farm," the property of Trinity
Church.
The cleared land upon all these bouwerys, however, was
immediately taken up for the cultivation of tobacco or grain,
and no suitable pasture was found for the cattle. To remedy
this, the Company cleared in part, and enclosed for a common
pasture field, a tract of twenty -five or thirty acres, extending
from the west side of Broadway to the present Nassau and
Chatham streets, and from the line of Ann Street up to a
small pond known as the " Little Kolck," near the present
Duane Street.^ To this pasture field and to the Company's
Farm a road extended from the fort, along the present Broad-
way, then turning eastward and again northward, it skirted
the common pasture field, following the lines of the present
Ann, Nassau, and Chatham streets as far as a point about at
tlie junction of North William and Chatham streets, where it
deviated to the eastward for the purpose of going around the
high ground known as Catiemut's Hill (this portion of the
road has long been closed), after which it passed along
the present Chatham Square and the Bowery, giving access to