1641.

Opposition

of the Gen

of Massa

These "very fair terms" delighted the English appli- CHAP. X. cants. The General Court of Massachusetts, however, of fended at the thought of their "strengthening the Dutch, October. our doubtful neighbors," and at their being willing to receive from them a title for lands which the king had eral Court granted to Lord Stirling; but, above all, at their "binding themselves by an oath of fealty," sought to dissuade them from their purpose. The arguments of the court prevailed, and the discontented colonists "were convinced, and promised to desist."*

chusetts.

Francis

betakes

the Dutch.

Early the next year, Francis Doughty, a dissenting 1642. clergyman, while preaching at Cohasset, was dragged out Doughty of the assembly for venturing to assert that "Abraham's himself to children should have been baptized." Accompanied by Richard Smith, and several other liberal-minded men, Doughty came to Manhattan, to secure a happy home. He betook himself to the protection of the Dutch, "that he might, in conformity with the Dutch Reformation, have freedom of conscience, which, contrary to his expectation, he missed in New England." Kieft received the 28 March. strangers kindly, and immediately granted to Doughty Mespath, or and his associates "an absolute ground-brief" for more than thirteen thousand acres of land at Mespath, or Newtown, on Long Island. The patent guaranteed to them the freedom of religion, and all the political franchises which had before been offered to the people of Lynn and Ipswich, "according to the immunities granted and to be granted to the colonists of this province, without any exception."+

Patent for

Newtown.

Throgmor

friends set

selves at

In the autumn of the same year, John Throgmorton, John whom Hugh Peters had judged "worthy of the same per- ton and his secution that drove Williams to Providence," came to Man- tle themhattan to solicit a residence under the jurisdiction of the Throg's States General. Kieft readily listened to Throgmorton's 2 October. request; and granted him permission to settle himself, "with thirty-five English families," within twelve miles

*Winthrop, ii., 34.

+ Vertoogh van N. N., in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 301, 333; Lechford, 40, 41; Alb. Rec. G. G., 49; O'Call., i., 425; Thompson, L. I., ii., 70; Riker's Newtown, 17, 413.

Neck.

1642.

CHAP. X. of Fort Amsterdam, "to reside there in peace, and enjoy the same privileges as our other subjects, and be favored with the free exercise of their religion." The refugees selected for their home the lands on the East River, now known as West Chester, which the Dutch appropriately Vredeland, named “Vredeland," or the "Land of Peace;" and the next summer, Throgmorton obtained a patent for a portion of the territory where he and his companions had found an asylum.†

Anne
Hutchin-

Even Rhode Island seemed hardly as desirable an abode as New Netherland. Becoming dissatisfied with her first New Neth- retreat, and fearing that the implacable vengeance of Mas

son re

moves to

erland.

sachusetts would reach her even there, the widowed Anne Hutchinson, in the summer of 1642, removed, with Collins, her son-in-law-" a young scholar full of zeal"--and all her family, beyond New Haven, into the Dutch territory, and chose for her residence the point now known as Pelham Neck, near New Rochelle, a few miles eastward Settlement of Throgmorton's settlement. The spot was soon called Hoeck." "Annie's Hoeck;" and a small stream, which separates it from the town of East Chester, still preserves in its name, "Hutchinson's River," the memory of the remarkable woman who there found her last home.‡

at "Annie's

Motives to the large emigrations from

New En

gland.

These large emigrations to New Netherland, where five English colonies were soon established, did not fail to attract the notice of the Puritan authorities. The "unsettled frame of spirit" of many was attributed to the sudden fall of land and cattle, and the scarcity of foreign commodities; and there was "much disputation" in Massachusetts. "about liberty of removing for outward advantages." There were doubtless some who emigrated merely to enlarge their estates. But there were many others, whose only motive for the change was the religious intolerance

* Alb. Rec., ii., 185.

† Alb. Rec. G. G., 98, 173, 174; Winthrop, i., 42; Hutchinson, i., 371; Benson's Memoir, 121; Bolton's West Chester, ii., 145, 146, 152. The point now known as "Throg's Neck" was comprehended within this grant, and, no doubt, derives its name from Throg

morton.

Winthrop, ii., 8, 39, 136; Neal, i., 178; Hutchinson, i., 72, 73; Bolton, i., 514, 515. ◊ Winthrop, ii., 85, 87; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 6.

of their own countrymen. They left New England to seek, CHAP. X. in New Netherland, "freedom to worship God."

1642.

strangers

tan con

creasing.

Besides the numerous strangers whose "insupportable The num government" drove them to seek permanent homes in the bers of Dutch Province, there flocked from Virginia and New En- at Manhatgland many fugitive servants, "who too often carry their stantly inpassports with them under the soles of their shoes." Their conduct at Manhattan was soon found to occasion mischief and complaint. Kieft, therefore, issued a proc- 13 April. lamation forbidding the inhabitants to harbor any stran- regulagers, or give them more than one meal or a single night's lodging, without notifying the director, and furnishing him with the names of the new-comers.*

New police

tions.

The constant intercourse at this time between New England and Virginia brought many transient visitors to Manhattan. On their way to and from Long Island Sound and Sandy Hook, the coasting vessels always stopped at Fort Amsterdam; and the increasing number of his guests occasioned great inconvenience to the director, who frequently could afford them but "slender entertainment." Kieft, therefore, built "a fine hotel of stone" at the com- Kieft pany's expense, where travellers" might now go and stone hotel lodge." This hotel, or "Harberg," was conveniently sit- lers. uated on the river side, a little east of Fort Amsterdam, near what is at present known as "Coenties Slip."+

builds a

for travel

church pro

The old church had now become dilapidated; and De A new Vries, dining with Kieft, told him it was a shame that the posed. English, when they visited Manhattan, "saw only a mean barn in which we preached." "The first thing they built in New England, after their dwelling-houses, was a fine church; we should do the like," urged De Vries; "we have fine oak wood, good mountain stone, and excellent lime, which we burn from oyster-shells-much better than our lime in Holland." "Who shall oversee the work?" asked Kieft, whose anxiety "to leave a great name after him" was the more earnest, as a church was then in

* Journal van N. N., in Hol. Doc., iii., 98; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iv., 6; Alb. Rec., il., 161. ↑ De Vries, 163; Winthrop, ii., 96; Moulton's New Orange, 21.

CHAP. X. contemplation at Rensselaerswyck.

1642.

Church

inasters ap

"There are friends enough of the Reformed religion," answered De Vries, who immediately subscribed one hundred guilders, upon condition that the director should head the list. . Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, " a devout professor of the Reformed religion," and Jan Jansen Dam, who lived "close by the fort," were immediately appointed, with De Vries and pointed. Kieft, church masters to superintend the building; toward the cost of which the director agreed to advance "some thousand guilders" on the company's account. For greater security against all sudden attacks of the Indians," the church was ordered to be erected within the fort. This decision, however, was not satisfactory; for as it was to be built chiefly by public subscription, the people thought that it should be placed where it would be generally convenient. Besides, the fort was small enough already, and a church within it would be "a fifth wheel to a wagon." It would intercept, too, the southeast wind, and prevent the working of the grist-mill hard by. But Kieft insisted, and all objections were overruled.*

tions ab

66.

It only remained to secure the necessary subscriptions. Fortunately, it happened that the daughter of Domine Bogardus was married just then; and Kieft thought the wedding-feast a good opportunity to excite the generosity of Subscrip- the guests. So, "after the fourth or fifth round of drinking," he showed a liberal example himself, and let the other wedding guests subscribe what they would toward the church fund. All the company, with light heads and glad hearts, vied with each other in "subscribing richly." Some of them, when they went home, "well repented it;" but "nothing availed to excuse."+

tained.

May.

A contract was made with John and Richard Ogden, of Stamford, for the mason-work of a stone church seventytwo feet long, fifty wide, and sixteen high, at a cost of twenty-five hundred guilders, and a gratuity of one hundred more if the work should be satisfactory. The walls

* De Vries, 164; Vertoogh van N. N., 293.

+ Vertoogh van N. N., in ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 293.

1642.

Church in Fort Amsterdam.

were soon built; and the roof was raised and covered by CHAP. X. English carpenters with oak shingles, which, by exposure to the weather, soon "looked like slate." The honor and the ownership of the work were both commemorated by a square stone inserted in the front wall, bearing the ambiguous inscription, "Anno Domini, 1642, William Kieft, Director General, hath the Commonalty caused to build this Temple."*

The Provincial government before long felt some inconvenience from "the large number of Englishmen" who daily came to reside in New Netherland. Though Kieft himself was "roughly acquainted with the English language, "his subordinate officers were not; and the English strangers knowing the language of the province as little as the Dutch did of that of the new-comers, it was found necessary to have an official interpreter. One of George the exiles from New England, George Baxter, was ac-pointed Encordingly appointed "English secretary," at an annual sal- tary. ary of two hundred and fifty guilders.†

11 Dec.

Baxter ap

the South

The party which Lamberton had sent, the previous Affairs on summer, from New Haven to the South River, having, in River. violation of their pledge, established themselves upon Dutch territory, "without any commission of a potentate," Kieft, on finding how he had been cajoled, determined "to drive these English thence in the best manner possible." The yachts Real and Saint Martin were therefore 22 May. dispatched to Jansen, the commissary at Fort Nassau, tion diswho was instructed to visit the intruders, and "compel from Manthem to depart directly in peace." Their personal prop

*Alb. Rec., iii., 31; Hol. Doc., iv. ; ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., i., 382; ii., 293; O'Call., i., 262; Breeden Raedt, 22. It appears, from the Breeden Raedt, that the church was not inclosed until 1643. When the fort was demolished in 1790, to make way for the Government House, which was built on the site of what is now the "Bowling Green," the stone with the inscription was found among the rubbish. The following paragraph from the "New York Magazine" for 1790, records the circumstance: June 23. On Monday last, in digging away the foundation of the fort in this city, a square stone was found among the ruins of a chapel (which formerly stood in the fort), with the following Dutch inscription on it: 'Ao. Do. MDCXLII. W. Kieft Dr. Gr. Heeft de Gemeenten dese Tempel doen Bouwen.'" This stone was removed to the belfry of the Reformed Dutch church in Garden Street, where it remained until both were destroyed in the great fire of December, 1835.-ii., N. Y. H. S. Coll., ii., 328; Benson's Mem., 103; Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii., 402. † Alb. Rec., ii., 202.

Y

An expedi

hattan.