Lights and Shadows of New York Life or, the Sights and Sensations of the Great City. James Dabney McCabe
a municipal court of justice. The people, however, were denied the selection of these officers, who were appointed by the Governor. In February, 1653, these officers were formally installed. They were, Schout Van Tienhoven, Burgomasters Hattem and Kregier, and Schepens Van der Grist, Van Gheel, Anthony, Beeckman, and Couwenhoven, with Jacob Kip as clerk.
During Stuyvesant’s administration, the colony received large accessions from the English in New England. “Numbers, nay whole towns,” says De Laet, “to escape from the insupportable government of New England, removed to New Netherlands, to enjoy that liberty denied to them by their own countrymen.” They settled in New Amsterdam, on Long Island, and in Westchester county. Being admitted to the rights of citizenship, they exercised considerable influence in the affairs of the colony, and towards the close of his administration gave the Governor considerable trouble by their opposition to his despotic acts.
In 1647, the streets of New Amsterdam were cleared of the shanties and pig-pens which obstructed them. In 1648, every Monday was declared a market-day. In 1650, Dirk Van Schellyne, the first lawyer, “put up his shingle” in New Amsterdam. In 1652, a wall or palisade was erected along the upper boundary of the city, in apprehension of an invasion by the English. This defence ran from river to river, and to it Wall street, which occupies its site east of Trinity Church, owes its name. In 1656, the first survey of the city was made, and seventeen streets were laid down on the map; and, in the same year, the first census showed a “city” of 120 houses, and 1000 inhabitants. In 1657, a terrible blow fell upon New Amsterdam—the public treasury being empty, the salary of the town drummer could not be paid. In that year the average price of the best city lots was $50. In 1658, the custom of “bundling” received its death blow by an edict of the Governor, which forbade men and women to live together until legally married. In that year the streets were first paved with stone, and the first “night watch” was organized and duly provided with rattles. A fire department, supplied with buckets and ladders, was also established, and the first public well was dug in Broadway. In 1660, it was made the duty of the Sheriff to go round the city by night to assure himself of its peace and safety. This worthy official complained that the dogs, having no respect for his august person, attacked him in his rounds, and that certain evil-minded individuals “frightened” him by calling out “Indians” in the darkness, and that even the boys cut Koeckies. The city grew steadily, its suburbs began to smile with boweries, or farms, and in 1658 a palisaded village called New Harlem was founded at the eastern end of Manhattan Island for the purpose of “promoting agriculture, and affording a place of amusement for the citizens of New Amsterdam.” “Homes, genuine, happy Dutch homes, in abundance, were found within and without the city, where uncultured minds and affectionate hearts enjoyed life in dreamy, quiet blissfulness, unknown in these bustling times. The city people then rose at dawn, dined at eleven, and went to bed at sunset, except on extraordinary occasions, such as Christmas Eve, a tea party, or a wedding. Then those who attended the fashionable soirées of the ‘upper ten’ assembled at three o’clock in the afternoon, and went away at six, so that daughter Maritchie might have the pewter plates and delf teapot cleaned and cupboarded in time for evening prayer at seven. Knitting and spinning held the places of whist and flirting in these ‘degenerate days;’ and utility was as plainly stamped on all their pleasures as the maker’s name on our silver spoons.”
But the period of Dutch supremacy on Manhattan was approaching its close. Charles II. had just regained the English throne. In 1664, with characteristic disregard of right and justice, he granted to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, the whole territory of New Netherlands, including all of Long Island and a part of Connecticut—lands to which he had not the shadow of a claim. In the same year, a force of four ships and 450 soldiers, under the command of Colonel Richard Nicholls, was sent to New Amsterdam to take possession of that city. It arrived at the Narrows about the 29th of August, and on the 30th, Nicholls demanded the surrender of the town. Stuyvesant, who had made preparations for defending the place, endeavored to resist the demand, but the people refused to sustain him, and he was obliged to submit. On the 8th of September, 1664, he withdrew the Dutch garrison from the fort, and embarked at the foot of Beaver street for Holland. The English at once took possession of the town and province, changing the name of both to New York, in honor of the new proprietor.
The English set themselves to work to conciliate the Dutch residents, a task not very difficult, inasmuch as the English settlers already in the province had to a great degree prepared the way for the change. In 1665, the year after the conquest, the city was given a Mayor, a Sheriff, and a board of Aldermen, who were charged with the administration of municipal affairs, and in the same year jury trials were formally established. In July, 1673, the Dutch fleet recaptured the town, drove out the English, and named it New Orange. The peace between Great Britain and Holland, which closed the war, restored the town to the English, November 10th, 1674, and the name of New York was resumed. The Dutch Government was replaced by the English system under a liberal charter, and during the remainder of the seventeenth century the town grew rapidly in population and size. In 1689 there was a brief disturbance known as Leislers’ Rebellion. In 1700 New York contained 750 dwellings and 4500 white and 750 black inhabitants. In 1693 William Bradford established the first printing press in the city. In 1696 Trinity Church was begun, and in 1697, the streets were first lighted, a lamp being hung out upon a pole extending from the window of every seventh house. In 1702 a terrible fever was brought from St. Thomas’, and carried off 600 persons, one-tenth of the whole population. In 1711, a slave market was established. In 1719 the first Presbyterian Church was built; in 1725 the New York Gazette, the fifth of the colonial newspapers, was established; and in 1730 stages ran to Philadelphia once a fortnight, and in 1732 to Boston, the latter journey occupying fourteen days. In 1731 the first public library, the bequest of the Rev. Dr. Wellington, of England, was opened in the city. It contained 1622 volumes. In 1734 a workhouse was erected in the present City Hall Park. In 1735 the people made their first manifestation of hostility to Great Britain, which was drawn forth by the infamous prosecution by the officers of the crown, of Rip Van Dam, who had been the acting Governor of the town. The winter of 1740–41 was memorable for its severity. The Hudson was frozen over at New York, and the snow lay six feet on a level. In 1741, a severe fire in the lower part of the city destroyed among other things the old Dutch Church and fort, and in the same year the yellow fever raged with great violence. The principal event of the year, however, was the so-called negro plot for the destruction of the town. Though the reality of the plot was never proved, the greatest alarm prevailed; the fire in the fort was declared to be the work of the negroes, many of whom were arrested; and upon the sole evidence of a servant girl a number of the poor wretches were convicted and hanged. Several whites were charged with being the accomplices of the negroes. One of these, John Ury, a Roman Catholic priest, and, as is now believed, an innocent man, was hanged, in August. In the space of six months 154 negroes and twenty whites were arrested, twenty negroes were hanged, thirteen were burned at the stake, and seventy-eight were transported. The rest were released. In 1750 a theatre was opened, and in 1755 St. Paul’s Church was erected. In 1754 the “Walton House,” in Pearl street (still standing), was built by William Walton, a merchant. It was long known as the finest private residence in the city. In 1755 the Staten Island ferry, served by means of row boats, was established, and in the same year Peck Slip was opened and paved. In 1756 the first lottery ever seen in the city was opened in behalf of King’s (now Columbia) College.
New York bore a prominent part in the resistance of the colonies to the aggressions of the mother country, and in spite of the efforts of her royalist Governor and the presence of a large number of Tories, responded cordially to the call of the colonies for men and money during the war. On the 14th of April, 1776, the city was occupied by the American army, the British force stationed there being obliged to withdraw. On the 26th of August, 1776, the battle of Long Island having been lost by the Americans, New York was occupied by the British, who held it until the close of the war. It suffered very much at their hands. Nearly all the churches, except the Episcopal, were used by them as prisons, riding schools, and stables; and the schools and colleges were closed. On the 21st of September, 1776, a fire destroyed 493 houses, including Trinity Church—all the west side of Broadway from Whitehall to Barclay street, or about one-eighth