History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 1. Frederic Shonnard

History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 1 - Frederic Shonnard


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to contrast these selections of rulers for New Netherland with the choice of Prince Maurice of Nassau for governor of the Province of Brazil, to appreciate the comparatively low and scornful estimation placed upon the North American realms in the inner councils of the West India Company after due experience in their attempted exploitation. According to an explicit " Report on the Condition of New Netherland," presented to the States-General in 1638, the company declared that up to that time it had suffered a net loss in its New Netherland enterprise; that it was utterly unable to people the country; and that " nothing now comes from New Netherland but beaver skins, minks, and other furs."

      Closely following the submission of this significant report came a new departure in policy as to colonization, which had far-reaching effects, and under which before long a tide of immigration began to roll into our section.

      Realizing at last that the splendid scheme of patroonships, or a landed aristocracy, instituted in 1629, appealed only to a limited class of ambitious and wealthy men, who could never be relied upon to perform the tedious and financially hazardous work of settling the country with a purely agricultural population, the States-General on September 2, 1638, at the instance of the company, made known to the world that henceforth the soil of New Netherland would be open to all comers, of whatever position in society, whether natives of the home country or inhabitants of other nations not at war with the Netherlands. The specific terms attached to this very radical proposition were the following:

      All and every the inhabitants of this State, or its allies and friends," were invited to take up and cultivate lands in New Nether land, and to engage in traffic with the people of that region. Persons taking advantage of the offer of traffic were required to have their goods conveyed on the ships of the West India Company, paying an export duty of ten per cent, on merchandise sent out from the ports of the Netherlands, and an import duty of fifteen per cent, on merchandise brought thither from New Netherland. These certainly were not onerous customs exactions. Respecting individuals, of whatever nationality, desiring to acquire and cultivate land, the director and council were instructed " to accommodate everyone, according to his condition and means, with as much land as he can properly cultivate, either by himself or with his family." The land thus conceded was to become absolute private property, and to be free from burdens of every kind until after it had been pastured or cultivated four years; but subsequently to that period the owner was to pay to the company " the lawful tenths of all fruit, grain, seed, to bacco, cotton, and such like, as well as of the increase of all sorts of cattle." Those establishing themselves in New Netherland under this offer were bound to submit themselves to the regulations and orders of the company, and to the local laws and courts; but there was no stipulation for the renunciation of allegiance to foreign potentates. Considering the illiberal tendency of international relations prevalent in the seventeenth century, and the native self-sufficient character of the Dutch race, this whole measure is remarkable for its broad and generous spirit. There was no allusion in it to the subject of religious conformity, and the perfect toleration thus implied afforded a strong inducement to persons growing restive under the narrow institutions of the English colonies. This element, migrating from New England, found the shores of Westchester County most convenient for settlement, and became one of the most important and aggressive factors of our early population.

      The noteworthy measure of 1638, whose pro visions we have just analyzed, was supplemented in July, 1640, by an act of the States General effecting a thorough revision of the charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629. The patroonships were not abrogated, but the right to be chosen as patroons was no longer confined to members of the company, and the privileges and powers of the patroons were subjected to considerable modification. The legal limits of their estates were reduced to four English miles along the shore, although they might extend eight miles landward in; and the planting of their "colonies" was required to be completed within three instead of four years. Trade privileges along the coast outside of the Dutch dominions were continued as before; but within the territory of New Netherland no one was permitted to compete with the ships of the company, excepting that fishing for cod and the like was allowed, on condition that the fisherman should sail direct to some European country with his catch, putting in at a Netherlands port to pay a prescribed duty to the company. In this act much greater relative importance was attached to the subject of free colonists, or colonizers other than patroons, than in the original charter of 1629, the object manifestly being to assure the public that New Netherland was not a country set apart for lords and gentlemen, but a land thrown open in the most comprehensive way to the common people. Free colonists were defined to be those who should " remove to New Netherland with five souls above fifteen years," and all such were to be granted by the director-general " one hundred morgens (two hundred acres) of land, contiguous one to the other, wherever they please to select." The colonists were put on precisely the same footing as the patroons in matters of trade privilege, and, in fact, enjoyed all the material rights granted to the patroons except those of bearing a title and administering great landed estates, which, however, were equally within their reach in case of their ability to comply with the requirement for the transportation from the old country and introduction into the new of fifty bona fide settlers. The company assumed the responsibility of providing and maintaining " good and suitable preachers, schoolmasters, and comforters of the sick"; and it extended to the free colonists, no less than the colonists of the patroons, exemption from all taxes for a certain period. The former clause regarding negroes was renewed in about the same language, as follows: "The company shall exert itself to provide the patroons and colonists, on their order, with as many blacks as possible, without, however, being further or longer obligated thereto than shall be agreeable."

      Thus from 1629 to 1640 three distinct plans for promoting the settlement of New Netherland were formulated and spread before the public. The first plan, after being tested for nine years, was found a complete failure, because based upon the theory that colonization should naturally and would most effectively proceed from the patron age of the rich, who, acquiring as a free gift the honors of title and the dignities of landed proprietorship, would, it was thought, readily support those honors and dignities by the substance of an established vassalage. It was soon found that such a theory was quite incapable of application to a country as yet undeveloped, and that the sole reliable and solid colonization in the conditions which had to be dealt with would be that pursued on the democratic principle and under taken in their independent capacity by citizens of average means and ordinary aims. It stands to the credit of the West India Company and the Dutch government that, having discovered their fundamental error of judgment in the first plan of settlement, they lost no time in framing another, which was made particularly judicious and liberal in its scope and details, and was as successful in its workings as the original scheme had been disappointing.

      We have now arrived at the period indicated at the beginning of this chapter as that of the appearance of the first known settlers within the original historic borders of our County of Westchester. The attention of the Dutch pioneers on Manhattan Island had early been directed to this picturesque and pleasant region, and it is a pretty well accepted fact that some land purchases were made from the Westchester Indians antedating 1631), although the records of these assumed transactions have been lost. The most ancient deed to Westchester lands which has been preserved to the present day bears date of August 3, 1639, and by its terms the Indians dispose of a tract called Keskeskeck; the West India Company being the purchasers, through their representative, Cornelius Van Tienhoven, provincial secretary to Director Kieft.

      In the next year Van Tienhoven was dispatched by Kieft on similar important business to this same section; and, April 19, bought from the Siwanoy Indians all the lands located in the southeastern portion of Westchester County, running as far eastward in Connecticut as the Norwalk River. The instructions under which he acted directed him to purchase the archipelago, or group of islands, at the mouth of the Norwalk River, together with all the adjoining territory on the main land, and " to erect thereon the standard and arms of the High and Mighty Lords States-General; to take the savages under our protection, and to prevent effectually any other nation encroaching on our limits." The purchase of 1640 was in the line of state policy, being conceived and consummated as a countercheck to the English, who, having by this time appeared in considerable numbers on the banks of the Connecticut River, were making active pretensions to the whole western territory along the Sound and in the interior, and were thus seriously menacing the integrity


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