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SETTLEMENT 
 
 ANn 
 
 EARLY HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 ALBANY. 
 

M0^. 
 
 u 
 
 PLAN OF ALBANY, 1605. 
 
 1. The tort. 
 
 "2. Dutch cliuich 
 
 3. l,mhiT;ui church, 
 
 4. Us liuriiil phice. 
 n. Dutch church Jo. 
 
 6 Stailhui.s or City Hall. 
 
 7 Blockhous<-s. 
 
 9. Great «un to cleiir a gully. 
 10 StocKaile.<. 
 11. City gates, 6 in all. 
 
THE 
 
 SETTLEMENT 
 
 AND 
 
 EARLY HISTOKY OF ALBANY 
 
 T 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM BARXES. 
 
 ALBANY, N. Y. : 
 
 J MUNSELL, 78 STATE STREET. 
 
 18GJ. 
 
 t 
 
i 
 
 
 i 
 
 i 
 
NOTICE 
 
 This Essay look the prize of the Young Men's Association 
 for Mutual Improvement in the City of Albany, in Decem- 
 ber, 1850, and was published in a pamphlet. The edition 
 having been long since exhausted, and much inquiry made 
 for it, the author has contributed this edition to the Holland 
 Booth of the Army Relief Bazaar. 
 
 Ai,BANT. January. IHlii. 
 
HISTORY OF ALBANY, 
 
 1609—1686. 
 
 city in the United 
 States is more fruit- 
 ful of historic interest 
 than Albany. Not so, 
 by some one great 
 event, which will stand forever as a 
 beacon light in the path of Time, illu- 
 mining as w^ith a petrified brightness 
 the place of its occurrence ; but, by the 
 numberless events, and early and inte- 
 resting associations, clustering in every 
 half century of its existence. 
 
It is not a spirit at war with the ge- 
 nius of republican institutions, which 
 inclines ns to muse on the history of 
 our own city, and recount witli pride and 
 admiration the incidents of its early 
 annals, and the scenes of its younger 
 days; nor, to my notion, is it repre- 
 hensible to look back with the same 
 feeling to the noble deeds and exalted 
 worth of our ancestors, if we draw from 
 the retrospect, not a false estimate of 
 superiority in ourselves, but only deeper 
 and more powerful incentives to be- 
 come worthy of such ancestry. The 
 connection of the past with the present, 
 of the present with the future, form 
 some of the noblest motives to human 
 
7 
 
 exertion, and some of the most power- 
 ful restraints to the commission of 
 crime ; and a due consideration of 
 their rehition to each other, constitutes 
 the distinguishing characteristic of the 
 wise and great. An intimate or even 
 general knowledge of the early history 
 of our own city, disseminated more 
 widely among its inhabitants, would 
 be a source of pure and exalted en- 
 joyment, and might arouse in some 
 stoical heart that Albanian pride, so 
 justly the property of or.r citizens, 
 but wdiich we have only slightly cul- 
 tivated. 
 
 American history, unlike European 
 and Asiatic, contains the records of 
 
8 
 only two liiindred and fifty years. It 
 bears not upon its pages the mystic 
 annals of China and of Egypt, of 
 Greece and of Rome. We can date 
 our origin — the settlement of every 
 city, village, and hamlet — and often- 
 times the memory of the "oldest 
 inhabitant" of some great and crowded 
 emporium contains the complete record 
 of its foundation, growth and maturity. 
 We can claim for Albany an older date 
 than that of our great commercial 
 metropolis, and that, next to James- 
 town in Virginia, it is the oldest city 
 in the United States. 
 
 After the discovery of America by 
 Columbus, European enterprise was 
 
9 
 
 directed to this continent, as the 
 California of those days ; and the mys- 
 tery and uncertainty of its true wealtli, 
 extent, and fertility, added greatly to 
 the excitement consequent on its dis- 
 covery. 
 
 In the early part of the seventeenth 
 century, the Dutch established trading 
 houses near the present cities of New- 
 York and Albany. In September, 
 1609, the immortal Hendrik Hudson, 
 in the ship Half Moon, made his 
 memorable voyage up our noble rivei* 
 which bears his name : a part of the 
 crew of this vessel were the first white 
 men that ever saw the site of our 
 present goodly city. Its hills were 
 
10 
 
 tlien covered with the pine, the maple, 
 the oak, and the elm ; while through 
 the valleys flowed the Eutten Idl and 
 Yossen kil, and on the outskirts ran the 
 noisy waters of the Beaver kil and 
 the Patroon's creek. The wild vine 
 clambered in rich luxuriance on the 
 forest trees, and threw its graceful 
 festoons from the mossy banks of the 
 river. The slender deer bounded 
 undisturbed through the tangled 
 thickets, or bent his antlered head to 
 drink from the limpid streams that 
 crossed his path. The beaver sported 
 unmolested in the bright watei'S, 
 which are now doomed to the dark- 
 ness and gloom of a subterranean 
 
11 
 
 passage to the river; and slept in 
 conscious security on the low grounds 
 of the southern and eastern portions 
 of the cit}^ where now the elegant 
 stores and stately residences of our 
 citizens have obliterated all traces of 
 his patient industry. Where now 
 the hum of busy thousands attests 
 the mart of commerce, industry and 
 enterprise — silence reigned supreme. 
 Could the immortal Hendrik have 
 slept the fabled sleep which the 
 genius of Irving has interwoven with 
 the banks of the Hudson, and beheld, 
 on his awaking at the present day, 
 our venerated city as it now stands, 
 his bewildered memory could have 
 
12 
 
 scarcely recalled tlie fact of its primi- 
 tive solitude. 
 
 I have many times thought that the 
 Q:reatest blessiuo: Deitv could vouch- 
 safe to mortals, would be the privilege 
 of revisiting, in after centuries, the 
 scenes of our lifetime labors and dis- 
 coveries ; but ever as 1 ponder on that 
 ecstatic bliss, the thought recurs, that 
 were it permitted us, Americans, to 
 behold the sites of our dwellings, 
 farms, villages, and cities, before the 
 white man's foot had touched these 
 shores, that such a scene would be 
 equally enchanting. It would be 
 interesting to know what chief raised 
 his rude wigwam on the Hill where 
 
13 
 
 stands the Capitol, second only in 
 importance to that which rears its 
 head at Washington. We would 
 know^ his life, his oratory, his adven- 
 tures, his battles, and his death ; 
 whether also on that Hill, at any time, 
 Indian sachems confered in council, 
 or Indian warriors sounded their 
 terrific war-whoop, and fought and died 
 in battle. We would also know of the 
 gentler partner of his wild-wood home ; 
 of the mingled romance and reality 
 of her life and her religion, and her 
 patient endurance of hardships and 
 fatigues, which would blanch the 
 cheek and chill the blood of our 
 
 modern fair. We would know if their 
 
 3 
 
14 
 
 soothsayers ever predicted anything 
 of the utter destruction that has 
 fallen upon their race, and the power, 
 and strength, and skill of the white 
 men who have supplanted them. We 
 would know how those Romans of 
 the New World, the fearless Iroquois, 
 held the whole northern country in 
 subjection to their despotic sway; 
 whether it was bravery, or wisdom, or 
 oratory, or all of these combined, 
 which gave them their acknowledged 
 supremacy and terrible power. The 
 unwritten pages of Indian history 
 would form volumes of thrilling 
 interest to the world ; but there are 
 no landmarks in the darkness of 
 
15 
 
 their past, and tlie simple aborigines 
 lived and died, but gave no sign, 
 save now and then, when an earnest 
 antiquarian enters upon the broad 
 field of conjecture, and strives to 
 rescue from oblivion the rude hiero- 
 glyphics that lie buried in the red 
 man's grave. 
 
 We leave this speculative ground, 
 for the real and authentic history 
 of Albany. 
 
 Hendrik Hudson had been dis- 
 patched from Holland in the vessel 
 Half Moon, by the Dutch East India 
 Company, to search for a northwest 
 passage to India and China, which 
 at this time was attracting the 
 
16 
 
 attention of the scientific men of 
 Europe. In coasting along the Ame- 
 rican shore, he entered the bay of 
 the Manhattes, or New- York ; and, 
 attracted by the beauty of the banks 
 
 of the Cohotatea, as the river was 
 called by the natives, and in the 
 hope of finding the long sought for 
 passage, he ascended to the head 
 of navigation for vessels of the tonnage 
 of the Half Moon, near the present 
 city of Hudson, and despatched 
 Robert Juet, the mate, and four 
 sailors, up the stream as far as 
 Albany. Not finding any passage 
 to China, probably for the reason 
 that he did not go up as far as our 
 
17 
 
 neighboring city, and seek a route 
 ''via Troy,^' he returned to Europe. 
 The Half Moon, after some detention 
 in England, sailed for Holland, with 
 the interesting tidings of Hudson's 
 discoveries. He, however, was pre- 
 vented from leaving, by the English 
 authorities, who began to grow 
 jealous of the maritime enterprises 
 of the Dutch. Of his history little 
 is known. He was an Englishman 
 by birth. Soon after this voyage, he 
 made another in the service of the 
 London Compan}^, to the northern 
 part of this continent, where success 
 again rewarded him by the discovery 
 of the large bay, which is called by 
 
18 
 
 his name. On his return voyage, 
 a mutiny broke out among the ship's 
 crew ; and he, with several of his 
 sailors, was placed in a small boat 
 and set adrift upon the waste of 
 waters. It is probable that he died 
 of starvation; or, perhaps, to avert 
 the terrors of such an agonizing 
 death, voluntarily sought his grave, 
 and sleeps beneath the waters of 
 that ocean which once bore him 
 proudly on to the scene of his future 
 fame and immortality. 
 
 The announcement of Hudson's 
 discoveries aroused the enterprise of 
 the merchants of the United Provinces 
 of the Netherlands ; and several 
 
19 
 
 ships were despatched to the island 
 of Manhattan, to trade with the 
 Indians. An ordinance, ur octroy, 
 was passed on the twenty-seventh 
 dav of March, 1614, bv the States 
 General, giving to the first discoverers 
 " of any new courses, havens, countries, 
 or places," being inhabitants of the 
 United Netherlands, the exclusive 
 right and privilege of making the 
 first four voyages to such places so 
 discovered. The Netherlands were 
 at this time the first maritime jDowev 
 of Europe, and Amsterdam was the 
 commercial capital of the world; her 
 citizens had amassed their wealth upon 
 the seas, and her merchant pi'inces 
 
20 
 
 claimed an equality with the aristo- 
 cracy and nobility of Europe. The 
 independence of the provinces had 
 been virtually wrenched from the 
 haughty Philip of Spain ; and Prince 
 Maurice — the Washington of the 
 Dutch — was acknowledged one of 
 the greatest generals of the age. 
 Dui'ing the war against the combined 
 forces of England and France, London 
 itself, while ridiculing the Dutch 
 admirals, trembled for its very 
 existence. With their government 
 was also mixed the leaven of repub- 
 licanism — always a source of activity 
 and enterprise, and adding incalcu- 
 lably to the effective power of a nation. 
 
21 
 
 The republic had been ushered into 
 existence by its hatred of Spanish 
 oppression and the Spanish Inquisition. 
 It felt all the energies of a youthful 
 nation that had bought its religious 
 and political independence by its 
 own inherent bravery and valor. 
 
 We may perhaps be amused at the 
 ridicule some writers have seen fit to 
 bestow upon the eccentricities of our 
 Dutch ancestry ; but the genius of 
 such persons might have been more 
 worthily employed in caricaturing 
 vice and immorality, and ministering 
 to our lower faculties onlv to eflfect 
 some exalted and elevated purpose. 
 Surely no one in whose veins runs 
 
22 
 
 the blood of the Puritans, can forget 
 the land and the race that aiforded 
 them shelter and protection from 
 British intolerance and persecution. 
 We would do well to remember that 
 in politics, jurisprudence, medicine, 
 theology, the arts, and in land and 
 naval warfare, Holland can boast of . 
 such names as DeWitt, Barneveldt, 
 Grotius, Boerhaave, Erasmus, Kem- 
 
 BRANDT, EUBENS, YaN DyKE, PrINCE 
 
 Maurice, De Ruyter, and Van Tromp ; 
 a constellation of genius unequalled 
 at this period in any other nation of 
 the world. Immediately after the 
 passage of the octroy of March 1614, 
 several Amsterdam and Hoorn mer- 
 
23 
 chants despatched five ships on 
 voyages of exploration and discovery ; 
 three of which were commanded by 
 the eminent navigators Adriaen Block, 
 Hendrik Corstiaensen and Cornelius 
 Jacobsen Mey. They explored the 
 American coast from Massachusetts 
 Bay to Virginia, and gave names to 
 the bays, islands, rivers, &c. ; and 
 Skipper Hendricksen, upon whom 
 the command of one of the ships 
 devolved, on his return to Holland 
 in 1616, presented to the States 
 General a figurative map of his dis- 
 coveries, which is the oldest chart 
 of these countries known to exist. 
 The original was found by Mr. Brod- 
 
24 
 
 head at the Hague in 1841, and a 
 copy is published in O'Gallaghan's 
 History of New Netherlands 
 
 On the eleventh day of October 
 
 1614, the States General granted to 
 Gerrit Jacob Witsen and others, the 
 enterprising merchants of Amsterdam 
 and Hoorn above mentioned, a charter, 
 under the octroy of March, confering 
 on them the exclusive privilege of 
 trading to New Netherland, or the 
 countries between New France and 
 Virginia, for four voyages to be made 
 within three years commencing on 
 or before the first day of January 
 
 1615. The company now assumed 
 the name of the United New Nether- 
 
25 
 
 land Company ; and in 1614, Ilendrik 
 Corstiaensen erected under the above 
 grant a trading house on the island 
 below the site of our city, and nearly 
 opposite the princely residence of our 
 respected townsman, E. P. Prentice, 
 Esq., at Mount Hope. The trading 
 house was 26 feet wide and 36 feet 
 long, surrounded by a stockade 50 
 feet square, and a moat 18 feet wide : 
 two pieces of cannon and eleven stone 
 guns were mounted for its defence, 
 and it was garrisoned by ten or 
 twelve men under the command of 
 Corstiaensen and Jacob Jacobz Elkens. 
 Here an extensive fur trade was 
 opened and carried on with the 
 
26 
 
 Indians. The river was then generally 
 called Mauritius, or Prince Maurice's 
 River, and was named after Maurice 
 of Nassau, Prince of Orange, who, 
 at the age of eighteen, on the murder 
 - of his father, succeeded to the govern- 
 ment of the Low Countries, and became 
 captain general of the united states. 
 He strengthened and confirmed the 
 newly established republic, by his 
 wisdom and bravery, and enlarged its 
 provinces and its fame by numerous 
 conquests and splendid victories. The 
 river was also called the Great North 
 River of the New Netherlands by 
 the Dutch settlers, in contradistinction 
 from the South or Delaware River. 
 
27 
 This name, to some extent, it still 
 retains. Hudson called it the Great 
 River of the Mountains. In the journal 
 of a French Jesuit (Father Jogues), 
 written in 1646, it is called the Oiouge; 
 but the natives at its mouth knew 
 it as the Mohegan, but generally by 
 the name of Manhattes, though among 
 the Mohicans it received the title of 
 Shatemuck. The Mohawks, however, 
 graced it with the more euphonious 
 and poetical name of Cohohatatea. 
 
 The fort on Castle Island is designat- 
 ed on the map of Skipper Hendriksen 
 as Fort Nassau, but was also known 
 by the name of the Kasteel or Castle, 
 It was never generally recognized as 
 
28 
 
 Fort Nassau; another fort, bearing 
 that name, having been erected 
 shortly after on the South or Delaware 
 Kiver. 
 
 In the spring of 1617, by the 
 breaking up of the ice on the river, 
 there was a heavy freshet; but at 
 that time, the dock and the pier were 
 not in a condition to receive much 
 injury, though the small fort and 
 trading house on the island were 
 nearly destroyed. The company there- 
 fore erected a new fort on the hill, 
 called by the Indians Tawasgunshee, 
 near the banks of the Norman's kil, 
 or Tawalsantha creek. The Norman^s 
 kil was named after Albert Adriaensen 
 
29 
 
 Bradt de Norman, or Northman, one 
 of the early settlers at Rensselaers- 
 wyck. The Rutten Ml was named from 
 Kutgers Bleecker, a proprietor of land 
 adjoining it. He was probably the 
 ancestor of the worthy Dutch family of 
 that name, whose history is identified 
 with that of Albany from its earliest 
 existence. The five streams, from the 
 Norman's kil to Patroon's creek, were, 
 however, at this period, designated as 
 the first, second, third, fourth, and 
 fifth kils. 
 
 The exclusive privileges of the New 
 Netherland Company having expired, 
 according to the terms of the grant in 
 January 1618, the country was open 
 
 5 
 
30 
 
 to individual enterprise; but the 
 original company, by their old and 
 well-founded establishments, and 
 knowledge of the trade, still retained 
 control of the greater portion of the 
 traffic until 1621. The same year, the 
 Dutch made a solemn alliance and 
 treaty of peace with the Five Nations, 
 near the mouth of the Norman's kil, 
 and it was confirmed with great form- 
 ality and ceremony. To the honor of 
 the parties, be it said, it was never 
 broken, so long as the Dutch retained 
 their power in this state. 
 
 On the third day of June 1621, the 
 States General organized the West 
 India Company, and granted it a 
 
31 
 
 cliarter similar to the one granted to 
 the East India Company ; partly for 
 commercial and in part for warlike 
 purposes, as the twelve years' truce 
 with Spain had expired. To this 
 company w^as given the exclusive 
 privilege of trading and navigating 
 to the coasts of Africa, North and 
 South America, and the West Indies, 
 for a period of twenty-four years 
 (which was subsequently extended) ; 
 and they were empowered to found 
 colonies, erect fortifications, make 
 treaties, and possessed legislative, 
 executive and judicial powders over 
 their colonies. The control of the 
 company was vested in five chambers 
 
32 
 
 of managers, styled lords directors, at 
 Amsterdam, Zealand, Maese, North 
 Holland and Friesland; and the ge- 
 neral meeting of the chambers was 
 composed of nineteen delegates or 
 directors, in whom was lodged the 
 supreme power of the company, having 
 authority even to declare war, subject 
 to the approbation of their high might- 
 inesses the States General. The 
 government also gave them nearly 
 half a million of dollars, and subscribed 
 another half million to the stock of 
 the company; and in case of war, 
 were to assist them with a large naval 
 force. The management of New 
 Netherland was committed to the 
 
33 
 
 Amsterdam Chamber, which was the 
 richest and most influential, appoint- 
 ing nine delegates to the Assembly 
 of XIX. 
 
 In 1623, the West India Company 
 erected a fort on the site of the old 
 Fort Orange (now Phoenix) Hotel, in 
 front of the present steamboat landing, 
 and called it Fort Orange, in honor 
 of Maurice, Prince of Orange. In 
 March of this year, the company sent 
 out a vessel of 260 tons, under the 
 command of Captain Mey, with thirty 
 families, principally Walloons. The 
 Walloons were of French descent, and 
 resided on the frontiers of Belgium and 
 France : they professed the reformed 
 
34: 
 
 leligion, and were distinguished for 
 their bravery and valor. Some of 
 their number settled at Fort Orange, 
 for the purpose of colonizing the 
 country and commencing farming 
 operations. The fort was then com- 
 manded by Daniel Yan Krieckkebeeck, 
 or Beeck. Little was done, however, 
 towards the cultivation of the soil, 
 the settlers engaging principally in 
 traffic with the Indians. In 1626, 
 there were but eight families resident 
 here. 
 
 It was during this year that the 
 Mahikans made war on the Maquaes, 
 and asked the assistance of Com- 
 mander Beeck, and six of his men. He 
 
35 
 
 accordingly went, with the required 
 number, and met the enemy about a 
 mile from the fort. Commander 
 Beeck, with three of his men, were 
 slain, one of whom was roasted and 
 eaten by the Indians; whereupon all 
 the families were ordered to leave 
 Fort Orange, and sixteen men re- 
 mained as a garrison. Soon after this 
 occurrence, Pieter Barentsen, an Indian 
 trader, arrived at the fort; and Di- 
 rector Minuit, who was the first di- 
 rector of the company at Manhattan, 
 ordered him to remain as commander. 
 Two years after, the war between 
 the Mahikans and the Maquaes was 
 renewed ; the former were vanquished. 
 
36 
 
 and the remnant of their tribe, not 
 captured, removed to the Connecticut 
 or Fresh river. 
 
 Barentsen, having returned to 
 Holland, the command of the fort 
 devolved upon Sebastian Jansen Krol. 
 At this time, there were about twenty- 
 five ti'aders here. 
 
 On the ninth day of September 
 1629, Admiral Pieter Pietersen Heyn 
 achieved his brilliant victory in favor 
 of the West India Company, against 
 the Spanish Plate, or, as it is more 
 commonly known. Silver Fleet, of 
 twenty sail; capturing the whole 
 number, including a large quantity of 
 gold and silver, and other spoil to the 
 
37 
 amount of five millions dollars. The 
 impetus given to the affairs of the 
 company by this unprecedented success, 
 swelled their dividends to fifty per 
 cent, and hastened the adoption of a 
 system to colonize New Netherland 
 on a more extensive scale than had 
 hitherto been attempted. On the 
 seventeenth day of June 1629, the 
 Assembly of XIX, attended by com- 
 missioners of the States General, 
 passed the Charter of Privileges and 
 Exemptions. This document has ever 
 since had an important bearing on the 
 history of New York, and is the pri- 
 mary and fruitful source of all the anti- 
 rent disturbances that have recently 
 
 6 
 
38 
 
 agitated this state. It was strangely 
 enough called a charter of privileges^ 
 when, by it, the system of patroonship 
 and feudalism was transplanted to our 
 American shores. 
 
 The feudal system, either in its 
 original form of military tenure, or 
 with various modifications, prevailed 
 at this period all over Europe. Never 
 was a system devised, so well calculat- 
 ed for the prosperity of the nobility 
 and aristocracy, and the oppression, 
 dependency and degradation of all 
 other classes. By its adoption in 
 New Netherland, the Dutch probably 
 lost the territory, which, under a 
 different system, they might have re- 
 
39 
 tained. Had the hoors of tlie patroons 
 been free men, it would have encou- 
 raged a more numerous immigration, 
 and thev would have felt a stronger 
 interest in the government of their 
 Fatherland, and never surrendered 
 without resistance to the jurisdiction 
 of a foreign power. 
 
 By this charter, all persons, being 
 members of the West India Company, 
 who planted a colonic of fifty souls 
 above the age of fifteen years, were 
 to be acknowledged patroons of New 
 Netherland. They were allowed to 
 extend their boundaries sixteen miles 
 on the shore of a navigable river, or 
 eight miles on both sides; but the 
 
40 
 
 extent into the interior was unlimited. 
 The consent of the patroon, in writing, 
 was necessary, in order that a colonist 
 might leave a colonic ; and after his 
 term of service was fulfilled, he was 
 compelled to return to Holland. The 
 patroons were to have a monopoly of 
 fishing, hunting, and grinding of all 
 mines and minerals, and a preemption 
 right of buying the colonists' surplus 
 grain and cattle. The patroons 
 possessed the absolute title to the 
 soil ; and their courts had jurisdiction 
 of actions, subject to appeal, in cases 
 of upwards of fifty guilders, to the 
 company's commander and council in 
 Few Netherland. The patroons' 
 
41 
 
 courts had also jurisdiction in crimi- 
 nal cases, even to punishment by- 
 death ; and in the colonic of Kensse- 
 laerswyck, an agreement was required 
 by the patroon of every settler, not to 
 appeal from the sentence of his courts. 
 Private persons, however, were allowed 
 to settle and possess the lands they 
 could properly improve, subject to 
 the approbation of the director and 
 council. 
 
 On the eighteenth day of April 1630, 
 Bastiaen Jansen Krol and Dirk 
 Cornelissen Duyster, commissary and 
 under-commissary at Fort Orange, 
 purchased of the Indians a large 
 tract of land lying below the fort, and 
 
42 
 
 between Beeren and Smackx islands, 
 for Killian Van Rensselaer, a pearl 
 merchant of Amsterdaio, and one of 
 the home directors of the company. 
 In July of the same year, and also in 
 April 1637, other purchases were 
 made bv him ; so that the whole of 
 his princely domain was forty-eight 
 miles broad, and extended twenty-four 
 miles on both sides of the river, reach- 
 ing from Beeren island to Cahoos. In 
 October 1630, Van Rensselaer associ- 
 ated with himself Samuel Godyn, 
 Johannes de Laet, Touissaint Moussart, 
 Samuel Bloemart, and Adam Bissels. 
 Yan Rensselaer w^as to remain sole 
 patroon, and the recipient of feudal 
 
43 
 
 rights and honors ; but the association 
 was divided into five shares, of which 
 he held two, De Laet one, Godyn one, 
 and the fifth share was divided among 
 the remaining three. All the shares 
 were, however, finally purchased, or 
 extinguished, by Yan Kensselaer, in 
 1685. 
 
 Jacob Albertsen Planck was the 
 first schout-fiscaal of Rensselaerswyck. 
 This office was the most influential 
 one in the colonic ; comprising in its 
 character that of sherifl*, district 
 attorney and attorney general, beside 
 other duties peculiar to the system 
 of patroonship. Arendt Yan Curlear 
 was appointed secretary, and superin- 
 
44 
 
 tendent of the colonie. He obtained 
 such an influence over the Indians by 
 his kindness, benevolence and integ- 
 rity, that they ever after addressed 
 the governors of New York by the 
 name of Corlear; a tribute to his 
 memory, from the untutored savages, 
 more glorious than monumental 
 marble, or the praises of song. 
 
 About the first of June 1630, a 
 number of colonists, with their stock, 
 farming implements, &c., arrived at 
 Rensselaerswyck. Other settlers fol- 
 lowed ; so that the conditions of the 
 charter of 1629, as to the number of 
 colonists, wel'e fulfilled within the 
 required period. The expenses of the 
 

 45 
 
 first settlers were principally borne by 
 the proprietors of the colonic. 
 
 The patroon claimed a monopoly 
 of the fur trade ; allowing the colonists, 
 however, to engage in the traffic, by 
 dividing the profits. 
 
 In 1633, an English ship, The 
 William, visited Fort Orange to trade 
 with the Indians, and landed its 
 cargo about a mile below the fort. 
 Director Yan Twiller sent up three 
 vessels from Fort Amsterdam ; and, with 
 the assistance of the soldiers from the 
 fort, they succeeded in taking it, and 
 after convoying it down the Hudson, 
 they ordered the Englishman to leave 
 
 the country. 
 
 7 
 
46 
 
 Eight small houses, and a large 
 one "with balustrades," were erected 
 this year at Fort Orange. A brewery 
 was also built about this time. 
 
 In 1634, the village began to assume 
 a name independent of the fort, and 
 was called Beverwych, or Bever's 
 fuyk, or the Fuyk, so named from the 
 crescent form of the bay at this 
 place.* The inhabitants seemed not 
 to have turned their attention, in any 
 great degree, toward agricultural 
 
 * Mrs. Grant, in her Memoirs of an American Lad^, 
 says that Albany was called by the Dutch, at a subse- 
 quent period, Orienhurgli. Among the French of 
 Canada, it was also known by the name of Orange. 
 Washington Irving, in his History of New Yorh^ calls 
 it Fort Aurania. 
 
47 
 
 pursuits: a few patches of maize 
 or Indian corn, only, were cultivated 
 about the fort. Four years after, 
 there were only some half dozen farms 
 or houioeries under tillage; the inha- 
 bitants generally being traders with 
 the Indians, or officers and soldiers at 
 
 the fort. 
 
 During the year 1638, Bastion 
 Jansen Krol was commissary, and 
 Adrien Dirksen assistant ; Dirk Stipel 
 being the wachtmeister, or commander 
 of the fort. The claim of the patroon 
 to the fur trade with the natives, led 
 to a long controversy with the director 
 of the company at Manhattan; but 
 during this year it was settled, and 
 
48 
 
 a new impulse was given to the settle- 
 ment of the country by a proclamation 
 from the Amsterdam Chamber, opening 
 the trade to all the inhabitants of the 
 states, their allies and friends ; and 
 the director and court at Fort Amster- 
 dam were instructed to convey to 
 every person all the lands he could 
 properly cultivate, subject to a 
 payment to the company, after four 
 years, of a tenth of the produce of the 
 same. 
 
 The controversies which had arisen 
 between the patroons and directors 
 of the West India Company, as well 
 as the amount of land acquired under 
 the system of patroonship, caused 
 
49 
 
 the directors to repurchase all the 
 colonies that could be bought, and 
 led to an alteration of the Charter of 
 Privileges and Exemptions. 
 
 In the year 1640, the charter was 
 essentially modified : the right to 
 become patroons was not limited to 
 members of the company, but was 
 extended to all citizens of New 
 Netherland. The extent of future 
 colonies was limited to three miles 
 along the bank of a river, and six 
 miles into the interior ; and no colonic 
 was allowed to be located on a river 
 opposite a colonic. The patroons were 
 obliged to send over the fifty colonists 
 in three years, instead of four ; one- 
 
50 
 
 third annually. Any person who 
 should send over five colonists above 
 fifteen years of age, was constituted a 
 master, and allowed the privilege of 
 hunting and fishing in the public 
 streams. The privileges as to trade 
 and commerce, granted to the patroons 
 by the charter of 1629, were extended 
 to all free colonists and inhabitants of 
 New Netherland, subject to an import 
 tax of 5 and an export duty of 10 per 
 cent, and the prohibition of manufac- 
 tures in the colonies was also abolished. 
 This charter was again somewhat 
 modified in 1 650. 
 
 In the same year (1640), the patroon 
 appointed Adrien Yander Donck, a 
 
51 
 
 graduate from the University of 
 Leyden, schout Jiskaal for Rensselaers- 
 wyek. He remained eight years in 
 this country ; and, on his return to 
 Holland, published a description of 
 the New Netherlands, a copy of which 
 can be found in the Collections of the 
 New York Historical Society. 
 
 Two years after the appointment of 
 Van der Donck, the patroon sent to 
 the colony of Eensselaerswyck the Rev. 
 Johannes Megapolensis, "the pious 
 and well learned minister of the con- 
 gregation of Schoorel and Berge." He 
 was the first clergyman ever located 
 here. The next year a church was 
 erected for his accommodation, back 
 
52 
 
 of the fort, near what is still called 
 Church street. It was 19 feet wide, 
 and 34 feet long, rudely constructed, 
 and contained nine benches for the 
 congregation. This building was 
 occupied until 1656, when a new one 
 was erected in the centre of the street, 
 at the intersection of what is now 
 Broadway and State streets. This 
 place of worship, after being rebuilt 
 in 1715, was used until 1806, when 
 it was torn down, and the land 
 purchased by the city. The stone 
 step formerly at the vestibule of the 
 church, has, by mistake, been recently 
 removed from its old location ; but 
 ere long, we trust it will be returned, 
 
DUTCH CHURCH, 1715. 
 
55 
 
 and that the liberality of our city 
 will protect this sacred relic of its 
 earlier days by an appropriate railing 
 and inscription, that it may not be 
 daily profaned by the track of the 
 passing vehicle, and the tread of the 
 busy multitude. 
 
 In 1642, a ferry was established 
 between Beaverwyck and Tuscameatic, 
 as Greenbush was then called by the 
 Indians. Its present appellation is 
 derived from the Dutch, het groen hosch, 
 or the pine woods. This ferry has 
 now been in operation, in the same 
 place, for 208 years, and is therefore 
 the oldest ferry in the United States. 
 
 The year following, Van Kensselaer 
 
56 
 
 erected a fort and trading house on 
 Beeren Island, which is south of Coey- 
 mans Landing. It was built for the 
 purpose of protecting the colonic, and 
 to exclude from the river private 
 traders, who had encroached on the 
 fur trade to a ruinous extent. It was 
 called by the high sounding name of 
 Rensselaer steen, or Rensselaer's castle ; 
 and Nicholas Coorn was appointed 
 wachtmeester. The raising of this fort, 
 and the exaction of staple-right or 
 toll on all vessels excepting those 
 belonging to the West India Company, 
 and the lordly pretensions of Kiliaen 
 Yan Rensselaer, caused a sharp and 
 bitter controversy between the direc- 
 
57 
 tors at Fort Amsterdam, and the 
 patroon. 
 
 The winter of 1647 was one of the 
 coldest ever known. The river was 
 frozen as early as the twenty-fifth of 
 November, and remained thus four 
 months : in the spring, a destructive 
 freshet succeeded, which materially 
 injured the fort, and otherwise da- 
 maged Beaverwyck. It was during 
 this spring that two whales, inspired 
 probably with the spirit of discovery, 
 came up the river as far as this place, 
 filling the inhabitants with extreme 
 terror. One of these sea-monsters 
 penetrated as far as the Mohawk 
 Kiver, where it stranded on an island, 
 
58 
 
 and was soon despatched by the inha- 
 bitants, who roasted it, and obtained 
 large quantities of oil. The river 
 presented a singular appearance for 
 nearly a fortnight, in consequence of 
 the oil which floated down the stream.* 
 Kiliaen Yan Kensselaer died in 
 1646, and Johannes Yan Kensselaer 
 succeeded him as patroon of Kens- 
 selaerswyck. At the time of his 
 father's death he was a minor, and 
 his uncle Johannes Yan Wely and 
 Wouter Yan Twiller were made execu- 
 
 * This may be considered a ratlier large fish-story for 
 the veracity of Sturgeondom; but the facts are well 
 attested by Van der Donck, and other reliable records 
 of that period. 
 
59 
 
 tors and guardians of his estate. 
 Brandt Arent von Slechtenliorst was 
 appointed director of the colonie. In 
 1648, Peter Stuyvesant became the 
 director of New Netherland ; and in 
 accordance with home instructions, 
 he undertook to circumscribe the limits 
 and weaken the power of the patroon 
 of Eensselaerswyck. Stuyvesant in- 
 sisted that Eensselaerswyck was within 
 the jurisdiction of New Amsterdam. 
 Slechtenhorst denied this, and insisted 
 on all the claims of feudalism, over 
 the patroonship granted by the charter 
 of 1629, and by the civil or Eoman 
 law, and also by the usages and 
 customs of the Fatherland. Both 
 
60 
 
 were high-tempered, irritable, and 
 headstrong men. Stuyvesant sent 
 several proclamations to Fort Orange, 
 which were met by the patroon's 
 director with counter proclamations. 
 Stuyvesant claimed a tax and excise 
 duty from the colonists at Kensselaers- 
 wyck; and also that the inhabitants 
 of Beaverwyck were privileged to trade 
 in furs, and cut timber and firewood 
 on the unoccupied lands of the colonic. 
 He asserted that the patroon could 
 hold only eight miles on both sides of 
 the river, and that he was compelled 
 to locate this part, and surrender the 
 residue of his twenty-four miles. He 
 complained also that the patroon had 
 
61 
 
 violated the charter of 1629, by exact- 
 ing from the colonists an agreement 
 not to appeal from the decisions of 
 his courts. The boundaries were 
 indefinite between Fort Orange and 
 the Colonic, and Stuyvesant forbid all 
 building by the patroon within cannon 
 shot of the fort. All the houses 
 erected at this time nestled closely 
 under the guns of the fort, for protec- 
 tion from the Indians, who had made 
 war on the settlements and colonies 
 at New Amsterdam, destroyed many 
 villages, and materially injured the 
 prosperity of the country. 
 
 Stuyvesant visited Fort Orange 
 
 with a military escort, to settle the 
 9 
 
62 
 
 difficulties; but all negotiations be- 
 tween the contending parties were of 
 no avail. He returned to Amsterdam, 
 and sent up six soldiers to demolish 
 the trading house of the patroon near 
 the fort. This order, how^ever, was 
 not carried into effect. 
 
 In 1649, Yan Slechtenhorst pur- 
 chased for the patroon a large tract of 
 land near Kats kil, and leased it to 
 his tenants. This caused another 
 protest from Stuyvesant. In Holland, 
 Yan Twiller was claiming for the 
 patroon the exclusive right of navigat- 
 ing the Hudson, and even the land 
 on which Fort Orange stood ; asserting 
 that the colonic of Kensselaerswyck 
 
63 
 
 extended from Beeren Island to the 
 Cahoos, and included Beaverwyck as 
 well as Fort Orange. 
 
 While matters were in this state, 
 the Amsterdam Chamber sent over an 
 order to the director to demolish, by 
 force of arms, if necessary, the patroon's 
 fort on Beeren Island. Difficulties 
 still multiplied. Stuyvesant demand- 
 ed the excise on beer manufactured 
 at Kensselaerswyck, and levied a 
 subsidy on the Colonic. Both of these 
 demands were resisted by Slechten- 
 horst, and he visited New Amsterdam 
 to protest against such proceedings, 
 when he was imprisoned for four 
 months by the director, but, at the 
 
64 
 
 end of this time, managed to make 
 his escape to Fort Orange. The 
 patroon's house at this place was 
 assaulted soon after by the soldiers, 
 and personal violence offered to Slech- 
 tenhorst's son. 
 
 In Febuary 1652, Stuyvesant sent 
 up proclamations, defining the limits 
 of Fort Orange and Beaverwyck ; and 
 directed Johannes Dyckman, the com- 
 pany's commissary, to publish the 
 same. He took the placards, and 
 came to the court, where the magis- 
 trates of the Colonic were in session, 
 and attempted to stop the proceedings, 
 for the purpose of proclaiming them ; 
 when Van Slechtenhorst snatched 
 
65 
 
 them from bis hands, and tore off the 
 seals. Another placard was sent up 
 soon after, and the bounds of Beaver- 
 wyck were staked out ; but the con- 
 stable of the Colonic tore them down, 
 and a remonstrance was prepared and 
 sent to New Amsterdam. 
 
 A few months after this, Stuyvesant 
 again visited Rensselaer swyck, and, 
 on his arrival, sent a party of soldiers 
 to the patroon's house, with orders to 
 Yan Slechtenhorst to strike the 
 patroon's flag ; which he indignantly 
 refused to do. The soldiers thereupon 
 entered the house, and lowering the 
 proud colors of the feudal lord, they 
 conveyed Yan Slechtenhorst a civil 
 
66 
 
 prisoner to New Amsterdam. Thus 
 was the land on which our city stands, 
 rescued from the feudal tenure of 
 patroonship, by the quarrels of the 
 Amsterdam Chamber of the West 
 India Company with the patroon. 
 
 On the tenth of April 1652, Stuy- 
 vesant issued a proclamation, consti- 
 tuting a court at Beaverwyck, inde- 
 pendent of Eensselaerswyck. This 
 was the first court established at 
 Albany. 
 
 The whole controversy was finally 
 brought before the States General for 
 adjudication ; and in 1673, after New 
 Netherland had been taken by the 
 English, and retaken for a short period 
 
67 
 
 by the Dutch, Beaverwyck, or Willem- 
 stadt as it was then called, was 
 ordered to be restored to the patroon. 
 The same order was made by the Duke 
 of York's law council in England, 
 and Sir Edmond Andros was instructed 
 to deliver up the village to the patroon; 
 and the patroon was authorized to 
 levy a tax of two beavers on each 
 dwelling house for thirty years, and 
 afterwards to such an amount as the 
 inhabitants should agree for with the 
 patroon. Andros, however, never 
 fulfilled this order. Governor Dongan 
 also refused to fulfil this decision ; 
 judging "it is not for his Ma'ty's in- 
 terest that the second town of the go- 
 
68 
 
 vernment, which brings his Ma'ty so 
 great a revenue, should be in the 
 hands of any particular man :" but in 
 1686, when the city of Albany was 
 incorporated, he obtained a release 
 
 from the patroon of his pretended 
 rights. 
 
 The first of the patroon' s family that 
 ever visited this country, was Jean 
 Bai^tiste Van Kensselaer, w^ho suc- 
 ceeded Yan Slechtenhorst as director 
 of Rensselaerswyck. In June 1655, 
 Commissary Dykman having become 
 insane, the office of vice-director at 
 Beaverwyck was given to Johannes 
 de Decker. In the fall of the year, 
 Father le Moyne, a French Jesuit, 
 
69 
 
 visited Fort Orange ; and soon after, 
 a party of 100 Mohawk warriors 
 stopped here, on their way to Canada 
 to fight with the French, and solicited 
 the Dutch to remain neutral in the 
 contest. This the magistrates agreed 
 to do. Johannes la Montaigne suc- 
 ceeded de Decker as vice-director of 
 Beaverwyck. 
 
 The court house at this time was 
 within the fort, and in the second 
 story of a house built of boards, with 
 the roof shaped liked a pavilion. No 
 massive marble steps, worn and 
 indented by the tread of busy feet, 
 made the ascent to the temple of the 
 
 blind goddess easy and delightful, to 
 10 
 
70 
 
 the few citizens who sought for a 
 redress of grievances at her hands. 
 A rude ladder was the only means 
 of access afforded to her votaries. 
 But within, I doubt not, the Dutch 
 schepens, held the scales of Justice 
 with all the dignity, impartiality and 
 firmness of a modern Kent, Story, or 
 Marshall. No new code of practice 
 and pleadings embarrassed the client 
 practitioner of those days. The legal 
 profession was not yet established 
 here ; Vander Donck, the first lawyer, 
 having been prohibited from prac- 
 tising, except to "give advice," 
 on the ground that there was no 
 other lawyer in the colonic to oppose 
 
71 
 
 him, as an advocate in the trial of 
 causes. 
 
 In 1656, a part of New Netherland 
 was purchased of the Amsterdam 
 chamber, by the city of Amsterdam, 
 for 700,000 gilders ; but this purchase 
 did not affect any part of Beaverwyck. 
 In 1659, delegates were sent from 
 Fort Orange and Kensselaerswyck to 
 cement the peace with the Five 
 Nations. Jeremias Van Rensselaer, 
 and Arendt Yan Curler with others, 
 were delegated for that purpose. The 
 pipe of peace that was once smoked, 
 on the banks of the Normans kil, was 
 relighted in the first castle of the 
 Mohawks at Kaghnawage^ and the 
 
72 
 
 chain of friendship, unbroken for six- 
 teen years, was brightened anew by 
 fresh pledges of amity, alliance and 
 good will. 
 
 Beaverwyck was the principal 
 centre of the fur trade in North 
 America, and this traffic was the chief 
 occupation of the inhabitants ; almost 
 every person being a trader. In 1G60, 
 the practice of sending runners into 
 the country to intercept the Indians, 
 before arriving at the fort, or colonic, 
 prevailed to such a ruinous extent, 
 that Director Stuyvesant visited the 
 village to correct the evil. Trade was 
 injured, the Indians cheated, and 
 sometimes robbed, and they had made 
 
73 
 
 it a matter of complaint to the author- 
 ities. Parties ran high on this 
 question in Beaverwyck, and they 
 were styled Runners and Anti-Runners. 
 These parties seem to have survived 
 to Albany ever since that time, and 
 maintained a like contest in various 
 departments of business, not always 
 in favor of our good reputation abroad. 
 The chiefs of the Senecas met Stuyve- 
 sant at Fort Orange ; the inhabitants 
 of the Colonic and Beaverwyck attend- 
 ed, the difficulties were discussed, and 
 the negotiation conducted with all the 
 usual formalities of Indian diplomacy. 
 The runner, or as it was termed in 
 olden time, broker system, was agreed 
 
74 
 
 to be discontinued ; but the repeated 
 re-enactments against it, appearing 
 for many years afterwards in the 
 records of the common council, prove 
 that it was never entirely destroyed. 
 In 1663, a war broke out with the 
 Esopus Indians, which was carried 
 on by Director Stuyvesant for several 
 campaigns, very successfully, and the 
 Esopus tribe were nearly exterminated. 
 The boundaries between New 
 Netherland and New England, had 
 been, from their earliest settlement, a 
 subject of exciting controversy between 
 the colonists here, and the mother 
 countries at home. Negotiations and 
 petty contests had succeeded each 
 
75 
 
 other, for almost the whole period of 
 their existence. In 1614, Capt. Argal, 
 from Virginia, had attacked the trad- 
 ing house at Manhattan, and reduced 
 it to temporary subjection. From 
 1652 to 1654, the Dutch and English 
 were engaged in open war at home, 
 and Van Tromp had achieved many 
 naval victories. On the 12th day of 
 May, 1664, Charles II. granted to his 
 " dearest brother James, Duke of York 
 and Albany," a charter for the New 
 Netherland. The original document 
 now hangs in the State Library in 
 this city. An English force was sent 
 over by the Duke, in order to acquire 
 possession of the territory granted to 
 
76 
 
 liim. On the 6th day of September, 
 1664, New Amsterdam and the fort 
 were surrendered to the English, 
 under Nichols, by Stuyvesant, with- 
 out a struggle, but much against his 
 own inclination. On the 10th, George 
 Carteret was sent by Governor Nichols, 
 to take Fort Orange, which also 
 surrendered without resistance, on the 
 24th day of September. By the terms 
 of capitulation, the Dutch were to 
 retain all their property and rights 
 of citizenship, and become subjects of 
 the Duke of York. The Duke bv his 
 charter, was to have full and absolute 
 power and authority, to control, correct, 
 pardon and punish, govern and I'ule 
 
77 
 his subjects, according to such laws, 
 ordinances and directions, as he should 
 establish. The proprietary govern- 
 ment of the Duke of York, continued 
 from 1664 to 1685, when the duke 
 became king, and assumed the title of 
 James II, though he still retained, 
 even his ro5^alty, the title of "Supreme 
 Lord and Proprietor of the Province of 
 New York and its Dependencies." A 
 code of laws was framed called the 
 Duke's Laws, which prevailed until 
 1691, under which the country was 
 ruled by his agents, and colonial 
 governors. We New Yoi'kers, have 
 oftentimes been amused by the extra- 
 vagant austerity of the Connecticut 
 11 
 
78 
 
 Blue Laws ; a few extracts from the 
 Duke^s Laws, under which our state 
 was governed for nearly thirty years, 
 will show that their severity was not 
 without a parallel. 
 
 Stocks and pillories were to be 
 erected in every town. 
 
 It was ordained that the ministers 
 should " pray for the king, queen, 
 Duke of York, and the royal family." 
 Another law was as follows : "If any 
 persons within this government shall, 
 by direct, exprest, impious, or pre- 
 sumptuous ways, deny the true God 
 and his attributes, he shall he put to 
 death.'' ^ 
 
 Another : " If any child, or children. 
 
79 
 
 above sixteen years of age, and of 
 sufficient understanding, shall smite 
 their natural father or mother, unless 
 thereunto provoked and forct for their 
 self preservation or mayming, at the 
 complaint of the said father or mother, 
 they heing sufficient witnesses thereof, 
 that child or those children, so offend- 
 ing, shall he put to deaths 
 
 The English, in conquering the 
 country, seemed determined also to 
 conquer its Dutch associations. To 
 Fort Orange was given the name of 
 Albany, from the Duke's Scotch title, 
 and New Amsterdam was called ^N'ew 
 York. By way of continuing claim 
 from its first discovery by an English- 
 
80 
 
 man, the Mauritius river now assumed 
 the name of Hudson river. The Pa- 
 troon of Kensselaerswyck retained his 
 colonie, with the exception of the 
 government and holding courts ; it 
 was transformed into a "manor" in 
 accordance with English laws and 
 customs. Our city continued to re- 
 ceive accessions of settlers, chiefly 
 English, and a few from the other 
 American colonies. 
 
 In 1686, it had attained importance 
 enough, in the eyes of the British 
 government, to be incorporated as a 
 city ; and Peter Schuyler and Robert 
 Livingston were commissioned by the 
 inhabitants to go to New York, and 
 
81 
 
 procure the charter, which was pub- 
 lished on their return, "with all y^ 
 joy and acclaimation imaginable." 
 The bounds of the city by this charter 
 were stated to be, on the east, by the 
 Hudson river ; on the south, by a line 
 running northwest sixteen miles from 
 the north end of Martin Gerretsen's 
 Island, to the Sand kil ; on the north, 
 by a line to be drawn from the post 
 set by Governor Stuyvesant near the 
 river, running northwest sixteen 
 miles ; and on the west, by a straight 
 line drawn from the points of the said 
 north and south lines. Numerous 
 privileges and immunities were allow- 
 ed to Albany, as an ancient city ; and 
 
82 
 
 all land not hitherto granted within 
 the chartered limits was given to the 
 corporation, as w^ell as the privilege 
 of purchasing from the natives 500 
 acres at Schaaghtecoiige and 1000 
 acres at Tionondoroge. They were 
 also allowed to enact laws and ordi- 
 nances for the government and regula- 
 tion of the Indian trade. The city 
 held their Indian lands for a long 
 period, and derived considerable reve- 
 nue from their tenants : the rent was 
 payable principally in wheat ; the 
 minutes of the common council detail 
 the manner in wdiich it was sold at 
 auction by the city. The common 
 council, however, had repeated contro- 
 
83 
 
 versies with the Five Nations about 
 these lands. 
 
 The Stadt House, or City Hall, 
 referred to in the charter, stood on the 
 corner of what is now Hudson street 
 and Broadway, on the site of the 
 present Commercial Buildings Here 
 also were the prison, the whipping- 
 post, the stocks, and the pillory. The 
 courts were held at this jDlace, and 
 continued to be until a late period. 
 Within the memory of some of our 
 citizens, the eloquence of Emmet, 
 Burr, Henry, and Hamilton, has been 
 displayed at this old Court House or 
 City Hall. In 1797, the first session 
 of the legislature in this city was 
 
84 
 
 held at this hall ; the building, how- 
 ever, must have been reconstructed. 
 
 Albany owes much of the import- 
 ance, wealth and prosperity of its 
 earlier days, to the traftic in furs and 
 peltry with the Indians. Being the 
 most important centre of the trade in 
 the country, the Five Nations made it 
 tlieir market, and the Canada Indians 
 found it of easy access by the river 
 and Lake Champlain. 
 
 The minutes of the common council, 
 for nearly a century after its incor- 
 poration, are replete with regulations 
 and ordinances for the government of 
 this traffic. Each dwelling house was 
 also a trading house, and the upper 
 
85 
 
 story was set apart as the store-house 
 for furs. Some of the old buildings 
 yet remaining in the city, by the iron 
 fixtures in front for drawing up peltry, 
 the shape and location of the doors 
 and windows, the gable end to the 
 street, &c., give evidence of the semi- 
 dwelling and semi-tradinghouse style 
 of architecture, which prevailed at 
 that period, and are now the most 
 striking mementoes of the days gone 
 
 by. 
 
 Kalm, a Swedish naturalist, in his 
 
 description of Albany in 1 749, charges 
 
 the Albanians with dishonesty and 
 
 deceit in their commercial intercourse 
 
 with the Indians, and the accusation 
 12 
 
86 
 
 is sanctioned in a sketch of our history 
 contained in as respectable a periodi- 
 cal as Hunt's Merchants' Magazine. 
 The injustice of this charge is suffi- 
 ciently proved by the fact that Albany 
 was never attacked by the Indians 
 during the numerous wars which 
 occurred during the Dutch and English 
 dynasties, and that it also maintained 
 an almost exclusive monopoly of the 
 Indian trade.* 
 
 The farming interest was chiefly 
 
 * Mrs. Grant, whose residence in Albany began soon 
 after Kalm's visit, in her really interesting Memoirs, 
 records a much more truthful estimate of the character of 
 our early citizens. She says : " The very idea of being 
 ashamed of any thing that was neither vicious nor inde- 
 cent never entered the head of an Albanian." 
 
87 
 
 connected with the manor of Rensse- 
 laerswyck. The Dutch burgher was a 
 trader, and engaged in commercial 
 pursuits. All the vessels for a long 
 time plying between New York and 
 Albany, were owned by Albany mer- 
 chants. Zewant (seawant), or wampum, 
 was used instead of money ; 6 white or 
 3 black, being equal to one stuiver or 
 penny. Beavers were also another 
 medium of exchange, and the litigation 
 of the courts was principally for the 
 collection of beavers alleged to be due, 
 instead of money, as at the present 
 time. 
 
 At the period we take leave of our 
 city, the principal streets were Yonker 
 
88 
 
 or Gentlemen's street, and Handelear 
 street. The former afterwards assum- 
 ed the name of King, and the latter of 
 Court street. They are at present 
 known as State street and Broadway. 
 The part of Broadway lately known 
 as North Market street was called 
 subsequent to this period, Brewer's 
 street ; the parsonage of the old Dutch 
 church was situated on this street on 
 the site of the present Bleecker Hall. 
 The streets were not at that time 
 paved, though a side walk 8 feet wide 
 was constructed in 1676. From an 
 order of the magistrates of February 
 22d, of this year, prohibiting the citi- 
 zens from keeping fodder in their 
 
91 
 
 dwelling houses, and another of Nov. 
 22d, ordering the inhabitants to keep 
 the streets free from fire wood, cooper's 
 timber, &c., &c., we are led to believe 
 that the streets were still in a rather 
 primitive condition, and that the 
 worthy Dutch housewives had not yet 
 established their reputation for neat- 
 ness and cleanliness, or that their 
 voice was not very potent in the 
 regulation of these affairs. A few 
 months since, in excavating Broadway 
 in front of the Museum, at about one 
 foot below the surface, the workmen 
 threw up a stratum of old chips, oyster- 
 shells, &c., 18 inches thick, which 
 were undoubtedlv the remains of the 
 
92 
 
 old wood piles and rubbish that, 
 notwithstanding the repeated ordinan- 
 ces of the common council, filled the 
 streets in its early days, when the 
 fuel was cut in front of the houses, as 
 is common in the country. At the 
 time of which we are speaking all of 
 that part of the city south of Beaver 
 street, and west of Broadway, was 
 owned by the Dutch Church, at the 
 corner of Yonker and Handelear streets, 
 and was denominated and used as 
 the pasture, by which name the lower 
 part of the city is still sometimes 
 designated. The streets in this part 
 of the city, Lydius, Westerlo, &c., were 
 named after ministers of the old Dutch 
 
93 
 
 Church. The stockades which served 
 as a defence against the Indians had 
 not yet been built, but a semi-stockade 
 fence or picquets were erected, and the 
 city was protected by gates. 
 
 The Vossen kil and Rutten kil, then 
 flowed in open currents to the river, 
 and were crossed by several wooden 
 bridges. The old docks had not yet 
 been constructed; merchandise was 
 conveyed to the shipping in small boats. 
 There were about 150 dwelling houses 
 built, which were generally covered 
 with tiles and "mured of bricks" in 
 front, according to an ordinance of the 
 magistrates, enacted in 1676. Fort 
 Orange had gone to decay, and a few 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
94 
 
 years before, a new earth ern fort, 
 defended by palisades, had been built 
 on the mount, at the head of Yonker 
 or State street, on the site of St. 
 Peter's Church and the street in front 
 of the Geological Eooms. The mount 
 at this time, Avas nearly as high as 
 the body of the church at the present 
 time. The fort was principally built 
 of pine stockades, 15 feet high, with 
 four bastions, and besides small arms 
 for 40 men, mounted 9 guns, and was 
 garrisoned by loO men. There were 
 between five and six hundred inhabit- 
 ants in the city, and about one-third 
 of that number in the manor of Kens- 
 selaerswyck. 
 
OLD FORT IN 1696. 
 
 1, Governor of Albany's house. 
 
 2, Officers' lodgings. 
 
 3, Soldiers' lodgings. 
 
 4, t'lag staff mount. 
 6, Magazine. 
 
 6, Dial mount. 
 
 7, Town mount. 
 
 8, Well. 
 
 9, Sentry boxes. 
 
 11, Sally port. .,, . , 
 
 12, Ditch fortified with stakes. 
 
 13, Gardens 
 
 14, Stockades. 
 
 15, Fort gate. 
 
97 
 
 Thus have we traced the principal 
 events connected with Albany, from 
 its foundation as a feeble fort, and 
 trading house, to its incorporation as 
 a city, with peculiarly liberal privile- 
 ges and immunities. Unlike New 
 York, it maintained at all times a 
 strict peace and friendship with the 
 Indians, although its intercourse with 
 them was more complicated and 
 extended, and its situation more ex- 
 posed either to open or secret attacks. 
 
 The treaty of alliance with the Five 
 Nations, ratified in 1618, on the banks 
 of the Tawalsantha, or the Normans 
 kil, was sedulously preserved, unbro- 
 ken and unviolated. Its controversies 
 
98 
 with the manor of Eensselaerswyck, 
 which at one time threatened to make 
 it only a dependency of the patroon, 
 were finally settled by the charter, 
 and its undisputed jurisdiction one 
 mile in width and sixteen in length, 
 through the centre of the manor, esta- 
 blished and confirmed. The existence 
 of the city, so far as courts and a 
 separate organization were concerned, 
 had been merged in that of the Colonic 
 until the lOth day of April, 1652, 
 when by Stuyvesant's order a separate 
 jurisdiction was proclaimed. 
 
 The limits and scope of these re- 
 miniscences will not permit a detail of 
 the subsequent events connected with 
 
99 
 
 our municipal history. During the great 
 struggle for national existence, which 
 occurred nearly a century afterward, 
 Albany was among the foremost in the 
 field, the most persevering in the fight, 
 and the most impoverished by the 
 contest. Gloriously and well did she 
 earn the dignity and honor of becom- 
 ing the favored Capital of the Empire 
 State. 
 
 For one, I am proud of being an 
 Albanian ; and it is truly with harmo- 
 nious emotions of pleasure and exulta- 
 tion that I look back upon our Dutch 
 as well as English origin. He who 
 would condemn the one, or despise 
 the other, is unworthy of such ances- 
 
i::i 
 
 100 
 
 try, and libels the memory of both 
 races. The spirit which animated the 
 Dutch against Spanish oppression, of 
 which Sydney said to Queen Elizabeth, 
 ^'■It is the spirit of God, and is invinci- 
 ble f^ the spirit which flowed in the 
 veins of the Waldenses and French 
 Huguenots, and coursed in the blood of 
 the Puritans of New England, have 
 met here and commingled ; and Alba- 
 nians must be forgetful of their origin, 
 and of their fathers, if they ever prove 
 recreant to Eight and Justice, or Civil 
 and Religious Freedom. 
 
 l^ 5. 78 
 
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 NOV 77 
 
 
 N MANCHESTER. 
 INDIANA 
 
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