Ex IGtfartH 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 ' 'Tort nteuw ^im^t-rj^-m, M^rrJjatarui 
 
 When you leave, please leave this hook 
 
 Because U has heen said 
 " Ever'thmg comes t' him who waits 
 
 Except a loaned hook." 
 
 Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library 
 Gift of Seymour B. Durst Old York LiiiRARV 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/appendixcontainiOOwats 
 
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APPENDIX. 
 
 CONTAINING 
 
 oiiDZiN Tiniz: 
 
 RESE.1RCHEIS <fc REMIJVISCEJrCES, 
 
 OF NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 BY J. F. WATSOX, IN 1828. 
 
 Oh ! dear is a tale cf the Olden Time 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The following pages relative to Nev/ York, owe their origin to a. 
 short visit made to that city in 1823, by the author of the Annals oi 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 They were originally written, without any ulterior view to publica- 
 tion, and solely for personal gratification and preservation.- — But, 
 being since seen by some friends who have solicited their publication, 
 they now meet the public eye in their original form, as well to indulge 
 them, as to promote more enlarged researches in that city, by those 
 New Yorkers who may have more time and better opportunities than 
 was possessed by the present contributor. 
 
NEW YORK CITY. 
 
 Let us satisfy our eyes 
 AVitli the memorials, uud the things ot" Tame 
 That do renown this city I" 
 
 It is scarcely possible that an observing and considerate spectator, 
 who had seen New York in its loneliness, some thirty years ago, 
 should be now ini^ensible to its rapidly rising glories : — he must feel 
 grateful emotions of surprise and exultation at the many imposing 
 proofs of her distinguished prosperity. 
 
 Having myself been familiar v»itli the localities of New York, in 
 my boyhood, 33 years ago, the numerous changes of localities every 
 where surprised me on my visit there in 1828. Wishing to preserve 
 some recollections of the things I saw or heard, or of the imaginations 
 which occupied my mind, I determined to give them *' shape and 
 form," in the following Memorial. They may create grateful images 
 lo my mind in future years. 
 
 While I thus contemplated New York as " from her meridian arch 
 of power," I went back instinctively to its earliest origin as the suhurhs 
 o( a. military station ; there I saw in vision the parse population of 
 Hollanders, the hardy Pioneers, by whose primitive efforts their pre- 
 ^,ent descendants enjoy so much affluence and repose !- — I saw, in idea, 
 the first adventurous Yatch, the " Half Moon," first enter this present 
 crowded and busy harbour, then, 
 
 "one still 
 
 And solemn desert, in primeval garb, 
 Hung round his lonely bark !" 
 
 In this contemplation, retrospection is touching; there is a poetry of 
 feeling in the subject ! — duller minds may be insensible to the charm 
 of *' Olden Time " affections without an adapted stimulous, and yet, 
 even these, can be stirred, and by a graphic picture of the past, 
 " sometimes made to wonder that they never satv before what he shows 
 them, or that they never yet had felt what he impresses !" 
 
 With views and emotions like these, which however scouted by 
 others, / shall ever delight to cherish, both con amore, and as an ex- 
 pedient lengthening the span of our existence, 
 
 "Down History's lengthening, widening way." 
 /was prepared to explore some of the arcana of New York, with 
 f?ome such affections and feelings as Dr. Johnson imputed to himself 
 
4 
 
 Sew York City. 
 
 in investigating the construction of Milton's Paradise Lost, saying, 
 " To trace back the stmcture through all its varieties to the simplicity 
 o{ its first plan; to find what was first projected; whence the scheme 
 was taken ; haic it was improved ; hi/ what assistance it was executed ; 
 .ind frojn what stores the materials were collected. However obscure 
 this may be in itself ^ nothing can be more worthy of rational curio- 
 sity r 
 
 To attain these objects, in my case, I occupied myself in the leisure 
 hours of a fortnight-tarry at New York, in making personal inquiries 
 of the aged and the experienced, or by exploring the localities, or the 
 archives of office, as the case might seem to require. The result, 
 ^l^d reward, arc comprised in the following pages. 
 
GENERAL VIEWS OF NEW YORK, 
 
 As scann'd with bird-eye view. 
 
 The city " stretching street on street," as in her present grandeur 
 and magnitude, enrols a total population of 180,000 souls; a collec- 
 tion of about 30,000 houses ; a tonnage of 300,400 tons — this is ex- 
 clusive of 10500 tons of steam boats; — and an assessed value ot 
 property of 114 millions dollars; — her lighted and paved streets, lined 
 with houses, extend to Thirteenth street, on the North River side, to 
 the dry dock, on the East River side, and to Thirteenth street on the 
 Broadway and Bowery streets. All its modern streets are streight and 
 wide, graduated to easy and gradual ascents or descents ; and where 
 formerly very narrow lanes existed, or crowded edifices occurred, they 
 have either cut off the encroaching fronts of houses, as in William 
 street and Maiden lane, or cut through solid masses of houses, as in 
 opening Beekman and Fulton streets. They have widened the bounds 
 of the city, both on the North and Ea,st rivers, by building up whole 
 streets of houses, at, and beyond Greenwich street on the western 
 side ; and, at and from Pearl street on the eastern river. The value 
 and magnitude of these improvements, all redeemed from the former 
 rivers there, are really astonishing to the beholder. 
 
 There is every indication to evince the fact, that New York was in 
 primitive days the " city of hills ;" such verdant hills, of successive un- 
 dulaiion, as the general state of the whole country-part of the island 
 now presents. Thus, at the extreme S. end of the Broadway, where 
 the ancient fort formerly stood, was an elevated mount, quite as ele- 
 vated as the general level of that street is now before Trinity Church, 
 and thence regularly declining along that street to the beach on the 
 North River. The hills were sometimes precipitous as from Beekman's 
 and Peck's Hills, in the neighborhoods of Pearl street and Beekman 
 hnd Ferry streets, and from the middle Dutch church in Nassau street 
 down to Maiden lane ; and sometimes gradually sloping, as on either 
 hills along the line of the water, coursing along the region of Maider 
 lane. Between many of the hills flowed in several invasions of water : 
 Such as " the canal,^^ so called, to gratify Dutch recollections, which 
 was an inroad of river water up Broad street; — and up Maiden lane, 
 ilowed another inroad, through Smith's marsh or valley ; a little be- 
 yond Peck's Slip, existed a low water courso; whi«b in high tide ivater 
 
C'eneral Views of New Yorlk. 
 
 ran quite up in union with the Collect, (Kolck) and tlionce joininjr with 
 Lispenaril's swamp on North River side, produced a union of Avaters 
 quite across tlie fornior city. Thu?, converting it occa^3ionaliy into an 
 island, and sliouing a reason for the })resent lowness of the line of 
 Pearl street as it traverses Chatham street. There they once had to 
 use boats occasionally, to cross the foot passengers passing over from 
 either side of the high rising ground ranging on both sides of Pearl 
 Ktroet, as that street inclines across the city till it runs out upon 
 lJ;oadv.-ay, vis a vis, the hospital. 
 
 These details of mere streets, are necessarily dull, and indeed not 
 ru^ccptible of any farther interest, than as they may serve as metes 
 nnd bounds, witliin which, to lay the foundation of more agreeable and 
 iinag-inative topics, to grow upon the reader, as the subject advances. 
 
PRIMITIVE NEW YORK. 
 
 We backward look to scenes no longer there. 
 
 A perspective map of New York, in 1673, as preserved in Du Simi- 
 fiere's Historical Collection, in the Philadelphia Library, and latterly 
 illustrated by J. W. Moulton, Esq., from his researches among the 
 Dutch records, gives us a pretty accurate conception of the outline 
 features of the city at the time when it became, by the peace of 1674, 
 permanently under British dominion, and thence gradually to wear off 
 its former exclusive Knickerbocker character. 
 
 At that time, almost all the houses presented their gable ends to the 
 Street ; and all the most important public buildings, such as " Stuyve- 
 sant Huys," on the water edge, at present, Moore and Front streets ; and 
 the " Stadt-huys," or City Hall, on Pearl street, at the head of Coentie's 
 Slip, were then set on the fore-ground to be the more readily seen 
 from the river. The chief part of the town of that day, lay along tho 
 East River (called Salt River in early days) and descending from the 
 high ridge of ground along the line of the Broadway. A great artifi- 
 cial dock for vessels, lay between " Stuyvesant Huys," above referred 
 to, and the bridge over the canal at its debouche on the present Broad 
 street. Three " Half Moon Forts," called " Rondeels,''^ lay at equi- 
 distances, for the defence of the place ; the first at Coentie's Slip and 
 the third at the " Water Gate," or outer bounds of the then city, being 
 the fort of the present Wall street, so called from its being then shut 
 in there by a line of palisades, along the said street, quite over to the 
 junction of Grace and Lumber street, where the North River limits 
 then terminated in a redoubt. 
 
 One of our original Philadelphians, Wm. Bradford, the first printer 
 of Philadelphia, has left us a lively picture of the city of New York, 
 as it stood about the year 1729, being his publication from an original 
 survey by James Lyne. The one which I have seen (a great rarity 
 considered) at the city commissioners, should be, I should think, but 
 a reduced copy, inasmuch as my MSS. " Annals of Philadelphia," 
 show that in the year 1721, the son of the above William Bradford, 
 (named Andrew) advertises in his " Mercury" the sale of " a curious 
 prospect of New York, on four sheets of paper, 7'oyal size." What 
 an article for an antiquary ! 
 
 By the map aforesaid, it is shown in 1729, that there was no street 
 beyond the Broadway, westward, but that the lots on the western side 
 
5 
 
 PrimUivc New Yorl(. 
 
 of that street ilcsceiulcd severally to tlie beach ; tliat from CourtlancU 
 street, northward, all tlie <Troiind, west of Broadway, was occupied by 
 trees and tilla<rc and called the " Kings Farm." The eastern side 
 of the city, was all bounded by Water street, having houses only on 
 the land side, and its northern limits terminating with Bcekman street. 
 At the foot or debouche of Broad street were two great docks, called 
 West and East Dock, as they lay on either side of said Broad street ; — 
 they occupied the ground noiv built upon from Water street, nearly out 
 to South street, and from the east side of Moore street, nearly up to 
 Coenties Slip. Between present Moore street and Whitehall street, lay 
 the " Ship Yards," and all along where now tov/er stately trees in the 
 Battery Promenade, lay numerous rocks forming " the Ledge," having 
 the river close up to the line of the present State street fVonting the 
 Battery. How wonderful then is the modern extension of this city, by 
 carrying out whole streets and numerous buildings, to places before 
 submersed in water / — thus practising, with signal benefit, the re- 
 nowned predilections and ingenuity of their transatlantic ancestors 1 
 
ANCIENT MEMORIALS. 
 
 *'ril note *era in my book of memory." 
 
 The MSS. documents and recorded facts of New York city and 
 colonial history, are, it is said, very voluminous and complete. Mr. 
 Moulton's history declares there are one hundred volumes of folio, of 
 almost unexplored MSS. among the records of the State. What 
 abundant material for research must these afford, whenever the proper 
 spirit for their investigation is awakened ! 
 
 I am myself aware that the city itself is rich in " hoar antiquity,'* 
 for I have ascertained that numerous books of records, are of ready 
 access to such congenial minds as can give their affections to the 
 times by -gone. Many of them are of the old Dutch dynasty and have 
 bad no translator. For instance, there are in the County Clerk's 
 Office, a book of Records, of 1656 — another of 1657 ; — orders of the 
 Burgomasters, in 1658 — another of their resolutions and orders, from. 
 1661 to 1664. There are also some books of deeds, &c. 
 
 It would be " a work of supererogation," to aim at the general 
 translation of such a mass of papers : but it is really surprising that 
 hitherto no " ardent spirit" greedy of "antiquarian love," should have 
 been inspired to make his gleanings from them ! A judicious mind, 
 seeking only the strange or the amusing of " the olden time," might 
 with a ready facility extract their honey only, and leave the cumbrous 
 comb behind. I myself have made the experiment. I found in the 
 office of the Common Council, the entire City Records, in English, 
 from the year 1675, downwards to the present day. From the first 
 volume, embracing a period of sixteen years, (to 1691) I was permit- 
 ted, through the politeness of General Jacob Morton, the Clerk of 
 Council, to make the following extracts. These, while they furnish 
 in some instances appropriate introduction to sundry topics intended 
 in these pages, will also show that but a very small portion of the 
 whole mass, is desirable for the entertainment of modern eyes, and 
 therefore not to be sought after ; — it is even satisfying and useful to 
 know how little need be known ! 
 
 I give the following from " the Minutes," consecutively as they oc- 
 curred, — to wit : 
 
 October, 1675. — The canoes of the Indians, wheresoever found, are 
 to be collected to the north side of Long Island, as a better security to 
 the inhabitants, in case of their having any purpose to aid th® Cana> 
 
10 
 
 Ancient Memorials* 
 
 dian enemies. At same time it is ordered that all Indians near New 
 York, should make their coming winter quarters at Hell Gate, so a^^ 
 to be ready of control or inspection. 
 
 It is ordered, that because of the " abuse in their oyle caske," on 
 the east end of Long Island, there shall be " a public tapper of oyle" 
 in each tovvne where the whaling design is followed. Thus evincing 
 the former business of whalers in those parts. 
 
 Governor Andros orders that by reason of the change of government, 
 the inhabitants shall take an oath of allegiance to their new sovereign. 
 There are only thirty-six recorded names who conform ! 
 
 The Mayor in the approach of New Year's day, commands the 
 disuse of firing guns. 
 
 The city gates are ordered to be closed every night at 9 o'clock, 
 and to be opened at day-light. The citizens in general are to serve 
 their turns as watchmen, or be fined. No cursing or swearing shall 
 be used by them. They are carefully to go frequently towards " the 
 bridge, for greater safety; [meaning the bridge, I take it at the great 
 dock, at the end of Broad street.] Every citizen [for the purposes of 
 guard] is to keep always in his house a good fire-lock, and at least six 
 rounds of bail. 
 
 The rates of tavern fare are thus decreed and ordered : — For lodgings 
 3d.; for meals, 8d.; brandy, per gill, 6d.; French wines, a quart. Is. 3d. 
 syder, a quart, 4d.; double beere, a quart, 3d.; and mum, a quart, 6d. 
 
 The Mayor proposes that they who own convenient land to build 
 upon, if they do not speedily build thereon, it be valued and sold to 
 those who will. This being proposed to the Governor, who as Mili- 
 tary Chief, always had a control in the scmi-militaire city, the sam^ 
 was afterwards adopted. How valueless must have been lots then^ 
 since so estimable, which could thus "go a begging" in 1675 ! 
 
 In 1676, all the inhabitants living in the Streete, called the Here 
 Graft, (the same called Gentleman's Canal," and since Broad street) 
 shall be required to fill up the graft, ditch, or common shore, and level 
 the same. 
 
 " Tanners' Pitts" are declared to be a nuisance within the city, and 
 therefore it is ordered, they shall only exercise their functions as 
 tanners without the towne. This ordinance will account for the nu- 
 merous tanneries once remembered in Bcekman's Swamp, now again 
 driven thence by encroaching population, but the premises still retained 
 as curriers and leather dealers, making the whole of that former re- 
 gion still a proper Leather Towne ! 
 
Ancient Memorials^ 
 
 n 
 
 It is ordered, for the sake of better securing a sufficiency of breads 
 that no grain be allowed to be distilled. How many wretched fami- 
 lies of the present day could now profit by such a restraint — who 
 abound in whiskey and lack bread ! 
 
 It is ordered, that innkeepers be fined, from whose houses Indians 
 may come out drunk : and if it be not ascertained by whom, the 
 whole streete shall be fined for the non-detection ! 
 
 A fine of twenty guilders is imposed on all Sabbath breakers. The 
 knowledge of this may gratify some modern associations. 
 
 In 1676, is given the names of all the then property holders, 
 amounting to only three hundred names, and assessed at 1^ dollar a 
 pound on 99,695 pounds. This is a curious article in itself, if con- 
 sidered in relation to family names, or relative wealth ! — What changes 
 since " their families were young !" — The English names of John Ro- 
 binson, John Robson, Edward Griffith, James Loyde, and George 
 Heathcott, appear pre-eminently rich among their cotemporaries ! 
 
 In 1676, it is ordered, that for better security of seasonable supplies, 
 ail country people bringing supplies to market, shall be exempt from 
 any arrest for debt. The market house and plains (the present " bow- 
 ling green") afore Q\e fort, shall be used for the city sales. 
 
 It is ordered, that all slaughter houses be removed thenceforth with» 
 out the city, " over the water, without the gate, at the Smith's Fly, neare 
 the Half-Moone." Thus denoting " the water gate," near the present 
 Tontine on Wall street, beyond which was an invasion of water, near 
 the former " Vly Market" on Maiden lane. 
 
 Public wells, fire ladders, hooks and buckets are ordered, and their 
 places designated for the use of the city. Thus evincing the infant crad- 
 ling of the present robust and vigorous fire companies ! — The public 
 wells were located in the middle of such streets as Broadway, Pearl 
 street, &c., and were committed to the surveilance of committees of 
 inhabitants in their neighborhoods, and half of their expense assessed 
 on the owners of property nearest them. Will the discovery of their 
 remains, in some future day, excite the surprise and speculation of 
 uninformed moderns ? 
 
 ^ A " mill house" is taxed in " Mill street lane." Thus indicating 
 the fact of a water course and mill seat (probably the bark mill of Ten 
 Eycke) at the head of what is now called " Mill street." Thus veri- 
 fying what I once heard from the Phillips family, that in early times 
 when the Jews first held their worship there, (their synagogue was 
 built there a century ago) they had a living spring (two houses above 
 
V2 
 
 Anclmt Memoridls. 
 
 their present lots) in which they were accustomed to perform their 
 ablutions and cicansinga, according to the rites of their religion. 
 
 In 1676, all horses at range are ordered to be branded and enroled . 
 and two stud horses are " to be kept in commons upon this island." 
 
 Tar for the use of vessels, is to be boiled, only against " the wall of 
 the Half Moon"— i. c. Battery. 
 
 All the carmen of the city, to the number of twenty, are ordered to 
 he enroled and to draw for 6d. an ordinary load, and to remove, weekly 
 from the city the dirt of the streets, at 3d. a load. The dustmen show- 
 ed much spunk upon the occasion, and combined to refuse full compli- 
 ance. They proposed some modifications ; but the spirit of the " Scout, 
 Burgomasters and Schepens," was alive and vigorous in the city rulere, 
 and they forthwith dismayed the whole body of carmen by divesting 
 all of their license, who sliould not forthwith appear as usual at the 
 public dock, pay a small fine and make their submission ! — only two so 
 tsuccombed, and a new race of carmen arose ! Those carmen were to 
 be trusty men : worthy to be charged with goods of value from the 
 shipping, &;c., wherefore, all Indian and Negro slaves were excluded. 
 
 An act is passed concerning the revels of " Indian and Negro 
 Slaves" at Inns. At the mention of Indian slaves, the generous mind 
 revolts — What ! the virtual masters of the soil, to become " hewers of 
 wood and drawers of water" to their cherished guests ! Sad lot ! — 
 
 '* Forc'd from the land tiiat gave them birth. 
 They dwindle from the face of earth!" 
 
 In 1683, twelve pence a ton is assessed on every vessel for their use 
 
 of the City Dock, " as usually given," and for " the use of the Bridge ;" — 
 
 understood by me to have been as a connecting appendage to the same 
 
 dock. 
 
 Luke I^ncton, in 16S3, is made " Collector of Customs" at the Cus- 
 tom House, near the bridge ; [" Stuyvesant Huys" at the N. W. corner 
 of present Front and Moore streets, was in ancient days called " the 
 Custom House"] and none shall unload " but at the bridge." 
 
 The Indians are allowed to sell fire wood, (then called " stick wood,") 
 and to vend " gutters for houses ;" — by which I suppose was meant long 
 strips of bark, so curved as to lead off water : — else, it meant for the ^ 
 roofs of sheds — even as we now see dwelling houses roofed along the 
 road side to Niagara. 
 
 An act of reward is promulged for those who destroy wolves. Year 
 1683. 
 
 A record of 1683, speaking of the former Dutch dynasty, says, the 
 
Andent MemoriaU. 
 
 iVIayor's Court was used to be held in the City Hall, where they, the 
 Mayor and Aldermen determined *' without appeal." It alledgcs also, 
 that " they had their own Clerk, and kept the records of the city dis- 
 tinctly." Thus giving us the desirable fact, that " records" in ampli- 
 tude, have once existed of all the olden days of Lang Syne ! They 
 spell the name of the island, " Mfmliatans." 
 
 Then none might exercise a trade or calling, unless as an admitted 
 " Freeman." Then they might say with the Centurion, "with a great 
 price bought I that privilege !" If a freeman, to use " handy craft," 
 they paid £3 12s. and for " being made free," they paid severally £l 43- 
 None could then trade up the Hudson River, unless a freeman who 
 had had at least three years residence ; and if any one, by any cause 
 remained abroad beyond twelve months, he lost his franchise, unless 
 indeed he *' kept candle" and paid " Scott and Lott,"— terms to imply 
 his residence was occupied by some of his family. Have we mojderns 
 bettered the cautious policy of our ancestors, in opening our arms to 
 every *' new comer?" We taritf goods, but put no restraint on men, 
 even if competitors ! 
 
 In 1683, it was decreed that all flour should be bolted, packed and 
 inspected in New York city. This was necessary then for the reputa- 
 tion of the port in its foreign shipments. Besides, the practice of 
 bolting as now done at mills by water power, was unknown. In pri- 
 mitive days the "Jft)lting business" was a great concern by horse 
 power, both in New York and Philadelphia. 
 
 The Governor and his council grant to the city, the dock and bridge, 
 provided it be well kept and cleaned ; if not, it shall forfeit it ; — but 
 no duty shall be paid upon the bridge as " bridge money." 
 
 In 1683, the city bounds and wards are prescribed along certain 
 named streets. The third or east ward was bounded " along the wall" 
 and " againe with all the houses in the Smith fly and without the gate 
 on the south side of the fresh water." Meaning in the above, " the 
 wall" of palisades along Wall street ; and by the " fresh water," the 
 Kolck, or Collect Fresh Water. 
 
 In 1683, a committee which had been appointed to collect nncicnt 
 records respecting the city privileges of former times, make their re- 
 port thereon, and therein name the " City Hall and Y'ards," " Market 
 liousc," and " Ferry house." It says, Wm. Merritt had offered " for 
 the ferry to Long Island" the sum of £20 per annum for 20 years, to 
 erect sheds, to keep two boats for cattle and Iwrses, and aI§o two boats 
 
14 
 
 Ancient jSIemoriah. 
 
 for passcnofcrs. The ferriage for the former to be 6d. a head, and for 
 the latter Id. Think of this ye present four cent. labor saving'''' 
 steam boats ! — Ye shmi tlie Dutchman's penny toil, but raise the price? 
 
 A committee, in 16S3, report the use of 6000 stockadoes of 12 feet 
 long, at a cost of £24, used for the repair of the wharf — i. c. at tho 
 dock. 
 
 They ascertain the vessels and boats of the port, enroled by their 
 names, to be as follows : — 3 barques, 3 brigantines, 26 sloops, and 46 
 open boats. Some of their names are rare enough. 
 
 An ordinance of 16S3, orders, that *'no youthes, maydes, or other 
 persons, may meete together on the Lord's Day for sporte or play," un- 
 der a fine of Is. No public houses may keep open door or give en- 
 tertainment then, except to strangers, under a fine of 10s. Not more 
 than four Indian or Negro slaves may assemble together ; and at no 
 time may they be allowed to bear any fire arms, — this under a fine of 
 6s. to their owners. 
 
 A city Surveyor " shall regulate the manner of each building on 
 each street, (even crooked and " up and down" as it then was !) so that 
 vniformity (mark this !) may be preserved." Are we then to presume 
 they had no scheme or system., who now complain of " winding nar- 
 row streets !" &;c. 
 
 In 16S3, markets were appointed to be held three times a week, and 
 to be opened and shut by ringing the bells. Cd^ wood, under the 
 name of "Stick wood," is regulated at the length of four feet. 
 
 A Haven master is appointed to regulate the vessels in the mole, 
 (the same before called the Dock) and is to collect the dock and 
 bridge money. 
 
 A part of the slaughter house, (before appointed) by the Fly, is ap- 
 pointed in 1633, to be a powder house, and its owner, Garrett John- 
 son is made the first keeper, at Is. 6d. a brl. — Of course then locating 
 it at the Vly, as far enough beyond the verge of population, to allow of 
 ^ a blow up !" 
 
 In 1683, several streets therein named are ordered to be paved by 
 1he owners concerned, and directs they shall pluck up and barricade 
 before their doors where needful to keep up the earth. 
 
 In 1684, the city requests from the King's government, the cession 
 of all vacant land, the Ferry, City Hall, Dock and Bridge. 
 
 An order of King James, is recognized and recorded in 1685, pro- 
 iiibiting all trade from New York colony "with the East Indies," that 
 being even then a claimed " privilege of the company of merchants 
 
Ancient Memorials, 
 
 15 
 
 of London." This proscribed East India commerce had more import 
 than meets the eye, for it virtually meant to prohibit trade (unless by 
 special grant) with the West Indies ! 
 
 In 1685, the Jews of New York, petition to be allowed the public, 
 exercise of their religion, and are refused on the ground that " none 
 are allowed by act of assembly, so to worship, but such as profess a 
 faith in Christ." Experience has since proved that we are no where 
 injured by a more liberal and free toleration. Laws " may bind the 
 body down, but can't restrain the flights the spirit takes !" 
 
 In 1686, a committee is appointed to inspect what vacant land they 
 find belonging to Arien Cornelissen ; and this entry is rendered curious 
 by a recorded grant of 1687, preserved in the records of the oflice of 
 G. N. Bleeker, Esq. the City Comptroler, to this effect, saying — Sixteen 
 acres of the Basse Bowery (by which I understand, low or meadow 
 farm) is hereby granted unto Arien Cornelissen for the consideration 
 of one fat capon a year ! Who now can tell the value of that land 
 for that small and peculiar compensation ! 
 
 In 1691, it is ordered that there shall be but one butcher's shambles 
 kept, and that to be on the green, before the fort. The next year 
 another (place for shambles I presume) is allowed under the trees, by 
 the Slip. At same time, it is ordered that fish (as at a market) be 
 sold at the Dock, over against the City Hall. Thus referring to the 
 Hall, as then known on Pearl street, at the head of Coenties Slip — 
 under which was also a prison. 
 
 The Clerk of the Mayor's Court, in 1691, is charged to inquire 
 after, and to collect and preserve the books and papers of the city, 
 and to keep them safely with an inventory thereof. May not this re- 
 cord present an index hand to guide to some discovery of such histo- 
 rical rarities ! 
 
 The Mayor rents a shop or shops in the Market house. One John 
 Ellison is named as paying £3 for such a shop. 
 
 In 1691, it is ordered that the inhabitants by the water side, " from 
 the City Hall to the Slip," are to help build the wharf to run out be- 
 fore their lotts, and eyery male Negro in the city, is to help thereat 
 with one day's work. 
 
 The hucksters of that day, even as now, were very troublesome in 
 forestalling the market, and laws were made to restrain them. 
 
 The bakers, too, had their ordeal to pass, and the regulation and 
 limit of bread-loaves is often under the notice of the Council, 
 
16 
 
 Ancient 3Icmorials. 
 
 Such are the amusing, as well as instructive incidents of the an- 
 cient days ifl New York, from which " the thinking bard" may "cull 
 his pictur'd stores." 'J'hrough such mazes, down " hoar antiquity," 
 
 "The eye explores the feats of elder days !" 
 It may well encourage to further research to know the fact, that I con- 
 sidered myself as gleaning from that first volume, all in the few pre- 
 ceding pages which I deemed the proper material for the amusements 
 of history. If we would make the incidents of the olden time fa- 
 miliar and popular, by seizing on the affections and stirring the feel- 
 ings of modern generations, we must first delight them with the co- 
 mic of history, and afterwards win them to graver researches. They 
 who cater for such appetites, should always consider that there is a 
 natural passion for the marvellous in every breast. — And that every 
 writer may be sure of his reader, who limits his selections to facts, 
 which mark the extremes of our relative existence, or to objects '* on 
 which imagination can delight to be detained." 
 
 But there are means of inquiry exclusive of memorials and records 
 — such as the recollections and observations of living witnesses, re- 
 specting " Men and Manners " of other days, and of things gone 
 down to oblivion. These they retain with a lively impression, be* 
 cause of their original interest to themselves ; and for that reason they 
 are generally of such cast of character as to afford the most gratify- 
 ing contemplations to those who seek them. 
 
 From a lively sense of this fact, I have been most sedulous to make 
 my researches among the living chronicles, just waning to their final 
 exit. These can be consulted only now, or never ! I did what I did 
 hastily, for time was precious to me also ;— but the following facts are 
 evidences that congenial minds of more leisure, could yet effect much 
 more in the same way, if ardently set upon the same pursuit. But, 
 who will try it ? 
 
 From such materials, we may hope to make provisions fov future 
 works of poetry, painting and romance. It is the raw material to be 
 elaborated into fancy tales and fancy characters, by the Irvings and 
 Coopers of our country. By such means, we generate the ideal pre- 
 sence and raise an imagery to entertain and aid the mind. Wc raisfe 
 stories, wherein — 
 
 •'Sweet fiction and sweet truth alike prevail,"' 
 
LOCAL CHANGES AND LOCAL FACTS. 
 
 " To note and to obBerve." 
 
 Thomas Storms, Esq., aged 81, told mc of his digging out the trunk 
 of a walnut tree, at nine feet depth, at his house at the Coenties Slip, 
 near Pearl street. 
 
 He well remembered in early life, to have seen a natural spring of 
 fine fresh water at the fort, at a position a little north-west of Hone's 
 house. There was also a fresh water well once at N. Prime's house, 
 near the Battery. 
 
 He saw the old fort cut down about the year 1788 — 9, when they 
 found beneath the vault of the ancient Dutch church once there, the 
 leaden coffins of Lord Bellermont and lady. Vansant and Janeway 
 were charged to remove them to St. Paul's church. 
 
 He saw a linseed oil factory, worked with wind sails, on a high hill 
 of woods, about quarter of a mile north-east of the Kolck. This 
 was about the year 17^)0. 
 
 About same time he sav/ a beautiful meadow and flourishing grass 
 cut on the declining hill, back of the City Hall, towards the Kolck. 
 
 The " Tea Water Fountain," out by Stuyvesant Field, is now very 
 good and was in great repute formerly. The region of country, near 
 the prison, on East River, has now excellent water. There " Knapp" 
 gets his " spring water" for the city supply. 
 
 The mother of Dr. Hosack's present wife, if now alive, would be 
 about eighty-six years of age, and she said she well remembered when 
 the locality of the present St. Paul's church, was a wheat field. 
 
 She also spoke of her remembrance of a " ferry house" in Broad 
 street, up above " Exchange place," (then Garden alley) to which 
 place the Indians used to come and set down in the street, near there, 
 and make and sell baskets. 
 
 The place called " Canvas Town," was made after the great fire in 
 1776. It lay towards the East River, and from Broad street to White- 
 hall street. It was so called from the temporary construction of the 
 houses and their being generally coverexl with canvass instead of roofs. 
 Very lewd and dissolute persons generally were their tenants, and gave 
 them their notoriety and fame. 
 
 While the old fort existed, before the revolution, it contained within 
 C 
 
18 
 
 Local Changes and Local Facts. 
 
 its bounds the mansion of the Governors (military chieftains) and their 
 gardens. There, Governors Dunmore, Tryon, &:c. dwelt. New York- 
 was a military station, and as such, it had always a regiment of foot 
 and a company of artillery — also a guard ship in the bay. 
 
 Mr. Abram Brower, aged seventy-five, informed me that the lots* 
 fronting the Vly Market, were originally sold out by the city corpora- 
 tion, at only one dollar the foot. 
 
 He said the market in Broadway, [the Oswego, I presume] was once 
 leased to a Mr. Crosby, for only 2O3. for seven years I 
 
 He remembered when only horse boats ferried from Brooklyn, with 
 only two men to row it, in which service they sometimes drove toward? 
 Governors' Island, and employed a whole hour. Only one ferry was 
 used on the North River side, and then not to go across to Jersey city 
 as now, but down to Blazing Star. Those who then came from Bergenj 
 &c. used the country boats. 
 
 He said the Dutch yachts (then so called) were from one to two 
 weeks in a voyage to Hudson and Albany. They came to, usually 
 every night, " slow and sure." Then all on board spoke the Dutch 
 language. [The Mayor, Thomas Willet, in 1665, informs the corpo- 
 ration " he intends for Albania with the first opportunity, and prays its 
 leave of absence."] 
 
 The last Dutch school master was Vanbombeler, he kept his school 
 till after the revolution. Mr. Brower himself went to Dutch school, 
 to his grand-father, Abram Delanoye (a French Hugonot, via Holland) 
 who kept his school in Courtlandt street. 
 
 The first Methodist preaching in New York, was at a house in Wil- 
 liam street, then a rigging loft. There Embury first preached ; and 
 being a carpenter, he made his own pulpit, — a true puritan charac- 
 teristic ! 
 
 Mr. Brower, when a boy, never heard of " Greenwich ;" the name 
 was not even known ; but the Dutch when they spoke of the place, 
 called it Shawbackanicka — an Indian name as he supposed. *' Green- 
 wich street" was of course unknown. 
 
 He knew of no daily Gazettes until after the revolution. Weyman 
 and Gains had each a weekly one, corresponding to their limited 
 wants and knowledge. 
 
 He saw Andrews hanging in gibbets, for piracy ; — he was hung long* 
 in irons, just above the Washington Market, and was then taken to 
 Gibbet Island and suspended there ; — year 1769. 
 
Local Changes and Local Facts* 
 
 19 
 
 I notice such changes as the following : — 
 
 Maiden lane is greatly altered for the better; formerly, that street 
 was much lower near its junction with Pearl street; it was much nar- 
 rower and had no seperate foot pavement; its gutter ran down the 
 middle of the street. — Where the lofty triangular store of Watson is 
 seen up said street, was a low sooty blacksmith shop, Olstein's ; ( a ra- 
 rity now in the sight of passing citizens) and near it a cluster of low 
 wooden buildings. 
 
 In Pearl, below Maiden lane, I have seen proof positive of the pri- 
 mitive river margin there ; several of the cellars and shallow ones too, 
 had water in them from that original cause. 
 
 I perceive that Duane street, from Broadway, is greatly filled up ; 
 from one and a half to two stories there, is made ground ; — the south 
 corner of Duane street, at Broadway, is sixteen feet filled up, and the 
 same I am told in Broadway. South of this, was originally a hill de- 
 scending northward. 
 
 Where Leonard street traverses the Broadway and descends a hill to 
 the Collect, was well remembered an orchard^ but a few years ago. 
 Some of the Collect was still open fourteen or fifteen years ago (it is 
 said) and was skated upon. 
 
 The original Collect main spring still exists on Leonard street, 
 having a house now over it, lettered " Supply Engine." 
 
 The Kolck waters still ooze through the new made filied-in ground, 
 into the cellars, especially in wet seasons. 
 
 When they dug out some of the Kolck ground, some used the earth 
 as turf^ thinking it had that quality. 
 
 The Collect street runs through the leading line or centre of the 
 old Kolck channel, and has under its pavement a sewer to lead off the 
 water. This street is the thoroughfare of so much water, as to make 
 It necessary to incline this street deeply to the middle as a deep gutter- 
 way. Indeed so much water, " deep and broad," flows along it like a, 
 sullied brook, that it might be well called Brook street ; helped as the 
 idea is, by the numerous foot-planks, as miniature bridges, laid across 
 it at intervals for the convenience of foot passengers. 
 
 About the year 1784-5, property near New York, went down greatly; 
 few or none had money to buy with. About the year 1785-6, Alder- 
 man William Bayard wished to raise cash by selling his farm of one 
 hundred and fifty acres, on the western side of Broadway, and near the 
 city. He devised the scheme of offering them in lots of twenty-five 
 
20 
 
 Local Changes and Local Facts. 
 
 by one hundred feet — only twenty-five dollars was bid, and but lew ot 
 them were sold. It was well for him ; for very soon after, feelings and 
 opinions changed, and they who had bought for twenty-five dollars, 
 sold out for one hundred dollars; and then, the impulse being given, 
 (he proffressive rise has had no end ! 
 
 A kinsman, G. T. tells me that the out lots of the city, " went up" 
 *bout twenty-one years ago, greatly, and staid up long, till about four 
 years ago, (from the circumstances of trade, &c.) they began to fall 
 much, and soon after, to rise again more than ever. He bought lots 
 four years ago at the rate of $850, which would now bring him $1800. 
 Twenty-one years ago he bouglrt lots for $2000 reluctantly, which he 
 m six months after sold for $4000. Tliat purchaser kept it till four 
 years ago at its minimum price, and sold it for $2000 ! Some of his 
 property, which five years ago he would have freely sold for $2000, 
 would now be valued at $12,000.* This is however a rare circum- 
 •tance, having had the accident of attaining to much front along the 
 newly extended Broadway. 
 
 The Stuyvesants, Rutgers, Delancys, and others, have attained to 
 great riches, by the rapid and unexpected growth of New York ; — vo- 
 raciously calling on such " out-town" landlords, for their farms at any 
 price ! Old Mr. Janeway who died lately, at four score, saw his few 
 acres, near the Chatham street and Collect, grow in his long life and 
 possession, from almost nothing to a great estate. "While they slum- 
 bered and slept," their fortunes advanced without their effort or skill. 
 Much the fact impresses the recollection of " Ecclesiasticus," he saith, 
 " There is one that laboreth a.nd taketh pains and maketh haste, and 
 is so much the more behind, (as many poor bankrupts know) and there 
 is another that is slow and hath need of help, wanting ability, yet he 
 is set up from his low estate !" 
 
 The head of Chatham street, where it joins the Bowery road, 
 although now a hill, has been cut down in modern times full twelve 
 feet. From this point, following the line of Division street and thence 
 down to the river, on the line of Catharine street, was formerly Col. 
 Rutger's farm ; — it was opened as city lots about thirty-five to thirty- 
 eight years ago, as told to me, by G. Taylor. 
 
 I found the once celebrated " Tea Water Pump," long covered up 
 and disused — again in use, but unknown ; — in the liquor store of a 
 Mr. Fagan, 126 Chatham street, I drank of it to revive recollections. 
 
 * Since writing, the estate at the corner of Broadway and Maiden lane, sold at 
 auction for $27,600, which is equaj to twenty-two dollars the square ft>ot I 
 
Local Changes and Local Pacts, 
 
 I have been surprised to find, in so magnificent a city, such a mean 
 collection of hovels, of feeble wooden fabric as I see in the rear of the 
 jrreat City Hall and the stately liousos along Chamber street ; they 
 lay on the line of Cross street, descending a prcseirt hill, formerly 
 much higher and more rugged, having only foot paths for clambering 
 boys. The mean houses at the foot of the hill or street, are now half 
 burried in earth, by the raising of the street, fully ten feet ; up to thih- 
 neighborhood, came once the little Collect ; it forms the site gene- 
 rally of what was formerly Janeway's little farm. 
 
 The Magazine street, here, (because of the powder house once close 
 by) now named Pearl street, in continuation, as it runs towards the 
 Hospital on Broadway, shows I think, strong marks of having bee* 
 at the period of the revolution, the utmost verge of city hopes ! The 
 range of Beekman street and Vesey street had once bounded their ex- 
 pectations, and lastly they extended to the natural lines of Pearl street, 
 as it crosses the city, and was there formed at the foot of the hills, on 
 its southern side. Before the Magazine street was formed, it was so 
 essentially the imaginary line, which bounded the Police of Justice. 
 <Sz;c. that it was usual to designate the limits by the vague name ol 
 
 the Fresh Water" side of the city. Thus referring to the great 
 Kolck and its course of marshes, as scperating all beyond in a terra 
 incognitcB ! 
 
 The houses No. 13 and 15, on Elm street, near the corner of Duane 
 street, are singular evidences of modern innovation. They were ori- 
 ginally good two story houses, and are nov/ filled up in Elm street, 
 nearly to their roofs ! 
 
 In the rear of No. 48 Frankford street, is now a very ancient tan- 
 yard. This street, down to Ferry street, and from William street 
 over to Jacob's street, is the region of what was formerly tan yards, 
 and originally Beekman's swamp. An old man near here, said, he 
 remembered to have shot ducks here formerly; — the father of another, 
 liad told him, he often gathered huckleberries about here ; and fifty to 
 sixty years ago, it was common to exercise here in skating. 
 
 Mr. Lydigg told me, that when the tanneries about here accumu- 
 lated great hills of tan, it was the material for the fortifications of the 
 boys, (preparing for the revolution, by sham fights !) Here great tan re- 
 doubts, piked with cow horns, were defended bravely by the Pearl 
 street and Fly boys, against the invading urchins from Broadway. 
 Sometimes the open field was resorted to on the present Park, where 
 nii?silc« of thwacking force were dealt with vigorous ami. 
 
22 
 
 Local Changes and Local Facts* 
 
 JNIr. Jacob Tabclc, aged eighty-seven, said that in hia early days he 
 heard much r^pcakiiig of Dutch among the people and along the streets. 
 He saw no lamps in the streets, when a boy. 
 
 Tlic j)owder house he remembered. — A powder house, called the 
 Magazine, on a rising ground, (a kind of island) at the Collect. 
 
 In Nicholas Bayard's woods, he often shot numerous pigeons. 
 
 He remembered they used to burn lime from oyster shells, on the 
 Park commons. This agrees with Avhat Mr. Brower said, who im- 
 puted tlie name of collect to the low Dutch, for burnt lime — but it is 
 more probable kolck was the true name, from its meaning " fresh wa- 
 ter" there. 
 
 He remembered ship yards, between Beekman's and Burling's 
 Slip. 
 
 There were once some small houses of wood, where is now St. 
 Paul's church. 
 
 He has seen l iver water flow through the sewer up the Maiden lane 
 as high as Olstein's blacksmith shop on the triangular square. 
 
 There was a very high hill, once called " Bayard's Mount," on 
 which, the Americans built a fort, and called it Bunker Hill, in the 
 time of the revolution, — now all cut down. It stood on present Grand 
 street, a little east of Centre market. 
 
 He remembered the " ferry house," so called, high up Broad street 
 — had heard the creek once run up there. The sign was a boat with 
 iron oars. It was an Iim with such a sign in his time. 
 
 He remembered seeing the block houses in a line of palisades, 
 quite across the island — they went in a line from the back of Cham- 
 bers street. They were of logs of about one story high. They being 
 empty, were often used by Indians who made and sold baskets, &c. 
 there. So said Ebbets, also. 
 
 lie remembered when boats could freely pass along the space, now 
 occupied by large trees on the Battery ground. 
 
 He vvell remembered the ancient City Hall, (Stadt Huys) at the 
 ]iead of Coenties Slip ;* — said he often heard it had been used as a 
 fort in Leister's civil war, against the real fort at the Battery. He 
 had often seen a ball, shot at it, and which was left in the side wall of 
 the house, (pulled down by Tunis Quick, in 1327) on the south-west 
 
 * In all this, he referred to the house built in 1701, on the site of the original 
 City Hall. The people confounding as one the original and the successor. The 
 btlcr only lately tak«n down. 
 
Local Changes and Local Facts. 
 
 ^8 
 
 corner of Pearl and Coenties Slip. That ball is now in the possession 
 of Dr. Mitchell, as a relic. 
 
 There were market houses at every one of the slips, in his time ; — 
 the one at the foot of Wall street, nigh the Tontine, was called the 
 Meal Market. 
 
 Said he often heard of Lindley Murray, (the grammarian) having 
 leaped across Burling's Slip, (about twenty-one feet) with a pair of 
 fowls in his hands, as he came from market. He believed it, and 
 others spoke of it to me as true, and that his lameness afterwards was 
 imputed to his efforts. 
 
 He, Mr. Tabele, said there were but few streets paved. Broadway 
 and other streets had all their gutter ways in the middle. 
 
 He remembered the Oswego Market in Broadway, opposite to Li- 
 berty street. When demolished, another was placed at west end of 
 Maiden lane. 
 
 The Bear Market was the only one on the North River side. It 
 took its name from the fact of the first meat ever sold in it, having 
 been bear meat, killed as the bear was swimming from the neighborhood 
 of Bergen shore. 
 
 William street, from John street, northwards, used to be called 
 Horse and Cart street, from an Inn near there having such a sign. 
 
 Mr. Thoburn, the seedman, told me that when they were digging 
 in Broadway to lay the Manhattan pipes, they came to the posts of the 
 City Gate once at Wall street. 
 
 He also read to me, from his deed of the Quaker meeting house, 
 which he owns and uses as his rare seed store, as being located " out- 
 side of the north side of the wall of the city Thus referring to th« 
 wall once along " Wall street." 
 
 He also showed me a rarity, in the Jirst Directory ever made for 
 New York — say in the year 1786. The very names of that day, are 
 curious ; — so few then, who were foreigners. Such was the novelty 
 or uselessness of a Directory then, when every man knew his neigh- 
 bor, that no other was attempted till the year 1793 ; — that one Mr. 
 Thoburn also possesses. 
 
 Mr. Thoburn's seed house is a curiosity itself — a rare conception 
 on his part; and presenting to the eye of a walking passenger along 
 the streets, a little rus in nrbe. 
 
 An ancient house at the corner of Beaver lane and Broadway, of 
 
24 
 
 Local Changes and Local Facts. 
 
 original two stories high, has all its cellar wall exposed ovt of ground- 
 ihus showing the cutting down of Broadway six to eight feet at least, 
 if we keep the idea of that elevation, wc may form probably a just 
 idea of the primitive elevation of the ground whereon the fort vStood ; 
 aged men have told me they thought the highest elevation of the pa- 
 rapet walls was about equal to the walls of present houses near there. 
 
 Mr. Daniel J. Ebbets, aged seventy-six, who has been a very obser- 
 vant youth and is now an intelligent gentleman of lively mind, has 
 helped me to many facts. 
 
 He says, the present Bowling Green was once an oblong square and 
 was well surrounded with large locust trees. 
 
 As late as the year 1787, he had assisted to draw a seine on the 
 beach, where runs the present Greenwich street — say from Beaver 
 lane to Battery ;— there they caught many fish and much of herring • 
 -"the beach was beautiful ;— there boys and horses were wont to bathe 
 and sport in the Avave. A street to be there, never entered the head 
 of the sportive youth! A large rock (see it on Lyne's map) stood out 
 in the middle of present Greenwich street, then in the water, on 
 which was a kind of rude summer house, much to the mind and fancy 
 of the boys. " Oh ! rare days of sportive fun !" 
 
 Then Mr. Ebbets saw no commerce nor vessels along the North 
 River side ;— the Albany sloops all went round to East River, and all 
 their sailors talked Dutch at the wharves ;— the carmen too, generally 
 talked Dutch, and all understood it enough for their business. 
 
 He was familiar with the plot of the old fort, and described it thus : 
 first the green bank, which was sloping, was about fourteen feet high, 
 on which was erected a wall of about twenty feet additional height. 
 An old linden and two apple trees on the city side, were as high as tht-. 
 walls. Some barracks lay along the line of State street. 
 
 The Broadway, in 1772, extended only as high as the Hospital.— 
 Where the Hospital is, was " Rutger's orchard." 
 
 There was a rope walk, (Vanpeltz's) a little north of Courtlandt 
 street, running from Broadway to the North River. All the old deedi> 
 on north side of Courtlandt street, speak of fifteen feet of the said 
 walk, as in their lots. Another, ran parallel to it from vis a vis the 
 present Bridewell prison ; and in its place, or near it, was formerly a 
 range of British barracks; — [as I think since, in the line of the pre- 
 sent Scudder's Museum.] 
 
 The "brick meeting," built in 1764, on Bcekman street, near. 
 
Local CJianges and Loeal Facts^ 
 
 Chatham strcc't, was then said to be in popular parlance, in " thfe 
 fields." There, Whitefield was heard to preach. 
 
 Back of the above mentioned barracks, and also behind the present 
 fail, was a high hill, and on its descent a Negro burying ground, and 
 t-hence further down, it was a fine meadow. 
 
 The British army gave tlie name of " tlie Mall," to their parade 
 ground fronting the Trinity church. 
 
 There were very fine Sun fish and Roach fish, caught in the Collect 
 Tond. 
 
 The City Hall at the head of Broad street, (afterwards the Congress 
 Hall) besides holding the courts, was also a prison. In front of it on 
 the head of Broad street, he remembered seeing there a whipping 
 post, and pillory, and stocks. He has seen them lead the culprits 
 round the town, whipping them at the cart tail. They also introduced 
 the wooden horse as a punishment. The horse was put into the cart- 
 body and the criminal set thereon. Mary Price having been the firsf! 
 v/ho had the infamous distinction, caused the horse ever after to be 
 called, " the horse of Mary Price I" 
 
 So recently has a part of Water street been fiiled up, that he could 
 now lead to the spot there, where could be found the body of a vessel 
 deep under present ground. 
 
 He verified the fact in Moulton's book, of a canal (or channel) of 
 water running out of the present Beaver street, into tlie Broad street 
 canal, in primitive times. He said that half way between Broad 
 street and New street, in Beaver street, there had been dug up two 
 bars of lead, evidently dropped over-board from some boat. At same 
 place, was a cedar poj?t, upright, having on it the lines of the ropes 
 of boats once tied to it. 
 
 The Mineral Spring, No. 8 Jacob's street, quaintly enough called 
 Jacob's Well," is a real curiosity, whether regarded either as an il- 
 lusion, or as a reality. The enterprise was bold to bore there one 
 hundred and thirty feet, and the result is said to be that they found a 
 spring, having the properties of the Saratoga and Congress waters. 
 Some distrust it, but the proprietors say, twenty-five thousand pcrsoir* 
 used it last year. It is a part of Beekman's swamp. 
 
 The house in Peck's Slip, north side, a yellow frame, No. 7, was 
 nointcd out to me by an aged person, as being in his youth, the nearer 
 D ' 
 
26 
 
 Local Changes and Local Facts. 
 
 house to ilic river — which was tlien so near, he could jump into the 
 river then ranging along Water street, near to it. He said also, that 
 Walton house," close by on Pearl street, No. 324, had its garden in its 
 rear, quite down to the river. lie said, the hill called Peck's HilK 
 from Walton house to the Franklin Bank, (at the union of Cherry and 
 Pearl streets) was originally a much higher hill. 
 
 I went out to the Dry Dock and Steam Mill, for sawing, &c. on 
 the river margin of " Stuyvesant's Swamp," or flats. It is a very 
 wide extended wet flat, over which, tides used to overflow — no\v 
 sluiced out. Some low grass mcadow\s appear; but generally it is ;> 
 w^aste, coming now into incalculable value to that family as building 
 lots. The adjacent hills furnish abundance of coarse sand and gravel 
 material for filling up, which is now busily pursued in the lines of the 
 intended streets. Some of the ancient oaks are scattered around and 
 many stumps showing the recent woods about here, wherever nor 
 submerged in water. At the point or hook, a little beyond the Dry 
 Dock, I see a small mount on which in the revolution, was a small 
 redoubt, near which lay the King Fisher sloop of war. 
 
 I observe great digging down of hills and removals of earth, going 
 on, all about the Stuyvesant Mansion house and farm. Mr. Nicholait; 
 
 S tells me they often came to Indian graves, known as such, by 
 
 having oyster .-hells interred w ith the bones and sometimes some frag- 
 ments of frail pottery. 
 
 Just beyond "Peter's Field" and mansion, extending up to the 
 Fever Hospital, at Bellevue, is a great bend or bay, which is now all 
 fdiing up with innumerable loads of earth from the adjacent high 
 grounds, the whole having a long wharf in front, calculated to extend 
 down to the Dry Dock, all of which is to be laid out in streets and 
 city lots. It is an immense and spirited undertaking, affording con> 
 stant business for the laboring poor. 
 
 Canal street is a grand undertaking, effecting a great benefit, by 
 draining through a great sewer the waters which once passed by the 
 former canal to the collect. The street is broad and the houses gen< 
 I eel ; but as this region of ground was once swampy, it is liable now^ 
 to have wet or damp cellars throughout the range of Lispenard's Swamp 
 to the northward, and from Lafayette Theatre, (which is laid on piles) 
 down to the North River. Chapel street which runs southward from 
 Canal street, follows the line of a former water course (connecting 
 with the canal formerly and now by a sewer) quite down to Leonard 
 street, has been all made ground, filled-in over the sewer. 
 
Local Changes and Local Facts, 
 
 2.1 
 
 From tlie inlets to those sewers is emitted a strorig offensive smell 
 of filth and salt water, only however perceptible at the apertures and 
 never known to have any deleterious effect on health. 
 
 Mr. Wilke, President of the Bank, told me he once stood centinel 
 Jis a volunteer on the sand beacii, close to the present old sugar house 
 ytill standing nearly in the rear of the present City Hotel, on Broad* 
 way. Thus proving, what I had before heard from Mr. Swords and 
 others, that at the rear of Trinity church yard, a little beyond where 
 Lumber street is now, the boys used to swim. 
 
 Mr. Wilke also told me he knew the parties who in 1780, fought a 
 duel in the rear of the hospital ground. 
 
 In visiting Thomas Rammey, a good chronicle, though only sixty* 
 six years of age, I learned from himself and wife, several facts, to wit : 
 
 Rammey had lived in Cross street — while there, he dug up remains 
 of the old Magazine, and he could sec evidence that water sometimes 
 had enclosed it, [as Lyne's ancient map had shown.] His mother-in- 
 law, if alive, would be one hundred and six years of age. She often 
 talked of the block houses and palisades across the city, behind pre- 
 sent City Hall ; — said, the Indians occupied many places outside of 
 their line, and used there to make baskets, ladles, &;c. for sale. Many 
 of them hutted outside the present Hospital, towards the North River. 
 
 She \vell remembered they were used at times in higli waters, to 
 have a ferry boat to cross the people in Chatham street, over where it 
 crosses Pearl street — where it is still low ground. Lyne's map of 
 1729, marks this same place with a bridge. 
 
 She had a recollection of the wife of Gov. Stuyvcsant, and used to 
 ^o out to his farm near the flats, and there see numerous fish caught. 
 
 She remembered and spoke much of the Negro Plot — said it made 
 terrible agitation — saw the Negroes hung back of the site of the pre- 
 sent jail, in the Park. A wind mill once stood near there. 
 
 The Jews' burying-ground was up Chatham street, on a hill, where 
 is now the Tradesman's Bank. 
 
 She said, the water once run from the collect, both ways — i. e. 
 to East River as well as to North River. Sometimes the salt watei 
 came up to it from the North River in the winters and raised the ice. 
 
 In her time, the strand or beach on the East River, was along pre- 
 sent Pearl street, generally ; and at the corner of Pearl street and 
 Maiden lane, there dwelt her brother-in-lav/, who used to keep hi? 
 b«at tied to his stoop to ferry him off by water. 
 
28 
 
 Local Changes and Local Facts. 
 
 She said, Maiilcn lane got its name from the practice of women, tii'c 
 younger part, generally going out there to bleach their family linen : 
 all of which was then made at home. It had a fine creek or brook, 
 and was headed by a good spring. Sometime afterwards, minor 
 springs remained for a time in cellars there, and one was in Cuyler's 
 house, till modern times. The hills adjacent, clothed in fine grass 
 sloped gradually to the line of Maiden lane, and there she bleached 
 with many others. 
 
 She said, Broadway went no higher than St. Paul's church. 
 
 She said, " Chapel Hill," where is now Dr. Milnor's church, on 
 Beekman street, was a very high mount and steep, from which the boys 
 with sleds, used to slide down on the snow, quite to the swamp below. 
 With this, agrees the fact told me by Mr. James Bogert, that his father 
 in latter times, used to ride up to it as a high apple orchard. 
 
 Mr. Rammey said, that behind the City Hall, once stood an old 
 Alms house, built in 1710, and taken down about the year 1793; — 
 perhaps the burials behind it gave rise to the remark made to me by 
 Dr. Francis, that along the line of Chamber street, are many graves. 
 
 He says he used to be told that the real " ferry house" on Broad 
 street, was at the north-east corner of Garden street, (now Exchange 
 place) and is lately taken down ; [and so several others have also sug- 
 gested to me] and that the other, (No. 19) a little higher up, (the 
 north end of the Custom house store) was only a second Inn, having a 
 ferry boat sign, either in opposition or to perpetuate the other. He 
 said, the boats were flat bottomed and used to come from Jersey. To 
 Tne, I confess it seems to have been a singular location for a ferry ; but 
 as the tradition is so general and concurrent, I incline to think it was 
 b'o called from its being a resort of country boats coming there to find 
 a central place for their sales, I have heard the names of certain 
 present rich families, whese ancestors were said to come there with 
 oysters. 
 
 A man actually born in the old ferry house, at the corner, and who 
 dwelt there forty years, thus described it as a very low one story house, 
 with very high and steep pediment roof; — its front on Broad street ; — 
 its side along Garden alley, had two dormer windows in the roof, much 
 above the plate ; — shingle roof covered with moss : one hundred years 
 probably of age ; — had an iron boat and oars and anchor for a sign ; — 
 the " Governor's house" adjoined it in the alley. An old lady close by 
 eonfirmed all this. A picture of the whole scene is annexed. 
 
Local Changes and Local Fads. 
 
 Mr. David Grim, an aged citizen to wliom we are indebted for muelt ; 
 valuable data, given to the historical society, has estimated in detail 
 the houses of the city in 1744, to have been 1141 in number — of 
 which only 129 houses were on the west side of the Broadway, to the 
 North River inclusive : Thus evidencing fully, that the tide of popu- 
 lation very greatly inclined to the East River. 
 
 Mrs. Myers, the daughter of said D. Grim, said she had seen the 
 British barracks of wood, enclosed by a high fence. It extended from 
 Broadway to Chatham street, along present Chamber street, exactly 
 where is now the Museum. It had a gate at each end ; — the one by 
 Chatham street, was called Tryon's Gate," from which we have de- 
 rived since there, the name of " Tryon's Row." 
 
 About the year 1788, the whole of the ancient fort, near the silo of 
 the present Battery, was all taken down and levelled under tiie direc- 
 tion of Mr. J. Pintard (now Secretary of Insurance OOice) and Mr. 
 Janeway (or Janny) as City Commissioners. The design was to pre- 
 pare the site to erect thereon a house for General Washington as Pre- 
 sident of the United States, but as the Congress removed to Philadel- 
 phia, he never occupied it, and it therefore became the " Governor's 
 house," in the person of Governor Clinton. 
 
 In taking down the ancient Dutch chapel vault, they came to re- 
 mains of Lord and Lady Bellcrmont, in leaden coffins, known by fa- 
 mily Escutcheon, and inscriptions in silver plates. These coffins with 
 several bones of others, were taken by Mr. Pintard, who told me, to 
 St. Paul's church ground, where they all rest now in one conunon 
 grave without any notice above ground of " storied urn or animated 
 bust !"* I am chagrined to say, that Mr. P. told me the silver plates 
 were taken by his colleague for his own, or for a museum — I do not 
 temember which — but afterwards with bad taste, converted into spoons ' 
 A story much like this, is told of the use made of the coffin plates of 
 Governor Paulus Vanderbrecke and wife, placed first in G. Baker's 
 Museum, and afterwards to Tamany Hall. Lord Bellermont died in 
 1701. 
 
 This brief notice of the once renowned dead, so soon divested of 
 sculptured fame, leads me to the notice of some other cases where the 
 sculpturor's hand could not give even brief existence to once mighty 
 
 * They rest about sixty feet in a straijrht line west from the steeple — so sar-j 
 ^Ir. P The red silk veh'et on the top of the coffins, was entire ! 
 
so 
 
 Local Changes and Local Facts. 
 
 Jiames. I refer to the King's equosliian statue of lead in tlic centre 
 of the Bowlinn- Green, and to Pitt's marble statue in Wall street, 
 centre of Will jam street. Both are gone, and scarcely may you learn 
 the history of their abduction. So frail is human glory ! 
 
 The latter I found after much inquiry and search in the Arsenal 
 yard on the site of the collect. It had before been to Bridewell yard. 
 The statue is of fine marble and fine execution, in a Roman toga, and 
 .showing the roll of Magna Charta; but it is decapitated, and without 
 hands — in short, a sorry relic ! Our patriot fathers of the revolution, 
 when they erected it, swore it should be as eternal as " enduring 
 marble ;" — they idolized the man as their British champion, 
 
 " In freedoin's cause with orenerous warmth inspired." 
 But the fact was, while the British army occupied New York, their 
 champion lost his head on some unknown occasion, and has never since 
 been heard of! The statue itself was taken down soon after the 
 peace, both as an inconvenience in the street, so narrow there in the 
 busy mart, and also as a deformity. Alexander M'Cormick, Esq. who 
 dwelt near the statue, told me it disappeared the night of St. Andrew, 
 when as it was whispered, some British officers who had been at their 
 revels, struck it ofT in revelry, rather than in spite. No inquisition 
 was made for it at the time — one hand had before been struck off, it 
 v.'Gs supposed, by boys. A story was told among some Whigs, that the 
 Tories had struck off the head in retaliation for the alleged insult 
 offered to the King, by drawing his statue along the street, to melt it 
 into bullets for the war. ]\Iy friend John Baylie was present in April, 
 '76, and saw the degrading spectacle. He saw no decent people pre- 
 sent; — a great majority were shouting boys. The insult, if so meant, 
 was to the dead, as the statue was of George the 2d — " our most 
 gracious King !" . - 
 
 " Tlicn boast not honors. Sculpture can bestow, 
 Short lived renown !" 
 
 {Qnerie : should not the Society of Artists pos.«ess and repair such a 
 piece of art as Pitts' statue ?] 
 
 Before the revolution and even some time afterwards, William street 
 was the great mart for dry good sales and chiefly from Maiden lane up 
 10 Pearl street. It was the proper Bond street too for the beaux and 
 iihopping belles. Now Broa-.Iway has its turn ! 
 
 Pearl street then had no stores, but it was the place of good dwell- 
 ings ; — then Broadway had no stores or business, and had but a few 
 scattered houses about the region of the new City Ilall. 
 
Local Changes and Local FactS' 
 
 Before the revolution the only road out of town, was by the Bov;ery 
 road, and was once called " the high road to Boston." 
 
 The Bowling Green was before called " the Parade/' 
 
 Mr. Thomas Swords, aged sixty-six, told me he remembered to have 
 seen the remains of an old redoubt, by Grace and Lumber street, 
 (corner) the same which was presumed once to have terminated the 
 northern line of the city, along Wall street ; — it was a hill there ; — 
 there American prisoners were buried in time of the revolution ; and 
 he has seen coffins there in the wasting banks of the mount ; — at the 
 foot of it, was the beach along the North River. 
 
 The grand-father of Mr. James Rogert, told him oyster vessels used 
 to come up Broad street to sell them ; and in later times, water used 
 to enter cellars along that street, from the canal. 
 
 David Grim, in his very interesting topographical draft of the city 
 as it was in 1742-4, (done by him when seventy-six years of age, iit 
 the year 1813) is a highly useful relic and gift of the olden time. 
 His generous attention to posterity in that gift to the Historical Soci- 
 ety, is beyond all praise, as a work in itself sui generis, and not to bo 
 replaced by any other data. He was a chronicle, and lived to bo 
 eighty-nine, and to wonder at the advancements and changes arouncf 
 him ! I here mark some of his facts : 
 
 He marks the "Governor's Garden," near tliC fort, as ranging aIon<r 
 the line of Whitehall street, next tlie fort, and there turning an angle 
 of the fort and enclosing westward to the river. This also agrees 
 with the report of others who told me of seeing deer kept by the 
 Governor, in front of the fort on the ground of the Water Battery. 
 
 Mr. Grim marks the line of a narrow canal or channel in Broad 
 street, as open above the present Pearl street, and there covered by 
 the bridge or Exchange house, or both. 
 
 He marks the localities of public wells in the middle of the streets. 
 
 He marks Rutger's farm as laying north-west of the collect, and 
 Winthorn's farm as south-east of the same. 
 
 At the foot of Courtlandt street, he marks the then onlij wharf. We 
 know it was built there for King's purposes, having thereon an Arsenal 
 reaching up to Day street. 
 
 Mr. David Grim told his daughter of there having been a market 
 once held at the head of Broad street. This agrees with what G. 
 Bleeker, Esq. told me, as from his grand mother, who spoke of h 
 market at Garden street, which was in effect the same place. 
 
32 Local Chinigxs and Local Fads'. 
 
 BdlveweH's City Portrait of 1747, a fine perspective, mark:s thf 
 Great Dock at the foot of Bro<i(l stre(!t, as having a long dividing 
 wliarf, projecting into it from Broad street and set on piles, which leads 
 rne to the idea of " the bridge" so often named there. It was ])roba- 
 l)Iy the landing place for the unloaded goods from vessels in the east 
 and west mole on both sides of it. 
 
 Alow market house on arches, having a large dial ])late on its roof 
 in front, is set at the foot of Broad street. 
 
 The City Cor])oration grants to Trinity church, in 1703, as I saw of 
 record in Mr. Bleeker's office, the grounds there " for a burying 
 place, for the inhabitants of the city forever;" and upon any of the 
 inhabitants of said city paying therefor to the Hector, &;c. 3s. for 
 each corpse above twelve years of age, and Is. 6d. for any. under tweh e 
 years of age and no more." This last emphatic word may seem pe- 
 culiar when we reflect how very special and exclusive those grounds 
 have been so long occupied. 
 
 In the minutes of council of 1696, I saw that a sewer of 1100 feef 
 length was recommended to be made in the Broad street. 
 
 I saw in the City Commissoners' office, that the population of New 
 York in 1730, was only 8638 — and in 1825, it was 166,086. 
 
 David Grim told Mr. Lydigg that he had seen the river water over 
 Chatham street and Pearl street, and extending from the east to the 
 North River — along the line of the collect as I presume. 
 
 Mr. Brower and others have explained to me, that all along present 
 Grand street, as it approaches to Corlears Hook, was formerly very 
 high hills covered with apple and peach trees. IMuch too of the pre- 
 sent level Harman street, leading into Grand street, was formerly hills 
 of sixty feet height. The materials of these hills so cut down, fur- 
 nish excellent gravel for new streets and especially the means of ex- 
 tending their grounds out into the rivers. 
 
 I saw, back of Brooklyn, on the height, much of the remains of 
 redoubts and entrenchments still remaining in the fields. The Ame- 
 ricans having constructed an entire line of them, from the Navy Yard 
 down to their fort on the south of Brooklyn. 
 
 From an eminence, on the road to Flat Bush, I saw an interesting 
 prospect of Brooklyn and New Y'ork and all the connecting scenery. 
 The hill I believe was called " Flat-Bush Hill," and ought to be occu- 
 pied by some good house of entertainment : — a handsome cottage has 
 .«ince been erected there. 
 
Local Changes and Local Facts* 
 
 33 
 
 Hudson's Square is a beautiful embellishment of New York, re- 
 deemed from a former waste. The large growth of the trees — the 
 abundance of gratefule shades, make it in connexion with the superi- 
 ority of the uniform houses which surround it, a place of imposing 
 grandeur. The continuous long lines of iron palisades, both round the 
 square and before the areas of every house, and up the several door 
 steps, give a peculiar aspect of European style and magnificence. 
 
 The residences of Col. Rutger's and Col. Willet, though originally 
 located far out of town, on the East River side, have been surrounded 
 by the encroaching population ; but as the encroachments have not beeii 
 permitted to close very close upon them, they are still enabled to re- 
 tain some grounds around them of rural appearance. Col. Willet's 
 house was formerly on a knoll, situated on the margin of Stuyvesant 
 Swamp. Soon all such recollections will be obliterated, by the entire 
 diflerent face of things as they now appear there. 
 
 David Grim said he remembered when carmen first took about the 
 tea water ; it was but one-third of present prices. The water, for-^ 
 merly, was good at the wells and some of the street pumps. 
 
 He remembered when only one lamp was used in the street — say at 
 the corner of Wall and William streets. 
 
 Mr. Brower told me, street lamps came into use about ten years 
 before the revolution. The carts at that time were not allowed to have 
 any tire on their wheels. 
 
 The carriage of the Mail, between New York and Philadelphia, 
 even since the revolution, was a very small affair ; it Vv^as hardly an 
 affair to be robbed— for, a boy without any means of defence, took 
 the whole in saddle bags on horse-back. Then, they wondered to see 
 it enlarged, and took it on a sulky ; and by and bye, " the wonder 
 grew," that it should still more enlarge, and they took off* the body 
 and run it in a large bag on the platform set on the wheels. It was 
 then long deemed as at its ne plus ultra ; whereas, now, it is a load of 
 itself for a four horse stage ! At that time, the Post always went to 
 and fro, from the " Blazing Star," vis a vis Staten Island, now unknown 
 as a great thoroughfare. 
 
 General Washington's residence in New York, was at the house now 
 the Franklin Bank ;— to that house he once went in procession. The 
 house was kept by Osgood, and was then No. 1, in pre-eminence. 
 
 The house No. 176 Water street, was the first in New York, to 
 
Local Changes and Local Facts. 
 
 change leaden sashes for wooden ones ; — leaden ones were general. 
 Even Trinity church had its leaden panes put in after the fire of 1778. 
 
 Dr. Hosack's map showing the grounds of New York as invaded by 
 water from the rivers, marks *' Rutger's Swamp" as united to the 
 East River by a little creek a little to the eastward of Rutger's Slip. 
 
 At' Corlear's Hook, he also marks much marsh ground uniting to 
 the river, by a small creek. 
 
 Bcekman's Swamp is also united to the East River, by a little creek 
 next south-west of Peck's Slip. 
 
 Governor's Island, originally called Nutting Island, because of the 
 quantity of hazel and other nuts growing there and furnishing the 
 winter's supply to the citizens. In later times, says Knickerbocker, 
 it was cultivated in gardens for the use of the Colonial Governors — 
 *' once a smiling garden of the sovereigns of the province." 
 
 It was originally a part of Long Island ; however it may now appear 
 to the eye on beholding so wide a separation by deep water. This 
 widening and deepening of the Buttermilk Channel has been caused 
 by the filling in of the south side of the city. 
 
 An old gentleman is now alive who remembers that as late as 1786, 
 the Buttermilk Channel was then deemed unsafe, even for boats to 
 pass through it, because of the numerous rocks there. It was how- 
 ever so used for a boat channel, through which, boats with milk and 
 buttermilk, going to New York market from Long Island, usually 
 made their passage. My mother has told me that when she first en- 
 tered New York harbor — then a girl — she was surprised to see all the 
 market boats traversing the East River, rowed by robust women with- 
 out hats or bonnets— their heads fitted with close caps— two rowers to 
 each. 
 
 The same gentleman who told of the channel as he noticed it in 1786, 
 had his attention called to it then by a Mr. Van Alstine, upwards of 
 eighty years of age, who said that he remembered when Governor's 
 Island was seperated from Long Island, only by a narrow creek, which 
 was crossed upon a log, raised above the high tide, and having staked 
 logs for a foot-way through the marsh then there on each side of the 
 creek. 
 
 William Richards, of Philadelphia, famous there for pickling stur- 
 geon, went on to New York, before the revolution, to plant lobsters 
 in the neighborhood of New York ; before which time they chiefly 
 imported them from Rhode Island. He had a vote of thanks of the 
 
Local Changes and Local Facts. 
 
 35 
 
 Assembly, many years afterwards. Lobsters after this, probably be- 
 came naturalized about Harlem. 
 
 In 1756, the frst stage is started between Philadelphia and New 
 York, by Mr. Butler — three days through. 
 
 In 1765, a second stage is announced to travel between New York 
 and Philadelphia, to go through in three days, being a covered Jersey 
 waggon, at 2d. a mile— owned in Philadelphia. 
 
 In 1766, another stage called "the Flying Machine," to go through 
 m two days, " in good waggons, and seats on springs," at 3d. a mile, 
 or 20s. through. This also owned in Philadelphia. 
 
 In 1756, the first British Packet boats," commence from New 
 York to Falmouth ; each letter to pay four penny weight of silver. 
 
 All newspapers went free of postage before year 1758. It was 
 then ordered that by reason of their great increase, they should pay 
 9d. a year for fifty miles, and Is. 6d. for one hundred miles ! 
 
 In 1755, the mail was changed from once a fortnight to once a week. 
 
 Mr. M'Cormick, of Wall street, remembered when "Burnett's 
 Key" extended from Wall street up to Maiden lane, in one entire linft 
 of front and projecting out from Water street, beyond any other line 
 of wharves. It was the bathing place of the city boys and of himself. 
 
 In 1702, New York was visited with a very mortal sickness. Isaac 
 Norris' MS. letter says, " the great sickness— Barbadoes Distemper or 
 Yellow Fever— as we had it in Philadelphia three years before. Some 
 hundred died there and many left the town, so that as we passed it, 
 it was almost desolate." 
 
 In 1743, a yellow fever, as it was called, visited New York—" not 
 imported"— but like it was at Philadelphia three years before ;— they 
 had black vomit and spots. Vide R. Peters' MSS. 
 
 In digging for a lamp post, at the north-east corner of Reed street 
 and Broadway, they were surprised to get up several human bones, 
 and thus leading to the recollection of the former fact, that between 
 that place and Chamber street, was once the area of the Negroes' 
 burying ground ;— it was on a descending hill, inclining northward. 
 
 In Lyne's Survey of New York, he marks a lane called " Old Wind 
 Mill Lane," laying between present Courtlandt and Liberty streets, 
 extending from Broadway to present Greenwich street, and thence 
 north-westward towards the river side, where the Wind Mill must 
 have stood. It was then the most northern street on the western side 
 of Broadway— all beyond was the King's farm. 
 
36 
 
 Local Changes and Local Fads. 
 
 The same survey fills up the head of present Broadway, with a long 
 rope walk and a long line of trees, reaching from present Barclay 
 street as high as the hospital. 
 
 At that time there was at the foot of the present Chamber street, on 
 North River, a distinguished Public Garden and Bowling Green. 
 
 Among the names of streets changed^ are these :— present Pine 
 street was called King street ; Pearl street was Queen street ; Cedar 
 street now, was Little Queen street ; Liberty street was Crown street, 
 importing the Crown supplanted by our self-rvlc since I The western 
 end of Garden street, was a hill called Flatten-barrack— a celebrated 
 place for the boys in winter, to sled down hill ! Present Beaver street, 
 cast, of Broad street, was Princess street ; present Stone street, east 
 of Broad street, was Duke street; Pearl street, near Broad street, was 
 Dock street ; John street now, east of "William street, was called 
 Golden Hill.— The hill once there at its intersection with Cliff street, 
 gave rise to the name of that street along the Cliff. William street, 
 at its southern end, was called South street— say from Maiden lane to 
 the East River. 
 
MAlNNERS AND CUSTOMS. 
 
 " A different face of things each age appears, 
 And all things alter in a course of years I" 
 
 I AM indebted for the following ideas of " Men and Manners once,'' 
 as seen in the middle state of life generally, by facts imparted to mo 
 by Mr. Brower, aged seventy-five, — to wit : 
 
 The Dutch kept five festivals, of peculiar notoriety, in the year — 
 say, Kerstydt, (Christmas) ; Nieuw jar^ (New Year,) a great day of 
 cake ; Paas, (the Passover) ; Pinxter, (i. e. Whitsuntide) ; and Sail 
 Claas, (i. e. Saint Nicholas, or Christ-kinkle day.) The Negroes on 
 Long Island, on some of those days, came in great crowds to Brooklyn 
 and held their field frolics. 
 
 It was the general practice of families in middle life, to spin and 
 make much of their domestic wear at home. Short ^owns and petti- 
 coats were the general in-door dresses. 
 
 Young women who dressed gay to go abroad to visit or to church- 
 never failed to take off that dress and put on their home-made, as 
 soon as they got home ; even on Sunday evenings when they expected 
 company, or even their beaux, it was their best recommendation to 
 seem thus frugal and ready for any domestic avocation. The boys and 
 young men of a family, always changed their dress, for a common 
 dress, in the same way. There was no custom of offering drink to 
 their guests ; — when punch was offered, it was in great bowls. 
 
 Dutch dances were very common ; the supper on such occasions, 
 was a pot of chocolate and bread. The Rev. Dr. Laidlie who arrived 
 in 1764, did much to preach them into disuse ; he was very exact in 
 his piety, and was the Jirst minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, 
 who was called to preach in the English language. 
 
 The Negroes used to dance in the markets, where they used tom- 
 toms, horns, dec. for music. They used often to sell Negro slaves at 
 the Coffee-house. 
 
 All marriages had to be published before-hand, three weeks at the 
 churches, or else to avoid that, they had to purchase a license of the 
 Governor: — a seemingly singular surveilance for a great Military 
 Chief! We may presume he cared little for the fact beyond his fee ! 
 
 Before the revolution, tradesmen of good repute, worked hard ; — 
 there were none as masters, mere lookers-on ; — they hardly expected 
 ;o be rich ; — their chief concern in summer, was to make enough 
 
o8 
 
 Manners and Customs. 
 
 a-head to lay up carefully for a living in severe winter. Wood \va» 
 even a serious concern to such, when only 2s. 6d. to 3s. a load. 
 
 None of the stores or tradesmen's shops then aimed at any rivalry 
 as now. There were no glaring allurements at windows, nor over- 
 reaching signs — no big bulk windows ; — they were content to sell 
 things at honest profits, and to trust to an earned reputation, for their 
 share of business. 
 
 It was the Englishmen from Britain, who brought in the painted 
 glare and display ; — they also brought in the use of open shops at 
 night, an expensive and needless service ! — for who sells more in day 
 and night, where all are competitors, than they would in one day, if 
 all were closed at night ! 
 
 In former days, the same class who applied diligently in business 
 hours, were accustomed to close their shops and stores at an early hour 
 and to go abroad for exercise and recreation, or to gardens, &c. All 
 was done on foot, for chaises and horses were few. 
 
 The candidates for the Assembly, usually from the city, kept open 
 houses in each ward, for one week — producing much excitement 
 among those who thought more of the regale than the public weal. 
 
 Physicians in that day, were moderate in their charges, although 
 their personal labor was great. They had to make all their calls on 
 foot — none thought of riding. Drs. Baylie and M'Knight, when old, 
 were the first who are remembered as riding to their patients. Dr. 
 Attvvood is remembered as the first physician who had the hardihood 
 to proclaim himself as a man midwife ; — it was deemed a scandal to 
 some delicate ears ; and Mrs. Granny Brown, with her fees of two to 
 three dollars, was still deemed the choice of all who thought " women 
 should be modest !" 
 
 " Moving day," was, as now, the first of May, from time ir inenio»« 
 rial! 
 
 They held no " fairs," but they often went to the " Philadelphia 
 Fairs," — once celebrated. 
 
 At the New Year and Christmas festivals, it was the custom to go 
 out to the ice on Beekman's and such like swamps, to shoot at turkeys; 
 every one paid a price for his shot, as at a mark, and if he hit it so as 
 to draw blood, it was his for a New Year or Christmas Dinner ! A 
 fine subject this for Dr. Laidlie's preaching and reformation ! 
 
 At funerals, the Dutch gave hot wine in winter ; and in summer^ 
 they gave wine-sangaree. 
 
i 
 
 Manners and Customs, 39 
 
 I have notice:! a singular custom among Dutch families ; — a father 
 gives a bundle of goose quills to a son, telling him to give one to each 
 of his male posterity. 1 saw one in the possession of Mr. James Bo- 
 gert, which had a scroll appended, saying, " this quill given by Petrus 
 Byvanck to James Bogert, in 1789, was a present in 1689, from his 
 grand-father, from Holland." 
 
 It is now deemed a rule of high life in New York, that ladies should 
 not attend funerals — it was not always so. Having been surprised at 
 the change, and not being aware of any sufficient reason why females 
 should have an exemption from personal attention to departed friends, 
 from which their male relatives couJd not, I have been curious to in- 
 quire into the facts in the case. I find thart females among the 
 Friends, attend funerals, and also among some other religious com- 
 munities. 
 
 I have been well assured that before the revolution, genteelest fa- 
 milies had ladies to their funerals, and especially if she was a female ; 
 on such occasions burnt wine" was handed about in tankards, often 
 of silver. 
 
 On one occasion, the case of the wife of Daniel Phoenix, the City 
 Treasurer, all the pall bearers were ladies — and this fact occurred 
 dnce the revolution. 
 
 Many aged persons have spoken to me of the former delightful 
 practice of families sitting out on their " stoopes" in the shades of 
 the evening, and there saluting the passing friends, or talking across 
 the narrow streets, with neighbors. It was one of the grand links of 
 union in the Knickerbocker social compact. It endeared and made 
 social neighbors ; — made intercourse on easy terms ; — it was only to 
 say, " come sit down." It helped the young to easy introductions and 
 made courtships of readier attainment. 
 
 I give some facts to illustrate the above remarks, deduced from the 
 
 family of B with which I am personally acquainted. It shows 
 
 primitive Dutch manners. His grand-ffUher died at the age of sixty- 
 three, in 1782, holding the office of Alderman eleven years, and once 
 chosen Mayor and declined. Such a man, in easy circumstance in 
 life, following the true Dutch ton, had all his family to breakfast, all 
 the year round, at day light — before the breakfast, he universally 
 smoked his pipe. His family always dined at twelve exactly. At 
 that time, the kettle was invariably set on the fire, for tea, of Bohea, 
 which was always as punctually furnished at three o'clock. Then the 
 
40 
 
 Mujiucrs and Customs. 
 
 old people went abroad on purpose to visit relatives, changing the fa- 
 milies each night in succession, over and over again, all the year 
 round. The regale at every such house, was expected as matter of 
 <*ourse, to be chocolate supper and soft walUcs. 
 
 Afterwards, when green tea came in as a new luxury, loaf sugar also 
 »'ame with it ; this was broken in large lumps and laid severally by 
 (Hich cup, and was nibbled or bitten as needed ! 
 
 The family before referred to, actually continued the practice till as 
 late as seventeen years ago, with a steady determination in the patri- 
 arch, to resist the modern innovation of dissolved sugar, while he lived ' 
 
 Besides, the foregoing facts I have had them abundantly confirmed 
 by others. 
 
 While they occupied the stoopes in the evening, you could see 
 every here and there an old Knickerbocker Avith his long pipe, fuming 
 away his cares, and ready on any occasion to offer another for the use 
 of any passing friend who would sit down and join him. The ideal 
 picture has every lineament of coiitented comfort and chearful repose. 
 Something much more composed and happy, than the bustling anxiety 
 of " over business" in the moderns. 
 
 The cleanliness of Dutch housewifery was always extreme ; — every 
 thing had to submit to scrubbing and scouering; — dirt in no form 
 could be endured by them : and dear as water was in the city, where 
 It was always sold, still it was in perpetual requisition. It was their 
 honest pride to see a^N ell furnished dresser, showing copper and pew- 
 ter in shining splendour, as if for ornament, rather than for use! In 
 Jill this, they widely difl'cred from the Germans, a people with whom 
 they have been erroneously luid often confounded. Roost fowls and 
 ducks are not more different !— As water draws one, it repels the 
 other ! 
 
 It was common in families then to cleanse their own chimneys, 
 without the aid of hired sweeps ; and all tradesmen, &c. were accus- 
 tomed to saw their own fuel. Mr. Brov. er said no man in middle cir- 
 cumstances of life, ever scrupled to carry home his 100 cwt. of meal 
 from the market ; it would have been his shame to have avoided it. 
 
 A greater change in the state of society, cannot be named, than 
 that of hired persons. Hired women, from being formerly lowly in 
 dress, wearing short gowns and petticoats of linsey-woolsey, and re- 
 ceiving but half a dollar a week, have, since they have threbled that 
 wages, got to all the pride and vanity of *' showing out" to strangers, 
 
Manners and Customs. 
 
 41 
 
 as well diest ladies. The cheapness of foreign finery, gives them the 
 ready means of wasting all their wages in decorations. So true it is, that, 
 
 *' Excess, the scrofulous and itchy plague, 
 Taints downward, all the graduated scale !" 
 
 The Quarterly Review, has preserved one fact of menial impudence, 
 
 in the case of the New York girl, telling her mistress, before her 
 
 guests, that " the more you ring, the more I won't come !" 
 
 General Lafayette, too, left us a compliment of dubious import on 
 
 his formal entre at New York, when seeing such crowds of well dressed 
 
 people, and no remains of such as he had seen in the period of the 
 
 revolution— a people whose dress was adapted to their condition— he 
 
 exclaimed, " but where is the peoplef^ emphatically meaning, where is 
 
 the useful class of citizens, " the hewers of wood and drawers of water !" 
 
 " All are infected with the manners and the modes, 
 It knew not once !" 
 
 Before the revolution, all men who worked in any employ, always 
 wore his leathern apron before him— never took it off to go in the 
 street, and never had on a long coat. 
 
 We are glad to witness the rise of new feelings among the Dutch 
 descendants, tending to cherish by anniversary remembrances, the 
 love and reverence they owe their sires. For this object, as they have 
 no " landing day," like us, they resort to their tutelary protector Saint 
 Nicholas : on such occasions, decorating themselves or hall with orange 
 colored ribbons, and inscribing "Oranje Boven," — and garnishing 
 their table with " Malck and Suppawn" — with rullities — and their 
 hands with long stemmed pipes. 
 
 We are sorry we do not know the history better than we do, of a 
 Saint so popular as he is, with only his name of St. Claes to help him. 
 He seems however to be the most merry and jocose in all the calen- 
 der. The boys all welcome him as *' the bountiful Saint Nick," — 
 and as " De Patroon Van Kindervreugd"— i. e. the Patron of Child- 
 rens' Joy. 
 
 " A right jolly old Elf, with a little round belly, 
 Which shakes when he laughs, like a bowl full of jelly." 
 
 All we know from Knickerbocker, is what the figure of Hudson's 
 
 Guede Vrouw represented him as attired " in a low brimed hat— a 
 
 large pair of Flemish trunk hose, and a very long pipe." 
 
 In 1765, the best families in New York, entered into certain sump- 
 
 t'lary laws to restrain the usual expenses and pomp of funerals. 
 
 F 
 
MEMORIALS OF THE DUTCH DYNASTY. 
 
 "Dwell o'er the remembrance of former years!" 
 Having said that the office of the Common Council contains no 
 irccords of the city, preceding the conquest by the British, I shall add 
 here some tokens of the fact, that there are numerous collections of 
 Dutch records now existing in the archieves of state, at Albany— fur- 
 nishing a rich mine of antiquarian lore, for some future explorer. 
 
 " Yet still will memory's busy eye retrace 
 Each little vestige of the well lov'd plage I" 
 
 The Records thus speak, viz :— 
 
 Fort Amsterdam, (at New York) is repaired and finished in 1635. 
 
 Paulus HooJc, is sold by Governor Keift, in 1638, to Abraham 
 Isaacs Plank, for 450 guilders. 
 
 For Scandalizing the Governor, one Hendrick Jansen, in 1638, is 
 sentenced to stand at the fort door, at the ringing of the bell, and ask 
 the Governor's pardon. 
 
 For Slandering the Rev. E. Bogardus, in 1638, (Pastor of the Re- 
 formed Church, then in the fort) a female is obliged to appear at the 
 sound of the bell at the fort, and there, before the Governor and Council, 
 to say, " she knew he was honest and pious, and that she lied falsely !" 
 
 Torture, was inflicted upon Jan Hobbes, who had committed a 
 theft. The evidence seemed sufficient, but it was adjudged he should 
 also make his confession by torture. 
 
 For drawing his Knife upon a person, one Guysbert Van Regers- 
 lard, was sentenced, in 1638, to throw himself three times from the 
 sail-yard of the yatch the Hope, and to receive from each sailor there 
 three lashes. 
 
 The Wooden Horse punishment is inflicted, in t>ec. 1638, upon two 
 soldiers : they to sit thereon for two hours. This was a military punish- 
 ment used in Holland. He strode a sharp back, and his body was forced 
 down to it, by a chain and iron stirrup or a weight, fastened to his legs. 
 
 Goat Milk and Boats, appear as a subject of frequent mention and 
 regulation. 
 
 Cases of Slander, often appear noticed ;— such as that Jan Jansen, 
 complains of Adam Roelants for slander, whereupon it was ordered 
 that each party pay to the use of the poor, the sum of 25 guilders each. 
 
 Tobacco, appears to have been an article of cultivation and of pub- 
 lic concwn and comnaerce. Van Twiller had his tobacco farm at 
 
Memorials of the Dutch Dynasfp. 
 
 43 
 
 Greenwich. On the 5th August, 1638, two inspectors were nomi- 
 nated to inspect " tobacco cultivated here for exportation ;"— and on 
 the 19th August, same year, it is recorded, that because of "the high 
 character it had obtained in foreign countries," any adulterations 
 should be punished with heavy penalties. [This agrees with the fact 
 at Philadelphia county ;— there they also in primitive days, sixty years 
 after the above facts, cultivated tobacco in fields.] 
 
 A Cattle Fair, was established to be held annually on the 15th Oct. 
 and of Hogs on the 1st Nov., beginning from the year 1641. 
 
 Tavernkeepers—none of them shall be permitted to give any sup* 
 per parties after nine o'clock at night. In case of any Indian being 
 found drunk, his word when sober, shall be deemed good enough evi- 
 dence against the white person who made him so ! 
 
 The Oath of Allegiance^ was to be taken by all officers of govern- 
 ment, as a " test act," by swearing " to maintain the reformed religion, 
 m conformity to the word of God, and the decree of the Synod of 
 Dordretch !" Under such solemn obligations to duty, it is scarcely 
 to be wondered at or even condemned, that the officers in authority, 
 overlooking the mild spirit of the gospel of peace, and adhering to 
 the letter and the oath to the Synod, &;c. should be led out to perse- 
 cution ! We therefore find, for we may tell a little of the truth in 
 this matter, that in 1657, sundry Quakers " for publicly declaring in 
 the streets," were subjected to the dungeon, &;c.; and Robert Hodgson 
 was led at a cart tail, with his arms pinioned, then beaten with a 
 pitched rope until he fell ; afterwards he was set to the wheelbarrow 
 to work at hard labor. This continued until the compassion of the 
 sister of Governor Stuyvesant being excited, her intercession with 
 that Governor, prevailed to set him free. About the same time, John 
 Bowne, ancestor of the present respectable family of that name, was. 
 first imprisoned and next banished for the offence he gave as a Quaker. 
 It was an ordinance of that day, "that any person receiving any 
 Quaker into their house, though only for one night, should forfeit 
 £50 ! Little did they understand in that day, that " the sure way to 
 propogate a new religion, was to proscribe it !" 
 
 Good Dr. Cotton, in common with good Paul of Tarsus, were both 
 persecutors, " haling men and women to prison," and saying, ' If the 
 worship be lawful, (and they the judges /) the compelling to come to it, 
 compelleth not to sin ; but the sin is in the will that needs to be forced 
 to christian duty /" So self deceiving is bigotry and intolerance ! 
 
44 Memorials of the Dutch Dynasty. 
 
 There are somo fine relics of the Gov. Stuyvesant above referred tu, 
 still preserved in his family, valuable to a thinking mind, for the moral 
 associations they afford. I saw them at the elegant country mansion of 
 his descendant Nicholas William Stuyvesant, to wit: — a portrait of 
 Stuyvesant, in armour, which had been well executed in Holland, and 
 probably while he was yet an Admiral there. His head is covered 
 with a close black cap—his features strong and intrepid— skin dark, 
 and the whole aspect not unlike our best Indian faces— a kind of shawl 
 or sash is cast roimd his shoulder— has a large white shirt collar droop- 
 ing from the neck— has small mustachios on his upper lip, and no 
 beard elsewhere shown. As I regarded this quiet remains, of this 
 once great personage, I inwardly exclaimed, and is this he, in whom 
 rested the last hopes of the Netherlanders in our country! Himself gone 
 down to " the tomb of the Capulets !" His remains " rest in hope," 
 near by, in the family vault, once constructed within the walls of the 
 second built Reformed Dutch church, which for pious purposes, he had 
 built at his personal expense on his own farm. The churbh is gone, 
 but fhe place is occupied by the present church of St. Mark. On the 
 outside wall of this latter church, I saw the original stone designating 
 the body of him, whose rank and titles stood thus inscribed, to wit : 
 " In this vault, lies buried 
 Petrus Stuyvesant, 
 late Captain General and Commander in Chief of Amsterdam 
 in New Netherland, now called New York, and the 
 
 Dutch West India Islands. 
 Died in August, A. D. 1682, aged eighty year?,"* 
 A fine pear tree stands just without the grave yard wall, in lively 
 vigour, although so old as to have been brought out from Holland and 
 planted there by the Governor Stuyvesant himself. 
 
 Besides seeing the portrait of the Governor and Captain General 
 as aforesaid in his array of manhood ; I saw also a singular token of 
 his puerility ; no less than the very infant shirt, of fine Holland, edged 
 with narrow lace, in which the Chief was devoted in baptism and re- 
 ceived his christening ! It perhaps marks the character of the age, in 
 his family thus preserving this kind of token. f 
 
 1 saw also the portrait of his son, done also in Holland, in the seven- 
 teenth year of his age. He is mounted upon a rampart charger — his 
 
 * He was Governor seventeen years — from 1647 to 1664. 
 t Stow says, christening shirts were giveii in the time of Elizabeth ; — afterwards^ 
 Apostles spoons were givea as memorials. 
 
Memorials of the Dutch Dynasty. 
 
 45 
 
 head covered with a low crowned black hat — a blue coat — his white 
 shirt sleeves have the cuffs laced and turned up over the cuffs of the 
 coat — wears shoes with high heels, and his silk hose came up above 
 his knees on the outside of the breeches, and appear there looped up 
 m their place. 
 
 There I also saw portraits of Bayard and his wife. He appears 
 garbed as a priest — he was father-in-law to Governor Stuyvesant. 
 
 Other relics of the Stuyvesant family might have possibly remained, 
 but as the family house, occupied by the uncle of the present Nicholas 
 William, was burnt in the time of the revolution, by some of the 
 persons of Sir Henry Clinton's family, who staid there, it is probable 
 that relics and papers have been lost. 
 
 The Jirst minister ever appointed to the Dutch Church in New Am- 
 sterdam, was the Rev. Everardus Bogardus ; he officiated in the church 
 erected in 1642, within the fort. Thus making it, as it probably was, 
 in the govermental rulers in the Netherlands, an affair of military con- 
 formity, not unlike the chaplain concerns of modern warfare. At all 
 events, we soon hear of the people taking it into their minds to have 
 another church, to wit : the old " South Dutch Church," founded in 
 1643, in Garden alley, and then objected to, as being " too far out of 
 toAvne !" A rare demur in our modern views of distance ! 
 
 Besides the church so granted without the fort, they had also con- 
 ferred " a place for a Parsonage and Garden." On the latter being 
 improved in all the formal stiffness of cut box and trimmed cedar, pre- 
 senting tops nodding to tops, and each alley like its brother,— the 
 whole so like Holland itself, it became attractive to the public gaze, 
 and so gave popular acceptance to the name of " Garden Alley." The 
 first church of St. Nicholas, though long under the care of its tutelary 
 Saint, fell at last a prey to the flames in the fire of 1791. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Bogardus above named, though intended as an ex- 
 ample himself, could not keep his wife exempt from reproach or from 
 the vigilance of an "evil eye," for on the 24th October, 1633, (it iri 
 still on record at Alba ny !) a certain Hendricks Jansen (a sapient re- 
 former no doubt*) appeared before the Secretary and certified that the 
 •vife of the Rev. E. Bogardus, in the public street, drew up. her petti- 
 coat a little way /" Surely this was an idle scandal when Dutch petti- 
 coats were of themselves too short to cover, even if the matron would. 
 
 * It may be seen in another place, that this same person for speaking ill of the 
 Governor, had to stand at tlie fort door in durance vile.'* 
 
GARDENS, FARMS, &c. 
 
 "Yes, he can e'en replace agen, 
 The forests as he knew them then ."' 
 
 ^Ir. Abram Browcr, aged seventy-five, says, in his youth lie deemed 
 himself " out of town," about where now stands the Hospital, on Broad- 
 Way. Blackberries were then so abundant, as never to have been sold* 
 
 Jones had a " Ranalagh Garden," near the Hospital — and "Vaux- 
 hall Garden" where they exhibited fire-works, wae at the foot of 
 Warren street. 
 
 At Corlear's Hook,* all was in a state of woods, and it was usual to 
 go there to drink mead. 
 
 The first " Drovers' Inn," kept so near the city, was a little above 
 St. Paul's church — kept by Adam Vanderbarrack, [spelt Vanderbergh 
 by D. Grim, who said he had also a farm there.] 
 
 Bayard's Spring, in his woods, was a place of great resort of after- 
 noons ; it was a very charming spring, in the midst of abundance of 
 hickory nut trees ; tradesmen went there after their afternoon work. 
 It lay just beyond Canal street — say on south side present Spring 
 street, not far from Varrick street. 
 
 In the year 1787, Col. Ramsay, then in Congress, considered him- 
 self as living " out in the country," at the White Conduit house," 
 situate between Leonard and Franklin streets. 
 
 " Tea Water Pump Garden," celebrated for its excellent pump of 
 water — situate on Chatham street, near to Pearl street, was deemed a 
 *' far walk." It was fashionable to go there to drink punch, &;c. 
 
 A real farm house in the city, stood as an ancient relic until eight 
 years ago, in such a central spot as the corner of Pine and Nassau 
 streets — Mr. Thoburn saw it, and was told so by its ancient owner. 
 
 The old Dutcli records sufl[iciently show that in primitive days, all 
 the rear of the town was cast into farms, say six in number, called 
 ^' Bouwerys ;" from whence we have " Bowery" now. Van Twiller 
 himself, had his mansion on farm No. 1, and his tobacco field on No. 
 3. No. 1 is supposed by Mr. Moulton's book, to have been " from 
 Wall street to Hudson street ;" and No. 3 " at Greenwich, then called 
 Tapohanican." No. 4 was near the plain of Manhattan, including 
 the Park to the Kolck ; and No. 5 and 6 to have lain still farther to 
 the northward. 
 
 The ancient bon-vivants remember still " Lake's Hermitage" as a 
 place of great regale ; the house and situation is fine even now ; situ- 
 
Gardens, Farms, 6fC, 
 
 47 
 
 ated now near the sixth avenue, quite in the country, but then ap- 
 proached only through " Love Lane." 
 
 The ancient mansion and farm out on the East River, at the head 
 of King's Road, once the stately establishment of Dr. Gerardus Beek- 
 man, is made peculiarly venerable for the grandeur of its lofty and 
 aged elms and oaks — its rural aspect and deep shade attracted the 
 notice of Irving's pen. It was used too as the selected country resi- 
 dence of General Clinton in the time of the war. 
 
 Robert Murray's farm house in this neighborhood, should be vene- 
 rable from its associations. There his patriot lady entertained Gen. 
 Howe and his stalf with refreshments, after their landing with the 
 army at " Kips' Bay," on purpose to afford Gen. Putnam time to lead 
 off his troops in retreat from the city, which he effected. She was a 
 friend and the mother of the celebrated Lindley Murray. 
 
 The garden of " Aunt Katey," and called also " Katey Mutz," was 
 spoken of by every aged person, and was peculiarly notable as a 
 « Mead Garden." It was called by some " Wind-Mill Hill," in re- 
 ference to its earlier use, and also " Gallows Hill," by others, as once 
 a place of execution. Its location was on " Janeway's farm," about 
 the spot where is now the Chatham Theatre. A part of the garden 
 met the line of the ancient palisades. The whole hill, which was 
 large, extended from Duane down to Pearl street, along the line of 
 Chatham street ; — near her place was once " the City Gate." *' Soft 
 waffles and tea," were the luxuries there, in which some of the gentry 
 then most indulged. 
 
 The angle whereon the Park Theatre now stands, belonged origi 
 nally to the square of the Park ; — that corner of the square, was once 
 called " the Governor's Garden, (so David Grim said) in reference to 
 such an intended use of it. 
 
 A garden of note was kept vis a vis the Park, where is now Peale's 
 Museum, and named " Montague's Garden." There the " Sons of 
 Liberty," sO called, convened. 
 
 A drawing of the Collect as it stood about year 1750, done by 
 David Grim, which I saw with his daughter Mrs. Myers, places a gar- 
 den at the west side of the little Collect, which he seperates from the 
 big or main Collect, by an elevated knoll, like an island, on which he 
 marks the Magazine, and a Negro hanging in gibbets — between this, 
 knoll and the big Collect is drawn a marsh ; — a winding road is mark- 
 ed along the south side of the little Collecfe, 
 
RE3IARKABLE FACTS AND INCIDENTS. 
 
 — ; " To strike our marvelling ryes, 
 
 Or move our special wonder I" 
 
 In the year 1735, animosity ran pretty high, between the military 
 Governor and his Council on the one part, and the Mayor and Council 
 on the other part : — On this occasion, Zangcr the printer, took the 
 part of the latter, which was considered " vox populi" also ; the con- 
 sequence was, he was put under arrest and trial. The popular excite- 
 ment was strong ; and feelings extended even to Philadelphia. An- 
 drew Hamilton there a celebrated lawyer and civilian, volunteered to 
 aid Zanger and went on to New York and there effected his deliver- 
 ance with great triumph. Grateful for this, the corporation of the 
 city, voted him " a golden snuff-box with many classical inscriptions," 
 and within, they enclosed him tho Freedom of the City." The box 
 might now be a curiosity to see. 
 
 I was shown the locality of an incident which has had more readers 
 than any other popular tale of modern times. No. 24 on Bowery road, 
 is a low wooden house, the same from which the Heroine of " Char- 
 lotte Temple" was seduced by a British officer. The facts were stated 
 to me and the place shown by Dr. F. 
 
 In 1769, was a time of fierce and contentious election for Assembly 
 men ; — the poll was kept open for four 'days ; — no expense was spared 
 by the candidates ; — the friends of each party kept open houses in 
 every ward, where all regaled and partook to the full ! — all citizens 
 left off their usual business ; — there were only 151.5 electors, of which 
 917 were freeholders; — all non-resident voters were sought for earn- 
 estly in the country and brought to the city polls. John Cruger, James 
 Delancey, Jacob Walton, and James Jauncey, were the successful can- 
 didates by majorities, generally of 250 to 270 votes. [This and the 
 following fact respecting election, was derived from MSS. notes, left 
 by D. Grim with his daughter.] 
 
 On an occasion of election, Mr. Alexander M'Dougal (afterward? 
 Gen. M'D.) was the author of an Address "to the Public," signed 
 " Legion," wherein he invoked the public assembling of the people 
 " at the fields, near Dela Montagne's, (which is in modern parlance in 
 the Park, near Peale's jMuseum) " in order effectually to avert the evil 
 of the late base, inglorious conduct by our general assembly, who in 
 opposition to the loud and general call of their constituents and of 
 
RemarJcaMe Facts and Incidents. 
 
 sound policy, and to the glorious struggle for our birthrights, have 
 dared to vote supplies to the troops without a shadow of pretext. 
 Therefore, let every friend to his country, then appear." 
 
 For this stirring appeal, M'Dougal was taken under arrest by the 
 Sergeant of Arms of the Assembly, who placed him in the county goal 
 While he was there confined, forty-five persons, " Sons of Liberty,'" 
 (for " forty-five " was a talcsmanic number then !) went to visit him in 
 prison, to salute and cheer him. Not long, after, " forty-five " female 
 " Sons of Liberty/' headed by Mrs. Malcomb, (wife of the General) 
 made their visit also to cheer the state prisoner and to applaud " his 
 noble conduct in the cause of Liberty." It was this leaven that was 
 carrying on the fermentation thus early for the revolution. 
 
 The gaining of the election, caused the New Yorkers in 1770, to 
 recede from their non-importation covenants, and the Whigs of Phila- 
 delphia, resolved to buy nothing of them "while governed by a faction !" 
 
 The winter of 1755, was so peculiarly mild, that the navigation of 
 the North River kept open all the season. Mr. David Grim saw from 
 that cause, Sir Peter Hackett's and Col. Dunbar's regiment go up to 
 the river to Albany in that winter. 
 
 The winter of 1780, on the other hand was the extreme of cold, 
 producing " the hard Vv'inter." Two great cakes of ice (says D. Grim) 
 closed the North River from Paulus Hook ferry to Courtlandt street. 
 Hundreds then crossed daily. Artillery, and sleds of provisions, were 
 readily passed over : and even heavy artillery was borne over the frozen- 
 bridge, to Staten Island. 
 
 My friend James Bogert, then a small lad, was with his uncle, the 
 first persons who were ever known to have crossed the East River on 
 the ice, at or near Hell Gate. 
 
 I saw in the Historical Society Library, something very rare to be 
 found in this country : — they are sixteen volumes folio of MSS.- 
 Journals of the House of Commons, in Cromwell's reign— say from 
 1650 to 1G75 — said to have been presented tlirough tbe family of the 
 late Governor Livingston. [I suspect however, ihey came through 
 the family of Governor Williamson, because a great part of Col. De 
 Hart's library went by will to De Hart Williamson, in 1801.] Mrs. D. 
 Logan had before told me of having seen those volumes in the posses- 
 sion of Col. De Hart, of Morristown, N, J. about the year ISOO. She 
 could not learn how they came into this country, although she found it 
 
 a 
 
5a 
 
 Remarkable Facts and Incidents. 
 
 was believed they were abducted by some of CromwelPs friends (who 
 went out first to New England, and afterwards settled near Morristown) 
 to prevent their use against those who might remain in England. 
 Their ample margins had been partially used by a commanding officer 
 of our army there, when paper was scarce, to write his orders ! 
 
 Captain Kidd the celebrated pirate, was once married and settled 
 at New York. As the trial of Kidd, which I have seen and preserved, 
 states on the authority of Col. Livingston, that he had a wife and child 
 then in New York, my inquiring mind has sometimes, looking among 
 the multitude, said, — Who knows, but some of these are Kidd's des- 
 cendents ? I observe however, that the name is not in the New Y^ork 
 Directory ; — Col. Livingston recomended him to the Crown Officers, 
 ** as a bold and honest man." He had probably been a Privateersman 
 aforetime out of New Y^ork, as we find the records there stating that 
 he there paid his fees (in 1691) to the Governor and to the King. 
 Another record also states, some process against one of his seaman, 
 as deserted from him. 
 
 In 1695, he arrived at New York, from England, with the King's 
 Commission, and soon after began and continued his piracies for four 
 years. In 1699, he again arrived within the Long Island Sound, and 
 made several deposits on the shore of that island. Being decoyed to 
 Boston, he was arrested, sent to England, and executed at Execution 
 Dock, on the 23d March, 1701. 
 
 To this day, it is the traditionary report, that the family of J 
 
 at Oyster Bay, and of C at Huntington, are enriched by Kidd's 
 
 spoils, they having been in his service, hy force it is presumed, and 
 made their escape at Long Island at Eaton-neck, which gave them 
 the power afterwards of attaining " the deposits" above referred to. 
 Mr. Benjamin H — b — t who informed me of this, said he believed 
 
 that none doubted of it. Both J and C became 
 
 strangely rich. 
 
 The records of Philadelphia, show that cotemporanious with this 
 time, " one Shelly, from New Y^ork, has greatly infested our naviga- 
 tion with Kidd's pirates." 
 
 In 1722, a Pirate Brigantine appeared off Long Island, commanded 
 by one Lowe, a Bostonian— he was a successful fellow — had captured 
 Honduros. About same time, one Evans also comes on the coast. 
 
 The next year, two pirates looked into Perth Amboy and New York 
 itself! 
 
Remarhable Facts and Incidents. 
 
 51 
 
 Lowe commanded the "Merry Christmas," of 330 tons, and his con- 
 sort was commanded by one Harris. [Another pirate, Captain Sprigg 
 called his vessel " the Bachelor's Delight.] They bore a black flag- 
 while oflT the Hook, they were engaged by the Grey Hound of his 
 majesty's navy. He captured the least of them, having on board as 
 prisoners thirty-seven whites and six blacks ; all of whom were tried 
 and executed at Rhode Island, and all bearing our common English 
 names. Captain Solgard who thus conquered, was presented with 
 the freedom of the city in a gold snuff box. Lowe in indignation, 
 afterwards became cruel to Englishmen, cutting and slitting their 
 noses. He had on board during the fight, as the prisoners told, 
 £150,000 in silver and gold. 
 
 The gazettes of this period, teem with their adventures. In that 
 time, the public mind was engrossed with the dread of them and they 
 had accomplices often on shore to aid them and divide the spoil. 
 
 In 1724, William Bradford in New York, publishes the general 
 history of the pirates, including two women, Mary Reed and Anne 
 Bonny. [Much we should like now to see that work.] 
 
t)RESSES, FURNITURE AND EQUIPAGE. 
 
 Our father's homely fare discard, 
 Still studious of chang-o. 
 
 Mr. Abraham Brower, aged 75, told me the following facts, viz : 
 
 Boots were rarely worn— never as an article of dress— chiefly when 
 seen, they were worn on hostlers and sailors;— the latter always wore 
 great petticoat trowsers, coming only to the knee and there tying 
 closer— common people wore their clothes much longer than now ;— 
 they patched their clothes much and long ;— a garment was only " half 
 worn " when it became broken. 
 
 He never saw any carpets on floors, before the revohition—when 
 first introduced, they only covered the floor outside of the chairs 
 around the room ;— he knew of persons afraid to step on them when 
 they first saw them on floors ;— some dignified families always had 
 rome carpets, but then they got them by procuring them through mer- 
 chants as a special importation for themselves. 
 
 Mahogany was not in general use, and at most it was displayed in a 
 desk and tea table :— the latter was ahvays round. The general fiK*- 
 niturc was made of " billstead,"— i, e. maple. 
 
 He thinks coaches were very rare — can't think there were more 
 than four or five of them men were deemed rich to have kept even 
 a chaise ; — the Governor had one coach ; — Walton had a coach ; — • 
 Lieut. Governor Coldon also had a coach, which was burnt before his 
 window, and in his presence, by a mob ; — Mrs. Alexander had one and 
 Robert Murray, another- — he being a Quaker, called this his "Leathern 
 •Conveniency," to avoid scandal ! 
 
 The first umbrellas he ever knew worn, w^as by the British ofliiccrs, 
 and were deemed effeminate in them. Parasols as guards from the 
 sun, were not seen at all. As a defence from rain, the men wore 
 *' rain coats," and the women, " camblets." It was a common occur- 
 rence to sec servants running in every direction with these on their 
 arms, to churches, if an unexpected rain came up. As a defence in 
 winter from storms, the men wore " great coats," daily. It was a ge- 
 neral practice, (as much so, as moving on the first of May,) to put on 
 these coats on the tenth of November, and never disuse them till the 
 tenth of May, following ! 
 
 The first stoves he remembered, came into use in his time, and 
 were all open inside, in one oblong square, having no baking oven 
 thereto, as afterwards invented in the ten plate stoves. 
 
Dresses^ Furniture, and Equipage 
 
 All the houses were sanded on the floor with white or " silver sand,'^ 
 m figures and devices. 
 
 A beaver hat, entire of that fur, " lasted forever," and cost only $5. 
 
 Almost every article of the table and kitchen, as now used in 
 Queensware, used to be made of pewter. 
 
 Gentlemen of the true Holland race, wore very long body coats, the 
 skirts reaching down nearly to the ancles, with long and broad wastes, 
 and with wide and stiff skirts ; — they v/ore long flaps to their vests ; — 
 their breeches were not loose and flowing, although large, but were 
 well filled up with interior garments, giving name to the thing as well 
 as to families, in the appellation of Mynheer Ten Brceck. 
 
 A female child of six years, in full dignity of dress, was attired 
 thus, viz : — a wjiite cap of transparent texture, setting smooth and 
 close to the head ; on the left side of it, was a white ostrich feather, 
 flattened iikc a band close to the cap — the cap had a narrow edge oi 
 lar;e. From the neck, dropped a white linen cellar with laced edges. 
 A gold chain hung on one shoulder only and under the opposite arm. 
 A white stomachger, with needle ornaments, and the edges laced. 
 The body braced with stays. A white apron very full at the top and 
 much plaited, and edged all round with small lace. A silk gown oi 
 thick material of dove color, very full plaited and giving the idea of 
 large hips, (indeed all the Dutcli women affected much rotundity in 
 that way !) Broad lace was sewn close to the gown sleeves, along the 
 length of the seam on the inside curve of the arms, so as to cover the 
 seam. The sleeve cuffs were of white lace, largo, and turned up. 
 This picture from life, was given by an artist who understood the detail. 
 
 Mrs. M' Adams, a venerable lady who I saw at the age of ninety- 
 three, spoke of a circumstance occurring in New York, in 1757, re- 
 specting Gen. Gates' first wife — she was generally reported as riding 
 abroad in mens'' clothes, solely from the circumstance of her wearing 
 a riding habit, after the manner of English ladies, where she had been 
 born and educated. It proved that the manners of the times, did not 
 admit of such female display, and perhaps it was more masculine than 
 we now see them on ladies. 
 
 The price of fine cloth before the revolution, was always " a guinea 
 a yard and all men, save the most refined, expected after wearing it 
 well on one side, to have it vamped up new as a " turned coat.'' Among 
 common men, the practice was universal. Thus showing how nwck 
 hctler then cloths were than now, in durability . 
 
CHANGES OF PRICES. 
 
 ^' For the money cheap — and quite a heap." 
 
 Tt is curious to observe the changes which have occurred in the 
 course of years, both in the supply of common articles sold in the 
 markets, and in some cases, the great augmentation of prices : — For 
 instance, Mr. Brower, who has been quite a chronicle to me, in many 
 things, has told me such facts as the following, viz : — He remembred 
 well Avhen abundance of the largest " Blue-Point" oysters could be 
 bought, opened to your hand, for 2s. a hundred, such as would now 
 bring from 3 to 4 dollars ! Best sea bass were but 2d. a lb., now at 
 8d.! Sheep-head sold at 9d. to Is. 3d. a piece, and will now bring 
 2 dollars ! Rock fish were plenty at Is. a piece, for good ones. Shad 
 were but 3d. a piece. They did not then practice the planting of 
 oysters. Lobsters then w^ere not brought to the market. 
 
 Mr. Jacob Tabelee who is as old as eighty-seven, and of course saw 
 earlier times than the other, has told me sheep-head used to be sold 
 at 6d., and the best oysters at only Is. a hundred — in fact they did not 
 stop to count them, but gave them in that proportion and rate by the 
 bushel. Rock fish were sold at 3d. a pound. Butter was at 8 to 9d. Beef 
 by the quarter in the winter, was at 3d. a pound, and by the piece at 
 4d. Fowls were about 9d. a piece. Wild fowl were in great abund- 
 ance. He has bought twenty pigeons in their season, for Is.; — a 
 goose was 2s. Oak wood was abundant at 2s. the load. 
 
 In 1763, the market price of provisions was established by law, and 
 published in the Gazette— wondrous cheap they were, viz :— A cock 
 turkey, 4s.; a hen turkey, 2s. 6d.; a duck. Is.; a quail, l^d.; a 
 heath hen. Is. 3d.; a teal, 6d.; a wild goose, 2s.; a brandt, Is. 3d.; 
 snipe. Id.; butter, 9d.; sea bass, 2d.; oysters, 2s. per bushel; sheep- 
 head and sea bass, 3 coppers per pound ; lobsters, 6d. per pound ; 
 inilk, per quart, 4 coppers ; clams, 9d. per 100 ; cheese, 4^jd. 
 
SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 "Stories of Spectre's dire disturb'd the soul!" 
 
 The aged men have told me that fortunetellers and conjurors, had a 
 name and an occupation among the credulous ; — Mr. Brower said he 
 remembered some himself. Blackbeard's and Kidd's money, as pi- 
 rates, was a talk understood by all. He knew of much digging for it, 
 with spells and incantations, at Corlear's Hook, leaving there several 
 pits of up-turned ground. Dreams and impressions were fruitful 
 causes of stimulating some to thus " try their fortune" or "their luck!" 
 
 There was a strange story, the facts may yet be recollected by some, 
 of " the Haunted House," some where out of town — I have understood 
 it was Delancey's. 
 
 But a better ascertained case, is that of " the Screaching Woman ;" 
 she was a very tall figure of masculine dimensions, who used to ap- 
 pear in flowing mantle of pure white at midnight, and roll down 
 Maiden lane. She excited great consternation, among many. A Mr. 
 Kimball, an honest praying man, thought he had no occasion to fear, 
 and as he had to pass that way home one night, he concluded he would 
 go forward as fearless as he could ; — he saw nothing in his walk before 
 him, but hearing steps fast approaching him behind, he felt the force 
 of terror before he turned to look ; but when he had looked, he saw 
 what put all his resolutions to flight, — a tremendous white spectre ! 
 It was too much ! — he ran, or flew, with all his might till he reached 
 his own house by Peck's Slip and Pearl street, and then, not to lose 
 time, he burst open his door, and fell down for a time, as dead ! He 
 however survived and always deemed it something preternatural. The 
 case stood thus :— When one Capt. Willet Taylor of the British navy, 
 coveted to make some trial of his courage in the matter, he also 
 paced Maiden lane alone at midnight, wrapped like Hamlet in his 
 " inky cloak," with oaken staff* beneath. By and bye, he heard the 
 sprite full-tilt behind him, intending to pass him, but being prepared, 
 he dealt out such a passing blow as made " the bones and nerves to 
 feel,"— and thus exposed a crafty man bent on fun and mischief ' 
 
MISCELLANEOUS FACTS. 
 
 '•All pay contribution to the store ho gleans " 
 The liitlians, in the year 1746, Ccime to the city of New York, in p 
 ^frcat body— say several hundreds, to hold a conference or treaty with 
 the Governor. Their appearance was very imposing ; and being the 
 last time, they ever appeared there for such purposes,— having after- 
 wards usually met the Governor at i\lbany, they made a very stroni' 
 impression on the beholdors. David Grim, then young, who saw them, 
 iias left some MSS. memoranda respecting them, which I saw in the 
 hands of his daughter Mrs. Myers, to this effect :— They were Oneidas 
 and Mowhawks; they came from Albany, crowding the North River 
 %vith their canoes ; a great sight so near New York ; bringing with 
 them their squaws and papouses, (children) ;— they encamped on thr. 
 site now Hudson's Square, before St. John's church ; from thence 
 they marched in solennn train, single file, down Broadway to Fort 
 George, then the residence of the British Governor, George Clinton- 
 As they marched, they displayed numerous scalps, lifted on poles, by 
 v\'ay of flags, or trophies, taken from their French and Indian enemies. 
 What a spectacle in a citi// 
 
 In return, the Governor and officers of the colonial government, 
 with many citizens, made out a long procession to the Indian campj. 
 and presented them there the usual presents. 
 
 The Indians were remembered by Mr. Bogert's gTand-mother, to be 
 often encamped at " Cow -foot Hill," a continuation of Pearl street- 
 there tliey made and sold baskets. 
 
 An Indian remains, such as Iiis bones and some ornaments were 
 lately found in digging at the corner of Wall and Broad streets. 
 
 The palisades and block houses, erected in 1745, were well remem- 
 bered by Mr. David Grim. There was then much apprehension from 
 the French and Indians ; — £8000 was voted to defray the cost. Mr. 
 Grim said the palisades began at the house now 57 Cherry street, then 
 the last house out on the East River, towards Kip's Bay ; thence they 
 extended direct to Wind-Mill IIill, [that is, near the present Chatham 
 Theatre] and thence in the rear of the Poor House, to Dominie's Hook, 
 at the North River. 
 
 The palisades were made of cedar logs of fourteen feet long and 
 ten inches in diameter :-..vrerc placed in a trench three feet deep. 
 
Miscellaneous Facts* 
 
 67 
 
 with loop-holes all along musketry ; — having also a breast work of 
 four feet high and four feet wide. There were also three block houses 
 of about thirty feet square and ten feet high : — these had in each six 
 port-holes for cannon ; — these were constructed of logs of eighteen 
 inches thick, and at equi-distances between the three gates of the city, 
 they being placed on each road of the three entrances or outlets ; — 
 one was in Pearl street, nearly in front of Banker street — the other 
 in rear of the Poor House ; and the third, lay between Church and 
 Chapel streets. 
 
 This general description of the line of defence, was confirmed to 
 me by old Mr. Tabelee, aged eighty-seven. He described one gate 
 as across Chatham street, close to Kate-Mutz's garden, on Wind-Mill 
 Hill. The block house on the North River, he supposed stood about 
 the end of Reed street. 
 
 The great fires of '76 and '78, are still remembered with lively sen- 
 sibility by the old inhabitants. They occurred while the British held 
 possession of the city, and excited a fear at the time, that the " Amc- 
 rican Rebels" had purposed to oust them, by their own sacrifices, like 
 another Moscow. It is however believed to have occurred solely from 
 accident. Mr. Brower thought he was well informed by a Mr. Robins, 
 then on the spot, that it occurred from the shavings in a board yard on 
 Whitehall Slip ; but Mr. David Grim, in his MSS. notes, with his 
 daughter, is very minute to this effect, saying : — The fire began on the 
 21st of September, 1776, in a small wooden house on the wharf, near 
 the Whitehall Slip, then occupied by women of ill fame. It began 
 late at night, and at a time v/hen but few of the inhabitants were left 
 in the city, by reason of the presence of the enemy. The raging ele- 
 ment was terrific and sublime — it burned up Broadway on both sides 
 until it was arrested on the eastern side, by Mr. Harrison's brick house ; 
 but it continued to rage and destroy all along the western side to St. 
 Paul's church — thence it inclined towards the North River, (the wind 
 having changed to south-east) until it run out at the water edge, a little 
 beyond the Bear Market — say at the present Barclay street. 
 
 Trinity church, though standing alone, was fired by the flakes of 
 fire which fell on its steep roof, then so steep that none could stand 
 upon it, to put out the falling embers. But St. Paul's church equnlly 
 exposed, was saved, by allowing citizens to stand on its flatter roof, 
 and wet it as occasion required. 
 H 
 
58 
 
 Miscellaneous Facts* 
 
 In this awful conflagration, four hundred and nincty-thrce houses 
 were consumed ; — generally in that day, fhey were inferior houses to 
 the present, and many of them were of wood. 
 
 Several of the inhabitants were restrained from going out to assist 
 at night, from a fear they might be arrested as suspicious persons — in 
 fact, several decent citizens were sent to the Provost Guard, for ex- 
 amination, and some had to stay there two or three days, until their 
 loyalty could be made out. In one case, even a good loyalist and a 
 decent man, sometimes too much inclined " to taste a drop too much," 
 (a Mr. White) was by misapprehension of his character, and in the 
 excitement of the moment, hung up on a sign post, at the corner of 
 Cherry and Roosevelt streets. Mr. N. Stuyvesant told me he saw a 
 man hanging on his own sign post — probably the same person before 
 referred to by Mr. Grim. 
 
 Mr. Grim has given to the Historical Society, a topographical map, 
 showing the whole line of conflagration. 
 
 The next fire, of August, 1778, occurred on Cruger's wharf, and 
 burnt about fifty houses; — on that occasion, the military took the ex- 
 clusive management, not suffering the citizen-firemen to control the 
 manner of its extinguishment. It was afterwards ordered by the Com- 
 mander in Chief, that the military should help but not ordevy at the 
 suppression of fires. 
 
 The Slips, so called, were originally openings to the river, into which 
 they drove their carts to take out cord wood from vessels. The cause 
 of their several names, has been preserved by Mr. D. Grim. 
 
 Whitehall Slip, took its name from Col. Moore's large white house, 
 or hall ; — it adjoined the Slip, and was usually called " Whitehall." 
 
 Coenties Slip, took its name from the comhination of two names — 
 say of Coenract and Jane Ten Eycke — called familiarly Coen and 
 An ties. 
 
 The Old Slip, was so called, because it was the first or oldest in 
 the city. • 
 
 Burling's Slip, was so called after a respectable family of that name, 
 living once at the corner of Smith's Vly (now Pearl street) and Golden 
 Hill. 
 
 Beekman's Slip, after a family once living there. 
 There was only one Slip on the North River side, which was at the 
 foot of Oswego street, now called Liberty street. 
 
Miscellaneous Facig. 
 
 59 
 
 Corlear's Hook, which means a point, was originally called Neclitant 
 by the Indians, and was doubtless from its locality a favorite spot with 
 them. There Van Corlear, who was trumpeter at the fort, under Van 
 Twiller, had laid out his little farm, which he sold iu 1652, to William 
 Beekman, for £750. 
 
 The Negro Plot, of 1741, was a circumstance of great terror and 
 excitement in its day ; — aged persons have still very lively traditionary 
 recollections of it. One old man showed me the corner house in 
 Broad street, near the river then, where the chief plotters conspired. 
 Old Mr. Tabelee, says, new alarms were frequent after the above was 
 aubdued. For a long time in his youth, citizens watched every night, 
 and most people went abroad with lanthorns. 
 
 Mr. David Grim, in his MSS. notices, which I saw with his daughter 
 Mrs. Myers, says, he retained a perfect idea of the thing as it was. 
 He saw the Negroes chained to a stake and burned to death.* The 
 place was in a valley, between Wind-Mill Hill, (Chathan Theatre) and 
 Pot-Bakers' Hill, (now Augusta street, about its centre) and in mid- 
 way of Pearl and Barley streets. At the same place, they continued 
 their executions for many years afterwards. 
 
 John Hustan, a white man, was one of the principals, and was hung 
 in chains, on a gibbet at the south-east point of H. Rutger's farm, on 
 the East River, not ten yards from the present south-east corner of 
 Cherry and Catharine streets. Since then, the crowd of population 
 there, has far driven off his " affrighted ghost," if indeed it ever kept 
 its vigils there. 
 
 Csesar, a black man, a principal of the Negroes, was also hung in 
 chains, on a gibbet, at the south-east corner of the old powder house in 
 Magazine street. Many of those Negroes were burnt and hung, and 
 a great number of others were transported to other countries. 
 
 We must conceive, that on so dreadful a fear, as a general massa- 
 cre, (for guns were fired, and " many run to and fro,") the whole scenes 
 of arrest, trial, execution, and criminals long hung in chains, must 
 have kept up a continual feverish excitement, disturbing even the very 
 dreams when sleeping ! Thank God, better times have succeeded,, 
 and better views to fellow men. 
 
 " I would not have a slave to tremble when I wake, 
 For all the price of sinews bought and sold !" 
 
 * The Pennsylvania Gazette of 1741, says, one of those hanged, having shown 
 signs of life, was hung up again. John Ury, a ponish prieat, was also hung as 
 an accomplice. 
 
00 
 
 Miscellaneous Facts. 
 
 Roman Catliolics, and the cry of " church and state in danger," was 
 often witnessed on election and other occasions in New York ; — also, 
 " high and low church," were resounded. " No Bishop," could be 
 seen in capitals, on fences, &;c. A man did not dare to avow himself 
 a Catholic— it was odious— a chapel then would have been pulled down ! 
 It used to be said, " John Leary goes once a year to Philadelphia, to 
 get absolution." 
 
 Hallam's company of players, the first on record, played at New 
 York, in 1754. 
 
 William Bradford, fifty years government printer, at New York, 
 died at the age of ninety-four, in the year 1752 ;— he had been printer 
 a few years at Philadelphia, in the time of the primitive settlement. 
 
 In 1765, two women named Fuller and Knight, were placed one 
 hour in the pillory, for keeping baudy houses. If this were again en- 
 forced, would not much of the gaudy livery of some be set down ! 
 ' Among the MSS. of the Logan family, I have seen some notice by 
 James Logan, in 1702, of Gov. Nansen, at New York, " in the time of 
 the distractions of that place,"— saying that " Gov. Hamilton, of Penn- 
 sylvania, had in a friendly manner given a hint not to be too rigorous, 
 &;c. in the case of Col. Bayard, P. French, T. Wenham, outlawed and 
 scores of others who made their flight, but Nansen drove furiously, and 
 scurriously and resentfully returned his answer," &;c. 
 
 A Gazette of 1722, hints at the declining whalery along Long Island, 
 saying, " There are but four whales killed on Long Island, and little 
 oil is expected from thence." 
 
 But they have soon after a generous recompense — for in 1724, it is 
 announced that at Point Judith, in a pond there, they took 700,000 
 bass, loading therewith with fifty carts, 1000 horses and sundry boats. 
 
 In the old Potters-field, there was formerly a beautiful epitaph on a 
 
 patriot stranger from England, a Mr. Taylor, who came to join our 
 
 fortunes, to wit :— 
 
 Far from his kindred friends and Nature's skies, 
 Here mpuldering in the dust, poor Taylor lies — 
 Firm was his mind and fraught with various lore, 
 And his warm heart was never cold before. 
 He lov'd his country, and that spot of earth 
 Which gave a Milton, Hampden, Bradshaw birth — 
 But when that country — dead to all but gain, 
 Bow'd her base neck and hugg'd the oppressor's chain, 
 Lothing the abject scene, he droop'd and sigh'd — 
 CrosB'd the wild waves, and here untimely died- 
 
Miscellaneous Facts, 61 
 
 About the year 1787, there was much excitement in the city of New 
 York, against the whole fraternity of doctors, called " the Doctor^;' 
 Riot it was caused by the people's lively offence at some cases of 
 bodies procured for dissection. The mob gathered to the cry of 
 down with the Doctors." And so pushed to the houses of some of 
 the leading practitioners— their friends got before them, and precipitate 
 retreat ensued. In the sequel, the most obnoxious sought their refuge 
 in the prison, where the police being quelled, there were some violent 
 assaults. Their friends and the friends of the peace, ranged on the 
 prison side, made some defence ;— Col. Hamilton stood forward as 
 champion, and John Jay was considerably wounded in the head, from 
 a stone thrown from the mob— it laid him up some time. 
 
 A singular fact occurred a few years ago, on the occasion of the ex- 
 plosion of Mr. Sand's Powder Magazine, at Brooklyn. An aged citi- 
 zen, then at the Bull's Head Inn, at the Bowery, wearing a broad 
 brimmed hat, perceived something like gun powder showering upon 
 it;— the experiment was made, on what he gathered thereon, and it 
 ignited ! This is accounted for as coming from the explosion, because 
 the wind set strong in that direction, and it is ascertained by firing a 
 fusee over snow, that if it be over-charged, the excess of grains will 
 be found resting upon the snow. 
 
IISCIDENTS OF THE WAR IN NEW YORK. 
 
 " this to show 
 
 I\Iankind, tlie wild deformity of war !" 
 
 New York city having been held during the term of the revolution, 
 as a conquered place, and also as the chief military post of British 
 rule, it becomes matter of interest and curiosity to the present gene- 
 ration, to revive and contemplate the pictorial images of those scenes 
 and facts which our fathers witnessed in those days of peril and deep 
 emotion. I give such as I could glean. 
 
 The spirit of opposition in us, began before the revolution actually 
 opened. 
 
 The first Theatre in Bcekman street, (now where stands the house 
 No. 26) was pulled down, on a night of entertainment there, by the 
 citizens, generally called " Liberty Boys." The cause arose out of 
 some offence in the play, which was cheered by the British officers 
 present, and hissed and condemned by the mass of the people. Soon 
 after, the people seized upon a Press Barge, and drew it through the 
 streets to the park commons, where they burnt it. 
 
 After the war had commenced and New York was expected to be 
 captured, almost all the Whig families, who could sustain the expense, 
 left their houses and homes, to seek precarious refuge where they 
 could, in the country. On the other hand, after the city was possess- 
 od by the Britif-h,— all the Tory families who felt unsafe in the country, 
 made their escape into New York, for British protection. Painfully, 
 family relations were broken families as well as the rulers, took 
 different sides, and " Greek met Greek" in fierce encounter ! 
 
 Mr. Brower who saw the British force land in Kip's Bay, as he stood 
 on the Long Island heights, says it was the most imposing sight his 
 eyes ever beheld. The army crossed the East River, in open flat boats, 
 filled with soldiers standing erect ; their arms all glittering in the sun 
 beams. They approached the British fleet in Kip's Bay, in the form 
 of a crescent, caused by the force of the tide breaking the intended 
 line, of boat after boat. They all closed up in the rear of the fleet, 
 when all the vessels opened a heavy canonade. 
 
 I shall herein endeavor to mark the localities of position occupied 
 by the British, especially of residences of distinguished ofiicers, and 
 also of those suflcring prison-houses and hospitals where our poor 
 countrymen sighed over their own and their country's wo. 
 
Incidents of the War in New YorJc. 
 
 63 
 
 All the Presbyterian churches in New York, were used for military 
 purposes in some form or other. I suspect they were deemed more 
 whiggish in general than some of the other churches. The clergyman 
 of that order, were in general throughout the war — said to be zealous 
 to promote the cause of the revolution. The Methodists on the con- 
 trary, then few in number, were deemed loyalists, chiefly from the 
 known loyalism of their founder, Mr. Wesley. Perhaps to this cause 
 it was, that the Society in John street, enjoyed so much indulgence as 
 to occupy their church for Sunday night service, while the Hessians 
 had it in the morning service for their own chaplains and people. 
 
 The British troops were quartered in any empty houses of the 
 Whigs, which might be found. Wherever men were billetted, they 
 marked it. 
 
 The Middle Dutch church in Nassau street, was used to imprison 
 3000 Americans. The pews were all gutted out and used as fuel- 
 Afterwards they used it for the British cavalry, wherein they exercised 
 their men, as a riding school ; making them leap over raised wind* 
 lasses. At the same place, they often picketed their men, as a pun- 
 ishment, making them bear their weight on their toe, on a sharp goad. 
 At the same place, while the prisoners remained there, Mr. Andrew 
 Mercein told me he used to see the " Dead Cart" come every morn- 
 ing, to bear off six or eight of the dead. 
 
 The old sugar house, which also adjoined to this church, was filled 
 with the prisoners taken at Long Island ; — there they suffered much, 
 they being kept in an almost starved condition. 
 
 This starving proceeded from different motives ; — they wished to 
 break the spirit of the prisoners, and to cause their desertion ; or to 
 make the war unwelcome to their friends at home. On some occasions, 
 as I shall herein show, the British themselves were pinched for sup- 
 plies — and on other occasions, the commissaries had their own gain to 
 answer, by withholding what they could from the prisoners. I could 
 not find, on inquiry, that Americans in New York, were allowed to 
 help their countrymen, unless by stealth. I was told by eye-witnesses 
 of cases, where the wounded came crawling to the openings in the 
 wall, and begging only for one cup of water, and could not be in- 
 dulged, the sentinels saying, " we are sorry too, but our orders have 
 been, ' suffer no communication in the absence of your officer.' " 
 
 The North Dutch church in William street, was entirely gutted of 
 its pews, and made to hold 2000 prisoners. 
 
61 
 
 Incidents of the War in ]Vcw York* 
 
 The Quaker meetinc^ in Pearl street, was covertcd into an Hospital. 
 The old French church was used as a prison. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Swords told me they used to bury the prisoners on the 
 mount, then on corner of Grace and Lumber streets. It was an old 
 redoubt. 
 
 Cunningham was infamous for his cruelty to the prisoners, even de- 
 priving them of life, it is said, for the sake of cheating his King and 
 country, by continuing for a time to draw their nominal rations ! The 
 prisoners at the Provost, (the present Debtors' Prison in the Park) were 
 chiefly under his severity, (my father among the number, for a time.) 
 It was said he was only restrained from putting them to death, (five or 
 six of them of a night, back of the prison-yard, where was also their 
 graves) by the distress of certain women in the neighborhood, who 
 pained by the cries for mercy which they heard, went to the comman- 
 der-in-chief, and made the case known, with entreaties to spare their 
 lives in future. This unfeeling wretch, it is said, came afterwards to 
 an ignominious end, being executed in England, as was published in 
 Hall and Sellers' paper in Philadelphia. It was there said, that it 
 came out on the trial, that he boasted of having killed more of the 
 King's enemies by the use of his own means, than had been eflected 
 by the King's Arms ! — he having, as it was there stated, used a pre- 
 paration of arsenic in their flour ! 
 
 Loring, another commissary of prisoners, was quite another man, 
 and had a pretty good name. Mr. Lennox, the other, being now a re- • 
 aident of Ncav York, I forbear any remarks. 
 
 There was much robbing in the city, by the soldiery at times. In 
 this. Lord Rawdon's corps and the King's guards, were said to have 
 been pre-eminent. 
 
 The British cast up a line of entrenchments, quite across from Cor- 
 lear's Hook to Bunker's Hill, on the Bowery road, and placed gates 
 across the road there. The Hessians under Knyphausen, were en- 
 camped on a mount not far from Corlear's Hook. 
 
 Mr. Andrew MerCein who was present in New York, when most of 
 the above mentioned things accurred, has told me several facts. He 
 was an apprentice, with a baker who made bread for the army, and 
 states, that there was a time when provisions even to their OAvn sol- 
 diery, was very limitted. For instance, on the occasion of the cork 
 provision fleet over staying their time, he has dealt out six penny 
 loaves, as fast as he could hand them, for " a hard half dollar a piece 
 
Incidents of the War in New ForA'. 
 
 6.^ 
 
 The baker then gave $20 a cwt. for his flour. They had to make oat- 
 meal bread for the navy. Often he ha? seen Ts. a pound given for 
 butter, when before the war, it was but 9d. 
 
 When Cornwallis was in difficulties at York town, and it becamG 
 necessary to send him out all possible help, they took the citizens by 
 constraint and enrolled them as a militia. In this service, Mr. Mer- 
 cein was also compelled, and had to take his turns at the fort. There 
 they mounted guard, &;c. in military attire, just lent to them for the 
 time, and required to be returned. The non-commisbioned oliicers 
 were generally chosen as Tories, but often without that condition. 
 Mr. Mercein's Sergeant, was whiggish enough to have surrendered, 
 if he had had the proper chance ! There were some independant 
 companies of Tories there. 
 
 It was really an affecting sight to see the operations of the final de- 
 parture of all the King's embarkation ; — ihe Royal band beat a f^ire- 
 well march. Then to see so many of our countrymen with their v/o- 
 men and children, leaving the lands of their fathers, because they took 
 the King's side — going thence to the bleak and barren soil of Nova 
 Scotia, was at least affecting to them ! — their hearts said, " my countryl 
 with all thy faults, I love thee still 
 
 In contrast to this, there followed the entry of our tattered and 
 
 weather-beaten troops, followed by all the citizens in regular platoons. 
 " Oh ! one day of such a welcome sig-ht, 
 Were worth a whole eternity of lesser years !'* 
 
 Then crowded home, to their own city, all those who had been abroad 
 
 as exiles from British rule — fondly cherishing in their hearts, 
 
 TJiis is my own my native land I" 
 The German troops, says Mr. Mercein, were peculiarly desirous to de- 
 sert, so as to remain in our country, and hid themselves in every family, 
 where they could secure a friend to help their escape. 
 
 It is estimated that 11,000 of our Americans were interred from the 
 British prisons, at the Wallabout, the place of the present Navy Yard. 
 In cutting down the hill, for the Navy Yard, they took up, sixteen or 
 eighteen year,^ ago, full thirteen large boxes of human bones, which 
 being borne on trucks, under mourning palls, were carried in pro- 
 cession to Jackson street on Brooklyn height, and interred in a cliar- 
 nel house constructed for the occasion, beneath three drooping willows. 
 There rest the bones of my grand -father, borne from the Jersey Prison 
 
 Ship, three days after his arrival. 
 
 "Those prison ships, where pain and penance dwell. 
 Where death in tenfold vengeance holdi; his reign. 
 And injur'd ghosts, then uiiuvcng'd complain !" 
 
6^ Incidents of the War in New York, 
 
 Two of the burnt hulks of tliose ships, still remain sunken, near the 
 Navy Yard— one in the dock, and one (the Good Hope) near Pindar's 
 Island. 
 
 " Rotten and old, e'er filled with sighs and groans !" 
 
 The word Wallabout, is said to mean, as its location signifies, a 
 bend in the shore. 
 
 The sick were changed from the Jersey Prison Ship, after Washing 
 ton's interference, — It did good. 
 
 Our ideas of prisons and prisoners, having ourselves been never 
 confined, are too vague and undefined in reading of any given mass of 
 suffering men. To enter into conception and sympathy with the sub- 
 ject, we must individualize our ideas by singling out a single captive — 
 hear him talk over his former friends and happy home — see him pen- 
 nyless, naked, friendless, in pain and sickness, hopeless, sighing for 
 home — yet wishing to end his griefs in dying ! with Sterne's pathos — 
 see him watch his weary days and nights — see the iron enter his soui 
 — see him dead — then whelmed in pits, neglected and forgotten. Such 
 was the tales, if told, of 11,000 of our countrymen at New York ! 
 
 Our officers had better fare— they had money or credit— could look 
 about and provide for themselves— could contrive to make themselves 
 half gay and sportive occasionally. Capt. Graydon, who has left us 
 amusing and instructive memoirs of sixty years of his observing life, 
 having been among the officers captured at Fort Washington, and held 
 prisoners in New York, has left us many instructive pages concerning 
 the incidents at New York, while held by the British, which ought to 
 be read by all those who can feel any interest in such domestic history 
 as I have herein endeavored to preserve ;— I claim him as a kindred 
 spirit, and am gratified to see so old a man set down the recollections 
 of his life, with so much good feeling and pleasant anecdote. Agree- 
 able old age is always grateful and companionable. 
 
 When we look back and consider the names of British general 
 who were once our terror ; — think of the schemes and inventions on 
 which they must have been closeted within the walls of houses still in 
 New York — all intended for our destruction ; — then consider how cold 
 and noiseless they now all rest ; — their latter fame unknown — none of 
 us knowing their final history ; — how very small " the triumphs of the 
 hour appear! — even as poor players "who had strutted and played 
 life's poor part!" Has no body any after history of any of them?—* 
 Does Dodsley's Annual Register give nothing of their closing life ^. 
 
Incidents of the War in New Yorh 
 
 67 
 
 We know from the late Judge Peters, who was in counsel with 
 Cren. Washington, upon the occasion, that it was designed to attack 
 the British in New York, even at that time when it became suddenly 
 necessary to abandon that projcct.and to turn the designs to York town, 
 where it eventually terminated in the capture of Cornwallis' army, 
 and afterwards led to the peace. It was the withdrawal of De Grasse'» 
 naval support that compelled the change of purpose — De Grasse saying 
 he found the bay of New York, too dangerous for his heavy ships, and 
 that he must seek the Chesapeake. To a mind fond of the marvellous^ 
 it may appear that the page of destiny had inscribed York as the name 
 of occult omen. For whether York betokened the Duke's name and 
 rule of former years, or the head of British power in the revolutionary 
 struggle, it became the name by which to close the career of British 
 empire, and to found under American auspices, the metropolitan of 
 OUT ocean cities ! 
 
RESIDENCES OF BRITISH OFFICERS. 
 
 " In all the pomp and circumstance of war I" 
 As it aids our coiiceptions of the past, to be able lo identify the loca- 
 lities, where men conspicuous in oin annals of the revoluticn, chvelt. 
 I set down the mansions wliich some of them occupied. 
 * General Gates, before the revolution, dwelt in the large house, now 
 Young's cabinet rooms. No. 09 Broad street. There Gates had that 
 house splendidly illuminated in 1762, tor the news of the Stamp Act 
 repealed, probably as a measure to conciliate the people, in the same 
 house, once dwelt Gen. Alexander— afterwards, our Lord Stirling. 
 
 Governor Tryon, lived, after his residence in the fort was burnt, in 
 the house, now the Bank of New York, at the corner of Wall and 
 William streets. 
 
 Gen. Robinson, commandant of the city, lived at one time in Wil- 
 liam street, near to John street. At another time, he lived in Hano- 
 ver Square, now the premises of Peter Remson, &; Co. No. 109. He 
 was an aged man of seventy-five years of age. 
 
 Col. Birch, was also commandant of the city a long while, and lived 
 m Verplank's house, the same site on which the present Bank of the 
 United States, in Wall street, stands. The residence of Admiral 
 Digby, and indeed of all naval officers of distinction arriving on the 
 station, was Beekman's house, on the north-west corner of Sloate 
 Lane and Hanover Square. There dwelt, under the guardianship of 
 cidmiral Digly, Prince William Henry, the i)re3ent Duke of Clarence, 
 probably destined to be King of England. What associations of ideas 
 must it produce, if he attains the honors of a throne ! He who seen 
 in the common garb of a midshipman's " roundabout," in New York, 
 lias been seen easy of access, trying to join the boys of New York, in 
 skating on the Kolck Pond : then a knocked-kneed lad, offering on one 
 occasion, on board his ship in New York harbour, to lay aside his star, 
 and box-out a controversey with a fellow midshipman. Could he 
 again see New York, he would not know the rival London ! 
 
 Gen. H. Clinton had his town residence at N. Prime's house, (first 
 built for Capt. Kenendy) at No. 1, Broadway, on the Battery. His 
 country house was then Dr. G. Beekman's, on the East River, now 
 Bayard's place. 
 
 Sir Guy Carlton, also occupied the house of N. Prime ; and for his 
 country residence, the house at Richmond Hill, on Greenwich street ; 
 afterwards, the residence of Col. A. Burr, (the same house is now 
 lowered 22 feet !) Lord Dorchester also dwelt at the latter house* 
 
Residences of British Officers. 69 
 
 Gen. Howe dwelt in N. Prime's house, at south end of Broadway, 
 next to the Battery. 
 
 Gen. Knypliausen, commander of the Germans, dwelt in the large 
 }iouse, even now grand in exterior ornaments, d:c. in Wall street, where 
 is now the Insurance Co., next door eastward from the New York Bank. 
 
 Admiral Rodney, when in New York, occupied for his short stay, 
 the house (double front) of Robert Bowne, No. 256 Pearl street. 
 
 Gov. George Clinton had his dwelling in the present " Redmond's 
 Hotel," No. 178 Pearl ^treet. It was splendid in its day, of Dutch 
 construction ;— it has a front of five windows and six dormer windows ; 
 —its gardens at first extended through to Water street, which was 
 then into the liver. 
 
 All along the front of Trinity church ground, (called " the English 
 Church," formerly) was the place of the military parade, called by the 
 British " the Mail." There the military band playd— on the o})posite 
 side, assembled the spectators of both sexes. 
 
 I have taken unusual pains to ascertain the residence and conduct 
 of the traitor General Arnold— I found such variety and opposition in 
 opinion, as to incline me to believe there was some intentional obscu- 
 rity in the residence. The weight of evidence however desides me to 
 believe he dwelt at two places in New York ; and that his chief resi- 
 dence, as a seperate establishment, was at the west side of Broadway, 
 and the third house from the river. There Rammey, said he dwelt 
 and had one sentinel at his door, whilst Sir H. Clinton, at Prime's 
 house at the corner, had two. John Pintard, Esq. told me of his be- 
 ing present at Hanover Square, when his attention w-as called by whis- 
 pers, " not loud but deep," of see the traitor-general !" He saw it 
 was Arnold, coming under some charge from Sir Henry Clinton, at the 
 Battery, to General Robertson, then understood by Pintard, to be the 
 commandant of the city. It was said, that after the usual salutations 
 with Robertson, he requested his aid Capt. Murray, a dapper little ofli- 
 cer, to show Gen. Arnold, the civilities and rarities of the place. The 
 spirited Captain strutted off alone, saying, " Sir, his majesty never 
 honored me with his commission to become the gentleman usher to a 
 traitor !" 7'here seems almost too much point in the story, to "be 
 strictly true ; but it was the popular tale of the day, among the Whigs 
 incog. Mr. L. C. Ilamersley told me he saw Arnold at Verplank's 
 house, in Wall street, where is now the Bank of the United Siates ; 
 and then he thought Arnold lived there with Colonel Birch. Robert 
 i/cnnox, Esq. thought he lived with Admiral Digby. 
 
ANCIENT EDIFICES. 
 
 Tho venerable pile, by innovation razed! 
 
 The "Walton House, No. 324 Pearl street, was deemed the nonpareil 
 of the city in 1762, when seen by my mother, "greatly illuminated, ia 
 celebration of the Stamp Act repealed. It has even now an air of 
 ancient stately grandeur. It has five windows in front ;— constructed 
 of yellow Holland brick ;— has a double pitched roof covered with tiles 
 and a double course of balustrades thereon. Formerly, its garden ex- 
 tended down to the river. The family is probably descended of the 
 Walton, who a century ago, gave the name of " Walton's Ship Yards" 
 at the same place. William Walton, who was one of the Council, and 
 the first owner of the above house, made his wealth by some prefer- 
 ences in the trade among the Spaniards of South America and Cuba. 
 
 There are at present but four or five houses remaining of the an- 
 cient Dutch construction, having " pediment walls," surmounting the 
 roof in front and giving their gable ends to the street. 
 
 Last year they took down one of those houses in fine preservation 
 and dignity of appearance, at the corner of Pearl street and the old 
 Slip — it was marked 1698. Another on the north-east side, of Co- 
 cnties Slip, was also taken down last year, marked 1701. The oppo-- 
 site corner had another, marked 1689. 
 
 In Broad street, is one of those houses marked 1698, occupied by 
 Ferris, & Co. No. 41. Another appearing equally old, but of lower 
 height, stands at the north-east corner of Broad and Beaver streets. 
 These with the one now standing. No. 76 Pearl street, near Coenties 
 Slip, is I think the only ones now remaining in New York. The passion 
 for novelty " studious of change," is levelling all the remains of an- 
 tiquity ! 
 
 The ancient " Stadt Huys," formed of stone, stood originally at the 
 head of Coenties Slip, facing on Pearl street, towards the East River, 
 is now occupied by the houses No. 71 and 73. It was built very early 
 in the Dutch dynasty, 1642, and became so weakened and impaired in 
 half a century afterwards, as to be recommended by the court sitting 
 there, to be sold out and another to be constructed. The minutes of 
 common council, which I have seen in General Morton's ofllice, are to 
 his effect: — In 1696, it is ordered that inquiries be made, how the 
 City Hall," and the land under the trees by Mr. Burgher's path, would 
 sell?" In 1698, they agree to build the new City Hall," by the head 
 
Ancient Edifices. 71 
 
 of Broad street, for £3000, (the same afterwards the Congress Hall, 
 on corner of Wall street.) In 1699, they sell the old City Hall, ta 
 John Rodman, for £920, reserving only " the bell, the King's Arms, 
 and iron works, (fetters, &,c.) belonging to the prison," and granting 
 leave also, to allow the cage, pillory, and stocks before the same, to bo 
 removed within one year; and the prisoners in said jail, within the 
 said City Hall, to remain one month." In front of all these on the 
 river side, was placed the Rondeal, or Half-Moon Fort, where it pro- 
 bably assisted the party sheltered in the City Hall, while the civil war 
 prevailed. All these citations sufficiently show, that here was really a 
 City Hall as a Court of Justice, with the prison combined. All the 
 tradition of the old men, has been, that " there was once the old jail." 
 We know from Dutch records that there was an earlier prison than 
 this once within the fort— say in 1640;— we know41so, that this Stadt 
 Huys was originally constructed by Governor Keift, for a Stadt Herberg, 
 or City Tavern. Soon after, it was both the Campany's Tavern, and 
 City Hall, at same time. Here the partizans in the civil war, held 
 their fortress, and at them, balls were fired from the fort. In time the 
 numerous persons crowding the courts held in it, weakened the build- 
 ing and made it needful to take it down in 1700. It would seem as 
 it "was old and run to decay," a second building had supplied its 
 place in 1701, as that was the mark, which that house, taken down 
 last year, then bore. 
 
 The City Hall at the head of Broad street, fronting on Wall street, 
 stood out beyond the pavement in that street, and must have been 
 finished in 1700. It was also the prison, having before it in the Broad 
 street, a whipping post, pillory, &;c. There was also held the Provin- 
 cial Assembly, the Supreme Court, and the Mayor and Admiralty 
 Courts — it was also the place of election ; — it was finally, altered to 
 ''suit the congress, and the prisoners removed to the then " new jail in 
 the Park," — but the congress removing to Philadelphia, through the in- 
 fluence of Robert Morris, as the New Yorkers set forth in a caricature, 
 it was again altered to receive the courts and the state assembly; — 
 finally, all was removed to the present superb City Hall of " everlast- 
 ing marble." 
 
 It is curious respecting the City Hall, that after it was built, it 
 is on record, it was first ordered that it be embellished with the Arms 
 of the King and the Earl of Bellermont, and afterwards the corpora- 
 tion order, that the latter should be taken down and broken ! What 
 ^meant that indignity! just at his death too, in 1701. 
 
>2 Ancient Edifices. 
 
 The iirst theatre bcin;^ destroyed in Beekman street, a ptecond the- 
 utre was established in John street, between Nassau and Broadway. 
 There British oflicers performed sometimes for their amusement. 
 Bonaparte's activity, and vigour of mind, would have found them 
 more characteristic and busy emi)loy ! It was well for us, the army 
 had such material ! 
 
 There were two ancient custom houses : one stood at the head of 
 I\[ill street — a confined little place ; — a more respectable one» is the 
 same now a grocery story on the north-west corner of Moore and Front 
 streets. Mr. Ebbets, aged seventy-six, remembered it used as such. 
 At same time, the Bason Avas open all along Moore street. The pre- 
 sent N. \V. Stuyvesant told me this was the same building once 
 the "Stuyvesant Huys," of his celebrated ancestor. In front of the 
 building, was a public crane. 
 
 The exchange stood near there, on arches, across the foot of Broad 
 street, in a line with Water street— was taken down after the revolu- 
 tion. Under its arches, some itinerant preachers used occasionally to 
 preach. 
 
 The first Presbyterian church, built on tlie site of the present one 
 in Wall street, near Broadway, was built in 1719, and it is on record 
 in Connecticut, that churches there took up collections to aid the pri- 
 mitive building. 
 
MY REFLECTIONS AND NOTICES. 
 
 *' When I travelled I saw many things, 
 
 And I learned more than I can express." — Eccl. 
 
 In my travels about New York, looking into every thing with the 
 peering eyes" of a stranger, I saw things which might not strike 
 every one, and which I am therefore disposed to set down. 
 
 New York, as a whole, did not strike me as a deformity that it had 
 several narrow and winding lanes. I might prefer for convenience of 
 living, straighter and wider streets, as their new built ones in every 
 direction are ; but as a visiter, it added to my gratification, to wind 
 through the unknown mazes of the place, and then suddenly to break 
 upon some unexpected and superior street or buildings, passing in 
 another direction. It gives entertainment to the imagination, to see 
 thus, the lively tokens of the primitive Dutch taste for such streets ; 
 and the narrow lanes, aided the fancy to conceive, how, the social 
 Knickerbockers, loved the narrow lanes for their social conveniences, 
 when setting in their stoopes in evenings, on either side the narrow 
 pass, they enjoyed themselves in social Dutch, not unlike the " social 
 vehicles," now used for travelling up and down broadway, and ranging 
 the passengers face to face. 
 
 I felt also pleased and gratified with the great variety of painted 
 brick houses; done of necessity, because their bricks are inferior 
 generally, but giving them occasion to please the eye with numerous 
 fancies. 
 
 I most disliked their marked compliment to our Philadelphia brick, 
 in painting numerous brick houses in the precise red colour of our 
 unpainted bricks. A brick of dead red, has no beauty of itself; — 
 almost any other colour, in my judgment, would surpass it. 
 
 This is peculiarly the town of " merry church going bells." '1 heir 
 numerous spires as ornaments, seem to demand the others, as apologies 
 for such expensive steeples. In Philadelphia, in other days, the in- 
 habitants petitioned that a part of their few bells should be dismounted 
 or silenced, because they disturbed the sick. Do not the sick hear 
 them in New York?— or are they still " merry bells" to them ! 
 
 There is something in New York, that is a perpetual ideal London 
 to my mind, and therefore more a gratification to me to visit, than to 
 abide. The stir and bustle ; the perpetual emulation to excel in dis- 
 K 
 
74 
 
 My ReJIections and Notices- 
 
 play ;---the various contrivances, by signs and devices, to allure and 
 catch the eye ;— the imitations of London, and foreign cities and 
 foreigners ; rather than our own proper republican manners and prin- 
 ciples, struck my attention every where. The very ambition to be 
 the metropolitan city, like London, gave them cares which I am very 
 willing to see remote enough from Philadelphia— I am fully willing, 
 ours shall long be " the peaceful city of Penn." Why do we want 
 our cities, and even our country, dense with foreign population ?— Is 
 there no maximum point, beyond which our comforts and case must 
 proportionably diminish ? I fear so. 
 
 New York is distinguished for its display in the way of signs 
 every device and expense is resorted to, to make them attractive ; 
 crowding them upon every story and even upon the tops and ends of 
 some houses. One small house in Beekman street, has twelve sign^^ 
 of lawyers ; and at 155 Pearl street, the name of Tilldon and Roberts, 
 were painted on the stone steps of the door i 
 
 " A wilderness of strange but gay confusion." 
 In truth, it struck me as defeating its own purpose, for the glare of 
 them was so uniform as to loose the power of discrimination. It is 
 not unlike the perpetual din of their own carriage wheels unnoticed 
 by themselves, though astounding to others. 
 
 These signs however, had some interest for me, and especially along 
 Pearl street, where they were of tamer character, than in Broadway, 
 and were so much the easier read. There I read and considered the 
 nomenclature of the town. I saw by them that strangers had got hold 
 of the business and the wealth of the place. " The busy tribes" from 
 New England, supplied numerous names; and the names of the 
 Knickerbockers, were almost rarities in their own homes ! Judicious 
 persons told me they thought full one half of all the business done in 
 New York, was " by the pushing Yankees," (I mean it to their credit !) 
 one fourth more by foreigners of all kinds, and the remainder loft a 
 fourth for the Knickerbockers ; some of them in business, but many 
 of them reposing otivm cum dignitate, on the surprisingly increased 
 value of their real estates. The ancients who still linger about as 
 lookers-on, must sigh or exclaim, " strangers feed our flocks, and 
 aliens are our vine dressers !" 
 
 Jones' buildings, or Arcade, in Wall street, is a curious contrivance 
 for mere offices— a real London feature of the place ! where ground is 
 precious. 
 
My Reflections and Notices. 
 
 75 
 
 I deem it strange, that in so rapidly an enlarging city, I should see 
 tio houses " to let ;"— all seen occupied. 
 
 The frequency of fires, and their alarms, is one evil of over large po- 
 pulation. The cry occurred every day or night I dwelt in the city. 
 An old man (Mr. Tabelee) who had been twenty -eight years a fireman, 
 told me, they never had an alarm of fire in summer, in olden time. 
 
 New York has now become an extremely finely paved city. For- 
 merly, many of their foot walks had only the same kind of round peb- 
 bles which fill the carriage way. This gave occasion to Dr. Franklin 
 to play his humour, in saying, a New Yorker could be known by his 
 gait, in shufliing over a Philadelphia fine pavement, like a parrot upon 
 a mahogany table ! Now, their large flag stones, and wide foot pave- 
 ments, surpass even Philadelphia, for its ease of walking ; and the un- 
 usual width of their flag-stone footways, across the pebbled streets at 
 the corners, is very superior. 
 
 In visiting two of the Reformed Dutch churches, my mind ran out 
 m various meditations and reflections— I thought of the ancients all 
 gone down to the dust— of their zeal and devotion to the decrees of 
 the Synod of Dort and of God — of their hope that their own language 
 would never be superceded within those walls which they had reared ! 
 Now, as 1 looked around among the congregation for Knickerbocker 
 visages and persons, I saw no caste of character to mark their peculiar 
 race. You may descern a German in Pennsylvania, as a coarser mould ; 
 but not so the Netherland progeny in New York, Yet such as I found 
 them, they were the only and last remains of the primitive settlers of 
 New Amsterdam ;— it was only in such a collection of descendents, 
 that you could hope to find, if at all, the sesquipedalia names of their 
 ancestors, such as these :— Mynheers Varrevanger, Vander Schuven, 
 S'ouwert Olpheresse, Vande Spiegel, Van Bommel, Hardenbroeck and 
 Ten Broeck, Boele Roelofsen, Van Ruyven, Ten Eyck, Verplanck 
 Spiegelaer, Van Borssum, &;c. (fee. :— not to omit the least of all little 
 names, " De !" These were names of men of property, on the earliest 
 list assessed, now extant. 
 
 It is interesting to witness occasionally, here and there, the remains 
 of the ancient town, as the houses in some instances of humble 
 wooden fabric, continue as they were. Thus in so conspicuous and 
 wealthy a place as Broadway and the Park,—" tall mansions to shame 
 the humble shed,"— we see at the south-west corner of Warren and 
 Broadway^ a collection down each street, equal to four houses each 
 
76 
 
 My Reflections and Notices. 
 
 way, of small two story frames. Down Broad street, a central place, 
 are still many very mean looking low frames. They doubtless retain 
 their places, because of paying better renfts for their value, than could 
 be derived from more sightly edifices. 
 
 The New York painters of fancy wood, are certainly peculiar in 
 their skill in tasteful decorations or accurare imitations. It is dis- 
 played in numerous fine imitations of oaken doors— sometimes in 
 marble pillars and posterns — some line imitations of the pudding-stone 
 columns, which cost so much in the capital of Washington ; — but 
 finally, I think nothing can excel the excellency of the painting of 
 the north Dutch church pulpit, where Dr. Brcwnlee is pastor. Every 
 touch of it is true to the character of the bird-eye maple, and having 
 the finest possible polish. 
 
 With more time, I might possibly have found out some rarely aged 
 persons of good experience in the past. I saw Sarah Paul, a colored 
 w^oman, at No. 23 Lombardy street, of the rare age of one hundred and 
 fifteen years,* as it was estimated. Her memory was too unstable to 
 rest any remarkable facts upon, although she was sufficiently talkative. 
 Another relic of " Lang Syne," was found in the intelligent mind and 
 active person, of old William Ceely, now an inmate of the Alms-house 
 at Belle vue, at the advanced age oi one hundred and eight. 'Tis only 
 in the last year that he walked one hundred and fifty miles, to see re- 
 latives in Connecticut. How strange to see such persons, so long 
 escaped the " thousand ills that flesh is heir to !" 
 
 Coney Island is a " lonely shore" of rare advautage to New York. 
 We can never hope to have any thing to compare or compete with its 
 benefits, as a recreation and a salutary change " for the cooped-up 
 sickly citizen." A greater desideratum cannot be imagined for the 
 population of a great city, devoted to their daily toil of business, than 
 the power of reaching sea-bathing, in a cheap and moderate ride of 
 but two hours. There to eat a meal, or spend a night, and return 
 home " with nerves new braced, and sinews firmer strung !" Such a 
 place is Coney Island, having a dashing surf, and good house of ade- 
 quate entertainment. If its worth is duly appreciated as a means of 
 refreshing and invigorating the city population, it will be deemed an 
 invaluable acquisition ! 
 
 Though but a looker-on in New York, like others, of " no particu- 
 lar business," I nevertheless felt myself occasionally cliarged with 
 
 ^ She died in February, 1829. 
 
My Reflections and Notices, 
 
 77 
 
 every body*s concerns, and thought myself not unlike Knickerbocker 
 himself — a mysterious gentleman " very inquisitive, continually poking 
 about town and prying into every thing," — seizing when he could, 
 facts " trembling on the lips of narrative old age," just as they were 
 " dropping piece meal into the tomb." With the best intentions to be 
 unintrusive and civil, a quid nunc must sometimes traverse gruff na- 
 tures, who having no feelings in sympathy with the subjects, feel fret- 
 ted by the kindest questions. They are indeed rare occurrences ; and 
 when happening, are more likely to afford amusement to the calm in- 
 quirer than to vex him. I could tell anecdotes of some such occasional 
 incidents, but one may here suffice. 
 
 Passing along a certain street and seeing the house which had been 
 occupied as the primitive Methodist meeting — now a small store, 1 
 concluded to stop in and inquire whether any facts concerning its 
 early days, had ever been spoken of it in their presence. I took for 
 granted that the inmate was a New Yorker ; — but I was no sooner en- 
 tered than I perceived it was occupied by a debonair foreigner, who, 
 with much vivacity and seeming politeness, was already on the ap- 
 proach from a back apartment. It struck me instantly, as an affair 
 7nal apropos on both sides ! For I could readily read in his face that 
 he expected in me a guest by whom to make his profit. It was not 
 perhaps to the credit of the gentleman that I should, beforehand, con- 
 ceive that he would revolt at any question about " a Methodist meet- 
 ing," let me put it in what form of gentleness I Avould : But it was so. 
 I had no sooner, in set words of intended brevity, told the objects of 
 my stepping-in, than I perceived " the hectic of the moment" mant- 
 ling his cheeks ; and I began to think if 1 could only preserve my self- 
 possession, I might see the enactment of " Monsieur Tonson" himself! 
 His first replication was — "my God saire ! what have I to do wid de 
 Metodiste meeting !"— Excuse me, sir, I replied, that is what I cannot 
 answer, because, I came to ask you what you had ever heard of this 
 house. " Why saire, what have you to do wid dis house ?" Very 
 much, sir, as a matter of curiosity ; for here it was said, was cradled 
 a religious people now the strongest in numerical force in the United 
 States ! " Ah saire, dat is noting to me— I am no Metodiste !" Oh, 
 sir, replied I, I am satisfied of that. " Then saire, wat do you want ?" 
 I told you that at first, sir, when I introduced myself and subject. " I 
 have no interest in the subject," said he. So I perceive, said I, and I 
 am only sorry I have engaged so much of your time to so little mu- 
 tual benefit. 
 
73 
 
 My Reflections and Notices. 
 
 Perceiving him so tempest tost, on so small a subject— all " to waft 
 a featlier, or to drown a fly !" I constrained him to hear me a little 
 longer, while I should tell him a little of the primitive history of the 
 house, under the plausible kindness of enabling him to give more di- 
 rect answers to future enquirers, if ever again questioned concerning 
 his notable place. His nervous impatience, in the mean time, was 
 apparent enough, but he had to bear it, for it was impossible to quarrel 
 w ith my gentleness and urbanity ; and he could not but be half-afraid 
 his troubler " was lunatic and sore vexed," as one too often visiting 
 
 the glimpses of the moon !" We parted with mutual bows and civi- 
 lities, and both " preserved our honors !" 
 
 As I had looked in vain for any thing like primitive remains of 
 "Oranje Boven" in the Dutch churches of New York, I would fain 
 have followed Knickerbocker himself to their " last hold " at Commu- 
 nipaw^'-a. name itself sufficiently sounding and mysterious to invite a 
 stranger to an infection and exploration,— to learn, if he could, what, 
 it means and what it exhibits. Its allurement, to me, would have been 
 to catch there a living picture of those characteristics appropriated to 
 it by its comic historian, saying, " it is still one of the fastnesses 
 whither the primitive manners of our Dutch forefathers have retreated 
 and still are cherished with devout affection." The pleasure of a vi- 
 sit to such a place, I w^as not favored to indulge ; but if it answers the 
 description, it is the spot which the sons of Oranje Boven, should spe- 
 cially consecrate to Dutch memory, by holding there their occasional 
 festivals in rude simplicity ;— reviving there the recollection of their 
 ancestors by crowning their festive boards with the very diet in kind, 
 which they once prized,— such as Suppawn and Malk, Hoof Kaas, 
 Zult, Hokkies en Poetyes, Kool Slaa, Roltetje, Worst, Gofruyt Pens, 
 &c. &c. 
 
 0= The original JSISS. book, from which the preceding notices of JSTew York 
 have been taken, has been given to the Historical Society of that place. Among 
 a few of its articles omitted in the present print, was the form and manner of 
 the queries usually submitted, or explained in substance, to the aged, as a means 
 of eliciti7ig the information required. It may be usefully consulted by those 
 who may desire further to pursue the subject. 
 
I