,1AMRS LYNE'S SURVEY OK, AS IT IS MORE COMMONLY KNOWN ■) I ili BRADFORD MAP lEx iCtbrtfi SEYMOUR DURST "When you leave, please leave this book Because it has been said "Ever'thing comes (' him who waits E-xcept a loaned book." OF THIS BOOK THERE HAVE BEEN PRINTED THIRTY-TWO COPIES ON IMPERIAL JAPAN PAPER AND ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY COPIES ON HOLLAND PAPER JAMES LYNE'S SURVEY OR, AS IT IS MORE COMMONLY KNOWN THE BRADFORD MAP FACSIMILE OF THE BRADFORD MAP ONE-HALF THE SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL JAMES LYNE'S SURVEY OR, AS IT IS MORE COMMONLY KNOWN THE BRADFORD MAP A PLAN OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK AT THE TIME OF THE GRANTING OF THE MONTGOMERY CHARTER IN 1 73 1 AN APPENDIX TO AN ACCOUNT OF THE SAME COMPILED IN 1893 BY William Loring Andrews t J J 0 m C I VIT ATI ^^§\ W z 0 < 3 •I DV^og NEW YORK DODD, MEAD & COMPANY M D C C C C COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY WILLUM LORING ANDREWS tf)at man map ftecp." ILLUSTRATIONS Facsimiles, by the Bierstadt process, of the original Bradford Map ; of the copy which appears in David T. Valentine's History of New York (1853), reduced one half in size; and of the original Duyckinck Map in the possession of the New York Historical So- ciety, reduced from its original size of jy/z X 18 inches to 11x6. THE BRADFORD MAP APlan o&,the City of New York from an adlual Survey S^T,\fi / . '^^ ' ■ ' . . M&de by lames Vt** FACSIMILE OF A SPECIMEN LITHOGRAPHIC COPY OF THE BRADFORD MAI" ONE-HALF THE SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL THE BRADFORD MAP A PLAN OF THE CITY OF [l^ew York from an actual survey made by JJl(MES LYNE and printed and published by AN APPENDIX TO AN ACCOUNT OF THE SAME COMPILED AND PUB- LISHED IN 1893 BY THE AUTHOR OF THIS MONOGRAPH through the world, some malev- olent fairy appears to bestow upon it the seven-leagued boots of Le Petit Poucet, equipped with which it makes such rapid strides HEN a full-fledged and lusty error sets forth upon its journey 3 THE BRADFORD MAP that sober-minded and slower- paced truth is seldom, if ever, able to overtake it. This deplor- able fact is well exemplified by the singularly persistent repeti- tion of erroneous statements in regard to the first map of this City (printed in New York) which is known to exist. This map, the historical and top- ographical importance of which is shown by the fact that scarcely any account of our City has ever been written that does not re- fer to, or reproduce it, was pub- lished, probably in 1731, by New York's first established printer, William Bradford,'^ from a sur- *Also a bookbinder and paper maker, as is shown by the advertisement in his "Gazette": " Printed and sold by William Bradford in New York, where advertisements are taken in, and where you may 4 THE BRADFORD MAP vey made by James Lyne. Only two impressions from the orig- inal copper-plate of this engrav- ing are known, one in the pos- session of the writer, and the other in the New York His- torical Society, presented to it in 1807 by John Pintard,* an have old books, new Bound, either Plain or Gilt, and Money for Linen Rags." Bradford did not, how- ever, enjoy a bibliopegic monopoly in the infant city and among its scant 9,000 inhabitants, Joseph Johnson likewise advertises (September, 1 734) that he " is now set up Bookbinding for himself as formerly, and lives in Duke St. (commonly called Bayard St.) near the Old Slip Market ; where all Persons in Town and Country, may have their Books carefully and neatly Bound either Plain or Gilt, reasonable." William Bradford and Joseph Johnson would appear therefore to divide between them the honor of intro- ducing amongst us the art of Bookbinding. *Of Huguenot descent, born in New York City, May 18, 175Q, died there June 2 1 , 1844. On the ar- rival of the British troops in New York he left Prince- ton College and joined the patriot forces, but re- turned in time to receive his degree in 1776. Atter peace had been declared he turned his attention to 5 THE BRADFORD MAP eminent merchant and public- spirited citizen of New York, who died in 1844, aged eighty- five years. The testimony of one whose memory extended so far back into pre-revoiutionary times would appear to be entitled to considerable weight. the shipping business. He was one of the incorpo- rators, in 1819, of the first savings bank that was established in New York City — the Bank for Savings, now at the corner of Fourth Avenue and Twenty- second Street — serving as its third president from 1828 to 1841. From 1819 until 1829 he was secre- tary of the New York Chamber of Commerce. He was treasurer of the Sailors' Snug Harbor in 1819-23. In 1804 he was active in founding the New York Historical Society, to which he presented many valu- able works on Colonial history, and he was likewise instrumental in establishing the Massachusetts His- torical Society in 1791, winning the title of " father of historical societies in this country." Mr. Pintard was also active in the foundation of the American Bible Society, served as its secretary, and then as its vice-president, and was the first sagamore of the Tammany Society. — Appleton's Cyclopjedia of Amer- ican Biography. The following notice in Bradford's New York "Gazette" for January is, 1730, presumably relates 6 THE BRADFORD MAP The following note, endorsed upon the copy of c// Plan of the City of]^EW York from an actual Survey Made by James Lyne, in the New York Historical So- ciety, is signed by Mr. Pintard : "Col. Lurting {whose name appears in the shield in the upper right-hand corner of the Map) was appointed Mayor, Sept. 29, 1726, O. S. (old style.) He died July 23, 1735, O.S. This plan therefore was taken between these periods— presumed from tradition in 17^0." to an ancestor of the donor to the New York Histori- cal Society of the Bradford Map : ''All persons that have any demands on John Pintard and the Estate of Capt. John Searle (his brother-in-law) deceas'd are desired to bring in their Accompts : and all those who are Indebted to them are desired to pay the Ballance to said Pintard to save further Trouble. Also the Utensils in the Rope-walk are to be sold , and sundry Ship Chandlery Wares." 7 THE BRADFORD MAP " Gov Montgomerie arrived April 15, 1728. Died July 1, 1731." Now, with this statement made in 1807 by John Pintard, before their eyes, why should the copyists guess at the date of 1728 ? At the same time (1807) that Mr. Pintard presented this original engraving of the Brad- ford Map to the Society of which he was the originator and founder, he also donated it "A Plan of the City of New York from an actual Survey Anno Domini MDCCLy. By F. Maerschalck, City Survey^ Printed, Engraved For and Sold by G. Duyckinck and dedicated by him to the Honourable James De Lancey Esq"^ Lieutenant Gov- ernor and Commander in Chief, 8 APlan oFtheC ity of New York from a^%a(ftual Survey ^\nno Domini M.DCQlV FACSIMILE OF THE DUYCKINCK MAP ONE-THIRD THE SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL I THE BRADFORD MAP In and over the Province of New York and Territories De- pending thereon In America." This map is of even greater rarity than the Bradford Map, as one of the two copies known is in a very imperfect condition. The left-hand portion of the Duyckinck, resembles the Brad- ford Map so closely in size and in the style of the engraving that it is not a wild conjecture that Gerardus Duyckinck, limner and picture-dealer at the sign of the Two Cupids near the Old Slip Market — (the same Gerardus Duyckinck, I imagine, who sup- plied the Coats of Arms, "curi- ously burnt in glass," of the elders and magistrates of the old Gar- den Street Church, which adorned 9 THE BRADFORD MAP the small panes, set in lead, of the windows of that sacred edifice) — may have obtained possession of Bradford's copper-plate, pieced it out, and thus on the ruins of the Bradford Map constructed his own. This appears to have been a favorite contrivance of these early engravers, for the Burgis copper-plates of New York City and Harvard College were, we know, thus manipulated. In 1834, twenty-seven years after the gift of Mr. Pintard to the Historical Society was made, the Bradford Map was, apparently, for the first time, reproduced by lithography, but not with exact- ness, and a date, 1728, for which there is no authority whatever, was added. The sins of both 10 THE BRADFORD MAP omission and commission are to be laid at the door of the draughtsman of the tracing by means of which the first copy was necessarily made, as pho- tography was not then in use. The words " Ledge of Rocks, " which appear in the original, are omitted in the copies. The fif- teen boats and ships displayed in the original are reduced to ten, and the height of the copies is about three-quarters of an inch less than that of the original. There are other characteristics — the eighteenth-century paper and the delicate copper-plate effects which mark the original map, and some minor points besides those mentioned — in which it differs from the copies ; THE BRADFORD MAP for instance, several of the letters in the inscription on the scroll below the City Arms, which are sharp and clear in the original, are, in many of the copies, ob- literated by the shading to such an extent that the words can- not be deciphered; and even in the plan of the streets there are slight discrepancies, but a simple statement that a so-called Brad- ford Map bears a date is suffi- cient of itself to condemn it as an original impression and brand it as a copy. These counterfeits are scattered broad-cast through the land in public and private libraries where they are re- garded with implicit confidence as genuine impressions from the original Bradford Map copper- 12 THE BRADFORD MAP plate, and proudly displayed as such. Following with a blind and simple faith, this reproduction of 1834, various other copies of this noted Survey of James Lyne have been made, from time to time, and nearly every writer upon our local history, who has pictorially embellished his work, has in- serted in it a facsimile of a litho- graphic map, purporting to have been made in 1728 (regardless of the fact that the art of lithogra- phy was not invented by Alois Senefelder of Munich until 1792, and not introduced into this country until about the year 18 1 9), and presented it to his readers as a true and faithful re- production of William Bradford's '3 THE BRADFORD MAP copper-plate. It has remained, however, for Mr. John Fiske to go farther and fare worse in this matter than the historians who have preceded him, inasmuch as he essays to be more explanatory of the situation by suggesting that there may have been differ- ent states of the original Map. Referring in his table of con- tents to the map, which appears in Vol. 11, page 258, of his work, Mr, Fiske writes : "James Lyne's Map of New York in 1728. — From an original kindly lent by General James Grant Wilson. 1 am informed by Mr. Wilberforce Fames that Mr. W. L. Andrews has an origi- nal without the date, which cor- roborates a suspicion that the 14 THE BRADFORD MAP date 1728 may have been absent from the map as first issued. Montgomerie's Ward, which ap- pears on the map, was not cre- ated until 1731." (A fact to which the writer of this article believes he was the first to draw attention as one evidence of the incorrect- ness of the date of 1728 attached to the copies of the map.) Turning to the map on page 258 of Vol. 11 of Mr. Fiske's book, 1 found a reduced copy of the lithograph with the date 1 728, which has masqueraded on so many previous occasions as the original Bradford Map. This was as 1 expected, as 1 knew that General Wilson did not have, and 1 did not believe he would claim to have (which he writes "5 THE BRADFORD MAP me he does not), an impression of the map from the original cop- per-plate of William Bradford. 1, thereupon, wrote Mr. Fiske a note to the following effect: " Dear Sir: " In the table of contents of your book 'The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America,' you state that the map, which appears at page 258 of Vol. II, is a copy of an ' original ' loaned you by General Wilson, and you refer to one which you were in- formed by Mr. Eames of the Lenox Library was in my pos- session, which bore no date, from which circumstance you surmise that there may have been two states of the original 16 THE BRADFORD MAP James Lyne or (as it is better known) the Bradford Map. You apparently were not aware that there are other considerable dif- ferences between the map in my possession and the copy you re- produce besides the absence of a date. I have found by experi- ence that copies never follow faithfully the originals and there is always a * tell-tale ' some- where. "This statement over your name, if erroneous, as 1 think you will find upon investigation that it is, is calculated to do much harm, as it will aid book and print dealers to either wit- tingly or ignorantly deceive their customers with the numerous copies of the Bradford Map that '7 THE BRADFORD MAP are in circulation from the litho- graph made by George Hay- ward* in 1834 down to the re- productions of recent times, printed and published by the hundred for advertisement and other purposes. These have lit- tle value, but they are being con- tinually palmed off upon the public as genuine impressions from the original copper-plate of William Bradford, at all sorts of prices. This statement in your ♦The inscription at the foot of this lithographic copy, which I judge to be the first one made, reads thus: "Facsimile of an original map in the pos- session of G. B. Smith, Street Commissioner. Pub'd by G. Hayward, Lithographer, No. 1 Cortlandt St., New Yortt, 1834." The next facsimiles issued are probably the ones in Valentine's Manuals for 1842-5, 1844-45, 3nd in his history (1853), and then we have one published by F. B. Patterson, 61 Liberty Street (1874). How many others may have preceded this, or followed it, it is impossible for me to say. 18 THE BRADFORD MAP book will be a service to print sellers which 1 am sure that, aware of its incorrectness, you would not desire to render. " I would have been glad to have shown you an original Brad- ford Map, one of the two copies known, and you would not then have been led astray by this old deception, which has been again and again exposed, but which writers upon our local history cling to so tenaciously, as though they loved and could not bear to part with the pleasing delusion." To this note, written several weeks ago, Mr. Fiske has so far made no reply. If it did not mis- carry in the mails and Mr. Fiske received my communication, he has seen fit to answer it only by "9 THE BRADFORD MAP a silence which we are told is sometimes more eloquent than words. A reduced facsimile of one of these copies of the Bradford Map, similar to the one in Mr. Fiske's book, appears in General Wil- son's "Memorial History of the City of New York," Vol. II, page 185, and is described in a foot- note as a complete copy of the map as it was printed by Brad- ford in 1728. 1 trust that, for the sake of historical truth and accu- racy. General Wilson will correct this foot-note in future editions of his "Memorial History," and replace his reproduction of the copy with the imaginary date of 1728 with a facsimile of the true and genuine, although some- 20 THE BRADFORD MAP what tattered and torn, engraving of the Bradford Map, which has lain open to inspection in the New York Historical Society for nearly a century, and made it all these long years quite as easy to be in the right as in the wrong in this matter. The reports which come at in- tervals from north, south, east and west, of the finding of origi- nal Bradford Maps, have in them an element of ludicrousness to any one familiar with the exces- sive rarity of engravings executed in this country at the period to which the map belongs and the poverty of the arts at that distant time. 1 have been searching dili- gently for early American prints for more than thirty years, and 1 THE BRADFORD MAP venture to make the assertion that not more than three or four impressions exist of any American engraving executed prior to the middle of the last century. Of the " Prospect of the Colledges in Cambridge in New England," produced by William Burgis in 1726, the copy in the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society discovered not many years ago, is the only one known to exist. Of the re-impression of this plate, issued in 1739 or 1740, 1 have a perfect impres- sion, with the exception of the title, and 1 know of no other in as fair a state of preservation. The copy in Harvard College is in a very damaged condition (un- less they have found another 22 THE BRADFORD MAP within the last few years), and the one in the Massachusetts Histori- cal Society is thus described by the custodian of that institution : "So discolored by time that por- tions of it are almost indistin- guishable, and the panel upon which it was pasted had also be- come much warped and cracked." Of the "View of the City of New York in 1717," by William Burgis (the most important and interesting of the early pictures of our city), there is but the one solitary copy owned by the New York Historical Society, and but two of the impressions from the same plate, issued in 1746, are known — one in the above-named institution and one in the New York Society Library. 23 THE BRADFORD MAP Of the "Northwest Prospect of "Nassau Hall in New Jersey " (Princeton College), engraved by H. Dawkins, 1764 (?), the Col- lege has only, 1 am told, an im- perfect copy, and 1 can learn of but two others (besides my own), as to the state of preservation of which, 1 am not clearly informed. Of the Burgis engraving of the " New Dutch Church "* (corner *The "New Dutch Church." Why so called is thus stated by the Rev. Dr. Dewitt in a discourse deliv- ered in the North Reformed Dutch Church (corner of William and Fulton Streets) on the last Sabbath in August, 1856, one of the illustrations in which is a '' facsimile on a reduced scale of a print of the old Middle Dutch Church in its original state as first built, executed in 1751." The old church in the fort had become incon- veniently located, was beginning to decay, and the popularity of Dom Selyns called for more spacious accommodations. Tradition says that a diversity of opinions existed as to the site to be selected, a por- tion of the congregation contending that the spot afterwards chosen was too far out of town. The 24 THE BRADFORD MAP of Nassau and Liberty Streets) dedicated to the Honourable Rip Van Dam, Esq., which was exe- cuted probably about the year 1732, only one copy is positively known to exist, and the same may be said of "A View of deed conveying the site is dated in 1690, and defines it as being in Garden Street (Exchange Place), and adjacent to the orchard belonging to Elizabeth Dris- ius, the widow of Dominie Drisius. 1 find an ac- count of the expenses of the church, audited in 169s, which amounted to 64,178 guilders, or $27,- 671 of our money. ... It was opened for divine service in 1693 before it was thoroughly fin- ished. . . This house continued the only home of worship for our Dutch ancestors till the building of another at the corner of Nassau and Liberty Streets. After the erection of the church in Nassau Street the church in Garden Street took the name of Old, and in Nassau Street that of the New ; and when the church at the corner of Fulton and William Streets was erected it took the name of the North, when the Garden Street Church was desig- nated as the South, and the Nassau Street as the Middle. The terms old and new, however, contin- ued to be applied to the two latter for a long time subsequent." 25 THE BRADFORD MAP Castle William by Boston in New England," which was prob- ably engraved by William Burgis at about the same period. It is natural to presume that these artists executed other engravings besides those we know, which 1 have enumerated, not a vestige of which, apparently, remains. There is a vague but fondly-cher- ished legend that another copy of the engraving of the "New Dutch Church " exists some- where down in the wilds of Long Island and will some day come to the New York Historical So- ciety, but for at least twenty-five years to my own knowledge it has been a case of the " hope de- ferred that maketh the heart sick." 26 THE BRADFORD MAP These engravings are the incu- nabula of chalcography in these United States, and not even the German xylographic prints of the fifteenth century excel them in point of rarity. The woodcut of St. Christopher with the date of 1423, unearthed in a convent fifty miles from the old Roman town of Augsburg in Bavaria, and Bur- gis's copper-plate engraving of the " Middle Dutch Church in New York," executed more than three hundred years later, meet on equal terms in this respect, and may salute each other as fellow-members of a very limited and exclusive circle. We are not confronted with the same conditions with the en- gravings above named as those 27 THE BRADFORD MAP which exist in the case of the Bradford Map, owing to the for- tunate circumstance that no cop- ies of the same size, or even ap- proximately so, as far as I am aware, were ever made ; other- wise we should be bothered in just the same way. To point out to others their mistakes, is not an agreeable task, but 1 could not see this er- roneous statement in regard to the Bradford Map receive a new endorsement and be given a fresh impulse, and a still wider currency than it now enjoys, without uttering a word of pro- test. A well-sponsored error possesses the gift of continuance in a superlative degree, and should be combated and refuted 28 THE BRADFORD MAP at every opportunity. Once planted, either by accident or de- sign, it propagates itself and is more difficult to eradicate from the minds of men than is that pest, the Canadian thistle, from the field of the husbandman. There are not a few histories, so styled, that might with con- siderable propriety be catalogued with works of fiction, and for that matter the amount of trust- worthy information which any historian succeeds in corralling within the covers of his book is an open question. To the er- rors of former writers which he repeats, the latest chronicler adds the coloring of his own fancy, and he is never entirely free from the bias of his natural 29 THE BRADFORD MAP prejudices and predilections. An historic character in the eyes of one writer may be a god-like hero, in those of another, a vil- lain of the deepest dye, but when we look upon an engraving of a locality we are justified in believ- ing that it tells the truth. It may be hampered in its expression by lack of skill, but the artist de- picted that which came within the range of his own vision and so his picture comes down to us as the testimony of an eye wit- ness, and it should not be per- verted, either through careless- ness or by design. POSTSCRIPT THE following is a partial list, chronologically ar- ranged, of the copies of the Bradford Map which have been published from time to time during the last fifty or sixty years. It would be difficult, if not impossible, to trace them all, including those which have been used for advertisement purposes, and which may have been either reimpressions from one of the early lithographic stones or pho- /o-lithographic copies, and I have not undertaken the task. The market value of these cop- ies ranges from fifty cents to five 51 POSTSCRIPT dollars, with naturally an upward tendency in price in sympathy with the recent rapid enhance- ment in the value of all maps, prints and books relating to the History of the City of New York. For an impression from the original copper-plate of William Bradford an offer of twenty-five hundred dollars has been several times declined. The copies all bear the same caption, viz. : " A Plan of the City of New York from an Actual Sur- vey, Made by James Lyne." They are the same in width, namely : 22 inches, but only 17 instead of 17^ inches in height, as is the original. No. I. Inscription at foot of Map: "Facsimile of an original 32 POSTSCRIPT Map in the possession of G. B. Smith, Street Commissioner. Pub"^ by G. Hayward, Lithogra- pher, No. I Cortlandt Street, New York, 1834." This is appar- ently the first copy made of the original Map and it is the most accurate and the most carefully executed. A copy of this facsimile was made by order of the Corpora- tion of the City of New York, to accompany a report on the Great Pier of the Committee on Docks in 1836. Hay ward's address on this copy is changed to 48 Nas- sau Street. No. 2. Inscription the same as on No. I, except that the ad- dress, "No. I Cortlandt Street, New York, 1834," is erased. 33 POSTSCRIPT This facsimile appears in Val- entine's Manual for 1842-4}. It is printed upon thin white paper. No. 3. Inscription the same as on No. 2. This facsimile appears in Valentine's Manual for 1844-45. It is printed upon what is virtu- ally a tissue paper of a more deli- cate texture even than the paper of No. 2. No. 4. Inscription the same as on Nos. 2 and 3 except that the word "Pub'"" is omitted. It is printed on blue paper and appears in Valentine's Manual for 1851. This would appear by com- parison to be the particular fac- simile which was copied by Gen- eral Wilson in his "Memorial History of the City of New York," and by Mr. Fiske in his " Dutch 34 POSTSCRIPT and Quaker Colonies in America. " The copy of this facsimile for- merly owned by General Wilson is backed with brown paper, and is now among the reproductions of the Bradford Map which are being collected by the Lenox Library in its Map Department. "No. 5. Inscription: "Printed for D. T. Valentine's History of New York, 1853, by Geo. Hayward, 120 Water Street, New York." No. 6. Inscription: " Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1871, by Orrin Vander- hoven in the office of the librarian of Congress at Washington. NEW YORK CITY as it was in 1728. A Fac-simile of the first Official map of New York City (in 1728) showing the extent of 35 POSTSCRIPT the City at that date. A curious and valuable Relic when com- pared with the Great Metropolis of the present day." No. 7. Inscription: "Fac-simile of an original map of "New York in 1728. Published by F. B. Pat- terson, 61 Liberty Street, 1874." Undated copy. Inscription: 1728 "Ch Magnus Lith Est— Fac- simile of an original map made 1728. Reprinted by John Slater, Bookseller No. 204 Chatham Square New York." * This is a colored lithograph (the various wards being tinted *This is the facsimile, very much reduced, which was copied by Benson J. Lossing in his History of New York. 36 POSTSCRIPT blue, green, red and yellow), and it is therefore not a dangerous counterfeit. John Slater the pub- lisher is said to have begun busi- ness in 1838, and to have died in 1857. The Histories of New York by Benson J. Lossing, William Dun- lap and Mrs. Martha J. Lamb are embellished with copies of James Lyne's Survey on a much reduced scale and the two last named are without the full inscription. A small section of the map is also displayed by A. J. Weise in his "Discoveries of America." Jus- tin Winsor, in his ''Narrative and Critical History of America , ' ' does not include among his illus- trations a copy of the map, but he refers to it on p. 253, Vol. V, 37 POSTSCRIPT and mentions, among other fac- similes, one which the writer has never seen, published by W. W. Cox of Washington (D. C). This would make nine reproduc- tions of approximately the same size as the original Bradford Map that we are now able to place on record. FINIS