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The Passing of
New Amsterdam
AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY
Prof. WILLIAM ROBERT SHEPHERD
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

/

The Passing of
New Amsterdam

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED BY
Prof. WILLIAM ROBERT SHEPHERD
OF COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
BEFORE THE
Society of Colonial Wars
IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK
ON
MARCH 18, 1912

m P

PUBLICATION NUMBER 21
Under the Authority of the Council by
THE COMMITTEE ON HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
AND THE SECRETARY
NOVEMBER, 1912

THE PASSING QF NEW AMSTERDAM
A paper read before the Society by Professor William
Robert Shepherd of Columbia University on March 18, 1912.
In tracing the fortunes of the Dutch community on the
southern tip of Manhattan from its foundation to its merg
ing into English New York two forces of development are
perceptible. Of these, one strove to distinguish the city of
New Amsterdam clearly from the province of New Nether-
land; the other labored to emphasize the characteristics of
moral and material progress that betokened such individu
alism and justified its maintenance. Local self-improvement
and local self-government, therefore — so essential to the
welfare of a city — may be said to have dominated the
history of New Amsterdam as factors molding the action
of its magistrates.
A topographical survey of the community just before
it fell under English rule shows that the habit of crowd
ing together for various reasons had retarded its geographical
extension; and in particular the barrier formed by Wall
Street not only had kept out the Indians and possible
enemies from New England, but also had kept in the city on
its northern line. In fact, the town as such did not grow
beyond this rampart so long as it remained New Amsterdam.
On the south Manhattan is now much broader than during
the period of the Dutch occupation, for many of the mUd
flats then in existence have been filled in and on them
streets laid out, as, for example, Water Street. A great part
of the Battery has been similarly reclaimed from the tides;
From the so-called "Marckvelt" or Marketfield — "plaine," or
the later Bowling Green — in front of the fort, where markets,
fairs and festivities were often held, a road to the west of
the city ran up a rather thinly populated hill. As it was
the principal highway by which one could leave the city
through the "Land-Gate" at the western end of Wall Street,
it had the name of de Heeren Straat, or Weg or the Gentle
men Street, and still retains its prominence as Broadway.

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
From the "Marckvelt" eastward was a thoroughfare known
as the "Marckvelt Steegie," the present Marketfield Street,
leading to the Heer Graacht or Broad Street. Near the
corner of the present Broad and Bridge Streets on Friday
mornings the Dutch and English merchants transacted their
business in the first exchange thus founded in Manhattan.
Here the centre of trade has not shifted in more than two
centuries and a half, and the various huge exchanges are
still in the neighborhood of their Dutch prototypes.
The thoroughfare behind Fort Amsterdam, then ex
tending properly from State Street to Whitehall Street, was
the oldest and apparently the most populous on the island
and still keeps its Dutch name of Pearl Street, however
anglicized its mode of spelling. In the rear of the city hall
ran a highway known to-day by its English equivalent of
High Street, from a bridge over the outlet of the Broad
Street canal, along the East River to the Water Gate at
the junction of Pearl and Wall Streets, where one might
leave the city on its eastern side. On High Street were
located the residences of the fashionable folk of New
Amsterdam. From the Water Gate the main road crossed the present
Roosevelt Street, then a stream called the "Old Kill" by the
famous "Kissing Bridge." "Here," says an English clergy
man of the eighteenth century, "it was customary before
passing beyond to salute the lady who is your companion."
On his own behalf he ingenuously admitted that he found
the practice "curious, yet not displeasing!" At this juncture
it might be interesting to pause a moment and reflect upon
the possible origin of this particular element in the social
amenities of New Amsterdam. Perhaps as a testimonial
to the improvement in educational facilities in the city the
artful youth of the time may have desired to impress his
knowledge of grammar upon the shy maiden at his side.
Thereupon he might explain to her that since bridges and
kisses are both a sort of conjunction, it might be allowable

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
for those who crossed the bridge to span the stream of
conventional propriety just this once, as the bridge itself
spanned the stream of Roosevelt Street. Whatever may
have been the influence exercised by this logic, the practice
seems to have been so much appreciated by the young
men of the period — and possibly also by the young women —
that at several other bridges on Manhattan, ordinarily free to
cross, it became the rule to collect toll of this description.
Somewhat north of the celebrated bridge in question
the road ascended a hill so steep that a roundabout way
had to be devised, and the loop made in the attempt to find
a better grade still exists in Chatham Square. Wending our
path still further north we come to the "bouwerie" or farm
and country residence of Director Stuyvesant, located roughly
between Third Avenue and the East River, Sixth and Six
teenth Streets, from which an international thoroughfare
of great renown derives its name. The house itself stood
near the corner of Twelfth Street and Third Avenue. It
formed the nucleus of Bowery Village.
Considerably to the north of Stuyvesant's "bouwerie"
lay another settlement, which in the twentieth century at
least has become of prime importance, whatever may have
been its standing in the seventeenth. Situated generally
north of a line stretching from the present Eighth Avenue
and 112th Street to the East River at 100th Street were
broad, moist and fertile meadows called by the Dutch "The
Flats." On account of an apparent similarity to their own
well-watered lowlands at home, Dutch settlers had established
themselves there quite early. So large comparatively did
the number become that in 1658 the director and council
decided to promote agriculture and at the same time to
provide a "place of amusement for the burghers of New
Amsterdam," by elevating the settlement to the dignity of
a village. The selection of a name gave rise to a small tempest.
Every resident Dutchman naturally wanted it to be called

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
after his own native town. The gratification of all these
desires would probably1 have stunted the growth of the
incipient village by the mere weight of names ; hence
Stuyvesant found it expedient to intervene and, having
ascertained that none of the settlers had come from Haarlem,
prevented any feelings of jealousy by naming the place
New Haarlem. Wide privileges were thereupon offered to
any newcomers and a good road was promised to facilitate
transit between that village and New Amsterdam "on horse
back or in a wagon." Thus early did the problem of rapid
transit to Harlem cast its shadows. Further inducements
to settle were offered in the shape of a ferry to Long
Island, the organization of a court and the appointment of
"a good orthodox clergyman as soon as the village should
have a population of twenty-five families." Ere long a
little tavern rose on the banks of the Harlem River and
became a popular resort for pleasure parties from the city,
but just why it should be christened the "Wedding Place"
does not appear.
By 1660 New Haarlem contained the requisite number
of families and was accordingly vested with a separate
village government, composed of a deputy schout and three
schepens appointed by the magistrates of New Amsterdam
out of a double number presented by the retiring board and
subordinate, of course, to the municipal authorities. New
Haarlem thus reproduced some of the individualism of the
parent city and, in the progress of the centuries, like it in
name has come to spread over a much wider area. Yet in
the straw-thatched farmhouse on the flats of New Haarlem
we may hardly detect the prototype of the institution known
as the Harlem flat!
Continuing our study of New Amsterdam as a locality,
it may be said that the systematic improvement and regula
tion of the city in a physical sense date from 1655. The
wisdom of bettering the external appearance and facilities
of a municipal establishment that could boast a census of

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
120 houses and 1,000 inhabitants so impressed the burgo
masters and schepens that in November of that year they
had the city properly surveyed so as to locate city lots and
provided for a suitable .alignment of the city thoroughfares.
In addition to the alignment of the streets, the question
of paving them arose in 1657 and, as often is the case with
municipal improvements, the idea came from a woman, Mrs.
Oloff Stevensen Van Cortlandt, whose husband's brewery
and residence lay on Brouwer or Brewer Street, between the
present Whitehall and Broad Streets, and so named from
the several plants of the standard Dutch and German
industry located on it. It seems that the street in question
was so dusty that the worthy dame could not keep her house
clean; hence she ventilated the subject so vigorously among
her neighbors that they petitioned the burgomasters and
schepens to have the thoroughfare paved.
The work was assigned to a contractor, who laid down
a rude paving of cobblestones or the like, whereupon the
name of the street was changed to what it now bears, viz. :
Stone Street. The cost of the work thus undertaken by the
city at the request of the property owners was apportioned
among these persons, and thereby furnishes one of the first
examples of what is now a very common practice, namely,
that of levying a local assessment with, and even without,
the consent of the persons whose property is immediately
affected, for the special advantages derived from what are
really public improvements. Before 1661, presumably by a
resort to this method of special assessment, all of the streets
most in use had been paved with cobblestones. The gutters
lay in the middle of the street, which served as a highway
for man and beast alike, since sidewalks there were none.
A similar plan to effect public improvements is visible
in the resolution of the city magistrates about the same time
to check the tendency of the banks along the inlet running
through the centre of the present Broad Street to cave in,
by shoring them up with planks and charging the resultant

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
cost upon the owners of abutting property. The persons
concerned did not receive the idea kindly. They denounced
the proposed improvement as useless, extravagant and un
desirable; but they ingenuously remarked that, if it were to
be made at the expense of the city, it would greatly benefit
the public at large. The distinction does not seem to have
penetrated Stuyvesant, or if it did he evinced no sign, for
he had the natural canal widened to sixteen feet, its banks
properly strengthened and the roadway on each side of the
stream made twenty-eight feet in breadth, or in all seventy-
two feet, which is the average width of Broad Street to-day.
When some of the property holders wrathfully declined to
pay Stuyvesant simply locked them up until they cooled off
and changed their minds.
The wooden sidings and other betterments suggested
more of the same description; hence, in 1660, a city ordi
nance, after alluding to the advantages enjoyed by the im
mediate residents in having a landing place without the
expenses of a dock, prescribed that these favored individuals
should themselves pave the roadways on both banks of the
canal, otherwise the city would do it at their expense.
Furthermore, to keep the watery section of this important
highway for trade and commerce free from obstructions,
the throwing of any rubbish into it was strictly prohibited.
Some persons ventured to violate this ordinance, but when
prosecuted proved to the satisfaction of the magistrates that,
since the rubbish they had dumped into the canal was snow,
it probably would not interfere very much with navigation
and they were accordingly released.
The preservation of thoroughfares from nuisance, espe
cially that made by roving animals of the domestic sort, had
often indeed engaged the attention of the authorities, but the
measures hitherto taken to protect the roads of the city and
the walls of Fort Amsterdam against the destructive under
mining of that insidious leveller, the wandering pig, had
been so ineffective that the Director and Council ordered the

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
inhabitants in future to put rings through the noses of all
such miscreants.
One class of animals, however, obtained favorable con
sideration, namely, the cows belonging to the citizens of
New Amsterdam. Perhaps the possession of the exclusive
burgher-right by their owners may have suggested the
creation of a kind of bovine aristocracy as well. At any
rate, a tract of land near the Collect, or the Fresh Water —
the pond about Centre Street, hitherto used as a common
for pasturing cattle — was in 1660 fenced in and reserved for
the citizens' cows alone. One Gabriel Carpsey was their
herdsman and like his angelic namesake he carried a horn
which, to pursue the likeness still further, he blew in the
morning at the gates of the owners, collected his drove and
conducted it along Broadway through Pearl Street and
Maiden Lane to its exclusive pasture. In the evening the
procession wound slowly homeward from the lea and
Gabriel's trumpet announced the several arrivals at the
proper destinations.
The wooden siding along the banks of the watery
portion of Broad Street, erected at the expense of the
vicinage, was not the only structure of the kind. On account
of the necessity of protecting the shore in front of the city
hall and the houses of the inhabitants along Pearl Street
against the inroads of high tides from the East River, the
magistrates decided to have planks driven down and a
"schoeynge" or sheet piling thus made. It extended from
the foot of Broad Street to the city hall at Coenties Slip,
thence to the Water Gate at the corner of Pearl and Wall
Streets. The fine dry walk formed in this way was called
the "Waal" and is to be distinguished from Wall Street,
which ran nearly at right angles to it. Along this promenade
the young men and maidens of the city would take their
evening stroll, "watching the silver moonbeams as they
trembled on the calm bosom of the bay, or lit up the sail

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
of some gliding bark and peradventure interchanging the
soft vows of honest affection."
The proximity of Director Stuyvesant's new city resi
dence, moreover, on the corner of State and Whitehall
Streets to the promenade on the "Waal" might serve to
explain why he was occasionally to be found among the
strollers, not, however, of the peculiar type just described.
His official domicile in the fort had become so dilapidated
that in 1659 he erected the house in question out of hewn
white stone, which gave its name to the street. Gardens sur
rounded it on three sides and in front the lawn stretched
down to the water's edge.
In 1657 and 1658 salutary measures were adopted to
safeguard the persons and property of the citizens by calling
into existence the Dutch forerunners of the metropolitan
fire and police departments. The proximity of the wooden
houses with their thatched roofs and wooden chimneys to
equally inflammable haystacks caused the city authorities
to direct the removal of the latter to a safe distance, and
later they decided to levy a tax of one guilder on each
chimney, from the proceeds of which hooks and ladders
and leather fire buckets were to be purchased. In order
to avoid the delay and difficulty incident to the importation
of the buckets from the Netherlands, the magistrates re
solved to patronize home industry; hence they entrusted to
the shoemakers of New Amsterdam the contract of supply
ing the city with a suitable number. When completed, these
buckets were located "at the corners of the streets, in public
houses and in other places convenient of access." For
example, fifty were placed in the city hall at Coenties Slip,
twelve in a tavern near the corner of Broad and Pearl
Streets, and a like number in a private house in the Smit's
Vly near South William Street. This apparatus and the
supervision of the two fire wardens constituted the first
fire department on Manhattan. Some years later, when it
became known that certain rich people had a number of

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
fireplaces connected with the same chimney, thus causing the
incidence of taxation to fall unequally, the city government
ordered the assessment to be levied upon each fireplace
instead. More or less as an adjunct to the fire department, the
project of forming a "rattle watch" or police force had been
mooted as early as 1654 as a substitute for the volunteer
citizens' night watch or, in the words of the record: "by
consideration of the small accommodation and convenience
for the citizens' watch, and likewise because of the great
cost of fire and light for the same, making it burdensome
upon the citizens to sustain them during the winter."
At this time, however, no one seemed inclined to assume
the duty of springing a rattle to frighten off the midnight
marauder, of detecting the presence of fire or of calling out
the hours and simultaneously assuring the Dutchman who
sonorously slept them away that all was well. Not until
1658 did the magistrates feel emboldened to draw up a
set of regulations governing the organization and activity
of the first police force established on Manhattan. It was
composed of a captain and eight men. For the support
of this body the captain was authorized to collect fifteen
stivers a month from every household.
The rules and regulations will bear inspection, since they
reveal certain difficulties inherent in the management of
policemen, which indicate how truly the guardians of the
peace in New Amsterdam resembled their later counterparts
in New York. Penalties in the shape of fines — or to use the
common phraseology, days' pay — were imposed for many
familiar derelictions of duty; e. g., tardiness in arriving at
the "usual hour, to wit: before bell ring;" not coming in
person on the watch or, being occupied on reasonable busi
ness, not putting another in his place; arriving drunk on
the watch or committing any opposition or insolence "within
the square of the city hall" or in going the rounds; sleeping
or negligence on post, or failure to apprehend thieves, and

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
lying still when people call "Val Val," or being otherwise
disobedient. In the same category were placed: swearing, fighting
on the watch, unwillingness "to go around or in any way
lose a turn," and being off post without leave. On the other
hand, fines were levied on persons who might "challenge
any of the watch to come with him to fight" or threaten a
policeman to "beat him in the morning" when the watch was
dismissed, or fight him when on or off duty. The record
then adds significantly and prophetically: "Whatever any of
the watch shall get from any of the prisoners, whether lock
up money, present or other fee, . . . shall be brought
into the hands of the captain for the benefit of the fellow
watchmen and shall be there preserved until it be divided
around." . . . "All the fines which accrue, and the
profits, which in any wise shall be realized by insolence,
fault, neglect or otherwise, shall be divided four times a
year among the members of the watch . . . without
their holding any drinking meeting thereupon or keeping
any club."
This comparatively lucrative office of policeman called
for night duty from nine o'clock in the evening till drum
beat, approximately six o'clock in the morning, and was
awarded in addition to the perquisites just mentioned, with
a salary of eighteen guilders a month, besides extra allow
ances for candles and several hundred sticks of firewood.
Not until January, 1661, however, was the police depart
ment of New Amsterdam finally organized and the names
of the volunteer officers obtained. The names in question:
Captain Lodowyck Pos and Patrolmen Jan Cornelisen Vlens-
burgh, Hendrick Hendrickzen van Doesburgh, Cornelis Hen-
dricksen, Andries Andriesen, Cornelis Barensen, Pieter Jansen
van de Lange Straat, Pieter Jansen Werckendam and Mattys
Muller betokened a Dutch solidarity that little presaged the
predominantly Irish complexion of the New York policemen
of to-day. 10

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
Disquieting rumors from abroad and the rebellious be
havior of the English towns under Dutch jurisdiction on
Long Island caused Stuyvesant, in February, 1664, to call
a joint meeting of the Council, with the burgomasters and
schepens, as was his custom when about to consider matters
of great public moment. He then asked the advice of the
assembled body as to the feasibility of suppressing the insur
rection on Long Island and of fortifying Nev/ Amsterdam
against possible attacks from England or from the colonists
of that country beyond the Connecticut River. With justi
fiable pride the municipal magistrates declared that the city
adorned as it was "with so many noble buildings at the
expense of the good and faithful inhabitants . . . that
it nearly excels any other place in North America," should
be well fortified and its military force increased, thereby to
"install fear into any envious neighbors." But when the
governor asked for contributions to this end the burgo
masters and schepens displayed a spirit that, while it did
credit to their caution and thriftiness, did not reveal any
high degree of patriotism, any particular loyalty to their
native country.
Taking into account, however, the neglect shown by the
Dutch West India Company, and even by the Dutch govern
ment, to the colony in the new world, it is not so surprising
that the people whose real interests had been so persistently
ignored should be haggling over questions of expenditure,
procrastinating, and even acting quite indifferent as to the
outcome, provided only that their lives, property and privi
leges were to remain intact. In reply to the Director's re
quest for pecuniary aid the burgomasters and schepens
pleaded poverty and intimated that the company, through Stuy
vesant as its representative in New Netherland, ought to
furnish a few hundred soldiers and pay them from the
money it received in customs duties. The governor then
asked them to make some arrangement for the erection
of defensive palisades. To this the magistrates rejoined that
11

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
the company's negro slaves ought to be employed in cutting
and hauling them.
For an illustration of their real indifference as to
whether England or Holland had possession of New Nether
land, the following may be cited from the records : "We are
of opinion," said the city magistrates, "that the burgher is
not bound to dispute whether this be the King of England's
soil or their High Mightinesses, but if they (the English)
will deprive (us) of our properties, freedoms and privileges
(we are bound), to resist them with our lives and fortunes."
Such a statement must have seemed to a man of the mold
of Stuyvesant sordid and pusillanimous, if not indeed
treasonable. But he succeeded in keeping his temper and
proceeded to inquire rather sarcastically whether the city
militia would assume any share in the measures of defence.
The magistrates calmly observed that the burgher guard
might keep watch by night, but the company's soldiers in the
fort should mount guard by day.
Eventually the city's representatives did come to
the conclusion that fortifications in the shape of a stone wall
ought to be erected on the land side of Manhattan and pali
sades along the shores of both rivers. For this laudable
purpose they declared a loan should be raised on condition —
and here municipal individualism again emerged — that all
of the revenues from the excise be turned into the city
treasury. Under the circumstances the governor had to
yield and he accordingly surrendered the tax for a period
of five years within which the debt incurred by the city in
raising the loan must be paid off. He also stipulated that
the city should enlist a volunteer force of 200 men and
in addition provide for the maintenance of 160 regular
soldiers. Within a few days the sum of 27,500 guilders
was subscribed on the security of city property and the
proceeds from the excise. The burgomasters and schepens
did not stand alone in their attitude, since popular conven
tions summoned at their suggestion by Stuyvesant from
12

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
New Amsterdam and its vicinity to deliberate on the state
of the province declined to vote supplies or to sanction
the drafting of men until the Director could afford better
assurances that the Company would fulfil its share of the
obligations. Warned that an English expedition had sailed from
Portsmouth, presumably with hostile intent against New
Netherland, the burghers on Manhattan had thus begun to
prepare for defense when a letter came from the Company,
deceived by false information from London that the inhabi
tants of New Netherland need apprehend no danger, since
King Charles the Second had dispatched the squadron
merely to adjust certain matters in New England and to
establish there the Anglican faith. Stuyvesant thereupon
went to Fort Orange (Albany) on business, but he had
hardly arrived at his destination when the news that the
English expedition had been sighted off the Massachusetts
coast caused the provincial council to recall the Director in
haste. The schout, burgomasters and schepens then re
solved to ask the provincial government for twenty-five
negroes to labor eight days at the defensive works, beginning
with the next week. At the same time they ordered that
one-third of the inhabitants should work every third day
with a shovel, spade or wheelbarrow. They also approved
the mounting of a citizen guard every night and the parade '
of one company of the city militia daily at five o'clock, duly
supplied with one pound of powder and one and a half
pounds of lead. Finally, to insure the proper provisioning
of the city, they forbade the brewers to malt hard grain for
the space of eight days or to brew beer higher than twelve
guilders a ton. This done, they turned to the Director and
Council with a petition for eight more pieces of cannon,
besides the necessary appurtenances and ammunition, making
twenty-two in all to be placed upon the walls of Fort
Amsterdam. They also requested a supply of lead for
musket balls and expressed the opinion that the walls of
13

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
the city should be defended by the soldiers, the company's
servants and the burgher guard first, lest, if the city itself
be captured, the fort become thereby untenable. The Director
and Council granted the requests, but they were rather more
prolific in promise than in fulfilment regarding the matter
of powder. This was destined to be the last official com
munication between the provincial and municipal authorities.
The English squadron of four vessels, under the com
mand of Colonel Nicolls, anchored just below the Narrows,
between New Utrecht and Coney Island, on August 29,
1664. Affecting not to know its errand, Stuyvesant sent
a commission of four, viz. : one councillor, one burgo
master and two clergymen, to inquire the purpose of the
visit. On the next day the English commander dispatched
in reply four commissioners to demand the surrender "of
the town situate on the island and commonly known by the
name of Manhattoes." He accompanied the summons
with a proclamation assuring protection in person and prop
erty to all who would voluntarily submit. As fond of dis
play as ever, the Director received the English officers with
a salvo of artillery that appreciably lessened the scanty
stock of powder in the fort. After the communication had
been delivered Stuyvesant called a joint session of the
provincial and municipal authorities to consider the matter,
but he flatly refused to publish the terms offered lest the
people might insist upon surrendering. To a meeting of
citizens the burgomasters explained the demands of Nicolls.
The burghers forthwith called for a copy of the paper and
obtained it despite a flash of Stuyvesant's old demeanor
when he declared that he should not be held responsible for
the "calamitous consequences" of submitting to the popular
will. Again when Nicolls offered still more liberal terms
the Director communicated them to the Council and burgo
masters in the fort. The officials promptly advised that
the offer be made known to the people, since "all which
regarded the public welfare ought to be made public." At
14

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
first Stuyvesant tried to dissuade them from this opinion,
then finding them inflexible he burst into a rage and tore the
letter in pieces. Upon the receipt of this news the burghers
dropped their work on the fortifications, hurried down to
the fort and made a categorical demand for the letter. In
vain did Stuyvesant threaten and cajole. Complaints and
curses against the Company's misgovernment were mingled
with hoarse cries for the letter. To avoid insurrection the
Director was forced reluctantly to allow the secretary to
piece together the fragments and to make out a copy, which
he delivered to the burgomasters, who in turn read its
contents to the people.
Meanwhile Stuyvesant had sent to Nicolls a lengthy
statement of the Dutch rights, but the English officer and
his colleagues politely informed him that "they were not
come here to dispute about it, but to execute their order
and commission without fail, either peaceably or by force,
and if they had anything to dispute about it, it must be
done with His Majesty of England, as they could do nothing
here in the premises." Nicolls then began to prepare for
the bombardment of the fort. Two of the vessels landed
troops at Gravesend, who marched up to the Brooklyn shore,
where they effected a junction with colonial volunteers from
New England and the Long Island towns. The other ships
passed in front of the fort and anchored between it and
Governor's Island, with the decks cleared for action and
the guns shotted.
Standing at an angle of the fort the Dutch Director
scanned the movements of the enemy while an artilleryman
at his side held a lighted fuse ready to apply it at the word
of command. But the word never came, for just at this
moment Dominie Megapolensis laid a hand gently on the
old soldier's arm. "Of what avail," pleaded the man of God,
"are our poor guns against that broadside of more than
sixty? It is wrong to shed blood to no purpose." Still
confident of ultimate escape, the Director tried to arrange
IS

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
some kind of a compromise with Nicolls. "To-morrow,"
said the English commander, "I will speak with you at
Manhattan." "Friends," answered Stuyvesant quickly, "will
be welcome if they come in a friendly manner." "I shall
come with my ships and soldiers," rejoined Nicolls grimly,
"and he will be a bold messenger indeed who shall then dare
to come on board and solicit terms. . . . Raise the
white flag of peace at the fort and then something may be
considered." The defiant old governor had not yet despaired, though
men, women and children implored him to submit. The
city magistrates, the clergymen and the officers of the
burgher guard then adopted a remonstrance, depicting the
helpless condition of the city, "encompassed and hemmed
in by enemies," and when the valiant but obstinate old man
saw his own son's name in the list he said sadly : "Well,
let it be so — I would much rather be carried to my grave."
Thus fell the city of New Amsterdam, forty-one years after
its first settlement and eleven years after its incorporation.
The question now arises paranthetically : Could New
Amsterdam have withstood the English attack? The evi
dence shows conclusively that even the headstrong loyalty
and heroism of Stuyvesant alike in precept and example
could have availed nothing against the overwhelming odds.
In the forefront of weakness put the indifference and pro
crastination of the burghers themselves and their municipal
representatives, the motives for which have already been
noted. These, coupled with a thrift amounting almost to
parsimony, and a rather phlegmatic temperament averse
to fighting, will explain why the city lay exposed to assault
without a fortification along both rivers.
And certainly if the walls of Fort Amsterdam so readily
succumbed to the snout of the predatory pig they could
hardly stand the test of English artillery. In fact, some of
the private houses clustering about the fort exceeded its
walls in height and offered an easy approach by scaling
16

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
ladders. True, that stronghold mounted twenty-four guns
at the time, but with only six hundred pounds of powder
available their effectiveness must have speedily terminated.
Besides, the hills to the north over which ran the present
Broadway commanded the structure completely. Even
Stuyvesant himself admitted later that "there was an abso
lute impossibility of defending the fort, much less the city
of New Amsterdam." As to the ramparts and palisades on
Wall Street, the only fortified makeshift the city possessed,
whereas they might deter acrobatic Indians from jumping
over, they could not endure a regular military siege.
Furthermore, out of a population of 1,500, perhaps 250
were capable of bearing arms, in addition to the 150 regular
soldiers in the fort, and these forces would have had to
encounter 1,000 English soldiers and sailors, as well as a
large number of colonial volunteers. Here again, granting
the equivalence of one Dutchman to four Englishmen, the
military defenders of New Amsterdam themselves could not
be relied on. Neither the burgher guard nor the farmers
in the vicinity were inclined to fight, and the troops in
the fort, verging on the point of mutiny, muttered about
the places "where booty is to be found, and where the
young women live who wear gold chains." The inhabitants
of New Amsterdam naturally dreaded the consequences of
a useless resistance, a capture by storm and the ensuing
outrageous treatment especially by the English colonials,
"who expected nothing else than pillage, plunder and blood
shed, as men could perceive by their cursing and talking
when mention was made of a capitulation."
On September 6, 1664, the commission to arrange the
terms of surrender met at Stuyvesant's bouwerie. Among
other privileges the Dutch were promised security in prop
erty and business, liberty of conscience and the like. For
the present, also, the municipal magistrates should retain
their offices and discharge their usual functions. Two days
later "the fort and town called New Amsterdam upon the
17

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
island of Manhattoes" formally surrendered, and with
ex-Director General Stuyvesant at the head, the Dutch
garrison marched out with their arms, drums beating and
colors flying and lighted matches. It was a sad moment
for the old autocrat of New Amsterdam as he beheld his
little army departing for the Fatherland, and the passing
of his city to the foreigner and himself to retirement. The
fort was renamed Fort James, the city New York and the
province the same. All the public rights and franchises,
also, of the Dutch West India Company, of course, became
the property of the Duke of York.
What aspect did incipient New York City present to
Colonel Nicolls, who now assumed the duties of provincial
governor? To quote from contemporary descriptions: "The
town is compact and oval, with very fair streets and several
good houses . . . built most of brick and stone and
covered with red and black tile . . . after the manner
of Holland, to the number of about four hundred . . .
which in those parts are held considerable . . . and
the land being high it gives at the distance a pleasing aspect
to the spectators. . . . The city has an earthen fort
. . . within (which) . . . stand a wind mill and a
very high staff upon which a flag is hoisted whenever any
vessel is seen in . . . (the lower) bay. The church rises
with a lofty doubled roof, between which a square tower
looms up. On the one side is the prison and on the other
side of the church is the governor's house. ... At the
waterside stand the gallows and the whip (ping post) (and)
a handsome city tavern adorns the furthest point." How
ever this appearance of the Anglo-Dutch city of New York
may have impressed the English governor at the outset, it
was not very long before he echoed the pride of its magis
trates when he wrote to the Duke of York that it was "the
best of all His Majesty's towns in America."
In this connection it will be interesting to recall how
these magistrates regarded the change of rule. A few
18

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
days after the surrender they wrote to the Dutch West
India Company: "We, your Honors' loyal, sorrowful and
desolate subjects, cannot neglect nor keep from relating
the event which, through God's pleasure . . . unexpect
edly happened to us in consequence of your Honors' neglect
and forgetfulness. . . . Since we have no longer to
depend on your Honors' promises of protection, we, with
all the poor, sorrowing and abandoned commonalty here
must fly for refuge to the Almighty . . . not doubting
but He will stand by us in this sorely afflicting conjuncture."
. . . After the names of the burgomasters and schepens
comes the highly significant subscription: "Done at Yorck,
heretofore named Amsterdam in New Netherland."
To the Duke of York they wrote after Governor
Nicolls had administered to them the oath of office: "It has
pleased God to bring us under your Royal Highness' obedi
ence, wherein we promise to conduct ourselves as good sub
jects are bound to do, deeming ourselves fortunate that
His Highness has provided us with so gentle, wise and
intelligent a gentleman as governor as the Honorable Colonel
Nicolls, confident and assured that under the wings of this
valiant gentleman we shall bloom and grow like the cedar
on Lebanon, especially because we are assured of His Royal
Highness' excellent graciousness and care for his subjects
and people." . . . "Praying then his Royal Highness
to be pleased to take our interest and the welfare of this
country into serious consideration ... we are your
. . . dutiful subjects, schout, burgomasters and schepens
of this city." Just as the previous subscription indicated a
state of transition, so now the indorsement of this com
munication reveals the transition completed: "Done, New
Yorck, on Manhattans Island, 1664."
In their new sphere, however, the city magistrates did not
forget to honor the masterful old Director who had guided the
destinies of New Amsterdam from its rise as a city, through
the period of municipal individualism to its establishment
19

THE PASSING OF NEV/ AMSTERDAM
as New York. Says the record: "Petrus Stuyvesant . . .
communicates . . . as he is about to depart for Father
land, that he wishes fhe bench of burgomasters and schepens
every luck and happiness, which was also wished to him
by burgomasters and schepens and that he may settle and
arrange his affairs in Fatherland to his satisfaction. And
the above-named Herr Stuyvesant requests, if the burgo
masters and schepens think proper, that they accord to
him a certificate of his comportment, which may avail him
or his children to-day or to-morrow. And they resolve as
follows : We, the undersigned schout, burgomasters and
schepens of the city of New Yorck, on the island of Man
hattan, formerly named New Amsterdam, certify and
declare, at the request of the Honorable Petrus Stuyvesant,
late Director General of New Netherland, and who now on
the change by the English is about to return to Patria, that
his Honor has during about eighteen years' administration
conducted and demeaned himself not only as Director Gen
eral, according to the best of our knowledge ought to do,
on all occurring circumstances, for the interest of the West
India Cdmpany, but besides as an honest proprietor and
patriot of this province and a supporter of the reformed
religion." This was not only a graceful tribute to the sterling
character of Stuyvesant, but was designed to aid him in
the defence of his conduct before the Company and the
Dutch government. He returned to Manhattan triumphantly
vindicated, gave up his house on Whitehall Street to the
English governor as an official residence and retired to his
bouwerie. He and Nicolls became fast friends and many
were the genial repasts enjoyed by the English governor
and his Dutch predecessor at the country house. For some
years the familiar and picturesque figure of the venerable
Director was seen about the streets of New York. Interested
in the civil and religious welfare of his beloved city, he
lived to the hale old age of eighty, "lovable" and "admir-
20

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
able," a noble gentleman of the ancient type, but to the day
of his death in 1672 cherishing not a "particle of respect for
popular liberty ... or notions about the rights of man."
He was buried in a vault under the little church he had
built on his bouwerie. On the site of that chapel stands
St. Mark's Church, and on a stone embedded in the wall
of that building the curious wayfarer may still read the
inscription that reveals the last resting place of Peter
Stuyvesant. Turning now to a brief survey of the circumstances
under which New Amsterdam passed into New York with
the purpose of showing the modifications introduced by the
English system of government, it may be said that the magis
trates continued to transact their judicial and administrative
business immediately after the surrender as calmly as if
nothing unusual had occurred. And not until it became
necessary to choose new officers did the first political
change appear. Instead of being permitted to present a
double number of names from which the governor could
select the incumbents for the vacant offices, the retiring
board of burgomasters and schepens were allowed merely
to nominate the precise number of persons whom the gov
ernor then formally appointed. But even this shadow of
municipal individualism did not last long. In June, 1665,
Nicolls abolished the "form of government late in practice
within His Majesty's town of New York, under the name
and style of schout, burgomasters and schepens, which are
not known or customary in any of His Majesty's dominions,"
and substituted for it "one body politic and corporate under
the government of a mayor, aldermen and sheriff." The
governor then proceeded to appoint directly the mayor,
Thomas Willett, five aldermen and the sheriff. In this
arrangement it will be noticed that the office of sheriff
follows the others, as compared with the practice of the
Dutch in mentioning the office of schout first. This devia
tion from the Dutch custom merely indicates that the
21

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
English considered the dignity and duties of a sheriff to
be inferior to those of the other officers, whereas the
Dutch, by making the schout at once the sheriff, the public
prosecutor and the supervisor of the customs assigned to
the office a higher dignity and importance, therefore plac
ing it at the head of the list of municipal magistrates.
Of the city officials thus appointed by the governor the
mayor was an Englishman, as also were two of the aldermen
and the sheriff. The old burgomasters and schepens, some
of whom were on the new board, entered an earnest pro
test against the method of appointment as involving a viola
tion of the terms of surrender, of which one had provided
that all magistrates should continue . . . till the time of
election and then new ones were to be chosen by themselves.
To this projected revival of individualism for the city
Nicolls suavely replied that at the first election held after
the establishment of the English power the retiring magis
trates had chosen their successors with his approval, and
these officials had remained in office up to the present;
hence the terms in question had not undergone infringement.
The burgomasters and schepens, now about to disappear
from the municipal register, ventured to remonstrate
against this close construction of the language, but since the
governor was technically right, and since he had received
orders from the Duke of York to "establish the government
of the city conformable to the customs of England," he
politely ignored the protest and installed his appointees on
June 14.
This plan of direct appointment, instead of the Dutch
method of participation by the city officials themselves,
remained in force till 1669, when, after Nicolls had been
succeeded as governor by Colonel Francis Lovelace, the
mayor and aldermen prevailed on the new governor to restore
the Dutch practice. They accordingly submitted to him a
list of names double the number required for the offices of
mayor, aldermen and sheriff, out of which Lovelace
22

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
graciously chose' the necessary half. On the occasion also
of his accession to the governorship, Lovelace presented to
the city authorities on behalf of the Duke of York what
were called at the time "the gayety and circumstantial part
of government;" namely, a new seal, a silver mace and
seven ornate gowns for the seven dignitaries of New York.
Other modifications introduced by the advent of English
rule were: the employment of the jury system as against
the Dutch method of referees ; the support of clergymen by
the city instead of by the provincial government, and in
1668 the abolition of the exclusive burgher right created
eleven years before. The reasons for the act last named
may be found in the fact that being subject to English
jurisdiction they had no competition to fear from their
colonial neighbors and the like, and also that, since the
municipal offices were no longer the perquisite of great
burghers alone, the institution had simply lapsed. 'Over
another modification, however, quite a little controversy
arose. This was the plan to quarter soldiers on the
inhabitants. According to Governor Nicolls the soldiers of the
garrison at Fort James "were not boarded or washed nor
had pot or kettle to cook for themselves," and besides were
inclined to insolence and disturbance as a result of these
conditions. For the peace of the citizens he believed it
needful to quarter the soldiers on them. To this end the
provincial government would furnish a certain amount of
provisions and the householder would receive from the city
two guilders a week for the maintenance of the men. In
order to obtain the needful revenue for such expenditure
he would reassign to the city the income from the excise,
the weigh scales and the ferry, all of which had been
seized by the provincial government at the time of the
surrender. But out of fifty householders- summoned to
consider the question only ten professed willingness to
harbor the soldiers. That the rate of board rather than
23

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
the principle of household quartering of troops had some
thing to do with this reluctance was manifest when in
October, 1665, the governor agreed to increase the payments
to be made to the temporary landlord for board, lodging,
washing, small beer and firewood, whereupon the soldiers
obtained the residence desired.
However well treated the English soldiers may have
been at the hands of the New York householders, they
could not cope with the huge fleet of twenty-three Dutch
warships, having on board 1,600 men under the command
of Admirals Evertsen and Binckes, when it arrived off
Sandy Hook, August 7, 1673. The situation was practically
the same as in 1664, except that a Dutch expedition now
menaced New York as an English expedition had threatened
New Amsterdam. True to the reversal of positions, English
commissioners were sent to demand why the Dutch fleet
had come in "such a hostile manner to disturb His Majesty's
subjects in this place." To this bold front the Dutch com
manders replied that they had come simply to take what was
"their own and their own they would have." After further
negotiations at the expiration of a specified half hour, unlike
the occurrence in 1664, the Dutch vessels opened fire on the
fort, killing and wounding several of the garrison. There
upon Captain Anthony Colve landed with six hundred men
on the shore of the Hudson, back of the present Trinity
Church, and marched down Broadway. Before they could
arrive at the fort they were met with proposals for a
surrender on substantially the same terms as those of 1664.
The naval commanders thereupon assumed possession of
the province in the name of the Dutch government. They
also rechristened the province New Netherland, its capital
and metropolis New Orange, instead of New Amsterdam,
and the fort, William Henry, after the name of the Stad-
holder of Holland, who later became King William III of
England, and appointed Captain Colve as military governor.
On August 15 a general meeting of the burghers, who
24

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
had cordially welcomed the restoration of Dutch rule, was
convened at the city hall to elect six persons for burgo
masters and fifteen for schepens from among the wealthy
people and those of the Reformed Calvinistic faith only.
From this number the military government selected three
names for burgomasters, thus making one additional, and
the usual number of five schepens. The schout, as the
most important officer, was appointed directly, and the new
municipal government inaugurated on August 17.
But if the people of New Orange, formerly New
Amsterdam and New York, imagined that the return of
Dutch rule meant an enhancement of municipal individu
alism the military governer soon convinced them of their
mistake. Indeed the system of control exercised by the
provincial authorities under the Dutch restoration was more
severe than anything the city had known since its incorpora
tion. Explained in the light of the conduct displayed by
the inhabitants of New Amsterdam on the advent of the
English in 1664, the strictness of the military government
seems due to a more or less reasonable suspicion of the con
stancy of the political affections cherished by the citizens
of Manhattan, as well as to the fear of English counter-
occupation. Of course, the municipal magistrates had to
renounce the insignia of English forms — "the gayety and
circumstantial part of government" furnished by the official
seal, mace and gowns, which were carefully deposited in
the fort. And in his instructions to the schout, burgo
masters and schepens regarding their judicial and administra
tive duties, Governor Colve restricted the nomination of the
double number of persons by the retiring board to the
"most wealthy . . . and such ... as are of the
Reformed Christian religion, or at least well affected
towards it;" reserved the right to intensify conservative rule
by keeping the present incumbents in office, and ordered a
military commissioner to preside at the sessions of the mag
istracy in his behalf. Naturally, the schout, burgomasters
25

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
and schepens resented the suspicion involved in the pres
ence of this officer and protested to the governor that it
violated the practices of the Fatherland, injured the privileges
of the bench and the burghers, and seriously depreciated
their character.
The stern threat of instant dismissal from office, how
ever, checked any further remonstrance and in July, 1674,
much to their disgust, the burgomasters and schepens beheld
their pet aversion, the military commissioner, elevated to
the permanent presidency of the board in the capacity of
schout. In the following month, also, the governor tightened
the reins of control by reducing the number of burgomasters
from three to two as formerly and lowering the normal
number of schepens from five to three, while he retained the
direct appointment of the schout. He did allow the old sys
tem of double election for the burgomasters and schepens
to continue, but modified it by having only one burgomaster
retire at a time, thus insuring the possibility of a longer
term of service if deemed necessary.
Just as the governor believed it advisable to forestall
any refractory conduct on the part of the city magistrates,
so did these officials deem it necessary to check the dis
orderly practices on Sunday in particular, which the recent
changes had probably aggravated. The last ordinance on
the observance of the Sabbath to be framed under Dutch
auspices on Manhattan closely resembled earlier regulations
on the subject in that it forbade "from sunrise to sundown
. . . all sorts of handicraft, trade and traffic, gaming,
boat racing or running with carts or wagons, fishing, fowl
ing, running and picking nuts, strawberries and the like,
all riotous racing, calling and shouting of children in the
streets, together with all unlawful exercises and games,
drunkenness, frequenting taverns or tap-houses, dancing,
cardplaying, ballplaying, rolling nine pins or bowls, which is
more in vogue on this than on any other day."
All tavern keepers and tapsters, therefore, were "strictly
26

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
enjoined to entertain no clubs on this day . . . nor
. . . suffer any games in their houses or places under
a heavy penalty." And if any children be caught on the
street playing, racing and shouting previous to the termina
tion of the last preaching, the officers of the law may take
their hat or upper garment, which shall not be restored
to their parents until they have paid a fine. "The inten
tion of such prohibition" was "not that a stranger or citizen
shall not buy a drink of wine or beer for the assuaging of
his thirst, but only to prevent the sitting of clubs on the
Sabbath, whereby many are hindered resorting to Divine
Worship." Taken as a whole, the ordinance indicates
clearly two facts : first, that the old prohibition against the
sale of liquor on the Sabbath had undergone a liberal modifi
cation and, second, that after all, judging from the list of
offences just catalogued, Manhattan must have been a lively
island for young men and old, despite the current notion
about the ponderous solemnity of its Dutch citizens.
About this time also it appears that the fences, as well
as the morals, at least of the people residing between
Haarlem and the Freshwater (Centre Street), needed
salutary correction. In the instructions drawn up by the
magistrates for the fence viewers it is stated that, not only
shall an individual keep his own fence in repair, but if he
thinks his neighbor's fence not good or sufficient, "and
dreading damage thereby" from migratory animals, "shall
first request his neighbor in love and friendship to repair
his fence," otherwise he must complain to the proper
officials. The depredations still committed by stray animals of a
certain kind upon the fortifications led the military governor
to command that their sphere of activity "within this city
and" its jurisdiction unto the Fresh Water" be confined
within fences on pain of confiscation.
In order further to place the city "in proper state of
defence" against the dangers of English hostility, the governor
27

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
ordered the removal of all houses near the fort, thus safe
guarding that structure against one mode of attack at least.
For their losses the owners received compensation in money
or in land elsewhere. The people of New Orange, also, had
to perform military service, part of which consisted in work
ing on the fortifications; otherwise they had to pay a
special tax. To facilitate the financial duties of the city in
this respect the revenues from the excise, the weigh scales
and the ferry which the provincial government had seized at
the beginning of the Dutch reoccupation were again turned
over to it.
In December, 1673, Governor Colve issued a series of
military regulations. He forbade the inhabitants' of New
Orange to export provisions and commanded them to lay
in a stock that would last eight months at least. Moreover,
since the fortifications had nearly attained completion, a cor
responding strictness must be observed in the duties of the
civil and military authorities. Not only could no one enter
or leave the city, except by the regular gates, but an
elaborate formality had to be maintained in guarding these
portals of New Orange. At drumbeat, a half hour before
sundown, the militia paraded in front of the city hall. Then
the burgomasters received the keys of the city from the
guard at the fort and with an escort of six proceeded in
state to lock the gates and assign the citizen night watch.
By a similar pageant at sunrise the gates were opened and
the keys restored to their keepers at the fort.
For the domestic habits of the burghers this martial
service must have been rather toilsome and the honor an
irksome one to the burgomasters, especially on cold winter
mornings. Crediting all due activity to the American tem
perament it is hardly conceivable that even the present
mayor of New York, with all his punctuality, would care to
exchange his privilege of beginning his daily task at 9:30 or
10 o'clock for the pretentious morning and evening parade
of a burgomaster at the end of the seventeenth century.
28

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
The pageant in question is thus described by Mrs. Sigourney
with some words of eulogy on the burghers and their city :
Lo! with the sun came forth a goodly train
The portly mayor with his full guard of state.
Hath aught of evil vexed their fair domain
That thus its limits they perambulate,
With heavy measured steps and brows of care,
Counting its scattered roofs with fixed portentous stare?
Behold the keys, with solemn pomp restored
To one in warlike costume stoutly braced —
He of yon fort the undisputed lord —
Deep lines of thought are on his forehead traced,
As though of Babylon, the proud command,
Or hundred-gated Thebes were yielded to his hand.
See here and there the buildings cluster round
All to the street their cumbrous gables stretching,
With square-clipped trees and snug enclosures bound —
A most uncouth material for sketching —
Each with its stoop from whose sequestered shade
The Dutchman's evening pipe in cloudy volumes played —
Yet deem them not for ridicule a theme—
These worthy burghers with their spouses kind —
Scorning of heartless pomp the gilded dream
To deeds of peaceful industry inclined,
In hospitality sincere and grave,
Inflexible in truth, in simple virtue brave.
Hail ! mighty city-high must be his fame
Who round thy bounds at sunrise now should walk,
Still wert thou lovely, whatso'er thy name,
New Amsterdam, New Orange, or New York.
Whether in cradle sleep on seaweed laid,
Or on thine island throne in queenly power arrayed.
If eulogies be tributes to the dead those just delivered
upon Manhattan under Dutch rule were certainly appro
priate, for the dissolution of New Orange was at hand.
At the conclusion of peace between England and Holland
early in 1674 New Netherland reverted to the former
country and again became New York. The entry in the
municipal records announcing the fact runs as follows :
29

THE PASSING OF NEW AMSTERDAM
"The governor general appearing in court (of schout, burgo
masters and schepens), states that he has now received
. . . absolute orders from . . . their High Mighti
nesses for the restitution of this province ... to His
Majesty of Great Britain pursuant to the treaty of peace
. . . with further orders that he return home with the
garrison as soon as possible, which His Honor resolved to
communicate to the court, informing them . . that if
they had yet any representation to make to their High
Mightinesses it would be willingly presented by His Honor."
But the reqent military regime had apparently moderated
the earlier enthusiasm for the Fatherland and contenting
themselves with what had been done beyond the seas the
magistrates simply answered : "The worshipful court hath
thanked the governor." Finally we read that "on the tenth
of November anno 1674, the province of New Netherland
is surrendered by Governor Colve to Governor Major
Edmund Andros in behalf of His Majesty of Great Britain."
Thus did New Orange pass from view and with it the days
of the Dutch dynasty.
As a closing word it might be recalled that, although
New York grew up as an English city and became the
metropolis of the American nation, it has remained true to
its Dutch forerunner, for when we would personify the
city we call it Father Knickerbocker. Perchance the spirit
of Peter Stuyvesant yet stumps along unseen amid the
multitudes and guards with jealous care his "island of
the hills."

30