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dition informed that "his new marriage was declared illegal."1 The clergyman thereupon petitioned Governor Stuyvesant, setting forth that he broke the door open in the search for his wife, whom he imagined was concealed in that place; that he had found among Jongh's goods a few pairs of his (the petitioner's) wife's stockings; that he had no intention "to vilify the court;" that his acts were committed through ignorance, and that in his marriage "he did not suppose it should have been so unfavorably interpreted;" he therefore, to save his "reputation as a minister," prays that the Governor will disapprove of the sentence of the court, and "not inflict any further punishment" than that he has already undergone, since, independent of the fine of two hundred and eighty guilders, the desertion of his wife had cost him nearly two hundred guilders.2 What was done with this petition does not appear. |
1 Ib., 680.
2 Hazard's Annals, p. 332. | ||
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From the report made by the commissioners and directors of the city's colony,3 on Aug 10, 1663, we learn that on the Delaware River it was found that "the Swedes, Fins, and other natives" had "made and erected there 110 good bouweries, stocked with about 2000 cows and oxen, 20 horses, 80 sheep, and several thousand swine." This was comparatively a good showing, and it induced the city of Amsterdam to accede to the proposition of the Dutch West India Company, that the former should, in discharge of the debt owed by the company, accept a deed for "all the country on the Delaware." In furtherance of this agreement a formal deed was executed Dec. 22, 1663, and the sway of the authorities at New Amsterdam ceased on the Delaware River. On the day after the date of this conveyance Beekman wrote to Stuyvesant that fifty farm laborers who had arrived in the ship "St. Jacob" during June of that year had been hired out to farmers, and that six or seven girls had been sent on the same vessel to cook and wash for the emigrants. He informed the director-general that "this is almost the same method as that of the English trade in servants."4 |
3 Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 470.
4 Ib., vol. vii. p. 716 | ||
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The authority of the city of Amsterdam over the entire Delaware River settlements was only of brief duration, and destined in a few months to be wholly overthrown. The crown of Great Britain had never acknowledged the right which the Dutch and Swedes maintained they had acquired by occupancy to the territory, and it was merely due to the intestine discord at home that the former nation had not earlier brought the mooted subject to the arbitrament of arms. Charles II., then firmly seated on the throne of England, on March 12, 1664, granted to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, the territory now comprising the State of New York and New Jersey, and by a subsequent grant, that of Delaware. With unusual promptness the duke fitted out an expedition, consisting of four vessels of war and four hundred and fifty men, including sailors and soldiers, which, under the command of Col. Richard Nicolls, sailed from Portsmouth, England, on May 25, 1664,5 to reduce and occupy the Dutch possessions in North America. Sir Robert Carr, George Cartwright, and Samuel Maverick, Esquires, accompanied the expedition as commissioners appointed by the king, with power to hear and determine all military, civil, and criminal matters, and to proceed in all things for "settling the peace and security of the country," as also to adjust "boundaries between neighboring colonies and dispute between the Indians and the English."6 The Governors of New England were instructed by the king "to join and assist them vigorously in recovering our right to those places now possessed by the Dutch, and reducing them to an entire obedience and submission to our government."7 On the 25th of August the frigate "Guinea," the first vessel of the expedition to reach the point of destination, entered the lower bay of New Amsterdam, and a proclamation was issued guaranteeing protection to those persons who should submit to the English authority. The other vessel having arrived, after considerable negotiation, on the 9th of September, the Dutch authorities surrendered New Amsterdam to the English, the latter permitting the garrison to march out of the fort with all their arms, drums beating and colors flying. The English commissioners, when they had acquired possession of the settlement, changed the name of the place to New York, in honor of the duke. To secure control of the Delaware River territory, on the 3d (13th) of September, 1664, Sir Robert Carr was ordered to proceed thither with the frigates "Guinea" and "William" and "Nicholas" and "to reduce the same"8 to an English province. The instructions given him, among other things, required that all planters were to retain their real and personal property unmolested by the conquerors and Carr was particularly directed to conciliate the Swedes; that all persons were to be permitted liberty of conscience; the magistrates were to be continued in office for six months on subscribing to the oath of allegiance; the settlers were to be protected from violence in persons or estates; and the system of jurisprudence there is urged not to be disturbed for the present.9 After a long and troublesome passage, the expedition arrived in the Delaware on the last day of September, and passed the fort at New Amstel without an exchange of shot, which was done, as Carr states, "the better to sattisfie the Sweede, who, notwithstanding the Dutches ps- |
5 Old style; England at that time had not accepted the modern computation of time.
6 Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. pp. 507-512. 7 Ib., 513. 8 Hazard's Register, vol. i. p. 36; Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. p. 536. 9 Penna. Archives, 2d series, vol. v. pp. 536, 537.
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