CHAPTER XII.

A REVIEW OF SOME PURELY LOCAL MATTERS.

WE have

E have now reached in the preceding general narrative the firm and determined rejection of the British yoke, and the hoisting of the flag of independence. This therefore appears to be an appropriate place to revert to early years and note some purely local matters which could not be readily introduced in the preceding chapters. As the special subject of this historical sketch formed a part, and at that early day a very important part, of the province, a general sketch of the legislative, political, and other action affecting the whole body politic, was considered necessary fully to elucidate and illustrate its history.

The preceding chapters have set forth the early declaration in the province of New York, of the great principle of "no taxation without representation," and its increasing strength in the public mind, as the years rolled on, until it proved the principal inciting cause, and one of the grand supporting principles which led this country to armed resistance against tyranny and oppression, and to the war for independence.

The narrative also shows, as contained in the instructions of the ministry to their governors, a sweeping clause in restraint of the printing-press. The administration of the Government exhibited no effort on its part toward the encouragement of that bulwark of freedom. On the contrary, under one of the administrations, there was a bold attempt to muzzle it after its introduction. In the history of the struggle arising under that attempt, we perceive the freedom of the press maintained against all the power and strength of the administration, and the editor sustained in his exposure of official delinquencies. The counsel in his conduct of the defence, the jury in their verdict of not guilty, and the city authorities and the people in their wild joy and rejoicing over the acquittal of the prisoner, exhibited their abhorrence of the old feudal principle that "the greater the truth the greater the libel,' and their enthusiastic sympathy with the opposite doctrine which now forms a part of the fundamental law of this State.

The settlers who were first drawn to this country after its discovery were traders enticed here by the prospect and love of barter

and gain. Their special attraction was to New Amsterdam and Fort Orange, by reason of the peculiar advantages of those localities for trade and commerce. New Amsterdam with the outside world, and Fort Orange reaching its arms through the Mohawk Valley and onward to the interior could control the fur trade of a very extended region. At Esopus, although there were some advantages for the fur trade, they were limited in their character, and much inferior to those at Fort Orange. The great and permanent attractions at Esopus were the broad and extensive acres of prairie flats and rich alluvial soil extending for miles upon miles along the several streams concentrating at that point and ready for the husbandman's plough without the preparatory use of the woodman's axe.

Skirting the north bounds of the old village and present city of Kingston is the Esopus stream, which, rising many miles to the northwest of Kingston upon the water-shed of the Catskill Mountains, works its way down through valleys, ravines, and over rocks in a southerly course, until it reaches the lowland flats at Marbletown, then for ten miles or over passing through broad flats of rich alluvial soil to along and beyond Kingston as far as the present town of Saugerties, and then, after bending its course to the Hudson, and bounding over rocks and falls, it loses itself in the waters of that great river.

Then there is the Rondout, also taking its rise in the interior among the Catskills, and, after winding through valleys and clefts of rocks and bounding over precipices, it reaches the lowlands of Warwasing, and then, with rich borders of alluvial flats, it passes for decades of miles through the present towns of Warwasing, Rochester, and Marbletown, and thence forward until it forms a junction with the Walkill in the town of Rosendale. The Walkill, taking its rise in New Jersey, passes toward the north, and after crossing Orange County runs through the present towns of Shawangunk, Gardiner, New Paltz, and Rosendale, to its junction with the Rondout, leaving scores of miles of rich alluvial flats and bottom lands in its trail. The united waters of the two streams then rush to the eastward, and, after passing along and washing the docks on the south bounds of the city of Kingston, are lost in the great river of the mountains."

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The extensive flats at Esopus attracted a class of settlers very different from those at New Amsterdam and Fort Orange. And when the religious persecutions of the Old World drove many of the worthy burghers of Holland and other countries of Europe to the New, husbandmen and farmers, men who looked to the products of the mother earth for the reward of their labors, settled in "that very pleasant land." Such persons formed the general

character of the Esopus population. It is not surprising, therefore, that for scores of years, and, indeed, for nearly a century, it was the principal producing granary of the province. The even tenor of a farmer's life in time of peace has in it very little variety, and furnishes scarcely any material for the recording pen of the historian. The loss or abstraction of papers from the Ulster County clerk's office has added very much to the difficulty of procuring material to compile a complete local history.

The Ulster County Historical Society organized in the year 1859, for, among other purposes, the collection of "papers relative to the history of the original and present county of Ulster," drew at the time to its archives many valuable historical documents. Their executive committee also, with the approval of the supervisors, and at the expense of the county, caused the papers and files in the county clerk's office to be overhauled, and the loose documents and papers of an historical character arranged, indexed, and securely bound in seven volumes. The volumes were then placed where they belonged in the clerk's office. That, to all human appearance at the time, wise and prudent proceeding has served only to facilitate their abstraction and total loss to the county and the public. The volumes have all disappeared, and are now nowhere to be found. The Historical Society existed only a few years. With the departure of Colonel Pratt and a few others of its original founders, it lost all vitality, and is counted now among the things that have been and are not. The archives of the society, also, have been so cared for, that all the historical papers of any value, except such as have been preserved by publication, have disappeared, and are now scattered or destroyed, no one appears to know whither, when, or how.

Tradition, even, that great and prolific manufacturer of great men and wonderful deeds as belonging to past ages, has furnished very little if anything for that period. Under such circumstances the record of the proceedings of "The Trustees of the Freeholders and Commonalty of the town of Kingston," as far as they are accessible, will furnish a large portion of the data for this chapter. That corps of officials formed, in provincial days, the local government of the town, both civil and judicial. The recital of facts connected with or relating to their fostering care exercised in educational and religious matters, will be reserved for the chapters specially relating to the academy and the church.

The trustees, twelve in number, were elected annually; they were empowered by their charter to ordain rules and regulations for the good order of the territory within their chartered limits, and to prescribe penalties for their violation, and make rules and regulations for their enforcement.

In reference to their judicial power, the trustees were required, immediately after the annual election in the spring, to designate five of their number to sit and hold court every month, with petty, civil, and criminal jurisdiction. The civil jurisdiction was limited to five pounds. Their criminal jurisdiction was the same as given by law to commissioners or local magistrates of the several towns in the province. The presiding officer of the trustees was called the speaker; the presiding officer of the magistrates was called the president.

The trustees continued in existence as a corporation until 1816, and upon their dissolution, all their then existing records were required to be filed in the county clerk's office. Of the minutes of the proceedings of the trustees, prior to November 4th, 1713, only about half a dozen detached leaves of different dates are to be found. The book containing the rules and regulations adopted by the trustees for the good order and government of the territory is also gone. That such a book once existed is evident from a reference made to it in the minute book of the trustees at a date subsequent to the Revolution.

The minute or record books of the local court, held under the charter, are also missing; they are referred to in the minutes of the meeting of the trustees held December 7th, 1759, as being deposited with the treasurer. So that, with the exception of a few entries embraced in the trustee minutes of 1713-14, the entire minutes or records of the local court are gone.

The record of conveyances, and the books containing the treasurer's accounts, are on deposit in the county clerk's office.

The names of the original trustees specified in the charter were, Garret Aertse, Jacob Aertson, Wilhelmus Demyer, Teunis Elisie, Willem Haines, Jan Wms. Hogghten, Willem Legge, Mattyze Mattice, Benjamin Provoost, Jacob Ruttsen, Derck Schepmous, and Wessell Ten Brooge.

One of the odd leaves saved from the general wreck of the old minutes contains a certificate of the result of the first election held under the patent. Whether any, or, if so, how much of a contest there was does not appear. The election took place on the first Tuesday of March, 1689, and the following burghers were elected, showing some changes:

TRUSTEES: Jacob Aertson, Garret Aertse, Wilhelmus Demyer, Tjerck Clauson De Witt, Jan Hooke, Mattyze Mattice, Jan Mattice, Benjamin Provoost, Jacob Ruttsen, Derck Schepmous, Philip Schuyler, Wessell Ten Brooge.

CONSTABLES: Johannis Wynkoop, Jan Hortuyn, Willem Ganse. ASSESSORS: Walrand Dumond, Tjerck Clase, Jan Willemse Hooghtyling.

MAGISTRATES were designated as follows: Wilhelmus De Myer, President; Derck Schepmous, Jacob Ruttsen, Philip Schuyler, Jan Hooke.

A full list of the trustees and magistrates, so far as known, and the presiding officers, will be given in the Appendix, also the supervisors up to 1788.

There are three ordinances entered on one of the odd leaves so singularly preserved, which from their date, November 21st, 1688, must have been among the first, if not the very first ones established. The following are copies. The first two would be as appropriate enactments for the present as they were for former times :

"It is enacted and ordained, that no manner of person or persons whatsoever shall at any time run races, or have any disorderly riding in the town of Kingstowne, upon the penalty of six shillings for each default, also them that drive rapid at unseasonable hours.

"It is further enacted, that no manner of person shall do any riding on the Sabbath day, upon the forfeiture of five shillings for each default.

"It is further enacted and ordered, that no manner of vessels shall be admitted to bring strangers from any other town or county, but shall give notice thereof to a constable where they are, and put in security for their maintenance; for want thereof such man shall be bound to take care for himself of his maintenance."

The book of minutes of the trustees, containing a record of their proceedings from November, 1713, to the year 1736, is among the deposits in the archives of the New York Historical Society. As appears by an indorsement thereon in the handwriting of Herman M. Romeyn, formerly a resident of Kingston, they were presented by him to the New York Historical Society in 1847, and noted by him to be valuable as containing the only copy extant (in Dutch) of a letter from the Classis of Amsterdam to the Dutch Church in this country.

In that book the records of the local or town court are mixed in and inserted regularly with the trustee minutes for two or three years. After that there are no court entries. As those are, apparently, the only records of that court in existence, a full transcript of the record of proceedings in one of the suits as entered will be given. It may be of interest as exhibiting the manner in which objections made to interested parties sitting as judges were in those days, at times, disposed of. It will be recollected that five of the trustees constituted the town court:

66 At a town court held at Kingston third day of November 1714 Present Maj. J Wynkoop, R Eltinge, H Pruyn and Jno Crooke "Jno Crook plff Jno Wood deft.