Chapter III: The Middle Colonies (4)

The Moravians, settling first in Georgia, had founded Bethlehem in Pennsylvania in 1741, and soon extended the field of their labors into New York;[557] and in no way did the characteristics of this people impress the life of the colonies so much as in the intermediary nature of their missions among the Indians. David Zeisberger was a leading spirit in this work, and left a manuscript account (written in 1778 in German) of the missions, which was discovered by Schweinitz in the archives of the Moravian church at Bethlehem. (Schweinitz’s _Zeisberger_, p. 29.) It proved to be the source upon which Loskiel had depended for the first part of his _History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America, in three parts, by Geo. H. Loskiel, translated from the German by Christian Ignatius Latrobe_ (London, 1794);[558] and Schweinitz found it of invaluable use to him in the studies for his _Life of David Zeisberger_ (Philad., 1870). The other principal authority on the work of the Moravians among the Indians is Rev. John Heckewelder, whose _Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren_ (Philad., 1820) has been elsewhere referred to,[559] and who also published _An account of the History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations who once inhabited Pennsylvania and the neighboring States_ (Philad., 1818).[560] Schweinitz also refers to another manuscript upon the Indians, preserved in the library of the American Philosophical Society, by Christopher Pyrlaeus, likewise a Moravian missionary.[561] We have again from Spangenberg an _Account of the manner in which the Protestant Church of the Unitas Fratrum preach the Gospel and carry on their missions among the heathen_ (English transl., London, 1788); and his notes of travel to Onondaga, in 1745, which are referred to in the original MS. by Schweinitz (_Zeisberger_, p. 132), have since been printed in the _Penna. Mag. of History_ (vol. iii.).[562]

Perhaps the most distinguished of the English missionaries was David Brainerd, a native of Connecticut, of whose methods and their results, as he went among the Indians of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, we have the record in his life and diaries.[563]

* * * * *

The question of the population of the middle colonies during the eighteenth century is complicated somewhat by the heterogeneous compounding of nationalities, particularly in Pennsylvania. In New Jersey the people were more purely English than in New York. We find brought together the statistics of the population of New York, 1647-1774, in the _Doc. Hist. of N. Y._ (i. 687), and Lodge (_English Colonies_, p. 312) collates some of the evidence. The German element in New York is exemplified in F. Kapp’s _Die Deutschen im Staate New York während des achtzehnten Jahrhunderts_. (New York, 1884.)

In Pennsylvania the Swedes were beginning to lose in number when the century opened, and the Dutch were also succumbing to the English preponderance; but there were new-comers in the Welsh and Germans in sufficient numbers to keep the characteristics of the people very various.[564] Religion had brought the earliest Germans,—Dunkers[565] and Mennonists,[566] all industrious, but ignorant. By 1719 the Irish began to come, in part a desirable stock, the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians; but in large numbers they were as unpromising as the dregs of a race could make them. The rise of Presbyterianism in Pennsylvania is traced in C. A. Briggs’s _Amer. Presbyterianism_ (New York, 1885).[567]

The influx of other than English into Pennsylvania in the eighteenth century had an extent best measured by _A collection of upwards of 30,000 names of German, Swiss, Dutch, French, and other immigrants in Pennsylvania, 1727-1776, with notes and an appendix containing lists of more than one thousand German and French in New York prior to 1712_, by Professor I. Daniel Rupp (2d enlarged ed., Philad., 1876).

Respecting the Welsh immigrants, compare the _Pennsylvania Mag. of Hist._, i. 330; Howard M. Jenkins’s _Historical collections relating to Gwynedd, a township of Montgomery County, Penn., settled, 1698, by Welsh immigrants, with some data referring to the adjoining township of Montgomery, also a Welsh settlement_ (Phila., 1884), and J. Davis’s _History of the Welsh Baptists_ (Pittsburgh, 1835).

The Huguenot emigration to the middle colonies, particularly to New York, is well studied in C. W. Baird’s _Huguenot Emigration to America_ (1885). Cf. references _ante_, p. 98; and for special monographs, W. W. Waldron’s _Huguenots of Westchester and Parish of Fordham, with an introduction by S. H. Tyng_ (New York, 1864), and G. P. Disosway on the Huguenots of Staten Island, in the _Continental Monthly_, i. 683, and his app. on “The Huguenots in America” to Samuel Smiles’s _Huguenots_ (N. Y., 1868).

* * * * *

The best summary of the manners and social and intellectual life of the middle colonies will be found in Lodge’s _Short History of the English Colonies_ (New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania), and he fortifies his varied statements with convenient references. For New York specially the best known picture of life is Mrs. Anne Grant’s _Memoirs of an American Lady_,[568] but its recollections, recorded in late life, of experiences of childhood, have nearly taken it out of the region of historical truth. For Pennsylvania there is a rich store of illustration in Watson’s _Annals of Philadelphia_, and much help will be derived from the _Penn and Logan Letters_, printed by the Penna. Hist. Soc.;[569] from the journal of William Black, a Virginian, who recorded his observations in 1744, printed in the _Penna. Mag. of Hist._ (vols. i. and ii.).[570]

The exigencies of the Indian wars, while they colored the life and embroiled the politics of the time, induced the search for relief from pecuniary burdens, here as in New England, in the issue of paper money, which in turn in its depreciation grew to be a factor of itself in determining some social conditions.[571]

The educational aspects of the middle colonies have been summarily touched by Lodge in his _English Colonies_. Each of them had founded a college. An institution begun at Elizabethtown in 1741, was transferred to Princeton in 1757, and still flourishes.[572] In 1750 the Academy of Philadelphia made the beginning of the present University of Pennsylvania. In 1754 King’s College in New York city began its mission,—the present Columbia College.[573]

The development of the intellectual life of the middle colonies, so far as literary results—such as they were—are concerned, is best seen in Moses C. Tyler’s _History of American Literature_ (vol. ii. ch. 16).[574] The list by Haven in Thomas’s _Hist. of Printing_ (vol. ii.) reveals the extent of the publications of the period; but for Pennsylvania the record is made admirably full in Charles R. Hildeburn’s _Century of Printing,—issues of the press in Pennsylvania, 1685-1784_.[575]

William Bradford, the father of printing in the middle colonies, removed to New York in 1693, where he died in 1752, having maintained the position of the leading printer in that province, where he started, in 1725, the _N. Y. Gazette_, the earliest New York newspaper.[576] His son, Andrew Bradford (born 1686, died 1742), was the founder of the newspaper press in Pennsylvania, and began the _American Weekly Mercury_ in 1719, and the _American Magazine_ in 1741.[577]

The records of the publication of Franklin and his press have been more than once carefully made,[578] and Col. William Bradford, grandson of the first William, has been fitly commemorated in the _Life_ of him by Wallace.[579]

* * * * *

The general histories of New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey have been sufficiently described elsewhere.[580] The documentary collections of New York State have likewise been explained;[581] but the historical literature respecting the province and State has never been bibliographically arranged. The city of New York has some careful histories of its own.[582] The capital, Albany, by reason of the attention of its devoted antiquarian publishers, has recently had its own bibliography traced.[583] The extent of the other local histories of the State, particularly as far as the Dutch period was represented in it, has been already indicated;[584] but the list as touching the period covered by the present chapter could be much enlarged.[585]

* * * * *

The several official and documentary collections published by Pennsylvania have been described elsewhere.[586] Something of her local history has been also indicated, but the greater part of the interest of this class of historical records falls within the period of the present volume.[587]

Respecting the histories of Philadelphia, since the memoranda were noted in Vol. III. (p. 509), the material gathered by Thompson Westcott has been augmented by the labors of Col. J. Thomas Scharf, and the elaborate _History of Philadelphia_ (Philad., 1884) with this joint authorship has been issued in three large volumes. Two chapters (xiii. and xv.) in the first volume cover in the main the period now dealt with. There is still a good deal to be gleaned from the old _Annals of Philadelphia_, by John F. Watson, of which there is a new edition, with revisions and additions by Willis P. Hazard.[588] It is a work somewhat desultory in character and unskilful in arrangement, but it contains a great body of facts.[589]

The views of New York here annexed (pp. 250, 251) are the principal ones of the earlier half of the seventeenth century. The larger (New York, on the scroll) is from the great map of Popple, _British Empire in America_, published in 1732. The upper of the two (p. 251) is reduced from a large panoramic _South Prospect of y^e Flourishing City of New York_ (6-6/12 × 2-4/12 ft.), dedicated to Gov. George Clinton by Thomas Blakewell, which was published March 25, 1746. A lithographic reproduction appeared in Valentine’s _N. Y. City Manual_, 1849, p. 26, and in his _Hist. of N. Y. City_, p. 290. (Cf. Cassell’s _United States_, i. 480.) Originals are reported to be in the N. Y. Society library and in the British Museum (King’s _Maps_, ii. 329, and _Map Catal._, 1885, col. 2,975).

The reduced fac-simile view, called a “South Prospect,” follows a copperplate engraving in the _London Magazine_, Aug., 1761.

KEY: 1, the fort; 2, the chapel in the fort; 3, the secretary’s office; 4, the great dock, with a bridge over it; 5, the ruins of Whitehall, built by Gov. Duncan [Dongan]; 6, part of Nutten Island; 7, part of Long Island; 8, the lower market; 9, the Crane; 10, the great flesh-market; 11, the Dutch church; 12, the English church; 13, the city hall; 14, the exchange; 15, the French church; 16, upper market; 17, the station ship; 18, the wharf; 19, the wharf for building ships; 20, the ferry house on Long Island side; 21, a pen for cattle designed for the market; 22, Colonel Morris’s “Fancy,” turning to windward, with a sloop of common mould.

This print is clearly based on the one placed above it.]

The official documentary collections of New Jersey have already been indicated,[590] as well as some traces of its local history.[591]

* * * * *

A view of New York about 1695 is no. 39 in the gallery of the N. Y. Hist. Society. Cf. Mrs. Lamb’s _New York_, i. p. 455, for one assigned to 1704.

A view purporting to be taken in 1750 is found in Delisle’s _Atlas_ (1757).

A collection of views of towns, which was published by Jan Roman at Amsterdam in 1752, included one of _Nieu Amsterdam, namaels Nieu York_. (Muller’s _Catal. of American Portraits_, etc., no. 310.)[592]

The earliest plan of New York of the period which we are now considering is one which appeared in the Rev. John Miller’s _Description of the Province and City of New York, with the plans of the City and several forts, as they existed in the year 1695, now first printed from the original MS._ (London, Rodd, 1843), and in a new ed., with introd. and notes by Dr. Shea (N. Y., Gowans, 1862). See Vol. III. p. 420, of the present _History_, and Mrs. Lamb’s _New York_ (i. 421).

A fac-simile of this plan, marked “New York, 1695,” is annexed. It is reproduced several times in Valentine’s _New York City Manual_ (1843-44, 1844-45, 1845-46, 1847, 1848, 1850, 1851, 1852), and is explained by the following:

KEY: 1, the chapel in the fort of New York; 2, Leysler’s half-moon; 3, Whitehall battery of 15 guns; 4, the old dock; 5, the cage and stocks; 6, stadt-house battery of 5 guns; 7, the stadt or state house; 8, the custom-house; 8, 8, the bridge; 9, Burgher’s or the slip battery of 10 guns; 10, the fly block-house and half-moon; 11, the slaughter-house; 12, the new docks; 13, the French church; 14, the Jews’ synagogue; 15, the fort well and pump; 16, Ellet’s alley; 17, the works on the west side of the city; 18, the northwest block-house; 19, 19, the Lutheran church and minister’s house; 20, 20, the stone points on the north side of the city; 21, the Dutch Calvinists’ church, built 1692; 22, the Dutch Calvinists’ minister’s house; 23, the burying-ground; 24, a windmill; 25, the king’s farm; 26, Col. Dungan’s garden; 27, 27, wells; 28, the plat of ground designed for the E. minister’s house; 29, 29, the stockado, with a bank of earth on the inside; 30, the ground proper for the building an E. church; 31, 31, showing the sea flowing about New York; 32, 32, the city gates; 33, a postern gate.]

There is a MS. plan of this date (1695) in the British Museum. A plan of the fort in New York (1695) is also given by Miller, and is reproduced in Gowan’s ed. of Miller, p. 264. (Cf. _Appleton’s Journal_, viii. p. 353.)

The _Brit. Mus. Map Catal._ (1885), col. 2,972, notes a map by J. Seller, London; and a _Novum Amsterdamum_, probably by Vander Aa, at Leyden, in 1720.

A large _Plan of the City of New York, from an actual survey, made by Iames Lyne_, was published by William Bradford, and dedicated to Gov. Montgomerie, while Col. Robt. Lurting was mayor, in 1728. It has been reproduced wholly or in part at various times.[593]

Popple’s plan of New York (1733) was later re-engraved in Paris. His map of the harbor, from his great map _The British Empire in America_ (inscribed on a scroll, “New York and Perth Amboy harbours”), is annexed (p. 254) in fac-simile.

KEY: A, the fort; B, Trinity Church; C, old Dutch church; D, French church; E, new Dutch church; F. Presbyterian meeting; G, Quakers’ meeting; H, Baptist meeting; J, Lutheran church; L, St. George’s Chapel; M, Moravian meeting; N, new Lutheran meeting; 1, governor’s house; 2, secretary’s office; 3, custom-house; 4, Peter Livingston & Co., supg. hu.; 5, city hall; 6, Byard’s sugar-house; 7, exchange; 8, fish market; 9, old slip market; 10, meal market; 11, fly market; 12, Burtin’s market; 13, Oswego market; 14, English free school; 15, Dutch free school; 16, Courtland’s sugar-house; 17, Jas. Griswold; 18, stillhouse; 19, Wileys Livingstone; 20, Laffert’s In. Comp.; 21, Thomas Vatar Distilhouse; 22, Robert Griffeth’s Distilhouse; 23, Jno. Burling’s Distilhouse; 24, Jas. Burling’s Distilhouse; 25, Jno. Leake’s Distilhouse; 26, Benj. Blagge’s Distilhouse; 27, Jews’ burial-ground; 28, poor house; 29, powder-house; 30, block-house; 31, gates.]

Other drafts of New York harbor during the first half of the last century will be found in Southack’s _Coast Pilot_, and in Bowen’s _Geography_ (1747). A chart of the Narrows is in a _Set of Plans and Forts in America_, London, 1763, no. 12.

A large plan of _The City and environs of New York, as they were in the years 1742-1744_, drawn by David Grim in the 76th year of his age, in Aug., 1813, as it would seem from recollection, is in the N. Y. Hist. Society’s library, and is engraved in Valentine’s_ N. Y. City Manual_, 1854.

The plan of 1755 (also annexed), made after surveys by the city surveyor, and bearing the arms of New York city, follows a lithograph in Valentine’s _N. Y. City Manual_, 1849, p. 130, after an original plate belonging to Trinity Church, N. Y.

Cf. Valentine’s _New York_, p. 304, and the _Hist. of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church in New York_ (New York, 1886). It was also given in 1763 in a _Set of plans and forts in America_ (no. 1), published in London.

A plan of the northeast environs of New York, made for Lord Loudon, in 1757, is in Valentine’s _Manual_, 1859, p. 108.

The plan of 1755 (p. 255) needs the following

KEY: A, the fort; B, Trinity Church; C, old Dutch church; D, French church; E, new Dutch church; F, Presbyterian meeting; G, Quakers’ meeting; H, Baptist meeting; I, Lutheran church; K, Jews’ synagogue; L, St. George’s Chapel; M, Moravian meeting; N, new Lutheran meeting; O, custom-house; P, governor’s house; Q, secretary’s office; R, city house; S, exchange; T, fish market; V, old slip market; X, meal market; Y, fly market; Z, Burtin’s market; 1, Oswego market; 2, English free school; 3, Dutch free school; 4, block-house; 5, gates.]

Maerschalck’s plan of 1755 was used as the basis of a new plan, with some changes, which is here reproduced (p. 256) after the copy in _Valentine’s Manual_ (1850), and called a _Plan of the City of New York, reduced from an actual survey, by T. Maerschalkm_ [sic], 1763. The following key is in the upper right-hand corner of the original (where the three blanks are in the fac-simile), of a lettering too small for the present reduction:—

KEY: A, shipping port; B, bridge for discharging vessels; C, fountain or wells; D, house of the governor; E, the temple or church; F, parade ground; G, meat-market; H, slaughter-house; J, lower town; K, city hall; L, custom-house and stores; M, powder-magazine.[594]]

The latest of the plans here reproduced is one which is given in Valentine’s _Manual_ (1861, p. 596), and was made by Bellin by order of the Duke de Choiseul, in 1764:—

The view of Philadelphia (reproduced, p. 258) is the larger part of George Heap’s “East Prospect,” as reduced from the _London Mag._, Oct., 1761:—

KEY: 1, Christ Church; 2, state-house; 3, academy; 4, Presbyterian church; 5, Dutch Calvinist church; 6, the court-house; 7, Quakers’ meeting-house; 8, High Street wharf; 9, Mulberry Street; 10, Sassafras Street; 11, Vine Street; 12, Chestnut Street (the other streets are not to be seen from the point of sight); 13, draw-bridge; 14, corn-mill.

The style of the domestic buildings in Pennsylvania during this period may be seen from specimens delineated in Scharf and Westcott’s _Philadelphia_ (particularly the Christopher Saur house in Germantown, in vol. iii. p. 1964); Egle’s _Pennsylvania_; Watson’s _Annals of Philadelphia_; Smith’s _Delaware County_, Rupp’s _Lancaster County_; and other local histories, especially Thompson Westcott’s _Historic buildings of Philadelphia, with notices of their owners and occupants_ (Philad., 1877). The _Penna. Mag. of Hist._, July, 1886, p. 164, gives a view of the first brick house built in New Jersey, that of Christopher White, in 1690.]

The original was first published in London in 1754, and was engraved by Jefferys, and reissued in his _General Topog. of N. America_, etc., 1768, no. 29. It was reproduced on the same scale in Philadelphia, in 1854. In 1857, through the instrumentality of George M. Dallas, then minister to England, a large oil-painting, measuring eight feet long and twenty inches high, was received by the Philadelphia library; and attached to it was an inscription, _The southeast prospect of the City of Philadelphia, by Peter Cooper, painter_, followed by a key to the public and private buildings. Confidence in its literal fidelity is somewhat shaken by the undue profusion of a sort of cupola given to buildings here and there,—one even surmounting the Quaker meeting-house. Antiquaries are agreed that it must have been painted about 1720. Among the private houses prominent in the picture are that of Edward Shippen, at that time occupied by Sir William Keith, then governor of the province, and that of Jonathan Dickinson. (Cf. _Hist. Mag._, i. 137.) It has been reëngraved on a small scale in Scharf and Westcott’s _Hist. of Philadelphia_, vol. i., where will also be found (p. 187) a view of the old court-house, from an ancient drawing (1710). Cf. view of 1744 in _Ibid._, p. 207.