EASTERN NEW YORK TIMELINE - 1655-1659

1655

Apr 3

Maidstone (East Hampton) votes to send a delegation to Connecticut next month to discuss a merger.

May 28

Maidstone severely limits the amount of alcohol that can be sold or given to an Indian.

Jul 6

Maidstone apportions meadowlands around Hook Pond to the Reverend Thomas James, Lion Gardiner, Ananias Conklin, Thomas Chatfield and William Hedges.

Oct 3

Maidstone elects Thomas Baker, Lion Gardiner, and John Mulford as town representatives for the coming year.

Dec 3

Mulford, Gardiner and Baker write to Connecticut governor Thomas Welles, asking him to support their attempt to banish accused thief Arthur Chandler, when spring comes.

State

The approximate date the Seneca establish a town in an area known as the Dann-Mack site. today in Mendon township, probably abandoning the site by 1670 and moving on to found Totiakton (Rochester Junction). ** Exiled Scot Alexander Lindsay Glen secures a patent to land north of the Mohawk River, opposite Schenectady. ** Maidstone starts a school in Samuel Parson's home. ** Dutch explorer and patroon David Pietersz De Vries draws an illustration showing the diverse fauna to be found in New Netherland.

1656

Feb 12

Maidstone promulgates laws against striking anyone, or bearing false witness. Fines are set, with medical expenses levied against the attacker.

Feb 22

The Dutch States General ratifies its 1650 agreement with the United Colonies, changing the boundary between the two to a line drawn south from Oyster Bay.

Mar 19

Maidstone sends Thomas Baker, John Hand and Lion Gardiner to Hartford, to form a union with the Connecticut colony. Later in the month Hartford takes Maidstone under its protection, placing a local deputy in the General Court.

Jun 2

The cornerstone is laid for the first church in Beverwyck (Albany) by the congregation of the Reformed Dutch church.

Sep 6

Mohawk Indians request that the Dutch not sell rum to their people.

Oct 7

Maidstone proposes fines for anyone selected Constable, Secretary or Townsman who refuses to serve.

Nov 24

Maidstone restricts Indian activity, ruling against renting them land, or allowing wigwams to be set up in town without permission. They are not allowed to travel through town on the Sabbath.

State

The last 600 Erie surrender to the Iroquois. ** Fort Orange (Albany) trappers take 30,000 beaver pelts. ** Lawyer Adriaen van der Donck's Description of New Netherland.

Netherlands

A pulpit is built that will end up in Albany's 1798 First Dutch Reformed Church.

1657

Feb 4

Maidstone forbids the planting of Indian corn within eight feet of any outer fence, and the forming of any corn stack or haystack on that same ground.

Apr 7

Maidstone shifts the General Court from the first three days of April to the first three of March.

Jul 9

Maidstone agrees to pay the Reverend Thomas James's ú50 salary in redeemable merchandise credit.

Sep 17

Peter Schuyler, future first mayor of Albany, is born there, to Dutch immigrant merchant Philip Schuyler and his wife Margaretta Van Schlectenhorst.

October

A petition, signed by 24 parishioners (including 16 Germans) - to have Lutheran pastor Johannes Ernestus GÅtwasser remain in New Amsterdam - is circulated. Among the

signers is cobbler Jochem Beeckman.

Oct 1

Early Maidstone settler Ananias Conklin dies.

Oct 5

Robert Bond and William Mulford inventory Conklin's estate.

Oct 7

Maidstone votes fines for anyone selected Constable, Secretary or Townsman who refuses to serve without good cause.

Nov 3

Maidstone rules that matters to be brought before the town council by outsiders should always be done through a resident of the town.

State

Father Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot visits the Senecas at Boughton Hill (Ganagarro).

1658

February

In Maidstone Lion Gardiner's daughter Elizabeth Gardiner Howell falls ill, accuses Joshua Garlicke's wife Elizabeth of being a witch and cursing her. When Elizabeth Howell dies the next day an investigation is called for.

Feb 19

The court at Maidstone, presided over by village justices Thomas Baker, John Hand and Joihn Mulford, hears testimony against Goody Garlicke from Samuel Pasons, Arthur Howell and William Russell.

Feb 23

Father, Lion Gardiner, and husband, Arthur Howell, agree that the latter will become legal guardian for Elizabeth Gardiner Howell's infant daughter, including portions of Elizabeth's state received from the Gardiners.

Feb 24

Elizabeth's nurse Goody Howell, and her mother, both make depositions before John Mulford, John Hand and Thomas Baker. Both women testify that Elizabeth told them Goody Garlicke was tormenting her.

Feb 27

Testimony continues. Goody Brookes says Mrs. Gardiner told her Elizabeth was bewitched by a woman. Goody Burdsill testifies that she heard Goody Davis's infant died because she was cursed by Goody Garlicke. Goodman Vaile and his wife refute this, claim Davis gave her child to an Indian woman to nurse and it died of starvation.

Mar 11

Goody Burdsill gives further testimony, says she heard Mrs. Howell accuse Goody Garlike of 'jear'ing her.

Mar 19

The Maidstone council assigns Thomas Baker and John Hand to travel to Connecticut on government matters, escorting Goody Garlicke there for trial.

April

Mary Schott and Francis Weekes, two Hempstead, Long Island, non-Quaker women, are fined 20 guilders for attending a Quaker meeting.

May 3

Maidstone places itself under the Connecticut government.

May

Goody Garlick's trial for witchcraft takes place in Hartford, Connecticut's Court of Magistrates, governor John Winthrop presiding.

May 20

The Connecticut Court exonerates Goody Garlicke, but commends Maidstone authorities for their diligence.

May 22

Maidstone signs a treaty with Montauketts chief Wyandanch, negotiating pasturage at Montauk for seven years and first refusal if the land is ever sold.

Nov 13

Chief Wyandanch agrees to convey half of the whales washed up on the beach to minister Thomas James and the other half to Wyandanch's friend Lion Gardiner, paying only what they deem fair for any whales after the first one.

Nov 30

Maidstone extends its eastern boundary.

State

Settler Alexander Lindsay Glen erects a mansion on the bank of the Mohawk opposite Schenectady. ** Albany's first courthouse is built.

Indians

The Iroquois, backed first by the Dutch, then the English, begin nine years of devastating warfare against the French.

1659

Mar

Maidstone (also now being referred to as East Hampton) formulates laws regulating taverns, which must be licensed by the town.

Apr 19

Maidstone requires landowners to mark their fences with their initials and to keep their livestock penned up except for grazing times on common land.

Apr 25

The directors of the Dutch West India Company write to Stuyvesant, inquiring about a petition for land and mineral grants in the Catskill Mountains made by Garrit Jansen Kuiper and Abel de Wolfe. Stuyvesant will stall, not supplying the information.

Jul 14

Wyandanch gifts Lion Gardiner with a patch of land between Huntington and Seatacut, for his aid in conflict with the Naragansetts in 1653. The sachem dies later this summer, reportedly poisoned.

Sep 20

Several Esopus Indian men are hired by Dutch settlers in Ulster County. When the work is finished one of the natives, liquored up, fires a gun in celebration. Things get out of hand when settlers and soldiers attack the natives, most of whom flee. They return the next day and destroy crops, kill livestock and destroy buildings.

November

Unrest among the Esopus Indians compels the Fort Orange (Albany) authorities to call for the building of a stockade around the settlement. It's left open on the Hudson River side at first but soon all residents living along the river are ordered to erect new fences the same height as the stockade, within eight days.

State

Under 500 Metoac Indians still remain on Long Island.

England

Howell's English Proverbs refers to the wisdom of the men of Gotham.

(c) 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte