EASTERN NEW YORK Timeline - 1650-1654

1650

Jan 23

Maidstone (East Hampton), Long Island, settlers Thomas Baker, Robert Bond and John Mulford, meet with Southampton representatives to set common boundaries, both sides agreeing to keep hogs and cattle away from the lines.

Apr 27

Lion Gardiner writes to Governor Winthrop to ask that a minister be provided for Maidstone. He lists the books on religion that he can supply a young candidate.

Sep 29

The Treaty of Hartford divides Long Island, along a line from western Oyster Bay directly south, between the Dutch and the English, allowing the Dutch to keep their Hartford lands. Peter Stuyvesant represents the Dutch.

Oct 3

Maidstone elects a constable and four deputies to act as a court, passes legislation concerning town meetings and cast-up whales. ** United English Colony commissioners meet in Hartford, Connecticut, resolve to take Maidstone under their protection, while allowing the town to remain independent.

Nov 27

Maidstone contracts with Vinson Meigs to build and operate a mill, paying him 50 pounds sterling in produce, meat or wampum, and twenty acres of land. The town will transport the timber and millstone to the site. The work must be completed by next June 4th.

Dec 12

Philip Pieterson Schuyler, having arrived from Amsterdam in the Netherlands, earlier in the year, marries Margretta van Schlectenhorst, at Fort Orange (Albany).

1651

Mar 7

The Connecticut General Court summons Maidstone, Long Island, settler Ralph Dayton to appear before it to register the colony and receive new laws for its governance. All settlers will fence their property, load guns for shooting wolves only outside a one-mile perimeter from the village, and keep their dogs confined when the animal's in heat.

Apr 16

Maidstone receives a receipt for its grant from Connecticut.

May 14

Maidstone assigns each householder a strip of land behind his home for his private use, apart from common lands and woodland.

May 19

Maidstone decides that when cattle break through fences and cause harm the animal shall be marked by a piece of wood on its horns.

Aug 23

Maidstone agrees to pay the Reverend Thomas James, its first minister, 45 pounds sterling a year, tax-free land, and the first grain ground every Monday.

Oct 7

Maidstone's General Court calls for a three-man committee to officiate for the coming year, instructs Daniel Turner to find a home with a local family or leave the area, and gives homeowners six weeks to acquire a ladder capable of reaching the top of any thatched roof.

Nov 6

Maidstone establishes a watch for beached whales, places John Mulford in charge. Provision is made to arm each adult male.

Nov 17

Maidstone residents make plans to build a meeting house, agreeing that in the meantime Thomas Baker will be paid 18 pence for each time meetings are held at his house.

1652

Mar 23

An official deed is issued in Connecticut in acknowledgment of the transfer of New York's Shelter Island from the Long Island tribes to Captain Nathaniel Silvester and Ensign John Booth.

Apr 1

New Netherland director general Pieter Stuyvesant establishes the village of Beverwyck (Albany), the second municipality in the future New York State, after Breuckelen (Brooklyn).

May 4

Maidstone arranges for laying out further lots on the "East plaine" and confirms the claims of Ralph Daiton, William Edwards, and Thomas Osborne, Sr.

May 8

Maidstone orders the platting of town lots on the plain, with provision for a road to the village of Wainscott.

May 17

Maidstone orders every landowner with half a dozen cows to provide a bull as well; six pence in stud fees will be paid for every cow impregnated, for the rest of the year.

Jul 2

A son, Gysbert, is born to Philip Pieterson Schuyler and Margretta van Schlectenhorst in Beverwyck (Albany).

Jul 7

Maidstone's General Court orders that the Accabonacc meadows be divided into three parts to facilitate the harvesting of salt hay. Roads are ordered into the northwest meadows, with 30 acres of hay left uncut for the time being.

September

The Indians of eastern Long Island sends sachem Checkanoe (Cockenoe) to Hartford, Connecticut, to plead for their property rights before the Commissioners of the United Colonies of New England. No copy of any previous deed transfer can be found; the commissioners find for the tribes.

Sep 15

Maidstone requires property owners to mark their boundaries, with a fine of 2s 6d for every lot not marked.

Oct 15

Maidstone encourages those with grievances to let them be publicly known.

Nov 2

Maidstone's General Court rules that each man shall vote on each debated issue by show of hand or be fined 6d.

Dec 3

Maidstone appoints Thomas Talmage town whale watcher for the year.

Dec 27

A second, repeat, sale of Long Island Indian lands to colonial purchasers take place.

State

The Van Schaick family is awarded a land patent at Beverwyck (Albany). ** Escaped Royalist Grissel Sylvester Lloyd, young bride of James Lloyd, arrives at Shelter Island, bringing box plants from her garden back in England. The Lloyds are among the first white settlers on the island.

1653

Jan 3

Maidstone orders that half the townspeople be sufficiently armed each Lords Day, subject to a 12d fine, and to bring their arms to town on one day's notice.

Feb 2

Maidstone decides to invite Southold weaver "Goodman" Morgan to relocate, promising him 5 pounds sterling and free land.

Mar 26

Maidstone bans selling provisions to Indians during harvest time. Any doing so will be fined 6d for each pound of bread or quart of meal.

Apr 26

Maidstone, fearing plots by the Dutch in New Amsterdam, forbids Indians to enter town, especially when armed.

May 6

Maidstone rules that the watch will arrive at dusk; if any man fails to show up a replacement will be hired at the delinquent's expense. Also shot and powder will be ordered from Connecticut, to be paid for by butter or cheese at Clarke's home, at Michaelmas.

May 9

Maidstone decides that no citizen shall live away from town without letting three others know the details of his absence. A fine of 40 shillings shall be leveled for each day's unexplained absence.

Jun 9

Maidstone (East Hampton) authorizes a highway west to Georgica.

Jun 13

William Edwards of Maidstone (East Hampton) sues a Mrs. Price for accusing his wife of lying. Thomas Baker testifies that Mrs. Edwards has blamed her husband for bringing her to a godless place without ministers or magistrates. Edwards drops the suit.

Jun 23

Maidstone orders a watering pond to be dug at a spring east of the village, by all those owning cattle. Ralph Dayton and Thomas Baker are named as overseers of the project.

July

Word arrives in the colonies that England and Holland have signed a peace treaty.

Aug 2

Maidstone calls for the town's cattle to be driven out to Wainscott each day, with Thomas Osborne having the first turn, then rotating among the owners.

Jul 5

Two meadows outside of Maidstone, one at Accabonac and one at Northwest, are apportioned out to the townspeople.

Sep 16

Maidstone agrees to give "Goodman" Davis 7 1/2 acres of land after he brings in two more crops on the plain east of the village.

Nov 3

The Iroquois sign a general peace with the French at Montreal.

Dec 9

Maidstone votes to abide by the laws of Connecticut.

State

English settlers from Hempstead are colonizing the Hicksville, Jericho, Oyster Bay and Westbury areas of Long Island.

Indians

Jesuit father Antoine Poncet, captured by the Mohawks under Tekarihoken, in Canada, is brought through the Black River area.

1654

Feb 4

A daughter, Geertruy, is born to Philip Pieterson Schuyler and Margretta van Schlectenhorst in Albany.

May

Pogatticut (Yoki), Grand Sachem of the Long Island tribes, dies near the shores of Little

Peconic Bay between the two forks of the island. He is succeeded by his brother

Wyandanch, the sachem of the Montauks.

May 23

Maidstone moves the house next to Joshua Garlicke's off the Common and converts it to a prison.

Jun 8

Several male residents of Maidstone are accused of sexual self gratification.

Jun 10

The total of Maidstone men charged rises to four.

Jun 26

Three of the four accused in Maidstone, servant Daniel Fairfield, a servant of Joshua Garlicke, and John Davis, are whipped, while Fairfield is pilloried as well. The fate of the fourth man, John Hand, Jr., whose father is on the investigating committee, is unrecorded.

Jun 29

Maidstone agrees to a request from Connecticut to assist England against the Dutch.

Oct 3

Maidstone votes to adopt a version of the Connecticut constitution.

Oct 24

Maidstone signs a Covenant, incorporating the town on religious principles in the Connecticut manner. 40 inhabitants sign.

Nov 9

Maidstone passes legislation placing Lion Gardiner in charge of whale watchers, calling for a road across the swamp to the plain, requiring each man to initial the corners of his property, and placing Thomas Baker in charge of the Ordinary (tavern).

State

Title to the Westchester County Town of East Chester is acquired from the local Indians and confirmed.

(c) 2010 David Minor / Eagles Byte

NEW YORK CITY TIMELINE / 1700-1704

1700

Mar 20

Amsterdam merchants William Banker and Hero May write to advise officers of New York they will be arranging the freedom of hostages of the Barbary pirates and that Trinity Church funds from the colony, sent for the same purpose, will be returned.

City

The population reaches 5,000. ** Isaac De Reimer (D. Dromer) is appointed mayor. ** The second City Hall is completed, at the north end of Broad Street.

Brooklyn

The New Utrecht Reformed Church is built, , adjoining the ca. 1653 New Utrecht Reformed Dutch Church Cemetery.

Staten Island

An addition is made to the home of Captain Thomas Stillwell, containing a paneled fireplace and feather edge partition. The house, on the future Richmond Road, will later be known as the Billiou-Stillwell-Perine House.

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1701

City

Thomas Noell is appointed mayor. ** Netherlands-born Dutch Reformed Church minister Henricus Selyns dies, at the age of 65.

Staten Island

A ferry begins running between Port Richmond and Bayonne, New Jersey.

1702

June

New York City mayor Thomas Hood dies.

September

New York City's common council reports many ill and dying of an epidemic.

Oct 19

Philip French is appointed mayor of New York City.

November

New York's epidemic dies out after killing 570 citizen, closet to 12% of the city's population.

Nov 6

Westchester County landowner Frederick Philipse dies in New York City at the age of 76.

Nov 26

The Reverend George Keith preaches in New York's Trinity Church. Afterwards Governor Cornbury invites him and church rector William Vesey to dine with him at Fort Henry. Cornbury passes along his recommendations for justices of the peace, occasioned by "abusive entertainment" suffered by Keith at the hands of local Quakers.

Dec 10

New York French Church minister the Reverend Peter Peiret petitions Lord Cornbury to resume a salary previously received from the city due to the smallness of his congregation, for his living expenses. Cornbury agrees to a 20 pound per year pension until Peiret's death.

City

The corporation of the city cedes land to the vestry of Trinity Church, as long as the churchyard will be maintained neatly. ** A three-month epidemic apparently comes in from St. Thomas (to be named yellow fever in 1973), kills off nearly one-tenth of the population. ** Dutch publisher Peter Schenk releases his drawing "New Amsterdam, a Small Town in New Holland in North America, on the Island of Manhattan, Renamed New York when it Became Part of the Territory of the English", portraying Nieu Amsterdam around 1673, in his Hecatompolis.

1703

Oct 4

William Peartree is appointed mayor of New York City, serves to 1707.

Oct 14

City government moves from the Dutch Stadt Huys on Pearl Street to City Hall on Wall Street.

Nov 27

New York acting colonial governor James De Lancey is born in New York City, to merchant Etienne (later Stephen) De Lancey (Delancey) and Anne Van Cortlandt De Lancey.

City

The population reaches 4,436. ** An unfamiliar and often fatal disease strikes the city - probably yellow fever - from St. Thomas. Many townspeople flee up the island for the duration. ** The City's Assembly votes 1,500 pounds to build two defensive batteries at the Narrows, the money raised by a poll (head) tax. Royal governor Viscount Cornbury appropriates the money for his own use. When the Assembly objects, Cornbury dissolves the body, and its successor. ** Creiger's (Kriger's) Tavern, at 9-11 Broadway, is replaced by the King's Arms tavern.

State

Legislation calls for the establishment of a road between New York City and the Connecticut line to the east (later the Boston Post Road

1704

Feb 28

French immigrant Elias Neau opens the first school for blacks in New York City.

Apr 3

New York officials, learning that the widow Rombouts and some of her neighbors plan to knock down fortifications on the west side of Broadway and fence in the area from the street to the Hudson River, forbid the project.

Apr 11

A group of New York citizens petition the authorities to ban public auctions, as favoring jobbers and brokers. Nothing is done.

May

The Reverend Jacques Laborie becomes pastor of New York's French Church - Le Temple du Saint-Esprit.

May 25

8,925 feet of city-owned land near New York's Battery is offered for sale at a minimum of threepence a foot.

Jul 18

The rector and trustees of Trinity Church petition royal governor Cornbury, to regain unused money set aside in 1697 for the ransom of those kidnapped by Barbaray pirates, for the church's buildng funds. It's referred to committee.

August

The committee approves the petition.

Dec 13

Reverend Laborie having petitioned Royal governor Lord Cornbury for a salary of 20 pounds a year, the amount his predecessor was allotted, has his request approved.

City

Dormer Island in the Bronx has become Dorman's Island. ** Mrs. Sarah Knight travels from Boston to New York and returns, describing her journey in The Private Journal. ** French Huguenots build the Church du St. Esprit on Pine Street near Nassau. ** Quakers begin holding services in a meeting house off an alley between Liberty Street and Maiden Lane. ** Ferry Road, a Brooklyn road, is laid out leading down to Fulton Ferry Landing.

Staten Island

Resident Captain Thomas Stillwell dies. His 1660s’ house is passed down to his son-in-law Nicholas Britton.

(c) 2011 Eagles Byte / David Minor

The Eggman Cometh

April 10, 2004

The famous poet and story teller from the north, not getting any younger, seeks warmer climes. He arrives in the town by the sea, writes some poems about farming, then dies. Big Yawn! Let's give it to the boys in rewrite. Tell 'em to punch it up a bit. So the rewrite crew, better known as the Medieval Mythmakers, takes the basic outline and cooks up their own version. Which goes something like this -

Long ago, in some Un-United Kingdom far to the west, a Druid magician and astrologer bedded the goddess Maia, or maybe one of her descendants, who soon gave birth to a son. (In an example of dueling myths, some versions even state Maia was a virgin.) It's said that on the day of his birth the ground under Rome shook. Perhaps looking far into the future and getting hooked on television westerns, Dad decided to call the boy Virgil. His parents initiated him into the mystical arts and, at the age of 14, he was sent off to a deserted temple to wait for visions. He was about to get a little shut-eye his first night when something told him to look under the rock he was going to use as a pillow. He uncovered an urn and pulled the stopper, releasing a demon, a beautiful female demon, who gave him a book of spells and a magic wand. And he was off to Hogwarts. No, that was another wizard; he was off east, to Rome.

He spent the first part of his life in the Italian capital, tossing off poetry and the occasional enchantment. Tourists can see the results of one of the latter in Rome today, the Bocca della Verita or Mouth of Truth. One wall at the Church of Santa Maria, contains a large face with a gaping mouth. You place your hand into the mouth. If you are telling the truth you will be unharmed; if there's a lie in your heart or on your lips the mouth snaps shut on your hand. I'm not making this up; ask any tour guide.

After writing the Aeneid Virgil did head south. Traveling down Italy's west coast he eventually came upon the city of Parthenope. Perched between a mountain and a wide, sweeping bay, the city's beauty worked its spell on the magician and he settled in, an early snowbird. There were many other newcomers to the area and it soon became necessary to start a suburb. Which quickly outgrew it's parent and was given the name Neapolis. Later it was decided that 'Naples' was easier to spell.

Virgil, falling in love with the sunny south, decided to make Naples his final dwelling place, but also felt that some home insurance wouldn't be a bad idea. Home-made, of course. Easter hadn't been invented yet, but the far-seeing magician decided to color an egg. Summoning up an ostrich egg, he colored half yellow, with an image of the sun on it, and the rest blue, bearing the symbol of the moon. He then said some magic words and proceeded to carry the egg around the walls of the entire city. Afterwards he passed the egg through vapors from burning sulfur as he intoned: "Though many live and die, the Egg remains, The twofold Egg that turns through night and day. Its shell contains the Force of Life within, Protected from the Chaos that surrounds. So also this our home shall be secure, However long the Egg is kept intact."

He then placed the egg in a cage supported by four pillars, symbolizing the four elements (This made for a very simple Periodic Table). The resulting structure was placed in a hole in the ground and a fortress was built over it. On an egg-shaped floor plan for extra insurance. It must have worked. Go to Naples today and you'll be shown the prison called Castello dell'Ovo, or Castle of the Egg.

Script 358

(c) 2004 David Minor / Eagles Byte