44. The Beginning of Andros' Rule in New York

0:00Volume 1, Chapter 44, The Beginning of Andros's Rule in New York Sir Edmund Andros arrived in November 1674. Almost immediately, he renamed New York and its towns, reappointed the old English magistrates, confirmed previous land grants, and again proclaimed the duke's laws throughout the province. Andros also confronted a problem, the revolutionary towns on eastern Long Island. Having been liberated by Connecticut troops, these long-time rebellious towns, especially South Hold, East Hampton and South Hampton, now proclaimed themselves to be part of Connecticut. Andros threatened to deal with these towns as if they were an outright rebellion. He successfully insisted that Winthrop give up any claim to the Long Island towns and managed to intimidate the protesters. One Long Island critic was sentenced to a severe whipping for writing seditious letters. Confronted by force majeure, as well as the royal charter, the Long Island towns reluctantly succumbed. In that era, a change of regime often meant imposition of of a Loyalty Oath, and Andros decided the following spring, 1675, to impose on all an

1:26oath of allegiance, similar to the one imposed by Nichols a decade earlier. But the Dutch Burgers of New York City remembered that Nichols had promised them religious liberty and other rights against oppression, and that Nichols had readily agreed to a proviso that his forced Loyalty Oath would not impinge on these rights protected by the Articles of Capitulation. The leading Dutchburgers of Manhattan, headed by the original leader of a decade before, Cornelius Steenwik, now urged the same proviso upon Andros. But the Dutchburgers soon found that Andros was no Nichols. Andros promptly charged them with inciting rebellion.

2:14The stunned burghers, including such leaders as de Pasteur, Kipp, Bayard and Beekman, asked for permission to sell their estates and leave New York. Andros's answer was to send eight of them to jail for mutinous and inflammatory behavior. When their case came to trial in October 1675, Andros shrewdly reduced the charge to trading without having taken the The Oath of Allegiance Facing confiscation of their goods, the burghers scrambled to take the oath and secure remission of the penalty, and the other rebellious citizens of Manhattan followed their example. The Long Island towns in the meanwhile found none of their long-standing grievances abated.

3:02Indeed, their troubles were greater now under the tyrannical Andros. Andros insisted on payment of fees to confirm land titles and subsequent payment of the hated annual quit rent. The Long Island towns, led by Southampton and South Old, insisted, as they had before, that the freemen were entitled to their lands by Indian purchase and subsequent settlement and use. But Andros refused to be lenient and in fact threatened to confiscate all the lands and throw them open to all would-be occupiers. It was only then, in 1676, that the towns reluctantly complied. But even then, the quid-rents that Andros levied on these towns as a penalty for their resistance could only be collected by force.

3:51One significant development of this era was the widening of libertarian discontent over the oppressive policies of the central government. From the Long Island towns to other parts of New York, such Dutch towns as Kingston speedily grew delinquent in payment of the newly imposed quit rents. The Long Island towns again led in vigorous opposition to taxes imposed by the Andros administration. Once again they dragged their heels in contributing toward the upkeep of Fort James, this time in 1674. Further, they resisted paying for the construction of a fort in their own oyster bay. During King Philip's War of 1675-76, Andros did not dare impose higher taxes on Long Island, but asked instead for voluntary contributions. And as early as 1676, Huntington was already over a year behind in payment of its property tax to the province and various The first towns continued to refuse to pay excise taxes on liquor.

5:00Eastern Long Island also continued to press for a popular assembly, but here again the significant new factor was the spread of the desire for an assembly to the rest of the colony. The merchants of all the towns began to see an assembly as their only hope of reducing the burden of new and higher customs duties and of gaining the rights and liberties of their colonial neighbors. The Duke of York, however, flatly rejected the idea as of dangerous consequence, nothing being more known than the aptness of such bodies to assume to themselves many privileges And so New York continued to be the only English colony without a representative assembly.

5:55The same English ship that brought Major Andros to America also brought Philip Carteret, returning as governor of New Jersey, at least of its northeastern and overwhelmingly the most populous half. The governor, under instructions from Sir George Cotterett, reconfirmed the interpretation of the original concessions issued in 1672, therewith expanding the powers of governor and council at the expense of the assembly. Land grants made by Cotterett were confirmed, and those by Nichols disavowed. All were required to obtain their land titles from the governor and pay the imposed quit Rents. Nichols's patentees were to receive 500 acres of land each. The old magistracy was returned to power. However, an act of amnesty or oblivion was adopted in the first assembly of 1675, pardoning all rebellious and treasonable offenses made during the time of troubles from 1670 to 1673. From the very first meeting of the New Jersey of the Assembly in 1675, however, the deputies resumed their objections and demanded joint sessions of the Governor's Council and the Assembly, and yet the same Assembly imposed penalties up to and including banishment for such crimes as speaking contemptuously of officials.

7:29The original law forcing every male to equip himself with arms and ammunition and to undergo military training for four days a year was reconfirmed. Every town was commanded to maintain a fort. There were no exceptions for Quakers who were virtually non-existent in eastern New Jersey. Until 1675, there had been no levy in New Jersey to pay a salary to the governor. But now, along with the general increase of taxes, special appropriations for this expense were voted by the assembly. In addition, a voluntary subscription was authorized for the salary in arrears. When subscriptions lagged, the assembly directed each town to appoint a committee to raise the amount, and a lag in response was to be met by a compulsory levy on the town.

8:22The subscription was now clearly less voluntary than before. Even so, the assembly voted in the fall of 1676 a tax for the governor's salary, payable in wheat, peas and tobacco. Taxes in general were payable in wheat, tobacco and other agricultural staples. Although no jurisdictional clashes occurred in these years between New York and New Jersey, troubles were in store. For instance, the Duke of York, at the very same time he re-granted northern New Jersey to Sir George Cotterett, also appointed Andros as governor of all the land from the Connecticut to the Delaware rivers. Quakers. This manifest contradiction could not hope to remain dormant and unresolved forever. We have already touched on the remarkable change in the political fortunes of the Quakers.

9:18A similar shift occurred in New York itself. The Duke of York appointed, along with Andros, William Dyer, a Quaker and son of William and Mary Dyer of Rhode Island, as collector of the Port of New York. Further, Andros an Anglican had a lieutenant governor who was a Catholic, Anthony Brockles. These appointments reflected what has been called a peculiar alliance among Quakers, Catholics and high Anglicans during the Restoration era. The alliance was not so peculiar, however, if we remember that these three groups had been persecuted in England, and in English and in Dutch America, by a common enemy, Calvinism.