Volume 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
oath 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.
The 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.
Indeed, 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.
One 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.
Eastern 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.
The 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.
The 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.
The 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.
A 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.