WEBVTT NOTE 44. The Beginning of Andros' Rule in New York 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.120 Volume 1, Chapter 44, The Beginning of Andros's Rule in New York 2 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:12.480 Sir Edmund Andros arrived in November 1674. 3 00:00:12.480 --> 00:00:19.840 Almost immediately, he renamed New York and its towns, reappointed the old English magistrates, 4 00:00:19.840 --> 00:00:25.440 confirmed previous land grants, and again proclaimed the duke's laws throughout the 5 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:27.560 province. 6 00:00:27.560 --> 00:00:34.080 Andros also confronted a problem, the revolutionary towns on eastern Long Island. Having been 7 00:00:34.080 --> 00:00:40.560 liberated by Connecticut troops, these long-time rebellious towns, especially South Hold, East 8 00:00:40.560 --> 00:00:46.600 Hampton and South Hampton, now proclaimed themselves to be part of Connecticut. Andros 9 00:00:46.600 --> 00:00:52.560 threatened to deal with these towns as if they were an outright rebellion. He successfully 10 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:58.880 insisted that Winthrop give up any claim to the Long Island towns and managed to intimidate 11 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:04.580 the protesters. One Long Island critic was sentenced to a severe whipping for writing 12 00:01:04.580 --> 00:01:11.280 seditious letters. Confronted by force majeure, as well as the royal charter, the Long Island 13 00:01:11.280 --> 00:01:18.520 towns reluctantly succumbed. In that era, a change of regime often meant imposition of 14 00:01:18.520 --> 00:01:26.220 of a Loyalty Oath, and Andros decided the following spring, 1675, to impose on all an 15 00:01:26.220 --> 00:01:32.140 oath of allegiance, similar to the one imposed by Nichols a decade earlier. But the Dutch 16 00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:38.880 Burgers of New York City remembered that Nichols had promised them religious liberty and other 17 00:01:38.880 --> 00:01:45.040 rights against oppression, and that Nichols had readily agreed to a proviso that his forced 18 00:01:45.040 --> 00:01:52.920 Loyalty Oath would not impinge on these rights protected by the Articles of Capitulation. 19 00:01:52.920 --> 00:01:59.640 The leading Dutchburgers of Manhattan, headed by the original leader of a decade before, 20 00:01:59.640 --> 00:02:07.400 Cornelius Steenwik, now urged the same proviso upon Andros. But the Dutchburgers soon found 21 00:02:07.400 --> 00:02:14.160 that Andros was no Nichols. Andros promptly charged them with inciting rebellion. 22 00:02:14.160 --> 00:02:20.920 The stunned burghers, including such leaders as de Pasteur, Kipp, Bayard and Beekman, asked 23 00:02:20.920 --> 00:02:27.080 for permission to sell their estates and leave New York. Andros's answer was to send eight 24 00:02:27.080 --> 00:02:33.160 of them to jail for mutinous and inflammatory behavior. When their case came to trial in 25 00:02:33.160 --> 00:02:40.160 October 1675, Andros shrewdly reduced the charge to trading without having taken the 26 00:02:40.160 --> 00:02:42.160 The Oath of Allegiance 27 00:02:42.160 --> 00:02:50.160 Facing confiscation of their goods, the burghers scrambled to take the oath and secure remission of the penalty, 28 00:02:50.160 --> 00:02:55.160 and the other rebellious citizens of Manhattan followed their example. 29 00:02:55.160 --> 00:03:02.160 The Long Island towns in the meanwhile found none of their long-standing grievances abated. 30 00:03:02.160 --> 00:03:06.160 Indeed, their troubles were greater now under the tyrannical Andros. 31 00:03:06.160 --> 00:03:12.020 Andros insisted on payment of fees to confirm land titles and subsequent payment of the 32 00:03:12.020 --> 00:03:19.280 hated annual quit rent. The Long Island towns, led by Southampton and South Old, insisted, 33 00:03:19.280 --> 00:03:24.740 as they had before, that the freemen were entitled to their lands by Indian purchase 34 00:03:24.740 --> 00:03:31.280 and subsequent settlement and use. But Andros refused to be lenient and in fact threatened 35 00:03:31.280 --> 00:03:36.560 to confiscate all the lands and throw them open to all would-be occupiers. 36 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:42.400 It was only then, in 1676, that the towns reluctantly complied. 37 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:46.840 But even then, the quid-rents that Andros levied on these towns as a penalty for their 38 00:03:46.840 --> 00:03:51.640 resistance could only be collected by force. 39 00:03:51.640 --> 00:03:57.360 One significant development of this era was the widening of libertarian discontent over 40 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:00.880 the oppressive policies of the central government. 41 00:04:00.880 --> 00:04:06.400 From the Long Island towns to other parts of New York, such Dutch towns as Kingston 42 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:12.520 speedily grew delinquent in payment of the newly imposed quit rents. The Long Island 43 00:04:12.520 --> 00:04:19.520 towns again led in vigorous opposition to taxes imposed by the Andros administration. 44 00:04:20.200 --> 00:04:26.360 Once again they dragged their heels in contributing toward the upkeep of Fort James, this time 45 00:04:26.360 --> 00:04:32.860 in 1674. Further, they resisted paying for the construction of a fort in their own oyster 46 00:04:32.860 --> 00:04:39.860 bay. During King Philip's War of 1675-76, Andros did not dare impose higher taxes on 47 00:04:41.820 --> 00:04:48.820 Long Island, but asked instead for voluntary contributions. And as early as 1676, Huntington 48 00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:55.800 was already over a year behind in payment of its property tax to the province and various 49 00:04:55.800 --> 00:05:00.800 The first towns continued to refuse to pay excise taxes on liquor. 50 00:05:00.800 --> 00:05:13.800 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. 51 00:05:13.800 --> 00:05:20.040 The merchants of all the towns began to see an assembly as their only hope of reducing 52 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:26.200 the burden of new and higher customs duties and of gaining the rights and liberties of 53 00:05:26.200 --> 00:05:28.520 their colonial neighbors. 54 00:05:28.520 --> 00:05:35.840 The Duke of York, however, flatly rejected the idea as of dangerous consequence, nothing 55 00:05:35.840 --> 00:05:41.600 being more known than the aptness of such bodies to assume to themselves many privileges 56 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:55.580 And so New York continued to be the only English colony without a representative assembly. 57 00:05:55.580 --> 00:06:02.480 The same English ship that brought Major Andros to America also brought Philip Carteret, returning 58 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:08.960 as governor of New Jersey, at least of its northeastern and overwhelmingly the most populous 59 00:06:08.960 --> 00:06:10.960 half. 60 00:06:10.960 --> 00:06:16.980 The governor, under instructions from Sir George Cotterett, reconfirmed the interpretation 61 00:06:16.980 --> 00:06:24.540 of the original concessions issued in 1672, therewith expanding the powers of governor 62 00:06:24.540 --> 00:06:28.940 and council at the expense of the assembly. 63 00:06:28.940 --> 00:06:35.240 Land grants made by Cotterett were confirmed, and those by Nichols disavowed. 64 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:40.440 All were required to obtain their land titles from the governor and pay the imposed quit 65 00:06:40.440 --> 00:06:48.040 Rents. Nichols's patentees were to receive 500 acres of land each. The old magistracy 66 00:06:48.040 --> 00:06:55.040 was returned to power. However, an act of amnesty or oblivion was adopted in the first 67 00:06:55.040 --> 00:07:02.160 assembly of 1675, pardoning all rebellious and treasonable offenses made during the time 68 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:09.480 of troubles from 1670 to 1673. From the very first meeting of the New Jersey 69 00:07:09.480 --> 00:07:29.480 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. 70 00:07:29.480 --> 00:07:40.480 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. 71 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:43.480 Every town was commanded to maintain a fort. 72 00:07:43.480 --> 00:07:49.480 There were no exceptions for Quakers who were virtually non-existent in eastern New Jersey. 73 00:07:49.480 --> 00:08:05.480 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. 74 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:10.480 In addition, a voluntary subscription was authorized for the salary in arrears. 75 00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:22.480 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. 76 00:08:22.480 --> 00:08:27.480 The subscription was now clearly less voluntary than before. 77 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:37.480 Even so, the assembly voted in the fall of 1676 a tax for the governor's salary, payable in wheat, peas and tobacco. 78 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:42.480 Taxes in general were payable in wheat, tobacco and other agricultural staples. 79 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:50.480 Although no jurisdictional clashes occurred in these years between New York and New Jersey, troubles were in store. 80 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:58.480 For instance, the Duke of York, at the very same time he re-granted northern New Jersey to Sir George Cotterett, 81 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:05.480 also appointed Andros as governor of all the land from the Connecticut to the Delaware rivers. 82 00:09:05.480 --> 00:09:11.560 Quakers. This manifest contradiction could not hope to remain dormant and unresolved 83 00:09:11.560 --> 00:09:18.320 forever. We have already touched on the remarkable change in the political fortunes of the Quakers. 84 00:09:18.320 --> 00:09:25.240 A similar shift occurred in New York itself. The Duke of York appointed, along with Andros, 85 00:09:25.240 --> 00:09:31.480 William Dyer, a Quaker and son of William and Mary Dyer of Rhode Island, as collector 86 00:09:31.480 --> 00:09:38.240 of the Port of New York. Further, Andros an Anglican had a lieutenant governor who was 87 00:09:38.240 --> 00:09:45.240 a Catholic, Anthony Brockles. These appointments reflected what has been called a peculiar 88 00:09:45.240 --> 00:09:52.240 alliance among Quakers, Catholics and high Anglicans during the Restoration era. The alliance 89 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:58.100 was not so peculiar, however, if we remember that these three groups had been persecuted 90 00:09:58.100 --> 00:10:05.100 in England, and in English and in Dutch America, by a common enemy, Calvinism.