1664] Conquest of New Netherland III the colonial courts. In other respects they enjoyed complete self-government: they elected their own officers and managed their own affairs to suit themselves. The Rhode Island charter also contained a provision for religious equality not unlike that of the first Carolina charter, which was given in the same year. The boundaries of the two colonies, where they approached each other, were not accurately defined. Connecticut's western limits were in accordance with the terms of the old grant to Lord Saye and Sele and Lord Brooke (p. 91); New Haven was Hart's Conincluded within its limits, although such inclusion was temporaries, against a promise given to the latter colony, to writers friendly to it. - according I, No. 121. conquest of New Nether Winsor's 85. Conquest of New Netherland, 1664. It has been The English already stated that the commissioners who came to Massachusetts in 1664 had it also in charge to conquer New land, 1664. Netherland. Its continued possession by the Dutch might prove very detrimental to English interests in North America, and, on the other hand, its acquisition by the English would greatly improve the latter's position on the continent. The conquest was easily effected, and the terms given to the vanquished were most liberal. Nine years later (1673), a Dutch fleet, happening to be on the coast, reconquered it; but at the Peace of Westminster in the following year (1674), it was ceded back to the English. In 1664 Charles II granted the territory to his brother James, Duke of York and Albany, who afterwards ascended the throne as James II. James, on his part, with true Stuart liberality, immediately gave the portion between New York harbor and Delaware Bay to two court favorites, - Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret. The latter had gallantly defended the island of Jersey against the Puritan. forces, and the province was named in his honor, New Jersey. In the resettlement of New York after the conquest, the old Dutch names were changed to English ones: New ch. vi; Grants of and New Old North west, 92-96. Duke of *Howard's Local Consti Amsterdam became New York, and Fort Orange was called Albany; but there were surprisingly few changes which were likely to arouse opposition. Among other things, York's Laws. Nicholls procured copies of the existing New England codes and formulated a system of fundamental law for the new province, known as the Duke of York's Laws. This code formed the basal law of New York and of the settlements on Delaware Bay, which grew into the colonies and states of Delaware and Pennsylvania. Nicholls attempted in this code to combine the free local institutions of New England with a centralized form of government suitable to a conquered province. tutional History, 105-109. New York to 1688. Winsor's America, III, 392-411. The people of all the colonies which had been settled by Englishmen enjoyed representative self-government; but New York had been settled by the Dutch and conquered by the English; its people enjoyed only the rights secured to them by the treaty which brought the conquest to a close. It was not until after the termination of the Dutch wars in 1674, that New York began to grow with rapidity; and, indeed, throughout the whole colonial period, settlement was confined to Long Island and to the banks of the Hudson and the lower Mohawk rivers. The first legislative New York, I assembly held in New York met in 1684, in conformity to the instructions brought over in that year by Governor Dongan. Roberts's ch. xii. Constitu tional His tory of New Jersey. 422-448; 86. Settlement of New Jersey. The history of New Jersey is very complicated and difficult to understand. The colony soon became divided into numerous small portions, each with a history of its own; only the broad lines America, III, of development can be traced in this section. No sooner was the grant made than Sir George Carteret took measures to settle a colony on his share of the new province; he drew up and published an agreement known as the "Concessions." In this document he promised that those who should emigrate under his auspices should enjoy religious freedom and a liberal government resembling that of Maryland. Carteret's relations with his colonists Hart's Contemporaries, I, No. 164. 113 viii. East and West Jersey. were not happy: they contended that he had broken the Concessions. Ultimately, he asserted his authority, but The Quakers these constantly recurring troubles induced Lord Berkeley in New Jersey. to sell his portion of the province to two Quakers, — John Janney's Fenwick and Edward Byllynge. They soon quarreled, Penn, ch. and Byllynge became a bankrupt. Without going into all the details of the arbitration and the arrangements which followed, it may be said that nine tenths of Berkeley's share passed into the hands of the trustees for Byllynge's creditors, the foremost of whom was William Penn; the other tenth, and a sum of money, went to Fenwick in satisfaction of his claim. The Quakers then negotiated with Carteret and secured a division of the province into two parts, East and West Jersey. The Friends took the south western part and soon made many settlements. Fenwick and Byllynge had acquired from Berkeley whatever rights of government he possessed; the Fenwick and the Byllynge trustees received these rights at the time of the arrangements above referred to, and passed them on to those who received grants of land from them. Each landowner in West Jersey, therefore, possessed on his own property whatever rights of jurisdiction Berkeley and Carteret had derived from the Duke of York. The inevitable outcome was a condition of chaos from which West Jersey slowly recovered. There seems to have been a good deal of doubt as to whether any powers of government at all were conferred by the Duke of York on the New Jersey grantees. Sir Edmund Andros, governor of New York, claimed that the Duke had parted with his right only to the soil, and arrested Fenwick and Philip Carteret, governor of East Jersey. In the end (1681) James gave way, and the Jerseys were governed by the proprietors. In 1682 Penn and some two dozen associates acquired Carteret's rights in East Jersey. The later history of the province is the story of the gradual consolidation of all these interests and the surrender of the jurisdiction to the crown. During the early part of the eighteenth century, the colony had the William America, II, Janney's Penn, ch. xxii. Penn enlarges his colonial interests. Janney's Penn, ch. xii. same governor as New York with a legislature of its own; in 1738 a governor of New Jersey was appointed, and the province became independent. Owing to the frugality and industry of its inhabitants, to its freedom from fear of war, protected as it was by New York and Pennsylvania, and to the fertility of its soil, New Jersey enjoyed great prosperity, perhaps more than any other colony. 87. William Penn. - William Penn, who first became interested in American colonization as one of the Byllynge trustees, was the foremost man among the Quakers and one of the most remarkable men of his time. Son of a distinguished admiral of the seventeenth century, he risked all chances of worldly advancement and pecuniary independence for conscience' sake. Himself morally sound, he was the friend and companion of the worst man who ever occupied the English throne; himself a devotee of toleration in matters of religion, he received favors from a religious fanatic of an opposing faith. His Quaker biographers have described him as a hero and a pattern of all the virtues; on the other side, Lord Macaulay has charged him with grave practices, but these slanders have been abundantly refuted. William Penn Desirous to extend his colonial interests, and wishing to have a colony in which he could try his own ideas of government, William Penn obtained from the royal brothers no less than five grants and releases (1680-82). These secured to him the Swedish-Dutch settlements on Delaware Bay and a vast region stretching westward from the Delaware through 1680] Boundaries of Pennsylvania 115 five degrees of longitude to which the name Pennsylvania was given. Of this immense territory William Penn was made proprietary on nearly the same terms on which the Baltimores held Maryland; but the laws of Pennsylvania, unlike those of its neighbor, were to be submitted to the king, who might annul them at any time within three years. Religious toleration also was guaranteed, but provision was made for services according to the rites of the Established Church. Penn's relations with Delaware were not laid down in any charter, and the omission gave rise to trouble in succeeding years; Delaware finally (1703) became independent of Pennsylvania so far as the legislature was concerned; but both provinces had the same governor during the colonial period. Penn's grant. Janney's Penn, ch. xviii; Hins dale's Old Northwest, 98-104; Browne's Maryland; Fisher's Making of Pennsylvania, ch. xi. 88. Boundaries of Pennsylvania. - The boundary dis- Extent of putes of Pennsylvania have been almost endless. dispute with Maryland began immediately; it was due to the loose geographical conceptions then prevalent. The idea evidently was that Penn should possess a continuous strip of land on the southern and western shore of Delaware Bay and River, from Cape Henlopen to the northern boundary of Pennsylvania. This territory, so far as it lay south of the fortieth parallel, had been included in Maryland by the charter of 1632; but it was held that Baltimore had forfeited his rights in this region by permitting the Swedes and the Dutch to make settlements on Delaware Bay. When observations were taken on the spot, it was discovered that there was a gap of some sixteen miles between the northern limit of the Swedish-Dutch colonies, which Penn had obtained by release from the Duke of York, and Pennsylvania, which he had received from the king. The southern boundary of Pennsylvania was the fortieth parallel, which had been the southern boundary of New England under the charter of 1620 and the northern boundary of Maryland under the charter of 1632. Now a most awkward question arose: Penn was determined to retain the control of the navigation of the Delaware. Mason and Hart's Contemporaries, Dixon's Line. I, No. 77. |