CHAPTER XVI.—THE OLDEN TIME.
Wealth and Rank of the Ancient Families.—Their Vast Landed
Estates.—Distinctions in Dress.—Veneration for the
Patroon.—Kip's Mansion.—Days of the Revolution.—Mr. John
Adams' Journal.—Negro Slavery.—Consequences of the
System.—General Panic.
Many of the families who came from the Old World to the Hudson when New Netherland was under the Dutch regime, brought with them the tokens of their former rank and affluence. Valuable paintings adorned their walls. Rich plate glittered upon their dining table. Obsequious servants, who had been accustomed in feudal Europe to regard their masters as almost beings of a superior order, still looked up to them in the same reverential service. The social distinctions of the old country very soon began to prevail in the thriving village of New York. The governor was fond of show and was fully aware of its influence upon the popular mind. His residence became the seat of quite a genteel little court.
"The country was parcelled out," writes Rev. Bishop Kip,
"among great proprietors. We can trace them from the city of
New Amsterdam to the northern part of the State. In what is
now the thickly populated city were the lands of the
Stuyvesants, originally the Bouwerie of the old governor.
Next above were the grant to the Kip family, called Kip's
Bay, made in 1638. In the centre of the island was the
possessions of the De Lanceys. Opposite, on Long Island, was
the grant of the Laurence family. We cross over Harlaem
river and reach Morrisania, given to the Morris family.
Beyond this on the East river, was De Lancey's farm, another
grant to that powerful family; while on the Hudson to the
west, was the lower Van Courtland manor, and the Phillipse
manor. Above, at Peekskill, was the upper manor of the Van
Courtlands. Then came the manor of Kipsburg, purchased by
the Kip family from the Indians in 1636, and made a royal
grant by governor Dongan two years afterwards.
"Still higher up was the Van Rensselaer manor, twenty-four
miles by forty-eight; and above that the possession of the
Schuylers. Farther west, on the Mohawk, were the broad lands
of Sir William Johnson, created a baronet for his services
in the old French and Indian wars, who lived in a rude
magnificence at Johnson Hall."
The very names of places in some cases show their history. Such for instance, is that of Yonkers. The word Younker, in the languages of northern Europe, means the nobly born, the gentleman. In Westchester, on the Hudson river, still stands the old manor house of the Phillipse family. The writer remembers in his early days when visiting there, the large rooms and richly ornamented ceilings, with quaint old formal gardens about the house. When before the revolution, Mr. Phillipse lived there, lord of all he surveyed, he was always spoken of by his tenantry as the Yonker, the gentleman, par excellence. In fact he was the only person of social rank in that part of the country. In this way the town, which subsequently grew up about the old manor house, took the name of Yonkers.
The early settlement of New England was very different in its character. Nearly all the emigrants were small farmers, upon social equality, cultivating the fields with their own hands. Governors Carver and Bradford worked as diligently with hoe and plough as did any of their associates. They were simply first among equals.
"The only exception to this," writes Mr. Kip,
"which we can remember was the case of the Gardiners of
Maine. Their wide lands were confiscated for their loyalty.
But on account of some informality, after the Revolution,
they managed to recover their property and are still seated
at Gardiner."