A few years later the landlord of this tavern was John Clapp, the maker and publisher of the first almanac by a resident of New York City, which he says was “the product of my many spare Minnits.” It was not the first printed in New York, for Bradford had, for several years, printed Leed’s Almanac. Clapp claims to have been the first person in New York to set up a hackney coach, and announces in his almanac that “about two miles without the City of New York, at the place called the Bowery, any Gentlemen Travellers that are strangers to the City, may have very good Entertainment, for themselves and Horses, where there is also a Hackney Coach and good Saddle Horses to be hired.” He was a promoter of social festivities, which well became him as a genial landlord. In the Almanac, under June, is found the following:
“The 24th of this month is celebrated the Feast of St. John Baptist, in commemoration of which (and to keep up a happy union and lasting friendship by the sweet harmony of good society), a feast is held by the Johns of this city, at John Clapp’s in the Bowery, where any Gentleman whose Christian name is John may find a hearty wellcome to joyn in consort with his namesakes.” He notes that John Clapp’s in the Bowery, two miles from the postoffice, is generally the baiting place where gentlemen take leave of their Friends going on a long journey, “where a parting glass or two of generous Wine,
If well apply’d, makes the dull Horses feel,
One Spur i’ th’ Head is worth two in the heel.”
Seven miles from Clapp’s was the half way house, nine miles further was King’s Bridge, and from King’s Bridge to Old Shute’s, at East Chester, was six miles.
Excepting that of the governor, it is doubtful if there was a single equipage for pleasure in the City of New York at this time, and the ease with which a sled or sleigh could be constructed, which would smoothly and silently glide over the snow, made sleigh-riding a great sport during the period when it could be enjoyed. That John Clapp’s house, at the two mile station, was a great place of resort at such times, is no mere supposition. We have the testimony of Madam Sarah Knight, who was in New York in 1704, that this was so. She had come from Boston to New York on horseback, and the quaint and humorous way in which she has told the story of her travels has made her little book a gem for the antiquarian. She says of the New Yorkers: “Their diversion in the winter is riding sleys about three miles out of town, where they have houses of entertainment at a place called the Bowery.” On an excursion with Mr. Burroughs, she says that she believes that she met that day as many as fifty or sixty “sleys,” which, she says, “fly with great swiftness, and some are so furious that they’ll turn out of the path for none but a Loden cart,” which surely indicates the enthusiasm with which the sport was enjoyed, and John Clapp, at such times, was, no doubt, a very busy man.
John Clapp seems to have received an education which made him a prominent man among the settlers. In the time of Governor Leisler he was a resident of Flushing, when, “at a town meeting upon Long Island where divers of the freeholders of the Towns of Hamsted, Jamaica, Flushing and Newtown wer mett and assembled, to consult on the lamentable state and condition that Theire Maj’ties liege subjects lay under; by the severe oppressions and Tyranical usurpations of Jacob Leisler and his accomplices, it was desired by the freeholders aforesaid that Capt. John Clapp should write an humble letter to Their Maj’ties Secr’ty of Stat in all there behalves and signify to there Maj’ties in what a sad condition we are all in.—Nov. 7th, 1690.” This is followed by a long letter.
He was clerk of the New York Assembly, in session in New York during the year 1692. He was also a tavern keeper at that time, and must have been a man to win the esteem and good will of those who became his guests. Lucas Santen, who was at one time collector of the port of New York, and a member of Governor Dongan’s Council, when he died, in 1692, left “to my landlord, Captain John Clapp, £40 to buy him a mourning ring, in consideration of the trouble I have given him.” The next year Clapp succeeded Cornelissen as landlord of the tavern in the Bowery village. Here all the travel to the north and east passed his door and we can hardly believe that any traveler would, without stopping, pass the door of such a genial and jovial landlord as we are convinced was John Clapp, and we have reason to believe that his house was a favorite resort for the people in the city. He was undoubtedly residing here in 1703, and at some time between this date and 1710 removed to Rye, in Westchester county, for in the latter year John Clapp made returns of the names of men from 16 to 60 in the County of Westchester, and he was interested there in large grants of land.
Towards the close of the seventeenth century there were two features in the local history of New York City which attract attention. For many years before the close of the century it was regarded by the maritime countries of Europe as a protecting port for pirates, and the political disturbances which resulted in the execution of Jacob Leisler and Jacob Minhorne continued to divide the community into two contending factions composed of many bitter partisans.
Trade With Pirates
Respected merchants from New York sent out ships to the coast of Africa for slaves, loaded with liquors, arms, ammunition and other articles, just such as would be desired by pirates, which they exchanged at tremendous advance in prices for the plunder of these robbers of the seas, and returned to New York with slaves and the valuable goods they had thus obtained. One successful voyage was often sufficient to make the owners of the vessel wealthy, and they claimed that they were doing nothing wrong; that they had a perfect right to buy goods of any kind wherever they could purchase them to the best advantage. With some this trade in the plunder of pirates was, no doubt, incidental, but it was profitable, although they ran the risk of being the victims of pirates themselves.