Old Taverns of New York

by W. Harrison Bayles

A meeting was called at the Merchants’ Coffee House when it was agreed that the government of the city should be placed in the hands of a committee. Isaac Low, chairman of the committee of observation, issued a notice stating that the committee were unanimously of opinion that a new committee should be elected by the freeholders and freemen for the present unhappy exigency of affairs, to consist of one hundred persons, thirty-three to be a quorum. It was also recommended that they should at the same time choose deputies to represent them in a provincial congress which it was considered highly advisable should be summoned. A committee such as was recommended was chosen May 1, and, at the same time, twenty-one deputies for the city and county of New York, to meet the deputies of the other counties in provincial congress May 22.

The excitement had in no wise abated when the eastern delegates to congress entered the city, Saturday, May 6, on their way to Philadelphia and were received with the greatest enthusiasm. They were met a few miles out of town by a great number of the principal gentlemen of the place and escorted into the city by near a thousand men under arms. John Adams, in his diary, says that from Kingsbridge the number of people continually increased, until he thought the whole city had come out to meet them. The roads, it is said, were lined with greater numbers of people than were known on any occasion before. All the bells of the city rang out a welcome. They were conducted to the tavern of Sam Francis, where they lodged, and a newspaper states that double sentries were placed at the doors of their lodgings, for what special purpose we are not informed, probably simply to keep the crowd in check and maintain order.

The British soldiers garrisoned in the city were powerless to maintain the authority of the crown and were ordered to join the troops at Boston. There were some who advised that they should be made prisoners. The committee, however, agreed to let them depart with their arms and accoutrements without molestation. They accordingly marched out from the barracks to embark about ten o’clock on the morning of June 6, 1775. At the time there were at the tavern of Jasper Drake, in Water Street near Beekman Slip, a place well known as a rendezvous of the Liberty Boys and those opposed to the British measures, about half a dozen men, when word came to them that the British soldiers were leaving the barracks to embark and were taking with them several carts loaded with chests filled with arms.

Transfer of Arms Stopped

They immediately decided that these arms should not be taken from the city. One of the men was Marinus Willett, and what he did that day has become a landmark in the history of the city. They started out on different routes to notify their friends and obtain assistance. Willett went down Water Street to the Coffee House where he notified those who were there of what was to be done and then proceeded down to the Exchange at the foot of Broad Street. When he saw the troops and the carts laden with arms approaching he went up to meet them, and not hesitating a moment, seized the horse drawing the leading cart by the bridle, which caused a halt and brought the officer in command to the front. The crowd that immediately collected, including the mayor, gave Willett little support, but soon John Morin Scott came to his assistance, asserting that the committee had given no permission for the removal of the arms. The result was that the soldiers made no resistance to the seizure of the arms and quietly embarked without them. These arms were used by the first troops raised in New York under the orders of Congress.

MARINUS WILLETT STOPPING THE TRANSFER OF ARMS

The Coffee House

Nesbitt Deane, the hatter, whose shop was in the old Coffee House building, advertised in 1775, to let the two or three upper stories of the house, “being noted for a Notary Public’s office these two years past,” which he further describes “as being so pleasantly situated that a person can see at once the river, shipping, Long Island and all the gentlemen resorting to the House on business from the most distant climes.” Although the Coffee House was generally the resort of strangers as well as citizens, yet, in 1775, on account of the stagnation of business caused by the cessation of all trade with Great Britain, it was almost deserted. This is made plain by an article which appeared in the New York Journal of October 19; and as this has some interesting statements about coffee houses in general and about the Merchants’ Coffee House in particular, we have thought it well to reproduce it entirely.

“To the Inhabitants of New York: