Thomas Dongan - Colonial
Governor of New York
June 15, 2011
THOMAS DONGAN ---COLONIAL GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK
By Dennis L. Pearson

Copyright (c) 2009 by Dennis L. Pearson
All Rights Reserved --- No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and
recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
from the author.


Thomas Dongan, Second Earle of Limerick, born in Castletown Kildrought, now
Celbridge, County Kildare, Ireland in 1634; died at London, England in 1715. He
was the youngest son of Irish Baronet, Sir John Dongan, member of the Irish
Parliament, and a nephew of Richard Talbot, who became the Earle of Tycronnel
and Lieutendant-Governor of Ireland.  Another uncle Sir Robert Dongan married
Grace, daughter of Lord Calvert, Baron of Baltimore.  (1) Dongan's oldest brother
Sir William became the first Earle of Limerick in December, 1685. At the death of
Charles I in 1649, the family,(2) 6devoted to the Stuarts, removed to France to
escape the harsh or some charge genocidal or near-genocidal measures
of Oliver Cromwell against Irish Catholics during the short-lived Commonwealth
period in England.(3),(4)

Concerning this period,  we are given a reminder by John Morrill, Professor of
British and Irish History at the University of Cambridge, and a Past President of
the Cromwell Association of what GK  Chesterton's
said of the events in Ireland as they unfolded: "the tragedy of the English
conquest of Ireland in the 17th
century is that the Irish can never forget it and the English can never remember
it."

According to Morrill: "Cromwell was in Ireland from  August 15, 1649 to  May 26,
1650. In that short time he
accomplished a more complete control of Ireland than had been achieved under
any English monarch;
and it led on to the most ruthless process or reports of ethnic cleansing that there
has ever been in
western European history, with the arguable exception of the Norman Conquest.
In the next five years
perhaps three-quarters of the land held by predominantly Catholic Irish people
was confiscated and
redistributed to Protestant Englishmen. At a stroke, the proportion of the land of
Ireland held by the
former fell from three-fifths to one-sixth.

For the 350th anniversary of Cromwell’s return from Ireland In May 2000, John
Morrill asked in an article
entitled "Was Cromwell a War Criminal? Should we extradite him  across time to
face the tribunal of
history on charges of atrocity and ethnic cleansing in Ireland?

In Morrill's words:

"Cromwell spent his time securing control of the east of Ireland, from Drogheda,
30 miles north of Dublin,
to Cork in the south. When he left, only four major Irish towns remained to be
taken: Waterford, Limerick,
Athlone and Galway.

At the heart of Cromwell's conquest was his storming of Drogheda and Wexford.
They represent a grim
legend. In Drogheda more than 3,000 were killed; in Wexford not less than 2,000.
They died from artillery
bombardment, from gunshots, from sword or dagger thrust, or by bludgeon - Sir
Arthur Aston,
commander of the Drogheda garrison, was beaten to death with his own wooden
leg. Many, perhaps
most, were killed in hot blood. But others were killed in cold blood after they had
surrendered or been
captured. Cromwell ordered none in military or religious orders to be spared.        

Another argument  against Cromwell is that he behaved in Ireland radically
differently from how he
behaved in Britain. In the English and Scottish wars there is nothing remotely on
the scale of the
massacres at Drogheda and Wexford. The death rate in military engagements in
England was usually
between five and 10 per cent. At Drogheda and Wexford, it must have been 80
per cent. By Cromwell's
own admission, these included non-combatants killed in the knowledge that they
were non-combatants.
There is detailed testimony from Royalist sources that several Protestant officers
surrendered on
quarter and were subsequently killed. And there is some credible Catholic
testimony from Wexford of
atrocities against civilians after the town had been secured. The Catholic Bishop
Nicholas French, who
was near the town, gave a vivid account of scourging, tortures and hangings of
unarmed priests, friars
and civilians. But above all, Cromwell's own language, reveling in the death of his
enemies,
demonstrates easiness with the violence he unleashed. The Act of Settlement
was a logical
consequence of the conquest he led. Fairfax had refused to lead the Irish
expedition. Cromwell
undertook the mission, knowing full well what the outcome would be."

But in the end Morrill makes this verdict: Cromwell was a soldier of his time with
these words:

"Cromwell failed to rise above the bigotry of his age in respect of the Irish
people. He did rise above it in
other respects (especially in his commitment to religious liberty in Britain). As a
general he behaved
differently in Ireland from how he behaved in England and Scotland. There were
massacres at Drogheda
and Wexford in hot and cold blood. Cromwell's contempt for the Catholic clergy
meant that he permitted
them to be slaughtered. But whether he broke the laws of war then prevailing,
and whether he was
anything like as brutal as many others in the Irish wars, whether indeed he
should be blamed for things
much worse than what happened in Drogheda and Wexford, is still difficult to
establish. (5)

But to this author it is obvious that while the Dongan family did not have a face to
face meeting with
Cromwell , they had to be  aware of his activities and got out of Ireland ahead of
or during the mop up
activities that descended upon Waterford, Limerick, Athlone and Galway.
Ironically, the only places in
Ireland that this author has actually visited.

With the restoration of the British Monarchy under Charles II,  Thomas Dongan's
brother and uncle once
again served the British crown and  were able to win favor from the King for
Thomas in his military
career. Thomas Dongan quickly became a Colonel in the Royal Army in 1674 and
was assigned before
then by the British Crown to serve with his Irish regiment under the French King
Louis IV near Nancy
during the French-Dutch War and also participated in all of  Turenne's campaigns
under the name of
D'Unguent.  (6)

Turenne also known as Henri de La Tour viscount of d'Auvergne was born
September. 11, 1611 in  Sedan,
France and died July 27, 1675 in Sasbach, Baden-Baden. A French military leader
and marshal of France
from 1643, he was one of the greatest military commanders during the reign of
Louis XIV. Beginning his
military career in the   Thirty Years' War (from 1625), he subsequently
commanded the royal armies in the
civil war of the Fronde (1648-53), in the French invasion of the Spanish
Netherlands (1667), and in the
third Dutch War (begun in 1672). Napoleon later deemed him history's greatest
military leader.
As it happened, the development of the Ministry of War by the   Marquis de
Louvois enabled Louis XIV to
command in person, and in the War of Devolution (1667-68) and in the invasion of
Holland (1672) Turenne
marched at his side. Then, when the German allies of the Dutch menaced the
lower Rhineland, Turenne
was once more sent east of the Rhine, but with only 16,000 men, a secondary
command.
Yet these campaigns of 1672-75 brought him enduring fame. Turenne had long
been a master of
"strategic chess moves," but he was bolder now; he offered battle more often
and looked for
opportunities when his more powerful adversaries were weakened by
detachments. By January 1673 he
had broken the German coalition for a time and by invading the county of Mark
had forced the elector
Frederick William of Brandenburg to negotiate; he had also prevented the enemy
from crossing the
Rhine. Later in the year his wider maneuvering against the emperor   Leopold I's
army had such success
that he could have reached Bohemia; but Louvois refused him reinforcement for
a decisive operation,
and when Turenne was called back to cover Alsace, the emperor's forces struck
at Bonn and so broke
the French control of the lower Rhine.

Greatly superior German forces moved toward the Rhine in 1674. Turenne
defeated a detached corps at
Sinzheim, near Heidelberg, on June 16 and ravaged the Palatinate. But by
September he was again west
of the Rhine, with little hope of barring the advance of the main enemy forces. At
Enzheim, near
Strassburg, he attacked them on October 4, but he drew back before a decisive
point was reached; and
as the Brandenburgers also joined the emperor's forces, their 57,000 men
seemed in secure possession
of   Alsace. Turenne replied in December with the most famous of his marches.
He turned south on the
French side of the Vosges, reappeared at Belfort, and, at Turckheim on Jan. 5,
1675, delivered so heavy
a blow on the flank of the main army that the Germans decided to re-cross the
Rhine. Alsace was saved.

In June 1675 Turenne was on the east bank of the Rhine maneuvering against the
Italian field marshal in
imperial service, Raimondo Montecuccoli, for the control of the crossing near
Strassburg. The armies
were in contact at Sasbach, and Turenne was examining a position when he was
killed by a cannon shot
on July 27, 1675. He was buried with the kings of France at Saint-Denis. Later the
emperor Napoleon had
his remains transferred to the Invalides in Paris.  (7)

Incredibly in the period during and after the 30 Years War and Louis XIV’s
incursions – that part of the
Holy Roman Empire which later became Southwest Germany lost approximately
90 percent of its
population by death or emigration ... It took the economy of the area 120 years to
recover.

And of those who emigrated from their homelands because of war and religious
disputes, many came to
William Penn's North American British Colony of Pennsylvania.

The early German speaking immigrants to the U.S were much concerned about
religious freedom for In
their homelands they were told by their ruling prince what religion they were to
practice. Consequently,
many families have their origins in America due to the persecution of France's
Louis XIV and his military
commanders who invaded the Duchy of Lorraine and provinces of the Holy
Roman Empire (now
Southwest Germany).. These people had to convert to Catholicism or die or the
very least have their
property taken away and be enslaved. Emigration of Protestants was forbidden.
However many
Protestants did convert to Catholicism with the aim to emigrate if they could and
then return to their
reformed Christian or Lutheran faith.

The Dongan family which had experienced the pressures of Civil War and
religious persecution in
Ireland because of Cromwell's incursion now had a family member, Thomas, who
was part of a political
and military force doing the same to the lands along the Rhine River and what
became Southwest
Germany,


In these battles a Quadruple Alliance of Germanic States (Holy Roman Empire,
Brandenburg, Münster ) ,
Spain, Denmark, and Holland formed an alliance against France to resist the
encroachments of Louis XIV.,
who had declared war against Holland. It terminated with the treaty of Nijmegen
in 1678

The Treaties of Peace of Nijmegen (Négotiations de Nimegue or Négotiations de
la Paix de Nimègue)
were a series of treaties, signed in the Dutch city of Nijmegen, August 1678 -
December 1679, ending war
between various countries, including France, the Dutch Republic, Spain,
Brandenburg, Sweden,
Denmark, the Prince-Bishopric of Münster, and the Holy Roman Empire, during
the Franco-Dutch War
(1672-1678).

The Franco-Dutch War led to several separate wars, which usually go by separate
names, like the Third
Anglo-Dutch War or Scanian War, but which were directly caused by, and really
form part of, the Franco-
Dutch War. England initially participated in the war on the French side, but
withdrew in 1674 in the Treaty
of Westminster.

Peace negotiations began in 1676, but nothing was agreed to and signed before
1678. These treaties did
not result in a lasting peace. Some of the countries involved signed peace deals
elsewhere, such as the
Treaty of Celle (Sweden made peace with Brunswick and Lunenburg-Celle),
Treaty of Saint-Germain
(France and Sweden made peace with Brandenburg) and Treaty of Fontainebleau
((French dictated
peace between Sweden and Denmark-Norway).

Under the treaty that ended the Franco-Dutch War, France gained control of the
Franche-Comté and
some cities in Flanders and Hainaut (from Spain).(8)

After the Treaty of Nijmegen (1678) , Thomas Dongan  returned to England in
obedience to the order of
the English Government recalling all British subjects in French service.  Through
the Duke of York, a
fellow-officer under Turenne, he was appointed to high rank in the army
designated for service in
Flanders, and was granted an annual pension of £500.  But in The same year
(1678) he was appointed
Lieutenant-Governor of Tangiers by Charles II under William O'Brien, 2nd Earl of
Inchiquin the son of
Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin. (9)

Tangier or Tangiers (Ṭanja طنجة in Berber and Arabic, Tánger in Spanish, Tânger in
Portuguese, and
Tanger in French)  currently is a city of northern Morocco with a population of
about 700,000 (2008
census). It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of
Gibraltar where the
Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. It is the capital of the
Tangier-Tétouan Region.
Tangier was ruled by Umayyads, Abbasids, Idrisids, Fatimids, Caliphate of
Cordoba, Maghrawa Emirate,
Almoravids, Almohads, Marinids and Kingdom of Fez before Portuguese
conquest. When the Portuguese
started their expansion in Morocco, by taking Ceuta in 1415, Tangiers was always
a primary goal. They
failed to capture the city in 1437 but finally occupied it in 1471. The Portuguese
rule (including Spanish
rule between 1580-1640) lasted until 1661, when it was given to Charles II of
England as part of the dowry
from the Portuguese Infanta Catherine of Braganza. The English gave the city a
garrison and a charter
which made it equal to English towns. The English planned to improve the harbor
by building a mole. (10)  
With an improved harbor the town would have played the same role that Gibraltar
later played in British
naval strategy. The mole cost £340,000 and reached 1436 feet long, before being
blown up during the
evacuation.(11)

In Tangiers, Dongan obviously became familiar with the Tangiers Regiment ...
Also known as the Queen's
Royal Regiment.

The Queen’s Royal Regiment was originally raised as the Tangiers Regiment to
garrison Tangiers, part of
the dowry of Princess Catherine of Braganza of Portugal, who was to marry King
Charles II of England in
1662. This Regiment became the senior English Infantry Regiment of the Line,
taking precedence after
the Royal Scots, 1st Foot.

The Regiment first paraded under its Colonel, the Earl of Peterborough, on
Putney Heath on 14th
October 1661, and it sailed for Tangier in January 1662. For 22 years the Regiment
remained in Tangier
guarding the town and the harbor against the continual attacks of the Moors, until
in 1684 financial
pressures at home led King Charles to abandon the town. On its arrival in
England under the command
of Colonel Piercy Kirke the Regiment was granted the title the Queen’s
Regiment, the Queen being still
King Charles’s Queen, Catherine of Braganza. The Battle Honor “Tangier 1662-
1680”, the oldest in the
Army, and shared with only one other Regiment, now The Royal House Guards
Regiment the Blues and
Royals, was not awarded until 1909. (12)

Dongan's excellent handling of affairs in Tangiers won him a commission in 1682
from James, the
Catholic Duke of York, and Lord Proprietor of the Provence of New York as
Governor. James was
determined to provide his proprietary colony with an able colonial Governor
whose main task was to set
up a General Assembly in order to quiet down the discontent of the rebellious
Colonists in the bankrupt
or economically challenged Provence. But interestingly, when the Duke became
King James II of the
British Isles, he discontinued the Provincial Assembly.

Background

The founding of Pennsylvania by William Penn helped to accelerate the political
revolution which had
been preparing in New York ever since the first arrival of Governor Edmund
Andros. During the spring
of 1680 many complaints against this energetic governor found their way across
the ocean. Not only was
fault found with his treatment of New Jersey, but it was said that he showed too
much favor to Dutch
shipping, and especially that he allowed Boston people to trade in furs with the
Mohawks. These rumors
led James, duke of York, to summon Andros to London in order to justify himself.
The governor sailed in
January, 1681, with the expectation that he would return to New York in quick
order  so  he left Lady
Andros in New York. He had little difficulty in satisfying the duke as to his official
conduct, but during his
absence serious troubles broke out in New York, which had been left in charge of
Brockholls, the
lieutenant-governor.

The fact is, The duke’s customs’ duties, which had been imposed in 1677 for
three years, expired in
November, 1680, and by some oversight Sir Edmund neglected to renew them by
special ordinance. After
he had gone, divers merchants refused to pay duties, and Brockholls did not feel
sure that he had
sufficient authority to renew them, a squeamishness for which the duke was far
from thanking him. As
soon as the merchants came to realize the weakness of the situation in which
Brockholls was placed, the
discontent which had smoldered during long years of autocratic rule burst forth in
an explosion that had
momentous consequences.

William Dyer, the duke’s collector of customs at the fort of New York, detained
sundry goods for non-
payment of duties. He was promptly indicted for high treason in taking upon
himself “regal power and
authority over the king’s subjects” by demanding the payment of taxes that were
not legally due. Brought
to trial before a special court, he began by pleading “not guilty,” but after a while
called in question the
competency of the court. The case was a somewhat novel exhibition of legal
ingenuity, which puzzled the
judges, and it was decided to send Dyer over to England for trial. He was
examined in London by the king’
s legal advisers, who found that he had “done nothing amiss,” and presently he
returned to New York to
be “surveyor-general of his Majesty’s customs in the American Plantations.”

The excitement over Dyer’s case found vent in a clamorous demand for a
legislative assembly. People
wagged their heads as they asked whether the arbitrary rule of a lord-proprietor
was any better than the
arbitrary rule of a mercantile company. The old English and Dutch principle of
“taxation only by consent”
was loudly reiterated. At this juncture the duke’s release of the Jerseys and the
founding of
Pennsylvania seemed to bring things to a crisis. Here, said the men of New York,
in these new colonies,
almost at their very door, no laws could be made and no taxes levied except by a
colonial assembly of
freemen. Why could not James Stuart conduct the business of government upon
as liberal principles as
his friends, Philip Carteret and William Penn? A petition was accordingly soon
sent to the duke, in which
the want of a representative assembly was declared an intolerable grievance.
The document reached
him at a favorable moment. He had been complaining that it was hard to raise a
sufficient revenue in his
province of New York, that his officers there were in difficulties and the air was
full of complaints, so that
he had half a mind to sell the country to anybody who would offer a fair price for
it. “What,” cried William
Penn, “sell New York! Don’t think of such a thing. Just give it self-government
and there will be no more
trouble.” James concluded to take the advice. Andros was made a gentleman of
the king’s chamber and
presented with a long lease of the island of Alderney. In his place James sent a
new governor to New
York, with instructions to issue the writs for an election of representatives. With
all his faults and in spite
of his moroseness, this Stuart prince had many excellent men attached to him;
and the new governor for
New York was one of the best of them, Colonel Thomas Dongan, an Irishman of
broad statesmanlike mind
and all the personal magnetism that the Blarney stone is said to impart. His blithe
humor veiled a deep
earnestness of purpose, long experience with Frenchmen had fitted him to deal
with the dangers that
were threatening from Canada, and while he was a most devout Catholic none
could surpass him in
loyalty to Great Britain and its government. (13)

More Background

For more than three centuries England and Holland had been the closest of
friends; but now, at the
close of the long and bloody Thirty Years' War, which ended with the Treaty of
Westphalia in 1648, the
power of Spain was crushed, and the Dutch, no longer having anything to fear
from his Catholic Majesty,
rose to dispute with the English the dominion of the seas. This brought about an
unfriendly rivalry
between the two nations, and the unfriendliness was increased by the fact that
the Dutch of new
Netherland traded freely with the English colonies. They carried great quantities
of Virginia tobacco to
Holland, and thus at least £10,000 a year was lost in customs duties to the British
government

The first Navigation Law, 1651, was aimed largely at the Dutch trader, but the wily
Dutchman ignored the
law and continued as before. This was one cause that determined the English on
the conquest of New
Amsterdam. Another, and probably the chief one, was that the Dutch colony on
the Hudson separated
New England from the other English colonies and threatened British dominion in
North America.

The English claimed New Netherland on the ground of the Cabot discoveries; and
Charles II in1664,
coolly gave the entire country, from the Connecticut to the Delaware, to his
brother James, Duke of York,
ignoring the claims of the Dutch colony, and even disregarded his own charter of
two years with the
younger Winthrop. As it happened, Richard Nicolls of the royal navy set out from
England with a small
fleet comprising five hundred of the king's veterans. Reaching New England, he
was joined by several
hundred of the militia of Connecticut and Long Island, and he sailed for the mouth
of the Hudson.

Peter Stuyvesant had heard of the English fleet's arrival at Boston, but he held
the false belief that its
object was to enforce the Episcopal service upon the Puritans of New England;  
therefore, he never
suspected any danger or threat to his government in New Amsterdam, and
allowed himself to go far up
the Hudson river, to Fort Orange, to quell an Indian disturbance. From that
location, the Dutch Governor
received intelligence  that Nicolls fleet was moving toward New Amsterdam.
Immediately, Stuyvesant
hastened down the river with all speed, arriving at New Amsterdam but one day
before the English fleet
came into view. Nicolls demanded the surrender of the fort. Stuyvesant refused;
he fumed and fretted
and swore and stamped his wooden leg. He tore to bits a conciliatory letter sent
him by Nicolls. He
mustered his forces for defense. But the people were not with him; they were
weary of his tyrannical
government in which they had no part, weary of enriching a company at their
own expense, and the
choleric old governor had to yield. The fort was surrendered (1664) without
bloodshed; New Amsterdam
became New York, after the Duke of York; the upper Hudson also yielded, and
Fort Orange became
Albany, after another of the duke's titles, and all New Netherland, including the
Delaware Valley, passed
under English control.

Historians have argued by what right the English monarch Charles II seized New
Netherland for the
English. It is known that Queen Elizabeth had laid down the postulate that mere
discovery, without
occupation, did not constitute a right to new lands. This was a good rule when
applied to Spain to refute
her claims to North America; However, it was another story when applied to the
English concerning the
Hudson Valley. But the English deftly evaded the difficulty, to their own
satisfaction, by claiming that the
Hudson Valley was part of Virginia as given by James I, in 1606, to two
companies. This tract had been
settled at both ends, -- on the James River and the New England coast, -- and
why should a foreign
power claim the central portion because not yet occupied? This was the English
argument, and their
argument won because it was sustained by military force rather than diplomatic
agreement. And yet, as
argued by Henry William Elson in The History of the United States of America
some providential hand may
easily be seen in this experience. States Elson: "The conquest of New
Netherland was scarcely less
important than was the conquest of New France, a century later, on the Plains of
Abraham. It all belonged
to the preparation -- not for British dominion in North America, but for the
dominion of future generations
that were to occupy the land. Before their power England was yet to go down, as
New Netherland and
New France first went down before hers. Thus England, all unwittingly, became
the instrument in
preparing the way and fighting the battles for a nation that was yet to be born. "
(14)

A short war between England and Holland followed the conquest of Nicolls, and
the Dutch sailed up the
Thames River and visited fearful punishment on the English, though they did not
win back New York. But
nine years after the Nicolls victory, the two nations were again at war, and a
Dutch fleet re-conquered
New York and took possession of the Hudson Valley; but by the treaty of peace
the next year the country
was ceded back to the English, and Dutch rule ceased forever in North America.

At the time of the Nichols conquest the little city at the southern point of
Manhattan contained some
fifteen hundred people, and the whole province about ten thousand, one third of
whom were English.
The colony now became a proprietary colony, but as the proprietor afterward
became king of England, it
was transferred to the list of royal colonies. Nicolls became the first governor. He
was able and
conscientious. The rights of property, of citizenship, and of religious liberty had
been guaranteed in the
terms of capitulation. To these were added at a later date equal taxation and trial
by jury. In one year the
tact and energy of Nicolls had transformed the province practically into an
English colony. After four
years of successful rule Nicolls returned to England -- and a few years later, as he
stood by the side of
his mater, the Duke of York, at the battle of Solebay, his body was torn to pieces
by a cannon ball.

Elson claims, the English inhabitants of New York had gladly welcomed the
change of government, and
even the Dutch had made little resistance, as they were tired of the tyrannical
rule of the Dutch company.
If there was any bitterness against English rule remaining, it was wholly removed
in 1677 by an event of
great importance to both hemispheres -- the marriage of the leading Hollander of
his times, the Prince of
Orange, to the daughter of the Duke of York, the two afterward to become joint
sovereigns of England as
William and Mary. (15)

Elson takes pains to comment on the interesting transition of  this colony from
Dutch to English rule.. He
repudiates claims by a few writers unmentioned here that New York's institutions
were  derived from
Dutch more than from English sources; but to Elson, a little study into this
subject should  easily prove
the contrary. As stated by Elson, the people over whom Nicolls became governor
in 1664 were composed
of three separate communities, each different from the others in its government;
the Dutch settlers on
the Hudson, the settlements on the Delaware, and the English towns that had
grown up under Dutch rule
on Long Island. Now these English towns during the period of the Dutch
supremacy enjoyed far more
liberal local government than did the Dutch towns on the Hudson. And in this one
respect Kieft, who
encouraged popular government among the English towns, was wiser than
Stuyvesant, who opposed it.
(16)  These English towns held their popular meetings, chose their officials, and
transacted other
business after the manner of the New England towns; while in the Dutch towns
there were no town
meetings, no popular elections, the ruling officials forming a kind of close
corporation with power to fill
all vacancies and choose their own successors. States Elson; "As to which of
these types came nearer
being the model for our local government of to-day, no reader need be
informed."  (17)

When Nicolls became governor he made little immediate change in the general
or local government
except to adopt English titles for the public officers. To understand this two
things must be remembered.
First, the charter for New York, true to the Stuart instinct, made the Duke of York
absolute master, and it
made no provision for the people to take any part in their own government;
second, it was practically
such a government that Nicolls already found in New Amsterdam. States Elson:
"With a ready-made
machine at hand, why should he take the trouble to make a new one? " As it
happened, Nicolls
proceeded to frame a code of laws known as "The Duke's Laws." These were
intended at first for the
English settlers only, but where later extended to all. This code was borrowed
largely from the laws of
New England, with the two important omissions that there was no provision for
the people to take any
part in the government, and that there was no religious test for citizenship. It
retained many Dutch
features, and introduced a few new features. To the Court of Assizes, consisting
of governor and
council, sheriff and justice, was assigned the legislative and judicial power; but
as the sheriff and
justices were appointees of the governor, there was no popular government in
the plan. (18)

But as Elson explains, this plan did not prove permanent. The English portion of
the colony clamored for
representative government. The agitation continued until 1681, with Edmund
Andros replacing Nicolls as
governor, when the English population was ready to break into open rebellion,
unless their demand for
an assembly be granted. Accordingly the next year the duke promised the
people an assembly, and the
first one was elected in 1683, while Thomas Dongan was governor. The arrival of
Governor Dongan in
New York, with the news of his errand, was hailed with vociferous delight.  His
assembly composed of
eighteen men elected by the people, now proceeded to adopt a declaration of
rights known as the
"Charter of Liberties," by which it declared the representatives of the people
coordinate with the
governor and council, and that no taxes could be laid without their consent. It
also provided that all laws
be subject to the duke's approval. (19)  Its  composition forcibly reminds us of
what places the Duke of
York’s province consisted. The places represented were Schenectady, Albany,
Rensselaerwyck, Esopus,
Harlem, New York, Staten Island, Long Island (under the name of Yorkshire in
three districts called
“ridings”), Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, and distant Pemaquid. As was
stated, There were in all
eighteen representatives. (20) This assembly divided New York and its
appendages into twelve counties,
the names of some of which are curious: New York, Westchester, Dutchess (after
the duke’s new wife,
Mary of Modena), Albany (Ulster, after the duke’s Irish earldom), Orange (after
William, the duke’s Dutch
son-in-law, destined to supplant him), Richmond (probably after Louise de
Keroualle’s bastard), Kings,
Queens, Suffolk (a good name for such a Puritan county), Dukes (including Martha’
s Vineyard and
neighboring islands), and Cornwall (comprising the Maine districts. (21)

At this point Elson speculates a bit into what might have been the fate of this
charter  if normal
conditions in the Colony had not suddenly changed. The duke's royal brother had
suddenly died, and the
duke became king of England as James II. New York now became a royal colony,
and the new king, who at
heart despised popular government, refused to sign the Charter of Liberties,
abolished the New York
assembly, and sent Andros to govern the colony as consolidated with New
England and New Jersey.
Andros, with a council of seven men, was to govern nine colonies as a
conquered province. The fall of  
James II from the British throne occasioned the immediate fall of Andros; but this
did not bring immediate
peace to New York. According to Elson, the colony would pass through another
exciting experience
beyond our discussion of Thomas Dongan. (22)

In this office Dongan proved himself an able lawgiver, and left an indelible mark
on political and
constitutional history. He convened the first representative assembly of New
York Province on  October
14,1683, at Fort James within the present boundaries of the city of New York. This
assembly, under the
wise supervision of Dongan, passed an act entitled "A Charter of Liberties";
decreed that the supreme
legislative power under the Duke of York shall reside in a governor, council, and
the people convened
in general assembly; conferred upon the members of the assembly rights and
privileges making them a
body coequal to and independent of the British Parliament; established town,
county, and general courts
of justice; solemnly proclaimed the right of religious liberty; and passed acts
enunciating certain
constitutional liberties, e.g. no taxation without representation; taxes could be
levied only by the people
met in general assembly; right of suffrage; no martial law or quartering of the
soldiers without the
consent of the inhabitants; election by majority of votes; and the English law of
real property. (23)

To repeat, the Charter of Liberties was drafted in 1683 by the first representative
assembly in New York
as an instrument of provincial government. The hallmark of Governor Thomas
Dongan's administration,
the charter de-fined the colony's form of government, affirmed basic political
rights, and guaranteed
religious liberty for Christians. It divided the colony into twelve counties, or
"shires," that were to serve
as the basic units of local government. Freeholders from each shire would elect
representatives to
serve in the assembly

Though the powerful Anglo-Dutch oligarchy approved of both Dongan and the
work of the assembly, not
all colonists approved of the charter. Under the charter, the governor retained
appointive powers;
Dongan lost no time wielding them on behalf of an influential few. Only eight of
the first eighteen
assemblymen were Dutch, and of those Dutch appointed by Dongan, most were
from among the most
anglicized, who had long held sway in the colony. Moreover, the charter
contained provisions that were
offensive to Dutch cultural traditions, including laws governing widows' property
rights and
primogeniture.

The Charter of Liberties was disallowed in 1685, when, on the death of Charles II,
New York became a
royal colony under King James, who created the Dominion of New England,
incorporating all of New
England and New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.(24)

Thus to Dongan's term as governor can be dated the Magna Charta of American
constitutional liberties,
for his system of government became the program of continuous political
agitation by the colonists of
New York Province during the eighteenth century. It developed naturally into the
present state
government, and many of its principles passed into the framework of the Federal
Government.
Moreover, a rare tribute to his genius, the government imposed by him on New
York Province, 1683, was
adopted by England after the American War of Independence as the framework of
her colonial policy, and
constitutes the present form of government in Canada, Australia, and the
Transvaal. Dongan signed the
Charter of Liberties October 30, 1683, and on the following day solemnly
proclaimed it at the City Hall of
New York City. The Duke of York signed and sealed the Charter October 4., 1684;
but never returned it,
probably for reasons of prudence, for at the time Charles II had, by a quo
warranto proceeding, abolished
the Charters of New England, and the Charter of Pennsylvania granted in 1684
distinctly admits the right
of Parliament to tax the colonies. (25)

Equally important was Dongan's commission to keep track of the movements of
the French in Canada and
the Indians of New York, It was hoped that Dongan, with the general knowledge
of the French character
through his French service, might maintain the peace in the region. (26)   But
Dongan's policy to shut out
French trade with the Iroquois nation and his weak stand on the Indians wars
which involved the French
made friendly relations between Canada and New York very difficult if not
impossible.

The great problem, the great dilemma, the great slippery slope that Dongan had
to balance was how does
one prevent full scale war with the French when it was necessary to resist
French encroachment of and
check their design of seizing the interior of the North American continent with the
end result of
confining the British to a diminutive strip of land on the Atlantic Seaboard.(27)
Indeed, great pressure,
strained relations, arose during this period when French and English agents
consorted the Indian tribes
for their loyalties. To picture what was happening, think of these agents as NCAA
head and assistant
football coaches seeking out highly talented raw high school recruits for their
high profile football  
programs. Of course, what the college agents wanted was letters of
commitments from these highly
talented raw recruits to attend their schools and be part of their program. What
the competing agents in
the North American field of contention wanted was a letter of commitment
formally called a Treaty from
the various Indian tribes formally establishing a common bond of friendship and
trade. To his credit,
Dongan by treaty with the Indians made at Albany, New York, 1684, in presence
of Lord Howard, Governor
of Virginia, Dongan obtained the written submission of the Iroquois to the
sovereignty and protection of
"the great Sachem Charles that lives over the Great Lake"  on two white deer-
skins, and outlined the
masterly Indian policy which kept the Five Nations friends of England and a
barrier between the English
and French possessions in North America, a policy afterwards maintained with
success by Sir William
Johnson. By this Treaty the Iroquois placed also submitted to the government of
New York.(28)

However, there was a cost for the government of New York to maintain its  good
relations with its client
Indian tribes. Governor Dongan who inherited a Provincial government which
could be said to be
bankrupt at worst case or economically challenged at best case, needed to
continue to strain the
resources of New York in order to maintain the allegiance of his Indian subjects.
That's because French
interference with these tribes did not completely go away. (29)

Dongan's correspondence with his Canadian counterparts (De la Barre and
Denonville) protesting
against continuing French provoked hostilities in Iroquois lands demonstrate
what manner of man he
was. He was ever watchful, vigilant and thoroughly committed to the contracted
and territorial interests
of his British Colony; what-is-more, he was very much jealous of any
interference with his native allies by
the French. As a former soldier, the Governor knew the value of strategic as well
as commercial centers.
Therefore, he established forts at Albany, New York, Pemaquid and made Albany
a fur center. (30)

Policy wise, the Duke of York wanted to avoid anything that might involve New
York in serious disputes
with the French. (31)   However, Dongan was more of a realist. The Governor
knew that in order to
maintain the security of the colony, military preparations must be made because
the French menace was
not imagined , it did exist. The French, according to accounts by Dongan, violated
both British
sovereignty and territory in their contacts and dealing with the Indians under New
York protection; And it
was the Governor's contention that the Duke's sovereignty over the Indians
comprised all the territory
south of the St. Lawrence Rover and Lake Ontario. (32)

One thing of note we can say about Thomas Dongan is that in the end he was
successful in establishing
the boundary lines of the province by settling disputes with Connecticut on the
East, with the French
Governor of Canada on the North, with Pennsylvania on the South, thus marking
out the present limits of
New York State. As we said before, by treaty with the Indians made at Albany,
New York, 1684, in
presence of Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia, Dongan obtained the written
submission of the Iroquois
to the Great Sachem Charles, on two white deer-skins, and outlined the masterly
Indian policy which kept
the Five Nations friends of England and a barrier between the English and French
possessions in North
America, a policy afterwards maintained with success by Sir William Johnson. At
the death of Charles II,
1685, James Duke of York was proclaimed king, and New York became a royal
province.(33)

Dongan knew as well as the French that control of the western economy
depended upon the
cooperation of the fierce Iroquois nation. The Iroquois served as the guardians of
the fur trade. To
Dongan, the fur trade was more than just a profitable business. It was the means
of winning the English a
new Empire. The nation that had the Iroquois support would hold an important
advantage over its rival.
(34)

The French attempted to gain trade advantages through the influence of the
Jesuit fathers who worked
among the Indians. Dongan, eventually came to the realization that the Jesuits
became a tool for French
expansion; therefore, he desired to replace them with English missionaries. (35)

The English attempted to exercise economic control over the Indians by
establishing a protectorate over
them through periodic conferences of friendship. Dongan, upon arrival at New
York, saw the need for an
Indian Conference; therefore, he called for a conference to be convened at Fort
James in New York City
on October 9, 1683.  (36)

Indian conferences were generally conducted in the Indian tongue and the
interpreters who could not
speak English wrote their minutes in Dutch. The transactions were then recorded
in Dutch by the
Secretary --- after 1675, Robert Livingston or a deputy -- and were translated into
English only if deemed
important enough to forward to the governor. Most conferences were irregular
meetings between the
magistrates of Albany and one or more Indians who came to that community
during the course of the
year. More important were the full dress councils at Albany attended by the
Governor and his
administration on one hand and a full representative of Iroquois Sachems with
their spokesman and
warriors on the other hand. However, for some unexplained reason, Dongan for
the first meeting with
the Indians held the conference at Fort James in New York City rather than
Albany. These
occasions were not unknown in Peter Stuyvesant's time but they occurred more
and more frequently
after 1664. The presentation of the Governor's speech gradually became an
important procedure as
Iroquois relations gained in stature and conferences became week long affairs.
(37)

Another feature of Indian Conferences, informal and formal, was the exchange of
gifts. This was a
tradition among the Indians and anteceded the White man's coming. No meeting
could be held and no
agreement could be made without sealing the transactions with tokens of
sincerity. The Indian offering
took the form of peltry and were seldom very considerable except at full
conferences. In return, the
Indians expected to receive more expensive gifts.. These were composed of all
the customary trading
but it also included woolen cloth, rum, power and lead. The Sachems received
laced coats, hats, shirts
and other items they considered as being marks of social and political status. Not
unexpectingly, guns
were also given to the Indians. In early years, the English gave the guns away
with care but later they
were given in large quantities for the harassment of western tribes and the
French. The Governor
brought his gifts with him to the larger conferences. They were paid by the
colony and eventually money
was supplied by the royal coffers. Before 1689, they never exceeded $150.00 in
value but they grew
steadily in amount. (38)

At this conference, the Governor told the Indians that the King and his Royal
Highness had a great
kindness for them and that he himself would be glad to have good
correspondence and friendship with
them as other governors before had. He asked the Indians "to treat no more with
the French, nor 'goe'
(sic) there if sent for without the leave of the government, and to permit no
Frenchman to live amongst
them accept the Jesuits and each of them a man and such as shall have a 'passe '
(sic) from the
Governor of New York." The Governor requested that the Indians make peace
with their Brethren who
went to Canada and encourage them to come home so that all the trade of the
area could come to his
government. If the Indians would abide by these regulations, the Governor would
look upon them as
children offering them the full protection of the government. (39)

In asking the Indians to make peace with their Brethren, Governor Dongan was
referring to one of his
government's most pressing problem --- the Caughnwagy Indians. The
Caughnwagy were a band of
praying Indians of Oneidas and Mohawks that were converted to Catholicism and
moved to Canada in
1668. These Indians not only worked to convert the other Indians but made any
attack upon Canada
extremely dangerous due to the Mohawk and Oneidas unwillingness to fight their
Brethren. Dongan tried
to weaken this obvious French advantage by bringing the Caughnwagy back to
New York by offering
them English priests and lands. The priests, he hoped, would be supplied by his
King, a Catholic. Robert
Livingston was to assist the Mohawks and Oneidas in bringing the Caughnwagy
back.(40)

The Indians looked kindly upon the Governor's proposal to treat them as his
children; and , respectfully
briefed the Governor to the fact that the Governor of Canada had made similar
offers to them. Then upon
consideration, they said in the following statement  that they will heed the advice
of the Governor of New
York:
"His Honor having told them they should harbour (sic) no French, but the Jesuits
and each of them a
man, they answer they will never suffer any straggler Frenchman amongst them,
but those Jesuits who
are very good men and very quiet and yet if his Honor shall please, they will
send them away also," (41)

As it happened, Governor Dongan after obtaining the above pledge from the
Indians, was emboldened to
issue an order to the Mohawks to hoist "a ragged Ship's flag" bearing the English
arms on their lands,
territory and country.(42)  Then on November 26, 1683 , Dongan, by proclamation,
forbade all persons
from trading with the Indians who have not received a license from the
Secretary's Office of New York.
(43)

As French and Iroquois affairs assumed greater importance, New York's
relationship with the Five
Nations also led to strained relations with other British Colonies in North
America.  (44)

As it happened, the Mohawks at the before mentioned Fort James meeting, also
agreed to cede the
Susquehanna River to the government of New York. Which on the surface was a
wonderful diplomatic
and territorial  gain for New York and its Governor. But Unfortunately, this grant of
land by the Mohawks
to Dongan conflicted with a Pennsylvania claim, and had the effect of producing a
bitter quarrel with
William Penn, the Proprietor of the Colony of Pennsylvania. Dongan, in
announcing this grant, expressed
the hope that he and Penn would not split or be divided on the issue. He desired
that Penn and himself
would join together to advance the interests of his master and Penn's Friend, the
Duke of York.
However, as it sometimes happens, the interests of the two colonies were not
mutual. Dongan was
preoccupied with the desire to stop French intrigue in the Duke's land and create
a monopoly of trade in
the area. Dongan, therefore, did not accommodate to or be willing to Penn's
request to also engage in
Susquehanna trade with the Indians. This was so because Dongan did not wish to
give up any acreage of
the land or trade rights which he recently received or acquired from the
Mohawks. And also, Dongan, the
Governor of New York, did not desire to see his southern neighbor gain in
importance among already
existing  British Colonies in North America by the addition of new territory. Thus
it followed naturally, that
when William Penn asked the Governor of New York to mediate the boundary
dispute between the two
Colonies, Dongan coldly sent Penn's agents away with the remark: " Mr. Penn
has already more land than
he could populate these many year." And of course, Dongan's responses and
corresponding actions  to
Penn's requests did not win the friendship of William Penn , rather, it produced
the opposite. William
Penn from therein was a bitter enemy of Thomas Dongan.  (45)

During the time period when the New York Governor was attempting to establish
protectorate over the
Indians in New York, the Governor of Canada voiced a complaint that the English
Colony was siding and
abetting the Indian attack on the French. In a document dated May 30, 1683, the
Canadian Governor
charged that the Senecas were preparing with the Cayugas to attack the French
at the end of the
summer with the approval  of the English who planned to cut off their trade with
the Ottawas. De  la Barre
also maintained that the English harbored a large body of French deserters whom
they hired as guides
to enhance their trade with the Ottawas.  (46)

Due to the above charges made by the Governor of Canada, a series of
dispatches established a line of
communication in order to maintain the peace in that region. Thomas Dongan
opened up the exchange
by telling De la Barre that the he has been misinformed as to the  Iroquois.
Dongan said that the Iroquois
have traded with his government for about forty years and nowhere else, unless
they (The French) did it
by "stealth." Governor Dongan then reminded De la Barre that the Iroquois were
nearer to his colony
then his and that the comprised all the land to the south and Southwest of the
Lake of Canada. (47)  Then
added in reply to the French claim that French Missionaries had planted
Christianity in that region long
before any other Europeans had seen it and that the Governors of New France
had gained sovereignty
in the region by conquest and treaties, Dongan maintained that the English had
proper claim also. (48)   
To conclude this early communication, Dongan informed De la Barre that
"nobody hath a greater desire
to have a strict union with you, and good correspondence, than myself (himself),
who served long time in
France, and was much obliged by the King and gentry of the country."  (49)

Peace, however, did not come easily to the region since the Indian tribes of the
Mohawk Valley
continued to bring trouble to the French. Consequently, these Indian attacks was
the cause for the next
communication between De la Barre and Dongan. De la Barre charged  that the
Senecas and Cayugas
had made a sneak attack on Fort Saint Louis after he made an arrangement with
them to remove
Monsieur de la Salle from his post and plundered seven French canoes laden
with merchandise for  
trade detaining the fourteen French crewman for ten days. This operation,  De la
Barre added was
carried out as negotiations were in process to settle the obvious strained
relations between them and
the Senecas and served only to exacerbate the situation. Therefore De la Barre
charged that since he
could expect nothing but murder and treason from these people that there was
no doubt in his mind that
war must be declared on them. Therefore, he concluded that he must send
expeditions out to punish
them. The Governor of Canada made it clear that because the Mohawks and the
Oneidas were not
involved in the incident,  they wouldn't  be  a target of French reprisals that would
be inflicted upon the
Senecas. Governor De la Barre diplomatically asked Dongan to forbid the
merchants of Albany to sell
arms, powder or lead to those Iroquois who attacked his subjects and to those
tribes who may serve as
middlemen by disposing  of or transferring any of these items to them. The
Canadian Governor surmised
that these attacks alone can intimidate them; and when they see the Christians
united on this subject,
they will show more respect than they have hitherto. (50)

It so happened that the Seneca Ambassador Tagancourt was in Quebec during
the time of the ratification
of the now meaningless Treaty between the French and the Senecas. Therefore
the Canadian Governor
detained the Seneca ambassador due to the Indian attacks on his men.(51)  Soon
afterwards, he ordered
Jesuit missionaries Millet at Oneida, and the two Lambervilles at Onondaga, to
intrigue in order to cause
division within the Iroquois Confederation that consisted of Five Indian tribes
which were sovereign
states in their own right. The Iroquois Confederation was in sense a democracy
that conducted its
general business through a council of Sachems at Onondaga.(52)  The allies of
the French in the West (
Hurons, Ottawas, and the Miamias) were deployed to the conflict area and Fort
Frontenac was
reinforced. (53)

Upon receiving Governor De la Barre's memorandum, Dongan expressed regrets
that he was not able to
prevent recent hostilities. He stated that the Indians under question had placed
themselves under the
protection of the King's government and are therefore subjects of the English
monarch. Reaffirming the
boundary extent of the Province of New York, Dongan accused the subjects of
New France of violating
territorial lands of the English nation. He expressed shock at a thing which would
be scarcely believed in
England. Dongan made it clear that he desired that the French government
restrict their subjects from
engaging in trade with the Indian nations who were under the protection of the
English. Dongan then
made the proposal that if the French did not come South of the St. Lawrence and
Lake Ontario, he would
forbid the people of his province to go on the other side of the Lake. The
Governor added that he was
so heartily bent to promote the quiet and tranquility of this country and De la
Barre's that he planned to
hold an Indian Conference in Albany in order to alleviate the cause for the French
complaint. And added,
if the Indians refused to give a just explanation for the incident, Dongan promised
that he would not
protect them. (54)

At Albany, the Governor was confronted by Sachems of the Indian nations who
came to Albany on urgent
business. They told the Governor of concerns that he could not ignore.
Therefore, Governor Dongan
immediately wrote to De la Barre, his counterpart in New France, that the Indians
under his protection
feared that the French were planning to make war on them and that they believed
that the expedition
had already begun. The New York Governor expressed indignation that De la
Barre's government should
think of such a plan after the assurance Dongan gave to him to give satisfaction
for the complaint. He
then made the suggestion that if relations between the Canadian government and
the Indians could not
be reconciled by actions in the new world, then the problem must be referred to
their masters in Europe.
(55)  In addition, Dongan was quick to add that the Coat of Arms of his Royal
Highness, the Duke of York,
was set up in the Indian castles of his command in order to dissuade the French
from performing any
actions which would cause a misunderstanding between the parties. (56)

The Indian conference, which Dongan desired convened, met on July 30, 1684. It
was a general
conference in which representatives from other English colonies discussed
problems they faced with
the Indians. Lord Effingham from Virginia sought to end, with Dongan's
assistance, the frequent and
intense Iroquois raids on settlements in Northern Virginia and Maryland which
became a major source of
concern due to the violation of a compact made at Albany in August, 1682.(57)
Counselor Van Courtland
from Massachusetts came to the conference with the hope to re-establish
friendly relations with the
Mohawks.

In the end, the importance of the conference rested on what was said rather than
any concrete results it
brought. (58)   Never-the-less the New York Governor did get a pledge from the
Iroquois that they would
place themselves under the sovereignty and protection "of the great Sachem
Charles that lives over the
Great Lake, and submitted to the authority of the government of New York." (59)

Governor De la Barre in his communication of July  25, 1684 that was actually
written before the Albany
Indian Conference called for by the New York Governor had met, expressed
shock at the attitude alluded
to by the Governor of New York  in an earlier Communiqué that the Canadian
Governor had received. Of
importance, t a credibility gap was developing between the two Governors. Both
men in their
communications could not admit that they were contributing to a dangerous
situation which could lead to
an all out war. Both men were looking for justifications for their actions. De la
Barre in this
communication would not accept or cater to Dongan's pretensions that the
Duke's land extended to the
Lake of Ontario and the St. Lawrence River. De la Barre clearly  took offense to
the fact that at a time
when his government was about to punish the Senecas and Cayugas for their
acts of robbery and
assassination, the Governor of New York served as their protector. De la Barre
therein decided to send
Monsieur de Salvaye  to Albany to explain the incident to Dongan in hope that he
might change his mind.
(60)

Monsieur de Salvaye, as per instructions from De la Barre, told Dongan:

"The Iroquois having lived, previous to the arrival of M, de la Barre in his
Government with little
consideration for the French, he was desirous to speak to them, to see if they
were friends or foes, and
that purpose they were all assembled at Montreal last August where everything
was arranged on a
friendly basis; even the Senecas and Cayugas had demanded sieur De la Barre
withdraw Sieur de la Salle
from the government of St. Louis in Illinois." (61)

The French agent then charged that after De la Barre carried out his part of the
friendship bond, the
Indians responded to his gracias concessions with nothing more but blood. He
testified that a band of
200 Senecas and Cayuga warriors attacked in March of 1684 a French trading
party numbering fourteen
whose mission was to trade with the Sioux. These men were overwhelmed and
their seven canoes and
goods amounting to sixteen thousand pounds worth of merchandise were
plundered. The Indians
detained the men for nine days, subjecting them to many taunts and insults
including disrobement to
prevent escape. When the men were finally released, Salvaye charged that they
were not given arms,
provisions or canoes for enabling them to cross the rivers. Shortly thereafter, the
before said Iroquois
went and attacked Fort St. Louis where Monsieur Chevalier de Baugy was in
command. The Indians
withdrew March 29, 16, 1684 after they failed three times in overturning the fort.  
(62)

Dongan, in replying to the instructions that De la Barre had given to his official
representative, said that
he had no intension of justifying injuries inflicted by the Indians to the French 400
leagues southwest
from Montreal or anywhere else. He reaffirmed his opinion that the Canadian
Governor's pretensions to
that country on the slender grounds that it was served by Jesuit missionaries
was false. He wondered if
this complaint was just another excuse to extend one's borders without just
cause. The governor then
once again made the promise that in due time the French governor would get the
satisfaction he desired
on the raid, Dongan in this communication was amused by the fact that the
Canadian governor had to ask
the subjects of a friendly power whether they were friends or enemies. The New
York governor
concluded his response by wishing that his northern neighbor would have
informed him before
threatening military reprisal against the Indians. (63)

As it occurred, De la Barre began his expedition against the Iroquois on August
14, 1684 despite
Governor Dongan's pleas. At first he was very successful, but continuing Indian
warfare strained his
resources. Gradually, De la Barre was forced to retreat and pull back his forces to
Fort Frontenac. At Fort
Frontenac, fever gradually reduced the ranks of his troops and De la Barre
hastened across Lake Huron
to the Salmon River. And as events evolved, De la Barre was forced to make
Peace at La Famine. But this
so-called peace was achieved at a cost ... The  now humbled Governor of New
France also known as
Canada had to agree to take his troops back to Quebec. The Iroquois in return
promised to protect the
Frenchman from harm as they continued their Indian feud with the Iroquois. (64)

With a expectation of peace arranged on this basis, the French troops went home
without accomplishing
the objectives that their leader De la Barre desired for this expedition. On the
other  hand, Governor
Dongan of New York, who had not committed the use of New York military forces
to meet the threat of
French forces in New York among his Indians, but did indeed supply the Senecas
with ammunitions,
effectively won a battle in his quest toward English control over the Indians. And
importantly, this Indian
victory over the French strengthened the English among the Indians of New
York. For De la Barre, it
meant that his days as a French Governor in the New World  would soon end with
the naming of a new
Governor by the French government.

De la Barre was replaced as Governor by the Marquis de Denonville about the
same time Thomas
Dongan became the Royal Governor of New York when Charles II, the King of
England had died, and the
James, the Duke of York, had assumed the Crown as James II. According to
Herbert Osgood, Denonville
was a man of large experience, especially in military affairs, alert, systematic,
and enthusiastic in the
service of the French Crown. His prime mission in being sent to New France was
to repair the damage
which had come to French interests through the weakness and mismanagement
of De la Barre. (65)  The
fact is, the French government was so mortified with De la Barre that the copy of
his Treaty of La Famine,
now in the Archives of the Marine at Paris, is endorsed by Jean-Baptiste Antoine
Colbert, Marquis de
Seignelay (66)  with the words: "These are to kept secret." (67)

Denonville was instructed by the French Government to "humble the pride of the
Iroquois" and give
assistance to the Illinois and other western tribes who were abandoned by his
inept predecessor. The
new governor was informed that Dongan was attempting to establish English
control over the Five
Nations and the territory up to and including the St. Lawrence River. Yet,
Denonville was ordered to
maintain a good understanding with the English colonists. On the other hand, if
any English subject
should excite and aid the Indians against the French without the same time
attempting anything on
territory under the obedience of the King of England, they must be treated as
enemies when found on
Indian territory. (68)  At the same time, Monsieur Barillon, the French minister to
the English court, was
ordered to raise a complaint to James, the former Duke of York and recently
established King of
England, that Dongan had hoisted the King's Coat of Arms on the villages of the
Iroquois and to demand
that James order Dongan "to confine himself within the limits of the government
and observe a different
line of conduct toward Sieur de Denonville." With these instructions, Denonville
was certain that Louis
XIV and his ministers would approve any aggressive policy which he would
engineer during his reign.
(69)

Dongan, because of deep political division in England, was not sure whether his
policies would meet the
approval of the new monarch.(70)  In fact, Dongan did not succeed in getting the
King to recognize
officially the Iroquois as his subjects until November 10, 1687.(71)  It was a sign of
Dongan's
foresightedness that he asserted his claim in defiance of two Canadian
governors. It was to his credit
that Dongan did not let his Indian policy be influenced by religions emotions.
Dongan was a Catholic
whom based his policy on his loyalty to his Master and the Colony to which he
served. It was a sign of
courage that Dongan asserted these claims without the approval of the other
English colonies which
remained totally aloof from the whole affair since it did not concern them. In fact,
their main problems
stemmed from the very Indians which were under Dongan's protection. The
governor had a deep desire
to establish a commercial military outpost at Niagara in order to gain trade
advantages among the
western Indians. (72)

The governor in 1685 initiated a policy of sending traders to the Ottawas. Before
this time, Greehalgh
and his companions were the only Europeans under the New York government
who has traveled as far
as Seneca country. In a report of the State of the Province, Dongan expressed
great pride when he
reported, "Last Year some of our People   went trading among the far Indians
called the Ottawas
inhabiting about three months journey to the West and West North of Albany from
whence they brought
many beavers. They found their people more inclined to trade with them then the
French. The French not
being able to protect them from the arms of our Indians with whom they had
continued warfare, so that
our Indians brought away this very year a great many prisoners." Dongan then
added that he hoped that
his Indians would make peace with the Ottawas so that a commercial road could
link Albany to the
Ottawas, The governor then reported that intelligence informed him that the
French governor of Canada
had built two forts in order to block English trade with the Western Indians.  To
guard against further
French efforts to stop English trade, Dongan sent Colonel Patrick MacGregory, a
Scotsman who served
in the French army and later was killed during the Leisler Rebellion, to
accompany the trading parties.
MacGregory, however, was not to initiate any conflict.
Denonville as noted before was assigned to his charge in order to repair the
sagging French prestige
among the western Indians and to humble the pride of the Iroquois. Before he
could accomplish this
feat, he had to repair the defenses which De la Barre allowed to lapse. But he
knew the Iroquois would
launch attacks against him as soon as construction should begin. Therefore, he
asked Louis XIV to send
regular French troops to the New World to aid him. Unfortunately, aid did not
arrive from Louis and the
Seneca warfare against the Illinois continued to weaken French prestige.
Denonville soon became
painfully aware that Dongan did not forbid the merchants of Albany from
supplying the Iroquois with
weapons and ammunition and eventually charged him with inciting the Indians to
attack the French.
Dongan always answered to this charge with a vigorous denial. Undaunted by
such adversity, Denonville
continued preparations for way while seeking to open up dialogue with Dongan.  
In this dialogue, Denonville tried to avoid the pitfalls which undid his
predecessor. Instead of creating a
running debate over the extent of territory each governor legally had jurisdiction
over, Denonville tried
to appeal to Dongan's emotions as a Catholic. However, as noted before, Dongan
did not let himself
become trapped into sacrificing the interests of his colony. As a result, the
dialogue between Dongan
and Denonville became increasingly heated. Only of Treaty of Whitehall,
negotiated not between Dongan
and Denonville but between their masters in Europe, staved off total war
between the two great powers
of Europe in America.
Dongan, writing in French, briefly outlines his experience with De la Barre upon
wishing good relations
between him and Denonville,  Denonville replied that De la Barre's actions can be
excused due to the
fact that he had to deal with the Senecas who were a heathen people without "
neither religion, nor
honor, nor subordination." The new governor said that Monsieur de la Barre had
many causes of
complaint for "their conduct has not improved, having falsified their pledges by
the violence which they
committed this winter on the Ottawas."The new governor then made the
following proposition: " I ask
you Sir, what can be expected?" In a change of pace, the Canadian governor
informed Dongan of his
monarch's zeal to spread the faith and asked Dongan to assist him in pacifying
the natives in the name of
religion. To accomplish this aim, Denonville suggested that Dongan immediately
stop his merchants from
supplying the Indians with goods which they used to continue their endless
wars.   Dongan, in his letter
of July 27, 1686, reacted to this proposal for a New World Crusade with suspicion.
However, he saw the
need to propagate the Christian religion and check Indian excesses against the
French. But he made it
clear that he did not wish to condone or tolerate French activities among the
Iroquois.
But as it happened, while Dongan was in the process of calling another Indian
Conference to re-affirm or
hold the Indians to their allegiance to the English protectorate, the Governor
received word of French
military action near Cataraqui, and sought to notify the governor of Canada of this
intelligence.   In the
communiqué , he spoke of Denonville as a man of judgment who not attack the
King of England's
subjects. He labeled Denonville's intention of constructing a fort at Niagara as a
dangerous flashback to
the days of De la Barre and predicted the return to hostile relations between the
two colonial colonies if
a trade war develops over the trade for a few hides. Then the New York governor  
temporarily
overlooked the issues at hand and looked forward to brighter days "when all
these differences might be
set aside by amicable correspondence." When Dongan again referred to issues at
hand he affirmed: "If
there is anything amiss; it will not be his fault" even though he was aware that
his people suffer daily by
the French illegal trade with is Indians.
At Albany, Dongan advised the Iroquois that the French had sent provisions and
military supplies to
Cataraqui (Fort Frontenac). This movement was part of an event which caused
great concern and
merited constant observations of French actions by both the Iroquois and his
government. Therefore, he
urged the Indians to be watchful and to desist from making agreements with the
French on war and
peace unless they obtained the approval of his government. In strong terms, the
governor demanded
that the Indians resist French efforts to build a fort at Niagara or any other
location that would constrict
English trade in furs. The Indians were advised to make no trade agreement with
Christians without the
governor's consent. Thus, the governor requested that the Indians continue to
bring their peltry to
Albany where they would be assured of support in time when New York's fur
trade was in the state of
decline as a result of the Indian wars. To this proposal, the Indians had to
capitulate or agree to due to
their awareness of the threat that the French forts could present. Therefore, they
agreed to tear them
down if the French tried to construct them. They, however, promised not to
initiate action without
provocation; but in that case, they could expect help from the Governor.
In answering the serious charges made by Dongan, Denonville discounted the
provisioning of Cataraqui
as no provocation for Indian fear. He reminded the New York governor that the
fort needed to be
supplied and outfitted for the subsistence of the soldiers based there. He would
not make a comment on
Dongan's pretensions that the French have illegally traded with the Indians on
English land except to say
that it should be decided by their monarchs in Europe.   Finally, Denonville once
again asked Dongan to
cease his activities among the Iroquois so that missionaries would have peace to
accomplish their
mission.    To this, Dongan  replied that he would do anything possible to
maintain the safety of the
fathers. On the questions of French deserters, Dongan notified the French
governor that the strictest
care shall be taken concerning runaways from his Province. If the Canadian
governor should desire that
he extradite them back to Canada, he will comply on the condition that they shall
not be put to death,
But as it happened, no steps were to send the deserters back to Canada while
rumors continued to be
circulated that the New York governor was still urging the Iroquois to attack the
French. This situation
drew a stern letter of protest from the Canadian Governor.   Denonville refused to
believe that James II
approved Dongan's policy of aiding and abetting another attack on the French. He
then reminded
Dongan that his unilateral actions without the consent of his monarch was
breaking a pledge he once
made to submit all disputes to their masters in Europe. In this case, Denonville
was referring to an
English emissary sent to the Onodagas in order to stir the Iroquois to pillage and
make war on Canada
and her Indian allies in the name of New York. Denonville was not certain
whether this action was
hatched or precipitated by the Governor of New York or the merchants of Alban.
But he knew this action
and Dongan's trading missions with the Michilmaqins and Mackinacs violated a
trust. In the latter case,
Denonville was referring to the trading missions with the Ottawas that Dongan
initiated in 1685.
On the question of deserters, he once again accused Dongan of breaking a
sacred promise by allowing
French deserters whom he called knaves and bankrupts to take refuge in New
York. He warned Dongan
that someday the merchants who employ them will be punished for confiding in
rogues who will be not
more faithful to them then they have been to his government. Lastly, Denonville
took issue on the fact
that New York merchants supplied the Indians liberally with alcoholic beverages
converting the
savages" into savage demons and their cabins into counterparts and theatres of
hell."
Dongan replied , "Our rum does as little hut as your brandy and in the opinion of
Christians is much more
wholesome; however, to keep the Indians temperate and sober is very good and
Christian performance
but to prohibit them all strong liquors seems a little hard and very Turkish."
As we alluded to before, Thomas Dongan in 1685 sent Johannes Roosebom to go
where no Englishman
or English trader had trekked  before. And as luck would have it, this enterprise
proved to be very
successful, thus yearly expeditions to this  new market were planned. However,
on the negative side,
these expeditions brought protests from the French government in Canada who
resented English
interference with their allies. But in 1685, Governor Denonville had no clue that
the English expedition
was in progress until too late, with the consequence that he was unable to take
measures to block the
expedition's passage to the Ottawa. And with communications not as immediate
or instantaneous in the
seventeenth century as it is in the twenty-first century, the new government of
Canada could only send a
delayed report back to France detailing what it knew about Thomas Dongan's
provocative enterprise in
trading with the western savages in parties led by French deserters.  
Denonville, in a letter  informed French Minister Seignelay that he was inclined
"to go straight to Albany,
storm their fort and burn everything." Dononville's complaint was that the English
in North America
stirred up the Iroquois against his government  and sent parties to the
Michilimackinac to equally rob his
government of what its  traditional share of the trade in the region affected was .
Opined Denonville, to
best deal with this situation it would be better to declare war against the English
then to perish by their
intrigues.
Inevitably, Dononville's protest to his superiors in France, went through
diplomatic channels and drew
this reply from the Royal Governor of New York, Thomas Dongan:
" Be assured, Sir that I have not solicited or bribed the Indians to arise and make
warr against you. All the
paines I have taken hath bin to keep those people in quiet who are inclinable to
warr that one word is
enough for them, I have forbidden their joining (if they should be entreated) with
others against you
neither have I ever allowed any to plunder. I have only permitted severall of
Albany to trade amongst the
remotest Indians with strict orders not to meddle with any of your people, and i
hope they will finde the
same civiltry from you -- It being so far from pillaging that I believe it as lawful for
the English as French
nations to trade there we being nearer by many leagues than you are -- I desire
you to send me word who
it was that pretended to have my orders for the Indians to plunder and fight you."
Dongan therein refused to budge so he sent out another trading mission in 1686.
Teaming Major
MacGregory with Johannes Rooseboom on a mission to the Ottawas to establish  
permanent trade
relations and alliances with other tribes of the Northwest. However, this time,
Denonville was prepared
to intervene. In June 1686, Denonville sent orders to Du Luht, who was at
Michilimackinac, to occupy
Detroit with fifty Courteus de Bois. And this intervention, also resulted in the
construction of a stockade
on the western side of the strait near the outlet of Lake Huron.  It also was
Denonville's desire for the
French to establish a post at Niagara as well as develop a magazine at Fort
Frontenac at Cadaraqui to
serve as an aid to any attack on the Senecas.
During the summer of 1687, the correspondence between Dongan and Denonville
temporarily broke
down due to the revelation of a French-Indian offensive inside Seneca territory.
Unfortunately for the
French, the Senecas obtained prior knowledge of the French intention to destroy
their people and
home. As a consequence, the Senecas sustained no heavy losses except for
damages to their fields and
villages. Therefore, not achieving their objective of the attack immediately,  the
French went to
Michiliimvkinac to rally their western allies for war.
Presenting an account of events which led up to and transpired after the abortive
attack by the French
on the Senecas, Nanning Harmenste, Frederick Harmenste, and Dyrick Vander
Hyden spoke September
7, 1687 before a hearing conducted by Nicholaus Bayard, the Mayor of New York.
These men testified
that Captain Rooseboom set out the previous fall with a trading party in order to
engage in commerce
with the Ottawas and Western tribes as far as Lake Huron. Enroot to Ottawa
country, one of Rooseboom's
associates, Captain MacGregory, separated from the trading party taking twenty-
nine men with him.
Rooseboom's group numbering thirty-five then proceeded toward Detroit and
Ottawa Country. About one
and a half days before Rooseboom's scheduled arrival at the Castle of the
Ottawas, his party was
surrounded by a band of French and Indians numbering One-Hundred Twenty.
Rooseboom was given the
option of electing to surrender his party to the French or "have his men to a man
be put to death by fire
and sword." The captain chose the former with the result that his party was taken
to Ottawa country as
prisoners. The merchandise which Rooseboom carried was distributed by the
French to the Indians in
order to gain allies. From propaganda, the Ottawas were led to believe that the
English traders had come
to their lands in order to plunder. They were informed by the French that the
Senecas who were subjects
of the English have brutally burnt Ottawa prisoners of war. Quite naturally, such
propaganda inflamed
Ottawa passions against the English and towards the French. However, when the
Mahikander Indians
among the Roosebloom party explained that their purpose was to trade and
propose peace with the
Senecas, five of the Ottawa  Indian Chieftains were convinced of the friendly
intentions of the English
and they desired to bestow vast gifts on them. But basically, the Western Indian
tribes rallied behind the
French Flag. After spending a few days in the Ottawa camp., the French
transferred the prisoners to
Niagara which was "on this side of the Great Lake." Enroot to Niagara, the French
and Indian band met
Captain MacGregory midway between Detroit and Niagara, The said French-
Indian troop strength stood
at 1,500. MacGregory's forcer, strengthened by recruits, stood at twenty-nine
Christians, six Indians and
eight prisoners. In the event of battle, MacGregory's force so undermanned as
compared to the
opposition force would probably be mauled severely or completely destroyed.
Therefore, having really
no choice and not really wanting to be a dead hero, MacGregory elected to  
surrender his force
to French authorities without a fight. Again, the merchandise which MacGregory
brought to trade with
the Indians was confiscated by the French to be used for their own ends. And the
capture of all members
of the English Trade expedition, the French with their prisoners in tow,
completed their journey to
Niagara and built a fort much to the displeasure of the Royal Governor of New
York.
Later, the Governor of Canada ordered that the prisoners be transferred to
Cadaraqui except for Abell
Merion, one of Rooseboom's troops who was executed simply because he was
French born even though
he was an English subject and had a pass from his Excellency. At Cadaraqui, the
English traders were
forced by the French to construct a few buildings. After the work was completed,
the prisoners received
orders to advance to Montreal where at first they received greater freedom and
liberty than they were
allowed previously by their captors. However, after the arrival of the Governor of
Canada in Montreal,
the prisoners were confined. Governor Denonville then made it known that the
prisoners would not be
released until Dongan desisted from his subversive activities among the Seneca
Indians against the
French. Shortly, thereafter, Harmanste and three other men escaped from their
captors in Quebec and
within five days, they reached Albany. At Albany, they spread tales of French
plans to destroy the
Senecas. Governor Dongan was very aware of what occurred.  Just the same, he
was deeply concerned
by the Indians failure to heed his words on contact with the French.  The New
York Governor was very
disturbed at the French violation of the recently negotiated Treaty of Whitehall.
But things were not
purely black and white, Dongan himself was not completely abiding by these
provisions either by
supplying ammunition and guns to the Indians. Therefore, it was in the interest of
the New York
Governor to make sure whether or not the Senecas were the provocateurs of  the
French attack
on them. For this purpose, the New York Governor called the Five Nations of the
Iroquois to come to
Albany for a full-fledged and formal Indian Conference..
The governor's assembly of the Five Nations convened on August 5, 1687. The
governor expressed
pleasure that the Indians saw fit to attend the meeting. He was "heartily glad" that
the Indians suffered
light losses in their recent confrontation with the French. He told the assembly
that he was sending an
emissary to England to inform the King of French violation of his territory.
Because of this, Dongan
wanted the Indians to give him a truthful account of what occurred. That is, to tell
him whether the
"Brethren" did anything to provoke the French or not for he feared a European-
American war might
result. Blaming a covenant chain in which some of the Indians made with the
French three years
previously, Dongan expressed a hope that Denonville "would not enter the king's
land without
provocation if they thought they were English subjects;" therefore, he concluded
that the Indians have
brought trouble upon themselves by their trade with the French. To this point,
Dongan entreated the
Indians not to trade with the French anymore. The governor also expressed
displeasure that the Indians
made peace and war without the consent of the New York government. Dongan
said, "We (the English)
cannot live without you, you can't." Acknowledging that a state of war existed
between the Senecas and
the French, Dongan pleaded that no treaties be made by them without the advice
of the governor,
Dongan then informed the Indian tribes present that if they should abide by these
regulations, peace can
be achieved and they shall benefit from the great chain of friendship that is lately
concluded between
Great Britain and France --- "The Treaty of Whitehall." Dongan concluded his
statement with a stern
comment ordering the Indians to desist from warlike activities in other English
colonies such as
Maryland and Virginia.
Denonville launched his expedition on the Senecas just as word came from
Europe that the Treaty of
Whitehall was negotiated between the monarchs of France and England.
However, due to the slow
communication that existed in the period, Denonville may not have been aware
of what transpired in
Europe. The Treaty of Whitehall was a treaty of neutrality in which the great
sovereigns of France and
England agreed to cease all hostilities in the New World. A provision in the treaty
stipulated that there
should be frank and open dialogue between the governors of the prospective
governments. No aid was
to be given either side should the Indians start hostilities and trade by nationals
of either nation be
restricted to areas controlled by the prospective colonial government. The treaty
further made
provisions that unlicensed merchants be prosecuted as pirates and should war
erupt between England
and France in Europe, no such hostile actions should be fanned in America. In a
sense, the Whitehall
Treaty was a victory for French diplomacy in that it delayed a showdown
between the two colonial powers
on the control of the Seneca country. The English sovereign, in failing to take a
strong stand on the
exact boundaries of his colonies, sacrificed the Indian buffer zone around his
settled areas.
Despite the provisions of the Treaty of Whitehall. Dongan foresaw the urgency to
make preparations for
the defense of New York. Therefore, he insisted that a string of forts be built on
the New York frontier,
especially at sites on Lake Champlain, Salmon River and at Niagara. At the same
time, he sent Captain
John Palmer to London with instructions forwarded to the King concerning the
recent French activities.
In the meantime, in spent the winter in Albany.
Palmer arrived in London in time for the second round of the Treaty of Whitehall
negotiations with the
main topic of boundaries. Therefore, the debate which began between Fort
James and Montreal was not
being discussed at higher levels between Paris and London. Failure to find
solution at the inter-colonial
level may result in open conflict solely in the area where the grievances
transpired. But failure to find
solutions to small problems at high official level can lead to war. In this case, the
war was delayed but it
came a few years later. At the conference table, the French commissioners
charged that Monsieur
Dongan and the inhabitants of Albany continued to thwart as much as they can
French power in America
by their criminal violation of the treaty of neutrality due to their activities among
the Indians. Because of
this activity, the French commissioners insisted that James II issue orders to his
governor to desist from
such activities. The French Commissioner Barill'on likewise requested that the
Governor of Boston be
asked to evacuate the fort he established at Acadia.
At a later meeting, the ambassador presented the French claim to those areas
which Governor Dongan
claimed due to the fact of exploration and conquest. However James, was not
easily persuaded to this
claim by the French for he did entertain for some time the desire to extend his
dominion by including the
Iroquois as his subjects. Therefore, when Governor Dongan in his dispatches
from Palmer revealed the
fact that the French threatened the fur trade by their occupation of Niagara, the
King made it known that
he considered the Senecas, Cayugas, Oneidas and Onondagas as subjects of
Great Britain due to their
voluntary submission to protectorate made the thirteenth day of July, 1684. Thus
as it occurred, Dongan
on November 30, 1687, won an important victory as the policy he devised for the
expansion of New York
Province won the approval of the King. James II authorized him to take all steps
necessary to protect the
Indian tribes of the Five Nations in case of French attack. Dongan therein was
given the authority to
resist this threat with all possible might  that New York and the other colonies
could muster. The
governor was given the authority by the King to erect and build such forts,
castles and platforms that
may be needed for the defense of the colony.
Upon returning to New York City after a Winter's stay in Albany, Dongan re-
opened his correspondence
with the Canadian governor. However, the mood of the communication changed.
It was not a
communication of welcome or hope but one of accusation. Both men blamed
each other for the problems
they faced. Both men became bitter enemies. In less than a year, Dongan would
be removed from office
to make way for the Dominion of New England Eventually, Dongan would return
to England to become the
Second Earle of Limerick on the death of his brother. On December 14, 1715
Dongan would meet his own
death.
Dongan, in his Indian policy, was deeply concerned over who controlled the fur
trade of the Mohawk
Valley. If the trade was to be controlled by the French, it would severely limit the
development of his
colony and restrict it harshly. If the English should control this valuable trade,
then there was a chance
that  the British would be able to establish a new formed empire in the New
World. Control of the Indian
tribes also meant that the settlers of New York would be free of Indian attacks on
their homes and the
destruction and blood associated with these attacks. And what-is-more, since the
Indians were subjects
of the Crown, they would act as a buffer zone should the French attack. But on
the opposite end of the
spectrum, since the Iroquois were his subjects, Dongan was obligated to supply
the Indians with arms for
their protection. But it happened that the Indians used these arms in order to
continue their wars with
the French controlled Indians and French traders. And of course, these attacks on
the part of the Indians
and the policy of Dongan toward French trade made friendly relations between
Canada difficult if not
impossible. And if one applies common sense and logic to  this political situation,
Relations between
Canada and New York could not be very friendly when one considers the fact that
the French had similar
desires as Dongan. Then what would be the end game ... Eventually, the interests
of these two colonial
powers would collide with the result that a Major War in the Americas would be
fought with the British
interest prevailing ... But that would not end troubles for the British in the New
World for their efforts to
recover the cost of their military activities in the New World would produce
another crisis which would
end with a loss of a large part of their empire in the New World and the creation of
a new nation on the
American continent.
We repeat what we said earlier about Thomas Dongan ...In this office Dongan
proved himself an able
lawgiver, and left an indelible mark on political and constitutional history. He
convened the first
representative assembly of New York Province on  October 14,1683, at Fort
James within the present
boundaries of the city of New York. This assembly, under the wise supervision of
Dongan, passed an act
entitled "A Charter of Liberties"; decreed that the supreme legislative power
under the Duke of York
shall reside in a governor, council, and the people convened in general
assembly; conferred upon the
members of the assembly rights and privileges making them a body coequal to
and independent of the
British Parliament; established town, county, and general courts of justice;
solemnly proclaimed the right
of religious liberty; and passed acts enunciating certain constitutional liberties, e.
g. no taxation without
representation; taxes could be levied only by the people met in general
assembly; right of suffrage; no
martial law or quartering of the soldiers without the consent of the inhabitants;
election by majority of
votes; and the English law of real property.
Thus to Dongan's term as governor can be dated the Magna Charta of American
constitutional liberties,
for his system of government became the program of continuous political
agitation by the colonists of
New York Province during the eighteenth century. It developed naturally into the
present state
government, and many of its principles passed into the framework of the Federal
Government.
Moreover, a rare tribute to his genius, the government imposed by him on New
York Province, 1683, was
adopted by England after the American War of Independence as the framework of
her colonial policy, and
constitutes the present form of government in Canada, Australia, and the
Transvaal. Dongan signed the
Charter of Liberties October 30, 1683, and on the following day solemnly
proclaimed it at the City Hall of
New York City. The Duke of York signed and sealed the Charter October 4., 1684;
but never returned it,
probably for reasons of prudence, for at the time Charles II had, by a quo
warranto proceeding, abolished
the Charters of New England, and the Charter of Pennsylvania granted in 1684
distinctly admits the right
of Parliament to tax the colonies.  
The Board of Trade and Plantations, under whose supervision the province
passed, vetoed the Charter
of Liberties and James approved the veto. The colonists were disappointed, but
such was the moral
strength of Governor Dongan that we find no trace of popular resentment. In 1685
Dongan established a
post office in New York for the better correspondence of the colonies in America.
In 1686 he granted
charters to the cities of New York and Albany; the former remained unchanged
for 135 years and forms
the basis of the existing city government; the latter was superseded only in 1870,
notwithstanding the
extraordinary development in civil and political institutions. Dongan established a
college under the
direction of the Jesuit Fathers Harvey (his own private chaplain), Harrison, and
Gage in New York City,
and advised that the King's Farm, a tract beyond the walls of the then existing
city, be set aside for its
maintenance. The king vetoed the grant, and in 1705 this land became the
property of Trinity Church. He
planned that a mission of English Jesuits be permanently established at
Saratoga, New York, on land
purchased by him for the purpose; that a settlement of Irish Catholics be founded
in the centre of the
Province; and that an expedition be made to explore the Mississippi River and
take possession of the
great valley then made known by the explorations of La Salle. These plans were
set aside by the king.
In 1687, the Assembly of New York was dissolved by the king, and in 1688 Andros
was appointed
Governor of the consolidated Provinces of New York and New England. Dongan
refused command of a
regiment with the rank of major-general, retired to his estate on Staten Island,
New York,
James, as we explored, had undertaken to grant constitutional government to
New York, and was
prepared to sign a charter, when suddenly he became king and changed his mind
in light of his foreign
problems.. This change of purpose had a military reason. In order to oppose a
more solid front to
Canada, James wished to unite all his northern colonies under a single military
governor. Circumstances
seemed to favor him. Massachusetts, the most populous and powerful of the
colonies, had sustained a
bitter quarrel with Charles II. during the whole of that king’s reign, until just
before his death he had
succeeded in getting a chancery decree annulling the charter of Massachusetts.
In 1686 James II. sent
Sir Edmund Andros to Boston to assume the government over all New England.
The fact is, Plymouth had
never had a charter, and those of Connecticut and Rhode Island could be
summarily seized. As for New
York, the king revoked his half-granted charter and annexed that province to New
England. New Jersey
soon met the same fate, and legal proceedings were begun against the charter of
Maryland. Apparently
nothing was safe except the sturdy infant colony of William Penn, whose good-
will the king could not
afford to alienate.
In August, 1688, Andros came in to New York, and with due ceremonies the seal
of that province was
broken in his presence, and the seal of united New England was ordered to be
used in its stead. Ex-
Governor Dongan remained in the neighborhood for about a year, attending to
some private business,
and then went home to Ireland during the Leister rebellion, where he afterwards
became Earl of
Limerick. After a stay of two months in New York and Albany, Sir Edmund Andros
returned to Boston in
October, 1688, carrying off with him such of the New York public records as he
wished to have on hand
for reference, and leaving Francis Nicholson behind as his representative and
lieutenant. We cannot
blame the good people on Manhattan Island if they openly resented this
unceremonious treatment. Thus
to ignore their natural and proper sentiments of local patriotism, and summarily
annex them to New
England, was an outrage of the worst sort, and put a severe strain upon such
feelings of loyalty as they
may have cherished toward James II.
But the strain did not endure long. The rule of Andros in Boston had already
become insupportable.
Arbitrary taxes were imposed, common lands were encroached upon, and the
writ of habeas corpus was
suspended. A strict and vexatious censorship was kept over the press. All the
public records of the late
New England governments were ordered to be brought to Boston, whither it thus
became necessary to
make a tedious journey in order to consult them. All deeds and wills were
required to be registered in
Boston, and excessive fees were charged for the registry. It was proclaimed that
all private titles to land
were to be ransacked, and that whoever wished to have his title confirmed must
pay a heavy quit-rent,
which under the circumstances amounted to blackmail. The representative
assembly was abolished. The
power of taxation was taken from the town meetings and lodged with the
governor. And when the town
of Ipswich, led by its pastor, John Wise, one of the most learned and eminent
men of his time, made a
protest against this crowning iniquity, the sturdy pastor was thrown into prison,
fined £50 (i. e. at least
$1000), and suspended from the ministry. In view of such facts the bad reputation
and unpopularity
acquired by Andros in New England cannot well be said to have been
undeserved. He earned it by
obeying too thoroughly the orders of a master whose conduct Englishmen could
not endure. Early in
1688 a commission headed by Increase Mather, president of Harvard College,
was sent over to England
to expostulate with James II. They found England aglow with the spirit of
rebellion. The flames burst forth
when on the 5th of November (Guy Fawkes’s day!) the Prince of Orange landed in
Devonshire. Before
Christmas the last Stuart king had fled beyond sea, leaving a vacant throne.
It was of course a moment of engrossing business for the great Dutch prince, and
he took the occasion
to prepare a short letter for the American colonies enjoining upon them to retain
all King James’s
arrangements undisturbed for the present until leisure should be found for
revising them. Dr. Mather
did not wish to have any such instructions sent to Boston, for he saw in them the
possibility that Andros
might hold over until it would be awkward to get rid of him without interfering
with some plan of William
III. By skilful pleading with the new king, in which he was aided by Sir William
Phips, the wily Mather
succeeded in delaying the departure of the letter. This was in February, 1689, and
it was not until late in
March that the flight of James II. and the success of the Prince of Orange became
known in
Massachusetts. The glowing embers of rebellion were quickly fanned into a
blaze. On the 18th of April
armed yeomanry began pouring into Boston in response to the signal on Beacon
Hill, and Sir Edmund
saw that his hour had come. He tried to escape to the Rose frigate in the harbour,
in the hope of finding
a refuge in New York, but his Puritan foes had no mind to let him off so easily. He
was seized
and securely lodged in jail, and several of his agents and abettors were also
imprisoned, among them
Chief Justice Dudley, who had lately had the impudence to tell the people of New
England that the only
liberty left them was that of not being sold for slaves
Massachusetts then at once restored her old government as it was before her
charter was annulled, and
she caused this to be announced in England, explaining that it was done
provisionally until the new king’
s pleasure should be known. Obviously the improvement in her position through
Dr. Mather’s
astuteness was great. No one could interpret her rebellion as aimed at any other
sovereign than the
dethroned James. Instantly the other New England colonies followed suit.
Plymouth, Rhode Island, and
Connecticut quietly resumed their old governments. James’s consolidated New
England thus fell to
pieces
Please note -James II of England, unlike his reckless brother, Charles II, was
extremely religious, and his
religion was that of Rome. The large majority of the people of England were
Protestants; but they would
have submitted to a Catholic king had he not used his official power to convert
the nation to Catholicism.
From the time of James's accession, in 1685, the unrest increased, until, three
years later, the opposition
was so formidable that the monarch fled from his kingdom and took refuge in
France. The daughter of
James and her husband, the Prince of Orange, became the joint sovereigns of
England as William and
Mary. This movement is known in history as the English Revolution.
After James II, the English monarch, was deposed (1688) Governor Andros as we
detailed above s was
captured by the colonists in Boston and sent to England as a prisoner. Lieutenant
Governor Francis
Nicholson was left in power in New York. There were people in New York upon
whom these events were
not for a moment lost. The lieutenant-governor, Francis Nicholson, was in an
awkward position. If Andros
had come away in the Rose frigate to New York, where he could direct affairs
from Fort James, all would
have been simple enough. If he had been killed there would have been no
difficulty, for Nicholson would
have become acting-governor. But as Andros was only locked up, Nicholson did
not know just in what
light to regard himself or just how much authority to assume. He belonged to that
large class of
commonplace men who are afraid of assuming responsibility. So he tried to get
messages to Andros in
his Boston jail, but found very little counsel or comfort in that way.
colonists, who desired representative government, suspected that Nicholson had
deliberately neglected
the Manhattan fort to invite French invasion. They dreaded the Catholic influence
of former governor
Dongan (in retirement on Long Island) and were enthusiastic over the accession
of William of Orange
(William III) to the English throne. Nicholson's unwillingness to recognize William
or to assemble the
militia against a rumored French naval attack led the militia to demand surrender
of the fort - and to
request Leisler to lead them. The governor's council proved unable to maintain
control. Leisler,
recognized as leader of the workingmen and most of the militia, proclaimed
allegiance to William and
Mary and gained the support of significant Dutch and English elements in the
province.
The English Revolution of 1688 divided the people of New York into two well-
defined factions. In general,
the small shopkeepers, small farmers, sailors, poor traders and artisans allied
against the patroons, rich
fur-traders, merchants, lawyers and crown officers. The former were led by
Leisler, the latter by Peter
Schuyler (1657-1724), Nicholas Bayard (c. 1644-1707), Stephen Van Cortlandt
(1643-1700), William Nicolls
(1657-1723) and other representatives of the aristocratic Hudson Valley families.
The Leislerians claimed
greater loyalty to the Protestant succession
Of course, news of the accession of William and Mary and of the imprisonment of
Andros at Boston
created a great excitement in New York; and the militia, led by Jacob Leisler, a
German merchant, took
possession of the government. Nicholson fled in June 1689. An elected
Committee of Safety for six
counties named Leisler captain of the Manhattan fort and then commander in
chief. He repaired the fort
and consolidated the support of most of the city's population, jailing those few
who questioned the
committee's authority. When official communications addressed to Nicholson or
to "such as for the time
being … [are] administering the laws" were delivered to him, Leisler assumed
that this was effective
recognition of his place as provisional lieutenant governor. In fact, however, the
British government
never sanctioned his takeover; Col. Henry Sloughter had already been named
governor and given two
companies of troops to accompany him to New York
For two years Leisler, with the aid of his son-in-law, Jacob Milborne, governed
the colony with vigor and
energy. But he offended the aristocracy and the magistrates, who pronounced
him a usurper. Meantime
he took measures to defend the colony against the French and Indians, who had
fallen on the frontier
town of Schenectady, had massacred the people, and had burned the town.
Leisler functioned as executive for over a year. He suppressed riots, collected
customs duties,
instituted courts, and called an elective assembly from portions of the colony
acknowledging his
administration. He also organized an inter-colonial expedition against Canada
after the Schenectady
massacre of 1690 and gained the grudging support of local Albany authorities.
But his attempt to collect
tariffs turned some merchants against him. He imprisoned key aristocrats who
attempted to undermine
his position, though he showed clemency to mob leaders who assaulted him
physically. He filled official
posts with kinsmen and supporters.
According to Elson, The Leisler movement was in part the outgrowth of the anti-
Catholic wave that swept
over England and her colonies during the reign of James II, and Leisler's vivid
imagination greatly
magnified the danger of a general religious war. He called for the election of an
assembly to vote taxes
for the pending war with Canada, but many of the people denied his authority and
refused to respond.  
Louis XIV, the king of France, was a Catholic and in full sympathy with James.
Moreover, he denied the
right of a people to change sovereigns, and espoused the cause of James; and
war between the two
nations followed. This war was reflected in America, as King William rejected an
offer of colonial
neutrality, and it is known as "King William's War." The English colonies had long
watched the French
encroachments on the north; the French determined to hold the St. Lawrence
country, and to extend
their power over the vast basin of the Mississippi; and each was jealous of the
other concerning the
fisheries and the fur trade. To these differences must be added an intense
religious feeling. The English
colonies were almost wholly Protestant except Maryland, and even in Maryland
the Protestants were in a
large majority. New France was purely Catholic, and the two forms of Christianity
according to Elson had
not yet learned to dwell together, or near together, in harmony. King James had
not confined his designs
to the home country; he had not only revoked some of the colonial charters and
sent the tyrant Andros to
domineer New England, but he had instructed his Catholic governor of New York,
Dongan, to influence
the Catholic religion into the colony. It was at this time that Leisler seized the
government of New York,
and called the first colonial congress.
Exasperated by these things, the English colonists were eager for the conflict,
while the French
Canadians were equally ready to grapple with them. King William's War was very
different in aim and
meaning in the colonies from what it was beyond the Atlantic. In America it was
the first of several fierce
contests, covering seventy years; or, it may be said, it was the beginning of a
seventy years' war with
intervals of peace, for the supremacy in North America.
Leisler's next step was one that Elson suggested was  the beginning of great
things. He called for a
meeting in New York of delegates from all the colonies to make preparations for
the war, and the seven
delegates that met, chiefly from New England, constituted the first colonial
congress in America.  They
took counsel concerning the coming war and the clouds were now darkening
around the head of Leisler,
with the end result that his career was almost over.  
The war began by a series of Indian massacres instigated by Comte de
Frontenac, the new governor of
Canada. The first of these was the destruction of Dover, New Hampshire, a town
of fifty inhabitants. One
night in July, 1689, two squaws came to the home of the aged Major Waldron and
begged a night's
lodging. Being admitted, they rose in the night and let in a large number of
Indians who lay in ambush.
Waldron was put to death with frightful tortures, the town was burned to the
ground, about half the
people were massacred, and the remainder were carried away and sold into
slavery. In the following
month Pemaquid, Maine, met a similar fate. In February, 1690, a body of French
and Indians, sent by
Frontenac, came to the town of Schenectady on the Mohawk. For nearly a month
they had faced the
wintry blasts, plowing their way through the deep snow on their mission of
destruction. At midnight they
fell with dreadful yells upon the sleeping village. In a few hours all was over; the
town was laid in ashes.
More than sixty were massacred, many were taken captive, a few escaped into
the night and reached
Albany. The towns of Casco and Salmon Falls soon after met a similar fate.
The war spirit was now aroused throughout the colonies. It was determined,
through Leisler's congress,
to send a land force against Montreal by way of Lake Champlain, and a naval
expedition against Quebec.
The expenses of the former were borne by Connecticut and New York, and of the
latter by
Massachusetts. Sir William Phipps of Maine, who had this same year, 1690,
captured Port Royal in Nova
Scotia, commanded the naval force. He had thirty or more vessels and two
thousand men. But the
vigilant Frontenac, in spite of his fourscore years, was on the alert. He
successfully repelled the land
force, which turned back disheartened, and then hastened to the defense of
Quebec. But here he had
little to do. Phipps was a weak commander, and the fleet, after reaching Quebec
and finding it well
fortified, returned to Boston without striking an effective blow. The people of
Massachusetts were
greatly disappointed at the failure of the expedition. The debt of the colony had
reached an enormous
figure, and to meet it bills of credit, or paper money, were issued to the amount
of £40,000. Phipps was
soon afterward sent to England to seek aid of the king and a renewal of the old
charter that Andros had
destroyed. King William was hard pressed at home, and he left the colonies to
fight their own battles; he
also refused to restore the old charter, but he granted a new one, and made
Phipps the first royal
governor of Massachusetts.
The war dragged on for several years longer, but it consisted only in desultory
sallies and frontier
massacres. The towns of York, Maine, Durham, New Hampshire, and Groton,
Massachusetts, were the
scenes of bloody massacres, and hundreds of people were slain.
In 1697 a treaty of peace was signed at Ryswick, a village near The Hague, and
the cruel war was
temporarily over. Acadia, which had been prematurely incorporated with
Massachusetts, was restored to
France. But this treaty was only a truce. The English and French nations had
created a bond of perpetual
friendship. Thus as a consequence,  they were unable to make no progress in
settling  the questions in
dispute .
After the death of William and Mary the crown of England was settled (1702) on
Anne, the sister of Mary.
James, the exiled king, died in 1701, and his son, known as James the Pretender,
was proclaimed king of
England by the French sovereign. This act alone would have brought another
war, but there was another
provocation. King Louis of France placed his grandson, Philip of Anjon, on the
throne of Spain, and thus
greatly increased his power among the dynasties of Europe. This was very
distasteful to the English, and
the war that followed was known as the War of the Spanish Succession. In
America, however, it was
styled Queen Anne's War (1702).
In 1691 Henry Sloughter was appointed governor, and he sent his lieutenant
before him to demand the
surrender of the fort. But the lieutenant could not prove his authority, and Leisler
refused to surrender.
At length, when Sloughter arrived, Leisler yielded to his authority and quiet was
soon restored. But
Leisler's enemies were determined on his destruction. He and his son-in-law had
been cast into prison,
and Governor Sloughter, a weak and worthless man, was induced to sign their
death warrants while
drunk, tradition informs us. Before the governor had fully recovered his senses,
Leisler and Milborne
were taken from the prison and hanged. Leisler had doubtless been legally in the
wrong in seizing the
government; but his intentions were undoubtedly good, and his execution, after
all danger was past, was
little else than political murder, and it created two hostile factions in New York
that continued for many
years.
With the passing of Leisler the royal government was restored, and the people
for the first time secured
the permanent right to take part in their government, as in the other colonies,
and, as in the others, the
assembly steadily gained power at the expense of the governor, The royal
governors sent to New York
were, for the most part, men without principle or interest in the welfare of the
people. A rare exception
we find in the Earl of Bellamont, who brief three years at the close of the century
as governor of New
York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire were all too brief for the people, who
had learned to love him
as few royal governors were loved. His successor, Lord Cornbury, was probably
the most dissolute
rascal ever sent to govern an American colony, not even excepting the infamous
Sothel of
the Carolinas.  
As far as Thomas Dongan is concerned, during this period he was obliged to flee
for safety in the
religious persecution aroused by Lesler in 1689. In 1691 he returned to England.
By the death of his brother William (1698), late Governor of the Province of
Munster, Ireland, whose only
son, Colonel Walter, Lord Dongan, was killed at the battle of the Boyne, Dongan
became Earl of Limerick.
In 1702 he was recognized as successor to his brother's estates, but only on
payment of claims of the
purchasers from the Earl of Athlone. Dongan died poor and without direct heirs.
By will, dated 1713, he
provided that he be buried at an expense of not over £100, and left the residue of
his estate to his niece,
wife of Colonel Nugent, afterwards Marshal of France. The tribute of history to his
personal charm, his
integrity, and character, is outspoken and universal. His public papers give
evidence of a keen mind and
a sense of humor. He was a man of courage, tact, and capacity, an able diplomat,
and a statesman of
prudence and remarkable foresight. In spite the brief term of five years as
Governor of New York
Province, by virtue of the magnitude, of the enduring and far-reaching character
of his achievements, he
stands forth as one of the greatest constructive statesmen ever sent out by
England for the government
of any of her American colonial possess.

FOOTNOTES

1)  Catholic Maryland, the first colony in the New World where religious toleration
was established, was
planned by George Calvert (first Lord Baltimore), a Catholic convert; founded by
his son Cecilius Calvert
(second Lord Baltimore), and named for a Catholic queen, Henrietta Maria, wife of
Charles I of England
2) Describes  all the persons of the domestic circle, parents, children, and
servants
3)Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an
ethnic,
racial, religious, or national group.
4) C Driscoll, John T. "Thomas Dongan." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New
York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1909. 8 Dec. 2009 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05130a.htm>.
5)http://www.olivercromwell.org/resources/cromwell_in_ireland.pdf ... John
Morrill, ‘Was Cromwell a War
Criminal?’ first issue of the BBC History Magazine
6)C Driscoll, John T. "Thomas Dongan." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New
York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1909. 8 Dec. 2009 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05130a.htm>.
and John R. Brodhead, History of the State of New York (Vol. 2, New York, 1891)
p, 370
7) http://www.answers.com/topic/henri-de-la-tour-d-auvergne-vicomte-de-turenne
8)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_of_Nijmegen
9)Driscoll, John T. "Thomas Dongan." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New
York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1909. 8 Dec. 2009 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05130a.htm>.and
John R. Brodhead,
History of the State of New York (Vol. 2, New York, 1891) p, 370
10)a heavy stone breakwater, quay or harbor wall
11)E.M.G. Rout — Tangier: England's lost Atlantic outpost, 1912; M.Elbl, “(Re)
claiming Walls: The Fortified
Médina of Tangier under Portuguese Rule (1471-1661) and as a Modern Heritage
Artefact," Portuguese
Studies Review 15 (1-2) (2007; publ. 2009): 103-192.
12)http://www.queensroyalsurreys.org.uk/short_history/sh01.html
13) Fiske, John, The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, Boston and New
York: Houghton
Mifflin, 1902, pp. 195-198
14) Elson, Henry William , The History of the United States of America, The
MacMillan Company, New York,
1904. Chapter VII pp. 138-146. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh.
15) Elson, Henry William , The History of the United States of America, The
MacMillan Company, New York,
1904. Chapter VII pp. 138-146. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh
16)See McKinley, in "American Historical Review," Vol. VI, p. 18
17) Elson, Henry William , The History of the United States of America, The
MacMillan Company, New York,
1904. Chapter VII pp. 138-146. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh
18) Ibid
19)Elson, Henry William , The History of the United States of America, The
MacMillan Company, New York,
1904. Chapter VII pp. 138-146. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh
20)Fiske, John, The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, Boston and New
York: Houghton Mifflin, 1902,
p. 199
21) See Brodhead’s History of the State of New York, ii. 385, 386.
22) Elson, Henry William , The History of the United States of America, The
MacMillan Company, New York,
1904. Chapter VII pp. 138-146. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh
23) Driscoll, John T. "Thomas Dongan." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New
York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1909. 8 Dec. 2009 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05130a.htm>.
24) Archdeacon, Thomas J. New York City, 1664–1710: Conquest and Change.
Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell
University Press, 1976.
25)Driscoll, John T. "Thomas Dongan." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New
York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1909. 8 Dec. 2009 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05130a.htm>.
26) Martha J. Lamb, History of the City of New York --- Its Origins, Rise, and
Progress (Vol2, New York,
1877) p. 298
27)Great Britain Public Record Office, Calendar of State Papers Colonial Series,
American and
West Indies 1681-1684 (London: 1871) p. xxii
28) Charles M. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History,  (Vol. 3, New
Haven, 1937) p. 123 - for
entire text see E.B O'Callaghan , Documents Relating to Colonial History, (Vol. 3,
Albany, 1853) p. 417.
29) Dongan later in his governorship was deeply disturbed at the fact that the
Indians continued to make
contacts with the French ... See New York Colonial Documents, (Vol. iii ) p. 447
30) Great Britain Public Record Office, Calendar of State Papers Colonial Series,
American and West
Indies 1681-1684 (London: 1871) p. xxiii
31) Ibid
32) Great Britain Public Record Office, Calendar of State Papers Colonial Series,
American and West
Indies 1681-1684 (London: 1871) p. 651 and New York Colonial Documents, Vol. iii,
p. 447
33) Driscoll, John T. "Thomas Dongan." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New
York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1909. 8 Dec. 2009 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05130a.htm
34) L.E. Leder, Robert Livingston, 1654-1728 and the Politics of Colonial New
York, (Chapel Hill, 1961) p. 47
New York Colonial Documents, iii, p. 510-11
35) Eight days later, New York's First General Assembly would convene at the
fort.
36) Allen W. Trelease, Indian Affairs in Colonial New York, (New York, 1960) p. 212-
3
37) Ibid, p.213
38) New York Historical Society, Collections of the Year 1870, (New York, 1871) p.
378-383
39) L.H.Leder, Robert Livingston, p.47-48
40)New York Historical Society, Collections. p. 378-383
41) Brodhead, History of the State of New York. p. 377
42)Issac Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909 (Vol. 3, New
York, 1922) p. 340.
43)Trelease, Indian Affairs, p. 254
44)Samuel Haws, Pennsylvania Archives, (Vol. 1, Series 1, Philadelphia, 1852) p.
80-84.
45)New York Colonial Documents, ix, p. 197
46)Ibid, iii, p. 447 -- also found in Calendar of State Papers, 1681-84, p. 651
47)Brodhead, History State of New York, ii, p. 394-395
48)New York Colonial Documents, iii, p. 447
49)New York Colonial Documents, iii, p. 447-448
50)Brodhead, History of the State of New York, ii, p.385
51)Martha Lamb, History of the City of New York, i, p. 301
52)Brodhead, History of the State of New York, ii, p.395
53)New York Colonial Documents, iii, p. 448 and Calendar of State Papers, 1681-
1685, p. 660-661
54)Dongan was under orders from the English King by means of a letter written
by John Werden that he
must keep the peace in the region by all cost. For text see: New York Colonial
Documents, iii, p.4
New York Colonial History, iii, p. 448 and Calendar of State Papers, 1681-1685, p.
661
55)Trelease, Indian Affairs, p. 257
56)Ibid, p. 262
57)New York Colonial History, iii, p. 417
58)New York Documents Relating to Colonial History, iii, p. 450
59)Brodhead in History State of New York states that De la Barre was glad to send
de la Salle home
because he thought he was a fraud and was a bit jealous over his popularity.
60)Documents relating to Colonial History, p. 450-51 and Calendar of state papers,
p. 671
61)Calendar of State Papers, p. 671 and Documents Relating to Colonial History,
iii, p. 452
62)Brodhead,  History of New York, pp. 395-431
63)Herbert L. Osgood, The American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, (Vol.
3, New York, 1907) p, 367
64)Jean-Baptiste Antoine Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay (1 November 1651 - 3
November 1690) was a
French politician. He was the eldest son of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, nephew of
Charles Colbert de Croissy
and cousin of Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Torcy.... On the death of his father in 1683,
Seignelay was named
Navy Secretary by Louis XIV and held the post until his death. He accompanied
Abraham Duquesne at the
bombardment of Genoa in May 1684. He completed the Code Noir begun by his
father. He was named
Minister in 1689. ..Seignelay continued his father's work of expanding the French
Navy; between 1660
and 1690 the Navy increased under their control from 18 sailing vessels to some
125. While the arsenals
too were reconstructed, modern studies criticize the Colbert's, father and son, for
concentrating on
ships rather than infrastructure ... The Code Noir (French language: The Black
Code) was a decree
passed by France's King Louis XIV in 1685. The Code Noir defined the conditions
of slavery in the French
colonial empire, restricted the activities of free Negroes, forbade the exercise of
any religion other than
Roman Catholicism, and ordered all Jews out of France's colonies. The code has
been described by Tyler
Stovall as "one of the most extensive official documents on race, slavery, and
freedom ever drawn up in
Europe."
65)Brodhead, History of New York, p. 431
66)E,B, O'Callaghan, The documentary History of the State of New York. (Vol. 1,
Albany, 1850)
67)Osgood, The American Colonies 17th Century, p. 367
68)Ibid, p. 368
69)Stokes, Iconography, v.3
70)Osgood, The American Colonies in the 17th Century, p. 368
Dongan commissioned French refugee Abel Marion La Frontaine and Captain
Johannes Rooseboom to
different missions.
Denonville denied he built such forts.
Documents Relating to Colonial History, (Volume 1, p.494-5)
Osgood, American Colonies in the 17th Century, iii, p. 370-71
Osgood, American Colonies in the 17th Century, iii, p. 371
For complete text see Documents relating to Colonial History, iii, p. 455-6 for
extract see E.T. Corwin,
Ecclesiastical Records of the State of New York, (Vol. 2, Albany, 1903) p.920-1
For complete text see Documentary History of New York, i, p, 130-1, Documents
relating to Colonial
History, iii, p. 460-1 for extract see E.T. Corwin, Ecclesiastical Records of the
State of New York, (Vol. 2,
Albany, 1903) p. 920.1
See New York Historical Society, Collections 1879, p. 385-6 for accounts of the
Indian Conference
For complete text see - Documentary History New York, i, p. 128-9 and New York
Colonial Documents, iii,
p. 455
Trelease, Indian Affairs, p. 272
As explained previously, Denonville did not want to make the same mistakes as
De la Barre.
For complete text see Documentary History of New York, i, p, 129-30, Documents
relating to Colonial
History, iii, p. 458-9 for extract see E.T. Corwin, Ecclesiastical Records of the
State of New York, (Vol. 2,
Albany, 1903) p. 921


For entire text, see Documentary History of New York, i, p. 130-1and New York
Colonial Records, iii, p.
460-1  for extract see E.T. Corwin, Ecclesiastical Records of the State of New
York, (Vol. 2, Albany, 1903) p.
921
Osgood, American Colonies 17th Century, iii, p. 372
For complete text see Documentary History of New York, i, p, 131-2  Documents
relating to Colonial
History, iii, p. 462-3  for extract see E.T. Corwin, Ecclesiastical Records of the
State of New York, (Vol. 2,
Albany, 1903) p. 923=4.

For complete text see Documentary History of New York, i, p, 139-40  Documents
relating to Colonial
History, iii, p. 462-3  for extract see E.T. Corwin, Ecclesiastical Records of the
State of New York, (Vol. 2,
Albany, 1903) p. 928=29.

Brodhead, History of New York, ii, p. 440
Osgood, American Colonies 17th Century, iii, p. 373-4
For complete text see Documentary History of New York, i, p, 139-40  Documents
relating to Colonial
History, iii, p. 462-3  for extract see E.T. Corwin, Ecclesiastical Records of the
State of New York, (Vol. 2,
Albany, 1903) p. 928-9
Osgood, American Colonies 17th Century, iii, p. 373
Brodhead, History of New York, ii, p. 440
Osgood, American Colonies 17th Century, iii, p. 374
New York Colonial Documents, iii, p. 436-7
Dongan had asked the Iroquois in the Indian Conferences in 1683, 1684, and 1686
to not entreat with the
French.
New York Colonial Documents, iii, p.438-41
Brodhead, History of New York, ii, p. 475
Osgood, American Colonies 17th Century, iii, p.  375-6
New York Colonial Documents, iii, p.506-510
New York Colonial Documents, iii, p.503-506
Driscoll, John T. "Thomas Dongan." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York:
Robert Appleton
Company, 1909. 8 Dec. 2009 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05130a.htm>.
Driscoll, John T. "Thomas Dongan." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 5. New York:
Robert Appleton
Company, 1909. 8 Dec. 2009 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05130a.htm>.
Fiske, John, The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, Boston and New York:
Houghton Mifflin, 1902,
pp. 205-206
Fiske, John, The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, Boston and New York:
Houghton Mifflin, 1902,
pp. 206-209
Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. "Leisler, Jacob" 1892
Elson, Henry William , The History of the United States of America, The MacMillan
Company, New York,
1904. Chapter VII pp. 138-146. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh
Elson, Henry William , The History of the United States of America, The MacMillan
Company, New York,
1904. Chapter VIII pp. 162-65. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh
First Colonial Congress, 1690
Elson, Henry William , The History of the United States of America, The MacMillan
Company, New York,
1904. Chapter VII pp. 138-146. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh

Elson, Henry William , The History of the United States of America, The MacMillan
Company, New York,
1904. Chapter VIII pp. 162-65. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh

Elson, Henry William , The History of the United States of America, The MacMillan
Company, New York,
1904. Chapter VII pp. 138-146. Transcribed by Kathy Leigh
Catholic Encyclopedia: Thomas Dongan http://www.newadvent.
org/cathen/05130a.htm
Catholic Encyclopedia: Thomas Dongan http://www.newadvent.
org/cathen/05130a.htm