English Licenses to Crenellate: 1199-1567

By Philip Davies

{This article was previously published in The Castle Studies Group Journal, No. 20: 2006-7, pp. 226-245.  The English spelling has been retained.}

The serious study of castles is riddled with past assumptions, prejudices and 'theories' that have gained popular credence and move into the work of established 'fact'. Castles were erected, from the start, to be powerful symbolic buildings and through the past and in to the modern world various contemporary symbolic values has been attached to the 'fortifications' of castles and their like. The study of licences to crenellate is a particularly good example of this.

Victorian concerns with empire and strong centralised government led to Victorian scholars describing licences to crenellate as a requirement imposed by central authority to control over-mighty lords, a view still widely stated. It should be made clear that there is no evidence whatsoever for this view. Much of what has been written about licences to crenellate was based on a few examples, often atypical, and on a misreading and misattribution of other historical documents. Very few scholars have done in depth study of the subject, the most notable is Charles Coulson. [1]

In particular it is important to understand that the so called 'adulterine' castles of the Anarchy of Stephen were not 'unlicenced', as sometimes stated. They were 'tainted' because they had been built and used in a rebellion. A licence to crenellate was supposedly a grant that gave permission for a building to be fortified.

This concept may have originated in the Carolingian Empire as a way to control castle building to prevent local lords from becoming over-mighty or too strong, but in English feudal society the licence was used both by king and baron as a symbol of their status, and with "few exceptions at times of turbulence, the king's right as overlord to license was a right to grant, not to refuse, permission to crenellate" (Coulson, 1982, p 71). "In reality, no feudal or sub-feudal ruler could either in law or in practice deny to his vassal the protection by self-help fortifying which he, as lord, had failed to provide." (Coulson, 1982, p.  97 n. 10).

It was not in reality necessary to obtain a licence to crenellate to erect a fortified building. There was "very slight chance of interference by royal officials even in so intensively governed a realm as England, but a licence was prestigious and could be had for the asking." (Coulson 1982 p 70) [2]  Fortifications were not restricted by law, but the cost of building and, particularly, of providing a garrison, restricted true military castles to a very limited number anyway.

In England licences to crenellate were granted by the Monarch; the Bishop of Durham, in his position as ruler of the Palatinate of Durham; the Earl of Chester, in his position as ruler of the Palatinate of Cheshire and after the formation of the Palatinate of Lancashire in 1351, the Duke of Lancaster.

Few documented records survive from before the thirteenth century. One of the earliest supposed licence to crenellate for which some form of reliable documentation exists is one in 1141 to Geoffrey de Mandeville, Earl of Essex, made by King Stephen. This grant was repeated by Empress Matilda and named as his new castle on the Lea (novum castellum super Lviam), usually considered to be South Mymms. This is a retrospective 'grant' in complex charters obtained by Geoffrey at a time during the Anarchy, when he was able to dictate terms, and when he was imposing his noble status.

Of the later surviving grants it is clear that these were not an attempt to control the major lords but were mainly granted to relatively minor knights for quite small manor houses, many of which could only have had token fortifications. Licences to crenellate were mainly symbolic representations of lordly status "castellation was the architectural expression of noble rank" (Coulson 1982, p. 72) and also "to publicly prominent ecclesiastics and lay magnates in England a licence had the extra cachet of royal recognition, acknowledgement and compliment. Unlike other royal patronage, it conferred no fiscal advantage whatever, but it was as eagerly sought by the socially ambitious as any lucrative privilege." (Coulson 1982, p 83).

The distribution map shows the tendency for municipal licences granted to build town walls mainly to be a feature of coastal towns.  Distribution is fairly random and there is certainly no evidence of a concentration of licenced "fortifications" in the Scottish march or the coast.

The building that often, but not always, resulted from these licences, which had some show of fortification, like battlements, moats and gatehouses, were also mainly symbolic, although they probably represented some defence against thieves. Coulson goes to some length to express the idea that much fortification' in ecclesiastical and lay buildings was symbolic, both for the occupants and the 'mob' they were a defence against. The gatehouse was the most powerful symbol and the strongest part of the defence, yet mobs often attacked the gatehouse, rather than simply push over a surrounding, relatively weak, precinct wall; however, the gatehouse was rarely manned enough to resist an attack anyway.

In effect many 'defences' were like modern burglar alarms and CCTV; some are sham and even when they are not they represent more an expression of legal ownership and intent to prosecute rather than a real preventative measure. (Strong doors, good locks and fear of being caught stops thieves, alarms may help somewhat with this last psychological barrier but, of themselves, alarms do not stop thieves).

No fee was normally charged for a licence; the handful of fees recorded are small (half a mark or a mark) [3] and are clearly to cover the bureaucratic cost of searching the records or writing the licence and not to raise money. It has been said an annual fee was required; this is due to a misinterpretation of a single reference. Most licences were issued as patent letters granted under the privy seal.

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Author's Notes:

[1] Charles Coulson’s wealth of supporting evidence and profound understanding make him the most credible author on the subject.

[2] Coulson writes, "The 'control over fortification' exercised by William Marshall and then by Hubert de Burgh during Henry III's minority, was aimed at preserving the peace (won after the battle of Lincoln in 1217), repressing war-like occupation of sensitive places and provocative fortifying by small men beyond their proper station. Illicit wartime seizures and fortifying (namely castra adulterina) had to be reversed or regulated to reassert the rule of law. There was no prejudice against seigneurial castles as such.  Royal orders on the Rolls prohibiting fortifying or crenellation are very scarce after c. 1232. Interference was more likely to be due to local officiousness or resentment, but still highly rare." (1982, p. 06, n. 9)

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Additonal Note:

[3] The mark was equal to 2/3 of a pound or 160 pence. English kings based their coinage system on that of Charlemagne: the pound, the shilling and the penny. A silver pound was divided into 240 pence. For hundreds of years, the silver penny was the only coin the English minted and the earliest coins contained one pennyweight of silver. Pure silver is too soft to make coins that withstand heavy use. From 1158, England adopted silver coins that were 92.5 percent silver, with the remainder consisting of base metal. The sterling standard remained in effect until 1920.
 

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Sources:

Coulson, Charles, "Structural Symbolism in Medieval Castle Architecture" in Journal of the British Archaeological Association, Vol. 132, 1979,  pp. 73-90.


Coulson, "Hierarchism in Conventual Crenellation" in Medieval Archaeology, Vol. 26,  1982, pp. 69-100.


History of English Coins, accessed 4 May 20102 at http://www.ehow.com/about_5444297_history-english-coins.html#ixzz1twvcL36m.

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In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

Portage des Sioux, St. Charles Co., MO

This township, including the islands, contains about eighty square miles, and embraces the point of land lying between the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. It is about twenty-two miles in length, and a little more than six miles in width at its widest part. The township, however, between the two rivers, at Portage des Sioux, is not more than two miles across.

Portage des Sioux with Mississippi River at flood; the statue is Our Lady of the Rivers

The surface of the land is almost entirely level, it being what is called "bottom" land, and is remarkably productive. The staple products are wheat and corn. The corn grown here is of a superior quality, and is known as the "St. Charles White," being excellent for grits and meal. It commands, in the St. Louis market, from one to one and a half cents more on the bushel than any other corn shipped to that city. The farmers are in good circumstances, many of them cultivating large tracts of land, from which they have annually gathered abundant crops which have made them wealthy. A portion of the township is subject to overflow in extreme high water.

The forest which originally covered these bottoms were dense and luxuriant; much of it has been cleared away for farms and firewood; much of it has been cut into cordwood, sold to steamboats and shipped to St. Louis, and still the timber is not only inexhaustible, but of an excellent quality. The township has no running streams, but contains a few small lakes, the largest of which is Marais Temps Clair.

PORTAGE DES SIOUX

Of the early settlements in the county, perhaps Portage des Sioux retains the traces of its peculiar more closely than any other. It is only of late years that the French population, which at one time composed the entire settlement, has been broken in upon by the representatives of other blood. In the latter part of the summer of 1799, Francis Leseuer, then a resident of St. Charles, in a hunting excursion to the lakes in the prairie bottoms, visited an Indian village a short distance from the Mississippi, and in company with some of the Indians came as far as the river, where there was another Indian settlement. The neighborhood pleased him so much as a site for a village, that on his return to St. Charles a colony was organized to settle the locality. Lieut.-Gov. Delassus, then at St. Louis, made a grant of land the same fall, and a number of families, principally from St. Charles and St. Louis, erected their tents on the site of Portage des Sioux. Francis Saucier was appointed commandant, a position which he continued to hold until the change of government.

Prairie wildlife at Marais Temps Clair Lake, Portage des Sioux

The colony remained during the winter of 1799-1800, hewed timber, and in the spring built some houses. From a petition drawn in October, 1803, for a grant of "Commons," we gather the following names as the original settlers of Portage des Sioux: Francis Saucier, Francis Leseuer, Simon Lepage, Charles Hibert, Julian Roi, Augusta Clairmont, Etienne Pepin, Abraham Dumont, Louis Grand, Jaques Godefroi, Bapiste Lacroix, Brazil Picard, Patrice Roi, Joseph Guinard, Antoine Lepage, Pierre Clermont, David Eshbough, Charles Roi, Thomas Whitley, Matthew Saucier and Solomon Petit. The first white child born in the settlement was Bridget Saucier, a daughter of the commandant. She was born in March, 1800, and afterwards married Stephen De Lile [sic: Etienne Bienvenue dit De Lisle] and was living in the town in 1875.

Portage des Sioux was formerly a celebrated stopping place for the Indians on their voyages up and down the river. Frequently the Mississippi, in front of the town, would be covered with fleets of canoes, while the village would swarm with swarthy voyageurs. During the Indian troubles the inhabitants were not molested. About 1808, however, one of the residents was killed by a drunken Indian. The assassin was at once surrendered to the whites and was taken to St. Louis, where, however, he either escaped or was set at liberty.

The place was of some importance during the War of 1812. A force was stationed here to intercept the enemy on their way to St. Louis. Along the river below the town stood a fort, the site of which disappeared in one of the inundations of the Mississippi. There was also a block-house at the head of the island below the town.

An Indian village, belonging to the tribe of Kickapoos, stood about two and a half miles south-west of the town; and another called Lassowris, from the name of an Indian chief, was below on the Mississippi. The treaty of peace between the United States government and the confederate tribes, who had engaged in the war under Tecumseh, the Missouri and Illinois were present in large numbers. General Clark acted in behalf of the United States government. The flat below the town was the place for holding the council.

The name of Portage des Sioux had been given to the place by the Indians, and was adopted by the French settlers. Here the distance between the Missouri and Mississippi is scarcely two miles. Bands of Indians on their journeys were accustomed to disembark, carry their canoes across the narrow neck from one river to the other, and thus save the long journey of twenty-five miles around the point of land, which runs up from the confluence of the two rivers. For many years after the settlement of the country the old trail could be distinctly traced. Perhaps an incident, which tradition still preserves, was of service in establishing the name, particularly in reference to the tribe of Sioux.

"The Osage Indians occupied a village on the Missouri, at or near the mouth of the Kansas. The Sioux lived on the Mississippi, above the mouth of the Des Moines. A hunting party of the Osage wandered over towards the country of the Sioux, and fell in with some hunters of that tribe, and killed one or more of their number. This greatly incensed the Sioux, and they resolved on Indian revenge. They formed a war party, fitted out a fleet of bark canoes, descended the Mississippi to the mouth of the Missouri, and ascended the latter river to the neighborhood of the Osages. Here they secreted their canoes and made a night attack upon their unsuspecting enemies, of whom they massacred a large number. Their revenge was signal, terrific and complete.

a, scalping-knife; b, ditto, in sheath; c, d, war-clubs; e, e, tomahawks; g, whip.

"The Sioux then returned to their canoes and fled, but in less time the Roderick Dhu could marshal his ready clansmen, a strong war party of Osages was formed, who, panting and thirsting for vengeance, launched their canoes upon the dark waters of the Missouri, and gave chase to their retreating foes. Both tribes were distinguished for their skill in water craft. The race was a contest for life and death. On they sped, the pursued and the pursuers. Each party employed all its skill and strength and cunning -- the fugitives prompted by the love of life and hope for escape -- the pursuers urged on by the desire for revenge and thirst for blood. The Sioux made great speed down the muddy river, but the Osages gained on them.

"The signs of the chase freshened; neither party stopped for rest, nor flagged; on, on they sped for days, the Osages still gaining, until, in one of the long stretches of the river, they came in sight of the Sioux. A loud, wild cry of exultation from the pursuers rang out upon the welkin, and was echoed back by a shout of defiance from the Sioux. The last trial of strength and skill was now made, and every nerve strained to its utmost capacity. On they sped until a certain bend of the river concealed the fugitives from their pursuers.

"Under this cover they soon reached a point on the Missouri, about twelve miles above its mouth and only a mile from the Mississippi, nearly opposite a point on the Mississippi where Portage des Sioux stands, and, taking advantage of this sudden turn of fortune, disembarked, withdrew their canoes from the water, and concealed themselves from their pursuers. Soon, however, the party of Osages came, noiselessly, yet swiftly as an arrow in its flight, gathering new life and fresh courage from the glimpse of a broken paddle, as it glided by them on the turbid waters, or some useless article of which the Sioux had disencumbered themselves in their flight.

"A moment of breathless suspense, into which was crowded an age of hope and fear and anxiety, is now experienced by the fugitives as their pursuers near the place of their concealment -- another moment and their pursuers are passed and lost to view in the next curve of the river. Manitto has smiled on the Sioux--the Osages are foiled.

"Hastily gathering up their canoes they bear them on their shoulders across the narrow portage, relaunch them on the Mississippi and resume their flight up that river, while the Osages continue down the Missouri to its mouth and then up the Mississippi. This successful strategem enabled the Sioux to gain on their pursuers some 20 or 30 miles, and secured their escape. The point where they re-embarked is the sight of Portage des Sioux, the portage of the Sioux, by which name it has ever since been known.

"The seal of the town is a circle with two bands encircling a field, with an extended view representing a portion of that plane of country immediately above the junction of the rivers. The "armorial chievement" is simple, yet highly suggestive, and commemorates the incident above related. It consists of a party of Sioux with canoes on their shoulders, courant, comme le diable, and is surrounded with the words "Seal of the town of Portage des Sioux." [1]

Ebenezer Ayers came from one of the Eastern States and settled on what is known as "the point" in St. Charles county at a very early date. He built the first horse-mill in that region of country. He was also a large fruit grower, and made a great deal of butter and cheese. He lived in a large, red house, in which the first Protestant sermon in "the point" was preached. In 1804 he and James Flaugherty and John Woods were appointed justices of the peace for St. Charles district, being the first under the American government. Mr. Ayers had four children, one son and three daughters. Two of the latter died before they were grown. The son, Ebenezer Davenport Ayers, married Louisiana Overall, and settled where Davenport, Iowa, now stands, the town being named for him. His surviving sister, Hester Ayers, married Anthony C. Palmer, who was a ranger in the company commanded by Capt. James Callaway. Mr. Palmer was afterward elected sheriff of the county, and served one term. He had a good education, was an excellent scribe, and taught school a number of years.

Samuel Griffith, of New York, settled on the point below St. Charles in 1795. He was therefore one of the very first American settlers in the present limits of the State of Missouri. Daniel M. Boone had been here previous to this arrival, and the rest of the Boone family must have come about the same time that Mr. Griffith did. They all came the same year at any rate. Mr. Griffith was married in North Carolina, and had four children: Daniel A., Asa, Mary and Sarah. Daniel A. married Matilda McKnight, and they had five children. Asa married Elizabeth Johnson; they had five children. Mary married Wilson Overall, and Sarah married Foster McKnight.

Alexander Garvin, of Pennsylvania, married Amy Mallerson, and settled in St. Charles county, Mo., in 1819. His cabin was built of poles, and was only 16x18 feet in size, covered with linden bark weighted down with poles. The chimney was composed of sticks and mud. The house was built in one day, and they moved into it the next. Mr. Garvin and his wife had seven children: Amy, Margaret, Permelia, Alexander, Jane R., Julia A. and Fannie D. Amy, Julia and Permilia all died single. Margaret was married first to Thomas Lindsay, and after his death she married Joles Dolby, and is now a widow again. Alexander married Elizabeth Boyd. Jane R. married Robert Bowles. Fannie D. married Robert Roberts.

[1] Atlas Map of St. Charles County.

--from The History of St. Charles County, Missouri, p. 261-281

1783 Kaskaskia [IL] Census

Intermarriages Among Harlem Pioneer Families

At the beginning of the 18th century, the little isolated community of Harlem consisted of half a hundred homes. The small two-story Dutch homes generally sheltered each a half-score or more of sturdy youngsters. "Intermarriage," says Riker, "among the resident families was the rule, and he was thought a bold swain truly who ventured beyond the pale of the community to woo a mate."

This simple, natural practice of marrying among neighbors was fraught with consequences not to be foreseen by the 30 families who constituted the village of Harlem two centuries ago. As a matter of fact, all--or very nearly all--of those who today bear the names of the 23 original patentees of Harlem and the 700-800 hundred others of different surnames who later married into these families are knit together by ties of kinship of which few are aware.

The wish tree is originally a Dutch wedding tradition. Guests wrote a message or wish on a note and hung it on the tree, which was then to bring the wishes to life.

The children and grandchildren of the patentees were nearly all cousins. Some 250-300 children and grandchildren of the original settlers were all closely bound by ties of blood relationship. Fifty years after the village was settled, or about the end of the first quarter of the 18th century, there was scarcely one of the families of the patentees who was not related to every other of the 25 or 30 families who first settled the village and they were not further removed than the fourth degree.

The following list of intermarriages of the children of the patentees may interest some of their descendants:

Of the Waldron family, Resolved Waldron had four daughters. Aeltje married Johannes Vermilye; Rebecca married first Jan Nagel and afterwards Jan Dyckman; Ruth married first Jan Delamater and afterwards Hendrick Bogert; Cornelia married Peter Oblinus. Their brother Johannes married Anna Van Dalsen. These marriages resulted in ties of close kinship between the seven families of Waldron, Nagel, Dyckman, Vermilye, Oblinus, Delamater and Bogert.

Of the Bussing family, Arent Harmanse Bussing, the patentee, married Susan, the daughter of Jan Delamater. His son Peter married Rebecca, daughter of Johannes and Aeltje Waldron Vermilye. John and Margaret Bussing married, respectively, a daughter and son of Cornelis Jansen Kortright. Elizabeth Bussing married Matthew Benson and Engeltje married Abraham Meyer. Of Peter Bussing and Rebecca Vermilye's four children, two married Bensons and two Meyers/Myers.

Of the Dyckman family, Jan Dyckman married first, Madeleine, the daughter of Daniel Tourneur, and after her death, as already mentioned, Rebecca Waldron, who was at the time of her second marriage the widow of Jan Nagel.  Jan Dyckman's son Jan married his cousin Deborah Nagel, while his sister Magdalena married Deborah Nagel's brother, Jan Nagel II. Jacob Dyckman married Jannetje Kiersen; Sarah married {text missing here}; sister Rebecca married Joseph Hadley, and their daughter Mehitabel Hadley married her cousin Isaac Vermilye.

Of the Meyer/Myer family, Adolph Myer married Maria, the daughter of Johannes Verveelen, and their children married respectively into the Van Dalsen, Benson, Bussing, Waldron, Lent and Haringh/Haring families; while their grandchildren married into the Dyckman, Waldron, Bussing, Delamater and Kortright families.

Of the Vermilye family, Johannes Vermilye's daughters--besides Rebecca, who married Peter Bussing--Maria married Peter Kiersen; Sarah married Teunis Van Dalsen; and Hannah married Jonathan Odell, the great-great-grandfather of one of New York's governors.  And in the two following generations of the Odell and Vermilye families and the Dyckman family, there were no less than ten intermarriages of cousins belonging to the three families. Aeltje Vermilye, a granddaughter of Johannes and Aeltje Waldron, married John Kortright.

Maria Vermilye, sister of Capt. Johannes, the patentee, became the second wife of Jean de la Montagne and her children married into the Bogert, Bussing and Kortright families. Nicasius de la Montagne, the son of Jean de la Montagne by his first wife Rachel De Forest, married Christina Roosevelt.

A Dutch trouwbeker, or wedding cup, from which the bride and groom drank

Of the Tourneur family, Daniel Tourneur's children married into the Kortright, Oblinus, Dyckman and DeVoe families, while his grandson Jacobus married a granddaughter of Laurens Jansen Low.

Of the Verveleen family, in addition to the connection by marriage between the Verveelen and Meyer families, already noted, there is that established by the two grandchildren of the old ferryman, Johannes Verveelen. Bernardus and Jacobus married, the one a Delamater and the other a Nagel.

Of the Bogert family, Jan Louwe Bogert's two daughters, Margaret and Cornelia, married a Haring and a Quackenbos {Quackenbush} respectively, while his granddaughter Jannetje became a Waldron and his great-grand-daughter Anna married Jacobus Roosevelt.

Of the Nagel family, Jan Nagel and Rebecca Waldron had a son Jan, who married his cousin, Magdalena Dyckman.  Another son, Barent, married Jannetje Kiersen and a daughter, Johannes {sic: Johanna} became the wife of William Waldron.  Sarah, their granddaughter, married Peter Oblinus, and her sister Deborah married Benjamin Waldron.

Of the Brevoort family, Jan Hendricus Brevoort's grandson Hendricus married a Delamater; William Haldron's grandson Cornells married Anetje Meyer and Jan Kiersen's daughter Jannetje married Jacob Dyckman.

Of the Oblinus family, Joost Oblinus' daughter married Isaac Vermilye and his grandchildren married respectively into the Nagel, Tourneur and DeVoe families. The children and grandchildren of Laurens Jansen Low intermarried with the Bogert, Delamater, Tourneur, Oblinus and Meyer families; and those of Cornelis Jan Kortright into the Dyckman, Benson, Bussing, Quackenbos {Quackenbush}, Delamater, Meyer and Vermilye families.

Dutch wedding wooden shoes

                                                                       ----------
Source:

{edited slightly by Madehlinne}

Pierce, Carl Horton, William Pennington Toler and Harmon De Pau Nutting, New Harlem past and present: the story of an amazing civic wrong, now at last to be righted (New Harlem Printing Co., 1903)

List of Original Patentees of Harlem

The following is a list of the names of the original Harlem Patentees and Associates:

John Delavall,

Resolved Waldron,

Joost Van Oblinus [Oblienus],

Daniel Tourneur,

Adolph Meyer [Myer],

John Spragge,

Jan Hendricks Brevoort,

Jan Delamater,

Isaac Delamater,

Barent Waldron,

Johannes Vermilje [Vermilye],

Lawrence Jansen [Low],

Peter Van Oblinis [Oblenus],

Jan Dykeman [Dyckman],

Jan Nagel,

Arent Harmanse [Bussing],

Cornelis Jansen [Kortright],

Jacqueline Tourneur,

Hester Delamater,

Johannes Verveelen [Van Valen],

William Haldron [Holdrum],

Abraham Montanie [De La Montanye],

Peter Parmentier,

Jan Louwe Bogert,

Johannes Benson,

Charles Congreve,

Zacharias Sickels,

Marcus Tiebout,

John Kiersen,

William Holmes.

Settling Harlem, New York

Harlem, named after the original Harlem in the Netherlands, was founded by the Dutch on a site which is now almost the geographical heart of New York City. Patterned after similar villages in France and England, this little settlement of about 20 families received power to own, buy, sell, or distribute property, elect officers, assess members, build churches, hold court and govern itself in the exercise of an authority common to corporate towns of the day.

Attempts at earlier settlement on the northern end of Manhattan Island had proved futile but began in earnest with the arrival of Hendrick (Henry) de Forest, his brother Isaac de Forest and their sister and brother-in-law, Rachel and Dr. Jean Mousnier De La Montagne, Franco-Dutch immigrants in 1636.

 Hendrick and Isaack lost no time in seeking a favorable situation for a plantation. They came prepared to earn their living by raising tobacco, for which it was said the New Netherland soil of Manhattan Island "on account of its great fertility was considered well adapted." A stretch of rich bottom land in the northern part of the island was soon selected. This tract was called Muscoota (the flat land) by the Indians, who had doubtless already cleared and cultivated a considerable part of it.  The Muscoota included all the Harlem River lowlands from Hellgate to High Bridge.

Early Manhattan Island Native American village

Hendrick promptly secured from Director Wouter van Twiller a grant of 100 morgens of land (about two hundred acres) on this fertile plain, extending "between the hills and the kill," that is, from the high land known today as Morningside Heights to a little stream now called Harlem Creek, which ran in a southerly and easterly direction until it emptied into the Harlem River. The northern boundary of the tract was at about 124th Street, while on the south it included the high land in Central Park at about 109th Street. Near this latter boundary was a copious spring or, as the Dutch called it, a fonteyn, which still flows almost as it did then, a rippling brook with little waterfalls, until it empties into Harlem Mere in the northern part of the park.

Montanye's Fonteyn in the early 20th century

Roughly speaking, between 3,000-4,000 acres, every foot of which is now extremely valuable, was granted to the Corporation—the Town of New Harlem—whose first settlers broke ground near the foot of 125th Street and the Harlem River on 14 Aug. 1658. Erf (plural erven) was the Dutch name for a house-lot and morgen (two acres) meaning farm-lots. An owner of erf and morgen-rights was entitled to draw as many acres of the undivided common lands as he held of these rights.

Harlem Original Plot Map, 1670; map drawn by James Riker

Dr. Montagne, whose name has been variously misspelled, a descendant of French Huguenots who--like many other Nieuw Netherlands settlers--had fled persecution to settle in Holland. Jean Mousnier de la Montagne from the time of his arrival in Nieuw Netherland signed himself simply La Montagne, though he was often called Johannes La Montagne or Montanye, and the name was frequently pronounced according to the latter spelling.

Riker's Map of Original Farms and Lots of Nieuw Haarlem

From Gov. William Kieft,  Dr. Montagne obtained a grant of the land on which he had settled and expressed a sense of gratitude for the contrasting peace of his new home in calling it Quiet Dale or Vredendal. The land which Montagne occupied soon became known as Montagne's Flat. The tract, divided by the present line of St. Nicholas Avenue, ran from 109th Street to 124th Street and contained about 200 acres.

Shortly afterward, former director Wouter Van Twiller became interested in the Harlem district and settled on Ward's Island. His friend Jacobus Van Curler pre-empted the flat opposite Ward's Island known as the Otterspoor, a name signifying "otter tracks." This was afterwards sold to Coenraet Van Keulen, a New York merchant, and hence the name Van Keulen's Hook, which clung to this part of the district for more than 100 years after Harlem's founding.

With the ushering-in of spring, Van Curler finished his primitive dwelling and out-buildings on the northern bank of Montagne's Creek and secured a stock of all things necessary for a well-regulated plantation of the day—domestic animals, farming tools, and a canoe for passing to and from New York. At that time, and for a considerable time thereafter, there was no thought of reaching Nieuw Amsterdam except by water.

The success attending these early efforts in the rich soil of Muscoota had by this time spread abroad and had attracted the attention of a Danish capitalist, Capt. Jochem Pieter, who finally settled on the land above 125th Street. His farm, which reached approximately to 150th Street along the Harlem River, was forever afterward known to the patentees as Jochem Pieter's lots. Jochem Pieter's full name was Jochem Pietersen Kuyter. The Dutch, not unlike their American descendants, were quick to abbreviate names. Kuyter, therefore, was always known as Jochem Pieter.

When Jochem Pieter first made known his intention of coming to Manhattan, the authorities offered him the farm he subsequently occupied. Pleased with their generosity, Jochem Pieter hired a ship, invited his friend Jonas Bronck to accompany him, stocked the vessel with fine Holstein cattle and, with the Pieter and Bronck families and numerous herdsmen, arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam in July 1639 and at once took up his residence on the banks of the Harlem.

Bronck, his associate, settled opposite in what is now Bronx Borough--to which he lent his name--and at once started to erect a stone house, covered with Dutch tiles, a barn, tobacco houses and barracks.

A Dutch farm in Drenthe, Netherlands, resembles those that would have been built in Nieuw Amsterdam.

When Hendrick De Forest died in July 1637, Dr. Montagne took charge of the widow's plantation. He also saw to the proper harvesting of her crops and boarded with Van Curler while finishing the house and barn which his brother-in-law had started in the rough.

 Dr. Montagne continued to look after the estate of his sister-in-law until the year following, when a former member of Van Twiller's council, Andries Hudde, married the young widow De Forest. Particularly noteworthy was this event, leading up to the first ground-brief, or land patent, which was issued relative to Harlem lands, "granting, transporting, ceding, giving over, and conveying, to Andries Hudde, his heirs and successors, now and forever" a site owned less than a generation later by the town of Harlem.

After his marriage, Hudde, wishing to visit Holland with his bride, engaged an overseer for the farm and applied to Director Kieft for a patent to avoid all question of title to the property during his absence. Hitherto no similar action had been taken, but Kieft, recognizing the value of the Harlem settlement as a protection against the Indians and recognizing also that settlers would not continue to dwell on and improve property where titles were insecure, inaugurated the custom of giving ground-briefs for Harlem farms, in course of improvement, by issuing the Hudde Patent, dated 20 July 1638.

By the time the newly-wedded pair reached Holland, however, their affairs on this side of the water were complicated by Dr. Montagne's demand for the settlement of a debt of $400 due him for the management of the estate during the widowhood of Mrs. De Forest, now Mrs. Hudde.

View of the Herengracht, Amsterdam

The claim remaining unpaid, the farm was offered for sale for the benefit of the widow. At the auction which followed, Dr. Montagne bid for the property at 1,700 guilders, or about $680, which sum purchased not only the farm, but also the fixtures, house, barn, fences, farming tools and wey schuyt (as the Dutch called the canoe), "domestic fowls, two goats, two milch cows and other cattle, and portions of the recent crops of tobacco and grain." Thus the claim to New Harlem's land called Montagne's Point and Montagne's Flat became merged under one ownership, where it remained until the formation of the New Harlem Corporation.

Claes Cornelissen Swits, a New Yorker, leased the farm which Van Kuelen purchased from Van Curler. The terms of his lease were interesting, showing the progress made by the little Harlem colony in the three years of its existence. The lease, which was executed on 25 Jan. 1639, included two span of horses, three cows, farming utensils and 12 schepels of grain in the ground, for which Swits was to pay rent in livestock and butter and one-eighth of all the grain "with which God shall bless the field."'

Dr. Montagne was yet to find, as did his neighbors, that this retreat was not so peaceful as it first seemed. The Native Americans lurked too near at hand.  Instead of the former quiet of the forest, the squeak of the ox-cart's wheels and the swish of the scythes in the meadow now warned the Manahattans and Wickquaskeeks, the Indian tribes of the region, that civilization was soon to rob them of their beloved hunting grounds.

Pieter Minuit trades for Manhattan Island. The Natives thought they only sold the hunting rights.

Despite Pieter Minuit's purchase of the island and subsequent purchases of the Bronx and Westchester lowlands, the Native Americans became aggressive, declaring that $24 was an inadequate price for the whole of the island, and their tone became threatening.

Gov. Kieft added fuel to the smoldering fire of the Indians' anger by attempting to levy a tax on the surrounding tribes. In vain did Dr. Montagne protest, but Kieft was vindictive. His demands being refused, he ordered an attack on the Raritan Indians. Several were killed, and, in the words of Dr. Montagne, "a bridge had been built over which war was soon to stalk through the land."

Swits was the first to fall in the trail of death which ensued. Kieft unwisely demanded the head of the assassin. New York's Council not supporting him, however, no active measures were taken to capture the culprit. Doubling their precautions, now that one of their number had been killed, the settlers along the Harlem returned to their crops and renewed their labors in the shadow of a constant danger.

Dutch troops prepare to attack Native Americans in retaliation.

Kieft again contrived to blunder in his relations with the Indians and his blunders were always particularly costly to the little Harlem colony. In the fall of the year he ordered the slaughter of some harmless, unarmed Indians who had sought, at the fort, a refuge from their enemies, the Mohicans.

Immediately the Indians rose, thirsting for revenge and swarming like angry hornets from the forests, boldly attacked the Harlem outpost of Manhattan Island civilization, killed some of the settlers and drove the remainder southward to New York.  Such attacks were repeated again and again in the next five years until Montagne and his neighbors were ruined, their cattle killed, their well-filled barns burned, their gardens and fences uprooted, their fields laid waste; and again the forest's silence was broken only by the cry of birds or the twang of the bow.

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Sources:

De Forest, Emily Johnston and Jesse De Forest, A Walloon Family in America (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1904)

Pierce, Carl Horton, William Pennington Toler and Harmon De Pau Nutting, New Harlem past and present: the story of an amazing civic wrong, now at last to be righted (New Harlem Printing Co., 1903)

The Great Swamp Fight

King Philip's War {see separate entry} was an armed conflict between Native Americans of present-day southern New England and English colonists and their Native American allies in 1675–76. In little over a year, 12 of the region's towns were destroyed and many more damaged, its economy was all but ruined, and much of its population was killed, including one-tenth of all men available for military service.

After their somewhat disastrous campaign of the autumn of 1675 in the western parts of Massachusetts, the Commissioners of the United Colonies were determined to carry the war against the Narrangansetts whom they accused of sheltering the warring Wapanoags led by King Philip. The veteran troops were recalled and reorganized; small towns in various parts of the colonies were garrisoned; and an army of  1,000 men was equipped for a winter campaign. 

Gen. Josiah Winslow, Governor of Plymouth Colony, was appointed commander-in-chief of this army; Maj. Samuel Appleton to command the Massachusetts regiment, Maj. William Bradford that of  Plymouth, and Maj. Robert Treat that of Connecticut.  The full quota of Massachusetts was 527 soldiers, but there were  doubtless many others along as servants to the officers, scouts, camp-followers, etc.

Colonial soldiers at muster {Painting by Don Troiani}

To the soldiers, a proclamation was read, on the part of the Massachusetts Council, "that if they played the man, took the Fort, & Drove the Enemy out of the Narragansett Country, which was their great Seat, that they should have a gratuity in land besides their wages." The pay of soldiers, according to Mr. Judd, in his History of Hadley, was 6s. per week, and 5s. was paid for their "dyet." There is no way of determining the rate of pay, as all payments are "on acct" and do not specify time of service. Plymouth colony paid the private soldiers 2s{hillings}. per day, drummers 2s. b'd., Sergeant 3s., Ensign 4s., "Lieftenant " 5s., Captain 6s. A "chyrurgion" or doctor was attached to the expedition companies.

In the evening of Sunday, December 12th, the whole body advanced "from Mr. Carpenter's," crossed the Pautuxet River and marched a long way into "Pomham's Country," now Warwick, RI.  But from the unskillfulness of their Warwick scouts (who were probably Englishmen), their purpose of capturing Pomham and his people was defeated and, after a whole night spent in weary marching about, they arrived at {Richard} Smith's garrison-house at Wickford.

Richard Smith of Smith’s Castle, Cocumcossoc, was the Indian trader of the area whose fortress blockhouse trading post housed the United Colonies combined troops who came through to fight the battle.  Smith had bought the trading post and surrounding lands and had constructed a large house which was fortified, giving the house its nickname as a "castle."

The original Smith's Castle

Jeriah Bull’s blockhouse on Tower Hill to the east, where Quaker George Fox had preached, was burned to the ground a scant day or two before the battle.  Smith's son Richard Jr. inherited the plantation in 1666 and invited the militias from Massachusetts and Connecticut to use the property during King Philip's War. In retaliation for the Great Swamp Fight,  the house was burned in 1676. 

There, they were met with troops who had arrived by water and also by Capt. Samuel Mosely's company, which had captured 36 Indians that day, including the Native American called Peter, who proved afterwards to be an indispensable guide.

While the troops waited as other soldiers from nearby areas joined them, small raiding companies of Native Americans took turns sniping at, wounding or killing the soldiers.  A commander of one Boston regiment, Capt. James Oliver wrote, "I sent out 30 of my men to scout abroad, who killed two Indians and brought in 4 prisoners, one of which was beheaded. Our Army came home at night, killed 7 and brought in 9 more, young and old. Dec. 15th, came in John, a rogue, with pretence of peace, and was dismissed with this errand, that we might speak with Sachems. That evening, he not being gone a quarter of an hour, his company that lay hid behind a hill killed two Salem men within a mile of our quarters, and wounded a third that he is dead. And at a house three miles off where I had 10 men, they killed 2 of them."

The little army marched from the vicinity of Bull's Fort on Narragansett Bay. The English forces under command of Gen. Winslow of Plymouth had been gathered at Wickford. Capt. Oliver wrote: "Dec. 18th, we marched to Petaquamscot with all our forces, only a garrison left; that night was very stormy; we lay, one thousand, in the open field that long night. In the morning, Dec. 19th, Lord's day, at 5 o'clock we marched. Between 12 and 1, we came up with the enemy," after having marched some 20 miles through intense cold and a heavy snow-storm to the swamp. 

This Native American fort on the north side of Worden’s Pond was situated upon an island of some five or six acres in the midst of a cedar swamp, which was impassable except to the Indians by their accustomed paths. It is probable that the Indians depended chiefly upon the swamp to protect them, though their defenses were described as having been of considerable strength. A portion of the high ground had been enclosed, and from a careful comparison of the most reliable accounts, it seemed that the fortifications were well planned.

Map of the location of the Native American fort

"The Fort was raised upon a Kind of Island of five or six acres of rising Land in the midst of a swamp; the sides of it were made of Palisadoes set upright, the which was compassed about with a Hedg [sic] of almost a rod Thickness." A contemporary writer (whose account was published at the time in London, and was reprinted in Drake's publication called the "Old Indian Chronicle") says: "In the midst of the Swamp was a Piece of firm Land, of about three or four Acres, whereon the Indians had built a kind of Fort, being palisadoed round, and within that a clay 'Wall,' as also felled down abundance of Trees to lay quite round the said Fort, but they had not quite finished the said Work." It is evident from these, the only detailed accounts and from some casual references, that the works were rude and incomplete. At the corners and exposed portions, rude block-houses and flankers had been built, from which a raking fire could be poured upon any attacking force."

Either by chance or by the skill of Peter, their captured Indian guide, the English seemed to have come upon a point of the fort where the Indians did not expect them.  But the crude fort would have been almost impregnable to the troops had not the swamp been frozen by the extreme cold of the previous days.

Without waiting for any organized attack, the Massachusetts troops at the front of the march rushed forward across the ice in an impetuous charge and into the entrance of the Indian fort.  So the first colonists to enter were met with a terrible enfilading fire from front and flanks and were forced back for a time.  "But others coming on pressed into the breach, and, though suffering severe losses, at last stormed all the fortifications, drove the enemy from every line of entrenchments within the fort, and out into the woods and swamps beyond. They set fire to the wigwams and store-houses of the savages, in which were burned many of the aged, and women and children," states Bodge.

"We lost, that are now dead, about 68, and had 150 wounded, many of which are recovered. That long snowy cold night we had about 18 miles to {go to} our quarters, with about 210 dead and wounded. We left 8 dead in the fort. We had but 12 dead when we came from the swamp, besides the 8 we left. Many died by the way, and as soon as they were brought in, so that Dec. 20th we buried in a grave 34, next day 4, next day 2, and none since here. Eight died at Rhode Island, 1 at Petaquamscot, 2 lost in the woods and killed, Dec. 20, as we heard since ; some say two more died. By the best intelligence, we killed 300 fighting men ; prisoners we took, say 350, and above 300 women and children. We burnt above 500 houses, left but 9, burnt all their corn, that was in baskets, great store. One signal mercy that night, not to be forgotten, viz. that when we drew off, with so many dead and wounded, they did not pursue us...," wrote Capt. Oliver.

Of the officers, Capts. {Nathaniel} Davenport, {Isaac} Johnson and {Joseph} Gardiner were killed, and Lieutenants {Phineas} Upham, {Perez} Savage, {Jeremiah} Swain, and {Edward} Ting/Tyng were wounded. Of the Connecticut troops, 71 were killed and wounded; and according to the eminent historian of Connecticut, Dr. Benjamin Trumbull, only 70.

Maj. Treat, by tradition, is said to have been the last man to have left the fort, commanding the rear guard of the army; and of his captains, {John} Gallop, {Samuel} Marshall and {Nathaniel} Seely were killed and Capt. {John} Mason mortally wounded. By a contemporary account, Connecticut lost:

Of New Haven Company, 20

Of Capt. {Nathaniel} Siely [sic] his Company, 20

Of Capt. {Thomas} Watts his Company, 17

Of Capt. {Samuel} Marshal his Company, 14 — 71

Of the Plymouth forces, Maj. Bradford, the commander, and Capt. Benjamin Church of the General's staff were severely wounded and, of the soldiers, the killed and wounded in both companies were 20, by best accounts.

Ninigret, sachem of the English-allied Niantick tribe, sent to Gen. Winslow word that his people had buried the dead English who had been left at the fort and that the number was 24 and he asked for a charge of powder for each. This information was given in a letter from Maj. Bradford to Rev. Mr. Cotton of Plymouth.

The only vestiges of the Native American fortification found in latter days were here and there a grain of Indian corn burned black in the destruction.

The full loss of the army was 31 killed and 67 wounded.  Such, at least, was the "official" return at the time.

The only incident of an individual being hanged, drawn and quartered for treason on American soil took place at Smith's Castle in 1676. Joshua Tefft, an English colonist accused of having fought on the side of the Narragansett during the Great Swamp Fight, was executed by this method.

Architect Clifford A. Renshaw's drawing (2000) of how the c. 1678 house built by Richard Smith Jr. may have appeared. According to tradition, many timbers salvaged from the burned blockhouse were reused in the construction of the new house. Upper beams in the current house provide evidence of the two garret gables and stone rubble found in front of the current entrance may be the foundation of the projecting central "porch." Framing for a door, which can be seen today through the view-port to the right of the front door, suggests the main entry was to the right of the porch.  The May 1692 inventory of the estate of Richard Smith Jr. describes a kitchen, hall and dairy (first floor); a porch chamber, kitchen chamber, hall chamber and lean-to chamber (second floor); and a porch, kitchen and hall garrets (third floor). {Drawing from Smith's Castle website}

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Sources:

Bodge, George M., Soldiers in King Philip's war; being a critical account of that war, with a concise history of the Indian wars of New England from 1620-1677, official lists of the soldiers of Massachusetts colony serving in Philip's war, and sketches of the principal officers, copies of ancient documents and records relating to the war, also lists of the Narragansett grantees of the United colonies, Massachusetts, Plymouth and Connecticut; with an appendix. (Leominster, Mass., Printed for the author, 1891)

Drake, Samuel G., History and Antiquities of Boston, the Capitol of Massachusetts and the Metropolis of New England, From Its Settlement in 1630, to the Year 1770. Also, An Introductory History to the  Discovery and Settlement of New England. (Boston: Luther Stevens, 1856)

Smith's Castle information taken from the website; accessed 22 Jan. 2012 at http://www.smithscastle.org/.