The Custom House and general stores were also seized. The Eighteenth Regiment of Foot (Royal Irish) prudently kept within. their barracks. A day or two afterward, a public meeting of citizens formally placed the government of the city in the hands of a committee of one hundred. Immediately after these events, orders came for the Eighteenth Regiment to embark for Boston. Marinus Willett was at the tavern of Francis Drake on Water Street, near Beekman, when he heard that the soldiers were on their way to the boats. Sending messages to his nearest comrades, he started in pursuit and overtook the regiment at Broad and Beaver streets. Finding that they had a quantity of extra arms, in wagons, with them, he boldly seized the foremost horse by the bridle and checked the convoy. He was speedily joined by John Morin Scott and a score of other determined men. David Mathews, the acting Mayor, who was a violent Tory, remonstrated with the patriots, but in vain. Willett spoke a few stirring words to the crowd, who thereupon seized the carts and escorted them in triumph up Broadway to the ballalley of Abraham Van Wyck in John street. Tradition adds that several soldiers of the Royal Irish regiment seized this opportunity to desert. Certain it is that the arms afterward did good service in the first regiment raised by the State of New York. The battle of Bunker Hill found the Provincial Congress engaged in raising four regiments of soldiers, while General Wooster, with a brigade of Connecticut troops, was encamped at Yorkville. At this time General Washington was on his way to Bos KING'S COLLEGE. ton to take command of the Continental army. He was accompanied by Generals Lee and Schuyler, and by the Philadelphia Light Horse. At four o'clock in the afternoon, Washington landed "at Colonel Lis | penard's seat, about a mile from New York city," as we are informed by Rivington's "Royal Gazetteer." The locality was near the foot of Murray street, on the North River. Here the new Commander-in-Chief was received by nine companies of militia and a great concourse of the "principal inhabitants." Washington tarried only for a brief conference with the military leaders, and then at once sped on his way to Boston. His visit was marked, however, by a curious coincidence. On the evening of the same day the ship "Juliana" landed in the bay, bringing Governor Tryon as a passenger from London. This was just the juxtaposition of affairs which all parties had been fearing. However, the Tory merchants and officials, who seem also, according to the "Gazeteer," to have made up" an immense number of the principal people," kept the celebrations apart, and at night escorted the royal Governor with martial music, torches, and huzzas to "the house of the Hon. Hugh Wilson, Esquire," a member of the Council. Tryon seems to have possessed in an eminent degree the discretion which at times is preferable to valor. He attended to his official work quietly and did not interfere even when, on the following fourth of July, the Military Club entertained Generals Schuyler, Wooster, and Montgomery, at the house of Mr. Samuel Fraunces "in the fields." These gentlemen were engaged in putting the local recruits and city militia in fighting trim. They even went so far as to have Wooster's brigade reviewed by Schuyler and Montgomery on the Commons. The royal Governor was content to be openly acknowledged as the lawful executive. In private, however, the patriots made it so uncomfortable for him that he was glad to flee in the early autumn. Stirring events were soon to follow. On the night of the 23d of August a party of soldiers and citizens, under the command of Lamb and Sears, seized the Grand Battery and the Fort, in which twenty-two iron eighteenpounders and several smaller cannon were mounted. Among the party was Alexander Hamilton, then a student of King's College. A barge sent from the British man-of-war "Asia" to watch the movement was fired upon, and the vessel answered by a broadside. An eighteen-pound ball was shot into the house of Samuel Fraunces, at the corner of the Exchange, and another into an adjacent house. This firing caused a general alarm, and many women and children were hurriedly sent out of the city for safety. The patriots stood firm under the cannonade, and removed every gun. The house then occupied by Samuel Fraunces for his down-town tavern was better known in that day as the De Lancey mansion. It was built by Stephen De Lancey in 1724, during the governorship of William Burnet, son of the famous bishop of that name, and stood at the corner of Broad street and that part of Pearl which was then called Dock street. Its situation was admirable, as it was near the Government House, and Front and South streets did not exist at that time. Forty years afterward it was discovered to be too far down town, and Oliver De Lancey sold it to Samuel Fraunces, the Delmonico of his day, who was made steward of Washington's household when the first President resided in New York. Fraunces, who from the swarthiness of his complexion was generally spoken of as "Black Sam," had a genius for cookery, and was a connoisseur in wines. Accordingly, after leasing the house for a while, he opened it as a tavern in 1771. The spacious mansion was admirably adapted for purposes of entertainment, and soon became a center of resort. Here the "Social Club" met every Saturday night and praised their host's Madeira. There were many loyalists in this organization, but John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, Morgan Lewis, Livingston, Verplanck, and other patriots, were also members. From this source, perhaps, Fraunces imbibed his championship of colonial independence. When the Revolution broke out he became an ardent patriot, and when the "Asia" discharged her broadside at the city, his house was made the target, because it was supposed to be the gathering place of the rebels. When the British entered the city on the 15th of September, 1776, Fraunces fled with General Putnam and his troops, and his house was occupied by British officers. He did not venture to return until November 25th, 1783. After the British troops had marched sullenly to their boats, and the Americans occupied Fort George, Washington took up his headquarters at Fraunces's Tavern. Here it was that the Commanderin-Chief bade farewell to his officers on the 4th of December following. The old house is still standing, but it has been gutted once or twice by fire, and changed very much in rebuilding. As erected by Stephen De Lancey, the front on Broad street had three floors and an attic, and the Dock street front had an additional floor with a hip roof. The ancient building has changed and its glory has departed, but it has survived more than a century and a half of existence, to challenge the homage of those who love to dwell on the memories of old New York. A daughter of "Black Sam," Phoebe Fraunces, was Washington's housekeeper when he had his headquarters in New York in the spring of 1776, and was the means of defeating a conspiracy against his life. Governor Tryon, Mayor Mathews, and other Tories, had laid a plot to seize the city and hold it for the British. One part of the plan was the poisoning of the American commander. Its immediate agent was to be Thomas Hickey, a deserter from the British army, who had become a member of Washington's body guard, and had made himself a general favorite at headquarters. Fortunately the would-be conspirator fell desperately in love with Phoebe Fraunces, and made her his confidant. She revealed the plot to her father, and at an opportune moment the dénouement came. Hickey was arrested and tried by court-martial. He confessed his crime and revealed the details of the plot. A few days afterward he was hanged at the intersection of Grand and Christie streets, in the presence of twenty thousand spectators. Fort George, from which the patriot forces removed the guns under the cannonade of the "Asia," was the pride of the city in its early days. As originally constructed, it was bounded by the present State, Bridge, and Whitehall streets, and faced the Bowling Green. It changed names often and suddenly. Christened Fort Amsterdam by the peaceful Dutch, it became Fort James at the first occupation of the island by the British. When the Dutch re-occupied the city they gave their old stronghold the name of Fort Wilhelm Hendrick, in honor of the Prince of Orange. Afterward English governors gave it successively the names of Fort James, Fort William, and Fort William Henry. Finally the name Fort George was fixed upon, and that title it continued to bear until it was finally evacuated by the British. It had four points, or bastions, and could mount sixty guns, though Washington found but six cannon there when he first occupied the city. Within the walls were the Governor's house and a chapel. By the time the Revolution was ended Fort George had become thoroughly hateful to the people, because of its associations with British tyranny. They had grown tired of seeing the royal flag floating the Reverend Dr. Samuel Johnson. They were eight in number, and all of them rose to positions of importance. Among the eight were Samuel Provoost, afterward Prot FRAUNCES'S TAVERN OR DE LANCEY MANSION (NOW STANDING). from the flag-staff, and petitioned the city authorities to level the fort to the ground. Accordingly, in 1788, the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty decreed its demolition. On the line of its northern front, facing the Bowling Green, they proceeded to erect an imposing edifice, intended as the official residence of the President of the United States. The national capital was transferred to the District of Columbia before it was completed, and the new building was occupied by the Governor of the State. When Albany was finally fixed upon as the State capital, it was made the Custom House for a while, but in 1815 it was taken down and a row of brick buildings took its place. With this last change, even the traditions of the old fortress that so long had witnessed the varying fortunes of the city, seem to have faded away. When Alexander Hamilton led fifteen of his fellow-students against the Grand Battery (a fortification connected with Fort George, though very much smaller) on the August night in which they drew the fire of the English fleet, he virtually disbanded King's College. This venerable institution had been founded by royal charter in 1754. Its first students gathered in the vestry of Trinity Church, under the presidency of estant Episcopal Bishop of New York, Isaac Ogden, Pierre Van Cortlandt, subsequently Lieutenant-Governor, and Samuel Verplanck. Trinity Church gave the college a considerable tract of land in the old King's Farm, and there the cornerstone of its main building was laid with imposing ceremonies on the 23d of August, 1756. Those whose memory goes back twenty years will readily recall the not very pretentious buildings which at that time formed three sides of the college quadrangle on Church street at the head of Park Place. The grounds originally extended to the river, and the college was intended to face in that direction, but after the water front had been extended from Greenwich to West street, the relative situation of the buildings was supposed to have changed. When the first college building was erected the city had about sixteen thousand inhabitants, and the institution was out of town. For this reason the students were required to "lodge and diet" in the college. The edifice was "surrounded by a high fence," and a porter was on guard at the front gate," which is closed at ten o'clock each evening in summer and nine in winter, after which hours the names of all that come in are delivered weekly to the President." An English tourist wrote of King's College in 1766, that it was "pleasantly situated," but expressed his surprise that "people could have been found foolish enough to build the college at such a distance from the furthest limits to which the city could by any possibility extend." A letter written by Dr. Myles Cooper, who succeeded Dr. Johnson as President of the college in 1763, says that the building was "situated on dry, gravelly soil, about one hundred and fifty yards from the banks of the Hudson River, which it overlooks." This same Dr. Cooper was an inveterate lover of royalty, and had been threatened with summary punishment by the Liberty Boys. Warned by Alexander Hamilton, he fled from his house one THE SONS OF LIBERTY, LED BY MARINUS WILLETT, SEIZING BRITISH ARMS. find his arguments met and answered in the patriot organ, and his curiosity was excited to find out the name of his opponent. To his intense disgust, the foeman was at length revealed in the person of Alexander Hamilton, a youth of eighteen, who had already won reputation as a popular speaker. This is one of the glorious legends of the old college. Another tradition pictures Hamilton reading the Declaration of Independence to dispel the glories that cluster around the spot. There John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, Robert R. Livingston, Alexander Hamilton, De Witt Clinton, Daniel D. Tompkins, John Randolph, of Roanoke (who left college in his Junior year), and many of later celebrity, won their first literary laurels. In writing up the record of the Revolution, it must never be forgotten that Columbia College did her share in training men for the crisis. man. James Rivington, publisher of the "Royal Gazetteer," was a man of a far different stamp. Thoroughly unscrupulous, he wielded a keen and bitter pen, which he used unsparingly against the patriots. His personal attacks at length so fired Captain Sears, that this gentleman returned from Connecticut, whither he had gone to consult certain American leaders, at the head of seventy-five light-horsemen. Entering the city at midday, the party at once proceeded to Rivington's office in Wall street, destroyed his presses, and carried off his type in bags. The type made excellent bullets. Rivington went to England after this raid, but returned in September, 1777On the 26th of that month the "True Sons of Freedom" gave him a banquet at the King's Head Tavern, at which, according to the "Weekly Mercury" of September 29th, 1777, a person, in honor to a free press, extemporarily pronounced this: 666 66 Rivington is arrived; let every man In 1775 there were four newspapers published in New York. Rivington's "Royal Gazetteer" was the subservient tool of the British authorities. "The Mercury," published by Hugh Gaine, was a time-server and trimmer. Anderson's "Constitutional Gazette" was born and died in 1775, and had no influence whatever. "The New York Journal," published by John Holt, was the sturdy and unpurchasable organ of the Sons of Liberty. Its editor fled the city after the disastrous battle on Long Island, and he was heard of afterward as publishing his newspaper at one and another of the towns on the Hudson under circumstances that would have appalled a less determined In the month of August, 1777, while at Esopus, he printed an advertisement, in which he proposed to take any kind of country produce in the way of trade. His prospectus reads very quaintly: "And the printer, being unable to carry on his business without the necessaries of life, is obliged to affix the following prices to his work, viz.: For a quarter of news, 12 lbs. of beef, pork, veal, or mutton, or 4 lbs. of butter, or 7 lbs. of cheese, or 18 lbs. of fine flour, or half a bushel of wheat, or one bushel of Indian corn, or half a cord of wood, or 300 wt. of hay, or other articles of country produce as he shall want them, in like proportions, or as much money as will purchase them at the time; for other articles of printing work, the prices to be in proportion to that of the newspaper. All his customers, who have to spare any of the above, or other articles of country produce, he hopes will let him know it, and afford him the necessary supplies, It must be confessed that the royalists in without which his business here must very New York were numerous and active. soon be discontinued." It is gratifying to be Many of the staid old merchants and men able to state that the sturdy patriot survived of position were fearful of any change, and the Revolution, and lived to revisit the city, desired matters to remain as they were. of which he had been Postmaster in 1775- De Lancey, Robinson, Mathews, and other His patriotic labors and sufferings justly Tories kept up an active correspondence entitled him to the following epitaph: "A abroad, and were busy sowing the seeds of due tribute to the memory of John Holt, disaffection at home. A knowledge of this printer to this State, a native of Virginia, fact prompted Washington to send General who patiently obeyed death's awful sum- Charles Lee early in 1776 with twelve hunmons on the thirtieth of January, 1784, in the dred volunteers to garrison the city. In sixty-fourth year of his age. To say that his vain the Committee of Safety protested that family lament him is needless; that his friends this action would draw the fire of the British bewail him, is useless; that all regret him, fleet in the harbor. Lee marched his men unnecessary; for that he merited every esteem to the Commons and encamped them, makis certain. The tongue of slander cannot saying his headquarters at the famous Kenless, though justice might say more." Such an epitaph, inscribed over the dust of an editor, who had also held commission as Postmaster, opens a wide field of emulation to the journalists and officials of these later days. Toward the close of the war Rivington became convinced that the colonists would succeed in gaining their independence, and for two years acted as a spy for General Washington. In consequence of this service he was allowed to remain in the city after its evacuation by the British and their Tory friends. His business, however, never prospered. He died in poverty and obscurity in 1802. nedy House, of which mention will be made hereafter. The Yankee General had a quiet but effective way with him. He remarked to the more timid of the citizens: "If the ships of war are quiet, I will be quiet; if |