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1994.Constitution IsiattiiCONSTITUTION ISLAND.CONSTITUTION ISLAND
Written for the
Historical Society of Newburgh Bay and the Highlands, at Newburgh,
in the County of Orange, New York.
By Stuyvesant Fish.
My good friend, Mr. David Barclay, has been kind enough to ask me to
write a short article on Constitution Island, that bold, rocky mass which
the Indians called Manjahan, meaning '‘Island.” It has been best de-
scribed by Capt. E. C. Boynton, in his History of West Point, published
in 1863:
“The Hudson River, in passing the upper Highlands, flows south
through the gorge between abrupt and lofty mountains for a dis-
tance of nearly eight miles; the channel then changes east about
one-fourth of a mile, land, thence changing, again pursues its south-
erly direction. Projecting half way across the river, and forming
the left bank opposite West Point on the north, between the two
right angles made by the channel, is. an island; its west and north-
western sides are formed of bold and inaccessible precipices, while
on the east is a large flag meadow, partially drained by ditches re-
cently out through it. This island, nowhere more than one hundred
and thirty-four feet high, is probably two miles in circumference,
and half a mile in width) from north to south.”
In this County, which received its name five years before the Prince of
Orange became King of England, it may not be amiss to say a word about
the baptismal name of him whom our fathers for three centuries called
Hendrick Hudson. As the Spaniards gave to the Genoese, Christoforo
Colombo, the name of Christobal Colon, and the English to the Venetian
Zuan Caboto, that of John Cabot, why may not we persist in calling the
Englishman who commanded the first ship known to have explored our
river, as the Hollanders under whose flag he sailed did? When the
French become such precisians as to call their great Emperor by his
Italian name of Buonaparte, as it may be seen spelled on coins still in
circulation among them, it will be time for us to consider calling Hudson
“Henry.”
On returning down the river, Hudson anchored for the night at the
south end of Newburgh Bay, for the stated reason that “The Highlands
hath many points and a narrow channel, and hath many eddie winds.”
LLHis experience and that of other skippers of Dutch vessels gave to the
reach near West Point the name of Martlaers Rack. While the literal
translation of Martelaer is Martyr, the name really meant the struggling
or contending reach, having reference to the difficulties which sailing ves-
sels there met with by reason of varying winds' and currents. Dr. Tim-
othy Dwight, in a letter written 'March 16, 1778, and reprinted in his
“Travels,” speaks of what we still call the North Gate of the Highlands
as “The Wey-gat, or Wind-gate, because the wind often blows through
it with great violence.” That name survives as the Worrygut or Warra-
gut, from the Dutch Warrelguts, “Windgate,” as may be seen in our neigh-
bor, Mr. W. E. Verplanck’s, interesting book on the “Sloops of the Hud-
son,” and in Mr. E. M. iRuttenber’s “Indian Geographical Names,” to
which I am indebted for much of the foregoing.
Our Island naturally acquired the name of “Martelaers Rack Eiland,”
which the English corrupted into “Martler’s Rock.” The earliest use of
that name seems to have been in the deeds passed in February, 1754, be-
tween the three younger children of Judge Frederick Philipse, for the
partition of Philipse’s Upper, or Highland Patent. That Patent, issued
in 1697, specifically and by name conveyed Polopel’s Island, but was
silent as to our Island. The draftsman of those deeds may have coined
the term Martlers Rock, in order to include our Island as part of the
mainland granted in the Patent, and indeed it may then already have
become what it now is, a peninsula rather than an island.
The Government of the City of 'New York, being in the hands of a
Committee1 of One Hundred, that Committee, on May 10, 1775, applied to
the Continental Congress, then sitting in Philadelphia, through the dele-
gates from the Province of New York, Philip Livingston, James Duane,
John Alsop, John Jay, Simon Boerum, William Floyd, Henry Wisner,
Philip 'Schuyler, George Clinton, Lewis Morris, Francis Lewis and Rob-
ert R. Livingston, for advice “how to conduct themselves with regard to
the (British) troops expected to arrive in New York City.” Five days
later Congress referred the matter to a committee consisting of George
Washington, Thomas Lynch, Samuel Adams and the delegates from New
York. This is the first mention of Washington in any act or resolution
of Congress. The committee having reported, Congress on May 25 re-
solved, among other things:
“That a post be also taken in the highlands on each side of Hud-
son’s River and batteries erected in such manner as will most ef-
fectually prevent any vessels passing that may be sent to harrass
the inhabitants on the borders of said river; and that experienced
persons be immediately sent to examine said river in order to dis-
cover where it will be most advisable and proper to obstruct the
navigation.”
2The engineer chosen, Colonel Bernard Romans, arrived iat the Island
August 9, 1775, and immediately began the erection thereon of the first
of the fortifications in the Highlands. Official reports made therefrom
in that year are dated “Port Constitution.”
The Province of New York, unlike most of the other colonies, never re-
ceived a charter from the British government. In this Province the Whigs,
or as we prefer to call them “Patriots,” based their contention upon their
rights, as free-born (Englishmen, under the British Constitution. The “As-
sociation” sent out by the Committee of One Hundred on April 29, 1775,
and so generally signed in this Province, was in terms made for “preserv-
ing our Constitution and opposing the execution of the several arbitrary
Acts of the British Parliament, until reconciliation between Great Britain
and America on constitutional principles can be obtained.” The Continental
Congress, in a Proclamation issued in December, 1775, said:i “We oppose
the claim and exercise of unconstitutional powers to which neither the
Crown nor Parliament were ever entitled. Biy the British Constitution,
our best inheritance, rights as well as duties descend on us.”
In England also-, Lord Shelburne desired to have the war in America
called a Constitutional War. There was in London a “Constitutional So-
ciety” which, on June 7, 1775, sent Dr. Franklin £100 “to the relief of the
widows, orphans and aged parents of our beloved American fellow-sub-
jects,” who had fallen iat the battle of Lexington.
As the fort was built before the Declaration of Independence, before
the adoption, in 1777, of the Constitution of the State of New York and
ten years before the United States adopted theirs, our Island necessarily
took its name from the British Constitution. Those who built and named
the fort knew no other.
Old maps show a Fort Constitution in Westchester County, on Gal-
lows Hill north of Peekskill, and Fort Lee on the Palisades in New Jer-
sey was at first so named.
We have seen above that the first mention of Washington in any act
or resolution of Congress was in connection with our Island. At
the end of the Revolutionary War, after the British had evacuated New
York, and Washington had bidden farewell to hisl companions in arms at
Fraunce’s Tavern on December 4, 1783, it was on Constitution Island that
the Commander-in-Chiefs Body Guard were mustered out of service on
December 20, 1783. iSo that in a certain sense we may say that Wash-
ington’s services during the Revolutionary War began and ended with
Constitution Island.
Following the taking of Fort Montgomery by the British, Fort Constitu-
tion was abandoned after firing a single ineffective volley. The British
then continued up the river unopposed until they received news of Bur-
goyne’s surrender, which iSchuyler’s skill had made all but certain and
3Arnold’s impulsive valor altogether so, whereupon they retired to New
York.
The Continental forces then reoccupied the Highlands and in the year
following West Point was fortified and thenceforth held. The credit for
“having chosen this rock of our military salvation” has by the New Eng-
land writers, as usual, been claimed for one of their popular heroes, Gen-
eral Israel Putnam.
The facts, however, are that—although Romans’ original plan submit-
ted to the New York Committee, September 14, 1775, and by them trans-
mitted to the Continental Congress, called for a blockhouse and a bat-
tery at West Point to the north and not far from the site of what after-
ward became the principal work there, now known as 'Fort Clinton—his
plan was at once condemned by the New York Commissioners, Bedlow,
Grenell, Bayard and Lanman, as not sufficient; that on November 8, 1775,
the Continental Congress appointed Robert R. Livingston, Robert Treat
Paine and John Langdon, a committee on the “fortifications upon
Hudson’s River,” who reported that it was necessary to occupy
and throw up batteries iat West Point. Captain Boynton says,
“This is the first official recommendation to occupy West Point
(Nov. 23, 1775.)” On May 21, 1776, Washington wrote to Gen. Putnam,
then commanding in New York City, that he feared the fortifications in
the Highlands were in a bad situation and directed him to send General,
erroneously called Lord, Sterling and others “to see and report such
alterations as may be judged necessary.” Putnam sent Sterling, Col.
Rufus Putnam and Captain Seargant on this errand and on June 1, Ster-
ling reported to Washington that “Every work on the Island is command-
ed by the hill on the West Point on the opposite side of the river, within
five hundred yards, where there is a level piece of land of near fifty acres
in extent. A redoubt on this West Point is absolutely necessary not only
for the preservation of Fort Constitution, but for its own importance on
many accounts.” Gen. Putnam assumed command in the Highlands early
in May, 1777. On the 1st of July Washington wrote him: “It appears
almost certain to me that Gen. Howe and Gen. Burgoyne design if possi-
ble to unite their attacks and form a junction of their two armies * * *
and I am persuaded, if Gen. Howe is going up the river he will make a
rapid and vigorous push to gain the highland passes.” Nor was this
Washington’s only letter on that subject.
Putnam did nothing at West Point. The British fleet, on October 6,
1777, found no difficulty in breaking the chain stretched across the river
at Fort Montgomery. With an overwhelming land force they then drove
Governor George Clinton and his brother Gen. James Clinton out of that
position, where Putnam had left them and some raw militia unsupported,
because the British had deceived him into believing that their main at-
4tack would fall on the oast bank of the river where Putnam had stationed
and continued to hold the regular troops of the 'Continental Line.
Shortly after that disaster and on December 2, 1777, Washington or-
dered Putnam to employ his whole force and all the means in his power
for erecting and completing works and obstructions necessary to defend
and secure the river, writing at the same time to Gov. Clinton. The lat-
ter recommended that a '‘strong fortress should he erected at West Point
opposite Fort Constitution.” The minutes of the Convention of New
ffork show that on January 8, 1778, a committee was, on the application
of Gen. Putnam, appointed to confer with him, and on the next day Gen.
John Morin Scott, Chairman of that Committee, reported that they had
conferred with Gen. Putnam,, Gen. James Clinton and other military of-
ficers; that “there was a disagreement in sentiment between those gen-
tlemen (arising from certain different facts alleged) as to the place
where such works ought to be erected,” and recommended that Commis-
sioners be appointed to examine the ground “with the Generals and other
officers and advise in .fixing the places where such fortifications should be
erected.” The Commissioners thus appointed, John Sloss Hobart, Robert
R. Livingston, Zephaniah Platt, Henry Wisner and John Hathorn, report-
ed, January 14, “that the most proper place to obstruct the navigation of
the niver is at West Point.”
While it is true that shortly thereafter, and before Putnam was re-
lieved from command in the Highlands in March, 1778, the work at West
Point was begun pursuant to the plan recommended by the above named
Commissioners, it nowhere appears that Putnam had favored West Point
as the place for the principal fortress, and it does appear that Gov.
George Clinton had a month before his brother, Gen. James Clinton, was
consulted by the Commissioners, recommended a strong fortress at the
Point. The most that can be claimed for Putnam is that in November,
1777, he had written to Washington that Gen. Schuyler and he were both
of opinion that a boom thrown over at Constitution Island with a battery
ou both sides would answer better than at Fort Montgomery. The real
work at West Point was all done under Putnam’s successors.
From 1778 on the Island served principally to hold the further end of
the great chain stretched across the river from West Point. Through-
out the Revolulutionary War it formed part of the estate of Mrs. Ogilvie
and her children by her first husband Philip Philipse (d. 1768). Of
those children one only, Frederick Philipse, left issue, a daughter Mary,
who married Samuel Gouverneur.
“Constitution Island continued in possession of the Philipse family un-
til November 3, 1836, when it was sold by Samuel Gouverneur and wife
to Henry W. Warner, Esq., a lawyer from Long Island. Upon this island
Mr. Warner made his home, commencing improvements on an extensive
scale, and erecting a beautiful country seat, which he named ‘Wood
5Crag/ Constitution Island has been famous in modern times as the resi-
dence of the well-known authoresses, iSusian B. and Anna B. Warner,
daughters of its former owner. In 1850 appeared the celebrated novel
‘The Wide, Wide World/ and itsi popularity has been exceeded by few
works written in America. Over 300,000 copies of this book were sold
and! 30 editions were issued in England/’ (W. B. Pelletreau’s History of
Putnam County, 1886, p. 577.)
Miss Anna B. Warner is now living at West Point, and it is to her lib-
erality and that of Mrs. Russell Sage that, subject to Misis Warner’s ten-
ancy for life, the Nation is indebted for the gift of the Island, as part
of the West Point Military Reservation.
A recent letter from Miss Warner, beside reminding me that on April
5, 1776, Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Chase and, Charles Carroll of Carroll-
ton had, as a Committee of Congress, inspected Fort Constitution, goes
on to say:
“Two-thirds of the old chain lies in the depths just by my boat-
house, and at low water many of the timbers to which it was made
fast can still be seen. The central valley of the Island was—is
still, perhaps—called by the country people ‘Washington’s Parade
Ground/ ”
Of the links, of the great chain the largest collection is at West Point.
There are several at iRingwood, New Jersey, the country seat of the late
Abram S. Hewitt, others at the Redwood Library in Newport, R. I., two
in the museum at Stony Point in Rockland County, and one was given to
the New York Historical Society by my brother, the late Mr. Nicholas
Fish. This last had been bequeathed by Thurlow Weed to my father, the
late Hamilton Fish, with the statement that his father, Col. Nicholas
Fish, had “aided in stretching the chain across the Hudson River.” In
support of Mr. Weed’s assertion there is the fact that in the aatumn of
1780 Nicholas Fish was Deputy Adjutant General at West Point. As such
it may then have fallen to him to take the chain down for the winter or
possibly to put it in place once more when spring came again.
Bo exact a writer as Captain Edward C. Boynton, in his “History of
West Point,” fell into the error of attributing the name Martler’s Rock
to a “French family named Martelaire, who resided upon it or in its
vicinity about the year 1720,” giving as his authority William J. Bilake’s
“History of Putnam County.” Blake’s statement is: “From the most ac-
curate information that we have been able to obtain, this island was
called after a Frenchman by the name of Martelair, and who, probably,
resided on it with his family. A family bearing that name were early
settlers at Murderer’s Creek, in the town of New Windsor in Orange
6County, and were murdered by the Indians about the year 1720. It may
have been the same family who previously resided on this island, or a
branch of it.”
Blake gives no authority for his statement. He wrote from Cold
Spring and published in 1849, two years after Samuel W. Eager had pub-
lished at Newburgh his “History of Orange County,” and at page 206 quotes
from Eager’s book. In a paragraph entitled “Murderer’s Creek,” Eager says
(p. 601): “At the original erection of Orange County, in 1683, it was
called Murderer’s or Martler’s Creek. When the county was reorganized
in 1688, the name of Martler’s was left out, and Murderer’s alone retain-
ed, in giving the boundaries. In a patent as early as 1694 this creek is
called by its present name. Tradition says, at an early period of the set-
tlement of thisi part of the county, there was a bloody incident, which ac-
counts for the unpleasant and fearful name of this creek1.” Mr. Eager
then quotes at length the touching tradition of “Naoman,” which had
been published by Paulding with other tales in 1828, beginning as follows:
“Little more than a century ago the beautiful region watered by
this stream was possessed by a small tribe of Indians, which has
Hong since become extinct, ox* incorporated with some other savage
nation of the west. Three or four hundred yards from where the
stream discharges itself in the Hudson, a white family, of the
name of Stacy, had established itself.”
Paulding’s story goes on to describe the fate of the whole Stacy fam-
ily, father, mother and children, and their Indian friend, Naoman, and
ends thus:
“They perished—how it is needless to say—and the memory of
their fate has been preserved in the name of the pleasant stream,
on whose banks they lived and died, which, to this day, is called
Murderer’s Creek.”
Mr. Eager then adds:
“If we were disposed to question any part of the story, it would
be the part relating to the name of the white man, iStacy. This we
think is an error, and ought to have been Martelair. In the earli-
est mention of the name of this creek, as before remarked, it is
called Murderer’s or Martler’s creek. We know of no reason why
' it should be called Martler’s, unless it was that that was the name
Of the white family which was murdered on this occasion; in which
case, it was very natural to associate his name with the stream.
We never heard, and enquiry has been made of many per-
sons, that the white family was named Stacy. Mr. Paulding does
not give the least intimation where he obtained the materials of
the tradition; if he had, we might have been better able to judge
7of its truth in all its parts. As; it is, we question the truth of the
tradition in the particular above mentioned.
‘‘The rock opposite West Point, on lands that belonged to Mrs.
Ogilvie and children, which was fortified in part by the Americans
in 1775, was then called ‘Martelair’s Rock Island.’ May not this
name have had some connection with the murder?”
That is to say, Mr. Eager being unable in 1846-7 to find local trace of a
white family named Stacy who were butchered by Indians about a century
prior to 1828, infers that their name must have been Martelair, because
prior to 1688 Murderer’s Creek had also been called Martler’s Creek, and
suggests that the old name of Constitution Island may have had some con-
nection with all this-.
Blake adopts and states Eager’s hypothesis as fact, fixes the date as
1720, and evolves:
“A Frenchman by the name of Martelair who, probably, resided
on it (Constitution Island) with his family.”
Boynton in dealing with a minor adjunct to his main theme, follows
Blake blindly, and his well-deserved reputation for accuracy has put this
erroneous derivation of the name into the records of the Military Acad-
emy and of the War Department, from which it will be difficult to dis^
lodge it.
As Miss Estabrook, the Secretary of the Historical Society of New-
burgh Bay and the Highlands, informed me some time ago, the late Mr.
E. M. Ruttenber, than whom there can be no higher authority on local
names, wrote in his copy of Boynton’s West Point, opposite the state-
ment about Martelaire, “Bosh,” and underscored the word.
Neither in the lists of “New York Marriages,” nor in the twenty odd
volumes published by the New York Historical iSiociety, on “Muster
Rolls,” “Abstracts of Wills,” “Tax Lists” and “Apprentices,” nor else-
where, have I been able to find prior to the date of the Partition of Phil-
ipse’s Upper Patent (1754), a trace of any person named Martelair, with
or without the final “e.” My nearest approach was when Dr. E. Hagaman
Hall informed me that the printed “Minutes of the Common Council of
the City of New York 1675-1776,” show that one Barent Martlers had con-
fessed to having voted in an aldermanic election, held in 1701, although
under age and an apprentice. As Dr. Hall says, “There was ballot box
stuffing in the early days of the City.”
S. F.
New York, April 30, 1914.
8