k)()k.5l96. PKKSKNTEI) tft' \J^ resented "^itfi ifie Compfimenis of ifie Saint J2icfiofas Society of tfie City of J2eW ^orl^. §i^orge^. ^e^itt, Secreiartj, 3$ J2assan Street. 00 O 1 * < >- i O i LlI X HISTOEICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP OP THE ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY OF NEW-YORK HbopteO December I, 1892 US NEW-YORK PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE SOCIETY 1893 Gift *^«. Julian Jatnea 1812 PREFATORY NOTE. This report, printed by order of the St. Nicholas Society, is intended simply to show the appropriateness of the his- toric edifices, views, and coats of arms of the city of New- York, as illustrations of the Certificate of Membership, or Diploma, of the Society. It is not to be taken as a history of the subjects of these illustrations, but merely as a brief outline of their origin and objects. For the facts, dates, and statements quoted, the official records of the city it- seK, which were personally examined, are the authority. The photographic view of the City Hall, as it exists at present, in 1893, appended to this report, was taken for the Society, by direction of the Board of Officers, to preserve for the future the exact appearance of that edifice before it shall be removed, pursuant to the decision of the Corpo- ration of New- York, to erect a larger City Hall upon its site, arrived at since this report was made and adopted. Edward Floyd de Lancey. u EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF DECEMBER 1, 1892. The Special Committee on Certificate of Membership, through their Chairman, Mr. Edward F. de Lancey, pre- sented their report, and also the design of the certificate, handsomely framed. On motion of Mr. Smith E. Lane, duly seconded, it was Resolved: 1. That the report of the Committee on Certificate be received and placed on file. 2. That the design for the new Certificate of Member- ship, as reported by the Committee on Certificate, be accepted and adopted. 3. That the Committee on Certificate be continued, and they are hereby authorized and empowered to have exe- cuted one thousand copies of the certificate for the use of the Society upon the terms reported by them. 4. That when the printing shall be completed the de- sign of the new certificate shall be placed on file in the archives of the Society. On motion of Mr. Edward King, it was Resolved: That the report be spread upon the Minutes, and that the Secretary be authorized to print the same and send a copy to each member of the Society. George G. De Witt, Secretary. fSS WS/Sfi jK^^j^B^^R^^^^^^^I^^^^ »■■■■ Mjum^ m^^i^m K^K^H 1^ ^ms ^wSrl^ sr^^Bi U^ ^ffiv5@j 1 Hllia5^&:. jWT/l^^^yiy^ Sjfedg^ ^■^Hjj^i ^fl^kupi^ ^ml^ its^^^i kWr^fl|^^^H K^C ^K'^>«l 1 f|c 'JKaSrul N^^Q^i^iffj'^ l*^pK^J^9 ^ ^ ^ ^ REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE. The special committee to whom were re- ferred the resokitions of the Society at its meeting on March 3, 1892, relating to a new Certificate of Membership, or Diploma, re- spectfully That in accordance with their communication to the Society at its meeting in June last, — that they had unanimously agreed upon the form, subjects, and style of a new design, — they have had that design fully completed in colors, and herewith present the original drawing for the consideration and action of the Society. IB 7 8 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY As many members were not present at the June meeting, the reasons for the change from the old diploma are restated. The blank impressions of the old certificate had long been exhausted. In preparing a new one, it was deemed proper to correct some defects, and one great error, which existed in the old one, and which forbade its absolute reproduction. The true date of the organiza- tion of the Society is the 28th of February, 1835, while that, in Roman numerals, on the face of the old certificate is the 23d of Feb- ruary, 1835. This grave error has not been generally known, and the mention of it will strike most of the membership with surprise. The spaces left for dates, names of, officers, and the name of the individual member, on the face of the old certificate, were found to be much too small for their respective purposes. The representations of the "Stadt-Huys" of New Amsterdam, and the second City Hall, — the English one, — were both very in- correct; the former not being the oldest and best view extant, and the latter not being the real edifice as it was erected in 1700, but as it was altered in 1789 to accommodate the first CERTIFICATE OF MEMBEBSHIP » Congress of the United States on its organiza- tion in that year, after which, while occupied by Congress, it was known as "Federal Hall." Its site is now occupied by the handsome Doric white marble United States Sub-Treas- my Building, at the corner of Wall and Nassau Streets, facing down Broad Street. The view of New Amsterdam at the bottom of the old diploma was not the earliest and best view of the old Dutch city, but a very much later and vastly inferior one. Then, too, on the old diploma were depicted two scenes which never existed, — a grave error in an historic document, — one termed "The Landing of Hendrick Hudson," and the other called "New Amsterdam in 1613-14." The great navigator, according to the jour- nal of his voyage, never landed on Manhattan Island, nor in its vicinity; and the earhest view ever taken of New Amsterdam was not taken in 1613-14, but about the year 1650, by Augustine Heermans. These two purely im- aginary scenes were deemed utterly inappro- priate for a Certificate of Membership of this Society. For these reasons your committee decided 10 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY to prepare and submit an entirely new design for a diploma, but retaining the style of the minor ornamentation of the old one, which new design is now before you. This design represents an open parchment scroll, bearing on its face, in rich antique letters illuminated in brilliant colors, the name of the Society in full, the operative words conferring membership, sufficient spaces for names and dates, and attached to it at its right- hand corner by a silken cord plaited in three colors, the seal of the Society impressed in gold. Surrounding the scroll, three below and six above it, are compartments, or panels, sepa- rated from each other by mediaeval orna- mentation in gold, orange, white, and blue. Within these compartments, or panels, are views in hght tints of the civic edifices and historic places of Old New- York, and the coats of arms, in their true heraldic colors, or tinctures, as granted to the city by its Dutch and Enghsh rulers, and borne during its three eras — Dutch, Enghsh, and American. At the left of the scroll overlooking all, un- der a Gothic canopy reheved in gold, stands CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP H St. Nicliolas in his robes, Ms mitre upon his head, his crosier in his hands, and clustering at his feet the httle children he loved so well. Brief notices of the edifices, places, and arms represented may be of interest as show- ing their appropriateness for a diploma of a Society exclusively composed, and ever to be exclusively composed, of the descendants of the ancient people of New- York, who therein dwelt from generation to generation during the two centuries preceding our own, now so near its close. In the centre and largest of the three com- partments below the parchment scroll is seen the first and best view of New Amsterdam. It is reproduced of the exact size of the origi- nal copperplate in Van der Donck's famous work on New Netherland, printed in old Am- sterdam in 1656. It was taken by Augustine Heermans about 1650. This is not the view of the Fort as it appeared in 1651, in a work pubhshed in that year in Holland, entitled "A Description of Virginia, New Netherland, New England, and certain Islands in the West Indies," but is the first view of the Citt/. It did not accompany the first edition of Van ic 12 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY der Donck's New Netherland, issued in 1655, although the view of the Fort did ; but in the second edition, that of 1656, it appears finely engraved upon copper at the foot of a general map of New Netherland. In the compartment on its left, beneath the figure of St. Nicholas, is a view of the building in which this Society was born, — "Washington Hall," — where it Vas organized by our honored predecessors, on the 28th day of February, 1835. One only of those distinguished sons of New- York and St. Nicholas survives to this day — in a green and happy old age, in full possession of his mental powers, beloved and reverenced by three generations of children and friends — the Honorable Hamilton Fish, successively Governor and Senator, of, and from. New- York, and Secretary of State of the United States; who was the secretary of the first meeting in this building, and long the Secretary, and later the President, of this Society. Another gentle- man too survives, who, though not present at the organization, became a member during the first year of the Society's existence — our honored friend, Alexander J. Cotheal. CERTIFICATE OF MEMBEBSHIP 13 Washington Hall was long one of the prom- inent hotels of this city. It was built in 1809 by a political organization called the "Washing- ton Benevolent Society," organized on the 4th July, 1808, to support Federal views in opposi- tion to the "Tammany Society, or Columbian Order," which maintained Democratic-Repub- lican principles. After some years it was changed into a hotel, and at the time of the organization of this Society within its walls, it was kept by James Ward. It stood on the southeast corner of Broadway and Reade Street, occupying about half the block on Broadway between Reade and Chambers Streets. It remained till 1844, when it was bought by the late Alexander T. Stewart to complete the front on Broadway of the great commercial edifice he then projected and erected, which was the very first of the gigantic stores and warehouses of New -York, now, however, a huge office-building. In the compartment, or panel, on the right of the picture of New Amsterdam, is seen that historic place, the Bowling-Green. The view is taken from the site of old Fort George, looking north, up Broadway, and shows it as 14 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY it was in 1835, with the old colonial Kennedy, Watts, Livingston, and Van Cortlandt houses on its west side ; and the Adelphi Hotel, bnilt in 1827, at the northeast corner of Beaver Street on the east side. It is the one his- toric spot in New- York which has never been encroached upon since the foundation of the city up to this day. The Bowhng-Green was originally an open space before the Fort, which overlooked it from the south, in the Dutch, in the Enghsh, and in the early Ameri- can periods. It was the heart of New Amster- dam and New -York. It has been, with the adjacent Fort and Battery, both of which opened upon it from their landward sides, the theatre of more im- portant events, Dutch, English, and American, than any other locality in the city, since that bright September day in 1609, when Hudson in the "Half -Moon" sailed past it upon the voyage of discovery up the magnificent river which bears his name. It was called "The Plaine before the Fort," and on it were held mihtary parades, faks, Indian treaties, civic receptions, Christmas, Paas, and Pinkster fes- tivals, baU games, and bm-ghers' meetings. CERTIFICATE OF MEMBEBSHIP 15 It witnessed Stuyvesant's reluctant surrender of the Fort and Province to the Enghsh under Nicolls, the lowering of the Dutch flag, and the hoisting for the first time of the red-cross ban- ner of St. George. Under Enghsh rule it was used for the same purposes ; the military displays were larger, the fairs greater and more numerous. The Dutch festivals were not only kept up, but were sup- plemented by others on the bii'thdays of the Enghsh sovereigns and those of their royal in- fants. Crowds stood there to hear the pro- claiming by sound of trumpet of every new Governor on his taking command of his Prov- ince, and to see the Speaker and the Assembly of the Province go in stately procession to the Fort, either to congratulate his Excellency on his accession, or on the opening of the Provin- cial Legislature to bear to him their formal address in answer to his speech from the throne ; the Speaker in his wig and robes, pre- ceded by the sergeant-at-arms in laced cocked hat and small clothes, girt with a sword, and bearing aloft the mace richly gilded, sur- mounted by a royal crown. In March, 1733, prompted by gentlemen in 16 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY its neighborhood, then and for a century later the court, or fashionable end, of New- York, the city authorities took steps to improve the open space, and, in their own words, '^ Besolved, That this Corporation will lease a piece of ground lying at the lower end of Broadway fronting to the Fort, to some of the inhabitants of the said Broadway, in order to be inclosed to make a Bowhng-Green thereof, with walks therein, for the beauty and orna- ment of the said street, as well as for the recreation and delight of the inhabitants of the City, leaving the street on each side thereof fifty feet in breadth, under such cov- enants and restrictions, as to the court shall seem expedient." In April, 1733, the mayor, Robert Lurting, Aldermen Van Gelde and PhiHpse, and Mr. de Peyster, or any three of them, were appointed a committee "to lay out the ground at the lower end of Broadway near the Fort for a bowling-green," and it was ordered "that the same be leased to Mr. John Chambers, Mr. Peter Bayard, and Mr. Peter Jay, for the term of eleven years, for the use aforesaid, at the annual rent of a pepper corn." This com- CERTIFICATE OF 3IEMBERSHIP 17 mittee inclosed it with a wooden fence, and laid it out accordingly. For some reason the lease was not given; but in the next year, 1734, a lease was duly executed to Mr. John Chambers, Mr. Peter Bayard, and Mr. John Roosevelt, for a bowhng-green only, at the same rent for ten years; and these same gentlemen, in 1742, apphed for, and obtained, a renewal of the lease for a further term of eleven years from the expiration thereof, at a rent of twenty shilhngs per annum. Such was the origin of the Bowling-Green, the first public square in New- York. Few of the thousands upon thousands who pass that square now, even of those who see it daily, know, or realize, that the ancient iron railing upon a discolored stone base, which still surrounds the beautiful green oval in its centre, filled with trees and flowers, is one of the very few historic remains of the old colonial city still left to metropohtan New- York. That fence and its base was erected by the city cor- poration in 1771, — a hundred and twenty-one years ago, — pursuant to a resolution unani- mously passed to fence in "the green before his Majesty's Fort" with "iron rails and a 18 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY stone foundation agreeable to a plan now exhibited to this Board, and have contracted with Messrs. Richard Sharpe and others for completing the same for the consideration of *£800" (two thousand dollars). The object was to provide a fit surrounding for the gilt equestrian statue of Kjng George III., which the Assembly of New- York had voted to erect as an expression of the thanks of the people of the Province for the repeal of the Stamp Act, the arrival of which from Eng- land was then daily expected; and which the Governor, Council, and Assembly had asked the city's permission to place in the centre of the Bowling-Green. Five years later, on the evening of the 9th of July, 1776, in the morn- ing of which day the Declaration of Indepen- dence had been for the first time pubhcly read in the Park, on the spot now occupied by the fountain in front of the City Hall, the statue was torn down by a mob and broken to pieces, its pedestal being left standing. Yery large parts of the lead in which it was cast, and the marble slab on which the horse stood, are now in the possession of the New- York Historical * In New- York currency. CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP 19 Society. Other parts of it were carried to Connecticut, where the lead was run into mus- ket-balls, to be used a little later against the troops of that same king, whose personal policy in England absolutely forced his Ameri- can people into that rebellion which termi- nated in a successful Revolution. Long may the mute witness of this event remain un- touched in New- York's ancient Bowling-Grreen! Of the six compartments above the parch- ment scroll, the first two on the right of the design show respectively the " Stadt-Huys," the first municipal edifice on Manhattan Island, and the first coat of arms granted by the authorities in Holland to their new city in America. The view of the former is taken from a pencil sketch made in 1679 by the Labadist missionaries Bankers and Sluyter, who visited New Amsterdam in that year. It was found in the manuscript journal of thek mission by the late Hon. Henry C. Murphy, who bought that document in Holland when minister to The Hague, translated it, and pub- lished it with this, and all its other illustrations reproduced, for the Long Island Historical So- ciety, of which he was the President. It was 20 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY built of stone on Pearl Street, facing the East River, at tlie head of what was, and still is, Coenties Shp. It was guarded in front by one of the "rondeels," or half -moon batteries, used in the fortification of cities at that day. This was also of stone, and mounted three "culver- ins," which are seen in the picture. The "Stadt-Huys" itself was erected in 1642 by Governor Kieft, at the joint expense of the West India Company and citizens who subscribed for the purpose, upon land be- longing to the Company, for a hotel, and was then, it is beheved, the largest building in the city. In the troubled times of Stuyvesant's admin- istration, meetings of burghers, both great and small, were held in it to try to obtain more liberty of municipal action than that zealous supporter of the West India Company was inclined to allow. The burgomaster and schepens in 1653 addressed the West India Company, stating that Stuyvesant's instruc- tions were too nari'ow, and asked for munici- pal institutions and powers Hke those of old Amsterdam, ai^d among them a Stadt-Huys, or City Hall, and a seal separate from that of the GEBTIFIGATE OF MEMBERSHIP 21 Province of New Netherland. The directors answered, granting them the Stadt-Huys, and saying that they had "decreed that a seal for the City of New Amsterdam should be pre- pared and forwarded." This seal contained the first coat of arms of this city, which was a modification of the coat of the city of old Amsterdam, changed, however, in tinctui*es and in the crest. These arms are depicted in the second of the upper compartments in their correct heraldic colors, from an engrav- ing of them in Van der Donck's New Nether- land of 1656, three years only after they had been granted by the authorities in Holland. The seal on which they appeared also con- tained above them the monogram of the Dutch West India Company under a short mantling; but as this was no part whatever of the coat of arms, it has not, of coui'se, been reproduced. These arms are thus blazoned : Shield: Argent, on a pale sable, three crosses saltire argent, hettveen tivo adosses in pale sahle. Ceest: On a wreatJi of the colors, a heaver proper, facing to the right. 22 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY In the arms of old Amsterdam the shield is : Gules, on a pale sable, three crosses saltire argent, without adosses ; and the crest is the Dutch Hon rampant. In both shields the chief charge, the pale sable with three crosses saltire argent, is the same, but the color, gules (red), of the old shield was changed to argent (white), in the new one, and the two adosses (sable) were added. The crest was changed from the lion rampant of Holland to a beaver in his natural color, the beaver being the most valuable production of New Netherland at that time. No motto was given, but the legend on the seal was, "Sigil- lum Amstelodamensis in Novo Belgio." In this connection it may be stated that the coat of arms on the seal of the Province of New Neth- erland, from which, as above stated, the people of New Amsterdam asked for a separate one for their city, was granted by the States-Glen- eral of HoUand in 1623, and is thus blazoned : Shield : Argent, a heaver proper in bend dexter, Ceest: a Coimfs coronet, or* * It was no herald's fancy that gave to the Pro\dnce of New Netherland the coat of arms of a Count (not an Earl, as some- times stated). It was simply the heraldic expression of the sei- CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP 23 The legend was "Sigillum Novi Belgii" — in English, the Seal of New Netherland. The next two compartments contain respec- tively the second City Hall, built under Eng- lish rule in 1700, and the arms granted to New- York by its Ducal Proprietor as King of England in 1686, a short time after he had succeeded to the throne. The growth of the city northward, the increase of the pubhc business, and the bad condition of the old Stadt-Huys together compelled the city cor- poration to erect a new City Hall. It first voted to do so in 1696, but civic action was then, as now, a slow matter, and it was not till the mayoralty of Johannes de Peyster, in 1698, that it was begun, and it was com- pleted in 1700, in the mayoralty of David Provoost, the old Stadt-Huys having been sold in August, 1699, to John Rodman for gnorial jurisdiction and powers under the Roman-Dutch law of the kind of fief which the charter of 1621 and its amendments of 1623 legally vested in the Dutch West India Company over their new province in America, as its local sovereign — jurisdiction and powers similar in degree to those of the old ''Counts of Holland" in the Dutch "Countship of Holland." This subject is very ably stated in Mr. Robert Ludlow Fowler's learned introduction to the GroUer Club's reprint of Bradford's Laws of New- York of 1694, written since this report was made. 24 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY £920 (about $2300) to furnisli a part of its cost. It contained, in addition to the city offices, the assembly-chamber of the Province and the court-room of the Supreme Court. By these bodies and the minor courts and the city government was it occupied during the Enghsh rule to the end of 1783, and by the same bodies under the State of New-York as an independent sovereignty until 1788, when by adopting the new Constitution in July of that year, New- York entered the new confederation and became one of the United States of America. The city corporation then altered and enlarged the building in time for the meeting of the first Congress and the in- auguration of constitutional government in the United States, and of Washington as President, in the spring of 1789. Called "Federal Hall" during its occupation by Con- gress, after the removal of that body to Phila- delphia, late in 1790, it became again the City Hall, and continued to be the home of the city government till 1811, when to the indelible dis- grace of the city it was sold and demolished, the new City Hall, the present one, being then on the eve of completion. It ought to have CEBTIFIGATE OF MEMBEBSHIP 25 been preserved with the greatest care and reverence, as the cradle, not only of parha- mentary hberty and English law in New- York, but of constitutional government in the United States of America, as well as the scene of the first great President's inauguration. Our younger sister cities, Boston and Philadelphia, have jealously preserved and sacredly guarded their colonial civic edifices, while New- York has permitted hers to be destroyed — a sacri- fice to false economy. The coat of arms shown in the adjoining compartment was granted, as has been stated, by King James II. to the city a few months after he ascended the Enghsh throne. It was engraved on a new seal, which was dehvered with much formality by the governor, in the king's name, to the mayor, aldermen, and com- monalty, on the 24th of July, 1686, and duly accepted by them. There was no motto, but the legend on the seal is "Sigillum civitatis Novi Bboraci," in the contracted form of "SigiU. civitat. Novi Eborac." — in English, " Seal of the City of New- York." These arms are shown depicted in their correct heraldic tinctures, or colors. They are thus blazoned : 26 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY Shield: Argent, charged with the four sails of a windmill proper; hetiveen their outer ends, two beavers proper, one in chief and one in base, and two flour-barrels proper, in fess, one on each side. Crest : A royal crown, or, lined gules. These arms have remained unchanged, and are the coat of arms of the city of New- York to-day; the crest, however, was altered, in 1784, to a bald eagle proper, rising from a demi-terrestrial globe, which was adopted, in place of the crown, from the original State arms of the State of New- York. The changes on this shield denote the source of the commercial supremacy of New- York. That supremacy grew out of a law prohibiting the bolting of flour outside of the city limits between the years 1678 and 1694, which gave to its people a monopoly of the export trade in breadstuffs and biscuits. This, with export of furs, really made the City of New- York the centre of the trade of America, a proud posi- tion she will ever retain. With the shght modification above stated these ancient arms have been borne by our CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP 27 city continuously from the reign of the last Stuart king of New- York to the close of the rule of Benjamin Harrison, the twenty-third President of the United States of America, the long period of two hundred and six years. May they ever so remain ! Although no part, heraldically, of the city arms, the supporters have been introduced on account of their interest. Supporters are merely ornaments of shields or escutcheons, which alone show the arms of an individual, city, state, or nation. They are added some- times (for thousands of coats of arms have none) simply to give greater effect to the shields they support. Those added to the city arms are : on the dexter, or right, side of the sliield, a sailor in the dress and cap of two centuries ago, hold- ing in his right hand a ship's sounding-hne ; and on its sinister, or left, side, an Indian chief in his feathered finery, holding in his left hand a stringed bow. The former was said to be in honor of King James, for besides being Lord Proprietor of New- York as Duke of York, he was also at the same time Lord High Admiral of England (and a naval officer of abihty), and 28 ST. NICHOLAS SOCIETY as such Commander-in-Chief of all EngMsh sailors, as well those of the merchant service as those of the Eoyal Navy; the latter com- memorated the native inhabitants and posses- sors of his Province in America. In the fifth compartment is a view of the present City Hall, founded in 1803 and com- pleted in 1812. It is placed with its predeces- sors, not only as one of the three, and on account of the beauty and purity of its archi- tecture, but also for preservation; for it has been seriously proposed to tear it down, to erect a larger edifice on the same site — a piece of vandahsm that may yet be carried into effect. Its facades are in the beautiful style of Inigo Jones, after that of the banqueting- hall of the Palace of Whitehall in London. The cupola in the view is the original one, burnt by the careless use of fireworks in 1858, on the occasion of the celebration of the lay- ing of the first Atlantic cable in that year, not the present inferior one which replaced it. Mayor Edward Livingston laid its corner- stone on the 26th of May, 1803, at its south- east corner. And on the 4th of July, 1811, although not quite finished. Mayor DeWitt CERTIFICATE OF MEMBERSHIP 29 Clinton and the common council celebrated the day in their new hall. Its architect was John McComb, a native New-Yorker, who was also the architect at the same time of Wash- ington Hall, the birthplace of this Society, as stated above. He was born in New- York, October 17, 1763, and died in the same city on the 25th of May, 1853, at the good old age of ninety years. Such is the design for a new Certificate of Membership, or Diploma, and the reasons for, and explanation of, the illustrations of the same, which your committee venture to hope may meet with the approbation of their breth- ren of the Society. It is the design of the committee themselves, but the execution of the ornamental and heraldic portion is by Mr. Rudolph B. Irm- traut, and that of the historic views and places is by the eminent Mr. Joseph Keppler, both weU-known artists in this city. Edwaed F. de Lancey, \ Committee Smith E. Lane, > on HowLAND Pell, ) Certificate. December 1, 1892.