| New Netherland series |
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| Exploration |
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| The Patroon System |
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| People of New Netherland |
| Flushing Remonstrance |
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The Flushing Remonstrance was a 1657 petition to Director-General of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant, in which some thirty residents of the small settlement at Flushing requested an exemption to his ban on Quaker worship. It is considered a precursor to the United States Constitution's provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights. [1] [2]
The village, originally named as Vlissingen, then Vlishing, and now Flushing, Queens, New York, had been part of the Dutch colony of New Netherland. It was originally settled by English people operating under a patent, issued by Governor Willem Kieft in 1645, granting them the same state of religious freedom existing in Holland, then the most tolerant of European countries. [3]
Peter Stuyvesant, however, with his 1656 ordinance against illegal religious meetings, had formally banned the practice of all religions outside of the Dutch Reformed Church, the established church of the Netherlands, in the colony. [4] His often-derided decision flew against the approximately hundred-year development of religious tolerance in the Netherlands. During this time the country was revolting against Spanish rule, rebelling against an imposed Inquisition, attempting to form a national identity, and trying to unify Calvinist and Catholic provinces. The Dutch toleration debates were lengthy, bumpy, heated, and full of political intrigue and even assassination. The writer Thomas Broderick states, "I believe the true Dutch legacy is not one of toleration but of discussion. New Amsterdam and the Republic show us that a robust, open public discourse is the surest way to eventual social improvement. Toleration and acceptance are political and moral imperatives, and the Flushing remonstrance and great Dutch toleration debates in Europe and North America teach us that social change takes time, open dialogue, disagreement, and failure before progress is to be made." [5]
Stuyvesant's policy was not very different from the one evolving in the Netherlands: an official recognition of the Dutch Reformed Church bundled with broad tolerance within the church and a policy of connivance, turning a blind eye to non-conformist religious practices. At the same time, Stuyvesant also opposed Jewish arrival in New Amsterdam. On another front, the Stuyvesant family was broadly tolerant. Judith, Stuyvesant's wife, was a fierce advocate for New York's slaves, promoting the practice of baptism as a first step toward freedom. [6]
His policy met with resistance from some English settlers in the towns of Vlissingen (currently Flushing), Rustdorp (currently Jamaica, Queens), and 's Gravesande (currently Gravesend, Brooklyn), places where Quaker missions were sent. Stuyvesant's actions, however, also met with the support of other English settlers and magistrates who informed on those embracing unorthodox teachings and meeting in small and unsanctioned religious meetings of lay people called conventicles. Thus, Stuyvesant found himself drawn into the religious debates and bickering of the English community in the Atlantic colonies [7] and debates in England which culminated in the Conventicle Act 1664.
This policy resulted in numerous acts of religious persecution and harassment. In 1656 William Wickenden, a Baptist minister from Rhode Island, was arrested by Dutch colonial authorities, jailed, fined, and exiled for baptizing Christians in Flushing. [8] In the same year Robert Hodgson was arrested, tried, and sentenced to two years of manual labor with slaves for his preaching of Quakerism. [9] In 1661, in the town of Rustdorp, Henry Townsend (Norwich) and Samuel Spicer were fined for holding Quaker conventicles and Townsend was banished as well. Stuyvesant sent three new magistrates, all Englishmen, and a half dozen soldiers to gather information on dissidents. The soldiers were billeted in the homes of the dissidents until they agreed to conform. In 1662, in 's-Gravesande, Samuel Spicer and his mother, Micha, along with John and Mary Tilton were imprisoned and later banished. They moved to Oyster Bay, then outside of the authority of New Netherland, and returned to their town after 1664 when the British took control of the colony. [7] [10]
The Flushing Remonstrance was signed at the home of Edward Hart, the town clerk, on December 27, 1657, by a group of Dutch citizens who were affronted by persecution of Quakers and the religious policies of Stuyvesant. [4] [11] None of them were Quakers. [12] The site of the signing is presently occupied by the former State Armory, now a police facility, on the south side Northern Boulevard between Linden Place and Union Street. The Remonstrance ends with:
In response Stuyvesant dismissed the local government and chose new Dutch replacements as leaders. Four who signed were arrested by order of Stuyvesant. Two immediately recanted, but the writer of the remonstrance, Edward Hart, and sheriff of Flushing Tobias Feake remained firm in their convictions. Both men were remanded to prison where they survived in isolation on rations of bread and water for over a month. After friends and family petitioned Stuyvesant on behalf of the elderly Hart, the clerk was released on penalty of banishment. Feake held out for a few more weeks, but eventually recanted and was pardoned after being fined and banned from holding public office.
Stuyvesant asserted that he was not violating the signers' "freedom of conscience," only their right to worship outside of family prayer meetings. In addition he proclaimed March 13, 1658 a Day of Prayer for the purpose of repenting from the sin of religious tolerance. [6]
Subsequently, John Bowne of the colony allowed Quakers to meet in his house. He was arrested in 1662 and brought before Stuyvesant. Unrepentant, Bowne was sentenced to banishment to Holland, though he was of English descent and spoke no Dutch. After several months in the foreign land, Bowne petitioned the directors of the Dutch West India Company. After a month of deliberation, the Dutch West India Company agreed to support Bowne, and advised Stuyvesant by a letter (1663) that he was to end religious persecution in the colony. One year later, in 1664, the colony fell to British control. The John Bowne House, built before 1662, still stands in historic preservation. [13]
The Quaker Meeting House in Flushing, built 1694, is now the oldest house of worship in continuous use in New York State. [14]
The 30 signers were: [15]
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Hart signed first as clerk of the group; each of several other signers wrote an X that is labeled as their mark.
John Bowne's account of the Flushing Remonstrance and its aftermath is found in his journal of events. Bowne, who had arrived in 1651, soon began to host Quaker meetings in his home, although he did not convert until 1659. He was to become a leader of American Quakers and a correspondent of Quaker founder George Fox.
The earliest version of the document in English dates also from 1657 as an official copy of the original, but the original, likely in Dutch, has been lost. [11] This early handwritten copy suffered singeing in the burning of the New York State Capitol in 1911, yet remains essentially complete. It has seldom been in public anywhere.[ citation needed ]
The Queens Borough President's Office held a celebration of the 350th anniversary of the Remonstrance in 2007. Descendants of the signers, Bowne, Stuyvesant, and the arresting officer were invited and in attendance, and the original copy of the Remonstrance was brought down from the State Archives in Albany for several weeks' public display. [11]
Bowne Park, John Bowne High School, and an elementary school in Flushing, Queens are named in John Bowne's honor.[ citation needed ]
PS 21 in Flushing is named after Edward Hart, the writer of the Remonstrance. [17]
Peter Stuyvesant was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was split into New York and New Jersey with lesser territory becoming parts of other colonies, and later, states. He was a major figure in the early history of New York City and his name has been given to various landmarks and points of interest throughout the city.
New Netherland was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva Peninsula to southwestern Cape Cod, while limited settlements were in parts of the U.S. states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut, with small outposts in Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
Flushing may refer to:
Flushing is a neighborhood in the north-central portion of the New York City borough of Queens. The neighborhood is the fourth-largest central business district in New York City. Downtown Flushing is a major commercial and retail area, and the intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Avenue at its core is the third-busiest in New York City, behind Times Square and Herald Square.
John Underhill was an early English settler and soldier in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Province of New Hampshire, where he also served as governor; the New Haven Colony, New Netherland, and later the Province of New York, settling on Long Island. Hired to train militia in New England, he is most noted for leading colonial militia in the Pequot War (1636–1637) and Kieft's War which the colonists mounted against two different groups of Native Americans. He also published an account of the Pequot War.
"Separation of church and state" is a metaphor paraphrased from Thomas Jefferson and used by others in discussions regarding the Establishment Clause and Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution which reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
The Religious Society of Friends began as a proto-evangelical Christian movement in England in the mid-17th century in Lancashire. Members are informally known as Quakers, as they were said "to tremble in the way of the Lord". The movement in its early days faced strong opposition and persecution, but it continued to expand across the British Isles and then in the Americas and Africa.
John Bowne (1627–1695), the progenitor of the Bowne family in America, was a Quaker and an English immigrant residing in the Dutch colony of New Netherland. He is historically significant for his struggle for religious liberty.
The John Bowne House is a house in Flushing, Queens, New York City, that is known for its role in establishing religious tolerance in the United States.
European colonization of New Jersey started soon after the 1609 exploration of its coast and bays by Henry Hudson. Dutch and Swedish colonists settled parts of the present-day state as New Netherland and New Sweden.
The Flushing Friends Quaker Meeting House, also the Old Quaker Meeting House, is a historic Quaker house of worship located at 137-16 Northern Boulevard, in Flushing, Queens, New York. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1967 and a New York City designated landmark in 1970. Today, it still serves as a Quaker Meeting, with meetings for worship taking place every Sunday.
William Wickenden was an early Anglo-American Baptist minister, co-founder of Providence Plantations, and signer of the Providence Compact. Wickenden Street in Providence marks where he originally settled in the seventeenth century and is named in his honor.
Elizabeth Fones Winthrop Feake Hallett was an early settler in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1640 Fones, with her then-husband Robert Feake, were founders of Greenwich, Connecticut.
Cornelis Melyn was an early Dutch settler in New Netherland and Patroon of Staten Island. He was the chairman of the council of eight men, which was a part of early steps toward representative democracy in the Dutch colony.
Henry Townsend was an early settler of the American Colonies.
John Townsend was an early settler of the American Colonies who emigrated from England before 1642 when his son, Thomas, was baptized at the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam. Townsend was a signatory to the Flushing Remonstrance, a precursor to the United States Constitution's provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights. Because of their persecution by the Dutch authorities of New Amsterdam, he and his brother Henry supported the Quakers, and later generations of this Townsend family joined the movement. They can be found in Friends' records on Long Island, New York, Newport, Rhode Island, Cape May County, New Jersey and around Philadelphia. There is no evidence in either Warwick, Rhode Island or New York sources that John was a Quaker himself. John Townsend arrived in Oyster Bay in 1661 and he died there in 1668. There is a marker for him in Fort Hill Cemetery in the village of Oyster Bay. Members of his family would go on to be distinguished leaders in the Oyster Bay community, throughout New York State, the mid-Atlantic colonies and wherever they settled in the rest of the United States. The talented and famous furniture makers of Newport, Rhode Island Job, Christopher, John and Edmund descend from him.
Thomas Powell (1641–1721/22) was a landowner in the middle section of Long Island in the Province of New York during the colonial period of American history. He secured the land transaction known as the Bethpage Purchase with local native tribes on Long Island.
Thomas or Tomys Swartwout was one of the earliest importers of tobacco from New Netherland to western and northern Europe, one of earliest settlers of New Netherland, and a founder of Midwood, Brooklyn, New York.
Edward Hart was an early settler of the American Colonies who, as town clerk, wrote the Flushing Remonstrance, a precursor to the United States Constitution's provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights.
The Articles of Capitulation on the Reduction of New Netherland was a document of surrender signed on September 29, 1664 handing control of the Dutch Republic's colonial province New Netherland to the Kingdom of England.