Bayles William Harrison
Old Taverns of New York
In 1753 we find that the subscription plate, which had become a regular event, was run for at Greenwich, on the estate of Sir Peter Warren. Land about this time was being taken up on the Church Farm for building purposes, and this may have been the reason for the change. In 1754 there was a course on the Church Farm in the neighborhood of the present Warren Street. An account of a trial of speed and endurance was given on April 29, 1754. “Tuesday morning last, a considerable sum was depending between a number of gentlemen in this city on a horse starting from one of the gates of the city to go to Kingsbridge and back again, being fourteen miles (each way) in two hours’ time; which he performed with one rider in 1 hr. and 46 min.” The owner of this horse was Oliver De Lancey, one of the most enthusiastic sportsmen of that period. Members of the families of DeLancey and Morris were the most prominent owners of race horses. Other owners and breeders were General Monckton, Anthony Rutgers, Michael Kearney, Lord Sterling, Timothy Cornell and Roper Dawson. General Monckton, who lived for a time at the country seat called “Richmond,” owned a fine horse called Smoaker, with which John Leary, one of the best known horsemen of the day, won a silver bowl, which he refused to surrender to John Watts, the general’s friend, even under threat of legal process. Several years later he was still holding it.
In January, 1763, A. W. Waters, of Long Island, issued a challenge to all America. He says: “Since English Horses have been imported into New York, it is the Opinion of some People that they can outrun The True Britton,” and he offered to race the latter against any horse that could be produced in America for three hundred pounds or more. This challenge does not seem to have been taken up until 1765, when the most celebrated race of the period was run on the Philadelphia course for stakes of one thousand pounds. Samuel Galloway, of Maryland, with his horse, Selim, carried off the honors and the purse.
Besides the course on Hempstead Plains, well known through all the colonies as well as in England, there was another on Long Island, around Beaver Pond, near Jamaica. A subscription plate was run for on this course in 1757, which was won by American Childers, belonging to Lewis Morris, Jr. There were also courses at Paulus Hook, Perth Amboy, Elizabethtown and Morristown, New Jersey, which were all thronged by the sporting gentry of New York City. James De Lancey, with his imported horse, Lath, in October, 1769, won the one hundred pound race on the Centre course at Philadelphia. The Stamp Act Congress of 1765 brought together in New York men interested in horse-racing who had never met before, and in the few years intervening before the Revolution there sprang up a great rivalry between the northern and southern colonies.
Bull Baiting
The men of New York enjoyed rugged and cruel sports such as would not be tolerated at the present time. Among these were bear-baiting and bull-baiting. Bear-baiting became rare as the animals disappeared from the neighborhood and became scarce. Bulls were baited on Bayard’s Hill and on the Bowery. A bull was baited in 1763 at the tavern in the Bowery Lane known as the sign of the De Lancey Arms. John Cornell, near St. George’s Ferry, Long Island, gave notice in 1774 that there would be a bull baited on Tower Hill at three o’clock every Thursday afternoon during the season.
Bowling
The taverns in the suburbs could, in many cases, have large grounds attached to the houses and they took advantage of this to make them attractive. From the very earliest period of the city there were places near by which were resorted to for pleasure and recreation. One of the earliest of these was the Cherry Garden. It was situated on the highest part of the road which led to the north – a continuation of the road which led to the ferry in the time of the Dutch – at the present junction of Pearl and Cherry Streets, and was originally the property of Egbert Van Borsum, the ferryman of New Amsterdam, who gave the sea captains such a magnificent dinner. In 1672 the seven acres of this property were purchased by Captain Delaval for the sum of one hundred and sixty-one guilders in beavers, and, after passing through several hands, became the property of Richard Sacket, who had settled in the neighborhood, and established himself as a maltster. On the land had been planted an orchard of cherry trees, which, after attaining moderate dimensions, attracted great attention. To turn this to account, a house of entertainment was erected and the place was turned into a pleasure resort known as the Cherry Garden. There were tables and seats under the trees, and a bowling green and other means of diversion attached to the premises. It had seen its best days before the end of the seventeenth century.
On the borders of the Common, now the City Hall Park, was the Vineyard, which is said to have been a popular place of recreation and near the junction of what are now Greenwich and Warren Streets was the Bowling Green Garden, established there soon after the opening of the eighteenth century. It was on a part of the Church Farm, quite out of town, for there were no streets then laid out above Crown, now Liberty Street, on the west side of the town and none above Frankfort on the east. In 1735 the house of the Bowling Green Garden was occupied by John Miller, who was offering garden seeds of several sorts for sale. On March 29, 1738, it took fire and in a few minutes was completely consumed, Miller, who was then living in it, saving himself with difficulty. A new house was erected and the place continued to attract visitors. There does not appear to have been any public road leading to it, but it was not a long walk or ride from the town and was finely situated on a hill near the river. In November, 1759, when it was occupied by John Marshall, the militia company of grenadiers met here to celebrate the king’s birthday, when they roasted an ox and ate and drank loyally. Marshall solicited the patronage of ladies and gentlemen and proposed to open his house for breakfasting every morning during the season. He describes it as “handsomely situated on the North River at the place known by the name of the Old Bowling Green but now called Mount Pleasant.” Some years later it became known as Vauxhall.
Bowling must have had some attraction for the people of New York, for in March, 1732-3, the corporation resolved to “lease a piece of land lying at the lower end of Broadway fronting the Fort to some of the inhabitants of the said Broadway in Order to be Inclosed to make a Bowling Green thereof, with Walks therein, for the Beauty & Ornament of the Said Street, as well as for the Recreation and Delight of the Inhabitants of this City.” In October, 1734, it was accordingly leased to Frederick Phillipse, John Chambers and John Roosevelt for ten years, for a bowling-green only, at the yearly rental of one pepper-corn. In 1742 the lease was renewed for eleven years; to commence from the expiration of the first lease, at a rental of twenty shillings per annum. In January, 1745, proposals were requested for laying it with turf and rendering it fit for bowling, which shows that it was then being used for that purpose. It was known as the New or Royal Bowlling Green and the one on the Church Farm as the Old Bowling Green.
The Glass House
Some time about 1754, an attempt was made in New York to make glass bottles and other glass ware. Thomas Leppers, who had been a tavern-keeper, was storekeeper for the Glass House Company, and advertised all sorts of bottles and a variety of glassware “too tedious to mention, at reasonable rates.” He stated that gentlemen who wished bottles of any size with their names on them, “could be supplied with all expedition.” A few years later, 1758, notice was given by Matthias Ernest that the newly-erected Glass House at New Foundland, within four miles of the city, was at work and ready to supply bottles, flasks and any sort of glassware. Newfoundland was the name of a farm of about thirty-three acres, four miles from the city on the North River, extending from the present Thirty-fifth Street northward, on which this glass house had been erected. It is not unlikely that the Glass House was visited by many persons, either on business or from curiosity, and that they were there entertained by the owner or manager of the property; at any rate, it seems to have acquired a reputation for good dinners. Paymaster General Mortier notes in his diary a dinner at the Glass House on February 18, 1758, which cost him 3s. 6d. The manufacture of glass was not successful, but the place became a well-known suburban resort, where good dinners were served to visitors from the city. In 1764 the Glass House was kept by Edward Agar, who, in addition to serving dinners, could furnish apartments to ladies or gentlemen who wished to reside in the country for the benefit of their health. In 1768 it was kept by John Taylor, and it was evidently then a popular resort, for a stage wagon was advertised to run out to it every day, leaving Mr. Vandenberg’s, where the Astor House now stands, at three o’clock in the afternoon.
VII
The King’s Arms
George Burns, as has been stated, was in 1753 keeping one of the best taverns in New York. Soon after this he left the city and took charge of the tavern at Trenton Ferry, which was on the great post road between New York and Philadelphia, over which flowed almost all travel between the two cities and to the south. The prospects must have been very enticing. Whether they were realized or not, Burns soon became anxious to make a change and, returning to New York, became the landlord of a tavern in Wall Street near Broadway, opposite the Presbyterian church, which was known as the Sign of Admiral Warren. Here he remained until June, 1758, when Scotch Johnny, retiring from the tavern near the Whitehall Slip, known as the Crown and Thistle, he moved into his house. The house of Scotch Johnny had been the meeting place for the St. Andrew’s Society while it was kept by him and it so continued to be after Burns became landlord.
King’s Head
Burns retained for a time the old sign of the Crown and Thistle, but some time about the middle of the year 1760, took it down and hung out in its stead the sign of King George’s Head, and the tavern became known as the King’s Head. It continued to be the meeting place of the Scots’ Society. They held their anniversary meeting here on St. Andrew’s Day, Monday, November 30, 1761, and elected the Earl of Stirling, William Alexander, president of the society. The members of the society dined together as usual and in the evening a splendid ball and entertainment was given, which was attended by the principal ladies and gentlemen in the town. It was a grand and notable ball. The newspapers state that “The Company was very numerous, everything was conducted with the greatest regularity and decorum and the whole made a most brilliant and elegant appearance.”
In the latter part of the year 1761 the army was coming down from the north, there was a large camp of soldiers on Staten Island and New York City was full of officers. Burns’ house, the King’s Head, became the headquarters of the Scotch officers of the army when they were in the city and their favorite place of rendezvous. The effects of several of the Royal Highland officers, who had died, were sold at public vendue at Burns’ Long Room in November, 1762. There must have been many articles to be disposed of, for the sale was to be continued from day to day until all were sold. The effects of Lieutenant Neal, late of the 22d Regiment, consisting of wearing apparel, etc., etc., etc., etc., were sold at public vendue at the same place in December.
The King’s Arms
We have been unable to find any record to establish the fact or even a hint to justify a deduction that there ever was at any time in the colonial period any house known as Burns’ Coffee House. We believe this to be entirely a modern creation. The house described and illustrated in Valentine’s Corporation Manual of 1865 as Burns’ Coffee House, or the King’s Arms Tavern, although the statements concerning it have been accepted by many writers, was never occupied by Burns; and the story of this house, as related in the Corporation Manual of 1854, is simply a strong draft on the imagination of the writer. The tavern which hung out the sign of the King’s Arms, on the corner of Broad and Dock Streets, had been also known as the Exchange Coffee House and the Gentlemen’s Coffee House, but when Burns moved into it in 1751, he dropped the name Coffee House and called it simply the King’s Arms. Mrs. Sarah Steel, in 1763, carried the sign to Broadway, as appears by the following announcement:
“Mrs. Steel Takes this Method to acquaint her Friends and Customers, That the King’s Arms Tavern, which she formerly kept opposite the Exchange she hath now removed into Broadway (the lower end, opposite the Fort), a more commodious house, where she will not only have it in her power to accommodate Gentlemen with Conveniences requisite to a Tavern, but also with genteel lodging Apartments, which she doubts not will give Satisfaction to every One who will be pleased to give her that Honour.”
Mrs. Steel, in February, 1767, advertised that the Broadway house was for sale and that the furniture, liquors, etc., would be sold whether the house were sold or not. A few months previous to this announcement, Edward Bardin, probably anticipating the retirement of Mrs. Steel from business, had acquired the sign, which we presume was a favorite one, and had hung it out at his house on upper Broadway, opposite the Common. The writer of the article in the Corporation Manual gives the following advertisement, which appears in Parker’s Post Boy of May 27, 1762, as evidence that Burns occupied the house before Mrs. Steel moved into it.
“This is to give Notice to all Gentlemen and Ladies, Lovers and Encouragers of Musick, That this day will be opened by Messrs. Leonard & Dienval, Musick Masters of this city, at Mr. Burnes Room, near the Battery, a public and weekly Concert of Musick. Tickets four Shillings. N. B. The Concert is to begin exactly at 8 o’clock, and end at ten, on account of the coolness of the evening. No Body will be admitted without tickets, nor no mony will be taken at the door.”
This concert did not take place in the house on Broadway, but in the house of George Burns, the King’s Head near the Battery. Burns had succeeded Scotch Johnny, and had in his house a long room where societies met and where concerts and dinners were given on special occasions. “Burns’ Long Room” was well known at that time. The following appeared in the New York Journal of April 7, 1768:
“To be let, from the 1st of May next, with or without Furniture, as may suit the tenant, the large corner house wherein Mrs. Steel lately kept the King’s Arms Tavern, near the Fort now in the possession of Col. Gabbet.”
The next year Col. Gabbet, having moved out, was living next door to the house of John Watts, who lived in Pearl Street near Moore. In 1770 Edward Bardin announced that he had taken “the large, commodious house known by the name of the King’s Arms, near Whitehall, long kept by Mrs. Steel, which he will again open as a tavern.” George Burns succeeded Bardin and kept the house for a short time in 1771.
Before the Revolutionary War there was no Whitehall Street. What is now Whitehall Street was known as Broadway. There is no doubt about this. In a list of retailers of spirituous liquors in the city of New York in April, 1776, we find one on Broadway near Pearl Street, one on Broadway near the Lower Barracks, another on Broadway opposite the Fort and two others on Broadway near the Breastworks. These were all on the present Whitehall Street. In Mrs. Steel’s announcement she states that the King’s Arms Tavern was on Broadway (the lower end opposite the Fort), that is, on the present Whitehall Street. As the house was on a corner, its location was probably the corner of the present Bridge and Whitehall Streets. If there were left any doubt about this, it should be thoroughly dissipated by the advertisement, December 30, 1765, of Hetty Hayes, who made and sold pickles in her home, which she states was on Wynkoop (now Bridge) Street, near the King’s Arms Tavern. Notwithstanding the many statements to the contrary, no house known as the King’s Arms Tavern or Burns’ Coffee House ever stood on the west side of Broadway opposite the Bowling Green.
Some time after the middle of the seventeenth century Cornelis Steenwyck built a fine house on the southeast corner of the present Whitehall and Bridge Streets, and it was here no doubt, the grand dinner was given to Governor Nicolls on his departure from the province. In an inventory of Steenwyck’s estate in 1686 the house was valued at seven hundred pounds. This indicates that it was a large, and for that time, a very valuable dwelling. In the illustration copied from Valentine’s Corporation Manual of 1864, there is a sign attached to the house. We do not know the source from which this illustration was obtained, but the sign we presume to be a tavern sign, and we are inclined to think, for various reasons, that this house was for many years used as a tavern and that for a time subsequent to 1763, it was the King’s Arms. It was probably destroyed in the great fire of 1776.
About this time a man made his appearance as a tavern-keeper whose name, although he was not a hero or a great man, has come down to us, and will go down to many future generations in connection with the revolutionary history of the city. Samuel Francis was a tavern-keeper without a peer, and when the time came to decide, struck for liberty and independence, abandoned his property and stuck to his colors like a true patriot. He came to New York from the West Indies. Although from the darkness of his complexion commonly called Black Sam, he was of French descent.
Previous to 1750 Broadway did not extend to the north beyond the present Vesey Street. There was a road, however, following the line of the present Broadway, known as the road to Rutger’s Farm, the residence of Anthony Rutger standing near the corner of the present Broadway and Thomas Street. Just subsequent to the year 1750 Trinity Church laid out streets through a portion of the Church Farm and leased lots on this road, on which houses were built. The first of these, as far as we can ascertain, were built by Bell and Brookman, in 1752, on lots just south of the present Murray Street, fronting on the Common, which was then an open field without fence of any kind. In 1760, Mr. Marschalk, one of the city surveyors, presented to the board of aldermen the draft or plan of a road which he had lately laid out, “beginning at the Spring Garden House and extending from thence north until it comes to the ground of the late widow Rutgers,” which was approved by the board and ordered to be recorded. Other houses were built on the Church Farm, and a few years later we find one of these, situated on the north side of Murray Street, fronting the Common, was being used as a tavern or mead house, and occupied by San Francis. In 1761 he advertised sweatmeats, pickles, portable soups, etc., at the Mason’s Arms, near the Green in the upper part of the Broadway near the Alms House. He was in New York in 1758, and his house at that time was patronized by those who frequented only the best taverns in the city.
The DeLancey House
The house with which his name is indissoluably connected, the DeLancey House, on the corner of the present Broad and Pearl Streets was purchased by him in 1762. It was quite a large house and very well suited for a tavern, where it was intended that public entertainments should be given, as it had a long room that could hardly be surpassed. The lot on which the house stood was given by Stephen Van Cortlandt to his son-in-law, Stephen DeLancey, in 1700, and it is said that in 1719 Stephen DeLancey built the house on it which is still standing.
It was a handsome and conspicuous house for the period, but in the course of time DeLancey wished a change of location for his home. When he ceased to occupy it as a residence we do not know, probably on the completion of his new house on Broadway, which is said to have been built in 1730. Not long after this we find that it was being used for public purposes. In 1737, Henry Holt, the dancing master, announced that a ball would be given at the house of Mr. DeLancey, next door to Mr. Todd’s, and in February, 1739, there was given in Holt’s Long Room “the new Pantomine Entertainment, in Grotesque Characters, called The Adventures of Harlequin and Scaramouch, or the Spaniard Trick’d. To which will be added An Optick, wherein will be Represented, in Perspective, several of the most noted Cities and Remarkable Places in Europe and America, with a New Prologue and Epilogue address’d to the Town.” The tickets were sold at five shillings each. This clearly shows that the long room, probably just as we can see it today, was then used for public entertainments.
The Queen’s Head
The house was again used as a residence. Colonel Joseph Robinson was living in it in January, 1759, when it was offered for sale, at public vendue, at the Merchants’ Coffee House. We find no record of transfer, but we are inclined to believe that it was purchased by the firm of DeLancey, Robinson and Company, dealers in East India goods and army supplies, composed of Oliver DeLancey. Beverly Robinson and James Parker, for they moved into it shortly after and were the owners of it in 1762, when it was purchased by Samuel Francis, the deed bearing date January 15th of that year and the consideration named being two thousand pounds. The co-partnership of DeLancey, Robinson and Company did not expire until December, 1762; in all probability they remained in the house until that time; at any rate, Francis was in it in April, 1763, when he had hung out the sign of Queen Charlotte and opened an ordinary, announcing that dinner would be served every day at half past one o’clock. The house thereafter, for many years, was known as the Queen’s Head.
John Crawley succeeded Willett as landlord of the New York Arms. In 1762 the Assembly were having their meetings here, in what they designated as “Crawley’s New Rooms.” In April, 1763, Crawley sold out the furnishings of the house at public vendue and George Burns moved in from the King’s Head Tavern, in the Whitehall, who announced that he had “two excellent Grooms to attend to his Stables and takes in Travellers and their Horses by the Month, Quarter or Year on reasonable Terms.” Burns occupied the house during the turbulent period of the Stamp Act, and it was the scene of much of the excitement incident to those times. In 1764, while Burns was keeping the Province Arms, the Paulus Hook Ferry was established and the road opened from Bergen to the Hudson River. This enabled the stage wagons from Philadelphia to bring their passengers to Paulus Hook, where they were taken over the ferry to New York. The opening of the Paulus Hook Ferry placed the Province Arms in direct line with travel passing through the city between New England and the South, and it became largely a traveler’s tavern, and in later times the starting point in New York of the Boston, Albany and Philadelphia stages.
The Stamp Act
The French and Indian War, which had commenced in 1755, resulted in the conquest of Canada; and when the British army came down to New York for embarkation they met with an enthusiastic reception and the officers were entertained by the wealthy merchants in the most hospitable manner. The province had suffered from the constant conflict on its borders and the prospect of relief from the incursions of the French and the horrible terrors of savage warfare which had been instigated by them, was the cause for great satisfaction and rejoicing. No longer threatened by the French the people were filled with hopes of great prosperity. Trade and commerce soon revived and a period of remarkable activity had just opened when all the bright hopes of the merchants and of the people of New York were turned to gall and wormwood by the unwarrantable acts of Great Britain, who, instead of gratitude for the material assistance in the late war, was now calculating how much revenue might be counted upon from provinces that had shown such energy and such resources. The first important step in this direction was the passage of the Stamp Act, which received the King’s signature on the 22d of March, 1765. It was not unexpected, for the colonists had for some time been in a nervous state, with the dread of some serious encroachment on their rights and liberties. The news of the passage of the act was received in New York in April with great indignation. It was distributed through the city with the title of “The folly of England, and the ruin of America.” By law the act was to take effect on the first of November following. In the meantime it was proposed that the sense of the colonies should be taken and that they should all unite in a common petition to the King and parliament. Accordingly a congress of deputies met in New York in the early part of October, 1765, in which nine of the colonies were represented. Before this meeting the assembly of Massachusetts had denied the right of parliament to tax the colonies and Virginia had done the same. The sentiments of the congress were embodied in a very dignified and respectfully worded address to the King, drawn up by a committee of three, one of whom was Robert R. Livingston, of New York. Committees were also appointed to prepare petitions to parliament which were reported and agreed to on the 22d of October.
The Non-Importation Agreement
On the last day of the same month a meeting was held by the merchants of New York to consider what should be done with respect to the Stamp Act and the melancholy state of the North American commerce, so greatly restricted by the Acts of Trade. They resolved not to order any goods shipped from Great Britain nor to sell any goods on commission until the Stamp Act should be repealed. Two hundred merchants of the city subscribed these resolutions and the retailers of the city also agreed not to buy after the first of January, 1766, any goods imported from Great Britain, unless the Stamp Act should be repealed. This meeting was held at the Province Arms, the house of George Burns, and here was signed this celebrated non-importation agreement. This was the most important political event of this eventful period, and one which, combined with like resolutions made by the merchants of Boston and Philadelphia, had more influence in causing the repeal than all the addresses, petitions and other influences put together.
On October 23d, while the Stamp Act Congress was in session, the ship Edward arrived with the obnoxious stamps on board, and was convoyed to the Fort by a man-of-war, all the vessels in the harbor lowering their colors in sign of mourning, and an excited crowd watching the proceedings from the river front. In a few days the stamps were deposited in the Fort. During the night after the arrival of the Edward, written notices were posted about the city warning any one who should distribute or make use of stamped paper, to take care of his house, person or effects. The excitement among the people grew more and more intense as the time approached for the law to take effect. The morning of November 1st was ushered in by the ringing of muffled bells and display of flags at half-mast. The magistrates notified Lieutenant-Governor Golden that they were apprehensive of a mob that night. The people gathered in the Fields, and after parading the streets with effigies of the lieutenant-governor, appeared before the Fort and demanded the stamps. They broke open the lieutenant-governor’s coach-house, took out his coach, sleighs, harness and stable fittings and with the effigies burned them on the Bowling Green in front of the Fort. The mob then went to Vauxhall, the house of Major James, who had made himself very obnoxious by his braggart threats of what he would do to enforce the stamp act and stripping the house of all its furniture, books, liquors, etc., even to the doors and windows, made a bonfire of them.
As the mob passed the Merchants’ Coffee House, they were encouraged by the approbation of those who frequented that place. During the day there had been on view here an open letter addressed to Golden, assuring him of his fate if he should persist in trying to put the stamp act in force. It also stated – “We have heard of your design or menace to fire upon the town in case of disturbance, but assure yourself that if you dare to perpetrate any such murderous act you’ll bring your gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.” * * * and “any man who assists you will surely be put to death.” This letter was delivered at the fort gate in the evening by an unknown hand. The next day threatening letters and messages were sent in to Governor Colden at the fort and he made a promise not to distribute the stamps, but to deliver them to Sir Henry Moore, the newly appointed governor, when he arrived. This did not satisfy the people, who demanded that they should be delivered out of the Fort and threatened to take them by force. It was then agreed that the stamps should be delivered to the mayor and deposited in the City Hall. This was done, the mayor giving his receipt for them, and tranquillity was restored.
Sir Henry Moore, the new governor, arrived on the 13th of November, and was received with all the formalities usual on such an occasion. He evidently made a favorable impression. The situation of affairs, however, presented for him a difficult problem. His first question to the council was, Could the stamps be issued? which was answered unanimously in the negative. Business had come to a standstill, and the people were fretting under the restraints which the situation imposed. There were two classes; the men of property, who could afford to await the issue of conservative methods, and the middle and lower classes, who insisted that business should go on regardless of the stamps. Livingston says that a meeting of the conservatives was held at the Coffee House at ten o’clock in the morning and that although “all came prepared to form a Union, few cared openly to declare the necessity of it, so intimidated were they at the secret unknown party which had threatened such bold things.” This secret society was known by various names, but in November we find that they had adopted the name, “Sons of Liberty,” and this name was soon after used in the other colonies. The Sons of Liberty presented Sir Henry Moore a congratulatory address and on Friday, the 15th of November, met in the Fields, erected pyramids and inscriptions in his honor, and one of the grandest bonfires ever seen in the city.