MySource:Quolla6/Broadhead, 1874:367

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Broadhead, 1874:367.

From Source:Broadhead, 1874

p. 367, Speaking of attacks by native Americans on Long Island in September 1743:

The vengeance which desolated West Chester did not spare Long Island. Lady Deborah Moody, who had been "dealt with" by the Church at Salem for" the error of denying baptism to infants" having fled for refuge, with many others "infected with Anabaptism," into New Netherland, had established herself, by Kieft's special permission, at Gravensande, or Gravesend, on Long Island. But she had, scarcely become settled in her retreat before her plantation was "attacked by the savages. A brave defense was, nevertheless, made by forty resolute colonists; the fierce besiegers were repulsed; and Gravesend escaped the fate which overwhelmed all the neighboring settlements on Long Island.

p411, 19 December 1645

Lady Moody, who had so bravely repelled the attacks of the Indians during the war, was now complimented by Kieft with a patent, granting to herself, Sir Henry Moody Moody, her son, Ensign George Baxter, and Sergeant James Hubbard, that portion of Long Island adjoining Coney Island upon which she lived, called by the Dutch " Gravesande," and now known as Gravesend. The patentees were assured "the free liberty of conscience, according to the custom and manner of Holland, without molestation or disturbance from any magistrate or magistrates, or any other ecclesiastical minister that may pretend jurisdiction over them." They were also liberally allowed " to erect a body politic and civil combination among themselves, as free men of this province and town of Gravesend," and invested with all "the immunities and privileges already granted to the inhabitants of this province, or hereafter to be granted, as if they were natives of the United Belgic Provinces." Loyalty to the Dutch authorities was required; and the use of the " New Style," and of the weights and measures of New Netherland, alono enjoined.

p.568, 1653

A spirit of disaffection had, meanwhile, been spreading English on among the English on Long Island. Notwithstanding its » nd.g sycophantic letter to the Amsterdam Chamber in 1651, Gravesend, under the influence of Ensign George Baxter and Sergeant James Hubbard, was now foremost in opposing the provincial government.

p. 619 1656

Baxter and Hubbard had now been nearly a year in the keep of Fort Amsterdam. At the intercession of Sir Henry Moody and the Gravesend magistrates, Stuyvesant released Hubbard, and transferred Baxter, upon bail, to the debtor's room at the court-house until the Amsterdam Chamber should decide upon his case. A few weeks afterward, the faithless Englishman forfeited his bail and esoaped to Gravesend, where he again began to plot against his former patrons. Several of the inhabitants were induced by him to sign a memorial praying Cromwell to take them under the protection of England, and emancipate them from the dominion of the Dutch. The memorial was carried to London by James Grover, who, with Baxter and Hubbard, had hoisted the English colors at Gravesend the year before. To public treason Baxter now added private dishonesty. Besides other debts, ho owed two hundred guilders to the poor fund; and his cattle were under seizure. These he secretly removed at night. His defrauded creditors became clamorous ; his farm and other effects were seized in execution; and the bankrupt traitor fled to New England to work all the mischief he conld against New Netherland

p. 633 1657

The Gravesend memorial which -Grover had carried Cromwell the last year awakened the attention of the goverment at Whitehall; and a statement of " the English rights to the northern parts of America" was prepared, in which Cabot's voyage and the Virginia and New England patents were assumed to give the English the "best general right," the Dutch were roundly affirmed to be intruders, and the absurd story was gravely repeated that King James had granted them Staten Island " as a watering place for their West India fleets." It was, therefore, advised that the English towns at the west of Long Island should be " very cautious of making themselves guilty ei- ther of ignorant or willful betraying the rights of their na- ' tion, by their subjecting themselves and lands to a foreign state."

A letter was accordingly addressed by the Protector to toEngi.ah "the English well-affected inhabitants on Long Island, in on Long Island, America," which Grover, having conveyed to Gravesend, insisted should be opened and read.

The magistrates, however, declined, until they had consulted Stuyvesant, who at once ordered Grover to be arrested, and brought, with his papers, to New Amsterdam. Hearing of this, the English in the neighboring villages called a meeting in Jamaica " to agitate;" and it was proposed at Gravesend to send a messenger to inform Cromwell of the " wrongs and injuries which we receive here from those in authority over us." The director, however, was neither intimidated nor thrown so October, off his guard. He discreetly sent the letter, unopened, to stuyvesant the Amsterdam Chamber, so as not to be accused by the sterdam di- Lord Protector " of the crime of opening his letter or breaking his seal," or to be censured by his own superiors for " admitting letters from a foreign prince or potentate, from which rebellion might arise."