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CHAPTER III

FIRST YEARS IN AMERICA

1753-1756

In the year 1753 what is now the great city and port of New York was in size and population very much what Bangor is at the present time, and distinctly smaller than Ryde in the Isle of Wight. Originally settled by the Dutch it still had many of that nationality among its inhabitants. It extended about a mile inland from the water front and was less than half that width.

The streets were irregular and paved with rough cobbles, the houses were well built of red brick. In the south-west part of the town was a square fort with four bastions; within its walls stood the Governor's town residence and he had another on Nothen Island, which it was proposed to fortify lest an enemy seizing it should bombard the town. Opposite the fort were the barracks of the independent companies, below its walls was the Battery, mounting ninety-two guns, which was the sole defence of the place. The population was of mixed descent chiefly Dutch, but their language was dying out and being replaced by English. Some Dutch farmers had outside the town a small village called Harlem where they cultivated market gardens for the supply of vegetables to the town. Broadway is described as being "the pleasantest street of any in the whole town."1 Trinity Church, built in 1696 and enlarged in 1737, stood on Broadway and must have been on the outskirts of the town, a view of which at that time is given opposite. Upon this scene there arrived from England on Sunday, October 7, 1753, a new Royal Governor 1 Geographical Description of New York, 1753. New York Historical Society.

in the person of Sir Danvers Osborne, who was accompanied by his secretary, Thomas Pownall, a young man of thirty-one, on the threshold of his career. Sir Danvers came to succeed Governor Clinton, a son of the Earl of Lincoln. Having married one of the Pelham family Clinton was connected with the powerful Duke of Newcastle, Secretary of State from 1724 to 1755, and afterwards the colleague of Pitt. He had been brought up in the Navy, and family interest had sent him out in 1743 to replace Governor Clarke. He was an easy-going man who wanted to mend his fortunes abroad and live quietly till some better post offered at home. In the hope of quiet he was disappointed, for he soon shared the fate of other Governors and became embroiled with his assembly, which at the end of his stay made things very unpleasant for him. On Wednesday the 10th he handed over the seals of office to Osborne and gave a commission as Lieutenant-Governor to James de Lancey, ChiefJustice of the colony, who since 1729 had been one of the twelve members of the Governor's Council; a House of Lords in miniature. That evening Clinton and Osborne went together to a banquet given to welcome the latter, who retired early. On the following day Osborne was very moody and said to de Lancey: "I believe I shall very soon leave you the government, I find myself unable to support the burden of it." Early on the next morning, the Friday in the week of his arrival, the newly arrived Governor was found dead-he had hung himself in the garden of the friend's house where he was staying. He is described as a man of good sense and great modesty, but the death of his wife, a sister of Lord Halifax, had broken him down. Pownall stated at the inquest that Lord Halifax had sent Osborne out in the hope that the change would benefit him and that he had previously attempted his own life.1

The Governor being thus tragically removed, de Lancey published his commission and took the oaths as Governor, receiving the seals from Pownall, whose position as Secretary had vanished, but who earned the approval of the Lords of Trade by declaring that if he found any of their confidential instructions among Osborne's papers he should refuse to part with them.

1 New York Historical Society's Collections, iii. p. 151.

De Lancey descended from a wealthy Huguenot of Caen who had sought refuge in New York where he had bought land, and the family were among the richest and most powerful in the colony. James de Lancey was no longer young, he was a well-educated man with a pleasant manner, and had been advanced to the position of ChiefJustice by Governor Clinton. At that time he had looked at affairs from the point of view of the old country, but he afterwards became colonial in his opinions.

Pownall thus found himself stranded, but as brother to the Secretary of the Board of Trade he naturally saw a good deal of de Lancey during the time when the news of Osborne's death was travelling was travelling to England and instructions were coming thence for the future disposal of the Secretary to the dead Governor. Those months Pownall appears to have divided between New York, where de Lancey now reigned, and Boston, then under the rule of Governor Shirley of Massachusetts.1

William Shirley, a barrister by training, had gone out to the colonies in 1731 to practise his profession. The Duke of Newcastle gave him an introduction to Governor Belcher then in charge of Massachusetts, from whom Shirley expected more than he obtained. One of the

many drawbacks to a Governor's life was that he had some preferment, but not much, in his gift. There was just enough to make it impossible for him to avoid giving offence to many of his neighbours. As there were more candidates than places, every man appointed to any position left many disappointed, and they turned on the Governor. Shirley applied for several things-a clerkship of Common Pleas at Boston, a collectorship of customs there, the office of Attorney-General at New York, and he got none of them. After nine years' waiting for something to fall to him he was made Commissioner in a boundary dispute at Rhode Island, but by this time he had lost patience with Belcher. So he wrote letters home2 which led to the transfer of Belcher to the governorship of New Jersey in 1741, and to his being himself appointed, in Belcher's stead, to be Governor of Massachusetts. A very hard-working, energetic man he did well in that position and made many friends. His success 1 Massachusetts Historical Society's Collections, vii. p. 78. 2 Dictionary of National Biography, "Shirley."

in so doing was the more remarkable because he was one of those Governors who piqued themselves on representing the Crown and were strong for those privileges which constantly clashed with the claims of the colonists.

At the time we are dealing with, Shirley was a man about sixty, whose chief, and very notable, achievement had been the suggestion and organisation of the attack on Louisburg in Cape Breton eight years earlier. It was a hazardous enterprise as devised by Shirley, and though it was attended by success, that eventually did him more harm than good. Not only did it cause jealousy on the part of others in like positions to himself, but it gave him the idea, which subsequent events failed to justify in the eyes of his superiors, that he had a natural genius for war.

Both he and de Lancey were old residents in the colonies, but they were of very different natures. Shirley was a man of action and determination and, like all such men, liable to provoke hostility from those he had to overrule or set on one side. De Lancey was a subtle person who made his way by ingratiating himself with his superiors and scheming against his rivals. He had sought preferment from Governor Clinton, and when he got it led a party against him. The powers of intrigue he had then shewn were now to be turned against Shirley.

Between these two very dissimilar people, both much his seniors, Pownall found himself placed. Though he had no definite position or occupation after Osborne's death, he was by no means idle, but devoted his attention to the study of local problems, among which he picked out as the most important the French aggression on the English colonies and how it could best be met. In that aggression the French had always made use of the Red Indians, with whom they had established friendly relations. It seemed to Pownall that it was necessary for the English to do the same, and he was one of the few Englishmen who troubled themselves to understand the Indian tribes, among whom the whole country from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes was then divided, as shewn on the map which faces this page. How the Great Lakes and the great rivers could be utilised for the transport of troops during the impending war, and for the development of commerce subsequently, was recognised by Pownall from his first arrival in the country.

His

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