Nooks and Corners of Old New York Part 5

[Ill.u.s.tration: Tomb of Alexander Hamilton]

[Sidenote: Alexander Hamilton's Tomb]

The tomb of Alexander Hamilton, patriot, soldier and statesman, stands conspicuously in the southern half of the churchyard, about forty feet from Broadway and ten feet from the iron railing on Rector Street.

In the same part of the churchyard are interred the remains of Philip, eldest son of Alexander Hamilton. The son in 1801 fell in a duel with George L. Eacker, a young lawyer, when the two disagreed over a political matter. Three years later Eacker died and was buried in St.

Paul's churchyard, and the same year Alexander Hamilton fell before the duelling pistol of Aaron Burr.

[Sidenote: Last Friend Of Aaron Burr]

Close by Hamilton's tomb, a slab almost buried in the earth bears the inscription "Matthew L. Davis' Sepulchre." Strange that this "last friend that Aaron Burr possessed on earth" should rest in death so close to his friend's great enemy. He went to the Jersey sh.o.r.e in a row-boat with Burr on the day the duel was fought with Hamilton, and stood not far away with Dr. Hosack to await the outcome. He was imprisoned for refusing to testify before the Coroner. Afterwards he wrote a life of Burr. He was a merchant, with a store at 49 Stone Street, and was highly respected.

[Sidenote: Tomb of Capt. James Lawrence]

Within a few steps of Broadway, at the southern entrance to the church, is the tomb of Captain James Lawrence, U. S. N., who was killed on board the frigate Chesapeake during the engagement with H. B. M. frigate "Shannon." His dying words, "Don't give up the s.h.i.+p!" are now known to every school-boy. The handsome mausoleum close by the church door, and the surrounding eight cannon, first attract the eye. These cannon, selected from arms captured from the English in the War of 1812, are buried deep, according to the directions of the Vestry of Trinity, in order that the national insignia, and the inscription telling of the place and time of capture, might be hidden and no evidence of triumph paraded in that place--where all are equal, where peace reigns and enmity is unknown. The monument was erected August 22, 1844. Before that the remains of Captain Lawrence had been interred in the southwest corner of the churchyard, beneath a shaft of white marble. This first resting-place was selected in September, 1813, when the body was brought to the city and interred, after being carried in funeral procession from the Battery.

"D. Contant" is the inscription on the first vault at the south entrance, one of the first victims of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes to be buried in the city. There are many Huguenot memorials in the churchyard, the oddest being a tombstone with a Latin inscription telling that Withamus de Marisco, who died in 1765, was "most n.o.ble on the side of his father's mother."

[Sidenote: Cresap, the Indian Fighter]

At the rear of the church, to the north, is a small headstone:

IN MEMORY OF MICHAEL CRESAP FIRST CAPTAIN OF THE RIFLE BATTALIONS AND SON OF COLONEL THOMAS CRESAP WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE OCT. 18, A. D. 1775.

His father had been a friend and neighbor of Was.h.i.+ngton in Virginia, and he himself was a brilliant Indian fighter on the frontier of his native State. It was the men under his command who, unordered, exterminated the family of Logan, the Indian chief, "the friend of the white man." Many a boy, who in school declaimed, unthinkingly, "Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one!" grown to manhood, cannot but look with interest on the grave of Logan's foe. Tradition has been kind to Cresap's memory, insisting that his heart broke over the accusation of responsibility for the death of Logan's family.

There is another slab, close by the grave of Captain Cresap, which tells:

"HERE LIETH YE BODY OF SUSANNAH NEAN, WIFE OF ELIAS NEAN, BORN IN YE CITY OF ROCh.e.l.lE, IN FRANCE, IN YE YEAR 1660, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE 25 DAY OF DECEMBER, 1720, AGE 60 YEARS." "HERE LIETH ENTERRED YE BODY OF ELIAS NEAN, CATECHIST IN NEW YORK, BORN IN SOUBISE, IN YE PROVINCE OF CAENTONGE IN FRANCE IN YE YEAR 1662, WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE 8 DAY OF SEPTEMBER 1722 AGED 60 YEARS."

"THIS INSCRIPTION WAS RESTORED BY ORDER OF THEIR DESCENDANT OF THE 6TH GENERATION, ELIZABETH CHAMPLIN PERRY, WIDOW OF THE LATE COM'R O. H. PERRY, OF THE U. S.

NAVY, MAY, ANNO DOMINI, 1846."

But the stone does not tell that the Huguenot refugee was for many years a vestryman of Trinity Church, and that among his descendants are the Belmonts and a dozen distinguished families. Before coming to America, Elias Nean was condemned to the galleys in France because he refused to renounce the reformed religion.

[Sidenote: Where Gov De Lancy Was buried]

Beneath the middle aisle in the church lie the bones of the eldest son of Stephen (Etienne) De Lancey--James De Lancey. He was Chief Justice of the Colony of New York in 1733, and Lieutenant-Governor in 1753. He died suddenly in 1760 at his country house which was at the present northwest corner of Delancey and Chrystie Streets. A lane led from the house to the Bowery.

[Sidenote: Home of The De Lanceys]

Thames Street is as narrow now as it was one hundred and fifty years ago, when it was a carriageway that led to the stables of Etienne De Lancey. The Huguenot n.o.bleman left his Broad Street house for the new home he had built at Broadway and Cedar Street in 1730. In 1741, at his death, it became the property of his son, James, the Lieutenant-Governor. It was the most imposing house in the town, elegantly decorated, encircled by broad balconies, with an uninterrupted garden extending to the river at the back.

After the death of Lieutenant-Governor De Lancey in 1760, the house became a hotel, and was known under many names. It was a favorite place for British officers during the Revolution, and in 1789 was the scene of the first "inauguration ball" in honor of President Was.h.i.+ngton.

The house was torn down in 1793. In 1806 the City Hotel was erected on its site and became the most fas.h.i.+onable in town. It was removed in 1850 and a line of shops set up. In 1889 the present buildings were erected.

A tablet on the building at 113 Broadway, corner of Cedar Street, marks the site, reading:

THE SITE OF LIEUT. GOVE. DE LANCEY'S HOUSE, LATER THE CITY HOTEL.

IT WAS HERE THAT THE NON-IMPORTATION AGREEMENT, IN OPPOSITION TO THE STAMP ACT, WAS SIGNED, OCT. 15TH, 1766. THE TAVERN HAD MANY PROPRIETORS BY WHOSE NAMES IT WAS SUCCESSIVELY CALLED. IT WAS ALSO KNOWN AS THE PROVINCE ARMS, THE CITY ARMS AND BURNS COFFEE HOUSE OR TAVERN.

Opposite Liberty (then Crown) Street, in the centre of Broadway, there stood in 1789 a detached building 42 x 25 feet. It was the "up-town market," patronized by the wealthy, who did their own marketing in those days, their black slaves carrying the purchases home.

[Sidenote: Was.h.i.+ngton Market]

Was.h.i.+ngton Market, at the foot of Fulton Street, was built in 1833. The water washed the western side of it then, and s.h.i.+ps sailed to it to deliver their freight. Since then the water has been crowded back year by year with the growing demand for land. In its early days it was variously called Country Market, Fish Market and Exterior Market.

[Sidenote: St. Paul's Chapel]

At the outskirts of the city, in a field that the same year had been sown with wheat, the cornerstone of St. Paul's Chapel was laid on May 14, 1764. The church was opened two years later, and the steeple added in 1794. It fronted the river which came up then as far as to where Greenwich Street is now, and a gra.s.sy lawn sloped down to a beach of pebbles. During the days of English occupancy, Major Andre, Lord Howe and Sir Guy Carleton wors.h.i.+pped there. Another who attended services there was the English mids.h.i.+pman who afterwards became William IV.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Was.h.i.+ngton Pew St. Paul's Chapel]

[Sidenote: The Was.h.i.+ngton Pew in St. Paul's]

President Was.h.i.+ngton, on the day of his inauguration, marched at the head of the representative men of the new nation to attend service in St. Paul's, and thereafter attended regularly. The pew he occupied has been preserved and is still to be seen next the north wall, midway between the chancel and the vestry room. Directly opposite is the pew occupied at the same period by Governor George Clinton.

Back of the chancel is the monument to Major-General Richard Montgomery, who fell before Quebec in 1775, crying, "Men of New York, you will not fail to follow where your general leads!" Congress decided on the monument, and Benjamin Franklin bought it in France for 300 guineas. A privateer bringing it to this country was captured by a British gunboat, which in turn was taken, and the monument, arriving safe here, was set in place. The body was removed from its first resting-place in Quebec, and interred close beside the monument in 1818.

In the burying-ground, which has been beside the church since it was built, are the monuments of men whose names are a.s.sociated with the city's history: Dr. William James Macneven, who raised chemistry to a science; Thomas Addis Emmet, an eminent jurist and brother of Robert Emmet; Christopher Collis, who established the first water works in the city, and who first conceived the idea of constructing the Erie Ca.n.a.l; and a host of others.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Sidenote: The Actor Cooke's Grave]

The tomb of George Frederick Cooke, the tragedian, is conspicuous in the centre of the yard, facing the main door of the church. Cooke was born in England in 1756, and died in New York in 1812. Early in life he was a printer's apprentice. By 1800 he had taken high rank among tragic actors.

The grave of George L. Eacker, who killed the eldest son of Alexander Hamilton in a duel, is near the Vesey Street railing.

[Sidenote: Astor House]

The Astor House, occupying the Broadway block between Vesey and Barclay Streets, was opened in 1836 by Boyden, a hotel keeper of Boston. This site had been part of the Church Farm, and as early as 1729, when there were only a few scattered farm houses on the island above what is now Liberty Street, there was a farm house on the Astor House site; and from there extended, on the Broadway line, a rope-walk. Prior to the erection of the hotel in 1830, the site for the most part had been occupied by the homes of John Jacob Astor, John G. Coster and David Lydig. On a part of the site, at 221 Broadway, in 1817, M. Paff, popularly known as "Old Paff," kept a bric-a-brac store. He dealt especially in paintings, having the reputation of buying worthless and old ones and "restoring"

them into masterpieces. His was the noted curiosity-shop of the period.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

[Sidenote: A House of Other Days]

Where Vesey and Greenwich Streets and West Broadway come together is a low, rough-hewn rock house. It has been used as a shoe store since the early part of the century. On its roof is a monster boot bearing the date of 1832, which took part in the Croton water parade and a dozen other celebrations. In pre-revolutionary days, when the ground where the building stands was all Hudson River, and the water extended as far as the present Greenwich Street, according to tradition, this was a lighthouse. There have been many changes in the outward appearance, but the foundation of solid rock is the same as when the waters swept around it.

[Sidenote: The Road To Greenwich]

Greenwich Street follows the line of a road which led from the city to Greenwich Village. This road was on the waterside. It was called Greenwich Road. South of Ca.n.a.l Street, west of Broadway, was a marshy tract known as Lispenard's Meadows. Over this swamp Greenwich Road crossed on a raised causeway. When the weather was bad for any length of time, the road became heavy and in places was covered by the strong tide from the river. At such times travel took an inland route, along the Post Road (now the Bowery) and by Obelisk Lane (now Astor Place and Greenwich Avenue).

[Sidenote: St. Peter's Church]

St. Peter's Church, at the southeast corner of Barclay and Church Streets, the home of the oldest Roman Catholic congregation in the city, was built in 1786, and rebuilt in 1838. The congregation was formed in 1783, although ma.s.s was celebrated in private houses before that for the few scattered Catholic families.