Colonial days in old New York

								


                             COLONIAL DAYS

                                   IN

                              OLD NEW YORK

                                   BY

                           ALICE MORSE EARLE



                             NEW YORK

                        CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS

                                  1896

                           Copyright, 1896,

                      BY CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS.



                           University Press:

                 JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.

                                  TO

                    THE SOCIETY OF COLONIAL DAMES

                                OF THE

                          STATE OF NEW YORK

                   THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED BY A LOYAL

                           AND LOVING MEMBER

                              THE AUTHOR

                               PREFACE

This book should perhaps have been “intituled” Colonial Days in New
Netherland, for much of the life described herein was in the days of
Dutch rule. But it was New Netherland for scarce half a century, and
the name is half-forgotten, though it remained, both in outer life and
in heart, a Dutch colonie, even when the province was New York and an
English governor had control. In New Netherland, as in every place
where the Dutch plant a colony, as in South Africa to-day, Dutch ways,
Dutch notions, the Dutch tongue lingered long. To this day, Dutch
influence and Dutch traits, as well as Dutch names, are ever present
and are a force in New York life.
Fair and beautiful lay the broad harbor centuries ago before the
eyes of Hendrick Hudson and his sea-weary men; a “pleasant place” was
Manhattan; “’t lange eylandt was the pearel of New Nederland;” the
noble river, the fertile shores, all seemed to the discoverers and to
the early colonists to smile a welcome and a promise of happy homes.
Still to-day the bay, the islands, the river, the shores welcome with
the same promise. In grateful thanks for that welcome and for the
fulfilment of that promise of old,--for more years of life in New
York than were spent in my birth-place in New England,--and in warm
affection for my many friends of Dutch descent, have I--to use the
words of Rabelais--“adjoined these words and testimony for the honour I
bear to antiquity.”



                                                    ALICE MORSE EARLE.



                                                      Brooklyn Heights,

                                                      September, 1896.

                               CONTENTS

CHAPTER                                                             PAGE
I. THE LIFE OF A DAY                                                   1
II. EDUCATION AND CHILD-LIFE                                          14
III. WOOING AND WEDDING                                               45