Jacob Leisler

1640 (age 51)

Frankfort, Germany

In 1660 young Jacob came to New Amsterdam a penniless soldier in the Dutch West India Company. Three years later, his marriage connected him with leading Dutch families, among them the Bayards and Van Cortlandts, and provided him the capital to engage in the fur and tobacco, and later, in the wine, trade. He was soon numbered among the richest merchants of the colony. Until 1689 he played little part in the troubled affairs of New York. An arbitrator of various legal disputes, the mouthpiece of Suffolk country petitioners, a captain in the militia, and a deacon in the Dutch Reformed Church, he emerged from comparative obscurity only when, with Jacob Milborne, he attacked as a violation of ecclesiastical liberty the appointment to his church of the Anglican Dominie Nicholas van Rensselaer. In several suits brought against him he betrayed an unconsidered obstinacy of temper, while his own suit for a share of Govert Loockerman's estate changed the scorn with which his aristocratic kinsmen regarded his plebeian origin and his uncouthness of manner into bitter personal enmity. Since Nicholas Bayard and Van Cortlandt were on the council, these personal feelings added a special vehemence to the course of the Revolution of 1689 in New York, caused there as elsewhere by fear of French invasion, suspicion of papists in the administration, and agitation for representative government. The overthrow at Boston of Sir Edmund Andros, governor general of the Dominion of New England, of which New York was a part, left Lieutenant-Governor Francis Nicholson to continue alone at New York. It is uncertain what part Leisler played in instigating the first overt act against Nicholson, which was the seizure by his trainband of the fort at New York, but he soon emerged as leader of the various discontented elements, which numbered important Dutchmen and Englishmen as well as the mob. Nicholson fled the country in June, his council proved incapable of continuing the government, and Leisler on his own authority proclaimed William and Mary. In June a committee of safety representing his faction in six New York counties named him as captain of the fort, and in August, as commander-in-chief. In December he seized letters addressed to Nicholson or to "such as for the time being take care for Preserving the Peace and administring the laws, " interpreted them as justifying his assumption of authority, and styled himself lieutenant-governor. He was, therefore, a revolutionary usurper, and was never sanctioned by the British government, which, in August 1689, selected a new governor, Sloughter, and authorized the raising of regular troops to restore order in New York. Nevertheless, during twenty months, Leisler filled the post of executive as well as the high feeling and disorder of the times permitted. Governing by military force, with his own supporters in administrative positions, he suppressed riots, constituted courts, struck a seal, signed commissions, collected taxes, and called an assembly composed of his partisans from a part of the province only. Albany recognized his authority early in 1690, largely because of Indian dangers, and his principal concern was thenceforth the French War, to which he devoted himself with vigor. His enthusiasm was responsible for the first attempt to create a military union of the colonies, though his quick temper, and that of his chief lieutenant and son-in-law, Milborne, contributed to the disastrous failure of the joint expedition which resulted. Administrative difficulties delayed in England the sailing of Sloughter and the two companies of regulars. The latter, without Sloughter, arrived in January 1691, under Capt. Richard Ingoldesby, who, with no further authority than his own military commission and the knowledge that all the members of the new council were Leisler's enemies, demanded the surrender of the fort. Leisler refused, for acquiescence would have been an admission that his government had no shadow of legality. For nearly two months New York hovered on the brink of civil war, with Leisler's adherents in the fort, and Ingoldesby's, reinforced by militia from the countryside, in the town. Shots were exchanged on March 17, and two of the king's soldiers were killed. Sloughter arrived two days later, proclaimed his commission, and again demanded the surrender. Reluctant to lose his power, Leisler hesitated too long, and so gave his enemies colorable grounds for bringing charges of treason against him. At his trial he refused to plead until the question of the legal basis of his authority was settled; he was condemned to death, and Sloughter was prevailed upon to sign the deathwarrant. Both Leisler and Milborne were hanged. Leisler's career divided New York into two camps, and lent a peculiar passion to political controversies until well into the eighteenth century. In 1695 Parliament reversed his attainder and restored to his family confiscated property; in 1702 the New York Assembly voted an indemnity of £2, 700 to his heirs.

Jacob Leisler

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statesman

Background

Jacob Leisler was born in Frankfort, Germany, and baptized on March 31, 1640. He was the son of a Calvinist pastor of Bockenheim, Jacob Victorius Leyssler, and his wife Susanna.

Career

In 1660 young Jacob came to New Amsterdam a penniless soldier in the Dutch West India Company. Three years later, his marriage connected him with leading Dutch families, among them the Bayards and Van Cortlandts, and provided him the capital to engage in the fur and tobacco, and later, in the wine, trade. He was soon numbered among the richest merchants of the colony.

Until 1689 he played little part in the troubled affairs of New York. An arbitrator of various legal disputes, the mouthpiece of Suffolk country petitioners, a captain in the militia, and a deacon in the Dutch Reformed Church, he emerged from comparative obscurity only when, with Jacob Milborne, he attacked as a violation of ecclesiastical liberty the appointment to his church of the Anglican Dominie Nicholas van Rensselaer. In several suits brought against him he betrayed an unconsidered obstinacy of temper, while his own suit for a share of Govert Loockerman's estate changed the scorn with which his aristocratic kinsmen regarded his plebeian origin and his uncouthness of manner into bitter personal enmity. Since Nicholas Bayard and Van Cortlandt were on the council, these personal feelings added a special vehemence to the course of the Revolution of 1689 in New York, caused there as elsewhere by fear of French invasion, suspicion of papists in the administration, and agitation for representative government.

The overthrow at Boston of Sir Edmund Andros, governor general of the Dominion of New England, of which New York was a part, left Lieutenant-Governor Francis Nicholson to continue alone at New York. It is uncertain what part Leisler played in instigating the first overt act against Nicholson, which was the seizure by his trainband of the fort at New York, but he soon emerged as leader of the various discontented elements, which numbered important Dutchmen and Englishmen as well as the mob. Nicholson fled the country in June, his council proved incapable of continuing the government, and Leisler on his own authority proclaimed William and Mary.

In June a committee of safety representing his faction in six New York counties named him as captain of the fort, and in August, as commander-in-chief. In December he seized letters addressed to Nicholson or to "such as for the time being take care for Preserving the Peace and administring the laws, " interpreted them as justifying his assumption of authority, and styled himself lieutenant-governor. He was, therefore, a revolutionary usurper, and was never sanctioned by the British government, which, in August 1689, selected a new governor, Sloughter, and authorized the raising of regular troops to restore order in New York. Nevertheless, during twenty months, Leisler filled the post of executive as well as the high feeling and disorder of the times permitted. Governing by military force, with his own supporters in administrative positions, he suppressed riots, constituted courts, struck a seal, signed commissions, collected taxes, and called an assembly composed of his partisans from a part of the province only.

Albany recognized his authority early in 1690, largely because of Indian dangers, and his principal concern was thenceforth the French War, to which he devoted himself with vigor. His enthusiasm was responsible for the first attempt to create a military union of the colonies, though his quick temper, and that of his chief lieutenant and son-in-law, Milborne, contributed to the disastrous failure of the joint expedition which resulted. Administrative difficulties delayed in England the sailing of Sloughter and the two companies of regulars. The latter, without Sloughter, arrived in January 1691, under Capt. Richard Ingoldesby, who, with no further authority than his own military commission and the knowledge that all the members of the new council were Leisler's enemies, demanded the surrender of the fort. Leisler refused, for acquiescence would have been an admission that his government had no shadow of legality. For nearly two months New York hovered on the brink of civil war, with Leisler's adherents in the fort, and Ingoldesby's, reinforced by militia from the countryside, in the town. Shots were exchanged on March 17, and two of the king's soldiers were killed. Sloughter arrived two days later, proclaimed his commission, and again demanded the surrender. Reluctant to lose his power, Leisler hesitated too long, and so gave his enemies colorable grounds for bringing charges of treason against him. At his trial he refused to plead until the question of the legal basis of his authority was settled; he was condemned to death, and Sloughter was prevailed upon to sign the deathwarrant. Both Leisler and Milborne were hanged. Leisler's career divided New York into two camps, and lent a peculiar passion to political controversies until well into the eighteenth century. In 1695 Parliament reversed his attainder and restored to his family confiscated property; in 1702 the New York Assembly voted an indemnity of £2, 700 to his heirs.

Achievements

Leisler gained wealth in New Amsterdam (later New York City) in the fur trade and tobacco business. He seized the reins of British colonial government in New York and exercised effective control over the area for more than 18 months. During this period he completed a major purchase of property from John Pell, lord of Pelham Manor, to set up a French Huguenot settlement north of Manhattan. This developed as the city of New Rochelle, New York.

Connections

On April 11, 1663, Leisler married Elsje Tymens, the rich widow of Pieter van der Veen, and a step-daughter of Govert Loockermans.

Father:: Jacob Victorius Leyssler
Mother:: Susanna Leyssler
Spouse:: Elsje Tymens

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Jacob Leisler

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