Old Taverns of New York

The Tax on Tea

On Friday morning, October 15, 1773, a printed handbill was distributed through the town calling a meeting of the inhabitants at twelve o’clock that day at the Coffee House to consult and agree on some manner of expressing the thanks of the people to the captains of the London ships trading with the port of New York and the merchants to whom they were consigned, for their refusal to take from the East India Company, as freight, tea on which a duty had been laid by parliament payable in America. At this meeting an address was accordingly drawn up which was unanimously approved by those present. In this address it was declared that “Stamp Officers and Tea Commissioners will ever be held in equal estimation.”

For two or three years the political situation had been uneventful, but early in the year 1773 it became apparent that an effort was about to be made to bring the question of taxation to an issue. The East India Company, acting as the instrument of the British parliament, arranged to send cargoes of tea to the ports of Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston, at which places they appointed commissioners for its sale.

The Sons of Liberty Again Organize

The times were portentous. The people realized that Great Britain was about to test her power to tax the colonies by forcing the importation of tea through the East India Company in order to establish a precedent, and preparations were made to resist. The Sons of Liberty again organized in November, 1773, and prepared for action. They drew up a number of resolutions which expressed their sentiments and which they engaged to faithfully observe. The first of these was, “that whoever should aid or abet or in any manner assist in the introduction of Tea from any place whatsoever into this Colony, while it is subject by a British act of parliament to the payment of a duty for the purpose of raising a revenue in America, he shall be deemed an enemy to the Liberties of America.” On the back of a printed copy of these resolutions was written a letter of appeal, signed by the committee of the association, addressed to the Friends of Liberty and Trade, inviting an union of all classes in a determined resistance, and urging harmony.

At a meeting held at the City Hall on the 17th of December by the Sons of Liberty to which all friends of liberty and trade of America were invited, it was firmly resolved that the tea which was expected should not be landed.

In Boston the consignee of the tea refusing to return it to England, the vessels were boarded by a number of men disguised as Indians, the chests of tea broken open and the contents cast overboard in the water. This occurred on the 16th of December, 1773.

At a meeting held at the tavern of Captain Doran a committee was appointed to wait on the merchants who had been appointed commissioners for the sale of the East India Company’s tea and ask their intentions. They replied to the committee that, finding that the tea will come liable to American duty, they have declined to receive it. Thomas Doran had been captain of a small but fast sailing privateer, and did good service in the late French war. He had since been keeping a tavern on the new dock near the Fly Market. His house had been the usual place of meeting of the Marine Society for many years. In May, 1774, notice was given that a committee of the Chamber of Commerce would meet at the house of Thomas Doran to receive claims for bounty on fish brought into the city markets. The assembly, in 1773, had granted the sum of five hundred pounds per annum for five years, “for the encouragement of fishery on this coast for the better supplying of the markets of this city with fish,” to be paid to the treasurer of the Chamber of Commerce, and the awarding of the premiums was entrusted to that association. This was the first distribution of premiums.

The Tea-Ship Arrives

The tea-ship for New York, long overdue, was anxiously expected. In March, 1774, the Sons of Liberty were notified to meet every Thursday night at seven o’clock at the house of Jasper Drake till the arrival and departure of the tea-ship. The ships for the other ports had arrived at their destinations and been disposed of. No tea had been allowed to be sold. The ship Nancy, Captain Lockyer, with the tea for New York on board, driven off the coast by contrary winds, did not reach the port until April 18th, and the pilot, advised of the situation, refused to bring her up to the city. The people had resolved that the tea should not be landed. The captain was allowed to come up on condition that he would not enter his vessel at the custom house. He was received by a committee of the Sons of Liberty and conducted to the consignee, who, declining to receive his cargo, he at once made preparation to return. On Friday, April 22, handbills were distributed, stating that although the sense of the people had been signified to Captain Lockyer, nevertheless it was the desire of many of the citizens that, at his departure, he should see with his own eyes their detestation of the measures pursued by the ministry and the East India Company to enslave this country. Accordingly, on Saturday morning, about eight o’clock, all the bells in the city rang as a notice to the people that the tea which had been brought over in the Nancy was about to be sent back without allowing it to be landed. About nine o’clock the people assembled at the Coffee House in greater numbers than ever before known, Captain Lockyer came out of the Coffee House with the committee and was received with cheers, while a band provided for the occasion played “God Save the King.” He was then conducted to Murray’s Wharf, at the foot of Wall Street, where, amid the shouts of the people and the firing of guns, he was put on board the pilot boat and wished a safe passage. He joined his ship, the Nancy, at the Narrows, and the next morning put to sea.

Tea Thrown Overboard

On Friday, amidst all the excitement, Captain Chambers, who from information received from different sources was suspected of having tea on board his ship, the London, arrived at the Hook. The pilot asked him if he had any tea on board and he declared that he had none. Two of the committee of observation went on board, to whom he declared that he had no tea. When the ship came to the wharf about four o’clock in the afternoon she was boarded by a number of citizens and Captain Chambers was told that it was in vain for him to deny having tea on board his ship for there was good proof to the contrary, whereupon he confessed that he had on board eighteen chests. The owners of the vessel and the committee immediately met at Francis’ Tavern to deliberate over the matter where Captain Chambers was ordered to attend. Here he stated that he was the sole owner of the tea. The Mohawks were prepared to do their duty but the people became impatient and about eight o’clock a number entered the ship, took out the tea, broke open the chests and threw their contents into the river. The resentment of the people was so great against Captain Chambers, whom they had considered a friend of their rights and deserving of their confidence, that it was thought that if he could have been found, his life would have been in danger. He was, however, concealed and succeeded the next day in getting on board the Nancy with Captain Lockyer and sailed away to England.

The news of what had been done by the little tea-party in Boston Harbor, December 16, 1773, reached England on the 22d of January, 1774, and created intense excitement in London. On March 7 the King sent a special message to parliament on the American disturbances and soon after a bill was prepared providing for the closing of the port of Boston to all commerce on June 1, at the King’s pleasure, and ordering indemnification to be made to the East India Company for the tea destroyed. This bill passed both houses of parliament without a dissenting vote. The news of its passage came to New York by the ship Samson, Captain Coupar, which arrived May 12, twenty-seven days from London. By the same packet came news that General Gage, commissioned governor of Massachusetts, had engaged with four regiments to reduce Boston to submission and was to sail for his government on April 15.

Committee of Correspondence

In consequence of the alarming news from England, a notice was posted at the Merchants’ Coffee House inviting the merchants to meet at the tavern of Samuel Francis on Monday evening, the 16th, to consult on measures proper to be taken. Accordingly, a large number of merchants and other inhabitants appeared at the appointed place. The object was to appoint a committee of correspondence. There appeared some differences of opinion as to the number and composition of this committee, but the result was that fifty names were nominated, fifteen of the number to be sufficient to do business. To confirm the choice of this committee or to choose others, it was resolved before adjournment that the inhabitants of the city should be requested to meet at the Merchants’ Coffee House on Thursday, the 19th, at one o’clock.

Paul Revere, the Post Rider

In the interim Paul Revere, the famous post-rider and express, arrived on the 17th with a message from the people of Boston, urging a cessation of all trade with Great Britain and the West Indies until the port bill should be repealed. In the evening of the same day there was a large meeting of the mechanics at Bardin’s Tavern. Bardin had come to the neighborhood where he formerly lived and was keeping the house at one time kept by John Jones in the Fields, and known after that as Hampden Hall. The mechanics sided with the radical party.

At the meeting called at the Merchants’ Coffee House the merchants prevailed, as they had done at the previous meeting. The name of Francis Lewis was added to the committee and it was known as the committee of fifty-one. Gouverneur Morris, writing to Penn, said: “I stood on the balcony and on my right hand were ranged all the people of property with some few poor dependents, and on the other all the tradesmen, etc., who thought it worth their while to leave daily labor for the good of the country.” There was some opposition to the committee named, but after the meeting those who had opposed it, for the sake of union, sent in their agreement to the choice. The mechanics also sent a letter to the committee concurring in the selection.

Answer to the Boston Letter

The committee of fifty-one met at the Merchants’ Coffee House on Monday morning, the 23d, at ten o’clock for business, and after appointing a chairman, secretary and doorkeeper, and agreeing upon sundry rules for the conduct of business, the letters from Boston and Philadelphia were read. A committee composed of Messrs. MacDougal, Low, Duane and Jay was appointed to draw up an answer to the first and report at eight o’clock in the evening, to which time the meeting adjourned. At the appointed time the committee appointed to draw up an answer to the Boston letter made report of a draft of such letter, which was unanimously agreed to and ordered to be engrossed and forwarded with the utmost dispatch. On Tuesday it was delivered to Paul Revere, the express from Boston, who had been as far as Philadelphia and was now on his way back to Boston. He immediately set out on his return. A copy was ordered to be transmitted to the Committee of Correspondence of Philadelphia. “The letter proposed to the people of Boston that a Congress of the colonies should be convoked without delay to determine and direct the measures to be pursued for relief of the town of Boston and the redress of all the American grievances,” a recommendation which was accepted and resulted in the Congress which met at Philadelphia in September.

Monday evening, June 6, the Committee of Correspondence met and read and answered the dispatches brought from Boston by the express rider, Cornelius Bradford, and on Monday, the 13th, the New York Mercury stated that they were to meet again that night, when, it was hoped, their proceedings would be made public, saying “the times are critical and big with interesting events.” On Wednesday, June 15, the day on which the harbor of Boston was closed by act of parliament, a great number of the friends of American liberty in the city procured effigies of Governor Hutchinson, Lord North and Mr. Wedderburn, persons who were considered most unfriendly to the rights of America, and after carrying them through the principal streets of the city took them to the Coffee House, “where they were attended in the evening of that day, it is thought, by the greatest concourse of spectators ever seen on a similar occasion, and there destroyed by sulphurous Flames.”

The Committee of Correspondence held their meetings at the Merchants’ Coffee House during the summer. It was the center of most of the political agitation and unrest which pervaded the community. On the evening of Wednesday, July 13, the committee met and drew up a set of resolutions on the alarming situation of affairs, which were printed in handbills and distributed about the town the next morning, for the approbation of the people who were to assemble at the Coffee House at twelve o’clock on the 19th to approve or disapprove of them. It had been settled that there should be a Congress of the colonies, to meet at Philadelphia in September, and the people were at the same time to testify their approbation of the five gentlemen nominated by the committee to attend as delegates. These were James Duane, Philip Livingston, John Alsop, Isaac Low and John Jay. There was so much controversy that the men nominated declined to accept the trust until confirmed by the people. Accordingly, on the 24th an election was ordered in the ordinary manner by a poll in the several wards which was held on the 28th, resulting in the unanimous choice of the five gentlemen above named as delegates.

Delegates to Congress

About the first of September there was much excitement on account of the departure of the delegates for Philadelphia and the arrival of delegates from the New England colonies, passing through the city. On Monday, the 29th of August, John Jay quietly set out for Philadelphia to attend the congress, and on Thursday, September 1st, the four other delegates left the city for the same laudable purpose. Isaac Low, accompanied by his wife, who wished to go by way of Paulus Hook, was escorted to the ferry stairs at the foot of Cortlandt Street by a large number of citizens, with colors flying, and with music. A few accompanied him over the river with musicians playing “God Save the King.” The people then returned to the Coffee House in order to testify the same respect for the other three delegates, James Duane, John Alsop and Philip Livingston. The procession began about half past nine o’clock. When they arrived at the Royal Exchange, near which they embarked, James Duane, in a short speech, thanked the people for the honor they had conferred upon them and declared for himself and for his fellow delegates “that nothing in their Power should be wanting to relieve this once happy but now aggrieved Country.” As they left the wharf, “they were saluted by several Pieces of Cannon, mounted for the occasion, which was answered by a greater Number from St. George’s Ferry. These Testimonials and three Huzzas bid them go and proclaim to all Nations that they, and the virtuous People they represent, dare defend their Rights as Protestant Englishmen.”

The Massachusetts delegates, Thomas Cushing, Samuel Adams, Robert Treat Paine and John Adams, set out on their journey from Boston in one coach on the 10th of August and arrived in New York on the 20th. John Adams, in his diary, says: “We breakfasted at Day’s and arrived in the city of New York at ten o’clock, at Hull’s, a tavern, the sign of the Bunch of Grapes.” The arms of the province on the old sign must have been pretty well weatherbeaten to have been taken for a bunch of grapes. The best tavern in Boston and the best tavern in Hartford each hung out this sign and Adams was thus easily led into an error.

The Congress at Philadelphia

The congress at Philadelphia passed a non-exportation act to take effect on September 15, and a non-importation act to be put in force on December 1. A committee of observation or inspection was appointed in New York city to secure the strict observance of these acts. In the spring of 1775 deputies were elected in New York to a provincial congress which met on April 20, and the next day appointed delegates to represent the province in the Continental Congress which was to assemble at Philadelphia in the following May. News of the battle of Lexington, forwarded by express riders from Watertown, Massachusetts, reached the chambers of the New York committee of correspondence at four o’clock in the afternoon of Sunday, April 23. It was war. The news reached Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 28, and on the next day Alexander Purdie published it in an extra of his Gazette. In commenting on the situation his closing words were: “The sword is now drawn and God knows when it will be sheathed.”

IX

The Province Arms

Great Excitement in the City

In the early part of the year 1775 a state of uneasiness and expectancy pervaded the community. Trade was prostrate. The merchants met at the Exchange or at the Coffee House and nervously talked over the situation, for which there seemed to be no remedy; while they looked out on the quiet docks, now almost deserted. They were calmly waiting for something to happen, and it came in the news of the battle of Lexington. This was the crisis which produced a decided change in conditions. The dissatisfied people now showed that they had lost all respect for English rule. Companies of armed citizens paraded the streets aimlessly, and there was great excitement everywhere. The regular soldiers in garrison prudently confined themselves to their barracks. The machinery of government was out of joint and it was very soon apparent that something should be done to maintain order and form some regular plan of government.

A meeting was called at the Merchants’ Coffee House when it was agreed that the government of the city should be placed in the hands of a committee. Isaac Low, chairman of the committee of observation, issued a notice stating that the committee were unanimously of opinion that a new committee should be elected by the freeholders and freemen for the present unhappy exigency of affairs, to consist of one hundred persons, thirty-three to be a quorum. It was also recommended that they should at the same time choose deputies to represent them in a provincial congress which it was considered highly advisable should be summoned. A committee such as was recommended was chosen May 1, and, at the same time, twenty-one deputies for the city and county of New York, to meet the deputies of the other counties in provincial congress May 22.

The excitement had in no wise abated when the eastern delegates to congress entered the city, Saturday, May 6, on their way to Philadelphia and were received with the greatest enthusiasm. They were met a few miles out of town by a great number of the principal gentlemen of the place and escorted into the city by near a thousand men under arms. John Adams, in his diary, says that from Kingsbridge the number of people continually increased, until he thought the whole city had come out to meet them. The roads, it is said, were lined with greater numbers of people than were known on any occasion before. All the bells of the city rang out a welcome. They were conducted to the tavern of Sam Francis, where they lodged, and a newspaper states that double sentries were placed at the doors of their lodgings, for what special purpose we are not informed, probably simply to keep the crowd in check and maintain order.

The British soldiers garrisoned in the city were powerless to maintain the authority of the crown and were ordered to join the troops at Boston. There were some who advised that they should be made prisoners. The committee, however, agreed to let them depart with their arms and accoutrements without molestation. They accordingly marched out from the barracks to embark about ten o’clock on the morning of June 6, 1775. At the time there were at the tavern of Jasper Drake, in Water Street near Beekman Slip, a place well known as a rendezvous of the Liberty Boys and those opposed to the British measures, about half a dozen men, when word came to them that the British soldiers were leaving the barracks to embark and were taking with them several carts loaded with chests filled with arms.

Transfer of Arms Stopped

They immediately decided that these arms should not be taken from the city. One of the men was Marinus Willett, and what he did that day has become a landmark in the history of the city. They started out on different routes to notify their friends and obtain assistance. Willett went down Water Street to the Coffee House where he notified those who were there of what was to be done and then proceeded down to the Exchange at the foot of Broad Street. When he saw the troops and the carts laden with arms approaching he went up to meet them, and not hesitating a moment, seized the horse drawing the leading cart by the bridle, which caused a halt and brought the officer in command to the front. The crowd that immediately collected, including the mayor, gave Willett little support, but soon John Morin Scott came to his assistance, asserting that the committee had given no permission for the removal of the arms. The result was that the soldiers made no resistance to the seizure of the arms and quietly embarked without them. These arms were used by the first troops raised in New York under the orders of Congress.

The Coffee House

Nesbitt Deane, the hatter, whose shop was in the old Coffee House building, advertised in 1775, to let the two or three upper stories of the house, “being noted for a Notary Public’s office these two years past,” which he further describes “as being so pleasantly situated that a person can see at once the river, shipping, Long Island and all the gentlemen resorting to the House on business from the most distant climes.” Although the Coffee House was generally the resort of strangers as well as citizens, yet, in 1775, on account of the stagnation of business caused by the cessation of all trade with Great Britain, it was almost deserted. This is made plain by an article which appeared in the New York Journal of October 19; and as this has some interesting statements about coffee houses in general and about the Merchants’ Coffee House in particular, we have thought it well to reproduce it entirely.

“To the Inhabitants of New York:

“It gives me concern, in this time of public difficulty and danger, to find we have in this city no place of daily general meeting, where we might hear and communicate intelligence from every quarter and freely confer with one another on every matter that concerns us. Such a place of general meeting is of very great advantage in many respects, especially at such a time as this, besides the satisfaction it affords and the sociable disposition it has a tendency to keep up among us, which was never more wanted than at this time. To answer all these and many other good and useful purposes, Coffee Houses have been universally deemed the most convenient places of resort, because at a small expense of time or money, persons wanted may be found and spoke with, appointments may be made, current news heard, and whatever it most concerns us to know. In all cities, therefore, and large towns that I have seen in the British dominions, sufficient encouragement has been given to support one or more Coffee Houses in a genteel manner. How comes it then that New York, the most central, and one of the largest and most prosperous cities in British America, cannot support one Coffee House? It is a scandal to the city and its inhabitants to be destitute of such a convenience, for want of due encouragement. A coffee house, indeed, here is! a very good and comfortable one, extremely well tended and accommodated, but it is frequented but by an inconsiderable number of people; and I have observed with surprise, that but a small part of those who do frequent it, contribute anything at all to the expense, of it, but come in and go out without calling for or paying anything to the house. In all the Coffee Houses in London, it is customary for every one that comes in, to call for at least a dish of Coffee, or leave the value of one, which is but reasonable, because when the keepers of these houses have been at the expense of setting them up and providing all necessaries for the accommodation of company, every one that comes to receive the benefit of these conveniences ought to contribute something towards the expense of them.