Chapter II. Brewing in New York
While the exact date of the beginning of brewing as a distinct
calling cannot be ascertained, there is an abundance of
historical evidence that among the very earliest acts of the
Colonial governments, those tending to encourage the
establishment of public breweries were deemed of the greatest
importance. It is no less certain that whenever such
encouragement did not sufficiently stimulate private enterprise
to bring about the desired end, or when other reasons (hereafter
to be explained) made it desirable, the rulers of some of the
Colonial settlements seized upon this source of income
themselves or granted monopolies to those private persons who
intended to establish breweries. Thus Van Twiller, Governor of
New Netherland from 1633 to 1638, erected a brewery on the West
India Company's farm, which extended north from what is now Wall
Street to Hudson Street, and the Patroon of Rensselaerwyck (the
present counties of Albany, Columbia, and Rensselaer)
established a brewery at Beverwyck (the present Albany),
reserving to himself the exclusive privilege of supplying all
licensed retailers.
As this Director Van Twiller, mentioned above, is reputed to
have been a hard drinker, ever intent on finding or creating a
suitable occasion for indulging in his weakness, it is not
hazardous to surmise that in erecting a brewery, he consulted
his own tastes quite as much as the needs of his little
community. His example is said to have influenced the drinking
habits of the colonists to such an extent that drunkenness
became a very common occurrence in the community. Captain De
Vries narrates a number of incidents illustrating the weakness
of Van Twiller, and among them is one which appears to deserve a
place in this little sketch. Cornelius Van Voorst, the stem from
which grew a numerous family famous in Manhattan and Jersey
annals, was the superintendent of the colony of Pavonia,
established by Pauwn. He was a man of hospitable inclinations,
and had just imported a hogshead of Bordeaux wine. The rumor of
its excellent quality reached the ears of Director-General Van
Twiller, who, in company with Dominie Bogardus and Captain De
Vries, paid the superintendent a visit by means of a rowboat.
Van Voorst received the representatives of Church, State, and
Navy with a princely welcome. The cask was broached and the
contents approved. After some hard drinking, a furious dispute
about a recent murder arose between the host, the Governor and
the Dominie. De Vries, the man of war, in this instance proved
to be a man of peace, for by the exercise of his mediation and
more claret, a truce was finally effected and "they parted good
friends." This is not the dull ending, but merely the prelude to
something more brilliant. Just as his guests were entering their
boat to depart, Van Voorst, to show his good will, caused a
swivel, which was fixed on a pillar near the house, to be fired.
It was a fine salute, but a piece of wadding fell on the Van
Voorst mansion, set fire to the roof. It was impossible to check
the flames and the house burned to the ground, presumably
destroying the hogshead of wine.
The business of the tapster necessarily preceded that of the
brewer; for before the colonists could raise a crop of the
cereals necessary for brewing---which they did, by the way,
according to Isaac Jogues' description of Novum Belgium, in the
very first year after their settlement---they had to depend upon
the supply of liquors shipped to them from the mother country;
and from all accounts, we learn that the quantities thus
imported were very large and, to modern minds, entirely out of
proportion to the very scant population of the colony. In the
earliest times, the condition and surroundings of the colonists
was such that all available means of subsistence had to be
treated very much like common property. Thus the West India
Company undertook, at first, to furnish the settlers with what
they absolutely needed for their sustenance, the understanding
being that the value of goods so furnished must be returned by
the borrower as soon as the product of his labor enabled him to
do so. This accounts for the fact that the first taproom on
Manhattan Island was located in the first warehouse erected by
Minuet, then Governor of New Netherland (1626-1633).
Governor Kieft's Curfew
The number of tapsters, under Van Twiller's administration,
increased rapidly; but there is no evidence that brewing kept
pace with this growth---probably because the importation of
wines and liquors from the mother country still sufficed to
satisfy the demand. When, however, in the fist year of his
administration (1638), Governor Kieft forbade the retailing of
wines and spirits by tapsters (virtually restricting the liquor
traffic to the selling of beer) the brewing trade expanded to
such an extent that a few years later an excise upon its product
yielded a considerable revenue. From this time onward, brewing
and retailing formed the subjects of frequent legislation both
in New Netherlands and in the New England colonies. The law
makers not only regulated and taxed the manufacture and sale,
but they also prescribed minutely the quality and price of beer,
the time when, and circumstances under which, it could be sold;
the duties of the tapster and the obligations of the drinker.
Kieft forbade the tapping of beer during divine service and
after a certain hour at night; and, in order to remind the
burghers and tapsters of the latter inhibition, he cause the
town bell to be rung---an imitation of the old European custom
of announcing the hour for retiring. His object in introducing
the curfew (the Norman couvre feau) [1- The old German night
watchman's hourly song began with the announcement of the hour
of the night and the admonition to guard fire and light.] was
probably not confined to these things; it is quite likely that
he intended thus to force upon the honest Dutch burghers the
conviction that a man of strong will had come to assume the
powers and functions which the licentious Van Twiller had
permitted to be disregarded. Doubtless Kieft honestly endeavored
to correct the evils which had grown up under his predecessor's
rule; but his motives were probably not always of a purely moral
character. In forbidding the retailing of wine and confining its
sale to the Company's warehouse---"where," as he stated in his
proclamation, "it could be obtained in moderate quantities and
at a fair price."---he intended no doubt to create for himself a
monopoly on this traffic; and in establishing a distillery on
Staten Island, the first in New Netherland, he very likely
sought to enlarge the scope of his monopoly. Fortunately,
brewing had by this time grown too strong as an independent
enterprise to be absorbed by the Company in this singularly
arbitrary manner. It had become a favorite occupation, as a
local historian justly says; and many of the best and most
respected citizens engaged in it.
Brewers Revolt Against a Tax
Naturally enough, the rapid growth of brewing suggested to
Governor Kieft the expediency of levying a tax upon beer, and he
imposed this all the more readily because, in consequence of the
Indian War which he had provoked by a "shocking massacre of
savages," the treasury was totally depleted. In 1644, he levied
a tax of three guilders upon every tun of beer manufactured by a
brewer, and of one florin upon every tun brewed by private
citizens for their own use. Aware that the imposition of this or
any other tax without the consent of the "Eight Men"---a sort of
assembly representing the people---would meet with little favor,
he endeavored to propitiate the brewers by permitting them to
sell beer to tapsters at twenty florins per tun, an increase
over the old price almost covering the amount of the tax. The
brewers, nevertheless, stoutly refused to pay the excise, and
based their refusal upon the ground that the tax was imposed
against the will of the representatives of the people and,
therefore, contrary to what they conceived to be an inalienable
right every burgher. While their opposition to a government
without the consent of the governed may not have been very
clearly defined, the stout burghers of the colony fully
understood that taxation without the consent of the taxed was an
absolute wrong.
The best historians accord in the opinion that the attitude of
the brewers, at that stage of the political development of the
Colonies, deserves the utmost praise and reflects all the more
credit upon them, because the inducements held out to them by
Kieft in the form of a permission to increase the price of their
product, might have prompted them to yield, if they had valued
their profits more than the political rights of their fellow
citizens. The historian O'Callaghan, in his History of New
Netherland, expresses this view in these words: "Kieft had no
idea of being thwarted by such constitutional scruples. Judgment
was given against the brewers, and thus another victory was
achieved in New Netherland over popular rights."
In all likelihood, the brewers expected that the protest which
the Eight Men had openly raised against the excise would enable
them to maintain their refusal to pay; but while this
expectation may have had the effect of inspiring them with a
degree of temerity which would otherwise not have been aroused
so readily, it detracts no a particle from the praiseworthiness
of their action. At all events, if they calculated upon any
leniency on Kieft's part, they reckoned without their host; for
that arbitrary ruler not only disregarded the remonstrances of
the Eight Men and insisted upon payment of the tax, but he even
confiscated the whole stock of beer in the cellars of the
recalcitrant brewers and gave it to the soldiers---partly as a
prize and partly, no doubt, as an incentive to effective
execution, on their part, in the event of a popular
demonstration. The brewers lost their beer and their case, but
they were lauded and they made a memorable bit of history as the
champions of popular rights.
Men of Worth and Substance
We may be permitted to digress a little (though such digression
must necessarily carry us beyond the period of Kieft's
administration) in order to mention a few of the many Colonial
brewers whose names are familiar to every New Yorker, even to
this day. William Beekman, brewer, was successively schepen,
burgomaster of New Amsterdam for nine years, vice director of
the Colony on the Delaware, sheriff at Esopus, alderman, and
again sheriff under English dominion---holding office, with some
interruption for forty years. He continued the brewery of George
Holmes, built in 1654, and died in 1707 at the age of 84.
Beekman Street is named after him, and also (it is claimed)
William Street. Peter W. Couwenhoven, brewer, was schepen in
1653 and 1654, and again in 1658-59 and 1661-63. Nicholas and
Balthazar Bayard, brewers, held office between 1683 and 1687;
the former as alderman and mayor, and the latter as alderman.
Petrus Rutger, brewer, was assistant alderman from 1730 to 1732.
The Rutgers were a family of brewers. Jean Rutgers, their
forefather, had a brewery in 1653, built probably earlier.
Alice, daughter of Anthony Rutgers, married Leonard Lispenard,
and one of the latter's sons (Anthony) owned extensive
breweries. The name of Lispenard, says a local historian, is
merged in the families of Stewart, Webb, Livingstone, Winthrop,
etc. John DeForrest, brewer, was schepen in 1658. Jacob Kip,
brewer, was schepen from 1659 to 1665, and again in 1673. His
ancestors, the DeKypes, belonged to the oldest nobility of the
Bretagne.
Oloff S. Van Cortlandt, brewer, was burgomaster from 1653 to
1663 (thirteen years of continuous service), and alderman in
1666, 1667, and 1671. If certain genealogical charts (usually
considered reliable) may be trusted, Van Cortlandt was a
descendant of the Dukes of Courland, Russia. He had a brewery in
Stone Street, which in Dutch days was appropriately named
Brouwer, i.e., Brewer, Street. His daughter, Maria, married
Jeremiah Van Rensselaer---lord of the colony of Rensselaerwyck
who also was founder of a brewery, namely, the one at Beverwyck,
before adverted to. Aert Teunison, a most influential man in his
days, established the first brewery at Hoboken, and made beer
for his neighbors until 1648, when he was killed by the Indians.
Michael Janson, the progenitor of the large Vreeland family, was
the first brewer at Pavonia, in 1654. Jacob Van Vleck, brewer,
was alderman in 1684, 1685, and 1686. Martin Cregier, captain of
the military company---a man of considerable importance, who
commanded several exploring parties and subsequently became
burgomaster---was the proprietor of a tavern opposite Bowling
Green in 1653, and doubtless also practiced brewing.
We may now close this very incomplete list of prominent Colonial
brewers with the mention of one whose name is, and always has
been, of uncommon interest to historians, seeing that he was the
first white male born in New Netherland. Jean Vigne held the
office of schepen during three terms. He followed the threefold
occupation of brewer, miller, and farmer, and owned a tract of
land, the site of his brewery, near Watergate (present Wall
Street).
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