enter name and hit return
THE OLD MERCHANTS OF NEW YORK CITY
Second Series
By Walter Barrett, Clerk
1863
MERCHANT DESCRIPTIONS
CHAPTER 18
ARBITRATION BETWEEN GREEK AND AMERICAN MERCHANTS ON SALE'S TRANSACTION
OF FRIGATES :
It was also agreed that the Greek agents should have thirty days to
sell one of the frigates, in order to redeem the other from the clutches of
the American merchants.
It was also agreed that the arbiters should be paid for their services
as arbitrators, cost, charges, commission, &c.
It was also stipulated that the arbitrators should sell with ten days,
one of the frigates of the Greek govenment, if the Greek agent did not, out
of which was to be paid the balance due Le Roy, Bayard & Co. and G. G. & S.
Howland.
The arbitrators met for the first time on the 27th of June, 1826.
Among the items passed as correct was a charge for the use of the two
ship yards, $50,000! One was that of old Bergh, up near Grand street and
East river. The ground of both could have been bought for that sum! This was
sympathy for the Greeks. Christian Bergh was a venerable looking man in his
later years. He was six feet two inches high, and his hair was as white as
snow. He has been dead some years.
I have not stated all the claims made by Le Roy, Bayard & Co. I have
stated that:
They charged 10 per cent commission on....$80,000
They made on the premium of exchange...... 76,000
They charged a broker on sterling bills......... 36,000
______
($192,000)
In addition, they claimed damages on
sterling bills returned from London
amounting to L55,000, although the bills
were paid. Their damages were allowed,
viz...............................................................60,000
______
($252,500)
Here is more than the estimate of the cost of a frigate ($248,000)
drawn by the two houses, and received by them in one shape or another. This
amount was actually taken, for it was awarded by the arbitrators, as a proof
of their approbation of brother merchants in managing the resources sole and
sacred of one million of Greek Christians, struggling at that time not only
against famine, but against Turkish despotism.
The $60,000 commission is what was allowed. The original charge made
was for drafts on London, $1,200,000 at 2 1/2 per cent, $30,000. Commission
on their disbursements of $1,200,000 at 10 per cent., $120,000___$150,000.
That was the rate of commission charged by prominent merchants who
were friends of Greece. It almost suggests a question, viz: What would the
enemies of Greece have charged?
Facts were brought before the arbitrators to show that the frigate
Brandywine, the largest and finest frigate in the service of the United
States, only cost $272,000. This was proved by a certificate, signed by the
Secretary of the Navy. The Brandywine also was built of seasoned live oak,
while the Greek frigates were built of unseasoned white oak.
It is not true that Mr. Henry Eckford had anything to do with building
these frigates. He had built several for South American governments.
There was only one way to get out of the hands of the merchants. The
Liberator had cost $450,000.
The Greek agents sold her to the United States for half price, viz:
$226,000 less than she cost Greece!
The best joke is that Le Roy, Bayard & Co., and G. G. & S. Howland
claimed $22,500 commission for the sale! It was not allowed.
The arbitration lasted thirty days. As I have stated, the arbitrators
were Henry C. De Rham, Abraham Ogden and Judge Jonas Platt. The latter
acted as chairman. They gave their award the 27th day of July 1826. They
decided that $75,933,81 was yet due, and should be paid to William Bayard,
Robert Bayard, and William Bayard, Jr. They decided that a balance of
$89,921,52 was due to Gardner G. Howland and Samuel S. Howland.
They awarded to themselves, for one month's services, $4,500, or
$1,500 each. They ordered the one ship left to be delivered to the Greek
agent, after he had paid the above amounts from the proceeds of the sale of
the other one.
At this distance of time we can look back upon these transactions,
nearly forty years ago, without prejudice. It strikes us as incredibly
monstrous and horrible. No wonder the friends of Greece in New York swore
and raved.
Commodore Chauncey got out of this Greek plunder about $14,000, and
yet he was a captain in the United States Navy all that time.
The most cruel part of the whole proceeding was to make the Greeks pay
the whole of the $4,500, arbitrators' fees. How a lot of merchants of high
character could unite to swindle those people___pluck every hair from their
heads, skin them alive, when all Europe and America was alive in reference
to that nation___when subscriptions of every kind, and under a thousand
modes, were being collected in every nation of Europe in order to promote a
sacred cause, and assist the unequal and exterminating contest between a
handful of Christians and the whole Turkish Empire___at a time when the
charity before given to the orphan, the blind, and the invalid, was taken
from their mouths for the purpose of sending some little bread to the
inhabitants of Greece___once the pride of the world, but then oppressed and
persecuted___and that two prominent commercial houses of New York should
perpetrate an enormous swindle upon this sacred capital, and that other
men, Christians and citizens of New York, should award it as all right!
The facts are plain. The frigate Liberator cost $449,606,41, without
arbitrators' fees, and was shortly after approved by these gentlemen of the
highest rank, at $233,570,97, and paid for accordingly by the United States,
less $7,500 expense and commission.
This made the remaining frigate Hope actually amount to L155,000
sterling, or $775,000; and this, too, would have been lost to Greece but for
the Greek agent. On the 30th of August he placed her in the hands of Capt.
F. H. Gregory (still alive, and a gallant captain in the U.S. Navy.) The
great lawyer, Henry D. Sedgwick, was the law counsel of the Greek deputies.
When the arbitration was made, Mr. Sedgwick sent a note, stating that
he considered it both unjust and illegal.
To this letter, the following cool reply was sent:
New York, August 3, 1826.
"Sir____We have received your letter of the 1st instant. Upon reflection, we
feel it to be our duty to proceed to sell the frigates Liberator and Hope
with their appurtenances, and with the extra property assigned to us,
according to the terms of the submission and assignments.
JONAS PLATT,
H.C. DE RHAM,
ABRAHAM OGDEN."
That same day, Mr. Sedgwick got an injuntion from the court,
forbidding the arbitrators to dispose of the ships.. But for this, both
ships would have been sold and sacrificed, and the swindle been complete.
But the most horrible part of the transaction was this. When the Greek
deputies commissioned the building of the two frigates, they wrote to Le
Roy, Bayard & Co., and Howlands, not to undertake the building of them in
case the laws of the United States should be opposed to their construction
and departure. Messrs. Bayards & Howlands answered that there was no law to
prevent it, and , without any further trouble, commenced building the two
frigates.
After they were built it was ascertained that the transaction was
illegal, and that the frigates were subject to seizure and confiscation at
any moment. The arbitrators, after paying Le Roy, Bayard & Co. and G.G. & S.
S. Howland their enormous claims, threw upon the agent the whole
responsibility of evading the law, and also of getting out of New York this
last resource to his country. It was necessary to give a bond for $600,000
to the government before the frigate, costing $775,000, could leave. She
never would have left but for those glorious lawyers, Henry D. and Robert
Sedgwick. They went to work soliciting persons to sign this bond. John Duer
and Beverly Robinson aided them. Some capitalists became responsible, and
the frigate was allowed to depart for Greece.
Le Roy, Bayard & Co. refused to execute a bond, and had the collector
insisted upon such a bond from them the frigate would have rotted at a New
York dock.
They had been the particular friends of Greece. They had professed a
zeal in their letters unequalled in any cause. They took out a register in
their own individual names for the frigate Hope. Here is a copy of the
affidavit as it now stands on the files of the custom house in this city:
"Port of New York, ss.
I, Robert Bayard, of the City, County, and State of New York,
merchant, do solemnly swear, according to the best of my knowledge and
belief, that the ship or vessel called the Hope, of New York, of the burden
of 1,778 51/96 tons, built at the city aforesaid in the year 1825, as per
certificate of C. Bergh & Co., the master carpenter under whose direction
she was built, that my present place of abode is New York aforesaid, and
that myself together with William Bayard, William Bayard, Jr., of said city
of New York, merchants, citizens of the United States are the true and only
owners of the said ship or vessel, that there is no subject nor citizen of
any foreign power or State, directly or indirectly, by way of trust,
confidence, or otherwise interested therein, or in the profits or issues
thereof, and that___is the present master or commancer of the said ship.
Signed, ROBERT BAYARD.
"Sworn this 12th day of April, 1826."
That was an awful oath to take. In these days, if a merchant was to
take such an oath under the circumstances, it would be called perjury.
However, Robert Bayard took that oath, and the register stood in the name of
himself and partners. Being thus owners, and they not having transfered her,
it became necessary to sign a bond (merely nominal) which simply binds the
obligators, that "the owner and owners of the ship" should not employ her in
contravention of an act of Congress of 1818. In violation of this act, Le
Roy, Bayard & Co. had obtained and placed in jeopardy the enormous funds
belonging to the Greeks. They refused to execute this bond, and consequently
the frigate Hope was forced to traverse the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean
Sea, without a register or any document to manifest her national character.
The arbitrators received the cash from James K. Paulding (who was then
the Navy Agent) for the ship Liberator $233,570,97. They paid it out to
satisfy the awards and the sales.
David D. Field is a witness to one of these documents. He was then a
young man, studying law in the office of the Sedgwicks.
The arbitrators issued an address, in which they say: "We rejoice that
the gallant ship 'Hellas' has at last sailed, according to her original
destination, and we cherish the fond hope that she will be a minister of
vengeance to the oppressors of the heroic Greeks."
Considering the fact that they had done all in their power to have the
Greeks swindled out of both ships, the above sentence is particularly cool.
THE PEARSALLS
The father of Duncan P. Campbell was an officer in the British Army
that was sent out in the Revolution. He belonged to a Highland regiment, and
was billeted in the house of an old Quaker, Thomas Pearsall, at No. 203
Queen street (above Franklin Square, in Pearl street.) There he became
acquainted with the beautiful and demure Quakeress, Miss Pearsall. Old
Thomas would have as soon consented to the marriage of his daughter with a
Calmuck Tartar as with a Highlander, or a British officer. The result was a
runaway match. Of course the parties were forgiven, but neither husband or
wife lived long after she gave birth to a son, who was Duncan Pearsall
Campbell. Old Thomas adopted the son and brought him up as his own.
Old Thomas Pearsall's son, Thomas, married Fanny Buchanan, of whom I
have spoken. Young Tom was the companion of Duncan P., and they were like
brothers. He went to Europe and traveled some years, and among other
exploits got a party of six high on champagne in the dome of St. Peter's. He
was a fine young fellow____died many years ago.
Mrs. Pearsall is still living in Waverley place. One of his daughters
married Samuel Bradhurst, the eldest son of John M. Bradhurst. What a
biography can be made of old John M. Bradhurst. I will do it some day. In
the latter years of his life he lived out beyond Manhattanville. He had
three sons, Samuel, William, and Henry. Samuel died. I never knew what
became of William, or whether he is dead or alive. I have not seen him for
eighteen years.
MR. DUNCAN P. CAMPBELL (continue)
I now return to Duncan P. Campbell. After reading my first chapter, I
find that I have given an account of the Greek frigate in a way that would
lead the reader to suppose he had something to do with it. I did not so
intend it. I do not believe a purer man ever lived in this city than Mr.
Campbell. His connection with Mr. William Bayard, Senior, led me to speak of
that house. Mr. Campbell was not a partner. Old Mr. Bayard's name was used,
but I do not think he had much to do with the management of the affairs of
LeRoy, Bayard & Co. On the contrary, when the final award was agreed to, the
name of old William Bayard, Sept. 9, 1826, was signed "by his attorney,
Robert Bayard." It must have worried his mind very much. He died a few weeks
after the award was made.
THE BAYARDS
I have alluded to the Bayards in former chapters. There was an old
family of that name, that came out to the city before 1647. They were
Huguenots. Old Governor Stuyvesant married Miss Judith Bayard. She was the
daughter of Balthazar Bayard, a French protestant, who had taken refuge in
Holland. She died in 1687. At that time there resided in this city Colonel
Nicholas Bayard, a leading politician. I believe he was brother to Balthazar
and Peter Bayard. The two latter were married and resided on Broadway. Both
were Aldermen of the city for many years. Nicholas married Judith Verletti.
They lived on the High street. He was Mayor of the city in 1685.
This Nicholas was a grand old fellow. He had but one eye: he was the
ancestor of the present Bayard race in this town. How he got in with Queen
Anne, I don't know but that he was a favorite with her is a fact. In 1709,
the Queen, at his recommendation, took steps to settle the interior of New
York. She issued a proclamation in Germany offering land free and an
exemption from all taxes, to those who would come out. Under her auspices
many Germans emigrated to New York and settled upon Schoharie creek. Later,
others settled along the Mohawk, and as far up as German flats. The first
party of Germans left England in January, 1710, and reached New York in
June. They became rich, up in Schoharie. In 1713, the Queen thought her
settlers might be settled in comfort, and she sent out her agent, Nicholas
Bayard, with power to give to any settler a deed for his land in use and
possession.
The stupid Germans, mistaking her motives, surrounded the house where
Mr. Bayard was stopping in Schoharie, and accused him of a design to enslave
them. The men had guns and pitchforks, and the women hoes and clubs, and
determined to have Mr. Bayard anyhow. They fired sixty balls into the house.
Mr. Bayard had his pistols, and wanted to fight; but his friends would not
permit it, and got him safe off in the night to Albany. He sent word from
thence, that if any of them would come to him, acknowledge him as the crown
agent, bring the gift of one ear of corn, they should have a free deed of
all they possessed. Not one would do it. Mr. Bayard got angry, and sold the
whole of the land to seven persons, who afterwards went by the name of the
"Seven partners of Schoharie." Among them were Lewis Morris Myndert
Schuyler, Rut Van Dam, and Peter Vanbrugh Livingston.
The son of Nicholas Bayard afterwards married into the Livingston
family. They published queer notices in those days. Here is one from The New
York Mercury, published by Hugh Gaines, under marriages:
"On Tuesday night last (April 26, 1762,) Mr. Nicholas Bayard
Jr., to Miss Livingston, daughter of Peter Vanbrugh Livingston, of this
place, merchant; a very agreeable young lady, endowed with all the good
qualities necessary for rendering the connubial state perfectly agreeable."
I do not know that William Bayard was the son of this marriage. That
Nicholas Bayard was assistant alderman when he got married. He was alderman
as late as 1778. Two years afterwards, William Bayard was assistant alderman
of the Second Ward. Old Nicholas lived in Bayard's lane.
Queen Anne's old Nick must have lived to a good old age, for in May,
1762, he has an advertisement:
"TO MONEY DIGGERS._______Nicholas Bayard offers a reward of L4 to be
informed who it is that comes by night to his farm, near the city, and digs
great holes in the land, to the damage of his people and cattle. If they be
money diggers, he will allow them the indulgence of a search, if they come
to him personally, and dig by daylight, and fill up again. I will also give
them two spades and one pick-axe, left behind in their supposed fright."
Bayard's mount was a small cone-shaped mount, on which was erected a
small fort, or what is now corner of Mott and Grand Streets. It looked down
upon the distant city, having the Kolch between. (That is the great lake of
fresh water from Reed to Grand.) The house and farm of Nicholas Bayard were
on the north side of the Kolch, and not far from the said mount. To the west
were swamps and woods, and to the north-east orchards and woods.
In 1785, property near New York went down greatly: few or none had
money to buy it with. In 1786, William Bayard wished to raise cash by
selling his farm of 150 acres on the western side of Broadway. He devised
the scheme of offering them in lots of 25 by 100; only $24 was bid, and but
few of them were sold. It was well for him, for very soon after feelings and
opinions changed; and those who had bought for $25 sold out for $100. Since
then the progressive rise has had no end. Some of those lots have brought
within five years $20,000 each.
When that farm was in existence Dutch was partly spoken in our
city____to 1795. Paus and Pinkster were of universal observance. All made it
an idle day; boys and negroes might be seen all day standing in the market
laughing and joking and cracking eggs. In the afternoon the grown up
apprentices and servant girls used to dance on the green in Bayard's farm.
Rip Van Dam, a son of one of the seven purchasers of land of Mr. Nic.
Bayard, kept an iron store in Duke Street.
Source: The Old Merchants of New York City
Author: Walter Barrett, Clerk Second series
Publisher: Carleton, Publisher, 413 Broadway
Entered according to the Act of Congress 1863
_____________________________________
Researched, Prepared and Contributed by Miriam Medina
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