The Impact of the Glorious Revolution on Schenectady

A lot of the focus on the Schenectady Massacre tends to focus on the direct events that occurred in Schenectady during the night of February 8, 1690 but the events that led up to the massacre and that occurred afterward are also interesting and worth mentioning. During the late 1680s and early 1690s, the Colony of New York was at the height of political division. These divisions, along with fears of attacks by the French and Indians, and the spread of Catholicism set the stage for a short lived political uprising that left a strong mark on the small town of Schenectady.

British Parliament offering the crown
to William and Mary in February 1689.
Courtesy of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The Glorious Revolution of 1688 in England is considered a turning point in English history, it also caused a chain of events that resulted in a disruption of British power in America. The Revolution eventually caused King James II of England to be overthrown by English Parliamentarians and Dutch Stadtholder William of Orange. King James' policies of religious tolerance collapsed and the rights of British Catholics were severely limited. Another effect of the Glorious Revolution was the Bill of Rights which was an act of Parliament that enacted certain civil rights and put limits on the power of monarchs.

Governor Edmund Andros.
His glorious locks matched
the Glorious Revolution.
Courtesy of Wikipedia.

The ripples of the Glorious Revolution reached America rather quickly, most notably in the April, 18, 1689 Boston Revolt which was an uprising against the rule of Governor of the Dominion of New England (and former Colonial Governor of New York) Sir Edmund Andros. Andros was extremely unpopular in New England due to his lack of respect for local representation, his promotion of the Church of England in Puritan areas, and the Navigation Acts which limited trade for New Englanders. The resentment of New Englanders culminated in a revolt in Boston where Andros was deposed and imprisoned. While Andros was in captivity, he sent a call for help to his Lieutenant Governor, Francis Nicholson who was based in New York. Unfortunately for poor Andros, Nicholson had some problems of his own...

Lieutenant Governor
Francis Nicholson.Courtesy
of Wikipedia

Nicholson knew about the Boston Revolt, but tried to keep it quiet in New York for fear of something similar happening to him. But news traveled fast, even in 1689, and officials in Long Island soon found out about the Boston Revolt. Nicholson, like Andros, wasn't the most popular in New York and was seen as just another English Governor who had no respect for local authorities. Nicholson's reputation may have been well deserved as he stated that New Yorkers were "a conquered people, and therefore ... could not could not so much [as] claim rights and privileges as Englishmen." This combined with his notorious temper afforded him few friends in the colony.

Statue of Jacob Leisler in
New Rochelle, New York.
Courtesy of Wikipedia.

A direct link to the Schenectady Massacre came when Nicholson discovered that France declared war on the English. Nicholson believed that this would mean more trouble in New York from the French and Indians in Canada. He scrambled to bring troops back to New York and invited the militia to join his regular soldiers at Fort James on Manhattan. Unfortunately for Nicholson he ran into influential merchant Jacob Leisler who was wholeheartedly against the lieutenant governor.

Leisler believed that Nicholson was attempting to impose Catholic rule on New York and was also against having to pay increased duties to improve New York's defenses. The militia demanded the keys to the powder magazine at Fort James, which Nicholson handed over to avoid any bloodshed. The militia gained more control and chose Leisler as their leader. Nicholson left New York on June 6th, and Leisler took control of New York.

Leisler's government was controversial in Albany with many of the local leaders refusing the legitimacy of  Leisler's rule and Albany became the center of the anti-Leisler forces in New York. Notice of a French and Indian attack spread to Albany by September 1689 which caused leaders in Albany to petition Leisler for help. Leisler sent his adviser and son-in-law Jacob Milborne to take military control over Albany but the Albany Convention refused the terms and Milborne went back to New York City.

Lands of the original patentees of the Schenectady Patent from Jonathan Pearson's. Courtesy of schenectadyhistory.org

Although Albany pretty much ignored Milborne, his visit had sown the seed of discontent in the minds of several prominent Schenectadians including Ryer Schermerhorn who was a landowner and one of the original Dutch settlers of the town. Milborne promised that Schenectadians would be shown favor over those in Albany in Leisler's Government. Schenectady's official position was against Leisler, but many saw Leisler as a way to get our from under the strong hand of Albany. The conflict between the two groups was noticeable in the months before the Schenectady Massacre. According to Thomas Burke's article Leisler's Rebellion at Schenectady, New York, 1689–1710,

"The Leislerians apparently refused to serve watch under the command of officers from the other group...the watch threatened to throw Captain Sander Glen on the fire if he came on guard."

Court case of Ryer Schermerhorn (a descendent of the original Ryer) vs. Arent Andriese Bradt & other defendants. This case is 1 of 126 in our legal matters collection that mention a Ryer Schermerhorn. Courtesy of the Historic Manuscript Collection at the Grems-Doolittle Library & Archives.

On February 8th, 1690, this quarrel proved to be the downfall of Schenectady as a band of French

and Indians attacked and destroyed the unguarded town. As you might expect in current times, neither Leisler, nor the authorities at Albany took responsibility for the attack. Albany city clerk Robert Livingston wrote an account that blamed the Leislerians while Jacob Leisler blamed the Albany's government. The attack at Schenectady struck fear in New Yorkers and Leisler was able to use this fear to gain more power in New York City which he kept until 1691 when he was executed. Although Leisler's control of New York was short lived, his legacy was felt deeply in Schenectady. 

A Peitition for the Division of Common Lands
to Governor William Tryon from 1774.

One of Leisler's biggest supporters in Schenectady was an original patentee of the Schenectady Patent, Ryer Schermerhorn and those who supported Leisler generally supported Schermerhorn. Many of the original landowners in Schenectady died during the Schenectady Massacre leaving Ryer Schermerhorn as the sole manager of the patent's common lands which included roughly 80,000 acres of land that he could collect rent on. Understandably, many in Schenectady were unhappy with one man having control of that much land and they petitioned for a new patent in 1703. This petition was granted, but Schermerhorn ignored it and continued to refer to the original 1684 patent which gave Schermerhorn and his heirs control of the land forever. Ryer Schermerhorn's heirs, as well as the heirs of other original settlers, took the original patent as gospel and fought for control of the common lands of Schenectady until 1798 when Schenectady was incorporated as a city. 

The Grems-Doolittle Library and Archives hold many papers mentioning Ryer Schermerhorn, including some very early ones in Dutch. 

The Brothers Glen

Thanks to volunteer Diane Leone for research assistance.

The Glen surname is attached to a couple different places around New York. Glenville in Schenectady County is named after Alexander Lindsay Glen and Scotia was named by Alexander after his home country Scotland. The Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia was originally built by Alexander, and expanded by his son John Glen. Its name comes from the marriage of Alexander’s great-granddaughter Debra Glen to John Sanders. Glens Falls is named after John Glen Jr., confusingly not the son of John Glen, but of John's son Jacob. Like many of the Glens before them, John Jr. and his brother Henry were quite prominent throughout Schenectady. The brothers were also held in high esteem with many with many people of national historic significance and were acquainted with the likes of William Johnson, Governor George Clinton of New York, Alexander Hamilton and George Washington.

Furniture from the Glen Sanders Mansion is on display at the Schenectady County Historical Society. Courtesy of the Grems-Doolittle Library photo collection.

The brothers Glen were born in Albany to Jacob Glen and Elizabeth Cuyler, John was born in 1735 and Henry in 1739. Their father Jacob was a merchant and trader who owned a house on Steuben Street in Albany. He was also closely affiliated with Albany city government as he was elected assistant alderman to the second ward in 1734 and 1735 and appointed firemaster in 1741. Their mother Elizabeth Cuyler was also well connected in Albany. Her father was Johannes Cuyler who served as assistant alderman, and eventually alderman for Albany’s second ward in the early 1700s. Johannes was also elected as a representative to the New York General Assembly and a number of other public offices, including mayor of Albany in 1725. After Jacob died in 1746, Elizabeth continued to raise their children at the “Glen House” till her death in 1785.

Both Henry and John started off as merchants in Albany. According to the website “The People of Colonial Albany,” John may have been a business partner with the venerable fur trader Hendrick Bleecker as he was identified with Glen as the occupants of a second ward house in a 1767 tax list. Starting in the 1760s, John started buying land in Schenectady, Fort Edward, and what would become Glens Falls. The acquisition of this land by John Glen is suspect to local legend and he acquired it either through a debt that was owed to him, by a card game, or in exchange for hosting a party for mutual friends. Henry also became interested in real estate and owned houses in Albany and Schenectady.

The brothers were also heavily involved in military affairs and the family’s affiliation with William Johnson during the French and Indian War resulted in John being appointed quartermaster general with Henry as his assistant. John was also the captain of the Second Battalion of Militia of Schenectady which included Jacob Schermerhorn as 1^st Lieutenant, John’s brother Henry as 2^nd Lieutenant, and other prominent Schenectady residents.

Letter to Henry Glen from Jonathan Mix, telling of suspending any further preparations for transporting garrisons & stores to western posts from Gen. Washington. Courtesy of the Grems-Doolittle Library Collection

During the American Revolution, Henry continued to serve in the army as Assistant Deputy Quartermaster for the northern department of the army where his role was to gather and facilitate the distribution of military supplies for northeastern New York. He supplied provisions and transportation for the five forts in the Mohawk Valley and also managed the construction of new barracks in Schenectady, where he was stationed. Often funding these projects and buying supplies with his own money as was the case in the spring of 1781. The frontier towns were desperately in need of supplies, troops were deserting, and it was feared that Schenectady might be attacked. Boats were being built in Schenectady to transport materiel to Fort Stanwix and Henry Glen used his own credit to build 16 bateaux for the military. Henry was extremely devoted to the cause of the Revolution, but disheartened that his fellow countrymen did not feel similarly in a letter to Colonel Hugh Hughes Henry Glen writes that “…no man longs more to make an end of the War than I do by carrying it on with Vigour, I am and always was willing to pledge my Life and little Property for the support of the war but am sorry to find the Virtue and Exertions of the People are lost throughout the whole Country.” In addition to his duties as quartermaster, Henry was the captain of the local militia.



Partial letter from Henry Glen to New York's Board of Treasury from 1788 regarding
his payment as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. This letter is an example of
some of the financial woes that Henry encountered after the Revolution.
Courtesy of the Grems-Doolittle Library Collection

There wasn’t much mentioned about John Glen during or after the Revolutionary War. Some sources mention that he was also a quartermaster during the Revolution, but I haven’t been able to accurately verify this. He was a friend of George Washington and may have even hosted Washington at his house at 58 Washington Avenue in Schenectady’s Stockade on Washington’s first visit to Schenectady in 1775. John Glen was listed on the roster of the 2^nd Albany Militia, and on July 25, 1778 he was also called to appear before the Commissioners of Conspiracies on July 25, 1778 and signed an oath of allegiance four years later in 1782. Unfortunately, significant debt forced John from his home in 1810 and he was supported by friends until his death in 1828 at the age of ninety-three.



John Glen Jr.'s house at 58 Washington in Schenectady. A New York State historic marker was placed in front of this house, but has since deteriorated to the point where only the signpost remains. Courtesy of the Grems-Doolittle photograph collection.

For Henry Glen, the end of the Revolutionary War brought about a continuation of the public service that he started as clerk of Schenectady County in 1767. He served as a state assembly member from 1786-1787, then as a representative in the U.S. Congress from 1793-1801. He also continued his position as deputy quartermaster and was involved with the movement of supplies and troops throughout New York State. Shortly after the war Henry fell into debt which was caused partially by his personal expense during the war. This debt stayed with him for most of his life and he was met with much difficulty in trying to recover payment from the government for the multiple positions he served in during and after the war. Henry’s fortunes were never completely recovered, and as Chris Hunter states in his paper A Slave to the Army: Henry Glen and Public Service in the Early Republic, “he died January 6 1814, ending his adulthood as he had begun it, in the service of the government.”

The Grems-Doolittle Library at the Schenectady County Historical Society holds the Glen Family Letters follow this link for an index to the letters: http://schenectadyhistorical.org/admin/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Historic-Manuscripts-Collection-Glen-Letters.pdf. 


Remembering the Schenectady Massacre

Schenectady Massacre by Samuel Sexton. Sexton focused primarily on portraiture, but this painting depicts the Massacre.  It portrays the atrocities committed against the people of Schenectady (such as the child's head being dashed against a wall), but also takes a number of inaccurate artistic liberties. In Sexton’s rendition, “Indians,” not French soldiers, attacked Schenectady. He also depicts a Schenectady that he was familiar with during his lifetime; brick, step-gabled homes insinuate a well-established community. The painting is part of Schenectady’s history as a fabricated romantic image of the past from the nineteenth century and as an artistic work by one of Schenectady’s most well-known artists. Image from collections of Schenectady County Historical Society.

This weekend marks the anniversary of the Schenectady Massacre. Late at night on February 8, 1690, a group of French and their Native American allies attacked the small Dutch and English settlement at Schenectady. The raiders silently entered the gates while many were sleeping, and at a signal, began to sack and burn the town. The attack came in retaliation for a series of Iroquois raids on Canada, including the Lachine Massacre. The original objective of the raiders was to attack Albany; however, an attack Schenectady offered a more feasible and easy means to "punish the English" and strike fear into the hearts of those in the frontier communities.

Nineteenth-century illustration depicting people fleeing Schenectady as it burns. Image from Schenectady Massacre clipping file. 

A document written by Robert Livingston recounts the horrors of the attack:

"They divided themselves into three troops and after they had everything well spied out and found that the gates were open and that nowhere there was any sentinel on duty and that on account of the heavy snow which had fallen the day before no one had been in the woods by whom they could have been detected, the full wrath of God was poured out over us. Having posted three or four men before every house, they attacked simultaneously at the signal of a gun. They first set fire to the house of Adam Vroman, who when he offered resistance was shot through the hand. After several shots had been fired, his wife, hoping to find an opportunity to get away, opened the back door, whereupon she was immediately shot dead and devoured by the flames.... His eldest daughter...had her mother's child on her arm.... Asked...whether the child was heavy...she said yes, whereupon [one of the invaders]...took the child form her and taking it by the legs dashed its head against the sill of the house, so that the brains scattered over the bystanders....

"The women and children fled mostly into the woods, almost naked and there many froze to death.... Oh, we poor, miserable people, how we were scattered during that dreadful night, the husband being separated from his wife and the children from both, one hiding for 2 or 3 days in the woods and in swampy and marshy land, where God in His mercy nevertheless did not forget them....

"The rest, then, who escaped the bloody sword, were condemned to be prisoners, but here again God's guiding hand clearly appears, for many sorrowful women and children and some old men, seeing this dreadful journey ahead of them, which meant practically death, doubtless offered up their prayers to God, who from the depths of their woe granted them delivery.... Considering that the old men and children and also the women would be a hindrance to them in their flight, they [the French and their allies] discharged them from their place of confinement to the great joy of all...." (Source: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. More excerpts from this document can be read by visiting Digital History).

List of people killed in the Schenectady Massacre, from Documentary History of the State of New York by E.B. O'Callaghan. 

The men who invaded Schenectady burned nearly all the homes and barns in the community, and killed 60 people -- 38 men, 10 women and 12 children. 27 men and boys were taken prisoner to Canada, along with 50 horses. By morning (February 9), the settlement was in ruins. Many who were not killed or taken prisoner fled as refugees to Albany. Symon Schermerhorn famously rode while wounded to Albany to warn that community's denizens of possible attack. Following the Massacre, some fled the community never to return. Others remained at Schenectady to slowly rebuild the town.

This Dutch-language document was penned on behalf of the inhabitants of Schenectady following the Schenectady Massacre. Many of the survivors of the Massacre fled the settlement, but a small group of survivors began to rebuild the town, and in this document they offer a plan of attack, advising a “march to Canada with six hundred or more christians and as many savages as may be obtained” to bring ammunition and provisions “in order to do as much damage to the enemy as possible.” By May 1690, a Colonial Congress met at New York City to organize an attack on Canada, and the survivors at Schenectady had constructed a fort at the intersection of Washington Avenue and State Street for protection. Image from Historic Manuscripts Collection, Grems-Doolittle Library. 

Military Documents in the Grems-Doolittle Library

The library's collection of military documents, part of our historic manuscripts collection, includes military commissions, bounty and pension documentation, enlistment and discharge papers, receipts, orders, correspondence, muster rolls, notes, articles, petitions, and lists. The collection includes documents from 1690 through World War II. A complete list of documents in the collection can be found here. Scroll down to see a few highlights from this collection.

If you're interested in military history related to the Schenectady area, or want to find information about the military service of a local ancestor, we also have in our holdings books, photographs, clipping files, and documents that may be of interest to you -- stop in to the library, give us a call, or send us an email to learn more.

Mil 236 - Dutch-language note stating advice from the people of Schenectady as to what ought to be done against the French. A translation of the Dutch, made in 1980 by Ferdinand Jantzen, reads:

"Schenectady, April 9, 1690

Advice from the inhabitants of the village of Schenectady and its dependent areas concerning the common wealth of this land.

Firstly, that it is advisable to march to Canada with six hundred or more christians and as many savages as may be obtained, together with appropriate war ammunition and provisions, and this as soon as possible in order to do much damage to the enemy as possible.

If there is occasion and feasibility, six guns together with cannon balls and other materials, and hand grenades to be taken along. In order to bring this design into effect it is also very much required to have six well equipped ships for establishing the main locations, also very soon.

That it will also be necessary to erect near the lakes a (rendezvous) small fort (fortified log cabin?) for helping those who arrive (recruits?) That also at this location it is very necessary to have a small barrel with powder and three to four guns.

Advised by those from
Schenectady
quod attestur
Ludovicus Cobes clerk"

Mil 545 - Certification that William Childers, "a colored recruit," mustered into the Union army and was credited to the 5th Ward of the city of Schenectady. Childers served with Company F of the 26th Regiment, U.S. Colored Infantry. He later returned to Schenectady and worked as a hostler until his death in 1890 at the age of 49. He is buried at Vale Cemetery. His name is included on the African American Civil War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Mil 325 - Original order to Ryer Schermerhorn to furnish garrison at Schenectady with firewood for the winter of 1700, signed and sealed by the Earl of Bellomont, Governor of the Province of New York (Richard Coote).