Fort Orange (New Netherland) - History

History

In 1623 a ship with 30 Walloon (French Protestants from what is today Belgium) landed at New Netherlands, near present-day Albany. There they proceeded to build Fort Orange roughly 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Fort Nassau (North River), which was prone to flooding. Despite these additions, a 1628 publication on the population of New Netherland stated that "there are no families at Fort Orange... they keep five or six and twenty (25 or 26) persons, traders, there". In 1626 the commander of Fort Orange and a company of men set out from the fort to assist the Mahicans in their war against the Mohawks. They were ambushed and three of the men were killed approximately a mile from the fort, roughly where Lincoln Park and Delaware Avenue are sited today.

Whereas later settlement would be through the purchase of land from the Native Americans, the Dutch built Fort Orange without any consent and continued to hold it only through the goodwill of the Mahicans and the occasional presents that they gave to them. When the Charter of Privileges and Exemptions was established in 1629 setting up the patroon system, Kiliaen van Rensselaer established his patroonship of Rensselaerswyck, surrounding Fort Orange on 24 miles (39 km) of shoreline along the Hudson River and 24 miles (39 km) inland on each side. This land patent was interpreted by van Rensselaer as including Fort Orange and the settlement that had begun outside its walls, and it was van Rensselaer who began purchasing and acquiring title to the lands. In 1630 Gillis Hoosett purchased in van Rensselaer's name the lands to the south and north of the fort from the natives. Later in 1630 the first real settlers and farmers came to Fort Orange and settled on the outskirts of the fort. Dispute soon arose between agents of the Dutch West India Company and agents of the patroon over control of Fort Orange and the surrounding settlement, first called the Fuyck and later Beverwyck. In the 1640s a French Jesuit priest named Isaac Jogues described Fort Orange as "a wretched little fort... built of stakes, with four or five pieces of cannon of Breteuil".

The director-general of New Netherland representing the West India Company was Pieter Stuyvesant, who saw the patroon's position, power, and land as a direct threat to the West India Company's ability to profit from the beaver pelt trade in Fort Orange. Several confrontations arose over the status of the fort and the right of settlers around it. Stuyvesant at first ordered all buildings within cannon shot to be destroyed, then lowered that circumference to that of musket shot. In response, the patroon's agent Commander van Schlechtenhorst decided to expand settlement to "within pistol shot of Fort Orange". After the yearly freshets had damaged much of the fort, the West India Company decided to reconstruct the fort using stone. In response, Van Schlechtenhorst declared it illegal for anyone to quarry stone within Rensselaerswyck for the fort or for anyone to sell the material to the fort's commander, Carl van Brugge. All material for the fort then had to be shipped in from outside the colony. Van Schlechtenhorst claimed that Fort Orange had been illegally built on the patroon's lands, while Stuyvesant pointed out that Fort Orange had been built 15 years prior to the establishment of Rensselaerswyck. In 1651 Stuyvesant declared the jurisdiction of the fort to extend 600 paces around the fort, thereby severing it from Rensselaerswyck. In 1652 Stuyvesant, with the intention of settling this dispute once and for all, set up a "Court of Justice for the Village of Beverwyck and its dependencies", the first municipal government for the future city of Albany. At the time when Beverwyck consisted of roughly 100 structures huddled next to the fort, Stuyvesant set up Beverwyck at a safer distance from the cannons of the fort and laid out future Albany's oldest streets- State Street and Broadway.

By the end of the 1650s the fort was in disrepair again, and both Fort Orange and Beverwyck were enclosed by a wooden stockade in 1660. In 1663 smallpox raged in Fort Orange, killing one person a day, which was a large percentage given the small population in the fort. On September 8, 1664 the English, after sending numerous war ships to New Amsterdam, demanded the surrender of New Netherland and came to terms; on that date New Netherland became the Province of New York with Colonel Richard Nicolls as the first English colonial governor, and New Amsterdam was renamed New York. Johannes De Decker sailed on that day from New Amsterdam to Fort Orange to rally the troops and settlers to resist English rule. On September 10 Governor Nicholls sent troops to demand the peaceful surrender of the "Fort Aurania", aurania being the Latin name for orange that the English used when referring to Fort Orange. It was not until September 24 that vice-director of New Netherland Johannes de Montagne surrendered the fort to the English and Colonel George Cartwright took command. On the 25th Captain John Manning was given control of the fort, which was renamed Fort Albany; Beverwyck was named Albany. In 1673 the Dutch retook New York City, which they named New Orange, on July 29 and Albany on August 3. In September Albany was renamed Willemstadt and Fort Albany became Fort Nassau. The Treaty of Westminster, signed on February 19, 1674, renamed New Orange and Willemstadt back to their English names; Fort Nassau became Fort Albany and Willemstadt became Albany.

In 1666 Jeremias van Rensselaer, then-patroon of Rensselaerswyck, petitioned the new government of Governor Nicholls to recognize Fort Albany (Fort Orange) as part of Rensselaerswyck. Governor Nicholls informed him that he would be wise to drop the matter until he heard from the Duke of York. In 1678 Governor Andros issued to the patroon's heirs a grant reaffirming the patroon's rights over Rensselaerswyck but leaving out Fort Albany and the immediate area around the fort.

The English abandoned Fort Orange and built a new fort on top of State Street Hill named Fort Frederick both to defend the settlement from the natives to the west and to be on high ground to remind the Dutch inhabitants of English rule. The land around the old fort was sold to the Dutch Reformed Church for use as pastureland, but the fort itself continued to deteriorate. It continued to be placed on maps during the 18th century, labeled as "ruins of an Old Fort", and Richard Smith observed that there was "nothing to be seen of Fort Orange... but the Ditch which surrounded it". After the US Revolutionary War the deteriorated site of the old fort was seen as a historic site and was home to many historical observances.