Cadwallader Colden (3 page)

Colden would spend a pleasing first decade of service to the colony under the leadership of Governor Burnet, who was designated governor of New York and New Jersey and would move on to become governor of Massachusetts in 1728. Governor William Burnet arrived in New York in September 1720. He was the son of the Bishop of Salisbury and the godson of William, Prince of Orange, later William III of England. In the determination and execution of policy, Burnet relied mainly on Chief Justice Lewis Morris, Cadwallader Colden, and James Alexander. Colden enjoyed the status of a favorite son. In 1721, Colonel Peter Schuyler and his confidant Adolph Philipse, members of the opposition, were removed from the Board of Council and replaced by Colden and Alexander.
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The Council consisted of twelve members who were appointed by the governor and served in an advisory fashion at his will. Next to the governor its members enjoyed the highest social prestige. The office of the president of the Council was usually reserved for the eldest member, although exceptions occurred during Colden's tenure of over five decades.

During Burnet's tenure as governor of New York, Colden's first decade in the colony concentrated on his activities as surveyor general, on Indian affairs, and on his role in the upper echelon of Burnet's administration. He divorced himself from the practice of medicine, but maintained a lifelong interest in the field. In 1720, he authored “An Account of the Diseases and Climate of New York.”
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Colden's continued interest in medicine is evidenced by several subsequent publications and his continuous correspondence with medical colleagues. Shortly after his move to New York, Colden summarized his concern regarding the practice of colonial medicine to Governor Hunter: “I doubt if these Incumbrances which hinder the Improvement of Medicine can
be remov'd without the Assistance of our Rulers and Governors who dispense Rewards and Punishments and this has encouraged me to this Subject to write your Excellency on it.”
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Colden went on to explain the low repute of medicine: “The Hopes of sordid Gain has made Men ignorant of all the Sciences of Obscure and of no education intrude themselves…. By whose means the Art is become in many places Contemptible and curious learned men have been deterr'd from inquiring into this Science looking upon it as a Jungle of Hard Words without certain Foundation.”
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Medicine was a common ground for many of the intellectual colonists with whom Colden related and established long-term correspondences. William Douglass, John Mitchell, and Alexander Garden shared their thoughts with Colden about medical subjects and, like Colden, maintained a profound interest in botany, physics, and philosophical thinking.

WILLIAM DOUGLASS

William Douglass, the first physician to be included in Colden's extensive correspondence, was known to Colden for the longest period of time. Douglass was about three years younger than Colden and was born in Gifford, Scotland, less than twenty miles from Colden's home. He studied at Edinburgh at the same time as Colden but received his MD from Utrecht in 1712. Douglass first arrived in Boston in 1716, and, after an interlude of two years in the West Indies, he returned to Boston, where he would spend the remainder of his life as the only physician in that city with a medical degree. The first letter from Douglass to Colden that appears in the Colden Papers is dated February 20, 17
^20/21
a
. After offering a profile of the practice of medicine in Boston in response to a letter from Colden, Douglass focused on an extensive history of the winds and weather in Boston for the previous year. Douglass
mentioned his collection of over seven hundred plants within five miles of Boston—evidence of a broad interest in botany on the part of the colonial American intelligentsia.
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Subsequent letters from Douglass to Colden during that decade describe a smallpox epidemic in Boston in 1721,
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astronomical issues,
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their common interest in making a correct map of North America,
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the description of an earthquake that took place in New England in 1727,
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the political situation in Massachusetts,
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and Douglass's condemnation of the use of paper money.
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Douglass, like Colden, initially opposed Cotton Mather's enthusiasm for inoculation, but he later recanted and administered inoculations himself.
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Contained within Colden's letters to Douglass during that decade, in an undated letter probably written in 1728, Colden presented his proposal for the establishment of the first learned society in America.

I wish that a certain number of Men would enter into a Voluntary Society for the advancing of Knowledge & that for this purpose such in y
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Neighbouring provinces as are most likely to be willing to promote this design be invited to enter it That the Society be confin'd to a certain Number in each Province And because the greatest number of proper persons are likely to be found in your Colony that the Members residing in or near Boston have the chief Direction That every member oblige himself to furnish a paper at least once in every six months on such subject as he shall best like for y
^e
advancing our knowledge in any of the Arts or Sciences Which paper shall be transmitted to a Secretary to be chosen for that purpose who shall communicate it to the Members residing in or near Boston & they having examined it shall by y
^e
Secretary signify to ye Author what objections they have to and part of it who thereupon may if he pleases correct what he thinks upon their observation deserves Correction & then the paper to be published for ye Benefit of the Absent Members & all others that shall desire to be inform'd in such matters It may be hoped that these papers by their Sale may be some recompence to the Secretary for his trouble & the necessary Expenses of the
Society The Gov
^r
may find ways to lessen the Charge of Postage I can only give some general Hints which I hope you will improve & I shall think my self very lucky if you think them so well started that they deserve pursuing The Rules for this Society must be form'd at Boston & afterwards communicated to those you think fit to invite into it
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In a letter dated February 17, 17
^35/36
, Douglass informed Colden of the formation in Boston of the colonies' first medical society.
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In November 1739, Douglass wrote to Colden describing an epidemic characterized by a “malignant Fever that was probably Diphtheria.
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Douglass died on October 21, 1752. His book, which was published posthumously in 1755, entitled
A Summary
,
Historical and Political of the First Planting, Progressive Improvements, and Present State of the British Settlements in North America
, includes a map,
Plan of British Dominions of New England.
This very rare, seminal map was the basis for the popular “Map of the Most Inhabited Part of New England” published two years later in London by Thomas Jefferys.
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Colden's initial energies as a servant of the province of New York were consumed by his role as surveyor general. In the beginning of 1720, he found the affairs of the office that he had assumed to be in total confusion and disarray. This was inevitable because of the policies, which had been employed for granting land while New York was a proprietary of the Duke of York and throughout its slightly over a half century as a royal colony. From the onset in the proprietary, when the grants were generally in the range of two hundred acres or less, surveys were not performed and the boundaries were ill-defined. Similarly, the rents were imprecise and bore no relationship to the quantity or quality of the land.

After New York became a royal province and the governors
were empowered to grant lands, although it was specified that the grants were to be surveyed by the public surveyor and recorded with the seal of New York, compliance was uncommon.
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From the time of the first royal governor, Thomas Dongan, when there were no true surveys but rather descriptions and estimates, lack of adherence to the stated rules persisted. Boundaries were frequently described as bounded by a certain Indian's land, disregarding the fact that the Indians were never truly landowners in an individual capacity.
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The governor of New York between 1701 and 1708, Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, who was characterized by historians as a “degenerate and pervert who is said to have spent half of his time dressed in women's clothes,”
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added to the problem of land ownership that was encountered by Colden. To one group, Lord Cornbury granted the Indian tract Wawayanda, in Orange County, with unnamed borders, and, to another group, the Great Minnisink patent in Delaware County. In that instance, the boundary was described as beginning at “the Indian hunting-house” when there were several hundred such houses in that vicinity.
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On taking office, Colden was urged by Chief Justice Lewis Morris to delay grants to members of the opposition until Governor Burnet arrives. Morris wrote:

[A]ll the power Either they or you have in the disposition of lands is deriv'd from the king who has been pleas'd to direct that your consent be had to any land granted which consent you will not give unless the land be first Set out by you in which allocation you will allwaies Endeavor to follow the kings royall Instructions in that behalf given; that you will at all times be very ready to returne any tract of land pursuant to the directions of that hon
^ble
board or give A consent to Any Grant when you are well Assured the So doing will not be A breach of duty & the trust his majestie has been pleas'd to repose in you. As for Bud the case is a little ticklish he being of the assembly may be prejudiciall to you in your office and another difficulty is he being
chose by the Interest of a party that won't breake their hearts should the governour not returne & the revenue being to Settle if he should be serv'd during this administration it will make him less dependent on the Governour than he should be, for the hopes of favours will make many in that house more tractable than the Strongest reasons offr'd w
^th
out the case is the Same w
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some others….
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Colden's first surveys were conducted in the sparsely settled Orange and Ulster Counties. In 1694, it was the area in which Captain John Evans had received a grant that was sealed by the Colonial Assembly of New York in 1698 and approved by Queen Anne in 1709.
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By the end of his first year in office, Colden had surveyed 18,960 acres of that patent and 14,516 acres in the adjacent region.
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From that original patent, shortly after arriving in New York, Colden obtained a grant of 3,000 acres (an initial patent for 2,000 acres followed by an additional grant of 1,000 adjacent acres), on which he later built his farm, which he named “Coldengham,” a variation of Coldingham, Berwickshire, Scotland, which was located five miles from the home of his youth. Coldengham subsequently became part of the town of Montgomery in Orange County.

During his first seven years as surveyor general, Colden spent much of his time in the Mohawk Valley; the Shawangunk Mountains reaching from the area around Newburgh, New York, to the New Jersey border; the Catskill Mountains; the region around Albany, Orange, and Ulster Counties; and the Westchester estates and the Connecticut border. As evidence of Colden's strict adherence to the letter of the law, Colden's office certified or issued no grants without a proper survey. In his capacity as surveyor general, in the spring of 1725, Colden was one of the three representatives of New York to meet with the commissioners and surveyor from Connecticut for the first time to define a contested boundary between the two colonies.

In the course of surveying the Mohawk Valley, Colden gained an appreciation of the Five Nations of Indians that made up the Iroquois. In September 1721, Colden accompanied Governor William Burnet to Albany for a conference with the Five Nations. Before the meeting, Burnet and Colden visited the small village of Schenectady and viewed the Cohoes Falls on the Mohawk River. The meeting took place at the Indians' Lodge house. About eighty sachems (Indian chieftains) were present and the governor expressed concern over the recently built French trading post at Niagara. The Indians were encouraged to trade with the British at Albany and avoid trading with the French. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Iroquois promised to cease further trading with the French and to provide free passage to all Indians trading with Albany. In his report, Colden commented on the appearance and social structure of the Five Nations and emphasized that “their Cruelty in my opinion sullys any good quality which they may have especially to their enemys which they over come.” He made reference to torture and cannibalism.
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