John Bowne & the Flushing Remonstrance

Two names which you have probably never heard before are the subject of today's post. Tragically lost to the commonly-known history of the United States of America, this man and this declaration paved the way for one of the greatest accomplishments of the Founding Generation.

The place is Vlishing (later mispronounced "Flushing") in New Amsterdam (now the Borough of Queens, New York City). The time is September, 1662. John Bowne and his family are startled by a banging on their front door. The 34-year-old English settler opens the door to find Sheriff Resolve Waldron and armed deputies. Waldron places Bowne under arrest. He is charged with aiding and abetting an "abomination" – Quakerism. The facts: Bowne's wife, Hannah, was a Quaker convert, and he allowed her and her friends to hold Quaker meetings in their home. (Bowne may also have been a Quaker, this is uncertain.)

Hauled before Director-General Peter Stuyvesant, Bowne is given several opportunities to pay the imposed fine and refuses. He refuses to renounce Quakers. Stuyvesant throws him in a dungeon then deports him to Holland. In Amsterdam, Bowne suffers through more than a year and a half of separation from his family. He and his family suffer physically, emotionally and economically. Finally, he is dragged before a tribunal of the Dutch West India Company, which had been chartered by the Crown to act as the civil government of the colony.

Bowne has but one defense – The Flushing Remonstrance.

"Remonstrance" – an act or instance of protest, from Latin remonstrare, "to point out."

Kenneth T. Jackson, professor of history at Columbia University, explains[1]:

[W]hen the Dutch West India Company set up a trading post at the southern tip of Manhattan in 1625, the purpose was to make money, not to save souls. Because the founding idea was trade, the directors of the firm took pains to ensure that all were welcome.

For example, while the Massachusetts Bay Colony was enforcing Puritan orthodoxy, there were no religious tests in the Dutch colony. So open was New Amsterdam that at least 16 languages were being spoken there by the 1640s; by 1654, the first Jews in what is now the United States had been able to settle there peaceably.

Unfortunately, Quakers "had a reputation as obnoxious rabble-rousers," so:

Peter Stuyvesant, the provincial director general and a Type A personality if ever there was one, was not going to tolerate a Quaker presence in his domain. To make his point, he ordered the public torturing of Robert Hodgson, a 23-year-old Quaker convert who had become an influential preacher. And then he issued a harsh ordinance, punishable by fine and imprisonment, against anyone found guilty of harboring Quakers. . . .

The public response was almost immediate:

Edward Hart, the town clerk in what is now Flushing, Queens, gathered his fellow citizens on Dec. 27 [1657] and wrote a petition to Stuyvesant, citing the Flushing town charter of 1645, which promised liberty of conscience.

The Remonstrance itself (without correction to modern spelling & grammar styles) opens with:

You have been pleased to send unto us a certain prohibition or command that we should not receive or entertain any of those people called Quakers because they are supposed to be, by some, seducers of the people. For our part we cannot condemn them in this case, neither can we stretch out our hands against them, for out of Christ God is a consuming fire, and it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Wee desire therefore in this case not to judge least we be judged, neither to condemn least we be condemned, but rather let every man stand or fall to his own Master. Wee are bounde by the law to do good unto all men, especially to those of the household of faith. . . .

This magnificent prose document concludes with:

Therefore if any of these said persons [Quakers] come in love unto us, we cannot in conscience lay violent hands upon them, but give them free egresse and regresse unto our Town, and houses, as God shall persuade our consciences, for we are bounde by the law of God and man to doe good unto all men and evil to noe man. And this is according to the patent and charter of our Towne, given unto us in the name of the States General, which we are not willing to infringe, and violate, but shall houlde to our patent and shall remaine, your humble subjects . . .

Stuyvesant arrested Hart and others and, ultimately, forced the signatories to recant their protest. He probably thought this was the end of it, however, the genie was out of the bottle, as later generations would say.

Bowne's defense was simple: What he did, he did in obedience to the laws set down by the Company, and in protest of an illegal edict by Director-General Stuyvesant. It is worth noting that the Dutch West Indies Company officers agreed with Stuyvesant – in that they thought Quakerism was an abomination – but the Company officers were honorable men. They overruled their own appointee in favor of the Englishman, Bowne, because they could not deny that he was right. Bowne was returned home and instructions were sent to Stuyvesant to leave the Quakers in peace.

The Flushing Remonstrance is considered one of the precursors to the Bill of Rights, and John Bowne is considered, by those few who know his story, as the first sacrificial lamb of religious freedom in America.

"And now," as Paul Harvey would say, "the rest of the story":

Bowne returned to his family, his business and his home. The 1661 salt-box house still exists. Expanded several times by his descendants, it is the second oldest building in New York City. Located on the corner of Bowne Street and 37th Avenue, not far from the Van Wyck Expressway, it became a museum in 1947. Within a few blocks are a Quaker meeting house, a Dutch Reformed church, an Episcopal church, a Catholic church, a synagogue, a Hindu temple and a Moslem mosque. Also a Bowne Park, John Bowne Elementary School and John Bowne High School.

(On a personal note, the neighborhood is also home to New York Medical Center Hospital – formerly Boothe Memorial Hospital – where I was born.)

The Bowne House Historical Society oversees the restoration and maintenance of the Bowne House Museum, which is  owned by the City of New York. You can contact them at 37-01 Bowne Street, Flushing, NY 11354; or visit them at bownehouse.org. Donations are tax deductible.

Bowne (1627-95) later served in the New York provincial legislature. He had three wives (in succession) and a total of 16 children. Among Bowne’s descendants are 4 New York City mayors and 6 US Presidents, including Abraham Lincoln. Family members were early abolitionists, and the house may have been a stop on the Underground Railroad. Robert Bowne (1744-1818) founded the oldest public company in the nation – Bowne & Co. – which is still in operation today. The family also produced a number of outstanding horticulturalists.

Thanks for listening, tune in next week for another rant.

[1] Kenneth T. Jackson, Op-Ed Contributor, "A Colony with a Conscience," The New York Times, 27 December 2007. (The 350th anniversary of the Remonstrance.)