Seven Years War

The Seven Years War*

1754-1763

The “Seven Years War,” the “French and Indian War”, and the “Great War for Empire.” Variously named and defined, each of these terms refers to the same watershed event in early American History.

European superpowers France and Great Britain engaged in a century-long struggle for world domination that lasted from 1689 to 1815. Against an overall climate of hostility, a series of distinct wars were fought in Europe itself and in (and over) their worldwide colonial empires.

The New York theater of the last of these North American adjuncts began with the French and Indian raid and burning of Hoosick in August 1754. North American forces fought with each other over the next two years although war was not declared officially until 1756. Although for the most part, fighting ended in North America following the fall of Quebec in 1759, this conflict was not concluded officially until the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763.

via Seven Years War.

 

Beverwyck

Beverwyck

The Eendracht at Beverwyck – 1656Beverwyck is the popular and mythical name given to the community of fur traders that first emerged along the river to the north of Fort Orange during the 1640s. The name came into official use in 1652 when the Dutch West India Company established a judicial jurisdiction for the land north of the trading post/fort. That act began a legacy of home rule for Albany that was primarily responsible for its development into a pre-urban center. Immediately following, the first houselots were parcelled out. By the end of the decade, a log palisade had enclosed the settlement.

via Beverwyck.

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Became Albany, New York.

– CAA

 

Schenectady Massacre

* From Tales of Old Schenectady by Larry Hart, Chapter 8, Page 37-40

The fate of Schenectady was sealed in the middle of January, 1690, when 114 Frenchmen and 96 Sault and Algonquin Indians, most of whom had been converted by the Jesuits, started from Montreal to attack English outposts to the south. It was part of a master plan of Count Frontenac, governor to Canada, to fulfill the commission of French King Louis XIV to “build a new empire in America.”

They came down across the frozen reaches of the St Lawrence and over the ice of Lake Champlain and finally, in about six days, down to a point at what is now Fort Edward, where the French officers held council on the plan of attack. It was here that they began to compromise with the Indian leaders on the feasibility of attacking Schenectady instead of the original objective, Fort Orange (Albany).

Another journey of about 17 days down to the Mohawk Valley brought the war party scarcely two miles from the fur-trading post beside the Binnekill on Feb. 8. It was about 4 o’clock in the afternoon and a blizzard came howling down from the north-west, icy winds swirling snow about the would-be attackers as they huddled in a final council near what is now Alplaus.

The French leaders, Lts. Le Moyne de Sainte Helene and Daillebout de Mantet, ordered Indian scouts to cross the Mohawk River and see what precautions the Dutchmen had made against enemy attack. The French were well aware that attack warnings had been posted in the valley communities and they did not know how well the Schenectady stockade might be garrisoned.

The Dutchman’s fireside on that night of Feb. 8, 1690, glowed with the radiance of humble content. Within the raftered room, its floor and ceiling reflecting Holland cleanliness, he warmed himself before the crackling logs. He was smugly certain that his house was safe from attack – on a night such as this, even the foolhardy Frenchmen would not be expected from the frozen north regions.

via Schenectady Massacre.

 

Schenectady, New York – City Map 1750

citymap1750_250.jpg (JPEG Image, 1204×917 pixels) – Scaled (58%).

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Detailed map from 1750

– CAA

 

Schenectady, on Mohawk River, New York

Schenectady

The village and then town of Schenectady emerged from a patent to farm on the Great Flats of the Mohawk River originally granted by the Dutch in 1661. It was located beyond the western border of Rensselaerswyck.

Over the next decade, Schenectady was settled mostly by former Beverwyck residents who sought less competitive opportunities farther away from the community that became Albany in 1664. The complete list of patentees is the subject of some discussion. Union College librarian and historian Jonathan Pearson has compiled a useful list.

Over the next twenty-five years, the original patentees and their descendants built a stockaded town on the south side of the Mohawk River about eighteen miles west of Albany. Schenectady asleep on February 9, 1690 By 1680, a Dutch Reformed church had become established in the community. As part of his initiative to “royalize” the colony, Governor Thomas Dongan granted Schenectady a town patent in 1684 and a community economy began to develop on the Albany model but with a more direct connection to the farms of its immediate environs. Land north of the Mohawk also was deeded and settled. It would be known as “Scotia” (today’s village of Scotia in the town of Glenville – both commemorating the original landholding families).

All this came crashing down when French and Indian raiders destroyed the town on the night of February 9, 1690. The settlement was in shambles with its people killed, captured, or sent fleeing as refugees to the safety of the Albany fort. The Schermerhorns and others temporarily set up homes in Albany. The so-called “Schenectady Massacre” still is one of the “great,” mythical events of the community’s heritage and has been embellished in print, song, and tradition!

via Schenectady.