Bowne-Willis Petition, September 1680

TITLE: Petition from John Bowne & Henry Willis to the Governor and Council at New York [Photostat copy]

DOCUMENT ID: BHHS 2008.521

DATE: 4 September 1680 (Old Style) / 14 September 1680 (New Style)

This photostatic copy of the document is from the Early Bowne and Historic Flushing Research Collection. The original is presumably housed in the New York State Archives British Colonial Records.)

DESCRIPTION & NOTES

This petition from John Bowne and Henry Willis of Flushing to the Governor and Council of New York (Colony) shows that not all religious persecution ceased with the takeover of New Netherland by the English Crown. Although the colonial government agreed not to impose the Church of England, they nonetheless struggled to accept some of the Quakers’ unorthodox, if harmless, practices. In this case, Quaker marriage customs occasioned fines and confiscations of Bowne and Willis’ grain and cattle, as punishment “for suffering our daughters to marry contrary to their law.” Quakers took their marriage vows before the Friends’ Meeting, without an ordained minister or Justice of the Peace officiating, and the authorities did not recognize these unions as lawful. This sometimes caused problems with inheritance and the legitimacy of children, even when the participants (or their parents) were not punished directly as they were here. John Bowne’s daughter Mary wed Joseph Thorne in August 1680 of that year, just a month before the petition. Presumably Henry Willis’ daughter Elizabeth also got married around that time, occasioning the penalties.

Letter to Hannah Bowne, June 1663

TITLE: Letter from John Bowne in Amsterdam to Hannah Bowne at Flushing

DOCUMENT ID: BFP 2018.1.03.02

DATE: 9 June 1663 (New Style)

This letter also appears in the series “Papers of Hannah (Feake) Bowne”.

DESCRIPTION & NOTES

In this letter sent from Amsterdam during Bowne’s period of exile, he gives her a first-hand account of his appeal to the Dutch West India Company and his anger at what he perceives as their double-dealing and shabby treatment of him following his apparently successful appeal. He also references to James Clement, the indentured servant whom he is sending over to help her in Flushing, and a variety of cargo (including possibly contraband Quaker writings) that he is shipping to Long Island. This letter offers insights into Quaker trading activities unfolding simultaneously with the Bownes’ struggle for religious liberty.

Letter of Gerard Roberts, April/May 1663

TITLE: Letter from Gerard Roberts of London to William Caton in Amsterdam, concerning John Bowne

DOCUMENT ID: BFP 2018.1.12-09

DATE: 23 April 1663 (Old Style) / 3 May 1663 (New Style)

This document is from the series “Bowne Family Papers: Miscellaneous Correspondence.”

Letter, Gerard Roberts to William Caton, 1663

DESCRIPTION & NOTES

In this fragmentary letter of introduction, influential London Quaker Gerard Roberts instructs William Caton of Amsterdam to aid “the bearer hereof, John Bowne, who hath been banished by the Dutch out of Ne[w] [Netherland].” He continues, “…so thou art desired by dear G.F. and meeto do what maybe for [....] the thinge before the magestrates of Holland that he may return w[ith] [the] same ship to his place again, we hearing thee is now in A[msterdam] and it may be to have an order for his return from your magis[trates] [....] he may come over them who have dealt so unkindly with him. He is an honest man.”

Notes:

Gerard Roberts (ca.1624–1703): leading London Quaker whose home in Little St. Thomas Apostle became a "nerve center" for Quaker business; he also organized petitions to the Council of State for fellow Quakers imprisoned in England. Coincidentally, it was Roberts who found the ship Woodhouse for the first Quaker missionaries to New Netherland, and persuaded the reluctant captain to take them in the small, unseaworthy craft. In a sense, it was he who set in motion the events leading up to Bowne’s ordeal.

William Caton (1636–1665) was an English Quaker and kinsman/protege of George Fox's wife, Margaret Fell. An influential member of the small expatriate Quaker community in Amsterdam, he was a correspondent of the philosopher Spinoza and enjoyed theological debate with the city's Jewish congregations.

Dear “G.F.”: George Fox (1624–1691) was the founder and leader of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).

(Spelling and punctuation of the quotations above has been modernized for readability; for a literal translation of the entire document, see the link below.)

Letter of George Fox, circa April 1663

Title: Letter from George Fox to William Caton in Amsterdam, concerning John Bowne [fragmentary]

Document ID: BFP #2018.1.12-09

Date: Circa 2nd month [April] 1663

This document is from the series “Bowne Family Papers: Miscellaneous Correspondence.”

Letter, George Fox to William Caton, 1663 (Bowne House Archives)

DECSCRIPTION & NOTES

In this fragmentary letter from George Fox, the Quaker founder and leader requests William Caton of Amsterdam to aid John Bowne in his appeal to the Dutch West India and enlist the community of Friends there to assist. As the top part of the letter is missing, his account begins in mid-sentence: “…by them in New Netherlands his goods are sent unto Holland which they took [from] him, and how they acted contrary to their own patent and how he hath m[any] of the patentees’ and others’ names of his peaceable deportment…” Fox’s focus on the Patent or Charter of Flushing, with its guarantee of “liberty of conscience,” is remarkable. He clearly believed that if it were upheld, New Netherland could function as a sanctuary for the Society of Friends. “Do your best endeavor that he may have justice and right from them, and something under their hands according to the patent to carry back from the magistrates there…which may be a great service to all Friends in them parts under that power and may occasion to stop further trouble.” Fox emphasizes again: “let him not pass away without something under the magistrates’ hands…” Unfortunately, the Dutch West India Company had the same realization about the patent and its promise. While Bowne sought a written exoneration that would set a legal precedent, the Directors chose to exonerate him and reprove Stuyvesant “off the record,” at the last minute denying him a vindication in black and white that he could keep for himself.

Note: Spelling and punctuation in these quotations has been modernized for ease of reading. A faithful transcription of the letter may be downloaded below.

Letter to Hannah Bowne, November 1662

TITLE: Letter from John Bowne to Hannah Bowne, from Jail in New Amsterdam

DOCUMENT ID: BFP 2018.1.03-01

DATE: 5 November 1662 (Old Style) / 15 November 1662 (New Style)

This letter also appears in the series “Papers of Hannah (Feake) Bowne”.

John Bowne wrote this letter to his wife while jailed in New Amsterdam for the offense of holding forbidden Quaker Meetings in the colony of New Netherland. In it, he affirms their shared religious fervor, but quickly pivots to the urgent matter at hand: advice on running the farm and providing for their family in his absence, with recommendations as to which neighbor to ask for help with various tasks. The reader gains insight into the tremendous weight of labor and responsibility with which John entrusted Hannah during his ordeal, but also the strength of community ties in the Colonial-era farming settlement that enabled the couple’s family to survive. He also requests that she bring him "his “red book,” which appears to be his Journal, in which he recorded his ordeal and other significant life events.

Letter of John Hodson, 1662

TITLE: Letter from John Hodson to John Bowne "at prison at Manathane" [Manhattan]

DOCUMENT ID: BFP #2018.1.02-02

DATE: “1st Day of the Week” [Sunday] Autumn 1662

This letter also appears in the series “John Bowne (1627-1695): Correspondence Received”

Quaker John Hodson sends John Bowne an undated message of encouragement and shared religious conviction during Bowne's three-month period of imprisonment in Manhattan for religious non-conformity during the autumn of 1662: "...the eyes of many are on thee, some for evil and some for good; therefore be staid in thy mind and freely given up in all things." Hodson’s words underscore the importance that Quakers, and possibly other religious minorities, placed upon Bowne’s case and the precedent that they hoped it might set. They also hint that opponents of religious pluralism were watching with equal interest.

Notes:

John Hodson settled in Maryland in the 1660s and became a leading member of the Dorchester Quaker Community. He and his young son traveled to visit John Bowne in prison in New Amsterdam in November 1662.

1645 Charter of Flushing

“...to have and enjoy the Liberty of Conscience, according to the custom and manner of Holland, without molestation and disturbance, from any Magistrate or Magistrates, or any other Ecclesiastical Minister, that may extend Jurisdiction over them...”

— 1645 Charter of Flushing

Title page of Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland, 1638-1674 - Google Books

John Bowne based his defense before the Directors of the Dutch West India Company on a clause of the 1645 Charter of Flushing, which promised the inhabitants of the town “liberty of conscience.” This was the same document referenced by the signers of the 1657 Flushing Remonstrance, in their protest against the anti-Quaker ordinances. Bowne carried a copy of the Patent into exile with him, and presented it to the representatives of the Dutch West India Company who granted him an audience. George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, even references it in a contemporaneous letter (BFP 2018.1.12-09). The Quakers hoped that the Directors would recognize that the anti-Quaker ordinances passed by Director-General Stuyvesant in the 1650s and ‘60s violated the pre-existing commitments made to the inhabitants of Flushing, set out in black and white.

Unfortunately, the original document, which was compiled in New York Deed Book II at the New York State Archives in Albany, has not been digitized, and Bowne’s personal copy was not preserved. However, the text is faithfully recorded in Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland, 1638-1674, ed. E.B. O’Callaghan (Albany, N.Y.: Weed, Parsons & Co., 1868).

Extracts from the Journal of John Bowne, 1650-1694

Cover from The Journal of John Bowne, ed. Herbert Ricard (Friends of the Queensborough Community College/Polyanthos Press, 1975)

John Bowne chronicled his ordeal within the pages of a notebook, which Hannah Bowne brought to him in jail. The Journal of John Bowne was donated to the New York Historical Society by his descendants before Bowne House became a museum in 1945. The Bowne House Archives contains a black-and-white photostat of the original (from microfilm), which is currently undergoing digitization. It will be available on this website in Fall of 2024. We also own the published 1975 edition, transcribed and edited by former Queens Borough Historian Herbert Ricard. Extracts of this work relating to John Bowne’s trial are available below.

Note: This out-of-print work may still be under copyright. The following excerpts are presented here solely for educational, non-commercial purposes under the Fair Use provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Folios 62-63: Appeal to the Dutch West India Co.

The events that led up to the writing of Bowne’s rebuke to the Dutch West India Company are chronicled in Folios 62 to 63 of his journal. This passage covers a one-month time period dating from his arrival in Amsterdam on April 29, 1663 Old Style (May 9, 1663 New Style) to his departure on May 30, 1663 Old Style (June 9, 1663 New Style.)

Folios 49-63: Bowne’s Trial - Arrest through Homecoming

The following excerpt from Bowne’s journal contains a full account of his ordeal for the sake of religious freedom, recording the eighteen-month period encompassing his arrest for holding prohibited Quaker meetings in his home, and the ensuing trial, imprisonment, exile, appeal, and the odyssey of his eventual homecoming.