CAVALIER JOUËT, THE LOYALIST

This wealthy New Jersey gentleman, a native of Jamaica, W. I., came early in life to Elizabethtown, N. J., the residence of one of his early Huguenot ancestors of the same name; married twice there, owned a large estate, and built, several years before the Revolution, a large and elegant brick mansion, which is still standing. At the Revolutionary trysting time he espoused, with several of his fellow-citizens, the British cause, and was obliged to retire to England, not long after the Declaration of Independence. There he took orders, being a man of fine education, and became a parish minister in the Church of England. By favor of Zenophon Jouët, Esq., a great-grandson now living near Elizabeth, N. J., we have seen a printed discourse of his, printed in that country nearly ninety years since. The following is the title-page imprint :

"GIVING BETTER THAN RECEIVING.

A

“CHARITY SERMON PREACHED AT ST. BOTOLPH'S, BISHOPGATE (LONDON),

"ON SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 1792,

FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE CHILDREN BELONGING TO THE
ST. ETHELBURG SOCIETY,

"BY THE REV. CAVALIER JOUET,
"Curate of Tolles Hunt Major, Essex.

"He that hath pity on the poor, lendeth to the Lord.'

"LONDON:

"PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR."

By his marriage into the old Hatfield family of Elizabethtown, Mr. Jouët became a brother-in-law of the Hon. Abraham Clark, the signer of the Declaration, and by his second wife, Mary Hampton, the father-in-law of Governor Isaac H. Williamson, of New Jersey, who married his daughter, Anne Crossdale. Cavalier Jouët was descended from several distinguished English families, as well as from the historic Protestant Cavaliers of France. The "History of Elizabeth," by Dr. Hatfield, records the public arraignment of this noted citizen and refugee for "treasonable practices,' and the confiscation of his estate.

W. H.

AN OLD MOHAWK VALLEY HOUSE

In the year 1688 Heinrich Frey, a native of Zurich, left that city accompanied by his wife, and, passing down the Rhine, to Amsterdam, embarked in a Dutch ship for America. The Mayor of Zurich gave him an open letter, addressed "to whom it may concern," recommending "the bearer as a worthy and honest man and deserving of patronage." Unfortunately, this letter, and other papers brought with him, and which would, no doubt, more fully explain his reasons for leaving his native land, have been lost or destroyed, and family traditions, after a lapse of nearly two hundred years, have left some points uncertain and vague.

A serious misfortune overtook him at the very commencement of his voyage, for soon after leaving port the vessel encountered a severe storm, and was driven a wreck upon the shores of the Isle of Wight. Here he remained for some time, until he was able to secure a passage in an English vessel to New York. The Governor of the island had given him a letter to the Governor of New York, recounting his perilous voyage and shipwreck, and bespeaking for him a friendly reception.

Upon his arrival in New York, early in 1689, he presented his letters to Governor Dongan, who gave him a location ticket for a tract of land on the Schoharie Creek. He at once proceeded to the land assigned him, and began to build a home for himself and family. Here he would no doubt have remained, had he not been summoned by an agent of the Patroon Van Rensselaer to pay a quit rent upon the land which he had received from Governor Dongan. This was entirely opposed to his views. To be a feudatory tenant to Van Rensselaer was revolting to his Swiss love of freedom, and he accordingly abandoned the lands and the improvements he had made.

His course under these circumstances throws some light upon his character, and gives a clue to the reasons which led him to leave his home in Switzerland and brave the unknown dangers of a pioneer life. He loved freedom so well that even the free air of his native mountains was not enough for him his very name, and the motto on his coat of arms, " Ich dien frei,” were only expressions of that love of freedom which was with him innate. A somewhat uncertain tradition even gave him kinship with William Tell, upon whose life and exploits no iconoclast had at that early day cast doubts and unbelief. No feudal lord or Dutch patroon could make a vassal

or a tenant of such a man: rather would he push still further into the vast wilderness. He had heard reports of the fertility of the lands in the Mohawk Valley, so he turned his face to that region to seek out a new home.

Before following him, it may be well to glance for a moment at the state of the Mohawk Valley at that time. Schenectady was the western outpost of civilization. A few hardy men had penetrated a little further up the river, but beyond that was the wilderness and the Iroquois. Dense forests covered the hills, and reached far out upon the alluvial lowlands, only broken here and there by the palisaded villages of the Mohawks and their surrounding cornfields, while the banks of the stream were beautiful with arching elms; wild fowl clamored in the water; the beaver built his dam; the deer and moose cropped the grass on the plains, and no noise or clangor of trade broke the silence. It is true the Mohawks were friendly to the Dutch, and they had passed the zenith of their fame. They were neither as strong nor as fierce as they were when Champlain's folly roused them to relentless hate of all Frenchmen, as they were when they destroyed the Hurons, or carried death to the banks of the Mississippi. Fire-arms and constant war had reduced their numbers and crippled their strength, and rum and civilized appliances were enervating them and hastening their ruin. Still they were not pleasant neighbors. For a hundred years after this they filled a large place in Colonial history, and wasted and destroyed, with savage cruelty, hamlets and people without number.

Such was the state of things when, in 1689, Heinrich Frey came into the Mohawk Valley, and located forty miles west of Schenectady. It was in the midst of the Mohawk Nation; their middle castle was scarce a mile away; the smouldering ruins of their villages, burned by De Tracy in 1666, were close at hand. Here was the old "Jesuit Mission of the Martyrs," where Jogues and his fellows were so cruelly tortured and slain.

But notwithstanding this unpromising state of things, Frey quietly settled down among his savage neighbors, bought-no doubt of the Indian owners-three hundred acres of land, built his log house, and found the independence and freedom for which he sought. That he was just in his dealings with the Indians, is proved by the fact that he nor his property, nor any of his name, were ever molested during all the long years subsequent to his settlement among them-even during the stormy days of the Revolutionary contest, when all the other farms of the valley were laid waste. From time to time he added to his estates, both at his homestead and on the opposite side of the river; one tract of 3,200 acres is called Frey's Bush to the present day.

How long he lived after he became established in his new home is un

certain; all that is known of him is that he was prosperous, that he largely increased his landed possessions, living in peace and amity with his savage neighbors, and that he met his death suddenly, by being drowned in the Mohawk River near his home. There is no doubt that he was the first settler on the Mohawk, west of Schenectady, preceding the Palatinates by more than twenty years.

In 1739 his son Henry built the old stone house represented in our engraving, which represents it as it appears at present. It is in a good state of preservation, but as it has not been occupied by the family for seventy years, it has been shorn of some of the wings and appendages which before the Revolution were added from time to time as the wants of the occupants demanded; these offices and out-buildings having all been taken away, leave the house in its original form. It is strongly built, with heavy oak frames for the doors and windows, with a steep roof and dormer-windows; a row of loop-holes extending round the house rendered it easily defensible against any approaching foe; the fireplaces, as usual in the houses of that early day, are very large, especially one that was in the cellar regions devoted to the slaves. This house is the oldest one standing in Montgomery County, the date of whose erection is certainly known; it is claimed that there is one older, but as the date is not to be found upon it, the claim cannot be substantiated.

During the fifty years from 1689 to 1739, great changes had taken place : land grants of thousands of acres had been given by the crown to various parties; the German Palatinates had settled Stone Arabia, Schoharie, and the German Flats; roads more or less bad had been cut through the woods; traders and artisans had come in, and the forest had already begun to fall before the sturdy blows of hundreds of axes. The Mohawks still maintained their national existence and characteristics, but they lived no longer in palisaded towns, and had forgotten the trades and handicrafts of their ancestors. During all these years the strife between Canada and New York, between France and England, had gone on, each one seeking by all means, fair and foul, to control the savage tribes, to secure the trade in furs, and to maintain a footing in the disputed territories.

It was about the time this old house was built, that the Rev. Mr. Dunlap opened his school at Cherry Valley, and several boys from the Mohawk were sent there to be educated. Among these were Hendrick and John Frey, grandsons of the first of that name who settled on the Mohawk, in 1689, and who were destined to fill a very prominent place in the local history of the valley for many years to come.

When they left school, and commenced the active duties of life, several

reasons combined to make them men of prominence. Their education, their family connections, and their mental endowments were of a superior order; and, therefore, we find them active in all the civil life, and military movements of the French wars and the wars of the Revolution.

Hendrick Frey, or Colonel Frey, as he was called, according to the then existing law of primogeniture, inherited all the great landed estates upon his father's death. His wife was a sister of General Herkimer, and as there seems to be little known about the early history of this family, by historians who have written the story of Oriskany, it may be well to place upon record a few incidents that have not, as far as the writer is aware, before been published.

John Jost Herkimer was the first settler in what is now Herkimer County. He came with his wife from the Palatinate of the Rhine, bringing with them their first-born, a boy, who afterward became General Herkimer. The first Herkimer was a large and powerful man. He and his wife carried on their backs all their effects, including fifty pounds of wheat and their child, from the settlement at Schenectady to what was afterward the German Flats. Arriving at an Indian camp, Herkimer by gestures and signs indicated his desire to clear some land and sow his wheat; but the Indians refused his request by a negative shake of their heads. This unexpected refusal greatly distressed Herkimer, whose countenance plainly indicated his feelings, seeing which, the Indians relented, and allowed him to build a temporary hut against the roots of a fallen tree; withholding their consent, however, to his becoming a permanent resident for further consideration. One day they requested him to assist them in bringing a canoe to the river which they had hollowed out of a large pine, about a mile away. He came to the canoe, and raised one end of it to ascertain its weight; this greatly astonished the Indians; he motioned to them to take the other end, and in this manner the canoe was taken to the river. This display of strength established Herkimer's standing with the Indians, who patted him approvingly on the back, and called him the "Great Bear."

They gave him permission to clear as much land as he desired, and to sow his wheat; he soon learned their language and joined them in their sports and hunts, and shared with them in all business transactions.

The wheat, the product of his land, was conveyed to Schenectady by canoes, where it was ground and the surplus disposed of. The English built a small fort on his lands, to which the troops and supplies were removed from the Frey place down the river, for at an early day the old Frey house had been surrounded by palisades, and used as a garrison. This new post was named Fort Herkimer, and Herkimer was appointed sutler.

He