Cadwallader Colden (14 page)

Jane's expertise qualified her to instruct the fourteen-year-old Samuel Bard in the science of botany. In 1756, Bard was sent by his father, a friend of Cadwallader Colden, to Coldengham as an escape from New York City because of the boy's ill health. In
A Domestic Narrative of the Life of Samuel Bard
it is written, “This residence not only restored him to good health, but filled his memory with pleasing recollections both of the society and studies to which it introduced him. In the family resided Miss Colden…. With this lady, differing in years but united in tastes, Mr. Bard formed an intimate friendship; under her instruction he became skillful in botanizing, a pursuit which remained to him a favorable amusement, and which owed, perhaps, a part of its attraction to the pleasing associations with which it was originally connected, since to the end of his life, he never mentioned the name of his instructress without some admiration or attachment.”
⁹⁷
Samuel Bard received his medical degree from Edinburgh and founded the first medical school in New York, King's College (now Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons) in 1765. Bard dedicated his thesis to Cadwallader Colden: “Samuel Bard wishes to dedicate
these first fruits of his training to the Honorable Cadwallader Colden, Esquire, Lieutenant Governor of New York for the thousand benefits shown him publicly and privately….”
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Jane evidenced confidence in her ability as a descriptive botanist and did not hesitate to differ with the authority of Linnaeus. With regard to
Polygala
(S'eneca or Snakeroot), she wrote, “Linnaeus describes this as being a Papilionatious Flower, and calls the two largest Leaves of the cup Alae, but as they continue, till the seed is ripe and the two flower Leaves, and its appendage folds [
sic
] together, I must beg leave to differ with him Added to this, the Seed Vessell, differs from all that I have observed of the Papilionatious Kind.”
⁹⁹
About
Clematis virginiana
, she indicated, “Neither Linnaeus take notice that there are some Plants of the Clematis that bear only Male flowers, but this I have observed with such care, that there can be no doubt of it.”
¹⁰⁰

Jane's contributions to botany gained the respect of others with an established reputation. Collinson wrote Linnaeus, “What is marvelous his [Colden's] daughter is perhaps the first lady that has perfectly studied your system. She deserves to be celebrated.” In a subsequent letter to Linnaeus, Collinson wrote, “Last week my friend, Mr. Ellis, wrote you a latter, recommending a curious botanic dissertation, by Miss Jane Colden. As this accomplished lady is the only one of the fair sex that I have heard of, who is scientifically skillful in the Linnaean system, you will no doubt distinguish her merits, and recommend her example to the ladies of every country.” In the referred to letter, Ellis had stated, “The young lady merits your esteem and does honor to your system.” He suggested that Linnaeus name a new genus for her, but that did not come to pass.
¹⁰¹

All that remains of Jane Colden's botanical legacy is a manuscript that resided in the British Museum for over two hundred years, and is now in the manuscript section of the British Library. After her death it was acquired by Captain Frederick von
Wangenheim, a Prussian serving in a Hessian regiment during the American Revolution. It next passed on to Godfrey Baldinger, who was professor of botany and medical theory at the University of Göttingen and Marburg. It finally became the property of Joseph Banks, president of the Royal Society. On his death, it went with his collection of books and botanical specimens to the British Museum.
¹⁰²

A prefatory note by Wangenheim was published in an account of the manuscript in Schrader's
Journal für die Botanik
for 1800. The translation reads: “This MS., which has never been printed, contains a part of the New York Flora, and has been composed by a lady, the daughter of Governor Cadwallader Colden, well known for his botanical works, and also a physician. This lady married a doctor of medicine, Farquhar, a Scotchman by birth and she died soon afterwards. Some of the names are according to her father and according to Gronovius, and some are according to the Brandenburg doctor Schoepff, who has read this work. The trivial names are according to Linnaeus. This work is a remarkable one because it is that of a lady who possessed such a love for botany that she learned Latin, and judging by its nature is so worthy and correct that contains many even minute things.” It was written in New York in May 1782.
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The title page identifies the author as the daughter of Cadwallader Colden; the name, Jane, is conspicuously absent.

FLORA
NOV.–EBORACENSIS.
Plantas in Solo Natali
collegit, descripsit,
delineavit,
COLDENIA,
Cadwallader Coldens
Filia.

The manuscript consists of 340 drawings, which are ink outlines washed in with neutral tint rather than the impressions referred to by Colden to Gronovius. The pages that include her written descriptions are numbered 1 to 341 but there are some pages with only the name of the plant on the top of the sheet. As noted by Britten, the descriptions are “excellent-full, careful and evidently taken from the living specimens.” One of these (No. 153 of the manuscript) was published in
Essays and Observations
, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1770). It was the plant that had been sent to her by Garden, who found it in New York, and she had tried to have it named Gardenia by Linnaeus. Another of her descriptions, translated into Latin was published in the
Correspondence of Linnaeus
, vol. i., page 94.
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In her research, she conversed with the “Country People” and Indians, from whom she learned of the uses of some of the plants. A tea made of the leaves of the Mountain-mint (
Pycnanthemum incanum
) was used for stomach ailments. A preparation of the root of Goldthread (
Coptis trifolia
) was used for sore throat and canker sore. Prickly Ash (
Aralia spinosa
) was treatment for coughs and also dropsy (edema). Others were specified for use in cookery.
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Jane is also credited with a 1756 memorandum of the process of making cheese on the farm.
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Walter Rutherfurd, a Scottish officer who served in the French and Indian War and visited Coldengham in 1758, wrote, “She [Jane] makes the best cheese I ever ate in America.”
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The period of Jane's dedication to botany ended abruptly with her marriage on March 12, 1759, to Dr. William Farquhar, a Scotsman, widower, and highly regarded practitioner of medicine in New York City. The couple met shortly after the Coldens moved to Flushing. Jane died on March 10, 1766 and her only child died the same year. The cause of her death and the death of her child were not reported.

The year 1759 began with correspondence between Colden and William Smith, Jr., who would remain Colden's forceful antagonist throughout the decade, in spite of the friendship that had existed between Colden and Smith's father. A week after Colden read
The History of the Province of New-York, from the First Discovery to the Year MDCCXXXII (1732)
by William Smith, Jr., which was published in London in 1757, he took up his pen to vent his ire. Smith had included in the
final chapter
titled “From 1720 to the administration of Cosby” a consideration of Captain Campbell's attempt to procure land for himself and groups of immigrants whom he sponsored in the province in 1737 (see
chapter 3
, pp. 61 and 62). Although Colden's name was not mentioned, his involvement, in concert with Lt. Governor George Clarke, was obvious.

Colden stated in a letter to Smith, “It is in the principal part absolutely false & an egregious calumny of the persons, who at the time had the administration of Government in their hands…. The public defamation being an egregious injury to the public faith & honour of the Government of New York you know the proper method for redress that may be taken.”
¹

Smith was adamant in affirming his interpretation of the
event, which he admitted took place when he was merely a boy. Two weeks after receiving Colden's letter, he wrote, “Your letter of the 15 January, which came to me unsealed, contains such a heavy Charge of Misrepresentation, Falsehood and Calumny, that I am almost inclined, to think myself relieved of the Obligation, which your Age, Rank, Character and particularly your professed Friendship to my Father, would otherwise undoubtedly, have laid me under, to take Notice of every Thing, wherein you might conceive yourself in the least Degree concerned.”
²

Smith's evidence was purely hearsay. It came to him from Campbell's wife by way of her son, who, in turn, gave it to James Alexander, who had been a member of the Council at the time of the event in 1737. In a letter written as a follow-up to Smith's correspondence, Colden correctly pointed out that the heads of the families who came over with Campbell refused to settle under his auspices, and that Campbell did not have the personal finances to purchase the 30,000 acres. As far as Alexander's personal interpretation was concerned, he completely absolved Colden and pointed out that Colden was not involved with the Council at the time of the event, almost twenty years previously.
³

In a letter to his son Alexander, Colden expanded his remarks concerning Smith's
History of New York.
In that letter, Colden indicated that during his period of relative detachment from political affairs he was preparing his memoirs of the government of New York. He criticized Smith for attributing the removal of Colonel Schuyler and Mister Philipse from the Council to their opposition to the continuance of the Assembly. Rather, Colden stressed that the reason for their dismissal was that Schuyler had committed the king's seal to Philipse, who received it into his custody—a criminal act (see
chapter 2
, pp. 29 and 30).

In the letter, Colden continued with a chronicle of events that occurred during Governor Burnet's tenure. Colden recounted Burnet's refusal to qualify James Delancey after he had been elected
a member of the Assembly. Delancey, based on his French and Dutch ancestry, was designated not to be a naturalized foreigner, which would have precluded his service. This generated intense party struggles that continued over the years. Colden described the Assembly at that time as consisting of individuals who deemed themselves to be unaccountable to any other authority and who were prone to spread slander and calumny. Colden concluded that “It is not fit that Mr. Smith's history should pass for a chronicle of New York” because “He is so assuming in his manner, especially in giving Characters, often unfair, allwise partial whether his characters be favorable or otherwise, continually biased by his connections, either as to family, political party or religious sect, that some resentment is unavoidable.”
⁴

While Colden remained in Flushing at the house he had rented in 1757, relatively disengaged from political activities throughout 1759 and the first nine months of 1760, the British forces continued on their victorious course over the French. On June 26, 1759, Fort Ticonderoga was taken by Major General Jeffrey Amherst, who replaced General James Abercromby as the commander-in-chief of all British forces in North America. The French commandant of the fort ordered the fortifications destroyed and the troops to withdraw to the Isle-au-Nuits in Lake Champlain. On August 1, Amherst learned that Crown Point had been abandoned. Troops were stationed there and the French withdrew completely from Lake Champlain. The formidable Fort Niagara also fell without a battle on July 25. The British took possession of forts at Venango, Le Boeuf, and Presque Isle, leaving Fort Pontchartrain at Detroit as the only fort in the Lake Erie area under French control.

The most definitive battle of the French and Indian War took place on the morning of September 13, 1759, and lasted about fifteen minutes. The British engaged and soundly defeated the French on the Plains of Abraham at Quebec. The articles of capitulation were signed on September 18. A year later Montreal surrendered
without a battle, and, a week after that event, the British flag was raised at the Detroit fort, thereby gaining for Great Britain sole control of North America.

In 1760, Colden penned an essay directed at his nephew who was to embark on a new educational endeavor. The essay entitled “An Introduction to the Study of Phylosophy” summarized Colden's views on both philosophy and science. He emphasized the need to expand one's knowledge in the context of society. Colden paints a self-portrait of his intellectual profile in his conclusion. “The gentleman, who proposes to be generally useful in society, ought not to fix his thought single on one branch of science, but to have a competent knowledge of the principles of every branch…. While he reads and thinks by turns, he should in the intervals, cultivate his intellectual faculties by general conversation, where he may obtain more useful knowledge than can be learned from books.”
⁵

On June 10, 1760, the Assembly, under the leadership of Lieutenant Governor Delancey passed several bills, the most significant of which was the regulation of the practice of “Physic and Medicine.”
⁶
Colden is generally credited with being the force behind the passage of that bill, in which it was specified that an exam was required by those aspiring to practice. This was the first act in the colonies to regulate the practice of medicine, but it was limited to the City of New York and contained a grandfather clause, excusing all those currently practicing medicine.
⁷

On July 29, Delancey engaged in interviews with several politicians on Staten Island and returned that evening. The following morning he was found gasping in a chair at home and died, presumably as a result of asthma of which he suffered for years. Smith's assessment of Delancey's contributions to the colony was most complimentary. Smith wrote, “Upon the whole, his accomplishments rendered him an ornament to the country which gave him birth. None of his predecessors possessed natural talents superior, if equal to his….”
⁸

Colden's life underwent an immediate and dramatic change. In his seventy-third year, he came out of retirement and took up residence in Government House at Fort George (currently, the location of the National Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan), as president of the Council. Colden assumed the title of President of the Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of New York.

He received congratulatory letters from several of the colonial governors, including James Hamilton of Pennsylvania, Francis Fauquier of Virginia, Horatio Sharpe of Maryland, and William Bull of South Carolina. He also received congratulatory correspondence from Alexander Garden and Benjamin Franklin, who was in London at the time. In a letter, written from his encampment site on the shore of the St. Lawrence River near Isle Royale, Major General Amherst offered condolences for the death of Delancey, and wrote, “Sir, it some what Alleviates my Grief to find that the Reins of Government have devolved on a Person of so much Experience as Yourself, not doubting but I shall find the same Zeal in You that I have always met with in your Predecessor….”
⁹

Colden used his position to advance his sons. This is evidenced in a letter from the Earl of Halifax to Peter Collinson dated October 12, 1760. The earl wrote, “I was pleased that upon the Death of Lieutenant Governor Delancey, the Administration, of Governm
^t
devolved upon M
^r
Colden, whose experience, public service and Integrity I have been long Acquainted with. My only doubt was whither his Age might not make it burthensome to him…. I should be very glad to oblige both him and you by making his Son one of the Council, but, when I state then to you, I am Satisfied you will be Sensible of the Weight of the Objections there are to it at present….”
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On October 22, Colden addressed the Assembly in his new position for the first time. He assured the members that he would concur with them in “every measure conducive to the prosperity of
the colony.”
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One week later, the General Assembly issued a formal response, in which the members asserted that they “shall cheerfully contribute our utmost assistance to every measure conducive to the ease of your administration, & the true Interest of the People we represent.”
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The session lasted until November 8, when Colden signed the nineteen proposed bills without a single objection, including one that provided him a salary of 1,800 pounds per year.
¹³

King George II died on October 25 and his grandson, George III, rose to the throne. In November the City of New York received Major General Amherst as a triumphal hero, and, with much pomp and circumstance, presented him with the “freedom of their municipality.”
¹⁴
Throughout the winter, self-congratulations over the recent victory, accompanied by pervasive optimism and patriotism, dominated. This temporarily obscured the previous political polarization. But the arrival of the spring would be accompanied by the early harbingers of a storm that would eventuate in the elevation of Colden to an unenviable position as the most vilified individual in the history of colonial New York, if not in all of the colonies.

The year of 1760 represented a watershed in Colden's life. The most contemporary report of the administrations of Lieutenant Governor Colden and Governor Monckton covered the period between 1760 and 1762, and was written by William Smith, Jr., for the second volume of his
The History of the Province of New-York.
The chronicle is obviously biased because Smith had been and continued to be one of Colden's severest critics. Smith was a member of the legal profession, for which Colden had little regard and a distinct antipathy. At the time, the three legal leaders in the New York colony were Smith, John Morin Scott, and William Livingston. Smith and Livingston had been educated together at Yale, and they were joined by Scott in Smith's father's law office. They were populists who were opposed to absolute rule by the monarchy. They organized the Whig Club in 1752, and held weekly meetings at the King's Arms Tavern, where the walls reverberated with
words of independence and the leveling of society, an absolute anathema for Colden.
¹⁵

After George II died and the new king was crowned, the New York lawyers invoked an unwritten law that mandated the dissolution of extant assemblies and the election of new members. An election took place and little change in the membership resulted. In May, there was a two-week session of the new Assembly, during which the members voted that the laws enacted between the death of the late king and the receipt of notification by the Assembly required legalization. Colden objected because it was contrary to royal and parliamentary instructions, and that it was absurd to restrain a lawful act based on lack of knowledge, which was impossible to attain at the time. He added that the bill would have given lawyers an overriding power.
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The second and more contentious bill indicated that the selection of judges should be independent of the Crown and that the judges of the Supreme Court were to be appointed on the basis of their good behavior. Colden continued his loyalty to the Crown, and offered the chief justice's position to Smith, Sr., who refused. Colden then declared that the renewal of the other positions was dependent upon the Crown. Smith, Jr., in his history, deemed Colden's action to be “universally disgustful.”
¹⁷
Other unpopular actions of Colden included the curtailment of the illicit trade that had taken place for many years between New York merchants and the French West Indies, and the overturning of land patents that he contended had been granted in violation of instructions from the Crown.
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