The "Life & Times of Abraham de Peyster" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just got back from a drive through the city of Lancaster, Pennsylvania with my wife.  At times we just hop in the car and begin driving through different parts of one of the most beautiful as well as historical cities in the United States.  Our ride this evening took us throughout the western end of town as well as along and through the campus of Franklin & Marshall College.  While driving past the new art building on campus, we passed a 15 foot tall bronze statue of a fellow by the name of Abraham de Peyster.  I told Carol that I had just read an article about the statue written by Lancaster Newspaper's "The Scribbler," Jack Brubaker.  So...I stopped to take few photographs of the statue for myself...just in case!  In case of what you are probably wondering... or maybe you have a good guess what I mean.  

Abraham de Peyster

Well, it seems that Mr. Abraham de Peyster was a fairly important person who lived in New York City and was their Mayor from 1691 to 1694.  He also served as Governor of New York from 1700-1701.   Mr. De Peyster was from a wealthy family and served in a number of public roles during his life, including stints as an alderman, Associate Judge and later Chief Justice on the province's Supreme Court.  He was also the President of the King's Council and the Treasurer for New York and New Jersey provinces.  He also served as a Colonel in the militia.    

Statue in the City of New York

He became one of early Manhattan's wealthiest merchants and philan- thropists.  He built a three-story mansion on Queen Street opposite Pine Street.  Around 1699 he donated some of his land holdings and part of his garden for the construction of a new city hall that was later renamed Federal Hall which at one time was the first capitol of the United States as well as the site of the first inauguration of George Washington as President.  A bit more about Mr. Peyster would be he married his second cousin on April 5, 1684 while visiting in Amsterdam.  His new wife was Catharina de Peyster and was the daughter of Pierre de Peyster and Gertrude Van Dyke.  He had four children and lived in the mansion he built in 1695.  Before his death in 1728 he commissioned the creation of a bell to be placed in the Middle Dutch Church, then under construction.  Cast in Amsterdam in 1731, the bell is known today as the "Liberty Bell" and is located at the Middle Collegiate Church.  

The sculpture on the campus of F&M

In the late 1890s a statue of Mr. de Peyster was sculptured by George Edwin Bissell and was placed in Bowling Green Park in Manhattan.  A duplicate of the statue was also donated by John Watts de Peyster to Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  Mr. de Peyster's association with F&M began when the college's Diagnoithian Literary Society made him an honorary member in 1885.  He then gave the society part of his library and eventually donated $25,000 to the college to build the Watts-de Peyster Library, where Shadek-Frackenthal Library now stands.  That is the statue I took photographs of today.  Now, for one more bit of information that I suspect you knew was coming.  Mr. de Peyster employed 16 household servants, including nine slaves, to operate the house and its ample grounds.  

A closer view of the sculpture

The New York Salvery Records Index reported that he owned 13 slaves as well as co-owning ships that carried even more slaves from the Caribbean to New York. And, "The Scribbler" discovered that Mr. de Peyster and his son imported at least 85 slaves from 1717 to 1740 according to the Donnan Table of Slaveships and Slave Voyages.  And, that is what may become a major problem in the near future.  Lancaster is in the midst of changing the names of several schools and buildings in the city due to the "Black Lives Matter" initiative.  Will the Abraham de Peyster sculpture survive the outcry that has become the news of the day?  Lancaster has a small statue of Christopher Columbus that was spray painted, but later cleaned and is still standing next to the Lancaster Country Court House.  Will that also be removed since he had slaves in the past?  In today's newspaper there was a story about a panel of historians that met in Lancaster to talk about what should be done to right the wrong that has affected  blacks in the city of Lancaster for years.  Members of the panel, which was divided between different races, will talk about what should be done with renaming buildings and removing or keeping statues that have stood for years in the city.  It will be interesting to see what happens in the future of historic Lancaster.  Will the statue of Abraham de Peyster be removed?  I have no idea and I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I'm anxious to find out what will happen.  Only time will tell.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.