Southeast Prospect of the City of New York, 1756-1761

Here, comments from Stokes (Iconography of Manhattan Island, ... 1915): about this painting:

Date depicted: 1756-7 ? «While in press an entry has been found in the original MS. of Smith’s Memoirs, which proves pretty conclusively that the fleet here shown was that of a hundred sail which, on November 19, 1761, left the Hook for Martinique on a secret expedition under the command of General Monckton.»

«Presented to the New York Hist. Society, on December 6, 1904, by Miss Cornelia Le Roy White, in the name of Goldsborough Banyer, a descendant of the original owner of the same name, who was Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Assembly at about the time depicted in the view. The water-front corresponds closely to the Duyckinck Map (...), surveyed by Maerschalck and dated 1755. ‘The vessels in the harbour are probably the French prizes which were brought to New York in May, 1757, and which are spoken of in The New-York Gazette; or, the Weekly Post-Boy, of May 30, 1757, as follows:

Thursday and Friday last returned here from their Cruizes, the following Privateers, viz. the Brig Hawk, Capt. Alexander; the Sloop Charming-Sally, Capt. Harris, and Brig Johnson, Capt. Grig, each of 12 Carriage Guns; and bro’t in with them five French Prizes, to wit. ‘Three Ships, a Snow, and a Brig, which they took out of a Fleet of 27 Sail, between the 7th and 12th Inst. off the West Caucases . . . The Ships are of 14 Carriage Guns each, are Letters of Marque, stood a hot Engagement of some Hours, and our Vessels were obliged to board them before they struck;—they are at least 300 Tons, the Snow is about 250, and the Brig about 200 Tons, deep loaded with Sugar, Coffee, Cotton &c. And, we hear, one of the Ships has between 80 and 100,000 wt. of Indigo on board. The Whole, at the lowest Computation, is valued at about 70 Thousand Pounds Currency.

Were it not for the French flag on one of the vessels, we might suppose the fleet to be that referred to in The New-York Mercury of August 2, 1756: "We now have in this Harbour, fitted out, and fitting for Privateers, one Snow, two Brigs, one Schooner, and five Sloops; and we are told there are several large Vessels to be immediately put on the Stocks, and finished with all Expedition, in order to cruize against his Majesty’s Enemies [the French]."

In the latter part of August, 1756, an English fleet visited New York on its way to Canada, and The New-York Mercury of August 23d contains a list of eleven of these English ships which "came up here from Sandy Hook where they arrived the Saturday night before." It is also possible that this is the fleet shown in the view, in which case the ship with a French flag was probably a prize. All of the others fly the English flag.

The steeples seen in the view, beginning at the south, are those of the Old Dutch Church in Garden Street, the Lutheran Church on Broadway south of Trinity, Trinity Church, the City Hall, the French Church, and the New Dutch Church. The Presbyterian Church, on Wall Street, although rebuilt with a cupola and bell in 1748 (see Min. Presb. Ch., September 4, 1747; Smith’s Hist. Province N. Y., 1757, p. 192; and the old stone set up in the First Presb. Church on Fifth Avenue and 11th Street), is not here shown; possibly it is concealed by the cupola of the City Hall. The ruins of Whitehall are clearly seen, north of the Battery. These, according to Du Simitière’s MS. notes, were still standing when he wrote, probably in 1769. (...)