Enjoying the Elegance of 19th Century New York City Mayor Walter Bowne’s Furniture on View at the Bowne House

By Ellen M. Spindler, Bowne House Collection Volunteer

Mayor Walter Bowne’s horsehair office sofa, small and tall office chairs, portrait of Walter Bowne’s grandson immediately above sofa; Bowne House collection; Photo credit: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

A suite of Empire and Chippendale style furniture from the office of Mayor Walter Bowne (1770-1846), a prominent descendant of John Bowne, is on view in the 1669 parlor of the Bowne House. Mayor Walter Bowne (“Bowne”) is noted for his civic contributions to New York City in the early 1800s. He was appointed for four one-year terms between 1829 and 1833, becoming the 59th mayor of New York City, prior to the incorporation of the outer boroughs in the late 19th century. Bowne had previously served as a New York State Senator from 1816–1822 and 1823–1824 and was also a member of the Council of Appointment in Albany from 1817–1820. After retiring from public life, he became President of the Seventh Ward Bank of New York City.

Mayor Walter Bowne, 1833, Robert Walter Weir, City Hall Portrait Collection

Mayor Bowne was the great-great grandson of John Bowne and second cousin to Mary Bowne Parsons, whose portrait can be seen above the table and chairs in the image above the title. He married Eliza Southgate Bowne in 1803 and they had two children. A sister, Catharine, married John Murray, who was active with Robert Bowne (founder of Bowne & Co. Printers) in establishing the New York Manumission Society. Walter Bowne (a Democratic mayor) lived in Manhattan just a few blocks from City Hall, but he also had a summer house called Little City Hall in a Queens neighborhood north of Northern Boulevard between 155th and 159th Streets and 29th and 32nd Avenues. Mayor Bowne’s summer house was destroyed by fire in 1925; the property is now occupied by Bowne Park, named for Walter Bowne and part of the United States Broadway-Flushing Historic District.

Queens Library digital archives, See also Bowne Homestead, Flushing, Brooklyn Times Union, June 18, 1904, p.13

The handsome house in this photo was built in the early 19th century; it had over 15 rooms on a substantial parcel of land as shown on the map below. By the late 1800s, some of the surrounding area was being developed as a suburban enclave later known as "Murray Hill Park,” now known as Murray Hill. Walter Bowne’s house, his estate, and the adjacent Bowne Pond, however, remained undeveloped until its purchase by a realty company in 1906. Later acquired by New York City in the 1920s, it became Bowne Park, and is presently administered by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.

Map of Kings and part of Queens counties, Long Island N.Y., 1852. ( Library of Congress)

Connor, R.F.O., Dripps, M.& Korff Brothers. Published by M. Dripps. N.Y. New York: Engraved & printed by Korda Brothers] [Map excerpt showing location of Walter Bowne estate (top right corner, and Bowne House and Nurseries, bottom center).

Willow at Bowne Park (former site of Little City Hall), New York City Parks Department

One notable and unfortunate event during Bowne’s tenure as mayor was an 1832 epidemic of cholera. At that time, the deadly disease was not well understood; it was thought to be transmitted by contact, rather than by contaminated water. Bowne imposed a quarantine to prevent the spread of disease once its existence in Quebec became known, but in just four months between June and October, 1832, more than 3515 people had died (as reported by Charles Haynes Haswell, an engineer, politician and historian of that era).

Given the expanding population of the city and the crowded conditions, Bowne saw the need for a reservoir system for an adequate supply of fresh water for the City’s future needs. Quantities were needed, both for drinking water and to contain the constant threat of fires, but funds were not then available for the project. The Croton reservoir was not completed until 1842 and still provides fresh water to the city.

Bowne was also a supporter of the Erie Canal, completed in 1825 and overseen by Governor DeWitt Clinton, a relative by his marriage. Another supporter was earlier New York City mayor Cadwallader D. Colden (1818-1821). It was Colden’s grandfather British Governor Cadwallader Colden (whose estate, “Spring Hill,” lay south of the John Bowne House and Farm) who first wrote about the concept of a canal to connect the Hudson River and Great Lakes in his 1727 book History of the Five Indian Nations. Mayor Bowne’s interest in infrastructure was also foreshadowed by an earlier relative: Robert Bowne of Bowne & Co. Printing, who founded an inland navigation company in 1791, paving the way for the Erie Canal.

Mayor Bowne oversaw numerous infrastructure improvements during his tenure, including the widening of several downtown streets; the renaming of Marketfield to Battery Place; the opening of Jefferson Market; the erection of Tompkins Market; the expansion of Union Square Park; and construction on the New York and Harlem Railroad (now part of Metro-North), which began with the first car running between Prince and 14th Streets. Another aspect of Mayor Bowne’s job, along with other New York City mayors in the early nineteenth century, was the acknowledgement of Manumission certificates for freed slaves. While other Bowne and Parsons family members were abolitionists and anti-slavery activists, no record of Walter Bowne’s views on slavery has yet been discovered.

The Walter Bowne furniture in the 1669 parlor is all believed to have come from his office. It includes an Empire style sofa, armchairs, and table, and a Chippendale-style secretary-bookcase.

Close up of claw feet from Walter Bowne’s Empire sofa, Bowne House collection; Photo credit: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

Bowne House accession records describe Mayor Bowne's black horsehair upholstered Empire sofa as having claw feet with scroll cut out carving underneath, two round pillows, and brass tacks. The materials used were mahogany and horsehair upholstery.

American Empire furniture (or late classical revival) was a form of neoclassicism and was generally made between 1815-1830, immediately after Napoleon’s French Empire and during the War of Greek Independence. America had a pro-French attitude at the time, not only because of France’s support during the American Revolution, but because of continued tensions between America and Britain, following the War of 1812. A French cabinetmaker, Charles Honoré Lannuier, introduced the French Empire style to New York, and it grew more popular than competing British styles in the 1820s and 1830s. The style was also introduced and maintained by the renowned Scottish craftsman Duncan Phyfe, one of America’s most prominent cabinetmakers, after he emigrated.

The American Empire style is known for prominent Greek and Roman motifs, a heavy visual weight to communicate strength and stability, rich veneers and exotic woods, and ornamentation of a classical style. Rosemary Krill in her book Early American Decorative Arts states that “[E]mpire furniture fills space in a compelling manner. Individual structural members appear large in comparison with the more delicate components of federal furniture.” Both society and furniture making were transitioning at the time away from labor-intensive craftsmanship towards more efficiencies of scale and mass production, with furniture made as much by apprentices as master craftsmen.

Tall armchair, Bowne House collection; Photo credit: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

Mayor Walter Bowne’s suite of furniture also includes a matching tall armchair made of mahogany, described as his black upholstered office chair, and a matching small horsehair armchair made of mahogany, described as Mayor Bowne's small office chair. A similar chair is reportedly in the White House. Mahogany was an exotic wood common to this period. Furniture makers and carvers found the dense grain of mahogany conducive to their best work, and the grain pattern, enhanced with appropriate finishes, added to the object’s beauty. According to the late Dean F. Failey, former curator of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities (as well as Americana expert at Christie’s and frequent consultant on Antiques Roadshow), mahogany was the favored furniture wood used during the eighteenth century; however, “it was not commonly used in Long Island furniture until after the Revolution.” It was both imported and expensive.

Round table, Bowne House collection

Close-up of carved feet of table leg, with acanthus leaves, Bowne House collection; Photo credit: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

Bowne additionally owned a round center table made of mahogany with carved feet and an elaborately carved tripod base, with acanthus leaf decoration. Acanthus leaves have long been associated with enduring life, as far back as Grecian times. Accession records describe this piece as Empire, 1820-1840 or ca. 1830; the top has been restored and is not original to the base. Walter Bowne’s great-grandson wrote on a sticker found underneath the table that it came from 33 Beekman Street, Bowne’s apparent mayoral residence. This location was about 2 blocks southeast of City Hall and about 3 blocks north west of Duncan Phyfe’s workshop at 35 Fulton Street, which was within a few blocks of the South Street Seaport. (Gracie Mansion was not yet used as the mayoral residence.) Although it has some similarities to a Duncan Phyfe piece, this attribution has not been confirmed by experts and we have not established a connection as of yet.

The Bowne House also has in its collection a tea set and a demitasse coffee pot set with Walter Bowne’s initials. The coffee set is noted as Limoges, a hard-paste porcelain produced by factories in around the city of Limoges, France beginning in the 18th century. These items are also an indication of his status and wealth. Other objects in the collection related to Mayor Bowne are his bible, a handwritten “Commonplace book,” and a red leather wallet engraved with gold lettering, “Walter Bowne, Mayor of the City of New York, 1831.”

Tea service with WB initials, Bowne House collection

Demitasse coffee pot set with cups and WB initials, Bowne House collection

Finally, Walter Bowne also had a two-piece, 7-foot-high mahogany secretary-bookcase of Chippendale style in his office. The top case has two doors and three shelves and two pull out candle rests with brass knobs and a drop-leaf front. (Note, that the candle rests no longer pull out.) The top structure is enclosed by panel doors, with a molded and carved break-scroll cornice. The bottom has four long graduated drawers with original brass round knobs and bracket feet, and a sloping drop-leaf with interior drawers and pigeon-holes. This was described in a 1946 appraisal as late 18th-century American, of Chippendale design and made of mahogany. The secretary is described as having ogee bracket feet, used exclusively on case furniture, and Chippendale-style flattened urn brasses with bail pulls. Ogee bracket feet are named for the convex curves employed, which give the appearance of ornate scalloped edges. The 1946 appraisal also described the secretary as from Pennsylvania or New Jersey.

Secretary-bookcase, Bowne House collection; Photo credit: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

The name “Chippendale” refers to London cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale and his influential pattern book, The Gentleman & Cabinetmaker’s Director, first published in 1754. Rosemary Krill in her book Early American Decorative Arts states as follows:

A profusion of ornament often appears to be the most dramatic design element of Chippendale-style furniture. Additionally, distinctive lines and material, especially mahogany, characterize the style in eighteenth-century North America. When you see mahogany furniture with a combination of curved and straight structural lines and possibly an abundance of carved ornament, think of the Chippendale or rococo style.

A card found inside the secretary-bookcase stated as follows:

SECRETARY- Queen Anne – Chippendale- MAHOGANY

It has ogee bracket feet both front and rear. There are four graduated doors that are lipped. The desk section has four banks of two drawers, serpentine front. The door has fan carvings in reverse block. There are two candle stands. The top is a scroll pediment with flame finial in center and sunflower terminals to scroll. The scroll pediment is typically Philadelphia. The usual New York piece is flat top with straight pitch pediment. The hardware here seems to be original and probably of English import. Ca. 1775- 1790 or later.

The Bowne House secretary-bookcase is described as having Queen Anne elements, likely the sculptural curved lines of the scroll pediment, similar to the curved but more massive lines of the sofa and tall armchair also in the office suite of furniture. It should be noted, however, that in Figure 7-6 of her book Early American Decorative Arts, Krill shows a mahogany and tulip Chippendale-style four drawer desk-and-bookcase with a scroll pediment made by a New York cabinetmaker Samuel Prince, rather than a Philadelphia one, but with rare glass drawers and other distinctions.

Krill states that an acquisition like this secretary was a major investment for an owner in the late eighteenth century. In giving this piece a prominent place in a home or office, the owner, usually of a wealthy and prominent family, displayed his status as an educated reader and owner of books. Knowledge and ownership of books denoted good breeding. It was thought that knowledge and ownership of books denoted a keen intellect and a fine education. It should be noted that this was also a time of private subscription library associations before there were public libraries. Indeed, the Bowne House archives reflect that other Bowne and Parsons family members had shares in New York City’s first lending library.

The Bowne House is fortunate to have this suite of Mayor Bowne’s office furniture preserved and currently on display in the House. You can enjoy this furniture and other pieces spanning three centuries of Bowne House residence when you visit the House!

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References

Butler, Joseph T. , Field Guide to American Antique Furniture: A Unique Visual System for Identifying the Style of Virtually Any Piece of American Antique Furniture. United States: Macmillan, 1986. 35-53; 59-61.

Downs, Joseph, American Furniture, Queen Anne and Chippendale periods, MacMillan Co., 1950. See comparative reference to a Pennsylvania walnut desk and bookcase, attributed to John Bachman (1746-1829) of Lancaster County, who was Swiss born and long miscalled Jacob Bachman. He was influenced by the Philadelphia Chippendale style but employed it with originality, as seen in the large-scale sunflowers which end the scrolls of the pediment, in the tall proportions of the twisted flame finials.

Failey, Dean F., Long Island Is My Nation, The Decorative Arts & Craftsmen 1640-1830. (Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1998). 197.

Guide to the Records of the Early Mayors, 1827-1897, Collection No. 0002, 1990, rev. 2015 and 2017. https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/records/pdf/mayoral-collections/early-mayors-records-1826-1897.pdf.

Haswell, Charles Hanes, Reminiscences of an Octogenarian Living at the Time (1816-1860). New York: Harper & brothers, 1896. Hathi Trust, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000844069/Cite.

Historic Structures Report: Broadway Flushing Historic District, (PDF), National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service, March 18, 2006. https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/06000373.pdf. 303.

Kadinsky, Gregory, “Bowne Pond, Queens,” Hidden Waters blog, November 11, 2016, https://hiddenwatersblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/11/bownepd/. (Accessed April 15, 2022).

Krill, Rosemary, Early America in Decorative Arts, 1620-1860: A Handbook for Interpreters, Revised and Enhanced (AltaMira Press, a division of Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2010). 61-75; 89-103.

Podcast, “Eliza Southgate Bowne: In Her Own Words, Episode 2, Eliza Southgate Bowne’s Notes on Marriage,” Bowne House from Home, https://www.bownehouse.org/elizabowne.

Podcast, “Mayor Walter Bowne and the Cholera Outbreak of 1832,” Bowne House from Home, https://www.bownehouse.org/walterbowne.

Vincent, Nicholas C. “American Furniture, 1730–1790: Queen Anne and Chippendale Styles.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/chip/hd_chip.htm (December 2009)

The Cadwallader Colden Daybed: A Pre-Revolutionary Daybed

 By Ellen M. Spindler, Bowne House Collection Volunteer , with research assistance provided by Charlotte Jackson, Bowne House Archivist 

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Photo: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

 The Cadwallader Colden daybed in the Bowne House collection is a day bed made of wood, with fancy turned legs and strips which appear to be made of hemp or manila nailed onto the frame for the mattress. It is described in Bowne House accession records as having a velvet green back with beige "fleur de lys" design. According to these records, this daybed was made of beechwood in the William and Mary style, dated 1710-1740, and was located in the parlor bedroom. Those same records describe the daybed as having belonged to Cadwallader Colden, governor of the New York Province, a proprietary British colony, immediately prior to the Revolution.

The piece was donated to the Bowne House Historical Society, Inc. on April 22, 1960, by Charlotte Murry (probably Murray), a likely descendant of Catharine (Bowne) Murray’s son Robert I. Murray (b. 1786). Catharine (Bowne) Murray was John Bowne’s great-great granddaughter, and second cousin to Mary (Bowne) Parsons and her sisters. Her son Robert I. Murray married Elizabeth Colden, the great-granddaughter of Cadwallader Colden.

Above photographs: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

The daybed is one of four early pieces of furniture in the Bowne House collection that are currently the subject of an assessment to determine the species of wood utilized and possibly confirm their place of origin and date. The other three are the George Fox daybed (previously highlighted in a Collection Spotlight blog post), the trestle table in the kitchen allegedly brought by John Bowne from England in the mid to late 17th century, and a Dutch table in the kitchen also believed to be from the 17th century. [i]

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Cadwallader Colden - Portrait by John Wollaston the Younger, between 1749-52, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776) served as both Lieutenant Governor and acting Governor for the Province of New York prior to and during the American Revolution. He held office from 1760-1762, 1763-1765, 1769-1770, and again in 1774-75 under George III. He retired after the Battle of Lexington in April 1775. He was also a physician and a natural scientist. Originally born in Ireland and educated at The University of Edinburgh, he married Alice Chryste circa 1715 in Scotland and had 8 surviving children. Eventually one of his descendants, Judge Charles S. Colden, became the first President of the Bowne House Historical Society.

Interestingly, Colden served as the first colonial representative to the Iroquois Confederacy, writing the first book on the subject in 1727 entitled The History of the Five Indian Nations…with particular Accounts of their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, and Form of Government; their several Battles and treaties with the European Nations; particular Relations of their several wars with the other Indian Nations and a true Account of the present State of our Trade with them.... The Iroquois Confederacy was notable in part for being gender equitable with a democratic form of governance. Since Colden was appointed Surveyor-General of New York in 1720 before assuming his other roles, the New York State Archives has numerous Indian deeds for tracts of land he surveyed and petitions for related patents.

One notable event during Colden’s tenure occurred on November 1, 1765, when a huge crowd gathered carrying an effigy of him hung from moveable gallows to protest the Stamp Act (after he had declared his intention to enforce the Act). They broke into his coach house to appropriate his coach, and burned it in a bonfire on Bowling Green. Colden had initially stood firm in the unrest leading up to November 1, requesting British troops to protect the fort in New York City, but after the mob attack and the arrival of the stamps, he declared his intention to do nothing further until the newly appointed governor Sir Henry Moore arrived. He was later rebuked by the British for what they deemed an inappropriate suspension of his governmental authority in the matter. In 1769 after he had resumed his duties, the New York State Assembly, at Colden’s request,  passed a bill providing funds for British troops garrisoned in New York City, another controversial measure.

Throughout this period, Dinah (Underhill) Bowne (1707-1770), the widow of John Bowne III, occupied the Bowne House with her children, including John Bowne the IV, with whom she co-owned the house. We still have in the Bowne House collections an 18th-century linen tea towel (ca. 1740) recorded as belonging to Dinah.

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Cadwallader Colden - Portrait by Matthew Pratt, 1772, New York State Museum  

In a way, it is ironic that the Bowne House has a daybed in its collection from a historical figure who was arguably antithetical to many of the family’s values. The Bownes were mainly neutral in the Revolutionary War and kept a low profile during that period, with Robert Bowne, the founder of Bowne and Co. printers and later a co-founder of the New York Manumission Society, temporarily relocating his family to New Jersey. From there he wrote the 1776 letter (now preserved in the Bowne House archives) to his brother John IV, who still resided at the Bowne House, stating in part, “I have endeavour’d to avoid giving offence to any, have associated with very few which I have found to be much the safest, as there are many warm persons near us that are ketching at everything they can take the least advantage of to distress those who do not approve of their violent and unjust proceedings…”

While some Quakers supported the Revolution and even fought at the risk of being disowned by their Meetings, some members of the New York Quaker community gave the British a petition in 1782 now in the Bowne House archives in which they respectfully informed the Army that they would not serve in “the Watch” (a civilian safety patrol) as an alternative form of service, because that would free up other men to fight. Among their statements was the following: “We cannot in Conscience support or contribute directly or indirectly to the Business or Practice of War…”  They also argued that their pacificism would not even let them submit to bodily defense. The signatories included Samuel Bowne, Daniel Bowne, and James Parsons (likely the father of Samuel Parsons), as well as members of other notable Quaker families such as Murray, Underhill, and Lawrence (see full transcription).

What Colden had in common with the Bownes was his love of botany. He wrote a taxonomy of the flora near his Orange County, New York home. He corresponded with an international circle engaged in the study of natural history, including Carl Linnaeus in Sweden, and introduced them to new species and genera of plants. He also contributed to public health by publicizing how unsanitary conditions led to disease. These actions helped to establish New York City’s early sanitation efforts.

Although British authority was in dispute once the Revolution started, the British Army occupied New York City again on September 24, 1776. Colden died four days later at his Spring Hill estate in Flushing, an estate he had acquired in 1762. New York (Colony) Council minutes from May 5, 1775, in the New York State Archives refer to Colden’s intention to go to his Flushing “country estate,” undoubtedly on his retirement. The estate passed to his son David, but he was prosecuted and sentenced as a Loyalist and forced to flee to London; it was forfeited soon after. Now, centuries later, the Mount Hebron and Cedar Grove Cemeteries occupy the former Spring Hill estate.

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Cadwallader David Colden - By Samuel Lovett Waldo - Wikimedia Commons

Governor Colden's grandson Cadwallader David Colden (1769-1834) managed to entirely change the political fortunes of the family, despite having been dispossessed of the family home where he was born. After returning from abroad, where he had accompanied his father into exile, he became an attorney (and even the district attorney in the 1st District located on Long Island) and served as a Colonel of Volunteers in the War of 1812. He also served as mayor of New York City from 1818-21, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1821-23, and as a member of the New York State Senate from 1824-1827. He became President of the anti-slavery New York Manumission Society in 1815, and was a leading member of the New York Society for the Prevention of Pauperism.

Colden also made a significant contribution by helping to rebuild the African Free School, so he may very well have been a friend or acquaintance of Robert Bowne due to that effort, as well as their joint participation in the Manumission Society; he was also a contemporary of Samuel Parsons. Historians further credit him with working with the Jays and others to influence the New York State legislature to set the date of July 4, 1827, for the abolition of slavery in New York. His daughter Jane Colden became the first female botanist working in America. The family image and label below in the Bowne House archives show that at one time he was the owner of this daybed, alternatively referred to as “the gout bench.” The whereabouts of the daybed/bench during the prior time his father fled to England is not known. Once it came into the Bowne House’s possession, it was located in the parlor bedroom, also known as the William Penn bedroom, as reflected on the label below.

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Cadwallader Colden Family (Postcard) - Bowne House Archives

Another descendant, Judge Charles S. Colden (b. ca. 1885-1960), was the first President of the Bowne House Historical Society, and his influence and benevolence may have facilitated the donation of the piece to the House collection upon his death in 1960. Judge Colden was present at the dedication of the Bowne House in 1945 and its first opening to the public in 1947.

Judge Colden also worked closely with Mayor Fiorella La Guardia to help establish Queens College. His papers remain in the archives there; he was a larger-than-life figure remembered for his many civic contributions. Cadwallader Colden and his descendants have thus created a lasting legacy in Queens; as another example, P.S. 214, an elementary school in Queens, is named Cadwallader Colden.

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Photograph of Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia and Judge Charles S. Colden, attribution unknown (Charles Colden Collection, Box 15, Queens College Department of Special Collections and Archives )

Bowne House 1947 opening ceremony: Middle, Charles S. Colden holding flag; far right, William Bowne Parsons, son of Robert Bowne Parsons. (Bowne House Archives)

The Bowne House is proud to have this daybed crafted three centuries ago in its collection, linked to such important historical figures and such an illustrious family. One can imagine the first Cadwallader Colden resting on the daybed and writing about his botanical collections, a narrative most fitting for the Bowne House!

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Sources & Further Reading

Cadwallader Colden, The Lieutenant governor declares he will do nothing in relation to the stamps, but leave it to Sir Henry Moore, to do as he pleases, on his arrival. : Council chamber, New-York, Nov. 2, 1765. By order of His Honour Gw. Banyar, d. cl. Con., New-York Historical Society Museum & Library, Broadsides

Colden, Cadwallader and John G. Shea. The History of the Five Indian Nations Depending on the Province of New-York…. New York , 3rd edition, 1755, Lockyer Davis, London, New- York Historical Society Museum & Library; See also Hathi Trust, volume one  and  volume 2

Colden, Cadwallader David-Biographical Information, Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (accessed March 16, 2021)

Colden, Cadwallader, The letters and papers of Cadwallader Colden …1771- [1775]. New York, Printed for the New York Historical Society, 1918-37

Devine, Joseph, The Colden Family of Early America, Coldengham Preservation &  Historical Society, New York, 2011

Dixon, John M, Cadwallader Colden: Empire, Science and Intellectual Culture in British New York, Cornell University Press, 2016

Engelman, F. L. “Cadwallader Colden and the New York Stamp Act Riots”, The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 10, no. 4, (1953) pp. 560-578, (accessed March 16, 2021) 

Knowles, Charles E. Hon. Cadwallader D. Colden, Statesman, Patriot, Humanitarian, A Discourse delivered before the Flushing Historical Society, October 31, 1945 (abridged)

New-York Historical Society Museum & Library Digital Collections, Documents relating to Cadwallader Colden  and Documents Relating to Cadwallader D. Colden (accessed March 16, 2021)

New York State Archives Digital Collections, Documents relating to Cadwallader Colden (accessed March 16, 2021) 

Schwartz, Seymour I., Cadwallader Colden: A Biography. Amherst, New York: Humanity Books, an imprint of Prometheus Books, 2013

[i] We gratefully acknowledge a grant from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network for the wood assessment of these furniture objects in the collection.

The William and Mary (Penn) High Chest

By Emily Vieyra-Haley, Bowne House Educator and Ellen Spindler, Bowne House Collection Volunteer, with research assistance by Charlotte Jackson, Bowne House Archivist

The Bowne House is a historic landmark built in 1661, located in Flushing, Queens. It is the oldest surviving house in this borough, as well as the second oldest in New York State. Upon entering the original room of the Bowne House, known as the 1661 room, one piece of furniture which immediately catches the eye is the high chest along the far wall. It is estimated to have been built in Flushing between 1700 and 1725 and is made of red gum. Standing over five feet tall, the upper portion contains three long and three short drawers, while the lower portion has three short drawers fitted with brass handles and escutcheons.

William and Mary High Chest

A high chest (also known as a highboy) is a low set of wide drawers with another, narrower set of drawers set on top. Highboys were popular in England and in early eighteenth-century America and, like the Dutch-style cupboards known as kasten, were often used for storing clothing and linens. The Bowne House highboy was made in the early Baroque or William and Mary style, named after the Dutch-English monarchs William and Mary of Orange, rulers of England from 1689–1702. “Elaborate turnings, carvings in high relief, severe curves, large unified shapes, and contrasts of color” are hallmarks of this style as described in Butler and Johnson’s Field Guide to American Antique Furniture. 

Detail of a brass handle and escutcheon; Attribution: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

from the William and Mary High Chest

Highboy in the Bowne House, c. 1899 

(Bowne House Archives)

According to decorative arts specialist Dean F. Failey, former director of the East Hampton Historical Society and former curator of the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, few New York William and Mary high chests survive, but several existing examples have three drawers across the top of the chest similar to this one, an arrangement not usually found on New England examples. In addition, Failey notes that the “combination of two deep side drawers in the lower section, a broad mid-section molding, and a light cornice molding also appears on two high chests associated with western Long Island or New York City.”

As with many prized pieces of furniture passed down from generation to generation, this one has many tales to tell. There are conflicting anecdotes as to the commission of the piece. Family tradition holds that the chest was a gift from fellow Quaker William Penn’s daughter Letitia to John Bowne’s daughter Hannah, in honor of her 1691 marriage to Benjamin Field. This initially seemed plausible in that John Bowne and William Penn are known to have been both friends and business partners. This narrative, printed in Country Living in December 1992, dated the piece to 1695. However, it must be noted that the highboy, given its style, was more likely created between 1700 and 1725, after John Bowne’s death. Information in our archives indicates that it may have been crafted by Samuel Clement (ca. 1685–post 1760). Dean Failey describes Samuel as active as a woodworking artisan between 1715 and 1726.

Samuel’s father James Clement (ca.1640-1725) was an indentured servant to John Bowne. John Bowne entered into a contract of indenture with him for six years on May 30, 1663, when John was in the Netherlands pursuing his appeal to the Dutch West India Company. On June 9, 1663, John Bowne wrote a letter to his wife Hannah alerting her that James would be preceding him home. Some scholars have suggested that the Clements were of French Huguenot ancestry, but family history and new research suggests the family originated in England. James, who served as both town clerk and as a cabinetmaker-joiner, clearly passed on his skills to Samuel.

High Chest at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library 

(Winterthur Museum Collections)

The Winterthur Museum has a nearly identical high chest in its collections with an inscription on the front of the backboard showing that it was made by Samuel Clement in 1726. The inscription states, “This was made in year 1726 by me Samuel Clement of Flushing June.” The text of the signature may have been Samuel’s assertive declaration of artistic attribution distinct from his father James, who had died the previous year. This high chest was actually appraised by Samuel Clement in 1760 when it was still in the inventory of its original owner, a member of the Quaker Lawrence family in Flushing.

Samuel’s signature in the inscription has been verified as matching his 1760 appraisal handwriting, placing the Winterthur high chest in the very small group of signed or labelled American William and Mary style furniture. According to Dean Failey, it is a “key piece of furniture in establishing the existence of a talented school of New York and western Long Island cabinetmaking.” Winterthur’s records confirm that the high chest was originally owned by the Lawrence family of Flushing. Additionally, Dean Failey has attributed two other almost identical examples in private collections to James or Samuel Clement. This lends credence to the possibility that either Samuel Clement or his father crafted or assisted with the Bowne House highboy.

Samuel Clement inscription on High Chest at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library

(Winterthur Museum Collections)

Highboy with figures in period costume, c. 1957 (Bowne House Archives)

During one of the most recent assessments of the highboy by the Museum Advisory board, a thorough examination revealed that the drawers had not been opened for some time, for when they were, the Board found that the illustrious highboy had most recently been fitted and used to store cutlery! This explains its location in the dining room. Such resourcefulness, with a Quaker ethos of thrift, and familial sense of history and legacy, have perhaps been reasons why so many Bowne family possessions still survive to this day. The highboy is now serving another purpose: educating visitors about more than three hundred years of history at the Bowne House.

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Sources & Further Reading

Brincat, Lauren. “John Bowne’s Flushing: Material Life on a Dutch Frontier, 1745-1700.” M.A. Thesis, Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, 2014.

Brincat, Lauren. “Made in 1726 by Me Samuel Clement.” Long Ago - Long Island. Facts and Artifacts from Long Island’s Past (blog). August 12, 2014.  

Butler, Joseph T. and Kathleen Eagen Johnson. Field Guide to American Antique Furniture: A Unique Visual System for Identifying the Style of Virtually Any Piece of American Antique Furniture. United States: Henry Holt and Company, 1986.

Collison, Kim, Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library. “New York Furniture and Its Diverse Beginnings.” Winterthur Unreserved. Museum and Library Blog. February 18, 2015. 

Failey, Dean. Long Island Is My Nation: The Decorative Arts & Craftsmen, 1640-1830. 2nd ed. New York: Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1998, pp. 9-13, 9-14, 39-40, Appendix I, Long Island Woodworking Craftsmen. 1640-1830, pp.228, 272.

Kamil, Neil. Fortress of the Soul: Violence, Metaphysics, and Material Life in the Huguenots' New World, 1517-1751. United States: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.

Krill, Rosemary Troy. Early American Decorative Arts, 1620-1820, A Handbook for Interpreters, (American Association for State and Local History), Rowman & Littlefield 2010.

Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library. Accessed January 22, 2021. 

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• We gratefully acknowledge a grant from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network for the wood assessment of this and other furniture objects in the collection.

The George Fox Daybed: A Sacred Symbol

By Elise Helmers, Bowne House Executive Director, with research assistance from Charlotte Jackson, Bowne House Archivist

This month we shine a spotlight on a daybed that has become a symbol of the legacy of religious tolerance at the Bowne House.

The George Fox Daybed (Bowne House Archives)

The George Fox Daybed is currently on display in the 1661 room of the Bowne House, a historic landmark, located in Flushing, Queens. The Bowne House is the oldest surviving house in this borough, as well as the second oldest in New York City and New York State. Before the addition of adjoining rooms in the years following the site’s original construction, this space made up the entirety of the home. It functioned as the center of all daily activity for the Bowne family, as well as a meeting place for members of the Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers. Whether this is where the daybed was situated throughout the family’s occupancy remains unknown, but the current placement of the daybed in this room can be reliably traced to the late-nineteenth century due to photographic evidence.

Constructed in the William and Mary style, the daybed is made of oak and is believed by art historian Dean Failey to have been built sometime between the years 1690 and 1730. The spherical and cylindrical shapes of the eight legs and adjoining stretchers are characteristic of the turned component parts oftentimes found in this style of furniture. Their rounded forms are mirrored in the backrest’s arched crest rail, which is flanked by urn-shaped finials. Intended for rest and relaxation, the inclined slope of the leather-covered backrest and the addition of a cushion atop the bed frame allowed for comfortable reclining after a day of arduous work. In his book Long Island Is My Nation: The Decorative Arts and Craftsmen, 1640-1830, Failey suggests the “relative simplicity of the turnings and the similarity of the stiles of the stationary back with those on locally made chairs lend support to an American attribution," but the exact origins of the daybed are currently unknown. Research relating to this piece is still ongoing and includes an upcoming wood assessment project.[i] The results of this study will potentially reveal the approximate time period, species of wood, and location in which the daybed was constructed.

In addition to its historical importance as both functional and decorative object, the centuries-old lore of the daybed is connected to one of the most significant events associated with the home and its early residents: George Fox’s visit to the Bowne House in 1672. It is well-known that Fox, a founder of the Religious Society of Friends, stayed at the house during the course of his North American travels in the early 1670s. His visit was a momentous occasion for John Bowne and his family, as Fox was effectively recognizing their residence as the center of the Quaker community in Flushing.  According to later familial accounts of this occurrence, George Fox slept on the daybed during his stay. Discrepancies between the date of his visit and the estimated age of the piece raise questions about the reality of this account, but regardless of these contradictions, the story has remained important to the history of the Bowne family for nearly three centuries due to Fox’s renowned reputation. At a minimum, the daybed serves a symbolic function in reference to this historic moment.

George Fox’s visit to the American colonies was prompted by a series of events in the mid-seventeenth century, beginning with his imprisonment. In the 1650s, he was arrested in his native England for questioning common law due to his religious convictions. During the period of Fox’s incarceration, his fellow Quaker, John Perrot, proceeded to argue against a number of common practices within the Religious Society of Friends, including shaking hands at the conclusion of meetings. After Fox’s release from jail in 1666, he sought to reverse Perrot’s far-reaching influence by preaching in communities throughout the New World. According to Kenneth L. Caroll in his essay “Some Thoughts on George Fox’s Visit to America in 1672” (1972), Fox “did not come to America primarily to break new ground or to proclaim his message in areas where Quakerism had not yet appeared.” Instead, “his chief attention was given to the established Quaker communities which had been in existence for some years.” By August 1672, he and his companions had arrived in the colony of New York.

Postcard illustration of George Fox preaching between the Fox Oaks (Bowne House Archives)

 Prior to his North American visit, George Fox was familiar with the Bowne family’s contributions to Quakerism, as he had met John Bowne during the course of the latter’s exile in England in 1663. As notable members of the Quaker community in Queens, their home was a logical stop on George Fox’s thirteen-month long east coast route. It was during Fox’s sojourn in Flushing that he gave his famous sermon between two oak trees on the Bowne property. According to historical accounts, the crowd of Quakers who gathered to hear him preach at the home was far too large to fit inside its relatively small interior. To accommodate the unexpected size of the group, Fox moved his speech across the street, between two large trees that later became known as the Fox Oaks. In his autobiography, George Fox recalls his visit to Flushing and this sermon: “From Oyster Bay, we passed about thirty miles to Flushing where we had a very large meeting, many hundreds of people being there; some of whom came about thirty miles to it. A glorious and heavenly meeting it was (praised be the Lord God!), and the people were much satisfied.”

The Fox Oaks Stone, c. 1907 (Bowne House Archives)

The public response to Fox’s Flushing visit is indicative of his wide-reaching influence within Quaker communities, despite ideological opposition from Perrot. Today, the memory of this event is preserved in numerous ways, including through an inscribed stone monument that designates the spot of the Fox Oaks sermon. Less officially, the George Fox Daybed has become a relic commemorating the Bowne family’s associations with the Religious Society of Friends. Notwithstanding the remaining questions concerning provenance and attribution currently being researched, by the late-nineteenth century, family members had created a type of homemade shrine for the daybed that still exists today. Visitors to the Bowne House will see the daybed arranged in the corner of the 1661 room beside the fireplace and below a portrait of George Fox.       

View of the Hall, c. 1899 (Bowne House Archives)

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Sources

Carroll, Kenneth L. “Some Thoughts on George Fox’s Visit to America in 1672.” Quaker History, vol. 61, no. 2, 1972, pp.82-90.

Failey, Dean. Long Island Is My Nation: The Decorative Arts & Craftsmen, 1640-1830. 2nd ed., Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, 1998.

Fox, George. George Fox: An Autobiography, edited by Rufus M. Jones. Philadelphia, Ferris & Leach, 1919, pp. 85.

Safford, Francis Gruber. American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007.

Vincent, Nicholas C. “American Furniture, 1620-1730: The Seventeenth-Century and William and Mary Styles.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010, https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/will/hd_will.htm.

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[i] We gratefully acknowledge a grant from the Greater Hudson Heritage Network for the wood assessment of these furniture objects in the collection.

Thomas Bowne's Crutch: Tale of an Unexpected Encounter

By Charlotte Jackson, Archival Consultant to the Bowne House and Ellen Spindler, Bowne House Collection Volunteer

One Bowne House artifact that always fascinates visitors—especially schoolchildren—is the wooden crutch with which John Bowne’s father Thomas allegedly killed a bear.

Thomas Bowne’s Crutch or “Staff”

The story of the crutch has been passed down through Bowne family tradition. This 1897 archival photograph of the Parlor reveals that it was already treated as a cherished family artifact in the 19th century, displayed in the same wood and glass case it occupies today.

The crutch on display in the Bowne House Parlor, 1897.

DOCUMENTATION OF THE CRUTCH STORY

An early Bowne House tour script found in the Bowne House Archives relates the crutch story. Although unsigned, it is in the hand of Mabel Parsons (1872-1964), daughter of the noted landscape architect Samuel Parsons, Jr. and herself a Bowne descendant. The script may belong to the days when the Parsons Sisters, Anna and Bertha, lived in the House and offered tours featuring first-hand family lore. Her notes read as follows:

“Cane in Case –   Thomas Bowne’s – with which he killed a Bear in Woods on Bowne Street about 1650. Thomas Bowne was walking from the little house he had built on the site of the Flag Pole at the High School on Northern Boulevard to Bowne Street, when the Bear rushed out at him from the Woods and Thomas Bowne thrust his cane down the Bear’s throat and killed him. Thomas Bowne was the father of John Bowne who built the Bowne House and this story is absolutely true as it is told by Samuel Parsons in his Diary.”

Site marker from the Folklore Society. Photo: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

The 1650 date must be approximate, as John Bowne first visited Flushing in 1651 and the family moved sometime between then and 1656. The original family cabin near the future Flushing High School, a five-minute walk from the Bowne House, would not have been built until that time. Thomas Bowne’s cabin remained standing until the 1830’s.

Another unattributed tour script from the early decades of the Museum describes the crutch as a “Staff,” and situates the bear attack “on the Turnpike, now Northern Boulevard.” The Turnpike occasionally crops up as a landmark in our 17th century Flushing land deeds, suggesting that present-day Northern Boulevard served as a major artery for the area as far back as the 1650’s. The crutch was also cataloged in record books where details of the Museum’s collection were kept in a time before computerized databases. Here we first hear of Thomas Bowne’s nickname:

Item Description: “John Bowne’s father was known as ‘Lame Thomas’ who walked with a limp and used this crutch to travel around. Family legend states that Thomas was walking through the forests of Queens when he was confronted by a black bear. His only defense was his crutch so he shoved it in the bear’s mouth and choked it to death.”

THOMAS BOWNE (1595-1677)

We know little of Thomas Bowne aside from this anecdote. He was born in “County Derby,” England in 1595 and died at Flushing in 1677 at the age of 82. His will describes him as a “Yeoman,” a freeholder or farmer who owned his own land. After his wife Mary died in 1647, Thomas lived for 30 years as a widower, which was unusual in the 17th century. Thomas emigrated from England to Boston in 1649 with his son John and daughter Dorothy. They continued to retain a share of Lime Tree Farm, the family property in their hometown of Matlock.

After a short time in Boston, the family relocated to Vlissingen (later Flushing), a settlement then part of New Netherland that had many English residents. Thomas built a cabin there and John resided with him until he married Hannah Winthrop Feake in 1656, building the Bowne House by 1661. In 1676 Thomas signed a deed of gift conferring his interest in the family farm at Matlock, England to John, from “natural affection and fatherly love,” but also “for divers other good causes and consideracions, mee thereunto especially moving.”

Thomas’s injury may have made it difficult to earn a livelihood as a farmer in the semi-wilderness of Long Island, let alone provide for a spouse; there is some documentation, including the above deed and his Will, that he relied on his son to support him in whole or part for some years. His limp notwithstanding, “Lame” Thomas Bowne evidently proved more than a match for the unlucky bear. Today, his crutch has been restored to its previous place in the Parlor, standing sentry outside what was formerly called the  William Penn bedroom. His legend lives on for another generation of visitors.

HOW THE CRUTCH WAS PASSED DOWN IN THE FAMILY

Photo: Stefan Dreisbach-Williams

The following inscription appears above the crutch in its display case:

Staff of Thomas Bowne, émigré 1649 (with which he is said to have killed the bear). Presented by Jas: B. Parsons to Richard Hartshorne Bowne. By his daughter, Mrs. Isaac F. Wood, returned to the “Old Bowne House,” 1893

The inscription describes the crutch as “presented by” Jas B. Parsons. James Bowne Parsons (1809-1894) was the eldest son of Samuel Parsons and Mary Bowne, and brother to Mary, Samuel, Robert, William, and Jane Parsons. James was a merchant in New York City, unlike his brothers who were involved in the family horticulture business. Their father Samuel Parsons (1774-1841), whose diary is credited with recording the bear story, married John Bowne’s great-great-granddaughter, Mary Bowne.

James Bowne Parsons and Richard Hartshorne Bowne (1810-1881), the recipient of the crutch, were second cousins and also brothers-in-law through their marriage to sisters Eliza and Emily Cock. Their shared great-grandparent was John Bowne II, who resided in the house until 1757.  Richard Hartshorne Bowne was also a grandson of the renowned Robert Bowne, founder of Bowne Printing Company and trustee of the New York Manumission Society.

Richard’s daughter Sarah E. Bowne (1844-1916), who returned the crutch to the Bowne House in 1893, married Isaac F. Wood. Wood was a founder and librarian of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society of New York and owned a historic medallion collection. Sarah herself became the first female member of the Society and was elected a “resident life member” in 1878. Given this background, she was well equipped to appreciate the artifactual value of the heirloom she inherited. Clearly the crutch was a cherished family object passed down from generation to generation until finally returned to its rightful home.