Anthony Colve

Anthony or Anthonij Colve (Veere, 1644 – Veere, 29 June 1693) was a Dutch captain of Marines and the Governor-General of New Netherland during a brief restoration of Dutch rule in New Netherland during the Third Anglo-Dutch War.

Personal life
Colve was the son of Jacob Colve, a scion of an old Veere family, and Maria de Margenault. His widowed mother bought an annuity for him in 1653, which would pay out until his death in 1693. Colve married Margarethe "Griton" de Quade. Two daughters and a son are known of this marriage. His son Jacob Lambert Colve (died 1723) was mayor of Veere and a member of the States of Zeeland from 1717 to 1722.

Career
Of Colve's early life is little known, except that he made his profession as a member of the Dutch Reformed Church in Veere in 1664.

Early military career
Colve was involved in the recapture of Suriname from the English by a Zeeland squadron led by Abraham Crijnssen in March 1667 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Crijnssen made him an ensign, and he remained behind in the fortress that the Dutch had captured, after Crijnssen left. After the Peace of Breda an English fleet, that did not know the peace had been signed, invaded Suriname and retook the colony. Colve was made a prisoner of war and interned on Barbados. He was eventually brought to London, and released, a year after the peace.

Upon his return in 1668, he was posted as an ensign in until 1670, when he became a captain at Fort Lillo. During this time Colve was court-martialled for the loss of his flag during the recapture of Suriname by the English. He was eventually exonerated on the exact day prince William III of Orange was inaugurated as "First Noble"in the States of Zeeland in 1668, in defiance of the Perpetual Edict. In 1672, he moved with his troops to Veere.

Recapture of New Netherland
After the beginning of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, which was part of the Franco-Dutch War, in 1672, the Zeeland authorities in deepest secret planned a naval expedition to do their enemies harm and earn appreciable sums from prizes that might be captured in the course of it. The leadership of the expedition was entrusted to admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest. Colve, now a captain, was made the officer commanding the 64 marines aboard the flagship of the squadron commanded by Evertsen, the Swaenenburgh. The squadron marauded along the coast of present-day Suriname and the ''Wild Coast, and other parts of the Caribbean, before starting up the coast of the English colonies in North-America. In Virginia Evertsen and Jacob Binckes, the commander of another Dutch squadron, from the Admiralty of Amsterdam, that had joined the Zeeland squadron in the Caribbean, learned that governor Lovelace of colonial New York, which only recently had been New Netherland, before the English had captured it in 1664, was absent in Hartford, Connecticut, conferring with the governor of that colony, John Winthrop the Younger. They therefore decided to recapture the colony, and invaded it on Wednesday 30 July 1673. Colve led the landing party of about 600 marines that took the former New Amsterdam. Colve landed to the north of the city and then marched down Broadway street (formerly Heeren straat). The Dutch colonists cheered along the way and joined the force. Arriving before Fort James, which had been severely bombarded by the Dutch squadron (now 19 ships, including prizes) he demanded its surrender. The garrison commander, captain John Manning, agreed to capitulate, after he was granted the honours of war. So the English troops marched out, flags flying and drums beating, and then laid down their arms. They were made prisoners of war and housed for the night in the Dutch Reformed Church within the wall of the fort.The next day they were brought aboard the ships.



Governor-general of New Orange
After the city was thus taken over, Evertsen and Binckes formed a krijgsraad (council of war) in which Colve also took a seat, that provisionally governed the colony. Colve was appointed "Governor-General" by the krijgsraad on 12 August 1673. The territory he was to administer ran from Cape Henlopen to North river. This encompassed the area that had been formerly the Dutch colony of New Netherland as it existed up to 1664. Colve was to be assisted by a council consisting of Cornelius Steenwyk, as main advisor in legal matters; Nicholas Bayard as clerk of the council; and Cornelis Eewoutsen as superintendent of fortifications and gunnery. Evertsen and Binckes, realizing that Dutch control of the colony was still precarious sent out commissioners to demand submission from outlying townships in Delaware, New Jersey and Long Island (all previously part of New Netherland). At the same time they ordered those communities to reform their local governments on the Dutch model of burgomasters, schout, and schepenen, which colleges were to be appointed by the Dutch krijgsraad that temporarily administered "New Orange" (as New York was re-christened). The communities were to this end to elect commissions that would nominate dubbeltallen (double lists of nominees) for the krijgsraad to select from. Most communities, intimidated by the Dutch military presence at New Orange, at least promised compliance, though in some cases with evident misgivings. The krijgsraad also received delegations of Mohawks and Hackensack people, who expressed a desire to have peaceful relations with the new administration. Evertsen and Binckes started a program of reinforcement of both the Manhattan fortress (now re-christend fort Willem Hendrick) and the fort near Albany/Beverwyck which had been re-christened Fort Nassau (Albany became Willemstad). At the end of August Evertsen and Binckes started to make preparations to leave with the greater part of the fleet, to continue their naval expedition, to the distress of the Dutch colonists, who were afraid they would be left to the mercy of their English neighbors without the protection of the fleet. To alleviate that distress Evertsen decided to leave the warships Zeehond and Suriname behind. The remainder of the fleet left on 18 September 1673.

Colve began his administration on 19 September 1673. He ostensibly restored the laws as they had been under the regime of the Dutch West India Company (WIC), but in reality he assumed more powers than previous Directors had done. Colve put the colony under military discipline with harsh punishments for transgressions of the Dutch Articles of War as promulgated for the Dutch States Army. He repeatedly threatened English settlements on Long Island to make them submit to Dutch rule. He met resistance in especially the eastern part of Long Island, an area that was also of interest to governor Winthrop of the Connecticut Colony. There ensued a "tug-of-war" between Colve's commissioners, and the Connecticut commissioners, led by Fitz-John Winthrop, the son of the governor, for the favor of the Long Island colonists, which ended in a victory for Connecticut.

The Dutch settlements in the South of New Netherland were also threatened. The proprietor of the Maryland Colony, Lord Baltimore had even in 1672, while the area was in English hands, claimed the Delaware part of the proprietorship of New Jersey. When the area swore allegiance to the regime in New Orange, his son Charles Calvert, the acting governor of Maryland, sent troops to the Dutch settlement of Whorekill (Hoerenkil in Dutch) who burned it down in December 1673, and left the inhabitants destitute and homeless in mid-Winter. Colve was unable to do anything about it, but he saw to it that the refugees received shelter in New Orange.

Initially the English colonists in New England had adopted a wait-and-see attitude toward the new regime in New Netherland. This changed, however, after an English privateer took the buss Expectation, a prize that Colve had sent to the Netherlands with important correspondence, in November 1673. Colve sent the snauw, called Zeehond, on a privateering mission on the Long Island Sound, which captured four Massachusetts ketches in retaliation. This motivated the Massachusetts government to get serious about mobilizing troops and warships to deal with the Dutch. As it was clear that the Dutch in New Netherland stood little chance against the combined might of the New Englanders if the conflict got serious, Colve embarked on a policy of improving the defenses of New Netherland. The militia companies of the outlying Dutch settlements on the East River and further east on Long Island were mobilized; a new company of foot was raised under the command of councillor Steenwyck; and serious measures were taken to improve the defenses of Fort Willem Hendrick.

The worsened relations with New England also engendered fears of spies and agitators. There was an incident with one Francis Beano, who was apprehended after making threats in the village of Fordham. He readily confessed and was sentenced to branding and banishment as an example. But the incident motivated Colve to put strict controls on the communication with the English settlements. Travelers were enjoined to surrender letters they brought with them to the authorities on entering the colony on pain of a fine, payable in beaver skins at the Wampum exchange rate.

Aware that the outlying villages in the East of the colony would be indefensible in case of an invasion by the New Englanders, Colve made an inspection tour of the area and left strict instructions on how to act in case of such an invasion. The plan was to evacuate the civilian population in that case to New Orange. To prepare for that eventuality Colve ordered that dwellings in the town would be made available, as had earlier been done for the refugees from Hoerenkil.

Meanwhile, relations with the East Riding of Long Island, and its protectors in Connecticut remained tense, with posturing on both sides. All of this added to the siege mentality of the Dutch in New Orange in the Spring of 1674. The Fort was now at full readiness. The garrison had grown to 800 men and the wall was bristling with 180 great guns, while the warship Suriname, anchored before the fort, added its own fire power. Colve ordered the people of the outlying settlements to retreat to the fort fully armed in case of an invasion. Those who shirked that duty were threatened with execution as "tratitors", as were people who would leave the town without authorization during an emergency. To make sure that a sufficient number of boats would be available for the evacuation, Colve ordered that small craft would be concentrated behind a defensive float outside the harbor, under the protection of the guns of the warship and the roundel of the fort.

Transfer of power
However, while all this was going on, events in Europe changed the situation dramatically. Under pressure from Spain, which was ready to come to the aid of the Dutch Republic in its war with France, but refused to do this as long as the war with England was going on, the States General of the Netherlands concluded the Peace of Westminster with king Charles in February 1674. One of the provisions was an exchange of New Netherland for Suriname. Consequently, the States General in April 1674 ordered the Amsterdam and Zeeland admiralties to make preparations for the peaceful transfer of power in New Orange to the English. Formal orders to that effect reached Colve only on 9 October 1674, but the news had already percolated through in early May 1674. The Dutch colonists reacted with rage to the news at the time, because they felt betrayed by the States General and threatened to take out their anger on Colve. But he remained in command and started to make preparations for the transfer. In June the confiscated English possessions were returned to their former owners. The Zeehond and Suriname were sent home to the Netherlands. Colve formally proclaimed the Peace on 1 July 1674, the same day that the Duke of York appointed Edmund Andros the new governor of New York, in England. When that worthy finally arrived at the roadstead of Manhattan, the city was transferred by Colve on 10 November 1674 N.S. (30 October 1674 O.S.). He left Andros his carriage and horses as a courtesy. Colve afterwards went to Suriname, which was now under Dutch rule, on the basis of the Treaty of Westminster, but little is known about his sojourn there.

Later military career
Upon his return to the Dutch Republic he was made a sergeant-major in the Dutch States Army regiment on the Zeeland repartitie under Caspar de Mauregnault in 1679, and lieutenant-colonel under Jacques-Louis Comte de Noyelles on 22 March 1683. He was last reported as a commandeur of Veere in 1693 during the Nine Years' War.

Colve died on 29 June 1693 in Veere, where he was buried in the Grote Kerk.