Bad Dominie: A Misogynist Minister and the Glorious Revolution in Ulster County
Presented by Evan Haefeli

January 30th, 2025, 7:00pm, Zoom

In the fall of 1688, a Dutch army led by Prince William of Orange invaded England and overthrew its reigning monarch, James II, because he was a Roman Catholic who was promoting Roman Catholic interests more than his Protestant British subjects could tolerate. In England, where almost nobody died during this invasion, this surprisingly peaceful return to Protestant rule seemed like a divine intervention. There, the event came to be known as the Glorious Revolution. In Ireland, where Irish Catholics fought for James’ right to the throne, the change in rulers was unwelcome and disastrous. For New York, the change was unexpected and perplexing, because it was named after James, who been the Duke of York before he became king, and it had been governed by James ever since the English conquered the territory from the Dutch in 1664.

When news of the Glorious Revolution finally arrived in New York in the spring of 1689, some colonists, like the Protestant patriot Jacob Leisler, were delighted. Others, including most of the elite in Albany and Ulster County, hesitated. When Leisler then led a revolt that overthrew the rulers appointed by King James, it divided New York into two parties. Those who supported his enthusiastic support for the international Protestant cause, and cautious conservatives who believed Leisler and his followers were dangerous ideologues. In Albany and New York violent confrontations took place between Leislerians and anti-Leislerians.

Ulster County, by contrast, was distracted by a scandal involving Kingston’s Dutch Reformed minister, a man of Walloon origins named Lawrence van den Bosch. Fluent in French, Dutch, and English, he had seemed like the perfect man to preside over Ulster’s mixed population of Dutch, Huguenot, and English colonists. Unfortunately, Van den Bosch had issues with women, especially his wife, who was related to Albany’s elite. An investigation started just before Leisler’s revolt broke out revealed that Van den Bosch had also been harassing many of the women in his congregation. The extraordinary testimony that gave provides a rare glimpse of local life. It also reveals that Van den Bosch had something of a persecution complex. Rather than accept the judgement of New York’s other Dutch ministers, he headed out to the countryside around Hurely. With their support, he defied the authorities in Kingston for several years until Leisler’s revolt ultimately collapsed.

Historians quickly forgot this strange incident at the controversial Dominie (Dutch Reformed minister) at its center. This talk brings it all back to life to illuminate early Ulster history, and how the community responded to a badly behaved minister who seems to have had a strong love-hate relationship with women. As a result, we have access to women’s voices from a time and place where they are usually almost impossible to find, giving a rare glimpse of local life in the seventeenth century.

About the Presenter

An historian of colonial North America and the Atlantic world at Texas A&M University, Evan Haefeli specializes in the political, religious, Indigenous, and imperial history of the colonial northeast. Born and raised on eastern Long Island, New York, he previously taught at Princeton University, where he received his PhD, as well as Tufts, Columbia University, and the London School of Economics. He has held a variety of fellowships, most recently from the NEH and is currently a Fulbright Lecturer teaching American History in Tokyo. His published books relating to colonial American and early New York history include New Netherland and the Dutch Origins of American Religious Liberty, Accidental Pluralism: America and the Religious Politics of English Expansion, and (with Kevin Sweeney), Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield. This talk is part of a longstanding research project of his on New York and the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689, a decisive and divisive turning point in early New York history.