rging sixpence for receiving and dispatching letters by man-o'-war to
England, he brought a storm about his ears, and was forced to give up
the practise. He continued in charge until peace came, and Cornelius
Bradford came with it to resume proprietorship of the coffee house.

Bradford changed the name to the New York coffee house, but the public
continued to call it by its original name, and the landlord soon gave
in. He kept a marine list, giving the names of vessels arriving and
departing, recording their ports of sailing. He also opened a register
of returning citizens, "where any gentleman now resident in the city,"
his advertisement stated, "may insert their names and place of
residence." This seems to have been the first attempt at a city
directory. By his energy Bradford soon made the Merchants coffee house
again the business center of the city. When he died, in 1786, he was
mourned as one of the leading citizens. His funeral was held at the
coffee house over which he had presided so well.

The Merchants coffee house continued to be the principal public
gathering place until it was destroyed by fire in 1804. During its
existence it had figured prominently in many of the local and national
historic events, too numerous to record here in detail.

Some of the famous events were: The reading of the order to the
citizens, in 1765, warning them to stop rioting against the Stamp Act;
the debates on the subject of not accepting consignments of goods from
Great Britain; the demonstration by the Sons of Liberty, sometimes
called the "Liberty Boys," made before Captain Lockyer of the tea ship
Nancy which had been turned away from Boston and sought to land its
cargo in New York in 1774; the general meeting of citizens on May 19,
1774, to discuss a means of communicating with the Massachusetts colony
to obtain co-ordinated effort in resisting England's oppression, out of
which came the letter suggesting a congress of deputies from the
colonies and calling for a "virtuous and spirited Union;" the mass
meeting of citizens in the days immediately following the battles at
Concord and Lexington in Massachusetts; and the forming of the Committee
of One Hundred to administer the public business, making the Merchants
coffee house virtually the seat of government.

When the American Army held the city in 1776, the coffee house became
the resort of army and navy officers. Its culminating glory came on
April 23, 1789, when Washingto