When the news of King James’ overthrow reached New York, a Captain Jacob Leisler, who had lived in New York for about thirty years and was a deacon in the Reformed Dutch Church, decided that he would not pay customs duties to a king’s representative who was himself a Catholic. Leisler was in the business of importing liquors and other merchandise into New York. One of his vessels came into the harbor on April 29, 1689, loaded with wine from Europe. Leisler refused to pay the $100 customs duties. He argued that the collector, named Plowman, was a Catholic and was not qualified to receive the customs under the new Protestant regime in Britain. Leister’s stand threw the city and military officials into a dither. There was a hastily called meeting of the counsellors, alderman and military officials in the city to discuss this development. The majority ruling was that the system of collecting duties would continue as it had in the past until other orders were received from William of Orange. Leisler would have no part of this ruling. He told the assembly he would not pay the tax and he stalked out of the meeting room to discover he was not alone in his opposition to the customs duties. Other merchants saw an opportunity in this situation and joined his side. The result was that Captain Leisler and his friends organized an uprising against Lieutenant Governor Nicholson. Leisler reached such a position of power that he drove out those in charge of the Customs service and appointed his own man, Peter DeLansy, as a collector. The British finally hanged Captain Leisler for his role in this revolt and in April, 1696, appointed the Earl of Bellomont as Governor General over New York and New England. The Earl was not a man to brook any nonsense such as the nonpayment of customs to the royal treasury. He restricted the Colonies’ trade with New York and Albany and forbade the shipment of merchandise up the Hudson River unless duties were paid at New York. The collectors appointed by the Earl of Bellomont had a rather difficult time of it. The merchants of New York were, to be charitable, unreliable when it came to the payment of customs duties. In fact, smuggling was a popular practice. In one instance a cargo of merchandise from the East Indies was ordered seized but the officers who went to make the seizure simply disappeared. Then it was learned that the sheriff himself was hiding the merchandise in his own home.