It was May 1691, just days before summer. But this would not be remembered as a beautiful spring day; instead, it was the day of a gruesome public execution on what is now City Hall Park. 

In the year 1660, a young Jacob Leisler from Frankfurt, Germany, sailed to New Amsterdam with the Dutch army. When the English took over in 1664, Leisler stayed and entered the fur and tobacco trade. The wealth he made from trading allowed him to purchase the land where One Pace Plaza would be built centuries later. Leisler’s wealth made him a leading citizen, and he held several government positions under English rule. 

The idea of rebellion did not come to Leisler until 1688, when King James II was overthrown by the leader of the Netherlands. William of Orange, who was also the father-in-law of James’ daughter, Mary. When the news broke in New Amsterdam, Jacob Leisler started a rebellion against the existing government in favor of William and Mary. For two years, the Leisler Rebellion controlled New Amsterdam in the name of the Dutch King without any legal authority. When Henry Sloughter, the newly appointed royal governor, moved to New Amsterdam, Leisler relinquished his control to him. Regardless of the fact that he willingly gave up the governing role, Sloughter charged Leisler and his son-in-law, Jacob Milbourne, with treason and murder.

Leisler and Milbourne were convicted and sentenced to a public hanging on the land that would later become City Hall Park. Under English law, conviction of treason also included being drawn and quartered, a common and brutal punishment for treason at the time. 

When asked to explain this act, Pace Professor Bill Offutt, a Faculty Advisor for the Pforzheimer Honors College and the Executive Assistant to the Dean for Arts and Sciences, shared his research:

“To quote Wikipedia on the ‘dawn’ part, presumably from the court record: they were to be hanged ‘by the Neck and being Alive their bodies be Cutt downe to Earth and Their Bowells to be taken out and they being Alive, burnt before their faces….’  Then their arms and legs get attached to four horses, which then gallop off in different directions, tearing the body apart.”

This punishment was carried out on Leisler and Milbourne on May 16, 1691. Leisler was 51, and Milbourne was 46. After the execution, Leisler’s body parts were gathered and buried on his land, now the site of One Pace Plaza. However, before his remains could be fully recovered, Governor Henry Sloughter’s wife allegedly cut out Leisler’s heart and paraded around with it, saying, “This is the heart of a traitor.” Because of this act, Leisler was not buried with his heart, and its location has remained a mystery ever since. 

To commemorate Leisler’s legacy, the University dedicated a memorial plaque in his honor in 1974, attended by his American descendants. Years later, Professor Offutt started a Valentine’s Day tradition to symbolically “return” Leisler’s heart. 

“Some years ago, I wanted to hold a ceremony to ‘return’ Leisler’s heart to his body—it was Valentine’s Day and I was going to get a pig’s heart from a butcher, but I couldn’t make that happen, so we just laid flowers by his plaque,” Offutt said.  “It would have made for a great tradition for Pace…every Valentine’s Day, returning Leisler’s heart to his body on B-level.”

Five years ago, the plaque was moved during construction in One Pace Plaza and has since gone missing. If found, the tradition of bringing back Leisler’s heart could be just what the University needs. The last known location of the plaque was on the ground floor of One Pace Plaza, near the Lubin School of Business.