USA > New York > Schenectady County > Schenectady > A history of the Schenectady patent in the Dutch and English times : being contributions toward a history of the lower Mohawk Valley > Part 35
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KLOKLUYER.
The sexton of the church was called the klokluyer, or bellringer, and his duties seem to have been not only to ring the bell but to keep the benches and seats in proper order and to dig and fill the graves. The earliest mention of this officer by the church records is the following:
" At a Consistory held this 1st July, 1696, it was resolved that Simon Groot, Senior, for ringing the bell and arranging the benches and stools in
* Philip Ryley was catechisatie meester (and probably Voorsanger and doodgraver) of the church of Albany in 1761; in 1767, the church of Schenectady complained that he had taught unsound doctrine and he was called upon by the church of Albany to recant, refusing to do so, they deprived him of his office of Voorlezer, doodgraver etc., and ordered him to vacate his house .- Albany Church Minutes.
+ Cornelius De Graaf was voorzanger 1771 to 1800.
SLATI
y
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the church, shall receive annually out of the income of the church, or out of the deacons' money, the sum of 60 guilders seawant [$7.50], to begin on this 1st July."
Simon Groot, senior, mentioned in this resolution was the first of the name who settled at Schenectady, and the ancestor of all the Groots found in this vicinity. He and his five sons were carried away captive into Canada by the French and Indians in 1690.
The salary of the sexton down to 1735, was 60 guilders or $7.50. This year Hendrick Vrooman filled the office and was succeeded by Joseph Van Sice until 1747, at a yearly stipend of £6 or $15.
Margarita Veeder,* widow of Symon Volkertse Veeder, held the office during the years 1748, for £3-10 or $8.25. .
From 1750 to 1758, Sara Marselis was klokluyer, the duties being per- formed for £4, or $10, " by haar neger Sees."
In 1759, Isaac Quackenbos' neger rang the bell ;- and " Peeter Seesar" (Caesar) from 1760 to 1766, for .€6 per annum.
Jacobus Van Sice was sexton from 1771 to 1791, at a salary of £10, and was succeeded by his son Gysbert, who was dismissed from office in 1799 for an unfortunate indiscretion, as appears from the consistory minutes.t
It would appear from the following resolution of the consistory, that it was the duty of the sexton to preserve order in church during public worship.
" June 8, 1810. Resolved, That the sexton is authorized by this board to maintain due order in church during public worship, and that he shall be indemnified against any legal process, which may arise in consequence of correcting or turning out of church, the unruly and refractory; provided he do not essentially injure, or scandalously abuse any person."
* She lived on the north corner of Union and Church streets.
t " Oct. 25, 1799. A complaint having been delivered in against G. Van Sice, the sexton, that he had delivered the scull of a corpse to the house of Doctor Anderson ; being sent for and interrogated, he finally confessed that he had taken a scull out of the burying yard and delivered it to Mr. Hagaman, student of medicine with Dr. Anderson."
" Resolved, that Van Sice without fail return the scull to-morrow morning and deposite it in presence of one of the members of this board in the place whence it was taken."
" Resolved, moreover, that said Van Sice be and is hereby dismissed from his service as sexton."
"26 Oct., 1799, Mr. James Lighthall was appointed sexton in place of G. Van Sice, removed."
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The Reformed Nether Dutch Church.
BAPTISMS.
The baptismal register (Doep-boek) of this church from 1694 to this time is entire with the exception of ten years during Domine Vrooman's ministry; and as all children were baptized, both colored and Indian as well as white,- legitimate and illegitimate,-it is the only authoritive source, if rightly interpreted, whence the descendants of most of the old Dutch families of this region can derive their pedigrees. In early times baptism was always performed in the church, unless unavoidably prevented and within a few days after birth; sometimes on the birthday. And it was the duty of the Domine to register each child so baptized with parents and witnesses (getuygen) names.
The number of registered baptisms from 1694 to 1852 is 11.396.
MARRIAGES.
The marriage register or Trouw-boek of this church contains the names of 2,543 couples married between the years 1694 and 1852.
Under the Dutch government of New Netherlands, marriage was con- sidered a civil contract, and might be confirmed (bevestight) either by a magistrate or by a minister of the Gospel. Preliminary to such confirma- tion however, due notification of intention of marriage was required. The banns were published three Sundays or market days, by the minister of the church where the parties resided or by a magistrate in court, after which . the marriage could be confirmed by any minister or magistrate on presenta- tion of a certificate (attestatie) of such publication. No particular place was required for the marriage ceremony ;- sometimes it was performed in church, at other times in private houses .*
As it was impossible or inconvenient to comply with the law of publica- tion in all cases, a dispensation and license were granted by the Governor,
* [Little can be learned now of the courtship customs in the early days of the frontier settlements.
" Old maids " were unknown and widows with families of helpful hands were well endowed and in such request that they seldom died in widowhood unless at very advanced age. After a year or sometimes less, they took another husband, a very necessary pro- tection in the sparse settlements of the border lands.
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on the presentation of a "penal bond of £500 that there was no lawful let or impediment " to the marriage.
The first marriage by license recorded in the "Trouw-Boek " of this church was in 1717. (?)
The practice of issuing licenses ceased with the British rule in this State in 1783.
The girls were needed at home and they were also in great demand as huysvrouws (literally house wives) by the bouwers as in all newly settled districts. They needed no fortune save health and strength as their marriage portion.
Until the Revolution the law of primogeniture was generally strictly observed. As a rule, inheritance was by the male line, the daughters having provision for support merely, or some agreed upon dower if they married. The eldest son was the Erfgenaame or heir (patrimony named).
If marriages of convenience were made, the wealth brought the husband was in the bride's strength, housewifely skill and the family influence gained by the match.
According to the Holland custom the Dutch here kept the sexes apart in church, but not elsewhere .*
The settlement was isolated and small. Every one was related to or intimately ac- quainted with every one else, the houses were small, bringing people in close contact, no newspaper, cheap book or circulating library was in existence and they had but their own local affairs to discuss. This enforced an intimacy and familiarity which would be called license now. While it would be intolerable at present, for the small com- munity there then, it had advantages. Faults were well known and criticised and the wrongdoer was sure of punishment either by public opinion or legal condemna- tion .- M'M.]
* [From Notarial Papers of Albany and other sources, tradition being the most prolific as well as the most uncertain, the practice of "bundling " was common in the early days along the whole of both sides of the Hudson river and in all the settlements of the back country .¿ As civilization advanced the practice grew into desuetude and along the great highways of travel it had become uncommon before the close of the last century in the cities and towns of this vicinity.
In searching for information as to such customs the trace is always difficult to follow. They were seldom matters of record, and very old men consulted rarely locate the practice in their own town. In Albany it was said to be a custom along the Mohawk. At Schenectady no one is old enough to remember it as nearer than the Catskills,Helderbergs and Schoharie and German flats. It is difficult to say where the people there locate it. It is like malaria, always over in the next valley.
Records of Albany county show some early cases in this locality. In 1804 the testimony is clear as to the practice in Orange county then and previously (Seager v. Slingerland ; Caine, S. C. Reports).
In Graham v. Smith, 1853, witnesses of the highest respectability testified that that manner of courtship was the universal custom of that part of the country. One lady fifty-six years old said that such had been the custom since she was a little girl.
The court stated that some of the early settlers of the country from the continent of Europe had brought with them the custom, which had been proved in this case. At the time of the Revolution it was generally
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The Reformed Nether Dutch Church.
When a widow or widower with infant children married again, it was customary for the parties to contract with the Orphan's Court guardians, to protect and preserve the property of said children until they arrived at lawful age.
These were called Weesmaster's or Orphan Masters.
FUNERALS.
At funerals " no woman attended the body to the grave, but after the corpse was borne out, remained to eat cakes and drink spiced wine. They retired quietly before the men returned, who resumed the feast and regaled them- selves.
Spiced wine and cakes and pipes were provided, and wine and cakes were sent to the friends of the family. The best room in the house was specially
prevalent in the Dutch settlements on both sides of the Hudson river, insomuch that the idea of anything wrong in it did not prevail. The custom still (1853) lingers in the land, back in the woods and mountains not habitually accessible to the moving, advancing world outside.
Other cases might be referred to.
Stiles' " Bundling " contains much poetry or rhyme devoted to its defence and some in deprecation of the custom as generally practiced in Connecticut. Sermons were preached attacking it and the minister soundly rated for them.
It was doubtless common in most provincial parts of England, Scotland and Wales, and brought to Con- necticut by immigrants from those districts.
Washington Irving refers to the practice and quotes it as imported from Connecticut. It may have been, but it was like carrying coals to New Castle, it was already a time honored and highly respectable custom in the Dutch and German settlements.
Sewall's Dutch-English Dictionary (1708) defines the custom as " Queesten, an odd way of wooing usual in some Sea towns or Isles of Holland," &c.
The derivation of Queesten is not given, but was doubtless analogous to Quest to examine, to discuss, to seek and Queste to question, debate.
We know from dry court records and from tradition that the practice existed. Tradition says that within this century, sermons were preached against it in the Dutch church here and that it was earnestly defended, but thus far neither sermon nor rhyme has been found to compare with Stiles' collection of Connecticut doggerel verse.
Doubtless it was the practice at remote times of all peoples-and was maintained by poor communities in out of the way places from motives of habit or economy ; later it fell into disuse save in the fishing islands, remote nesses or'promontories-out of the way glens or mountain valleys, where the people lived in hardship and poverty, their houses far apart, merely of one or two rooms. and even light and fuel deemed luxuries. In the thinly settled regions of the new world in early days these conditions existed, but the compact settlement of Schenectady was productive of easy social intercourse and the custom was not necessary for very long. It was easy for young people to get up their merry makings and other means of acquaintance which the isolated settlers could not do, but must go to distances after their day's work was done and do their courting in the dark, returning many miles to their work before daybreak .- M'M,]
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appropriated as the ' dead room' and was rarely opened but to be aired and cleaned .*
Wealthy citizens in anticipation of a death in their families, were accus- tomed to procure a cask of wine during their lifetime and preserved it for
* July 14 [1758]. Predikant Vrooman and some of ye quality of ye town attended Prayers in ye Fort in ye Evening.
July 15. Three o'clock P.M. attended ye funeral of Mr. Vrooman's Brother-in-law. After ye people were collected who kept abroad, except the relatives of the Deceased; the clerk proclaimed from ye Stupe before the door, " If any where disposed to see ye corpse they might come in." But few from the many abroad went in ;- the corpse was soon brought out and laid upon the Bier. The coffin was made with a regular Taper from head to foot ; the top like a pitched roof of a house. The relations to remote cousins follow next ye corpse two and two.
The mourners all silent at the grave.
All returned from ye Grave to ye house and drank wine plentifully .- Rev. Daniel Shute's Journal, Essex Inst. Coll., April, 1874.
1718-19 De Erfgename van Rijer Schermerhoorn Dr
Voor Aenspreecken in de Stadt en buijten De Somme van 14sh. Theunis brat
Ano 1719 gülde
Voor het aen spricken van de over leedene Reijer schermerhooren en voor het beegraaven .. 54 en Voor het aen sprecken op nijstakaijoenie. 12 en Voor het Doot kleet. . 6 die bekene Voldaen gulde 72
toe zyn tato dese den 27 April
Jan Vrooman
I will give you a sketch of the manner of burying the dead among the Dutch nobility. When any one was dead the friends would commence to make preparation for the funeral ; in the first place after the corpse was laid out they would send for 35 or 50 gallons of Cherry wine, and some 15 or 22 gallons of it was taken and a compound of spices was put in it and made hot, and the rest was used cold ; also two or three bushels of small sugar cake was made which was called Dote Kooken or dead cake, also three to five pounds of tobacco and from two to three hundred pipes ; then a table was set through the house in every room, on those tables is plates of cake, plates of tobacco and at each side of the plates of tobacco is a number of pipes and a roll of paper done up to light the tobacco ; also candles lit, also wine put up in bottles and set on the table, and wine glasses ; the spice wine was put in silver tankers and sat on the tables.
After the funeral has taken place and while the corpse is going to the grave then the tables was set by the slaves or hired help and after the person is buried then they return to the house and to partake of the wine, cake, and smoke ; it was more like a wedding than a funeral.
The coffins was black and a large silver plate weighing from five to seven ounces the name age and time of death carved on it and the coffin was carried on a bier with the corpse in it, they had from six to eight pall bearers and each of those pall bearers had four yards of linnen given to them for scarfs and also had the minister the same.
The Reformed Nether Dutch Church.
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this purpose."* When the coffin was removed from the house, it was placed upon a bier at the door and covered with a pall of black cloth.t
The bier was then borne upon the shoulders of the bearers to the grave followed only by invited guests. The chief direction of the funeral cere- monies was taken by the Voorlezer assisted by the klokluyer, and all their charges were regulated by the consistory.}
If there was spiced wine left after the funeral was over, it was taken in the silver tankers and sent to the sick friends and those that were not able to come to the funeral.
No one would attend a funeral in the old times without they had a invitation to come. There was always a list made out by the friends of the deceased who they wished to have come to the funeral, and this list was given to the sexton of the church and he would go around and invite them to attend.
The bell of the church would ring three times and toll once, the day the person was a going to be burried -- End.
I give you the facts just as they are and you will have to dress it up in your own lan- guage to make it read well .- L. R. Vrooman, Cortland Co., 1856.
* Annals of Albany, I, 129.
t The church owned two palls, which were always used on these occasions ; for the use of the great pall a charge was made of three shillings ; for the small pall nine pence.
# The following is a list of prices established in 1771 :
" Rules for Cornelis De Graaf, appointed sexton the 18th November, 1771, in regard to what he is at liberty to take for inviting [the friends] and burying [the dead].
" For a person of 20 years and upwards,
16s. to 20s.
For a person of 15 to 19 years,
For a person of 10 to 14 years,
15s. to 19s. 14s. to 18s.
For a person of 5 to 9 years,
13s. to 178.
For a person of 1 to 4 yrs.,
88. to 12s.
For an unbaptized child [infant] when the bell shall be rung once, 6s. to 108. For ditto when the " shall not be rung, 38. to 78. 88.
For the Great Pall,
For the Little Pall, 9d
All thus when he is obliged to invite [the friends] within the village ; but when he likewise is obliged to extend the invitations without, he may ask 4 shillings [altered to 6 shillings] more each ;- this is to be understood, as far as Claas Viele's [upper end of Maalwyck], or this side ; but when he is obliged to extend invitations further,-to Syme Vedder's [Hoffman's Ferry] or this side,-then he may ask yet 3 shillings [altered to 6 shillings] more. The prices in the above standing rules are increased by reason of the hard times."
" Regulations for Jacobus Van Sice appointed grave digger and bell ringer for the dead on the 18th November 1771, in respect to what he may take for grave digging and bell ringing.
For a person of 7 up to and above 20 for a grave 3s. and for the bell 38.
For a child of 1 to 6 years, for the grave 2s. and for the bell 38.
For an unbaptized child when the bell shall be rung once for the grave 2s. and for the bell 2s.
For tolling the bell he may likewise ask one shilling more.
The above mentioned Jacobus Van Sice, shall at his own expense, keep proper tools for making and filling graves, likewise proper cords, etc."
47
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History of the Schenectady Patent.
Prior to the year 1800 there had probably been no hearse in the village ; in all funeral processions the bier and pall were used ; hence as it was not convenient to carry the dead great distances in this manner, the people in the country buried upon their own lands.
At a meeting of the consistory held April 7, 1800, it was " Resolved : That a herse be procured as soon as convenient for the use of carrying the dead of this congregation to the burying ground, and also for the use of the public, under such regulations as this board shall afterwards prescribe."
And again Dec. 3, 1800, having obtained a hearse it was “ Resolved, That the herse and harness be kept by the sexton in some convenient place as near the burying ground as possible, to be provided by the consistory ; and that whenever any of the citizens may want it, application be made to him, and that it be his duty to collect the fees."
BURIAL PLACES.
The earliest public burying ground* in the village was on the west side of the first church at the junction of Church and State streets. After this plat of ground had been used for this purpose about 60 years another was selected without the palisades,-the grave yard situated between Front and Green streets, lately sold by the church for building lots-with exception of Yates' lot and vault.
In 1705, this spot together with all the land lying west of it to the fort, then covered with woods, was granted to Philip Schuyler for £18 N. Y. currency, or 45 dollars. Two years before, Ryer Schermerhorn, the sole living patentee had granted 4 morgens of woodland lying to the eastward of the burying ground to Thomas Williams of Albany, who conveyed it April 7, 1709, to Arent Van Petten; from whom it passed to his son Frederick.
The following are abstracts from the conveyances of the burial ground made to the church:
Aug. 1, 1721. The patentees of Schenectady conveyed to the Dutch church a lot, "for a Christian burial place for all the Christians of the town of Schen-
* It was usual for persons residing without the village to bury their dead upon their own lands. Many of these enclosures are still found on the old homesteads along the banks of the Mohawk. The only private burying ground known to have been within the village was that of Adam Vrooman. This was on his pasture lot on the north side of Front street, on lot now numbered 35, its dimensions were 46 feet in depth by 9% feet in width.
-
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The Reformed Nether Dutch Church.
ectady and adjacent places ;" ..... ." lying Eastward of the ffort of Schen- ectady, the south side butting the roadway [Green street] opposite over against Dirk Groot's pasture ground 160 feet,-on the west side 240 feet, and on the east end 338 feet long, butting the lot of Arent Van Petten ;- and on the north side [on Front street] is 195 feet long."*
This conveyance was confirmed by another conveyance to the church made March 1, 1732, by Jan Wemp and Arent Bradt, the surviving trustees of the common lands.
On the 7th of August, 1765, Frederic Van Petten for the sum of £125, conveyed to the church a parcel of ground for an addition to the east side of the burial ground, which parcel is described as follows:
" All that parcel of land on the East side of the town on the south side of a street that comes out of said town and leads by Jacob Fonday's to the Ael plaas,t [Front street], and also on the north side of a street [Green], that comes out of said town and leads back of his Majesty's fort by the house of Jacobes Van Vorst and Jeronimus Barheyt,-being putted and bounded as followeth :- On the north the Highway leading by Jacob Fonday's to the Ael plaas aforesaid ;- on the West the church yard or burial place ;- on the south the Highway that leads back of the Fort by Jacobes Van Vorst afsd ;- on the east by a lott of ground [which the said Frederic Van Petten reserves for himself] laid out between the lott of Myndert Wemple and the hereinabove recited land, which lot is to contain in front along said street [Green] fifty feet and in rare [rear] along the lot of Zeger Van Santfort 53 feet all wood measure, and the above rented ground is also bounded on the east by a lot of ground heretofore sold to Zeger Van Santfort."}
A great majority of the towns people buried their dead in the common burying ground, but for those who coveted the honor or sanctity of a grave in the church, this privilege could be bought for about twenty times the price of a common grave.
The following were the rules for burying the dead in the church in 1759:
" For persons of twelve years old and upwards there shall be paid three pounds.
* See old deed among church papers.
t The Ael plaas was above the state dam at the aqueduct.
# It is believed that this lot of Zeger Van Santvoord, fronting on Front street, was subsequently acquired by the church and added to the burial ground .- See Church Papers.
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History of the Schenectady Patent.
"For graves of children of four years to twelve, forty shillings.
" And for the grave of a young child up to four years of age, four twenty shillings."*
MONUMENTS.
No headstones are found at the graves of first settlers ; the graver's art did not then exist among them and the marble and granite had not then been quarried.
The oldest gravestone found in the city was a few years since taken from a cellar wall into which it had been built, having been used evidently as a whetstone many years after it had served the purpose of a funeral monu- ment. It was a fragment of the blue stone found in the quarries east of the city ; its dimensions were fourteen by seven inches and four inches thick, and bore the following inscription rudely and slightly cut :
Anno 1690 DEN XX8 MAY IS MIN SOON IN DEN HEERE GERUST HENDRICK
IANSEN VROOMAN IAN VROOMAN
* Regelatie voor Graften in de kerck van Dooden als Volght: Van Twalf Jaaren out tot dat sy out syn sullen daar Voor Betalen Drie Pont, En voor de Graften van kinderen van vier Jaar out Tot Twalf Jaaren out Veertigh Schellinge, --
En voor Een graft van Een Jonck kint Tot vier Jaaren out vier en Twentigh Schellinge.
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The Reformed Nether Dutch Church.
[Translation.] " On the 28th of May in the year 1690 my son, Hendrick Jansen Vrooman, rested in the Lord. Jan Vrooman."
The oldest gravestone in the church burying ground, was set up in 1722 and is of the same material as the above mentioned stone.
ENDOWMENTS.
Probably no church in the State, outside of the city of New York, was so munificently endowed as that of Schenectady. In 1740 she owned fully twelve square miles of land in this county, which, had it been conveyed by long leases and not in fee, would have been worth to her now from $300,000 to $500,000. All this magnificent estate has passed away; at this time she possesses barely a fine house of worship and the lot upon which it stands.
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