USA > New York > Courts and lawyers of New York; a history, 1609-1925, Volume I > Part 21
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CHAPTER XV. DUTCH MAGISTRATES: Of the Inferior Courts. The Boards of Twelve, Eight, and Nine Men .*
In this category ought to be included the advisory councils drawn from the citizenry : the Boards of Twelve Men (1641) ; Eight Men (1643 and 1645) ; and Nine Men (1647-52). These bodies were truly representative of the people, though not intended to be so by the governors.
The Board of Twelve Men-In 1641, Governor Kieft was becoming perplexed by Indian troubles; and it suited his purpose to share this perplexity with the colonists. So he called a public meeting of citizens, and declared himself dis- posed to grant them a share in the government. He asked them to nominate twelve freemen, to constitute an advisory council, to aid him, with their advice. The "Twelve Select Men" were cautious in giving advice. The popular feeling was strongly against the wish of the governor to wage war with the Long Island Indians, to revenge the murder of one settler, Claes Smits, who, it seems, had "wantonly murdered" the uncle of his slayer in 1626, and had not been brought to justice by Minuit or succeeding governors. Nevertheless,
*AUTHORITIES-"New York Civil List," 1888 edition; "Voyages of De Vries," N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll .; Bryant's "History of United States"; "Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York" (Holland Documents) ; O'Callaghan's "History of New Netherland"; "National Cyclo. of Am. Biog."; Chester's "Legal and Judicial History of N. Y."; "State of Jurisprudence During the Dutch Period," "History of Bench and Bar of New York," Daly; "Records of Burgomasters and Schepens of New Amsterdam"; Lossing's "History of U. S."; Chamber's "Encyclopedia"; Hawthorne's "History of U. S."; "Encyclopedia Britan- nica"; Van Laer's translations of the "Minutes of the Court of Rens- selaerswyck, 1648-1652"; also Van Laer's translations of the "Minutes of the Court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck, 1652-60"; "National Cyclopedia of American Biography"; "History of Westchester County, N. Y .. " (1925) ; "Albany Law Journal," paper of Alfred L. Becker on Adriaen van der Donck, the Earliest Lawyer in New York" (1904).
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Kieft's rule was absolute, and if he decided in favor of war, the Twelve Select Men knew that he would not be turned from that purpose by any advice they might give. So, while they were very decidedly of the opinion that war should be avoided as long as possible, they thought that, if it should come, it would be well that Governor Kieft should share the danger. They pointed out to him that as the "Honorable Director is as well the ruler as he is the commander of the soldiery," he ought, "to prevent confusion, to lead the van," their place being "to follow his steps and obey his commands." The grim humor of the solemn burghers was probably not unseen by the Director; and he realized that upon his own head rested the responsibility for war. He gave the Twelve Men another chance, convening them on January 21, 1642; but when they demanded popular representation in the gov- ernment instead of mere advisory capacity, Kieft had no further need of this council, the first representative body con- stituted within the limits of the present State of New York. The demand of the Twelve Men was not granted, and on Feb- ruary 12, 1642, the body was dissolved. The representatives were:
David Pietersen de Vries, who was president; Jacques Bentyn, Jan Jansen Dam, Hendrick Jansen, Maryn Andrien- sen, Abram Pietersen, the miller; Frederick Lubbertsen, Jochim Pietersen Kuyter, Gerrit Dircksen, George Rapalje, Abram Planck, Jacob Stoffelsen, Jan Evertsen Bout, Jacob Walingen.
The Board of the Eight Men-Governor Kieft con- cluded peace with the Long Island and New Jersey Indian tribes in March and April, 1643; but the terms were so unsatisfactory that Indians were soon on the warpath again, and Director Kieft found that he again had need of an advisory council. So, in September, 1643, he called a meeting of freemen of New Amsterdam, and asked them to choose "five or six persons from among themselves"
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to constitute another advisory board, "to consider maturely the articles which the Director and Council were prepared to propose." Eight men were named on September 13 by Gov- ernor Kieft though the freemen claimed the privilege of reject- ing any of the Governor's nominees to whom they might object. Objection was made to one nominee, and, another being appointed, the Board of the Eight Men assembled for the first time on September 15, 1643. The previous board had had no legislative authority, but this assembly enacted some legislation, meeting every Saturday for some time. The Eight Men were again convoked on June 18, 1644, and were not dissolved until after August 30, 1645, when peace was concluded with the Manhattans at New Amsterdam. The Eight Men had been more successful and independent of executive control than their predecessors; and they brought the maladministration of Kieft so forcibly before the States General that the governor was recalled and Stuyvesant ap- pointed Director-General. The members of the Board of Eight Men were :
1643-Cornelis Melyn, president; Jochim Pietersen Kuy- ter, Jan Jansen Dam (who was expelled at the first meeting, Jan Evertsen Bout being named in his stead) ; Barent Dirck- sen, Abram Pietersen, the miller; Isaac Allerton, Thomas Hall, Gerrit Wolphertsen van Couwenhoven.
1645-Jacob Stoffelsen, John Underhill, Francis Douty, George Baxter, Richard Smith, Gysbert Opdyck, Jan Evertsen Bout, Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt.
The Board of the Nine Men-Stuyvesant gave prompt in- dication that he did not favor representative government, at least not government that was representative of the com- monalty. He sent the discredited Kieft out of the province with all the honors of a departing governor; and those who headed the people's cause against Kieft he arrested and sent as prisoners to Holland, as has already been stated. But he soon found that the people were getting out of hand. They
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would not pay their taxes, discontent was general, and there was indication of further Indian unrest. So, much against his will, he had to heed the advice of his Council, and admit the commonalty again to some share in the government. In agreeing to form a Board of Nine Men, he planned to follow ancient custom in the Low Countries1, and give the people very little power indeed2. When he issued a placard in the autumn of 1647, ordering a general election in New Amster- dam, Breuckelen, Amersfoort and Pavonia to choose eighteen delegates, from whom the Governor and Council would select nine to constitute a board of people's representatives, the people were optimistic. But when it was seen that they still had no share, that the Nine Men had merely advisory power, that they could not convene except when it pleased the gov- ernor, and could not consider any measures but those the gov- ernor might put before them, and that after the first year the people would have no voice at all in naming the members of the board, the discontent was evident and ominous. The Nine Men themselves resolved that they would not be manni-
I. The "Tribunal of Well-Born Men," or of "Men's Men," as it was sometimes called, was one of very ancient date, having been first instituted in the Low Countries, it is supposed, in the year 1295. It originally had separate criminal and civil jurisdiction, the first exercised by thirteen and the second by seven men. These courts were united shortly before the Revolution, the bailiff in each district having been then allowed to admin- ister justice, in both civil and criminal cases, with "Thirteen elected good men." This system, so like the modern jury, continued until the spring of 1614, when the number was altered to "Nine well-born men," who were authorized to administer justice together. (Van Leuwen's Com., 15). These tribunals seem to be a modification of the primitive Witan (Wise Men) who administered justice before the Christian era, among German tribes .- Werner, "N. Y. Civil List," 1888 ed.
2. The powers of the Nine Men were defined by proclamation in Sep-' tember, 1647. They were established in order that the colony, "and prin- cipally New Amsterdam, our capital and residence, might continue and increase in good order, justice, police, population, prosperity, and mutual harmony, and be provided with strong fortifications, a church, a school, trading-place, harbor, and similar highly necessary public edifices and im- provements"; that "the honor of God and the welfare of our dead Father- land, to the best advantage of the company, and the prosperity of our good citizens" be promoted; that "the pure Reformed religion, as it is here and
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kins, animated only when the governor was so disposed. In 1649 they drafted the famous Remonstrance, which caused such commotion in Holland, and which in 1653 and later brought local government to the municipalities of the province.
The chief function of the Nine Men, according to Stuyve- sant's plan, was that which made them virtually an inferior court of the province. Three of their number-a merchant, a burgher and a farmer-were to attend the sessions of the Council each week, for as long as civil cases were before the latter, and act as referees or arbitrators in civil suits. In this way the Nine Men may be deemed to have constituted the first inferior court in the present city of New York. The boards of the Nine Men for the few stormy years of their existences were constituted as follows :
1647-Augustine Heerman, Arnoldus van Hardenburgh, Govert Loockermans, merchants; Jan Jansen Dam, Hendrick Hendricksen Kip, Jacob Wolphertsen van Couwenhoven, burghers; Michael Jansen, Jan Evertsen Bout, Thomas Hall, farmers.
1649-Adriaen van der Donck, president; Augustine Heer- man, Arnoldus van Hardenburgh, Govert Loockermans, Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt, Hendrick Hendricksen Kip, Michael Jansen, Elbert Elbertsen (Stoothof), Jacob Wolphertsen van Couwenhoven.
1650-Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt, president; Augustine Heerman, Jacob van Couwenhoven, Elbert Elbertsen, Hen- drick Hendricksen Kip, Michael Jansen, Thomas Hall, Govert Loockermans, J Evertsen Bout.
1652-David Prevost, William Beeckman, Jacobus van Cur- ler, Allard Anthony, Isaac de Forest, Arent van Hattem, Jochim Pietersen Kuyter, Paulus Leendertsen ven der Grist, Peter Cornelisson, miller.
in the churches of the Netherlands," be preserved and inculcated. It was only to give advice on such propositions as the Director and Council chose to submit to it. The Board could only meet when called together by the Director and Council, and the Director-General was to preside whenever he thought fit. Six of the Nine Men retired annually, and six new members were appointed by the Director from twelve of "the most notable citizens" to be nominated by the Board .- "New York Civil List," 1888 ed., p. 60.
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Commenting on the personalities of those who were prom- inent in these citizens' bodies, it seems that of those who con- stituted the first representative body, the Board of the Twelve Select Men, Patroon De Vries was the most prominent. Jan Jansen Dam who, for his part in the Indian fighting, was expelled from the Board of Eight Men, was among the Nine Men in 1647. Jacob Stoffelsen, of the Board of Twelve Men was not chosen by the people for the Board of Eight Men, but was a member of that body in 1645. He signed, by his mark, the treaty of peace concluded with the Indians, "under the blue canopy of Heaven, in the presence of the Council of New Netherland, and the whole community," called together on August 30, 1645, the Council being Johannis la Montagne, and the "community" being represented in the treaty by the signatures or marks of the Eight Men. Van Cortlandt signed his name as Oloff Stevensen.
Jan Evertsen Bout was prominent in public affairs. He was one of the first board of citizens, the Twelve Men, became a member of the next board of Eight Men, by virtue of the objection of the board to the election of Jan Jansen Dam, and served later in the boards of Nine Men. He was one of the three members chosen in 1649 to carry the celebrated Remonstrance, the Vertoogh van Nieuw-Neder-Landt, to Hol- land, and plead the cause of the people before the home authori- ties. He was an old servant of the West India Company before coming, in 1634, to New Netherland. His purpose in coming was, it seems, to take charge of one of the manors of Patroon Michael Paauw, who was Burgomaster of Amster- dam and Lord of Achtienhoven, and who, through Minuit, had secured vast estates in New Netherland, being Patroon of Pavonia (New Jersey, and Staten Island.3 Bout eventually
3. Bout seems to have shared responsibility on the estates of Michael Paauw with Cornelis van Vorst. It seems that as late as 1633 the Paauw estates were in charge of the Company. Michael Palusen, or Paulaz, was then in charge. Captain de Vries, in his Journal, records a visit he paid
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became a large land owner himself, and lived in the province until his death, in 1670.
Michael Jansen, of the Board of Nine Men, was associated with Bout in New Jersey. He came from Broeckhuysen, Holland, in 1632, settled in Van Rensselaer colony, and traded in furs. He did well, and in 1646 settled at Communipaw, on the west side of the Hudson River. There he seems to have lived until 1655, when the Indians destroyed all the settle- ments in Pavonia, and did considerable damage on Staten Island. It is said that Michael Jansen's family was the only one left alive of those who had not fled from Communipaw. In 1658 Michael Jansen was a signer of a petition praying for exemption from tithes and other taxes for a few years, so that they might be able to rebuild their homes in the settlement which became Bergen Village. They were granted exemp- tion, and built for defence on the hill now known as Jersey City Heights, probably in 1660. During his residence in New
to Paulusen in May of that year, as follows : "Coming to the boat on Long Island, night came on, and the tide began to turn, so we rowed to Pavonia. We were there received by Michael Paulaz (Pawn), an officer in the ser- vice of the Company." In the same year the West India Company ordered the erection of two houses in Pavonia. One was built at Communipaw, and was afterwards owned by Jan Evertsen Bout; the other was erected at Ahasimus, and was subsequently owned by Cornelis van Vorst. Both were of frame construction, and thatched with flags. Van Vorst, as the "head commander" of the Patroon of Pavonia, entertained Director-Gen- eral van Twiller in his house in 1636, the house the same evening being burned to the ground. In 1637 or 1638 the Company purchased the Paauw estates, and part of the Pavonia manor (Ahasimus) became known as the West India Company's Farm, and was leased to Bout, who is said to have been, in 1638, "one of the first settlers of that section of New Jersey where the town of Bergen was in later generations established. He was driven from the property by the Indian uprising against Kieft, probably in 1643 or 1644. Bout seems to have acquired the plantation at Gamoenepa (Com- munipaw) later, and this in 1658 was valued at $3,200. Later he owned a farm in Gowanus, and died there in 1670. Bout was one of the signers of a deed between the Indians and the Company, whereby the latter ac- quired, in 1658, the land east of the Hackensack River and Newark Bay, embracing the original township of Bergen, N. J., for "eighty fathom of wampum, twenty fathom of cloth, twelve kettles, six guns, two blankets, one double kettle, and one half-barrel of strong beer," the prior receipt of all of which considerations the Indian chiefs acknowledged.
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Amsterdam he had kept a tavern, and later was commissioned as one of the first magistrates of Bergen, which was granted burgher government in 1661. Michael Jansen, it appears, paid Bout 8,000 florins, in 1646, for the farm he occupied at Communipaw. Bout sold adjoining land to Claes Pietersen Cos for 1,444 florins, this sale disposing of all of his Communi- paw property, the patent for which it is said came to him by gift.
Pavonia was given good representation in the first pop- ular board for, of the Twelve Men, it had DeVries, Bout, Jan- sen, Stoffelsen, Planck, Dircksen, and perhaps others. Jacob Stoffelsen was at Ahasimus, on Van Vorst's property, having married Widow Van Vorst. Abraham Isaacsen Planck had an estate at that time at Paulus Hoeck, and had as under- tenants Gerrit Dircksen Blauw and others.
Jochim Pietersen Kuyter, who was of the boards of Twelve Men and Eight Men, was closely associated with Patroon Melyn in forcing reforms. Kuyter was a native of Darmstadt, where he was born about 1597. After some ser- vice with the East India Company he transferred to the West India Company, and reached New Netherland, with his family, in 1639. In 1641 he was chosen as one of the Twelve Men, and supported De Vries and the others in expostulating with Kieft, against the Indian policy of the latter. In 1643 they complained to Holland. They were horror-stricken at the barbarities planned by Kieft and carried out by his soldiers upon unsuspecting sleeping Indians, eighty being killed at Pavonia and forty more at Corlaer's Hook, "with horrible barbarities."4 It brought retaliation in a more terrible mas-
4. In the middle of the winter of 1642-43, the powerful Mohawks of the north swept down upon the tribes of the lower reaches of the river. Some took refuge with the Dutch opposite New Amsterdam; some at the colony which De Vries had begun by the Tappan Sea. So many came that De Vries was "anxious about the safety of his goods, and paddled a canoe through the broken ice to Manhattan, to ask that a guard be sent to his colony. He found the Director bent on relentless war, and found the
VAN CORTLANDT MANOR HOUSE
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sacre of white people in September of the same year; and in the face of this calamity Kieft, who had dismissed the Twelve Men, had to call another citizen body, the Eight Men, of which Melyn was the head and Kuyter was a member. They at once unmasked Kieft by refusing to sit with Jansen Dam, at
people as emphatically against war. The Twelve Men had been dis- banded for some time; but "at a dinner at the house of Jansen Dam, one of the Twelve, he (Dam) and two others, by previous arrange- ment, presented to the Director a petition purporting to come from the community at large, in which they asked that active hostilities should be begun against the natives." The "defenceless condition of the Indians was urged as an argument for a sudden and merciless onslaught." De Vries dined with Kieft two days later, and urged Kieft not to follow so foolish a course. "Consider, sir," he said, "what good it will do-knowing that we lost our settlements by mere jangling with the Indians at Swaanendael . . . in 1630, when thirty-two of our men were murdered; and now lately, at Staten Island, where my people were murdered, occasioned by your petty contrivances of killing the Indians of Raritan, and mangling the body of their chief for mere bagatelle." But Kieft was not to be dissuaded. And next day, De Vries again protested, as he saw troops gathering. "You will go to break the Indians heads; but it is our nation you are going to murder." Heedless of the advice of De Vries, of Dominie Bogardus and of other men of influence, preparations for war continued, and after sunset on the next day the soldiers under Sergeant Rodolf crossed the river to Pavonia, "in the name of the Commonalty," as Kieft falsely said. They pounced upon the sleeping Indians. "Eighty Indians were killed at Pa- vonia and forty at Corlaer's Hook that night, with horrible barbarities that might have given the savages themselves a lesson in the art of torture."
"And this was the feat worthy of the heroes of old Rome," wrote De Vries, in bitter allusion to a grandiloquent boast that Kieft had made; "to massacre a parcel of Indians in their sleep, to take the children from the breasts of their mothers, and to butcher them in the presence of their parents and throw their mangled limbs into the fire or water! Other suck- lings had been fastened to little boards, and in this position they were cut to pieces! Some were thrown into the river, and when the parents rushed in to save them the soldiers prevented their landing, and let parents and children drown. Children of five and six years old were murdered, and some aged, decrepit men cut to pieces. Those who had escaped these hor- rors, and found shelter in bushes and reeds, making in the morning their appearance to beg some food or warm themselves, were killed in cold blood, or thrown into the fire or water." "Some," he adds, "came running to them in the country" mangled and mutilated too terribly to be described ; "and these miserable wretches, as well as some of our people, did not know but they had been attacked by the Maquas (Mohawks) of Fort Orange." In the morning, the troops returned to Fort Manhattan, with some prisoners and various bloody "tokens" of their "victory." Governor Kieft "welcomed them exultantly, as men who had done a noble deed." --- See "Voyages of De Vries," N. Y. Historical Society collections.
C.&L .- 15
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whose house Kieft-before embarking on his Indian horrors- had schemed to put the onus of the warfare upon the Twelve Men, by getting Dam and two others to draw up a petition addressed to him and supposedly from the whole board of Twelve Men, demanding war.5 The Board of the Eight Men did not hesitate to let the States General know of the calam- itous consequences of Kieft's vindictiveness6, writing also to the College of Nineteen in 1643 and again in stronger terms in the next year, the second communication reaching the College of the Nineteen while they were still seriously discussing the
5. A terrible retribution was visited upon the Dutch during the sum- mer of 1643, to avenge the cowardly attack of Kieft's soldiers. The Indians of the river tribes banded together, and between March and mid- summer carried the terrors of Indian warfare to all parts of the province, except the Fort Orange region. By September New Amsterdam was crowded with refugees, who were hardly safe even so near to Fort Man- hattan. They made the life of the Governor far from pleasant. "The terror-stricken people who crowded with their families within the dilap- idated and insufficient ramparts of the fort thronged about him with im- precations and threats." He tried in vain to shift the responsibility to the shoulders of the Twelve Men. "You would not let them meet," he was angrily answered. "How, then, could they have done this?" Even the three who had drafted the pretended petition at Dam's house deserted him. One of them-Adriensen-stalked into Kieft's presence and threatened to take his life if he did not stop his "devilish lies." Indeed one person did attempt it, but was shot down by a sentry as he fired at the Director, and his head was afterwards exposed on a gibbet. Adriensen was arrested and sent to Holland for trial ; but the people knew that Kieft was the real author of all their woes .- Ibid; also Bryant's "History of U. S."
6. The Eight Men, in the common defence, had to agree to certain war measures against the Indians, but they also thought they should do something to remove the cause of war. "On the twenty-fourth of October, (1643, they addressed to the College of Nineteen at Amsterdam, and on the third of November to the States General themselves, then in session in the Bin- derhof at the Hague, the first document ever sent from the people of New Netherland to their government at home."
They set forth how "Almighty God had finally, through his righteous judgment, kindled the fire of war" around the "poor inhabitants of New Netherland"; and they graphically described their "woes, their women' and children starving, their homes destroyed." To the States General they wrote that the "wretched people must skulk, with wives and little ones that still are left, by and around the fort on the Manhattes, where we are not one hour safe." They prayed for immediate succor. In 1644 they wrote again, and laid the whole blame upon Kieft, and to all intents demanded his recall.
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first appeal. As a result Kieft was recalled, Stuyvesant being sent out as Director-General. One of his first acts was to try Melyn and Kuyter for their opposition to Kieft. Kuyter's defence indicates he was a man of education7 ; but Stuyvesant perhaps thought he would undermine his own power as gov- ernor if he did not make examples of Melyn and Kuyter. Both were sent, as prisoners, to Holland on the same ship in which Kieft sailed. They who had sacrificed their own interests for that of the commonalty went in disgrace, and he (Kieft) who had so misgoverned the province that during the nine years of his governorship he had accumulated for him- self about $100,000 while the Company was actually bank- rupt, departed in triumph, carrying ill-gotten wealth away with him. His unhappy rule had brought death to about sixteen hundred Indians, and much disaster to the Dutch; "there was not a single Dutch settlement, except that at Rensselaerswyck and the military post on the South River, that had not been attacked and generally destroyed; for all of which faithful service Kieft was honored by Stuyvesant8,
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