USA > New York > New York City > Dutch New York (early history of the Dutch in New York) > Part 11
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Let us return, however, to the daily routine. To- wards noon the tablecloth was spread on the table, and the dwaelen (finger-wipers) put on the plates. The cloth and napkins were woven out of one piece. In rich families a bowl of water and a napkin were first handed to each guest. In the first half of the
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Seventeenth Century we find table-sets of flowered damask; damask table-linen, with flowers, borders, scenes, fables, verses, proverbs, portraits, and arms woven in them. The Brussels and Courtray damasks were famous. A set was generally one tablecloth to one hundred and twenty-four serviettes; some had as many as twenty-four such sets in the " linen-kast," which rarely came out of it except to be sent to be washed. During the greater part of the century the wealthiest people still eat with their fingers and helped themselves with the knife.
When setting the table, the servant placed salt, pep- per, and sometimes dried ginger on the board, and a knife, spoon, and bread at each plate. The slice of bread was the original trencher, on which the diner cut his meat; but during the Seventeenth Century the trencher was a wooden platter, which is still used in many parts of Holland and Germany. In accordance with the wealth of the householder the plates were now of wood, pewter, earthenware, porcelain, or silver. These are all to be found in New Netherland inventories. The table-ware was decorated variously with scenes from Scripture or history, the parable of the Prodigal Son, the Ten Commandments, the articles of the Creed, the battles of Admiral Tromp, rhymes, dates, and coats-of-arms.
As late as 1680 William Sharpe had seventy-two wooden trenchers and six pewter plates; Madame Sauzeau in 1690 has twenty-four pewter plates; and Elizabeth Partridge, 1669, six pewter platters. Cor- nelis Steenwyck had forty-three earthenware dishes, great and small, worth £2 3s. od .; other earthenware worth £3 7s. od .; glasses, earthenware, and porcelain, £16 os. od .; seven earthen dishes, nineteen china dishes, two cases of knives, fifty-eight napkins, and
.
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eleven tablecloths. Madame Sauzeau had in 1690 fifty pounds of pewter in dishes; William Sharpe in 1680, four pewter saucers; Elizabeth Partridge, 1669, a saltcellar, five pewter dishes, three pewter dishes, a bason, a pewter plate, a saucer, and two fruiterers; Mrs. Van Varick had three large china dishes, ten china dishes, four china dishes, three large and three small china basons, six wooden tumblers, a silver spice- box, a silver egg-dish, a silver knife, and a silver salt- cellar. Fine silver was also owned by Cristina Cap- poens and Peter Marius.
Silver drinking-cups of all kinds were found in all homes of wealth, and silver bowls, jugs, and spoons were also comparatively common. Mrs. Van Varick, who had a large amount of silver, also had "a thing to put spoons in," and Glaunde Germonpré van Gitts, 1687, had " a spoon rack."
Forks were rarities, even in wealthy houses abroad. They are mentioned towards the end of the Seven- teenth Century. They were brought from Venice, and used for the first time at the Court of Queen Elizabeth. Though Asser Levy had twenty-two silver spoons in 1682, he had but one silver fork; Madame Blanche Sauzeau had in 1690 six silver spoons, three small spoons, and six forks worth fio. George Cooke had a silver fork as early as 1679. The mention of hand bells in the inventories shows that these articles were used to call servants. In cases where the servant took her meals with the family, the bell, of course, was unnecessary.
When not in use, the porcelain, earthenware, and china were displayed on the tops of the kasten, in the glass cases and cabinets, on the mantel shelves, on the tops of doors, brackets, cornices and racks, and hung from hooks on boards. For instance, Cornelis Steen-
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wyck had in his kitchen a "can board with brass hooks," and three "wooden racks for dishes "; and Mrs. Van Varick had a " painted wooden rack to set china on."
After bringing the large pewter dish with boiled food, the servant took her place at the foot of the table, as she did at breakfast. All stood up and uncovered their heads while the father said grace. Everybody repeated " Amen," and the company said to one an- other, "God bless you," or "Bon proufaes," after which the heads were again covered. The father now served bread, meat, and the boiled dish. As nothing was spoken by the children and very little by the grown people, the noonday meal was soon finished. A typical family gathering at the table faces page 120. Seldom were more than two or three dishes served at the noonday meal. The first cooked dish was generally " potage," made of brown and green peas, mashed, with butter, ginger, and celery; or white beans with prunes and syrup; green or shelled Turkish or broad beans ; lentels with meat gravy or butter, vinegar, and parsley. Wheat bread-sop stewed in milk, mutton broth, stewed sweet turnips with fish, medlars with butter, "double bake" or stewed barley, and cold stewed mixed vegetables were the usual dishes. There was also a hutsepot (mixed pot) of finely chopped or cut mutton, beef, or veal, boiled in summer with greens and onions, in winter with beans and carrots. Cauliflower and Savoy cabbage were less general and were only found on the table of the rich. Both were first cleaned and then boiled, and afterwards stewed with mutton broth, hot pepper, and nutmeg, sometimes with fine Dutch butter. Sometimes a hard-boiled egg, rubbed to powder, was mixed or spread over it. Arti- chokes were stewed in vinegar and clear water, butter,
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and ground pepper, butter and salt. The peas were never eaten green or young. The second course was fish; if no fresh fish was to be had, dried codfish, ling, or pickled herring was served. According to reports fried sturgeon was also used, and fried perch, and the pike was roasted at the spit. The carp was stuffed, or pre- pared in the French way; that is, it was put, after having been washed in water and vinegar, in a thick sauce of butter, Rhine wine, vinegar, mace, pepper, and ginger. With fish turnips were eaten as a vegetable, sometimes carrots, and milk or water was drunk. In case the second course was fish, the third consisted of banquets (pasties) of mussels, oysters, lobsters, crabs, generally eaten with sweet sauces. Oysters and mus- sels were also stewed or fried in the pan; lobsters and crabs were stewed with parsley, pepper, walnuts, mace, butter, and lemon juice. If no fish was to be had, meat was eaten, fresh in summer but salted in winter, - the pork with greens, sometimes with prunes and currants ; the beef, veal, and mutton, with prunes, caraway seed, and mint. Chopped beef was eaten with prunes, cur- rants, and syrup. On fête days a beef-stew was made with " olipodrigo " (a mixture of various vegetables). The capon was also one of the choicest dishes. Eggs plainly cooked were used in large quantities, as well as in the cakes that were named after them. “An egg was an evening meal," and very cheap. The egg was the daily food of the poor, who liked it best when well fried in oil; it was seldom fried in butter. But the poor man could not always feed so gener- ously. Sometimes he had to be satisfied with some fried turnips or onions, a dry crust of sometimes mouldy bread, or a bowl of boiled whole barley, with a drink of water or " scharre-bier," a thin kind of beer. No wonder he became as lean as Saint Jero-
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nime! Generally, however, the rich ate as simply as the poor.
After the meal the heads were uncovered, the father said grace after meat, and all returned to their work. In many families a chapter from the Holy Scriptures was read after the noonday meal, and a psalm sung. A couple of hours after the noonday meal, the family gathered again to eat the "piece of bread " (stuk), cut by the father of the house, with either cold or warm beer or water. Sometimes friends were invited to share this informal meal of cold meat, fried fish, and some sweetmeats. Rich burghers often went into the sum- mer-house in the garden to take the afternoon " piece " of bread, and ate fruit with it, and, after the importa- tion of tea, the family would gather there at a little later hour.
The use of tea was well established in Holland by the middle of the century, and the custom of afternoon tea-drinking crossed the Atlantic. There were many varieties of tea in use, and the hostess as a rule made several kinds in different teapots to please the taste of her guests. Saffron was made, and always in a red pot, to serve with the tea. In the summer peach leaves were sometimes substituted for a flavor. Neither cream nor milk was ever used until the end of the century, and this was a French innovation. The tea-board, tea- table, teapot, sugar-bowl, and silver spoons and strainer were the pride of the Dutch housewife. From the inventories it is evident that tea was in vogue in New Amsterdam. Dr. De Lange had a number of tea- cups and no less than one hundred and thirty-six tea- pots; Lawrence Deldyke had a tea-board among his articles, and Mrs. Van Varick, a small oval table painted, a wooden tray with feet, a sugar-pot, three fine china teacups, one jug, four saucers, six smaller tea-saucers,
Ha Cartel Gjortsig nu bereit
rtcinepande Book Jos
Boog lit ladomina
OLD CHURCH BENCH OR STOOL ALBANY INSTITUTE AND HISTORICAL AND ART SOCIETY
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six painted tea-dishes, four tea-dishes, five teacups, three other teacups, four teacups painted brown, six smaller ditto, three teacups painted red and blue, one tea-dish, and two cups finest porcelain.
Tea was known and liked long before coffee, the use of which did not become general until about 1668, when it was drunk with sugar and cinnamon. Coffee was boiled in a copper pot lined with tin, and drunk as hot as possible with sugar or honey. Sometimes a pint of fresh milk was brought to the boiling-point, and then as much " drawn tincture " of coffee was added, or the coffee was put in cold water with the milk, and both were boiled together and drunk. Rich people mixed cloves, cinnamon, or sugar with ambergris in the coffee. At first many conservative families could not accustom themselves to the growing habit of re- placing the "must " or beer at breakfast with coffee; but by the end of the Seventeenth Century coffee had taken its place at the breakfast-table once for all. Many families also served coffee regularly at eleven o'clock in the morning. Some doctors considered it a cure for many diseases. Dr. Blankaerd preferred it to wine, drank twelve cups a day, and prescribed it for his patients.
Chocolate was more of a luxury than tea or coffee. It was used at Court towards the end of the Seventeenth Century, but was very expensive and was seldom found on the ordinary table. Chocolate-pots very rarely ap- pear in European inventories in the Seventeenth Cen- tury, and therefore the item of " one jocolato pot " in William Pleay's inventory shows that chocolate was known in New Amsterdam as early as it was in Europe.
The winter evenings were passed sociably at the hearth. All sat around the table, - the housewife, daughters, and servant busy spinning, sewing, or knit-
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ting, and the boys carving in wood or knitting fishing- nets; while the father read aloud from the Scriptures, Flavius, Josephus, Beverwyck, Cats, the voyages of Schouten, or some other instructive work. Some- times a scriptural verse would be sung, or some music played. Sometimes a friend, accompanied by his servant carrying a lantern, would make a call. If it was not a clergyman's house and people were not very strict, they would play lansquenet, or the owl or goose board would be brought forward, or lotto or lot- tery played. At the stroke of nine the maid came to spread the table. The supper was very simple, and consisted in most houses of bread, butter, and cheese ; but some people had a gekookte pot (a cooked meal), consisting of three courses. The first course was barley with prunes and cinnamon, white-bread sop, rice boiled in milk, or sometimes a salad of different greens and beet roots. The second course was the fish or meat, left over from dinner, fried up or heated anew; and some light dishes, apple-sauce, raisins, and almonds for the third. As at breakfast and dinner, grace was said before and after. At ten o'clock the night bell rang, the "clearing clock"; taverns and gates were closed, and the ordinary burgher would ex- tinguish the fires and lights and retire. Before going to bed, the children received their father's and mother's blessings and a hearty kiss; brothers and sisters also kissed each other good night, and retired after saying prayers at their bedside.
The New Amsterdam home was not devoid of pets. The dog was a favorite member of the household, and, as we have seen, not infrequently appeared in court. In Mrs. Van Varick's inventory there is men- tion of a " collar for a dog." Steenwyck had a parrot stick, and in 1658 Vice-Director Beck brought to Direc-
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tor Stuyvesant a beautiful parrot from the Spanish Main for Mrs. Stuyvesant. In the same year there is the following memoranda of sundries sent from Cura- çao to New Netherland, namely, “salt, preserved lemons, paroquets and parrots, some of which were for Johannis van Brugh, recently married to Miss Rodenborgh."
In all the pictures of Dutch interiors the well-dressed ladies, whether playing musical instruments, making lace on cushions, sewing, or merely engaged in con- versation, have one or both feet resting upon the " foot- warmer," or " foot-rest." This little square box cov- ered with perforated sheets of copper or brass, was filled with hot coals, and was no doubt very much needed in the cold houses of the period. It was used so generally that Roemer Visscher, a writer of the period, calls it the " darling of the ladies." "A stove with fire in it," he writes, "is the beloved jewel of our Dutch wives, especially when the snow falls and the hail clatters."
Sometimes the cat is dozing comfortably upon the foot-warmer in the pictures of the Little Masters. In the nursery things were conveniently kept warm upon it, and it was used in the kermis booth and tents on the ice to keep the cakes and drinks warm. The foot-warmer was also carried to church by the servant, who also took along the church seat. Mrs. Van Varick had a church chair and cushion; Cornelis Dericksen also had a " church seat." This may have been similar to the one shown facing page 132, now in the Albany Institute and Historical and Art Society. It is painted black with a picture of the Last Judgment in colors, where the angel is separating the sheep from the goats. It is dated 1702, and the inscription reads :
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Het oordeel Gotsir nu bereijt Het is nogtijt Laet onsincingt De vroome van de Boose Scheyt Godt beddenom des Heemals ovengt.
(God's judgment is now ready There is still time to leave folly The Good Sheep will be separated from the Bad Goats, God's wisdom encircles the universe.)
The Dutch vrouw spent the greater part of her life in keeping clean the house that had been so beautifully furnished and ornamented. Many of the rooms she preferred to scrub and brush and dust and scour with her own hands, for she would not trust her treasures to the clumsy touch of a servant. Some people were so careful of their " show rooms " that they only ex- hibited them on occasions, and they were only opened every few days, or once a week for the purposes of cleaning. This passion for cleaning was universal; it extended to high circles. In one of his plays Gode- wyck makes the daughter of an alderman say :
My brush is my sword, my besom is my weapon. I know no rest; I never go to sleep.
I think of my drawing-room ; I never think of my throat. No labour is too heavy; no trouble too great To make everything spotless and bright. I do not want the maid to touch my pretty things I myself rub and polish; I scrub and splash; I hunt the speck of dust; I do not fear the pail Like the showlady.
Many travelers of the Seventeenth Century have noted this national trait. We will see how the French De Parival and the English Brickman were both im- pressed; the first says :
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The wives and daughters scour and rub benches, chests, cupboards, dressers, tables, plate racks, even the stairs until they shine like mirrors. Some are so clean that they would not enter any of the rooms without taking off their shoes, and putting on their slippers. The women put all their energy and pleasure in keeping the house and the furniture clean. The floors are washed nearly every day and scoured with sand, and are so neat that a stranger is afraid to expectorate on them. If the city woman keep their houses clean, the farmer's wives do this no less. The cleanliness is even carried out, into the stables. They scour everything, even the iron chains and mounts until they shine like silver.
Brickman writes :
Now, if you have entered into their houses, the first that will strike your eyes is a large mirror, the other the pewter and brasswork, standing on a ledge along the walls like soldiers in their files - and everything is so neat and snug and clean, that it appears unto you like a golden and silver mountain, for nothing of all Gods good things looses anything of its original beauty. The rooms in their houses are various : some only a few steps, others cornered rooms, others like a ladie's powder box, in which you are afraid to breathe. You have also to remove your shoes or you are not allowed to enter the ladies salon, or best decorated room, but it will be opened and you will be allowed to look in from the threshold. However limited their means, the linen must be fine and clean. Therefore the smith's workshops have been banished from Amsterdam, so that the smoke and soot should not be- grime their fine roofs and gables. For some of these are excellent, and show the art and subtleness of the architects. They keep their houses cleaner than their bodies, and their bodies cleaner than their souls. In the one house you will see the fire irons standing in the corner of the chimney, covered with fine netting in another house, the warming pans covered with Italian open work designs
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and the handles carved, in the third the brass strainer, wrapped in cambric.
This excessive neatness was also found in New Am- sterdam, not only among the wealthy, but among the poorer classes, and great numbers of brushes, brooms, and pails are noticeable in the inventories of various grades of households in New Amsterdam. Mevrouw De Lange evidently "hunted the speck of dust "; for in her house we find "one rake brush, one hearth broom, one cloth brush, two Bermudian brooms with sticks, one hay broom without a stick," and in the shop three whiting brushes, a "brush to clean ye floor," three rubbers, two small painted brushes, two hair brushes, two dust brushes, a chamber broom, and a hearth broom. Nor was this all; for in the kitchen were "two dust brushes called hoggs," two whiting brushes, two rubbers, and some other brushes. Cor- nelis Steenwyck had four brooms and nine brushes in his house, thirteen scrubbing and thirty-one rubbing brushes, and no less than twenty-four pounds of Spanish soap in his garret.
Another passion of the Dutch housewife was for fine household linen, and her great cupboards and chests were not only full of sheets, pillowbeers, towels, tablecloths, and napkins, but of great stores of uncut material to be made into such articles. This taste was shared alike by high and low; every Dutchwoman had the ambition to own a vast amount of such treasure, 'saved from grandmother's time with economy," or "inherited from great aunt and kept as precious goods," to be again bestowed as a wedding-gift to some member of the family, or bequeathed to the children of the household. A rich store was greatly prized, therefore, and every penny saved from the household expenses, received as a present, or won at play was
NAPKIN PRESS, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY OWNED BY MR. FRANS MIDDELKOOP, NEW YORK
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used by the housewife to increase that treasure. It was, moreover, her custom to sit every afternoon with her daughters and maids in the kitchen before the spinning-wheel, sewing-cushion, or work-table, or to stand before the ironing-board smoothing and gopher- ing the shirts, neckerchiefs, caps, and ruffs. She was proud to have a rich linen cupboard filled with " moun- tains of her own make and foreign produced stuff." One rich lady who dwelt in Dordrecht had no less than twenty-four dozen sheets in her cupboard and forty dozen tablecloths, as well as coffers full of uncut linen, while her wearing apparel filled many other receptacles. The rich Mrs. Margarita Van Varick left to her sister, Engeltie, "a spinning-wheel," her clothes, and “a piece of linen, which is at Lucas Renhoven's to make," evidently spun in her own house. Peter Stuyvesant's widow made a special bequest of her linen, dividing it equally between her son, his daughter, Judith, and her eldest son's two children.
The washing of the household linen was also an undertaking. Great hampers and wicker baskets full of articles to be washed were carried away at stated intervals, washed in the canals and rivers, dried on the pasture-land, or special places known as “ bleaching- grounds." These existed early in the annals of New Amsterdam, for the first schoolmaster added to his meagre income by keeping a bleaching-ground. It seems that such places afforded a good opportunity for those whose envy was excited by choice damask from Holland. Among the cases of 1653 the following ladies' battle is waged:
Annetie, wife of Age Bruynsen, plaintiff, versus Mrs. Abraham Genes, defendant, complains that on Tuesday last, when four napkins, bought by her of her master Croon from Holland were lying out to bleach, defendant
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picked them up and carried them away. Defendant says, she has been robbed and plaintiff demands proof that they had been stolen from defendant, or else return of the napkins and suitable satisfaction. Defendant admits hav- ing taken up and away from the bleaching-ground 4 napkins in the presence of Martin Loockermans and Engeltie Maus, because they belonged to her, and she says, that she misses other napkins and linen, which she has not yet seen or found; also that neighbours have compared the said napkins with others daily used by her and have found them to be of the same pattern and linen, while upon one of them there is the same mark as shown by affidavit; she has left it with Anneke Loocker- mans and Tryntie Kips for safekeeping. The latter called into Court with it, state, that it is the same napkin, as left at their house, but is not like the one shown by plaintiff. Having been examined by plaintiff she says that two of the napkins taken by defendant are changed and that the one with the mark may have been mixed with hers by Engeltie Maus at her wedding. The Court examines and compares the four napkins with those of defendant and finds them to be alike.
A few days later :
Madame Genes being summoned into Court by the Schout (concerning the 4 napkins in dispute between her and Annetie, the wife of Hage Bruynsen), is asked (since Madame Genes intends to remove to Fatherland, and Annetie aforesaid intends to go to Fort Orange), whether she can produce any further proof. She gives for answer : No other proof than before; that they are found in all respects like her napkins, and she is willing, if she can retain her napkins and will remain unmolested on that account, to forgive the said Annetie her fault, and never to trouble her on that account.
On being brought home, the various articles of clothing and household linen were passed through the
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mangle; then, neatly folded, they were put away in the great cupboards and chests. Sometimes they were placed in the napkin-press, a fine example of which faces page 138, which stands on a frame with four bulbous legs. The greater number of New Amsterdam inventories mention linen to the amount of a fairly large, if not a great, sum. A large proportion of one's wealth was sometimes spent in this article; for example, in 1688 Nathaniel Pompson Barrow owned household linen worth £13 18s. 6d., when his whole estate amounted to only £84 Ios. od. In the same year Mathew Taylor had one hundred and twenty- six napkins and towels (£4 14s. 3d.), seventeen sheets (£8), eleven tablecloths (£4 7s. od.), twelve pillowcases, and a cupboard cloth. The linen in Cornelis Steenwyck's kitchen amounted to more than £5 4s. od. In the chamber above the kitchen were twenty-eight sheets, fifty-eight napkins, nine tablecloths, twelve towels, and thirty-two pillowbeers. Peter Marius, 1702, owned twenty-three linen sheets, eight calico sheets, thirty-two great and small pillowbeers, two linen tablecloths, seven diaper ditto, sixty-one diaper napkins, three ozenbriggs ditto, and sixteen small linen cupboard cloths. Matthew Clarkson, 1703, had eight fringed napkins. Mrs. Elizabeth Partridge in 1669 owned one dozen diaper napkins, £3 5s. od .; one dozen and a half blue strak'd, £3 os. od .; one dozen plain napkins, £2 os. od .; one diaper tablecloth, £2 os. od .; two pair of sheets, £5 Ios. od .; one round diaper tablecloth, £1; one pair Holland pillowbeers, £o 16s. od .; one pair diaper pillowbeers, fo 8s. od .; and a parcel of old linen, fo 5s. od. This linen must have been very fine, as it was worth altogether £18 14s. 'od., while her house and land was valued at only £45.
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