USA > New York > New York City > Dutch New York (early history of the Dutch in New York) > Part 14
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The material benefits of linguistic knowledge being so apparent, the original settlers were anxious that their children should have the advantages of which they evidently had been denied. Anneke Jans's own daughter, Sara Roelofs, the wife of Hans Kierstede, for example, was probably more learned in the native Indian tongues than any one in the province, and re- ceived a grant of land for services rendered to the province in acting as interpreter with the Indians.
The early settlers in New Netherland, as a rule, were exceedingly illiterate, the women particularly. It is astonishing to see how many wills, deeds, etc., were signed merely " her mark." As shining examples we may cite Anneke Jans and Sarah Ooort (Kidd, Cox). Cornelis Beeckman and his wife, in their joint will, 1669, both sign with a mark; so also do many others who were in prosperous circumstances.
In the early days of the Dutch Republic the United Provinces were overrun with refugees of the Reformed Religion who were expelled from Brabant and Flan- ders. Many of these were people of good character and education, and well fitted for the instruction of youth; and consequently they opened French schools as a means of livelihood, and were highly esteemed. Towards the middle of the Seventeenth Century the number of these had greatly diminished; but after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes the numbers in- creased greatly with the Huguenot immigration, and
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GENERAL VIEW OF DOLL'S HOUSE RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM
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the resulting competition reduced the livelihood almost to the starvation point. The masters and mistresses of these French schools were subject to the same rules and regulations as the native Dutch teachers. They had to submit their textbooks to the approval of the local church board, and satisfy the latter that their teaching had no taint of Roman Catholicism. These schools were frequented by the children of the well-to-do burghers, who afterwards finished their education with travel, visiting foreign capitals and making a particu- larly long stay in Paris.
Strange to say, there seem to have been no schools in which High German was taught; nor were there any English schools, although a knowledge of English was very desirable for the merchants. English, how- ever, seems to have been little known here, for on Feb. 25, 1656, Jan Peecq was appointed to be broker to the merchants of New Amsterdam, " as he speaks Dutch and English."
As we approach the end of the century numerous wills testify to parental provision for their children's education. For example, Evert Wessels's children, 1683, are to be sent to school to learn to write and read. Daniel Veenvos, 1695, and Gerritt Roos, 1697, make similar stipulations. Henry Coyler, 1690, wills that his wife "shall be obliged to cause the under-aged children to learn reading and writing decently." Hen- dricks Boelen's son, 1691, " is to be instructed to read and write and afterwards to learn a trade by which he shall live in the future." Thomas Foster, 1663, wills : " My children are to be taught to read English well, and my son to write, when they do come of age, and if my wife should marry and not teach ye children as aforesayd, then my will is that two cows more be layed out for yt end, to give ye children learning." Sylvandt
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van Schaick's children, 1683, are to be " exercised in the fear of the Lord and instructed in reading writ- ing and arithmetic, and such art or trade that they in time may decently live in the world." Christian Teller, 1696, orders that his executors shall put his daughter to board with "Mr. Geestie Dethys or at my brother De Reimer's, and she is to be instructed in such arts, sciences or tongues convenient for her, as can be learned in this province."
Latin was the diplomatic language of the Middle Ages, and was a common accomplishment with every Dutchman whose studies extended beyond reading, writing, and arithmetic. The student of the history of New Netherland cannot help being struck with the Latin forms of the Christian names and even surnames of many of the Dutch here. It is evident that the average prosperous burgher here was not satisfied with the Three R's, but wanted his children to have the advantages of a Latin school, as in Fatherland. In September, 1658, the Burgomasters lay before the Lords Directors the increase of the youth of the province, now very numerous, and " though many of them can read and write, the burghers are nevertheless anxious to have their children instructed in the most useful languages, the chief of which is Latin." They humbly request that a suitable person for master of a Latin school may be sent, " hoping that, increasing yearly, it may finally attain to an Academy."
The home authorities promptly responded; but they had a great deal of trouble to find a Latin schoolmaster. Finally Alexander Carolus Curtius, late Professor in Lithuania, was engaged at a yearly salary of five hun- dred florins, " board money included, and also a pres- ent of 100 florins in merchandise to be used by him upon his arrival there." One of the two ships, the
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Bever or the Moesman, carried the schoolmaster, but we learn that "The books required by the school- master now coming over for the instruction of the young people in Latin, could not be procured in the short time before the sailing of these ships; they will be sent by the next opportunity."
The Director-General was instructed to give Mr. Curtius " a piece of land convenient for a garden or orchard," and he was to be " allowed to give private instructions, as far as this can be done without preju- dice to the duties for which he is engaged." In 1660, he resigned and returned to Holland. His successors were Jan Juriaense Becker, Frans Claessen, and on May 2, 1661, Evert Pietersen. The next to come, on July 30, 1663, was Ægidius Luyck, rector of the Greek and Latin school,1 who petitioned for a salary and was en- gaged at one thousand guilders ($400) a year in wam- pum. He returned to Holland in 1664 to study theol- ogy, and after his ordination to the ministry he came back to Manhattan to assist Van Nieuwenhuysen. In 1673, he became a schepen. His school attained such fame that pupils came to him from Albany, Delaware, and Virginia. The next name on the list is Johannes van Gelder.
On Feb. 2, 1662, we learn that part of the old Burying Ground is granted to the Burgomasters for the purpose of erecting a public schoolhouse.
At the head of the Latin schools were curators, nominated partly by the government and partly by the College of Preachers. The curators met once a fort- night or once a month, and with the sanction of the rectors appointed or discharged teachers, looked after the welfare of the school, and determined the promo-
1 This school still survives as the Collegiate Reformed School of New York.
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tion of pupils to higher classes, the fines and dues that had to be paid, and the prizes to be distributed. They also settled the differences between teachers, or, in case their good offices were unsuccessful, they were called in finally to decide. At first each school had its individual laws, but in 1625 the States General passed a school law, which by their order was drawn up by the Leyden professors in consultation with the principal rectors and was put in effect in all the schools through- out the land. The schoolrooms were mostly somber, damp, cellar-like chambers, with high windows and stone floors, heated in winter and furnished almost as barely as the schools already described. They were generally parts of the old convents, the other parts of which were used as living-rooms for the teachers and boarding-pupils. The courtyard of the building served as a playground, while the garden proper was reserved for the rector. In summer the porch bell tolled at eight A. M. for morning school and in winter at nine, and at one or two P. M. for afternoon school. After the teacher had called the " horn," or roll, the pupils went to their classes, where the lessons began with prayers in Latin and Greek, and closed with thanksgiving after lessons. In some places, parts of the Holy Scriptures were read in these languages, and psalms were sung. After this the regular work began in the various classes. Some schools had four classes, others six, which were divided again into grades. The two highest classes were taught by the rector and co-rector; the lower ones were directed by preceptors. In the lowest reading and writ- ing were taught, and arithmetic in the next. The third class translated Cæsar and Cicero's Orations and were taught to speak pure Latin and Greek. The second class were taught to expound those works and to com- pose essays on the classics. The first class had to
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translate the New Testament and the Tragedies of Euripedes or Sophocles, and translate Sallust, Livy, Tacitus, or Curtius from Greek into Latin, explain the Odes of Horace, and make Latin verses. If the Latin school was an " Illustrious " school, the pupils had also to take part in the professors' classes. In some schools Hebrew was also taught. Each pupil of both the high- est classes had to keep a " liber carminum " in which he wrote Latin poems. He composed these for every special occasion and for every family festival. After the annual examination there was a solemn distribution of prizes to those promoted. In the vacations the pupils presented a school play in Latin, the cost of production being defrayed by the city government. These were generally representations of scenes from the Old and the New Testament, legends of the saints, etc., on platforms in front of the town halls, or sometimes on bridges or in open squares.
When the splendor of the French court, under the young King Louis XIV, outshone all the other capitals of Europe, French became the language of fashion and diplomacy and supplanted Latin, and everything in the education of the upper classes of Holland became à la française. The French schools attracted all the youth who did not study for the liberal professions. Those who could afford it employed French private tutors for their children, and these accompanied their pupils when of age to make the European tour.
One of the accomplishments necessitated by the French taste was dancing, which had been a bone of contention in the community ever since the Reforma- tion. The church authorities generally disapproved of it. Those who indulged in it were severely censured. When a wedding was to take place, the members of the church council went to bridegroom and bride with
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the request to abstain from having dances. This was even done at the wedding of William I. with Charlotte of Bourbon. After a time they asked the municipali- ties to close the dancing-schools. The preachers warned the congregation against the " abominable and God teasing sin of dancing, dancing was against the Word of God, dancing was not an act of wisdom or care- fulness, but of carelessness and folly, the cause of much lightheadedness, frivolity, sinful love, unseemly acts and shame. They were foolish parents that allowed their children to learn how to dance." Dancing-schools were put in the same class as disorderly houses; but in spite of all this opposition, the young people of the period learned how to dance the "courante," the " sarabande," the " pazzamezzo," the " galliard," and the " round " dance. When the followers of Voet be- came powerful, the dancing-schools were closed. The French dancing-master then put his kit under his arm and went to private residences to teach the young. Though objections were made to dancing, singing- schools and dramatic art were strongly encouraged; and if the authorities tried to prevent the use of organs at the public gospel services, they did not forbid the lessons in music. Singing was taught in all the schools ; even in the Latin schools translated psalms were sung, and hours were set apart for lessons. In several of the larger cities were singing-schools under direction of clever composers.
Dancing does not seem to have been taught in New Amsterdam. When it became New York, however, the dancing-master soon made his appearance concur- rently with the fencing-master, presumably under the patronage of the pleasure-loving English officers of the Fort. The dancing-master, however, was regarded on much the same plane as " play-actors, and other vaga-
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bonds." For instance, on Jan. 3, 1687, an order in council required Francis Stepney, dancing-master, to give security that he would not become a public charge. On Dec. 18, 1675, Thomas Smith, fencing-master, was licensed to open a school to teach the use and exercise of arms.
The Dutch were essentially a God-fearing nation. Religious observances formed an important feature of home life. No bread was broken without the head of the house first invoking a blessing from above, and the meal was also ended with grace. The father also be- gan and ended the day with prayer, reading the Scrip- tures, and singing a psalm. In some homes an after- noon was devoted to religious meditation and reading - usually the works of prominent preachers. Even the baby in its mother's arms was present, and the first thing the mother taught it was how to pray. As soon as the baby could walk, it toddled to church at its father's and mother's side.
There was no period when the religious education of a child was of more importance than during the Seventeenth Century. Church and State took the mat- ter greatly to heart. Rectors, masters, mistresses, and teachers were ordered to give the children their in- struction in the Gospel. Not only the Wednesday and Saturday afternoons were devoted to this, but at every fête or holiday some Bible texts had to be learned by heart, and recited at the head of the class. On Sundays children were required to go to school dressed in their best, mornings and afternoons, and from there to church, escorted by their teachers, who after the ser- vice would ask them about it, to see that they had paid proper attention. In many families, while the various members occupied themselves in the evening with some kind of hand or fancy work, the father would read from
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the Bible or some religious book, varied occasionally with selections from the voyages of the early navigators.
Slates and pencils are frequently found among the shop goods. Peter Marius, 1702, has eighty-eight English primers. John Spratt, 1697, has among his shop goods school books valued at three pounds ten shillings.
The libraries at this period contained no light liter- ature. They consisted chiefly of Bibles, Testaments, hymn and psalm books, travels, historical works, and occasionally a few Dutch poets. Somewhat unusual is the collection of Dominie Nicholas Van Rensselaer in Albany in 1679, consisting of "about two hundred bookes, quarto and octavo, the most of them in strange languages," which, with " a brass pocket-watch out of order," are worth two hundred guilders. Mrs. Van Varick had " a parcel of printed books, most of them in High German and foreign languages, and so little value here, wherefore they are packed up to be kept for the use of the children when of age."
In many houses the great Bible, mounted with silver or brass corners and heavy clasps, rested on a reading- desk to which it was attached by a chain. This was the family record for births, marriages, and deaths, as well as the book from which the head of the family read morning and evening.
The inventories contain innumerable examples of such Bibles, among which we may note that Derick Clausen had a turtleshell-covered Bible plated with silver and silver clasps and a Psalm-book with silver clasps (£3); Cornelis Dericksen had a Dutch Bible (£I 16s. od.); Mrs. Van Varick, a Testament with gold clasps and a Bible, clasps tipped with gold; and among Dr. De Lange's shop goods we find :
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I8I
S
d
I 6
O
One Testament with silver hooks
O
7
C
One Testament bound in printed gold leather
O
6 O
One small Bible bound in printed gold leather One Psalm-book bound in printed leather
9
O
4
O
One small Testament bound in black cloth
4
o
One Book tractating of the Lord's Supper bound in printed leather O
2 O
One Bible bound in carret and tipt with silver One Testament with gilt hooks and gold hangers and a gold chain
14
O
O
Mr. Van Exween, who died in 1690, had " a great Bible with brass clasps and a Bible, silver." Abraham De Lanoy, 1702, had six books of Evangelists, £2 3s. od .; nine Historical school books, £3 4s. od .; ten books of Cortimus, 3s. 9d .; fourteen Catechism books, £3 6s. od .; thirty-two song books, £4 6s. od .; thirteen books of Golden Trumpets, £2 6s. od. Judah Samuel, 1702, had a Hebrew Bible and five Hebrew books; and Henry Pierson, 1681, books, £6 19s. od.
Rich women wore their Testaments or Psalm-books on a chain at their side when they went to church. Some of these were very handsome. For instance, Cristina Cappoens had "a church book with silver clasps and chain," which was valued at £1 16s. od.
CHAPTER IX
RELIGION, PERSECUTION, AND SUPERSTITION
T HE West India Company, recognizing the authority of the Established Church of Hol- land, intrusted the care of the colonies to the Classis of Amsterdam, by which body all the colonial clergy were approved and commissioned. The Direc- tors immediately sent out two Krank-besoeckers (con- solers and visitors of the sick), Sebastian Jansen Crol and Jan Huyck, or Huyghen, brother-in-law of Peter Minuit. Their duties were to visit the sick and conduct religious services. At first religious meetings were held on Sundays in the upper floor of the horse-mill, and consisted of reading the Com- mandments, creed, and, occasionally, a printed ser- mon, and the singing of hymns. Two years later, the Directors sent out a regular minister, the Rev. Jonas Michiels, or Michaëlius, a graduate of the Ley- den University, who had ministered to the Dutch in San Salvador, Brazil, and had served as chaplain of the West India Company's Fort in Guinea. He sailed from Amsterdam on Jan. 24, 1628, with his wife and three children. The Dominie was received with " love and respect " by the Dutch and Walloons, and was able to organize a church of fifty communicants. To aid him and to form a consistory, two elders were chosen, Director Minuit and Huygen. The other " Consoler of the Sick," Crol, was sent to Fort Orange. The
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Dominie's knowledge of French made him popular with the Walloons; and in order to qualify himself for missionary work among the Indians, he began to study their language. It is thought that he returned to Hol- land with Peter Minuit in 1633.
The next minister was the Rev. Everardus Bogardus, who arrived with Director Van Twiller. Bogardus was a widower; but in 1638 he married the rich Anneke Jans, widow of Roelof Jans, to whom had been granted in 1636 the Company's Farm No. I, a tract of sixty-two acres on Broadway.
It was at this juncture that the question of a church was agitated. But where was the money to come from? It happened about this time that Everardus Bogardus gave in marriage to Hans Kierstede, the surgeon, a daughter of Anneke Jans. The director thought this a good time for his purpose, and set to work after the fifth or sixth drink; and he himself setting a liberal example, let the wedding guests sign whatever they were disposed to give towards the church. Each then with a light head subscribed at a handsome rate, one competing with the other; and although some heartily repented it when they recovered their senses, they were obliged to pay. The subscription list amounted to eighteen hundred florins.
De Vries, writing in 1642, claims credit for the idea, and tells the story as follows :
As I was every day with Commander Kieft, dining generally at his house, when I happened to be at the Fort, he told me one day that he had now built a fine tavern of stone for the English who, passing continually there with their vessels, in going from New England to Vir- ginia, occasioned him much inconvenience and could now take lodgings there. I told him this was excellent for travellers, but that we wanted very sadly a church for
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our people. It was a shame when the English passed there, and saw only a mean barn in which we performed our worship. In New England, on the contrary, the first thing that they did when they had built some dwellings, was to erect a fine church. We ought to do the same. Kief asked me then who would like to superintend this building? I replied, the friends of the reformed religion. He told me that he supposed that I myself was one of them as I made the proposition, and he supposed I would contribute a hundred guilders? I replied that I agreed to do so; and that as he was Governor he should be the first.
We then elected Jochem Peterzen Knyter, who having a good set of hands, and being also a devout Calvinist, would soon procure good timber. We also elected Damen, because he lived near the Fort; and thus we four formed the first consistory to superintend the building of the church. The Governor should furnish a few thousand guilders of the Company's money, and we would try to raise the remainder by subscription.
In 1649, the Director's enemies complained that Kieft "insisted that the Church should be located in the Fort, the location being as suitable as a fifth wheel to a coach. The Church, which ought to belong to the people who paid for it, intercepts the south-east wind from the grist-mill, and this is why there is frequently a scarcity of bread in summer for want of grinding." In 1642, the new church was built. This was of stone, with a roof of oak shingles, a tower and a weather- cock, and a peaked roof. It was seventy feet long, fifty-two feet wide, and sixteen feet high, and on the front was a stone tablet with the words:
An. Dom. MDCXLII.
W. Kieft Die. Gen. Heeft de Gemeente dese Tempel Doen Bouwen
[A. D. 1642. W. Kieft being Director General, has caused the Congregation to build this Temple.]
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The bell bore the legend :
Dulcior E. nostris tinnitibus resonat aer. P. Hemony me fecit 1674.
[The air resounds sweeter for our ringing. P. Hem- ony made me.]
Bogardus was not an ideal pastor ; he quarreled with Van Twiller, and his successor, Kieft, denouncing the latter from the pulpit as a tyrant, and trying to stir up the people against him. When summoned to answer for his conduct before the authorities here, he defied them. Kieft charged him with habitual drunkenness, even at the communion table, and absented himself from public worship conducted by the turbulent priest. For this the Director's enemies bitterly denounced him as follows :
What religion could men expect to find in a person [Kieft] who from the 3d of January, 1644, to the IIth of May, 1647, would never hear God's word, nor partake of the Christian sacraments, doing all he could to estrange from the Church all those who depended upon him. His ungodly example was followed, in like manner, by his fiscal Cornelis van der Hoyckens; his counselor, Jan de la Montaigne, who was formerly an elder; the ensign, Gysbert de Leeuw; his secretary, Cornelis van Tien- hoven; Oloff Stevenson (Van Cortlandt) 1 deacon; and Gysbrecht van Dyck; besides various inferior officers and servants of the company, to the soldiers inclusive. ,Dur- ing the sermon he allowed the officers and soldiers to practice all kinds of noisy amusements near and about the church, such as nine-pins, bowls, dancing, singing, leaping, and all other profane exercises; yea, even to such extent that the communicants, who came into the fort to celebrate the Lord's Supper, were scoffed at by these blackguards. . During the prefatory service
1 The Breeden Raedt (1649).
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(proef-pedicatie), the Director Kieft several times al- lowed the drums to be beat. The cannon was discharged several times during the service, as if he had ordered it out a-Maying; so that for the purpose of interrupting the audience, a wretched villany happened against God's church.
Kieft, however irreligious he may have been, was tolerant in some respects. He afforded protection to the Jesuit missionaries, Father Jogues and Father Bressani, rescued them from the Indians, and gave them a free passage to Holland. He also welcomed many Anabaptists, who, being persecuted in New England, sought the more tolerant rule of the Dutch. Among these were two ladies, Mrs. Anne Hutchin- son and Lady Deborah Moody. The former settled at Pelham Neck, the latter at Gravesend, Long Island. In 1643, John Throgmorton and thirty-five Anabaptist families received permission to settle at a spot in the Bronx subsequently called Throgg's Neck.
In 1647, Bogardus sailed for Holland in the Princess to defend his conduct before his ecclesiastical superiors. It was a strange fate that led the ex-Director, Kieft, to take passage on the same boat, for these two bitter enemies both suffered death by shipwreck in the Bristol Channel.
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