USA > New York > Westchester County > Origin and History of Manors in the Province of New York and in the County. > Part 9
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It was granted as the sole property of one of the most noted and intelligent of the leading men of New Netherland. Public affairs in which its Patroon was engaged almost immediately after it was granted, and his necessary absence in Holland, retarded its successful development. His death following shortly after his return, and its sale under the power he obtained to dispose of it by will, practically ter- minated it after an existence of only twenty years.
Adriaen van der Donck, styled by the Director and Council of New Netherland in a summons to the Rev. Everardus Bogardus, dated the second of Janu- ary, 1646, "the Yoncker"? was an educated Dutch gentleman, a native of Breda,' a graduate of the Uni- versity of Leyden, and a doctor of both the civil, and the canon, law, "utriusque juris," as that degree was then expressed in Latin. He came to America
in the autumn of 1641, in the service of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the first Patroon of Rensselaerswyck, having been appointed in the early part of that year by that gentleman Schout-Fiscaal of the Patroonship of that name. This office, which, as shown before, combined the duties of a Sheriff and an Attorney- General, was a most important one, and brought him into close connection with the other officers, and the tenanta, of Rensselaerswyck ; the rights and interests of all parties being in many particulars subject to his official action. His first instructions from the Patroon were dated July 18, 1641, and his first account, still existing in the books of that colonie, begins on the 9th of September following." The above mention of van der Donck as "the Yoncker " is the earliest mention of that title as applied to him that I have found. As it is used in referring to a matter which oc- curred in 1645, it is clear that he was so called and known four years only after his arrival in America. The term is simply a corruption of " Jonkheer," son of a gentleman.5 It is of interest, for, from this title 80 given to him who became in the succeeding year, 1646, the Patroon of Colen-Donck, is derived the name which that Patroonship, in common parlance, ever afterwards bore, and which is to-day perpetuated in the corporate name of the beautiful city which is em- braced within its limits- Yonkers.
Van der Donck was the first lawyer in New Nether- land, and of course in that part of it now New York. Lubbertus van Dincklagen, who was appointed Schout-Fiscaal and Vice Director of New Nether- land, 5th May, 1645, also a doctor of civil and canon law, was the second, and Dirk (Richard) van Schel- luyne, who was also the first notary, commissioned 8th May, 1650, was the third.
These first lawyers are mentioned here because their names are found appended to so very many of the early deeds, and public and private documents, of the earliest part of the Dutch dominion in New York. Prior to leaving Amsterdam, van der Donck, probably as part of the terms between them, received from Kiliaen von Rensselaer, a lease of the westerly half of the first island on the west side of the Hud- son below Albany then called Welysburgh, from van Wely, a relative of the Patroon. Later it was styled, "Castle Island," because upon its southern end was built the first fortified trading house erected by Cor- stiaensen under the charter of "The United New Netherland Company," of 14th October, 1614, and called Fort Nassau, which three years later, in 1617, was destroyed by a freshet. Subsequently, and till this day, from its proprietors, it was, and still is, known as Rensselaers Island. Here van der Donck erected a house and dwelt. In 1643 difficulties between him and Arendt von Curler, or Corlaer, the Patroon's commissary, occurred, and van der Donck, determin- ing to leave his position, undertook to arrange for the
1 II. O'Cal., 584 ; I. Brod., 490. " XIV. Col. Hist., 70.
3 I. Col. Hist., 477.
"I. O'Cal., 327.
· I. Brod. 421.
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THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
67
planting of a "Colonie " at " Katskill," of which he himself was to be the Patroon. This was a violation of the sixth and twenty-sixth articles of the charter of Freedoms and Exemptions of 1629, and the Patroon of Rensselaerswyck, on the 10th September, 1643, sent written orders to van Curler, to see that van der Donck desisted at once, being his "sworn officer," and if he did not, that he should "be degraded from his office and left on his bowerie to complete his con- tracted lease without allowing him to depart." This effectually put an end to the project of the Katskill Colonie, van der Donck continued to perform his duties, and matters grew much easier with van Curler. On the 18th of January, 1646, van der Donck's house burned down, at which very time he was negotiating for a sale of his lease to one Michael Jansen, to which, as the Patroon's Commissary, van Curler had to assent. A new quarrel at once arose, as to whether the loss should fall on the Patroon as van der Donck claimed, or on the latter as van Curler insisted. The matter was finally referred to the Patroon in Holland, van der Donck left the island, and lived in a hut near Fort Orange, till spring, and then came down to New Amsterdam.1 In the previous year, 1645, he had been of great assistance to Director Kieft in advancing the requisite funds, and settling the terms of peace with the Indians, which closed the wicked war that Kieft had wantonly begun two or three years before, and which proved so disastrous to New Netherland.' The Patroon of Rensselaers- wyck, died at Amsterdam later in 1646, and with his death the connection of van der Donck with that Patroonship ceased, Nicolas Coorn succeeding him in his office by the appointment of the executors of the late Patroon, Johannes van Wely and Wouter van Twiller.
Van der Donck still desiring to become a Patroon, immediately occupied himself, on returning to New Amsterdam, in looking for a proper location. He finally selected the lower portion of what is now the county of Westchester and northern part of the city of New York, between the rivers Hudson and Har- lem, on the west and south, and the Bronx on the east. A choice which eminently proved his good taste and sound judgment. The Indian name for this region was Keskeskick, and the Indian title to it was extinguished by its sale to the West India Com - pany by its Indian owners on the third of August, 1639, in these words, "This day, date as below, ap- peared before me Cornelis van Tienhoven, Secretary in New Netherland, Tequeemet, Rechgawac, Pachamiens, owners of Keskeskick, who in presence of the under- signed witnesses voluntarily and deliberately declare, that in consideration of a certain lot of merchandise, which they acknowledge to have received and accepted
before the passing of this act, they have transferred, ceded, conveyed, and made over, as a true and lawful freehold, as they herewith transfer, cede, convey, and make over, to, and for the benefit of, the General Incorporated West India Company, a piece of land, situate opposite to the flat on the Island of Manhat- tan, called Keskeskick, stretching lengthwise along the Kil, which runs behind the Island of Manhattan. mostly east and west, and beginning at the head of the said Kil and running to opposite of the high hill by the flat, namely by the Great Kil, with all right, titles, &c., &c. Done at Fort Amsterdam, the 3d of August, 1639.
CORNELIS VAN DER HOYLEN, DAVID PIETERSEN DE VRIES,
in my presence,
as witnesses,
CORNELIS VAN TIENHOVEN, Secretary.
This instrument is recorded in Book G, G, of Patents page 30, in the Secretary of State's Office in Albany.3 By it was vested in the West India Com- pany the right of soil and possession of the Indians in the tract described. It will be noticed that it bears no marks of the Indians as signatories, but is only signed by the witnesses and the Secretary of the Province, differing in this respect from the Indian Deeds of much later dates, and especially from those executed under the English rule. This was strictly in accord- ance with the Dutch Provincial "Ordinance," or law, enacted by the Director and Council of New Nether- land the year before the date of this deed, which, as it is not generally known, is in full as follows ;-
"The Free people" (those not Patroons, nor boers or farm laborers) "having by petition requested Patents of the Lands which they are at present cul- tivating, the prayer of the Petitioners is granted, on condition that at the expiration of Ten years after entering upon their Plantation, they shall pay yearly to the Company the Tenth of all crops which God the Lord shall grant to the field; also from this time forth, one couple of capons for a house and lot." This ordinance of the Director and Council was passed on the 24th June, 1638.'
On the 19th of the following August another ordi- nance was passed by the same high authority, in which occurs this clause providing that all legal documents, shall be drawn up by the Secretary of the Province ;- " Likewise, that, from now henceforward, no instruments, whether contracts, obligations, leases, or Bills of Sale, or such like writings of what nature soever they be, and concerning which any dispute
1 I.O'Call., N. N., 333, 338, 845, 346 ; I. Brod., 419, 420.
" Von der Donck's New Netherland in I. N.Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 2d Series, 127 and 161.
" It is also printed in XIII. Col. Hist., 5.
" Laws N. N., 16. This law was the origin of the "four fat fowls" clause of the manorial leases In New York.
The " tenths " or tithes were simply a form of rental, the recompenre to the Company and the Patroons for their outlay and expense in settling their lands.
.
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
may arise, shall be held valid by the Director and Council, unless they shall be written by the Secretary of this place. Let every one take warning and save himself from damage. This done and published in Fort Amsterdam this 19th of August, 1638."1
The witnesses to the above instrument were well known men of mark at that day. The name of the first correctly entered should have been Cornelis van der Hoyken, or van der Huyghens, as the name was truly spelled. He was, on July 13th, 1639, just pre- vious to the date of this deed, appointed the Schout- Fiscaal, or Sheriff and Attorney-General, of the Prov- ince, served for several years, and was drowned on the voyage to Holland in 1647 with Governor Kieft. David Pietersen de Vries was the famous navigator, the author of the " Journal notes of several voyages in Europe, Africa, Asia and America," one of the earliest and most authentic writers on New Netherland. He was also a Patroon of Swanandael on the Dela- ware, of another Patroonship upon Staten Island, and in the words of Brodhead, was " frank, honest, relig- ious, and a sincere advocate of the true interests of New Netherland." ?
Cornelis Tienhoven the Secretary, so long in office under Kieft and Stuyvesant, and often their envoy to the different English Colonies, and active in other public positions in New Amsterdam is so well known as to need no further mention.
Van der Donck began his settlement on the banks of the Neperhaem, or, as more lately termed, the Neperan near its confluence with the Hudson, erect- ing a saw mill, and other improvements incident to such an enterprise, at that place. From this mill the stream derived its Dutch name of Saeg-Kill, or Saw- Kill, and the English one, by which it continues to be known, the "Saw-Mill River." For his own residence and home plantation, he selected the southern end of the beautiful peninsula, or tide island as it really was, and the meadows immediately about it, which the Indi- ans called Papirinemen, directly opposite the north- ernmost extremity of Manhattan Island, almost sur- rounded by the waters of the same name, connecting the Spyt-den-Duyvel Creek, on the west, with the Great Kill, or Harlem River on the east; and upon which afterward was erected the first bridge connect- ing Manhattan Island with the mainland of West- chester County, then, and to this day called Kings- bridge." He also cultivated the ancient corn grounds of the former Indian owners, now the beautiful flat surrounding the old "Cortlandt House" soon to be the parade-ground of the new "Van Cortlandt Park;" that estate which has continued in the family for nearly two centuries, having now been wisely acquired by the City of New York for a grand sub- urban park.
Becoming engaged, as a leader, in the disputes
between the people of New Amsterdam and Governor Stuyvesant as the representative of the West India Company, he could not give his Patroonship the attention it needed. Three years after the grant to him of Colen-Donck by Governor Kieft, the troubles with Stuyvestant came to a head. The Commonalty of the "Province of New Netherland," drew up by a committee, a Petition to the States-General for a redress of their grievances, dated July 26th, 1649; the draughtsman, and first signer, of which was Adriaen van der Donck. This Petition, with a full explanation in the form of notes, also by van der Donck, and signed by him and the others of the com- mittee was transmitted to Holland." Two days later on the 28th of July, was also signed the famous "Remonstrance," or "Vertoogh" of van der Donck, giving a long, detailed, history of the discovery, pro- ductions, settlement, and alleged misgovernment of the New Netherland by the officers of the West India Company.
Van der Donck, Jacob van Couwenhoven, and Jan Everts Bout, were appointed by the Commonalty a delegation to proceed to Holland and lay these docu- ments before the States-General and the West India Company and ask for a redress of what they deemed oppression. On the 12th of the succeeding August, von Dincklagen the Vice-Director under Stuyvesant, but not favored by him, sent a letter to the States- General, in which he says, " whereas the Condition of that most fertile New Netherland is seriously impair- ed by the war," and the Commonalty hath resolved on a delegation of three of the Nine Selectmen in order that your High Mightinesses may obtain full and thorough information on every point, [and] I have not been able to dissuade them therefrom. I cannot but say they intend what is right. These persons are thoroughly conversant with the situation of the coun- try. I hope your High Mightinesses will be pleased thereby and extend to them a favorable audience, and give them despatch as soon as your High Mighti- nesses' more weighty affairs will permit, as the people are very anxious." "
These papers were received on the 13th of October, 1649, by the States-General from the delegates, and referred to a special committee to examine and report upon them. On the 31st of January, 1650, the com- mittee reported adversely to the Petitioners, answering their documents article by article, and using strong language.7 The delegates replied by a further short petition on the 7th of February following, which was also referred to a special committee.8 Other com- munications were subsequently received and referred. Finally their committee reported to the States-Gen- eral a long, detailed, and very full "Provisional Order respecting the Government, Preservation and Peo-
1 Laws N. N., 17.
% Vol. I. 381, note.
8 Van der Donck's Letter. Riker's Harlem, 163.
4 I. Col. Hist., 259, 270.
5 Kieft's late war with the Indians is here referred to.
6 I. Col. Hist., 319.
7 ] Col. Hist., 338, etc. 8 Ibid., 346.
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THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.
pling of New Netherland on April 11, 1650." It con- tained twenty-one sections materially modifying the action of the West India Company,-and one of which instructed Stuyvesant to return to Holland.1 The Company opposed its adoption, and it was tempo- rarily laid over.' A new modification of the Free- doms and Exemptions was also adopted on the 24th May, 1650, which however did not change the prin- ciples of those of 1629, and 1640, but referred chiefly to minor details. This was the last legislative action of the States-General relative to the colonization of New Netherland.3 Van der Donck endeavoured to aid his "Colonie," and New Netherland gen- erally, in the matter of population. On the 11th of March, 1650, he and the other delegates, concluded a contract "to charter a suitable fly boat of two hundred lasts, and therein to go to sea on the 1st of June next, and convey to New Netherland the number of two hundred passengers, of which one hundred are to be farmers and farm servants, and the remaining one hundred such as the Amsterdam Chamber is accustomed to send over, conversant with agriculture, and to furnish them with supplies for the voyage," on condition that the con- tractors should be allowed four thousand guilders from the export duties on New Netherland freights, "to pay present expenses," and the further sum of seven thousand guilders from the peltry duties at New Amsterdam; and in case of failure by the con- tractors they were to restore the four thousand guil- ders, and forfeit, besides, two thousand guilders more of their own funds."
Van Couwenhoven and Bout returned to New Netherland with a copy of the "Provisional Order," arriving there on the 28th of June," leaving van der Donck in Holland to complete the business of the delegation, and return when the redress was actually voted. Failing to obtain action, van der Donck, on the 14th January, 1651, presented the States-General, with a further petition "again praying that a speedy and necessary redress may be concluded on, in regard to the affairs of New Netherland."
Stuyvesant declined to obey the "Provisional order," except in some minor matters, and opposed it by strong despatches to the company, while his Secre- tary van Tienhoven was already in Holland fighting van der Donck strenuously before the authorities there. On the 10th of February, 1652, nothing having been finally determined, still another representation of the contumacy of Stuyvesant, and the continued bad state of New Netherland, and the necessity for an act of redress of their grievances was made by van der Donck. It thus concludes,-"the said delegate of the Commonalty of New Netherland again humbly prays and requests your High Mightinesses to be
1 I. Col. Hist., 387. " Ibid., 401.
2 Ibid., 303. +I. Col. Hist., 379.
" I. Colonial Hist., 447.
pleased to dispose favorably of the aforesaid, in order that he, the delegate, may leave by the first ship this spring on his return for New Netherland.""
With this paper van der Donck laid before the States-General a voluminous mass of extracts of let- ters and other documents received chiefly in the year 1651, by him from New Netherland, detailing the difficulties there." After a reference of these papers to the different chambers of the West India Company and considering their various reports thereon, which occupied many months, the States-General adopted and sent the following recall to Stuyvesant, " Honor- able &c. We have, in view of the public service con- sidered it necessary to require you, on sight hereof, to repair hither in order to furnish us circumstantial and pertinent information, as to the true and actual con- dition of the country and affairs; and also of the boundary line between the English and the Dutch there. Done 27th April 1652." 8
The very day before, on the 26th of April, at his own request pursuant to the charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, the States-General granted to van der Donck, by patent under seal, the " venia testandi," or right to dispose by will as Patroon, "of the Colonie Nepperhaem by him called Colem Donck, situate in New Netherland.""
He now thought everything was completed and that he should soon be again on the banks of the Hudson. He embarked his goods and everything in the way of supplies for his "Colonie," in a vessel then anchored in the Texel, and on the 13th of May 1652 applied to the States-General for their formal permit to return home, which was requisite by a resolution of that body of the 14th of the preceding March. But he was doomed to disappointment. The Amsterdam chamber supported their officers, and were displeased at van der Donck, and the delegation for laying all their matters before the States-General instead of before themselves, thereby forcing the chamber to bring its. own action in New Netherland before the "Lords of Holland," as the States-General were termed. And it had influence enough among them to annoy van der Donck in every way. His request was merely referred to a committee "to examine." But on the 24th of May he sent in a long and sharp, but respectful, memorial, protesting against their inaction. In this, he says, "that proposing to depart by your High Mightinesses consent, with his wife, mother, sister, brother, servants, maids, and in that design had packed and shipped all his implements and goods," but he understood "that the Hon. ble Directors at Amsterdam had for- bidden all skippers to receive him, or his, even though exhibiting your High Mightinesses express orders and consent," * * * "by which he must, without any form of procedure, or anything resembling thereto, remain separated from his wife, mother, sis-
I. Col. Hist., 438. 8 I. Col. Hist., 472.
TI. Col. Hist., 444-461.
.I. Col. Hist., 470.
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HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
ter, brother, servants, maids, family connexions, from two good friends, from his merchandise, his own necessary goods, furniture, and also from his real estate in New Netherland."1 But this also was merely referred to the various chambers " for their information."" Nothing was done, and on the 5th of August, 1652, he again solicited permission to depart. ' He was again denied, and this, too, in spite of his showing that his affairs were going to ruin, and the cruelty of separating him from his wife and family. The family therefore were obliged to sail without him, and he returned to the Hague.‘
To this persecution and vindictiveness of his oppo- nents, however, we are indebted for the most valuable account of New Netherland written by any one who had then been a resident there. He seems to have begun this work immediately upon his return to the Hague and it was probably finished in the course of the ensuing winter. In May he applied for a copy- right, which after an examination of the book both by the Chamber of Amsterdam, and a Committee of the States-General, was granted by the latter body on the 24th of May, 1753. The correspondence on this subject between these bodies, shows that a copy of this little book was sent by the former to the latter on the 2d of May, and referred to a committee " to inspect, examine, and report thereon."" It must therefore have been printed at that time, though no copy of that date is now known to exist. This is the more probable from the fact, that van der Donck was at length permitted to depart, and returned to New Netherland in the sum- mer of 1753.6 As we know that he intended to write an addition to this work in order to make it complete as a history, and obtained an order from the West India Company, in the shape of a letter from it to Stuyvesant, to permit him to examine the papers and records in the Secretary's office of the Province, for that purpose, it may be, that though printed, it was not published in 1653. Stuyvesant on his return refused him access to the records, and thus defeated his plan, and he then, in all probability, consented to the publication of what had already been printed in Holland. He died in 1655, about two years after his return to America,7 and in the same year the first edition of his work that we now have, was issued in Amsterdam, with a view of New Amsterdam inserted.8 A second edition was issued in 1656, also in Amsterdam, without the view, but containing a map of New Netherland. This book was entitled; " Beschryvin I. van Niew Nederlandt," or, "A Description of New Netherland" (such as it now is) Comprehending the nature, character, situation and Fruitfulness of
1 I. Col. Hist., 476. " Ibid., 485.
2I. Col. Hist., 476, 478. + Ibid., 532.
" I. Col. Hist., 531, 532.
" N Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., 2d Series, vol. ii. 258.
" I. Col. Hist., 533 ; II. O'Call., 551.
It is a small 4to vol. of 104 pages, with an introduction of 8 pages.
that Country," &c., &c., with an account of the man- ners and customs of the Indians, and of the natural history of the Beaver." This and the "Vertoogh" or "Remonstrance" referred to before, published in 1650, which was a contemporaneous relation of events in New Netherland, historical, civil, and military, are the two most valuable and authentic accounts of New Netherland and its early history and condition, that exist, and are the sources to which all writers ever since, have gone for information on the early history of what is now New York. The first named work was first published in English, only in 1841, in the first volume of the second series of the Collections of the New York Historical Society, the translation having been made by the late General Jeremiah Johnson of Brooklyn. And in the second volume of the same series, is an admirable translation of the "Vertoogh," from the pen of the Hon. Henry C. Murphy of the same city.
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