USA > New York > New York County > Harlem > Revised History of Harlem (City of New York): Its Origin and Early Annals. : Prefaced by Home Scenes in the Fatherlands; Or Notices of Its Founders Before Emigration. Also, Sketches of Numerous Families, and the Recovered History of the Land-titles > Part 21
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· Blanchan and Crepel (now written Crispell) were originally from Artois, as before stated; and the first of some note in his native town of Nouville le-Conte. With him came his wife, Madeleine Goore, and (beside Maria, Mrs. Crepel), three other children, viz., Madeleine, aged 12 years; Elizabeth, 9, and Matthew, 5, the last born at Mannheim. Stuyvesant welcomed them and gave Blanchan a letter to Sergt. Romp, at Esopus, directing him to provide them accommodation. Arrived there, and Dominic Blom having also come, it was a solace to the pious Blanchan, for all he had suffered, and the loss of property in his native. place, and at Armentieres ( Flanders), and elsewhere, to sit down with his wife and son and daughter Crepel, at the Lord's Supper, on December 25, ensuing. Louis Du Bois, married to Blanchan's daughter Catherine, probably came out with his brother-in-law, Pierre
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
From what has heretofore been said of these colonists, of their rough and checkered experiences before quitting the shores of Europe, we cannot but regard their future with special inter- est, while better facilities will be found to study their individual character. Little remains to be said of them in generalities. Though the Dutch and French elements were dominant in giving tone to the community, the Scandinavians and Germans, few in number as seen, were second to none for sterling common- sense, while foremost to breast danger and hardship, to wield the axe whose ring first startled the slumbering forest, or turn the first furrow in the virgin soil. Hardy sons of toil, bred to habits of untiring industry, none were more fitted for the task of converting the rude wilds into an abode for civilization. Frank and outspoken, but of honest ain and dealing, with es- sentially the same language, which was closely allied to that of the Dutch, toward whom, as Protestants, they were drawn in sympathy, they readily assimilated to the latter : and if less in- debted than these to the schoolmaster, being in great part unable to read or write, this was in a degree supplied by their native good sense and equanimity, which contributed not a little to har- monize the diverse elements composing the settlement, and to mold them into a well-ordered society.
" Oft did the harvest to their sickle yield, Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke; How jocund did they drive their team afield, How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke! "Let not ambition mock their useful toil, Their homely joys and destiny obscure : Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile. The short and simple annals of the poor."
By the large influx of settlers, who with scarcely an excep- tion gave their attention to farming, either as proprietors or Billiou, also from Artois, in the ship St. Jan Baptist, which arrived here .August 6. 1661-reasons. Du Bois and wife were not present at the communion season referred to, but with letters joined the church there not until October 1, 1661, having a child baptized nine days after. Blanchan, Du Bois and Crepel all got land in Hurley, near Kingston, and received groundbriefs April 25. 1663. Du Bois died at Kingston in 1696, and his widow married Jean Cottin. named page 71. On May 18, 1679, Blanchan, Jr., married Margaret Van Schoonhoven, and succeeded to his father's farm in Hurley, left beside four daughters. a son, Nicholas, whence all of the name in U'Ister County descend. His sister, Madeleine. born in England, married Jan Matthysz, ancestor of the Jansen family, as before noticed. His other sister. Elizabeth Blan- chan, married Pieter Cornelisz Low, of Kingston, whose progeny have been numerous and widespread. Cornelius Low, of New Jersey, born 1670, was eldest son of Pieter. and father of Cornelius, father of Isaac and Nicholas Low, leading merchants of New York in their day. The first was President of the Chamber of Commerce, but when Independence was declared forsook the "Liberty Boys" and adhered to the Royal cause: while his brother Nicholas continued an active patriot, and was a member of the Convention of New York for adopting the Constitution of the United States. See Steven's Chamber of Commerce. Honored names in various sections of our country have been and still are those of Blanchan, Du Bois, Crispell, Jansen and Low.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
tenants, the original allotments of land had all been taken up, causing the demand, before noticed, for additional erven and bouwlots. It was a want now equally felt by other villages, and as a first step toward meeting it the government resolved to in- form itself as to what lands were available (tracts lying unim- proved, and not needed as pasturage or woodland), that these ·might be distributed to settlers and brought under tillage. With this in view the Director and Council issued a general order, of which the people of Harlem received a copy, as follows:
All Inhabitants of New Netherland, and especially those of the Vil- lage of New Harlem, with all others who have or claim any Lands thereabouts, are ordered and commanded that within the space of three months from the date hereof, or at least before the first of January next, they shall have all the cultivated and uncultivated Lands which they claim, surveyed by the sworn Surveyor, and set off and designated by proper marks; and on the exhibition of the Return of Survey thereof, apply for and obtain a regular Patent as proof of property, on pain of being deprived of their right; To the end that the Director-General and Council may dispose, as they deem proper, of the remaining Lands, which, after the survey, may happen to fall outside of the Patents, for the accommodation of others. All are hereby warned against loss and after complaints. Thus done, in Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland, the 15th of September, 1661.
This order moved the community to give immediate attention to the whole subject of their lands, it being necessary for each inhabitant to consider and decide what quantity he further needed and could pay for. The idea largely prevailed, and very naturally, that the ordinance for planting the village secured to all able to purchase and improve that quantity, as high as 24 morgen and bouwland. The magistrates and freeholders having canvassed the matter and laid it before Gov. Stuyvesant, he gave his assent to the following measures, looking to a further dis- tribution of land, and in connection therewith, to some conveni- ent changes in the old lots. Discarding the former ground- briefs, Van Keulen's Hook and Montagne's Flat were to be laid off into lots and distributed among the freeholders. It was agreed that John La Montagne should hold the Point, as having belonged to his father, and take his full allotment there, by throwing up his lot No. I, on Jochem Pieters; and as a special immunity should enjoy the Point free from any future demands in the way of town tax. He was to conform to the town regula- tion against building upon the bouwlots, and was not to build or live upon the Point till the town saw fit to allow it. Jan Pieters Slot and Simon De Ruine, owning two lots apiece on Jochem Pieters, also consented to give up one each, lying toward the
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
further end; instead of which Slot was to draw nine morgen to- gether on Van Keulen's Hook, and De Ruine to draw a lot, three morgen, on said tract, and enough more on Montagne's Flat to make good his quantity. Moreover, both were to retain their two erven.
All this being arranged, the lots on Jochem Pieters,* now numbering but twenty-two, were staked out anew, and to each lot (before six morgen) was added 400 Dutch rods, or two-thirds of a morgen ; a remnant of three and one-third, left of No. I, being taken to enlarge the gardens. The owner next adjoining to No. I, Daniel Tourneur, to whom fell part of that lot with part of No. 2, now became No. 1 ; a similar change occurring to the next owner, and so on.
Van Keulen's Hook, the large plain directly south of the village, and lying mostly in woods, was laid off into lots, narrow and long, and these, for convenience of ingress and ultimate improvement, were, excepting the first three, butted on the main street, from which they ran south to the river and Mill Creek; being each twelve Dutch rods in breadth, and contain- ing three morgen, or about six acres. Twenty-two lots were laid out, as on Jochem Pieters, and numbered from the river west- ward. Nos. I to 3, instead of reaching up, as did the others, to the village street, ended at the marsh or meadows, some acres in extent, which lay intervening, and through which a creek, forked and winding, overflowed its banks or lapsed to its muddy channel with the tidal flood and ebb. The upland between streets and meadows was reserved for the common use of the village, and to allow free access to the creek-side and small cove at its outlet, which was the usual landing-place for the villagers and others, as it afforded a safe mooring for canoes and skiffs.
The Van Keulen Hook lots were drawn in the beginning of 1662, the original owners being as follows :
No. I. David Du Four.
No. 12. Simon De Ruine.
2. Jan Cogu.
:
I3. Adam Dericksen.
"
3. Lubbert Gerritsen.
14. Jaques Cresson.
4. Michel Zyperus.
15. Nicolaes De Meyer.
5. Daniel Tourneur.
16. David Uzille.
6. Sigismund Lucas.
..
17. Dirck Claessen.
7. Jan Pietersen Slot.
18. Jan Sneden.
..
8. ..
..
19. Jan De Pre ..
9.
IO. Philippe Casier.
..
21. Jacques Cousseau.
"
II. Jean Gervoe.
22. Jean Le Roy.t ..
* Jochem Pieter's Flat, with the history of the several lots, showing the origin of the titles in this section, is treated of in Appendix E.
20. Pierre Cresson.
t See the subsequent history of the Van Keulen Hook lots in Appendix F.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
An episode of these land operations here claims a notice,- the first "Harlem Land Case," not reported, we believe, either in Wheaton or Wendell! Sigismundus Lucas, as his autograph is, working long and lustily on his cobbler's bench, had gotten him "a house, barn and plantation at New Harlem." But early in January, 1662, he agreed to sell out to Nicholas De Meyer, then a Harlem freeholder, for 400 gl. in sewant. Going home from New Amsterdam, where the bargain had been made, Cobbler Lucas considered the many stitches that property had cost him, sorely repented his act, and tried to back out, on the ground that De Meyer had given him till morning to decide if he would sell. De Meyer began to smell leather, and forthwith took written statements from two witnesses to the bargain, and also that of Evert Duyckinck, whom Lucas had told of hav- ing sold his farm to De Meyer, but did not think "the costs would run so high." Coming in court at Harlem, January 13th, De Meyer claimed the property, showing his papers, and offering also the testimony of Meyndert Coerten, who had heard defendant admit the sale. Lucas, who was present, demurred, pleading that the sale was not peremptory; that Coerten, having hired land of De Meyer, was an interested witness, and that the affidavits were not sworn to. The last objection was sustained, and the case was adjourned, to give plaintiff time to remedy this defect. This was done the next day before the Heer Tonne- man, schout of New Amsterdam. On the 16th the town court again examined the papers and heard the pleas of both parties ; then ordered Lucas to give up the farm on receiving the price, and to pay the costs of suit. But in vain did De Meyer send once, twice, thrice, to tender the money and demand the de- livery of the premises; the resolute cobbler, maintaining his ends, only waxed firmer in his refusal, so that on a further com- plaint, February 2d, the court authorized De Meyer to take pos- session. Now Lucas, still showing his bristles, appealed to the Director and Council. praying "to be relieved of the sale to De Meyer, and the sentence of the court at Harlem, in whose juris- diction said houses and lands are situated, as he loses by that sale more than half of their value." He was directed to give De Meyer a copy of the petition, and notify him when to appear and answer. On February 16th both parties presented them- selves, when the Director and Council, after reviewing the case, confirmed the action of the local court, and held Lucas to his bargain. The poor shoemaker had held on to the last, but must
1
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
now yield up his all (indeed his awl was now everything to him!), and in disgust he soon left the town .*
It may be added that, two years later, or January 29th, 1664, De Meyer obtained a patent from Gov. Stuyvesant for his sev- eral lands in Harlem, then including twelve morgen upon Mon- tagne's Flat; which tract, as proposed, had been divided up among the people of Harlem, and to the particular history of which we now return.
John La Montagne, after the project to form a new settle- ment on the farm Vredendal had failed, continued at Harlem, one of the most useful and honored of its inhabitants. The Director and Council, November 3d, 1661, appointed him schepen, with Slot and Tourneur as associates; and when Slot retired a year later, he succeeded as schout, which office he re- tained till the Dutch rule ended. He was the first Town Clerk, so far as appears from the earliest protocol or register, but which commences only with January 13, 1662, leaving the pre- ceding sixteen months a blank; an unfortunate vacuum at the introduction of the town history, though partially filled by other records. But from this date Montagne's minutes (save another hiatus of fifteen months) are quite complete for ten years, up to his death.
However thwarted were the Montagnes in their plans respect- ing Vredendal, they yielded gracefully to the alternative which secured to John La Montagne, the doctor's eldest son, that part of the property called the Point, of which his father was the original grantee, but surrendered the Flat to the government, to be parceled out to such of the people of Harlem as still wanted more land, and upon terms which, though not stated. probably did not differ from those of the previous allotments,
* Sigismund Lucas, on quitting Harlem, bought him a house in Pearl Street. He was sued in the Court of Burgomasters, January 15, 1664, for a pair of shoes left to he mended "during the Indian troubles" of the previous year. They were "stuffed into the straw hed," for safe keeping, as he had "neither kit nor chest in which to lock them." The case was dismissed upon Simon making oath "that he knew not what hecame of them." He now threw aside his cobbler tools to become a carman. and on the Dutch reoccupation. 1673, good loyal Dutchman, he worked gratis at the city defenses, only taking pay for horse and cart. But the English succeeding, the sheriff wished Simon to "cart down a cable," by order of Governor Andros; but now in other mood re refused, saying "he would not cart for the Governor, nor nobody else." Hereupon the Mayor's Court, December 22, 1674, "Ordered that he shall cart noe more until ye Court think meete to admit him thereto." He and wife made a joint will "Sunday evening about eight o'clock." September 17, 1673, which he sur- vived four years at least, but both were dead when the will was proved in court, April 26. 1681. The Court, October 11 ensuing, authorized his effects to be "sold at an outcry for payment of debts. Ile left by his first wife, Engeltie Jans, a daughter, Maria, who married Andre Lauran, of the French Church, and by his second wife, Gertrude Bulderen, a son, who wrote his name Johannes Simensz, also a cordwainer, later a carman, in New York, and admitted a freeman July 19, 1726. He married. 1692, Phebe, daughter of Capt. Titus Syrachs de Vries, of Flatbush. Her brothers bore the name of Titus (see Annals of Newtown), one of whom, Syrach Titus removed to Bensalem, Bucks County, Pa., died 1761, and left descendants there. Hazard's Reg., 7: 30.
1
189
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
but without doubt looking to a liquidation of the large debt due from Dr. Montagne to the company. While John La Montagne was to remain the possessor of the Point, which was rated at six- teen morgen, it was open to his brother William (we think then engaged to succeed Zyperus as schoolmaster, and hence usually styled by his brother "Meester Willem"), if he should become a freeholder, in same manner as others, by the purchase of the usual allotment, to draw with them his proportionate share of the Flat, enough to give him likewise sixteen morgen. It was clearly a compromise regarding Vredendal, arranged, as it could only be, with the sanction and by order of the Director and Coun- cil; and the correspondence which at this time these were having with Dr. Montagne respecting his long-standing indebtedness to the company, and for which they strongly censured him, shows that their action as aforesaid was a stern necessity .*
The question of the disposal of the Flat was intimately con- nected with another of vital interest to the community. The three years allowed them in which to pay for their lands had nearly expired, and with not a few it became a difficult prob- lem how they should provide the 8 gl. per morgen which the government must have. In this dilemma the schepens repre- sented to the Director and Council, March 9th, 1662, what embarrassment several of the inhabitants must experience if compelled at once to pay the purchase money for their lands, eight guilders per morgen, and praying to be relieved of this payment ; in lieu of which they proposed that the term of fifteen years' exemption from tithes should be shortened to ten years.
To this the Director and Council would not assent, but in their answer "insist upon the conditions on which the village of Harlem has been laid out." But they added: "No person is obliged to accept more land than it is convenient for him to pay for."
It was plainly. owing to the difficulty of raising this morgen- money, or morgen-gelt, as called (a term also denoting any tax assessed according to the morgen), that a number of persons quit the town during this year, to try their fortunes elsewhere; as well landholders as others designing to become such. Of these were Coerten, De Pre, Du Four, Gervoe and Le Sueur.t Du
· See a letter from Montagne upon this subject, with touching allusion to his needy circumstances and frugality of living, Appendix D.
* Meyndert Coerten, from Arnhem, came out as a soldier of the West Indian Com- pany. He married in 1660 a girl of Picard parentage, Maria, daughter of Pierre, Pia, and visited Holland, returning the next year in the ship with Muyden, who prob- ably drew him to Harlem. Here he leased land of De Meyer, and kept stock. In his brief residence he won respect, and the court honored his abilities in naming him with
.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
Four sold out his allotment to Jacob Eldertsen, a sturdy Dane from Lubeck, and late a brewersman, who resold it, June Ist, 1662, to Jean Le Roy, for 350 gl. But these few withdrawals only making place for others, it was soon apparent that all the land now to be distributed would be eagerly taken. The follow- ing list was made out by Montagne, at a meeting of the resident proprietors, called to ascertain how much land they wanted:
List of Lands at N. Harlem, according to each one's request, 14th March, 1662.
Jan Pietersen Slot,
24 morgen. ..
Daniel Tourneur,
24
Michel Zyperus, 18
Lubbert Gerritsen,
24 6
Adam Dericksen,
David Du Four,
IO
Simon De Ruine,
12
Jan Cogu and
Monis Peterson,
10
Jean Gervoe,
10
Hendrick Karstens,
6
Widow of Jan Sneden, Philip Casier,
4
Jan De Pre, absent.
Jaques Cresson, 12
Simon Lucas,
IO
Peter Cresson,
8
These bids were made with obvious reference to the offers in the ordinance of 1658, as the quantities indicate. But to meet these demands, as was apparent, must exhaust the allotments · proposed to be made on Montagne's Flat, to the exclusion of some of the ablest proprietors, living in the city and not now present. as De Meyer, Cousseau, Claessen, and Muyden. In such case the government could only use its discretion in revising the list. It decided that sixteen morgen must at present be the maximum of a single allotment. Slot was therefore dropped : others raised to said number of morgen, except asking for less. But of course we cannot know all the reasons which weighed in making up the list.
Upon such circumstances was the Flat now laid out into parcels of from four to six morgen each, by an actual survey; running in narrow strips from the little creek due west to the
Dominic Zyperus, February 16. 1662. to settle a financial dispute between Cogu and Tourneur. Courten soon went to Flushing, and thence to New Utrecht, where he arose to position ans served as an elder. He was high sheriff under Leisler, and one of his council; but his devotion to that party cost him a long imprisonment. In 1608 he represented Kings County in the General Assembly. He died on his farm. Bruynsburg, about 1706, in a good old age. For his children, see the Bergen Gen .. ist edition: not in ad edition, as later evidence changed the opinion that he was of the V'an Voorhees family.
1
1
:
.6
..
24
..
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
hills, originally some twelve lots, and numbered from south to north. As near as can be told, the first owners were Nicholas De Meyer, Lubbert Gerritsen, William De La Montagne, Simon De Ruine, Derick Claessen, Do. Zyperus, Jean Le Roy, Jacques Cousseau, and Daniel Tourneur. De Meyer, as owning two allotments, obtained two lots on the Flat; and so of Cousseau. Montagne had lot No. 4, being six and a half morgen, he having met the required conditions by purchasing, April 7th, 1662, from Jan De Pre,* who had advertised to sell the same at auction, his "house, house-lot (erf), garden, and land,"-the land being No. 7 Jochem Pieters. Lot 19, Van Keulen's Hook, also made part of this allotment. But after a temporary residence, Montagne sold out to his brother, John, and returned to Albany, whence he removed to Esopus, married, and was long the parish clerk. Had we no other evidence of this alienation of Montagne's Flat, the bare fact that while Dr. Montagne and his sons were yet living these lands are found divided up, and in the possession of several other of the Harlem people, nearly all holding under special patents from the Governors Stuyvesant, Nicolls and Lovelace, is evidence prima facie that the title had passed from the original owners; a conclusion which none may now gainsay, without ignoring the official acts of the government in the issuing of these patents.t
The spirit of land speculation, infecting few places as it has Harlem, is in no wise peculiar to our century. In the days under review, and mainly for the cause we have stated, many transfers of land took place, the buyers the more thrifty class, with usually a keen eye to a bargain. Very informal was the legal act of transfer. The earliest deeds, most simple and brief, seem es- pecially defective in describing the property. But this informa- tion was supplied by the original surveys and allotment lists on file with the town clerk, while no complex chain of title embar- rassed the question either of location or propriety. That of
* Jan de Pre, born at Commines in 1635-a Fleming, but of Walloon or French descent, judging from his surname-was a cooper, and before coming to Harlem lived several years as a "small burgher" in New Amsterdam, where he married, in 1655, a Scotch lassie, Margaret, daughter of John Cromartie. His present wife was Jannetie, daughter of Simon de Ruine, married in 1659. De Pre finally went to New Utrecht, and thence to Staten Island. By his first wife he had Andries, born 1656 (but one child, called a daughter, is referred to in his marriage settlement of Decem- ber 31. 1659), and by his second wife, Jannetie, born 1662, Francina, 1665, Maria. 1667, John, 1671, Simon, 1676. Jannetie married Cornelius Banta, of Hackensack, where her uncles, the Demarests, resided. She died and Banta married her cousin, Magdalena Demarest. Banta was a son of Epke Jacobs Banta, farmer from Har- lingen, common ancester of the prolific family bearing that name, and who, with his wife and five children, emigrated in the ship with Simon de Ruine. How often the acquaintance thus formed proved a link uniting the fortunes of the children!
t See further remarks upon Montagne's Flat under the year 1673, and in Appen- dix G.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
boundary came up occasionally. Payment was made, not by bank check, but either in sewant, in beaver skins, in cattle, grain, or tobacco; and property was often sold subject, because not prev- iously paid, to the morgen-gelt (before explained), the meet-gelt, or survey money, the cost of groundbrief, and, in sales by vendue, the stuyver-gelt, or auctioneer's fees. A curious sample is the deed to Montagne, before mentioned, the earliest save one to be found of date subsequent to the planting of the village. It was drawn up by Do. Zyperus, as the clerk was an interested party, being brother of the grantee, and otherwise involved in the trans- action of which this purchase was a part. The morgen money being unpaid, the consideration named was only for the improve- ments and improved value of the land. As the scribe forgets to tell us where the contract was signed and sealed, and where on this mundane sphere the land was situated, we judge he was not an experienced clerk. In the Dominie's neat Dutch penman- ship it still stands in the protocol.
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