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 24
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Thereafter the church had a regular succession of voorlesers, to perform the varied and responsible duties before specified; except when partially relieved by the visits of the city ministers, who officiated here by occasional appointment, or under engage- ments made with them from time to time, as will further appear.
New arrivals in the village were still occurring. One was that of a French refugee heretofore mentioned, and who is first alluded to in the minutes of January 23d, 1664, thus: "Robert Le Maire requested an" the record left unfinished; but probably explained by the fact that he soon obtained an erf from the town. A few of the larger landholders, as Slot and De Meyer, now took occasion to obtain patents or groundbriefs for their lands, though the two named and that of Hanel, dated May 16th ensuing, are the only patents found, issued by Gov- ernor Stuyvesant, for the allotments under the ordinance of 1658. This accords with what the inhabitants afterward told
* The schepel, a Dutch measure, was commonly rated in this country at three English pecks. Wooley's Journal, p. 34.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
Governor Nicolls, namely, that most of them "never had a groundbrief." An event of interest to the villagers was the surrender by the widow of Cornelis Claessen Swits, to the Director and Council (pursuant to an offer which she made to them February 7th, 1664, and by them accepted), of all her claim to the farm occupied by her late husband, but "purchased and cultivated by her," in lieu of the debt due from Swits to the West India Company. The title thus reverted to the govern- ment, and the lands on which was the village plot were thereby relieved of any mediate claim which could possibly be set up under the old patent of 1647 .*
" This petition and answer are of sufficient interest to be given entire.
To the Noble, Right Honorable, the Director-General and Council in New Nether- land: Shows with all humility, Ariaentie Cornelis, late widow of Cornelis Claessen Swits, now married to Albert Leenderts; how that the supplicant with her now deceased husband, and their children, occupied for several years and actually built upon, a parcel of land whereon has since been laid out the village of Haerlem; upon which farm, after much labor there expended, she, with her said deceased husband, was, in September, 1655, miserably surprised by the cruel barbarous savages, who at once murdered her husband, plundered or burnt all their goods, and carried her off with her six children captives. From whose cruel hands, by the aid of her good friends, being delivered, with her six naked children, she remained bereft of all that she possessed, her husband and all means of subsistence, except only the aforesaid farm, on which she hoped, sooner or later, by the assistance of others, to be able to maintain herself in an honest manner; but in this she was disappointed, as well by the continued troubles, and the want of means, as by the orders issued against having any isolated habitations, and so was compelled for a time to abandon that farm. When, at last, it was resolved by the Director and Council to lay out the village of Haerlem, and the supplicant was inclined, with her present husband, Albert Leenderts, to again, occupy the said farm, this could not be done, because her cleared land had been distributed among others, and the only offer then made her, was, to draw lots with the rest; to which she could not agree, as it was to her great prejudice, and thus was her whole farm, bought and cultivated by her, given to others, and the sup- plicant deprived of the means by which, with God's help, she could have maintained herself, instead of which she is now, with her children, reduced to poverty. The land being so distributed by the Director-General and Council, it was provided that those interested, who had been driven off their land, should be paid by the actual possessors, ten guilders (sic) per morgen, but it was afterwards granted that in lieu of ten guild- ers per morgen' the said occupants should, 5 years (sic) earlier than had been before determined, pay tithes of the produce, in behalf of those interested, but this cannot be collected but slowly. Our humble petition, therefore, is, that it may please your Honors either to return again the said parcel of land to the supplicant, or that its value, that for which it was before sold, may be reimbursed to her,-or otherwise (as the supplicant's deceased husband remained indebted to the Hon. Company about seven hundred guilders, for commodities, for whose liquidation with that of other debts, he left her nothing besides the said land), that your honors may be pleased to accept that farm, or what shall be paid for it by its actual possessors, in place of the aforesaid debt, and then to favor her with a receipt for it in full-which proposal the supplicant humbly requests your Honors may be pleased to seriously consider, with her present situation, and may through compassion let her enjoy a favorable answer, which doing she will remain
Your Honors' obedient her ARIAENTIE X CORNELIS. mark.
This peticion being read, and the supplicant's poor condition considered, the fol- lowing order is thereupon made:
Although the debt incurred by the supplicant's deceased husband, should long since since have been paid, and ought now to be paid without any further delay, yet, con- sidering the scanty means which were left to the supplicant by the barbarians, as is explained more at large in her petition, and furthermore, her present situation; there- fore resolved that we accept in payment of what her deceased husband, Cornelis Claes- sen Swits, remained indebted to the Company, whatever shall in time be collected from her land as mentioned in her petition, giving her by this a receipt in full, so that neither she nor her posterity shall ever be troubled about it in future, provided that she deliver to the Noble Company her deed, transfer, etc., which she may have for the aforesaid land. Done in Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland, the 7 Feb., 1664.
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The opening spring brought its share of work for the farm- ers. A shelter was needed for the young calves turned out to feed on Barent's Island, and at a meeting held March 13th it was agreed to build on April Ist. They also resolved to fence the gardens. Some of the inhabitants, in want of servants and laborers, seized the opportunity to buy a number of negro slaves, sold at auction in Fort Amsterdam, May 29th, by order of the Director and Council. They had arrived on the 24th instant, in the company's ship Sparrow, from Chicago. At that sale were eager bidders, Johannes Verveelen, Daniel Tourneur, Nicholas De Meyer, Jacques Cousseau, Isaac De Forest, and even Jacob Leisler, himself, in 1678, enslaved by the Turks, and years later the champion of liberty! Verveelen bought a negro at 445 fl., De Meyer one at 460 fl., and Tourneur another at 465 fl. These were probably the first slaves owned at New Harlem, and, strange as it may seem, the recollections of the living run back to the time when negro slavery still existed here.
Of much advantage to the whole neighborhood was the new saw mill constructed soon after by Jan Van Bommel, a thrifty citizen of New Amsterdam, on the run of water emptying into the East River near the foot of 74th Street, and known ever after as the Saw Kill, which stream the people of Harlem claimed as their southern limit. The right to run this mill, granted May 26th, expired in three years, when it was discontinued; but its site became a noted landmark in connection with the Harlem Patent line.
While the inhabitants were thus busied with their own domestic affairs, the general interests of the country were in greatest peril; the government, assailed by enemies within and without, was rapidly approaching its fall. The seizure of the Dutch possessions on the Connecticut River, the successful re- volt of the English towns upon Long Island, and in Westchester, and their alliance with New England, too plainly told the in- potency of the powers at New Amsterdam to resist any further aggressions which enemies might choose to make. Added to these were the yet existing Indian troubles. Alarmed for the safety of the state, Stuyvesant, before slow to recognize the principle of popular representation, at last was constrained to yield, and call a general assembly of delegates from the several Dutch towns, chosen by the people, and which met at New Am- sterdam on April roth; Harlem sending two of her most active men, Daniel Tourneur and Johannes Verveelen. But with an humbling sense of their weakness or want of resources, they did
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little more than to send an urgent appeal to the States General of Holland for aid in defending their homes and firesides. How- . ever, a new treaty being concluded on the 16th of May with the Indian tribes on the Hudson, the harrowing fears from that quarter were quieted; and the families at Harlem found relief in the fact that the neighboring chief, Sauwenarack, head sachem . of the Wickquaskeeks, renewed his pledge of friendship by sign- ing the treaty.
Some months of mingled hope and fear now lulled both government and people into a false security, when an English fleet, under Colonel Richard Nicolls, suddenly appeared before New Amsterdam, and made a short and easy conquest of the province. The fort was surrendered on September 8th to the invaders, who named the city, as also the province, New York. Surprised into a change of rulers, the staid old settlers at New Harlem accepted the condition with a mixed sentiment. Tired of the late administration, some welcomed a change which in any respect could hardly prove for the worse, btu a majority, with the attachments of native or adopted citizens, would have preferred the old government with all its faults. Nor could the wise and conciliatory course taken by the new governor, Nicolls, at once allay the feeling of indignation which found expression among the Harlem people, or repair the injury inflicted on the whole colony by a nation professedly at peace with the mother country.
The withdrawal of the Dutch soldiers from Harlem,-most of these at the surrender returning to Holland,-and the abrupt departure of others, gave an air of desertion to the village. But new residents soon took their places, prominent among whom was Resolved Waldron, late deputy schout of New Amsterdam, an efficient officer, to whom Stuyvesant had been much attached. Now finding his vocation gone, he retired with his family to Harlem, to spend his remaining years, but not to be released from public service.
Among the persons leaving was Juriaen Hanel, who ten years before first came to this country as a soldier of the com- pany, and, raised to be a sergeant, had been rewarded for faithful service by an increase of pay. He was a native of Poland, and a man of no little consequence at Harlem, to which place he had removed from Bergen only within a few months, having, as before said, purchased Do. Zyperus' lands, but which before leaving he sold to Johannes Verveelen. Jan La Montagne was much disaffected by the change of government, and while his
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father and brother, William, both living at Albany, accepted the issue and took the oath of allegiance, he, with the tie of a native- born Hollander, which neither of the former could boast, made haste to dispose of his property, with a view no doubt to quitting the town or country, as many were doing. On October 22d, 1664, he sold to the partners Jan Myndertsen and Johannes Smedes, his "piece of land, and meadow belonging thereunto, called by the name of Montagne's Point, paled in betwixt two creeks, according as the bill of sale doth mention," for 800 gl., wampum, to be paid by instalments .*
Another inhabitant, Arent Moesman, respected in the church and community, though he took the oath of fidelity to the English, prepared, with his brother Jacob, to visit fatherland. Conveying his property lying in this town to Captain Thomas De Lavall, an Englishman who had lately arrived here with Governor Nicolls, he bought instead a house and lot in- Broadway, offered for sale by Meynderts before named, after contracting for Montagne's Point. For this he gave a deed, or power of sale, to Dirck Vandercliff, taking from him a mortgage on the premises for 700 gl. Thus secured, Moesman, December 10th, 1664, ob- tained a pass for Holland in the ship Unity, Captain Jan Bergen. Michiel Muyden, the late proprietor, after holding a prominent standing in the town and contributing no little to its welfare, had sold his two erven, and indeed his whole allotment, to Jacques Cresson in 1663. He too returned to Holland, and, like a true Dutchman, warmly advocated the forcible recovery of New Neth- erland from the English. Subsequently his city residence in the Winckel Street, left in care of Jacob Kip, was confiscated.
These removals, causing painful breaks in families, as in the case of Verveelen, whose eldest daughter, Anna, went to Hol- land with her husband, Derick Looten, late military commissary, were the least disastrous consequences, as affecting New Harlem, of the political change which had happened the country. Months were required to restore order and check abuses which had sud- denly sprung up to disturb the peace of the community. Yet these disquieting circumstances were not allowed to hinder sev- eral genial gatherings at the hymenal altar during the winter
· Meynderts and Smedes were in business together in New York. The former noticed at pp. 93, 102; the latter at p. 99. Mynderts married, 1660, Belitie Plettenborg, by whom he had several daughters besides Mrs. Barent Waldron. Smedes is called Smith in the contract with Montagne, a render of his name into English, which never prevailed, at least with the earlier generations of his de- scendants. He married, January 3, 1665, Lysbeth, daughter of Michiel Verschuur, and on February 2, 1676, Machtelt, daughter of Jan Willems Van Isselsteyn. He had sons, born in New York, Johannes, Benjamin and Abraham, the last by his second wife. I believe he removed to Ulster County, but the name has spread to many localities.
Lamontagne
Dirch Chauvin
David ville
marc in faurjoy
David Definanoff
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and spring of 1665. The old schepen, Jan Slot, ended his wid- owerhood by choosing another wife, and provident Pierre Cres- son, whose son, Jaques, had married since coming to Harlem, found a worthy companion for his daughter, Christina, in a young man from St. Lo, in Normandy, named Letelier, now a magistrate at Bushwick .*
. Jean Letelier was one of the "fourteen Frenchmen" by whom Bushwick was settled, in 1660, and was one of its first schepens, March 25, 1661. He always signed his name simply "Letelier," the usual mode among the French gentry. In 1662 be gave three guilders toward the ransom of Teunis Cray's son Jacob, in captivity with the Turks, Removing to New Utrecht, be there died September 4, 1671. In his will (to which Abraham du Toict is a witness) be speaks of his children, but does not name them. His widow married Jacob Gerrits De Haes, by whom she had issue, Jacob, born 1678; John, born 1680, etc. Letelier was usually called by the Dutch Tilje (Tilya), and whence perhaps the family of Tillou or Tilyou, whose ancestor, Pierre (see N. Y. Gen. and Biog. Rec., 1876, p. 144), if the son of Jean, took the name of his god- father Cresson.
CHAPTER XIV. 1665-1666.
RELUCTANT YIELDING TO ENGLISH RULE.
[ TPON the late surrender of the country by the Dutch it was conceded that "all inferior civil officers and magistrates shall continue as they now are, if they please, till the customary time of new elections." But "the customary times" arriving, no new election took place at Harlem; while the old officers, either from indifference, or from doubts as to their power to act with- out the schout, who positively declined, utterly failed in their duties. Sundry violations of law and order naturally followed upon this suspension of authority, and at the bottom of which was that ever prolific cause of evil,-rum! Who the offenders, or what the offenses, is not further specified than in the follow- ing missive, addressed "To the Schout and present Magistrates of Harlem:"
A Warrant to the Magistrates of Harlem for the Prohibition of the sale of strong liquors to Indians.
Whereas, I am informed of several abuses that are done and com- mitted by the Indians, occasioned much through the liberty some persons take of selling Strong Liquors unto them; These are to require you that you take special care that none of your Town presume to sell any sort of Strong Liquors or Strong Beer unto any Indian, and if you shall find any person offending therein, that you seize upon such Liquor and bring such person before me, to make answers for the offense. Given under my hand, at Fort James, in New York, this 18th of March, 1664 [1665 N. S.]. RICHARD NICOLLS.
These infractions of law were largely due to the disaffection of Jan La Montagne, to which reference has been made. For some cause failing in the sale of his Point, he remained here, but threw up his office as schout, refusing to arrest and prosecute offenders, by which means lawbreakers went unrebuked, and the course of justice was obstructed. A state of things so ab- horrent to the law-abiding Waldron and others could not long
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be endured; and the result was another order, more explicit than the previous one, and in this form.
To the Magistrates of Harlem :
Whereas, complaint hath been made to me that the Schout of Harlem doth not execute his office, and that several disorders are committed and the Inhabitants hindered of their accustomed rights; I do therefore order, that the Magistrates now in being do act, as formerly; and in case the Schout will not execute his office, that the Magistrates do Justice in his place, for the good of the Town, and to decide all matters that doth or shall happen there, not exceeding the value of One Hundred Guilders in Wampum; and this to continue till further order. Given under my hand at Fort James, in New York, this 20th of April, 1665.
RICHARD NICOLLS.
In the reconstruction of the city government after the Eng- lish form, which now took place, the want of a better adminis- tration of authority at Harlem operated as a reason for bringing that district within the jurisdiction and control of the city. Hence, Gov. Nicolls' proclamation of June 12th, 1665, consti- tuting the new municipal government, declared "that the inhab- itants of New York, New Harlem, with all other His Majesty's subjects, inhabitants upon this island, are, and shall be forever accounted nominated and established, as one body politic and corporate, under the government of a Mayor, Aldermen and Sheriff." In these was vested "full power and authority to rule and govern, as well all the Inhabitants of this corporation, as any Strangers, according to the general laws of this Government, and such peculiar laws as are or shall be thought convenient and necessary for the good and welfare of this, His Majesty's corpor- ation ; as also to appoint such under officers as they shall judge necessary for the orderly execution of justice." One of the aldermen therein appointed was Mr. Thomas De Lavall, whose relations to Harlem were to form an important chapter in its history.
One of the first acts of the new Common Council was to adopt the following, June 15th. "Resolved, to send for the Court at Harlem, and the constable, Resolved Waldron, by letter, to come hither by Saturday next." What was brewing was hardly hinted at in the polite billet thereupon addressed : "To the Honorable, the Court of New Harlem." It ran in these words :
Honorable and Affectionate Friends :
Thse serve only that your Honors hold yourselves ready to appear here in this city, on Saturday next, being 17th June, old style, with Resolved Waldron, and to receive all such orders as shall be communi-
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cated. Whereunto confiding, we commend your Honors, after cordial salutation, unto God's protection, and remain Your affectionate friends, THE MAYOR, ALDERMEN AND SHERIFF OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. By order of the same, JOHANNES NEVIUS, Secretary. Done, N. York, the 15th June, 1665.
Punctually those sent for appeared, and the record reads thus: "Resolved Waldron entering is notified that he is elected Constable of New Harlem, which accepting, he hath taken the proper oath; and the Magistrates who accompanied him are informed that they are discharged from their office. The afore- said Constable is authorized to select three or four persons, who shall have power to decide any differences or dispute to the extent of Five Pounds Sterling, in Sewant, and no higher; and the party who shall not be satisfied with the decision of those elected as aforesaid, shall be bound to pay him, the Constable, the sum of Six Stivers, and further to bear the costs of proceed- ing before this bench of Justice."
Waldron, clothed with these unusual powers, called Daniel Tourneur, and who else we know not, to the magistracy. Johan- nes Vermilye was given the place of gerechtsboode, or court mes-
· Jan Pietersen Slot, the old magistrate, had just before left the town with his family. Himself from Holstein, as before noticed, his sons Pieter and Jan were born at Amsterdam. Pieter sold his property at Harlem, gotten from his father, to Resolved Waldron, and removed to Bergen, where he owned 25 morgen of land, bought May 14, 1657, and where, on April 1, 1665, he joined the church with his wife, who was the daughter of Jacob Walings Van Winckel, of that place, deceased. His father sold his lands at Harlem, named in his patent of January 4, 1664, to Johannes Verveelen, and on April 20, 1665, bought other property at the Bouwery, from Governor Stuyvesant. But he again sold out here, February 12, 1669, having, on August 14 preceding, sold to Capt. Delavall for £10 a parcel of meadow on "the nnorth side of Barent's Island," which he held by ground-brief from Stuyvesant. In 1686 he and wife resided in Wall street; in 1703, in the South Ward. His children were by his first wife, Aeltie Jans; his second, Claertie Dominicus, he married while at Harlem.
Jan Jansen Slot married, 1672, Judith, daughter of Stoffel Elsworth, took a house in the Smith's Fly, and that year joined Capt. Steenwyck's new troop of horse. A warm partisan of Leisler, in 1689, he was made an ensign. He is named, October 7, 1695, as selling his city property. His children, so far as known, were Heyltie, born 1672, who married Capt. Zebulon Carter; Johannes, born 1674; Stoffel, born, 1677; Annetie, born 1681, married David Demarest 3d, and Jonathan Hart; Hendrick, born 1684, and Judith, born 1687, who married John Van Horn.
Pieter Jansen Slot sold out at Pemberbogh, on Bergen Neck, January 30, 1671, and on March 23 ensuing, bought a place in New York, to which he removed; but in 1673 his house, with others, was taken down to enlarge the grounds about the fort. in 1677 Slot hired a farm at Esopus, to which place he had gone to follow his trade as builder. Returning in 1683, he and wife, to Bergen, with letters to the church there, they were soon back to New York, living for years on property which they owned "at Crommesshe, near Stuyvesant's Bouwery." Selling this, April 10, 1688, Peter died soon after. In 1692 his widow, still of New York, married John Demarest, Esq., of Hackensack. Pieter's choldren were John, born 1665; Jacobus, born 1669, both at Bergen; Tryntie, born 1671, married Adam Van Norden and Cornelius Banta; and Jonas, born 1681, at Esopus, and who married, 1713, Jannetie Ostrum, of Poughkeepsie, where he was living in 1738. John Slot, born 1665, was residing in New York in 1703, with his wife, Jannetie Andries, and children. Jacobus Slot settled at Hackensack, married Mary, daughter of John Demarest, aforesaid, and was father of Petrus, born 1696; John, 1699; Eve, 1701; Leah, 1706; Jonathan, 1712; Sarah, 1715; Tryntie, 1718; Benjamin, 1721. These have many descendants in Bergen. Rockland and Orange counties, including the Sloats, of the Ramapo Valley.
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senger ; and Tourneur, the now deacon and magistrate, was soon after, by the appointment of the governor, made "under sheriff" at New Harlem, and "president of the court there." Thus was abolished the Court of Schout and Schepens.
Entering zealously upon their duties, the very first act of the new magistrates had nearly gotten them into trouble. While Nicholas De Meyer was busied with his merchandise at New York,-having lately taken out, March 31st, "a certificate of denization, with liberty to traffic to Fort Albany,"-his farm tenant at Harlem, Aert Pieterz Buys, took occasion to abscond, being in arrears for rent, and in debt to the town. By authority of the Mayor's Court, De Meyer, June 19th, proceeded to "at- tach all his goods." This the new magistrates opposed, assert- ing their own claim as paramount. De Meyer at once appealed to the Mayor's Court, which set the matter right by declaring the attachment valid, and citing Waldron and his colleagues "to show cause, on the next day, why they claim to be preferred, in the disposal of said property, before the prosecutor of the attach- ment." The silence of the record makes it evident that the magistrates declined to press their claim.
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