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 26
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RICHARD NICOLLS.
It is putting it in mild terms to say that this patent was not approved by the Harlem people, whose wishes, as is obvious,
* From verken, the Dutch word for hog, and so called because the neighboring settlers allowed their hogs to run there. Now Blackwell's Island.
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were little regarded in preparing it. The change in the name of the town, with the governor a pet idea, and tried elsewhere but not always successfully, was a most offensive feature, and was never adopted .* The bench of justice or local court, and, in general, such rights as they had enjoyed in common with the other villages, were indeed comprehended under "the privileges of a town," but as it made all, without limitation, "depending on this city,"-this condition might impose untold burdens. In the vital matter of taxation, it left them quite at the mercy of the Duke, his heirs and governors, and not to the safer operation of the laws. Nor did it fully cover their landed interests, as it omitted to name the meadows appertaining to their farms, but separated by the Harlem River. These were grave objections to the patent in its present form, and though it remained of record, and was not "recalled" as were some others, the inhabi- tants only abided the time when they could secure a better, ob- viating these defects.
Two positve characters, such as Tourneur and Waldron, the one under sheriff and president of the court, the other constable, could hardly be expected always to work in harmony, and so it happened that the former took a grudge against the latter for something said or done. Now, Waldron, being requested by the inhabitants, went officially to see Tourneur, who was at his bouwery, "to speak to him about the fences," when the latter, losing temper, caught up a stick, and saying to Waldron, "Now, nobody is looking, I'll pay you!" fell to beating him. Waldron entered a complaint to the Mayor's Court, May Ist, demanding to be sustained in his official acts, or relieved from his office. Tourneur being cited, appeared on the 8th, the next court day. On hearing his version of the story the case seemed to wear a different look, and was dismissed, with a charge "that both par- ties for the future live together in good friendship," he who should first offend to pay a penalty of 50 gl. Tourneur was bet- ter satisfied than Waldron, who immediately asked the Court to give him his discharge as constable, which they did. Of Wald- ron's official acts but one remains to be mentioned,-the contract with Nelis Matthyssen to cut and remove the timber from the town lot, and to keep the fences in repair. This work he com- pleted early in 1668.
On May 15th, Johannes Verveelen was confirmed as Wald- ron's successor, from a nomination (of two persons) made by the
* Lancaster, as a name applying to Harlem, is not once found on its records; nor has it been met with as so used in any other record or document of that period, saving the instance above noticed.
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inhabitants, per order; and in presence of the Court he took the oath of fidelity. This was followed, June 12th, by an appoint- ment of four persons as overseers, from a double nomination by the people; those elected being Joost Van Oblinus, Isaac Ver- milye, Glaude Delamater and Nelis Matthyssen; while Jan La Montagne was again made secretary, in which office he had not acted since 1664. The letter communicating the result contained the following instructions :
"The which persons are hereby authorized, together with the under sheriff and constable,-or three of them, whereof the under sheriff or his deputy shall always make one,-in all questions and suits that between man and man in their village may happen and be brought before them, without respect of persons, to do justice and to determine absolutely, to the sum of Two Hundred Guilders in Sewant, following the laws here in this land established; and all the Inhabitants of the Village of New Harlem are by these ordered and charged to respect the before-named persons in all that belongs to them as their over- seers. Done at New York, the 12th of June, 1666."
On June 19th the members elect presenting themselves in the Mayor's Court, were tendered and took the following oath :
Whereas you, Daniel Tourneur, as Under Sheriff, and you, Joost Oblinus, Isaac Vermilye, Glaude Delamater and Nelis Matthyssen, by the Honorable Mayor's Court are chosen as Overseers of the Village of New Harlem, for the term of one succeeding year, beginning upon this date; you Men swear in the presence of Almighty God, that you will, to your best knowledge and with a good conscience, maintain the laws of this government without respect of persons, in all suits that shall be brought before you, to the sum of Two Hundred Guilders; You Men, so far as able, will execute the laws for the benefit of your town and the inhabitants of the same. So truly help you Almighty God.
Thus was constituted the first local court at Harlem, in which (save at the first choice of schepens, under the Dutch) the peo- ple enjoyed the right of nominating their magistrates .*
* Nelis Matthyssen was from Stockholm. His name (tbe prenomen usually ab- breviated in the Dutch records, though sometimes written in full, Cornelis) was, in proper Swedish, Nils Mattson; but he had a countryman and contemporary of this name who lived on the Delaware, for whom he is not to be taken. He and Barentie Dircks were married at New Amsterdam in 1661. At Harlem he was well esteemed, his good common-sense going far to supply a lack of early advantages. By occupa- tion a carpenter and timber-hewer, he was the first tenant of the land since known as the "Church Farm," from which he cut and cleared the primeval forest trees. On his lease expiring, in 1668, he left the town and bought a small place at Hellgate Neck, Newtown, being also an applicant, in 1673, for Patrey's Hook, "lying between Col. Morris and the Two Brothers." He sold out at Hellgate to Thomas Lawrence, and obtained a grant of sixty acres at Turtle Bay in 1776. This he sold to Joh. Pietersen-date not given-and perhaps went to Hackensack (as did his family) after 1681, when he is last named in New York. He had children, Matthys, Hendrick, Anna, Maria, Catherine, Sarah and Rachel. Sarah married Jacob Matthews, and Maria married Samuel Hendricksen, both of Hackensack. Matthys Cornelissen, born 1665, at Harlem, married Tryntie Hendricks, 1692, and died at Hackensack 1743-8, his descendants retaining the name Cornelison, and of whom, we believe, was the late Rev. John Cornelison, born 1769, at Nyack, N. Y., died, 1828, at Bergen, N. J.
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A first business of the new board was to provide for the completion of the Church. Work upon it had been continued by the two carpenters, off and on, during the past winter, but it was not finished, and money was wanted. Little had been paid in for the out-gardens sold, and some of these gardens were yet undisposed of .* At the motion of Tourneur, the magistrates, on June 27th, resolved that as it was necessary to finish the church, a tax for that purpose should be laid upon the lands, "by the morgen from each lot," but "for the present to borrow it from the poor money with the approval of the ministers and the deacons." Accordingly lumber was procured, and Hendrick Karstens was employed to raise up and underpin the building with a proper foundation, and also to plaster it, that the next winter should find it more comfortable for the worshipers than had the last.
This object secured, the overseers found other business,-to stay the damage being done by cattle foddered on the cultivated lands, and hogs daily rooting in the vegetable gardens, causing "manifold complaints." As a remedy, they issued an order, July 25th, prohibiting all persons letting their hogs run at large with- out being yoked; and providing that for every hog without a yoke found within the fenced lands, the owner should pay, besides the damages sustained, "six guilders for each hog for the first offense; two pounds of powder for the second, and for the third offense forfeit the hog or hogs." A like penalty was declared against keeping cattle or calves within the general fencing.
On September 2d, being Sunday, the quiet of the village was disturbed, by Jan Teunissen and Philip Presto bringing in a canoe load of hay from Daniel Tourneur's meadow. The next day they and Tourneur also were arraigned by the town court, for working on the Sabbath. Teunissen admitted the charge, but said that Tourneur had ordered it done. Tourneur refused to appear, but said that he had given them no orders to fetch it on Sunday. The Court thereupon directed the constable to take the hay and canoe in charge, till they were redeemed. Tourneur
* The Buyten Tuynen, or Out-Gardens, were in some instances given by the first purchasers to their children, at their marriage, to build on, and begin wedded life. At a later date four of these small plots were occupied by Joost Van Oblinus as his homestead, then by his son, Peter, who added a fifth garden, and who owned a farm on Van Keulen's Hook to which these adjoined. His nephew and successor, Petrus Waldron, buying up the remaining ones (two excepted), the whole descended to his son, John P. Waldron, forming the north part of his farm where it came to the Church Lane. The two westerly gardens, Nos. 19, 20, were retained in the Bussing family, whose ancestors received them from his father-in-law, Glaude Delamater, the original purchaser. They finally came to a daughter of Aaron Bussing, Mrs. Catherine Storm, forming the small piece attached to the north end of her farm, on which was her resi- dence, the old family mansion, till late seen standing cornerwise to 119th street, at the north side, between Third and Fourth avenues.
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gave bail for Presto, and proceeded to appeal from this action to the Mayor's Court.
But once up for public criticism, Tourneur, whose late affair with Waldron, yet fresh in the people's mouths, was no help to him, had now to meet and contend with another damaging report. An act of his youth, long past and buried, suddenly sprang forth to assail his character. Elizabeth Rossignol,* the wife of Marc Du Cauchoy, under strong provocation as appears, abused Tour- neur roundly with her tongue, calling him "a villain of villains," and tauntingly added, that he durst not call her to account for it either! Tourneur complained to the magistrates September 27th, Elizabeth being present, and prayed that she be put to the proof. The defendant said that she held the plaintiff for a villain, while he did not restrain his children from giving her a vile name in his presence; and furthermore, that the plaintiff in France had intentionally taken the life of a man with a sword. Tourneur declaring that he knew not that his children had railed at her, prayed that the defendant should prove that he had killed a man, or taken his life. Thereupon, Glaude Delamater and Barentien Matthyssen testified, at the request of Elizabeth, that they heard Tourneur say, at the house of Nelis Matthyssen, that "his sword was the cause that he durst not go to France." Tour- neur explaining, said, that attending a funeral in the city of Amiens, the Papists fell upon the Reformed, and some of them being slain he was obliged to leave. He asked that the defendant be interrogated, whether she had known the plaintiff in France. The defendant said that she had not known him in France, but that the affair was well known to those who had known him there. The Court having heard both sides, referred the parties to the Honorable Mayor's Court. But Tourneur, at the next meeting of the magistrates, still pressed his suit, praying that the defendant be imprisoned till she prove her words, and held to bail for the costs. Elizabeth was equally urgent that Tour- neur should give bail for the costs, and reiterated that he had given the death to Tilie Meer. But the magistrates again referred the parties to the higher court, so there the persistent Tourneur went.
His two suits came to trial October 9th. In the "hay case," the Court upheld the magistrates in seizing his hay, etc., on the ground that Tourneur was accountable for the acts of his ser- vants, and disregarding his plea that his orders were to bring
. In the record she is called Lysbeth Nachtegaal, a mere change of her French name into Dutch; and Nachtegaal finding its English equivalent in Nightingale.
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the hay early on Monday morning. They fined him 25 gl., but put the costs on the magistrates; instructing them, since Tour- neur was president of their board, to apply to the higher court, "in case plaintiff shall forget himself hereafter, while holding said position." In the matter of Elizabeth Rossignol, the de- fendant frankly admitted all she had said, and offered to prove it, "if the Hon. Court please to grant her a delay to obtain the proof thereof from France. But the court declining such an investigation, and keeping itself to the charge of slander, con- demned the defendant to acknowledge her fault in open court at Harlem, and pay the costs. This checked, but did not wholly stop, this malicious story, which even after Tourneur's death was circulated by Du Sauchoy, as the widow alleged, "to the great damage of herself and children."
Capt. Thomas De Lavall was an English gentleman, his surname derived from Normandy, but the family of great an- tiquity at Eeaton-Delavall in Northumberland, where it held large possessions. Members of it were active partisans of King Charles., by whom Sir Ralph Delavall was knighted in 1660, and made surveyor of the port of Seaton-Sluice; while others in the collateral branches were as noted for their commercial spirit and wealth. Circumstances connect Capt. Delavall with this family, whose tastes, pursuits, and loyalty he so largely shared, but further it is quite well ascertained that he was son of Thomas, a son of Sir Ralph Delavall. The official favor he enjoyed was the fruit of meritorious service for his king and country, before his arrival here in the suite of Gov. Nicolls. During the late war in Flanders he was Deputy Treasurer of the port of Dun- kirk, and handling public funds exceeding an hundred thousand pounds, so well discharged his trust, that he was assigned to a similar one at New York, and had entered upon its duties directly after his arrival.
Capt. Delavall, now owning lands at Harlem, including lot No. 22 on Van Keulen's Hook, which extended down to Mon- tagne's Kill, designed to build a grist-mill upon this lot and stream, with a substantial stone dwelling-house near it, in case he could secure the co-operation of the Harlem people, and the patronage of the surrounding districts; though the latter much depended upon the opening of a proper highway between the Bouwery and Harlem, to give the inhabitants easy access to the mill with their grain. It would further insure the success of the undertaking, to draw travel as much as possible toward Har- lem, by establishing a ferry there, and to divert it from Spuyten
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Duyvel, by closing up the passageway then used as a fording- place for horses and cattle to and from the main. Mr. Delavall now having authority as mayor of the city, resolved to undertake these enterprises, which with his usual sagacity he judged would prove a good investment for him, while also conducing to the public convenience. He therefore made the following proposi- tions to the authorities of Harlem :
On this date, 3d January, A°. 1667, the Honorable Heer Delavall* proposed and requested that the magistrates of this town do consider the following points :
Ist. That they make one-half of the road from here to the Manhatans or New York; and that Spuyten Duyvel be stopped up.
2d. That like care be taken for a suitable Ordinary (i. e. tavern), for the convenience of persons coming and going, as also of the village; and he promises the nails and the making of the scow, provided the ferry- man be holden to repay him for the same when required.
3d. That it may be firmly settlea, that the inhabitants of the town will make the dam, because other towns promise to make a dam, if so be that he pleased to build the mill near them.
4th. Requests leave to erect a stone house at the rear of his land near the mill, and to fortify it as a refuge for the village in time of need.
5th. Requests leave to run a fence straight from the fence now stand- ing to the stone bridge, upon Van Keulen's Hook, and to use the land and meadow so inclosed.
6th. Requests that the inhabitants of the town shall set off (fence) the meadow at Little Barent's Island, in case they wish to keep the same, as said Island belongs to him; or otherwise, not to put the town to inconvenience, he will present them the Island, if they will free the meadows.
7th. Whereas the Bronck's Land has been sold for two thousand guilders in beavers; and as he thought that it should more properly fall to the town,-offers, for that price, to let the town have it.
Upon all which, after consideration given, to notify and inform him.
On this matter being talked over among the magistrates, Johannes Verveelen agreed to take the ferry and ordinary for six years. He was then formally sworn to provide proper enter- tainment for travelers, as victuals and drink, lodgings, etc., and further, not to tap liquor to the Indians who should resort to the village. On his request for an addition of six feet to his house lot, next the street, "as he was crampel for room, and must make convenience for his ordinary," the Court granted him "six feet into the street, to extend right out at the south side; that is, the line stretching as the street now runs, nearly east and west."
The next day the inhabitants were called together to act upon Mr. Delavall's proposals, and with the following result:
" The word Heer, though properly translated Lord, often, as in this instance, had simply the sense of Mr. as used at that early day; this latter term being then applied with discrimination, and only as denoting great respect. (See Annals of Newtown, P. 38, note).
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On the 4th of January; Advice of the Inhabitants of the town upon the propositions of the Honorable Heer Delavall :
Ist Point. Offer, together with their neighbors, to stop up Spuyten Duyvel, as it was formerly; are also resolved to make a road so far as practicable.
2d. Have provided for this, and settled Johannes Verveelen as ferry- man and keeper of the Ordinary for six years.
3d. Agree to make the dam for the mill, provided they may enjoy its benefits according to custom.
4th. Agree that a house be built for the bouwery, to set near the mill, or where it is most convenient for him.
5th. Agree that the mill use the land and meadow lying from the fence now standing to the stone bridge on Van Keulen's Hook.
6th. Require further opportunity to consider how this point shall be settled.
7th. They are parties : Hon. Heer Delavall, Nicholas De Meyer, Johannes Verveelen, Daniel Tourneur, Glaude Delamater, Lubbert Ger- ritsen, Joost Van Oblinus, David Demarest, Valentine Claessen and Derick Claessen.
Bronck's Land, referred to under the seventh point, and em- bracing some five hundred acres, opposite Harlem on the West- chester side, had passed from Bronck's heirs, through several hands, to Samuel Edsall. The answer to the seventh point appears to mean that the "parties" named were the ones most interested, as they were those whose salt meadows lay on that side of the river. With a view to buying the Bronck tract, some of these persons met the next day, and "constituted and author- ized Daniel Tourneur, Nicholas De Meyer, and Johannes Ver- veelen, in their name to agree respecting the payment and redemp- tion of the land called Bronck's Land; to do and execute as would they themselves if present, promising to maintain firm and inviolate whatever these their attorneys may do in the premises."*
As to Little Barent's Island, the case stood thus : Stuyvesant
* Dirck Claessen, son of Claes Jacobsen and Pietertie Heertgers, was born at Leeuwarden, in Friesland; emigrating, I believe, with his wife and widowed mother, in 1653. He was a potter, several of whom came out that year. In 1657, when he became a small burgher, he bought a house and lot in New Amsterdam, and set up a pottery, known afterward as "Pot-baker Corner, situated near the outlet of the Fresh Water into the East River, and next to Henry Braiser." Leasing this property, August 10, 1662, for three years, he came to Harlem to manage his bouwery here, and that fall was chosen magistrate. On November 5, 1663, he sold his bouwery to Jan Teunissen, but was obliged to take it back under a mortgage of that date, and finally sold it to Daniel Tourneur, February 1, 1667. He now resumed his pottery in New York, where he died in 1686. He married Wyntie Roelofs, Annetie Dircks, widow, and Metje Elberts. By the first he had Claesie, born 1654, who married John Ray and Gustavus Adolphus Horne; Jannetie, born 1656, married Cornelis Dyckman, and Geertie, born 1662, married Barent Christians. By his second wife he had a daughter, Gisberta, to whom, and his stepson, John Everts (son of said wife Annetie by Evert Jansen), he deeded his pottery property, September 10, 1680. Who Gisberta married, if at all, has not been observed. When a miss of sweet fifteen, one Wm. Phillips visited her, but on a Sunday morning, October 26, 1679, being caught acting rather free to suit the father, he indignantly drove Philips out of the house, nearly cutting his nose off with a knife. Ray was from Berkshire, England, had served here as a soldier in the English garrison, but became a pipemaker. His descendants have been of first respectability in this State. His daughter, Wyntie, married Hendrick Meyer, and daughter Catherine married Derick Potter.
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had granted the meadows lying around it to some of the Harlem people, and had allowed all of them to use the island for pastur- ing their young stock. Later this and Great Barent's Island, as being the property of the West India Company (Van Twiller's title to the latter island under his Indian purchase having been disallowed by the company and annulled by the Director and · Council, July Ist, 1652), fell to the English by the general act of confiscation of October 10th, 1665; and were soon after sold to Capt. Delavall, though his patent did not issue till February 3d, 1668, when he was about to visit Europe. Upon Delavall's offer of the lesser island to the inhabitants of Harlem no imme- diate action was taken, and on May 3d, ensuing, Daniel Tour- neur, in Delavall's behalf, urged that Jacques Cresson, who had meadow on the south side of that island, might be removed there- from, by having other meadow given him instead; and that the Heer Delavall's meadow should be fenced in by the town-folks who had calves pastured there. Delavall's meadow, gotten with the land of Simon De Ruine, lay in common with Cresson's, and Cresson was willing to give up his part, provided he could have "the meadow west of the hills, along Montagne's Kill, at the north side of the Kill," and if "the persons using Barent's Island would help him a day in making fence." But this was not agreed to, and no step being taken to "free the meadows," Dela- vall afterward purchased them, excepting Cresson's, which he never owned.
Nor was the attempt to buy Bronck's Land more successful; even Delavall did not take it, and that valuable tract was con- veyed by Edsall; June 4th, 1668, to "Col. Lewis Morris, of the Island of Barbadoes, merchant," whose brother, Capt. Richard Morris, under a mutual contract of August 10th, 1670, came to reside on the plantation. His death within two years led to a visit from Col. Morris in 1673. But being dispossessed that year by the Dutch, he did not make it his permanent residence till after he had secured a large addition to it by royal grant; the whole of which estate, embracing 1920 acres, upon his death, February 14th, 1691, fell to his nephew, Lewis Morris, son of Richard, and in 1697 was erected into the Manor of Morrisania.
After much labor the mill-dam was finished (crossing the creek a little west of the present Third Avenue), and near its northern end Delavall built his mill; employing as his miller Hage Bruynsen, a Swede, but for twenty odd years a resident in this country .* The land adjoining his own, of which Delavall
* Hage Bruynsen was born at Weish, in Smallant, and may have been the son
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had the use for mill purposes, took the name of the "Mill Camp." John La Montagne thought the time favorable for removing to his farm, or at least for asking permission of the town to do so; and on his application the inhabitants, January 4th, 1667, voted him "authority to build and live upon his Point." But Delavall's plan to build a substantial house and fortify it was frustrated by an urgent call soon after to go to England, and whither he went the next year, leaving his property at Harlem in care of Daniel Tourneur, as his agent.
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