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 28
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The Spring; that is. Spuyten Duyvel. (See page 115). Verken Island. before noticed, was soon after called Manning's Island, from its owner, Capt. John Manning, and later Blackwell's Island. Stony Island has hardly yet yielded to the modern name of Port Morris.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
belonging to a Town within this Government; with this proviso or excep- tion, That in all matters of debt or trespass of or above the value of Five Pounds they shall have relation to and dependence upon the Courts of this City as the other Towns have upon the several Courts of Sessions to which they do belong; Moreover the place of their present habita- tion shall continue and retain the name of New Harlem, by which name and style it shall be distinguished and known in all bargains and sales, deeds, writings and records, And no person whatsoever shall be suffered or permitted to erect any manner of house or building upon this Island, within two miles of the limits and bounds aforementioned, without the consent and approbation of the major part of the inhabi- tants of the said Town. And whereas the said town lies very commo- dious for a Ferry, to pass to and from the Main, which may redound to the particular benefit of the inhabitants as well as to a general good, the freeholders and inhabitants of the said Town shall, in considera- tion of the benefits and privileges herein granted, as also for what ad- vantage they may receive thereby, be enjoined and obliged at their own proper costs and charge to build or provide one or more boats, fit for the transportation of men, horses and cattle, for which there shall be a certain allowance given by each particular person as shall be ordered and adjudged fit and reasonable. They, the said Patentees, and their as- sociates, their heirs, successors and assigns, rendering and paying such duties and acknowledgments as now are or hereafter shall be constituted and established by the laws of this Government, under the obedience of His Royal Highness, his' heirs and successors. Given under my hand and seal, at Fort James, in New York, on the Island Manhatans, the IIth day October, in the 19th year of His Majesty's reign, Annoq. Domini, 1667.
RICHARD NICOLLS.
While the proceedings relating to the patent were pending, much ill-feeling had found vent at certain "orders of the new government." One of the most outspoken was Jan Nagel, late soldier in the Dutch service who, on being notified of the order by the constable, Verveelen, returned him the following answer, wherein his sentiments are not disguised:
April ye 12, 1667.
I take this opportunity to send you word that I will see you to-mor- row to comply with ye orders of ye new government, as such a course seems now necessary, and leaving no other alternative; but not without very strongly protesting against ye injustice which has long been heaped upon us. Not finding satisfaction in ye confiscation of very valuable property, they are now compelling us to submit to an illegal and tyran- nical foreign government. If God has designed in his providence that ye Dutch people should become victims to ye treachery and rapacity of ye English, then all they can do is to submit.
JAN NAGEL.
But, on May 3d, Verveelen complains to the magistrates that Nagel "has not obeyed his order." Nagel replies, saying "he has conveyed the order, but they would not go." On motion of the under-sheriff, Tourneur, that the defendant "be bound over to the Mayor's Court as a rebel, on the charge of having refused
·
.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
to obey the order of the constable," the Overseers so referred the case. Others were also implicated, for on September 6th, Nelis Matthyssen, ex-magistrate, taking by invitation a seat on the bench, Tourneur (not in love with Nelis, whose wife had appeared against him in the manslaughter case) stoutly pro- tested, charging Nelis with being a rebel; but the court rejected the charge. So it rested till another sitting on October 24th, when affairs had become so grave that Capt. John Manning, the High Sheriff, presided, and before whom Jan Nagel and Hans Lourens, in the same category, were also cited to appear. Mat- thyssen had summoned Tourneur to prove "that he is a rebel." Tourneur now "proves it by the order of the Mayor's Court, that the plaintiff should not continue as one of the bench." Nelis being cast, and put to an amende of 6 gl. and costs of suit, with becoming nonchalance promised 25 gl. to the poor. The two other cases were then taken up, when Nagel was fined 60 gl., and Lourens 40 gl., each with costs.
Captain Delavall had become by far the largest landed pro- prietor in the town, and hence was entitled to be named as first patentee. He now owned (not to specify further) several of the uppermost lots on Jochem Pieters' Flat, besides those of Simon De Ruine and the late Jan Cogu, in the same tract. On March 14th, 1668, Tourneur, as agent for Delavall, who was arranging his business preparatory to going to England, leased these several lots, with the De Ruine house and garden in the village, for a term of four years, to a respectable settler named Wouter Ger- ritsen, whose emigration in 1659 has been already noticed .*
. Simon de Ruine, otherwise called de Waal, i. e., the Walloon, was originally from Landrecy, in Hainault, as before noticed. Having sold his lands in Harlem, in 1666, he bought a few acres in Flushing, near Jean Genung, and is named on the rate list of 1675, Doc. Hist. N. Y., ii. 461 On April 27, 1678, the Sieur Dubuisson drew up his will; a copy is here given. It was proved June 13, 1678. Simon was sick, and perhaps in extremis, as he did not put his hand to the will, and thus its date may be that of his death. As he always made his mark, and his name takes many forms in cotemporary records, we follow Dubuisson as probably correct. The following forms prevail: Drune, Dreune, Druwen. John Montagne varies it thus in a dozen times: Durwyn, Druween. Simon had, with other children, Jacomina, born near Landrecy, who married John Demarest: Jannetie, born at Amsterdam, who married John De Pre; and Maria, born at Harlem, who married Samuel Demarest.
A Jourd huy 27me avril 1678, faict en prensence de Jean Guenon et de Mar- guerite sa femme, et Jean des Conseiller, et de Jean Baptiste de Poictier, Sieur Dubuisson, et du libre consentement de Simon de Ruine, le Qualon, se croiant malade. a recongnu pour le repos de sa consiense, par un libre et st. jugement. a tesmoigne ettre sa volonte ainsy quy seulmt qu apres les despt paiez desclare et a les clare Madlaine sa femme heritier des les bien et en disposer sa vie durante, sans toutes fois le pouvir vendre gra ny engager en quelque facon, que le soit tant meuble et inmeuble demeurant au mesme point qu il sont. C etait et concluet a reste dans la maisonmaison du dict Simon de Ruine, dit le Qualon, en presence des tesmoin cy dessre nonme 1 on desclare ne savoir siner faute de quoy mestre on leur marque. de Jean nm Guenon
marque nn Jean des Conseiller.
fait par moy
Jean Baptiste de Poictier, Sieur Dubuisson.
247
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
In the meantime other old groundbriefs of Governor Kieft's time were being hunted up by heirs or successors of the grantees for official confirmation. That to Pieter Jansen and Huyck Aert- sen for land at Sherman's Creek was now claimed in partnership by Joost Kockuyt, of Bushwick, who had married Jansen's widow, and Thomas Lamberts, of Brooklyn, Aertsen's successor. These parties sold the groundbrief to Archer, of Westchester, for 600 guilders. But when presented to Governor Nicolls he refused to confirm it, both because he considered it as forfeited by the neglect of the owners to improve the land, and "in regard it might be injurious to the Town of Harlem."
The old Hoorn's Hook patent, granted to Sibout Claessen, was also offered for sale to Daniel Tourneur, who, consulting his own interests rather than those of the town, agreed to buy it. This being known, caused great dissatisfaction, and gave rise to the following petition :
To His Excellency Gov. Richard Nicolls :
The Magistrates of the Town of New Harlem, with all becoming respect and submission, do represent; That your Excellency's petitioners have been informed that some persons have bought the lands commonly called Hoorn's Hook; which conflicts with the privileges wherewith this Town was laid out, and is to the great prejudice of the town, the more so. as the said privileges have been confirmed by your Excellency, and the lands are situated within our jurisdiction. Your Excellency's peti- tioners do not desire the same for nothing, but offer to pay what they have been sold for .* Hoping your Excellency will give the preference to your petitioners of having the same, with the redemption thereof, by paying what they have been sold for; for they await your Excellency's favorable answer. In the meantime they will not cease to pray God to grant your Excellency enduring health and salvation. Amen. New Har- lem, 15th March, 1668.
In the name of your Excellency's faithful subjects,
J. LA MONTAGNE, JUNIOR, Secretary.
This paper had scarcely gone on its errand when another excitement arose in the village. The 22d of the same month, Jeaen Baignoux, a worthy French refugee, and subsequent owner of a farm on Hoorn's Hook, having occasion to cross the river to Morris', forty pounds of tobacco, with a nootast and other
· In margin; "To wit, Seven or eight hundred sticks of firewood."
t Nootas, a bag made of Indian hemp, in which the natives carried their sewant, tobacco, etc., and measured their corn. They came into common use with the settlers, and are often named in inventories and vendue lists. The court minutes of July 12, 1663, contain the following:
"Lubbert Gerritsen and Marie Taine declare, by request of Nelis Matthyssen, that they heard Madalena Lodewycks say, at said Madalena's house, that Barentien Dircks had stolen the pork of Jacob Brouwer, which was in a nootas by the oven door. The court condemn defendant to pay, for the needs of the poor, 6 guilders and the cost of suit." She was wife of Simon de Ruine.
(See Wooley's Journal, p. 52, and N. Y. Col. Doc. I, 281).
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
articles, all valued at 76 florins, were stolen out of his canoe while it lay at the landing-place. He charged the theft upon Matthys, the ferry negro, who was arrested, but released on his master, Verveelen, becoming his bail. The case, more serious for that Matthys was de facto a public servant, demanded, as thought, an extra court, which was held April 2d, when beside the usual magistrates, his honor, High Sheriff Manning, was present. Pierre Grandpre, another refugee, with Knoet Mourisse. had occasion to go over together just after Baignoux, and de- scribed the strange actions of the negro, who "with a sword in one hand and fire in the other," forbade their landing. They also saw that Matthys had a nootas, but could not say whose it was. The testimony left little doubt of his guilt, but the court though best to postpone the case for further evidence; Verveelen promis- ing Capt. Manning to make good Baignoux' loss should the latter be able to clearly fix the theft upon the negro. No more appears.
But new trouble awaited the ferryman. It was found no such easy matter to close up the passage at Spuyten Duyvel. long "used to ford over from this Island to the Main." Fences were rudely thrown down, and the grazing kine strayed across at will. Further, it became known that John Barker, of Westchester, had presumptuously, and to the great damage and loss of the ferry at Harlem, taken over a great number of horses and cattle, toll free. Verveelen and the magistrates hastened to make com- plaint. The Mayor's Court gave both sides a hearing on June 2d, when some neglect on the part of the ferryman appearing, it was "Ordered that said Barker shall pay the ferry money for all horses and cattle conveyed by him over the Spuyten Duyvel whilst the ferry has been at Harlem, which money the petition- ers shall employ to repair the fences at Spuyten Duyvel ; and the ferryman is in like manner expressly ordered and charged to finish the house and pen, on the opposite side of the ferry at Harlem, at the earliest opportunity; under such penalty as the Hon. Court shall impose." Verveelen made out a bill for £5 sterling against Barker, but recovered it only by an attachment, issued September 5th, by the Town Court.
A series of troubles now began between the inhabitants and John Archer, respecting their lands and. meadows near Spuyten Duyvel. This noted person is first introduced to us as "Jan Arcer, alias Neuswys, from Amsterdam." His affix, literally rendered nosewise, when coupled with his more familiar nick- name, "koop-al," or "buy-all." suggested,-that Archer was a
249
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
shrewd fellow and had an eye to business! One alias, indeed, he got from his father, who, in 1658, is called "Jan Aarsen, from Nieuwhoff, commonly called Jan Koopal," the son in 1662 being styled "Jan Arcer, alias Koopal, the younger." He had been in Westchester a dozen years or more, and in its affairs borne an active part. It was an English community, and he, taking to wife in 1659 an English girl from Cambridge, his name thus came to take the English form of Archer, which has des- cended to a numerous posterity .* By his assiduity acquiring a large tract of land bteween the Harlem River and the Bronx, he had "at his own charge and with good success begun a town- ship; in a convenient place for the relief of strangers,-it being the road for passengers to go to and fro from the main,-as well as for mutual intercourse with the neighboring colony." Archer began by leasing his land in parcels of 20 to 24 acres, to such persons as would undertake to clear and cultivate it (and with each a house and lot in the village), all upon easy terms ; so that in the years 1668 and 1669 a good number of the Harlem people were led to go there. The "new plantation" was given the name of Fordham.t
Already, as we have seen, there was a dispute between Archer and the Harlem people about the line parting his lands from their meadows upon that side. It so happened that four of Archer's cattle trespassed on the meadows. They were seizeed by order of the Harlem magistrates, who entered a complaint against Archer to the new governor, Lovelace. Both parties appeared before his Excellency in Council, at a special session held Novem- ber 6th, and were heard at length; the Harlem people having deputed Tourneur, Verveelen, Waldron, and the constable, Aoelofsen, to answer for them.
Two charges were preferred against Archer :
· The Archers, we may hence conclude, are not of English, but of Holland de- scent, although the contrary is assumed in the History of Westchester County. The ancestor was born at Nieuwhoff, his son at Amsterdam, and the latter has left us his autograph, invariably written Jan Arcer, as only a Hollander would write it. This seems pretty conclusive.
t The annexed list of leases executed by Archer at Harlem shows who took up farms in Fordham. Nearly all subsequently left and got land of their own elsewhere. The leases with stars affixed are not signed in the record.
Feb. 12, 1669,. Kier Wolters and ..
Pieter Roelofsen,
Term 7 years from Sept. 29, 1668.
Marc du Sauchoy.
4
May 1, .. Jan Pietersen Buys"
Cornelis A. Viervant ..
Jan Teunisz v. Tilburg
Jan Hendrick Boch".
5
5
..
Louwerens Ackerman.
5
Dec. 5,
.. Kier Wolters ...
.6 Marc du Sauchoy 5
S
..
.6
5
..
.. Hendrick Kiersen ..
..
Michiel Bastiaensen
5
..
April 1, 1669. Aug. 31, 1668.
5
..
5
250
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
"Ist. That upon pretence of a certain purchase, he lays claim to a parcel of land upon this Island, near Spuyten Duyvel, which is within the limits and bounds of their patent, and of right belongeth to their Town."
"2d. That having seated himself very near unto some lots of meadow ground upon the Main, belonging unto their Town, he is a daily trespasser upon them with his cattle, and that the said ground, lying in length alongst the Creek or Kill, cannot without very great charge be fenced in."
Upon the first point Archer replied that he owned the land in question, on this Island, by virtue of a groundbrief granted by the Dutch governor Kieft, which he had purchased from Thomas Lamberts and Joost Kockuyt for 600 guilders. But the court decided, that owing to "the long time since the first ground- brief was given, and no settlement since," the title had "lapsed"; or, in other words, was "of no validity, it beeing forfeited by several acts of the government." Further, because "it might be injurious to the Town of Harlem," Governor Nicolls had refused to confirm it. It was therefore "adjudged that the land in con- troversy doth belong to the Town of Harlem, by virtue of their patent." But it was recommended, "in regard the owners thereof have sustained loss upon the said land," to find means to pay them so much as the first agreement for the sale thereof."
Upon the second count, Archer "denies any claim to the lots upon the Main, Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, with which he is charged; but hath purchased land near adjoining, that was the Yonker Vander Donck's." Thereupon, "it was ordered that the defendant do bring in the patent for the Yonker's land in fifteen days' time, with what right he hath to the land where he hath built; at which time some persons shall be appointed to view the meadow belong- ing to Harlem, upon the Main, and to make report how it may be preserved from the defendant's trespassing on it. Which per- sons shall also be ordered to view the passage at Spuyten Duyvel, how it may be made convenient for travelers and drift of cattle; the ferry at Harlem being found incommodious, and not answer- ing the ends formerly proposed." The latter announcement fore- shadowed a change which was to plant a lifelong thorn in Archer's side.
On November 15th, Archer attempted "to make out his title." But the court remained of the opinion, that he had "not clearly made it out, he having no bill of sale, nor bonds setting forth his purchase." They gave him till February 14th to "clear his title,"-and meanwhile he was to give "no disturbance to his
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
neighbors." An order was then issued for the release of his cattle. The receipt to the magistrates for the "four attached cattle," dated December 13th, and signed "Jan Arcer," shows compliance with the order.
No answer has been found to the application respecting Hoorn's Hook; the decision upon the Jansen and Aertsen patent seems to have answered it. Certainly Harlem held the land, and the upshot of the matter was that Tourneur asked the. freeholders to grant him this fifty morgen "as a recompense for his services to the town," or to indorse the purchase which he had made. But when it came up for action, November 20th, some were in favor, others opposed, or said they would have no more to do with it, and so it dropped. Howbeit, Tourneur had already secured, June 15th, a valuable grant from Governor Nicolls of eighty-one acres on the other side of Harlem River, between Archer's and Bronck's land, and watered by the gentle Man- nepies, now Cromwell's Creek; which property, by the marriage of his daughter Esther, became vested in the De Voe ancestor, afterward owner of the adjoining tract known as De Voe's Point.
On September 17th, the magistrates Tourneur and the sen- ior Vermilye had been summoned to Delavall's mill to appraise the effects of the miller, Hage Bruynsen, just deceased; and ere the year closed, death claimed another settler, Hendrick Karstens, late a nominee for the office of overseer. The village had been the scene of unusual activity through the working season now closing. The first vessel of size put upon the stocks here, of which any notice is taken, was a sloop built this year, under a contract, by Jan Gerritsen De Vries, for Capt. Thomas Bradley, who before this had sailed a market yacht between New York and "Stafford." On November 27th, the parties discharged each other of their contract, Bradley giving De Vries a bond for the balance due him, 122 gl. in sewant, to which Verveelen and Wil- liam Sandford were witnesses. As indicative of growth in the village, the magistrates, on December 17th, 1668, granted Johan- nes Pelzer "a little house-lot, lying south of the house-lot of Glaude Le Maistre."*
* Hendrick Karstens was born in 1610, in Oldenbourg, Westphalia, but directly after that event, his father, Karsten Hendricks, removed to Amsterdam. The family were Lutherans. Hendrick took to sea, but finally married, in 1644, Femmetie Coen- raets, from Groningen. Soon after the birth of a daughter, whom they called Wybrecht, they left Amsterdam for New Netherland. Karstens took up land at Harlem, but also worked as a mason. Unschooled, but industrious and worthy, he bore his humble part in the building up of the town, holding, at times, several minor offices. In 1667 he visited the Delaware. The year after his death, his widow married Lubbert Gerritsen. Karsten's children were, Wybrecht, born 1646, at Amsterdam, who married Hermanus Van Borsum; Coenraet, born 1648, in this country; and Jan, born 1650. The name Boch, assumed by the two sons, was probably derived from
.
252
HISTORY OF HARLEM.
The following year. 1669, witnessed several important meas- ures for the improvement of the town. On February 22d. Gov- ernor Lovelace and his Council, with "others of the bench at New York," held a court at Harlem to consider two or three matters affecting the town and neighborhood. First and princi- pal was that of laying out a wagon road btween New York and Harlem, "which hath heretofore been ordered and appointed. but never as yet was prosecuted to effect." though "very necessary for mutual commerce with one another." The following action was taken:
"It is this day ordered that a convenient wagon way be made between the city of New York and this place, to which end four commissioners shall be appointed. who are to view and consider of the most convenient passage to be made.
"That these four commissioners meet to view the said way on Thursday next, being the 25th of this instant month; and after having concluded upon it, that immediately they fall upon laying out the way, according to their former agreement there- upon : that is to say, the neighbors of the Bowery and parts adjacent to clear the way to be fit for the passage of wagons, from New York to the Saw Kill; and the Town of Harlem, from thence to their town. That this way be laid out and cleared, according to the intent of this order, by the first of May next.
"That the appointed Commissioners, upon their conclusion of the best way, do immediately give the Governor an account of their agreement, who thereupon will give order for the putting the same in execution.
"That the Commissioners of either party have hereby liberty to make inspection on the sufficiency or defect of each other, to the intent that there prove no failing in either of them."*
The two commissioners appointed for the Harlem district were Daniel Tourneur and Resolved Waldron.
This court "also ordered that all horses and cattle belonging to New York and New Harlem, which shall be turned into the
Bourg, used familiarly for Oldenbourg, their father's birthplace. After some years they both removed from the town, but whither is not certain; possibly to Kinderhook. (Consult Munsell's Albany Hist. Coll., iv. 106).
* Harlem Lane, as we have reason to believe, was at first an Indian trail. Such forest paths. conveniently marked out by savage instinct, were often adopted by the white settlers as the best routes for highways. In traveling from New Amsterdam to Spuyten Duyvel, at McGowan's Pass was the natural descent to the plain, the path striking its northern end, where it would as naturally fork to the left and right, for the equal convenience of the pedestrian passing through the "Clove of the Kill" to the North River, or along the base of the height to and up Break Neck Hill. It is not possible to tell when this path over the Flats became a road, but the indications are that it was very early, many years before it was formally laid out as such, which was done pursuant to an Act of Assembly of June 19, 1709. (See Hoffman, il, 249).
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
woods upon this island, shall have a mark of distinction upon them; That is to say, those belonging to New York, the Bowery, and parts adjacent, are to have a brand mark with N. Y. upon them, and those of New Harlem with N. H. And that there be a person appointed and sworn in each place to mark such horses and cattle as really do belong to the inhabitants, and none others."
The question of the transfer of the ferry from Harlem to Spuyten Duyvel had been for some time mooted. Proceedings in regard to it were opened by the following communication from Governor Lovelace to the Mayor and Aldermen of the city, dated February 27th, 1669.
"Whereas Johannes Verveelen, of New Harlem, hath pre ferred a petition unto me, in regard the ferry at Harlem is to be removed, and that the passage at Spuyten Duyvel is to be fitted and kept for passengers going to and from this Island to the Main, as also for a drift for cattle and horses, that he may be admitted to keep the said passage; the Petitioner alleging, that having a promise from the late Governor, my predecessor, as also a confirmation from the Mayor and Aldermen of this city. that he should enjoy the benefit of the ferry at Harlem for five years, conditionally that he should provide boats and other neces- sary accommodation for strangers, which accordingly he hath per- formed, but there is not as yet above two years of the time ex- pired; I have thought fit to refer the whole case of the Petitioner to the Mayor and Aldermen of this city, who are to return back to me their judgment and resolution therein. Whereupon I shall give order for the laying out of a piece of land near Spuyten Duyvel fit for the accommodation of the person that shall be appointed to keep the ferry and passage there, as also for the relief of passengers and strangers."
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