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 33
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DAVID DES MAREST, GLAUDE LE MAISTRE, DANIEL TOURNEUR, CORNELIS JANSEN, RESOLVED WALDRON, This mark made LOURENS + JANSEN, by himself. JAN DYCKMAN.
In presence of me
HENDR. J. VANDR. VIN, Secretary.
· Montagne was to deliver this property to Bogert free and unincumbered, hence this was properly charged to him.
No. 7 J. P. 2-3 of No. 5, V. K. H.
No. 13 J. P. Nos. 10, 11 V. K. H.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
Though not so much as hinted from what quarter trouble was apprehended, circumstances plainly point to the old Mon- tagne patent or groundbrief. Montagne's Point, as we have seen, had just received a new owner, Jan Louwe Bogert. On January 16, 1673, the constable and magistrates, with a view of fixing a limit to Bogert's lands, held under the bill of sale from Montagne, had passed a resolution to estimate said lands at 18 morgen, which allowed 2 morgen for the Hop Garden. The deed, which only awaited the final payment, was soon to be given by Mrs. Montagne, and Bogert was already "in pos- session." It was, doubtless, in anticpation of some intereference on the part of their new neighbor, or the Montagne's, or both, which now led the owners to fence in the Flat, and to join in a covenant to protect themselves against any rival claimants .*
Indeed it appears that, in common with others who had built up claims upon the old defunct groundbriefs, some of the Montagne family indulged a hope of getting their groundbrief confirmed, with the view of claiming portions of the Flat. In this, as is apparent, neither of the sons of Dr. La Montagne took any part. The compromise with John La Montagne, in 1661, which secured him the Point (for which the town gave him a deed in 1672), was to him and his children an estoppel to any further claim upon the Vredendal lands, and there is no intima- tion that he or they ever made any such claim. With his brother, William, the same was no doubt true, since his assent to the dis- posal of the Flat appears in that he not only drew and sold some of that land, but subsequently withheld his name from a petition to Governor Fletcher for a confirmation of the old groundbrief. Without question, the Flat came within the agreement of 1663,
. Op huyden 8 Marty 1673: Compareerde voor my Hendr. J: Vandr. Vin, Secrets: by de E. gr. achtbr. Mayor Court tot N: Yorcke geadmitteert: Ten Durpe N. Durpe N. Haerlem resideren: de ondergesn. ingesetenen van N: Haerlem, alsmede eygenaers enr. possesseuren van het lont genaemt Montagnes Vlackte gelegen onder deses durps jurisdictie, de welcke verclaerden gesametik. het voorsn. stuck lant, in gemeene heyningh te besluyten enr. te gebrucken, tot den bouw, planten, of wooning; of soo ider van haer voor syn gedeelt sal geraden duncken, enr. oft gebeurde, dat sy int gemeen of ider int bysonder, moghten werden getroubleert, door imant, die den eygendom enr. possessie wilde in twyffel trecken, enr. haerln. gesamentik. of ider int bysonder, eenigh molest (dien aengaende), wilde doen, wegens den eygendom vant voorsn.lant : Soo verbinden sy ondergesn. gesamentik., of ider int bysonder, haer daer tegen te beschermen ende malcanderen in hare gerechtigheyt (die sylidn. op het selve syn hebbende), te mainteneren: protesterenn. tegene soodanige van alle costen, schaden enr. interessen, die haerin. gesamentik. or ider int bysonder, door eenigh molest moghte werden aengedaen: Oirconde der wareheydt vant beene voorsn. staet, hebben die doen schryven ende met eygen handen onderts: Aldus gedaen enr. gepasseert tot N: Haer- lem, dato ut supra.
David des Marest, Glaude le Maistre. Daniel Tourneur, Cornelies Yansen,
Resalvert Waldron, dit merke by Lourens X Jansen, selffs gestelt. Jan Dyckman,
In kennisse van my
Hendr. J: Vandr. Vin, Secrets:
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
between Stuyvesant and Council and the inhabitants of Harlem, that the tithes, or tenths of the produce of their cultivated lands ·for the years 1666 to 1672, both inclusive, should be applied for the benefit of the original grantees who held the groundbriefs, their heirs or creditors. This agreement, by which the tenths were substituted for the 8 gl. per morgen, was alike binding on · the government and the landholders, and was limited in its effects to the term of years named. If carried out in good faith, there must terminate the demands both of the said original grantees and their creditors. It seemed to favor the then owners, for the amount of tithes to be paid must depend upon what the land should be made to yield; but had the Dutch rule continued no doubt the government would have held these owners strictly to this condition, and the proceeds from Montagne's Flat would have been applied toward cancelling the debt due from Dr. Mon- tagne to the West India Company. It might be argued that these payments being limited to seven years, had the Flat for that time been under tillage it would have taken a husbandry then and there unknown, to have made the tenths pay Dr. Montagne's debt, which as early as 1662 amounted, by his own figuring, to 1130 gl., but by that of the public bookkeeper to not less than 1,936 gl. ; and that the tithes being insufficient to satisfy this claim, the balance would still be against Montagne!
But the change of government, in 1664, was alike fatal to this provision for the payment of the tenths, and to the old groundbriefs on which it was predicated; the English, as we have seen, refusing to confirm the latter within the Harlem patent, and holding them to be null and void, while it also ignored the system of tithes which had worked badly for the country, and "did much hinder the populating of it." Montagne's Flat having lain as commons, unfenced and untilled, had indeed yielded nothing but pasturage, nothing for the payment of tithes. There- fore the owners (with whom must be named Captain Delavall, who had a small lot there, of 4 morgen 320 rods, bought of Simon de Ruine), being released from their obligation to render the tithes, while the Montagne heirs were still liable to some demand from the government, which assumed to collect all other debts due the West India Company (even to small charges on their books for unpaid passage money), these heirs were easily led to look upon the agreement under which they had given up the Flat as thereby vitiated, and to fall back upon their old groundbrief as entitled to confirmation. Could they have suc- ceeded it would have been a nice operation for them, as the lands
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
had risen in value, and lots on the Flat now brought 44 guilders per morgen. But to the credit of the English rulers, they did not attempt so unfair a proceeding as to enforce the claim against the Montagne heirs, while at the same time relieving the land- holders of their obligation to pay the tithes. A majority, and no doubt all, of the eight proprietors of the Flat had documentary titles, five at least, as heretofore noticed, holding particular patents from the government, and Demarest deriving through the Mon- tagnes themselves. The aggregate of their lands, contained in nine lots, amounted to 54 morgen, as afterward rated and taxed; to which being added another lot which lay there vacated or untaxed till 1725, made 60 morgen, as reckoned, in the entire Flat. This came by a generous allowance to the morgen, the Flat being correctly estimated, in the Montagne groundbrief, at 100 morgen. Here was the real bone of contention. The Mon- tagnes regarded as of right theirs the excess over the quantity the eight owners were entitled to. But the inhabitants took another view, and in which the government concurred, namely, that so much of the Flat as was undisposed of belonged to the common lands of the town, as granted and confirmed to them by Nicolls and Lovelace. The government adhering to the policy laid down by Stuyvesant regarding the old groundbriefs, saw no reason to make the Montagne groundbrief an exception. It respected the act of the Dutch government, which allowed the tenths to offset the Montagne debt, but also held the heirs to their act in the surrender of the Flat. Hence it could never be prevailed 'upon to confirm the old groundbrief .*
Pierre Cresson and Rachel Cloos, his wife, "both being sound of body," made their joint will, March 15, 1673 ; Cornelis Jansen and Jan Nagel witnesses. How sensible and wise thus, in health, to calmly weigh the fact of their mortality, and deliberately set their house in order. Leaving fifty guilders to "the church at New York," they say, "whereas their daughter Susannah has enjoyed as a marriage portion the value of two hundred guilders, so the testators will that at the decease of the longest liver each of their other children then living shall draw the like 200 guilders,
. A petition was addressed to Governor Fletcher, in 1695, in the name of John Louwe Bogert, William Montagne, his sister Mrs. Jacob Kip, and nephew Johannes Van Inborgh, who claimed to be seized, and by descent as well as mean assurance in the law, owners of the patent granted by Governor Kieft to Dr. Montagne; and prayed for a confirmation of said patent, as they were now willing to divide the same. But William Montagne,' then of Ulster county, did not sign this petition; neither did Abraham Montagne, of Harlem (son of John), which is remarkable, considering the claim to be the Montagne lands set up in our day, under a title purporting to be de- rived from him. The petition being referred to the Attorney General for his opinion received no further notice. A better knowledge of this old exploded claim than that afforded by the family traditions, might, in the case above alluded to, have saved a protracted and fruitless litigation.
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
and our youngest son Elie, if he is under the age of sixteen years, also a new suit of clothes becoming to his person, from head to foot."
.
Gabriel Carbosie, the miller, and his wife Brieta Wolferts, "both sound of body," also made their will, on April 18th ensu- ing, and which was witnessed by Jan Louwe Van Schoonrewoerd and Cornelis Jansen. They gave six guilders "to the poor of the Lutheran congregation at New York." Each by former marriages had had children, but none had come from their own as yet.
On March 30th, "being Sunday and Pass," the quiet and good order of the village was broken by a most shameful affray, the more scandalous considering the standing of some of the parties. About four o'clock in the afternoon, young Samuel Demarest falling in with Daniel Tourneur, Jr., began to tease him by asking why he had prated so much in Coenraet Ten Eyck's shop in New York, that Glaude Delamater's son should fight (plockhairen) with him, and added that he, Tourneur, was a blaffert, a bully. Tourneur answered angrily, "Youngster, hold your mouth, or I'll give you some knocks." The other said he would not; on which Daniel made good his therat, with a blow or two. Now ran up Samuel's elder brother Jean, and then David, to take his part, and there was a free use of fists, stones, and sticks, which Mr. Gipsen (Gibbs), who saw the melee, tried in vain to stop, telling the Demarests, "Three against one is not fair." The fathers of the combatants now reached the scene of action, and with Tourneur came his prospective son-in-law, Dyck- man, "with his drawn knife in his hand," and who clinched and got "the young David Demarest under," exclaiming, "This shall cost you your life." At the same time Joris Jansen Van Hoorn caught hold of Jean Demarest, and struck him several times in the face with his fist; while the elder Tourneur, who had turned upon the father, drew his knife and tried to stab him, but David, using only a stick, gave his assailant a stunning blow on the head, "so that he fell down." Gillis Boudewyns saw the whole affray form the beginning, and with Pierre Cresson testified to this stabbing; for by this time many of the villagers beside those named were drawn to the spot by the uproar, as Isaac Vermille, Jean Delamater, Le Roy,* Vander Vin, and Nagel, with Pieter
* Simeon Cornier had bought Le Roy's house and lands, February 24, 1672, but it was not till May 2, 1674, that Le Roy, acknowledging payment, gave a deed and possession. Cornier and wife, Nicole Petit (also called Petitmangin and Piemainte), joined the church at New Amsterdam, October 2, 1662, having just arrived from Mannheim, via Holland. as has been noticed. Entering the military service, and pro- moted to a corporalcy, he was given his choice, at the English conquest, either to re-
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HISTORY OF HARLEM.
Claessen, Thomas Etherington, and Elias Bailey, who happened to be at the village. A stop was now put to the fight, but young Tourneur, still excited, said, "Wait, wait! this is not the last time." The elder Tourneur has the benefit of a doubt, as Jean Delamater, the innocent cause of the tumult, declared "that he had not seen that Daniel Tourneur stabbed David Demarest."
High Sheriff Allard Anthony, on being notified of this flag- rant breach of the peace, held a court at Harlem, the next day, and took the testimony of several witnesses; but a hiatus in the minutes of the Mayor's Court probably deprives us of the sequel of this affair, in which, however, no lives were lost, and but slight personal injury sustained. Tourneur was about as usual, April 5th, when he leased to Jan Dircksen, or "Jan the Soldier," as before called, "a certain piece of woodland, lying at Menepas Kill," with meadow on "the kill of boor Aert and Jan de Paep," for the term of three years, the lessee to build his own dwelling- house, and leave three morgen of land cleared and fenced ; to all which Jan Dyckman and Ralph Doxey are witnesses.
Society was not very polished in those days, and was still wedded to the old ideas about personal prowess,-pluck and muscle, never mind what called them forth, were things to boast of and applaud. The younger combatants might glory in this general knock-down, and little fear the approbrium; but for the two elderly ones holding high positions, Demarest a magistrate. and Tourneur a deacon, sober retrospection no doubt brought shame and regret. But we must discriminate between Tourneur, rash, even dastardly, and Demarest, more temperate in his Picard impulses, and probably acting in self-defence only. The latter, a few weeks later (August 23d) was re-elected to the magistracy; but then Tourneur, a man, mauger his faults, of generous instincts and of great energy, and to whose tact and abilities the town owed much of its success, had just closed an active life and been laid to rest. He is last noticed May 12th, when he subscribed as witness to an engagement of Thomas Selligh, late in his emloy,
turn to Europe with the Dutch forces or to remain here. As he chose the latter, the government remitted his passage money, which was yet unpaid. He went to Staten Island and engaged in farming, his old calling in France. He received, at Harlem, the marks of respect due to his character and abilities. On the Dutch reoccupation, in 1673, trouble being feared from the English, Cornier was fitly chosen as a corporal in the Night Watch, and two years later, during the Indian troubles, held the like command. He also served as deacon; but selling his lands, July 26, 1675, to Paul Richard, he removed to New York. a few months later. In 1686 he married, as a second wife, Tryntie Walings Van Winckel, widow of Cornelis Jacobsen Stille, who had lived at Harlem, ancestor of the Somerindyke and Woertendyke families. (See p. 151, and N. Y. G. & B. Record, 1876, p. 49). The day he bought it Richard sold Cornier's property to David Demarest. Jr. We know not when Cornier died, nor that he left children, but take for his descendants Capt. Peter Corne, of New York, mer- chant, and commander of a privateer in the old French war, who still lived in the city during the Revolution. (See Dyckman family).
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to work a year for Wallerand du Mont, of Esopus. Tourneur's death made the first break in the company of Nicolls Patentees. It probably followed close upon Dyckman's espousal (June 15th) to his daughter Madeleine. We notice that Dyckman's old friend, Arena Harmans Bussing, with whom he had left his native Bentheim, had just before married Susanna le Maistre, Glaude's daughter, both brides having been born at Flatbush, soon after their parents emigrated .*
This chapter of incidents may fitly close with a glance at the village of New Harlem as it was in the autumn of 1673.t How quaint an aspect has the Dutch settlement as e'en now its plain wooden tenements, embowered in foliage whose variegated hues already tell the declining year, rise modestly to view. Their humble eaves, keeping line with the street, lift themselves but one low story, yet the extraordinary slope of the thatched roof gives space to the loft above, so useful for many domestic pur- poses. Aside the house, quite too near for entire safety, stands the ample and well-stored "schuer" or barn, in its squatty eaves and lofty ridge the very counterpart of the dwelling, but by a noticeable contrast turning its gable with huge gaping doors to the highway. In the spaces between buildings and homesteads flourish rows of choice imported fruit trees, apple, pear, peach. cherry, and quince, and the no less prized garden and ornamental shrubs, the Dutch currant, gooseberry, and evergreen box, dwarf and arborescent. Tidiness reigns, at least about the dwelling. and within reach of the busy housewife's mop and broom; but all betoken's a plainness and frugality, in wide contrast with the
. Wallarand du Mont (Dumont), whose descandants are still found in Ulster County, came to this country in 1657, from Coomen, in Flanders; served as "cadet in the honorable Company of the Heer Director General," and married at Esopus, January 13, 1664, Margaret Hendricks, widow of Jan Aertsen, who had been slain by the Indians. (See V'an Putten). Du Mont's sister Margaret was wife of Pierre Noue, a Walloon, who emigrated with Demarest and company in 1673. (See Journee). How will our revered friend and early pastor make Pierre the son of Elias Neau, the catechist, of New York, who was born at Soubiz in Saintonge, in 1662? (History of Elizabeth, p. 267). Du Mont died at Esopus, in 1783, having had sons, Wallarand, John Baptist and Peter; and daughters, Margaret, wife of William Loveridge; Jannetie, wife of Michael Van Vechten, and Francina, wife of Frederick Clute. Clute went to Schenectady. (See Pearson's Schenectady Settlers). Peter Dumont, with his brethren, Loveridge and \'an Vechten, settled on the Raritan N. J. Dumont and Van \'echten became justices of the peace. The latter was born in 1664, being son of Derick Teunissen, who was born in 1634, at Vechten, in the diocese of Utrecht, and when four years of age came with his father. Teunis Dericksen, to Albany. William Love- ridge was from the parish of Wool, in Dorsetshire, England, and died at Perth Amboy, in 1703, leaving sons William, Wallerand and John. He was brother to Samuel Loveridge, of New York, shipwright, who was born in Albermarle County, Va., and married at Esopus, in 1688, Hannah, daughter of George Meals. Their father, William Loveridge, a hatter, came out to Connecticut as early as 1659, removed to Virginia, thence to Albany, and died at Catskill, about 1683. He had daughters, Temperance, who married Capt. Isaac Melyn, of New York, and Sarah, mho married John Ward, of Ulster county. Hence the belief expressed in the Hisotry of Elizabeth that Samuel Loveridge was a son of Rev. William Leverich, though with seeming reason, is plainly not warranted.
+ Consult the plan of the village at page 292.
-
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elegance of modern living. The daily life of the villagers,-but let us first note the occupants of the principal dwellings ere we cross the threshold, to explore the humble sphere of their domes- tic economy.
Here at the river end, where, about the tavern, smith-shop, church, and ferry, gather the stir and business activity of the village, is the comfortable home of the French refugee and newly- appointed schepen, David Demarest. His house and barn occupy a lot "abutting on three streets from which it is fenced," and extended "toward the strand, as far as he can," by virtue of a town grant of January 5, 1667. It contains a double-erf, or two erven, the upper, facing the Great Way, being that gotten from Montagne (and where now the oldest house and relic of the village stands), the other once Dominie Zyperus'. This last looks out to the south upon the square or green about the land- ing-place. Demarest's neighbor, over the cross-street, is Glaude Delamater, recent magistrate, testy but kind-hearted; his double- erf joining that of Cornelius Jansen, late constable, a young but rising man in the town, and at whose friendly inn,-where swing- ing signboard and feeding-troughs mark it merely as the village hostel, but to Kortright, Bogert, and others, the veritable coun- terpart of Mynheer's inn at Schoonrewoer,-the passing traveler stops for refreshment, or the wiseacres of the dorp resort to swallow the latest bit of news or scandal in a bumper of Kort- right's beer. Opposite the tavern, past the second crossway, lives the Picard, good Pierre Cresson, from his occupation called by his Dutch neighbors, de tuynier, or the gardener, whose erf joins at its rear or north side to that of Daniel Tourneur, but just deceased, and westerly to that late of Hendrick Karstens, but now of the worthy Joost Van Oblinus, schepen. Over the third cross-street are the two erven of Johan Verveelen, where his son-in-law, Adolph Meyer, now lives, and next him the "garden" and erf (strictly a double-erf), which had passed from Mr. Muyden to Jaques Cresson, and from him to Meynard Journee, present occupant, also called Maaljer, his surname Belgicized. Being sickly, Journee had just resigned his office of fence-master, which was given, February 6th, to Laurens Jansen, the Low ancestor. Journee's grounds extend to those of Captain Delavall, a small strip between them, "laid out for a street" (the fourth crossway), having been added to Cresson's lot while his, by a grant of May 3,1667. In one of Delavall's houses, once the home of Simon the Walloon, had recently lived, till he removed to the city, Wouter Gerritsen, Delavall's princi-
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pal farmer, and the old neighbor of Gillis Mandeville, in the Veleuwe,-the other of Delavall's houses had been occupied by Pieter Roelofsen, twice constable here. Beyond this point we soon reach the Buyten Tuynen, or Out-Gardens, the two farther ones soon to be the home of Arent Harmens Bussing, lately married and just appointed one of the schepens.
But from the quiet west end, retracing our steps, on the south side of the street, we come to the dwelling of the venerable Isaac Vermeille. Seated upon the end of lot 5, Van Keulen's Hook, "over against the garden of Jaques Cresson," as it was till of late; his erf, which extends back to a strip of flag marsh stretching across the lot, is well stocked with fruit trees, the pride of the Huguenot settlers, and in which culture they excelled. On either side of Vermeille lie vacant lots, but that on the west, No. 6, soon to be built upon and occupied by its owner, Laurens Jansen, aforesaid. Lot No. 4, on the east side of Vermeille, and which Adolph Meyer had gotten with his wife from her father, Verveelen, was at this end fit only for pasturage, being marshy; but a plot here was bought from Meyer November 2, 1673, by his friend Jan Dyck- man, who for the many years before he moved to Spuyten Duyvel occupied a house built upon two of Tourneur's out-gardens, received by his wife Madeleine. Adjoining lot No. 4, and opposite to Oblinus, lives the most influential man in the town, Resolved Waldron, at present the shout, or sheriff, and next to him, easterly, his son-in-law Jan Nagel. Going still toward the river, to the two small erven opposite Cornelis Jansen and Dela- mater (granted Jean Demarest and Johannes Pelszer, but seem- ingly never improved by them), on the corner of the Pelszer lot, where the road runs down by the green to the creek, stands, or later stood, the village smithy, where William Haldron, an English- man, plied his hammer and bellows, waking the neighbors at early dawn with the music of his anvil, as did, within the same century, his successor in the smithshop, Zacharias Sickels, whose descendants are yet among us .*
* Zacharias Sickels, the common ancestor and father of Zacharias aforesaid, was from Vienne, in Austria. Finding his way to Holland, he went out to Curacao, and served in the military rank of adelborst or cadet. When Stuyvesant returned from a visit to that island, in 1655, Sickels came with him, being soon after attached to the garrison at Fort Orange. In 1658 he was a tapster. He remained at Albany after the surrender, in 1664, and worked as a carpenter, having married Anna, daughter of Lambert Van Valkenburgh, by whom he had sons, Robert, Lambert, Zacharias and Thomas, and daughters, Anna, Elizabeth, Maria, Margaret and Leah. Anna married Abraham Isaacs, and Elizabeth married William Peelen. In 1670 to '72, and 1681 to '83, Sickels was town herder, and had 18 guilders a head for the season. He next held the responsible place of rattle watch, so called from the rattle, used to give warning, in making his nightly rounds. He was also town cryer, to call the people together on needed occasions; and porter, or keeper of the city gates, to close and lock them at night and to open them in the morning. His sons Robert and Lambert removing to New York, he. with his other sons, etc., followed them in 1693, his vacated office being given to his son-in-law Isaacs. In 1698 he was admitted a freeman of New
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