The annals of Albany, Vol. III, Part 21

Author: Munsell, Joel, 1808-1880
Publication date: 1850
Publisher: Albany : J. Munsell
Number of Pages: 404


USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. III > Part 21


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


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" And I do hereby pronounce and declare that the said Trinity Church, in the city of Albany, is consecrated ac- cordingly, and thereby separated henceforth from all un- hallowed, worldly and common uses, and dedicated to the


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Trinity Church.


worship and service of Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, for reading and preaching His holy word, for celebrating His holy sacraments, for offer- ing to His glorious majesty the sacrifice of prayer, praise and thanksgiving, for blessing His people in His name, and for the performance of all other holy offices, and the administration of all holy ordinances, agreeable to His will made known in the terms of the covenant of grace, and of salvation in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, according to the usages of His Holy Catholic and Apos- tolic Church, and the provisions of the Protestant Episco- pal Church in these United States of America, in its ministry, doctrines, liturgy, rites and usages.


In testimony whereof, I have hereunto affixed my episco- pal seal and signature, in the day and year above written, and in the ninth year of my consecration."


WILLIAM ROLINSON WHITTINGHAM,


Episcopal Scal.


Bishop of Maryland, administering episco- pal functions in the Diocese of New York, at the request of the standing committee.


Thus was the church edifice consecrated to the wor- ship and service of Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and the congregation of Trinity Church (the third congregation organized in the city of Albany agreeably to the usages and worship of the Pro- testant Episcopal Church in the United States of America ) in possession of a permanent church edifice, set apart for religious worship and service, at the expiration of ten years and five days from incorporation, and numbering at the time about three hundred souls attending on the services, and from 60 to 70 communicants.


( 273 )


TAKING THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE


Albany City Records, Vol. IV, 362.


1699.


Albany the 4th day of January .* The Mayor, Hendrik Hanse Esq., Jan Janse Bleeker, Rekorder, together with Jan Vinnagen and Albert Rykman, Aldermen, did meet at ye Citty Hall, where all ye Inhabitants of this Citty were appointed to appear and take ye oaths and sign ye test and association, who accordingly came, ye Oath being admin- istered to them by Robert Livingston Esq., one of his Ma- jesties Councill of this Province. The Oaths which each respective person took, and ye Test and Association which each respective person signed are as follows :


The Oath.


I, A B, do hereby Promise and Swear yt I will be faith- full and bear true allegiance to his Majesty King William, so help me God.


I, A B, do swear that I do from my heart abhor, detest and abjure as Impious and Hereticall, yt damnable Doctrine and Position, yt Princes Excommunicated or Deprived by ye Pope or any authority of ye Sce of Rome, may be de- posed or murthered by their subjects or any other what- soever.


And I doe declare yt no foreign Prince, Person, Prelate, State or Potentate, hath or ought to have any Jurisdiction, Power, Superiority, Preeminence or Authority, Ecclesias- ticale or Spirituall within this Realm. So help me God.


The Test.


We underwritten do solemnly and sincerely, in ye pre- sence of God. profess and declare yt wee doe believe yt in ye Sacrament of ye Lord's Supper there is not any transub- stantiation of ye Elements of Bread and Wine into ye body


* See ante, p. 47.


274


The Oath of Allegiance.


and blood of Christ, or after ye Consecration thereof by any person whatsoever, and yt ye Invocation or Adoration of ye Virgin Mary and ye Sacrifice of ye Mass, as they are now used in ye Church of Rome, are Superstitious and Idolatrous, and we do Solemnly in ye presence of God, Profess, Testify and Declare, yt we do make this declara- tion and every part thereof in ye plain and ordinary Sense of ye words now read unto us as they are commonly un- derstood by English Prodistants without any Evasion, Equivocation or Mentall Reservation whatsoever, and with- out any Dispensation already granted for yt purpose by ye Pope or any other authority or person whatsoever, or without any hope of any such Dispensation from any per- son or authority whatsoever, or without thinking yt we are or can be acquitted before God or Man, or absolved of this Declaration or any part thereof, although ye Pope or any other person or persons or power whatsoever should dispense with or annull ye same, or declare that it was null and void from ye beginning.


The Association.


Whereas there has been a horrid and detestable con- spiracy formed and carried on by Papists and other wicked and trayterous persons for Assassinating his Majesties Royal Person in order to Incourage an Invasion from ffrance to Subvert our Religion, Laws and Liberties, we whose names are underwritten do heartily, sincerely and solemnly profess, testify and declare yt his present Majesty King William is rightful and lawful king of these Realms, and we do mutually promise and engage to stand by and assist each other to ye utmost of our power in ye Support and Defence of his Majesties most sacred person and go- vernment against ye late King James ye pretended Prince of Wales and all theire adherents, and in case his Majesty come to any violent or untimely death (which God forbidd) we do hereby freely and unanimously oblige ourselves to unite, associate and stand by each other in Revenging ye same upon his enemies and all their adherents, and in ye supporting and defending ye succession of ye Crown ac- cording to an act made in ye first year of ye Reign of King


275


The Oath of Allegiance.


William and Queen Mary, intituled an act declaring ye Rights and Liberties of ye Subject, and settling ye succes- sion of ye Crown.


Hend. Hanse, mayor


Abram Provost


Jan Janse Bleeker, recorder Wouter Albertsen Joh. Schuyler, alderman Abraham Staets Hend. Rensselaer, alderm'n Gerrit Rycksen Albert Ryckman, alderman Johannes Pruyn Jan Vinhagen, alderman Joh. Cuyler, alderman Samel ten Broek Wessel ten Broek, ald'n Lieve Winne Evert Wendell, assistant Claes Vondae Jacobes Turck, assistant Joh. Vinhagen Joh, Bleeker, assistant Philip Schuyler Joh. Mingaell, assistant Hend. Oothoudt, assistant Barendt Bradt


Abraham van Deusen


Jan Cornelise Vyselaer


Jan Lansingh Andries Nach Evert Wendell


Cornelis van Schurleuyn


Hend. van Dyck


Geysebert Marcelles


Jan Jansz Goes


Jan van Ness


Jacob Staets Nanning Harmense


Barent ten Eyck


Thomas Millenton


Joh. Livingston, D. C. James Parker


Johannes Appell Anthony Bries David Schuyler


Basteyaen Harmence


Volckert van Hoese Johannes Luykasse Johannes Claese Joh. Becker Rener Myndersse Rutt Melgertse Joh. Hanse Lendert Philipse Harmanus Wendell Jan van Streyen John Gilbert


Robert Livingston Jun. Abraham Lansingh Elbert Gerritse Joseph Jansen Jacob Gerretsen


Gerret Luychessen Hend. Lansingh Mattyes Nack William Ketellen Johannes Teller Wouter Quackenbos Jan Nack


Dirck Vanderheyden Pr Schuyler Robt Livingston Dirck Wessels Junior Joh. Groenendyck, sheriff G. Dellius V. D. M. Gerritt van Ness


276


The Oath of Allegiance.


Harmen Gansevoort


Warner Karstense Jan Radcliffe Philip Wendell


Haerpert Jacobse Willem Holle John Caer Jan Gerritsen


William von Alen


Dirck Tackelsen


Nicholaes Bleeker


Thomas Winne


Scheboledt Bogardus


Stevannes Groesbeek


Reyer Gerritse


Harmen Ryckman


Jonathan Breadust


Jacob Lansingh


Evert Wendell Jun.


Jelles van Voiste


Albert Ryckman Jun.


Cornelis Schermerhorn


Thomas Harmensse


Pieter van Wogelen


Daniel Bratt


Melgert van der Poel Jun.


Arie Oothout


Dirck Bratt


Wouter vander Zee


Abr. Janse Ayesteyn


Dirk Jansez Goes


Koenract Hooghteeling


Cornelis van Ness


Roeloff Gerritse


Geurt Hendrikse


William van Ness


Claes Luykasse


David Keteleyn


Cornelis Willemse


Frederik Harmense


Richard Bignell


Wynant Willemse


Peter Mingael


Elbert Harmense


Abraham Kip


Anthony van Schayeck Evert Banker Joh. Roseboom


George Ingoldesby


William Jacobse Benony van Corlaer


Gerrit Roseboom


Thomas Williams


Isaac ver Planck


William Hogen


Anthony Bratt Hend. Roseboom


Claes Ripsen van Dam


Abraham Verplanck


Naes Cornelissen


Daniel Keteluyn


Tackell Dircks


Johannes Beekman Melgert van der Poel Philip de Foreest Hend. Roseboom John Cideney


Gerrit Lansingh


Andries Douw


Abraham Cuyler


Pieter Bogardus Willem Groesbeek Isack Kasperse


France Winne Antony Coster


Hend. Lansingh Jun. Joh. Quackenbos


Hend. ten Eyck


Jacob Lansing Joh. Myndertse


The Oath of Allegiance. 277


Goose Van Schayck


Jan Salomoensse


John Fyne


Gideon Schaats


Joh. Jacobsen Gleen


Harmen Thomasen


Teunis Dirckse


Asweres Marselles


Jacobus Luykase


Jacobus van Vorst


Jacob Lockermans


Joh. Oothoudt Jurian Franse Claw


Claes Jacobse


Caspar van Hoesen


Ph. Lenderts Conyn Eghbert Teunise


Frederick Mindertse


Johannes Bratt


Jacob Bogardt


William Gysbertse


Thomas Wendell


Myndert Rooseboom Jan Rosie


These are those of ye Citty yt have signed ye Test and Association. Now follows those of Shennechtady.


The Inhabitants of Shinnechtady yt have taken ye Oaths and signed ye Test and Association on ye 11th of January 1699, are as follows :


Daniael Jansen


Claes van Petten


Marte van Benthuysen Jan Vroman


Jan Luycasse


Jan Danialsse


Marten van Slyck


Barendt Wemp


Peter van Olinda


Symon Vrooman


Gerrit Symonsse


Harmen van Slyck


Wouydter Vroman


Arendt Pootman


Gysbert Gerritse Victoer Potman


Symon Groot


Claes Fransen


Tjerk Harmensey Albert Vedder


Johannes Symonsen Arent Vedder Korsett Vedder


Daniel Mashereft


Thomas Smith


Douwe Ouckes


Benjamin Robberts


Cornelles Swetts


Claes Janse Boekhove Jan Wimp


Barent Vroman


Jesse Klaesse


Isaack Swits


Manes Vedder


Gerritt Gysbertse


William Hall


.


24


Jacobes Peeck


Corneles van Slyck


Jacob van Olinda


Phillip Philipsen


Reyer Schermerhoorn, justice


Luyckas Luyckasse


Poules Martense


278


The Oath of Allegiance.


Jacob van Dyck


John Senk Jan Mebie


Johannes Sanderse Glen,


Syas Wardt Justice of ye Peace Dirck Grodte


Cornelles Slingerlandt


Gosse van Vort


Symon Grodte Jun.


Simon Switts


Daniel van Olinde


Dirck Miller


Johannes Vedder


Claes France


Jan Flipsen Jeremias Lickton Dirck Bratt


Arendt Vedder Hendrik Brouwer


Peter Symonse


Johannes Peeck


Hendrick Vroman


Louewis Viele


Adam Vroman


Volcher Symonse


Jochem Valkenburg


Jonitan Stevens


The names of those yt have taken ye Oath and signed ye Test and Association living in ye Mannor of Rensselaers- wyk, Kinderhoek, Coxhackky, Catskill, and places adja- cent to ye southward of Albany, as far as ye County ex- tends, are viz:


Cornellis Gerritse


Volkert Gerrittse


Cornellis Tymesen


Stefannis van Alen


Evert de Ridder


Koenradt Bogardt


Harme Janse


Gysbert Scherp Adam Dinghman


Jellis Fonda


I. K. Backer


Gherrit Jacobse


Jan Hanse


Jacob Dinghmans


Jacob Schermerhoorn


Burger Huyck Johannis Huyck Andries Gardenier


Daniel Winne


Eldert Ouderkerk


Marten Cornelise


Albert Slingerlant


Dirck van der Kar Johannes van Alen And. Coeymans Marte Cornelise


Joh. Ouderkerck Hend. van Ness Jan Fonda


Pieter P. Coeman


Joh. van Vechten


Dirck Teunisse


Claes Gerritse


Barent Koeman


Cornelis Cristiaense


Isack Ouderkerck


Symon Danielsse


Pieter van Alen [burgh Bartholomeus van Volken-


Phillip Grootte


279


The Oath of Allegiance.


Joh. Cristiaense Lambert Janese


Hendrick Beekman Jan van Ness Edward Wieler Lawrense van Ale Andries Scherp


Dommineus van Schaiek


Johannes van Hoesen


Matyes Hoghtelingh


Manewel van Sahaiek


Arent van Shaiek


Evert van Alen


Pieter Bronck


Cornellis van Schaiek Luykas van Alen Isack Vosburgh


Kiliaen van Rensselaer


Pieter Martense


Abr. Wendell P. Willemse


Samuel Gardinier Lambert Huyck


Barent Gerritse


Gerrit van Wyen


Louries Scherp


Abrah Ouderkerk


Johanes Volkenburgh


Cornellis Masen


Jan Martense Jacob Basteyansse


Marte Cornelisse


Frans Pietersen


Gerrit Gisbertse


Marte Jacobse


Solomon Cornelisse


Gerrit Teunise


Sam Doesyn Jacob Tunissen


Luyeas Janse


Jan Tyse Goes


Tomas Janse


Hendrieus Jansen


Andris Davydse Dow Funda


Jan Hendrissen Hendricus Lammersen


Tunis van Sleyck


Maes van Franke


Evert van Ness


Jonatan Janse Eldert Cornelise Teunis Cornelus Volekert Douw Arent Slingerlant


Pieter Vosburgh


Casper Conyn


Cornelis Martensse


Melgert Abrahamse Wouter Quackenboss Isaae Janse van Alstyen Jacob van Hoesse Jan van Hoessen Franek Hardiok Juriaen van Hoesen Jonas Douw


Jan Hendrickse Solsbergen Hend. Solsbergen Hend. Valikenoer


Jan van Hoesen Jun.


Cornellis Stevessen


Jermeyas Milder Robt Tewissen Claes Sievers Jan Lanard Jan Andrisse Abr. Dirckse V. Veghten


Cornellis Tunissen


Samuel Koeman


Samel Dirckse


280


The Oath of Allegiance.


Matys Janse Goes


Hend. Dowu


Pieter Hoogeboom


Rissert Jansen van den Borke


Andries Huyck


Johannes Hooghtellingh


Dirck Teunisse


Jan Batyst Demon


Jan Casperse


Jyn Bronck


Volckert Andrisse


Andris Janse


Lendert Bronck


Jacob Janse Gardenier


Joh. Dirckse


Wee doe hereby Certify and Declare that the above Subscribers to the Test being all the Male Inhabitants of ye Citty of Albany from ye age of sixteen years and up- wards, consisting of one hundred and eighty men have taken ye Oaths established by act of Parliament, in Eng- land, instead of y" oaths of allegiance and supremacy which were tendered and administered by us pursuant to his Excellency the Earl of Bellomont's Proclamation, and yt they have also signed the Association, none of ye Inha- bitants refusing ye same except two Papists, called Frans Pruyn a Taylor, and Peter Villeroy a Frenchman, Laborer, who by reason of their Perswasion could not take ye same, but were willing to take an oath of fidelity to his Majesty King William, only some few have neglected to appear at ye time prefixed to take ye oaths and subscribe ye test and association, but shall tender and administer ye same before ye time be expired mentioned in ye sd Proclamation. Whereof we doe by these presents make this our Return to the Secretary's office at New York, in witness whereof we have hereunto sett our hands and scales in Albany this 16 of January, 1699.


ing by ABThrand


Menpelas


( 281)


LIFE AND SERVICES OF STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER.


BORN 1764; DIED 1839.


A Discourse on the Life, Services and Character of Stephen Van ยท Rensselaer, delivered before the Albany Institute, on the 15th April, 1839.


BY DANIEL D. BARNARD.


The Albany Institute, embracing in its objects a wide field for observation and study, is made up of three principal departments, each having its president, vice pre- sident, and other appropriate officers. It was formed ori- ginally by the union of two societies previously existing under separate charters. At the organization of the In- stitute, on the 5th of May, 1824, STEPHEN VAN RENSSE- LAER, then at Washington as the representative in con- gress from this district, was unanimously selected to preside over its deliberations. He filled, at the time, the presidency of the Albany Lyceum of Natural History, henceforth to be merged in the Institute ; and there was every thing in his position and standing, as well as in his direct connection in many ways with the objects of the new society, to make the compliment of the selection deserved and proper; yet it was found that his own re- gards, with characteristic modesty, had been directed towards another worthy and eminent citizen, as fittest to occupy the chair; and it was only after much hesitation and reluctance that he communicated to a friend on the spot, his permission and request to decide the question of acceptance or refusal for him. It hardly need be added that the office was promptly accepted in his behalf. By the charter of the Institute, this office is made elective annu- ally ; and every year, since the same agreeable act was first performed, and with the same unanimity, have the


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Life and Services of


members of this society offered the same grateful testimo- nial of their respect and affection for their beloved presi- dent. Alas! my friends and fellow-members, that offering of ours has been made for the last time. We are now called, in common with the whole country, to mourn his loss. He departed this life on SATURDAY, the TWENTY- SIXTH DAY OF JANUARY last. It was at four o'clock in the afternoon, of a day which had dawned upon him with as fair a promise of closing on him in life, as any, perhaps which he had seen for the last two years, that in a small cabinet of his ample mansion, which his infirmities had made his chief asylum and sanctuary for many months, sit- ting in his chair, with just warning enough to convey the intimation to his own mind that his hour had come, without enough of previous change seriously to alarm the fears of anxious, watchful and trembling hearts around him, the venerable man bowed his head, and died.


In the affecting ceremonies of his funeral, the members of the Institute had their humble part. It had been re- solved, in special session, that they would attend the funeral of their president in a body. This, however, was not all their duty. It was thought to belong appropriately to them to gather up the memorials of his life and services, and cause them to be arranged and presented before the society in a regular discourse. It has pleased those whose charge it was to make the selection, to assign the duty of preparing and presenting this tribute, to me. They might have found many to perform the service more acceptably ; not one, since the time had come when the duty must be dis- charged by some body, to whom it could have been a more grateful office.


In entering on the execution of this trust, I should have been glad, if time had permitted, to have claimed the in- dulgence of my audience, first of all, to carry them back to a period in history somewhat remote from the times to which the distinguished subject of this memoir more im- mediately belonged. Some of the acts of his individual career, and the traits of his beautiful character, when we should reach them in the progress of our narrative, would, I think, have developed themselves much the more strong-


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Stephen Van Rensselaer.


ly for the light which might thus have been thrown on them from the past. They would have been found, some of them at least, to have been linked backward, by unbroken chains, to the times and events of other and even distant generations. Men's virtues, any more than their vices, are not all their own. To some extent they are inheritors of virtues and to some extent they are moulded by circumstances. They may be trained in schools of which the masters are dead long and long before, and of which nothing remains but the transmitted lessons that were taught without intending to teach them. In his personal history. Mr. Van Rensselaer was subjected to the strong influence of great events-events powerfully affecting property, and rights, and ideas, and character. He was born the subject of a king, and he was born to a chartered inheritance, which gave him the right to a con- siderable share of feudal honors and feudal power ; at twenty-one, however, he had become, through a forcible and bloody revolution, a citizen of a free republic, with only his own share, as such, with all his fellow-citizens, in the popular sovereignty of the country. He was the proprietary of a remarkable landed interest-remarkable for any country-connecting him and his affairs directly with an ancestry, and through that ancestry with a people, in a portion of whose doings and history are bound up some interesting and valuable materials for the proper illustration of events and characters in later and even present times, in this part of our country. As such pro- prietary, looking to the earlier periods of his life, he represented, in his own person, a state of things in regard to property and its incidents, and the structure of social and political institutions, which in his own time and in his own hands, passed away forever-not, however, with- out leaving behind them their strongly-marked and indeli- ble traces; and, looking at him from the days of his manhood onward, he was, in his character and in his relations, a living witness and illustration of some import- ant contributions which a former age had made to the present, and by which the features of the latter, as stamped by a new order of things, were not a little modi- fied. Undoubtedly we change with the times ; yet no age


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Life and Services of


can choose but wear, more or less strongly, the lineaments of its parent age-the complexion, even a very great way off, will show a tinge from the blood that was in the origi- nal fountain. He, the subject of our present reflections, stood, in one sense, between the present and the past ; between two distinct and even opposite orders of things, and he belonged in a manner to both. His life reached forward well into the heart of the republican system- and the whole country did not contain a more thorough republican than he was-while his days ran back to a period when a feudal aristocracy, of which he was himself a part, had a legalized and legitimate growth in the soil of this our native land. He was a thorough republican, in a republican state, and yet he bore to his death, by common courtesy and consent-never claimed but always conceded-the hereditary title which had anciently at- tached to the inheritance to which he had been born.


The title, as is well known to you, by which he was usually addressed and spoken of amongst us, was that of patroon. This title was derived, evidently, from the civil law, and the institutions of Rome. In the time of the Roman republic, the Latin patronus was used to denote a patrician, who had certain of the people under his imme- diate protection, and for whose interests he provided by his authority and influence. At a later period, and after the power of Rome had been greatly extended by her con- quests, individuals and families of the noble order, became patrons of whole cities and provinces, and this protective authority, with large and extensive legal and political rights and powers, in some instances descended by inheri- tance. The family of the Claudii was vested with this patronage over the Lacedemonians; and that of the Mar- celli over the Syracusans. It was partly from this source, it may well be supposed, that the Dutch, who had adopted the civil law, derived the idea of governing a remote ter- ritory, not easily to be reached by the central authorities, by committing it to the ample jurisdiction of a patroon. *


* I have seen the Jus Patronatus of the Roman law expressly re- ferred to, in an official MS. of the Dutch authorities themselves, as the foundation of the powers and jurisdiction committed to the patroons of New Netherlands.


Stephen Van Rensselaer.


This title was not applied in Holland, so far as I know, to any order in the state there, nor was it employed in, or by, any other of the countries of Europe. It was not a title of personal nobility, as that term is understood in Europe since the time when monarchs assumed the right of conferring these distinctions by creation or patent. It belonged exclusively to the proprietors of large estates in lands, occupied by a Tenantry ; and like the title of seignior which the French bestowed with the seigniories, or large territorial estates and jurisdictions in Lower Canada, on the first colonization of that country, it was deemed especially proper for transatlantic use. Yet it had been attached to it, in connection with proprietorship, the usual incidents and privileges of the old feudal lordships, in direct imitation of which, both title and estate, with their jurisdic- tions, were instituted. It may be added as worth remark- ing, that in the case before us, this title has run on, and been regularly transmitted, with the blood of the first pa- troon, down to our day, though it is now a century and three quarters since the inheritance ceased to be a Dutch colony, to which alone the title properly attached, and became, by royal authority, after a foreign conquest, an English manorial possession; and though, in later time, a revolution has intervened by which the estate was fully shorn of its manorial character and attributes, leaving to the proprietor, now for the last fifty years, to hold his property merely by the same simple tenure and ownership, with which every freeholder in the country is invested.


Mr. Van Rensselaer was the fifth only in the direct line of descent from the original proprietor and patroon of the colony of Rensselaerwick. This personage, the founder of tlie colony, was a man of substance and character. He was a merchant of Amsterdam, in Holland, wealthy, and of high consideration in his class, at a time when the merchants of Holland had become, in effect, like those of Italy, the princes of the land. He was that Killian Van Rensselaer referred to in our recent histories as having had a principal share in the first attempts made by the Dutch towards colonization in America.


I think this occasion would have been held to justify a


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more particular reference to the part which this ancestor of the late Mr. Van Rensselaer had in American coloniza- tion, and especially at the important point where we are now assembled ; and that it would not have been out of place, to have introduced the personal memoirs of the latter, by a portion at least of that curious and hitherto neglected history which attaches to the colony and manor of Rensselaerwick-that identical landed estate and in- heritance, which, nearly in its original integrity, though stript of its accessories, we have seen held and enjoyed, in our time, by a lineal descendant of the first proprietor. But the unavoidable length to which the briefest outline of that history runs-though fully prepared, after the labor of considerable research-has compelled me, reluctantly I confess, to lay it entirely aside. I must needs content myself now with some very general facts and observations in this connection.




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