The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 22

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114

USA > New York > Kings County > Brooklyn > The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I > Part 22

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This organization of the TOWN OF BREUCKELEN was further perfected, during the ensuing winter, by the appointment of a schout or constable, as appears by the following commission :

"Having seen the petition of the schepens of Breuckelen, that it is impossible for them to attend to all cases occurring there, especially criminal assaults, impounding of cattle, and other incidents which frequently attend agriculture ; and in order to prevent all disorders, it would be necessary to appoint a schout there, for which office they propose the person of Jan Teunissen. Therefore we grant their request therein, and authorize, as we do hereby authorize, Jan Teunissen to act as schout, to imprison delinquents by advice of the schepens, to establish the pound, to impound cattle, to collect fines, and to perform all things that a trusty schout is bound to perform. Whereupon he hath taken his oath at the hands of us and the Fiscal, on whom he shall especially depend, as in Holland substitutes are bound to be dependent on the Upper Schout, Schouts on the Bailiff or Marshal. We com- mand and charge all who are included under the jurisdiction of Breuckelen to acknowledge him, Jan Teunissen, for schout. Thus done in our council in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, the first December, Anno 1646."

Thus, more than two centuries ago, the Town of BREUCKELEN was founded, upon nearly the same locality which has since become the political center of the CITY OF BROOKLYN.

The towns on the eastern cnd of Long Island were generally settled by companies, and in many cases by religious congregations, or societies, who established their own system of government. The Dutch settle- ments on the western end mostly began as individual enterprises. The new-comers took up such tracts of land as best suited them, and commenced their cultivation. These lands were either selected from those of which the title had been already secured by the West India Company, or were purchased directly from the Indian proprietors themselves. In either case, their occupa- tion was duly sanctioned by a patent or " ground-brief "

from the Company, and confirmatory patents were also granted after the lands had been under cultivation for a certain number of years. Official transcripts of most of these patents yet exist in the office of the Secretary of State at Albany; from which, together with town and county records, we are enabled to locate the farms or " bouweries " of the early settlers with a considerable degree of accuracy. The dates of these patents mostly range from 1640 to 1646, in which latter year the period of incubation may be said to have terminated by the incorporation of the village of Breuckelen.

South West bounds of Brookland

Land in possession of Agias Van Dyck.

Meadow

BAY OF THE NORTHI RIVER.

The land said to be

A Meadow

Indian foot Path

The land in

difference be- tween

Simon Arison and

Pond

-W

Swamp

Jno.Bennett

Copy of a Survey made May 21st, 1696, by Augustus Graham, Surveyor General, of the BENNETT AND BENTYN PURCHASE, of the Indians, con- taining 930 acres.

As before stated, the BENNET and BENTYN purchase was made in 1636, and included land extending from the vicinity of Twenty-eighth street along Gowanus Cove and the bay to the New Utrecht line.

Within a few years after this joint purchase, Bennet seems to have become the owner of the whole, or nearly the whole, of the entire tract, and to have built himself a house (on or near the site of the present mansion- house on the Schermerhorn farm, on Third avenue, near Twenty-eighth street), which was burned down during the Indian war of 1643, in Governor Kieft's administration. Bennett died about the same time, and probably during his children's minority; and his widow afterward married Mr. Paulus Vander Beeck, " surgeon and farmer."

As time went on, this tract was divided and subdi- vided among purchasers and heirs. The original stone

sold to

Simon Arison.

Adriaen Bennett.

Land in possession of Arian Williamse Bennett.

TIIE SCHERMERHORN AND CORTELYOU HOUSES.

Tohs Hogan DEL.

THE DE HART, OR BERGEN HOUSE.

funow Julen . 1675.

Signature of Simon Aesen (Ter Haert.)

Thos Hogan del.

J.P .DAVIS=SPEER Sc

THE VECHTE-CORTELYOU HOUSE, 1699.

Har Assants vingt .1100

Signature of Klaes Arents Vecht, the builder of the Vechte Housc.

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

walls form part of the present building known as the Schermerhorn mansion. The De Hart or Bergen house, on the shore of Gowanus Cove, west of Third avenue, near Thirty-seventh and Thirty-eighth streets, was repaired and newly roofed some sixty years since by Simon Bergen, and it still remains. These houses are

Thos, Hogyan,

THE SCHERMERHORN HOUSE.

older than the Cortelyou or Vechte house, on Fifth avenue, which was erected in 1699, and which has gen- erally been considered the oldest in Brooklyn.

A patent was granted by Kieft to CORNELIS LAMBERT- SE (Cool), April 5th, 1642. This patent extended from

his

Cornelis Lambertsa N Cool mark

the northerly line of Bennet's land, nearly to the head of Gowanus Cove, and included lands between First and Twenty-eighth streets. This, like all other tracts, was divided among many owners, in time. On the Vechte farm, on the west side of Fifth avenue, near Fourth street, stands the old Cortelyou house, erected 1699, probably by Claes (or Nicholas) Adriantse Van Vech- ten. The land on which the house stands was purchased in 1790 by Jaques Cortelyou.

The " Roode Hoek," or Red Hook, so called from the color of its soil, has almost entirely lost its identity, in consequence of the construction of the Atlantic Docks, and the other extensive and important improvements in that part of the modern city of Brooklyn. Its original form and topographical appearance, however, has been faithfully preserved in Ratzer's map. It may be des- cribed, as extending from Luqueer's Mill Creek (about Hieks and Huntington streets), following the indenta- tions of the shore around the cape and headland, to about the western boundary of the Atlantic Docks, on the East River; or, in general terms, as having com- prised all the land west of the present Sullivan street. Its history commences with the year 1638, when Director

Van Twiller petitioned for its use, which was granted to him on condition that he should relinquish it whenever the Company wanted it. Van Twiller had previously become possessed of " Nutten " or Governor's Island, several islands in the East River, near Hell-gate, and lands at Catskill and on Long Island, amounting in all to between three thousand and three thousand seven hundred and fifty acres. These, as well as similar pur- chases made by other officials, were disapproved by the authorities at home,-who very justly complained that " the whole land might thus be taken up, yet be a desert,"-and finally, in 1652, were declared null and void, and the lands consequently reverted to the Company.

The title of Red Hook being thus vested in the Government, was conveyed and granted to the town of Brueckelen, in 1657, by Governor Stuyvesant; and was subsequently confirmed by Gov- ernors Nicolls. and Dongan. It was sold, on the 10th ER. 3 of August, 1695, by the patentees and freeholders of the town, to Colonel Stephanus Van Cortlandt.

A mill was erected on this property, previous to 1689, at the corner of the present Dikeman and Van Brunt streets. The mill has long since disappeared, and the old pond, which, in 1834, contained some forty-seven acres, is filled up and obliterated.

Tradition asserts that Red Hook and Governor's Island were once connected, and that people and cattle waded across Buttermilk Channel. The legend prob- ably originated in statements made by witnesses in a trial which took place in 1741, between Israel Hors- field, plaintiff, and Hans Bergen, defendant, as to the boundaries of their respective farms. The theory, sus- tained by some in support of this tradition, that the docks erected along the New York shore effected a change, by diverting the currents of the East River toward Buttermilk Channel, is hardly tenable.

May 27th, 1640, a patent was granted to FREDERIC LUBBERTSEN, of a farm comprising the whole neek of land between the East River and Gowanus Creek, north- east of the meadows which formerly separated Red Hook from Brooklyn. This neck, formerly known as the " neck of Brookland " or " Lubbertsen's neck," has now lost its original appearance by the filling in of the Atlantic Docks, the grading of streets, and the various improvements of the modern city; and Lubbert- sen's farm can only be defined, in general terms, as bounded by a line drawn between Degraw and Harrison streets, west of Court street, the East River, Hamilton avenue, Gowanus Creek, and by Warren street east of Court.

On this patent, south of the present Harrison street, between Columbia street and Tiffany place, and abou

EARLY OCCUPANTS OF BROOKLYN.

opposite to Sedgwick street, " a water mill for grinding corn," known, from its builder, as Cornelius Seabring's mill, and afterward as Cornell's, or the Red Mill, was built in 1689.

faresich Lübborstfog . 16.39.

Facsimile of Frederick Lubbertse's Autograph.

On the northeast corner of the present Hieks and Huntington streets was I. Seabring's mill, which was built prior to 1766. On the Lubbertsen patent, also, on the north side of the present Ninth street, between Smith street and the Gowanus Canal, was the mill and mill pond originally built by John Rapalje after 1766, and better known as " Cole's mill."

A canal running from the East River to Gowanus Cove, and separating Red Hook from the mainland, was made, subsequent to 1664, to avoid the difficult and dan- gerous navigation around Red Hook by row-boats. March 16, 1774, the Colonial Assembly of the State passed an aet empowering the people of Gowanus to widen the eanal, keep it in order, and tax those who used it. This eanal was partially elosed, some twenty- five years ago, by improvements at Atlantie Doek; but there are persons yet living who have frequently passed through it with their boats, in going to or returning from New York.

September 30th, 1645, CLAES JANSEN VAN NAERDEN, or Claes Janse Ruyter, received from Governor Kieft a patent of "twenty-one morgens two hundred rods," or about forty-three aeres, lying about south by east, a little casterly, over against the fort, on Long Island.

Next to Ruyter's patent, on the East River, lay that of JAN MANJE, granted to him by Governor Kieft, Sept. 11, 1642; and described as " a piece of land, greatly (i. e., of the size of) twenty morgen, lying about south- cast a little easterly, over against the fort in New Amsterdam, in Brueekelen." September 12th, 1845, Andries Hudde obtained by patent from Governor Kieft, a traet containing "37 morgen, 247 rods " lying "over against the fort (at New Amsterdam), lying to the southeast of Jan Manje."

The three patents of HUDDE, MANJE and RUYTER comprehended the entire tract lying northeast of Lub- bertse's patent-and having a river front (of two thou- sand six hundred and forty-six feet) extending from about Atlantie to Clarke streets, and from Court street to the East River, being at present one of the most thickly settled portions of Brooklyn. This beeame, in 1706, the property of Joris Remsen, who was the second son of Rem Jansen Vanderbecek, the ancestor of the Remsen family in this country. Joris built a mansion near the brow of the heights, which then presented the appearance of a rough and bold promontory of rocky eliffs, rising from a sandy beach, and covered with a

fine growth of cedar-trees, which gave to the place a remarkably picturesque appearanee, as seen from the New York side. The Remsen mansion was used for a hospital by the British during the Revolution ; was afterwards occupied by William Cutting, the partner of Robert Fulton in the steamboat business, and after his death it was sold to Fanning C. Tucker, Esq. After several years he sold it to ex-Mayor Jonathan Trotter, from whom it passed to Mr. Wm. S. Packer, and its site is now marked by Graee Church. The building itself was launehed down the face of the Heights, and now stands on the site of the old Joralemon street ferry-house, on Furman near Joralemon street.

Philip Livingston, Esq., became the owner of an ex- tensive portion of the Reisen estate, prior to 1764. The Livingston mansion-house stood on the east side of the present Hieks street, about 400 feet south of Joralemon street; and, during the Revolutionary War, in consequence of Mr. Livingston's adherence to the American cause, was appropriated by the British, who then oeenpied Brooklyn, to the purposes of a naval hospital. After Mr. Livingston's death, his trustees dis- posed of that portion known as the " distillery property," to Daniel MeCormick, in July, 1785, and, on the 29th of April, 1803, they sold to Teunis Joralemon the property south of the distillery, and the Livingston mansion theneeforward became known as the Joralemon House. It was taken down at the opening of Hicks street.

On the 14th of November, 1642, CLAES CORNELISSEN (MENTELAER) VAN SCHOUW received from Governor Kieft a patent for land "on Long Island, over against the island of Manhattan, betwixt the ferry and the land of Andries Hudde," containing " 16 morgen and 175 rods."

This property, having a water-front of 1,276 feet six inches, probably extended from the north line of Hadde's patent to the ferry at the foot of the present Fulton street.

At "the Ferry" and its immediate vicinity, grants for house or building lots were made to several individuals; and, by the beginning of the last century, there was probably quite a hamlet at this point, having several streets and lanes, with houses elustered closely together.

North of the Ferry, as near as can be ascertained, eame, either a patent for a small pareel belonging to CORNELIS DIRCKSEN (HOOGLANDT), "the Ferryman," or that of Jacob Wolphertsen (van Couwenhoven).

On January 24th, 1643, Direksen sold this property (of which we have been imable to find any recorded patent), then deseribed as " his house and garden, with some sixteen or seventeen acres of land on Long Island," to one William Thomassen, together with his right of ferriage, provided the Director would consent, for 2,300 guilders in cash and merchandise. William Thomas- sen we suppose to be the same individual as William Jansen, who is known to have sneceeded Cornelis Direk- sen as ferryman about this time. Direksen, after retir- ing from the charge of the ferry, obtained from Gover-

HISTORY OF KINGS COUNTY.

nor Kieft, December 12, 1645, a piece of land " behind the land by him heretofore taken up, amounting to 12 morgen and 157 rods."

July 3d, 1643, Governor Kieft granted a patent to JACOB WOLPHERTSEN, (VON COUWENHOVEN), for "a picee of land lying on Long Island, on the East River, bounded north by west by Cornelis Dircksen (Hoog- landt), ferryman's land." The same land, having a water front of 686 feet, was confirmed by Governor Kieft to Herry Breser, September 4th, 1645, and was said to contain 16 morgens 468 rods."

September 4th, 1645, a patent was granted by Gov- evernor Kieft to Frederic Lubbertsen, which ineluded 15 morgens and 52 rods adjoining Breser's.

The patents of Lubbertsen and Breser, previous to the Revolution, became the property of John Rapalje, a great-great-grandson of the first settler. Mr. Rapalje was a person of considerable importanee; was the owner of the largest estate in Brooklyn; had oeeupied, at one time, a seat in the Provincial Assembly, and enjoyed the highest confidenee and respeet of his fellow-eitizens. Upon the breaking out of the Revolution, he adhered to the British eause, and a bill of attainder was passed against him October 27, 1779, and he was banished to New Jersey. After the oeeupation of Long Island by the British, he returned to Brooklyn, and there remained with his family until October, 1783, when, in company with his son, his son-in-law, Colonel Lutwyehe, and a grand-daughter, he removed to England, and settled at Norwich, in the County of Norfolk. All efforts to pro- eure a reversion of his attainder, and the restoration of his eonfiseated estates in America, having failed, his losses were reimbursed to him by the British govern- ment, and he died at Kensington, in his seventy-fourth year, January 12, 1802. Loyalist as he was, it was often said of him by his old neighbors of Brooklyn, that "he had an honest heart, and never wronged or oppressed a Whig or other man."

IIis lands and other property in Brooklyn were sold by the Commissioners of Forfeited Estates. That por- tion under consideration, lying between Gold and Fulton streets, was purchased, on the 13th of July, 1784, by Comfort and Joshua Sands, for the sum of £12,430, paid in State scrip. Some ten or twelve years after the war, Rapalje's grand-daughter, who had married George Weldon in England, eame, with her husband, to New York, with the intention of proseenting for recovery of the estate, on the ground that its confiscation had taken place subsequent to the treaty of peace. They brought with them the original title deeds and other documents of the estate; and, it is said, the town records of Brook- lyn, which Rapalje earried to England. A number of depositions were made and eolleeted in Brooklyn, rela- tive to the property, and Aaron Burr and other eminent counsel were consulted, whose advice was adverse to the prosecution of the snit. The Weldons, therefore, returned to England, earrying with them all the valua-

able records and papers which they had brought with them,

No further attempt has sinee been made to disturb the title, and the land was afterwards laid out in streets and lots by the Messrs. Sands.

ALONG THE EAST RIVER.

The " land lying at the west corner of Marechkawieck, on the East River," was granted to EDWARD FISCOCK, whose widow married one Jan Haes. On April 2d, 1647, Haes received from Governor Kieft a confirmation of this property, which was described as extending

"from the land of Frederick Lubbertsen, east, southeast, and southeast by east to the marsh, 80 rods ; and along the valley (meadow), northeast, 126 rods, with certain out and in points ; further north by east, 45 rods ; west northwest, 30 rods ; west by north, 80 rods; west and west by south, 67 rods ; along the land of Frederick Lubbertsen, and south and south by east, 134 rods, amounting to 38 morgens 485 rods."

This tract, having a water-front of eight hundred and twenty feet and nine inches, was located at the west cape or point of Wallabont Bay, and embraced a part of the present United States Navy-yard. The point formed by the junetion of the Waale-bogt with the East River was subsequently ealled "Martyn's Hook," probably from one Jan Martyn, who is mentioned as a proprietor in that vicinity about the year 1660. At a more modern day, (from a somewhat natural association with memories of the Prison-ship horrors,) the name beeame corrupted to that of "Martyr's Hook."

HANS LODEWYCK was the patentee of a traet, probably next to the Haes patent, though other lands may have been between them. His patent, of 14 morgens and 494 rods, was dated November 3d, 1645.

MICHAEL PICET, a Frenchman, was, for a time, the owner of the farm next to Lodewyek's, but it was granted to Willem Cornelissen, February 19th, 1645. It contained twenty-five morgens "in the bend of Marechkarrek." In 1668 it became the property of Charles Gabrey, who afterwards fled the country; and the estate, being confiseated, was again granted by the Governor, July 12th, 1673, to Michael Heynall, Direk Jansen, and Jeronimus Rapalje.

PETER CESAR ITALIEN, or Cæsar Alberti, received June 17th, 1643, a grant of land adjoining that of Pieet. May 1st, 1647, he received an addition to the westerly side of his farm.

These two farms, of Peter Cæsar Italien (which had a river or meadow front of six hundred and ninety-nine feet three inches) and that of Pieet, comprised the land now lying between Clermont and Hampden avenues.

PETER MONTFORT received a patent for 25 morgens and eight rods next to Pieter the Italien's, May 29th, 1641, and May 1st, 1647, another patent for land to the westerly side of this, two hundred and seventy rods square, "provided it did not interfere with other grants." This land had a river or meadow front of about nine

SETTLERS ALONG THE EAST RIVER.

hundred feet, and it is now comprised between Hamil- ton avenue and a line a little beyond Clermont avenne.

JAN MONTFOORT (probably Peter's brother) received also, May 29th, 1641, a grant for 28 morgen between the land of Peter Montfoort on the west and the farm of Rapalje on the east.

In 1647 Montfoort's widow received a grant of an addition to the rear of the above land, of the same breadth, and one hundred and ninety rods in length. The Montfoort land, which had a river or meadow front of about 1,078 feet, was identical with that now located between Hamilton and Grand avenues.

JORIS (George) JANSEN DE RAPALIE, supposed to have been a proscribed Huguenot, from Rochelle in France, came to this country in 1623, in the ship Unity, with Catalyntie Trico, his wife, and settled first at Fort Orange, near Albany, from whence he removed, in 1626, to New Amsterdam. About 1655 he probably removed his permanent residence to his farm at the " Waale-Boght." This farm consisted of 167 morgens and 406 rods (about 335 acres), which he had purchased on the 16th of June, 1637, from its Indian proprietors.

Facsimile of Joris Jansen Rapalie's 2 Autograph, or Mark.

Mark of Catalyntie Trico, wife of K Joris Jansen de Rapalie.

On this tract, which may be described in general terms as comprising the lands now occupied by the United States Marine Hospital, and those embraced between Nostrand and Grand avenues, in the present city of Brooklyn, and on the easterly side of the Waal- boght, Rapalie spent the remainder of his life, dying soon after the close of the Dutch administration, and having had eleven children.

On the 30th of March, 1647, HANS HANSEN BERGEN, or "Hans the Boore," as he was sometimes familiarly called, received a patent for 200 morgens (400 acres) of land on Long Island, being a portion of the extensive purchase made by Governor Kieft, in 1638, from the Indian proprietors. This tract of land extended from the Creek of Runnegaconck to the present Division avenue, which formerly marked the boundary between the cities of Williamsburgh and Brooklyn. Following the direction of this avenue to near its intersection with Tenth street, it there passed over it and stretched in a somewhat southeasterly direction, probably as far as the head of Newtown Creek, in the neighborhood of Vandervoort avenue and Montrose street. This patent, therefore, was situated partly in Brooklyn and partly in Bushwick.

HANS HANSEN BERGEN (or VAN BERGEN), the com- mon ancestor of the Bergen family of Long Island and New Jersey, was a native of Bergen, in Norway, whence he emigrated to Holland, and from there to New Netherland. His wife was Sarah, daughter of Joris Janse de Rapalic, and was reputed to be the first

white child born in the colony of New Netherland. Probably she was the first white female born in the colony.

Hans Hansen

Bergen's Mark.

This completes an account of the early patents along the water front of Breuckelen, between the bounds of New Utrecht and those of Bushwick.

There was also a second tier of patents located in the rear of those already discussed, and lying " at Marech- kawieck," a name which applied to the whole of the county between the Waale-Boght and the head of the Gowanus Creek. These lands are described as "lying at Marechkawieck on the Gowanus Kill," proving that the name Marechkawieck was used to designate the whole country between the two localities, as well as the shore of the Waale-Boght. On these patents the village proper of Breuckelen, as distinguished from the hamlets of "Waalc-Boght," " Gowanus," and " The Ferry," was afterward established. It was undoubtedly the site of the village of the Indian tribe of that name, of which they were dispossessed during the war of 1643. These patents may be briefly noted as those of Gerrit Wolphertsen ( Van Couwenhoven), 1647, fronting on the main road leading through the original settlement of Breuckelen, from Flatbush to "The Ferry"; of Jacob Stoffelsen, extending along the present Fulton avenue from Bond to about Smith or Hoyt streets ; of Jan Evertsen Bout, 1645, covering the land on which, a few years ago, were located Freecke's and Denton's mills. Freceke's, or the " Old Gowanus Mill," the oldest in the town of Breuckelen, as early as 1661, was occupied conjointly by Isaac De Forrest and Adam Brower (the latter partly pur- chasing the interest of the former); and they were, undoubtedly, tenants of Bout, who afterwards sold to Brower. This mill-pond was formed by damming off the head of Gowanus Kill, and the old mill was located just north of Union, west of Nevins, and between that street and Bond.

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The civil, political, professional and ecclesiastical history, and commercial and industrial record of the county of Kings and the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., from 1683 to 1884 Volume I, Part 22

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n Publication date: 1884 Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1114

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909, ed. cn; Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893; Proctor, L. B. (Lucien Brock), 1830-1900. 1n
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: New York : W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1114