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June 12, 2006
Chapter IV: History of Breuckelen 1628-1664
view of Brookland 1766
"Translation of a contract for the erection of a ferry-house, or tavern, on the Long Island side, for Egbert Van Borsum, the ferry-master, in 1655:
“We, Carpenters Jan Cornelisen, Abram Jacobsen, and Jan Hendricksen, have contracted to construct a house over at the ferry of Egbert Van Borsum, ferry-man, thirty feet long and eighteen feet wide, with an outlet of four feet, to place in it seven girders, with three transome windows and one door in the front, the front to be planed and grooved, and the rear front to have boards overlapped in order to be tight, with door and windows therein ; and a floor and garret grooved and planed beneath (on the under side); to saw the roof thereon, and moreover to set a windowframe with a glass light in the front side; to make a chimney mantel and to wainscot the fore-room below, and divide it in the centre across with a door in the partition; to set a window-frame with two glass lights therein; further to wainscot the east side the whole length of the house, and in the recess two bedsteads, one in the front room and one in the inside room, with a pantry at the end of the bedstead (betste); a winding staircase in the fore-room. Furthermore we, the carpenters, are bound to deliver all the square timber—to wit, beams, posts, and frame timber, with the pillar for the winding staircase, spars, and worm, and girders, and foundation tim. bers required for the work; also the spikes and nails for the interior work; also rails for the wainscot are to be delivered by us." “For which work Egbert Van Borsum is to pay five hundred and fifty guilders (two hundred and twenty dollars), one-third in beavers, one-third in good merchantable wampum, one-third in good silver coin, and free passage over the ferry so long as the work continues, and small beer to be drunk during work.
"It has often been claimed as a peculiar distinction of the Puritan settlers of New England, that their prominent aim, and chief care, in settling those desert regions, was the establishment of religious and educational privileges. Yet, although the settlement of New Netherlands was undoubtedly undertaken rather as a commercial speculation, than as an experimental solution of ecclesiastical and civil principles and government, we find that the Dutch were equally anxious and careful to extend and to preserve to their infant settlements the blessings of education and religion. It is true that, in the earlier years of roving and unsystematized traffic which followed the discovery of Manhattan Island, there seems to have been no higher principle involved than that of gain. But as soon as a permanent agricultural and commercial occupation of the country was undertaken by the West India Company, the higher moral and spiritual wants and necessities of its settlers were fully recognized."
All this juicy goodness lifted from CHAPTER IV: HISTORY OF BREUCKELEN 1628-1664, written in 1857.
Posted by jmarston at June 12, 2006 09:25 PM