Domine Johannes Megapolensis. Homeowner as of January 1656. Block A, Lot 5. DRC minister.

Domine Johannes Megapolensis came to Rensselaerswyck from the village of Koedyck in northern Holland in 1642 and became the first Protestant missionary to preach the gospel to the indigenous people in New Netherland. Five years later he was installed as minister of New Amsterdam, at the stupendous sum of 1,200 guilders a year. Yet the spirit of religious toleration for which the Dutch are gaining ever wider credence was possibly absent in Megapolensis, as suggested in a letter he penned to the classis in Amsterdam on March 18, 1655. He wrote: “For as we have here Papists, Mennonites and Lutherans among the Dutch; also many Puritans or Independents, and many Atheists and various other servants of Baal among the English under this Government, who conceal themselves under the name of Christians; it would create a still greater confusion, if the obstinate and immovable Jews came to settle here.”  (Stokes. Vs. 2&4)