Teunis Craie, a man unlucky in real estate on several occasions, sold a house to Solomon La Chair, who kept a tavern in it and who reneged on his debt to Craie. On a tiny portion of his property, Craie built himself a tiny house where he resided for many years, supporting himself and his family as town crier, measurer of apples and onions brought to market, and other minor occupations. Craie’s name (also spelled Kraij) crops up in the records from time to time, often in ignominious circumstances, and in one case sheds light on attitudes of New Amsterdam to pre-marital sex. From  historian Jaap Jacobs’ “New Amsterdam Stories,” collected from these records, is this case:

“The protocol of the court of New Amsterdam,” Jacobs writes, “offers tantalizing insights as the information is often incomplete and leaves the historian or genealogist with questions to which no answer is available. Whatever may have been going on in the life of Philip Schooff from Antwerp during the summer of 1658, it was not boring. In early July, he was involved in a conflict with Teunis Kraij and complained to the court that the arrest that Kraij had subjected him to was causing him damage through loss of time. Arrest, in this case, did not mean Schooff was put into jail, but rather that he was not allowed to leave New Amsterdam, unless he provided security. Only weeks later, the marriage banns of Schooff were published. His betrothed was Jannetje Kraij, the daughter of Teunis. Before the marriage took place, on August 12, Schooff had to go to court again, this time because one Breghtlande van de Graaf had defamed the bride to be. The wedding went ahead as planned. When Philip left the church in New Amsterdam with his bride, however, Anneke Sibout shouted that “they slept together and therefore did not deserve to have palm strewed.” This casual reference to the tradition of decorating the marital bed with palms and flowers may have been intended as a joke, but Philip was not amused. So was premarital sex the cause of the quarrel with his future father-in-law and with Breghtlande’s defamation of Jannetje? We will never know.” See Jaap Jacobs, https://www.facebook.com/NewAmsterdamStories.