This day, [ date underwritten, before ] me, Corn[ elis van Tienhoven ][ , secretary residing ] in New Netherland for the General [ Chartered West India Company ], and in the presence of the [ undersigned witnesses appeared ] Mr. Johannes Winckelman,[1] of the first part, and Pieter Cornelissen and Abraham Clock, jointly of the second part, who declared and acknowledged that they had amicably agreed and contracted on the terms and conditions hereinafter written, to wit: Pieter Cornelissen and Abraham Clock promise and undertake together to make and build a farmhouse in the manner hereinafter described. The farmhouse aforesaid to be ninety feet long and twenty-four feet wide inside the posts; [ the frame of ] the house to consist of ten bents, which are to be set nine feet apart, the beams of the bents to be twenty-four feet long, nine inches thick and fourteen inches high; [ the house to have ] twelve and a half feet story under the beams and two side aisles (uytlaten) as long as the house, one being nine feet wide and the other ten feet wide, with three doors in each aisle, one at each end and one door in the middle of each side aisle; at the end of the building a large, wide door, consisting of two upper and two lower doors, and over the door an opening to pitch hay and straw in, and a square window on each side of the door aforesaid. The house shall be provided with attic joists and below in the `[ ] above with two lights [ ]; on one side of the door a stairway is to be made straight [ up to the ] garret, with a door, all properly finished; the other gable truncated.[ 2]
The above named Pieter Cornelissen and Abraham Clock shall, when it is ready, deliver all the square timber needed for the house at the strand, whence Mr. Winckelman shall, at his own expense, have it hauled and brought to the place where the house is to be erected. The prepared timber being brought to the place where the house is to be built, he shall provide the aforesaid carpenters with proper food so long as they shall be busy building the said house and until everything shall be completed in proper manner. The rafters which shall be needed for the said house, Winckelman shall have cut and brought to the work at his own expense, he, Pieter Cornelissen and Abraham Clock jointly and severally promising to do and finish the aforesaid work agreed upon in proper manner according to the above specifications, for which he, Mr. Johannes Winckelman, promises to pay to the above mentioned carpenters one hundred and fifty Carolus guilders before the middle of next April and four hundred and thirty-five guilders when the work shall be completed and properly done in workmanlike manner, upon the joint promise of P[ ieter Cornelissen ][ and Abraham Clock that they shall ] deliver [ the aforesaid farmhouse ] as specified above next [ June? ]
For the performance hereof and the security [ of ] the respective parties, [ these ] have been signed [ by ] them, [ under submission ] to all lords, [ courts, judges ] and justices. Done on the [ island ] of Manhattan, at the house of Jan Jansen Damen, the 21st of February anno 1641,[3] in New [ Netherland. ]
Joannes Winckelman
Pieter Cornelisen
Abram Clock
Jan Jansen Damen
Wybrant Jacobsen
Cornelis van Tienhoven
