Document: Decree that the marriage of Johannes van Beecq and Maria Verleth is declared unlawful

Whereas the honorable director-general and council of New Netherland have heard the charge of the fiscal against Johannis van Beecq, a free merchant and resident of this city of New Amsterdam, defendant, who has been duly summoned by the court-messenger, Elslandt, in the name of the fiscal, to three different court sessions, because the aforesaid Johan van Beeck had himself married by an unauthorized countryman named Goetman Crab who lives in Groenwits,[158] contrary to the praiseworthy laws and customs of the United Netherlands (as the fiscal further specifies and proves in his complaint), without the advice of the elders and against the prohibition of his legal guardian, the honorable director-general, and without previously publishing bans, and because the aforesaid van Beecq has failed to appear, the fiscal requests that the aforesaid van Beecq be condemned on the charge submitted at the session on the first of September 1654, and this by virtue of consummation; therefore, the honorable director-general and council of New Netherland, after invoking God's holy name, in the name and on behalf of