[ Whereas the director general and councilors of New Netherland are sufficiently convinced, as well by their own experience, even by several bills of costs exhibited before them, as by the remonstrances and complaints of others presented to them, of the exactions of ] secretaries [ notaries, clerks and other ] commissioned [ persons, in suing and prosecuting ] contending parties, [ of the excessively great ] fees and charges for writing [ of almost all ] sorts of instruments, to the serious, indeed nearly intolerable onerousness of the judgments and costs of court; some being so far seized by avarice and selfishness that they are ashamed to render a bill or specification of the fee they demand, but ask, if not extort, the amount from the parties in gross; the aforesaid director general and councilors wanting to provide therein for the better and more tolerable promotion of justice, do hereby ordain, enact, and command that from now on nobody shall undertake to draw up or to write any public instrument unless he be commissioned or licensed thereto by the director general and councilors as secretary, notary, or clerk, which commissioned or licensed person is bound to content himself with such fee as is established for it by the director general and councilors, and to renew every year on the 5th of February, the oath which he has taken, precisely to submit to and obey the ordinance enacted, or hereafter, according to the circumstances, to be enacted, on the subject of secretaries, notaries, clerks and such like officers, in conformity to the following:[i]
[ First, all secretaries, notaries, clerks, or such officers, shall keep a correct register or journal, in which people may see immediately, if necessary and when required, whatever has been executed before them, and for which they demand such fee, and place it on their account ].
Secondly, no secretary, notary, clerk, or any such officer, shall be allowed to demand from anybody any money in advance, or ask or take any present, or be at liberty to compound or agree with anyone about a fee and pay for writing yet to be earned, inasmuch as such composition and agreement, before final judgment, must redound to the injury of the succumbing party in case he be condemned in the expenses and costs of court; but the aforesaid officers may receive their pay according to this ordinance, either at any time before the execution of the instrument, or at the end of the suit, on rendering proper account and specifications of what they have written, what errands they have done, what they have performed or copied, without entering any extraordinary costs in gross, in such accounts or specification, and all according to the fee allowed for it, not being permitted either to demand or to exact anything else or more from their clients, on pain of forfeiture of their office and fifty guilders fine, by such as may be found to have acted contrary hereunto.
Thirdly, the secretary, notary, clerk, or officer shall sign with his own hand all instruments executed in his presence, and seal them, when requested, with his signet, providing that he receive for his seal six stivers in addition to the legal fee.
[ Fourthly, secretaries, notaries, clerks and such like officers shall be bound, when required, to give a discharge or receipt for the earned and paid fee, to be made use of when necessary. ]
Finally and [ lastly, all secretaries, ] notaries, and clerks [ shall be bound to serve the poor and indigent who ask ] such as an [ alms, ] gratis and pro Deo; and may demand and receive from the people of substance the following fees:
For a simple petition written on one side of the paper, 18 stivers. If the petitioner desires to have it recorded or registered, for copying 12 stivers.
For a simple claim, as above, 18 stivers.
For an answer, reply, or rejoinder, 2 guilders. For engrossing, for copying, 24 stivers.
But if the answer, reply, rejoinder, claim, or petition requires more than one half a sheet of paper, for each page of 25 to 30 lines, 30 to 36 letters in a line, 30 stivers.
For a deduction, for each half sheet of 26 to 30 lines, and 30 to 36 letters in a line, two guilders.
For a petition for appeal to be presented to the director general and councilors, two guilders 10 stivers.
For a petition of revision, review, appeal, rehearing, purging, complaint, pardon, or lantwinninge,[ii] to be presented to the director general and councilors, two guilders 10 stivers; if it happens to exceed the second or third half sheet (lines and letters as before), per page, 24 stivers.
[For a petition of the same nature as above, to any inferior court, 36 to 40 stivers.
Or per page (lines and letters as before), 20 stivers. For a judgment, 30 stivers.
For extracts from their books (lines and] letters as before) [per page, 20 stivers.
For a] contract, bond, promissory note, attestation, lease, or bill of sale, 30 stivers.
For the copy, 20 stivers.
For an oral consultation for a case for the director general and councilors, 20 stivers, provided that the notary remains obliged to enter in his journal the time and subject.
For an inventory of documents to be furnished by parties, 15 stivers.
For drawing up an interrogatory and entering the questions, 10 stivers per half page, provided that 7 or 8 questions stand on one page. For the answer to be written on the opposite page in like manner, 10 stivers.
For one day’s journey with or without their client, when requested, four guilders, exclusive of transport and food and drink; but within the city, village or place (:when requested:), accompanying their client, 20 stivers.
For attending a term of court, with or without their client, 15 stivers; for neglecting the same, to pay default and damages thereof.
No disbursements for drink, or any other extraordinary presents, gifts or gratuities shall be brought into any account, or demanded or collected by the secretaries, notaries, clerks, or such like officers.
And this and the foregoing articles shall not only [ be published, posted and observed ] in all places within this New Netherland province where publication is usually made, [but also be read by the fiscal, schout, and other inferior magistrates privately in their respective courts, before the secretaries, notaries, clerks and such like, now and on the 5th of February, not being Sunday, in every succeeding year, and thereupon the oath exacted from them] to regulate [ themselves precisely in conformity thereto, and in case of refusal to be removed ] from their office and place, with express prohibition neither directly nor indirectly to write any instruments for any person under a penalty of 50 guilders for the first, twice as much for the second time, and an arbitrary correction at the discretion of the judge for the third time. Thus done at the meeting of the honorable lord director general and councilors of New Netherland held in Fort Amsterdam, the 25th of January 1658.
P. Stuyvesant Nicasius de Sille
P. Tonneman
