To the [ ] the lords director [ ] New Netherland
In the most humble manner the petitioner shows your honors how in the year 1651 on the 3d of June he was [ ] of a certain ship, then called the [ ] Fortuyn, [ ] publicly auctioned off [ ] council chamber by your honors’ judgment and order, and sold for [ ] of 3200 guilders, for which ship, before your honors made payment, your honors’ petitioner requested for his [ ] insurance an instrument of security or release, namely, that the aforesaid ship, which was confiscated by your honors’ judgment, and as a result of that sold at public auction, be indemnified and protected by your honors against all claims that might be made by the losing parties, or their superiors on the aforesaid ship in other places, waterways, harbors, roads and rivers. Which instrument of security or indemnification having been granted and issued under your honors’ hand and seal to your honors’ petitioner, have your honors’ petitioner and his partners, Jacob Jans Huys and Roelant Savery paid the sum of 3200 guilders, according to the bill of sale and satisfied the first penny with the last. The aforesaid ship having been paid for, the partners and your honors’ petitioner resolved to lease the ship, then renamed de Vaerwel, and which was refitted and stocked at their considerable expense, to the honorable magistrates, the lords La Montangie and Cornelis van Tienhoven, to make a voyage in the service of the honorable Company to Curasao for the sum of 800 guilders per month. After a voyage of six to seven months, having returned successfully and safely to this city, the aforesaid partners and your honors’ petitioner resolved to send the aforesaid ship, de Vaerwel, under your honors’ commission for the promotion of this city’s trade, to Virginia to haul a cargo of tobacco, either to this city or to Amsterdam in Holland; all subject to duties imposed there. The aforesaid ship having received a cargo of tobacco in Virginia, took it to Amsterdam, where it also arrived safely. However, after its safe arrival but before it was unloaded, it was attached, reclaimed, and sued in court by its first owner because of your honors’ judgment and confiscation; and although Jacob Jans Huys, together with this petitioner’s power of attorney, barely came out winners after more than a year of pleading and excessive expenses, your honors’ petitioner and his partners still suffered great losses and damage because of it,[ ] [ ] only for the sum of [ ] [ ] the petitioner can be seen [ ] [ ] by good accounts [ ] In addition to the petitioner, as first buyer and conveyor [ ] two quarter shares to Jacob Jansz and Roelant Savery [ ]
their heirs should be addressed and brought into the dispute concerning the losses suffered by the other half, by virtue of your honors’ instrument of indemnity directed to them as well as the petitioner. Your honors’ petitioner declares never to have received or seen a penny from the sale of the ship or from the freight earnings of two completed voyages amounting to over or about eleven thousand guilders. The profit from the one as well as the other was spent and consumed in die defense pleadings motivated by your honors’ judgment, whereby your honors’ petitioner only comes to suffer losses from the freight earnings to the sum of 5500 guilders, in addition to the loss of interest on money for the period of three years, and the loss of time that the aforesaid ship lay idle, and for the considerable loss to the buyers when it was under attachment for more than a year. Therefore, the petitioner turns most humbly to your honors as his sellers and, according to the attached instrument, guarantor against all loss that might arise from it, requesting humbly and kindly, according to the annexed instrument of indemnity, appropriate reparation and satisfaction for the damages suffered, and such, in order not to lose your honors’ favor, determined by impartial parties who are knowledgeable about the matter. Whereupon awaiting your honors’ favorable reply, your honors’ petitioner is obliged to pray for your honors’ welfare, and remains.
Your honors’ humble servant(was signed:) Tomas Willet
[ MARGINAL NOTATION IN RESPONSE TO THE FOREGOING PETITION ] [1]
The petitioner’s request must be referred to the honorable lords directors, chamber at Amsterdam, for whose benefit the ship, de Fortuyn was confiscated, in order to hear their advice thereon. Done at the session at Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, the 20th of October 1655. Was signed: P. Stuyvesant. Below was written: By order of the honorable director general and high council. Signed: Cornelis van Ruyven, secretary.
