Document: Resolution that all public work shall be done in future by contract

The vice-director and magistrates of Fort Orange and the village of Beverwijck and the dependencies thereof, observing the difficulty which they have at present in making up the account of the expenditures for the building of the church of the village of Beverwijck and other work during the past year, 1656, have decided that henceforth no work shall be let except by order of the court, granted either by themselves or their deputies, and that no money shall be paid except upon their order. And in order that this may not be too troublesome for the court to grant every time, it is ordered that Commissary Johannes La Montagne shall hereafter issue such order, provided that he shall keep a record thereof, so as to know thereby at any time the state of the treasury.

Actum in Fort Orange, the 23d of February 1657.