Lot: A13 (Taxlots)

Lot
A13
Lot Group
Taxlots
Related Book Page
Property Was Used in 1660 For:
Date Start
1660-10-13
Full Stokes Entry (See images below)
This house (on the site of No. 37 Broadway) was undoubtedly one of the four houses "At the Belle Videre," referred to on the De Sille List, of 1660. Only three of these had been completed when the Castello Plan was drawn; this one stood on land belonging to the churchwardens. Evidently, the domine and wardens had cooperated in their erection. On October 13, 1660, Nicasius de Sille and Hendrick Jansen van der Vin, in their official capacity as churchwardens, sold their house to Laurens Andriessen, the lot running through to the Highway, 43 Dutch feet wide by 15 rods long. — Liber Deeds, A: 217. This reduced the churchyard to a frontage of 12 rods, in a line with the Drisius grant of 1654.

Laurens (Louwerens) Andriessen, Drayer (Turner), from Holsteyn, on December 12, 1658, married Jannetje Jans, widow of Christian Barentsen {Marriages in Ref. Dutch Ch., 23), who died at the South River, June 26, 1658. — Min. of Orph. Court, I: 44. By January 30, 1660, he had realised 574 florins by the sale of Barentsen's estate. — Ibid., I: 129. Subsequently, as shown, he purchased this property. There remained still 200 guilders unpaid in May, 1661, "according to the tenor of the Church book."— ^^c. N.Am., Ill: 290. If, as the above record states, Andriessen built upon the lot, it must have been on its Broadway front.

"Lawrence Andries" took the oath of allegiance at Bergen, November 22, 1665. He was still living there in June, 1674. — N. J. Archives, ist series, I: 49, 146.

THE CEMETERY ON THE HEERE STRAET

There is nothing in the records to indicate when this plot of ground was set apart for a burial-place. None of the early chroniclers mentions it, nor is it identified on the Manatus Map, of 1639. The exactness with which it was laid out — fifteen rods square and at right angles to the main highway — suggests the work of a surveyor. Possibly, Master Kryn Fredericksz. measured it off when he staked out the Fort, although, from the fact that it was under the administration of the churchwardens, who were responsible for its fencing and general maintenance, it may date from a later period — after "the form of a church," to quote Domine Michaelius, had been established. — Jameson's Nar. N. Neth., 124. The earliest mention of it in the records is under date of April 15, 1649, when it is referred to as the "old Church yard." — See Map and Key of the Dutch Grants.

The Castello Plan shows it of its original width of fifteen rods (187 feet, 6 inches) on the Highway, but diminished in depth to 9 rods, more or less, by the Drisius grant of 1654 (No. I2).['] The old "churchyard" extended along Broadway from a point 20 feet south of Morris Street to the south corner of No. 39 Broadway.

The trestles shown on the Plan in the "churchyard" are perhaps referred to in the following order:

The Burgomasters of this City of Amsterdam in N. N., having taken into consideration the request of the Churchmasters of said City, herewith authorize and qualify Jan Jelisen Koeck to take care, that the bell be tolled for the dead at the proper time, also to preserve the pall, collect the hire thereof for the church as well as the fee for ringing the bell, the rent for the straps, benches and boards; to keep a record of all, who have died and are buried, without concerning himself with anything else in this regard. Done at Amsterdam in N. N., February 25, 1661. — Exec. Min. of Burgomasters, in Min. of Orph. Court, II : 77-8.

There follows in the records the subjoined quaint entry, under date of March 3, 1661:

Claas van Elslandt senior appearing, he is told, that complaints are made against him, because he does not behave well as gravedigger and when inviting people to a burial, and because of his age and long residence here he is warned to behave better henceforth and the following order is given him:

The Burgomasters of the City of Amsterdam in N. N. ha"ve taken into consideration the request of the Churchmasters, and hereby charge and direct Claas van Elslandt the elder to take care only of the graves of the dead, dug in the church and in the churchyard; to look after the bier being fetched and brought back to the proper place; to invite, according to old custom, everybody to the funeral, walk decently before the corpse and to demand and receive pay only for his services, without asking for more. — Ibid., II: 80.

For details of the subsequent history of the "churchyard," see Chronology.