Lot
C8
Lot Group
Taxlots
Related Book Page
Property Was Used in 1660 For:
Date Start
1659-01-00
Related Ancestors:
Full Stokes Entry (See images below)
The lot and house of Jan Hendricksen van Gunst. On Monday, the 12th day of February, 1652, Domine Megapolensis presented himself before Director Stuyvesant and Councilors La Montagne and Brian Newton, to demand that an Anabaptist named Anna Smits "should be restrained from using slanderous and calumniating expressions against God's word and his servants."
The Director General and Council direct, that Anna Smits shall appear on the following Wednesday at the school of David Provoost, where the Nine Men usually meet, and that the Director and Council together with the complainant and the consistory shall assemble there also, to hear what the said Anna Smits has to say against the teachings of the complainant. — N. Y. Col. Docs., XIV: 156.
It must have been an interesting meeting. The little house which Govert Loockermans had sold to David Provoost (deed delivered October 15, 1653, Liber HH: 52, Albany) had been the scene of important conferences, no doubt, among the Nine Men, but on that Wednesday morning, both the provincial and ecclesiastical authorities were there, to debate questions of religious practice with a fanatical woman. Unfortunately, it will never be known which side won. Provoost went to Breuckelen, where he was clerk of the Dutch towns, 1654-5, ^'^'^ where he died in 1656. — Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 148, 172; Laws y Ord., N. Neth., 160. His house on the Heere Straet was sold to Jan Hendricksen van Gunst, a glazier, January, 1659. He retained it until April, 1681. — Liber Deeds, A: 222; Ibid., XII: 56.
Van Gunst, evidently, was an educated man. Letters of his preserved in the Van Rensselaer collection and printed in the Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts (pp. 792-3) seem to prove him a good business man as well, and anything but "silly," as he was pronounced to be by the worshipful court on one occasion. — Rec. N. Am., IV: 138. Quarrelsome, he may have been; yet he was not always the aggressor.
His home life did not run smoothly. His wife, Geertje Jans, was banished from the town, in December, 1657, for inciting a young girl to commit theft, from which she profited. The minutes are missing, so that the term of banishment is not known, but, early in 1658, Jan Hendricksen begged that she might return to his home — a petition which was referred directly to Stuyvesant. The sentence was remitted, on her promise of amendment.— Rec. N. Am., II: 299-301.
Some ten years later, an Englishwoman, one Elizabeth Stedwell, sued Van Gunst for breach of promise. The case was settled out of court. — Ibid., VI: 203.
Van Gunst's house lot, and that of his neighbour to the north, Thomas Fransen, covered the site of the Hudson Building, No. 32 Broadway.
The Director General and Council direct, that Anna Smits shall appear on the following Wednesday at the school of David Provoost, where the Nine Men usually meet, and that the Director and Council together with the complainant and the consistory shall assemble there also, to hear what the said Anna Smits has to say against the teachings of the complainant. — N. Y. Col. Docs., XIV: 156.
It must have been an interesting meeting. The little house which Govert Loockermans had sold to David Provoost (deed delivered October 15, 1653, Liber HH: 52, Albany) had been the scene of important conferences, no doubt, among the Nine Men, but on that Wednesday morning, both the provincial and ecclesiastical authorities were there, to debate questions of religious practice with a fanatical woman. Unfortunately, it will never be known which side won. Provoost went to Breuckelen, where he was clerk of the Dutch towns, 1654-5, ^'^'^ where he died in 1656. — Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 148, 172; Laws y Ord., N. Neth., 160. His house on the Heere Straet was sold to Jan Hendricksen van Gunst, a glazier, January, 1659. He retained it until April, 1681. — Liber Deeds, A: 222; Ibid., XII: 56.
Van Gunst, evidently, was an educated man. Letters of his preserved in the Van Rensselaer collection and printed in the Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts (pp. 792-3) seem to prove him a good business man as well, and anything but "silly," as he was pronounced to be by the worshipful court on one occasion. — Rec. N. Am., IV: 138. Quarrelsome, he may have been; yet he was not always the aggressor.
His home life did not run smoothly. His wife, Geertje Jans, was banished from the town, in December, 1657, for inciting a young girl to commit theft, from which she profited. The minutes are missing, so that the term of banishment is not known, but, early in 1658, Jan Hendricksen begged that she might return to his home — a petition which was referred directly to Stuyvesant. The sentence was remitted, on her promise of amendment.— Rec. N. Am., II: 299-301.
Some ten years later, an Englishwoman, one Elizabeth Stedwell, sued Van Gunst for breach of promise. The case was settled out of court. — Ibid., VI: 203.
Van Gunst's house lot, and that of his neighbour to the north, Thomas Fransen, covered the site of the Hudson Building, No. 32 Broadway.