Lot: F1 (Taxlots)

Lot
F1
Lot Group
Taxlots
Related Book Page
Property Was Used in 1660 For:
Date Start
1647-01-21
Related Ancestors:
Description

This was the residence of Dr. Hans Kierstede and his wife, Sara Roelof Kierstede.

Full Stokes Entry (See images below)
Nos. 23-25 Pearl Street, at the corner of Whitehall Street. Here resided Dr. Hans Kierstede,[^] one of the earliest physicians in the city and the founder of a family of doctors and apothecaries.

Kierstede was a native of the great free city of Magdeburg; he came to New Amsterdam with Director Kieft, in March, 1638, in the official capacity of surgeon of the West India Company; but within two years he had left this post to enter the private practice of his profession.

His property on the Strand came into his possession by ground-brief of January 21, 1647 {Liber GG: 165, Albany), for the land "between the Company's Warehouse and the lot of Roelof Jansen," and by small additional grants made, respectively, July 18, 1653 {Liber HH: 35 b, Albany), and October 25, 1656. — Recited in Patents, II: 161 (Albany). He is taxed here in 1655. — Rec. N. Am., I: 372.

Kierstede led a useful and busy life as one of the few physicians in the community, and was often called upon by the court for expert opinions in medical affairs, sometimes in company with his colleague, Dr. Varrevanger, the court referring to both as "old experienced Surgeons." — Ibid., II: 213.

His fees, moderate in amount, were often paid him in kind. For example, he attended, for three weeks, Jacob Willemsen, who had been badly stabbed in the shoulder, and charged his patient "one Beaver" {ibid., I: 321), and was a preferred creditor in the estate of Solomon La Chair, the notary, in the sum of two and one-half beavers, for services rendered to "Solomon and his family." — Ibid., V: 305.

He married, June 29, 1642, Sara Roelofs, of Amsterdam {Marriages in Ref. Dutch Ch., 11), a daughter of Anneke Jans and stepdaughter of Domine Bogardus, by whom he had ten children. All of these survived him. — Purple, in N. Y. Geneal. y Biog. Rec, July, 1877. He died in this house "by the Water" in the year 1666. His descendants remained there until 17 10. — Liber Deeds, XXVI: 48.

His great-great-grandson was the late Gen. Henry T. Kiersted, of Harlem, who kept a well-known chemist's shop on Broadway, where, for many years he dispensed the " Kierstede ointment" — a secret of Hans Kierstede's, which has remained a family possession for nearly three centuries. — Dr. John Shrady, in Wilson's Mem. Hist. City of N. Y., IV: 388.

['] The entry is dated March 14, 1656 — an obvious error.

[^] By a resokition of the burgomasters, one of the two Indian trading-houses was ordered to be erected "before the house of Mr. Hans" (Kierstede):

"Friday, October 21, 1661, at the City Hall present Messrs. Pieter Tonneman, Allard Anthony, Paulus Leendersen van der Grift, Marten Cregier and Olof Stevensen van Cortlant.

"The President produces an extract from the Register of Resolutions of the Director General and Council,