Lot
O1
Lot Group
Taxlots
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Property Was Used in 1660 For:
Date Start
1658-01-12
Related Ancestors:
Full Stokes Entry (See images below)
All the land between the Stadt Huys plot and the present west side of Broad Street had become vested in Cornelis Melyn by December 15, 1644. (See Key to Map of the Dutch Grants.) "The Common Ditch, 10 geometrical feet wide," drained through it. — Liber GG: 92 (Albany).
The most westerly lot, between the ten-foot ditch and the Pietersen and Rycken grant (Block E, No. 15), Melyn sold to Seger Teunissen, who was killed by the Indians, as the Representation states. — Jameson's Nar. N. Neth., 335. On July 11, 1647, Melyn sold the lot east of the ten-foot ditch and the lot on which Abel Reddenhaes's house stood to Jacob Loper, his son-in-law. — N. Y. Col. MSS., II : 158. The lot next east of Loper's house he sold to Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, at some period not known, but, evidently, subsequent to the date of Loper's purchase, for his deed does not mention Kuyter as a neighbour.
The Teunissen lot and Loper's two lots were later included in the widened Graft (Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 188; Rec. N. Am., II: 31 1-2; cj. VII: 168, 169), which left Kuyter's house on the corner.
Finally, "in the beginning of April, 1651," Melyn sold the lot east of Kuyter's to Sybrant Claessen. — Rec. N. Am., Ill: 169.
This last conveyance was dated just in time to escape the writ of execution of April 22, 165 1, under which the remainder of Melyn's land here was confiscated by Director-General Stuyvesant, divided into four lots of equal size, and regranted, September 20, 1651.
This confiscation is asserted in a writ of appeal sued out by "Mr. Hendrick van der Capelle tho Ryssel" against Director Stuyvesant, April 10, 1653. He recites the efforts of Melyn and himself to establish a colony on Staten Island, the sending of the ship "Nieuw Netherlandsche Fortuyn" with settlers and goods, etc.; then continues,
this vessel . . . was confiscated, together with its cargo, by Petrus Stuyvesant ... on a pretended judgment of the two and twentieth of April XVP one and fifty, under pretext of some fraud said to have been committed, though denied by Cornelis Melyn . . . the Director caused execution to issue also on account of his [Melyn's] default (reelict), and his houses and lots at the Manhattans to be sold, and, by an unheard of stratagem, hath made himself master of, and appropriated, not only the aforesaid ship and goods, but also the proceeds of the aforesaid houses and lots.— TV. Y. Col. Docs., I: 528-9.
Hendrick Jansen vander Vin bought the Kuyter house from the burgomasters at public sale, January 12, 1658. The deed, recorded February 14th, of that year {Liber Deeds, A: 120), recites that "the Orphan Masters . . . have not been pleased to regulate the estate of Jochem Pietersen Cuyter and Leentje Mettens [Martens] his late wife both of whom have been killed by the Indians."
Stuyvesant, in November, 1655, urged the burgomasters to have an inventory taken of the lands, houses, and other effects of Kuyter and his wife, "so that his Honor as well as the other private creditors may obtain justice." — Rec. N. Am., I: 396. Willem Jansen, Lyntje Martensen's second husband, was ordered "to place the property in the hands of the Commissioners." — Ibid., I: 411. Evidently, the delay in selling the property was aused by questions of jurisdiction — the orphan-masters versus the burgomasters; there were no children's interests to be considered. Jochem Pietersen Kuyter has been briefly referred to in the description of the Manatus Maps, under No. 42.
On the 26th of March, 1658, Vander Vin was notified that 2 feet and 3 inches of ground had been left between the Kuyter house and the Sibout Claessen house (No. 2): that he might take possession of it by paying for it, and that arbiters were appointed to value the gangway, "which valuation he Vander Vin shall make good to the owner, Cornells Melein." The director-general further decided that "it must be built on and no passage be left." — Rec. N. Am., II: 365.
Vander Vin had already agreed to buy this lot, and, on April 26, 1658, he asks that it "may be endorsed on the back of the deed; Whereupon it is ordered, that the building be proceeded with and the piece of the lot on the back of the deed shall be signed as soon as the heirs [Melyn's] shall come." — Rec. N. Am., VII: 186. This entry proves that the old Kuyter house had been demolished, and the house shown on the Plan begun, at that date. In May, 1661, Vander Vin asked that the mortgage be discharged and the lot surveyed, at the same time claiming 4^^ feet of the 9 foot alley (shown on the Plan) between himself and Sybout Claessen. — Min. of Orph. Court, II: 92.
Vander Vin was a well-educated man, a good accountant, who had been in the service of the West India Company, in Brazil, as early as 1646. Some fragments of his minutes as clerk to the high council of justice at Maurits Stadt, Pernambuco, are still extant. He came to New Netherland in 1651, returned to Holland, and, in 1653, journeyed once more to New Amsterdam with his wife, Wyntje. — Riker's Hist, of Harlem, 103-4. He must have prospered, for he was taxed 60 florins for the city defenses, in 1655, when Cornells Steenwyck's assessment was but 100 florins. — Rec. N. Am., I: 368. He was chosen as schepen in 1657 {ibid., II: 285), and again in 1659 {ibid., Ill: 29, 43), and was churchwarden in 1658.— /Hi., II: 336, 342.
About 1662, Vander Vin bought at Harlem, where he seems to have taken up his residence, for, in 1663-1664, his former house here had been rented to Master Jacob Hendricksen Varrevanger. — Rec. N. Am., V: 55. In 1665, he exchanged this property with Oloff" Stevensen van Cortlandt for a house and garden on Adam Brouwer's old grant in Block C. — Liber Deeds, B : 63, 64. This was in the rear of houses Nos. 19 and 19a, and the only access to the street was through a passage-way west of No. 19. He, probably, came back to town for a few years, and lived in the house in Block C, for, in the latter part of 1665, he and his wife are noted as "former church members" at Harlem. — Riker's Hist, of Harlem, 246. However, in 1670, the Harlem magistrates engaged Vander Vin as voorleser and schoolmaster, vice Jan La Montagne. He was to receive 400 florins yearly in seawant (about $52.00), a dwelling-house, and 60 loads of firewood. — Ibid., 300. He was made secretary at Harlem, on December 3, 1672, which appointment was confirmed by the order of the new Dutch government, in August, 1673. — Ibid., 318; Rec. N. Am., VI: 400. These two positions he held until his death, in 1684. — Riker's Hist, of Harlem, 582.
In 1676, Vander Vin represented that his house had become unfit to live in. It was resolved to move him into the school-house or church for the winter, after it had been made suitable for him to live in by putting in a bedstead, chimney, and mantel, and making the door and windows tight. It was decided at the same time to repair his old house by the following spring. — Ibid., ^74..
Such worldly aff"airs did not much worry the good soul: his mind and heart were otherwise occupied. As Riker says, no doubt correctly, the Labadists meant Vander Vin, and not Waldron, when they spoke of meeting a settler at Harlem "who had formerly lived at Brazil and whose heart was still full of it." He had lived there at an exciting period in the history of the Dutch occupation, and although he was not a very aged man, having been born about 1615, according to a deposition made by him in 1665, in Rec. N. Am., V: 261, still, his life had become so placid and gentle that he may well be forgiven for glorying in his youthful days of adventure.
Mr. Riker, who edited Vander Vin's records, says of him:
As he lives in the work of his pen, Vander Vin shows his culture, and incidentally his knowledge of Latin and Spanish. He was remarkable for his accuracy, very methodical in small as well as greater matters. . . . He left no family, and his wife had died within a few years.
Vander Vin died late in 1684, in his seventieth year. — Riker's Hist, of Harlem, 441.
The most westerly lot, between the ten-foot ditch and the Pietersen and Rycken grant (Block E, No. 15), Melyn sold to Seger Teunissen, who was killed by the Indians, as the Representation states. — Jameson's Nar. N. Neth., 335. On July 11, 1647, Melyn sold the lot east of the ten-foot ditch and the lot on which Abel Reddenhaes's house stood to Jacob Loper, his son-in-law. — N. Y. Col. MSS., II : 158. The lot next east of Loper's house he sold to Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, at some period not known, but, evidently, subsequent to the date of Loper's purchase, for his deed does not mention Kuyter as a neighbour.
The Teunissen lot and Loper's two lots were later included in the widened Graft (Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 188; Rec. N. Am., II: 31 1-2; cj. VII: 168, 169), which left Kuyter's house on the corner.
Finally, "in the beginning of April, 1651," Melyn sold the lot east of Kuyter's to Sybrant Claessen. — Rec. N. Am., Ill: 169.
This last conveyance was dated just in time to escape the writ of execution of April 22, 165 1, under which the remainder of Melyn's land here was confiscated by Director-General Stuyvesant, divided into four lots of equal size, and regranted, September 20, 1651.
This confiscation is asserted in a writ of appeal sued out by "Mr. Hendrick van der Capelle tho Ryssel" against Director Stuyvesant, April 10, 1653. He recites the efforts of Melyn and himself to establish a colony on Staten Island, the sending of the ship "Nieuw Netherlandsche Fortuyn" with settlers and goods, etc.; then continues,
this vessel . . . was confiscated, together with its cargo, by Petrus Stuyvesant ... on a pretended judgment of the two and twentieth of April XVP one and fifty, under pretext of some fraud said to have been committed, though denied by Cornelis Melyn . . . the Director caused execution to issue also on account of his [Melyn's] default (reelict), and his houses and lots at the Manhattans to be sold, and, by an unheard of stratagem, hath made himself master of, and appropriated, not only the aforesaid ship and goods, but also the proceeds of the aforesaid houses and lots.— TV. Y. Col. Docs., I: 528-9.
Hendrick Jansen vander Vin bought the Kuyter house from the burgomasters at public sale, January 12, 1658. The deed, recorded February 14th, of that year {Liber Deeds, A: 120), recites that "the Orphan Masters . . . have not been pleased to regulate the estate of Jochem Pietersen Cuyter and Leentje Mettens [Martens] his late wife both of whom have been killed by the Indians."
Stuyvesant, in November, 1655, urged the burgomasters to have an inventory taken of the lands, houses, and other effects of Kuyter and his wife, "so that his Honor as well as the other private creditors may obtain justice." — Rec. N. Am., I: 396. Willem Jansen, Lyntje Martensen's second husband, was ordered "to place the property in the hands of the Commissioners." — Ibid., I: 411. Evidently, the delay in selling the property was aused by questions of jurisdiction — the orphan-masters versus the burgomasters; there were no children's interests to be considered. Jochem Pietersen Kuyter has been briefly referred to in the description of the Manatus Maps, under No. 42.
On the 26th of March, 1658, Vander Vin was notified that 2 feet and 3 inches of ground had been left between the Kuyter house and the Sibout Claessen house (No. 2): that he might take possession of it by paying for it, and that arbiters were appointed to value the gangway, "which valuation he Vander Vin shall make good to the owner, Cornells Melein." The director-general further decided that "it must be built on and no passage be left." — Rec. N. Am., II: 365.
Vander Vin had already agreed to buy this lot, and, on April 26, 1658, he asks that it "may be endorsed on the back of the deed; Whereupon it is ordered, that the building be proceeded with and the piece of the lot on the back of the deed shall be signed as soon as the heirs [Melyn's] shall come." — Rec. N. Am., VII: 186. This entry proves that the old Kuyter house had been demolished, and the house shown on the Plan begun, at that date. In May, 1661, Vander Vin asked that the mortgage be discharged and the lot surveyed, at the same time claiming 4^^ feet of the 9 foot alley (shown on the Plan) between himself and Sybout Claessen. — Min. of Orph. Court, II: 92.
Vander Vin was a well-educated man, a good accountant, who had been in the service of the West India Company, in Brazil, as early as 1646. Some fragments of his minutes as clerk to the high council of justice at Maurits Stadt, Pernambuco, are still extant. He came to New Netherland in 1651, returned to Holland, and, in 1653, journeyed once more to New Amsterdam with his wife, Wyntje. — Riker's Hist, of Harlem, 103-4. He must have prospered, for he was taxed 60 florins for the city defenses, in 1655, when Cornells Steenwyck's assessment was but 100 florins. — Rec. N. Am., I: 368. He was chosen as schepen in 1657 {ibid., II: 285), and again in 1659 {ibid., Ill: 29, 43), and was churchwarden in 1658.— /Hi., II: 336, 342.
About 1662, Vander Vin bought at Harlem, where he seems to have taken up his residence, for, in 1663-1664, his former house here had been rented to Master Jacob Hendricksen Varrevanger. — Rec. N. Am., V: 55. In 1665, he exchanged this property with Oloff" Stevensen van Cortlandt for a house and garden on Adam Brouwer's old grant in Block C. — Liber Deeds, B : 63, 64. This was in the rear of houses Nos. 19 and 19a, and the only access to the street was through a passage-way west of No. 19. He, probably, came back to town for a few years, and lived in the house in Block C, for, in the latter part of 1665, he and his wife are noted as "former church members" at Harlem. — Riker's Hist, of Harlem, 246. However, in 1670, the Harlem magistrates engaged Vander Vin as voorleser and schoolmaster, vice Jan La Montagne. He was to receive 400 florins yearly in seawant (about $52.00), a dwelling-house, and 60 loads of firewood. — Ibid., 300. He was made secretary at Harlem, on December 3, 1672, which appointment was confirmed by the order of the new Dutch government, in August, 1673. — Ibid., 318; Rec. N. Am., VI: 400. These two positions he held until his death, in 1684. — Riker's Hist, of Harlem, 582.
In 1676, Vander Vin represented that his house had become unfit to live in. It was resolved to move him into the school-house or church for the winter, after it had been made suitable for him to live in by putting in a bedstead, chimney, and mantel, and making the door and windows tight. It was decided at the same time to repair his old house by the following spring. — Ibid., ^74..
Such worldly aff"airs did not much worry the good soul: his mind and heart were otherwise occupied. As Riker says, no doubt correctly, the Labadists meant Vander Vin, and not Waldron, when they spoke of meeting a settler at Harlem "who had formerly lived at Brazil and whose heart was still full of it." He had lived there at an exciting period in the history of the Dutch occupation, and although he was not a very aged man, having been born about 1615, according to a deposition made by him in 1665, in Rec. N. Am., V: 261, still, his life had become so placid and gentle that he may well be forgiven for glorying in his youthful days of adventure.
Mr. Riker, who edited Vander Vin's records, says of him:
As he lives in the work of his pen, Vander Vin shows his culture, and incidentally his knowledge of Latin and Spanish. He was remarkable for his accuracy, very methodical in small as well as greater matters. . . . He left no family, and his wife had died within a few years.
Vander Vin died late in 1684, in his seventieth year. — Riker's Hist, of Harlem, 441.