Lot: P5 (Taxlots)

Lot
P5
Lot Group
Taxlots
Property Was Used in 1660 For:
Related Ancestors:
Full Stokes Entry (See images below)
The property, at the period of the Plan, of Charles Bridges, who was an Englishman, although known to his Dutch neighbours as Carel van Brugge. Bridges, a native of Canterbury, married, in November, 1647, Sarah, the daughter of Thomas Cornell, of Cornell's Neck, Westchester. She was at the time the widow of Thomas Willett, a soldier in the West India Company's service, to whom she had been married in 1643. — Marriages in Ref. Dutch Ch., 14; Rec. N. Am., II: iih.

These premises came to Bridges as the property of Sarah, whose first husband had, on July 4, 1645, secured the ground-brief for a large plot lying between the Strand and the Hoogh Straet. — Patents, II: 47 (Albany); see Key to Map of Dutch Grants.

Prior to the 8th of April, 1656, Van Brugge's grounds rose steeply from the narrow lane between his property and the City Hall. After court proceedings for that day were over, "at or just after the adjournment or rising of the Bench," the schout, burgomasters, and schepens ordered Care! van Brugge, for "the good of this City," to let the Court Messenger "take without any hindrance, from the Hill before his lot, lying next the City Hall as much earth as shall be required for filling in before the City Hall." — Rec. N. Am., II: 85.

The line of dots on the Plan, defining the old lane and meeting Van Brugge's fence on the Strand, indicates the extent of this levelling. George Wolsey's house (No. i, supra) was afterward built on the site of the knoll which had been so removed.

In 1639, Charles Bridges came to New Amsterdam from the West Indies, but returned thither to become a member of council and commissary at Curasao, under Stuyvesant; the latter brought him back to New Amsterdam when he assumed the directorship, in 1647. Bridges became commissary at Fort Orange in November of that year, and commissary of the provincial accounts in 1651; he was provincial secretary and vendue-masterin 1652-53. — Rec. N. Am., I: 66; II: iim.

On December 3 1, 1656, he was one of three commissioners who went in a small boat up the East River, through Hell Gate, to Eastchester (Oostdorp), under the pilotage of Claes Bordingh, taking with them the appointments of the magistrates made by Stuyvesant and his council, to whom they were to administer the oath of allegiance. His co-commissioners on this mission were Captain Brian Newton and Secretary Van Ruyven. The errand was highly successful, and the three delegates returned to New Amsterdam on the first day of the New Year. — Doc. Hist. N. Y., Svo. ed., 921.

Bridges was one of the patentees of Flushing, L. I., and did much to develop this and the adjoining towns. He became van Brugge again after the surrender of 1673 to Colve, and, because of his excellent knowledge of the languages and his position in both good Dutch and English circles, he was appointed clerk of the five English towns on Long Island. — • Rec. N. Am., II: ii«.

He died at Flushing, in August, 1682. — Idem. Sarah Cornell survived him, and married, April 16, 1692, "a lunatic son of John Lawrence" — the matter being later referred to the Prerogative Court. — Cal. Coun. Min., 71.

Carel van Brugge did not, as has been asserted, build his own house on the High or Stone Street.

The homestead plot, 36 feet wide, remained in the Willett family until 1783, when John Willet sold it to John B. Coles. — Liher Deeds, XLIV: 484. Carel van Brugge had acquired only a life interest by his marriage with Mrs. Willett.

Nos. 3, 4, and 5 also belonged to the Willett estate. In 1717, when Jacob De Key and his wife, Sarah (Willett) De Key, sold their inheritance to Samuell Bayard {Liber Deeds, XXXI: i), the rest of the property still belonged to Richard and Thomas Willett.

Site of house No. yj, and part of No. 79, Pearl Street.