Lot
C11
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Taxlots
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Property Was Used in 1660 For:
Original Grants and Farms Document(s)
Grant Lot Document(s)
Date Start
1657-07-00
Occupancy Date Notes
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Tax Lot Events
Full Stokes Entry (See images below)
This house, which was almost in the center of the lot on which stands the building now known as No. 42 Broadway, should be of peculiar interest in connection with the Map of the Dutch Grants, for the earliest surveyor-general of the province, Andries Hudde, built it, and lived there at intervals for a dozen years. As Hudde was in New Amsterdam as early as 1629 {N. Y. Col. Docs., I: 81), there can be little doubt that, with the single exception of Kryn Fredericksz., he was the first surveyor in the colony. As such, he, doubtless, laid out the house plots for the citizens, and measured off the early bouweries on Manhattan and on Long Island for the farmers.
Not until July 20, 1638, was a grant given to a settler by the West India Company. This was of Hudde's own farm, originally Hendrick de Forest's, on the flats of Muscoota. — Liber GG: 21 (Albany); description of Manatus Maps, No. 18. The first ground-brief inside the walled city was for a lot at Nos. 82 to 86 Broad Street (see Block E, No. 15), and bore the date November 20, 1642. — Liber GG: 56 (Albany). It was to Jan Pietersen and Abraham Rycken.
Obviously, the town was laid out, its principal streets in existence, and many of its house plots built upon, before the ordinance of June 24, 1638, which provided that patents should be given to the freemen, on payment of a quit-rent of a couple of capons for each house and lot. — Laws y Ord., N. Neth., 16.
To promote regularity, the Company determined that the ground-briefs should be registered. Andries Hudde was accordingly commissioned surveyor, on June 26th, 1642, "at a salary of two hundred guilders, or $80, per annum, with an additional fee of ten shillings per diem, and two stivers per morgen of two acres, besides the payment of his travelling expenses and ferriage." — O'Callaghan's Hist, of N. Neth., I: 259; Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 81.
Under this commission, Hudde prepared, from his notes, proper bills of survey, from which the ground-briefs or patents were drawn, and registered with the secretary. The accuracy of this work is attested by the Map of the Dutch Grants. The city was measured out to inches and grains. The lines laid down in 1642 were found and measured again after the great fire of 1835, by another skilful surveyor, Joseph F. Bridges. Upon the later map, the grants of two hundred years earlier were reconstructed, the lines always agreeing. Many of these early grants were not registered until succeeding years, but, in general, the surveys of this period were, unquestionably, the work of one man.
Andries Hudde was councilor under Van Twiller, in 1633, and acted also as provincial secretary. — Register of N. Neth., 12, 27.
In January, 1639, while on a visit to his native city, Amsterdam, he married Geertruyt Bornstra, the widow of Hendrick de Forest. — Mrs. R. W. de Forest's A Walloon Family in America, II: 357. Mr. and Mrs. Hudde returned to New Amsterdam in July, 1639, only to find that their farm at Harlem had been sold at a vendue in the Fort, for 1,700 guilders, to satisfy a claim of Johannes de la Montagne. This was virtually a foreclosure, which they could have averted had they been in the country. It was a bitter disappointment to Hudde, who had sent out labourers for his tobacco plantation, and had expected to carry out De Forest's plans. For a detailed account of this transaction, seey^ Walloon Family in America, and Riker's Hist, of Harlem, chapters VII, VIII, IX.
The surveyor-generalship offered a living. Hudde and his wife resided in this house on the Highway until the latter part of 1644, when he was ordered to the South River to take charge of the Company's interests. — O'Callaghan's Hist, of N. Neth., I: 371. Before he left, he drew up for the Eight Men their complaint to the Amsterdam Chamber, October, 1644, and "subscribed it with his own hand." — N. Y. Col. Docs., I: 208.
Hudde spent the next ten years at the South River, filling various positions of trust, but his heart was in the north, and, in September, 1645, he bought a farm on Long Island. — Liber GG: 118 (Albany).
In 1648, he was back at Manhattan for a short time. During 1652, 1653 and 1654, he seems to have lived in New Amsterdam. On the 3rd of December, 1654, he asked permission to keep a school here, which was referred to the ministers and consistory of the church. — Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 144. As this petition is coincident with David Provoost's departure for Breuckelen, Hudde may have expected to take over his scholars. But, like so many of his ventures, the school, if ever started, evidently proved a failure. In December, 1655, he started again for the South River, mortgaging his land on Long Island for expenses, and his house at the South River to secure a debt to Govert Loockermans. — Schepen Register, in Hoi. Soc. Year Book, 1900, p. 159.
Hudde's spirit seems to have been broken by his failures. Vice-Director Alrichs spoke slightingly of his attainments, both as a clerk and as a surveyor, in August, 1657, when he hired him at the meagre salary of 30 guilders a month, with rations. — N. Y. Col. Docs., II: 18.
In June, 1660, he asked "some appointment at the South river," and the clerkship of Altona was given him. — Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 212. A letter from Willem Beeckman to Director Stuyvesant, dated November 15, 1663, gives a pathetic picture of the sad ending of the life of a man of education and probity, who had served the Company for thirty-four years with little profit to himself:
I have been obliged to discharge Mr. Andries Hudde on the last of October on his continued solicitations and lamentations to go to Maryland. He went with his family to Apoquenamingh on the first of November and died there of a violent fever on the 4'!* — A^. Y. Col. Docs., XII: 446.
Appoquinimy was in the present state of Delaware, so Hudde never reached his destination in Maryland. — Ibid., I: 8 in.
On his last departure from New Amsterdam, in December, 1655, Hudde sold his house to Aert Willemsen, who had been foreman on Van Twiller's bouwery, in 1640-41 {Fan Rensselaer Bowier MSS., 490, 513), but was then a brewer. — Rec. N. Am., I: 374. The deed was not recorded until April 19, 1667, when Isaac de Foreest, representing Hudde's estate, delivered it to Weyntje Elbers, Willemsen's widow. — Liber Deeds, B: 127. The brewer was in possession, however, by 1656. — Mortgages, 1654-1660, trans, by O'Callaghan, 50. He was dead by December, 1659. — Rec. N. Am., HI: 83. His widow was confirmed here in June, 1667. — Patents, \\: 46 (Albany).
Not until July 20, 1638, was a grant given to a settler by the West India Company. This was of Hudde's own farm, originally Hendrick de Forest's, on the flats of Muscoota. — Liber GG: 21 (Albany); description of Manatus Maps, No. 18. The first ground-brief inside the walled city was for a lot at Nos. 82 to 86 Broad Street (see Block E, No. 15), and bore the date November 20, 1642. — Liber GG: 56 (Albany). It was to Jan Pietersen and Abraham Rycken.
Obviously, the town was laid out, its principal streets in existence, and many of its house plots built upon, before the ordinance of June 24, 1638, which provided that patents should be given to the freemen, on payment of a quit-rent of a couple of capons for each house and lot. — Laws y Ord., N. Neth., 16.
To promote regularity, the Company determined that the ground-briefs should be registered. Andries Hudde was accordingly commissioned surveyor, on June 26th, 1642, "at a salary of two hundred guilders, or $80, per annum, with an additional fee of ten shillings per diem, and two stivers per morgen of two acres, besides the payment of his travelling expenses and ferriage." — O'Callaghan's Hist, of N. Neth., I: 259; Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 81.
Under this commission, Hudde prepared, from his notes, proper bills of survey, from which the ground-briefs or patents were drawn, and registered with the secretary. The accuracy of this work is attested by the Map of the Dutch Grants. The city was measured out to inches and grains. The lines laid down in 1642 were found and measured again after the great fire of 1835, by another skilful surveyor, Joseph F. Bridges. Upon the later map, the grants of two hundred years earlier were reconstructed, the lines always agreeing. Many of these early grants were not registered until succeeding years, but, in general, the surveys of this period were, unquestionably, the work of one man.
Andries Hudde was councilor under Van Twiller, in 1633, and acted also as provincial secretary. — Register of N. Neth., 12, 27.
In January, 1639, while on a visit to his native city, Amsterdam, he married Geertruyt Bornstra, the widow of Hendrick de Forest. — Mrs. R. W. de Forest's A Walloon Family in America, II: 357. Mr. and Mrs. Hudde returned to New Amsterdam in July, 1639, only to find that their farm at Harlem had been sold at a vendue in the Fort, for 1,700 guilders, to satisfy a claim of Johannes de la Montagne. This was virtually a foreclosure, which they could have averted had they been in the country. It was a bitter disappointment to Hudde, who had sent out labourers for his tobacco plantation, and had expected to carry out De Forest's plans. For a detailed account of this transaction, seey^ Walloon Family in America, and Riker's Hist, of Harlem, chapters VII, VIII, IX.
The surveyor-generalship offered a living. Hudde and his wife resided in this house on the Highway until the latter part of 1644, when he was ordered to the South River to take charge of the Company's interests. — O'Callaghan's Hist, of N. Neth., I: 371. Before he left, he drew up for the Eight Men their complaint to the Amsterdam Chamber, October, 1644, and "subscribed it with his own hand." — N. Y. Col. Docs., I: 208.
Hudde spent the next ten years at the South River, filling various positions of trust, but his heart was in the north, and, in September, 1645, he bought a farm on Long Island. — Liber GG: 118 (Albany).
In 1648, he was back at Manhattan for a short time. During 1652, 1653 and 1654, he seems to have lived in New Amsterdam. On the 3rd of December, 1654, he asked permission to keep a school here, which was referred to the ministers and consistory of the church. — Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 144. As this petition is coincident with David Provoost's departure for Breuckelen, Hudde may have expected to take over his scholars. But, like so many of his ventures, the school, if ever started, evidently proved a failure. In December, 1655, he started again for the South River, mortgaging his land on Long Island for expenses, and his house at the South River to secure a debt to Govert Loockermans. — Schepen Register, in Hoi. Soc. Year Book, 1900, p. 159.
Hudde's spirit seems to have been broken by his failures. Vice-Director Alrichs spoke slightingly of his attainments, both as a clerk and as a surveyor, in August, 1657, when he hired him at the meagre salary of 30 guilders a month, with rations. — N. Y. Col. Docs., II: 18.
In June, 1660, he asked "some appointment at the South river," and the clerkship of Altona was given him. — Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 212. A letter from Willem Beeckman to Director Stuyvesant, dated November 15, 1663, gives a pathetic picture of the sad ending of the life of a man of education and probity, who had served the Company for thirty-four years with little profit to himself:
I have been obliged to discharge Mr. Andries Hudde on the last of October on his continued solicitations and lamentations to go to Maryland. He went with his family to Apoquenamingh on the first of November and died there of a violent fever on the 4'!* — A^. Y. Col. Docs., XII: 446.
Appoquinimy was in the present state of Delaware, so Hudde never reached his destination in Maryland. — Ibid., I: 8 in.
On his last departure from New Amsterdam, in December, 1655, Hudde sold his house to Aert Willemsen, who had been foreman on Van Twiller's bouwery, in 1640-41 {Fan Rensselaer Bowier MSS., 490, 513), but was then a brewer. — Rec. N. Am., I: 374. The deed was not recorded until April 19, 1667, when Isaac de Foreest, representing Hudde's estate, delivered it to Weyntje Elbers, Willemsen's widow. — Liber Deeds, B: 127. The brewer was in possession, however, by 1656. — Mortgages, 1654-1660, trans, by O'Callaghan, 50. He was dead by December, 1659. — Rec. N. Am., HI: 83. His widow was confirmed here in June, 1667. — Patents, \\: 46 (Albany).