Lot: G4 (Taxlots)

If it were possible to reconstruct the town of 1660, Michiel Tadens's little tavern would fit exactly at the south-west corner of the big eleven story Maritime Building. In its time, after its own fashion, it, too, was a maritime building, for it numbered many seafaring men among its patrons. Its proprietor bought and sold yachts and their equipment, profitably to himself, if not always to the satisfaction of his purchasers. When Anthony van Aalst, who had bought a sail, mizzen-mast, and rigging, from him, wished to "draw back" from the bargain, Tadens averred that "what he bought should be at his own risk"- — that "the sale was final" — and won the suit. — Rec. N. Am., Ill: 145, 150. When Paulus Pietersen left a boat with him to be sold, he had a hard time recovering it through the court; and Tadens's wife beat the boatman's wife "so that the blood followed" and the neighbours were scandalised. — Ibid., IV: 171-2, 179.

In 1661, Tadens sold a well-known yacht, "De Liefde," to Jan Jochemsen Val and Adriaen Symons Baer. — La Chair's Register, in Hoi. Soc. Year Book, 1900, pp. 132, 133. Altogether, he seems to have been an active and successful ship-broker.

A few years before, in July, 1656, Tadens had serious trouble with the authorities, for selling liquor to the Indians; the case was referred by the burgomasters to the directorgeneral and council, who fined Tadens 500 guilders, and banished him from the province. He was later pardoned, on payment of "25 beavers to the Church," and permitted to reside on his Long Island farm. — Rec. N. Am., II: 145; Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 170, 171, 172, 176.

Jan Gerritsen, from Buytenhuysen, a baker, occupied the Tadens house in 1663-1665.