New York State Library History Bulletin 10 EARLY RECORDS OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF ALBANY AND COLONY OF RENSSELAERSWYCK Volume 3 (Notarial Papers 1 and 2, 1660-1696) TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL DUTCH BY JONATHAN PEARSON LATE PROFESSOR OF NATURAL PHILOSOPHY IN UNION COLLEGE REVISED AND EDITED BY A. J. F. VAN LAER Archivist, Division of Archives and History ALBANY THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK R THE NEW YORK IRLIC LIBRARY 811818 OR, LENCX AND I..DEN FOUNDATIONS 1919 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Regents of the University 1926 PLINY T. SEXTON LL,B. LL.D. Chancellor........ Palmyra 1927 ALBERT VANDER VEER M.D. M.A. Ph.D. LL.D 1922 CHESTER S. LORD M.A. LL.D.... Vice Chancellor Albany 1930 WILLIAM NOTTINGHAM M.A. Ph.D. LL.D. 1923 ABRAM I. ELKUS LL.B. D.C.L. LL.D... 1924 ADELBERT MOOT LL.D... ...Brooklyn. Mount Kisco . Buffalo 1925 CHARLES B. ALEXANDER M.A. LL.B. LL.D. Litt.D... Tuxedo 1919 JOHN MOORE LL.D... . . . 1928 WALTER GUEST KELLOGG B.A. LL.D.. 1929 HERBERT L. BRIDGMAN M.A... President of the University and Con missioner of Eaucai.on JOHN H. FINLEY M.A LL.D L.H.D ..Elmira Ogdensburg New York . Brooklyn Deputy Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner for Elementary Education Assistant Commissioner and Director of Professional Education AUGUSTUS S. DOWNING M.A. L.H.D. LL.D Assistant Commissioner for Secondary Education Director of State Library JAMES I. WYER, JR, M.L.S. Director of Science and State Museum JOHN M. CLARKE D.Sc. LL.D. Chiefs and Directors of Divisions Administration, HIRAM C. CASE Agricultural and Industrial Education, LEWIS A. WILSON Attendance, JAMES D. SULLIVAN Educational Extension, WILLIAM R. WATSON B.S. Examinations and Inspections, GEORGE M. WILEY M.A. Law, FRANK B. GILBERT B.A., Counsel Library School, FRANK K. WALTER M.A. M.L.S. School Buildings and Grounds, FRANK H. WOOD M.A. School Libraries, SHERMAN WILLIAMS Pd.D. Visual Instruction, ALFRED W. ABRAMS Ph.B. PREFACE The two volumes of Notarial Papers in the Albany county clerk's office which are published herewith belong to a class of records of which, considering the number of Dutch notaries who are known to have practised their profession in this State, comparatively little has been preserved. Corresponding in character to the well-known registers of notaries Salomon La Chair and Walewyn van der Veen in New York City,' these Notarial Papers consist of the originals, or "minutes," of a variety of legal instruments, such as bonds, powers of attorney, contracts and bills of sale, indentures of service, assignments, leases, wills, marriage settlements and inventories of estates, which were executed before notaries Dirck van Schelluyne, Adriaen Jansen van Ilpendam and Jan Juriaensen Becker. Of the first of these notaries, Dirck van Schelluyne, who practised his profession at Beverwyck from his arrival as secretary of the colony of Rensselaerswyck in 1660 till his appointment as secretary of Albany in 1665, and again after the expiration of his term of office in 1668, there are four distinct registers, or "protocols," which together cover the period from August 17, 1660, to December 4, 1664. Of Adriaen van Ilpendam, who was apparently first admitted as a notary in 1669 and who exercised his functions till his death in 1686, there is a practically complete record extending from July 12, 1669, to February 23, 1686, while of the third notary, Jan Becker, who was appointed on November 1, 1669, and who died shortly before November 25, 1698, there are a few isolated documents ranging in date from April 2, 1685, to July 23, 1690. In addition to these records, there are copies of seven private letters of van Ipendam and a few miscellaneous papers varying in date from February 25, 1667, to November 1, 1696, which, strictly speaking, March 7, do not belong in the volumes. Leaving these last mentioned papers out of account, the Notarial Papers embrace a period of thirty years, during which the province changed from Dutch to English, from English to Dutch and again from Dutch to English control. During all these years, and notwithstanding the repeated 1 These registers run from January 20, 1661, to October 11, 1662, and from May 20, 1662, to June 1664, and are published in calendar form in Holland Society of New York, Year Book, 1900, 13: 129-58. A full translation of the register of Walewyn van der Veen is printed in Minutes of the Orphan Masters, edited by Berthold Fernow, N. Y. 1907, 2:15-72. |