PREFACE. Since the second volume of these Collections was issued, a portion of the Dutch records in the county clerk's office has been translated by Prof. Pearson of Union College, and published. The edition was quite small, and being now out of print, the contents of the volume have been incorporated in this work, and are about equally divided between this and the succeeding volume. The value and importance of these records as a portion of the history of Albany, must have an increased appreciation with the lapse of time. They are the oldest public records that have come down to us, and make us acquainted with the names, abodes, and acts of the people that occupied these streets in the earliest times. The amount of labor bestowed upon their translation and annotation can hardly be estimated by the reader. When we consider the uninviting nature of the subject; the illegible condition of the records themselves, and their extent; the necessity of acquiring a language that has become obsolete among us ; the necessary knowledge of individuals whose names are concealed under peculiar pseudonyms, and also of their personal history, requiring many years of patient research and familiarity to identify them; we cannot too highly admire the courage and perseverance that led to the accomplishment of the work; a work which might never again have found one so competent to its performance. It is no small claim upon the gratitude of the descendants of those ancient citizens, that it enables them to identify their ancestors, to know whence they came, and when and where they lived. These particulars will be further elucidated in the next volume by diagrams of the streets, with the dimensions of the lots and the names of their occupants, more than two centuries ago, and their successors down to the present century; forming a very curious directory, which is also the work of Prof. Pearson. The remainder of the volume is made up as usual, of a variety of matters relating to Albany and its immediate vicinity. The Notes from the Newspapers form an interesting chronology of recent events, embracing the years 1865, 1866, and 1867. An unusual number of notable citizens finished their respective missions during those years, of whom sketches are given, and portraits also, when they could be procured. In a few instances the paternity of these articles has been lost, although it has been the intention of the publisher, as they are wholly obtained from the city papers, faithfully to acknowledge the sources from whence they are derived. It is proposed to add another volume to this series, in order to complete the records of the county herein partially given, and to bring down the annals of the city to the end of the year 1870. In no case is it designed to repeat anything in these volumes, unless by more recent investigations and discoveries much new material has been found, rendering it important to restate the subject. In answer to the question sometimes put, whether this series of Historical Collections is a reprint of the Annals of Albany, it is now distinctly stated that none of these papers have heretofore been printed in either of these works. INTRODUCTION TO ALBANY COUNTY RECORDS. Among the registers kept in the office of the clerk of the county of Albany, seven volumes of the earliest records, viz: three labelled Deeds, two Notarial Papers, one Mortgages, and one Wills, are wholly or in part written in the Dutch language, and contain a variety of papersdeeds, bonds, mortgages contracts, wills, vendue sales, inventories of personal estates, marriage contracts, proposals and sales of the slaughter, and of the wine and beer excise, leases, affidavits, indentures of apprenticeship, powers of attorney, correspondence with the governor and council, proceedings of Indian councils, in a word, records of all such formal transactions as were usually drawn up by and acknowledged before the chief officer of Fort Orange, or the secretary of the village of Beverwyk. All these are original papers bearing the autograph signatures of the parties concerned, such being the custom of the Dutch, whose statutes were based on the civil or Roman law. This custom continued many years after the Dutch West India Company ceased to bear rule over the province of New Netherland. The earliest registers were simply quires stitched together, which at a later date were gathered up by some one ignorant of the language, and bound and labelled regardless of dates or subjects." The records contained in this and the succeeding volume are a translation of all the papers bound in the two volumes labelled Deeds A and B. These documents are of a miscellaneous character, ranging in date from 1654 to 1678, and are in the handwriting of the following officers: JOHANNES DYCKMAN appointed commies,* in 1651, held the office till July, 1655, when he was incapacitated by insanity. His earliest records extant begin August 19, 1654, and end July 7, 1655. They comprise nearly one hundred and fifty pages of volume B, and are a severe trial to the patience of any one who tries to decypher them, some portions being quite illegible. JOHAN DE DECKERE was appointed to succeed officer Dyckman, the 21st of June, 1655; his first official act is recorded on July 7th, following, and the last on the 6th of July, 1656. He was evidently an officer of good capacity and spirit. His correspondence with Governor Stuyvesant, shows clearly that his office was anything but a sinecure. JOHANNES DE LA MONTAGNE received his appointment as vice director and commies the 28th of September, 1656; his first official act was recorded 12th of October, following, the last on the 24th of October, 1664. He was accompanied by Johannes Provoost in the capacity of clerk, in whose beautiful handwriting the register was mostly kept during his administration A portion of his record, from 17th of December, 1657, to 16th of July, 1659, are unfortunately missing. JOHANNES PROVOOST served as secretary of Albany, Čolonie of Rensselaerswyk and Schenetady, from the 12th of November, 1661, to the Sth of August, 1665, when he was succeeded by DIRK VAN SCHELLUYNE, who came to Beverwyk, in 1660, in the capacity of notary public. His first official act as secretary is dated September 10, 1665, and his last the 9th of August, 1668. LUDOVICUS COBES followed him in the same office on the 5th of September, 1668, and continued until the 24th of October, 1673, when JOHANNES PROVOOST was reinstated and held the office until the 11th of August, 1675. ROBERT LIVINGSTON became secretary of Albany, September, 1675, and held the office till 1721, when he resigned in favor of his son Philip. In addition to the above officers Adrian Van Ilpendam acted as notary public in Albany from the 16th of August, 1669, to the 12th of November, 1685, his official acts being recorded in the volumes entitled Notarial Papers. These papers now first translated contain the oldest public records extant relating to the city and county of Albany. Hitherto they have been sealed books. Until the year 1865 they were not even included in the indexes of the oflice; and only now and then a curious antiquarian had patience to bring to light their hidden contents. If they have no other value to the legal profession, the informal methods of conveying and pledging real and personal property, afford an interesting view of the simplicity of those times. The local historian will find the facts here recorded in many cases new. The many curious customs long since disused, and the habits and manners of a rude, border community, are clearly portrayed; and inasmuch as the earliest church registers before 1683 are lost, these records furnish in many cases the only authentic facts respecting the first settlers of Albany and the upper Hudson. There is scarcely a Dutch family in this region, the names of whose original ancestors from Fatherland may not be found here written (if the record be rightly interpreted), often hundreds of times and in various and interesting business relations. The right interpretation of these names, however, is a matter of considerable difficulty, only to be acquired after great familiarity with the writings in which they occur. This difficulty arises mainly from the constant disuse of surnames, a custom brought from Fatherland and practiced here more or less, a hundred years after the settlement of the country. Thus the original ancestors of the family of Schuyler were Philip and David Pieterse, brothers; of Douw, Volkert Janse; of Wendell, Evert Janse; of Vander Poel. Wynant Gerritse; of Hun, Harmen Tomase; of Van Buren, Cornelis Maasen; of Visscher, Harmen Bastiaense; of Van Benthuysen, Paulus Martense; of Vosburgh, Pieter Jacobse; of Van Schaick, Goosen Gerritse; of Groesbeeck, Willem Claase, etc. * Commies may usually be translated clerk, but here it signifies the chief officer of Fort Orange, |