1655
Former resident Adriaen van der Donk's A Description of New Netherland.
Apr 26
The Dutch West India Company rules that Jews be allowed to remain in
New Amsterdam.
Manhattan tavern keeper Wolfert Webber accuses neighbor Judith Verleth - and her sister Susan - of appearing at his business and beating him, as a result of their court case last year. The Verleths claim it was Webber that appeared at their place and attacked them. Both parties are told to return the next day with proof of their accusations.
Jun 29
Apparently Webber is found to be playing with the truth, as he’s ordered to pay a $12
stiver fine for fulminating lies in court.
The Dutch from New Amsterdam, under Peter Stuyvesant and a force of
600-some men oust the Swedish settlersin the Delaware River Valley,
capturing Fort Christina and Fort Casimir from New Sweden governor Rysingh.
Sep 15
Several thousand Hudson River area Indians go on a three-day rampage
in the city, as well as on Staten Island and in New Jersey (triggered by
the killing of a Wappinger Indian woman who took a peach from one
of the Dutch orchards) - the Peach War. Over a hundred Dutch settlers
are killed; more than 150 kidnapped. Many homes are ransacked.
City
The city is surveyed and its streets are straightened. ** Lady Deborah
Moody is allowed to vote in town meeting. ** Stuyvesant denies Jews
the right to serve in the military. ** Orphans and other poor children
arrive from the Netherlands, in an effort to boost population. **
The approximate date Nicholas Jansz Visscher publishes a map of New
Netherland, correcting the 1650 map (until 1988 assumed to be dated
1651) by Jan Jansson. Son Nicholas probably inserts an etched view of
New Amsterdam into his father's previously published map. ** The first
African slaves arrive in the city. ** The Burgomasters name Dick Van
Schelluyne the first High Constable. Ludowyck Post is named Captain
to the Burgher Provost, in charge of police rounds. ** Reformed Protestant
Dutch minister the Reverend Johannes Megapolensis writes to the Classis
congregations in Holland, expressing his fears that the recently-arrived
Jews might chose to remain in New Amsterdam. ** The citys' first Jewish
cemetery is established (site now unknown). ** Jewish immigrant Abraham
de Lucena, ancestor of the city’s Nathan family, arrives. ** Stone Street
is named as it becomes the city's first paved street, laid with
cobblestones.
Brooklyn
The local Canarsie Indians are wiped out by the Mohawks. ** The Dutch
East Indies Company grants a monopoly on salt manufacturing at Gravesend
to merchant Dick de Wolf. Local farmers destroy the saltworks and threaten
De Wolf and his foreman. Stuyvesant, ordered to send soldiers to restore the
salt works, delays several months. ** New Utrech founder Cornelius van
Werckhoven dies. His children’s tutor Jacques Cortelyou takes over the
colony, which now numbers 18 settlers.
1656
Jun 24
Lower Manhattan innkeeper Jan Vinje catches young Jacob Clasen and some friends
stomping around his pea patch. Vinje spanks the boy.
Jun 26
Vinje sues the boy’s father, schoolmaster Frans Clasen for damages. The court assigns
arbitrators to draw up a report.
Jul 10
When the arbitraor's report is read the court decides that since Vinje had already beaten the boy
he is owed no further recompense.
City
Governor Pieter Stuyvesant has the first map of the city made and sent
to the Netherlands. He grants the future Jamaica land on Long Island to
the English. The West India Trading Company complains that the
streets are too broad. The first census is also made. It shows 120 houses
and about 1,000 inhabitants. ** Brewer Michiel Jansen sinks a well in
Bevers Graacht and opens a tavern, after his previous business in
Pavonia (today’s Jersey City, New Jersey) was burned by Indians last year.
** A market stand is built at Broadway and Battery Place near the northeast
corner of the fort. ** Thirty-year-old Sarah Rapalje declares
herself, correctly, the "first born christian daughter of New Netherland.
** A bell is hung on top of city hall to be used as a fire alarm, for summoning
magistrates and announcing proclamations. ** Rhode Island Baptist cobbler
William Wickendam arrives to preach the gospel. Sheriff William Haslett puts
his own home at Wickendam’s disposal, all of which enrages Peter Stuyvesant,
who orders the preacher and Willet banished.
Brooklyn
Dutch sea captain Jan Martense Schenck builds a brick-and-lumber house in
Amersfoort (Flatlands, after 1664), from materials imported from Holland,
for himself and his young bride.
1657
Feb 20
New Amsterdam passes an ordinance against depositing trash anywhere other
than near the gallows, near City Hall, or near Hendrick the Baker’s. Violators
will be fined three florins for a first offense, with increasing fines for repeat
offenders. The orders are mostly ignored until fines are levied for dumping in
the canal ditch.
October
A petition, signed by 24 parishioners (including 16 Germans) - to have
Lutheran pastor Johannes Ernestus Gütwasser remain in New Amsterdam
- is circulated. Among the signers is cobbler Jochem Beeckman.
December
After Quaker missionaries arrive from England and Henry Townshend of
Flushing is fined by the Dutch under a new law, for entertaining Quakers,
his neighbors rally, sign the Flushing Remonstrance, declaring for freedom
of religion. They will soon bow to pressure and withdraw their support
for Townshend.
City
The approximate date of construction of Peter Stuyvesant's mansion,
Whitehall, in lower Manhattan. ** Thatched roofs are prohibited, as a
fire safety measure. ** The approximate year Stone Street is built,
between Broad Street and Hanover Square. ** Following the mother
country's much earlier example, the right of the burgher class
(Burgher-recht) to engage in professions or crafts, is introduced in the city.
** The West India Company sends Stuyvesant silkworm egss but they have
rotted during the voyage. He's later instructed to borrow worms from
the English but ignores the order, saying the trees will be difficult to
cultivate. ** Stuyvesant grants Jacques Cortelyou and other settlers
permission to found New Utrecht, in Brooklyn’s future Fort Hamilton area.
1658
Jan 25
Stuyvesant bans tennis during church service hours and also prohibits
“pulling the goose.”
March
Stuyvesant establishes the town of Nieuw Harrlem, in the northern half
of Manhattan, on land first developed by brothers Isaac and Henry DeForrest.
Aug 12
New Amsterdam gets its first police force — the eight-man Ratelwacht
(Burgher Guard, or rattle watch), using rattles rather than whistles.
City
The council bans kolven, a forerunner of golf. ** The council outlaws
privies with street level outlets. The order is pretty much ignored.
** Failing to sustain a ban on loose pigs in the street the council orders
them at least ringed through the nose, to make them easier to catch.
** The city considers digging a public well north of the wall; nothing
is done. ** Dutch immigrant Gerritt Remmersen arrives in Amersfoort
(Gravesend, Brooklyn) Long Island. ** A new schoolhouse is built.
1659
City
Alexander Carolus Curtius (Cursier) opens a Latin School, the first
in the city. ** The city orders 100,000 bricks and 12,000 tiles from
Holland. ** More orphans and other poor children arrive from the
Netherlands. ** Merchant-poet Jacob Steendam describes Manhattan’s
waters. ** Willem Gerritsen, his wife Mary, and two sons, Willem, 8, and
Cornelius, 3, arrive in Amersfoort (Flatlands, Brooklyn) Long Island,
from Bermuda. **
City
The approximate year London-born Deborah Dunch (later Lady Moody), the first female landowner in the New World, dies, possibly at Gravesend, Brooklyn, in her early seventies. She may be buried in the old (now landmarked) cemetery there in an unmarked grave.
State
Under 500 Metoac Indians remain on Long Island.
England
Howell's English Proverbs refers to the wisdom of the men of “Gotham”.
© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte
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