COURT OF BURGOMASTERS

THE MERCY OF THE

COURT OF

91

BURGOMASTERS AND

SCHEPENS (STATE v. JASPER ABRAHAMZEN & HENDRICK JANZEN1) By Lee M. Friedman EVEN as far back as the early Dutch days New York was an attractive port for sea-tossed mariners. The liquor was good, the public houses many, and the people easy going, and inclined to wink, at the ordinary social relaxations with which jolly sailor folk were wont to celebrate the successful ending of a long three months' voyage from the Fatherland. In the good old days of the administration of the Honorable Cornelis Van Tienhoven, in the office of schout,2 New Amsterdam had been famed at home and abroad as a "wide open" town. But the steady -going, solid burghers had demanded a reform. They charged corruption in the police. The Honorable Cornelis was re lieved from service, and left for parts un known. Thereupon "the Commalty, and Burgomasters & Schepens" of New Amster dam all dutifully petitioned the Honorable Peter Stuyvesant, the director general, and the Honorable Council of the New Nether lands for the appointment of some "honor able, learned, and fit, person from among the Burghery, or inhabitants," as sheriff of this city, "to fill the vacancy." It took time, but the reformers were patient. By 1663 the old churchwarden, Pieter Tonneman, was in full swing as schout, and New Amsterdam was no longer a place where the thirsty could tipple after hours, or godless joy run riot unsuppressed. The new order was well established by the April day of 1663 when the good ship The Purmerland Church from Amsterdam dropped anchor in the lower harbor of the city. It had been a long and a hard voy age. The sailors lusted for the land and there was no keeping them aboard until the > 4 R. N. A. 231. J Sheriff.

ship could anchor next morning at the West India Company's dock. The cook, and the boatswain, the carpenter, the sailmaker, the cooper, and each and every sailor man of them all, made for the shore for a jolly night in town. Old Jasper Abrahamzen, the sailmaker, and Hendrick Janzen, the cooper, were even more eager and jollier than the youngsters of the crew. They remembered the good old days long ago which they had spent in little New Amsterdam. With these days in mind, after the fashion of sea folk, they had fed the youngsters of the ship on stories of the joys and attractions they would show them when once again they landed. Dismay and despair, however, were their lot. The taverns had closed for the night. Not a drink, not even supper could they get, and all the time their money was burning holes in their pockets. When they bom barded the inn doors, the virtuous publicans from upper windows sadly warned them to be off. The faint-hearted among them re turned to their ship. The bolder spirits wandered around until hunger drove them back. Finally there were left only Jasper and Hendrick, and in desperation and to save their reputations, as good and true sailor men, they resolved to force the situ ation. "With great violence, force and hostility" they broke into the house of Rendel Huit, and "demanded from, forced and threatened, yea, with a naked knife, the aforesaid Rendel Huit's wife, who was alone in the house, that she should give them to cat and to drink, notwithstanding she gave them for answer, that she had not any such, nor tapped. Wherewith, not being content, they went to the cupboard, and cut food for them