[FN-1] The land or place on the Esopus flat on which the New Village was founded, is now known as Old Hurley Village. It is repeatedly and specifically designated as "The Groot Plat"—"The large tract of land called the New Village"—"The burnt village called the Groot Plat." (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 275, et. seq.) Hurley was given to it by Governor Lovelace in 1669, from his family, who were Barons Hurley of Ireland.
[FN-2] A Dutch rod is twelve feet, which would give this circumference at less than an English half mile. Schoonmaker writes in "History of Kingston": "The average length of the stockade was about thirteen hundred feet, and the width about twelve hundred feet." Substantially, it enclosed a square of about one-quarter of a mile.
[Wildwijk,] Dutch—Wiltwyck, modern—the name given by Governor Stuyvesant, in 1650, to the palisaded village which later became Kingston, and then and later called Sopus, is a composition of Dutch Wild, meaning "Wild, savage," and Wijk, "Retreat, refuge, quarter"; constructively, "A village, fort or refuge from the savages." The claim that the place was so called by Stuyvesant as an acknowledgment of the fact that the land was a gift from the Indians, is a figment. The English came in possession, in 1664, and, in 1669, [FN] changed the early name to Kingston. The Dutch recovered possession in 1673, and changed the name to Swanendale, and the English restored Kingston in 1674. (See Atkarkarton.)
[FN] "On this day (vizt 25th) the towne formerly called Sopez was named Kingston." Date Sept. 25th, 1669. (Col. Hist. N. Y., xiii, 435.)
[Nanoseck,] Manoseck, forms of the name of a small island in Rondout Creek, so "called by the Indians" says the record, may be from Natick Nohōōsik, "Pointed or tapering." The Dutch called it "Little Cupper's Island." Cupper, "One who applies a cupping glass." Another island in the same stream, was "called by the Indians Assinke," that is "Stony land" or place. (See Mattassink.) Another island was called by the Dutch Slypsten Eiland, that is, "Whetstone Island"; probably from the quality of the stone found on it. It lies in the Hudson next to Magdalen Island.
[Wildmeet,] an Indian "house" so called by the Dutch, means, in the Dutch language, "A place of meeting of savages." It was not a palisaded village. It was burned by the Dutch forces in the war of 1660, at which time, the narrative states, some sixty Indians had assembled at or were living in it. Its location, by the late John W. Hasbrouck, at the junction of the Vernoy and Rondout kills, is of doubtful correctness, as is also his statement that it was "The council-house of all the Esopus Indians." Its location was about two (Dutch) miles from Wildwyck, or about six or seven English miles. Judge Schoonmaker wrote: "Supposed to have been located in Marbletown."
[Preumaker's Land,] a tract described as "Lying upon Esopus Kil, within the bounds of Hurley," granted to Venike Rosen, April 1, 1686, was the place of residence of Preumaker, "The oldest and best" of the Esopus sachems, whose life was tragically ended by Dutch soldiers in the war of 1660. The location of his "house" is described as having been "At the second fall of Kit Davits Kil." [FN-1] A creek now bears the name of the sachem, who was a hero if he was a savage.