[830] Records of New Amsterdam, I, 54; see ibid., 167, 199, 200. It may perhaps be inferred that the couple concluded to release each other; for only seven years after the trial (May 24, 1661) "Annetje Dircks, widow of Pieter Koch," is mentioned; ibid., III, 310; and similar phrase is twice repeated: ibid., 403; IV, 34.
There are other cases. "In 1654 Greetje Waemans produced a marriage ring and two letters, promissory of marriage, and requested that on that evidence Daniel de Silla be 'condemned to legally marry her.' He vainly pleaded his unfortunate habit of some days drinking too much, and that on those days he did much which he regretted; among other things his bacchanalian love-making of Greetje. François Soleil, the New Amsterdam gunsmith, another recreant lover, swore he would rather go away and live with the Indians (a terrible threat) than marry the fair Rose whom he had left to droop neglected—and unmarried."—Earle, Colonial Days in Old New York, 51; and for mention of other cases, in connection with Dutch wedding gifts, see ibid., 52, 53.
[831] J. M. Stearns.
[832] Stiles, History of Brooklyn, I, 233, 234.
The author adds: "So also in the will of John Burrows, of Newton, July 7, 1678, he devises to his son John his then dwelling-house, farm, orchard, out-houses, and lands, etc. 'But not to dispossess my beloved wife during the time of her widowhood. But if she marry, then her husband must provide for her as I have done.' So also the will of Thomas Skillman, of Newton, in 1739."—Ibid., 233, 234.
"Often joint-wills were made by husband and wife, each with equal rights, if survivor. This was peculiarly a Dutch fashion. In Fordham, in 1670 and 1673, Claude de Maistre and his wife Hester du Bois, Pierre Cresson and his wife Rachel Cloos, Gabriel Carboosie and Brieta Walferts, all made joint-wills. The last-named husband in his half of the will enjoined loss of property if Brieta married again. Perhaps he thought there had been enough marrying and giving in marriage already in that family, for Brieta had had three husbands,—a Dane, a Frieslander, and a German,—and his first wife had had four, and he—well, several I guess; and there were a number of children; and you couldn't expect any poor Dutchman to find it easy to make a will in all that confusion. In Albany may be found several joint-wills, among them two dated 1663 and 1676; others in the Schuyler family."—Earle, Colonial Days in Old New York, 54, 55.
[833] Before the vice-director on the Delaware: Fernow, Doc. Rel. to Col. Hist. of N. Y., XII, 149, 150.
Here is a somewhat more elaborate contract in which one party is a widower:
"In the name of the Lord Amen, be it known by the contents of this present instrument, that in the year sixteen hundred and sixty-three the eighteenth day of May, appeared before me, Johannes La Montagne in the service of, etc., Meyndert Frederickse [Smith], widower of the late Cataryna Burger, who declares in the presence of the aforesaid witnesses, that for God's honor he has contracted a future marriage with Pietertien Teunise, spinster (jonge dochter), and before the consummation of the same, he, the subscriber, assents to the following conditions, firstly, that the aforesaid betrothed persons, for the maintenance of said marriage, will collect and bring together, all such existing estates and effects of whatever nature; in whatever place, and with whatever persons, the same may be lying or deposited, nothing excepted, which each now has and posesses, to be by them possesed in common, according to the law of our Fatherland, except that out of the bridegroom's estate, to-wit, from the estate left by Caterina Burger deceased, be reserved the sum of eight hundred guilders payable in beavers, for the children left by her; to wit Frederick Meyndersen aged six years, and Burgert Meyndersen aged three years, being their maternal (matrimonial) inheritance; moreover said married persons shall be holden to bring up said children in the fear of the Lord, to teach them to read and write in the schools, to maintain them in food and clothing till their majority or married state, without diminishing their maternal estate, which the subscriber promises without craft or guile, and for the same binding his person and estate, real and personal, present and future, nothing excepted, subject to all laws and judges." In the presence of the children's guardians and the "orphan master."—Munsell's Collections on the Hist. of Albany, IV, 321. For similar contracts see ibid., 311 (Sept. 23, 1662), 345.
[834] See the charter in New York Colonial Laws, I, 1-5; and compare Cook, "The Mar. Cel. in the Colonies," Atlantic, LXI, 360 ff.