Report of Committee on Historical Tablet 7 



J. J. Clute in his Annals of Staten Island (p. 14. 1877) states: 

 " The country was organized into a province, a few settlers were 

 sent out, and a form of government was established, with Peter 

 Minuit at its head as Director; this was in the year 1624. In the 

 same year, and probably in the same ship with Minuit, a number 

 of Walloons arrived and settled upon Staten Island ; this is the 

 first settlement on the Island of which we have any knowledge." 

 (See also Morris i: 26.) The authority for these statements is 

 not given, but probably they were taken from O'Callaghan's His- 

 tory of New Netherland (i: loi. 1846). They are not sup- 

 ported by any substantial evidence. H. R. Stiles in his History 

 of the City of Brooklyn (i : 25. 1869) says: "The statement so 

 often reiterated by our local writers, and even by the historians 

 of our State, that some of the Walloon emigrants of 1623 settled 

 first at Staten Island (O'Callaghan Hist, i : loi) and afterwards 

 as early as 1624-5 at the ' Waal-bogt' (Brodhead i : 153, 154) is 

 entirely unsupported by documentary or other reliable evidence. 

 It seems to have originated in faulty traditions and is a misappre- 

 hension of an ancient record relating to the daughter of Rapalje, 

 the first settler in the ' Bogt.' " 



In O'Callaghan's Register of New Netherland we find: " 1624. 

 Cornelis Jacobsen May, Director" [of New Netherland, of which 

 Staten Island was a part]. Later critical investigation has fur- 

 nished the date 1626 for the settlement of " Manhates " and the 

 establishment of government there. (See Rep. N. Y. Commer- 

 cial Tercent. Com. 80. 1914.) As contemporary accounts show 

 that Staten Island was first colonized in 1639 (10) it could hardly 

 have had, in 1624, local government in the sense we understand it, 

 that is, some form of government of and by people on Staten 

 Island. It is possible that Patroon Melyn, who had large power 

 over his colonists as patroon, had some form of government over 

 his few farmer colonists. We read that he established a Manorial 

 Court in 1650 on Staten Island (13) ; also that in 1655, in City 

 Hall, New Amsterdam, " Def*. appeals to his competent Judge on 

 Staten Island" (14). 



