Report of Committee on Historical Tablet 41 



Inventory of estate of Nathan Whitman of Staten Island made 

 August 28th, 1679: "A House and land and 4 Erves" joining to 

 the house, and 40 acres of land in the Old Town, 27 acres of land 

 in the Close laid out by the Surveyor, and 8 acres of Bogg 

 meadow, adjacent to the Erves, and 10 acres of meadow at the 

 Great Killes. £75." (Collections of the New York Historical 

 Soc. 1892. Abstract of Wills New York 1 665-1 707 p. 64 from 

 Liber 1-2 Wills p. 259.) 



1698. Part of Paper endorsed "Jacob Melyen's Petition to 

 His Excellcy Richard Earl of Bellomont etc." 



Boston Nov. 30th 1698 [or 99] (a copy). 



" The humble Petition of Jacob Melyen most humbly showeth 

 That yor Petitioners Father Cornelius Melyen by virtue of a 

 Grant from the West India Company of Holland bearing date the 

 Third of July 1640; was Governr & Proprietr of Staten Island in 

 the Province of New York & was confirmed in the Governmt and 

 Propriety thereof by Governr Kieft by a Patent bearing date the 

 19th of June 1642 and was in the quiet Possession and Enjoy- 

 ment of the Governmt and Soyle of the sd Island as his rightfull 

 inheritance, until he with his people [were] driven from thence 

 by the Indians in the year 1643; and he was after that resettled 

 thereon with diverse families, his servants, until another quarril 

 was made at New-Amsterdam (now New York) with the In- 

 dians, Anno 1655 & were then cutt off upon Staten Island, having 

 about twenty psons slain, who were of sd Melyen's Children, 

 Nephews, Servants & Tenants. The Town consisting of about 

 40 houses, which were burnt, & the Goods made plunder ofT, & 

 yo'' petitioners sd father & mother & two sons with all those that 

 survived were taken into a barbarous Captivity by the heathen ; 

 Yor Excellcy's Petitir was one of the Sons who was much 

 wounded, but recovered not without great difficulty." ... (N. Y. 

 Hist. Soc. Coll. 1913. Melyn Papers p. 136.) 



1850-1. From Anthon's Notes made in 1850 and 1851 we ex- 

 tract the following: 



P. 2. " ' Oude Dorp,' so called by its original Dutch settlers. 

 The first plantation there made by De Vries in 1639, had been de- 

 stroyed Sept. 1 641 by the Raritan Indians. All the details may 



1^ Erve, erven, a Dutch term signifying the original village plots, so 

 called, with such other house lots as had been granted or sold for that 

 purpose by the town. (Riker 606. 1881.) 



