114 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE ORIGINAL GRANT OF LAND 

 TO JACQUES GUYON 1 



An old stone farmhouse, of dignified proportions and Dutch 

 type (i)^ (plate 2), on the west side of Guy on Avenue, between 

 the Mill Road and the Boulevard, stands on land formerly de- 

 scribed as in the Town of Southfield, County of Richmond and 

 State of New York, the title to which land has come down through 

 seven successive generations. The date of its erection is not 

 known but may be reasonably ascribed to the end of the seven- 

 teenth or early part of the eighteenth century. A brief statement 

 of the important events leading up to the original acquisition of 

 the land may be proper by way of preface. 



The Dutch West India Company, chartered in 1621, granted 

 Hoboken, Ahasimus, and Staten Island to Michael Pauw (2), 

 who, in 1630, established a settlement at Ahasimus (3), but there 

 is nothing to indicate that he attempted any settlement on Staten 

 Island, and in 1637 he surrendered all his rights under the grant 

 to the Company (4). 



The Company next made some concession to Captain David 

 Pietersen de Vries, the latter claiming it to be a grant of the 

 whole of Staten Island, but the former asserting that the grant of 

 a bouwerie only was intended. The first recorded settlement on 

 Staten Island was that begun by de Vries on January 5, 1639 

 (5). This settlement was destroyed by the Indians (6) and all 

 rights of de Vries to land on Staten Island seem to have been 

 abandoned. 



The Company in 1642 granted to Cornelius Melyn all of Staten 

 Island except the bouwerie of de Vries (7). Melyn conveyed 

 an interest therein to Baron Hendrick van der Capellan (8). 

 Successive settlements established by them were destroyed by the 

 Indians, the last in the Peach War of 1655, its ruin being com- 

 plete, for all of the settlers were killed or driven from the island 

 (9). The names of the survivors have been preserved (10). 



2 The numbers (i)-(7o) included in the text on pages 114-123 corre- 

 spond with the marginal numbers in the list of references on pages 128, 129. 



