I20 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



October 1679. They found at Old Town seven frame houses, 

 three only of which were occupied, the others having been aban- 

 doned. They mention Walloons, but no Waldenses, and state 

 that the people of the island had no church and no minister (51). 



In 1680 Jacques Guy on married Sarah, daughter of Philippe 

 easier, of Harlem, and Marie Taine his wife (52). Sarah is 

 said to have been much younger than her husband. On May 3 

 of the same year Jacques made his will, which, written in Dutch, 

 is hard to decipher, ibut which seems to indicate that he and his 

 wife Sarah appeared before Notary William Bogardus and de- 

 clared their will to be that the survivor should have all of the 

 estate (53). 



Jacques Guy on, on April 18, 1692, mortgaged his plantation to 

 Paulus Richards, a wealthy and influential resident of New York 

 City, to secure a loan of £96. 10. o. (54). While the value of 

 the pound "current money of the Province of New York" was 

 only half that of the pound sterling, gold in the reign of Charles I 

 and probably for a long time thereafter had more than five times 

 its present purchasing power (55). It may be that this money 

 was borrowed for the purpose of building the Guyon House. 



The will of Jacques Guyon was proved on December i, 1694, 

 and his widow Sarah duly qualified as executrix. Sarah must 

 have been a competent woman, for in 1699 she paid the mortgage 

 given to Paulus Richards, and seems to have held possession of 

 the property until after 1703, for land adjoining her plantation on 

 the north was granted by patent in 1702 to Joseph Billopp and 

 Abraham Lakeman (56), the description beginning "at a large 

 Black Oak . . . standing near the corner of Sarah D. Youins 

 land," and in 1703 the south thirty acres of the Billopp and Lake- 

 man patent were conveyed to Hanse Lawrence (57), the descrip- 

 tion beginning " at the northwest corner of Widow De Young's 

 land." Dutch and English tongues failed to master the French 

 pronunciation " Gweeyongh," and we frequently find the name 

 Guyon spelled " De Young " or " Jeyoung." 



The law of primogeniture is said to have prevailed in the 



