LENG: ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF STATEN ISLAND 119 
Dutch ministers in this country in 1679, their action being ap- 
proved by the Classis of Amsterdam in 1680. Previously he had 
supplied the church at Kingston, N. Y., and subsequently had 
preached at South River. On Oct. 30, 1682, he wrote: “I am 
going to Staten Island to engage in the ministry there during the 
winter.’ Rev. Henry Selyns, one of those who ordained him, 
wrote Oct. 21, 1683: “he had fixed his thoughts on Staten Is- 
land.” He was called to Schenectady in 1683 but apparently did 
not go there for about three years, for Sep. 20, 1685, Selyns wrote: 
“he was in doubt whether to accept it or not,” and Sep. 9, 1686, 
Rey. Rudolphus Varick wrote: “upon the removal of Dominie 
Tesschenmacker to Schenectady.” 80 acres of land were laid out 
for him on the south side of Staten Island by Philip Welles, sur- 
veyor, Apr. 4, 1685, and his cattlemark is recorded at about 
the same time. All of which facts indicate that he preached on 
Staten Island from 1683 to 1686 and supported himself in part by 
farming. On Feb. 8, 1690, about midnight, after having leit 
Staten Island, “he and most of his church members [in Schenec- 
tady| were surprised by a band of French and Indians, and all 
were massacred. The Dominie’s head was split open (by a 
99 
tomahawk) and his body burned up to the shoulders” according | 
to Selyns’ letter of Sep. 14, 1690, to the Classis. 
There are some indications, I admit not very definite, that the 
first church building on Staten Island -was erected during his min- 
istry. Such would have been a natural result of adding a resident 
pastor to a congregation of fifty or more eager and desirous of 
church and minister as Dankers described them. Morris quotes 
from an unidentified source describing Stony Brook: “ye church 
is small and built of stone ... erected when ye village was 
founded in 1658. Ye preacher discourses in both French and 
English languages.” The date 1658 is, from what we have al- 
ready seen, well nigh impossible, but if meant for 1685, it would 
coincide with Tesschenmacker’s ministry. Mr. Vosburgh has dis- 
covered in Journal of Travels from New Hampshire to Caratuck 
in the Continent of North America, by George Keith, London 
