Lenc: EcciesiAstTicAL History oF STATEN ISLAND 123 
further as I am already beyond the end of the 17th century. 
Those in erested will find its history told in tte article already 
mentioned, written by Bishop Burch. 
We come now to the story of the Dutch Reformed Church at 
Port Richmond. Following the departure of Tesschenmacker in 
1686, the, Dutch people became as we have seen an important part 
of the French congregation to which Van den Bosch and Daillée 
preached and over which de Bonrepos presided after 1693. The 
next step in their history, as Mr. Delavan has heretofore shown, 
is a lease in 1696 for 50 years to the Dutch congregation of land 
at Richmond. Next in 1700 is recorded a sale of the voorlezer’s 
house with consent of the congregation (the house being at Rich- 
mond) and a deed to the congregation of a piece of land 30x40 
from Daniel Shotwell to build a church. This deed contains a 
condition: “ provided that no person or persons shall live in the 
said church which if the said congregation of the Dutch shall pre- 
sume to put any person therein then this my gift be void.” The 
location of this 30x40 ft. is uncertain; the description in the deed 
starts at a tree, but from Shotwell’s having at the time owned land 
néar what is now Merrell Avenue, Bulls Head, it is surmised that 
it may have been there. 
Wherever its location, the facts clearly show the separation 
of the Dutch congregation from the French in 1696. Apart from 
the difference in language, the increasing Dutch population on the 
north shore had become a factor. The map accompanying the 
survey of the Coursen patent in 1680 by Ryder, shows five houses 
at what is now Port Richmond. The report of road commis- 
sioners in 1704 shows the burying ground that now surrounds the 
Dutch Reformed Church to have been then already in existence. 
I believe another factor of prime importance was Rev. William 
-Bertholf. He was born in Holland in Feb. 1656 and appears from 
a reference to him by Varick to have been originally a cooper at 
Sluys. Prior to 1693 he was voorlezer at Bergen, in that year 
he was ordained and became pastor at Hackensack and Passaic 
but also instrumental in aiding congregations elsewhere including 
_ Staten Island. .Variously described in the records as Rev. Guil- 
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