PDF – Volume 5 – Council Minutes, 1652-1654 translation (scanned book images)

The council minutes document civil and criminal cases, as well as executive and legislative matters over which the Director General and Council of New Netherland had jurisdiction. The minutes constitute a record of ordinances, orders, judgments, writs of appeal, writs of inhibition, appointments, proclamations, instructions, oaths of office, orders on petitions, protests, powers of attorney, proceedings in appeal, summonses, indictments, interrogations, recommendations, sentences, opinions, notices, resolutions, and charters. The minutes also include executive decisions relating to the defense and prosperity of New Netherland, as well as to private cases brought before the director-general and council on appeal from the court decisions of New Amsterdam.

This is the fifth volume of the Dutch Colonial Manuscripts at the New York State Archives and the second of seven volumes in the series Council Minutes. The first volume covers the years 1638-1649, leaving a gap from August of 1649 to January of 1652 between it and the present volume. In the 19th century, E. B. O’Callaghan reorganized the original 49 record books of New Netherland into this series based on document type and time period. The minutes in this volume were translated by Charles Gehring and published in the series New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch in 1983.