Volume I – Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1638–1642
PDF – Volume 1, Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1638-1642 translation (Published Book Image)
PDF – Volume 1, Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1638-1942 transcriptions (doc’s 95-143 only)
The Secretary of New Netherland was an employee of the Dutch West India Company. He was responsible for recording and authenticating official documents for potential presentation in court. Along with the director general and other councilors, he was also a member of the Provincial Council, the colony’s main governing body.
The Register contains a vast array of legal documents that were filed with the secretary in conjunction with civil and criminal proceedings. Records relating to the administration of real property include deeds, leases, mortgages, indentures, patents, and surveys. Commercial records include contracts, inventories, agreements, accounts, bonds, returns, receipts, bills of sale, certificates, invoices, and charters. Records relating to personal and family matters include powers of attorney, wills, estate inventories, marriage contracts, adoptions, complaints, protests, and counter protests. Documentation of other civil and criminal matters appears in declarations, affidavits, reports, discharges, stipulations, appointments, assignments of claims, notices of appeal, minutes of interviews, mandamuses, manumissions, like bonds, and bequests.
This is the first volume of the Dutch Colonial Manuscripts at the New York State Archives and the first of three volumes in the series Register of the Provincial Secretary. 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. O’Callaghan translated these documents in the mid-nineteenth century, and A. J. F. van Laer undertook a new translation in 1911. His initial work and the original documents burned in the disastrous fire in the New York State Library that year. Van Laer subsequently completed a revised translation based on O’Callaghan’s original that was published in 1974 as Volume I in the New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch series. Van Laer’s transcriptions of documents 95 -143, which were at his home, survived the fire. Those transcriptions are also presented here.
E. B. O'Callaghan
Edmund Bailey O'Callaghan became keeper of historical manuscripts for the state of New York in 1848. In that role, he completed the original translation of the Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1638 - 1642. Prior to his appointment, O'Callaghan led an interesting life as a medical doctor and noteworthy political reformer. Born in Ireland ca. 1797, he immigrated to Lower Canada in 1823, joined the political reform movement of the Parti Patriote, and was subsequently elected to Lower Canada's legislative assembly. In 1837 during the Lower Canada Rebellion, O'Callaghan fled an order of arrest and crossed into the United States. After his arrival in Albany, O'Callaghan contributed to The Northern Light, a journal "Devoted to free discussion, and to the diffusion of useful knowledge, miscellaneous literature, and general intelligence" that was sympathetic to the anti-rent agitation in the area. His interest in the topic compelled him to learn Dutch in order to understand the Patroon's land claims. His linguistic skills subsequently led to his employment with the State of New York. He died in 1880 in New York City.
