sufficient Court.] and that there shall or maie be held upon every last Wednesday in Hillary, Easter, Trinity, and Michas termes respectivelie for ever, one greate, generall, and solempe Assemblie, which foure Generall Assemblies shalbe stiled and called the Foure Greate and Generall Courts of the saide Company: In all and every or any of which saide Greate and Generall Courts soe assembled, WEE DOE . . graunte That the Governor, or, in his absence, the Deputie Governor. and such of the Assistants and freemen . . . as shalbe present, or the greater nomber of them soe assembled, whereof the Governor or Deputie Governor and six of the Assistants, at the least to be seaven, shall have full power and authoritie to choose, nominate, and appointe such and soe many others as they shall thinke fitt, and that shall be willing to accept the same, to be free of the said Company and Body, and them into the same to admitt, and to elect and constitute such officers as they shall thinke fitt and requisite for the ordering, mannaging, and dispatching of the affaires of the saide Governor and Company. . . . And wee doe . . . ordeyne, That yearely once in the yeare for ever hereafter, namely, the last Wednesday in Easter tearme yearely, the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Assistants . . ., and all other officers of the saide Company, shalbe, in the General Court or Assembly to be held for that day or tyme, newly chosen for the yeare ensueing by such greater parte of the said Company for the tyme being, then and there present, as is aforesaide. . . . AND wee doe... graunt . . ., That it shall . . . be lawfull to and for the Governor or Deputie Governor and such of the Assistants and Freemen of the said Company . . . as shalbe assembled in any of their Generall Courts aforesaide, or in any other Courtes to be specially summoned and assembled for that purpose, or the greater parte of them, (whereof the Governor or Deputie Governor and six of the Assistants, to be alwaies seaven), from tyme to tyme to make, ordeine, and establishe all manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, lawes, statutes, and ordinances, directions, and instructions not contrarie to the lawes of this our realme of England, aswell for setling of the formes and ceremonies of government and magistracy fitt and necessary for the said plantation and the inhabitants there, and for nameing and stiling of all sortes of officers, both superior and inferior, which they shall finde neede

full for that governement and plantation, and the distinguishing and setting forth of the severall duties, powers, and lymytts of every such office and place, and the formes of such oathes warrantable by the lawes and statutes of this our realme of England as shalbe respectivelie ministred unto them, for the execution of the said severall offices and places, as also for the disposing and ordering of the elections of such of the said officers as shalbe annuall, and of such others as shalbe to succeede in case of death or removeall, and ministring the said oathes to the newe elected officers, and for impositions of lawfull fynes, mulcts, imprisonment, or other lawfull correction, according to the course of other corporations in this our realme of England, and for the directing, ruling, and disposeing of all other matters and thinges whereby our said people, inhabitants there, maie be soe religiously, peaceablie, and civilly governed, as their good life and orderlie conversation maie wynn and incite the natives of [that] country to the knowledg and obedience of the onlie true God and Savior of mankinde, and the Christian fayth, which, in our royall intention and the adventurers free profession, is the principall ende of this plantation. . . . PROVIDED also . . ., That theis presents shall not in any manner enure, or be taken to abridge, barr, or hinder any of our loving subjects whatsoever to use and exercise the trade of fishing upon that coast of New England in America by theis presents mentioned to be graunted. . . .

...

No. 7. Charter of Privileges to Patroons

June 7/17, 1629

THE government of the Dutch West India Company, chartered in 1621, was vested in five chambers, or boards, established in as many Dutch cities, with a board of nineteen for the exercise of general executive powers. Of the chambers, that of Amsterdam was the most important. The region known as New Netherland was not named in the charter, but was included within the jurisdiction of the Company. On the final organization of the Company under the charter, in 1623, New Netherland was made a province, and placed under the immediate control of the Amsterdam chamber. The continued unprofitableness, however, of the trade of New Netherland, except the fur trade, led to a change of policy; and the Charter of Privileges to patroons, drafted in March, 1628, but not adopted by the board of nineteen until June,

1529, was intended to encourage private individuals to establish settlements at various points on the Hudson and Delaware, or North and South, rivers. Numerous grievances, occasioned by friction between the patroons and the Company, were partially allayed by a new charter in 1640, restricting the area of the grants, and encouraging independent settlement; but the feudal privileges of the patroons were not interfered with. "Many of the old patroon estates long remained undivided, and the heirs of the founders claimed some semi-feudal privileges well into the nineteenth century."

REFERENCES.

Text in Documents relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, II., 553-557. On the Dutch West India Company, see O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland; the charter of 1621 is in Hazard's Historical Collections, I., 121-131.

FREEDOMS AND EXEMPTIONS

GRANTED BY THE BOARD OF THE NINETEEN OF THE INCORPORATED WEST INDIA COMPANY, TO ALL PATROONS, MASTERS OR PRIVATE PERSONS WHO WILL PLANT COLONIES IN NEW NETHERLAND

*

*

*

*

*

III. All such shall be acknowledged Patroons of New Netherland who shall, within the space of four years next after they have given notice to any of the Chambers of the Company here, or to the Commander or Council there, undertake to plant a Colonie there of fifty souls, upwards of fifteen years old; one-fourth part within one year, and within three years after the sending of the first, making together four years, the remainder, to the full number of fifty persons . . . ; but it is to be observed that the Company reserve the Island of the Manhattes to themselves.

V. The Patroons, by yirtue of their power, shall and may be permitted, at such places as they shall settle their Colonies, to extend their limits four leagues along the shore, that is, on one side of a navigable river, or two leagues on each side of a river, and so far into the country as the situation of the occupiers will permit; provided and conditioned that the Company keep to themselves the lands lying and remaining between the limits of Colonies, to dispose thereof, when and at such time as they shall think proper, in such manner that no person shall be allowed to come within seven or eight leagues of them without their consent, unless the situation of the land thereabout be such that the Com

mander and Council, for good reasons, should order otherwise .; the command of each bay, river or island, of the first settled Colonie, remaining, moreover, under the supreme jurisdiction of their High Mightinesses the States-General and the Company. . .

VI. They shall forever possess and enjoy all the lands lying within the aforesaid limits, together with the fruits, rights, minerals, rivers and fountains thereof; as also the chief command and lower jurisdictions, fishing, fowling and grinding, to the exclusion of all others, to be holden from the Company as a perpetual inheritance, without it ever devolving again to the Company, and in case it should devolve, to be redeemed and repossessed with twenty guilders per Colonie, to be paid to this Company, at the Chamber here or to their Commander there, within a year and six weeks after the same occurs, each at the Chamber where he originally sailed from; and further, no person or persons whatsoever shall be privileged to fish and hunt but the Patroons and such as they shall permit. And in case any one should in time prosper so much as to found one or more cities, he shall have power and authority to establish officers and magistrates there, and to make use of the title of his Colonie, according to his pleasure and to the quality of the persons.

X. The Patroons and colonists shall be privileged to send their people and effects thither, in ships belonging to the Company, provided they take the oath, and pay to the Company for bringing over the people, as mentioned in the first article and for freight of the goods, five per cent, ready money, to be reckoned on the prime cost of the goods here, in which is, however, not to be included such cattle and implements as are necessary for the cultivation and improvement of the lands, which the Company are to carry over without any reward, if there is room in their ships.

*

*

XII. Inasmuch as it is intended to people the Island of the Manhattes first, all fruits and wares that are produced on the lands situate on the North river, and lying thereabout, shall, for the present, be brought there before being sent elsewhere, excepting such as are, from their nature, unnecessary there, or such as cannot, without great loss to the owner thereof, be brought there, in

which case the owners thereof shall be obliged to give timely notice in writing of the difficulty attending the same to the Company here, or the Commander and Council there, that the same may be remedied as the necessity thereof shall be found to require.

XIII. All the Patroons of Colonies in New Netherland, and of Colonies on the Island of Manhattes, shall be at liberty to sail and traffic all along the coast, from Florida to Terra Neuf, provided that they do again return with all such goods as they shall get in trade to the Island of Manhattes, and pay five per cent duty to the Company, in order, if possible, that, after the necessary inventory of the goods shipped be taken, the same may be sent hither. And if it should so happen that they could not return, by contrary streams or otherwise, they shall, in such case, not be permitted to bring such goods to any other place but to these dominions, in order that, under the inspection of the Directors of the place where they may arrive, they may be unladen, an inventory thereof made, and the aforesaid duty of five per cent paid to the Company here, on pain, if they do the contrary, of the forfeiture of their goods so trafficked for, or the real value thereof.

XV. It shall be also free for the aforesaid Patroons to traffic and trade all along the coast of New Netherland and places circumjacent, with such goods as are consumed there, and receive in return for them all sorts of merchandise that may be had there, except beavers, otters, minks, and all sorts of peltry, which trade the Company reserve to themselves. But the same shall be permitted at such places where the Company have no factories, conditioned that such traders shall be obliged to bring all the peltry they can procure to the Island of Manhattes, in case it may be, at any rate, practicable, and there deliver to the Director, to be by him shipped hither with the ships and goods; or, if they should come here without going there, then to give notice thereof to the Company, that a proper account thereof may be taken, in order that they may pay to the Company one guilder for each merchantable beaver and otter skin; the property, risk and all other charges remaining on account of the Patroons or owners. XVI. All coarse wares that the Colonists of the Patroons there