New York (State) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775; New York (State) -- Social life and customs -- To 1775
He won one important suit for the town of Gravesend, by which the right
of that town to the entire region of Coney Island was established; and
he received in payment for his legal services therein, the munificent
sum of twenty-four florins (ten dollars) paid in gray pease. He kept
a tavern and was complained of for tapping after nine o’clock; and
he was sued by his landlord for rent; and he had a yacht, “The Pear
Tree,” which ran on trading trips to Albany, and there were two or
three lawsuits in regard to that. He was also a farmer of the excise
on slaughtered cattle; but, in spite of all his energy and variety of
employment, he died insolvent in 1664. The last lawsuit in which Lawyer
Solomon had any share was through a posthumous connection,--the burgher
who furnished an anker of French wine for the notary’s funeral claimed
a position as preferred creditor to the estate.
A very aggravated case of scorn and resistance of authority was that
of Abel Hardenbrock against the _schout_ de Mill. And this case shows
equally the popular horror of violations of the law and the confiding
trust of the justices that the word of the law was enough without
any visible restraining force. Hardenbrock, who was a troublesome
fellow, had behaved most vilely, shoving the _schout_ on the breast,
and wickedly “wishing the devil might break his neck,” simply because
the _schout_ went to Hardenbrock’s house to warn his wife not to
annoy further Burgomaster De Peyster by unwelcome visits. Hardenbrock
was accordingly seized and made a prisoner at the Stadt Huys “in
the chamber of Pieter Schaefbanck, where he carried on and made a
racket like one possessed and mad, notwithstanding the efforts of
Heer Burgomaster Van Brught, running up to the Court room and going
away next morning as if he had not been imprisoned.” It was said with
amusing simplicity that this cool walking out of prison was “contrary
to the customs of the law,” and a fine of twenty-five florins was
imposed.
For serious words against the government, which could be regarded
as treasonable, the decreed punishment was death. One Claerbout van
ter Goes used such words (unfortunately they are not given in the
indictment), and a judgment was recorded from each burgomaster and
_schepen_ as to what punishment would be proper. He was branded,
whipped on a half-gallows, and banished, and escaped hanging only by
one vote.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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