HALF MOON SERIES 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 MAUD WILDER GOODWIN 
 ALICE CARRINGTON ROYCE 
 RUTH PUTNAM AND 
 EVA PALMER BROWNELL 
 
 Vol. II.. No. o. September, 1898. 
 
 Barfs Schools ano 
 Schoolmasters of 
 Bew Emsteroam 
 
 Bg 
 
 lemma IDan \Decbten 
 
 *& 
 
 Copyright, 1898, by 
 
 Q. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 New York London 
 
 Ube Iftnfcfcerbocfcet 8>rees, New Rochelle, N. Y. 
 
 Entered at the Post Office, New Rochells, N. Y., as Second-class Matter 
 
 Price Ten Cents 
 
 Per Year, One Dollar 
 
MISS SPENCE'S 
 Boarding and Day School for Girls 
 
 preparatory Scaoemfc, ana 
 College*preparators Coursea 
 
 No more than eight pupils constitute any class 
 ,qo, 6 WEST 48th STREET, with Annex 
 
 MRS. LESLIE MORGAN'S 
 
 jl 3Boaroina ano 2>as Scbool 
 
 " for ©iris 
 
 13 and 15 WEST 86th STREET 
 NEW YORK CITY < < < < 
 
 Kindergarten, Through College Preparatory 
 Home and Chaperonage 
 
 JHE HELBURN SCHOOL 
 
 35 WEST 9OTH STREET 
 
 Das Scbool for Boss ano $trls 
 
 kindergarten, primary and grammar de- 
 4£» partments. thoroughly graded. sep- 
 
 «** arate class-room and teacher for 
 
 each class. 
 
 ©be linlckerbccfter tf reee, »ew JDorft 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 Chap.. Copyright No 
 
 Shelf. 
 
 • 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
EARLY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS 
 
 "^ 
 
TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 
 
 
Half Moon Series 
 
 Published in the Interest of the New York 
 City History Club. 
 
 Volume II. Number IX. 
 
 321 
 
 EARLY SCHOOLS AND SCHOOLMASTERS 
 OF NEW AMSTERDAM. 
 
 By EMMA VAN VECHTEN. 
 
 DURING the first few years after the found- 
 ing of New Amsterdam little attention 
 was paid to the education of the children. 
 The West India Company regarded the settle- 
 ment in the light of a trading-post rather than 
 of a colony and was bent on receiving rather 
 than giving privileges. ' Although it had made 
 vague promises guaranteeing to settlers many 
 advantages, spiritual and material, it was in no 
 haste to redeem its pledges. The settlers for 
 their part were so much occupied with plant- 
 ing grain, raising their thatch-roofed cottages, 
 and repairing their rickety old fort, that the 
 children were neglected and roamed unvexed 
 of schoolmasters, in ignorance and bliss, along 
 the banks of the broad canal, or clambered 
 across the rocks of the Capske at low tide. 
 
 So things went on for seven years ; then 
 came a change. The spring of 1633 opened 
 
 Ube Jffrst 
 Jfcw IBcara 
 
322 
 
 3Earl£ Scbools anfc Schoolmasters 
 
 HJ>am 
 
 1Roelant= 
 
 sen 
 
 propitiously for the little colony. Surely it 
 promised great things that the same year 
 should bring to the settlement a new gov- 
 ernor, a new minister, and a new school- 
 master, the first who had ever set foot in the 
 colony. Yet it was but a very short time be- 
 fore the new Governor had earned his title 
 of "Walter, the Waverer," before the new 
 domine, Everardus Bogardus, proved himself 
 a quarrelsome shepherd, and the new school- 
 master had shown his unfitness to train the 
 youthful burghers of New Amsterdam either in 
 wisdom or virtue. 
 
 The career of Adam Roelantsen, this first 
 pedagogue of New Amsterdam, was a check- 
 ered one, and hardly bears inspection, if we 
 wish to believe in the worth of the founder of 
 our schools. Valentine gives a sad account of 
 his misdoings, and though that Froissart of our 
 city chronicles is generally to be taken with 
 many grains of caution, in this instance he is 
 so reinforced by the court records that his 
 testimony must be accepted as in the main 
 fair and just. 
 
 Roelantsen was born in Dokkum, a city of 
 Northern Holland, in 1 606, 2 and was therefore 
 twenty-seven years old at the time he landed 
 in New Amsterdam. Within a few years 
 after his arrival he had entered upon his turbu- 
 lent and litigious experiences. On September 
 20, 1638, we find a suit before the court in 
 
Earls Scbools anfc Scboolmasters 
 
 3 2 3 
 
 which Roelantsen figures as plaintiff against 
 Gillis de Voocht, on a demand for payment for 
 washing defendant's linen. The defendant 
 made no objection to the price asked ; but 
 claimed that Roelantsen had agreed to do the 
 washing by the year, and that time being not 
 yet expired, the payment was not due. The 
 court held with the defendant, and Roelantsen 
 was compelled to subsist till the end of his con- 
 tract upon his professional stipend, which was 
 unquestionably meagre. In the same year the 
 schoolmaster appeared again in the courts, 
 making affidavit this time against Grietje 
 Reyners for misconduct. He soon had occa- 
 sion to prove the truth of the proverb of his race 
 — JVie %ijn bur en beledigt maakt het %ich %el- 
 ven daarna %uur (He who slanders his 
 neighbors makes it sour for himself), for when 
 he undertook to circulate evil reports touch- 
 ing Jochem Haller's wife, that angry burgher 
 haled him before the court on a charge of 
 slander. Roelantsen in his turn accused 
 various people of slander, though it is hard to 
 see what fiction worse than truth could have 
 been invented about him by his neighbors. 
 
 No wonder the old record states that " peo- 
 ple did not speak well of him." In spite of his 
 reputation, however, he succeeded in marry- 
 ing a widow presumably possessed of some 
 property, as we hear no more of his taking in 
 washing, and in 1642, after his return from a 
 
 HBam 
 
 1RoeIant= 
 
 sen 
 
3 2 4 
 
 J6arl£ Scbools ant) Scboolmasters 
 
 tftoelant* 
 
 een 
 
 temporary sojourn in Rensselaerswyck, we 
 read of the following contract made by him 
 for a house to be built on the north side of 
 Brouwer Street, between Whitehall and Broad, 
 and next door but one to Van Courtlandt's 
 brewery. By the terms of the contract "John 
 Teunison agrees to build the same of the fol- 
 lowing dimensions : In length thirty feet, in 
 width eighteen feet, in height eight feet ; the 
 beams to be hewn at four sides, the house to 
 be well and tight clapboarded and roofed with 
 substantial reed thatch ; the floors tight and 
 made of clapboard ; two doors, one entry, a 
 pantry, a bed-stead, a staircase to go to the 
 garret ; the upper part of the chimneys to be 
 of wood ; one mantelpiece ; the entry to be 
 three feet wide with a partition. The house 
 to be ready by ist of May next." 
 
 For the building of this house Roelantsen 
 agreed to pay three hundred and fifty guilders 
 ($140), half payment to be made when the 
 timber was brought, and the rest when the 
 house was finished. 
 
 This appears to have been the most prosper- 
 ous period of Roelantsen's life. He had a 
 daughter, Tryntje, baptized in the old church, 
 and as a husband, a father, and a landholder 
 he seemed to have given hostages to fortune, 
 and engaged to comport himself as a good and 
 thrifty citizen. In 1643, he was made "Weigh- 
 master" 8 and added to his possessions by the 
 
Barlp Scbools an& Scboolmasters 325 
 
 purchase of another lot of land. In 1644, a son Htam 
 
 was born to him, and baptized Daniel. Two 
 more children were added to the household 
 before the death of his wife (spoken of in sub- 
 sequent records as Lyntje Martens), and then 
 the prosperity began to suffer eclipse. 
 
 In 1646, he set sail for Holland ; but made 
 only a short stay, for in the fall of that year we 
 see him once more in litigation in the New 
 Amsterdam court. The skipper of the vessel 
 in which he returned had endeavored to col- 
 lect passage money ; Roelantsen refused pay- 
 ment, and claimed that the skipper had agreed 
 that he should cross the ocean "free of pas- 
 sage money and freight of his trunk provided 
 he would work as one of the sailors, and the 
 skipper had also said repeatedly that he should 
 ask no pay from Roelantsen because he said 
 the prayers." Apparently the worth of Roe- 
 lantsen's prayers was accepted by the court 
 as an equivalent for the passage money, since 
 it is recorded that the skipper was non-suited. 
 
 A month later Roelantsen was brought be- 
 fore the court as a malefactor charged with an 
 offense so flagrant that the court declared such 
 deeds "may not be tolerated in a country 
 where justice is revered ; therefore we con- 
 demn the said Roelantsen to be brought to 
 the place of execution and there flogged and 
 banished forever out of this country." In con- 
 sideration of the defendant having four mother- 
 
 "IRoelanU 
 sen 
 
326 
 
 Earls Scbools anfc Scboolmasters 
 
 B&am 
 
 •Roelants 
 
 sen 
 
 less children the sentence was delayed ; though 
 it is difficult to see what benefit was to accrue 
 to the little half-orphans from the guardianship 
 of such a father. This singular vagabond 
 seems to have had some peculiar charm for 
 the staid burghers of New Amsterdam, for, in 
 spite of his misdeeds, 1 find it stated on ex- 
 cellent authority that in 1647, ne was a P _ 
 pointed Provost, and in 1653, was a member 
 of the Burgher-Corps of New Amsterdam. 4 
 With this date this strange figure in our early 
 history vanishes from the records, to give place 
 to a long line of pedagogical successors, often 
 worthier, but seldom either so picturesque or 
 so clearly etched out against the background 
 of the past. 
 
 His career is the more amusing in the light 
 of the duties of the Parochial Schoolmaster, as 
 set forth in his commission ; these were "to 
 promote religious worship, to read a portion 
 of the Word of God to the people, to endea- 
 vor, as much as possible, to bring them up in 
 the ways of the Lord, to console them in their 
 sickness, and to conduct himself with all dili- 
 gence and fidelity in his calling so as to give 
 others a good example as becometh a devout, 
 pious, and worthy consoler of the sick, church- 
 clerk, Precenter and Schoolmaster." 6 The 
 form of this commission shows how closely 
 State, Church, and School were bound to- 
 gether in Old Holland, and New. The old 
 
iBarls Scbools ant) Scboolmasters 
 
 3 2 7 
 
 Dutch records expressly declare that "School- 
 keeping and the appointment of Schoolmas- 
 ters depend absolutely from the Jus patronatus 
 and require a license from the Director-Gen- 
 eral and Council."" The offices of teacher 
 and preacher were closely allied and the duty 
 of consoling the sick equally devolved upon 
 both domine and schoolmaster. 
 
 The requirements for the office of school- 
 master in all its capacities were severe. At 
 one time the Consistory stated them as 
 follows : 
 
 1Rcqutvc= 
 
 merits for 
 
 tbe office 
 
 of Scbools 
 
 master 
 
 " First : That he be a person of suitable qualifications to 
 officiate as schoolmaster and chorister, possessing a knowl- 
 edge of music, a good voice so as to be heard, an aptitude 
 to teach others the science, and that he should be a good 
 reader, writer and arithmetician. 
 
 " Second : That he should be of the Reformed Religion, 
 a member of the church, bringing with him testimonials of 
 his Christian character and Conduct. 
 
 " Third : That whether married or unmarried he be not 
 under twenty-five nor over thirty-five." 
 
 The duties of this official were as varied as 
 his qualifications, since he was expected to 
 keep the books for the Consistory, to read 
 and pray with the sick, and in every way to 
 supplement the work of the minister, even to 
 turning the hour-glass during church service 
 as a reminder that the sermon had continued 
 beyond the allotted time. This semi-ecclesias- 
 tical character belonged only to the official 
 
!28 
 
 Earh? Scbools an& Schoolmasters 
 
 5an Stcvm 
 cnsen 
 
 schoolmaster, appointed by the West India 
 Company and acting under the direction of 
 the church. Other teachers independent of 
 such control, though requiring a license from 
 civil and church authorities, appeared in the 
 colony from time to time and sought to earn a 
 livelihood by tuition fees ; but these fees seem 
 to have proved discouragingly small, and 
 the schoolmaster generally tried to combine 
 school-keeping with some more remunerative 
 occupation. 
 
 One Aden Jansen Van Ilpendam opened a 
 school in New Amsterdam a year before the 
 sentence of banishment was passed upon Roe- 
 lantsen.' His terms of tuition were two dried 
 bear skins per annum. His school was so 
 successful that it continued for over a decade. 
 
 The official successor of Roelantsen was 
 Jan Stevensen, whose school-keeping is set 
 down in the Register of New Amsterdam as 
 dating from 1643, tne y ear m which Roelant- 
 sen was made Weigh-master. The Company 
 granted Stevensen a patent of a lot of land lo- 
 cated on Broadway, then the "Heere Straat," 
 adjoining the old churchyard. The question 
 of a public schoolhouse was by this time 
 seriously agitated. There was talk of building 
 a schoolhouse when the stone church in the 
 Fort was begun ; but that edifice used up all 
 the funds available, and the children found 
 themselves with no better accommodation 
 
Barl£ Scbools an& Scboolmasters 
 
 329 
 
 " the bowl has been going round a long time for the purpose 
 of erecting a school house and it has been built with words 
 [observe the fine sarcasm] for as yet the first stone is not 
 laid, some materials only are provided. The money, never- 
 theless, given for the purpose has found its way out and is 
 mostly spent so that it falls short and nothing permanent 
 has as yet been effected for that purpose." 9 
 
 To this remonstrance the West India Com- 
 pany made rather tart answer that "the Di- 
 rector hath not the administration of the 
 
 "Cbe 
 Question 
 
 of a 
 
 {public 
 
 ScbooI= 
 
 bouse 
 
 agitateo 
 
 than a room in a private house, and those who 
 have studied the conditions of life in the New 
 Amsterdam of Stuy vesant's day, and appreciate 
 how small were those private houses, built 
 of mud and reeds, 8 will understand how inad- 
 equate a single room in one was likely to 
 prove. In 1647, public education was en- 
 tirely suspended, owing to the lack of suit- 
 able accommodation. The Director appealed 
 to the Commonalty for aid, saying : ' ' Whereas, 
 for want of a school house, no school has been 
 kept here during three months, by which the 
 youth are spoiled, it is proposed to consider 
 where a convenient place may be fixed upon 
 so as to keep the youth from the streets and 
 under strict subordination." Contributions 
 for erection of the school-building were called 
 for, and some response was made; but still 
 without result, for a petition addressed to the 
 States-General by the New Netherlanders in 
 October, 1649, sets forth that 
 
33° 
 
 "Earls Scbools an& Scboolmasters 
 
 Jan 
 
 Cornell; 
 
 sen 
 
 money that was taken up on the plate; but 
 Jacob Couwenhoven who is one of the peti- 
 tioners, hath kept account of it in his quality 
 of churchwarden.*' These bickerings and 
 recriminations continued for several years ; 
 meanwhile Stevensen was succeeded, in 1648 
 or 1640, by Jan Cornelissen, reputed to have 
 been lazy, and much given to the use of " hot 
 and rebellious liquors." Perhaps the Direct- 
 ors of the Company began to perceive that 
 such service was worse than none, and that 
 it was hopeless to secure better without both 
 assured income and a suitable place of instruc- 
 tion, for in the spring of 1652 we find them 
 writing to Stuy vesant : 
 
 " We give our consent that a public school may be es- 
 tablished, for which one schoolmaster will be sufficient, and 
 he may be engaged at 250 florins [$100] annually. We rec- 
 ommend you Jan de la Montagne whom we have provision- 
 ally favored with the appointment. You may appropriate 
 the city tavern for that purpose, if practicable." 
 
 The city tavern herein noted was no other 
 than the old inn which later gained greater 
 renown as the Stadt Huys. It raised its 
 quaint "crow-step gables" far above the 
 lowly thatched roofs of the village that clus- 
 tered around it, and its walls and chimneys 
 of substantial brick and stone were built to 
 withstand wind and weather and, like the old 
 church, to bear enduring testimony to the 
 
Earl£ Scbools anD Scboolmasters 
 
 331 
 
 greatness of Director William Kieft, who or- 
 dered it erected, in 1642, at the head of Coen- 
 ties Slip. 
 
 The Burgomasters perhaps found it not 
 " practicable " to oust the loungers who had 
 so long smoked their pipes in the cozy corner 
 by the great chimney or tippled their beer 
 over the wooden tables standing close to the 
 roadside on the brick-floored, vine-shaded 
 stoop. No doubt these frequenters of the old 
 tavern were loath to give place to school- 
 boys with puffed breeches and plastered hair, 
 sitting solemnly on the benches which ran 
 along the wall, or standing in disgrace, ^otscap 
 on head, in the corner allotted to dunces. Just 
 how they settled the question does not appear; 
 but several years later, in 1656, the school- 
 master, then Harmanus Van Hoboocken, 
 sent the following urgent appeal to the 
 Burgomasters and Schepens on the occasion 
 of the burning of the schoolhouse : 
 
 Tbarmanus 
 
 Van 
 Iboboocfcen 
 
 "The reverential request of Harmanus Van Hoboocken, 
 Schoolmaster of this city, is that he may be allowed the use 
 of the hall and side chamber of the City Hall for the use of 
 his school and as a residence for his family, inasmuch as he, 
 petitioner, has no place to keep school in, or to live in dur- 
 ing the winter, it being necessary that the rooms should be 
 made warm, which cannot be done in his own house from 
 its unfitness. The petitioner further represents that he is 
 burthened with a wife and children and moreover his wife is 
 expected shortly to be brought to child-bed again, so that 
 he is much at a loss how to make accomodation for his 
 
33 2 
 
 lEaviy Scbools anfc Scboolmasters 
 
 Ibannaitus 
 
 Wan 
 Tboboochen 
 
 family and school children. The petitioner therefore asks 
 that he may use the chamber wherein Gouert Coerten at 
 present dwells." I0 
 
 The answer to this petition set forth that 
 "Whereas, the room which petitioner asks 
 for his use as a dwelling and schoolroom is 
 out of repair and moreover is wanted for 
 other uses, it cannot be allowed to him. But 
 as the town youth are doing so uncommon 
 well now, it is thought proper to find a con- 
 venient place for their accommodation, and for 
 that purpose petitioner is granted 100 guilders 
 yearly." 
 
 Before the coming of Hoboocken, the office 
 of pedagogue and Ziekentroster , or "consoler 
 of the sick," had been filled by William 
 Verstius, "a pious, well qualified and diligent 
 schoolmaster," "who served for several years 
 to the satisfaction of the community, and was 
 only parted with on his own urgent solicitation 
 to be permitted to return to Holland. 
 
 When Harmanus Van Hoboocken came over 
 in 1655. to take the place of Verstius, he found 
 New Amsterdam a thriving village, numbering 
 over a hundred cottages, and sheltering about 
 a thousand inhabitants. He followed the 
 traditions of his office by marrying a widow, 
 and conducted the school so satisfactorily that, 
 when at the end of several years he was re- 
 placed by Evert Pietersen, he was engaged 
 as eAdelborst (something above a common 
 
JSatiy Scbools ant> Scboolmasten 
 
 333 
 
 soldier) in the Company's service, at a salary 
 of 10 guilders a month, and his board, and 
 was also employed on Governor Stuyvesant's 
 bouwery as clerk and schoolmaster. As this 
 bouwery was located in the region of what is 
 now lower Third Avenue, in the neighborhood 
 of Twelfth Street, this second school, being at 
 that time far out of town, did not conflict with 
 the school in the little village near the Fort. 
 There is some evidence to show that this 
 lower school was held at one time within the 
 walls of the Fort itself ; but this is only vaguely 
 touched upon in the records, though it is a 
 constant source of wonder to me that the 
 great stone church raised by Kieft and of no 
 use except o' Sundays, was not utilized be- 
 tween-times for educational purposes. 
 
 Now that the colony was growing so fast 
 it was found that there was room for more 
 than one school and schoolmaster ; but the 
 church and the Company were very tena- 
 cious of their rights of control, and looked 
 with a jealous eye upon every effort to es- 
 tablish schools outside their jurisdiction. A 
 very lively controversy took place between 
 the city magistrates and the colonial authori- 
 ties on the occasion of the granting of a school- 
 keeping license by the magistrates to Jacob 
 Van Corlaer. Straightway the Governor and 
 Council directed the Attorney-General to go 
 to the house of van Corlaer, "who has for 
 
 Evert 
 pietersen 
 
334 
 
 JEarlp Scbools anfc Scboolmasters 
 
 Zbe 
 
 JBuigber's 
 
 IRemons 
 
 etrance 
 
 some time past arrogated to himself to keep 
 school," and warn him that his arrogance and 
 his school-keeping must cease, under pain of 
 the displeasure of the Director and the Council. 
 At this juncture the Burgomasters and 
 Schepens presented a petition in Van Cor- 
 ner's favor, and the delinquent himself humbly 
 begged the privilege of continuing what seems 
 at this remove his harmless calling ; but all 
 efforts were in vain. The record states that 
 "for weighty reasons influencing the Di- 
 rector General and Council the apostille [mar- 
 ginal note] was 'nihil actum.'" Meanwhile 
 the restlessness of the burghers under their 
 limited educational privileges was increasing. 
 Their " Vertoogh" or remonstrance to the 
 home government, had set forth that 
 
 "There should be a public school provided with at least 
 two good masters, so that first of all, in so wild a country, 
 where there are many loose people, the youth be well 
 taught and brought up, not only in reading and writing but 
 also in the knowledge and fear of the Lord As it is now, 
 the school is kept very irregularly, one and another keep- 
 ing it according to his pleasure, and so long as he thinks 
 proper." 
 
 As time went on and the population stead- 
 ily increased, the ideas of the colonists ex- 
 panded in this direction as in every other. 
 Moreover, their local pride was touched by 
 the advance of New England and the estab- 
 lishment in Massachusetts of the academy 
 
]£arl\? Scbools anfc Scboolmasters 
 
 destined to become the first college planted 
 in the Western hemisphere. In 1658, this 
 righteous ambition found vent in a petition of 
 the Burgomasters and Schepens to the West 
 India Company. 
 
 petition of 
 
 JSunjomass 
 
 ters ano 
 
 Scbepens 
 
 " It is represented," the petitioners say, " that the youth 
 of this place and the neighborhood are increasing in num- 
 ber gradually and that most of them can read and write, 
 but that some of the citizens and inhabitants would like 
 to send their children to a school the principal of which 
 understands Latin ; but are not able to do so without 
 sending them to New England ; furthermore they have not 
 the means to hire a Latin schoolmaster expressly for them- 
 selves from New England, and therefore they ask that the 
 West India Company will send out a fit person as Latin 
 schoolmaster, not doubting that the number of persons who 
 will send their children to such a teacher will from year to 
 year increase until an Academy shall be formed whereby 
 this place to great splendour will have attained, for which, 
 next to God, the Honorable Company which shall have 
 sent such teacher here shall have laud and praise. For 
 our own part we shall endeavor to find a fit place in which 
 the Schoolmaster shall hold his school." 
 
 It must always be borne in mind that the 
 "children " for whom these educational privi- 
 leges were to be provided were boys only. 
 Nothing would have more surprised the 
 burghers than the prediction of the classical 
 schools and normal schools, the college and 
 university opportunities now open to the 
 daughters of Manhattan. In those days the 
 domestic training of the home, or, at most, 
 
j£arl£ Scbools anb Scboolmasters 
 
 Carolus 
 Curtiue 
 
 the dame-school, with its very rudimentary 
 instruction in reading and writing, was 
 enough to content the educational ambition 
 of the colonial maidens. 
 
 The Directors in Holland looked with favor 
 upon the petition of the Burgomasters and 
 Schepens ; but they did not allow their en- 
 thusiasm for education to run away with the 
 thrift which throughout the history of Dutch 
 rule marked their dealings with the colonists. 
 They wrote to Stuyvesant : 
 
 "The Rev. Domine Drisius has intimated to us more 
 than once that in his opinion it might be serviceable to 
 establish a Latin School for the instruction of the youth, 
 and as we do not disapprove of the plan we have thought it 
 proper to communicate it to you that if you consider 
 it proper to make the experiment you may advise us in 
 what manner it can be effected to the greatest advantage of 
 the Community, and with the least expense to the Com- 
 pany." 
 
 As a result of these consultations, the Com- 
 pany, in 1659, despatched a pedagogue, bear- 
 ing the portentous name of Alexander Carolus 
 Curtius, to be the classical instructor of the 
 new academy at New Amsterdam, which 
 was to bring such "laud and praise" to all 
 concerned. He started out prosperously. The 
 Burgomasters voted him out of the city-chest 
 a very comfortable salary of two hundred guild- 
 ers, according to one authority, five hundred 
 according to another, with fifty in advance. 
 
JBarls Scbools ant) Scboolmastevs 
 
 337 
 
 Besides this, Valentine fits him out with an- 
 other advance of one hundred florins where- 
 with to purchase merchandise to set him up in 
 business on his arrival in the colony, and, as 
 if this were not enough, he was granted the 
 use of a house and garden and given permis- 
 sion to practise medicine. The ingrate still 
 complained that the compensation was in- 
 sufficient, and after another anxious consulta- 
 tion between the Director and the city rulers 
 it was agreed that he should be allowed to 
 charge six guilders per quarter for each 
 scholar. His grasping greed overreached it- 
 self in the next year, when he charged several 
 of his pupils a whole beaver-skin, worth at 
 least eight guilders. This was too much even 
 for the long-suffering Burgomasters, and Mas- 
 ter Curtius found his salary docked for the 
 year. 
 
 Other causes of discontent had also arisen. 
 Curtius had brought over with him a fine repu- 
 tation. He had been a professor in Lithuania, 
 and no doubt was possessed of a vast stock 
 of learning, and had the dead languages at his 
 finger ends ; but unfortunately he had little 
 knowledge of live human nature, and espe- 
 cially boy nature, which apparently was not 
 so unlike in New Amsterdam and New York. 
 The little Dutch pupils laughed to scorn the 
 authority of the new master, and diverted 
 themselves, amid the severe application de- 
 
 Hleyanf>er 
 Caiolus 
 Cuttfus 
 
33« 
 
 j£arl£ Schools ano Scboolmasters 
 
 Uuvcfe 
 
 manded for a classical education by beat- 
 ing each other and playfully tearing the 
 clothes from each other's backs. Naturally 
 the parents disapproved, and as naturally they 
 visited their displeasure upon the unfortunate 
 instructor, and we can imagine the contumely 
 they heaped upon "this fine professor who 
 charges a whole beaver-skin and cannot even 
 keep order." Yet we can but feel a thrill of 
 sympathetic commiseration for poor Alex- 
 ander Carolus Curtius when we read his 
 counter-complaint that he was powerless to 
 preserve discipline, because "his hands were 
 tied, as some of the parents forbade him pun- 
 ishing their children." 
 
 Wherever the fault lay, it soon became evi- 
 dent that the children were not being trained 
 up in the way they should go, and it resulted 
 in the return of Curtius to Holland and the 
 substitution as head master in the school, of 
 /Egidius Luyck. This new incumbent, who 
 was established as principal of the Latin 
 School in 1662, proved entirely satisfactory. 
 He was only twenty-two years old, but so 
 staid in character, so firm in discipline, and of 
 such high repute in scholarship that he made 
 the academy well known far and wide. New 
 Amsterdam began to find itself advancing to 
 the front rank in educational advantages 
 among the American settlements, and not 
 onlv ceased to send youth to New England, 
 
Barl£ Scbools and Scboolmasters 
 
 339 
 
 but drew to itself pupils from far-away colo- 
 nies — two at least being recorded from Vir- 
 ginia, others from the settlements on the 
 Delaware, and two, with the promise of 
 more, from Fort Orange. 12 
 
 On the capture of New Amsterdam by the 
 English, Luyck returned to his native land to 
 study theology; but later he came back to 
 this city, then New York, married a relative 
 of Director Stuyvesant, to whose sons he had 
 been private tutor before taking charge of the 
 Latin School, and continued his useful career 
 of teacher in the colony under English rule. 13 
 
 The regular schoolmaster, Evert Pietersen, 
 who taught at the lower school while Ho- 
 boocken instructed at Stuyvesant's bouwery 
 and Luyck succeeded Curtius at the Latin 
 School, also continued in office after the 
 English occupation. He made his home on 
 the south side of the 'Brouwer Straat, a section 
 of what is now Stone Street, extending from 
 Whitehall to Broad Street, and gaining its 
 name from the brewery owned by Oloff 
 Stevenson Van Courtlandt. 1 * Pietersen was 
 married when he came to this country, but 
 later lost his wife and, following the precedent 
 of his profession, married a widow. His salary 
 when he first came over on the Gilded 'Beaver 
 was fixed at thirty-six guilders ($15) monthly 
 and one hundred and twenty-five guilders 
 annually for his board. The small amount 
 
 Evert 
 pietersen 
 
34° 
 
 Barl£ Scfoools anfc Scboolmasters 
 
 Unfluencc 
 of tbc 
 Cburcb 
 
 was grudingly and irregularly paid and yet 
 such was his thrift that by 1674, he was one 
 of the most substantial citizens of New York, 
 with a property valued at two thousand 
 florins. 
 
 The church still held its controlling hand on 
 the official school in Pietersen's time, as for 
 long afterwards, not having withdrawn its 
 sheltering care from the descendant of that old 
 Dutch school even now. This fact its histo- 
 rian proudly points out and indeed we may all 
 take pride in one of the longest-lived educa- 
 tional institutions of our country : 
 
 The church influence showed itself in a civil 
 ordinance of New Amsterdam, bearing date 
 March 17, 1664 : 
 
 " Whereas it is highly necessary and of great consequence 
 that the youth from their childhood is well instructed in 
 reading, writing and arithmetic and principally in the prin- 
 ciplesand fundaments of the Christian religion, in conformity 
 to the lesson of that wise King Solomon, ' Learn the youth 
 the first principles and as he grows old, he shall not then 
 deviate from it ' ; so that in time such men may arise from it 
 who may be able to serve their country in Church or in State ; 
 which being seriously considered by the Director General 
 and Council in New Netherland, as the number of children 
 by God's merciful blessing has considerably increased, they 
 have deemed it necessary so that such an useful, and to our 
 God, agreeable concern may be more effectually promoted, 
 to recommend the present school master and to command 
 him, so as it is done by this, that they (Pietersen and Van 
 Hoboocken) on Wednesday before the beginning of the 
 sermon with the children intrusted to their care, shall appear 
 
Barlp Scbools an& Scboolmasters 
 
 34* 
 
 in the Church to examine after the close of the sermon each 
 of them his own scholars in the presence of the reverend 
 ministers and elders who may then be present, what they, 
 in the course of the week, do remember of the Christian 
 commands and Catechism, and what progress they have 
 made ; after which the children shall be allowed a decent 
 recreation." u 
 
 English 
 
 IFnfluence 
 
 on tbc 
 
 2>utcb 
 
 School 
 
 Under early English rule the schooling of the 
 Dutch children was little interfered with. 
 They were to be instructed in the "Nether- 
 landisch tongue" as of old, and the school- 
 master was still to be under the supervision of 
 the Consistory. The school hours were fixed 
 from nine to eleven A.M. in summer, from 
 half-past nine to half-past twelve in winter, 
 while the afternoon session the year round 
 lasted from one to five o'clock. 14 The schools 
 were opened and closed with prayer, twice a 
 week the pupils were examined in the 
 catechism, and express stipulation was made 
 that teachers should use "none but edifying 
 and orthodox text-books and such as snould 
 meet the approbation of the Consistory." 
 
 The control of the schools so wisely con- 
 ceded by the English continued in the hands 
 of the Dutch long enough to stamp the char- 
 acter which endures to this day in the repre- 
 sentative School of the Collegiate Reformed 
 Dutch Church of New York, which with 
 all its fine buildings and elaborate equipments 
 is the direct successor of the little school gath- 
 
34^ 
 
 JEarlE Schools ano Schoolmasters 
 
 Xiet of 
 fiarlt 
 School* 
 masters 
 
 ered together by Adam Roelantsen under the 
 shadow of the old Fort. 
 
 Those of us of Dutch blood have a special 
 right to look with pride upon this steady 
 growth of the educational institution planted 
 and fostered by our forefathers and bearing 
 perpetual testimony to their energy and per- 
 severance, their just valuation of "the things 
 of the spirit," their respect for learning, and 
 their determination to "learn the youth the 
 first principles " and to make them men " who 
 may be able to serve their country in Church 
 and State." We are compelled to respect 
 their earnestness and their persistence under 
 what might well have seemed insurmount- 
 able difficulties, and however we may smile 
 at the limitations of those early days, we 
 must recognize that New Amsterdam has 
 as good a claim as New England to the praise 
 of the poet: 
 
 And still maintains with milder laws 
 
 And clearer light the good old cause — 
 
 Nor heeds the sceptic's puny hands 
 
 While near her school the church-spire stands, 
 
 Nor fears the blinded bigot's rule 
 
 While near her church-spire stands the school." 
 
 The following is a list of the early school- 
 masters in their order: 
 
jEarlp Scbools anfc Scboolmasters 
 
 343 
 
 Official. 
 
 Xfst of 
 
 
 Earlv 
 
 Adam Roelantsen, 
 
 ScbooI= 
 masters. 
 
 Jan Stevensen, 
 
 
 Jan Cornelissen, 
 
 
 William Verstius, 
 
 
 Johannes Morice de la Montagne, 
 
 
 Harmanus Van Hoboocken, 
 
 
 Evert Pietersen. 
 
 
 Among the unofficial and semi-official teach- 
 
 
 ers, fore-singers, and krank-besoeckers were : 
 
 
 Adriaen Jansen Van Ilpendam, 
 
 
 David Provoost, 
 
 
 Joost Carelse, 
 
 
 Hans Steyn, 
 
 
 Andries Hudde, 
 
 
 Jacobus van Corlaer, 
 
 
 Jan Lubbertsen, 
 
 
 Jan Juriaense Beeker, 
 
 
 i Frans Claessen, 
 
 
 Johannes Van Gelder. 
 
 
 Latin School. 
 
 
 Alexander Carolus Curtius, 
 
 
 Aegidius Luyck. 
 
 
 End of the Dutch Rule, 1674. 
 
 
344 
 
 ]£arl£ Scbools ant> Scboolmasters 
 
 inferences 
 
 i. 
 
 REFERENCES. 
 
 Fisher's Colonial Era. 
 
 
 2. 
 
 Valentine's Corporation Manual, 1863, p. 559 et seq. 
 
 
 3- 
 
 History of the School of the Collegiate Reformed 
 Dutch Church, p. 17. 
 
 
 4- 
 
 E. B. O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland, ii., 
 p. 569. 
 
 
 5- 
 
 Register of New Netherland, p. 129. 
 
 
 6. 
 
 Register of New Netherland, p. 129. 
 
 
 7- 
 
 Valentine's Corporation Manual, 1863, p. 561. 
 
 
 8. 
 
 Holland Documents, [see letters throughout]. 
 
 
 9- 
 
 Holland Documents, iv., p. 300. 
 
 
 IO. 
 
 Paulding's New Amsterdam in 1 647-1 659, p. 40. 
 
 
 1 1. 
 
 Tuckerman's Life of Peter Stuyvesant, p. 167. 
 
 
 12. 
 
 Albany Records. 
 
 
 •3- 
 
 Tuckerman's Life of Peter Stuyvesant, p. 107. 
 
 
 14. 
 
 New Amsterdam Records. 
 
 
 <5- 
 
 Albany T^ecords, xxii. 
 
 
 16. 
 
 History of the School of the Collegiate "Reformed 
 Dutch Church, p. ^9. 
 
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