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[ This day, date under ]written, before [ me, ][  Cornelis van Tienhove ]n, secretary [ in ] New Netherland appointed [ by the Gen ]eral Chartered West India [ Company ], appeared Jan Teunessen, house carpenter, of the first part, and Adam Roelantsen from Dockum, of the second part, who before and in the presence of the undersigned persons acknowledged that they had amicably agreed and contracted about the building and construction of a house on the conditions and terms hereinafter written, to wit:

Jan Teunessen acknowledges that he has undertaken to build for Adam Roelantsen, who also acknowledges that he has engaged Jan Teunesen to build, a house thirty feet long, eighteen feet wide, eight feet story under the beams, the end beams with corbels, all hewn square; the house [ to be ] enclosed all around with clapboards and covered with a good thatched roof, properly made, [ and to have ] a tight ceiling of clapboards, three four- light windows, two outer doors, a vestibule, a pantry, a bedstead, a cased-in stairway to the garret, the chimney with wood[ en shaft ] extending above the roof and a mantelpiece built around it, a passage way three feet wide, with a partition. Which house aforesaid, built and properly covered in the manner specified above, he, Jan Teunesen, promises to deliver on the first of next August for the sum of three hundred and fifty Carolus guilders, Holland currency, payable by Adam Roelantsen, one-half when the lumber for the above mentioned house shall be brought to the place where the house is to stand and the other half when the house shall be properly completed. Which [ they, Adam Roelantsen and Jan Teunesen, promise to pay ] and to make [      ], binding [ therefor their persons ] and properties, [ movable and immovable, present ] and future, [ without exception ], one for the fulfilment of [ this contract ] at his own expense and the other for the payment of the specified [ sum ]. In witness and token of the truth this is signed by the parties and the witnesses [ hereto invited ], the 7th of February anno 1642, in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland.

References

Translation: Scott, K., & Stryker-Rodda, K. (Ed.). New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, Vol. 2, Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1642-1647 (A. Van Laer, Trans.). Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.: 1974.A complete copy of this publication is available on the New Netherland Institute website.