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On this day, date underwritten, before me, Cornelis van Ruyven, appointed secretary in New Netherland in the service of the General Chartered West India Company, and before the undersigned witnesses, appeared Annetjen Meinderts, wife of Lieutenant Dirck Smith, at present on the South River, of the one part, and Jan Jansen from Steenderen, of the other part. She, Annetje, acknowledges that she has leased and he, Jan Jansen, that he has hired a certain plantation belonging to the lessor, situated in Mespadt, between Sergeant Jacob Luby and Jan Swaen, for the term of six consecutive years, commencing on the date hereof and ending on the 8^th of October anno 1661, on the following conditions, to wit:

The lessee must clear annually one morgen adjoining the land that is cleared at present. The morgen which he shall clear the first year, he shall have the use of for two years for himself, in return for his labor, it being understood that the two years shall begin when he begins to clear the land, but the third year the lessor must deliver half the seed grain and the lessee the other half which is to be sown on the land, which sowing the lessee is to do, and the lessee shall have one half and the lessor the other half of what shall be cut therefrom. The same rule shall apply to what shall be cleared the second, third and fourth years, but of the land which the lessee shall clear the fifth and sixth years he shall have the use for himself until the expiration of the term of the lease. For the land which is cleared at present, being about one morgen, the lessor must annually deliver half the seed grain, in return for which he shall receive half the crop. It is further understood and agreed, if it happen that the lessee should clear more land than the six morgens, that he shall be paid therefor what two arbitrators shall judge has been earned. Furthermore, the lessor promises to deliver to the lessee with the aforesaid plantation upon halves one cow, the increase of which at the end of the term of the lease shall be divided and distributed half and half; also one gelding, valued at fl. 100, upon half risk, likewise four sows and nine young pigs, upon half risk and half the increase; one axe, 3 wedges, 2 spades, if adzes, 2 small mill-stones with one axle, one pall and one new canoe, valued at fl. 25, which at the termination of the lease he must deliver back in as good condition, or replace by another. Furthermore, the lessee must keep the fence tight and at the expiration of the lease deliver it again in tight condition to the lessor. Thus done in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, the 12^th of October anno 1655.

[ Not signed ]

References

Translation: Scott, K., & Stryker-Rodda, K. (Ed.). New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, Vol. 3, Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1648-1660 (A. Van Laer, Trans.). Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.: 1974.A complete copy of this publication is available on the New Netherland Institute website.