History of the Town of Flatbush

to promote their domestic comfort, to render themselves useful to one another, and make them quite independent of extraneous aid. It is worthy of remark, that it was a general rule for every parent to cause his sons to be instructed in some useful mechanical business, although intended for farmers, and that this practice was invariably continued until the commencement of the revolutionary war. In the original subdivision of the town amongst the different proprietors, it will be perceived, as above stated, that the allotments of land were made only for those who intended to obtain the means of subsistence by the cultivation of the earth. There was therefore no provision as yet made for mechanics, who might desire to make a permanent residence here. Upon the introduction of a few mechanics, it was perceived that from the ability and employments of the inhabitants generally, there was but little prospect of their being able to support themselves, and their families in any comfortable way, without the cultivation of some land, at least for family subsistence. The attention of the inhabitants was directed to this subject, and the church lands were thereupon divided into suitable and convenient parcels, so as to accommodate the mechanics, and let to them for low and reasonable rents. A tract of woodland was also purchased and patented, lying to the east of the town and north of what is called Flatlands Neck, expressly for the benefit of the mechanics, and appropriately called Keuters Hook, or Mechanics Hook. The inhabitants of the town were at, and about that time, divided into two classes, called Keuters or mechanics, and Boers, or Farmers; and this distinction was kept up for years afterwards. The date of the Patent of Keuters Hook cannot now be ascertained with precision, but was probably not very long after the surrender of the country to the English.

About this time the court was removed from Flatbush to Gravesend. This was no doubt, in consequence of the latter town being chiefly settled by English emigrants, and the authorities were disposed from this circumstance to favor them. The first records of the court, now in the Clerk's office of the county, are dated at Gravesend, in the years 1668.—69.

Shortly after the surrender of the colony to the English, the towns of Brooklyn, Bushwick, Midwout, or Flatbush, Amersford, or Flatlands, and New-Utrecht, were formed into a separate district, for certain purposes, by the name of the "Five Dutch Towns." For these towns a Secretary or Clerk, was specially appointed, whose duties appear to have been confined to the taking acknowledgments of transports and marriage settlements, and proof of wills, &c. In 1674, this office was held by "Nicasius De Sille, in the absence of Sr. Ffrancis De Brugh." He was succeeded in the year 1675, by Machiel Hainelle, who had been schoolmaster in Flatbush during the previous year. In the acknowledgments which he took, he styles himself "Clerk." In the same year the court of Sessions for the West Riding of Yorkshire,* which then sat in Gravesend, after setting forth the appointment of Hainelle, and calling him "Secretary," declared, "It is the opinion of the court, that for what publique or private business he shall doe, he ought to have reasonable satisfacon."

New Lots, which was originally called Ostwout, or East-Woods, on account of its lying east of Midwout or