Document: Adoption by Pieter Wolphertsen van Couwenhoven of Aeltje Pieters as his child and heir

[ I, the undersigned, ][ Pieter ] Wolphersen, [ hereby ] acknowledge for myself, [ my heirs and ] successors, that this day, date underwritten, I have adopted, as I do hereby adopt, Aeltje Pieters, my own daughter,[1] whom I have begotten and procreated by Maria de Truy, therefore promising from this date to do by the above named my daughter as a God-fearing father is bound and ought to do by his own and legitimate daughter. Therefore, I hereby discharge and release Cornelis Volckersen,[2] husband and guardian of the above named Maria de Truy, from all charges and responsibilities incidental to the bringing up of a child till she becomes of age, I, Pieter Wolphersen, promising to look after the child, to let her learn to read and to bring her up according to my means. Furthermore, if I do not beget any children by my present wife, the above named child shall be my rightful heir and inheritrix as if she were duly begotten in lawful wedlock; and if it happen that children be begotten by me and my wife, the above named Aeltjen Pieters shall receive like the legitimate children on my side a just child’s portion of all such goods, means and effects as the Lord God Almighty shall be pleased to bestow upon me.

Requesting that this may have effect before all courts, I have signed this without fraud in the presence of the subscribing witnesses hereto invited. Done the 7th of January 1642.

Pieter Wolphersen
Jacob Couwenhoven
Philippe du Trieux
Cornelis van Tienhoven