Document: Dutch colonial council minutes, 10-18 April 1642

On the 10th of April 1642

Cornelio vander Hoykens, fiscal, plaintiff, vs. Jan Celes, defendant, in regard to the shooting of a hog. [ The court ] having seen the complaint of the fiscal and the depositions connected therewith, the case is adjourned until a week from today, when judgment will be pronounced, according to which the defendant will have to govern himself.

Tobias Teunessen, plaintiff, vs. Hendrick van Dyck, defendant, in regard to a certain dispute. Parties have agreed with each other.

Abraham Ryken, plaintiff, vs. Jaques Bentyn, defendant.

The defendant proves that hogs were eaten at the house of the plaintiff.

On the 13th of April[1]

Whereas many persons come here in New Netherland daily both from New England and Virginia who carry their passports under foot and have run away from their masters and who afterward occasion much trouble here, as has been shown recently in several instances; Therefore, to prevent all disorders, we have prohibited and forbidden, as we hereby do prohibit and forbid, all our good inhabitants here from this time forward to lodge any strangers in their houses, or to furnish them more than one meal, or to harbor them more than one night, without first obtaining a permit from the director and having their names recorded, so that it may be known what sort of people are here and whence they came, under penalty of 50 guilders and responsibility for the actions of the person whom they harbor. Let every one be warned hereby and save himself from damage.

Thus done in our council and published in Fort Amsterdam on the date above written.