Document: Order to the fiscal to warn certain lewd women to amend their conduct

1654 New Amsterdam 23 May.

Whereas the director-general and council have received several complaints of the bad behavior, inordinately [ ] and dissolute lifestyles practiced for some time now, to the shame and disgrace of our nation, by Mareye de Truy, otherwise called Eenhoorn,[1] presently innkeeper and wife of Jan Peeck, innkeeper on the Heere Wech; by Cristyntien Greveraeht, otherwise called Liestentien, wife of Hendrick Hendricksz, tailor, also living on the Heere Wech; as well as by Geertien Jacobsz,[2] commonly known as the Schoone Boerin,[3] wife of Geurt Coerten, drayman, also living on the Heere Wech. Therefore, the director-general and council hereby order and direct their fiscal to notify the aforesaid women and other consorts of theirs, passed by here unnamed for propriety's sake, that they either have to change their way of living, or else, with failure to do so, they are to make themselves ready to leave this province at the first opportunity. The fiscal is further ordered to keep a close watch on the aforesaid women and their associates; and if during the night any other whores or whoremasters are found with the aforesaid persons at other places or uncommon places among the English, they are to be apprehended along with the aforesaid women and brought before the director-general and council. Done at the session of the director-general and high council held in New Amsterdam in New Netherland, 23 May 1654; and was signed: P. Stuyvesant, Nicasius de Sille, C. van Werckhooven, La Montangne.

Rights: This translation is provided for education and research purposes, courtesy of the  New York State Library Manuscripts and Special Collections, Mutual Cultural Heritage Project. Rights may be reserved. Responsibility for securing permissions to distribute, publish, reproduce or other use rest with the user. For additional information see our Copyright and Use Statement Source: New York State Archives. New Netherland. Council. Dutch colonial council minutes, 1638-1665. Series A1809. Volume 5.