Document: Appointment of Jan de Decker to be presiding commissary at Fort Orange

[ ] honorable director general [ ] according to creditials and having examined [ ] [ ] commissioners of Fort [ ] wijck to Jan Verbeecq, Sander[ ] and Frans Barentsen, in their capacity as emissaries and deputies of the aforesaid magistrates, and having deliberated on the oral arguments of the aforesaid commissioners, the lords councilors have deemed it advisable, because of the misfortune that has [ ] the commissary Dijckman, to send the person of Jan de Deckere to Fort Orange and the village of Beverwijck to replace him provisionally and until further orders, in order to preside as president on the bench of justice of the aforesaid magistrates, to administer civil matters and justice accordingly (pursuant to the instructions granted to the president and bench of justice by the director general and councilors), and to promote and help promote the welfare of the country and its inhabitants; and all that in compliance with the instructions issued to Jan de Deckere by which he is to regulate himself, and soon after his arrival there to be permitted to request all orders, instructions and minutes in order to acquaint himself with matters and to be able to regulate himself in his provisional duties thereafter. The honorable commissioners are hereby requested, and those affiliated with the aforesaid bench are ordered, to acknowledge and to respect the aforementioned Jan de Deckere as provisional president of the bench of justice and commissary of Fort Orange, until that time that the lord director general of councilors do so otherwise order. Done at Amsterdam in New Netherland, ady ut supra (was signed:) Nicasius de Sille, La Montagne. 1655.