New Netherland Council Dutch Colonial Land Deeds

Chronological by date.

In 1640, the State General of Holland approved a new charter of "Freedoms and Exemptions" in which the West India Company gave up its trade monopoly and removed the burdens from land ownership - new land grants could be transferred by sale or will, subject only to an oath of allegiance. As a result, there was an immediate increase in the population of New Netherland. Colonists included not only those from Holland, but also English settlers who were driven from New England by religious persecution. The new landholders took the oaths of allegiance to the West India Company and to the States General of Holland.

The provincial secretary was responsible for recording all land transactions in New Netherland. Depending on the administration, records were kept in separate books or recorded in the secretary's minutes.

This series contains deeds recorded by the provincial secretary from September 5, 1652 until October 15, 1653. During this period, the provincial secretary maintained a separate book of deeds, which he labeled "II." Prior to and following this period, deeds were recorded in the register of the provincial secretary. Most of the deeds record the conveyance of real property on the island of Manhattan between private individuals.

This series originally constituted Dutch record book II (referred to as HH, Part 1 in E.B. O'Callaghan's Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State, Albany, N.Y.). The original records are in the Dutch language.

Microfilm is available at the New York State Archives (produced by the New York State Library); however, the film is not fully legible and may be incomplete.

High resolution images of all original documents in this series are available in State Archives Digital Collections.

A0270 Register of the Provincial Secretary contains additional patents and deeds from the Dutch period.

A1880 Dutch Patents and Deeds contains "Indian deeds" which record the purchase of land from Native Americans for the West India Company and several patroons.

A4688 Grantor index to deeds and other miscellaneous documents recorded or filed by the Secretary of State indexes this series.

A4689 Grantee index to deeds and other documents recorded or filed by the Secretary of State and Office of General Services indexes this series.

A4690 Location index to deeds and other documents recorded or filed by the Secretary of State and Office of General Services indexes this series. There are also deeds from the period 1653-1665 in the "Records of New Amsterdam" held at the New York City Clerk's office. The Albany County (New York) Hall of Records holds deeds from the Dutch period beginning in 1654.

Item list: E.B. O'Callaghan's Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State (1866).

Each index entry includes the name and role of the individual referenced in the deed, the document date, its location within the series, and a link to a digitized copy of the deed.

Translated in: New York Historical Manuscripts, Dutch: Land Papers, Volumes GG, HH & II, trans. and ed. Charles T. Gehring (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1980). New York Historical Manuscripts, Dutch: Land Papers, Volumes GG, HH & II, trans. and ed. Charles T. Gehring (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1980). Books GG and HH Part 2 contain recorded grants (patents) of land by the director and council of New Netherland, and a few Indian deeds. Book II (also designated as HH Part 1) contains recorded private conveyances (deeds).

Dutch patents for New Amsterdam are abstracted and mapped in I. N. Phelps Stokes, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909, 6 vols. (New York: 1916; repr. Union, N.J.: 1998), 2:353-411. Dutch patents for Beverwyck (established 1654, renamed Albany in 1664) are abstracted and indexed in Janny Venema, Beverwijck: A Dutch Village on the American Frontier, 1642-1664 (Hilversum and Albany: 2003), Appendices 3, 8.

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