New Netherland Provincial Secretary Register of the Provincial Secretary

The provincial secretary of New Netherland was an employee of the Dutch West India Company. He was responsible for recording and authenticating official documents for potential presentation in court. Along with the director-general and other councilors, he was also a member of the Provincial Council, the colony's main governing body. The Provincial Council and director-general created and carried out laws relating to the operation of the colony. The council also served as a judicial panel, hearing all cases in which capital punishment could be invoked and reviewing decisions of lower courts on appeal, as well as serving as the local court for the New Amsterdam area.

The register of the provincial secretary contains a vast array of legal documents that were filed with the secretary in conjunction with civil and criminal proceedings. Records relating to the administration of real property include deeds, leases, mortgages, indentures, patents, and surveys. Commercial records include contracts, inventories, agreements, accounts, bonds, returns, receipts, bills of sale, certificates, invoices, and charters. Records relating to personal and family matters include powers of attorney, wills, estate inventories, marriage contracts, adoptions, complaints, protests, and counter protests. Documentation of other civil and criminal matters appears in declarations, affidavits, reports, discharges, stipulations, appointments, assignments of claims, notices of appeal, minutes of interviews, mandamuses, manumissions, like bonds, and bequests.

The register of the provincial secretary originally constituted volumes 1-3 of the New York Historical Manuscripts in the New York State Library. Volume 1 was completely destroyed in the New York State Capitol fire of 1911; however, a partial transcription was not in the building and survived. Volumes 1 and 2 (1638-1647) were created during Willem Kieft's tenure as director-general of New Netherland. Volume 3 (1648-1660) documents a portion of his successor Petrus Stuyvesant's tenure (1647-1664). The original records are in the Dutch language.

Microfilm of the English translation by Van Laer 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.

A1882 Dutch colonial land deeds, contains related records

A1880 Dutch patents and deeds, contains related records.

Abstracted and indexed in: E.B. O'Callaghan's Calendar of Historical Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State, 1:17-60.

Translated in: New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, trans. Arnold J. F. Van Laer, ed. Kenneth Scott and Kenn Stryker-Rodda, Vols. 1-3: Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1638-1660 [sic] (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1974).

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.