HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 81

property was sold by Haes, on 4th of January, 1652, to Cornelis de Potter, who on the same day became the owner of lands in the same vicinity, previously owned by Cornelis Dircksen (Hooglandt), the ferryman (ante, pp. 75, 76).1 The property afterwards came into possession of Aert Aertsen (Middagh), the ancestor of the Middagh family, who, in 1710, erected a mill on this Hook, where a natural pond in the marsh, requiring a short dam, afforded the necessary facilities. He sold, Feb. 9, 1713, an undivided half of the premises to Hans Jorisse Bergen, who, on the 28th January, 1722-3, conveyed to Cornelius Evertse the same, described as “one-half of the meadow, sand, creek, grist-mill, dam, beach of the old dwelling-house, bolting-mill and bolting-house (the new dwelling-house only excepted), situated in Brooklyn, at a place called Marty’s Hook, as in fence, and as bought by the said Hans Jorisse Bergen of Aert Aertsen (Middagh).”2 This above-mentioned mill, built by Middagh, is undoubtedly identical with that marked on Ratzer's plan as Remsen's Mill; and the same property in the Wallabout (now occupied by the United States Navy-yard), together with the land as far as the line of Gold street, was afterwards known as the Remsen estate. As such it belonged to Rem A. Remsen, who died in 1785,

1 N. Y. Col. MSS., iii. 100.

2 Conveyances, liber IV. 309,336, Kings County Reg. office. Aert Anthonize (or Teunisen) Middag, the ancestor of the Middag family of Brooklyn, married Breckje (or Rebecca), second daughter of Hans Hansen Bergen and Sarah RapaIje; and on the 24th of October, 1654, together with his wife's step-father, Teunis Gysbert (Bogaert), received a patent for "a piece of land lying on Long Island, named Cripplebush," adjoining the land of Joris Rapalje, and containing 100 acres. This is supposed to be the land since owned by Folkert Rapalje, in the Wallabout, and the patent is not recorded. Middagh was an early resident of the Waal-boght, where his children were born. They were (1), Jan, baptized Dec. 24, 1662, who signed his name Jan Aersen, and married Adriaentje, daughter of Cornelis de Potter (mentioned on pp. 76, 77), and owned some 200 acres on the East River, west of Fulton street, since known as the Comfort and Joshua Sands property; (2), Garret, who married, in 1691, Cornelis Janse Cowenhoven, and had a farm of thirty acres, near the ferry, on the west side of the present Fulton, near Henry street; (3), Dirck, who married, and, as well as his brother, had children.

The farm of Garret Middagh, above-mentioned, may be described as bounded, on our present maps, by Fulton street, a line midway between and parallel to Henry and Hicks streets, and a line about midway between Pierrepont and Clarke streets. It descended to his son Aert, and in 1827, when the property had become valuable, on account of the expansion of the village, a lawsuit occurred in the family as to the pro. visions of his will. The family name is now extinct, being only commemorated by a street on the Heights. A portion of the old Middagh mansion in, however, standing on Fulton street, just below Henry street.