86 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

twenty-two years, and until after the birth of his youngest child, in 1650. During a portion of these years he was an innkeeper or tapster, and his name frequently occurs as such upon the books of the Burgomaster’s Court until 1654. That he possessed the confidence of his fellow-citizens is evidenced by the fact, that in August, 1641, he was one of the Twelve Men representing Manhattan, Breuckelen, and Pavonia, chosen for the purpose of deliberating upon measures necessary to be adopted to punish the Indians for the murders which they had committed. About 1654,1 he probably removed his permanent residence to his farm at the “Waal-boght;” for in 1655, ’56, ’57, and 1660, he was one of the magistrates of Breuckelen, with which town his whole subsequent life was identified.

The Waal-boght farm consisted of a tract of land which he had purchased on the 16th of June, 1637, from its Indian proprietors, Kakapeteyno and Pewichaas, and called “Rinnegackonck,” situated on Long Island, south of the Island of Manhattan, and

“extending from a certain kill (creek) till into the woods, south and eastward, to a certain swamp (Kreuplebush), to a place where the water runs over the stones.”2 This was confirmed to him by a patent from Governor Kieft, dated June 17, 1643, wherein it is more fully described as “a piece of land, called Rennagaconck, formerly purchased by him from the Indians, as will appear by reference to the transport, lying on Long Island, in the bend of Marechkawieck (i.e., the Wallabout Bay), east of the land of Jan Montfoort, extending along the said land, in a southerly direction, towards and into the woods, 242 rods; by the kill and marsh, easterly, up, 390 rods; at the Sweet marsh, 202 rods on a southerly direction, into the woods; and behind, into the woods, 384 rods, in a westerly direction ; and certain outpoints next to the marsh : amounting in all to the contents of 167 morgens and 406 rod” (about 335 acres).3

On this tract, which may be described in general terms as comprising the lands now occupied by the United States Marine Hospital, and those embraced between Nostrand and Grand avenues, in

1 Riker’s Newtown, P. 267. The ale of his house and lot in the city, on the 22d June, 1654, probably fixes the date of his removal to the Wallabout,

2 Patents, a G, 20. 3 Ibid., 64.