HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 113

November 28, 1658, the burgomasters and schepens of Nieuw Amsterdam, in a petition for, an annual fair (for lean cattle, to be held during the month of May, and for fat cattle, from the 20th to the last of November), desire that no stranger in attendance shall be liable to arrest or summons; also, that the ferryman shall ferry over all cattle going to the fair, at 25 stivers per head (instead of 20 stivers), with an accompanying reservation that he shall ferry back, free, all cattle not sold at the fair. The petition was agreed to.1

In February, 1660, the villages of Breuckelen and New Utrecht were ordered to be immediately put into a state of defence, with palisades, etc., and the Hon. Nicasius de Sille was directed to survey and attend thereto.2

During the same month, several Frenchmen settled, by Stuyvesant’s permission, at a place “between Mespath Kil and Norman’s Kil,” and laid the foundation of a village since known as Boswick, or Bushwick, now included in the Eastern District of the city of Brooklyn.

On the 1st of March, 1660, Aert Anthonissen Middagh, Teunis Gybertsen Bogart, Jean Le Clerc, Gerrit Heyndrick Backer, Philip Barchstoel, Christina Cappoens, Jacob Kip, and Joris Rapalje, all residents of the Waal-boght neighborhood, petitioned the Director for permission to form a village “on the margin of the river, between the lands of said Bogaert and Kip, so that,” as they expressed it, “we may be in sight of the Manhatans, or Fort Amsterdam.”3 The position selected was, probably, the elevated point of land which jutted into the river about the foot of South Fourth street, in the present Eastern District of our city, and which was known in the ancient time as the “Keike,” or “Lookout.” Jacob Kip, the owner4 of the land adjoining the Hans Hansen (Bergen) patent (described pages 88 to 97), had been secretary of Nieuw Amsterdam, and was an influential and enterprising man in the colony. It was, probably, owing to his desire to improve the value of his real estate, by securing the establishment of a village thereon, that this petition was made; and his influence with the authorities was such, that permission was granted to erect the

1 N. Y. Col. MSS., viii. 1047.

2 Ibid., ix. 78.

3 Ibid., ix. 522.

4 There is, however, no evidence that he ever resided on the property.