HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 129

On the 6th of August, 1655, by order of Governor Stuyvesant, the inhabitants of the country were convened for the purpose of ascertaining whether they approved of the Rev. Johannes Theodorus Polhemus, their “provisional minister,” and what salary they were willing to pay him.1 The Sheriff reported that they approved of Mr. Polhemus, and would pay him a salary of 1,040 guilders per year,2 to be raised by a yearly tax.

Mr. Polbemus, a descendant of an ancient and highly respectable family in the Netherlands, had come to New Amsterdam during the preceding year from Itamarea, in Brazil, where he had been laboring as a missionary. He was immediately settled in Flatbush, where he subsequently received a patent for a part of the premises recently owned by the late Jeremiah Lott, Esq. He was an eminently pious and faithful preacher of the Gospel, and although, as we shall see in the following pages, his hearers in the town of Breuckelen were not altogether satisfied with him, it is evident that their opposition proceeded from no lack of personal respect, nor from any doubts of his Christian character.

In February, 1656, the magistracy of Midwout and Amersfoort asked permission to request a voluntary contribution from the people of the three Dutch towns, towards the proper maintenance of the Gospel.3 To this the Breuckelen people respectfully objected, saying, “as the Rev. John Polhemus only acts as a minister of the Gospel in the village of Midwout, therefore the inhabitants of the village of Breuckelen and adjacent districts are disinclined to subscribe or promise any thing for the maintenance of a Gospel minister who is of no use to them.” They therefore solicited “with reverence” that the Rev. Mr. Polhemus might be allowed to preach alternately in Breuckelen and Midwout, in which case they were “very Willing to contribute cheerfully to his support, agreeable to their abilities.” Otherwise they begged to be excused from contributing to his maintenance.4 To this the Director and Council replied that they had “no objection that the Rev. Polhemus, when the weather

1 N. Y. Col. MSS., vi. 71.

2 Equal to about $416. 8 Col. MSS., vi. 278, Feb.

3,1656.

4 Col. MSS., vi. 299, Feb., 1656. This remonstrance of Breuckelen was signed by Joris Dircksen, Albert Cornelissen and Joris Rappelje.