Henricus Jansz Selyns

For an excellent story about Henricus Selyns and his arrival in New Amsterdam - in 1660 - please click here

in part

"Henricus Selyns was the son of Jan Selyns and Agneta Kock, of Amsterdam, Netherlands, where he was born in 1636. He was educated for the ministry and his ancestors were clergymen in the Reformed church in Holland for a century previous to his birth.

"Letters of accreditation in hand, the two young ministers arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam in the spring of 1660. However, Gov. Stuyvesant, by whom alone all public appointments--ecclesiastical as well as civil--could be accredited, was then absent at Esopus [Kingston], negotiating a peace with the Indians. And when that had been concluded, he paid a visit to Fort Orange. To both of these places the two young clergymen followed him to deliver their letters. So it was not until 7 Sept. 1660 that Rev. Mr. Henricus Selyns was formally installed into the church at Breuckelen.

"To supplement his salary, Rev. Selyns was also permitted to officiate on Sunday afternoons at Gov. Stuyvesant's farm, Bouwerie (now Bowery), New York, where he taught Negroes and the poor whites. The Bouwerie was a "sort of stopping-place and pleasure-ground of the Manhattans." Here, his audiences consisted mostly of people from the city, and, besides Stuyvesant's own household, about forty negroes who lived in that neighborhood, in what was known as the "Negro quarter." After Selyns' installation at Breuckelen, Dominie Polhemus confined his services to Midwout and Amersfoort.