Mathys Capito

Castello Plan

Block C; Nos. 13 AND 14

Mathys Capito came to New Netherland as supercargo of the" Swol," the ship which brought Stuyvesant, in May, 1647.-Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 40. He was an excellent accountant and scribe; and many of his neighbours employed him to make up their books, copy invoices, etc. He did much work of this character for the government, notably when he assisted Carel van Brugge to investigate the accounts of Van Tienhoven, after the secretary's disappearance, in 1657 (ibid., 181), and when he was sent to audit the books of the late Jacob Alrichs, at the South River, in September 1660.-Ibid., 217. He purchased Cosyn Gerritsen's ground-brief, in November, 165 I (deed recorded May 3, 1657), with one house standing. The most northerly house, his own residence, he probably built. Unlike the other houses in the block, it presented its broad side to the highway. It looks like a comfortable home, but Capito was unable to keep it. He was obliged to sell it May 8, 1660, to Gabriel de Haas (Liber Deeds, A: 193), in "order to satisfy everyone." Out of the first instalment, he "paid the oldest debts first," which he thought" reasonable and just."- Rec. N. Am., II: 382. He had already parted with the southerly house, at public vendue, to Pieter Rudolphus.-Recitals in Liber Deeds, A: 193. Capito then secured the position of clerk or secretary to the village of Wildwyck, in the Esopus (now Kingston). The great trouble of his life overtook him there. In a letter to Stuyvesant, dated June 29, 1663, he describes it feelingly:

I, your Honb'e Worships' humble petitioner, have also been brought to ruin during these late troubles in the village of Wiltwyck, caused by the savages, not having lost only my dear wife, who was killed by the barbarians and then burned with the house, to which they set fire, but in the same fire also all my movable effects, that nothing else is left to me, but my honest name.-N. Y. Col. Docs., XIII: 267.

Captain Martin Cregier gives an account of the murder of Vrouw Capito, [*] in his Journal of the Second Esopus War.-Doc. Hist. N. Y., 8vo. ed., IV: 37. Capito bravely continued his duties at Wildwyck. In December, Stuyvesant appointed him successor to Schout Swartwout. Cregier said, "the commissaries congratulated hiin, and were well-pleased with him."-Idem.

Gabriel de Haas, who bought Capito's home (No. 14), died before December 22, 1661.- Min. of Orph. Court, trans. by O'Callaghan, 273. The southerly house belonged to Pieter Rudolphus, in 1660. His residence, however, was on the Prince Gracht (see No. 34 in this block). The northerly 50 feet of the Standard Arcade, Nos. 48-50 Broadway, cover the site of these houses.

[*] She was Elsie Pieters, of Hamburg. Capito was from BiitlOw, in Mecklenburg. They were married August 7, I6so.-Marriagts in Rtf. Dutch Ch., 16.

marriage DRC New amsterdam

1650 07 Aug; Mathys Capido, jm van Bontze; Elsje Pieters, van Hamburg, wid Hans Webber

(hence the name <BOON> from Bontze = BONN Germany)

Matthys Capido died date unknown. He married Elsje Pieters Van Hamburg on 1650.