TRINITY CHURCH.. Manhattan
....Broadway actually was in a remote and obscure part of the town. Below Crown (Liberty) Street dwelling - houses had been erected, of which a few near the Bowling Green were prodigiously fine; but north of Crown Street all the west side of Broadway was open fields. This unimproved region, beginning at the present Fulton Street and thence extending northward, was the Church Farm.* * The estate known as the Company's Farm, set aside by the Dutch to be tilled for the benefit of the Company's servants, civil and military, lay between the present Fulton and Warren streets and Broadway and the North River. Upon the English conquest, this estate became the private property of the Duke of York. Subsequently, in the year 1670, by purchase from heirs of Annetje Jans, the boundary of the Duke's Farm was carried northward as far as the present Chariton Street; possibly as far as the present Christopher Street. When the Duke of York ascended the throne the property became known as the King's Farm : and as the Queen's Farm upon the accession of Queen Anne. In this last reign, in the year 1705. reserving a quit-rent of three shillings (which was extinguished in 1786 by a payment in gross), the then Governor, Lord Cornbury, granted the entire estate to the English Church on the Island of New York, The farm-house pertaining to this farm-standing very nearly upon the site of the present Astor House-is shown on Lyne's map, immediately to the south of the Broadway rope-walk. Later it became a tavern of some celebrity-the Drovers' Inn, kept by Adam Vanderberg. Undoubtedly, the church ownership of this large parcel of land tended to delay its utilization for building purposes, and so helped to retard the extension of the city on the line of Broadway. Even in those early days the strongly American desire to build on land owned in fee operated against the use of leasehold property. Not until the need for the Church Farm became pressing was it taken for improvement on the only terms upon which it could be acquired. TO BE SOLD, At Vendue, onTuefday the 12th inft, at the Houfe of Mr John Williams, near Mr Lifpenard's: A Leafe from TrinityChurch, for Old John's Land, for 12 Years to come - ADVERTISEMENT, 1766 ANNEKE OR ANNETJE JANS (? ---1663). An early Dutch colonist of New Netherland, famous because of lawsuits concerning her farm between her heirs and the corporation of Trinity Church, New York City. She emigrated from Holland to New Netherland with her husband, Roeloff Jansen, in 1630. In 1636 the latter obtained a grant of 62 acres of land on Manhattan Island , extending from the present Warren Street to the neighborhood of Desbrosses Street, and lying between Broadway and the Hudson River. Soon afterwards Jansen died, and she married the Dutch dominic Everardus Bogardus (q.v.). In 1654, after her husband's death, she secured a patent to the farm in her own name, and later removed to Albany, where she died, leaving her property to be divided among her eight surviving children. After the English had taken possession, in 1664, all property-holders were required to secure new titles for their lands. Accordingly, the heirs secured a new patent for the farm from Governor Nicolls, on March 27, 1667. Four years later, March 9, 1671, the property was sold to Governor Lovelace, all of the heirs signing the deed of transfer except the wife and child of Cornelius Bogardus, a son of Anneke and her second husband, who had died in 1666. It is largely upon this omission that the subsequent suits have been based. Upon the recall of Governor Lovelace (q.v.), the Government confiscated the Jans farm, and subsequently granted it to Trinity Church by a patent sealed on November 23, 1705. In 1749 Cornelius Brower, a descendant of the Cornelius Bogardus whose heirs had not signed, took forcible possession of a portion of the farm, and on being evicted began an action against Trinity Church, which was decided against him. In 1757 he made another unsuccessful attempt. Another Cornelius Bogardus took possession of part of the estate in 1784, and held it until he was evicted by the courts in 1786. His son John brought suit in 1830 to secure one-thirtieth of the farm and a proportionate share of back rents. In order to secure the money necessary to carry on this suit, he sent circulars to all the descendants of Anneke Jans asking them to contribute, which they did most liberally untill 1847, when judgment was again given for the church. Since then there have been several other suits brought by the heirs, but they have been uniformly decided in favor of the defendants. Consult: Nash, Anneke Jans Bogardus: Her Farm, and How it became the Property of Trinity Church, New York (New York, 1896) ; Sandford's Chancery Reports (vol. iv., pp. 633-672) ; Schuyler's Colonial New York (vol. ii.) ; and Harper's Monthly Magazine for May, 1885. *Source: The New International Encyclopaedia Publisher: Dodd, Mead and Company-New York Copyright: 1902-1905 ____________________________________________ Maerschaick's map (1755) shows that by the middle of the last century the growth of the city, creating this pressing need, had warranted the laying out of streets through the southern portion of 'the Church property, and that five-and twenty buildings had been erected between the present Liberty Street and the palisade. But the stronger tendency of growth, it will be observed, still was towards the northeast. Advance up the middle of the island wa blocked by the Fresh Water pond and the western side it was impeded by the marsgy vallet known as Lipensard's Meadows. From the Bk : In Old New York Janvier, Thomas Orig. Copyright 1894 This bk is available at Barnes & Noble. It is in its 10th printing. The following is a time-line to the history of the Church lands and the Church http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/timeline.html Transcribers: Nancy E Lutz Miriam Medina Back To MANHATTAN Main Back To WORSHIP Main Back To BROOKLYN Main