NEW UTRECHT



	In 1652 Cornelis VAN WERCKHOVEN arrjved in New Amsterdam with his two sons 
and their tutor Jacques CORTELYOU.  He was a member of the Dutch West India Company. 
Before sailing from the Netherlands, he had purchased, through an agent, a large tract 
of land on Long Island on which he hoped to place the fifty settlers which would 
entitle him to the privilege of being a patroon.

	He visited his land and erected a house upon it; in 1654 he returned to Holland 
to procure his settlers, leaving CORTELYOU in charge of his children and his property. 
He died while he was on the trip.

	Acting as the agent of VAN WERCKHOVEN'S heirs, CORTELYOU asked permission to plant a 
village on the VAN WERCKHOVEN tract. He was told to lay it out on "the east hook of the 
bay of the North River opposite Coney Island."

	The land was divided into twenty plots of fifty acres each and distributed among 
nineteen men, one plot being kept for the poor It was named New Utrecht after both 
CORTELYOU's and VAN WERCKHOVEN'S home in the Netherlands. In 1661, it received a town 
government.

	On 6 February 1660, the orange, white and blue flag of the house of Orange was raised 
for the first time on the occasion of Pieter STUYVESANT'S visit. A public pound was 
established. In the same year, its most distinguished citizen Nicasius de SILLE, who was 
also a poet, scholar and Schout-Fiscal of New Netherland, wrote its history.

	Its church was organized in 1677 but the building for holding services was not erected 
until 1700. A painting of this is reproduced here.


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