RegisterofPSVol2

Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1642 – 1647 ׀ 256
Rapalje, chief boatswain, being in full possession of his memory and understanding as it appeared to
us, declared that he, having reflected on the certainty of death and the uncertainty of the hour thereof,
and wishing therefore to anticipate all such uncertainty by certain testamentary disposition and thus
proceeding to the disposal of his means and effects, he, the testator, orders and directs that after his
death, out of his monthly wages which he has earned in the service of the honorable West India
Company, chamber at Amsterdam, there be given and paid to the poor of the Reformed Church at
Amsterdam the sum of two hundred guilders; to Jannitje Tielmans, his, the testator’s, sweetheart or
betrothed, he gives and bequeaths the sum of two hundred and fifty guilders, provided she has
remained unmarried and a spinster to this date. He, the testator, likewise gives and bequeaths to
Geertjen Dircksen, his only sister, the remainder of his earned monthly wages, provided that the
aforesaid Geertjen, his, the testator’s, sister, shall pay from the balance of his monthly wages all
the expenses of his burial, etc. In case the above mentioned Jannitjen Tielmans be married or
deceased, he, the testator, provides and directs that his above mentioned sister shall receive the
two hundred and fifty guilders. In like manner, if the testator’s sister above mentioned should
have died before the date hereof, or when this will shall be produced in Holland, the aforesaid
moneys must be deposited in the name of her children who, when they come of age, shall pro rata
share and receive the same with the interest thereof. He, the testator, also gives and bequeaths to
Jan Jansen Gorter, welgh-house porter of the Withoede Veem, 314 all the goods which belong to the
testator and are in his, Gorter’s, possession, according to the inventory thereof in the hands of the
said Jan Jansz Gorter. In like manner he, Jan Dircksen, gives and bequeaths to his comrade Jan
Claessen from Bellicum all the property which he shall leave behind here in this country. Finally,
the testator commends his soul after his death to the hands of God and his body to a Christian
burial and requests that his testament and last will may have effect and be valid before all lords,
courts, tribunals and judges, especially as he, the testator, revokes all previous testaments,
codicils, or donations, which heretofore may have been made or executed by him, in whatever
form or manner they may have been made or written. In token of the truth this is signed by the
above mentioned Jan Dircksen from Amsterdam with his own hand, although lying in bed, in the
presence of Commander Jelmer Tomasz and Paulus Leendertsz, naval store keeper, Hans Kirsteede
and Willem Heys, surgeons, the day and year above written, in New Amsterdam, New Netherland.
314 “White Hat Association”; one of the various small organizations of members of the weigh-house porters’ guild,
which were established at an early date for purposes of cooperative work and mutual benefit and which were
distinguished by the color of the hats worn by them.
New Netherland Research Center New Netherland Institute