Dutch-Colonies-L Archives

From: John H. Camp< >
Subject: Pain of Execution
Date: Wed, 20 Aug 1997 06:31:12 -0400

Howdy one and all,

A number of years ago I copied off some information from various works of
court minutes from the early days of Albany and environs concerning my
ancestor Pieter Loockermans.

In several instances I copied down something that struck me as curious and
a tad unsettling. As a for instance, here's something I copied out of Vol.
I of the Court Minutes of Fort Orange (translated by A.J.P. Van Laer):

On 15 January 1658 in the case of Pieter Winnen, plaintiff, vrs. Pieter
Loockerman, defendant, the plaintiff demands fl62:- for boards, payment must
include two beavers. The defendant admits the debt and promised to pay in
6 weeks under penalty of execution.

"Penalty of execution"??? Could someone please explain this? They're not
talking about using my ancestor for target practice, are they? It all sounds
so sinister to the 20th century mind.

But, on a less sinister note, I have another question about something found
in the misc. court records. I copied down a number of instances where the
word "default" was bandied around. I no longer have these books available
to me so I can't tell if what I wrote down was exactly what was in the books
or if I was tired of copying and took to shorthand notation (this was done some
10 years ago). But here is an example of what I mean:

From the Court Minutes of Rensselaerwyck:

(page 29) April 15 1649 The honorable director 1st default Pieter Loockermans

Could someone please explain what is going on here? Did Pieter owe money/
goods/services to the director and miss a payment deadline?

Any and all help on these matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

John H. Camp

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• Pain of Execution by John H. Camp< >