Document: Dutch colonial council minutes, 11 September 1642

Court proceedings. Cornelis Melyn vs. Egbert Woutersen, for loss of the services of defendant's daughter, who had engaged to be married before her term of service expired; Elsje Jans, the maiden in question, testified that her mother and another woman had brought a young man to Staten Island, whom she had never seen before, and desired her to marry him; she declined at first, as she did not know him, and had no inclination to marry, but finally consented; she concluded by returning in court the pocket handkerchief she had received as a marriage present. [1642]