THE CASTELLO PLAN                                   301

No. 15

This grant, made to Domine Megapolensis, April 24, 1650, was the land which had been
In the early occupation of Claes Sybrantsen de Verlngh. Sybrantsen appears to have been
a mariner; in 1638, he was a partner of Skipper Jan Schepmoes. He died after June 19,
1642, and before June 22, 1643, when this property is recited as belonging to his widow
(Cat. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 3; Liber GG: 67, Albany), who married Brant Peelen, from
Nykerck, an early Albany settler, July 3, 1643.—Van Rensselaer Bowier MSS., 806; Cal.
Hist. MSS., Dutch, 23.

Sybrantsen's home was the last dwelling at the end of the Steegie. The fence lines,
so clearly defined on the Plan of 1660, are equally distinguishable on the tax map of 1915.
The west line of No. 8 South William Street is Identical with the west fence of the garden.
The line which separates No. 8 South William Street and the rear wing of the present
Delmonico Building from Nos. 48 and 50 Beaver Street Is coincident with the north fence
of the old garden.

In 1660, this house belonged to Domine Megapolensis, but very shortly thereafter the
old building was torn down, Jan Hendricks van Bommel bought the most westerly third
of the plot, Engelbert Steenhuysen the remainder. The deeds for both parcels were de¬
livered, March 10, 1663.—Recitals in Patents II; 170 (Albany); Liber Deeds, B: 4; cf.
Deeds y Conveyances (etc.), 1659-1664, trans, by O'Callaghan, 294-5.

On October 10, 1662, Pieter Jansen van Werckendam, who had bought from Steen¬
huysen, sold his house and lot in the Slyck Steegh, "being the net and just half of the lot
formerly purchased by said Englebert from D° Joannes Megapolensis," to Hendrick Hen-
drlx van Doesburgh.—Register of Solomon Lachaire, trans, by O'Callaghan, 416-7. Steen¬
huysen also sold his own house, in 1665, to Van Doesburgh (Liber Deeds, B: 72; cf. Mort¬
gages, 1665-1675, trans, by O'Callaghan, 53), who was assessed here, in 1677, as Henry Van-
dusbury.—Af. C. C, I: 58.

"Jan Hendrick van Bommel, en zyn h. v. Annetje Abrahams," were still living here in
1686.—Selyns's List, In N. Y. Hist. Soc. Collections, 1841, p. 397.

Engelbert Steenhuysen was living in Bergen in 1662, when the community "resolved to
employ him not only as precentor, but also—this was expressly stipulated--to keep school."
Steenhuysen, being the owner of "a house and lot and of a double bouwery" In Bergen,
became very haughty. He refused to pay taxes or maintain a soldier, asserting that "a
schoolmaster should be exempt from all village taxes and burden; as it Is customary, . . .
everywhere In Christendom." So he resigned; the magistrates appealed to the director
and council; and Steenhuysen was directed to "duly serve the rest of his term according
to contract."—A^. Y. Col. Docs., XIII; 318-9; reprinted in Eccles Rec, I: 539.

In 1790, the Custom House, at No. 5 Mill Street, occupied Van Doesburgh's plot.

No. 16

Domine Megapolensis sold this small house to Pieter Gysen, from Doornyck. The deed
was delivered on the same day as the others from the same grantor—March 10, 1663.—
Liber Deeds, B: 3; cf. Deeds y Conveyances (etc.), 1659-1664, trans, by O'Callaghan, 290-1.

Peter Gys had been living in a house of Thomas Wandel, which "he let to another"
when he moved to his own house. He also left an unpaid balance of a year's rent—fl. 138.
Wandel sued him, August 31, 1660. Pieter said his late landlord had "promised him to
make the house tight and habitable and did not do so, and when he mentioned it, his wife
said to him, if it don't suit you, go out."—Rec. N. Am., Ill: 196. In 1667, Pieter Gysen
van Doornick, by his attorney, Gerrit Jansen van Aernheim, sold the house to Nicolaes