the favour of the sover- eign Lords of Holland. But history shows that land patents were never supposed to imply either birth, breeding, or previous rank of any kind on the part of the recipient. Patroonships, like houses, lands, ships, or peltries, were in the market to be purchased for money. Exactly the requirements insisted upon by the company may be learned from the following ex- cerpt from a bill of "Freedoms and Exemptions," granted by the West India Company in 1 640 : All good inhabitants of the Netherlands and all others in- clined to plant any Colonies in New Netherland shall be at liberty to send three or four persons in the Company's ships going thither, to examine the circumstances there, on condition that they swear to the articles, as well as the officers and seamen, as far as they relate to them, and pay for board and passage out and home, to wit, those who eat in the master's cabin, fifteen stivers Digitized by Microsoft® Early Settlers of the Hudson Valley 89 per day, and those who go and eat in the orlop, shall have their board and passage gratis, and in case of an attack, offensive or defensive, they shall be obliged to lend a hand with the others, on condition of receiving, should any of the enemy's ships be overcome, their share of the booty pro rata, each according to his quality, to wit: the Colonists eating out of the Cabin shall be rated with the seamen, and those eating in the cabin with the Company's servants who board there and have the lowest rate of pay. In the selection of lands, those who shall have first notified and presented themselves to the Company, whether Patroons or private Colonists, shall be preferred to others who may follow. In case any one be deceived in selecting ground, or should the place by him chosen afterwards not please him, he will, upon previous representation to the Governor and Council then be at liberty to select another situation. For Patroons and Feudatories of New Netherland, shall be acknowledged all such as shall ship hence, and plant there a Colonie of fifty souls, above fifteen years of age, within the space of three years after having made a declaration and given notice thereof, to some Chamber of the Company here or to the Gover- nor or Council there; namely, one-third part within the year, and so forth, from year to year, until the number be completed, on pain of losing, through notorious neglect, the cJbtained Free- doms and cattle^ But they shall be warned that the Company reserves the Island Manhattes to itself. All Patroons and Feudatories shall, on requesting it, be granted Venia Testandi, or the power to dispose of, or bequeath, his fief by Will. For Masters or Colonists, shall be acknowledged, those who will remove to New Netherland with five souls above fifteen years; to all such, our Governor there shall grant in property one hundred morgens, Rhineland measure, of land, contiguous one to the other, wherever they please to select. And the Patroons, of themselves or by their agents, at the places where they will plant their Colonies, shall have the privi- lege to extend the latter one mile (consisting of, or estimated at, 1600 Rhineland perches) along the coast, bay or a navigable Digitized by Microsoft® 90 The Hudson River river, and two contiguous miles landward in ; it being well under- stood, that no two Patroonships shall be selected on both sides of a river or bay, right opposite to each other; and that the Com- pany retains to itself the property of the lands lying between the limits of the Colonies, to dispose thereof hereafter according to its pleasure ; and that the Patroons and Colonists shall be obliged to give each other an outlet and issue, (uytteweeghen ende uyttewateren) at the nearest place and at the smallest expense; and in case of disagreement, it shall be settled in the presence and by the decision of the Governor for the time being. The Patroons shall forever possess all the lands situate within their limits, together with the produce, superficies, minerals, rivers and fountains thereof, with high, low and middle jurisdic- tion, hunting, fishing, fowling and milling, the lands remaining allodial, but the jurisdiction as of a perpetual hereditary fief, devolvable by death as well to females as to males, and fealty and homage for which is to be rendered to the Company, on each of such occasions, with a pair of iron gauntlets, redeemable by twenty guilders within a year and six weeks, at the Assembly of the XIX., here, or before the Governor there; with this under- standing, that in case of division of said fief or jurisdiction, be it high,