Interrogatory of Eduart Hart
What type of document is this?
Thursday, the 3rd of January 1658.
When was this document written?
Present in council, his honor, the director general Petrus Stuyvesant and the honorable councilors Nicasius de Sille, and Peter Tonneman.
Who was present when this document was written?
Eduart Hart, clerk of the magistrates of Vlissingen, appearing upon summons, was examined.
What happened when this document was written?
1 Who wrote the letter dated the 27th of December past at Vlissingen and delivered by the schout Tobias Feecq into the hands of the lord director general on the 29th of the same month?
To the 1st, that he wrote it by order of the subscriber.
To what letter is the questioner referring?
2 Whether he copied it from another draft, or whether it is his own draft?
To the 2nd, that he did not copy it from another draft, but that he wrote it according to the opinion of the people.
What determined the content of the document in question?
3 Whether all subscribers individually ordered him to write what is written in the remonstrance?
To the third, answers that no particular person gave him any directions, but that he collected those out of the opinions of the people when conceded in the village’s meeting.
According to Hart, who decided on the content of the document in question?
4 Whether they were all gathered at the time that he wrote it?
To the 4th, that not all were gathered, [but?] that some were absent.
5 Where the village meeting was held?
To the 5th: Answers, in the house of Michel Milner.
6 Whether they all signed this remonstrance there?
To the 6th: some signed in the said house and some in their own houses.
7 Who were they who signed at the meeting and who in their houses?
To the 7th, at the meeting Tobias Feakx, William Thorne signed; Nicholas Blackwod at the deponent’s house, William Pidgeon, Elias Doughty, Antonij Field, Edward Griffin, Nathaniel Tue, both the Fields, Nicolaes Percell at the deponent’s house, Michiel Milner; Henrij Townsen, asked whether he would sign his name; knows that George Wright, John Foart, Henrij Saintel signed either in the meeting or in his house.
Why might the questioner have asked Hart so many questions about the signing of the document?
8 By whose order the said village meeting, at which the remonstrance was signed, was called?
To the 8th, answers not to know that.
9 Who at the said meeting made the first proposition to write or sign the said remonstrance?
To the 9th, not to know who made the propositions.
10 Nobody he knows having made any proposition, he was asked by whose order the said remonstrance was written and signed,
To the 10th, he answers that he considered it to be his duty to inform the governor of what he thought to be the opinion of the people.
According to Hart, why did he write the remonstrance?
11 The deponent declaring that he was obliged to inform the governor of the opinion of the people, was asked how he could know the opinion of the people if there was nobody who made a proposition or gave him an order.
To the 11th, that he understood it this way from the general votes of the inhabitants.
According to Hart, how did the people make their opinion known?
12 Whether the remonstrance was written on the day of the meeting at Michael Milner’s house or before?
To the 12th; it was written before the town meeting, but he, the deponent, read it at the meeting.
13 Asked how many days before the meeting it was written?
To the 13th, says not to know whether it was written one, two, or three days or more before the meeting.
14 Whether the schout and magistrates did not firstcome to his house before they went to the meeting at Milner’s house?
To the 14th, he answers not to know this.
15 Asked whether before he read the text to the people at the meeting, he had not read it to the schout Tobias Feeck and the magistrates Eduart Farrington and William Nobel?
To the 15th, he answers that he read it to them, but that he does not know whether they approved of it.
Order for the Imprisonment of Eduard Hart
Having heard the answers of the clerk Edward Hart, it is resolved to send him to prison until further order. 3rd of January 1658.
