304 HISTORY OF BROOKLYN.

CHAPTER V.

THE EARLY SETTLERS AND PATENTS OF BUSHWICK.

On page 26 of our first volume, we stated that the territory embraced within the ancient town of Bushwick was purchased from its Indian proprietors, by the West India Company, in August, 1688; and, on pages 29 and 44 of the same volume, we have indicated the beginnings of its earliest settlement (1641 - 1650) by certain Swedes and Norwegians, or Normans as they were called, together with a few Dutchmen. These persons, such as Bergen and Moll at the Wallabout, Carstaenscn and Borsin on the East river, Volkertse at Green point, and Jan the Swede on the site of the subsequent village of Bushwick, seem to have occupied and cultivated their bouweries, independently of one another, and subject directly to the authority of the director and council at Manhattan, from whom they received their patents. And, as we have no evidence of any attempt to lay out a regular settlement, or to organize a town, until 1660, a period of over twenty years from the date of the first patent, we deem it proper, before proceeding with the historical annals of the town, to devote a few pages to a discussion of its original settlers and patents, prior to that date.

I.

In the consideration of Hans Hansen Bergen’s patent at the Waaleboght (vol. I, pages 88 to 95), it will be remembered that we reached and somewhat exceeded the boundary line between the towns of Brooklyn and Bushwick. This boundary line, which, according to the earliest patent of the town of Brooklyn, was identical with Bergen's northerly bounds, might be designated on the map of the present city of Brooklyn, by a line drawn from the East river, following the course of Division avenue, to about at its junction with Tenth street, and from that point extending in a somewhat south-easterly direction towards Newtown.