In the Abstract of Wills, Volume VI 1760 - 1766, the will of Christopher Hoogland is given as follows:
Thomas Dongan, Lieutenant-General and Governor, to all, etc. Know ye that at a Court of Records held in New York on Tuesday the 11 of May, 1686, the will of CHRISTOPHER HOOGLAND was proved, and his wife Catharine was confirmed as administratrix, April 14, 1687.
In the name of God, Amen. Know all men, who shall see this Publick instrument, that in the year after the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, 1676, the 12th day of March, on Monday in the afternoon about 5 o'clock, did appear in their own persons before me Wm. Bogardus, Notary Public, residing in New York, admitted by the Rt. Hon. Lord Edmund Andross, Governor-General, in the behalf of his Royal Highness, James Duke of York and Albany, etc., and in the presence of the underwritten witnesses. Mr. Christopher Hoogland and Mrs. Catharine Cregier, joined in marriage, living within this city and both well known to me and to the witnesses, the testator being sickly, and the testatrix going and standing and sound of body, but both using fully and absolutely their sences, memory and speech." They have nominated and instituted their children, Dirck, Harman, Martin, Christopher and Frances DeGroot Hoogland, and the children which they may by the blessing of God get in the future, their lawful descendants and heirs equally and that the eldest son shall not pretend any prerogative therein. And further the testators out of special love and natural affection in matrimony received, and if God pleases to be received, declare that the whole estate shall go to the survivor for life. If the survivor remary, an equal division is to be made between the children, and they are to be caused to learn to read and write, and a trade by which they may live, and when they come of age they shall receive their portions and the survivor is not to diminish the right of the children but rather to help and assist them. And it is their will that the survivor shall not be obliged to give any account of the estate to the orphan masters of this city "or where the funeral house may be," or to the testator's friends, excluding them, "All Laws and Statutes to the contrary notwithstanding.
Done at New York in the house of the testators in the presence of Mr. Francis Rumbaut and Paul Richards, merchants.
Translated from the Dutch, by P. Delanoy.
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