Page:History of Hudson County and of the Old Village of Bergen.djvu/33

Rh on his rights. One of their first cases was that of William Jensen or Jansen to whom they had granted the right to operate a ferry between Bergen and the Island of Manhattan, at fixed rates for daytime and fair weather, while in stormy weather or at night the rates were to be "as the parties might agree." We may guess that there were deep arguments between the ferryman and the passengers as to exactly what constituted stormy weather. That the parties did not manage to "agree" is shown by his strenuous complaint to the Schout and Schepens that the people ferried themselves over, "much to his loss and discomfort." The people, however, made so plain that they did not intend to let the ferryman monopolize a little thing like the North River that the Court formally decreed that each one had the right to keep and use his own boat or "schuyt."

Most numerous of all were the disputes over land boundaries. The government grants were beautifully vague, and some of the cases must have made the official heads ache, as for instance, in the case of title such as Claus Pietersen's, which called for "138 acres bounded west by the Bergen Road and north by Nicholas the baker," or the town lot deeded to Adrien Post as being "on the corner by the northwest gate in Bergen, and a garden on the northwest side of the town."

There were other famous cases that shook the community. Their records have, unhappily, been lost, but their tenor is illustrated by the appeals that came before the Council in after years. One was the great hog case which Captain John Berry carried indignantly to the Council on appeal against the Schout, complaining that the Schout and Schepens had "instituted