Tobias Feake is John Coutant Thorn's first cousin, 11 times removed.

The foregoing remonstrance delivered to his Honor, the Director General, by the Schout, Tobias Feake of Vlissingen, on the 29th of December, having read, his Honor immediately ordered the Fiscal to arrest the said Schout, which was done.

On the first of January 1658, summoned by their Honors, the Director General and Council, appeared Edward Farrington and William Noble, two of the Magistrates of Vlissingen, who likewise signed the foregoing remonstrance and were immediately arrested. It was further resolved, to summon also the Clerk of the said village Edward Hart. Date as above.

Thursday, the 3rd of January 1658.

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Proclamation of a Day of Prayer for March 13.

The Honorable Nicasius de Sille brought into Court the Proclamation of the day of Prayer, and is read from the City Hall after the usual ringing of the bell; in terms as follow: --

Honorable and well beloved.

Notwithstanding the good and all merciful God has favoured and blessed this newly rising Province in general and its inhabitants in particular with many and innumerable mercies and benefits; amongst others with health, peace and prosperity, abundance, and remarkable increase of population and trade, and what is to be valued above all, with the free and public exercise of the pure worship of God; Yet, we, either enjoying the same thanklessly, or abusing them unworthily, have by the ungrateful use of bodily, or the unworthy abuse of spiritual benefits, provoked God's rigorous justice, exciting his Divine Majesty -- never sufficiently honored -- to righteous anger, of which he hath shewn us not only palpable signs, but has caused us also to witness evident proofs; He hath visited near and remote places, towns and hamlets with hot fevers and dangerous diseases, as a chastisement if not punishment of the thankless use of temporal blessings; permitting and allowing the Spirit of Error to scatter its injurious passion amongst us, in spiritual matters here and there, rising up and propagating a new unheard of, abominable Heresy, called Quakers; seeking to seduce many, yea, were it possible, even the true believers -- all signs of God's just judgment and certain forerunners of severe punishment.

To ward these off from us and our's and to obtain God's favours, benefits and blessings for us as well in temporal as in spiritual matters, the Director General and Council of New Netherland, have deemed it good and needful to prescribe and publish a Day of General Fast and Thanksgiving to be observed on the second Wednesday of the month of March, being the 13th of said month.

We therefore charge our subjects to repair to the fore and afternoon of the aforesaid day to Church or where God's Word is usually preached in order, after hearing the same, to praise and thank the all good and merciful God, for the favors, blessings and benefits, which his Divine Majesty hath been pleased to confer on us during the last year, yea, in the whole course of our lives, and further to supplicate, pray and implore His Holy Name, with humble and contrite hearts, that his Divine Majesty would be pleased to continue the same to us, the ensuing year, to the Honour of His Name, to the furtherance and propagation of the Gospel, and the prosperity and salvation of us all.

That this may be performed with great devotion and unity, the Director General and Council prohibit, during divine service on the said day of Prayer and Thanksgiving, all exercises and amusements, tennis, ballplaying, hunting, fishing, sailing; also all unlawful plays such as gaming, dice playing, drunkenness and such like, on pain of arbitrary punishment and correction previously enacted against the same. We also admonish and require all Ministers within our jurisdiction to frame their prayers and sermons to the said end. Thus done in our Assembly holden in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland the 21st January Anno 1658.

Was undersigned,
P. Stuyvesant.

Lower Stood,
General and Council of New Netherland.
C.V. Ruyven, Secretary,

Sentence of Tobias Feaks, Schout of Flushing, for Harboring Quakers

Whereas Tobias Feaks, a resident of Vlissingen on Long Island now a prisoner, has confessed and acknowledged, that he received an order from the Honorable Director General, not to admit, lodge and entertain in the said village any one of the heretical and abominable sect called Quakers, but has nevertheless had the audacity, in contempt of the said order and formerly published and renewed placats, to be a leader and instigator in the conception of a seditious, mutinous and detestable letter of defiance (chartebel) signed by himself and his complices and by him retained and then delivered to the Director General, wherein they justify and uphold the abomniable sect of Quakers, who vilify both the political authorities and the Ministers of the Gospel, and undermine the State and God's service, and absolutely demand, that all sects, especially the said abominable and heretical sect of Quakers shall and must be tolerated and admitted; all of which is directly contrary and repugnant to the above referred to orders and placats of the Director General and Council, which he pursuant to his oath, official position and duty, as subordinate officer of the Director General and Scout in the said village of Vlissingen, should by all means have upheld and enforced.

But whereas he has herein not only failed, but has himself transgressed and disobeyed, for which as an example to others he deserves severe punishment; yet considering the humble petition of the prisoner Feaks, confessing his wrong doing and promising hereafter to avoid such errors:

Therefore the Director General and Council of New Netherland, administering the law in the name of their most High: Might: the Lords States General of the United Netherlands, and the Lords Directors of the Privileged West India Company, first dismiss the said Tobias Feaks from his office as Scout of the said village of Vlissingen, and banish him from this Province of New Netherland; or to pay a fine of two hundred florins to be applied as directed by law, if he will keep his promise, together with the costs and mises of law.

Done at Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland the 28th of January 1658.

P. Stuyvesant.
Pleter Tonneman.

From "Ecclesiastical Records of the State of New York" published by the State under the supervision of Hugh Hastings, State Historian. James B. Lyon, State Printer, 1901, Albany NY, Pages 414 and 415. Photocopies provided by Frank Mitchell, January 1997.

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