Flatbush, Kings County, New York in the 1680s

Work

Farms around a village center

Flatbush was a village center for local farms^2,4, and early European inhabitants were farmers². The court could reach into work habits: one Midwout case concerned sowing turnip seed on a Sunday².

Faith

Church ordered the week

The Dutch Reformed congregation was established in 1654⁴, and the 1680s church was still the one-story wooden building³. The schoolmaster’s duties joined religion, education, burial, and public notice: he had to keep the church clean, ring the bell, read sermons, invite people to funerals, dig graves, and toll the bell².

Law & power

English county, Dutch village

The place lived under English provincial rule after New Netherland became New York^1,5, and Kings County was created in 1683⁵. Yet the village was still Midwout, also called Flatbush¹, with Dutch church records and landholding families shaping daily power.

In the air

Sabbath and order

A 1666 court case over sowing turnip seed on a Sunday² shows how religious discipline could become public business. School rules centered on prayers, Scripture, catechism, psalms, and the authority of the church.

What people feared

Dispossession and bondage

The land stood on ground inhabited by Canarsie, Munsee-speaking Lenape people⁴, while many colonial Dutch families in Flatbush enslaved Africans⁴. Death itself was unequal, since a separate burial ground for people of African ancestry⁴ was established on church land as early as the seventeenth century.

Home & table

School beside church

Children’s days, where schooling was available, were formally divided into 8 to 11 in the morning and 1 to 4 in the afternoon². The bell was rung three or four times² before school opened.

Who lived here

Dutch, Lenape, African

The local world included Dutch-speaking settlers in Midwout¹, dispossessed Canarsie, Munsee-speaking Lenape people⁴, and enslaved Africans held by many Dutch families in colonial Flatbush⁴. The surviving records preserve far more about church members and landholders than about the enslaved.

Roads & news

Bell, records, nearby towns

News and orders moved through church, court, school, and bell: the schoolmaster had to invite people to funerals² and toll the bell. The village lay between Breuckelen and Amersfoort², and one minister served more than one town⁶.

Year by year

1. 1677Surviving Flatbush Dutch Reformed baptism and marriage records began. here⁶
2. 1678Surviving Flatbush consistory minutes began. here⁶
3. 1683Kings County was created from the six old Dutch towns of southwestern Long Island. here⁵
4. 1685Governor Thomas Dongan granted a new charter fixing Midwout’s borders. here¹
5. 1685James, Duke of York, for whom New York was named, became King James II of England. the world
6. 1688The Glorious Revolution overthrew James II in England, news that mattered in an English province named for him. the world
7. 1689Leisler’s Rebellion began in New York after news of the Glorious Revolution reached the province. nearby

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• Flatbush was originally called Midwout or Middlewout by Dutch settlers, and the English name Flatbush gradually supplanted Dutch names after the English takeover. from the sources¹
• The center of the seventeenth-century village was at the intersection of modern-day Flatbush and Church Avenues. from the sources²
• Midwout lay between Breuckelen, now Brooklyn, and Amersfoort, now Flatlands. from the sources²
• Midwout was established inland in a forested area bounded by hills to the north and flat open spaces to the south. from the sources¹
• The first church on the Flatbush Reformed Dutch Church site was completed in 1662 as a one-story wooden building laid out in the shape of a cross; the stone replacement was not built until 1699. inferred³
• Early European inhabitants of the Flatbush area were farmers, with farm settlement recorded as early as 1645. from the sources²
• At European contact, the area occupied by the later Flatbush African Burial Ground and Bedford-Church site was inhabited by the Canarsie, a Munsee-speaking Lenape people. from the sources⁴
• Kings County was created in 1683 from the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island. from the sources⁵
• In the colonial era, many Dutch families in Flatbush enslaved Africans. from the sources⁴
• A separate burial ground for people of African ancestry was established on Flatbush Reformed Church land at what is now Church and Bedford Avenues at an unknown time as early as the seventeenth century. from the sources⁴
• Flatbush was settled by the Dutch as a village center for local farms in 1651 or 1652, depending on the source. from the sources^2,4
• The Dutch Reformed Church congregation at Flatbush was established in 1654 and was the only church in Flatbush for a long period. from the sources⁴
• Flatbush church records survive for baptisms from 1677 to 1690, marriages from 1677 to 1694, consistory minutes from 1678 to 1686, and membership from 1679 to 1685. from the sources⁶
• In the Kings County Dutch churches of this period, one minister served more than one town, so Flatbush church records also cover nearby towns. from the sources⁶
• The 1666 Midwout school rules set school hours from 8 to 11 in the morning and from 1 to 4 in the afternoon. from the sources²
• The 1666 school rules required the bell to be rung three or four times before school opened, and the teacher also had church duties. from the sources²
• The Midwout teacher was expected to keep the church clean, ring the bell before meetings, read Scripture and orthodox sermons when the minister was absent, invite people to funerals, dig graves, and toll the bell. from the sources²
• A 1666 court record from Midwout shows Sabbath discipline reaching ordinary farm work, in a case over sowing turnip seed on a Sunday. from the sources²
• The borders of Midwout were fixed in 1685 by a new charter granted by Governor Thomas Dongan. from the sources¹
• English forces captured New Netherland in 1664, and after 1674 the province remained English as New York. from the sources^1,5
• No online source found in this search gives a reliable house-by-house population count for Flatbush specifically in the 1680s. not known
• No online source found in this search gives local Flatbush prices or wages for the 1680s. not known

Sources

1. Flatbush. Wikipedia
2. Schooling in Midwout, Brooklyn in 1666. NYC Department of Records & Information Services, 2022
3. The Dutch Reformed Church: OG Flatbush Landmark. Flatbush History
4. Summary of the Known History of the Flatbush African Burial Ground & the Bedford-Church Site. New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, 2021
5. Brooklyn. Wikipedia
6. Kings County Colonial Church Records. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society

Flatbush in other decades

Nearby, about the same time