# Flatbush, Kings County, New York in the 1680s

> A Dutch farming village under English rule, centered on church, school, courts, fields, slavery, and old Lenape ground.

- Place: Flatbush, Kings County, New York (40.652, -73.959)
- Years: 1680 to 1689
- Page: https://yorehistory.com/place/flatbush-kings-county-new-york/1680s
- Step into it (interactive): https://yorehistory.com/?step=Flatbush%2C%20Kings%20County%2C%20New%20York%2C%20United%20States&at=40.6521,-73.9590&year=1685

## Looking around

You stand in Midwout, also called Flatbush[1], at the village center where modern Flatbush and Church Avenues meet[2]. The settlement is inland, between Breuckelen and Amersfoort[2], with hills to the north and flatter open land to the south[1]. The wooden Dutch Reformed church[3] is the public center, and its bell orders school, worship, funeral notice, and meeting. Around it are local farms[2], with land long taken from Canarsie, Munsee-speaking Lenape people[4]. The village is now in Kings County, made in 1683[5], but Dutch names and speech still hold on. Court business, school rules, church accounts, marriages, baptisms, burials, and poor relief pass through the same small circle. Some labor is forced: many Dutch families in colonial Flatbush enslave Africans[4]. A separate African burial ground[4] may already lie on church-owned land near what will be Bedford and Church Avenues.

## Work: Farms around a village center

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

## Faith: Church ordered the week

The Dutch Reformed congregation was established in 1654[4], and the 1680s church was still the one-story wooden building[3]. 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 bell[2].

## 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 1683[5]. Yet the village was still Midwout, also called Flatbush[1], 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 Sunday[2] 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 people[4], while many colonial Dutch families in Flatbush enslaved Africans[4]. Death itself was unequal, since a separate burial ground for people of African ancestry[4] 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 afternoon[2]. The bell was rung three or four times[2] before school opened.

## Who lived here: Dutch, Lenape, African

The local world included Dutch-speaking settlers in Midwout[1], dispossessed Canarsie, Munsee-speaking Lenape people[4], and enslaved Africans held by many Dutch families in colonial Flatbush[4]. 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 funerals[2] and toll the bell. The village lay between Breuckelen and Amersfoort[2], and one minister served more than one town[6].

## Year by year

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

## 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 sources)[1]
- The center of the seventeenth-century village was at the intersection of modern-day Flatbush and Church Avenues. (from the sources)[2]
- Midwout lay between Breuckelen, now Brooklyn, and Amersfoort, now Flatlands. (from the sources)[2]
- Midwout was established inland in a forested area bounded by hills to the north and flat open spaces to the south. (from the sources)[1]
- 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. (inferred)[3]
- Early European inhabitants of the Flatbush area were farmers, with farm settlement recorded as early as 1645. (from the sources)[2]
- 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 sources)[4]
- Kings County was created in 1683 from the six old Dutch towns on southwestern Long Island. (from the sources)[5]
- In the colonial era, many Dutch families in Flatbush enslaved Africans. (from the sources)[4]
- 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 sources)[4]
- 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 sources)[4]
- 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 sources)[6]
- 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 sources)[6]
- 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 sources)[2]
- 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 sources)[2]
- 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 sources)[2]
- 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 sources)[2]
- The borders of Midwout were fixed in 1685 by a new charter granted by Governor Thomas Dongan. (from the sources)[1]
- 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. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatbush
2. Schooling in Midwout, Brooklyn in 1666. NYC Department of Records & Information Services, 2022. https://www.archives.nyc/blog/2022/8/10/schooling-in-midwout-brooklyn-in-1666
3. The Dutch Reformed Church: OG Flatbush Landmark. Flatbush History. https://www.flatbushhistory.com/articles/dutch-reformed-church
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. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/hpd/downloads/pdfs/services/bedford-church-report.pdf
5. Brooklyn. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklyn
6. Kings County Colonial Church Records. New York Genealogical and Biographical Society. https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/knowledgebase/kings-county-colonial-church-records

## The same place in other decades

- [Midwout in the 1650s](https://yorehistory.com/place/flatbush-kings-county-new-york/1650s/md)
- [Flatbush, Brooklyn in the 1960s](https://yorehistory.com/place/brooklyn-kings-county-new-york/1960s/md)

## Nearby, about the same time

- [Chesterfield, Burlington County, New Jersey in the 1690s](https://yorehistory.com/place/chesterfield-burlington-county-new-jersey/1690s/md) (83 km)
- [Skippack Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the 1710s](https://yorehistory.com/place/skippack-township-montgomery-county-pennsylvania/1710s/md) (131 km)

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Researched by Yore's AI historian (gpt-5.5) on 2026-10-13 from the sources listed. It is about the place and the time, not about any person. Statements marked "inferred" are conclusions, not records. Cite as: Yore, "Flatbush, Kings County, New York in the 1680s", https://yorehistory.com/place/flatbush-kings-county-new-york/1680s