for the purpose. He began this work with great antiquarian enthusiasm, believing, as he himself has said, that "addressed to the retrospective curiosity the historic instincts-of his fellow-citizens, it would meet with at least an adequate support." But he was doomed to disappointment. The whole number of his patrons at home and abroad amounted to only a little over one hundred. Again, this was to him a heavy financial loss. He pathetically, but modestly, says: "Had the enterprise of the publisher and editor received a more liberal support, it would have delighted him to secure to the work a higher grade of literary labor, to embellish it with more expensive illustrations, and to issue it to his patrons a specimen of sumptuous typography. But it was not to be. As strict economy required, the literary labor devolved almost wholly upon himself. But he will not dwell upon the hours stolen from that repose rendered necessary by the toilsome avocation of the day, and devoted to turning over the dusty files of old newspapers, or to the deciphering of the crabbed writings of a past generation. He will not speak of days of rest passed among the tombs, and employed in copying the brief mementoes of those sleeping their last sleep beneath. Nor will he complain of these tasks, for they have, indeed, been labors of love. Perhaps, in after years, when his own form has long been mouldering in the dust, some kindred spirits will pleasantly recall his memory, and thank him for these memorials of the past he has helped to rescue from oblivion. In dreams like these the antiquary finds his cherished, though unsubstantial recompense." We need not wonder at his disappointment, which he unquestionably felt far more deeply than his words imply. For thirty years he had labored in this work-labor which, so far as pecuniary recompense is concerned, was utterly thrown away, for the amount received scarcely paid for the printing. He did his work faithfully and well. He made no pretence of writing history, but has simply made available a vast amount of matter, ready-to-hand, for some one who shall come after. As another has said: "All the world honors the historian who takes great countries in hand, and tells the story of their growth truly and philosophically. But let us bespeak honor for historians of humbler sort-for the compilers of facts worth preserving out of moth-eaten manuscripts, charred relics of townhouse fires, old church session records, parish registers, and family biblesfor those who rescue from wreck and ruin the elements of history." In the intervening years from 1850 to 1871 the house of Mr. Munsell had not been idle in the printing and publishing of numerous other works and periodicals. In this brief article they cannot be more particularly noted. Genealogical works, town and family histories, reprints of old and scarce books, catalogues, and other works requiring special care, have been turned out by the thousand, to go broad-cast all over the Union. To Mr. Munsell's individual interposition and aid is due, in large measure, the credit of rescuing, from premature extinction, "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register." With the close of the fifteenth volume of that publication, in October, 1861, after it had lived through a decade and a half of years, it was found its circulation had ceased to yield it an adequate support. The number of its subscribers had diminished to not over five hundred. Many never paid their sub scriptions. The mere cost of printing and of publishing alone was about one thousand dollars for one thousand copies; and it had been resolved to discontinue its further issue. In this dilemma, Mr. Munsell volunteered to print and publish it, at his own risk, for two years, provided the Society would turn over to him the subscription list, and would furnish, without expense, a competent editor for the work, promising to return it at the expiration of that time, with increased and amply supporting subscriptions. This promise, as in the case of Webster's almanac, eighteen years before, Mr. Munsell faithfully succeeded in fulfilling, and ultimately, after having re-established it by his own assiduity and zeal, on a safe, self-supporting foundation, returned it to the Society, with the subscription list largely increased. At the close of the second year of its publication by Mr. Munsell, the Society, through Mr. Deane, their editor, thus expressed its acknowledgments: "To Mr. Munsell we are certainly under great obligations. He stepped forward at a time of unusual discouragement, and has carried the Register through a critical period of its existence." In the year 1876, Mr. Munsell issued a fifth edition of a work compiled by him, entitled "The Chronology of the Origin and Progress of Paper and Papermaking." This work was so meritorious as to receive a lengthy and appreciative notice in The Printing Times and Lithographer (London) for August, 1879. The writer says: "Mr. Munsell is the proprietor of one of the oldest printing-offices in the States, and one that is honorably distinguished for the excellence of its productions, and the extent of its operations. He is also an antiquary, who has contributed considerably to the elucidation of the early history of the locality in which he dwells. He has further done good service to the literature of transatlantic typography, especially in connection with the new edition of Isaiah Thomas's History.' Mr. Munsell, accordingly, seems to be one of those useful, enterprising, industrious citizens, not few on the other side of the Atlantic, who determinedly make leisure from their ordinary avocations to achieve what entitles them to be regarded as benefactors to the community, their profession, and the reading world generally. He says in the 'Finale'-a sort of colophon of a decided American tone-The collector of these disjunctive conjunctives proposes, with this fifth edition, in the fifty-second year of his typographical career, to let the paper manufacture go as it may, without any surveillance of his, with best wishes for its prosperity to the end of time.' We trust, however, that this 'envoi' may not really be a final one, and that at least in some other and cognate line of investigation or research, we may, for many years to come, encounter Mr. Munsell's quaint and eminently useful pen." It may not be out of place to notice here, that for a number of years prior to his death, Mr. Munsell had been collecting material for a chronology of journalism. From England and the United States he had brought together over 10,000 specimen newspapers, no two, hardly, being of the same journal. Most of them have peculiar value, many being first copies, and others copies containing a history of the journals they represent. These he had bound, making in all 100 volumes, and deposited in the State Library. From these papers, and from other sources, he collected and left data, still in manuscript. We can only hope his sudden and unexpected death may not prevent its publication. It cannot fail to prove a work of exceeding interest and value, filling, as it will, a place among books of reference, now vacant, or nearly so, since Mr. Hudson's "His tory of Journalism," interesting and instructive as it is, deals only in a general way with this great and important subject, and even that work is indebted for much of its interest and value to Mr. Munsell and his collection, as the ill-fated author gratefully acknowledged. At the inception of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, he was elected one of its corresponding members, and subsequently became a life member. To his connections with other various historical and public bodies and societies we have not alluded. He was an efficient and active worker, and ever freely rendered his co-operation in promoting the objects of such institutions. He was one of the original founders and members of the Albany Institute, and during many of its first dark financial days, carried it by contributions from his own purse. Every volume of its proceedings, except the first one, was issued from his establishment. He early succeeded Dr. T. Romeyn Beck as its treasurer, and for forty years was annually re-elected to the position, the last election occurring only a few days before his death. For forty-three years he was a member of the First Lutheran Church of Albany, and was an habitual attendant upon its services, and for over twenty years past had been the honored President of its Board of Trustees. On the 17th June, 1834, Mr. Munsell married Jane C. Bigelow, who died at Albany on the 20th anniversary of her marriage, June 17, 1834, in her 42d year. By her he had four children : i. ii. William Augustus, b. May, 1835, residing in Cincinnati, Ohio. iii. Julia Anne, b. Feb. 13, 1850; m. William Turner, Jr., Aug. 28, iv. Charles, b. Dec. 29, 1852. He married, second, Sept. 11, 1856, Mary Ann Reid, by whom he had the following children: Mr. Munsell had resided for many years at No. 59 Lodge street, Albany, a short distance from his office, a place which he had selected for the purpose of being near his work. Here, after a brief illness, he died, at nine o'clock, on the evening of the 15th of January, 1880, in the 72d year of his age. Appropriate funeral services were held in the Lutheran Church, on the afternoon of the 18th January, attended by a vast throng of citizens and friends, to whom his name and presence had been so familiar in life. A simple and brief eulogy was pronounced by Dr. Magee, the pastor of the church, and all that remained of our genial and beloved antiquarian friend was borne to its burial in the public cemetery, near the city of his adoption. In the apt language of another, we may close this imperfect sketch : "Such has been the work of Mr. Munsell. No living man will ever go over the ground he has ; few, indeed, can do it, the old Dutch records being almost, if not quite, a sealed book to the present, as they will be to future generations. Mr. Munsell has passed away, but his work, more lasting than monument of brass or marble, will remain after him as long as the city itself shall stand, and children yet unborn will wonder at the indifference and neglect with which such efforts as his were treated." [The facts regarding the publications issued by Mr. Munsell noticed in this sketch in a few instances have been derived from an article published in the Albany Mirror, in November, 1879, which are understood to have been furnished, or their correctness approved, by Mr. Munsell himself. Other sources of information are Dr. Stiles' History of Ancient Windsor, and Temple & Sheldon's History of Northfield, Mass.] CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE HISTORY OF THE EARLY SETTLERS OF KINGS COUNTY, N. Y. BY TEUNIS G. BERGEN. THE DURYEA FAMILY. 1. JOOST DURIE DURYE or DURYEA, emigrated about 1675 from Manheim, in the Palatine of the Rhyn, was a respectable French Huguenot, and was accompanied with his wife Magdalena Le Febre. He settled at first in New Utrecht, where he bought a farm, which he sold Oct. 5, 1681, for 3200 gl. and a new waggon, to Gerrit Cornelisen (Van Duyn), as per page 148 of Liber AA of Flatbush town records. Left New Utrecht and settled on the disputed lands between Newtown and Bushwick, as per Riker's Newtown, where he died about 1727. His name appears on the assessment rolls of Bushwick of 1683 and 93, and census of 1698; and he took the oath of allegiance in said town in 1687. Had issue :— 2. JOOST (Joosten), m. Ap' 17, 1681, Lena or Helena Was a farmer and resided in Bushwick. Issue :: 3. PETER (Joosten), m. Agnietje Nicque (Luquier), and suppose he settled in Esopus (Kingston). Issue: 16. Christiaan, bp. Ap' 17, 1682, of whom no further trace. 4. JACOB (Joosten), bp. Nov. 21, 1686; m. Catrina Polhemius; d. 1758. Resided at first in Bushwick, and afterwards in Brooklyn. His Bushwick farm of 100 acres was sold Ap' 15, 1758, by his executors and heirs to Jan De Bevoise. Will dated Feb. 20, 1756. Issue : Hendrick. 24, viii. 5. ABRAHAM (Joosten), h. 1685, m. Elizabeth Polhemius, dau. of Theodorus of Jamaica; d. about 1763. Was a farmer in Bushwick. Will da. Jan. 29, 1753, and pro. Feb. 28, 1764. Issue : 31. vii. 32. viii. 33. ix. 6. CHARLES (Joosten), farmer, m. 1st, Cornelia, dau. of Johannes Schenck; m. 2d, Mary or Maria Roberson; d. about 1753. Resided in Bushwick. In his will, proved Sept 1, 1753, he devises his homestead farm to his son Jacob. Issue:— 42. ix. Abraham. 7. JAQUES (Joosten), bp. July 13, 1679. No further trace. 8. ANTONETTE (Joosten), bp. Dec. 11, 1681, in Brooklyn; m. Luquier. 9. MAGDALENA (Joosten), bp. Oct. 19, 1687; m. Jan Okie or Jan Auke Van Nuyse, and had children :-Isaac, Jacobus and James Van Nuyse. 10. CORNELIS (Joosten), a farmer in Bushwick in 1729. No further trace. 11. SIMON (Joosten), bp. Nov. 26, 1693; m. May Sprung, dau. of Gabriel. Was a farmer in Bushwick. 43. Simon. |