Customer Reviews

Death of a Notary: Conquest and Change in Colonial New York

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As a history major, I've read and loved a lot of historical works, including "microhistories" like this one--and quite honestly, this is one of the most worst I've ever read. Its most glaring fault is its complete lack of organization; the reader is plunged into a story without any exposition and never really gains his footing. Characters were abruptly introduced and vanished just as suddenly, leaivng readers lost and confused. Her thesis remained vauge and elusive until the last page, making reading the entire book a chore: what was the meaning of all this, I couldn't help but wonder as I read.

While the history of Dutch America is no doubt interesting, I couldn't even finish this book, and neither did any of my classmates: truly, the worst on our syllabus.

Donna Merwick's "Death of a Notary" is history/biography of the one person who committed suicide in Albany, NY during the 1600's. Adriaen Janse van Ilpendam was a man who lost his identity as a respected officer of the court when the English conquered the Dutch colony of New York. He was without a country and a language of communications. It was the ending of a writing career, hence an ending of life. New rules prevailed in the courts. "The humiliation of Janse and others as they experienced the loss of language competence and cultural fluency under English rule was real." p. 185. The first fatalities of any military conquest are the private citizens whose lives are destroyed.

My early American ancestors were settlers of the original New York colony under their fedudal land development system. We have always been grateful for the exact records kept by the notaries that were so important to the members of the new colony; a part of the culture of their homeland which they brought the the new world. Yet one must admire the new government, which allowed those records to survive. The English couldn't read them, but they respected the evidence of the rule of law and the stability it engenders.

Ms. Merwick's work is scholarly, yet readable. It opens a window to the everyday lives of our ancestors. The bibliography is extensive and detailed. She steers clear of revisionist history with her careful historical searches among the fodder for the nuisances of truth that paint a clearer picture of our past for our descendants.
Nash Black, author of "Qualifying Laps" and "Sins of the Fathers."