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JOHANNES LA MONTAGNE

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Militaria Start Price:1,000.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
JOHANNES LA MONTAGNE
(c. 1586 - c. 1670) French-born physician who became the first official surgeon of New Amsterdam at a time when barbers conducted most medical procedures. Driven off his tobacco plantation in present day Central Park by Indians, he removed himself to the fort at New Amsterdam and became First Councilor to Peter Stuyvesant, commander of the troops on Manhattan Island (1640-1656), and a member of several peace commissions with the Indians. While at Albany, La Montagne was the chief administrator for a large area, including all the Dutch and Huguenot settlements along the Hudson Valley. Very rare manuscript D.S. "La Montagne", 1p. legal folio, "Fort Orange", New Netherlands [later Albany, New York], Aug. 12, 1658, in old Dutch. Conveyance drawn up and signed by La Montagne as commander of Fort Orange in which Johannes Baptist van Rensselaer, attorney for Jan Labitie, conveys to Jacob de Hince a house and lot in Beverwijck bound on the north by the kil, on the south by Sander Leendersen, a 40' wide lot behind Fort Orange, for the sum of 2,350 guilders worth of good merchantable beaver pelts, with enough scarlet cloth to make a waistcoat for Labitie's wife. The sum is to be paid in three installments in the months of August of 1659, 1660, and 1661. Folds, a very light marginal stain and typical soiling, else very good. With a later translation into modern Dutch.