PATROONS AND LORDS OF THE MANOR 35

disputes over contracts, titles, and such matters,
where the amount in litigation exceeded twenty
dollars, as well as in criminal cases affecting life
and limb, it was possible to appeal to the Director
and Council at Fort Amsterdam; but the local
authorities craftily evaded this provision by com-
pelling their colonists to promise not to appeal
from the tribunal of the manor.

The scherprechter, or hangman, was included with
the superintendent, the schoutfiscaal> or sheriff, and
the magistrates as part of the manorial court sys-
tem. One such scherprechter named Jan de Neger,
perhaps a freed negro, is named among the dwell-
ers at Rensselaerswyck and we find him presenting
a claim for thirty-eight florins ($15.00) for execut-
ing Wolf Nysen.

No man in the manorial colony was to be de-
prived of life or property except by sentence of a
court composed of five people, and all accused
persons were entitled to a speedy and impartial
trial. As we find little complaint of the adminis-
tration of justice in all the records of disputes, re-
proaches, and recriminations which mark the rec-
ords of those old manors, we must assume that the
processes of law were carried on in harmony with
the spirit of fairness prevailing in the home country.