This volume of Council Minutes contains the earliest survivng records of its kind, as minutes previous to Willem Kieft's director­ship, or before 1638, were probably taken back to the Netherlands with the former directors Peter Minuit and Wouter van Twiller. These records have not been found.

The minutes document civil and criminal cases, as well as executive and legislative matters over which the Director General and Council of New Netherland had jurisdiction. The minutes constitute a record of ordinances, orders, judgments, writs of appeal, writs of inhibition, appointments, proclamations, instructions, oaths of office, orders on petitions, protests, powers of attorney, proceedings in appeal, summonses, indictments, interrogations, recommendations, sentences, opinions, notices, resolutions, and charters. The minutes also include executive decisions relating to the defense and prosperity of New Netherland, as well as to private cases brought before the director-general and council on appeal from the court decisions of New Amsterdam.

This is the fourth volume of the Dutch Colonial Manuscripts at the New York State Archives and the first of seven volumes in the Council Minutes series. In the 19th century, E. B. O’Callaghan reorganized the original 49 record books of New Netherland into this series based on document type and time period. The minutes in this volume were translated by A.J.F. van Laer in the early 1900s and eventually published in the series New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch in 1974. 

For more on the contents of this volume, see its introduction. For more on the arrangement and publication of the Dutch Colonial Manuscripts, see the compilation of the introductions to the New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch / New Netherland Documents Series.

Volume 4, Council Minutes, 1638–1649 transcription

Volume 4, Council Minutes, 1638–1649 translation (scanned book images)