home; but Smith did not go. The plaintiff asked the said German and Coulston whether they heard the defendant proffer any kind of payment; they both said no. The jury's verdict was as followeth: The jury understand that Matthew Smith refused the payment which Abraham has offered, the said Matthew is guilty; but Abraham must pay the sum which the arbitrators had agreed upon. Paul Wolff, foreman.”
October 3d, 1704. “The action of Abraham op den Graeff, against David Sherkes, for slandering him, the said Abraham, that no honest man would be in his company, was called, and the bond of the said David Sherkes and Dirck Keyser, Sr., for the defendant's appearing at this Court was read; the cause pleaded, and as witnesses were attested Dirck Keyser, Sr., Dirck Keyser, Jr., Arnold Van Vosen and Hermann Dors, whereupon the jury brought in their verdict thus: We of the jury find for the defendant. The plaintiff desired an appeal, but when. he was told he must pay the charges of the Court and give bond to prosecute he went away and did neither.”
Dirck died about May, 1697, leaving a widow Nilcken or Nieltje, but probably no children. Hermann, about September 29th, 1701, removed to Kent county, in the “Territories,” now the State of Delaware, and died before May 2d, 1704. In a deed made by Abraham in 1685 there is a reference to his “hausfrau Catharina,” and May 16th, 1704, he and his wife Trintje sold their brick house in Germantown. Soon afterward he removed to Perkiomen, and traces of the closing years of his life are very meagre. Of the two thousand acres purchased by the three brothers from Telner, eight hundred and twenty-eight were located in Germantown and sold, and the balance, after the deaths of Dirck and Hermann, vested in Abraham through the legal principle of survivorship.
