On this day, the 27th of May in the year sixteen hundred and nineteen, there appeared before me, Ewout Henricxz. Craen, notary public, admitted by the Court of Holland upon the nomination of the city of Leiden, and before the witnesses named below, Joris Vergus, old shoemaker (cobbler), living within the city of Leiden, aged about 38 years, who, at the request and instance of Niclaes Claverly, tobacco pipe maker, likewise living within the city of Leiden, testified and declared it to be true, upon his conscience and the salvation of his soul, in place of an oath, that about five months ago — though without having retained the precise time, nor wishing to be held to it — he the deponent, together with some other persons, and among others also the requester and Bartholomees Smit, tobacco pipe maker, was at the inn called 'de cleyne trou in de werelt' in the Raemsteech within Leiden, where the requester had been summoned to come.
And that he the deponent then heard that the aforesaid Bartholomees Smit made remarks against the requester, the said Smit saying openly that the requester had murdered a man on the road in England, on whom he had found no more than half an English crown. The said Smit adding thereto that he would help the requester out of the city, whatever it cost, and that if the requester wished to sleep that night in his bed, he, Smit, would have him fetched from there by the sheriff, with more words to that effect.
Declaring nothing further, the deponent offering, should it be necessary and should he be asked to do so upon recollection, to confirm the foregoing further under solemn oath; of which the requester asked one or more instruments. Thus done within Leiden, at the house of me the notary, in the presence of Pieter Joostensz. Warmont and Cornelis Dircxz., clerks, as credible witnesses summoned hereto together with me the notary. [Signed:] Joris Fergus. P.J. Warmont, 1619. Dircxz. E.H. Craen, notary public, subscribed, 1619.
Translation by Radicae, The Leiden Connection, from the Dutch transcription supplied by Erfgoed Leiden.
