Henry
Moore--shows the only important holdings in the neighbourhood at that
time: the Warren place, the Herrin (Haring or Harring) farm, the Eliot
estate, etc. The site of the Square, in fact, was originally composed
of two separate tracts and had two sources of title, divided by
Minetta Brook, which crossed the land about sixty feet west of where
Fifth Avenue starts today. Westward lay that rather small portion of
the land which belonged to the huge holdings of Sir. Peter Warren, of
whom more anon.
The eastern part was originally the property of the Herrings, Harrings
or Herrins,--a family prominent among the early Dutch settlers and
later distinguished for patriotic services to the new republic. They
appear to have been directly descended from that intrepid Hollander,
Jan Hareng of the city of Hoorn, who is said to have held the narrow
point of a dike against a thousand Spaniards, and performed other
prodigious feats of valour. In the genealogical book I read, it was
suggested that the name Hareng originated in some amazingly large
herring catch which (I quote verbatim from that learned book)
"astonished the city of Hoorn,"--and henceforth attached itself to the
redoubtable fisherman!
The earliest of the family in this city was one Jan Pietersen Haring,
and his descendants worked unceasingly for the liberty of the republic
and against the Tory party.
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