| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.4

You have not been recognized as a subscriber to the AHR online. About 189 words from this article are provided below; about 504 words remain.

If you are a individual member of the American Historical Association, you may:: • login here if you have already registered for online access.; • Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
• Set up your online account for the first time. AHA members can go to the AHA individual membership section to locate their member numbers.
If you are not a member of the American Historical Association, you can:: • Join the AHA and receive many member benefits including print and electronic issues of the American Historical Review.
• Purchase a research pass to gain two hour access to the entire History Cooperative web site. You will have full access to current issues of the American Historical Review (104.3-present). Note: the Research Pass does not provide access to JSTOR's holdings of the American Historical Review.
Instititutions can:: • Subscribe to this journal and receive print and electronic issues.
• Activate your existing subscription so that we recognize your IP number ranges.

| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 105.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Donna Merwick. Death of a Notary: Conquest and Change in Colonial New York. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1999. Pp. xvi, 281. $35.00.

In Donna Merwick's marvelously told story, the "insignificant" Adriaen Janse van Ilpendam's very ordinary life in seventeenth-century Albany is tied inextricably to the very large transfer of power from Dutch to English rule in the colony (p. 233). Successively a schoolmaster, local court secretary, and self-taught notary, Janse eked out a living in the rough frontier by writing down the last wills of neighbors, taking testimony about the small debts of ordinary local people, and occasionally writing powers of attorney for merchants conducting business an ocean away. Most notaries—whether in Europe or the colonies—were "unremarkable" in social status (p. 127) but essential to the life of corporate cities, the smooth functioning of merchants who traveled widely, and ceaseless transfers of property. Janse's "achievement has been to have served well, year after year, in all the small particulars of being a low-level civil servant" (p. 27). He was the "community's tool for ordering the real world" (p. 186). . . .

There are about 504 more words in this article. Please log in (or, if you are not yet an authorized user, please go to the User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.