Ordinance of the Director and Council of New Netherland Against Firing at Partridges or Other Game Within the Limits of New Amsterdam, 1652 N.Y. LAWS (Weed, Parsons and Co. 1868).
“ORDINANCE
Of the Director and Council of New Netherland against firing at Partridges or other Game within the limits of New Amsterdam Passed 9 October, 1652.
[N. Y. Col. MSS. XVI. 31.]
Whereas, many guns are daily discharged and fired at Partridges and other game within the jurisdiction of this city New Amsterdam and in the vicinity of the Fort, by which firing People or Cattle might perhaps be struck and injured, against which practise complaints have already been made, Therefore the Honble Director General and Council, in order to prevent accidents, expressly forbid and interdict all persons henceforward firing within the jurisdiction of this city or about the Fort, with any guns at Partridges or other Game that may by chance fly within the city, on pain of forfeiting the gun and a fine at the discretion of the Judge, to be applied one-third to the Poor, one-third to the Church and one-third to the Officer.
Thus done and enacted in Fort Amsterdam, in New Netherland, the 9 October, 1652.”
E. B. O’Callaghan, ed., Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland, 1638–1674: Compiled and Translated from the Original Dutch Records in the Office of the Secretary of State, Albany, N. Y. (Albany, NY: Weed, Parsons and Co.,1868), 138. Ordinance of the Director and Council of New Netherland Against Firing at Partridges or Other Game Within the Limits of New Amsterdam [N. Y. Col. MSS. XVI. 31.]. Passed October 9, 1652.