Certificate of Clerkship for Dirck Ten Broeck, 26 January 1787
Certificate of Clerkship for Dirck Ten Broeck1
New York January 26th 1787
I hereby certify that Mr. Dirck Ten Broeck entered a Clerkship with me on the Tenth day of January in the year One thousand seven hundred and Eighty four and served as a Clerk in my office until the fifteenth day of October last past and that he is of good moral character.
Alexander Hamilton
ADS, Pleadings, 1754–1837, T-540, Hall of Records, New York City.
1. Ten Broeck was the son of Abraham Ten Broeck, who had been a member of the colonial Assembly, the New York Provincial Congress from 1775 to 1777, and a brigadier general of the Albany County militia during the American Revolution. H was related to the Ten Broecks by marriage. In 1763 Abraham Ten Broeck had married Elizabeth Van Rensselaer, the aunt of Stephen Van Rensselaer. Van Rensselaer was the son of the eighth patroon of Rensselaerwyck and the husband of Elizabeth Hamilton’s sister, Margarita.
When Dirck Ten Broeck left H’s law office in October, 1786, he went to Albany and completed his clerkship with John Lansing, Jr. (Lansing’s Certificate, January 20, 1787 [ADS, Pleadings, 1754–1837, T-540, Hall of Records, New York City]). Ten Broeck was admitted to practice law on August 1, 1787 (“Roll of Attorneys” [D, Hall of Records, New York City]).
On June 1, 1789, H certified that he had appointed Dirck Ten Broeck as his agent in Albany for such matters as serving notices on opposing attorneys and filing rules with the clerk of the court (D, Pleadings, 1754–1837, H-231, Hall of Records, New York City).