SELYNS, Henricus, clergyman, born in Amsterdam, Holland, in 1636 ; died in New York city in July, 1701. His ancestors were clergymen in the Reformed church in Holland for a century previous to his birth. He was educated for the ministry, and in 1660 was sent to this country by the classis of Amsterdam to become pastor of the Reformed Dutch church of Breukelen (Brooklyn). To supplement his salary, he was also permitted to officiate on Sunday afternoons at Peter Stuyvesant's farm, Bouwerie (now Bowery), New York, where he taught negroes and the poor whites. He returned to Holland in 1664, but in 1682 accepted a call from the 1st Reformed Dutch church of New York city, of which he was pastor until his death. He was on intimate terms with the most eminent men of his day, and was the chief of the early ministers to enlarge the usefulness of his church, and to secure for it an independent and permanent foundation under the English government. He and his consistory obtained, in May, 1696, the first church charter that was issued in the colony. Although his original work that has been preserved is scanty, he wrote much, and Cotton Mather says of his poetical powers that "he had so nimble a fancy for putting his devout thoughts into verse that upon this, as well as upon greater accounts, he was a David unto the flocks in the wilderness." He collected all the records of the New York Reformed Dutch church to the date of his own ministry, and transcribed them with his own pen. This volume is still extant and in good preservation in the records of the Reformed Dutch church of New York city. His only publications are "Poems," translated from the Dutch into English by Henry C. Murphy, and printed in his "Anthology of the New Netherlands" in the collections of New York historical society, and a Latin poem (1687) prefixed to some editions of Cotton Mather's "l'Viagnalia."