DOCSLIB.ORG

Dunn, Enlarging Rensselaerswijck

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Dunn, Enlarging Rensselaerswijck g Rensselaerswijck: Century Land isition on the East 31 f the River Shirley WV.Dunn CZrails State Histmk Site n 1660 Jeremias van Rensselaerwrote, “I bought the Van Rensselaers still claimed under Kiliaen van flat opposite Bethlehem, on the main land, from the Rensselaer’soriginal purchaseon the west side. After the Indians and have promised Pieter de Flamingh and English takeover, those claims were renewed. The city Carsten de Noorman that they may dwell there. .“t In was deemed too important to the province by British this casual way, much of the land in Rensselaerswijckon Governors Andros and Dongan to turn over to a single the east side of the river was acquired piece by piece family, even though the Van Rensselaer’sposition was during the seventeenthcentury. conceded to be valid.3 The east and west boundaries twenty-four miles distant from the river awardedin 1685 Some writers have assumed that Kiliaen van reflected not theoriginal bounds but the expansion which Rensselaer, when he established Rensselaerswijck, had occurred in over 50 years, as well as the need for a bought an extensive rectangle of land stretching from political boundary with neighboring jurisdictions, Beeren Island at present-day Coeymans north to the particularly Massachusettsto the cast. Cohoes Falls near the mouth of the Mohawk River, having equal length on both sides of the river, and What were the limitations of the early purchasesof extending back into the interior 24 miles. This imaginary Kiliaen van Rensselaer?How did his agentsand descen- tract, reported as encompassingmore than 700,000acres, dants manageexpansion of the Van Rensselaerholdings is a misunderstandingperpetrated over the years.2In his on the eastside of the Hudson River, prior to 1685?Who lifetime, Kiliaen van Rensselaernever owned all the land else obtained land within the proposed bounds of the described above. Although he had acquired land on the domain? These questions are worth investigating, since, west side of the river between the above north and south with persistence and flexibility, the Van Rensselaers bounds, he at first obtained only one limited parcel on maintained long-term control of the lands so acquired, the east side. This was followed by a second parcel on operating what might be termed their family business the east shore about six years later. The area north and into the middle of the nineteenth century. The early land south of thcsc two grants remained in Indian hands and ownership patterns had a far-reaching effect on the was not acquired by Kiliaen van Rensselaer.Moreover, developmentof a four-county areaand servedas a major the interior boundaries for all his early properties were focus for maintiining Dutch ethnic influence in the non-specific, making any accurate computation of Hudson Valley. acreageimpossible in his day. The registration of Kiliaen van Rensselaer and his The reason for the confusion about the fist Patroon’s associatesfor their colony in 1629 specified they were holdings is that in 1685, long after his deathin 1643,Van choosing land “above and below Fort Orange on both Rensselaer’sdescendants were awarded a patent by the sidesof the. River. .“4 Although this was merely an English for a very large tract of land on both sides of the early statementof intention to form a colony, Kiliaen van river. This patent contained the land commonly Rensselaerhad expressedhis goals. Those which he did attributed to the first Patroon.The English patent of 1685 not achieve, despite his persistent efforts, became the expanded the boundaries of Rensselaerswijck, par- goals of his family and officers of the colony in the years ticularly on the east side, to the limits requestedby the to come. Van Rensselaers,as part of a compromise settling Van Rensselaerclaims of many years’ standing. Granting the The Dutch West India Company patroonships in New boundaries requested by the family was intended to Netherland were to be governed by the “Charter of compensatethem for the loss of the City of Albany and Freedoms and Exemptions,” ratified in June, 1629, to a tract to the west of it, as well as for the loss of certain regulate and encourage these “colonies.” Article V of $ivileges and rights. The city had grown up on land the this charter specified: 43 14 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR PAPERS The patrcms, by their agents, may, at the place where they wish The De Laet’s-Burch farm later became the Van to settle their colonies, (fix) their limits (so that the colony shall) Rensselaerfarm known as Crailo, appropriated by then extend four leagues along the coast on one side of a navigable river, Director Jeremias van Rensselaerfor his personal sup- or two leagues along both sides of a river and as far inland as the situation of the occupants will pennit.5 port. A comparison of De Laet’s-Burch on the map of 1632 with the farm of Johannes van Rensselaer, an The Dutch West India Company was to retain ownership inheritor of Crailo, on a 1788 map confirms the similar of lands betweencolonies but promised that no one else location of the two farms.‘* would be allowed to come within seven or eight leagues of a patroonship without the owner’s consent, except in Having made his first acquisitions and begun settle- special circumstances. ment, Kiliaen van Rensselaer turned his attention to further purchasesfrom the Mahican Indians on the east Article XXVI of the charter presented Kiliaen van side of the river. In 1634 he wrote, “I wish that the Rensselaerand his successorswith an irresistible lure. remaining little islands and also the land that is on the Investors might “satisfy the Indians of that place for the east side of the river and belongs to the Mahycans, had land and may enlarge the limits of their colonies if they been bought also. Be pleased therein to do your best.” settle a proportionate number of colonists thereon.” Delays extended over three years until finally in 1637 a purchasewas made from the heirs of Papsickenakas,an Encouraged by this carte blanche, Kiliaen van Indian chief who had died after negotiations for his lands Rensselaer was prepared to acquire land beyond the had begun. Jacob Planck, Officer and Commissary of limits permitted by item V of the charter with his land Rensselaerswijck after 1634, finally concluded a acquisitions. His intentions were clear from the first. In purchase of the islands and mainland of Papsickenakas a letter of January 1630, Van Rensselaerhad urged his on April 23, 1637. This was actually about two weeks agent, BastiaenJanz Krol, to buy lands from the Indians. after settlers sent from Amsterdam in anticipation of the “The limits he shall extend as far as possible, as high acquisition had arrived to occupy their farms on the main above Fort Orange and as far inland as they will in any island.” The 1637 purchase encompassedthe large is- way cede,equally below Fort Orange,even if it were five land still known as PapscaneeIsland, with an accom- or more leaguesabove and as many below the samefort, panying small island (later known as Cooper’s Island) on and as far inland as possible . .7’6In 1630, land on the the west of Papscaneeas well as two other islands lying west shore stretching from below the present-day Nor- south of the large island. These latter on eighteenth and manskill to the CohoesFalls, “extending three leagues,” nineteenth century mapswere called Peghtals Island and and including also West Island (now the site of the Port Winne’s (or Campbell’s) Island. In addition, “all the of Albany) waspurchased. The estimateof three leagues, main and broken land situate on the eastside of the River a little over nine miles, was considerably short of the real aforesaid,and landward as far as their rig;htsextend” was distance. One parcel on the east shore from opposite included. This purchase, supposed to end “almost op- West Island to opposite Fort Orange was also obtained. posite Smack’s Island,” extended to below present By May, 1631, Van Rensselaer’s representative had Castleton village.12 bought from theIndiansadditional land on the west shore between Beeren Island and Smack’s Island. The interior A letter written by Kiliaen van Rensselaer in 1634 extent of this 1631 parcel was described as “two days’ recites his acquisitions of 1630 and 1631 and clearly journey inland.“77Of the first purchases,Van Rensselaer locates them on their respective sides of the river, clear- wrote in 1634 that the lands on the west shore extended ing up any confusion which might have,been causedby inland “indefinitely.“* For the Semezeeckparcel on the the vague wording of the deeds.The letter indicates he eastshore, neither the letter of 1634nor the deedof 1630 believed he owned all the land from Beeren Island to the specified a distance inland. CohoesFalls on the west side of the river. This letter also expresseshis expectation to add to Semezeeckon the east A new farm was to be established on the Semezeeck shore the islands of the Indian sachem,Papsickenakas, purchaseon the east side. Van Rensselaernamed it “De with the adjacentmainland.‘3 Van Rensselaerspeculated Laet’s-Burch” after one of his associates.On a map in 1634 that the acreage he had acquired amounted to drawn about 16329De Laet’s-Burch extended north and 17,200morgens of land, or about 35,OOlOacres. By 1636 south of a mill stream,now Red Mill Creek, and included he was suggestingto a partner that they had obtained over the large island adjacentto the north end of the property. 300,000 acres of land. Both guesses fell short of the ENLARGING RENSSELAERSWIJCK 15 fortheori inallands butalsotopreventconflictamong subsequent estimated manor acreagegiven by Cadwallader Colden lb in 1762as 1,132,OOOacrest” Colden was hostile to large settlers.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The English Take Control DIFFERENTIATING INSTRUCTION
    CHAPTER 3 • SECTION 4 New Netherland As you read in Chapter 2, in the early 1600s the Dutch built the colony of New Netherland along the Hudson River in what is now New York State. The colony’s largest town, New Amsterdam, was founded on Manhattan Island in 1625. New Amsterdam was built to defend the Dutch More About . West India Company’s fur trading settlements along the Hudson River. Peter Stuyvesant, the colony’s governor, expanded New Netherland by Religious Refugees taking over the nearby colony of New Sweden in 1655. The Swedes had settled the land along the Delaware River in 1638. in Pennsylvania The Dutch West India Company set up the patroon system to attract more In England, thousands of Quakers went settlers. A patroon was a person who brought 50 settlers to New Netherland. to jail for their beliefs, especially after As a reward, a patroon received a large land grant. He also received hunting, Charles II gained the throne in 1660. fishing, and fur trading privileges. The patroon system brought great wealth Some made their way to Maryland and to the colony’s elite. Massachusetts in the 1650s, but after The social system also included many slaves. Although their lives were William Penn founded a Quaker colony in harsh, they enjoyed some rights of movement and property ownership. 1681, many more arrived. A Tolerant Society In the 17th century the Netherlands had one of the Besides Quakers, several other small religious most tolerant societies in Europe. Dutch settlers brought this religious toleration to their colony.
    [Show full text]
  • History and Genealogy of the Vreeland Family
    .0^ . ^ovV : ^^^* • .rC^^'^.t.'^ . O .V . 4:^ "^^ o.* "^ v° *^' %- 'd- m^ ^^^ \ a/ "O* - '^^ .^'-^ "<*>. n"^ ,o«<.- -^^ ^ Vol •.°' ^^ aO ^ './ >:^^:- >. aV .^j^^^. Nicholas Garretson \'reeland. THHR BOOK: Wriltenarranged ^adaptgd BY ON E OF THEM WWW OIMT^oN VREELSIND Title parte and ofcher* di-awing/s by FR.flNCI5 WILLIAM Vl^EELflND^ Printed by CHflUNCELY H O L T- NOa7V^NDEPy%'" 3TIIEE.T • NEW YORK: HISTORY GENEALOGY of the VREELAND FAMILY Edited by NICHOLAS GARRETSON VREELAND HISTORICAL PUBLISHING CO. Jersey City, Nert) Jersey MDCCCCIX sT 1'^ \(\ •2> (At Copyright 1909 BY Nicholas G. Vrekland Cla.A,a3<* 112 JUL 28 1909 1 : table:contentsof CHAPTER. TITLE. PAGE. Foreword. 9 Preface. 10 PART FIRST — THE STORY OF HOLLAND. 1 In Day.s of Caesar 17 2 Fifteen Centuries of Struggle 20 3 The Dutch take Holland 21 4 Chaos leads to System 23 5 Dutch War Songs 24 Beggars of the Sea 24 Moeder Holland 29 Oranje Boven 30 6 Independence at Last 31 7 Holland and its People 33 8 Holland of To-day 41 PART SECOND — THE STORY OF AMERICA. 9 The American Birthright (Poem)... 49 10 In the New World, 1609-38 53 1 On Communipaw's Shore, 1646 57 12 Settlement of Bergen, 1660 59 13 Religion and Education 61 14 Battledore and Shuttlecock, 1664-74 63 15 Paulus Hook, 1800 66 16 From Youth to Manhood, 1840- 1909 69 17 Manners and Customs 73 18 Nomenclature 76 19 The True Dutch Influence 83 20 Land Titles 90 PART THIRD — THE STORY OF THE VREELANDS. 2 An Old Vreeland Family 99 22 The Town Vreeland, in Holland 104 CONTENTS—Continued.
    [Show full text]
  • Episodes from a Hudson River Town Peak of the Catskills, Ulster County’S 4,200-Foot Slide Mountain, May Have Poked up out of the Frozen Terrain
    1 Prehistoric Times Our Landscape and First People The countryside along the Hudson River and throughout Greene County always has been a lure for settlers and speculators. Newcomers and longtime residents find the waterway, its tributaries, the Catskills, and our hills and valleys a primary reason for living and enjoying life here. New Baltimore and its surroundings were formed and massaged by the dynamic forces of nature, the result of ongoing geologic events over millions of years.1 The most prominent geographic features in the region came into being during what geologists called the Paleozoic era, nearly 550 million years ago. It was a time when continents collided and parted, causing upheavals that pushed vast land masses into hills and mountains and complementing lowlands. The Kalkberg, the spiny ridge running through New Baltimore, is named for one of the rock layers formed in ancient times. Immense seas covered much of New York and served as collect- ing pools for sediments that consolidated into today’s rock formations. The only animals around were simple forms of jellyfish, sponges, and arthropods with their characteristic jointed legs and exoskeletons, like grasshoppers and beetles. The next integral formation event happened 1.6 million years ago during the Pleistocene epoch when the Laurentide ice mass developed in Canada. This continental glacier grew unyieldingly, expanding south- ward and retreating several times, radically altering the landscape time and again as it traveled. Greene County was buried. Only the highest 5 © 2011 State University of New York Press, Albany 6 / Episodes from a Hudson River Town peak of the Catskills, Ulster County’s 4,200-foot Slide Mountain, may have poked up out of the frozen terrain.
    [Show full text]
  • Everyday Life in a Dutch Colony
    Everyday Life in a Dutch Colony An Educational Resource from the New York State Archives Compelling Question: How do people succeed in a new place or environment? Courtesy: Len Tantillo Bakers in the Colony Objective: Describe the purpose of bakers in the colony and explain how bakers contributed to daily life in the colony. Essential Question: How did bakers contribute to the growth and success of the colony? Historical Background: Bread was the main staple of the Dutch diet both in the Netherlands and in the colony of New Netherland. Residents of the colony ate at least three times a day and bread was a key part of every meal. Bread in New Netherland was made mostly from wheat which could be grown in abundance in this part of the world. Bakers baked both rye and wheat bread. White bread was the most desirable bread and therefore was consumed mainly by the wealthier residents of the colony. Baking was a labor-intensive process that required significant amounts of time. The ovens were built with large bricks designed to stay hot for long periods of time. First, the baker would heat the oven with wood and clean out the residue when the oven was hot enough. Then the oven would be wiped clean with a wet cloth attached to the end of a stick. The baker had to knead the dough by hand or foot. Rye bread had to bake for 12 hours, while wheat bread had to rise twice and bake for an hour. The baker would blow his horn when the bread was ready so that his customers would know they could now purchase the bread and other baked goods.
    [Show full text]
  • THE FOUNDERS of AMERICAN GEOLOGY: a VISIT to THEIR TOMBS, Labs, and THEIR FAVORITE EXPOSURES: the DEVONIAN LIMESTONES of THE
    55 THE FOUNDERS OF AMERICAN GEOLOGY: A VISIT TO THEIR TOMBS, lABS, AND THEIR FAVORITE EXPOSURES: THE DEVONIAN LIMESTONES OF THE CAPITAL DISTRICT; A STUDY OF THE SEQUENCE STRATIGRAPHY OF THESE LIMESTONES GERALD M. FRIEDMAN Brooklyn College and the Graduate School of CUNY and Northeastern Science Foundation affiliated with Brooklyn College-CUNY 15 Third Street,Box 746 Troy, N.Y. 12181-0746 INTRODUCTION Located along the Helderberg Escarpment this classic site is on hallowed ground. Amos Eaton (1776-1842), Ebenezer Emmons (1799-1863), James Hall (1811-1898), William W Mather (1804-1859), Sir Charles Lyell (1797-1875), Benjamin Silliman (1779-1864), James D. Dana (1813-1895), Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), and Sir William E. Logan (1798-1875) have trod here before you, and we will view the memorial plaque erected in their honor. The field sites expose a large variety of Lower and Middle Devonian limestones, including coral reefs, stroma­ toporoid reefs, storm deposits, stromatolite facies, skeletal- and lime mud facies, solution-collapse features, and karst. This diversity of facies will be studied in terms of trans­ gressive-regressive cycles, known as parasequences, which are defined as confonnab/e succes­ sions of genetically-related beds bounded by surfaces of erosion, called parasequence surfaces. HISTORY OF GEOLOGY Before viewing the sequence stratigraphy of the Devonian we will pay tribute to the founders of American geology on whose concepts modern geology has built. Among those particular attention will be given to Amos Eaton, James Hall, and Ebenezer Emmons, whose debt we have incurred as builders of our science and at whose graves we will pay our respects.
    [Show full text]
  • Van Rensselaer Family
    .^^yVk. 929.2 V35204S ': 1715769 ^ REYNOLDS HISTORICAL '^^ GENEALOGY COLLECTION X W ® "^ iiX-i|i '€ -^ # V^t;j^ .^P> 3^"^V # © *j^; '^) * ^ 1 '^x '^ I It • i^© O ajKp -^^^ .a||^ .v^^ ^^^ ^^ wMj^ %^ ^o "V ^W 'K w ^- *P ^ • ^ ALLEN -^ COUNTY PUBLIC LIBR, W:^ lllillllli 3 1833 01436 9166 f% ^' J\ ^' ^% ^" ^%V> jil^ V^^ -llr.^ ^%V A^ '^' W* ^"^ '^" ^ ^' ?^% # "^ iir ^M^ V- r^ %f-^ ^ w ^ '9'A JC 4^' ^ V^ fel^ W' -^3- '^ ^^-' ^ ^' ^^ w^ ^3^ iK^ •rHnviDJ, ^l/OL American Historical Magazine VOL 2 JANUARY. I907. NO. I ' THE VAN RENSSELAER FAMILY. BY W. W. SPOONER. the early Dutch colonial families the Van OF Rensselaers were the first to acquire a great landed estate in America under the "patroon" system; they were among the first, after the English conquest of New Netherland, to have their possessions erected into a "manor," antedating the Livingstons and Van Cortlandts in this particular; and they were the last to relinquish their ancient prescriptive rights and to part with their hereditary demesnes under the altered social and political conditions of modem times. So far as an aristocracy, in the strict understanding of the term, may be said to have existed under American institu- tions—and it is an undoubted historical fact that a quite formal aristocratic society obtained throughout the colonial period and for some time subsequently, especially in New York, — the Van Rensselaers represented alike its highest attained privileges, its most elevated organization, and its most dignified expression. They were, in the first place, nobles in the old country, which cannot be said of any of the other manorial families of New York, although several of these claimed gentle descent.
    [Show full text]
  • Correspondence of Maria Van Rensselaer (1669-1689)
    CORRESPONDENCE OF MARIA VAN RENSSELAER 1669-1689 Translated and edited by A. J. F. VAN LAER Archivist, Archives and History Division ALBANY THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK I 935 PREFACE In the preface to the Correspondence of Jeremias van Rens­ selaer, which was piiblished in 1932, attention was called to the fact that after the death of Jeremias van Rensselaer his widow carried on a regular correspondence with her husband's youngest brother, Richard van Rensselaer, in regard to the administration of the colony of Rensselaerswyck, and the plan was announced to publish this correspondence in another volume. This plan has been carried into effect in the present volume, which contains translations of all that has been preserved of the correspondence of Maria van Rensselaer, including besides the correspondence with her brother-in-law many letters which passed between her and her brother Stephanus van Cortlandt and other members of the Van Cortlandt family. Maria van Rensselaer was born at New York on July 20, 1645, and was the third child of Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt and his wife Anna Loockermans. She married on July 12, 1662, when not quite 17 years of age, Jeremias van Rensselaer, who in 1658 had succeeded his brother Jan Baptist van Rensse­ laer as director of the colony of Rensselaerswyck. By him she had four sons and two daughters, her youngest son, Jeremias, being born shortly after her husband's death, which occurred on October 12, 1674. As at the time there was no one available who could succeed Jeremias van Rensselaer as director of the colony, the burden of its administration fell temporarily upon his widow, who in this emergency sought the advice of her brother Stephanus van Cortlandt.
    [Show full text]
  • Before Albany
    Before Albany THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK Regents of the University ROBERT M. BENNETT, Chancellor, B.A., M.S. ...................................................... Tonawanda MERRYL H. TISCH, Vice Chancellor, B.A., M.A. Ed.D. ........................................ New York SAUL B. COHEN, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. ................................................................... New Rochelle JAMES C. DAWSON, A.A., B.A., M.S., Ph.D. ....................................................... Peru ANTHONY S. BOTTAR, B.A., J.D. ......................................................................... Syracuse GERALDINE D. CHAPEY, B.A., M.A., Ed.D. ......................................................... Belle Harbor ARNOLD B. GARDNER, B.A., LL.B. ...................................................................... Buffalo HARRY PHILLIPS, 3rd, B.A., M.S.F.S. ................................................................... Hartsdale JOSEPH E. BOWMAN,JR., B.A., M.L.S., M.A., M.Ed., Ed.D. ................................ Albany JAMES R. TALLON,JR., B.A., M.A. ...................................................................... Binghamton MILTON L. COFIELD, B.S., M.B.A., Ph.D. ........................................................... Rochester ROGER B. TILLES, B.A., J.D. ............................................................................... Great Neck KAREN BROOKS HOPKINS, B.A., M.F.A. ............................................................... Brooklyn NATALIE M. GOMEZ-VELEZ, B.A., J.D. ...............................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 1 the Beginnings
    1 The Beginnings Here there bee not many people. —RoseRT JUST The geographical area of the original Diocese of New York was the entire state. It was not until 1838, and then only after profound misgiv- ings, that the laws of the Episcopal Church were altered to permit the subdivision of dioceses within the state. Thus, the Diocese of New York was all that territory from Long Island's wave-washed tip to Niagara's steady roar. Within this vast space lay the Adirondack Mountains, whose forests sloped northward to the St. Lawrence plains. Further west were the high fields surrounding the Finger Lakes, where the curved horizon makes a man know that he truly inhabits a spherical earth. Below these lakes is the Southern Tier, lonely and grim-gray In winter, benign and balmy in summer. The state diocese knew all the moods and variations of nature. No citizen of the new nation would know them better than Hobart and Onderdonk, the much-traveled third and fourth bishops of the Diocese of New York. Their predecessors, Samuel Provoost and Benjamin Moore, never saw the broad varieties of New York. They were town men, born and bred in Manhattan. It is one of the ironies of history that these men, the first bishops of the diocese, conceived their diocese more nearly as we do today: a jurisdiction flowing from the City of New York, dependent upon the metropolis, yet offering it the gifts and produce a city always requires from its rural surroundings. The men and women who perceived the early fortunes of the Dio- cese of New York may have seen the state as a builder's square.
    [Show full text]
  • SOLDIERS Match the Key-Tension to Your Exact Finger Pressure
    FIGHT CANCER WITH KNOWLEDGE Under this slogan the women of America are uniting in the first national campaign to fight cancer and its allies, fear and ignorance—uniting in a mighty effort to save human life. Cancer can be cured if discovered in time. Perhaps as many as half the 140,000 persons who die of it each year can be saved by the spread of truth and knowledge. Marc/i with us in this great Crusade! WOMEN'S FIELD ARMY WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP American Society for the Control of Cancer Enlist in the Women's Field Army. Send $1 J2S0 Sixth Avenue, New York City to the American Society for the Control of Cancer today. Seventy cents of your dollar will be spent by your State Division in cancer control work. March, 1937 THE NEW YORK NATIONAL GUARDSMAN 1 GOOD REASONS Circulation 21,000 Established 1924 Why Yon Should CONTENTS MARCH, 1937 Own A New ALBANY—A CRADLE OF AMERICA. .Francis P. Kimhall 3 NEW YORK'S AIR SERVICE 7 ROYAL PORTABLE N. G. AND N. M. RELIEF SOCIETY 9 GUARDSMEN! When you own a Royal Portable HINES TROPHY CHANGES HANDS 10 you're in a position to make the most of your business chances. Because with a Royal, you have the opportunity UTICA GIVES THANKS 1 i to work on original ideas at home—to do new thinking EDITORIALS 12 along old lines—to write memorandas—reports, which are certain to help you get ahead faster. MAJOR GENERAL HASKELL'S MESSAGE 13 NINETY YEARS OF THE 12TH REGT.
    [Show full text]
  • Govert Loockermans (1617?-1671?) and His Relatives: How an Adolescent from Turnhout Worked His Way up in the New World
    Govert Loockermans (1617?-1671?) and his relatives: How an adolescent from Turnhout worked his way up in the New World Willem Frijhoff (Erasmus University, Rotterdam / VU-University, Amsterdam) [Revised version, January 7, 2016] Summary This contribution aims at painting a picture of the person, the strategy and career of Govert Loockermans, paying special attention to the relationship he and his family in the New World had with Turnhout, and to the role played by the complex network of his relatives in the formation of New Netherland and of New York. He abandoned his Catholic Faith, and it appears that he soon ceased all contact with his blood relatives in Turnhout. He was not only a vigilant and cunning merchant, who amassed a large fortune for that time, but also a ruthless pioneer. We could see him as an icon of the current Wall Street capitalist. Either way, he was a man who helped determine and shape the age he lived in. His destiny continues to fascinate us. Govert Loockermans, the American hero from Turnhout, is the classic example of the ‘famous unknown’ gracing so many history books. He does not appear in any national dictionary, nor is he counted among the about thirty ‘famous Turnhoutenaren’ on the Turnhout tab of Wikipedia. Some of his deeds in the founding history of the country that later would become the United States are indeed very well known—even if not always flattering—but the history of his life in New Amsterdam, present day New York, has only been told a handful of times.
    [Show full text]
  • De Hooges Memorandum Book
    The Memorandum Book of Anthony de Hooges _______ Translated by DIRK MOUW A Publication of the New Netherland Research Center and the New Netherland Institute 2012 ii ANTHONY DE HOOGES About the New Netherland Research Center and the New Netherland Institute The New Netherland Research Center is a partnership between the New York State Office of Cultural Education and the New Netherland Institute. Housed in the New York State Library, the Center supports research on the seventeenth century Dutch province of New Netherland, which was centered on New York’s Hudson Valley and extended from Connecticut to Delaware. Under Director Dr. Charles Gehring and Assistant Director Dr. Janny Venema, it continues the work of the New Netherland Project, which since 1974 has translated Dutch era documents held by the New York State Library and the New York State Archives. Visit the New Netherland Research Center online at www.nysl.nysed.gov/newnetherland/. The New Netherland Institute is an independent nonprofit organization supporting research and education in Dutch-American history. For over three decades, the Institute and its predecessor organization the Friends of New Netherland have supported the translation of New York’s Dutch era documents by the New Netherland Project. Through a three-year matching grant from the State of the Netherlands, the Institute now undertakes financial and programmatic support of the New Netherland Research Center. The Institute relies heavily on its members to fulfill this mission. Interested parties can learn more about the Institute’s programs and how to join at www.newnetherlandinstitute.org. MEMORANDUM BOOK iii Contents Acknowledgments iv Introduction v A Copy of Various Acts and Other Noteworthy Memoranda [A-Series] 1 Memoranda and Lists of the Tithe and the Third-Share and the Numbers of Livestock [B-Series] 84 Index of Personal Names 116 iv ANTHONY DE HOOGES Acknowledgments I wish to express my gratitude to Charles Gehring and Janny Venema for their comments, advice and assistance with this project.
    [Show full text]