Wolfert Gerritse Van Couwenhoven (1 May 1579 –1662), [1] also known as Wolphert Gerretse van Kouwenhoven and Wolphert Gerretsen,was an original patentee,director of bouweries (farms),and founder of the New Netherland colony. [2]
Along with his wife,Neeltje Janse Jacobdochter,Gerretse was one of the first Europeans to settle on Long Island,a farm he named New Amersfoort. [3] He was a Schepen of New Amsterdam in 1654. He is noted as playing an "active role in laying the foundations of the communities of Manhattan,Albany,Rensselaer,and Brooklyn." [4]
Wolfert was born on 1 May 1579 in Amersfoort,Netherlands, [5] one of three sons of Gerrit Suype Van Kouwenhoven and his wife,Styne Sara Roberts. [6]
A 1638 inventory for the farm named Achtervelt,owned by Wolfert Gerritse and Andries Hudde in what is now Flatlands,Brooklyn,describes the estate,which included a 40 by 18-foot barn:
"...one house surrounded by long,round palisades;the house is 26 feet long,22 feet wide,40 feet high with the roof,covered above and all around with boards ... " [7]
The deed for this farm was the first for Long Island,"and one of the very first for land in New York." [8] The deed describes the land as "the westernmost of the flats called Keskateuw belonging to them on the island called Suan Hacky between the bay of the North river and the East River of New Netherland." [8]
The deed is signed by the Dutch colonial governor,Wouter von Twiller,at “Eylandt Manhatans”and reaffirmed on the back in 1658 by Gov. Peter Stuyvesant. [8]
The area purchased was part of a larger area called,Keskateuw,meaning in the Lenape language,"where grass is cut." [8]
Wolfert ran a baking and clothes bleaching business,when in 1625 he was assigned as one of the first settlers to cultivate farms in the New Netherlands colony by the Dutch West India Company. [5]
In 1630,he returned to the Netherlands,where he entered into a contract with his cousin Kiliaen Van Rensselaer to return to the colony to manage his farms. Wolphert arrived back in the colony aboard the ship "Eendracht", [9] where he proceeded in his duties as director for van Rensselaer's farms in Rensselaerwyck and Fort Orange. [10]
His contract was to run through 1636,but Gerretse requested it cancelled early so he could pursue his own interests. Rensselaer agreed. In 1632,Gerretse was released from his contractual obligations. [9]
Shortly thereafter,he leased a bouwerie in New Amsterdam [10] and managed it until 1636,when he was granted a patent of several hundred acres on Long Island. He called his plantation "Achervelt";later it served as the founding of the town of New Amersfoort,named after Gerritse's original home. [3] Today the area is known as Flatlands.
In 2007 the deed of the granted land in Long Island was sold to a private collector for $156,000 becoming "one of the oldest Dutch documents in private hands". The deed dated 6 June 1636 is written in Dutch and outlines the purchase of the land (3,600-acre) from the Lenape Indians. [8]
In 1637,he became a Freeholder in Midwout,and again in 1641. [6] In 1653,he was sent by the colony to the States-General in the Netherlands as a Commissioner. In 1654,Wolphert served as a Schepen of New Amsterdam, [11] and in 1657 was made a Burgher. [12] He served on the citizens council of Eight Men.
Gerretse died in 1662. [ citation needed ]
A member of the Dutch Reformed Church,on 17 January 1605,he married Neeltje Janse Jacobsdochter in Amersfoort,Netherlands.
They had three sons:
His granddaughter,Marretje Gerretse,daughter of Gerret,married Coert van Voorhees. [15]
Some descendants of Wolfert anglicized the surname "Van Kouwenhoven" to "Kouwenhoven," "Kownover," "Conover," as well as "Crownover," with Dennis Conover (born 1764) being the first descendant (4th great grandson) to use "Conover" as his surname. [16]
The progenitor of the Vanderbilt family,Jan Aertszoon (1620–1705),also known as Jan Aertson,a Dutch farmer from the village of De Bilt in Utrecht,Netherlands,emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland as an indentured servant to the Van Kouwenhoven family in 1650. [17]
Peter Stuyvesant was a Dutch colonial officer who served as the last Dutch director-general of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664,after which it was split into New York and New Jersey with lesser territory becoming parts of other colonies,and later,states. He was a major figure in the early history of New York City and his name has been given to various landmarks and points of interest throughout the city.
Kiliaen van Rensselaer was a Dutch diamond and pearl merchant from Amsterdam who was one of the founders and directors of the Dutch West India Company,being instrumental in the establishment of New Netherland.
Wouter van Twiller was an employee of the Dutch West India Company and the fourth Director of New Netherland. He governed from 1632 until 1638,succeeding Peter Minuit,who was recalled by the Dutch West India authorities in Amsterdam for unknown reasons.
Rensselaerswyck was a Dutch colonial patroonship and later an English manor owned by the van Rensselaer family located in the present-day Capital District of New York in the United States.
Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherland after whose honorific Jonkheer the city of Yonkers,New York,is named. Although he was not,as sometimes claimed,the first lawyer in the Dutch colony,Van der Donck was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam,and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company-run trading post.
The Eight Men was a group of eight residents chosen by the people of New Netherland in 1643 to advise Director Willem Kieft on his governance of the colony. An early form of representational democracy in colonial North America,it replaced the similarly selected Twelve Men and was followed by the Nine Men.
Gerretsen,Gerrets and Gerretse are Dutch patronymic surnames. Notable people with this name include:
Martin Woolf Sr. was a politician,civil servant and police magistrate from Alberta,Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1912 to 1921 sitting with the Liberal caucus in government.
Gerritsen is a Dutch patronymic surname "son of Gerrit". It is particularly common in the province of Gelderland. Variations on this name include Gerritse,Gerrits,Garritsen and Gerretse(n). Notable people with the surname include:
Kouwenhoven is a Dutch toponymic surname Notable people with the surname include:
The Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions,sometimes referred to as the Charter of Privileges and Exemptions,is a document written by the Dutch West India Company in an effort to settle its colony of New Netherland in North America through the establishment of feudal patroonships purchased and supplied by members of the West India Company. Its 31 articles establish ground rules and expectations of the patroons and inhabitants of the new colonies. It was ratified by the Dutch States-General on June 7,1629.
The Map of Rensselaerswyck[a] is a map created during the 1630s,probably 1632,at the request of the owner of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck,Kiliaen van Rensselaer,Dutch jeweler and patroon. Rensselaerswyck was the only successful patroonship within the colony of New Netherland,settled by the Dutch West India Company at the behest of the States-General of the United Netherlands. The map is believed to be the first ever commissioned or created of Rensselaerswyck.
Anthony Janszoon van Salee (1607–1676) was an original settler of and prominent landholder,merchant,and creditor in New Netherland,a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic located on the East Coast of what is now the United States of America. Van Salee,commonly known as Anthony the Turk,is believed to have been the son of Jan Janszoon,a Dutch pirate captain who lead the SaléRovers after his capture by Barbary corsairs.
The history of Troy,New York extends back to the Mohican Indians. Troy is a city on the east bank of the Hudson River about 5 miles (8.0 km) north of Albany in the US State of New York.
Joannes Nevius or Joannes Neef was the third secretary of New Amsterdam under the Director-General of New Netherland. He became the first secretary of New York City under the English.
Coert Stevense van Voorhees (1637–1702),a settler of New Netherland is remembered today as progenitor of numerous American families,and as an early settler of Brooklyn.
Andries Hudde (1608–1663) was a landowner and colonial official of New Netherland.
Johannes Megapolensis (1603–1670) was a dominie (pastor) of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Dutch colony of New Netherland,beginning in 1642. Serving for several years at Fort Orange on the upper Hudson River,he is credited with being the first Protestant missionary to the Indians in North America. He later served as a minister in Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island,staying through the takeover by the English in 1664.
Wolfert may refer to:
Gerretsen's Mill is an 18th century tide mill,at Gravesend,Long Island,also known as Johannes Gerritsen's Mill and the Whitney mill,derived its name from a 1750s Dutch miller in the area of Marine park,Brooklyn. The mill was situated near what is now known as Garritson's Creek and Mill Pond,formerly referred to as the Strome Kil. The origin of the name can be traced back to historical references,including an Indian deed mentioning land belonging to Hugh Garretson,likely referring to the same location. The farm was parceled to Dutch settler Wolfert Gerritse van Couwenhoven,an original patentee,director of bouweries (farms),and a founder of the New Netherland colony. The three-hundred-year-old mill was destroyed by fire in 1935 by arson.