Smith, Richard (c.1596-1666) Richard Smith was born in Thornbury, Gloucestershire ca. 1596. In 1621, he married Johan Barton and they had 5 children: Johan 1624; Katheryne 1627; James 1629; Richard 1630; and Elizabeth 1632. About 1635 he moved his family to Taunton in the Plymouth colony, and arrived in New Amsterdam in 1641. During the 1640's Smith conducted a flourishing trading business in New Amsterdam. He owned a sloop, the Welcome, on which he carried European trade goods to his post at Cocumscussoc where he exchanged them for furs. In 1648, Smith bought out his rival Jan Wilcox and in 1651 he purchased the trading business and adjacent property of Roger Williams. Smith served as one of the 'Eight Men", and advisory council to the Dutch Director, Kieft. Smith's daughter, Katheryne married Gysbert OpDyck, and his daughter Johan married Thomas Newton. The Smith family left New Amsterdam in 1649. Gysbert and Katheryne remained in New Amsterdam where Katheryne died about 1660. Richard Smith died at Cosumscussoc in 1666.
Paraphrased from: Smith's Castle at Cocumscossoc: Four Centuries of Rhode Island History, Neil G. Dunay, Norma LaSalle, R.Darrell McIntire, 2003.
Based on the above information, we have modeled the house assuming that Gysbert OpDyck and Richard Smith's daughter Katherine remain in residence during 1660. Richard Smith was a wealthy merchant dealing in European goods and furs, and the house would have reflected his prosperous business.
Narrative Action: Katherine died about 1660 so we have attempted to show a funeral, or to have people stop by the house to pay respects to Gysbert OpDyck.
The measurements of this house in the model are currently:
30' 5.5" Wide x 11.5' Deep x 8' Tall.
Thomas Willett sold the remainder of Smith's holdings here to Jan Hendricksen Steelman. The lot immediately adjoining Smith's house was sold "with a certain superstructure upon it" (No. 10); the adjoining lot to the east, as "an improved lot."
The superstructure is clearly shown on the Plan. It looks as if Smith had built it for a storehouse. The improvements on the next lot probably refer to the fencing and grading. These deeds were made on July 15, 1661, and October 30, 1662, respectively. — Liber Deeds, A: 232, 285.
Evert Duycking, who lived in house No. ii, had been authorised a year earlier to sell Smith's vacant land. He declared, March 28, 1659, that "M^ Smitt himself has valued it at fl. 500 in Beavers; he expects him here shortly." — Rec. N. Am., VII: 218.
Richard Smith is not found in New Amsterdam earlier than July, 1645, the date of his ground-brief. He never became a permanent resident, his Manhattan holdings being generally managed through his attorneys, and, in 1662, he permanently disposed of all his New Amsterdam property (stipra). — See Innes's New Amsterdam and its People, 218-22.
Smith's home was on the site of the building Nos. 87-9 Pearl Street. The lots sold to Jan Hendricksen Steelman covered Nos. 91, 93, and 95 Pearl Street.
The lot where the superstructure stands was never improved by Steelman. In September, 1674, Jacob Kip and Asset Levy, curators of the estate of the late Jan Hendriksz Steelman, alias Coopall, gave a deed of it, still vacant, to the widow and heirs of the late Burger Joris. — Original Book of N. Y. Deeds, in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Collections, 1913, p. 47. At the same time, they conveyed to Guilaine Verplanck a "certain brick dwelling," which Steelman had built on the south part of his easterly lot. — Ibid., 48. This building stood on the site of No. 95 Pearl Street.
Jan Hendricksen died in 1670. His neighbours knew him as Coopall ("Buy-all," or "Grab-all"), from his inveterate habit of seizing every opportunity to secure land or more portable things of value, usually without much thought as to whether he could pay for them or not. It would be difficult to determine, after the lapse of two centuries and a half, whether he was merely unfortunate, or as unscrupulous as he was lacking in the capital necessary to forward his enterprises. After making purchases of land or merchandise, he was perpetually in court, being sued for the purchase-money. Too many entries for citation in this brief sketch are found in the early land records and in the records of the burgomasters court, representing him as defendant in such litigations, brought by the director-general himself, and by Christopher Hooghlant, OlofF Stevensen van Cortlandt, Jacobus Backer, Bartholdus Maan, and many other of the most substantial burghers. It is not to be wondered at that, at his death, his estate was found to be wretchedly, even pitiably, insolvent.
On the 2nd of December, 1670, occurs this pathetic passage:
Uppon the Petition of the Widdow of Jan Hendrix Steelman alias Coopall, the Worship.' Mayor, with the Advice of the Ald'men . . . this day ordered that the s^ Widdow should be allowed out of hur Late husbands Estate to support hur this Winter the Vallue of tenne beavers. — Rec. N. Am., VI: 274.
'] This instrument was, evidently, a deed, given as security: in effect, a mortgage.