Lot: Q14 (Taxlots)

Sieur Govert Loocquermans, as de Sille called him, had retained less than two hundred feet of his land at the Waal. By his marriage with Marritje Jans, widow of Tymen Jansen, the ship carpenter, on July 11, 1649, he had acquired the latter's grant, of 1643, which comprised all the water front between the property of Burger Jorissen and that of Sergeant Litschoe. — Marriages in Ref. Dutch Ch., 15; Liber GG: 71 (Albany).

In 1660, his holdings covered the ground which is now occupied by the northerly end of the Cotton Exchange, all of the Coffee Exchange, the buildings at 119-121 Pearl Street, and most of Hanover Street. His stone dwelling house, next to Van Brugh's, was finished before November, 1657 (recitals, Liber Deeds, A: 108). He had taken the precaution to secure an uninterrupted view, by procuring, on December 21, 1656, a grant of the considerable strip of foreshore between the road and the river. — Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 178. As the Plan shows, a fine wall, pierced by two gateways, extended along the roadway. This was built before 1654, for Cornells Willemsen van Linde burglarised the premises "during the public celebrations for peace between England and Holland," and it was alleged that he must have had accomplices to help him scale the wall. — Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 140, 141. A more ancient dwelling, as the Plan shows, stood back some distance from the road. Loockermans and his family were living in this old house in 1653 (recited in Liber HH: 12, Albany). It may have been built by Tymen Jansen, Mrs. Loockermans's first husband, or by Dirck Corneliszen, her second husband, to whom she had been married on August 28, 1646. — Marriages in Ref. Dutch Ch., 14. The records contain nothing definite concerning it.

Loockermans built a third house, on the site of 119-121 Pearl Street, which he probably occupied at the time of his death; for, on the settlement of his estate, Marritje Jans, his widow, Balthazar Bayard, husband of his daughter, Mary, Hans Kierstede, who had married his daughter, Johanna, and Jacob Loockermans, his son, conveyed "certain their stone house and lot" to Cornelis Dircksen van Westveen, only child of Mrs. Loockermans's second marriage. — Original Book of N. Y. Deeds, in N. Y. Hist. Soc. Collections, 1913, pp. 21-22. This was later the home of Mr. John Robinson, alderman of the West Ward, who sold it for £600 sterling to William Cox. After that gentleman's death, in 1691, his widow, Sarah Bradley, married Captain William Kidd, who later turned pirate. They were living here in 1695, doubtless in the very house shown on the Plan. — Ibid., XVHI: 27; XXL. 65.

In 1677, the widow Loockermans lived between her two sons, Cornelis Dirxe and Jacob Loockermans, in a small house at 117 Pearl Street — now included in the Coffee Exchange. (See recitals in Liber Deeds, XIII: 314; XVIII: 27; M. C. C, I: Si> 52.)

Govert Loockermans's early career is concisely summed up by Cornelis van Tienhoven, his contemporary, as follows:

Govert Loockmans . . . came to New Netherland in the yacht St. Martin in the year 1633 as a cook's mate, and was taken by Wouter van Twyler into the service of the Company, in which service he profited somewhat. He became a freeman, and finally took charge of the trading business for Gilles Verbruggen and his company in New Netherland. This Loockmans ought to show gratitude to the Company, next to God, for his elevation. . . . — Van Tienhoven's Answer in Jameson's Nar. N. Neth., 376.

While on a trip to Patria, Loockermans married Ariaentje Jans, his first wife, February 26, 1641. — The N. Y. Geneal. and Biog. Rec, V: 69-70. They left the Texel, July 30, 1641, in the ship "den Connick David," and, "on November 29th in the afternoon came to anchor at the Manhatans in front of the Smits Valeij in four fathoms." — Van Rensselaer Bowier MSS., 580, 603.

Two days later, their little daughter, Marritje, who was born at sea on the stormy night of November 3rd {idem), was baptised in the old Dutch Church. — Baptisms in Dutch Ch., N. Y., 12.

Loockermans was a typical Dutch burgher, thrifty, industrious, and hard at a bargain. That he was persona nan grata to the New England colony is shown by the fact that Govert Aertsen, when he travelled in New England, was compelled to arm himself with a certificate stating that he was not Govert Loockermans. — Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 117.

He filled various offices acceptably: was fire-warden in 1655-6 {Rec. N. Am., I: 22, 304; II: 44); churchwarden, 1656-65 {ibid., II: 50-1; V: 313), and schepen during 1657 {ibid., II: 289), and again in 1660. — Ibid., Ill: 124-5. In August, 1668, he became "Leftenant" of the miHtary company. — Ibid., VI: 144.

He died in 1671, before May i8th, when Willem Beeckman was commissioned to succeed him. — Exec. Coun. Min., ed. by V. H. Paltsits, I: 90, gon.

There were, at his death, four families of children to be considered: his two daughters by his first marriage; Elsie Tymens, his wife's daughter by her first marriage; Cornelis Dirxse, his wife's son by the second, and Jacob Loockermans, their own son. That there was friction in this complicated relationship, the Records clearly show. — See Rec. N. Am., VII: 99, 103; Cal. Coun. Min., 35, 68, 69.

['] Evidently, the Inn-keeper expected to be in funds as a result of the opening of navigation.