Lot: E5 (Taxlots)

Here lived the heirs of George Holmes (known to the Dutch as Joris Home, Hooms, Hom, etc.), one of the two first Englishmen to settle in what is now the State of New York. Sent out by West, the provisional governor of Virginia, in 1635, Holmes and a small force, including his own indentured servant, Thomas Hall, had taken possession of Fort Nassau, on the South River, without firing a shot — for the Dutch work was deserted for the time being. Van Twiller, however, promptly equipped an expedition against the venturesome Virginians, and they were all captured and brought to New Amsterdam. Here the director's policy caused him to release and send them home. Captain de Vries receiving them on board his ship and carrying them to (Old) Point Comfort, where he put them ashore. — De Vries's Notes, in Jameson's Nar. N. Neth., 195. Holmes and Hall, however, returned among the Dutch, and are found in New Amsterdam as early as July 17, 1638. — Cal. Hist. MSS., Dutch, 10. They contracted together to start a tobacco plantation and build a house at Deutel (Turtle) Bay, September 7, 1639 {idem.), and were given their groundbrief for this tract, November 15, 1639. These were the earliest tobacco-planters in the Dutch colony. Holmes received his patent from Kieft for the lot in the Winckel Straet, April 23, 1646. — Liber GG: 143 (Albany). He died in 1658, leaving a widow, Jane, and four children. — Min. of Orph. Court, I: 60; Rec. N. Am., IV: 107-8; V: 55. By February II, 1661, Jane Holmes had also died, and the children were orphans, the court giving them Jan Lauwerens (John Lawrence) and Joris (George) Wolsy to be their guardians {Min. 0} Orph. Court, I: 172-3), although one of the girls, Priscilla, had just married, February 5, 1661, Jonas Willemszen. — Marriages in Ref. Dutch Ch., 26. The heirs disposed of the Winckel Straet premises in 1681. — Liber Deeds, XII: 50.