New Netherland 1621-1664
Immigrants to New Netherland
1656
In the Gilded Otter
Left Amsterdam shortly after June 14, 1656
Skipper, Pieter Jansz Amilius
Arrived at New Amsterdam September 5, 1656
Gerrit Siwertseen, from Eswiller
"engaged as mason...that he should go from there to Curacao to build a new oven; you call arrange this, when an opportunity offers.1
Lucas Rodenborgh
(Rodenburg), "late Vice-Director of the Island of Curacao, goes as freeman with his wife, one child and one negro"...2
(Lucas Rodenburg died shortly after June 14, 1656; his widow Catharine Roeloffs, a daughter of Anneke Jans and Roeloff Jansen van Masterlandt then married on April 24, 1658, Johannes Pieterszen Ver Brugge of Haerlem, Netherlands. Correspondence of Jerimias Van Rensselaer, (c)1932, p 59.)
Domine Polhemius's wife and children
"We gave her permission, as to all other private parties, to go there as cabin passengers, the Company paying the fare for her and her children on condition, that the amount shall be deducted from the salary earned by her husband in Brazil."
In a letter dated April 26, 1655 from the Directors of the West Indies Company:
"The preacher Polhemius, arrived there from Brasil, has informed us by letter of his willingness to remain in New Netherland and take charge of the congregation at Midwout."3
Persons to the Colony of Rensselaerswyck:
Jeremias Van Rensselaer
Sailed from Holland by the Flower of Gelder, Aug. 4, 1654; returned to Holland by the Beaver, Oct. 28, 1655, and sailed the second time from Amsterdam by the Otter, shortly after June 14, 1656. He succeeded his brother, Jan Baptist van Rensselaer as director of the colony, Sept. 24, 1658, and held that office till his death in 1674. According to his own statement in a letter to his mother, he married Maria, daughter of Oloff Stevenz van Cortlant, July 12, 1662; in the records of the Reformed Dutch Church of New York, his marriage is entered under date of April 27, 1662.
Teunis Jacobsz
From Hamersvelt, (near Amersfoort, province of Utrecht); entered June 14, 1656, into a contract with Jeremias van Rensselaer, at Amsterdam, Holland, to sail by den Otter, and to do farm work for the term of four years from the date of his arrival in the colony, at f80 a year and board. He is described in the contract as being a boere knecht (farm laborer) and 20 years of age.
[In a letter from Jeremias to Anna Van Rensselaer, he reports of bad weather:]
"We were all very sad, for the weather became so bad that our ship could not keep a sail set, the wind blowing furiously from the E.S.E. We drifted toward the shore on our lee and passed a dreadful night, for we were beyond human aid and had to turn to God in prayer. After we had offered up our prayers to God, He heard us, for the storm began to abate and the wind veered around, so that we had to thank God even that very night which had seemed so dreadful to us, not knowing whether it was flat strand or a steep, high cliff we were approaching. In the morning we saw land, the weather being fair. We were about 12 miles from the Sant Punt (Sandy Hook)....." Correspondence of Jeremias Van Rensselaer, (c) 1932, p 31.
1Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York, B. Fernow, (c)1883, vol XIV, pg 353.
2ibid.
3ibid, pg 317, 352.
Source: #76