History of Westchester County, New York, Volume 1. Frederic Shonnard

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СКАЧАТЬ under date of August 3, 1639. That Van der Donck made substantial recompense to the original owners of the soil is legally established by testimony taken in 1666 before Richard Nicolls, the first English governor of New York, in which it is stated that the Indian proprietors concerned " acknowledged to have sold and received satisfaction of Van der Donck."

      Adrian Van der Donck was a gentleman by birth, being a native of Breda, Holland. He was educated at the University of Leyden, and studied and practiced law, becoming utriusque juris. In 1641 he accompanied Kiliaen Van Rensselaer to New Netherland, and was installed as schout-fiscaal, or sheriff, of the patroonship of Rensselaerswyck. In this post he continued until the death of the patroon, in 1646. Meantime he had manifested a strong inclination to establish a " colonies " of his own, at Katskill; but as such a proceeding by a sworn officer of an already existing patroonship would have been violative of the company's regulations, he was forced to abandon the project. On October 22, 1645, he married Mary, daughter of the Rev. Francis Doughty, of Long Island. Earlier in the same year he loaned money to Director Kieft, a transaction which probably helped to pave the way for the prompt bestowal upon him of landed rights upon the termination of his official connection with Rensselaerswyck.

      In the Dutch grant to Van der Donck, the territory of which he was made patroon was called Nepperhaem, from the Indian name of the stream, the Nepperhan, which empties into the Hudson at Yorkers, where stood at that period, and for perhaps a quarter of a century later, the native Village of Nappeckamack (the " Rapid Water Settlement "). The whole extensive patroonship, styled at first Colen Donck, soon came to be known also as " De Jonkheer's land," or " De Jonkheer's," meaning the estate of the jonkheer, or young lord or. gentleman, as Van der Donck was called. Hence is derived the name Yonkers, applied from the earliest days of English rule to that entire district, and later conferred upon the township, the village, and the city. To the possibilities of this magnificent but as yet utterly wild property Van der Donck gave a portion of his attention during the three years following the procurement of his patent. In one of his papers he states that before 1649 he built a sawmill on the estate, be sides laying out a farm and plantation; and that, having chosen Spuyten Duyvil as his place of residence, he had begun to build there and to place the soil under cultivation. His sawmill was located at the mouth of the Nepperhan River, and from its presence that stream was called by the Dutch " De Zaag Kill," whence comes its present popular name of the Sawmill River. Van der Donck's plantation, " a flat, with some convenient meadows about it," was located about a mile above Kingsbridge, near where the Van Cortlandt mansion now stands. " On the flat just behind the present grove of locusts, north of the old mill, he built his bouwerie, or farmhouse, with his planting field on the plain, extending to the southerly end of Vault Hill." It is not probable that Van der Donck lived for any considerable time upon his lands in our county. He was a man of prominence in Fort Amsterdam, was its first lawyer, and soon became busied with its local affairs in a public-spirited manner, which led to his embroilment in contentions with the ruling authorities, and, in that connection, to his departure for Europe and protracted absence there.

      In the spring of 1649 he was selected a member of the advisory council of the " Nine Men," a body chosen by the popular voice to assist in the general government. In this capacity he at once took strong ground against the tyrannical conduct of the new director, Stuyvesant, and, in behalf of the Nine, drew up a memorial, or remonstrance, reciting the abuses under which the people of New Netherland suffered. Stuyvesant at first treated this action of his councilors with arbitrary vindictiveness, and caused Van der Donck to be arrested and imprisoned. After his release, continuing his course of active protest against misgovernment and oppression, he prepared a second and more elaborate memorial, and, with two others, was dispatched to Holland by the commonalty to lay the whole subject before the States-General. In this mission he had the moral support of the vice-director under Stuyvesant, Van Dincklagen, who wrote a letter to the States-General promotive of his objects. But upon arriving in the mother country he found himself opposed by the powerful influences of the company, which not only succeeded in defeating the principal reforms that he sought to secure, but eventually directed against him the persecution of the government, and prevented him, to his great inconvenience and loss, from returning to New Netherland for fully four years. Yet Van der Donck's earnest and commendable efforts for the public weal were not wholly without result. An act was passed separating the local functions of the principal settlement on Manhattan Island from the general affairs of the province. By this measure the settlement formerly known as Fort Amsterdam became an incorporated Dutch city, with the name of New Amsterdam; and thus to the labors of Van der Donck the first municipal organization of what is now the City of New York is directly traceable. In addition, a final modification of the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions was effected (May 24, 1650), introducing various improvements in its detailed provisions. He even procured the adoption of an order recalling Stuyvesant, which, however, in view of the critical position of political affairs (a war with England being threatened) was never executed.

      While in Holland Van der Donck was not forgetful of the interests of his colony, but in good faith strove to fulfill the obligations which he had assumed in acquiring the proprietorship of so extensive a domain. On March 11, 1650, in conjunction with his two associate delegates, he entered into a contract " to charter a suitable flyboat of two hundred lasts, and therein go to sea on the 1st of June next, and convey to New Netherland the number of two hundred passengers, of whom one hundred are to be farmers and farm servants, and the remaining one hundred such as the Amsterdam Chamber is accustomed to send over, conversant with agriculture, and to furnish them with supplies for the voyage." In making this contract (which, on account of circumstances, was never carried out), Van der Donck undoubtedly had in view the locating of at least a portion of the two hundred emigrants on his own lands. Pursuant to his perfectly serious intentions respecting his estate in this county, he obtained from the States-General, on the 26th of April, 1652, the right to dispose by will, as patroon, " of the Colonic Nepperhaem, by him called Colen Donck, situate in New Netherland." From this time for more than a year he was constantly occupied in seeking to overcome the obstacles put in the way of his departure for America by his enemies of the West India Company. He evidently regarded the securing of this patent as the final step preparatory to the systematic colonization and development of Colen Donck; for immediately after its issuance he embarked his private goods, with a varied assortment of supplies for the colony, on board a vessel lying at anchor in the Texel. But upon applying to the States-General, on the 13th of May, for a formal permit to return, he was refused. On the 24th, renewing his application, he stated that " proposing to depart by your High Mightinesses' consent, with his wife, mother, sister, brother, servants, and maids," he had " in that design packed and shipped all his implements and goods"; but he understood " that the Honorable Directors [of the West India Company) at Amsterdam had forbidden all skippers to receive him, or his, even though exhibiting your High Mightinesses' express orders and consent," " by which he must, without any form of procedure or anything resembling thereto, remain separated from his wife, mother, sister, brother, servants, maids, family connections, from two good friends, from his merchandise, his own necessary goods, furniture, and from his real estate in New Netherland." These and other strenuous representations proving unavailing, he was at last compelled to dispatch his family and effects, remaining himself in Holland to await the more favor able disposition of the authorities.

      Resigning himself to the situation, he now turned his attention to literary labors, which resulted in the composition of a most valuable work on the Dutch provinces in America. The book was probably first published in 1653, the copy from which the above translation is made being of a later edition. It was Van der Donck's intention to enlarge upon his facts by consulting the papers on file in the director-general's office at New Amsterdam, to which end he obtained the necessary permit from the company. But upon his return to America, which occurred in the summer of 1653, Stuyvesant, who still harbored resentment against him, denied him that privilege.

      Van der Donck's book, despite its formidable title, is a volume of but modest pretensions, clearly written for the sole object of spreading information about the country. Considering the meagerness of general knowledge at that time respecting the several parts of the broad territory called New Netherland, and remembering that the writer peculiarly lacked documentary facilities in its preparation, it СКАЧАТЬ