Adriaen Cornelissen Van Der Donck (c. 1618 – 1655)
Van der Donck was born in approximately 1618, in the town of Breda in the southern Netherlands. His family was well connected on his mother's side, and her father, Adriaen van Bergen, was remembered as a hero for helping free Breda from Spanish forces during the course of the Eighty Years' War. Adriaen van Bergen had been a captain in the army of Maurits during the Eighty Years War.
In 1624, the first permanent settlement was established at Fort Orange, (Albany, NY), 1624, the first permanent settlement was established at Fort Orange. Later, the principal settlement was New Amsterdam (later New York City) at the southern end of Manhattan island, which was purchased from Native Americans in 1626.
1638, Adriaen Van der Donck entered the University of Leiden as a law student. At Leiden he obtained his Doctor of both laws, that is, both civil/canon law. 1652, back in Holland he took a Supremus he took and obtained A jure degree at the University of Leiden.
1641, Van der Donck sailed to the New World aboard Den Eykenboom (Oak Tree). He was immediately impressed by the lands, which, in vast contrast with the Netherlands, was thickly forested, hilly, and full of wildlife. Once in his post, he attracted the ire of Van Rensselaer with his independence. This manifested itself first when the schout selected one of the patroon's finest stallions for himself and then decided that his appointed farm was poorly chosen and simply picked another site.
He was first lawyer in the Dutch colony, New Netherland, he was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam (New York City, NY), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company.van der Donck made detailed accounts of the land, vegetation, animals, waterways, topography, and climate. Van der Donck used this knowledge to actively promote immigration to the colony, publishing several tracts, including his influential Description of New Netherland.One of the Worlds best, ethnographer's ,a polyglot, having learned the languages and observed many of the customs of the Mahicans and Mohawks. His descriptions /observations of their practices are cited in many modern works.
Director-General of New Netherland, Willem Kieft, who had begun a bloody war with the Indians against the advice of the council of twelve men. Kieft's War badly damaged relations and trade between the Indians and the Dutch, made life more dangerous for Dutch/English colonists living in outlying areas, and drained the colony's resources. He exacerbated his relationship with the already financially strained colonists by enacting a tax on beaver skins and beer to fund the bloody war.
1641, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a director of the Dutch West India Company living in Amsterdam, hired twenty-one-year-old Adriaen van der Donck (1620-1655) to be his lawyer for the colony, Rensselaerwick, in New Netherlands. Until 1645, van der Donck lived in the Upper Hudson River Valley, near Fort Orange (later Albany), where he learned about the Company's fur trade, the Mohawk and Mahican Indians who traded with the Dutch, the agriculturist settlers, and the area's plants and animals. By 1645, his knowledge of the Native Americans was so respected that the Governor of New Netherland asked for his help to negotiate a treaty to end a four-year raiding war with the Indians.
In 1645, Kieft tried to mend relations with the Indians and asked van der Donck to assist as a guide and interpreter. At the negotiations, Kieft found himself in the awkward position of coming without the necessary gifts. Van Der Donck had not informed Kieft of this important component to negotiations in advance, but happened to have brought an appropriate amount of sewant (wampum), which he loaned to Kieft.
On 22nd October 1645, he was married to Mary O'Doughty, a daughter of an English minister. The couple was married in New Amsterdam.
In 1646, a year after his marriage to Mary O'Doughty, Van der Donck asked the Dutch West India Company for his own patroonship. He was granted the land that would become Yonkers, with the understanding that he would buy it from the native Americans. The young patroon's land extended from the Shatemuc (Hudson River) to the Aquehung (Bronx River) and from Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the Amackassin, the rivulet which flows into the Hudson near the northern boundary of the present City of Yonkers.
In return for this favor, Kieft granted van der Donck 24,000 acres on the mainland north of Manhattan in 1646.
He named the estate Colen Donck and built several mills along what is now called Saw Mill River. The estate was so large that locals referred to him as the Jonkheer ("young gentleman" or "squire"), a word from which the name "Yonkers" Jonkeers.. is derived. By this time, Van der Donck had already married the Englishwoman Mary Doughty, whose father had lost his land after irking Kieft.Dutch West India Company did decide to remove Kieft from his post in 1645, citing the terrible damage caused to trade by his war against the Indians. But rather than yield to the colonists' requests for the establishment of local government, the company decided that a stronger Director-General would succeed in squelching political dissent. They chose Peter Stuyvesant. Despite this change, Van Der Donck continued his flurry of documents against Kieft, apparently using his example now solely to make a case for the creation of a local government.
He returned his attention to public relations. In 1650, he printed his Remonstrance as a pamphlet. His enthusiastic description of the land and its potential created much excitement about New Netherland; so many were suddenly eager to immigrate that ships were forced to turn away paying passengers. A Dutch West India Company director wrote, "Formerly New Netherland was never spoken of, and now heaven and earth seem to be stirred up by it and every one tries to be the first in selecting the best pieces [of land] there."
A few quotes (translated into English) will illustrate what he wrote:
"This land is naturally fruitful, and capable of supporting a large population, if it were judiciously allotted according to location. The air is pleasant, and more temperate than in Netherland."
"The natives are generally well-set in their limbs, slender round the waist, broad across the shoulders, and have black hair and dark eyes. They are very nimble and active, well adopted to travel on foot and to drag heavy burdens. … They are divided into different tribes and languages, each tribe living generally by itself, and having one of its number as a chief, though he has not much power or distinction except in their dances or in time of was. Among some there is not the least knowledge of God, and among others very little, though they relate very strange fables concerning Him."
"The English have sought at different times and places to colonize this river, which, they say, is annexed to their territory, but this has as yet been prevented by different protests. We have also expelled them by force, well knowing that if they once settled there, we should lose the river [Delaware] or hold it with difficulty, as they would swwarm there in great numbers. There are great reports daily, that the English will soon repair there with many families."
To go alongside the Remonstrance, van der Donck commissioned the Jansson-Visscher map of the colony. It showed New Netherland along the original Dutch territorial claim from Cape Hinlopen just south of the Delaware Bay at 38 degrees to the start of New England at 42 degrees and included drawings of typical Indian villages, wild game, and the town of New Amsterdam. The map itself remained the definitive map of the area for over a century, cementing many Dutch place names. It would be reprinted thirty-one times before the mid-18th century
There is no record of Adriaen van der Donck's death, but he was alive during the summer of 1655, and a statement by Peter Stuyvesant in early 1656 seems to indicate he was dead. He probably died at his farm in one of a series of Indian raids in September 1655, called the Peach Tree War. He was survived in New Netherland by his wife and by his parents, whom he had separately convinced to immigrate.Although the manner of his death is not described anywhere, it is is known that his estate was raided by the Indians during that time so it's very possible that his death was a result of this.
When Adriaen van der Donck died in 1655, he left his estate to his wife. Colen–Donck remained in her possession until 1667, when it was disposed of in several sales. What still remained of the property afterwards was divided into thirds and sold in 1672. One of the three purchasers was Frederick Philipse, who thus came to own a large part of "The Yonkers." The land would remain in the hands of the Philipse family for more than one hundred years.
Though the English eventually took over the colony, the city of New Amsterdam retained the municipal charter van der Donck had lobbied for, including uniquely Dutch features, such as a guarantee of free trade.
In 1664, as the result of an Anglo-Dutch war, the Dutch ceded their colony to the English and New Amsterdam became New York
A.D. September 1609, Henry Hudson's ship "The Half Moon" sailed up the North river that now bears his name. It approached the present site of Yonkers and dropped anchor.
Here a number of bark huts were clustered about a spot where a stream flowed into the river, marking a native American settlement. The village was called Nappeckamack (rapid water settlement) and the stream was called the Neperah. The native American villagers living on the banks of the Neperah were confederated with the Mohicans. They were of Algonquin lineage, Mohican tribe and Manhattes family. Their sachem, Tackarew, would later sell much of this land to the Dutch settler Adriaen van der Donck. (Another group, the Weckquaeskecks, occupied the area between what is today the Saw Mill River and the Bronx River.)
Van der Donck was born in approximately 1618, in the town of Breda in the southern Netherlands. His family was well connected on his mother's side, and her father, Adriaen van Bergen, was remembered as a hero for helping free Breda from Spanish forces during the course of the Eighty Years' War. Adriaen van Bergen had been a captain in the army of Maurits during the Eighty Years War.
In 1624, the first permanent settlement was established at Fort Orange, (Albany, NY), 1624, the first permanent settlement was established at Fort Orange. Later, the principal settlement was New Amsterdam (later New York City) at the southern end of Manhattan island, which was purchased from Native Americans in 1626.
1638, Adriaen Van der Donck entered the University of Leiden as a law student. At Leiden he obtained his Doctor of both laws, that is, both civil/canon law. 1652, back in Holland he took a Supremus he took and obtained A jure degree at the University of Leiden.
1641, Van der Donck sailed to the New World aboard Den Eykenboom (Oak Tree). He was immediately impressed by the lands, which, in vast contrast with the Netherlands, was thickly forested, hilly, and full of wildlife. Once in his post, he attracted the ire of Van Rensselaer with his independence. This manifested itself first when the schout selected one of the patroon's finest stallions for himself and then decided that his appointed farm was poorly chosen and simply picked another site.
He was first lawyer in the Dutch colony, New Netherland, he was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam (New York City, NY), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company.van der Donck made detailed accounts of the land, vegetation, animals, waterways, topography, and climate. Van der Donck used this knowledge to actively promote immigration to the colony, publishing several tracts, including his influential Description of New Netherland.One of the Worlds best, ethnographer's ,a polyglot, having learned the languages and observed many of the customs of the Mahicans and Mohawks. His descriptions /observations of their practices are cited in many modern works.
Director-General of New Netherland, Willem Kieft, who had begun a bloody war with the Indians against the advice of the council of twelve men. Kieft's War badly damaged relations and trade between the Indians and the Dutch, made life more dangerous for Dutch/English colonists living in outlying areas, and drained the colony's resources. He exacerbated his relationship with the already financially strained colonists by enacting a tax on beaver skins and beer to fund the bloody war.
1641, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a director of the Dutch West India Company living in Amsterdam, hired twenty-one-year-old Adriaen van der Donck (1620-1655) to be his lawyer for the colony, Rensselaerwick, in New Netherlands. Until 1645, van der Donck lived in the Upper Hudson River Valley, near Fort Orange (later Albany), where he learned about the Company's fur trade, the Mohawk and Mahican Indians who traded with the Dutch, the agriculturist settlers, and the area's plants and animals. By 1645, his knowledge of the Native Americans was so respected that the Governor of New Netherland asked for his help to negotiate a treaty to end a four-year raiding war with the Indians.
In 1645, Kieft tried to mend relations with the Indians and asked van der Donck to assist as a guide and interpreter. At the negotiations, Kieft found himself in the awkward position of coming without the necessary gifts. Van Der Donck had not informed Kieft of this important component to negotiations in advance, but happened to have brought an appropriate amount of sewant (wampum), which he loaned to Kieft.
On 22nd October 1645, he was married to Mary O'Doughty, a daughter of an English minister. The couple was married in New Amsterdam.
In 1646, a year after his marriage to Mary O'Doughty, Van der Donck asked the Dutch West India Company for his own patroonship. He was granted the land that would become Yonkers, with the understanding that he would buy it from the native Americans. The young patroon's land extended from the Shatemuc (Hudson River) to the Aquehung (Bronx River) and from Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the Amackassin, the rivulet which flows into the Hudson near the northern boundary of the present City of Yonkers.
In return for this favor, Kieft granted van der Donck 24,000 acres on the mainland north of Manhattan in 1646.
He named the estate Colen Donck and built several mills along what is now called Saw Mill River. The estate was so large that locals referred to him as the Jonkheer ("young gentleman" or "squire"), a word from which the name "Yonkers" Jonkeers.. is derived. By this time, Van der Donck had already married the Englishwoman Mary Doughty, whose father had lost his land after irking Kieft.Dutch West India Company did decide to remove Kieft from his post in 1645, citing the terrible damage caused to trade by his war against the Indians. But rather than yield to the colonists' requests for the establishment of local government, the company decided that a stronger Director-General would succeed in squelching political dissent. They chose Peter Stuyvesant. Despite this change, Van Der Donck continued his flurry of documents against Kieft, apparently using his example now solely to make a case for the creation of a local government.
He returned his attention to public relations. In 1650, he printed his Remonstrance as a pamphlet. His enthusiastic description of the land and its potential created much excitement about New Netherland; so many were suddenly eager to immigrate that ships were forced to turn away paying passengers. A Dutch West India Company director wrote, "Formerly New Netherland was never spoken of, and now heaven and earth seem to be stirred up by it and every one tries to be the first in selecting the best pieces [of land] there."
A few quotes (translated into English) will illustrate what he wrote:
"This land is naturally fruitful, and capable of supporting a large population, if it were judiciously allotted according to location. The air is pleasant, and more temperate than in Netherland."
"The natives are generally well-set in their limbs, slender round the waist, broad across the shoulders, and have black hair and dark eyes. They are very nimble and active, well adopted to travel on foot and to drag heavy burdens. … They are divided into different tribes and languages, each tribe living generally by itself, and having one of its number as a chief, though he has not much power or distinction except in their dances or in time of was. Among some there is not the least knowledge of God, and among others very little, though they relate very strange fables concerning Him."
"The English have sought at different times and places to colonize this river, which, they say, is annexed to their territory, but this has as yet been prevented by different protests. We have also expelled them by force, well knowing that if they once settled there, we should lose the river [Delaware] or hold it with difficulty, as they would swwarm there in great numbers. There are great reports daily, that the English will soon repair there with many families."
To go alongside the Remonstrance, van der Donck commissioned the Jansson-Visscher map of the colony. It showed New Netherland along the original Dutch territorial claim from Cape Hinlopen just south of the Delaware Bay at 38 degrees to the start of New England at 42 degrees and included drawings of typical Indian villages, wild game, and the town of New Amsterdam. The map itself remained the definitive map of the area for over a century, cementing many Dutch place names. It would be reprinted thirty-one times before the mid-18th century
There is no record of Adriaen van der Donck's death, but he was alive during the summer of 1655, and a statement by Peter Stuyvesant in early 1656 seems to indicate he was dead. He probably died at his farm in one of a series of Indian raids in September 1655, called the Peach Tree War. He was survived in New Netherland by his wife and by his parents, whom he had separately convinced to immigrate.Although the manner of his death is not described anywhere, it is is known that his estate was raided by the Indians during that time so it's very possible that his death was a result of this.
When Adriaen van der Donck died in 1655, he left his estate to his wife. Colen–Donck remained in her possession until 1667, when it was disposed of in several sales. What still remained of the property afterwards was divided into thirds and sold in 1672. One of the three purchasers was Frederick Philipse, who thus came to own a large part of "The Yonkers." The land would remain in the hands of the Philipse family for more than one hundred years.
Though the English eventually took over the colony, the city of New Amsterdam retained the municipal charter van der Donck had lobbied for, including uniquely Dutch features, such as a guarantee of free trade.
In 1664, as the result of an Anglo-Dutch war, the Dutch ceded their colony to the English and New Amsterdam became New York
A.D. September 1609, Henry Hudson's ship "The Half Moon" sailed up the North river that now bears his name. It approached the present site of Yonkers and dropped anchor.
Here a number of bark huts were clustered about a spot where a stream flowed into the river, marking a native American settlement. The village was called Nappeckamack (rapid water settlement) and the stream was called the Neperah. The native American villagers living on the banks of the Neperah were confederated with the Mohicans. They were of Algonquin lineage, Mohican tribe and Manhattes family. Their sachem, Tackarew, would later sell much of this land to the Dutch settler Adriaen van der Donck. (Another group, the Weckquaeskecks, occupied the area between what is today the Saw Mill River and the Bronx River.)
Adriaen Cornelissen Van Der Donck (c. 1618 – 1655)
Van der Donck was born in approximately 1618, in the town of Breda in the southern Netherlands. His family was well connected on his mother's side, and her father, Adriaen van Bergen, was remembered as a hero for helping free Breda from Spanish forces during the course of the Eighty Years' War. Adriaen van Bergen had been a captain in the army of Maurits during the Eighty Years War.
In 1624, the first permanent settlement was established at Fort Orange, (Albany, NY), 1624, the first permanent settlement was established at Fort Orange. Later, the principal settlement was New Amsterdam (later New York City) at the southern end of Manhattan island, which was purchased from Native Americans in 1626.
1638, Adriaen Van der Donck entered the University of Leiden as a law student. At Leiden he obtained his Doctor of both laws, that is, both civil/canon law. 1652, back in Holland he took a Supremus he took and obtained A jure degree at the University of Leiden.
1641, Van der Donck sailed to the New World aboard Den Eykenboom (Oak Tree). He was immediately impressed by the lands, which, in vast contrast with the Netherlands, was thickly forested, hilly, and full of wildlife. Once in his post, he attracted the ire of Van Rensselaer with his independence. This manifested itself first when the schout selected one of the patroon's finest stallions for himself and then decided that his appointed farm was poorly chosen and simply picked another site.
He was first lawyer in the Dutch colony, New Netherland, he was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam (New York City, NY), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company.van der Donck made detailed accounts of the land, vegetation, animals, waterways, topography, and climate. Van der Donck used this knowledge to actively promote immigration to the colony, publishing several tracts, including his influential Description of New Netherland.One of the Worlds best, ethnographer's ,a polyglot, having learned the languages and observed many of the customs of the Mahicans and Mohawks. His descriptions /observations of their practices are cited in many modern works.
Director-General of New Netherland, Willem Kieft, who had begun a bloody war with the Indians against the advice of the council of twelve men. Kieft's War badly damaged relations and trade between the Indians and the Dutch, made life more dangerous for Dutch/English colonists living in outlying areas, and drained the colony's resources. He exacerbated his relationship with the already financially strained colonists by enacting a tax on beaver skins and beer to fund the bloody war.
1641, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a director of the Dutch West India Company living in Amsterdam, hired twenty-one-year-old Adriaen van der Donck (1620-1655) to be his lawyer for the colony, Rensselaerwick, in New Netherlands. Until 1645, van der Donck lived in the Upper Hudson River Valley, near Fort Orange (later Albany), where he learned about the Company's fur trade, the Mohawk and Mahican Indians who traded with the Dutch, the agriculturist settlers, and the area's plants and animals. By 1645, his knowledge of the Native Americans was so respected that the Governor of New Netherland asked for his help to negotiate a treaty to end a four-year raiding war with the Indians.
In 1645, Kieft tried to mend relations with the Indians and asked van der Donck to assist as a guide and interpreter. At the negotiations, Kieft found himself in the awkward position of coming without the necessary gifts. Van Der Donck had not informed Kieft of this important component to negotiations in advance, but happened to have brought an appropriate amount of sewant (wampum), which he loaned to Kieft.
On 22nd October 1645, he was married to Mary O'Doughty, a daughter of an English minister. The couple was married in New Amsterdam.
In 1646, a year after his marriage to Mary O'Doughty, Van der Donck asked the Dutch West India Company for his own patroonship. He was granted the land that would become Yonkers, with the understanding that he would buy it from the native Americans. The young patroon's land extended from the Shatemuc (Hudson River) to the Aquehung (Bronx River) and from Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the Amackassin, the rivulet which flows into the Hudson near the northern boundary of the present City of Yonkers.
In return for this favor, Kieft granted van der Donck 24,000 acres on the mainland north of Manhattan in 1646.
He named the estate Colen Donck and built several mills along what is now called Saw Mill River. The estate was so large that locals referred to him as the Jonkheer ("young gentleman" or "squire"), a word from which the name "Yonkers" Jonkeers.. is derived. By this time, Van der Donck had already married the Englishwoman Mary Doughty, whose father had lost his land after irking Kieft.Dutch West India Company did decide to remove Kieft from his post in 1645, citing the terrible damage caused to trade by his war against the Indians. But rather than yield to the colonists' requests for the establishment of local government, the company decided that a stronger Director-General would succeed in squelching political dissent. They chose Peter Stuyvesant. Despite this change, Van Der Donck continued his flurry of documents against Kieft, apparently using his example now solely to make a case for the creation of a local government.
He returned his attention to public relations. In 1650, he printed his Remonstrance as a pamphlet. His enthusiastic description of the land and its potential created much excitement about New Netherland; so many were suddenly eager to immigrate that ships were forced to turn away paying passengers. A Dutch West India Company director wrote, "Formerly New Netherland was never spoken of, and now heaven and earth seem to be stirred up by it and every one tries to be the first in selecting the best pieces [of land] there."
A few quotes (translated into English) will illustrate what he wrote:
"This land is naturally fruitful, and capable of supporting a large population, if it were judiciously allotted according to location. The air is pleasant, and more temperate than in Netherland."
"The natives are generally well-set in their limbs, slender round the waist, broad across the shoulders, and have black hair and dark eyes. They are very nimble and active, well adopted to travel on foot and to drag heavy burdens. … They are divided into different tribes and languages, each tribe living generally by itself, and having one of its number as a chief, though he has not much power or distinction except in their dances or in time of was. Among some there is not the least knowledge of God, and among others very little, though they relate very strange fables concerning Him."
"The English have sought at different times and places to colonize this river, which, they say, is annexed to their territory, but this has as yet been prevented by different protests. We have also expelled them by force, well knowing that if they once settled there, we should lose the river [Delaware] or hold it with difficulty, as they would swwarm there in great numbers. There are great reports daily, that the English will soon repair there with many families."
To go alongside the Remonstrance, van der Donck commissioned the Jansson-Visscher map of the colony. It showed New Netherland along the original Dutch territorial claim from Cape Hinlopen just south of the Delaware Bay at 38 degrees to the start of New England at 42 degrees and included drawings of typical Indian villages, wild game, and the town of New Amsterdam. The map itself remained the definitive map of the area for over a century, cementing many Dutch place names. It would be reprinted thirty-one times before the mid-18th century
There is no record of Adriaen van der Donck's death, but he was alive during the summer of 1655, and a statement by Peter Stuyvesant in early 1656 seems to indicate he was dead. He probably died at his farm in one of a series of Indian raids in September 1655, called the Peach Tree War. He was survived in New Netherland by his wife and by his parents, whom he had separately convinced to immigrate.Although the manner of his death is not described anywhere, it is is known that his estate was raided by the Indians during that time so it's very possible that his death was a result of this.
When Adriaen van der Donck died in 1655, he left his estate to his wife. Colen–Donck remained in her possession until 1667, when it was disposed of in several sales. What still remained of the property afterwards was divided into thirds and sold in 1672. One of the three purchasers was Frederick Philipse, who thus came to own a large part of "The Yonkers." The land would remain in the hands of the Philipse family for more than one hundred years.
Though the English eventually took over the colony, the city of New Amsterdam retained the municipal charter van der Donck had lobbied for, including uniquely Dutch features, such as a guarantee of free trade.
In 1664, as the result of an Anglo-Dutch war, the Dutch ceded their colony to the English and New Amsterdam became New York
A.D. September 1609, Henry Hudson's ship "The Half Moon" sailed up the North river that now bears his name. It approached the present site of Yonkers and dropped anchor.
Here a number of bark huts were clustered about a spot where a stream flowed into the river, marking a native American settlement. The village was called Nappeckamack (rapid water settlement) and the stream was called the Neperah. The native American villagers living on the banks of the Neperah were confederated with the Mohicans. They were of Algonquin lineage, Mohican tribe and Manhattes family. Their sachem, Tackarew, would later sell much of this land to the Dutch settler Adriaen van der Donck. (Another group, the Weckquaeskecks, occupied the area between what is today the Saw Mill River and the Bronx River.)
Van der Donck was born in approximately 1618, in the town of Breda in the southern Netherlands. His family was well connected on his mother's side, and her father, Adriaen van Bergen, was remembered as a hero for helping free Breda from Spanish forces during the course of the Eighty Years' War. Adriaen van Bergen had been a captain in the army of Maurits during the Eighty Years War.
In 1624, the first permanent settlement was established at Fort Orange, (Albany, NY), 1624, the first permanent settlement was established at Fort Orange. Later, the principal settlement was New Amsterdam (later New York City) at the southern end of Manhattan island, which was purchased from Native Americans in 1626.
1638, Adriaen Van der Donck entered the University of Leiden as a law student. At Leiden he obtained his Doctor of both laws, that is, both civil/canon law. 1652, back in Holland he took a Supremus he took and obtained A jure degree at the University of Leiden.
1641, Van der Donck sailed to the New World aboard Den Eykenboom (Oak Tree). He was immediately impressed by the lands, which, in vast contrast with the Netherlands, was thickly forested, hilly, and full of wildlife. Once in his post, he attracted the ire of Van Rensselaer with his independence. This manifested itself first when the schout selected one of the patroon's finest stallions for himself and then decided that his appointed farm was poorly chosen and simply picked another site.
He was first lawyer in the Dutch colony, New Netherland, he was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam (New York City, NY), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company.van der Donck made detailed accounts of the land, vegetation, animals, waterways, topography, and climate. Van der Donck used this knowledge to actively promote immigration to the colony, publishing several tracts, including his influential Description of New Netherland.One of the Worlds best, ethnographer's ,a polyglot, having learned the languages and observed many of the customs of the Mahicans and Mohawks. His descriptions /observations of their practices are cited in many modern works.
Director-General of New Netherland, Willem Kieft, who had begun a bloody war with the Indians against the advice of the council of twelve men. Kieft's War badly damaged relations and trade between the Indians and the Dutch, made life more dangerous for Dutch/English colonists living in outlying areas, and drained the colony's resources. He exacerbated his relationship with the already financially strained colonists by enacting a tax on beaver skins and beer to fund the bloody war.
1641, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a director of the Dutch West India Company living in Amsterdam, hired twenty-one-year-old Adriaen van der Donck (1620-1655) to be his lawyer for the colony, Rensselaerwick, in New Netherlands. Until 1645, van der Donck lived in the Upper Hudson River Valley, near Fort Orange (later Albany), where he learned about the Company's fur trade, the Mohawk and Mahican Indians who traded with the Dutch, the agriculturist settlers, and the area's plants and animals. By 1645, his knowledge of the Native Americans was so respected that the Governor of New Netherland asked for his help to negotiate a treaty to end a four-year raiding war with the Indians.
In 1645, Kieft tried to mend relations with the Indians and asked van der Donck to assist as a guide and interpreter. At the negotiations, Kieft found himself in the awkward position of coming without the necessary gifts. Van Der Donck had not informed Kieft of this important component to negotiations in advance, but happened to have brought an appropriate amount of sewant (wampum), which he loaned to Kieft.
On 22nd October 1645, he was married to Mary O'Doughty, a daughter of an English minister. The couple was married in New Amsterdam.
In 1646, a year after his marriage to Mary O'Doughty, Van der Donck asked the Dutch West India Company for his own patroonship. He was granted the land that would become Yonkers, with the understanding that he would buy it from the native Americans. The young patroon's land extended from the Shatemuc (Hudson River) to the Aquehung (Bronx River) and from Spuyten Duyvil Creek to the Amackassin, the rivulet which flows into the Hudson near the northern boundary of the present City of Yonkers.
In return for this favor, Kieft granted van der Donck 24,000 acres on the mainland north of Manhattan in 1646.
He named the estate Colen Donck and built several mills along what is now called Saw Mill River. The estate was so large that locals referred to him as the Jonkheer ("young gentleman" or "squire"), a word from which the name "Yonkers" Jonkeers.. is derived. By this time, Van der Donck had already married the Englishwoman Mary Doughty, whose father had lost his land after irking Kieft.Dutch West India Company did decide to remove Kieft from his post in 1645, citing the terrible damage caused to trade by his war against the Indians. But rather than yield to the colonists' requests for the establishment of local government, the company decided that a stronger Director-General would succeed in squelching political dissent. They chose Peter Stuyvesant. Despite this change, Van Der Donck continued his flurry of documents against Kieft, apparently using his example now solely to make a case for the creation of a local government.
He returned his attention to public relations. In 1650, he printed his Remonstrance as a pamphlet. His enthusiastic description of the land and its potential created much excitement about New Netherland; so many were suddenly eager to immigrate that ships were forced to turn away paying passengers. A Dutch West India Company director wrote, "Formerly New Netherland was never spoken of, and now heaven and earth seem to be stirred up by it and every one tries to be the first in selecting the best pieces [of land] there."
A few quotes (translated into English) will illustrate what he wrote:
"This land is naturally fruitful, and capable of supporting a large population, if it were judiciously allotted according to location. The air is pleasant, and more temperate than in Netherland."
"The natives are generally well-set in their limbs, slender round the waist, broad across the shoulders, and have black hair and dark eyes. They are very nimble and active, well adopted to travel on foot and to drag heavy burdens. … They are divided into different tribes and languages, each tribe living generally by itself, and having one of its number as a chief, though he has not much power or distinction except in their dances or in time of was. Among some there is not the least knowledge of God, and among others very little, though they relate very strange fables concerning Him."
"The English have sought at different times and places to colonize this river, which, they say, is annexed to their territory, but this has as yet been prevented by different protests. We have also expelled them by force, well knowing that if they once settled there, we should lose the river [Delaware] or hold it with difficulty, as they would swwarm there in great numbers. There are great reports daily, that the English will soon repair there with many families."
To go alongside the Remonstrance, van der Donck commissioned the Jansson-Visscher map of the colony. It showed New Netherland along the original Dutch territorial claim from Cape Hinlopen just south of the Delaware Bay at 38 degrees to the start of New England at 42 degrees and included drawings of typical Indian villages, wild game, and the town of New Amsterdam. The map itself remained the definitive map of the area for over a century, cementing many Dutch place names. It would be reprinted thirty-one times before the mid-18th century
There is no record of Adriaen van der Donck's death, but he was alive during the summer of 1655, and a statement by Peter Stuyvesant in early 1656 seems to indicate he was dead. He probably died at his farm in one of a series of Indian raids in September 1655, called the Peach Tree War. He was survived in New Netherland by his wife and by his parents, whom he had separately convinced to immigrate.Although the manner of his death is not described anywhere, it is is known that his estate was raided by the Indians during that time so it's very possible that his death was a result of this.
When Adriaen van der Donck died in 1655, he left his estate to his wife. Colen–Donck remained in her possession until 1667, when it was disposed of in several sales. What still remained of the property afterwards was divided into thirds and sold in 1672. One of the three purchasers was Frederick Philipse, who thus came to own a large part of "The Yonkers." The land would remain in the hands of the Philipse family for more than one hundred years.
Though the English eventually took over the colony, the city of New Amsterdam retained the municipal charter van der Donck had lobbied for, including uniquely Dutch features, such as a guarantee of free trade.
In 1664, as the result of an Anglo-Dutch war, the Dutch ceded their colony to the English and New Amsterdam became New York
A.D. September 1609, Henry Hudson's ship "The Half Moon" sailed up the North river that now bears his name. It approached the present site of Yonkers and dropped anchor.
Here a number of bark huts were clustered about a spot where a stream flowed into the river, marking a native American settlement. The village was called Nappeckamack (rapid water settlement) and the stream was called the Neperah. The native American villagers living on the banks of the Neperah were confederated with the Mohicans. They were of Algonquin lineage, Mohican tribe and Manhattes family. Their sachem, Tackarew, would later sell much of this land to the Dutch settler Adriaen van der Donck. (Another group, the Weckquaeskecks, occupied the area between what is today the Saw Mill River and the Bronx River.)
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