1640
May 10
A militia is formed in New Amsterdam.
July
The directors of the West India Company grant the remainder of Staten Island to Cornelius Melyn. He will attempt to start a patroonship and plant a colony.
City
A Dutch church is erected inside the stockade. ** Staten Island’s David Pietersz De Vries leases out the island when his plantation there fails to attract settlers. ** A few pigs disappear on Staten Island. Kieft sends 100 armed men to the island where they kill several Raritan Indians, including a sachem. The Raritan burn a farm and kill four Dutch workmen - the Pig War (also known as Kieft's or the Wappinger War). ** A colony of Massachusetts Quakers settles at Gravesend, Brooklyn, under the protection of the Dutch government.
1641
Aug 29
Family heads in New Amsterdam select a representative government, the Board of Twelve Men.
City
Scandinavian sea captain Jonas Bronck buys 500 acres north of Manhattan to farm tobacco. ** Overseer Jacob Stoffelson has city slaves removing dead hogs from the streets. ** In a double wedding Anthony van Angola and Catalina van Angola, and Lucie d’Angola and Laurens vam Angola, all slaves, are married in the Dutch Reformed Church. ** Eight slaves are accused of murdering a ninth, Jan Premero. One slave, Manuel (the Giant), belonging to Gerrit de Reus, is chosen by lot to hang. The rope breaks and spectators successfully plead for his life. The others - Big Manuel, Little Manuel, Paulo d’Angola, Simon Congo, and Anthony Portuguese - are pardoned. ** The Dutch West India Company builds the Stadt Herbergh (City Tavern) at Coentes and Pearl. ** Governor Kieft opens the city's first annual cattle fair, outside the fort on the Marktveldt. ** David Pietersz De Vries’ Staten Island settlement at the Watering Place (later Tompkinsville) is wiped out by Indians.
1642
Jan 20
New Amsterdam director Kieft convenes The Twelve Men to plan a campaign against the Algonquin.
Feb 8
Kieft dismisses The Twelve Men when they begin considering a permanent place in the government.
Feb 25
Kieft consents to the massacre of a band of innocent Algonquin Indians, forced into his area by hostile tribes in the Albany area.
March
Kieft’s campaign against the Algonquin proves ineffective.
November
Adriaen van der Donck, is sent to Manhattan by his employer, patroon Kiliaen Van Rennselaer, to bring back a runaway female indentured servant. Discovering she’s about to give birth, he allows her to remain until the infant’s old enough to travel. Van Rensselaer is displeased.
City
The approximate date the Dutch West India Company builds Philip Geraerdy’s Tavern at Stone and Whitehall. ** Twelve languages are spoken in the settlement. ** The daughter of minister Everardus Bogardus is married. Director Kieft takes advantage of the tippling guests by successfully soliciting subscriptions for a new stone church inside the fort. Construction begins. ** The Dutch engage in hostilities with New Jersey's Hackensack Indians over whiskey. ** Plymouth colonists led by Reverend Francis Doughty settle on Long Island along Newtown Creek, near the Indian village of Mespaetches, the future site of Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood. The ensuing Maspeth will be the first European community in Queens. Governor Kieft offers no objections. Quakers led by Reverend John Throgmorton settle at Throg's Neck. ** Cornelius Dircksen inaugurates the first ferry service (by rowboat) to connect Brooklyn, near today’s Old Fulton Street, with Manhattan. ** A small section of a lower Manhattan street is named Broadway.
Bronx
British settler John Throckmorton settles on the Long Island Sound peninsula that will become known (after his name) as Throgs Neck.
1643
Feb 8
Tobacco planter and Netherlands emigrant Jan Cornelissen is killed in the Indian wars, on the north bank of the Batten Kill on Staten Island, at about the age of 70.
Feb 25
New Amsterdam’s Director General Kieft makes war on Indian refugees from the Mohawks at Corlaer’s Hook and Pavonia, precipitating a war that lasts over the next two years. 120 Indians seeking refuge are slaughtered by the settlers, many of them as they slept.
April
Staten Island farmer David De Vries convinces 18 Metoac sachems to signed a treaty of truce with Kieft. Envoys are sent to the Hackensack and Tappan urging them also to sign.
September
Siwanoy Indians under sachem Wampage murder Anne Hutchinson and her family in Eastchester.
Sep 13
Kieft seeks counsel from a new body, The Eight.
Oct 7
Dutch merchant, land speculator and Dutch West
India Company founder-director Kiliaen van Rensselaer - never having seen his
New World lands - and having died recently in Amsterdam in his late forties
(exact dates unknown) is buried on this date.
City
Population: 400. 18 languages are spoken. ** French Jesuit priest Father Isaac Jogues visits the city. ** Bronx landowner Jonas Jonasson Bronck, 43, and most of his settlers are killed during an Indian raid. ** Wecquaesgeek Indians resist demands for tribute by the Mahicans. Several are killed and many women and children captured. The Wecquaesgeek flee south to Manhattan, expecting protection from the Dutch, who are supplying guns for the Mahicans. When they cross the river to New Jersey, Kieft becomes convinced an attack is imminent and attacks their villages, massacring 110 (the Pavonia Massacre). The Wappinger War (Governor Kieft's War) begins, lasts until 1645. Mespaetches Indians burn the settlement on Brooklyn's Newtown Creek. ** Fort Amsterdam is built at the southern tip of the island. ** Kieft creates a burgher guard, the first recorded police force for the colony. ** Lady Deborah Moody establishes the Brooklyn settlement at Gravesend, on land donated by William Kieft, becoming the first woman to found a colony. It’s the oldest town on Long Island. ** Kieft, tired of entertaining visitors in his own home, opens a tavern – the Staat’s Herberg (State’s Lodging) - on Pearl Street for the West India Company, leases it for 300 guilders to Philip Giraerdy (Gerritsen). Only company liquors are to be sold. It’s the settlement’s first tavern. ** Martin Krigier (Creiger) opens a second tavern, on Bowling Green (today's 9-11 Broadway.
1644
Feb 25
A number of black slaves, including Big Manuel, Little Manuel, Paulo d’Angola, Simon Congo, and Anthony Portuguese, are awarded half-freedom. They are free on a bond, payable in labor, while their children remained slaves.
March
Kieft declares a day of thanksgiving after his forces kill 500 Indians.
Jun 18
The Eight, New Amsterdam Kieft’s council, meets. Kieft tells the members the colony is out of money because of the recent Indian war and will have to tax beaver pelts and beer. The meeting breaks up in disarray.
August
Dutch wheelwright/schout (sheriff) Claes Swits is beheaded by a Wickquasgeck Indian he’s invited into his home on the Rensselaerwyck lands. Fifteen years before the Indian, then twelve-years-old, was the sole survivor of a massacre of fellow tribesmen by Europeans.
Oct 28
The Eight send a third petition to the Dutch government, without Kieft’s knowledge, seeking the director's dismissal.
November
A jury of twelve men is assembled in New Amsterdam to consider avenging the murder of Swits. When the jury cannot agree on a course of action they are dismissed. Director Kieft will launch a war on the Wesquecqueck on his own next year.
Immigrants
Claes Martin van Roosevelt arrives in New Amsterdam.
© 2011 David Mnor / Eagles Byte
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