New York City timeline - 1630s

1630

Aug 10

Michael Pauw, one of the four Patroons of New Netherlands, is granted Staten Island by the Dutch West India Company.

Sep 19

Symon Dircksz Pos, representative of Upper Hudson River landowner Kiliaen van Rensselaer, writes his boss from New Amsterdam that director-general Peter Minuit and colonial secretary Johan van Remunde, egged on by Dominie Johannes Michaëlius, are so busy squabbling that affairs of the settlement there are being sadly neglcted. He also explains that many crops are being planted and he has hopes that profits will soon be shown.

City

Mapmaker Johannes de Laet publishes Beschryvinghe van West-Indien, using the names Manhattes, N. Amsterdam, and Noordt River for the first time. ** A house is built within the fort enclosure for the director-general. ** The ship New Netherland is built by the West India Company. Nicknamed the “great ship” it weighs 800 tons. ** The Eendracht arrives bringing 15 settlers. ** Peter Minuit buys Staten Island from the Tappan Indians for wampum and trade goods.

1631

August

Peter Minuit is recalled to Holland by the Dutch West India Company for refusing to ban the private fur trade and for privileges he awarded patroons. The Reverend Jonas Michaelius is recalled to present the case against him. Lay minister Bastiaen Krol is named acting director in their absence.

City

The Eendracht returns, bringing 11 settlers.

1632

Mar 19

Peter Minuit returns to Holland aboard the Eendracht (Unity). Also aboard are Dominie Johannes Michaëlius and Secretary Jan van Remunde.

Apr 7

Dutch diplomat Mijnheer Van Arnhem reports to the Heeren XIX (ruling council) at home that the English at Plymouth recently captured the Eendracht when it put into the harbor to take shelter from a storm. The New Englanders accused the Dutch of illegal settlement in New Netherland and demanded duties be paid on furs being shipped back to Holland.

May 23

Charles I informs the Dutch ambassador Albert Joachimi that the Dutch in America can remain as long as they submit to British royal authority.

July

Wouter van Twiller, appointed director-general of New Amsterdam, through the influence of his uncle Killiaen van Rensselaer, sails from Holland.

City

The first public beer brewery is set up early in the year by Minuit. ** A penal system is established. ** 125,000 guilders worth of furs are shipped to Holland, triple the amount sent in 1626. Over the past nine years 63,000 skins worth 454,000 guilders have been shipped. ** Diplomatic relations between the Dutch and the English bring into dispute the validity of Minuit's purchase of Manhattan.

1633

March

Wouter van Twiller, a nephew of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, arrives in New Amsterdam in the Zoutberg (Salt Mountain) accompanied by close to 100 soldiers, the first regular troops in the colony, to replace Bastiaen Jansz Krol as director-general. Barmaid Griet Reyniers sails on the same ship.

City

Adam Roelantsen arrives in New Amsterdam, founds the first school in the colony. ** Five stone workshops are built near today’s Whitehall Street. ** Van Twiller settles at Bossen Bouwerie, becoming the first European settler in the future Greenwich Village. ** A tile-roofed brewery is erected. ** The Dutch buy the island later known as Roosevelt Island, from the natives. ** The settlement's first house of worship is erected by Van Twiller, inside the walls of the fort, the first building used solely as a church.

1634

Dec 11

Dutch barber-surgeon Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, sent by an officer at Fort Orange (Albany) to explore the area wheere the Mohawk flows into the Hudson, leaves the fort accompanied by Jeronimus dela Croix and sailor Willem Thomassen.

City

Roeloff and Annetje Jans begin building a farmhouse. They will accumulate land over the next two years that will form the nucleus of Trinity Church’s holdings. ** When Michael Pauw fails to plant a successful settlement on Staten Island after four years, it reverts to the Dutch West Indies Company. ** Teen-aged Dutch West India Company cook’s mate Govert Loockermans arrives.

Netherlands

Brooklyn settler Gerrit Remmersen is born in Pilsum.

1635

City

Jacob Stoffelsen is hired to oversee the Dutch West India Company’s slaves. ** The colony has traded 60,000 beaver pelts, with a worth of 400,000 guilders. The equivalent of $1,699 has been spent on Fort Amsterdam; and close to $165,000 on all of New Netherland. The newly-completed fort had been finished without the stonework planned in 1628.

1636

Oct 5

The first Long Island patents are granted, in today's Brooklyn.

City

The Dutch begin settling further out on Nieuw Amersfoort (Long Island. Governor Wouter Van Twiller begins purchasing Long Island land from the Lenape, at what will become the Red Hook and Gowanus neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Van Twiller and three other colonists buy land in the Flatbush area from the Canarsie Indians. Over the next two years Van Twiller will acquire 15,000 acres. The governor puts the Flatbush land in his own name rather than that of the Dutch West India Company. Later Pieter Stuyvesant will confiscate the land and sell it to settler Pieter Claesen, who will build a house on the property around 1652. The Indians will remain in the area for many years. ** The West India Company grants D. P. De Vries part of Staten Island. ** Partners Andries Hudde and Wolphert Gerritsen break ground for a farm at Achtervelt, the future site of Flatbush. ** French Huguenot Isaac De Forest starts a tobacco plantation in Harlem.

Netherlands

New Amsterdam minister Hendricus Selyns is born in Amsterdam.

1637

Sep 2

Amsterdam merchant Willem Kieft (Willem the Testy) replaces Wouter van Twiller as Director of New Amsterdam.

City

Dutch governor Wouter Van Twiller buys Minnahannock Island in the East River from the Canarsie Indians and begin raising hogs there, naming it Hog Island. It later becomes Roosevelt Island. ** The Dutch settle on Long Island at Flushing. Local Matinecocks help them make it through the first winter. ** Englishman Thomas Foster receives a royal grant for 600 acres on Alley Creek, off Long Island's Little Neck Bay, displacing local Matinecock Indians. The area will later be named Douglaston (in the future Queens). ** Great Barcut, or Great Barn Island (later Ward's Island) is bought by Van Twiller. ** Patroon Michael Pauw sells Pavonia (parts of Staten Island and New Jersey) to the West India Company. ** Joris de Rapelye settles on Long Island at Wallabout Bay, future site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

1638

Apr 15

New Amsterdam passes its first law, mandating that all visiting seamen must return to their ships by nightfall.

Apr 22

New Amsterdam governor Willem Kieft and the Privileged Trading Company grant a lease for a tract of and near Fort Amsterdam to former governor Wouter Von Twiller, to be used for cultivating tobacco. It will become Peter Stuyvesant’s bouwerie (farm) in 1651.

May 15

Jan Gybertsen stabs New Amsterdam gunner Gerrit Jansen in a brawl, killing him; New York City’s first murder.

June

The New Amsterdam council hires Nicholaes Coorn as company sergeant for Fort Amsterdam. He will eventually be broken to private and two other soldiers will 'ride the wooden horse' (corporal punishment), for various crimes and infractions.

Jul 20

Andries Hudde is given a goundbrief (grant) for land located at today’s Harlem.

August

Peter Minuit dies at sea during a Caribbean hurricane. ­

Sep 24

Adriaen van der Donck enters the University of Leiden, to study law.

Nov 1

Queens County is created from the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, on Long Island.

City

The Dutch establish a cattle market, on the site of today's Bowling Green. It lasts for nine years. ** The Flatbush farm owned by Andries Hudde and Wolphert Gerritsen now contains a house, barn and hayrick. Andries Hudde sells Gerrit Wolphertsen 100 acres of land in Brooklyn. ** The population has remained close to 400 for the last dozen years or so. ** Local Mespaetches (Lenape) Indians sell Brooklyn land to the colonists that will become Bushwick, Greenpoint and Williamsburg. ** An ordinance is passed forbidding adulterous relations with heathens and blacks. Another ordinance forbids selling wine. ** The court of sessions of the North Riding of Yorkshire is established at Jamaica. ** Newly-arrived Willem Kieft replaces Wouter Von Twiller as director general. Kieft begins buying Lenape Indian land in today's Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Jersey City. He establishes a system of ground-briefs, deeds for people taking up residence in the colony. ** Ferry service between Manhattan and Brooklyn is established. ** England divides the crown colony into twelve counties, including Queens – with today’s Nassau County in its limits. The towns of Flushing, Jamaica and Newtown are within the Queens borders. ** A Dutch school, later the Collegiate School, opens. ** The Dutch West India Company loses its monopoly of the North America-Atlantic trade as furs gradually are transported through non-Dutch ports, to avoid the payment of duties.

Netherlands

The States General becomes disillusioned with the rate of immigration into New Amsterdam.

1639

Feb 10

Staten Island’s new owner, David Pieterszoon De Vries, starts a plantation there at the Watering Place, near today's Tompkinsville.

City

The approximate date the Manatus Map "Manhattan Lying on the North River" (probably drawn by either Andries Hudde or Johannes Vingboons) is published, detailing the greater New York area, and showing Lenape longhouses in Brooklyn. ** Jonas Bronck buys nearly 500 acres of land in the future Westchester County, centered around Morrisania. ** The Dutch West India Company purchases the area known today as the Bronx from the Indians, to ease future overcrowding. ** Under land grants from the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce of the West India Company, a succession of Dutch farmers begin working Hog Island (today's Roosevelt Island). Slave quarters are reportedly established to the north of Manhattan, across from the island.** Governor Willem Kieft begins taxing Indians. He orders all Englishmen to swear an oath of loyalty to the States-General. ** Soldier Gregorus Pietersen is executed by firing squad for inciting to mutiny. ** Anthony "The Turk" Jansen and his wife Grietjen Reyniers are expelled from the colony for indecent behavior, move to New Utrecht (later part of Brooklyn) on Long Island. ** Sarah Joris Rapalje, the first European born in the city, marries Hans Hansen Bergen, overseer of a tobacco plantation located in the future Greenwich Village. ** Govert Loockermans goes to work for the Verbrugge family as a shipping agent. ** Jochem Kuyter, a German seaman from the Danish navy arrives in Manhattan, begins raising tobacco at the north end. Indian raids will drive him and his neighbor Jonas Bronck from across the river to move to the southern end of Manhattan. The two men decide to bring action against governor Kieft. ** Legislation is passed to establish fairs for regulating the sale of livestock and fix prices of necessities sold at company stores. Regular market days are established.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

War of 1812

Battle of Plattsburgh Monumernt

© 2009 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Just So Story

© 2003 David Minor / Eagles Byte

In the first chapter of "Kim" Rudyard Kipling wrote, `"A white-bearded Englishman was looking at the lama, who gravely turned and saluted him and after some fumbling drew forth a note-book and a scrap of paper. `Yes, that is my name,' smiling at the clumsy, childish print...Come to my office awhile.' The office was but a little wooden cubicle partitioned off from the sculpture-lined gallery. Kim laid himself down, his ear against a crack in the heat-split cedar door, and, following his instinct, stretched out to listen and watch." And so Kipling introduced his father, John Lockwood Kipling, curator of the Lahore Museum, to a wider world. As with Kim, listening and watching were skills both Kiplings were constantly stretching.

Curator in Lahore for nearly twenty years, Kipling, through his son's novel, became known as The Keeper of the Images. He presided over a 'Wonder House' containing Islamic manuscripts, Buddhist sculptures, a carved wood door frame, Kurdish rugs, Islamic calligraphy, Persian miniatures, glazed tiles, Tibetan furniture and devil-dance masks - the surviving remnants of dynasties cheek-to-jowl with the latest marvels of machine-made goods. And, most notably, out in front of the museum, the gun Zam-Zammah, perch of the fictional British orphan Kimball O'Hara, and best known today as Kim's gun.

While John Kimball cared for his inanimate charges and constantly added to the collection, his 17-year-old son Rudyard, new sub-editor of the local Civil and Military Gazette, combed Lahore for materials for his paper; at the same time building up his own collection - tales and images he would transform into fiction and poetry. In the Shah Alam Market, the taverns, under a tree along the Circular Road, in lantern-flickered back alleys, he would hear many stories. Stories of the Moghul Kamrab who was blinded by his brother after attempting to take Prince Akbar's life with a rigged cannon. Of Akbar's grandson Shah Jehan, who built a world-renowned tribute to his dead wife as well as the Octagonal Tower, where he was imprisoned by his rebellious son Aurangzeb and spent the last eight years of his life. Of Ranjit Singh and the diamond called Koh-I-noor, that would end up in the Tower of London. Or the 14-foot-long gun Zam-Zammah, or Lion's Roar, that the emperor dragged to the siege of Multan, the gun being put out of commission and losing its roar after firing two shots. Of British lieutenant Alexander Burnes who ascended and charted the Indus River with his "little elephants". The same Burnes who was honored for his services with knighthood, made a member of the Royal Geographical Society, returned to Lahore, headed west into Afghanistan under heavy disguise on a diplomatic mission to Dost Mohammed at Kabul, fought against him in Britain's First Afghan War, attempted to establish peace, and was slaughtered along with his entire household and retinue on November 2nd, 1841.

His mind overflowing, Kipling would leave India in 1889, return to visit his parents in 1891, then leave forever, dying 45 years later. The works he left behind, many illustrated by his father, would become controversial in our own time, but Kipling's India is the British India that lives in our minds today. Just so it was that the image keeper's son would create and bequeath images of his own.

New York City timeline - 1620s

1620

February

The Dutch offer the Pilgrims land around the mouth of the Hudson River. The offer is rejected.

New Jersey

A Dutch immigrant ship is wrecked on Sandy Hook. The crew and passengers get ashore, travel to Manhattan. Penelope van Princis stays behind with her seriously wounded husband. Raritan Indians find them, kill the husband and wound Penelope, leaving her for dead. She is captured by two Indians and eventually ransomed by New Amsterdam.

1622

Oct 23

New Amsterdam settler Jacob Leendertsen Van Der Grift is baptized in Amsterdam, Holland, by his parents Lenaert Evertse Van Der Grift & Maritjen Pauwels.

1623

City

Dutch soldier Philippe Wiltsie, ancestor of Pittsford, New York, merchant Charles Wiltsie, arrives in Manhattan.

1624

Jan 21

Catalina Trico and Joris Rapalje, passengers for the Nieu Netherland, are married in Amsterdam.

April

The Dutch ship New Netherland under Cornelis Jacobsz Mey departs with 30 families aboard, mostly French Hugenots from Spanish-ruled Belgium, the first settlers, for the mouth of the Hudson. Of the five unmarried women aboard four will be married while at sea.

May

The New Netherland arrives in New York harbor, discovers a French ship, which they escort out of the area. The settlers arrive on Nooten Eylandt (Nut Island, now Governors Island). Most go up the Hudson aboard the New Netherland to Fort Orange (Albany) the rest begin farming on Staten Island. The vessel will return to the Netherlands. ** The approximate date Jan Vinje (Jean Vigne, Vienje, Finje, Van Gee) is born in Manhattan – perhaps the first European bon here - to Dutch immigrants Guillaume and Adriana Cuveille Vinje (disputed - see 1625 de Rapaelje).

May

Cornelis Jacobsz May is named director of New Amsterdam.

November 24

Former textile worker Bastiaen Jansz Krol, who arrived in New Amsterdam earlier in the year as a “comforterof the sick” (rank below that of a minister), and having returned to Amsterdam, appears before the church council and applies to perform baptisms and marriages in Fort Orange (Albany), and is authorized to do so. He foundsthe Dutch Reformed Church of North America.

December

Dutch West India Company ships have returned to the Netherlands, bringing reports of great success in the New Amsterdam colonies. They carry furs worth 50,000 guilders.

City

Farmers on Nooten Eylandt move to Manhattan to get more room for their crops. 30 Walloon families sent by the Dutch West India Company arrive on Manhattan Island, with Captain Cornelius May on the Nieu Netherland and join them. A small contingent is left on the island. The rest split up and move to the east shore of the Delaware River (where they found Fort Nassau), and to the Albany area. ** Population: 270 [the pertinent year given for the '270' ranges from 1624-1630].

Netherlands

The approximate date New York City landowner and merchant Joahannes Pieterse Van Brugh is born in Haerlem to Pieter and Helena Van Brugh.

1625

April

A second group of Dutch colonists, numbering 45, sail from Holland for New Amsterdam, Minister Bastiaen Jansz Krol, returning to the New World, most likely among them. The three ships - Paert (House), Koe (Cow) and Schaep (Sheep) - fitted out by the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company, also carries large numbers of livestock and amounts of agricultural supplies.

April 27

A fast-sailing yacht accompanying the Dutch ships is captured by the English and taken to Dunkirk - at that time under the English.

Jun 1

Sarah de Rapaelje is born in Breuckelen (Brooklyn) to Jan Jand his wife Catalina, the first child of European parents born in New Netherland (disputed, see: 1624 Vinje/Vigne).

July

Director Willem Verhulst is ordered to pick a site for a New Amsterdam fort. He will chose lower Manhattan.

September

England and the Netherlands sign the Treaty of Southampton, a defensive and offensive alliance designed to protect the latter from Spain. Colonial ports are to be open to both English and Dutch merchants.

October

The Dutch West India Company sacks San Juan, Puerto Rico. They capture a bell which will be used next year for the tower in a horse mill in New Amsterdam.

Dec 19

Peter Minuit prepares to leave Amsterdqm on the Meeuwken or Zeemeeuw (Sea Mew) but is delayed for close to three weeks.

City

A second Dutch West India Company ship arrives, carrrying over a hundred settlers and 103 head of livestock, as well as Willem Verhulst, who is to replace Cornelis Jacobsz as director of New Amsterdam. His orders are to establish six farms on Manhattan Island. A number of construction workers headed by Crijn Fredericks (Kryn Frederycks) arrive with Verhulst, and stake out Fort Amsterdam, at the southern tip of Manhattan. ** Settlers trade with the natives for 5,295 beaver pelts and 463 otter skins, ship the pelts back to the Netherlands.

Netherlands

Dominie Baudartius of Zutphen receives a letter from New Amsterdam, praising its lushness and freedom of fear of Indians.

1626

Jan 9

Peter Minuit, delayed by winter storms, sails from Texel, Holland.

May 4

Minuit arrives at New Amsterdam in the Sea-mew. At some point, probably later in the month, he buys Manhattan island from the Canarsie (Wappinger Confederacy) Indians for 60 guilders.

Jul 27

New Netherland Company Secretary and commercial agent Isaak de Rasière arrives in New Amsterdam aboard the Arms of Amsterdam.

Jul 31

Minuit returns to Manhattan from a trip to Albany.

Aug 1

Minuit meets with De Rasière. They decide to send Frisian lay minister Bastiaen Krol to Albany to replace the massacred Daniel Van Criekenbeeck as military leader of the outpost.

Aug 10

Minuit buys Staten Island from the natives.

Sep 23

Willem Verhulst and his wife return to the Netherlands aboard the ship The Arms of Amsterdam, as does Fort Orange commander Pieter Barentsz, who will be replaced by Kol. The ship also carries a letter from Secretary and commercial agent Issack de Rasière to the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company - the first known letter written from New Amsterdam, announcing Peter Minuit’s purchase of Manhattan Island from the Lenape Indians for 60 guilders, and his orders to many colonists at Fort Orange (Albany) and Fort Nassau (Gloucerster, New Jersey) to move to New Amsterdam. He mentions buying beads from the Minquac Indians, and sends several samples, asking for manufctured beads in return. The vessel also bears samples of summer grain crops as well as more than 8,000 animal pelts and many samples of oak and hickory. With Fort Amsterdam nearing completion, builder Crijn Fredericks departs.

Nov 4

The Arms of Amsterdam arrives in that city.

Nov 5

The Dutch West India Company, having received the letter from New Amsterdam, report to the Dutch government.

Nov 7

A Dutch States General Clerk notes the receipt of de Rasière letter; adds no further action is necessary.

City

Minuit is appointed by a council of Dutch West India Company directors as first director-general of New Netherlands, replacing company agent Willem Verhulst, who had been accused of mismanagement. ** The first flour mill in the colony is built. ** The colony sends 7,258 beaver skins to Holland. ** The fear of Indian attacks causes the Fort Orange settlers to be removed to Manhattan, leaving only 25 traders behind. Engineer Kryn Frederycks lays out Fort Amsterdam on the lower end of Manhattan Island, where the Customs House stands today. He lays out a bouwery (farm) and a burying ground. ** Three Wecquaesgeek Indians coming to trade furs clash with three of Minuit's soldiers, one of the natives is killed and his nephew vows revenge. ** The approximate date Dutch printer Joost Hartgers publishes the first visual depiction of Manhattan, in his engraving Fort Nieuw Amsterdam op de Manhatans.

1627

Mar 19

William Bradford writes to the Dutch at New Amsterdam, expressing the Pilgrims’ appreciation for treatment they received while living in the Netherlands. He accepts an offer to trade from Dutch West India Company secretary Isaak de Rasières.

Aug 7

Dutch delegate Jan de Wieringen arrives in Plymouth, Massachusetts, with gifts of sugar and cheese, and a message from Peter Minuit - maintaining Dutch rights to settle and trade in New Amsterdam.

Aug 14

The approximate date Bradford writes to New Amsterdam, reiterating England's claim to the entire region and suggesting their home country work with his as soon as possible to resolve the issue.

Oct 1

Bradford writes the government in New Amsterdam, again thanking the Dutch for their hospitality to the Pilgrims.

City

The Company sends goods worth 56,170 guilders to New Amsterdam and receives 7,520 beaver pelts and 370 otter skins, worth 56,420 guilders.

France

The approximate date New York City pioneer Isaac Bedlow/e is born in Calais.

1628

Apr 7

Jonas Michaëlius (Michielse), the first Dutch Reformed minister in the colonies, arrives and founds the forerunner of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church, holding the first service. His wife dies seven weeks later.

August 8

Michaëlius writes a letter describing the settlement of New Amsterdam to those back in Holland. He writes a second such letter three days later. In them he describes the dearth of food due to the size of the population against the lack of farmers and cattle. He addresses the need for a supply of horses, cows, and builders; the latter who could later become farmers.

August 11

Michaelius writes another letter to Amsterdam, referring to the difficulty in getting Bastiaen down from Albany, leading to a decision to chose two elders to assist himself in ecclesiastical matters, and his choice of Minuit and his brother-in-law the storekeeper Jan Huygen.

City

The Dutch West India Company imports three female slaves from Angola. ** The Amsterdam Chamber's Samuel Bloemaerts receives a report that Manhattan settlers have ploughed eight times in the last four years, and that 120 acres in six farms are under cultivation. ** The city suffers its first fire. ** Commercial agent Isaak de Rasière writes to Samuel Blommaert, a friend in the Netherlands, explaining the Indians' use of wampum as a machampe, or bride's price. The agent will return to Amsterdam before the end of the year. ** As the earlier earthwork fortification crumbles Minuit decides to build new defenses, faced with stone. ** The settlement's population is 270.

1629

Jun 7

To encourage Manhattan colonization the Dutch West India Company's Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions (Charter of Liberties) establishes the patroon system in New Netherland (New York). In exchange for a Manhattan trade monopoly the Company agrees to supply slaves and build a better fort on Manhattan. Indian lands outside of Manhattan must be purchased from them. Amsterdam pearl merchant Killian van Rensselaer is given the first charter. Charters are also issued to Johannes de Laet, David Pieters de Vries, Michiel Pauw, Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert.

Sep 10

Jonas Bronk buys 500 acres of land north of Manhattan from the local Indians.

Netherlands

Even though the New World fur trade is making money, directors of the Dutch West India Company complain to the States General that settlers are not producing a profit. Independent fur exporters are to be taxed one guilder per hide after this year; private importers will pay a 5% import duty and to pay - at Amstrerdam - for brandy, codfish, salt, naval stores and vinegar brought into the Netherlands. Colonists are forbidden to manufacture their own linens, wool or cloth.

© 2011 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Here's Lookin' at You, Kid

© 2009 David Minor / Eagles Byte

Times Square, February 2009

New York City Timeline - 1615 through 1619

1616

Adriaen Block publishes his map of New York Harbor and Long Island.

1617

State

The charter of the United New Netherland Company is due to expire, beginning a new round of competition.

1618

Jan 1

The charter of United New Netherland Company expires; they are unable to renew it but continue with the occasional voyage for the next three years.

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© 2010 David Minor / Eagles Byte