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Vol. lix No. 4

"Publijhed by The Holland Society of!}(ew T^or^

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The Holland Society of New York

122 EAST 58th STREET. NEW YORK. N.Y. 10022

President

J o h n H. Vander Veer

Advisory Council of Past Presidents:

Bruce S. Cornell James E. Quackenbush Kenne th L. Demarest T h o m a s M. Van der Veer Walter E. Hopper Gerrit W. Van Schaick

Carl A. Willsey

Vice Presidents:

New York County Harry A. van Dyke Long Island Adrian T. Bogart, Jr. Dutchess County George E. Banta Ulster County Kenneth E. Hasbrouck Patroons, Albany '• • • J o h n S. Vander Veer Central New York George N . Van Fleet Old Bergen County, N.J Francis A. Goetschius Essex and Morris Counties, N.J Daniel S. Van Riper Central New Jersey K e n n e t h L. Demarest Connecticut-Westchester Harrold W. deGroff

New England Tweed Roosevelt Mid West J o h n Schermerhorn Potomac George Bogardus

Virginia and the Carolinas Howard E. Bartholf Florida-East Coast Theodore P. Schoonmaker Flor ida-West Coast Melwood Van Scoyoc Pacific Coast Paul H . Davis Niagara Frontier Chase Viele South Rivet Wil l iam M. Alrich Georgia H. J o h n Ouderki rk United States Army . Col. William T. Van At ten . Jr.. USA (Ret) Uni ted States Navy Rear A d m . Blinn Van Mater, Jr . , USN (Ret) United States Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Ar thu r J. Poillon, U S M C United States Air Force Captain Laurence C. Vliet. USAF

Treasurer: Secretary:

J o h n A. Pruyn Rev. Louis O. Springsteen

Domine: Associate Domine:

Rev. Dr. Howard G Hageman Rev. Louis O. Springsteen

Trustees: Will iam M. Alrich Arthur R. Smock, Jr. George E. Banta Tweed Roosevelt Frederick W. Bogert James M. Van Buten 11 Clifford A. Cr ispel l . J r . Wynan t D. Vanderpool , Jr. Ralph L. DeGroff, Jr. Harry A. van Dyke John O . Delamater Peter Van Dyke Richard C. Deyo Stanley L. Van Rensselaer Will iam B. Deyo, Jr. J ames M. Vreeland Huber t T. Mandeville John R. Voothis III Robert D . Nost rand Peter G. Vosburgh

Trustee Emeritus: Charles A. Van Pat ten

Editor:

Rev. Dr. Howard G. Hageman

Editorial Committee: Frederick W. Bogert James M.Van Buren II Clayton Hoagland David William Voorhees

Burgher Guard Captain: Executive Secretary:

Stephen Wyckoff Mrs. Barbara W. Stankowski

Organized in 1885 to collect and preserve Information respecting rhe settle­ment and early history of the City and State of New York, to perpetuate the memory, foster and promote the principles and virtues of the Dutch ancestors ol its members, to maintain a library relating to the Dutch in America, and to prepare papers, essays, books, etc. in regard to the history and genealogy of the Dutch in America.

The Society is principally organized of descendants in the direct male line of residents of the Dutch Colonics in America prior to or during the year 1675. In­quiries respecting the several criteria for membership are invited.

De Halve Maen, published by the Society, is entered at the post office at New York, N.Y. Communications to the editor should be directed to the Society's address, 122 East 58th Stteet. New York, N.Y. 10022, telephone 212-758-1675.

Copyright ©The Holland Society of New York 1987.

The Editor's Corner I hope that de Halve Maen is still a welcome visitor in the

homes of its readers! We must apologize for what was really no one's fault but illness and accident have delayed the publication of this issue for an inexcusably long time. Your editor must also add that when he retired, he assumed that he would have a great deal of free time for this kind of work. Things do not seem to have turned out that way; not only is he busier than ever, but the absence of a good secretary (not to mention a copy machine) means that things take that much longer than they used to.

And the flood of articles continues to sweep in! We are currently publishing articles given at the Rensselaerswyck Seminar in 1985, with a few more to go, but in the mean­time every month brings new material from prospective authors, some of it extraordinarily good. Sometime somebody should study the reasons for the great revival of interest in New Netherland. Is it a by-product of 1976 and our renewed interest in our roots? Is it the result of the continuing good work of the New Netherland Project? Or is there some other explanation that eludes me?

Well, whatever the explanation, it is happening. I know how my predecessor in this editorial work, Richard Amerman, had to scratch for good material while I am overwhelmed by it. And it comes not just from Holland Society members and friends, but from serious students from all over the country. I see no sign of its ceasing in any immediate future.

I like to think that the Holland Society can take a good deal of credit for what has been happening in this regard. In those bleak days when interest in colonial Dutch culture meant little more than wooden shoes, taverns and Rip Van Winkle, we pioneered in serious study and spent our money to encourage the translation and publication of hitherto unknown documents. If there are others who now have begun to outrun us in terms of study and scholarship, we should bless them for being able to reap where we have sown and look forward to an even greater harvest.

The present issue is largely concerned with trade in New Netherland since that was the topic of the 1985

(continued on page 22)

IN THIS ISSUE

Remembrance of Patria 1 Commerce After the Conquest: I 8 Unraveling a Secret Colonialism: I 13 The Holland Society Centennial Celebration 17 Society Activities 19 Here and There with Our Members 22

In Memoriam 23

Cover: Corner of State and North Pearl Streets, Albany, 1814. Painted by James Eights (1798-1882) in 1849. Col­lection of the Albany Institute of History & Art. Bequest of Ledyard Cogswell, Jr.

ISSN 0017-6834

m

HALVE VOL. LIX • NO. 4

MAEN MARCH 1987 NEW YORK CITY

Remembrance of Patria by Roderic H. Blackburn

This article is based on the Albany Institute of History and Art's exhibition held last year in commemoration of the 300th anniversary of the City of Albany's Charter, granted by Royal Governor Thomas Dongan on be half of King James IIon July 21, 1686. A comprehensive book based on the 320 objects in the exhibition will be available from the Publishing Department of the Albany Institute, 123 Washington Ave., Albany, N. Y.

The river which Henry Hudson first explored for the Dutch in 1609 soon attracted commercially minded Dutch­men seeking to exploit raw materials — most especially an abundance of furs — in the North (Hudson) River and then adjacent valleys. At first a small temporary trading post, Fort Nassau, was established on Castle Island near what is now the city of Albany. In 1621, when the Dutch West India Com­pany was chartered, New Netherland was placed in its charge. Settlement began at Manhattan in 1624, when French Pro­testant Walloons arrived under the auspices of the company. The domain of New Netherland soon extended to include settlements on the Connecticut (near present day Hartford) and Delaware (now New Castle and Lewes) Rivers.

While fur trade with the Indians held promise for great profit, it was clear by 1628 that colonization was required to make the venture successful. The 1629 Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, promulgated by the Dutch government, encouraged private individuals to populate regions by grant­ing them large tracts of land, patroonships, in return for bringing at least fifty settlers. Several were granted but only one of these lasted beyond 1638. Its success was hard-won but long-lasting: until 1846 the Van Rensselaer family kept title to their vast holdings around Albany.

When the English took New Netherland in 1664, they acquired an international population derived from many European countries. This diversity remained an important and permanent characteristic of the colony. By its very nature this population created an environment in which toleration flourished. In turn, this toleration fostered an allegiance among these people to the Dutch culture that had brought them there. For almost the next hundred years, the provin­cial English colony of New York retained many Dutch cultural characteristics. William Smith, a historian of New York Pro­vince, wrote in 1762:

Roderic Blackburn is Research Associate of the Institute of History and Art in Albany, N. Y.

"The manners of the people differ as well as their language. In Suffolk and Queen's county . . . their customs are similar to those in the English counties from whence they originally sprang. In the city of New York, through our intercourse with the Europeans, we follow the London fashions; though by the time we adopt them, they become disused in England. Our affluence during the late [French and Indian] war, introduced a degtee of luxury in tables, dress, and furniture, with which we were before unacquainted. But still we are not so gay a people as our neighbors in Boston, and several of the southern colonies. The Dutch counties, in some measure, follow the example of New-York [city], but still retain many modes peculiar to the Hollanders."1

Affluence and cultural change followed the last two French and Indian Wars (1744-1748 and 1758-1760) when the population and the economy of the colony swelled with British soldiers, victualers, and other immigrants. Their weight of numbers combined with the attractiveness of their stylish ways to the young generation did more than anything else to put Dutch culture in retreat. Wholesale adoption of English language, fashions and values progressively sub­merged Dutch ways except in the most isolated places. Yet elements of their past persisted in the new republican society. In ways the West India Company officials never dreamed, Dutch colonization in America was sufficiently effective that Americans today still live with details of life worked out by the seventeenth century Dutch — cookies, Santa Claus, religious toleration, separation of church and state, caucus politics, and neighborly evening visits on the stoop.

Much of the cultural and social history of the Dutch in the New World can be appreciated thorough the objects that have survived the past two centuries. Although few objects remain from the seventeenth century, many from the next century survive which contain, in whole or part, distinctive characteristics of this former Dutch colony. The full range of Dutch experience in early America is examined in this exhibi­tion through nearly 300 paintings, furniture, silver, gold, ceramics, textiles, prints, drawings and architectural elements which are organized into fourteen thematic sections. These explain the origins of the colony as a commercial venture; the role of the Reformed church; patroonships, manors and land patents; merchants and traders; urban Dutch life and archi­tecture; rural mills and farms and their structures; the fur-

nishings and functions of rooms; children and socialization; women's roles and possessions; the development of America's first significant school of art; the perpetuation of Netherlands furniture forms and painted decoration; and the interrela­tionship of English and Dutch culture as seen in early New York silver.

The exhibition and fully illustrated catalogue incorporates original research (both in the U.S. and in the Netherlands) by the curators, which has led to new discoveries, fresh in­terpretations, and the correction of many prior misunder­standings with respect to the objects themselves, their func­tions, and their relevance to our understanding Dutch society and culture.

Many illustrations of objects in the exhibition have previously been published in this journal in a series of articles on Dutch material culture. The following objects are in ad­dition to those.

1. "DE HALVE MAEN" or "The Half Moon." Model by Rex Stewart, Albany, New York, 1986 after the 1609 original. Wood, metal, cloth, scale: 1/36, H. 20", L. 21", W. 6V2". Private Collection.

In 1609, Henry Hudson sailed his ship, de Halve Maen, or The HalfMoon, up the river that later received his name. Earlier, he had explored the North American coast north of Virginia on behalf of his employer, the Dutch East India Company which sought a more convenient route for its Asian trade.

Though disappointed in his quest for a new route to Asia, reports of a wealth of natural resources and the potential for profitable trade with the natives soon reached the Nether­lands where an enterprising group of merchants began send­ing one or two ships a year to North America to investigate and exploit these riches. This led to the establishment of the Dutch West India Company in 1621.

No original plans of de Halve Maen are known but from contemporary descriptions of this vessel and others it is possi­ble to produce an accurate representation. From its modest size of 70 tons it was not a cargo-carrying merchantman but rather built for exploration. Its shear (horizontal contour) sug­gests it was between a yacht and zfluyt.

2. WEATHERCOCK, ca. 1656. The Netherlands or Bever-wyck [later Albany], New Netherlands. Copper, iron rod, H.

35 V4 ", W. 25 xh". Collection of The First Church in Albany (Reformed).

This, the oldest surviving American weathervane, is be­lieved to have been brought from the Netherlands in 1656 along with a new wood pulpit installed when the "block­house '' church was erected in Albany. The copper weather-vane's crude manufacture is in contrast to the careful carv­ing of the Dutch pulpit. When the 1715 church was built around the old church, the weathervane was transferred to the new spire.

When that church was demolished in 1806 it was saved by a member of the Van Rensselaer family who retained it until the 1880s when it was acquired for use on the nearby Madison Avenue Reformed Church. New rivets were applied and missing pieces were replaced at that time. The two peo­ple responsible for the preservation of the vane, Richard Varick DeWitt and Learned Macy Phelps then stamped their names and "March/1887" onto its side. When the latter church burned in 1937 it was reinstalled on the North Pearl Street Reformed Church in Albany. In recent years it was removed to safe shelter within the church. Traces of early gilding can be seen, as well as the damage done by a musket ball.

The cock is an emblem of the Apostle Peter's thrice de­nying Christ and his subsequent repentance. It is a usual sym­bol for church weathervanes.

3. DUTCH MAJOLICA DISH, ca. 1600-1650. The Nether­lands. Tin-glazed earthenware on obverse; lead-glazed on reverse, H. 2", W. 127/8". Collection of The Albany Institute of History and Art, 1983.

Through painstaking archeological work done in the past fifteen years on a number of Hudson Valley sites, we now have a precise understanding of the ceramic wares used by the Dutch in the hundred years from 1650 to 1750.

In the seventeenth century these included earthenware utility wares ("aardewerk") of several kinds; Dutch majolica dishes for limited table use and especially display on walls, "kasten," and mantels, of which the plate illustrated here is an example.

The "aigrette" border (often called the "Haarlem border'' by the Dutch) and the "putto ' ' center design of this dish, both represented in sherds from Dutch sites here, are derived from sixteenth century Italian motifs. All large ma­jolica dishes like this one had holes pierced in the foot ring

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at the time they were made, and were used primarily for hang­ing on walls, as decoration.

4. DETAIL FROM SURVEY OF NEW CASTLE, DELA­WARE, 1804-1805. Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820), City of New Castle, State of Delaware. Photograph courtesy of the Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs, State of Delaware, Dover, Delaware.

From 1655 to 1664 the Dutch of New Amsterdam con­trolled portions of New Sweden on the South [Delaware] River. Construction in the town of New Amstel (now New Castle), was Dutch-influenced to the end of the seventeenth century. At least one substantial house built in this style about 1687 survived until 1884. It appears on the Latrobe survey of New Castle (1800), apparently in its original form in­cluding the unusual feature of double-relieving brick arches in the upper facade. A local account described it as having "rafters. . . made like knees of a vessel, all cut from crooked timber [and with] a roof covered with Dutch tile." The lat­ter reference may account for its popular name, the "Tile House."

5. CAST HANDLED SPOON, ca. 1680-1690. Made by Hendrick Boelen I (1661 -1691), City of New York, New York Province. Mark: " H B " conjoined in shield on reverse of the bowl. Inscription: "VB" conjoined over "RI" on reverse of bowl. Silver, L. 6%", W. 1%". Anonymous loan to the Museum of the City of New York.

In general, spoons, as well as other silver objects, were used for domestic purposes, yet they were known to have been presented as gifts on special occasions, particularly at rites of passage such as baptism, marriage, and death. For example in the Netherlands godparents would give a child a "gebortelepel" or birth spoon. The consistent appearance of the owner's initials on silver objects not only may reflect a gift to but perhaps also a concern by the owner for positive indentification in case of loss.

In the Netherlands cast handled spoons are sometimes found in association with brandy wine bowls, suggesting that in New York they may also have been the appropriate uten­sil for gathering up brandy and raisins as the bowl was passed from one celebrant to another on the occasions when the bowl was used.

6. BRANDYWINE BOWL, ca. 1730-1750. Made byjacob C. Ten Eyck (1705-1793), City of Albany, New York Prov­

ince. Mark: ITE (conjoined) on the base of the bowl. Inscrip-tion:"TB/D M" on the bottom in block letters for Dirck (l686-1751)andMargarita(Cuyler)(l692-1783)TenBroeck of Albany who were married in 1714. Silver, H. 3% ", D. 7% ". Collection of The Albany Institute of History and Art, gift of Mrs. George W. Lynch in memory of Mrs. James C. Far-rell, 1967.

Jacob C. Ten Eyck was the son of silversmith Koenraet Ten Eyck of Albany. In 1719 he was apprenticed to the silversmith Charles LeRoux of New York City, himself the son of an im­migrant Huguenot goldsmith. In 1736 Jacob married Catharyna Cuyler (1709-1790), daughter of Abraham and Catharine (Bleecker) Cuyler. He was notable in Albany civic life being at times judge of the common please and mayor of the city (1748-1750). In the latter office he followed his patron and relative by marriage Dirck Ten Broeck who had Jacob make not only this bowl but also a trencher salt. Their respective wives were sisters. Whenjacob died his obituary notice lauded his dignity, respectability and "among his private virtues that of being the Poor-Man's friend is not the least conspicuous." (fn 14)

Brandywine bowls ("brandewijnskom") are primarily a Netherlands form. They were made from the mid-seven­teenth into the nineteenth centuries in most provinces, but primarily in Friesland and Groningen in the northeast. About eighteen New York bowls are known, all resembling most closely those made in Groningen with the distinctive vertical cast handles.

Brandy bowls in the Netherlands are primarily associated with the "kindermaal" (child's meal), asocial occasion at the

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home of a new born child where neighboring women gath­ered to celebrate the event and share delicacies and brandy-wine, the latter containing raisins which was passed from per­son to person (hence the two handles), each dipping brandy-wine and raisins out with a special spoon. Such a bowl served a similar function at other life passage events such as wed­dings and funerals.

7. STAG WEATHERVANE from the Samuel and Arnantje Coeymans house. Coeymans Patent (now the village of Coey-mans), Albany County, Province of New Yotk, ca. 1717-1720. Wrought and sheet iron, H. 64% ", W. 24 Vi ". Col­lection of the Holland Society of New York.

In an early eighteenth century painting of the Coeymans house this weathervane is clearly visible atop the central gable. While Dutch houses were frequently ornamented with such vanes, only a few are known today. This is the most interesting in its vigorous design and its association with a grand Hud­son valley house. It is constructed of sheet iron with attached wrought iron antlers. The legs are replacements. The house still survives as does a life size portrait of Arriantje Coeymans at the Albany Institute.

8. DUTCH ROOM, a period room in the Albany Institute of History and Art, City of Albany, New York State, 1964, renovated 1984. Photograph, 1986.

In this re-creation of a Dutch room, based primarily on a room in the 1737 Van Alen house, the relationship between upper Hudson Valley Dutch architecture and furnishings may be seen, the most striking impression being how crowded some rooms were if they held the numbet of objects listed in many inventories. The features of the room's construction follow closely those of Dutch houses built in the Netherlands over the last several centuries. The open fireplace with scrip­ture tile decoration, deep parallel beams supported on wall posts, and leaded casement sash windows distinguish this type of architecture from that built elsewhere in the American colonies.

9. "PROSPECT OF THE CITY OF ALBANY IN THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK," 1763. Drawn by an uniden­tified person after an original drawing probably by William Burgis, ca. 1718-21. City of Albany, Province of New York. Ink and wash on paper, H. 17", W. 28". Collection of the Albany Institute of History and Art, 1980.

This is the only known view of colonial Albany. It is a 1763 redraft of an unlocated original which probably dated from ca. 1718-1721. The original drawing was most likely the work of William Burgis who was in New York from ca. 1718 to 1722 at which time he could easily have traveled to Albany to make a view similar to the one he did of New York. Apparently his intention to engrave and print the view of Albany did not come to fruition as no such print has been found although in the New-York Gazette for July 18-25, 1736 there appeared an advertisement asking for subscriber for such a print.

Albany in 1718-1721 was essentially still a medieval Dutch town with none of the latest English fashions in building yet apparent as they were then in New York City. Albany was still walled, fortified, with irregular streets, with small crowded Dutch style houses clustered in the shadow of the fort and church. Insular, mercantile yet pious in outlook, Albany was to remain a Dutch town, at least culturally, for another two generations.

It was a frontier community for all of its colonial life. This provided opportunities for lucrative trade with the Indians and the French for many of the town's inhabitants (2,000 in 1720).

Albany's position, however, also exposed it to the almost continual threat of war as the English and French vied for the allegiance of the Indians in each empire's quest to control North America. In a century of intermittent warfare, Albany had but one period of extended peace and prosperity — 1714-1744 — between Queen Anne's and King George's Wars.

10. HANGING CUPBOARD, 1722. Unidentified maker and painter, probably Monmouth County, Newjersey Prov­ince. Pine, H. 197s", W. 17%* D. 107/16" Inscription: "1722" and "GVR" (VR conjoined) at lower right of front. Collec­tion of the Monmouth County Historical Association, gift of John R. and Alfred G. Luyster. 85.533.

This small cupboard is built in the form of a miniature kas. The painted decoration has a grain-painted ground ol black and red in circular patterns, perhaps in imitation of tor­toise shell. The decoration on the door was puzzling since the crown, heart, and hands suggest a Catholic theme not in keeping with the anti-Catholic sentiments of most Dutch. However, the discovery of a Dutch brass tobacco box in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York; with a rebus for "a true heart is a crown of gold" supplied a mean-

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P R O S P E C T ofilu- CTTYo/.' ll.K.l.Xr iii th«- I'l^'l I \ < I ,,/' • \ Ell toR/yin A.Ml'.KK \

ing. The door dated and initialed 1722 and GVR (the latter two letters conjoined in the Dutch manner). The identity of a GVR is not known. The cupboard descended in the Jo­hannes Luyster (1691-1756) family of New Jersey.

Projecting from the back of this cupboard is a wooden hanger — the same type used in the Netherlands in the seven­teenth century and New York in the first half of the eight­eenth century for hanging paintings.

11. PAINTED KAS, early to mid-eighteenth century. Unidentified maker and painter, New York Province. Tulip poplar, red oak (back boards), H. 61 Vi", W. 60% ", D. 23 ". Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund.

This is one of fewer than ten known American-made cup­boards decorated with motifs of the type found on furniture

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made and decorated in the Netherlands in the 18th century (though the tradition of painted furniture began a half cen­tury earlier). The swags, festoons, and pendant fruit relate to a long tradition of architectural ornamentation begun in Roman times and picked up again in the Italian Renaissances and copied from printed sources by both architects and decorative painters in northern Europe.

The fruit, especially the pomegranate so prominently displayed, appears to be symbols of fertility appropriate to the function of these cupboards: to store the quantity of cloth and valuable objects brought to a matriage by a bride and added to in subsequent years (and stored in additional cup­boards). It is likely that these painted cupboards were specifically dower chests.

The immediate and specific origin of this style of decora­tion has remained an uncertainty until a photograph of a closely telated Netherlands cupboard of nearly identical con­struction and decorative style was located by the authot. It is so similar that it is all but certain that a person trained in this unusual (even in the Netherlands) form and style must have emigrated to New Yotk in the eighteenth century and produced a number of cupboards. Most of the American decorated cupboards appear to be painted by one person, though only thtee ate constructed in the same carpenter (vs cabinetmaker) form as the ptototype.

12. BOY OF THE VAN RENSSELAER FAMILY, ca. 1730. Atttibuted to John Heaton (1698-aftet ca. 1745), City of Albany, Albany County, New York Province. Oil on canvas, H. 45", W. 35". Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Rodman C. Rockefeller.

This double porttait is unique among New York colonial paintings fot it depicts a young boy (probably about age five) in a full-length robe, the dress of infant children in this petiod, and the older slave boy assigned to care for and play with him. This is a traditional arrangement among the more affluent Dutch families around Albany as attested by Anne Grant who, asagitl in the 1750s, probably knew this uniden­tified boy of the Van Rensselaer family.

Slaves were imported into the colonies by Dutch ships beginning at Vitginia (1619) and then at New Amsterdam (1626). In New York they constituted a larger portion of the population than they did in an other colony in the notth.

They were employed as household servants, farm, mill and craft workers, as well as crew on sloops.

The provenance of the painting suggests that the uniden­tified subject was probably a member of the Van Rensselaer family who were the proprietots of the only successful pa-troonship established during the New Netherland period.

13. PHILIP BAPTIZING THE ETHIOPIAN EUNUCH, ca. 1742. Unidentified limner, possiblyjohn Heaten, probably City of Schenectady, New York Province. Prototype: adapted from Keur Bible, 1741 edition. Oil on canvas, H. 27 Vi ", W. 36 VA ". Collection of Mr. and Mrs. WilliamJ. Henderson II.

The painting relates to the story of the Apostle Philip traveling the desert road from Jerusalem to Gaza when he came upon a high Ethiopian official, a eunuch, reading from the prophet Isaiah while sitting in a carriage. He did not understand the meaning of the prophet's writing so Philip explained the prophesies in terms of Christ's teachings. They traveled on together and came to a watering place where the Ethiopian asked if he could be baptized which Philip then did.

While not a popular subject in Italian Renaissance art, it was portrayed by the Calvinist Dutch both in the Nether­lands and in America. Conversion of the Indians to protes­tantism was import to Dutch survival in New York for two reasons. The Dutch sought alliances with the Indians for the benefit of their fur trade and to complete more successfully against the French in Canada who were Catholics and much feared as perpetratots of "popish plots" which were rumored to threaten New York in the 1690s and 1740s. (fn 10)

14. EMBROIDERED TABLE COVER, 1764. Made by MargretieOothout (1736-1770), City of Albany or New York Province. Inscription: "MargretieOothout 1764," top center. Linen canvas embroidered with polychrome wool, H. 343/i6", W. 5 4 5/i 6". Collection of Allentown Art Museum, giftofRev. and Mrs. Van Santwood Merle-Smith Jr.

Margretie Oothout (1736-1770) was born in New York City, whete her father Jan Oothout had taken his wife and growing family from Albany in the early 1730s. After Jan died in 1739, his wife moved with her children to New Brunswick, Newjersey. In April 1764, Margretie Oothout mattied Col. Henry Quackenbush (1737-1813) of Albany. The cloth was likely made on the occasion of her marriage. Her husband

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was a merchant and land owner who, during the Revolution, became Chairman of Albany's Committee of Safety, colonel of the 5th Albany Regiment and a member of the Legislature. Margretiedied after the birth of her fourth child in 1770. The table cover passed to her eldest daughter and from thence through the matrilinal line.

It is done on linen canvas embroidered in polychrome crewel (2 ply) wool primarily in Irish stitch, as the stitch was then called (later names were Florentine, Bargello, Hungarian and flame stitch). The needlework decoration, in a flame stitch pattern, relates to an English tradition which by this date had permeated the Hudson Valley. We know this piece to be a table cover because a second such piece by her sister was embroidered with this inscription: "Mary Oothout/Her Table Cloa/th September/the *9* 1759''

15. KAS, ca. 1795-ca. 1805. Made by Roeloff Demarest, New York City, New York Province. Inscription: "Roeloff Demarest, March 17 —" inside top. Sweet gum, tulip poplar (secondary except a white pine top), H. 79%", W. 73V, D. 28%". Private collection.

The Dutch cupboard or kas is the most distinctively Dutch object in New World Dutch furniture. It was made from at least the mid 17th century until well into the 19th century with relatively little change in form or function. This conser­vatism reflects the nature of many Dutch families who quite self consciously strove to maintain their cultural identity through their adherence to their beliefs and preservation of forms that reminded them of their origins. It also reflects the multiple functions of the Dutch cupboard; protector of valuables, symbol of the housewife's role, a focal point of visual drama in the best room, and a demonstration of family wealth and status.

This cupboard is characteristic of the most frequently found type from eighteenth century New York and New Jersey. Hardwood kases of this type are almost invariably

decorated with a stain, not as this one is with paint in imita­tion of wood grain.

It bears the inscription in chalk script "Made by Roeloff Demarest/March 17 —" (under the top board) for one of two known Roeloff Demarests of the latter half of the eighteenth century who were born in Bergen County, New Jersey.

Acknowledgements: I am pleased to acknowledge the impor­tant contributions of my colleagues in the production of the exhibition and book and who have thereby contributed to this article: Ruth Piwonka, Mary Black, Charlotte Wilcoxen, Joyce Volk and Nancy Kelley.

1 Smith, William. A History- of the late Province of New- York [to I 762], The New-York Historical Society. New York. 1829 p. 277.

Commerce After the Conquest: I Dutch Traders and Goods in New York City

1664-1764 by Cathy Matson

In the first years after New Amsterdam's conquest in 1664, there was very little unanimity about whether, and how, New Yorkers ought to trade with Amsterdam. Despite the swift transfer of power from Dutch to English hands, the two nations confronted each other as long term rivals, each with a different economic trajectory throughout the seventeenth century. Amsterdam dominated the northern fisheries and Baltic trades; had a strong presence in the New World carrying trades; developed superior shipping, ware­housing, credit and banking systems; and showed the visi­ble signs of success in dress, art, and science. In contrast, England entered a phase of economic uncertainty in which the Old Draperies declined, inflation grew, trading monop­olies held extensive privileges in foreign commerce, and Dutch skills and money infiltrated the British economy.

Together, these and other contrasts between the two coun­tries represented different moments in the separate economic directions they travelled: Amsterdam attained a peak of com­mercial prosperity in the 1640's to 1690's, while England's rise would become apparent only after the 1690's. Until then, the "Holland trades" were England's greatest perceived threat in the seventeenth century, the pillars of the mercan­tile system having been designed to defeat Dutch hegemony in commerce with English taxes, manufactures, and colonial markets. The most ambitious English competitors in govern­ment and commerce were willing to secure greater national profits with sufficient naval power. As the Duke of Albemarle put it in 1664, with reference to the appropriateness of tak-

Catby Matson teaches in the Department of History in the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, Tenn.

1 For these contrasts see, eg., Violet Barbour, Capitalism in Amsterdam in the Seventeenth Century, (Baltimore: 1950);J.N. Ball, Merchants and Merchandise, The Expansion of Trade m Europe, 1500-1630, (London: 1977); C.R. Boxer, The Dutch Seaborne Empire: 1600-1800, (New York: 1965), esp. chap. 2; and D.W. Davies, A Primer of Dutch Seventeenth Century Overseas Trade, (The Hague: 1961), 119-145. Albemarle is quoted by C M . Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History, 4 vols. (New Haven: 1938, repr. 1964), 4:61.

1 English literature discussing the Dutch is extensive; only a few of the seventeenth century sources are noted here. For favorable English views of Dutch accomplishments, see Nicholas Barbon, A Discourse of Trade, (London: 1690), esp. 123; Gerald Malynes, The Maintenance of Free Trade, (London: 1622); [Anon.], The Present Interest of England, Stated, (London: 1671); [Anon.], A Discourse, consisting of Motives for the Enlargement and Freedom of Trade, (London: 1645); and Carew Reynel, The True English Benefit, (London: 1674), esp. 14-15. For opposition to the Dutch, see Thomas Mun, England's Treasure by Forraign Trade, (written, 1622; published, London: 1662); Ralph Maddison, Great Bri­tain 's Remembrancer (London: 1665);Josiah Child, Brief Observations, (London: 1665); Roger Coke, A Discourse of Trade, (London: 1670), Part 2; William de Britaine, The Dutch Usurpation, (London: 1672); William Petty, Britannia Languens, (London: 1680).

3 For West Indies statements in favor of free trade, see, eg., Answer of Charles Whe[e]ler, Governor of the Leeward Islands, to the inquiries of the Council for Foreign Plantations, Dec. 9, 1671, Cat. State Papers, Colonial, 1669-1674, ed. Noel Sainsbury, (London: 1889), 290; Peti-

ing New Amsterdam: ' 'What we want is more of the trade the Dutch now have."1

1660-1690 Yet rhetoric which was effective in building war chests

was less useful in constructing New York City's trade after the war. No English vessels flooded the fledgling colony with finished goods in 1664, although regular trade was conducted between Amsterdam and New Netherland before 1664. The colony's first English governors could hardly overlook the possibilities of securing its future by continuing this trade and involving the conquered Dutch in the reconstruction of New York City.

They were supported in their efforts by decades of prior precedent. Since the 1580's English observers had variously praised or scorned Dutch economic influences.2 In the west­ern hemisphere identifying Dutch carriers was synonymous in the minds of some observers with identifying contraband cargoes and usurers; for other observers the Dutch were poten­tially valuable collaborators in areas of intense international rivalry. By the seventeenth century, British West Indies governors and merchants pleaded with home officials to recognize "the necessity of free trade" with Holland and its West Indies possessions.3 Virginia and Maryland officials had invested in tobacco exports to Amsterdam before the 1660's, much of it in vessels touching at New Amsterdam, and the deputy collector of Newport, Rhode Island regularly imported slaves from the Dutch before and after 1664.4 Some

tion of the inhabitants of Antigua to Governor Lord Willoughby, Ibid., 1661-1668, ed. Noel Sainsbury, (London: 1880), 234, where they ask "for a grant of free trade;" Petition of the President, Council, and Assembly of Barbadoes, 1661, Ibid., 29-30; Petition of the President and Council of Barbadoes to the King, July 10, 1661, Ibid., 46; Lord Willoughby to the King, Jan. 11, 1663, Ibid., 162; Lord Willoughby to the King, Nov. 4, 1663, Ibid., 167-168; Propositions of Mr. Kendall, November 1664, Ibid., 253; Order of the King and Council, November 24, 1675, Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1574-1674, Addenda, ed. Noel Sainsbury, (London: 1893), 303-304; An Account of His Majesty's Island of Barbadoes and the Government thereof, 1676, Ibid., 348-349. Some writers throughout the eighteenth century emphasized the desirability of freer trade in the Caribbean with reference to Dutch successes there; see, eg., writings of Jonathan Swift, Daniel Defoe, Josiah Tucker, and Adam Smith. Of course, the original free trade strain in the Caribbean becomes a clamor for regulation by about 1713, and mercantilism is domi­nant from that time forward. See Klauss Knorr, British Colonial Theories, 1570-1850, (Toronto: 1944); and Eric Williams, Columbus to Castro, (Vintage, New York: 529). The colonial attitudes referred to include that of 1661, the year one of the pillars of the mercantile system was passed, Governor Windsor of Jamaica urged planters to seek "free commerce with the plantations. . .of Spain and Holland" despite international rivalries, and try "to admit them to a free trade;" Additional Instruc­tions toThomas Lord Windsor, Governor ofjamaica, April 8, 1662, Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1661-1668, 85. In words reminiscent of Hugo Grotius's plea for free ships and free seas, Lord Willoughby, the govern­or of Barbados, claimed in 1666 that "Free Trade is the life of all Col­onies' ' and to regulate it as the Navigation Acts did was to invite disaster; quoted by H.E. Egerton, A Short History of British Colonial Politics, (5th ed., London: 1918), 76. Following the second Anglo-Dutch war many English writers promoted a "Free Trade" with the Dutch of Curacao;

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English officials reported with only slight exaggeration that "all of New England" was trading with Amsterdam since the Dutch West India Company settled on the Hudson River.5

New York's direct trade with Amsterdam continued legally for a brief period in 1664, until Governor Nicolls (1664-1668) received orders from London to freeze the re­maining assets of the Dutch West India Company and to assimilate Dutch traders into the newly formed system of mercantile regulations. However, Nicolls quickly grew more sensitive to the economic and social importance of a con­tinued Dutch presence in New York and granted exceptions to the Navigation Acts for ships headed to Amsterdam.

One of the more active participants in Dutch trade was Cornelius Steenwyck, a former member of the Dutch West India Company and in the future a customs official under the English. Dutch ex-Director, Peter Stuyvesant, supported the violations, pointing out to royal officials at London that unless the Duke's colony traded with Amsterdam, the French would gain the Canadian fur trade and Spain would capture the budding West Indies connections of the northern col­onies. He and others insisted that the crown recognize Dutch rights to a "free trade" with their mother country, and in late 1664 asked for permission to send four to six ships per year to the Low Countries until London could absorb the supplies of peltry and tobacco which New Yorkers exported.6

From late 1667 to late 1668 three ships per year were allowed clearance for Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and reports in­dicated that the quota was filled. In addition to Steenwyck, merchants like Oloff Van Cortlandt, Jacques Cousseau, Nicholas de Meyer, Margareta Philipse, and others engaged in this commerce, even beyond its formal legal dates.7

Governor Lovelace (1668-1673) was also lenient about the Dutch trade, but not out of disinterested concern for the future of the colony. He and his brother, Thomas, owned shares in the Hopewell (with Steenwyck), the Good Fame, and the Duke of York. They traded through New York representatives of the Amsterdam trade such as Eagiduis Luyck, Francois Hooghlandt, Nicholas Gouverneur, and Isaac Bedloo. The first year of his administration Lovelace not only

see, for example, Robert Lewes, The Merchant's Mappe of Commerce, (London: 1638), 120.

4 Thomas C. Barrow, Trade and Empire, The British Customs Service in Colonial America, 1660-1773, (Cambridge, MA: 1967), 21, 47. For evidence of cargoes going to Amsterdam with Virginia and New England goods, and stops at New Amsterdam, seejournal or Log of Two Voyages from New Amsterdam to Holland and return, 1660-1663, Misc. Mss., Ships-Dutch, New-York Historical Society; Documents Relative, 1:436-9, 264, 2:43-44; Cat. State Papers, Colonial, 1661-1668, #1123; Violet Bar­bour, Capitalism in Amsterdam, 93n33; C M . Andrews, Colonial Period, 4:137-138. Adrian Van der Donck, Description of the New Netherlands, (London: 1656), argues that the Dutch ought to be "free" of Dutch West India Company regulations in order to prosper.

5 Documents Relative, 3:46; Report [of the Lords of Trade and Planta­tions), February, 1677, Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1677-80, ed. Noel Sainsbury andJ.W. Fortescue, (London: 1896), 15-16; Journal of Lords of Trade and Plantation, Mar. 28, 1678, Ihid., 229-230; Commissioners of Customs to Sir Philip Warwick, Feb. 12, 1661, Cal. State Papers, Col­onial, 1661-1668, 10; Circular Letter from the King to [the Governors of his Majesry's Plantations], August 25, 1663, Ihid., 155-156; Instruc­tions for Coll. Richard Nicolls, Sir Robert Carr, George Cartwright, and Sam Maverick, Apr. 23, 1664, Ibid., 200; Petition of divers of his Maj­esry's subjects trading to the ports of Europe, Jan. 19, 1676, Ibid., 337; Order of the King in Council, Mar. 10, 1676, Ibid., 358; Thomas Cole to the Commissioners of Customs, Mar. 16, 1676, Ibid., 360. The re­quest for free trade is in Berthold Fernow, ed., Records of New Amster­dam, 1 vols. (New York: 1897), 5:160-161; the grant of three ships per year in 1667 and Stuyvesant's reasons are at Documents Relative, 3:113-5, 163-4, 164-5, 165-6, 175-8.

6 In 1664 the surrender document of the Dutch in New Amsterdam

lowered import duties from 10% to 7% to accommodate the city's merchants, but also appointed Cornelius Vanhuyven as the customs collector. Vanhuyven often proved his loyalty to fellow Dutch countrymen by overlooking most port regulations affecting arriving vessels.8 Later in 1668 English officials gave Lovelace permission to license three ships per year from New York; in 1669 this was reduced to one per year.9 Nevertheless, there were some British mer­chants who felt that even these few ships were an unwar­ranted flirtation with a competitor commercial nation. They noted Lovelace's "shortsightedness" about mercantile precepts and his closeness to "Dutch petty traders" and "Dutch usurers'' in the colony. He and merchants like Steen­wyck, Cornelius Van Ruyven, and Thomas Delaval bore the epithets "hogs," long a term of abuse in England for the Dutch.10

The last of the Anglo-Dutch wars put a temporary stop to Lovelace's involvement in foreign trade, when Dutch privateers took the Good Fame at either Texel or Sandy Hook in 1673. That same year Steenwyck lost his ship James; Thomas Delaval the Margaret; and Frederick Philipse the Frederick. These and other losses, including the surrender of the city to the Dutch, only underscored how important the Dutch trade could be. Indeed, many of the city's Dutch paused long enough with English residents to consider which mother country was, as Capt. John Manning put it, the greater "enemy in ourBowells." Upon resurrender of the city to the English in 1674, many Dutch and English mer­chants assumed the trade to Holland would reopen, and so they revived the demand for free trade to Amsterdam once again.11

After this brief interlude of Dutch control, Governor An-dros at first refused to incorporate the principle of free or open trade into the surrender document, and in 1675 he demanded oaths of loyalty to the crown. Eight Dutch resi­dents, seven of them merchants, refused to take the oaths. When pressured by English officials to choose either con­stitutional loyalty or individual economic privilege, most chose the latter, even to the point of leaving the colony.12

stipulated that Dutch trade would continue for at least six months; Documents Relative, l.l'iX-l')!; Hist. Documents. 3:163-167; New York State Library Bulletin, "History," #2 (1899), 137. On freezing Dutch West India Company assets and Steenwyck, see N. Y. Col. Records, General Entries, 1664-1665, New York State Library, Bulletin, "History," #2, (1899), 183-5, 122-3, 137, 148-9, 133-43.

7 The grant of permission to the Dutch to trade with New Yorkers for seven years is at Minutes of the Committee of Plantations, Oct. 17, 1667, Cal. State Papers, 1661-1668, 511. See also. Documents Relative, 3:178-182.

8 Documents Relative, 3:185, 2:651; New York Col. Msss., NYSL, 22, fol. 115, 116; 24, fol. 115, 127, 169, 102; Victor H. Palsits, Minutes of the Executive Council, 1:39-40, 56-57, 64, 81, 110, 194.

9 Documents Relative, 3:164-7, 175-9. 10 Documents Relative, 1:263, 2:155-156; A Collection of Papers handed

in by Mr. Weaver, September 26, 1698, Cal. State Papers, Oct. 1697 -Dec. 1698, ed.J.W. Fortescue, (London: 1905), 455-459. For other comments hostile to Dutch in New York, see Col. Nicholls to [the Governor and Council of Massachusetts], July ?, 1664, Cal. State Papers. 1661-1668, 222.

11 James Lyon, ed., Colonial Laws of New York from the Year 1664 to the Revolution, 5 vols. (Albany: 1894), 1:24-25, 116-121, 111-116, 12 1-123, 125-128, 137-141.

12 Sirjohn Werden to Gov. Andros, Sep. 15, 1675, Documents Relative, 3:233. The eight were: Cornelius Steenwyck, Johannes Van Brugh, Johannes de Peyster, Nicholas Bayard, Eagidius Luyck, William Beekman, Jacob Kip, Antonio de Mill. Also, Documents Relative, 2:738-44; and His. Documents, 3:53-65. In 1676 New York City also began its formal moves to destroy aspects of Albanian economic predominance by creating a city customs tax monopoly and granting Albany a monopoly of the fur trade; C M . Andrews, Colonial Period, 4:105-106.

Members of the Governor's Council and merchants at large understood the firmness about the oaths as a testament of the commitment they shared to retain contacts with Amster­dam, and in the following months the Council — in which most members were somehow concerned in the Amsterdam trade — passed resolutions to support the commerce.13 By 1675, Andros himself became more accommodating towards the Dutch traders.14

These minor victories for the "holland party'' of traders in New York were far from secure, however. By the 1670's numbers of English merchants began migrating into the col­ony, some of them with clear mercantile pretentions to en­force the Navigation Acts and curtail the favors extended to Amsterdam traders. Others simply wanted to conduct the Amsterdam trade in British bottoms.15 In 1680-1 the two different economic interests joined in an attack upon Govern­or Andros and '' the Dutch tribe" by initiating an agreement among merchants to stop paying duties, agitating for a general reformation of government, and demanding Andros' removal. Theirs was no simple mobilization of ethnic hos­tility, fot this opposition would fasten their futures upon the credit of London firms and become prominent dry goods im­porters and peltry exporters by the end of that generation. Traders to Amsterdam could not help but interpret this as a direct threat to their own enterprise. The removal of An­dros and the appointment of a nearly all-English Assembly

13 On Frederick Philipse and Srephanus Van Cortlandt in this, see Robert Ritchie, The Duke's Province, A Study of New York Politics and Society. 1664-1691, (Chapel Hill: 1977), 98. On Nicholas Bayard and Cornelius Steenwyck, in the 1670's, Ibid., 267n.26.

14 Documents Relative, 2:526,643, 539-42, 532, 734, 739-40; 3:329, 236. 15 For some mention of John Hains, Thomas Willet, John Winder, John

Robinson, Caleb Heathcote, Thomas Thatcher, Robert Sanford, Abraham Whearly, and merchants Griffith, Lloyd, and Robson, see Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1675-1776, 8 vols., (New York: 1905) 1:1-2, 9, 25-6. From 1675-85 at least fifty merchants entered the city from London, Boston, and Barbados; see Curtis Nettels, "Economic Relations of Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, 1680-1715,"Journalof EconomicandBusinessHistory, 3 (1931), 185-215. Prominent Dutch traders in the 1670's included Charles van Brugge (Bridge), the Wilsons, Darvals, and Charles Lodwick, all with London credit and family connections. The Wendells had family members in Amsterdam, Albany, New York, and, when the youngest son migrated there in about 1683, Boston; see Wendell Family Papers, New-York Historical Society. See also the case of Lewin, et al. against Andros, and Fletcher's loans at good interest from English merchant newcomers, at journal of the Legislative Councilofthe Colony of New York, 1691-1775,

2 vols. (Albany: 1861), 1:35, 49, 75, 85, 100, 114; Berthold Fernow, ed.. Calendar of Council Minutes. 1668-1783, New York State Library, Bulletin, 2 vols. (March 1902), 2:70, 84, 100, 118, 125. See also, Documents Relative, 3:230; Minutes of the Common Council, 1:25-6, 29-37, 50-62; Letters of Samuel Maverick, New-York Historical Society, Collections, 3 (New York: 1869), 19-88, 126-128, 157-159; and Court Records of New York, 1680-1682, 1693-1701, Ibid., 45 (New York: 1912), 8-17, 24. The English merchanrs involved were:John Robinson, William Pinhorne, and Edward Anthill, all soon to be prominent dry goods im­porters, and other English importers, including Samuel Wilson, John Young, Thomas Willett, Thomas Hicks,Johnjackson, Richard Stillwell, John West, John Laurence, Samuel Moore, William Darvall, and John Delavall.

"•For Andros' reputation, see, Brockholls to Andros, 17 Sep. 1681, Documents Relative, 3:281, 211-2, 233, Robert Ritchie, The Duke's Pro­vince, 115-120; New-York Historical Society, Collections, (New York: 1912), 8-33. Of the seven wealthiest merchants in 1676 only Leisler was not "assimilated" and rejected Andros' leadership; see roles of Gabriele Minvielle, Johannes de Peyster, James Laurence, and Nicholas Bayard in particular. Some of the "free traders" who refused to pay taxes in 1680-1681 included M. Nicholls, John Laurence, Henry Beekman, Schermerhorn, Philipse, Van Cortlandt; see New York Colonial Laws, 1:111-116. In 1688, Bayard, Van Cortlandt, and Philipse were on rhe opposite side and scorned tax revolters like Cornelius Cuyler and Gerard

by 1683 also boded darkly for descendants of the Amster­dam trade.16

Andros' successor, Governor Dongan, followed policies of heavy taxation and regulation from about 1684 to 1687, hoping thereby to boost both his own authority and the economic welfare of New York City merchants of English origins, as opposed to the privileges of traders in the interior. The Assembly's new tax laws regulated not only exports and imports, and forbid foreign vessels at New York City; they also regulated the commerce of New England and Phila­delphia after 1685, which made the notorious Amsterdam smuggling activities of the past decades harder to continue.17

Before the 1690's it was received wisdom that Dutch prices and shipping costs were lower, and that Amsterdam's demand for staples, much of which the entrepot's merchants reexported, was higher than England's. So it did not sur­prise many New Yorkers to hear from their governors that it was '' common'' and '' practicable'' to conduct a direct trade with Amsterdam, via Newfoundland, Boston, Portugal, Dover, and Falmouth in these early years.18 Robert R. Liv­ingston was only one of the most successful Amsterdam traders; Livingston shipped goods via Stephanus Van Cort­landt in New York City from 1678-1681, and then on his own account thereafter.19 Other early New York fortunes started with direct loans of Dutch capital or by accepting com­mission business in New York City for Dutch firms. Adolphe

Beekman and Jacob Leisler; see Jerome Reich, Leisler' s Rebellion: A Study of Democracy in New York, (Chicago: 1953), 69-73. The major opposi­tion to Andros' alleged support for "free trade" came from small farmers who did not benefit from legislation favoring New York City exporters, and newly arrived English merchanrs who preferred special regulations which would aid their entry into trade in New York City as against "monopolies" of "Dutch" traders in either Albany or New York City, and who were against taxes in all events; see Nettels, "Economic Rela­tions,' ' 185-215. For duties from 1674-8, which were 2 - 3 % on imports and 1 sh 3 d on beaver exports, see Colonial Laws, 1:116-121.

17 Colonial Laws, 1:111-116, 121-123, 125-128, 24-25, 116-121, 137-141. For a 10% ad valorem tax passed in Dongan's administration, see Col­onial Laws, 1:170-171. For Dongan's belief that his policies were a suc­cess by 1685, see Answers of Governor Andros to enquiries about New York, April 16, 1678, Documents Relative, 3:260-262; Minutes of the Common Council, 1:18; Robert Ritchie, The Duke's Province, 121-123. On Dongan and city merchanrs in general see Dongan to William Blathwayt, Sep. 11, 1686, Documents Relative, 3:363-364; Dongan to the Board of Trade, Ibid., 3:393-399; Instructions to John Palmer, Sep. 8, \687,Ibid., 3:475-477; Gabriel Minvielle to John Werden, 1687, Ibid., 3:361; Address of the Mayor and Common Council to rhe King, 1688, Ibid., 3:424-425; Duke of York to Dongan, Aug. 26, 1684, Ibid., 3:349-359; Werden to Dongan, Nov. 1, 1684, Ibid., 3:351-352. 1683 export taxes rose ro 9 d per beaver and 10% on dry goods imports; Ibid., 1:165-7. In 1684 the 10% ad valorem was extended to all imports; Ibid., 1:170-171. Leisler's administration lowered duties to 5-6% on selected items, which were continued until 1700; Bloch, et al., An Account of Her Majesty's Revenue, intro.; Edmund B. O'Callaghan, ed., The Documentary History of the State of New York, 4 vols. (Albany: 1849-1851), 2:73, 52, 238, 355, 340; Documents Relative, 3:270-1, 737-748. Only after Leisler's Rebellion was "free bolting" restored (against English merchants' desires) and import taxes disallowed (with they favored).

18 Andrews, Colonial Period, 4:114-115. A.J.F. Van Laer, ed., The Cor­respondence of Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, 1657-1674, (Albany: 1935), 26,67, 150, 376, 388, 390-1, 408, 412-413, 431, 446, 448, 466-72; Victor H. Palsits, Minutes of the Exec. Council of the Province of New York, 2 vols. (Albany: 1910), 1:39-40, 56-57, 64, 81, 110, 113, 171, 194. On Dutch credit being liberal to the West Indies planters, see Lewes Roberts, Merchants' Mappe, 120. On Dutch prices, Documents Relative, 8:480; and Charles Wholley, A Two Years' Journal in New York and Part of its Territories in America, orig. published, 1701, ed. Edward G. Bourne, (Cleveland: 1902), 29-30.

19 Lawrence Leder, Robert R. Livingston, 1654-1728, and the Politics of Colonial New York, (Williamsburg, VA: 1961), 24, 37-38.

Philipse began with both loans and commission business in the furs, lumber, and slave trades; by 1700 he was more in­dependent and branched into West Indies logwood, Virginia tobacco, southern cotton, and Southern European wines.20

At least twelve New York merchants made regular ship­ments of peltry and tobacco to Amsterdam and ordered return cargoes of cloth, weaponry, and gunpowder.21 Others con­tinued the southern tobacco connection to Rotterdam and Amsterdam in vessels originating in the Low Countries and touching at New York City, or originating in New York City and carrying commodities directly from the southern colonies to Amsterdam — with or without a stop at a British port to pay duties, depending on the disposition toward legality or smuggling.22 A very conservative estimate of the New York-Amsterdam trade from 1664-1668 is three or four vessels per year (eight in 1667) out of New York.23 The city sustained this level of trade for the period 1674-1680, when four to five ships per year cleared New York for Amsterdam or Rotterdam.24

1690-1713 If the "anglicization" of New York City trade began a

long-term process of significant alterations in the Amster­dam trade, King William's and Queen Anne's Wars, drama­tized and escalated the changes between 1690 and 1713. In­deed, imperial rivalry during these years changed the charac­ter of the direct trade to Amsterdam permanently. In earlier years merchants preferred to export peltry to Amsterdam where prices were fairly stable, rather than to London where prices were falling. But Amsterdam prices also fell after about 1695 and the risks of peltry exporting rose due to the presence of French privateers in the Northern seas and plunderers in the countryside adjacent to the fur trade in America.25

The 1690's also signalled an end to reliable government support for the legal Dutch trade. Governor Fletcher, who arrived in 1692, was far less concerned about bolstering the Amsterdam trade than about raising import duties and renewing mercantile commitment to enforcing the prohibi-

20 On Adolph Philipse, see Bloch, et al., An Account, intro.; Patricia Bonomi, A Factious People, Politics and Society in Colonial New York. (New York: 1971), 60-68.

21 For Livingston and Philipse. Ibid.; on the Cortlandts, Schuylers, and de Vries, see Documents Relative. 2:699-700, 4:1133: John Van Cortlandt Shipping Books, Aug. 12, 1699 to June 30, 1702, and 1702-5; Julius Bloch et al., An Account of Her Majesty 's Revenue, passim.; Lawrence Leder, Robert R. Livingston, 215, 217; Stanley Katz, Newcastle's New York. Anglo-American Politics. 1732-1753. (Cambridge, MA: 1968). 112-113, 208-9; Van Laer, Correspondence of Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, 26,67, 150, 376, 388, 390-1,408,412-413,431.446.448,466-72; Vic­tor H. Palsits, Minutes of the Exec. Council, 1:39-40,56-57,64,81, 110, 113, 171, 194.

22 Cal. Treasury Books, 4:15, 7:1119; Documents Relative, 3:183; Lt.-Col. Edward Thornburgh to the Assembly of Barbadoes, April 1, 1673, Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 1669-1674, ed. Noel Sainsbury, (London: 1889); Documents Relative, 3:183, 352, 393; Documentary History, 2:33.

23 Van Laer, ed., Correspondence of Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, 376, 388, 390-1, 408, 412-3, 466-72.

24 Answers of Governor Andros to enquiries about New York, 16 April 1678, Documents Relative, 3:260-262; Minutes of the Common Council, 1:18.

25 Johannes Kerfbyl to Abraham de Peyster, Oct. 3, 1690, Nov. 20, 1690, De Peyster Papers, 1690-1710, New-York Historical Society, 29-30; Gov. Fletcher to Board of Trade, 24 Dec. 1698. Documents Relative, 4:443-51; Violet Barbour, Capitalism in Amsterdam, 20-21, 95-96.

26 Governor Fletcher to William Blathwayt, Sep. 10, 1692, Documents Relative, 3:846; Board of Trade's Report on the Northern Colonies, Sep. 3, 1696, Ibid., 4:227-228; Fletcher to Blathwayt, Mar. 8, 1693, Cal. State Papers, Colonial, 14:179; Report from the New York Council Minutes, Apr. 14, 1693, Ibid., \A:21A. Fletcher favored this hardening core of

tions on Dutch trade. Perhaps he would not have been so vehemently opposed to openly supporting foreign relations if there had not been a war in progress; in any event, Flet­cher did almost nothing to stop clandestine voyages and was reputed to have made a personal fortune from commerce involving Amsterdam and Rotterdam.26

This combination of wartime pressures and more stren­uous mercantile regulations and taxes during King William's and Queen Anne's Wars forced all but the most successful merchants to abandon Amsterdam trade and prompted their more advantaged peers to concentrate fortunes in fewer hands. Before 1690, the number of New York merchants with shares in vessels to Amsterdam was usually about thirty, and forty was not unheard of. After 1690 the numbers who owned shares of ventures in Dutch trade began to narrow and the number of vessels engaged diminished; out of the fifty or so New York City and Albany merchants who en­gaged in the Amsterdam trade between 1666 and 1690, only about twenty survived and prospered into the later war years.27

Yet as New York's Dutch ttaders consolidated in num­bers, those who were resilient made commercial adaptations which significantly affected the future of this trade. One such adaptation was the redirection of primary responsibility for initiating commercial transactions from resident New Yorkers to Dutch agents and Amsterdam merchants. Although some of the Albanian traders retained shares in voyages to Amster­dam before and after the 1690's, they shipped less frequently than the pre-war years, and by the end of the war almost none of them imported regularly on their own accounts. In­stead, they factored for Dutch merchants resident in Amster­dam or London for a 5% commission.28

Some New York merchants were unable or unwilling to adapt their business in these ways, and chose to cope with the increasingly unfavorable climate for Dutch trade in more challenging ways. About 10 to 15 of New York City's roughly 125 merchants ignored Fletcher's taxes and pleas for obe-

merchants with land grants and allowed piracy to flourish in New York; Cornbury granted a renewal of the bolting monopoly from 1702-4, but did not necessarily favor the Dutch trade Jerome Reich, Leisler's Rebellion: A Study of Democracy in New York. 1664-1720. (Chicago: 1953), 164. It is also clear from Leder's study of military contracting that governors used the interest-bearing loans and opportunities to profit from victuall­ing commission as a prerogative power, and that Cornbury, Hunter, Burner and Cosby dispensed the favors to no Dutch gtaders or merchants with Dutch surnames who had not "assimilated" into the English structure of the city; Lawrence Leder, "Military Victualling in Colonial New York," in Joseph R. Frese and Jacob J udd, eds., Business Enterprise in Early New York, (Tarrytown, NY: 1979), 16-54, at 37-38. Robert R. Livingston and Stephanus Van Cortlandt were early victuallers, and long assimilated; in 1692-5 they both defeated three non-assimilating Dutch in Albany who wanted provisioning contracts; Kihan Van Rensselaer, Levinus Van Schaick, and Dirk Wessels were the defeated Albanians; see Lawrence Leder, Robert R. Livingston, 68-70.

27 For example, Public Records Office, E 190:644/2 (Dec. 1677, the Rebecca); 117/1 (Apr. 1683, the Blossom); 80 /1 . 84 1 / 3. 834/9; and Julius Bloch. et al., An Account of Her Majesty's Revenue, intro.

28 The Livingston-Redmund Mss., Hyde Park, New York, show evidence for R.R. Livingston's shipments in the 1690'sand his dealings with Albany-area merchants; in the collection see, "Freight Lisr of the Brigantine Robedt, Dec. 3, 1694." Also, Jonathan Pearson, transl.. Early Records of the City and County of Albany and Colony of Rensselaer, Deeds, 1678-1704, (Albany: 1916), 324, for a mention of "free trade" to Amster­dam in 1687 and the New Yotk City merchants' "monopoly" of export business. The reference could have been to New York City's "great mer­chants," Cornelius Cuyler, Stephen De Lancey, and Frederick Philipse. For the efforts to keep duties low during the 1690's, seejulius Bloch, et al., An Account of Her Majesty's Revenue, intro.

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dience to mercantilism and engaged in smuggling Dutch cargoes through New Haven in the 1690's. At least three subscribed to joint ventures with Dutch merchants to the East Indies.29 A few, envious of the so-called "free ports" of New Jersey and Rhode Island, physically relocated to those places, or routed their trade past the more liberal customs officials there.30 Still others relocated to England or Holland to serve as factors for New York merchants, and especially to ferry the legal and illicit trade. Livinus van Schaick was one of these returnees, who factored for the Livingstons, Schuylers, Ten Broecks, and Wanderlaers.

Van Schaick availed himself of the benefits of connec­tions in both cities, but continued to pay duties at London or Falmouth.31 It is common wisdom among historians of this period that Bellomont's presence as governor of New York in the first decade of the eighteenth century was crucial in breaking up the colony's extensive involvement with piracy. But Bellomont's hopes to force its trade with Amster­dam into legitimate channels proved chimerical. Unscru­pulous traders continued to smuggle goods directly to Am­sterdam. These, said Bellomont in 1700, were among the most "Dutchified" of New York traders.32 By 1701 a coterie of New York and Albany merchants — Robert R. Livingston among them — jointly ventured illegal cargoes to Daniel Crommelin of Amsterdam.33 By 1708 Colonel Robert Quary reported to the Board of Trade that there was a persistent

29 Roberc Livingston to William Blathwayt, Ibid., 123-124; Documents Relative, 3:846,4:29, 33, 159, 172, 183. For the voyages to the Fat East, Commissioners of the Customs to the Lords of the Treasury, Nov. 16, 1696, Col. State Papers, Colonial, May 1696-Oct. 1697, 213-215.

30 Documents Relative, 3:846, 4:29, 33, 159, 172, 183. 31 Van Schaick Papers, Box 1, 1696, NYPL; Lawrence Leder, Robert R. Liv­

ingston, 49, 77-95, where there is evidence that he traded directly with merchants Harwood and Blackall of London, and that Fletcher had shares in the Dutch voyaging vessels in 1692; and Charles Wolley, A Two Years

Journal in New York and Part of its Territories in America, 1701, ed. Edward G. Bourne, (Cleveland, 1902), 59.

32 Bellomont to the Lords of Trade, 1700, Documents Relative, 4:792. For evidence of importing Dutch goods in 1702-1703, see Miller Papers, Vol. 3, New-York Historical Society; Abraham de Peyster Papers; and Abraham Wendell Papers, New-York Historical Society. As Leder points out, while Bellomont hoped to impose and enforce duties and regulations upon all city merchants in mercantile fashion, his complaints against "free trade" and "Dutchified" commerce were matched by his attacks against the assimilated Dutch and New England merchants with land grants or special commercial privileges too. Also, Bellomont's council was neither Leislerian nor Flercherian, but moderate. Generally, though, Leder concludes that the "Dutch" on the Council and Assembly are contrary to Bellomont's plans, including Van Sweeten, H. Hansen, and P. Van Brugh; Lawrence Leder, Robert R. Livingston, 170-173.

33 The merchants in this illicit trade nerwork included Robert R. Livingston, John L. Livingston, Samuel Vetch, Onzee Van Swieten, Levinus Van Schaick, Micajah Perry, Margaret Schuyler, and Jacobus Van Cortlandt and three lesser men named Barbarie, Pero, and Marquis. The English participants included merchants Caleb Heathcote, Philip French, Thomas Wenham, Dirk Wessels, David Jamison, and Peter Fauconnier and one named Vesey. The vessels were Catharine, Industry, and Dove. See

I

11 i I

illicit trade in Dutch goods which went mainly through Newport.34 Rutger Bleecker engaged in at least one smug­gling voyage to Amsterdam per year from 1707 through 1710,35 and an anonymous merchant cleared for Amsterdam in 1710.3<s

Although these changes narrowed the number of mer­chants participating in the Amsterdam trade, and the means by which they conducted it, the shrinking core of Dutch traders continued to include many of the names with which we associate the eighteenth century prosperity of the city: Robert R. Livingston, Stephanus DeLancey. Frederick and Adolphe Philipse, Nicholas Bayard, Garret Bancker, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, Valentine Cruger, Abraham de Peyster, Hendrick Van Bael, Livinius Van Schaik.37 In 1692 William Blathwayte listed the nine wealthiest and most respected merchants in New York City; seven of them were of Dutch origins; six of them traded higher values of goods to Amsterdam than to London before King Williams War.38

Moreover, although fewer merchants of Dutch origins traded to Amsterdam because English merchants and prin­ciples had "invaded" New York City, even warfare did not obliterate the New York-Amsterdam trade. There were two to four registered voyages per year to Amsterdam from New York City from 1705 to 1716, and an uncertain number of illicit ones, which is generally the level at which New Yorkers traded to Amsterdam before 1689-39

To Be Continued

Lawrence Leder, Robert R. Livingston, 174-5, 181; Julius Bloch, et al., An Account of Her Majesty's Revenue, passim.

34 Report of Robert Quary to the Board of Trade, April 6, 1708, repr. in Mass. Hist. Soc, Proceedings, ser. 2, (Boston: 1887-9), 4:149-155, at 152.

35 Harmanus Veening [of Amsterdam] to Rutger Bleecker, May 5, 1707; Apr. 19, 1709;June 15, 1710;June 16, 1708. in Bleecker-Collins-Abeel Papers, NYPL.

36 Documents Relative, 4:792. 37 E 190/80/1, fols. 87-89; 117/1 (April 1683, the Blossom), 644/2(Dec.

1677, the Rebecca). Also, E 190 841/3, 834/9. Some of these traders, including Philipse, Barbarie, and Stephen De Lancey, were also in the African pirate trade; Robert R. Livingston and Abraham De Peyster are relatively new entrants in this trade; see Robert Ritchie, The Duke's Prov­ince, 194.

38 Lawrence Leder, Robert R. Livingston, 34-85. The Dutch were Robert R. Livingston, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, Nicholas Bayard, Gabrielle Min-vielle, Frederick Philipse, Philip Schuyler, and Charles Lodwick; the English were Graham and Lewis Morris. Blathwayte went on to say uhat Englishmen J. Dudley, William Pinhorne, and Richard Townley were of rising in­fluence, and thatjohn Lawrence and ThomasJohnson were among other English "wretches" of no money or influence.

39 Julius Bloch, et al., An Account of Her Majesty's Revenue, passim; Thomas Archdeadon, New York City, 1664-1710; Conquest and Change, (Ithaca: 1976), 48-50. For New York City shipping, 1706-16, see C O . 5/1051, Bb98, where there is notation of ships clearing for Amsterdam at about 2 to 4 per year; for analysis of the West Indies trade from these records, see below, & Richard Pares, Yankees and Creoles, 19. A simiiar rise in proportions of all West Indies trade, and New York City involvement in West Indies-Amsterdam trade may have been the case, although the evidence is inconclusive; Ibid. From mid-1715 to mid-1718, 85 of 645 clearances, or 13% of New York's voyages were legal ones to foreign ports; C O . 324/10, at 386-387.

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Unraveling a Secret Colonialism: I by Oliver A. Rink

By 1640 the West India Company was faced with increas­ing pressure from the merchants of Amsterdam, the shareholders in the chambers, and the government to aban­don its trade monopoly throughout the chartered territory. The revised version of the "Articles and Conditions" had been approved by the States General in January 1639, and with its approval disappeared the last vestige of Company monopoly.' Amsterdam merchants were the ones to benefit most from this change in policy, for they had been largely responsible for the development of a regular shipping and distribution system for New Netherland furs, tobacco, and timber. They held a decided advantage as the age of free trade dawned in the colony. Although the mighty Company could still proclaim itself the largest joint-stock company operating in the western hemisphete, it could no longer outfit fleets, pay its employees, or supply its colonists. The private merchants of Amsterdam, on the other hand, were eager to take up the transatlantic trade once the cumbersome regula­tions governing the Company's monopoly had been re­moved.

These merchants appear to have been successful in ex­ploiting their advantages according to the number of sail­ings to New Netherland from the port of Amsterdam for the years 1645-1664. If periodic disruptions of the trade caused by war conditions between the United Provinces and Great Britain are accounted for, the trade between the father­land and New Netherland appears to have grown steadily after 1645.2 Moreover, in the last years before the English conquest, the transatlantic exchange of commodities appears to have been increasing in volume.3 This increase may have been an upsurge in trade fostered by improved market con­ditions for New Netherland products in Europe and a dra­matic increase in the colony's population, brought on largely through immigration. The latter phenomenon is docu­mented by the shipping records preserved in the notarial archives of the city of Amsterdam. It appears that the growth in trade volume paralleled that of immigration. Many of the ships docking at New Amsterdam in these years were filled with men, women, and children. Below decks they usually

Oliver Rink is Professor of History in California State College, Bakersfield, Cal. His book, Holland on the Hudson, was published by the Cornell University Press in 1986.

1 The revised charter of 1639 represents the final chapter in a decades-long staiggle to maintain the Company monopoly. Forced by the States General to relinquish control of the fur trade or risk losing the colony, the direct­ors of the West India Company proposed a set of "Articles and Condi­tions' ' which essentially removed Company authority in most economic matters while simultaneously thrusting the Company into politics. After vet another revision in the Articles and Conditions, demanded by the States General, a new set of Freedoms and Exemptions was proclaimed. The new regulations followed the pattern of other joint-stock companies in America, most notably the Virginia Company, in providing free land — 200 acres per head of household — to any immigrant who would set­tle permanently in New Netherland. The incentives worked, and by 1664 there were approximate!)' 9,000 Europeans living in New Netherland, many of whom had arrived in the last 20 years of the colony's history to take advantage of the new opportunities.

2 This data comes from approximately 300 charter contracts and several hundred bottomry bonds and marine insurance policies in the Gemeen-telijke Archief van Amsterdam. The collection of notarial documents is the work of the late Simon Hart, Director of the Archives. Dr. Hart in-

carried a bounty of liquor, guns, and cloth goods for the fur trade. A good deal is to be learned from a closer examina­tion of this movement of trade goods and people.

Four of the most active Amsterdam merchants controlled 50% or more of the total shipping.4 Through a variety of financial instruments, including ship chartets, bottomty bonds, and rental agreements for ship space, these merchants came to control many of the voyages in which they invested. The relationship between Amsterdam merchants and the col­ony of New Netherland has no parallel in American colonial history. It is this relationship, formed out of economic motives, but having the qualities of an apparent collusion of self-interest, which has much to tell us of the histoty of New Netherland.

One obvious conclusion is that during the last fifteen years of New Netherland's existence fout ttading fitms, opetating almost exclusively out of Amstetdam, came to play an im­portant role in the commerce between the colony and the fatherland. The role was clearly not one of monopoly or even oligopoly since every time the total number of ships increased, the percentage controlled by the four merchants declined. In lean years, conversely, when war prepararions drove up insurance premiums and the risks of financial ruin were on the rise, the four merchants dominated the ttade — con­trolling 50% or more of the trade in twelve of the fifteen years charted. This fact would seem to suggest that the four Amsterdam merchant firms were the steady and reliable New Netherland trade specialists. They wete not chased out when conditions deteriorated, nor did they surrender to the temp­tation to overexpand in boom times. Between 1640 and 1664 the merchants participating in the chattering, outfitting, and freighting of ttade ships acquired the experience necessary to make the trade pay. Other merchants wete less directly involved in the trade but were active in developing ware­houses and hiring factors. By 1664 many of these merchants had become partners in the four firms operating out of Amsterdam. As partnets in each othets' businesses and as private entrepreneurs, the merchants of Amsterdam suc­cessfully enveloped the New Netherland trade within a web

troduced me to this collection ami supervised my tise ol the documents during my year's stay in the Netherlands in 1973-74.

1 The unusually high number of sailings in 1655 probably reflected the movement ot Company soldiers and equipment aboard privately-owned vessels, whereas the large drop in annual sailings between 1 647 and 1 650 may have echoed higher marine insurance rates in anticipation of war with England. The amazing statistic, however, is that after 1615 no year witnessed less than four sailings from Amsterdam to New Netherland. If the average tonnage is computed to be 250 tons for a transatlantic freighter in the seventeenth century, the evidence for New Netherland indicates a minimum of 1.000 tons per year for the 1645-1664 period. We must keep in mind, moreover, that many of these ships carried col­onists on the outward voyage. For a discussion of cost factors, insurance rates, and average tonnages for Dutch shipping in this period, see: Simon Hart. "The Dutch and North America in the First Half of the Seven­teenth Century: Some Aspects," Mededelingen van de Nederlandse veremgmg voor zeegeschiedenis, 20 (March 1970) pp. 5-17.

4 Data from various sources, the most important of which were the charter contracts in the Gemeentelijke Archiel van Amsterdam. Much useful information alsoturned up in genealogical sources used for the construc­tion of the histories of the four New Netherland-Amsterdam merchant families.

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of personal obligations, ad hoc partnerships, and long-term cartel agreements.

In theory all traders with licenses from the West India Company were free to trade with New Netherland under the regulations of 1639- In practice, however, only larger firms could afford to cut profit margins by underselling their rivals, monopolizing shipping, and buying out would-be com­petitors. The risks of transatlantic trade, moreover, encour­aged adequately capitalized, long-term trade relationships to withstand the periodic losses incurred in shipwrecks, and other disasters. The four merchant firms that came to play such an important role in New Netherland's commercial life were Gillis and Seth Verbrugge, Dirck and Abel de Wolff, Kiliaen and Jan Baptiste van Rensselaer, and Gillis van Hoornbeeck and Associates.

The Verbrugge Company, founded originally as a father-son partnership in the early 1640s to exploit the New Nether­land and Virginia trade, was one of the first to prosper in the period of free trade following the abandonment of the West India Company monopoly. In the twenty-three years between the founding of the Verbrugge partnership in 1641 and the fall of New Netherland in 1664, Gillis and his son Seth chartered, owned, or invested heavily in some twenty-seven voyages to New Netherland and about fourteen voyages to English Virginia.5 By the mid-1650s the Verbrugges were also actively engaged in sponsoring American voyages with the other important Amsterdam merchants.6 Since none of Gillis Verbrugges personal records have survived, what lit­tle is known of the family's personal life comes from Seth Verbrugge's wills preserved in the notarial archives of the city of Amsterdam.7

Over the years, Seth drew up three wills before Amstet-dam notaries. These wills and the various codicils chronicled his personal fortunes and those of his family. The first will, filed in 1650, left his sizable estate to his wife Catharina and their four children, three sons and a daughter: Johannes, Gillis, Seth, and Anneken. The will bequeathed to Catharina the family townhouse in Amsterdam and all of its furnishings. In addition, Seth's profits from several voyages to New Netherland and English Virginia were included as assets in the estate. In 1654 Seth Verbrugge drew up another will. Seth's life had undergone some wrenching changes. Cath­arina had died in 1653, and the thirty-eight-year-old widower had remarried within the year. His new wife was the wealthy widow, Maria Wyckenburch, a native of Amsterdam and the daughter of one of the most successful merchant wholesalers in the city. Maria had two children by her previous marriage, and she brought not only wealth but political connections with her when she wed Seth Verbrugge. Seth was now con­nected by marriage to Maria's uncle, Edward Dill, the auc­tioneer for the Amsterdam board of admiralty. Seth may have exploited this family tie by soliciting information about con­fiscated vessels. Several Verbrugge ships were purchased at auction from the Amsterdam admiralty. The last will, drawn up in 1657, listed several other enterprises, including a number of partnerships with the de Wolff and van Hoorn­beeck firms for the exploitation of New Netherland.8

Although little is known of the private lives of Gillis and Seth Verbrugge, the material available for their business ac­tivities is extensive. Until the mid 1650s Gillis and Seth par­ticipated in the New Netherland and Virginia trades by chartering ships for single annual voyages. In these first years, the Verbrugges sought to keep their business dealings with North America on a cash and carry basis, and the notarial records suggest that they were successful in doing so. Bot­

tomry bonds were paid on time and insurance premiums were kept up. These first contacts with New Netherland were made through trade partnerships with other Amsterdam mer­chants, some of whom provided short-term capital loans in return for a percentage of the return cargo.

The 1650s brought changes to the trade. The passage of the English Navigation Act in 1651 and the subsequent war with England drove up the costs of the North Atlantic trade, although prices for New Netherland furs also rose when the risk of maritime trade decreased the supply. The Verbrugges were forced to seek partnerships of longer duration. They were also forced to reassess the risks of the direct Amsterdam-Virginia trade.

The success of operations in New Netherland and the increasing difficulties created by the English Navigation Acts forced the Verbrugges to abandon the direct Amsterdam-Virginia trade in 1656. Relying, instead, on English mer­chants, many of them possessing dual citizenship as Virgin­ians and New Netherlanders, the Verbrugges were able to maintain a coastal trade with Virginia which employed a small fleet of coastal sloops built especially to bring "Virginia leaves" to New Amsterdam.9

Having concentrated the bulk of their capital on the New Netherland trade, the Verbrugges suffered more than most when the Anglo-Dutch war threatened the sea lanes between the fatherland and the colony. The cost of marine insurance alone was enough to make some merchants chance the cross­ing without it and others to abandon the trade totally.10 The notarial records suggest that the number of merchants par­ticipating in the New Netherland trade declined steadily after 1651. Charter contracts for ships and bottomry loan applica­tions bear fewer signatures after 1651, which indicates that the increased risks of maritime trade may have driven out the smaller merchants or forced them into silent partnership arrangements with the four largest Amsterdam firms. The Verbrugges were especially vulnerable because their enter­prises were concentrated in New Netherland and tied up in land, ships (sitting idle), and warehouse space. In 1662, when rumors of another war with England were rife, the Verbrugges were forced to sell most of their New Netherland assets to meet the demands of their creditors for cash. Interestingly, but not coincidentally, the syndicate of merchants, auth­orized by notarized power-of-attorney to supervise the sale of the Verbrugge properties in New Netherland, was headed

s These figures were compiled once again from the notarial archives of the Gemeentehjke Archief van Amsterdam — specifically from the charter contracts and bottomry bonds notarized before Amsterdam notaries. The twenty-seven Virginia voyages were documented by some thirty-nine separate entries in the protocol books of Amsterdam notaries.

6 Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial nos. 1 352, October 19, 1654, p. 82; 2139, October 28, 1654, p. 87; 2197, December 18, 1654, pp. 181-183.

7 Even the birthplace and date of birth for Gillis Verbrugge are difficult to pin down. He was not an Amsterdammer by birth, for the city's vital statistics list only Gillis's children being born in the city. A notarial docu­ment from 1656 lists his age as 65, which would place his date of birth in 1591. The same document mentions Seth as being 40 (b. 1616). Ge­meentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial no. 1579, November 7, 1656, p. 428.

8 Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial nos. 1388, February 20, 1650, p. 10; 1393, April 18, 1654, p. 48v; 1355,June 5, 1657, p. 83v.

9 Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial no. 1305, April 27, 1655, p. 65.

10 Premiums were rarely less than 10 percent after 1651, and 12 percent and more was not uncommon. Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial no. 1035, October 1648 with notarized addendum in 1664, pp. 491-493v.

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by two other important New Netherland traders, Abel de Wolff and Jan Baptiste van Rensselaer, son of the patroon.11

Abel de Wolff had entered the New Netherland trade when his father, Dirck de Wolff, invested in a number of New Netherland voyages in the 1650s, and by the decade of the 1660s the de Wolff family enterprise was one of the four largest dealing with the colony.12 The founder of the family enterprise, Dirck de Wolff, displayed his prosperity by building a spacious townhouse on the exclusive Heeren-gracht (literally, gentlemen's canal) and purchasing sixty acres of land in the countryside between Haarlem and Amster­dam. For his five children by Grietje Engberts he provided the best education available. His two sons, Abel (born 1636) and Hendrick (born 1646) received generous support from their father. Abel, as heir to the family business, was to be trained as a merchant. Hendrick, the scholar of the family, received money from his father to support theological studies at the University of Utrecht, where he eventually took his degree.13 The daughters, Geertruyd (born 1637), Trijntje (born 1639), andjudith (born 1643), received the usual high standard of education for Dutch girls, each completing primary school and some secondary school. Geertruyd was especially keen to particpate in the family business, and Dirck employed her on a regular basis in the business.

Indeed, it was Geertruyd Verbrugge's marriage to Ger-ritjansz Cuyper that marked the beginning of the de Wolff involvement with New Netherland. Gerritjansz Cuyper had engaged in the New Netherland trade for some years. As both an agent for Amsterdam merchants and as a private trader, Cuyper had acquired a first hand knowledge of the trade. He had worked for the Verbrugges in the late 1640s as an Indian trader and for Jan Hendricksz Sijbingh, a large textile wholesaler who supplied cloth for the fur trade, as an agent. Sijbingh, was a longtime business associate of Dirck de Wolff and may have introduced Cuyper to the family.14

The opportunity to participate in the New Netherland trade came when Dirck, in partnership with his eldest son Abel and Gerritjansz Cuyper, organized a company to trade with the colony. Dirck provided the capital and perhaps im-

11 Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial no. 1143, November 9, 1662, p. 150.

12 The following summary of de Wolff activities is drawn partly from C.H. Jansen, "Geschiedenis van de familie de Wolff: sociale en economische facetten van de Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden in de zeventiende eeuw," Jaarboek van het Genootschap Amstelodamum, 56 (1964) pp. 131-155, and from my own research in the Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam.

13 When Hendrick died in 1700, he possessed a private library of more than four hundred volumes, mostly on subjects in theology. Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial no. 5460, undated, p. 308.

14 On the account books of the textile merchant the de Wolff family stood second only to the Verbrugges as customers. Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial no. 1306, September 1, 1656, p. l62v.

15 The information on percentages of Verbrugge capital invested in the New Netherland trade comes from documents drawn up in 1667 by arbitrators for the bankrupt estate of Gillis and Seth Verbrugge. The most impor­tant document arising from the arbitration is an inventory of Verbrugge assets. Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial no. 2223, February 10, 1667, pp. 258-259. The data for the de Wolff investment percent­ages are drawn from eleven wills and codicils prepared by Dirck de Wolff in the eight years preceding his death in 1679- These wills and codicils are in Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial nos. 2367, May 28, 1671, p. 267; 2370, December 22, 1673, p. 40; 2371, October 31, 1674, p. 60; 2371, October 31, 1674, p. 62 addendum; 2371, November 24, 1674, p. 80; 2371, July 20, 1675, p. 224; 2372, June 17, 1676m p. 214; 2372, June 17, 1676, p. 223 codicil; 2372, February 17, 1677, p. 404; 2374,June 6, 1678, p. 479v.

l6Jansen, "Geschiedenis van de familie de Wolff," p. 136.

portant connections in the Amsterdam merchant community, while Abel handled the management of the company in Amsterdam and Cuyper directed the operation in New Netherland. Dirck's new business interest meant the loss of his favorite daughter, Geertruyd, who sailed to the colony with her husband. In its first year of operation the company developed a distribution system for furs, timber, and tobacco. Colonial products were assembled by Cuyper in New Nether­land each year and sold for profit in Amsterdam by Abel de Wolff. By all accounts the small company was persistently profitable.

In contrast to the Verbrugges' effort in New Netherland, the de Wolff investments tended to concentrate on single projects rather than on numerous trading voyages. The chartering of ships and the outfitting of trade expeditions, for example, occupied a smaller percentage of the family's capital. Whereas the Verbrugge family had invested an average of 80 percent of their resources in ships, cargos, and warehouses, the de Wolff investments in such things never exceeded 60 percent. The family's total capital investment in New Netherland remained much more liquid, being tied primarily to the salaries of agents in the colony and the rent­als of cargo space aboard ships belonging to others.n

Moreover, the de Wolff business interests were generally more diversified than the Verbrugges. With money invested in Baltic grain, French wine, and West African slaves, the family was protected against the type of financial trouble that had cost the Verbrugges their once dominant position in the New Netherland trade. The de Wolff strategy paid dividends.

The de Wolffs chose to exploit New Netherland by developing the colonial market for provisions. The carrying trade continued to be the most lucrative of the family's long-term investments, but the essential thrust of the de Wolff business was the establishment of a commercial presence in New Netherland that could serve as a distribution system for manufactured goods and a conduit for furs, timber, and tobacco.

Abel de Wolff was 28 years old when he took over the management of his father's business in New Netherland. He had earned his job with years of work in Amsterdam as the broker for the family company, and he had bought a share in the business with money he earned in the New Netherland trade. His personal investment included 2,000 fl. from his own pocket, and 4,000 fl. of his inheritance pledged by Dirck de Wolff as his son's wedding portion.16

Abel had already demonstrated an enterprising spirit in investment schemes with Gillis van Hoornbeeck andjan Bap­tiste van Rensselaer. Just four years before, acting on his own and investing his own money, Abel de Wolff had shipped a cargo of trade goods to New Netherland aboard a large ship chartered by Gillis van Hoornbeeck. The voyage turned out to be a financial success, contributing to Abel's private fortune and convincing the young merchant that his future lay in the development of New Netherland. In 1661 and again in 1662 Abel de Wolff joined Jan Baptiste van Rens­selaer as an equal partner in the outfitting of the Hoop for two trading voyages to New Netherland. These voyages also turned a profit. At the close of 1662 the partnership's ware­house in Amsterdam was filled with tobacco and furs. The next year witnessed Abel de Wolff back in partnership with his brother-in-law, Gerritjansz Cuyper andjan Baptiste van Rensselaer. This partnership, one of the last formed during the period of Dutch rule, completed one ttading voyage in 1664. The voyage of the Eendracbt, although extended by

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the circumnavigation of Scotland to avoid English warships, returned a profit for its investors.17

When Abel de Wolff took over the family business in New Netherland in 1664, over 7,000 fl. worth of goods awaited shipment to Holland at New Amsterdam. In addi­tion, the family owned a house and a few parcels of land on Manhattan Island. Under the terms of the bond signed by Abel de Wolff on the occasion of assuming direction of the trade, he was given perpetual use of the house on Manhat­tan and the lands surrounding it for an annual rent of 120 fl. Dirck de Wolff retained the title to the property.18 Every­thing seemed in place for a major expansion of the family's enterprise in New Netherland when news of the colony's sur­render reached Amsterdam.

One can only imagine the effect the news must have had on the family. Abel's dreams were shattered. Dirck's hopes for his family's fortune and his son's career were threatened. Just a year before, Dirck had invested his daughters 8,000 fl. dowries in the New Netherland trade, perhaps as a gesture of family confidence in his son, perhaps out of an enthusiasm for the trade which had lately proven lucrative.19 In any event, Abel's two unmarried sisters, Judith and Trijntje, had reason to be anxious as the family waited news from America.

The fall of New Netherland was a catastrophe for the Amsterdam merchants. It not only spelled the end of a half-century effort to make New Netherland a success, but by means of the English Navigation Acts it separated the Dutch merchant suppliers from their clients, employees, and cus­tomers. From New England to the southern boundaries of Virginia the North American seaboard was English. The Amsterdam merchants, Abel de Wolff and his anxious family among them, could only wait to see what they could salvage from the situation.

English authorities attempted to curtail Dutch trade im­mediately, and in their zeal to Anglicize the colony's trade everyone suffered. Without the continued shipping of the private merchants of Amsterdam the commercial position of New Netherland, now New York, declined rapidly. Both the Dutch and English colonists bore the brunt of the economic collapse. In 1667, the new English governor, Col­onel Francis Lovelace, ordered special passports to be drawn up, permitting Dutch merchants to send three ships a year to New York.20 The merchants were required to pay high fees to the Duke of York's agents for these passports, and to make matters worse the West India Company continued to collect its licensing fees even though it had lost the colony three years before. The result was that the increased costs of the trade fell heavily on the Amsterdam merchants.

In 1668, Abel de Wolff requested a four year audit of the accounts in New York from the company's new factor, Harmen Vedder. The audit turned out to be a staggering tale of decline. In the four years preceding 1668 no profits were recorded. An investment of 4,400 fl. by Vedder was not recoverable, and the house and farm on Manhattan Island had to be sold to pay debts. The company's entire cash reserve in New York amounted to less than 3,700 fl. An inventory of furs and tobacco was valued at less than 800 fl. From an annual profit of 50% in the 1650s the New Netherland-New York trade had ceased to be profitable for Amsterdam merchants.21 The de Wolff family continued to trade with New York under a series of agreements which permitted the shipment of goods via England to America. One such agree­ment in 1670 involved Abel de Wolff in a syndicate of English, Dutch, and New York merchants. The complex financial arrangements for the chartering of the English ship,

Duke of York, suggested the extreme measures taken in these years to circumvent the provisions of the Navigation Acts.

The Duke of York was captained by Johannes Luyck, a Hollander by birth but a naturalized English subject living in New York. The ship was registered as English, but char­tered in Amsterdam. Several documents were notarized testi­fying to the fact that the trade expedition was essentially an English undertaking in complete compliance with the Navi­gation Acts; yet the sponsors of the voyage and the benefi­ciaries of the marine insurance policy were all Dutch. And finally, Abel de Wolff gave personal testimony before an Amsterdam notary which confirmed that the voyage of the Duke of York was "not subject to confiscation for violations of the English Navigation Act." Even these complicated ar­rangements could not make the voyage profitable. When the Duke of York returned to London after an uneventful voyage, a flurry of legal questions tied up the sale of her cargo and forced the Dutch merchants to declare the enterprise a loss. Abel de Wolff could no longer count on profits from the trade with North America. He had overestimated the profits from furs and tobacco and in anticipation of a good voyage had borrowed heavily to pay the English fees. When his portion of the cargo was finally sold in Amsterdam some months later, the sale could not begin to pay the loans.22

By 1675 Abel de Wolff was no longer seriously involved in the New York trade, but his reluctant withdrawal from the trade did not end the family's connection with the former Dutch colony. Gerrit Jansz Cuyper, husband to Geertruyd de Wolff and Abel's longtime partner continued to par­ticipate in the New York trade until his death in 1679- As a naturalized citizen of the colony of New York, he co-sponsored the voyages on the Rebecca in 1677 and 1678 under the command of the Englishman, Thomas Williams. This partnership with English merchants was soon dissolved when Cuyper could not meet his financial obligations, but he main­tained his partnership with the Dutch textile wholesaler, Jan Hendricksz Sijbingh. With Sijbingh he continued to import Dutch cloth goods from Amsterdam. Some profits must have been forthcoming in this trade because after Gerrit's death his son, Jan Gerritsz de Wolff Cuyper, took over the cloth trade; as late as 1683 he was still conducting business with former customers of the de Wolff company.23

(To be continued) 17 Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial nos. 2224, December

1663, p. 32; 2444, February 29, 1664, pp. 134-134v; 1518, March 15, 1664, p. 115; 2768, March 26, 1664, p. 608; 3138, April 3, 1664, pp. 31, 33v-34v; 2769, April 8, 1664, pp. 54-55; 2885, April 8, 1664, p. 155; 2769, April 16, 1664, pp. 81-82; 2218,January 5, 1665, pp. 49-50; 2218, March 7, 1665, pp. 497-498v; 2223, April 27, 1667, p. 913; 2224, May 5, 1667, pp. 32-33.

18Jansen, "Geschiedenis van de familie de Wolff," pp. 136-137.

" Ib id . , p. 136. 20 Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial no. 2225, November

16, 1667, pp. 945-952v. 21Jansen, "Geschiedenis van de familie de Wolff," p. 138. 22 Gemeentelijke Archief van Amsterdam, Notarial no. 2223, May 27, 1670,

p. 34. 23Jansen, "Geschiedenis van de familie de Wolff," p. 146.

The Holland Society Centennial Celebration — A Review

by Arthur R. Smock, Jr. Chairman, Centennial Committee

Our "Centennial Celebration" is over, and we trust you will all agree that 1985 was a truly memorable and exciting year.

We hope this article will provide a little insight on what your Board of Trustees felt the Society should be accomplish­ing, and why our anniversary should serve to mark the begin­ning of a new era as a nation-wide organization bent on stimu­lating new research in the accomplishments of our forebears, increasing membership and branch activity, expanding social interaction, and enhancing our reputation as a scholarly Society.

Prologue:

Back in 1983, one of our most esteemed and respected members, the late Trustee Emeritus Wilfred B. Talman (who in 1977 was awarded the Gold Medal of the Society for 50 years of devoted service) wrote to the trustees: "Some focus is needed, I believe, if we are to celebrate a centennial. Just what are we celebrating besides lasting a century?"

On his advice, the Trustees adopted the following resolu­tion at their October 1983 meeting:

RESOLVED: The purpose of the Centennial Celebration of The Holland Society of New York in 1985 shall be to recog­nize and publicize the accomplishments of the Society during its first 100 years; to memorialize the contribu­tions and customs of the Dutch settlers of New Nether-land and their descendants; to foster and promote social interchange and good fellowship among the members of the Society and to stimulate their interest and involve­ment in Society activities and programs; and to review the validity and pertinence of the Society's Objective, Concepts, Ceremonies and Rituals today. The Centennial Committee, appointed at that time, con­

sidered this resolution as the focus of our year-long Centen­nial observance.

As a first step, we conducted a drive for contributions to a Centennial Fund in late fall 1984. This most successful drive raised over $20,000 with close to 20% of our membership becoming "Sponsors of the Centennial Celebration!' The balance of the funding for the Centennial was transferred from the accumulated balance in the Society's operating fund. Centennial Year Accomplishments:

The most ambitious Centennial project was the printing of' 'The Holland Society: A Centennial History'' written by member David William Voorhees, and published under the direction of past president James E. Quackenbush. This ex­cellent hard cover book was the Society's Centennial gift to each of its members. Additional copies may be obtained from the Society Office at $25 each.

A Centennial grant of $5000 was presented to The Gard­ner Sage Library at The New Brunswick Theological Seminary for the preservation of their invaluable collection of Colonial Dutch books and manuscripts. This grant is acknowledged by a plaque in the Dutch Colonial Room at the library.

Five deserving students at colleges which have programs in Colonial History were given scholarships to assist them in their research of the Dutch era. We anticipate several articles for our magazine, de Halve Maen, from these scholarship recipients.

In recognition of the Society's continued support, The New Netherland Project of the New York State Library honored The Society Centennial at its Eighth Rensselaerswyck Seminar in Albany. Society President John H. Vander Veer introduced the speakers, and we were granted first publica­tion rights for all papers presented, which had as a theme: "Merchants and Traders of New Netherland and Colonial New York!'

The basic work of translating and publishing the Dutch archival material surviving in the New York State Library, a top priority project of the Society since the program was originated by the late Trustee Ralph L. De Groff in the 1970's, was continued in 1985 under the leadership of his son, Ralph De Groff, Jr., Chairman of the Society's Historic Publications Committee.

As a spin-off from this project, The Library Committee headed by Robert D. Nostrand hosted a Seminar on Dutch Colonial History in our Headquarters building in New York in October — followed by a delightful cocktail reception ar­ranged by our Librarian Robin Segal, and Executive Secretary Barbara Stankowski. Dr. Charles Gehring and Mr. Petet Christoph of The New Netherland Project (both Fellows of The Holland Society) delivered excellent papers.

The Society was able to attract two pre-eminent Dutch Colonial Scholars as principal speakers at Social events. Dr. R. A. Romer, Governor of the Netherlands Antilles, spoke at the "Midwinter Gathering of the Dutch Nation in New York" (a digest of his address appeared in the July issue of de Halve Maen), and Dr.Jan Willem SchulteNordholt, Pro­fessor Emeritus at Leiden University in the Netherlands, spoke at the gala Centennial Banquet in November, at which oc­casion he was presented the Gold Medal of the Society for distinguished achievement. His most entertaining talk was also featured in this magazine.

We were honored at our Banquet by the presence of His Excellency Richard Fein, Netherlands Ambassador to the United States, and at many of our Centennial functions by the presence and support of His Excellency C.J. M. Kramers, Consul-General of the Netherlands in New York Congratu­latory messages were received from Her Majesty, Beatrix, Queen of the Netherlands, and President Ronald Reagan.

Due attention was given to the Society Library in this Centennial Year. New carpeting was installed, lighting was improved, and a new card catalog placed in use. Most impor­tant, our new Librarian, Ms. Segal accomplished a great deal in improving access to our collection. We urge all members to visit and brouse whenever they are in New York.

These Centennial Year projects, briefly noted above, followed the "object" of our Society as established by our founders in 1885, and as set forth in Article II of our Con­stitution. All members, wherever they reside, can be proud

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of our scholarly work, and the insight it provides about our ancestors, that hardy band who settled ' 'Nieuw Nederlandt" and who so strongly influenced the development of this Nation.

Socially and Ceremoniously we had a great "Centennial Celebration!"

This article would become much too long if we attempted a chronological report on all our activities and branch affairs held this past year. All individual events have been covered in previous issues of this magazine.

Highlights that will be recalled with pleasure whenever a few members get together included: • The resumption of the long dormant practice of singing Dutch songs at social events. Members Henry Van Wormer and William Lydecker led group singing at the History and Traditions Dinner in September — songs from very early Society Yearbooks including "Here's to You, van Vorst!" This was so successful it was repeated at the Centennial Ban­quet. Bill Lydecker put together a songbook for the Banquet that is available for future branch affairs.

• The election of Presidentjohn Vander Veer as "Honorary Director-General of New Netherland" and his formal in­vestiture at "The Midwinter Gathering" in March. The ceremony included the parading of' 'The Seat of Authority " (a custom derived from the 17th century rule of Peter Stuyve-sant) as an adjunct to the traditional "Parading of the Bea­ver' ' by the Burgher Guard. This ceremony was repeated with enthusiasm at all subsequent Centennial events.

• The great turnout of members at the Annual Meeting/ Dinner, where Domine Howard Hageman was awarded the Society's Gold Medal for his long service including the editor­ship of de Halve Maen, and the Beer and Cheese collation following dinner — with beer served in souvenir steins fea­turing the Society Seal in orange. • The moving and inspiring Memorial Church Service, held in the Chapel of The New Brunswick Theological Seminary, which marked the first special Services for members and their friends, with the litany written by and the Service conducted by clergy members — Domine Howard Hageman, Associate Domine Louis Springsteen, and Father William Lydecker. • The warm reception and outstanding service of the crew of the liner "Nieuw Amsterdam" on the Society's Centen­nial Cruise of the Caribbean in January.

• The remarkable turn-out of over 90 members and guests at the History and Traditions Dinner at the Union League Club in New York on September 27th — the day hurricane "Gloria" visited the city; followed the next day by an excep­tional bus tour of Dutch Colonial houses in Brooklyn planned by our Executive Secretary Barbara Stankowski. • The large number and diversity of the Centennial affairs sponsored by our branches, with several new branches formed and offering active programs, and several long dormant branches reactivated.

• The several events sponsored by individual members in­cluding a Get-together in Texas hosted by The Rev. Robert Terhune, and the "sailors rendezvous'' and picnic hosted by Tom Van Winkle at his home in Mystic, Connecticut.

• The renewal of old friendships and the congeniality and good fellowship that was so evident at every event and affair held during our Centennial year. For example, groups gath­ered at many tables after the Centennial Banquet had con­cluded — and continued animated conversations long after the orchestra had left and the bar had been closed.

The "Centennial Celebration" marks the beginning of a new era.

We cannot predicate our future as a Society on the ac­complishments of our first century, nor on the success of our centennial year.

We have two areas of concern: 1. Our membership is growing more dispersed geograph­

ically. 2. Our membership is growing older, but not larger.

Since our Centennial Celebration is concluded, and our anniversary year is history, the Society's Board of Trustees, the Society's active branches, and the membership as a whole will have to plan and conduct projects, programs, and ac­tivities designed to foster personal participation by our widely scattered members, and to attract younger and more energetic men to join our ranks.

We must answer the questions, ' 'Why should I join The Holland Society, even if I am eligible, as opposed to other genealogical associations?" "What does The Holland Society have to offer?" We urge the Branch Presidents to lead the way, as we enter our second century.

The concept of branches was formalized in 1921 to help members far from Manhattan maintain a sense of participa­tion in the Society. At that time approximately 10% of our members lived outside the New York metropolitan area.

Today — more than half live away from the New York area, and despite vast improvements in transportation, at­tendance by the majority at New York affairs is inconvenient at best. A significant proportion have difficulty even travel­ing to branch affairs.

We encourage branches to form branches. Take Florida as an example. We now have two sections — East Florida and West Florida. Both sponsored affairs last fall. All Florida branch members received invitations to both affairs, and were urged to attend the one most convenient — or both. This con­cept should increase attendance.

We encourage individual branch members to host small affairs for other members in their immediate area. We ex­pect Texas members will repeat their 1985 luncheon, and eventually attract enough members to form a Texas branch. Our office in New York will help with addresses or in mail­ing invitations.

We encourage branches to hold their own membership drives and invite prospective members to their affairs — per­sonal contacts are very important — The Membership Com­mittee will assist in every way possible.

This emphasis we place on increasing branch activity is not criticism of our Branch Presidents — in our Centennial year attendance at branch affairs broke all records, with new branches activated, and moribund branches reactivated. This emphasis on branch activity is our vision of the future, with our branches a steadily growing factor in the Society's vitality and growth.

We are today a national Society, and we must conduct ourselves and our business with this fact in mind. We would like all members, wherever they may live, to participate in our projects and programs.

We encourage members to volunteer to serve on the standing committees, which basically conduct the affairs of our Society. Since a large portion of committee business is conducted by correspondence, distance from New York is not a deterrent.

We encourage members to send suggestions and recom-)

mendations relative to any Society activity to President Vander Veer or to the Chairman of any of our Committees.

We encourage members to contact their Branch President and to offer their help and support in the planning and con­ducting of branch meetings and social affairs.

Names and addresses of all Officers, Branch Presidents, Trustees and Committee Chairmen are listed in your copy of the roster — let them hear from you.

We urge our members to lead the way by proposing new applicants.

The Society is appalled by the number of obituaries ap­pearing in each issue of de Halve Maen, and while new members elected have maintained our rolls at slightly over 900 for many years, we are disappointed and somewhat discouraged at the number of our members who have sons, grandsons, nephews and other eligible relatives who have never applied for membership.

We suggest this is a result of lack of knowledge about the Society, its accomplishments and varied activities, in more cases than a lack of interest.

Election of sons, grandsons, and nephews will bring younger men into the Society, with the vigor and enthusiasm needed to provide a fresh approach to our projects and pro­grams, and new ideas for Society activities.

Society Florida East Coast Spring Meeting

Members of the East Florida Branch and their guests held a luncheon meeting on March 22 — their first for 1986 — at the always pleasantly nautical Lighthouse Point Yacht Club where arrangements for the meeting had been made by the Branch's President Emeritus Edward A. Ditmars of Boynton Beach and his charming wife, Barbara. Following discussion on matters of interest to those present, the meeting closed with a slide/cassette presentation entitled, ' 'The Story of the White House." This was a production of the White House Historical Association that, in addition to its commentary, featured background music by the United States Marine Band.

In addition to Mr. and Mrs. Ditmars, others at the meeting were: Florida East Coast Branch Vice President Robert Banta and Mrs. Banta; Mr. and Mrs. Earl Killian; Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Cornell; Colonel (Ret.) and Mrs. William Van Atten; Mr. and Mrs.Jasper Van Atten and his sister, Dorothy; Branch President Ted Schoonmaker and Mrs. Schoonmaker; Mr. and Mrs. Gerrit Van Schaick; and Mr. and Mrs. William Van Tassel. Mr. Van Schaick is a Past National President of the Society, and Colonel Van Atten represents the United States Army as a Vice President for the Society.

Niagara Frontier Branch

The annual Spring Dinner Meeting of the Niagara Fron­tier Branch was held on Wednesday, April 9, 1986 at the Buf­falo Yacht Club, affording a commanding view of the waters at the confluence of Lake Erie and the Niagara River at the international border. Branch members, rheir families and guests from Western New York and neighboring Ontario gathered beforehand for a cocktail hour. Special dinner guests were Consul of the Netherlands for Western New York Dr. CarelJ. van Oss and Mrs. van Oss.

Guest of honor and speaker was Bob Koop, well-known Anchor Newsman of Station WIVB-TV, Channel 4, the local

We are a genealogical Society, not a geriatric Society! We are united, wherever we may live, by a common bond and common heritage.

Every member is important to our Society, and every member can help.

If possible, attend our meetings and social events; send us news about yourself and your family; read de Halve Maen; support your branch activities; propose new members; offer suggestions; get together with other members living near you; contribute to our educational and scholarly programs; and, as individuals, foster the principles and virtues of our an­cestors.

De boom groeit en draagt vrucht.

The Centennial Committee expresses its deep apprecia­tion for the outstanding support it received during our Cen­tennial year, for the generosity of the Sponsors of the Centen­nial, for the extra effort by the Branch Presidents, for the hard work of the Committee Chairmen and Centennial Event Coordinators, and for the interest and loyalty of all members who attended our Centennial Affairs and Branch affairs in record numbers.

We look forward with confidence and anticipation to our future.

Activities CBS affiliate. Koop, a native of Amityville, Long Island, spoke with pride of his Netherlands ancestry, including des­cent from 17th century Dutch burghers who eventually, by a fascinating and devious route, found their way to America.

As a part of the evening's program, Dr. Courtland Van Deusen III, a branch member of long standing, presented color slides of his October, 1985 trip to the People's Republic of China. Included were views of the village where Courtland was born, the son of a Presbyterian missionary.

Those in attendance at the meeting were: Mr. and Mrs. Appleton Fryer, Mr. and Mrs. William L. Van Schoonhoven, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Coykendall, Dr. Robert LaB. Van Dusen, Mr. and Mrs. Richard P. Garrabrandt, Dr. and Mrs. Courtland Van Deusen III, Mr. and Mrs. Courtland Van Deusen IV, Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Willsie, Mr. John I. Eckerson and guest Mrs. Helen Kraatz, Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Courter, Dr. and Mrs. Harold P. Graser, Mr. and Mrs. James E. Van Dewark, Mr. and Mrs. Norman E. Van Dewark, Mr. Chase Viele, Mr. and Mrs. Howard C. Vreeland, Mr. Bob Koop, Dr. and Mrs. CarelJ. van Oss, and Mr. and Mrs. RobertJ.A. Irwin (Mrs. Irwin representing the Society of Daughters of Holland Dames.).

Dutchess County Meets The Dutchess County branch held its annual dinner

meeting on October 3rd at The Amrita Club in Poughkeep-sie, N.Y., playing host to 35 members, wives and guests of the Holland Society. Branch President and Mrs. George E. Banta greeted everyone at the cocktail hour preceding dinner.

The blessing before dinner was given by the Rev. William J.F. Lydecker, president of the Old Bergen Branch, and dur­ing the course of the evening President Banta called upon Trustee Arthur R. Smock, Jr., who expressed his pleasure at being present and made a plea for members to recruit new members for the Society by proposing their immediate male relatives who were eligible for membership. Former branch president and Trustee Clifford A. Crispell, Jr., then briefed

the group on the condition of Trustee Douglas C. Buys who was hospitalized in Albany and circulated a greeting card which was signed by those present and sent to Trustee Buys. President Banta also asked Fr. Lydecker to say a few words. He responded with an invitation to all to attend the Old Bergen branch dinner meeting October 22nd in Teaneck, N.J. As chairman of the Holland Society Singers, he also in­vited members to join that newly-organized group.

Present at the meeting in addition to those already named were: Trustee and Mrs. Frederick W. Bogert, Mrs. Clifford A. Crispell, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Walter Crispell, Trustee and Mrs. John Delamater and Mrs. Delamater, Sr., Mr. and Mrs. John DeGraff, Mr. and Mrs. Rodman deKay, Mr. and Mrs. David DeWitt, Alfred Hasbrouck, Mr. and Mrs. A.A. Schoonmaker, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. Peter Schoonmaker, Mrs. Arthur Smock, Mr. and Mrs. John Van Benschoten, Mr. and Mrs. Herbert L. Van Benthuysen, Mr. and Mrs. John F. Van Horn, Trustee and Mrs. John H. Vanderveer and Mr. and Mrs. A.A. Schoonmaker III (guests).

Fall Meeting of the Long Island Branch

More than two dozen members and wives gathered together October 7th at the dinner of the Long Island branch at the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club on Centre Island, N.Y.

The beautiful setting of the club overlooking a harbor filled with sailing craft at their moorings provided an attrac­tive setting for the branch meeting. A cocktail hour preceded the dinner which was served in the Model Room of the club, the walls of which are used to display hull models of sailing craft of past years owned and sailed by members of the club.

Branch President Adrian T. Bogart,Jr., presided over the evening's events which started with the blessing given by the Rev. WilliamJ.F. Lydecker. Greetings were given by Society Presidentjohn H. Vander Veer, Trustee Frederick W. Bogert and the Old Bergen Branch President, Fr. Lydecker.

Following dinner Zachery Studenroth, atchitect for the Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, presented a talk illustrated with slides on so-called "Dutch" houses on Long Island. He called attention to the loosely us­ed description of "Dutch colonial" style often wrongly ap­plied to some of these houses. Pointing out that some of these buildings have inherited a legendary relation to Dutch ar­chitecture, the speaker said that features such as the gambrel roof and the double door attributed to the Dutch were also found on many New England houses.

In addition to those officers and trustees already men­tioned, the meeting was attended by Trustees Robert D. Nostrand and John H. Vanderveer as well as by former treasurer Sedgcwick Snedecor and former trustee Jack Van Siclen.

Old Bergen Branch Members Meet The fall dinner meeting of the Old Bergen branch at­

tracted some 40 and more members, wives and widows of members to the Inwood Manor restaurant in Teaneck, N.J., on October 22nd to enjoy an excellent roast beef dinner followed by a program that featured David William Voorhees, author of The Holland Society, A Centennial History, as speaker and songs led by the Holland Society Singers. A cocktail hour preceded the dinner.

After grace was said, the branch president, Fr. William J.F. Lydecker, proposed toasts to the Queen of the Nether­lands and to the President of the United States to which those present responded. Between courses of the dinner, Rev.

Lydecker introduced officers and trustees who were there in­cluding Society Presidentjohn H. Vander Veer who made appropriate remarks and urged those present to attend the annual banquet to be held November 6th and Trustee Arthur R. Smock, Jr., who appealed to branch members to recruit new members from eligible candidates in their immediate families.

The Holland Society Singers, Henry Van Wormer, J. War­ren Terhune and Fr. Lydecker led the gathering in singing three songs associated with Holland Society meetings of past years.

At the conclusion of dinner, Fr. Lydecker introduced Mr. Voorhees who gave an interesting account of Old Bergen branch's history. Prefacing his account with references to the first settlement of the Dutch on the west shore of the Hud­son opposite Manhattan, a trading post at Bergen (nowjersey City, N.J.) in 1618, Mr. Voorhees cited the remarkable self-sufficiency of these early Dutch farmers who sustained their families with the produce of their fields.

He noted that the organization and first meeting of the Betgen County branch took place in September 1904 and that although wives of members were invited to meetings at first, this was latet rescinded. The activities of the branch were ttaced thtough the ensuing years with the branch being re­named Old Bergen in 1950 to include dwindling membets in neighboring Hudson and Passaic Counties in New Jersey and Rockland County in New York. He also paid tribute to the dedication of such past branch members as Col. Leigh K. Lydecker, Richard H. Amerman, Thomas M. Vander Veer, Irwin Tappan and Wilfred B. Talman as well as present members who have supported and sustained both the branch and the Society. In closing he called upon members to col­lect and pass on family stories, legends, documents and other New Netherland memorabilia in order to insure continuance of the Dutch heritage.

A special effort was made by Branch President Lydecker to invite widows of past branch members, two of whom, Mrs. Raymond E. Banta of Ridgewood, N.J., and Mrs. David Van Alstyne of Englewood, N.J., were present. Other officers and trustees present, with their wives, besides those already men­tioned, were: Society Secretary, the Rev. Louis O. Spring­steen, Trustees Frederick W. Bogert, John H. Vanderveer of Mineola, N.Y. John R. Voorhis III and past presidentjames E. Quackenbush. Also attending the meeting were former branch member, Everett S. Hopper, Jr., and Mrs. Hopper from Horseheads, N.Y., and new member, Chester A. Brower and Mrs. Brower of New Milford, N.J.

Society Dinner Dance in New York The roof garden of the St. Regis Hotel in New Yotk was

the scene of the Society's 1986 dinner dance and award ceremony on November 4th. Amid tables graced by tall candles and appropriate floral arrangements of Dutch tulips, members, wives and guests assembled to enjoy dinner, dan­cing and the awatd of the Society's Distinguished Achieve­ment Medal to Mr. Edmund Morris, noted biographer and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Morris was recently chosen to be the biographer of President Ronald Reagan.

President and Mrs. John H. Vander Veer greeted guests, introducing them to the Medalist and Mrs. Morris and to Mr. Adrian F. Tieleman, Consul General of the Netherlands in New York and Mrs. Tieleman.

Following the reception and pteceding dinner, the form­al program of the evening opened with the traditional

parading of the beaver by the Burgher Guard led by Cap­tain Stephen Wyckoff. The Guard also paraded the "Seat of Authority," a tasseled orange cushion, symbolic of the one upon which Peter Stuyvesant, the last Director-General of New Netherland, was seated during formal occasions. This cushion was placed on the chair of President Vander Veer, a custom introduced last year during the Society's Centen­nial celebration year.

After the invocation by the Rev. Louis O. Springsteen, Associate Domine of the Society, traditional toasts were of­fered, with the playing of the national anthems of the Netherlands and the United States of America, to Her Maj­esty, Queen of the Netherlands, by President Vander Veer and to the President of the United States of America by Con­sul General Tieleman. These were followed by toasts by Trustee Tweed Roosevelt to the 1986 Medalist Edmund Mor­ris and by Mr. Morris to the Holland Society of New York.

A cordial welcome was given to those present by Presi­dent Vander Veer who introduced the honored guests seated on the dais. They represented a number of historical and hereditary societies in the New York City region. President Vander Veer especially saluted Mr. Donald K. Vanneman, Jr., of Surrey, England, a member of the Holland Society for coming such a great distance to be present.

At the conclusion of the dinner service, Trustee Tweed Roosevelt chairman of the Society's Distinguished Achieve­ment Award Committee, introduced the medalist with an appropriate survey of his career humorously picturing him as a struggling writer — first in England and then in America — prior to his winning the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Theodore Roosevelt for which he also received the American Book Award. President Vander Veer then formally invested Mr. Morris with the Gold Medal of the Holland Society and invited him to address those present.

In his remarks, Mr. Morris emphasized that as his research progressed, he became increasingly aware of the true stature and greatness of Theodore Roosevelt (an active member of the Holland Society) who became one of America's most popular and respected presidents. He also mentioned the sub­ject of his next book, President Ronald Reagan, pointing out that the great personal popularity of both presidents transcended the political infighting present in both their eras.

In addition to those already mentioned, the following of­ficers and trustees of the Society, with their wives, were pre­sent: Past Presidents Kenneth L. Demarest, Jr. and James E. Quackenbush; Treasurer James M. Vreeland; Trustees George E. Banta, Ralph L. DeGroff, Jr., William B. Deyo, Jr., Robert D. Nostrand, Arthur R. Smock, Jr., James M. Van Buren II, John H. Vanderveer, Harry A. van Dyke and Trustee Emeritus John A. Pruyn.

New England Branch Annual Dinner

The New England Branch held its annual dinner on November 14, 1986 at the Club of Odd Volumes in Boston. This was the branch's most successful gathering with 39 per­sons in attendance. Cocktails were served in the second floor drawing room which typifies old Boston. Overlooking tree-lined Mount Vernon Street, the room is filled with the treasures of the 100-year-old club, including period furniture and prints of colonial Boston, together with a collection of old books, many of them written by members of this club of collectors, academicians, book collectors and librarians.

Anthony Dewitt Ostrum, President of Tiffany & Com­pany, New York City, for the past eight years and, more recently, Boston's senior executive for the new Tiffany store

in Copley Plaza, began the evening's program with a brief history of the Tiffany family (members of which lived for many years in Boston) and of Tiffany & Company's background. After a fine dinner served in the ballroom of the old Beacon Hill mansion which now houses the club, the operations manager of Tiffany & Company, Frank Acaro, gave a slide presentation of some Tiffany-crafted objects and items of distinction which the company has produced dur­ing its existence. At the conclusion of his presentation, those present enjoyed a glass of postprandial Dutch beer as a fit­ting close to a most enjoyable evening.

The following members were present: Leslie Ackerman, South Natick, MA., Van Dyke Burhansjr., Bedford, MA., Hubert C. Mandevillejr., South Dartmouth, MA., John O. Outwater, Jr., Burlington, VT., John O. Outwater III, Boston, MA., Branch President Tweed Roosevelt, Boston, MA., Eugene M. Van Loan, Jr., Bedford, NH., Peter V.C. Van Wyck, Essex, MA., Stephen C. Van Wyck, Essex, MA., Willard P.V. Voorhees, Woodstock, VT., Edward Judson Wynkoop, Jr., Woodstock, VT., and Charles Zabriskie, Wellesley, MA.

Ulster County's Dinner Meeting

A record turnout of 65 members, wives and guests (a number surpassing the attendance at the first dinner meeting of the branch in 1924) gathered on November 15th for the annual dinner meeting of the Ulster County branch at New Paltz, N.Y.

This year, instead of meeting, as before, in the DuBois Fort restaurant on Huguenot Street, the reception and din­ner were held at Deyo Assembly Hall in the historic Huguenot settlement of central New York. Preceding dinner a recep­tion took place featuring the famous (in Holland Society circles) Poucher's Punch, a creation of the late Dr. J. Wilson Poucher, a Holland Society member from Poughkeepsie, N.Y. This was followed by a home-style turkey dinner and a program prepared by Branch President Kenneth E. Hasbrouck, a slide lecture on the Samuel F.B. Morse house in Poughkeepsie by Mrs. Winifred M. Mulvey.

Among those present were the following officers and trustees: Ptesident John H. Vander Veer and Mrs. Vander Veer, Secretary Rev. Louis O. Springsteen and Mrs. Spring­steen, Domine Rev. Dr. Howard G. Hageman and Mrs. Hageman and Trustees Frederick W. Bogert and Mrs. Bogert, Clifford A. Crispell, Jr. and Mrs. Crispelljohn O. Delamater and Mrs. Delamater and Dr. John R. Voorhis III and Mrs. Voorhis, together with Old Bergen Branch President Rev. William J.F. Lydecker and Mrs. Douglas C. Buys, wife of Trustee Buys.

Old South Branch Meets Assembling at the Georgian Club in Atlanta, Georgia,

members of the Old South Branch of the Society held a centennial dinner meeting on November 18th last. Branch President H.John Ouderkirk of Marietta, Georgia presided at the small but enthusiastic gathering. Informal in style, the affair featured discussions and a getting-acquainted session during which former Trustee Hendrik Booraem, Jr., now a resident of Aiken, S.C., recalled events of the Society's background and history for those present.

Others attending the dinner were: C.H. (Gary) Garret-son and Welman H. Ouderkirk, both of Marietta, Georgia, James Polhemus and Richard Polhemus both of Mascot, Ten­nessee and Donald Van Riper of Greenville, South Carolina.

)

Here and There with Our Members James E. Quackenbush and Mrs. Quackenbush have an­

nounced the engagement of their daughter, Sally Virginia, to Mr. Robert Carter Mason, son of Mr. and Mrs. Frank H. Mason III of Birmingham, Michigan. Miss Quackenbush, a graduate of Ramapo (N.J.) High School, is also a graduate of Yale University and currently a student at the Law School of the University of Michigan. Her fiance, a graduate of Andover High School and also of Yale University is a fellow student with Miss Quackenbush at the University of Michigan Law School. A May wedding is planned.

Michael Dingman has been named chairman of the Henley Group, a new company that comprises approximately thirty diversified industrial enterprises formerly a part of Allied-Signal, Inc.

Howard G. Hageman has been elected president of the Friends of the New Netherland Project, a group organized to solicit funds for and promote the translation and publica­tion of manuscripts in the New York State Library relating to the New Netherland era in the American colonial period.

Sedgwick Snedeker was chairman of the Mens' Commit­tee of the Salvation Army Awards Dinner, a recent fund-raising event, at The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida.

John Warren Terhune was united in marriage with Brenda Elaine Alte on February 14th last at the Church of the Presentation in Upper Saddle River, N.J. The ceremony was performed by Monsignorjohn McDermott, assisted by the Rev. Allenjager. Mr. Terhune's best man was his brother Kenneth while Nadine Valela was the maid of honor. A recep­tion was held following the wedding at the Rockleigh Coun­try Club, Rockleigh, N.J.

A photographic portrait of the late Wilfred B. Talman appeared on the cover of the April-June issue ofSouth of the Mountains, the publication of The Historical Society of Rockland County, N.Y., of which Mr. Talman had been senior historian. The seme issue also contained an article on possible origin of the name given to Orangetown, N.Y., by Mr. Talman as well as a tribute to his career.

David Van Alstyne, who recently passed away, was honored by the Senate of the State of New Jersey, of which he had been a member for ten years and at one time majori­ty leader, with a resolution attesting to his distinguished and dedicated career of public service.

Robert G. Goelet, president of the French Institute in New York, was presented on behalf of that institute with a gift of one million dollars by John R. Young, president of the Florence J. Gould Foundation. Presentation of the gift was made at a reception hosted by the French Ambassador to the U.S., Emmanuel de Margerie, at the French Consulate in New York on June 19th.

Ad rian T. Bogart III and Susan Mary Alexander were married November 8, 1986 in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, N.Y. The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Frederick W. Alexander of Toms River, N J., and is a graduate of New Milford High School, New Milford, N.J., and of Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. Self-employed in a design /hotel consulting firm, she is a member of the American Society of Interior Designers. Mr. Bogart, a graduate of Portledge School, Locust Valley, N.Y., and the

Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA., is the son of Long Island Branch President Adrian T. Bogart and Mrs. Bogart. A civil engineer in his own consulting firm, the bridegroom is also affiliated with the Maryland National Guard. After a wedding tirp to Bermuda, the couple will live on Centre Island, N.Y.

John H. Vander Veer and Mrs. Vander Veer are the grandparents of George andjames Spaulding, twin sons born to Mr. and Mrs. David Spaulding of Flint, MI., on September 18, 1986. Mrs. Spaulding is former Patricia Vander Veer, the daughter of Holland Society President Vander Veer and his wife, Martha.

David Dwight Nostrand was married on September 6, 1986 to Kathleen Elisabeth Mullins in St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Farmingdale, N.Y. The bride is associated with Pan-field Nursuries of Lloyd Harbor, N.Y., while her husband is manager of Oyster Bay Yacht Service, Oyster Bay, N.Y. He is the grandson of Mr. and Mrs. Walter D. Nostrand of Far­mingdale, N.Y., and the son of Trustee and Mrs. Robert D. Nostrand of Huntington, N.Y.

Dr. John R. Voorhis III and Mrs. Voorhis are the grand­parents of Joseph Earl Lenow born July 2, 1986 to the Rev. Larry Lenow and Mrs. Lenow. Mrs. Lenow is the former Amy Voorhis.

C. Curtis Vreeland and Mrs. Vreeland of Middletown, Pennsylvania, are the parents of their first child and son, Schuylerjames Charles Vreeland, born in Harrisburg, Penn­sylvania, July 17, 1986. The grandparents of the new arrival are James M. Vreeland, Treasurer of the Society, and his wife, Ellen.

Philip James Roosevelt II, son of P. James Roosevelt of Oyster Bay, N.Y. and Mrs. Ormonde deKay,Jr. of New York was married on June 8 to Vicki Beth Nadler of Forest Hills, N.Y. The ceremony took place at the Tavern on the Green in New York.

Trustee Douglas Buys who was a patient in the Veterans Hospital in Albany, N.Y. for many weeks following surgery last summer has returned to his home in Fishkill, N.Y. and has been able to resume his duties as chairman of the Scholar­ship Committee.

The Editor's Corner (continued)

Rensselaerswyck Seminar and we have had to hold some of this material for the next issue. What is included here, however, is more than enough to demonstrate that in the seventeenth century New Netherland (and especially New Amsterdam) was no insignificant bunch of Dutchmen along the Hudson, but a thriving commercial center which was the envy of both its French and British neighbors.

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In Memoriam HOWARD A. VREELAND

Howard Alyea Vreeland, a member of the Holland Society of New York since 1959, died at the age of 66 years on August 9, 1984 in Gray Court, South Carolina. A descen­dant of Mochael Jensen (Vreeland) who came to the Rensselaerswyck colony (Albany, N.Y.) in 1636, he was born December 19, 1917 in Little Falls, N.J., the son of Vincent H. Vreeland and Jessie E. Alyea.

Mr. Vreeland was a graduate of the Central High School in Paterson, N.J., and worked as a truck farmer and floriculturist in Little Falls before moving to Hones Path, SC, where he was employed by the Riegal Textile Corporation until his retirement.

His wife, the former Lois M. Keasler whom he married in 1946 predeceased him in 1957. He had no direct survivors. Further details concerning services and interment are not known.

RICHARD E. NEVIUS

Richard Ely Nevius, a member of the Holland Society of New York since 1954, died at the age of 78 years on October 17, 1985 at Shrewsbury, N.J. Descended from Johannes Nevius who was in New Amsterdam by 1651, he was born June 18, 1907 in East Orange, N.J., the son of the Rev. War­ren N. Nevius and Sarah B. Ely. His grandfather, Theodore M. Nevius, was a member of the Society.

Mr. Nevius was a graduate of the New Rochelle, N.Y., High School and of the Chambersburg, Pa., High School where he spent a post-graduate year. He was also an honors graduate in the Class of 1928 of Princeton University where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Following college he became a junior accountant in the firm of Lybrand, Ross Bros. & Montgomery in New York City. In 1933 he became a Cer­tified Public Accountant and joined Horace S. Ely & Co., also in New York, later rising to be a Director and Treasurer of that firm. A member of the New York State Society of C.P.A.s, and of the Real Estate Board of New York, he also belonged to the First Presbyterian Church of Shrewsbury.

He is survived by his wife, the former Julie A. Manning, a son, Richard E. Nevius, Jr., of Chelmsford, Massachusetts, two daughters, Mrs. Eugene Milczanowski, Wallingford, Connecticut and Mrs. Frank H. Young of Galesburg, Illinois and nine grandchildren. A service was held at graveside in the Fairview Cemetery, Middletown, N.J.

EARL M. VAN HORN II

Earl Moore Van Horn II, a member of the Holland Society of New York since 1948, died at the age of 63 years on November 3, 1985 at Lambertville, N.J. Descended from Christian Barentsen (Van Horn) who came to New Amster­dam before 1653 and soon after settled on the South River, he was born April 23, 1922 at Lambertville, the son of Lloyd A. Van Horn and Florence M. Lindsley. Mr. Van Horn graduated from The George School, Newtown, Pennsylvania and from the Eckels College of Mortuary Science in Philadelphia. He was owner and president of the Van Horn Funeral Home, Inc., in Lambertville.

During World War II Mr. Van Horn served in the U.S. Navy as a pharmicist's mate at a base hospital in England. Following his release from the armed forces, he began his business career as a mortician opening a funeral home. He was a former member of the Burgher Guard of the Holland Society, past county and post commander of the Veterans of

Foreign Wars, a member of the American Legion, Lenni Lenape Lodge, I.O.O.F., Orpheus Lodge No. 137, F& A M, the Lambertville Lodge, B.P.O.E., the Lambertville Rotary Club and the New Jersey Funeral Directors Association.

Mt. Van Horn's first wife was Joan Lentle from whom he was divorced. He is survived by his second wife, the former Violet M. Leming, three children by his first wife, Dennis E. Van Horn, Lloyd A. Van Horn and Susan C. Van Horn, as well as by five children by his second wife, Bruce A. Van Horn, Joan S. Van Horn, Marlene L. Van Horn, Cheryl R. Van Horn andjacklyn S. Van Horn, all of Lambertville, N.J. Funeral services were held at the Van Horn Funeral Home in Lambertville with interment taking place in Holcombe-Riverview Cemetery there.

ROBERT V. CORTELYOU

Robert Voorhees Cortelyou, a member of the Holland Society of New York since 1955 died on December 11, 1985 at the age of 63 years in Oldsmar, Florida. Descended from Jacques Cortelyou who came to New Amsterdam in 1652 with Cornells Van Werckhoven as tutor to the latter's two sons and in 1657 became Surveyor-General of New Netherland, he was born in Rocky Hill, Newjersey, October 9, 1922, the son of Raymond V. Cortelyou and Rose R. Purrington.

Following graduation from Princeton, N.J., High School, Mr. Cortelyou entered Oberlin College from which he re­ceived the B.A. degree in 1947. He also received an M.B.A. degree from the University of Michigan in 1951. From 1943 to 1946 he served in the U.S. Army Medical Administration Corps with the rank of First Lieutenant. A credit and market research analyst, Mr. Cortelyou was at first associated with the Chase National Bank and with Dan River Mills. Later he joined Robert Heller Associates, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio, as a management consultant. Formerly group vice president of furniture operations for Mohasco Corporation, Amsterdam, N.Y., he recently retired as president of La France Division, Riegel Textile Corporation, Greenville, South Carolina.

He is survived by his wife, the formerjune D. Watkins, his mother, Rose P. Cortelyou, two sons, Geoffrey H. Cor­telyou, St. Petersburg, Florida and Gregory U. Cortelyou, Scotia, New York, a daughter, Cynthia L. of Schenectady, New York, two brothers, Dr. Thomas P. Cortelyou and the Rev. James U. Cortelyou, two sisters, Martha C. Allen and Priscilla C. Little, and two grandsons.

Services were held at the Nassau Presbyterian Church, Princeton, New Jersey with interment in Rocky Hill Cemetery, Rocky Hill, Newjersey.

CHARLES W. CARPENTER II

Charles Whitney Carpenter II, a member of the Holland Society of New York since 1940, died at the age of 67 years on December 12, 1985 at Reading, Pennsylvania. Descended from John Carpenter who was in Hempstead, Long Island, N.Y., by 1663, he was bornjanuary 2, 1918 in New York City, the son of George W. Carpenter, a former Society member, and Dorothy Millen.

Following graduation from Culver Military Academy and from Cornell University where he majored in German, he earned an M.A. in German literature at the University of Southern California and graduated from the Industrial Col­lege of the Armed Forces in 1961 before studying for his doc­torate at New York University from which he received his

Ph.D. in Germanic philology in 1968. He added an M.S. in Education from Bucknell University in 1973.

His distinguished academic career was marked by posi­tions on the faculties of a number of colleges and universities including those of Princeton University, New York University, the University of Vermont, the University of Hawaii and most recently, Bloomsburg State College, Bloomsbutg, Pennsyl­vania, where he was a professor in the Depar tment of Languages. At the time of his death he was a candidate for the degree of Ed. D. at Columbia Teachers College.

Dr. Carpenter was a member of a large number of clubs and organizations. Among the fotmer to which he belong­ed wete the Racquet & Tennis Club, the Princeton Club, the Regency Whist Club, and St. Anthony 's Club, all of New York City. His organizations included the St. Nicholas Socie­ty, the Society of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the American Revolution, the Germanic Society of the City of New York, the Goethe Society of New England, the Germanic Institute (Univetsity of London), the Staten Island Historical Society and a large number of othets.

He was the recipient of the Japanese Red Cross Silver Order of Merit and Golden Medal of Special Membership in 1963. His academic honors comprised the award of Univer­sity Honors Scholar at NYU, membetship in Delta Phi Alpha (National Academic Honor Society in German) at the Univet­sity of Southern California and Phi Delta Kappa, the National Education Honot Society.

He is survived by his wife, the fotmer Dorothy A. Byford, two daughters, Mrs. William Manning, Danville, Penn­sylvania and Mrs. Joseph Griska of Watet town, Connecticut and five gtandchildten. Services were held at St. Paul 's Episcopal Church in Bloomsburg with interment in the Mora­vian Cemetery, New Dorp, Staten Island, N.Y.

HENDRIK VAN RENSSELAER

Hendrik Van Rensselaer, a member of the Holland Society of New York since 1953 died at the age of 80 years on December 26, 1985 in Morristown, N.J . Descended from Jeremias Van Rensselaer, third son of the patroon who came to Rensselaerswyck in 1654, he was born in Los Angeles, California, March 3, 1905, the son ofJamesT. Van Rensselaer, a member of the Holland Society and Agnes S. Btadley. Mr. Van Rensselaer 's grandfather , the Rev. Maunsell Van Rensselaer, was also a Holland Society member.

A graduate of the University of California in 1928, Mr. Van Rensselaer was Vice-President of manufacturing and pro­duction of the Lock Joint Pipe Co. , which later became In-terpace Corporation in Parsippany, N.J. He retired in 1970. During World War II he was on active duty from 1942-1946 holding the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, Cotpsof Engineets, U.S.A. Resetves. Mr. Van Rensselaer was an internationally-known breedet and judge of Old English sheep dogs, a former president of the Old English Sheep Dog Club of America and of the Sussex Hills Kennel Club and a delegate to the Ameri­can Kennel Club. From his Fezziwig Kennels in Harding Township, N.J. came a number of champion Old English sheep dogs.

He is survived by his wife, the former Serena W. Miles, two sons, Hendrik Van Rensselaer, Jr., of St. Thomas, the Virgin Islands, and Robert M.M. Van Rensselaer of Mend-ham, N.J. , both Holland Society membets , a daughter, Mrs. Stephanie Koven, Mountainview, N.J . , nine grandchildren and a great-grandchild. Services were held December 31, 1985 in St. Bernard's Episcopal Church, Bernardsville, N.J . ,

with interment taking place in Trinity St. J o h n ' s Cemetery, Hewlett , Long Island, N .Y.

J. H A R O L D VAN NESS

J o h n Harold Van Ness, a m e m b e r of the Holland Soci­ety of New York since 1945, died at the age of 85 years on January 19, 1986 at Glen Rock, New Jersey. Descended from Cornells Hendricksz van Nes who came to New Nethe t land in 1641, he was born December 18, 1900 at Paterson, New Jersey, the son of Melville C. Van Ness, a member of the Holland Society, and Ella Louise Trowbridge.

Mr. Van Ness graduated from Lehigh University with the deg teeof B.S. in civil engineering and was a member of Tau Beta Pi fraternity at that college. After college he entered the family business, Van Ness Brothers, manufacturers of paper boxes, in Paterson, Newjersey, in which he cont inued his business career becoming the owner of the firm before his retirement in 1966. Popularly known as "Pe t e ! ' he was an ac­tive participant in Society events, particularly those of the Old Bergen Branch. He was prominent in community affairs serv­ing as a member of the board and a trustee of the Paterson YMCA, an elder of the Glen Rock Communi ty Church and as a former president of the Glen Rock Board of Education. He was a m e m b e t of the Saddle River Power Squadron, the Ridgewood, N.J . , Hobbyist Club and of the Old Guard . He was also a volunteer worker in the local Meals on Wheels program.

His wife, the former Francis Hasbrouck predeceased him in 1985. Mr. Van Ness is survived by a son, J o h n H. Van Ness ofjaffrey, New Hampshi re , a daughter , Maty Louise Slicker of Barrington, Rhode Island, five grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Services were held January 26th at the Glen Rock Communi ty Church followed by private burial.

JOHN F. VAN DEVENTER

J o h n Francis Van Deventet , a member of the Holland Society of New Yotk since 1941 died at the age of 76 years on February 6, 1986 in Watetbuty , Connecticut . Descended from Jan Pietetszen Van Deventer who came to New Amstet-dam in 1662, settling in Brooklyn, he was born August 30, 1909 in Passaic, Newjetsey, the son of William Van Deventer, a member of the Holland Society, and Irma Fowler.

He was educated at The Gunnery School and graduated from Hamil ton College, class of 1932 and from Columbia University's School of Business in 1935. Dur ing World War II he served in the U.S. Navy with the rank of Lieut-Commander , U.S.N.R. Mr. Van Deventet was a portfolio managet in the investment banking firm of F. Eberstadt & Company, New Yotk, in which he became a vice-president and in 1964 was admit ted to partnership in that company befote his tet i rement. He was a m e m b e t of the University Club of New York, the New York Society of Security Analysts and Squadron " A ! '

He is survived by his wife, the former Ellenor Vander-made , a son, John F. Van Deventet, Jr. of Sou thampton , N. Y., a daughter, Mrs. Christopher W. Maillefort, Clatk Air Force Base Naval Station, the Phil ippine Islands, two broth-ers, William F. Van Deventet of Tuboc, Arizona, and Francis H. Van Deventet of Greenwich, Connecticut, both membets of the Society, and three grandchildren. Memorial services for Mr. Van Deventet wete planned to be held in St. J o h n ' s Episcopal Church, Washington, Connecticut. Interment took place in Judea Cemetery in Washington.

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WILFRED B. TALMAN

Wilfred Blanch Talman, a member of the Holland Society of New York since 1926 and trustee as well as trustee emeritus of the Society for 54 years, died at the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, N.J., on February 28th, 1986 at the age of 81 years. A descendant of Douwe Harmenszen Taelma who came to New Amsterdam in 1658 and later acquired land at Nyack, N.Y., settling there as early as 1671, Mr. Talman was born November 19, 1904, the son of Elbert Talman and Eleanor C. Smith. His mother was a lineal descendant of Lambert Ariaenszen (Smidt) also a pioneer New Netherland and Rockland County, N.Y., settler.

A well-known historian of New Netherland and of the Rockland County region in particular, Mr. Talman received his secondary schooling at the Spring Valley, N.Y., High School and at Blair Academy, later attending Brown Univer­sity and graduating from Columbia University's Pulitzer School of Journalism. While attending high school, Mr. Talman started his journalistic career as a local news reporter for the Nyack (TV. Y.) Journal. He became a free-lance reporter in New York City soon after entering journalism school there, filing news items for the Brooklyn Standard Union and other newspapers in the area. This led to a three-year association with The New York Times as reporter followed by nearly 30 years of writing, editing and public relations duties for The Texas Company (now Texaco, Inc.) in New York.

In addition to his regular corporate communications work at Texaco, Mr. Talman did much of the research and writing of the history of that company published on the company's 50th anniversary. He also contributed articles to trade magazines and organized the American Association of In­dustrial Editors of which he was the first president in 1952-53. After early retirement from Texaco, he served briefly as presi­dent of the Forty-Plus Club, a New York group that assisted career business men in finding employment. He resumed his newspaper career in 1961, first with the Sherwood Newspapers in Spring Valley, N.Y., later as the associate editor of the Rockland Independent, a weekly paper in Suf-fern, N.Y., and ended a 50-year-old career with the Ridgewood Newspapers in Bergen County, N J .

For many years Mr. Talman wrote a by-line column on regional history in Rockland County newspapers under the headings "The Liberty Pole," "Names on the Land" and ' 'How Things Began in Rockland County." In 1977 a selec­tion of these columns appearing under a shortened version of the latter title "How Things Began" was published in book form by the Historical Society of Rockland County. He was also the author of two other books, ' 'The Eternal Spring,'' a history of industrial journalism, and "The Normal Lovecraft," a memoir of a fellow author whom he knew. At the time of his death he had just completed a manuscript on the early years of Tappan, N.Y., for the Tappantown Historical Society.

In 1932 when Mr. Talman was first elected a trustee of the Holland Society, he was the youngest member ever to have been chosen for that office. He had been elected a vice-president in 1928 heading the Rockland County branch and continued to be one of the Society's more active and diligent members serving as a member of more than a dozen different committees and as the chairman of eight at one time or another. He was foremost among the members who estab­lished de Halve Maen as a Society publication and served as editor for eight years as well as being a frequent contributor of historical and genealogical articles to its pages throughout

his term of membership. In 1936 he served as secretary of a special committee of the Society headed by the late Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Society trustee at the time, that published Pre-Revolutionary Dutch Houses and Families in Northern New Jersey and Southern New York, a survey of early Dutch houses and their former occupants. He was made an Honorary Life Member of the Society in 1976 upon the completion of 50 years of membership and the following year was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Medal for members.

Mr. Talman was also active in community affairs. He was the first president of the Historical Society of Spring Valley (N.Y.) an antecedent of the Historical Society of Rockland County and served on the Rockland County Boy Scouts Coun­cil during the late 1930's and early 1940's. In recent years he had filled the roles of trustee and historian in the Historical Society of Rockland County. A member of the Society of Silurians, he also belonged to the Stony Point Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution.

His survivors include his wife, the former Charlotte Hinrichs, two sons, David Talman of Spring Valley, N.Y., and Peter Talman of Monsey, N. Y., who is a member of the Society, a daughter, Mrs. Robert W. Allen of White River Junction, New Hampshire, and seven grandchildren. Funeral services were held March 3, 1986 at the Sniffen Funeral Home in Spring Valley, N.Y., with private burial following.

ALLEN O. HOPPER

Allen Overton Hopper, a member of the Holland Society of New York since 1956, died on March 6, 1986 in Duxbury, Massachusetts, at the age of 82 years. Descended from An-dries Hoppen who was in New Amsterdam by 1651 when his daughter, Trintie, was baptized in the Dutch church there, he was born October 19, 1903 in South Orange, Newjersey, the son of Abram Banta Hopper, a former member of the Society, and Jessie Overton.

Mr. Hopper was educated in the public schools of South Orange, N.J., San Diego, CA., and the Stevens Preparatory School in Hoboken, N.J. He was a sales engineer and later vice-president of Turbine Equipment Co., Westfield, N.J., before his retirement in 1955. In 1972 Mr. Hopper presented the Society with an Old Dutch family Bible containing records of the Hopper and Banta families.

He is survived by his wife, the former Janet M. Wright, a son, David A. Hopper of Succasunna, N.J., a daughter, Ann (Mrs. RobertJ.) Sneden of Grand Rapids, ML, three grandchildren and two great grandchildren. Services were held at graveside with interment following in the Mayflower Cemetery, Duxbury, MA.

WILLIAM T. BANTA

William Turnbull Banta, a member of the Holland Socie­ty of New York since 1941 died at the age of 84 years on Oc­tober 28, 1986 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Descended from Epkejacobs (Banta) who came to New Amsterdam in 1659, Mr. Banta was born July 1, 1902 in Kearny, Newjersey, the son of Peter A. Banta and Emily S. Turnbull. He was a graduate of the Newark College of Engineering, Newark, New Jersey, and during his business career he was last associated with the firm of Alexander Potter, Consulting Engineers, from which he retired in 1970.

Mr. Banta is survived by his wife, the former Kathryn Lavin of Dunmore, Pennsylvania, a daughter, Blondina Banta Wilkinson of Virginia Beach, Virginia, and eight grand­children. Interment took place in St. Mary's Cemetery, Dun-more, Pennsylvania.

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