The Flemish American

The De Milles of Flanders, New Netherland and Hollywood

2012-01-21T08:27:00.011-06:00

Cecil B.DeMille died on this day, January 21^st, in 1959. At the time of his death he was at the very top of the “A list” of Hollywood directors. DeMille is probably not well remembered by many outside of the film industry today. But among DeMille’s Academy Award winning films were “Cleopatra”, “Samson and Delilah”, “The Greatest Show on Earth”, and, of course, “The Ten Commandments”. This last film was among the top five most profitable films in history and is still considered a classic (it won multiple Academy Awards).

De Mille’s importance to us here is that he epitomizes for that time what an American celebrity was. Yet, the reality is that he was a Flemish American. This of course speaks to the issues of assimilation and self-identity (I have not seen any article or statement where De Mille publicly acknowledged his Flemish roots). Be that as it may, DeMille is a direct descendant of Flemish emigrants. The important point here, of course, is that DeMille’s genealogy speaks to the unacknowledged presence (and prominence) of Flemish Americans.

Permit me then to offer to you, on this anniversary of his passing, an abrdiged and edited reprinting of the Flemish origins of the DeMilles (edited by me for style but content primarily excerpted from Louis P. de Boer’s “Pre-American Notes on Old New Netherland Families,” from The Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey, Volume III/1928).

Anthony deMil/DeMille (1625-1689) is the first of his family name to reside in America.[i] He is a direct ancestor in the male line of Cecil B. DeMille (1881-1959). The De Milles belonged to the colony of Flemish refugees which had established itself at Haarlem after 1577, just after that city had freed itself from Spanish control.[ii] The Flemish colony at Haarlem had grown as a result of immigration, by numbers of settlers, either directly from Flanders, or from Flemish refugee colonies in England and Germany.[iii]

The persecutions of dissenters [such as the Pilgrims, who of course fled England for the Netherlands in 1607] by the British King James I caused many Flemings to flee England and relocate in Haarlem. Even at that time this was remarked upon. In the Haarlem city archives there is a thin booklet called [translated into English] “An Account of the Flemings who have come to the city of Haarlem in the year 1612”.[iv]

After the outbreak of the Thirty Years War in 1618[v], still more Flemings came to Haarlem. These Flemish refugees were part of the mass exodus of Flemish Protestants who had established congregations in the Rhineland and Palatine[vi] (western Germany). Like their fellow Flemings in the diaspora in England and France, the Flemish diaspora in western Germany came into being after Catholic Spain reconquered Flanders (1577-1585).

This influx of Flemish refugees transformed Haarlem. By 1622 more than 50% of all Haarlem residents were from the Southern Netherlands.[vii] This had a profound impact on the culture and even the language (with the Haarlem dialect adopting the “zachte ‘g’”/soft “g” of Flanders).

Of the Flemish refugees at Haarlem, the largest numbers appear to have come from Brugge (Bruges), Gent (Ghent) and Antwerp.[viii] For the first few generations this Flemish community kept up their Flemish traditions and customs and frequently intermarried. When they emmigrated abroad, these practices were carried over to New Netherland. In fact, many of these Haarlem Flemings settled in New Netherland beginning around the middle of the 17^th century.

The Flemish Haarlem family we are most interested in, the De Mille family, was originally from Brugge (Bruges), in West Flanders. For example: a certain Gerard de Mille lived at Brugge in 1350; a Jan de Mille lived there in 1400 and a Martin de Mille was a resident at Brugge in 1550. Some members of the De Mille family were wholesale flour and grain merchants. This appears to be a profession passed from father to son. A branch of the family also existed at Antwerp.[ix]

Like his father before him, Anthony de Mille (grandfather of Anthony De Mille the New Netherlander) was born at Brugge about 1550. There he married Maria Cobrysse [perhaps sometime in the late 1570s or early 1580s]. Maria was the daughter of Jacob Cobrysse and his wife Jacomyntje. Maria’s mother’s sister [name unknown] married a Matthys van de Walle. Sometime before 1597 both Anthony de Mille and his wife Maria Cobrysse died and their minor children were taken in by their great uncle Matthys de Walle.

It was also about this time that the family fled – as many Bruggelings and West Flemings did – to Zealand. Since Brugge fell to the Spanish in 1584 it might have been then. At any rate, the son of the deceased Anthony de Mille of Brugge, also (and confusingly) named Anthony de Mille (but referred to here as the Elder), was raised in Vlissingen (aka Flushing) in Zealand. It is here where Anthoiny de Mille the Younger (the New Netherlander) may have been born.

Anthony de Mille the Younger at some point gravitated back to the “half-Flemish city” of Haarlem. For it was at the Dutch Reformed Church at Haarlem on September 19, 1653 that Anthony de Mille the Younger married Elisabeth van der Liphorst, a lady of Flemish origins residing at Haarlem.[x] Both bride and groom had lived on the Anegang, a narrow street still used in Haarlem.

Like some of his ancestors, Anthony de Mille the Younger made his living as a grain merchant. This required frequent travel. But since the grain trade was closely tied into the financial exchange at Amsterdam, it is likely this which pulled the young family from Haarlem to Amsterdam. It was in Amsterdam in the following year, 1654, that the couple’s first child (named Maria, after her paternal grandmother as was the practice) was born.

However business must have been unstable. Because by 1656 the family was living in Vlissingen (Flushing), Zealand. And in 1657 the family was back in Haarlem. On May May 3^rd, 1657 “Anthony de Mil, formerly of Vlissingen, and at present residing here at Haarlem,” appointed Pieter van der Voort of Haarlem guardian of the minor children of his late sister “Grietje Antonis…widow of the late Johannes Reynders.”[xi]

The next child we know of from the notarial records was born and baptized in Haarlem. The translated entry reads:

21 August 1657 Father: Anthony de Mil of Haarlem Mother: Elisabeth van der Liphorst

ANNA Witnesses: Jacob van de Water & Elisabeth van der Schalcken

On May 15, 1658) the de Mille family left for America.[xii] Anthony de Mille and his family sailed from Amsterdam in Holland for New Amsterdam in New Netherland on the ship De Vergulde Bever (The Gilded Beaver).[xiii] The family included Anthony, his wife Elisabeth van der Liphorst, and their children, Maria (aged 4) and Anna (9 months).[xiv]

However, this soon changed. In quick succession Anthony and Elisabeth added three sons and another daughter to their brood.

7 December 1659 Parents: Anthony de Mill Lysbeth van der Liphorst

ISAAC Witnesses: Govert Loockermans & Neeltje de Nys

12 October 1661 Parents: Anthony de Mill Lysbeth van Liphorst

PETRUS Witnesses: Johannes van Brugge & Cornelia de Peyster

30 December 1663 Parents: Anthony de Mill Lysbeth van der Liphorst

SARA Witnesses: Hendrick van de Water & Ytie Strycker

14 March 1666 Parents: Anthony de Mill Lysbeth van der Liphorst

ANTHONY Witnesses: Johannes de Peyster & Catharina Roelofs

It is remarkable that most of the baptismal witnesses named above had Flemish names, although Govert Loockermans is the only one actually born in modern-day Flanders (Turnhout).[xv] The last three named – Van Brugge, de Peyster, and van der Water – all belonged to the Haarlem-Flemish diaspora that resettled in New Netherland.[xvi]

Once in New Netherland, Anthony de Mille earned his daily bread (literally) as a baker. It is possible that de Mille was even involved in baking Sinterklaas cookies for the half-Flemish Maria van Rensselaer http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2011/12/flemish-claim-to-sinterklaas-in-america.html While baking seems to be a safe occupation, de Mille did seem to get into trouble. Noted New Netherlands historian Dr. Jaap Jacobs cites an example where de Mille (whose name is incorrectly transcribed as “de Milt”) is fined 150 guilders for baking bread lighter than regulations.[xvii]

Anthony de Mille’s will, dated May 27, 1689, was proved December 10, 1689, and confirmed by Governor Leisler January 4, 1690. The will names him “a merchant living in the City of New York, and a widower.” It mentions his children and his housekeeper, Mary Winter [as heirs]. While locally prominent to various degrees, none of these de Milles ever reached real prominence. Little did they all know that one day a direct descendant would claim the world stage.

Endnotes

[i] There appears to be a great deal of misinformation floating around on DeMille, his birthplace, his ancestors, etc. (from websites – cf http://www.geni.com/people/Anthony-Demill/6000000000609950526 and http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jmthompson/Roads/familygroup/fg03_203.htm ). Thus, the genealogies associated with these names are always suspect unless one has the documentation as verification. So,permit me to offer a disclaimer: with the exception of the sources I include below, I am not able to verify the full genealogical contents of Louis de Boer’s article.

[ii] Haarlem was besieged by the Spanish and after capitulating, the surrendering Netherlandic troops were butchered and the city sacked by the Spaniards. In 1577 the Agreement of Veere was signed that granted equal rights to both Catholics and Protestants. The accord lasted for a year before Catholicism was forbidden. The ebb and flow of the Dutch Revolt/Eighty Years War is difficult to follow and not treated in any recent books in English that I am aware of. The two best authorities (in English) are Geoffrey Parker, The Dutch Revolt, (Norwich: Penguin Books, 1977) and Pieter Geyl, The Revolt of the Netherlands, 1555-1609, (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1980). Sadly, Jonathan I. Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness, and Fall, 1477-1806, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998), fails miserably for anyone who seeks to understand the timeline of the period. Israel also appears shockingly oblivious to the major contribution of Zuid Nederlanders to the rise and greatness of the Dutch Republic.

[iii] Please see a nice article here on the Flemish influence on Haarlem (in Dutch): http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/4324/nieuws/article/detail/1083652/2010/01/16/Vlaming-in-Haarlem.dhtml . For the definitive overview in Dutch on the Flemings in Haarlem, see also P. Biesboer, et.al., Vlamingen in Haarlem, (Haarlem: De Vrieseborch, 1996).

[iv] Unfortunately I have been unable to locate a single reference to such a book anywhere. This leads me to wonder if the good Mr. DeBoer might have mistranscribed the reference. The only document that I am aware of is Pieter van Hulle’s 1642 Memoriaal van de Overkomste der Vlamingen hier binnen Haarlem. Incidentally (and unfortunately) Van Hulle’s “Memoriaal” is not on Google books.

[v] See Geoffrey Parker, The Thirty Years’ War, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984).

[vi] A good online source and summary of the history of the Palatine as it relates to immigrants to America in the 17^th century can be found here: http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/palatines/palatine-history.shtml

[vii] See Dr. J. Briels, Zuid-Nederlanders in de Republiek, 1572-1630: Een demografische en cultuurhistorische studie, (Sint-Niklaas, Danthe, 1985), “Tabel XXI: Immigratie in de Noordelijke Nederlanden-Samenvatting”, p.214. Dr. Briels shows that several other cities which contributed large numbers of immigrants to America – Leyden and Middleburg each had more than 50% immigrants from modern day Belgium in 1622. Even Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Gouda were reckoned to have more than 30% Zuid-Nederlanders. For Dr. Briel’s analysis of the composition of the Flemish influx to Haarlem during this time see ibid, pp.107-116.

[viii] In this respect De Boer is not basing his claim on statistics. Dr. J. Briels, Zuid-Nederlanders in de Republiek, 1572-1630: Een demografische en cultuurhistorische studie, (Sint-Niklaas, Danthe, 1985), “Tabel XXI: Immigratie in de Noordelijke Nederlanden-Samenvatting”, in his “Tabel II: Immigratie in Haarlem – 1578-1609. Bron: lidmatenboeken van de calvinistische gemeente” p.112, refugees from Gent (234) and Antwerp (225) far exceeded those from Brugge (60). Even Tielt (76), Menen (75), Roeselare (74), and Kortrijk (66) exceeded those listed as from Brugge. However, the greatest number (453) simply said they were from “Vlaanderen”.

[ix] De Boer goes onto say: “In the old Abbey-Church of St. Michel at Antwerp there is a tombstone with the following inscription (translated): ‘Here lies buried, Francois de Mil, Lord of Westerem and Faerden.” Mr. de Boer goes onto offer an inscription at the church and other details. Unfortunately, the closest example to a church that fits that description that I am able to uncover is this church in Antwerp: http://www.topa.be/site/216.html. The Wikipedia description is a bit clearer: http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint-Michielsabdij_(Antwerpen) However, according to the history, the church was demolished by Napolean’s troops preparing for a crossing of the English Channel in the 1790s. So it is very hard to place the actual details of this transcription. Parenthetically, the fief that this Francois de Mil was theoretically suzerain over appears to be now a part of Gent, not Antwerp: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sint-Denijs-Westrem .

[x] In the Haarlem Art Museum there is an oil painting of a Maria van der Liphorst who appears to have been a sister. Their mother’s maiden name was Van Brugh or Van Brugge. See http://wingetgenealogy.com/tree/family.php?famid=F2642&show_full=1

[xi] Louis de Boer cites Document #280 of the City Archives of Haarlem as the source. Per de Boer, this was notarized by W. van Kittensteyn and witnessed by Anthony de Mil and Jan Thomas van Son). For an interesting look at the importance of notaries in the lives of Netherlanders and New Netherlanders see Donna Merwick, Death of a Notary: Conquest and Change in Colonial New York, (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999). Note that the main protagonist in Merwick’s tale, Ludovicus Cobus, is a native of Herentals, in the Province of Antwerp.

[xii] Ship sailings can be found online here http://immigrantships.net/newcompass/pass_lists/listolivetree2.html for New Netherland bound passengers.

[xiii] The ship passenger lists for those sailing to New Netherland at this time can be found here: http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/ships/

[xiv][xiv] The family name was mis-transcribed as “de Mis”. Also on board was Jan Evertsen from Lokeren, East Flanders. See http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/nnship05.shtml For a detailed (and crisply accurate) genealogy and documentary trail of Jan Evertsen of Lokeren and the Ten Eyck and Boel families of Antwerp, please see Gwen F. Epperson, New Netherland Roots, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1994), especially pages 3-4 for Jan Evertsen, Appendix C, “The Ten Eyck-Boel European Connection” (pp.123-129).

[xv] The 400^th anniversary of Govert Loockermans’ birthday is July 2^nd, 2012. I intend to have a blog post about Loockermans completed by that time.

[xvi] The de Peysters were originally from Gent. The Van Brugges originally from Brugge. The Van der Waters may also have been from Brugge. The van de Waters participated in De Mille family baptisms both in Haarlem and in New Amsterdam. Johannes Van Brugges has been listed as a relative of the De Milles, according to de Boer.

[xvii] Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America, (Leiden: Brill, 2005), pp.248-249: “Baker Anthony de Milt [sic] was accused by the Schout Pieter Tonneman of baking bread that was too light in weight. De Milt did not deny that his bread was below standard, but maintained that this was not deliberate. According to him the batch had been left in the oven for too long. His explanation was supported by his assistant, Laurens van der Spiegel, who declared that the bread had been in the oven for four hours, an hour longer than normal. This had happened while De Milt [sic] was out on business and Van der Spiegel was busy in the loft. Furthermore, the batch consisted of only forty loaves instead of the usual seventy. And since bread from between sixty and seventy schepels [about fifty bushels] of grain had been baked during the previous days, the oven was very hot. The result of all this was that the bread became too dry, and consequently weighed less than it should have. Other bakers consulted by the court stated that this was a plausible explanation. Burgemeesters and Schepen nonetheless sentenced De Milt to a fine of one hundred and fifty guilders, but rejected the demand by Schout Tonneman that he be banned from baking for six weeks, probably because they were convinced that this was not a case of deliberate attempt to defraud.” Parenthetically, while I am generally delighted with the breadth and scope (and scholarship) of Dr. Jacobs’ New Netherland, his book retains the critical flaw of many Dutch-centric books: ignoring or glossing over the contributions of the Flemish.

Prettige Kerstdagen! Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T07:15:00.006-06:00

The West Flemish priest (and poet and Father of the Flemish Movement) Guido Gezelle, nearly always had something so perfectly dead on to say. It may seem a stretch to incorporate him here, but since he did have a strong literary (and emotional) attachment to America (inspired by , he certainly has a stake in the Flemish Contribution to America.

Permit me to pass along this along to you:

Ik wense U:

Ik wense u een jaar, dat zacht als zijde is ;
Ik wense u een jaar, dat blank en blijde is;
Ik wense u een jaar, dat ver van krank is,
Een deugdelijk jaar zo breed als ’t lang is;
Ik wense u een jaar, dat als ’t voorbij is,
Een zalig jaar voor u en mij is.

- Guido Gezelle - "Jaarkrans" 1893
( I wish you a year that is as soft as silk;
I wish you a year that is bright and cheerful;
I wish you a year of endless good health;
A solid year that is as broad and long as it can be;

I wish you a year [which, when it is over, will be] a blessed year for you and for me.

- translation courtesy of Leo Norekens)

Lastly, since this is a day of joy, celebration, and at least occasional heavenly glances, please allow me one more Flemish reference to the Spirit of the Season.

Although he never visited America - and perhaps had zero ties with America - Ludwig van Beethoven was like yours truly the grandson of Flemish emigrants. Beethoven's Flemish origins were however from Antwerp, a port which has given more than its fair share of emigrants to America.

It seems, then, only fitting that since Beethoven's Ode to Joy is not only a popular Christmas tune but also the anthem of the European Union, that I wrap up with this.

Merry Christmas and to all of you my heartfelt wishes for a New Year with all the best to you humanly possible.

Prettige Kerstdagen & Gelukkig Nieuwjaar!

The Flemish Claim to Sinterklaas in America

2011-12-06T11:59:00.010-06:00

Today, December 6th, children in Flanders receive gifts. These gifts ostensibly come from Sinterklaas with the aid of his Moor assistant, "Swarte Piet". This tradition had strong Catholic origins, which of course made it anathema to 17th century convicted Calvinists. Thankfully, key members of the Dutch Reformed Church in Nieuw Nederland who had roots in officially Catholic Flanders, were unwilling to give up their cultural traditions.

One of these key individuals was Annetje Loockermans (whose story I have told earlier here). Annetje was the sister of Govert Loockermans and together with several of her other brothers, represented the Brabantian town of Turnhout well in 17th century America.

Annetje married Olaf van Courtlandt and her children led the Netherlandic colony culturally, politically and economically: her son Stephanus was the first native-born mayor of New York City. Her daughter Maria married Jeremias van Rensselaer (son of Kiliaen, the founder of Rensselaerswyck and the subject of recent books). Later, when her husband died, the young widow raised her children and kept the patroonship profitable. She also kept the traditions alive she had picked up from her Turnhouter mother Annetje.

The earliest evidence of any practice related to Sinterklaas is found in the New York State archives. A surviving receipt from Wouter de Backer (Walter the Baker) to Maria van Rensselaer in 1675, (please see the embedded picture), lists (8 lines from the bottom) says that in addition to cookies ("koeken"), Mrs. Van Rensselaer purchased 2 guilders and 10 stivers worth of Sinterklaas "goet" ["goodies"] - please see an excerpt above and the actual scanned image here.

Later descendants of Annetje Loockermans were to carry the Sinterklaas theme even further: they gave us here in America the poem we know as "Twas the Night Before Christmas" as well as pushed the date we celebrate Christmas from the evening of December 5th/6th to December 25th. Cultural influences being what they are, Christmas is now celebrated even in non-Christian countries like Japan (albeit as a cultural, not a religious, holiday).

So as you hum the latest Christmas jingle, bake your Christmas 'goodies', or scramble for those last minute gifts, take a moment to reflect, if you will, on the debt owed to a few hardy Flemish women in 17th century Nieuw Nederland who transmitted their cultural traditions to the world from Turnhout.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-23T11:28:00.004-06:00

There really is little for me to add about the Flemish contribution to Thanksgiving. What's more, I will actually be in Flanders for a few days immediately after Thanksgiving (on business, so unfortunately I will not get a chance to visit as I would like to).

For those of you contemplating the nexus of Flanders and Thanksgiving (and of course the Flemish contribution to this very American holiday), I gently offer a redirect to my earlier piece on this subject: http://flemishamerican.blogspot.com/2009/11/flemish-influence-on-pilgrims-part-5.html

The Flemish Claim To Discovering & Settling America: Timeline & Petition

2011-11-07T16:28:00.009-06:00

This evening I gave a detailed talk at De Orde van den Prince - a slightly reworked version of the one I gave on October 10th. This talk was entitled "The Flemish Origins of Nieuw Nederland". Those of you interested in a copy please let me know and I can either e-mail you or post it on Dropbox.

Today, November 7th is the date in the year 1609 that the rascal Henry Hudson - after accepting money, men, maps, and materiel from the Flemings Dirck Van Os, Petrus Plancius, and Judocus Hondius (and after being recruited by Emanuel Van Meteren) docked into Dartmouth, England. He had just "discovered" the Hudson river valley, an abundantly rich region. Although Hudson never returned, within one year (July 26th, 1610) the Antwerp emigre Arnout Vogels dispatched a ship (de Hoope) to trade for beaver pelts with the Amerindians.

Regular readers of this blog know that I believe the Flemish have been neglected by historians and others in recognition of their contributions to the Discovery and Settlement of America. To me this is especially galling because Walloons have received extraordinary official recognition from the U.S. government - in the form of an official U.S. coin as well as stamps and a monument. I believe the time has come to right this wrong. If you agree with me, please kindly register that sentiment with the U.S. White House on this official petition.

For those of you who believe my claim is exaggerated, I offer the below timeline as a partial proof to the Flemish contribution to the Discovery and Settlement of America. A gentle hat tip to the good folks at the New netherland Project since I essentially followed and built upon their original timeline here: http://www.nnp.org/vtour/timeline.html [Noto Bene: Those of you interested in a specific source for a reference I have posted below please e-mail me and I will happily supply you with it.]

Timeline of Flemish Discovery & Settlement of North America

· 862-864 Baldwin Iron Arm establishes the County of Flanders in response to the depradations of Norsemen

· 600s Sint Baaf (Saint Bavo) helps establish Christianity in Flanders

· 800s St Ansgar of Tourhout becomes the first Catholic missionary to make a dedicated evangelization effort to Scandinavia (and some claim as far as Greenland)

· 982-985 The Norseman Eric the Red founds a colony in western Greenland; the settlement lasts until the fourteenth or fifteenth century.

· 990-999 Dankbrand, a Flemish missionary from Tourhout (and the Archbishop of Bremen, which diocese at that time explicitly included Scandinavia, Iceland and Greenland) converts first King Olaf of Norway and then Leif Ericsson

· c. 1000 Leif Ericsson, returning to Greenland from Norway, is driven onto the North American coast, which he explores and tries unsuccessfully to settle. With Leif is a “Southlander” [e.g., German/Dutch/Flemish] Catholic priest named “Dirck” who gives Vineland its name.

· 1147 Burgundian knight Raymond de la Coste, as a reward for serving the King of Portugal, Afonso I, in the siege of Lisbon, is granted a fief and the surname Corte Real.

· 1297 Flanders is the first maritime nation to be accorded the honors of a naval salute (by England, via treaty)

· 1302 Guldensporenslag/Battle of the Golden Spurs (July 11^th)

· 1320-1350 Jan de Langhe of Ieper writes The Travels of John Mandeville – which inspires Columbus & later explorers

· 1327 Jan d’Ypres from Bruges purchases approximately 1500 pounds of walrus tusks from the archbishop of Nidarios who had received the tusks as tithes from Greenland (August 11^th).

· 1364 Jacobus Cnoyen pens the Inventio Fornato which describes the Arctic cartographic discoveries of a “fifth-generation Bruxellois” priest resident in Greenland. This is a book that inspires Columbus, Ruysch, Mercator, and the English thru John Dee to seek a northwest passage to Asia.

· Early 1400s “The use of the initials of the Frankish names of the winds – N, NNE, NE, etc. – on compass cards, seems to have arisen with Flemish navigators, but was early [1400s] adopted by the Portuguese and Spanish.”

· 1427 circa Azores discovered by a Joshua Vander Berg of Bruges

· 1429 Columbus’ father Domenico, at the age of 11, is apprenticed to a Flemish weaver from Brabant

· 1447 Dirck Maartens, first printer in the Low Countries, is born at Aalst.

· 1450 Jacome de Bruges (aka, Jacques/Jaak van Brugge) is granted a donatory as Capiton Terceira (March 2^nd) by Prince Henry the Navigator.

· 1450s-1470s Thousands of settlers from the Franc of Brugge emigrate to the Azores under the sponsorship of Prince Henry’s sister, Isabel, Duchess of Burgundy; the last European settlers die in Greenland – gravesite excavations uncover the latest Flemish fashions of 1450-1470 Flanders: pleated dresses for the women and conical hoods for the men.

· 1460-1470 Joost Van Hurtere becomes lord/captain of the islands of Fayal and Pico (dies 1495).

· 1471 1^st printed book in the Low Countries (at Aalst); Alvaro Martins Homem granted captaincy of Angar region of Terceira

· 1474 First book in English printed at Brugge by William Caxton (who calls the Flemish, one of the seven races of the British Isles); Jacome de Bruges dies (April 2^nd); Joao Vaz Corte Real and his Flemish partner, Alvaro Martins Homem, are granted (for maritime services rendered) governorship of Terceira, Azores, by the widow of Prince Fernando (February 12^th).

· 1476 Columbus embarks on his first voyage – on a Flemish urca called the Bechalla bound for Flanders: it is attacked and sunk by the French pirate Casenove off the coast of Portugal (August 13^th)

· 1470s Willem Van der Haegen (aka Silveiras) becomes lord/captain of the island of Flores (most northwesterly of the Azores)

· 1483 Joao Vaz Corte Real also granted governorship of the island of S. Jorge in the Azore islands

· 1484 Columbus demands King John II of Portugal supply ships and men to discover the Indies sailing West

· 1486 Ferdinand Van Olmen and Joham Afonso do Estreito agree to split 50/50 the rights to lands granted Van Olmen by King John II of Portugal (June 12^th – ratified by king July 24^th) to find the Islands of the Seven Cities

· 1487 Ferdinand Van Olmen sent out in a northwesterly direction by March; later Van Olmen becomes lord/captain of the area on Terceira Island called Ribeyras; King John II also sends out Bartolomeu Dias around the south coast of Afgrica and Afonso da Pavia across the north coast of Africa (both to seek a path to the Indies)

· 1488 Bartolomeu Dias returns first to Spain, then Portugal, proving that the Indies can be reached by sailing around the southern tip of Africa (December)

· 1492 Columbus granted rights to seek out a westward path to the Indies (April 17^th); and “discovers” America (October 12^th). His two most heavily annotated “guide books” are The Travels of John Mandeville (written by Fleming Jan De Langhe) and the Discoveries of Marco Polo (printed at Antwerp in 1475). His most common trade item is Flemish bells; his most important cartographic tool is the Flemish language compass rose (with a “Flemish needle”). Martin Behaim, a son-in-law of Joost van Hurter of Moerkercken/Winendaele, West Flanders (the Flemish Lord of first Fayal/Neu Flandern and then Pico in the Azore Islands) and the cartographic advisor to the King of Portugal, creates the oldest existing globe on which he describes the Flemish Azorean discoverers of islands in the Indies (September)

· 1493 Columbus returns from America (March 4^th). First return land sightings are the ‘Flemish Islands’ aka, the Azores (February 12^th). He pens a missive (officially dated March 14^th) which is widely reprinted by Flemish printer from Aalst Dirck Maartens in Antwerp and Gerardus de Lisa [Gerard van de Lys, a Gentenaar] in Italy; On his second voyage Columbus takes two Franciscans from Ath, Henegouwen (September 24^th).

· 1494 The Pope awards Spain all lands west and Portugal all lands east of an imaginary line 100 leagues west of the Azores in the Treaty of Tordesillas (June 7^th)

· 1497 John and Sebastian Cabot depart Bristol, England (May 2^nd) and arrive at Cape Breton Island (June 24^th). They are guided by Joao Fernandez, the Labrador, “because he who gave the information to the King of England was a labrador of the Azores”; Johannes Ruysch of Utrecht & Antwerp is also believe to have been on the Cabots’ voyage.

· 1499 Miguel Corte Reale embarks from the Azores to “Terra Nova” [Newfoundland]. His fleet is shipwrecked on the Massachusetts coast but leaves distinct carvings on the Deighton Rock. Joham (Joao) Fernandes of Barcelos, near Van Olmen’s on Terceira, is granted the right, by King Manuel of Portugal, to search for and discover islands to the northwest (October 28^th).

· 1500 The future Charles V, first ruler of an empire on five continents, is born on the road near Eeckloo, East Flanders (February 24^th); King Manuel grants Gaspar Corte Reale jurisdiction over all discovered lands and “enterprises that he now desires to continue;” he then sails (June) to Greenland and Newfoundland (returning before January 27, 1501).

· 1501 Gaspar Corte Reale again departs Lisbon (May 15^th) with three ships for Newfoundland; two return on October 8^th/9^th and October 12^th (respectively).King Henry VII of England grants three Azoreans resident at Bristol (Joao and Francisco Fernandes and Joao Goncalves) letters-patent for any discoveries to the west (March 19^th) thereby creating the “pioneer corporation of the British Empire”.

· 1502 Cantino Map created by Flemish mapmaker (Breelant?) which shows Newfoundland as “Terra del Rey de portugall” (territory of the king of Portugal) – it also shows the Yucatan and Cuba years before they were officially “discovered”; The first recorded shipload of Newfoundland cod is brought back to England – by an Azorean Fleming; Miguel Corte Reale departs Lisbon for Newfoundland (May 10^th) with three ships of which two return (August 20^th); King John II of Portugal decides to sell all of his spices at Antwerp (instead of Bruges or Lisbon)

· 1506 Christopher Columbus dies (May 20^th)

· 1507 Johannes Ruysch of Antwerp/Utrecht prints the very first printed global map that shows America and Newfoundland (“Terra Nova”), where it seems to have copied the Cantino map. Ruysch clearly borrows from Behaim’s 1492 globe and also relies on the Inventio Fortunata for information on a Northwest passage to Asia. Ruysch’s map becomes an important source for future cartographers such as Mercator; Waldseemueller’s map using the name “America” is printed [in 1513 Waldseemueller rejects the name “America”]

· 1509 Joost Van Hurtere II becomes lord/captain of the islands of Fayal and Pico (May 31^st)

· 1511 Gerardus Mercator born at Rupelmonde, E. Flanders (March 5^th); The very first book on the “discovery” of America in English, Peter Martyr’s “New Founde Landes”, is printed at Antwerp; Deighton Rock in Massachusetts is carved by Miguel CorteReale.

· 1517 Adolf of Wynendaele (West Flanders) ferries Charles to Spain to assume the throne; Jan de Witte of Brugge is named Bishop of Cuba (August).

· 1518 Adolf of Wynendaele (West Flanders) is granted ownership of the island of Cozumel off the coast of the Yucatan and therefore is named by Charles “Admiral of Flanders” and Governor of Cuba (March 29^th); Laurrent de Gorrevod, Flemish majordomo for Emperor Charles V, requests a license for exclusive trade and to establish a colony on the Yucatan.

· 1519-1522 Charles V funds Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world, which leaves Spain with 5 Flemings. Only 1, Roland van Brugge, survives.

· 1520 One of the 5 Flemings of Magellan’s fleet, Roland van Brugge, becomes the first man of the fleet to see the Pacific

· 1522 The 33 survivors (including Roland van Brugge after imprisonment in the Azores) return to Spain

· 1523 Maximillanus Transylvanus of Brussels, after interviewing nearly all of the 33 survivors (including Roland van Brugge) of Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe – the world’s first – publishes the report (January 1^st).

· 1527 Abraham Ortelius, 1^st cousin of Emanuel Van Meteren and Daniel Rogers, born at Antwerp (April 14^th) dies in the same city, June 28^th, 1598. Philip II of Spain also born and dies the same years as Ortelius (b May 21^st at Vallodolid; dies September 13^th, San Lorenzo).

· 1533 Willem van Oranje born at Dillenburg (April 24^th)

· 1534 Dirck Maartens, first printer in the Low Countries, printer of Columbus’ copy of Marco Polo at Antwerp and of Columbus’ First Letter in 1493, as well as of Thomas More’s Utopia, dies at Aalst (May 2^nd).

· 1535 Corte Real voyages again launched; Emanuel Van Meteren born at Antwerp (July 8^th).

· 1538 Gerardus Mercator of Rupelmonde, East Flanders, creates a world map for the use of the world’s first global emperor, Charles V (born near Eeckloo, East Flanders) and uses – for the first time ever – the name “North America” for the current continent; Mercator also labels the channel between Canada and Greenland as the “Strait of the Three Brothers through which Portuguese attempted to sail to the Orient and the Indies and the Moluccas”. Manoel Corte Real, son of Vasco Eannes Corte Real (the 1^st), declared “Lord of Terra Nova”.

· 1545 ”It remains to be remarked that the Portuguese mariners at an early date seem to have adopted the Flemish designations of the winds…In the Arte de Navegar of Pedro de Medina (Valladolid, 1545), the Flemish names are given.”

· 1550 “Dutch” Church established in London by Micronius of Ghent

· 1552 Petrus Plancius born at Dranouter (near Ieper, West Flanders) – dies May 15^th, 1622 in Amsterdam

· 1555 Abdication of Charles V in favor of his son Philip and brother Ferdinand; Philip II inherits control over the Low Countries; tensions between actual (Philip II) and emotional (Willem of Orange) sons evident at Brussels abdication; Muscovy Co in England established at London by Sebastian Cabot, John Dee, and depending upon

· 1556 Dirck Van Os born in Antwerp (March 13^th) – critical Fleming in the discovery and settlement of America (dies May 20^th 1615 at Amsterdam).

· 1558 Charles V dies (September 21^st)

· 1561 Manoel Corte Real, son of Vasco Eannes Corte Real (the 1^st), prepares ships of Azorean settlers in Terceira to colonize Newfoundland – the colonization of Sable island; Samuel Godijn is born at Antwerp

· 1563 Franciscus Gomarus, leader of the Counter-Remonstrant party, born at Brugge (January 30^th); dies at Groningen, January 11^th, 1641.

· 1566 Beeldenstorm (“Iconoclastic Fury”). Considered the start of the “Dutch Revolt” (De Opstand) begins in Steenvoorde, Flanders (August 10^th), Spreads from Steenvoorde to the rest of the Netherlands. Nine Flemings and one Spaniard land near St. Augustine FL and spend 10 days there before seeking a Spanish settlement to the south (September 16^th). Manoel Corte Real, son of Vasco Eannes Corte Real (the 1^st), prepares ships of Azorean settlers in Terceira to colonize Newfoundland.

· 1567 Manoel Corte Real, son of Vasco Eannes Corte Real (the 1^st), prepares three ships of Azorean settlers in Terceira to colonize Newfoundland.

· 1568 Azoreans begin colonization of Newfoundland in conjunction with Native American villages (March). Dutch nobles Egmont and Hoorn beheaded at Brussels; the Dutch revolt against Spain begins; Willem Usselinckx of Antwerp, whose life span in years mirrors exactly that of the Dutch Revolt, is born.

· 1569 Gerardus Mercator creates his world map with “rhumblines” which solves a navigational problem (accounting for the curvature of the earth when plotting sailing routes on maps) that had caused mariners problems for centuries

· 1572 Expulsion of the Flemish and Dutch privateers (watergeuzen) from England (March 31^st);Capture of Den Briel, strategic city at the mouth of the Rhine, by "Sea Beggars" led by the Flemish Admiral Lumey (April 1^st); Abraham Ortelius, with guidance and assistance from his good friend Gerardus Mercator, creates the first “atlas” (which furthers navigation)

· 1573 Dutch defeat Spanish fleet at battle of Zuiderzee

· 1574 Vasco Eannes Corte Real sails on the last known colonization voyage from the Azores to North America (Labrador). Relief of Leiden (Ontzet), on October 3^rd made possible by the Antwerpenaar Moons and the Flemish-led watergeuzen (the commemoration of this event forms the basis of American Thanksgiving when the Pilgrims land in America). Pacification of Ghent (Pacificatie van Gent), November 8^th unites all Netherlanders of all stripes against the Spanish

· 1575 As a reward for resisting the Spanish siege, William of Orange permits Leiden to establish the first university of the northern Netherlands. The first President of the University is Justus Lipsius of Vilvoorde, Flanders.

· 1577 Gerardus Mercator, in a letter to John Dee (April 20^th) shares details he culled from the Inventio Fortunato about the information of a Flemish priest in Greenland in 1364 who knew of both northwest and northeast passages to Asia

· 1577-1640 Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish painter

· 1579 The Union of Utrecht, a mutual defensive pact unites all the Dutch-speaking provinces against Spain, is signed by Holland, Zealand and parts of Utrecht and Groningen (January 23^rd) and then by Ghent, parts of Friesland, Guelders and Utrecht as well as all of Ieper, Antwerp and Breda (February 4^th); George Calvert (later, Lord Baltimore and founder of the English colony of Maryland), a grandson of refugees from Antwerp, is born in England.

· 1579-1584 Willem I, prince of Orange-Nassau, serves as first stadhoulder – appointment negotiated and promoted by Philip Marnix of Brussel

· 1580 The Union of Utrecht is signed by Bruges, Lier, the city of Groningen, Zutphen, and Guelders (February) as well as Overijssel and Drenthe (April). Crowns of Spain and Portugal united under Philip II

· 1581 Act of Abjuration (later the basis of American Declaration of Independence) declared: drafted by four men, three of whom Flemish; representatives of the United Provinces (led by Philip Marnix of Brussel) abjure their oath of allegiance to Philip II at The Hague; Johannes De Laet born at Antwerp.

· 1582-1612 Emanuel Van Meteren of Antwerp (son of Jacob, first cousin of Ortelius and Daniel Rogers), is appointed Dutch Consul at London

· 1583 Samuel Blommaert is born at Antwerp (August 21^st)

· 1584 Willem I, prince of Orange-Nassau, assassinated at his home in Delft (July 10^th)

· 1584-1625 Prince Maurits of Orange-Nassau assumes the inherited stadholdership

· 1588 Spanish Armada defeated (August 8^th); initial surprise lost when two Flemish sailors escape the Armada and alert the English

· 1590 Willem Usselinckx of Antwerp returns from a pro-longed sojourn in the Azores and the Iberian Peninsula with wealth and a plan to defeat Spain

· 1594 Petrus Plancius is awarded a patent for a navigational solution to determining longitude at sea; largely under Petrus Plancius’ urging, the Compagnie Van Veere is established to seek out trade in the Far East.

· 1595 “The placing of the compass-card in a fixed position beneath the needle, as in miner’s dials, surveying instruments, and opticians’ compasses, appears to have originated with Stevinus [Simon Stevins] of Bruges about the year 1595.”

· 1598-1599 The first real circumnavigation Netherlanders thru the Strait of Magellan led by first Simon de Cordes (a Zuidnederlander, who commanded the ship “de Liefde” which was piloted by Will Adams and made it to Japan) and then Jacques Mahu and financed by Johan van der Veeken of Mechelen as well as by Antwerpenaars Isaac and Simon LeMaire and Balthasar Coymans (who invested 18,000 guilders in the V.O.C.).

· 1602 United East India Company chartered by the States General of the United Provinces (March): Subscriptions taken over 5 month window (April 1^st thru August 31^st); largest chamber is Amsterdam with 57% of capital; it is run out of Antwerp emigres’ Dirck Van Os’ house half of all shareholders are “Zuidnederlanders” and 6 of the top 8 shareholders are as well.

· 1605 Cecilius Calvert, son of George Calvert (later, Lord Baltimore), grandson of Flemish émigrés from Antwerp, is born in London (August 8^th). Cecilius becomes the first proprietor of Maryland a Roman Catholic refuge, and it is for him that the city of Baltimore (established 1729) is named.

· 1606 The Virginia Company established (April 10^th) with investors including George Calvert (later, Lord Baltimore); the ship “de Witte Leeuw” (partially owned by Hons Honger of Antwerp), captained by Hans Lonck/Loncq of Roosendaal, trades and raids in the St. Lawrence Seeway for furs and fish (April-December).

· 1607 The Virginia Company establishes Jamestown, which includes some Anglo-Flemings, such as John Ganne (May 14^th)

· 1609 Dirck Van Os of Antwerp establishes the Bank of Amsterdam (Amsterdamsche Wisselbank) which later becomes the model for Alexander Hamilton’s Buttonwood Agreement of 1792 (January 31^st); Henry Hudson, in command of the East India Company ship Halve Maen, recruited, financed, and advised by Flemings, departs Amsterdam (April 4^th) to find a Northeast Passage to Asia; Pieter Winne of Ghent (later of Nieuw Nederland) baptized at St. Baaf’s Cathedral (April 14^th); Twelve years' truce with Spain (April 23^rd); founding of the bank of Amsterdam by Dirck Van Os of Antwerp; Hudson ultimately explores North American coast from Delaware Bay to the upper Hudson as far as present-day Albany (Sept 3^rd to October 22^nd) and makes return landfall at Dartmouth, England (November 7^th).

· 1610 Beginning with Arnout Vogels of Antwerp (July 26^th), Flemish merchants in Amsterdam send ships to exploit Hudson’s “discovery”

· 1611 Arnout Vogels with fellow Antwerpenaars Francoijs and Lennaert Pelgrom charter the 120 ton (60 lasts) ship “St. Pieter” to trade for two months in New Netherland [likely Adriaen Block’s first voyage to New Netherland] (May 19^th); Emanuel Van Meteren publishes the first written account of Henry Hudson’s “discovery” in his book Belgische ofte Nederlantsche Oorlogen en de Geschiedenissen

· 1612 Adriaen Block purchases for Arnout Vogels and the Pelgrom brothers, the 110 ton (55 last) ship “Fortuyn” to sail to New Netherland (January 12^th); Emanuel Van Meteren of Antwerp dies at London (April 18^th); Govert Loockermans, later of Nieuw Nederland, baptized at St Pietrskerk in Turnhout (July 2^nd);

· 1613 Francoijs Pelgrom, in a letter to his wife, says that the just returned voyage by Adriaen Block on the ship “Fortuyn” was “a better voyage even than last year” (July 30^th); Arnout Vogels and the Pelgrom brothers, the first of the “Voorcompanieen” to define the region that later is called New Netherland, calls itself (August)“the Company of lands situate[d] between Virginia and Nova Francia” and has an exclusive license to exploit the area from Prince Maurits, which the Prince later rescinds (September 23^rd) and admonishes disputing to work thru a solution under the arbitration of Petrus Plancius

· 1614 The name New Netherland first appears in an official document; New Netherland Company licensed by the States General (October 11^th); fur trading post Fort Nassau established on Castle Island, present day Port of Albany

· 1615 New Netherland Company Charter officially begins (January 1^st)

· 1618 New Netherland Company Charter expires (January 1^st)

· 1618-1619 Synod of Dordrecht; heavy representation by Flemish delegates including Franciscus Gomarus of Brugge, Petrus Plancius of Dranouter, Johannes De Laet of Antwerp and others (November 13^th, 1618-May 29^th, 1619); beginning of Thirty Years' War in Germany

· 1619 Beheading of Johan van Oldenbarnevelt [who opposes the establishment of the WIC and brokered the Truce with Spain], leader of the peace party, at the Hague (May 13^th)

· 1620 Arnout Vogels of Antwerp, the first to exploit New Netherland, dies (May 16^th); the Pilgrims arrive off of Massachusetts and sign the Mayflower Compact (November 11^th) – including Isaac Allerton, later a close friend and business partner of the wealthiest man in Nieuw Nederland, Govert Loockermans of Turnhout; George Calvert (later Lord Baltimore) of Antwerp extraction, purchases a tract of land on Newfoundland to establish a colony of Christian freedom he calls "Avalon".

· 1621 End of the Twelve years' truce with Spain (April 23^rd); patent granted for the West India Company [WIC] by the States General (June 3^rd, effective July 1^st); George Calvert (later Lord Baltimore) of Antwerp extraction, sends his first colonists to the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland, arround a site called Ferryland (August); the States General permits a partnership led by Hans Hontom (or Houton) of Antwerp to send his ship “de Witte Duyf” under the command of Hontom’s brother Jan to New Netherland (September 13^th); the States General permits a partnership led by Petrus Plancius to send two ships to New Netherland – one to the Hudson and the other to the Delaware – as long as they return by July 1622 (September 24^th)

· 1622 Petrus Plancius dies at Amsterdam (May 25^th); the largest single investor in the W.I.C. (100,000 guilders) is the Antwerp émigré Guillielmo Bartholotti and more than half of all the 7 million+ guilders in capital raised is from the Amsterdam Chamber which is dominated by Flemings and Brabanders (and directs the activities for New Netherland); Samuel Blommaert of Antwerp is appointed a Director of the Amsterdam Chamber of the W.I.C. (October); census data show that more than half of the populations of Haarlem, Leiden and Middleburg are of Southern Netherlands origin and that even large cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam are more than one third immigrants from modern day Belgium; George Calvert (later Lord Baltimore) of Antwerp extraction

· 1623 George Calvert (later Lord Baltimore) of Antwerp extraction, is awarded all of Newfoundland as his "Province of Avalon" by James I (January); Adriaen Jorisz Thienpont (born at Oudenaarde) appointed the first Director General of Nieuw Nederland (June 20^th)

· 1624 First colonists – 24 Walloon and 6 Flemish families – sail on the ship called “Nieu Nederlandt” and arrive in New Netherland where they are settled at Fort Orange (Albany), the mouth of the Connecticut River, on Manhattan Island, and on High Island (Burlington Island) in the Delaware River (April); Cornelis May, as senior skipper, becomes first director of New Netherland science of international law;

· 1625-1647 Prince Frederik Hendrik becomes stadhoulder upon death of Prince Maurits (dies April 25^th)

· 1625 Willem Verhulst departs Amsterdam and is named Director General of New Netherland (April 22^nd) Sarah Rapalje, whose father may have been a tailor at Antwerp, is the first European child born in New York (June 6^th); Publication of De Jure Belli et Pacis, by the Dutch statesman and jurist Hugo Grotius, lays foundation for the freedom of the seas; publication by the Elsevir brothers of Leuven of Johannes De Laet’s Nieuwe Wereld (1^st book to describe and use the term “Nieuw Nederland”); George Calvert made Lord Baltimore.

· 1626 Daniel van Crieckenbeeck, commander at Fort Orange, killed while supporting a Mahican war party against the Mohawks; Peter Minuit replaces Verhulst as director (July 31^st); purchases Manhattan Island (some sources say May 24^th but others suggest August 10^th); moves settlers from Fort Orange, Connecticut, and Delaware to Manhattan

1627 George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore and a descendant of Antwerp, arrives at Ferryland, the Province of Avalon, Newfoundland (July 23^rd)

· 1628 Piet Heyn captures Spanish silver fleet for the W.I.C. (September 8^th); Samuel Godijn of Antwerp, Samuel Blommaert (both of Antwerp), and Kiliaen Van Rensselaer agree to hire two men and send them to New Netherland to purchase land from the Amerindians (December)

· 1629 Samuel Godijn of Antwerp, Samuel Blommaert of Antwerp, and Kiliaen Van Rensselaer formally announce to the Amsterdam Chamber of the W.I.C. their intention to plant a colony or colonies at New Netherland (January 13^th); "Freedoms and Exemptions," establishing the patroonship plan of colonization, granted by the Lords XIX of the W.I.C. (June 7^th); Samuel Blommaert of Antwerp resigns as a Director of the Amsterdam Chamber of the W.I.C. (June 30^th)

· 1630 Messrs Blommaert and Godijn of Antwerp with Kiliaen Rensselaer (and Albert Burgh) establish a partnership for a colony on the “South River” (February 1^st); Michael Paauw of Ghent granted a patroonship (on the site of Jersey City, New Jersey) called “Pavonia” (July 13^th); Samuel Godyn/Godijn of Antwerp granted a patroonship at Cape Hinlopen/Delaware River Bay ” (July 15^th); Michael Paauw of Ghent granted a patroonship for Staten Island (August 10^th); A new partnership is formed by Messrs Blommaert, De Laet and Godijn of Antwerp with Kiliaen Rensselaer (and others) for Rensselaeswyck (October 1^st); A new partnership is formed by Messrs Blommaert, De Laet and Godijn of Antwerp with Kiliaen Rensselaer (and others) for the establishment of a colony on the South (Delaware) River (October 16^th); Michael Paauw of Ghent granted a third (New Jersey) patroonship at “Ahasimus” (November 22^nd); Johannes De Laet of Antwerp joins with Samuel Godijn of Antwerp, Samuel Blommaert of Antwerp, and Kiliaen Van Rensselaer to form a general partnership (October).

· 1631 First colonists for Swaenendael landed at Blommaert’s Kill/Lewe’s Creek (March?); Samuel Godyn/Godijn and Samuel Blommaert [and later including Johannes De Laet] – all of Antwerp – were granted a patroonship at Cape May (June 3^rd); Kiliaen Van Rensselaer granted the east side of the Hudson River later called Rensselaerwyck (August 6^th); Kiliaen Van Rensselaer granted the west side of the Hudson River also included in Rensselaerwyck (August 13^th) – he includes the Antwerp natives Samuel Godyn/Godijn, Samuel Blommaert, and Johannes De Laet.

· 1632 George Calvert, 1^st Lord Baltimore, grandson of Antwerpenaars and Founder of the English colony of Maryland, dies in London (April 15^th); Pieter Minuit removed as the Director General of New Netherland and replaced by Bastiaen Jansz Crol; the Delaware River colony of Swaenendael (population 34) is destroyed by Indians (November 18^th).

· 1633 Jan Baptist van Antwerpen, gunners mate on the ship “Nieu Nederlant:, brings back to Patria 23 beaver pelts for private trading (April 7^th); The very first military force to defend New Netherland of 104 soldiers arrives with the new Director General Wouter Van Twiller on the Zoutberg (April) accompanied by the captured Spanish yacht St. Martyn (commanded by Juriaen Blanck of Flemish origins) on which is also Govert Loockermans of Turnhout (April); Samuel Godijn dies (September 29^th); first purchase of land from Indians outside Manhattan (on the Schuykill) is witnessed by Govert Loockermans (October 24^th).

· 1633-1638 Wouter van Twiller, director of New Netherland (April)

· 1634 Adriaen Vincent/van Sant, born at Aecken near Ghent, arrives in New Amsterdam from London on the English ship “Mary&John”; the first colonists from England arrive to establish the Royal Colony of Maryland, under the proprietorship of Cecilius Calvert, 2^nd Lord Baltimore, and of Antwerp descent (March 25^th); Hans Hontom, originally of Antwerp, and who first arrived in New Netherland in 1611, is killed by Cornelius vander Vorst in a knife fight at Renseselaerswyck (April); “Pretensions and Demands of the Patroons of New Netherland” delivered to the Directors of the West India Company (June 16^th);

· 1635 The W.I.C. agrees to Michael Paauw of Ghent’s terms to buyback his patroonships for Pavonia and Staten Island (January 1^st)

· 1636 Samuel Blommaert of Antwerp becomes an agent/advisor of the Swedish government (November).

· 1637 Samuel Blommaert of Antwerp sends Pieter Minuit to Sweden to prepare for a Swedish colony near the old Swaenendael patroonship in Delaware (February).

· 1638 Peter Minuit hired by Swedish South Company, establishes New Sweden on the Delaware River (Wilimington, Delaware); Minuit lost at sea while returning to Sweden; Johannes De Laet proposes an official plan for the colonization of Nieuw Nederland (August 30^th)

· 1638-1647 Willem Kieft, director of New Netherland

· 1639 The sale of muskets or gunpowder to Amerindians in New Netherland is forbidden on pain of death (March 31^st); The W.I.C. opens fur trade to everyone (May); Isaac Bedlow, with origins in Maldegem (near Middleburg, East Flanders), and who became the owner of Bedloe’s Island (where the Statue of Liberty stands) and Pieter van der Linde (from Belle Flanders, a surgeon the ship “De Liefde” and later, in 1648, schoolmaster) arrive in New Netherland.

· 1640 Emmigrants to New Netherland are no longer required to pay for their passage over (May); Cornelis Melyn of Antwerp receives the rights of patroonship for Staten island (July 3^rd); Michael Pauleszen van der Voort (from Dendermonde, East Flanders) marries Maria,Rapalje (daughter of Joris and sister of Sara – 1^st European born in New York) at the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam (November 18^th)

· 1641 Cornelis Melyn of Antwerp arrives at New Amsterdam on the ship “Eyckenboom” and establishes his colony at Staten Island (August 20^th)

· 1642 Anneken Loockermans of Turnhout, sister of Govert, marries Olof Van Courtlandt (February 26^th) in the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam; Govert Loockermans is granted the Brooklyn Ferry as well as a a house and lot in Manhattan (March 26^th); Cornelis Melyn is granted “the major part” of Staten Island (June 19^th); Pieter Loockermans (brother of Govert) arrives in New Netherland.

· 1642-1654 Johan Printz, governor of New Sweden

· 1643 Stephanus Van Courtlandt, son of Anneken Loockermans of Turnhout and nephew of Govert Loockermans (and brother of Maria Van Rensselaer) and the first, native-born mayor of New York City is born in New Amsterdam (May 7^th)

· 1643-1645 Kieft's war with the Indians around Manhattan Island

· 1644 Cornelis Melyn of Antwerp awarded a double lot in Manhattan along the Strand (April 28^th); Adriaen Vincent “from Aecken near Ghent” awarded a double lot in Manhattan on Ditch (later Broad) Street (June 1^st); Pieter (vander) Linde of Belle, Flanders, marries Martha Chambert of Newkirk, Flanders (July 10^th); Johannes De Laet publishes a chronicle of the W.I.C. (with details relating to New Netherland) in his Histoire ofte Iaerlijck Verhael.

· 1647 Wilhelmus Beekman, the longest serving mayor of New York, and a grandson of Deinze (thru his maternal grandfather Willem Baudartius) and Brugge (thru his paternal grandfather Hendrik Beekman) arrives in New Netherland

· 1647-1650 Prince Willem II as stadholder

· 1647 Petrus Stuyvesant becomes director general of New Netherland, Curaçao, Bonaire, Aruba, and other dependencies in the Caribbean; WIC ship Princess Amalia lost in Bristol Bay, former Director Kieft and Domine Evardus Bogardus drowned with 82 others

· 1648 Peace of Westphalia, settling Eighty Years' War with Spain; end of Thirty Years' War

· 1649 Simon Joosten of Meerbeke (near Aalst) marries Marritje Simons at the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam (August 4^th); Johannes De Laet of Antwerp dies (at Leiden).

· 1650 States General, opposing authority of princes of the house of Orange, assume control over Dutch general policy; Hartford Treaty, settling boundary dispute between New Netherland and New England

· 1651 Stuyvesant abandons Fort Nassau (Gloucester, New Jersey); replaces it with Fort Casimir (New Castle, Delaware) below Swedish Fort Christina; Teunis Janszen Couverts (of Loemel in Limburg) arrives in New Netherland; Jan Coster van Aecken near Ghent (Beverwyck blacksmith and fur trader) marries Else Janse (); Samuel Blommaert of Antwerp dies at Amsterdam (December 23^rd).

· 1652-1654 First Anglo-Dutch War

· 1653 Isaac Bethloo (later Bedloe) marries Lysbeth Potters of Batavia, East Indies at the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam (May 16^th); Jan Corneliszen Van Cleef, grandson of Martin from Antwerp and ancestor of actor Van Cleef, arrives in New Netherland; Construction of defensive wall across Manhattan Island (Wall Street) after threat of invasion from New England

· 1654 Swedes under new governor, Johan Rising, capture the Dutch post Fort Casimir on Trinity Sunday, rename it Fort Trefaltighet (Fort Trinity); Samuel Blommaert of Antwerp dies, still a part owner of Rensselaerwyck .

· 1655 Joris Stephenszen of Brugge marries Geesje Harmens at the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsteredam (May 5^th); Nicasius de Silla of Mechelen marries Tryntje Crougers in New Amsterdam (May 26^th); Stuyvesant conquers New Sweden in the Delaware Valley; Indians around Manhattan attack New Amsterdam, Pavonia, and Staten Island in a conflict called the Peach War.

· 1656 Daniel Janszen Van Antwerpen of Beverwyck and later Schenectady, marries Maria daughter of Symon Symonsen Groot; Jan Tibout of Brugge settles near Ft. Casimir on the S. Delaware River; Pieter Janszen Loockermans of Turnhout purchases a house in Beverwyck (November 1^st)’ Johanna De Laet, widowed daughter of Johannes De Laet, arrives in New Netherland.

· 1657 Gabriel Corbesye, from Leuven, marries Teuntje Straetsmans in New Amsterdam (June 15^th); Fernand Willays (born in Kortrijk) and Joost Koochuijt [sometimes listed as Kockuyt] born at Brugge arrive on the ship “De Verguilde Otter” in New Amsterdam (December 22^nd)

· 1658 Cornelis Van Langevelt of St. Laurens, East Flanders, marries Mairitie, daughter of Jan Corneliszen Jonkers at the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam (January 19^th); Christaen Toemszen of Strabroeck (Stabroek, Antwerpen) marries Engeltje Jacobs at the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam (February 10^th); Jan Evertsen of Lokeren, East Flanders and Anthony de Mil, grandson of Mennonite Bruggelings who emigrated to Haarlem, arrive in New Netherland on the ship “de Verguilde Bever” (May 17^th); Philippus Jacobus Schooff of Antwerp marries at the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam Jannetje Toenis Kay (July 26^th); Jacobus Van Courtlandt, son of Anneken Loockermans of Turnhout and brother of Stephanus, and grandfather of the first U.S. Chief Justice, John Jay, is born at New Amsterdam.

· 1658-1663 Esopus Indian War in New Netherland

· 1659 Johanna De Laet (daughter of the Antwerpenaar Patroon and WIC Director Johannes De Laet) marries (Jeronimus Ebbing) in the same church in New Amsterdam on the same day (February 22^nd) as Jan Guisthout Vander Linden of Brussels (who marries Jannetje daughter of Barent Balthus Van Kleeck from Haarlem); Pieter Follenaer (of Hasselt, Limburg) arrives in New Amsterdam on the ship “De Bever” (April); Karel de Beauvois (born in Leiden) lists himself as Flemish (father from Ghent) when he arrives at New Amsterdam; WIC soldier Jacob Farmont (born in Brussels) marries Annetje Andries in New Amsterdam (September 5^th).

· 1660 Anries Pieterszen a soldier and Willem Vanschure (both born in Leuven), Willem Vanderbeke (born in Oudenaarde), Ludovicus Aerts (born in Brugge), Jean Verele [Verhelle?] (born in Antwerp), and Pieter Bayard (born in Nieuwpoort, West Flanders) arrive in New Netherland on the ship “De Moesman” (March 9^th); Ferdinandus Van Sycklin (born in Ghent; ancestor of U.S. Civil War general Dan Sickles) marries Eva, daughter of Anthonee Van Salee [the infamous Dutch pirate and convert to Islam] in New Amsterdam.

· 1661 Jan Doske, a soldier born in Tongeren, Limburg, marries Styntje Klinckenborgs from “Aken” (February 19^th); Jacob Abrahamsen, born in Zandvoorde, West Flanders, arrives in New Netherland on the ship “Johan de Doper” (May 9^th); Jan Evertszen of Lier, East Flanders, arrives in New Netherland; Cornelis Stevenszen Muller of Turnhout marries Hillitje Loockermans (niece of Govert, daughter of Pieter) in Beverwyck.

· 1662 Jan de la Warde, listed as a Fleming, (born in Antwerp), arrives in New Netherland on the ship “De Vos” (August); Balthus Loockermans [brother of Govert] is in New Amsterdam; Harmanus Van Hoboken (schoolmaster 1555-1559 in New Amsterdam) marries Claertje Pieters (October 28^th) at the Dutch Reformed Church.

· 1663 Alexander Stilteel of Duynkerken marries Maria Burchhardts in New Amsterdam (February 10^th); Jan Gysberstzen Meteren [grandson of Antwerpenaar Emanuel Van Meteren], Teunis Janszen Lanen van Pelt (from Overpelt, Limburg), his four children and brother Matthys Janszen Lanen van Pelt (from Overpelt, Limburg) and Jan Bastiaenszen van Kortryk [Kortrijk], ancestor of First Lady Elizabeth Kourtright (President James Monroe’s wife) arrive in New Amsterdam on the ship “de Roosebloom” (March 15^th).

· 1664 Meynard Jurnay of Duynkerken marries Lysbeth Durmon in New Amsterdam (May 16^th); Carel Enjart “from Flanders” arrives in New Netherland (descendants known as “Injyard”); English naval force funded by the Duke of York and Albany captures New Netherland in a surprise attack during peace time

· 1665-1667 Second Anglo-Dutch War

· 1665 Christina Pieters “Van Sluys in Vlaenderen” marries Johan Letelier (April 26^th); Francoys Rombout (the first New York mayor born in what we now call the Flemish Region, Hasselt, Limburg) marries Aeltje Wessels; Admiral Michiel Adriaansz de Ruyter retakes most of the WIC trading posts lost previous year to English in Africa; De Ruyter's plans to retake New Netherland aborted

· 1667 Marye Van Hoboken marries Otto Laurenszen at the Dutch reformed Church in New Amsterdam (February 20^th); Admiral Abraham Crijnsen retakes former Dutch colonies in the Guianas (Wild Coast of South America) seized by the English

· 1670 Jean Crocheron (born in Zele, East Flanders) arrives at Staten Island; Ms. Beelitie Jacobs of Brugge marries Frans Hendrickszen of Breevoort (November 4^th)

· 1672-1674 Third Anglo-Dutch War

· 1673 New York captured by Dutch naval force; New Netherland restored as a Dutch colony; Anthony Colve, grandson of Bruggelings, becomes Nieuw Nederland’s final governor.

1674 Lieutenant Herman Anthony Hubert (“from Hulst in Flanders”) marries Lucretia Rodenburg (January 21^st) in New Amsterdam; WIC soldier Pieter Schamp of Ghent marries Jannetje, daughter of Dirck Volkertzen in the New Amsterdam Dutch Reformed Church (October 24^th); New Netherland becomes New York again as a result of the peace of Westminster (November 10^th)

Vlamingen in Nieuw Nederland

2011-10-22T19:41:00.015-05:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I recently gave a talk called "Vlamingen in Nieuw Nederland" [Flemings in New Netherland]. It is too long (150 slides) to reprint here. But I do feel that select bits might be of interest - especially the original research. So below, please kindly find a few snippets from my "Vlamingen in Nieuw Nederland" talk.

The Flemish in New Netherland

As regular readers may be aware, in multiple other posts on this blog I have chronicled the Flemish contribution to the inspiration, financing, discovery and development of New Netherland. Here I would like to offer a bit of color on the Flemish settlement of Nieuw Nederland. By this I mean who some of these Flemings were, where did they come from, and what percentage of the population did they represent?

Unfortunately, surviving records are neither thorough nor complete. However, historians in the past have attempted to give us some sense of the Flemish settlers in Nieuw Nederland. In an article ("How Dutch Were the Dutch of New Netherland?", pp.43-60) in the January, 1981 issue of the New York History Journal, David Steven Cohen studied the records of 904 immigrants who came to Nieuw Nederland between 1624 and 1664. Of the 904, only 31 (e.g., 3%) came from areas we would call part of Flanders. Specifically, his breakdown (Table 2, "Place of Origin of 904 Immigrants to New Netherland") looks like this:

Antwerp: 5

Leuven: 2

Brugge: 4

Ieper: 2

Other: 18

Total: 31

It is unclear which names were included as well as the source for Mr. Cohen's data. Yet it is clear that he missed a number of Flemish immigrants to Nieuw Nederland. Moreover, he neglected to count children of Flemish refugees who had settled in France, Germany, England and elsewhere as anything other than Dutch.

Just to give one example, Gwenn F. Epperson in her book New Netherland Roots (Genealogical Publishing Co., 1994), offers this observation about one of her ancestors. "Regardless of the voluminous material suggesting a Dutch background for the Ten Eyck family of New York, a Dutch acquaintance remarked, 'Ten Eyck is not a Dutch name!'" [p.125]. She then proceeds to show that the Ten Eyck and Boel families had emigrated en masse from Antwerp to Cologne and surrounding villages in the 1589-1590 period (because the Spanish general Duke of Alva required all Protestants to convert or flee). Later these same families emigrated again to Amsterdam (1610-1630s) before again uprooting themselves to Nieuw Nederland (1640s & 1650s).

Below are the places of origin together with the decade and Flemish surnames that I have compiled of select New Netherland settlers.

•Aalst 1640-1649: Joosten

•Aecken 1640-1649: Vincent; 1650-1659: Van Coster;

•Antwerp 1610-1619: Hontom, ‘t Kindt, and Vogel; 1620-1629: Provoost; 1630-1639: Van Antwerpen; 1640-1649: Boel, Ten Eyck & Melijn; 1650-1659: Schoof, Van Antwerpen & Van Cleef ; 1660-1669: de la Warde, Harsingh, Paulussen & Verelle; 1670-1679: Schampf.

•Bael/Belle 1630-1639: Van der Linde

•Brugge 1620-1629: Van Brugge; 1640-1649: Verbrugge; 1650-1659: Verbrugge Stephenszen, & Tibout; 1660-1669: Aerts & Cocquyt; 1670-1679: Jacobs.

•Brussel 1650-1659: Farmont & Vander Linden

•Damme 1650-1659: Van Damme

•Deinze 1640-1649: Beekman

•Dendermonde 1640-1649: Van der Voort

•Duynkercken 1660-1669: Journay & Stilteel

•Flanders 1620-1629: Bogaert ; 1660-1669: Enjart & Parmentier

•Gent 1630-1639: de Pauw ; 1650-1659: de Beauvois & Van Sycklin

•Herenthals 1650-1659: Cobus

•Hasselt 1650-1659: Follenaer; 1660-1669: Rombout

•Hoboken 1620-1629: Van Hoboken; 1660-1669: Van Hoboken

•Hulst 1620-1629: Verhulst

•Ieper 1650-1659: de Mille & Meynaerts;

•Kortrijk 1650-1659: Willays; 1660-1669: Van Kortryk

•Leuven 1650-1659: Couverts & Corbesye & Mettermans ; 1660-1669: Van Leuven & Vanschure

•Lier 1660-1669: Evertszen;

•Limburg 1640-1649: Nagel

•Lokeren 1650-1659: Evertsen

•Maldegem 1630-1639: Bidloo/Bedlow

•Mardyk 1660-1669: Journee

•Mechelen 1650-1659: de Sille

•Oudenaarde 1620-1629: Thienpont; 1660-1669: Vanderbeke

•Overpelt 1660-1669: Van Pelt

•Sluys 1660-1669: Pieters

•St Laurens 1650-1659: Van Langevelt;

•Straboeck 1650-1659: Thomaszen

•Tongeren 1660-1669: Doske

•Turnhout 1630-1639: Loockermans; 1650-1659: Cobus; 1660-1669: Loockermans, Muller & Van der Baest

•Zandvoorde 1660-1669: Abrahamsen

•Zele 1670-1679: Croucheron

To place the same data in a slightly different format, notice the influx by decade from the various cities across today's Flemish region:

•1610-1629: Hontom, ‘t Kindt, and Vogel (all Antwerp) + others…

•1620-1629: Van Brugge (Brugge), Van Hoboken (Hoboken), Provoost (Turnhout), and Bogaert (unknown Flanders), Thienpont (Oudenaarde), & Verhulst (Hulst);

•1630-1639: Van Antwerpen (Antwerp), Van der Linde (Belle/Bael), de Pauw (Gent), Bidloo/Bedlow (Maldegem), Loockermans (Turnhout)

•1640-1649: Joosten (Aalst), Vincent (Aecken), Boel, Ten Eyck & Melijn (Antwerp), Verbrugge (Brugge), Beekman (Deinze), Van der Voort ( Dendermonde), Nagel (Limburg)

•1650-1659: Van Coster (Aecken), Schoof, Van Antwerpen & Van Cleef (Antwerp), Verbrugge Stephenszen, & Tibout (Brugge), Farmont & Vander Linden, (Brussel), Van Damme

(Damme), de Beauvois & Van Sycklin (Gent), Follenaer (Hasselt), Cobus (Herenthals), de Mille

& Meynaerts (Ieper), Willays (Kortrijk), Couverts & Corbesye & Mettermans (Leuven),

Evertsen (Lokeren), de Sille (Mechelen), Bedlow/Bidloo (Maldegem), Van Langevelt (St. Laurens), Thomaszen (Straboeck).

•1660-1669: de la Warde, Harsingh, Paulussen & Verelle (Antwerp), Aerts & Cocquyt (Brugge), Journay & Stilteel (Duynkercken), Rombout (Hasselt), Van Hoboken (Hoboken), Kortryk (Kortrijk), Van Leuven & Vanschure (Leuven), Evertszen (Lier), Journee (Mardyk) Vanderbeke (Oudenaarde), Van Pelt (Overpelt), Pieters (Sluys), Doske, (Tongeren), Loockermans, Muller & Van der Baest (Turnhout), Abrahamsen (Zandvoorde), Enjart & Parmentier (Flanders);

•1670-1679: Schampf (Antwerp), Jacobs (Brugge), Croucheron (Zele)

As one can see, the origins of these Flemish immigrants to Nieuw Nederland spans the entire range of the modern-day Flemish region, as well as areas that were Flemish then but since 1689 occupied by France. the important point here is that my list is not exhaustive but it does suggest that a broad swathe of New Netherland had Flemish roots.

If one digs deeper into the origins of New Netherland settlers, one finds that a substantial number came from cities that in 1622 had a heavy composition of "Zuidnederlanders": immigrants from Flanders and Wallonia. These first generation Dutchmen still considered themselves Flemings. Consider the Hondius family. Judocus Hondius - Flemish Father of America and the man who acted as the interpreter for Henry Hudson in preparation for the famous voyage to 'discover' the Hudson River valley - was born in Wakken, near Gent (Ghent). While a young man, he fled (in 1584) for London and lived there at least 16 years. His son Henricus Hondius was likely born in England (in 1593) but raised in Amsterdam and may not have ever set foot in Flanders. Yet, in 1630, long after his father's death, pointedly included the title "Flandriae" above his father's likeness in a famous world map (see above, lower right corner of the map or click here).

The Hondius family was likely not alone in this attachment to their Flemish roots. As a point of reference, see the following table. What it shows is the % of immigrants (overwhelmingly although not exclusivelky from the Southern Netherlands) in 1622. The source is J.G.C. Briels, Zuidnederlanders in de Republiek, 1572-1630.

Note that in Leiden and Middleburg Zuidnederlanders constituted more than 60% of the population. In Haarlem, the 50%+ Flemish immigration had such a powerful impact that the local dialect pronunciations changed to conform to Flemish usage (de schlachte 'g'). Even Amsterdam counted about a third of the population as Zuidnederlander.

Nor were these Flemings simple farmers, soldiers, and tradesmen. Of course, there were plenty of these solid citizens (I offer brief vignettes on somne of the Gentenaars in Nieuw Nederland here). But a disproportionate number of the Flemings in Nieuw Nederland actually ran things. For example, the advisory governing councils (variously, "Twelve Men", "Eight Men", or "Nine Men"), the Schepens (aldermen/mayors), Schout (sheriffs), Notaris (notaries), Schoolmasters and Predikanten (preachers) were of Flemish origin.

•1641-1642 : “Twelve Men” – includes 2 from Antwerp & 1 from VL

•1643-1645 : “Eight Men” – 2 Antwerpenaars & 1 married to Turnhouter

•1645-1653 : “Nine Men” – Bruggeling, Turnhouter & 1 married to a Turnhouter, descendants of Deinze, Antwerp

•1653-1674 : ”Mayors” – descendants of Bruggelings, Gentenaars, Deinze, and 1 married to a Turnhouter

•1656-1674 : ”Schepen” – Turnhouter, descendants of Antwerpenaar, Bruggeling, Gentenaar, Deinze, and 1 married to a Turnhouter

•1623-1674 : ”Schout-Fiscaal” – Fleming, Mechelenaar, descendants of Antwerpenaar, Deinze, and 2 married to Antwerpenaar/Turnhouter

•1633-1674 : ”Notaris” – Herenthals

•1633-1674 : ”Schoolmasters” – 2 Antwerpenaars, & descendant of

•1628-1674 - ”Predikanten” – descendants of Genetenaar, and 1 married to Antweerpenaar

Still, although Flemings in Nieuw Nederland were clearly both present and influential, they were not numerous. Perhaps, as in the northern Netherlands, they numbered 10% of the total population. Or maybe David Steven Cohen's assessment is accurate and the Flemish share of New Netherland's population hovered closer to 3% of the total. Regardless of the percentage (and no one knows for sure), the Flemish were present in Nieuw Nederland and played a significant role in the development of this "Dutch" colony.

Permit me then to take one final stab at the Flemish population of Nieuw Nederland. It is little better than my educated guess. But it sets the stage for future posts where I hope to offer bios of some of the prominent Flemings in Nieuw Nederland.

All Colonies Later Part of the United States

of Which in Nieuw Nederland

of Which Flemings

•Year Population

•1625 1,980 ca 150? ca 20?

•1628 ------ ca 270 ca 30?

•1630 ------ ca 300 ca 35?

•1640 ------ ca 500 ca 60?

•1641 50,000 -------- --------

•1650 ------ ca 800-1000 ca 100?

•1664 ------ ca 9,000* ca 500?

•1688 200,000 (* “of which 3,000 were English"

•1702 270,000 - Dillen, Van Rijckdom, p173)

•1715 435,000 -------- --------

•1749 1,000,000 -------- --------

•1754 1,500,000 -------- --------

•1765 2,200,000 -------- --------

•1775 2,400,000 By 1775 the “Dutch” poputation of America was ca 80,000

The Establishment of Nieuw Nederland

2011-10-11T08:22:00.010-05:00

This post will be a brief one. Last night I gave a presentation at De Orde van den Prince in New York City called "Vlamingen in Nieuw Nederland". It is a superb group that deserves sponsorship.

My presentation is in powerpoint and for those of you interested in it, please contact me and I will send it to you.

That said, I am posting today because it is the anniversary of the granting of the right to trade in North America to group of Northern and Southern Netherlanders (i.e., Flemings) based in Amsterdam. These adventurers, who even before Emanuel Van Meteren's publication of Hudson's voyage in 1611, swarmed the Hudson River estuary trading and fighting for animal (especially beaver) pelts, were the creators of the name "Nieuw Nederland" (New Netherlands). Below I post the English translation of the document by E.B. O'Callaghan. The names in bold are Zuidnederlanders (Flemings).

"On October 11, 1614 ”The united company by whom they had been employed, lost no time in taking the steps necessary to secure to themselves the exclusive trade of the countries thus explored, which was guarantied to them by the ordnance of the 27th of March [1614]. They sent deputies immediately to the Hague, who laid before the States General a report of their discoveries, as required by law, with a figurative map of the newly explored countries, which now, for the first time, obtained the name of ‘New Netherland.’ A special grant in favor of the interested parties was forthwith accorded by their High Mightinesses, in the following terms:

'The States General of the United Netherlands to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Whereas Gerrit Jacob Witsen, former burgomaster of the city of Amsterdam, Jonas Witsen and Simon Morissen, owners of the ship called the Little Fox (het vosje), Captain Jan de Witt, master; Hans Hongers, Paul Pelgrom, and Lambrecht van Tweenhuysen, owners of the two ships called the Tiger and the Fortune, Captains Adriaen Block and Hendrick Christiaensen, masters; Arnoudt van Lybergen, Wessel Schenk, Hans Claessen, and Barent Sweetsen, owners of the ship Nightengale, (Nochtegael), Capt. Thuys Volckertsen, merchant in the city of Amsterdam, master; and Pieter Clementsen Brouwer, Jan Clementsen Kies, and Cornelis Volckertsen, merchants in the city of Hoorn, owners of the ship the Fortune, Capt. Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, master, have united into one company, and have shown to Us, by their petition, that after great expenses and damages, by loss of ships and other perils, during the present year, they, with the abovenamed five ships, have discovered certain new lands, situated in America, between New France and Virginia, being the seacoasts between 40 and 45 degrees of latitude, and now called New Netherland:'

[p.75]
'And whereas, they further represent that We did, in the month of March, publish, for the promotion and augmentation of commerce, a certain consent and grant, setting forth that whosoever should discover new havens, lands, places, or passages, should be permitted exclusively to visit and navigate the same for four voyages, without permitting any other persons out of the United Netherlands to visit or frequent such newly discovered places, until the said discoverers shall have performed four voyages, within the space of time prescribed to them for that purpose, under the penalties therein expressed, &c., and request that We should be pleased to accord to them due testimony of the aforesaid grant in the usually prescribed form: '

'Wherefore, the premises having been considered, and We, in our Assembly, having communication of the pertinent report of the petitioners relative to the discoveries and finding of the said new countries between the abovenamed limits and degrees, and also of their adventures, have consented and granted, and by these presents do consent and grant, to the said petitioners, now united into one company, that they shall be permitted exclusively to visit and navigate the above described lands, situate[d] in America, between New France and Virginia, the seacoasts of which lie between the 40th and 45th degrees of latitude, and which are now named New Netherland, as is to be seen on the figurative maps by them prepared; and to navigate, or caise to be navigated, the same four voyages, within the period of three years, to commence from the first day of January, 1615, or sooner, without it being permitted, directly or indirectly, to any one else to sail, to frequent, or to navigate, out of the United Netherlands, those newly discovered lands, havens, or places, within the space of three years, as above, on penalty of the confiscation of the vessel and cargo, besides a fine of fifty thousand Netherlands ducats, for the benefit of said discoverers.

'Provided, however, that by these presents We do not intend to prejudice or diminish any of our former grants and concession; and it is also our intentionthat if any disputes or differences should arise from these concessions, that they shall be decided by ourselves. '

[p.76]
'We, therefore, expressly command all governors, justices, officers, magistrates, and inhabitants, of the aforesaid United Netherlands, that they allow said company peacefully and quietly to enjoy the whole benefit of this our grant, and to interpose no difficulties or obstacles to the welfare of the same. Given at the Hague, under our seal, paraph, and the signature of our Secretary, on the 11th day of October, 1614.'”

- E.B. O’Callaghan, History of New Netherland, pp.74-76

Steenvoorde, Iconoclasm, and the Start of the Dutch Revolt

2011-08-10T07:05:00.012-05:00

Today, August 10th, 445 years ago, the Dutch Revolt started. It started in Steenvoorde, Flanders - territory now occupied by France but historically, ethnically, and linguistically Flemish. In fact, the municipality of Steenvoorde in France literally rests just outside the current borders of West Flanders, bordering the West Flemish town of Watou.

This post will be brief. I doubt many have a chance to actually read the details of what happened that day. So I will quote, in detail, from an authoritative historian of the period: my former professor, Geoffrey Parker, in his classic, The Dutch Revolt, (pp.74-76):

"In 1566 a [Spanish] government agent was able to report by mid-July that:

'The audacity of the Calvinist preachers in this area [of Flanders] has grown so great that in their sermons they admonish the people that it is not enough to remove all idolatry from their hearts; they must also remove it from their sight. Little by little, it seems, they are trying to impress upon their hearers the need to pillage the churches and abolish all images'

Similar tidings flowed in from other quarters. The deputy bailiff of Veurne noted on 22 July that the tone of the Protestant sermons delivered in his locality was becoming more strident and 'it is to be feared that...they will soon commit some shameful pillage of the churches, monasteries and abbeys; some of them are already making boasts about it.'

On 2 August Viglius wrote to a friend in Spain:

'The town of Ieper, among others, is in turmoil on account of the daring of the populace inside and outside who go to the open-air services in their thousands, armed and defended as if they were off to perform some great exploit of war. It is to be feared that the first blow will fall on the monasteries and clergy and that the fire, once lit, will spread, and that, since trade is beginning to cease on account of these troubles, several working folk - constrained by hunger - will join in, waiting for the opportunity to acquire a share of the property of the rich.'

If any group now controlled the march of events in the Netherlands, it was the predikanten, the Calvinist pastors, who seemed to make new converts every day. The Ghent patrician and chronicler, Marcus van Vaernewijck, marvelled that four or five sermons were enough to change the beliefs ordinary people had held for thirty or forty years, but so it was. After decades of neglect from the old church and a mounting tide of anti-clerical criticism, many people appear to have become spiritually disoriented and ready to rally to any authoritative figure who could reassure them about the after-life and salvation.

Such figures were to hand in increasing numbers. A steady stream of new preachers arrived in the Netherlands, some from Geneva, more from France, England and Germany, some of them wearing (of all things) blue leggings (blaye upgherolde slapkauskens), which appear to have become, at least in Flanders, the insignia of the 'hedge preacher'.

Some of the predikanten were foreigners, like Johan Scheizhabener (the senior pastor of Maastricht, who was born in the Rhineland), or Francois du Jon or Junius (from Bourges), but most were born in the Netherlands.Many were returning from several years of exile, determined that they would never be chased out of their homeland again.

One such returned exile was Sebastian Matte, a hatmaker by trade, born at Ieper in or about 1533 and forced to flee to England in 1563 on account of his Protestant sympathies. By 26 May 1566 he was back in his native Flanders and preaching at Roesbrugge (north-west of Ieper). On 1 August he appeared before the walled town of Veurne with an entourage of 2,000 armed Calvinists from the Ieper area, hoping to force an entry and make the town a fortified base for further operations. The plan failed.

Undaunted, Matte continued to preach and on 10 August he delivered an inflammatory sermon just outside the monastery of St. Lawrence at Steenvoorde. The exact text of his sermon is unknown, but after he had finished a group of about twenty of his audience went into the convent and smashed all the images there, led by another predikant, Jacob de Buzere (a renegade Augustinian monk, also from Ieper and also an exile returned from England).

On 13 August de Buzere preached a rousing sermon himself and promptly led his hearers to the monastery of St. Anthony outside Bailleul, which they proceeded to sack. The following day [August 14] Matte preached at Poperinghe and this time his sermon was followed by a rather larger iconoclastic outburst, involving about 100 people (over half of them refugees returned from England) and from there Matte's disciples fanned out to break images in scores of towns and villages all over Flanders. The 'iconoclastic fury' had begun."

noto bene: I have re-arranged the sequence of some of the text from the original published format. However, I have not altered the text as it appears in my 1979 Penguin Books copy.

Symbols of Liberty

2011-07-04T10:03:00.009-05:00

This post will be a brief one. Partly, because the subject matter is succinct. Partly also because I am putting the finishing touches on a blog post (which will appear under the date July 1st) on the West India Company (Geoctroyeerde West-Indische Compagnie), the official proprietor of Nieuw Nederland sive Nova Belgica. Later (July 12th) I will post on the richest man in North America when he died in the late 17th century: Govert Loockermans. So I have much to catch up on.

However, on today's post, I wish to highlight not only two symbols of liberty - the Flemish Lion and the Statue of Liberty - but the intertwining of America's liberty with Flemish traditions. The tie is closer than one suspects. It is important that not only Americans know the debt that they owe to Flanders, but that Flanders reclaim ownership of that gift of liberty. It was selflessly granted to this country and I wish to thank Flanders publicly for that gift.

Today in America it is July 4th. Here in the U.S. we celebrate the anniversary of the United State's Declaration of Independence.

That declaration is often depicted as the spark of one man's - Thomas Jefferson's - creation. But the fact of the matter is that Jefferson leached heavily from precedent. More than a decade ago, an article appeared (which I reproduce in its entirety, although the bold emphasis is mine):

June 29, 1998

by Barbara Wolff

When he wrote the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson penned words that would live forever in history. But was he the first to write them?
A UW-Madison expert says that Jefferson may have modeled the Declaration after a 16th-century Dutch document.
Stephen Lucas, professor of communication arts, has spent the last 15 years studying the origins of the Declaration, "arguably the most masterful state paper in Western civilization," he says. He has concluded that Jefferson and his colleagues in the Continental Congress based the Declaration in part on the Dutch Plakkaat (plah-KAT) van Verlatinge (vur-LAT-ing-uh), issued in 1581 to justify the Netherlands' revolt against Spanish rule.

While very little is known about the Declaration's true genesis, scholars generally agree that the document was influenced by several British state papers, especially the 1689 Declaration of Rights, which deposed King James II and brought to power William and Mary of Orange. Lucas, however, is the first to point to the Plakkaat, one of the earliest statements of the rights of citizens to combat a tyrannical ruler.
"Of all the models available to Jefferson and the Continental Congress, none provided as precise a template for the Declaration as did the Plakkaat," says Lucas, an expert on historical rhetoric. "When you look at the two documents side by side, you cannot avoid noticing that the American Declaration more closely resembles its Dutch predecessor than any other possible model."
Both documents, for example, begin with a preamble that justifies, in remarkably similar fashion, the right of citizens to revolt against tyrannical authority, Lucas notes. British state documents, he says, say nothing about the natural rights of citizens to remove a tyrannical leader.
It is merely the first of many parallels, Lucas says, between the Declaration and the Plakkaat, written to justify the actions of a long-suffering Dutch people to shake off colonial domination and establish a sovereign nation. Further comparison illustrates more similarities:

· Both present a lengthy catalog of grievances as evidence of their king's tyranny;

· Both document repeated attempts by the authors to seek redress of their complaints through existing legal and civic channels;

· Both conclude that, having repeatedly been rebuffed by despotic authority, the plaintiffs have no alternative but to invoke the right of revolution.

Lucas says it is feasible that Jefferson turned to the Plakkaat in pondering the Declaration. Jefferson used inspirational models in virtually every sphere of his artistic activity, including his design for his home Monticello, which he consciously derived from the great Italian architect Andrea Palladio.
But Lucas stresses that the resemblance between the two papers should not diminish our appreciation of the Declaration.
"Unlike our own age, which prizes originality, the 18th century gave its greatest accolades to those able to master the art of imitation," Lucas says. If done well, the imitation should surpass the model, and Lucas says our Declaration has served as the gold standard of such documents since 1776.
"The Declaration is a work of consummate artistry that sustains a perfect synthesis of style, form and content," Lucas says. "There could be no greater literary or rhetorical achievement."
http://www.news.wisc.edu/3049

In short, Thomas Jefferson borrowed heavily and freely from the Plakkaat. A logical next question might be, "who authored the Plakkaat?" While it goes down in history as a "Dutch" document central to the "Dutch" Revolt and their Eighty Years' War for Independence (1568-1648), there was heavy Flemish involvement. In fact at least two - and possibly three - of the authors of the Plakkaat were Flemish.

The rebellious States-General decided on 14 June 1581 to officially declare the throne vacant^[3], because of Philip's behavior, hence the Dutch name for the Act of Abjuration: "Plakkaat van Verlatinghe", which may be translated as "Placard^[4] of Desertion." This referred not to desertion of Philip by his subjects, but rather, on a suggested desertion of the Dutch "flock" by their malevolent "shepherd," Philip [II].

A committee of four members – Andries Hessels, greffier (secretary) of the States of Brabant; Jacques Tayaert, pensionary of the city of Ghent; Jacob Valcke, pensionary of the city of Ter Goes (now Goes); and Pieter van Dieven (also known as Petrus Divaeus), pensionary of the city of Mechelen – was charged with drafting what was to become the Act of Abjuration.^[3] The Act prohibited the use of the name and seal of Philip in all legal matters, and of his name or arms in minting coins. It gave authority to the Councils of the provinces to henceforth issue the commissions of magistrates. The Act relieved all magistrates of their previous oaths of allegiance to Philip, and prescribed a new oath of allegiance to the States of the province in which they served, according to a form prescribed by the States-General.^[5] The actual draft seems to have been written by the audiencier.^[6] of the States-General, Jan van Asseliers^[7]

The Act was remarkable for of its extensive Preamble, which took the form of an ideological justification, phrased as an indictment (a detailed list of grievances) of King Philip. This form, which is strikingly similar to that of the American Declaration of Independence, has often given rise to speculations that Thomas Jefferson, when he was writing the latter, was at least inspired by the Act of Abjuration.^[8]^[9]

The Preamble was based on Vindiciae contra tyrannos by Philippe de Mornay, and other works of monarchomachs may have been sources of inspiration also.^[10] The rebels, in their appeal to public opinion, may have thought it more important to quote "authoritative" sources and refer to "ancient rights" they wished to defend. By deposing a ruler for having violated the Social Contract with his subjects, they were the first to apply the theoretical ideas that two hundred years later would ultimately form the basis for the American Declaration of Independence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_of_Abjuration

These authors too, although heavily Flemish, borrowed from the past. What were their sources?

Like Jefferson himself, these authors looked to precedent and history to justify what in effect was revolutionary. Permit me to quote at some length from a Belgian constitutional history study.

Excerpt from Introduction to Belgian Law, by Hubert Bocken & Walter de Bondt (Kluwer 2000)

p. 20 IV. Belgium’s contribution to law

“The idea of the rule of law was already present in Flemish cities in the twelfth century….When count William Clito came to power in Flanders in 1127, he guaranteed the inhabitants of his cities a right judgement of the cities’ aldermen against every man and against himself [the count]. The prince is already [at this time then] subject to the laws. The 1127 city charters were not mere words. On 16 February 1128, Ivan, Lord of Aalst, acted as the spokesman of the city of Ghent before the count. Ivan rebuked the court [sic] for not respecting the privileges he had given the burghers of Ghent and other cities. To settle the matter, he proposed [that] a special court should convene, in which the Peers of Flanders and representatives of the clergy and the people would sit to judge over the count. If this court should find the count unworthy of the countship, he would have to give it up. The count did not agree to this and Ivan and Ghent rose in revolt.

William was killed in the civil war that ensued and a new count came to power. The background of the conflict was the opinion of Ghent and other cities that there was a contractual relationship between the count and the citizens. They recognized him as their lord and he, in turn, recognized their privileges. If the count no longer respected his part of the deal by acting against the rights of citizens, they had a right to break their contract and to fight him. This contractual conception of the relationship between ruler and subjects returns in the city charters granted by William’s successor. Thereafter the counts managed to suppress it, but it reappeared at regular times in Flemish history. In 1191 the first article of a charter for the city of Ghent stated that the citizens were only subject to the count as long as he wanted to treat them justly and reasonably….The 1581 Act of Abjuration is reminiscent of Ivan of Aalst. By his failure to respect the rights of his subjects, Philip II of Spain had lost his right to rule the Netherlands.

In short, Thomas Jefferson borrowed from the strongly Flemish authors of the Plakkaat. They in turn borrowed from Flemish history and the rights of the medieval Flemish city states. Specifically, they looked to Gent and its traditions for the rights of its citizens in their interaction with the Count of Flanders.

The thread from today, through Thomas Jefferson, the authors of the Plakkaat, and back to 12th century Gent is a direct one. It is a claim Flemings and Flemish Americans can take pride in. It is also one more example of the Flemish contribution to the Discovery and Development of America.

Text and Liberty Dusk photo Copyright 2011 by David Baeckelandt. Flemish American Home photo Copyright 2011 by Wim Vanraes. Two Symbols of Liberty photo Copyright 2011 by Christophe Vandaele. Messrs Vanraes and Vandaele's photos used with permission. No reproduction in any format permitted without the express, written consent of the authors.

My deep thanks to Matthias Storme, Christophe Vandaele, and Wim Vanraes: Flemings all and Flemish Americans at the core.