800 Year Chronology of the Flemish Contribution to the Discovery and Settlement of America: 864 AD -1664 AD

September is an important month for me. September 3rd is the anniversary of my father's arrival in America from Flanders. It is also the anniversary of Henry Hudson's first foray up the mighty river that now bears his name. Bracketing that, September 8th is the anniversary of the capitulation of Pieter Stuyvesant to the Duke of York, and the lowering of the flag of the West India Company (which is almost identical to that of the United Provinces of the Netherlands) 346 years ago.

Wednesday evening, September 8, 2010, I gave an hour long talk to a gathering at Flanders House in New York, under their kind auspices. The discussion topic is "The Flemish Contribution to the Discovery & Settlement of America". Many of you of course will not be able to attend. So although the powerpoint is too large to post here, I thought I would at least share a rough chronology. Needless to say, if anyone wishes to know more details, please feel free to contact me.

Chronology of Flemish Contributions to the Discovery & Settlement of America 864-1664

• 800s – Charlemagne dies (814); grandsons squabble; Vikings invade Flanders (870s-880s) stay at St. Baaf's; intermarry with Flemish; First Flemish Count (Baldwin) appointed (864) collaborates with Vikings; Flemish priests (Ansgar, Rembert) from Tourhout proselytize into Scandinavia (800s- 1000s).

• 900s – Discovery and settlement of Iceland, Greenland; conversion of Norwegians to Christianity (990s); Flemish Archbishop Dankbrand; Lief Eriksson's "foster father" Thyrkir/Dirk possible Fleming; rise of Flanders as trade and textile center

• 1000s – Discovery of Vinland (named by Thyrkir/Dirk); Flemish largest % of William the Conqueror’s army (1066) thanks to wife, Matilda of Brugge; Flemings in Greenland, England, Scotland.

• 1100s – Construction of St. Baafs & of Newport Tower? Flemish colony in England by William of Ypres; Flemish colony in Ireland (Forth & Bargy).

• 1200s – Recorded Brugge trade with Greenland; Bruges Itinerarium; Flemish priests in Asia; Ruusbroeck meets with Great Khan (1250s); Tartar Relations written describing Asia

• 1300s – Flanders and Norway sign a trade agreement governing Greenland exports (1308); Flemish merchant from Brugge purchases 2,000 lbs of walrus ivory for 28 lbs of silver (1327); Jan de Langhe author of Mandeville (1330s?); Flemish papal legate collects tithes from Greenland (1360s); "Fifth generation Bruxelensis" priest from Greenland visits Norway and shares information with Jacob Cnoyen who writes down in the "Belgic" language in 1364 (copy to Mercator); Flemish innovations in fishing; Inventio Fortunata map of polar regions (1360s); Flemish fishermen off the Newfoundland coast; Flemish mijts left at Concepcion Bay, Newfoundland (late 14th/early 15th century); Philip of Burgundy ransoms his son back from the Muslims for 12 Greenland gyrfalcons (1396).

• 1400s – Last known sojourner between Greenland and Flanders (1408); Vinland Map (1430s/1440s); Discovery (1427) and settlement (1450s-1490s) of the Azores by Flemings; Danish-Portuguese expedition to Greenland (1476-1477); Bristol expeditions w/Fernandez the Labrador from the Azores(1480s-1490s); Van Olmen’s expedition (1484) from the Azores; Corte Real expeditions (1490s-1502) Azores to Newfoundland; Martin Behaim’s Nuremberg globe (1492); Columbus’ expeditions (1492-1506); Flemish Franciscans officially the first priests to the New World (1493).

• 1500s – Antwerp succeeds Brugge as center of European trade; Vrelant, a Flemish cartographer/miniaturist in Lisbon, creates the Cantino Map - 1st map to show New World outside elite Iberian circles (1502); 1st Printed Map of New World by Johannes Ruysch (1507); 1st book in English about the New World printed at Antwerp (1511); 1st Printed Map of Portuguese Charles V becomes first world ruler (1517); Adolf Van Wakken awarded colony in Yucatan (1517); Luther’s 95 These (1517); Roland Van Brugge sees the Pacific 1st on Magellan’s crew (1520); Becomes 1st Fleming to circumnavigate the world (1522); Magellan’s story written by Maximillian of Brussels (1523); Flemish Franciscan (Dekker, de Muir, Van der Auwere, Van Ghent) priests sent by Charles V Flemish mercenaries at Venezuela (1520s);1st Protestant martyrs (1523); English New Testaments printed at Antwerp (1520s) and smuggled into England by Jacob Van Meteren and others (1530s-1550s); William Tyndale, et.al. at Antwerp (executed at Vilvoorde 1536); Flemish missionaries under New Spain penetrate Arizona and New Mexico (1530s-1540s); Lucas Van Huden of Ghent conquers Chile for New Spain (1530s-1550s); Repression of Flemish Protestants and Anabaptists (1520s on); Flemish flee to England and elsewhere; Van Meterens to England (1550); Flemish Church at London (1550); English Moscovy Company (1553-1555) w/John Dee and Sebastian Cabot; Mercator sends Dee cartographic info (1550s-1590s); John Rogers burned at stake (1555); English send expeditions to find northern route (Northwest or Northeast passage) to Asia; Queen Elizabeth (Flemish ancestry) Queen of England (1558); First permannet settlement in the continental U.S. by Europeans, Fort Caroline in Florida, includes Flemish Protestants (1562-1565); Flemish Jesuits land in Florida and try to establish missionary outpost among the Indians there and later in Chesepeake Bay (1566-1570); Oliver Brunell of Brussels returns from Moscow and shares knowledge that Asia can be reached thru Muscovy to Mercator and Plancius (1566); Beeldenstorm (Iconoclasm) in Netherlands starts in Steenvoorde, Flanders (August 10, 1566); Duke of Alva arrives in Netherlands and Flemish Protestants flee (1567 - ) to England, Netherlands, Germany; Flemish innovations (carriage, starch, draining swamps, cartography, etc.) transmitted to English and Dutch (1560s-1600s); Flemish cartographers, innovators and theologians (Ortellius, Hondius, Van Der Keere, Plancius, Mercator Jr., De Laet, Baudartius) all spend time in England (1550s-1620s); English seek Northwest (Davis/Frobisher) and Northeast Passages to Asia (Jenkinson/Willoughby) (1550s-1580s); Flemish Anabaptists convey thinking to English Cambridge-educated clerics who develop Separatist belief (1580s-1610s); Antwerp falls and Flemings and Brabanders flee (1585-1589); Plancius inspired voyages to seek Northeast Passage (1590s); Voorcompagnieen (1590s-1602);

• 1600s –VOC established (1602); Jamestown established (1607); Pilgrims leave England (1607-8); Pilgrims at FlemishLeiden (1608-1620); Hudson recruited by Van Meteren (1608) advised by Plancius and guided by Hondius and hired by Van Os (1609); HH sails up the Hudson (Sept 10 – Oct 2, 1609); reports back to England (1610); Marcus de Vogelaer (and other Antwerpenaars) sail to Hudson’s “discoveries (1610-1623) Van Meteren publishes (1611); Adriaen Block in Manhattan (1613-1614); Block names Nieuw Nederland (1614); Council of Dort (Dordrecht) dominated by Flemish Protestants De Laet, Gomarus, et.al. (1619); Pilgrims leave for New England (1620); West India Company (WIC) IPO (1621); Fort Orange established (1623); 30 families – 6 Flemish – sent to Nieuw Nederland (1624); De Laet’s publication of “New World” (1625); Pieter Minuit 'buys' Manhattan (1626); WIC captures the Spanish silver fleet (1628); Patroonships allowed in Nieuw Nederland (1629); Rensselaerswijck establish (1630); Other patroonships established by Antwerpenaars Blommaert, De Laet, Godijn, Melyn (1630s-1650s); “Flemish Bastard” born (1630s); 1st eyewitness painting of the New World by Mostaert (1645); Adrian Vander Donck’s publication of life in Nieuw Nederland (1650); Cornelis Melyn’s tract 'Breeden Raedt' (1650); Immigration rises (1650s-1660s); Pieter Stuyvesant capitulates and the English take over Nieuw Nederland ofte Nova Belgica September 8, 1664.

A whole slew of additional examples exist for the period 1664-the present. That chronology will have to remain for a future post.

Copyright 2010 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. No reproduction permitted without my express, written consent.

The Question of Language

Tomorrow, June 13th, Belgians head to the polls to vote in the first national election since 2007. Recent articles by international commentators, such as the Economist or the Wall Street Journal, have for the first time begun to recognize that the core of the issue is of course language. Understanding the roots and origin of a language of course, is integral to understanding the path of a people.

Flemish immigrants to this country have assimilated well. Too well in fact. Their language contributions have often slid to the background as other, more assertive tribes, have leapt to the fore in making their claim. Thankfully for us, the study of language - called philology - still permits a scientific sleuthing to uncover the real contributors to a language. Things such as pronunciation, syntax, spelling, and the actual usages of words provide signposts that philologists follow to the ultimate source of that part of the language.

One hundred years ago, in 1910, an American philologist by the name of John Dyneley Prince, published a now out-of-print study of "Jersey Dutch". At that time, there were still pockets of descendants who lived mainly in isolated communities of upstate New York and northern New Jersey, that spoke only or primarily a Dutch dialect. Like their Flemish Protestant forefathers, they farmed, attended the Dutch Reformed Church, and otherwise were able to avoid assimilation into broader American society. The below text are select excerpts of the study by Professor Prince, as presented in the 1910 issue of "Dialect Notes". My warm thanks to Paul Belien, Matthias Storme and Dirk Musschoot for independently bringing this to my attention.

"'Jersey' or "Bergen County Dutch" is the usual name for the vernacular of the descendants of the original [New] Netherland[s] settlers in old Bergen County, N.J., now subdivided into Bergen and Passaic Counties. Up to thirty years ago [circa 1880], this was the common idiom of many rural districts in northern New Jersey, employed alike by Dutch, English, German and French settlers. It has, during the past three decades, been driven from its former territory by the advent of the public schools, and now survives only in the memories of some two hundred old persons, nearly all of whom are over seventy years of age. The younger generations have preserved, however, the curious jerky intonation, unclear diction and the marked singsong tone of voice, which were characteristics of the parent speech. The Jersey Dutch is obsolescent, but it has undoubtedly left its mark on the modern English of both Bergen and Passaic Counties."

"It must not be supposed that Jersey Dutch had anything in common, other than a kindred ancient ancestry, with the so-called "Pennsylvania Dutch," which is merely the Pfalz dialect of German mixed with English. The Jersey Dutch was originally the South Holland or Flemish language, which, in the course of centuries (ca 1630-1880), became mixed with and partially influenced by English, having borrowed also from the Minsi (Lenape-Delaware) Indian language a few animal and plant names. This Dutch has suffered little or nothing from modern Holland or Flemish immigration, although Patterson (the county seat of Passaic County) has at present a large Netherland [sic] population. The old country people hold themselves strictly aloof from these foreigners and say, when they are questioned as to the difference between the idioms: "Oiize tdl dz lex dtiuts en hcelliz dz Hol-ldns; kwdit dddfrent." ["Our language is low Dutch and theirs is Holland Dutch; quite different."]."

"An intelligent Fleming or South Hollander with a knowledge of English can make a shift at following a conversation of this Americanized Dutch, but the converse is not true, as the Jersey Dutch speaking countryman is quite helpless, if his interlocutor makes the slightest deviation from the accepted pronunciation or idiom of the dialect. As old Mrs. Bartholf of Paterson [New Jersey] remarked to the writer, when questioned as to how much she could grasp of a conversation in Netherlands Dutch: "En parti kan ak kwait xtit verstdne, mdr en parti kein dk nit." ["Part of it I can understand quite well, but a part of it I cannot."]."

"The object of the present paper is to set forth a phonetic and grammatical sketch of this curious and dying dialect with a glossary of its most important and characteristic words still in use....So far as I know, no other philological treatise has appeared on this subject....It should be added that during the past eighteen years [1891-1909], I have heard many persons use thislast echo of an almost forgotten period....I have been particularly careful not to draw material from people who had any intercourse with Hollanders or Flemings, so that my sources may be looked upon as representing the unadulterated Jersey Dutch idiom, so far as it survives today [1910]."

What followed was an exhaustive list of words, terms, forms of pronunciation and possible etymological sources. Needless to say, the backup emphasized Dr. Prince's key point: the language of the settlers of New Netherlands (Nieuw Nederland ofte Nova Belgica) was heavily influenced by Flemish. Today's Flemings - and especially the Flemish government - rightly need to reclaim jurisdiction over this point of history.

Copyright 2010 by David Baeckelandt. No reproduction in any form permitted without my express, prior, written consent.

The Flemish House (Vlaams Huis) & Henry Hudson's Quadricentennial

New Netherland/Novum Belgium in the 1600s

Among high society in Eastern parts of this country [the USA], to claim descent from the 'Dutch' of New Netherlands assures a certain credibility. […] 2009 marks the quadricentennial of Henry Hudson's voyage to 'discover' the New York area. NY state plans a huge celebration […] To that end PBS plans a major documentary. The Dutch government also has plans for a documentary. There is a major book being published by scholars of that period ('Dutch-American Relations 1609-2009'). There will be special exhibits at NY museums. There have been special state grants to The Holland Society, The New Netherlands Project, The New Amsterdam Historical Society, etc. I think you get the idea.

Henry Hudson

Where am I going with this? Well, New Netherlands was founded, financed, governed, protected and settled by the Flemish. Plancius, who supplied the maps for the 1609 expedition, was a West Fleming. Most of the rest of the so-called "Dutch" aiding Hudson were Antwerpenaars: such as Van Meteren (who was also the 'Dutch' ambassador to England and the author of the first 'Dutch' history and the one who secured Hudson for this job. Judocus Hondius (from Wakken) was Hudson's interpreter when he came to the Netherlands before the expedition.

Henry Hudson's 3rd Voyage of Exploration - to New York in 1609

The Henry Hudson expedition had at least 3 Flemings. The follow up in 1611 for at least 10 years to the expedition (meaning the first commercial expeditions to exploit Hudson's discoveries) were financed by Arnout Vogel (from Antwerp) and captained by Adriaen Block (from Dendermonde).
Their company was De Nieuw Nederland Compagnie. It was a 'voorcompagnie' (predecessor company) of De West Indische Compagnie (WIC) which actually colonized Nieuw Nederland beginning in 1624 […]

De Haelve Maen/The Half Moon - Henry Hudson's Ship in 1609

[T]he first child born in Nieuw Amsterdam, Sarah Rapalje, was the daughter of an Antwerpenaar weaver. Govert Lockermans – the most successful trader in Nieuw Nederland – was from Turnhout. George Bush's ancestor Willem Beekman, longtime mayor of New Amsterdam was the grandson of Willem Baudartius, the translator of the first Dutch language bible, who was a native of Deinze.

Willem Baudartius, native of Deinze

Over the past several years in research, courtesy largely of the translated records of the New Netherlands, I have recorded approximately 100 Flemings – from Aalst, Aecken, Brugge, Brussel, Ghent, Hoboken, Kortrijk, Limburg, Ypres and elesewhere – who helped found and grow Nieuw Nederland (ofte Nova Belgica). Their descendants include US Presidents, famous literary and cultural people, as well as politicians and inventors. These include: Daniel Webster (the dictionary name), Thomas Edison, and even Edward Hopper (the artist). My point here is that if New Netherlands was 'Dutch', it was Dutch with a very strong Flemish accent.

View of Nieuwe Amsterdam

The Flemish need to reclaim this part of history. Vlaams Huis can do that. Once reclaimed, Vlaams Huis can capture state money (from NY, NJ, and CT), federal money, and free publicity. This will better enable the Flemish government (eg, thru the Flanders Investment Trade office, etc.) to promote Flanders in America. The 2009 Quadricenttenial of Hudson's 1609 voyage is just around the corner. And in tribal America the timing could not be any better.