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EARLY SETTLERS OF HUDSON COUNTY
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A great majority of the pioneer
settlers of Bergen and Hudson Counties were emigrants from Holland,
or descendants of persons who had emigrated from that country
and settled on Manhattan Island or Long Island. The rest were
English, French, Germans, and Scandinavians. What brought these
to the shores of America? What led them to settle in New Jersey?
Who were they? The limits of this article will permit of only
a brief reference to the two principal causes which impelled
them to leave their native land, -- overcrowding of population
in Holland and the desire to better their condition.
More than a century had elapsed
since the Augustinian monk, Luther, had nailed his ninety-five
theses on the church door at Wittenberg. That act had, at last,
wakened into activity all the dormant forces of christendom.
During the Middle Ages all learning and religion had been controlled
by the Roman hierarchy. All that time the papacy had been a confederacy
for the conservation of learning, against the barbarism and ignorance
of the times; and so long as the pontiff retained the character
of chief clerk of such a confederacy his power remained irresistible.
But as soon as he abandoned the role of chief clerk in spiritual
affairs, and assumed that of secular prince, the great revolution
began. His fofmer friends became his enemies. The British schoolmen
led the way in the revolt, followed by Wickliff, Huss, Jerome,
and others. The breach kept widening, until all the countries
of Western Europe started like giants out of their sleep at the
first blast of Luther's trumpet. In Northern
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Europe the best half of the
people embraced the Reformation. The spark which the monk had
kindled lighted the torch of civilization, which was to illuminate
the forests of the Hudson in America.
At no time since this terrible
contest began had the Catholic monarchs of Europe been more persistently
active and relentlessly cruel toward the believers in the new
religion than at the beginning of emigration to New Netherland.
The bloody conflict known as "the Thirty Years' War"
was then raging with all its attendant horrors. Nevertheless,
Holland, of all the circle of nationas, had guaranteed safety
to people of every religious beliefs, and enforced, within her
own borders at least, respect for civil liberty. As a result
she had become the harbor of refuge and the temporay home of
thousands of the persecuted of almost every country; the Brownists
from England, the Waldenses from Italy, the Labadists and Picards
from France, the Walloons from Germany and Flanders, and many
other Protestant sects, all flocked into Holland. Across her
borders flowed a continual stream of refugees and outcasts. This
influx of foreigners, augmented by the natural increase of her
own people, caused Holland to suffer seriously from overcrowding,
particularly in her large cities. A learned Hollander, writing
at tha time, said of the situation: "Inasmuch as the multitude
of people, not only natives but foreigners, who are seeking a
livelihood here, is very great, so that, where one stiver is
to be earned, there are ten hands ready to seize it. Many are
obliged, on this acocunt, to go in search of other lands and
residences, where they can obtain a living."
In the few years preceding
1621 several voyages of discovery and adventure had been made
by the Dutch to New Netherland, but no colonies had been founded.
etters from these voyagers declared that New Netherland was a
veritable paradise--a land "flowing with milk and honey,"
traversed by numerous and beautiful rivers.
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plentifully stocked with
fish; great valleys and plains, covered with luxuriant verdure;
extensive forests, teeming with fruits, game, and wild animals;
and an exceedingly fertile and prolific soil. These and many
similar letters aroused and stimulated many of the discontented
and unemployed of Holland to emigrate to New Netherland with
their families in the hope of being able to earn a handsome livelihood,
strongly fancying that they could live in the New World in luxury
and case, while in the Old they would still have to earn their
bread by the sweat of their brows.
In 1621 the "States-General"
took steps looking toward relief from the situation, the gravity
of which they now fully comprehended. One June 3 they granted
a charter to "The Dutch West India Company" to organize
and govern a colony in New Netherland; and in June, 1623-4, an
expedition under Captain Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, of Amsteredam,
carrying thirty families, most of whom were religious refugees,
came over to New Amsterdam and began a settlement on the lower
end of Manhattan Island. Mey, not liking the job of being director
of the new colony soon returned to Holland, leaving matters for
a time in charge of William Verhulst, who was succeeded by Peter
Minuitin 1626. This first colony was not a success. The colonists
were "on the make." Aside from building a few rude
bark huts and a fort, they busined themselves dickering with
the savages for skins and furs. They tilled no ground, and for
three years were non-supporting. One the 7th of June,1629, the
"States-General" granted a bill of "Freedoms and
Exemptions" to all such private persons as
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would plant any colonies
in any part of New Netherland (exccept the Island of Manhattan
granting to thme the fee simple in any land they might be able
to successfully improve. Special privileges were also granted
to members of the West India Company. Whoever of its members
should plant a colony of fifty persons should be a feudal lord,
or "Patroon," of a tract "sixteen miles in length,
fronting on a navigable river and reaching eight miles back.:
As yet only exploring parties
bent on trade with the savages had traversed Bergen and Hudson
Counties. No one had ventured to "take up" any lands
there. But now, under the stimulus of the bill of "Freedoms
and Exemptions," one Michael Pauw, then burgomaster of Amsterdam,
was impelled, for speculative purposes no doubt, to obtain from
the Director General of New Netherland, in 1630. The grantee
gave one place the name of "Pavonia." Pauw failed to
comply with the conditions set forth in his deeds and was obliged,
after three years of controversy with the West India Company,
to convey his "plantations" back to that company. Michael
Paulesen, an official of the company, was placed in charge of
them as superintendent. It is said he built and occupied a hut
at Paulus Hook early in 1633. If so, it was the first building
of any kind erected in either Bergen or Hudson County. Later
in the same year the company built two more houses: one at Communipaw,
afterward purchased by Jan Everise Bout, the other at Ahasimus
(now Jersey City, east of the Hill), afterward purchased by Cornelius
Van Vorst.. Jan Everise Bout succeeded Michael Paulesen as superintendet
of the Pauw plantation, June 17, 1634, with headquarters at Communipaw,
then the capital of Pavonia Colony. He was succeeded in June,
1636, by Cornelius Van Vorst, with headquarters at Ahasimus,
where he kept "open house" and entertained the New
Amsterdam officials in great style.
In 1641 one Myndert Mynderise,
of Amsterdam (bearing the ponderous title of "Van der Herr
Nedderhorst,") obtained a grant of all the country behind
(west of) Achter Kull (Newark Bay), and from thence north to
Tappan, including part of what is now Bergen and Hudson Counties.
Accompanied by a number of soldiers, Mynderise occupied his purchase,
established a camp, and proceeded to civilize the Indians by
military methods. It is needless to say that he failed.
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He soon abandoned the perilous
undertaking of foundign a colony, returned to Holland, and the
title to this grant was forfeited. Early in 1638 William Kleft
became Director General of New Netherland, and on the first day
of May following granted to Abraham Isaacsen Planck (Verplanck)
a patent for Paulus Hook (now lower Jersey City).
There were now two "plantations"
at Bergen, those of Planck and Van Vorst. Parts of these, however,
had been leased to, and were then occupied by, Clacs Jansen Van
Purmerend, Dirck Straatmaker, Barent Jansen, Jan Cornelissen
Buys, Jan Evertsen Carsbon, Michael Jansen, Jacob Stoffelsen,
Aert Teunisen, Van Putten, Egbert Woutersen, Garret Dirckse Blauw,
and Cornelius Arlessen. Van Putten had also leased and located
on a farm at Hoboken. All those, with their families and servants,
constituted a thriving settlement. The existence of the settlement
of Bergen was now imperiled by the nets of Governor Kleft, whose
idea of government was baed mainly upon the principle that the
governor should get all he could out of the governed. His treatment
of the Indians soon incited their distrust and hatred of the
whites. The savages, for the first time, began to show symptoms
of open hostility. Captain Jan Petersen de Vries, a distinguished
navigator, who was then engaged in the difficulttask of trying
to foudn a colony at Tappan, sought every means in his power
to conciliate the Indians, and to persuade Kleft that his treatment
of them would result in bloodshed.
The crafty and selfish governor
turned a deaf ear to all warnings and advice and continued to
goad the Indians by cruel treatment and harsh methods of taxation.
In 1643 an Indiana -- no doubt under stress of great provocation
-- shot and killed a member of the Van Vorst family. This first
act of murder furnished a pretext for the whites and precipitated
what is called "The Massacre of Pavonia," on the night
of February 25, 1643, when Kleft, with a sergeant and eighty
soldiers, armed and equipped for slaughter, crossed the Hudson,
landed at Communipaw, attached the Indians while they were asleep
in their camp, and, without regard to age or sex, deliberately,
and in the most horrible manner, butchered nearly a hundred of
them. Stung by this outrage upon their neighbors and kinsmen,
the norther tribes at once took the war path, attached the settlement,
burned the buildings, murdered the settlers, wiped the villages
out of existence, and laid waste the country round about. Those
of the settlers who were not killed outright fled across the
river ot New Amsterdam. Nor was peace restored between the savages
and the whites until August, 1645, when the remaining owners
and tenatns of the farms returned to the stie of the old village,
rebuilt their homes, and started anew.
Kleft having been driven
from office, Petrus Stuyvesant was made
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Director General, July 28,
1646. Under his administration the settlement at Bergen wa revived,
grew rapidly, and prospered. Between his arrival and the year
1669 the following named persons purchased or leased lands, though
all of them did not become actual residents: Michyael Pauw, Michael
Paulesen, Jan Everise Bout, Cornelius Van Vorst, Myndert Myndertsen
Van der Heer Nedderhorst, Abraham Isaacsen Planck (Verplanck),
Claes Jansen Van Purmerend (Cooper), Dirk Strantmaker, Barent
Jansen, Jan Cornellssen Buys, John Evert-
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sen Carsbon, Michael Jansen (Vreeland), Jacob Stoffelsen,
Aert Tennisen Van Putten, Egbert Wontersen, Garret Dircksen Blauw,
Cornelius Ariesen, Jacob Jacobsen Roy, Francisco Van Angola (negro),
Guilliaem Cornellesen, Dirk Syean, Claes Carsten Norman, Jacob
Wallengen (Van Winkel), James Luby, Lubbert Gerritsen, Gysbert
Lubberisen, John Garretssen, Van Immen, Thomas Davison, Garret
Pietersen, Jan Cornelissen Schoenmaker, Jan Cornelissen Crynnen,
Casper Stimets, Peter Jansen, Hendrick Janns Van Schalckwyck,
Nicholas Bayard, Nicholas Varlet, Herman Smeeman, Tielman Van
Vleeck, Donwe Harmansen (Tallman), Claes Jansen Bakcer, Egbert
Steenhuysen, Harmen Edwards Paulus Pietersen, Allerd Anthony,
John Vigne, Paulus Leendertsen, John Vergruggen, Balthazar Bayard,
Samuel Edsall, and Aerent Laurens.
All these persons received their deeds, or such titles as
they had from the Dutch, through the different Director Generals.
The English captured New Netherland from the Dutch in 1664,
and, thereupon, Philip Carteret, by an appointment of the "Lords-Proprietors"
of the Province of East New Jersey, became its first governor.
The titles of the settlers of Bergen were confirmed by Carteret
and his council in 1668. In 1669, following his appointment as
governor, Carteret also granted other portions of the lands in
Hudson County to the following named persons: Maryn Adrianse,
Peter Stuyvesant, Claes Petersen Cors, Severn Laurens, Hendrick
Jansen Spier, Peter Jansent Slott, Barent Christianse, Mark Noble,
Samuel Moore, Adrian Post, Guert Coerten, Frederick Phillipse,
Thomas Frederick de Kuyper, Guert Geretsen (Van Wagenen), Peter
Jacobsen, John Berry, Ide Cornelius Van Vorst, Hans Diedrick,
Hendrick Van Ostum, Cornelius Ruyven.
"The town adn corporation of Bergen," as appears
by Carteret's charter, had an area of 11,500 acres. Up to the
end of 1669 scarce one-third of this area had been patented to
settlers. The balance, more than 8,000 acres, was used in common
by the patentees, their heirs, devisees, and grantees, for nearly
a century before it was finally divided and set off to those
entitled to it. As is ever the case under similar circumstances,
many of the patentees and their descendants and grantees encroached
upon these common lands. "Tom, Dick and Harry" pastured
their cattle on them, made lavish use of the timber, and in various
other ways committed waste with impunity. Many patentees caused
surveys to be made, presumed to "take up," and used
divers parts of the public domain, "without any warrant,
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power, or authority for so
doing, without the consent of the majoirty of the other patent
owners," so that in the course of time it could not be known
how much of these common lands had been taken up and appropriated.
This state of things caused great confusion and numerous violent
disputes between the settlers, who, in January, 1714, petitioned
Governor' Hunter for a new charter empowering them, in their
corporate capacity, to convey or lease their common lands, fee,
for one, two, or three lives or for years.
Governor Hunter, in response
to this petition, procured a new charter for the town and corporation,
known as "The Queen Anne Charter." The power given
by this charter had little or no effect in putting a stop to
encroachments upon, and disputes between, the settlers about
the common lands. Thus matters continued until 1643, when another
effort was made by the setttlers to protect their rights in the
common lands. An agreement was made, dated June the 16th, of
that year, providing for a survey of the common lands and a determination
of how much of the same had been lawfully taken up, used, or
claimed, and by whom. For some reason this agreement was not
carried out, and matters continued to grow worse until December
7, 1763, when the settlers appealed to the legislature for relief.
That body passed a bill, which was approved by Governor Franklin,
appointing commissioners to survey, map, and divide the common
lands of Bergen among the persons entitled thereto. These commissioners,
seven in number, made the survey and division and filed their
report and maps on the 2d day of March, 1765, in the secretary's
office at Perth Amboy, copies of which report and maps are also
filed in the offices of the clerks of both Hudson and Bergen
Counties.
In the division made by the
commissioners the common lands were apportioned among the patentees,
hereinbefore named, and their descendants, as well as among the
following named persons: Michael de Mott, George de Mott, Gerebrand
Claesen, Joseph Waldron, Dirk Van Vechten, James Collerd, Thomas
Brown, Andries Seagaerd, Dirk Cadmus, Zackariah Sickels, Job
Smith, Daniel Smith, Joseph Hawkins, John Halmeghs, Philip French,
Ide Cornelius Sip, Herman Beeder, Nicholas Preyer, Sir Peter
Warren, Anthony White, Michael Abraham Van Tayl, Walter Clendenny,
John Cummings, David Latourette, John Van Dolsen.
Several other families, namely,
those of Day, de Grauw, de Groot, Hessels, Hopper, Banta, Huysman,
Van Giesen, Earle, Franzen, Morris, and Swaen, had beome residents
of the county without having lands granted them. It may therefore
be safely said that the families above named constituted nearly
all of the original settlers of Hudson County east of the Hackensack
River. The westerly portion
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of the county was included
in the purchase by Captain William Sandford from the arish of
St. Mary's in the Island of Barbadoes. Governor Carteret and
council granted this tract to Sandford, July 4, 1668. It contained
within its boundaries an area of 15,308 acres, extended from
the point of union of the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers about
seven miles northward along said rivers, to a spring now known
as the Boiling Springs, or Sandford Spring, near Rutherford.
This purcahse was made by Sandford for himself and Major Nathaniel
Kingsland, also from the Island of Barbadoes, and the same was
subsequently divided between Sandford and Kingsland. Kingsland,
who became the owner of the northern part (including part of
the present Bergen COunty), resided at what is now known as "Kingsland
Manor," south of Rutherford, in Bergen COunty, while Sandford,
who became the owner of the southerly part, resided at what is
now East Newark, in Hudson County. Much of this large section
of territory remained vested in the respective descendants of
Sandford and Kingsland for many years after their deaths.
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