Michael Pauw, one of the four Patroons of New Netherlands, purchases Staten Island from the Indians. It forms part of the province of Pavonia, but it soon reverts to the West India Company.
Patroon Killian van Rensselaer signs a copartnership agreement with Samuel Godyn, Johannes de Laet, Samuel Bloemmaert, Adam Bissels, and Toussaint Moussart.
Mapmaker Johannes de Laet publishes Beschryvinghe van West-Indien , using the names Manhattes, N. Amsterdam, and Noordt River for the first time. ** A house is built within the fort enclosure for the director-general. ** The ship New Netherland is built by the West India Company. Nicknamed the "great ship" it weighs 800 tons.
Amsterdam pearl merchant Killian van Rensselaer, the first patroon, founds Rensselaerwyck, on lands he purchased from the Mahican Indians, on the upper Hudson River. Receiving a grant for the land from the Dutch West Indies Company, he begins recruiting immigrants. The first shipload arrives. ** The first crops are planted at Fort Orange (Albany). ** The Pavonia patroonship is granted. ** John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony has a ship, Blessing of the Bay, built and sails it to Long Island to buy wampum from the Dutch.
Peter Minuit is recalled to Holland when he refuses to ban the private fur trade.
New Amsterdam director-general Peter Minuit is recalled to Holland because of privileges he awarded patroons. He is succeeded by Bastiaen Jansz Krol, as acting director.
The first public beer brewery is set up early in the year by Minuit.
The English capture the Dutch vessel Eendracht at Plymouth.
Wouter van Twiller, a nephew of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, arrives in New Amsterdam in the Soutberg accompanied by close to 100 soldiers, the first regular troops in the colony, to replace Bastiaen Jansz Krol as director-general.
Adam Roelantsen arrives in New Amsterdam, founds the first school in the colony. ** Five stone workshops are built near today's Whitehall Street. ** Van Twiller settles at Bossen Bouwerie, becoming the first European settler in the future Greenwich Village. ** A tile-roofed brewery is erected.
Dutch barber-surgeon Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, sent by an officer at Fort Orange (Albany) to explore the area where the Mohawk flows into the Hudson, notes flooding at the site of an Indian village on the southern bank.
Ice flows prevent the party from crossing to the northern bank of the Mohawk.
Roeloff and Annetje Jans begin building a farmhouse. They will accumulate land over the next two years that will form the nucleus of Trinity Church's holdings.
The Grand Assembly Treaty of Taagonshi (between Iroquois & Dutch) signed.
The northwest end of Long Island (Queens) is settled by the Dutch.
Jacob Stoffelsen is hired to oversee the Dutch West India Company's slaves. ** The colony has traded 60,000 beaver pelts, with a worth of 400,000 guilders.
Henry Alexander, son of the Earl of Stirling, is granted a patent for "matowack or Long Island" by the Council for New England".
Lord Alexander appoints James Farret to represent his North American lands. Farret is allowed two islands for himself. He calls one Robbins Island. The other is known as Mr. Farret's Island (later Shelter Island).
The first Long Island patents are granted, in today's Brooklyn.
English colonial governor Sir Edmund Andros is born in London to Amice Andros - royal bailiff of Guernsey - and his wife.
The Dutch begin settling further out on Nieuw Amersfoort (Long Island), moving into Brooklyn's Flatbush. Governor Wouter Van Twiller begins purchasing Long Island land from the Lenape, at what will become the Red Hook and Gowanus neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Over the next two years he will acquire 15,000 acres. The Indians will remain in the area for many years. ** The West India Company grants D. P. De Vries part of Staten Island. ** Partners Andries Hudde and Wolphert Gerritsen break ground for a farm at the future site of Flatbush.
The Delaware name Sewanhacky (place of shells), used to denote Long Island, first appears, in Dutch deeds for land on the western end of the island.
Lion Gardiner buys an island from Manhassets sachem Poggaticut and his wife Awaw, for ten coats. He names it Isle of Wight (later Gardiner's Island).
Amsterdam merchant Willem Kieft (Willem the Testy) replaces Wouter van Twiller as Director of New Amsterdam.
The Dutch buy Minnahannock Island in the East River from the Canarsie Indians and begin raising hogs there, naming it Hog Island. It later becomes Roosevelt Island. ** The Dutch settle on Long Island at Flushing. Local Matinecocks help them make it through the first winter. ** Englishman Thomas Foster receives a royal grant for 600 acres on Alley Creek, off Long Island's Little Neck Bay, displacing local Matinecocks Indians. The area will later be named Douglaston. ** Great Barcut, or Great Barn Island (later Ward's Island) is bought by Van Twiller. ** Patroon Michael Pauw sells Pavonia (parts of Staten Island and New Jersey) to the West India Company.
The patroonship of Killian Van Rensselaer now encompasses land 24 miles by 48 miles, covering most of the future Albany and Rensselaer counties.
New Amsterdam governor Willem Kieft and the Privileged Trading Company grant a lease for a tract of and near Fort Amsterdam to former governor Wouter Von Twiller, to be used for cultivating tobacco. It will become Peter Stuyvesant's bouwerie (farm) in 1651.
Jan Gybertsen stabs New Amsterdam gunner Gerrit Jansen in a brawl, killing him; New York City's first murder.
Henry, Lord Alexander, dies in Stirling, Scotland.
The New Amsterdam council hires Nicholaes Coorn as company sergeant for Fort Amsterdam. He will eventually be broken to private and two other soldiers will 'ride the wooden horse' (corporal punishment), for various crimes and infractions.
Andries Hudde is given a goundbrief (grant) for land located at today's Harlem.
The Treaty of Hartford (Connecticut) gives the Pequot Indian territory to the Connecticut Valley towns, disperses the survivors amongst the Narragansetts, Mohicans and Long Island's Montauk. The Montauk, as nominal allies of the Pequot, are forced to pay an annual tribute governor of New Haven.
Queens County is created from the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, on Long Island. ** Sir William Alexander, father of the late Lord Alexander, inherits his son's patent for Long Island.
The Dutch establish a cattle market, on the site of today's Bowling Green. It lasts for nine years. ** The Flatbush farm owned by Andries Hudde and Wolphert Gerritsen now contains a house, barn and hayrick. Andries Hudde sells Gerrit Wolphertsen 100 acres of land in Brooklyn. ** The population has remained close to 400 for the last dozen years or so. ** Local Mespaetches (Lenape) Indians sell Brooklyn land to the colonists that will become Bushwick, Greenpoint and Williamsburg. ** An ordinance is passed forbidding adulterous relations with heathens and blacks. ** The court of sessions of the North Riding of Yorkshire (today's Queens County, minus Newtown) is established at Jamaica. ** Willem Kieft replaces Wouter Von Twiller as director general. Kieft begins buying Lenape Indian land in today's Bronx, Queens, Staten Island and Jersey City. He establishes a system of ground-briefs, deeds for people taking up residence in the colony. ** The Dutch begin referring to all land west of Albany as Terra Incognita. ** Ferry service between Manhattan and Brooklyn is established.
The New Sweden Company (Swedish West India Compan<¬)=ÄMinuit and f;Æ settlers to the Delaware River to build Fort Christina (Wilmington), introducing log cabins to the Americas. New York governor Kieft strongly disapproves of Minuit's actions.
Staten Island's owner David Pietersz De Vries starts a plantation there.
A three-day Hudson River flood forces residents at Fort Orange (Albany) to camp in the woods until the water subsides.
Mr. Farret's Island becomes Shelter Island.
The Manatus Map (probably drawn by either Andries Hudde or Johannes Vingboons) is published, detailing the greater New York area, and showing Lenape longhouses in Brooklyn. ** Jonas Bronck buys nearly 500 acres of land in the future Westchester County. ** Members of the Iroquois, Lenni Lenape (Delaware) and the Mohican tribes are now residing on the Hudson. ** The Dutch West India Company purchases the area known today as the Bronx, to ease future overcrowding. ** Slave quarters are reportedly established to the north of town, across from Hog Island.
John Scrantom and other settlers buy the future site of New Guilford, Connecticut, from the Indian sachem Menunkatuc. Scrantom's descendant will become a Rochester pioneer.
The Dutch West India Company relinquishes its monopoly on the North American fur trade, permitting colonist to enter the trade.
© 2002 David Minor / Eagles Byte