Patroon
See also: Patroon, Manor of Rensselaerswyck, and Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions| Rensselaerswyck series | |
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| Dutch West India Company |
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| The Patroon System |
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| Map of Rensselaerswyck |
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| Patroons of Rensselaerswyck:
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Unfortunately for the West India Company, the infant colony of New Netherland languished, the cautious Dutch people having very little inclination to emigrate to wild and uncultivated lands in which no substantial inducements were present. While the economic situation of the colony in the late 1620s could be considered a relatively good showing for a colony only newly started in a wilderness, its slow success was hardly sufficient to create much excitement among the directors of the West India Company. Within a few years, the Company realized that special measures which would afford a stimulus to colonization were indispensable.
It was for these reasons that the Company proposed the Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions, which the States-General ratified on June 7, 1629. This document was created to encourage settlement of New Netherland through the establishment of feudal patroonships purchased and supplied by members of the West India Company. With a total of 31 articles, the document spells out many requirements of these patroons, primarily stating that each patroon was required to purchase the land from the local Indians, and inhabit the land with 50 adults within four years, with at least one quarter arriving within one year. In return, the patroons were able to own the land and pass it to succeeding generations as a perpetual fiefdom, as well as receive protection and free African slaves from the Company.
It is believed that the system of patroonships was originally suggested by van Rensselaer himself. He was reportedly one of the first of the Company to perceive that the building up of New Netherland could not be carried on without labor, and that labor could not be procured without permanent settlers. "Open up the country with agriculture: that must be our first step," was his urgent advice. The Company was not inclined to involve itself in further expense for colonization, and matters threatened to come to a halt, when someone—very likely van Rensselaer himself—evolved the plan of granting large estates to men willing to pay the cost of settling and operating them.
Van Rensselaer was quick to take part in the new endeavor: on January 13, 1629, he sent notification to the Directors of the Company that he, in conjunction with fellow Company members Samuel Godyn and Samuel Blommaert, had sent Gillis Houset and Jacob Jansz Cuyper to determine satisfactory locations for settlement. This took place even before the Charter was ratified, but was done in accordance with a draft of the Charter from March 28, 1628.
The report of the agents sent out had not been unfavorable. They had selected an extensive domain on both sides of the North River in the vicinity of Fort Orange for van Rensselaer, which extended 24 miles (39 km) in length, 40 miles (64 km) in breadth and covered an area of almost 1,000 square miles (2,600 km2). The location relative to the fort was chosen with care—in case of danger, it would be a sure point of defense or retreat, and its garrison would be very likely to intimidate the natives. In this manner van Rensselaer employed the troops of the Company more or less as coadjutors to his colonizing plans. Furthermore, the fort would become an easily-reached marketplace for the colonists, where they could maintain communication with the outside world. For that reason, van Rensselaer diligently maintained friendly relations with the commander of the garrison and the authorities within the walls.
His first act was to obtain possession of the land for his colony from the Mohican, the original owners, who had never been willing to sell their territory—not even the ground of Fort Orange. However, after they had been involved in a bloody war with their neighbors, the Mohawks, and were defeated in 1629, they were found ready to dispose of their possessions. In April, two officers of the West India Company in Fort Orange, Sebastiaen Jansen Krol and Dirk Cornelisz Duyster, specially empowered by writing of January 12, 1630, purchased a large tract of land on the west side of the North River. Gillis Houset, one of the men initially sent to determine a settlement location, increased this territory in August by adding tracts of land on the right bank, located above and below Fort Orange, and also by adding land on the east side of the river. After the initial expansion, the territory was later further extended by deeds of purchase in May 1631 and April 1637.
The most troubling aspect of colonizing the patroonships was enlisting the required number of colonists, so that the failure of many of the other proposed patroonships may in part be attributed to this fact. The patroons still dealt with the issues of a cautious people not caring to venture to an undeveloped world. As an owner of extensive lands in the sandy Gooi and of family estates in the not much more fruitful Veluwe, where several relatives were landowners and struggled to subsist on meager means, van Rensselaer had an advantage—his agents needed to employ little persuasion to induce some Gooiers and Veluwers to migrate to more fruitful regions where the farming would be less difficult. In addition, he could depend on the indirect support of his nephew Wouter van Twiller, who had been appointed Director of New Netherland in 1632, and with whom he engaged in friendly correspondence at a time when Dutch directors opposed the patroons in every way. In 1634 he collaborated with Michael Reyniersz Pauw, the patroon of Pavonia on shipping cattle.
With that, van Rensselaer shipped out 37 immigrants on his ship Rensselaerswijck from Amsterdam on September 26, 1636. The vessel arrived on April 7, 1637. The population rose to more than 100 by 1642 and doubled that in the next ten years. The village of Beverwyck alone had more than 1000 inhabitants by 1660 and is said to have become urban by this point.
The good understanding between the patroons of the Amsterdam Chamber left nothing to be desired; Burgh, Godyn, Blommaert, and van Rensselaer, before signifying to the directors their willingness to start colonies, made an agreement to work the projected colonies on joint account, each under the direction of one of them. Three of them would have a one-fifth share in each colony, while the fourth would receive the remaining two fifths, taking the responsibility for its management and exercising patroon rights.
Only Rensselaerswyck was a successful patroonship. Van Rensselaer successively purchased Godyn's share in the patroonship from his heirs, so that van Rensslaer soon became the owner of three fifths. The two other shares remained partly in the hands of Blommaert and partly in the hands of others: Adam Bessels owning Blommaert's fifth, while Johannes de Laet and Toussaint Muyssaert split Burgh's fifth between them.
Letters saved by the van Rensselaer family show that Kiliaen van Rensselaer never visited his colony in person.
Read more about this topic: Kiliaen Van Rensselaer (merchant)