Birth Date unknown (ca. 1625-1630?)
Dies after 1662, probably in New Netherland/New York
Birthplace unknown
Lucas Andrieszen [family name unknown]
born 1635 or before [?: married 1655]
died after 27 March 1671 (sponsors baptism in Manhattan)
1655 marriage record says born in New Amsterdam
Presumed buried in Manhattan, New York
Aefje Laurens [Van Amsterdam, Van der Wall]
20 November 1655, New Amsterdam: banns posted for Lúcas Andrieszen, Van N. Amsterdam, en Aefje Laurens Van Amsterdam (Manhattan Marriages, p. 20).
We find Aefje as late as 1682 in New Amsterdam, baptizing a son; in 1684 and 1701 relatives baptize their daughters with her name, and Lucas serves as godfather; she may not be around anymore?
Aefje Laurens is daughter of Schipper Laurens Corneliszen van der Wel (or van der Wal), who appears at the baptism of her first daughter on 30 August 1656.
For more on Skipper Laurens, see his page (linked above); he lived in the colony a long time (from at least 1641, in the era of Director Kieft, to 1660, though he may have been absent for long stretches, since he was a skipper) and had a colorful history there.
Presumed buried in Manhattan, New York
Lucas stands as godfather of his niece:
25 Dec 1650, New Amsterdam: Lucas Andrieszen (with Adriaen Pieterszen, Trÿntie Jans) sponsors baptism of Wouter, second child of his sister Marritje Andries (only the father is listed: Jan Janszen Van Breestede); she and her husband, Jan Janszen van Breestede, sponsor several of Lucas’s kids (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 28).
(Trÿntje Jans is the name of two distinct women in the colony, both connected with Lucas; either may appear in these records: (1) From Haerlem in the Netherlands, wife of Lucas’s business partner Jan Joosten, also from Haerlem; they post banns 4 June 1660; Manhattan Marriages, p. 26. (2) From Breestede, likely sister of Jacob Jans van Breestede, Lucas’s brother-in-law married to Marritje; this Tryntje posts banns 3 June 1646, p. 14, to marry Ruth [Rutger] Jacobszen from Rensselaerswyck.)
And then he baptizes several children of his own:
Lysbeth
30 August 1656, New Amsterdam: Lucas Andrieszen and Aefje Laurens baptize Lÿsbeth, with sponsors Schipper Laurens en sÿn huis vr. (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 43). Seems a good bet that her mother, wife of Schipper Laurens [Corneliszen], is named Lÿsbeth.
Jannetje
17 October 1657, New Amsterdam: Lucas Andrieszen and Aefje Laurens baptize Jannetje (named for his mother), witnesses Laurens Corneliszen (her father?) and Jannetje Sebÿns (the baby girl’s grandmother and namesake) (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 47)
Geertruyd (I)
14 July 1660, New Amsterdam: Lúcas Andrieszen and Aefje Laúrens baptize Geertrúÿd (named for his sister), witnesses Jan Janszen Van Breestede (his brother-in-law), Trÿntie Jans (see also 12 October 1667, below, and note above about two women who have this name in the colony)(Manhattan Baptisms, p. 57). See 13 September 1676 below, when Lucas and Aefje baptize a second daughter of the same name; this daughter must have died in her mid teens.
Andries (I)
1 November 1662, New Amsterdam: Lucas Andrieszen and Aefje Laurens baptize Andries (named for his father, who may have died by now if he is not there to sponsor the baptism; sponsors are Jan Joosten [business partner of Lucas] and “Wyntie”) (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 67; see below, 12 October 1667, when they baptize another son Andries; this infant must have died young).
Godfather to his business partner’s daughter:
17 October 1663, New Amsterdam: Lucase Andrieszen (with Marritie Cornelis [possibly sister of her father, Schipper Laurens Corneliszen, but maybe not at all] and Annetie Joosten) sponsors baptism of Annetie, daughter of Jan Joosten (his business partner) and Trÿntie Jans (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 71).
Hillegond (I)
7 November 1663, New Amsterdam: Lucas Adrieszen and Aefje Laurens baptize Hillegond (named for ???; see 4 October 1670, below, when they baptize their second Hillegond; this daughter must have died young); witnesses are Claes Thÿszen and “Jannetje” (possibly his mother, Jannetje Sebÿns) (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 71).
Godfather to his sister’s son:
17 February 1664, Wildwyck: Geertruy Andriessen, from Fort Orange, and Luycas Andriessen, residing at the Manathans, and Jan Claessen, and Tryntje Tyssen witness baptism of Claes, son of TCDW and Barbara Andriessen.
Godfather to his business partner’s daughter:
15 July 1665 Lucas Andries (and Jacobus Van Luchtenburg, Marritie Cornelis, Annetje Joosten) sponsor baptism of Annetje, daughter of Jan Joosten and Trÿntje Jans (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 79).
Tietje
16 September 1665 Lucas Andrieszen and Aefje Laurens baptize Tietje (named for his father’s sister-in-law killed in June 1663 Esopus attack on Wildwyck?); witness is his sister Marritie Andries (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 80).
Andries (II)
12 October 1667, New York: Lucas Andrieszen and Aefje Laurens baptize Andries; witnesses are Jan Janszen Breedstede (his brother-in-law) and Trÿn Jans (see notes above)(Manhattan Baptisms, p. 88; see above, 1 November 1662, when they baptized their first Andries).
Godfather to his sister’s daughter:
15 October 1668, Kingston: Jan Anderiesen, Luyckas Anderies, Martie Anderiesen witness baptism of Geertruy, daughter of Tierck Claesen de Wit, Barber Anderiesen
Laurens
9 June 1669, New York: Lucas Andrieszen and Aechtie Laurens baptize Laúrens (named for her father, presumably Skipper Laurens Corneliszen; he is not here for the baptism, so he may be deceased); witnesses Jan Joosten (his business partner), Marritie Andries (his sister) (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 95)
Godfather to someone else:
25 May 1670 Lúca Andrieszen (with Mr. Evert Pietersen Keteltas and Hillegond Joris) sponsors baptism of Johanna, daughter of Johannes deWit, Jannetje Gerrits (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 98)
Hillegond (II & III)
4 October 1670, New York: Lúcas Andrieszen and Aefje Laúrens baptize Hillegond (named for ???; see 7 November 1663, above, when they baptized their first Hillegond, and 1 October 1671, below, their third try; this daughter must have died in infancy); witnesses: Jan Joosten (his business partner), Marritie Andries (his sister) (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 99).
1 October 1671, New York: Lúcas Andrieszen and Aefje Laúrens baptize Hillegond (see 4 October 1670, above); witnesses Jan Joosten (his business partner), Jannetje de Wit (possibly his niece, via his sister Barbara Andries, m. Tjerck Claessen DeWitt; there is also an unrelated Pieternella DeWitt in the colony, who is related to a Jannetje de Wit; see baptism 20 September 1676, p. 124)(Manhattan Baptisms, p. 103).
Tryntjie
23 July 1673, New York: Lucas Andrieszen and Aefje Laúrens baptize Trÿntie; witnesses are Lÿsbeth Lucas (likely their eldest child, born August 1656, so now old enough to be confirmed) and Jan Stephenszen (her intended; they post banns 10 September 1673, N.S., in New Amsterdam; see p. 37, Manhattan Marriages. This means she has just turned 16 when she is engaged; she has her first child, 10 March 1675 below, at 18 years of age). (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 110). See notes above about Trÿntje Jans, both as his sister-in-law and as wife of his business partner Jan Joosten; one or the other Trÿntje was godmother to several of Lucas and Aefje’s children, and one or the other joined with Lucas as godparents to other kids, even before the Trÿntje from Haerlem married Jan Joosten. We know of two Trÿntje Jans in Lucas’s life for sure; there could even be more. (See also 13 September 1676, below; she is still around).
Aefje
10 February 1675, New York: Lúcas Andrieszen and Aefje Laúrens baptize Aefje; witnesses Jan Stephenszen, Lÿsbeth Lúcas (see 23 July 1673 above) (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 117).
Godfather to his granddaughter:
10 March 1675, New York: Lúcas Andrieszen and Aefje Laúrens sponsor baptism of Lÿsbeth, daughter of (their daughter) Lÿsbeth Lúcas and Jan Stephenszen (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 118).
Aefje is godmother to a boy:
26 April 1676, New York: Aefje Laúrens (typo: Befje), húÿsvr. Van Lúcas Andrieszen, by herself sponsors baptism of Jacob, son of Fredrick de draÿer and Grietie Pieters (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 123).
Geertruyd (II)
13 September 1676, New York: Lúcas Andrieszen and Aefje Laúrens baptize Geertrúÿd (named for his sister; see 14 July 1660 above when they baptize another daughter of the same name, who must have died); witnesses are Balthús Baÿard (possibly related to Nicholas Bayard, Mayor of New York City 1685-86, nephew of Peter Stuyvesant? This could be Nicholas’s brother Balthazar?) and Trÿn Jans (see numerous notes above) (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 124).
Godparents to a granddaughter:
19 February 1679, New York: Lúcas Andrieszen and Aefje Laúrens sponsor baptism of Marritie, daughter of their daughter Lÿsbeth Lucas and Jan Stephenszen (named for Lucas’s sister, as well as other family members).
Lucas (I)
15 October 1679, New York: Lúcas Andrieszen and Aefje Laúrens baptize Lúcas; witnesses Hendrick Janzen Van der Vin, er Sÿn húÿsvrouw (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 138; see next entry, 23 December 1682, when they name another son Lucas; this baby must have died in infancy).
Godparents to another daughter’s son (Lucas):
21 February 1680, New York: Lúcas Andrieszen and Aefje Laúrens sponsor the baptism of Lúcas, son of their daughter Jannetie Lúcas and her fella Jacob Van Sauen (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 141).
Lucas (II)
23 December 1682, New York: Lúcas Andrieszen and Aefje Laurens baptize Lúcas (see 15 October 1679, their previous baby, also named Lucas); witnesses are Balthús Baÿard, Jannetie Lúcas (their daughter)
Godfather again:
6 April 1683, Kingston: Lucas Andriez, Jannetie Breestee witness baptism of Grietie, daughter of Jan Focke, Engeltie Breestee
Godfather to his sister’s daughter (named for Aefje)r:
14 January 1684, Kingston: with Jannetie de Wit, Cornelis Switz, witnesses baptism of Aefje de Wit, daughter of TCDW and Barbara Andries
Godfather to his granddaughter (named for Aefje):
12 February 1701 Lúÿkas Anderiessen (and Hillegont Lúÿkas s. súster) sponsor baptism of Aefje, daughter of Jasper Hoed and Trÿntie Lúÿkas (Manhattan Baptisms, p. 273; Tryntje Lucasz is his daughter, and her daughter Aefje is named for Lucas’s longtime wife)
Notes
11 Jan 1652, Robbert Vastrick is “bail for Lucas, the brother in law of Jan Thomasz, and his partner Arijen” (Ship Passenger Lists, p. 79; this is from A[rnold] J[ohan] F[erdinand] van Laer, “Settlers of Rensselaerswyck, 1630-1658,” in Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, pp. 805-846). Geertruy Andriessen is married to Jan Thomasz; in 1679 they write a joint will at their farm in Papscanee (across the Hudson from Albany), where it is witnessed by (among others) Jan Andriessen, brother of Lucas and Geertruyd. For more on the 11 Jan 1652 court appearance, see Rensselaerswyck Court Minutes 1648-1652, p. 180; it had to do with [Captain] Willem Albertsz [Blaeuvelt] and a fight; see pp. 178-181, and 202. Lucas and Aryen, “the servant of Cornelis Vos,” on the Captain’s yacht “have beaten said Willem over the head till he bled, knocking off some pieces of skin. . . . Willem Albertsz says that he was beaten by Lucas first, before he took the sword from its place.” The court sides with Willem.
On 11 October 1655, Jan van Twiller in Rensselaerswyck sends “your sword and baldric” to Robert Vastrick, “Merchant on the island Manhatans,” adding that is is going “by Luykas van d[e] Wellen.” (Correspondence of JvR, p. 21.) It is entirely possible that he refers to Lucas Andriessen, who is about to post banns to Aefje Laurens, daughter of Skipper Lauren Corneliszen Van der Well. See next note; on 13 October he appears to be absent from New Amsterdam. He is back by 20 November to post banns.
13 October 1655 (Records of New Amsterdam, I:374): When all the residents of New Amsterdam are instructed to make “voluntary” contributions for the building of a better wall to protect the town from attacks, “Luycan Andriessen,” who is “absent,” is taxed a single beaver pelt, worth 8 guilders according to the common exchange rate, very much at the lower end of the scale of payments. (The high end is 150 guilders; the low end is 6, other than a few people who make in-kind contributions like a load of stone.)
The Wedding Singer
We don’t usually find snapshots available to show what a wedding celebration looked like in 1655.
On 20 November 1655, Lucas and Aefje post banns in New Amsterdam to get married. They would have been married sometime in the next several weeks. We can guess that at the reception there would have been some toasts (likely in German and Dutch), some feasting, some beer and brandy, some music and maybe some dancing. The town in 1655 was still small, maybe 1,000 to 1,500 souls, and most people were acquainted with each other.
A 1671 book published in Indonesia gives us an unusual insight into the celebration.
In 1671, in Indonesia—not quite yet on his deathbed, but not too far from it—Jacob Steendam, recognized by some as the first poet of the Dutch New World, published a final collection of some of the works he had carried with him from place to place through his itinerant life. He had published before, in Amsterdam; there were no printing presses in New Netherland in 1655.
By some accounts, Steendam was born in Kniphausen in Ostfriesland, on the other side of Jever from Esens, probably ca. 1615. (See Wikipedia and other sources; Wikipedia cites F. Jos. van den Branden en J.G. Frederiks, Biography in Biographisch woordenboek der Noord- en Zuidnederlandsche letterkunde, 1888; Steendam’s marriage record in Amsterdam, 13 November 1649, does say he is “van Knipaus.” Kniphausen sits roughly between present-day Jever and Wilhelmshaven; it holds the curious distinction that Napoleon never quite conquered it, but that’s a story for another time.)
Steendam apparently grew up in Enkhuizen, a port town subsidiary to its larger seafaring neighbor Amsterdam. Enkhuizen, near Hoorn, was home to a large herring fleet and to local traders who plied the often treacherous mudflats and inlets of the North Sea and Baltic coasts, calling on little tidewater farming and fishing communities, ferrying news and goods and passengers back and forth. Steendam and the likes of Lucas Andriessen and his family were all from the same coastal culture and probably recognized the same old local legends (stories, sagen), the same jokes, the same moral lessons that come from skippers who know what it is to be rudderless in the shallows in fog at low tide, just out of earshot of land but close enough to hear waves washing over a nearby shoal. (Again starting with Wikipedia, see Jacob Steendam, De Nieuwe Taalgids, 13:273, The Hague 1919, which notes that in his 1649-1650 three-part collection of poems Den Distelvink Steendam includes three pieces in praise of Aafje Cornelis, a poet from Enkhuizen [II.191, 192, 193-195, and III.108], and he dedicates the third part of the work, “Heaven-Song,” to “highly learned and Godly” Domine Hieronymus Vogellius, a minister from Enkhuizen who railed against youth in the town and their loose morals; for Vogellius, see also Benjamin Roberts, Sex and Drugs Before Rock ’n’ Roll: Youth Culture and Masculinity During Holland’s Golden Age, Amsterdam University Press, 2012, p. 82, where he complains of “fighting, dancing, and carnal indulgences” on the Sabbath. Distelvink, “thistle finch,” is often translated as “goldfinch,” but it is not quite the same as the Donna Tartt novel’s namesake painting by Carel Fabritius; that was Het Puttertje, 1654.)
Though Steendam was born in a generally Lutheran area and grew up in a town where many religions were practiced, he was solidly affiliated with the Dutch Reformed Church by the time he served on the Gold Coast in West Africa as a ziekentrooster, starting in 1641. After an ill-starred attempt at love with a local girl, illicit daughter of a European and an African, he returned to the fold in Amsterdam, took a house on Spuistraat in the Nieuwezijds Achterburgwal neighborhood and married in the autumn of 1649 (he also at some point acquired a house on Anjeliersstraat; he sells both in 1652). Then, after publishing a slew of poems and baptizing two children in 1650 and 1652, he obeyed the fourth law of thermodynamics (“loose wheels roll west”) and headed for North America, where he lived for several years, speculating in real estate and attempting to make a little money at slave trading. Again he returned to Amsterdam when the British took over the Dutch colony for the first time, buying back his house on Angeliersstraat (apparently; see record 12.4.1661 in Stadsarchief where he buys it from Jan Vos, who bought it from Steendam in 1652). Here he baptized two more kids in 1663 and 1665, and he finally traveled ca. 1665 to Indonesia—Batavia—where he ran an orphanage, together with his wife and children, until he died in probably 1672. (See D.L. Noorlander, “The Lost Poems of Jacob Steendam,” for more information and some citations from the song described below.) Before he died, Steendam published one final collection of poems.
The collection Steendam published in 1671 in Indonesia—poems he must have carried with him in his trunk across four continents and at least three decades—was called Zeede-sangen voor de Batavische Jonkheyt, and it included three “poems” written for the marriages of couples Steendam had known in New Amsterdam.
One of these was for “Lucas Andries Sabyn and Eva Louwerens van der Wel.” Lucas Andries we know; we have guessed his mother was Jannejte Sebyns, from various church records. Eva is Aefje; Steendam has used this form of her name because his composition will compare her to Eve in the Genesis story of Adam and Eve. This was a composition for Lucas and Aefje. (Steendam, years later and halfway around the world, dates his poem 1665, but the marriage was in 1655. Steendam dates his poem “22 van Wintermaand,” or 22 December, just before Christmas, which is about the right amount of time after the official posting of banns. If you’re a skipper, December is a good time to get married, when the river is likely to ice in and you won’t be able to sail anywhere far till spring.)
As far as I have been able to find, this collection, and this “poem,” have never been republished anywhere, in facsimile form or in an anthology. (Steendam, as an early Dutch poet in the New World, has been well anthologized.) The only copy of his book that I know of is at the New York Public Library.
But one of the first things you see when you look at Steendam’s pages is that this is not a poem, or not exclusively a poem: It is a song (the name of the book is Zeede-sangen), and he specifies in the title lines the tune that it should be sung to.
This is not just a poem; it is a song that was sung at Lucas and Aefje’s wedding. We know the words, and we can find the music.
Noorlander describes briefly what a wedding performance might be like: “In New Netherland and the Dutch world generally, weddings were times of festivity and revelry, with beer and edible refreshments provided by the newlyweds and their families. Friends might also use the occasion to show off their writing talents, and they could and often did set the words to popular tunes and read or sing them before the gathered guests.” (Noorlander cites Jaap Jacobs, The Colony of New Netherland, pp. 228-30, where Jacobs describes a similar poem by Henricus Selyns, another early Dutch poet in the New World, and in fact the reverend who mistranscribed the wedding record of Tjerck Claessen DeWitt and Barbara Andriessen in 1656.) He goes on, discussing a different wedding song in the same collection: “Keeping in mind that Steendam—and perhaps others—sang the poem, and that he and Marius both lived on Pearl Street, one can almost see and hear the festivities of November 13, 1655. ‘Girls, are you not happy?’ he asked in one stanza. ‘What more do you have to fear?’ In place of fear they should ‘raise a Song,’ wish happiness to bride and groom, and ‘flood the PEARL STREET with chatter.’”
We can guess at the nature of the music too: Many of the tunes he used were familiar tavern drinking songs, and this was the period right before Johann Sebastian Bach was born (1685). So these were no Gregorian chants, but musically—to the degree that any drinking song follows rules—they would have followed the harmonic orthodoxy of the day.
And, since Steendam’s song for Lucas and Aefje names the tune it should be sung to, we can even find the sheet music. He attaches it to a song called Waarom souden wy niet meugen (which translates to something like “Why don’t we give it a shot”); he uses the same melody for his “Dank-lied na dan eten,” in Distelvink (see notes above) III.148.
As Noorlander notes, many of these old songs (tavern songs and hymns alike) can be found at the Nederlandse Liederenbank. Sure enough, a little searching comes up with a 1702 book of songs by Hieronymus Sweerts that includes the music to one of Sweerts’s compositions (“Aarde,” or “Earth,” from his Four Elements series on Earth, Water, Fire and Air), which Sweerts says should be sung to the tune of Waerom souden wy niet meughen. (Curiously, Sweerts’ 1703 expanded edition drops this song.) Sweerts helpfully notes that the tune is also called “La Moutarde” (a.k.a. La moutarde réformée), as well as “Petite Bourdeaux.”
But Sweerts includes the music notation, in the soprano clef in the key of F major, right there on p. 65 of his book, which Google has helpfully scanned for public viewing (and download).
With a little diligence, and a modern computer with software that reads musical notation and plays it back, we can find out exactly how that song went:
The sheet music, for those who can sight read, can be found here in a more modern transcription. (For the full text, click here.)
So we can’t quite get a snapshot of the revelry, and we don’t know what dance steps were used, and we don’t have a menu in a scrapbook to show the foods served, or who was the chef de cuisine, but we can sing at least one of the songs that rose into the air that winter evening.
No doubt there were other songs, perhaps more bawdy as the night progressed, but those did not find their way into the record.
On Friday, 9 March 1657 (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. VII, pp. 142-143), the “Burgomasters of this City of Amsterdam in N. Netherland” convene and draw up a list of people who need to make contributions to the city treasury, “as many have not yet paid according to the assessment made . . . in October 1655.” Luycas Andriessen makes the list, still owing 1 beaver (8 guilders).
Cities in this era gave “burgher right” to various people, particularly residents of the city but also (for a fee) people from outside the city who might want to do business in the city. Different cities made different arrangements; often the burgher right was divided into a “great burgher right” and a “small burgher right,” with different privileges, and different fees, and different requirements. When you see a person described in a court minute or other document as “a burgher of this city,” that means they had certain specific rights and responsibilities; they were a known person, registered. New Amsterdam in 1657 determined that it should start awarding the burgher right to some of its people. See Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. VII, p. 150, for some further notes on this. On 26 April 1657, Luycas Andriesen is registered for the “small burgher right” in New Amsterdam.
We find him noted in Van Laer’s Early Records of Albany Vol. I, p. 244, in the records of Jannes Dyckman, as having carried 1,500 beavers (pelts) from Fort Orange to Manhattan on 2 July 1657, 3,000 more on 18 July, 250 more on 6 August.
On 23 November 1658, Jeremias van Rensselaer mentions to Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt (his father-in-law? Maria van Rensselaer calls him “father”; see Correspondence p. 368) that “By skipper Luyckas Andriesz I also sent 30 schepels [of wheat] with the three bags which you had sent along, so that together there were 130 schepels.” (Correspondence of JvR, p. 113.)
On 4 October 1661 (Records of New Amsterdam,Vol. 3, “Court Minutes of New Amsterdam,” p. 374), Lucas Andriesen and Claes Bordingh are designated as arbitrators when Hendrick Aarzen seeks payment from Pieter Ryvendinck for freight. On 18 October the parties are back in court; Pieter has been arrested; the court gives everyone 72 hours to settle the matter.
In court in New Amsterdam on 8 November 1661 (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. 3, p. 405), Mesaack Martens, who apparently is no longer working for the WIC as a mason, answers a series of questions about his recent behavior. Yes, he was drunk a month ago and stole some cabbage from Pieter Jansen. Did he “climb in behind the fence of one Lucas Andriessen, skipper, trading to Fort Orange, through the garden and enter the house there very early in the morning” to steal a tub of butter? Mesaack says he hasn’t had butter in his house for six months; the problem is that he dropped his hat in the road nearby, and Barent Cruytdop picked it up and turned it in. He also has been accused of stealing lumber from the palisades that protect the city; there’s a woman whose chest he allegedly broke open to steal things; he has an answer for everything (except the cabbages, which he admits he stole). One might guess that if Lucas Andriessen is not a witness against him for the butter theft, perhaps Lucas (and family?) were out of town, up the river, the night the theft (allegedly) took place.
On 9 November 1661 (ERA Vol. 3, pp. 136-137), Lucas Andriessen and Jan Joosten buy the sloop Eendracht from Jacob Jansen Flodder, in Beverwyck, for 2800 guilders. This is the same Jacob Jansz Flodder whose lot was taken over by Lucas’s brother-in-law Tjerck Claessen DeWitt on 18 April 1656 (FOCM, p. 232). There are likely multiple ships named Eendracht (which can be translated as “Concord” or “Unity”) over the years. In 1664 (Ship Passenger Lists, p. 134) we find a vessel by that name sailing under Captain Jan Bergen, crossing the Atlantic from the Netherlands. (For the ship under Captain Bergen, see also Correspondence of JvR, p. 368, a note sent across the Atlantic on that ship, dated 21 October 1664. Jan Bergen van Graft was also associated with the ship St. Jan Baptist in 1661; see Correspondence, p. 262, both text and footnote.) But in 1630 (Ship Passenger Lists, p. 45), 1631 (p. 46), and 1634 (p. 48, 91) we find records of probably a different ship by the same name, plying the same route.
On 19 November 1661, Jeremias van Rensselaer tells Oloff van Cortlandt that “my last letter to you was sent by skipper Luyckes Andrisz, together with some cabbages and beets, 2 roosters and 2 hens. Since then I have received yours of the 28th of October.” (Correspondence of JvR, p. 278.) The next previous letter in the volume is from June 2 [?] 1661 (pp. 256-57), which describes in detail a case of beaver pelts to be delivered with the letter, then adds a note that the beavers were sent on the Geertruy. It is not clear whether the June 2 note is the letter referred to that was carried on the yacht of Lucas Andriessen.
Van Laer in ERA Vol. 3, p. 96, says in a footnote: “The name of Jan Joosten appears frequently in the Records of New Amsterdam in connection with a yacht called The Flower of Gelder, which he and his partner Lucas Andriessen sold in or before 1663 to Thomas Jansen Mingael.” See Ship Passenger Lists, p. 80, where de Gelderse Blom carries Jeremias van Rensselaer from Holland on 4 August 1654; on the same voyage (p. 117) we find Jacob Stevensen Kuyper and wife. Curiously, with regard to Jan Joosten: in the same ship that carries Tjerck Claessen DeWitt's two sisters and a brother back from Europe in 1662 (The Fox), we find (Ship Passenger Lists, p. 130) Jan Joosten [van Meteren], from the Tielderweert [in Gelderland], wife and five children, 15, 12, 9, 6, and 2 1/2 years old. Is this the same Jan Joosten who is the partner of Lucas Andriessen, a brother-in-law of Tjerck Claessen? If it is Jan Joosten, partner in a shipping venture, it must seem odd to be paying for passage on a vessel with someone else in charge. (Note too that another passenger on the same voyage is Hendrick Albertsen, farm-hand, listed in the same clump of names with Tjerck’s relatives; he may be a brother of Jan Albertsen van Steenwyck, Tjerck’s brother-in-law.)
On 23 January 1663, in court in New Amsterdam (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. IV, p. 186), Lucas Andriesen and Jan Joosten file a petition against Abraham Pietersen and his daughter, for reasons not stated in the record. On 27 January (p. 191), the dispute becomes more clear: Abraham Pieterson’s daughter is Merritje Abrahams, widow of Thomas Jansen Mingael. Thomas’s estate “is more in arrears, than they thought.” Jan Joosten and Lucas Andriessen (business partners in shipping) wish to take back a yacht that they sold to Thomas; he did not finish paying for it. (The yacht was valued at 1014 guilders; see p. 176.)
On 14 February, Abraham and his daughter “kick away with the foot” the estate, by which it is understood that they make no claims on it, and they will not be held responsible for any debts (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. IV, pp. 201-202). On Friday 15 February (p. 203), Jan Joosten and “his partner Lucas Andriessen” (who may not be in court for this session?) request to take The Flower of Gelder back from the estate.
On Tuesday, 6 March 1663, in the City Hall in New Amsterdam (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. IV, p. 210), Burger Jorizen asks Jan Hackens for restitution for a kedge, which Burger made for Tomas Jansen Mingael (for three beavers, about 24 guilders). Jan Hackens produces “an inventory of goods, which he bought on the yacht of Lucas Andriessen and Jan Joosten,” and says “that Lucas Andriesen and Jan Joosten admit, the Kedge in question is unpaid for. They therefore had no right to sell it. Lucas Andriessen and Jan Joosten appearing say, there was an anchor with the yacht, when they sold it to Thomas Jansen and that Thomas Jansen sold the anchor. They therefore retained the kedge instead. Admit they knew the kedge was unpaid for.” Lucas and Jan Joosten are instructed to pay Burger Jorisen for the kedge. (See p. 217 for more on the anchor issue.)
We find Lucas mentioned in records of Second Esopus War when he helps take troops or supplies back from Wiltwyck to Manhattan, leaving promptly because of weather or tide [I forget: look up source again. Kregier’s journal, I’m pretty sure].
In Manhattan, on Tuesday, 23 October 1663 (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. IV, p. 323), Lucas Andriessen is again enlisted as an arbitrator, this time in a dispute over the price of some goods, between Freryck Arensen and Robbert Risdum.
On Monday 5 November, Martin Cregier in his journal (DHSNY IV, pp. 88-89) says that Lucassen’s ship has come up from Manhattan. Possibly the ship he refers to is the ship of Lucas’s father, but it seems more likely that Cregier (Lucas’s neighbor in New Amsterdam) is referring to Lucas Andriessen’s ship. Whoever it is has brought back some “freemen belonging to Wildwyck,” though Cregier doesn’t describe who they were. Filling in from context: Two days later, 7 November, the colony directors have proclaimed a day of prayer and fasting to commemmorate the 7 June attack on the village that killed many and saw even more captured and taken into the woods as hostages. We can guess that Lucas has sailed up to spend the day of prayer with his sister Barbara and brother-in-law Tjerck Claessen, whose eldest daughter is one of the kidnapped children. We can also guess that after the attack, Tjerck may have sent his sister Emmerentje and brother Jan, newly arrived from Europe, back down to New Amsterdam to live there in comparative safety, either with Lucas or with Lucas and Barbara’s sister Maritie. The community is gathering in remembrance, though to read Cregier’s journal you might never guess it. We can guess that among the “freemen belonging to Wildwyck” on Lucas’s ship, we could count Emmerentje and Jan, here for the day of remembrance.
We can’t know whether Lucas stays the whole month, but we don’t see a note about his leaving until 8 December. We do know that on 1 December, Lucas’s brother-in-law Tjerck held the auction for the goods remaining in the estate of his sister Ida, who was killed in the June 7 attack, together with her toddler daughter and husband Jan Albertsen van Steenwyck. (Ida was visibly pregnant when she was killed, and her body was left in their burning house, an image that was repeated by many of those who later described that sorry day’s events.) Emmerentje and Jan both bid on (and win) items in the auction, as we see from later descriptions (for example, see Kingston Papers, p. 120, from 29 January 1664, where Jan and perhaps Emmerentje are no longer present for the court hearing; for much more detail see my page on Tjerck). This is a singularly difficult time for Tjerck; he has a furious meltdown on 13 November, where his neighbors say that “armed with a drawn knife, [he] openly quarreled in his house, acting as if he wished to kill every man, woman and child” (Kingston Papers, p. 103); he is suspended temporarily from serving on the town council. (This is the evening after a “female Christian captive” is returned to the town, DHSNY IV, p. 91; reading between the lines we can guess that it wasn’t Tjerck’s daughter, and he is still under great stress over her fate.) It is easy to suppose that Lucas stayed the whole month in Wildwyck, supporting his sister and brother-in-law at a rough time. It is also entirely possible that he continued traveling up and down the river between stops in the Esopus.
On 8 December 1663 in Manhattan (DRCHSNY XIII, pp. 312-313), we find Luycas Andriesen named with three other men in a complaint that (on 3 December) they drove six wagons, loaded with grain, from Wildwyck to the nearby Redoubt at the shore of the Hudson, to load onto ships for transport. The August 4 proclamation that nobody should leave town without an escort is still in effect. Fiscal Nicasius de Sille in New Amsterdam makes the complaint, based on a letter from Ensign Christian Niessen, who is trying to keep some degree of order up in the Esopus. (Niessen is permanently posted there, but lately Martin Cregier has been in charge; Cregier left for a spell and put Niessen back in charge.) The accused men respond that they had loaded up in front of the Ensign, who was supposed to escort them, and they expected him to follow when they left; they say they have no idea why he refused. So we see Luycas has been able to come to Wildwyck and no doubt visit his sister Barbara and Tjerck; he may have been there for as long as a month (see entries above).
The incident is described by Christian Niessen in his journal entry (DRCHSNY XIII, p. 352): “In the afternoon, Jeronimus Ebbing, Nicolaes Meyer and Frederick [Philippsen; see p. 312] the Hon[ora]ble Company’s late carpenter, went down unescorted to the Redoubt, with six wagon loads of grain, not being willing to wait for the writings and letters which should be sent by them to the Heeren Director General and Council of N. Netherland; and the Skipper Lucas Andriessen, also, said that he would not wait for the Director General’s nor any man’s letters but be off, as the wind was fair.” Cregier makes frequent notes of ships coming and going; sometimes he does not name them. It’s December, and cold, and there’s possibly ice in the river, and night will fall very early; none of this is mentioned in the documents on record, but this all must have weighed on a sailor’s mind. The day before (p. 351), Niessen writes, “on account of the hard frost, I requested the skippers of the vessels to go down to the Redoubt to examine their Yachts which they consented to do. In the afternoon, after the Sermon [it was a Sunday], sent a party to the shore to take down grain and to put it on board.
In New Amsterdam, on Tuesday, 8 January 1664, Lucas Andriessen is again asked to help settle a dispute (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. V, p. 2), this time in a dispute over the price of hiring a boat, between Lambert Barenzen and Albert Alberzen.
On Monday, 21 February 1664 (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. V, p. 32), in City Hall in New Amsterdam, Jan Joosten and Lucas Andriezen agrees (in a long list of other donors) to pay 100 guilders each “for the fortification of this city,” again placing them among the bottom tier of contributors (ranging from 100 guilders to 1000 guilders, with the deaconry and an estate coming in higher).
On Tuesday, 17 June 1664, in the City Hall of New Amsterdam (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. V, p. 75), Burgomaster Cornelis Steenwyck wants to see Lucas Andriezen in court on some matter; Lucas does not show (perhaps off on a voyage).
The British take the colony from the Dutch; Richard Nicolls is installed as Governor.
On 21 November 1664, Maria van Rensselaer writes a note to her father, Oloff Stevensen van Cortlandt, describing various shipments back and forth; she tells him “I am also sending in the yacht of Luyckes Andriesz to Governor Richard Nicolls [who had only recently taken over the colony from the Dutch] 100 schepels of wheat, which I had promised him.” (Correspondence of JvR, p. 368.) She further notes that she also has some boards to send him, but the yachts heading for New Amsterdam from Rensselaerswyck were all too full to fit them. On 25 November 1664, Jeremias van Rensselaer mentions the same wheat “by the yacht of Lucas Andriesz,” and now 308 boards have gone too, “in the scow of Jacob Engelen.” (Correspondence, p. 369.) Apparently the boards are only a partial shipment, with more to follow. He notes that this is “the last trip which they can make this approaching winter season.”
Lucas Aendreesen on 15 December 1664, “in New York on Mantans Island,” together with Martin Hoffman (Marten Hoefmaen) and “many others” (only six put down their names, including Lucas and Martin), signs a petition to newly installed Governor Richard Nicolls, right after the British take over the colony, asking for permission to hire a Lutheran pastor [see entry above]. The letter says the petitioners “were prevented by the former authorities from publicly exercising our religion . . . according to our conscience” and request “that with his honor’s protection we may be granted [freedom of] public worship.” (Lutheran Church in New York, pp. 48-49.)
On Wednesday, 19 April 1665, at City Hall in Manhattan (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. V, p. 221), the city council meets to consider Governor Nicolls’ order “to quarter one hundred soldiers” in the city; the Governor will pay 3 guilders per soldier plus rations. Along with questions about where the soldiers will be quartered, there is the matter of additional pay for lodging. Many Burghers have said “they would much rather contribute than lodge soldiers,” so they will pay for lodging them elsewhere. Lucas Andrieszen is assessed 2 guilders for this purpose (Stuyvesant himself pays 4 guilders); Martin Hoffman pays 1 guilder; Jan Joosten pays 2.
In ERA I, p. 451, on 24 September 1668, Reynier van der Coele appears in Albany to acknowledge in writing that he owes “Skipper Lucas Andriesse and Jan Jooseter, dwelling at New York,” 341 guilders, “growing out of freight due, and goods received at various times since the year 1666”; he promises to pay by 1 November, “whenever they . . . shall come to Esopus,” and he pledges his distiller’s kettle as security.
On 19 September 1671 (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. VI, p. 330), at Mayors Court in New York, Gelyn Verplanck, on behalf of Jan Hendricksen van Baall, seeks payment from Pieter Jacobsen Marius, Jan Joosten and Luykas Andriessen for a box that was lost somehow after being loaded as freight on a trip from New York to Albany. Pieter Jacobsen bought the box at Boston; he says he delivered it to Jan and Luykas for them to carry on their yacht. The court instructs Jan and Luykas to make good the cost of the missing cargo.
The Dutch briefly retake New Netherland, sailing into New York Harbor in August 1673. They rename the colony New Orange (Moulton, p. 5; see below for full citation).
On 27 February 1674, at court in City Hall in Manhattan (Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. VII, p. 65), Luycas Andriesen, Jan Joosten, and Francoys Rombouts take the oath of allegiance to the new government.
On 10 March 1674, in the City Hall of “New Orange,” which is the new name for the city formerly known as New Amsterdam and New York, all the “skippers and barquiers of this City” are gathered together to discuss “the order of the Honorable Governor General, that no more than two sloops shall go at once to Willemstadt [Albany] and Esopus, and one to the South River [Delaware] . . . determined by lot; also that they, the skippers, shall not convey any passengers hence without passport.” The various skippers respond with suggestions. (This is a useful list of at least 14 of the people in the city serving as skippers at that time.) Some of the skippers suggest, since the journeys are being regulated and limited, that the take be put into a common fund to be shared equitably among the skippers. “Jan Joosten and Luycas” suggest that instead of drawing lots to determine which ships can make the trip, “the first ready may make a trip.” The Governor General sticks by his plan to award passage by lots, but (on 15 March, Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. VII, p. 70) determines that the proceeds from the voyages will be shared out “according to the size and proportion” of each skipper’s vessel.
In a note dated 23 April 1674, Jeremias van Rensselaer writes to the new Dutch Governor General, Anthony Colve, after the Dutch have briefly retaken the colony from the British. He begs forgiveness for “my not having come down [to Manhattan] now with the very first yachts”; this gives a good sense of when the river reopened for travel after the ice of winter. He tells Governor Colve that “by Luyckes Andries I shall send your honor the 300 schepels” of wheat [possibly from the Esopus; the wording is ambiguous] that the Governor had demanded as quitrent. (Correspondence of JvR, p. 458.)
In 1825 in New York, Joseph W. Moulton (Esq.) published View of the City of New-Orange . . . as it was in the year 1673, meant to describe the colony during the brief Dutch rule before the British took it back later in 1674. On Page 19 he describes how “in Feb. 1674” the new Dutch town council levied a tax on people living in New Amsterdam/New Orange. Moulton doesn’t give a good description of what documents he’s using for his source, but in his list (p. 22) we find “Luycas Andries, Barquier,” taxed for 1500 guilders, and his partner “Jan Joosten, Barquier” taxed for 2500. Moulton’s list has been reprinted a few times in different places, and it has been sometimes mistranscribed to read “banquier” instead of “barquier,” but we know that Lucas Andriessen and Jan Joosten were both skippers on the Hudson, not bankers (see for example 10 March 1674 above).
For more on Lucas Andriessen in New Amsterdam, see The Iconography of Manhattan Island, Vol. II, pp. 218-219, in the De Sille List of people whose houses are depicted in the Castello Plan of Manhattan, where he is identified as skipper and part owner of the yacht Flower of Gelder, trading to Fort Orange, at Lot No. 6 in the list, “now known as No. 13 Broadway,” with further footnotes and references, including Records of New Amsterdam, Vol. III, 405; IV, 191, 203; V, 221. (The same record in Iconography (p. 221) describes Laurens Andriessen, a drayer, as from Holsteyn, who married Jannetje Jans, likely not a relative of Lucas and Barbara et al., but possible. See Records of New Amsterdam, VII:152, where he is described as van Boskerck when he takes the small burgher right on 17 April 1657; he is also indexed just as Laurens Andriessen, as Laurens Andriessen de Drayer, and as van Boskerck; see II:144, 227.)
Pix
If the map below is hard to read, just open it in a new window, and it should spring to full size:
Sources
From The DeWitt Genealogy: Descendants of Tjerck Claessen DeWitt, of Ulster County, New York, by Mary V. DeWitt.
Correspondence of Jeremias van Rensselaer 1651-1674, translated and edited by A.J.F. van Laer, Albany, 1932, University of the State of New York.
Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, Being the Letters of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, 1630-1643, and Other Documents Relating to the Colony of Rensselaerswyck. Albany: University of the State of New York, 1908.
The Lutheran Church in New York, 1649-1772: Records in the Lutheran Church Archives at Amsterdam, Holland, translated by Arnold J.H. vanLaer: New York, 1946, The New York Public Library; introduction, also informative, is by Harry J. Kreider.
The Records of New Amsterdam from 1653 to 1674 Anno Domini, Vol. V: Minutes of the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens, Jan. 8, 1664 to May 1, 1666, Inclusive, Berthold Fernow (editor), Knickerbocker Press, New York (under the authority of the City of New York), 1897.
Records of New Amsterdam (7 volumes), edited by Berthold Fernow, originally published New York, 1897; republished 1976 by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore.
Records of the Reformed Dutch Church in New Amsterdam and New York: Baptisms from 25 December, 1639, to 27 December, 1730,Edited by Thomas Grier Evans, 1901, New York, printed for the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society; reprinted 1968 by the Gregg Press, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Baptisms from 1639 to 1730 in the Reformed Dutch Church, New York (Collections of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, Vol. II), 1901, New York, Thomas Grier Evans, editor, reprinted 1968 by the Gregg Press, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909, Compiled from Original Sources and Illustrated by Photo-Intaglio Reproductions, Vol. II; by I.N. Phelps Stokes; Robert H. Dodd, New York, 1916; the volume includes detailed biographical sketches, with sources noted, in describing owners and inhabitants of each house in Lower Manhattan, based on the De Sille list from the Castello Plan.
