Origins of the New Netherland Settlers

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Austrian Immigrants to New Netherland

Zacharias Sickles

Bohemian Immigrants to New Netherland

Herman, Augustine

Dominican Immigrants to New Netherland

Rodrigues, Juan

Italian Immigrants to New Netherland

Alberti, Pietro Cesare

Jewish Immigrants to New Netherland

Levy, Asser

Moroccan Immigrants to New Netherland

van Salee, Anthony

Polish Immigrants to New Netherland

Several early immigrants to New Netherland are identified as having Polish origins, based in part on their recorded names and also on places of origin indicated in records of churches, the West India Company, or other entities. Recorded names can be difficult to interpret due to variations in spellings, and some Dutch settlers have at times been mistakenly identified as Polish. Nevertheless, some soldiers employed by the West India Company may have been Polish, and there was an active trade relationship between the Netherlands and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth that likely led to some Polish people residing in the Netherlands and possibly emigrating to New Netherland. There was some effort to recruit Polish settlers. In a 1659 letter to the WIC Lord Directors, Peter Stuyvesant encouraged such recruitment, requesting:^[1]

"Some good and cleaver farmers, about twenty five to thirty families, and to assist them with a guard of twenty to twenty-five soldiers for two or three years for their protection against the barbarians who are thereabout somewhat strong and bold. That this might be carried out the sooner and with greater celerity and safety, your Honors will please, if possible, to cause that some Polish, Lithuanian, Prussian, Jutlandish or Flemish farmers (who, as we trust, are soon and easily to be found during this Eastern and Northern war), may be sent over by the first ships."

The Lord Directors replied that they would seek help to this end from a Polish nobleman.^[1]

New Netherland settlers believed to be from Poland include:

Borger Joriszen, identified in his marriage record as from Silesia.

Juriaen Probasco, from Wroclaw.

Albrecht Zaborowsky

Possibly or probably from Poland:

Michiel De Modt, apparently had been a soldier.

See: James S. Pula, and Pien Versteegh. “Were There Really Poles in New Netherland?” Polish American Studies, vol. 73, no. 2, 2016, pp. 35–55. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/poliamerstud.73.2.0035. Accessed 19 Apr. 2021.

See Also

• African Immigrants to New Netherland
• Danish Immigrants to New Netherland
• Dutch_Immigrants_to_New_Netherland
• Flemish Immigrants to New Netherland
• New Netherland, Immigrants from France
• German Immigrants to New Netherland
• New Netherland, Immigrants from England
• New Netherland, Immigrants from Norway
• Swedish Immigrants to New Netherland
• Swiss Immigrants to New Netherland
• Walloon Immigrants to New Netherland

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} James S. Pula, and Pien Versteegh. “Were There Really Poles in New Netherland?” Polish American Studies, vol. 73, no. 2, 2016, pp. 35–55. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/poliamerstud.73.2.0035. Accessed 19 Apr. 2021.