Adriaen Cornelissen
van der Donck
Born about in Breda, Noord-Brabant, Nederland
Ancestors 
Son of Cornelis van der Donck
and Agatha van Bergen
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of
Mary Doughty
— married
May 1641 in Kingston, Ulster, New York
[children unknown]
Died about
at about age 37
in New Netherland
Profile managers:
Richard Draper 
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Contents |
Biography
{{Notables Sticker|New York, Notables]] Adriaen van der Donck [1620-1655] is the son of Cornelis Gijsbrechtszoon van der Donck and Agatha van Bergen. His maternal grandfather, Adriaen van Bergen, was a military officer under the Dutch Prince Mauritis. A Dutch skipper from Leur, Adriaen van Bergen devised the plot to recapture the city of Breda from the Spanish during the Eighty Years' War. In February 1590, he approached Prince Maurice with a Trojan horse type plan. [1]
Van der Donck was fortunate to come from a fairly well-to-do family, and as a result he was destined to go on to University. He decided to study law, and the University of Leyden was the top school to pursue such a career. He entered the university in 1638 and graduated with a law degree in 1641. [2]
In 1641, Adriaen van der Donck sailed to the New World aboard Den Eykenboom (The Oak Tree). [3]
Van der Donck returned to Amsterdam In 1643 and from there to his native city of Breda, to visit his family. He discovered that a year before, his parents had done something unusual for the times; obtained a legal separation. Even more remarkable, it was Van der Donck's mother, Agatha van Bergen, who agreed to pay alimony to her husband in the amount of one hundred guilders per year. This fact suggests that the money was hers by inheritance. Where in England, and English colonies, property was passed down to the eldest son, in the Dutch system, it passed to all children, regardless of gender. [4]
Back in New Amsterdam, he married Mary Doughty on October 22, 1645 in Dutch Church, New York City, New York Co., NY Colony. In 1649, Van der Donck was appointed by the then governor general Peter Stuyvesant to be a member of the Council of Nine, a group of advisors and legislators in New Amsterdam. Adrieaen van der Donck became the first lawyer in the Dutch colony, and publisher of the very influential tract, Description of New Netherland, from his first-hand observations.
Van der Donck found an engraver, Johannes Jansson, while he was in Amsterdam and a publisher, Michiel Stael to print a map of "Nieuw Amsterdam." His enthusiasm for his new home was contagious, and over the next two years, both of his parents - separately - would liquidate their holdings, pack up everything, and board ships for Manhattan. So, too would go one of his brothers, his wife, their son, and several servants. "His zeal seems to have engulfed everyone it its path." [5]
He died 1655 in New Netherlands, [6]
Church records
Sources
- ↑ See Wikipedia: Adriaen_van_Bergen.
- ↑ http://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/dutch_americans/adriaen-van-der-donck/
- ↑ Wikipedia contributors, "Adriaen van der Donck," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adriaen_van_der_Donck&oldid=755906602
- ↑ Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. First Edition. New York City: Vintage Books (a Division of Random House, 2004. ISBN 1-4000-7867-9, page 465
- ↑ Russell Shorto, The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. First Edition. New York City: Vintage Books (a Division of Random House, 2004. ISBN 1-4000-7867-9, page 466
- ↑ 16 Sep 1655 (aged 36–37) Yonkers, Westchester County, New York. Non-Cemetery Burial.
- ↑ Samuel S. Purple. "Marriages from 1639 to 1801 in the Reformed Dutch Church, New York" In Collections of the New-York Genealogical and Biographical Society. Vol. I. New York: Printed for the Society, 1890.
- ↑ FindAGrave.com: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=126837756
- Wikipedia contributors, "Adriaen van der Donck," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adriaen_van_der_Donck&oldid=755906602 (accessed December 20, 2016).
- Shorto, Russell. The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America. New York: Doubleday, 2004.
- FindAGrave.com: https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=126837756
- Dutch Genealogy: https://www.dutchgenealogy.nl/donck-adriaen-van-der/
Acknowledgments
WikiTree profile Onder Donk-1 created through the import of EED1.ged on Sep 15, 2011 by Richard Draper.
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Categories: Netherlands Project Needs Birth | Eyckenboom (Oak-tree), sailed May 1641 | New Netherland Settlers | New Netherland Project-Managed
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There is much doubt as to whether they had any children or not. Three of the name, supposed to be sons of Adriaen and Marie, were on Long Island in 1672, Adriaen, Andrew and Hendrick. Bunker infers they were his sons, but the Onderdonk Genealogy by Andrew J Onderdonk, New York, 1910, and the Genealogy of "Van Der Donck Van Bergen", by William J. Hoffman, in the New York Genealogical & Biographical Record, Vol 67, page 229, state that it has never been proved or disproved as to whether these were his sons: Hoffman states Adriaen had no children.