“In 1641 a young Dutchman did what millions of Europeans after him would do: he left his home and all that he knew and set off on a voyage to America.” [1]
Unlike many future Americans, Adriaen van der Donck, the young gentleman or “jonkheer” (variously spelled “yoncker,” “joncker” or “youncker”) after whom the city of Yonkers is indirectly named, came to the Americas with a job. He was employed as a schout, a Dutch office that combined the duties of sheriff and prosecuting attorney. The settlement of New Amsterdam was not his first home in the Americas; he had first headed further up the Hudson River to the patroonship (estate) of Rensselaerwijck. Owned by Kiliaen van Rensselaer, then early 700,000-acre patroonship encircled the Dutch West India Company’s Fort Orange, and the fur trading town of Beverwijck (Beverwyck) known today as Albany. A recent graduate from the University of Leiden with a degree in law, Van der Donck applied his knowledge and skills in the area for three years before heading south to New Amsterdam.
During his time as the law officer at Rensselarwijck, Van der Donck handled a variety of legal affairs. He also spent a great deal of time exploring his new homeland. He roamed the Catskill Mountains west of the patroonship, got to know the native Mohawks and Mahicans in the area, and learned their languages and many customs. His interest created friction between him and his employer, but ultimately it benefitted the colony. His awareness of the natural environment and native life left its imprint in two places. First, his knowledge helped him successfully negotiate a peace treaty between Director Kieft of the Dutch West India Company and members of several indigenous groups, ending Kieft’s War. It was in payment for those services that he received a large piece of property that extended from “a little rivulet called Amakassin, eastward to the Bronx River and southward to Spuyten Duyvil creek.”[2] It was here that Van der Donck established his patroonship, calling it "Colendonck" (Donck Colony). He built the first sawmill on the Nepperhan River and laid out a farm and plantation.
As one of three men representing the people of New Amsterdam, he traveled to the Hague, the seat of the Dutch government, with a list of grievances against the colony’s director Petrus (Peter) Stuyvesant. In 1652, he made the final presentation before the States General and all seemed to go his way. However, by May of that year, England was on the move and the first Anglo-Dutch war found Van der Donck detained in Holland by the very government he had come to see.
For three years, the government refused to allow him to return to New Amsterdam. While he waited, he wrote a book and published it twice. Van der Donck’s deep awareness and appreciation of the natural environment, Native customs, European colonists, and the goods they brought with them were compiled into an amazing book, A Description of New Netherland, published in Amsterdam in 1655. Its purpose was to share his passion for his new homeland and to encourage others to settle there. A Description of New Netherland detailed the physical environment of the colony, including seasonal weather patterns, flora, fauna, Native life and customs, varieties of indigenous fruits and vegetables, and which imported crops and livestock were thriving.
In 1655 Adriaen van der Donck returned to New Netherland and picked up his life at Colendonck. Later that year, during what many historians believe was a general territory-wide raid by Native peoples against the encroaching Europeans, Van der Donck was killed at his home at Colendonck.
[1] Adriaen Van der Donck, A Description of New Netherland, Edited by Charles T. Gehring and William A.Starna, Foreword by Russell Shorto
[2] Edward Hagaman Hall, Philipse Manor Hall at Yonkers, N.Y., The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, 1912 and 1925, p. 31-32.
To learn more about Adriaen Van der Donck
Van der Donck, Adriaen, A Description of New Netherland, 1655, edited by Charles T. Gehring and William A. Strana, translated by Diederik Willem Goedhuys, forword by Russell Shorto, Lincoln, University of Nebraska press, 2008
Van den Hout, J., Adriaen Van der Donck: A Dutch Rebel in Seventeenth Century America, Albany, State University of New York, 2018.
Shorto, Russell, The Island at the Center of the World, New York, Vintage Books, 2005.
Hall, Edward Hagaman, Philipse Manor Hall at Yonkers, N.Y., New York, the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, 1912 and 1925.
