Jacob Leisler

Colonial Conflict, Native People, Anti-Catholicism & The Burning of Schenectady

January 12, 2022 by Peter Hess 5 Comments

In 1652, New Netherland Director General Peter Stuyvesant declared that Fort Orange and everything around it, including the village outside the fort, often called Oranje after the fort, was independent of the ownership of the Van Rensselaer family. He named the small mostly Dutch village “Beverwyck.”

Possibly at the urging of the Van Rensselaers, their earlier manager Arendt Van Curler (Corlear) began planning the construction of a new village. [Read more…] about Colonial Conflict, Native People, Anti-Catholicism & The Burning of Schenectady

Jacob Leisler: Fanatic or Martyr? (Virtual Program)

January 12, 2022 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

On May 16, 1691, Jacob Leisler, de facto governor of the Province of New York, was hung til half-dead then beheaded before the largest gathering in the city of New York up to that date. Leisler’s administration had created a bitter division in New York.

Leisler aroused deep emotions that reveal much about the milieu in which he lived and continued to echo in historical evaluations. Moreover, Leisler’s immediate family and their households of servants and enslaved persons, their trade and marital connections, and their actions provide insights into the broader social, ideological, economic, artistic, and political events of colonial New York and its place in the larger world at a time of tremendous change. [Read more…] about Jacob Leisler: Fanatic or Martyr? (Virtual Program)

Evert de Ridder & The Albany-Amerongen Connection

June 7, 2021 by Guest Contributor 4 Comments

Evert or Eeuwout was born in in Amerongen in 1659, the son of Gerrit Theunisz de Ridder and Marrigje Ewouts Rietveld, he was baptized on Saturday the first of May in 1659 in the church of Saint Andries. Members of the de Ridder family still live in Amerogen on the Rhine in the Dutch province of Utrecht, but Evert de Ridder brought a branch of the family to New York in the 1680s. [Read more…] about Evert de Ridder & The Albany-Amerongen Connection

The ‘Turkish Captivity’ of Jacob Leisler and the Susannah

January 14, 2021 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Throughout the early modern era, North African raiders known as Barbary Corsairs, trolled Europe’s coasts from the Aegean Sea to the Netherlands and as far north as Iceland in search of European slaves. American ships were among their victims.

On October 8th, 1677, Algerian Corsairs boarded New York City merchant Jacob Leisler’s ship Susannah in the English Channel and captured Leisler along with his crew, two stepsons, nephew, and a passenger. [Read more…] about The ‘Turkish Captivity’ of Jacob Leisler and the Susannah

Jacob Leisler & The Dutch Colony Under English Rule

October 22, 2012 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Jacob Leisler (1640-1691) was intimately bound to the economic, social, and political development of New Netherland and New York from his arrival in New Amsterdam in July 1660 in the employ of the Dutch West India Company until his beheading in New York City by the English governor in May 1691. [Read more…] about Jacob Leisler & The Dutch Colony Under English Rule