Jonas Bronck

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Jonas Bronck (died 1643) was an immigrant to the Dutch colony of New Netherland after whom the Bronx River, Bronx county, and the New York City borough of The Bronx are named.[1] A mural at the Bronx County Courthouse depicting Bronck's arrival was created in the early 1930s by James Monroe Hewlett. [2]

Contents

[edit] Origin

There are different theories as to Bronck's origin.[3]

In Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands there is a street bearing the name Jónas Broncksgøta. One theory holds that Jonas Bronck was born ca 1600, son of a Lutheran minister, Morten Jespersen Bronck, and was raised in Tórshavn.[4] In 1619 he went to school in Roskilde, Denmark, and eventually made his way to Holland.[5] His family may have originated from the Norwegian district of Elverum.[6][3]

Sources published in the earlier part of the 20th century favor the theory that Bronck was Danish[7][8][9][10] This claim is parenthetically reititerated in the 1998 Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898.[11] A 1908 publication claims that Bronck was a Mennonite who fled from the Netherlands to Denmark due religious persecution.[12]

A theory developed in the latter part of the of 20th century, following Young (1981)[13][14][15] and supported by the official historian of the Bronx, Lloyd Ultan[16] and the Bronx Historical Society[17] is that Bronck was born circa 1600 in Komstad in Smaland, a historic province of Sweden adjacent to the then-Danish province of Skåneland, made his way to the coast, become a sailor in the Danish merchant marines, and later transfered to the Dutch fleet.[18][19][20]

[edit] Marriage

On June 18, 1638 Bronck signed his banns of marriage as Jonas Bronck Jonason. He and his Dutch wife, Teuntie Joriaens, marry at the New Church in Amsterdam on July 6, 1638. in June 1643, shortly after Bronck's death, Teuntie remarried. She and her new husband, Arent van Curler,[14][19] soon thereafter departed for Beverwyck, a settlement on the North River near Fort Orange.

[edit] Immigration to New Netherland

Jonas Bronck’s decision to relocate from Europe was prompted by a number of factors.

During the late 1630’s events in both Holland and America induced significant changes in the governance of New Netherland, territory controlled by the Dutch West India Company (WIC) between the Delaware and Connecticut rivers and north along tidewaters of the Hudson. At its heart was the trading facility of New Amsterdam on the southern tip of Manhattan Island.

Following spectacular collapse of the Tulip mania in 1637, Holland’s government contemplated the idea of taking control of New Netherland from the Company and using the colony for resettlement of individuals impoverished by failed tulip bulb speculations. There was also vexation over the West India Company’s failure to develop New Netherland much beyond its original function, facilitating the fur trade. By contrast, English enclaves in the region were rapidly expanding in territory, population, and viability.

New Amsterdam’s inhabitants then numbered only about four hundred, a count that hardly had increased during the previous decade. Company properties in the colony showed signs of physical neglect and conditions of law and order were less than ideal. Faced with possible government expropriation, the company appointed Willem Kieft as director of New Netherland with a mandate to increase the territory’s population and vitality. Arriving in 1638, Kieft promptly purchased additional Lenape lands in the environs of Manhattan and encouraged private settlement by enterprising colonists of diverse backgrounds. It also liberalized the previous Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions so that settlers were no longer encumbered with excessive responsibilities to the WIC. Previously, most real estate and commercial activity in New Netherlands had been under its direct control.

These vicissitudes did not escape Bronck’s notice. He was among the first to recognize promising opportunities and along with various emigrants from Europe he crossed the Atlantic to settle in New Amsterdam’s hinterlands.[11][21] Vriessendael and Colen Donck were established around the same time.

[edit] Settlement and death

In the spring of 1639 Jonas Bronck and a party of other emigrants, including his good friend the Dane Jochem Pietersen Kuyter, departed the Dutch port of Hoorn. In addition to passengers and crew, their ship “De Brandt van Troyen” (Fire of Troy) was laden with numerous cattle. On June 16th the vessel was seen in the harbor of New Amsterdam.

He navigated up the East River, and made his home on a piece of land acquired from the Indians, across the Harlem River from the village of Harlem. The land was within the territory of the Siwanoy and Wecquaesgeek groups of Lenape who inhabited it at the time of colonialization.

Bronck was soon engaged with activities related to developing his settlement in what would become The Bronx. Several transactions indicated he was a man of considerable financial means. For example, Monday July 18th in lower Manhattan at Fort Amsterdam he signed a promissory note loaning 200 guilders to colonial councilor Andries Hudde. As collateral Hudde pledged his person and property. Three days later, in the same locale, Bronck agreed to a financial settlement with Gerrit Jansen van Oldenborch. They both appeared before Provincial Secretary Cornelis van Tienhoven and witnesses in the court of New Amsterdam where van Oldenborch acknowledged responsibility for helping to cause breach of a contract between Bronck and Clara Matthys, a young widow. She also had arrived aboard De Brandt van Troyen,[22] her passage made possible in return for a pledge to provide domestic service in the Broncks’ household. She was not able to abide by that indenture due to her elopement with Gerrit to New Utrecht on Long Island. As settlement, Bronck received one hundred guilders with the payments extended over several years. Also that day, Bronck signed a real estate lease with two other friends with whom he had travelled from Europe. Pieter Andriessen and Lourens Duyts agreed, in return for renting a parcel of Bronck’s forest land, that they would clear and plow the ground, then grow tobacco or corn. From resulting harvests the men would repay Bronck a total of 121 guilders, money he had advanced to pay their passage from Holland. After several years, the tract would have reverted to Bronck. When this contract was signed the land was covered by primeval forest including massive oaks, beeches, and hemlocks on ground that essentially had never been cleared for agriculture or harvested for timber. Such forests typically had trees with diameters over five feet, reaching heights over 150 feet (a 50 acre remnant of this forest still exists in The Bronx at The New York Botanical Garden). Axes obviously were a vital tool for Bronck and his tenants. The 1643 inventory of his estate listed no less than 23 of these implements plus horses and two yoke of oxen useful for pulling stumps. Monday August 15, 1639 Jonas was back at Fort Amsterdam where he leased a farm to brothers Jan and Cornelis Jacobsen providing them with a house, two horses, a cow, and land to be used for cultivation for a period of six years beginning September first of that year. In return the Jacobsens paid rent with commodities such as butter, grain and livestock.[23]

On February 23, 1643, Kieft launched an attack on refugee camps of the Weckquaesgeek and Tappan.[24] Expansionist Mahican and Mohawk in the North (armed with guns traded by the French and English)[25] had driven them south the year before, where they sought protection from the Dutch. Kieft refused aid despite the company's previous guarantees to the tribes to provide it. The attacks at Communipaw (in today's Jersey City) and Corlaers Hook (lower Manhattan) in what is known as the Pavonia Massacre. The slaughter led to retaliation and attacks on many settlements outlying New Amsterdam, including some in what is now The Bronx, such as that of Anne Hutchinson.

Saturday May 6, 1643, not long after Jonas Bronck’s death, his widow Teuntje Jeuriaens together with Peter Bronck conducted a formal inventory of the Bronck farm which was then known as Emaus. This procedure was done in the presence of the Rev. Everardus Bogardus, pastor of the First Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam and Bronck’s friend Jochem Pietersen Kuyter. According to official records of the State of New York, the latter two were identified as guardians of Bronck’s widow.

The inventory lists contents of the farm Bronck and his family had built in the wilderness during the period of less than four years following his arrival in America. Buildings on the property were a stone house with a tile roof, a barn, two barracks for farm employees, and a tobacco house. The tally of Bronck’s livestock was 25 animals of various kinds, plus an uncounted number of hogs, said to be running in nearby woods.

During the early 1640’s it was not uncommon for Bronck’s New Amsterdam contemporaries to identify themselves on legal documents with graphic marks that were also symbols of illiteracy. By contrast, Jonas Bronck’s personal library provides evidence he was literate in four languages, suggesting his education might have been as high as university level. His library was an impressive archive for its place and time, and is regarded as the earliest for which there is a detailed account in the colonial records of New York.

The following materials were listed in the inventory of Bronck's library: one Bible, folio; Calvin's Institutes, folio; Bullingeri, Schultetus Dominicalia, (Medical); Moleneri Praxis, (Moral and Practical Discourses), quarto; one German Bible, quarto; Mirror of the Sea (Seespiegel), folio; one Luther's Psalter; Sledani, (History of the Reformation), folio; Danish chronicle, quarto; Danish law book, quarto; Luther's Complete Catechism; The Praise of Christ, quarto; Petri Apiani; Danish child's book; a book called Forty Pictures of Death, by Symon Golaert; Biblical stories; Danish calendar; Survey (or View) of the Great Navigation; a parcel of eighteen Dutch and Danish pamphlets by divers authors; seventeen books in manuscript, which are old; eleven pictures, large and small.[26][27]

[edit] Bronck's Land

Bronck's farm, a tract of 274 hectares (680 acres)[19], known as Emaus, Bronck's Land, and then just Broncksland, or simply Bronck's,[28] covered roughly the area south of today's 150th Street in the Bronx in what is today Mott Haven.

Following Bronck's death, and the dispersion of the few settlers, the tract passed through the hands of successive Dutch traders until 1664, when it came into the possession of Samuel Edsall, (who had also acquired large tract on the North River known as the English Neighborhood) who held it until 1670, when he sold it to Captain Richard Morris and Colonel Lewis Morris, at the time merchants of Barbadoes. Four years later, Colonel Morris obtained a royal patent to Bronck's Land, which afterward became the Manor of Morrisania, the second Lewis (son of Captain Richard), exercising proprietory right.[29]

The area was known as "Broncksland" only through the end of the 17th century - so the modern name of the borough does not come directly from that farmland. However, the river which runs north to south through the area, and which his farm abutted, kept the name Bronck's River, eventually being abbreviated or misspelled Bronx River. This name stuck, and it was this river (which splits the modern borough in two) after which The Bronx was named.

[edit] Pieter Bronck

Pieter Bronck was also known as Pieter Jonasson Bronck. Given the relative closeness in age and same father's name indicated by the patronym (Jonas was born about 1600, Pieter, born in 1616) it has been claimed that Pieter was a brother or cousin to Jonas Bronck, and not a son as had been surmised. Pieter Bronck House is a registered historic place in Coxsackie, New York. The American poet William Bronk reported that he was a descendant of Pieter Bronck.[30]

[edit] Namesakes

There is a street in Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands that is named "Jónas Broncksgøta." The Jonas Bronck Academy[31] and Public Schoool 43 are located in the Bronx. A local brewery produces Jonas Bronck Beer.[32][33]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hansen, Harry (1950). North of Manhattan. Hastings House. OCLC 542679. , excerpted at The Bronx... Its History & Perspective
  2. ^ Deutsch, Kevin (November 09, 2010), "Seventy-year-old mural depicting Bronx founder Jonas Bronck damaged in courthouse construction", The Daily News, http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-11-09/local/27080664_1_mural-bronx-county-courthouse-historic-building, retrieved 2012-02-07 
  3. ^ a b Evjen, John Q. (1916), Scandinavian Immigrants in New York 1630-1674, http://www.immigrantships.net/v12/1600v12/fireoftroy16390700.html, "Jonas Bronck, who arrived at New Amsterdam in 1639, and whose name is perpetuated in Bronx Borough, Bronx Park, Bronxville, in New York, was a Scandinavian, in all probablility a Dane, and originally, as it seems, from Thorshavn, Faroe Island, where his father was a pastor in the Lutheran Church. Faroe then belonged to Denmark-Norway and had been settled by Norwegians. The official language of the island in Bronck's days was Danish. For a long time, writers were diligently searching for the antecedents of Jonas Bronck. Bronck may have been a Swede if we judge by the name alone, for the name of Brunke is well knows in Sweden. This possibility receives some support in the fact that a relative of Bronck, likely his son, Pieter Jonassen Bronck, made mention of a Swedish woman in his will, Engeltje Mans. He gave her husband, burger Joris, power of attorney to collect some debts. There thus appears to have been ties of relationship or friendship between Engeltje Mans and the Bronck family. (see articles Pieter Bronck, Part II., and Engeltje Mans, Part III.) Of course the fact that Engeltje Mans resided in Sweden does not necessarily made her Swedish, though we have classified her as such. As to the first Brunke in Sweden - he died in 1319- Swedish annals regard him as a foreigner. Brunkeberg, north of Stockholm has been names after him. Jonas Bronck, again judging by the name, may have been a Norwegian. According to O. Rygh, "Norske Gaardnavne," I., p 48, documents of 1612 and 1616 mention Brunckeslett, a place in Smaalenenes Amt in Norway. Noway [sic] has also a river called Bronka, entering Elverum (98 miles from Christiania)." 
  4. ^ "Middle Ages until 19th century - Did you know...". History. Faroe islands Review. http://www.heinesen.fo/faroeislandsreview/history.htm. Retrieved 2012-01-20. "that the man who founded New York in USA, Jonas Bronck (1600?–1643) was originally from Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, where his father was a pastor in the Lutheran Church. Bronck arrived at New Amsterdam in 1639, and his name is perpetuated in Bronx Borough, Bronx Park, Bronxville, in New York. An old street in Tórshavn also has his name - Jónas Broncksgøta. He made the voyage to America in his own ship, called Fire of Troy, manned by himself, accompanied by a friend who was an officer in the Danish army, Capt. Joachiem Pietersen Kuyter. They each brought their family and a number of herdsmen or farmers since their cargo was cattle." 
  5. ^ Wylie, Jonathon (1987), The Faroe Islands: Interpretations of History, University of Kentucky Press, p. 209, ISBN 978-0-8131-1578-8, http://books.google.nl/books?id=7kmEYtkttx4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:9780813115788&hl=en&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false, "Jónas Bronck (or Brunck) was the son of Morten Jespersen Bronck.....Jónas seems to have gone to school in Roskilde in 1619, but found his way to Holland where he joined an expedition to Amsterdam." 
  6. ^ Gjerset, Knut (1933). Norwegian Sailors in American Waters. Norwegian-American Historical Association. p. 228. http://books.google.com/books?id=6-NPljqhZbkC&pg=PA228&dq=Jonas+Bronck&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gtU-T_iTJ8_mtQbR7aH8BA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Jonas%20Bronck&f=false. 
  7. ^ van Laer, A. J. F. (1916). Scandinavian Immigrants in New York. "Reviews of Books". The American Historical Review (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the American Historical Association) 22 (1): 164–166. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1836219. "… Jonas Bronck was a Dane …" 
  8. ^ Van Rensselaer, Mariana Griswold (1909), title= History of the city of New York in the seventeenth century, 1, New York: The Macmillan Company, p. 161, http://www.worldcat.org/title/history-of-the-city-of-new-york-in-the-seventeenth-century/oclc/649654938 title=, "Here Jonas Bronck, another Dane who came in company with Kuyter, was the pioneer settler." 
  9. ^ "The first Bronxite". The Advocate (Bronx County Bar Association) 24: 59. 1977. http://books.google.com/books?id=Qo6mAAAAIAAJ&q=Jonas+Bronck+Frisia&dq=Jonas+Bronck+Frisia&hl=en&sa=X&ei=meEMT5qQAvTa4QSHm7SwBg&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA. "It is widely accepted that Bronck came from Denmark, but claims have also been made by the Frisian Islands on the North Sea coast and by a small town in Germany." 
  10. ^ "Bronck, Bronx Discoverer, Not a Dutchman but a Dane", The New York Times, March 31, 1912, http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=F30E12F6385E13738DDDA80B94DB405B828DF1D3, retrieved 2012-02-20 
  11. ^ a b Burrows, Edwin G.; Wallace, Mike (Michael L.) (1999). Gotham, A History of New York City to 1898. 1. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 30–37. ISBN 0-19-511634-8. "…many of these colonists, perhaps as many as half of them, represented the same broad mixture of nationalities as New Amsterdam itself. Among them were Swedes, Germans, French, Belgians, Africans, and Danes (such as a certain Jonas Bronck)..." 
  12. ^ Cook, Harry Tecumseh; Kaplan, Nathan Julius (1913). The Borough of the Bronx, 1639-1913: its marvelous Development and historical Surroundings. p. 10. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Jonas+Bronck#q=Jonas+Bronck&hl=en&tbm=bks&ei=kNY-T6z-CcyP4gTP3ozGCA&start=10&sa=N&fp=1&biw=1280&bih=618&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&cad=b. "The 'Magazine of American History,' January, 1908, tells us that Jonas Bronck 'was one of those worthy but unfortunate Mennonites who were driven from their homes in Holland to Denmark by religious persecution.'" 
  13. ^ Young, G. V C (1981). The Founder of The Bronx. Peel, Isle of Man: The Mansk-Swedish Publishing Co. Ltd.. http://openlibrary.org/works/OL4851486W/The_founder_of_the_Bronx. 
  14. ^ a b Andersson, Brian G. (1998). "The Bronx, a Swedish Connection". Ancestry Magazine 16 (4): 36–41. http://books.google.com/books?id=ZUDmStlV7QEC&pg=PA41&dq=Jonas+Bronck+Sweden&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RNcNT4HlEM_BswagnOngBA&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Jonas%20Bronck%20Sweden&f=false. 
  15. ^ Mattausch-Yildiz, Birgit (2011). "Stadt als Transitraum: Ein Blick hinter den Bronx-Mythos [The City as a transitional Space: investigating the Bronx Myth]". In Bukow, Wolf-Dietrich; Heck, Gerda; Schulze, Erika et al (in German). Neue Vielfalt in der urbanen Stadtgesellschaft [A new Diversity in Urban Society]. VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. ISBN 3531177540. http://books.google.com/books?id=zSQKQ53SZ_gC&pg=PA50&dq=Jonas+Bronck+Sweden&hl=en&sa=X&ei=RNcNT4HlEM_BswagnOngBA&ved=0CEgQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Jonas%20Bronck%20Sweden&f=false. "Der Name The Bronx geht auf den ersten Siedler 1639, den Schweden Jonas Bronck und dessen Familie ('the Broncks') zurück – so lautet zumindest die landläufige Erklärung für den Artikel in Namen. [The name The Bronx relates to the first settler from 1639, the Swede Jonas Bronck and his family ('the Broncks') – that at least is the common explanation for the article in that name.]" 
  16. ^ Ultan, Lloyd (1993). The Bronx In The Frontier Era. From the Beginning to 1696. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall / Hunt Publishing Company. 
  17. ^ "Jonas Bronx". Bronx Notables. Bronx historical Society. http://www.bronxhistoricalsociety.org/notebx.html. Retrieved 2012-01-20. 
  18. ^ Nilsson, Elna; Gumaelous, Malin, Komstad, Småland, Sverige Jonas Bronck Bronx, New York, America, http://www.savsjo.se/download/18.6547303a118108d74dc80006599/Jonas+Brunck.pdf 
  19. ^ a b c Nilsson, Elna (2007). "Jonas Jonsson Brunk - Från Komstad till Bronx" (in Swedish). http://www.komstadkvarn.se/Jonas%20Jonsson%20Brunck%20av%20Elna%20Nilsson.pdf. Retrieved 2012-02-18. 
  20. ^ Mattice, Shelby; Dorpfeld, David (January 18, 2012), "Jonas and Pieter Bronck", Register-Star, http://www.registerstar.com/articles/2012/01/18/columnists/windows_through_time/doc4f16c47926618435762519.txt, retrieved 2012-02-18 
  21. ^ Paulsen, Frederik Sr (1976). "Frisians in the History of the United States". Rootsweb.com. http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~ccho/Cards/history/usfrisians.htm. Retrieved 11 January 2011. "... Jonas Bronk, who gave his name to Bronx, was the leader of a North-Frisian group of settlers, who carried out the first well prepared and thoroughly organized permanent settlement in the area now called New York." 
  22. ^ "Brant van Troyen (Fire of Troy)". Ships Passenger Lists. The Olive Tree Genealogy. http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/nnship49.shtml. Retrieved 2012-02-23. 
  23. ^ Register of the Provincial Secretary 1638–1642, 1, New Netherland Research Center, New York State Library, Albany, pp. 126, 127, 140, 141, http://www.nnp.org/nnrc/Documents/Register%20of%20the%20Provincial%20Secretary/files/vanlaersansx.pdf 
  24. ^ Shorto, Russell (2004). The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America. Vintage Books (Random House). p. 123. ISBN 0385503490. 
  25. ^ Sultzman, Lee (1997). "Wappinger History". http://www.dickshovel.com/wap.html. Retrieved 14 January 2012. 
  26. ^ Legislature, State of New York (1901) [1883], Documents relative to the colonial history of the state of New York, 14, Albany: Weed, Parsons and Co., pp. 42–44, http://www.archive.org/details/documentsrelativ14brod 
  27. ^ Hastings, Hugh (State Historian) (1901), Ecclesiastical Records of the State of New York, 1, Albany: State Printer, p. 168, http://books.google.com/books?id=U3EAAAAAMAAJ&q=Bronck# 
  28. ^ Hansen, Harry North of Manhattan. "excepted from North of Manhattan', Hastings House, 1950". The Bronx...Its History & Perspective. The Bronx Mall. http://www.bronxmall.com/cult/series/2.html. Retrieved 2012-01-20. 
  29. ^ Sterling, Aladine, The Book of Englewood, Committee on the History of Englewood authorized by The Mayor and Council of City of Englewood, N.J., http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924028828858/cu31924028828858_djvu.txt 
  30. ^ http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bronk/katzman.htm
  31. ^ http://schools.nyc.gov/SchoolPortals/10/X228/default.htm
  32. ^ http://broncksbeer.com/
  33. ^ http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-09-15/local/30177677_1_bronx-brewery-bronx-ale-house-jonas-bronck

[edit] Other sources

  • Benson, Adolph B. and Naboth Hedin, eds. Swedes in America, 1638-1938 (The Swedish American Tercentenary Association. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 1938) ISBN 978-0838303269

[edit] External links

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