Jacques Cortelyou
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Jacques Cortelyou (c. 1625–1693) was an influential early citizen of
Early life
Cortelyou arrived in Nieuw Amsterdam from
Cortelyou's career as surveyor and real estate speculator
The town of
Cortelyou was active in Nieuw Amsterdam and later in New York. He was a real estate speculator, and served in many public offices.[8] As the Surveyor General of the city, Cortelyou worked under Governor Peter Stuyvesant. His most well-known accomplishment was his map of early lower Manhattan, executed in 1660, and known as the Castello Plan. Cortelyou was also instrumental in helping to erect the wall, originally fortified against attacks by Native Americans, from which Wall Street derives its name.
The Labadist missionary Jasper Danckaerts recorded a visit to his Long Island home in 1679:
Jacques is a man advanced in years. He was born in Utrecht, but of French parents, as we could readily discover from all his actions, looks and language. He had studied philosophy in his youth, and spoke Latin and good French. He was a mathematician and sworn land-surveyor. He has also formerly learned several sciences and had some knowledge of medicine. The worst of it was, he was a good Cartesian and not a good Christian, regulating himself, and all externals, by reason and justice only; nevertheless, he regulated all things better by these principles than most people in these parts do, who bear the name of Christians. . . . Jaques impressed us very much with his sincerity and cordiality in everything we had to do with him. . . . We left with him the little book which we had lent to him, and which he said he had found much pleasure in reading, Les Pensees de M. Pascal.
— Jasper Danckaerts, "Journal of Jasper Danckaerts" (1679)
Cortelyou's Castello Plan
Cortelyou's early plan of New York City was known as the
References
- ^ Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680, edited by Bartlett Burleigh James, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1913
- ^ History of the City of New York in the Seventeenth Century, Volume I, Schuyler Van Rensselear, New York, 1909
- ^ History of the City of New York in the Seventeenth Century, Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer, Vol. I, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1909
- ^ Register in Alphabetical Order, of the Early Settlers of Kings County, Long Island, Teunis G. Bergen, S.W. Green's Son, New York, 1881
- Council of twelve men, a group chosen to represent Manhattan, Brooklyn and Pavoniain attempting to punish the Native Americans for a murder they were alleged to have committed. For four years, Rapelje, the father-in-law of Hans Hansen Bergen, served as a magistrate for Brooklyn, where Cortelyou was based.
- ^ Collections of the New York Historical Society for the Year 1896, George Folsom, Printed for the Society, New York, 1896
- ^ Year Book of the Holland Society of New York, Prepared by the Recording Secretary, 1915
- ^ Calendar of Council Minutes 1668-1783, Berthold Fernow, University of the State of New York, 1902
Further reading
- The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America, Russell Shorto, Doubleday, New York, 2004
- The Cortelyou Genealogy: A Record of Jaques Corteljou and of many of his Descendants, John Van Zandt Cortelyou, Brown Printing Service, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1942
See also
- The architect Philip Johnson counted Jacques Cortelyou among his ancestors Philip Johnson: Life and Work, Franz Shulze, University of Chicago Press, 1996
- Cortelyou Road in Brooklyn is named for this early surveyor The New York Times, June 5, 2005
- Cortelyou Road (BMT Brighton Line), thus derives its name from Jacques Cortelyou
- Lawrence Van Voorhees Cortelyou, a descendant of Jacques the surveyor, was a member of the Holland Society. "Names of Early Comers," The New York Times, January 13, 1895
- Cortelyou Library