New Utrecht, Brooklyn
40°36′36″N 74°0′12″W / 40.61000°N 74.00333°W
New Utrecht (
History
Dutch settlement
New Netherland series |
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Exploration |
Fortifications: |
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Settlements: |
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The Patroon System |
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People of New Netherland |
Flushing Remonstrance |
In 1643,
Nicasius de Sille, an attorney from Arnhem, Gelderland, was one of the first to purchase a lot. He built a house using locally available stone, topped with red roof tiles imported from the Netherlands. He moved to New Utrecht from his former residence in New Amsterdam, at the lower part of the island near the current intersection of Broad Street and Exchange Place. De Sille served as an advisor to Governor Petrus Stuyvesant and as a "schout fiscal",[2] a combination of sheriff and district attorney. In 1660, de Sille completed a "List of the Inhabitants of New Amsterdam", at the behest of Stuyvesant. The names and addresses on the list correspond to the houses drawn on the Castello Plan.
Once a defensive palisade wall was erected around the town of New Utrecht on western Long Island, more residents settled there. In 1657, New Utrecht was granted status as a village, and in 1661 Governor Peter Stuyvesant provided New Utrecht its own charter.[3] New Netherland was taken over by the English in 1664, who changed its name to the Province of New York.
The Bensons were among the original Dutch settlers in New Utrecht. Other early families in the town include di Sille, Van Pelt, Cropsey, and Nostrand. Cropsey Avenue and Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn are named for the latter two founding families.
What is called the Van Pelt Manor House was built in stages. The first section, of stone, was built by Jan Van Cleef (Cleve) around 1675 and later sold to Nicholas de Meyer, who sold it to Teunis Van Pelt. An agreement with de Meyer allowed Van Cleef to live in the dwelling from 1691 until his death c. 1699. Around 1686, the house was enlarged and a second floor was added. Van Pelt's land was never established in deed nor granted the status of "Manor".
New Utrecht Cemetery and Reformed Church
Initially, the residents in New Utrecht went to
In 1856,
New Utrecht in Kings County
In 1683, when the English established Kings County within the Province of New York, New Utrecht was one of its six original towns. It came to encompass the villages of New Utrecht, Bath, Fort Hamilton and Bay Ridge. Town records were kept in the Dutch language until 1763. That year the British defeated France in the Seven Years' War and took over its territory in North America east of the Mississippi River. They asserted their power in New York as well, requiring records to be in English.
Revolutionary War
During the American Revolution, the British made New Utrecht their base of operations for the Battle of Long Island. The old Cortelyou mansion served as General Howe's headquarters after he landed on Long Island in August 1776. The British brought the mortally wounded American General Nathaniel Woodhull to the Nicasius di Sille house for treatment.[3] The house was demolished in 1850.)
The bluff on which Fort Hamilton was built in the 1820s was occupied at this time by the houses of Denyse Denyse, Abraham Bennett, and Simon Cortelyou. In the bombardment from the British ships, on August 26, 1776, the Bennett and Denyse dwellings were struck by their shots. From 1776 to the end of the British occupation, sympathizers with the Patriot cause traveled by fishing boats at night across The Narrows to meet with compatriots in Staten Island and New Jersey.
During the
A literary club called the "Winter Society" founded the Free Library of the Town of New Utrecht in 1894.[5]
New Utrecht was annexed by the
After city unification
The area that encompassed the town center of New Utrecht is located in what is now
See also
References
- ^ "New Utrecht", New Netherland Institute
- ^ Catharine T. R. Mathews (1903). "The de Sille Family of Holland". The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. 34: 24–28.
- ^ a b "Historic New Utrecht", Friends of Historic New Utrecht.
- ^ Holly Huckins; Joan Olshansky & Elizabeth Spencer-Ralph (September 1979). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: New Utrecht Reformed Church Complex". New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Retrieved 2011-02-20.
- ^ "New Utrecht Library", Brooklyn Public Library
- ^ "Yellow Hook" at the northern corner of The Narrows appears on a map in J.F.W. Des Barres, The Atlantic Neptune, 1779.
External links
- Greenwood and New Utrecht travel guide from Wikivoyage