Cornelis Jacobsen Mey (in Dutch often rendered as Cornelius Jacobsz. May) was a Dutch explorer, captain and fur trader.

Cape May Cape May consists of a peninsula and barrier island system in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is roughly coterminous with Cape May County and runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean. The so ...

Cape May County Cape May County is the southernmost county in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Much of the county is located on Cape May bound by Delaware Bay to its west and the Atlantic Ocean to its south and east. Adjacent to the Atlantic coastline are f ...

, and the city of

Cape May, New Jersey Cape May is a city located at the southern tip of Cape May Peninsula in Cape May County, New Jersey, United States, where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. It is one of the country's oldest vacation resort destinations, and part of ...

, are named after him.

Russell Shorto Russell Anthony Shorto (born February 8, 1959) is an American author, historian, and journalist who is best known for his book on the Dutch origins of New York City, '' The Island at the Center of the World''. Shorto's research for the book rel ...

, ''The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America.'' First Edition. (

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Vintage Books Vintage Books is a trade paperback publishing imprint of Penguin Random House originally established by Alfred A. Knopf in 1954. The company was purchased by Random House in April 1960, and a British division was set up in 1990. After Random ...

(a Division of

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, 2004), p. 40.

Family

Cornelius May is said to be from the city of Hoorn but may have been born in the small village of Schellinkhout, just east of Hoorn, as he appears to have been the brother of Jan Jacobszoon May van Schellinkhout, after whom the island of

Jan Mayen Jan Mayen () is a Norwegian volcanic island in the Arctic Ocean with no permanent population. It is long (southwest-northeast) and in area, partly covered by glaciers (an area of around the Beerenberg volcano). It has two parts: larger ...

is named.Samuel Muller ''Geschiedenis van de Noordsche Compagnie.'', Gebr van der Post, 1874, footnote on page 167
/ref> Both brothers were the cousin of, in his day, a far more famous sailor, Jan Cornelisz May,
/ref> who led several expeditions to explore the Northeast passage and between 1614 and 1617 circumnavigated the world with

Joris van Spilbergen Joris van Spilbergen (1568 in Antwerp – January 31, 1620 in Bergen op Zoom) was a Dutch naval officer. Joris van Spilbergen was born in Antwerp in 1568. His first major expedition was in 1596, when he sailed to Africa. He then left for As ...

1614 to 1616 expeditions to New Netherland

May sailed first in the ''Mauritius River'' or " Hudson's river" (so referred to first by

Adriaen Block Adriaen (Arjan) Block (c. 1567 – buried April 27, 1627) was a Dutch private trader, privateer, and ship's captain who is best known for exploring the coastal and river valley areas between present-day New Jersey and Massachusetts during four v ...

in 1613) in 1614 where an agreement was made among various competing traders. On October 11, 1614, May became a party to the

New Netherland Company New Netherland Company () was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Following Henry Hudson’s exploration of the east coast of North America on behalf of the Dutch East India Company in 1609, several Dutch merchants sent ships to trade wit ...

which received an exclusive patent from the

States General The word States-General, or Estates-General, may refer to: Currently in use * Estates-General on the Situation and Future of the French Language in Quebec, the name of a commission set up by the government of Quebec on June 29, 2000 * States Gener ...

for four voyages to be undertaken for three years to territories discovered between the 40th and 45th parallels at the exclusion of all other Dutch (until January 1618). From August until November 1616, the company tried unsuccessfully to obtain a new patent for a territory situated between the 38th and 40th parallels (i.e., the

Delaware Bay Delaware Bay is the estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the northeast seaboard of the United States. It is approximately in area, the bay's freshwater mixes for many miles with the saltwater of the Atlantic Ocean. The bay is bordered inland ...

area) which in 1614 and 1615 had been surveyed by Cornelis Hendricksz from Monnikendam on the ship ''Onrust''. In 1616 Cornelis Hendricksen, sailed the ''Onrust'' up the Zuyd Rivier (literally "South River," today known as the Delaware River) from its bay to its northernmost navigable reaches, on a voyage to ransom three fur traders taken from Fort Nassau on the North River.Wheeler, Edward Smith. ''Scheyichbi and the Strand'', J.B. Lippincott & Company, Philadelphia, 1876
/ref> On behalf of the successor company of the New Netherland Company, Cornelius Jacobsen May had explored and surveyed the Delaware Bay on the ship named ''Blijde Boodschap'' (en. "Joyful Message") from which he carried on trade with the Indians there in 1620. In 1621, he ordered the construction of

factorij Factory was the common name during the medieval and early modern eras for an entrepôt – which was essentially an early form of free-trade zone or transshipment point. At a factory, local inhabitants could interact with foreign merchants, ...

of Fort Nassau at the mouth of the

Big Timber Creek Big Timber Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 stream in southwestern New Jersey. The creek was called Tetamekanchz Kyl by Lenape tribes prior to Eu ...

. Two of the six business partners of the ships ''Blijde Boodschap'' and ''Bever'' which focused on exploration and trade in the Zuidt Rivier or Delaware River, were Thijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen and Samuel Godijn. Cape Hinlopen, now spelled

Cape Henlopen Cape Henlopen is the southern cape of the Delaware Bay along the Atlantic coast of the United States. It lies in the state of Delaware, near the town of Lewes, where the Delaware Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. Off the coast on the bay side are t ...

in Delaware is named after the former. Cape Hinlopen was New Netherland's most southern border on the 38th parallel.

Samuel Godyn Samuel Godin, Godyn or Godijn (Antwerp, 1561 or around 1566 – September 29, Amsterdam, 1633) was a wealthy merchant, originally from Southern Netherlands, trading on Spain, Brazil and the Levant. He was one of the administrators of the Noor ...

had Godyn's Bay named after him, now renamed Delaware Bay. Also spelled Godijn or Godin, he was one of the first patroons in

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva P ...

as well as a director of the West India Company and of the Northern Company.

First colonists to New Netherland

May was unable to trade in the South River (Delaware River) to the exclusion of competing Dutch companies. Though the competing Dutch companies were eventually able to reach agreement in New Netherland, discord arose again which was settled, finally, by a judgment of arbitrators at Amsterdam on December 23, 1623. The 38th and 39th parallels region came under the final jurisdiction of the Dutch West India Company with the delivery of the first settlers to New Netherland in 1624, mostly Walloon and Flemish families."Cornelius Jacobsen Mey", New Netherland Institute
/ref> May was the captain of the ship ''New Netherland'' who delivered the first boat load of colonists to

, first at

Fort Orange Fort Orange ( nl, Fort Oranje) was the first permanent Dutch settlement in New Netherland; the present-day city of Albany, New York developed at this site. It was built in 1624 as a replacement for Fort Nassau, which had been built on nearb ...

, the trading post near present-day Albany, and then on

Governors Island Governors Island is a island in New York Harbor, within the New York City borough of Manhattan. It is located approximately south of Manhattan Island, and is separated from Brooklyn to the east by the Buttermilk Channel. The National Park ...

, in present-day NYC, that year. In the spring of 1624, Cornelius Jacobsen May returned to New Netherlands in command of the ''Nieu Nederlandt'', with the first group of settlers, mostly young Walloon families. Some were sent to company lands in Connecticut, while two families and eight single males took a sloop to the Zuidt (South) River, now the Delaware River, and established

Fort Wilhelmus Fort Wilhelmus was a ''factorij'' in the 17th-century colonial province of New Netherland, located on what had been named Hooghe Eyland (High Island) (also called Verhulsten Island) on the Zuyd Rivier, now Burlington Island in the Delaware River ...

. Eight men were also left on Nut Island to promote the fur trade, and the remaining eighteen families proceeded upriver to

.Klein, Milton M., ''The Empire State'', Cornell University Press, 2005
Having so transformed the New Netherland territory to a province, he was named the province's first director.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:May, Cornelius Jacobsen 16th-century births 17th-century deaths 17th-century Dutch explorers Directors of New Netherland Dutch explorers of North America Dutch sailors Explorers of the United States People from Hoorn People from Venhuizen People of the Province of New York

Family

1614 to 1616 expeditions to New Netherland

First colonists to New Netherland

See also

References