Bastiaen Jansz Krol (also ''Sebastia(e)n'' ''Jans(s)en'' ''Crol''

Crol, Bastiaen Janssen (1630): '' Contract of sale of land along the Hudson River from the Mahican Indians to Kiliaen van Rensselaer'' on

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or ''Crull''; 1595, Harlingen – 14 March 1674)A. Eekhof
Bastiaen Jansz. Krol : krankenbezoeker, kommies en kommandeur van Nieuw-Nederland (1595-1645)
The Hague 1910. A 97 page biography in Dutch. was

Director of New Netherland This is a list of Directors, appointed by the Dutch West India Company, of the 17th century Dutch province of New Netherland (''Nieuw-Nederland'' in Dutch) in North America. Only the last, Peter Stuyvesant, held the title of Director General. As t ...

from 1632 to 1633.

Early life

When he was 10, Krol's family moved from

Friesland Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

Birth certificate
/ref> and in 1623 he lived on the

Bloemgracht The Bloemgracht () is a canal in the Jordaan district of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. It connects the Prinsengracht with the Lijnbaansgracht and runs between and parallel to Nieuwe Leliestraat and Bloemstraat in the Amsterdam-Centrum district. T ...

. In that year he presented himself to church elders of the

Dutch Reformed Church The Dutch Reformed Church (, abbreviated NHK) was the largest Christian denomination in the Netherlands from the onset of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century until 1930. It was the original denomination of the Dutch Royal Family and ...

to be sent abroad as a "ziekentrooster" ("comforter of the sick").

New Netherland

On 25 January 1624 he sailed to

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 ...

, where he arrived when Cornelius May just had become the first Director-General. In November 1624 he had returned to Amsterdam and made a report to the church elders, who gave him the right to perform baptisms and weddings in the new colony. He probably sailed back to

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...

in May or June 1625, prior to the arrival of

Peter Minuit Peter Minuit (between 1580 and 1585 – August 5, 1638) was a Wallonian merchant from Tournai, in present-day Belgium. He was the 3rd Director of the Dutch North American colony of New Netherland from 1626 until 1631, and 3rd Governor of New ...

the next year. Bastiaen Krol is most frequently remembered for arranging the purchase of the domain of

Rensselaerswyck The Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Manor Rensselaerswyck, Van Rensselaer Manor, or just simply Rensselaerswyck ( nl, Rensselaerswijck ), was the name of a colonial estate—specifically, a Dutch patroonship and later an English manor—owned by the va ...

in 1630.

Van Rensselaer, Kiliaen (1630): '' Instructions to Bastiaen Jansz Krol from Kiliaen van Rensselaer (January 10, 1630)'' on

Kiliaen van Rensselaer was one of the first to ask for a grant of land. He received a tract of country to the north and south of

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 ...

, but not including that trading-post, which, like the island of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, remained under the control of the

Dutch West India Company The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ...

. By virtue of this grant and later purchases, van Rensselaer acquired a tract comprising what are now the counties of Albany and Rensselaer with part of

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...

in the state of

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. Before and after his post as Director-General, Krol was commander of

. He returned to the Netherlands at least two more times. Between 1638 and 1643 he lived in New Netherland, but the last records of him are from September 1645 in "Old" Amsterdam.

Personal life

In 1615, he married Annetje Cristoffels in

References

;Notes

Early life

New Netherland

Personal life

See also

References

Further reading