Wouter van Twiller (May 22, 1606 – buried August 29, 1654) was an employee 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 ...

and the fourth

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 ...

. He governed from 1632 until 1638, succeeding

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 ...

, who was recalled by the Dutch West India authorities in Amsterdam for unknown reasons.

Life and career

Van Twiller was born in

Nijkerk Nijkerk (; Dutch Low Saxon: ''Niekark'') is a municipality and a city located in the middle of the Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_ ...

, the son of Ryckaert and Maria van Rensselaer van Twiller. Kiliaen van Rensselaer was his maternal uncle. Reynolds, Cuyler. "Van Rensselaer", ''Genealogical and Family History of Southern New York and the Hudson River Valley'', Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1914
/ref> He was appointed to the position because he had made two voyages to New Netherland colony before, and had been a clerk in the warehouse of the Dutch West India company in Amsterdam for nearly five years. Rensselaer entrusted him with shipping cattle to Rensselaerswyck, his colonial estate on the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

. Van Twiller was somewhat acquainted with the geography of

New Netherlands 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 ...

and the condition of its affairs. Largely through Van Rensselaer's influence the Dutch West India Company chose him as the new Director-General of New Netherlands,"Wouter van Twiller", New Netherland Institute
/ref> and he set sail for

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 ...

, which was little more than a trading post, in the ship '' De Soutberg'' in 1633. Amid a considerable amount of land and properties, including islands known in the present day as

Roosevelt Island Roosevelt Island is an island in New York City's East River, within the borough of Manhattan. It lies between Manhattan Island to the west, and the borough of Queens, on Long Island, to the east. Running from the equivalent of East 46th to ...

and Randalls and Wards Islands, Van Twiller purchased 'Noten Eylant', later called

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 ...

from a tribe of

Canarsee Indians Metoac is an erroneous term used by some to group together the Munsee-speaking Lenape (west), Quiripi-speaking Unquachog (center) and Pequot-speaking Montaukett (east) American Indians on what is now Long Island in New York state. The term wa ...

for two axe heads, a string of beads and some iron nails. While in office, settlers from

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

occupied the

Connecticut Valley The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Isl ...

and he was never able to oust them. He was able to defend the Dutch territory in the

Delaware Valley The Delaware Valley is a metropolitan region on the East Coast of the United States that comprises and surrounds Philadelphia, the sixth most populous city in the nation and 68th largest city in the world as of 2020. The toponym Delaware Val ...

, where his soldiers captured a shipload of intended settlers from

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth are ...

and expelled soldiers who had taken Fort Nassau. Van Twiller was able to both increase the colony's prosperity and amass a private fortune despite conflicts with Everhardus Bogardus,

Dutch Reformed 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 ...

predikant of the New Netherland colony; and

schout In Dutch-speaking areas, a ''schout'' was a local official appointed to carry out administrative, law enforcement and prosecutorial tasks. The office was abolished with the introduction of administrative reforms during the Napoleonic period. Fu ...

Lubbert van Dincklagen, who criticized Van Twiller's management of

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 ...

. The Director expelled Van Dincklagen, refusing to pay the salary arrears owed him. Back in Amsterdam, Van Dincklagen brought the situation to the attention of the company directors. His report was confirmed by Captain David Pietersz. de Vries and Van Twiller was removed from office in the summer of 1637."Van Twiller, Wouter", nycourts.org
/ref> To succeed Van Twiller as Director-General, the Dutch West India Company sent Willem Kieft in September 1637. Van Twiller subsequently returned to the Netherlands and assumed guardianship of Johannes, eldest son of Killian van Rensselaer, following the death of that patroon in 1644. He died in

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 ...

References

Notes Bibliography
New Amsterdam Project
* Griffis, William Elliot ''The Story of New Netherland. The Dutch In America'' Chapter VI. The Riverside Press. Cambridge. 1909 * Jacobs, Jaap. ''New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America''. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2005. . * Johnson, Allen (ed.) ''Dutch and English on the Hudson'' (Chapter IV). New Haven: Yale University Press. 1919 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Twiller, Wouter Van 17th-century Dutch people 1606 births 1654 deaths American people of Dutch descent Directors of New Netherland Dutch emigrants to New Netherland People from Nijkerk Wouter van Twiller

Life and career

See also

References