Name
Gerrit Gerritsen. He was listed in one known record, a list of passage fees, without further identifying details.[1] His common name complicates identification.
Origin
Gerrit Gerritsen was from “Gilthuijs,” a Dutch spelling variation of Gildehaus in the county of Bentheim (in modern-day Germany).[2]
Migration
Gerrit Gerritsen departed for New Netherland on 17 May 1658. He paid 36 guilders in passage fees to sail on the Vergulde Bever [Gilded Beaver] with skipper Jan Reijersen van der Beets.[3] This was the regular fee for a person over 12 years old. They probably arrived around June 1658, and certainly by 13 September 1658, when the skipper petitioned the New Netherland Council to take back 210 beavers duty-free.[4]
Biographical Details
Gerrit Gerritsen was probably born between say 1608 and 1633. He was of age when he incurred the debt of 36 guilders for his passage fees in 1658 and it is unlikely he would have migrated to New Netherland if he was an elderly man. Based on his patronymic, his father’s first name was probably Gerrit. Gerrit Gerritsen died after 7 December 1665, when his debt was transferred to a different account book, even though there was a note that he had paid in cash.[5]
Education
The dialect in the county of Bentheim was similar to Dutch.[6] The earliest baptismal records of Gildehaus were kept in the Dutch language.[7] It is likely that Gerrit Gerritsen would have spoken Dutch, or a Low Saxon dialect that was close enough to Dutch to make himself understood.
Occupation
Gerrit Gerritsen was a tailor.[8]
Associations
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Gerrit Gerritsen would have gotten to know the fellow passengers on the Vergulde Bever: Jan Barentsen, Charel Fonteijn, Antonij de Mil with his wife and two children, Pieter Klaesen with his wife and two children, Jan Jansen’s wife and five children, Jan Couwenberch, Adriaen van Laer and his servant, Jan Gerritsen Buijtenhuis, his wife, and child, Willem van Vredenberch, Cornelis Andriesen Hooghlandt, Pieter van Halen, his wife, two children, and a boy; Jaques Cousseau, Cornelis Hendricksen van Ens, Jan Eversen, Trijntie Pieters, and Andries van der Sluijs’s wife and child. He would also have known the skipper, Jan Reijersen.[9]
Source Editions
Van Laer, A.J.F. “Passengers to New Netherland.” Year Book of the Holland Society of New York. 1902. Pages 5–37. Contains a summary of the passenger list, with “Gerrit Gerritsen” on p. 7.
Citations
[1] List of passage fees from Holland to New Netherland from 1654 to 1664, folio 6, Gerrit Gerritsen, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial administrative correspondence, vol. 14, 1661–1662; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (URL), identifier https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/54615), images 12–13 of 180; citing series A1810-78, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.
[2] List of passage fees from Holland to New Netherland from 1654 to 1664, folio 6, Gerrit Gerritsen.
[3] List of passage fees from Holland to New Netherland from 1654 to 1664, folio 6, Gerrit Gerritsen.
[4] Petition of skipper and sailors of the Vergulde Bever for permission to transport a parcel of beavers free of recognition fee, 13 September 1658, in New Netherland Council, Dutch colonial council minutes, vol. 8, 1656–1658, p. 971–72; imaged, “Digital Collections,” New York State Archives (https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/56529), identifier NYSA_A1809-78_V08_0971; citing series A1809, New York State Archives, Albany, New York.
[5] List of passage fees from Holland to New Netherland from 1654 to 1664, folio 6, Gerrit Gerritsen.
[6] Wilbert Heeringa, John Nerbonne, Hermann Niebaum, Rogier Nieuweboer, Peer Kleiweg, “Dutch-German Contact in and around Bentheim,” in D.G. Gilbers, J. Nerbonne, J. Schaeken, eds., Languages in Contact (Amsterdam, Netherlands/Atlanta, Georgia: Rodopi, 2000); PDF, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (https://www.let.rug.nl/nerbonne/papers/bentheim00.pdf).
[7] Theodor Davina, ed., Gildehaus Ev.-Ref. Kirchspiel: Taufen 1664 bis 1700, vol. 2, Kirchenbuchtexte (Nordhorn, Germany: Theodor Davina, 2003).
[8] List of passage fees from Holland to New Netherland from 1654 to 1664, folio 6, Gerrit Gerritsen.
[9] List of passage fees from Holland to New Netherland from 1654 to 1664, folio 5–8, passengers of the Vergulde Bever.
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