New Netherland Settler Sketches

Name

Hendrick Ribbelinck, also spelled as Rijbelinck.[1]

Origin

Hendrick Ribbelinck was from Hamburg, in present-day Germany.[2]

Migration

Hendrick was in New Netherland in 1613, after which he returned to the Netherlands.[3]

Biographical Details

Hendrick was born about 1591, possibly in Hamburg. He was 22 years old when he gave a deposition in 1613.[4]

Education

As Hendrick was from Hamburg, he probably spoke a variant of Low German (Plattdeutsch).

Occupation

Hendrick Ribbelinck sailed as a crew member on the ship the Jonge Tobias of captain Thijs Mossel.[5] The ship departed from Amsterdam in late 1612 and arrived at the Hudson River in early 1613, a few weeks after the Fortuijn from skipper Adriaen Block. Both ships departed from the Hudson area in May or June 1613.[6] It was Mossel’s first voyage.[7]

Associations

Hendrick Ribbelinck was a crew member of the Jonge Tobias under captain Thijs Volckertsz Mossel. Hans Joris Hontom (also known as Jan Jorissen) was supercargo on this ship.[8] He met captain Adriaen Block and supercargo Jan Kindt of the Fortuijn in New Netherland, when both ships were operating in the same area.[9] He knew Jan Claesz and Gerbrant Jansz, crew members of the Fortuijn, with whom he made a deposition in 1613 at the request of Block. The three men explained how both Block and Mossel had been anchored in the bay for the beaver trade, and how Mossel had harassed Block and his men.[10] He also knew Juan Rodrigues, who was on Mossel’s ship before deciding to stay in New Netherland.[11]

Literature

Hart, Simon. The Prehistory of the New Netherland Company: Amsterdam Notarial Records of the First Dutch Voyages to the Hudson. City of Amsterdam Press, 1959. Describes the voyage in which Hendrick Ribbelinck participated (pp. 21–25, 51).

Jacobs, Jaap. New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2005 (pp. 32–33).

Source Editions

Hart, Simon. The Prehistory of the New Netherland Company: Amsterdam Notarial Records of the First Dutch Voyages to the Hudson. City of Amsterdam Press, 1959. Transcription of the deposition of Hendrick Ribbelinck and others (pp. 74–75).

Stevens-Acevedo, Anthony, Tom Weterings, and Leonor Alvarez Francés. Juan Rodriguez and the Beginnings of New York City. New York City, New York: CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, 2013. https://academicworks.cuny.edu/dsi_pubs/17. Dutch, English and Spanish translations of the two depositions by Hendrick Ribbelinck and others (pp. 34–41).

Citations

[1] Deposition of Hendrick Ribbelinck and others about the actions of Thijs Mossel and Jan Jorissen, 20 August 1613, in Jan Franssen Bruijningh, notary (Amsterdam), minutes and copies, 25 February 1611–7 April 1614, fol. 614v–615r; imaged, “Inventarissen,” Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchief (https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/file/ae4b3228-a53c-af38-d14b-9190146a27d5), image 634 of 798; citing call no. 197, Record Group 5075: Archief van de Notarissen ter Standplaats Amsterdam [Records of the Notaries Residing in Amsterdam], Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

[2] Deposition of Hendrick Ribbelinck and others about the actions of Thijs Mossel and Jan Jorissen, 20 August 1613.

[3] Deposition of Hendrick Ribbelinck and others about the actions of Thijs Mossel and Jan Jorissen, 20 August 1613.

[4] Deposition of Hendrick Ribbelinck and others about the actions of Thijs Mossel and Jan Jorissen, 20 August 1613.

[5] Deposition of Hendrick Ribbelinck and others about the actions of Thijs Mossel and Jan Jorissen, 20 August 1613.

[6] Simon Hart, The Prehistory of the New Netherland Company: Amsterdam Notarial Records of the First Dutch Voyages to the Hudson (City of Amsterdam Press, 1959), 21–23, 51. Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America (Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2005, 32–33.)

[7] Deposition of Hendrick Ribbelinck and others about the actions of Thijs Mossel and Jan Jorissen, 20 August 1613.

[8] Deposition of Hendrick Ribbelinck and others about the actions of Thijs Mossel and Jan Jorissen, 20 August 1613.

[9] Hart, The Prehistory of the New Netherland Company, 21–23.

[10] Deposition of Hendrick Ribbelinck and others about the actions of Thijs Mossel and Jan Jorissen, 20 August 1613.

[11] Deposition of Hendrick Ribbelinck and others about the actions of Thijs Mossel and Jan Jorissen, 20 August 1613. Hart, The Prehistory of the New Netherland Company, 23.