New Netherland Settler Sketches

Name

Jonas Fredricxsz,[1] also spelled as Frericxsz.[2]

Origin

Jonas Fredricxsz lived in Amsterdam, Holland, the Netherlands, before 1629.[3]

Migration

Jonas went to New Netherland around 1629.[4]

Settlement

Jonas was in New Netherland from circa 1629 until 1631.[5]

Biographical Details

Jonas Fredricxsz was born between say 1571 and 1611. He was unlikely to be over 60 when he was in New Netherland, since the employers there typically only hired men in their prime. He was probably at least 20 when he died in 1631, since he felt comfortable confronting another man.[6]

Jonas died in New Netherland in May or June 1631. Eight months later, two sailors gave a deposition about his death at the hands of Roeloff Hendricx, a ship’s carpenter. The sailors had gone fishing with Jonas, using a fishing seine. When Roeloff later asked to use the net, Jonas complained that Roeloff had left it lying on the ground for others to hang up properly. This started a quarrel. Later, during a meal, the two men were still angry with each other, and the argument escalated. Jonas grabbed a knife from a trunk and walked toward Roeloff, who drew his own knife. In the resulting altercation, Roeloff struck Jonas twice in the chest. Roeloff started to walk away, but Jonas came after him and struck Roeloff in the back before collapsing from his wounds. Jonas died shortly afterward. At the request of Jonas’s friends and family, Roeloff was pardoned for manslaughter.[7]

Marriage and Children

Jonas Fredricxsz’s siblings were his heirs, indicating he was not married and had no children when he died.[8]

Occupation

Since he went fishing with two sailors, Jonas may have been a sailor himself.[9]

Holdings and Estate

In 1632, Jonas’s brother asked two sailors to give a deposition about Jonas’s death, on behalf of himself and the other heirs.[10] This indicates that Jonas left an inheritance, perhaps in the form of unclaimed wages or personal property. His siblings would have needed proof of his death and their family relationship before they could claim their shares.

Associations

Jonas knew, and perhaps worked with, the man who killed him: Roeloff Hendricx, a ship’s carpenter who had been raised in the Amsterdam orphanage. Jonas had gone fishing with the two sailors who witnessed the lethal altercation, Adam Willems and Ditlof Jansz. Adam Willems was a boatswain’s mate (bootsmansmaet) who was about 26 years old when he gave the deposition in 1632. He lived in the Bloemstraet in Amsterdam. Ditlof Jansz was a rigging master’s mate (schiemansmaet), who was about 25 years old at that time and lived near the Nieuwe Haerlemmersluijs in Amsterdam.[11]

Jonas and his family had once lived in the same Amsterdam neighborhood as Jacob Jansz, a 71-year-old former ropemaker, and Andries Jansz, a 44-year-old shoemaker. In 1632, Jacob and Andries gave a deposition about Jonas’s family members. Jonas’s mother was deceased, his father was absent (uncertain whether he was still living), and he had three siblings: Dirck, Jan, and Marritgen Fredricxs.[12] This would have allowed the siblings to claim their brother’s inheritance, perhaps with a reservation in case their father returned.

Literature

Jacobs, Jaap. New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, 2005. Discusses the manslaughter against Jonas Fredericksen as an example of a lethal incident without premeditation (pp. 454–55).

Citations

[1] Deposition about the relatives of Jonas Fredricxs, 24 February 1632, in Frederik van Banchem, notary (Amsterdam), minutes and copies, 1 January–30 June 1632, fols. 125r–v in penciled numbering; imaged, Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchief (https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/file/69d5fddd-7a43-8eda-e80f-2663e5cfeba4), images 127–28 of 442; citing call no. 306, Record Group 5075: Archief van de Notarissen ter Standplaats Amsterdam [Records of the Notaries Residing in Amsterdam], Stadsarchief Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

[2] Deposition about the death of Jonas Frericxsz, 24 February 1632, in Frederik van Banchem, notary (Amsterdam), minutes and copies, January–June 1632, fols. 123v–125v in penciled numbering; imaged, Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchief (https://archief.amsterdam/inventarissen/file/69d5fddd-7a43-8eda-e80f-2663e5cfeba4), images 126–27 of 442.

[3] Deposition about the relatives of Jonas Fredricxs, 24 February 1632.

[4] Deposition about the relatives of Jonas Fredricxs, 24 February 1632.

[5] Deposition about the relatives of Jonas Fredricxs, 24 February 1632. Deposition about the death of Jonas Frericxsz, 24 February 1632.

[6] Deposition about the death of Jonas Frericxsz, 24 February 1632.

[7] Deposition about the death of Jonas Frericxsz, 24 February 1632.

[8] Deposition about the relatives of Jonas Fredricxs, 24 February 1632.

[9] Deposition about the death of Jonas Frericxsz, 24 February 1632.

[10] Deposition about the relatives of Jonas Fredricxs, 24 February 1632.

[11] Deposition about the death of Jonas Frericxsz, 24 February 1632.

[12] Deposition about the relatives of Jonas Fredricxs, 24 February 1632.