Trijntie Pieters

Name

Trijntie Pieters. She was listed in one known record, a list of passage fees, without further identifying details.[1] Her common name complicates identification.

Origin

Trijntie’s name suggests she was Dutch, though it may have been a Dutch version of a German or Scandinavian name.

Migration

Trijntie Pieters departed for New Netherland on 17 May 1658. She paid 36 guilders in passage fees to sail on the Vergulde Bever [Gilded Beaver] with skipper Jan Reijersen van der Beets.[2] This was the regular fee for a person over 12 years old. She arrived by 13 September 1658, when the skipper petitioned the New Netherland Council to bring back 210 beavers duty-free.[3]

Biographical Details

Trijntie Pieters was a creditor in the list of passage fees, indicating she was of age (25) during her 1658 voyage. Her unmarried state suggests she was probably not above 35 years old. She would have been born between say 1623 and 1633, perhaps a few years earlier. Her patronymic implies her father’s name was Pieter. She died at an unknown date after 17 May 1658.[4]

Marriage and Children

Trijntie Pieters was single when she made the voyage to New Netherland. She was the only unmarried woman on board, but there were several married women among the passengers.[5] 

Associations

Trijntie Pieters 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, Gerrit Gerritsen, 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, and Andries van der Sluijs’s wife and child. She would also have known the skipper, Jan Reijersen.[6] Trijntie Pieters was probably not a servant or family member of the other passengers, since she paid for herself.

Source Editions

Van Laer, A.J.F. “Passengers to New Netherland.” Year Book of the Holland Society of New York. 1902. Pages 1–37. Contains a summary of the passenger list, with “Tryntje Pieters” on p. 7.

Citations

[1] List of passage fees from Holland to New Netherland from 1654 to 1664, folio 7, Trijntie Pieters, 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), image 14 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 7, Trijntie Pieters.

[3] 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.

[4] List of passage fees from Holland to New Netherland from 1654 to 1664, folio 7, Trijntie Pieters.

[5] List of passage fees from Holland to New Netherland from 1654 to 1664, folio 7, Trijntie Pieters.

[6] 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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