(S585): Our Family Near and Far

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Source ID	S585
Text	4578 de la Montagne The ship Rensselaerswyck sailed from Amsterdam September 25, 1636 and returning there November 7, 1737. It sailed from Texel on October 8, 1637 (JT: are these dates right??). Difficult weather was invariably the culprit. When not beset by severe storms, still, calm, windless days made the ship drift for days at a time. For 17 days the ship was off course and near the coast of Spain when the captain at last decided they must head back because of limited supplies of food and because more and more people were growing ill daily. His goal was the south coast of England. There, at IIfracombe, on December 8, Cornelis Thomasz was stabbed by his helper, Hans van Sevenhuysen. Sevenhuysen died the following day- a Tuesday- and the captain noted in his log how all the people in this neighborhood went to pray on account of the severe sickness which God is sending them. The Rensselaerswyck at last arrived at Manhattan on Wednesday, March 4, but could not travel to Fort Orange because the Hudson River was still closed by ice. On Sunday, the 8th, two children born on board the vessel were baptised at the Manhattan church. On Sunday, the 22nd, the widow of the murdered Conrelis Thomasz, a smith, married Arent Steffeniers. Finally on March 26th, the vessel left for Fort Orange and arrived there Tuesday, April 7th. Since some of the passengers are first listed in accounts of April 3rd, these men evidently traveled to Fort Orange via yacht. The Rensselaerswyck left Fort Orange on 29 May. (List of passengers followed but I didn’t type that info in.) Sailed from Texel October 8, 1636; arrived New Amsterdam, March 4, 1637. Source: AJF Van Laer compiled a list of Settlers of Rensselaerswyck 1630-1658 as an appendix to his translation fo the Van Rensslaer Bowler Manuscripts (pub. Albany; Sate University of New York, 1908). This appendix has been reprinted by the Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1965 under the title Settlers of Rensslaerwyck.