2.1 Why assume Immigration from Amsterdam?
NYG&B Record Vol 67 (1936):217-8 John Reynolds Totten “Brouwer (Brower-Brewer) Family Notes” Totten quotes the marriage record [Marriages, 1639-1801, Reformed Dutch Church, New York, pg. 42] "Tuenis Janzen j.m. uyt Deenmarcken, en Jannetje Brouwers, j.d. Van Amsterd, woonende op N. Amersfoort were married den June 11, 1677 tot N. Breucklen and were betrothed May 20, 1677." use of Van Amsterd indicates Jannetje Jans Brouwer was either born in or came from Amsterdam, Holland.
Lets examine that rationale a bit closer. The conjecture that Johannes and Jannetje were married and had their child in Amsterdam is based upon the above record of the marriage of their daughter Jannetje Jansz to Tuenis Janszen in New York in 1677 in which the Reformed Dutch Church record states that she was from (van) Amsterdam. In the NYG&B Record, Vol. 138 (2007) page 259 of “Descendants of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands” it is stated: “The preposition van is generically translated as ‘from,’ which can have several meanings. Generally it means ‘place of origin,’ but often, especially in marriage records, it means ‘place of birth’.” Harry Macy Jr. former editor of the NYG&B suggested as early as 1987 that “It seems very likely that an examination of the index to Amsterdam baptisms (available at Salt Lake City) would show their daughter Jannetje's baptism, and the marriage index might well reveal the marriage of Jan and Jannetje and (hopefully) their places of origin.” So, were these ever searched? Yes.
2.2 Amsterdam Births and Marriages indices. The indices were not searched until 2007 when Patricia Hatcher, editor of the NYG&B, reviewed the following sources:
(language note: doop = baptism, trouwen = marriage, overlijden = death):
a)Amsterdam Births -- FHL#441,895 “Fiches collectie van dopen, trouwen en overlijden:1553-181,” Fisches dopen A-Bijvangh, 1651-1660.
b)Also searched was the on-line index to doopregisters (stadsarchief.amsterdam.nl/archieven/archiefbank/indexen/doopregisters/zoek/index.nl.html).
c)Marriages -- FHL #536,941 “Fiches coliectie van dopen, trouwen en overlijden 1553-1811,” Fiches trouwen Bouman-Buys O, 1650-1700.
These search results were inconclusive. She found only one baptism for a Jannetje, daughter of Jan Claez Brouwer, 1653, which was eliminated as a candidate (the mother was Anneken Lesnick ) and three marriages for a Jan Brouwer between 1650 and 1657. However, all leads were found faulty and eliminated. There were no definitive results obtained.
2.3 Immigration date 1657. This is the starting point for locating data showing where he emigrated from. Johannes Brouwer appears on the rolls for Flatlands in the "Roll of Those Who have taken the oath of Allegiance on the 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30th day of September 1687." with the statement that he, Jan Brouwer, was “30 years in this country,” which leads to the assumption he immigrated to New Amsterdam about 1657. This date of 1657 is substantiated by the church records indicating Johannes and Jannetje were members of the Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam where their first three boys were baptized at least as early as 1658 (son Jan bp. May 26, 1658) New Amsterdam RDC and they appear as members of the Flatlands Reformed Dutch Church in 1677. (The Flatlands Frost Membership List, Vol. I p. 6-43 states Johannes and Jannetje were members of the Dutch Church from Amersfoort between 1677 and 1685. See Totten in NYG&B Record Vol. 67 (1936) pgs 218-219.)
2.4 Leaving Amsterdam and the Netherlands for America, 1657. Why would he emigrate about 1657? I can postulate perhaps four major reasons behind Johannes' decision to emigrate.
•The first was the explosive increase of the population. The religious freedom of the Republic attracted many immigrants fleeing religious persecution elsewhere in Europe, and Amsterdam became a magnet for writers and scholars unable to publish in their own countries as well as other displaced workers with little means. In 1558 Amsterdam had 30,000 inhabitants, 50,000 in 1610, 100,000 in 1622, 145,000 in 1642, 170,000 in 1652, -- This increase could have drawn a young Johannes to seek his fortune in Amsterdam from elsewhere (Friesland or Germany?) if he was not born there. This population surge had an impact on infrastructure, work, housing, and pay.
•A second reason was the Anglo-Dutch war of 1652 - 1654. The Netherlands was a limited resource country whose strength and economy depended on their remaining the strongest sea force in Europe. During the summer of 1653 England gained control of the seas. This severely damaged Dutch business confidence and alarmed ship holders. The Dutch had always been very much in control of the waters, and the center of trade for Europe. When it seemed they were losing, their economy began to weaken due to Europe's sudden lack of business confidence. In Amsterdam, expenses increased and overcrowding began to take its toll making life difficult. Luckily, for the Dutch and Europe's businesses, the Dutch Republic managed to regain control of the seas by 1654.
•A third reason was disease and the plague in Amsterdam, 1655. After the war the plague hit hard in Amsterdam and people blamed overcrowding for creating foul air. Note that this would likely preclude Johannes from moving from another European country TO Amsterdam in this year -- so he would have been more likely to arrive there earlier, say 1648 -1654 at age 20 - 29 (if he wasn’t born in Amsterdam) or later, between 1656 and 1657. During baby Jannetje's first year, ~1655, the epidemic of plague swept the city and changed Amsterdam into one big house of mourning. There were 16,727 casualties of which 13,508 occurred within six months. Entire families died that year. The immediate family of Johannes obviously survived, but his parents, if in Amsterdam, may have died and he must have considered leaving Amsterdam -- in fact, leaving the Netherlands altogether and starting over in "New Amsterdam" in America. In 1657, by the time Jannetje was about three, they had committed to make the trip.
•A fourth, and by far the most likely or supporting reason, was the push by the Dutch West Indies Company to recruit immigrants to the New Netherlands trading colony. In 1655 there were about 3,500 people in the New Netherlands province. The directors of the company wanted more people to fill the new lands they were buying and opening up just outside New Amsterdam, on Long Island, to compete with English settlements that increasingly threatened their hegemony in the area. In 1656 they began encouraging skilled workers like Johannes, through promotional entreaties to join their enterprise. In that year the company decided that all mechanics and farmers who could prove their ability to earn a living in the colony would receive free passage for themselves, their wives and children. In that year too, the company decided that their previous policy of selling the best land to wealthy speculators (the patroonship plan) had retarded settlement and it declared that it was going to grant private individuals as much land as they were able to cultivate, without giving them privileges. The combination of free passage and promise of land resulted in an increase in population of 1,132 during the period 1657 to 1664. In 1657 there were thirty-three immigrants identified. We suppose that among the currently unidentified numbers is Johannes and his family who may have obtained free passage. Immigration grew rapidly in the following years. In 1658 the number of new settlers from overseas advanced suddenly to 305, one ship carrying as many as 100. Too late to include Johannes, immigration continued and in 1660 there were 171 new arrivals, a number of these being soldiers. In 1661 the number of immigrants fell to fewer then a hundred. In 1662 the number was 208; in 1663, 252; and in 1664, sixty-four. Most of the immigrants were farmers, or people engaged in a trade like Johannes (a blacksmith), and some of them were members of large families. They came from many regions, including Frisia, Norway and Germany, and so departure from Amsterdam reveals nothing about their origin unless it is specified in the passenger list or in other West Indies Company or city records maintained in Europe or in New Amsterdam after their arrival.
2.5 Examination of Ship passenger lists. The only way to get to New Netherland from Europe was by ship and the ships generally left from Amsterdam. So the record of all ships arriving in New Netherland, and the ports of departure during the period covering at least 1655-1658 must be searched for JohannesBrouwer/Brouer (Brouwer is often spelled Brouer in old records in the Netherlands), occupation Blacksmith, his wife Jannetje Jans, and their daughter age ~3. The hope is to find verification of their port of departure (likely Texel or Amsterdam) and possibly a record of their town or country of origin. As I will discuss later, the outer Friesland islands of the Netherlands represent a possible region of origin for our Jan Brouwer.
I reviewed the compilation provided in the book "Ship Passenger Lists, New York and New Jersey (1600-1825)" by Carl Boyer, 3rd. The results concur with the information detailed below obtained from more readily available and searchable on-line resources. The advantage of the book is the attention paid to the places of origin of the passengers. Although Jan Brouwer and his wife were not found, some of his contemporaries were, which led me to look at their origins assuming that they may have been acquainted with Jan before the emigrations. The results will be discussed below.
An early search for Brouwer immigrants amongst ships passengers was made by Totten (NYG&B 67:1936 pg 106) who examined the year book of the Holland Society HYSB 1896 “List of Passengers to New Netherland 1654-1664 as well as an amended list in HYSB (1902) copied from the New York Colonial Manuscripts XIV:88-123. In the corrected list he finds (on page 5) only a Lyntie Brouwer, December 20, 1656 Ine de Bever (on the ship Bever). All other Brouwer arrivals date from 1662 and later, which would be too late to involve Johannes and family.
Howard Swain <hswain@ix.netcom.com > has prepared a nice summary of the history of available versions of “Passenger Lists” for 1654 - 1664 on the Dutch-Colonies - L Archives 15 Mar 2000 athttp://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/Dutch-Colonies/2000-03/0953101088
There he states: All these "passenger lists" for travel from The Netherlands to New Netherland 1654-1664 came from information on the debit side of an account book known as: "New York Historical Manuscripts, Colonial, in the Office of the Secretary of State (now at the State Library), XIV: 83-123." I suspect those lists, being for passage money owed and entered in the debit side of the accounts ledger, might exclude persons with free passage such as I believe Johannes may have arranged. In a recent review of the posted literature, I re-examined the online Index of Ships 1624 -1664 at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycoloni/nnshdex.html See also http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nycoloni/shbea4.html and the updated list athttp://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/ships/
I also reviewed the list of ships known to have left the Netherlands for the New World athttp://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/mm_shipamny.shtml whose source is De Scheepvaart en handel van de Nederlandse Republiek op Nieuw-Nederland 1609-1675 an unpublished thesis by Jaap Jacobs showing ships sailing from Texel (four in 1656) and Amsterdam (twenty-two total; six in 1655, three 1656, thirteen 1657). Not all of these have passengers listed. Many passenger names have not been transcribed, or found yet, so though we found none for Jan Brouwer and his family it is still possible he may be on one of the untranscribed ship’s lists. See also “Colonists arrivals between 1641-1657” at http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/mm_6.shtml . A double check was made of the on line text of the Year Book of the Holland Society 1902 athttp://www.archive.org/stream/yearbookofhollan21holl/yearbookofhollan21holl_djvu.txt with its “Passengers to New Netherland, 1654-1664, and an Index to the list of passengers which, while confirming the previous data, added no new information since it was the source of much, if not all, that is now published on the other on-line lists.
Finally, a search was also made of the New York Passenger List Arrivals Vol. 1 by the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild at http://www.immigrantships.net/nycarrivals1_6.html many of the ships left from England and carried large numbers, but no Brouwer in the 1600s. The only Brouwers found arrive much too late, i.e. a Nickell Brower (line 57) and Johan Peter Brower (line 58) aboard the ship Glasgow Sept 1738 carrying Palatinates from England to Philadelphia Pennsylvania.http://www.immigrantships.net/v2/1700v2/glasgow17380909.html
Results Summary: For the dates 1655 to 1657 we find the following that do list passengers (none include Jan Brouwer and his wife and child):
•1655: “De Waegh” -- Sailed from Amsterdam June 7, 1655. Arrived at New Amsterdam August 13, 1655: Carried 200 soldiers and sailors. Included one William Brouwer, wife and 3 children. William had received permission to go over with his family without paying passage money on the condition that he act as reader or comforter of the sick on board this ship, but no longer. There were also 17 almshouse orphan children on board sent to New Amsterdam. He had sons Hendrick Willemsz and Willem Willemsz. In the ‘Oath of Alliegence’ Willem Willemse claims to have been in the country 30 years, the same as Jan Brouwer. Recently found in the Amsterdam baptism archives is a reference to William Brouwer and Elizabet Drinckvelt who baptized their son Hendrick on 9 May 1652 before they emigrated to New Amsterdam in 1655. Being a contemporary of Jan Brouwer of Flatlands, it has been claimed, without any support, that William Brouwer may be a brother to Jan. Jan did name two of his sons Hendrick, as did William, which could represent a common relative, but could equally well be coincidental. It is also claimed that he and his wife came from Qerland, Holland (see Chris Chester’s Brouwer database and source note 8 at
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brouwergenealogydata/p133.htm#i35233
The problem is -- there exists no such town in the Netherlands. Could it have been a misreading of Guilderland? The newly found Amsterdam baptism of Hendrick would argue for an origin in Amsterdam.
•1656: “Blauwe Dulf” (Blue Dove) left Texel 14 June1656 arrived New Amsterdam 5 Sept 1656
“Vergulde Bever” (Guilded Beaver) -- Sailed from Amsterdam December 20, 1656. Left Texel 25 Dec 1656. Arrived in New Amsterdam 19 March 1657 with 33 colonists. Included Lyntie Brouwers. This was the record reported by Totten. A related record indicates "De Vergulde Bever" (the Gilded Beaver) left Amsterdam 18 Dec 1656 (it must have then laid over in the port of Texel until 25 Dec ) and arrived in New Amsterdam 20 March1657 (This ship’s passenger list, as seen above, included Lyntie Brouwer, who could possibly be related to Johannes, but she is really an unknown and no town or country of origin is provided).
“Vergulde Beer” (Guilded Bear) left Texel 25 Dec 1656 arrived New Amsterdam 19 Mar 1657 with 33 colonists for Nieuwer Amstel - 30 unnamed, 3 listed from the debit side account. This ship sailed with the “Geldersche Blom” and arrived Mar 19 with 11 colonists (not named) for Nieuwer Amstel. Also sailing with the above named ships was the “Prins Maurits” with 112 colonists for Nieuwer Amstel - all unnamed so far. I have been unable to review the source of the data upon which the numbers of colonists was extracted in order to search their names. The numbers of colonists carried are given at http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/mm_6.shtml “Colonists arrivals between 1641 - 1657” where it is remarked, “The book/thesis of Jaap Jacobs contains a list of about 500 ship crossings between Amsterdam, the Netherlands and New Amsterdam over the period 1609-1675. In only 56 cases the presence, but not the names, of colonists on board is mentioned. We will never be one hundred percent certain how many, if any, colonists other ships carried.”
•1657: There are only 5 ships listed departing Amsterdam during 1657.
1)The “Draetvadt” (Wire Cask) left Amsterdam 24 Mar 1657 arrived in New Amsterdam Aug 1657 with 22 colonists aboard.
2)The De “Waegh” left Amsterdam Apr 1657, arrived New Amstel Aug 21 1657 and from there sailed on to New Amsterdam arriving after Oct 1, 1657.
3)“Verguilde Otter” (The Guilded Otter) left Amsterdam after Dec 22 1657 arrived New Amsterdam before Mar 18, 1658 and listed as carrying three colonists including a Jan Jansen Van den Bos, a mason, and his brother age 13 (see discussion below)
4) “de Beer” (The Bear) March 1658 (likely the same ship as the Guilded Bear) and
5)The “St. Jan Baptist” which left Amsterdam Dec 1657 and arrived New Amsterdam June 1658 with nine colonists.
Ships 3 through 5, none of which list a Brouwer passenger, all arrived in New Amsterdam in March or June 1658 which, even if they had included a Brouwer family, would likely be too late to have carried Johannes and Jannetje Brouwer because we have the church record that their son Johannes Jansz was baptized 26 May 1658 in New Amsterdam and Jan claims to have been in New Amsterdam by 1657.
So, are there then any ships with Brouwer passengers? Yes, but none fit our requirements with respect to time frame or surname. We find:
a) 1662 Thomas Harmensen Brouwer(s) from Sevenbergen, farmer aboard “In The Faith”(De Trouw) Sailed from Amsterdam March 24, 1662. Arrived at New Amsterdam June 13, 1662
b) 1663 De Statyn (In the Stetin) Sailed from Amsterdam September 27, 1663; Arrived at New Amsterdam January, 1664 and aboard were:
•Jan Brouwer, and brother
•Jan Jansen (Jansz), from Norway - and wife
•Jan Jansen the younger - and wife and child 2 l/2 years of age (Had this been in 1657 we might be moved to stretch things and consider Jan Jansen potentially a Jan Jansen Brouwer with the name Brouwer dropped from the listing and try to identify him with our Jan Brouwer with wife Jannetje and child Jannetje Jans age ~ 3 -- however, the facts are against it.)
With respect to Jan Jansen -- As mentioned above (Ship 3, 1657) there was listed on board the “Guilded Otter” that sailed from Amsterdam Dec 22, 1657 to New Amsterdam, a Jan Jansen and his brother age 13 and it has been postulated in the past that because of the date and his name one could again wonder if this could be a Jan Jansen Brouwer, with the Brouwer left off, but the fact remains -- this man was a stone mason - not a blacksmith and there is no mention of wife Jannetje with a child aboard. He is not our man.
Why do people even consider Jan Jansen? There is a precedence. A Jan Jansen Brouwer was recorded as a member of Director Pieter Minuit’s council in New Amsterdam in 1626 and 1630. The use of the patronymic Jansen indicates he was the son of a Jan, presumably a Jan Brouwer. In a letter written by Rev. Jonas Michaelius August 8, 1628 he indicates a son named Johannes lived at the Brouwer house. Jan Jansen Brouwer was a skipper who made numerous voyages to New Netherland. As Captain Jan Brouwer, commander of the company’s ship Een Dracht, he sailed fromTexel (a Frisian Island in North Holland) 21 March1630 to Fort Orange. As Totten argues (NYG&B 67:1936 page 108), the skipper Jan Jansen Brouwer was likely to be too old to be the father of Adam Brouwer, born about 1624 which, if we accept his reasoning (that Capt. Jan Jansen Brouwer was beyond middle age in 1628), would have made him too old to father our Johannes Brouwer of Flatlands as well because since Johannes of Flatlands was born ca. 1628 the same arguments would apply to him. However, it is not impossible. The son Johannes mentioned in the letter of 1628 as living with Capt. Brouwer (in New Amsterdam or on land purchased 13 Aug 1630 near Fort Orange?) must have been older, born prior to 1628, and would not have claimed to have been in New Netherland only 30 years, as did our Johannes from Flatlands (see section 2.3 above). Nevertheless, they could be related and the fact that this Captan Brouwer was associated with the port of Texel(and, as we will see later, the port of Hoorn) in the Netherlands Frisian islands provided an interesting lead that I will discuss below.
Having failed to find any reference to Brouwer passengers in the sites on-line in the U.S. posting of ships arriving in New Amsterdam, and knowing that the list of ships and their passengers is incomplete and are basically all from the same source, I tried looking for Dutch records on-line in Amsterdam or Utrecht. This turned up a surprise. (Read about it in Section 3.0)