By trade he was a c!othdresser meaning one who cuts the buds, knots or lumps from the surface of rough cloth).  He was 25 years old, neither parents were living when he married.

On 13 June 1643 marriage intentions were recorded at Amsterdam for Christoffel Harmenss, from Jever, journeyman clothdresser and Moederke Gerrits, from Amsterdam, attended by her mother Vroutie Pieters.  Both signed by mark.  They were married in Amsterdam's Old Church 28 June 1643.

The register of St. Anthonis Cemetery, Amsterdam shows the burial on 17 July 1644 of Moedertien Gers, leaving one child and she may have died from complications of childbirth.  The child was named in honor of her father.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
 

1032.        Stoffel Harmenszen married (2)
1033.x 2  Tryntje Claes at Amsterdam 24 September 1645; baptized there 20 January 1619
               daughter of Claes Pieterszen and Geertgen Heren.  He died in September 1655 in
               New Netherlands during the "Peach War".*

On 9 September 1645 the widower registered his intentions to marry again.
Christoffel Harmenss, from Kleverins, clothdresser, widower of Moeder Gerrits,
and Trinjn Claes, from Amsterdam age 28 years attended by her mother Giertie
Heeren.  Both signed by mark.  They were married in the Old Church. on 24
September 1645.

(A note on the margin of this record states that the groom made a declaration
before the Orphans Chamber on 6 September, further confirmation that he had a child.)

                        Child of Stoffel Harmenszen and Tryntje Clae:

                ii.  Claestien bap 16 Sept. 1646
 

The following abstract from the notarial archives of Amsterdam was translated
by Elva Kathleen Lyon, who discovered this record in the

"1652 April 16. Abraham de Wijs, merchant in Amsterdam, in the name of Comelis de Potter, his brother-in-law, who lives in the Manhattans in New Netherland.  He takes into service for him: Christoffel Harmens and Trijntje Claes, to work there for de Potter.  Also their son Gerrit Christoffels, 8 years old, shall work with them.  This is for a time period of three years, at 200 carolu guilders per year.  Free board and room."
 

         Tragedy struck three years after the family's arrival in New Netherland.

                                   The following is from the minutes of :
                     The Orphanmastas of New Amsterdam, 11 May 1657

Regarding the circumstances of Stoffel Harmenszen's death:  the "Indian troubles developed in September 1655, when (Gov.) Stuyvesant and most of his armed forces were on the Delaware subduing the Swedes and Indians swarmed into New Amsterdam to avenge the slaying of a squaw for stealing peaches.  After hours of harassing the inhabitants, killing several of the watch and wounding the burgher who shot the woman, the warriors crossed over to the Jersey shore and captured or slew most of the Dutch settlers found there.  The next day they moved on to Staten Island and continued to pillage and kill."

October 5th, 1655, a large confederation of Algonquin Indians from the lower Hudson, Long Island and Raritan area attacked New Amsterdam, as well as the extensive agricultural communities in Pavonia and on Staten Island.  This was called the Peach War, as the reason for the Indian uprising was because a certain Hendrick van Dyck allegedly killed an Indian for stealing peaches in his orchard.  Dutch casualties were high as 28 farms were destroyed, 12,000 skipples of grain burned, 40 Dutch killed and about 100 captured (mostly women and children)  All of Pavaonia had been burned and everyone killed except for one family that got away.  This caused quite an alarm amongst the Dutch forces.

After Stoffel's death Tryntje married (2) Rutger Joosten Van Brunt in 1657.  Emigrating from the Netherlands about 1653, Van Brunt was one of the first settlers in New Utrecht in 1657, and was magistrate there in 1661, 1678-81 and 1685.  He obtained a patent for a double lot of 48 morgens in New Utrecht on 18 January 1662 (one morgen equaled approximately two acres), and was also allotted two half lots in Yellow Hook, New Utrecht, in addition to other land holdings.

Vm Zmdt = of 't Zmdt (sand), Van Sant = Vanzandt and/or Van Zantand other  variations.parish in Groningen, Holland

They were Dutch (not Pennsylvania Dutch)

" Henry Hudson, captain -in the employ of the Dutch East India Company, in Sept 1609 guided the first ship, the Half Moon, past Manhattan and up the Hudson river nearly to Albany.  The company began a trading post, called Mannahatt (Manhattan) in 1614 and in 1615 another at Fort Orange (now Albany).  In 1624, the Dutch West India Company inaugurated a system of settlement by what are now called manors, somewhat like the plantation system of Virginia, to buy tracts from the Indians, and then to grant to the leaders of colonies who were called patroons each a manor with 16 miles front on the river and extending back as far as needed.  The Dutch settlements were mostly confined to the Hudson valley below Troy, and western Long Island, with a few in northeastern New Jersey, for the early immigration was not nearly as large nor as widely distributed as that to Massachusetts, though drawn from the whole south coast of the North Sea.  The settlers belonged mainly to the Dutch Reformed church, Presbyterian in organization, but there was general toleration of religious beliefs"

From:  Tepper Immigrants to the Middle Colonies  lists under "New York 'Knickerbocker' families: ([email protected] )
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

____________--------------------------------------------------------------------------------________________________________