"The Journey to America and Establishing Settlements."
Part 2

Because a seemingly ignorant and possibly, paranoid, King of England had turned down our good Walloon offer to occupy Virginia...and because Walloon leader, Jesse De Forest, was running out of luck in placing us along the Amazon...we accepted a deal from the West India Company to occupy real estate in the Hudson Valley.

However, being good politicians in those times, we would not make the move until our "rights" were subscribed to by the Dutch Assemble, put in writing, adopted into law, and read to us.

The Dutch Assemble of XIX did this on 28 March 1624. Two days later, this Provisional order was read to 30 Walloon families which included our ancestor Phillipe, his young wife, Susanna du Chesne, seven year old daughter, Maria, and five-year old son Phillipe. So, here is the tale of the Truax's role in the first settling of the development of Manhattan Island. If nothing else, it explains the lack of business sense and the resultant lack of monetary worth of most of Phillip du Trieux's many, many, generations of children. "Phillipe...why didn't you hold onto those acres of cow pasture on Manhattan Island?"

Phillipe du Trieux came through design and choice. He came only after being assured through law that he would be a freeman. He was to be allowed to own property. He was not indentured. He could not be ordered to work without an agreed to contract.

According to historians, Phillipe and his companions agreed to specific laws before boarding the "Nieu Nederlandt" under command of Captain May in the Spring of 1624.

In 1638, freemen held property, but only through oral agreement. They protested, and patents for property were issued. On May 22, 1640, Phillipe was issued a patent by the Dutch for a land grant, Smith's Valley, Manhattan.

Author Innes in his book, "New Amsterdam and Its People", reports that as early as 1638, Phillipe was in possession of a plot in lower Manhattan. Innes describes Phillipe "as a court messenger of Marshall".

In this capacity, Phillipe was os some consequence as a public official responsible to the Council. Council Minutes of New Amsterdam, Vol. IV 1638-1649, New York Historical Manuscripts, Dutch, contain this information:

August 30, 1645

- "Whereas there is a fair promise of obtaining a firm and durable peace with the Indians, it is resolved and concluded in council in Fort Amsterdam to order Philip De Truy, the court messenger, to notify the burghers all around to come to the fort when the flag shall be hoisted and the bell rung and thereto hear the terms which shall be agreed upon and if anyone should have any good advice to offer, freely to express his opinion...".

While Phillipe was of demonstrable value and importance to Manhattan community, he carried little "political influence". This is made clear by Council records of April 26, 1646. They record that "Mary de Truy accused of having "tapped" to Indians". (No sales after 7, on Sunday, or to Indians. Her husband was a tavern keeper.)

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society in 1890 published records of the Dutch Reformed Church of New York. In Volume I is contained a report of two Dutch ships which sailed from Manhattan on 19 August 1628. The ships were the THREE KINGS and the ARMS OF AMSTERDAM. The Society says this "They conveyed intelligence that the colony of Fort Amsterdam had been increased, by reason of hostilities among the Indians, by the removal of families who had been residing at Fort Orange, South River, Verhulsten Island, and Fort Nassau, and that their colony at Manhattan now numbered 270 souls, including men, women and children. Many of these were Walloon families -- the names of some of whom we find upon these records -- among which are De Forest, De La Montagne, De Trou, or Truex, Du Four, La Noy, Lesquir, Rappalje, Ninje, etc.

"...Phillipe Du Trieux was a Walloon who lived in Amsterdam and who came to New Amsterdam in 1624 and built a house either on a lane that is now Beaver Street or on a lane that is now Pearl Street -- the historians aren't sure which.

A scholarly study of his descendents was published in installments in the "New York Genealogical and Biographical Record in 1926, 1927 and 1928" (The House of Truax).

FROM: "HISTORY OF NEW NETHERLAND",

by Callaghan, Vol. 11

Lists of patents issued by the Dutch Government -- Phillipe De Truy land grant, Smith's Valley, Manhattan, May 22, 1640.

Mentions a garden plot in Lower Manhattan which "as early as 1638" was in the possession of Phillipe Du Trieux (De Truy as Dutch spelled) who was "long the court messenger or Marshall at New Amsterdam...he died sometime before 1653".

"Henry Bresser, an Englishman, February 8, 1648...bought Phillipe Du Truy's house and lot in New Amsterdam. (Henry was suspected of being a plotter against the Dutch, and on 5 May 1655 and order was issued allowing him to sell his property).

Susanne De Scheeve, widow of Phillipe De Truwe, late court messenger at New Amsterdam, confers powers of attorney on her son-in-law Isaac De (Forest), burgher and free trader at New Amsterdam.

On December 8, 1661, Mary De Truy, widow, requests appointment of Isaac De Forest and Govert Loockermans as guardians of her minor children. (Orphan's Court Minutes in Dutch Records in City Clerk's Office, Manhattan.)

FROM: "DUTCH EMIGRATION TO NORTH AMERICA 1624-1860", by Wabeke

In the absence of religious persecution in the Dutch Republic there was no strong spiritual incentive to émigré. The victims of the Armenian controversy of 1619 belonged mostly to an intellectual elite which preferred and exile at the courts of France or Sweden to trek into the wilderness. It should also be remembered in this connection that what might be called the "American Mirage" had not yet begun to allure the European mind as it was to do in the 19th century. It remained for William Penn and the American Revolution to build up the reputation of America as the paradise of social justice and political liberty. After all that has been said, it need not surprise us therefore to find few instances of spontaneous, unsolicited emigration to New Netherland. Even during the last years of Dutch rule, when emigration was at its height, the patrons of Rensselaerswyck paid from a dollar to a dollar and a quarter to anyone who hunted up an indentured servant for their colony.

All too frequently, however, the ministers complain of their parishioners as a hard-drinking, rowdy lot, who openly declared that they had not come to work, for if that had been their purpose, they might as well have stayed home.

At least once it was proposed that the States General supply the patrons with vagabonds, who upon returning home with a certificate of satisfactory service from their masters would be restored to their freedom.

It is perhaps no exaggeration to say that the majority of the emigrants became fur traders and liquor dealers rather than farmers. On May 27, 1647, the Board of Accounts of the West India Company suggested to the States General that more Negroes be employed in the colony, "for the agricultural laborers, who are conveyed thither at great expense to the colonists, sooner or later apply themselves to trade and neglect agriculture altogether."

To the latter must be ascribed in a way the failure of the Dutch to settle in towns, which in turn rendered the province defenseless against the Indians. For the colonists, according to a report by the Board of Accounts in 1644, "each with a view to advance his own interest, separated themselves from one another, and settled far in the interior of the Country, the better to trade with the Indians, whom they sought to allure to their houses by excessive familiarity. "Before the end of 1626 there were thirty "houses at New Amsterdam, all of which were situated outside the fort, and the colony counted two hundred souls." In 1650 the secretary of the province, Cornelius van Tienhoven, described thus the manner in which these first temporary dwellings were constructed. Those in New Netherland and especially in New England who have no means to build regular farmhouses at first, dig a square pit in the ground, cellar fashion, six or seven feet deep, as long and as broad as they think proper, case the earth inside with wood all round the wall, and line the wood with the bark of trees or something else to prevent the caving in of the earth: floor this cellar with plank and wainscot it overhead for a ceiling, raise a roof of spars clear up and cover the spars with bark or green sods, so that they can live dry and warm in these houses with their entire families for two, three, and four years, it being understood that partitions are run through those cellars which are adapted to the size of the family. By August 1628, however, the colonist were already beginning to build new houses instead of the "hovels and cots" in which up until then they had "nestled rather tan lived", to quote Ds. Jans Michaelius, New Netherland's first ordained minister, who had arrived at Fort Amsterdam on April 7 of that year. The population by this time had increased to 170 men, women and children, and consisted of farmers and their servants, artisans, sailors, soldiers, and a few administrative officials.

The free colonists made their living by selling their dairy products to "those of the people who receive their wages for work every week," says Wassenaer. If they had any surplus grain, hay flax, or hemp, it was bought by the Company and credited to their accounts. In addition, the colonists engaged actively in the fur trade, and in spite of the Company's control of the market, frequently succeeded in making a good profit -- as appears from the complaints of Isaac de Rasiere in 1626. If the colonists had no means to purchase stock, the Company lent them for a number of years as many cows as it had to spare, the risks as well as the increase being shared in common by the two parties.

All freemen were owners of the houses they lived in and of the fields they tilled, with the restriction, however, that they could sell these only to one of the other free colonists. At first householders on Manhattan seem to have held their lots or farms from the Company by oral agreement, or simply by virtue of the conditions of 1624. But on June 24, 1638, Governor Kieft, at the request of the freemen themselves, promised to issue formal land patents for plantations in actual cultivation on condition of the payment of one-tenth of all cops as an annual quitrent, after the plantation had been in occupation for ten years; for a house and lot, from this time on, a couple of capons per year were due.

FROM: "DUTCH AND ENGLISH ON THE HUDSON", by Goodwin

Sturdy and industrious artisans of vigorous Protestant stock, the Walloons were a valuable element in the colonization of New Netherland. After a two month's voyage the ship Niew Nederlandt reached the mouth of the Hudson, then called the Mauritius in honor of the Stadholder, Prince Maurice, and the leader began at once to distribute settlers with a view to covering as much country as was defensible. Some were left in Manhattan, several families were sent to the South River, now the Delaware, others to Fresh River, later called the Connecticut, and others to the western shore of Long Island. The remaining colonists led by Adriaen Joris, voyaged up the length of the Mauritius, landed at Fort Orange, and made their home there. Thus the era of settlement as distinguished from trade had begun. The description of the first settlers at Wiltwyck on the western shore of the great river may be applied to all the pioneer Dutch colonists. "Most of them could neither read nor write. They were a wild, uncouth, rough, and most of the time a drunken crowd. They lived in small log huts, thatched with straw. They wore rough clothes, and in the winter were dressed in skins. They sufsisted on a little corn, game, and fish. They were afraid of neither man, God, nor the Devil. They were laying deep the foundation of the Empire State. "The costume of the wife of a typical settler usually consisted of a single garment, reaching from neck to ankles. In the summer time she went bareheaded and barefooted. She was rough, coarse, ignorant, uncultivated. She helped her husband to build their log hut, to plant his grain, and to gather his crops. If Indians appeared in her husband's absence, she grasped the rifle, gathered her children about her, and with a dauntless courage defended them even unto death. This may not be a romantic presentation of the forefathers and form others of the State, but it bears the marks of truth and shows us a stalwart race strong to hold their own in the struggle for existence and in the establishment of a permanent community.

From the time of the founding of settlements, outward-bound ships from the Netherlands brought supplies for the colonists and carried back cargoes of furs, tobacco, and maize. In April, 1625, there was shipped to the new settlements a valuable load made up of one hundred and three head of live stock -- stallions, mares, bulls and cows -- besides hogs and sheep, all distributed in two ships with a third vessel as convoy. The chronicler, Nicholaes Janszoon Van Wassenaer, gives a detailed account of their deposal, which illustrates the traditional Dutch orderliness and cleanliness. He tells us that each animal had its own stall, and that the floor of each stall was covered with three feet of sand, which served as ballast for the ship. Each animal also had its respective servant, who knew what this reward was to be if he delivered his charge alive.

It was therefore a day of vast importance to the dwellers on the North River, and especially to the little group of settlers on Manhattan Island, when the Meeuwken dropped her anchor in the harbor in May 1626, and her small boat landed Peter Minuit, Director-General of New Netherland, a Governor who had come to govern. One of Minuit's first acts as Director was the purchase of Manhattan Island, covering some twenty-two thousand acres, for merchandise valued at sixty guilders or twenty-four dollars. He thus secured the land at the rate of approximately ten acres for one cent.

The number of Walloons and French-speaking settlers was so small that the do mine did not think it worth while to hold a special service for them, but once in four months he contented himself with administering the communion and preaching a sermon in French. This discourse he found it necessary to commit in writing, as he could not trust himself to speak extemporaneously in that language.

The dress of the farmers was simpler than that of the town-dwellers or burghers. It consisted generally of wide breeches, a hemdork or shirt-coat made of wool or cotton, and overfrock called a palstrok, a low flat collar, the usual wide-brimmed hat, and shoes of leather on Sundays, and of wood on weekdays for work on the bouwerie. The children of burghers and farmers alike were clad in miniature copies of the garb of their elders, doubtless in many cases wearing the same garments made over by removing the outworn portions. It was a question of warmth rather than fashion, which confronted the settlers and their children.

The colony was now thriving, with the whole settlement "bravely advanced" and grain growing as high as a man. But across this bright picture fell the dark shadow of Negro slavery, which, it is said, the Dutch ere the first to introduce upon the mainland north of Virginia in 1625 or 1626. amont the first slaves were Simon Congo, Anthony Partuguese, John Francisco, Paul d'Angola -- names evidently drawn from their native countries -- and seven others. Two years later came three slave women.

Several Negroes with their wives were manumitted on the ground of long and faithful service. They received a grant of land; but they were obliged to pay for it annually twenty-two and a half bushels of corn, wheat, peas, or beans, and a hog worth eight dollars in modern currency. If they failed in this payment they lost their recently acquired liberty and returned to the status of slaves. Meanwhile, their children, already born or yet to be born, remained under obligation to serve the Company.

The members of one class alone looked on all this prosperous life with sullen discontent -- the Negro slaves whose toil made possible the leisure of their owners. These strange, uncouth Africans seemed out of place in New York, and from early times they had exhibited resentment and hatred toward the governing classes, which in turn looked upon them with distrust. This smoldering discontent of the blacks aroused no little uneasiness and led to the adoption of laws which, especially in the cities, were marked by brutality quitted out of keeping with the usual moderation of the colony.

In 1684 an ordinance was passed declaring that no Negroes or Indian slaves above the number of four should meet together on the Lord's Day or at any other time or at any place except on their master's service. They were not to go armed with guns, swords, clubs, or stones on penalty of ten lashes at the whipping-post. An act provided that no slave should go about the streets after nightfall anywhere south of the Collect without a lighted lantern "so as the light thereof could be plainly seen." A few years later Governor Cornbury ordered the justices of the peace in King's County to seize and apprehend all Negroes who had assembled themselves in a riotous manner or had absconded from their masters. From English and Dutch on the Hudson

"SPURRING VERSES",by Jacob Steendam, New Netherland's first poet 1662

The following adoption paper is recorded in Dutch Manuscripts of New Amsterdam (page 17) of the year 1642. The translation was supplied by Mr. A. J. F. Van Laer."I, the undersigned, Pieter Wolphersen, hereby acknowledge for myself, my heirs and successors that this day, date underwritten, I have adopted, as I do hereby adopt, Aeltjem Pieters, my own daughter, whom I have begotten and procreated by Maria de Truy, promising therefore that from this date I shall do by the above-named, my daughter, as a God fearing father is bound and ought to do by his own legitimate daughter; therefore, I hereby discharge and release Cornelis Volckersen husband and guardian of the aforesaid Maria de Truy, from all charges and responsibilities incidental to the bringing up of a child till she becomes of age; I, Pieter Wolphersen, promising to look after the child, to let her learn to read and to bring her up according to my means. Furthermore, if I do not beget any children by my present wife, the above named child shall be my rightful heiress and inheritix, as if she were duly begotten in lawful wedlock, and if it happen that children be begotten by me and my wife, the above named Aeltjen Pieters shall receive like the legitimate children on my side a just child's portion of all such goods, means and effects as it shall please the Lord God Almighty to bestow on me. Requesting that this my have effect before all courts, I have signed this without fraud in the presence of the subscribing witnesses hereto invited. Done, the 7th of January 1642."

This is X the mark of Pieter Wolphersen.

Jacob Couwenhoven Philippe du Trieux Acknowledged before me, Cornelis Van Tienhoven, Secretary Note: This is included not so much because Mary Du Truy was the daughter of Phillipe, but as testimony to the sense of honor and duty which gave dignity and discipline to individuals and to society. This Mr. Pieter Wolphersen his wife, Aeltjen, were of a value system which is in need of reinstatement in 20th Century America. It is just possible, however, that since father, Phillipe, served as a witness, he inspired Pieter in his actions. After all, Mary's daddy was Manhattan Marshall at the time. "To view a copy of the original adoption paper click on the link above "adoption paper".

Shortly after England in 1664 had taken control of New Amsterdam, our line of the Truax family moved south across the Hudson, and took up land for nearly a century along the Atlantic coast. Our foothold was in Monmouth County, New Jersey Records of land ownership (some purchased directly from the Indians), Baptist Church records, estate settlements, and payments of the hated "rent" to proprietors all verify that the Truax family were, as they were in New York and other states, very early settlers. Because we lived there for nearly a century before moving westward from the mid-Atlantic region, New Jersey is important to our family story. It was in New Jersey that we were "melted". We lost our stubborn hold on the French language, and shifted to English. We "Americanized" our family name, though we sometimes were uncertain as to how we should spell it, and apparently disagreed on the spelling even within families of brothers. Much of the confusion was created by nearly illiterate record keepers of churches, governments and the military. Some of the Truax land first acquired in Monmouth County was purchased from the Indians. A deed, dated 3 April 1678 in Monmouth County says this "Indian deed. Seaheppe and Irooseeke, sachems, to Jacob Truax for a certain tract of land". Lest anyone think that the Truax family hides the fat that we are vulnerable to temptation and sometimes slip into sin, just as our first Aunt Mary did, we must note that at least one of our brethren in New Jersey was a rounder. The records of the Baptist Church of Middletown, New Jersey -- begun in 1712 and maintained by Elder James Mott -- are replete with evidence that we were of the Baptist faith. We continued in the Church through Pennsylvania, Kentucky and into Indiana. This elder Mott was an industrious advocate of righteousness, and he was tough. He kept records which were really a personal diary. He named names, and sins. He recorded fornication, drinking, rudeness, and any sign of failure to properly worship God. His record of 2 December 1750 reads thusly: "At a Publick Meeting in Middletown Jaco Truax, John Bowne*, Jun and William Huf Ware excommunicated and disowned by the Church. Truax and Bowne for drinking to excess and Neglect of worship of "God. And Huf for his profane and luse life and neglect of the worship of God." The same Baptist Church also noted the "progress" of the black citizens who had, at the time of the record cited, been residents of this land in that region for 161 years. The citation records a Baptism of 5 August 1786 thusly"; "Garret Hendickson's nigor woman named Hager." *This John Bowne would have bee a son or grandson of a first patent holder of Monmouth County Land, and an important public leader. Ancestor Phillipe was listed as a debtor in the will of John Bowne, 1714.

While the New York - New England regions were being heavily settled and developed to the North, -- and the Virginia region to the South was being similarly treated -- New Jersey land was ignored.

It was divided into two parcels -- West and East -- and sold by the King of England to speculators. William Penn's first relationship with this continent was that of a Trustee of West New Jersey. It was in that role that he began to set down principles, which were later to be the mark of his "Holy Experiment" in Pennsylvania.

To attract settlers, the profit-oriented proprietors promised many rights involving self-government, individual freedoms, and generous rights of property acquisition and ownership.

From New York, New England and Western Europe came a mixture of people, tongues, and religions.

New Jersey is the Nation's oldest melting pot...and its function continues. With New Jersey most in mind, the words of the New Collosus as inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty are included.

Note: All of the information on this page is from a copy of "TRUAX" 1582-1981


Click next to see the rest of the info on this family line.