Who is Gysbert Philipsen Van Velthuysen and why is he so important to the Wynkoop family?

    When Cornelis Evertsz. Wijnkoop boarded the ship de Gelderse Bl�m, on approximately the 1^st of April, 1651 to sail for New Netherland, he didn't come alone. He brought family with him, and that family was his neve, (meaning nephew or cousin), Gysbert Philipsen Van Velthuysen. The two of them had been hired by Johann van Rensselaer in Amsterdam and were to be employed in construction, cultivation, woodcutting, and tobacco planting in his colony, Rensselaerswyck, in the New World. The term of their contract was for 3 years at 125 guilders annually, so they weren't getting rich working for van Rensselaer. They did, however, receive free passage, food and drink and a chance to make their fortunes in the New World.

    While a lot is known about Cornelis Evertsz. Wijnkoop's life in the New World, and almost nothing is known about his family in the Netherlands, almost the exact opposite is true about his neve Gysbert Philipsen Van Velthuysen.

    We know, for example, that he was born around 1617, probably in the neighborhood of Veldhuizen, a hamlet near Ede, in the Province of Gelderland in the Netherlands. He was the son of a man named Philip and he was 34 years old when he signed van Rensselaer's contract on March 20^th, 1651. He was married, although it's unknown whether his wife was alive at the time he sailed for New Netherland or whether or not he had children. His father-in-law was a man by the name of Cornelis Pietersen Huysman, dwelling at Velthuysen. Huysman had at least two other daughters and two more sons-in-law by the names of Brant Teunissen and Gerrit Ebben. They may not have been living in Veldhuizen at the time, since they paid to the attorney Jan van Twiller the sum of five hundred guilders on March 10, 1658, in Nyckerck.

    What we don't know much about is what Gysbert did in his eight years in the Colony Rensselaerswyck. We know that the term of his contract was three years, and that, presumably, he spent that time doing the work he was hired for. After that, his story is a little vague. He seems to have settled on the frontier of the colony in a place called Esopus and sometime between September 29^th, 1659 and November 25^th of the same year he was killed by Indians. He left behind a few court documents regarding his attempts to have his father-in-law honor a bill of exchange, and one or two documents regarding his estate and how his debts were to be handled after his death. That's about it.

    Gysbert was not a soldier, he was a farmer. Yet when it came time to defend his new home from the predations of the Esopus Indians he stepped up to the plate and did his duty, when so many other timid souls did not. For this we honor him.

    Gysbert seems to have been well educated for the times. Unlike most of the men who signed the letter supporting Ensign Smith's actions of September, 1659, Gysbert actually used his signature, rather than a mark. His signature appears on the contract he first signed in 1651 as well. This was unusual in a time when illiteracy was rampant. Gysbert's family knew the value of education and probably had other plans for his future.

    Gysbert's importance to us may lie in the wealth of information he left behind about his family connections. With any luck this will lead us to Cornelis Wijnkoop's elusive family in the Netherlands. Keep your fingers crossed!

    And enjoy this visit with this distant cousin or uncle of ours.

    Chris

• 1651-1665 - From the Netherlands to New Netherland - My research notes concerning the ship de Gelderse Bl�m, which carried Cornelis Wijnkoop and his neve Gysbert Philipsen Van Velthuysen to the New World in the spring of 1651.

• August 23, 1654 - Fort Orange - Gysbert Philipse Velthuysen appoints Paulus Schrick of Repkouw to act on his behalf, in collecting all such sums of money due him from Cornelis Pieterse, his father-in-law, in Holland.
  

• June 28, 1656 - Fort Orange - Ghysbert Philipsen Van Velt Huysen pays to Mr. Fran�oys Boon the sum of six hundred Carolus guilders in the form of a Bill of Exchange on his father-in-law, Cornelis Pietersz.
  

• June 28, 1657 - Fort Orange - Gysbert Philipse Van Velthuysen's Bill of Exchange was, by Cornelis Pietersen Huysman, dwelling at Velthuysen, rejected and protested.
  

• September 29, 1659 - Esopus - Report of the rising of the Esopus Indians: War is declared.
  

• Abt. September 29, 1659 - Esopus - Declaration that Ensign Smith did not order an attack on the Indians.
  

• November 25, 1659 - Fort Orange - Cornelis Wynkoop, nephew of Gysbert Philipsen, murdered by the Indians in the Esopus, requests the court to appoint two curators to take charge of Philipsen's estate, make a proper inventory and sell the property.
  

• July 13, 1660 - Fort Orange - Philip Hendricksen, defendant, is said to have taken over the obligation on the part of Gysbert Philipsen, deceased, to pay the sum of twenty-three beavers.
  

• March 9, 1662 - Nyckerck, Province of Gelderland, Holland - Johan Van Twiller, attorney, learns that Gisbert Philipsen was killed in the Esopus, owing him money.
  

• 1663 - Wildwyck - Capt. Martin Kregier's Journal of the 2nd Esopus War.