Family of Adrian^1 Van Der Donck
Adrian^1 Van Der Donck, b.
abt 1618, Breda, Noord Brabant, Netherlands
Married: Mary Doughty (b. abt 1628,
Oldbury, England, and d. abt 1684, Kingston, Ulster, NY) 22 Oct 1645,
Reformed Dutch Church, New Amsterdam
Children:
1. Andries^2 (Adrianse) Onderdonk, b. 1649, New Castle, Delaware and d. abt
1686, Jamaica, Queens, NY
Parents:
Adrian's father is Cornelius Van Der Donk, b. abt 1591, Noord Brabant,
Netherlands and d. abt 1616, N. Brabant, Netherlands. Adrian's mother is Agatha
Van Bergen, dau. of Adriaen Van Bergen, a military hero who helped free Breda
from the Spaniards)
Mary's parents are Francis and Bridgett Doughty.
Background information:
Adrian^1 Van Der Donk, b. abt 1616, Breda,
Noord Brabant, Netherlands and d. 1655, Hurley (Kingston), Ulster County, NY. He
married Mary Doughty (b. abt 1628,Oldbury, England and d. 1684, Kingston, Ulster, NY) 22 Oct
1645, Reformed Dutch Church, New Amsterdam. Mary
remarried to Hugh O'Neale some time before April 1662 in Maryland.
From 1638 to 1641, Adrian studied law at Leiden University, Netherlands. Upon
receiving his law degree he accepted a commission from Amsterdam diamond
merchant, Kiliaen van Rensselaer to administer his estate in New Netherlands. He
was given the title of schout, a Dutch title that combined the duties of sheriff
and public prosecutor. Adrian boarded Den Eyckenboom (The Oak Tree) with
W. Van Twiller in May of 1641 bound for New Amsterdam. Van der Donck's
assignment--to stifle fur trade and instead promote agricultural settlement in
Van Renssalaer's land in the Hudson valley--soon brought him into conflict with
the Dutch colonists, who were more interested in lucrative fur trapping and
hunting than in farming. Uncomfortable with the climate of great strife and
discord, Van der Donck decided to leave Van Renssalaer's employment in 1646 and
strike out on his own. After negotiating with the governor of New Amsterdam,
William Kieft, he received a grant from the Dutch West Indian Company to
purchase an estate north of Manhatten. He called the estate Colen Donck. There,
at the junction of the Hudson and Nepperhan Rivers, Van der Donck built one of
the first saw mills in North America. His success and his status as an educated
gentleman prompted settlers in the region to refer to him as "Jonk Herr" (young
gentleman). Eventually the name evolved into Yonkers, now the name of a city
north of Manhattan.
Van der Donck once again found himself at the center of political controversy when he clashed with the new governor of the colony, Peter Stuyvesant, who arrived in New Netherland in 1647. In 1648, Rev. Francis Doughty departed for the English Virginias. He had previously conferred on his daughter, Marie on her marriage in 1645, his farm on Flushing bay.
In 1649, Adrian Van der Donck was President of the Board of Nine Men and was called President of the Commonwealth of New Netherlands. Van der Donck wrote a lengthy formal complaint against the governor, entitled Remonstrance of New Netherland. Stuyvesant, upon hearing of the complaint went personally to the lodgings of Van der Donck and in his absence, seized the draft copy of the document. Stuyvesant had Van der Donck arrested and removed from the board of nine, but popular senttiment prevented Stuyvesant from doing more. Van der Donck sailed back to the Netherlands to personally deliver the document to government authorities in 1649. While residing in Europe, Van der Donck completed another work, The Description of New Netherland. This detailed account of the native inhabitants, plants, animals, and other natural resources of the colony was a promotional tract meant to encourage immigration from the Netherlands and to defend Dutch imperial claims against rival European powers such as the French, Swedish, and English. Van der Donck returned to his adopted land in 1653 and died on his estate two years later.
An old tradition assumes Adrian Van der Donck to be the progenitor of the Onderdonk family in America. If the Onderdonks are not descended from Adrian Van der Donck it would seem that very few settlers in the New Netherlands have descendents. That "Adries Adrianse" (Andrew, son of Adrian) or Andries Onderdonk who married Maria Van der Vliet in 1683 was the son of Adrian Van der Donck can not be very well controverted. (Notes from E. and A. Onderdonk, Genealogy of the Onderdonk family in America, 1910)
Russell Shorto, in his excellent book on Dutch Manhattan lends some doubt as to whether Adrian and Mary had progeny. He says (p. 281) ..."Van der Donck's wife survived him. Her father, the Reverend Francis Doughty, had recently accepted a position at a church in Virginia and, following her husband's death, she joined him there. She found regular work as a medical practitioner, purging, sweating, setting bones, and delivering babies. Eventually she married an Englishman named Hugh O'Neale, but, oddly, continued to appear in the records as Mrs. Van der Donck (alias) O'Neale. Having given up on the vast estate for which her husband had had such plans, Mary signed it over to her brother, who sold it. And so very quickly after his death at the age of thirty-seven, Adrian Van der Donck--with no progeny or property to recall him to the living--was a forgotten man. But no--that is not quite true. In a strange twist, his book, A Description of New Netherland--into which he had poured his knowledge of the colony, its people, its plants, winds, insects, mountains, snows, dangers, and promises--his book, which had been admitted for publication and then withheld due to the war, came out in the Netherlands right around the time of his death. It became a best seller, and went into a second edition the following year. Once again, this time posthumously, Van der Donck sparked an interest in a faraway place called Manhattan..."
Children: Andries^2 (Adrianse) Onderdonk, b. 1649, New Castle, Delaware and d. before 13 August 1687, Jamaica, Queens, NY. He married Maria Van der Vliet 11 November 1683, in Flatbush, Kings, NY Reformed Dutch Church.
Sources:
FamilySearch Ancestral File v4.19 Adrian Van Der Donk AFN:FJXPB2) and Doughty
(AFN:FJXP-C7) and Andries (Adrianse) Onderdonk (AFN:FJXP8P)
Onderdonk, Elmer and Onderdonk, Andrew (1910) Genealogy of the Onderdonk family in America. 374 pages
Shorto, Russell (2004) The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America. New York: Doubleday.