Cornelius Mey
| Cornelius Jacobson Mey | |
|---|---|
| 1st Director of New Netherland | |
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In office 1624–1625 |
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| Succeeded by | Willem Verhulst |
Cornelis Jacobsen Mey (in English often rendered as Cornelius Jacobsen May) was a Dutch explorer, captain and fur trader. Cape May, Cape May County, and the city of Cape May, New Jersey, are named after him.
Cornelius May is said to be from the city of Hoorn but may have been born in the small village of Schellinkhout, just east of Hoorn, as he appears to have been the brother of Jan Jacobszoon May van Schellinkhout, after whom the island of Jan Mayen is named. Both brothers were the cousin of, in his day, a far more famous sailor, Jan Cornelisz May, who led several expeditions to explore the Northeast passage and between 1614 and 1617 circumnavigated the world with Joris van Spilbergen.
May sailed first in the Mauritius River or "Hudson's river" (so referred to first by Adriaen Block in 1613) in 1614 where an agreement was made among various competing traders. On October 11, 1614, May became a party to the New Netherland Company which received an exclusive patent from the States General for four voyages to be undertaken for three years to territories discovered between the 40th and 45th parallels at the exclusion of all other Dutch (until January 1618).
From August until November 1616, the company tried unsuccessfully to obtain a new patent for a territory situated between the 38th and 40th parallels (i.e., the Delaware Bay area) which in 1614, and 1615 had been surveyed by Cornelis Hendricksz from Monnikendam on the ship Onrust. In 1616 Cornelis Hendricksen, sailed the Onrust up the Zuyd Rivier (literally "South River," today known as the Delaware River) from its bay to its northernmost navigable reaches, on a voyage to ransom three fur traders taken from Fort Nassau on the North River.
On behalf of the successor company of the New Netherland Company, Cornelius Jacobsen May had explored and surveyed the Delaware Bay on the ship named Blijde Boodschap (en. "Joyful Message") from which he carried on trade with the Indians there in 1620. In 1621, he ordered the construction of factorij of Fort Nassau at the mouth of the Big Timber Creek.
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