Map of Rensselaerswyck
| Map of Rensselaerswyck | |
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Map of Rensselaerswyck
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| Created | c. 1632 |
| Author(s) | Unknown |
| Purpose | To document the borders, topography, and locations within Rensselaerswyck |
The Map of Rensselaerswyck is a map created during the 1630s, probably 1632, at the request of the owner of the Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, Dutch jeweler and patroon. Rensselaerswyck was the only successful patroonship within the colony of New Netherland, settled by the Dutch West India Company at the behest of the States-General of the United Netherlands. The map is believed to be the first ever commissioned or created of Rensselaerswyck.
The map is a manuscript map on parchment, 22½ by 70 inches in size, and represents the land along the Hudson River from Barren Island, just south of Coeymans, to the mouth of the Mohawk River. Lithographic copies of the map have been published in Moulton's History of New York, O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland and in Munsell's Annals of Albany. The map is without date or maker's name. On the strength of an entry of the payment by Kiliaen van Rensselaer of six rixdollars to "Gillis van Schendel, for one map on parchment and four ditto on paper, of the islands and other tillable lands situated in my colony," occurring under date of February 8, 1630, in a copy of an account among the Rensselaerswyck manuscripts, the map is commonly ascribed to Gillis van Schendel and to the year 1630, but as an inscription on the map refers to the purchase of land from Beeren Island to Smacks Island, which took place in 1631, it is evident that the entry of the payment must either have been placed under the wrong date or else refer to another map. Statements by Kiliaen van Rensselaer in a letter to Johannes de Laet, June 27, 1632, in a memorandum to Wouter van Twiller, July 20, 1632, and in a letter of same date to Dirck Cornelisz Duyster indicate that the map was probably executed in Holland, shortly after July 20, 1632, from rough drafts and surveys of different parts of the colony furnished at various times by Philips Jansz van Haerlem, Crijn Fredericksz and Albert Dieterinck. Of these men very little is known. Philips Jansz van Haerlem is mentioned by David Pietersz de Vries, in his Korte Historiael, as a young man whom he engaged in June 1635 to pilot his vessel from Sandy Hook to New Amsterdam and who formerly had been in his service in the East Indies. Crijn Fredericksz is mentioned in Nicolaes van Wassenaer, Historisch Verhael, under date of November 1626, as an engineer who staked out the fort at New Amsterdam. Albert Dieterinck appears to have been commissary at Fort Orange.
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