Phelippe Antoine Du Trieux

  Noted events in his life were:

• faith. I joined the reformed church.

• migrated, Abt 1614. ⁵⁰⁰ About 1614, I removed from France and established a trypeworking (dresser of plush or mock velvet) business in Netherlands. I lived on what was called the “Wale Pad” or Walloon Avenue.

• Moved, 1716. We moved to Leiden, Holland.

• Member, 15 Aug 1716. Jacomyne and I were received into the Leyden Walloon Church.

• Moved, Dec 1617. We returned to Amsterdam.

• Family Death, 1620. My wife died following complications in childbirth.

• West India Company, 9 Mar 1624. The West India Company was established to develop international commerce and to serve as a military arm of the Netherlands. By 1623, a promising fur trade had developed in the Hudson Valley region of America persuading the West India Company to occupy the land between the Delaware Valley and the Connecticut River with permanent settlers.
My fellow Walloons and I had long been contemplating how we could resettle either in North or South America. My family along with 29 other Walloon families entered into a contract with the West India Company to relocate to America. The West India Company stipulated in the contract that each family had to obtain a recommendation from their church in order to be considered as a prospective settler. My wife and I obtained a certificate of transfer from our church to the West Indies. My fellow emigrants and I were allowed to travel as free men and were granted freedom of conscience in all religious matters.

• Immigration, 30 Mar 1624. ^501,502 My family and I traveled on the ship called “New Netherlands” that was headed for a colony that was to be called NewAmsterdam.

• Arrival, Mid-May 1624. We arrived in New Amsterdam becoming its first settlers. We left eight men on Manhattan Island, while several other families settled on the Delaware River and towards the Connecticut River. The remaining families went up river to Fort Orange. There were 60 families total, including our own that were involved in the colonization project. There were thirty families on the New Netherlands with the remaining thirty distributed between three other vessels, “The Orange True”, “The Eagle” and “The Love”. These three ships arrived later in the summer. However, our colony deteriorated in numbers due to death or those who returned to the motherland. The main settlers in New Amsterdam with us were the Rapalje, Monfort and Vigne families.

• Moved, 1626. Manhattan Island was purchased in 1626 and settlers were urged to leave their original settlements to relocate there. We returned to Manhattan Island, because we were experiencing trouble with the Indians.

• Occupation, 1638. I was appointed court messenger or marshall.

• Property, 19 Apr 1638. ^503,504 I leased two lots on April 19, 1638 on Manhattan that were described as follows:

South of the esplanade of the fort and East by Philip de Truy . . . Begin at the kil where the Fresh water empties into the East river to the land of Cornelius Van Tienhoven, who palisades reach from the long high-way to the East river, as may be seen by the marks put up by him bordering on the aforesaid land from the enclosure to the big tree which is the mark of division between philip de Truys' and Tienhoven's land; the said Philip's palisades reaching from this tree N. E. by E. and E. N. e. between both to Bestevan' copse etc" the Smith's Valley.

Cornelis van Tienhoven arrived in New Amsterdam in 1633 as an accountant working for Wooter Van Twiller the director of the West India Company. In 1638, Cornelis was promoted to Secretary when Willem Kieft replaced Van Twiller. Kieft was removed from the position of director in 1647, but van Tienhoven continued as Secretary for the new director Peter Stuyvesant. In 1651, he was promoted to receiver general of the Company's revenues and properties in Albany to the Delaware River. Stuyvesant promoted him to Sheriff and attorney general of New Amsterdam in 1652. The van Tienhoven's lived on a plantation at Smits Vly or Smith's Flat, which was adjacent to my property.

My neighbor was considered to be intelligent, subtle and sharp-witted. He was a heavy man with a rudy complexion. He was not a man to be trusted however; as he was given to lying and making promises he couldn't keep. The whole colony complained bitterly against him as a villain, murderer and traitor. He was a deplorable neighbor who dressed as an Indian and chased after our women. In 1649, he left his family in the colony and sailed to Holland where they demanded an explanation regarding the poor progress of the colony. While visiting the homeland, he became engaged to a young lady. She came with him back to the colony, expecting to marry him, only to learn that he was already married and had children. He held so much influence over the corrupt West Indian Company officials that none of them would listen to the poor girl's story of his betrayal to her.

• Built, 1640. I was one of the first to build a home on Beaver Graft that was identified as section C #23 of the Costello plan (Beavier St.). In 1640, I received my ground brief for land adjoining Secretary Van Tienhoven's farm. This patent was near Smith's Valley on Manhattan Island. I needed someone to herd my goats, so I hired Claes Groen and Pieter Lievesen for the task. I paid them one guilder a year per goat.

I was still serving as Court Messenger or Marshal in New Amsterdam, which was an official position that drew two-thirds, the salary of a magistrate.

Note: This house was on what is now called Beaver Street; the present-day Fulton Street Market was built on part of his property

• Indian Attack, 1640. In 1640, parties of Raritan Indians attacked a Company trading boat near Staten Island and stole a canoe. Director Kieft sent Van Tienhoven on an expedition with 50 soldiers and 20 sailors to confront the Indians. Their orders were to force a peace or if that failed to take prisoners and destroy the Raritans' corn crop. The Indians refused Van Tienhoven's demand for restitution. Van Tienhoven turned to his troops and told them that he wouldn't be responsible if they violated the orders they had been given. Following his instructions to the troops; he walked away. The soldiers attacked the Raritans killing a few and capturing several others. The Raritans waited six weeks and responded with an attack on Staten Island. They killed four people and burned a house and some tobacco sheds.

• Indian Relations, Feb 1643. ⁵⁰⁵ Two bands of Algonquin Indians saught refuge at our colony in New Amsterdam following an attack on their village by the Mohawks. They were homeless and starving. Director Kieft decided to take advantage of the Indians weakened state to kill more Indians. My neighbor, van Tienhoven managed to get Jan Jansen Damen and Abraham ver Planck (who were both members of the City Council) drunk and then coaxed them to sign a petition to attack the Indians. Van Tienhoven, with the petition in hand, led 80 soldiers across the Hudson at night to Hoboken where they massacred the sleeping Indians. The condition in which the Indians were treated was so gruesome that I decline to describe it in this journal.

Eleven surrounding Indian tribes learned of the atrocities inflicted upon the Algonquin and banded together to retaliate against neighbors in the New Amsterdam area. Farms in the Brooklyn area were burned. The homes in Manhattan were looted and burned. We fled from our homes to the fort that was located at the tip of Manhattan. A peace treaty was signed in April of the same year, but it only provided five months of calm. The Indians didn't believe that their efforts to even the score were successful, so in September 1,500 Indian warriors from seven tribes attacked and seized most of Manhattan and long Island. We were forced to live at the fort for several months.

English mercenaries along with the soldiers hired by the West Indies Company put a stop to the Indian attacks using the same methods that caused the uprising in the first place. The soldiers killed 20 Indians near Stamford, 120 were killed at Canarsie Village and near Greenwich they attacked and burned a village at night killing more than 500 Indians mostly from burning in the fire. Our colony, which had a population of 500, dwindled to 250.

• Peace, 1645. Peace seems to have finally been restored with the Indians.

• sale, 10 Apr 1647. On 10 April 1647, Isaac Allerton bought land from me for a trading house. It was between the road and the East River Shore. It contained 500 feet of water frontage. The north end formed Peck Slip.

Isaac Allerton was well known in our parts. He originally came over to the colonies on the Mayflower. He was a London agent who worked closely with Bradford at the Leiden and Plymouth colonies. Allerton overcharged the other colonist for goods and mishandled the colonies finances, which led to his dismissal. Allerton, being an astute businessman, settled in New Amsterdam where he established his trading house on the land he purchased from me. He was a unique man in that he was the only colonist that traded goods with the Dutch, Swedes and English. He traveled to ports in England, Barbados, Viginia, New Amsterdam, New England and Canada. His business acumen allowed him to amass a large amount of wealth.

• Sold, 1649. I sold my land that adjoined Secretary Van Tienhoven's farm to Nicholas Stilwell in 1649. Nicholas was an Englishman who came from Leyden, Holland on the ship “Hull” about 1638. He was a tobacco planter who had just suffered the death of his wife who left him with two children.

• Retirement, 18 Jul 1649. I performed my last official duties as court messenger. Our village was really taking shape. Most of the houses were built in the old way, with the gable end towards the street. The gable end was made of brick and all the other walls were made of planks. The street doors were located in the middle of the houses and on both sides were seats, on which the people spent a good part of their day. The front doors were equally divided with an upper and a lower half. The houses were very stately and high.

We had a church for the Reformed Religion made out of wood, with a simple house and stable adjoining it for Domine Bogardus.

Phelippe married Jaquemyne Noiret on 4 Nov 1615 in Dutch Reformed Church, Amsterdam, Netherlands. (Jaquemyne Noiret was born in 1593 in Ryssellille, Lille, France and died after 9 Feb 1620.)

  Noted events in their marriage were:

• Engagement, 11 Apr 1615.

  Marriage Notes:

Jaquemyne and I were betrothed on April 11, 1615. On May 10, 1615 our banns were announced.

Phelippe next married Susanna Du Chesne, daughter of Pierre Du Chesne (De Scheene) and Anne Fabri, on 30 Aug 1621 in Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands. (Susanna Du Chesne was born on 30 Jul 1602 in Sedan, Lorraine, France and died after 8 Sep 1653 in New Amsterdam, New Netherlands, New York.)

  Marriage Notes:

July 17, 1621: (age 34)

At this date "appeared before the Commissaries of matters concerning marriages Philippe Dutrieux of Robey, worsted dyer aged thirty four years and living in the Runt Street, widower of Jacquemyne Noiret, to Susanna du Chesne of Sedan aged twenty years orphan, assisted by Jean Pinson her cousin living in the Bisschopstreat requesting their three Sunday proclamations.”


Note:

Jean Joseph Pinson was a trustee of the Antwerp Company. ^506,507