Person:Adriaen Van der Donck (1)

Did Mary and Adrian Van der Donck have any children?

On 10 Jun 1664, Peter Stuyvesant wrote [CDNY 14:550] a letter in which he stated "we had given out by the usual patents and which in virtue thereof had been occupied and settled by people of our nation, for instance the land of Jonas Bronck, also the land which old Van der Donck, his children and partners divided into several boweries and plantations, but which were deserted at the time of the massacre in '55," which has led many to speculate that the Van der Doncks did have children.

However, William Hoffman wrote [NYG&BR 67:339]: "In the letter written by Stuyvesant in 1664 from which we quoted a paragraph, is an allusion to van der Donck's children. Yet there is no supporting evidence that Adriaen van der Donck left any children or for that matter ever had any children. In his petition to the States General quoted above [CDNY I:476] he mentions his wife and other members of the family as ready to sail for New Netherland in May 1652 but does not mention any children. He left his patroonship Colendonck to his wife and the property, after it had been patented anew to her and her second husband in their joint names in 1666, was immediately sold by them. These facts give strong evidence that van der Donck left no descendants."

Hoffman later added [NYG&BR 67:342]: "On October 8, of that same year (1666) Mary and her husband received a patent confirming their ownership to a tract of land called Nepperhaem, that is the estate of her first husband Adriaen van der Donck. But a few days later they assigned the patent to her brother Elias Doughty who in course of time disposed of the property in several lots."

1. ↑ .

   Possible Death Dates and sources for further review:
   * aft 7 Jun 1655 [RNA 1:323]
   * bef 10 Jan 1656 [RNA 2:8]

2.   Lanier, Henry Wysham. A century of banking in New York, 1822-1922. (New York: The Gilliss Press, 1922)
   81.

   VANDERDONCK, Adrian The most distinguished man of letters in the Province. He was the author of a description of New Netherland as it was in 1650. Died in 1655.

3.   Adriaen van der Donck, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
   last accessed Mar 2017.

   Adriaen Cornelissen van der Donck (c.1618 – 1655) was a lawyer and landowner in New Netherland after whose honorific Jonkheer the city of Yonkers, New York is named. In addition to being the first lawyer in the Dutch colony, he was a leader in the political life of New Amsterdam (modern New York City), and an activist for Dutch-style republican government in the Dutch West India Company-run trading post. ...