BROUWER Family

BROUWER Family

of New Netherlands (later, New York)

Adam Pieterse BROUWER came from Cologne on the Rhine river in 1642 as a soldier in the employ of the Dutch West India Company. In 1645 he married Magdalena VERDON, dau. of Jacob VERDON, a Frenchman residing in Holland. The name is sometimes recorded in the records as BROWER.

The wedding of Adam Pieterse BROUWER by *Dominie Bogardus in the house called "the Tavern", near the Battery, was followed by a drink-fest, which aroused wide-spread and prolonged comment. This Dominie called Governor Kieft harsh names, and the dispute which followed occupied the attention of the States General and the West India CO. for ten Years!

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* (Dominie BOGARDUS:

Everardus Bogardus: "The Rev. Everardus Bogardus was pastor of the First Reformed Dutch Church at New Amsterdam. He arrived in New York April 1633 on the Southberry (sic - Southbury) from Holland. He sailed from New York, August 16, 1647 on the ship Princess for the Fatherland and was shipwrecked and lost with 178 other passengers in the Bristol Channel off the coast of Wales, September 27, 1647."

Credits: Description from the website of Roy Ernst Kierstead.

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Everardus Bogardus' granddaughter, Annetie BOGARDUS, married Jacobus BROUWER (Adam BROUWER's son), on 8 January, 1682.

Adam left the Dutch West Co. and bought from John Fricke a tide-water gristmill on the Gowanus, the first mill ever operated in New Netherlands. In 1647 the Company awarded him a patent to land on Manhattan but ADAM BROUWER continued to run his mill on Gowanus Kil, which two of his sons continued after him. Their houses were at the present site of Third Ave. and 27th St. in Brooklyn, a section famous for the drowning of hundreds of soldiers in Washington's retreat from Long Island in 1776, when the routed colonials were trapped against the swamps of Gowanus Kil.
LINK: Early Dutch Windmills & Gristmills on Long Island

In 1664 Adam petitioned the Governor to let him dig a canal through the sand-bar at the mouth of Gowanus Kil so that boats might row up the Kil to his grist mill. The canal completed, Adam's customers complained that he "on frivolous pretences would not at all times grind their corn." He was warned by the Governor Lovelace that he must grind upon demand, first come, first served. This mill stood at present corner of Nevin St. and Sackett St.

In 1692, Adam BROWER made his will cutting off his dau. Aeltje and two of his sons: "I leave to my eldest son Peter (PIETER BROUWER), 3 shillings by reason he has been disobedient to his father, and also Jacob (JACOBUS BROUWER) and AELTJE (BROUWER) for reason of their disobedience shall not receive a penny." But he later revised his will to give AELTJE's son, John DRAKE (Jan DeRAET), the land at Gowanus Kil from his grandfather in 1750.
* Note: Apparently, John did not go by the surname DRIGGS, but used instead the English surname of DRAKE.

** On 30 April, 1682, Brooklyn, New Netherlands (New York), AELTJE BROUWER married JOSIAS JANSZEN DeRAET / aka DRATZ / DRETHS / DREGZ / DRIGGS, the son of Jan DeRAET and Annetje BARENS (BARENTSZ) of Amsterdam, Holland.

Josias Janszen Driggs/Dratz (b. 2 August, 1640 in Amsterdam, Holland - d. 1701 in Brooklyn, NY)

** First Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam, announcing engagement and then wedding:

1682: ** April 15: Josias Janszen DRAS j. m. van Amsterdam, en Aeltje BROUWER, j. d. van de Gowanus (New Amsterdam), betrothed.

1682: ** April 16: Josia Jansz DRATS, young man from Amsterdam, residing in New York, and Aeltje BROUWER from Gowanus married at "Breukelen" (Brooklyn), New Amsterdam (New York) on 30 April 1682.

SOURCES:

DRIGGS OF AMERICA (second edition; published 1971)
Church Records from the First Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam (records include betrothals, marriages, baptisms, etc.)
Extracts from period W. I. C. (West India Company) records

LOOK at this LINK!
The VIRTUAL NEW AMSTERDAM PROJECT

This has a huge, colorful map of 1660 New Amsterdam, the Dutch West India Co. operated Colony.
The CLICKABLE map allows you to see & view on your STATUS bar below who lived in each home or owned them. YOU DON'T WANT TO GO WITHOUT SEEING THIS!!!
Just read the directions -it's easy and fun. When you move your cursor over a little house or some place on the map, the name of the owner appears on your status bar. This is a work still in progress, so check back occasionally to see if new information has been added.

Jansen, Martin, Bogardus, Hermann, Roelfsson, Barentsen, Hubbard, Anthony, and even Richard Smith (my GIRD ancestor). Notice the street name of Brouwer, after our family.

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