Willem Kieft
Willem (Wilhelm) Kieft, reproduction of a painting
6th Director of New Netherland
In office 1638–1647
Preceded by	Wouter van Twiller
Succeeded by	Peter Stuyvesant
Personal details
Born	September 1597 Amsterdam
Died	September 27, 1647(1647-09-27) (aged 49–50) Princess Amelia, nearSwansea, Wales
Signature

New Netherland series
Exploration
Fortifications:
Fort Amsterdam Fort Nassau (North) Fort Orange Fort Nassau (South) Fort Goede Hoop De Wal Fort Casimir Fort Altena Fort Wilhelmus Fort Beversreede Fort Nya Korsholm De Rondout
Settlements:
Noten Eylandt Nieuw Amsterdam Rensselaerswijck Nieuw Haarlem Beverwijck Wiltwijk Bergen Pavonia Vriessendael Achter Col Vlissingen Oude Dorpe Colen Donck Greenwich Heemstede Rustdorp Gravesende Breuckelen Nieuw Amersfoort Midwout Nieuw Utrecht Boswijk Swaanendael Nieuw Amstel Nieuw Dorp
The Patroon System
Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions
Cornelius Jacobsen May(1620–25) Willem Verhulst(1625–26) Peter Minuit(1626–32) Sebastiaen Jansen Krol(1632–33) Wouter van Twiller(1633–38) Willem Kieft(1638–47) Peter Stuyvesant(1647–64)
People of New Netherland
New Netherlander Twelve Men Eight Men Nine Men
Flushing Remonstrance
v t e

Willem Kieft, alsoWilhelm Kieft, (September 1597 – September 27, 1647) was a Dutch merchant and theDirector of New Netherland (of whichNew Amsterdam was the capital) from 1638 to 1647.

Willem Kieft was appointed to the rank of director by theDutch West India Company in 1638.^[1] He formed thecouncil of twelve men, the first representative body in New Netherland, but ignored its advice.^[2]

He tried to tax, and then drive out, local Native Americans.^[1] He ordered attacks onPavonia andCorlears Hook on February 25, 1643, which erupted into a horrific massacre (129 Dutch soldiers killed 120 Indians, including women and children). The Dutch local citizen advisory group had been specifically against such a raid, and were aghast when they heard the details. This was followed by retaliations resulting in what would become known asKieft's War (1643–1645). The war took a huge toll on both sides, and the directors of theDutch West India Company dismissed him in 1647.Peter Stuyvesant succeeded Kieft in office.^[1]

Kieft died on September 27, 1647, in thePrincess Amelia shipwreck nearSwansea, Wales, en route to Amsterdam to defend himself, along with many of his opponents, including the Rev.Everardus Bogardus.^[3] His archive was also lost, so his exact role cannot be established apart from what his opponents wrote of him.^[4][5]

He is depicted in the Gods of Manhattan series byScott Mebus.

• Land of the Blacks (Manhattan)
• Colonial America
• Dutch colonization of the Americas
• Dutch Empire
• List of colonial governors of New Jersey
• List of colonial governors of New York

• William Elliot GriffisThe Story of New Netherland. The Dutch In America. (Chapter IX. Cambridge: The Riverside Press. 1909)
• Allen Johnson, Ed.Dutch and English on the Hudson (Chapter IV. New Haven: Yale University Press. 1919)
• Jaap Jacobs (2005), New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers,ISBN 90-04-12906-5.
• Journal of New Netherland 1647. Written in the Years 1641, 1642, 1643, 1644, 1645, and 1646. 1641–1647.

• 1597 births
• 1647 deaths
• 17th-century Dutch businesspeople
• People from New Netherland
• Businesspeople from Amsterdam
• Directors of New Netherland
• Dutch merchants
• Kieft's War
• Dutch mass murderers
• Deaths due to shipwreck at sea
• Accidental deaths in Wales
• Native American genocide perpetrators

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from October 2021