Cornelis Jacobsen Mey, often spelledCornelius Jacobsz May inDutch, was a 17th-centuryDutch explorer, captain, and fur trader. Mey was the first director ofNew Netherland and was stationed atFort Amsterdam. Mey was the captain of the shipNieu Nederlandt, which delivered the first boatload of colonists to New Netherland in north-east America.

May is believed to have been fromHoorn in the northwestNetherlands but may have been born in the smaller village ofSchellinkhout, located just east of Hoorn. His brother is believed to have beenJan Jacobszoon May van Schellinkhout for whom the island ofJan Mayen is named.^[1] Both brothers were cousins of Jan Cornelisz May, a prominent Dutch sailor and voyager^[2] who led several expeditions to theNortheast passage and circumnavigated the world withJoris van Spilbergen between 1614 and 1617.

In 1614, May was the first to sail the Mauritius River, now known as theHudson River, where he entered into an agreement with various competingIndian tribal traders. On October 11, 1614, May became party to theNew Netherland Company, which received an exclusive patent from theStates General of the Netherlands for four voyages to be undertaken for the next three years to territories discovered between the 40th and 45th parallels at the exclusion of all otherDutch through January 1618.

From August 1616 to November 1616, the New Netherland Company tried unsuccessfully to secure a patent for a territory located between the 38th and 40th parallels atDelaware Bay, which had been surveyed from 1614 to 1615 by Cornelis Hendricksz from Monnikendam on the shipOnrust. In 1616, Cornelis Hendricksen, sailed theOnrust up the Zuyd Rivier, now known as theDelaware River, from Delaware Bay to its northernmost navigable reaches, on a voyage to ransom three fur traders taken fromFort Nassau on the North River.^[3]

On behalf of the successor company of the New Netherland Company, May explored and surveyed the Delaware Bay on a ship named called theBlyde Boodschap, for the exploration of territories to the west of and below Manhattan, and those in as far south as the fortieth degree in Virginia and engaged in trade with the Indians there in 1620. In 1621, he ordered the construction of a factory atFort Nassau at the mouth ofBig Timber Creek.^[3]

Two of the six business partners with two ships,Blijde Boodschap andBever, focused on exploration and trade in the Zuidt Rivier, or Delaware River, wereThijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen andSamuel Godijn. Cape Hinlopen, now spelledCape Henlopen inDelaware, is named after Thijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen. Cape Hinlopen was New Netherland's most southern border on the 38th parallel. Godyn's Bay, now Delaware Bay, was named forSamuel Godyn, one of the first patrons inNew Netherland and a director of theDutch West India Company and the Northern Company.

May was unable to trade in the South River, now known as theDelaware River, to the exclusion of competing Dutch companies. Though the competing Dutch companies were eventually able to reach agreement onNew Netherlands, discord arose again which was finally settled by arbitrators inAmsterdam, on December 23, 1623. In 1624, the 38th and 39th parallels region came under the final jurisdiction of theDutch West India Company with the delivery of New Netherland, including theWalloon and Flemish families.^[4]

May was the captain of the shipNieu Nederlandt (aka New Netherland) which delivered the first boat load of colonists toNew Netherland, first atFort Orange, the trading post near present-dayAlbany, New York, and then onGovernors Island, in present-dayNew York City, in 1624. In the spring of 1624, May returned to New Netherland in command of theNieu Nederlandt with the first group of settlers, mostly young Walloon families. Some were sent to company lands inConnecticut. Two families and eight single males took a sloop to the Zuidt (South) River, now theDelaware River, and establishedFort Wilhelmus. Eight men were also left on Nut Island to promote the fur trade, and the remaining 18 families proceeded to Fort Orange.^[5] Having transformed New Netherland into a Dutch province, May was named the province'sfirst director.^[6][7] During May's brief directorship,Fort Orange was completed on the North River, andFort Nassau on the South River.^[8]

Cape May, New Jersey andCape May County, New Jersey are both named after Mey.^[9]

• Dutch colonization of the Americas
• Dutch colonial empire
• List of colonial governors of New Jersey
• List of colonial governors of New York
• Fort Amsterdam

• Brodhead, John Romeyn (1853).History of the state of New York. Vol. I. Harper & Brothers.
• Klein, Milton M. (2001).The Empire State : a history of New York. Ithaca : Cornell University Press ; Cooperstown : New York State Historical Association.ISBN 978-0-80148-9914.
• Shorto, Russell (2004).The Island at the Center of the World. New York : Doubleday.ISBN 9781400078677.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
• van Laer, A.J.F., ed. (1924).Documents relating to New Netherland, 1624-1626, in the Henry E. Huntington Library. West-Indische Compagnie (Netherlands); Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery.ISBN 9780598823618.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Wheeler, Edward Smith (1876).Scheyichbi and the Strand. J.B. Lippincott & Company, Philadelphia.
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• 16th-century births
• 17th-century deaths
• 17th-century Dutch explorers
• Directors of New Netherland
• Dutch explorers of North America
• Dutch sailors
• Explorers of the United States
• People from Hoorn
• People from Venhuizen
• People from colonial New York

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• CS1 maint: publisher location
• CS1 errors: ISBN date