Maryn Adriansen (1600 –c. 1654) (also spelled Maryn Adriaensen, Marinus Adriaensz, Marijn Adriaensz, Marin Adriaensz, Marinus Ariaens) was an early settler toNew Netherland.[1] Originally emigrating under anindenture agreement he later became a prominent member of society. His conflict with the governor led to accusations and, eventually, acquittal. He owned property inNew Amsterdam and a large plantation atAwiehaken.
Maryn Adrieansen was born in Holland in 1600, and he came fromVeere, in the Province ofZeeland. He was aboatswain from 1621 to 1627 under Captain Claes Gerritssen Compaen. He married Lysbet Thyssen around 1628 and may have been in New Amsterdam as early as 1630 where an unnamed son was born. He had a daughter around 1631, either in the Netherlands or Renssalaerswyck, Brechje Maryns, who would marry Claes Cornelisze Egmont Van Voorhout and have issue. He died sometime before March 1654, and his widow, Lysbet Thysen, remarried Geerlief Michelsen.
Adriansen contracted withKiliaen van Rensselaer toserve as a tobacco planter for the period of three years on January 12, 1631. He sailed with his wife Lysbet Thysen and a child and a few farm workers fromTexel aboard De Eendracht shortly after July 7, 1631. He arrived atFort Orange, part of the patroon ofRensselaerwyck, located on theHudson River (in today'sCapital District nearAlbany, New York. His indenture was for a period of three years forhalf of 4 guns, 8 axes, 4adzes, 12 spades, to fl.74,10.[2] In 1632 he was namedschepen. As his name does not appear later in the colony's accounts, he likely left at the end of his term in 1634.[3]
Adriaensen engaged in theNorth River (Hudson River) trade, establishing himself near the present-dayPearl andWall streets inNew Amsterdam and purchased a house in the Smit's Vly (along the shores of theEast River[4] at the foot of today'sMaiden Lane[5][6]).
On August 29, 1641, he was elected a member ofDirector of New NetherlandWillem Kieft's advisory board, theTwelve Men. In 1643, he took part in aShrovetide dinner meeting at the home of Jan Jansen Damen, with other guests including Kieft,Cornelis van Tienhoven andAbraham Isaacsen Verplanck[7] During dinner, the men discussed the Indian situation and Van Tienhoven produced a petition advocating the massacre of the Native American population. All those in attendance signed the document and Kieft agreed. ThePavonia Massacre took place, February 25–26. Eighty Native Americans were brutally massacred. Kieft ordered Adriaensen and a band of volunteers to go toCorlaers Hook to attack the refugees assembled there. Forty of the tribe, men, women and children, were killed in theMassacre at Corlears Hook. Retaliation was swift, and the colonists suffered greatly that winter from Native American attacks during what is known asKieft's War.[8][9]
Adriaensen, realizing that Kieft intended to shift public blame to him, went to Kieft armed with a loaded pistol and cutlass and demanded "What devilish lies are these you've been telling about me?". Counsellor La Montagne grappled for the pistol, which misfired without causing injury. Meanwhile, Robert Pennoyer, one of the company's soldiers, drew Adriaensen's sword from its scabbard and flung it away. (Pennoyer later testified in regard to the matter, on the 23d of March 1643; that he had heard Adriaensen's wife Lysbet Tyson say in the tavern after he had asked her twice what ailed her, "Robert, my husband, will kill the commander; go and catch him"[10]). Adriaensen was overpowered and jailed but under pressure from Adriaensen's followers, Kieft agreed to return Adriaensen to Amsterdam for trial. Bound in chains, Adriaensen was put on board a ship sailing for Holland, where he was acquitted.[8][11] and afterwards returned.[12]
Bergen, along theHudson andHackensack rivers, that would become contemporaryHudson andBergen counties. Though it only officially existed as an independent municipality from 1661, with the founding of a village atBergen Square, Bergen began as afactorij atCommunipaw circa 1615 and was first settled in 1630 asPavonia, with settlements atHarsimus,Paulus Hook,Hoboken andVriessendael were in the following years. They were along the banks of theNorth River (Hudson River) across fromNew Amsterdam, under whose jurisdiction they fell.
Maryn Adriansen acquired land on the west bank of the Hudson. TheManatus Map of 1639 depicts a land holding numbered 32 and described as the "plantation of Maerynes".[14]At some point Adriaensen returned to New Netherland some years and on May 11, 1647, Director Kieft granted him patent for 50morgens of land[15] on the west side of the North River, known by the name of "Awiehaken", nowWeehawken[13]
On April 18, 1670, the government of theProvince of New Jersey (posthumously) confirmed the grant to Maryn Adriaensenfor a parcel of land called Wiehacken in the jurisdiction of Bergen on Hobooken Creek, 50 morgenDutch measure originally given on May 11, 1647.[16]
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Maryn Adriaensen.
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)Among the legended references on the famous Manatus Map of 1639, which has so happily preserved the beginnings of Pavonia for us, is one "No. 32", showing the "plantation of Maerynes". That was the cartographers shorthand for Maryn Adriaensen, who was in what is now Weehawken for many years before he got that May 11th 1647, patent for the 50 morgens, (about 100 acres) "extending from the kill of Hobocken and the north to the mouth of the next kill" and so on.
{{citation}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)