Mathij Jansen Van Keulen and Margriet Hendrickse
Mathij Jansen Van Keulen
9th Great Grandfather
Lord-Director, Dutch West Indies Company
b. Feb 2, 1601, London, England
d. Oct 16, 1648, Fort Orange, New Amsterdam
Margriet Hendrickse
9th Great Grandmother
b. abt 1622, Fort Orange, New Amsterdam
d. Feb 03, 1721, Kingston, Ulster County, New York Colony
Mathij Jansen Van Keulen was likely the first European grandfather to come to the Americas, in 1632.
In the 1500s, Spain was engaged in the "Inquisition". To non-Catholics, this usually meant imprisonment, torture, and/or execution. As the Spanish began conquering Western Europe, many were forced to flee to the safety of the Dutch States. Such is the case of Cologne, which fell to Spain in 1559. As a matter of identification, wealthy classes from Cologne often attached the suffix "van Keulen" to their names, which literally means "of Cologne". Cologne may be in Germany today, but it was part of the Spanish Netherlands in the 1500s.
Mathij's great grandfather, Wolfaert van Keulen, was born at Cologne in the early 1500's and his grandfather, Mathij Wolfaertse Van Keulen, is believed to have been born in the 1540s, also in Cologne. In 1567, Cologne was taken over by the Spanish. The Catholic conquerors were very hard on wealthy Protestants, imprisoning large numbers and executing many. As the van Keulen family were both well off and Protestant, most chose to flee for the safety of the Netherlands. Mathij Wolfaertse van Keulen appeared first in the records of Antwerp, Belgium in 1570. It is believed that his son (Mathij's father), Jan Mathijs van Keulen, was born in Antwerp around 1580. In 1585, Antwerp fell to the Spanish. The family appears in London in the early 1590's where Mathij Jansen van Keulen is born in 1602 and christened at the Austin Friars Dutch Reformed Church of London on 2 Feb, 1602.
On June 3 1621, Mathijs became one of the Lord Directors of the Dutch West India Company. In September 1628, Mathijs received a commission of 50,000 guilders on a cargo that Admiral Pieter Heyn relieved from the Spanish Plate Fleet, which he caught in the mid Atlantic.
In 1629, Netherlands and Portugal entered into a war over South American Colonies and American trade. From 1629 to 1632, the dutch and Portugese in Brazil battled to a stalemate, each holding about half of the Brazil colony. In October 1632, Mathijs was appointed Supreme Commander of Dutch Forces in South America. He left Texel Island on 16 Oct, 1632 and arrived in Recife, Brazil on Dec 5, 1632 and assumed command of the armed forces. He initiated more potent battle tactics, including raiding parties and what they called "Flying Columns". In just 18 months, Mathij Van Keulen's forces swept down the Brazillian coast and literally drove the Portugese into the sea. The final battle at Reis Magos in December, 1634, left the Dutch in complete control of the colony. In his honor, the fort at Reis Magos was renamed vanKeulensFoort. Upon his return in 1635, he received a heros welcome, and was subsequently named Patroon of Zawaanendal, Delaware River, New York), and about 1636, came to America to assume his new post.
The Dutch colonies at New Netherland had proved to be a dismal failure and were eventually taken over by the British in 1664, at which time it was renamed New York. In Aug, 1646, Mathijs purchased 50 morgens(100 acres) near Conraet's land on Manhattan. This was known as Van Ceulens Bouwerie. The land today is located at the point where 9W crosses the Harlem River at Columbia University's Baker's Field. Mathijs died at Fort Orange 13 Oct, 1648.
