DUTCH names grow profusely on William A. Whitehead’s family tree. While his surname betrays an English origin, the children of his father’s first marriage traced their maternal ancestry to the Rikers, one of the foremost families of New Netherland. The lineage of Whitehead’s own children went back on their mother’s side to a union between two Dutch American dynasties, the Schuylers and the Van Cortlandts. Whitehead’s posterity would bear the Van Cortlandt name down to the present day.1
Although New Netherland roots were inseparable from his family history, Whitehead encountered many challenges in trying to give his native state’s Dutch pedigree its due. The Dutch were the first Europeans to colonize parts of New Jersey, but their administrative center and most of their population were across the Hudson River in New York. Their efforts at dominion were troubled and tenuous in the face of indigenous resistance and English encroachments.
History is mistakenly but commonly read backwards, through the lens of what came after. Except for a period of fourteen months in 1673-74, when the Dutch recaptured the province from England and briefly reestablished their rule, the colony of New Netherland had effectively ended with its surrender in 1664. By the most generous reckoning the Dutch period lasted barely half a century, while its English successor endured more than twice as long. To the average nineteenth-century mind, New Jersey’s Dutch past was remote and of marginal significance.
Whitehead knew better, but had limited opportunities to explore that history. Early records, if they weren’t scattered or lost, lay hidden in distant archives, and the bulk of them were written in a language not his own, one that, for all its profound imprint on the toponymy of the surrounding region from Arthur Kill to Yonkers, was fast fading as a means of communication.
It was probably to the mentorship of William Dunlap, and the introduction he provided to the New-York Historical Society’s collections, that Whitehead owed his awareness of the few New Netherland records then available. In an 1839 history of New York from colonization to federal union, Dunlap referred frequently to such documents.2 The obscurities of New Jersey’s early past motivated Whitehead to seek out those records for himself.
George Bancroft’s eagerness to trace democracy’s progress, even in the darkest recesses of the colonial era, had led him in his History of the United States to highlight an episode in which the residents of New Jersey’s first towns seemed to cast off, momentarily, the yoke of aristocratic English rule.3 On the heels of that rebellion came the Dutch reconquest of 1673, and Bancroft, citing records of the Dutch restoration, could be seen to excuse and even exalt the behavior of these early Americans. Whitehead, considering their actions disloyal and even seditious, felt obliged to seek out and scrutinize Bancroft’s sources.
The materials Bancroft had referred to were English translations of Dutch documents. These resided in the office of the Secretary of New York State, and were therefore known as the Albany Records. They were made in the years 1818-22 by Francis Adrian Van der Kemp, a retired minister who had arrived in America thirty years earlier as a political refugee from Holland. Later historians would deem Van der Kemp’s translations inadequate and grievously inaccurate, but, for Whitehead and others of his contemporaries who did not read Dutch, they furnished the only access to the archives in that language kept in Albany.4
In December 1840, Whitehead applied for and received extracts from Volume 23 of Van der Kemp’s twenty-four volumes, pertaining to disposal of the East Jersey governor’s effects and of the papers of his administration. In these entries he found no support for Bancroft’s assertions, which in the meantime, probably in light of Whitehead’s prior criticisms, had vanished from later editions of Bancroft’s work.5 But the few items the New Jersey historian received had whetted his curiosity for what else the Albany Records might contain.
In 1843, the year Whitehead moved with his family from New York City to Newark, he submitted a blanket request that all twenty-four volumes of the Albany Records be searched “for matters referring to East Jersey.” The results were considerably more extensive and varied, ranging from the lease of a farm in Hoboken in 1639, found in Van der Kemp’s first volume, to a list in Volume 22 of town magistrates elected in what would turn out to be the waning months of the Dutch interregnum.6
Some of the Albany Records came to Whitehead only in abstracts and brief quotations, but of others he obtained the complete texts, among them a 1663 “Voyage to Navesink” that told of an unfriendly meeting with English intruders from Long Island reconnoitering lands around Raritan Bay.7 Other entries documented the immediate aftermath of the Dutch reconquest in New Jersey. These included lists of townsmen who swore allegiance to the government of the Netherlands; statements guaranteeing them the same rights and freedoms as Dutch subjects, as well as immunity from military service in the event of war with England; and statutes enacted by a local assembly for the governance of Jersey towns.8 There was evidence, as well, of English communities in Connecticut seeking permission to migrate to New Netherland in the years before such license was obtained and the town of Newark established.9
Whitehead compiled the Albany selections, some of which he rewrote, in a hand-sewn pamphlet with a short preface stating that they comprised “all of importance to be found” in those records. His knowledge of this period, he knew, was very far from complete, and oddities in the oath takers’ lists suggested that these transcripts might contain undetectable errors.10
Most of the Albany Records perished in a 1911 fire, by which time many of the Dutch originals had been more acceptably translated. For want of proximity and linguistic knowhow, Whitehead could not have properly evaluated Van der Kemp’s translations, but he judged them sufficiently reliable to cite, quote and even publish verbatim, until more skillful renderings became available.11
For other purposes Whitehead had a specialist and a friend close at hand, in the person of Solomon Alofsen, a native Hollander resident in Jersey City. He was a mainstay of the New Jersey Historical Society from its founding in 1845, offering to translate documents into English free of charge.12 Alofsen didn’t wait to be called upon: he produced versions of Dutch materials on his own initiative, beginning with the account of a 1690 expedition against the French in Canada, led by an ancestor of the New Jersey Schuylers.13 Alofsen contributed commentary on the place-names Pavonia and Bergen used by Jersey City’s first settlers; the latter name, he said, was probably Dutch, not Norwegian as often suggested.14
Alofsen was also fervently devoted to his adopted land and, as shown by numerous benefactions to the New Jersey Historical Society library, was committed to the preservation of recent and current American history. In 1855, he donated more than a hundred drawings executed by or for Robert Fulton, illustrating the workings of steam engines, steamboats and canals.15 In the following years, he built up the Society’s collection of Civil War-era imprints, which in time would number “over six hundred distinct works, in one hundred and eighty-four volumes….”16
Although he resettled in the Netherlands in 1872, Alofsen would retain an attachment to New Jersey and its historical community. A tribute at his death four years later cited what must have been one of his last letters to Whitehead. “I seriously think of returning to Newark,” reflected the proud Dutchman. Over the Society’s first three decades he had enjoyed associations with many distinguished figures, “who in 1845 were young men and comparatively without a name.” Now, back in his native land, “I feel I am more an American than a Hollander,” he wrote, “for these thirty years are, as a Hollander, almost a blank to me….”17
Whitehead, within the limits of his abilities and his times, would do all he could to ensure the Dutch period did not remain a blank in the history of New Jersey.
Copyright © 2024 Gregory J. Guderian
[1] Emma Riker, the first wife of William Adee Whitehead’s father William Whitehead, was the great-granddaughter of Grietie Van Buytenhuysen (d. 1732) and Abraham Riker (1655-1746). Abraham’s father, an immigrant to New Netherland, bequeathed him the island that bears the family name. Margaret Parker, William A. Whitehead’s wife, was the great-great-granddaughter of Gertruj Schuyler, whose brother was the first mayor of Albany, and Stephanus Van Cortlandt (1643-1700), the patroon of Van Cortlandt Manor. The youngest child of Margaret and William A. Whitehead was named Cortlandt; his granddaughter Aliph Van Cortlandt Whitehead was the mother of musician David Van Cortlandt Crosby (d. 2023).
[2] Although Dunlap’s History of the New Netherlands, Province of New York, and State of New York, to the adoption of the federal constitution (2 vols. New York 1839) appeared within the first year of Whitehead’s residence in New York City, the two men had previously been correspondents on historical matters: see my previous post Progress and place. On the origins of the place-name Communipaw, Dunlap’s History is cited in William A. Whitehead, East Jersey under the Proprietary governments: a narrative of events connected with the settlement and progress of the province, until the surrender of the government to the Crown in 1702[1703] (Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, 1. Hereafter “Whitehead, East Jersey”) ([New York] 18461) 17 n.33, (Newark 18752) 18 n.2.
[3] For Bancroft’s interpretation of the 1672 East Jersey revolt and Whitehead’s censures, see my previous post Seeds of dissension. The controversy was revived, in the context of Newark settlers’ claims, with the publication of Jonathan F. Stearns, First church in Newark. Historical discourses, relating to the First Presbyterian Church in Newark; originally delivered to the congregation of that church during the month of January, 1851 (Newark 1853), and in fifteen columns published by the Newark Daily Advertiser from January to July 1855, in which Whitehead and Stearns (writing as “G. P.” and “Justice”) took opposing views. The disagreement figured yet again in an 1869 exchange between Whitehead and Joseph P. Bradley: see Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society ser. 2, 1:4 (1869) 145.
[4] Whitehead, in 1840, avowed himself incapable of weighing Bancroft’s evidence, not having seen the Albany Records to which he referred: G. P., “Grahame and Bancroft, on the early history of East Jersey. No. III,” Newark (N.J.) daily advertiser 23 March 1840 2:1-2. On the history and generally negative assessments of Van der Kemp’s translations, see Peter D. Van Cleave, “Rescuing the Albany Records from the fire: redeeming Francis Adrian Van der Kemp’s notorious attempt to translate the records of New Netherland,” New York history 96:3-4 (Summer/Fall 2015) 354-373.
[5] Archibald Campbell, the Deputy Secretary of State, wrote to Whitehead on 19 December 1840, sending “Extracts of all the entries I could find in relation to Governor Carteret and the records &c. of New Jersey.” These records included orders issued in September and October 1673 to recover Carteret’s goods and the papers of the former government. New Jersey Manuscript Collection, Manuscript Group 7, IV:80, New Jersey Historical Society. Whitehead reviewed Bancroft’s use of them in G. P., “Glimpses of the past in New Jersey. No. VII.–Gov. Carteret,” Newark daily advertiser 2 April 1842 2:1-2, after which they were cited and quoted in Whitehead, East Jersey (18461) 62 n.82, (18752) 77 n.2. The translations of E. B. O’Callaghan (see note 11 below) would be incorporated into William A. Whitehead, ed. Documents relating to the colonial history of the State of New Jersey. 1. 1631-1687 (Archives of the State of New Jersey, ser. 1, 1. Newark 1880 [hereafter “NJA, ser. 1, 1”]) 130-133.
[6] Whitehead’s compilation, “Extracts referring to East Jersey taken from Vanderkemp’s translation of the Dutch records in the office of the Secretary of the State of New York at Albany 1843,” is preserved in William A. Whitehead Papers, Manuscript Group 177, New Jersey Historical Society, Box 2/9. They are partly in the hand of Archibald Campbell and partly in Whitehead’s own; I suspect the latter are fair copies of extracts sent from Albany, and were not made by Whitehead directly from the records. The extracts came from thirteen discrete volumes of Van der Kemp’s.
[7] The text of the “Voyage to Newesing,” from Volume 21 of the Albany Records, became Note B in Whitehead, East Jersey (18461) 177-179 (see 22 n.51), (18752) 259-262 (see 24 n.3).
[8] These items came from Volumes 22 and 23 of the Albany Records, and were cited or quoted in Whitehead, East Jersey (18461) 60-62, (18752) 75-77.
[9] The overtures were briefly noted in Whitehead, East Jersey (18461) 183, (18752) 266-267, citing Volumes 19-21 of the Albany Records, and further documented in W. A. Whitehead, “A historical memoir of the circumstances leading to and connected with settlement of Newark, May, 1666,” in Proceedings commemorative of the settlement of Newark, New Jersey, on its two hundredth anniversary. May 17th, 1866 (Collections of the New Jersey Historical Society, 6–Supplement. Newark 1866) 7-55, esp. 12-21, 158-166.
[10] In a marginal note to a list of oath takers from Middletown Whitehead commented, “Many of these are evidently Piscataway names–not of Middletown,” while adjacent to a list from Woodbridge he wrote, “From a want of a knowledge of the true names the translator or copyist has made many mistakes.”
[11] Whitehead didn’t discard his copies of Van der Kemp’s versions, but departed from them in later years, especially when compiling the first volume of Archives of the State of New Jersey, in which he instead used the translations of E. B. O’Callaghan, ed. Documents relative to the colonial history of the State of New-York; procured in Holland, England and France, by John Romeyn Brodhead, Esq., agent, under and by virtue of an act of the Legislature, entitled “An Act to appoint an agent to procure and transcribe documents in Europe relative to the colonial history of the State,” passed May 2, 1839 (15 vols. Albany 1856-1887, with variations in the title).
[12] Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society [ser. 1] 1:1 (1845) 9. Alofsen’s other functions on the Society’s behalf included the creation of its seal and seven years’ service as its treasurer: ibid. [ser. 1] 2:1 (1846) 3, 53, 89; ser. 2 1:1 (1867) 25; ser. 2 4:4 (1876) 168.
[13] S. Alofsen, Jersey City 2 September 1845, to W. A. Whitehead, printed in Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society [ser. 1] 1:2 (1845) 70-71; S. Alofsen, trans. “Journal of Captain John Schuyler, on his expedition to Canada and Fort La Prairie, during the latter part of August, 1690,” ibid. 72-74.
[14] Solomon Alofsen, “The origin of the name ‘Pavonia.’ A paper read before the Historical Society of New Jersey, May 17, 1860,” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society [ser. 1] 9:1 (1860) 35-38 and cf. 29; S. Alofsen, Jersey City 31 August 1846, to W. A. Whitehead, printed in Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society [ser. 1] 1:4 (1846) 178-179 and cf. 174. Alofsen also gathered information about historical Saint Nicholas traditions in the Netherlands: see S. Alofsen, [Saint Nicholas and his festival in Amsterdam,] 1865-1866, in Manuscripts of lectures and addresses, New-York Historical Society Records 1804-2023, NYHS-RG 11, Box 3/11; Alexander J. Wall, Jr., “St. Nicholas at the Society,” The New-York Historical Society quarterly bulletin 25:1 (January 1941) 10-16; cf. Eugenie Boer, “Bien étonnés de se tronver [sic] ensemble – of toch niet? Potgieter en Sint-Nicolaas,” Nieuw letterkundig magazijn 27 (2009) 46-51.
[15] Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society [ser. 1] 7:4 (1855) 121, 131; 8:1 (1856) 4-6. A portion of these drawings forms part of the present Stoudinger-Alofsen-Fulton collection, Manuscript Group 1508, New Jersey Historical Society. See Alan D. Frazer, “Evidence of an early steamboat,” New Jersey history 97:3 (Autumn 1979) 178-183.
[16] Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society ser. 2 4:4 (1874) 139. The Civil War collection was to earn a “special position” in the Society’s library, “befitting its importance.” Proceedings of the New Jersey Historical Society ser. 2, 1:1 (1867) 24. Most of these donations were recorded in the Proceedings during the years 1862-67.
[17] Alofsen’s letter, of February 1876, is excerpted in The New-England historical and genealogical register33:131 (July 1879) 362-363. He died in Arnhem on 10 October 1876. Institutions in his native land could thank Alofsen for sizeable acquisitions of Americana: see the notices in Algemeen Handelsblad (Amsterdam) 13 February 1857 2:3, 5 February 1876 2:1; Nieuw Amsterdamsch handels- en effectenblad 19 March 1863 2:1; and Hoornsche Courant 31 October 1865 1:2. See also Catalogue de la bibliothèque de Mr. S. Alofsen (Utrecht 1876).
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