Cornelis Van Tienhoven & Phillipe Du Trieux
The lives of two of ancestors (one from the Ross side and one from the Long side) intersected in 1638 when they both became involved with appointments from Governor Kieft of New Amsterdam. At the time they were residing side by side on farms in Smith’s Valley, Manhattan Island. Upon Willem Kieft’s ascent to the position of Director of New Netherland in 1638, he made Cornelis Van Tienhoven (Ahnentafel # 1132 & Ross ancestor) Secretary of the colony. Cornelis had married Rachel Vigne (Ahn # 1133), the daughter of Adrienne Cuvellier (Ahn #2267) and Guillaume Vigne (Ahn # 2266). In the same year Phillipe Du Trieux (Ahnentafel 3916, 12th Generation & Long ancestor) was appointed “. . . Court Messenger, or Marshall, by Gov. Kieft, and on 22 May 1640 received a patent for the land adjoining Sec. Van Tien Hoven’s farm in Smith’s Valley, Manhattan Island, on which it appears he resided” (Original Source: “The Monmouth County Branch of The Truax/Truex Family” - http:/www.patpnyc.com/dutrieux.shtml-recently checked and no longer available at this site).
Nine generations later, Elmer Melvin Ross became one of the descendants of Cornelius Van Tienhoven. Ten generations later, Mary Ruth Long became one of the descendants of Phillip du Trieux, both living in the Chattanooga Valley/ Lookout Mountain area of Georgia/Tennessee.
[ You can check out the descendents of these two early ancestors by going to the genealogical records posted at:
http://worldconnect.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=elrross]
On March 29, 1624 the ship, Nieu Nederlandt (New Netherland) sailed from Holland with the first wave of settlers to settle in in the new Province of New Netherlands, a status granted in June of 1623 after lobbying by the Dutch West India Company. These settlers were not Dutch but thirty French speaking Walloon families, among which was Phillipe du Trieux and his wife Susanna. These settlers were settled up and down the Hudson River, and later in 1624 and 1625 six additional ships brought more colonists, livestock and supples to the new province.Due to Indian problems in the north section (Fort Orange, now Albany), the Director General of the Dutch West India Company, Peter Minuit, came to the new province and shortly thereafter, between May 4 and June 26, 1626 purchased the island of Manhattan from the Indians for trinkets worth about 50 guilders. The settlers were then moved from the more dangerous areas and consolidated in the island of Manhattan. It was here that Phillipe du Trieux raised his family. In his job as court messenger (Sheriff) after 1643, his work carried him throughout all parts of New Netherland, and it is supposed that he knew the whole territory of the colony very well.
I have no specifics on the first arrival of Cornelis Van Tienhoven’s family but his wife’s parents arrived sometime before 1614 while the area was a mere trading post for Dutch explorers. The United East India Company in 1602 had been chartered by the Netherlands to explore the uncharted territories in the area and look for a passage to the “Indies”. Henry Hudson, the English explorer, on their behalf entered the area now known as New York, on September 3, 1609, sailed up the “Hudson” river, and found what turned out to be a very lucrative fur trading area. So Adrienne Cuvellier and her husband, Guillaume Vigne, Cornelis Van Tienhoven’s in-laws, came sometime between the arrival of Henry Hudson and 1614. It was that year that the New Netherlands Company received a three year monopoly on fur trading from the States General of the United Provinces. Prior to that, there had been a succession of Dutch merchants vying for the lucrative fur business in the area. It is likely that Adrienne and Guillaume came during this time.
Some have labeled Cornelis Van Tienhoven, “Cornelius, the Evil One”; having been a prime example of a corrupt leader, a womanizer, and personally responsible for many massacres of the native peoples of the area. In his position as Secretary of the colony, he was the second most powerful man in the colony of New Netherlands.
© 2008 by E. Lamar Ross and Infopreneur Publishers, LLC.