Thomas and Roeloff Swartwout
For the 350th anniversary of the Swartwout Family in America
Copyright 2002 by Peter R. Christoph,
Used with permission

Usually for a talk after a banquet, the speaker is asked to provide something light and entertaining, sort of an extra little dessert, enjoyable but not very filling. But I have been asked to talk about Thomas and Roeloff Swartwout, men who are deserving of our serious consideration. Were it not for them, we would not be gathered here tonight. Or, more to the point, were it not for them, most of you gathered here tonight would not be gathered anyplace.

I understand that you have received a copy of an article by Andrew Brink, whom I have known for probably 25 years. It is a good piece, and I hope you have all read it or will read it. You may pick up on some differences between what he has written and what I have to say, but that is because there is plenty of room in the original records for supposition and interpretation, and we make of the facts what we can. At least this way you will have two people's ideas about what was going on, and you can weigh one against the other. And if you are really interested, there are some sources that no one has ever checked, so far as know, and as I go along I will point out some things that really could be researched.

Thomas Swartwout was born in Groeningen about 1607, and it was there he grew up. However, by 1629, the 22-year-old Thomas had joined his older brothers Wybrant and Herman in the tobacco business in Amsterdam. Tobacco will be the family business for decades.

It is interesting that they have a family name. Most people in the Netherlands in the 17th century did not. They may already have been a cut above the average.

In 1630 Thomas married Adrientjen Symons, whose father was a broker. The Swartwouts and Symonses, then, were people of the merchant class at a time when it was a very good thing to be a merchant in Amsterdam, during the Golden Age of the Netherlands, when Dutch goods were among the world's best and the Dutch navy ruled the seas.

Less than a year after her marriage, Adriaentjen Swartwout died, survived by her husband Thomas, and a baby son, Jan. It was the custom for widowed parents to remarry quickly, and so a few months later Thomas married Hendrickjen Barents.

Hendrickjen, was the daughter of an Amsterdam printer and book dealer. Barent Otsen. Again, we have someone from the merchant class, someone who had an acquaintance with learning, and this would be passed on to her children. The first child was Roeloff, who was baptized June 1, 1634, at the Oudekerk, the old church, in Amsterdam. There would be four more children, but two of them died young, as did their half-brother Jan, so that only Roeloff and two girls survived to adulthood.

The children grew up in what we presume was a comfortable situation, and then in 1652, when Thomas was in his 45th year, he and his family sailed for America. Some merchants would distribute their brothers among trading ports, and that may explain Thomas's coming to Manhattan, where he could purchase American tobacco to ship to his brothers back in Amsterdam. His wife Hendrickjen came along of course, she appears in Manhattan records. But I do not find the two daughters in America, and I do not think they immigrated. Since they were still young and unmarried, they may have stayed with one of their uncles in Amsterdam Another family member who did come over, perhaps at this time but more likely later, was Thomas's brother Aldart, whose stay was apparently brief. He appears in the New Amsterdam records only once, in 1656.

At first the Swartwouts lived in New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, where Thomas and Hendrickjen joined the Reformed church. However, they and several other families soon moved to Long Island and founded a community, called at first Midwout, and later Flatbush.

Thomas seems to have been a community leader from the be6nning. In 653, only his second year in America, he was among the delegates from several towns, he being the Midwout representative, who lodged a formal protest with the colony's director-general, Petrus Stuyvesant, over the lack of popular elections, the danger from Indians who had not been paid for their land, and the lack of deeds for the farms on Long Island. In 1655 Thomas was nominated by the Midwout court to serve a term as a schepen, or magistrate, to which office he was appointed by the colony's Council.

In that same year he was sued by Gysbert van Imbroeck for delivery of an overdue shipment of grain. This was in September, when Thomas had not ye- threshed that year's crop, but the plaintiff was unwilling to wait. Oloff van Cortlandt, one of the colony's more important merchants and public officials, offered to pay the debt if Thomas would reimburse him with either grain or tobacco. While there is nothing unusual in this suit - merchants high and low were forever running into delivery problems, and suing or being sued - it is interesting that possible payment in tobacco is mentioned. It would seem to confirm that Thomas was still involved in the tobacco trade. It is also worth noting that a major merchant such as Oloff van Cortlandt was willing to cover the debt for Thomas. It suggests that he was considered a person of consequence.

In 1658 Thomas was granted the privileges of a burgher of New Amsterdam, which entitled him to freedom of trade in the city Since only residents of the city could be granted the burgher right, we can assume that he had a year-round residence there, while presumably continuing to farm at Midwout. Or, he may have shifted his base of operations to Manhattan and leased his farm to someone else. We would need to check the Flatbush records to find out whether he was still involved in affairs at Midwout, and to what extent.

Thomas last appears in the Manhattan records, a decade after his arrival here, in church on January 8, 1662, as godparent for a grandson. It is possible that he died at about this time. Or, perhaps he returned to the Netherlands. I do not believe that anyone has ever checked the Amsterdam notarial records to see if he appears back in the old country. It would be worth while checking the Flatbush records as well, to see when he last appears there.

But what has Roeloff been up to? One of our problems in following him from the Netherlands is that he had a first cousin also named Roeloff Swartwout. We know that cousin Roeloff received the degree of doctor of medicine from the University of Harderwyk in 1665. Ten years earlier, one or the other of them graduated from the University of Groeningen with a degree in theology. Arthur J. Weiss, author of The Swartwout Chronicles, thinks that this is one person. But Andrew Brink thinks the theology student was your Roeloff. In fact, we have no references over here to your Roeloff until 1657. Either he was over here for five years without being mentioned even once, or he stayed behind to complete his university education. Which is it? I don't know. But that is one thing more that you may want to investigate.

In any case, we would expect that he was here by 1656 at the latest, in order to give him time to properly woo the woman he married in 1657. Her name was Eva Bradt, and perhaps we should take a moment to discuss her life before she became Mrs. Swartwout. Her parents had met in Amsterdam, they being Albert Bradt from Norway and Annatie Barents from Germany. Eva was baptized in 1633, at the Lutheran church in Amsterdam. Her father was, among other things, a tobacco farmer outside of Amsterdam. Isn't that interesting? Tobacco, again. The family immigrated to New Netherland, arriving at Rensselaerswyck near present-day Albany in 1637. By then there were three children, Eva being the eldest, and eventually there would be eight 'in all.

Eva's father at first was involved in two enterprises, building a sawmill and starting a tobacco farm. He and his brother Arent grew tobacco for several years, sending it to Kiliaen van Rensselaer in Amsterdam, who then sold it to tobacco dealers in that city. Since Thomas Swartwout's brothers were tobacco dealers in Amsterdam, it is possible that the Swartwouts and Bradts knew of each other's existence long before Roeloff and Eva ever met.

This would be Eva's second marriage. Her first husband was Anthony de Hooges, the business manager of the colony of Rensselaerswyck, and quite a catch for a young girl. When they married, De Hooges was pushing thirty, and Eva was fourteen. You are free to draw whatever conclusions you like.

Anthony de Hooges died in 1655, leaving Eva, still only twenty-two, with five children, all less than eight years old. Two years later Eva married Roeloff Swartwout. Had Roeloff been living in Beverwyck (modem Albany) when he met Eva, as most writers assume? I think it more likely that they met in Manhattan, where Eva's father had an office and warehouse and Roeloff's father had a house. I have seen nothing to indicate that Roeloff was actually living in Beverwyck prior to his marriage.

Through his marriage to Eva, Roeloff acquired several parcels of land and a house in Beverwyck that had belonged to her first husband, de Hooges. By keeping the property 'm Beverwyck, Roeloff became eligible to engage in the fur trade there. A year after his marriage, Beverwyck records show him with two debts totaling 344 trade for furs, he noted that other men were also in the woods, including Roeloff Swartwout, Eva's brother Storm, and Eva's brother-in-law, Teunis Slingertand. Obviously Roeloff was involved with his brothers-in-law in the fur trade.

We do not know when Roeloff first acquired property here in the Esopus. By 1660 and possibly before that, Roeloff and Eva were maintaining homes in both Beverwyck and here. At least in 1660 the new minister of the Reformed church here recorded their names among the members of the congregation, while records show Roeloff still maintaining property in the Beverwyck area five years later. It is a good guess that he was planting in the Esopus area in the spring, trading for furs in Beverwyck during the summer, and then back to the Esopus in the fall to reap his crops.

Sometime in 1659, perhaps after the fall harvest, he sailed for the Netherlands on business. Seventeenth-century ocean voyages be' no vacation, Eva and the mg children stayed at home. While in Amsterdam, Roeloff petitioned the West India Company, which owned the colony of New Netherland, to appoint him as schout (court officer) for the Esopus. The directors granted him the commission and issued him instructions for conducting his office just before he sailed in April 1660 they also wrote a letter to Petrus Stuyvesant, informing him of their action.

Stuyvesant was not pleased with the appointment. He protested to directors, "We have been very much astonished by the appointment . . . on account of his unfitness for the position." What was required, according to Stuyvesant was "a man of greater age, capacity and esteem . . . who at the same time is able to attend there to the duties of Commissary for the Company. " In any case, Stuyvesant added "There is for the present no court of justice there and it does not appear that one shall be there in a long while, for lack of inhabitants fit to sit on the bench." Stuyvesant obviously did not think much of any of the settlers at Esopus, and so there was no court and no schout that year.

Roeloff was back in the Netherlands that next winter. He called on Jan Baptist van Rensselaer to collect on a debt owed to the estate of Anthony de Hooges, and, no doubt, also stopped in at the West India Company office before returning home. A series of letters had been passing back and forth between the directors in Amsterdam and Stuyvesant and his council, concerning the appointment of Roeloff. The directors evenbi0y informed Stuyvesant that they had made their decision, and he was to abide by it. Stuyvesant in 1661 laid out the village of Wiltwyck, now Kingston, appointed schepens (magistrates) to the court, and installed Roeloff as schout.

The Dutch term schout is often translated as sheriff, but the office is more complex than that. Roeloff as schout was in charge of law enforcement, and he was the prosecuting attorney in criminal cases, and he joined the schepens as a magistrate in hearing civil suits You can see why Stuyvesant might think that a 26-year-old would be a trifle young to serve as sheriff, district attorney, and chief Justice for the local court. And administer the government of the Esopus: since there was only one branch of government, the members of the court were the region's administrators, legislators, and judges. But the court met only occasionally, and so the day-to-day administration fell to the schout. Which also meant that Roeloff as head of the local government had to look after the West India Company's interests as well, and the Company's chief expectation of any of its officers here was that they do what they could to make the colony profitable.

THE SECOND ESOPUS WAR

Roeloff in his official capacity sent a rather desperate letter to Stuyvesant and the Council in September 662. "We could not omit informing your Honors that the situation here is such that if no precautions are taken we are in great danger of drawing upon us a new war." What he feared was a repeat of the war with the Esopus Indians that had occurred just three years earlier, and several points of contention remained unsettled. Stuyvesant dawdled for nine months before deciding to visit the Esopus. The Indians were informed on June 5 that Stuyvesant would be coming to meet with them. They apparently did not see this as a positive development, because two days later they began the Second Esopus War. Most of the townsmen were out in their fields when the Indians drifted into the Nieuw Dorp now Hurley, by ones and twos, apparently peaceful, their intentions well concealed At a signal they began their rampage. All the homes in Nieuw Dorp were burned to the ground three men were killed, 34 women and children were taken captive. The Indians then moved on to Wiltwyck, but refugees had arrived here first and warned the town. Schout Swartwout raised the alarm and seventeen townsmen, together with a few soldiers in town, rallied to his call. Few had guns-presumably those who didn't grabbed axes or hoes or clubs-and mounted a counterattack which drove the Indians from the village. Sixteen adults and two children were killed in Wiltwyck, eight men wounded, 11 women and children taken captive, and twelve houses burned. That night, sixty-nine more-or-less able-bodied men kept guard and did what they could for the injured and homeless. Roeloff must have been relieved that no one in his family had been injured or captured, and his house was safe, but his farm was badly damaged and he incurred heavy financial losses. A military force came up from Manhattan and eventually rescued twenty-three captives.

ROELOFF SWARTWOUT AS PUBLIC OFFICIAL

One would think that during the period from the Indian attack in 1663 until the signing of the peace treaty a year later, people would be willing to cooperate with the authorities, but in fact military and civil officers were constantly having to deal with people wandering off without an armed escort, or selling liquor to Indians. It was common at all times for the schout to suffer various sorts of abuse during the performing of his official duties, and no exceptions were made for Indian wars. For example, when Roeloff read a court order to Aeltje Sybrants not to sell brandy to Indians, nor to the Militia who were preparing to march against the Indians, she told him he could use the court order for toilet paper for such rude talk The court fined her 100 guilders needy.

After the rescue of the prisoners, the church took charge of collections for the while the civil authorities superintended the estates of persons who had died without leaving a will. Soon enough, church and civil officials were interfering in each other's affairs, and Stuyvesant's Council tried to arbitrate. The Wiltwyck court thereupon sent a letter questioning the council's actions in language that Stuyvesant found insolent. He retaliated with an order censuring the magistrates, and suspending Roeloff from office. Roeloff made an unusual winter trip to Manhattan unusual because the river was usually closed by ice and there was no road - presenting a to petition to Stuyvesant and the council. In it he apologized for his in-considered behavior and asked to be reinstated, noting that the salary was necessary for the support of his wife and eight children, and the upkeep of his little farm. The farm was not that little, but hyperbole is understandable under the circumstances. The council was satisfied with his apology, and reinstated him that same day.

The duties of schout, as with any peace officer, were occasionally dangerous and there are several references in the records to Roeloff being attacked. To take one example, a case in October 1663 started in a private suit and escalated to a public knockabout. Poulus Tomassen had hired himself out to thresh Roeloffs grain, and then had run away from the work, so Roeloff took him to court to force him to complete his contract. Not long afterward, Poulus fired off a gun in the house of Aert Martensen Doom, and when Roeloff investigated, Poulus told him, "Schout, I'll shoot you!" This, of course, resulted in Poulus's arrest. On the way to the guard house, Poulus punched Roeloff with both fists, and when they arrived inside the guardhouse, Poulus landed a blow on Roeloff's head that knocked him over a bench. In court, Poulus claimed that he had not struck Roeloff in the street, but had only been warding off blows he had received from Roeloff. He did not remember what he had done in the guard house because he was drunk. The court ordered Poulus to settle with Roeloff or be sentenced to work for a month, and either to give bail against running away or he would be shackled on the job.

ROELOFF'S BUSINESS CAREER

Roeloff was in court on personal business almost as often as he was as schout three times in 1662, thirteen times in 663 sometimes suing for debt, sometimes being sued. There were suits and countersuits with Tjerek Claesen de Wit, Roeloff indebted to de Wit for having some cows pastured and for the loan of a bridle he had neglected to return, de Wit 'indebted to Roeloff for having sent some wheat to Beverwyck on which Roeloff had placed a legal attachment. Earlier in the year they had an argument at Cornelis Barentsen Slecht's house, which had led to blows, and then to Roeloff drawing his sword and challenging de Wit to step outside. But three days later, they appeared without incident at an auction, where de Wit outbid Roeloff for a horse.

A LONG-STANDING BUSINESS ACCOUNT

In 1664 Roeloff was in debt to two Manhattan merchants, David Wessels and Nicolaes de Meyer. By 1665 Roeloff owed de Meyer 423 guilders. He mortgaged his house and lot in Rensselaerswyck, the house and lot in Wildwyck, lands below the Nieuw Dorp in the Esopus, and three milch cows. Roeloff in 1666 sued Pieter Hillebrants for payment due for butter and for some house beams, as well as for wages for carting four loads of wood, and for plowing eight acres for Hillebrants,

All these dealings and odd jobs make it sound as though Roeloff was scuffling to get by, as was everyone else who had lost property in the Esopus War. The debt for 423 guilders was still outstanding eight years later, and Roeloff asked that he be allowed to pay only the interest, "because he has lost his effects in the troubles with the savages," but the court ordered him to pay up. He re-mortgaged his house and lot in Kingston and farm at Hurley to make the payment. Yet this long-standing debt did not discourage the same merchant from extending additional credit to Roeloff of 1,012 Guilders for goods and merchandise. If he were scuffling as a farmer, he was obviously still wheeling and dealing as a merchant.

THE ENGLISH CONQUER NEW NETHERLAND

In September 1664 the city of New Amsterdam was captured by a British military and naval force. On September 4 at a special session of the court at Wiltwyck, Schout Swartwout asked what should be done in case the English should approach the village, and it was resolved to assemble the burghers under arms and parlay outside the village. As to what happened, however, the court record is silent, resuming on October 7 when all had long been resolved and most local officials replaced. Roeloff on that day was appointed by the court to help arbitrate a suit out of court, something he would be asked to do in other suits over the next two years. Roeloff was replaced as schout, but was appointed vendue-master (collector of government fees, a nice political plum). In 1666 he was appointed a schepen for a year, and thereafter continued to appear 'm various capacities at the court house.

Well regarded by many local residents, Roeloff appeared as attorney for four people in one year. In another year, the court appointed him a financial guardian for the children of five widows and a curator of two estates. Such duties did not always go smoothly, as the guardians sometimes had to take adults to court to protect the children's inheritances, and family members sometimes took the guardians to court to force an accounting,

In 1667 Roeloff was appointed one of the curators of the estate of Hendrick Cornelissz Lyndraeyer. Mattheu Blanchan notified the court that Lyndraeyer had In owed him money, and that "Roeloff Swartwout having been appointed curator is a man without means, and all his property having been mortgaged he is, on that account, poor, wherefore he is not fit to administer other people's estates, and requests to have him dismissed." The court ignored the request.

I think Blanchan was exaggerating. One gets the impression of Roeloff as a farmer with somewhat more farmland than he can manage by himself, and a small trader whose suppliers are as cash-short as himself. Mortgaged at times to the hilt, one has the feeling that he was land-rich and cash-poor, a person with more status than money, much like Thomas Jefferson a century later.

THE ESOPUS MUTINY

Trouble between occupying English troops and vanquished Dutch colonists occurred with disturbing frequency at the Esopus. Between 664 and 668, there were numerous incidents of townsmen being assaulted and townswomen insulted and harassed. A soldier named George Porter assaulted civilians on several occasions, on one particularly bad day assaulting first Jan Comelissen Smith, and then Roeloff Swartwout. There were many such confrontations between soldiers and civilians, and finally a group of soldiers went too far, beating Cornelis Barentsen Sleght in his own home and dragging him off to the fort. The burgher guard mutinied, and nearly attacked the British regulars at the fort, but a combination of their own officers and a freezing February night finally reduced their passions. The English governor appointed a military commission to investigate, and the senior British officer at the Esopus was suspended. In time the Dutch settlers and English soldiers would get used to each other, but at first it was not easy,

A HOUSEFUL

Roeloff in 1669 moved from Kingston to Hurley, where he had a house in the village and two lots of meadowland on the north side of Esopus Creek. Perhaps this was a larger house, because the family continued to increase. Although his step-children were grown and beginning to move out, Roeloff in time would have eight children of his own, the last born when Eva was forty. Eva had had 13 children over 25 years, only one of whom died in infancy.

LEISLER's REBELLION

In 1688, William of Orange invaded England, at the head of a Dutch army King James II, support collapsing all around him, fled to France. William and Mary were installed as monarchs "the Glorious Revolution When word of the change in power was received in New York, the government of the colony collapsed, since the appointments of all officials ended with the fall of the king, and no message was received as to either their reappointment or replacement. A period of anarchy ensued. New York City militia captain Jacob Leisler eventually took control of the government, although parts of the colony refused to recognize his authority. The rich and well-connected almost universally opposed him.

Roeloff Swartwout, however, was an enthusiastic Leisler supporter and was elected as Ulster County's representative to the colony's General Assembly. Leisler also appointed Roeloff justice-of-the-peace and collector of the king's revenue in Ulster County. When war was declared between England and France, Leisler proposed to mount an offensive against French Canada, and Roeloff was appointed to procure grain for the provincial army forming at Albany, so obviously Leisler had a great deal of confidence in him.

The Leisler administration was pro-Dutch and Protestant; anti-French and anti-Catholic, and distrusted anyone, Dutch or English, who had served in the previous government. Support came mostly from the middling classes. There is nothing in the record to explain clearly Roeloff s support for Leisler. For years he had juggled a variety of jobs to support his large family, everything of value was heavily mortgaged, and he may simply have thought that he had a better chance with a new government, especially one that made him feel better about himself by putting the blame for his problems on the exiled King James and his followers.

It is also possible that he had a religious affinity with Leisler. Leisler had decided opinions about religion, and in fact was the son of a clergyman. If Roeloff were a one-time theology student, he also undoubtedly had firm opinions. But we really have nothing that I know of that would tell us whether or not Roeloff shared Leisler's views, which were of a somewhat fundamentalist sort.

After two years of Leisler's rule, a new governor arrived from England. Leisler's enemies immediately brought charges against him and his chief supporter, Jacob Milborne. Leisler and Milborne and some thirty-two of their followers were tried on such charges as treason, murder, and riot. Leisler and Milborne and twenty-eight others were convicted and sentenced to death, among them Roeloff Swartwout and his son Anthony. On the day that Leisler and Milborne were put to death a general pardon was issued for all persons who had supported them, excepting the twenty-eight already convicted. The twenty-eight were paroled, but remained under the shadow of the death sentence for another eight years. That one can hardly find a trace of Roeloff or any of them during this period is not surprising; they must have kept very low profiles, trying to do nothing that would displease anyone, since their parole could have been revoked and they could have been put to death at any time. However in 1699 they were pardoned and all judgments against them and their estates were declared null and void. If Roeloff had anything much left of his estate, he at least had free title to it once again,

By this time he was widowed. While it is uncertain when Eva died, it was probably early in 1691, the year that Roeloff was sentenced to death. Talk about having a bad year! But then on November 22, 1692 Roeloff took as his second wife Francyntie Andries, a widow and the mother of eight grown children.

Roeloff appears only rarely in the records thereafter. In 1702, three years after his pardon, he was indicted at the Ulster County court of sessions for an assault upon Jacob Dingman of Hurley. He posted bond, and nothing more is known of the matter. We have records of him paying his taxes, but otherwise he does not appear in the records,

Roeloff wrote his will on March 30, 1714, saying that he was in his eightieth year, sick and weak, but he survived for another year, and died in May of 1715.

Two years later, the legislature passed a law to pay people for services performed a generation earlier at the time of the Glorious Revolution. It was determined that Roeloff had served in his offices faithfully during that period, and the sum of sixty-four ounces of silver was awarded to his children. It is ironic that Roeloff's public service, for which his heirs were paid, was the same service for which he had once stood under sentence of death

The immigrant Swartwouts were not among the huddled masses, the wretched refuse of some foreign shore. They were educated, they came here as merchants with money in their pockets. They were hardworking, public-spirited citizens usually engaged in the ordinary pursuits of supporting their families and in doing their part to improve their communities. And yet they were also adventurers, coming to a savage land where errors in judgment could have cost them their lives. It would have been easy for them to remain in Amsterdam and enjoy the comforts of the Netherlands' Golden Age. But they came here, and played a significant part in the development of New York colony We can say of them, they made a difference.

I would like to close with a challenge. Little has been written about Thomas Swartwout, and quite a bit of what has been written is 'in need of correction. Many church records in the Netherlands have been microfilmed and are available in this country They should be checked for Thomas's baptism. Abstracts of Amsterdam's notarial records relating to New Netherland are also available on microfilm, and could reveal more about the comings and goings of Thomas and Roeloff between Amsterdam and America. The records of the town of Flatbush, on Long Island, have been translated into English and are available in New York City, and they might well help us determine when Thomas was living in Flatbush and when in New Amsterdam, and when he either died or returned to the Netherlands When did Roeloff first acquire land in Esopus? The English land confirmations at the State Archives in Albany should help out there. So there are resources available, which so far as know, have not been utilized. It seems to me that a study of Thomas Swartwout in the Netherlands and on Long Island, and of Roeloff in the Netherlands and in Kingston, would be an appropriate project for the Swartwout Family Society to institute in this 350th year. I leave you with that thought

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