Barent Dircksen (Van Naarden)

c. 1600-c. 1645

Barent Dircksen, born around 1600 and a baker by trade, arrived in New Netherland from Norden [Naarden] in East Friesland in the early 1630s

On the Manatus Gelegen op de Noort River, a map compiled in 1639 and showing the boweries and plantations around New Amsterdam, Barent Dircksen van Noorden’s name appears both in the list of Manhattan Bouweries and in the list of the thirteen Manhattan plantations. Bouweries were fully developed farms while plantations were used to grow crops, particularly tobacco. Records of New Netherland show that Dircksen traded tobacco and became the owner of many parcels of land that he leased to others. In 1638, he purchased a “yacht with a mizzen.”

Barent Dircksen was selected as one of the original Eight Men in September 1643. He died sometime before December 4, 1645, when his widow remarried.

 

Sources

Register of the Provincial Secretary 1642-1657. Translated and Annotated by Arnold J. F. van Laer. Digital Publication Edited by Charles T. Gehring. A Publication of the New Netherland Research Center and the New Netherland Institute 2011, at page 76.

David Steven Cohen. The Dutch-American Farm (1993)

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