c. 1601-1677
Elbert Elbertsen was born in 1620 in Nieukerken, North Brabent, in the Netherlands. He immigrated to New Netherland in 1637, bound in service to Kilian Van Rensselaer for six years in his colony, Rensselaerwyck, near the present-day city of Albany. By an agreement between Van Rensselaer and Director Wouter Van Twiller, Elbertsen served the first four years at Bouwery No. 1 in New Amsterdam and then served the remaining two years on the Rensselaerwyck patroonship.
Elbertsen was witness to the attack on Govert Loockermans’ sloop, the Good Hope, by the sheriff of Rensslaerswyck. When the sloop came to anchor in front of Fort Amsterdam, Elbertson swore to the facts of the attack and the case came before the New Netherland Court of Justice on July 5, 1644. The court ordered Sheriff Coom to pay damages to Loockermans in the amount assessed by two arbitrators, and forbade him to repeat his actions on pain of bodily punishment.
When Elbert Elbertsen’s term of service to Van Rensselaer ended, he settled in New Amsterdam and, over time, became a landowner in both New Amsterdam and in the Amersfoort (Flatlands) area of Brooklyn. At the time of his death, he had patent to at least 600 acres in Amersfoort.
Elbertsen was a member of the Nine Men from 1648 to 1650 and was a signatory to the Great Remonstrance of New Netherland. He was commandant of the militia of Amersfoort, and in 1654-1664 and 1673, he served as a magistrate of Amersfoort.
Elbert Elbertsen died in November 1688 and an entry in the Amersfoort church books records the grave of Capt. Elbert Elbertsen.
Source
John Romeyn Brodhead. Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York, p 58.