Frans (Francis) ROMBOUTS (1631-1691)

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Mayor of  New York came from Limburg , Belgium   

Frans Rombouts was born on June 22 at 1631 in Hasselt (Belgium) as the second son of Jan Rombouts, who was a taxreceiver for the Archdeacon of Liege, and Johanna Haenen. His brother Laurent, born on March 1st 1623, studied in 1641 the  University of Leuven and became a notary at Hasselt. When he was three years old his father died, his mother when he was seventeen.At the age of seventeen Frans became an orphan.

After the death of his mother he left for Amsterdam, a very rich city at that time,where he started as a clerk for a merchant. In 1654 he was sent on a trademission to Nieuw(New)-Amsterdam in America.

He stayed there for two years and than went back in order to give - with the presence of a Rotterdam notary- proxy to his brother, who still lived in Hasselt, to sell their parental house. Thereafter he left again for Nieuw-Amsterdam.  Nieuw-Amsterdam was first called Novi Belgii and founded in 1624 by Belgian people. Many Dutch people migrated there and the name was changed into Nieuw-Amsterdam.(t English conquered  Nieuw-Amsterdam and changed the name into New York.

Frans Rombouts started with his partner Guliam Verplanck,also a Flamish,a furtrade with the Indians.Fast Rombouts became very rich and he bought his first stone house at Nieuw-Amsterdam, in the Heerestraat, now Broadway in Manhattan.

After two childless marriages he married Helena Teller, for both their third marriage. Helena had out of previous marriages allready seven children and from this marriage another three were born, two boys and one girl.The boys died young but the girl Catharina, born on 5 september 1687, survived. In 1674 the rich merchant Rombouts became "alderman".He stayed this untill 1679 and than became mayor of New York. Meanwhile he had also been "inspector of white and brown bread". Quality inspector of bread.

In 1685 he received together with his partnerVerplanck 85000 acres ( = ± 212500 hectares ) of King James II of England. Rombouts had to be recognised first by the Indians as the owner of the territory.A legend tells Rombouts brought twenty different heads of tribes together and told them to sign a document entitling him to as much land as one could see.Because they were between woods and hills the Indians agreed and signed. Than the cunning Rombouts climbed the highest hill and so obtained a much larger area.

In 1686 and 1687 again he became alderman on recommendation of  governer Dongan,who found him a very good candidate for this vacancy.

In 1690  lieutenant-governer Leisler appointed him as member of the "Board of Admiralty" that had to sell the ships conquered from the French.

Frans Rombouts died in 1691.

Catharina Rombouts married when she was sixteen , Roger Brett, an English officer of the Royal Navy , who lived in New York. They got four children, of which numerous descendants live in the United States of America now. When Helena died in 1707, the newly weds decided to go and live on the land of Frans Rombouts and to farm on it .They rented out the house that was build by her father and Roger built a wooden cabin on her land. In 1709 they built a stone house and a watermill that became wellknown in the region.

Roger Brett died very young.During a storm he went overboard and drowned in the Hudson when he came back from New York with fresh supplies on his way to their estate.

Catharina didnot remarry and stayed with her children at the estate to farm it further.She became the first land-divisionist in America.She was honoured as a barones and built on her land the first Dutch Reformed Church in which she later was burried.

She died in 1764 at the age of 77 and became a legend in America.The original house remained in the family untill 1954. Than it became a museum with the name "Madam BRETT Homestead". It can still be visited at Beacon, New York.

Robin Poelmans

With thanks to

Willy Greven
Johan Rombouts                                          

Resources

Hasseltse Portretten p.34-36
Het Belang van Limburg
Drawing by Dré Mathijs

A few words will tell all we know of Cornelis Andrieszen Hoogland. He was a tailor from the Hague, and sailed from Amsterdam for New Netherland in the ship Gilded Beaver, May 17, 1658, his friend Willem van Vredenburgh, also from the Hague, coming with him in the same ship. Soon after their arrival here they are found serving as soldiers, and, in 1660, together went with Stuyvesant against the Esopus Indians, which expedition ended in a treaty. On June 16, 1661, they received honorable discharge from the service, and the remission of their passage money to this country. A few weeks later Hoogland married Aefje Leonarts, widow of Jan Perie

GENEALOGY OF CHRISTOFFEL HOOGLANDT. This sturdy pioneer was born in Holland in 1634. He came from Haarlem to New Amsterdam when but a youth. He was clerk for a mercantile house, and it appears that on his coming of age he commenced business for himself. In 1655 his name appears on the records of the Burgomasters and Schepens Court He must have already attained some prominence as a merchant, because, on October 21, 1661, he and Hendrick Willemsen, baker, "as having a better knowledge of bread," were appointed by the Court of Burgomasters and Schepens to put in force an ordinance passed on that date regulating the quality, weight and price of bread, and the forbidding of bakers "to bake any more koeckjes, jumbles or sweet cake."(Francis Rombouts was Ínspector of the Quality of White and Brown Bread)

On May, 1666, he sat as a juryman with Francis Rombouts, Gulian Verplanck, William Bogardus, Johannes De Puyster and others, on an important case before the Mayor's Court, relating to the "Bronck's Land" in Westchester County. At this date he was living in the Hooge Street, supposed to have been a part of the present Pearl Street, west side of Broad, his lot being described as "Hoogland's Corner, front to ye bridge, 50 feet to ye Pearl Street." His dwelling stood on the Pearl Street side. The bridge was that crossing the canal, which at that date ran through Broad Street. He was also the owner of other property in the city. On May 21, 1669, being at this time an Alderman, he purchased from William Van Borden a house and lot "outside the Land Gate [at Wall Street and Broadway], and south of the house of Gerrit Hendricksen, the blaauw boer,"and there he spent the remainder of his days. He also bought land near the house of the noted Capt. Jacob Leisler from ex-Governor Stuyvesant. In 1676 two farm lots (government grants) were surveyed for Mr. Hooglandt upon Staten Island.

With Peter Jacobsen Marius, Mr. Hoogland was designated, June 21, 1674, to appraise the sloop Edmond and Mathew, Capt. Richard Pattishall, with its cargo of tobacco, which had been captured and brought to this port by the Dutch Captain, Cornelis Ewoutsen. In the meantime, certain merchandise sent from London, consigned to Hoagland, was carried into Boston, confiscated and sold as a prize.

This formed the subject of petitions to the Governor of New York in 1676 and 1677, in which his fellow merchants, Rombouts and Verplanck, joined with him, as having sustained similar losses.

On March 12, 1676, being "Monday in the afternoon about five o'clock," Mr. Hoogland and his wife Catharine Cregier -- "the testator sickly and the testatrix going and sound of body" -- made their joint will, which was drawn up by William Bogardus,Notary, and witnessed by their friends, Francis Rombouts and Paul Richard, merchants. Surviving eight years, Mr. Hoogland attained again the position of Alderman in 1678.

His death took place on February 8, 1684, when he was probably about fifty years of age. His will was proved in the Court of Record, May 11, 1686, and recorded on the 22d of the same month, and administration was granted to his widow April 14, 1687.¹⁴ She was then a resident of Pearl Street, her father, Capt. Cregier, occupying the same or adjoining premises.

Thomas Dongan, Lieutenant-General and Governor, to all, etc. Know ye that at a Court of Records held in New York on Tuesday the 11 of May, 1686, the will of CHRISTOPHER HOOGLAND was proved, and his wife Catharine was confirmed as administratrix, April 14, 1687.

In the name of God, Amen. Know all men, who shall see this Publick instrument, that in the year after the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, 1676, the 12th day of March, on Monday in the afternoon about 5 o'clock, did appear in their own persons before me Wm. Bogardus, Notary Public, residing in New York, admitted by the Rt. Hon. Lord Edmund Andross, Governor-General, in the behalf of his Royal Highness, James Duke of York and Albany, etc., and in the presence of the underwritten witnesses. Mr. Christopher Hoogland and Mrs. Catharine Cregier, joined in marriage, living within this city and both well known to me and to the witnesses, the testator being sickly, and the testatrix going and standing and sound of body, but both using fully and absolutely their sences, memory and speech.

They have nominated and instituted their children, Dirck, Harman, Martin, Christopher and Frances DeGroot Hoogland, and the children which they may by the blessing of God get in the future, their lawful descendants and heirs equally and that the eldest son shall not pretend any prerogative therein. And further the testators out of special love and natural affection in matrimony received, and if God pleases to be received, declare that the whole estate shall go to the survivor for life. If the survivor remary, an equal division is to be made between the children, and they are to be caused to learn to read and write, and a trade by which they may live, and when they come of age they shall receive their portions and the survivor is not to diminish the right of the children but rather to help and assist them. And it is their will that the survivor shall not be obliged to give any account of the estate to the orphan masters of this city "or where the funeral house may be," or to the testator's friends, excluding them, "All Laws and Statutes to the contrary notwithstanding." Done at New York in the house of the testators in the presence of Mr. Francis Rumbaut and Paul Richards, merchants. Translated from the Dutch, by P. Delanoy.

[NOTE.--The house of Christopher Hoogland was the south corner of Broadway and Maiden Lane.--W. S. P.]

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In the Bronx , New York one can find the Rombouts Avenue.

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