John Jan Albertus
1643-1691
Born: Wallabout, Long Island New Amsterdam, NY
Died: Newton, Nassau, New York, United States
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1643-1691
Born: Wallabout, Long Island New Amsterdam, NY
Died: Newton, Nassau, New York, United States
<p><strong>Wallabout Bay</strong> is small body of water in <font color="#0645ad">Upper New York Bay</font> along the northwest shore of the <font color="#0645ad">New York City</font> <font color="#0645ad">borough</font> of <font color="#0645ad">Brooklyn</font>, between the present <font color="#0645ad">Williamsburg</font> and <font color="#0645ad">Manhattan bridges</font>, opposite Corlear's Hook on <font color="#0645ad">Manhattan</font> to the west, across the <font color="#0645ad">East River</font>. Wallabout Bay now abuts the site of the <font color="#0645ad">Brooklyn Navy Yard</font>.</p><span>[<font color="#0645ad">edit</font>]</span> <span>History</span><p>The Wallabout became the first spot on <font color="#0645ad">Long Island</font> settled by <font color="#0645ad">Europeans</font> when several families of <font color="#0645ad">French-speaking</font> <font color="#0645ad">Walloons</font> opted to purchase land there in the early 1630s, having arrived in <font color="#0645ad">New Netherland</font> in the previous decade from <font color="#0645ad">Holland</font>. Settlement of the area began in the mid-1630s when <font color="#0645ad">Joris Jansen Rapelje</font> exchanged trade goods with the <font color="#0645ad">Canarsee</font> Indians for some 335 acres of land at Wallabout Bay, but Rapelje, like other early Wallabout settlers, waited at least a decade before relocating fulltime to the area, until conflicts with the tribes had been resolved.<sup><font color="#0645ad"><span>[</span>1<span>]</span></font></sup></p><p>Most historical accounts put Rapelje's house as the first house built at Wallabout Bay. His daughter <font color="#0645ad">Sarah</font> was the first child born of European parentage in <font color="#0645ad">New Netherland</font>, and Rapelje later served as a Brooklyn <font color="#0645ad">magistrate</font> as well as a member of the <font color="#0645ad">Council of Twelve Men</font>.<sup><font color="#0645ad"><span>[</span>2<span>]</span></font></sup> Rapelje's son-in-law <font color="#0645ad">Hans Hansen Bergen</font> owned a large tract adjoining Rapelje's.<sup><font color="#0645ad"><span>[</span>3<span>]</span></font></sup> Nearby were tobacco plantations belonging to Jan and Peter Montfort, Peter Caesar Alberto, and other farmers.</p><p>Starting in <font color="#0645ad">1637</font>, the Wallabout served as the landing site of the first <font color="#0645ad">ferry</font> across the East River from lower Manhattan. <font color="#ba0000">Cornelis Dircksen</font>, the lone ferryman, farmed plots on both sides -- near to where the <font color="#0645ad">Brooklyn Bridge</font> now spans -- to best employ his time on either bank of the river.</p><p>A <font color="#0645ad">feudal</font> system of <font color="#0645ad">land tenure</font> was suspended in <font color="#0645ad">1638</font>, and the small settlement became a <font color="#0645ad">colony</font> of <font color="#0645ad">freeholders</font>: after a ten-year period of paying the <font color="#0645ad">Dutch East India Company</font> a tenth of their yield, colonists would own their farmland. ("Bruijk" means "to use" and "leen" means "loan" in Dutch.) The humble "Bruykleen Colonie" expanded out from the Wallabout to become the <font color="#0645ad">city of Brooklyn</font>.</p><p>The area was the site where the infamous <font color="#0645ad">British prison ships</font> moored during the <font color="#0645ad">American Revolutionary War</font> (most infamous of which was the <font color="#0645ad">HMS <em>Jersey</em></font>), from about 1776-1783. Over 10,000 soldiers and sailors died due to deliberate neglect on these rotting hulks, more American deaths than from every battle of the war combined. Though their corpses were buried on the eroding shore in shallow graves, or often simply thrown overboard, local women collected remains when they became exposed or washed onshore and many more were discovered with the development of the area and expansion of piers. The nearby <font color="#0645ad">Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument</font> in <font color="#0645ad">Fort Greene Park</font> houses remains of the prisoners and overlooks the site of their torment and death.</p><p>The bay eventually became the site of the <font color="#0645ad">Brooklyn Navy Yard</font>.</p><p>Gabriel Furman, in his <em><font color="#3366bb">Notes Geographical and Historical, relating to the Town of Brooklyn, in Kings County on Long-Island</font></em> (1824), traces the name from the Dutch "Waal bocht" or "bay (or bight) of the Walloons", referring to the original French-speaking settlers of the local area.</p>