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Abraham Pietersen van Deursen
Abraham Pietersen van Deursen
Born	before November 11, 1607; Haarlem
Died	c. 1670 (age 63)
Known for	Council of twelve men
Spouse	Tryntie Melchior Abrahams (1611-1678)
Parent(s)	Pieter van Deursen (c1575-?) ; Maria or Paulina Vincke (c1575-?)
Relatives	Martin Van Buren, 3rd great-grandfather

Abraham Pietersen van Deursen (before November 11, 1607 – c. 1670), aka Abraham Pietersen van Deusen, was an immigrant from Holland who settled in New Amsterdam and become one of the Council of 12 that was the first representative democracy in the Dutch colony. The Van Deursen, Van Deusen, Van Duser, Van Duzer, Van Duzor, Van Duzee, and Van Dusen families of the United States and Canada are all descended from Abraham Pietersen van Deusen, a miller and a native originating from Haarlem in the Netherlands.^[1]

Birth

He was born in 1607 in Haarlem to Pieter van Deursen (c1575-?) and Maria or Paulina Vincke (c1575-?). Pieter and Maria/Paulina were married on January 15, 1591, in Haarlem. Abraham was baptized in Haarlem on Wednesday, November 11, 1607, and the witnesses were Jan Jans and Styntjen Jans.^[1]^[2]

Siblings

Abraham may have had the following siblings: Handrick Van Dussenberg, who was master of the Masons in 1638, and Adrian Pitersen, of Aitzema, Netherlands, who was a director of the Dutch West India Company.^[1]

Marriage and children

Abraham married Tryntie Melchior Abrahams (1611–1678) on December 7, 1629, in Haarlem.^[1] Their wedding banns were signed on November 25, 1629, at the Grote Houtstraat in Haarlem. Together they had the following children:^[3]

Teuwis Matheeus Abrahamsen Van Deusen (c.1631-?), who married Helena Robberts^[4]
Marytje Van Deusen (1634-?), who married Thomas Janszen Minsar
Isaac Van Deusen I (1635-?), who married Jannetie Jans
Jacob Van Deusen (1638-?), who married Catalynje Van Eslant
Pieter Van Deusen I (23 March 1642-?), who married Hester Webbers (or Webb)
Melchior Van Deusen (6 March 1644 – 1742), who married Engeltje Rutgers

Emigration

He emigrated to New Amsterdam before 1636 with his wife, and several of his children. In 1638 he was listed as a miller in New Amsterdam. Cheska Callow Wheatley writes:

New York colonial documents state that Abraham Pietersen, of Haarlem took possession, in 1636, for the Dutch West India Company, of the Island of Quentensis in front of Sloops Bay (now known as Dutch Island). In another place [the island] is described as the Island of Queteurs in front of Sloops Bay and Pequator's River and in 1664 they speak of the special possession of Abraham Pietersen, of Haarlem, still living on the Island of Quetenesse, in the Narricanese Bay near Rhode Island and also of another island near the Pequot River, called by the English: The Dutchmen's Island. In a latter instance he is spoken of, as of Haarlem, owing to his having lived there when he became interested in the first mentioned Island. In 1638, he was spoken of as the first miller in New Amsterdam; an important and lucrative position in those days, and he is sometimes mentioned in the records as Abraham Pietersen, Molenaer, or Miller. In 1641, on August 29 he was one of the "Twelve Men" whom the commonalty chose and empowered to resolve on everything with the Director-General and Council, and on November 3 he was one of the "Eight Men" who sent a memorial to the State General of Holland, setting forth the distressed state on account of the Indian Outbreak, and begging for assistance.^[2]

Council of Twelve Men

In 1641, he was appointed to a council of twelve men that were to advise Director-General of New Netherland Willem Kieft on the impending Indian war.^[5] This was New Amsterdam's first representative democracy, but it was temporary. The colony attacked the Native American population which led to a retaliatory burning of the colony in Kieft's War. John Franklin Jameson (1859–1937) writes:

Whereupon all the commonalty were called together by the Director to consider this affair, who all appeared and presently twelve men delegated from among them answered the propositions, and resolved at once on war should the murderer be refused; that the attack should be made on [the Indians] in the autumn when they were hunting; meanwhile an effort should be again made by kindness to obtain justice, which was accordingly several times sought for but in vain.^[6]

Council of Eight men

In 1643 Abraham was appointed to a new council of eight men. The council petitioned the States-General and blamed governor Kieft for the declining economic condition of the nascent colony. They requested that a new Director-General of New Netherland be appointed and that the people themselves be given more influence in the new government. Director General Kieft was dismissed, and Peter Stuyvesant took his place, remaining in power until the colony was turned over to the British in 1664. Kieft returned to Holland, but the vessel was lost at sea and his body was never recovered. John Franklin Jameson (1859–1937) writes:

The commonalty were called together; they were sore distressed. They chose eight, in the stead of the previous twelve, persons to aid in consulting for the best; but the occupation every one had to take care of his own, prevented anything beneficial being adopted at that time. nevertheless it was resolved that as many Englishmen as were to be got in the country should be enlisted, who were indeed now proposing to depart; the third part of these were to be paid by the commonalty; this promise was made by the commonalty but was not followed by the pay.^[6]

Burgher

In 1657 Abraham became a burgher, and there is no more mention of him in the extant records.

Death and burial

He died sometime before July 28, 1672. That is the date his wife died, and she was listed as a widow. It is not known where he was buried.

Legacy

Abraham Pietersen Van Deursen (1607-c1670) was the third great-grandfather of Martin Van Buren (1782–1862), the 8th President of the United States, and ancestor of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) the 32nd President of the United States.^[7]

Timeline

1607 Baptism in Haarlem, Netherlands on November 11
1624 New Amsterdam established
1627 Marriage to Tryntie Melchiors (1611–1678) in Haarlem on December 7
1636 Emigration from Netherlands
1636 Living on Island of Quentensis in front of Sloops Bay
1638 Working as miller in New Amsterdam
1638 Willem Kieft appointed Director General
1640 The Pig War
1641 Council of 12 chosen on August 29
1642 Council of 12 convened to discuss Indian War on February 18
1642 Colony attacks Native-Americans
1643 Council of 8 convened on September 13
1644 Council of 8 seeks an expanded role in the government on June 18
1644 Council of 8 petitions Amsterdam for relief from Kieft in October
1647 Willem Kieft departs
1647 Peter Stuyvesant appointed
1657 Appointed burgher on April 14
1657 Lance Corporal of Company Second of the Burghers Corps
1664 New Amsterdam under Peter Stuyvesant captured by the British and renamed New York
1664 Abraham and son, Isaac swear allegiance to the King of England in October
1670 (c.) Death of Abraham
1672 Death of his wife on July 28

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Greene, Nelson (1931). History of the Valley of the Hudson, River of Destiny, 1609-1930. S.J. Clarke Publishing Company. The progenitor of the Van Duzer family in America was Abraham Pietersen Van Deursen (as the name was then spelled). He was born at Haarlem, Holland, ...
^ ^a ^b "Van Deursen Family". Cheska Callow Wheatley. Archived from the original on 2009-10-21. Retrieved 2007-08-26. Baptized 11 November 1607 Haarlem, Holland. Of Haerlem, in the Netherlands came to New Amsterdam at an early date. Van Deursen was the surname of his family in the Netherlands, and not assumed after their settlement here. It was derived from the village of Deursen in North Brabant. "There is a reason to believe that Abraham Pietersen Van Deursen had two brothers in New Amsterdam Corneluis Pietersen, a cadet in the Second Burgher Corp., who married Tryntje Hendricks; she married secondly, Frederick Lubbertsen, one of the" Twelve Men" Hendrick Pietersen, may have been a second brother - Hendrick Van Dussenberg, Master of the Masons in 1638, who married Geertje Everts, daughter of Evert Pietersen Keteltas. Possibly Willem Pietersen, who was Lance Corporal in the First Burgher Corp., was another brother.
^ Baptismal records of his two youngest sons are found in New Amsterdam Dutch Reformed Church records
^ Johnson, Alvin Page (1933). Franklin D. Roosevelt's Colonial Ancestors. Teunis Abrahamsen Van Deursen, born about 1631, son of Abraham Pietersen Van Deursen, moved when a young man to Beverwyk (Albany) where he was ...
^ Jacobs, Jaap (2005). New Netherland: A Dutch Colony In Seventeenth-Century America. BRILL. ISBN 90-04-12906-5. Both in the way it was set up and in the extent of its rights, the council of Twelve Men, as did the two later advisory bodies ...
^ ^a ^b Jameson, John Franklin. Narrative of New Netherland.
^ Cowan, Alison Leigh (July 24, 2011). "The Van Dusens of New Amsterdam". The New York Times. Retrieved April 17, 2022.