DURING KIEFT'S WAR IN NEW AMSTERDAM, REVEREND BOGARDUS (ONE OF THE EARLIEST MINISTERS IN NEW NETHERLANDS) ATTESTS THAT HE WAS PAID. THE DOCUMENT ALSO MENTIONS A DUTCH PRIVATEER VESSEL, LA GARCE

EVERARDUS BOGARDUS (1607-1647). Bogardus was a Dutch-born cleric of New Netherland; this colony eventually became New York.  He arrived in New Amsterdam in 1633 and helped construct one of the first churches.  He frequently denounced Governor Kieft from his pulpit.  When he was recalled to the Netherlands, his ship sank off the coast of Wales; his nemesis Kieft was also aboard and perished.  Reverend Bogardus left New Amsterdam about the time Peter Stuyvesant came to replace Kieft.

KIEFT’S WAR (1643-1645).  Keift’s War, named after the unpopular Director-General of the New Netherlands Colony, was fought between the Dutch settlers and the Native tribes in what is today New York and New Jersey.  Upon his arrival in New Amsterdam, Kieft found the outpost in bad financial shape, so he raised taxes, including on the Native tribes.  In February 1643, many Lenape sought shelter in New Amsterdam against Mohican raiders, and Kieft refused them entry.  He then sailed across the Hudson River and led a raiding party into northern New Jersey and killed over 100 Lenape in the “Pavonia massacre.”  As revenge, the Natives killed Dutch settlers and raided their posts.  The war finally ended in 1645 with a truce between the parties.  The conflict forced many Dutch to return to the safety of Europe.  In addition, Kieft was recalled by the Dutch West India Company, to be replaced by Stuyvesant.  Kieft died off the coast of Wales on the same doomed ship as Bogardus.

ADS. 1pg. 12” x 8”. New Amsterdam. October 14, 1643. A Dutch ship document signed “Everardus Bogardus” once in the text and “E. Boghardus” once at the conclusion.  Reverend Bogardus penned: “I, the undersigned, Everardus Bogardus, minister, hereby acknowledge that I have received from Jan Laurensen the sum of three hundred Carolus guilders, hereby releasing him from all future claims. In testimony is this signed by me. Done the 14th of October AD. 1643. E. Bogardus”.  Laurensen appears from historical records to be an official who collected and paid monies, perhaps for the Dutch West India Company.  Above this attestation is the following statement: “We, the undersigned, attest that there is not on board the frigate la Garce more than one half barrel of cabbages there being about 20 or 30 head therein, among these are small cabbages not bigger than a fist; and about 70 pumpkins and a few turnips, 16 fowls for the Sevenster and her crew, without having injured or taken any other animals.  By me, Symeon Hobbens Ary Leendersen, pilot of La Garce”.  There are also “x” marks for Philip Janszen and Abraham Janzsen.  Philip Janszen Ringo (1615-1662) was a Dutch-born ship owner who co-owned La Garce (“the Wench”).  The Dutch West India Company hired him as a privateer to move materials, such as sugar, from the West Indies to the New Netherland and Amsterdam.  Governor Kieft also wanted the privateers to attach Spanish and Portuguese ships in the Caribbean, since they were considered enemies of the Netherlands.  Abraham Janszen was a master carpenter who lived in New Amsterdam and owned property there; he also was a part-owner of La Garce.  According to RareBookHub.com, there have been no Everardus Bogardus documents to have sold in the past century.  Such early New Amsterdam documents are very difficult to locate.  The document has dark ink and a chip to the upper right corner that affects a couple of words.