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early in the history of the Colony of New
Amsterdam, the name being one of the
most prominent in the affairs of the
youthful settlement.
The surname Bogardus is derived from
the Dutch "boomgard," an orchard, sig-
nifying one who possessed an orchard of
particular account or who kept an
orchard.
(I) The family of Bogardus was
founded in the New World by Everardus
Bogardus, universally known as Dominie
Bogardus, a native of Holland, who sailed
from that country on the Dutch frigate
"Zoutberg" in the year 1633, in company
with the newly appointed governor,
major-general, director-general, provost
marshal, and Burgomaster Wouter Van
Twiller, for what was known as Fort Am-
sterdam, founded thirteen years before.
For many years it was thought that he
was the first minister in the Colony until
the discovery of Michaelius's letter in
1858, when it was found that the dominie
was preceded by the author of that document.
His first church, on the present
north side of Pearl street, between
Whitehall and Broad, was not at all to
his liking. He persuaded Governor Van
Twiller to have a new church built within
the walls of the fort. Later he obtained
a parsonage, on the front door of which
he placed a brass knocker he had brought
from Holland. It has been said that "the
outside of his house was the delight of the
passer-by, while inside he dispensed a
cordial hospitality." In 1633 he became
the proprietor of a tobacco plantation on
Manhattan Island. About a year after
the arrival of Van Twiller and Bogardus
a bitter dissension arose between them.
In the early days of the settlement, when
there were few educated men there, it was
one of the "unwritten laws" that the clergyman
should join with the council in
conference. The leaders in the church
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BIOGRAPHY
272
were in accord with the dominie in this
matter, but Van Twiller, who was of a
disputatious mind, sought to curtail the
privilege. Dominie Bogardus, seeing that
unprofitable strife would surely develop,
in 1647 sought and received permission to
visit his native land. He sailed in the
brig "Princess," which went down with
eighty other passengers.
He married, as is found in an old volume
dated 1638, the widow, Anneke Webber
Jansen, or Anneke Jans, as she was
familiarly known. She was the daughter
of Tryntje Jans, or Tryn Jonas, a pro-
fessional midwife in the employ of the
West India Company, for their Colony
of New Amsterdam. The trained nurse
of that day was an important factor in
the community. Her work corresponded
to that of the trained nurse of the present
day, only it must be remembered that the
general level of education and intelligence
was not nearly so high as it is now. Even
in that early day the widwife had to be
examined by a board of physicians before
she could receive a license. Her pay was
small and her labors arduous. She mar-
ried Roeloflf Jansen Van Masterlandt.
With his wife and child he came in 1630
as farmer to the Patroon Kilaen Van
Rensselaer at a salary equivalent to seventy-two
dollars a year. Five or six years
later he was settled among the dignitaries
of the colony, having received from Gov-
ernor Van Twiller a patent for sixty-two
acres of land. It is this farm about which
there has been an historic controversy.
The farm "extended from a line a little
south of the present Warren street, northwesterly
about a mile and a half, to what
is now Christopher street, forming an
irregular triangle having its base on the
river, running, however, on Broadway
only from Warren to Duane street."
After the death of her second husband,
Anneke Jans Bogardus had the grant