Johannes de Decker

!Immigration: Apr 1655: Arriving at New Amsterdam on the ship Swarte Arent ("Black Eagle"). There is extensive biographical information (several pages long) in the Genealogical Families of New Jersey, taken from the Genealogical Magazine of New Jersey. He appears to have received a pretty good education. At the age of 21, we was registered as a notary in Dordrecht (7 Oct 1647), and in 1650, 1653 and 1654 as a notary in Schiedam (A.D.; H.D.B 3:587) and a States' attorney (CDNY 14:304). He served as an emissary of sorts for the West Indies company. He made multiple trips across the Atlantic, probably arriving with his bride to New Amsterdam in the spring of 1658, where he was appointed to duties at Fort Orange. Letters from Governor Pieter Stuyvesant recommended him highly. This was a frontier life at the time. He was granted a lot on Manhattan, at the present location of 41 Pearl street. In 1664 he was sent to Virginia regarding the seizure of a ship by an English privateer with a cargo of slaves. This took six months, and was apparently a failure. He returned to be the first to sign the articles of surrender of the Dutch colony to British forces on 27 Aug 1664. A few months before the surrender, he managed to secure a patent for 120 acres on Staten Island. He was banished from the colonies by the British governor, but after complaining to the Duke of York and others, he was granted the right to return to New York. He was owed a substantial amount from the West Indies company, plus compensation for the seizure of several slaves of his. He was assigned 20 slaves out of a shipment of 200, 10 of which were taken by him to Fort Orange and sold. During his absence, a government official seized the remaining 10 slaves and filed charges against de Decker for unlawfully selling the others without a special license. During 1670 and 1671 legal proceedings considered his petition to return his lawful property, eventually ruling against him on the slaves, but they did return the 120 acres of land on Staten Island. There are several plausible de Decker children on Staten Island, but according to GMNJ, only Matheus can be established as a son with reasonably certainty.