Wolfert Gerritse van Couwenhoven
Wolfert Gerritse Van Couwenhoven (1 May 1579 – 1662), also known as Wolphert Gerretse van Kouwenhoven and Wolphert Gerretse, was an original patentee, director of (farms), and a founder of the New Netherland colony. He also founded the first European settlement on Long Island, called New Amersfoort, and was a Schepen of New Amsterdam in 1654. He is noted as playing an "active role in laying the foundations of the communities of Manhattan, Albany, Rensselaer, and Brooklyn." The progenitor of the Vanderbilt family, Jan Aertszoon (1620–1705), also known as Jan Aertson, a Dutch farmer from the village  of De Bilt in Utrecht, Netherlands, emigrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherland as an indentured servant to the Van Kouwenhoven family in 1650. Life. Early life. Wolfert was born on 1 May 1579 in Amersfoort, Netherlands, one of three sons of Gerrit Suype Van Kouwenhoven and his wife, Styne Sara Roberts. Farm description. A 1638 inventory for the farm named "Achtervelt", owned by Wolfert Gerritse and Andries Hudde in what is now Flatlands, Brooklyn, describes the estate:""...one house surrounded by long, round palisades; the house is 26 feet long, 22 feet wide, 40 feet high with the  roof, covered above and all around with boards" ... "Hudde and Gerritse also had a 40 by 18-foot barn. Career. Dutch West India Company. Wolfert ran a baking and clothes bleaching business, when in 1625 he was assigned as one of the first settlers to cultivate farms in the New Netherlands colony by the Dutch West India Company. Director of Bouweries for Kiliaen van Rensselaer. In 1630, he returned to the Netherlands, where he entered into a contract with Kiliaen Van Rensselaer to return to the colony to manage his farms. Wolphert arrived back in the colony aboard the ship  Eendracht, where he proceeded in his duties as director for van Rensselaer's farms in Rensselaerwyck and Fort Orange. His contract was to run through 1636, but Gerretse requested it cancelled early so he could pursue his own interests. Rensselaer agreed. In 1632, Gerretse was released from his contractual obligations. New Amersfoort. Shortly thereafter, he leased a in New Amsterdam and managed it until 1636, when he was granted a patent of several hundred acres on Long Island. He called his plantation "Achervelt"; later it served as the founding of the town of New Amersfoort, named after Gerritse's original  home. Today the area is known as Flatlands. His plantation was located near the current intersection of King's Highway and Flatbush Avenue. In 2007 the deed of the granted land in Long Island was sold to a private collector for $156,000 becoming "one of the oldest Dutch documents in private hands". The deed dated 6 June 1636 is written in Dutch and outlines the purchase of the land (3,600-acre) from the Lenape Indians. Public service. In 1637, he became a Freeholder in Midwout, and again in 1641. In 1653, he was sent by the colony to the  States-General in the Netherlands as a Commissioner. In 1654, Wolphert served as a Schepen of New Amsterdam, and in 1657 was made a Burgher. He served on the citizens council of Eight Men. Death. Gerretse died in 1662. Marriage and children. A member of the Dutch Reformed Church, on 17 January 1605, he married Neeltje Jacobsdochter at the church in Amersfoort, Netherlands. With her he had three sons: His granddaughter, Marretje Gerretse, daughter of Gerret, married Coert van Voorhees. Descendants. Later variations on surname. Some descendants of Wolfert anglicized the surname "Van Kouwenhoven" to "Kouwenhoven," "Kownover," "Conover," as well  as "Crownover," with Dennis Conover (born 1764) being the first descendant (4th great grandson) to use "Conover" as his surname.