THE DUTCH VROUWS
There is much evidence to show that the women of Dutch descent of the
early years of New Netherland and New York had other traits than those
of domestic housewifery; they partook frequently of the shrewdness and
business sagacity and capacity of their Dutch husbands. Widows felt no
hesitation and experienced no difficulty in carrying on the business
affairs of their dead partners; wives having capable, active husbands
boldly engaged in independent business operations of their own; their
ventures were as extended and fearless as those of the men. They traded
for peltries with the Indians with marked success. I suspect part of
the profit may have come through the Indian braves’ serene confidence
in their own superior sagacity in bargaining and trafficking with the
“white squaws.” The Labadist travellers wrote thus despitefully of a
“female-trader” in Albany in 1679:--
“This woman, although not of openly godless life, is more wise than
devout, although her knowledge is not very extensive, and does not
surpass that of the women of New Netherland. She is a truly worldly
woman, proud and conceited, and sharp in trading with _wild_ people
as well as _tame_ ones, or what shall I call them not to give them
the name of Christians, or if I do, it is only to distinguish them
from the others. She has a husband, who is her second one. He
remains at home quietly while she travels over the country to carry
on the trading. In fine, she is one of the Dutch female-traders who
understand the business so well. If these be the persons who are to
make Christians of the heathen, what will the latter be?”
Certain traits of a still more influential and widely known
female-trader in New Netherland are shown to us in Dankers’ pages
through slight but extremely vivid side-lights, but which (having been
written on shipboard) may perhaps be taken with the grain of palliative
salt which should frequently be cast upon the condemnatory utterances
of sea-weary, if not sea-sick, passengers on the raging deep when they
regard everything connected with the odious ship which confines them.
We are introduced to this colonial woman of affairs in the sub-title of
the journal, which states that the journey to New Netherland was made
“in a small Flute-ship called the Charles, of which Thomas Singleton
was Master; but the superior Authority over both Ship and Cargo was in
Margaret Filipse, who was the Owner of both, and with whom we agreed
for our Passage from Amsterdam to New York, in New Netherland, at
seventy-five Guilders for each Person, payable in Holland.”
This “Margaret Filipse” was the daughter of Adolph Hardenbrook who
settled in Bergen, opposite New Amsterdam. She was the widow of the
merchant trader Peter Rudolphus De Vries when she married Frederick
Philipse. Her second husband was a carpenter by trade, who worked for
Governor Stuyvesant; but on his marriage with the wealthy Widow De
Vries, he became her capable business partner, and finally was counted
the richest man in the colony. She owned ships running to many ports,
and went repeatedly to Holland in her own ships as supercargo. She was
visited by Dankers in Amsterdam in June, 1679. According to the custom
of his religious sect, he always called her by her Christian name, and
wrote of her as Margaret. He says:--
“We spoke to Margaret, inquiring of her when the ship would leave. She
answered she had given orders to have everything in readiness to sail
to-day, but she herself was of opinion it would not be before Monday.
We offered her the money to pay for our passage, but she refused
to receive it at that time, saying she was tired and could not be
troubled with it that day.”
They waited patiently on shipboard for several days for Madam Philipse
to embark, and at last he writes:--
“We were all very anxious for Margaret to arrive, so that we might
not miss a good wind. Jan and some of the other passengers were much
dissatisfied. Jan declared, ‘If this wind blows over I will write her
a letter that will make her ears tingle.’”
Landing at an English port, the travellers bought wine and vinegar,
“for we began to see it would go slim with us on the voyage,” and
Margaret bought a ship which was made ready to go to the Isle of May
and then to the Barbadoes. Over the purchase and equipment of this
ship arose a great quarrel, for “those miserable, covetous people
Margaret and her husband” tried to take away the Charles’ long-boat
because timber for a new one was cheaper in New York than in Falmouth,
England. Naturally, the passengers objected to crossing the Atlantic
without a ship’s-boat. Dankers complained further of Margaret’s
“miserable covetousness,”--that she made the ship lay to for an hour
and a half and sent out the jolly-boat to pick up a ship’s mop or swab
worth six cents; and the carpenter swore because she had not furnished
new leather and spouts for the pumps. Dankers explained at length the
enhancement of the Philipse profits through some business arrangement
and preferment with the Governor, by which Frederick Philipse became
the largest trader with the Five Nations at Albany, had a profitable
slave-trade with Africa, and, it is asserted, was in close bonds with
the Madagascar pirates. Whether “Margaret” favored this trade with the
pirates is not known; but it could probably be said of her trade, as of
many others in the colony, that it was hard to draw the dividing line
between privateering and piracy.
Her calling was not singular in New Amsterdam. The little town abounded
in women-traders.
Elizabeth Van Es was the daughter of one of the early Albany
magistrates. She married Gerrit Bancker, and on becoming a widow
removed to New York, where she promptly opened a store on her own
account, and conducted it with success till her death, in 1694. In the
inventory of her effects were a share in a brigantine, a large quantity
of goods and peltries, as well as various silver-clasped Bibles, gold
and stone rings, and silver tankards and beakers, showing her success
in her business career. The wife of the great Jacob Leisler, a Widow
Vanderveen when he married her, was a trader. Lysbet, the widow of
Merchant Reinier, became the wife of Domine Drisius, of New York. She
carried on for many years a thriving trade on what is now Pearl Street,
near Whitehall Street, and was known to every one as Mother Drisius.
The wife of Domine Van Varick also kept a small store, and thus helped
out her husband’s salary.
Heilke Pieterse was the wife of the foremost blacksmith of New
Amsterdam; and as he monopolized the whole business of Long Island, he
died very rich,--worth at least ten thousand dollars. Not overwhelmed
or puffed up with the inheritance of such opulence, Heilke carried on
her husband’s business for many years with success.
Margaret Backer was another successful business woman. For years she
acted as attorney for her husband while he was in foreign countries
attending to that end of his great foreign trade. Rachel Vinje,
involved in heavy lawsuits over the settlement of an estate, pleaded
her own case in court, and was successful. Women were constant in their
appearance in court as parties in contracts and agreements.
The Schuyler family did not lack examples of stirring women-kind.
Margaret van Schlictenhorst, wife of the first Peter Schuyler, being
left a widow, managed her husband’s estate in varied business lines
with such thrift and prudence that in her will, made at eighty years of
age, she could assert that the property had vastly increased. She was
not out of public affairs, for during the Leisler troubles she was the
second largest subscriber to the fund in support of the government;
and she also lent money to pay the borrowed soldiers. Her niece,
Heligonda van Schlictenhorst, a shrewd spinster, was a merchant, and
furnished public supplies. The daughter of Peter Schuyler married John
Collins. A letter of his, dated 1722, shows her capacity. I quote a
clause from it:--
“Since you left us my wife has been in the Indian country, and Van
Slyck had purchased what he could at the upper end of the land; she
purchased the rest from Ignosedah to his purchase. She has gone
through a great deal of hardship and trouble about it, being from home
almost ever since you left us; and prevailed with the Indians whilst
there with trouble and expense to mark out the land where the mine
is into the woods. Mrs. Feathers has been slaving with her all this
while, and hard enough to do with that perverse generation, to bring
them to terms.”
The picture of these two women in the wilds, treating and bargaining
and trading with the savages, seems curious enough to us to-day. Women
seem to have excelled in learning the Indian languages. The daughter
of Anneke Jans was the best interpreter in the colony, and served
as interpreter to Stuyvesant during his famous treaty with the Six
Nations.
Many of the leading taverns or hostelries were kept by women,--a
natural calling, certainly, for good housewives. Madam Van Borsum was
mistress of the Ferry Tavern in Breucklen. Annetje Litschar kept the
tavern which stood near the present site of Hanover Square. Metje
Wessell’s hostelry stood on the north side of Pearl Street, near
Whitehall Street.
More successful still and bold in trade was Widow Maria Provoost.
Scarce a ship came into port from Holland, England, the Mediterranean,
West Indies, or the Spanish Main, but brought to her large consignments
of goods. Her Dutch business correspondence was a large one. She, too,
married a second time, and, as Madam James Alexander, filled a most
dignified position, and became the mother of Lord Stirling.
In a letter written by her husband, James Alexander, to his brother
William, and dated October 21, 1721, there is found a passage which
gives extraordinary tribute to her business capacity and her powers of
endurance alike. It reads thus:--
“Two nights agoe at eleven o’clock, my wife was Brought to bed of a
Daughter and is in as good health as can be Expected, and does more
than can be Expected of any woman, for till within a few hours of her
being brought to bed She was in her Shop, and ever Since has given
the price of Goods to her prentice, who comes to her and asks it when
Customers come in. The very next day after She was brought to bed she
Sold goods to above thirty pounds value. And here the business matters
of her Shop which is Generally Esteemed the best in New York, she with
a prentice of about 16 years of age perfectly well manages without the
Least help from me, you may guess a little of her success.”
He closes his letter with a eulogy which can be cordially endorsed by
every reader:
“I must say my fortune in America is above my Expectation, and I think
even my Deserts, and the greatest of my good fortune is in getting so
Good a Wife as I have, who alone would make ae man easy and happy had
he nothing else to depend on.”
Madam Alexander accumulated great wealth, and spent it handsomely.
She was the only person in town, besides the Governor, who kept a
coach. Her will is an interesting document, and shows a fine style
of housekeeping. The enumeration of great and lesser drawing-rooms,
front and back parlors, blue and gold leather room, green and gold
leather room, tapestry room, chintz room, etc., show its pretension and
extent. She lived on Broad Street, had a fine garden laid out in the
Dutch taste, a house full of servants, and spent her money freely as
she made it thriftily. A very good portrait of her exists. It shows an
interesting countenance, with fine features, a keen eye, and indicating
robust health. She is not dressed with great elegance, wearing the
costume of the day,--a commonplace frilled cap, folded kerchief, close
sleeves, such as we are familiar with in portraits of English women of
her time.
Jane Colden, the daughter of Governor Cadwallader Colden, was of signal
service, not in trade, but in science. A letter written by her father
explains her interest and usefulness:--
“Botany is an amusement which may be made agreeable to the ladies who
are often at a loss to fill up their time. Their natural curiosity and
the pleasure they take in the beauty and variety of dress seem to fit
them for it.
“I have a daughter who has an inclination to reading, and a curiosity
for Natural Philosophy or Natural History, and a sufficient curiosity
for attaining a competent knowledge. I took the pains to explain
Linnæus’ system, and to put it into an English form for her use by
freeing it from technical terms, which was easily done, by using two
or three words in the place of one. She is now grown very fond of
the study, and has made such a progress in it as, I believe, would
please you, if you saw her performance. Though she could not have been
persuaded to learn the terms at first, she now understands to some
degree Linnæus’ characters,--notwithstanding she does not understand
Latin. She has already a pretty large volume in writing of the
description of plants. She has shewn a method of taking the impression
of the leaves on paper with printers’ ink, by a simple kind of rolling
press which is of use in distinguishing the species. No description
in words alone, can give so clear an idea, as when assisted with a
picture. She has the impression of three hundred plants in the manner
you’ll see by the samples. That you may have some conception of her
performance, and her manner of describing, I propose to enclose some
samples in her own writing, some of which I think are new genera.”
Peter Collinson said she was the first lady to study the Linnæan
system, and deserved to have her name celebrated; and John Ellis,
writing of her to Linnæus in 1758, asks that a genus be named, for her,
Coldenella. She was also a correspondent of Dr. Whyte of Edinburgh,
and many learned societies in Europe. Walter Rutherfurd enumerates her
talents, and caps them with a glowing tribute to her cheese-making.
We find the women of the times full of interest in public affairs and
active in good works. In the later days of the province, we learn
of the gifts to the army at Crown Point in 1755. In those days the
generous farmers of Queens County, Long Island, collected one thousand
and fifteen sheep, and these were “cheerfully given.”
“While their husbands at Great Neck were employed in getting sheep,
the good mothers in that neighborhood in a few hours collected nearly
seventy good large cheeses, and sent them to New York to be forwarded
with the sheep to the army.” Kings County defrayed the expense of
conveying these sheep and cheeses to the army; and a letter of
gratitude was promptly returned by the commander-in-chief. Sir William
Johnson, who said,--
“This generous humanity is unanimously and gratefully applauded here
by all. We pray that your benevolence may be returned to you by the
great Shepherd of the human kind a thousand fold. And may those
amiable housewives to whose skill we owe the refreshing cheeses long
continue to shine in their useful and endearing stations.”
Kings County and Suffolk also sent cheeses, and we learn also:--
“The Women of County Suffolk ever good in such Occasions are knitting
several large bags of stockings and mittens to be sent to the poorer
soldiers at Forts William Henry and Edward.”
In studying the history of the province, I am impressed with the debt
New Yorkers of Dutch descent owe, not to their forefathers, but to
their foremothers; the conspicuous decorum of life of these women and
their great purity of morals were equalled by their good sense and
their wonderful capacity in both domestic and public affairs. They were
as good patriots as they were good business women; and though they
were none of them what Carlyle calls “writing-women,” it was not from
poverty of good sense or natural intelligence, but simply from the
imperfection of their education through lack of good and plentiful
schools, and also want of stimulus owing to absence of literary
atmosphere.
A very shrewd woman-observer, writing in the middle of the eighteenth
century of the Dutch, gives what seems to me a very just estimate and
good description of one of their traits. She says: “Though they have
no vivacity, they are smarter, a great deal smarter, than the English,
that is, more _uptaking_.” Those who know the exact Scotch meaning
of “uptaking,” which is somewhat equivalent to Anthony Trollope’s
“observation and reception,” will understand the closeness of the
application of the term to the Dutch.
The Dutch women especially were “uptaking;” adaptive of all
comfort-bringing methods of housekeeping. This was noted by
Guicciardini in Holland as early as 1563. They were far advanced in
knowledge and execution of healthful household conditions, through
their beautiful cleanliness. Irving says very truthfully of them: “In
those good days of simplicity and sunshine a passion for cleanliness
was the leading principle in domestic economy, and the universal test
of a good housewife.” Kalm says: “They are almost over nice and cleanly
in regard to the floor, which is frequently scoured twice a week.” They
found conditions of housekeeping entirely changed in America, but the
passionate love of cleanliness fostered in the Fatherland clung long in
their hearts. Their “Œconomy” and thrift were also beautiful.
An advertisement in the “New York Gazette” of April 1, 1751, shows that
the thrift of the community lingered until Revolutionary times:--
“Elizabeth Boyd gives notice that she will as usual graft Pieces in
knit Jackets and Breeches not to be discern’d, also to graft and foot
Stockings, and Gentlemens Gloves, mittens or Muffatees made out of old
Stockings, or runs them in the Heels. She likewise makes Childrens
Stockings out of Old Ones.”
Other dames taught more elegant accomplishments:--
“Martha Gazley, now in the city of New York, Makes and Teacheth the
following curious Works, viz.: Artificial Fruit and Flowers and
other Wax-Work, Nun’s Work, Philligree and Pencil-work upon Muslin,
all sorts of Needlework, and Raising of Paste, as also to Paint
upon Glass, and Transparent for Sconces with other Works. If any
young Gentlewomen, or others, are inclined to learn any or all of
the above-mentioned curious Works, they may be carefully taught and
instructed in the same by said Martha Gazley.”
Mrs. Van Cortlandt, in her delightful account of home-life in
Westchester County, says of the industrious Dutch women and their
accomplishments and occupations:--
“Knitting was an art much cultivated, the Dutch women excelling in
the variety and intricacy of the stitches. A knitting sheath, which
might be of silver or of a homely goose-quill, was an indispensable
utensil, and beside it hung the ball-pin-cushion. Crewel-work and
silk embroidery were fashionable, and surprisingly pretty effects
were produced. Every little maiden had her sampler, which she began
with the alphabet and numerals following them with a Scriptural text
or verse of a metrical psalm. Then fancy was let loose on birds,
beasts, and trees. Most of the old families possessed framed pieces of
embroidery, the handiwork of female ancestors. Flounces and trimmings
for aprons worked with delicately tinted silks on muslin were common.
I have several yards of fine muslin painted in the early days with
full-blown thistles in the appropriate colors. Fringe looms were in
use, and cotton and silk fringes were woven.”
Tape-looms were also found in many households; and the weaving of tapes
and “none-so-prettys” was deemed very light and elegant work.
Though to the Dutch is ascribed the invention of the thimble, I never
think of the Dutch women as excelling in fine needlework; and I note
that the teachers of intricate and novel embroidery-stitches are always
Englishwomen; but in turn the English goodwives must yield to the Dutch
the palm of comfortable, attractive housewifery, as well as shrewd,
untiring business capacity.