Aldert Heijmans ROOSA

                   ALEARDT, Aldert or Albert Heymanse Roose came to this country from Harwyen, also spelled Herweyen, in Gelderland, Holland, on Waal river, five miles west of Bommel. Or it may be the present Heywennen, a short distance east of Bommel in Gelderland or the present Herwen in Gelderland twelve miles sontheast of Arnhem. With him came his wife, Wyntje (Lavinia) Allard or Ariens, and eight children in the ship Bontekoe (Spotted Cow), Captain Peter Lucas April 15, 1660; and settled in the Wildwyck district of Esopus, now Kingston, Ulster County, New York. Of these eight children: Heyman, born in 1643, married Maritje Roosevelt. Arie, born in 1645, married Maria Pels. Jan, bom in 1651, married Hellegond Williamse Van Buren. lkee or Aaghe married Dr. Roelof Kiersted. Maritje married Laurens Jansen. Neeltje married Hendrick Pawling after Nov. 3, 1676. Jannetje married Mattys TenEyck at Hurley Nov. 16, 1679. Aert. Two other children were born to him and his wife after coming to New Netherland, viz; Annatje and Guert.

From the fact that in Gelderland at the present time the language of its people is interspersed with Spanish words and idioms it has been supposed that many religious refugees from Spain during the first years of the Inquisition settled in this particular Province of Holland, among whom may have been ancestors of Albert Heymanse; if so, this can account for the spelling of the name, by the Hollanders-Roose -which to them would produce the same sound as Rosa, his name in Spanish.

On December 25, 1660, Aldert Heymanse Roosa and his wife, with Anna Blom, Jacob Joosten, Jacob Burhans, Mathias Blanchan and wife, Anton Crespel and wife, Andries Barentse and wife, Margaret Chambers, Gertruy Andries, Roelof Swartwout and wife, and Cornelise Sleght and wife participated in the first administration of the Lord's Supper at the Esopus or Wildwyck. Aldert Heymanse Roosa was a wealthy man for those days, bringing with him considerable property from Holland, and he speedily occupied an influential position in the early making of Kingston, in all of which he appeared as a leader and director of events. On the fourth of March, 1661, he joined with Thomas Chambers, Cornelis Barentse Sleght. Gertruy Andries, Roe of Swartwout and Jurian Westvael in a contract guaranteeing a salary to the Reverend Hermanus Blom, who had been called as pastor of the Dutch church at Wildwyck. Of this church he was for many years an elder; and because of the energy with which Domine Blom and he sought to conserve the surplus of the estates of deceased parents for the benefit of the poor of the village he was sometirnes called " the consistory " of the church.

On the 5th day of May, 1661, Evert Pels, Cornelis Barentse Sleght and Aldert Heymanse Roosa were appointed commissaries at Wildwyck and took their oath of office, and on the 16th day of the same month Peter Stuyvesant, in behalf of the Mighty Lords, the States General of the United Netherlands, and the Lord Directors of the Privileged West India Company granted its first charter to Wildwyck, in which Evert Pels, Cornelis Barentse Sleght and Aldert Heymanse Roosa were appointed schepens, and therein designated as '- interested, intelligent persons, possessing Real Estate, peaceable men, professors of the Reformed religion as it is now preached in the, United Netherlandish Churches in conformity through the Word of God, and the orders of the Synod of Dordrecht." And new lots were then laid out at Wildwyck, Of which Aldert Hymanse Roosa was allotted No. 24 and his son Jan No. 30.

On April 6th, 1662 permission was given by the Director-General to lay out a new village at the Esopus. It was called Nieuw Dorp, now Hurley, at which place Matthew Blanshan and his sons-in-law, Anthony Crespel and Louis DuBois settled the same year. Directly after this warnings were received and sent to New Amsterdam of pending troubles from the Indians at the Esopus. (Col. Hist. N. Y., Vol. XIII., pages 227-228). On the 11th of October, 1662, Aldert Heymanse Roosa was commissioned to proceed to New Amsterdam to obtain one hundred pounds of powder and two hundred pounds of lead for the protection of the old and new settlements. (Col. Hist. N. Y., Vol. XIII., page 231.)

Aldert Heymanse Roosa must have been among the earliest settlers of the new village because on March 30, 1663, he, Jan Joosten and Jan Garretsen were appointed by Director-General Stuyvesant commissaries to lay out and fortify it with palisades for protection against attacks of savages. (Sylvester's Hist. Ulster county, page 36).

On the 7th of April, 1663, Aldert Heymanse Roosa and his fellow commissaries reported to Governor Stuyvesant that the savages would not allow the building of palisades or fortifications at the new village, because the land was not included in the treaty made with them in the year 1660, and had not been fully paid for; and praying that the gifts promised the savages the previous autumn be sent at once, and that the new place and village be assisted with a few soldiers and ammunitions of war, at least, until the new settlement should be put into a proper state of defense and inhabited by a good number of people; that 'your humble and faithful subjects may remain without fear and molestation from these barbarous people, and with some assurance for the peaceful, undisturbed and unhindered continuation of the work begun, for if rumors and warnings may be believed, it would be too anxious, if not too dangerous an undertaking for your humble petitioners and faithful subjects to continue and advance their work otherwise." (Col. Hist. N. Y., Vol. XIII., pages 242-3).

These warnings were not heeded and these earnest requests were not complied with, and on June 7th, 1663, the Indians attacked the New Village and Wildwyck. At Wildwyck they burned twelve dwelling houses; murdered eighteen persons, men, women and children, and carried away ten persons more as prisoners. The New Village was burned to the ground and its inhabitants mostly taken prisoners or killed. Only a few of them escaped to Wildwyck, among wnom were Roosa, Blanchan, Crespel and DuBois. So there were sixty-five persons missing in general, either killed or captured, besides nine pesons who came to Wildwyck, severely wounded. Among those taken prisoners at the New Village were the wife and two children of Louis DuBois; wife and one child of Anton Crespel; two children of Matthew Blanshan; two children of Aldert Heymanse Roosa and wife and three children of Lambert Huybertse Brink. (Col. Hist. N. Y. Vol. Xlll., pages 245-6, 256- 372).

An account of the massacre was sent to New Amsterdam on the 10th of June, and written instructions were received from the Director-General, under date of June 14th for the guidance of the officers at Wildwyck. Martial law was proclaimed and a council of war formed to consist of Ensign Niessen, Captain Chambers, Lieutenant Hendrick Jochem Schoonma ker of the Burgher Guard and the schout and commissaries of the village to deliberate and decide what might be necessary for the welfare of the village after the massacre. Mattys Capito was appointed secretary of the council. Aldert Hermanse Roosa was one of the commissaries. He was also corporal of the Burgher Guard of which Hendrick Jochem Schoonmaker was lieutenant.

Captain Martin Cregier reached Esopus on the 4th day of July, 1663, and proceeded to Wildwyck, where he found that the magistrates had examined some Esopus Indians and the wife of Dr Gysbert van Imbroeck, who had been a prisoner, and had practically located the place where the prisoners were held. On the 7th day of July, Aldert Heymanse Roosa and some other farmers, being indignant at the neglect of those in authority at New Amsterdam in sending them relief when requested in the early part of April, and sorely vexed at the delay of Captain Cregier in conducting the organization of the expedition against the Indians for the rescue of the prisoners, appeared armed before the council, who were examining two Wappinger Indians and upon being asked what they were doing there with their guns, gave answer: "We intend to shoot these Indians " Upon being told that they must not do that, they replied to Captain Cregier that they would do it, even if he stood by.

On July 26th an expedition about two hundred strong, of which one hundred and forty-five were inhabitants of Wildwyck, set out for the Indian "old fort" at Kerhonkson where the captives were reported to be. Reaching it on the 26th they found it deserted. Cregier destroyed about two hundred and fifteen acres of maize and burned about one hundred pits of corn and beans. A second expedition guided by a young Wappinger Indian started on September 3rd for the Indian entrenchment known as "new fort," which was situated in Shawangunk. Besides the troops, on this expedition, seven of the citizens of Wildwyck accompanied it. Although the names of the citizens are not given in Captain Cregier's report the seven, probably, were Matthew Blanshan, Louis DuBois, Anton Crespel, Cornelis Barentse Sleght, Tjerck Claesen DeWitt, Aldert Heymanse Roosa and Lambert Huybertse Brink, members of whose families were among the captives of June 7th, and each of whom must have accompanied either the first or second and, possibly, both expeditions.

Here at the "new fort" the Indians were attacked and a chief, fourteen warriors, four women and three children were killed, probably many others were wounded, who escaped. Of Cregier's forces three were killed and six wounded Twenty-three Christian prisoners were rescued. " New Fort" was situated in the town of Shawangunk on the east bank of the Shawangunk kill, two miles south of Bruynswick and twenty-eight miles from Kingston (Schoonmaker's Hist. of Kingston, page 39. OLDE ULSTER, Vol II, pages 1-9).

After the Dutch had surrendered New Netherland to the English in 1664 and Richard Nicolls had become governor, Captain Daniel Brodhead, with a company of English soldiers was sent to Wildwyck. Against the arbitrary conduct of Captain Brodhead and the indignities put upon the Dutch settlers by the English soldiers, Aldert Heymanse Roosa led the revolt of the burghers in 1667 against the military authorities, which is referred to historical books as the " Mutiny at Esopus."

Marius Schoonmaker, in his history of Kingston, commenting on this revolt writes: Mutiny is resistance to the exercise of lawful power. If an officer invades the house of a subordinate to steal, commit an assault or a trespass, resistance is not mutiny; and much more, the moment a military officer or soldier steps outside of his military calling and wilfully commits an assault or a trespass against a citizen, or unlawfully deprives him of his liberty, the military character or privilege is at once doffed and thrown aside, and resistance is not mutiny. It was justifiable resistance to tyranny and oppression-an outburst of the same spirit which subsequently threw off the oppressor's yoke in 1776, and carried this country triumphantly through the Revolution.

For instigating this revolt Aldert Heymanse Roosa and other burghers were tried before Cornelis van Ruyven, one of the king's justices of the peace, and on May 3, 1667, he was sentenced to be banished from the colony for life, and a fine of one hundred bushels of wheat, or the value thereof, was levied on his estate in Esopus for charges of the Court; and his son Arie, Antonio Delba and Cornelis Barentse Sleght were banished out of Esopus, Albany and New York for shorter terms.

The report and findings of this trial show that the matter was prejudged under secret instructions to carry out private orders, and not governed by the merits or the evidence in the case. The trial however resulted in the suspension of Captain Brodhead from his command and in less than three months, on July 14th he died at Esopus leaving his widow and three sons -Daniel, Charles and Richard -- surviving him (History of Kingston, page 57).

The sentences of the burghers participating in this revolt were subsequently modified and Aldert Heymanse Roosa was permitted to retum to Wildwyck, and with Louis DuBois was appointed by Governor Francis Lovelace September 16th, 1669, overseer for Hurley (Col. Hist. N. Y. Vol. XIII., page 436).

On the 30th day of March, 1670, he set over to Governor Lovelace eight acres of land as part of " the Transport" to satisfy the inhabitants of the town of Marbletown for the grant given to them under the authority of the governor (Col. Hist. N. Y. Vol. XIII., page 445). At this time he received a patent tor ten acres and four hundred and fifty rods at Hurley, and was commissioned sergeant of the militia directed to be present at the rendezvous at Marbletown April 5th, 1670.

On April 7th, 1670 he was appointed overseer of Hurley and Marbletown and on October 25th, 1671, in an order of Governor Lovelace " Regulating the Civil and Military affairs of Kingston," Aldert Heymanse Roosa was appointed commissary for Hurley, and the eldest commissary for Kingston (Col. Hist. N. Y. Vol. XIII., pages 448, 450, 460).

When Charles II. of England joined Louis XIV. of France in a compact to destroy Dutch freedom, war broke out again. In Holland the Dutch cut the dykes, put their country under water and drove out the French invaders. The news of a Dutch fleet approaching New York was received with joy and on the 7th of August, 1673, twenty three Dutch war-ships with 1,600 soldiers entered New York Bay and on the 9th of August the flag of Holland floated again over Manhattan, and Captain Anthony Colve was made governor. In this state of war delegates from Esopus, under date of September 1st,1673, presented a petition to the Dutch governor, praying that certain persons be appointed to govern the village of Esopus, formerly Wildwyck, then called Swanenburgh, Hurley and Marbletown, with a military organization and the necessary ammunition. The petition was granted on condition that no one should be nominated who was not of the Reformed religion, nor " who was not well inclined towards the Dutch nation." Aldert Heymans Roosa was on October 6th, 1673, appointed captain of Hurley and Marbletown by Governor Colve, and described as " Captain Aldert Heymans, who had been prominent in the riot of 1667." (Col. Hist. N. Y. Vol. XIII., page 475. Vol. II., page 626 Report State Historian New York, Colonial Series (1896) page 384).

Aldert Heymanse Roosa died at Hurley, New York, February 27th 1679. (See New York Gen. and Biog. Record, Vol. VXXI., pages 163-166, 235-237. Anjous Ulster County Wills, Vol. I., page 74).

Aert/Alaerdt Heymans served as buurmeester of Herwijnen in 1655-6. (Van Maanen, R.H.C., "Bestuurders en dienaren binnen de heerlijkheid Herwijnen (1616) 1700-1800 (1809)", pp. 33-36, published by Gens Nostra)

n 28 Feb 1660, prior to departure, ALERT HEYMANS, yeoman of Herwijnen, gives ARIAEN ARIAENS DE JONGH, power of attorney to handle his affairs. (De Young, Dirk P., "Notes on Roosa-De Jongh Families", The New York Genealogical And Biographical Record (The Record), January 1939, 226 West 58th. Street, New York.) In this article Wijntie is called Wilhelmina. It also states that Arian Ariaens de Jongh was Alert Heymans' brother-in-law. However, from the translation of that document the relationship between these two men is not described. In another document - dated 22 Mar 1664 - after Alert has been in America for awhile, an Arien Ariens de Jongh promises to pay 33 guilders on a certain debt of Alert Heymansz Rosa, in which he calls Alert "mijn oom" (my uncle). See A-IV-n for further details.