15590Laurens Corneliszen van der Wel
Key Facts
Snapshot:skipper
involved in many financial, social, and legal conflicts
banished from New Netherland for slandering the colony's Director
Parents:unknown
Born:circa 1611
location unknown
Last known record:12 January 1679/80
Midwout, New York (later renamed Flatbush and incorporated into Brooklyn, New York City)
Buried:unknown

15590Laurens Corneliszen van der Wel was born circa 1611, since a New Amsterdam court record dated 30 March 1649 describes him as 38 years old:1


"Laurens Cornelisz van d[er] Wel, aged 38 years." Full page.1

15590Laurens married 15591Lÿsbeth Thÿssen, although the evidence for their marriage has to be pieced together from several tangential records. 15590Laurens had two sons, Thÿs and Dirck, baptized on 20 August 1650,2 so they undoubtedly had married some time before then.

New Amsterdam court records evince a long, steady trail of financial, social, and legal problems that plagued 15590Laurens for years. However, despite being banished from New Netherland for several years, numerous lawsuits, and stinging personal accusations, 15590Laurens must have been highly regarded in New Amsterdam, since he was one of only a few New Amsterdam men ever to be granted the Great Burgher Right. These records and a few other interesting court records are summarized in the table below. To help you navigate the table, I've made a color key to highlight the nature of each record. A few of the most interesting records are depicted after the table.

Key
pertaining to 15590Laurens' alleged adultery with Hillegont Joris
pertaining to various financial problems, including money-related lawsuits
pertaining to the sale of a house to Frerick Lubbersz; the sale became complicated and riddled with legal problems
pertaining to 15590Laurens's dispute with Willem Kieft, the Director of New Netherland, and 15590Laurens' subsequent punishment
miscellaneous
pertaining to various personal conflicts (other than with Director Kieft)

Date Description / Summary  Image   Translation 
8 March 1640 Chief boatswain Cornelis Cornelissen argued that Laurens fired him without cause, so he wanted his job back. Laurens insisted that he is master of his ship and refused to re-hire him. Case dismissed.
 
Laurens is desribed as skipper of the Engel Gabriel.
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6 November 1642 Laurens sued Paulus Jansen, whom he had hired to spade some land, because Jansen hadn’t completed the work.
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14 April 1643 Contract for Laurens to sell a house to Frerick Lubbersz
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29 May 1643 Frerick Lubbersz acknowledged receiving the house.
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30 May 1643 Laurens acknowledged receiving a partial payment for the house.
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26 June 1643 Deed for the abovementioned sale
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1643 Apparently an unfinished rough draft of the abovementioned deed
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22 December 1643 Laurens’ brother Evert Cornelisz answered some questions to clarify which brother owned what.
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29 June 1644 Appeared in court on behalf of two merchants from Amsterdam who wanted to affirm that they’d been properly paid
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30 June 1644 Laurens was sued. The nature of the complaint isn’t stated. Laurens asked for a written copy of the complaint.
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9 July 1644 Hillegont Joris denied adultery with Laurens, and denied that he was the father of her recently born daughter.
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7 July 1644 Witnesses testified that they had never heard Laurens slander/disparage Director Willem Kieft, neither in Holland nor during their transatlantic voyage on board the De Maecht van Enckhuysen, of which Laurens was the skipper.
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14 July 1644 Charged with slander of Director Willem Kieft
 
Charged with smuggling
 
Charged with adultery with Hillegont Joris
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14 July 1644 Found guilty of smuggling pitch, train-oil, and lace. Fined one anker of wine.
 
Laurens is described as skipper of the Maecht van Enckhuysen.
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28 July 1644 Effectively (but not technically) found guilty of slander against Director Kieft. Laurens seems to have accused Kieft of defrauding him in regards to the transport of a box of pearls. Laurens was ordered to beg God for forgiveness or (if he refused) be banished from New Netherland and required to sail back to Amsterdam to present his argument there.
 
Found guilty of smuggling. Some property was seized. Unclear whether this is the same smuggling charge mentioned in other records.
 
Found not guilty of adultery with Hillegont Joris.

Laurens is described as skipper of the Maecht van Enckhuysen.
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29 July 1644 Two people testified that Laurens had sold them train-oil and lace. This testimony apparently was related to the smuggling investigation mentioned above.
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1 and 2 September 1644 Frerick Lubbersz sued Laurens for failing to make some home improvements that they had apparently agreed on as conditions of the abovementioned sale.
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2 and 8 September 1644  The sale to Frerick Lubbersz was disrupted by Director Kieft, who wouldn’t allow Lubbersz to pay Laurens until Laurens turned over some beavers that he’d previously sold (to an unrelated third party) but then failed to deliver.
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29 September 1644 Laurens knowingly helped an indentured servant named Andries flee from New Netherland. Laurens was therefore ordered to compensate Andries’ indenture-holder.
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28 October 1644 A delegation to the West India Company explained that the controversy between Kieft and Laurens had distracted the settlement’s attention from grave threats from the area’s Indians.
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21 March 1645 Laurens’ brother Evert Cornelisz was apparently questioned about a debt that Laurens owed.
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13 October 1645 Having been banished, Laurens requested permission to re-enter New Netherland once the new Director arrived. His request was tabled.
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22 June 1647 Laurens had had trouble convincing people to testify in his favor regarding his allegations against former Director Kieft because they were too afraid to speak out against Kieft. However, two people did speak persuasively in Laurens’ favor.
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30 March 1649 Laurens deposed that he had been to Boston and other places, including New Haven on 24 February, where he learned that Cornelis Melyn had been spreading rumors that Director Peter Stuyvesant had been removed from office.
 
Laurens is described as 38 years old.
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12 January 1654 Requested permission to sell beer and wines
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12 January 1654 Requested to be gunner of the artillery mounted in New Amsterdam
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16 February 1654 Michiel Poulisen sued Laurens because he had rented some equipment, but Laurens never returned it. Laurens in turn sued two of his own employees whom he accused of negligently allowing the equipment to be washed out to sea at high tide.
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30 March 1654 Gysbert van Imbroeck sued Laurens because he didn’t finish paying for some linen that van Imbroeck had sold him.
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16 June 1654 Ordered to pay a debt
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19 August 1654 Gerrit Janszen Klinckhammer sued Laurens for unpaid wages. Laurens argued that Klinckhammer bore responsibility for losing equipment (See the above entry for 16 February 1654). However, Klinckhammer wasn’t even working the day the equipment was lost.
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2 December 1655 Abbe Clausen owed Laurens some money. Clausen basically told Laurens to go get the money from the Swedes, since they in turn hadn’t paid Clausen what they owed him.
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8 May 1656 Willem Beeckman and Thomas Hall sued Laurens because his cows were traipsing on their crops. They said they’d pleaded with Laurens to build a fence to constrain his cows, but he refused. Laurens responded that he had prior permission not to build a fence.
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8 May 1656 The court ordered Laurens to help with the fence.
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10 June 1656 Jan Danielsen sued Laurens. Danielsen had given Laurens some items to trade on his behalf, but Laurens apparently didn’t do a good job trading them for a reasonable price.
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3 July 1656 Laurens had been hired as a debt-collector, but the debtor wouldn’t pay up. Laurens requested permission to seize the debt by force.
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2 October 1656 One of Laurens’ employees sued him for unpaid wages.
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9 October 1656 Laurens was being sued by Nicholaes Boot, but because Laurens was out of town (“gone to the North on a voyage”), his wife [15591Lÿsbeth] appeared in court to request a postponement.
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1 November 1656 Nicholaes Boot learned that Laurens’ wife was basically trying to skip town, and that she had already started moving her stuff out. The court gave him permission to go seize items from her house by force to repay the debt.
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11 April 1657 Received the Great Burgher Right. (This was one of the city’s highest honors, only ever given to about a dozen men.)
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21 January 1658 Ordered to pay a debt
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28 July 1644: "it is proper according to law that he, Laurens Cornelissen, shall in court beg forgiveness of God, the court and the aforesaid director, and acknowledge that he has spoken falsely; or, in case of refusal, he shall be banished from this country until he prove at Amsterdam that he brought over pearls [...]." Full page.3


"The sentence [of banishment from New Netherland] shall remain intact [...]." Full page.3


11 April 1657: "Lourens Corn. van Wel appears in the Court of Burgomasters representing, that he has already performed divers extraordinary services in time of need etc, both as a Gunner of this City as also in the South River, and that if necessary, he is ready to serve. Requesting therefore the benefit of the Great Burger Right. Burgomasters considering the manifold services of the petitioner and his good disposition to continue it if necessary, grant his petition and he is therefore inscribed and has taken the Burgher oath." Full page.4

On 12 January 1679/80, 15590Laurens and his son-in-law 7794Lucas Andrieszen as residents of Midwout (later renamed Flatbush in Brooklyn, New York City) signed a petition to Governor Edmund Andros to request relief with their quit-rent (essentially a property tax), because the people who had sold them their land had deliberately deceived them about how much the quit-rent would cost.5 This petition is the last known record of 15590Laurens.

Sources Cited:

1: Deposition of Laurens Cornelissen van der Wel that Cornelis Melyn had circulated rumors in New England of Director Stuyvesant's removal from office. New York State Archives' Digital Collections, <https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/19050>, accessed 27 June 2021. The source citation provided by the New York State Archives is: "New York State Archives. New York (Colony). Secretary of the Province. Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1642-1660. Series A0270-78. Volume 3, documents 31a - 31b, side 2." You can read a translation of the document.

2: The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Volume V (1874), page 97, entry dated 20 August 1650 for the baptisms of Thÿs and Dirck.

3: Dutch colonial council minutes for 28 July through 2 August 1644. New York State Archives' Digital Collections, <https://digitalcollections.archives.nysed.gov/index.php/Detail/objects/11594>, accessed 27 June 2021. The source citation provided by the New York State Archives is: "New York State Archives. New York (Colony). Council. Dutch colonial council minutes, 1638-1665. Series A1809-78. Volume 4, page 197." You can read a translation of the document.

4: New York, New York. Administrative minutes of New Amsterdam, volume 1 (1657-1661), page 17. New York City Department of Records and Information Services, <http://nycma.lunaimaging.com/luna/servlet/s/16l3q8>, accessed 27 June 2021. Although I obtained the image via the preceding link, it's also available on FamilySearch, albeit in somewhat lower quality: <https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHV-V36M-7XZH?i=780&cat=93713>, accessed 27 June 2021.

5: Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New York, volume 14, pages 743-744.