The Van Dyke Family
 

CHAPTER VI
 

JAN THOMASSE VAN DYKE, THE FOUNDER
 

ifeia.
 

AN THOMASSE VAN DYKE,
the son of Thomas Van Dyke,
was the founder of the Van
Dyke family in America. He
came to New Amsterdam from
Amsterdam, Holland, in the year
1652 with his wife Tryntje Achias
or Haegen and seven children.
It is said that she was his
second wife and that his first
wife was the mother of four of
forKEHOME-Ri;;aJF«ri;r     ^^^ chUdren.    He died in 1673.

He was one of the founders in 1657 of New Utrecht, where
Director-General Peter Stuyvesant had permitted the estab¬
lishment of a town comprising about one thousand acres
divided into farms of fifty acres each. The early settlers in
America could not purchase land from the Indians without
permission of the govemment and when a purchase was
arranged it was followed by a special grant allowing the
formation of a settlement or town. This is in accordance
with the "Law of Nations" expressed in Wheaton. Jan
Thomasse Van Dyke owned one of these farms and in
1659 added to it a tract of meadow land extending toward
what is now called Coney Island.
The founders of New Utrecht were granted patents by

174