Adam Gerard Mappa

Background

Adam Gerard Mappa was born on 25 November 1754 of Dutch parents at Delft, Holland.

Career

When he was about twenty he was serving as an officer in the army, moving from post to post in the Netherlands and enjoying the rather stiff and formal society of the middle-class Dutch of that day. His new responsibilities made army life irksome, and he therefore resigned his commission and became a typefounder, thanks to his father's purchase on his behalf of an established business in Rotterdam which he shortly moved to Delft. Since the management of this enterprise was not onerous, he had ample time to devote to politics. He passed two dreary years near St. Omer; then, convinced that no military assistance could be expected from France, decided to begin life anew in America, the country of Patriot inspiration and the home now of several fellow exiles. With his wife and three children he reached New York on December 1, 1789, and there set up the first type-foundry the city had known. His business did not prosper, however. For lack of type-casters he was forced himself to do the manual labor, and apparently lost orders because he was unable to fill them. Hence he accepted with alacrity an agency with the Holland Land Company. By the spring of 1794 he was installed as assistant land agent at Olden Barneveld (now Trenton) in Oneida County, N. Y. Life in the backwoods was not easy, but the early years at Barneveld were perhaps the happiest of Mappa's life. There were novelty and interest in the new work, relative prosperity with a good salary and a large farm which his employers had helped him to stock and develop, a prospect of future comfort especially after his appointment in 1797 as agent in full charge of the settlement above all, happiness in his family life and in the pleasant society of men of his own stamp. For there were soon nearly a score of Dutch in the little village, some his own relatives, some fellow exiles, among them the learned and kindly Francis Adrian Van der Kemp, scholar and former clergyman of Leyden. To Mappa the New World at first offered ample compensations for the disappointments of the Old. Reverses were in store, however, which clouded his later years. He lacked the aggressive and energetic character necessary to the successful land agent. Sales were difficult and collections from not over-prosperous settlers still more so. His situation became increasingly embarrassing after 1818, when with a partner he bought the interests of his employers on credit. He fell behind in the payment of installments due on his contract; already his affairs were complicated by the failure of a textile mill which he had helped to finance and by the assumption of the debts of one of his sons.

Achievements

• Mappa was the agent for the Holland Land Company in New York (state) and in 1797 he became supervisor in the recently set up village of Barneveld.

Politics

Liberal in political as in religious opinions, he took an active part in the Patriot movement which in that period of ferment aimed to recast the cumbersome and ultraconservative political institutions of the Netherlands.

Personality

He had neither the social position, the intellectual gifts, nor the force of character to attain leadership in the movement. Thanks to his military training, however, he became colonel of one of the Patriots' volunteer militia regiments and took part in that revolution which evaporated so ingloriously in the summer of 1787 at the appearance of Prussian troops sent to restore the stadhouder to his ancient position. Exiled with other Patriots, Mappa took refuge in France. Gentle and kindly as he was, Mappa had little gaiety in his character; he became despondent under the weight of his burdens and died in 1828, feeling that his life had been a failure. He had, however, played a not unimportant part in settling his section of New York State.

Connections

In 1780 he married Anna Adriana Passpoort of Delft, whom, after some delay in obtaining parental consent. They had three children.

Wife:

Anna Adriana Passpoort

Friend:

Johan Valckenaer

21 January 1759 - outside Bennebroek, 1821 Was a Dutch lawyer, patriot and diplomat.

Friend:

Herman Willem Daendels

21 October 1762 – 2 May 1818 Was a Dutch politician who served as the 36th Governor General of the Dutch East Indies between 1808 and 1811.

References

• Holland Land Company