David Pietersen De Vries was a Dutch colonizer and merchant. An experienced mariner, he, in partnership with directors of the Dutch West India Company, founded a settlement Swanendael on Delaware Bay, later destroyed by warring Native Americans.
Background
David Pietersen De Vries was born in 1592 or 1593 in Hoorn, Holland (now Netherlands), where his father, Pieter Jacobszen De Vries, also a native of Hoorn, had been a merchant mariner from a prominent family of Hoorn, Noord-Holland, who removed to the French port of La Rochelle after the 1584 assassination of Prince William of Orange. His mother was a native of Amsterdam. After his fourth year he lived mostly in Holland, being from his youth well trained in merchandising, both there and in France.
Career
In 1618-1619, as owner and commander of a new ship of 400 tons burden, mounting eight guns, De Vries made a voyage to the Mediterranean. The next year he sailed to Newfoundland to procure a cargo of codfish, which he sold in Spanish ports. In the course of this voyage he won a notable fight against pirates off Cartagena, and at Toulon was engaged by the Duc de Guise to serve with his ship against the Turks.
When shortly afterward the Duke sought to change his contract and to employ him against the Huguenots at La Rochelle, De Vries refused to comply with his request, sold his ship, and returned overland to Holland. In 1624 he made preparations to go to Canada for furs, but his plans were frustrated by the Dutch West India Company and he sailed to La Rochelle instead. In 1627-1630 he made a voyage to the Dutch East Indies.
Shortly after his return from this voyage he entered into partnership with Samuel Godyn and other directors of the West India Company to plant a colony on the Delaware. An expedition sent out by them in 1631 founded a small settlement, called Swanendael, on the west side of Delaware Bay, near the present town of Lewes, which was soon after destroyed by the Indians. Thereafter De Vries made three voyages to America: May 24, 1632-July 24, 1633, under a contract with his former partners, in command of a ship and a yacht, to Delaware, Virginia, and New Amsterdam; July 10, 1634-October 1636, in the interest of another group of merchants, who wished to plant a colony on the coast of Guiana, to that coast, the West Indies, and New Netherland; and September 25, 1638-June 21, 1644, in partnership with Frederick de Vries, secretary of the city of Amsterdam, to plant a colony on Staten Island.
Shortly after his return from his second voyage, on December 8, 1636, he made application to the West India Company to be sent to New Netherland as director, in the place of Wouter van Twiller, who was about to be recalled, but his petition was rejected with the statement that "a more capable person is needed. " In addition to the small settlement on Staten Island established during his last voyage he planted a colony near Tappan, which he called Vriessendael.
Both colonies were destroyed in the disastrous Indian war of 1643. Discouraged in his undertakings, he returned to Holland and settled at Hoorn, where some ten years later he wrote an interesting account of his travels, printed at Alckmaer in 1655 under the title: Korte Historiael, ende Journaels aenteyckeninge Van verscheyden Voyagiens in de vier deelen des Wereldts-Ronde, als Europa, Africa, Asia, ende Amerika gedaen.
Of this little book, which contains a portrait of the author, dated 1653, on which his age is given as sixty years, but a few copies are known to be in existence. Written in a plain but vivid style, the book contains many picturesque descriptions of events in New Netherland that are not known from official documents, so that it forms a valuable source for the history of the colony. On the title page De Vries is called Artillery Master of the Deputy States of West-Vrieslandt and the Noorder-Quartier, or northern quarter of the province of North Holland.
Little is known of his later life, and the date of his death is uncertain.
Achievements
David Pietersen De Vries is remembered as a talented, accomplished, well-travelled and experienced merchant, and ship's Master and Patroon.
On top of the Zwaanendael Museum in Lewes, Delaware, designed after the City Hall of Hoorn, stands a statue of De Vries.
Historical marker in Edgewater, NJ placed by Bergen County Historical Society.
Personality
De Vries was skilled in sailing, fishing and whaling, in global geography, celestial and coastal navigation and piloting, as well as in naval ordnance and military tactics.
De Vries was self-confident and courageous, religious, forthright and upright, an astute judge of character, skilled in trading, diplomacy, and in interpersonal and group relations.
De Vries was apparently unbending and unbribable, yet well-raised and perfectly mannered. He socialized in the best circles in the Dutch and English colonies, yet always maintained his own personal opinion, dignity and integrity.
Connections
On June 15, 1615, De Vries married Seitgen Simonsdocher Huygh, a child of Simon Cornelis Huygh, a schepen of Hoorn. They had four children: Trijn, David, and twins Cornelis and Hildegonda.
