Samuel Godin
Encyclopedia
Southern Netherlands
Southern Netherlands were a part of the Low Countries controlled by Spain , Austria and annexed by France...
, trading on Spain, Brazil and the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
. He was one of the administrators of the Noordsche Compagnie
Noordsche Compagnie
The Noordsche or Groenlandse Compagnie was a cartel for whaling, founded by several cities in the Netherlands...
, involved in whaling
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
, and of the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
. From 1620 he traded on New Netherland
New Netherland
New Netherland, or Nieuw-Nederland in Dutch, was the 17th-century colonial province of the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands on the East Coast of North America. The claimed territories were the lands from the Delmarva Peninsula to extreme southwestern Cape Cod...
. His name was at first given to the Delaware Bay
Delaware Bay
Delaware Bay is a major estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the Northeast seaboard of the United States whose fresh water mixes for many miles with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It is in area. The bay is bordered by the State of New Jersey and the State of Delaware...
and he was one of the main investors in Zwaanendael. The colony did not last very long as it was plundered by Native Americans
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
soon after its founding.
Life
In 1595 he was involved in serious legal case with Isaac le MaireIsaac Le Maire
Isaac le Maire was a merchant for the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie and later for the Austraalse Compagnie. He is best known for his constant strife with the VOC, which ultimately led to the discovery of Cape Horn.Isaac le Maire was born in 1558 or 1559 in Tournai...
and Dirck van Os on behalf of his "father-in-law". In 1597 he seems to have lived in Middelburg
Middelburg
Middelburg is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated in the Midden-Zeeland region. It has a population of about 48,000.- History of Middelburg :...
. In 1600 he sent a letter to Clusius
Clusius
Clusius may refer to:* Carolus Clusius, a Flemish doctor and botanist* Clusius , a hybrid elm cultivar...
. On 24 August 1602, Samuel Godijn married Anneken Anselmo in Bremen, born in Antwerp on 8 July 1583. Together with his brother Daniel Godijn, he invested 3,000 guilders in the first subscription for VOC
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a chartered company established in 1602, when the States-General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia...
share
Share (finance)
A joint stock company divides its capital into units of equal denomination. Each unit is called a share. These units are offered for sale to raise capital. This is termed as issuing shares. A person who buys share/shares of the company is called a shareholder, and by acquiring share or shares in...
s in August 1602. Godin traded in wool, indigo
Indigo
Indigo is a color named after the purple dye derived from the plant Indigofera tinctoria and related species. The color is placed on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet...
from Spain, brazilwood
Brazilwood
Caesalpinia echinata is a species of Brazilian timber tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. Common names include Brazilwood, Pau-Brasil, Pau de Pernambuco and Ibirapitanga . This plant has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high shine, and it is the premier wood used for making bows for...
, but around 1619 he became more interested in whaling. Because of the recent troubles with English whalers around Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen is the largest and only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in Norway. Constituting the western-most bulk of the archipelago, it borders the Arctic Ocean, the Norwegian Sea and the Greenland Sea...
the plan came up to catch whales in the Atlantic, near the North river. About ten men invested two ships, Godin was one of them. August 1622 he bought a plot on Keizersgracht and settled within a year in a house called De Bruinvis (The Harbour porpoise
Harbour Porpoise
The harbour porpoise is one of six species of porpoise. It is one of the smallest marine mammals. As its name implies, it stays close to coastal areas or river estuaries, and as such, is the most familiar porpoise to whale watchers. This porpoise often ventures up rivers, and has been seen...
) or De Walvis (The Whale), either on number 105 or 107.
Because of competition between the Dutch fur-traders it seems Samuel Godin and Killian van Rensselaer
Killian Van Rensselaer
Killian Killian Van Rensselaer was an American lawyer and politician who served in the United States Congress as a Representative from the state of New York. He was the cousin of Jeremiah Van Rensselaer and the uncle of Solomon Van Vechten Van Rensselaer, who were also Representatives.Van...
decided to look around elsewhere. In 1628 Samuel Blommaert
Samuel Blommaert
Samuel Blommaert was a Flemish/Dutch merchant and director of the Dutch West India Company from 1622 to 1629 and again from 1636 to 1642...
was informed about suitable land near Godyn's Bay. In the late 1620s, when a controversy arose within the Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company
Dutch West India Company was a chartered company of Dutch merchants. Among its founding fathers was Willem Usselincx...
as to whether the emphasis of the company's activities should be placed on the expansion of trade or the acquisition of further colonies, Samuel Godijn was one of four merchants who opted for further colonisation. The others were Blommaert, Albert C. Burgh
Albert Burgh
Albert Coenraadsz. Burgh was a Dutch physician who was mayor of Amsterdam and a councillor in the Admiralty of Amsterdam.-Biography:...
, and Van Rensselaer. On their behalf the agents bargained with the natives for a tract of land reaching from Cape Henlopen
Cape Henlopen
Cape Henlopen is the southern cape of the Delaware Bay along the Atlantic coast of the United States. It lies in the state of Delaware, near the town of Lewes, Delaware...
to the mouth of Delaware river
Delaware River
The Delaware River is a major river on the Atlantic coast of the United States.A Dutch expedition led by Henry Hudson in 1609 first mapped the river. The river was christened the South River in the New Netherland colony that followed, in contrast to the North River, as the Hudson River was then...
, "32 miles long, two miles deep extending from Old Cape Henlopen northward to the mouth of a river." The estate had been further extended, on May 5, 1630, by the purchase of a tract twelve miles square on the coast of Cape May
Cape May
Cape May is a peninsula and island ; the southern tip of the island is the southernmost point of the state of New Jersey, United States. It runs southwards from the New Jersey mainland, separating Delaware Bay from the Atlantic Ocean...
opposite, and the transaction was duly attested at Fort Amsterdam
Fort Amsterdam
For the historic fort on the island of Saint Martin, see Fort Amsterdam Fort Amsterdam was a fort on the southern tip of Manhattan that was the administrative headquarters for the Dutch and then British rule of New York from...
. The patent for this land was probably registered and confirmed on June 1, 1630. Godin and Blommaert started the Zwaanendael Colony
Zwaanendael Colony
Zwaanendael or Swaanendael was a short lived Dutch colonial settlement in Delaware. It was built in 1631. The name is archaic Dutch spelling for "swan valley" or dale...
. A ship of eighteen guns was fitted out to bring over the colonists and subsequently defend the coast, with incidental whale-fishing to help defray expenses.
In December 1630, their ship De Walvis (The Whale) set sail from Texel
Texel
Texel is a municipality and an island in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is the biggest and most populated of the Frisian Islands in the Wadden Sea, and also the westernmost of this archipelago, which extends to Denmark...
, with immigrants, food, cattle and whaling implements. The purpose of the settlement was "to carry out the whale fishery in that region, and to pant a colony for the cultivation of all sorts of grain, for which the country is very well suited, and of tobacco." (Journal of de Vries).
A colony of more than thirty souls was planted on Lewes creek, a little north of Cape Henlopen
Cape Henlopen
Cape Henlopen is the southern cape of the Delaware Bay along the Atlantic coast of the United States. It lies in the state of Delaware, near the town of Lewes, Delaware...
. A palisade
Palisade
A palisade is a steel or wooden fence or wall of variable height, usually used as a defensive structure.- Typical construction :Typical construction consisted of small or mid sized tree trunks aligned vertically, with no spacing in between. The trunks were sharpened or pointed at the top, and were...
d fort was built, with the "red lion, rampant," of Holland affixed to its gate, and the country was named Swaanendael or Zwaanendael Colony
Zwaanendael Colony
Zwaanendael or Swaanendael was a short lived Dutch colonial settlement in Delaware. It was built in 1631. The name is archaic Dutch spelling for "swan valley" or dale...
. Already in 1628 the water was called Godyn's Bay, now known as Delaware Bay
Delaware Bay
Delaware Bay is a major estuary outlet of the Delaware River on the Northeast seaboard of the United States whose fresh water mixes for many miles with the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. It is in area. The bay is bordered by the State of New Jersey and the State of Delaware...
.
A company including, besides the two original proprietors, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, Joannes de Laet
Joannes de Laet
Joannes or Johannes de Laet was a Dutch geographer and director of the Dutch West India Company. Philip Burden called his History of the New World, "...arguably the finest description of the Americas published in the seventeenth century" and "...one of the foundation maps of Canada"...
, the historian, and skipper David Pietersen de Vries
David Pietersen de Vries
Captain David Pieterszoon de Vries was a Dutch navigator from Hoorn, Holland.In 1617 de Vries went on a whaling voyage to Jan Mayen. In 1620 he sailed to Newfoundland and sold the dried fish in Italy. In Toulon he joined Charles, Duke of Guise. In 1624 he went to Canada again, still in French...
was formed to colonize the tract. When De Vries arrived at Swaanendael he noticed the colony was destroyed and nobody had survived. In July 1633 De Vries was back in Amsterdam. Against orders the skipper had delivered tobacco in England and secretly unloaded furs at Texel, which he had kept during the journey in his cabin.
Family
Samuel had three brothers: Philips, Anthony and Daniel; Philips died before 1615 and Anthony lived in Vlissingen.He had eight children. On August 22, 1630 his wife was buried in the Wallonian Church. Samuel Godijn's daughter Cecilia (1607–1637) married Hendrick Trip, 28 years old, on 31 March 1633. Trip was a wealthy trader in copper and armaments. On 20 September 1633, Samuel Godijn was ill and signed a codicil to his testament, dated 13 August 1608. Each son stood to inherit 2,000 guilders, before the division of the estate. His heirs were his son-in-law Hendrick Trip and his daughter Cecilia Godin, and his sons Samuel Godijn (1603-?) the younger (who would inherit the estate in the polder
Polder
A polder is a low-lying tract of land enclosed by embankments known as dikes, that forms an artificial hydrological entity, meaning it has no connection with outside water other than through manually-operated devices...
the Beemster
Beemster
Beemster is a municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Also, the Beemster is the first so-called polder in the Netherlands that was reclaimed from a lake, the water being extracted out of the lake by windmills. The Beemster Polder was dried during the period 1609 through...
). Another daughter, named Johanna (1606–1648), married Jacob Trip, the brother of Hendrick Trip, on 14 February 1634. As both her parents had died, she was assisted by her uncle Daniel Godijn. Godyn's death inventory included several statues, maps, jewels, pearls and paintings. Godin was one of Lady Diana's ancestors.