The most beautiful characters are the ones who don’t leave traces. They make History reap what no one sowed…
Weylin B. Seymour used to be one of the most iconic characters in the confines of the history of New York City. In this book you will get to know about a personality who not only played a key role in the old Williamsburgh community, but also helped many families to settle down as the first New York generations. Weylin was literally the last “Newnetherlander”. He was born on the last day of the Third Anglo-Dutch war in 1674 – the day before the English took over the Dutch Colony in good old New Amsterdam.
His original birth certificate was found among his belongings and it was confirmed through a thorough research that no one else was born in the colony that day. As a child he was raised in a quite chaotic atmosphere due to the social and political changes of the time. The English had first taken over New Amsterdam a decade earlier in a quiet negotiation with Director-General Peter Stuyvesant after four English frigates sailed into New Amsterdam’s harbor and demanded New Netherland’s surrender, contributing to the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In June 1665, New Amsterdam was reincorporated under English law as New York City, named after the Duke of York (later King James II). He was brother of the English King Charles II, who had been granted the lands. Even though the local residents had persuaded Mr. Stuyvesant to sign a quiet negotiation, he was well known for his bravery and military records; so during the following years he spent a very busy time preparing what would become a secret strategic plan. In 1673 Stuyvesant came back to New York with the biggest Dutch fleet until then, resulting in the recuperation of the island and its re-naming again, this time as New Orange, after the Duke of Orange. Although the Dutch direction was reinstated, the English didn’t take long to recover the city a year later in 1674, as The Dutch Republic could not afford another war, for it was bankrupt by also being attacked by Louis XIV’s France and most of their neighbor countries during The Dutch War between 1672 and 78.
Finally, New York was reinstalled definitely.
To be continued…