In 1642, English minister Francis Doughty founded Maspeth in Queens under Dutch rule. Expelled from Massachusetts for radical preaching, he accepted Willem Kieft’s offer of land and religious freedom.
In the 1640s, Dutch settlers avoided a heavily wooded area on Long Island. By 1652, they founded Midwout—later called Flatbush, from the Dutch “vlackebos,” meaning wooded plain.
Founded in 1636, Amersfoort grew into a thriving town with farms, magistrates, and taverns. By 1656, its residents collaborated with nearby villages to support church construction and fund a minister.
In 1643, Anthony Jansen Van Salee received land on Long Island. Later settled and organized by Jacques Cortelyou, it became New Utrecht, named for Cornelius van Werckhoven’s Dutch hometown.
The town of Vlissingen, later Flushing, became a center of religious controversy in the 1650s. Quaker residents defied Dutch restrictions, prompting a crackdown by Director-General Petrus Stuyvesant.
The Dutch established large farms north of New Amsterdam, including the famed Bowery Number One. Bowery Lane connected them to the city, eventually evolving into today’s Bowery between Chinatown and the Lower East Side.
In the seventeenth century, forts were essential for trade and defense. Once Manhattan was chosen as New Netherland’s center, establishing a fort there was an obvious and necessary first step.
During the Dutch period, the area north of New Amsterdam was called Noortwyck. In the 1670s, Yellis Mandeville renamed it Greenwich, likely an Anglicization of the Dutch "Greenwijck," meaning Pine District.
