New York, Harper and Row, 1965, pages 13-14

"Soon after arriving in New Amsterdam Glaes Martenszen [van Rosenvelt] bought a piece of land, and this tells more about his character. For one thing, he must have been a somewhat unusual Dutchman, since by heredity the Dutch were traders rather than natural tillers of the soil. Even when placed on a farm the average Hollander usually followed his true instincts and turned into a trader. Because of this the Dutch West Indies Company made particular efforts to encourage farming, offering as much free land as a man and his family could cultivate, "provided he paid after four years of cultivation one-tenth of the produce to the company."

However, Claes Martenszen's acquisition of land did not fall under this offer, and so another fact about him is exposed: he must have had money. For Claes bought a parcel of land which was far more than he and any family could ever cultivate. The good fellow purchased what was called a bouwerie, a word used by the Dutch to denote large acreage. One of the saner acts of the wild-eyed Governor Kieft had been to create six large bouweries from the land above Wall Street. Claes bought one of these from Lambert van Valkenburgh. It was a farm which covered about forty-eight mid-Manhattan acres and included a small thatched farm house.

Two varying locations of Claes's acreage appear on the record. One is described as beginning at today's Twenty-ninth Street and Park Avenue South and extending eastward almost to the East River. The upper boundary is the region of the current Thirty-fourth Street. By a second description the farm began at the same spot, but extended west, approvimately to Sixth Avenue. In later years this land would be worth millions, but even in Claes's time it was costly. Twenty years earlier Peter Minuit had bought all Manhattan for $26. But now a farm like Claes Martenszen's was valued at about 100 guilders, or some $50. Yet the truly important thing is that Claes Martenszen - unlike most other colonists - had that sum of money. He was not such a "common ancestor, after all!

Purchase of the farm throws other light on its proud owner. If nothing else, Claes possessed good judgment, for his forty-eight acres represented one of the best farm regions in Manhattan. At the south end lay mashes, and at the north, the rocky slopes leading to Murray Hill. Between were fields, pastures and thick woods, with a brook and pond close to the thatched farmhouse. The brook ran around a small elevation which Claes and Jannetje sentimentally called Rose Hill. Soon the entire farm was known by that name."

From Florence VV Davis

Three Van Valkenburg names are found in the Index of Original Wills 1784-1920 for Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee:

Name Date of Probate Book: Page

Van Valkenburg, E.C. 12/10/1894 32: 523

Van Valkenburg, George S. 08/29/1891 31: 124

Van Valkenburg, Mary P. 12/05/1894 32: 524

To order a copy of a will, send a check for $3 per copy, made payable to Metro Archives, and a stamped self-addressed envelope to: Metro Archives, 1113 Elm Hill Pike, Nashville, TN 37120