Death of a Notary

Conquest and Change in Colonial New York

By:

Donna Merwick

Format:

Hardback

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Description

"He was the only one. He was the only man to have committed suicide in the town's 17th-century history". So begins Donna Merwick's tale of a Dutch notary who ended his life in his adopted community of Albany. In a historical reconstruction, she introduces readers to Adriaen Janse van Ilpendam and the long-forgotten world he inhabited in Holland's North American colony. The narrative reveals a quiet and studious man, an "ordinary" settler for whom the clash of empires brought tragedy. Like many of his fellow countrymen, Janse left his Dutch homeland as a young adult to try his luck in New Netherland. After spending a few years on Manhattan Island, he moved on to the fur trading settlement known today as Albany. Merwick traces his journey to a new continent and recreates the satisfying existence this respected burgher enjoyed with his wife in the bustling town. As a notary, Janse was, in the author's words, "surrounded by stories, those he listened to and recorded, the hundreds he archived in a chest or trunk". His familiar life was turned upside down by the British conquest of the colony. Merwick recounts the changes brought about by the new rulers and imagines the despair Janse must have felt when English, a language he had never learned, replaced his native tongue in official transactions.

Author Biography:

Donna Merwick is Visiting Fellow at the Center for Cross-Cultural Research, Australian National University. Her most recent book is Possessing Albany, 1630-1710: The Dutch and English Experiences.

Release date Australia

June 15th, 1999

Author

Donna Merwick

Audiences

General (US: Trade)
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Professional & Vocational
Undergraduate

Pages

304

Dimensions

152x229x27

ISBN-13

9780801436086

Product ID

12683195

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