View source for Tomys Swartwout

{{Short description|Dutch merchant (1607–1679)}}
{{Infobox person
| name                = Tomys Swartwout
| image               = 
| caption             = 
| birth_name          = 
| birth_date          = June 1, 1607
| birth_place         = [[Groningen]], [[Netherlands]]
| death_date          = October 1679
| death_place         = [[Amsterdam]], [[Netherlands]]
| resting_place       = 
| alma_mater          = 
| party               = 
| parents             = Rolef Swartwout<br />Catryna Swartwout
| spouse              = {{marriage|Ariaentjen Sijmons<br />|1630|1630|reason=her death}}<br />{{marriage|Hendrickjen Barents Smient<br />|1631||reason=}}
| children            = 9, including [[Roeloff Swartwout]]
| relatives           = 
}}
'''Thomas''' or '''Tomys Swartwout''' (June 1, 1607 in [[Groningen]]<ref name=gen>[http://homepages.rpi.edu/~holmes/Hobbies/Genealogy2/ps13/ps13_273.htm Thomas Swartwout genealogy page]</ref> – October 1679, in [[Amsterdam]])<ref name="sterfakte">Municipal Archives Amsterdam, Burials book 1228, p. 26</ref> was one of the earliest importers of tobacco from [[New Netherland]] to western and northern [[Europe]], one of earliest settlers of New Netherland (present day United States), and a founder of [[Midwood, Brooklyn|Midwood]] (originally Midwout), [[Brooklyn, New York]].

[[File:Thomas Swartwout letter 1630.jpg|thumb|right|Thomas Swartwout letter 1630]]

==Early life==
Tomys Swartwout was born in 1607 in [[Groningen]], [[Netherlands]] to Rolef Swartwout (1575–1634) and Catryna Swartwout (b. 1579).<ref name="StNicholas1905">{{cite book|last1=Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York|title=The Saint Nicholas Society of the City of New York: History, Customs, Record of Events, Constitution, Certain Genealogies, and Other Matters of Interest. V. 1-|date=1905|publisher=The Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U8kpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA251|access-date=28 August 2017|language=en}}</ref>  Swartwout was one of the earliest [[New Netherland]]ers to buy and sell American tobacco in the Netherlands.  He started a wholesale tobacco business in Amsterdam, joining his older brothers, Wybrant and Herman, in 1629.<ref name="tsc">{{Cite book|url = http://memory.loc.gov/master/gdc/scdser01/200401/books_on_film_project/loc06/nov13batchofPDFs/20060523002sw.pdf|title = The Swartwout Chronicles|last = Weise|first = Arthur James|year = 1899}}</ref>

==New Amsterdam==
Swartwout and family left Amsterdam for [[New Netherland]] in March 1652. Swartwout, Jan Snedeker and Jan Stryker solicited from [[Peter Stuyvesant|Director-General Peter Stuyvesant]] the right to settle together on the level reach of wild land ({{lang|nl|de vlacke bosch}}) or [[Flatbush, Brooklyn|flat bush]], adjacent to the outlying farms at Breukelen and Amersfoort. Through Swartwout's suggestion, the settlement was given the name of the village of Midwout. In April 1655, Stuyvesant and the Council of New Netherland appointed Swartwout a schepen (magistrate),<ref name=tsc/> to serve with Snedeker and Adriaen Hegeman as the Court of Midwout.<ref>{{Cite book|title = The register of New Netherland, 1626 to 1674|last = B|first = O'Callaghan, E.|date = 1865-01-01|publisher = J. Munsell|location = Albany, N.Y|page = 74|ol = 6906821M}}</ref> Being one of the original settlers, Swartwout was granted letters-patent by the [[New Netherland Company|Council of New Netherland]], Director-General Stuyvesant, and the [[Dutch West India Company]] of 116 acres on April 13, 1655.<ref name=tsc/>

Swartwout was one of the nineteen signers of the "Humble Remonstrance and Petition of the Colonies and Villages of this New Netherland Province" sent to Stuyvesant on December 11, 1653, an important early document in the campaign for democracy in America.<ref name="StNicholas1905"/>  Following [[Adriaen Van Der Donck]]'s [[Remonstrance of New Netherland|Remonstrance]] of 1650 about governance of the colony, the document signed by Swartwout set out discontents about Stuyvesant's authoritarian method of personally selecting, rather than electing, the council. The statement later inspired [[Jacob Leisler]]'s campaign late in the 1680s for fuller representative democracy in New Amsterdam.<ref>{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7q98iHsJFHcC|title = The Common Law in Colonial America: Volume II: The Middle Colonies and the Carolinas, 1660-1730|last = Nelson|first = William E.|date = 2008-01-01|publisher = OUP USA|isbn = 9780199937752|language = en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=2q-YrjHBBWAC&pg=PA58|title = Invading Paradise: Esopus Settlers at War with Natives, 1659, 1663|last = Brink|first = Andrew|date = 2003-06-06|publisher = Xlibris Corporation|isbn = 9781465317629|language = en}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=January 2018}}

==Personal life==
In March 1630, Swartwout married Ariaentjen Sijmons in Amsterdam. She died in childbirth nine months later on December 17, 1630 after giving birth to their only child, Jan Swartwout.  On June 3, 1631, Swartwout married Hendrickjen Barents Smient (b. 1609), with whom he would have eight children, among others [[Roeloff Swartwout|Roeloff]] (1634–1715; the founder of [[Kingston, New York|Kingston]] and [[Hurley, New York|Hurley]]), Cornelis, Barent, Trijntje, Jacomijntje and Rachel.<ref name=gen/><ref>Baptismal records Municipal Arches Amsterdam, May 15, 1636 for Cornelis and July 7, 1648 for Rachel</ref>

Swartwout did not die in 1660 in [[Beverwijck]], [[New Netherland]]<ref name="StNicholas1905"/> as is sometimes claimed, but evidently returned to [[Amsterdam]] in the [[Dutch Republic]]. He is mentioned as a witness there on several occasions, from 1664 on, as is his wife.<ref>Municipal Archives Amsterdam, Baptismal book 44 p. 93 November 2, 1664; p. 346 April 27, 1672; p. 503 Sep 21 1766 and Marital Banns book 497 p. 59 August 22, 1671; p. 474 April 2, 1672. These records concern the baptism of a grandson, Thomas Swartwout, two granddaughters, Hendrikje Koot and Hendrikje Swart, and the marriages of his daughters Trijntje and Jacomijntje. It is also clear from the Amsterdam records that most of Thomas and Hendrickje's children returned with them to Amsterdam and remained there.</ref> They lived on Herengracht. Thomys died in Amsterdam in 1679 and was buried there on October 15, 1679.<ref name="sterfakte"/>

==References==
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[[Category:1607 births]]
[[Category:1660 deaths]]
[[Category:Dutch merchants]]
[[Category:People from Groningen (city)]]
[[Category:People of New Netherland]]
[[Category:Tobacco in the Netherlands]]
[[Category:History of Brooklyn]]
[[Category:People from Midwood, Brooklyn]]