| Notes |
- Jean was supposedly a native of Saintonge, on the west coast of
France. He accompanied Jesse De Forest, the leader of the Huguenot
community in Leyden, to the Amazon River and the coast of Guiana in
1623, one of a party of eleven Huguenot men looking for a site to
establish a Huguenot colony.
He returned to Leyden on the he BLACK EAGLE late in 1625, bringing
with him the journal and maps of the exploration party with the sad
news that Jesse De Forest had died on October 22, 1624 in Guiana.
In 1628, Jean DE LA MONTAGNE left with is young bride on the FORTUYN
for the island of Tobago, a Dutch possession in the Windward Islands,
northwest of Guiana. His wife returned to Leyden in 1631, supposedly
enfeebled by the climate of this Caribbean Isle. Her husband probably
returned in 1633 and appears on the register of the University of
Leyden for the third time in 1636.
On September 25, 1636, he sailed for America for the third time, this
time with his wife and three children, on the ship RENSSELAERSWYCK,
owned by the patroon Kiliaen Van Resselaer and by the DeForest family,
whose leader was now Rachel's uncle Gerard DeForest. The DeForest
group on the ship consisted of Rachel's brothers Henry and Isaac, as
well as the DE LA MONTAGNE family. Another child, Maria, was born to
Rachel at sea, before the ship reached New Amsterdam on March 5, 1637.
In the New Netherlands, Jean DE LA MONTAGNE was generally referred to
as Doctor Johannes DE LA MONTAGNE. His excellent education and high
natural abilities enabled him to take and important place in the
community. On Manhattan, he set up business as a physician and as a
chandler. Henry DeForest died soon after arrival, and Dr. MONTAGNE was
forced to take charge of the DeForest tobacco plantation in
mid-Manhattan. eventually, Dr. MONTAGNE assumed the proprietorship of
the property, living on it with his family and producing a profitable
crop of tobacco. The farm, called Vrendendahl, included much of the
upper half of what is now Central Park in New York City. He was driven
off the land by Indians and lived thereafter near the fort at New
Amsterdam. He was the official surgeon of New Amsterdam, First
Councillor (continuously from 1638-1656) for both Director Kieft and
Director Stuyvesant, military commander of the troops on Manhattan
Island 1640-1656, and a member of several peace commissions with the
Indians.
Dr. MONTAGNE was appointed Vice-Director of the colony from 1656-1664,
with special responsibility for Fort Orange (Albany) and the Dutch
settlement at Beverwyck. This made Dr. MONTAGNE the chief
administrator for a large area, including all the Dutch and Huguenot
settlements in the Hudson valley.
With the English take-over of the colony in 1664, Dr. MONTAGNE dropped
out of official records. As an official of the Dutch West Indies
Company, he had to resign as Vice-Director. He did sign a loyalty oath
to the new British government and it is believed that he accompanied
Peter Stuyvesant back to Holland in 1665 to defend the surrender of
the colony. It is assumed that he returned to New York in 1668 like
Peter Stuyvesant. It also assumed that he died in Claverack, NY in
1670 because his son, Jean dropped the use of Junior that year.
|
1595 - 1670 (75 years)
