Wilhelm Willink (sometimes Willem, Wilheim or Wilhem) (1750 – 1841) was a wealthy Amsterdam merchant, and one of the investors in the
Holland Land Company
The Holland Land Company was an unincorporated syndicate of thirteen Dutch investors from Amsterdam who in 1792 and 1793 purchased the western two-thirds of the Phelps and Gorham Purchase, an area that afterward was known as the Holland Purchase ...
,
[Evans, Paul D (1924). ''The Holland Land Company.'' Buffalo Historical Society Publications.][''Historical sketch of the Village of Gowanda, N.Y. in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of its incorporation, August 8, 1898''. Buffalo, NY: The Matthews-Northrup Company, Leonard, I.R., Reprinted 1998, Salem, MA: Higginson Book Company.] and the
Louisiana Purchase
The Louisiana Purchase (french: Vente de la Louisiane, translation=Sale of Louisiana) was the acquisition of the territory of Louisiana by the United States from the French First Republic in 1803. In return for fifteen million dollars, or app ...
.
Biography
The Willink family came from
Winterswijk
Winterswijk (; also known as ''Winterswiek'' or ''Wenters'') is a municipality and a town in the eastern Netherlands. It has a population of and is situated in the Achterhoek, which lies in the easternmost part of the province of Gelderland in th ...
and belonged to the
Mennonite
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
congregation.
[https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Willink_family] In 1775 when Willem married Hester Bierens he lived at Keizersgracht (near 268). He usually cooperated with his brother Jan (1778-1827). In 1791 they moved into a mansion at Herengracht close to
Leidsegracht
The Leidsegracht () is a canal in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
It is a cross-canal in Amsterdam-Center that connects Herengracht, Keizersgracht, Prinsengracht and Lijnbaansgracht and flows into the Singelgracht at Marnixstraat.
History
The Leids ...
.
At the end of the 18th century it became fashionable for Dutch businessmen and bankers to invest in the young United States, and many were talked into investing in land there after
John Adams
John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...
signed the trade treaty with the Netherlands in 1782. The group of investors in the Holland Land Company
purchased American assets from
Robert Morris that were bundled as ''negotiaties'' (a sort of market fund) and marketed in the Netherlands. These assets included the large tract of land in western
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
plus tracts in central New York, western and northern
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. The investments were reorganized as the Holland Land Company in 1795 with shares issued to: the Willinks (28.6%),
Pieter Stadnitski
Pieter Stadnitski (2 April 1735 – 29 November 1795) was a Dutch broker and financier who invested in the United States, including federal and state debt, canal companies, and land speculation, especially the Holland Land Company. He was the f ...
(23.2%), Jan and
Nicolaas van Staphorst
Nicolaas van Staphorst (January 1742 – 14 June 1801) was a Dutch banker and financier. Nicolaas and Jacob van Staphorst were involved from 1782-1794 in a total of eleven loans to the United States with a value of 29 million guilders. Van Staphor ...
& Nicolaas Hubbard (21.4%), Pieter and Christiaan van Eeghen & Company (14.3%), Isaäk ten Cate & Hendrick Vollenhoven (8.9%), and
Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck
Rutger Jan Schimmelpenninck (31 October 1761 – 15 February 1825), Lord of Nyenhuis, Peckedam and Gellicum, was a Dutch jurist, ambassador and politician who served as Grand Pensionary of the Batavian Republic from 1805 to 1806.
Education
Schi ...
, politician and legal adviser (3.8%).
Robert Morris was involved in land dealings with the Holland Land Company.
Legacy
Willink's name was given to the
Town of Willink when it was created from
Batavia, New York
Batavia is a city in and the county seat of Genesee County, New York, United States. It is near the center of the county, surrounded by the Town of Batavia, which is a separate municipality. Batavia's population as of the 2020 census was 15,6 ...
in 1804. It was included in
Niagara County
Niagara County is in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 212,666. The county seat is Lockport. The county name is from the Iroquois word ''Onguiaahra''; meaning ''the strait'' or ''thunder of waters''.
Niag ...
when the latter was formed in 1808 from
Genesee County.
The Town of Willink, along with the
Town of Clarence
Clarence is a town located in the northeastern part of Erie County, New York, United States, northeast of Buffalo. The population was 32,950 according to the 2020 census estimate. This represents an increase of 7.4% from the 2010 census figure. ...
, was taken to form
Erie County in 1821. The Town of Willink was then dispersed by the formation of newer towns in Erie County (such as
Concord
Concord may refer to:
Meaning "agreement"
* Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony)
* Harmony, in music
* Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...
,
Eden, and
Aurora
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
). Some of the investor names appear on the
Big Tree Treaty of 1804, by which the
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
sold off their rights to most of the land in the
Holland Purchase
The Phelps and Gorham Purchase was the purchase in 1788 of of land in what is now western New York State from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for $1,000,000 ( £300,000), to be paid in three annual installments, and the pre-emptive right to t ...
.
The names of the investors were formerly given to locations in western New York, but they have since been replaced.
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
itself was briefly called New Amsterdam. Stadnitski Avenue in Buffalo is now Church Street. Schimmelpenninck Avenue is now Niagara Street. Buffalo streets were also named after Willink and Van Staphorst. Their names appear as the original owners on most deeds for land in this part of New York.
Their ''Agent General'' (
COO
COO or coo may refer to:
Business
* Certificate of origin, used in international trade
* Chief operating officer or chief operations officer, high-ranking corporate official
* Concept of operations, used in Systems Engineering Management Process
...
) was
Theophilus Cazenove
Theophilus Cazenove, or Theophile Cazenove (13 October 1740 – 6 March 1811), was a Dutch financier and one of the agents of the Holland Land Company.
Life and career
Theophilus Cazenove was baptized in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam as the son o ...
, later succeeded by
Paul Busti
Paul Busti, or ''Paulus Busti'' or ''Paolo Busti'' (baptised 17 October 1749 – 23 July 1824), was the chief operating officer of the Holland Land Company from 1797 until his death. He was one of the first prominent real estate operators in the ...
and then
John Jacob Vanderkemp. Resident agents included
Gerrit Boon
Gerrit Boon (May 15, 1768 in Delft – December 2, 1821 in Gouda) was the son of a Lutheran minister Johan Michiel Boon. His father studied in Helmstedt and moved in 1752 from Amersfoort to Delft and in 1774 to Rotterdam. Gerrit Boon becam ...
,
Adam Gerard Mappa
Adam Gerard Mappa (Tournai,Kernkamp, P.M. (2005) "Tussen Reformatie en Revolutie. De familie Paspoort te Delft". In: "De Nederlandsche Leeuw" jg. 122 nr. 1. 25 November 1754 – Barneveld, New York, 15 April 1828) was a Dutch type-founder, Pat ...
,
Joseph Ellicott
Joseph Ellicott (November 1, 1760 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania – August 19, 1826 in New York City) was an American surveyor, city planner, land office agent, lawyer and politician of the Quaker faith.
Life
Ellicott was born in Bucks Cou ...
, Benjamin Ellicott, William Peacock, and many others.
In 1801 Willem and Jan Willink, merchants in Amsterdam, were enabled to purchase and hold real property in the town of
Havre de Grace in
Harford County
Harford County is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the population was 260,924. Its county seat is Bel Air. Harford County is included in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is al ...
. Ultimately, the syndicate earned only modest profit from the investment, but their funds greatly assisted the development of the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
Wilhelm Willink had a summer estate on the
Spaarne
The Spaarne is a river in North Holland, Netherlands. This partially canalized river connects the Ringvaart to a side branch of the North Sea Canal. It runs through Haarlem, Heemstede, and Spaarndam.
The historic canals of Haarlem's moats are conn ...
River, neighboring the estate
villa Welgelegen
Villa Welgelegen is a historical building in Haarlem, the Netherlands, which currently houses the offices of the provincial executives of North Holland. Located at the north end of a public park in the city, it is an example of neoclassical arch ...
of his associate
Henry Hope
Henry Hope (1735–1811) was an Amsterdam merchant banker born in Braintree, Massachusetts. He emigrated to the Netherlands to join the family business Hope & Co. at a young age. From 1779, Henry became the manager of Hope & Co. and he participa ...
.
References
External links
* http://www.neha.nl/specialcollections/0256dela.php
* http://gemeentearchief.amsterdam.nl/schatkamer/300_schatten/geld/louisiana_purchase/index.nl.html
Birth registration of Willem WillinkLam en Toren Mennonite congregation (Amsterdam)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Willink, Wilhelm
1750 births
1841 deaths
Businesspeople from Amsterdam
History of Buffalo, New York
People from Havre de Grace, Maryland