Hendrick Janszen Snyder

He died September 27, 1647, in the sea near Swansea, Wales.

A Slanderer's Fate

Hendrick Janszen Snyder was among the earliest settlers on Manhattan's East River shore, occupying a lot near what is now Pearl Street and Maiden Lane by 1639 and later building a house near Hanover Square. Hendrick had a running feud with Director-General Willem Kieft: prosecuted for slander against Kieft in 1638, he claimed to have spoken the offending words in his sleep, and in 1642, drunk at a neighbor's gathering, he cursed Kieft again, earning a month in irons and a sentence of banishment that he twice managed to evade before finally being fined 500 guilders in 1644. In the summer of 1647, Hendrick prepared to sail back to the Netherlands alongside the now-recalled Kieft, likely intending to testify against him — but the ship, the Princess Amelia, sank near Swansea, Wales, on September 27, 1647, and Hendrick was presumed to have drowned along with Kieft and most others aboard.