Dirck Storm
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Dirck Storm is an early colonial American famous for composing the history of Dutch community at Sleepy Hollow and beginning the community's records. His book "Het Notite Boeck der Christelyckes kercke op de Manner of Philips Burgh" is one of the nation's most valuable historical documents. Sometimes referred to as "Het Notite Boeck," the five-part book us a rare surviving record of Dutch Colonial American village life in English-occupied New York province.
Dirck Storm was born in Utrech, Holland in 1630. His family resided in Leyden, Holland, where they dealt in fine cloth. Historical records carry the Storm line back to Dederick Storm, who lived in Wyck, near Delft, in 1390. The family may have been of Viking stock since so many settled in the Province of North Brabant when the Vikings overran the Low Countries before the year 1000.
At the age of 18 Dirck went to den Bosch to clerk in his uncle's commercial office. On May 13, 1656 he married in the church of St. Gertrude's Hertobenbosch, Maria van Montfoord, daughter of Pieter van Montfoord, an old family of Delph and Leyden. By 1660, Dirck was named Town Clerk of Osch in the Mayorate of Hertogenbosch. Public service was part of the Storm family history, as Dirck's father was the City Clerk of Leyden, Netherlands, and his grandfather was a lawyer in the Court of Justice of Holland, Zealand and West Friesland. When Protestant Holland was hit with a depression after the overthrow of Cromwell in England, Dirck set sail for the new world.
In 1662 he emigrated, with his wife Maria and three children, ages six, four and one from the Mayory of Bosch to New Amsterdam onboard the "De Vos," which translates to "The Fox." During the voyage, Maria Storm gave birth to a daughter. The ship landed at the foot of Wall Street in mid-November 1662, in what is now Manhattan.
Apparently, Dirck was a very busy man, and a bit of an entrepreneur. He held real estate, owned a tavern on Beaver Street, and dabbled in inn-keeping. Later he was appointed Town Clerk in several communities in Breuckelen; New Lots, Bedford, and Flatbush. Many a land title and hundreds of genealogies are based on the clear, fine script of his records. Being a learned man, he also served as a teacher in some of these communities. He farmed land in Bedford and New Lots, and served as precantor to two of the Dutch churches in Breuckelen. In 1670, he was appointed Secretary of the Colony.
In 1691 he was sent to Tappan by the British, who were setting up new governments at the time. There, he became the first Secretary and Clerk of the Sessions for Orange County, New York. He was also the Voorleser of the Tappan Church. In 1693, he joined his old friend Frederick Philipse, and acted as tax collector for the vast manor held by Philipse. Dirck and his wife were recorded as member of the Old Dutch Church at Sleepy Hollow as early as 1697, soon after the church was constructed.
On November 3, 1715, the church members selected Dirck Storm to begin recording the history of the church retroactively from 1697. Historic records show that they decided that Dirck was "the best informed and most competent member be chosen to make up a statement of events that led to the founding of the church." Abraham de Revier, Sr. was the first elder of the church and evidently kept a private memorandum book that is now lost to history, however, it was heavily drawn upon by Dirck Storm in composing "Het Notite Boeck."
Dirck was of the yeoman class and under Dutch law, was allowed to buy his farmland in Sleepy Hollow outright from the lord of the Manor, his friend, Frederick Philipse. His sons all were farmers but many of later generations were captains of their own boats on the Hudson River. One such descendant, Capt. Jacob Storm, lived in the Philipse Manor house which is now a museum. The old mill house was once his office.
In May or June of 1716 Dirck died at Tarrytown, New York. He is buried at theOld Dutch Church Burying Groundin Sleepy Hollow, New York.
Dirck Storm is the ancestor of many a notable American, including the famous clergyman David Storm, deacon and elder of the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow. Many Americans with the last name "Storm" or "Storms" can trace their ancestry to Dirck Storm.
[edit] Related Links:
Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow
[edit] References:
Research notes prepared by Morilla Garrison in 1917
The Storm Family, by Maureen McKernan as printed in The Daily Argus, Mount Vernon, N.Y., Tuesday, September 11, 1951
Old Dirck's Book, by R.W. Storm, originally published in 1949, reprinted in 1987 by Selby Publishing.
Some of the above information comes from a Storm Family genealogist who examined Holland Records. Reference, Hartford lines, Nov. 9, 1940, answered by K.K.A. to query no. 5536 dated Nov. 25, 1939. M.C.T.
