Dirck Volckertszen married Christina Vigne. Dirck and Christina had 8 children. The naming at that time was patronymic (using the father's first name as the surname) in nature. This was common until the British took control over New Netherlands and asserted the requirement of a common surname passed from generation to generation.

Arrival Date: 1632 Place: New York, New York

Residence: Bushwick, Long Island

Dutch settlers acquired the present-day site of Bushwick Inlet Park from the Lenape in 1638. Seven years later, a married couple, Dirck Volkertsen de Noorman and Christina Vigne, started the area's first farm along the creek. The Noorman farm was believed to have been located at the present-day intersection of Franklin and Calyer Streets, two blocks north of Bushwick Inlet. At the time, Bushwick Inlet was unofficially referred to as "Noorman's Kil" during its early years; that name is retained by a bar in Williamsburg. Later, the creek was renamed after the nearby town of Bushwick located to the east of Williamsburg. The town, in turn, was named for the Dutch Boswijck, which translated to "little town in the woods" or "heavy woods"

Dirck Volckertszen (and various other spellings) was the early resident of Manhattan Island and a Pioneer Colonist of the Town of Bushwick, Long Island.The majority of material to parse out his descendants is taken from the book Early Settlers of Bushwick, Long Island, New York and their descendants. 

Dirck Volckertszen, son of Volckert, born in Norway about 1595; died at Bushwick, Long Island, NY between Apr 24, 1677, when he is recorded as conveying most of his Bushwick lands to his children, and 1683 when, if living, his name would have been listed in the Bushwick rate list of that year.
He married at New Amsterdam, abt 1630, Christina, born in France, abt 1610, daughter of Willem (Guillaume) Vigne and Adrienne Cuvelier who came to New Netherland from France in about 1614.
It is considered that Dirck was probably one of the earliest Europeans to settle in New Netherland, and that he had lived for a time at Hoorn, on the peninsula of North Holland, where he practiced as a builder and shipwright; and that he was a resident of Hoorn in 1621, when he, and others, petitioned the States General of the Netherlands for permission to send a ship to New Netherland with merchandise.
The date of Dirck’s marriage in New Amsterdam is approximately fixed by a deposition made by his wife’s mother, Apr 30, 1632, then the widow of Willem Vigne and about to marry Jan Jansen Damen a wealthy citizen of New Amsterdam, in which she describes her daughter Christina as a married person. Prior to this marriage, Dirck had lived in New Amsterdam on a road fronting the East River in a house that he sold in 1645. (New Amsterdam and Its People, p. 321 by John H. Innes).
Dirck and his wife were living in the Damen home in 1638 when Damen instituted proceedings against his (step) sons-in-law, Dirck Volckertszen and Abraham Isaac Ver Planck, “to have them ordered to quite his house and to leave him the master thereof”. Volckertszen countered with a suit for assault in which witnesses testified to an attempt made by Damen to throw Volckertszen’s wife out of doors. Thereafter, intervals of family friendliness, and of quarrels over property interests, appear to have existed from time to time until the estate was settled in 1660. Damen had died in 1651, and his wife in 1655. In the litigation over the estate, Dirck and his wife did not appear personally, but were represented by counsel, one Augustyn Heermans to whom, Oct 16, 1661, Dirck conveyed “his certain fourth-part of the inheritance which belongs to him from his wife’s parents, except the one-eight part of a pasture field in Maiden Lane in rear of Lysbet Tysen.”
During the thirty years or more that Dirck lived on Manhattan Island, he was actively engaged in acquiring parcels of land, in the construction of buildings, and, no doubt, in boat building. In 1658 he was recorded as “the City Carpenter” which may have been an official title. In 1645 he sold the house on the Strand that he had built and occupied before his marriage; He had under cultivation the Bouwerie #40 that he leased on half-shares from Gov. Kieft in 1639; In 1649, he obtained a grant of land from his brother-in-law, Cornelis Van Tienhoven the Colonial Secretary, on which he built at what is now 259 Pearl Street; in 1642, he conveyed to Govert Aertsen a house and lot on Manhattan island; 18 Sep 1651, he conveyed to Roelof Teunissen, a Swedish captain from Gotesborg, a house and lot in Smith’s Valley; and on the same day sold to Have Bruynsen a lot in Smith’s Valley fronting on the Strand, or shore of the East River. Other Manhattan properties remained in Dirck’s possession until shortly before his death, since in 1677 he is recorded in the list of “Owners of Houses and Lots in the City of New Amsterdam.”
At some date, prior to 6 Jul 1643, Dirck became possessed of several hundred acres of land forming a promontory at the west end of Long Island, bounded by the East River, Mespat’s Kill later Newtown Creek, and by Noorman’s Kill later Bushwick Creek. This date is established by the grant issued to George Baxter in which the land so granted is described as “being back on the Kill of Derick the Noorman” Dirck’s title to his Long Island property was confirmed by an official grant dated 3 Apr 1645. It is probably that Dirck’s title was first obtained under “The Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions” issued by the Governor and Council in 1640, and that the later confirmation of it in 164t5 was merely routine procedure.
Dirck’s large Long Island property was to become in 1661 a part of the now Town of Boswyck. It was adjacent to and north of the 23 houses forming Boswyck Village that were erected, 1660-1662 for occupation by its French, Dutch, Scandinavian and other pioneer settlers to whom public lands had been assigned by the Governor and Council of New Netherland.
If there had been buildings on the property before it came into Dirck’s possession, it appears highly probable they were destroyed, like nearly all other buildings on the west end of Long Island, in the Indian uprising of 1643. Dirck’s stone farmhouse, built about 1645, stood on the bank of the East River facing Noorman’s Kill where Dirck had good shelter for his boats. The house remained habitable for more than two hundred years.
To obtain the presence of resident neighbors, and better security against attack, Dirck soon began to dispose of some of his land to Manhattan friends. There was another Indian raid Nov 8, 1655. When the houses forming Bushwick Village were completed and surrounded by a stockade, 1660-1663, Dirck’s residence was one of the two or three that were outside the enclosure. That he soon acquired a home lot and residence in the nearby village, as an emergency refuge for his family, is shown by a record of March 7, 1665 in which a man sold a house lot situate to the north of Dirck Volckertz. This lot could be nowhere else than within the stockaded village.
Dirck obtained small burgher rights at New Amsterdam in April 1657, indicating that this must have been considered his legal residence at that time. A deed executed in 1661 describes him as a resident of Boswyck. This is confirmed by his being cited as one of the 23 Bushwick residents who petitioned the Governor in 1661. In 1663 he was listed as a member of the Bushwick militia; his name, as a freeholder, appears in the patent granted to the Town of Boswyck by Governor Nicholl, Oct 25, 1667, but is omitted in the Dongan Patent of 1687; he appears in the Bushwick rate list of 1675, but not in the rate list of 1683; neither was he listed as taking the oath of allegiance at Bushwick in 1687. On April 24, 1677, he recorded conveyances of his Bushwick properties to his sons and sons-in-law, after which he is no longer found of record. It appears he died before about 1680, and he would have been more than 80 years old.
By 1664, when his civic and military services were substantially completed, Dirck had long since passed his prime. If not the most influential man of the community, Dirck nevertheless, must be considered to have become its patriarch. He was by far its oldest constituent. On May 11, 1664 he was chosen by the justices of the town to be Supervisor of Fencings, an office which, no doubt, included the upkeep and proper location of property boundaries, and suitable for his advanced age. Two years later, Dirck evidently felt unable to continue manual labor. On Jan 1, 1666, he recorded a contract with his son, Volkert Dircks, whereby the son was to have the father’s land, stock, equipment, etc. for five years for one-half of the grown products, tobacco, rapeseed, etc.
Dirck is recorded Jan 12, 1666 as a contributor toward the support of the Bushwick minister; Mar 8, 1667, he entered into an agreement with David Jochemsen, his adjacent neighbor to the north, regarding a right-of-way to Jochemsen’s land “as long as Dirck should own his land”; July 28, 1668, being cited as having refused to report the amount of his land within the fence, for the reason that some of it was without profit to him, the Justice of the peace at New Amsterdam directed the constable and overseers at Boswyck to take into consideration Dirck’s excuse and, in case they find him guilty of “unmannerly conduct” to reprimand him, or to impose a fine, “as they shall deem in law and fairness to be befitting”.
On Apr 11, 1671, following the death of his daughter, Margaret (Grietje Dircks), Dirck and his two sons (Volkert and Jacob Dircks) were appointed guardians of his daughter’s children. The precaution of including his sons in the guardianship was probably due to Dirck’s advanced age; on the same day, Dirck recorded a document that transferred to Barent Gerrets (husband of the deceased daughter) “a pice of land and meadow in the town of Boswyck on the south side of the Kingsway along the Kill, i.e. the Woodpoint, on the north side of Hendrick Backers, at the meadow of said Barent Gerrets.” The property so conveyed, apparently, had theretofore been given by Dirck to his daughter Margaret, and was now being recorded to her widower in order that, under an agreement entered into by the Gerrets in the guardianship papers, the interests of Dirck’s orphaned grandchildren would be protected; Gerrets having therein pledged his land, meadow and four house lots in the town (Boswyck) as security until “the children come of age or desire to marry.” The several recorded conveyances of properties made by Dirck to his other sons-in-law in 1677 refer to such properties as gifts theretofore made to their respective wives.
In 1677, evidently in anticipation of approaching death, Dirck Volkerse executed and recorded the following documents conveying Bushwick properties to his sons-in-law, and also to his two sons:
1. Conveyance April 24, 1677, Direk Volckerse to Jan Lesquier, for the reason that Lesquier has married Rachel Dircks, Dirck’s daughter, of eleven margins of land at Boswyck to whom, Rachel, he had before this given the land, and in addition another ten morgens which he, Jan Lesquier, had bought from another of Dirck’s daughters, i.e., Magdalena, or from her husband Harmen Hendrickse, making in all 21 morgens of land and meadow, at Green Hook near Mespatt Kill, southwest of David Jochemse and northeast of Dirck Volkerse. On 17 Sep 1685 Jan Lesquer declares he cedes and transfers to Volkert Dircksen the above lands conveyed to him by Dirck Volckerse.
2. Conveyance 24 Apr 1677, Dirck Volckerse to his son Volkert Dircks, resident of Boswyck, ten morgens of land next to land of Charles Houseman, and also ten morgens which he had heretofore given to his daughter Ariantie Dircks, married to Charles Housman, with one morgen of meadow over the Wood Point which land and meadow, he Dirck Volckerts had purchased of Charles Housman.
3. Conveyance, 24 Apr 1677, Dirck Volckerse to his son Jacob Diercks, resident of Boswyck, ten morgens of land between land of Jan Lesquier and other land of Dirck Volckerse, and also one morgen of meadow.
4. Conveyance, 24 Apr 1677 Direk Volkerse to Pieter Schamp, his son-in-law of Boswyck, husband of Dirck’s daughter, Jannetie Direckse, ten morgens of land on north side of Volkert Dirckse, the said land and a pice of meadow having already been given to his daughter, Jannetie Dierckse. On 17 Apr 1688 the above land was conveyed by Pieter Schamp to David Jochemse. This second transfer of the property must have occurred long before being recorded. David Jochems died in 1682. How widow. Christina Cappoens, evidently transferred the property to her daughter Maria, wife of Pieter Praa, because on Aug 15, 1685 Pieter Praa conveyed to Volkert Dircksz “the land above conveyed by Schamp to Jochemse.”
From the sources of information available, it is estimated that Dirck Volckertszen’s original Bushwick holdings amounted to between 400 and 500 acres, and that approximately one-half was still in his possession shortly before his death. Of this residue his son Volkert came into possession of some 170 acres, which tract, upon his death about 1701, passed on to his three sons, who in turn, sold it in 1718 to Pieter Praa, and it remained in the family of Praa’s descendants until about 1850.
The preserved records concerning Dirck Volckertszen show him to have been a colorful person of robust character and impulsive temperament. He appeared quite often in the courts as both plaintiff and defendant. His altercations with his wife’s step-father, Jan Jansen Damen, may perhaps have been abetted by his brother-in-law, Cornelis Van Tienhoven, Secretary of the Colony, whose malign character came to be generally recognized and who after a stormy career, left the scene in a manner so enshrouded in mystery as to suggest self destruction.
While it is clear that numerous quarrels occurred in the family, it should not be overlooked that at the baptisms of Dirck Volckertszen’s four recorded children (Sep 1641-Dec 1653) all of his male in-laws, Damen, Van Tienhoven, Ver Planck and Vigne, served as sponsors on at least one occasion. That some animosity may have existed between Volckertszen and Vigne, and carried over to the next generation, is suggested by the fact that in 1655 when Dirck’s daughter Magdalena, a recent widow, applied to the Orphan’s Court for the appointment of guardians for her child, she repudiated the appointment of her uncle, Jan Givne, as being her adversary, and obtained in his stead the appointment of the other uncle, Abraham Ver Planck.
Dirck was taken into court 8 Jan 1656 by Jan de Perie under the charge that Dirck had assaulted him and “chased him from the Strands to the Clapboards”. The trial was a lengthy one, with several testifying witnesses who saw the struggle, and was not concluded until 29 Jun 1658 when Dirck, who had pleaded self-defense, agreed to pay a fine for wounding his antagonist. However, Dirck appears to have pressed his cause further by a court procedure against a servant of the plaintiff who had testified, and who, Dirck charged, had committed perjury.
The last record of Dirck’s court experience appears to make him the complainant against Jan Cornelis Zeeuw, a Bushwick neighbor, under an action in which Dirck alleged the defendant had given a beating to one of his, Dirck’s children, and in which Zeeuw alleged that Dirck’s wife had applied to him, Zeeuw, an insulting epithet. The dispute was referred to a board of Arbitrators which on 12 Feb 1663 found: “that the above named occurrences shall be null and void without being recalled again, at this nor at any time, upon the penalty for who ever first makes mention, or touches thereon, of paying 25 gulden to the poor of Boswyck.” It was signed by Dirck, Zeeuw, and the three arbitrators. This may have been the first effective suppression in New Netherland of a potential public scandal. Dirck’s apparent tendency to challenge constituted authority seems to have been inherited by three of his daughters.
Dirck’s Long Island property was a true peninsula, being almost surrounded by tide water. Its frontage on the Fast River was almost one mile in length, and it had nearly equal frontage on the two Kills. The river front was covered with wild cherry trees. The property was called Cherry Point by the people of Manhattan who delighted in its sight when the cherry trees were in bloom. Later, when the trees had disappeared and its grain fields came to be admired, the property was named Green Point; and as Greenpoint it continued to be known long after it became the populous 17th Ward of Brooklyn
Dirck, his sons and grandsons, cultivated their lands with the help of slave labor. Their surplus products were conveyed by barge and sold in the markets of New Amsterdam and New York. Following the permanent removed of two of the grandsons to New Jersey, and of the third grandson to another part of the town of Bushwick, their inherited lands were sold in 1718 to Capt. Peter Praa.
Dirck Volckertszen must be considered to have been one of three outstanding personalities in the history of the town of Boswyck; the others being Peter Jans De Witt, a contemporary, and Peter Praa of the following generation. If Dirck was less honored by selection for public service than were De Witt and Praa, it is to be remembered that his residence in Bushwick was limited to the last few years of his long life; whereas the others were residents from early manhood to old age.
Noormans Kill, the tidal stream that bore his name until changed to Bushwick Creek, and which his house continued to face for more than two hundred years, has been filled in and its meadows graded to develop McCaren Park; and industrial buildings cover the site of Dirck’s home plot.