Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Hudde, Andreas

HUDDE, Andreas, Dutch commander, b. in Holland about 1600; d. in Delaware, 4 Nov., 1663. He came to New Netherlands (now New York) in 1629, and from the time of his arrival until a few days before his death was almost constantly in the employment of the Dutch West India company. He was the first commissary of wares to the company. In 1635 he was sent, by Gov. Wouter van Twiller, on a mission to Fort Hope, now Springfield, Mass., to make protest, in behalf of the Dutch, to William Pyncheon, because of his action in establishing a trading-house and plantation at this point. In 1642 he was made surveyor at Manhattan, and in 1645 was appointed by Gov. Kieft to take the place of Jan Jansen van Ilpendam as commissary, or deputy governor, of the Dutch colony on the South (Delaware) river, and took up his residence at the noted Fort Nassau, built by Capt. Cornelius Jacobus Mey in 1623. In 1646 he purchased lands from the Indians, a portion of which are covered by the present site of Philadelphia. Here he built a block-house, and set up a pole, on which he placed the arms of the United Netherlands. This action brought on a spirited controversy with the Swedes, which lasted through Hudde's administration. By order of their governor, Printz, the Swedes destroyed the house and tore down the arms. In 1651 Capt. Hudde, under orders from Gov. Stuyvesant, destroyed Fort Nassau, and built Fort Casimar, at a point below the Swedish Fort Christina. His command of the Dutch on the Delaware continued until 1655, when a naval expedition under Stuyvesant, ascended the river, captured Fort Christina, and overthrew the government of the Swedes. The authority of the Dutch being now fully established, John Paul Jacquet was created vice-director and placed in command of the colony. Hudde was appointed a member of his council, made surveyor of the colony and clerk of the parish, and in 1657 was placed in command of the forts Altona (Christina) and New Gottenburg. Finally, being in advanced years, and having saved but little for himself, he determined to withdraw from public life, and removed to Maryland and entered the brewing business. After many earnest entreaties to be released from his office, he was, in October, 1663, dismissed, and on 1 Nov. set out with his family for Maryland, was taken ill on the way, and died at Appoquining, Del., on the 4th, "of an ardent fever," but a few months before the Dutch power itself on the river ceased to exist. "Thus ended the life," says Hazzard, "of this long-tried and faithful servant of the Dutch . . . Throughout the whole course of the Dutch he has been one of the most prominent and useful men." He was, undoubtedly, a man of good education, as is abundantly shown by his voluminous report to Stuyvesant and numerous other documents among the archives at Albany, N. Y.