Sparkle in Microhistory. "Death of a Notary: Conquest and Change in Colonial New York", by Donna Merwick. [review]

Abstract

On one level, this is the story of Adriaen Janse van Ilpendam, a Dutch schoolmaster and notary based in the small settlement of Beverwijck, later known as Albany, who hanged himself on 12 March 1686, seventeen days after meeting with his last clients. On another level, this story of one man’s tragedy is used to prise open a window into the Netherlands’ seventeenth century North American colonies. Janse was caught between the colliding imperial worlds of the Netherlands and England. In Merwick’s words: ‘how it was that an imperial power’s design for territorial acquisition, military invasion and occupation, visions of continental hegemony, how these forces met with and made a casualty of so small a life as Janse’s.’