SOURCE: Ulster County, NY Genealogical Society, Ulster Genie Vol 3. No. 2, Sep. 1978;
St Nicholas Society Vol. 1, 1905, p. 213.
BIOGRAPHY: Barent Jacobse Cool was among the very early
Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam, although the precise
date of his coming to America is not known. In 1633 he
was already a person of some consideration in the
colony, and on the 8th day of June of that year he,
with Commissary Jacob Van Curler and five others,
signed a treaty with the Sachem Tatoepam, Chief of the
Sickemanes Indians,owners of the river of New
Netherland, called "Connetticuck," by which, in
consideration of their receiving twenty-seven ells of
cloth, six axes, six kettles, eighteen knives, and
various other articles, the aforesaid Indians sold a
tract of land called "Sicajook," being the flat
extending about one league along the river and
one-third of a league in width to the high land, on
condition that all tribes might freely and in safety
resort to the purchased land for trade purposes. The
treaty also provided that the Sachem Altabacuhote was
to dwell on the purchased land with the assent of Chief
Margaratin of the Sloops Bay Indians.
About 1637 Jacobse Cool married Marietje de Grauw,
daughter of Leendert de Grauw, a member of one of the
Walloon families who were the first settlers of New
Amsterdam. The baptism of their nine children all
appear on the records of the Reformed Dutch Church of
new Amsterdam, except that of his eldest son, Jacob
Barentse Cool, who was born in 1638. Barent Jacobse
Cool was enrolled as a "Burgher" of New Amsterdam on
the 14th of April, 1657, and took the usual oath of
obedience to the city authorities and of fidelity to
the States-General of the United Netherlands, to the
Dutch West India Company and to its Director-General.
In October, 1664, after the surrender of New Amsterdam
to the English, he took the oath of allegiance to the
King of England. He was living on the 21st October,
1671, when he acted as sponsor at the baptism of his
grandson, Johannes Willems Van Vreedenberg. The exact
date of his death and that of his wife is not known,
but the latter was still living in 1668.