On 15 April 1634 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Kiliaen van Rens- selaer, the patroon of Rensselaerwyck in New Netherland (on both banks of the Hudson near Fort Orange [now Albany], New York), signed a contract with Lubbert Gysbertsen van Blaricum, a thirty-three year old rademaecker [wheelwright and wagon maker] under which Lubbert was “to betake himself with his wife and three children at his own expense,” the patroon to pay expenses to the West India Company for passage on the ship de Eendracht [The Unity], then being made ready to sail to New Netherland. The contract provided for reimbursement of these expenses over a three year period, which was to begin upon Lubbert’s arrival in New Netherland. During this period he could not quit the agreed upon service, could not work for others except through the patroon’s agent, and could not enter into private trading in furs, etc. Lubbert’s place of residence was to be chosen “with the advice and consent of . . . the patroon’s agents where he can most conveniently perform his work, namely his trade as a wagon maker or wheelwright, for which he shall take all the necessary tools with him from here at his own expense”
“The Van Blarcom Family of New Jersey: Eight Generations” by George Olin Zabriskie, NYGB Record, V99, n3, July 1968.