Johannes Megapolensis (1603–1670) was a dominie (pastor) of the Dutch Reformed Church in the Dutch colony of New Netherland (present-day New York state in the United States), beginning in 1642. Serving for several years at Fort Orange (present-day Albany, New York) on the upper Hudson River, he is credited with being the first Protestant missionary to the Indians in North America. He later served as a minister in Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island, staying through the takeover by the English in 1664.
The minister is widely known as the author of A Short Account of the Mohawk Indians, their Country, Language, Figure, Costume, Religion, and Government, first published from his letters by friends in 1644 in North Holland, and being translated into English in 1792 and printed in Philadelphia. He is also known for having assisted the French missionary, Father Isaac Jogues escape from the Mohawk Indians in 1643. The priest had been serving as a missionary to the Hurons and had been taken captive by the Mohawk. After his tenure in Rensselaerwyck, Megapolensis went to New Amsterdam intending to return to Holland. Governor Peter Stuyvesant prevailed upon him to remain and undertake the duties of a pastor. In 1664, he was instrumental in facilitating a smooth transition to British rule.
Early life Megapolensis was born in Koendyck (Koedijk,N.Y. Education Department, Annual Report, 1907, p. 629 Netherlands in 1603. His father, also named Johannes, was a Protestant dominie or minister in Egmont-aan-Zee. The father Latinized the family name from the original van Mecelenburg. (Another source suggests the original name was von Grootstede.)Snow & Starna, 1996, p. 38 However, from his translations of the Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, A.J.F. van Laer suggests that Megapolensis was not the son, but the nephew of Johannes, Sr. and married the daughter of the latter's wife by her first marriage. Megapolensis studied Catholicism at Cologne but became disenchanted with its particular precepts and customs. At the objection of his family he became a Protestant clergyman at an early age. For this he was disinherited.Corwin, 1926, p. 362
In 1630 the younger Megapolensis married Mathilde Willems in the Netherlands.N.Y. Education Department, Annual Report, 1907, p. 157 note The couple had at least four children born there in the next twelve years. Their son Johannes became a surgeon working at Fort Orange.Fort Orange Records, 1654-1679, 2009, p. 34 In 1654, their daughter Hillegond married Cornelis van Ruyven, secretary to the colonial Council.
In 1629 Megapolensis entered the ministry and commenced conducting services at Wieringerwaard, and four years later at Sehoorel and Berge in the Classis of Alkmaar. In November, 1641, Domine Johannes Backerus introduced him to the Classis of Amsterdam with the idea that he was willing to pursue a pioneering effort as a minister in New Netherland at the patroon of Killiaen Van Rensselaer. Here he was introduced to Van Rensselaer on March 6, 1642, and signed a contract that committed him to the task for six years, at a salary of a thousand guilders for the first two years, with an increase thereafter. The contract also stipulated that he be provided with a free house with provisions of food. Megapolensis his wife and four children sailed for the New World on June 6, 1642. Upon their arrival at New Amsterdam they remained on Manhattan Island for a brief period where he was introduced to Reverend Everardus Bogardus, who was directed to extend a friendly welcome. By the following August they had settled in to their new home near Fort Orange.Corwin, 1926, pp. 362-363
Rensselaerwyck In 1642 Megapolensis was hired by Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the Patroon of Rensselaerwyck, a vast estate encompassing much of what is now Albany and Rensselaer counties, to serve as minister to his territory in the Calvinist Dutch Reformed Church. Megapolensis and his family went to New Netherland, where he served in Rensselaerswyck and later Fort Orange until 1649.Wilson & Fiske (eds.), 1888, vol. IV, pp. 286-287 With its strategic location Fort Orange and its nearby settlements soon attracted many traders and Indians alike. However, because of the many different peoples and interests it was also the center of many conflicts.Meuwese, 2011, p. 257
At first the family lived in what is now Greenbush, New York, before moving to Fort Orange (now the city of Albany).van der Hout, 2018, p. 44 Van Rensselaer also needed someone he could trust to be his principal adviser and to keep him informed of the social and business activity in the manor.Rink,1994, p. 248 Megapolensis was given authority that extended further than matters of church and religion, and was appointed to act as the arbiter of all disputes arising between the chief official of the colony, Arent van Curler, and his subordinate, Adriaen van der Donck, and to see that the general patroon was dealt with in a fair and ethical manner. His decision was to stand uncontested until a review on matters conducted by van Rensselaer himself occurred.Zwierlein, 1910, p. 76 The contract was for six years. A disagreement arose between van Rensselaer and the Directors of the Dutch West India Company, the Directors maintaining that they alone had the authority to commission clergy for the colony. As the ship was about to sail, the parties resolved their differences, neither side conceding their prerogatives. When it became known that Van Rensselaer planned to erect a church upriver at Rensselaerswyck, Governor Kieft hastened his plans to rebuild the church in Fort Amsterdam, where Megapolensis would later serve.Frijhoff, 2007, p. 460Van Rensselaer, 1909, v. 1, p. 202, v. 1, p. 202
For five years Megapolensis held services in the patroon's mill house on the east side of the Hudson River. In 1647 he was afforded the use of an old warehouse on the west side of the river, which had been donated by the West India Company, which put his services closer to the general population of Rensselaerswyck Manor and Fort Orange. The warehouse was converted to include a pulpit, nine pews and special benches for the Elders and Deacons. For nearly seven years Megapolensis and his successor Gideon Schaats held Sunday services in the warehouse, but with the spring floods coming from the river every year, the foundation began to give way and the warehouse eventually had to be abandoned.
During this period, Megapolensis served as missionary to the Mohawk people, and is believed to be the first Protestant missionary to Native Americans in North America. The Mohawk territory was west of Fort Orange in the Mohawk River valley but extending up to the St. Lawrence River and down to the Delaware River, with other territories used for hunting. During the summer trading season, Mohawks frequently spent the night in Dutch houses, including the Dominie's.Meuwese, 2011, p. 262
He became fluent in the Mohawk language and recorded many details about the Mohawk people and their culture. He described their language as being very difficult to learn. In his endeavor to learn the language and compile a vocabulary he frequently asked the Mohawk how they referred to various things and ideas.van der Sijs, 2009, p. 287 From his letters home, his friends in the Netherlands compiled A Short Account of the Mohawk Indians, their Country, Language, Figure, Costume, Religion, and Government, publishing it in North Holland in 1644. This was apparently done without his knowledge or permission. The account was reprinted by Joost Hartgers in 1651 in the Netherlands. The first English translation by Ebenezer Hazard was printed by him in 1792 in Philadelphia, with a revised translation by Brodhead in 1857. Another version translated by A. Clinton Crowell of Brown University was printed in 1909 by Jameson in the United States.
In his letters, Megapolensis had compared the land of Rensselaerwyck to that of Germany and described the rich abundance of game, birds and other wildlife. Megapolensis described Mohawk dress, marriage customs and culture. He characterized the Mohawk ritual torture of captives as cruel, but noted that they seldom killed people in their culture, despite their lack of laws and authorities as he understood them. He contrasted that with the much higher rate of murders in his home country of the Netherlands.Snow, Starna & Ghering, 1996, p. 46
Megapolensis is widely noted for assisting French Catholic missionary Isaac Jogues escape captivity, when he was being held and tortured by the Mohawk Indians. They were hostile to Jogues because of his association with the French, who had made attacks against Mohawk villages. In the autumn of 1642, Jogues was captured by the Mohawk and brought to their village of Ossernenon and subjected to prolonged torture. Hearing of this, Arent van Curler, commissary of Rensselaerwyck, visited the "first castle" of the Mohawks and attempted to ransom Jogues, but without success as the Mohawk were not inclined to release him at that time. About a year later, the Mohawk were persuaded to bring the priest with them when they came to Beverwijck to trade. Once there, Van Curler helped Jogues to escape. The dominie helped conceal the priest until a deal could be reached and the Frenchman put on a ship to take him downriver. Pastor Megapolensis befriended Jogues and accompanied him to New Amsterdam, where Jogues stayed with the pastor while waiting for a ship to take him to France.Denner, 2011 In a letter of September 28, 1658, to the Classis of Amsterdam, Megapolensis wrote of the gruesome ordeal that had befallen Jogues, and another French missionary, François-Joseph Bressani, at the hands of the Mohawk. He also describes other encounters involving relations between the French and the Mohawk.Jameson, 1909, pp. 403-405
New Amsterdam At the conclusion of his term of ministry at Fort Orange, Megapolensis planned to return to Holland, but was asked by Pieter Stuyvesant to become chief minister of the Dutch church in New Amsterdam. The dominie was initially reluctant and had to be persuaded with "friendly force".Jacobs, 2009, p. 147 By the time he decided to stay, his wife had already sailed and returned to New Amsterdam in 1650.Collections of the New York Historical Society, 1857, v. viii, p. 142 As dominie in New Amsterdam, Megapolensis was also responsible for mission stations in Bergen, New Jersey, the village of Haarlem, and occasionally in Brooklyn. In 1652, the Amsterdam classis sent Samuel Drisius, who had served in, but fled from London, to assist Megapolensis. In 1656 Megapolensis purchased land in the city from Abraham Isaacsen Verplanck.Deed, Verplanck to Megapolensis, 1656, p.71Zwierlein, 1910, p. 90 That same year Lutherans in New Netherland petitioned for permission for public worship. This was opposed both by the authorities in the colony as well as in Amsterdam as it was viewed as reducing the Reformed congregation. The Lutherans wrote the Lutheran consistory in Amsterdam to send a good, God-fearing preacher, "...since among the Reformed here there is one who formerly was a Jesuit and on that account is very politic and disputatious.".Jacobs, 2009, p. 164 By this they meant Dominie Megapolensis. They also charged that the baptismal liturgy used was too similar to "the Papal church".