There is a great story that is usually told to visitors to the cultural environment of Komstad outside Sävsjö in Småland. It is a story about Jonas Jonasson Brunck from the little village of Komstad in the Parish of Norra Ljunga in Småland who sailed to America in the 17th century and gave his name to the borough of The Bronx in the metropolis of New York. Many visitors have been amazed and fascinated by the story – can it really be true?
Komstad
Småland
Sverige
Jonas Brunck
The Bronx
New York
America
The Smålander
The story starts ca 1600 when Marit Brunck from Bäckaby and Jon Nilsson in Komstad had a son who became known as Jonas Jonasson Brunck, Jonasson after his father and Brunck to show the connection to his mother’s family. Maybe there were so many people in the district called Jon or Jonas that the mother’s family name Brunck set him apart from others with the same name.
Out into the world Brunck probably left his family home in Komstad to make his way out into the world when he was young. It was a big step and you may wonder what drove him to take it. One contributory reason might have been troubled times in Småland – the Komstad inhabitants’ parish church in Norra Ljunga was burnt by the Danes in 1611. Maybe it was because of Brunck’s uncles who were shipbuilders in Flensburg that Brunck went to sea. Brunck served in the Danish merchant fleet and eventually became captain.
The husband
On 18 June 1638, Jonas Jonasson Brunck asked to have the banns published for his forthcoming marriage in Amsterdam to the Dutch girl Teuntie Joriaens.
The banns certificate shows that the future husband was a sea captain born in “Coonstay” in “Smolach”. Coonstay stands for Komstad and Smolach for Småland.
The odd spelling is explained by a Dutchman having written out the certificate and the names probably having been pronounced in a Småland dialect.
The wedding
The marriage took place in New Church in Amsterdam on 6 July 1638.
The emigrant
In the beginning of may 1639, Jonas Jonasson Brunck and his wife Teuntie emigrated to America. They travelled on a Dutch ship that set out from Hoorn, northeast of Amsterdam. The ship was called Brandt van Troijen and was owned by the Dutch East India Company but for this trip it had been hired by number of private individuals. According to a preserved document, Brunck paid as much as a quarter of the cost for the ship. This means that Brunck also bore the travelling costs for a large group of emigrants and their livestock.
New Netherland
On 16 June, the ship put into port in New Amsterdam, the capital of the Dutch colony New Netherlands in America.
The landowner
Shortly after his arrival in America, Brunck bought a piece of land, probably from the Indians. The land was 264 hectares and was situated immediately east of what is today the northern part of Manhattan in New York.
Tenants
On 21 July 1639, Jonas Brunck leased out land to two emigrants for whom he had paid the trip to America. According to the contract, they would grow corn and tobacco and break new ground every other year. They did not need to pay rent for the first three years. On 15 August the same year, a further lease contract was drawn up, this time between Jonas Brunck and two Dutch brothers. Brunck would for six years provide the tenants with land to cultivate, a good house, two horses and a cow. The rent consisted of certain quantities of cereal and butter and half of the livestock that would hopefully result during the period of the lease.
Emmaus
Jonas Brunck had a stone house with a tiled roof built for himself. He called the house Emmaus. The house was located on the western side of his land, near Manhattan. He also built houses for his employees as well as tobacco barns and other practical buildings.
The widow Teuntie
Jonas Brunck was an important man in the town of New Amsterdam. He was also a man of action: discussions between the Dutch and the Indians on 28 March 1642 in Jonas Brunck’s house Emmaus resulted in an important peace treaty. Jonas Brunck’s motto was Ne cede malis – Yield not to misfortune.
Brunck´s death
Sometime at the beginning of 1643, Jonas Brunck died after just under 4 years in the new land. The estate inventory on 6 May showed that Jonas Brunck was a wealthy man. The list included his library, weapons, clothes, house utensils, tools, livestock, buildings and grain stores.
Wife Teuntie inherits
Jonas Brunck’s wife Teuntie inherited the whole estate. Teuntie remarried in June 1643, which might be explained by there being a shortage of women in the area and it being safer for her to have a husband to protect her. Teuntie and her new husband Arent van Curler moved from Jonas Brunck’s estate to an area by the Hudson River. They sold Brunck’s land in 1651. Teuntie lived until 1676.
Brunck becomes Bronx
Jonas Brunck’s name lived on through the river that divided his lands, known as the Brunck’s River and pronounced Bronck’s River, The Bronx.
NEW YORK. In 1664, the English took over New Amsterdam and renamed it New York. At the end of the 19th century, New York introduced a system of boroughs and incorporated the lands that Jonas Brunck had once owned into the city area. Maps of the area included the name of the river, Brunck’s River, and that was how the borough of The Bronx got its name.
Gave his name
Brunck was one of the first, after the Indians, to see the potential of the land area that is now The Bronx. Brunck is mentioned in literature on the early history of the area as an important European settler. He is said to have written the following in a letter: “The invisible hand of the Almighty Father surely guided me to this beautiful country, a land covered with virgin forests and unlimited opportunities. It is a veritable paradise and needs but the industrious hand of man to make it the finest and most beautiful region in all the world.” Jonas Jonasson Brunck from Småland gave his name to his paradise, which today is the borough of The Bronx in New York. Isn’t this a great story?
Read more about Jonas Brunck:
www.upplevelseriket.se
www.komstadkvarn.se
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