Jonas Jonson Bronck (1600?–1643), also known as Jonas Jonasson Bronk or Jonas Joanssen Bronck, was a Swedish immigrant, to New Netherland (nowadays North America) after whom the Bronx River and the borough of The Bronx of New York City is named.
Bronck was born in the small village of Komstad, Norra Ljunga socken, outside Sävsjö in the Swedish province of Småland, some time around the year 1600. Rather than take over his family's farm, he became a sailor, and it is known that he traveled to Japan and India. He married his Dutch wife, Teuntje Joriaens, on July 6, 1638, in the Nieuwe Kerk ('New Church'), Amsterdam. He and his wife subsequently decided to emigrate to North America.
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Bronck's Land
In June, 1639, Bronck navigated up the East River in a ship, De Brant Van Troyen (The Fire of Troy), and made home on a piece of land he had acquired across the Harlem River from the village of Harlem. His farm (known as Bronck's Land, and then just Broncksland), covered roughly the area south of today's 150th Street in the Bronx.
Bronck died in 1643 and his land was sold off. The area was known as "Broncksland" only through the end of the 1600s - so the modern name of the NYC borough does not come directly from that farmland. However, the river which runs North-to-South through the mainland area, and which his farm butted against, kept the name Bronck's River, eventually being abbreviated - or misspelled - to Bronx River. This name stuck, and it was this river (which splits the modern borough in two) after which The Bronx was named.
Pieter Bronck
Pieter Bronck - also known as Pieter Jonasson Bronck - Given the relative closeness in age and same father's name indicated by the patrinym (Jonas was born about 1600, Pieter, born in 1616) it has been claimed that Pieter was a brother or cousin to Jonas Bronck, and not a son as had been surmised. Pieter Bronck House is a registered historic place in Coxsackie, New York. The American poet William Bronk reported that he was a descendent of Pieter Bronck.[1]. At the same time, the middle name, the patronymic "Jonasson" indicates he was indeed the son of Jonas Bronck. At that time, custom in Sweden was that the father's first name defined the -son name of his children. In other words, Jonas Jonsson Bronck was the son of Jon Bronck; Pieter Jonasson Bronck was the son of Jonas Bronck. Consequently, if Pieter had a son he would be "Pieterson Bronck".
Trivia
- There is a street in Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands that is named "Jónas Broncksgøta."
- There is a public school named after him.
External links
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