<< From: ahurst@epix.net (Anne Hurst)
Resent-from: GEN-NYS-L@rootsweb.com
To: GEN-NYS-L@rootsweb.com
The Gosman family had a patroon grant at Danby,NY. What is a patroon
grant?
>>
Dear Anne,
A Patroon is the owner of a landed estate with rights to levy taxes and fees.
The original Patroons held large estates in the Dutch colony of New
Netherland, now known as New York State. From 1629 patroonships, with tax
exemptions, monopolies and fuedal rights, were granted by the Dutch West
India Company to sponsors of fifty or more settlers.
The Van Rensselaer Patroon excepted, the system did not encourage
colonization, but vestiges remained until the anti-rent war of 1839 through
1846, in which
tenant farmers, claiming their land, refused to pay back rents to hereditary
landowners. In 1847, the state granted the farmers the land in dispute.
I trust this information has been helpful.
Best wishes,
GripMason