No royal blood coursed though his veins; nonetheless, he led a notable life. Arent Issacszen van Hoeck was the progenitor of the Van Hook family in the United States. Born in Hooksiel, Germany, he immigrated to Amsterdam in the 1640s where he became a Dutch citizen. In 1655, at the age of thirty-three, he traveled with his second wife, Geertje, to New Amsterdam (New York City) where fewer than 1000 people lived at the time.

Arent was a cordwainer, which was a shoemaker who produced footwear of fine, soft leather. He was not a wealthy man and from the records of court documents, he often seemed to be in financial difficulty. Perhaps it was his five wives and ten children that strained his prosperity. Six of his children lived into adulthood including Judge Lawrence (Laurens) van Hoeck who was my 7^th great-grandfather. He appeared to have been a staunch member of the Dutch Reformed (Calvinist) Church with three of his marriages taking place there as well as several baptisms of his children. Arent died around 1697 when he was seventy-four, a ripe age for the times.

I am fascinated by stores of people who came to our shores in the 1600s. It had to take much strength of spirit and faith to make the eight-week trip from Europe to a barely-civilized world where Indian attacks were prevalent. There is no indication as to what inspired Arent to immigrate, but no doubt there were expectations of a better life in this new land. We will never know if his dreams were fulfilled, but we do know that a long, full life was lived by  this “common” man.

For anyone interested in the van Hoeck family, there are several references at Ancestry.com . The photo is courtesy of http://www.nuevaamsterdam.com/eng/?pg=new_amsterdam. No copyright violation intended.