Date
Meaning & History
Dutch surname of unknown meaning. Petrus (Peter) Stuyvesant (1592–1672) was director general of New Netherland in 1647–64. He was in the service of the Dutch West India Company from 1635 or earlier, and served as governor of Curaçao in 1643–47. He was famous for his silver leg, the original having been amputated after he was shot in the leg during a siege in 1644. In 1664 he was compelled to surrender New Netherland to the British, and thereafter he lived quietly until his death on his farm (Dutch bouwerij) on the East River in what is now the Bowery in New York City.