The Leisler Papers Project
The Jacob Leisler Papers Project contains over 4,000 document photocopies and other materials relating to New York merchant and rebel governor Jacob Leisler (1640–1691) and his family. The Jacob Leisler Papers Project contains over 4,000 document photocopies and other materials relating to New York merchant and rebel governor Jacob Leisler (1640–1691) and his family.
Left: Leisler writing in Dutch as a deacon on behalf of the New York Reformed consistory, March 23, 1683.
Right: Leisler’s determination in English in the dispute between Jan Vigne, the first European born in New Netherland, and his wife Niesie Heutes, October 8, 1686.
While the project’s collection concentrates on Leisler’s role in the Atlantic World from 1660-1691 (with special emphasis on his 1689–1691 administration of New York), the collection also contains the correspondence of Leisler’s paternal grandfather Dr. Jacob Leisler (1569–1618), chief councilor to the Counts of Oettingen and civil prosecutor for Prince Christian of Anhalt; his maternal Wissenbach line, chaplains to the House of Nassau; Leisler’s father, Frankfurt-am-Main French Reformed minister Jacob Victorian Leisler (1606–1653); Leisler’s brothers Johann Heinrich Leisler (1642–1694), Frantz Leisler (1644–1712), and Johann Adam Leisler (1651–1704); and Leisler’s sister Susan Leisler Siess (1648-1720?).
In addition, the project holds papers of Leisler’s sons-in-law Abraham Gouverneur, Robert Walter, Joachim Staats, Barent Rynders, Jacob Milborne, and Thomas Lewis, as well as materials pertaining to the related Bayard, Bogardus, Van Brugh, Van Cortlandt, Cuyler, Kierstede, Loockermans, Milborne, Provoost, Richards, Schaats, Schuyler, Vaughton, and Wendell families.