The Bronx
The names of villages, towns and cities can tell so much
about their history.
In the UK, we are taught from an early age, to identify and
understand the origins and meanings of the names of our counties, towns,
villages and cities. Mostly, they come from Anglo Saxon, Roman, Norman or Viking
roots, so we know that the suffixes ‘ham’ means a village, ‘ford’ a shallow
river crossing, ‘wick’ a hamlet, ‘caster/chester’ a Roman camp, ‘ton’ a farmstead
or manor and so on.
While researching the names and origins of towns and
villages in the New World for my book, Manhattan Legacy, a novel set in 1640’s New Amsterdam, I became intrigued by the names that
settlers had given to their colonies, towns and landmarks.
The Bronx is a case
in point. Jonas Bronck was a Scandinavian-born immigrant who arrived in New
Netherland in 1639. Initially, he leased land north of New Amsterdam from the West India Company and bought further tracts of land from local tribes. He ended
up with 500 acres on which he grew tobacco, farmed cattle and forged good
trading relations with the Lenape natives.
Jonas Bronck called his homestead Emaus, a New Testament reference to a place called Emmaus, where Jesus appeared before two of his followers after his resurrection.
Bronck’s farm was bounded by a freshwater river that the Lenape called Aquehung
to the east and a small river running through the centre of Manhattan Island
that later became known as the Harlem River to the west.
The Aquehung became known locally as “Bronck’s river,” and
was eventually called the Bronx River.
The definite article in name, The Bronx, is possibly the possessive form of the Bronck family, as in ‘belonging to The Broncks,’, but it might also be
attributed to the style of referring to the rivers of the area.
So, a large area of a major city was named after a Swedish
farmer who died nearly four hundred years ago. If only he’d known….
More to follow on Brooklyn, Nut Island (Governor’s Island),
Pearl Street and much more.
Read my novel Manhattan Legacy available on Lulu.com
You can buy Manhattan Legacy in various ebook formats on Smashwords
