he crest was the coronet of a count.

In 1629 the Dutch West India Company gave to the settlers a charter of
"privileges and exemptions," and sought to encourage immigration by
offering as much land as the immigrants could cultivate, with free
liberty of hunting and fowling under the direction of the Governor. They
also offered to any person who should "discover any shore, bay or other
fit place for erecting fisheries or the making of salt pounds" an
absolute property in the same. To further promote the settlement of New
Netherland the company proposed to grant lands in any part of the colony
outside the island of Manhattan, to the extent of sixteen miles along any
navigable stream, or four miles if on each shore, and indefinitely in the
interior, to any person who should agree to plant a colony of adults
within four years; or if he should bring more, his domain to be enlarged
in proportion. He was to be the absolute lord of the manor, with the
feudal right to hold manorial courts; and if cities should grow up on his
domain he was to have power to appoint the magistrates and other officers
of such municipalities, and have a deputy to confer with the Governor.
Settlers under these lords, who were known as patroons--a term synonymous
with the Scottish "laird" and the Swedish "patroon"--were to be exempt
for ten years from the payment of taxes and tribute for the support of
the colonial government, and for the same period every man, woman and
child was bound not to leave the service of the patroon without his
written consent. In order to prevent the colonists from building up local
manufactures to the detriment of Holland industries and of the Company's
trade, the settlers were forbidden to manufacture cloth of any kind under
pain of banishment, and the Company agreed to supply settlers with as
many African slaves "as they conveniently could," and to protect them
against enemies. Each settlement was required to support a minister of
the gospel and a schoolmaster. The system thus established contained the
seed of evil as well as of good. African slave labor, already introduced
in Virginia, where the climate was some excuse for its adoption, worked
injury to the New Netherland, where all the conditions were favorable to
white labor, and tended to create a servile class. The negroes, both bond
and free, were for many years a most obnoxious element in the colony,
viewed with apprehension and suspicion even down to the beginning