Jonas Jonasson Bronck (1600-1643) was a United Provinces settler who purchased a tract of land that is now known as "the Bronx" borough of New York City.
Biography[]
Jonas Jonasson Bronck was born in Torshavn, Faroe Islands, Denmark to a family of Protestant Danes; his Mennonite family fled the Netherlands for Denmark due to religious persecution. During the late 1630s, he was one of the first Dutch settlers to arrive in the colony of New Netherland, now known as New York, and he purchased a tract of land that became known as "The Bronx". Bronck would take part in the fight against the Native Americans during the late 1630s, and he was present at the signing of the 1642 peace treaty with the natives. However, war between the Mohawk and Mahican tribes and the Dutch resumed in 1643 with attacks on Indian refugee camps at Weckquaesgeek and Tappan, and Bronck was killed during the skirmishes.