PIETRO CESARE ALBERTI
Italian American writers
consider Alberti as the first Italian immigrant to settle in New York. He was a
Venetian and the supposed son of Andrea Alberti, the Secretary of the Ducal
Treasury, and Lady Veronica Cremona. Nevertheless he bore the same name of the powerful
Venetian branch of the Florentine Alberti Family. He was born on June 20, 1608.
The city of Venice, at the time
of his birth, was a republic and at its zenith in economic power and
influence. When he was twenty-seven, the
Bubonic plague scourged the city killing over 40,000 residents. Alberti,
presumably, to escape contracting the disease, decided to venture to the new
world. On his first leg of his journey he traveled to New Amsterdam arriving
there in the second of June, of 1635. He acquired a position as a sailor on the
De Connick David that was preparing
to sail to the new world. The ship sailed down the west coast of Africa,
passing the mouth of the Congo River and then at some point south of it headed
west towards Brazil.
The captain and Alberti didn’t
get along and the captain threatened to land him in Cayenne, Guiana. They
resolved their problems and Alberti remained on board. The ship continued on to
the West Indies and Virginia. When it finally reached the final destination,
New Amsterdam, (New York City) Alberti disembarked and allegedly sued the
captain for unpaid wages and won his case.
Alberti settled for a permanent
stay in New Amsterdam. Since he was an Italian amongst the Dutch, the residents
knew him by many different names―Peter the Italian, Cicero Alberto, Caesar
Albertus, Peter Mallenmook and more. In 1639 Alberti contracted with Pieter
Montfoort, a tobacco planter to buy part of his plantation. In the sixth year
of his settlement he married a local Dutch woman, Judith Manje. They domiciled
on Broad Street in Manhattan. After four years he secured the deed of ownership
for the land from the Director General and Council of New Amsterdam. By 1646 he
and his wife left their home on Broad Street and moved to their new property
located on Long Island’s Brooklyn section.
The Alberti’s had seven children with only one
dying in infancy. Unfortunately, while the children were still at an age
requiring supervision, the Indians, in 1655, raided the plantation and slew
Pietro and Judith. The Dutch authorities appointed a guardian and leased the
plantation. All the children married and in 1695 two of the sons, Jan and
Willem, sold the business. Through the following generations the surname became
Albertus, Burtus, Burtis, and finally anglicized to Albertis.
The Alberti family and descendant ares one of the
earliest of millions of Italian Americans who today are a major part of the
American social fabric. In New York City’s Battery Park is a small stone near
the bronze statue of Giovanni da Verrazzano, which commemorates Alberti’s
arrival.
For more information see
http//www.italianhistorical.org/
