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/