DUTCH LOYALISTS
Abraham Van Buskirk has been called the first Mayor of Shelburne , Nova Scotia, in the 1780s when, with the arrival of thousands of United Empire Loyalists, it became the third largest community in North America. His ancestors came from the Netherlands to settle in New York when the Dutch called it New Amsterdam. The oldest house in New York is the Van Cortlandt House Museum which was built in 1748 by Frederick Van Cortlandt, grandson of Oloff Stevense Van Cortlandt, who arrived from the Netherlands in 1637, twelve years after the Dutch established the settlement of New Amsterdam on the tip of Manhattan Island in 1625. The British changed the name to New York in 1664 when they seized control of the colony. Some of the Dutch Loyalists who arrived in Shelburne, like the Van Nordens, moved to nearby Tusket to settle. Van Norden Road is a reminder of them. So, as well, is the impressive monument to the United Empire Loyalists in Tusket ...