Van Twiller, Wouter

Related Category: U.S. History: Biographies

fl. 1632–1640, Dutch director-general of New Netherland. A nephew of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, he was appointed to succeed Peter Minuit and arrived in New Amsterdam in 1633. Considerate of the Native Americans but blundering with his opponents, he left (1637) to his successor, Willem Kieft, a colony fraught with confusion. Van Twiller managed his uncle's estate.