BARSIMON, JACOB

(fl. 17th cent)

   Dutch emigrant, the first Jewish resident of New Amsterdam (New York). He arrived in the New World in July 1654 aboard the Dutch ship 'Peartree'. In 1655 he joined Asser Levy in petitioning for the right to stand guard instead of paying a special tax. The Dutch West India Company overruled Governor Peter Stuyvesant, who had rejected the petition.