VAN TWILLER, Wouter, or Walter, governor of New Netherlands, born in Nieukirk, Holland, about 1580; died in Amsterdam, Holland, after 1646. He was a clerk in the warehouse of the Dutch West India company, and, having married a niece of Killian Van Rensselaer, was employed by the latter to ship cattle to his colony on Hudson river. Van Twiller made two voyages to this country in that service, and was somewhat acquainted with the geography of New York and the condition of its affairs, so that through Van Rensselaer's influence he was chosen in 1633 by the West India company governor of New Netherlands, sailing for Manhattan in the ship "Soutberg." He was inexperienced in the art of government, slow in speech, incompetent to decide important affairs, and obstinate in minor matters. His chief business seems to have been to maintain the commercial operations of the West India company, but no sooner had he arrived than he was involved in quarrels with the English. In 1632 the Dutch purchased from the Indians lands near what is now Saybrook, Connecticut, erecting thereon the arms of the states-general, and on 8 July. 1633, the West India company bought the ground on which the city of Hartford now stands, erecting a fort which they called the House of Good Hope, and defending it with two cannon. In October, 1633, the Massachusetts colony laid claim to all the river and country of Connecticut, under the grant of the king of England. Van Twiller wrote a "courteous and respectful letter" to Governor John Winthrop, requesting that the matter be settled by the home authorities, meanwhile urging that until these proper persons could determine what should be done, the Plymouth colony refrain from settling there. But a few days later one William Holmes, with a resolute crew and a com-party of Indians who had been the original proprietors of the soil, sailed up the river, and, though threatened by fire from the Dutch cannon, reached the present site of Windsor and erected there the first house that was built in Connecticut. Van Twiller served a process on Holmes as soon as he heard this news, and a few weeks afterward besieged the trading-house with seventy soldiers, but was forced to withdraw and leave the English in peaceable possession. The next year he concluded an advantageous treaty of peace with the Raritan Indians. Meanwhile he spent large sums of money in internal improvements, built a handsome house for his own use and several for the officers of the colony, laid out a cemetery, and changed the name of the town from Manhattan to New Amsterdam. He also bought large tracts of land, including Governor's island and Blackwell's island. stocked them with cattle, and became one of the richest land-owners in the colony. In 1635 a party of colonists from Point Comfort, Virginia, under command of George Holmes, sailed to the Delaware, with the intention of settling there, but was forced to surrender to the Dutch fort, and sent as prisoners to New Amsterdam. Van Twiller re-shipped them "pack and sack for Point Comfort." He was again unsuccessful the same year with the Massachusetts colony. John Winthrop the younger tore down the arms of the state-general at Saybrook and took possession of the settlement, naming it for Lord Say and Lord Brook, and, although Van Twiller sent a sloop to dislodge them, Winthrop would not suffer them to land. Notwithstanding his losses in Connecticut, the fur-trade increased during the last years of Van Twiller's administration, and the Dutch opened a profitable commerce with New England. His private extravagances, however, induced the vice-director, Lubbertus Van Dincklager, to complain of him to the home authorities, and David De Vries having derided them for the " folly of promoting a fool from a clerkship to a governorship simply to act farces," Van Twiller was removed, and in September, 1637, was succeeded by William Kieft. He returned to Holland, and in 1644 became a guardian to Johannes, the eldest son of the patroon Van Rensselaer and was involved in controversies with the West India company, who described him as an " ungrateful man, who had sucked his wealth from the breasts of the company which he now abuses."