PATROONS' (Dutch patroon, protector, pa tron, from Lat. patronus, protector). The name applied to a special class of settlers in the New Netherlands. In 1629, in order to facilitate emigration to America, the Dutch West India Company granted certain 'freedoms and exemp tions' to such of their number as, within a period of four years after having given due notice, should plant a colony of fifty persons over fifteen years of age in the New Netherlands. Such men were to be called patroons (or patrons) and each was to have as his 'absolute property' a tract of laud extending 16 miles along any navigable river (or eight miles if on each shore) and "so far into the country as the situation of the occu piers will permit." The proprietors were, be sides, invested with many feudal privileges, be ing empowered to hold both civil and criminal courts, to appoint local officers and magistrates. and to punish offenders against the law, except in certain specified eases, where there existed a right of appeal to the Direetor-General at Fort Amsterdam. In practice, however, this right was virtually abrogated. The settlers were to be ex empt from taxes for ten years, but were to be absolutely bound to their patroon for a speci fied period, and were to pay certain rentals, either in money or in kind. Schools and churches were to be established, but at the same time slavery was introduced, commerce was restricted. and manufacturing was prohibited on pain of banishment. Several patroonships were soon es tablished, the largest (and the first) being Bens selaerswyck, which remained in the Rensselaer family until about the middle of the nineteenth century. In 1640 a new charter of 'freedoms and
exemptions' was granted, by which patroonship privileges were extended to "all good inhabitants of the Netherlands," the period of settlement limited to three years. the prohibition of manu facturing rescinded, and the size of the grants limited to four miles along a coast and eight miles into the interior. At the same time many inducements were offered to smaller landhold ers, called masters or 'colonists.' The system gave New York one of its characteristic features throughout the colonial period, creating as it did a landed aristocracy, fostering class divisions and semi-feudal relations between landholder and tenant, and discouraging the immigration of set tlers, who naturally preferred to obtain land in fee simple in other colonies rather than become tenants of proprietors in New York. Under the English the system remained virtually unchanged, but in 1775 some of its chief features were abolished, and the patroons or 'lords of the manor' became mere proprietors of estates. Many characteristics of the old feudal tenure, however, remained, and the relations between tenant and landlord became more and more strained, until a modification was effected by the Anti-Rent agita tion of 1839-47. See ANTI-RENTISNI.