by Shannon Butler
“Who run the world? Girls!” as Queen Beyonce says, and who ran things in southern Dutchess county from 1709 until her death in 1764? Why, none other than Catheryna Rombout Brett. Her legacy and her home have stood the test of time, and it’s hard to find someone in the Fishkill/Beacon area who doesn’t know that name. But do you really know who Madam Brett was? We don’t have a picture or a painting of her, but she left her mark all over the place. We know she was smart, business savvy, and she certainly must have been brave. We know that she spoke Dutch and English, as her writing tends to be a mix of the two. Let’s take a closer look at one of the area’s famous local history ladies.
Most of Dutchess County was wilderness in the late 1600s, but a prosperous man by the name of Frances Rombout (along with two other partners) had managed to purchase a large chunk of land from a local Native American tribe, the Wappingers (about $1,250 for 85,000 acres, which is much more than the so-called $24 for Manhattan). Rumbout did well in trading and political ventures, serving as the Mayor of New York City for a few years, and his fur business made him a good deal of money. It would be easy for one to believe that Catheryna was inspired by her business-minded father, but she was only four years old when he died. She was the last child of his third wife, Helen Teller, and for the most part, she did things on her own.
Catheryna ended up inheriting almost 30,000 acres of land. What do you do with all that land? You rent it, sell it, farm it, and build businesses on it, and somehow, Catheryna knew that. Growing up in a Dutch household, she would have studied alongside her half brothers and sisters at their home on Broadway in New York City. She was well read and quite good at arithmetic, as her later endeavors would show. Before taking over her new holdings (she was still quite young for venturing off into the wilderness of the Hudson Valley alone), she ended up falling in love with a young British Naval lieutenant, Roger Brett. Brett didn’t have much in the way of wealth, but he did have interesting connections with Royal Governor (and possible crossdresser) Lord Cornbury.
They were married in 1703, and after the death of Catheryna’s mother (who only left her daughter 9 pence in her will, probably because she had a lot of other children, and she knew Catheryna’s father had left her a bunch of land), the Bretts had to figure out their next move. It was Roger who thought of the idea to head north and live on Catheryna’s land while slowly selling it off in pieces. Being a “city-girl,” there were undoubtedly a lot of thoughts running through Catheryna’s mind. “How much will it cost us to build a house? Do we trade with the Indians living on that land? There isn’t much in the way of roads or stores or really anything around there, how do we live? Am I supposed to raise my children in the wilderness?” That must have been just a little bit terrifying.
So with the money they made by mortgaging off the house on Broadway, Roger Brett sailed north to Wappinger to build a home and a mill for the family. Catheryna and her children joined him by the fall of 1708. The Brett family wasted no time in leasing land out to various tenants. Of course they did it to make money, but also to entice other families to settle the area and work the land. Catheryna was kind and diplomatic as she encountered her native neighbors, including Chief Nimham, who she befriended and allowed for his family to continue to live on the land. Things seemed to look so promising for the couple, but less than 10 years into their new life, the master sailor fell from his sloop near Fishkill landing and drowned. This left Madam Brett to fend for herself, in the wilderness, with her children.
Generally, a woman in her situation would quickly try to find a new husband, but Catheryna never bothered with that. She simply went about her business of selling land. In 1720, she had her first solo sail of 100 acres to James Hussey. She made sure to keep control of certain aspects, like the rights to the creek and any trees on the property that were suitable for her mill. Like a true lord of the land, she would ride her horse around the boundaries of her property and find ways to remove anyone who was living there without her permission. She also joined in the ownership of a storehouse with several local businessmen, in which she continued to take part until her death in the spring of 1764 at the age of 77. At the end of her life, she sold off most of the land that she had hoped to sell. Based on all accounts, she never let anyone stand in her way of succeeding. That makes her a pretty awesome local history lady!
References:
“Catharyna Brett: Portrait of a Colonial Businesswoman” by Henry Cassidy – LH B Brett
Yearbook of the Dutchess County Historical Society – Oct 1916 – Mar 1918, 1943, 1947
Images:
01 – Exterior view of Madam Brett’s House
02 – Photo of a fireplace inside Madam Brett’s House, taken by Margaret DeMott Brown
03 – Photo of a Dutch door at Madam Brett’s House, taken by Margaret DeMott Brown
04 – Postcard of Madam Brett’s House
