Cornelius Jacobsen May

[1] Both brothers were cousins of Jan Cornelisz May, a prominent Dutch sailor and voyager[2] who led several expeditions to the Northeast passage and circumnavigated the world with Joris van Spilbergen between 1614 and 1617.

From August 1616 to November 1616, the New Netherland Company tried unsuccessfully to secure a patent for a territory located between the 38th and 40th parallels at Delaware Bay, which had been surveyed from 1614 to 1615 by Cornelis Hendricksz from Monnikendam on the ship Onrust.

[3] Two of the six business partners with two ships, Blijde Boodschap and Bever, focused on exploration and trade in the Zuidt Rivier, or Delaware River, were Thijmen Jacobsz Hinlopen and Samuel Godijn.

Though the competing Dutch companies were eventually able to reach agreement on New Netherlands, discord arose again which was finally settled by arbitrators in Amsterdam, on December 23, 1623.

In 1624, the 38th and 39th parallels region came under the final jurisdiction of the Dutch West India Company with the delivery of New Netherland, including the Walloon and Flemish families.