Gerardus Beekman (1558–1625) was born in Cologne, received a University education, and studied theology at Frankendale in the Palatinate Region, during the years 1576-78.

[8] Gerardus Beekman lived at a time when Europe was engaged in religious wars and Protestants had begun to seek refuge from persecution.

[9] His mission executed with so much credit to himself, James I caused the coat of arms of the Beekman family to be remodelled, to "a rose on either side of a running brook".

[11] His maternal grandfather, theologian Willem Baudartius, preacher in the town of Zutphen, was one of Dutch Calvinism's most zealously orthodox protagonists.

[13] Wilhelmus Beekman departed from Amsterdam at Christmas, 1646,[14] bound for the settlement which the Dutch West India Company had established in the year of his birth on Manhattan Island.

The voyage from the Netherlands to the New World was long and arduous, Stuyvesant going by way of Curaçao in the Dutch West Indies on account of political considerations.

A general meeting of the Director-General and Council of New Netherland was held with the Burgomasters and Schepens (magistrates) on 13 March, 1653, at which it was decreed that breastworks or a wall should be built to protect the city and that the cost should be levied against the estates.

Peter Wolfersen Van Couwenhoven and Wilhelmus Beekman were chosen Commissioners and authorized to offer proposals, invite bids, and make the contract for the construction of the work.

With the First Anglo-Dutch War under way, on March 14, 1653, Beekman was appointed to join council member Montagne to supervise work fortifying the town.

[22] On July 30, 1658, he received the appointment of Vice-Director or Governor of the Colony of Swedes (Delaware), through the influence of the Dutch West India Company.

[24] It was located on the Delaware Bay, called South River by the Dutch, and he resided there until 1663,[1][25][26] and then moved to Esopus, now Kingston, New York, to assume the duties of his new appointment as Schout (Sheriff) and Commissary at that place.

Hurried and preoccupied with other matters associated with his recall, the departing governor neglected to make specific provision for the renewal of the expiring authority for the collection of customs duties.

Governor Andros had departed; the lieutenant-governor was temporarily absent from the province and Mayor Dyer, collector of customs, was laid low by illness.

With Deputy Mayor William Beekman presiding in his place, the court promptly ordered Dyer to surrender the goods which he had been holding for non-payment of customs.

[35] The members of the mayor's court then intimated to Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brockholls and his council that the collector should be tried for usurping the power of government.

[35] Collector (Mayor) Dyer was formally indicted for having "trayterously maliciously and advisedly used and exercised Regall power and authority over the Kings subjects.

"[36] In July a petit jury was sworn and twenty witnesses had been heard for the prosecution before the defendant confounded his accusers by demanding to know the authority of the commission which was trying him.

"[37] William Beekman and his fellow aldermen continued to administer municipal matters and Brockholls discreetly reappointed all of them in 1681 and 1682 without attempting to name a successor to the unfortunate Mayor Dyer.

John Gordon became chaplain of the English soldiers in New York, and Mayor William Beekman, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, Lucas Santen, Mark Talbot, and Gabriel Minvielle were appointed to survey Fort James, while Captain Thomas Young was made pilot of the port.

As acting Mayor since the elimination of Dyer more than two years before, Beekman occupied a post which gave him great prestige in the eyes of the inhabitants.

[48] On November 9, 1683, Dongan received a petition signed by William Beekman, mayor, Johannes Van Brugh, John Laurence, Peter J. Morris, James Graham, Cornelius Van Steenwyck, and Nicholas Bayard, aldermen of the city, petitioning for a city charter.

[33][49][50] With the city's charter granted, on November 24 the "old magistrates" were discharged, ending Beekman's term, and Cornelius Van Steenwyk was appointed mayor.

[19] At the time, the East River ran much farther inland than at present, and a large portion of the territory between Fulton Street and Corlear's Hook was salt meadow, scarcely fit for grazing.

[55] Additional purchases that formed the basis of the family's wealth included the land now bounded on the north by Nassau, on the west by Ann, and as far as Gold, Pearl, Fulton, and Frankfort streets, and also the swamp below Pearl Street, which from that time on was known as "Beekman's Swamp" to Frankfort Square.

[56] He held properties at Corlaer's Hook and in Harlem as well as the land on which his house stood, the north side of the present site of Chatham Square.

[57] During the period of 1658–1671, Beekman conducted several significant real estate transactions of lands he had amassed since his arrival in New Amsterdam.

[58] According to Valentine's History of New York, Beekman's Swamp was sold in 1734 to Jacobus Roosevelt for two hundred pounds by the corporation.

One in the area of Rhinebeck, NY and the other, called the Back Lots or Beekman Patent, in the South east corner of Dutchess County.