Seasonal Vignette: The True Origins of Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow has haunted the American imagination for two centuries since Washington Irving published his legendary gothic tale in the early 19th century. But by then, the name Sleepy Hollow had been haunting the maps for almost two centuries. The first trace of its name appears in colonial Dutch records from the mid-17th century. Its true origins have remained a mystery ever since. Attempts to explain the name have only generated legends of a dark, dreamlike valley that lured early Dutch visitors to sleep.

In 1655, nine years before the English conquered the Dutch colony and renamed it New York, Adriaen van der Donck published his comprehensive Description of New Netherland. A distinguished colonial squire, or "jonkheer," whose land became Yonkers, van der Donck had spent over a decade exploring the Hudson Valley. In his 1655 Description, he reported the names of several streams pouring into the Hudson River, including "Kats Kil," or Catskill Creek, and "Wappinckes-kil," or Wappinger Creek. Among these Hudson tributaries, van der Donck also noted the name of "Slapershaven." The name's specific place on the maps was unclear, but subsequent charts identified it with a site around the present-day Pocantico River. The name can be loosely translated from Dutch to English as Sleepers Haven or Sleepy Haven. But both translations are deceptive.

Slapershaven was not coined in New Netherland. It was coined in the old Netherlands. Predating Slapershaven on the Hudson was Slapershaven in the Dutch port city of Hoorn. By the mid-17th century, this vital harbor channel in Hoorn was already marked on maps as "Slapershaven" or "Slepershaven." Its etymology is disputed. The name may have come from a "Slaperdijk," or Sleeper Dyke, a secondary dyke used by Dutch engineers to control floodwaters in the Netherlands. But "Slapers" or "Slepers" also referred to the profession of haulers or freighters – men who typically transported goods by horse and cart, or sometimes by boat; the term is related to the Yiddish word "schlep." Slapershaven may thus be translated as Haulers Haven or Haulers Harbour. Early Dutch traders, hauling cargo to or from a small, sheltered haven near the mouth of the Pocantico River, perhaps recalled the name from home.

The placename "Slapershaven," sometimes spelt "Slaepers Haven," survived the English acquisition of New York in 1664, but both its place and its name shifted. Unaware that "Slaper" or "Sleper" might refer to an occupation, the English altered it to "Sleepy." And unable to locate any true "haven," or harbour, they eventually switched it with "hollow," or valley. The name was fixed as "Sleepy Hollow" long before it had a fixed place on the map.

By the time of the American Revolution, Sleepy Hollow had become an esoteric name, known only locally, and applied loosely to an ill-defined area north of Tarrytown. The name might have vanished completely had Washington Irving not published The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1820. Narrated by Diedrich Knickerbocker – Irving's pseudo-Dutch pseudonym – the short story made Sleepy Hollow one of the most famous placenames in America. Many readers wondered if it were a real place or a mere product of fiction. Indeed, in the 19th century, there was no city, town, or village in New York – or anywhere else in the United States – with the name of Sleepy Hollow. The ethereal name was almost impossible to find on any map; it appeared only on the most detailed charts of the lower Hudson River – and only on some of those.

In 1854, an area south of Tarrytown, where Irving still lived, embraced the author's fame by renaming their town Irvington. Sleepy Hollow, meanwhile, blinked in and out of existence. By the 20th century it had been effectively displaced by the newly incorporated village of "North Tarrytown." But Irving's story remained popular through the generations, especially at Halloween. By the 1990s, a new film adaptation of Sleepy Hollow was in pre-production, with producers scouting suitable shooting locations in the Hudson Valley. In 1996, the residents of North Tarrytown finally decided to capitalize on their history by officially renaming their village SLEEPY HOLLOW. It was the first time the name had a fixed place on the maps of New York – though by now a dozen other states already had their own Sleepy Hollow. And Tim Burton's film adaptation, released in 1999, recreated a more ghostly Sleepy Hollow on a purpose-built set in England.

The mystery remains: who brought the name of Slapershaven from the Netherlands to New Netherland – from Hoorn to the Hudson Valley? The answer may never be known. Many New Netherlanders hailed from Hoorn, including Cornelius May, the first Director-General of the colony; and others surnamed van Hoorn, or van Horn – literally from Hoorn.

Perhaps the most plausible source of Slapershaven was a farmer and colonial official whose name appears in 17th century records as Jacob Wallingen; Jacob Wallingen van Horn; and Jacob Wallingen van Winkel. As his variant surnames suggest, he was from Hoorn, or more specifically, from Winkel, a village a dozen miles north of Hoorn. Embarking from Hoorn, Jacob van Winkel became a prominent figure in New Netherland – and the progenitor of the van Winkle family in America. He was also a colleague of Adriaen van der Donck: both men ranged across the upper Hudson Valley while working on the Rensselaer estate; and at the mouth of the Hudson, both men served in the governing councils of New Amsterdam. Throughout the 1640s, van Winkel made regular trips back to his native Hoorn, plying the waters of the port's "Slapershaven." In the same decade, whenever in New Netherland, he journeyed up and down the Hudson, frequently passing the riverside's "Slapershaven." Perhaps something near the junction of the Hudson and the Pocantico reminded him of Hoorn's waterways; perhaps he imagined the colonial site in years to come, with its own harbor and docklands; and perhaps he suggested the name to van der Donck, who reported it in his 1655 Description. Since van der Donck was dead by the beginning of 1656, and van Winkel by the end of 1657, no one could explain Slapershaven's name to the English when they arrived in 1664.

In the early 19th century, Washington Irving would draw inspiration from van der Donck and van Winkel. In 1819, one year before he published The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving published Rip Van Winkle. Also narrated by Diedrich Knickerbocker, the tale told of a Dutch American farmer in the Hudson Valley who slept for 20 years. Within the story, Irving referenced Adriaen van der Donck and his Description of New Netherland, when describing the character of "Peter Vanderdonk…a descendant of the historian of that name, who wrote one of the earliest accounts of the province."

By settling in New Netherland in the 17th century, Jacob van Winkel would inspire Washington Irving in the 19th century. Winkel's descendants were still present in New York and New Jersey in the early 1800s, where Irving heard the surname that he borrowed for the title character of Rip Van Winkle. In fact, Irving entrusted the first publication of Rip Van Winkle to the New York printer C.S. Van Winkle – the great-great-great-grandson of Jacob van Winkel.

If Jacob van Winkel did name "Slapershaven" in the 17th century, he also seeded the mysterious title location in Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow; the first publisher, once again, was C.S. Van Winkle. But, still, no one really knows who named the haven and roused the hollow from its sleep…

Delian James.