Albany and Rensselaer Counties. While most members of the Dutch West India Company saw settlement of the area profitable due only to the fur trade, van Rensselaer also saw potential in creating a self-sustaining colony that could trade goods with settlements as far away as South America and Europe. Janny Venema, in her history Beverwijck, states, "While Indians would continue to bring furs to the settlement, New Netherland could provide Brazil with wheat, and Brazil would then send its costly sugar to the fatherland. Rensselaerswijck would make New Netherland a great wheat supplier, filling an important place in the company's great Atlantic scheme." Rensselaerswyck offered leases to inhabitants (whom originally were sent to the colony by van Rensselaer himself) but did not offer the option to buy land from the patroon. Van Rensselaer named the area around Troy "Pafraets Dael" (Pafraet's Part), which is indicated on the first map of Rensselaerswyck (c. 1632). The name originates from his mother's maiden name, Maria Pafraet. The first farm raised on the site of Troy was that of Thomas Chambers, who leased land along the Hudson River between the Poesten Kill and Wynants Kill from 1647 to 1654. It is believed that this was the first settlement on the east side of the river north of the present-day city of Rensselaer, making it the first settlement in Troy. Additionally, Jan Barentsz Wemp leased Chambers' farm following the latter's departure and proceeded to build the area's first mill on the Poesten Kill near today's Hill Street and Spring Avenue. Wemp sometimes went by the nickname Poest, which is indeed seen in the early records of the colony. Wemp died in 1663 and his land was eventually subdivided and sold a number of times. In 1674, part of Wemp's original land, on a creek south of his sawmill, was sold to Wynant Gerritse Van der Poel, who built a mill there. These two men, Poest and Wynant, are the sources of today's names for the Poesten and Wynants Kills; kill is the Dutch word for creek. The Hudson River was called North River by the Dutch. It would eventually become "Hudson's River" by the English. The English In 1664, the English gained control of New Netherland during a surprise attack that eventually led to the Second Anglo-Dutch War. Making the transfer of power official, Jeremias van Rensselaer (the founding patroon's third son) swore an oath