Jacob Jansen Van Etten

Abt 1632 - Abt 1690  (58 years)

• Name	Jacob Jansen Van Etten  [1]
  Birth	Abt 1632	Etten, North Brabant, Holland, Netherlands   [2]
  Gender	Male
  Death	Abt 1690	Hurley, Sullivan County, New York
  Notes	Jacob Jansen was born in 1632 and baptized October 22, 1634, at Etten, North Brabant, Holland. The son of Johannes Marinessen and Wilhelimina Hoannes Adriense, he became the progenitor of the Van Etten/Van Atta family after he came to America. In the mid-1600's, Dutch colonization in America was at a high level of interest, a circumstance that was to lead to Jacob's arrival in the colony at New Netherlands (New York). That story began with a man named Adriaen van der Donck, from Breda in North Brabant province. He first came to New Netherlands in 1641, and was initially involved with the development of a settlement colony at Yonkers. In early 1652, van der Donck was back in Holland. Prospective settlers for those Dutch colonies, or servants for those already established in New Netherlands, were hired or recruited in the mother country, generally in the area from which the colonial leader came -- in this case van der Donck from North Brabant. Van der Donck at that time was seeking farmers for his Yonkers colony in the neighborhood of Breda, his birthplace. Among several he recruited were Aert Pieters Tack and Jacob Jansz/Jansen from nearby Etten, according to papers dated May 15, 1652. The two were contracted for six years. Such contracts ranged from two to six years. Passage money in these cases was usually paid by the employer. In New Netherlands, bed and board were furnished in addition to wages, which for farmhands ranged from 100 to 150 guilders a year, depending on age and experience. Yonkers was just north of New Amsterdam (New York City). Jacob Jansen apparently made the crossing to America in the year 1652, but it is not clear whether he was at Yonkers or whether he was diverted to Esopus, first settled by the Dutch that year. Esopus, named for the Indian tribe in that area, was on the west bank of the Hudson River, about 75 miles north of Yonkers. Jacob worked as a farmhand for Aert Pieters/Petersen Tack at Esopus about 1658, and was referred to as "head farmer of Tack". Relations with the Indians were not good at that time, and the New Netherlands director-general, Petrus (Peter) Stuyvesant, urged an agreement which the settlers there signed, May 31, 1658, to erect a palisaded village and demolish their separate dwellings. A brief war with the Indians, known as the First Esopus War, began after soldiers and settlers senselessly shot three Indians in September 1659. An uneasy peace treaty was signed in July 1660. Despite the tense situation, the community kept growing and was named Wiltwyck by Stuyvesant in 1661. Then, in June 1663, Indians attacked the village, massacred a number of residents, took others as prisoners, and burned many homes. The record states that Aert Tack was never seen again. A second peace treaty was concluded with the Indians in May 1664, and later that year an important step was taken by Jacob Jansen. But before that, English forces seized New Amsterdam, September 8, 1664, and 17 days later Wiltwyck came under the authority of the Duke of York. The state of New Netherlands and the city of New Amsterdam were both renamed New York. The name Wildwyck fell into disuse, and the town was again generally referred to as Esopus. As was common in those days, Jacob assumed the name of his birthplace, and after the publishing of the banns, he was known as Jacob Jansen von Etten (from Etten) later, the von became Anglicized to "Van." His wife was Annetje Gelvins, interpretation of old Dutch records by experts reveals. Her name was written in several ways, including Annetje Adriantse Gelvins and Annetje Adriantse Kam. These led genealogists to say that her father's name, therefore, was Adrian and his last name Gelvins or Kam. The nature of a number of difficulties involving her first husband, Aert Pietersen Tack, emerges through a sequence of court cases beginning in 1662. There were several problems with employees over wages, and that November (1662) he mortgaged the grain crop to be harvested the following year. Tack apparently left before the fall of 1663, either as the result of the Indian raid or under cover of it. His wife harvested the grain and was enjoined by creditors from using the harvest (except that which the court ordered her paid for her work in harvesting). In May 1664, further evidence of Tack's indebtedness, in this case, for cattle appeared. In July, the court took steps to condemn Tack's property for his absenting himself, and to sell it to satisfy a list of creditors. In October of 1664, Jacob Jansen sued for wages due him. The following month, Jacob himself was sued to collect a debt of wheat which he admitted but explained that he couldn't pay due to being sick with fever. He was granted time until the Tack estate was settled, when he presumably could collect wages due him. In January 1665, Annetje Ariaens requested relief from her debts because her effects had been sold "on behalf of creditors of her absconded husband". That same month, Jacob again requested the court that he be paid his wages from the estate in the amount of "388 guilders heavy money in wheat". He was told he could be paid after prior preference creditors were satisfied. Jacob was still having some financial problems in March 1666, when he was sued for not having paid his house rent of one schepel (about ? of a bushel) of wheat per month for 13 months. As late as March 1668, when he was sued for wheat due on the purchase of a house and lot, he could not pay because his wife's estate had been sold to satisfy her former husband's creditors. After that, his financial situation apparently improved. In 1670, there is mention of Jacob Jansen Van Etten as a resident of Horley (Hurley), near Kingston. In September 1669, along with some changes and new villages nearby, Esopus became Kingston, the name that has remained since except for a brief time in 1673-4 when the Dutch briefly regained control and the town was temporarily named Swaenenburgh. But things quieted down after that and ended a turbulent 23-year period from its founding that had included two Indian wars and three changes in national allegiance. Jacob Jansen Van Etten, according to one old account, loved to tell his children about the narrow escape of his grandmother Maria from the Spanish soldiers in Rotterdam, Holland, in 1570, when she was five years old. The Catholic Spanish killed several thousand Protestant Dutch. Maria's father Erick had the rest of the family hide in a small cubbyhole closet in an attic corner farthest from its small window. Erick, it is said, killed pet cats and splattered the blood over a dummy corpse. When the Spanish soldiers saw this, they thought their associates had already been there, so they moved on. Old records have disclosed that Jacob was a petitioner for a minister for the old church at Esopus in 1676. Jacob Jansen was one of those who signed a petition for control of local affairs, January 26, 1684, mentioned in Old Ulster II (257-262), which so angered Governor Thomas Donger that all the signers were arrested and fined. Jacob Jansen Van Etten took an oath of allegiance to England in 1689 in Ulster County, N. Y. by order of the governor . He then resided. at the town of Hurley. Jacob Jansen Van Etten died in 1690 at Hurley, survived by his widow, five sons, and four daughters. In 1718, the property of Jacob Jansen Van Etten was divided among his children by conveyance from his widow to each of them. About that time, the sons and their families were seeking new homes in the then sparsely settled Country along the Hudson River, and in the Delaware River valley, first in northwestern New Jersey and a little later on the Pennsylvania side. http://www.pegrowe.com/genes/vanatta/vanatta_name_history.htm
  Person ID	I18934	Strong Family Tree
  Last Modified	17 Aug 2014

  
  

  Family	Anneke Adriens,   b. 29 Aug 1645, Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands d. Aft 1690, New York (Age 45 years)
  Marriage	11 Jan 1664	Wiltwyck, New Amsterdam, New Netherland Territory
  	The baptism and marriage registers of the old Dutch church of Kingston, N. Y. contain the following marriage record: "Jacob Jansen of Etten, in Brabant, and Annetje Arians of Amsterdam, deserted wife of Aert Pietersen Tack, both residing here in Wiltwyck. First publication of Banns, 28 December 1664; second, 4 January 1665; third, 11 January 1665." Records concur that they were married January 11, 1665, the ceremony being performed by Domine Hermannus Blom of Wiltwyck.
  Family ID	F6849	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	9 Dec 2006

  
  

• Event Map

  Birth - Abt 1632 - Etten, North Brabant, Holland, Netherlands Marriage - 11 Jan 1664 - Wiltwyck, New Amsterdam, New Netherland Territory Death - Abt 1690 - Hurley, Sullivan County, New York  = Link to Google Earth

  
  

• Sources

  [S396] Stowell, Emily AMERICAN NOMADS(1988: Iris Press, Del Mar, California), p 126 (Reliability: 3). [S396] Stowell, Emily AMERICAN NOMADS(1988: Iris Press, Del Mar, California), p 128 (Reliability: 3).