Anneke Jantz Bogardus (1605-1663): Owned 62 acres of Manhattan Section 61, Lot 1

Anneke Jantz Bogardus was a Norwegian-born woman of modest means who inherited 62 acres on the island of Manhattan from her Dutch husband. It made her a widow of incalculable wealth in 17th-century New Netherland and the central figure in a classic rags-to-riches story that underscored the opportunities of the New World.

Their humble lives were also marked by high drama. A disputed land deed that gave the acreage to Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan, near today's World Trade Center, became a textbook legal case tied up in the state's courts for seven generations of Bogarduses across two centuries.

Anneke was one of the first and most famous women to settle in Dutch Colonial Albany. In 1623, when she was 18, she married a 21-year-old Norwegian seaman, Roelof Janszen. Neither could read or write and they indicated their signatures with special marks, which led to variations on the spellings of their names.

The young newlyweds were risk-takers and they took a chance as colonists for Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a wealthy Amsterdam jewelry merchant and patroon who established the patroonship of Rensselaerswyck, a vast land holding that encompassed all of present-day Albany and Rensselaer counties.

The couple and their two children arrived at Fort Orange in what is now downtown Albany on May 24, 1630, according to local records. Roelof was paid $72 a year as a farmer along the Hudson River near Normanskill Creek and he was appointed a schepen, or alderman. Anneke had two more children and the family interacted daily with local Native Americans with whom they traded. Incidentally, their daughter, Sara, later became the translator of New Netherland director-general Peter Stuyvesant in negotiations with local tribes.

In 1634, after the family paid off its contract to the patroon, they sought the bright lights of the big city and moved to Manhattan — "The Island at the Center of the World" in author Russell Shorto's memorable term — and worked on a Dutch West India Company bouwerie, the Dutch word for farm. That section of Manhattan became known as "The Bowery."

The industrious Roelof, who fathered six children with Anneke, was given a grant in 1636 for a 62-acre farm of his own near today's World Trade Center. The following year, he built a small house on the farm and his mother-in-law, the colony's midwife, lived with them. Roelof died suddenly in 1637 at age 35 and Anneke struggled financially as a widow, while the company refused to pay her 217 guilders she claimed her late husband was owed.

Anneke married again, in 1638, to the well-educated Domine Everardus Bogardus, who became minister of the Dutch Church on the lower tip of Manhattan. They lived on his wife's farm, which became known as "Domine's Bouwerie." The couple had four sons together and they clashed frequently with the colony's leaders on civic and legal matters, including the unpaid 217 guilders. When Anneke was widowed a second time at age 42, she had nine children to support and was cash-poor and land-rich with two farms — the second was 82 acres on Long Island from Bogardus.

Anneke moved back to Albany, then known as Beverwyck, and in 1652 she received a patent for a lot and a house near today's State and James streets downtown. As her children married and moved out, she gave each a wedding present of a bed and a milk cow. Her eccentricities and combativeness were accentuated and she was nicknamed "the vulture." Lore had it that she once hiked her skirts in a mooning retaliatory move against some heckling, pipe-smoking burghers she walked past. The incident wound up in court, a dispute that Anneke won by successfully arguing she had only been trying to keep the hem of her skirt out of the muddy lane.

Anneke died in 1663 after living for 16 years in Albany. Her will stipulated that her estate, including the 62-acre farm in The Bowery, be divided equally among her seven surviving children. Her kids sold her Albany house that year to Dirk Wessels Ten Broeck for 1,000 guilders. The 62 acres allegedly was sold in 1671 by her heirs for "a valuable consideration," but the land was confiscated and turned over to the British crown after the English turned out the Dutch. The Brits leased the land to Trinity Church in 1697 for 60 bushels of wheat. In 1705, Queen Anne granted the land to the church.

By 1800, after swampy areas had been drained and commercial buildings were erected on it, the farm was considered the most valuable land in America. Today, it is some of the priciest real estate in the world and is worth billions.

Anneke's funeral was held at Albany's Old Church, built by her son, Jan, at the intersection of State Street and Broadway, and she was buried in the church cemetery. Her remains were moved to Albany Rural Cemetery in the mid-1800s, a common practice, and re-interred in the Dudley family plot in Section 61, Lot 1, along Middle Ridge Road, a gesture of respect from matriarch Blandina Dudley. The legal battle over the 62-acre Manhattan farm by Anneke's descendants raged on in sometimes comical ways. Anneke's great-grandson, Cornelius Bogardus, began squatting in a house on the farm in the 1850s and Trinity Church officials tried to evict him. He fought back with fire, a shotgun with bird shot, and buckets of scalding water dumped from a window. He was eventually ousted, but the family's increasingly desperate lawsuit carried on well into the 1900s, even after the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, dismissed it in 1881.

The case of Anneke Jantz Bogardus and her 62 acres of prime Manhattan lives on in dozens of scholarly articles and chapters in legal textbooks that attempt to deconstruct the thorny arguments.

Written By Paul Grondahl

Paul Grondahl is a former staff writer at the Times Union, where he worked from 1984 to 2017 and won numerous local, state and national writing prizes for in-depth projects. He left to become director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany and continues to contribute a weekly human-interest column for the Times Union. He is the author of several books, including political biographies of Theodore Roosevelt and Albany Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd. He teaches a freshman writing workshop at U Albany and mentors young journalists. You can reach him at grondahlpaul@gmail.com.

Biography

Anneke Jans was born in 1605 in Flekkerøy, Kristiansand, Vest-Agder, Norway. Her parents were Johan N.N. and Trijntje Jonas (Roeloffs).

Anneke married Roeleff Jansen circa April 18, 1623 in Amsterdam, Government of Amsterdam, North Holland, Netherlands. Together they had the following children: Lijntgen Roeloffs; Sarah Jansz Kierstead (Roelofs); Trijntgen Roeloffs; Fytje Roeloffs; Jan Roeloffson.

When Anneke and Roeleff first came the the states in 1630, they first moved to Rensselaerswyck. Roeleff obtained the land patent of 62 acres, called Dominie's Brouwery, in New Amsterdam (now present day Tribeca) from Wouter van Twiller in 1636 where they settled their family. Roeleff died in 1637 and left the land to Anneke.

Anneke married Reverend Everardus Bogardus in March 1638 in New Amsterdam, New Netherland Colony. Together they had the following children: Willem Bogardus; Cornelis Bogardus, I; Jonas Bogardus; Pieter Bogardus;

Everardus was a clergyman of the Dutch Church. Ten years after the married in 1647, he was killed in the Princess Amelia shipwreck near Swansea, Wales. After his death Anneke resided at 63 State Street, Albany NY, until her death in 1663, where you can find a tablet marking the spot of her home.

She died in 1663 in Beverwyck, New Netherland Colony and was buried on February 23, 1663 in Final Reburial: Albany Rural Cemetery, Menands, Albany County, New York, United States.

The land of Dominie's Brouwery stayed with the family until 1670 when the deed was signed over to Col. Francis Lovelace and later gifted to Trinity Church by Queen Anne in 1705.

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Links/Publications

• A "Dutch Woman's Farm" The New York Times
• "Dominie Everardus Bogardus: His descendants and why Tribeca should be mine!" By James Bruce Battles
• "Anneke Jans in Fact and Fiction", The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record in 1973 (volume 104, pages 65-72 and 157-164 George Olin Zabriskie.

Source Facts

Marriage Banns/Intention

link DTB 427, p.477 - Huwelijksintekeningen van de KERK. - OTR00021000251

• Date: April 1, 1623
• Location: Reformed Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, Holland
• Name: Anna Jans, "Anneke"
• Age:18
• Birth: Vleckere in Norway
• Mother: Trijn Roeloffs
• Spouse: Roeloff Janssoon
• Age: 21
• Birth: Maesterland
• Occupation: seaman
• Nephew: Jan Gerritsz

Will

http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/b/o/w/Yvette-M-Bowen/GENE20-00...

Anneke's Will:

In the name of the Lord, Amen, know all men, that on this 29th day of January, 1663, about four o'clock in the afternoon, before me, Dirck Van Schelluyne, Notary Public, and before the afterward named witnesses, personally came and appeared, the virtuous Anneke Jans, first, widow of Roeloff Janse Van Masterland, and now last, of the minister, Do. Everardus Bogardus, dwelling in the village of Beverwyck, (well known to us, notary and witnesses). She, the appearer, lying sick abed, but her senses, reason, memory and understanding perfectly strong, as is quite evident to us; which appearer, considering the shortness and frailty of human life, the certainty of death, and the uncertainty of the hour thereof, and wishing, therefore, to anticipate the same by a proper disposition of her temporal estate to be left behind, very deliberately declares, without inducement, persuasion or misleading of any person, that she has made, ordained and decreed this her present testament to be her last will; in manner following.

First and beforehand, commending her immortal soul to the gracious and merciful hands of God, her Creator and Redeemer, and her body to a Christian burial, and revoking, cancelling and annulling, by these presents, all and every such testament disposition as she before the date of this may have made and executed, and making a new disposition. She, the appearer and testatrix, by these presents, nominates and institutes her children, to wit, Sara Roeloffse, wife of Mr. Hans Kierstede, Catrina Roeloffse, wife of Johannes Van Brugh, together with Jannetie and Rachel Hartgers, children of her daughter Sytge Roeloffse deceased, the late wife of Pieter Hartgers (jointly standing in their mother's place); item, her son, Jan Roeloffse, together with Willem, Cornelis, Jonas, and Pieter Bogardus, as the sole and universal heirs of the estate real and personal, claims, credits, gold and silver, coined and uncoined, jewels, clothing, linen and woolen, household furniture, nothing excepted or reserved, which she shall leave behind on her death, the same on her decease, to be equally divided among them and to be used as their own free estate without the opposition of any one; with this express restriction and condition, nevertheless, that the said first four children shall first receive their bequest from their parental estate in a bouwery lying on Manhatan island, on the North River, the sum of one thousand guilders out of the value or receipts from said bouwery; and seeing that three of said [children] have received marriage outfits according to her ability; therefore, she, the appearer and testatrix, has made over and bequeathed to said Jan Roeloffse who is yet an unmarried man, one bed and a milch cow, and to Jonas and Pieter Bogardus, a house and lot standing and lying on the west side of her, the testatrix's, dwelling house, in said village of Beverwyck, in breadth reaching up to her chamber, and extending also in length back to the bleaching plat, together with a bed also for them both, and a milch cow for each; item, to Cornelis Bogardus also a bed and a milch cow; which [bequests] said children shall draw, for what the married children have received at their marriage.

Finally she, the testatrix, bequeathes also, to Roeloffse Kierstede, (her daughter Sara's child), a silver cup, to Annetie Van Brugh (her daughter Catrina's child), a silver cup, to Jannetie and Rachel Hartgers (her daughter Sytge's children), also a silver cup for each, to the child of Willem Bogardus, named Sytge, also a silver cup; all which, to be recovered in manner and form as above, the said children, legatees, shall first take and receive out of the first and readiest effects, and then come into a participation of the remainder of the estate in the same manner as the heirs above nominated and instituted.

The foregoing, she, the appearer and testatrix, declared to be her last will and testament, wishing and desiring that the same after her death, shall bring forth its full force and effect, whether as testament, codicil, donation, gift for the sake of the deceased, or otherwise, as may be most suitable; notwithstanding that certain usages, required by law or custom, may not have been perfectly observed herein; requesting the the utmost advantage may be derived herefrom; and that one or more copies hereof, in the customary form, may be made and delivered by me, the notary. Thus done and executed, at the house of the testatrix in the village of Beverwyck in NewNetherland, in presence of the honorable Ruth Jacobse Van Schoednerwoert and Evert Wendel, old magistrated, called and invited as witnesses hereto. This mark + was set by

Anneke Janse aforenamed with her own hand.

Rutger Jacobsen

Evert Janse Wendel.

D. V. Schelluyne, Not. Pub.

1663.

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{Compiler's Notes: The reason I show the following baptism information is that it sometimes shows a relationship between family members previously not discovered or confirms a relationship in question. It can also show the human side of a particular ancestor, to put a face and a personality to a name.}

Dutch Reformed Church Baptisms List

Date: 12 Aug [1640]

Parents: Arte Willem

Child: Willem

Witnesses: Mr. Jacob van Curlaer, Corn. Tienhoven, Secret.; Anneken Bogardus, Ariaatje

Curlaer

Date: 24 Feb [1641]

Parents: Eduart Fiscoock

Child: Jenne

Witnesses: France Lasselyn, Annekem [sic] Bogardus

Date: 10 Oct [1641]

Parents: Albert Cuynen

Child: Albert

Witnesses: Jans Suycker, shoemaker; Abel Rederhas, Buger (?)riszen, smidt; Anneken Bogardus, Susanna Roelofs

5 Feb[1643]:[father] Cornelis Volckertszen;[child] Cornelis;[witnesses] Philip du Trieux, Anneken Bogardus, Gerrit Molenaer

6 Mar[1644];[father] Abraham Pietersz. Molenaer;[child] Malchus;[witnesses] Jan Stephenszen, Cos Pieterszen, Anneken Bogardus, Lysbeth Dircks

15 Mar[1644];[father] Hans Nicolaeszen;[child] Nicolaes;[witnesses] Olof Stephenszen Van Courtlt., Marten Cregier, Thomas Wesert, Anneken Bogardus, Annatje Loockermans, Tryntje Claes

17 Apr[1644];[father] Hans Hanszen de Noorman;[child] Jan;[witnesses] Jan Montfoort, Jan Snyderken, Anneken Bogardus

6 Jul[1644];[father] Abraham Isaac Planck;[child] Jacomyntie;[witnesses] Philip Gerritszen, Anneken Bogardus

Source: Dutch Reformed Church Baptisms

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Her mother was simply Trintjie Jonas, I have never seen Catherine in any form associated with her mother's name.

Anneke had a grand total of 10, possibly 11 or 12 children, because it is said that she may have had another son by her second husband that she named Jan, but died extremely young. The son named Jan from her first marriage reached adulthood, however there is dispute as to how lengthy his life may have been. It is surmised that he died rather a young adult, as he never married, never had children, and he may have died in a home set fire by the natives.

Here is a list of the children by marriage

Anneke and Jan Roelof had five children:

1. Sarah Roelof (she married first a Kierstead, then had two further marriages)
2. Catrina Roelof (married Johannes Van Brugh)
3. Fytzie Roelof (married Peter Hartgers)
4. Jan Roelof (died a bachelor)

Anneke and Everardus Bogardus had five children:

1. Willem Bogardus (married Wyntie Sybrant, then Walburg DeSales)
2. Cornelius Bogardus (married Helena Teller)
3. Jonas Bogardus (bachelor)
4. Petior Bogardus (married "Wyntjie Cornelise Bosch)
5. Annettjie Bogardus (married Jacobus Brower or Brewer, or combination of the 2)

It is also said that she had a child born while still in Amsterdam who died quite young and was buried there. She is said to have had other children as well, but they too, didn't live long enough to achieve significant age to even reach anything beyond newborns.

Many of the children of Anneke were married more than once. So you will find names such as Van Borsum, Stoothof, DeKay, Kregier, and Rodenburg associated with these names as well. You shouldn't be mistaken by these false leads. The names of these people are just due to remarriage. Husbands and wives died young back then, as did many of their children.

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land granted to her on Long Island

HH 4 PATENT TO ANNETJE BOGARDUS Petrus Stuyvesant, on behalf of their High Mightinesses, etc... has given and granted unto Annetje Bogardus, widow of Domine Bogardus deceased, a piece of land lying on Long Island near Hellgate, north of the land of William Hallet; running from the river along the creek from the division of the said Hallet beyond the swamp it is in length 140 rods; running along the river east by north its breadth is 187 rods; on the north side in length to the swamp 130 rods; alang the swamp to the division of the said Hallet it is 187 rods; making together 42 morgens and 45 rods, with the express conditions etc... Done at Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, [blank] March 1654

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Children of Anneke Jans and Roelof Jans are:

1. Lijntje Roelofs Jans, b. July 21, 1624, Amsterdam, Holland18, d. Bef. March 21, 1629/3018.

2. +Sara Roelofs Jans, b. April 05, 1627, amsterdam, Holland, Netherlands, d. October 21, 1693, Kingston, New York18.

3. +Trijntje Roelofs Jans, b. September 06, 1633, d. Bet. 1696 - 169918.

4. Fytje (Sytje) Roelofs Jans, b. 1631, Rensselaer, New Amsterdam18, d. Bef. January 29, 1662/6318.

5. Jan Roelofszen Jans, b. 1633, de Laets Burg Fa, NY18, d. Abt. 169018.

6. Annetje Roelofs Jans, b. Abt. 1636, New Amsterdam, NY18, d. Aft. August 15, 164818.

Children of Anneke Jans and Everardus Bogardus are:

1. +Willem Bogardus, b. November 02, 1638, New Amsterdam (now NY), d. Abt. 1711, New York, NY.

2. Cornelius Bogardus, b. September 09, 1640, Dutch Church of NY, d. May 1666, Beverwyck, Albany Co., NY.

3. Jonas Bogardus, b. January 04, 1642/43, Dutch Church of NY, d. date unknown.

4. Peter Bogardus, b. April 02, 1645, Dutch Church of NY, d. Abt. 1703, Kingston, NY.

Created with Family Tree Maker

http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/f/i/e/Phyllis-J-Fields/W...

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Court Case

Today Anneke Jans Bogardus is one of early New York State's (literally New Netherland's) most famous citizens. But such was not the case during her own lifetime. Years after her death, she gained fame and fortune by having descendants who initiated one of the country's most famous litigations. In this long series of lawsuits, the claimants asked for ownership, in whole or part, of real estate on Manhattan that had belonged to Anneke. They claimed that Trinity Church had illegally acquired title, and that the property rightfully belonged to the descendants of Anneke Jans Bogardus.

But the church had always held legal title, and the courts, without exception, so ruled. The property in question was granted in 1636 to Roelof Janszen, Anneke's first husband. In ran along the Hudson shoreline, then at about Washington Street, for seven tenths of a mile from present Warren Street to just above Canal Street (at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel). The eastern line ran irregularly from Chambers Street and Broadway to above Canal Street at Varick. It was sixty-two acres of mediocre farm and grazing land, swamp and chalky hill, in which Anneke had owned dower rights. Her Roelofs children owned the rest. It was still of little value when New York's northward expansion reached it about 1750. By 1800, the swamp had been drained and the land improved to the point that commercial buildings and private dwellings had been built on it.

In 1639 the "plantation [was] new and consist[ed] of recently cleared land [and had] a tobacco house and [was] fenced.” In 1642 the lessee was to “use all possible diligence to clear the land.” It did have a house in 1642, which, in 1646 “may [have] need[ed] to be re-roofed.” In 1651, the new lessee was to “put a new roof on the . . . house,” and “to fence in and keep tight the land. . .” How different from the glowing descriptions in some of the legendary accounts! Domine Everardus Bogardus, Anneke’s second husband, did not in his own right, or for the Reformed Church, own land which some accounts claimed was adjacent to, and became merged with, the Roelof Janszen farm. The farm was often called the Domine’s Bouwerie, and it was merged with the adjacent Company’s Bouwerie. From her second marriage, Anneke did hold dower rights to a house near the fort in New Amsterdam, and to eighty-four acres of land, called Domine’s Hook, on the Long Island shore of the East River near the Hellgate. The two, Domine’s Bouwerie and the Domine’s Hook, became badly confused in many ways, even on maps and in legal briefs. Also confusion has arisen between the entire Trinity Church Farm, and that portion which was originally the Roelof Janszen farm (CDM 7, 19 [but the lease pertains to the East River, not the North], 20, 36 [lessor was Do.Bogardus], 55).1

At each recounting of the legendary claims, the sixty-two acres of Manhattan farm and grazing land has grown in size and value until a year ago it was described as “a large portion of Manhattan real estate” [62 of 14,000 acres!]. And the claimants continued to grow in numbers; but finally the pointless litigation ceased. Somewhere along the line of this count-down to zero litigation, someone provided a new legendary focal point for Anneke’s real and self styled, fortune hunting descendants by creating for her a royal ancestor, complete with an unclaimed royal fortune. Again the claimants increased, and Anneke became even more famous. Claims and counter-claims appeared in books, magazines and newspapers.

In 1925 and 1926 (with some carry-over into the next six years), the late John Reynolds Totten discussed these farmland and royal ancestry claims and attempted to evaluate the royalty claim in “The Record” (NYGBR) volumes 56 and 57. He reached the basic conclusion that the available evidence did not support the traditional assertions. We do not intend to “correct” or “amend” the accounts prepared by Mr. Totten, or to duplicate his discussions. We will present new evidence that he did not have as readily available as we do in this day of microfilms and photocopies. We shall first discuss the factual origins of Anneke Jans, her husbands, mother and sister. Then we shall discuss the claimed descent of Anneke Jans from William the Silent of Orange-Nassau.2

The only real facts that have become known about Anneke Jans as she arrived here in 1630 are that she was:

(1) a resident of Amsterdam just before coming to New Netherland,

(2) a daughter of Tryntje Jonas, van Maesterland, a midwife,

(3) sister of Marritje Jans,

(4) the wife of Roelof Janszen, van Maesterland, employed in early 1630 in Amsterdam, to be a farmer at Rensselaerswyck, and

(5) the mother of two [not three] accompanying children. Sara and Tryntje Roelofs, who were born in Amsterdam {Lijntje died before the trip}

The following additional information has been obtained recently from Amsterdam church records: 3

Marriage intention, 1 April 1623, Reformed Oude Kerk: Roelof Jansson (his mark “R”), born in Maesterland, a seaman, aged 21 years, having nor parents [to grant parental consent], assisted by Jan Gerritsz., his nephew; residing 3 1/2 years at the St. Tunis gate, of the one part; and Anna Jans (her mark: “+”), born in Vleckere in Norway, aged 18 years, assisted by trijn roeloffs, her mother: residing [duration not given] at the same place, [that is, at the St. Tunis gate] of the second part.

Marriage record, 18 April 1623, Reformed Nieuw Kerk: Roelof Jansz. and Anna Jans

Baptismal records, Lutheran Kerk:

1. Lijntje, bap. 21 July 1624; parents, Roelof Jansz., mother’s name not given; witnesses: Annetgen jans, Stijntje Barents.
2. Sara, bap. 5 April 1627; parents, Roeloff Jansen, mother’s name not given; witnesses: Assueris Jansen, Stijntje Barents.
3. Trijntgen, bap. 24 June 1629; parents, Roeloff Jansz., mother’s name not given; witnesses: Cornelis Sijverts, Trijntgen Siewerts.

Anneke Jans was born in Flekkeroy, a village on an island of the same name in Vest Agder, Norway, and four miles south of the city of Kristiansand. Roelof Janszen was born in Marstrand, a village on an island of the same name, now in Goteburg Och Bohus, Sweden, and about 18 miles northwest of the city of Boteburg. Marstrand was in Bohusland, a historic section of Norway that was ceded to Sweden in 1658. So both Anneke and Roelof were Norwegians by birth, but may have been of Dutch ancestry.4

At Rensselaerswyck Roelof farmed the de Laets Burg farm on the east bank of the Hudson, near Mill Creek [Normans Kill] in the present city of Rensselaer. While living there Roelof was appointed a schepen [magistrate] by van Rensselaer, but he and the others so appointed were not sworn in and never served. In April 1634, Roelof was replaced as farmer by Gerrit Theunisz. de Reux under uncertain circumstances. He and his men had served most, if not all, of their regular period of employment and did not “desert” van Rensselaer as claimed by most writers. Roelof had not been a successful farmer and was in debt to van Rensselaer when replaced. In 1637 van Rensselaer said that he had canceled the debt “long ago” (VRBM pssim).

When Roelof left the farm in Rensselaerswyck apparently he, his family, and his mother-in-law moved down river to New Amsterdam, where he became an employee of the West India Company. Roelof probably farmed one of the company bouweries, and likely continued to do so until his death in 1636. He did not go to Brazil during this two year period, as has been suggested.

In March 1638, before or concurrently with her marriage to Domine Bogardus, Anneke Jans pledged a reasonable share of their father’s estate to “the surviving legitimate children” of Roelof Janszen. In June 1642 this agreement could not be found; so on 21 June 1642, “Annitjen Jans, formerly widow of the late Rouloff Jansen from Maesterland, and at present wife of Everardus Bogardus, minister here,” again promised to pay her Roelofs children “from her first available means,” 1000 Carolus guilders, Holland currency: 200 guilders to each on coming of age [25 years]. These five surviving children, their ages on 21 June 1642 were: Sara, aged about 16; Trijntje, aged 13; Sijtje aged 11; Jan, aged 9; and Annitjen, aged 6 years (CDM19).

Soon after Anneke’s marriage to Domine Bogardus he recorded the first of three powers of attorney designed “to collect from the honorable directors of the Chartered West India Company, the sum of two hundred and seventeen guilders, earned by the late Rouloff Jansen . . . of the said gentlemen, which was remitted in the year 1635 to the orphan masters of the city of Amsterdam and has not yet been received by them . . . as appears by the Book of Monthly Wages sent from New Netherland by said ship” [the Eendrach ‘which left Amsterdam in Early May and returned to Amsterdam before December, 1635.’] The first was issued 12 August 1638 to Wouter van Twiller, but was not signed and may never have been used; the second was dated 16 April 1639 to Hendrik Cornelissen van Vorst and the third on 11 October 1640 to van Twiller (CDM 3, 6, 14).

Anneke Jans’ second husband, Everardus Bogardus, was the second domine of the Dutch Reformed Church of New Amsterdam, arriving in 1633. He was born in 1607, probably in Veenendaal, Utrecht, as Evert Bogaert, the son of Willem Jansz. Bogaert and his second wife Susanna Adriaensdr. van Ruyteveld. He studied at the University of Leyden, and after serving as a voorleser in Guinea in West Africa, was ordained and sent to New Amsterdam. Mr. P. A. Bogaard of De Meen, Utrecht, in his recent excellent article, “Dutch Ancestry of Domine Everardus Bogardus” (de Halve Maen July and October 1971, January 1972), wrote in conclusion:

“A man of complicated character, Domine Bogardus experienced many difficulties during his ministry in New Amsterdam, especially in his relationship with Director General Wouter van Twiller and the latter’s successor, William Kieft. His relations with Director General Kieft were such that they agreed to have their charges and countercharges heard and judged by the Classis of Amsterdam. They went aboard the ship De Princesse which sailed from New Amsterdam on August 17, 1647. They did not reach their fatherland, however, since the ship was wrecked in Bristol Channel and both were drowned [on 27 September 1647].”

After learning of her husband’s death by drowning off the coast of Wales, Anneke moved from her house near the Fort in New Amsterdam to Fort Orange. On 15 August 1648 Domine Megapolensis wrote that Domine Bogardus’ “widow came to Fort Orange. . . to make a living here. She has nine living children, as well by her former husband, as from Domine Bogardus, and besides this she is burdened with considerable debt.”

Upon reaching Fort Orange, Anneke and her unmarried children almost certainly went to live with her daughter Fytje and her husband, Pieter Hartgers. On 23 April 1652 Anneke Bogardus received a patent to a lot in the village, for which Pieter Hartgers agreed to pay an annual ground rent of four beavers, and on which Pieter built her a house. On 29 January 1663 (New style), Dirck van Schelluyne, the notary at Beverwyck, recorded the will of “Anneke Jans, first widow of Roeloff Jansen of Materlant, then widow of Rev. Everhardus Bogardus, living at Beverwyck.” Her seven surviving children, and the two daughters of her deceased daughter Fytje were her heirs. The four Roelofs children were to be given 250 guilders each “out of the receipts or the value of the . . .Bouwerie [on Manhattan] before any other division takes place....”

On 23 February 1663, her son Jan Roelofsen paid for the use of the burial pall. So we may assume that Anneke was buried on that day, or shortly before. The services no doubt took place in the old “Blockhouse Church” built near her home in 1656. She was doubtless buried in the close-by regular Dutch Calvinist Burying Ground. In 1805 this burying ground was dismantled and its remains removed to the public State Street Burying Ground. By 1867 the contents of all of the graves in the State Street Burying Grounds had been removed to the Albany Rural Cemetery at Menands. Her remains undoubtedly were among those ultimately moved to Menands, but as this is written, we do not know with certainty their whereabouts.5

There appears to be no reason why we should repeat the details of the sale of various parcels of land after the death of Anneke, or of the long series of litigation over the Domine’s Bouwerie. Mr. Totten discussed these actions, as did others.

---

Roelof Janszen, van Marstrand, and his wife Anneke Jans, van Flekkeroy, had six children whose surnames were Roelofs for the five girls, and Roelofszen for the one boy. None was surnamed Jansen. These six children:

1. Lijntje, born in Amsterdam, was baptized there in the Lutheran Church 21 July 1624. She died before her parents arrived in New Netherland in May 1630.

2. Sara, born in Amsterdam, late in 1626 or early in 1627, was baptized there in the Lutheran Church 5 April 1627. (On 21 June 1642 she was “about sixteen years old,” and her marriage record said she was born in Amsterdam.) Her will, dated 29 July 1692, with a codicil of 7 August 1693, was proved 21 October 1693. Sara married first, with intention dated 29 June 1642, in the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam, Dr. Hans Kierstede, a surgeon. She married second, with intention dated 1 September 1669 in New York, Cornelis Van Borsum. She married third, with intention dated 21 July 1683, in New York, Elbert Elbertsen Stoothoff, as his second wife.6

3. Trijntje was born in Amsterdam in 1629, and baptized there in the Lutheran Church on 24 June 1629. (On 21 June 1642, she was thirteen years old, and her marriage record said she was born in Amsterdam.) She married first, with intention dated 24 February 1647 in New Amsterdam, Willem (de) Kay. After 16 September 1652, she married Lucas Rodenbrug, vice director of the West India Company at Curacao. She was his widow on 17 April 1657. On 24 April 1658, with intention dated 29 March, in New Amsterdam, she married third, Johannes Pieterszen Verbrugge / Van Brugh / Ver Brugge.7

4. Sijtje, at times Fijtje, was born about 1631, probably on the de Laets Burg farm in the present city of Rensselaer. (On 21 June 1642 she was eleven years old.) She died before her mother, probably in 1659. She married Pieter Hartgers.

5. Jan was born about 1633 on de Laets Burg farm. (On 21 June 1642 he was nine years old, and on 10 February 1654, 20 years old.) He was unmarried at the time of his mother’s death. It has been said that he later married Annatje Pieters, and that both were killed in 1690 at Schenectady.

6. Annatje was born about 1636 in New Amsterdam. (On 21 June 1642 she was six years old.) She died before her mother, probably in childhood.

Domine Everardus Bogardus and his wife, Anneke Jans had four sons surnamed Bogardus. All four were born in New Amsterdam, and undoubtedly baptized there by their father. However, available records are not early enough to cover the baptism of Willem, the first son. The four children:

1. Willem born about 1639, was baptized before the first recorded baptism of 25 September 1639. He died in New York City in 1711. He married first, with intention dated 29 August 1659 in New Amsterdam, Wijntje Sijbrants. He married second, about 1668, Walbruga de Sille, widow of Frans Kregier.

2. Cornelis was baptized 9 September 1640. He died in Beverwyck / Albany before 6 May 1666. He married, as her first husband, Helena Teller.

3. Jonas was baptized on 4 January 1643. He was living on 9 March 1670/71; no evidence of marriage.

4. Pieter was baptized 2 April 1645. He died in 1703 in Kingston, N. Y. He married Wyntje Bosch.

Anneke Jans’ mother came to New Netherland before the Roelofs family moved from Rensselaerswyck to New Amsterdam in 1634, and she may have come to America with the family in 1630. Her full name, as assembled from various source records was Trijntje (given name), Roelofs [datter] (patronymic, or father’s given name--from Anneke’s marriage intention), Jonas (possessive surname based on given name of husband), van Maesterland (place name, usually based on birthplace). Thus Tryntje (Roelofs) Jonas Van Maesterland was most likely born in Marstrand, now in Sweden, to a father whose given name was Roelof. Her husband’s given name was Johan, a Teutonic name usually transliterated by the Dutch to Jan or Johannes, and at times, to Jonas as in this case. Two daughters of Johan and Tryntje are known, that is, Anneke and Marritje. Their full patronymic was Johansdatter, or as transliterated and abbreviated, Jans.

Tryntje Jonas was not, as has been stated in various accounts, the mother or grandmother of (1) Wolfert Webber, or any other children surnamed Webber, (2) Arientje Jans, first the wife of Jan Van de Water, then the first wife of Govert Loockerman, (3) Hester Jans, sister of Ariaentje, and wife of Jacob Wolphertsen Van Couwenhoven, (4) Tryntje Jans, wife of Rutger Jacobsen Rutgers (actually the daughter of Jan Jansen van Breestede), (5) Anna, Marritje, Maria, or Anna Maria, who married Hacke Bruysen in 1653 (his wife was a sister of Corsen Jans Eggert), or Cornelis Janszen Van Hoorn in 1659 (his wife was the step daughter of Fransoys Paschot and was born in Dutch Brazil.), or Christian Barentsen Van Hoorn (his wife was not Anna Maria, but Jannetje Jans, born about 1629 in Utrecht), or (5) any other grandchildren surnamed Jans.8

Tryntje Jonas served as the official midwife for the West India Company in New Amsterdam. On 26 November 1635 the Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company recorded in its minutes that a letter had been received from her, “requesting an increase in wages and some necessaries to.... [The sentence was not finished and nothing was said about the action taken.].” We can surmise that she had probably served at least a year before asking for an increase in wages. For the lack of a more exact date, we assume that she began serving by the second half of 1634. We do not know when she stopped serving or when she died. She appears to have served until her death or the onset of her terminal illness; for on 11 August 1647, as Domine Bogardus was about to sail to the Netherlands, Dirck Cornelissen van Wensveen, husband of Marritje Jans, gave Domine Bogardus, the other son-in-law of Tryntje Jonas, a power of attorney to collect from the West India Company the sum of 254 guilders, 2 stivers and 8 pennies “as appears on the Book of Monthly Wages, No. F. folio 17,” which was due at the death of “Trijn Jonas van Maesterland, in her lifetime, midwife here in New Netherland.”

That power of attorney was lost on 27 September 1647, when the Domine was drowned. On 17 August 1649, Anneke Jans, then widow of Domine Bogardus, gave power of attorney to the Domine’s brother, Cornelis Willemsen Bogaert, living in Leyden, to collect money due by the West India Company in Amsterdam to her as “heiress of her mother Tryn Jonasz. [not Jansen as in CDM: 49], deceased, late midwife here,” and also to collect “such money as may be due to her late husband, Everardus Bogardus...together with whatever may be coming to her or her late husband from any other private individuals, whether friends or blood-inheritance or otherwise.” This was signed, “Dis ist X merck van Anneke Jans, self geselt.”9

Anneke Jans in Fact and Fiction by George Olin Zabriskie, F.A.S.G. The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, April 1973.

Sources:

1. A.J.F. van Laer’s translations of the documents in the first four volumes of Dutch manuscripts in the New York State Library (the first of which was completely destroyed and the other damaged in the 1911 fire at the library) will be issued later this year. The author used microfilm copies of them.

2. Major compiled sources:

John Reynolds Totten “Anneke Jans (1607-8? - 1663) and Her Two Husbands, Roelof Jans (or Jansen) and Rev. (Domine) Everardus Bogardus and Their Descendants to the Third Generation Inclusive.” REC. 56:201-43. “Anneke Jans Bogardus (1599-1663) and Her Possible Blood Connection with the Sybrant, Selyns and Webber Families in New Netherland.” REC.57:11-54, 119-42. Editorial comment on these articles and those by de Boer and by Hoffman (see below): REC. 57:81-88, 402-405; 58:184-91; 63:119-30. “Grevenraedt Family.” REC. 60:41-71, 127-53, 232-53. “Brouwer (Brower-Brewer) Family Notes” REC. 67:103-11, 217-29.

Louis P. de Boer, “Selyns-Kock-Webber and Other Family Relations” REC.57:365-81.

William J. Hoffman, “Notes on Old Dutch-American Family Relations” REC. 63:4-21, 11-19, 309. “An Armory of American Families of Dutch Descent” REC. 64:146-50; 72:227, 309-10.

John O. Evjen, “Scandinavian Immigrants in New York, 1630-1674”, Minneapolis, 1916.

Ruth Putman, Annetje Jans’ Farm in Historic New York, Series I, Volume I, Port Washington, NY (probably by her, without a byline; translated from the English:) “Anneke Jans Bogardus en hare Bezitting” in Het Nieuws Van Den Dag [The News of the Day], Amsterdam, 20 and 22 July, 2 August 1886.

Aimee Roberts Thomasson, Our Kith and Kin, Tuscaloosa, AL, n.d. Thomas Bentley Wikoff, Anneke Jans Bogardus and her New Amsterdam Estate, Past and Present, Romance of a Dutch Maiden and Its Present Day Sequel, Historical, Legal, Genealogical, Indianapolis, 1924.

George Olin Zabriskie, “Founding Families of New Netherland, Numbers 5 and 6, The Roelofs and Bogardus Families” in de Halve Maen [quarterly of the Holland Society of New York] October 1972, January and April 1973, which delves more deeply into the historical aspects than does the present article, and less into the Webber, Cock and Selyns families, and has more detailed reference citations.

3. Registers of the Dutch Reformed Churches in Amsterdam, microfilm call numbers of the Genealogical Society Library in Salt Lake City, Utah: 113,190; 113,358. Registers of the Lutheran Churches in Amsterdam, call number 113,415. These and similar films may be viewed in Salt Lake City, or at any Latter Day Saints Branch Genealogical Library.

4. Columbia-Lippincott Gazetteer p. 619; Flekkeroy [58.05N 8.03E] Vest Agder, Norway, 4 miles south of Kirstiansand. Is coastal resort, with good harbor. Has old fortress. p. 1158: Marstrand [57.53N 11.34E] Och Bohus, Sweden. 18 miles northwest of Goteborg. Founded 1225, 14th century church, 17th century fortress. (Known as Maesterland, Marstrand was a Dutch commercial out-post in Hanseatic League days.)

5. ER 237; FW 55; “Deacons’ Accounts, 1654-1664” in Dutch Settlers of Albany Yearbook, 1932-1934, p.4; Albany County Records, Notorial Papers 1:296.

6. MDC 11, 34, 53; Howard S. F. Randolph, “The Kierstede Family,” REC. 55:224-33. 329-38.

7. MDC 14, 22; William J. Hoffman, “De Huybert-Roodenburgh,” REC. 71:241-2; John Ross Delafield, “The Van Brugh Family,” REC. 66:2-11, 166-77.

8. Dutch Reformed Church Registers: Haerlem proclamation, G. S. call number 115,554; Amsterdam intention (Oude Kerk) 113,200; Amsterdam marriage (Oude Kerk) 113,365; Lincoln C. Cocheu “The Van Kouwenhoven-Conover Family,” REC. 70:353-4.

9. CDM 40, 49; A. J. F. van Laer, ed. “Minutes of the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch West India Company, 1635-1636,” REC. 49:222.

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Cottage/7239/anneke.htm

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ANNEKE WEBBER JANS BOGARDUS

A genealogical record for William Henry McGillivray(336) was done on May 1, 1941 for the purpose of proving his descendancy from Anneke Jans Bogardus. They believed there was a great deal of wealth to be inherited and there was a mad scramble to prove their kinship from amongst an incredibly large number of descendants. I have been told that the land where the Woolworth Tower stands, Wall Street and also Trinity Church (both in New York) was part of this inheritance. Family lore states that Anneke Jans Bogardus' will stated that the land that Trinity Church stood on would remain in the city's care for 99 years at which point it would be split between her heirs. I have learned through reading various accounts that the land was most likely taken from the Jans heirs by England during the revolution and Trinity Church, now a corporation, kept control of it long afterwards. The heirs have managed to bring several lawsuits against the church, New York state and New York city. Supposedly, someone in Texas was successful in receiving some sort of compensation but that seems impossible. In any case, I will allow you to make your own judgements based on the information I have included. The picture on the left was scanned in from an old newspaper copy and I airbrushed and enhanced as much as I could to get it to look like the original picture of Anneke. Wish I could find the original article! For another excellent site with additional information, please check out this site: http://walter.gilbert.name/gen/htmfile/3854.htm

Just recently P. Saxton provided me with the following pictures. She states: "My great grandmother Myrtle Converse is from the Ohio side of this family her letters and newspaper clippings start 1909 and go thru 1923. As I understand she was present at a court hearing in Indinapolis IN in 1923. Thank you for your page about this. I have been able to put what I have in some context. You made things about her clear. I also have a 13 page doc. done by a researcher, Ethel Kelsey, as to our Anneke." These are pictures of Anneke Jans Bogardus and Reverend Everardus Bogardus taken from oil paintings.

The following information has been gleaned from five different sources (so far).

In a Minneapolis newspaper article about 1930 the heading reads "....has covered 300 years, and hasn't yet come to its climax, links Minneapolis with the adventures of a wrathful Dutch Prince, and a Princess who eloped with a farmer's son and raised pigs on the site of Gotham." Here are a few paragraphs from that article:

Anneka was a prince's daughter" but she eloped with a farmer. She chose the love of a peasant's son even though it entailed a life of hardship in a wild, strange land. She gave up her home, her friends and her country. In the fury of his wrath at the willfulness of his youngest daughter, old Prince Wolfert swore that neither she nor her descendants unto the sixth generation should ever touch one guilder of it. That strange will is recalled today"for six generations of the descendants of Anneka and Roelof have passed and the seventh"who were to fall heir, to Prince Wolfert's quixotic will may come into their inheritance, but not as the heirs of Prince Wolfert, but as the heirs of Anneka Jens, the girl who placed love above wealth and position and who endured a life of hardship in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam.

For the little 62 acre farm in the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam with her husband sought to tame from its native wilderness has produced a crop of skyscrapers, stores and tenements which makes the denied inheritance of Prince Wolfert a joke. In the passing of 300 years or more, the desolate farm of the immigrant bride has become an estate whose settlement has formed one the of the greatest legal disputes of all times. Its value is so great that it can scarcely be appraised. The Trinity Church corporation now owns the land which once comprised Anneka's farm and the farm of her neighbor, Peter Wikoff. Some of the buildings that stand on this property are the Woolworth building, the highest in the worlds" the Standard Oil offices, 26 Broadway; the Singer building, Wall street; the Morgan office, the United States subtreasury and historic Trinity church. The ground alone is estimated to have a value of not less than $1,000,000,000. [picture: Looking south at the Jans Farm]

Does the ghost of Anneka Jans, "a little woman with merry eyes beneath her Dutch cap and a fondness for bright clothing," according to her biographers, walk historic Duane street, once a lane through her farm, dreaming of the joke that she has played upon her wrathful father and his seventh generation will? For the seventh generation of Anneka's descendants has arrived and some of them are seeking to prove their right to an estate of unestimated value while Prince Wolfert's will is only vaguely remembered as the threat of an angry old man.

It is believed by 80 descendants of Anneka Jens and Peter Wikoff, banded together in "The Descendants' Association" that the climax of the romantic story of the runaway princess and her 62 acre farm is about to be written.

The article goes on to say that there are hundreds of descendants, four that are known in Minneapolis and several in the Northwest (and this doesn't even include us!) There was a convention in Indianapolis, IN for the Descendant's Association. Also, a description of the farm, also called the King's Farm, the Duke's Farm and the Queen's Farm, reads as such: "...it extended from Warren street along Christopher street. The Hudson river forming the base of a kind of unequal triangle. Wouter Van Twiller, the Dutch governor of New Amsterdam, granted this tract in 1636 to Roelef Jans, five years after his arrival in America."

From Anneke Jans Bogardus and Her Farm, Nash, New York, 1896, pages 49-61:

In the year 1630, when Pieter Minnuit was Governor or Director General of New Netherlands, under "the Right Honorable Prudent Lords, the Lords Directors of the United Provinces of the Netherlands," there landed at New Amsterdam a sturdy Dutchman named Roeloff Jansen. He had been a man of some position, and even of official standing, in his native town of Maasland.

The spirit of adventure, however, was abroad. Emigrants of high and low degree were leaving old homes for new fields of enterprise and industry. Bold discoverers were revealing new wonders of the sea and land., and bringing to light the hidden mysteries of the geographical world. New maps were planned; new enterprises stimulated the curious or the avaricious. . .

. . . Roeloff Jansen caught the spirit of unrest. He had a strong young wife, willing to brave the seas, and a little family, and there was a future to make for them; so they bade farewell to the fatherland and sailed for the Dutchman's new field of adventure and fortune, "Nieuw Nederland."

Jansen procured a position as one of the superintendents at Rensselaerswyck, on the Hudson, the great territory granted as a patroonship to Kilian van Rensselaer, the rich diamond polisher of Amsterdam.

Jansen's name was perpetuated there in that of the kill or creek called "Roeloff Jansen's Kill," which runs in the Hudson River between Red Hook and the present city of Hudson.

After a sojourn of a few years, filling the duties of his post under the patroon's agents at Rensselaerswyck, Jansen seems to have moved with his family to New Amsterdam, having obtained from Director Van Twiller, in 1636, a ground brief or patent for the farm or Bouwery of about sixty-two acres which has been for nearly two hundred years a prominent bone of contention.

Roeloff Jansen did not long enjoy his new possessions; he was called to another world about the year 1637 or 1638, leaving behind him five sturdy little children, and a buxom, attractive widow, then and now widely known as Mrs. Annetje or Anneke Jans.

. . .and within a year of her bereavement the subject of our monograph could boast of being the wife of one of the most prominent and remarkable characters in the early history of our city. [Domine Everardus Bogardus]

The widow, however, was of a prudent turn of mind, and before her marriage to her new husband she took care to make a property settlement of her estate. Her marriage settlement is still among our archives. By it she settled 1000 guilders upon her children by the first marriage out of their father's estate. The settlement thus concludes: "She, Anna Jans, and E. Bogardus also promise to bring up the children, with the help of God, decently, provide them necessary clothing and food, keep them at school, let them learn reading, writing, and a good trade." ..

Domine Evarardus Bogardus, the second husband of Mrs. Anneke Jans, came over from Holland in the year 1633 with Wouter Van Twiller, who succeeded Pieter Minuit as Director-General of the little Dutch colony. He was the second established clergyman in the settlement, and was a man of education and intellect, as well as one of a very determined and independent character. His position was an important and distinguished one. He held his trust directly from the directors of the Company in Holland and when he differed from the local government in matters either of a moral or political nature, he did not hesitate to assert his opinions and enforce his views openly and vigorously.

[There are several paragraphs describing his character and adventures which I have chosen to leave out for the sake of brevity]

. . . Domine Bogardus met with a sad ending. He bade farewell to his wife and children for a visit to the vaderland, and took passage in the ship Princess, in the year 1647. ...the vessel mistook the channel, and both Kieft [a rival] and the Domine perished by shipwreck on the rocks off the coast of Wales.

Not long after the Domine's decease, Mrs. Bogardus determined to leave New Amsterdam and settle among her early friends on the Hudson. She accordingly took up her residence at Beverwyck, now the site of part of the present Albany, and sold her house in New Amsterdam. She was at this time, doubtless, a lady in very comfortable circumstances for those times. Besides her farm and her two houses, she was the proprietor of many acres of land near the present village of Newtown, on Long Island, and also at Hell Gate, where she owned eighty acres granted her in 1654. She acquired, also, land at Beverwyck, and from the provisions of her will we may conclude that she was quite well to do in the world.

She must have lived several years at Bverwyck, and died there in the year 1663, about thirty years after her arrival in the province. Her will was made at Beverwyck before Dirck Van Schelluyne, the notary, and two of her friends, Rutger Jacobs van Schoonderwert and Everet Wendell, as she lay, according to the recitals in the will, "on her bed in a state of sickness, but perfectly sensible and in the full possession of her mental powers, and capable to testate, and recommending her immortal soul the Almighty God, her Creator and Redeemer, and consigning her body to Christian burial." Her remains were interred in the yard of the old Dutch church in Hudson Street in Albany, and there they still are.

The article continues to list her children, their marriages and what they were left by her will.

Continuing on page 54-

THE FARM

The farm called the Domine's Bouwerey, which has been the subject of much contention, was granted by Governor Van Twiller to Roeloff Jansen and his wife in 1636. It was then in a very rough state, and had never been cultivated.

The grant was confirmed in 1654 by Director Stuyvesant, by a patent to Mrs. Annetje Jans, as widow of Everardus Bogardus.

The description in the patent from Stuyvesant is in two portions, bounded together northerly by the partition line of "old Jan's land," by the Cripple Bush and "the Kalckhoeck," westerly by the river, and southerly by the posts and rails of the Company's land.

On the 27th March, 1667, three years after the occupation by the English, Governor Nichols made a confirmatory patent to the heirs of Mrs. Bogardus, reciting the original grant form Van twiller. The boundaries in this his patent are of two pieces, one bounded on 'old Jan's land' and the swamp on the north and east, the river on the west, and by a line drawn from the house by the strand side on the south. The other piece, adjoining and south of the former, is bounded south by the fence of the land belonging to the Company, and by the 'Chalke Hookoe" on the east. The Kripplebosh, or swamp, above referred to, was one of the outlets of Fresh-water Pond, in the rear of the present City Hall; it covered the land now occupied by the lower part of Canal Street, and was afterward known as part of Lispenard's meadows.

As transferred by the above patents, the farm is described as consisting of 32 morgens, or 62 acres.

The description given would comprehend a tract between a line drawn near the north side of Warren Street on the south, and Canal Street, or perhaps Desbrosses Street, on the north, on the west by the river, and on the east by a series of irregular lines west of Broadway.

The southern boundary was the Company's. Duke's or King's or Queen's farm, as it was variously termed, running from Fulton Street north to Warren Street, and bounded by the river and Broadway.

This term King's or Queen's farm in subsequent conveyances and patents was supposed to include, and it seems to have been conceded in most of the actions brought, the Domine's Bouwery above described, although properly the latter was no part of the Company's or King's farm.

[Once again the book goes into great detail over various patents and boundaries. Three heirs had deeded over sixty-two acres to Colonel Francis Lovelace. This deed did not include the share of Cornelius Bogardus, who was deceased at the time]

It will be remembered that in 1673, two years after this deed was given by the heirs to Governor Lovelace, the Dutch recovered possession of New Amsterdam from the English by a sudden attack, and held it about a year. On its restoration to the English in 1674, under the Treaty of Westminster, Governor Andros, representing the Duke of York as proprietor, took possession of the farm in his behalf, and, as it is understood, seized and confiscated, in behalf of the Duke, Governor Lovelace's estates, including this Bouwery.

The fact of this deed having been given by the heirs to Governor Lovelace seems to have been for a long time forgotten. In December, 1785, it was discovered by the Trinity Church trustees, and its contents communicated to some of the heirs as if it was a complete answer to their claims.

[various leases were made until]....In 1697 Governor Fletcher leased "the King's Farm" to the corporation of Trinity Church, for a rent of sixty bushels of wheat, for seven years from August 1, 1698. ...but Queen Ann, by an order in June, 1708, confirmed the vacating act of 1699, and not the act repealing it, and resumed possession of all the lands for the crown.

In 1700, Lord Cornbury, who was a zealous protector of the Established Church, leased the Queen's farm to Trinity Church for as long a period as he should be Governor, and in 1704 Trinity church sublet it to one George Ryerse for five years, at a rent of £30.

We now come down to the grant in fee of the year 1705. We find the church in actual possession, under the lease from Lord Cornbury, of what they claim as not only the old Company's or Duke's farm, extending from Fulton Street north to Warren Street, but also of what was comprehended under the name of the Domine's Bouwery, extending north to Canal Street.

In the year 1705 the grant was made to the church under which they claim to hold adversely and in hostility to all other interests. It was patent from the Colonial Governor, Cornbury, as acting for Queen Anne, to the corporation of Trinity church of the tract known as the Queen's farm, as then in the occupation of George Ryerse, bounded easterly partly by Broadway and partly by the common and partly by the swamp, and westerly by the river. It will be observed that there are no boundaries given on the north or south. [picture: The church in the Fort]

Once again there are several paragraphs that I have omitted, please refer to the book if you would like more detail. There is another chapter just on the lawsuits. Basically it says that Trinity Church property was obtained from the crown by misrepresentation and deception; the dissenting citizens include Bogardus descendants. The city of New York put forward its claim and the State has not been idle in asserting its rights as owner paramount, succeeding to the rights of the British crown. Basically, what the heirs are claiming is that the ground called Domine's Hook or the Bouwery was never part of the Duke's or Queens farm, and therefore did not pass under the grant from Queen Anne, but that Trinity Church was merely an intruder on the Bogardus region and possession, except that in 1785 it bought out the right of Cornelius Bogardus in the property for £700, and then went into a regular unrestrained possession, but which possession was merely as tenant in common with the other heirs. It appeared in the evidence that the church had never put on record the above-mentioned deed from Cornelius, and had kept it somewhat secret. The claimants averred that the deed was concealed because the church feared that its legal effect would be to establish it as tenant in common with the other heirs.

Page 847-

Lately an old Dutch Bible, alleged to have belonged formerly to Mrs. Anneke Bogardus, has come to light in the hands of one Miss Harriet Van Atten, of Glenville, Schenectady County, a direct descendant of Pieter Bogardus, a son of the old lady, to whom it is stated to have been given by her. On the strength of this, and pair of gold earrings that once belonged to her venerable ancestor as personal property, application was recently made to the Surrogate of Albany for letters of administration upon the personality of Mrs. Anneke Bogardus.

The Surrogate of Albany County refused to entertain the application, and the matter is now on appeal to the General Term of the Supreme Court from his decision. If letters of administration are granted, the intention is to open the legal battle again, and to claim an accounting from Trinity Church.

This coveted tract of land has not only been the subject of forensic battle, but bone and sinew have been engaged in the contest; heads have been broken and shots have been fired in support of the claim of the redoubtable and indefatigable heirs.

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Below find an extract from the book An Account of Anneke Janse and Her Family Also the Will, Albany, Joel Munsell, 1870. Pages 3 and 4.

ANNEKE JANSE

This famous character has been so long and so prominently before the public, it would hardly be expected that much of interest respecting her could be found at this day. But in delving among the public record, we continue to find new facts, which aid in developing her history. She was among the first immigrants that came to settle the manor of Rensselaerswyck and arrived in 1630, with her husband Roeloff Jansen Van Maesterlandt, who came out with his family as farmer to the patroon at a salary of seventy-two dollars a year. Five or six years afterwards the family was settled at New Amsterdam, now New York, where he received a patent from Governor Van Twiller in 1636, for 31 morgens, or 62 acres, of land, lying along the North river. About this time he died, and in 1637 or 1638, Anneke married the Rev. Everardus Bogardus, the first settled minister of the place. He died in 1647 and she returned to Albany, where her residence was on the east corner of State and James streets. She died in 1663, and was buried in the churchyard on Beaver and Hudson streets, now the site of the Second or Middle Dutch Church.

Anneke had eight children, four by each husband, of whom three daughters and three sons married and had families, and their descendants at this day are in truth a multitude. [then goes on to list the children]

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1 O'Callaghan's New Netherland, I, 433.

2 This is the only baptismal I remember to have met with that has "ke" for "je". Anettje signifies, when applied to children, little Anna; and in all cases is a term of endearment.

(Footnotes from original text)

The account below was taken from a book I no longer remember but probably akin to the New England Genealogical Register or a book on famous persons pp. 116-117 and it lists as it's sources: Harpers Monthly Magazine for May 1885, Anneke Jans Bogardus: Her Farm, and how it became the Property of Trinity Church, New York, Nash, New York, 1896; Sandford's Chancery Reports, vol. iv., pp. 633-672; Schuyler's Colonial New York, vol. ii.:

JANS, yans, ANNEKE or ANNETJE (?-1663).

An early Dutch colonist of New Netherland, famous because of lawsuits concerning her farm between her heirs and the corporation of Trinity Church, New York city. She emigrated from Holland to New Netherland with her husband, Roeloff Jansen in 1630. In 1636 the latter obtained a grant of 62 acres of land on Manhattan Island, extending from the present Warren Street to the neighborhood of Desbrosses Street, and lying between Broadway and the Hudson River. Soon afterwards Jansen died and she married the Dutch dominie Everardus Bogardus (q.v.). In 1654, after her husband's death, she secured a patent to the farm in her own name, and later removed to Albany, where she died leaving her property to be divided among her eight surviving children. After the English had taken possession in 1664 all property-holders were required to secure new titles for their lands. Accordingly, the heirs secured a new patent for the farm from Governor Nicolls, on March 27, 1667. Four years later, March 9, 1671, the property was sold to Governor Lovelace, all of the heirs signing the deed of transfer except the wife and child of Cornelius Bogardus, a son of Anneke and her second husband who had died in 1666. It is largely upon this omission that the subsequent suits have been based. Upon the recall of Governor Lovelace(q.v.) the Government confiscated the Jans farm and subsequently granted it to Trinity Church by a patent sealed on November 2, 1705. In 1719 Cornelius Brower, a descendant of the Cornelius Bogardus whose heirs had not signed, took forcible possession of a portion of the farm, and on being evicted began an action against Trinity church, which was decided against him. In 1757 he made another unsuccessful attempt. Another Cornelius Bogardus took possession of part of the estate in 1784, and held it until he was evicted by the courts in 1786. His son John brought suit in 1830 to secure one-thirtieth of the farm and a proportionate share of back rents. In order to secure the money necessary to carry on this suit, he sent circulars to all the descendants of Anneke Jans asking them to contribute, which they did most liberally until 1847, when judgment was again given for the church. Since then there have been several other suits brought by the heirs, but they have been uniformly decided in favor of the defendants.

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The following genealogical record was drawn up by an attorney at the request of William Henry McGillivray to show the lineage from Anneke Jans Bogardus to John McGillivray and Mary Jane Hudson and their children:

GENEALOGICAL RECORD

William Henry McGillivray

May 1, 1941.

Anneka Jans Bogardus1

Anneka Webber, daughter of Wolferd Webber, Fourth King of Holland, whose father was William, Prince of Orange, was born in the King's mansion in Holland in 1605. She was married to Raelof Jans2 in Holland in 1624. They emigrated to America in 1633. He died in Beneryek, New York, in 1637, and she married the Rev. Everardus Bogardus in New York, Jan. 29th, 1638. She died at her home in Albany, New York, in 1663, at the age of 53 years.

Anneka Webber was the grandmother3 of the King of Holland, Prince of Orange, or William the Fourth. Her father's name was Wolferd Webber and her mother's name was Annetyie4 Koch Webber.*

Anneka Webber Jans married Rev. Everardus Bogardus, Dominie Bogardus, Pastor of the First Reformed Church at New Amsterdam, arrived in N.Y. April, 1633, on the ship Southbury from Holland. He was married to Anneka Raelof Jans, Jan. 29, 1638. He sailed from N.Y. Aug. 18, 1647, on the ship Princess for the Fatherland.

Heinrich Koch, born May 28, 1510, in Holland. Made will 1599. Married Neisgen Selyns in 1584. Made will 1610.

- Issue -

Jans baptized

1585
Annetgen "

1587

Married Hans Lenard 1605
Annetgen[5] "

1589

Married Wolferd Webber July 8, 1600
Lartzgen "
1591
Married Justen De Bener 1612
Annetgen Koch baptized 1589. Married Wolferd Webber July 8, 1600. Left will 1605.**

- Issue -

Hendruk baptized

July 3, 1601   

Bartelmus "

Nov. 19, 1602 Died in infancy 

Wolfer, Jr. "

Jan. 10, 1604 Married Anna Wallace April 7, 1631 

Bartelmus "

Nov. 20, 1605 Died in infancy 

Neisken "

May 30, 1607   

Angzieta "

June 15, 1708   

Barbara "

June 5, 1610 Died in infancy 

Barbara "

Aug. 30, 1612   

Hester "

Nov. 9, 1614   

Bartelmus "

Dec. 18, 1616   

William "

Dec. 17, 1617   

Sara "

Dec. 27, 1618   

Johannes "

1620   

Anneka Webber, Born in Holland, 1605, Married Raelof Jans, 1624.

- Issue -

Sarah Jans, Born 1626, Married Hans Kierstede, June 29, 1642.

- Issue -

Catherine Kierstede, Born 1660, Married Johannes Kip, June 29, 1681.

- Issue -

Jacobus Kip, Born 1682, Married Catherine Dellact, Dec. 14, 1704.

- Issue -

Johannes Kip, born 1705, Married Margaret Vanetten, 1723.

- Issue -

Eva Kip, Born 1728, Married Isaac Delmatree, Feb. 1, 1752.

- Issue -

Johannes Delmatree, Born Feb. 26, Married Betsy Lester, July 17, 1793

- 2 -

Johannes Delmatree - Betsy Lester (Cont'd)

- Issue -

Anne Mariah, Born Mar. 15, 1795, Married Robert Hudson Feb. 4, 1814.

He was a major in war of 1812 in Canada. Born Feb. 28, 1785, in one of these four cities or towns: Marlborough, Bolton, Northboro, or Worcester; probably Worcester is the right place. All are in Massachusetts. He died Feb. 1, 1875, in Saginaw, Michigan.

Children:

George Merit, Born

Jan. 5, 1815 in

Henehenbrook
Canada
Eliza Maria "

Sept. 9, 1817 "

"
"
Henry Smith "

July 13, 1818 "

"
"
Susannah "

Mar. 5, 1820 "

"
"
Joseph Albert "

Mar. 9, 1822 "

"
"
John "

Oct. 6, 1823 "

"
"
William "

Aug. 11, 1825 "

"
"
Benjamin Lester "

Sept. 13, 1829 "

"
"
Frederick Brick "

June 14, 1831 "

"
"
- Issue -

Henry Smith Hudson[6] , Born July 13, 1818 in Henehenbrook, Canada.

Married Ellen Fairbairn, (Born June 22, 1821, Died April 25, 1902.) Mar. 9, 1842, in Ottawa City. He died Feb. 14, 1893 in Bristol, Canada.

Children:

Mary Jane Hudson Born

Dec. 16, 1842 in

Bristol
Canada
Joseph Albert Hudson "

Feb. 2, 1845       

Annie Hudson "

Apr. 22, 1847       

Eliza Hudson "

June 2, 1850 Died

June 7, 1850
William Hudson "

Dec. 23, 1851 in

Bristol
Canada
Robert Hudson "

Dec. 23, 1851 "

Bristol
Canada
Benjamin Smith Hudson "

Feb. 5, 1855       

John Hudson "

Sept. 2, 1857 Died

Oct. 8, 1857
Frances Alice Hudson "

Sept. 23, 1860       

John Henry Hudson "

Sept. 19, 1865 Died June 27, 1926

Spokane
Washington
Mary Jane Hudson, Born Dec. 16, 1842, Married John McGillivray, Dec. 5, 1864.

Married in Ottawa City. Died Aug. 23, 1933, at 5405 South K St., Tacoma, Washington.

John McGillivray, Born Mar. 15, 1841 in Dalesville, Canada, and died Feb. 13, 1893, in Staples, Minnesota.

Children:

William Henry Born Nov. 4, 1865 in New Market Canada

Edward James " Nov. 19, 1867 in Thornbury Canada

Edward James " Jan. 22, 1870 in Port Arthur Canada

Alexander " Jan. 28, 1874 " " "

Ellen Jane " Aug. 18, 1876 " " "

Benjamin " Aug. 26, 1879 " Staples Minnesota

George " Aug. 26, 1879 " Do. Do.

Mary Jane " Dec. 15, 1881 " Do. Do.

William Henry McGillivray, Born Nov. 4, 1865, in New Market, Canada.

Married Minnie Maude Frary.

Records of John and Mary Jane McGillivray, parents of William Henry McGillivray.

John McGillivray, Born March 15, 1841, at Dalesville, Prov. of Quebec. Mary Jane McGillivray (maiden name Hudson) born 1842 at Bristol, Prov. of Quebec. United in marriage at Bristol, Prov. of Quebec. John McGillivray died at Staples, Minnesota, February 13, 1893. Mary Jane Hudson McGillivray died August 23rd, 1933, at Tacoma, Washington. William Henry McGillivray son of above named deceased, born Nov. 4, 1865, at New Market, Canada, - now living. (Married to Minnie Maude Frary on May 1, 1889, at Mondova, Wisconsin) Minnie Maude was born Jan. 15, 1868, at Dane County, Wisconsin.

Heirs of William Henry and Minnie Maude McGillivray

Beulah Esther, born May 30, 1894, at Staples, Township, Todd County, Minnesota.

Joyce Hope, born August 21, 1911, at Minneapolis, Minnesota

• Editor's Note: Anneke's mother was Catherine Jonas. Possibly Annetje Koch was a second marriage for Wolfert. It is interesting though the great detail given to this marriage.
  • Editor's Note: This is impossible as she would have been only 11 at the time of her marriage.

The record above, though retyped, is in the exact words and format of the original that was prepared for William H. McGillivray. As you will note there are many errors, particularly in spelling. I have attempted to point them out through footnotes.

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In the book Anneke Jans Bogardus and her New Amsterdam Estate Past and Present, Romance of a Dutch Maid and It's Present Day New World Sequel compiled by Thomas Bentley Wikoff, Indianapolis, 1924 he seeks to clear up how exactly Anneke is related to the royal family. One thing he mentions is that Anneke's daughter-in-law, Wintje Bogardus, did make a trip to Holland with her young family in 1666 for the purpose of settling the Webber estate which was valued at $10 million which would suggest legitimacy to this inheritance. She died there and it was never settled. Apparently, the money is still intact over there. For simplicity's sake I have attached the last name of Webber to all descendants of William III though I am not sure that this is proper as they often took on place names.

William III of Holland's (William of Orange) first wife was of Saxony and his second was Leipsic 1575. Their son was Count William of Nassau who married Countess Stallberg and had twelve children including 7 daughters and Adolph Webber, Louis Webber, John Webber, Henry Webber and William Webber "the Silent".

William "the Silent" became Prince of Orange at 11 years of age. He married Anne of Egmont who was the daughter of Cunty De Buren. She died in 1558. They had two children:

Phillip William Webber, 2nd Prince of Orange, William II

Mary or Marie Webber who m: Count Hohenlohe

William "the Silent" married for a second time to Anne of Saxony who was the duagher of Maurice of Saxony. After three children they divorced:

Maurice b: 1567

Anna m: County William Louis

Emilie m: Pretender to Throne of Portugal

William "the Silent" married June 12, 1525 to Charlotte de Bourbon whose father was Duc de Montpinsier and her brother was Francois de Bourbon. She died in May 1582. They had six children:

Louisa Juliana Webber m: Frederick IV

Elizabeth Webber

Catherina Belgica Webber

Flandrina Webber

Charlotte Brobantica Webber

Emilie Webber

William married for a fourth time to Louisa de Coligny and they had one son:

Frederick Henry Webber, b: 1584 and d: age 25. He was known as William II of Holland, William VII

of Orange and 4th Stadholder of the Dutch Republic. He had one son, William III

William the Silent by a fifth clandestine or secret marriage had two children:

Sarah Webber b: 1580 m: Sybrant

Wolfert Webber b: 1582 m: 1600 to Catherine Jonas and they had three children:

Wolfert Webber II b: 1602 m: 1622 to Arrentze Arrens

Martje Webber b: 1603 m: Tyman Jansen

Anneke Webber b: 1605 m: Jan Roelof Roeloffson (Roeloff Jans)

Wolfert II had one daughter, Rachel Webber b: 1623 who m: February 9, 1646 to John Van Horn.

Martje had one daughter, Anna Maria Jansen

Anneke had by her marriage to Roeloff Jans:

Sarah Jansen m: Hans Kierstede a surgeon

Catrina Jansen m: Johannes Pietersen Van Brugh

Fytje Jansen m: Pieter Hartgers

Jansen Jans killed by Indians

Anntije Jansen (doubtful)

Anneke had by her second marriage to Everardus Bogardus

Wilhelm (William) Bogardus m: Anna De Sillen

Jonas Bogardus

Cornelius Bogardus m: Helena Teller

Pieter Bogardus m: Wyntje Cornelise Bosch

I recently corresponded with a gentleman in the Netherlands. He said that "Holland until the present day the Central Office for Genealogy uses a standard letter to make it clear to greedy dreamers that the story current in the US on the Orange decendance and the inheritance of Anneke Jans, and the spouse of Rev. Everardus Bogardus, is mere fantasy." (I personally take exception with this statement! I am not interested in the inheritance, but rather the genealogy.) Here is what he learned about the House of Orange:

From the royal family tree you will see that William the Silent (1533-1584), Prince of Orange and Wolfert's alleged father, was not a king, but a stadtholder, some sort of chief magistrate of the "federation" of provinces constituting the Dutch Republic. It is often thought that a prince always is a king's son, but it often is the title of a ruler of a principality or a courteesy title held by members of certain noble families. William cannot have fathered a king seeing that the Netherlands were not a kingdom, but a republic.

William the Silent was succeeded as stadtholder and military commmander by his son Maurice, who in turn was followed by his brother Frederick Henry. These men governed in conjunction with the States-General, an assembly composed of representatives of each of the seven provinces but usually dominated by the largest and wealthiest province, Holland. The stadtholder's power varied, depending on his personal qualities of leadership, and the office eventually became hereditary in the house of Orange.

Frederick Henry's son, William II of Orange, became involved in a bitter quarrel with the province of Holland, and after his death no stadtholder was appointed in Holland and four other provinces for more than 20 years.

William III of Orange, who was stadtholder from 1672 until his death in 1702, was also King of England after 1689.

When William III died without heirs in 1702, a distant relative of his, John William Friso, successfully claimed the Orange title. In1747 his son became stadtholder in all seven provinces as William IV.

In the late 18th century a struggle broke out between the party of the house of Orange, who had turned conservative, and the Patriot party, who desired democratic reforms. The Orangists enjoyed a brief triumph with the help of an invading Prussian army in 1787, but in 1795 French troops and a force of self-exiled Dutch citizens replaced the republic of the seven United Provinces with the Batavian Republic, which was modeled on the revolutionary French Republic.

The Batavian Republic survived only until 1806, when Napoleon transformed the country into the Kingdom of Holland. In 1810 he incorporated it into the French Empire. After the fall of Napoleon, the independence of the Netherlands was restored in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna.

The Netherlands now continued as a kingdom under three successive Williams (I, II and II), and they were followed by queens (Wilhelmina, Juliana, and currently, Beatrix). In 1980 Princess Beatrix succeeded to the throne on the abdication of her mother, Queen Juliana. She has several sons, the pretender's name being Prince Alexander, so the successor to her throne will probably be a king.

A Dutch king has almost exclusively a symbolic and ceremonial function and his powers are rather limited. We are a full democracy and the prime-minister and his crew are held to be responsible ("The King can do no wrong").

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The following was found on the web site: http://users.ids.net/~reveritt/jans2.htm

from "Stubborn for Liberty, the Dutch in New York" by Alice P. Kenney chapter entitled "Recovering the Dutch Tradition"

p.243-245. Transcribed by Cheri Branca. Edited and tagged by Rolland Everitt.

.....Also centered on a woman, interestingly enough, was a cause celebre which made a wide public aware of the Dutch. Anneke Janse, her husband Roelof, their two small daughters, and Anneke's sister and their mother, a midwife, all apparently from Norway, were among the first settlers of Rensselaerswyck in 1630. But Roelof, a seaman, did not prosper as a farmer, and his women folk disposed of quantities of household goods -- quite possibly in the Indian trade --so the family left the Patroon's service in 1634 before the completion of their contract. But Roelof died in 1636, soon after they settled on a farm in Manhattan, and in 1638 Anneke married Domine Everardus Bogardus. Soon after this marriage she became involved in a colorful incident in which some of her husband's political opponents caused her to be arrested for indecent exposure in the streets of New Amsterdam. Anneke's defense was that while passing the blacksmith shop -- the seventeenth century equivalent of a gas station as a male gathering place -- she merely tidily lifted her skirts to keep them out of the filth which had accumulated in the street. This defense was accepted, and the incident illustrates one use to which sensation-starved frontier colonists put their courts and also the the earthy humor and broad practical joking which was often a feature of Dutch civic controversy. Thereafter Anneke became the mother of four Bogardus children, in addition to her five by Roelof Janse. After her second husband's death at sea, she went to Fort Orange to live with her married daughter and "make a living" --presumably at the fur trade, since this was the principal occupation of the town. At her death in 1663 she left a modest estate, of which part, which descended to her four surviving children by Roelof Janse, was the 62 acre farm on Manhattan Island which she had inherited from him.

It was this farm which, over two centuries later, made Anneke famous. After a number of transfers, the land became the property of Trinity Church, and, with the rise in property values on lower Manhattan, immensely valuable. But in one of these transfers, one of Anneke's minor grandchildren had inadvertently been omitted from the deed. His descendants discovered this fact about 1750, and between then and 1847 sued repeatedly and unsuccessfully to break the church's title to the land. In spite of these legal defeats, the myth would not die; another suit was instituted in 1909, and in the next quarter century the cause attracted much publicity. Lawyers, genealogists, and promoters who scented an opportunity to make a fast buck thereupon started searching for all the living descendants of Anneke Janse, who turned out to be more numerous even than descendants of the passengers on the Mayflower. Finally, the Legislature passed a special act quieting the title and forbidding any further suits, on the grounds that similar irregularities would have called most titles dating from the seventeenth century into question. It also became clear that if the heirs had won, there would be so many of them that the share of each, even in the vast wealth in dispute, would have been less than the contributions many of them were induced to make toward the expenses of litigation.

In the course of this litigation, there grew up an even more astonishing legend about Anneke's origins. All the evidence now available indicates that she and her husband were both ordinary people, born in Norway (though perhaps descended from Dutchmen in the Baltic trade). The legend, however, made Anneke out to be the granddaughter of William the Silent who had displeased that prince by her insistence on marrying a commoner; nevertheless, he placed her share of his fortune in trust for her descendants in the seventh generation. This fortune was reputed to have accumulated to the sum of 100 million dollars in the early twentieth century. It is difficult to see how this story gained credence in the face of its glaring inconsistencies, but this mythic fortune was as glittering as the other, and only very recently has a patient genealogist finally dispelled the last shreds of it. According to this myth, Anneke's father, a son of William the Silent by a secret marriage, was named Wolfert Webber, and a New Netherlander of this name (from whom Irving doubtless derived his character) was her brother. It has now been proven, however that this Wolfert Webber and his father of the same name, a respectable Amsterdam wine merchant, had no connection with either William the Silent or Anneke Janse.

The following was taken from papers in the possession of Dee Wilson Click Here

[copied as typed in the original]

Book 9291, Page 582 B8251 Americans of Royal Decent

William of Nassau, 9th Prince of Orange and Sovereign Count of the State of Holland and Zealand, M., 4 times, and had (issue, by each wife, he M, First Anna D. Egmont D. 1558, daughter of Maximillian County De Buren and Leedam; M., 2nd 24 August 1561, Ann Daughter of Maurice, the Famous Electro of Saxony; M 3., Charlooette De Bourdon of the house of Montpensier and M; 4th Louise De Coligny, daughter of Admiral De Castellon, and had by her Frederic Henry aonly son Stadtholder of Holland who succeeded his half brother, who D.S.P. as Prince of Orange, and who was Father of William II, Prince of Orange, who is a daughter of King Charles I, of England and had William III; Prince of Orange, who M, Lady Stuart (daughter of James, Duke of York, afterwars King James II; and became King of England. William 9th Prince of Orange, was Father of; 2 Ann M. Wolfert Webbert, of Wolferthoson in Holland had: 3rd Anneka Webber D, 1663 in Albany, N.Y. She came to New Amsterdam with her brother, Wolfort Arnont, who D, 1715, in 1649 she M, first Reloff Jansen Van Measterlandt he came from Maaslond in 1630, to Rensselaerwyck, and settled in 1636 in New Amsterdam, where he got a patent for sixty two acres of land, which have been for two hundred years the subject of a law suit, Anneke Weber M, 2nd Jan. 29th, 1635 Domine Everadus Bogardus a Clergyman who came to America in 1633, and was lost at sea in 1647, she had four children to each husband, the family is as follows;

Compiled by Browning

New York Genealogical Abstract.

By first marriage of Anneke Webber.

1-Roaloff Jans, Married in Amsterdam, Holland in 1624 and Born in 1605. Married to Anneke Webber. Their marriage is on record in Vonmasterland, Holland, and had four children.

Their Issue.

1-Sarah Born 1626 in Holland, Married Hans Kierstede, In N.Y.

2-Cathrina " in N.Y., Married Johanes Van Brugh.

3-Fytje " " " " to Peter Hartgers.

4-Jan No further trace.

By second marriage of Anneke Webber or Anneke Jans.

1-Dominie Everhardus Borgarus, Married in N.Y. June 21, 1638 to Anneke Jans. They had four children by this marriage in N.Y.

Their Issue.

1-William Bap. Sept. 9, 1638 Married to Wyntje Abrandts, Aug. 20, 1659 and had three children.

2-Jonas Bap. Jan. 4, 1643 He had no descendants.

3-Pieter or Peterus Bap. Apr. 2, 1645 Married to Wyntie Bosch in N.Y. Had one child.

4-Cornelius Married to Helena Teller in N.Y. Had one child.

New York Genealogical Abstract-

By first marriage ­

1-William Bogardus, Bap. Sept. 9, 1638, of New York, Married Aug. 20, 1659 to Wyntje Sybrantds of New York. They had three children in N.Y.

Their Issue-

1-Everardus Bap. Nov. 2, 1659

2-Tytje " Mar. 16, 1661

3-Anna or Anneke " Oct. 3, 1663 Married Jacobus Brower, son of Adam Brower, Apr. 30, 1682, Nine children.

Compiled by Bergen

New York Genealogical Abstract-

1-Adam Brower. Emigrated in 1642 to N.Y. from Coulon or Cologue, Married May 19, 1645 in N.A. to Magdalena Jacobs Verdon., He died about 1698, in N.A. resided in Br. N.

1-Pieter, Bap. Sept. 23, 1646, Married to Gertrud Jans in N.Y. Jan. 29, 1682. Had 10 children.

2-Jacob or Jacobus Bap. Maried to Anna or Anneke Bogardus Jan. 29, 1682. Had 10 children.

3-Aelije, Bap. Married to Josias Jansz Drats Apr. 30, 1682. Several children.

4-Mathys, Bap. Married to Marretje Pieters Wycoff, Had 8 chidlren.

5-William, Bap. Mar. 5, 1651 Married to Elizabeth Simpson May 18, 1690

6-Adam, Bap. May 18, 1662, Married to Angmetje Feb. 1692. Had 3 children.

7-Abraham, Bap. Married to Cornelia Halsyn, Sept. 15, 1692. Had 5 chidlren.

8-Nicolus, Bap. Married to Annetje Calsier or Coljer, Sept. 20, 1676 Had 5 children.

9-Maria, Bap. June 4, 1653. Married to Jacob Pietersyen, Oct. 13, 1676 Had 7 children.

10-Eytie, Bap. Married to Evert Hendrickson, Feb. 20, 1692. Several children.

11-Helena, Bap. Oct. 30, 1660 Married to Willim Hendrickson, Aug. 5, 1693. Had several children.

12-Anna Bap. She resided near Flatbush. No further trace.

13.-Sara Bap. July 13, 1692 Married to Thomas Smith, Sept. 23, 1692. No Decendants.

14-Rachel Bap. Married to Pieter Hendrickson, June 5, 1698 from Viers-Land. No Descendants.

Compiled by Bergen

2-Jacob or Jacobus Brower son of Adam Brower, Married Ap. 30, 1682 at Flatbush to Anna or Anneke Bogardus, he hails from Gowannus and she from N.Y. and had 10 children, he died in 1733.

Issue-

1-Sybrandt Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. 1682 Married to Sarah Weber, had 8 children.

2-Jacob Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. 1684 " " Pietronella De La Montaque in N.Y. Oct. 1799.

3-William Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. 1687 " " Marie Hermian May 29, 1719, No descendants in N.Y.

4-Everdus Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. Dec. 8th, 1689

5-Elizabeth Born " " " Nov. 15, 1694.

6-Adam Bap. " " " " Mar. 29, 1696 Married to Deborak

7-Hillegnont Bap. " " " N.Y. Dec. 27, 1697

8--Wyntie Bap. " " " N.Y. Mar. 8, 1701 (M. to Richard Pet1

9--Magdalene Bap. " " " N.Y. Mar. 8, 1704 (Married to Joost Veden June 1725 in N.Y.

10-Nicholas-Made his mark to document.

New York Genealogical Abstract-

2-Jacob Brower of N.Y. son of Jacob Brower and Anneke Bogardus, Married Oct. 1, 1709 to Pieronella De La Montaque of N.Y.

Issue

1-Jacob. Bap. In Brooklyn, Sept. 24, 1710 Married Maria De Lony, Had 6 children

2-Johannes Born in N.Y. Jan. 6, 1710 or 1711 ? Married Susanna Deroitleet or Durlje in N.Y. Oct. 9, 1734. Had 6 children.

3-Abraham (Born in N.Y. Feb. 6, 1712 Married June 1, 1743 Aolje Vengerld (twin)

4-Cornelia Born in N.Y. Feb. 6, 1712 No further trace. (twin)

5-Annetje or Antje Born in N.Y. May 5, 1714

6-Adam Born in N.Y. Dec. 1, 1716 Married Catharine Mitchel, Jan. 12

7-Cornelius-Twins Born in N.Y. Dec. 1, 1716 Married Mary Asker, two marriages Hester Boden, Aug. 10, 1736

Amanda Born in N.Y. Jan. 4, 1718 No further trace.

9-Peter) Born in N.Y. Mar. 9, 1720 No further trace.

10-Affer) " " " " 10, 1720 No further trace

11-Elizabeth-Born in N.Y. Feb. 20, 1722 No further trace

12-William " " " May 1, 1727, Married Margaret Van Sickle, Sept. 17, 1748/

13-Henry " " " Oct. 29, 1729 No further trace.

Compiled by L.A. Abbitt.

New York Genealogical Abstract-

2-John Brower or Johannes Brower, Bap. Mar. 19, 1710 of N.Y. son of Jacob Brower and Pietronella De La Montaque. Married to Susanna Deroilhet or Durljet in N.Y., Oct. 9, 1734, and had six children.

Issue

1-Susanna Bap. Sept. 5, 1735 Married to Samuel Demorse, Dec. 1, 1768

2-Annetje " Feb. 8, 1738 No further trace

3-Jacob " Mar. 26, 1740 Married to Margaretia Voelandt, July 26, 1750 something?

4-Antje Bap. Nov. 7, 1742 No further trace

5-Ellenor or Nelletjes, Born June 12, 1745, Married to Garrett Kip.

6-Johannes Bap. Dec. 2, 1747 Married Perkins Lambert in N.Y. Died Apr. 13, 1804. Had 7 children.

Jacob Brower Born Mar. 26, 1740 Married Margretia Vroelandt July 26, 1759. In N.Y.

Issue-

1-Paul Baptized Jan. 2, 1759

2-Jacob " Feb. 6, 1760

3-Abraham " Nov. 20, 1762

4-Marytje " Nov. 20, 1762

5-John " Oct. 14, 1764

6-Johannes " June 29, 1766

7-Petrus " Apr. 2, 1769

8-Margretia " July 17, 1770

9-Simion " Feb. 2, 1772

10-David " June 18, 1773

Paul Brewer, Bap. Jan. 1780. Married Grace Timson, 1785.

Issue

1-Mose, Born about 1786

2-Thomas

3-Nancy

4-Elizabeth

5-John Born Sept. 24, 1793

6-Rachiel

7-Hannah

8-Fannie Born about 1799

9-Samuel " " 1800

Fannie Brewer, Born 1799, Married Samuel Edwards Apr. 7, 1825.

Issue

1-Ellis Born Oct. 13, 1825

2-Levinia " July 28, 1828

3--Elizabeth " Jan. 1, 1831

4--Fleming " Feb. 7, 1835

5--Elmiria " Jan. 31, 1839

6-Jane " Mar. 11, 1840

7--Oscar " Mar. 21, 1844

Levinia Edwards, Born July 28, 1828, Married William Corson, June 1, 1848.

Issue

1-William Born May 1, 1849

2--Emma " May 26, 1851

3-Charles " Jan. 16, 1854, Married Mary Bickle Aug. 25th 1877

4-Daniel " Sept. 28, 1856

5-Fannie " July 26, 1859

6--Harry " Sept. 1, 1860

7--James " Sept. 2, 1868

8--Howard " Mar. 29, 1873

Charles Fleming Corson, Born Jan. 16, 1865 Married Mary Bickle, Aug. 25, 1877.

Issue.

1-Myrtle M. Born July 6, 1879

2-Roso " Dec. 9, 1880

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John " Dec. 9, 1880 (Twin)

3-Ida Elizabeth Born May 27, 1883

4-Martha Bowman Born Feb. 1886

5-Emma Born June 17, 1889

Additional handwritten notes:

John Corson had 3 girls

Dorothy Corson had one daughter Jeanne

Edyth Corson (changed name to Carson) married Carlos Rodrigues and had 2 sons

Alma Corson (also changed name to Carson) and had two sons

ROELOF JANSEN.

Roelof Jansen arrived at New Amsterdam by "de Eendracht," May 24, 1630.21' The ship sailed from the Texel, March 21, 1630. He was to work in the colony of Rensselaerswyck for $72 a year. He was accompanied by his wife Anneke (Anetje) jans, his daughters Sarah, (Katrina) and Fytje. Until quite recently it has been believed that Roelof Jansen and his family were Dutch. In the "Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts," (p. 56f. note) it is shown by A. T. F. van Laer, Archivist of New York State, that they were not from "Maasterland," but from "Masterland" or "Maesterland," meaning Marstrand, which is on a small island off the coast of Sweden, near Goteborg (Gothenburg). The editor and translator of "Bowier Manuscripts" concludes therefore that jansen's family probably were Swedes. But why not Norwegians? Marstrand belonged to Norway prior to 1658, and it is significant that Claes Claesen and Jacob Goyversen, both from Flekker, Norway, sailed with Roelof and work'ed with him on "de Lacts Burg." There were on July 20, 1632, only three men on this farm: Jansen, Claesen, Goyversen, three Norwegians.

On July 1, 1632, Roelof Jansen was appointed schepens. The oath of the schepens, administered by the Schout to Jansen, and other schepens, among whom was Laurens Laurensen, anotherNorwegian, was as follows:

"This you swear, that you will be good schepens, that you will be loyal and seal to my gracious lord and support and strengthen him in his affairs as much as is in your power; that you will pass honest judgment between the lord and the farmer, the farmer and the lord, and in the proceedings between two farmers, and that you will not fail to do this on any consideration whatsoever.

"So help you God."

As schepen, Roelof Jansen got a "black hat, with silver bands.

As to Roelof's farming, but little can be said. Van Rensselaer, always exacting in his demands, complained in a letter written July 20, 1632, to Wolfert Gerritz, that it showed "bad management that Roeloff Jansen could not get any winter seed. I hope that he has sown the more summer seed."

Likewise in a letter of April 23, 1634, to Director Wouter van Twiller, the Patroon said: "I see that Roeloff Janssen has grossly run up my account in drawing the provisions, yes, practically the full allowance [even] when there was [enough in] stock. I think that his wife, mother, and sister and others must have given things away, which can not be allowed. He complains that your honor has dismissed him from the farm, and your honor writes me that he wanted to leave it. It would thus appear that Jansen left the colony of Rensselaerswyck in 1634.

Roelof Jansen moved with his family to New Amsterdam about 1634 or a little later. In 1636 he received a groundbrief of thirty-one morgens of land lying along East River. "It formed a sort of peninsula between the river and the swamps which then covered the sites of Canal Street and West Broadway." Here Jansen "probably erected a small farmhouse upon a low hill near the river shore at about the present Jay Street; but he had hardly made a beginning in the work of getting his bouwery under cultivation when he died, leaving his widow the arduous task of caring vation when h for a family of five children in a colony hardly settled as yet." Of Jansen's children, Sarah, Katrina and Sofia married in New Netherland (See the articles following). Annetje died as a child. Jan (Roelofsen) settled in Schenectady and was killed by the Indians in the massacre of 1690.

Jansen's widow married again. The Dutch Reformed preacher in New Amsterdam Everardus Bogardus took her for his wife in 1638. See the article "Anneke Jans." Of all Scandinavian immigrants in early New York she is probably the best known.

From Scandinavian Immigrants In New York 1630 - 1674. by John O. Evjen

ANNEKE JANS From Scandinavian Immigrants in New York 1630 - 1674. by John O. Evjen

Anneke Jans arrived with her husband and three children at New Amsterdam May 24, 1630. As we have seen in the foregoing sketch, she came from Marstrand, Norway. She was with her husband at Fort Orange until 1634 or 1635 when the farnily moved down to New Amsterdam and settled on sixty-two acres of land, which Jansen received in 1636. He died shortly afterward. Anneke was left with five children, though she, no doubt received some aid from her mother, Tryn Jonas, midwife, and from her sister, Marritje, both of whom were in New Amsterdam. Kiliaen van Rensselaer released her from what she owed him. In a letter of September 21, 1637, to Director van Twiller he said: "I only have from you the recommendation of the widow of Roeloef Janse, written to me hastily and with few words and your oral greetings by Jacob Wolphertsen. I released the said widow from her debt long ago. My reason for so doing I will tell you orally, when we meet, God willing, in good health." In March, 1638, Anneke was married to the Dutch Reformed pastor in New Amsterdam, Everardus Bogardus, who in 1633 had come to New Amsterdam to succeed the ministry of Jonas Michaelis. He had at the time a little church on the East River shore, or upon the present Pearl Street, between Whitehall and Broad Streets, and adjoining it was the parsonage. In addition to his clerical duties he assumed the cares of a landed proprietor. In the marriage settlement, still extant, Anneke had provided for the securing to her first husband's children the sum of 200 guilders each. The sixty-two acres of land which she inherited from her first husband now got the name of the "Domine's Bouwerie." "United in early English days to the Company's Bouwerie, it formed part of the famous tract, which, bestowed in the time of Queen Anne upon Trinity Church, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was the subject of repeated and hotly contested action at law in which Annetje's name conspicuously figured." On August 12, 1638, Everardus Bogardus, as the "husband of the widow of Roelof Jansen of Masterlandt" gave Power of Attorney to Director van Twiller "to collect money due said Jansen.

Anneke, no doubt, was now a lady of leisure compared to what she had been when she was fanning with Roelof on de Laets Burlg. But her position as the wife of a parson was severely tested immediately after her second marriage. Anthony Jansen from Salee and his wife, Grietje Reiners, were none too well disposed to Domine Bogardus and Anneke. Grietie found an opportunity of circulating the report that Anneke had given public offense. Anthony Jansen, whose tongue vied with that of his wife, helped to spread the report. The matter came before the Court. Mrs. Lamb's version of this case is as follows: " Mrs. Bogardus w

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Anneke Jans was the daughter of Tryntje Jonas (also known as Catharine Jonas and Tryntje Roelofs. Her father’s name was probably Johan, Jan of Johannes. She had one known sister, Marritje who died in 1677 and was married three times (Tyman Jansen, Dirk Corneliszen Van Wensveen and Govert Loockermans).

Find a Grave member, 48710317, added the following about Anneke's birthplace:
The memorial states her birthplace as Flekkerøy. Today, Flekkerøy is a district of the Borough of Vågsbygd in the City of Kristiansand in the County of Vest-Agder, Norway. The end of the name Flekkerøy (the "øy") means island. It is one of many islands in the City of Kristiansand.

The following information about Anneke's first marriage is from "Dear Cousin" by William Brower Bogardus: The Amsterdam (Holland) Reformed Oude Kerk marriage intentions of April 1, 1623, it is recorded that Roeloff Janssoon, born in Maesterland (Marstrand, on the island of the same name, Goteburg Och Bohus, Sweden - but in Bohuslan, Norway until 1658), a seaman, aged 21 years, and Anna Jans, born in Vleckere, Norway (Flekkeroy, on the island of the same name, Vest Agder, Norway), aged 18 years. Their marriage record was dated April 18, 1623.

Anneke’s first husband was Roelof Jansen, born about 1602 in Norway and died in New Amsterdam (NYC) about 1637. Her second husband was the well-educated Domine Everardus Bogardus born in 1607 in Worden, Holland. He arrived in New Amsterdam in 1633 and married Anneke in March of 1638. After the death of her second husband, Anneke and her children moved to Beverwyck (now Albany, NY) to be near her daughter Sijtje, wife of