Philip Janszen Ringo

The first 'RINGO' to come to America.

New Amsterdam, New Netherlands was a Dutch colony set up on Manhatten Island, New York under the West India Company in 1626.

Marriage

from NA DRC marriages 1639-1801

• 1647 11 Aug; Philip Janszen Ringo, jm van Vlissingen; Geertje Cornelis, wid Jan Philipszen, van Amsterd

Children

from NA DRC Baptisms 1639-1730

• 1648 Jun 01; Philip Janszen Ringo; Janneken; Philip Geerar, Jacobs Wolfertszen, Marie Geerar, Hester Simons
• 1649 Nov 14; Philip Janszen; Cornelis; Govert Loockermans, Marritie Jans
• 1656 Jul 09; Philip Janszen, Geertie Cornelis; Albertus; Hendrick Hendrickszen, Jan Schryver, Aeltje Schryvers
• 1658 Oct 23; Philip Ringo; Pieter; Hillegond Megapolensis

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Philip Janszen1 Ringo(1) was born in Vlissengen, Zeeland, Netherlands 1615.(2) Philip died 1662 in Atlantic Ocean, at age 47.(3) He married Geertje Creles Cornelis 11 AUG 1647 in New Amsterdam, New Netherlands.(4) Geertje was born about 1626 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.(5) Geertje(6) was the daughter of Cornelis Trommels. Geertje died after 1680 at age unknown.(7) PHILIP JANSZEN RINGO, the first of this name to come to America, is found with some frequency in the early records of New Amsterdam and New Netherlands, the Dutch colony set up under the West India Company in 1626 on Manhattan Island. The first written evidence of his presence is contained in a deposition made by him before the Court at New Amsterdam on October 13, 1643, although there is reason to believe that he may have been here as early as 1638. His will in 1646 and marriage bans in 1647 disclose that his birthplace was in the town of Vlissingen (Flushing) in the state of Zeeland, one of the seventeen northern provinces in the Low Countries that declared their independence from Spain in 1581. It is now estimated that his date of birth was about 1615. All that is known of his parents is that his father’s name is written by the scribes of that time as “Jan” by the Dutch. Had the clerk been French it would have been written as “Jean,” or if English as “John.” In the records of the West India Company and its directors in New Amsterdam (New York City) Philip is frequently referred to by use of the Dutch patronymic, Philip Jansen or Janazen (Philip, son of Jan), but in most of the twenty-two or more items his family name of Ringo is constantly found. While last century’s translators sometimes missread it as Rongo and Ringoa, the original documents clearly show it as Ringo. In at least several cases, since Ringo could write, he carefully spelled it out in that manner. In a society where most people were known in Dutch fashion as “Philip, son of Jan,” or “Philip Jansen Van Vlissingen” (Philip, son of Jan from Vlissingen), Philip Ringo was one of the few in New Amsterdam who carried a family name, and one of some indicated antiquity. On the 18th, Anthoni Crol, aged 29, and Philip Jansen Ringo, part owners of “La Garce” appeared before Cornelis van Tienhoven, Secretary of the Colony, to make a joint will, as was customary under such circumstances. It provided that in the event of the death of either of the “friends and partners,” the survivor should receive “the ship’s share and the other captures, which they may make on the voyage.” It further specified that with regard to their joint holdings left in New Netherlands, Crol’s part shall go to his brother, while that of Ringo, in the event of his death, was to go to Crol on condition that he give two hundred Builders to “the Poor.” Indications point to the probability that by this date both Philip’s parents were dead and that he had no other close relatives. With Crol on the high seas en route to his native land, Ringo bought an interest in a two massed yacht, well suited for trading purposes, and with which the two partners were to be associated in one way or another for the next two years. Its name, “Love,” was prophetic and the spring of 1647 brought romance into Ringo’s life in the form of Geertje Cornelis, the widow of a Dutchman, Jan Philipsen, from Amsterdam. On August 11th of that year they were married in the Dutch Reformed Church at New Amsterdam. In 1649 when the Domine of the Dutch church on Manhattan drew up his parishioners list, he considered Philip Janszen Ringo to be an old member. He also must have presided over the baptism on November 14th of his second son, Cornelis (Cornelius), named for the wife’s father. Appearing at the church as witnesses and godparents were Govert Loockersman and Marritje Jans. Loockersman was a free trader, and a free spirit with whom Ringo had frequent dealings. In 1650 began a period of over five years during which the Ringos were away from New Amsterdam and living along the South (Delaware) River, which was a better location for his fur trading and a mid-point for coastal voyages to Virginia or New Amsterdam. It did, however, have one serious drawback in that while the territory was part of that claimed by New Netherland, a Swedish “New South Company” had transported several hundred Swedes and Finns there as early as 1638 and they were contending with the Dutch for its ownership. Records of these early days on the Delaware River area are practically nonexistent and accordingly it is not known how many children were born to the Ringos during their stay there. There could have been at least two but if so, only one would appear to have survived. This was a son, Jan, born, it is estimated, about 1652 perhaps at Fort Beversreede. He is later found in New York as Jan Philipszen, and later thought to be in New Jersey as John Ringo. His younger brother, who appears throughout as Albertus (the Latin form of Albert) Ringo was baptized on July 9, 1656 at the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam, where the witnesses were Henrick Hendricksen, Jan Schryver and Aettie Schryvers. He was the male child of the family through whom the name survived in this country. The little vessel was apparently crossing the Atlantic Ocean on the eastbound half of its journey, when Philip Janszen Ringo “fell overboard and perished and was drowned.” Word of the accident must have come from Amsterdam by other ships since the New Netherland Indian was still abroad when Martin Cregier, a merchant, on March 14, 1662 went into the Court of New Amsterdam and asked for an attachment on tobacco held by Govert Loockersmans belonging to the widow of Philip Janszen Ringo and cited a debt of longstanding as a basis for such action. The Court in its wisdom decided that no debtor should have precedence over any other and instructed Loockersmans to continue to hold any assets of the deceased until some further determination should be made. The widow, Geertje Creles (Cornelis), appeared at the next court on Tuesday, one week later. She explained the circumstances of her husband’s death and stated that she “found herself burdened with more debts than she with all her means can pay.” She was advised to surrender to the creditors all her goods, actions and credits, so as to discharge her from the debts. Accordingly she renounced the estate and “pushes it aside with her foot” (an ancient custom in which the person literally pushes some item of the estate toward the court as a means of giving up all rights thereto). The court then appointed Martin Cregier and Govert Loockersmans as curators of the intestate estate of Philip Jansen Ringo to manage it for the advantage of the creditors. Geertje Ringo, widowed for the second-time, was in 1662 thus faced with the prospect of fending for herself with the help of her children, the oldest of which was less than fourteen years of age. She was still alive in 1680 when she witnessed the baptism of one of her grandchildren in New York City.

extracts from http://ringofamilyhistory.tumblr.com/

mariage to Geertje

1647; 11 Aug; dict. Philip Janszen Ringo, j.m. van Vlissingen;; Geertje Cornelis, Widow of Jan Philipszen, van Amsterd.