Thomas Franszen

marriage to Elsje DRC New Amsterdam

1656 20 May; Thomas Franszen van Briston; Elsje Jans, wid Barent Andrieszen

Castello Plan

Block C , NO·9

Thomas Fransen, a public carman, purchased this house from Samuel Edsal, September 4, 1658. In October, 1661, he bought Claes Jansen de Ruyter's house, on Pearl Street (Block J, NO.7). He then removed there.

In May, 1656, Fransen married Elsie Jans, a widow, who, having had two former husbands, brought him four step-children. He himself was a widower. By 1664, when Elsie died, there were five children to be provided for, although his oldest step-daughter, Hermje, was married to "Jeuriaen Janszen, Van Aurick."-Min. of Orph. Court, trans. by O'Callaghan, 377-379; Marriages in Ref. Dutch Ch., 23.

Without any delay, Fransen secured a license to marry Neeltje Urbanus, a girl of nineteen.-Ibid., 30. She was the daughter of Urbane Leursen, and, as a child, had been captured by the Indians, who murdered her stepfather, Tobias Teunissen, of Harlem (see Block K, NO.7).

Neeltje's mother was living in Breuckelen, with her third husband, Thomas Verdon. Probably, this was an inducement to Fransen to settle there. By 1667, he was living on a farm on Long Island, and was still working hard to pay their maternal inheritance to his three stepsons.-Min. of Orph. Court, trans. by O'Callaghan, 398-<).

The house on the Heere Straet was sold to John Damrill, March 19, 1667.-Liber Deeds, B: II9; cf. Book of Records of Deeds 15 Transfers (etc.), 1665-1672 (translated), 83-4. Three years later, a dispute arose between them as to the dimensions of the lot; a distinguished committee, composed of Captain Dudley Lovelace, Secretary Nicholas Bayard, and Adolph Pieters, arbitrated the matter.-Rec. N. Am., VI: 254, 288. pages 234-5