17th Century Hallenbeck Family
Maternal Lines
The following contribution is from Ray E. Hollenbeck.
The Hoffmeyer Family
Source: "Dutch Uncles and New England Cousins" by Wilson Ober Clough, 1977
Jochim Wessels took GERTRUY HOFFMEYER for a second wife and this marriage brought him a foster son, WILLEM HOFFMEYER, whom he could not abide. WILLEM's daughter (his wife is not recorded) married JAN HALLENBECK. (see Editors Notes below) WILLEM himself was born in Brazil in 1626, where his father had died, and had been banished for selling beer to the Indians.
Wessels brought action in 1657 against his foster son, demanding that WILLEM vacate the house given him at his wedding. Wessels won. Now Wessels was also a baker, which brought him into rivalry with Captain Willem Jurriansz, whose own lot had been taken over by his son-in-law, JAN VAN HOESEN (see article on the VAN HOESEN Family), who nevertheless allowed the Captain to reside there, provided he would teach Jan the elements of the bakery business. GERTRUY, next door, resented these neighbors and one day struck Volkie, VAN HOESEN's wife, who thereupon hauled GERTRUY into court on a charge of assault and abusive language. GERTRUY promptly gave the court a sample of her linguistic talents, and was fined and ordered to keep the peace.
This began a series of events, too numerous to detail. Wessels, for example, built a pig-sty in front of the Captain's house, which the court ordered torn down; at which Wessels charged into court, sword in hand, demanding that the magistrate come outside. The court refused, and referred the matter to New Amsterdam. The VAN HOESENS, said Wessels, threw hot ashes against his house and otherwise threatened his safety; furthermore, they occupied his house illegally. The court intervened several times.
At this period, (Willem) HOFFMEYER was again accused of selling beer to the Indians, fined and banished. Wessels helped him pay the fine. Later, HOFFMEYER returned from exile and took on some respectability, complaining once that he had not been paid for his reading services at the church; at which Wessels testified that the young man had not earned his pay, being often absent. To this, HOFFMEYER replied that the old man had stolen the keys, and he could not get in. It seems that Washington Irving might have found a place for these folk in his Knickerbocker history.
EDITORS NOTES:
Somehow between his frequent court appearances and exile from
the colony, Willem and Mary Hoffmeyer managed to have a daughter, RACHEL
WILLEMSE HOFFMEYER. Rachel Married JAN CASPARSE HALENBEK thus joining the
Hoffmeyer Family to the Hollenbeck Family and becoming a many times great
grandmother of the editor. Rachel Willemse Hoffmeyer passed away in Coxsackie,
New York on March 3, 1729.
The following contribution is from Ray E. Hollenbeck.
Source: "Dutch Uncles and New England Cousins" by Wilson Ober Clough, 1977
TEUNIS DIRCKSE CORNELISZ VAN VECHTEN (1610E-1700), often called "Poentie", came with a name that reached far back into the history of the Netherlands. His grandfather had endured the terrible siege of Leiden. Coming in 1638, Teunis, from Vechten, near Utrecht, remained briefly in Manhattan, but went north to a farm under the patroon near Greenenbosch. By 1641 the patroon was complaining that Teunis had too much land and might nor be cultivating all of it. Yet by 1644 he was delivering grain to the West Indies Company, and his farm is listed as "one of the best," with nine horses and ten cattle. His son Dirck, born four years before coming to the colony, obtained the land mentioned above from Van Bremen, and from 1692 on occupied the house which is still standing. It was purchased from Cruyff in 1681 for some 200 guilders in wheat and 400 in beavers, and stands near what was once an Indian burying ground, near the hilltop site where once had been an Indian fort under Pewasck, the squaw chief. Dirck moved there in 1689, raising wheat, maize, flax, wool, etc., and maintaining a mill. He was also a member of the Albany Militia of 1689 when rumors of a French invasion had disturbed the city's citizens. A silver bowl from his house in now in the Albany Historical Collection.
EDITORS NOTE:
Teunis Dirckse Cornelisz Van Vechten came to New Netherlands aboard the ship
"Rennselaerwyck" in 1637. He didn't stay long, though, and returned to the
Netherlands that fall. The next year, in 1638, he returned to the colony
of New Netherlands with his wife and son, Teunis Dircksz Van Vechten (1634-1702).
Aboard that same ship was Michael Jansen, would later become part of the
Hollenbeck Family as a many times great grandfather.
For those of us Hollenbecks who descended from William Jansz Caspersen Halenbek, the Van Vechten Family is a major part of our maternal ancestry. Willem Jansz married Fytje Van Vechten who was the daughter of Dirck Van Vechten and Jannetje Jansen (see article on the Jansen Family), and the granddaughter of Teunis Dirckse Cornelisz Van Vechten.
The following contribution is from Ray E. Hollenbeck.
Source: "Dutch Uncles and New England Cousins" by Wilson Ober Clough, 1977
MICHAEL JANSEN, born about 1610, came for the patroon Van Rensselaer in 1639, leasing a farm known as Hoogeberch, held from 1640 to 1646. The patroon called him "one of the most upright farmers of the colony." But, like others, he fell into some disagreement and moved to New Amsterdam, and the farm was next leased to TEUNIS VAN VECHTEN, who's son Dirck married JANSEN's daughter, Jannetje, one of the first children to be born in Rensselaerwyck. She died later on Dirck's estate on the Catskill stream, an ancestress via HALLENBECK…
Michael turned up in New Amsterdam as one of Stuyvesant's Nine Men, and as a signer of the 1649 Remonstrance. In 1656 he complained that Indian raids had deprived him and his six children of seventeen years of labor, in consequence of which loss he was granted a lot in New Amsterdam, living at Bever and Williams streets. In 1658 he obtained land in Bergen County, New jersey, purchased from the Indians, where he raised cattle and as first justice took the name VREELANDT.
EDITORS NOTE:
Michael's daughter, Jannetje Jansen married Dirck Van Vechten and they had
a daughter, Fytje Van Vechten. (see article of the Van Vechten Family). Fytje
Van Vechten married Willem Jansz Caspersen Halenbek, thus bringing the
Jansen-Vreelandt Family together with the Hollenbeck Family and becoming
a many times great grandmother of the editor.
Jansen Vreelandt Family
Source: The Old Dutch Reformed Church, It's Congregation and
It's Community Life
by Joan Vreeland Studer
Vreeland's Their Book
By Nicholas Garretson Vreeland
On the island of South Beveland, in the province of Zeeland, lies a small village, 's Heer Abtskerke, colloquially called Scrabbekercke. In 1640 we first hear of our ancestor and he is called Michiel Janez van Scrabbekercke. Thus it's highly probable that Michiel lived (or was even born) at Scrabbekercke.
The other name for Michiel, other than Jansen or Jansz, was in the New Amsterdam Church records where he is referred to as Michiel Jansen van den Berg, referring to the hill farm at Rensselaerwyck, where he had first settled and which he left in 1646 when he went to New Amsterdam.
There has been a story in all the Vreeland Families that Michiel came from a place called Vreeland. There is no proof that our Michiel came from there but it does make sense, so we can only agree that he must have at least lived there during his early life.
Early in the month of May, 1638, the ship Het Wapen van Noorwegan (Arms of Norway) sailed from Texel. Michiel signed on as a farmer. He arrived about August 4, 1638, with his wife Fitje (or fitie) Hartmans. It is noted that on many of the birth records of the children, Fitje is listed as Fytje Wessels Vreeland. They had seven children born in America.
Michiel brought two farm laborers with him and they joined a small group in the Rensselaerwyck Colony. Not a great deal is known about this colony except that Michiel was head farmer for the Patroon from 1640 to 1646. He was then known as Michiel Jansen. In 1647 he was referred to (baptism record) as Michiel Janszen Van den Berg. However, in the same year, Director General Stuyvesant and his Council selected nine men to give their advice and assist in promoting the welfare of the colony and Michiel was one of the farmers chosen. He was listed as Michiel Jansen Vreeland.
It was recorded that he started raising horses in 1648. There was also a nasty bit, which a true romantic would fail to report, about Michiel's sale of contraband munitions to the Indians and a fine for selling beaver skins without paying duty. Actually he made his fortune in the trapping trade.
He moved to New Jersey in 1654 and on September 15, 1655, the Indians raided. Of all the settlers' families, Vreeland was the only one to escape entirely unharmed, with his wife and six children. He lost his house and all his possessions.
Michiel went back to Manhattan and opened a tap room on the north side of Pearl Street, just south of Broad Street on October 23, 1656. He prospered and bought other land in New Amsterdam.
All the settlers who had been forced to leave their homes in Pavonia (Bayonne-Jersey City) because of the Indian War wanted to return. Michiel soon wearied of living in Manhattan. In late January 1658, he too returned to his farm land and started raising cattle on a large scale. Soon he was quite wealthy.
Michiel Jansen (Vreeland) was named as one of the first magistrates of the first court of justice erected within the limits of the present State of New Jersey, and of the earliest organized municipal governments within that state.
Michiel died in 1663 before the month of June and so before New Netherlands was taken by the English. Fytje Hartmans, widow, continued to manage the considerable land holdings that Michiel left her. She sold and traded and was said to have been an excellent business woman for those times. She died in 1697 and left all her lands to her seven children.
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