Jan Albertsen Van Steenwyck

  Noted events in his life were:

• Guardian, 1663. ⁴⁰⁹ My brother-in-law Tjerck deposited with the court an inventory that was taken on November 14, 1663 of Jan Albertse Van Steenwyck's estate. In the document, he request that a curator be appointed and a guardian over his sisters minor children. The court appointed Tjerck and Evert Pels as Curators and Hendrick Jochemsen, Tjerck and Evert Pels as guardians.

• purchase, Bef 1663. ⁴¹⁰ Prior to the massacre, Ida and Jan Van Steenwyck had acquired land. The low lands bordering the Esopus Creek were devoid of forest and ready for the plow. For years they were the granary of the colony and the State. Even now their fertility is unsurpassed. As early as 1658, the farmers had sown nine hundred and ninety schepels (about 722 bushels) of wheat. A gristmill was necessary and one was built about 1661. It stood near the northwest corner of the stockade, the junction of the present Green and North Front streets. The power was furnished by what has since been known as the Tannery Brook, across which a dam was constructed. There was a gate in the stockade at this point and a road over the dam led to the New Village (Hurley). It was through this gate that the messenger rode on June 7, 1663, with the tidings that the Indians had destroyed the New Village.

Pieter Jacobson was the miller. In 1661, his charges for grinding corn were fixed by the court at eight stivers (16 cents) per bushel, from those who had no wampum he could deduct the tenth part. On March 31, 1664, Pieter Jacobsen van Holsteyn and Pieter Cornelissen, partners, mortgaged “their mill” to Nicolaes Meyer, merchant at Manhattan, for sixty-one schepels of wheat. During the Indian war of 1663, the mill was used as a barrack for the troops. In the same year, Jan Albertsen van Steenwyck was granted a lot “below the fort on the bank of the kill to the southward of Barent Gerritsen's, to be used as a tannery and garden.

Jan married Ida Claessen Dewitt, daughter of Dr. Nicholas Claes Dewitt and Taatje Cornelisz Van Leuven. (Ida Claessen Dewitt was born about 1638 in Groatholdt, East Friesland and died on 7 Jun 1663 ⁴⁰⁸.)

  Marriage Notes:

Ida Claessen De Witt married Jan Albertsz Van Steenwyck. (Both died in) the Indian massacre at Wildwyck 7 June 1663. 'List of killed at Wildwyck, Men... Jan Alberts (Albertsen), murdered in his house. Women... Jan Albertsen's wife, big with child, killed in front of her house. Children... Jan Alberts' (Albertsen's) little girl murdered with her mother.' " (material received 16 August 2001 from Vona E De Witt Smith, 2288 Gale Avenue, British Columbia, V3K 2Y8, Canada)



Children [Infant] Van Steenwyck b: 7 JUN 1663

Tjerck Claessen DeWitt on November 26, 1663 deposits with the court an inventory, taken on November 14, 1663 of the estate of his brother-in-law, Jan albertse Van steenwyck, requesting that a curator be appointed and a guardian over the minor children. The court appointed Tjerck Claeessen De Witt and Evert pels curators and Hendrick Jochemsen, Tjerck Claessen De. Witt and Elvert Pels, guardians.


Anjou, Gustave, [Ulster County, N.Y. probate records in the office of the surrogate, and in the county clerk's office at Kingston, N.Y. : a careful abstract and translation of the Dutch and English wills, letters of administration after intestates, and inventories from 1665, with genealogical and historical notes, and list of Dutch and Frisian baptismal names with their English equivalents / by Gustave Anjou ; with introduction by A.T. Clearwater. New York: G. Anjou, 1906 pg 22

The low lands bordering the Esopus Creek were devoid of forest and ready for the plow. For years they were the granary of the colony and the State. Even now their fertility is unsurpassed. As early as 1658 the farmers had sown nine hundred and ninety schepels (about 722 bushels) of wheat. A grist mill was necessary and one was built about 1661. It stood near the northwest corner of the stockade, the junction of the present Green and North Front streets. The power was furnished by what has since been known as the Tannery Brook, across which a dam was constructed. There was a gate in the stockade at this point and a road over the dam led to the New Village (Hurley). It was through this gate that the messenger rode on June 7, 1663, with the tidings that the New Village had been destroyed by the Indians. Pieter Jacobson was the miller. In 1661, his charges for grinding corn were fixed by the court at eight stivers (16 cents) per bushel, from those who had no wampum he could deduct the tenth part. On March 31, 1664, Pieter Jacobsen van Holsteyn and Pieter Cornelissen, partners, mortgaged "their mill" to Nicolaes Meyer, merchant at Manhattan, for sixty?one schepels of wheat. During the Indian war of 1663, the mill was used as a barrack for the troops. In the same year Jan Albertsen van Steenwyck was granted a lot "below the fort on the bank of the kill to the southward of Barent Gerritsen's, to be used as a tannery and garden."

http://www.jrbooksonline.com/DOCs/van_buren_04.doc