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Carl & Elaine (Grove) Rhodes' Genealogy Pages

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Jan Joosten Van Meteren

Male 1630 - 1706  (76 years)


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  • Name Jan Joosten Van Meteren 
    Birth 1630  Thierlewoodt, , Holland Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Death 13 Jun 1706  Burlington County, NJ Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Person ID I3023  Carl
    Last Modified 20 May 2012 

    Father Melchior Van Meteren,   b. Abt 1604 
    Mother Arience Anneken,   b. Abt 1608 
    Family ID F977  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family ID F976  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 18 Jan 2014 

    Family 2 Maryken Hendricksen 
    Marriage 1646 
    Family ID F975  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 18 Jan 2014 

    Family 3 Macyke Hendricksen,   b. 1624, Mappelen, Dreuth, Holland Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Marriage 1646  Holland Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
     1. Lysbeyh Van Metern,   b. 1647, Gelderland, Holland Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Bef 1681 (Age 33 years)
     2. Catherine Van Metern,   b. 1650, Gelderland, Holland Find all individuals with events at this location
    +3. Joost Jan(Sen) Van Metern,   b. 1652, Gelderland, Holland Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 13 Jan 1706, N.Y. Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 54 years)
     4. Geertje Van Metern,   b. 1653, Gelderland, Holland Find all individuals with events at this location
     5. Gysbert Jansen Van Metern,   b. 1660, Gelderland, Holland Find all individuals with events at this location
    Family ID F970  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 18 Jan 2014 

  • Notes 
    • Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s-1900s
      about Jan Joosten VanMeteren
      Name: Jan Joosten VanMeteren
      Year: 1620-1664
      Place: New Netherland
      Source Publication Code: 714
      Primary Immigrant: VanMeteren, Jan Joosten
      Annotation: Contains passenger listings mentioned in Lancour, A Bibliography of Ship Passenger Lists, 1538-1825 (1963), nos. 72-76, 78B, 79, 81-83, 83 note, 85, 87A, 88, 89, 98(1), 100, 102(1A), 104-106, 107A, 110-111, 111 corr., 112-114. Includ es index to ship names
      Source Bibliography: BOYER, CARL, 3RD, editor Ship Passenger Lists, New York and New Jersey (1600-1825). Newhall, Calif.: the editor, 1978. 333p. 4th pr. 1986. Reprint. Family Line Publications, Westminster, MD, 1992.
      Page: 32


      U.S. and International Marriage Records, 1560-1900
      about Macyken Hendrickson
      Name: Macyken Hendrickson
      Gender: female
      Birth Place: Hl
      Birth Year: 1625
      Spouse Name: Jan Joosten Van Meteren
      Spouse
      Birth Place: Hl
      Spouse Birth Year: 1620
      Marriage State: of Hl
      Number Pages: 1

      Van Meter Heritage data

      Born in 1624 or 1630 in Holland, her married macyke Hendrickse in 1646 at Gelderland or at Meppelen, Dreuth, Holland. Their children were all born at Gelderland as Van Meternour ancestor was Joost Jansen, born in 1656-- he married Sara Dubois i t Kingston on 12 Dec 1682, had nine children and died at Salem County, NJ on 13 June 1706. Jan , his wife and five children arrived in the ship Fox at New Netherland on 12 April 1662. He came from Thielerwardt, a fortified town in Gelderland , Holland, and his wife from Meppelen, Peovince of Drenth, where they were married and where their children were born. The family name was derived from Mereren, a town in Holland.

      Upon the death of Joost Adrienceson of Bostwick, Long Island, about 1685. Jan Joosten Van Meteren was appointed administrator, tutor of decendent's choldren and arbitrator in proceedings regarding the sale of some land in Hurley, which had bee n sold to Derick Schepmoes by Adrience during his lifetime.

      JanJoosten VanMeteren, with his family. settled at Willtwyck during the summer of 1662, but he is not noted in the activities of the community until 7 June 1663 when the Indians raided the settlement and carried off women and children into capti vity. Amoung the prisoners were Jan's wife and two of hid children. Joost Janse beiong one of them. He is not named in Captain Krieger's journal of the rescue expedition, but it is elsewhere stated that due to his three months association wit h the Indians at the time of his captivity, Joost Janse had knowledge of their habits, trails, plans and war feuds with other tribes. and was so impressed with a desire for their adventurous life.

      Han Joosren's name appears on the list of inhabirants who subscribed to the Otah of Allegiance, due to a change in the sovereignty of the country, between the 21st and 26th of Oct 1664. After this date frequent notices of him occur upon the rec ords of Kingston. as a farmer, and as a man of growing importance in civil and religious matters.

      Joost Hanse was elected an Elder of the Church in 1667. During the trouble in Wiltwyck during that year, caused by the offensiveness of the soldiers of the English garrison, he with three other citizens acted as mediators in the dispute and wer e able to conciliate the ingabitants, thus priventing violence to lives and property.

      The firs instance of his purchase of land appears in a record which reads " JanJoosten had from Governor Lovelace a deed for a lot, dated 20 March 1671, in Marbletown and of 11 OCT 1671 received conformation of his 30 acre lot in Marbletown.

      He was selected on 6 Jan 1673 as one of the four magistrates of Hurley and Marbletown to supervise the merging of the village of Nieuw Dorp into those of Hurly and Marbletown under the English rule.

      Nlt withstanding the change of government Jan was continued in that civil office until the return of Dutch supremacy in 1675, when Governor Colve reappointed him to serve another term.

      He was name Justice of Peace for Esopus, and was present at the Court of Assizes in NY from 4 to 6 Oct 1682.

      Maeyken, wife of Jan Joosten, was named as a bemeficiary in the Will of Evardt Pary date 26 Mar 1685(Ulster County Probate Records).

      Jan Joosten VanMeteren obtained land grants in the Province of east Nj through a period extending from 1689 to the year of his death. 1706 2E. In company with his son-in-law, Jan Hamel, who had married his daughter Geertje Crom in 1682, Jan Joo sten appeared in East Jersey where they jointly bought on 18 Oct 1695 from Governor Hunlocke, the deputy Governor, of Wingerworth, Burlington County, a plantation of 500 acres on the Deleware river. Lassa Point was about 23 miles northeast of P hiladelphia.

      Jan Joosten next appears as an individual purchaser of certain land in Somerset County,NJ, deed passing title from Governor Andrew Hamilton and Agnes, his wife, under date of 13 Sept 1700 to Jan Joosten of Marbletown, Ny,jeoman, lying contiguou s on the South branch of the Raritan River near the present Somerville, NJ to three other parcels also granted. As a whole the plantation aggregated 1835 acres.

      His Will filed with inventory of his personal property in Burlington County Surrogate's Office, dated 13 June 1706, was written in Dutch. His wife was to retqain full possesion of the estate during her lifetime, then it was to be divided, sonJo ost 1/2; Joost and Gysbert to have land at Marbletown, Joost to have 1/2 and then the other 1/2 to be devided between them; Geertie to have land at Wassemaker's; children of deceased daughter Lysbeth to have their portion in money from the othe r children of Jan the testator(Ulster County Probate Record).


      Arrival in New Amsterdam
      31 August 1662 , New Amsterdam/Ulster County, NY

      Little is known of the residences of the Van Meterens in Holland. One sketch has been obtained which refers to the "Huise Van Meteren" situate in the Heerlykleid Meters, in Gelsermelsen...it was a stately structure, and the home, for many year s and generations, of one of the branches of Van Metre family, and subsequently of others.This manson stood in a beautiful park of magnifient trees, some of which were of great height and dimensions. The house was rebuilt in 1768-9, but it has a t last served its day; It was sold in dec. 1906 and has since been torn down. (Chap.1 Van Matre ancestry,by Vincent M. Van Matre)

      Jan Joosten Van Meteren and his wife Maycke(n) Hendricks(en) arrived in New Amsterdam on the ship D'Vox(fox) August 31, 1662. The ships log decribes him as "Jan Joosten, from Tielderweert, wife and five children, 15,12,9,6,1-1/2 years old."

      Maycken married Jan Joosten ca. 1659. She sailed with her 4 children and Jan Joosten son Joost Jansen Van Meteren only 1-1/2 years old to the New World. They arrived in Amsterdam then settled in Ulster county New York November 1664. Kingston, Ul ster county where they were admitted to the Wiltwyck (Kingston) Dutch Church.

      Kingston is about 75 miles from New York city, on the west side of the Hudson River and was named ESOPUS until about 1661 when governor Peter Stuyvesant changed the name to Wiltwyck, from the Dutch words"wilt" meaning wild and "wyck" meaning a w ild retreat or refuge. The English took over New Netherland(New York state) from the dutch in 1664 and in 1669, English names were given to Ulster county villages-two new villages, Hurley and Marbleton were named and Kingston was the name offici ally given to the one formerly called Esopus or Wiltwyck.

      On June 7, 1663 a large number of indians of the Esopus tribe began entering Wiltwyck, set fire to the buildings and took women and children prisoners. Twelve men, four women and two children were killed, with ten women and children taken prison ers. Among those captured were the wife and three children of Louis DuBois. Other records show Maycken (wife of Jan Joost) and two of thier children were taken captive. The prisoners were rescued by a militay force authorized by governor Stuyves ant. (BIO 72,pg50-58)

      In 1996, the DuBois Family Association in New Paltz received a letter from an L.R. Russell who stated that through his reserch he had located the Indian Fort where the DuBois family had been held hostage.

      This information was taken from Van Matre Family by Vincent M. Van Matre 8 April 1912 - 13 Oct 2008


      Dutch settlements in America
      1624 , Hudson river

      This was taken from Steven Butlers website on the Van Meter Family.

      Even our French ancestors were a part of this early colonization effort, living among the Dutch both in Europe and America. You may recall from your history lessons in high school or college that in 1609, on behalf of his employers, the Duth tndia Company, an English explorer named Henry Hudson went looking for a "Northwest Passage" across North America. It was hoped that such a waterway, if it existed, would allow easier access to the Orient. Instead, Hudson discovered the rive r that has borne his name ever since. Aboard his tiny ship, the Half Moon, he sailed up the river until it narrowed into a creek, making it abundantly clear that this was no route to the Far East.

      In 1624, as a follow-up to Hudson's earlier discovery, the newly-formed Dutch West India Company established three settlements in North America: One at Fort Orange (where Albany now stands), on the Hudson River; and two sites on the Connecticu t and Delaware rivers. The next year, they brought slaves from Africa, to sell to the colonists who lived in what was then called New Netherlands. The year after that, for 60 guilders worth of trinkets (about $24), Manhattan Island was purchase d from a group of Indians who actually had no right to sell it. A settlement called New Amsterdam was afterward established at the southern tip of the island. The first governor of New Netherlands was Peter Minuit, who administered the colony du ring its first six years. The settlement's most famous governor, however, was the peg-legged Peter Stuyvesant, a strict member of the Dutch Reform Church who ruled from 1647 to 1664 with an iron hand and displayed very little tolerance of the co lony's diverse religious groups, particularly the Jews. This did not stop them from coming however and one group that seems to have thrived in New Netherlands were the French Huguenots (Protestants) or Walloons, some of whom had earlier fled t o Holland to escape religious persecution in their homeland. Some of our ancestors, as it turns out, were among them.


      Up the Hudson Jan Joosten Van Meteren
      Arrival 1662

      Taken from Steven Butlers Website on "The Van Meter Family"

      Ms. Rogers tells us that the Van Meteren family arrived at New Amsterdam (later re-named New York) on either April 12 or September 12, 1662, aboard the ship Vos (Dutch for "Fox"). Except for the date of arrival, which is given as August 31, 1662 , a book of ships' passenger lists for this period confirms most of this information. We also learn that the captain of D'Vos (its correct name) was Jacob Jansz H?aeuys and that in addition to the Van Meteren family, there were at least forty-eigh t other people on board what was surely, by today's standards, a tiny vessel. Most were adults and all were either from France, the Netherlands, or parts of what is now Germany. In addition to the Van Meterens, there were only five other familie s, one of which lacked a father. Including the Van Meteren children, there were seventeen young people aboard under the age of eighteen. At least two of the men were farm-hands. There was also a mason, two carpenters, and a baker. Unfortunately , only a few of the passenger's occupations were revealed and Jan Joosten Van Meteren was not one of these.

      When the family of Jan Joosten Van Meteren (the "en" was later dropped from the surname) arrived in 1662, New Netherlands boasted a population of nearly ten thousand people, fifteen hundred of whom lived in New Amsterdam.

      Instead of settling in New Amsterdam, the Van Meteren family continued up the Hudson River, where they took up residence in or near the village of Wildwyck. Thanks to early court records, we know that they and their belongings were carried up th e Hudson River in a yacht belonging to the Governor-General, Petrus or Pieter Stuyvesant (who later successfully sued Jan Joosten for non-payment of his family's fare). This place is now the town of Kingston, in Ulster County, New York. Abou t a mile from Wildwyck, there was a second town, then called Nieuw Dorp, later Hurley. These settlements, both of which were protected by tall, wooden palisades or stockades were on the very edge of the Catskill Mountains, in what was then a hea vily-wooded wilderness inhabited only by wild animals and tribes of Native Americans, many of whom were hostile. Several Huguenot (French Protestant) or Walloon families also lived in the area. Among them were the family of Louis and Catherine D u Bois, who had a young daughter named Sarah. I am descended from this family as well.

      One modern-day writer, describing the citizens of Wildyck in the town's earliest days of settlement, has left us with a not very flattering view of the way our Dutch ancestors lived:

      Most of them could neither read nor write. They were a wild, uncouth, rough, and most of the time, a drunken crowd. They lived in small log huts, thatched with straw. They wore rough clothes, and in the winter dressed in skins. They were a, God, nor the Devil. They were laying deep the foundation of the Empire State.

      Another writer had this to say about the Dutch women:

      The costume of the wife of a typical settler usually consisted of a single garment, reaching from neck to ankles. In the summer time she went bareheaded and barefooted. She was rough, coarse, ignorant, uncultivated. She helped her husband tg, to plant his grain, and to gather his crops. If the Indians appeared in her husband's absence, she grasped the rifle, gathered her children about her, and with a dauntless courage defended them even unto death. This may not be a roman tic presentation of the forefathers and foremothers of the State, but it bears the mark of truth and shows us a stalwart race strong to hold their own in the struggle for existence and the establishment of a permanent community.

      Whether the Van Meteren family were like those Dutch settler described in the preceding paragraphs is left for us to guess. We do know that Jan Joosten was not illiterate. (Court records show that he purchased some books from the estate of a dec eased neighbor.) We also know that he and his family had only a few months to become accustomed to their new surroundings when a terrible thing happened. In her article, Ms. Rogers describes it:

      [On] the 7th of June 1663, ?the Minnisink Indians made an attack on the village [of Wildwyck] and its vicinity raiding and burning the settlement of Hurley and Kingston and carrying away women and children in captivity. Among the latter weddren, Jooste Jans being one of them as well as Catherine du Bois, the wife of Louis du Bois, and their daughter Sarah; whom Jooste Jans Van Meteren later married. These were taken to the fastnesses of the Catskill Mountains and remaine d in captivity for months, but were rescued on the eve of torture by du Bois and Captain Martin Kreiger's company of Manhattan soldiers; the trainband finally rounded up the Indians and defeated them on September 3, 1663. In connection with thi s tragic experience the following statement is quoted: "About ten weeks after the capture of the women and children, the Indians decided to celebrate their own escape from pursuit by burning some of their victims and the ones selected were Cathe rine du Bois, and her baby Sara. A cubical pile of logs was arranged and the mother and child placed thereon; when the Indians were about to apply the torch, Catherine began to sing the 137th Psalm as a death chant. The Indians withheld the fir e and gave her respite while they listened; when she had finished they demanded more, and before she had finished the last one her husband and the Dutch soldiers from New Amsterdam arrived and surrounded the savages, killed and captured some, an d otherwise inflicted terrible punishment upon them, and released the prisoners."

      The psalm that Catherine Du Bois allegedly sang as the Indians prepared to burn her and her child to death goes like this, in part:

      By the rivers of Babylon, there we captives sat down, yes, we wept when we earnestly remembered Zion the city of our God imprinted on our hearts.

      On the willow trees in the midst of Babylon we hung our harps.

      For there they who led us captive required of us a song with words, and our tormentors and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying: Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

      How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?

      I shudder to think how close Catherine came to being killed on that hot summer day more than three hundred years ago. If she had, of course, none of us would be here today to read this story and to remember her.

      Two things should be pointed out regarding the above story. First, Sarah Du Bois was not among the captives. She was not born until the following year (1664). An official account of the event shows that Catharine Du Bois was abducted with her tw o youngest sons only. Also, we cannot be sure about the accuracy of the story regarding Catherine's singing. There is probably some truth to it but in all likelihood, it is one of those stories that grow embellished with each telling. Another ve rsion of the story has all the captives singing the psalm, not just Catherine.

      On September 8, 1664, four English warships belonging to James, the Duke of York, brother of the recently-restored King Charles II of England, sailed into the harbor of New Amsterdam and took the city without firing a shot. By September 25, th e English reached the Esopus and a small contingent of soldiers were left there to guard the settlers against Indian attacks. Thus our Dutch and French Huguenot ancestors suddenly found themselves under English rule. Apparently, the change of go vernments had little effect on their daily lives. The Dutch and French people of the Hudson River Valley were left, more or less, to follow the same customs and traditions that they always had followed. The only noteworthy changes made by the En glish were to rename the colony "New York" and to require its adult male inhabitants to pledge their fealty to the new rulers. Wildwyck was eventually re-named Kingston. Although there seems to have been little or no resistance to the new rulers , the people of Wildwyck/Kingston did not always get along very well with the English soldiers who garrisoned their town. In February 1667 there was a brief "mutiny" against the English troops at Wildwyck/Kingston but fortunately, cooler heads p revailed and the incident was soon forgotten.

      In October 1664, Jan Joosten Van Meteren was one of the inhabitants of Ulster County who signed an oath of allegiance to the English crown. From this time forward, he appears to have done well for himself and his family, becoming a landowner an d a man of standing in his community. In 1666, he was elected a schepen, or commissary, of the local magistrate's court, Wildwyck's one and only local governing body.

      On September 18, 1669, at a special court held in the Esopus "by vertue of a Commission from his Honor the Governour to Regulate the Affayres of that Village and the Villages adjacent," Jan Joosten petitioned "about the exchange of a Lott" but " it lyeing not properly before" the court, "it was thrown out." A few days later, however, he was granted one of three lots that were "vacant by the death of the persons to whom they were promised." Jan Joosten, along with other residents of Hurl ey, later "remitted" some of their land (Jan Joosten gave up 8 acres), to "the Inhabitants of Marbletown, there being not land enough to?satisfy them according to the Grants given them by the Authority of the Governour."

      On "Easter Eve," 1669, "John Joeston" of Marbletown, "Husbandman" (i.e, farmer) received the following land grant:

      Whereas John Joeston of Marbletown Husbandman hath putt in his Clayme or Pretence to two parcells of Land containing fourty foure Acres and 150 Rod, by vertue of a Bill of Sale formerly granted to him from Thom. Hall and Nicholas Valett det could not be produc'd by reason 'twas then (as hee alledged) in the Office of Records at New Yorke; The Commissioners have therefore upon serious and mature deliberation thought fitt to lay out the quantity of Land aforesaid upon the se cond great piece adjoyning to the Bounds of Hurley.

      In 1670, Jan Joosten (and possibly also his son Jooste Jans) served as one of eight ordinary militiaman from Marbletown, in the company commanded by Captain Henry Pawling. On April 5th, they, along with soldiers from Hurley (including Jan Jooste n's brother-in-law, Anthony Crispel) were ordered to rendezvous at Marbleton, for the purpose of having "all the Lawes relateing to Military Affaires?read before them." Afterward, they "Marched?with Flying Colours to the Towne of Hurley, and the re?[were] dismissed."

      On April 8th of that same year, it was ordered by commissioners appointed by the royal governor "that Jon Joesten and his Son shall be recommended to the Governour for the Grant of 2 Lotts of Land lyeing upon the 3rd great styck - No. 23. 24."

      On March 30, 1671 Jan Joosten purchased 30 acres of land (one lot) in Marbletown, receiving a deed from Governor Lovelace. On October 11th of that same year, he received a deed of confirmation from the Governor, for either the same lot or an add itional lot.

      Two years later, on October 6, 1673, Jan Joosten was elected one of four magistrates from Hurley and Marbletown. His father-in-law, Louis Du Bois, or his brother-in-law Louis Jr., was also selected for one of these posts. Their job was "to super vise the merging of the village of Nieu-Drop into those of Hurley and Marbletown." The other magistrates, Ms. Rogers tells us, were Jan Broerson, our French Huguenot ancestor Louis Du Bois, and Roelof Hendricksen. She also reports that "notwiths tanding the change of government, Jan was continued in that civil office until the return of Dutch supremacy, in 1675, when Governor Colve reappointed him to serve for another term." He was afterward appointed a justice-of-the-peace for Esopus a nd in early October 1682 "was present at the Court of Azzizes in New York."

      Eventually, the English regained their hold on the Dutch settlements in America. When that happened, Rogers writes, "the inhabitants were again required to swear allegiance to their new overlords, so it is recorded that Jan Joosten once more per formed this act of fealty 1st September 1689."

      Rogers tells us that by the time the English returned to power, Jan Joosten Van Meteren had increased his land holdings in Ulster County, "the Wassamaker's land, for instance, and possibly other parcels," and at this point embarked upon a phas e in his life whereby he became "a patroon, or landed proprietor" in what is now the state of New Jersey.

      In 1695, Jan Joosten Van Meteren, together with his son-in-law Jan Hamel (who had married Jan's daughter Geertje), purchased 500 acres of land in Somerset County, New Jersey. It was located at Lassa Point on the Delaware River, opposite the tow n of Burlington. Five years later, on his own, Jans Joosten Van Meteren obtained four parcels of land in Somerset County from Governor Andrew Hamilton, whom he personally visited on September 13, 1700 at Perth (present-day Piscataway) to receiv e his grant. This property was located "on the South Branch of the Raritan River." In all, his plantation totaled 1,835 acres. In her article, Ms. Rogers tells us that it "consisted of broad and fertile meadows on the Raritan; and the locality w as already partially seated by groups of Dutch and Scotch people from the Kill-Van-Kull and Perth, with a few French from Staten Island, who had come into this region about fifteen or twenty years before." It appears, she concludes, that these w ere "the extent of his purchases."

      The first will of Jans Jooste Van Meteren, dated December 16, 1681, named his wife Macyke as his primary heir, with their property, following her decease, to go to their children. Jooste Jans, being the eldest son, was to have the largest shar e of his parent's estate, including three-fourths of the land at Marbletown, New York. Gysbert would have the remaining one-quarter. Daughter Geertje was to have the property at Wassamker's land. The children of Lysbeth, who was already dead b y this time, were to receive gifts of money. For some unknown reason, daughter Cathrin is not mentioned at all. Ms. Rogers speculates it was because she was married and had already "received her portion and so disappears from consideration in th e distribution of his property."

      An inventory of the estate of Jan Joosten Van Meteren, dated June 13, 1706, can be found in the archives of the State of New Jersey. It tells us only that when he died he had a little more than ?U1235 worth of personal property, including six Negr o slaves - a man, a woman, and four children, all worth ?U1145.


Today's Genealogical Quote

If we know where we came from; we way better know where to go. If we know who we came from; we may better understand who we are