Jacob Walichsen van Winkle, our seventh great-grandfather, was also known as Jacob Walichsen van Hoorn. The names of those from The Netherlands are confusing as they do not really have surnames. There is the given name (in this case Jacob) and then a second name that indicates the given name of the father. With the immigration to the colonies, there became a need for surnames and these were taken from the town of origin. Jacob Walichsen was from the village of Winkel which was very near the village of Hoorn. He and his brother Symon came together to the New Netherland and are described as the ancestors of all the van Winkles in the New York and New Jersey area.
Jacob was born in 1599 in the village of Winkel in The Netherlands. There is a report that he first visited New Netherland as a deckhand on a ship in 1618. When he arrived in New Netherland permanently is not clear, but he was there prior to 1630 and was one of the very first farmers to permanently locate there. Although we think of Plymouth and the Pilgrims as being the first settlers, New Netherland was being established around the same time. Jacob and Symon were tenant farmers on Manhattan Island for the Dutch West India Company from about 1624 to 1636. In 1633, they were sent back to The Netherlands to get more stock for the farms, and it is considered that they must have been highly thought of as it would not be usual to send tenant farmers on such a trip. Following the end of the initial lease in 1636, Jacob signed a contract to settle on a farm at Rensselaerswyck (later Greenbush) which is up the Hudson River about 150 miles from Manhattan. On August 29, 1641, Jacob Walichsen was selected as one of the board of Twelve Men representing Manhattan, Breuckelen, and Pavonia to advise Governor Kieft at Manhattan concerning Indian matters. There is a whole long, complicated story about Kieft and his goal of exterminating the Indians but that will be another story. . .
In 1642, Jacob made a protracted trip back to The Netherlands. It is not known how long he stayed there, but it is possible that he married there in 1642 to Tryntje Jacobse. The first two of their six children may also have been born there before returning once again to New Netherland. He was at Rensselaerwyck with his family, but wanted to leave the colony, likely so he could have his own property and be out of the leasing system. He was denied permission to go where he initially planned, but was granted permission to settle in Manhattan on October 1, 1650. On October 23, 1654, Peter Stuyvesant issued Jacob Walichsen a grant for 25 morgens of land at Pavonia (at a location which is now Bergen Point, Jersey City, New Jersey). A map of Pavonia circa 1635 is above. A morgen varies from ½ to 2.5 acres; it was originally defined as the amount of land which could be plowed by a team of oxen in one morning. I am not sure who got to pick which team of oxen would do the plowing in order to determine the acreage.
Pavonia was destroyed by Indians in September, 1655 and the family went to Fort Amsterdam to wait for things to settle down. The family returned to Pavonia in 1657 and Jacob died there the same year. Following Jacob’s death, Tryntje Jacobse married three more times following Jacob’s death, all the marriages to very influential men. (She will have her own profile.)
Family group sheet for Jacob Walichsen Van Winkle and Tryntje Jacobse Jacobs: http://sites.rootsmagic.com/colonialgenealogy/individual.php?p=855
Sources:
Genealogy of the van Winkle Family: Account of Its Origin and Settlement in this Country with Data 1630-1913. By D. van Winkle. Published 1913, Datz Press, Jersey City.
For additional information on New Netherland, see this site: http://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/
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