155. Anthony Jansen Van Sallee, son of the Pirate King, and a character himself!
ANTHONY JANSEN VAN SALLEE, 1607-1676
by Hazel Van Dyke Roberts, PH.D.
I'm using the historical writing of Hazel Roberts, as she did a lot of research on it. Anthony was the son of the Pirate King, Jan Jansen, told about in the last entry, # 154. This is about an interesting part of early New England History. New Amsterdam became the city New York when the English conquered the Dutch in 1664.
Anthony Jansen Van Salee was a unique, interesting, and important figure in the early history of New Amsterdam, He has been found to be the most unusual and interesting figure in the New Amsterdam records. Contentious and obviously a nuisance to them, he was treated by the authorities with the respect due to a person of importance. It is speculated that Anthony’s father had provided him a considerable fortune, and by 1639 he was one of the largest landholders on the island, as well as a prosperous farmer.
O'Callaghan in his History of New Netherlands refers to Anthony Jansen of Salee as a "French Huguenot of respectability." Respectable, yes; Huguenot, no. He is variously referred to in the records as of Salee, of Vaes or Fez, and he is also sometimes called Anthony the Turk. In land records many boundaries long continued to refer to his land as "Turk's land." The term "Turk" it may be added, was applied frequently to all inhabitants of North Africa, as well as to those of Turkey itself, presumably because most of those lands were under the control of Turkey. This was not the case with Morocco, from which country Anthony Jansen had come.
Anthony Jansen's marriage certificate, dated December 15, 1629, in Amsterdam, North Holland, the Netherlands, gave him permission to marry onboard the ship on the way to New Amsterdam. That certificate, in the Gemeente Archief in Amsterdam, states that Anthony Jansen was from Cartagena. A possible reason for being married aboard ship by the captain was that Anthony's mother in Cartagena was a Muslim, and therefore had raised her child in that faith.
Anthony Jansen is believed to be the ancestor of the Vanderbilts, the Whitneys, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Humphrey Bogart.
No ancestor had quite so much difficulty with his neighbors as did Anthony Jansen Van Salee. It started in Manhattan where he clearly was an excellent and prosperous farmer. For some reason he had made an unfortunate choice of a wife. She was Grietie Reyniers, who according to the testimony of Cornelis Lambertse Cool, was discharged for improper conduct when a waiting girl at Peter de Winter's tavern in Amsterdam.
Anthony, as a young man from Morocco, unaccustomed to the society of women, would probably have been attracted to any young woman who treated him in a friendly manner.
Peter de Truy, their next door neighbor, and Wolphert Van Couwenhoven, who were collectors of the minister's salary, made declarations as to the language Anthony had used when asked to pay money toward the salary of the Reverend Mr. Bogardus. Such collectors were appointed by the authorities, and to refuse payment was a serious matter indeed. The pastor, or domine, among the Dutch occupied a position equal or superior to the Puritan minister in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Professor Leo Hershkowitz in the October, 1966 number of the Quarterly of the New York State Historical Association tells the story of Grietje, and accepts without question the gossip of the midwife who said that Grietje asked whether her child looked like her husband or Andries Hudden. Told that the child was brown skinned, she is said to have accepted the fact that the child was that of her husband!
Anthony's age, twenty-two years in 1629, shows that he had been born about 1607. Jan Jansen, (his father, the pirate) of Haarlem was taken prisoner by Algerian pirates in a historic raid on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in 1618. His son, Anthony, would then have been eleven years of age.
Whether Grietje Reyniers was Dutch or German remains uncertain. In New Netherlands when Anthony and his wife got into trouble over non-payment of the minister's salary, both Anthony and his wife accused the Reverend Bogardus and his wife of being liars, and in 1639 were finally forced to make public apology and retract their statements. After still more difficulties they were banished from New Netherlands "forever," as troublesome persons.
The "banishment" of Anthony and his wife from New Netherlands, is an indication that despite his quarrelsomeness, he was a person of unusual repute. Usually the banished were required to take the next boat leaving the port. Instead, after selling his New Amsterdam farm, Anthony, only three months later was granted 200 acres) of land at a nominal annual payment for a period of ten years. The land lay on that part of Long Island that later became the towns of Gravesend and New Utrecht. By chance, he thus became, and was recognized as, the pioneer of each town.
His land lay across from Coney Island on what is now Gravesend Bay.
In the sale in May 1639 of the property hitherto occupied by Anthony Jansen in Manhattan, he agreed "to deliver the land as sowed and fenced, the house and barn and all that is fastened by earth or nail, except the cherry, peach and all other trees standing on the land which the said Anthony reserves for himself, and will remove at a more seasonable time, one stallion, two years old, another one year old, one wagon, one plough and harrow with wooden teeth." The Secretary of New Netherlands, Cornelis van Tienhoven, went with Anthony to make an inventory of the plants to be removed later. They found "twelve apple trees, forty peach trees, seventy-three cherry trees, twenty-six sage plants, fifteen vines."
Anthony's next difficulty was with his son-in-law, Thomas Southard, which begins in the Court Minutes of New Amsterdam in December 1653. Although it is not quite clear, the trouble seems to have been over the dowry of his daughter, Annica, who was the wife of Thomas Southard. In any case, cattle were involved. Jansen had seized cattle that the son-in-law claimed. The son-in-law had his father-in-law imprisoned by the magistrates of Gravesend, where they both lived. The Governor and his Council in no uncertain terms ordered the magistrates to release the imprisoned man immediately. David Prevost and Hendrik Kip with a third person to be selected by them, were appointed arbitrators. This was at the request of Anthony "to avoid a tedious suit between father and child." The arbitrators were unable to reconcile them, Southard apparently refusing to reconcile or to compromise. The suit apparently went against the son-in-law. Thomas Southard and his wife soon removed to Hempstead, Long Island, another English settlement in Dutch territory.
Despite his expulsion from New Netherlands, Anthony Jansen Van Salee continued to deal in real estate in New Amsterdam.
While buying property in New Amsterdam Anthony was also adding to his holdings on Long Island. He bought plantation lot, or farm, No. 29 in Gravesend. He also bought land from the Indians for which he paid on 26 September 1651. Unfortunately, he had not obtained permission for this purchase.
In September 1646 he leased to Edmund Adley the land on Long Island opposite Coney Island granted to him after his expulsion from New Netherlands "forever." The lease was to run for four years with a rental of 200 guilders the first year, and 250 guilders for each of the succeeding three years, and five pounds of butter each year. The lease is of especial interest because it shows that he had prospered since he went to Long Island, and also because it gives one of the rare enumerations of the implements to be found on a farm at that time, and finally because of the care with which it is drawn, apparently to leave no loophole for disputes. Jansen was to provide a house fit to live in, and the arable land was to be enclosed with posts and rails, which fence Edmund was to deliver back at the end of four years in equally good condition at his own expense. An inventory of personal property, including livestock, was appended. The number of the latter was to be deducted at the end of the lease, and the increase divided half and half. The risk of the loss of livestock; was also to be shared. The inventory included:
1 stallion, 12 years old
1 stallion, 3 years old
1 mare, 4 years old
2 cows in good condition
2 new plows and appurtances
1 wagon and appurtances
1 harrow with iron teeth; 2 spades; 2 siths and hasps; 2 sythes
1 hand saw; 1 iron maul; 1 churn and fixtures
1 axe; 1 cream pot; 2 pails
1 hand mill; 1 fan; 1 pitch fork
3 forks; 1 three-pronged fork
3 horse collars with long rope, being a fore and aft trace
1 carpenter's adze; 1 carpenter's axe; 1 sickle; 1 hook; 1 augur
1 long gun
Anthony promised to furnish as much seed corn as he could. Anthony later lived in Gravesend. This is indicated by a petition signed by many of the Dutch inhabitants and others. Jansen, Jan Emans, who would marry one of his daughters and Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell, made their mark. (Many couldn’t write their name, but had a distinctive mark for their signature.) Dated 12 April 1660, the petition says the town had a licentious mode of living, and desecration of the Sabbath and confusion of religious opinion prevailed. As a result many had grown cold in the exercise of Christian virtues. Because of this situation they asked that a pastor be sent to them.
Sold later by a descendant was a beautiful copy of the Koran in Arabic, which presumably had belonged to him. The content of the petition indicates that it was simply a keepsake of his early life, or if he had been a Mohammedan he had finally changed to Christianity.
In May 1674 he was accused of harboring a Quaker. They thought that Anthony should be fined 600 florins in beaver skins. Anthony's wife testified that she had let the Quaker remain over night after being told that the authorities had given permission. The proposed fine was reduced to one beaver skin and costs.
A word should be written about Anthony's mark. The mark consists of an elaborate capital A and a capital I. He clearly was not literate in English or in Dutch, and in Morocco would have had no opportunity to learn a written language. The mark in the Gravesend petition is a simple cross in print, but would seem to have been intended to be his.
Anthony Jansen van Salee in his arrogance, his lack of deference to authority, in his determination to have his own way, shows characteristics that might be expected of the son of a man to whom all had deferred. The considerate treatment given him by the authorities also indicates that the Dutch in New Amsterdam knew his background, and knew that in sailing between the Old and the New Worlds, except for the tempestuous Atlantic, they had done so with a safety which they owed to his father. He was the captain of a ship various times. The writer has found one record where one Anthony Jansen is referred to as a mulatto, and one in which his possible brother is referred to as "alias the mulatto." As a matter of fact, anyone brought up in Africa in that day would probably be associated with color. Certainly they would be browned by the sun to the point of looking colored, and each of the two being outdoor men would continue to retain the dark tan. However, Anthony was probably not a mulatto, having been born in Holland, before his father went to Africa.
Anthony Jansen van Sale seems to have come to New Netherlands with more than the usual amount of funds brought in by immigrants at the time. It would seem that prior to his sale of land in 1639 he was one of the largest landowners on Manhattan. Growing up in Morocco he would be expected to have little trace of race prejudice. Although he had a child by a negress and left them his property, yet he did not marry her to legitimize the child. This would seem to dispose of the question of his race. His death occurred in April 1659. Catalyntje, wife of Joris Rapalje, went to the City Hall and stated that Abraham Jansen van Sale, alias the Turk, who had lived at her house was dead . He had made a testament, she said, whereby he devised his property to the negro woman and the child he had had by her.
We know nothing about the looks or mental capacity of Grietje Reyniers, except that her respectable, if contentious, husband apparently was devoted to her regardless of her youthful reputation or behavior. Among her various descendants were one and possibly two governors, an Episcopal Bishop, a Rector, a United States Senator, who was for a time acting Vice-President of the United States, and whose son was in the House of Representatives at the same time. This simply includes a part of one line of her descendants.
Anthony Jansen Van Salee and his wife, Grietje Reyniers, had four children, all girls. (Sarah was our ancestor). It is not known when Grietje died. Anthony sold the Gravesend property to his son-in-law Ferdinandus Van Sickelen in 1669. This would seem to have followed the death of his wife. He then moved back to what was then New York, apparently in 1669 or 1670. He married, second, around 1670, Metje Gravenraet, a respectable widow.
Anthony Jansen of Salee lived a few years longer. He died intestate. (This means he didn’t leave a will). His widow, "Mattice Grevenrat" produced an inventory, and also a premarital contract in which it was agreed that "the longest liver" of them should remain in full possession of all the estate during the survivor's life. The husbands of all the daughters, signing in the order of the list of daughters and their husbands given above, petitioned 26 September 1676 for their share of the father's estate, and declared that the inventory was incorrect. Apparently the petition was disallowed, as the widow was granted letters of administration on 25 March 1677 by Governor Andros. Who ultimately got the estate is not known.
Thus ended what had been a turbulent, but obviously a prosperous lifetime.
by Hazel Van Dyke Roberts, PH.D.
I'm using the historical writing of Hazel Roberts, as she did a lot of research on it. Anthony was the son of the Pirate King, Jan Jansen, told about in the last entry, # 154. This is about an interesting part of early New England History. New Amsterdam became the city New York when the English conquered the Dutch in 1664.
Anthony Jansen Van Salee was a unique, interesting, and important figure in the early history of New Amsterdam, He has been found to be the most unusual and interesting figure in the New Amsterdam records. Contentious and obviously a nuisance to them, he was treated by the authorities with the respect due to a person of importance. It is speculated that Anthony’s father had provided him a considerable fortune, and by 1639 he was one of the largest landholders on the island, as well as a prosperous farmer.
O'Callaghan in his History of New Netherlands refers to Anthony Jansen of Salee as a "French Huguenot of respectability." Respectable, yes; Huguenot, no. He is variously referred to in the records as of Salee, of Vaes or Fez, and he is also sometimes called Anthony the Turk. In land records many boundaries long continued to refer to his land as "Turk's land." The term "Turk" it may be added, was applied frequently to all inhabitants of North Africa, as well as to those of Turkey itself, presumably because most of those lands were under the control of Turkey. This was not the case with Morocco, from which country Anthony Jansen had come.
Anthony Jansen's marriage certificate, dated December 15, 1629, in Amsterdam, North Holland, the Netherlands, gave him permission to marry onboard the ship on the way to New Amsterdam. That certificate, in the Gemeente Archief in Amsterdam, states that Anthony Jansen was from Cartagena. A possible reason for being married aboard ship by the captain was that Anthony's mother in Cartagena was a Muslim, and therefore had raised her child in that faith.
Anthony Jansen is believed to be the ancestor of the Vanderbilts, the Whitneys, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Humphrey Bogart.
No ancestor had quite so much difficulty with his neighbors as did Anthony Jansen Van Salee. It started in Manhattan where he clearly was an excellent and prosperous farmer. For some reason he had made an unfortunate choice of a wife. She was Grietie Reyniers, who according to the testimony of Cornelis Lambertse Cool, was discharged for improper conduct when a waiting girl at Peter de Winter's tavern in Amsterdam.
Anthony, as a young man from Morocco, unaccustomed to the society of women, would probably have been attracted to any young woman who treated him in a friendly manner.
Peter de Truy, their next door neighbor, and Wolphert Van Couwenhoven, who were collectors of the minister's salary, made declarations as to the language Anthony had used when asked to pay money toward the salary of the Reverend Mr. Bogardus. Such collectors were appointed by the authorities, and to refuse payment was a serious matter indeed. The pastor, or domine, among the Dutch occupied a position equal or superior to the Puritan minister in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Professor Leo Hershkowitz in the October, 1966 number of the Quarterly of the New York State Historical Association tells the story of Grietje, and accepts without question the gossip of the midwife who said that Grietje asked whether her child looked like her husband or Andries Hudden. Told that the child was brown skinned, she is said to have accepted the fact that the child was that of her husband!
Anthony's age, twenty-two years in 1629, shows that he had been born about 1607. Jan Jansen, (his father, the pirate) of Haarlem was taken prisoner by Algerian pirates in a historic raid on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in 1618. His son, Anthony, would then have been eleven years of age.
Whether Grietje Reyniers was Dutch or German remains uncertain. In New Netherlands when Anthony and his wife got into trouble over non-payment of the minister's salary, both Anthony and his wife accused the Reverend Bogardus and his wife of being liars, and in 1639 were finally forced to make public apology and retract their statements. After still more difficulties they were banished from New Netherlands "forever," as troublesome persons.
The "banishment" of Anthony and his wife from New Netherlands, is an indication that despite his quarrelsomeness, he was a person of unusual repute. Usually the banished were required to take the next boat leaving the port. Instead, after selling his New Amsterdam farm, Anthony, only three months later was granted 200 acres) of land at a nominal annual payment for a period of ten years. The land lay on that part of Long Island that later became the towns of Gravesend and New Utrecht. By chance, he thus became, and was recognized as, the pioneer of each town.
His land lay across from Coney Island on what is now Gravesend Bay.
In the sale in May 1639 of the property hitherto occupied by Anthony Jansen in Manhattan, he agreed "to deliver the land as sowed and fenced, the house and barn and all that is fastened by earth or nail, except the cherry, peach and all other trees standing on the land which the said Anthony reserves for himself, and will remove at a more seasonable time, one stallion, two years old, another one year old, one wagon, one plough and harrow with wooden teeth." The Secretary of New Netherlands, Cornelis van Tienhoven, went with Anthony to make an inventory of the plants to be removed later. They found "twelve apple trees, forty peach trees, seventy-three cherry trees, twenty-six sage plants, fifteen vines."
Anthony's next difficulty was with his son-in-law, Thomas Southard, which begins in the Court Minutes of New Amsterdam in December 1653. Although it is not quite clear, the trouble seems to have been over the dowry of his daughter, Annica, who was the wife of Thomas Southard. In any case, cattle were involved. Jansen had seized cattle that the son-in-law claimed. The son-in-law had his father-in-law imprisoned by the magistrates of Gravesend, where they both lived. The Governor and his Council in no uncertain terms ordered the magistrates to release the imprisoned man immediately. David Prevost and Hendrik Kip with a third person to be selected by them, were appointed arbitrators. This was at the request of Anthony "to avoid a tedious suit between father and child." The arbitrators were unable to reconcile them, Southard apparently refusing to reconcile or to compromise. The suit apparently went against the son-in-law. Thomas Southard and his wife soon removed to Hempstead, Long Island, another English settlement in Dutch territory.
Despite his expulsion from New Netherlands, Anthony Jansen Van Salee continued to deal in real estate in New Amsterdam.
In September 1646 he leased to Edmund Adley the land on Long Island opposite Coney Island granted to him after his expulsion from New Netherlands "forever." The lease was to run for four years with a rental of 200 guilders the first year, and 250 guilders for each of the succeeding three years, and five pounds of butter each year. The lease is of especial interest because it shows that he had prospered since he went to Long Island, and also because it gives one of the rare enumerations of the implements to be found on a farm at that time, and finally because of the care with which it is drawn, apparently to leave no loophole for disputes. Jansen was to provide a house fit to live in, and the arable land was to be enclosed with posts and rails, which fence Edmund was to deliver back at the end of four years in equally good condition at his own expense. An inventory of personal property, including livestock, was appended. The number of the latter was to be deducted at the end of the lease, and the increase divided half and half. The risk of the loss of livestock; was also to be shared. The inventory included:
1 stallion, 12 years old
1 stallion, 3 years old
1 mare, 4 years old
2 cows in good condition
2 new plows and appurtances
1 wagon and appurtances
1 harrow with iron teeth; 2 spades; 2 siths and hasps; 2 sythes
1 hand saw; 1 iron maul; 1 churn and fixtures
1 axe; 1 cream pot; 2 pails
1 hand mill; 1 fan; 1 pitch fork
3 forks; 1 three-pronged fork
3 horse collars with long rope, being a fore and aft trace
1 carpenter's adze; 1 carpenter's axe; 1 sickle; 1 hook; 1 augur
1 long gun
Anthony promised to furnish as much seed corn as he could. Anthony later lived in Gravesend. This is indicated by a petition signed by many of the Dutch inhabitants and others. Jansen, Jan Emans, who would marry one of his daughters and Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell, made their mark. (Many couldn’t write their name, but had a distinctive mark for their signature.) Dated 12 April 1660, the petition says the town had a licentious mode of living, and desecration of the Sabbath and confusion of religious opinion prevailed. As a result many had grown cold in the exercise of Christian virtues. Because of this situation they asked that a pastor be sent to them.
Sold later by a descendant was a beautiful copy of the Koran in Arabic, which presumably had belonged to him. The content of the petition indicates that it was simply a keepsake of his early life, or if he had been a Mohammedan he had finally changed to Christianity.
In May 1674 he was accused of harboring a Quaker. They thought that Anthony should be fined 600 florins in beaver skins. Anthony's wife testified that she had let the Quaker remain over night after being told that the authorities had given permission. The proposed fine was reduced to one beaver skin and costs.
A word should be written about Anthony's mark. The mark consists of an elaborate capital A and a capital I. He clearly was not literate in English or in Dutch, and in Morocco would have had no opportunity to learn a written language. The mark in the Gravesend petition is a simple cross in print, but would seem to have been intended to be his.
Anthony Jansen van Salee in his arrogance, his lack of deference to authority, in his determination to have his own way, shows characteristics that might be expected of the son of a man to whom all had deferred. The considerate treatment given him by the authorities also indicates that the Dutch in New Amsterdam knew his background, and knew that in sailing between the Old and the New Worlds, except for the tempestuous Atlantic, they had done so with a safety which they owed to his father. He was the captain of a ship various times. The writer has found one record where one Anthony Jansen is referred to as a mulatto, and one in which his possible brother is referred to as "alias the mulatto." As a matter of fact, anyone brought up in Africa in that day would probably be associated with color. Certainly they would be browned by the sun to the point of looking colored, and each of the two being outdoor men would continue to retain the dark tan. However, Anthony was probably not a mulatto, having been born in Holland, before his father went to Africa.
Anthony Jansen van Sale seems to have come to New Netherlands with more than the usual amount of funds brought in by immigrants at the time. It would seem that prior to his sale of land in 1639 he was one of the largest landowners on Manhattan. Growing up in Morocco he would be expected to have little trace of race prejudice. Although he had a child by a negress and left them his property, yet he did not marry her to legitimize the child. This would seem to dispose of the question of his race. His death occurred in April 1659. Catalyntje, wife of Joris Rapalje, went to the City Hall and stated that Abraham Jansen van Sale, alias the Turk, who had lived at her house was dead . He had made a testament, she said, whereby he devised his property to the negro woman and the child he had had by her.
We know nothing about the looks or mental capacity of Grietje Reyniers, except that her respectable, if contentious, husband apparently was devoted to her regardless of her youthful reputation or behavior. Among her various descendants were one and possibly two governors, an Episcopal Bishop, a Rector, a United States Senator, who was for a time acting Vice-President of the United States, and whose son was in the House of Representatives at the same time. This simply includes a part of one line of her descendants.
Anthony Jansen Van Salee and his wife, Grietje Reyniers, had four children, all girls. (Sarah was our ancestor). It is not known when Grietje died. Anthony sold the Gravesend property to his son-in-law Ferdinandus Van Sickelen in 1669. This would seem to have followed the death of his wife. He then moved back to what was then New York, apparently in 1669 or 1670. He married, second, around 1670, Metje Gravenraet, a respectable widow.
Anthony Jansen of Salee lived a few years longer. He died intestate. (This means he didn’t leave a will). His widow, "Mattice Grevenrat" produced an inventory, and also a premarital contract in which it was agreed that "the longest liver" of them should remain in full possession of all the estate during the survivor's life. The husbands of all the daughters, signing in the order of the list of daughters and their husbands given above, petitioned 26 September 1676 for their share of the father's estate, and declared that the inventory was incorrect. Apparently the petition was disallowed, as the widow was granted letters of administration on 25 March 1677 by Governor Andros. Who ultimately got the estate is not known.
Thus ended what had been a turbulent, but obviously a prosperous lifetime.
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