Settling down in America

Most genealogists of the family Van Huss (Van Husum, Van Hoesen, etc.) report that Jan and Volkje Van Husum were married in Amsterdam's Nieu Kirke on on April 30, 1639, then soon set sail on the ship Den Herring, arriving in Rensselaerswyck on 12 July 1639.

Fort Orange, Renssalaerwyck

Renssalaerwyck was a feudal estate owned by Killiaen Van Rensselaer and his family. The Rensselaer family provided passage to Dutch immigrants to the plantation in exchange for work. The original settlement called Fort Orange was located at the juncture of the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers in the area that now includes the capital city of Albany. As settlers arrived, a new settlement called Beverwyck was built outside Fort Orange.

The settlers swore an oath of fealty to Renssalaer as follows:

I, [name], promise and swear that I shall be true and faithful to the noble Patroon and Co-directors, or those Commissioners and Council, subjecting myself to the good and faithful inhabitant or Burgher, without exciting any opposition, tumult, or noise; but on the contrary, as a loyal inhabitant, to maintain and support offensively and of the Colonie. And with reverence and fear of the Lord, and uplifting of both the first fingers of the right hand, I say — SO TRULY HELP ME GOD ALMIGHTY.

The industrious Jan Van Husum and his wife Volkje set about making a living with Jan working as a clerk for the estate. The couple are reported to have opened a bakery. It is also likely that Jan engaged in the lucrative beaver trade with the Indians. Eventually, Jan and Volkje were able to buy their own land as the Dutch Government recorded the following land grants in the Books of Patents and Town Records:

Van Hoesen, Jan Frs. a lot Beverwyck 25 October 1653
Van Hoesen, Jan Jansen An Indian tract Claverack 05 June 1662

The lot containing a garden where they built their home was on the corner of Broadway and State Street. The tract of land at Claverack included included what is now the city of Hudson from Stockport Creek south along the river to Kishna's Kil at South Bay and east beyond Claverack Creek.

The Dutch in America

Jan Franz Van Husum arrived in America in July of 1639, settling down in the newly established colony of Fort Orange on the Hudson River with his wife Volkje. They raised a family of nine children. Jan engaged in the beaver trade with the Mohawk Indians, bought land, and prospered. Jan died at the age of 61 in 1669. Volkje lived on until 1703.

New Netherlands, titled New Belgi, original map 1665 Wikipedia

See another map of New Netherlands, 1665.

During this time the Dutch colony of New Netherlands came and went. The earliest Dutch settlement was in 1613. Recognizing a lucrative fur trade with the Indians, the Dutch chartered the Dutch West Indies Company to establish colonies and bring over settlers.

In 1617 the Dutch established Fort Orange at the confluence of the Hudson and Mohawk rivers where the city of Albany is now found. By 1629, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a charter member of the Dutch West Indies Company, established Rensselaerswyck, surrounding Fort Orange. Van Rensselaer chartered several ships to bring in settlers for the new colony. This likely included the ship Den Harinck, which arrived in July of 1639 carrying Jan and Volkje.

detail, Rembrandt's The Night Watch, 1642

The colony prospered. During the 1640s, Beverwijck, (beaver village) a settlement of fur traders north of the fort, was established. Beaver pelts were bought from the Mohawk Indians and shipped back to Holland where they were made into hats worn by the rich. (See the gentleman in the center of Rembrandt's painting The Night Watch). As I noted, Jan and Volkje prospered. Jan bought for the price of 500 guilders, about 70 beaver, his own land in June of 1662 from the Indians, calling it Claverack, (field of clovers). Van Rensselaer, who was not a man to be trifled with, sued Jan over the question of title.

Call it a stroke of luck or the fortunes of history.

In 1664 King Charles II of England turned his eye to the Dutch colony in America. James, Duke of York and brother to King Charles II, chartered four English frigates. They sailed into the port of New Amsterdam and achieved a surrender of the Dutch colonies without firing a shot. The Dutch colonies officially became English three years later with the Treaty of Breda.

This was fortunate for the Van Husum claim, for the new English courts sided with Jan and his heirs. And the first English colonial Governor Richard Nicolls granted the land patent at the colonial capital of Albany on May 14, 1667.

Notes.

1. Jan and Volkje were a part of a large group of emigrants from Schleswig. This emigration took place after the terrible flood of 1634 and was also a result of the religious wars that shook northern Europe. Schleswig-Holstein Immigrants in New Amsterdam/New York,1636 - 1667.

Jan is identified "Hans Fransen", number 24 on the list of immigrants.

2. Beaver pelts trading took place from May to November, a time called the Handelstijd (trading time). The Mowhawk Indians would bring their pelts to town and the townspeople would all engage in "earning a pelt". At its height, the Handelstijd took in 50,000 beaver pelts. these pelts were then shipped to European markets. See Rituals of the Handelstijd at Beverwijck, by Donna Merwick. Beaver pelts fluctuated in price between 6 and 8 guilders a pelt. See Money Substitutes.

3. For more information about early Dutch history, read A Tour of New Netherlands.

Jan Van Husum and the Patron Rensselaer

I bore no grudge against the patroon, indeed, I owed a great deal to the Rensselaer family: ship's passage from Amsterdam to the colony for myself and my wife, a lot on which to garden and build a house, a new life in exchange for four years work. The patroon needed colonists for a Dutch Colony. I never met the patroon, though I saw his painting hanging in the office of his agent at the Dutch West India Company. My problems with the patroon did not occur until much later, after I had worked off my debt to him and his company. By trading for furs with the Mohicans, I slowly acquired wealth. It was then that I took up the notion of acquiring land as he done, and having done so, our legal battle would begin.
A Fictional Autobiography of Jan Franz Van Husum

Renssalaerwyck

The story of the Rensselaerwyck Colony in America is well known.*

For millennia, the Mahican (Mohicans, Mohawks) lived in the Hudson River Valley.

Then, in 1630, the Dutch West India Company deeded (there will forever be a debate as to what right they had to take land belonging to the Indians and formally and legally acquire it) to to Kiliaen van Rensselaer, a wealthy Dutch merchant and one of the company's original directors. Rensselaerwyck was like a broad sandwich, extending for miles at the confluence of the Mohawk River and the Hudson including present-day Albany.

Rensselaerwyck saw the colony as a business oportunity and engaged hundreds of Dutch settlers to sail to Renssalaerwyck to be his tenants. Usually, for a period of four years in exchange for free passage. Jan Fransse Van Husum was among them.

The Dutch West India Company required Rennsalaer to appease the original Indian land and to transport "fifty souls upwards of the age of 15, one-forth to be sent during the first year, and the remainder before the expiration of the fourth year."

To this end, Rensselaer's agent, Sebastiaen Jansen Crol, an officer in charge of Fort Orange, in a series of purchases from 1630 to 1639, purchased (again, one can dispute the legal niceties of the word) all the land on the west side of the Hudson from Albany 12 miles south to Smack's Island, at the mouth of the Mohawk River stretching two days' journey inland," and the land east of the river, north and south, at a similar distance.

See the original map of Rennsselaerwyck from Wikipedia.

Coming to America, Jan Fransse Van Husum 

In 1634, a flood of biblical proportions struck the western coast of the Jutland peninsula and the town of Husum, Jan called home, and the island of Nordstrand where his wife to be lived. The couple made their way to Amsterdam and married in May of 1639, shortly before setting sail aboard the ship Den Harlink to join other settlers in Renssalaerwyck. They arrived at Fort Orange in July and started a new life. Outside the fort, a community called Beverwyck was established. Relations with the Mohawks was by all accounts friendly. Jan reportedly worked for the colony as a clerk.

Four years passed and more.

In 1653 on the 25th of October, the Dutch government of the New Netherlands records a land patent giving Jan Fransse Van Hoesen Van Hoesen a lot with a garden in Beverwyck.

Then, on June 5, 1662, it is recorded that Jan purchased from the Mohicans several hundred acres of the Claverack land to the north of Rensselaerwyck. The purchase price was 500 guilders in beaver skins. Jan's purchase included the present day city of Hudson and part of Greenport. It extended along the Hudson Riveron the north from Stockport Creek to the mouth of Keshna's Kill on the south, which empties into the South Bay near Mount Merino, and on the east of Claverack Creek. At this point, where it met the boundary of Rennsalaerwyck.

Van Hoesen vs. Van Renssalaer

Rennselaer contested Jan's land patent. Jan and his former patroon would meet in a court of law. After Jan's death, the case would be decided in his favor. One interesting fact, papers related to the lawsuit are in the Library of Congress, files of Alexander Hamilton, but I find them too hard to read.

Notes:

There are two principal sources for the article:
Van Rensselaer Family,
New Netherlands and Jan Van Husum.

Of course, one also should always consult Joyce Lindstrom's book,
Vanhoose, Van Hooser, Van Huss Family in America.