Who's who in Husum

Who’s Who in Husum: 

Husum, formerly part of Friesland, homeland of the Frisians and a mixture of Angles and Saxons and Dutch, later the Duchy of Schleswig, sometimes Danish and this and that, and now a seaport in northern Germany.

Husum, Google earth, North Sea

Abel, Duke of Schleswig and King of Denmark

He was the son of Valdemar II and brother to Eric IV. In 1250, Eric was murdered while a guest at Duke Abel's residence at Schleswig. Abel took his Eric’s throne after swearing an oath he had nothing to do with the death.

Abel ruled for a year and a half. Hearing that the peasants in Frisia, led by Sicko Sjaerdema, refused to pay the tax levy, he led a punitive expedition and was killed by a wheelwright named Henner on Husum Bridge.

People said, "Abel af navn, Kain af gavn" Abel by name, Cain by claim.

Jan Franz Van Husum

Jan was born in 1608. We may assume that for most of his life, he simply went by the name of Jan, or if further clarification was necessary, Jan, son of Franz. Jancalled himself as a seafaring man. We do not know for certain what fish he caught, but we can guess. As early as 1610, there  were reports of whales off the coast of Spitsbergen. Russians, Basque, French, English, and Dutch ships all vied for the trade. English and Dutch ships were often made up of North Frisians, who were known for their skills at sea.

The whale they hunted for was the bowhead whale, one that yielded large quantities of oil and baleen.

But this is idle thought, what we do know is this.

In 1634, a devastating flood, known as the second Grote Mandränke struck the Frisian coast, destroying the island of Nordstrand and much of Husum. After the flood, Jan would depart for Amsterdam. We know that he married his wife Volkjie there. She too was caught up in the devastaition of the flood, as she lived on the island of Nordstrand with her parents and sister.

Once married, Jan and Volkjie sailed for America.

Theodor Storm

 
Theodor Storm, a 19th century writer who called Husum, “the grey town by the sea.”

Die Stadt (1851)

Am grauen Strand, am grauen Meer Und seitab liegt die Stadt; Der Nebel drückt die Dächer schwer, Und durch die Stille braust das Meer, Eintönig um die Stadt.

On the grey sand, on the grey sea, Besides which lies the city, Press the mists heavy on the roofs, And in the stillness the sea roars, With one sound around tow.

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.

Willem Juriaensz

What is in a Name

Off the coast of Schleswig, in the North Sea, lay the island of Nordstrand. Here, in 1618, was born to Wilhelm Jurianse a daughter, Volkie. Then in 1634, Nordstrand was destroyed by a devastating flood, and Volkie and her sister Annetje Juriaens survived and were taken to the coastal town of Husum. Their parents were killed in the storm.

Yet, in the records of New Amsterdam there are several references to Willem Juriaensz?

As I will relate below, Willem number two, late in his life, lived with Jan Van Husum and Volkie Jurriens in Claverack, offering to teach them how to bake. The difference in name spelling can be attributed to language. The German language uses the letter ẞ/ß (called eszett (sz) or scharfes S, sharp s. Dutch has no such letter. As we will see below, the name was also spelled Jurrianse and Jurriaanse.

I did find one tie in that seemingly connects both Willem and Volkie. But before we get to that, let's hear the story.

The Story

Willem Jurianesz settled in the colony of Kiliaen van Rensselaer, arriving in the fall of 1638 (Jan and Volkjie arrived in the summer of 1639). Willem's occupation was given as Captain. But he also earned a living as a baker, and, at least once, for providing lumber from a saw mill in which he may have had an interest. Beginning as early as 1644, he was in trouble with his neighbors for various misdeeds.

Read online from the New York State Library the Van Rensselaer Bowier manuscripts: being the letters of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer.Page 820 concerns Willem Juriaensz, alias Backer, alias Capitaijn. On the following pages at 821 and 822 are seven passengers on Den Harinck, which arrived in New Amsterdam the following summer. Missing are the names of Jan and Volkie.

This short biographical sketch of Willem is given in O'Callaghan, History of New Netherland, 1:437-38, and online at Ancestry.com's list of Rensselaerswyck Settlers 1630-1658.  (The listings are chronological and Willem Jurianensz is three quarters of the way down.) This is a reprint of the New York State site.

A more complete account of Willem is given in Beverwijck: a Dutch village on the American frontier, 1652-1664, by Janny Venem.

The biographical sketch notes that Willem was often at odds with other settlers and frequently hauled before the authorities. He was twice ordered to be banished from the colony, but the sentence seems not to have been carried out.

Willem was getting up in age and Jan and Volkie agreed to take him in. In exchange for his keep, Willem would agree to teach Volkie and Jan how to bake. Willem apparently refused to keep up his end of the contract as he would hide the baking utensils. A final entry contains this note:

Nov. 30, 1651, Willem Juriaensz declared that he refused to fulfil his contract with Jan van Hoesen, dated Jan. 30, 1650, and Jan. 18, 1652, the court gave Jan van Hoesen permission to occupy the erf (lot, or bakery) of Willem Juriaensz, on condition that the latter be allowed to dwell in his house as long as he lived ofte de gelegenheijt presenteert (or an opportunity for removing to another place presented itself).

Jan and Volkie would continue with their bakery after Willem died. Indeed, Volkie would continue the trade after her husband's death. And the bakery would serve for yet another legal squabble, but that is a different story.

A Connection? 

Was there a family connection between Willem Juriaensz and Volkje Jurriens. If so, there is no mention of it in the biographical sketch.

The bio reports that Willem sailed on the ship de Liefde [the Charity] from the Texel September 25, 1638, arriving at New Amsterdam, December 27, 1638. Joyce Lindstrom reports that Jan and Volkje, after marrying in the Dutch Reformed Church in Amsterdam, set sail on the ship "Den Harlinck" [usually spelled Den Harinck]in May of 1639, arriving in New Amsterdam on July 7, 1639.

The connection is finally found in another source.  If you go to familysearch.org and do a search of the name Jurriaens you get a connection:

18. Volkje JURRIAANSE - Ancestral File Gender: F Birth/Christening: Abt 1618 Noorstrand Islan, , Schleswig-Holste, Germany

19. Wilhelm JURRIANSE (VAN NOORDSTRANT) - Ancestral File Gender: M Birth/Christening: Abt 1592 , , Netherlands

Volkie ties into Jan Van Husum (Van Hoesn) and the island of Nordstrand. Willem ties into the island of Nordstrand as well and is the correct age. This might suggest that Willem and Volkie were uncle and niece.

The Marriage of Jan Franz Van Housum and Volckje Jurriaens van Nordstrandt

Jan Franz Van Husum (Housum) and Volkje Juriaens (Jurriaens) married in Amsterdam on April 30, 1639. At the time, they were living on Tuinstraat, near the Dam Platz, with its Royal Palace and the Nieue Kirk where the ceremony took place. The church they were married in was devastated by fire in 1645 and rebuilt in its present day Gothic style.

The couple was married in the Dutch Reformed Church.

The marriage ceremony was performed under the rites of the Dutch Reformed Church, which reflects the fact that Holland was in the midst of its own Protestant Reformation. The Dutch Reformed Church was a more tolerant version of Lutheranism which held sway in large sections of northern Europe. And Lutheranism was a more tolerant version of Christ's teaching than Roman Catholicism. The Roman Catholic faith was the official religion of Holland ruled by the Spanish, who were then fighting the Dutch people for political control.

The Translation

The marriage certificate is written in Old Dutch using Gothic script, also called Blackletter. As with any old document, spellings may vary. The first few words, "Compareerdey als woren, literally translates as "Appearing as before," but is used in the sense "Present for signing.".

The certificate translates as follows:

                                              On 30 April 1639

Present for signing Jan Franz Van Housum, sailor, age 30, living in Corte Tuijnstraat, having no parents but assisted by his cousin, Anna Jans, and Volckje Juriaens, from Noortstrant, age about 21, of the same address and having no parents, but assisted by her acquaintance Isaack Pietersen.

Requesting their three Sundays' proclamation, in order to have the before mentioned marriage solemnized and consummated, in so far as there are no lawful objections made, and if fully that they are free persons, and not related by blood, whereby a Christian marriage could be prevented, such grounds do not exist, their banns are allowed.

The translation with a few minor variations comes from the site Vanhoose History and Joyce Lindstrom's Book on the Van Huss Family in America. I would not include the word daughter after Volckje Jurianes name, preferring to think that "dr" or "dv"  is short hand for "de van" meaning, from the, or the French "de" which also means from. The word "bekende" or acquaintence probably better translates as witness. The word sailor probably comes from the Dutch word "varensgezel", but the spelling seems to have changed. It might also translate simply as sea man or boats man.

In research Jan is often referred to as a sailor, but I have not come across any references to his sails except on the Den Harinck, the ship the two of them sailed on in going to America. Once in America the couple settled in Beverwyck (today's Albany, New York) up the Hudson River, and Jan became a businessman and property owner.

Jan's home in Amsterdam, Corte Tuijnstraat, is a location that still exists. "Corte" is a Spanish word for court, a holdover from the fact that Holland was then part of the Spanish Netherlands.Google Map.

The Anne Frank House is just a minute away from Tuinstraat, and it is a ten minute walk to Nieuwe Kerk on Dam Square where the couple married. The church burned down six years after the marriage, and a new church was built at the same location in Gothic style. (See images of the New Church in Amsterdam).

Nortstrandt, Noortstrand, Nordstrand

Volckje's former address "von Noortstrand" refers to the island of Nordstrand. (Again, the spelling depends on the language. Variations also entered over time, just as with Van Husum to Van Huss.) The island is part of the chain of islands that made up North Friesland. Don't confuse these islands with Friesland which is a part of Holland.

On a modern map of the North Sea, these islands are located to the east of Amsterdam, north of Germany, and off the western coast of Denmark. I have included Von Blaeu's map of the area made after the flood. The smaller detail below shows the flooded areas of the island with small horizontal dashes.

The town of Husum, not on the map, is located by the sea to the east of the island of Nortstrandt. The island and the city both suffered greatly in the flood of 1634. this same flood killed Volckje's parents and probably was the calamity that brought the couple together, as Volckje was taken to Husum after the flood.

Map by Von Blaeu and detail, showing the island of Nortstandt (Nordstrand), shortly after the flood of 1634.


*
The fact that Jan was called Van Housum at all was principally to distinguish him from other Jans and the inclusion of the name Fransse or Franz designated his father. When looking at Dutch records in America, one will again come across the tendency to use a place name to distinguish individuals. Thus, I came across one "Jan Pieterson Van Husum" in looking at the records of New Netherlands, but it was clearly a different individual.

Volckje or Volkje's father was called Juriens, and she hailed from the island of Noortstaat (Nordstrand). There were other Juriens in the same colony where Jan and Volckje lived. One Captain Juriens later came under their care.

Jan Van Husum - sailing man

It is not entirely clear what Jan Franz Van Husum did in the city of Husum before leaving for Amsterdam. One would suspect that he was a sailor for Husum was a seaport. And those who lived along the North Sea often earned their living catching herring along the Dogger Bank near the English coast and whaling in the frigid waters off Spitzbergen.

We do know that Jan arrived in Amsterdam sometime after 1634 when a great flood devastated the city of Husum and the nearby island of Nordstrand where his wife to be, Volkje Juriaens lived. Both Jan and Volkje were living on Tuinstraat in Amsterdam in 1639, when they applied for a marriage license. On the marriage certificate, available online from Jeanshoundshellpeppers.com, Jan lists his occupation as "varensgezel," or seafaring man.

Detail Marriage Certificate Jan and Volkje Van Husum

In the 17th century, most sailing on Dutch ships was done on a Dutch flyboat or fluyt. This was a sturdy, round-sided ship with great carrying capacity that operated with fewer crew than other boats. While sizes varied, a ship of 150 to 200 tons, might use a crew of seven or eight, whereas the English and French used a crew of ten or twelve. And again, while sizes might vary greatly, the ship might measure no more than 60 feet from stem to stern, and 13 feet in width.

The Fluyt, by Charlotte Wilcoxen, from Selected Papers of Rennselaerswijck Seminar.

Dutch Flyboat from KingsAcademy

 Seafaring.

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.