Individual Details

This is the biography I wrote for Wikitree, Jansz-67, on 3 March 2019. Afterward, minor changes were made by others:

Possible Confusion

This person, Mathijs Jansz van Ceulen, a Dutch settler in Fort Orange, New Netherland, is distinct from Mathijs Abrahamsz van Ceulen, a Director of the Dutch West India Company. Numerous secondary sources have considered them to be the same person.

The evidence is enumerated at: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Space:The_One_or_Two_Mathijs_van_Ceulens

Biography

Birth, Baptism, Parentage

Mathijs typically used his patronymic, Jansz or Jansen. In particular, a 2 July 1667 Court of New Netherland probate document "Land Valuation and Division of Patronomial Estate of Mathijs Jansen van Ceulen" includes his name. [1]

Because his patronymic was Jansz or Jansen, we know that his father's name was almost certainly Jan. He had daughters named Annetje and Catryn, suggesting that his mother's name was one of those. There is a record of a Jan Jansen van Ceulen and wife Annetje Janz, baptizing a daughter, Annetje at St. Niclaaus DRC in Amsterdam, 12 Oct 1606. Considering that these are all common names, the connection is far from sure. [2]

Disproved: Some have cited a baptism of a Mathijs at Austin Friars DRC in London, 1602. However, an examination of the record shows that the father's name was Mathijs, not Jan. [3]

Disproved: Born February 2, 1602 in Holland, Reusel-de Mierden, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. A prior contributor Steven Mix explained the error in an edit dated 23 October 2014.

Note that this is a completely bogus birth location. Here is a Dutch Genealogy blog which explains the error. It comes from an early Family Tree Maker autocomplete for "Holland" which failed to recognize the name as the intended Netherlands, and instead "found" a match for an obscure street in a tiny village of Reusel. As a result, this location has been propagated into countless trees all over databases and the Internet. It should be removed wherever it is found, because it is extremely unlikely that many people's genealogical ancestors actually came from that small town.

Other suggestions, but without citation, include:

Birth 18 Jul 1580 in St. Walburgus, Antwerp.
Birth, 02 FEB 1601/2 London, England

Arrival

D. G. Van Curen estimates that Mathijs arrived in New Netherland about 1639. [4]

Marriage

Mathijs married Margriet Hendrickse, about 1641. [5]

Children

Baptism records at the Fort Orange (Albany) DRC are missing for that period, because a subsequent rector destroyed the old records. However, other records allow us to infer the following children and approximate dates of birth:[6]

Catryn about 1642 (so as to be 18 at time of marriage, 3 October 1660);
Annetje about 1644 or 1645 (so as to be more than 21 at a 1667 estate division);
Jan abt 1646-47 (as he was noted to be under 21 at the estate division); and
Matthys, 1648-49 (soon after his father's death).

Margriet's second husband, Thomas Chambers, himself childless, granted his family coat-of-arms to stepchildren, Jan and Matthys. [7]

Residence

According to Riker, "Matthys Jansen ... removed to Fort Orange, and thence to Esopus, where he died prior to 1663." [8]

Van Curen, however, disagrees and states that there is no record that he ever lived in Manhattan or Esopus. Instead he appears to have lived at Fort Orange. [9]

Property, in Current Manhattan

The following account, primarily provided by Riker, is completely or partially incorrect, as will be explained.

In 1638, Cornelis van Tienhoven, the provincial secretary of New Amsterdam, acting as the agent of Coenraet van Keulen, a merchant living in Amstersdam, purchased the Otter-Spoor farm (on Harlem opposite the current Wards Island [p. 119]) for 2900 gilders. Riker speaks of the van Keulen family as being highly interested in New Netherland. He mentions that Matthys was a principal partner in DWIC, but he only "presumes" a relationship between Matthys and Conraet. This two-hundred acre [p. 106] part of Harlem became known as Van Keulen's Hook. [10]

New Amsterdam's Director Kieft, acting as an agent for [Conraet?] Van Keulen contracted for the construction of a fine residence on the Otter-Spoor land. Riker does not know who was intended to live there. [11]

Van Keulen never made any attempt to improve the land at Van Keulen's Hook. Riker speculates that Matthys's interest in the land was traded for property at Papparinamin--near the far Northern tip of Manhattan. [12]

However, the Papparinam property actually belonged to the other Mathijs, the Fort Orange settler. We know that because a probate record, "Land Valuation and Division of Patranomial Estate of Mathijs van Ceulen," filed 2 July 1667 in the Court of New Netherland, designated how that property should be passed to his heirs. D. G. Van Curen concludes that the land on both Van Keulen's hook and Papparinam belong to the Fort Orange Settler. [13] Riker agrees, but that's only because he believed that the Fort Orange settler was the same person as the Director of the DWIC.

With the current evidence, we can conclude that the Papparinam property belonged to Mathijs the settler. It remains possible that the Van Keulen Hook property belonged to Mathijs the Director, particularly because the purchase was made at the behest of an agent in Amsterdam.

This explanation is roughly consistent with Van Benschoten's: "It appears that Director Kieft in 1646 granted him [Mattys Jans] 50 morgens of land at Harlem, but whether he ever occupied it or not is uncertain. The grant was afterward confirmed to his heirs in 1667 by Gov. Nicholls."[14]

Occupation

"Matthys Jansen became a trader on the Hudson." [15]

"Mathijs Jansz is credited in the accounts with wages for baking at the house of the patroon and with beer furnished between 1644 and 1646. He died before Oct. 13, 1648." [16]

Some secondary sources have inferred more than can be justified from the frequent mentions of Mathijs van Ceulen in van Renssalaer's journals because they presumed that Mathijs the settler and Mathijs the Director were the same person. We know that Mathijs the Director had joined with van Renssalaer to create a tenant farming colony near Fort Orange. Van Renssalaer never came to the New World and is unlikely to have ever encountered Mathijs the settler. It must be noted that the reference noted above to Mathijs the settler is in the account books of van Rensalear's manor, not his journal.

Death

Killaen van Renssalaer's journal says that Mathijs died 13 Oct 1648. [17] Court records on the 15th and 22nd identify his widow as Margriet Hendrickse. Two months later she was identified as the wife of Thomas Chambers although she is pregnant with Mathijs's child, Matthys. [18]

Notes

1. Van Curen, 2016, p. 2.
2. D. G. Van Curen, 2016, p. 2.
3. Van Curen, 2016, p. 2.
4. D. G. Van Curen, 2016, p.2
5. Van Curen, 2016, pp. 2-3, citing van Renssalaer journals.
6. Van Curen, 2016, p. 3.
7. Van Curen, 2016, p. 4.
8. Riker, p. 148, footnote.
9. Van Curen, 2016, p. 2.
10. Riker, pp. 131-133.
11. Riker, p. 142.
12. Riker, p. 149.
13. Van Curen, 2016, pp. 2-4.
14. Van Benschoten, p. 21
15. Riker, p. 148, footnote.
16. Van Rensselaer Bowier manuscripts
17. Van Rensselaer Bowier manuscripts
18. Van Curen, 2016, p. 3.

Sources

* Riker, James, Henry Pennington Toler, and Sterling Potter. Revised History of Harlem (City of New York.): Its Origin and Early Annals Prefaced by Home Scenes in the Fatherlands; or Notices of Its Founders before Emigration. Also Sketches of Numerous Families and the Recovered History of the Land-Titles. With Illustrations and Maps. Revised and enlarged. New York, NY: New Harlem Publishing Company, 1904.
* Van Benschoten, William Henry. Concerning the Van Bunschoten or Van Benschoten Family in America: A Genealogy and Brief History. Second Edition. West Park on Hudson, New York, 1907.
* Van Curen, D. G. The Descendants of Mathijs Jansen van Ceulen: A History of the Van Steenberghs, Peersens, Jansens, Van Keurens and Related Families, from Their Beginnings in Kingston, Ulster County, New York. 2nd edition of "Van Keulen/Van Keuren, Van Kuren/Van Curen". Chesterfield, Missouri: Mira Digital Publishing, 2016.
* Van Rensselaer Bowier manuscripts: being the letters of Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, 1630-1643, and other documents relating to the colony of Rensselaerswyck. Kiliaen van Rensselaer, Arnold J. F. Van Laer, Nicolaas de Roever, and Susan de Lancey Van Rensselaer Strong. New York State Library, 1908. Albany, N.Y.: University of the State of New York.

Birth	Say 1600	Netherlands
Arrival	Abt 1639	New Netherland
Residence (family)	From Abt 1641 to 1648	Fort Orange, New Netherland - Margriet HENDRICKSE
Marriage	Abt 1641	New Netherland - Margriet HENDRICKSE
Death	13 Oct 1648	Fort Orange, New Netherland
Alt name		Mathijs JANSEN van Keulen
Alt name		Mathijs JANSZ
Miscellaneous		This person is *not* the Director of the Dutch West India Company.
Property		property in the Parrarinem, at the north end of Manhattan
Occupation		possibly a trader or a baker

Spouse	Margriet HENDRICKSE (1620 - 1675)
Child	Catryntje MATTHYSSEN (1642 - )
Child	Annetje MATTHYSSEN (1645 - 1721)
Child	Jan MATTHYSSEN (1646 - 1724)
Child	Matthys MATTHYSSEN (1648 - 1730)

Notes