The mysterious Anneke Jans

Since first posting this, I’ve written considerably more on Anneke Jans.

The Albany Hand-book from 1884 saw fit to include an entry on one of the city’s most enigmatic early figures, Anneke Jans:

“Anneke Jans, whose estate has been the subject of so much solicitation, resided cor. State and James Sts., present site of the Mechanics’ and Farmers’ bank, and died in this city March 19, 1663. She is supposed to have been buried in the Beaver street burying ground. Her first husband owned land on the west side of Broadway, New York, along the river, from Chambers to Canal sts., with a strip running up to give an entrance to Broadway. This was sold to the government by her heirs, and was known as the King’s farm, and given to Trinity church. It is now worth millions, and many of her descendants have imagined that it ought to revert to them.”

Anneke was born in Norway in 1605. Her first husband was Roeloff Jansen; they had three children before coming to New Netherlands in 1630 and taking up farming for the Patroon, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer. (Roeloff is still remembered in these parts, with the Columbia County Roeliff Jansen Kill named after him.) There were three more children born in the New World. They moved to New Amsterdam (you may know it as New York City) around 1634, where he died in 1636, having somehow obtained a nice piece of property on what is now Manhattan. Anneke remarried two years later, to Dominie Everhardus Bogardus, a minister, and had four more children with him before he died in 1647. Anneke remained in New Amsterdam for perhaps 10 more years before moving to Beverwyck. (You know it as Albany.)

Her death set off a flurry of speculation that lasted the next couple of centuries. The 62 acres of land in New York City, bequeathed to her by her husband Roeloff, had become very valuable in short order. It included much of what is now Greenwich Village, SoHo and Tribeca. The first public park in NYC, Duane Park, is the last remnant of open space of their farm; the couple is remembered on a plaque to this day.

The first speculation had to do with the farm itself, which was called the Dominie’s Bouwerie (the Dutch word for farm; any connection to Huntz Hall is purely in your mind). The Duane Park plaque says the farm was sold to the English governor, confiscated by the Duke of York and deeded to Trinity Church in 1705. As one genealogy site notes, this set off “repeated and hotly contested lawsuits initiated by her descendants to claim their apparent legitimate part-ownership” of some of the most valuable real estate in the world, which ran well into the 20th century.

The other, somewhat more weird speculation, was that Anneke (also commonly spelled Annetje) was the grandaughter of William the Silent, bette known as William I, Prince of Orange, the father of the Dutch Republic. “If true, this connection would have been based upon a morganatic relationship between William I and Annetgen Coch. In this arrangement, two children were presumed born: Sara and Wolfert Webber. Anneke was said to be the daughter of Wolfert Webber. The legend has been questioned, thoroughly researched and disproved. It is a good story, however.” (More at this site.)