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Family of Jentie Jeppes

Picture above: The Reformed Church at Wijckel, Friesland, Netherlands where Gerrit Jansz and Evert Jansz were baptized in 1659 and 1660.

Jentie Jeppes, b. 1630, Friesland, Netherlands (for a deeper discussion of how the names Jan Jacobszen de Vries and Jentie (Jentje) Jeppes could be equivalent...see Discussion of the names Jentje Jeppes and Jan Jacobszen de Vries.)

Married: Tietske Gerrits (b. abt. 1630 in Netherlands)

Children:
1. Griete Jansz (bap. 30 June 1656 in Reformed Church at Wijckel, Friesland; died before Oct 1663)
2. Eeuwe Jansz (bap. 1 November 1657 in Reformed Church at Wijckel, Friesland; died before 1660)
3. Gerrit Jansz (bap. 1 January 1659 in Reformed Church at Wijckel, Friesland)
4. Evert Jansz (bap. 17 June 1660 in Reformed Church at Wijckel, Friesland)
5. Meenske Jansz (bap. 11 May 1662 in Reformed Church at Leeuwarden, Friesland)

6. Griettie Jansz (bap. 11 Oct 1663 in Reformed Church at Leeuwarden, Friesland, d. before April 1664)
7. Grietje Jansz (b. 1666 in New York, America)

[See new information --dated 26 Sep 2008 on the family of Jentie Jeppes supplied by Harry Macy, Jr. in the source section below]

Parents:
Jentie's parents are unknown but from his patronymic name (Jan Jacobzen, see below) one would guess his father was Jacob. 
Tietske Gerrits' parents are unknown.

Background information:

Jentie Jeppes, also known as Jan Jacobzen deVries, was born in Friesland. His patronym indicates that his father’s name was Jacob. He married Tijedtske Gerrits (also known as Sytje Gerrits) abt. 1653. Tijedtske’s parents are unknown. “Jentie Jeppes and Tyedske Gertss syn wyf” appear as members of the Reformed Church at Wijckel, Friesland in 1656. Following that is the notation “beyde vertrocken” (departed) without a date. Their first four children, Griete, Eeuwe, Gerrit, and Evert (born 1656-1660) were all baptized in this reformed church. Griete and Eeuwe both died in childhood before l664. Under the date 17 April 1664, an account book of the Dutch West India Company shows that Jentie Jeppes owed the company 126 florins for passage across the Atlantic on the ship D’Eendracht (Unity or Concord) under Capt. Jan Bergen, for himself, his wife, and “his three children of 5, 4, and 2 years.” These children would have been Gerrit, Evert, & Meenske. A little over a year later the name Jentie Jeppes appears once in the town records of Flatbush, Long Island (29 August 1665) when 5-year old Gerrit Claeszen, is placed under the guardianship of Jentie Jeppes and Bartelt Claeszen. By 1666, Jentie Jeppes had settled in Bergen (now part of Jersey City), NJ. Soon after the birth of Grietje in 1666, his wife Tijedtske dies and is buried in the Bergen Dutch Church cemetery. Jentie, widower, married Britten Oloff (herself the widow of Pieter Corneliszen) on 4 December 1666. The Dutch Orphanmasters on 10 December 1666 appoint Focke Jansen and Cornelis Aerts as guardians and tutors of Gerrit, Evert, Meenske, and Grietje. The account reads “we the undersigned orphanmasters of New Yorck, have deemed necessary, for the benefit of the above-named children, to commission some persons as guardians and tutors for said children, and to that end have selected Focke Jansen and Cornelis Aerts, who are hereby required and authorized to assume said guardianship, also for the benefit of the above-mentioned children to receive from the above-named Jan Jacobsen statement and inventory of the estate as it was on the day his said wife died, to the end said children may receive their inheritance belonging to them from their mother’s estate...done and executed in New Yorck this 10 December 1666... and said Jan Jacobsen shall provide the children named Gerrit, Eeuwe, Nynshe and Grietje Janse, with proper food and clothing until they come of age and then pay to each of them a sum of fifty guilders wampum amounting in all to the sum of fl. 200.” (The system of Dutch Orphanmasters was dissolved sometime after 1666 when the British took over. The children who lost their mother in 1666 also soon lost their father, who died before 1673 probably on Manhattan Island. The children were brought up by someone in the Flatlands, but who remains a mystery. They resurface in the 1680’s when all four children become members of the Flatlands church. (Gerrit Jansz in June, 1681; Evert Jansz 6 October 1682; Meinsje Jans 23 June 1682; and Grietje Jans 30 March 1683.)

Source:

Harry Macy, Jr. The Van Wicklen/Van Wickle Family: Including its Frisian Origin and Connections to Minnerly and Kranchheyt; The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, Vol. 128, No. 2 (April 1997); pp. 81-90.

The following addendum to the 1997 article above -- courtesy of Harry Macy, Jr. in 26 Sept 2008 email:

128(1997):81-90 (“The Van Wicklen/Van Wickle Family: Including Its Frisian Origin and Connections to Minnerly and Kranckheyt,” by Harry Macy, Jr.)

When the article was published, it was not known where family founders Jentie Jeppes and Tijedtske Gerrits were living between June 1660, when their son Eeuwe/Evert was baptized at Wijckel, Friesland, and April 1664, when they departed from Amsterdam for New Netherland. However, the West India Company account of their passage and daughter Meenske’s marriage record indicated that she was born about 1662 somewhere in Friesland. Now a database of pre-1811 Friesland church records is available online, and it reveals that in 1662-1663 the family was in Leeuwarden, the provincial capital, where two children were baptized in the Reformed church:[1]

11 May 1662           Meinske daughter of Jenttie Joppes [sic]

11 October 1663     Griettie daughter of Jenttie Jeppes

The Leeuwarden register in this period does not give the mother’s name, and rarely shows witnesses (there were none for these baptisms), but the name Jentie Jeppes is very rare in this province-wide database and given our other knowledge of the family there can be no question that the father in these entries was the New Netherland settler.

Jentie and Tijedtske did have a daughter Grietje born after Meenske, but the West India Company account does not show a 6-months old child in the family that emigrated. The assumption that the surviving daughter Grietje was born in the New World still appears to be correct. The Griettie/Grietje born 1663 most likely died before the family’s departure, but unfortunately the Leeuwarden Reformed burial records do not begin until 1687. The Grietje who survived was the third child to bear the name, strongly suggesting that this was the name of one of the grandmothers.

The online database was searched for a record of Jentie and Tijedtske’s marriage but none was found. A database of the Leeuwarden Reformed membership records was also searched with negative results.[2]

Generations beyond those covered in the article may be found at www.vanwicklin.com.