Michael Jansen Vreeland 1610 to 1662

From: https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Jansz-194

See also: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/48314/images/FHCentralNYII-006649-933?ssrc=&backlabel=Return&pId=287623

See also: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/73160043/michiel-jansen-vreeland

Michael Jansen Vreeland was born in about 1610 Broeckhuysen, Netherlands.

Michael Jansen Vreeland, the common ancestor of the Vreeland family, came from Holland on the ship Het Wapen van Norwegen (The Arms of Norway) in 1638.

He owned a farm or polder in South Beveland, one of the islands of the Province of Zeeland, but his church home was in the village of ‘sHeer Abtskerke, three miles from his farm, the common name of the village being Schrabbekerke. From here he went to Bergen-op-Zoom, in Brabant, and took boat to Amsterdam, from whence he sailed in May 1638, and arrived in New Amsterdam on August 4.

Arrangements had previously been made with Patroon Killian van Rensselaer, who had been granted a large tract of land surrounding the present site of the city of Albany, on both sides of the Hudson River. Jansen leased the farm known as the “Hooge-Berg,” located on an elevation immediately opposite the present city.

His latent energy and enterprise were so confined by his work as a farmer that he branched out into fur trading with the Indians, and speedily came into conflict with the parent trust of the hemisphere, the Dutch West India Company. Undismayed, Jansen brought the questions at issue into court and was later sustained on all the counts. Adding to the products of his farm the fish and oysters which were so plentiful in the adjoining waters, he found market in the city opposite and speedily acquired a fortune, as fortunes went in those days, which he invested in cattle. When the Dutch colony was settling on the Delaware, Jansen supplied them with part of their cattle.

One year after his coming to Communipaw, Governor Peter Stuyvesant took up the reins of government in New Amsterdam, and, being anxious to maintain a representative government, appointed nine advisers, Jansen being made the representative for the west side of the river. He must have proved to be a good adviser, because in 1656 he was offered the Vice-Governorship at Fort Orange, later Albany, but he declined the honor, preferring, evidently, to stay and work for his present constituency.

As in Albany, the reputation of the fairness of his dealings with the Indians made him popular in Communipaw; his friendship with the red men acted in his favor during the awful times of 1655, when his family was exempted from capture or death.

Michael Jansen Vreeland died in Pavonia in 1662.

From: https://www.nycourts.gov/history/legal-history-new-york/luminaries-dutch/jansen-michiel-vreeland.html

Michiel Jansen was born in Broeckhuysen, Holland, around 1610. He was one of the early settlers who contracted with Killian van Rensselaer to work a farm on the van Rensselaer patroonship near Albany. On August 4, 1638, Michiel Jansen, his wife Fytie, and two servants,possibly Jan Dircksz and Teunis Cornelisz van Vechten, arrived in New Netherland on board the ship Het Wafen van Norwegen “(The Arms of Norway”).

Jansen was highly regarded by van Rensselaer, who stated in a letter: “I think he is one of the most upright farmers in the colony, and when there is an opportunity, I shall have an eye to his advantage also.” On July 27, 1646, Michiel Jansen requested and received permission to leave the patroonship and move to New Amsterdam.

In 1647, Jansen was selected as a member of the “Nine Men” [van Rensselaer’s advisors]. Shortly afterward, he moved his family to Pavonia on what is now the New Jersey side of the Hudson River. Of all the settlers’ families in the area, only that of Michiel Jansen escaped unharmed in the Indian raid of September 15, 1655. However, his house was destroyed, and he lost all his possessions. The Jansen family returned to Manhattan where Michiel Jansen opened a tap room on the north side of Pearl Street on October 23, 1656. His business was successful, and he began to buy additional lands.

Michiel Jansen was admitted to the small burgher right of Manhattan on April 13, 1657, and when the Indian war ended, he returned to his Pavonia farm where he rebuilt his home and resumed cultivation of his extensive land holdings.

In 1661, Michiel Jansen Vreeland was named as one of the magistrates of the first court of justice in Pavonia.

Michael Jansen Vreeland died in Pavonia in 1662.