The Van Salee Family

Date: 25 Jul 2017 [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surname/tag: Van_Salee

Contents 1 The Van Salee family 1.1 Biography 1.1.1 Notes 1 1.2 Notes 2 1.3 Biography 2 1.4 Biography 3 1.4.1 About 2 Research Notes 3 Sources

The Van Salee family

This page is a compilation of excerpts from several published works on the topic of the Van Salee family of New Netherland (descendants of Jan Jansz van Haarlem). It should not be mistaken for validated genealogical information.

Biography

The following article is taken from the PBS website featuring a Frontline broadcast:

The Van Salee Family

"Anthony and Abraham van Salee were the ancestors of the Vanderbilts, the Whitneys, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Humphrey Bogart.

"They were among the earliest arrivals to 17th century New Amsterdam. In a number of documents dating back to this period, they are both described as "mulatto". From what scholars have been able to piece together about their background, they appear to have been the sons of a Dutch seafarer by the name of Jan Janszoon van Haerlem who had "turned Turk" and become an admiral in the Moroccan navy. With the Port of Salee as the base from which it harried [pirate! DW] European shipping, references to the fleet he commanded are salted away in the old English sea shanties that are still sung about the Salee Rovers. The mother of his two sons was probably a concubine he had while trading in this part of the world before his conversion to Islam.

"As a result of the anti-social behaviour of his white wife, Anthony van Salee was induced to leave the city precincts of lower Manhattan and move across the river, thus becoming the first settler of Brooklyn. Since Coney Island abutted his property, it was, until sometime in the last century, also referred to as "Turk's Island"; the word, "Turk", being a designation of his which the records used interchangeably with, "mulatto". According to the documentation that people like Professor Leo Hershkowitz of Queens University have sifted through, it would seem that Anthony van Salee never converted to Christianity. His Koran, in fact, was in a descendant's possession until about fifty years ago when, ignorant of its relevance to his family's history, he offered it for sale at auction.

"The Van Salee history also includes a more contemporary black collateral branch in the U.S. Anthony's brother Abraham fathered an illegitimate son with an unknown black woman. The son became the progenitor of this side of the family. Although having to face constraints that their "white" cousins could at best only imagine, two of these van Salees nevertheless left their mark in the annals of African American history. "America's Van Salees

"Dr. John van Salee De Grasse, born in 1825, was the first of his race to be formally educated as a doctor. A member of the Medical Society of Massachusetts, he also served as surgeon to the celebrated 54th Regiment during the Civil War. His sister, Serena, married George Downing who was not only an enormously successful black restauranteur both in New York City and in Newport, RI, but a man who used his wealth and connections with the East Coast's most powerful white families to effect social change for his people. Because of his organization and his own contribution to the purchase of Truro Park in Newport, one of the streets bordering it still bears his name. Interestingly enough, this genealogy was done as part of an ongoing study of the Ramopo in Tappan, NY, one of those red, white and black groups sociologists and ethnographers are now working on and which in academese are referred to as "tri racial isolates". It is because of what advantages their Indian heritage (no matter how discernably negroid they were) legally and officially provided them that the opportunity for "passing" in these groups was not only a more ambiguous political or moral decision but, comparatively, a more easily documentable one as well.

<p>" Considering how important a role John Hammond of Columbia Records played in the establishment of the black music industry, it would certainly be worth exploring the possible influence his van Salee ancestry might have had on his career. Back then, there would have been no option possible for publicly declaring himself black according to the "one drop" racial code that was the law in most states until the Johnson administration. With a Vanderbilt for a mother, his iconographical value to the white majority was so important that had he dared to tamper with it, the KKK or some such group would most probably have made him pay the ultimate price for having desecrated his and the prestige of his relatives who had, after all, fairly well succeeded in making themselves the equivalent of this country's royal family. Hammond died a few years ago but since his son, following in his father's footsteps, has become a recognized exponent of R&ampB his could prove to be a very important interview for us.

"Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Either Professor Hershkowitz, or Tim Beard, former head of the Genealogical Department of the New York Public Library, related this incident regarding van Salee genealogy. At the time the Kennedy administration began implementing its civil rights agenda, the New York Genealogical and Historical Society approached Mrs. Kennedy hoping to discuss the opportunity her African ancestry, through the Van Salees, could have in possibly assisting her husband to realize his social goals regarding race relations. Mrs. Kennedy insisted on referring to the van Salees as 'Jewish,' and the New York Genealogical Society did not push the subject further.

<p>"Humphry Bogart and Ruth Gordon in a scene from the 1927 film "Saturday's Children." He is a Van Salee descendent and she is a Pendarvis descendent. A few years later, another descendant attempted to pass off the racial description of the van Salles in the official records as nothing more than malicious humor."^[1]<p>Anthony Janse Van Salee Called "The Turk"

He was called in an action of the case in New Amsterdam, June 1, 1654, as Mulatto Farbig, i.e.swarthy.

Notes 1

Bergen, in his Early Settlers of kings County New York, states "Anthony, from Salee, Vaes or Fez (Theunis Janszen Van Salee, in Dutch) emigrated at an early date to New Amsterdam where he resided from 1633 to 1639, owning a town lot and a bouwery (farm). He died about 1676, intestate. In April, 1639 he and his wife were banished from New Amsterdam in consequence of their being slanderous and troublesome persons (disturbers of the peace).

He, however, appears to have managed to remain in the town until Aug.3, 1639, when on petition he was granted by the Director General or Governor Kieft, 100 morgens on the west end of Long Island, lying within the present bounds of New Utrecht and Gravesend, to which he removed...His father, probably a Hollander, was named Jan. Local designations Van Salee and Van Vaes indicate that he lived in Morocco long enough for them as his home. His father could have been Jan Jansen Van Haarlem, a sea rover.

Anthony was erroneously called "The Turk". His farm on Long Island was designated as "Turk's Plantation". Sometime before 1669, Grietse died and Anthony married Metje Grevenraet. In that year (1669) the Jansens became residents of former New Amsterdam, then under English rule and, of course, called New York. They lived in a house on Bridge Street until Anthony's death in 1676. Metje continued to live there another ten years.

Notes 2

Note N205

"There is no foundation for the change (in spelling his name) from Salee to Sale[u]rs as made by several modern writers and in some histories, nor for the pretence that he was a brother of George Jansen de Rapalje"--from "Was Anthony Jansen van Salee a Huguenot" in the Historical Magazine 6:172-175 June 1862

From Sketches of Long Island by Onderdonk, "Antony Jansen van Salee was the oldest inhabitant at the West End of Long Island. He chose for his home New Utrecht here in 1638. His wife was Grietje Reiners. He was an adventurer. There was some doubt as to whether Antony or one of the city Magistrates, Andries Huddle, was the father of at least one of his wife's two children. Philip Garretson saw Grietje intoxicated at house of Abraham Pietersen. Feb 9 1660, Antony for a money consideration and fee of plantation No 29 in Gravesend sold his plantation of 100 morgens to Nicholas Stillwell of Gravesend who after sold it to Sir Francis DeBruin or Brown which latter obtained a confirmatory patent to same from Nichols. Sep 6 1669-Antony sold Plot No 29 Gravesend to Mr Van Sicklin and moved back to New York. He married second, Metje Grevenraedt. He died about 1677 and Letters of Administration were granted to his widow Mar 25 1677. Salee is situated in Morocoo and my theory is that he was a son of John Janse (or Jansz) of Haerlem, a freebooter."

"He was in New Amsterdam 1633-1639. Had four daughters by first wife, ANNICA m. Thomas Southward of Gravesend, CORNELIA m. William Johnson, SARA m. John Emans of Gravesend, and EVA m. Ferdinandus Van Sicklin. His first wife was Grietje Reiners and 2d wife (m. after 1664) Metje Greveraed, a widow. He died about March 1676. He was "the Turk" from Salee in Morocco, then under Turkish rule, and was the son of the freebooter Jan Jansz of Haerlem who carried his prizes to Saphien Salee to sell his botty and there became a renegade Mamelucas, derided Christianity and he married a woman at Salee deserting his own wife and children." -Gritman's Genealogical Data of Many Families

Other sources call him a respectable French Huguenot, but this is quite likely a later invention allowing his descendants to save face.

Biography 2

"Anthony Jansen Van Sallee 1607-1676 by Hazel Van Dyke Roberts, PH.D.

Anthony Jansen Van Salee was a unique, interesting and not unimportant figure in the early history of New Amsterdam, says Hoppin in The Washington Ancestry. This is almost an understatement. The writer actually has found him to be the most unusual and interesting figure she has come across in the New Amsterdam records. Contentious and obviously a nuisance to them, he was treated by the authorities with the respect due to a person of importance.

O'Callaghan in his History of New Netherland refers to Anthony Jansen of Salee as a "French Huguenot of respectability." Respectable, yes; Huguenot, no. He is variously referred to in the records as of Salee, of Vaes or Fez, and he is also sometimes called Anthony the Turk. In land records many boundaries long continued to refer to his land as "Turk's land." The term "Turk" it may be added, was applied frequently to all inhabitants of North Africa, as well as to those of Turkey itself, presumably because most of those lands were under the suzerainty of Turkey. This was not the case with Morocco, from which country Anthony Jansen had come.

No ancestor about whom, the writer knows had quite so much difficulty with his neighbors as did Anthony Jansen Van Salee. It started in Manhattan where he clearly was an excellent and prosperous farmer. For some reason he had made an unfortunate choice of a wife. She was Grietie Reyniers, who according to the testimony of another ancestor, Cornelis Lambertse Cool, was discharged for improper conduct when a waiting girl at Peter de Winter's tavern in Amsterdam. Anthony, as a young man from Morocco, unaccustomed to the society of women, would probably have been attracted to any young woman who treated him in a friendly manner.

Peter de Truy, their next door neighbor, and Wolphert Van Couwenhoven, another ancestor, who were collectors of the minister's salary, made declarations as to the language Anthony had used when asked to pay money toward the salary of the Reverend Mr. Bogardus. Such collectors were appointed by the authorities, and to refuse payment was a serious matter indeed. The pastor, or domine, among the Dutch occupied a position equal or superior to the Puritan minister in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Professor Leo Hershkowitz in the October, 1966 number of the Quarterly of the New York State Historical Association tells her story (pp. 301-306) as gospel in all its ugly details, despite his statement that gossip and slander were the custom of the town. Notwithstanding this he accepts without question the gossip of the midwife who said that Grietje asked whether her child looked like her husband or Andries Hudden. After all, whatever her character, Grietje does not seem to have been stupid, and it is a question if she would so openly have carried on an affair that a husband from Morocco would scarcely have tolerated. Told that the child was brown skinned, she is said to have accepted the fact that the child was that of her husband!

Anthony had business dealings with Hudde later, and his probable brother was a partner in the purchase of a plot of land on Long Island with one Peter Hudde. It seems more likely that, as does any new mother, she asked whom the child looked like, meaning father or mother, and that the midwife deliberately added the statement which Hershkowitz accepted as a fact, despite the slander which he declares to have been omnipresent.

Hershkowitz also says that she "undoubtedly" came in the ship Soutberg in 1633 as did Van Twiller and Bogardus; and that she married Anthony Jansen Van Salee sometime before 1638. Actually the eldest of the four daughters was married before December 22, 1653 when a suit was brought against Anthony by the son-in-law. This action Anthony deplored as creating ill will between father and child. His youngest child was baptized in 1647 at the age of six years. Thus is would seem that the couple were arrived in The Netherlands.

The assumption by all who have written about Anthony Jansen Van Salee has been, and the writer thinks also, that Anthony was the son of Jan Jansen Van Haarlem, who became Morat Rais, Admiral of the Sultan of Morocco's fleet at Sale. The assumption has also been that Anthony was the son of a Moorish mother, the wife of Jan Jansen, and that he was a mulatto.

The records of the Gemeente-Archief in Amsterdam show that on 26 September 1626 Grietje Reyniers of Amsterdam, aged twenty-four years, parents unnamed, assisted by her cousin, Heyltge Gerrits Schaeck, married Aelbert Egberts, from Haarlem, a tailor, aged twenty years, having no father, and assisted by his mother, Hillegond Cornelis. The records further show that on 15 December 1629 Grietje Reyniers, from Wesel, Germany, widow of Aelbert Egberts for over two years, and Anthony Jansz, seaman from Cartagena, aged twenty-two years, parents not named, received a certificate allowing them to get married "on board." Thus Grietje was about five years Anthony's senior.

The decision to marry on shipboard could have been the result of a sudden decision to marry, or the preference of Anthony, either a Mohammedan then, or influenced by that religion, to be married by a sea captain rather than by a Dutch minister. Sailing in December 1629, they would have reached New Netherland in 1630. Thus Grietje did not come on the Soutberg with Van Twiller and Bogardus.

Anthony's age, twenty-two years in 1629, shows that he had been born about 1607. Jan Jansen of Haarlem was taken prisoner by Algerian pirates in a historic raid on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in 1618. His probable son, Anthony, would then have been eleven years of age and not the son of a Moorish mother.

Whether Grietje Reyniers was Dutch or German remains uncertain. Her name indicates that the family was of Huguenot descent. That she was of Amsterdam at the time of her first marriage seems to suggest Dutch origin.

The question arises as to why Anthony called himself a seaman from Cartagena (Spain) rather than from Sale or Fez as he was afterwards known. To have been in Holland as Anthony Jansen, a seaman from Sale, would have been to advertise the fact that he had been a pirate in the fleet of Jan Jansen. Fortunately, at this time there was an armistice between Spain and the Dutch. Oddly enough, although the Dutch built and equipped ships for the Moroccan pirate fleet, and were on close trading and diplomatic terms with the Moroccans, piracy on the part of her subjects was not looked upon with favor as an occupation by the Dutch. Jan Jansen had freed all Dutch captives, but when he considered leaving Morocco it was not to return to The Netherlands, but to go to England.

In New Netherland when Anthony and his wife got into trouble over non-payment of the minister's salary the source of the trouble may have been the two wives. It may have been a case of too much intimacy between two of a kind and the breakup of a friendship. In any case, both Anthony and his wife accused the Reverend Bogardus and his wife of being liars, and in 1639 were finally forced to make public apology and retract their statements. After still more difficulties they were banished from New Netherland "forever," as troublesome persons. Payment to the pastor being an absolute obligation, the Reverend Bogardus sued Jansen for the amount due and collected it. The minister soon after was lost at sea, and his widow removed from New Amsterdam.

The "banishment" of Anthony and his wife from New Netherland, or rather its aftermath, is an indication, that despite his quarrelsomeness, he was a person of unusual repute. Usually the banished were required to take the next boat leaving the port. Instead, after selling his New Amsterdam farm, Anthony, only three months later was granted 100 morgens (200 acres) of land at a nominal annual payment for a period of ten years. The land lay on that part of Long Island that later became the towns of Gravesend and New Utrecht. By chance, he thus became, and was recognized as, the pioneer of each town.

His new bouwery lay across from (Coney Island on what is now Gravesend Bay. His landing place there is referred to later. Hoppin says that it is regarded by historians as the place where Henry Hudson landed from the Half Moon in 1609; that it was where Richard Nicolls anchored on September 3, 1664, when he demanded and obtained the surrender of New Netherland, and was the fleet anchorage of Sir William Howe, who disembarked his troups there to fight the battle of Long Island. Anthony, incidentally, is not listed among those who requested that the Dutch surrender to the English.

In the sale in May 1639 of the property hitherto occupied by Anthony Jansen from Vaes in Manhattan, he agreed "to deliver the land as sowed and fenced, the house and barn and all that is fastened by earth or nail, except the cherry, peach and all other trees standing on the land which the said Anthony reserves for himself, and will remove at a more seasonable time, one stallion, two years old, another one year old, one wagon, one plough and harrow with wooden teeth." The Secretary of New Netherland, Cornelis van Tienhoven, went with Anthony to make an inventory of the plants to be removed later. They found "twelve apple trees, forty peach trees, seventy-three cherry trees, twenty-six sage plants, fifteen vines."

Anthony's next difficulty was with his son-in-law, Thomas Southard, which begins in the Court Minutes of New Amsterdam in December 1653. Although it is not quite clear, the trouble seems to have been over the dowry of his daughter, Annica, who was the wife of Thomas Southard. In any case, cattle were involved. Jansen had seized cattle that the son-in-law claimed. The son-in-law had his father-in-law imprisoned by the magistrates of Gravesend, where they both lived The Governor and his Council in no uncertain terms ordered the magistrates to release the imprisoned man immediately. David Prevost and Hendrik Kip with a third person to be selected by them, were appointed arbitrators. This was at the request of Anthony "to avoid a tedious suit between father and child." The arbitrators were unable to reconcile them, Southard apparently refusing to reconcile or to compromise. The suit was finally appealed to the Governor and his Council. What their decision was is not given in the records. However, it apparently went against the son-in-law. Thomas Southard and his wife soon removed to Hempstead, Long Island, another English settlement in Dutch territory. There Southard pastured two calves in 1657. He could, of course, have sold any Gravesend cattle.

Despite his expulsion from New Netherland, Anthony Jansen Van Salee continued to deal in real estate in New Amsterdam. In Stokes' Iconography (Vol. 2, p. 382) his old lot, No. 13 is shown as being bought from Abraham Jacobson van Sillwyck (Steenwyck?) on 24 May 1644. On 21 November 1656 he sold the same lot to Isaac Kip. He also owned a house on High Street which he leased in 1650. His wife Grietje had a house which she had been accustomed to rent for 150 guilders (RNA 1:171). In 1663 Anthony owned a house on New Bridge Street which he was renting and in which he was retaining sleeping quarters, indicating that he spent considerable time in New Amsterdam. Hoppin says that he moved back to New Amsterdam when he rented his farm on Long Island to Edmund Adley. I have not been able to confirm this. Part of his payment was five pounds of butter annually, so he evidently was not too far away. That he also had business at the South River is indicated in a suit brought in 1655 against his wife in New Amsterdam for payment of linen. She acknowledged the debt, but said she could not pay it until her husband returned from the South River (Ibid., p. 353).

While buying property in New Amsterdam Anthony was also adding to his holdings on Long Island. He bought plantation lot, or farm, No. 29 in Gravesend. He also bought land from the Indians for which he paid on 26 September 1651. Unfortunately, he had not obtained permission for this purchas

In September 1646 he leased to Edmund Adley the bouwery on Long Island opposite Coney Island granted to him after his expulsion from New Netherland "forever." The lease was to run for four years with a rental of 200 guilders the first year, and 250 guilders for each of the succeeding three years, and five pounds of butter each year. The lease is of especial interest because it shows that he had prospered since he went to Long Island, and also because it gives one of the rare enumerations of the implements to be found on a farm at that time, and finally because of the care with which it is drawn, apparently to leave no loophole for disputes. Jansen was to provide a house fit to live in, and the arable land was to be enclosed with posts and rails, which fence Edmund was to deliver back at the end of four years in equally good condition at his own expense. An inventory of personal property, including livestock, was appended. The number of the latter was to be deducted at the end of the lease, and the increase divided half and half. The risk of the loss of livestock; was also to be shared. The inventory included:

1 stallion, 12 years old

1 stallion, 3 years old

1 mare, 4 years old

2 cows in good condition

2 new plows and appurtances

1 wagon and appurtances

1 harrow with iron teeth; 2 spades; 2 siths and hasps; 2 sythes

1 hand saw; 1 iron maul; 1 churn and fixtures

1 axe; 1 cream pot; 2 pails

1 hand mill; 1 fan; 1 pitch fork

3 forks; 1 three-pronged fork

3 horse collars with long rope, being a fore and aft trace

1 carpenter's adze; 1 carpenter's axe; 1 sickle; 1 hook; 1 augur

1 long gun

Anthony promised to furnish as much seed corn as he could. The lease was signed 6 September 1646 before Cornelis van Tienhoven, Secretary, and witnessed by Cornelis van der Hoykens and Adriaen van Tienhoven.

Anthony Jansen's patent abutted what later were the patents granted to the towns of Gravesend and New Utrecht. As was to be expected where surveys were probably inexact, he had trouble with each town over their respective bounds. The first difficulty came with Gravesend. Robert Penoyer had bought land between Anthony and Lady Deborah Moody, the founder of the town. This land had apparently been bought later by William Bredenbent, husband of Altje Braconnie, the widow of Cornelis Lambertse Cool.

In the Calendar of Historic Manuscripts in the Office of the Secretary of State, 4 June 1654 is a summons for William Bredenbent and Anthony Jansen of Vaes with their neighbors of Gravesend to produce their patents. Case postponed. On 3 September of the same year, Governor Stuyvesant wrote Lady Moody that he had appointed commissioners to settle the boundary between the town of Gravesend, Anthony Jansen, Coney Island, and the land formerly in the possession of Robert Pennoyer. Apparently again the commissioners failed to act or could not agree. Almost two years later, on 12 April 1656, Anthony Jansen from Salee was ordered to serve the magistrates of Gravesend with a copy of his complaint against them and enjoining said magistrates from proceeding any further with the fencing and enclosing of petitioner's land.

On 20 June of the same year it was resolved that Governor Stuyvesant and his Council repair to Gravesend to decide the differences respecting the boundaries of that town. On 24 June judgment for the plaintiff was rendered in the case of Anthony Jansen and Robert "Pinoyer," et al, vs. the town of Gravesend for trespass. Still the case did not end. On 11 July Anthony Jansen van Vaes complained that the town of Gravesend had driven cattle off his land.

Notification was given that on 19 July commissioners would determine the bounds between Gravesend and Anthony Jansen Van Salee. Their report was to the effect that Anthony Jansen claimed more land than was stated in his patent. "In order not to proceed too hastily and upon unsound premises in our advice, which is to serve to end these disputes, we advise before going further, that Anthony, as the oldest and first settler by virtue of his grant, shall cause his lands to be surveyed in pursuance of his patent and place posts or marks at each turn of the compass. When that is done, it will be possible to see clearly, what hooks or points of land belong to Anthony Jansen and then it will be evident what belongs to the people of Gravesend and how much land between them still remains to the government" (CDNY 14:361). Signed by Cornelis van Tienhoven and Thomas Willet at New Amsterdam, 19 July 1656. On the next day the Director General and Council ordered Anthony Jansen the oldest proprietor to have his land surveyed within eight days.

Even this did not end the dispute. On 3 August Anthony sent a message to the Governor and Council telling them that an armed party from Gravesend had driven off and impounded twenty-four of his cattle which bad been pastured at the point east of his house. On the same day the magistrates of Gravesend were ordered to restore the cattle and to sue Jansen for trespass if they thought that they had grounds for action. This the town did. On 18 August the magistrates of Gravesend and Anthony from Salee and his servant were ordered to appear before the Council in the suit to which they were parties. Hay cut by Gravesend on land claimed by 22 Anthony Jansen van Salee [January Jansen was to be attached. On 21 August the case of the town of Gravesend against Jansen for trespass was heard. Judgment was rendered for the defense, which the town accepted. Jacques Corteljow was to survey the lands of Anthony Jansen Van Salee, Robert Pennoyer and William Bredenbent adjoining Gravesend. This seems to have settled the case.

The relation between the Dutch and the English inhabitants was not good -in part because of the relation between the English and the Netherlands in Europe; in part perhaps because of this land dispute which had dragged on and on. When the war with the Indians broke out in the mid-1650's, Jacob van Curlear, Jan Tomassen [Van Dyke] and others, fearing that the English inhabitants of Gravesend would not protect the Dutch living there, asked that aid be sent to them, or else a well-manned vessel be sent to Anthony Jansen's landing to take to safety their wives and children, provisions, and as many other things as possible. Twenty soldiers were sent.

Soon after the Indian disturbances on Long Island had subsided, Dutch inhabitants, many of whom seem to have been residents of Gravesend, in 1657 obtained a patent establishing the town of New Utrecht. That story with the problems of Jacob van Corlear and Jan Tomassen [Van Dyke] in governing the new town, I have told in part elsewhere. However, with the founding of New Utrecht Anthony Jansen's land troubles started all over again. This time it was with his former friends and neighbors from Gravesend.

On 27 August 1657 the town was given a patent for a parcel of meadow land situated on the East Hook of the Bay of the North River opposite Coney Island, and bounded on the west by the lands of Anthony Jansen of Salee. Obviously this was an invitation to a land quarrel. Jacob van Corlear, one of the leaders in the new town, had, in 1652, lost the large grant of land: which he had purchased from the Indians in 1636 without the consent of the West India Company, when Stuyvesant confiscated it with other grants made without permission. He had not disturbed Jansen's purchase from then made in 1651. A petition, undated, but obviously of the summer of 1658, was thus on sound grounds when it requested that "Anthony Jansen van Salee may be warned to drive in the woods his horses, hogs and cattle, the same as is practiced by others, so as to prevent their spoiling and eating the pasture from the meadows, by which the town is injured, and we ask for power to place them in the pound when found in the said meadow." The: petition declared that Anthony Jansen maintained that the meadows were his and that he had bought them of the Indians, which, it further declared, could not be done without the approbation of the noble and right Honorable Lords, and as he did not have this, he may be ordered to allow the town "the peaceful use of said meadow commenced with your consent, and peaceable possession of which was promised to the inhabitants of the town; the said Anthony however, having dwelt many years in the place to enjoy his lots and portion as well as others, but at the same time be liable to bear his share of the costs and expenses" (DHNY 1: 414f).

The decision respecting the petition was that "The Fiscal [Attorney General] was ordered to notify Anthony Jansen van Salee to keep his cattle and hogs out of the common meadow, and that if he claimed any more right h' the meadows to make the same known to the Director General and Council: The Fiscal is directed to impound all cattle and hogs found in the meadows" (Ibid.,). The result of the petition could scarcely have been favorable to Anthony, as he was not only in error concerning the Indian purchase, but also because Nicasius de Sille, the Fiscal of New Netherland, and a very influential person, was also one of the leading patentees of New Utrecht.

On 13 August 1658, Anthony Jansen presented his petition for favorable treatment to the Governor and his Council, of which de Sille was a member. In the petition Anthony stated that he had bought from the Indians and paid for it on 26 September 1651, the meadow that had been granted to the Dew village of New Utrecht. He requested that the part of it near his house be given to him. The decision made on the same day was that the petition was to be placed in the hands of the people of New Utrecht, and if it was found that the petitioner had no meadow for making hay, a part of the abovesaid land was to be given to him as to others. There is no further mention of the case. However, when the town lands were distributed, he, as did the heirs of the original grantee of New Utrecht, received two shares. The other proprietors received one share each.

In 1660 he sold his Gravesend lot No. 29 to Nicholas Stillwell, got it back, and in 1669 sold it to his son-in-law, Ferdinandus Van Sickelen, who sold it the same day.

Bergen, in his Register in Alphabetical Order of the Early Settlers of Kings County, L. I., N. Y. (pp. 154-56) says, "In 1879 in leveling the sand dunes n the upland edge of the bay," where dunes "had been gradually extended back with the abrasion of the shore or coast, the remains of two separate pieces of stone walls about two feet high and one foot wide and made mainly f unbroken field stone laid in clay mortar, with a clay floor between them were exhumed. These remains were covered with from four to six feet of sand, and are probably those of the barn or other farm buildings of Anthony Jansen, it being customary in the early settlement of this country to construct their threshing floors of clay . . . and their roofs of thatched straw, instead of shingles...."

Anthony continued to live on his land in Gravesend, notwithstanding his approval of the way of life in the village. This is indicated by a petition signed by many of the Dutch inhabitants and others. Jansen, Jan Emans, who would marry one of his daughters, Lieutenant Nicholas Stillwell, and hers made their mark. Dated 12 April 1660, the petition says that the town had a licentious mode of living, and that desecration of the Sabbath and confusion of religious opinion prevailed. As a result many had grown cold in the exercise of Christian virtues. Because of this situation they asked that a pastor be sent to them. Some think that this petition had been signed by Anthony Jansen of Westbrook, but the fact that it was signed by those with whom Anthony Jansen of Salee had close relations seems to point to his being the signer. Moreover, Anthony Jansen Westbroeck resided at Flatbush.

Apparently Anthony had had a change of heart, or his struggle with Bogardus had been a purely personal affair. Sold later by a descendant was a beautiful copy of the Koran in Arabic, which presumably had belonged to him. The content of the petition indicates that it was simply a keepsake of his early life, or if he had been a Mohammedan he had finally changed to Christianity.

In May 1674 he was accused of harboring a Quaker. This had not been permitted by Stuyvesant, but some thought it was permitted by Dutch law, which was extremely liberal in this respect. It had been taken for granted by the liberal Christians of Flushing, which gave rise to the famous Flushing Remonstrance. Now, however, the schout thought that Anthony should be fined 600 florins in beaver skins. Anthony's second wife testified that she had let the Quaker remain over night after being told that the authorities had given permission. The proposed fine was reduced to one beaver skin and costs.

A word should be written about Anthony's mark. A facsimile of it is to be found in the printed notarial records of Walewyn van der Veen, in connection with the leasing by "the worthy Anthony Jansen van Fes, called van Salee" of his house on New Bridge Street to Egbert Myndersen from I May 1663 to 1 May 1665 (OM 2:43f). The mark consists of an elaborate capital A and a capital I. He clearly was not literate in English or in Dutch, and in Morocco would have had no opportunity to learn a written language. The mark in the Gravesend petition is a simple cross in print, but would seem to have been intended to be his.

Anthony Jansen van Salee in his arrogance, his lack of deference to authority, in his determination to have his own way, shows characteristics that might be expected of the son of a man to whom all Sale had deferred. Aside from his nominal expulsion, the considerate treatment given him by the authorities also indicates that the Dutch in New Amsterdam knew his background, and knew that in sailing between the Old and the New Worlds, except for the tempestuous Atlantic, they had done so with a safety which they owed to his father.

Hoppin, in Washington Ancestry (3: 70), says that Les Sources Inedites de l'histoire du Maroc has five references to Anthony Jansen at Sale in the years 1623-24. Actually, in Archives, Pays Bas there are twelve references to a Captain Anthony Jansz' and all in January and February, 1623 (3:276

278, 282-284, 328-333). On page 283 he is specifically referred to as of Vlissingen. He could have been a relative of Jan Jansen of Haarlem for whom the son was named, but Anthony Jansen of Salee could scarcely have been a captain at that early date. In Tome 5 of the same Archives, ( p. 645, 25 January 1651), Captain Anthony Jansen is mentioned as having one of the ships in the fleet commanded by Captain Michel Adriaensz Ruyter on a voyage to Morocco. Anthony Jansen of Salee was in New Netherland at that time.

Hershkowitz refers twice (pp. 300, 307), without any qualification, to Anthony Jansen van Salee as a mulatto. He adds (p. 307) that there is "little" evidence that his color was a "significant factor" in his sentence. The writer has found no such evidence. Hershkowitz also says, without giving any references specifically to this, that negroes frequently intermarried with white settlers. The writer has not run across any case of intermarriage. Interbreeding there obviously was, and a case will be shown where a legal marriage might have been expected to have occurred, but did not.

The writer has found one record where one Anthony Jansen is referred to as a mulatto, and one in which his possible brother is referred to as "alias the mulatto." Obviously neither ever saw the records to have registered a denial. As a matter of fact, anyone brought up in Africa in that day would probably be associated with color. Certainly they would be browned by the sun to the point of looking colored, and each of the two being outdoor men would continue to retain the dark tan. However, Anthony, if the son of Jan of Haarlem, was probably not a mulatto, having been born before his father went to Africa.

Anthony Jansen van Salee seems to have come to New Netherland with more than the usual amount of funds brought in by immigrants at the time. Anthonie, Turk, in Stokes' Iconography of Manhattan Island, Vol. 2, is listed on pages 185, 196-197 among the owners shown on the Manatus Map of 1639. His bouwery No. 22 is shown in C. Pl. 41 and C. Pl. 42. The date of this large \grant is said to be unknown. He also owned other land in Manhattan at the same time. In the Costello Plan, page 261, he is shown as owning lots number 12 and 13. These lots are shown on C. P. 87 and C. P. 87a. In Stokes, Vol. 6, p. 155, he is described as the first owner of the Cornelis van Tienhoven farm which extended from Broadway to the Last River, and from Maiden Lane north to Ann Street (P. 84 Ba). It would seem that prior to his sale of land in 1639 he was one of the largest ]landowners on Manhattan, and the largest in the lower section at least.

Abraham van Salee, if a brother, followed more in the steps of the father. He, with Philip Jansen and Jan Jansen and others, was part owner of, and sailed on "La Garce" a privateer in 1643-1644. He is also shown in 0'Callaghan's Index to Dutch Manuscripts (II:311) as selling the yacht "Love." When in 1643 a crew from the "Seven Stars," and a privateer, landed at Anthony Jansen van Salee's farm on Long Island, and according to witnesses, but not Anthony, himself, carried away two hundred pumpkins, Philip and Abraham Jansen boarded the vessel and declared that all they found was a small lot of cabbages, pumpkins and fowls. Both Philip and Abraham were on "La Garce" and made their wills as they started on a cruise (CDM 24, 30, 31)

In 1658 Abraham van Salee, or "Turk," was also referred to as "alias the mulatto," when he refused to contribute to the support of the Reverend Mr. Polhemus on the "frivolous grounds" that he did not understand Dutch. The excuse was not accepted, and he was fined twelve guilders (Ibid., p. 194).

Growing up in Morocco he would be expected to have little trace of race prejudice. Although he had a child by a negress and left them his property, yet he did not marry her to legitimize the child. This would seem to dispose of the question of his race. His death occurred in April 1659. Catalyntje, wife of Joris Rapalje, went to the City Hall and stated that Abraham Jansen van Salee, alias the Turk, who had lived at her house was dead. He had made a testament, she said, whereby he devised his property to the negro woman and the child he had had by her. Joresy, her husband, had been named executor. The Deacons of the city, she said, had attached and seized the property. She had been to the Director General, who referred her to the Orphanmasters. By them she was referred again to the Director General and Council, as Abraham Jansen's domicile was not in the jurisdiction of the Orphanmaster's Court (OM 1:83f). There is no further mention of the case.

Anthony Jansen van Salee owned lot No. 29 in Gravesend. Jan Jansen ver Ryn owned lot No. 27. He sold it to Nicholas Stillwell in 1662. (Gravesend Town Records, Book 2, Deeds and Leases, 1653-1670, pp. 76-77.) He was probably the Jan who with Abraham and Philip were owners of "La Garce." In 1659 he bought lots Number 9 and 10 for his son Abraham Jansen for Rine, and in February 1660 he bought lot number 18 for the use and behalf of his brother Cornelis Jansen for Rine. (Ibid., pp. 53-54, 61.) The Town Record (No. 3 of the Town Meetings p. 25,) refers to Cornelis van Rinall as Secretary of the Dutch in New York as of 24th of the 8th mo., 1664.

Cornelis Jansen who had been with Jan Jansen of Haarlem obviously came to New Amsterdam with his family, and knew Abraham and Anthony and where to find them. They represent a definite link between Jan of Haarlem, earlier Admiral of Sale, and later Governor of the castle of ElOualidia.

As to Anthony's wife, Grietje Reyniers, I am reminded of what I learned many years ago in a course in Genetics. The grandfather of the famous Jonathan Edwards had two wives. The first, beautiful and of great intelligence, had "such an extraordinary lack of moral sense" that her husband divorced her on the grounds of adultery. He married again and reared a second family. Yet it is said that none of the descendants of the second wife rose above mediocrity, indicating that Jonathan Edwards and other illustrious descendants owed their remarkable qualities to their immoral grandmother.

We know nothing about the looks or mental capacity of Grietje Reyniers, except that her respectable, if contentious, husband apparently was devoted to her regardless of her youthful reputation or behavior. Thompson, in his History of Long Island, speaks of the distinguished offspring of Thomas Southard, son-in-law of Grietje and her husband. Thomas Southard's daughter, Sarah, married John Bedell of Hempstead. Their offspring were also descendants of Grietje. Among her various descendants were one and possibly two governors, an Episcopal Bishop, a Rector, a United States Senator, who was for a time acting Vice-President of the United States, and whose son was in the House of Representatives at the same time. This simply includes a part of one line of her descendants.

Anthony Jansen Van Salee and his wife, Grietje Reyniers, had four children, all girls:

1. Annica, m. before Dec. 22, 1653, Thomas Southard of Gravesend, later of
2. Cornelia, m. William Johnson of New York.
3. Sara, m. Jan Emans of Gravesend.
4. Eva, b. 1641; bap. 3 Nov. 1647, as aged 6 years (BDC); m. Ferdinandus Van Sickelen.

It is not known when Grietje died. Anthony sold the Gravesend property to his son-in-law Ferdinandus Van Sickelen in 1669. This would seem to have followed the death of his wife. He then moved back to what was then New York, apparently in 1669 or 1670. He married, second, around 1670, Metje Gravenraet, a respectable widow.

The will of John Williams, of New York, dated 10 October 1672, and administered 15 October of the same year, left to Anthony Jansen, Turk, "all my tools in the house of Henry Morris in New Jersey, as also whatever I have in the house of Anthony Jansen, or elsewhere." He also left him "all my land in New Jersey according to the records of Elizabethtown, and he is to pay Henry Morris a debt of forty shillings, and funeral charges." Henry Morris was named executor, but apparently asked to be excused, as letters of administration were granted to Anthony Jansen, Turk, 15 October 1672.

Anthony Jansen of Salee lived a few years longer. He died intestate. His widow, "Mattice Grevenrat" produced an inventory, and also a premarital contract in which it was agreed that "the longest liver" of them should remain in full possession of all the estate during the survivor's life. The husbands of all the daughters, signing in the order of the list of daughters and their husbands given above, petitioned 26 September 1676 for their share of the father's estate, and declared that the inventory was incorrect. Apparently the petition was disallowed, as the widow was granted letters of administration on 25 March 1677 by Governor Andros. Who ultimately got the estate is not known.

Thus ended what had been a turbulent, but obviously a prosperous lifetime.

I cannot finish with Anthony Jansen Van Salee without expressing my appreciation for the many valuable suggestions made by Rosalie Fellous Bailey. She has been almost as interested in Anthony as I have been."

Biography 3

Anthony and Grietje's lives were the subject of a novel, "The Drowning Room," by Michael Pye, published by Granta Books, London, 1995. I'm told by a fellow researcher (and probably a distant cousin) Charles W. Danis, Jr. that the novel is "historically inaccurate in a number of respects.” Anthony was also known as being “from Salee, Vaes or Fez. He emigrated at an early date to N. A. [New Amsterdam], where he resided from 1633 to ’39, owning a town lot and a bouwery. He m. 1st Grietje Reiniers; m 2nd, in 1670, Metje Gravenraet, and d. about 1676 intestate. In Apr. 1639 he and his wife were banished from N.A. in consequence of their being slanderous and troublesome persons. He, however, appears to have managed to remain in the town until Aug. 3, 1639 when on petition he was granted by the Director-Gen. or Gov. Kieft 100 morgens on the W. end of L.O., lying within the present bounds of N.U. and Gd., to which he removed, and for which the patent was dated May 27, 1643. Feb. 9, 1660, he sold his patent to Nicholas Stillwell for 1600 gl. And the fee of plantation-lot No. 29 in Gd., with the buildings and improvements thereon, whch plantation-lot Anthony sold Dec. 1669 to Fernandus Van Sickelen, his son-in-law. After this he appears to have removed back to N.A., where he died. Anthony’s patent during this period was known as “Turk’s Plantation,” from his being designated as “Turk” on some of the old records. Stillwell sold… In 1879, in leveling the sand dunes on the upland on the edge of the bay, a little S.E. of the buildings of Mr. Gunther at Locust Grove, which dunes had been blown up from the beach, and which had been gradually extending back with the abrasion of the shore or coast, the remains of two separate pieces of stone wall about 2 ft. high and 1 ft. wide, made mainly of unbroken fieldstones laid in clay mortar, with a clay floor between them, were exhumed. These remains were covered with from 4 to 10 ft. of sand, and are probably those of the barn or other farm buildings of Anthony Jansen, it being customary in the early settlement of this country to construct their threshing floors of clay, of which specimens existed, and were in use in this country in the younger days of the author, their roofs being made of thatched straw instead of shingles as at present. Issue by 1st wife:--Annica, who m. Thomas Southard of Gd.; Cornelia, who m. William Johnson of N.Y.; Sara, who m. John Emans of Gd.; and Eva, b. 1641, who m. Ferdinandus Van Sickelen of Flds. Made his mark “A I” to documents.” ^[2]

About

Anthony Jansen J. van Salee

Anthony "The Turk" Jansen van Salee was born in 1607 to Jan Janszoon van Haarlem and Margarita. He married a prostitute by the name of Grietje Reyniers around 1630. They had four children, all girls:

1. Annica Antonise Jansen b. about 1632 in New Amsterdam. m. Thomas Southard
2. Cornelia Jansen b. before 1638. m. William Jansen Van Borkelo
3. Sara Jansen
4. Eva Jansen b. before 1640. m. Ferdinandus Van Sickelen in 1660. Anthony also married a woman by the name of Metje Andries Grevenraet sometime after 1669. Together, they had no children.

Anthony died March of 1676 in New Amsterdam (New York).

"Anthony Jansen van Salee is a Turk, a rascal and a horned beast." -- Hendrick Jansen voicing the common view of his neighbor's character in 1638.

from Notorious New Yorkers: Anthony Jansen van Salee, the Turk New Amsterdam was a litigious place, and Anthony was involved in more than his share of lawsuits. Within five years, Anthony was hauled into court for stealing wood, paying wages he owed with a dead goat, allowing his dog to kill a neighbor's hog, pointing a loaded pistol at the overseer of the West India Company's slaves, threatening a debt collector with bloodshed if he insisted on the money owed and slandering any number of people.

Following numerous legal disputes, including with the church, Anthony was ordered to leave New Netherland, but on appeal to the Dutch West India Company, was allowed to settle on 200 acres (0.81 km2) in what would become New Utrecht and Gravesend, Brooklyn. This made him now one of the largest and most prominent landholders on Long Island. He was the neighbor of Lady Deborah Moody, of whom he was on good terms with, although he had disputes with her husband Sir Henry who filed speech charges against him.

Anthony "The Turk" Jansen van Salee (as recorded by Diane Foust Hubbard)- Most famous were the notorious Abraham Jansz and Anthony Jansen van Salee, a mulatto giant of prodigious strength later nicknamed "the Terrible Turk." Both followed their father’s double life as a pirate and adventurer, and both later chose to join the early settlers of New Amsterdam (later the city of New York) in the New World.

According to a "historian of the African diaspora" named Mario de Valdes y Cocom, Anthony Jansen van Salee's rumored famous descendants include Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jackie Kennedy (whose swarthy father was known as "Black Jack Bouvier"), and Humphrey Bogart.

For anyone interested in the location of Anthony Jansen's Brugh Straet house - the "footprint" of the original lot still exists, though the lot is a small parking lot now. It is on Bridge Street, just west of Broadway if memory serves me, adjacent to the White Horse Tavern (which incidentally was open in the mid-1600s though at a different location). (as recorded by Brian Smith)

Anthony and Abraham van Salee were the ancestors of the Vanderbilts, the Whitneys, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Humphrey Bogart. They were among the earliest arrivals to 17th century New Amsterdam. In a number of documents dating back to this period, they are both described as "mulatto". From what scholars have been able to piece together about their background, they appear to have been the sons of a Dutch seafarer by the name of Jan Jansen who had "turned Turk" and become an admiral in the Moroccan navy. With the Port of Salee as the base from which it harried European shipping, references to the fleet he commanded are salted away in the old English sea shanties that are still sung about the Salee Rovers. The mother of his two sons was probably a concubine he had while trading in this part of the world before his conversion to Islam. As a result of the anti-social behaviour of his white wife, Anthony van Salee was induced to leave the city precincts of lower Manhattan and move across the river, thus becoming the first settler of Brooklyn. Since Coney Island abutted his property, it was, until sometime in the last century, also referred to as "Turk's Island"; the word, "Turk", being a designation of his which the records used interchangeably with, "mulatto". According to the documentation that people like Professor Leo Hershkowitz of Queens University have sifted through, it would seem that Anthony van Salee never converted to Christianity. His Koran, in fact, was in a descendant's possession until about fifty years ago when, ignorant of its relevance to his family's history, he offered it for sale at auction.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/famous/vansallees.html

He married Grietse Reyniers, a scandalous woman from The Netherlands who was previously the mistress of Wouter van Twiller. She had encountered him while an employee of the tavern belonging to Pieter de Winter. Grietse is considered a legend of American colonial history because of her wild, sexual ways. She is dubbed the first Manhattan "lady of the night" by some accounts, while others have called her the "Carrie Bradshaw" of colonial Manhattan. She is quoted as having once said "I have long been the whore of the nobility. From now on I shall be the whore of the rabble." She was known to have measured the private parts of bar patrons with a broom stick. Between 1638-1639, the couple accounted for 10% of the crime rate in the colony, or 15 of 93 cases. During this period the Dutch legal system was heavily invested in quarrels, and the cases included actions of petty slander from the likes of Anneke and Domine Bogardus after Grietse accused of them of lying, Grietse mooning the naval fleet, and Anthony's drunkenness.

Grietse died in 1669, and Anthony married Metje Grevenraet, before dying in 1676 after passing his final years at his home on Bridge Street. Metje was a Quaker who helped Anthony tolerate the church.

He had four daughters with Reyniers who married into respectable colonial commercial families: Eva Antonis, who married Ferdinandus van Sycklin, an original immigrant to New Netherlands for whom Van Siclen Avenue in Brooklyn is named for. He was a descendant of a crusader and banker named Simon van der Sicklen, whose family possessed the domain of Nazareth, Belgium during the medieval ages and founded the town of Seclin, now in France. The family's original surname was de la Faucille. Cornelia, who married William Johnson Annica, who married Thomas Southard. Annica and Thomas's daughter Abigail was the great-great-grandmother of Cornelius Vanderbilt Sara, who married John Emans.

Anthony's physical appearance and race is the subject of much debate, and like his mother, the consensus was that he was of a mixed-ethnic background. He was incredibly tall with superior strength. Van Salee has been described many ways, with some calling him a "semi-Dutchman" of "tawny" complexion, erecting the first "European" house in New Utrecht. Other descriptions have said he was a "former black slave" who was a "mulatto"; others include "half-Moroccan", "Turk", "Berber", and "swarthy".

Anthony was very wealthy and had made many enemies, while falsely being attributed to certain history written well after his death. Anthony's appearance is consistently used in court documentation alongside his name with the phrase "Turk", indicating his appearance and/or lifestyle was a main emphasis for documentarians and historians during that period. From deduction, he was not a "free black", claimed in 2008, and "former black slave", as claimed in 2001, because he was the wealthy heir of a former head of state. It is also noted that Anthony was considered "European" enough to be credited, in 1643, for building the first "European" settlement in New Utrecht, while even historic Southern African-centric collections cannot determine what his actual appearance, race, or origin was.It is also noted that he had four daughters who married into respectable, colonial New Amsterdam families of European origin.

Anthony was Jan Janszoon's fourth child, born in 1607 in Cartagena, Spain from his second wife. In 1624 Anthony was in Salé, Morocco with his father, leaving in 1627 for Algiers with his family. Van Salee was living near the harbor in Amsterdam when he obtained a marriage license on December 15, 1629 to marry 27-year old German-native Grietse Reyniers two days before his ship to the New World left. In 1630, at the age of 22, he had immigrated to New Netherlands, along with his bride, as a colonist of the Dutch West India Company. It is speculated that Anthony's father had provided him a considerable fortune, and by 1639 he was one of the largest landholders on the island, as well as a prosperous farmer. The relationship with his father after arriving in the New Amsterdam is unclear.

One of Van Salee's first properties was a farm on the island of Manhattan acquired in 1638 which was named "Wallenstein", titled in memory of Albrecht von Wallenstein.[8] Becoming one of the original settlers of the area, the plat was located on the north side of the stockade along present-day Wall St. The bouwery was surveyed from Broadway to the East River between Ann Street and Maiden Lane. He transferred the deed the following year.

Following numerous legal disputes, including with the church, Anthony was ordered to leave New Netherland, but on appeal to the Dutch West India Company, was allowed to settle on 200 acres (0.81 km2) in what would become New Utrecht and Gravesend, Brooklyn. This made him now one of the largest and most prominent landholders on Long Island. In 1643 he purchased a house on Bridge Street in New Amsterdam, in defiance of the court order restricting such. He would go onto become a successful merchant and creditor in New Amsterdam, while owning several properties throughout the region.

Anthony was a defender of minorities in the colony and subjected to repeated discrimination. Neighbors called him "A Turk, a rascal, and a horned beast." He was engaged in many legal disputes, from his dog attacking the hog of a black townsman, Anthony the Portuguese, to pointing loaded pistols at slave overseers from the Dutch West India Company. The first grantee of Conyne Eylandt, he helped found many Long Island settlements, including New Utrecht, Gravesend, and in 1660 Boswijck along with 23 settlers which included Franciscus the Negro, a former slave who had won his freedom. Religiously he read his Qur'an frequently, petitioned for Christian missionaries, and was fined for housing an English Quaker once at his home on Bridge Street who was to repair a Dutch church.He was the neighbor of Lady Deborah Moody, of whom he was on good terms with, although he had disputes with her husband Sir Henry who filed speech charges against him.

Anthony Janszoon van Salee (1607–1676) was the son of Salé President Jan Janszoon. He was an original settler of and prominent landholder, merchant, and creditor in New Netherlands. Van Salee was New York's first Muslim, and arguably one of the first in the New World. His Qur'an was eventually auctioned in the following centuries, having passed through a descendant, Robert Bayles, a one-time President of the The Market and Fulton National Bank of New York^[3]

Research Notes

Christopher C. Child presented a Van Salee Descendants Tree in the blog article "Van Salee Descendants," December 2, 2022, in the American Ancestors publication Vita Brevis.^[4] Citations were: David M. Ryker, Genealogical and Biographical Directory to Persons in New Netherland; Emily Frelinghuysen McFarland, The Frelinghuysen family in New Jersey, 1720-1970; and Ralph K. Potter and Brian A. Smith, Early Southards of New York and New Jersey.

Sources

1. ↑ Source: #S517: Page: PBS Frontline article: Note: This excerpt was taken from an internet source (see below).
2. ↑ The Memoirist (this link no longer works. If someone has an updated one, please include it here) An archived version is available at https://web.archive.org/web/20090106195438/http://www.memoirist.com/The%20Barbary%20Pirates.pdf
3. ↑ About info from memories added by Roger Wehr
4. ↑ Child, Christopher C., "[Van Salee Descendants https://vitabrevis.americanancestors.org/2022/12/van-salee-descendants]," Vita Brevis, Dec 2, 2022.

• Stokes, Isaac Newton Phelps. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909, New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-1928.