Jan Janse Ouderkerk

Jan Janse Ouderkerk

Jan Janse Ouderkerk was my seventh great grandfather. The following biography chronicles his life as an early settler in Albany, New York.


Tracing the life of an ancestor who was born more than 380 years ago is a daunting task. Translations of church and legal documents that were public record at the time have been used to provide evidence of our ancestor’s presence in what was then known as the New World. Jan Janse Ouderkerk emigrated from the Netherlands to the colony of New Netherland about 1656 and lived in Fort Orange/Beverwyck. At that time, Fort Orange was a small Dutch fur trading fort on the Hudson River. There is no certainty from where in the Netherlands Jan Janse came, but other family researchers seem to feel that the most likely origin was Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, a small town just outside the port of Amsterdam.


The following entry in the “Minutes of the Court of Fort Orange and Beverwyck 1652-1660” may well refer to "our" Jan Janse Ouderkerk, indicating he may have resided in the colony as early as 1656. The court date was in February of 1657, but it was unlikely that Jan had arrived in the New World during the winter months, so it seems safe to assume that he arrived sometime earlier. Jan Janssen, cooper, was being sued by Baefjen Pietersen. Jan did not appear before the court and so we don’t know the nature of the complaint.

In 1660, Jan Andriessen Kuyper, entered a complaint against Jan Jansen Ouderkerck (sic) but this case was also later dismissed by default. 



Jan Andriessen Kuyper was likely a cooper (barrel maker) as the word kuyper/cuyper in Dutch means cooper. Whether he actually used the surname Kuyper is not really known. Some records refer to him simply as Jan Andriessen/Andriese. Jan Janse Ouderkerk was referred to as the 'small kuyper' or small cooper, indicating that there were at least two coopers in the colony in the 1660's. Coopers were very important as most everything that was stored or shipped was placed inside a barrel of some kind. 


During the 1664 Second Dutch War, England seized possession of the colony of New Netherland from the Dutch and renamed it New York, for the Duke of York and Albany. The Duke of York and Albany later became King James II. Fort Orange and the town of Beverwyck were renamed Albany.


One of many challenges facing colonists was the acquisition of household goods. Most household goods would have been made by hand or acquired from estate sales and auctions. Jan bought three chairs at a public sale. Although the excerpt itself is not dated, the entries before and after it are dated May 1664, therefore indicating that this event likely took place in the same time frame. 

Later that year, Jan was listed as one of a group of debtors in June of 1665. It appears as though Jan Gerritsen Van Marcken had empowered Harmen Rutgers and Volckert Janse Douw to collect money on his behalf from a list of debtors. They were charged to use any means possible by law to collect the moneys owed. No description is given to indicate how the debts were incurred.
The footnote declares that Jan Janse Ouderkerk’s wife was Neeltie Clause, but that was incorrect. Neeltje Claase (spelling variant) was actually the wife of Jan’s eldest son, Johannes. 

Although there is no record that the above debt was paid, it seems likely it was as a mere two months later Jan purchased a bed and accessories from the estate of Jan Reyersen/Ryersen. The sale conditions were set Aug. 31, 1665. The buyers were to pay in whole beavers by June 1, 1666. If they were paying in seewant, they had only until April 1, 1666, to pay. Each purchaser was required to provide two sureties. It is interesting to note that such estate sales would take into account that it would take the winter to trap the beavers necessary for payment. Winter beaver pelts were thicker and more merchantable as the records suggest. 
Jan also bought a chopping knife, coverlet, and other things, but only had three days to pay that amount in seewant.
Proof that Jan did indeed work as a cooper in the colony of Albany has been found in various court and land documents. On March 19, 1679, court records accounting for the estate of the late Nicholas Van Rensselaer listed Jan Jansen Ouderkerck among the creditors. The fact that Jan had provided meal casks indicates that he was likely a dry cooper.  
By tracing early deeds, it has been determined that Jan’s cooperage stood on the north side of Jonker/Yonker Street.
On page 8 of her book, “A Dutch Cooper’s Legacy: An Ouderkirk Story From 1660”, Shirley Forth provided a map indicating where she believed the cooperage of Jan Ouderkerk was located. This would agree with the interpretations made from the deeds as noted previously.

On November 10, 1681, a fire destroyed seven buildings in the village of Albany, including Jan’s cooperage and the homes/businesses of his neighbours: Jeronimus Wendell, Jacob Tyse, Hendrik Rooseboom, Manus Borgerse, Pieter Davidtse Schuyler and Anthony Lespinard. This event was referred to as “The Great Albany Fire of 1681”. As the town likely contained fewer than a hundred structures at the time, this was indeed a significant event. The fire started in the shop of Jeronimus Wendell, the shoemaker, who had stored a quantity of bark for use in his tannery. As a result of this fire, a resolution was made on November 15, 1681, prohibiting the storing of shoemaker’s bark in town, prohibiting the burning of tar and pitch within the town and prohibiting the bringing of hay and straw into one’s house. The resolution also made provision for each district to have firefighting materials and for keurmeesters, or fire inspectors, to check that the town was following the laws regarding safety.


After the fire, Jan needed to either rebuild or find a new place for his cooper shop. It is unclear if he was actually living in the same location as the cooper shop as he had bought a house and lot up the street on a hill in 1679 as mentioned earlier in the section on deeds. On January 16, 1682, Teunis Pietersz/Pietersen sold to Jan Ouderkerck a house and lot Pietersz had bought from Harman Bastiaensz on January 6, 1681. 


Jan was to pay 81 beaver skins for it and give to Pietersz the lot on which his house/cooper shop had burned as well as the round and square timber he owned in the woods. The next day, Jan asked Pietersz to release him from this deal. Apparently, he was denied and was then sued by Teunis Pietersz on March 7, 1682 for failing to go through with the deal. Jan’s defence was that he had been too drunk to recall the details of the sale. Witnesses confirmed that he was not sober at the time and the court annulled the transaction. 


Several additional references have been found which chronicle Jan’s life as a colonist. In March of 1679, Jan Ouderkerk was found on a list of Albany householders as being responsible for the upkeep of two rods of the wooden stockade that surrounded the colony. In 1684, he was recorded as owing 2 Dutch guilders for his back taxes . Perhaps he had some difficulty re-establishing his livelihood after losing everything in the fire of 1681. Also in 1684, Jan appeared as a witness in a land dispute between Jan Spoor and Cornelis Thymes. 


In the spring of 1689, the French and their Native American allies instigated raids against the colonies along the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. This became known as King William’s War. On September 17, 1689, a group of residents met and formed an armed force to assist in guarding Albany County. Jan Ouderkerk was listed as a member of Captain Marten Gerritse's company. Jan was to receive payment from public revenues for his role. 


What is surprising to me is that he was recorded as being a farmer, not a cooper. Had Jan become a farmer after his cooperage was destroyed in the fire or did he have to diversify to make a living? It is also interesting to note that the payments he was to receive were to be made in English pounds.

There is not a lot of information to be found regarding the wife of Jan Janse Ouderkerk. Many of the family trees I have found online have referred to her as Aariantje Nin or Nln. I believe her last name was mistakenly copied from one of various online entries such as the one from Rootsweb, where NLN stands for No Last Name.
Ariaantje was listed only by her first name on the Ancestry.ca entry. The name Aariantje is not found in any of the books by Jonathan Pearson, but the name Ariaantje (spelling variant) is used extensively throughout the books, leading me to believe that the name should be spelled Ariaantje. “The Ouderkerk Family Genealogy Vol. II” as well as “The Ouderkerk Family Saga – 350 Years in America”, used the spelling Aariantje for Jan’s wife, which may have led to the proliferation of online instances of that spelling. The error simply compounded itself by its very presence as the sources were deemed to be correct.
Jan’s eldest son, Johannes, named his third daughter Ariaantje and Jan’s daughter, Susanna, named her eldest daughter Ariaantje. This may indicate that the girls had been named after their grandmother or, at the very least, that the spelling should be Ariaantje.  
Some online family histories record two spouses, the first being Annatje, born in 1637 in Beverwyck. There are nine years between the first three Ouderkerk children, Johannes, Susanna and Isaac, born before the fire in 1681, and the last three children, Abraham, Peter, and Eldert, born after the fire, indicating that there may well have been a different wife for each set of children. Johannes named his second child Annetie (variant form would be Annatje) which could indicate his daughter was named after his mother, Annatje. However, it is equally possible that there was a series of miscarriages, still births, and/or infant deaths and that Ariaantje was mother to all of Jan's children. It would seem unlikely that a first wife would be born in 1637, as some online trees suggest, as she would’ve been thirty-three at the time of her first child’s birth in 1670. This would’ve been unusual for the time.  

Also, there is no record of a marriage at the Reformed Dutch Church in Albany for Jan Ouderkerk and he was listed as a member there in 1683. Had he married a second wife, it would seem logical that it would have been recorded in the church documents. Historical records of females are sketchy at best and no primary source evidence has been located, to date, for either Annatje or Ariaantje. The evidence that we do have does show that Jan Janse Ouderkerk was the father of at least six children.

On the 1697 Census, Jan Janse Ouderkerk, referred to as Joannes Ouderkerck, was listed as head of a household living in Rensslaerswyck with three other men and a woman. The question that begs to be asked is who is the woman on the census if Jan’s wife died in 1691 as many online family histories suggest? I believe that Ariaantje died after 1697. Jan’s daughter, Susanna, married in 1693 and therefore wasn’t living at home. His eldest son, Johannes, married in 1695 and was recorded on the census as living beside his father. Jan’s next eldest son, Isaac, was listed in the Albany census, and Jan’s son, Abraham, didn’t marry until 1706. It would make the most sense for the family to be comprised of Jan, his wife Ariaantje, and sons Abraham, Pieter and Eldert. This agrees with four men and one woman as listed on the census and is consistent with what we know to be the family of Jan Janse Ouderkerk.

We know a little about Jan’s six children from various church and other records from the county of Albany as well as from the book “Contributions for the Genealogies of the First Settlers of the Ancient County of Albany, From 1630-1800”, by Jonathan Pearson

Johannes, Jan’s eldest son, married a widow, Neeltje Claasz/Claase widow of Hendrik Gardenier, May 20, 1695. They eventually moved to the estate of the late Hendrik/Hendrick Gardenier in Kinderhook where they raised the four children of Hendrik Gardenier and four daughters of their own. Of interest is a prenuptial agreement that was signed by Johannes and witnessed by his father, Jan, on Apr 1, 1695, whereby Johannes agreed to raise his four step-children and maintain the considerable estate left by Hendrik Gardenier on their behalf. According to “The Ouderkerk Family Geneology Vol. II”, Neeltje’s surname was Van Den Bergh. It is possible that Neeltje was a sister to Cornelis Claas/Claasz Van Den Bergh and that only Claasz was used as a surname when the church records were written. It seems to have been somewhat common that surnames were adopted later in the life of the colony as it grew.  

Susanna, Jan’s only daughter, married Cornelis Claas Van Den Bergh/Vandenburgh on December 13, 1693.  They lived in the Westchester County area near Yonkers during the years between 1695 and 1700 and then moved on to Half Moon , New York. Cornelis Vandenburgh (sic) and his brothers-in-law, Isaac and Eldert Ouderkerk, were all recorded on a list of Freeholders in Half Moon in 1720.

Isaac married Maycke Van Ness/Mayken Van Esch on May 3, 1696. Mayken is one of many short forms for the name Maria.
Isaac appeared, with a wife and one child, on a list of Albany householders in 1697. Next on the list was Bastiaen Harmenss who would likely have been the same Bastiaen Harmensen to whom the house next door to Isaac's father, Jan, was sold by David Schuyler in 1685 as noted earlier. Listed before Isaac on the list was Anthony Coster, who was mentioned in the will of Jan Ouderkerk.  The Albany Assessment Roll of 1709 listed ‘the house of Isaac Ouderkerk’ in the First Ward of Albany followed by ‘the house of Bastian Harmense’. 

To me, these both indicate that the men lived side by side and that Jan had moved on, leaving his property for his son, Isaac. I have found no documentation to suggest that the property was sold to Isaac, though that may have been the case. By 1709, Isaac was located in Kinderhook and by 1720 he was located in Half Moon.


Abraham lived in Canistagioene and married first, Lysbeth Clute/Elisabeth Cloet on January 6, 1706, and secondly, Ariaantje Van Nes on January 24, 1724. The marriage date of December 1, 1705, for Abraham and Elisabeth, as recorded by Jonathan Pearson, is not accurate in my opinion. As you can see from a translated copy of the original document, it appears to say the marriage was registered December 1, 1705, and they were married January 6, 1706. I don't really know what "Reg" means in this instance. It seems unlikely one would register a marriage before it had occurred so it may mean something similar to a marriage license, possibly instead of banns. 

On May 21, 1704, Peter married Alida Clute/Kluide, who was from Canistagioene/Kanistagaione, which later became Niskayuna. Alida was a sister to Elisabeth, who had married Abraham. It is from Peter and Alida that my particular line has descended. 
Eldert lived in Half Moon and married Lena/Helena Sophia Knipping on July 24, 1714. 
According to the will of Jan Janse Ouderkerk, dated October 10, 1712, his five sons and one daughter were each left one sixth of Jan’s estate after his first-born son, Johannes, had received six shillings and Jan’s grandson, John, son of Abraham, had received six pounds. There is no mention of what the estate entailed but it must have been significant enough that a will was made.

One of the witnesses of Jan’s will was David Schuyler. Presumably, this is the same David Schuyler who was a next-door-neighbour in 1680; his signature there more likely because he had been sheriff in 1705 and mayor in 1706, thereby indicating he had stature in the community. It is likely he was called upon to sign wills as a matter of course. Witness Samuel Babbington/Babington was a lieutenant in the British army. Witness Robert Livingston, Junior was the mayor of Albany at the time the will was made and as such would have signed wills as a part of his clerking duties. Anthony Coster, also mentioned in the will, was a successful businessman and frequent sponsor at baptisms in the Reformed Dutch Church. Quite likely, he was chosen to invest the bequest for Jan’s minority grandson, as much for his acumen as a good businessman as his good character demonstrated by his role in the church. 

The will of Jan Janse Ouderkerk, written and signed on October 10, 1712, follows. Spellings were changed from the original and the will appears as it was transcribed in "The Ouderkerk Family Genealogy Vol II" pages xxii-xxiv. 
IN THE NAME OF GOD AMEN.

The Tenth Day of October in the Twelfth Year of the Reign of our Soverign Lady Anne, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland in the year of our Lord God, One Thousand Seven Hundred Twelve, I, John Ouderkirk, of the County of Albany, being of good health and perfect memory, thanks be to Almighty God for the same, but calling to mind the mortality of my body and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to dye, do make and ordain this my Last Will and Testament - that is to say principally and first of all, I give and recommend my soul into the hands of God that gave it and my body to the earth from whence it came to be buried in a decent and Christian manner, nothing doubting but at the general resurrection, I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God and as touching such worldly estate where with it hath pleased God to bless me in this life, I give, demise and dispose of the same in the following manner and form. 

Imprimis, I do give and bequeath unto my eldest son Johannes Ouderkirk, the sum of six shillings in Right of Primogenture, whom I Will, shall make no further claim upon whats hereafter bequeathed to him. 

Secondly, I do give unto my grandson, John Ouderkirk, son of my son Abraham Ouderkirk, before any division of my Estate, the sum of Six Pounds, current money of New York, and 

Thirdly, I will that the remainder of my Estate be equally divided amongst my six children, that is to say both real and personal Estate, first to my said son Johannes Ouderkirk or his heirs one sixth part thereof, to my son Eldert Ouderkirk a sixth part, to Susannah, the wife of Cornelius Claese, or her heirs another sixth part, to Isaac, Abraham and Peter Ouderkirk, they or their respective heirs, each a sixth part, so equally to be divided in sixths no one no more than the other. 

And Lastly, I do ordain, constitute and appoint all and every of my above named children to be executors of this my Last Will and Testament, in Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and sealed in the City of Albany the day and year first above written, yet before I have signed and sealed this my Last Will and Testament I do will that the six pounds bequeathed to my grandson as above mentioned, if happens to be his minority, that the sum be paid to Mr. Robert Livingston, Jr. and Anthony Coster; they to put it out to earn till such time he marrys or becomes of age, thence with the interest thereof to be paid to said grandson on his order. 
 
Signed, Sealed & Published
in presence of 
Robt. Livingston, Jnr.                                                                    Jan Ouderkirk                   (Seal) 
Samuel Babington 
David Schuyler 

There has been no record of death found to date for Jan Ouderkerk, but the assumption has been made that he died shortly after making his will in 1712, as was common for the time. Through the many historical records found, we do know that Jan Janse Ouderkerk was a small man who worked as a cooper and also as a farmer. He was a drinker, he attended church, and he fulfilled his duties within the community regarding the upkeep and defence of the colony. He was a resilient man, able to overcome adversity and eventually able to leave a small estate for his six children. For a 'small kuyper' he left quite a legacy. His Ouderkerk/Ouderkirk/Oderkirk/Odekirk descendants have spread throughout North America from coast to coast.
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