The Minor Family of Somerset

"Ships Passenger Lists New York and New Jersey" edited by Carl B
oyer, 3rd gives arrival in America as 1636. Same publication sh
ows taking Oath of Allegience in Kings County in the Province o
f New York in September 1687 at which time he had been here 54 y
ears.
"Peter Claesen, founder of the Wyckoff Familyin America, came t
o Fort Orange, Province of New Netherland, 7 Apr 1637, on ship F
ensselaerswick. In the log of that ship is the following.
"This shipsailed from Amsterdam, Holland 25 Sep 1636, anchore
d off the seaport. The Texel, 8 Oct 1636, reached New Amsterdam
, New Netherland, 4 Mar 1637, and TuesDay 7 Apr 1637 about thre
e o'clock in the morning we came to anchor before foort aeranien
, the end of our journey upward."
"The Rensselaerswick was outfitted by Killian Van Rensselaer
, a diamon merchant of Amsterdam, who had a speculative contrac
t with the West India Company for the Grant of a large body ofl
and near the Headwaters of the Hudson River, under which he wa
s requiredto transport men and animals to the new country. The
re is no complete list of the passengers on this ship, but amon
g those named are Pieter Cornelissen from Monnickendam, North Ho
lland: Pieter Claesen Van Norden, and Simon Walischez. These th
ree did not remain in New Amsterdam, but went to Fort Orange. H
ere Pieter Cornelissen became prominent in the affairs of the co
lony. He may have been the uncle of Pieter Claesen, although th
e two are not mentionedtogether in the records of the Van Renss
elaer estate."
"These records show that Pieter Claesen was one of the thirty-ei
ght laborers ent on the Rensselaerswick to be assigned to variou
s farmers on the Fensselaer estate, and that under the date o
f 3 Apr 1637, he was assigned to Simon Walischez. According t
o a schorched fragment of the records of the estate, saved fro
m a fire in the State Library at Albany in 1911, he was to recei
ve 50 guilders per year forthe first three years and 75 guilder
s for the last three years. About the time when the contract ma
tured, Simon Walischez lease was cancelled on the ground that h
e was an unsatisfactory tenant and the final settlement was mad
eby the Van Rensselaer Estate. (See Hoppin, Washington Ancestr
y and Forty other Famililes, Vol III page 103
"According to the report, Pieter Claesen was 18years old when h
e made his settlement with the Van Rensselaer estate. Soonafte
r this he rented a farm for himself and married Grietje Van Ness
. thedaughter of a prominent citizen of the colony. Their tw
o eldes children wereborn in Rensselaerswick, but the Church i
n which were kept records of theirbirth and the marriage of the
ir parents was burned and the records destroyed. With his wif
e and two children he went to New Amsterdam in 1649. Here here
mained until 1655, when he signed a contract 'to superintend th
e Bowery and cattle of Peter Stuyvesant in New Amersfoort" and m
oved into the house ofCanarsie Lane in Flatlands, Brooklyn, no
w known as the Wyckoff Homestead."
"Pieter Claesen prospered and became one of the most influentia
l citizens of the little frontier settlement. He had bought lan
d in that section in 1652 and continued to buy land from time t
o time, but he never owned the house in which he lived. He beca
me a local judge, something like our justice of the peace, and w
as influential in establishing the Flatlands Dutch Reformed Chur
chat the juncture of Flatbush Avenue and King's Highway. His r
emains are saidto have been buried in land now covered by the a
lter of this Church. The Wyckoff Association of America, on 2
2 May 1938, planted a tree in the Churchyard of this edifice i
n memory of Pieter Claesen and his descendants. On 26 May1940
, the same Association unveiled abronze tablet inside the Church
, suitably inscribed.
Info says married before 1646 and from Amersfoort, Utrecht, Neth
erlands