525. Anneke¹¹ Jans (Johan¹² ) was born in Flekkeroy, Vest Agder, Norway 1604.⁽⁵⁵⁵⁾ Flekkeroy is four miles south of Kristiansand. Her birth date is not well-established, with the year ranging from 1604 to 1608. Anneke died 1663 Beverwyck, New Netherlands, at age 59. (Some show Albany, NY; her death is shown by sources as either February or March 1662/63, and some give a precise March 19) Her body was interred 1663 Middle Dutch Cemetary, Beaver St, Albany, NY.

She married twice. She married Roelof Jansen April 18, 1623 in Dutch Reformed New Church, Amsterdam, Netherlands.⁽⁵⁵⁶⁾ Roelof was born about 1602. Roelof died bef 1639 in New Amsterdam (NY), at age unknown. She married Everardus Bogardus Reverend 1638 in New Amsterdam (NY). Everardus was born 1607. Everardus died September 27, 1647 in Chepstow, Monmouth, Wales, at age 40.

Anneke immigrated to 1630. According to the NYGBR v. 104, Anneke's proper Norwegian name was "Anneke Johansdatter", but this was transliterated to "Anneke Jans" by the Dutch.

Mr. Leo van de Pas of Perth Western Australia, a seasoned researcher and author on author on the subject of royal ancestry, writes:

A few years ago I have produced a book (for sale via Heraldry Today in England) covering the first six generations of descendants of William the Silent. Also I have a book published in 1933 to celebrate the 400th birthday of William the Silent, this book has 'chapters' on all aspects of William the Silent's life. Each chapter is written by a different scholar. One fascinating sections tells, almost day by day, where he was during his life.

William the Silent did marry four times and did have an affair (natural relationship) with Eva Elincx and by her produced a son, Justinus van Nassau. William the Silent, had he had more illegitimate children, would have brought them up, given them the name van Nassau, and they would have been known. He lived a very public life and he was not ashamed of his one bastard and would not have been had there been more.

His son, Maurits, had eight illegitimate children by six different women, all are known and recorded. His other son, Frederik Hendrik, had one illegitimate son whose line still exists today.

Anneke Jans had nothing whatsoever to do with the House of Nassau! ------------- Other modern researchers have weighed in on this issue, including William Addams Reitwiesner and John Steele Gordon. The text below was taken from a discussion on the Anneke Jans saga:

There was a recent article in the New England Historic Genealogical Register addressing the later court cases regarding the famous inheritance. Basically, following the death of Anneke Jans, her estate was sold by her heirs, except that one of her sons had d.v.m., and his children were not included in the sale. Thus, many (many) years later, the sale was challenged because all of the legal heirs had not consented. It was ruled that the challenge came well after the expiration of the statute of limitations for such action, and the suit was rejected. After this, the lawyers took over, and many of then financed careers based on appeals and new suits challenging this decision (the last of which, in the 1930s, went all the way to the Supreme Court).

It is likely that this inheritance served as the basis for the later rumors regarding the Webber inheritance. Anneke was thought to be a Webber, sister of Wolfert Webber, ancestor of a large family in New York (and later, Indiana). This turns out not to be the case (Anneke's parentage has been demonstrated by research in Holland. She was born at a Dutch settlement in what is now Denmark. She was confused with another woman, Anneke Webber, who is distinct from the one married to Bogardus). The two of them, and the mysterious inheritance came to be associated with the King of Holland, and they came to be called illegitimate grandchildren (not much different than the various obscure immigrants who get assigned as Pilgrims who were on the ship under assumed name). The "inheritance" scam was reinvented in the form of the will of Wolfert, which left all of his property to the xth generation (I have seen both 5th and 7th - the number seemed to expand as the number of generations removed grew). "This will is about to be opened, and so we are raising a collection to hire a researcher in Holland to prepare the necessary documentation." This message, funnelled through the Webber Family Association, went out to Webbers across the country in 1878, and there is no telling how much money was raised. (I have heard tales of similar scams being run on other families by dutch "researchers".)

This story was shown to be completely untrue more than seventy years ago. Her name was actually "Anneke Jans", not Webber.

See the series of articles by John Reynolds Totten in the *New York Genealogical and Biographical Record*, vol. LVI, no. 3 (July 1925), pp. 201-243 and vol. LVII, no. 1 (Jan. 1926), pp. 11-54. This goes into the immediate descendants of Anneke Jans and examines the alleged William the Silent descent. A later set of articles by George Olin Zabriskie, also in the NYGBR, vol. 104, no. 2 (April 1973), pp. 65-72 and vol. 104, no. 3 (July 1973), pp. 157-164, adds more information. Since Anneke Jans was actually born in the village of Flekkeroy on the island of Flekkeroy in Vest Agder, Norway (four miles south of Kristiansand), you'll find more information in John O. Evjen, *Scandinavian immigrants in New York* [reprinted Baltimore: Genealogical, 1972], pp. 91-101.

According to "Mother of Churches" by Clifford Morehouse, a history of Trinity Church, The farm was originally the property of Annetke Jans, wife of the manager for the first Van Rensselaer, by whom she had 3 daughters and a son. He died and she married the Rev. Everardus Bogardus in 1637, and had four more children by him. He was lost at sea in 1647 and she then moved to Albany. When she died in 1663, she directed in her will that the farm be sold and that the proceeds be "divided principally among the four children of her first husband." The farm was bought by Gov. Francis Lovelace. Unfortunately for Lovelace, when New York was seized by the Dutch in a wholly unexpected attack in 1673, Lovelace, who hadn't even been in the city at the time, was the designated fall guy. He was ordered home, clapped in the Tower where he soon died, and his estates were seized. Thus did the Queen's Farm come to the Crown.

One of the heirs, Cornelius Bogardus, had not signed the deed of sale to Lovelace, which was the basis of the suit in 1833. The court ruled that the alleged defect was insufficient to cloud the title, but that in any case, under the doctrine of laches ("equity aids the vigilant and not those who slumber on their rights") rendered the case moot. That seems reasonable. The rights--such as they were--had been slumbered upon for 170 years.

But the court ruled (cheerfully violating another legal principal that cases settled on procedural grounds should not have their substance addressed) that even if the suit had been timely, it would not have succeeded.

Please note that 1833, eight years after the Erie Canal caused New York to begin exploding in its growth, was just at the time when those 275 acres were becoming worth millions. The smell of money, it seems, wakes up the soundest sleeper.

Roelof Jansen and Anneke Jans had the following children:

526 i. Catrina¹⁰ Roeloffse was born Masterlant, Holland 1623.

+ 527 ii. Sara Roeloffse was born before 1626.

528 iii. Sytie Roeloffse was born Maseterlant, Holland 1627.

529 iv. Jans Roeloffse was born New Netherland 1634.

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