Strycker Family History & Genealogy

Jan Strycker was born between Oct 10 and Dec 31, 1614 in Ruinen, Province of Drenthe, the Netherlands, and died Mar 3, 1697 in Midwout, Long Island, New York, at 82.

His first wife was Lambertje Roelofse Seubering. She was born in 1616 in the Netherlands, the daughter of Roelof Lukassen Seubering. She died in Jun 1675.

His second wife was Swantje Jans, the widow of Cornelis de Potter, whom he married Apr 30, 1679. She died in 1686.

His third wife was Teuntje Teunis, whom he married on Mar 31, 1687 in New York. She was the widow of Jacob Hellakers, alias Swart or Swartout.

In Jan 1643, the States General of the Netherlands offered a grant of land in New Amsterdam (New York) to Jan and Jacobus Strycker, provided they took twelve families from the Netherlands with them to America. They accepted the grant eight years later when Jacobus, in 1651, came to America, followed by Jan in 1652.

On Dec 11, 1653, Jan Strycker was one of 19 men who signed a petition against the conduct of Director Peter Stuyvesant of the Council in New York, to the States General in the Netherlands. They signed on behalf of the colonies and villages of the province of New Netherland.

In 1654, Jan Strycker took the lead in forming a Dutch colony on Long Island, or Middlewoods (now Flatbush, a section of Brooklyn), and was selected as the chief magistrate of Midwout that year. He held this office for most of the next twenty years. On Dec 17, l654, he was appointed one of two commissioners to build the Dutch Church there, the first erected on Long Island. The church was designed to be 60 feet by 20 feet and 12 feet high.

In 1655, Jan's brother Jacobus painted a picture of him. A photo of this picture is in the New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin Index, volume X, Apr, 1926- Jan, 1927, page 85. As of 1945, the original hung in the National Art Gallery in Washington, D.C.

On Apr 10, 1664, he represented Midwout in the Landtdag, a general assembly called by the burgomasters, which was held at the city hall in New Amsterdam, to consider the precarious condition of the country.

On Aug 28, l664, Director Peter Stuyvesant addressed a letter to the Dutch towns on Long Island, calling upon them "to send every third man to defend the Capital from the English now arriving at the Narrows." Jan Strycker answered for Midwout that it was impossible to comply with his demands as "we must leave wives and children seated here in fear and trembling, which our hearts fail to do -- as the English are themselves hourly expected there."

In 1665, he was one of the representatives in the Hempstead Convention.

On Aug 18, 1673, he attended the Council of War in Fort William Hendrick and was elected "schepen."

On Oct 25, 1673, Captain Jan Strycker was appointed in charge of the militia for the town of Midwout (Flatbush), Long Island. (New York Colonial Muster Rolls 1664-1775, Vol 1, page 188, Annual Report of the State Historian, page 384)His brother Jacobus administered the oath and installed him into office.

On Mar 26, 1674, he and 12 others were named to representMidwout in a conference to be held in New Orange (now Albany) to confer with Governor Colve on the state of the Country. (Caspar Steynmets was also one of the thirteen.)

In 1675, he was taxed for 3 persons, 4 horses, 22 cows, 2 hogs, and 30 morgen of land and valley.

On Oct 10, 1677, Jan Strycker certified that he was 64 years old and had the occupation of armoror (gunsmith).

In Sep, 1687, he took the oath of allegiance in Kings County, declaring that he had been in this country 35 years.

He was buried in the rear churchyard at the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Church Lane (now Church Avenue), presently a ghetto area.

Members of the National Society, Daughters of the American Colonists, who claimed Jan Strycker as their ancestor for membership, include Miss Katharine Naomi Stryker, membership number 911, Mrs. Sarah Wilson Allen, 1087, Miss Loretta Schenck, 2437, Mrs. Helen Stryker Pursel, 8510, and Miss Mildred Tulley, 10364.

The children of Jan Strycker and Lambertje Roelofse Seubering were:

i Altje, b. ca. 1632, m. Abraham Jorise Brinckerhoff on May 20, 1660
ii Jannetje, m. 1st, Cornelius Jansen Berrien in1652; 2nd, Samuel Edsall in 1689
iii Garrit Janse, b. 1652, m. Styntie Gerritse Dorland on Dec 25 or 28, 1683, d. 1695. 4 children
iv Angenietje, b. ca. 1650, m. 1st, Jan Cornelise Boomgaert (Bougaert) in 1674; 2nd, Claes Tysen
v Hendrick, m. Catherine Kip on Feb 11, 1687, d. Jan 23, 1687/8
vi Eytje (Ida), m. Stoffel Probasco, d. Sep 29, 1687
*vii Pieter, b. Nov 1, 1653, m. 1st, Annetje Barends on May 29, 1681; 2nd, Aertje Bogart, d. Jun 11, 1741. 11 children
viii Sarah, b. 1655, m. Joris Hansen Bergen, Sr. on Aug 11, 1678