Farm in Brooklyn Heights – Claes Cornelissen Van Schouw

B. 12 Feb 1606 in Brouwershaven, Netherlands
M. 21 Mar 1632 in Sloterdijck, Netherlands
Wife: Metje Harpentse
D. after 1651 in New York

Standing in the middle of downtown Brooklyn today, it’s hard to imagine that there once was a time when it was farmland. But during the mid-17th century, as the Dutch were colonizing the tip of Manhattan, a few men moving across the water onto Long Island, and Claes Cornelissen Van Schouw was one of them.

Claes was born February 12, 1606 in Brouwershaven, Netherlands, which is located on the island of Schouw. His father was named Cornelis Jans, but nothing else is known about his background. On March 21, 1632, Claes married Metje Harpentse in the town of Siterdijck, which is now a part of Amsterdam. Metje was born in 1610 and was baptized at Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) in Amsterdam in November of that year. Her father, Herbert Jansz, was said to be from "Hassellumem" (probably Haselunne, Germany), and her mother was from Ameland, an island in the North Sea that's near the northernmost point of the Netherlands.

Brouwershaven during the 17th century.

Claes and Metje are thought to have had eight children between 1633 and about 1651, some born in the Netherlands and some in America; not all of the children's names are known. The family migrated to New Amsterdam by May of 1640.

At first Claes and his family lived on Manhattan, then on November 14, 1642, Willem Kieft granted Claes "16 morgens of land on Long Island opposite Manhattan Island between the ferry and the land of Andries Hudde." This was about the location of present-day Brooklyn Heights, and is said to include the land where the Brooklyn Borough Hall now stands.

Brooklyn Borough Hall (source: Sandro Mathys, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)

Claes seemed to have another surname he used, Mutelaer, and at some point, he moved to Flatlands, on an island in Jamaica Bay. The island was called Mutelaer's Island for some time, then became known as Bergen's Island. (It's no longer separated by water from Long Island.) He and his wife appeared on several baptismal and other records through the years. It isn't known when either of them died. Among their descendants are Georgia O'Keefe and James Spader.

Erroneous information about Claes
When false family information is published, it’s sometimes hard to put the genealogy back in the bottle. In the case of Claes, he was misidentified as a member of the Wyckoff family in a book written during the 1920s. Many have discredited the book’s author, Gustav Anjou; it was said that “when he could not find the facts, he created them.” Unfortunately, the fraudulent info has been cloned in numerous places. So any claim that Claes came from Sweden is wrong, and should be ignored.

Children:
1. Pieterje Claese Van Schouw – B. about 1640; D. Flatlands, New York; M. Simon Jansen Van Arsdalen (1627-1710), 1658, Flatlands, New Netherlands

2. Cornelis Claesen Van Schouw – B. about 1643, (probably) Brooklyn, New Netherland

3. Floris Claese Van Schouw – B. about 1647, (probably) Brooklyn, New Netherland

4. Claes Claesen Van Schouw – B. about 1648, (probably) Brooklyn, New Netherland

5. Gergrant Claesen Van Schouw – B. about 1649, (probably) Brooklyn, New Netherland

6. Arien Claesen Van Schouw – B. about 1651, (probably) Brooklyn, New Netherland

Sources:
"Claes Cornelissen Van Schouw," Charles R. Vanorsdale, The Vanguard, Vol. II, No. 1, July 1999
Smith & Hunter: Information about Claes Cornelissen Van Schouwen (website)