See “The Van Wicklen/ Van Wickle Family” by Harry Macy Jr. NY GeneaologicaL Society Vol.128.

       Jentie Jeppses is the Frisian equivalent of the Dutch name Jan Jacobszen.

       In the register of the Reformed Church at Wijckel, Friesland, "Jentie Jeppes [and] Tÿedske Gertss sÿn wÿf" appear as members under the date 23 May 1656; next to their names is the notation "beÿde vertrocken" (both departed), without a date.  The membership records begin in 1649, so they may have come into the community from elsewhere in 1656.   Apparently the family left Wijckel after the 1660 baptism of their son Eeuwe and before the birth of daughter Meenske about 1662.  Where they lived in Friesland before and after their stay at Wijckel has not yet been determined.  Though they may have lived in Wijckel no more than four or five years, that village is the source of the surname which has been home by their male-line descendants in America.

       Under the date 17 April 1664, an account book of the Dutch West India Company shows that Jentie Jeppes owed the company 126 florins, for passage across the Atlantic on the ship DEendracht (Unity or Concord)  under Capt. Jan Bergen, for himself, his wife, and "his three children of 5, 4 and 2 years." His place of origin is not mentioned, nor is there any record that he paid this debt.   Though the three children are not named, as noted earlier other evidence identifies them as Gerrit, Eeuwe (Evert) and Meenske.

       A little over a year later the name of Jentie Jeppes appears once in the town records of Flatbush, Long Island.  On 29 August 1665, when Adryaenyen Lollenckx, widow of Claes Gerritszen, intended to marry Jan Jansen [van Ditmarsen], her five-year old son Gerrit Claeszen was placed under the guardianship of "Jentien Jeppes" and Bartelt Claeszen.   The second guardian was no known relation to the other parties, and was probably chosen because he was a respected citizen of Flatbush. Jentie Jeppes, on the other hand, was only recently arrived in the colony, and appears to have been living some distance away in what is now New Jersey.  He may have been chosen for this role because he was a relative of either Adryaenyen or her late husband, and since his wife had the same patronymic as Claes Gerritszen, it is possible that they were siblings.  This was not the first association between these families.  Claes Gerritszen, with wife and child, appears immediately before Jentie Jeppes and family in the West India Company account book, as fellow passengers on DEendracht in 1664.

        Where Jentie Jeppes lived in 1664-1665 is not documented, but at least by 1666 he was settled near Bergen, now part of Jersey City, New Jersey.  The orphanmasters document quoted earlier gives his residence as Mingagguy (Minkakwa, Mingackque, etc.), while the probable burial record of his wife says Pemmerpoch (Pamrapo); these were small settlements in present-day Jersey City and Bayonne.   As noted above, Jentie Jeppes wife appears to have been buried at the Bergen Dutch Church, the second entry in the burial register there. The family is not found on the membership roll of the church, which begins in 1664, nor is daughter Grietje in the baptismal register which starts in January 1666.

        Left with four small children, Jentie Jeppes lost no time in remarrying.  The register of the New York (City) Dutch Church shows the marriage on 4 December 1666 of "Jan Jacobszen from Friesland, widower, and Britten Oloff, widow of Pieter Corneliszen."   Six days later the orphanmasters of the city appointed Focke Jansen and Cornelis Aerts as guardians and tutors of the children.  Neither of these men appear to have been any relation to Jentie/Jan or his first wife; both were residents of the city, and it is not known whether they exercised any responsibility beyond reaching the agreement recorded on 20 December (see the full transcript above).

Briete Oloffs was a native of Goteberg, Sweden.  She married Pieter Comeliszen in New Amsterdam in 1656 and bore him one child, Margrieta, whose welfare was also considered by the orphanmasters on 10 December 1666.  This latter record states that Briete owned a farm (bowery) "near Mr. Stuyvesants bowery" on Manhattan Island north of the city, and it is possible that Jentie/Jan resettled there with his family.  There is no record that he himself owned any real estate at any time after his arrival in the New World.  The Jan Jacob de Vries who did own land at this time in both New York City and Brooklyn was a different individual.

         other bib.:   Henry A. Stoutenburgh, A Docmentary History of the Dutch Congregation of Oyster Bay .... 10 pts., 1902-07, pp. 651-58; L. Irving Reichner, Reichner and Aiken Genealogies, 1918, pp. 170-77; Edith H. Mather, "Van Wickle of Somerset and Middlesex Counties, New Jersey," Proceedings of New Jersey Historical Society.,n.s. 54(1936):118-29.  Reichner said that Evert emigrated "with his two brothers," but did not identify them, this looks suspiciously like one of the unfounded "three brothers" traditions that grace many an older American genealogy.

    [MW] It may be that there are records such as the “servants” list in such books as “Ships Passenger Lists of NY & NJ (1600-1825)” edited by Carl Boyer 3d 1978, which show 3 persons (page114) with the same name (so taken as the 3 brorthers) arriving in1653, Hendrik, Evert (a carpenter), and Jacob JANSZ, but were all from different places.    

       I [MW] am a little troubled that in the same book (p.13) is Evert Van Wickelen from Holland 1665, and almost at bottom there is a “Jan Jacobson from Vreeland which would become “de Vries” in New Amsterdam, 1633; another in N.J....”  

       Valeria Ramundo-Orlando has in her Thesis of May 1995 has Jan Evertsz Van Lier as the original progenitor.

       In the newspaper, the “Guilded Beaver” 1658 is  “Jan Jansen: house carpenter and 4 children, Tryntje Preters; maiden” [Notes and Research of Frederick Miller Van Wicklen Jr, including info from Cypress Hills Cemetery, NYC.)