Morris Jansen was born July 22nd, 1793, in the small hamlet of Shawangunk in Ulster, NY to parents Cornelius T. Jansen and Christina Jansen (née Morris). It can be surmised that the Shawangunk native was named after his mother’s maiden name Morris. The youngest of five children, Morris was the last child born to Cornelius before his death in 1796.[1] While the youngest, Morris was predeceased by his brother, Jacob Jansen, who died at the age of one as well as his other brother John Morris Jansen who died relatively early on in life.
The name Jansen, also spelt in records as Janson, Jensen, or Johnson, is a name of Dutch origin. There is no record as to when the Jansen family originally arrived in the Shawangunk or larger Ulster area, the Dutch were some of the first Europeans to settle in the region.[2] There are records of the name Jansen present in the Ulster County archives that date back to the seventeenth century.[3] While this does not correlate explicitly to the family of Morris Jansen, the Dutch population was heavily prevalent in the area for several centuries. Like other local Dutch families in the individuals, Morris Jansen was most likely bilingual in Dutch and English.
While there is no explicit description of the Jansen family as ‘wealthy’, the family had enough wealth to retain six enslaved persons at the time of Cornelius Jansen’s death.[4] One of the enslaved persons was either born or bought in the last three years before Cornelius’s death.[5]
As one of eleven children himself, Cornelius’ family was able to retain and care for their large family as well as take care of enslaved persons.[6] Although not in Cornelius nor Morris’ immediate family, a local relative by the name of Henry Jansen had sixteen enslaved persons at the time of his death in 1764.[7] Cornelius’s brothers Johannes and Thomas in comparison owned nine and fifteen enslaved persons by the 1790 census.[8] While Cornelius did not own as much wealth and enslaved persons as his brothers, Cornelius was among the last to own slaves in the Shawangunk area. As a result, Morris Jansen grew up alongside the company of his family’s enslaved persons. Two enslaved persons, Bob (b. 1790) and Frank (b. 1788), were only several years older than Morris himself. [9] While Frank was sold to a man in the area by the name of E. Foot, there is no remaining record of what happened to Bob.[10]
While there is no record available of the Cornelius and Christina Jansen’s house surviving or being described in detail, Cornelius’s two brothers’ wealth and reputation is also conveyed in the architecture and prominence of their respective estates.[11] The contemporary maintenance of the two Jansen households allows for the insight into the local prominence of the Jansen family. While the Cornelius did well for himself as can be surmised from available records, his brother Johannes donated an orchard in Kingston to his brother in 1790.[12] There is no description of the orchard nor any reasoning as to why the orchard was donated. But from other records available, the Cornelius Jansen and his two of his brothers Thomas and Johannes often sold or donated their enslaved persons, land, or other objects to one another.
There is little to be found on Morris Jansen himself as the Dutch man died at the relative early age of 25 in 1818.[13]Despite the Dutch man’s short life, he was able to become a lieutenant. There is no record as to Jansen’s ranking in a specific militia other than his title being used in a letter from a man named Elias Pratt in 1814.[14] There is a description of land in Homer, NY that used to belong to one of his brothers, and Elias Pratt goes on to describe the man as “gone”.[15] While there is no further elaboration into the circumstances of this letter, the description of land away from Jansen and his brothers’ residences is striking. One of the brothers owns land in Homer while Morris Jansen himself owns land in Greene County.[16] The distance land-owning in New York prevalent in the Jansen family is interesting and has no explanation.
In another letter a year later, Morris is described as in ‘controversy’ in regard to his father’s estate. The letter describes an esquire (or lawyer) by the name of John Duers entering bonds “to settle all controversies”.[17] While Morris’s father died in 1796, his estate was settled for a second time by his widow Christina and her new husband, Cornelius Louw.[18] Through letters and deeds, one can surmise that the second settlement of the estate was not agreed upon by all members of the family.
Much like his uncles and his father, Morris owns land far away from his place of residence in Shawangunk, New York. While it is not across state lines nor oceans, Morris owns land in Pompey, NY which is now in Onondaga County and over 190 miles from each other. While there are no legal records to prove this, letters between Morris and Elias Pratt allow for an interpretation of a landowner and renter relationship. In the final years of Morris life, Pratt contacted him in 1814 regarding sale of land.[19] In future letters between the pair, Pratt complains of “crops por fear of famine” as well as “[agitation] over the prospect of losing his farm…[as] a foreclosure of mortgage will ruin him”.[20]
Besides owning land in Pompey, Morris also owns land in what Roland Sears describes as “Greene Country”.[21] In a letter dated in April 1816, Sears asks for power of attorney and is later granted it.[22] There is no record if the land was sold prior to Morris death in 1818.
Besides the land-owning situation Morris found himself in, the lives of enslaved persons owned by the Jansen family is interesting. As Morris was only six when slavery was outlawed in NY in 1799 and eventual freeing of all slaves was set for 1827, the lives of enslaved persons in the beginning of the nineteenth century is not spoken about. The Jansen family owned slaves for centuries in the Ulster area.[23] There was a repetition of names that seemed to be dehumanizing. There are multiple records of enslaved male persons owned by the Jansen family being called ‘Frank’ with two even at the same time; the two Franks were regarded as ‘old Frank’ and ‘young Frank’. While the motives are not clear for the repetition of this name, the choice to retain this name for enslaved men is worth investigating. Unknown if this is the same ‘old Frank’ that was enslaved by Cornelius Jansen, an enslaved man by name of Frank ran away from Peter Jansen in 1797.[24]
There are still many unanswered questions that surround the lives of the Jansens and the lives of the enslaved persons. While the Jansen family name is not synonymous with slavery in the Hudson Valley, research into this early Dutch family conveys a long relationship with the evil institution.
[1] https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hhs/id/491/rec/3
[2] Ulster Co. Archives https://clerk.ulstercountyny.gov/archives/dutch-heritage
[3]https://archives.ulstercountyny.gov/Presto/search/SearchResults.aspx?q=KCJKYW5zZW4iKQ==&qcf=MDRlYWMyYjUtN2Y2YS00NTIxLWFiMjgtMDk1YmM5Y2ZiMDU5
[4] https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hhs/id/491/rec/3
[5] https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hhs/id/491/rec/3
[6] https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hhs/id/491/rec/3
[7] https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hhs/id/786/rec/1
[8] https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YB6-9VVJ?i=3&cc=1803959&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AXHK5-W8B
[9] https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hhs/id/491/rec/3
[10] https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hhs/id/1930/rec/1
[11] https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail?assetID=57da65fc-dc41-47ee-a69f-e63984020cba, https://npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/AssetDetail?assetID=36c4ba77-43b2-4c65-95c7-6e6a0b6e24c1
[12]https://www.google.com/books/edition/Collections_of_the_Ulster_Historical_Soc/AHo_AAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22Cornelius+Jansen%22&pg=PR13&printsec=frontcover
[13] https://infoweb-newsbank-com.i.ezproxy.nypl.org/apps/readex/doc?p=EANX&sort=YMD_date%3AA&f=advanced&val-base-0=%22Morris%20jansen%22%20&fld-base-0=ocrtext&docref=image/v2%3A10D3496AD722BEA8%40EANX-10D5C2DC7B1179A8%402385129-10D5C2DCF39BE618%402-10D5C2DEB2ADC910%40Mortuary%2BNotice&firsthit=yes, “Mortuary Notice.” Ulster Plebeian (Kingston, New York) XV, no. 766, February 28, 1818: [3]. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers. https://infoweb-newsbank-com.i.ezproxy.nypl.org/apps/readex/doc?p=EANX&docref=image/v2%3A10D3496AD722BEA8%40EANX-10D5C2DC7B1179A8%402385129-10D5C2DCF39BE618%402-10D5C2DEB2ADC910%40Mortuary%2BNotice.
[14] https://archive.org/details/hardenbergfamily00mill/page/248/mode/1up?q=%22Morris+Jansen%22&view=theater
[15] https://archive.org/details/hardenbergfamily00mill/page/248/mode/1up?q=%22Morris+Jansen%22&view=theater
[16] “Letters to Morris Jansen from Roland Sears,” Hudson River Valley Heritage Exhibits, accessed November 25, 2021, https://omeka.hrvh.org/items/show/2899.
[17] https://archive.org/details/hardenbergfamily00mill/page/248/mode/1up?q=%22Morris+Jansen%22&view=theater
[18] https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hhs/id/830/rec/2
[19] https://archive.org/details/hardenbergfamily00mill/page/248/mode/1up?q=%22Morris+Jansen%22&view=theater
[20] https://archive.org/details/hardenbergfamily00mill/page/248/mode/1up?q=%22Morris+Jansen%22&view=theater
[21] “Letters to Morris Jansen from Roland Sears,” Hudson River Valley Heritage Exhibits, accessed November 25, 2021, https://omeka.hrvh.org/items/show/2899.
[22] https://archive.org/details/hardenbergfamily00mill/page/248/mode/1up?q=%22Morris+Jansen%22&view=theater
[23] https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hhs/id/786/rec/6
[24] https://cdm16694.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/hhs/id/623/rec/7
The Materials of History, Thought, and Art 