Anthony Janszoon van Salee[note 1] (1607–1676) was an original settler of and prominent landholder, merchant, and creditor inNew Netherland, a 17th-century colonial province[1] of theDutch Republic located on theEast Coast of what is now theUnited States of America. Van Salee, commonly known asAnthony the Turk, is believed to have been the son ofJan Janszoon, a Dutch pirate captain who led theSalé Rovers after his capture byBarbary corsairs.[2]
Van Salee and his first wife Grietse were the subject of considerable scandal and litigation in New Amsterdam, leading to his role in the establishment ofGravesend andNew Utrecht, as well as other settlements on Long Island.
His father had converted to Islam upon his capture by Barbary pirates. It's unknown if Van Salee was asMuslim himself; if so he may have been the first free Muslim settler in the land that would later become the United States.[2] He was recording as owning a Quran but this may have been an heirloom from his father.[3][2] He may also have had North African or Middle Eastern heritage through his mother—while Anthony's line married into European families (withVanderbilt and other patrician descendants).
Anthony Janszoon van Salee,Jan Janszoon's fourth child, was born in 1607 inCartagena, Spain,[4] as the second child of his second wife, Margarita, possibly a MoorishMorisco woman. Anthony was born only two years before theExpulsion of the Moriscos from Spain, which would have affected many people in his mother's community.[citation needed]
His father Janszoon is believed to have been captured in 1618 by corsairs from Algiers on theBarbary Coast. He "turned Turk" and led theSalé Rovers from 1619, uniting with a pre-expulsion settlement of Moriscos based in that Moroccan city. Known as Admiral Murat Reis, in 1624 his position as governor was acknowledged byZidan Abu Maali,[5] ade facto recognition of theRepublic of Salé city-state founded by Algerines as an outpost on the Atlantic ocean.
Van Salee was living near the harbor inAmsterdam when he obtained a marriage license on December 15, 1629, to marry Grietse Reyniers, a 27-year-old German native, two days before his ship left for the New World.[4] In 1630, at the age of 22,[4] Van Salee arrived with his wife inNew Netherlands, as a colonist of theDutch West India Company.[2]
In 1638, Van Salee acquired a farm on the island of Manhattan which was named "Wallenstein", in memory ofAlbrecht von Wallenstein, supreme commander of the armies of theHabsburg monarchy.[6] The plot was located on the north side of the defensive stockade across Lower Manhattan, along present-dayWall Street. Thebouwery was surveyed from Broadway to the East River between Ann Street and Maiden Lane. Van Salee transferred the deed the following year.[6]
At the sale of this property toCornelis van Tienhoven, it was noted "that he had found 12 apple, 40 peach, 73 cherry trees, 26 sage plants.., behind the house sold by Anthony Janszoon van Salee to Barent Dirksen [Dutchmen],... ANNO 18th of June 1639." This is one of the first references to cherry trees being planted in North America.[7]
By 1639, at the age of 32, Anthony had become one of the largest landholders on the island ofManhattan, as well as a prosperous farmer.[8] His property on Manhattan is included on theManatus Map of that year.
Between 1638 and 1639, the couple accounted for fifteen of ninety-three recorded court cases. During this period, many private quarrels were brought to the Dutch colonial court. The charges against the couple included petty slander, brought by Anneke andDominee Bogardus (a minister) after Grietse accused of them of lying; Grietse's display of private parts to the naval fleet, and Van Salee's occasions of drunkenness.[9]
Van Salee was engaged in many legal disputes, which ranged from demands for compensation because his dog attacked the hog of Anthony the Portuguese (described as a black townsman), to charges that he had pointed loaded pistols at slave overseers from theDutch West India Company.[10]: 86
It is unclear to what extent animus againstVan Salee's ethnic and religious identity drove these conflicts, or if he was himself reluctant to submit to church authority. Following numerous legal disputes, including with representatives of the Dutch Reformed Church, whose council reprimanded Van Salee and his wife for not behaving as "pious Christians",[5] he was ordered to leave New Netherland.
After he appealed to theDutch West India Company, Van Salee was allowed to settle onLong Island. Though his first application for land onGravesend Bay was not accepted, DirectorWillem Kieft in 1643 (backdated to 1639) deeded him 100Morgens— 200 acres (0.81 km2) acquired fromPenhawitz in what would become New Utrecht andGravesend,[11][12] and specifically in the modern sub-neighborhood ofBath Beach, Brooklyn. Van Salee rented goats for the farm fromAndries Hudde. This property was popularly known as the "Turk's plantation",[13] and after a lease to Edmund Audley in 1646 and subsequent sale to Nicholas Stilwell in 1660 (which Van Salee tried to retract) and then Francis de Bruyn in 1664, it became known as Bruynnsberg or the OldBowery.[note 2] It also appears that perhaps one of the islands in the bay was known as "Turk's island".[14] He became one of the largest and most prominent landholders on the island, owning the main farm and also a more southerly smaller one to which it was loosely associated, known as "The 12Morgens". In 1643 his Long Island property was also subject to a raid by the English privateerSeven Stars who stole 200 pumpkins, but abandoned their quest for the hogs on Coney Island after learning that those were owned by Lady Deborah Moody.
The remains of some of his farm buildings were thought to have been uncovered in 1879. Van Salee's 1643 deed to land in Coney Island was acquired by theBrooklyn Historical Society at auction in 2019.[15][16]
He was the first grantee of land on Conyne Eylandt (Coney Island). Van Salee helped foundLong Island settlements includingNew Utrecht andGravesend. In 1660 he foundedBoswijck (now known as Bushwick), along with twenty-three other settlers, including free blacks Francisco and Anton.[17]
In 1643 Van Salee purchased a house on Bridge Street inNew Amsterdam, in defiance of the court order excluding him from that settlement. He became a successful merchant and creditor in New Amsterdam, while owning several properties throughout the region.[8][page needed]
Van Salee's ethnic and religious background were highly unusual for a prominent colonial landholder and have led to discussions about his place insocial history. It is uncertain how much these identity issues droveVan Salee's social and legal conflicts.
Van Salee's religious faith is unknown. AQuran said to have belonged to van Salee was sold in the ca. 1886 estate sale ofJoachim Rule,[3] among other heirlooms of theVan Siclen andGulick families,[18] as documented by descendant Robert Bayles of theMarket and Fulton National Bank of New York.[2][19] Van Salee petitioned to have Christian missionaries assigned to new settlements. Once he was fined for housing an English Quaker at his home on Bridge Street, as they were excluded as Dissenters from the English colony; the man was there to repair a Dutch church.[9]: 210
Van Salee appeared to be on good terms with his neighborLady Deborah Moody,[9]: 211 the founder of Gravesend. John Edwin Stillwell wrote that Van Salee had disputes with her husband Sir Henry Moody,[20] but he had died in England. Lady Moody was a widow by 1629, a decade before she left England for theMassachusetts Bay Colony, where she lived before settling in New Netherland.[21]
Van Salee was described as unusually tall, with superior strength. He was known as "a 'Turk'" or "semi-Dutchman from Algiers", some say fromMorocco but there were no Turkish influence in territories west of theMoulouya river,[22] of "tawny" complexion.[23] He was credited with the "first dwelling erected by Europeans" in what became New Utrecht, about 1643.[13]
Anthony Van Salee's apparent brother, Abraham Janszoon van Salee, a fellow New Netherland settler who was involved in privateering, was described as a "mulatto", in recognition of hismixed-race ancestry,[8][2] and married a black woman named Fortuyn.[13]
Some descriptions of Abraham Janszoon van Salee include ethnic attributions, such as "Turk",[13] and "Berber".[24] In court records, Van Salee was noted as "Turk", suggesting that record keepers classified him by appearance or culture.[25][13][26] Janszoon was known to be the wealthy heir of a former European nativehead of state, even if his father was associated with privateering on the Barbary Coast. Gomez notes that historic collections devoted toAfrican-centric history have been similarly unable to reach consensus on his appearance, race, or origin.[8][page needed]
Van Salee had married Grietse Reyniers in 1629 in Amsterdam; she was born in Germany.[4] The couple had four daughters together. They married into respectable colonial commercial families:[10]
Van Salee's first wife Grietse died in 1669. The widower Van Salee married Metje Grevenraet, an ethnic Dutch woman.[29] He passed his final years at his home on Bridge Street, dying in 1676. Metje was a Quaker who helped Van Salee tolerate the church.[9]: 210
Van Salee apparently also had a brother living in the colony, Abraham Janszoon van Salee, who was part-owner of the privateerLa Garce. Abraham's descendants included several noted African American figures, includingJohn van Salee de Grasse.
Van Salee's notable descendants includeWarren G. Harding,Samuel L. Southard, theVanderbilts in theUnited States andEurope, theWhitneys, and theFrelinghuysens.[32][33]Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis andHumphrey Bogart were claimed as descendants in 2011,[34][unreliable source?] but genealogical research in 2022 by Christopher Challender Child of theNew England Historic Genealogical Society has shown neither of these two figures are Van Salee descendants.[35]
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