Jean Mousnier de LA MONTAGNE

                   NOTE:
      Biographical sketch found in PAF Notes


Jean Mousnier de la Montagne, Jr., usually known as Jan La Montagne, Jr., was born in Leyden, Holland, in 1632, the third son of Dr. Jean Mousnier de la Montagne and his first wife Rachel DeForest. He was baptized on 24 April 1633 in the Walloon Church of Leyden. In adulthood he became the oldest living son.As a four-year-old, Jan traveled to New Amsterdam in 1636 with his family on board the Rensselaerswyck. He early joined the Dutch Church in New Amsterdam and taught school for a few months in 1652. Then he was made commissioner of accounts for the Dutch West India Company, a position which he held for about a year. Entering into partnership in trade with Vincent Pikes in 1654, he sailed for Holland that summer on board the King Solomon. There were a number of business matters for him to clear up. His mother's uncle, Gerard DeForest, head of the DeForest business ventures, had recently died. Jan also represented the heirs of Rachel DeForest in the division of the estate of his own uncle, Jean DeForest, who had died in Leyden before 1646. He had tobacco to sell on consignment for his uncle Isaac DeForest, with instructions to buy goods in return. He also came to stock up on merchandise for his own business venture and, it seems, to look for a wife.On 14 March 1655, Jan La Montagne married Peternella Pikes at Slooterdyk, a village about a mile from Amsterdam. The marriage was performed by Pastor Meursius. Peternella, daughter of Jan Pikes and sister of Vincent Pikes, was born about 1634 in Holland. She stayed in Holland until her first child was born, later that same year, but Jan returned to New Amsterdam soon after the wedding.Jan La Montagne bought his uncle Isaac DeForest's house on Marckveltsteeg in New Amsterdam on 26 September 1655, preparing for the arrival of his wife and baby. Jan was already making his mark as a solid citizen. He was the first enrolled on the list of the Great Burghers of New Amsterdam on 10 April 1657. He was Farmer of the Retail Excise [tax collector] in 1657 and he was made a Fire-Warden on 23 December 1658.One of the first to take up land at the proposed New Harlem village (an enterprise in which he felt a special interest because of its location near his father's abandoned farm Vredendael), Jan sold his house on the Marckveltsteeg to John Verveelen on 27 June 1659 and moved to New Harlem.Jan La Montagne lived the rest of his life at New Harlem, one of its most prominent citizens. He was chosen deacon of New Harlem RDC in 1660, schepen (magistrate) on 3 November 1661, schout (deputy sheriff) in 1662, and Town Clerk from 1662 to 1672. In November 1662 Jan La Montagne's term as deacon of the church expired, but he was re-appointed schepen at that time.Peternella Pikes La Montagne must have died about this time. She left three small sons. With the children to care for, Jan La Montagne must have felt it was urgent to marry again quite quickly. He married Maria Vermilye (Marie Vermeille) on 10 June 1663. Dominie Selyns officiated at the double wedding, for the bride's sister Rachel Vermilye was married at the same time to John Terbosh. Both were daughters of Isaac and Jacomina (Jacobs) Vermilye, a French Huguenot family newly arrived in New Harlem. A little older than her new spouse, Maria Vermilye had been baptized on 2 August 1629 in Leyden, Holland.In December 1663, Jan La Montagne took on the job of voorleser of New Harlem, a job which included all possible clerical duties: lay-leader of the church, school-master, reader of sacraments, record-keeper, and town clerk. The Dutch West India Company agreed in 1664 to help pay the salary of Jan La Montagne as voorleser at New Harlem, but shortly thereafter control of the colony passed to the English. Jan La Montagne registered clear disapproval of the change of government. He resigned as schout and refused to sign the oath of allegiance to the new British government. Instead he seems to have devoted himself as voorleser to the job of building a new church for New Harlem. He started the building campaign in January 1665 with a feast to honor ex-D
irector Stuyvesant, who departed for Holland six months later to defend his surrender of the colony. Jan La Montagne spent the next three years building the church, which was finished in January 1668.Jan La Montagne's last official act as Town Clerk of New Harlem was to record a case of assault on 23 April 1672. Below this entry is written: "Here ends the register....of Jan de La Montagne....[who] died in 1672. Jan La Montagne made his will on 13 May 1672, but only the date of the record remains. He was buried in the little cemetery back of the church he had built.His widow, Maria (Vermilye) de La Montagne, was left with three stepsons and four young children of her own, with one more expected. On 26 September 1675 she married the widowed Isaac Kip, son of Hendrick and Tryntie Kip. Isaac Kip was a yacht captain, engaged in the river trade between New Amsterdam and Fort Orange, but after his second marriage he lived in New Harlem. His youngest son, Johannes Kip, is on record as living with Maria Vermilye and possibly so did some of the other Kip children. Isaac Kip and Maria Vermilye had no children from their second marriages. Within three years of this marriage, Isaac Kip died. The magistrates of New Harlem were called upon on 25 July 1678 to make inventory of the household goods. Now widowed for the second time, Maria Vermilye continued to live in New Harlm for another eleven years. She was buried on 23 November 1689 in New Harlem, New York City.SOURCES OF INFORMATION: (Numbered in order of original footnotes):1. WK NR132 Quitanties on Vol. Jaar den. The Sheriffs of the city of Leiden make known that Joannes Monier de la Montaigne junior, aged about 23 years, for himself as well as for his sister, authorized by Jacob Kip, secretary of the city of New Amsterdam in New Netherlands, as being married to Maria Monier de la Montagne,  both left children of the late Rachel de Forest, raised by Jean Monier de la Montaigne, acquired by them on the 5th November anno 1654, registered in the Orphan-Poorbook folio 11 v.divide all such goods, writings, papers, and drafts,until this day in the Orphanage at this place in trusty deposit have been laid and rested.2. Riker, Harlem, 94.3. Purple, NYRDC Marriages, 29. The record reads: Jan Montagne, widower of Petronella Pyckes, and Maria Farnelie, j.d. from Leyden. 4. Riker, Harlem, 204, 641-642..5. Riker, Harlem, 281.6. Purple, NYRDC Marriages, 40. The marriage record is of their betrothal on 12 September 1675, noting that Isaac Kip was the widower of Catalyntje Hendricks and that Maria VerVelje was the widow of Joh. De La Montagne. The marriage itself was celebrated in New Harlem on 26 September 1675.7. Riker, Harlem, 786.8. Riker, Harlem, 786.9. Purple, NYRDC Marriages, 44.10. Purple, NYRDC Marriages, 96.11. Records of the NYRDC; Baptisms, 1:45. The baptismal sponsors were Isaac deforest, Jacob Kip, Esaias Horne, Agnietie Jillis, and Anna Pikes. 12. Purple, NYRDC Marriages, 54.13. Records of the NYRDC; Baptisms, 1:52. Baptismal sponsors were Nicasius de Sille (Fiscael), Rachel de la Montgne, Elisabeth Pieces. 14. Records of the NYRDC; Baptisms, 1:77. Baptismal sponsors were Willem de La Montagnie, Gerrit Van Trieht, Jacomina Jacobs. 15. Purple, NYRDC Marriages, 66.16. Riker, Harlem, 594. The identity of this second wife has never been determined.17. Riker, Harlem, 594.18. Riker, Harlem, 786.19. Purple, NYRDC Marriages, 66.20. Records of the NYRDC; Baptisms, 1:94. Baptismal sponsors were Isaac Vermelia, Rachel VanderBosch.21. Purple, NYRDC Marriages, 82.22. Records of the NYRDC; Baptisms, 1:100. The baptismal record gives the parents as Jean de Lamontagne and Marritie Waldron, instead of Marritie Vermilye. The assumption has been made that this is just a clerical mistake, since Jan Lamontagne (3rd generation) did not marry until 1678 and then he married Annetie Waldron and not Marritie. Baptismal sponsors of the child were Jacob Kip and Lysbeth Lubberts.23. Riker believed that Petronella married Isaac See, but recent research by Glenna See Hill shows quite conclusively that Isaac See m
arried Petronella Storm. It seems most likely that this child died in infancy.24. Records of the NYRDC; Baptisms, 1:109. Baptismal sponsors were Jan Duyckman and Magdalena terNeur (Tourneur). Parents were given as Jean de La Montagne and Maria Vernelje, with no mention made that the father had died prior to the birth of this posthumus child. 25. Purple, NYRDC Marriages, 84.