John Sales1

M, b. circa 1600, d. after 7 April 1645
FatherJohn Sales
MotherMary (?)
     John was born circa 1600 in Devonshire, England. John married Phillipe Soales, daughter of Jamys Soles and Ellyn Bell, on 11 August 1625 in Little Waldingfield, County Suffolk, England, at St. Lawrence Church.2,3 He and Phillipe were blessed with 2 children. In 1630, John & his wife, Phillipe, left from Southampton. aboard the ship, "Talbot", of the Winthrop Fleet, bound for New England. Listed among thee passenger was John Sales. His wife, Phillipe, daughters: Phoebe aged 7 years & Sarah aged 2 years. The ship arrived at port the 2nd of July..4 The family first settled in Charlestown, Massachusetts. In the fall of 1630, he was admitted as the 21st member to the Boston church. In Charlestown during scarce times in 1632, John Sales was noted as a thief. On 1 April 1633, "John Sayles being convicted of feloniously taking away corn & fish from diverse persons the last year & this, as also clapboards, &c., is censured by the Court after this manner: That all his estate shall be forfeited, out of which double restitution shall be made to those whom he hath wronged, shall be whipped, & bound as servant with any that will retain him for 3 years, & after to be disposed of by the Court as they shall think meet. John Sayle is bound with Mr. Coxeshall for 3 years, for which he is to give him £4 per annum; his daughter is also bound with him for 14 years. Mr. Coxeshall is to have a sow with her, & at the end of her time he is to give unto her a cow calf". On 4 March 1633/4, the court ordered "that John Sayles shall be severely whipped for running from his master, Mr. Coxeall". On 7 April 1635, it is "referred to Mr. Treasurer [William Coddington] & Mr. Pynchon to examine & prepare the business betwixt Mr. Coxeall, Sayles his daughter, & John Levens" By 1638, John & his daughter Phoebe had removed to New Amsterdam. In New Amsterdam, John’s troubles continued, he became involved in law suits in regards to harming live stock. In late 1643, because of all the trouble he had created, an impatient court threatened him with banishment.5,6 John's wife, an unknown person , died before 21 August 1644, leaving him a widower; She probably died before or soon after her family came to this country in 1630. She most likely died on the ship "Talbot" while enroute to this country along with her daughter, Sarah. There is no mention of her or her daughter Sarah when her husband & daugnter Phoebe were bound into servatude on 1 August 1633. Her husband had been convicted of stealing.7 John married 2nd Maria Roberts on 21 August 1644 at the New Amsterdam Reformed Dutch Church in the City, County & State of New York. Maria was married first to Jan Sloofs. She married third 9 August 1645 Thomas Greedy.8 On his death bed, he made a nuncupative will on 7 April 1645. It was recorded that Johng "being wounded and lying sick abed." It is thought he soon died from his wounds. :CR:]
"On the seventh of April, in the year of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, one thousand six hundred and forty-five, before me, Cornelius Van Tienhoven, secretary New Netherland, appeared John Celes, who being wounded and lying abed, but in full possession of his memory and understanding, in the presence of the underwritten witnesses, declared that he, reflecting on the certainity of death and the uncertainty of the hour thereof, commends his soul, after his death, into the hands of Almighty God, and his body to a Christian burial; wishing, then, to anticipate all such uncertainty of death by testamentary disposition, and coming to his means and effects, declares it to be his last will, that after his death, Tonis Nyssen,
his son-in-law, shall take out of the estate the just half of all the means and effects which he will happen to leave behind. Marritje Robers, his wife, shall take the other half, and have the usufruct thereof until she marry or die, provided that in case she remarry, the property shall not be conveyed, diminished or alienated by her husband or herself, but be only used, so as to receive the interest thereon during her life and the capital remaining intire, shall revert, after her death to Tonis Nyssen, or his chil dren or heirs, without her Marritje Robbert's friends receiving any of the property, only she shall have power to leave by Will two hundred guilders out of said estate to whomsoever she pleases. He, John Celes, requests in the presence of all these bystanders that this may take effect after his death as his last Will before all courts, tribunals and judges. Done on the day and year aforesaid. (This is the signature of Jan Seals made by himself.) Thomas Hall."9,10

John departed this life between 7 April 1645 & 9 August 1645 in his home in New Amsterdam (Manhattan), New York. His wife remarried on 9 August 1645. In the will John gives half of his estate to his brother-in-law (actually his son-in-law) Tonis Nysen and the other half to his wife, Marritjen Roberts. The latter being a life estate, reverting to Tonis Nysen at her death, or to his children or heirs.11

Family 1

Phillipe Soales b. c 28 Feb 1602, d. b 21 Aug 1644
Children

Family 2

Maria Roberts d. b 13 Oct 1658

Citations

  1. [S457] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, John Sales - his life & that of his family.
  2. [S549] Gwenn F. Epperson, The True Identity Of John Sales Alias Jan eles Of Mannhattan, Parish of Little Walldngfield - Marriages: 11 August 1625 John Sales and Phillip [sic] Soales - verified by Gwenn Epperson 1991 by the Suffok County Records Office.
  3. [S1595] Patricia Law Hatcher, The Family of Philip [Sole] Sales of the Wintrop Fleet, page 47.
  4. [S1595] Patricia Law Hatcher, The Family of Philip [Sole] Sales of the Wintrop Fleet, pages 47-48 - There is no distinction on the records as to which ship the Sales family came on - however all the families that originated from All Saints & Little Waldingfield were on Winthrops list together. Also, Wintrhop notes that 14 people died on board the Talbot, and none on the other ships. Noting that Philip and her daughter and others were among those that have no record in New England, it is reasonable to assume that these families were on board the one ship that had lost 14 of its passengers.
  5. [S457] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633.
  6. [S549] Gwenn F. Epperson, The True Identity Of John Sales Alias Jan eles Of Mannhattan, Charles Edward Banks in The Winthrop Fleet of 1630 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1930; reprinted Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1989; FHL 1320700, item 7), p. 90, says, "John Sales, his wife [not named], and daughter Phebe of Lavenham [just three and one-half miles from Little Waldingfield], Suffolk, England came with the Winthrop Fleet in 1630. John Sales was a member of the Church of Charlestown in 1630, No. 21 (Charlestown Church Records)."
    Records of the First Church of Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1632-1789 (Boston: David Clapp & Son, 1880; FHL 0837130, items 2-4) were searched. No church record was found for anyone by the name of "Sales" with its many variants. However, "Records of Admissions in the First Church of Boston, 1630-1687" (Salt Lake City: Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1970, from original MS., Boston City Hall, Registrar's Office; FHL 0856694, item 1), p. 2 lists "John Sale" as the twenty-first member at a meeting in Charlestown 27 August 1630.' John Sales' wife was not mentioned, although some names of other wives were included.
    - Charlestown, Massachusetts, Town Records, vol. 2, 1629-1661.
  7. [S1595] Patricia Law Hatcher, The Family of Philip [Sole] Sales of the Wintrop Fleet, pages 51-52.
  8. [S519] New Amsterdam Reformed Dutch Church Marriage Records.
  9. [S568] Thomas Bentley Wikoff, Anneke Jans Bogardus and Her New Amsterdam Estate, Appendex F: pages 271-273 - This land it will be remembered, is mentioned in connection with the confirmatory grants to the widow, Anneke Jans Bogardus, by Governor Stuyvesant, and later to the heirs by Governor Nicolls' as being the northern boundary line of the 62-acre farm.
    Historians and antiquarians have been unable to determine how Jan Celes, Hoffman, in his "Estate and Rights of the City of New York,” Vol. 2 and page 201, says, that any one who can tell these things regarding Old Jans and his possessions, "will deserve the thanks of every New York antiquarian."
    John Seals is thought to have been an Englishman, and in all probability he came from some one of the New England states to New Amsterdam, as early as 1638, and in common with all other persons his name was "dutched" to "Old Jans" thereafter, at least that is the supposition advanced by some writers. Old Jans, according to history, seems to have been hard to get along with in his elderly days. And he is charged with shooting his neighbors' hogs. He received a wound of some sort about 1643, and under what circumstances it is not known, and death claimed him a couple of years thereafter, and he left a will as follows:
    ~~~~~ Will of John Sales noted here ~~~~~
    It can be noted from the above quoted will that the landed possessions of Old Jans is not described, however, a confirmation from Governor Kieft seems to locate the land.

    Appendix G: pages 275-276 - Soon after the death of John Seals, the widow remarried, nd in consequence, the son-in-law Tonis Nyssen, assumed ntrol of the estate as administrator, and he obtained a patent from Governor Kieft, of "Old Jans Land," and this patent being escriptive, it will be quoted herewith, as follows:
    "We, William Kieft, director general and the Council in New Netherland residing on behalf of the High and Mighty Lords States. General of the United Netherlands, his Highness of Orange and the Honorable Lords Directors of the Incorporated West India Company, hereby acknowledge and declare that We, on this day date underwritten, have given and granted to Tonis Nyssen, a plantation situate on the Island of Manhattan, formerly occupied by the late Jans else. It extends on the south side from the land and valley belonging to Everardus Bogardus, minister, and on the north side to Cornelis Maersen, thence along the Negroes' plantation to the Cripple bush (swamp) of said Bogardus. It runs in breadth along the strand fifty rods from the strand along the Cripple bush south east by east one hundred and fifty rods. along the Cripple bush to the Negroe's land it stretches east by south five and forty rods, along the Negroes plantation upwards northwest sixty rods, toward the strand downward northwest by west seven rods, along the Cripple bush of Cornelis Maerson it runs northwest by north twentyseven-rods, long the Cripple bush up to the strand westerly forty rods.
    "With express conditions, etc."
    In testimony this is signed by us and confirmed with the seal.
    Done in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherland, the 3rd of April, 1647.
    (Signed) William Kieft.
    By order of the Honorable Director General and Council of New Netherland.
    (Signed) Corn. Van Tienhoven, Secretary. These appendices are set forth herein, in order that the reader may the more intelligently analyze the subject in hand, through a further process of analysis and deduction, as regards the disposal of the real estate of Anneke Jans Bogardus, (except the 62-acre farm) and how, and when, and by whom.
  10. [S457] Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England 1620-1633, In his nuncupative will, dated 17 April 1645 [NS], - [New York Historical Manuscripts: Dutch, Volume II, Register of the Provincial Secretary, 1642-1647 (Baltimore 1974), pp. 311-13]. (Theunis Nyssen is called in this translation of the will "brother-in-law," but the Dutch term can also be rendered as "son-in-law," which is correct here.).
  11. [S519] New Amsterdam Reformed Dutch Church Marriage Records, 9 August 1645 - Thomas Grydy, wid Janneken Isaacs & Mary Robbertszen, wid Jan Selis [NOTE: John died between the writing of his will & the marriage of his wife Maria - klm].