Theunis Jansz. Pier

Deventer, Overijsel, The Netherlands

General Notes

PIER FAMILY OF NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY

by Lorine McGinnis Schulze

THEUNIS JANSZ. PIER was born ca 1600 in Deventer, Overijsel, Netherlands. He married Jannettie Arentsdr. on September 14, 1624 in Amsterdam Netherlands. Theunis Jansz's sons Jan and Arent, were the immigrant ancestors of the PIER family in America.

JAN THEUNISSEN from Amsterdam was listed on board the St. Jan Baptiste , with two children ages 1 1/2 and 4 years old on 9 May 1661 sailing from Netherlands to New Netherland. His brother Arent Teunissen with wife and two children 7 and 4 years old was also with him on this voyage.

Jan Theunis and his wife Maritie Jans had the following chilren:

Rachel Jans Pier b ca 1657/59 Netherlands m1 ca 1697 Arle
Franssen De Lange m2 April 17, 1699 Albert Hendrickszen Ploeg
unknown child b. ca 1657/59 Netherlands
Teunis Jansen Pier bpt March 5, 1663/64 New Amsterdam NY m 6
Oct. 1684 Bergen NY Catrina Tomasse Cadmus

A quote from "The Lost Palatine" 16:10 states that Jan Theunissen and wife had two daughters on board De St. Jan Baptiste in 1661. I am not familiar with this book, and the children are not given a gender on the transcribed passenger list but this is very important to solving the puzzle of who is Jan Pier who married Tryntie Pieterse Ostrander b ca 1658!

ARENT THEUNISSEN from Amsterdam was also listed on board the St. Jan Baptiste, with two children ages 7 and 4 years old on 9 May 1661 sailing from Netherlands to New Netherland.

Arent Theunissen and his wife Geesjie Jans had the following children:

unknown child b. ca 1653 Netherlands
unknown child b. ca 1657 Netherlands
Harmen Arends Pier bpt August 10, 1661 NY
Jannetie Arends Pier bpt July 12, 1664 m 1681/82 Pieter
Pietersen Winne
Gepie Arends Pier bpt March 25, 1668 Kingston NY m1. Hendrick Adriaanz m2 1699 Willem Traphagen
Teunis Arends Pier b ca 1670 m. 1702 Margaret (Grietje) Du
Foe/Dufour/Devoor

The ancestral story of the New Jersey PIER family is TUNIS JANSEN PIER, the son of Jan Theunis and Maritie Jans. Tunis Jansen came from New Amsterdam NY to Bergen New Jersey in 1684. He later moved to Belleville, NJ where he purchased considerable land. Surnames as we
know them did not come into general use in Colonial NY until 1687 and thus Tunis can be found in the records under PIER, PEER, ASPEERE, SPIER, SPEER and JOHNSON (an anglized version of his patrony mic of JANSEN, meaning "son of Jan"). He is also found as Teunis Johnson alias Piere, with variant spellings of both Johnson and Piere. In the

17th century, names were written as heard, that is, phonetically, and if a Dutch individual had his name written by an English clerk, the result could be quite different than his actual name.

So it was that the PIER and the SPIER families became confused. Not only did the two families originate about the same time period in New Jersey, they were in the same location. Teunis Jansen PIER's daughter, Rachel Teunissen PIER, also married Hendrick Hanse SPIER, the son of
Hans SPIER. The PIER and SPIER families were further mixed up in the records because the names of Teunis and Hans were quite often used.

If a man named Teunis PIER stated his name to a clerk, what did the clerk hear? Teunis SPIER or Teunis PIER? Chances were that Teunis could neither read nor write so he would have no idea if his name were recorded correctly.

I have found Teunis' baptismal record in New York. In his will dated 1727 and probated April 1729, he leaves bequests to his wife Catrina and four sons and two daughters - it is from these four sons that the New Jersey Pier and Peer families came.

Click here for details of Theunis Jansz.'s family with Jannettie Arents