Hendrick Jacobs Falkenberg (16401712), also known as Hendrick Jacobs or Henry Jacobs, was an early American settler along the Delaware River, and was considered to be the foremost language interpreter for the purchase of Native American lands in southern New Jersey. He was a linguist, fluent in the language of the Lenape. In early histories of New Jersey he is noted for his service to both the Native Americans and the English Quakers, helping them negotiate land transactions. Though he was from Holstein, now a part of Germany, he was closely associated with the Swedes along the Delaware because his wife was a member of that community.
In 1671 Falkenberg lived on property belonging to his father-in-law, Sennick Broer, on the Christina River, now in Wilmington, Delaware. He later moved to the vicinity of Burlington, New Jersey where he lived for nearly two decades, and where he was visited by two journalists of the Labadist sect who were looking for a place to establish a new community. The journalists provided the only known record of Falkenberg's place of origin, and also described his dwelling place, a Swedish style log cabin. By 1693 he had moved from the Delaware River across the Province of New Jersey to become the first European settler in Little Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, near Tuckerton. Here he dug a cave for a home, but later built a large house made of clapboard where he lived until his death, sometime after 1711. Falkenberg wrote a will in 1710, but for unknown reasons it was not probated until thirty-three years later. While he had only two known children to reach adulthood, each by a different wife, he has a large progeny as the ancestor of the Falkinburg family of New Jersey and the Fortenberry and Faulkenberry families of the southern United States.
Delaware River The Delaware River valley lands were originally occupied by the Lenape. Over time, the land was controlled by the Dutch West India Company and Swedish settlers. In 1664 the British took possession of the entire Delaware River Valley. While reading the following, this date should be kept in mind.
Service as interpreter
In colonial records of New Jersey the name of Hendrick Jacobs Falkenberg occurs frequently in land transactions where he acted as interpreter between the native Lenape and European settlers. The Lenape were eager to acquire European-made goods and the Europeans were eager to acquire land, so the services of Falkenberg were sought by both parties. In his book, Indians of Southern New Jersey, Frank Stewart considered Falkenberg to be the foremost interpreter in the purchase of Lenape lands in southern New Jersey, a sentiment echoed by Dr. Peter Craig in his book about the inhabitants along the Delaware. Falkenberg was particularly helpful to the English Quakers moving into the area of the Delaware River in the late 1670s, helping them negotiate land transactions with the Lenape. When he was evicted from one of his properties in 1678, these Quakers came to his defense and petitioned the Governor of New York on his behalf. For his services as interpreter, the Lenape gave him an 800-acre tract of land in Little Egg Harbor Township in 1674, and the English gave him a 200-acre parcel of land on Rancocas Creek in Burlington County in 1682.
Falkenberg's usefulness as an interpreter went beyond the conduct of land transactions, an example of which occurred in 1681 when the Lenape King Ockanickon was dying. The King gave his final words to his nephew, Jahkursoe, whom he appointed to be his successor as King, but he also wanted to share his words with his gathered friends and family, both Indian and Christian. The short statement by Ockanickon was translated by Falkenberg. Soon afterwards, Quaker John Cripps sent the translation to a friend in London where it was put into print. In this small printed document, Falkenberg's name appears as the interpreter where his name is written "Henry Jacobs Falckinburs, This name appears as Falekinbery in Good Order." This is the first known instance where his name is given with the surname included. Subsequently, his name appears in the records both with and without the surname in various printed records.
First residence: Deer Point
The first public record found for Falkenberg was a deed dated October 12, 1672, when he was named as an heir of "Seneca Brewer" (Sennick Broer). In this document, he is named "Henrickus Jackson". This indicates that the wife of Hendrick Jacobs was a daughter of the Finn, Sennick Broer. Her given name has not been found. Sennick Broer and family arrived in the Delaware River area on the ship Mercurius in 1656, just after the Dutch took control of New Sweden. The Dutch attempted to turn the ship around and send the passengers back to Sweden, but with the help of some Lenape the vessel was able to slip into port and offload its passengers consisting of 92 Finns and 13 Swedes. Because his wife was of the Swedish colony along the Delaware, Hendrick Jacobs was also considered a member of the Swedish settlement.
In 1671, when the English made a census of the inhabitants of the Delaware River, Hendrick Jacobs was likely living with his wife and brothers-in-law on property belonging to his father-in-law, Sennick Broer. This 900-acre tract was called "Deer Point" and located on the north side of the Christina River, later a part of Wilmington, Delaware. The length of his stay at Deer Point is unknown, but by 1674 Jacobs was living 44 miles to the northeast, upstream along the Delaware River on an island called Mattiniconck (or Matinicum), adjacent to what would become the town of Burlington, New Jersey.
Mattiniconck Island
In August 1674 Hendrick Jacobs (later Falkenberg) was a party to a deed stating that his residence at the time was Mattiniconck Island, a 300-acre island in the Delaware River opposite Burlington, New Jersey. He shared ownership of the island, later called Burlington Island, with a French Huguenot named Peter Jegou, with whom he had a long and fairly close relationship. In a court held at Newcastle, Delaware in May 1675, Jacobs petitioned against Jegou concerning a bargain for a still, but thereafter, the relationship between the two men was much more amicable. Jegou represented Hendrick Jacobs in a November 1676 Newcastle court case, and three years later in a case where Jegou was a plaintiff, Jacobs was called his friend. Jacobs lived on Mattiniconck at least until late 1677 when a list of "Tydable Persons" of the Upland Court dated November 13, 1677, included "Hend: Jacobs upon ye Isld."
On November 14, 1678, Robert Stacy, one of the Yorkshire commissioners of the Burlington Colony, obtained a lease for this island from Governor Edmund Andros of New York. Stacy tried to evict Jacobs and Jegou from the island. However, on December 5, 1678, twenty-nine Quaker residents of Burlington petitioned the Governor because Jacobs had been of great service for them as interpreter and acquiring land from the Lenape. While the immediate outcome of the litigation is not known, ultimately the West Jersey assembly passed an act in 1682 vesting possession of the island to the town of Burlington with rents to be used for school maintenance and education of youth. Stacy did help compensate Jacobs, however, by approving a deed in January 1681/82 whereby Henry Jacobs was given 200 acres of land on the south side of Rancocas Creek, south of Burlington, in consideration for his services as an interpreter. Jacobs likely resided at this location because on August 8, 1685, he sold this property, with dwelling house, to Noel Mew of Rhode Island.
Lazy Point: Visit by journalists Danckaerts and Sluyter
While Mattiniconck Island was called Hendrick Jacobs' residence in at least two documents, it is uncertain how long he lived there. By 1679 he was living at a place called Lazy Point which he either owned in partnership with Peter Jegou, or leased from Jegou. Jegou purchased this property in 1668 and was operating an inn there in 1670 when he was plundered by Natives, subsequently leaving the area for Deer Point on the Christina River. A map copied by Jasper Danckaerts shows this property of Hendrick Jacobs as lying on the Delaware River across a small branch, Assiscunk Creek, near the town of Burlington, New Jersey. An engraving of this map is found in Woodward's history of Burlington County, New Jersey, with a modern version depicted in this article. In 1679 Danckaerts and his partner Peter Sluyter, two envoys of the Labadist religious sect, came from the Netherlands to America to find a location to establish a community, their journey extending from New York southward to Maryland. On Saturday, November 18, 1679, (8 November, old style) the two journalists, along with their local guide, Ephraim Herman, met with Hendrick Jacobs, stayed at his house, and wrote about the visit:
Before arriving at this village [Burlington], we stopped at the house of one Jacob Hendrix, from Holstein, living on this side. He was an acquaintance of Ephraim who would have gone there to lodge, but he was not at home. We, therefore, rowed on to the village, in search of lodgings, for it had been dark all of an hour or more; but proceeding a little further, we met this Jacob Hendrix, in a canoe with hay. As we were now at the village, we went up to the tavern, but there were no lodgings to be obtained there, whereupon we reembarked in the boat, and rowed back to Jacob Hendrix's, who received us very kindly, and entertained us according to his ability. The house, although not much larger than where we were the last night, was somewhat better and tighter, being made according to the Swedish mode, and as they usually build their houses here, which are block-houses, being nothing else than entire trees, split through the middle, or squared out of the rough, and placed in the form of a square, upon each other, as high as they wish to have the house; the ends of these timbers are let into each other, about a foot from the ends, half of one into half of the other. The whole structure is thus made, without a nail or a spike. The ceiling and roof do not exhibit much finer work, except among the most careful people, who have the ceiling planked and a glass window. The doors are wide enough, but very low, so that you have to stoop in entering. These houses are quite tight and warm; but the chimney is placed in a corner.In his journal, Danckaerts called Hendrick Jacobs "Jacob Hendrix from Holstein," getting his name backwards, but providing the only reference to his place of nativity. Through YDNA evidence, which follows the male genetic line, the Falkenberg ancestry indicates roots in the Netherlands, not the Holstein area of Germany. This evidence will be forthcoming. The journal entry also provides a detailed description of an important Swedish contribution to American culture—the log cabin.
In 1684 and 1685 Hendrick Jacobs appears several times in the Burlington Court Records. In one case he was the defendant in an action of debt, and in another case he and several others were accused of stealing goods from a ship that ran ashore and was grounded. He continued to live near the Delaware River at least until February 1688/89 when he was listed as a member of the Swede's Church in Wicaco (later in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). On January 26, 1691/92, he witnessed the will of Gilbert Morrell of Steatley, Burlington County, New Jersey, his name then being recorded as "Hinrich Jacobsen Falckenberg."
Across the Province to Little Egg Harbor Township