Johannes “Jan” Marinessen van Etten

Born Baptized: March 23, 1597. July 30, 1641: Anthony left Texel in the Netherlands aboard “den Coninck David” and headed for America. He died Abt in Albany, New York.

Managing Rensselaerswyck

Johannes “Jan” Marinessen van Etten, better known by his other name Anthony de Hooges, sailed from Texel in the Netherlands in July 1641 aboard den Coninck David, a voyage that ran short of fresh water and detoured to the West Indies before the ship ran aground on a reef near Sandy Hook that November. He became bookkeeper and assistant to Arendt van Curler in the Dutch patroonship of Rensselaerswyck, and when van Curler returned to the Netherlands in 1644, Anthony took over as the colony's business manager, a post he held until 1648, after which he served as its secretary and commissioner until his death. Kiliaen van Rensselaer, the patroon back in Holland, wrote Anthony repeated letters of both encouragement and warning — once cautioning him against drunkenness and “lewd women” after a failed courtship, and separately asking the colony's minister to keep an eye on his drinking.

A Name on the Hudson

Anthony survived at least two violent incidents in the small colony: in 1644 and again in 1647, a man named Willem Jeuriaensz attempted to stab him, and in 1650 another colonist punched him in the eye. He briefly served as a lay reader and later deacon of the Albany Reformed Dutch Church. Anthony died around October 1655 in Albany; the Hudson River landmark known as Anthony's Nose, where Westchester and Putnam Counties meet, is thought to be named for him.