Jacob Burhans

  General Notes:

Jacob was the first of his name in America. It has never been determined where he was born, when he immigrated or the name of his wife, but it is assumed that he was from Holland as family tradition has it. His name first appears on the records as a soldier in the Netherlandish service on the Esopus on 28 March 1660. The Esopus, both a creek and a region, takes it's name from the Lanape Native American tribe of the place they hunted. The creek is a 65 mile long tributary of the Hudson River on the west side flowing past Kingston. The Dutch first settled Wiltwyck, today's Kingston, in 1649. The native Esopus Indians were not very receptive to the invaders who were building dugouts and clearing land; two wars broke out in the early 1660s with the Second Esopus War ending with a treaty in May 15, 1664.

There are numours records of Jacob in the documents of early New York. He was third on a list of church members at Wiltwyck on December 7, 1660, the date of the first organization of the church. He had two houses burned down in the Second Esopus War, in the "New Village outside the Stockade." His last appearance in the records was in December of 1668 and he must have died sometime between then and September 1677 when his son deeded a house and lot which, as he states in the deed, formerly belonged to his father.

The surname survives today in many parts of New York and many of that name are buried in Ulster County. There is no record of when he exactly Jacob died or where he was buried. ⁵²⁹

Jacob married.