JAN GYSBERTSEN METRN AND HIS FAMILY.

Kreijn, son of Jan Gysbertsen Metrn, as he spelled and wrote his name, was born in Bommel, in the Netherlands March 10, 1650. When a boy of 13 years, or in 1663, he came over with his father to New Amsterdam. Although the father wrote his name as spelled above, yet in old records of Kings county, L.I., and on the records of the First Dutch church of Monmouth and in our county clerk’s office, the name is spelled Van Metra, Van Metee, Van Metteren, and in several other ways. 

Jan Gysbertsen, the father, seems to have been better off financially than most of the Holland emigrants. We find him comfortably settled at New Utrecht, L. I., and one of the  magistrates of that town in 1673. He was a deacon in the Dutch church in 1683. 

It has been thought by some writers that he was on the same family as Jacob VanMeteren of Antwerp, who caused the first complete edition of the Bible to be printed in the English language. This book was printed at Zurich in 1536, and was a great and expensive work. It is thought that the vanMeteren made the translations himself, but employed an English scholar named Miles Coverdale to supervise the printing, in order to guard against errors in the translation. Through Van Meteren the English people had access to the Scriptures in their native tongue. They have, however, never exhibited any gratitude, and gave VanMeteren but scant credit for this costly and beneficial work. [See my posts on Jan Joosten Van Meterens Lineage and Jacobus and Emmanuel Van Meteren].

There is a tradition in the VanMater family, that “Jan Guysbertsen Metrn,” the father, refused to take the oath of allegiance in 1687, and soon after went back to his native land. That he had urged his son very strongly to accompany him but that he refused, on account of his great horror of sea sickness, having suffered intensely on his first voyage over. I think, however, that his great love for blue-eyed, flaxen-haired and pretty Nelly Van Cleaf was stronger than his love for the motherland. He had married at New Utrecht, September 9, 1683, Neeltje (Eleanor), daughter of Jan VanCleef and a resident of the same town.

Jan Van Cleef came from Holland in 1653 and settled at New Utrecht in 1659. His wife was Engeltje, a daughter of Laurens Pietersen. Neeltje, or Nelly, was born at New Utrecht January 1, 1663, the very year her futue husband was tossing on the waters of the Atlantic Ocean. She had a brother Benjamin, baptized in the Dutch church at New Utrecht in November 1683. He married Hendrika VanSutphen and removed to Monmouth County. He and his wife are communicants in the First Dutch church of Monmouth in 1711 and 1719, but her name is spelled on the records as “Hank Sutphin.”

Kreijn VanMater and Neeltje VanCleef, his wife, are named among the first members and organizers of the Dutch church of Monmouth. His name is first entered on the church records as “Krijn Jansen,” and in 1716 when Elder as “Kriin VanMetra.” 

He purchased a large tract of land in what are now (1899) Holmdel and Atlantic townships. His first dwelling, a log cabin, was erected on the farm where William Jones now resides in Atlantic township. The old family burying ground is on this farm, and in it many of the past generations of the vanMaters are interred. This farm is but a small part of the original tract. 

Kreijn died March 10, 1720, and his wife January 1, 1747. Both are buried side by side in this graveyard, with tombstones giving their names and dates of death. His age is stated about 75 years and her age about 84 years. Nelly, his widow, survived him 27 years and was faithful to his memory. She is said to have been a very handsome and attractive woman, and had several offers of marriage, but none of them would she accept. She never tired of talking about Kreijn and of telling what he said and did, for in all the world there was no such man, she thought. An English visitor on one occasion thoughtlessly remarked in her presence that “Krijn” was a “queer, harsh name.” “Nodings queer,” exclaimed rhe old lady in her broken English, which became more so when she was excited. “Kreijn von goodt name, gooter as effer vas. Just like de singing of de birdts, ven der sprink veather comes, and der coldt vinter go avay.” So she ever dwelt fondly on the husband of her youth until the summons came for her. She died in peace with a smile on her lips, for at last she would meet her Kreijn in the “land of the leal,:  never again to part. The old generations of the VanMaters were noted for their faithful attachments to wife, children and kinsmen. They labored and planned, as their wills show, to provide comfortable homes and maintain and guard against misfortune, those near to them by ties of blood.