Jesse De Forest and the De La Montagnes

 

The de la Montagne Family

Family legend has it that the de la Montagnes landed in 1604. This date is reported by Lynn Rowlands Knoll who received the information from older family members based on text carved into an old wooden chair passed down through the family. Aunt Flo (Florence de la Montagne Bunce, whom you shall meet) vouched for the authenticity of the chair and its history. Seems to me the carving could have been done on the other side of the pond.

The chair and the date notwithstanding, the Johannes de la Montagne cited so often on William deCoursey’s page here has turned out to be the long-lost ancestor I have been seeking. Known also as Jean Mousnier de la Montagne, he was a French Huguenot who studied medicine in Holland where the translated version of his name was used. This practice carried over into New Netherlands when he migrated there. Jean Mousnier de la Montagne was among a group of French Huguenots who signed an agreement with the King of England (see Jesse de Forest on this page) to settle in Virginia. Jesse De Forest, was de la Montagne’s father-in-law.

The agreement, known as “The Round Robin”, was never executed. Ultimately, both generations embarked for the port of New Amsterdam aboard The Rensselaerwyck in October, 1636. By the time the ship arrived at its destination, a daughter, Maria, had been born at sea to the young couple, Jean and his wife Rachel. Among the three older children who embarked from the Netherlands with their parents was Jan de la Montagne who became a teacher for awhile and is memorialized as one of the “Old Dutch Schoolmasters” on a plaque at New York University. He was born in Leyden, the Netherlands, and, as a teacher in New Amsterdam, taught in Dutch schools in the Dutch language, but, as the son of French Huguenots Jean and Rachel, was not of Dutch extraction.

 

Johannes/Jean himself held an influential position in the New World. He served as Commander of Fort Orange (early name of Albany) for a time. He was probably the original member of the first New York City Council under Peter Stuyvesant. There might have been a time when he and Stuyvesant were the only two governors. That is to say Stuyvesant was Governor and Jean was the (entire) council. At this time, Stuyvesant accorded himself two votes and Jean one. Later, those formerly in allegiance to the Crown of the Netherlands, swore allegiance to the Crown of England in 1664. The farmers of Manhattan Island complied.

The name:
In America, the name de la Montagne was sometimes corrupted. It is seen spelled as delaMontagne, Montagne, Montanje, Montanya, and Montanye – these last two representing anglicized approximations of the pronunciation, and the one prior to them is a Dutch spelling. There is evidence that Johannes (aka Jan and Jean) ultimately helped found a French Reformed Church in New York. Prior to that, however, he belonged to a Dutch Reformed Church and the records in New York State show all of these variant spellings for members of the same family.

Aunt Flo was very insistent upon all parts of the name being pronounced correctly – that is, the French way. Perhaps it was the difficulty she encountered in her own genealogical research that made her so sensitive on the topic.

I can empathize!  After spending a year-and-a-half trying to locate the Anne (Nancy) Montanye whose marriage to John Suffern is recorded here as number 1046, I have finally found the line!

The De Forests and the de la Montagnes

Jesse De Forest  &  Marie DuCloux

↓
Jean (Johannes) Mousnier de la Montagne  &  Rachel DeForest

↓

Jolant,   Jesse,   Jan,  (&   Peternella Pikes),   Rachel,   Marie,   Willem

↓

Jan  (&  Annetie Waldron),      Vincent,      Nicasius

      ↓

Annetie,  Johannes (& Sarah Parcell),  Peternella,  Joseph,  Jesse,  Abraham,  Rachel,  Jacob,  Marritje

  ↓

Annetje,  Sara,  John,  Annatje,  Joseph (& Femmetje Barents aka Phoebe Barnes),  Abraham

↓

Sarah,  Rachel,  John J. (& Martha Strachan),  Phebe  Anna,  Joseph

↓

Phebe, Sarah, Nancy (& John Suffern), Joseph, John, Jeanette, Martha, James M., Randolph, Frederick

↓

Mary J. Suffern (& Nathaniel Russell Bunce)

                        ↓

Cynthia,  Josephine,  Edna,  John,  Nathaniel,  Joseph,  Ella Augusta (& Henry Rowlands),  Florence de la Montagne Bunce  Josephine

↓

Harry Edward Rowlands  (& Margaret Treanor)

                             ↓

H.E. Jr.,       Eleanor,         Doris,       Nathaniel B./James T.(twins),       Margaret T. Rowlands

 

All success I have had in researching this branch I owe to Lois Stewart, the ultimate authority and resource on the de la Montagne family in the New World. She has been most generous in sharing information that she, clearly, has gathered painstakingly and over a long period of time. That I can put up a flimsy and incomplete line here, I owe entirely to Lois. With her kind permission, I include here four documents that have proven invaluable in clarifying the de la Montagne line in our family. I begin with a letter Lois sent in response to my request for help. As you can see, she was a font of information from the start. She cleared up my mystery in a wink. She then sent me three documents. The first centers on Jehan Mousnier de la Montagne himself. The second was about Jan de la Montagne the schoolmaster. I had been curious as to whether I descended from him. I do. The final document is a masterwork. It is Lois’s database of the descendants of John Joseph de la Montanya including the information she found about this branch of the family here in these pages! I am honored and fortunate to have established such a valuable connection with so accomplished a cousin.The family property was 200 acres in the northeast portion of what is now Central Park in New York City. An old waterway known as “Montayne’s Rivulet”, which ran from Riverside Drive to the East River was a tidal inlet. It has since been dammed up resulting in the formation of Harlem Meer near 106th Street. Here’s a map compliments of the Central Park Conservancy. Now is the time for confession.

When my sister, Peggy, and I were in college, we would sometimes cut all of our classes for the day (usually a nice day in Spring) and spend the day at the Metropolitan. We were museum rats. All the guards knew us. Sometimes one or the other of us would go out the south door into the park for a little while. I could always go to any guard at that door, ask if my sister was out there, and get an accurate response. Little did we know, in those days, that were were playing so close to the old family homestead – the really old one!

Jesse De Forest

Jesse De Forest was the father-in-law of Jean M. de la Montagne and 10 times my great-grandfather. Rachel’s father was the motivating force in moving the family to the New Netherlands. He must have been a very persuasive person and a wonderful organizer. Not only was he the one who firmly advised the move to the Americas, but he was also afforded some authority by his fellows although he almost certainly never arrived here. A monument to him stands in Battery Park in New York City. That webpage has a reference to a commemorative silver half dollar. Here it is:

I found this very informative page by Kevin DeFreest.  (If you get an error message, refresh the page. It will come up.) With Kevin’s permission, I link it here. He has traced Jesse’s line back to the Crusades. I bow in awe and respect. Thank you, Kevin.

Here is a very recent find on a Lee family website.  This traces the De Forest line all the way back to Charlemagne.  The de Forest line to Charlemagne

Like the Bunces,  the De Forests and de la Montagnes were very early settlers, whatever the actual date of arrival.