The variations in spelling are not unusual for records of that period. We, therefore, assume that Jaques Corteljou, a Walloon, was in Utrecht soon after the year 1600. In April 1612 he married Elsken (or Elsie) Hendricks. In December of the same year their first child was baptised Abraham. Three daughters – Jeanne, Jenneken, and Judith – grew to womanhood and married young Frenchmen in Utrecht. It was probably about 1625 that the second son, Jaques, was born. He was named Jaques (Jacques) after his father, the almost invariable custom with second sons; the first son was usually named after his paternal grandfather. Soon after marriage of his three sisters, Jaques attended the University in his home city, where we find him in the enrollment of 1643. Cornelis can Werkhoven took his two sons and their tutor, Jaques Corteljou, to America in 1652. Jaques’ father, the elder Jaques, may also have been living in 1652, but he certainly died before 1663, when his widow, Elsken Hendricks, was laid to rest in St. Nicholas Church, still standing at last reports a few blocks from her home in Teeling Street, in Utrecht. Nothing, aside from his baptism, is known of Abraham, unless he grew to manhood and became the father of Pierre, who was married in May 1663. The fact that Elsken Hendricks is stated to have left “mature children” when she died in 1663, gives support to whole hypothesis.
