...a careful search of the baptismal, marriage and death books of the lists of persons moving into the town, and of other records of the city and of the Dutch Reformed Church of (old) Utrecht, produced no trace of the name Corteljou. Only one other source remained. There were in Utrecht, as in other Dutch cities, a number of French Protestant refugees who had fled from persecution in the Catholic provinces now comprised of Belgium and France. These Walloons, as they were called, had their own church. This congregation still survives in Utrecht. In the records of this Walloon church are eight references to the name Corteljou (Cortelyou). These are not complete, but in default of evidence to the contrary, a family can be inferred, to which it is more than probable that Jaques Corteljou belonged. These entries, translated from the Walloon records, copies of which are kept in the City Archives of Utrecht, are as follows:
• 1612, April 14. Married, Jacques Cortillon and Elsken Hendricks.
• 1612, Dec. 13. Baptised, Abraham Courtillon, son of Jacques Courtillon.
• 1636, June 6, Married, Jerosme Bastairoux, native of Castelnau de Magnac, soldier under Mr. Estrade and Jeanne Courtailleau.
• 1637, Feb. 5. Married, at the request of the Flemish Brethren, Guilleaume Benet and Jenneken Courtaillot.
• 1640, May 25. Married, Blaise Paillot and Judith Courtailot.
• 1663, May 3. Married, Pierre Courtillie, young man of Utrecht and Jeanne Grenier, young woman of Ardensburg.
• 1663, Dec. 7. Died, Elsje Henricx, widow of Jacques Courtaillijo, in the Teelingstraat, leaving mature children. Buried in St. Nicholas Church.
• 1684, Nov. 9. Died, Judith Courteleau, wife of Blaysius Pailhot.
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.
The fragmentary nature of these Utrecht records is not surprising. Many cities have no records at all for such and early date. Moreover, after the Walloon families had been in Holland for some years, they often drifted in to the Dutch churches, some of whose records have disappeared. There was a Jacques Courtilion, handle-maker, with his wife, Marie Babesorre, and several children, in the Walloon church in Amsterdam in 1693. Aside from the name, there is nothing to suggest a connection with the Cortelyou’s of Utrecht.
While this solution of the origin of the Cortelyou family is not conclusive, it is in harmony with all the known facts. It explains their French extraction, with Holland merely a stopping place on their way to America. And this, in turn, shows why the name is not found in Holland today.
