The Roeliff Jansen Kill is a major tributary to the

Hudson River The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between Ne ...

. Roeliff Jansen Kill was the traditional boundary between the Native American Mahican and

Wappinger The Wappinger () were an Eastern Algonquian Munsee-speaking Native American people from what is now southern New York and western Connecticut. At the time of first contact in the 17th century they were primarily based in what is now Dutchess ...

tribes. Its source is in the town of

Austerlitz, New York Austerlitz is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 1,625 at the 2020 census.US Census Bureau, 2020 Census Report, Austerlitz, Columbia County, New York https://www.census.gov/search-results.html?searchType=web&css ...

, and its mouth is at the Hudson River at Linlithgo in the town of

Livingston Livingston may refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North American custom ...

. The stream flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline data
The National Map
accessed October 3, 2011 through

Dutchess Dutchess County is a county in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 295,911. The county seat is the city of Poughkeepsie. The county was created in 1683, one of New York's first twelve counties, and later o ...

and

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

counties before entering the Hudson River about south of Hudson. Most of the watershed lies in Columbia County, although parts of the northern Dutchess County towns of

North East The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, Pine Plains,

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

, and Red Hook are within the stream's watershed of approximately . A major tributary is Shekomeko Creek.

Tributaries

* Klein Kill * Doove Kill * Fall Kill * Ham Brook * Shekomeko Creek - Native American ''Che-co-min-go'', "place of eels". ** Bean River * Punch Brook * Noster Kill ** Preechey Hollow Brook * Bashbish Brook ** Cedar Brook ** Wright Brook ** City Brook *** Guilder Brook ** Ashley Hill Brook *** Lee Pond Brook * Green River

History

Roeliff Jansen

Both Roeliff Jansen Kill and Roeliff Jansen Park outside

Hillsdale, NY Hillsdale is a town in Columbia County, New York, near Hudson, New York and Great Barrington, Massachusetts. State Routes 22 and 23 intersect near the town center, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The town has several ...

were named after Roeliff Jansen. However, Roeloff Jansz was not an uncommon name. According to popular belief Roeloff Jansen (1602-1637) was born on the island of

Marstrand Marstrand () is a seaside locality situated in Kungälv Municipality, Västra Götaland County, Sweden. It had 1,320 inhabitants in 2010. The town got its name from its location on the island of Marstrand. Despite its small population, for hist ...

in Bohuslän,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. In 1623, Jansen married Anneke Jans (1605-1663) who was from Flekkeroy, in

Vest Agder, Norway Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway up until 1 January 2020, when it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total population of Norway. ...

. Following the birth of their first three children, they emigrated to

New Netherland New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territories extended from the Delmarva ...

in 1630. The couple settled in first

Rensselaerwyck The Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Manor Rensselaerswyck, Van Rensselaer Manor, or just simply Rensselaerswyck ( nl, Rensselaerswijck ), was the name of a colonial estate—specifically, a Dutch patroonship and later an English manor—owned by the ...

near what is now

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Ci ...

, where Jansen had an engagement as a tenant farmer for Kiliaen Van Rensselaer. About 1634, he moved his family to

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...

where he acquired a 62-acre farm on

Manhattan Island Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. stat ...

, today in the

Tribeca Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stre ...

area of lower Manhattan. After his death, his widow married Domine

Everardus Bogardus The Reverend Everardus Bogardus (1607 – 27 September 1647) was the dominie of the New Netherlands, and was the second minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, the oldest established church in present-day New York, which was then located on ...

. Willem Frijhoff suggests it more likely refers to Roelof Jansz Haes , an alderman in

Manor of Rensselaerswyck The Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Manor Rensselaerswyck, Van Rensselaer Manor, or just simply Rensselaerswyck ( nl, Rensselaerswijck ), was the name of a colonial estate—specifically, a Dutch patroonship and later an English manor—owned by the ...

who was a trader in

Beverwyck Beverwijck ( ; ), often written using the pre-reform orthography Beverwyck, was a fur-trading community north of Fort Orange on the Hudson River in New Netherland that was renamed and developed as Albany, New York, after the English took contro ...

about 1634. By one account, he and some others were returning from

one winter when their boat became icebound for several days. They crossed the ice to shore and exploring the area, discovered the stream. They named it after the highest ranking member of the party, who was the alderman. This story is sometimes conflated with that of Roeliff Jansen of Marstrand.

New York State Route 9G New York State Route 9G (NY 9G) is a state highway in the Hudson Valley of New York in the United States. It runs north from U.S. Route 9 (US 9) at Poughkeepsie, starting out as Violet Avenue, then follows the Hudson River mo ...

crosses the stream via the Roeliff Jansen Kill Bridge (also known as the Linlithgo Bridge), built in 1932. Roeliff Jansen Park, in the town of

Hillsdale, New York Hillsdale is a town in Columbia County, New York, near Hudson, New York and Great Barrington, Massachusetts. State Routes 22 and 23 intersect near the town center, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The town has several ...

, is named after him. The Roeliff Jansen Community Library, which also serves the towns of Ancram, Copake, and Hillsdale.

Livingston Manor

In 1699, Robert Livingston built the manor house of Livingston Manor at Linlithgo at the mouth of the Roeloff Jansen Kill, where it flows into the Hudson. After his death, the stream formed a boundary between the manor left to his son Philip, and the estate created for his son Robert. In 1743,

Philip Livingston Philip Livingston (January 15, 1716 – June 12, 1778) was an American merchant and statesman from New York City. He represented New York at the October 1774 First Continental Congress, where he favored imposing economic sanctions upon Great Bri ...

, grandson of Robert, founded the Livingston Forge on the banks of the Roeliff Jansen Kill at "Scotchtown", later called Ancram after the town in Scotland where the Livingstons originated. It was at the Ancram iron works that the "Fort Montgomery Chain" was forged in 1776. The chain was placed across the Hudson River near West Point between Fort Montgomery and Fort Clinton, to keep the British fleet from sailing up the Hudson. In 1854, the foundry became a paper mill."History", Town of Ancram
/ref> Paper manufacturer Schweitzer-Mauduit International operates a plant at that location.

References

External links