BIRTH: 24 Apr 1650, Loon op Zand, Holland, Dutch Republic
DEATH: 25 Mar 1711, Manhattan, New York County, New York, USA
FATHER: Thomas Gerarduszn (1608-1673)
MOTHER: Catharina Pruijsers (1608-1660)
SPOUSE: Aachtje Jacobs (Abt. 1654–Bef. 1710)
Johannes Thomaszen was born on April 24, 1650, in Loon op Zand, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands. He married Aachtje Jacobs on October 31, 1677, in New York City, New York. They had six children in 12 years. He died on March 25, 1711, in Manhattan, New York, at the age of 60.
The Life of Johannes Thomaszen
Immigrant Ancestor of the Sammons Family in America
Johannes Thomaszen entered the world on 24 April 1650 in Loon op Zand, a village in the historic Duchy of Brabant, then part of the Dutch Republic. His baptism there places him among the thousands of young Dutch men who would later cross the Atlantic during the final decades of New Netherland, seeking opportunity in a colony still shaped by the rhythms of Dutch language, law, and faith.
Nothing is known of his early life in the Netherlands, but his arrival in New Netherland fits the pattern of young, unmarried Dutch men who came as laborers, tradesmen, or soldiers in service of the West India Company. By the mid‑1670s, Johannes was living at Sapponda(m)—the Dutch settlement at Sappokanican, today’s Greenwich Village on Manhattan Island. This small community of farms and homesteads lay just north of New Amsterdam and was home to a mix of Dutch, Walloon, and free Black families.
On 31 October 1677, Johannes married Aachtje Jacobs, an unmarried woman (j.d.) from Nieuw Amersfoort (modern Flatlands, Brooklyn). Their marriage was recorded in the New York Reformed Dutch Church, the spiritual center of Dutch colonial life. The record identifies Johannes as a j.m. van Amsterdam—an unmarried man from Amsterdam—confirming his European birth and establishing the only surviving statement of his place of origin.
Johannes and Aachtje began their family immediately. Their first child, Gretie, was baptized in 1678, followed by Jannetie in 1680. In 1683, they welcomed their son Jacob, who would become the progenitor of the Mohawk Valley Sammons line. Over the next decade they added Caterina (1684), Thomas (1686), and Rachel (1691). These children were baptized in Manhattan, and their sponsors reflect the tight‑knit Dutch community that surrounded the family.
It was their children—not Johannes himself—who first adopted the surname Sammons, a natural evolution from the patronymic Thomaszen (“son of Thomas”). In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, as English influence increased and fixed surnames became more common, the family name appeared in records as Sammans, Samman, and eventually Sammons. This transition marks the moment when the family stepped from the Dutch colonial world into the emerging Anglo‑American one.
Johannes lived through the turbulent years following the English takeover of New Netherland, witnessing the gradual anglicization of Manhattan while remaining firmly rooted in the Dutch Reformed Church. His life bridged two eras: the final decades of Dutch rule and the rise of an English‑speaking colony that would one day become New York.
He died on 25 March 1711 in Manhattan, leaving behind a growing family whose descendants would spread northward into the Hudson Valley and eventually into the Mohawk Valley frontier. Through his son Jacob and grandson Sampson, Johannes became the patriarch of a family that would play a central role in the Revolutionary War and in the settlement of upstate New York.
From a baptism in Loon op Zand to a burial in Manhattan, Johannes Thomaszen’s life traces the arc of Dutch migration, colonial transformation, and the birth of an American family whose name—Sammons—endures to this day.
Legacy of Johannes Thomaszen
Parents
FATHER: Thomas Gerarduszn (1608-1673)
MOTHER: Catharina Pruijsers (1608-1660)
Married
Aachtje Jacobs (Abt. 1654–Bef. 1710) married October 31, 1677, in New York City, New York, New York, USA
Children
- Gretie Sammons (1678–1742) married Ellas Brevort (1676-1742)
- Jannetie Sammons (1680–?) married Arien Van Schaaijk
- Jacob Sammons (1683–1750) married Catalyna Benson (1688–1755)
- Caterina Sammons (1684–?)
- Thomas Sammons (1689–?)
- Rachel Sammons (1691–?) married Christoffel Van Nes
Documents
- Birth Records
- Tilburg, Netherlands Births, 1811-1902 > Surname: Johannes Thomaszn; Birth Date: baptized 24 Apr 1650; Birth Place: Loon op Zand; Religion: Roman Catholic; Father: Thomas Gerarduszn; Mother: Catharina Pruijsers; Source: Roman Catholic and (Dutch) Reformed church records, 1608-1810
- Marriage records
- Netherlands, Marriage Index, 1524-1899 > Name: Johannes Thomaszen; Marriage Date: 31 okt. 1677 (31 Oct 1677); Marriage Place: New York; Residence Place: Sapponicam; Spouse: Aechtje Jacobs
- New York City, Compiled Marriage Index, 1600s-1800s > Name: Johannes Thomaszen; Spouse Name: Aechtje Jacobs; Marriage Date: 1677; Marriage Place: New York City, New York, New York; Marriage ID: 2220322131
- Death records
- Find a Grave > Death Date: 1711; Death Place: Manhattan, New York County, New York, United States of America
- Other
- Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs, Vol. III, Hudson-Mohawk Family Histories > Johannes Thomasen Sammons (j. m. Van Amsterdam) married, October 31, 1677, Aechtje Jacobs (j. d. Van N. Amersfort), both then living at Sappondarn (Greenwich, Manhattan Island) . At the baptism of their first child, her name is written Aerhtje, at the others Aefje Jacobs, while his is given in each instance, Johannes Thomasen. Their children adopted the surname Sammans, Samman, Sammons. (See New York Biographical and Genealogical Record, vol. VIZ, p. 121.) > Children of Jacob and Catalyntje.
- Contributions to the History of Ancient Families of New Amsterdam and New York > Children of Johannes Thomasen and Aechtje Jacobs
Relation of Johannes Thomaszen to Steven Barry Staggs: 7th great-grandfather
Page last updated April 23, 2026
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