JOHN WINANS was Dutch, a prominent man among the "80 Associates", who founded and settled Elizabethtown, N.J., 1664-5, along with brothers-in-law Jacob Melyn and Matthias Hatfield. John was well educated, had books (inventory) when books were rare, had Gold and Silver Plate and Coat of Arms. He married (1) [Aug 26,] 1664, at New Haven, Conn., Susannah Melyn.
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"Jan" Immigrated w/ brother (Barnanbus?) before 1653-------------- It is generally believed, based on research by European genealogists, that Jan is the son (or nephew) of the famous 17th century Haarlem landscape painter Jan Wynants and his first wife. Although there is no known proof, it is thought that the painter's son (Jan) by his first wife, left home to become an apprentice to a Gobelin weaver after his father's second marriage. The son, presumably Jan/John Winans, removed to New Netherlands sometime before 1653.
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Jan sometimes signed his name Jan Wynants, which is Southern Netherlandish ("Jan Wijnants, Weaver" by Edythe D. Winans Groome, 1980)
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His marriage in 1664 in New Haven, Connecticut, is the first known record of Jan Winans in the New World. Jan and Susanna were married in a double wedding ceremony with her widowed sister Maria Paradys to Matthias Hatfield, also a professional weaver.
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Jan was granted 200 acres of land in Elizabethtown on December 9, 1676 (General Board of Proprietors of the Eastern Division of Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Liber I, page 161 and Liber II, part II, page 37.)
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His will (under the name John Winance) was written February 14, 1687 and his inventory was appraised in 1695. His estate was valued at 271.15.8 pounds by Obadiah Sale and Benjamin Meeker.
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John and Susannah (Melyn) Winans' children were:
1.) John, b. [1st July] 1665, d. bef. 1673;
2.) Susannah, b. [Feb. 6] 1667, m'd, 1688, Hendrick, son of Jacob and Margaret (Stuyvesant) Backer;
3.) Elizabeth, 1669-1739, m'd Captain Ebenezer Lyon;
4.) Samuel, 1671-1747, m'd Zerviah ....;
5.) John, 1673-1734, m'd Remember ....;2 Mrs. Frances (Moore) Doddridge, widow of Philip;
6.) Joanna, b. bet. 1675-8, nothing further known;
7.) Conrad,3 b. about 1680, d. Feb. 1727-8, m'd Sarah, daughter of James and Sarah (Denham) Palmer, granddaughter of Rev. Thomas Denham, of Rye, N.Y. (see Baird's "Rye"). Two of Conrad's sons, James, b. 1715, d. Apr. 4, 1795, m'd Sarah Reynolds, b. about 1716, d. Oct. 10, 1802, and William, b. 1727-8, went to Greenwich, Conn., and later to Dutchess Co., N.Y., are ancestors of New York State Winans;
8.) Jacob, 1682-1722, m'd Mary ....;
9.) Isaac, b. 1684, d. 1723, m'd Hannah .... (ancestor of Ross Winans, of Baltimore, b. 1796, in Sussex Co., N.J.)
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Jan/John, m'd (2) about 1693, Ann Robertson, daughter of Wm. Robertson, a notable physician and large landholder. Their son, William, 1694-1763, m'd Hannah ....; he was the grandfather, by one daughter, of the wife of Colonel Edward Thomas, by the other, of Dr. William Winants, surgeon of the Revolution.
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