Mangle
Janse Roll
The Roll Family at Turtle Bay Jan Mangels and his son Mangel Janse Roll once called Turtle Bay, on Manhattan Island at the East River, their home. The land just north of the present site of United Nations Park on the Mid-Town East Side was once of Mangle Janse Roll's thriving farm and shipping business that ranged from the Jersies to Connecticut on Long Island Sound and beyond.
Turtle Bay The bounds of the cove at Turtle Bay on Manhattan Island, New York, were 41st Street on the south, 51st Street on the north, 3rd Avenue on the west, and the East River. The bay, long filled in, was opposite Blackwell's Island in the East River. The lands around Turtle Bay also bore its name. Turtle Bay is on the East River , two miles north of Corlaer Hook. Its name is a corruption of the Dutch Dentel Bay, or Wedge Bay. Corlaers Hook, at the angle in the East River near Grand St. was named for Arent Van Corlaer, and was called by the Indians Nechtank. French's Gazetteer, p. 419. A sawmill on the cove produces lumber for the construction of small vessels in 1659. The origin of the name Turtle Bay may be Deutal, the Dutch word for a slightly curved blade, but the area was also noted for its numerous turtles. Turtle Bay was a swampy area with a cove between 45th and 48th streets. The landscape of the area was probably like the rocks, meadows, hills and valleys of Central Park today. The East River was important to commerce in the 18th century because of the poor roads and lack of bridges. Ships anchored in the cove when the tides were particularly strong along nearby Blackwell's Island. Thus Turtle Bay was involved in shipping. A Description of Part of Turtle Bay A large part of Turtle Bay was advertised for sale in the New York Journal of April 10, 1738. "Also Forty four Acres of Land lying upon Manhatans Island, within four miles of this City, with a very good Grist Mill and two Bolting Mills, a large quantity of New Fencing stuff ready prepar’d for use, an old Orchard that makes Thirty Barrels of Syder, and Fifty young trees planted last Spring, all grafted for the best Kind of Fruits, being Part of Turtlebey, and formerly the place belonging to Theophilus Wlseworth.” Mangle Janse Roll’s Parents Mangel Janse Roll’s father, Jan Mangels, was born in Utrecht, the Netherlands, about 1635. Jan emigrated to Beverwyck in Niew Nederland about 1655. There he married Tryntje Pieters Van Woggelum, daughter of Pieter Adriaense Van Woggelum, from Woggelum in the Netherlands, and the Daughter of Caniachkoo. Caniachkoo was sachem of the Third Castle of the Mohawk. Pieter was an inn keeper. Jan and Ttyntje became the progenitors of the Roll family in America. Their children were Antje, Mangle Janse, Tryntje, Pieter, and Johannes. Jan Mangels was an Indian trader at Beverwyck, Niew Nederland, as early as 1656. He rented a house, lot, and garden at Rensselaerswyck in 1661. In 1672, he was herding cattle in Albany County. He purchased land at Niskayuna in 1672/3. The Mohawk Indians gave him a gift of a very large tract of land north of the Mohawk River at Canastagione. When the French and Indians attacked and destroyed Schenectady in 1690 they also killed eight or ten settlers at Canastagione. The settlers left ther plantations in alarm and and returned to New York City. Jan Mangelse and his children, except for Peter, left their land at Canastione after 1690 moved to Staten Island. Mangle Janse Roll of Turtle Bay Mangle Janse Roll married Annetje Hendricx Yolcx on Staten Island in 1692. Mangle Janse Roll was operating a boat as early as 1692. By 1701 he was living in the North Ward of the City of New York. Later he lived in Turtle Bay in the Out Ward of New York City. He owned a house at what is now 23-25 Pine Street, the back of 40 Wall Street, fronting the French Church. Mangle’s father, Jan, was living with Mangle, his wife, and four children in the North Ward in 1703. Jan must have died before 1706, the year Mangle and others were hired to cut sod for the fortifications of New York City. In 1709 Mangle was still carrying sod from New Jersey to Fort Amsterdam. He ownership of land in Greenwick, Fairfield County, Connecticut, gives some indication of the extent of his shipping business. In 1713, Mangle, and other members of the family, presented a petition for 2,000 acres each out of Jan Mangels original tract of land at Canastigione. They were unsuccessful in the attempt to reclaim the land. In 1718 Mangle’s son John Roll married Aaltje Bas. In 1719, he bought land in “Limping Will’s Purchase” at Rye in Westchester County, New York. In the purchase document he is referred to as a mariner. In 1722 Tunis Van Pelt was apprenticed to John Roll, mariner, for seven years. John was to teach the young man arithmetic and navigation. In 1734 an old hulk used for landing cargoes at Turtle Bay was replaced with a new wharf. Other wrecks in the bay were also removed to enhance its use as a shelter for shipping, especially during the winter, from the driving ice of the East River. Turtle Bay at the outlet of Turtle Creek on the East River opposite Blackwell’s Island was noted for its shipyards in 1738. In 1740 Mangle built a home in Staten Island, but four years later he was dead. The Death of Mangel and His Son John After the death of Mangel Janse Roll in 1744, his executors advertised the sale of a 30 acre farm, referred to as Turtle Bay. His son John died the same year; both possibly died at sea. An abstract of Mangel’s will follows: "In the name of God, Amen, August 16th 1732, I Mangle Jansen Roll, Yeoman of Turtle Bay, in the OuWard of New York, being sick, I leave to my son John Roll 25 in full of all claims as my eldest son. All the rest of my estate to my wife Anne Roll during her life or widowhood and then to my children John, Catherina and Johanna. My daughter shall pay her daughter, Susannah Forber 20. My Executors are to sell all my Real-estate. If my son John shall have mind to purchase my house and lot of ground in New York, fronting the French Church, he shall have the preference. I make my wife Anne and my son John and my sons-in-law Phillip Minthorne and Samuel Beekman executors. “Witnesses John Ten Broeck, H. De Meyer, Jacob Janeway. Proved 4/19/1744. The Wife Anne was then dead.” [Wilson] In his will John Roll of Turtle Bay, son of Mangle Janse Roll, who died in 1744 wrote that his “vessell be kept going for the better maintenance of my children.” The vessel must have been a steady source of income for the family. An abstract of the will is as follows: "'In the name of God, Amen, I, John Roll of Turtle Bay in the outward of New York, Mariner being sick, I leave to my son Mangle Roll in full of all damages as eldest son and heir. I leave my wife Allida and to my Children Mangle Roll and John Roll all my Estate when they are of age. My executors are to have full power to sell land. My will is that my vessell be kept going for the better maintenance of my children if my wife thinks proper, and it is not to be sold. I make my wife and Isaac Bragaw Sr. of Newton and John Carhart of Rye, Executors.” Witness Isaac Brackow, John Dykman, Jacobus Kip. Dated May 17th, 1744. Proved July 13, 1744.' “His will also indicates that he died during 1744 a few months after his father and at which time his living children were minors.” [Wilson] The Sale of Turtle Bay “The following recent newspaper article referring to this locality and his farm is of interest. "'In view of the recent migration of many well-known New Yorkers to the Turtle Bay section east of Third Avenue, it may be interesting to note that the area was a popular suburban quarter of the city 175 years ago. The important development which has recently taken place there involves a row of houses on the north side of 48th Street, between Second and Third Avenue, evidently very close to the attractive farm as advertised for sale in the following notice from the New York Weekly Post Boy in June, 1745: "'To be sold, a good small farm or plantation in the Out Ward of the City of New York, containing thirty acres adjoining upon the East River, a little beyond Turtle Bay and opposite to the sign of the Union Flag. It is very conveniently situated and has a commodious safe landing place and harbor in a cove sheltered from ice and strong weather; it has two houses upon it and a good bearing orchard, a stream of water running though it and the river before it abounds in a great plenty of fish, lobsters and crabs; the rear thereon adjoins to the King’s Highway. It lately belonged to Mangel Roll, deceased. Whoever inclines to purchase the said farm may apply to Mr. Samuel Beekman or to Mr. Philip Minthorn, living next to William Sackerly’s in the Bowery Lane and agree on reasonable terms.' “As a matter of interest the writer has endeavored to locate the site of the foregoing farm and while his research indicates that it ran from the East River to about 2nd. Avenue between 59th and 62nd streets, he has been unable to find a record of its sale, and bases his deduction of its location upon the description of adjacent lands which appear in the early land records of the city...” [Wilson] In 1746, Mangle Roll, son of John and Aaltje, married Sara Richardson. _____ Hoff, Henry B. Ed. Genealogies of Long Island Families. Vol. II. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., 1987. Note: On pp. 11-12 are some notes on the ancestry of the Meserole Family. The author owns this book.. Roll, Edwin D. The Roll Family One Branch. October 1982. LDS Microfiche 6018739. The microfiche is available for use at many Family History Centers. Wilson, Richard Timbrook. Genealogy of the Roll Family: Ancestors and Descendants of John Roll of Elizabethtown Township, Essex County, New Jersey. Ridgewood, New Jersey, 1921. Note: There are only a few copies of this manuscript that I am aware of. One is at the Library of Congress. The library will make copies of individual pages or the whole work for a fee. The author wants a complete copy of this book. What Happened to Turtle Bay?
In the 1930s, the Kip’s Bay-Turtle Bay neighborhood, sometimes known as the Mid-town East Side, was a riverside backyard for the more imposing Mid-town section west of it. Huge industrial enterprises, breweries, laundries, abattoirs, power plants, and along the water front face squalid tenements not far away from new apartment dwellings attracted to the section by its river view and its central position. The numerous plants showed this district with the heaviest soot fall in the city, 150 tons to the square mile annually. Much of the district was a slum in the 1930s. El trains of the Second and Third Avenue lines thundered by constantly. First Avenue, an important commercial traffic artery, brought an endless, noisy procession of trucks. Kip's and Turtle bays have long since been filled in and they have vanished from maps. _____ The United Nations at
Turtle Bay
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