USA > New Jersey > Historical and genealogical miscellany : data relating to the settlement and settlers of New York and New Jersey > Part 34
USA > New York > Historical and genealogical miscellany : data relating to the settlement and settlers of New York and New Jersey > Part 34
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STOUT
OF
MONMOUTH COUNTY*
1 RICHARD STOUT, an early settler in this country and the founder of the large family bearing his name, was reputed the son of John Stout, of Nottinghamshire, England. Tradition has it that he left England because of friction with his father, who interfered with his love affairs, which drove him to engage on a man-of-war for seven years, at the end of which time he received his discharge at New Amsterdam. The tradition may be truthful, but if the printed statement is correct that he was forty years of age when he married Penelope Van Princis, after allowing seven years for ship service and three additional years between his discharge and mar- riage, he would still have been about thirty years old when this rupture occurred, an age when parental intrusion and discipline in love affairs is hardly likely, but if so, might have been re- sented in the manner accredited to him. The assertion that Richard Stout was of "good family," which implies social caste, and that the cause of the disturbance between father and son was a threatened misalliance also may be true, but we have no proof of the social position of John Stout, and as an argument against it there is the fact that Richard Stout, his son, was not an educated man, when education was common. The answer to this is the presumption that Richard Stout was probably a headstrong character, not likely to be coerced into scholarly attainments. These statements, and more, are set forth in certain published articles concerning the Stout family, in which Penelope, the wife of Richard, is a conspicuous figure. The first of these to appear was the account printed in Samuel Smith's History of New Jersey, pub- lished at Burlington, N. J., in 1765. A second version appeared in print in Morgan Edwards' Materials Towards A History Of The Baptists in Jersey, published in 1792. These two versions have much in common, but are still so dissimilar that it is evident that their sources of origin were totally different. Edwards projected A History of the American Baptists, in a series of twelve state Baptist church histories. The first of these was published in 1770, on Penn- sylvania. Then came a long gap, doubtless largely occasioned by the War, and then appeared, in 1792, the volume on New Jersey. None followed, as it was a losing venture to the author, though the price was put at one-fourth of one dollar each and the issue limited to five hundred copies. His complaint about neglect was well founded, when the modest
*Occasional efforts have been made to compile a genealogy of the Stout family, but in nearly all instances it has been re- stricted to a single branch. The greatness of the undertaking will probably continue to deter all but an enthusiastic genealogist from ever undertaking such a work, which must grow more difficult with time. Such incomplete data as I have brought together will, however, be of some assistance if one is ever undertaken. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of all the names, dates and state- ments, but believe in the main that they are correct.
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HISTORICAL MISCELLANY
charge and the labor were considered, but he had entered a field, then as now, unappre- ciated except by the few historical and genealogical students. While his second volume was published in 1792, the preface shows that the work was finished by the writer May 1, 1790, and no doubt its compilation took some years. Exactly how long can only be surmised, but as the article on the Stouts, (under che church at Hopewell), was contributed by the Rev. Oliver Hart to Mr. Edwards, and as his incumbency as pastor of the Hopewell church dates from Dec. 16, 1780, it could not have antedated this year 1780, but probably was written between 1785 and 1789.
It is from these two sources that later historians, writers and genealogists largely derive their information. Benedict, in his History of the Baptists, edition of 1813, (Vol. I, pp. 573- 574), draws entirely from Morgan Edwards, as does Barber's Historical Collections of New Jersey, edition of 1868, pp. 259-260. Raum too, in his History of Trenton, N. J., 1871, pp. 58- 59, follows the Edwards text, but misleads in stating that he gives the narrative verbatim. This he does not do, for a superficial comparison shows an embellished text, which, with the erroneous statement that the book was published in 1790, when it was really printed in 1792, leads one to seek another publication when one does not really exist.
The Smith and Edwards publications are reproduced here verbatim, being necessary for a proper appreciation of the dates involved. That the tradition concerning Penelope Stout's experience with the Indians is true is, to my mind, as certain as that man now exists. Her hardiness to have outlived, for eighty-four years, her mutilation at the hands of the Indians, her extraordinary longevity reaching one hundred and ten years, and her enormous progeny, would tend to make her a much-talked-of individual, and Smith, who wrote concerning her, less than thirty-three years after her death, must have met many who knew her in life, and Ed- wards was not far behind him in chronicling the same tale from other sources. Then, we have the remarkable verification of her scars by her descendants, as given by Mrs. Seabrook. Surely there is no room for doubt, and though some seemingly fanciful accretions may have accumu- lated around the story in time, they are more likely to be facts with misplaced dates, such as the episode of the Indian aiding her escape in the threatened uprising, rather than actual errors.
CASE OF A STRANGER, REMARKABLY ÍAVED AMONG THE INDIANS.
While New York was in poffeffion of the Dutch, about the time of the Indian war in New-England, a Dutch fhip coming from Amfterdam, was ftranded on Sandy Hook, z. but the paffengers got on fhore; among them was a young Dutchman who had been fick moft of the voyage; he was taken fo bad after landing, that he could not travel; and the other paffengers being afraid of the Indians, would not ftay till he recovered, but made what hafte they could to New Amfterdam; his wife however would not leave him, the reft promifed to fend as foon as they arrived: They had not been long gone, before a company of Indians coming down to the water fide, difcovered them on the beach, and haftening to the fpot, foon killed the man, and cut and mangled the woman in fuch a manner that they left her for dead. She had ftrength enough to crawl up to fome old logs not far diftant, and getting into a hollow one, lived moftly in it for feveral days, fubfifting in part by the excrefcences that grew from it; the Indians had left fome fire on the fhore, which fhe kept together for warmth: having remained in this manner for fome time, an old Indian and a young one coming down to the beach found her; they were foon in high words, which fhe afterwards underftood was a difpute; the former being for keeping her alive, the other for difpatching: After they had debated the point a while, the firft haftily took her up, and toffing her upon his fhoulder, carried her to a place near where Middletown now ftands, where he dreffed her wounds and foon cured her: After fome time the Dutch in New-Amfterdam hearing of a white woman among the Indians, concluded who it muft be and fome of them came to her relief; the old man her preferver, gave her the choice either to go or ftay; fhe chofe the firft: A while after marrying to one Stout, they lived together at Middletown among other Dutch inhabitants; the old Indian who faved her life, ufed frequently to vifit her; at one of his vifits fhe obferved him to be more penfive than common, and fitting down he gave three heavy fighs; after the laft fhe thought herfelf at liberty to afk him what was the matter? He told her he had
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STOUT OF MONMOUTH COUNTY
fomething to tell her in friendfhip, tho' at the rifk of his own life, which was, that the Indians were that night to kill all the whites, and advifed her to go off for New-Amfterdam; fhe afked him how fhe could get off? he told her he had provided a canoe at a place which he named: Being gone from her, fhe fent for her hufband out of the field, and difcovered the matter to him, who not believing it, fhe told him the old man never deceived her, and that fhe with her children would go; accordingly going to the place appointed, they found the canoe and paddled off. When they were gone, the hufband began to confider the thing, and fending for five or fix of his neighbours, they fet upon their guard: About midnight they heard the difmal war-hoop; prefently came up a company of Indians; they firft expoftulated, and then told them, if they perfifted in their bloody defign, they would fell their lives very dear: Their arguments prevailed, the Indians defifted, and entered into a league of peace, which was kept without violation. From this woman, thus remarkably faved, with her fcars vifible, through a long life, is defcended a numerous pofterity of the name of Stout, now inhabiting New- Jerfey: At that time there were fuppofed to be about fifty families of white people, and five hundred Indians inhabiting thofe parts.
z. Other accounts fay in Delaware, nigh Chrifteen, but this is moft likely to be true. History of New Jersey, Samuel Smith, Burlington, 1765; pp. 65 et al.
The family of the Stouts are so remarkable for their number, origin and character in both church and state that I cannot forbear bestowing a post-script upon them; and no place can be so proper as that of Hopewell, where the bulk of the family resides. We have already seen that Jonathan Stout and family were the seed of Hopewell church, and the beginning of Hopewell settlement; and that of the 15 which constituted the church, nine were Stouts: the church was constituted at the house of a Stout; and the meetings were held chiefly at the dwellings of the Stouts for 41 years, viz. from the beginning of the settlement to the building of the meeting- house, before described. Mr. Hart is of the opinion "That from first to last, half the members have been and are of that name; for, in looking over the church book, (saith he), I find that near two hundred of the name have been added; besides about as many more of the blood of the Stouts, who had lost the name by marriages: the present two deacons and four elders, are Stouts: the late Zebulon and David Stout were two of its main pillars: the last lived to see his offspring multiplied into a hundred and 17 souls." The origin of this Baptist family is no less remarkable; for they all sprang from one woman, and she as good as dead: her history is in the mouths of her posterity, and is told as follows: "She was born at Amsterdam, about the year 1602: her father's name was Vanprincis: she and her first husband, (whose name is not known), sailed for New-York, (then New Amsterdam), about the year 1620: the vessel was stranded at Sandy Hook: the crew got ashore, and marched towards said New York: but Penelope's (for that was her name) husband being hurt in the wreck, could not march with them; therefore, he and the wife tarried in the woods: they had not been long in the place before the Indians killed them both, (as they tho't), and stripped them to the skin: however, Penelope came to, tho' her skull was fractured, and her left shoulder so hacked that she could never use that arm like the other: she was also cut across the abdomen so that her bowels appeared; these she kept in with her hand: she continued in this situation for seven days taking shelter in a hollow tree, and eating the excres- cence of it: the seventh day she saw a deer passing by with arrows sticking in it; and soon after two Indians appeared, whom she was glad to see, in hope they would put her out of her misery; accordingly, one made towards her to knock her on the head; but the other (who was an elderly man) prevented him; and throwing his match-coat about her, carried her to his wigwam, and cured her of her wounds and bruises; after that he took her to New York, and made a present of her to her countrymen, viz. an Indian present, expecting ten times the value in return. .... It was in New York that one Richard Stout married her: he was a native of Old England, and of a good family: she was now in her 22d year; and he in his 40th: she bore him seven sons and three daughters, viz. Jonathan, (founder of Hopewell), John, Richard, James, Peter, David, Benjamin, Mary, Sarah, and Alice: the daughters married into the families of the Bounds, Pikes, Throgmortons and Skeltons, and so lost the name of Stout: the sons married into the families of Bullen, Crawford, Ashton, Truax; these had many children; but I could not come at the names of the families into which the other brothers married. The mother lived to the age of 110, and saw her offspring multiplied into 502 in about 88 years." Morgan Edwards' Materials Towards A History Of The Baptists in Jersey.
We may pass Bergen, (Early Settlers of King's County, pp. 286-287), who quotes Raum and cavils at the accuracy of the tradition, and Franklin Ellis, (History of Monmouth County, N. J., pp. 66-68), who follows Smith and Edwards, and, while properly taking exception to palpable errors in dates, is in error himself when he criticises the Indian attitude, which, at times, was intensely hostile. With Salter and Stockton following Smith and Edwards, we may now close the list. These printed histories are reinforced by manuscript histories and oral
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HISTORICAL MISCELLANY
traditions. Of these, a manuscript history of the Stouts was made, in 1823, by Nathan Stout. It was from a copy of this work, made by Mr. Joseph D. Hoff, of Middletown, N. J., in 1885, that I made a copy in 1892, which so far as the genealogy goes, is incorporated, as far as possible, in corrected shape, in the following contributions to the Stout family history. The narrative concerning Penelope Stout, which was the introduction to this manuscript family history, is produced in its original language further on, and is practically the same as those that have appeared in print.
Of the oral traditions, those derived from the late Mrs. Henry Seabrook, of Keyport, née Therese Walling, are, doubtless, the most accurate, original and entertaining. Mrs. Seabrook was an intellectually gifted woman, steeped in local genealogical lore, derived from her great ancestors. Upon their laps she sat when young, or with the assembled elders at the nearby hearthside, to be entertained by their constant repetitions of tales of exposure, hardship, love and war. The old are garrulous, live in the past, delight in the young, and with contracted lives and thought they become the local historians of the past to young but willing ears, upon whose excited imagination the stories remain indelibly impressed. Thus it was that Mrs. Seabrook passed onward the tales of her childhood. Perhaps the most important of these was the follow- ing:
"My grandmother, Helena Huff, told me how her grandfather, John Stout, had felt the wounds of Penel- ope Stout, and that he blushed like a school boy. She wished the knowledge of the Indian assault transmitted to her posterity and it has been done, for there are but two hands between Penelope and me."
" Richard Stout having passed seven years on a man of war schooner, which he had entered when he for- sook his father's house, after the failure of his first love speculation, married Penelope Van Prince. After a time the little Dutch woman prevailed in inducing her husband to consent to come to the future site of Middle- town to settle. They were accompanied by four families, tradition states, by the name of Bowne, Lawrence, Grover and Whitlock about the year 1648. The Stouts were in Middletown and Pleasant Valley; the Bownes from Chigarora Creek west and north, owning what is now Union, East and West Keyport, Brown's Point, Cliffwood, etc. The Lawrence family settled at Colt's Neck, and extended north probably to Holmdel, but generally going further south, where they swarmed. The Whitlocks settled at the Bay Shore near the site of the present Port Monmouth, and later between Middletown and Holmdel."
"There was the best of understanding between Penelope Stout and her Indian 'father' as she called him, although all was not rose color between the settlers and Indians. A great-great-grand-daughter of hers used to relate to us grandchildren of her own, the following incident. Once the Indian father refused to eat with the family which he was always in the habit of doing when coming to see them, and Mrs. Stout followed him when he left the house and learned from him that his people had made arrangements to surprise and murder all the whites on the following night. She lost no time in gathering the white people together, and they made their way to the Bay Shore, and entering their canoes, lay all night in them off shore, it being too dark to go to any place across the water. The next day peace was made with them. Later in their history, the whites of Middletown and vicinity were several weeks in a Block house which stood on the ground now occupied by the Baptist Church of that village. In the Block house or fort, were born twin great grand-daughters of Penelope, one of whom was immediately named Hope Still, after a treaty of peace with the besiegers, the other was called Deliverance, the first name is still in the family, the last, we think was not repeated, owing perhaps to her dying unmarried, as our ancestors were sure to name the first children for their parents. There has never failed a Richard among the Hartshornes, a Richard and John among the Stouts-a Thomas, Joe or John among Wallings,-a Hendrick in the Hendrickson and Longstreet families-or a Wilhemus in Covenhoven." MRS. T. W. SEABROOK.
"Richard Stout, the first of the name in America, was born in Nottinghamshire, England; and his father's name was John. The said Richard when quite a young man paid his addresses to a young woman that his father thought was below his rank, upon which account some unpleasant conversation happened between the father and son, upon account of which the said Richard left his father's house and in a few days engaged on board a ship of war, where he served about seven years, at which time he got his discharge at New Amsterdam, now called New York. About the same time a ship from Amsterdam in Holland, on her way to the said New Amsterdam was drove on the shore that is now called Middletown in Monmouth County in the state of New Jersey, which ship was loaded with passengers who, with much difficulty got on shore. But the Indians not
299
STOUT OF MONMOUTH COUNTY
long after fell upon them and butchered and killed the whole crew as they thought, but soon after the Indians were gone a certain Penelope Van Prince, whose husband the Indians had killed, she found herself possessed with strength enough to creep in a hollow tree, where she remained some days with a number of severe wounds in her head and back. An Indian happening to come that way whose dog barking at the tree occasioned him to examine the inside of the tree, where he found the said Penelope in this forlorn and distressing condition which moved his compassion. He took her out of the tree and carried her to his residence, where he treated her kindly and healed her wounds, and in a short time conveyed her in his canoe to New Amsterdam where he sold her to the Dutch who then owned that city. The man and the woman from whom the whole race of Stouts have descended are now in the city of New Amsterdam where they became acquainted with each other and were married and notwithstanding it may be thought by some they conducted [themselves] with more fortitude than prudence, they immediately crossed the bay and settled in the aforesaid Middletown where Penelope had lost her first husband by the Indians and had been so severely wounded herself. There was at this time but six white families in the settlement, including their own which was in the year 1648. Here they continued until they became rich in property and rich in children."-From the manuscript written, in 1825, by Capt. Nathan Stout, and corrected by Joseph D. Hoff, of Middletown, N. J., in August, 1885. This manuscript contained many errors .*
Setting aside, temporarily, his traditional history, we now come to Richard Stout's known history. This starts about 1643, when, in June of that year, Lady Deborah Moody, accompanied by her son, Sir Henry Moody, and a number of English families of good condition, arrived at the fort, at New Amsterdam, fresh from religious persecutions in New England, to seek and found an asylum under the Dutch. They were hospitably received and permitted to select such lands as they wished. At the date of their arrival, Richard Stout was probably among the English settlers, who, prior to that time, had located among the Dutch upon Manhattan Island, at- tracted thither from the religious intolerance of New England, or for purposes of trade, or in the spirit of adventure. These English speaking bodies soon joined to found the new settlement of Gravesend, upon Long Island, whither they probably at once commenced to remove. By 1645, with some intervening vicissitudes, they were well organized and the Director-General, Kieft, issued them a patent dated Dec. 19th, of that year. Among the thirty-nine patentees enumer- ated was Richard Stout.
An entry in the Town Book of the new settlement throws some light upon the life and times of Richard Stout. Unfortunately it is incomplete :
May 7, 1647. "Richard Stoute being sworn deposeth yt in the . . his being a soldiere at the ffort with Penneare and other his fellow soldieres," etc.
Twice, in 1643, the English were employed as soldiers by the Dutch. The unparalleled stupidity and barbarity of the Dutch Director-General, Kieft, and certain of his followers, jeopardized the very existence of the Dutch settlements, by embroiling them with the Indians.
About the first of February, 1643, the warlike Mohawks descended upon the tribes inhab- iting the shores of the lower Hudson, to enforce the tribute of dried clams and wampum which had been withheld at the instigation of some of the Long Island Indians. Fleeing like sheep before wolves, consumed with cold, hunger and fright, some four or five hundred fugitives sought the protection of the whites upon Manhattan Island, where, under the walls of the fort, these pitiable objects were fed and sheltered by the hospitable settlers for a fortnight.
Recovering confidence, they broke up into two parties, one of which ventured across the river to Pavonia, on the way to their friends, the Hackensacks, while the other removed to the vicinity of Corlear's Hook, where a number of Rockaway Indians had lately set up their wig- wams.
At this juncture, the Director, when heated with wine, yielded to the appeals of his Secre- tary to revenge a murder committed, some time previously, at Hackensack, and the failure of
*The original is now owned by Mr. J. Hervey Stout, of Stoutsburg, whose father had it printed in a small edition, by the Hopewell Herald, to save it from destruction. Copies of the book are now scarce.
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HISTORICAL MISCELLANY
the Westchester Indians to surrender the murderer of one of the settlers, Claes Schmidt, like- wise an affair many months old. Volunteers and soldiers thereupon were led to the two Indian encampments, where, under cover of darkness, they fell upon the trusting savages and foully murdered eighty in one place and forty in the other, sparing neither infants, women nor the decrepid. Never was there fouler butchery. When they realized that it was not the Indians of Fort Orange, but the Dutch who had attacked them at Pavonia and Corlear's Hook, they joined the Long Island tribes, who had recently been plundered of their corn by Dutch farmers, made bold by recent events, and who had killed two of the savages while defending their property. These two factions now made an alliance with the River Indians, and eleven tribes, numbering two thousand warriors, burning to avenge the massacre of their people, rose in open war and every white man upon whom they could lay hands was killed. They laid waste the whole country from the Raritan River to the banks of the Connecticut. The fort became the sole refuge of the panic stricken inhabitants, who, huddled together, bewailed their utter ruin through the folly and criminality of Kieft, and they now threatened to abandon the colony in a body. In this emergency, the Director-General saw no resource to prevent a depopulation of New Amsterdam, but to take all the settlers into the service of the Company, for two months, until peace could be reestablished, "as he had not sufficient soldiers for public defense."
Life and Times of Nicholas Stillwell, p. 86.
This uprising was of short duration, for the savages, who had glutted their revenge, felt the need of planting their maize, and made overtures of peace, which were eagerly accepted by Kieft, and a treaty was concluded, first, with the Long Island Indians, on Mch. 25, 1643, and with the River Indians on Apr. 22, 1643.
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