USA > New Jersey > Bergen County > History of Bergen county, New Jersey > Part 2
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" Two or three miles up, a great plantation settled by Capt. John Berry, whereon he now lives.
" Another plantation adjoining, belonging to his son-in-law, Michael Smith : another to Mr. Baker. This neck of land is in breath from Capt. Berry's new plant- ation on the west side, where he lives, over to his old plantations, to the east at Hudson's River side, about three miles, which distance serves to Constable's Hook, upwards of ten miles.
". To go back to the south part of Bergen Neck, that is opposite to Staten Island, where is but a narrow passage of water, which ebbs and flows between the said island and Bergen Point, called Constable's Hook. There is a considerable plant- ation on that side of Constable's Hook, extending inland about a mile over from the bay on the east side of the neck that leads to New York, to that on the west that goes to Hackensack and Snake Hill, the neck running up between both, from the south to the north of Hudson's River. to the utmost extent of their bounds. It was first settled by Samuel Edsall in Col. 'Nichol's time, and by him sold for £600."
Other small plantations along the Neck to the east are named. Among them one
" belonging to George Umpane (Gomouneepan) which is over against New York. where there is about forty families, within which, about the middle of the neck. which is here about three miles over, stands the town of Bergen, which gives name to that neck. Then, again, northward to the water's side, going up Hudson's River, there lies out a point of land where is a plantation and a water (mill) belonging to a merchant in New York.
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
" Southward there is a small village, of about five of six families. which is com- monly called the Duke's Farm. Further up is a good plantation in a neck of land almost an island, called Hobuck ; it did belong to a Dutch merchant, who formerly in the Indian war had his wife, children, and servants massacred by the Indians, and his house, cattle, and stock destroyed by them. It is now settled again, and a mill erected there by one dwelling at New York.
" Up northward along the river side are the lands near to Mr. William Lawrence, which is six or seven miles further. Opposite thereto there is a plantation of Mr. Edsall, and above that Capt. Bienfield's plantation ; this last is almost opposite the northwest of Manhatta's Island.
" Here are the utmost extent of the northern bounds of East Jersey, as always contemplated.
"Near the mouth of the bay, upon the side of Overpeck's Creek. adjacent to Hackensack River, several of the rich valleys were settled by the Dutch ; and near Snake Hill is a fine plantation owned by Pinhorne & Eickbe, for half of which Pin- horne is said to have paid £500
" The plantations on both sides of the neck to its utmost extent, as also those at Hackensack, are under the jurisdiction of Bergen Town, situate about the middle of the neck." .
Soon after the settlements above described Captain William Sand- ford in 1668 acquired title to lands known as New Barbodoes Neck com- prising 15,308 acres. Sandford was presiding judge of the court at Ber- gen in 1673. In 1709, his widow Sarah Sanford conveyed to her friend. Katherine Van Emburgh a portion of this estate between the Hacken- sack and Passaic rivers. In 1669 Captain John Berry and his associates acquired title to lands north of the Sandford tract embracing a large ex- tent of country in and about Hackensack. Judge Sandford sold a large tract also, to Nathaniel Kingsland the ancestor of the Kingsland family of New Barbodoes. William Kingsland son of Nathaniel, was the first
to settle on it about 1690. John Richards who was connected by mar- riage with the Kingsland family, owned a large tract of land a part of which is now Rutherford. Richards was murdered in the Bergen woods by refugees during the Revolutionary war. The Schuyler Copper Mines a part of the Kingsland tracts was purchased by Arent Schuyler about the year 1700. John, son of Arent Schuyler, by his second wife, built the old Schuyler mansion which stood on the east bank of the Pas- saic below Belleville. This house was visited and frequently violated by the British during the Revolution.
In 1700 there were some ten families all living in the northwestern part of Bergen County, in the neighborhood of Ponds Church. Arent Schuyler, and Anthony Brockholst lived here in 1697. The Garretsons. Van Alens, ( who owned six hundred acres on the pond flats) the Berdan brothers, John Stek (now Stagg ) Van Romaine, who purchased of Wil- locks and Johnstone six hundred acres, May 19, 1724, Simon Van Win- kle who is said to have been the owner of the first wagon in the country and who came here in 1733, were among the early settlers. Five hun- dred and fifty acres of land lying at Wikehoff, Saddle River, ou which the church at Wikehoff stands was purchased of John Barbetie, Peter Fauconier and Andrew Barbetie, August, 17, 1720, by John and William Van Voor Haze; and for some reason they repurchased this tract April 2. 1745 of John Hamilton, Andrew Johnstone, and John Burnet. William Van Voor Haze ( Van Voorhis) was twice married. He died July 17.
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
1744. A tract near Paramus of five hundred and fifty acres was bought August 17, 1720, by the Albertises who also leased of the same five hun- dred and fifty acres adjoining, the rent for every one hundred acres be- ing two fat fowls on or before the feast of St. Michael, the Archangel. Van Blarcom, Van Voorhis, Winters, Courters, Youngs, Storms, Acker- mans, Quackenbushes, Van Gelders, Pulisfelts ( now Pulis) and Bogerts were also among the early families in this part of the county. The fol- lowing sketch on land patents in Bergen County taken from Clayton & Nelson's History is worthy of record.
CHAPTER IV LAND PATENTS IN BERGEN COUNTY
Among the original land-owners in the County of Bergen we name the following :
Abraham Isaacsen Plank purchased Paulus Hook of the Dutch West India Company May 1, 1638. The deed was confirmed by Philip Carte- ret May 12, 1668. Martzn Andriesen obtained a patent for Weehawken from William Kieft, Director-General of New Netherland, May 11, 1647; confirmed by Philip Carteret, April 18, 1670. Andriesen was a free- booter and a desperate character, and was chiefly responsible for the terrible massacre of the Indians in 1643. Being charged with this re- sponsibility by Governor Kieft, he attempted to shoot the Governor, for which he was arrested and sent in irons to Holland for trial. He re- turned to New Amsterdam, and purchased Weehawken in 1647. He was born in Holland in 1600, and came first to this country in 1631. Nicholas Varlet obtained a patent of Hoboken of Petrus Stuyvesant. February 5, 1663; confirmed by Philip Carteret, May 12, 1668. Mr. Varlet was one of the noted men of his times. His second wife was Anna, sister of Governor Stuyvesant, and widow of Samuel Bayard. In 1657 he was appointed commissary of imports and exports, and in 1658 became farmer of duties on exports and imports to and from New England and Virginia; was admitted to the right of "Great Burger," and appointed searcher, inspector, and commissary of the West India Company stores; in 1660 was sent with Brian Newton and ambassador to the Colony of Virginia; in 1664 was appointed one of the commissioners to agree upon terms of capitulation to the English; in 1665 was com- missioned captain of the militia of Bergen, Communipaw, Ahasimus, and Hoboken; same day was made a member of the court at Bergen, and the year following a member of Governor Carteret's Council. He died in 1675.
Ide Cornelison Van Vorst received of Governor Stuyvesant a grant of land at Ahasimus, April 5, 1664; confirmed, with an additional grant, by Philip Carteret, March 13, 1668. This property was inherited by his only son Cornelius, and from him descended to Cornelius of the seventh generation. It is now the finest part of Jersey City.
Jan Evertse Bout obtained of the Governor and Council of New Netherland a tract of land at Communipaw, of which the following is a copy of the deed:
" We, William Kieft, Governor-General and Council under the High and Mighty Lords States-General of the United Netherlands, His Highness of Orange and the Honorable the Directors of the authorized West India Company, residing in New
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
Netherlands, make known and declare that on this day underwritten, we have given and granted Jan Evertse Bont a piece of land lying on the North River westward from Fort Amsterdam, before then pastured and tilled by Jan Evertse, named Gamochepaen and Jan de Lacher's Houck, with the meadows as the same lay with- in the post-and-rail fence, containing eighty-four morgans.
"In testimony whereof is these by ns signed and with our Seal confirmed in Fort Amsterdam in New Netherlands, the which land Jan Evertse took possession of Anno 1638, and began then to plow and sow it."
This farm was sold to Michael Jansen by Bout for eight thousand florins, September 9, 1656, and, Jansen dying, part of it was confirmed to his widow, Fitje Hartman, by Philip Carteret, May 12, 1668.
Caspar Steinmets purchased of Philip Carteret, May 12, 1668, two tracts of land and meadow near the town of Bergen. He resided at Ahasimus, and during the Indian troubles of 1655 retired to New Ams- terdam, where he was licensed in 1656 to "tap beer and wine for the accommodation of the Burghery and Strangers." In September, 1657, he was made lieutenant of the Bergen militia, and in 1673 was promoted to captain. He was deputy from Bergen in the Council of New Orange (after the Dutch had retaken New York), 1674, and a representative from Bergen in the first and second General Assemblies of New Jersey. He died in 1702. His descendants at one time were quite numerous, but have long since died out.
Adrian Post obtained a patent of Governor Carteret dated May 12. 1668, for "sundry parcels of land lying in and about the Town of Ber- gen." He was the ancestor of the Post family in Bergen County, and had numerous descendants. The first we hear of him he was agent for the Baron van der Capellen, and in charge of his colony on Staten Island when the place was destroyed by the Indians in 1665. In October of that year he was appointed to treat with the Hackensack Indians for the release of prisoners. He was ensign of the Bergen militia in 1673, and was the keeper of the first prison in East Jersey, the house of John Berry in Bergen being used for that purpose. He died February 28, 1677.
Englebert Steinhuysen received a deed of "sundry parcels of land in and about the Town of Bergen," from Philip Carteret, July 22, 1670. This land comprised seven lots, amounting in all to one hundred and fifty acres .* This patentee was a tailor by trade, and came from Soest, the second city in Westphalia. He arrived at New Amsterdam in the ship " Moesman," April 25, 1659. He was licensed by the Director-Gen- eral the first schoolmaster in Bergen, October 6, 1662. He was commis- sioned schepen in the Bergen Court, October 13, 1662; and with Harman Smeeman represented Bergen in the "Landtag" in 1664.+
Harman Edward purchased of Petrus Stuyvesant "sundry parcels of land lying in and about the Town of Bergen, September 14, 1662." He was one of the commissioners to fortify Bergen in 1663; and with Joost Van der Linde, Hendrick Jans Spier, and Hendrick de Backer, June 15.
* Winfield's Land Titles, 91.
t Brodhead, i. 729 .- Land Titles, 91.
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
1674, petitioned the government for land on Staten Island at the month of the Kill Van Kull.
Balthazer Bayard obtained, with Nicholas Varlet, a grant of land from Philip Carteret, dated August 10, 1671, lying in and about the Town of Bergen. Bayard was a brewer and a brother of. Nicholas. He was appointed schepen in Bergen, December 17, 1663, and March 17, 1664; repre- sented Bergen in the first and second General Assembly of New Jersey, 1668. Shortly after this he became a resident of New York, where he was schepen under the Dutch (New Orange) in 1673, and alderman in 1691. Of the lands in Bergen the patentees held as joint-tenants. Var- let died before any division was made, whereupon Bayard took the land by right of survivorship. §
Tielman Van Vleck obtained by patent from Philip Carteret, dated March 25, 1670, a grant of sundry parcels of land near the Town of Bergen. Van Vleck was a lawyer. He studied under a notary in Ams- terdam, came to this country in 1658, and was admitted to practice the same year.|| He has the honor of having been the founder of Bergen, and was made the first schout and president of the court, September 5, 1661.
Hans Diedrick was granted by Philip Carteret sundry parcels of land lying in and about the Town of Bergen, May 12, 1668. Hans kept the second hotel in Bergen, licensed February 13, 1671, and was appointed lieutenant of the Bergen militia, September 4, 1673. He was one of the patentees of Aquacknonek, May 28, 1679, and died September 30, 1698. He " probably left his land to his son Wander, who died intestate, August 13, 1732. His children Johannes, Garret, Cornelius, Abraham, Antje, wife of Johannes Vreeland, and Margaret Van Rypen, widow, sold to their brother Daniel, February 17, 1764, a lot called 'Smiths land,' seven mor- gans, also a lot of meadow, also the Steenhuysen lot, and lot 114. They partitioned in 1755."
Gerrit Gerritse was granted by Philip Carteret a patent for sundry parcels of land lying in and about the Town of Bergen. May 12, 1668. "This patentee was the ancestor of the Van Wagenen family. By his will, dated October 13, 1708, he gave all the land inchided in this patent, and a preceding patent, to his eldest son Johannes. By the will of Johannes, dated July 24, 1752, proved November 8, 1759, he gave all his lands in Bergen to his son Johannes, who was the owner in 1764."
The Secaucus patent was granted by Petrus Stuyvesant to Nicholas Varlet and Nicholas Bayard, December 10, 1663, and confirmed by Philip Carteret, October 30, 1667. In the deed of Carteret it is recited: " The said plantation or parcel of land is esteemed and valued, according to the survey and agreement made, to contain both of upland and meadow, the sum of two thousand acres English measure." It comprised all the land between Penhorn's Creek and the Cromahill on the east and the
I Col. Hist. N. Y., H. 721. Land Titles. 95.
š Land Titles, 109.
I N. Y. Col. M.S.S., viii. 032. Note to Land Titles, 114.
· Land Titles, 118.
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
Hackensack on the west. The Indians, in 1674, claimed that their right to this land was not included in their deed to Stuyvesant of 1658, that the said deed included only "Espatingh and its dependencies." and that they were, therefore, still owners of Secaucus. The Dutch Council at Fort William Hendrick settled the controversy with them by making them a present of an "anker of rum." Nicholas Varlet died while the tract was in the possession of the patentees, and his administrators, Samuel Edsall and Peter Stoutenburgh, joined Bayard in selling it to Edward Earle, Jr., of Maryland, April 24, 1676. Earle sold to Judge William Pinhorne. March 26. 1679. for five hundred pounds. one indi- vidual half of the tract, also one-half of all the stock. "Christian and negro servants." The following schedule of property was annexed to the deed: "One dwelling house, containing two lower rooms and a lean-to below stairs, and a loft above ; five tobacco houses : one horse, one mare and two colts, eight oxen, ten cows, one bull, four yearlings, and seven calves; between thirty and forty hogs. four negro men, five Christian servants." This was the Pinhorne plantation referred to by George Scott in his " Model of the Government of East Jersey."
In 1668 Capt. William Sandford obtained of the Indians a deed for New Barbadoes Neck, extending northward seven miles and containing fifteen thousand three hundred and eight acres of upland and meadow. A considerable portion of this land Capt. Sandford devised in his will to his wife Sarah, who on the 7th of December, 1709, gave by deed about five hundred acres, including one hundred and fifty acres of meadow on the Passaic, to her "dear friend Katherine Van Emburg." A part of Sandford's tract, soon after his purchase from the Indians, was bought by Nathaniel Kingsland, who had been an officer in the island of Bar- badoes, and from this circumstance it received the name of New Bar- badoes.
Capt. William Sandford was presiding judge of the Bergen courts in 1676. and a member of the first Council of East Jersey, under Gover- nor Rudyard, in 1682.
Isaac Kingsland, son of Nathaniel, of New Barbadoes, was a mem- ber of Governor Neill Campbell's Council in 1686.
CAPT. JOHN BERRY'S PATENT.
In 1669, Capt. John Berry and associates obtained a grant for lands lying northward of Sandford's, "six miles in the country." This grant extended from the Hackensack River to what is now Saddle River, and probably included the site of the present village of Hackensack. In the same year a grant was made to Capt. Berry of land lying between Hack- ensack River and Overpeck ( now English ) Creek, bounded on the south by lands of William Pardons, and running north, containing about two thousand acres. This must have included a large portion of what are now Ridgefield, Englewood, and Palisade townships, -that portion of them, at least lying between the creek and the Hackensack River.
* Land Titles, 130.
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
John Berry was a large land-owner. He resided at Bergen, where he also owned six meadow-lots and six upland lots, besides two lots in the town purchased of Philip Carteret, July 20, 1669. Most of this land was in the Newkirk family in 1764, when the land were surv ved by the comissioners. John Berry was presiding judge of the courts at Bergen, and one of the magistrates before whom Thomas Rudyard, the Deputy-Governor of East Jersey under Barclay, was sworn into office, De- cember 20, 1682. His house in Bergen on the 19th of July, 1673, was made the "prison for ve province" until a house could be built for that pur- pose, and Adrian Post, constable, was made keeper.+
The oldest deed on record in the county clerk's office at Hackensack is one from John Berry to Zuarian Westervelt, dated Jan. 13, 1687, con- veying a portion of his estate in the old township of Hackensack. March 26, 1687, he conveyed another piece of land to Walling Jacobs, of the county of Essex.
DEMAREST PATENT.
Another early patent was one for three thousand acres of land in the old township of Hackensack, extending along the easterly side of the river from New Bridge to a point beyond Old Bridge, and easterly as far as the line of the Northern Railroad. This was granted to David Demarias (Desmeretz) and others, by Philip Carteret, June 8, 1677.+ The patentee was a Huguenot, and came from France to this country with his three sons, David, John, and Samuel, about the year 1676. He was the ancestor of the numerous' family of Demarests in this country. It is said that, as far back as 1820, one interested in the family found by search seven thousand names connected with it,-branches of the original stalk.§
According to tradition, Mr. Demarias first settled at Manhattan Island, where he purchased the whole of Harlem; but he soon after- wards disposed of that property and removed to the Hackensack, where he made the purchase above mentioned, his design being to establish a colony of some thirty or forty families, to be transported from Europe. It was probably in view of this declared purpose that the patent was granted him; for it must have been known by the Governor or the land- office that the grant was already covered, in large part at least, by the prior patent of two thousand acres given to John Berry. It is stated that Mr. Demarias and his associates were so harassed by the claims of different persons during half a century that the land was purchased by them no less than four times. Berry, however, at the request of the Governor, waived his claim for a time in view of the prospective settle- ment, and, in case of its failure, was promised a like grant in some other locality. On the 1st of July, 1709, Demarias having failed to fulfill his stipulation in regard to the settlement, Berry petitioned the "Captain- General and Governor-in-Chief of the Provinces of New Jersey and New
+ Book 3 of Deeds, 93, Trenton.
$ Deed an record at Perth Amboy.
$ Rev. T. B. Romeyn's Historical Discourse.
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
York, etc., to listen to a demonstration of the invalidity of a pretense of John Demarest & Company to three thousand acres of land which they received from the Indians."| The Governor subsequently withdrew the grant from the sons of David Demarest, according to Berry's represen- tation, and gave them a smaller grant, which included a part of the two thousand acres of Berry .* This latter grant was known as the French Patent, probably because the Demarests came from France.
WILLOCKS' AND JOHNSTON'S PATENT.
George Willocks and Andrew Johnston were the patentees of a large tract of land in what are now Ridgewood and Franklin townships. It extended from the Big Rock at Small Lots (now called Glen Rock ) northward to the Ramapo River, about one mile in width, and has been known as the " Wilcox and Johnson Patent," both names, however, being erroneously spelled.
George Willocks was born in Scotland, and came to this country in 1684. He is said to have been a brother of Dr. James Willocks, of Kennery, Scotland, from which he inherited a large estate. He was the agent of the East Jersey proprietors for the collection of the quit rents, and obtained various grants of land from them. Upon the issuing of the writ of quo warranto by James II.' with the view to vacating the proprietary government of New Jersey and placing the whole North American colonies under one Governor-General, in 1686, Willocks and Lewis Morris took strong ground in favor of the proprietors. Through- out that memorable contest between the proprietors and the king, which was not finally settled till 1702, when the proprietors surrendered their claim to the civil jurisdiction of the province to Queen Anne, Willocks and Morris were staunch adherents to the rights of the proprietors. In 1699, Willocks was their representative in the Assembly, and was dis- missed from that body by the famous act of the opposition excluding from the Assembly "any proprietor or representative of one." The people of Amboy elected Lewis Morris in his stead, and the historians tell us there were "serious apprehensions of an insurrection under the leadership of Willocks and Morris." Willocks never settled on his patent in this county ; he resided chiefly at Perth Amboy, where he died in 1729.
Andrew Johnson ( Jonstone ), the other patentee, was born December 20, 1694. When a young man he was a merchant in New York. He subse- sequently became associated with the proprietors of East Jersey, and was chosen president of the Proprietary Board. He was also a member of the Provincial Assembly, and for several years Speaker of the House ; and was one of the commissioners for running the Lawrence line between
* Land Papers. New York. Purchasers of proprietary lands at that time, and earlier, had to extinguish the Indian claims for themselves on the best terms they could make. Sometimes they did it in advance by buying of the Indians first and then getting their Indian deeds confirmed, and sometimes by getting their deeds first of the government and extinguishing the Indian claim afterwards. Those shrewd in the busi. ness could usually do it for a very small trifle, especially if mixed well with the inevitable strong beer or brandy. In no case was an Indian deed held valid unless confirmed by the government.
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HISTORY OF BERGEN COUNTY
East and West Jersey in 1743. For some time he was treasurer of the College of New Jersey. He died at Perth Amboy, June 24, 1762.1
The lands south of this tract on the Passaic, including a portion of the site of Paterson, were purchased of the Indians in 1709 by George Ryerson and Urie Westervelt. The original deed was in the possession of the late John J. Zabriskie, of Hohokus, and is among the papers left in the hands of his widow, now living in Paterson. In this deed an ex- ception is made of Sicomac, which was an Indian burying-ground.
t Whitehead's New Jersey under the Proprietors.
CHAPTER V. OLD BERGEN TOWN AND TOWNSHIP.
By an act of the General Assembly, in 1662, East Jersey was divided into four counties, viz : Bergen, Essex, Middlesex and Monmouth. The territory between the Hudson and Hackensack rivers extending from Constable Hook to the Providence Line constituted the county of Bergen, it being a narrow strip of land in no place over five or six miles wide, but from twenty-five to thirty miles in length. The old township of Bergen was constituted in 1658 twenty-four years prior to that time, and it comprised the southern portion of this strip of territory as far up as the present northern boundary of Hudson county. In 1693 an act defining the boundaries of townships was passed by the General Assembly and from that act we obtain the boundaries of Hackensack Township as follows : " That the Township of Hackensack shall include all the land between the Hackensack and Hudson rivers that extends from the Cor- poration Town Bounds of Bergen to the Partition of the Province."
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