USA > New York > Ulster County > New Paltz > History of New Paltz, New York and its old families (from 1678 to 1820) : including the Huguenot pioneers and others who settled in New Paltz previous to the revolution, 2nd ed > Part 42
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HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ
thereof And we do moreover of our Certain knowledge and meer motion consent and agree that this our present grant being entered on Record as is hereafter particularly expressed shall be good and effectual in the law to all intents construc- tions and purposes against us our heirs and successors, not- withstanding 'any misentering, misnaming or other imperfec- tions or omissions or in any wise (word not legible) the above grantees or intended to be hereby grantees lands, mines, minerals and premises or any part thereof.
In testimony whereof. we have caused these our letters to be made patent and the great seal of our said province to be hereunto affixed and the same to be entered on Record 'in our said Secretary's Office in one of the Books of Patents there remaining Witness our trusty and Well Beloved George Clinton our Captain General and Commander-in-Chief of our Province of New York and territories thereon depending in America, Vice Admiral of the same and Vice Admiral of the Red Squadron of our fleet, at our fort George in our city of New York the twelfth day of May, in the twenty first year of our reign and in the year One Thousand seven hundred and forty Eight.
Recorded in the Secretary's Office for the province of New York in Lib. Patents began in the year 1739 pa. 250.
GEO. BANYAR, Secretary.
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CHAPTER V
PAPERS IN TOWN CHEST IN 1749.
In the Book of the Duzine appears the following :
Memorandum of the papers viewed the 9 day of December, 1749.
The town order.
The survey of Cadawalader Colden, Esq.
The Indian Deed of the Paltz Patent.
The one paper where the division of Patent is written (3 Tiers).
The Patent of the New Paltz.
A certificate of Mogonck, signed by Joseph Hasbrouck, J. Hardenbergh and Roelif Eltinge (Justices of the Peace).
A petition to the Justices at Kingston.
To several receipts of quit rent.
A receipt of Wm. Eltinge.
An order of the King's fence.
A paper where the division of lands is made on and where the roads must go.
To one other paper of land divided ye 1705.
To town cash, fo 2s 4d.
The above papers were left in the town chist with the said money the date aforasaid.
The chist was ordered to Jacob Hasbrouck, with the papers here above mentioned, as witness his hand.
JACOB HASBROUCK.
The key was ordered to Noach Elting, as witness his hand. NOACH ELTING.
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HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ
SOME OLD FRENCH PAPERS
A number of documents in archaic French have long been in our possession.
These papers are mostly difficult of translation because of bad penmanship, bad spelling and ungrammatical construction. They are, almost altogether, from the Freer collection and have come down from Hugo Freer senior, son of the Patentee of the same name.
These documents are not of importance in themselves, but are of interest because they bear the signatures of certain of the earliest settlers in New Paltz and vicinity, which we have not found elsewhere. They also throw a little light on the usages and manner of life of the residents here in the old days and also show that there were business relations between the people of New Paltz, Minisink, Kingston and New York, when almost all the intervening country was a howling wilder- ness.
First on the list is a paper in good, plain handwriting, but not dated, signed by Moyse Cantain, who came to New Paltz about 1690, married Elizabeth Deyo, widow of Simon Le- Fevre and had one son, Peter, who is the ancestor of the Can- tine family.
This paper is endorsed in Dutch, "Quittance van Moses Cantin." It is as follows :
" Je sousine et reconnois avoir receus de Huge Frere lene- perre dix sequiple [schepels] de fromant dune part dune vache que granpere doyo leuy avoit misautre main. Don je le tien quit moy.
Moyse Cantain.
TRANSLATION
I undersign and acknowledge having received from Hugo Frere ten schepels of wheat on the one part for a cow which
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grandfather Deyo had put in on the other hand. I give this receipt.
Moses Cantain.
Next we have a letter and a receipt with the signature of Jaque Caudebec, who was one of the two Huguenots, who with five Hollanders, built a fort at Minisink in what is now Orange Co. at Cuddeback in 1690 long before there was any other settlement in what is now Orange county except that at Plum Point, and these papers contain reference also to Peter Guimar, the other Huguenot at Minisink, whose wife was the daughter of Jean Hasbrouck of New Paltz and also speak of Benjamin Prevoost. The letter and receipt are in a plain, bold hand. The letter is as follows :
" Mons. Hugue Frere: Vous maves promis de remettre entre les mains de Mes. pitre Guimar le pimant de ce que vous me deves et vous ne laves pas fait et je vous prie de le faire ou autrement. Je seray contrain Don agir a utrement fait par moy.
J. Codebec.
TRANSLATION
Mr. Hugo Frere: You have promised to deliver into the hands of Mr. Peter Guimar the payment of that which you owe me, and you have not done it. I beg you to do it, or otherwise I shall be obliged to act in some other manner. Made by me.
J. Caudebec.
Next comes another paper with the signature of J. Caudebec acknowledging the receipt of the amount owed. It is as follows.
Je sousigue Jaque Caudebec demeurant au Mennesin en la county of Ulster certifie a tous quil appartiendra que Hugue Frere, demeurant au Noveau Palle en la surdit county ma en-
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tirement et pleinment payer et satisfait pour toutes les dette quil devoit a mon beaupere Benjamin Prevost dont Je le tient quitte et tous autres jusques a ce jourdhuy 12 jour de mars, 170 7-8.
TRANSLATION
I the undersigned Jacob Codebec, living at Minisink in the county of Ulster, certify to all whom it concerns that Hugo Frere living at New Paltz has paid and satisfied me entirely and fully for all the debts which he owed to my father-in-law (or stepfather) Benjamin Prevoost for which and all others I give receipts.
Made to-day the 12th day of the month of March 170 7-8. J. Codebec.
The very oldest paper in the collection is a receipt from Abraham LaMater in 1677, but the writing is so bad that no one as yet has been able to translate it.
Hugo Freer, senior, bought a great deal of land from one and another and was not always able to pay promptly. He bought of Jean Cottin the real estate which the New Paltz people had presented Cottin while teaching school here. The letter of which we give a translation below is in good French and must have been written shortly after Cottin's removal from New Paltz to Kingston :
Hugo Frere, I know that you are paying everywhere, and you can pay me also. You pay your new debts and you leave me behind. Try not to make me the subject of your extrava- gant (outlay). Make me some payment. You have been owing me for a long time. I cannot wait longer.
I am your affectionate
Jean Cottin.
Kingston, fifteenth June, 1703.
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There is a receipt from Monsieur Valleau, a merchant at Kingston, for a cask of molasses, paid for by 18 lbs. of flax (seed) and in 1699 a receipt in full from Marie Valleau, probably the widow of the above mentioned merchant as follows :
Je subsigne & confesse avoir Receu de hugue frere senior La Somme de tout se quil me denoit & somme quitte Jusques a present en Soy dequoy J'ay Signe le present acquit.
A Kingston Ce 26 May 1699.
TRANSLATION
I undersign and acknowledge to have received from Hugo Frere senior the sum of all that he owes me in full up to the present (time) in faith (evidence) of which I sign the present discharge (receipt).
May 26, 1699. Mary Valleau.
There is also a memorandum in French of store goods pur- chased of Pierre Morin in New York in Oct. 1706; a receipt in 1717 from a New York merchant for 16 pounds for a hogs- head of rum; a credit for 53 pounds of butter at 7 pence a 1b. and also a credit for beeswax; a receipt in full from Pierre Morin of New York in English in Oct. 1716; also a bill of goods in English from a New York merchant in 1731, includ- ing a large copper kettle, a box of goose shot, I-2 a box of swan shot, an iron pot, a heading chisel, a frying pan and 30 pounds of nails.
There are also papers showing business transactions with Dutchess county people ; a receipt in behalf of Robert Livings- ton in 1713; a receipt for 100 guilders in Dutch in 1706: from Peter DuBois nephew of Louis DuBois, the New Paltz Paten- tee. (Peter was at that date still in Kingston, but about that
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HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ
time moved to Fishkill) ; a bond to Leonard Lewis in Pough- keepsie in 1732; a receipt from Jonas LeRoy of Dutchess county dated 1730; a receipt in French for 70 francs dated in 1704 from Mary Hasbrouck, widow of Isaac DuBois, who signs her maiden name, as it is also written in another French document in 1703, relating to the first apportionment of lands in the village. (We also find Elizabeth Deyo, widow of Simon LeFevre, signing simply her maiden name to a legal document in 1689.) There is a receipt with the signature of Abraham DuBois, the Patentee, dated in 1710 for 1 pound 10 s 6 d 3 farthings ; a memorandum in French, dated in 1709, signed by the following children of Hugo Frere, the Patentee : H. Frere, Maria Frere, Jacob Frere, and Sara Frere stating that "We have sold to our brother Jean the house of our father for 70 pieces of eight." Then follows the statement, " I, Jean Frere, acknowledge the purchase."
THE GREAT FENCE.
One of the first enterprises undertaken after the settlers at New Paltz had erected the log houses for their humble homes was the construction of a great fence. The first men- tion we find concerning this fence is in 1683 when an appli- cation is made to the court in session at Kingston for per- mission to buy land of the Indians and the statement is made that " we must keep a great fence between us and the Indians."
Now a fence, no matter how great and high, is not built to keep painted Indian warriors from making incursions into the settlement and the record goes on to say that "the Indians are disposed to sell us their land to the New Indian Fort," which was fourteen miles to the south, where the fight had taken place and the captive women and children had been rescued twenty years before. Although the court granted
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permission the land was not purchased, neither do we find any further information of the fence until twenty-eight years afterwards.
Then we have in the "New Paltz Orders," general direc- tions, in broken English, for building a fence about a dozen miles in length and including that portion of the valley of the Wallkill lying within the bounds of the Patent. The record says that at a general meeting of the inhabitants to " con- clude concerning all our fences of the land as also of the pastures," the following action was resolved upon: "First of all we shall begin to ye kill or creek next of Solomon Du- Bois, to ye Aest of sd Solomon and then the fence shall run to ye bounds of Abraham DuBois and then along a run of water and then to the pasture of Louis Bevier and the sd fence is to be made of three rails and three and fifty inches high and then ye sd Louis Bevier is obliged to make and repair a good and sufficient fence along his pasture to ye East until he comes to Abraham DuBois and then Jacob Hasbrouck shall make or have a good sufficient fence of the same high as here above mentioned until he comes to the pasture of Daniel DuBois near of the tourelle or neest and then the gate shall be set according as it is ordered or concluded."
Before proceeding further we will say that the object of this fence was of course to prevent the stock from straying too far into the woods. The fence commences, as is stated, on the east side of the Wallkill, near the residence of Solomon DuBois, who lived near where Capt. W. H. D. Blake now resides, about two miles south of the village. Abraham Du- Bois, the Patentee, seems from this account to have owned land near the mouth of the Plattekill, perhaps including the tract where his son-in-law Roelif Elting afterwards built his house, near the Edmund Eltinge place. Then the fence ran
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HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ
along " a run of water " probably the brook that runs through the southern part of our village at the brickyard. Then cer- tain of the proprietors are directed to make or repair the fence and the pastures of Louis Bevier and Daniel DuBois are mentioned. Then it is directed that the "New Paltz town " shall build the fence until it comes to the village gate, which it is evident was just below where the old Normal school building stood. Next we have directions for building the fence from the "Landing place," a few yards north of the village gate, to the "erf" of John Hasbrouck .- John (Jean) Hasbrouck the Patentee built what is now the Memorial House and an " erf " means a large garden spot. Along the village street (now Huguenot street) and between the " erfs " a good and close fence is ordered from the Land- ing place at the south end of the street to the house of Hugo Freer at the north end of the street.
Next mention is made in the "New Paltz Orders " of the fences of the Creupelbos (newly cleared land) lying north of the village. These fences were to be of six rails and fifty- three inches high. Beyond this all the way to the residence of Abraham Freer, who had been living for at least four years on the north bounds of the Patent, half a mile this side of Perrine's Bridge, a bush fence, three rails high is ordered.
Next the directions for fence building are changed to the west side of the Wallkill at the "long bontecoe " that is no doubt what is called " great bontecoe " in our day at James E. Deyo's. Next the account speaks of the "petit macos or little bontecoe " that is what has been since known as " Klina Bontecoe," at the R. V. N. Beaver place and says that after two years the fence shall be changed and set "along the mountaing in ye best convenient place that we think suitable and then will be joined to the high bridge (Humpo) fences
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and from the said bridge to the kill or kreke near Solomon' DuBois, to the west." This portion of the fence is ordered to be three rails high.
Now here we have directions for a fence on both sides of the Wallkill, placed probably above high water mark, intended no doubt to keep the stock from straying too far into the wilderness.
Once afterwards we find mention of this fence. In the document with the signature of Cadwallader Colden dated in 1729, establishing the line between the New, Paltz and the lands of Solomon and Louis DuBois, Jr., he speaks of a stone that "lyes between the fence at the lands of the said New Paltz and the lands of the said Solomon and Lewis Du- Bois." Some time afterwards it was found that the lands of the New Paltz patent did not extend all the way south to the Louis DuBois patent, but that has nothing to do with the building of the fence.
SOLDIERS IN THE EARLY COLONIAL PERIOD.
In Volume II of the Colonial Series as published by Hugh Hastings, State Historian, appears some Ulster county mili- tary records of a very early period. Under the date " 1686 or 1687" is given a "Lest of Tropers at Kingston " in which appear the names of Simon Lafare, anders Lafare and Jacob deboys. Next follows with the date 1687 a " List of Soldiers in Esopus " with the name Antonny Corpell and then with the date " 1686 or. 1687 " a " Lest of the Company of fott in Kengstovn " in which are found the following names: Leften- nant Abraham harbcerke, Sergeantt Lewes bevier, Petter Delow, aberm Deboe, aseck Debeo, defed Debeo, Solaman Debeo, hevger fare. It is evident that at this early date (less than ten years after the settlement of New Paltz) the
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HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ
residents here were enrolled with those of Kingston. The names as enrolled were written down by some one who had not the least idea of how the surnames should be spelled. In the case of the LeFevre brothers the r in the last syllable should be v, which would make the name Lafave, as it is pronounced in French. By taking the Christian name and surname of the others together the names in the enrollment are seen to be intended for Jacob DuBois, Anthony Crispell, Lieutenant Abraham Hasbrouck, Sergeant Louis Bevier, Pierre Deyo, Abram DuBois, Isaac DuBois, David DuBois, Solomon DuBois, Hugo Freer. This list includes all the patentees except Christian Deyo, Louis DuBois and Jean Hasbrouck. The first named was dead. The two latter were too old. This list also includes, besides the patentees, David DuBois, Jacob DuBois and Solomon DuBois, who had be- come of suitable age for enrollment after locating at New Paltz.
In his introduction to the appendix giving these Colonial Muster Rolls, State Historian Hugh Hastings says: "In 1687 the French invaded Seneca county, an act that was followed by the first invasion of Canada by the Colonists- war being declared between England and France in May, 1689." It is to be supposed that this enrollment was for actual and immediate service in the first invasion of Canada which took place in 1690. We presume therefore that the descendants of the men named are all entitled to membership in the Society of Colonial Wars.
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CHAPTER VI
THE WILLS OF THE OLD PEOPLE.
A great portion of the wills in the old days were not recorded or filed.
The will of Hugo Freer, the Patentee, in French, and part of the will of his son Hugo, in Dutch, are in possession of the writer and we have not found them on record anywhere. We have found two wills of Louis DuBois, the Patentee, filed with the clerk of the court of appeals at Albany. His third and last will is in Dutch dated in 1694 and is recorded in the Surrogate's office in New York. The will of Abraham DuBois, the Patentee, is to be found with the clerk of the court of appeals at Albany. Isaac DuBois, the Patentee, who died when he was about thirty years of age, probably left 1.0 will. The same was doubtless the case with the Patentees Andre and Simon LeFevre, as their heirs made a division of the property among themselves. One of the wills of Chris- tian Deyo, the Patentee, and the will of Louis Bevier, the Patentee, the former in French, dated 1686 and the latter in Dutch, dated 1720, are recorded in the county clerk's office in Kingston.
The following is a list of wills of New Paltz Patentees or their descendants in the office of the surrogate at New York:
Abraham Dubois (Patentee), New Paltz, Ulster Co. Will proved 1731.
Jonathan DuBois (son of Louis Jr.), New Paltz; will proved Sept. 30, 1749.
Solomon DuBois (son of Louis the Patentee), New Paltz, Ulster county ; will proved Feb. 15, 1759.
5
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HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ
Philip Du Bois (son of Isaac the Patentee), Rochester, Ulster county ; will proved June 29, 1764.
Hezekiah DuBois, Sr. (son of Matthew), Saugerties, Cor- poration of Kingston ; will proved May 26, 1767.
Isaac DuBois (son of Jacob), of the Green kill, town of Kingston; will proved Sept. 21, 1773.
Cornelius DuBois of the New Paltz (son of Solomon) ; will proved April 23, 1781.
Hendricus DuBois of the New Paltz (son of Solomon) ; will proved June 4, 1782.
Peter DuBois [?] of the Wallkill; will proved Sept. 15, 178I.
Josaphat DuBois (son of David), town of Rochester; will proved Jan. 17, 1784.
Roelif Elting of New Paltz (son of Jan of Kingston) ; will proved Jan. 13, 1747.
William Elting, Kingston ; Feb. 13, 1743.
Jan Elting, Kingston; April 19, 1762.
Noah Elting, Precinct of the New Paltz (son of Roelif) ; Aug. 16, 1781.
Simon LeFevre, New Paltz (son of Andre and grandson of Simon the Patentee) ; July 2, 1748.
Jacobus Bevier, New Paltz, April 19, 1774.
Samuel Bevier (son of Louis the Patentee), New Paltz; April 17, 1759.
Samuel Bevier, Rochester, April 10, 1764.
Abraham Bevier, New Paltz, June 7, 1771.
Jonas Freer, New Paltz, April 1, 1775.
Col. Jonathan Hasbrouck, New Burgh, Dec. 21, 1782.
Cousine Jacob Hasbrouck, of New Paltz (son of Jean the Patentee), Sept. 15, 1761.
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In the county clerk's office at Kingston are found the wills of but a small portion of the New Paltz people of the first two or three generations.
We note the following :
The will of Andre LeFevre, eldest son of Simon the Pat- entee, is recorded at Kingston and dated in 1738. It gives to his wife Cornelia his negro man Charles and dower; gives to his eldest son Simon his pistols and holsters as his birth- right ; gives him also his shoemaker's tools, his gun and his big French bible; gives to his son Matthew his wearing ap- parel and two bibles-one French and one Dutch; gives to his two sons his farming utensils, wagons, sleds and all his land ; gives his seven daughters £400 to be paid by the brothers.
The will of Daniel LeFevre of Bontecoe, proved before James Oliver, first judge of Ulster county, Sept. 4, 1784. gives to his wife Catharine his negro woman Bet; also his whole estate real and personal during her lifetime or widow- hood and after her demise gives to his son Peter his negro man John; also his real estate at Bontecoe, being his old homestead, with his land west of the Grote fly or big meadow, also his right in Grandpere's lot, also his clothing; to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Matthew LeFevre, his negro girl Margaret ; to his daughter Maria, wife of Jonathan Deyo, his negro girl Dian; to his two daughters Elizabeth and Maria, his land on North River and at Plat Binnewater, also his household furniture except one bed and bedding; other per- sonal estate to be divided equally between the three children.
The will of Jacob I. Hasbrouck, of Colebaugh, in the town of Marbletown, made in 1818, mentions his wife Sarah Du- Bois, gives to his eldest son Isaac his silver hilted sword and his bed and bedding ; gives to his son Jacobus a certain mort- gage and $750; gives to his son Jacob I. the sum of $2,500;
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HISTORY OF NEW PALTZ
gives to his sons Josiah and Lewis each a lot of woodland and certain real estate in the town of Marbletown, but they must pay their brother Isaac $100 a year ; gives to his daughter Margaret land in Hurley. The rest of the testator's real estate is divided equally between his children, Wilhelmus, Jacobus, Cornelius, Jacob, Josiah, Louis and Abraham and his daughters, Margaret and Polly.
THE WILL OF HUGO FREER THE PATENTEE.
Nostre aide soit au nom de Dieu qui a fait le ciel et la terre. Amen.
Par devant Abraham Hasbroucq, Justicier de paix au aplle Comtes de Ulster et Louis Beviere et Jean Cottin demeurant au dit Palle comparu Hugue Frere, labourer, demeurant aussi au palle de sa pure et franche volonte estant tres saint d'esprit et d'entendement, sachant quel'heure de la mort est incogneue a tous les hommes desirant qu'apres son trepas tous ses enfants vivent en bonne union et concorde nous a declare sa volonte pour son testament pour a qui regarde tous ses biens, meuble et immeuble, premierement a dit que hugue Frere son fils aisnes aura dix pieces de huit pour son droit d'aisnes aussi a dit que trois de ses plus jeune enfans Jacob, Jean et Sara apres son trespas ils jouiront de toutes les terres et sa maison et tous ses parterre en fin de tous les immeujusques a ce que la dite fille Sara soit parvenue a l'age de seize ans sans payer aucune louage a leur autres frere et soeurs et apres que la dite fille Sara aura seize ans ils pourront partager tous en- semble. tous les meuble et immeuble egalement apres quil auront payer toutes les dettes la reserve que sa fille Sara aura un lit de plume et un traver et deux couver et une vache et elle aura cecy hors de part et par dessus les autres et son fils Jacob aura un cheval a choisir dans son escurie. Il aura
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le dit cheval hors de part et par desu les autres, et son fils Jean prendra aussy un cheval a choisir et ils aura aussy le dit cheval hors de part et par dessus les autres pareillement a leur autres freres et soeurs que ont pris cy devant chacun un cheval et Marie Frere une vache.
Le dit hugue Frere, testateur, establie et suplie son fils huge Frere de maintenir le bon droit et interest de ses freres et soeurs jusque a ce quils seront en age, les dit enfans Jacob, Jean et Sara jouiront aussi bien des meubles que des immeubles jusque specifies cy dessus.
Le dit testateur recommande tous ses enfans a la sainte protection du bon Dieu et qu'il le benis de ses benedictions, temporel et spiretuel.
Fait au palle le quatrième jour de Januie mil six cens non- nante sept. 169g.
MARO X HUGUE FRERE.
JEAN COTTIN, temoin ; ABRAHAM HASBROUCQ, temoin ; LOUYS BAYVYR, temoin.
TRANSLATION.
May our help be in the name of God who made the heaven and the earth. Amen.
Before Abraham Hasbrouck justice of the peace at the . Paltz, county of Ulster, and Louis Bevier and Jean Cottin living at the Paltz appeared Hugo Frere, laborer, living also at the Paltz, of his (own) pure and free will, being of sound mind, and understanding that the hour of death is unknown to all men, desiring that after his death all his children may live in good unity and concord has declared to us his desire for his testament in regard to his properties, moveable and immovable.
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