USA > New York > Long Island historic homes, ancient and modern : including a history of their founders and builders > Part 8
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The Coat of Arms, which is very an- cient, represents the achievements of the Riker warriors. The white rose between
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three golden stars on an azure field, and the white rose between two horns tells its own story, the details of which would form an inter- esting chapter in the early history of the family.
While other heraldic devices have been awarded to various branches of the Riker family, this one has been generally adopted by the American branch.
In regard to the American line "it is generally believed that they descended from a branch of the family of considerable wealth and importance at Amsterdam, where they had occupied places of public trust for two centuries, until the Spanish war occasioned a great re- verse in their fortunes. In this war Capt. Jacob Simonsz de Rycke, a wealthy corn merchant of the above city and a warm partisan of the Prince of Orange, distinguished himself by his military services. It has been conjectured that he was the grandfather of Abraham de Rycke, the head of the family in America, from the early occurrence of the name Jacob in the family here, and since tradition states that their ancestor was an early and a zealous supporter of William of Nassau when that prince took up arms in defence of Dutch liberty, and that the family for several successive generations, during the long and sanguinary struggle with Spain, followed a military career.
"ABRAHAM RYCKEN, or de Rycke, as his name is indiscriminately written in the early records, was the progenitor of the present Riker families in New York, New Jersey and other parts of the Union, his descendants in the third generation having assumed the present mode of spelling the name. He is presumed to have emigrated in 1638, as he received in that year an allotment of land from Gov. Kieft, for which he afterwards took out a patent dated Aug. 8, 1640. This land was situated at the Wallabout, and now either joins or is
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extended [1852] within the farm of Jeremiah Johnson. In 1642, Ryker is found in New Amsterdam, where he continued to live many years upon premises of his own on the Heeren Gracht, now Broad street. He was probably engaged in trade, for it appears that in 1656 he made a voyage to the Delaware river for the express pur- pose of purchasing beaver skins, then a leading article of traffic."
He and his wife Grietic, a daughter of Hendrick Harmensen, were members of the Dutch Church, as appears by a list dated 1649, and most of the children were baptized in the church within Fort Amsterdam.
In 1654, Riker obtained a grant of land at the Poor Bowery, to which he subsequently removed after adding to his domain the island known as Riker's Island. Having attained to more than three score years and ten, he died in 1689, leaving his farm by will to his son Abraham.
He married Grietie Harmensen, daughter of Hendrick Harmen- sen, one of the first settlers on Long Island and probably the first stock raiser and pioneer farmer, having located at what has since been known as the Poor Bowery, to which he established his claim as carly as 1638, thus giving the Rikers the precedence as the pioneer settlers of Long Island.
Abraham Riker ( 1), by his wife Grietie ( Harmensen) Riker, had issue :
1. Ryck Abramsen, who adopted the name of Lent.
Il. Jacob, born 1640, died in infancy.
III. Jacob (2), born 1643.
IV. Hendrick, born 1646, died young.
V. Mary, born 1649, married Sebout H. Krankheyt, after- wards of the manor of Cortlandt.
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VI. John, born 1654, married 1691, Sarah Schonten. Their son Abraham, born 1695, settled in Essex County, N. J.
VII. Aletta, born 1653, married Capt. John Harmensen, also of the manor of Cortlandt.
VIII. Abraham (2), born 1655.
IX. Hendrick, born 1662, adopted the name of Lent.
ABRAHAM RIKER (2), eighth child of Abraham (1) and Grietic (Harmensen ) Riker, was born at New Amsterdam ( Island of Man- hattan) in 1655. He was taken by his parents in early childhood to the farm which his father purchased in the town of Newtown. He was a man of superior intelligence and a capable farmer. He inherited the paternal estate and added considerably to the extent of his grounds, his most important purchase being that of a third of the Tudor patent, Nov. 2, 1688. This is described as
" Bounded on the south by the line of the Indian purchase; to the eastward by the Poor's Boweries; to the westward by the line of the patents belonging to the inhabitants of the Mespat Kills; and to the north by the land of William Hallett."
This was a patent obtained by John Tudor, March 18, 1686, which he sold two years after to Riker and two other parties.
Abraham Riker died in 1746. He settled his estate on his sons Abraham and Andrew, Nov: 10, 1733. The death of this vener- able Riker in his 91st year was probably the most singular one in the Riker family. Deprived of his sight for some years, it was his wonted custom to sit on the lawn under a pear tree, the sprouts and roots of which vet remain; where sitting, the 20th of August, 1746, he suddenly recovered the use of his eyes and hastily entered his house to again behold his grown-up sons and some grandchildren
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whom he never saw before, after which, surrounded by the family, he walked back to his favorite seat under the pear tree and immediately expired. He was buried in the family plot already referred to.
He married Grietie, daughter of John Gerrits Van Buytenhuysen, of New York, by his intermarriage with Tryntie, daughter of John Van Luyt, of Holland. She died Nov. 15, 1732. Their children were :
1. Catharine.
II. Margaret, married, ist, Peter Braisted; 2nd, Thomas Lynch; 3d, Anthony Duane, father of Hon. James Duane, afterwards Mayor of New York.
III. Mary, married Haseult Van Keuren, of Kingston.
IV. Abraham. V. John. VI. Hendrick. VII. Andrew. VIII. Jacob.
ANDREW RIKER, seventh child of Abraham( 2) and Grietie ( Buyten- huysen) Riker, was born at the homestead, Bowery Bay, in 1669. He inherited the homestead property, and was recognized as a gen- tleman of means and influence. In the winter succeeding the fruit- less campaign of 1756, a detachment of the king's regulars were quartered at Newtown, and Andrew Riker's house was the abode of the French officers for a considerable period. He married, Nov. 13, 1733, Janc, widow of Capt. Dennis Lawrence, and daughter of John Berrien, Esq., son of Cornelius Jansen Berrien, a French Hugenot, who settled in Flatbush in 1669, and there married Jannetje, daugh- ter of Jan Stryker, and, being a person of character and education,
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enjoyed offices in the town government and was likewise a deacon in the Dutch Church.
Andrew Riker died Feb. 12, 1763, in his 64th year; his widow died Sept. 26, 1775, in her 7 3rd year. Their children were:
1. Margaret, died unmarried, April 3, 1760.
11. John Berrien.
Ill. Abraham.
IV. Samuel (see record).
V. Ruth, married Major Jonathan Lawrence.
SAMUEL RIKER, fourth child of Andrew and Jane (Lawrence nee Berrien ) was born April 8, 1743. He received a fair education and at first decided on a mercantile career, but after a clerkship of some vears in a New York mercantile house he tired of city life and re- turned to the old homestead, which he subsequently purchased. He was among the first to espouse the cause of the colonists in their struggle for independence. On Dec. 10, 1774, a very large num- ber of the respectable freeholders assembled at the town-house at Newtown, where a series of spirited and well adapted "resolves," passed a few days previous by their neighbors at Jamaica, were read by one of the gentlemen and unanimously responded to, after which a committee of correspondence was appointed, which consisted of the following leading citizens: Jacob Blackwell, Richard Alsop, Daniel Rapelje, Esq., Philip Edsall, Thomas Lawrence, Daniel Law- rence, Jonathan Lawrence, Samuel Moore, William Firman, William Howard, Jeremias Remsen, Jun., Samuel Riker, John Albertis, Abra- ham Brinkerhoff, James Way, Samuel Morrill and Jonathan Coe.
The Newtown Troop of Light Horse, consisting of 44 men, commanded by Capt. Richard Lawrence, and afterwards by his
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brother, Capt. Daniel Lawrence, who was now ist Lieutenant; Samuel Riker was 2nd Lieutenant; Jonathan Coe, Cornet; Peter Rapelje, Quartermaster. After the resignation of Capt. Lawrence, Riker and Coe were promoted. X Capt. Abraham Riker, of the New York Continental Line, who the previous fall was at the storming of Quebec, was now busy raising a company. This company was attached to the regiment of Colonel Reitzman, which formed a part of the brigade of Maj. Gen. Lord Stirling. Lieut. Samuel Riker was actively engaged in guarding the outposts of the American army until compelled to flee before the approach of the British troops. He escaped with others after the battle of Long Island and subsequently returned with the intention of rejoining the army, but was discovered and captured by the British. He returned home after the war and was elected to various public positions, among these that of Supervisor. He was in the State Assembly in 1784, and the last public act of his life was to represent his district in Congress in 1808-9, having also on a previ- ous occasion held a seat in that National body. He was a man of good judgment and possessed a very retentive memory. His quali- ties of mind and heart shone brightly amid his surroundings, and the poor found in him a sympathetic and faithful friend. He died May 19, 1823. He married, Jan. 17, 1769, Anna Lawrence (born Nov. 27, 1749), daughter of Joseph Lawrence, son of John (3), son of Capt. John (2), born about 1650, son of Major Thomas Lawrence, a descendant of Sir Robert Laurens.
Sir Robert Laurens, of Ashton Hall in Lancastershire, England, said to be the founder of the Lawrence family, accompanied Richard Cœur de Lion in his famous expedition to Palestine and signalized himself in the memorable siege of St. Jean d'Acre, in 1191, being
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the first to plant the banner of the cross on the battlements of that town, for which he received the honors of knighthood, and also at the same time a coat of arms described as
Arms-Argent a cross raguly gules.
Crest-The tail and lower part of a fish, erect and couped ppr.
Faulkner, in his History of Chelsea, says: "The Lawrences were allied to all that was great and illustrious; cousins to the ambitious Dudley, Duke of Northumberland; to the Earl of Warwick; to Lord Guilford Dudley, who expiated on the scaffold the short-lived royalty of Lady Jane Gray; to the brilliant Leicester, who set two queens at variance, and to Sir Philip Sidney, who refused a throne."
John, William and Thomas Lawrence, three brothers, emigrated from Great St. Albans, in Hertfordshire, during the political troubles that led to the dethronement and death of Charles I. Their line has been traced direct from Sir Robert Laurens, of Ashton Hall. The seals appended to their wills, on file in New York, and inscribed on old plate in the possession of their descendants, is the coat of arms awarded to Sir Robert.
John and William Lawrence were the first to emigrate. The former, then a youth of seventeen, with his brother, aged twelve, and his sister Maria, a child of nine years, embarked in the ship Planter, April, 1635, and landed in Massachusetts, and removed thence to the province of New York. John was one of the six persons to whom the patent of Hempstead was granted by Gov. Keift in 1644.
Major Thomas Lawrence, the youngest of the three brothers, not being mentioned among the passengers of the ship Planter, is sup- posed to have joined them after their arrival. He lived for a time at Flushing, but in 1656 bought a house and lot in Newtown, to
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which place he removed, and made purchases of the town lands from the Indians that year. Afterwards, by purchase from the Dutch set- tlers, he became proprietor of a number of cultivated farms extending along the East River from Hellgate Cove to the Bowery Bay. On receiving the news of the Revolution in England, of 1688, and the removal of Sir Edmund Andross as governor of Massachusetts, the family of Thomas became decided actors in asserting the principles which had prompted his departure from England. Though advanced in years, Capt. Lawrence accepted the command of the forces of Queens county, to which he was commissioned by Gov. Leisler, with the rank of major, December 30, 1689. In February following, he was intrusted with the raising of troops in Queens county to aid in defending Albany against the French, and again in July of the same year, he was commissioned to proceed to Southold with a military force to protect his Majesty's subjects there against the apprehended attacks of French cruisers. He died in Newton, July, 1703. By his wife, Mary, he had Thomas, William, fohn, Daniel, Jonathan, Sarah and Elizabeth.
Capt. John Lawrence, son of Major Thomas and Mary (-) Lawrence, was born in Newtown about 1657. He was captain of the Newtown Troop of Horse in Leisler's timc, with his brother Daniel as cornet, and was soon after appointed high sheriff of the county, to which place he was also chosen in 1698. Of all the three brothers, he alone remained permanently at Newtown. He married Deborah, daughter of Richard Woodhull, one of the patentees of Brookhaven, and the ancestor of Gen. Nathaniel Woodhull, who died from wounds received at the battle of Long Island. The ancestry of the Woodhull family is traced in a direct line to Walter of Flanders, who came from Normandy into England with William
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the Conqueror, and after the conquest was created Lord of Wahull, the name becoming in the third generation, Woodhull. John Law- rence, by his wife, Deborah (Woodhull) Lawrence, had issue, Thomas, fohn (3) and Nathaniel.
JOHN LAWRENCE (3), son of Capt. John ( 2) and Deborah (Wood- hull) Lawrence, was born at Newtown, Sept. 9, 1695. He was a wealthy farmer, possessing great perseverance and intelligence. He served as magistrate of the county for many years. He died Mav 7, 1765. He married Dec. 8, 1720, Patience, daughter of Joseph Sackett, Esq., son of Simon (2), son of Simon Sackett, the ancestor of the Sackett family of Newtown. The children of John Lawrence and Patience (Sackett) Lawrence, who reached maturity, were John, born Sept. 22, 1721; Joseph, born March 21, 1723; Richard, born June 20, 1725; Nathaniel, born July 13, 1727; William, born July 27, 1729; Anna, born Nov. 20, 1731, married William Sackett; Thomas, born Nov. 21, 1733; Samuel, born Sept. 27, 1735; Jona- than, born Oct. 4, 1737; Daniel, born Nov. 26, 1739.
Joseph Lawrence, second child of John and Patience (Sackett) Lawrence, was born in Newtown, March 21, 1723. He married Patience, daughter of Benjamin Moore, aunt of Bishop Moore, of New York. He died at Newtown, Jan. 28, 1793. He had by his wife, Patience (Moore) Lawrence, two children, Richard, born March 3, 1764, and Anna.
Anna Lawrence, youngest child of Joseph and Patience ( Moore) Lawrence, was born in Newtown, Nov. 27, 1749; married Jan. 17, 1769, Samuel Riker.
Samuel Riker, by his wife, Anna ( Lawrence) Riker, had issue:
1. Joseph Lawrence, born March 26, 1770; adopted a sca- faring life, and died at the island of Jamaica, July 20, 1796.
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II. Andrew, born Sept. 21, 1771 (see record of J. L. Riker's wife),
III. RICHARD, born Sept. 9, 1773 (see record ).
IV. Abraham, born May 24, 1776.
V. Patience L., born May 10, 1778; married John Lawrence. VI. Samuel, born March 3, 1780.
VII. Jane Margaret, born April 4, 1782; married ist John Tom; 2nd, Dr. William James Macneven.
VIII. Anna Elvira, born May 1, 1785; married Dr. Dow Dit- mars.
IX. JOHN LAWRENCE, born April 9, 1787 (see record ).
HON. RICHARD RIKER, third child of Samuel and Anna ( Lawrence ) Riker, was born at Newtown, Sept. 9, 1773. He was educated chiefly under the superintendence of the Rev. Dr. Witherspoon, pres- ident of Nassau Hall, N. J. He entered the office of the elder Jones, and was admitted to the bar in 1795. In 1802 he received the appointment of district attorney of New York, which he held for ten years, and in 1815 he was made recorder of the city, which he retained with short intermissions till 1837, having discharged the arduous and responsible duties of such offices for nearly thirty years.
"Of the eminent talents and profound judicial knowledge of the late recorder," says a contemporary, "little need be said; they are both extensively known and universally admitted. The able manner in which he presided for so long a period in the Court of Sessions in New York, and the extraordinary qualities he displayed in the discharge of his onerous and important duties are conclusive evidence of his great attainments and high moral worth. Perhaps by no indi- vidual, at any time, or in any country, have the principles of criminal
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law been more firmly, vet temperately administered, and where the rigid rules of law have been more happily blended with the benign precepts of moral justice and equity.
"He was endowed by nature with fine perceptive powers, and a memory more than ordinarily retentive. He was perhaps never ex- ceeded for his faculty of discharging business; on the bench he was always attentive, patient and forbearing, both towards his associates and the counsel and witnesses. There was nothing like official hau- teur in his deportment, yet he never stooped to official trifling, although he possessed a ready wit and a general spirit of good humor, which made his remarks from the bench entertaining. His charges to the jury were often profound, and in pronouncing sentence he was often truly eloquent. In short it may be affirmed with confi- dence, that few men, for so long a course of years, have occupied more of the public attention than Mr. Riker, or taken a more prom- inent part in the business and realities of life. His knowledge of criminal law from long and constant study and observation, was nearly universal, and his experience made him acquainted with all the cunning and devices of the human heart."
For ten years, 1802-12, he was district attorney of New York, and for twenty years, was Recorder of New York. His pol- ished manner and social prominence won for him the title of the "American Chesterfield" from Fanny Kemble, and it clung to him through life. He was a warm friend of Alexander Hamilton, al- though an ardent democrat. He served De Witt Clinton as second in his duel with John Swartwout's brother Robert. Winfield in his History of Hudson County, says:
"Richard Riker, at the time deputy attorney general of the State
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of New York, afterwards recorder of the city, and Robert Swartwout, a brother of Samuel, collector of the port under General Jackson, fought a duel at Weehawken on Monday, Nov. 21, 1803. The cause lay in a political quarrel-Riker being a firm adherent of De Witt Clinton, and Swartwout a strong personal and political friend of Colonel Burr. Riker fell at the first fire from a severe wound in the right leg."
Mr. Riker enjoyed uncommon health through a long life and died in the seventieth year of his age, Sept. 26, 1842. To the cele- brated law firm which he founded his sons, D. Phoenix and John H. Riker, were admitted in 1826 and in 1840 respectively, and their cousin Henry L., son of John L., in 1842.
Mr. Riker married in March, 1807, Janette, daughter of Daniel Phoenix, Esq., treasurer of the city of New York. Their children were Daniel Phoenix, Anna E., Elizabeth P., Janette, John H. and Rebecca P.
John Lawrence Riker (1), brother of Hon. Richard Riker, and youngest child of Samuel and Anna (Lawrence) Riker, was born April 9, 1787. He was educated at Erasmus Hall in Flatbush, and began his legal studies in the office of his brother Richard and en- joyed advantages for acquiring a knowledge of the law possessed by few young men of his day. On attaining his majority he established the law business on his own account, and soon entered upon a suc- cessful practice that continued until his death. He had that pleasing and attractive manner that won and held his clients. He possessed many of the characteristics that distinguished his brother and made hosts of friends. He had mastered all the intricacies of the law and never failed to satisfy his clients, whatever the results of his efforts in
SAMUEL RIKER
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their behalf, they knowing that he had left no stone unturned to bring to a successful issue whatever he undertook. He continued to reside in New York until 1825, when he purchased the old home- stead at Bowery Bay and spent the remainder of his days amid the scenes hallowed by his ancestors. He rode daily to Fulton ferry on horseback, leaving his horse on the Brooklyn side and returning in the evening. His love of country was no less than that of his dis- tinguished ancestors, and at the breaking out of the war of 1812-15 he volunteered his services and was commissioned Captain of the 97th Regiment of Infantry, Aug. 11, 1812.
He married, Ist, Maria Smith; 2nd, Lavinia Smith, daughters of Sylvanus Smith, of North Hempstead, L. I. Sylvanus was the son of Sylvanus Smith ( 1), son of John, and grandson or great-grandson of John Smith, the ancestor.
Owing to the fact that there were so many contemporaneous Smiths on Long Island bearing the same name, great difficulty is experienced in tracing the several lines to their original source. The line of Syl- vanus Smith is known to connect with what is designated as the " Herrick Smiths." Of this line, Martha Baker Flint, in the N. Y. Gen. and Bio. Record, Vol. XXX., page 200, says:
"But at the west end of the island, in Queens and more particu- larly in the newly erected County of Nassau, were earlier established other and worthy families of Smiths, whose limits are not clearly de- fined. Among them are the Smiths of Herrick's (naming them from the first farmstead on the Homestead Plains), which, in the elder branch, intermarried with Elizabeth, daughter of Capt. John Under- hill, whose mother was the grand-daughter of Anne Winthrop, and, in the next generation, with Freelove Jones, eldest daughter of Maj.
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Thomas Jones and of his wife, Freelove Townsend, whose dower was the six thousand acres of land at Fort Neck, bought of the Massepequa Indians in [688."
John Smith, known as " Herrick John," from the locality where he settled, was probably one of the party who came with Denton from Stamford, Conn., and became one of the founders of Hemp- stead, L. I., from the fact that his daughter Mary married Samuel Denton. His will is found in the New York Surrogate's office, Liber 5, 6 page 306:
"I, John Smith, Sr., of Hempstead, Queens County, yeoman, * I leave to my well beloved grandsons, Richard and Timothy Smith, sons of my eldest son, John Smith, deceased, all that my lot meadow on Washburn Neck in Hempstead."
Refers to sons Timothy, Joseph, Jonathan, Mary, wife of Samuel Denton, daughter, Martha Chapelle, and Hannah, wife of John Treadwell.
Leaves dwelling house and home lot in town and ten acres of meadow in Cow Neck to Joseph.
Administration granted to Hannah Treadwell, reserving power to the next of executors.
Dated, Hempstead, May 10, 1695.
John Smith, of Herrick's, Hempstead, was born probably before 1700, and was the grandson or great-grandson of John Smith the ancestor. In his will he leaves household furniture to wife Susanna. Leaves all his lands to his sons Sylvanus and Timothy. "And where- as Sylvanus has already 42 acres of land where he lives in Herricks, I give to Timothy as much land here in Herricks as is equivalent. And whereas Timothy has already 80 acres near Hempstead Harbor,
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I give to Sylvanus so much near Hempstead Harbor as shall be equal."
He leaves to daughters Sarah and Hannah £200 and slaves. To daughter Mary £1741, and £26 to purchase a silver tankard. Makes his son and Richard Thorne and Isaac Smith executors.
Dated, June 27, 1761. Proved, May 13, 1767.
Witnesses, James Smith, Micah Smith, Samuel Denton.
Silvanus Smith, son of John Smith, was born in the town of Hempstead, L. I., Feb. 15, 1725. He was an ardent patriot during the war of the Revolution. He married Sarah Searing. The mar- riage is recorded in the books of St. George's church on June 20, 1752.
His will is dated May 29, 1787; proved June 11, 1787. Leaves to his loving wife Sarah, 2 feather beds and furniture, 2 cows and calves. Leaves legacies to daughters Sarah and Jane. Leaves to his son Howland Smith, "all my plain land lying on the east meadow that I bought of John Belden, and ten acres of woodland to be taken off across the north end of the woodland belonging to my homestead." Leaves to wife and sons Edmund and Silvanus, "the use and profits of my house and gristmill and all other lands (except as above) un- til the youngest is of age, then to sons Edmund and Silvanus. Also all the lands adjoining my homestead lying east of the road from Hempstead town to Merock, and one-half of the salt and fresh meadows on the Smith Neck, called Great Neck and Little Merock." Leaves to sons Carman and Jesse "my dwelling house and land on the west side of road from Hempsted town to Merock, and one-half of the meadows." Leaves to his five sons all his undivided lands and rights, commonage in North and South Hempsted. Leaves to daughters Rebecca, Deborah and Mary, £15.
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