The history of Ulster County, New York, Part 4

Author: Clearwater, Alphonso Trumpbour, 1848- ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Kingston, N. Y. : W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 980

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PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

on further west and founded a Nieuw Dorp, (New Village) prin- cipally under the lead of Louis du Bois, a Huguenot, and his brother-in- law Matthew Blanshan. Presumably there were residents roundabout the two centres of settlement - unmarried farmers, laborers, and servants, soldiers at the Rondhout, etc. In the distribution of house lots in Wildwijk only heads of families were provided for. The New Village was not palisaded.

Looking in upon the old Village of Wildwijk on Thursday June 7th, 1663, "between the hours of eleven and twelve in the morning," we see Indians entering through all the gates of the palisades, dividing and scat- tering themselves among the houses and dwellings in a friendly way with a little corn to sell, just as they had done on many previous occasions. The men of the village, or most of them, were abroad or at work in the fields, the women busy in their household duties, the children playing around their homes. A "short quarter of an hour" passed when a horse- man rushed in through the Mill Gate crying out, "The Indians have de- stroyed the New Village!" An Indian fires a gun; it is a signal to his confederates. Forthwith men are struck down with axes and toma- hawks, and shot with guns and pistols, women and children in some number killed and others carried away captive, and houses plundered and set on fire, the peaceful homes of the morning converted to scenes of carnage and death and terror. At this point the narrative tells us the wind changed to the west and the firing of guns alarmed some of those who were working in the fields. "Near the Millgate were Albert Gysbert- son with two servants, and Tejerck Classen de Witt; at the Sheriff's, himself, and two carpenters, two clerks and one thresher; at Cornelius Barentsen Sleight's, himself and his son; at the Dominie's, himself, and two carpenters and one laboring man; at the guard-house a few soldiers ; at the gate towards the river, Hendrick Jochemsen, and Jacob the Brewer, but Jochemsen was very severely wounded in his house by two shots at an early hour. By these men, most of whom had neither guns nor side arms, were the Indians chased and put to flight .* * After these few men had been collected, by degrees others arrived from the fields, and we found ourselves, when mustered in the evening, including those who had escaped from the Nieuw Dorp and taken refuge among us, in number sixty-nine effective men." Add to this number fifteen men who had been killed, two who had been mortally wounded and could not be classed

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

as effective, two who had been taken prisoners, and the total number of male settlers in the Esopus villages was less than one hundred men. Further than the narrative shows their names cannot be given - perhaps there were some at the Redout at the landing - perhaps some were from home. The narrative is signed by Roelof Swartwout, Sheriff, Albert Gysbertsen, Tjerck Classen de Witt, Thomas Chambers, Gysbert van Imbroch, Christian Nyssen and Hendrick Jochemsen, who composed the Court at Wildwijk, the names of some of whom have already been given.

Passing from the description of the attack to its results the official report shows that at Wildwijk nine men, three soldiers, four women, and two children, had been killed; four women and five children taken prisoners, and twelve houses and barns burned, viz: Garent Gerretsen, killed in front of his house; Jan Alberts, killed in his house; Lechen Dirreck, killed on the farm; William Jansen Seba, killed opposite his door; Willem Jansen Hap, killed in Peter van Hall's house; Jan the smith, killed in his house; Hendrick Jansen Looman, killed on his farm; Thomas Chambers' negro, killed on the farm; Hey Olferts, killed in the gunner's house; Hendrick Martensen (soldier) killed on the farm; Dominicus (soldier), killed in Jan Alberts' house; Christian Andriesen (soldier), killed on the street; Lichten Dirrack's wife, burnt, behind Barent Garritsen's house; Mattys Capito's wife, killed and burned in the house; Jan Albertsen's wife, big with child, killed in front of her house; Pieter van Hall's wife, shot and burned in her house; Jan Alberts' little girl, murdered with her mother; Willem Hap's child burned alive in the house. Prisoners taken: Master Gysbert's wife ; Hester Douwe (blind Hester) ; Sara, daughter of Hester Douwe; Grietje, Dominie Laer's wife; Femmetje, sister of Hilletje, recently mar- ried to Joost Ariaens; Tjerck Classen de Witt's oldest daughter ; Dominie Laer's * child; Ariaen Gerretsen's daughter; two little boys of Mattys Roeloffsen. Houses burned of Michael Frer, Willem Hap, Mattys Roeloffsen, Albert Gerretson, Lichten Derrick, Hans Carolusen, Pieter van Hael, Jacob Boerhans (two), Barent Gerretsen (two), Mattys Roloffsen. Wounded in Wildwijk: Thomas Chambers, shot in the woods; Hendrick Frere, shot in front of his house (died of his wound) ; Albert Gerretsen, shot in front of his house; Andries Barents, shot in

* Adriaen van Laer and servant emigrated from Amsterdam in the ship Gilded Otter, May, 1658. He married later. He was a Lutheran minister who happened to be at Wildwijk.

Eng by E G. Williams & Bro NY

ADAM NEIDLINGER.

1831- 1904.

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

front of his house; Jan du Parck, shot in the house of Aert Pietersen Tack; Hendrick, the Herr Director-general's servant; Paulus Noorman, shot in the street. Killed in the Nieuw Dorp: Marten Harmensen, found dead and stript behind his wagon; Jacques Tyssen, found dead beside Barent's house; Derrick Ariaeson, shot on his horse. Taken prisoners : Jan Gerritsen on Volckert's bouwery; wife and three children of Louis du Bois; two children of Matthew Blanchan; wife and child of Antoni Crispel; wife and four children of Marten Harmensen; wife and three children of Lambert Huybertsen; wife and two children of Jan Joosten ; wife and child of Barent Harmensen; wife and three children of Grietje Westercamp; wife and child of Jan Barents; two children of Michael Frere; child of Hendrick Jochems; child of Hendrick Martensen; two children of Albert Heymans. The Nieuw Dorp was entirely destroyed except, says the report, "a new uncovered barn, one rick and a little stack of reed." *

A dark day in Esopus was that Thursday, June 7th, 1663-that day of terror, of murder, of fire, which has few equals in pioneer history- that day on which names were written in imperishable record. Among the actors in the scenes which have been referred to was the interesting Dutch Minister Hermanus Bloom who wrote to his Classis, "We have escaped, with most of the inhabitants," and in his description of the scene : "There lay the burnt and slaughtered bodies, together with those who were wounded by bullets and axes. The last agonies and the moans and lamentations of many were dreadful to hear. The houses were converted · into heaps of stones, so that I may say with Micah, We are made desolate."

Dominie Bloom wrote that twenty-four persons had been killed, and forty-five taken prisoners. (Letter of Sept. 13, 1663.)

The surrender of the Province of New Netherlands to the English in September, 1664, brought with it no immediate material change in the settlement of the Esopus country, the most material being in the manner

* Schoonmaker in his "History of Kingston" wrote: "All the captives were returned except Barent Slecht's daughter. She had married a young warrior and remained with him." Her name is not in the list of prisoners of June 7th; she may have been captured in 1658-9. The story of her marriage is given as traditional. It is of record that a son of Evart Pels was taken prisoner in 1658-9, and was condemned to death, but saved from execution by an Indian maiden, that he married her and refused to return to his Dutch friends. The record may be found in Colonial History, N. Y., Vol. XIII, p. 143. The story of Slecht's daughter may be true.

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

of obtaining title to real estate, the change of the name of Wildwijk village to Kingston, that of the Nieuw Dorp to Hurley, and the laying out of a new village under the name of Marbletown, primarily for the purpose of assigning lands to the disbanded soldiers at the Rondhout with a view to induce them to become permanent residents. The manner in which titles to land had been obtained by the pioneers under the Dutch administration was by individual purchases from the Indians, in some cases by gifts from them, sometimes from grant by the local court, in the village, by assignment. Under the new or English rule all titles by what- ever authority, were required to be surrendered to the Governor and new titles obtained from him, and purchases from the Indians, except by license was forbidden. No previous title was held to be invalid, but legal order was introduced. By the renewal in 1665 of the treaty of peace with the Esopus Indians, Deputy Governor Richard Nicolls, the English suc- cessor of Director-general Stuyvesant, found himself in possession of the large district of country which the Indians admitted to have been "conquered by the sword," but for which they were compensated later, and wrote: "The lands which I intend shall be first planted are those upon the west side of Hudson's River, at or adjoining to the Sopes, which is ready now to put the plow into, being clear ground." Under the Governor's encouragement and the reputation which the Esopus lands had acquired for fertility, immigrants began to come in a large number compared with the then total volume of immigration. Pre- sumably the titles of the early settlers were returned to the Governor and renewed and new patents granted, though no doubt the largest proportion of immigrants became tenants, or made purchases from propri- etors. In Colonial History, and in the record of land papers at Albany are the following entries :

1656-Sept. 25-Patent issued by Director Stuyvesant to Christoffel Davids for a tract of thirty-six morgens of land (about seventy-five acres) "situate about a league inland from the North River, opposite to the land of Thomas Chambers, running west and northeast half way to a small pond on the border of a valley which divides this parcel and the land of Johan de Hulter, deceased, with as much hay land (meadow) as shall pro rata be allowed to the other bouweries." *

1657-March 27-Patent issued by Director Stuyvesant to Johanna de Hulter, widow of Johan de Hulter, for 500 morgens (about 1,200 acres) of land purchased from the Indians, and for which her late husband had petitioned for a patent No-

* Christoffle Davids' son, David, with his family, perished in the massacre at Schenectady in 1690. In records Davids is written "Kit Davitsen," "Kit Davits," etc. The correct spelling would seem to be Christoffle Daavis.

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

vember 5th, 1654, "contiguous to the land of Thomas Chambers and Christoffel Davits, where the boundary is formed by a large Kil, and is divided at the north from the land on which Jurian van Westphalen lives now (1653) by a small Kil."

1661-Jan. 25-Jan ver Beek and Francis Pietersen (probably of Fort Orange) made declaration that they were present "in the spring of 1654, when Evert Pels and the late Jacob Jansen Stoll divided the land bought by them together from the Indians at the Esopus." Stoll purchased Christopher Davids tract in 1657, but seems to have been contemporary with him and with Evert Pels and Chambers, De Hulter and Juriaen van Westphalen.

1663-April 25-Deed from Director Stuyvesant to Hendrick Cornelissen from Holstein, for a "piece of land at the Esopus," bounded "on the east by the Kil, on the west and south by the meadow lying under the village." Also a small parcel of land adjoining."

1664-June 18-Deed of confirmation from Governor Nicolls to Matthew Blanchan for a house and lot of ground lying and being at Wildwyck.

1664-June 23-Deed of confirmation from Governor Nicolls to Roeloffe Swart- wout for land in Wildwyck.

1664-July 23-Deed of confirmation from Governor Nicolls to Cornelijs Barents Slecht for between forty and fifty acres of land at Esopus .*

1669-April 9-Tjerck Claus de Witt and William Montania represented to the Commissioners that the Governor had given to them a grant for the setting up of a sawmill about five miles north of Kingston, and asked that the commissioners would recommend the further grant by the Governor of a piece of land about one mile further north called Dead Men's Bones, containing about seventy acres. At the same session John Oosterhout, Jan Burhans and Cornelius Vernoy, "husband- men" of Kingston, asked for "a certain neck of land five miles distant from Kings- ton, over the Kill near the footpath leading to Albany, containing about fifty-four acres clear and good land. De Witt, Montania and the other parties named obliged themselves to build their houses all together on the other side of the Kill due north from the land of Thomas Chambers, and intended the same for a township within the precinct of Kingston. In the same neighborhood Thomas Chambers desired to build a house for a tenant, and also one for his son-in-law. The commissioners passed the recommendation as requested. The mill was erected and the settlement formed at what is now the bridge over the Plattekill between the towns of Sauger- ties and Ulster, writes Mr. Brink in his "History of Saugerties." The place called "Dead Men's Bones," was about a mile further north, but why so called awaits satisfactory explanation.

1670-April 13-Deed from Governor Lovelace to Christopher Bersford for a lot and a half in the new town laid out at Esopus called Marbletown.

1670-Aug. 18-Deed from Governor Lovelace to Richard Cage for a house lot in Marbletown.

1671-Oct. 11-Deed of confirmation from Governor Lovelace to John Joesten for a lot of ground in Marbletown, containing 30 acres.

* "Deed of confirmation" shows that the party receiving it had previously received title from Director Stuyvesant or other authority. Matthew Blanchan, for example, was an immigrant of 1660. Cornelis Barentsen Slecht was given the land in his confirmatory deed named from Stuyvesant in 1662. He described it in 1663 as "lying near the new village"; that he had found it "too far for his convenience" as himself and his wife were "now old people" and "would prefer living near the church," the more so as his wife was "the midwife of the village of Wild- wijk." He asked deed for land which he had "formerly purchased" from the Indians, and for which he had been obliged to pay the tax to build the Minister's house, a little piece of land lying close to it, called in the savage tongue Wichquanis."

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1672-April I-Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Cornelius Hoogeboom of a lot of ground for a brickyard.

1672-June 25-Deed from Governor Lovelace to Tjerck Classen de Witt for a parcel of bush land, together with a house lot, orchard and calves' pasture lying near Kingston, in Esopus.

1673-Feb. 18-Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Jan Mattyson of a lot of ground.

1673-April 14-Minute of a grant from the Court at Hurley of a lot of ground to Albert Hymans. In minutes of the commissioners, Sept. 20, 1669, "Albert Hey- mans (Roosa)," who asked permission to "set up a brew-house and tan-vats at Hurley." He was an immigrant of 1660.

1673-June 7-Deed of confirmation from Governor Lovelace to Matthias Blan- chan for 36 acres of land in the town of Hurley.

1675-March I-Minute of a grant from the Court at Marbletown to Jan Bigs of a small piece of land.

1675-March 9-Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to George Hall, of a small piece of land.

1675-Sept. 10-Minute of a grant from the Court at Hurley to Hyman Albert- sen Roosa, of a small piece of land.

1675-Oct. 13-Deed from Governor Andros confirming to Cornelius Hogeboom the lot of ground granted him by the Corporation of Kingston for a brickyard. (See 1672, April I.)

1676-April 15-Minute of a grant by the Court at Kingston to William Tropha- gen for 20 acres of land.

1676-April 20-Description of a survey of 40 acres of land lying at the Esopus, laid out for Paulus Paulessen.

1676-Aug. 4-Description of survey of land belonging to Marbletown "called ye third stuck" (piece) containing by estimation about 100 acres to be patented to William Ashfordby. Deed from Andros Oct. 2, 1676.

1676-Sept. 4-Description of a survey of 40 acres of land "at ye Mumbackers lying at ye Round Doubt Kill," laid out for Charrat Clausa. (Q. Tjerck Classes de Witt.)

1676-Sept. 4-Description of survey of 40 acres of land "at ye Esopus lying at ye Mombackers at ye Roundoubt River, laid out for Thomas Quicke."

1676-Sept. 4-Description of survey of 32 acres of land "at ye Esopus, at ye Mumbackers, lying by ye Roundout Kill, laid out for Aron ffranse."

The three grants above named are the first of record in the present town of Rochester. The name is from a Mascaron (Dutch Mumbackers) painted on a tree by an Indian commemorative of himself-not of "a place of death" or "a place of battle." Trees and rocks so marked were fre- quently met.

1676-Sept. 5-Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Tjerck Classen (de Witt), for a tract of wild land.

1676-Sept. 5-Minute of a grant from the Court of Kingston to Mattys Mat- tison and Dirck Jansen Skipmouse of a piece of land "near that village."

1676-Sept. 15-Minute of a grant from the Corporation of Kingston "to Captain Chambers for a piece of land lying on the Great Kill."

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

Thomas Chambers located (1652-3) on the Groot Esopus. He secured several parcels of land which were included in a manorial charter issued to him by Governor Lovelace, Oct. 16th, 1672, under the title of the "Lordship and Manor of Foxhall." Although his manor was within the bounds of Kingston, it had independent manorial powers and was so recognized in the organization of the county in 1685, and was given a supervisor in the Board of Supervisors.

1676-Sept. 15-Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Wessel Ten Broeck of a certain marsh containing II acres.

1676-Sept. 25-Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to William Ash- fordby, of 104 acres of land in Marbleton, situated behind the Kaelbergh (Bald Hill), and called the fifth stuck, and 4 acres at the same place near a tract called- the sixth stuck. (See description of survey above. Aug. 4, 1676.)

1676-Oct. I-Conveyance from Frederick Hussey to Claes Tunison of a lot of land of about 50 acres, in Marbletown.

1676-Oct. 2-Deed from Governor Andros to Anthony Addison for a certain parcel of land above Marbletown in Esopus, lying over against the Kaelberg "called by the name of Brookeboome Hook," containing 20 acres.

1676-Oct. 2-Deed from Governor Andros to William Trophagen for a certain piece of land at Esopus lying northeast from Captain Thomas Chambers' farm, con- taining about 10 acres, "lying north and south along the great creek or Kill to the Water Kolch." (Kolk, Dutch, "gulf, abyss.")

1676-Nov. 13-Description of a survey of 20 acres of land being part of a tract upon ye towne of Kingston, laid out by order of ye Magistrates of Esopus for Wessel Ten Broeck." (See 1676, April 15.)

1676-Nov. 13-Description of a survey of about seven acres of ffly "before ye towne of Kingston at Esopus," laid out for Mathas Matison and Derricke Jonson Schapmos. (See 1676, Sept. 5.)

1676-Nov. 15-Description of a survey of eight acres of ffly lying before ye towns of Kingston at Esopus, "laid out for ye troopers of Esopus." (Granted on petition of Jan Andriansen, Michael Mott and other troopers for the pasturage of their horses.)

1676-Nov. 13-Description of a survey of 20 acres of lang being part of a tract known as the Butterfield, lying to the southwest of Marbletown, laid out for George Hall.

1676-Nov. 13-Description of a survey of 20 acres of land, being part of a tract known as the Butterfield, lying to the southwest of Marbletown, laid out for Samuel Leetee.

Same date-22 acres of the Butterfield laid out for Thomas Kerton.

Same date-28 acres of the Butterfield, laid out for John Kerton.

Governor Lovelace wrote the commissioners in 1669: "There is a tract of land by ye Cale Berg which I purpose to improve for a breeding ground which I wish you to survey and give me. It is called the Butterfield."

1676-Dec. 28-Description of a survey of an Island in Roundout River "called by the Indians Assincke" (i. e. stony land or place), with 161/2 acres "near the same," laid out for Henry Bateman (Beekman) and Thomas Hendricks ..

THE COUNTY OF ULSTER.

1677-April 25-Minutes of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Albert Geret- sen of a tract of land on the opposite side of the Kill which runs through the Esopus land,

Same date-Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to Joost Adriansen for six acres over the Mill Kill.

1677-May 26-Deed from the Esopus Indians to Louis du Bois and associates, of a tract of land over the Rondout Kill, "beginning at the high hill called Mog- gonck, thence southeast to Juffrous Hook in the Long Reach, on the Great River called in Indian Magaat Ramis, thence north along the river to the island called Raphoes lying in Kromme Elebow, at the commencement of the Long Reach, thence west to the High Hill at a place called Waracahaes and Tawaretaque, along the High Hill southwest to Moggonck, with free access to the Rondout Kill."

For this purchase a patent was granted by Governor Andros, Sept. 29th, of the same year, on which was founded the settlement known as New Paltz. The patentees were "Louis du Bois, Christian Doyou, Abraham Hasbroucq, Andrie le Fevre, Jean Hasbroucq, Pierre Doyou, Louis Bevier, Antonie Crespel, Abraham du Bois, Hugo Freer, Isaac du Bois and Simon le Fevre, their heirs and others." They were all French Hugue- nots. The government of the patent was intrusted to the care of twelve trustees known colloquially as "the Duzine," who continued by succession until the formation of the town. It was the first of the large patents issued in the county, and covered, by later survey, 92,126 acres, on which are now the towns of New Paltz, Lloyd and part of Esopus. Descendants of the patentees now constitute a large quota of the inhabitants of Ulster, Orange and Dutchess counties, and are widely scattered over the country.

1677-June 9-Draught of Roeloffe Hendrick's patent at Esopus.

1677-Sept. 24-Petition of John Garton to build a house on his land in the fourth stuck (Marbletown). Presumably the father of Thomas Garton, Judge of Common Pleas of Ulster, 1692.

Same date-Anthony Addison, of Marbletown, asked for permission to "live over the Kill" and for the grant of twenty acres of land.

1677-Sept. 25-Minute of a grant of land from the Court at Kingston to John Rutgerson. He presented a deed from the Indians for the land.

1677-Sept. 27-Jan Borhans conveyed to Joost Andrianson his house and lot in Kingston.

1677-Oct. 8-Deed from Governor Andros to Tjerck Claessen for a piece of woodland containing about 50 acres, lying to the west of the town of Kingston. Granted to Tjerck Claessen de Witt by the Court of Kingston, Sep. 4 of the same year. See above.

1677-no date-Petition of Henry Pawling for a grant of a piece of land "under Hurley, joining to Wassmaker's land," being about 20 acres.

Wasmaker's (Dutch) probably stands for Wax-chandler's land. Gov- ernor Stuyvesant had an interest in this tract. Ex-Governor Lovelace asked the commissioners to treat "Mr. Stuyvesant with all the honor

Eng by E G Withans JE: NY

NICHOLAS R. GRAHAM.

PIONEER SETTLEMENTS AND PATENTS.

so that it prejudice not ye town." The commissioners recommended that "one moiety of the tract be granted to Mr. Petrus Stuyvesant pur- suant to his Royal Highnesses's directions." Stuyvesant had a warm place in the hearts of the Dutch colonists of Esopus.

1679-April II-Description of the bounds of a parcel of woodland lying on ye south side of Kingston, and a small meadow lying and being by the Mill Creek, to the west of a rocky hill, containing in all 16 acres, with a house in Kingston, granted to William de Miere, otherwise written Wilhelmus DeMyer.

1680-July 18-Description of a survey of an island at the rocky point of the Rondout Kill (See Dec. 28, 1676), about the quantity of six acres; also a parcel of meadow land at the west side of Rondout Kill, containing about forty acres, with a parcel of woodland, commonly called Pamahaky (slanting land) and Bart- man's Hoeke, containing about 100 acres, laid out for Michael Gorton.

1680-Aug. 13-Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to John and William De Meyer and Matthias Mattison of about six acres of land under the fall of the Platte Kill; also woodland as far as they have need to cut wood for the sawmill.

1680-Sept. 16-Minute of a grant from the Court at Kingston to William De Meyer of a lot of land over the Mill Kill, south of Kingston, contain 16 acres, with 3 acres of valley; also a house lot.

1680-Nov. 2-Certificate of the Corporation of Kingston to the effect that Wil- liam De Meyer is the right owner of half of the mill and Kill called by the name of Platte Kill, in company with Matias and John Mattison.

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The history of Ulster County, New York, Part 4

Author: Clearwater, Alphonso Trumpbour, 1848- ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Kingston, N. Y. : W. J. Van Deusen Number of Pages: 980

Author: Clearwater, Alphonso Trumpbour, 1848- ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Kingston, N. Y. : W. J. Van Deusen
Number of Pages: 980