USA > Pennsylvania > Colonial and revolutionary families of Pennsylvania; genealogical and personal memoirs, Vol. III > Part 64
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Elijah Clark resigned his commission as colonel, November 6, 1777, to be- come a member of the New Jersey Legislature in which he served during the Revolution. He died at Woodbury, New Jersey, November 9, 1795. His wife died August 10, 1804, and both are buried in the grave-yard at Woodbury. Of their eleven children seven reached maturity, viz .: Rebecca, wife of James Vanuxem; Deborah, died unmarried; John Lardner Clark, partner of James Vanuxem; Lardner, and Elisha, who were educated at Princeton ; Josiah ; Mary, married Francis Bernoni.
James and Rebecca (Clark) Vanuxem had fifteen children, eight of whom died young. Those who survived were Louisa, wife of Nathan Smith ; Louis Clark, a member of the Philadelphia City Troop and prominent shipping merchant ; James, of whom later; Lardner; Rebecca, married Dr. Charles Clinton Beatty ; Mary, married Charles Stewart Wurts; Henry.
James Vanuxem, son of James and Rebecca (Clark) Vanuxem, was born in Philadelphia, November 14, 1790. He received a good classical and business education, and on the removal of the family to Morrisville, Bucks county, in 18II, he became associated with his brother, Louis Clark, in the management of the grist and print mill at that place. After his father's death and the sale of the Morrisville property, he took his family to Ohio, and settled in Cincin- nati, making the then laborious journey by canal and stage coach with a wife
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and small children. Here he engaged in the mercantile business with his wife's cousin, Henry Raguet. The venture proving unsuccessful, he took up govern- ment grants of land in the Little Miami Bottoms, sixty miles from Cincinnati, and turned his attention to farming, in a very primitive neighborhood, where the products of the farm had to be carried many miles, and the needs of the family were dependent on the skill of the adults in domestic handicraft. He next re- moved to Dublin, Indiana, where he opened a store. While residing there his wife Susannah, daughter of Herman Joseph and Margaretta (Wynkoop) Lom- baert, born at Philadelphia, May 1I, 1794, whom he had married at Lower Saucon, Lehigh county, December 23, 1813, died November 18, 1838. Soon after this date he left the store in charge of his son James, and went to Hazel- ton and became superintendent of the Sugar Loaf Collieries. When these col- lieries were absorbed by Ario Pardee, he lost much money. He married (sec- ond) at Bristol, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, June 16, 1842, at her father's res- idence, "Bloomsdale", Elizabeth, daughter of John Newbold. Returning to Dublin, Indiana, he took up the business there with his son James, but later re- moved to Richmond, Indiana, where he died December 23, 1877. He was a man of fine scholarly tastes and graceful accomplishments, with no great de- sire for or qualifications for attaining either wealth or power.
Herman Joseph Lombaert was born in Antwerp, Brabant, Holland, in 1756, and was a son of Charles and Maria Anna (Cheresiacle) Lombaert. He came to Philadelphia in 1783, and soon after engaged in the mercantile and shipping trade in partnership with James Vanuxem Sr., whose son his daughter married. He stood unusually high in public estimation; says the inscription on his tomb- stone, "To a strong understanding and superior abilities he joined in eminent degree all the honorable qualities which command esteem and strict confidence." He died of yellow fever in Philadelphia, August 29, 1793, aged thirty-seven years.
The story of the yellow fever scourge that visited Philadelphia, in 1792-93; and again in 1798, is familiar to most readers and students of local history. In many cases whole families were wiped out. James Vanuxem records in his diary the death of his daughter Rebecca and his partner, Herman J. Lombaert, as follows :
"Rebecca my daughter died August 26, 1793, aged 7 years 7 months and 10 days. The Family Doctor requested to consult another of his profession. Mr. Ardisson, an eminent French physician, attended and proposed an emitic which the former refused. I, unfor- tunately favored the prescription and killed my child, which the family doctor foretold. My partner Mr. Lombaert was taken with the same disease on that day. My family doctor attended and contrary to his opinion he administered it to my partner and killed him."
After his death, his father-in-law, Judge Wynoop, spoke of him as a man of "remarkable cultivation and accomplishments." He married, at the Dutch Re- formed Church of North and Southampton, Bucks county, November 24, 1789, Margaretta Wynkoop, born January 22, 1768, daughter of Judge Henry and Susanna (Wansher) Wynkoop, of Northampton township, Bucks county, Penn- sylvania. A beautiful miniature of Herman J. Lombaert by Titian Peale is in possession of his descendants.
The Wynkoop family was founded in America by Peter and Cornelius Wyn- koop, who came from Utrecht, Holland, to the New Netherlands in 1639, and
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about 1642 located on the Hudson near the present site of Albany, New York, where they were prominently identified with Colonial affairs, as were their de- scendants for several generations.
Cornelius Wynkoop, supposed to have been a son of Peter Wynkoop, mar- ried Maria Janse Langendyck, about 1660. He died in 1676, and his wife in 1679.
Gerardus Wynkoop, third son of Cornelius and Maria Janse (Langendyck) Wynkoop, was born in Ulster county, New York, and married there Hilletje Folker, born 1676, died 1756, daughter of Garret Folker, a native of Holland, who had married in 1668 Jaconytje Sleght, daughter of Cornelius Barentsen Sleght and his wife, Tryntje Boz.
Gerardus Wynkoop removed with his family to Pennsylvania in 1717, and settled first in Moreland township, Philadelphia, now Montgomery county, later removing to Northampton township, Bucks county, where he purchased, in 1727, five hundred and twenty acres of land, which descended to his two sons, Nicho- las and Garret, a portion thereof being still in possession of their descendants.
Nicholas Wynkoop, third son of Gerardus and father of Judge Henry Wyn- koop, was born in Ulster county, New York, in 1705, and came to Bucks county, Pennsylvania, with his parents. He married, in 1732, Ann Kuyper, born 1712, died 1773, daughter of Hendrick Kuyper, of Harsimus, Bergen county, New Jersey, and in 1738 his father conveyed to him one-half of the five hundred and twenty acre tract in Northampton township, upon which he erected, in 1739, the fine stone mansion house still known as "Vredens Hoff", which was de- stroyed by fire in April, 1911. Nicholas Wynkoop died there in 1759.
Judge Henry Wynkoop, only son of Nicholas and Ann (Kuyper) Wynkoop, born in Northampton township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, March 2, 1736- 37, became prominent in public affairs almost on his arrival at years of man- hood, and during the Revolutionary war was the most prominent and active pa- triot in the county. He received a good classical education, and it was intended that he should enter the College of New Jersey, now Princeton University, but something happened to prevent, possibly the sickness of his father who died when Henry was but twenty-two years of age. In 1760, at the age of twenty- three years, he was elected to the Provincial Assembly, and was re-elected in 1761.
On December 7, 1764, he was commissioned a justice of the peace, and in 1765 a justice of the courts of Bucks county, which position he continued to fill with marked ability until the breaking out of the Revolution, being successively recommissioned. The records of the courts show that he was a regular attend- ant at the sessions of the various branches of the court, and after a few years service his individual opinion on knotty questions of law and procedure was sought and relied upon by his fellow judges.
At the meeting of the inhabitants of Bucks county, held at Newtown, July 9. 1774, Henry Wynkoop was one of the delegates selected to attend the "Meet- ing of the Several Committees of the respective Counties of Pennsylvania to be held at Philadelphia the 15th day of July, instant," and that meeting having recommended the formation of Committees of Safety in each county, the com- mittee of which he was a member at a meeting held November 27, 1774, gave notice to the freeholders and electors of the county to meet at Newtown on De-
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cember 15, 1774, to elect members of a Committee of Safety. At the meeting so held he was chosen one of the Committee of Observation. On January 16, 1775, he was selected as a member of the Committee of Correspondence.
At a meeting of the Committee of Safety, May 8, 1776, it was
"RESOLVED unanimously, that notwithstanding the disapprobation we have hitherto shewn to the prosecution of any violent measures of opposition, arising from the hopes and expectations that the humanity, Justice and magnanimity of the British nation would not fail of affording us relief, being now convinced that all our most dutiful applications have hitherto been fruitless and vain, and that attempts are now making to carry the oppressive Acts of Parliament into execution by military force, We do therefore earnestly recommend to the people of this county to form themselves into Associations in their respective town- ships to improve themselves in the military art, that they may be rendered capable of affording their country that aid which its particular necessity may at any time require.
"That Joseph Hart, John Kidd, Henry Wynkoop, Joseph Kirkbride, and James Wallace or any three of them are appointed Delegates to meet in Provincial Convention if any shall be found necessary.
"The Committee request all persons who have taken subscriptions for the relief of the poor of Boston, as soon as possible collect the same and pay into the hands of the Treasurer Henry Wynkoop, that it may speedily be applied towards that benevolent purpose."
Judge Wynkoop was therefore a delegate to the convention held at Carpen- ters' Hall, June 18, 1775, as well as to all the Provincial conventions thereafter. He was the representative of Bucks county in the State Committee of Safety, and the Council of Safety ; was one of the commissioners to settle the accounts of county lieutenants ; was a member of the associated company of Northamp- ton, and was chosen major of the Associated Battalion of Bucks County. He was elected to the Continental Congress, March 3, 1779, and re-elected No- vember 24, 1780, and November 21, 1781.
On September 3, 1776, he was commissioned by the Council of Safety a jus- tice of the peace. He was one of the most active in measures for furthering the patriot cause in all departments and thus incurred the enmity of the Tory element of the county. In August, 1776, an effort was made to abduct him and other patriots and carry them prisoners into the British lines, but he was away from home when his house was raided by a party of Hessians and refu- gees. His wife was so terrified by the brutality of the raiders that she rushed from the house and threw herself into a well and was killed.
Lieutenant James Monroe, later President of the United States, being wounded at the battle of Trenton, December 25, 1776, was nursed back to health at the house of Judge Wynkoop.
Judge Wynkoop presided at the first opening of the Bucks county courts after the adoption of the state constitution of 1776, and his charge to the grand jury is a masterpiece of eloquence, patriotism and common sense. He was commissioned president judge of the Bucks county courts, November 18, 1780, a position he held and filled regularly until his resignation on taking his seat as a member of United States Congress in 1789. On November 20, 1780, he was commissioned a judge of the court to hear appeals from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. He was the first member of United States Congress from Bucks county, at its opening on March 4, 1789, and in regular attendance until its adjournment on March 3, 1791. During this period Washington's diary shows that Judge Wynkoop was frequently the guest of the president at dinner, and he took a prominent part in the legislation.
On his retirement from Congress in 1791, Judge Wynkoop was commissioned
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an associate justice of the Bucks county courts under the Constitution of 1790, which provided for a president judge learned in the law. He filled that posi- tion until the removal of the courts to Doylestown in 1813. He died in 1816.
Judge Wynkoop married (first) in 1761, Susanna Wanshaer, whose tragic death in August, 1776, in connection with the Hessian raid of "Vredens Hoff" has already been related. She was born in 1742, and was a daughter of John and Christina (Egberts) Wanshaer, granddaughter of John and Susanna (Nys) Wanshaer, and great-granddaughter of Jan Wanshaer, and his wife, Barentje Kip, daughter of Hendrick Kip. He married (second) in 1777, Maria Cum- mings, who died in 1781. He married (third) in 1782, Sarah Neukirk, of Piles- grove, New Jersey, who died in 1813. He had eight children, three sons and five daughters, all by the first wife except one, a daughter.
Edward Vanuxem, son of James and Susanna (Lombaert) Vanuxem, was born July 29, 1818, in the Vanuxem homestead on the Robert Morris estate at Morrisville, Bucks county, Pennsylvania. While his father's family was living in Ohio and Indiana, he was sent east to be educated, and lived with his great- uncle, Jonathan Wynkoop, at "Vredens Hoff", and later at Newtown, Bucks county, where he met his first wife. He joined his father at Hazelton, and for a time had charge of the company store at the Sugar Loaf Collieries. He also lived for a time with his uncle, Lardner Vanuxem, in Bristol, Bucks county, and for a time with his uncle, Henry Vanuxem, at Shrewsbury, New Jersey. He married, at Newtown, Pennsylvania, April 3, 1843, Elizabeth Krusen, born in Northampton township, Bucks county, January 29, 1822, died at Belvidere, New Jersey, November 27, 1884. On his marriage Edward Vanuxem settled at Arneytown, Burlington county, New Jersey, where he kept a store until April 7, 1845, when he removed to Lambertville, New Jersey, where he was sur- veyor of the Belvidere Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and later became that company's station agent at Lambertville. He later kept a store at the cor- ner of York and Main streets in that city. In 1864 he went to Chicago and en- gaged in manufacturing wooden boxes. He removed to Belvidere, New Jersey, in 1867, where he was proprietor of the Excelsior Spoke Works. On the death of his wife he removed to Germantown, Philadelphia, and resided with his daughter, Mrs. Wurts, and died there December 19, 1898.
Gerret Dircksen Croesen, the founder of the Krusen family in America, came from Wynschoten, Groningen, Holland, and settled near Brooklyn. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed church of Brooklyn, and owned land there, which he sold in 1677, and obtained in the same year a patent for land on Staten Island, whence he removed with his family. He died there March 7, 1680. He married, October 30, 1661, Neeltje Janse, who married (second ) Volkert Hendrickson Bries.
Dirck Gerretse Croesen, eldest son of Gerret Dircksen Croesen, was baptized at Brooklyn, July 16, 1662. He removed with his parents to Staten Island, and while a resident there was married at the Dutch Reformed Church of New York, May 4, 1684, to Elizabeth Kregier, who was baptized July 5, 1662, daughter of Franz Kregier, "von de Zuydt River", who married February 29, 1660, Wallburg de Silla, daughter of Nicassis de Silla, from Maestricht, in Limburg, on the river Meuse, in the extreme southeastern part of Holland.
Dirck Croesen, or Kroesen, as all of his children spelled the name, came to
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Bucks county, Pennsylvania, from Staten Island prior to 1712, on which date he purchased a tract of six thousand acres in Northampton and Southampton townships. He died in Southampton leaving a will dated January 24, 1729-30, which was probated December 25, 1731, and mentions his wife Elizabeth, and children : Garret, Francis, Nicholas, John, Derick, Henry and Catharine, the latter the wife of Benjamin Jones, son of Rev. Malachi Jones, the first pastor of Abington Presbyterian Church, of which Dirck Croesen was one of the founders in 17II.
Francis Kroesen, second son of Dirck and Elizabeth (Kregier ) Croesen, was born on Staten Island about 1687, and came with his parents to Bucks county. He married, at the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia, March 28, 1716, Elizabeth Van De Grift, baptized at Brooklyn, Long Island, October 8, 1691, daughter of Leonard Van De Grift, baptized at New York December 19, 1655, died in Bensalem, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, 1725, and his wife, Styntje Ells- worth, whom he married at Brooklyn, November 29, 1678. He was a son of Jacob Leendertse Van De Grift, who came to New Amsterdam from Amster- dam, Holland, in 1644, in the employ of the Dutch West India Company, and was for a time captain of the ship "Swol" plying between Curacoa and New Amsterdam. He married, at New Amsterdam, July 19, 1648, Rebecca Fred- ericks, daughter of Frederick Lubbertsen. He was commissioned by the Burg- omaster and Schepens of New Amsterdam a measurer of grain in 1657, having been made a burger in 1656. In 1662 he was a resident of Bergen, New Jer- sey, but April 9, 1664, he and his wife were accepted as members of the Brook- lyn Dutch Reformed Church. They returned to New Amsterdam in 1665, and in 1667 received a patent for land on the North river. In 1686 he was a resident of Newtown, Long Island. He died soon after this date, and in 1697 his widow and children removed to Bensalem township, Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania, where she was living at late as 1710.
Francis Kroesen and his wife were members of Abington Presbyterian Church, on the records of which appear the baptisms of their four children : Elizabeth, Derick, Leonard and Jacob. The father died in Northampton in June, 1756.
Derick Kroesen, eldest son and second child of Francis and Elizabeth (Van De Grift) Croesen, was baptized by Rev. Malachi Jones, at the Abington Pres- byterian Church, "Ye 5th of February, 1718" as "Richard, ye Son of Francis Cruisen". Richard being the English synonym of the Dutch name of Dirck, was so interpreted and placed of record by the English divine. It is probable that his whole life was spent in Northampton township, the residence given in the will of his father in 1756, though this will devises to the widow, for life, then to her children, a farm in St. George's Hundred, New Castle county.
Derick Kroesen purchased in 1756 a farm of one hundred and eighty acres in Northampton, which by his will made in 1789 he devised to his son Derick, but living until 1804, he conveyed the farm to Derick in 1802. The same is true of a farm purchased in 1788, and devised to his son Jacob, but conveyed to him later. He was probably twice married (first) about 1740, to Cornelia Bergen, daughter of Jacob Hansen Bergen, of South Brooklyn, Long Island, and his wife, Elsje Fredericks, daughter of Frederick Lubbertsen, by whom he had at least one son Jacob, baptized at the Dutch Reformed Church of Southampton,
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June 13, 1742 ; and (second) on February 16, 1758, to Maria Bennett. His will was proven November 2, 1804, and mentions sons, Jacob, Francis, John, Isaac, Nicholas and Derick; and daughters, Elizabeth Courson, Margaret Black.
Derick Krusen, son of Derick Kroesen, was born in Northampton township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1760, and spent his whole life there, dying De- cember 27, 1823. He married Elizabeth Vansant, daughter of James and Jane (Bennet) Vansant, who was born in 1760, died March 20, 1837. As above stated he secured by deed of gift from his father a farm of one hundred and eighty acres in addition to which he owned a farm of one hundred and eight acres, and another of one hundred and sixty-four acres, which he purchased of the executors of his father-in-law, James Vansant, in 1798. At his death all these farms were divided among his children.
Charles Krusen, son of Derick and Elizabeth (Vansant) Krusen, was born in Northampton township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, August 6, 1791, died there September 1, 1824. He acquired one hundred acres of his father's land and died thereon, leaving several children. He married, 1820, Ann Craven, born in Northampton township, 1803, died there in 1867.
The first American ancestor of Elizabeth ( Vansant) Krusen was Gerret Stof- fellse Van Zandt, from Zandt, North Holland, who emigrated to New Nether- lands about the year 1650. He was one of the fourteen patentees of New Utrecht, Long Island; was a magistrate there in 1681, etc. He sold his land at Utrecht in 1695 and removed with his family to Bucks county, settling in Bensalem township, where he died about 1706. His wife was Elizabeth Ger- ritse, and they had ten children.
Harman Van Sandt, third son of Gerret and Elizabeth Van Zandt, was bap- tized at the Dutch Reformed Church of New York, June 10, 1674. He came to Bensalem township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania, with his parents in 1697, and died there in 1750. He married, at New Utrecht, Long Island, Elizabeth Brouwers, who died prior to 1733.
Harman Vansant, son of Harman and Elizabeth (Brouwers) Van Sandt, was born in Bensalem, Bucks county, about 1704, and died there in 1735. He married Alice Craven, daughter of Jacobus Craven, of Warminster, and had four children.
James Vansant, son of Harman and Alice (Craven) Vansant, was born in Bucks county in 1731, died in Northampton township, January 31, 1798. He was a member of the Associated Company of Northampton township, August 19, 1775, Captain Henry Lott, First Lieutenant, Gerardus Wynkoop, Second Lieutenant, John Kroesen. He married Jane, daughter of William and Jannetje (Suydam) Bennett, who was born in 1734, died April 24, 1784.
William Adriense Bennett, the first American ancestor of the Bennett family of Bucks county, is said to have been a native of England, and that his father, Aaron Bennett, fled to Holland with his family to escape religious persecution. However, there is no proof of this except that it is very evident that the name is of English and not Dutch origin.
William Adriense Bennett, after living for twelve years in Holland, came to America prior to June 7, 1636, on which date he, with Jacques Bentyn, pur- chased of the Indians, nine hundred and thirty acres on Long Island, Bennett purchasing the interest of his partner therein, December 26, 1639. He died
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seized of this land in 1644. He married, in 1636, Mary Badye, widow of Ja- cob Verden, and daughter of Aletje Breckanaue, by her first husband, Badye. The Widow Bennett was married a third time to Paulus Vanderbeck, and her mother at the time of her second marriage was the wife of William Bradenbent.
Arie (or Adrien) Willemse Bennett, eldest son of William and Mary (Ba- dye) Bennett, was born near Brooklyn, Long Island, in 1637. He married, De- cember 2, 1662, Angenetje (Agnes) Janse Van Dyck, daughter of Jan To- masse Van Dyck, who emigrated from Amsterdam, Holland, in 1652, and settled at New Utrecht, Long Island, where he died in 1677, by his second wife, Tryntje Achies Haegan. Jan Tomasse Van Dyck was appointed sergeant at New Utrecht, October 2, 1659; was later constable and finally a local mag- istrate.
On his marriage Adrien Willemse Bennett settled at New Utrecht, where he was deacon of the Reformed church, and constable in 1675-76. In 1675 he pe- titioned Governor Colve for patent to land on Staten Island, but never re- moved there. Selling his large holdings of real estate at New Utrecht in 1681, he purchased of his mother part of his father's plantation at Gowanus, and returned to the place of his birth, on what was later known as "The Scher- merhorn Farm", where he was living as late as 1698. He was a commissioner at Gowanus in 1687.
Jan Adriense Bennett, eldest son of Adrien Willemse and Angenetje (Van Dyck) Bennett, born 1663, married Barbara and removed to Somerset county, New Jersey, where he reared a family of eight children.
William Bennett, eldest son of Jan Adriense and Barbara Bennett, born in 1702, married Charity Suydam, a descendant of Hendrick Rycken, who came to New Amsterdam in 1663, and in 1726 removed to New Brunswick, New Jer- sey. In 1735 he purchased land in Northampton township of his uncle, Abra- ham Bennett, and removed to Bucks county, where he died October 13, 1784. His daughter Helena, born at New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1727, married Thomas Craven, and another daughter Jannetje, born at New Brunswick, in 1729, married, August 23, 1756, James Vansant, above mentioned.
The earliest ancestor of the Craven family of whom we have any record was Thomas Craven, of Bushwick, Long Island, to whom was subscribed on August 23, 1662, forty-seven guilders towards the ransom of his son Jacob or Jacobus, then a prisoner among the Turks. He is supposed to have been the father of Jacobus and Thomas Craven, who came to Bucks county about 1735 from either New Jersey or the New Netherland districts of New York.
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