2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK.- 155

JOHANNES OPDYCK

Born 1651 ; died 1729; married Catherine - ; was a planter at Dutch Kills, Long Island, and in Maidenhead and Hopewell, N. J.

Our sketch of Louris showed Johannes in 1660 at Gravesend at nine years of age losing his father; Johannes and his eldest brother Peter making wills in each others' favor ; and their widowed mother Christina marrying Lourens Petersen, who two years afterwards generously relinquishes Peter's contribution made for the lad's support. Two years later the three boys sell their farm at Gravesend and the family removes to Dutch Kills, and there in 1670 Johannes receives from his step-father 45 acres of upland and several acres of salt meadow, on or near the old Brutnell patent. From this time until his moving to New Jersey in 1697, we find more than 60 mentions of his transactions on the Newtown records; during the following 32 years of his life in West Jersey we find more than 40 mentions of his acts there in the records of his township, county and State. The greater part of all these refer to his numerous purchases of land and his suits in court, but others reveal his strong personality. We have found also six of his autographs, given above, and one document entirely in his own hand. With true Dutch obstinacy he long clung to his patronymic, writing his name Johannes Lourense, meaning Johannes the son of Lourens. This shows that his education was good, for accurate Dutch scholars tell us that Lourense is the correct patronymic of Lourens, of which Louris is another form. Later he added a w, Louwrense. In eight different deeds his name is written, (with slight variations of spelling by the clerk), Johannes Louwrensen op Dyck ; and in one, in 1713, Johannes Opdyck. The identification is certain. The same lands which he purchases under one name, he sells under the other; his stock-mark is always the same; his handwriting is always the same. His children are invariably called op Dyck, or Opdyck; they are thus married and thus baptize their children in the Dutch churches of New York and New Jersey, and they thus appear on hundreds of other records. And it is noticeable that the name is written in the Dutch form op Dyck ; where it is otherwise, it was doubtless the work of an English clerk, until the family finally accepted the change. Johannes however "is of the old rock.;" the Dutch patronymic is enough for him, and he rarely changes. In fact, if he had added his family surname it would be a reason for believing him not a true Hollander, but an Englishman, Frenchman or German. On his last bed of sickness, the old man once more relents and again signs Johannes Opdyck, to the will which the lawyer has so drawn; the neighbors so witness, the executors so prove, and the Governor so admits it to probate.

His home, during all the years he remained in Newtown, was on the old

156 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

Brutnell patent, which covered 100 acres on the east side of Dutch gills at the hook or point of entrance into Mespat Kill. Two miles east of him was Maspeth or English gills, the old ruined settlement of Richard Smith and his Taunton friends, broken up 20 years before by the savages. Three miles still further east was the more recent New England settlement, begun 12 years before under the name of Middelburg, a violently seditious colony, the leader of the English villages of Long Island in seceding to Connecticut and proclaiming allegiance to Charles II,- whereupon it called itself Hastings.At the English capture, the Duke of York named Long Island "Yorkshire," changed the name of Hastings to Newtown, "in the West '' Riding of Yorkshire," and gave it jurisdiction of Maspeth and Dutch Kills. :' The records of the town from 1659 are preserved in the Clerk's office at ', Newtown ; they contain the minutes of the town court to 1688, land titles to the Revolution, and town meetings until now. It was always an intensely English town, with an English Independent preacher, 'church and parsonage; in 1660, out of 35 males all were English but one Swede.

Johannes' home, as we have said, was five miles west, among a few Dutch farms planted 24 years before,-when the primeval forest was disturbed only by Indians, wild beasts and fowl, deer, beavers, and innumerable plumed songsters. The neighborhood could tell its own stories of dangers. Pieter Andriessen had been carried away captive by the savages nine years before, and the tale must have often been told by the young Andersons .'• while courting Johannes' three daughters. Only five years before, three Indians had come to the house of another Dutch settler at the Kills, and learning, while picking and boiling pigeons by the fire, that he had 80 guilders worth of wampum in the house, had that night murdered him„ his wife and two men. The Dutch farmers had concentrated for safety. On Smith's Island (now Maspeth Island), which they called Aernhem after the capital of Guelderland ; but their village had been broken up by order of the Council, that it might not 'hinder the growth of Bushwick, and the cottages had been removed. If any one now wishes to find Johannes' farm; let him cross the East River to Hunters Point and follow one mile up the: North bank of Newtown Creek until he crosses the north branch ; it is the tract between the east bank of this branch and the main creek, and runs eastward toward Calvary Cemetery. It is now a part of Long Island City' and adjoins Brooklyn.

Johannes' first 50 acres here, "bounded westerly by Burger's Creek." acquired when he was not yet 21 years old, may have been a gift of affection,:' for we find him the next year witnessing another deed of land at the gills,;,' to his brother Otto, from the step-father. Johannes' manhood was recognized two years later, when he signed a certificate of the election at Newtown of two deputies to wait upon the Commanders of the Dutch war ships. This is memorable as his first autograph so far found, but far more

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 157

memorable as being made upon an occasion of great Dutch .rejoicing. Holland and England had been at war, and two Dutch Commodores, returning from the West Indies, quietly sailed their fleet up New York Bay, anchored under the fort, and summoned the English garrison to surrender, which it did without a shot. How joyfully the news must have flown from house to house at the Kills: "The Dutch have captured New York!" The English towns on Long Island hastened to send their delegates to surrender the staff of office and English colors to their Dutch conquerors. As the Newtown deputies were Englishmen, it is believed that Johannes had the pleasure of acting as interpreter on this occasion. The next year a peace between England and Holland returned the province to the English, in exchange for Surinam yielded to the Dutch.

This was the end of the Dutch sovereignty in North America. But the city which they founded has become the commercial centre of the continent, and the whole province still retains many of the features of its original settlers. Our Christmas merrymakings and gifts, New Year calls with their cakes and punch, Santa Claus with his tiny reindeers, Mayday movings and Easter eggs, are traditions and customs which we owe to our Holland ancestors.

One year later, Johannes appears upon the Newtown census of 1675, as having ten acres under tillage and five head of cattle. We must recollect that the settlers enclosed only so much of their land as they kept in a high state of cultivation, pasture being free upon the common lands of the town. These common lands were allotted to the settlers from time to time, and Johannes soon receives ten acres as his share. By this time he is married to Tryntie (Catherine), and has named his first daughter Tryntie. He has been diligent and is now a prosperous farmer, able to buy the farm of his step-father, (50 acres of the Brutnell patent,) with the dwelling house and farm buildings, oxen and farming utensils " and a 12 gallon copper kettle," for all of which he pays 1,000 guilders down and 1,500 more before two years have expired, "paid in tobacco, wheat and peese," according to agreement. This year, 1678, he has 20 acres under tillage, three horses, two oxen and nine head of cattle. He receives another allotment of 10 acres of town land, and sells his first 50 acres to Humphrey Clay who has been running a ferry over Maspeth Creek and wishes a farm convenient to his boat-landing. The next year Johannes buys 17 more acres; and the following year he purchases 20 additional of the Brutnell patent, valuable land already under cultivation. Then he sells 27 acres he has acquired of the town land.

The court records of Newtown, as in all other early colonies, are an amusing history of local disputes. Men bring suit against their neighbors for poor fences, for trespasses of cattle, for every little ground of quarrel; then there is a return suit for slander; and soon all are good friends again.

158 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

Johannes is a party to twelve suits brought to a decision, of which he wins eight; others are settled by mutual agreement, or compromise in his favor. He found it necessary to maintain his rights perhaps the more frequently ,. for the reason that he was a Dutchman among Englishmen.

He evidently has a very strong sense of right and wrong. When his stock gets into Buckhout's pasture he " will not pay a stiver " to take his horse out of the pound, the fault probably being in Buckhout's fence. He has sharp words with Thomas Wandell about the encroachment of the latter's fence, and carries the matter to court, and Wandell is forced to make a just partition. An unnecessary suit is brought against him for a borrowed saddle, which he has lost but intends to replace; he sues the officious witness in this case for slander, and punishes him in damages. He himself is often a witness, amusing the court with a story of how the threatened lawsuit of Dr. Greenfield has been already settled by a kiss of the lovely widow Roelofsen, who, we are not surprised to find, soon marries again. At another time, he testifies " that he heard Edward Stevenson say he was to give John Bull ten shillings for to trim his orchard, but he had better given him some pounds to let it alone, for he had cut half the trees off it." He enjoys a game of cards, and, following the practice of all ranks of society at that day, he is not unwilling to play for a little money with honest men. But when he finds that his antagonist has cheated, he refuses payment and prosecutes the swindler relentlessly until he convicts him of the crime before judge and jury in the Mayor's Court of New York. He lacks the bump of veneration and tells the Newtown Justice that " he would do justice to some and not to others," whereupon of course he has to make his submission to the outraged majesty of the Court. Again, believing an allotment of town lands to be unfair, he declares in righteous indignation that the town records are false, and is made to retract '' by the land-grabbers who were always in a majority at Newtown.

But this is not the business of his life. He cares for his farm, and ap pears again upon the census in 1683 as a large cultivator. He is careful to record the ear-mark of his stock; he buys "a ball face horse with one white foot behind," "at an outcry;" he is interested in orchards, where the far famed Newtown pippin originated; he has his last purchases of land surveyed; he is one of the grantees under the Dongan patent; he joins with his old antagonist Wandell and another in an agreement to purchase 88 more acres; he receives another town lot; he is 12 times a witness to the deeds of others, and has become an authority in real estate even with his old court antagonists, from one of whom as godfather the son of Johannes receives a bequest by will.

Nor did Johannes forget that he was only four miles distant by water from New York, whither an hour's tide or a light oar would carry him on the then quiet river, past grassy banks under primeval forest trees. He

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 159

bought a lot on Gold Street, by deed duly recorded at the time on the New York City records, as can be seen now at the recorder's office. No doubt he and his family often paid a social visit to their Dutch friends in that flourishing little town, who would in turn row up the river on a visit to the gills for a rubber of whist. We are satisfied that on such occasions no more attempts at cheating were tried upon Johannes. If the guests lingered and their return home was delayed until after the nine o'clock city bell, their way through the streets of New York would still be lighted by the lanterns hung by poles from every seventh house.

On his farm Johannes raised wheat, peas, rye, corn, flax, and especially tobacco. His orchard produced in abundance apples, pears and peaches. As he cleared new land, he made the wood into pine-staves, a common article of export, for which Newtown elected two inspectors. There was also a town inspector of meat and fish barrelled for exportation; and Johannes' residence on the creek, near the river islands and Hellegat, would " supply him with fish before he could leave off the recreation." His eldest son Lawrence, (named in true Dutch style for the grandfather), could easily bring down with his gun a fat deer. The second son, Albert, could furnish the house with stores, of wild fowl, or amuse himself with spearing and trapping the valuable beaver. The daughters, Tryntie, Engeltie and Annetie, would readily find in the woods an oversupply of strawberries, raspberries, mulberries, huckleberries, cranberries, plums and grapes for the table. The garden furnished melons and any vegetable one chose to plant, with all the fruitfulness of a virgin soil." You shall scarce see a house but the south side is begirt with hives of bees which increase after an incredible manner," wrote Denton in 1670.

Surplus products he exchanged by barter, for currency was scarce; we find-one man buying a house and farm with "600 lbs. of tobacco, 1,000 clapboards and half a fat of strong beer;" another exchanging `° a negro boy" for land. Prices were: beef 2d, pork 3d, butter 6d per pound; wheat 5s, rye 2s 6d, corn 2s per bushel; victuals 6d per meal, labor 2s 6d per day, lodgings 2d per night, board 5s per week, beer 2d per mug.

His stock gave him little trouble. He sent the swine to the meadows on the south side of Long Island that they might live upon the shell-fish on the beach and not injure his corn fields. His cattle and young horses had grass knee-high on the town commons in summer, and his own meadows furnished them in winter the salt hay which was found necessary for their health.

Wolves were his worst enemies. It is related that one of the Newtown farmers, going at dusk to turn loose his horses,.was beset by a number of these beasts from a neighboring swamp, and drove them off only by spring ing upon a stump and lashing them lustily with the halters. The place still called Wolf Swamp is on the east side of the Narrow Passage. As we

160 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

find Johannes mentioned 1679 and 1690 as having owned ten acres adjoining "the Narrow Passage," he may have been the farmer who fought wolves, with halters. For their destruction the town offered a bounty of twenty shillings a head, to be paid by the constable, who nailed the heads over his door. They were caught by the Indians in traps, or killed with powder and shot which the whites allowed for this purpose. The Indians had in 1666 sold their last hunting grounds, and few remained at Newtown. Their stone axes and arrow heads are still ploughed up; extensive deposits of burnt shells, the remains of their clam roasts, have been used to fertilize the`' farms; the marks of their burial places are at this day obliterated, but the' localities are known.

The neighborhood was given another serious alarm in 1675 by the Indian war in New England. Through the advice of the Governor, the English of Newtown surrounded their meeting house with a stockade for a refuge,; kept a "double and strict watch," and seized all the canoes on the north shore. But the defeat of the savages in New England and the death of King Philip put an end to their fears. The Dutch farmers at the distant; Kills must have fortified their homes, or built a fort of their own, we are told that Bushwick and other villages were surrounded by palisades until 1720..:

Johannes had to attend militia drill four days every year, and one day the general training of the Riding. We picture to ourselves a strong, solid,' determined figure, with brown hair, blue eyes and Opdyke features, carrying "a good serviceable gunn, a good sword, bandoleers or horne, a worme, a scowerer, a priming wire, shot bag and charger; one pound of good powder, four pounds of pistol bullets, or 24 bullets fitted to the gunn, four fathom of serviceable match for match-lock gunn, or four good flints fitted for a fire-lock gunn." Thus equipped he would repair on horseback to Newtown to be instructed "in all postures of warre, watching and ward ing." If he failed to attend, he must pay a fine, which went to furnish the company with halberds or battle-axes, drums and colors. Disorder conduct on parade was punished with the " stocks, riding wooden horse," &c. The drill was begun and ended with public prayer, and followed by a town meeting where laws were enacted that settlers must maintain fences,. grub the highway, and remove stumps in front of their lots. On such occasions the character of new-comers was investigated before they were allowed to settle; a new clergyman was called and given fifty acres for hi".; support. Johannes must have voted for the town-meeting declaration which abolished the compulsory tax to maintain the Independent Church; substituting "a free-will offering, what every man will give." He doubtless dropped down the river in his skiff to attend the Dutch Church at New York, or drove his stout farm team and wagon to Brooklyn or over the hills to Flatbush. Unfortunately a great part of the old church records of Brooklyn and Flatbush are now lost.

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 161

The census of 1683 showed, that Johannes had more cultivated acres and stock than the average of his fellow townsmen. Newtown then contained about 500 population, one eighth as many as New York, for that now mighty city could boast that year only 4,000 people.

In 1687 the Newtown militia mustered 125 men. In 1692 its first fulling-mill was erected. It always encouraged honest craftsmen to settle, by giving them land. The distant little neighborhood at Dutch Kills formed an independent community, where every farmer practiced some useful mechanical branch.

Thatched roofs were passing away. Toil had brought comfort, but no luxuries. Carpets were yet unknown. Furniture was of heavy oak. The table was still set with pewter platters and plain earthenware. Few families used table forks, for it was the universal fashion to eat with the fingers. The usual dress was of homespun linsey-woolsey. For a prosperous farmer the dress suit was a black or grey coat of this material, tight breeches of deerskin fastened with huge buckles at the knee, long hose, stout shoes with brass or silver-plated buckles, and a large beaver hat. We suspect however that Johannes retained the Dutch belted doublet, easy short clothes, and tapering hat. Neighbors showed more friendship than now; if needed, they assisted in harvest, or brought their teams to help cart home the winter store of wood when cut. Wives and daughters came to the corn-husking and the spinning-frolic, plying their wheels at the latter until the flax or wool of the hostess was converted into thread. We doubt if any could show a neater house or whiter yarn than Catherine and her girls.

The time arrives when Johannes is blessed" with a large family of children; two of his daughters are married, and three infantile voices call him grandfather. Dutch Kills are too small for his household and herds. His sons and sons-in-law want more room. Restless spirits are talking of the Jerseys as a very paradise for climate and soil, how its government is liberal, taxes low, land plentiful and cheap. Letters are read, and experienced men are quoted, that between the Raritan and the Delaware is a rich rolling country where clear streams are crossed with every mile of travel, "where you shall meet with no inhabitants but a few friendly Indians, where there are stately oaks whose broad-branched tops .have no other use but to keep off the sun's heat from the wild beasts of the wilderness, where is grass as high as a man's middle, that serves for no other end except to maintain the elks and deer, who never devour a hundredth part of it, then to be burnt every Spring to make way for new." Can we wonder that Johannes and his family longed to settle upon those broad acres? We imagine these keen resolute men and courageous women thoughtfully discussing the matter by the winter fireside, while the plan was encouraged by the unanimous voice of the children, fired with the spirit of adventure.

162 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

The history of the Jerseys was more familiar then than it is now. The. Dutch West India Company had never successfully settled "Achter Kol," as they sometimes called it, excepting along the Hudson. On the Delaware River the Indians had murdered the first Dutch colonists at Gloucester and Fort Nassau, the Dutch and Swedes had joined in driving off an English colony from Salem, and the Dutch fleet had captured and shipped back to. Europe the Swedish colonists between Camden and Cape May. In 1664 there were a few small settlements on the Hudson and Delaware, containing not 500 people in all. The interior lay buried in mystery, unsettled and unexplored. Some paths led the Indians from the mountains to gather stores of shell and fish at the seashore. Two old Indian trails kept open the communication between New York and the forts on the Delaware, and the infrequent intercourse was maintained by letters and packages carried from tribe to tribe by Indian runners. Charles II granted the territory to his brother the Duke of York who sold it to his friends Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, naming it after the island of Jersey which Carteret had held for Charles against the Parliament. Berkeley sold West Jersey for £1,000 to Fenwick and Byllinge, who transferred it in 1674 to William Penn and other Quakers. The West Jersey Constitution and Laws, adopted at Burlington, gave more religious and political freedom than was then elsewhere known; it was far more the cradle of liberty in America than the boasted Rhode Island, Maryland, or Pennsylvania. East Jersey was bought at auction by Penn and his Quaker friends in 1682 for £3,400 and the Jerseys were then united in one government under an Assembly meeting at Elizabeth Town, which had been named for the wife of Sir George Carteret. The West Jersey Proprietors continued to conduct land sales at their office in Burlington, where their surveys are preserved to this day by their Surveyor General. The new settlers of the Jerseys were at first largely the persecuted, Quakers and Baptists from England and New England, Covenanters from Scotland, and Huguenots from France. Shiploads came from England, direct from imprisonment for religion's sake A few Dutch and English from Long Island settled in Monmouth County or were scattered along the Raritan. There were not 2,000 males over 16 years of age in the Jerseys in 1697, when Johannes made a journey of investigation, saw the land that it was good, and bought in April 250 acres above the Falls of the Delaware."

In May or June the whole family moved from Dutch Kills in wagons, and in carts, with horses and oxen, furniture and farming utensils,-their herds of stock in the rear doubtless driven by a negro slave or two, who formed part of the establishment of every prosperous planter in those days. Their route lay through Flatbush to a ferry at the Narrows, across Staten Island, and up the Raritan to its lowest fording-place, Inian's Ferry. Here they were perhaps joined by the women and children who had come in the

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 163

easier way by boat on the Bay. Thence they followed the old Indian trail, then called "the King's highway," across the State,-in recent days the turnpike from New Brunswick through Princeton to Trenton, none of which towns were even contemplated at the period we are describing. In the party were Enoch, Joshua and Cornelius Anderson, husbands of Tryntie, Engeltie and Annetie. We can faintly imagine the delight of all at the far rolling views, the ever-varying scenery of hill and dale, the richness of the vegetation, and the beauty of the babbling brooks by whose sides they encamped and ate of the fish, game and fruit of the untrodden forest.

The letters of the first West Jersey settlers read as though they could scarcely find words to express their enthusiasm. " It is a country that produceth all things for the support and sustenance of man in a plentiful manner. If it were not so, I should be ashamed of what I had written before." "I have travelled throughout most of the places that are settled and some that are not, and in every place I find the country very apt to answer the expectations of the diligent." " I have seen and known this summer forty bushels of wheat of one bushel sown, and many more such instances I could bring which would be too tedious to mention.""The country is a brave country." "As good a country as any man need to dwell in." "As good as any in England." The Delaware was universally described as "a goodly and noble river," the soil was rich and fertile. " The air," wrote Gabriel Themes in 1698, " is very delicate, pleasant and wholesome, the heavens serene, rarely overcast, bearing mighty resemblance to the better part of France." They found the country good; "so good," wrote one, "that I do not see how reasonably it can be found fault with. The country and air seem very agreeable to our bodies, I do believe this river of Delaware is as good a river as most in the world."

On went Johannes and his family across Millstone River and Stony Brook, to the Eight Mile Run of the Assanpink, six miles east of the Delaware river, close to what is now Lawrenceville of Lawrence township in Mercer County. It was then Burlington County of West Jersey, up to the New York State line; and the whole unsettled country north of the Assanpink, from the Delaware to the old province line, was called Maidenhead after a castle in England. From it three years later was set off Hopewell township; and it was not until 1714 that Maidenhead, Hopewell, and all north of them were set off as Hunterdon County.

Johannes had chosen well, and his locality was soon settled by the most enterprising of his old neighbors of Newtown. Most of the names which we find on the records belonging to Maidenhead are those which we have found for 50 years previous at Newtown. No better men ever settled in the wilderness. They made the land blossom as a garden, and 'their names are now borne in all parts of our country by deserving descendants, who have however forgotten their worthy ancestors at Maidenhead. But

164 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

these pioneers have left their mark, and Lawrence township is now filled, with fine old farm mansions surrounded by grand shade trees and richly; cultivated fields. The stranger recognizes at once the presence of long continued prosperity and historical associations. The author passed through it on horseback, from Princeton to Trenton, before he knew its history or its connection with his ancestors, and he was much struck by it even then.

There is a well-preserved tradition among the desoendants that the carts, of the Opdyck settlers were turned up at night to shelter the women and` children until a few days work with axes and stout arms had prepared the first log-houses, into which the family moved with sensations of which perhaps we in our days have no conception.

Food was abundant; it was from the mouth of the Assanpink that Mahlon Stacy wrote a short time before: "I have seen peaches in such plenty that some people took their carts a peach gathering. I could not but smile at the conceit of it. They are a very delicate fruit and hang almost like onions that are tied on ropes. My brother Robert had as many cherries this year as would have loaded several carts. It is my judgment by what I have observed, that fruit trees in this countr destroy themselves by the very weight of their fruit. As for venison and owls we have great great plenty. We have brought home to our houses by the Indians seven or eight fat bucks of a day; and sometimes put by as many, having no occasion for them and fish in their season very plenteous. * * * There is plenty of beef and pork and good sheep, and cheap. * * * The common grass of the country feeds beef very fat. * * * In Burlington there are eight or nine fat oxen and cows in a market day and very fat. * * *

There are plenty of most sorts of fish ever seen in England besides new ones not known there; * * * and fowls plenty, as ducks, geese, turkeys, pheasants, partridges and many others. * * * I live as well to my content and in as great plenty as I ever did, and in a far more likely way to get an estate."

Meanwhile Johannes himself, exploring further, has on July 12th bough four miles to the northwest, 1050 acres (in fact 1300 acres) extending 1 3/8 miles north and south, 2 miles east and west, and including the site of the present village of Pennington, the largest single purchase in Hopewell. Four months later he buys 200 acres more, adjoining the "land laid out for the town's use." All of these are deeded to Johannes Louwrensen op Dyck; and in this name he records at Burlington his same old ear-mark of stock. Early in the next year he appears third on the list of 33 male inhabitants of Maidenhead who take a deed of 100 acres in trust, "for ye Erecting of a Meeting House and for Burying Ground and School House, the list includes his son Lawrence and his three Anderson sons-in-law. Then, during three years, he is a member of the Grand Jury at Burlington. He seems to have owned a tract on Stony Brook within Maidenhead," according to a deed in 1701 from Ralph Hunt to Wm. Alburtus. He sells his large purchase of what is now Pennington for £200, double what it cost him. In the Supreme Court at Burlington he defends a suit which is with-drawn the following year. He buys 12 acres in what is now Trenton and

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 165

sells it to his son-in-law Epoch; who becomes later one of the founders of that city, and is already Judge of Common Pleas of the Court held at Burlington. In 1708 Johannes writes with his own hand the certificate signed by Ralph Hunt and himself, and quoted later. Four years later he joins in a Town Meeting where he, his son Lawrence, and two of his sons-in-law, are among the largest subscribers to the expenses of setting off Hunterdon County. The next year "Johannes Opdyck of Maidenhead" gives a quitclaim deed for the 50 acres on Dutch gills which he received from his step-father in 1670 and sold in 1678 to Humphrey Clay.

The New Jersey records from 1697 to 1713 describe him as of Maidenhead. In 1714 he is mentioned in a deed as adjoining Alexander Lockhart and Captain Hallet, upon Stony Brook in Hopewell; this may be the date of his removal to the new township where he owned several tracts of land.It was in Hopewell that his son Albert was one of the founders of the Baptist Church, and that Annetie's husband Cornelius Anderson had a mill near a school-house, was tax-collector and one of the founders of the first Presbyterian church (at Ewing), as was also Tryntie's husband Enoch Anderson, who owned a large part of Trenton, then in Hopewell. Trenton then "contained scarcely a house;" and in a private dwelling there (perhaps Epoch's) was held the new Hunterdon County Court from 1714 to 1719, and alternately at the church meeting-house in Maidenhead. In 1721 Johannes was 70 years of age, yet some evil-doer in Hunterdon County stood in such terror of the old man's physical vigor as to apply to the Court for protection. The early records of Hopewell township are lost, as are those of the Presbyterian churches of Maidenhead and Hopewell. A Dutch Clergyman from Bucks County, Pa., baptised in Hopewell six children of Annetie, Tryntie, and Engeltie in 1710 and 1712; Lawrence baptised a son in the Dutch church of the Raritan in 1704. The records of the Dutch churches are in the language of Holland, as was their preaching; we know therefore that Johannes and his children still clung to the Dutch religion and language even in the Jersey wilderness.

It would seem from mentions in deeds for adjoining land that Johannes must have owned yet other tracts than those above described. The two large volumes at Trenton, called Bass and Revel's Books, contain chiefly deeds from the West Jersey proprietors, and are written so fine as to strain the eyes to read even with a magnifying glass. Conveyances from individuals were not usually recorded but were preserved only in private chests and attics. It is only from another conveyance forty years later that we learn that Johannes, a few years before his death, sold or gave to his son-in-law Enoch 150 acres of his first purchase. He no doubt followed the old custom and while still living divided the bulk of his property among his children.

During the 32 years of Johannes' life in West Jersey, the country was a

166 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

sparsely settled frontier. Trenton was just started, Princeton and Pennington were not yet begun. The only thing like a village, in all of West Jersey north of Burlington, was this settlement now called Lawrenceville, where his son Lawrence and son-in-law Joshua Anderson remained and were prominent. The trading was done at Burlington, which in those days was a rival of Philadelphia. In 1715 there were only four or five houses along the King's Highway between New Brunswick and the "Falls of the Delaware " (Trenton), but in 1730 it was described with pride as "a continual lane of fences and good farm-houses," and eighteen years later as the best peopled place in America outside of the towns.

When we imagine Johannes' Jersey home, we think of no high-posted and canopied bedstead, tall clock or tiled fire-place. We picture a long log-house, with half doors; and chimney wide enough to hold the family and smoke the venison, with great logs hauled in by oxen through the opposite doors. The floor is carpeted with white sand from the seashore. On the walls are deer-skin suits and fur coats; from the beams hang guns, powder horns and nets. Above in the garret is stored a heavy heap of grain. No bolt is on the door; with true Dutch hospitality, rum, sugar, and molasses, or the barrel of cider, stand ever ready for the guest. Outside the house are nailed wolf and panther heads. In the rear are the oven the forge, the carpenter's shop, the wooden ploughs and the sickles. On the front stoop, beneath the shadows of giant forest trees, sits Johannes watching his great-grandchildren swinging on grape-vines from boughs one hundred feet above, while his sleek horses and large Holstein cattle lie in the tall grass of the meadow on the Run, and the yellow grain waves its forty-fold increase in the newly cleared fields.

Feb. 12, 1729, at the age of 78 years, Johannes Opdyck made his will in Hopewell. His wife was already dead. In the touching formula and quaint spelling of the day, he left his property to be equally divided among his eight children then living, and appointed his son Lawrence and grandson Eliakim, son of Annetie, his executors. Two months later he died and the will was admitted to probate by Governor Montgomery; it is now preserved, with a few others of that period, in the vaults of the State House at Trenton. The statement of his executors is beautifully engrossed and stitched with silk cord, in a style superior to that of other similar papers there filed; we have reproduced its first page.

The burial place of Johannes and his wife is unknown. The graveyards of the old Dutch church at Harlingen and of the Presbyterian churches of Lawrenceville and Ewing contain many tombstones of sufficient antiquity, but their inscriptions are now illegible. Perhaps the aged couple were solemnly laid to rest in some private enclosure amidst the forest they loved so well, where the keenest eye may now search in vain for their levelled hillocks and gray stones.

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 167

Let us revere the name of our sturdy ancestor, who in two States met the savage, the wild beast and the wilderness, and left in their stead the farm, the mill, the school, the organization of township and county, the deter mined Dutch love of freedom under just and equal law. It was a long stride in civilization. His descendants have inherited the benefits of his life as unconsciously as they have many of the traits of his character.

Records.

1660, Mch. 16; .. 1662, Jan. 9 ; .. 1664, July 3. Johannes Loras, his mother, brothers and step-father Loras Peeters at Gravesend. See records already quoted under Louris Jansen Opdyck.

1670, Mch. 10. Johanas Loroson of Maspeth gills buys of his father-in-law (step-father) Lorens Petersen, land 45 rods broad and 300 rods long, with salt meadows thereto belonging, "between the land of Jno. Riders and the sd land of Jno. Woolstencraft * * * for a certain parcel of money in hand paid." (The dimensions given, in Dutch measurement, show the land to have contained 22 1/2 morgens, or 45 acres in English measure).. (Newtown Rec. I, small page 134.)

1678; Feb. 2. Immediately following the record of the conveyance just quoted comes: "I Johanes Loroson above sd doe and by these present assing and make over unto Humfry Clay Juner his eayrs Executor or assing for Ever this bove Land or Madow with all the Rites therin spasifyet in the bove sd bill of sayle. * * * (Autograph.) "Johanes Lourense".(Newtown Rec. I, small page 134.)

1680, Jan. 19. In the second and larger book of Newtown records, now bound with the earlier and smaller book, we find: "I Humphry Clay Juner formerly of newtowne doe asine and make over unto Thomas parsell of the same place all my Rite & titell off bill of sale that was assinged over unto mee from Johanes Lorason In the yere 1677-8 being Recorded In the ould boock of Records of this towne, * * * & do owne to have receaved a negroe boy of the sd parcel in full Satisfaction. Witnes Johanes Loroson."..(Newtown Rec. I, large page 140.)

1682, Feb. 22. Thomas Parsell transfers all his interest in the bill of sale recorded "in the leafe: page 139" (consisting of pages 139 and 140), to William Alburtis .... (Newtown Rec. I, large page 138.)

(This phrase, " leafe: page 139," was doubtless meant to refer both to page 140 just cited, as well as to page 139 where was recorded another conveyance from Humphry Clay to Thomas Parsell, on the same day, for the same consideration, and for what seems to have been adjoining land).

1686, May 5. William Alburtis transfers all his interest " of this bill of sale " to Thomas Skillman . . . (Newtown Rec. I, large page 329.)

There being no record of any other conveyance by Alburtis after the bill of sale from Parsell to him in 1682, we conclude that this transfer of 1686 refers to the one of 1682 and was probably endorsed on its back. Alburtis's transfer to Skillman not being recorded in conjunction with his purchase from Parsell and not describing it, a doubt would have arisen from the records as to what Skillman's purchase covered, and this

168 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

doubt must have been increased by the ambiguity of the " leafe : page 139" above mentioned. It was probably to remove this uncertainty that the following quit-claim deed was given.

1713, Aug. 8. "Johannes Opdyck of Maidenhead * * * for divers good Causes and Considerations * * * hath Remised Released and forever Quitt Claymed * * * unto Thomas Skillman of Newtown * * * all that certain meassuage or Tenement and plantation now in the possession of ye sd Skillman Situate Lying and being at Mashpath gills in ye limits of Newtown above sd containing by estimate fifty acres more or less, and is bounded as followeth (viz) Northerly by the land heretofore belonging to John Woolstencraft & now in ye possession of ye sd Thomas Skillman * * * Southerly by ye land formerly belonging to Daull. Whitehead but now in the possession of Jacob Fyn and Westerly by Burgers

Creek * * * Johannes Opdyck"...... (Newt. R., III, 15: ),

That this was the same land that Johannes bought of hi step-father in 1669, is shown by the concurrence of the following facts:

1. Both conveyances mention John Woolstencraft as an adjoining owner; and Jacob Fyn, mentioned as an ad= pining owner in the last conveyance. is known to have acquired land, at Mespat gills and adjoining Brutnell's patent, through John Rider mentioned as an adjoining owner in the first conveyance.

2. The 45 acres "with salt meadow thereto belonging" o the first conveyance closely correspond with the `° fifty acres, more or less," of the last conveyance.

3. There are no other conveyances by or to Thomas Skill' man, that are not clearly of other land.

It is remarkable that Johannes did not execute this quit-claim deed of 1713, in the name (Johannes Lourense) in which he had originally taken and given the title, as is the legal custom. We must infer that his old neighbors request that he sign his correct name Johannes Opdyck.

1671, Aug. 11. Johannes Lourensen witnesses a deed of land at Mesp gills from Loras Peterson to Otto Louris.. (Newt. R.,1, small page 71.)

1673, Aug. 6. Johannes Lourense and others sign a certificate of the election at Newtown of two deputies to wait upon the commanders of the Dutch war ships, (doubtless the ships that had just captured New York). Autograph ................ (Newt. R., I, small page 176.)

1675, Sept. Johanes Lorus appears on " A List of the Estate of Newtow Septr. 1675," for 1 male, 10 upland (his house lot or arable land) and meadow, 1 cow, 1 three year old, 2 two year olds, 1 one year old and 1 pig ........................... (Doc. Hist. N. Y., II, 267.)

1676, Feb. 20. Johannes Lourenson is a witness with Thomas Wandell to a deed for land at Mespat gills ....................... (Newt. R.)

1678, Jan. 31. Johanis Loroson buys of his father-in-law (step-father) Lorens Peterson, both of Maspeth gills, "lot of lands and orchets and land and dwelling housing and all other buildings therewith belonging and also one pair of oxen and all other materials belonging unto the farm and one copper kettle holding about 12 gallons ; the said land being bounded by the land of Peter Roullosons to the E., and on the W. that land that was Wm. Shackerlyes, on the rare bounded by

Thos. Wandell * * * for the just sum of 2500 guilders wampum

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 169

or the value thereof, to be paid in tobacco and wheat and peese, to be paid in four payments, the first to be paid in April the year 1676, 1000 guilders; the second in April 1677, 500 guilders; the third and the last of April 1678 and 1679, 500 guilders pr. yere all the full sum to be paid."

Receipt for 1720 guilders paid the same day. ... (Newt. R., I, 133.)

1680, Nov. 19, receipt for the full 2500 guilders," wampum value."

1678, Feb. 2. Johanes Lourense sells to Humphry Clay Jr. the land that he had bought from his step-father in 1670. Autograph.... (Newt. R., I.134.)

1678, Apr. 1. Johanes Lores and Peter Rouleson are each allotted by the town of Newtown about 10 acres of land "for ther owne forever not interrupting any man's lots ........... (Newt. R., I.)

1678, Sep. 24. Johanis Lores appears on "A List of the Estates of the Inhabitance of Newtowne, on L. I.," for 1 head, 20 land, (20 acres under tillage,) 2 oxen, 3 coves, 1 three-year-old, 5 year-old, 2 horses, 1 two-year-old, 1 swine ......... (Doc. Col. Hist. N. Y. XIV, 738.)

1678. Dec. 11. Johanas Loreson has laid out for him of upland " 10 acres or therabouts nex to Peter Rouloson's 80 rods long, 20 rods wide, running as the other doth, fronting both towards Woolstencraft's meadow, lying nere Burgers Slus................ (Newt. R., I, 96.)

1678, Dec. 21. Johanis Loroson witnesses a deed from Peter Roullson to John Desent, of 10 acres similar to and adjoining the above..(Newt. R., I, 110.)

1679, Oct. 7. Johanes Loroson buys the last-mentioned 10 acres. . . . (Newt. R., I,110. )

1679, Oct. 13. Johanes Loroson buys of John Desent 7 acres more or less that has been laid out 29 Sep. 1679, "bounded on the W. by Johanes Loroson land, on the E. by land of Thos. Parsell, on the S. by Jno.Woolstencraft, and on the N. by the path that goes to Rivers Mill, running 20 rods in breadth, near the Narrow Passage that goes into Hell Gate Neck .............................. (Newt. R., 1, 149.)

1680, Feb. 3. Johanes Loroson testifies in a suit at Newtown between Dr. John Greenfield and the widow Roelofson: "Johanes Loroson aged 29 yers or therabouts, being sworne in Court that dockter Greenfield and Gershom Moore came to the hous of John Desent and the sd Greenfield did in the pr'sents of this deponent speek to the Counstable to summons the widow Roullson to Court, whereupon the Counstable sd that he would send for the widdow that they may agree without going to Court. Soe she came, and after some word betweene them the sd dockter sd if slice would give him a kis he would aquit her of what was betwene them; and she did soe, and give each other the hand upon it and further saith not"... (Newt. Ct. R., 112.)

1680, Jan. 19. Johanes Loroson witnesses two deeds of Humphry Clay.... (Newt. .R., I, 139-40.)

1680, Apr. 29. Johanis Loroson, for 12 pounds and 10 shillings, buys of Thos. Wandell " a certain parcel of land lying at the said (Mespat) Kills, beginning at a certain stake by the land of John Woolstencrafts, running S. S. W. by the rere of Thos. Parcells, 61 rods in length, and ranging into the woods, in breadth 52 rods, Run N. N. E. 61 rods and thence W. N. W. 52 rods. In all 20 acres .... (Newt. R., 1, 175.)

1680, Apr. 30. Johanes Loroson witnesses a deed of Thos. Wandell.. (Newt. R., I, 185.)

1680, May 4. Johanes Loroson is defendant in "action of debt due bill"

170 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

brought by Robert Barloe. * * * "The court finds for the deff and that it is a needles sute and the plt is to pay the cost of sut." (Newt. Ct, R., 117.)

1680, June 23. Johanas Loroson is defendant in an action of debt " due by bill" brought by Robt. Barloe. "The Court finds for the plaintiff. That the bill is due and is to be paid in three dayes according to bill at Johanes house In Newtowne: thay alsoe find the sute to be needles and upon that acount the plltif is to pay the Cost of Sates ".. (Newt. Ct. R., 118)

1680, Nov. 29. Johaness Lorason sells to Thos. Parsell 27 acres " or thereabouts." The description shows this to be the ten acres laid out for Johannes in Dec. 1678, and the ten and seven acres bought by hin of Desent in Oct. 1679........................ (Newt. R., I, 185.)

1681, Feb. 22. Johanes Loroson witnesses a deed by Thos. Parsell.. . . (Newt. R., I, 138.)

1681, Aug. 1. Johannes Loras witnesses a deed by Thos. Wandell. .. . (Newt. R., I, 195.)

1681, Aug. 23. "Johes Laurensen Ptf., Edward Tayler Deft. The plt having Attached the Deft's estate to Answer him in an action of Trespasse upon the Case to ye Value of forty eight pounds, And in his Declaracon Declared against him ye Deft. for Cheateing him att play, but mentioned noe Time. The Deft, pleaded the Variance between the Writt and the Declaracon & Therefore prayed a non-suite, wch the Court thought fitt to grant and Ordered the plt. to pay Costs.

" The Sd Plt. Cbargeing the Deft. to be a Cheate & that he would prove it. The Court Ordered him to be bound over in 50 1. Recognizance to O'r. Sovereigne Lord the King to prosecute & make good the same. And the Deft. in the like to Answer this Court, which the(y) Accordingly Entered into in Open Court."

Two pages later: "Johannes Laurenson, who as well &c. Presented an Indictmt. agt. Edward Tayler for Cheateing him att Cards. To wh the sd Tayler pleaded not Guilty. Partyes with their Evidences being fully heard & matter Debated, It was Reffered to ye Jury, who found him Guilty of Cheate according to Evidence. The sd Tayler being a Souldier in the Garrisson, the Court Resolved to acquaint Capt. Brockholls therewith before they proceed to Judgm't" (Min. of Mayor's Court, in Office Clerk Ct. Coin. Pl., N. Y. City.)

The rough minutes of the court give a fuller account of Johannes's prosecution against Tayler: * * * "ffranseway Supines Deposition Read. Theophilus Crawford Sworne Sayth yt abt. ye 18^th or 19 of Aprill last he saw Lawrenson & Tayler play att Cards att ye house of Abram Corbett. & then 18 sh was lost, & ye next day 6 sh more & bills were given. & abt. ye 26th of May he heard Tayler owne yt he had Cheated him. - but saw no cheating play."

"Johes Lawrenson Sworne Sayth that Tayler Confessed to him he Cheated him and Darby troad on his foot.

"Darby Bryan & Lucas Bryan declared their knowledge. Bryan sayes he knew of noe Cheating play * * * Reffered to ye jury * * * Who find him guilty of Cheateing according to Evidence."

1681, Dec. 21. Johannes Larensen is defendant in a suit brought by Jno. Tuder before the Court of Sessions for Kings County at Gravesend, L. I. It was an action for debt on a bill for 12 pounds made by defendant 19 Apr. 1681. The defense seems to have been that the bill was given upon a gaming consideration. The written testimony of one witness was "that he saw Edward Taylor and Johannes Lau-

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 171

rensen playing at cards at Abr. Corlet's, and did observe that Darby Bryan looked in Taylor's face and put his foot to Taylor's, supposing to give notice what cards he had in his hand."

The matter was then still " depending " at the Mayor's Court of New York.

At a later court held at Gravesend 21 Jun. 1682 judgment was given for the Pltf. with costs, and the deft's motion for a review was denied....... . ... (Kings Co. Ct. Rec. 21. Co. Clerk's Off., Bkln.)

1682, Dec. 12. Johannes Lawrenson recorded the plaintiff's receipt for 6 pounds in full satisfaction for the judgment. (Queens Co. Deeds, A., 2.)

1682, Feb. 9. Johannes Lawrenson testifies before Court of Sessions at Gravesend............................. (Kings Co. Ct. Rec., 27.)

1682, Jun. 22. Johannes Lawrenson testifies before Court of Sessions at Gravesend in a criminal prosecution against Katharine Shaycroft... (Kings Co. Ct. Rec.)

1682, Sep. 5. Johanes Loroson is defendant in an action of debt brought before the Town Court at Newtown by Jno. Woolstencraft. Judgment for plaintiff with costs; and Johanis Loroson brings an action of debt in the same Court against Jno. Woolstencraft. Judgment for plaintiff with costs.. (Newt. Ct. R., 140, 3.)

1682, Oct. 3. Johanis Loroson is defendant in an action of trespass on the case brought by Peter Johnson Buckhood. Wm. Alburtis, "aged 30 years or thereabouts," testified on oath that "Buckhood came to this deponent's house and desired me to come to price some damage that Johannis horse and cattle had done him; and when I came thither I saw Johannis cattle in Peter's pasture, and the sd Peter told me that he had his horse in hould also; so myself and Thos. Parsell looked over the damage and value it to four scippell of Indian corn. And so we went to the wife of Johannis to demand the damage, her husband being not at home. So she made answer if her creatures had done the damage she would pay it. So the sd Peter questioning whether her husband would agree to it. So I advised the said Peter to let the woman have the cattle, and to keep the horse whilst her husband came home, and further saith not."

Roullif Peterson, "aged 27 years or thereabout " testified on oath that" Buckhood asked Johanis Loroson whether he would pay the damage that his creatures had done, and the sd Johanis sd he would not pay hint a stiver; so, Replied Peter, I will bring the horse to the pound. So replied Johanis, you may if you will, for I will never fetch him out, and further saith not."

Judgment for the plaintiff with costs, and " if Johanes Loroson will not Replefe his horse and pay the Cost, then the horse to be sold forthwith............................ (Newt. Ct. R., 142, 3.)

1682, Dec. 5. Johanes Loroson is defendant in an action of trespass on the case brought by Jno. Rider. Judgment for the defendant with costs.................................... (Newt. Ct. R., 146, 7.)

1682, Dec. 5. Johanis Loroson is defendant in an action of debt brought by Jno. Woolstencraft. "I, John Rider, am ready to depose that Johannes Lawrence brought a bridle and saddle belonging to Mr. Woolstencrafts to my house, and some tyme after, itt being night, bee tould me bee tooke them out of my house and went to Jamaica where bee lost the saddle, but had left order to see to gett it, else he must pay for it." Judgment for the plaintiff, "and that the def do return the Saddell and Bridell or the value, with Cost of Sate." (Newt. Ct. R., 146, 7.)

172 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

1682, Dec. 5. Johanis Loroson enters an action of slander against Jno. Rider. Judgment for the plaintiff, "and the def to pay the plaintif tenn shillings and cost of sute............... (Newt. Ct. R., 146, 8.)

1682, Dec. 5. Johanis Loroson enters a complaint against Wm. Alburtis. Judgment for the defendant with costs...... (Newt. Ct. R., 146, 8.)

1682, Dec. 20. At a Court of Sessions held at Gravesend, " The Constable of Newtown presents Johannes Lourenson for giving the Justice abusive Language and saying he would doe Justice to some and not to others. Upon his submission to ye Ct. and Justice Betts, * * * the Ct. will pass it bye at this time.".. .. (Kings Co. Ct. Rec., 14:)

1683, June 20. Johannes Lowrenson testifies in a suit at Newtown, brought by Thos. Wandell against Geo. Wood.

1683, Sep. Johanis Loroson appears on a "Rate List of Newtown 1683" for 1 head, 20 acres land, 2 horses, 4 cows, 3 sheep. . . : . (Doc. Hist. N. Y. 11, 299.)

1684, Feb. "Johanes Loros his Marke is two half pennyes on the of Eare: One on the upper Side, and the other on the Under Side: and a slitt in the neare Eare on the Under side of the Eare, a littel Slanting."... .................................. (Newt. Ct. R., 248:)

1684, May 7. Johanes Loroson enters two actions of debt against the Estate of Mathias Barry, one on a bill to the value of 37 guilders and 8 stivers, and 5 gallons of molasses, and the other on accounts to the value of 20 shillings and other damage to the value of 15 guilders::; Judgment in one of these suits was given for the plaintiff with costs. (Newt. Ct. R., 160.

Sep. 3, in the other suit " The Court doth order that the sd ball ball hors shall be delivered into the hands of Johanes Loroson to be kept by him 15 days, but if he be not redeemed in that time then to be sold at an out cry to defray charge to pathe debt as far forth as it will Reach ................................ (Newt. Ct. R., 164.)

Sep. 20. "This may certify whom it may concern that I Johannis Loroson of Maspeth Kills in the limits of Newtown do own to have sold unto Moses Pettit of the same town a certain horse called Bill with one white foot, behind, it is the off foot: and a ball face with a half penny under he near ear: and do warrant this my sale good: and to defend the same: * * * This certain horse was bought at an out cry by the sd Johanas: held the 17th of September 1684." Signed (autograph "Johannes Lourense, Moses Pettit"......(Newt. R. I.274.)

1684, Sep. 3. "Johanes Loroson testifyeth upon oath that he heard Edward Stevenson say he was to give John Bull ten shillings for to trim his orchard, but he had better have given him some pounds to Lett it alone, for he had Cut halfe the trees off, and further saith not."; (Newt. Ct. R., 164.)

1684, Jun. 17. Johanes Loroson and Peter Buckhood take quit-claim from Jno. Pallmer and wife of land bought from Rich. Britnell by her father, Robt. Clark........................... (Newt. R., I, 271.)

This land was sold Dec. 20, 1652, by Brutnell to Robert Clark Some dissatisfaction arising, Gov. Nicolls on Nov. 6, 1667, cted Louris Petersen &. others to appear and show by what title they hold the land you are seated upon at Mespat Kills * * * hereofore belonging to Mr. Robert Clark." Thomas Wandell and Daniel Whitehead certify Oct. 8, 1667, "that Louris Petersen hath bought and paid for a tract of land to James Clark, surgeon, of late deceased of Mespat gill," and which the widow acknowledged; said land fronting on Mespat Kill, and on the rear joining to land of Thomas

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 173

Wandell, who had also bought some of the Brutnell patent. Johannes, buying from Petersen, obtains the above release from Clark's daughter.

1685, Feb. 4. In a suit between Johanas Loroson and Thomas Wandall, Rev. Morgan Jones testified "that about the 2 day Jenewary Last past this dep: being att the hoes of Mr. Wandall, Johanis Loroson came thare and tould Mr. Wandall he came to speeke with him about the Land that he was goeing to fens In: and Johanis tod. Mr. Wandall that he would Cut downe his fense: and Mr. Wandall sd if you doe I will cut you. Whareupon this deponent did advise them to put ther busines to some sucfitiant nabor and named Captayn Beets, and further sayth not."

"Mr. Wandall doth declare before the Ct. that he will deliver and allow Johanis Loroson and Peter Buckhood all the land that doth belong to them, both in length and breadth in every part, according to the tenor of the transport that stands on the backside of that was britnalls Ground briefe, as witness my hand Thomas Wandell .....(Newt. Ct. R., 168.)

1685, Feb. 4. Johanis Loroson testifies in suit between Wandall and Buckhood.................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .... (Newt. Ct. R., 167.)

1685, May 9. Johanis Lourense signs a survey agreement relating to lands at Mespat Kills. "Being employed by Thomas Wandell, Johan - Lorason, Peter Johnson Buckhood, to lay and run out the lines of the purchase of Robert Clarke out of the patent of Richard Britnells containing as by bill of sale twenty five (morgens) and two hundred and twenty five rods: as a transport bearing date the 20th day of December 1682, and likewise six acres of moore sold to Peter Johnson Buckhood as by bill of sale bearing date the 1th day of August 1681 is in all twenty five morgan and two twenty five Rods and six acres: but, finding that the land is not contained within the line specified nor could be brought to any Clouser, it was mutually agreed the line shall begin at the Creek upon the N. W. corner of Mr. Wandell's ram pasture and to run upon a straight line N. E. by E. one degree and 45 minutes E. 237 duch rods to the outside bounds of the bove sd. Richard Britnell's patent, and then by the said lines N. W. by W. 8 degrees and a half W. their being so much variation of the compass as to make a true N. W. by W. point 122 rods to the meadow side, and so by the meadow and water round the point to the N. W. corner of the aforesd ram pasture. And it is agreed that the sd Peter Johnson Buckhood is to keep the 6 acres as bought within the fence: is so to continue as now standing as far as to Johanis Loroson Land on ye east side of ye purchase, and in consideration that he keep the land there Johanis Loroson is to have five acres added unto his 20 acres (out of that) purchased by Mrr. Wandall to be laid joining to the 20 acres. All the meadow joining to the purchase of Robert Clark is to be allowed to ye said purchase by Mr. Wandall. To this survey be seen at large by the draft here annexed." (Draft missing). " Mashpat Kills .................... (Newt. R., I, 366.)

1686, Sep. 24. Johanis Loroson appears among "the Purchasers and freeholders of Newtown * * * drawn up to be inserted in our pattin * * * by order of Justices of Peace.......... (Newt. R., I.)

1686, Sept. 25. Johannes Lourense takes conveyance from 'Thos. Wandall and Jno. Woolstencraft of a one third interest in a tract of about 88 acres of upland in the rear of Jno. Woolstencraft's land. The bill of sale was by common consent declared void. Signed "Thomas Wandell * * * (Autograph.) Johannes Louwrense"... (Newt. R., I, 336.)

174 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

1686, Nov. 25. Johannis Lawresse appears as a grantee in the Dongan Patent to Newtown............. (Thompson's Hist. L. I., If, 142.)

1687, Apr. 6. Johannes Lourensen draws one of the "Little Lots" on the S. bounds of the town, which were allotted to a number of the inhabitants on this date....... . ...... (Newt. R.)

1687, Apr. 6. Johannes Lourensen, "inhabitant of Maspeth Kills in the bounds of Newtown," signs a retraction of rash words he had too freely indulged in, namely: "that Newtown records was false ". . ..(Newt. Ct. R.)

1687, May 14. Johannes Lowrense witnesses a deed... (Newt. R., I, 543).

1687, Dec. Johanis Loroson is defendant in an action brought by Edward Coleborn, for taking away the plaintiff's canoe to go to Manning's`(Blackwell's) Island. The defendant showing that he had leave, ob- tained judgment............................ (Newt. Ct. R., 271.)

1688, Nov. 29. Johannes Lourensen's son is mentioned in the will of Thos. Wandell as the latter's godson............... (James Riker.)

1690, Jun. 21. Johannes Lourense is mentioned in a deed from Thos. Parcell and wife to Bourgon Bragaw as having formerly owned 10; acres between Burger's Sluice and the Narrow Passage at Mespat Kills .......................................... (James Riker. )

1693, Dec. 14. Johannes Louwrenson of Maspet Kills in ye bounds of= Newtown conveys to Jas, Abit " a draft lot as it fell to him, the sd Johannes Louwrenson, by lot, and to be laid out Southwardly of the sd town." This seems to have been the lot drawn by Job annes Apr. 6, 1687 ..................................... (Newt. R., I, 502.) ,

1694, Jan. 19. Johannes Louwrenson witnesses a deed of Geo. Wood..(Newt. R., I, 497.)

1695, Aug. 28. Johanes Louwrenson of Mespatts Kills, yeoman, buys from Mathias Boockhols the S. half of lot, 38 feet Dutch measure, bounded. E. on Gold St; S. by Johannes Gutman; W. by Shoemakers Pasture; length as it falls from Shoemakers Pasture to Gold St. (front and rear 38 ft. D.m.)..................... (N. Y. Rec. XXVIII, 258.)

1695, Sep. 20. Johanas Lorison witnesses deed by Peter Chalke. . (New R., I, 28.)

1695, Sep. 23. Johanas Lorison witnesses deed made by Jacobus Petersen; and

1695, Sep. 23. Johanas Loroson witnesses a deed by Jansen Fine.. (Newt.. R., I, 27.)

1697, May 5. Johannes Lourense of Maspatts Kills, Island of Nassa and Tryntie his wife convey to Simon Van Ness the S. half of a,1 lot, bought Aug. 28, 1695; namely the half being W. of Gold St. and E. of Shoemakers Pasture, the said half having 19 ft. front on Gold St., and a depth of 103 ft. Dutch measure to Shoemakers Pasture: (Signed) Johannes Lourense, Tryntie (X) Lourense.. .. (N. Y. Rec. XXVIII, 259.)

1702. Johannes Lourensen is not included in the census made this year o Newtown freeholders............................. (James Riker.)

1697, Apr. 22. Johannes Louwrensen op Dyck of Newtown, Long Island Province of N. Y., yeoman, buys of Thomas Green, for 101 1/2 Pound 250 acres above " the ffalls of the Delaware in ye Province of We New Jersey," (at which falls is now built Trenton).

Of this tract, 150 acres were purchased by Thomas Green Dec. 20, 1690, from the att'y of Daniel Cox of London: "Beginning at black oak for a corner next the land of Richd. Ridgway, and runs, thence W. 19 chains to a black oak for a second corner; thence S. E. 82 chains to a stake for a third corner; thence E. 19 chains to a stake

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 175

for a fourth corner; thence N. W. to the first mentioned corner." (For a better description see below, 1722, Nov. 1. )

The other 100 acres were part of 600 purchased by Thomas Green Feb. 10, 1695, from Thomas Revel, Trustee for West Jersey Society, , and adjoined the aforesaid 150 acres: " Beginning at the corner tree of Widow Davis' land and runs thence E. 21 chains to a corner tree in W. E. rear line of Thos. Green's land above mentioned, being a small black oak; and from thence runs N. 48 chains to a great black oak mark for a corner; thence W. 21 chains to another black oak mark for a corner; thence S. 24 chains to a small runn; thence W. 4 chains to ye easternmost corner of Jonathan Davis, his 100 acres of land; thence S. and by E. along by the lands of s'd Jonathan Davis 24 chains to the first mentioned corner tree of Mary Davis' lands". .(West Jersey Deeds, B, 585. Trenton.)

1697, Apr. 22. Johannis Louwrensen op Dyck witnesses deed for 105 acres from Th. Revell to Thos. Greene............ (Same, p. 584.)

1697, July 12.Johannis Louwrensen op Dick of Maidenhead in Burlington Co., yeoman, buys of Thomas Revel 1050 acres "surveyed or to be surveyed out of ye 30,000 acre tract above ye faalls of ye Delaware River;" for 105 pounds " by said Johannes Louwrensen paid or secured to be paid ................................. (Same, p. 594.) (This is referred to, in Woodward and Hageman's Hist. of Mercer County, as the largest single purchase in Hopewell. )

1697, July 13. "A Mortgage of ye land above from Johannis Louwrensen op Dick bearing date ye Thirteenth day of July Anno 1697 to Tho. Revell in Trust for ye Society for ye Security of payment of 5 pounds, 5 sh., yearly on ye 1st. May for 3 years next, and ye Summe of one hundred and ten pounds and five shillings on ye first May 1700. Upon payment whereof ye mortgage to be voyd. To which s'd Johannis Louwrensen op Dick hath sett his band and seal." (No signature.) "Which mortgage is discharged witness my hand, Tho: Revell."............................... (Same, p. 594.)

1697, July 31. "Surveyed for Capt. Wm. Hallett 1,000 acres of land with 50 acres fowayds within ye Society's 30,000 Lands (Hopewell): Beginning at ye North West corner of Johannes Louwrensens Land " thence North, * * * thence East "to a hickory corner in Johannes' Land, thence North along Johannes' Line " 102 chains "to the first mentioned corner in Johannes' Land ". . . (West Jersey Surveys, A, 4. Trenton.)

1697, Oct. 20. Johannes Louwrensen op Dyck witnesses deed from Tho. Revell to Jno. Dixson.............. (West Jersey B, 600. Trenton.)

1697, Nov. 3. Johannis Louwrensen op Dyck witnesses deed from Thos. Greene to Jno. Dixson........................... (Same, p. 602.)

1697, Nov. 3. Johannis Louwrensen op Dyck of Maidenhead, yeoman, buys of Jno. Dixson 200 acres at Maidenhead, purchased by said Dixson from Tho. Revell March 1, 1696 and Oct. 26, 1697; for 40 pounds, paid in full ............................. (Same, p. 600.)

1697, March 3. Survey of the above. "One parcel of land within ye Society's 15,000 acres. Begins at the corner of Thos. Greene's old land to ye westward, and goes thence E. 14 chains to a hickory tree for a corner; thence N. by W. 36 chains to a corner of Jas. Price land; thence on the same course more 17 chains to a white oak corner; thence W. to Jos. Sackett's line 42 chains to a white oak corner; thence S. by E. down Jos. Sackett's line to ye corner of land laid out for Townes use; thence E. 28 1/2 chains on the rear of public land to another corner of said public land; thence 5 chains S.

176 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

to ye first station surveyed. In ye whole 200 acres with 10 acres allowed for highways. ".....(West Jersey Surveys, A, 2. Trenton).

(As this was bounded by "Jos. Sackett's line" and "Thos. Greene's old land," we infer that it adjoined the 250 acres bought by Johannes in April; this locates 450 acres of Johannes' as North and East of the Town's 100 acre tract.)

1697. "Johannes Louwrensen op Dyck Ear Marks for ye Right Ear 2 half pennies on both sides, thus * * * & ye Left a Slitt on ye under side ye Ear thus * * * "(Burlington Records, 1680. Trenton.)

1698. Johannes Louwrensen witnesses a deed from Mary Davis, widow of Maidenhead, to her son Samuel Davis, for 100 acres next to the land of her son Jonathan Davis........ (West Jersey, B, 656, Trenton.)

1698, Jan. 20. Johannes Louwrensen witnesses deed for 200 acres in Maidenhead from Jonathan Davis of Maidenhead to his brother Samuel Davis........................(Same, p.656.)

1698, March 18. Jer. Bass and Thomas Revell, Agents for the West Jersey Society, for 5 shillings, deed to Ralph Hunt, John Bainbridge, Johannes Louwrensen, and other residents (including Lawrence Updi Joshua Andrus, Enoch Andrus and Cornelius Andrus) 100 acres in Maidenhead, in trust for the inhabitants of Maidenhead, "for ye Erecting of a Meeting House and for Burying ground and School House," * * * surveyed "above ye ffalls of Delaware out of Society's 15,000 acres ............................. (Same, p. 655.)

(Hist. Mercer Co. says that the Town attempted unsuccessfully to sell the town lot in 1730 and to apply the proceeds to buy a parsonage for the Presb. Soc'y; and that 1t was sold in 1804 for 1,150 Pounds by the church trustees.)

1698, Nov. 3. Johannes Louwrensen a member of the Grand Jury for the County of Burlington. (Burl. Court Book, Supr. C't, Trenton, 158.)

1699, May 4. Johannes Lawrence's land mentioned 1n the laying out of a road through. Maidenhead, described as "beginning at the partition line, so running as markt trees shall direct to the eight mile run to a white oak in the land of Johannes Lawrence, so running as markt trees shall direct to a white oak tree before Ralph Hunt's door by the run, so running as markt trees shall direct to Bridge over six run.................... .................... Same, p. 170.)

1699, Nov. 3. Johannes Louwrensen on the Grand Jury... Same, p. 168.)

1699, Nov. 14. Johannes Louwrensen witnesses deed from John Brearly of Maidentown to John Hutchinson, for 650 acres above the Falls of the Delaware..........(West Jersey, B, 656, Trenton.)

1699, Nov. 15. Johannes Louwrensen witnesses deed from John Hutchinson to John Watson and Richd. Eagre, for the last mentioned, 6 acres........................................... (Same, p. 657.)

1700, Oct. 16. Johannes Louwrensen witnesses deed from Ralph Hunt and John Bainbridge to Vincent Fountaine for 400 acres. (Same, p. 715.)

1700, May 14. "Johannes Louwrensen, yeoman of Maidenhead, County of Burlington, Province of West Jersey," deeds to "Richboll Mott of Hempstead, Queen's Co., upon Island of Nassau in ve Province of , N. Y., for 200 pounds of current silver money within ye Province of New Jersey," * * * 1,050 acres of the tract called "ye Society's 30,000 acres above ye ffalls of Delaware," * * * purchased by Johannes Louwrensen op Dyck of Thos. Revell July 12, 1697.

(Signed) Johannes Louwrensen * * * Catrina (X) op Dyck. (Same, p. 691.)

(Dr. George Hale's Hist. 1st. Presb. Ch. of Hopewell (p. 46) says that Johannes Louwrensen's purchase of 12 July 1697, 1,100

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 177

acres, in fact 1,300, was sold to Richbell Mott, and included the site of the present village of Pennington, extending 1 3/8 miles N. and S., and 2 miles E. and W. The settlement probably began about 1703; it was called Queenstown as late as 1747.)

1701, Feb. 16. Ralph Hunt of Maidenhead to William Alburtus; 500 acres on Stoney Brook within Maidenhead." Beginning on N. side of Stony Brook at corner of land late of Johanes Laurenson, thence on N. side of sd brook, N. by W., 37 chains, * * * E. by N., 65 chains, * * * S. by E., 31 chains to sd Stony Brook, * * * on sd Brook along same course 42 chains, * * * W. by S., 86 chains to line of land of said Johan Laurenson, * * * thence down same line to beginning;-for 135 pounds ...... (Same, p. 711.)

1702, Oct. 13. Johannes Louwrensee witnesses deed from Ralph Hunt and John Bainbridge to Richard Burt, for 286 acres adjoining the Partition Line between East and West Jersey, lying on North side of Stony Brook.................................... (Same, p. 715.)

1702, Nov. 3. Johanis Lorrauson, Grand Juryman. Court held at Burlington ............ (Burl. Court Book, p. 192, Supr. C't, Trenton.)

1703, Aug. 26. At a meeting at house of Ralph Hunt in Maidenhead Township. * * * John Bainbridge, Ralph Hunt, Theophilus Phillips, Samuel Hunt, Joshua Anderson, Benjamin Harden, Jonas Lawrence, Joseph Sackett, et al., (39 in all), having heard read the agreement of April 20, 1703, between Dr. Daniel Coxe Esq. and Thomas Revell on behalf of the purchasers of land within Maidenhead and Hopewell, signify their consent thereto. (West Jersey, AAA, 8. Trenton.)

1705, Nov. 7. Johannes Lawrence in suit with John Hampon Sr. (or Harrison), for 360 Pounds... (Supr. Ct. Min., 1704-15, p. 19. Trenton.)

1706, May 10. Same suit discontinued by consent of both parties.. (Same,, p. 28.)

1707, Sept. 29. Johanas Lowrense yeoman of Maidenhead, buys of Thomas Standeland 12 acres for 20 Pounds; "bounded by the North side of Assanpink Creek: beginning at a corner below Mahlin Stacy's Millbridge, thence to corner of Joshua Andrus, * * * Alburtus Ringoes, * * * Enoch Andrus, * * * Ralph Hunt, * * * South to Assanpink Creek, provided Johanas Lowrensen does not stop the course of the Creek to impedite Mahlin's mill."... (West Jersey, DD, 382, Trenton.)

1708, March 29. Johannes Louwrense writes following certificate: "Upon ye Request of Mr. Joseph Sackit wee whose names are under written went with ye sd Sackit to John Bainbridg to bare wittnes of his offer to sd bainbridg Concerning ye Line betwixt them which sd Sackit offerred ye sd Bainbridg that if he woould Let him have his Land Acording to his deed or a thurd part of that trackt of Land which was formerly Richard Rigawais and ye sd Bainbridg Replied and Said that bee woould alouw him two hundered Acors and tenn for alouence for highways and no moore if bee would be Contented and further ye sd Sackit did offer ye sd Bainbridg that if any of his Improvements should fall into his Line that he should hold them alowing him Land and medow agoining to him ye sd Sackit which ye sd John Bainbridg did Refuse and further saieth nott. Ralph Hunt, Johannes Louwrense."

(The original, written and signed by Johannes, is in the possession of James Riker of Waverly, N. Y.)

1709, July 18. Johannes Louwrensen and Catherine his wife, both of Maidenhead, sell Enoch Anderson of Hopewell, yeoman, the above

178 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

described 12 acres for 20 pounds. On Assanpink creek. (Signed Johannes Louwrensen * * * Catherine (X) Louwrensen. (West Jersey, DD, 387, Trenton.)

1712, Jan. 1. "At a Town Meeting to endeavor for the promoting of a County in the upper part of the Province " * * * The subscriptions ranged from 2 pounds down. Among them are

Joshua Anderson 1 pound 5 shillings.

Enoch Anderson 1 " 10 "

Lawrence Opdycke 15 "

Johannes Louwrensen 15 "

(Maidenhead Town Book.)

1713, Aug. 8. Johannis Opdyck of Maidenhead, Burlington County, N. J. yeoman, gives quit claim deed to Thomas Skillman of Newtown Queens County, L. I., of land at Mespatt Kills in Newtown. (See fuller description under 1669 March 10 above, it being the same land then purchased by Johanes Lourense. )

1714, June 4. Alexander Lockhard of Hopewell to Jno. Hunt of Newtown L. I., 500 acres in Hopewell,- " beginning at Johannes Lowrenson's upper corner upon Stoney Brook, then the general Courses of brook to a corner of Saml. Davis's land; then W. along the same land 52 chains to the sd Davis's corner; then goeth along another line of the sd Davis's land 24 chains to a hickory tree corner; then W. 37 chains to a corner on the top of a mountain; then S.19 chains to a corner of Captn. Hallet's land; then along his line S. 19 chaff to a corner between him and Johannes Lowrenson land; then along the sd Lowrenson's line to the first mentioned corner." (West Jersey BBB, 154, Trenton.)

1718, Sept. 7. Enoch Andrews conveys to Alburtus Ringoes for 30 Pounds part of the 12 acres, sold Sept. 9, 1707 by Standiland to Johanes Lawanson, and sold July 18, 1709 by Johannes Laurenson a wife Katharine to Enoch Andrus -"Lying on Maidenhead Road" and "on North side of Assanpink"................. (Same, EF, 170.)

1721, Sept. 6. "Ordered that Johanes Lawrason stand committed to the Sheriff's custody till he give security for his good behavior and his appearances att the next Court.". . (Hunterdon Ct. I, 5. Flemington.)

1721, Dec. 6. Harper v. Lawrason. Title of suit only...... (Same, p. 10.)

1722, Nov. 1. Johannes Lowrezson Opdyck on this date sold 150 acres of his first purchase in Maidenhead, as is seen in the following record: 1765, May 1. Whereas the att'y for Dan. Coxe sold Oct. 7, 1690; to Rich. Ridgeway 600 acres in Maidenhead, and Ridgeway sold July 6, 1696, one third of same to Jos. Sackett, whose son Joseph et al. sold the same May 11, 1725, to Enoch Andrus, whose executors sold the same Dec. 4, 1741, to John Anderson;

And whereas the att'y for Dan. Coxe sold Dec. 20, 1690, 150 acres above the Falls of the Delaware to Thos. Green of Maidenhead and said Thos. Green sold April 22, 1697, the said 150 acres to Johnnes Lourezsen Opdyck; and the said Johannes Lowrezson dyck sold the same, Nov. 1, 1722, to Enoch Andrus, who sold the same to his son John Anderson on March 1, 1724;

On May 1, 1765, John Anderson of Maidenhead and wife Deborah sell to Wilson Hunt of Hopewell both of the above tracts, containing 413 acres, for 3,510 pounds.

Description: Beginning at a red oak tree, thence S. W. 15 1/2 chains thence S. E. 80 chains, thence N. E. 16 chains to a bunch of Maples on E. side of Eight Mile Run, thence up the Run N. W. 11 chains, thence away from Eight Mile Run N. W. 16 chains, thence N. E. 8 1/2.

2D GENERATION; JOHANNES OPDYCK. - 179

chains, thence S. E. 30 chains to the road over the Great Meadows, thence along said road N. E. 29 chains, thence N. W. 101 1/2 chains, thence S. W. 30 chains to place of beginning.... (West Jersey, AB, 110. Trenton.)

1724, Dec. 28. Joha. Lowrason in suit with Alex. Harper for 11 pounds 6 shillings ..................... (Hunterdon Ct., I, 60. Flemington.)

1729, Feb. 12. Johannes Opdyck's will:

"In the name of god amen. the twelfth day of february in the year of our Lord 1728-9 I Johan. opdike of Hopewell in ye County of Hunterdone in ye provence of west new Jarsey Husbandman, being very sick and weak in body, but of perfect mind and memory, thanks be given unto god theirefore, Calling unto mind the mortality of my body, and knowing that it is appointed for all men once to die, do make and ordain this my Last will and testament: that is to say principly and first of all I give and Recomend my Soul unto the hands of god that gave it, and for my body, I Recomend it to the Earth, to be buried in a Christian Like and desent manner, at the Discretion of my Executors, nothing doubting but at the geniral Reserrection, I shall Receive the same againe by the mighty power of god and as touching Such worldly Estate, wherewith it hath pleased god to bless me in this Life, I give devise and dispose of the same in the following maner and form: Imprimus I give and bequeathe to my well beloved son Louerence opdike twelve shillings; Item that william Critchfield shall have his bils and bonds delivered up without any mollistation. Item I give to my grantson Cornelius Anderson all my weareing Cloths and one Irn Cittle one plater and four plates Item I Likewise Constitute and make my well be Loved Sone and grantson Louerence opdike and Eliakim anderson my Executors of my Last will and testament and after paying all my depts that the above written Leagusies may bee fulfilled I also bequeate that after all depts be paid that the Remainder Shall be Equilly divided amongst my Eight Children that now are Living and I do hereby utterly disalow and Revoke and disanull all and every other former testaments wills Legusies and Executors by me in any wayes before this time named willed and bequeathed Ratifing & Confirming this and no other to be my Last will and testament in witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand & Seale the day and year above writen. Signed Sealed published pronounced and declared by ye Said Johanes opdike as his Last will and testament in the preasents of us the Subscribers, vis

John. Anderson Johannes Opdyck." (L. S.)

ffrancis Vannoey"

1729, Mar. 26. Will probated by Gov. Montgomery of N. J. . . (State Vaults, Trenton.) 1730, May. 'Ectrs. of Johannes Lawrence" bring suit against Enoch Anderson to recover a debt of 263 pounds and 15 shillings.. (Hunterdon Ct. II, 136. Flemington.)

At the Aug. Term, 1731, the suit, (then called " Law: Obdyke and Eliakim Anderson Exectrs. &c. vs. Enoch Anderson"), seems to have been brought to trial. The jury were out over night and returned a verdict for the plaintiffs for 12 pounds, 1 shilling, "old money Debt," and six pence costs ; as to the rest, for the defendant. (Same, Suit 476.)

At the Feb. Term, 1732, this suit was entitled " Law : Obdike et al., Exctrs. Lawrence" vs. Enoch Andrus .......... (Same, Suit 834.)

1730, Aug. "Exec. Johan Lawrence" brought action against Jonathan Pettit for 4 pounds 11 shillings...................... (Same, 162.)

180 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

1730, Nov. 3." Lawrence Opdike & Eliakim Andrews Exrs. of Johannus '' Lawrenson agt. Enoch Andrews;" from Hunterdon County.. (Supr. Ct. Min., 1716-1731, Trenton.)

1733, May 17. "Lawrence Opdyick and Eliakim Anderson Exctrs. of Johanas Lawrence Dec'd." in suit with Joseph Reed in Court of Common Pleas held at Trenton. Writs of subpoena issued for following witnesses: Enoch Andrus, John Anderson, Elizabeth Hoff, Francis Vannay, John Brains, Cornelius Anderson. . (Hunterdon Ct. II, Flemington.)

Children of Johannes Opdyck.

Death. Married. Residence.

Tryntie, 1722-41. Enoch Andrus. Trenton, N. J.

Engeltie, after 1741. Joshua Anderson. Maidenhead, N. J.

Annetie, after 1746. Cornelius Anderson. Hopewell, N. J.

Lawrence, 1748. Agnes -. Maidenhead, N. J.

Albert, 1752. Elizabeth -. Hopewell and Maidenhead, N.

Third Son, about 1730. ................... ............................

Bartholomew, after 1746. ................... Maidenhead, N. J.

TRYNTIE OPDYCK.

(Daughter of Johannes, p. 154; Son of Louris, p. 136.)

It was the custom of all Dutch churches to record the maiden name of the mother presenting a child for baptism.

In accordance with this custom Tryntje Opdyck (Op Dye) and Enoch Andriessen (Andriessen, Andriesse) are found upon the records of the Dutch church of New York, baptising their children, Francina in 1693, Jochem in 1696, Enogh in 1698. Tryntie's husband Enoch was probably a brother of her sisters' husbands. Joshua and Cornelius Anderson. Each of the latter acted as sponsor at a baptism by Tryntie and Enoch in New York. Later, Enoch was witness to Joshua's will and prepared the inventory of Cornelius's estate. Both Enoch and Cornelius named a son "Eliakim" (little Elias) for Joshua's brother Elias. These three Andersons married the three sisters, and moved with their wives and father-in-law Johannes Opdyck to West Jersey before 1698.

In 1710, "Tryntje Opdyck" and Enogh Andriessen brought their child Eliakom to be baptised at Hopewell, N. J. by the Rev. Paulus van Vleq, the Dutch pastor of the North and South Hampton church of Bucks Co., Pa., as recorded in his diary; - of which the Dutch original is preserved by the Rev. Sam'l Streng of Churchville, Bucks Co., Pa., a translation is in the hands of Wm. Wyckoff Esq. of Brooklyn, N. Y., and extracts are among the unpublished notes of the late Tennis G. Bergen.

Enoch (Andrus, Andrews, Anderson,) appears very often upon the oldest records of West Jersey, of Burlington Court, of Maidenhead township, and later of Hunterdon Court and County. In 1698 he was made Trustee, with Johannes and Lawrence Opdyck, Joshua and Cornelius Anderson, for the

3D GENERATION; TYRNTIE OPDYCK. - 181

Maidenhead 100 acre lot for church, school, and burial purposes. In 1699 he served on the Grand Jury at Burlington; in 1706 he was chosen constable for Hopewell ; 1709 he was Justice of the Court of Common Pleas at Burlington, and in the same year he and his brother Cornelius were trustees of the church lot at Ewing. In 1710 he was made Trustee, with Lawrence and Alburtus Opdyck, Joshua and Cornelius Anderson, for the Lawrenceville church plot. In 1712 he subscribed at Maidenhead town meeting, with Johannes and Lawrence Opdyck and Joshua Anderson, for setting off Hunterdon County, and the town appointed him to meet the men of Hopewell and to aid the Justices in levying a tag. In 1722 he was elected Overseer of Highways in Trenton township, and in 1729 Overseer of Poor and of South Road.

We find records of his owning land in 1708 along a road laid out through Hopewell to the Delaware river, and of his selling 330 acres in Hopewell for £61 in 1713. In 1722 he bought of Johannes Opdyck 150 acres on Eight Mile Run in Maidenhead, and in 1725 he bought 200 acres adjoining his son John, purchasing from his father the former tract and from his executors the latter, sold the whole to Wilson Hunt in 1765 for £3,510.

But Enoch's chief land interest was in Trenton. In 1707, years before Trenton had a settlement or a name, Enoch owned land on the Assanpink adjoining some purchased by his father-in-law Johannes and Joshua Anderson from the first settler, Mahlon Stacy. In 1709 Enoch bought Johannes's 12 acres for £20, and sold a part of it in 1718 for £30. In 1722 he bought Joshua's 12 acres for £90. Of this he sold a small lot, 74 ft. by 60 ft., the same year for £20, the deed describing him as " Gentleman of Trent Town;" his wife Catharine (Tryntie) joined in the conveyance. The place had just been named for Wm. Trent, the first Chief Justice of the Jerseys and Speaker of the Legislature. Out of the land that he had bought from Joshua, Enoch gave 150 feet square to trustees for the Presbyterian church on April 10, 1727, and the last surviving trustee conveyed this plot to the church in 1763 ; the first Presbyterian church of Trenton was long called "the Anderson Meeting House." Enoch sold 22 acres at Trenton in 1730 to Wm. Morris of Barbadoes, for £310 ; 4 acre in 1732 for £25 ; a small lot in 1733 for £25 ; and various other lots at other times. He may certainly be called one of the chief founders of that city.

Tryntie's name has not been found on any deed after 1722; she was undoubtedly dead in 1741 when Enoch made his will. He bequeathed to his sons, John a small sum, Enoch the homestead, Eliakim 200 acres "over Sanpink," Jeremiah 200 acres, Joshua 200 acres bought of Dr. Cadwallader; to his daughters, Caturn, Sarah, Elizabeth, and Mary, sundry sums; and mentions his sons-in-law, Benjamin Stevens and Ralph Smith. Benj. Stevens' grave-stone can still be seen in the Lawrenceville Cemetery, "died 1763, aged 64."

182 - AMERICAN DESCENDANTS OF THE HOLLAND FAMILY.

Of Tryntie's sons, Capt. John Anderson became Assessor, Freeholder, Constable, and Town Clerk of Maidenhead ; his tombstone is in the Lawrenceville churchyard, " died 1774, aged 80."Enoch Anderson Jr. was "Sub-Sheriff" in 1732, and in 1753 was appointed by George II. "Hi Sheriff of Hunterdon ; " he died in 1756 and a tablet in the First Presbyterian Church of Trenton states that his body is among those buried beneath the present edifice ; his headstone now forms part of the porch pavement Tryntie's son Eliakim Andrusson is found in records as living in Trenton, until 1744 or later.