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Lysbeth Gerritze

1647-1728
Born: Middleburg, Zeeland, Netherlands
Died: Bergen, New Jersey, United States

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  • Story: The Van Sandts, Coursens, And Vandergrifts Of New Amsterdam And Pennsylvania

    <!--StartFragment--> <p><span style="font-family: 'britannic bold'">The Van Sandts, Corsens, and Vandergrifts of New Amsterdam and Pennsylvania</span></p> <p><span style="font-family: 'britannic bold'">&nbsp;</span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 13pt; line-height: 16pt">Stoffel and George were the sons of Gerrit Van Sandt and Lysbeth Gerritz.<span>&nbsp; </span>Gerrit had been born in 1640 in Zaandam in North Holland and migrated with his family at age 8 to New Utrecht, Long Island.<span>&nbsp; </span>His father, Christoffel VanZandt, born about 1618 Kleverns, Germany was a cloth maker who came to New Amerstrdam in 1651 and was killed in an Indian attack known as the Peach War. According to popular belief it began when a young squaw, detected stealing peaches from the orchard of a Dutch farmer on Manhattan, was shot. Her family sought &quot;blood atonment&quot;, and enlisted a group of Wappingers to help them find the perpetrator in a zealous &quot;house to house&quot; search. Much to the consternation of residents of New Amsterdam, they did so (without violence and without success). While preparing to depart they were attacked, and fled in their canoes across the Hudson River. In the following days, settlements at Pavonia and Staten Island were raided, forcing settlers there to abandon their farms. One hundred fifty hostages were taken and held at Paulus Hook. When later ransomed most went to New Amsterdam and the settlements on the west shore of the river were de-populated.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 13pt; line-height: 16pt">At the time, Director-General of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant and his troops were on an expedition to the Zuydt Rivier (Delaware Bay) to re-claim territory that had been settled by Swedish settlers/traders. It has been argued that the recapture of New Sweden by the Dutch was instead the real cause of the war. The Indians were allies of the Swedes, who were their trading partner. The Indians wanted to take revenge on the Dutch for their lost trading partner who they thought of as being the weaker and needing Indian protection. Patroon Adriaen van der Donck is believed to have been killed at the outset this war, so ironically Stuvesant&#39;s actions directly led to his nemesis, van der Donck&#39;s death, although Stuvesant did not connect his actions with the Swedes with the Indian attacks. [from Russell Shorto, Island at the Center of the World]</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 13pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 16pt"><span>&nbsp;</span>The grandfather of the Bensalem, Pennsylvania Van Sandts, Christoffel VanZandt had married Moeder Gerrits in 1643. Marriage intention was recorded on Jun. 13, 1643, in Amsterdam, Holland as &quot;Christoffel Harmenss, from Jever, journeyman clothdresser living on the Hoochstraet, having no parents (living) age 25, and Moederke Gerrits, from Amsterdam, living on the Breestraet, attended by her mother, Vroutie Pieters.&quot; Both signed by their mark, and they were married on Jun. 28, 1643 in Amsterdam&#39;s Old Church. Christoffel was married second on Sep. 24, 1645 (intentions Sep. 9, 1645) in Amsterdam, Holland to Trijntje CLAES (bap. Jan. 1619, Amsterdam, Holland), daughter of Claes PIETERSZ and Giertje HEEREN (marriage intentions recorded Oct. 11, 1614). After Christofel died, Trijntje married second Rut Joosten VanBRUNT;<span>&nbsp; </span>Gerret was living with his mother and stepfather in Yellow Hook, New Utrecht in 1685. </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 13pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 16pt">Cristoffel VanZandt and Trijntje and their son Garret came to America as bond servants.<span>&nbsp; </span>1652 April 16. Abraham De Wijs, merchant in Amsterdam, in the name of Cornelis De Potter, his brother -in-law, who lives in the Manhattans in New Netherland. He takes into service for him: Christoffel Harmens and Trijinje Claes to work there for De Potter. Also their son Gerrit Christoffels, 8 years old, shall work with them. This is for a time period of three years, at 200 Carolus guilders per year. Free board and room. When his father died, he was 12 years old and guardians were appointed to protect his share of his father&#39;s estate.</p><!--StartFragment--> <p>Garrit was a tenant on the farm of his mother and stepfather at Yellow Hook, New Utrecht, NY in 1685, and took the oath of allegiance to the English government in 1687 at New Utrecht (Brooklyn), NY, stating that he had been in the country for 36 years. <span>&nbsp;</span>On May 13, 1686 the English governor, Thomas Dongan, mentioned that Gerrit Van Sandt was one of 14 original patentees in Yellow Hook under the jurisdiction of the town of New Utrecht.<span>&nbsp; </span>He had married Lysbeth Gerrits on 1668.<span>&nbsp; </span>She had been born in 1644 in Middleburg, Zeeland, Netherlands.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1691 Gerrit was a magistrate for the town of<span>&nbsp; </span>New Utrecht.<span>&nbsp; </span>He and his wife had 10 children on Long Island: Stoffel, Cornelius, Josias, Harman, Albert, Johannes, Jacobus,<span>&nbsp; </span>(Joris) George, Jesina, and Garret.<span>&nbsp; </span>All his children were baptized in the Dutch Reform Church of New Netherlands.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1695 he sold his Yellow Hook plantation to Van Zutphen and moved his family to Bucks County, Pennsylvania where Joseph Growdon, a prominent Quaker, sold him 150 acres in the township of Bensalem.<span>&nbsp; </span>(&ldquo;February 12, 1698, Joseph Growden conveyed one hundred and fifty acres to Garrett Vansant, and the same quantity to his son Cornelius, on the Neshaminy.&rdquo;)<span>&nbsp; </span>Garret bought another 150 acres for his son Cornelius in 1698.<span>&nbsp; </span>Gerrit Van Sandt died June 5, 1706 in Bensalem. His wife died Feb 1728 in Bergen, N.J.<span>&nbsp; </span>(much of the information on the Van Sandts, Vandergrifts, and others comes from W. W. H. Davis, History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time, New York<span>&nbsp; </span>Chicago: Lewis Pub. Col. 1905 III-<span>&nbsp; </span>pp. 24-35 and from Wm. Utermolen who has done extensive research) </p> <ol style="margin-: 0in"> <li>Garrit&rsquo;s son Cornelius exchanged his land in Bensalem for land in New Munster Twp. Cecil County, Maryland obtaining 1,035 acres on the west side of the Elk River.<span>&nbsp; </span>He also left the Dutch Reform church and became a Baptist at the Pennypack Baptist Church in 1712, and was dismissed with wife Derricka to the &ldquo;Welsh Tract&rdquo; Baptist church in Pencader Hundred, New Castle county, Maryland and was buried there in 1 May 1734. In Kent County, Maryland Land Records 1673&mdash;1751 by June D. Brown, Deed Thomas Stevenson of Bensalem Township, bucks co., PA, gent., and Sarah his wife for 103 pounds, to Cornelius Vansandt, late of Bensalem, Yeoman, 1,035 acres of land on the west side of Elk River in new Munster, Cecil Co., (the deed concerning this land was recorded 13 Jul 1714 in Cecil Co. Book Parchment Cover J.D. No. 2, folio 60:62) Made 4 May 1714. One of the witnesses is Garratt Vansant.<span>&nbsp; </span>Power of Attorney.<span>&nbsp; </span>Thomas Stevenson &amp; Sarah his wife appoint George Douglass of Cecil Co. their attorney to acknowledge 2 deeds, one dated 4 May 1714 to Cornelius Vansandt and the other dated 17 May 1714 to Johannes Vansandt.<span>&nbsp; </span>Made 28 Aug 1714.<span>&nbsp; </span>One of the Witnesses was Stoffel<span>&nbsp; </span>Vansandt.<span>&nbsp; </span>He married a second time for his will probated in Cecil county mentions wife mary<span>&nbsp; </span>and children Cornelius, Garret and Rebecca all apparently minors. </li> <li>Harman Vansant purchased extensive properties in Bensalem: 250 acres in 1704, another 250 acres in 1712, 125 acres that had belonged to his brother Johannes (willed this to daughter Catharine, wife of Daniel Severns) in 1713, and 100 acres for daughter Gazina wife of Jacob Titus in 1741.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1711 he purchased 50 acres in Southampton, which he conveyed to his brother Jacobus. He gave land to both his sons and daughters.<span>&nbsp; </span>He died in Bensalem twp, Bucks county, in 1759. He married first Elizabeth Browers.<span>&nbsp; </span>He married second in 1733 Jane Joudon, and third on 9 Nov 1738 to Judith Evans who survived him.<span>&nbsp; </span>She had married before to Cornelius McCarty, and second to John Evans both of Bensalem township.<span>&nbsp; </span>His children were: Garret who died in 1758 leaving a widow Mary and four children: Harman, Peter, Elizabeth and Garret.<span>&nbsp; </span>Grandson Harmon was executor of will of his grandfather in 1759 and inherited from him the 125 acres that his father had lived on; he also purchased a lot of other land in Bensalem where he died in 1815.<span>&nbsp; </span>The other children of Harman and Elizabeth Browers were: Gazina who married Jacob Titus, Elizabeth who married Volkert Vandergrift, Kathrine who married Daniel Severns, Harman who married Alice Craven. </li> <li>Josias died young. </li> <li>Albert Van Sandt baptized in New Utrecht, on 13 May 1681, married Rebecca Vandergrift, a daughter of Leonard and Gertje (Vandergrift)<span>&nbsp; </span>Vandergrift, and moved to St. George&rsquo;s Hundred, New Castle County, Delaware where with his brother-in-law Jacob Vandergrift, he purchased 500 acres.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1709 he purchased land in Kent County, Maryland and then conveyed that land to his brother George on May 14, 1732.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1743 he and his wife joined in the deed for his father-in-law&rsquo;s real estate in Bensalem.<span>&nbsp; </span>He died in St. George&rsquo;s Hundred, New Castle, Delaware in 1751. Sarah was granted use of the land in her husband&#39;s will but forbidden to rent it to an Irishman, and the will provided that she forfeit her inheritance if she marries &quot;an Irishman or any of that Extraction.&quot;</li> </ol> <p style="text-align: center" align="center">Indenture&nbsp; for Transfer of Land of Albertus Vanzant - Dec. 10, 1754 </p> <p style="text-align: center" align="center">(New Castle CO., DE Deed Book S, Vol 1 1755-1760, pp. 21-23 [partial])</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 13pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 16pt">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Indenture 10th day of December 1754 Between Harman Vanzant (son of Albert Vanzant late of St Georges Hundred and Co of Newcastle on Delaware deceased and Jane his wife Garret vanzant another Son of the Said Albertus Vanzant deced and MARY his wife Anthony Dushane and Christian his wife Daughter of the sd Albertus Vanzant Jafry Martin and Rebecka his wife another Daughter of the Said Alburtus Vanzant deced of the one part and John van dike of the Said Hundred of St Georges and County of Newcastle of the other part Whereas the aforesaid Albertus Vanzant in his life time was and Stood Seized of a Certain Tract of Land and Plantation in St Georges Hundred adjoyning the Kings Road leading from St Georges Town to Drawyers Bridg Containing two Hundred and Sixteen Acres....
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; ...conveyed to sd Albertus Vanzant by Richard Davis of Newcastle County by his Deed in writing bearing date 20th February 1715/6 and Recorded in the Rolls Office at Newcastle in Liber 2 folio 556 Reference there unto being had may more fully at large appear and the Pattent is Recorded in the office for Recording Deeds at Philadelphia in pattent book A volum the 15th page 138 &amp;c May the 4th 1714.</p> <p>Sealed and Delivered in presence of Anthony Dushane</p> <p>James McDonough&nbsp; John Lee&nbsp; Christian Dushane</p> <p>Jeffry Marten</p> <p>Rebecka Marten</p> <p>Harman vansant</p> <p>Jane (X) Vansant</p> <p>Garret Vansant</p> <p>Mary (X) Vansant</p> <ol style="margin-: 0in"> <li><span>&nbsp; </span>Johannes Van Sandt married Leah Groesbeck in 1702 in the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. The Groesbecks had accompanied the Vansants from Long Island to Bensalem in 1710 and purchased land in Bensalem adjoining the Van Sandts [Leah&rsquo;s mother Anna Vandergrift makes Leah a cousin].<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1704 John Vansand purchased 125 acres in Bensalem but sold it back in 1714 to Thomas Stevenson who then sold it to Harmon Van Sandt.<span>&nbsp; </span>Stevenson then sold Johannes 500 acres on the Elk River in Cecil County, Maryland.<span>&nbsp; </span>Johannes died before he had a chance to move.<span>&nbsp; </span>In his will he gave his wife Leah the use of the Maryland estate for the maintenance of herself and the children.<span>&nbsp; </span>If needed his brother Stoffel was to sell it but if not it was to be divided between 2 boys, John and Garret. </li> <li>Garitt&rsquo;s son Jacobus (James) baptized on 15 Feb 1685, married Rebecca Vandergrift, daughter of Nicholas and Barentje Vandergrift, and<span>&nbsp; </span>had 13 children in Southampton Township of Bucks County, Pennsylvania.<span>&nbsp; </span>He had purchased 100 acres in Southampton in 1711.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1712 the land Harmon had purchased in Southampton was conveyed to Jacobus reserving certain privileges to his wife Rebecca.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>He later purchased 144 acres from Cornelus Egmont. .<span>&nbsp; </span>He joined the Presbyterian Church in Bensalem at its start in 1710.<span>&nbsp; </span>His will was proved 9 Jan 1745. It devises to son Jacob the 150 acre farm reserving privileges to wife Rebecca; the Edgmont farm to son Nicholas; mentions daughters Elizabeth and Rebecca as having received their shares, the latter being deceased; sons Jacobus, Garret and Isaiah, and grandson Charles Inyard, to have equal shares.<span>&nbsp; </span>This will names &ldquo;kinsman John Vansand&rdquo; and friend Nathaniel Brittain as executors, but they renouncing, as also did the widow, letters were granted to the sons James and Nicholas.<span>&nbsp; </span>Rebecca survived him two years leaving a will dated 18 Nov 1746.</li> <li>Garret Jr. was a minor when his father&rsquo;s real estate was conveyed in 1706. He settled in Wrights Twp., where he developed a large plantation in Wrightstown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Garret Jr. died in 1746 leaving a widow Claunchy, sons Garret and Cornelius to whom he devised the plantation: and daughters Sarah Sackett, Rachel Dungan, and Rebekah Vansant, the latter a minor.</li> <li>George/Joris Van Sandt baptized on Long Island on April 24, 1687.<span>&nbsp; </span>He and his brother Jacobus had purchased their father&rsquo;s Bensalem farm in 1706. Grantor Book, p. 3-256, #23671. Deed of Jun. 20, 1706. Stophell Vansand, Cornelius Vansand, Harman Vansand, Albert Vansand, Johanes Vansand, all of Bucks Co., sons of Garret Vansand, late of Bucks Co., dec&#39;d., and Jezina Vansand and Garret Vansand, younger children of said Garret Vansand, dec&#39;d., for &pound;150 paid by Jacobus Vansand and George Vansand, a tract beginning at a birch tree by Nesahminy River and against the house formerly belonging to Edward Carter - 150 acres which is part of a tract of 5000 acres granted to Joseph Growdon on 24/25 Oct 1681 and the 150 acres was granted by Joseph Growdon to Garrat Vansand by deed dated 10 Feb 1698 and Garrat Vansant dying intestate the land descended to all his children. Rec: 26 Jul 1706.&quot; <span style="font-family: 'baskerville semibold'">(George Van Sandt married Maike Vandergrift on December 17, 1706.)</span> George purchased his brother&rsquo;s interest on April 2, 1711.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1714 he sold 150 acres in Bensalem to Thomas Stevenson and went to Maryland.<span>&nbsp; </span>On February 29, 1721 he purchased a tract of Maryland land from Gideon Pearce called &ldquo;Forks and Revision&rdquo;.<span>&nbsp; </span>He would later purchase a tract called Tolchester.<span>&nbsp; </span>George Van Sandt and Maike Vandergrift had 13 children: Elizabeth born 1706, Nicholas born 1709, Gerrit (baptized 31 Dec 1710 at Southampton Dutch Reformed Church with Elisabet Brouwers wife of Harmen VanSandt as sponser), George born 1712, Hester born 1714, <span style="font-family: 'baskerville semibold'">Resultah (or Rozetta) born 1716</span>, Cornelius born 1717, Benjamin born 1719, Ephraim born 1721, Ann born 1723, John born 1724, Jacob born 1726, and Mary 1730.<span>&nbsp; </span>Soon after the birth of his last children, he and Maike started setting up their oldest sons.<span>&nbsp; </span>On October 17, 1733 they conveyed part of two tracts called Tolchester and Reversion (108 and 1/3 acres) to son Nicholas and called the new tract &ldquo;Nicholas&rsquo; Inheritance&rdquo;.<span>&nbsp; </span>They also conveyed other lands to their son George calling them &ldquo;George&rsquo;s Inheritance&rdquo;.<span>&nbsp; </span>On May 14, 1737 they got lot 20 in George Town from George&rsquo;s brother Albert and his wife Rebecca (Albert was living in New Castle, Delaware.)<span>&nbsp; </span>George and Maike also purchased part of the tract called &ldquo;Tolchester&rdquo; from Albert.<span>&nbsp; </span>On April 22, 1738 they conveyed to son Benjamin Lot 7 in George Town except for a 46 foot square and also conveyed to son-in-law, Thomas Newcomb, part of Lot 7.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1738 George Van Sandt sold part of lot 8 in George Town to a merchant, David Witherspoon.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1745 he conveyed to his son Benjamin, a tailor, lot 20 in George Town.<span>&nbsp; </span>He gave his son Ephraim, a bricklayer, Lot 8 in George Town.<span>&nbsp; </span>He also gave Benjamin and Ephraim parts of &ldquo;Tolchester&rdquo;.<span>&nbsp; </span>George Van Sandt died on March 22, 1755 in Kent, Cecil County, Maryland at the age of 67.<span>&nbsp; </span>In his will he gave the plantation he was then living on to son Cornelius with bequests to an unborn child of 100 pounds when it reached 21 years.<span>&nbsp; </span>He also gave ten pounds each to his four married daughters including Resultah (who was now on her third husband; she had married first Edward Holman/Holeman (1687&mdash;1743), married second Cuthbert Hall (1725&mdash;1748), and married third William Salisbury (1719&mdash;1781) . His daughters listed in the will were Elizabeth wife of Peter Cole; Hester Newcombe, Resultah Salisbury, and Ann Smith.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Nicholas only got 1 shilling and the other 5 sons were to have a share of the estate only after all the bequests and legacies were paid including securing his wife Maike (now called Mary) widow&rsquo;s third of the estate.</li> <li><span style="font-family: 'baskerville semibold'">Stoffel Christopher Van Sandt</span>, the oldest son of Garrit was born about the year 1670, and took the oath of allegiance at New Utrecht, Long Island in 1687.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>married Annetje Stoffels in 1692 in Brooklyn.<span>&nbsp; </span>They had lat least one child, a girl Jannetze in 1698.<span>&nbsp; </span>His wife Annetje died in 1700.<span>&nbsp; </span>Stoffel then <span style="font-family: 'baskerville semibold'">married Rachel Coursen (or Corsen) daughter of Hendrick Coursen and Josina Pieterse Van Ness.<span>&nbsp; </span>Rachel had been born on Staten Island in 1687.</span><span>&nbsp; </span>At age 18 she married Stoffel Van Sandt on Staten Island in 1705.<span>&nbsp; </span>He purchased 300 acres in Middletown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania from Henry Paulin on 23 May 1706 and conveyed 200 acres of this to sons Garret and John and died seized of the balance in 1749.<span>&nbsp; </span>He was a Justice of the Peace of Bucks county, 1715-18, 1723-27, and member of the colonial assembly in 1710, 1712, 1714, 1719.<span>&nbsp; </span>He and Rachel had: Joshua (who married 20 Feb 1728 and settled on land given to him by his father in Kent Co., Maryland on 28 Oct 1728 died 1 Dec 1771); John who married Rebecca Cox on 19 Aug 1728 and settled in Middletown, Pennsylvania on land given by his father in 1738 (he died there in 1759 leaving John, Ann, Elizabeth, Catharine, Rebecca and Mary); James (who had Rebecca, Flora, John, Jacobus); Garret who purchased land of his father in Middletown in 1743 and died there in 1789 leaving a large family; Alice or Alshe (or Olshe or Aaltje) who married Samuel Rue and left Rachel, Joshua, Mary, and Richard; Rachel who married Lewis Rue on 24 March 1736 and left children; and Jesina (or Sina) who never married.</li> </ol> <p style="margin-: 0.25in">&nbsp;</p> <p>We are descended from two Van Sandt brothers:<span>&nbsp; </span>Stoffel Christopher Van Sandt and his wife Rachel Coursen and<span>&nbsp; </span>Joris/George Van Sandt and his wife Maike Vandergrift.<span>&nbsp; </span>These families&mdash;the Van Sandts, Vandergrifts, and Coursens-- are part of the rich history of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Maike Vandergrift, the wife of Joris/George Vansandt, was the daughter of Nicholas Jacobse Vandergrift, who was born May 5, 1658 in New Utrecht, Long Island, the son of Jacob Leendertz Van Der Grift and Rebecca L. Frederickse. </strong><span style="font-weight: normal"><span>&nbsp;</span>Jacob had been born in 1611 in Amsterdam and in 1644 had come with his brother Paulus to New Amsterdam.<span>&nbsp; </span>Jacob never made it like his brother.<span>&nbsp; </span>Paulus was the skipper of the ship &ldquo;Neptune&rdquo; in 1645 and of the &ldquo;Great Gerrit&rdquo; in 1646.<span>&nbsp; </span>He was a large landholder, a member of the ruling council 1647-48, a burgomaster 1657-58 and again 1661-1664, he was orphan master 1656-60, and a member of the convention in 1653 and 1663.<span>&nbsp; </span>He was one of the co-patroons of the new settlement.<span>&nbsp; </span>Jacob on the other hand, was a bottler. Jacob married well. Rebecca Lubberts Frederickse was the daughter of Frederick Lubbertsen, one of the leaders of the Dutch community. Jacob was made a small burgher in 1656.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1657 he was commissioned by the burgomasters and schepens to be the measurer of grain (only he could weigh the cargoes).<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1664 he applied to the ruling council for debt relief saying that he was &ldquo;burdened by a large family, and on account of misfortune befallen some years ago, not having been able to forge ahead not withstanding all efforts and means tried by him to the end, etc.&rdquo; he wished to be relieved of his creditors from turning over property to them.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>He had been party to numerous suits about money in which he had appeared either as a plaintiff or defendant.<span>&nbsp; </span>He had not been paid for work done in Curacoa for the West India company.<span>&nbsp; </span>After the British took over in 1664, poor Jacob was assessed for quartering 100 English troops.<span>&nbsp; </span>On October 3, 1667 the English Governor Nicolls gave him a patent of land on Manhattan.<span>&nbsp; </span>He sold this land in 1668.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1671 he purchased his brother&rsquo;s land in Noordwyck on the North River,<span>&nbsp; </span>when Paulus returned to the Netherlands.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1686 Jacobus appears as a resident in Newton, Long Island.<span>&nbsp; </span>He died there in 1690 (age 79). (History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: from the discovery of the Delaware to the Present Time, V.3&mdash;30&mdash;32)</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Jacob&rsquo;s son, Nicholas Vandergrift married Barentje Janse Verkercken on August 24, 1684.<span>&nbsp; </span>He took the oath of allegiance to the English king, James II in 1687.<span>&nbsp; </span>He purchased more land in New Utrecht in 1691, but 6 years later he moved to Bensalem, Pennsylvania and Joseph Growden sold him 214 acres. Nicholas moved his extended family to Bensalem, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1697 including his widowed mother Rebecca<span>&nbsp; </span>Frederickse (widow of Jacob L. Van Der Grift) and four brothers and several sisters and their families.<span>&nbsp; </span>They also bought land from Joseph Growden. (Joseph Growden was the major owner of Bensalem.)<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>&ldquo;In 1697 four brothers Vandergrift, Nicholas, Leonard, Johannes and Frederick, came to Bucks county and settled in Bensalem.<span>&nbsp; </span>The first of July they purchased of Joseph Growden, respectively, two hundred and fourteen, one hundred and thirty, one hundred and six and one hundred and six acres of land lying on the Neshaminy.<span>&nbsp; </span>Johannes died March 1745.<span>&nbsp; </span>On the Bristol turnpike, just above Andalusia College, is the Vandergrift graveyard, where rest the remains of many members of the family.,,the ground is part of the two hundred acres conveyed to Nicholas Vandergrift in 1697&hellip;The Vansants came about the same time as the Vandergrifts.&rdquo; (from History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania: from the discovery of the Delaware to the present time.1--110)<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1710 Nicholas helped establish the Dutch Reformed Church in Bensalem.<span>&nbsp; </span>He was the junior deacon and he had 3 children baptized there.<span>&nbsp; </span>Not satisfied with Pennsylvania, Nicholas Vandergrift exchanged his Bensalem land for land in Delaware with Jacob Koluck of Lewistown, Sussex County, Delaware.<span>&nbsp; </span>Nicholas moved again to Maryland where he died in 1722 at the age of 64 in Bohemia Manor, Cecil County, Maryland.<span>&nbsp; </span>Nicholas Vandergrift may well have been following his daughter Maike and her husband George Van Sandt. George&rsquo;s last plantation was in Cecil County where he died.<span>&nbsp; </span>Maike/Mary Vandergrift had married George Van Sandt on 17 Dec 1706 in PA.<span>&nbsp; </span>They moved to Maryland from Bensalem, PA in 1714.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Rachel Coursen&rsquo;s father, Hendrick Coursen was the son of Cors St. Vroom Coursen and Tryntje Hendricks.<span>&nbsp; </span>Cors had been born in 1612 in Langeraer, Netherlands, a small hamlet about 6 miles east of Leyden on the Aar River.<span>&nbsp; </span>He migrated to New Netherlands in 1633 and worked as the skipper of a small vessel carrying freight between Manhattan and Rensselaerswyck (now Albany) and as pilot in the harbor of New Amsterdam.<span>&nbsp; </span>He took the opportunity offered on the trips up and down the Hudson to trade with the Indians and picked up their languages.<span>&nbsp; </span>He then served as an interpreter for the Dutch.<span>&nbsp; </span>However, he was rather aggressive and undiplomatic.<span>&nbsp; </span>He once took a parcel of skins from an Indian and then pushed him overboard.<span>&nbsp; </span>Indians later slapped Cors in the face with a dead squirrel, which nearly caused a war between the Dutch and the Indians.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>In 1638 (at the age of 26) he brought a suit against Adam Roelantsen to recover for his wife Tryntje, an interest in the estate of her deceased parents. (Adam Roelantsen, a teacher, had married Tryntje&rsquo;s mother after her father had died.)<span>&nbsp; </span>Cors won 50 Carolus guilders and had to promise not to revive any old dispute, &ldquo; which has heretofore existed.&rdquo; In 1640 Tryntje inherited a patent for a large estate, Gouwanus on Long Island.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>In 1647 Cors got a patent of land between Pearl Street and Fort Amsterdam.<span>&nbsp; </span>Cors and Tryntje had three boys:<span>&nbsp; </span>Cornelis born 1645, Peter St. Vroom born 1651, and Hendrick born 1653.<span>&nbsp; </span>Cors Coursen died in 1655.<span>&nbsp; </span>(Three hundred years with the Corson families in America: including the Staten Island&mdash;Pennsylvania Corsons, the Sussex County&hellip;Burlington, Vt.: Free Press, 1939, V.I--, )</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>[below is a map of New Amsterdam with the location of the residences of the Corsen families from <u>Three Hundred years with the Corson Families</u>]</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:401pt; height:647pt'> <v:imagedata src="file://localhost/Users/marloubelyea/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" o:althref="file://localhost/Users/marloubelyea/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image002.pct" o:title=""/> </v:shape><![endif]--></p> <p>In 1657 Tryntje petitioned the Orphan Masters of New Amsterdam for the guardianship of her boys.<span>&nbsp; </span>She promised &ldquo;to bring up her three children as well as she can, to have them taught reading, writing and a good trade or occupation, so that in time to come they may earn their own living and further to instruct them in the fear of the Lord and in the religious exercises and to do all, a good mother is bound to do, until said children shall come of age or marry; then she is to give each child the sum of 600 florins and to furnish each a good parcel of clothing, 6 shirts, 6 pants and 6 handkerchiefs.&rdquo;<span>&nbsp; </span>She also held the Pearl Street property, which the Orphan Masters described as a house and lot on the North side of Pearl Street next to Fort Amsterdam.<span>&nbsp; </span>Tryntje married Frederick Lubbertsen and he provided a comfortable life for the three Coursen boys.<span>&nbsp; </span>It was his second marriage (he had had 5 children).<span>&nbsp; </span>Frederick Lubbertsen had been born in 1603 in Amsterdam.<span>&nbsp; </span>He came to the New World as a sailor and was the chief boatswain of Director Kieft in 1638.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1641 he was one of the 12 men chosen to punish the Indians.<span>&nbsp; </span>Kieft expected them to rubber stamp his plans for the extermination of neighboring tribes.<span>&nbsp; </span>Most of the 12 men did not see it his way and argued unsuccessfully that the colony was outnumbered and that it would ruin the burgeoning trade economy between the whites and Indians.<span>&nbsp; </span>Kieft took his troops and murdered peaceful Indian tribes in N.Y. and N.J. only to have those Indians and their allies attack outlying settlers killing or taking them hostage and driving many into the fort where they lived in misery.<span>&nbsp; </span>These men wrote many petitions asking the Dutch leaders to relieve them of this fool.<span>&nbsp; </span>They replaced him with an intelligent but high handed leader, Peter Stuyvesant, who would lose their support entirely when it came to facing the English.<span>&nbsp; </span>Lubbertsen purchased a house in the Smits Vly (see above map) and built a large oven for commercial baking, but he sold this house in 1657 and moved to Breuckelen.<span>&nbsp; </span>He had represented Breuckelen in 1653, &lsquo;55, and<span>&nbsp; </span>&rsquo;64.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1657 he was created a &ldquo;Small Burgher&rdquo; and he ran unsuccessfully for Burgomaster of Breuckelen.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1663 he represented the town in the attempt to create a common system of defense against the impending British invasion but nobofy wanted to die for Stuyvesant and the West India Company.<span>&nbsp; </span>Under the British Lubbertsen was a magistrate of Brooklyn in 1674.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Cornelis Coursen became a Captain in the Militia.<span>&nbsp; </span>He married Marytje L. Vandergrift (b.1649&mdash;d.1698). (Marytje was the daughter of Jacob L. Vandergrift and the sister of Nicholas Jacobse Vandergrift who brought his extended family to Bensalem, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.)<span>&nbsp; </span>Cornelis Coursen and Maritje Vandergrift had: Cornelius (1667), Cararina (1667), Joshua (1669), Jacob (1675), Christian (1675), Benjamin (1686), and Daniel (1688).<span>&nbsp; </span>The children were either born on Staten Island or Brooklyn. On December 30, 1680 English Governor Dongan gave Captain Cornelis Corssen a patent for land on Staten Island.<span>&nbsp; </span>Sixty acres belonged directly to Corssen and he shared 40 acres with others.<span>&nbsp; </span>Another patent conveyed 320 acres of land bounded by the Mill Creek besides 32 acres of salt meadow.<span>&nbsp; </span>This patent placed Cornelis Coursen close to Matthiew La Rue. </p> <p>&nbsp;<strong>Hendrick Coursen/Corson had married Josina Pieterse Van Ness prior to<span>&nbsp; </span>1677 in Brooklyn</strong><span style="font-weight: normal">.<span>&nbsp; </span>In his name appears on the assessment roles for Breuckelen in 1675, 1676, and 1683..<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1687 Hendrick Courssen conveyed his share of the Raritan River property to his father-in-law, Peter Van Nest,<span>&nbsp; </span>for a tract near the town of Bound Brook.<span>&nbsp; </span>The next year another tract of 500 acres was patented by the New Jersey governor to Hendrick Coursen in Rahawackhacho on the Raritan River.<span>&nbsp; </span>Hendrick&rsquo;s name appears on the Brooklyn assessment roles in 1693, but soon after that he moved to New Jersey. &ldquo;Hendrick Corsen and Josina Pietersz van Neste, his wife, moved the Raritans.&rdquo; (Stile&rsquo;s History of Brooklyn, Vol, 1 p.426)<span>&nbsp; </span>(Three Hundred Years with the Corson Families,1-- p.54)<span>&nbsp; </span>He died on 7 Dec 1693 in Raritan, New Brunswick, New Jersey; his wife Josina died Jan 1743 in Somerville, Somerset, New Jersey. (Josina remarried to Jan Sebring).<span>&nbsp; </span>His brother Cornelis died in Staten Island on December 7, 1693.</span></p><!--StartFragment--> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" o:spt="75" o:preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"/> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"/> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"/> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"/> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"/> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"/> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"/> </v:formulas> <v:path o:extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" o:connecttype="rect"/> <o:lock v:ext="edit" aspectratio="t"/> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:396pt; height:647pt'> <v:imagedata src="file://localhost/Users/marloubelyea/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image001.gif" o:althref="file://localhost/Users/marloubelyea/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image002.pct" o:title=""/> </v:shape><![endif]--></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span>&nbsp;</span>Josina Van Nest was the daughter of Peter Van Nest and Judith Rapaltje.<span>&nbsp; </span>Judith Rapaltje was born 5 Jul 1635 in America, one of the earliest born in the Dutch colony.<span>&nbsp; </span>Judith&rsquo;s father was Joris Jansen De Rapalje, a Huguenot<span>&nbsp; </span>from La Rochelle, France.<span>&nbsp; </span>&ldquo;He and his wife Catalina Tricot, born 1605 in France came over in the ship &ldquo;Unity in 1623 marrying 4 days before the ship sailed; they both were listed in the marriage-intention registry as from Valenciennes and he was age 19 and she was age 18 (he was a borat worker).<span>&nbsp; </span>They settled first in Fort Orange, now Albany, where on June 9, 1625 was born their eldest child Sarah, probably the first child of European parents born in New Netherland.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1626 they removed to New Amsterdam and opened a tap house on the north side of Pearl Street.<span>&nbsp; </span>On Jun 16, 1637 they removed from New Amsterdam.<span>&nbsp; </span>On Jun 16, 1637 he bought 335 acres of land from the Indians, which would now be within the confines of Brooklyn, where he remained until 1654, at which time it seems he removed to his farm on Wallabout Bay, Long Island.<span>&nbsp; </span>He was a prominent man in the Colony, being one of the representatives from the New Netherlands in 1641, and magistrate of Brooklyn from 1655 to 1660 and in 1662.<span>&nbsp; </span>His wife died 11 Sep 1689, age 84.<span>&nbsp; </span>He died about 1665.&rdquo; </p> <p style="margin-bottom: 13pt; line-height: 16pt">The following reference to Joris and Catalina is lifted from Russell Shorto&#39;s excellent book &quot;The Island at The Center of the World&quot;:</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 13pt; line-height: 16pt">&nbsp;&quot;. . .They agreed to take part in the wildly hazardous enterprise on the condition that the company first marry them in a hastier-than-normal ceremony, which took place four days before their ship left Amsterdam on January 25, 1624. &quot;Espouse le 21 de Janvier,&quot; the clerk of the Walloon Church of Amsterdam recorded, without wasting too much time getting the names right, &quot;Joris Raporbie de Valencenne, et Caterine trico.&quot; Being illiterate, both made their marks on the page. He was nineteen, and she was eighteen; neither had parents sign the registry, which suggests that both were either alone in the world or alone in that part of the world, which amounted to the same thing. Like many who were to follow, they had nothing to lose.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 13pt; line-height: 16pt">Considering the stupendous dangers awaiting them, first at sea and then on arrival, it wasn&#39;t a union a betting man would likely lay money on. And yet, sixty years later, when the English colonies of Pennsylvania and Maryland were embroiled in a border dispute and needed evidence of &quot;Christian&quot; occupation of certain lands along the eastern seaboard, the representatives of William Penn found an old woman to testify who was known to have been among the first European settlers. Catalina Trico, now in her eighties, was a widow, but she and Joris had had a long and fruitful marriage.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 13pt; line-height: 16pt">The records of New Netherland show them among the first buyers of land in the wilderness of southern Manhattan, building two houses on Pearl Street steps away from the fort, obtaining a milk cow, borrowing money from the provincial government, moving their homestead to a large tract of farmland across the river in the new village of Breuckelen, and giving birth to and baptizing eleven children. Their first, Sarah, was considered the first European born in what would become New York (in 1656, at the age of thirty, she proclaimed herself &quot;first born christian daughter of New Netherland&quot;). She was born in 1625, and the same records duly show her marriage in 1639, to the overseer of a tobacco plantation in what would become Greenwich Village, and, in turn, the birth of her eight children.</p> <p>There are interesting documents in the New York archives taken from New Netherlands court records kept in the Tammny Hall court house in New York City. These concern matters such as borrowing a slave, Cathyleen being sued for insulting the manhood of a tavern customer, the borrowing of money, suing people, etc.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-family: tahoma">The Rapalje Home in Brooklyn in the background: Manhatten</span></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75" style='width:6in;height:156pt'> <v:imagedata src="file://localhost/Users/marloubelyea/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image004.gif" o:althref="file://localhost/Users/marloubelyea/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image005.pct" o:title=""/> </v:shape><![endif]--></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: 15pt">Peter Pieterse Van Nest immigrated from Utrecht, Holland, in 1647, to New Amsterdam. His name appears on the list of the members of the Collegiate Reformed&nbsp;Dutch Church since 1649. Removed to&nbsp;&quot;The Wallabout.&quot;&nbsp; Was a member of the Convention &quot;holden at New Amsterdam to engage in several Dutch Towns to keep up an armed force for public protection,&quot; in 1663.</p> <p>In 1683, the family removed to New Jersey, and were the first Europeans to settle in Somerset County. The family Bible was printed in Leyden in 1645. Took the oath of allegiance at Brooklyn, 1687. (from Colonial Families of the United States, p. 737)<span>&nbsp; </span>Peter Van Nest married Judith Rapalje in 1653.<span>&nbsp; </span></p> <p style="margin-bottom: 12pt; line-height: 15pt">It appears that Pieter and Judith removed from NY to Someret Co., NJ.&nbsp; In a Baptism record in First Reformed Church, Raritan, NJ a Piter and Judit Van Neste were witnesses to the batism of Elisabedt, daughter of Thomas Possell, and wife on Mar. 23, 1703, the same day, in the same church as &quot;Derck Middage&quot; and wife baptized &quot;Derck&quot; their son.</p> <p>Judith Rapalje VanNest died 21 May 1726 Somerset, New Jersey.<span>&nbsp; </span>Feb. 10, 1727/8 Van Este, Peter of Raritan, Somerset Co., NJ, yeoman.&nbsp; Will of: Children: Peter, John, Jeronimus, Judith, Cathrine, Vacomineca, Hannah and Bernardus; bequest towards building a Dutch Church on Raritan. Real and personal estate.&nbsp; Executors: son Jeronimus and son in law Peter Brokau.&nbsp; Wits. Thomas Strong, John Reading and Pytus Dewiedt.&nbsp; Proved 4/12/1728. Lib. B, p 83.
8/15/1728 Inventory. real 140 acres and a grist mill 260 pounds; personal 2193.1.10 including 2 negro children 25 pounds. Made by Jacobes Hegeman and Dirck van Veghten.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Hendrick Coursen and Josina Van Nest had 7 children: Hans, Reyst, Cors (born 1677), Judith (1679), Hendrick (1683), <strong>Rachel<span>&nbsp; </span>(1687</strong><span style="font-weight: normal">), and Katryna (1689).<span>&nbsp; </span>Hendrick Jr. inherited the Raritan property and died there in 1769 at the age of 86.<span>&nbsp; </span>He married 2 wives:<span>&nbsp; </span>Jannetje Bergen (born 1688 in Brooklyn) who married Hendrick in 1711 in Flatbush and Dartie Dumont (a descendent of this union became first a Colonel then Captain, electe First Major then Lieutenant-Colonel of the Somerset Miltia in the Revolution, his youngest son became governor of N.J, Peter D. Vroom, between 1829-1832, 1833-1836, then Congress 1839&mdash;41, then Minister to Prussia, 1853-57.).<span>&nbsp; </span>Hendrick Jr. and Jannetje had 12 children all born in New Jersey. Cors Coursen married Catryn in 1700 and had 7 children (Hendrick in 1700, Kristiaen abt. 1704, Michiell abt. 1706, Jacob about 1711, Petrus about 1714, Reyst abt. 1716, and Katryntie abt. 1718).<span>&nbsp; </span>He anglicized the family name to Corssen Vroom (meaning Corssen the Just</span><strong>).<span>&nbsp; </span>Hendrick&rsquo;s daughter, Rachel, of course, married Stoffel Van Sandt.</strong></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong><span>&nbsp;</span>Stoffel Christoph Van Sandt was the oldest son of Garret Van Sandt and Lysbeth Gerritz born in 1670.<span>&nbsp; </span></strong><span style="font-weight: normal">At the age of 17 he had taken the oath of allegiance to Britain.<span>&nbsp; </span>In 1692 he had married Annetje Stoffels and had at least one child with her.<span>&nbsp; </span>He moved to Bensalem, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1699 at the same time as his father and siblings. </span><strong>He married Rachel Coursen in 1705, his second marriage.<span>&nbsp; </span></strong><span style="font-weight: normal">They had<span>&nbsp; </span>the 8 children: Joshua; John, James; Garret; Elizabeth; </span><strong>Aaltje,</strong><span style="font-weight: normal"> Rachel, and Jesina. .<span>&nbsp; </span>He purchased 300 acres in Middletown from Henry Paulin on 23 May 1706 and conveyed 200 acres of this to sons Garret and John and died seized of the balance in 1749.<span>&nbsp; </span>Stoffel&rsquo;s son Garret received a deed of gift on 21 Oct 1742 to 95 1/2 acres of land, part of the 300 acres purchased from Henry Paulin in 1706.<span>&nbsp; </span>On 10 Jan 1748,<span>&nbsp; </span>Stoffel&rsquo;s son Garret purchased 214 acres in Middletown from Charles and Ann Plumly and conveyed this tract in equal parts to his sons Garret, Jr. and John on 31 July 1789.<span>&nbsp; </span>He conveyed to his son George the 95 &frac12; acres conveyed to him by his father. Joshua (who married 20 Feb 1728 and settled on land given to him by his father in Kent Co., Maryland on 28 Oct 1728); John who married Rebecca Cox on 19 Aug 1728 and settled in Middletown, Pennsylvania on land given by his father in 1738 (he died there in 1759 leaving John, Ann, Elizabeth, Catharine, Rebecca and Mary); James (who had Rebecca, Flora, John, Jacobus); Garret who purchased land of his father in Middletown in 1743 and died there in 1789 leaving a large family; Alice or Alshe (or Olshe or Aaltje) who married Samuel Rue who both died young in Maryland and left Rachel, Joshua, Mary, and Richard; Rachel who married Lewis Rue on 24 March 1736 and left children; and Jesina (or Sina) who never married.<span>&nbsp; </span>[Lewis Rue<span>&nbsp; </span>was the son of Matthew Rue (1721&mdash;28 Jul 1796), the brother of Samuel]</span></p> <!--EndFragment--> <!--StartFragment--> <p>Aaltje&rsquo;s father <strong>Stoffel Van<span>&nbsp; </span>Sandt was active in the political affairs of the Pennsylvania Colony.<span>&nbsp; </span>He was Justice of the Peace for Bucks County in1715-1718 and again for 1723 to 1727.<span>&nbsp; </span>He was a representative to the Pennsylvania assembly in 1710, 1712, 1714, and 1719.<span>&nbsp; </span></strong><span style="font-weight: normal">Pennsylvania was divided into counties with a sheriff and bench of justices appointed by the proprietor, William Penn, or by his representatives.<span>&nbsp; </span>In Pennsylvania the county was at first the only organization for local government.<span>&nbsp; </span>It had charge of the non-judicial, as well as the judicial, business.<span>&nbsp; </span>This was at first among the duties of the court, but at length it was placed in the hands of commissioners elected by the people.<span>&nbsp; </span>As the population increased the township was organized to aid the county in local matters, such as the care of highways, the assessing of property, and the like; but the county remained the administrative district and the unit of representation</span><span style="font-size: 16pt; font-family: baskerville">.</span><span style="font-family: baskerville"><span>&nbsp; </span>However in 1711 </span>the assembly reduced the powers of the justices when it created county tax commissioners, positions that became elective in 1722.<span>&nbsp; </span>The post of sheriff was also partially democratized.<span>&nbsp; </span>The freemen elected two nominees, leaving the governor to make the final choice.<span>&nbsp; </span>There was a similar arrangement concerning the townships into which each county was divided.<span>&nbsp; </span>The inhabitants elected two nominees for constable and local tax assessor, giving the governor the final say.<span>&nbsp; </span>Unlike New England, there were no town meetings.<span>&nbsp; </span>The wealthy commercial interests were often in conflict with the small farming communities in Bucks and Chester counties.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Stoffel Van Sandt in the<span>&nbsp; </span>Pennsylvania assembly faced some momentous issues.<span>&nbsp; </span>Bitter disputes arose about Quaker rights to refuse oath taking or serving in militias. Relations with other colonies were troubled by land disputes. Another issue was slavery.<span>&nbsp; </span>And of course relations to the Indian tribes that still inhabited much of Pennsylvania aroused considerable emotions. The Assembly passed a hodge-podge of laws about blacks and Indians. Relations with Indians were troubled by the failure of white settlers to respect Penn&rsquo;s treaties.<span>&nbsp; </span>The Indians complained bitterly of this, but settlers thought it was a waste of good land to keep it for hunting purposes only.<span>&nbsp; </span>Sometimes settlers were removed and sometimes the Indians.<span>&nbsp; </span>Penn had suffered a stroke in 1712 and his capable wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn serving as acting proprietor maintained peaceable relations with the Lenape, Conestoga, Iroquois. The legislature was more cavalier.<span>&nbsp; </span>When the Indians complained in the 1720s about traders cheating them and giving them rum and not powder and shot, so that the Indians nearly starved, the reply was that they could not control traders, and that Indians and whites all would cheat, and that they were at liberty to break in the heads of all rum casks. James Logan had tried to prevent violation of Penn&rsquo;s ideal that all Indian land titles would be extinguished only by purchase. After Hannah&rsquo;s death her irresponsible stepchildren and son in law took over.<span>&nbsp; </span>They were responsible for the infamous &ldquo;Walking Purchase.<span>&nbsp; </span>A tract of 10,000 acres sold by the Penns to be taken up anywhere in the unoccupied lands of the Province, was chosen in the area of the Delaware Indians in 1728.<span>&nbsp; </span>This became the tragic &ldquo;Walking Purchase&rdquo; leading to bloody war.</p> <p>Hannah Callowhill Penn also prevented<span>&nbsp; </span>the outbreak of civil war between Pennsylvania and Maryland over the on-going boundary dispute between Pennsylvania and Maryland; she got<span>&nbsp; </span>a division of the two. </p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><span style="font-family: 'baskerville semibold'">Stoffel Van Sandt died in Middletown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1749.<span>&nbsp; </span>He was 79</span>.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Samuel Rue and Aaltje Van Sandt&rsquo;s children were entangled in a court case over an inheritance from grandfather Stoffel Van Sandt.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>In 1749 Stoffel had willed his unmarried daughter, Jesina (called Sina) 50 acres for her lifetime and if she died without issue, the property was to be sold and the proceeds to be divided between his daughters Rachel and Aaltje and the children of his daughter Elizabeth.<span>&nbsp; </span>Jesinah died without issue by 5 Nov. 1766, when her will was proved before the Deputy Registrar of Bucks Co., thus entitling her sisters, or their children, to Stoffel&rsquo;s legacy.<span>&nbsp; </span>The children of Stoffel&rsquo;s daughter Elizabeth petitioned the General assembly on 22 Dec. 1774, reciting the terms of the devise, the subsequent death of Stoffel&rsquo;s executors, and stated &ldquo;that after the Death of the Testator, Rachel Rue, formerly Vansand, one of the Daughters, got into Possession of the Premises, and refuses either to sell or make any Compensation to the other Devisees as a Rent:---that Olshe, one of the Daughters of the testator, is dead, leaving Issue two Children both Minors, so that no Persons are impowered to sell the said land, and the Petitioners are hitherto deprived of the Legacies bequeathed to them.&rdquo;<span>&nbsp; </span>The petitioners asked that trustees be appointed to sell the land, which request was tabled at that time.<span>&nbsp; </span>On 2 March 1776, however, the requested law was passed and the land later sold.<span>&nbsp; </span>(see Utermohlen<span>&nbsp; </span>for citations).<span>&nbsp; </span>The Rachel Vansand was the widow of Lewis Rue, son of Matthew.<span>&nbsp; </span>By 1774 Mary Rue Holman and Richard Rue had left for the frontier in Kentucky.<span>&nbsp; </span>This might explain why only two minor children are mentioned in the court case.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p><strong>Rues, Vansants, and Vandergrifts are Presbyterians</strong><span style="font-weight: normal"> in Pennsylvania.<span>&nbsp; </span>Stoffel Van Zandt was one of the initial elders and founder of the Presbyterian church in Abington.<span>&nbsp; </span>This church was established in 1714.<span>&nbsp; </span>A history of the Abington Presbyterian Church noted that a group of 70 banded together choosing a Welsh clergyman, Malachi Jones.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Abednego Thomas, Stoffel Van Sant, Joseph Breden and Benjamin Jones are the four elders.<span>&nbsp; </span>They all then signed the Covenant &ldquo;In the Township of Abington, year `1714, we whose names are underwritten have engaged ourselves to be Ye lord&rsquo;s, and do hereby engage ourselves to Ye Lord and to one another to unite in a Church-State according to rule God gave in His word to direct His church in all the duty required toward God, ourselves and toward all men.<span>&nbsp; </span>The Lord please to aid and direct us.&rdquo;<span>&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The Presbyterians were Calvinist in their doctrine.<span>&nbsp; </span>For five years after signing the Covenant, the congregation met in Malachi Jones&rsquo; house.<span>&nbsp; </span>The Stoffel Van Sandts rode from Bensalem to the house in Abington where men and women separated with men sitting on the left of the aisle and women to the right.<span>&nbsp; </span>Malachi Jones rode a circuit to churches in Norriston, Bensalem, Great Valley and other small churches preaching one a month or so.<span>&nbsp; </span>Malachi Jones ministered to the Abington Church until his death in 1729.<span>&nbsp; </span>Malachi Jones gave land for a church and a graveyard.<span>&nbsp; </span>The Abington Church holds a special place in the annals of<span>&nbsp; </span>religion in America.<span>&nbsp; </span>It&rsquo;s second full time pastor, Richard Treat, ordained in 1731, was swept up into the Great Awakening of 1739.<span>&nbsp; </span>The famous evangelist George Whitefield visited Abington where from the<span>&nbsp; </span>porch-window of the church he preached to the thousands gathered in and about the graveyard to listen.<span>&nbsp; </span>Richard Treat began to doubt his religious experience and whether he should even preach.<span>&nbsp; </span>He told his congregation this and asked for their prayers. <span>&nbsp;</span>When Whitefield came in the spring, he led his friend back to the light.<span>&nbsp; </span>At the same time in Neshaminy the Rev. William Tennent erected a small log school room in which to educate his sons.<span>&nbsp; </span>Tennent ended up teaching many men called to preaching giving the name of the place &ldquo;The Log College&rdquo;.<span>&nbsp; </span>The zeal for lost sinners led to denunciations of the men as &ldquo;Log College Evangelists&rdquo; and &ldquo;New Light revivalists&rdquo;.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>It led to a split in the Presbyterian church between the Old Side and the New Side.<span>&nbsp; </span>Treat and Tennent joined with the New Side Presbytery of New Brunswick.<span>&nbsp; </span>These factions were reunited only in 1758 and under New Light principles.</span></p> <!--EndFragment--> <!--StartFragment--> <p><span>&nbsp;</span>These New Light Presbyterians would join the Quakers in the struggle to abolish slavery in Pennsylvania during and after the American Revolution though I doubt that the slave owning Rues and Vansandts joined that particular crusade despite their religious leanings. Pennsylvania state assembly abolished slavery on March 1, 1780.<span>&nbsp; </span>All slaves were to be registered then gradually freed.<span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>According to the slave registry a number of Vandergrifts, Rues, and Van Sants in Bensalem had slaves.<span>&nbsp; </span>Joseph Vandergrift had 2, Richard Rue had 7, John Vandergrift had 3, Harman Vansant had 1, and Abraham Vandergrift had 5.<span>&nbsp; </span>In Middletown, Richard Rue, son of Matthew (son of James), had 8 slaves.<span>&nbsp; </span>In Lower Makefield, Peter Vansant had 5 slaves.<span>&nbsp; </span>In Southampton Nicholas Vanzant had 3, and Jacob Vansant had 2 slaves. A historian of Bucks County notes that the Dutch seemed to be the most numerous slave holders.<span>&nbsp; </span>He caustically noted that the age distribution of the slaves with many young and few old indicated that slavery was not as mild as boasted.</p> <!--EndFragment--> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <!--EndFragment--> <p style="margin-bottom: 13pt; text-align: justify; line-height: 16pt">&nbsp;</p> <!--EndFragment-->

 
 
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