Chapter 60 - Our Van Voorhees Ancestors

The Netherlands

My great grandfather Stevense Coerte Van Voorhees was born in the Province of Drenthe in the northeastern part of the Netherlands back around the year 1600. His parents, who of course were also my great grandparents, were Coerte Albertse and Mergin Hendrikje and they lived near the small town of Hees in Drenthe where they are believed to have raised at least eight children including their son Stevense. The Province of Drenthe during this period of history was rural and scarcely populated and consisted mostly of farmers who struggled to raise crops in predominately sandy and unfertile soils. By this time in history Drenthe had been populated by human beings for over 100,000 years, a fact that most likely contributed to their poor soils. It is not surprising therefore to learn that in the period of the 1600s many of the families living in Drenthe were known to have immigrated to America obviously with the hope that they would improve their lives in a "New World". It did not help that during this same period of history there was an almost constant war taking place between the Dutch and the English now called the Anglo-Dutch Wars, and most certainly Stevense Coerte did not want any of his children to be forced into this awful conflict. He was 60 years old when he moved his family to America in 1660 and it is pretty clear that his motive for moving was based almost entirely on his desire to find a better place for his children to grow up.

Stevense Coerte is believed to have married twice and had around ten children.  His first wife was my 9th great grandmother Aeltje Wessels whom he married sometime before 1633 or shortly before their first child was born. Stevense and Aeltje are believed to have had four children, three of whom survived to adulthood, including my 8th great grandfather, Coerte Stevense Van Voorhees, who was born around 1637. Unfortunately my great grandmother died sometime around 1645 or possibly a year or so later. Not surprisingly considering where and when they lived, the exact dates of her birth, her marriage, her death and the birth dates of her children are not known for curtain.

Stevense Coerte married for a second time around the year 1650, a woman by the name of Willemtje Roelofsen Seubering who also happens to be my great grandmother as three of her six children were also my great grandparents, an almost unbelievable circumstance. The fact that Stevense Coerte had four children who were my great grandparents is truly amazing and this unusual genealogy will of course form a major part of this family's story. His children with his second wife Willemtje include Jan Stevense Van Voorhees who was born in 1652 and who is my 9th great grandfather, Jannetje Stevense Van Voorhees who was born around 1658 and who is my 9th great grandmother and Hendrickje Stevense Van Voorhees who was born around 1659 and who is also my 9th great grandmother.

New Amsterdam 1664

Despite the rather rural area in which Stevense Coerte grew up and then raised his own family, he apparently had accumulated enough wealth to be able to afford to emigrate to America in the year 1660. Traveling with Stevense to America were his wife and all of his living children except for his eldest daughter, Marchisen Stevense, who had already married and elected to stay behind in the Netherlands. The ship upon which they sailed is believed to have been the De Bonte Koe or the "Spotted Cow" which set sail probably out of the city of  Amsterdam in the month of April and then arriving in New Netherlands or what would later be called the Island of Manhatten around six to eight weeks later in June of 1660. Obviously the Van Voorhess family were not among the earliest settlers in this Dutch colony which was originally settled back in 1625. The population of New Netherlands by this point had grown to almost 6,000 or 7,000 people (estimated 9,000 by 1664) with around 2,000 living at the western end of the island or in New Amsterdam. Fortunately for our Van Voorhees family they had friends who were already living in New Amsterdam including two of my grandmother's siblings and their families and thus they were not total strangers upon their arrival. Obviously considering their large family consisting of many young children, friends in the new world would have been a major benefit.

The strong character of Stevense Coerte Van Voorhees became very apparent soon after their arrival in America. Within six months after their landing, Stevense had purchased a little over 60 acres of land in what was then called New Amersfort and later Flatlands (and now Brooklyn) and included within the fertile land that he purchased that was perfect for farming, was an already built home, and a large and completely furnished brewery. Stevense Coerte is also credited with being one of the founders and original deacons and elders of the Dutch Reformed Church of Flatlands and in 1664 he was appointed as one of the magistrates of the town of Flatlands. He was obviously a highly respected individual within his new community. By the time of his death in February of 1683 at the age of 83, all of his children had married and it is estimated that by that point he had upwards of 30 grandchildren. The present day Van Voorhees Association which was organized back in 1932 by descendants of Stevense Coerte Van Voorhees, proclaims that there are more Van Voorhees descendants in America today than those of any other single early Dutch settler in America. Fascinating possibility.

New Amsterdam in 1660

There are several other historical issues that should be mentioned at this point. The first is that the Dutch during this period of history did not use surnames as we all do today. We have referred to our great grandfather as Stevense Coerte Van Voorhees, however the surname of Van Voorhees was not what the family called themselves when they arrived in America in 1660. Their second names were in fact a variation of their father's first name so in Stevense Coerte's case, the Coerte was his father's first name. You will also note that all of Stevense Coerte's childrens' second name was Stevense after their father's primary name. All of this changed however, when the

British took over control of New Amsterdam in 1664 only four years following the arrival of our Van Voorhees ancestors. Our Van Voorhees ancestors were forced in part by the British to adopt the surname "Van Voorhees" which roughly implied in the Dutch language that they were from the village of Hees, which of course was the case. And then several generations down from our original Van Voorhees settlers, the "Van" was removed from the surname and thus present day direct descendants have their surname simply as "Voorhees". Anyway . . . the oldest son of Stevense Coerte was named or at least referred to today as Coerte Stevense Van Voorhees.

Coerte Stevense Van Voorhees (abt 1637-abt 1702): Coerte Stevense, my 8th great grandfather, was the oldest son of Stevense Coerte and his first wife Aeltje Wessels and he was around 22 years old when he disembarked from the ship De Bonte Koe in New Amsterdam in 1660. In 1664, Coerte Stevense married my 8th great grandmother, Marretje Gerretse van Couwenhoven, who was then 20 years old and the daughter of Gerret Wolfertse Van Couwenhoven (1610-1645) and Aeltje Cornelius Cool (1620-1683). Marretje's father had immigrated to America with his parents around 1630, married his wife in 1635, and then Marretje, their 5th child, was born in New Amsterdam and baptized on 10 April 1644.  What is really interesting about my Van Couwenhoven ancestors is that one of Marretje's older brothers, Willem Gerretse Van Couwenhoven (1636-1663) is also one of my great grandfathers also on my father's side of my family. Obviously I have no shortage of Dutch ancestry.  Coerte Stevense, perhaps even more so than his father, was an active participant in his local government and in their Dutch Church of Flatlands as well as servicing as a Captain in their local militia. He also owned a large section of land in Gravesend located just southwest of Flatlands as well as 60 to 70 acres or more of land in Flatlands. He obviously was quite well off financially which obviously was a great benefit to his children when he died in 1702.

Coerte Stevense and my great grandmother Marretje had nine children who survived to adulthood including two of their children who are also my great grandparents, their oldest son Steven Coerte Van Voorhees who was born in 1667 and his sister, Annatie Coerte Van Voohrees, born in 1680. Annatie incidentally, married Jan Jorise Rapalje whose family's history story is told in Chapter 1 of this blog. Just to show how interwoven the families were during this period of history, the youngest son of Coerte and Marretje, a boy named Johannes Coerte (1683-1757) married another one of my great grandmothers, a woman named Sarah Van Vleit, although it was her second marriage and we are not directly related to any of their children.

Steven Coerte Van Voorhees (1667-1723): We actually could find very little about the life of our 7th great grandfather Steven Coerte Van Voorhees. We believe that he was born in Gravesend where his parents lived and he died in Flatlands. As his parents' oldest son he was probably fairly welloff financially but other than learning that he was an officier in the militia in Kings County, New York in 1715, we learned nothing else about his life and other public services.  We do know that he married my 7th great grandmother sometime in the late 1680s, a woman by the name of Agatha Eva Janse Van Dyck (lots of different spellings) and that they had as many as eleven children including my 6th great grandmother, Lucretia Van Voorhees, who was born in 1696. Lucretia incidentally, married a man by the name of Nicholas Williamson (1689-1779) who just happens to be the grandson of another of my ancestors, one Pieter Claesen Wyckoff (1625-1694) whose family story is told in Chapter 49 of this blog. From this point down our tree is as follows:
             
                        Lucretia Van Voorhees m  Nicholas Williamson
                                                          |
                             William Williamson  m  Geetje Hegeman
                                                          |
                               Sarah Williamson  m  Jeremiah Rappleye
                                                          |
                                  Peter Rappleye  m  Mary Covert
                                                          |
                               Joshua Rappleye  m  Jane Taft Campbell
                                                          |
                              Helene Rappleye   m  Asbury Harpending Baker
                                                          |
                      Charles Schenck Baker  m  Helen Mary Spaulding
                                                          |
                       Charles Asbury Baker   m  Marian C. Patterson
                                                          |
                   Charles Asbury Baker Jr.   m  Kathleen Therese Mahar

Jan Stevense Van Voorhees (1652-1735) is the fourth son of Stevense Coerte Van Voohrees (1600-1684) and he is one of four children of Stevense Coerte who all happen to be my great grandparents. In Jan Stevense's case he is my 9th great grandfather and also the son of Stevense Coerte's second wife, Willemtje Roelofsen Seubering (1619-1690). Jan Stevense of course, was only around eight years old when he arrived in America with his parents in the year 1660 and it is highly unlikely that by the time he married his first wife and my 9th great grandmother, Cornelia Reinierse Wizzelpenning (1656-1680) whom he married on 17 March 1678, that he had any memories left of his birthland. Cornelia's parents, Reiner Wizzelpenning (1635-1670) and Jannetje Jans Snedecker (1638-1713) are believed to have arrived from the Netherlands in the year 1658 when they daughter was only two years old so that she too like her husband had little to no memories of their homeland. They both grew up in the Flatland's area so it might not be that surprising that they knew each other at a young age. This assumption is pretty well confirmed by the fact that one of Jan Stevense's younger brothers, Albert Stevense (1653-1727) married one of Cornelia's sisters, Helletje Reinierse Wizzelpenning (1665-1691). Clearly the families were close.

Unfortunately my 9th great grandmother, Cornelia Reinierse Wizzelpenning, died on 7 January 1680 shortly following the birth of their only child, my 8th great grandfather, Stephen Van Voorhees (20 Dec 1679-18 Sept 1759) who was born only around three weeks before his mother's death. Cornelia was only 24 years old when she died. Jan Stevense remarried less than a year following my great grandmother's death and he had many more children, around ten more, but it was just not the same. Unfortunately we could learn very little about the life of my 9th great grandfather, Jan Stevens Van Voorhees other than the names of his children, where and when he was born and died plus the fact that based on his Will which was dated on 3 January 1723, he apparently was a fairly well-off individual since he owned quite a bit of farmland most of which was in the area of Flatlands. Incidentally, he signed his will with the name John Stevenson, obviously reflecting that the English were strongly influencing the Dutch by this point. Why he did not mention his surname "Van Voorhees" in this Will is curious.

Stephen Van Voorhees (1679-1759): Here again, we know very few details about the life of my 8th great grandfather. We know that based on his father's will he received slightly more in his inheritance than did his step brothers and sisters. Stephen apparently moved westward on Long Island for we know that in 1705 at the age of 28 he married my 8th great grandmother, Catrina Van Duyn (1683-1757), in Jamaica in Queens County located about 14 miles from Flatlands.  Stephen and Catrina had around eight children including my 7th great grandfather and their youngest son, Stephen Voorhees (1729-1799). From this point to the present day our family tree is as follows:
              Stephen Voorhees  m  Ann Baldwin
                                           |
             Margaret Voorhees  m  Jothan Purdy
                                           |
                    Andrew Purdy  m  Esther Miller
                                           |
                       Maria Purdy  m  Thomas Maxwell
                                           |
               Susan C. Maxwell  m  Mathew McReynolds Sly
                                           |
             Mary Catherine Sly  m  Charles Henry Spaulding
                                           |
      Henry Clinton Spaulding  m  Ella McBlain Reynolds
                                           |
         Helen Mary Spaulding  m  Charles Schenck Baker
                                           |
         Charles Asbury Baker  m  Marian P. Baker
                                           |
             Charles A. Baker Jr  m  Kathleen Therese Mahar

 Jannetje Stevense Van Voorhees (25 Dec 1658-10 Sept 1709): Jannetje Stevense is my 9th great grandmother and the second daughter and fourth child of her parents, Stevense Coerte Van Voorhees (1600-1684) and Willemtje Roelofsen Seubering (1619-1690). Like her siblings she was born in the Netherlands and came over with her parents and siblings at a very young age in 1660. She was also quite young, around 14 years old, when she married my 9th great grandfather, Jan Martense Schenck (abt 1631-1688) in the year 1672. What is really more surprising however, is that her new husband and my great grandfather was around 40 years old when they married and there are no records that we could find that show that he had married previously. Jan Martense had arrived in America from Amsterdam with his two siblings in 1650 so the fact that he remained unmarried for about 22 years following his immigration would seem very unusual. Also unusual was the fact that Jan Martense Schenck's older brother Roelof Martense Schenck (1619-1703) was also my 9th great grandfather as in 1660 he married a girl named Neeltje Gerretse Van Couwenhoven (1641-1674). You may recall that we previously mentioned a girl named Marretje Gerratse Van Couwenhoven (1644-1708) who happens to be Neeltje's younger sister and who married Coerte Stevense Van Voorhees (1637-1699) (see above) who is Jannetje Stevense Van Voorhees older step-brother. So Jannetje's brother Coerte Stevense married a Couwenhoven daughter and her husband Jan Martense Schenek's brother also married a Couwenhoven daughter and they are all my great grandparents. Unbelievable these close family marriages and we have to believe that this was not that uncommon in our lowly populated "New World" in the 17th century.      

The history of my 9th great grandfather, Jan Martense Schenck is really quite interesting. He married Jannetje Stevense around the year 1672 and around the same time he purchased a large parcel of land on an island then named Molen Eylandt (later called Mill Island) on which he built a home for his new family. It is said that the total land purchased amounted to around 75 acres. On the adjacent map, Mill Island is shown off the coast of what was then called Flatlands, one of the six provinces of Brooklyn. The land that he purchased was bordered in part by the waters of the Jamaica Bay which then led to the Atlantic Ocean so not surprisingly he had built a large dock suitable for docking the ocean going ships of the late 17th century. Our great grandfather Jan Martense Schenck has been referred to in some historical writings as Captain Schenck as apparently his dock and its location allowed him to become a major trader of imports and exports between Holland and the New World which obviously would have led to his great wealth and notoriety. There are also some writings about his business that jokingly suggest that one of his good customers was the infamous pirate Captain William Kidd who was known to have lived in the area during the early part of his life. There is also some humorous writings that suggest that our great grandfather Jan Schenck may have even worked for or at least sailed with Captain Kidd shortly following his arrival in America although considering that Kidd was born in 1654, this hint would seem highly unlikely.

Schenck House before 1952

Upon purchasing the land on Mill Island, Jan Martense Schenck almost immediately built a new home, the construction of which was completed around 1675. Unbelievably the Schenck home is still in existence today. For approximately 275 years the Schenck house remained in its original location but then in 1952, the Brooklyn Museum made a commitment to save the house which was at that point scheduled for demolition. They then carefully dismantled the home and then after a decade of storing it, they opened a museum in 1964 which soon contained in part the reconstructed "Jan Martense Schenck House". 

Schenck House in Brooklyn Museum

Our great grandfather's home can still be visited to this day at the Brooklyn Museum and perhaps some day we shall do so. Jan Martense Schenck and Jannetje Stevense Van Voorhees were known to have nine children including their oldest son Martin Janse Schenck (1675-1730) who inherited his parents' home upon his father's death. Martin Janse Schenck is my 8th great grandfather. He married my 8th great grandmother, Cornelia Rochussen Van Wesselen (1663-1736) on 2 December 1703 and they lived in the Schenck home until their deaths at which time it was willed to their son and my 7th great grandfather, John Schenck (1705-1775).  The heirs of John Schenck who would include my 6th great grandfather, Martin Schenck (1738-1794) eventually sold their great grandparents home on the 15th of April in the year 1784. The Schenck home is today, despite the fact that it currently sits in a museum, considered by many to be the oldest surviving home in the New York City area. My family tree from Martin Schenck down to myself today is as follows:
                   Martin Schenck  m  Sarah Couwenhoven
                                            |
            Antje (Ann) Schenck  m  John M Bogart
                                            |
                       Sarah Bogart  m  Francis Baker
                                            |
                        Elijah Baker  m  Susan Emmeline Osborn
                                            |
       Charles Schenck Baker  m  Hannah E. Harpending
                                            |
     Asbury Harpending Baker  m  Helena Ely Rappleye
                                            |
       Charles Schenck Baker  m  Helen Mary Spaulding
                                            |
          Charles Asbury Baker  m  Marian Coapman Patterson
                                            |
               Charles A Baker Jr  m  Kathleen Therese Mahar

Hendrickje Stevense Van Voorhees (abt 1658-abt 1693): Hendrickje Stevense is my 9th great grandmother and the youngest child of Stevense Coerte Van Voorhees and Willemtje Roelofsen Seubering. She was only two years old when the family arrived in America so obviously she too had no memories of her birthplace in Amsterdam. While it was probably not that uncommon during this period of history as parents wanted their daughters to find husbands as early as possible, nevertheless her age of only 16 or 17 years old when she married in 1675 was still a bit unusual. Her husband and my 9th great grandfather was a man named Albert Albertse Terhune (1651-1709) who was at the time of their marriage around 24 year old.

Unfortunately we learned very few details about the life of my 9th great grandfather, Albert Albertse Terhune, and even less about the life of his parents. What has been written about the life of Albert's father is filled with contractions with everything from when he arrived in America, to exactly when he married, and even where he lived. That said, we have to admit that what we are now writing about my Terhune ancestors may not be entirely accurate. Albert Albertse Terhune's father was also named Albert Albertse Terhune. He is believed to have been born in the Netherlands around the year 1620 and in his late teens around the year 1637 or 1638, he emigrated to the New World or what would later be called New Amsterdam. There are some historians who suggest that he may have emigrated as an indentured servant which was not all that uncommon and would make sense especially since he travelled at a young age and without a family and then following his arrival he did not appear to immediately purchase any land or start a business. In fact most historians report that his first occupation was working under the control of the colony's governor general, a position he may have held for a number of years as nothing is known about Albert Sr. until he married his wife and my 10th great grandmother, Geertje Dircks (Denyce?) sometime just prior to 1648 when their first son was born.  From what other information we could learn about my 10th great grandfather, we know if nothing else, that he had a rather aggressive personality. In 1657, he and his wife rented a piece of property on an assumed former Nyack Indian tract of land out in New Utrecht on Long Island. He then went ahead and built a rather crude home on the property. Apparently the Nyack Indians later denied that they had sold the land upon which the Terhune home was built and when an Indian uprising was threatened, the Director General of New Amsterdam ordered that the Terhune home be destroyed. Apparently it must have been built without the proper authority to do so. My great grandfather refused to tear down his home and he was hence arrested and issued a fine. When he refused to pay the fine he was thrown in jail. He was eventually released and later moved his family to Flatlands where they purchased 50 acres of land and a home and he subsequently became a successful farmer. He died in 1685 but not before he and his wife had eleven children including his fourth child in 1651, my 9th great grandfather, Albert Albertse Terhune (Jr).

Terhune Home in Hackensack, New Jersey

My 9th great grandparents Hendrickje Stevense Van Voorhees and Albert Albertse Terhune had as many as ten or eleven children including the birth of my 8th great grandmother, Marritje Terhune (1685-1746) before her mother Hendrickje died in 1693 at the young age of only 34. One has to wonder if the role of being a mother of so many children plus being an almost annual child bearer might not have been a major cause of her early death. Despite the loss of his first wife, Albert married twice more, having five more children with his second wife who died in 1705 and then three more with his third wife who subsequently and perhaps fortunately outlived him. My great grandfather died on 9 September 1709 at the age of only 58 year old.  Fortunately for his large family he died a fairly wealthy man as shows quite clearly by the quality of his home shown in the photograph above. The photograph was taken of his beautiful home in Hackensack, New Jersey sometime before it was torn down in 1951.

Albert Albertse and his wife Hendrickje Stevense and their parents as well, lived in New Amsterdam during an interesting period of early American history. Albert Jr was about 13 years old when a small fleet of British ships landed in New Amsterdam in 1664 and ordered that the entire area was now to be under British control. The Dutch Governor at the time, a man named Peter Stuyvesant, was unable to get any support from the local Dutch settlers and he had no choice but to surrender. The following year the second Anglo-Dutch War began between the British and the Dutch and the war which was fought mostly in Europe or out in the ocean, ended in 1667 following a major Dutch battle victory followed with a peace treaty.  What appears to be really interesting is that even with a Dutch victory, the former city of New Amsterdam which was now being called New York, was still under the leadership of the British. What this apparently tells us is that the majority of the Dutch speaking people living in the New York area at the time did not relate in anyway to the home of their ancestors or in the case of Albert Jr., to the birth home of his mother. Incidentally, the Dutch regained control over "New Amsterdam" for a brief period in 1673 but by 1674 the British resumed control again and maintained control until their defeat during the American Revolution.

Map showing location of Hackensack

We really learned very little about the public life of my 9th great grandfather, Albert Albertse Terhune. We do know that sometime before 1689 he moved his family including by that point his second wife, to a new home near an area later to be known as Hackensack, New Jersey. It is believed that he had obtained a patent along with several other men on a large parcel of land, reported to be 5,000 acres, back in the year 1682 and eventually he ended up personally owning around 600 acres as well as a lovely home in northern New Jersey that he had built along the Passaic River as shown in the photograph above. [Some historians write that it was Albert's father who actually purchased his portion of the patent for the 5,000 acres. Both father and son had the same names so it is easy to understand the possible confusion.] Records show that Albert was a member of their local Legislature in 1695 and 1696 as well as an Elder in the local Dutch Reformed Church beginning in 1689. We have to believe that during his life he had gained a considerably amount of wealth, was a highly respected individual, and his family was saddened when he died on 7 September 1709.

The daughter of Albert Albertse Terhune and Hendrickje Stevense Van Voorhees, Marritje (Mary) Terhune was 21 years old when she married her husband, Hendrick Bertholf in the Dutch Reformed Church in Hackensack on the 29th day of March in the year 1707. The story of their family is continued in Chapter 56 - "Our Bertholf Family" in this family history blog. My family tree from this point is as follows:

               Hendrick Bertholf  m  Marritje Terhune
                                          |
                Jacobus Bertholf  m  Elizabeth Bertholf
                                          |
        Petrus "Peter"Bertholf  m  Angenietje Van der Bogart
                                          |
              Elizabeth Bertholf  m  John Wisner
                                          |
                    Henry Wisner  m  Maria Smith
                                          |
                     Clara Wisner  m  Henry Clinton Spaulding
                                          |
    Charles Henry Spaulding  m  Mary Catherine Sly
                                          |
    Henry Clinton Spaulding  m  Ella Mc Blain Reynolds
                                          |
        Helen Mary Spaulding  m  Charles Schenck Baker
                                          |
         Charles Asbury Baker  m  Marian Coapman Patterson
                                          |
            Charles A. Baker Jr  m  Kathleen Therese Mahar

Considering the very large number of my ancestors who emigrated from the Netherlands in the 1600s, it is not surprising that my DNA shows an "Ethnicity Estimate" of 63% Western European. Based on my family tree which is displayed on Ancestry.com, it does seem to confirm that the majority of my "Western European" ancestors did in fact originate from the Netherlands with only a few from France and Germany. These ancestors were granted Dutch based surnames in this country such as Wyckoff, Bertholf, Couwenhoven, Bogart, Schenck, Williamson, Covert, Coapman, as well as numerous other names. As fairly recent examples, my mother's middle name was Coapman (originating from her Dutch 5th great grandfather Johannes Coapman), and my grandfather Baker's middle name was Schenck (from his Dutch 8th great grandfather Jan Martense Schenck). Considering how relatively small the Dutch population is in Europe compared to the rest of the world, it is fascinating how many Dutch ancestors we really have. Perhaps more stories should follow about the lives of some of our other numerous Dutch ancestors.