The John Heesom Line

After Charles I was tried and beheaded, and after a tumultuous period of Parliamentary rule, the leading general of the Puritan cause, Cromwell, was made Lord Protector. He ruled England through Parliament, but his absoute power over the Army made him a virtual dictator.

Richard lacked his father’s political skills and General Monk, one of the Civil War's great generals, engineered the restoration of the House of Stuart.

Charles II led a bawdy court famous for its royal mistresses. It was not famous of its intellect. Restricted in his income by Parliament, the King accepted money from France’s King Louis XIV.

Dutch colonies in America were seized and given to Charles' brother James, the Duke of York (hence New York city).

The Quakers found colonies in West Jersey and Pennsylvania in 1675 and 1682.

At the time he emigrated, in the 1680's, John was probably in his mid-30's. He was probably about 5' 6" tall, or about average for the day, with brown hair and, perhaps, blue eyes - a family trait. At his age he should have saved enough money to get married, or to emigrate.

The greatest historical influences in his life had been the Civil War, both in its violence and vision of freedom, and, subsequently, the Restoration of the King. He had grown up immersed in the mythology of the War. Some of his parent's neighbors would have been in Parliament's army; others attacked and plundered the halls of the absent lords. John probably knew houses in the village that had cabinents or benches which had been "liberated" from some great house. Other effects of the war were less positive to a boy. The Puritans, who were in the ascendency, made certain that both church and school were stictly kept, and little enjoyed. Theater and music making were also proscribed.

When John was about 10 years old all of this changed. The King, Charles II, was restored. The Church of England brought back the pomp of ceremony. The lord of the manor returned and began to assert his ancient rights.

The greatest societal influence on John may have been the rise of Quakerism. These solid, sober men who would not doff their hats or swear an oath probably appealed to a man who was unsettled by the reassertion of ancient privilege. At the same time they did not scare him, as did the harsh certainty of the Puritans.

John was an optimist, because he could see a better future for himself in America. He was not a fatalist, because he was not resigned to living the life of his fathers. He was an indiviudalist, because he took his life and his future into his own hands. If not a Quaker himself, he was sympathetic to the Quakers' ideas about government.

A stray. Interestingly, while there are many variants of the name, the use of the ending letter "n" is rarely one of them, except as a transcription mistake. John Heeson was a servant of Charles Carroll of Maryland. "During the 1760's and 1770's three different men oversaw it. The first, John Heeson, was sent to Papa from England in 1763 as a gardener. Annoyed that Heeson had brought along a wife, Papa nonetheless retained him to manage the Folly, but at an annual wage of only twelve pounds sterling, plus a shore of the crop, arrangements that might have precipitated his sudden departure in 1771. Whatever the case, the abrupt exit . . ." - from "Princes of Ireland, Planters of Maryland: A Carroll Saga, 1500-1782"

In 1664, having seized the Dutch colonies in America, King Charles gave all the lands between the Connecticut and Delaware rivers to his brother, the Duke of York, the future King James II. The Duke in turn gave two court favorites, John Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret, the territory between the Hudson and the Delaware. It was called New Jersey in recognition of Carteret's governance and defense of the Isle of Jersey during the English Civil War.

About this time the Quakers, who were being discriminated against in England, had expressed the desire to find some peaceful place among the islands of the sea or in the wilderness of America where they might freely practice their religion and put into effect their ideas about government. In 1672 their mystic leader, George Fox, had come to America and crossed New Jersey, exploring the region for possible settlement. Fox related that

" . . . ye next day wee passed 50 miles, and found an old house, which ye Indians had forced the people to desert, and gott us some fire at ye heade of Dallaway bay; and the next day wee swam our horses over a River about a mile at twise [?], first to an Island & then to ye Maine land, the Island is called uper dinidocke [Mattineconk or Tennekonck]."

John Lord Berkeley, insolvent as many of the sprendthrift nobles of Charles II's court were, sold his share of the Jersey colony for ready cash in 1673 to Edward Byllynge, a member of the Society of Friends, or Quakers. Byllinge, however, was not able to consumate the deal due to his own financial problems. Eventually three other Quakers, William Penn, Gawen Lawrie and Nicholas Lucas, were appointed as trustees of his estate. Penn thus became familiar with this tract of land which influenced his eventual choice for his own colony.

The leadership of the Society of Friends was eager to found a colony in America where they would be safe from persecution, and in which they could establish a commonwealth resting on the political, moral, and social tenets of their faith, what they called their "Holy Experiment." Byllynge and the trustees spent three years developing a plan for creating in New Jersey a haven for their fellow Quakers. A division line separating their lands, to be known as West Jersey [the Delaware river basin and southern New Jersey] from those of Lord Carteret's, then known as East Jersey [the coast and northern New Jersey], was established. West Jersey was organized as a joint stock company. The territory was divided into 100 properties to be sold at 350 pounds each. Any purchase of a share, or a part thereof, carried with it the right to participation in the government of the province.

The genius of the Quaker colonies, both in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, was that they were designed as not just asylums for Quakers, but for all Christians, of whatever country, who wanted to flee religious oppression. Their form of government, too, was liberal and this acted as a magnet for colonization. A constitution provided for the annual election of a representative assembly, guaranteed freedom of worship and trial by jury. Byllynge became the non-resident governor.

West Jersey was then opened for sale and the trustees circulated an advertisement throughout the kingdom inviting Friends and others to purchase the lands and promote emigration. The advertisement advised that,

"whosoever had a desire to be concerned in this intended plantation should weigh the thing well before the Lord, and not headily and rashly conclude on any such remove, and that they do not offer violence to the tender love of their near kindred, but soberly and conscientiously endeavour to obtain their good-will and the unity of Friends where they live."

Commissioners were sent out by the proprietors with power to buy land from the natives. In contrast to the story of the purchase of Manhattan, the Indians of the Delaware river received much more than $24 in trinkets. For example, a tract of land extending twenty miles on the Delaware River, lying between Oldman's Creek and Timber Creek, was purchased from the locals for "30 match-coats, 20 guns, 30 kettles, 1 great kettle, 30 pair of hose, 20 fathoms of duffels, 30 petticoats, 30 narrow hoes, 30 bars of lead, 15 small barrels of powder, 70 knives, 30 Indian axes, 70 combs, 60 pair of tobacco tongs, 60 tinshaw looking-glasses, 120 awl-blades, 120 fish-hooks, 2 grasps of red paint, 120 needles, 60 tobacco boxes, 120 pipes, 200 bells, 100 Jews-harps, and 6 anchors of rum."

An earlier, independent, Quaker expedition led by John Fenwick sailed aboard the GRIFFIN [GRIFFITH] in the fall of 1675 and landed at what became New Salem, New Jersey.

In August 1677 a group of 230 Quakers from Yorkshire and London sailed on the KENT and founded the town of Burlington on Assiscunk Creek. The town was initially called New Beverley, for a village in the East Riding of Yorkshire northwest of Hull. This was later changed to Burlington, for a village on the North Sea coast of the East Riding called Bridlington, pronouned by the locals as Burlington. Of historical interest, as the KENT sailed down the Thames enroute to the West Jersey colony it passed the barge of King Charles II. He asked who they were and when told they were Quakers bound for America he gave them his blessing.

In October the WILLING MINDE [the name is theological, as in "a willing mind to serve God"], with 70 settlers from London, and the Flie-boot MARTHA, from Hull with 114 Yorkshire Quakers, arrived. The SHIELD followed, also from Hull, with another 100 in December 1678 [a total of about 500].

At the site of the Burlington settlement the Yorkshire and London Quakers divided the region between them. The Yorkshire commissioners "chose from the falls of Delaware [Trenton] down [to the Rancocas, or Raccoon Creek, south of Burlington], which was hence called the First Tenth [or Yorkshire Tenth]." In the town itself 20 properties were laid out, 10 for the Yorkshire proprietors and 10 for the London, with a main street, called High Street, down the middle. Each lot was ten or eleven acres which was for a house, an orchard and a garden. Farm and pasture land were outside the town.

"Here is good land enough lies void, would serve many thousands of families; and we think if they cannot live here, they can hardly live in any place in the world." - from a letter by "John Crips to Henry Stacy, written "from Burlington, on Delaware River,the 26th of the eight month, 1677."

By 1679 there were 800 Quakers living along the Delaware. They were joined by Irish Quakers from Dublin in 1681 who settled in Gloucester county, afterwards known as the Irish Tenth. The influx after 1682 decreased dramatically when William Penn founded his colony, which became the new magnet for colonization. By the end of the 17th century the West Jersey population was more than 3300 with nearly 70% of them being Quakers of English or Irish origin.

In 1687 Byllynge was succeeded by Dr. Daniel Coxe (1640-1730), physician to Queen Anne. At about this same time a Quaker Meeting House was first built, hexagonal in shape. Prior to this the Quakers had been meeting in private homes. In 1691 the doctor sold out to the West Jersey Society, a London-based company of real estate investors. At this point affairs in West Jersey ceased to be dominated by the Quakers. In 1702 the Society surrendered control of the government to the crown.

See The Historic County of Burlington and The History of Nova Caesarea for early histories of the region.

The GRIFFITH from London arrived in 1675. Its passengers, under John Fenwick, settled Salem. The PHENIX, Matthew Shearer master, arrived in 1677 with more Salem settlers.

The KENT, Gregory Marlow master, arrived from London at Newcastle in August 1677 with 200 passengers. "It should be noted that many passengers alleged to have been aboard were from Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, and other northern counties. They probably loaded at a northern port, perhaps Hull or Liverpool, before the KENT arrived at London, which is why they do not appear in the London loadings." - Donna Speer Ristenbatt.

Thomas Olive - of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, haberdasher
Samuel Lovett - married in Devonshire house, London

The MARTHA, a "flie-boat," of Bridlington, Yorkshire, Thomas Wildtuys [Wildbuys, Wharcup] master, sailed from Hull in August 1677. It arrived in West Jersey in September 1677 bringing "114 passengers" for the Yorkshire Tenth, at Burlington. A flie, or fly, boat, right, was a flat bottomed Dutch vessel with a high stern and broad buttocks. They were of about 600 tons and mainly used for local coastal traffic. While a poor choice for ocean travel, note that Sir Walter Raliegh had one in his fleet that sailed to Virginia.

Thomas Wright - of Howden, East Riding, Yorkshire, about 20 miles west of Hull [9 miles northwest of Snaith], yeoman
Thomas Schooley - of Aston, West Riding, Yorkshire, about 10 miles east of Sheffield
Thomas Hooten [Houghton] - of London, chandler
Samuel Oldale [Odas, Otis] - of Sheffield, Yorkshire, mason
Joshua Boare - of Drainfield, Derbyshire
Marmaduke Horsman - of Yorkshire
Thomas Ellis and John Barts [Batts] - servants sent by George Hutchinson of Sheffield, Yorkshire

WILLING MIND[E], John Newcomb master, sailed from London with 60 to 70 passengers, arriving in November 1677. Some settled in Salem and others in Burlington.

The SHIELD, Daniel Tower [Towes] master, also came out of Hull in "tenth month," December, 1678.

John and Godfrey Newbold - of Woodhouse, Handsworth parish, Yorkshire
Thomas Revell - of Derbyshire, scrivener, gentleman
Mahlon Stacy - of Handsworth, Yorkshire, tanner. Handsworth is just southeast of Sheffield.
Godfrey Hancock - of Handsworth, Yorkshire
John and Thomas Lambert - of Handsworth, Yorkshire [Southwingfield, Derbyshire, joiner & tanner?]
Robert Schooley - of Hemsworth, Yorkshire, just a few miles from Ackworth [Notts?]
James Pharo[e] - of Drayton House, Nottingham, Burlington county
Richard Tattersal -
Thomas Potts - of Handsworth, Yorkshire or Chesterfield, Derbyshire [which is only 12 miles away, the parish is on the border with Derbyshire], Baptist, tanner
John Heyres [Heyers, Ayres]

Ship from London in 1678,

John Hollinshead, gent.
William & Abraham Hewlings
George Hutchinson - of Sheffield, distiller
Thomas Hutchinson - of Beverley, just north of Hull, Yorkshire, tanner

SUCCESS, Stephen Nichols master, from London, in April 1679.

ELIZABETH AND SARAH, Richard Friend master, in 1679.

ELIZABTH AND MARY, of Weymouth, Dorset, in June 1679. This may be the same ship as above.

JACOB AND MARY, Richard Moore master, in September 1679.

Richard Ridgway

Brother to Charles. He publicy converted to Catholicism causing the people to fear a forced return of the Catholic religion upon his assension to the throne. The English Revolution followed the birth of a male heir to the King. The King and his household fled to France. The King's son, which the Protestant’s refused to believe legitimate, became known as the “Old Pretender.”

When the Quakers made their plans to settle their newly purchased colony of West Jersey they understood that there were already settlers in the area, mainly Dutch and Swedes. There was some question as to whether these earlier settlers would recognize the new proprietors and subject themselves to their government. The Concessions and Agreements were drawn up in 1677 as an agreement between the Proprietors, the new Quaker Freeholders and the current inhabitants. The proprietors and settlers about to sail for West Jersey signed it in England. The document was then brought to West Jersey where it was circulated and signed by many of the settlers already there.

The "Concessions and Agreements" reflected both the Quaker's religious beliefs and their adherence to the ideals of the Enlightenment. It was the most libertarian document of its age and has been called "the broadest, sanest, and most equitable charter draughted for any body of colonists up to this time." It established the West Jersey colony's common law and its civil liberties. These included annual elections with a secret ballot, an expanded concept of democracy through the establishment of a powerful Assembley elected by all free men, no taxation without the consent of the governed,

"They are not to impose or suffer to be imposed any Tax Custome or subsidie Tollage Assessment or any Other duty whatsoever upon any colour or pretence how specious soever upon the said Province and Inhabitants thereof without their owne consent first had or other then what shall be imposed by the authority and consent of the Generall Assembly and that only in manner and for the good ends and uses as aforesaid."

"That in every general free Assembly every respective member hath Liberty of speech that no Man be interrupted when speaking ... and that the people have Liberty to come in to hear and be witnesses of the votes and the inclination of the Persons voting."

"That no men, nor number of men upon earth, hath power or authority to rule over men's consciences in religious matters; therefore it is consented, agreed and ordained, that no person or persons whatsoever, within the said province, at any time or times hereafter shall be any ways, upon any pretence whatsoever, called in question, or in the least punished or hurt, either in person, estate or privilege, for the sake of his opinion, judgment, faith or worship towards God, in matters of religion; but that all and every such person and persons, may from time to time, and at all times, freely and fully have and enjoy his and their judgments, and the exercise of their consciences, in matters of religious worship throughout all the said province."

This document was agreed upon and signed in England by 151 emigrants. These included Edward Byllinge, his trustees, William Penn and Gawen Lawrie, Yorkshire commissioners, William Emley and Robert Stacy, and Thomas Barton, William Biddle, Thomas Budd, John Butcher, Thomas Eves, Thomas French, Thomas Gardiner, Godfrey Hancock, Thomas Hooten, George Hutchinson, Samuel Lovett, John Newbold, Samuel Oldale [Oldaled], Thomas Revel, Thomas Schooley, Isaac Smart, John Snowden, Mahlon Stacy, and Thomas Wright. Many of these men would become the elected representatives of the colony in 1682.
- Note that William Budd had a brother, Thomas, who wrote "Good Order Established in Pennsylvania and New Jersey" in 1685. The Budds, including brothers James and John as well, arrived in Burlington in 1678. Thomas Budd was, with Thomas Gardiner, appointed one of the receivers general of the colony and a land commissioner and member of the governor's council. He lived "above the falls," in Trenton.

The original Council of West Jersey Proprietors was composed of men who had purchased large blocks of land, and were designated by the British crown to govern the surveying, granting, and purchasing of land within West Jersey. The Proprietors negotiated with the local tribes of the Lenape to purchase land in the Burlington area, and also approved the Concessions and Agreements of 1676, the original laws of the region.

Proprietorships have been transferred by inheritance and in some cases by sale of land, and the holders of proprietorships have met in Burlington every April since 1688. The complete records of the Council of West Jersey Proprietors are housed in the Surveyor General's office on West Broad Street near High Street.

The men John associated with in this land transaction were amongst the most important in this young community.

He arrived onboard the SHIELD in 1678 and was a signer of the Concessions and Agreements. He had a 200 acre plantation. The Hancocks and the family of Thomas Schooley may have been related. Thomas' father, John, married Isabelle Hancock, the daughter of Robert, in Sheffield, England. He joined Thomas Revell, below, in a lawsuit against Thomas Mann for trespass. Revell and Hancock were sued by Peter Jegou, an early Dutch settler, for the trespass of "these new comers, called Quakers," of his land. Godfrey was one of the first representatives to the West Jersey Assembley, along with Mahlon Stacy, Thomas Wright, and Thomas Revell. By the way, one of the requirements to be in the Assembley was ownership of at least one thousand acres of land.

Also Revel. Of Chesterfield, Derbyshire. Thomas was an Anglican and referred to as a "gentleman." He arrived onboard the SHIELD in 1678 and was a signer of the Concessions and Agreements. A cousin to Mahlon Stacy, one of the major creditors of Edward Byllynge. He and Mahlon also appear to have been close to the Thomas Wright family. Revell was active in West Jersey politics. He was appointed by a group of Proprietors as "Agent for the Honorable West Jersey Society in England" to survey and sell land and issue deeds. He served as Surveyor General, Registrar of the Proprietors of West Jersey, and Clerk of the Provincial Assembly. A member of the Governor's council. He was also a Justice of the Court. His house is today at 213 Wood street in Burlington. This house is the oldest building remaining in the region. It was constructed in 1685 by George Hutchinson, a wealthy Quaker distiller, and sold to Thomas Revell who used the house as an office from 1696 to 1699. Local tradition associates this house with young Benjamin Franklin who received gingerbread there as he was en route from Boston to Philadelphia. In the early 19th century the house was purchased by the Annis Stockton Chapter of the DAR to become their clubhouse. The Colonial Burlington Foundation acquired and restored it in the 1950s.

Of Howden, East Riding, Yorkshire, which is west of Hull. He and his wife, Ann, arrived from Yorkshire on the ship MARTHA in 1677. Before leaving England he purchased "one fourth part of a propriety of land in West Jersey" from the Yorkshire Quaker company. He was a signer of the Concessions and Agreements, though he was one of the last to do so. While most signed in England, the document was brought to America on the KENT and the later purchasers signed there. He had 500 acres on Assiscunck creek adjoining the town limits. Samuel Oldale held the land next to his. Wright later moved to Chesterfield township and built a plantation of similar size. He was a Quaker.

Or O'Dell. He was a mason, born in Sheffield, Yorkshire and arrived in New Jersey in 1677 on the MARTHA. He was a freeholder and a signer of the Concessions and Agreements. He had a plantation on Assiscunck creek. He built a bridge across the creek and tried to get his neighbors to pay a toll on it. He was famously tried and sentenced in 1690 for having sexual relations with his step-daughter. He was given 30 lashes and she 21. He died in 1722 in Bucks county, Pennsylvania.

Carpenters were considered to be highly skilled craftsman and made anything from furniture to entire houses.

"To become a Carpenter it was usually necessary to join a guild as an apprentice and learn the craft. Most items used during daily life in the Medieval Ages were produced and manufactured by carpenters. Homes, wagons, tables, furniture, tools and utensils were all the creations of these gifted workers. Knowledge of math, woodworking and the use of tools was required. Though many of the implements used were basic in comparison to those employed today, it can be argued that some fine examples of work were produced during the Middle Ages. Kings and nobles often sought out the finest carpenters and kept them retained on their staffs as specialists. Furnishing castles and estates was not only done for decorative purposes but also to demonstrate prestige and status to visitors. Thus a master carpenter was always in demand and could stand to earn high wages."

The Carpenter's Guild was formed in England in 1333 and is now one of the oldest existing social institutions in Great Britain. Craftsmen who knew their trade well and had their own shops were called masters. Lesser workers were known as journeymen and those learning the craft were apprentices. It took an apprentice from 2 to 7 years to become a journeyman. To become a master the journeyman had to pass an examination and make a piece that was judged a masterpiece by the other masters in the guild. Masters were jealous of their position and often made it difficult for journeymen to advance. A journeyman so thwarted might emigrate to America to find greater opportunity.

As towns became organized in the American colonies guilds were established. In 1724 the master carpenters of Philadelphia banded together in the Carpenters Company, the first builder's guild. The guilds played a large role in the coming Revolution. In Boston the carpenters were the "host" group for the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia was built in 1770 to house the carpenter's guild. The Continental Congress met in Carpenters Hall and the Declaration of Independence was signed there.

Other trades also worked in wood. The sawyer sawed the wooden planks for building. A joiner was a highly skilled carpenter who made furniture, similar to a cabinet maker, and other fine-work. A boardwright made tables and chairs. The turner made lathe-turned items, like table legs. A cooper made wooden barrels. A woodcarver made decorative pieces. A wheelwright made wagon wheels. A cartwright built and repaired wooden carts. Here "wright" means craftsman or builder.

William of Orange and his queen, Mary, the daughter of James II, seized the throne without bloodshed, in part engineered by John Churchill, a forebear of William Churchill. James II fled to the court of France. This became known as the "Glorious Revolution." William was the son of William II, prince of Orange, in the Netherlands, and Mary, was the eldest daughter of King James II of England.

William III led a European alliance that worked ceaselessly, and successfully, to restrict the power of King Louis XIV’s France.

By 1700 the population of England and Wales had grown to 6 million.

A native of Berkshire, England, Richard arrived in Burlington, West Jersey, on the JACOB AND MARY, of London, in September 1679. Soon thereafter he crossed the Delaware river and purchased land and established a town near "ye falls of Dellaware," in what became Falls township, Bucks county, Pennsylvania - today's Morrisville on the map to the right.

"None of the early settlers of Pennsylvania and New Jersey was more successful and influential than Richard Ridgway." - from "Genealogy and Descent of Thomas French" by Howard Barclay French

"Richard Ridgeway, who lived on the river in Falls, opposite Biles' island, was probably the first landlord in the county, being licensed to keep an "ordinary" August 3d, 1686." Ridgeway arrived in the county before 1682. Later of Maidenhead, Burlington county. - from "The History of Bucks County" by William Watts Hart Davis

A very successful speculator, in 1690 Richard purchased 600 acres in Maidenhead, just north of Trenton, New Jersey, moving there with his second wife. He made several more large purchases and trades of land in the coming years. He finally retired to Springfield township, Burlington county, dying there in 1722. - from "Genealogy of the Descendents of Thomas French" by Howard Barclay.

The wife of James Hambleton, she was a daughter of Stephen and Elizabeth (Biles) Beakes, both of whom were natives of England, the former born April 28, 1665 . . ." - from "Records of the Courts of Quarter Sessions and Common Pleas of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, 1684-1700," page 131. James was a Quaker, of Solebury township, Bucks county.

Prosecuted and fined 5 shillings for contempt by appearing in court drunk.

The county was one of the original three established by William Penn in 1682. Until broken up in 1752, it extended from Philadelphia county to the New York colony line.

Thomas Brock was landowner and innholder in Bucks county. He was on record as owning cattle in the county as early as 1684. He was a founder, along with Samuel Oldale, of the town of Bristol, across the river from Burlington. "Next to Richard Ridgeway the earliest recorded petitioner to keep a public house in this county was Thomas Brock. On the 15th of February, 1705, he petioned the court to recommend him to the governor for a license to keep a house of entertainment in Bristol the ensuing year, stating that he had been in the county about twenty years, and had been principally occupied in keeping public house [sic], and that he is "now grown ancient, and is destitute of any other employment."" Thomas Brock was sheriff of the county 1693-5.

Joan Rossell, the widow of Michael Huff, late of the "Ferry House over against Burlington, Innkeeper," married Thomas Brock, innholder, in 1688. Thomas may have obtained the ferry with his marriage.

A justice of the court, member of the Governor's council, and Deputy Governor of West Jersey from 1688 to 1690 under Dr. Coxe. In 1691 Coxe sold his interest in the province to the West Jersey Society and Hunloke lost his position.

Or Newbould. Michael was a landowner of Woodhouse, the parish of Handsworth, Yorkshire. This is about 4 miles southeast of Sheffield. His wife was Ann Topping. He sent his son, John, with a relative, Godfrey Newbold, onboard the SHIELD to investigate conditions in the New World. John Newbold signed the Concessions and Agreements [for his father?]. In the same year he purchased over 800 acres from the West Jersey proprietors and, in 1680, arrived in Burlington with his wife and 9 of their 11 children. At his death in 1692 he was one of the largest landed proprietors in New Jersey. The inventory of his estate was valued at almost 800 pounds. He was not a Quaker, attending instead the Church of England.

Of Michael's sons, Michael Jr. was the only to leave a male line intact. He served on the traverse jury [a kind of grand jury], and was a justice for Burlington county. Joshua Newbold, who inherited the grist mill, married Hannah Revell, probably the daughter of Thomas Revell.

"Burlington is now the chiefest Town in that Countrey, by reason that the late Governor Cox, who bought that Countrey of Edward Billing, encouraged and promoted that Town chiefly, in settling his Agents [Revell] and Deputy-Governors [Hunloke] there, which brings their Assemblies and chief Courts to be kept there; and, by that means it is become a very famous Town, having a delicate great Market-House, where they keep their Market . . . There are kept also in the Famous Town several Fairs every Year . . . There are also two handsom Bridges to come in and out of the Town called London and York-Bridges. The Town stands in an Island, the Tide flowing quite round about it." - from "History" by Gabriel Thomas, 1698.

The south branch is a tributary of Rancocas creek. It rises in central Burlington county, near Chatsworth, and flows generally northwest, passing through Vincentown, Eayrestown, Lumberton, and Haines port. It meets the north branch just west of Mount Holly. Tributaries, Friendship creek, Stop the Jade Run, Haynes creek, and the southwest branch of the Rancocas, join just north of Leisuretown.

William Loveridge was from the parish of Wool, in Dorsetshire, England. He died at Perth Amboy, in 1703 - from "Revised History of Harlem: Its Origin and Early Annals" by James Riker. His brother was Samuel Loveridge of New York, a shipwright. William married Margaret Du Mont of Ulster county, New York before 1682. - from "Revised History of Harlem: Its Origin and Early Annals" by James Riker. She was baptized on 28 December 1664.

"1702-3 Feb. 18. Loveridge, William, of Perth Amboy, inn holder; will of. Wife Margaret sole heiress and executrix of real and personal estate. Children--William, Walran, John, Margaret, Temperance, Hannah and Sarah. If the wife should remarry, Samuel Loveridge, Michael Direckson van Veightie and Thomas Gordon to advise her as executrix. Witnesses--Zachariah Weekes, John Barclay, Thomas Gordon. Proved September 15, 1704.
1704 Nov. 1. Inventory of the personal estate (L141.13.4 1/2); made by Miles Forster and George Wilcocks. (In duplicate)" - from "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey"

Perth Amboy is about 40-50 miles northeast of the Burlington-Trenton area. Piscataway is about 7 miles west northwest of Perty Amboy.

Sister and heir of Mary and daughter of James II. She died without issue.

In 1704 the Duke of Marlborough, John Churchill, defeated the army of Louis XIV at the battle of Blenheim. His many victories over the French crippled the power of the Sun King in his final years on the throne and restored the balance of power in Europe.

From its first recording in this country, in 1687, through 1745 the family surname was rendered as Heesham, Heesom or Hesom. This was in line with general practice in England prior to 1700. Heesom and Hesom were common throughout England, while Heesham (and Heisham) were found in northern England. The Heysham spelling only became standard after 1700 with the prominence of Robert and William Heysham, wealthy sugar merchants of London, who were also Members of Parliament.

Thomas Hesom's marriage to Catherina Kleyn would introduce a Dutch element into the name, which was the double-s. When an Englishman heard "He-som," he spelled Heesom, Hesom or, later, Heysham (remember, Thomas probably wasn't literate so he couldn't give advise on spelling). When a Dutch man heard "He-som," however, he spelled Hessom or Hissom because there was a Dutch language analog. The village of Hessum, or Hessem, is in Overijssel, in the central Netherlands, and the surnames Hessum and Hessem (sometimes with the Van prefix) are current in that country. Daniel Coste van Hessom was the pseudonym of a Dutch writer in 1738. Hissem-Reifen is a trading company in Utrecht today. So, when Thomas' children were baptized, the Dutch minister, Johannes Fryenmoet, would tend to write their names in the Dutch fashion and the double-s stuck.

During the Revolution, from 1777, and up to 1800, the family name was often rendered as Heysham or Hysham. This was the name of the more famous Captain William Heysham family of Philadelphia who were related to Robert and William Heysham, above. Though our family was only distantly related to them, if at all, I think the "gravitational pull" of that family's fame as Revolutionary leaders caused our line's name to be altered during this period.

Around 1800 the family name drifted back to the Dutch-influenced Hissom, Hissam or Hissem, again with minor variations. In David's family the Heysham name continued in use the longest. Why would this be? My guess is that it had to do with the ages of the brothers. Thomas, born in 1750, was 26 years old when the war began and he used the Hissom spelling in military muster reports throughout 1776 and probably became habituated to its use. I believe this would tend to anchor the use of this spelling and, even if for a short period a different spelling was used, he would tend to return to the spelling he had used so often, so early in life. The eldest brother, John, showed a similar pattern. David, born in 1762, was only 14 when the war began and probably never signed his name using any but the Heysham spelling and so became habituated to it. While the census and tax rolls would record his name as Hissam/Hissem, his own signature and his tombstone were as Heysham.

My family, of the David Heysham branch, only began to use the Hissem spelling late in the 19th century when (23) Abner Hissam (1830) consciously made the change circa 1878. The same thing occurred in the Thomas Hissom branch when (24) Joseph A. Hissam (1860) made the change before 1886.

Emigres from Long Island, East Jersey and New England came into the West Jersey region starting in the 1690's. They were by religion, Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Church of England.

The regions natives were known to the colonists as the Delaware, and to themselves as the Lenni Lanape. They claimed all the lands from the river to the sea. They were predominantly hunters and fishers, though they grew corn, beans, sweet potatoes and squash, along with tobacco. They lived in wigwams. These were temporary structures that could be easily moved. They were never very numerous and after the arrival of the Europeans, even less so. In 1648 it was estimated they had 2000 warriors, giving them a total population of about 8000. By 1721 there were few left, having been decimated by smallpox and rum. From the journal of a woman who came to America as a young girl, settling in Burlington:

"It may be observed how God’s providence made room for us in a wonderful manner in taking away the Indians. There came a distemper among them so mortal that they could not bury all the dead. Others went away, leaving the town. It was said that the old Indian king spoke prophetically before his death, and said, “the English should increase and the Indians decrease.”

George was the Elector of Hanover and the first of the Hanoverian line of British rulers. He spoke only German. His mother, Sophia, was the granddaughter of King James I of England.

His surname is more often rendered as Fleeson, an upholsterer "lately from London and Dublin," circa 1739 - from "Irish Furniture" by James Peill. Other researchers claim he was born in Philadelphia in 1712. He was a shopkeeper and his shop's sign was recorded:

"Easy-Chair, by Plunket Heeson, upholsterer, 1739." - from "Annals of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania: Being a Collection of Memoirs, Anecdotes, and Incidents..." by John F Watson.

During the war he made the tent that was used by General Washington at Valley Forge, circa 1778. He was a Justice of the Peace and President of the Court from 1782 to 1785. He died in August 1791.

The Quakers of Trenton were from the beginning affiliated with the Monthly Meeting in Chesterfield, or Crosswicks as it is now known. This is south of Trenton, between it and Burlington, where John Heesom had lived. The original minute book of this Meeting is preserved at the Trenton Meeting House. The Chesterfield Meeting was settled about the year 1680. A meeting house was built at Chesterfiled in 1693 and replaced by a brick structure in 1707. By 1736 the Meeting had branches at Chesterfield, Springfield, Mansfield, Stony Brook, Bethlehem, Bordentown and Trenton. A meeting house was finally built in Trenton in 1739. The leader of the Trenton Meeting at that time was William Morris, who had come from Barbados and established himself as an importer of West Indian products. A burying ground was also established that became part of the present Riverview cemetary of Trenton.

The Reverend John Talbot, a missionary of the Church of England's Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, had a congregation at Burlington, New Jersey at St. Mary's church, as early as 1702, but also served the people living around the Falls, starting in 1703. Eventually, in about 1705, a church was erected in Hopewell township, just north of Trenton. It was probably a rude affair of log construction. No trace of this church exists today, having been superceded in 1747 by the present St. Michael's church in Trenton. The original church, known as Christ Church, did not have its own minister. The names of the some of the itinerant ministers who conducted services and attended to the pastoral needs of the congregation were gleaned from the records of the S.P.G. They included the Rev. Thoroughgood Moore 1705-07, the Rev. Mr. May before 1714, the Rev. Thomas Holliday 1714-17, the Rev. Robert Walker, the Rev. William Harrison 1721-23 and the Rev. William Lindsay 1735-45. See Schuyler, "A History of St. Michael's Church, Trenton." This implies that the congregation was never large.

The Presbyterian faith in West Jersey got it start from two sources, emigration by the Puritans of New England and Presbyterians out of Scotland and Ireland.

There were four Presbyterian churches in the vicinity of Trenton. The oldest was in Maidenhead township, due north of Trenton, now in the town of Lawrenceville. In Hopewell township, northeast of Trenton, in the village of Carleton, which is now known as Ewing, was another. It was founded in 1708 and its first facility, a log cabin, was built in 1712. This was replaced by a frame structure in 1728. In 1726 congregation members who lived in Trenton village complained about the long walk to Carleton and built their own church. Still part of the Carleton congregation, it was referred to as the 'town' or 'new house' church while the parent church was called the 'country' or 'old house' church. There was another 'daughter' congregation in Hopewell township in what is now the village of Pennington. In 1719 the township was divided in two, the southern half becoming Trenton township. Both the old house and new house churches were in this region. The Pennington church was now the only church in the Hopewell township and became known by the Hopewell name.

Reverend Orr, of Ireland, was the first pastor of these churches, serving them all from 1715 to 1720. He was followed by the Reverend Moses Dickinson from 1720 to 1722. There was no minister for some years until the Reverend Joseph Morgan took over. He served from 1729 to 1737. All of the Trenton area churches were then in the Presbytery of Philadelphia.

The Baptists, another Reform movement, may have had a congregation in Hopewell as early as 1715, probably meeting in the homes of its members.

The Seven Years War in Europe, called the French & Indian War in America.

1745 - Second Jacobite rebellion. James II's grandson, Charles Edward Stuart, known as the "Young Pretender" or "Bonnie Prince Charlie", leads an attempt to overthrow Protestant rule.

In 1750 the population of England and Wales has grown to 6.5 million.

The Delaware river divides Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and stretches on into New York. The river basin had first been settled by colonists from the Netherlands and Sweden. The Dutch settled to the north and on the eastern shore of the Delaware [which they knew as the South river], spreading out from their colony in New Amsterdam [on the North river, or Hudson]. The Swedes settled to the south along the mouth of the Delaware. The area of Trenton, however, was settled late, starting in the late 1670's after England had exerted her dominance and forced the Dutch and Swedish colony's to swear allegiance to the British King. Under English control the area, first known as Nova Caesarea, was divided by its proprietors into East & West Jersey. West Jersey was settled by the Quakers, who began to arrive before their famous settlement of Pennsylvania.

Old Trenton was located at the northern bank of the Assunpink creek where it joined the Delaware river. This marked the river's fall line. While the town was originally called the 'Falls of the Delaware,' there is no actual waterfall, just a stretch of shallow, rocky water that denies passage further up the river to deep draft ships. The fall line is a classic 'break in transport' point where one mode of transportation, such as ocean-going ships, must transfer their cargo to another, either barges or mule trains in this case. It creates ideal conditions for the establishment of a city.

The first permanent settlement at the falls was that of Mahlon Stacy and other Quakers [none of whose names are known] in 1679. The Stacy party, who were from Yorkshire, sailed aboard the SHIELD from Hull and landed at Burlington in December 1678. Many of these colonists were named, but the list also includes many unnamed servants who probably later moved out on their own. [One of the SHIELD's passengers who was named was John Heyres. I'd love to think this is a misprint for Heysham] The Stacy party then moved north to the Assunpink creek to take up their claim. Mahlon Stacy appears to have laid out his lands as a manor with tenements, which were occuppied by renters, clustered close together for mutual protection. From the "Journal of a Voyage," by two Dutchmen who passed through the nascent town in 1679:

"Resuming our route, we arrived at the falls of the South river about sundown, passing a creek where a new grist-mill was erected by the quakers, who live hereabouts in great numbers, and daily increase. But it seems to us as if this mill could not stand long, especially if the flow of water were heavy, because the work was not well arranged. We rode over here, and went directly to the house of the person who had constructed it, who was a quaker, where we dismounted, and willingly dismissed our horses. The house was very small, and from the incivility of the inmates and the unfitness of the place, we expected poor lodgings. As it was still daylight, and we had heard so much of the falls of the South river, or, at least, we ourselves had imagined it, that we went back to the river, in order to look at them; but we discovered we had deceived ourselves in our ideas. We had supposed it was a place where the water came tumbling down in great quantity and force from a great height above, over a rock into an abyss, as the word falls would seem to imply, and as we had heard and read of the falls of the North river, and other rivers. But these falls of the South river are nothing more than a place of about two English miles in length, or not so much, where the river is full of stones, almost across it, which are not very large, but in consequence of the shallowness, the water runs rapidly and breaks against them, causing some noise, but not very much, which place, if it were necessary, could be made navigable on one side. As no Europeans live above the falls, they may so remain. This miller’s house is the highest up the river, hitherto inhabited. Here we had to lodge; and although we were too tired to eat, we had to remain sitting upright the whole night, not being able to find room enough to lie upon the ground. We had a fire, however, but the dwellings are so wretchedly constructed, that if you are not so close to the fire as almost to burn yourself, you cannot keep warm, for the wind blows through them everywhere. Most of the English, and many others, have their houses made of nothing but clapboards, as they call them there, in this manner: they first make a wooden frame, the same as they do in Westphalia, and at Altona, but not so strong; they then split the board of clapwood, so that they are like cooper’s pipe staves, except they are not bent. These are made very thin, with a large knife, so that the thickest end is about a pinck (little finger) thick, and the other is made sharp, like the edge of a knife. They are about five or six feet long, and are nailed on the outside of the frame, with the ends lapped over each other. They are not usually laid so close together, as to prevent you from sticking a finger between them, in consequence either of their not being well joined, or the boards being crooked. When it is cold and windy the best people plaster them with clay. Such are most all the English houses in the country, except those they have which were built by people of other nations. Now this house was new and airy; and as the night was very windy from the north, and extremely cold with clear moonshine, I will not readily forget it. Ephraim and his wife obtained a bed; but we passed through the night without sleeping much. "

Mahlon Stacy died in 1704. In 1714 Mahlon Stacy Jr. was bought out by William Trent and by 1719 the area was being called Trent’s town or Trenton, perhaps because the original name was such a mouthful. At the time of Thomas Hesom’s birth it was still a very small village, containing perhaps fewer than fifty houses, but large enough in relation to the rest of the colony to have been recently made the seat of the royal courts. In 1719 William Trent built a fine house which he named Bloomsbury Court. It passed through several owners, including a Dr. John Cox [Uncle of Francis Bowes Sayre, a son-in-law of William Heysham of Philadelphia]. This fine old house was the scene of many social gatherings in Colonial days and afterwards. It is said that, “General Washington and his lady enjoyed the hospitality of Bloomsbury Court, and the Marquis de La Fayette, Rochambeau, and other noted Frenchmen, were entertained there.” The home still stands today.

Smithfield township was originally in Buck’s county, but due to the breakup of large counties and the shifting of county borders, it was successively part of Northampton county, starting in 1752, and of Monroe county, starting in 1853.

Northampton county was split, diagonally, by the Blue mountains, today known as the Kittatinny Range. To the south was the rich Lehigh valley. To the north the sparsely populated land was cut by a succession of ridges and narrow valleys.

The settlement of this section of Pennsylvania was controversial. In 1686 William Penn, the colonies proprietor, had agreed to buy land in what became Bucks county from the Indians "as far as a man could walk in one and a half days." The Indians understood this to mean about thirty miles. Penn’s sons, however, trained two athletes in 1737 to walk at a record clip, cleared brush from their path, had horses to carry their supplies and provided transportation for them at river crossings. In the end the “Walking Purchase” was doubled in size by this ruse. Feeling cheated, the Indians refused to leave. It was only in 1742 that the Iroquois, the overlords of the local tribes, were convinced, or perhaps bribed, to force their clients to move. However, the Quaker peace with the Indians was destroyed and the settlers were to suffer from Indian attacks during the years to come.

The first white settlers north of the Blue Mountains had been Dutch and Huguenots out of New York and New Jersey in Mininsinck in the 1720's. They were followed in Northampton county by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians who settled Allen, Washington and Mount Bethel townships in the latter part of the decade. These were followed by the Germans in Milford, Macungie and Saucon townships - by the end of the century Northampton was a German colony. Amongst the mainly Lutheran Germans were Mennonists, Dunkers, Schwenckfelders, Reformers and Amish. Finally, the Moravians arrived beginning in 1740.

For an excellent history of the county, see History of Northampton County.

One of the earliest settlements in the "Walking Purchase," north of the Blue Mountains, otherwise known as the Kittatinny Range, was Lower Smithfield township, just west of the Delaware river on Brodhead creek. While southeastern Pennsylvania, around the city of Philadelphia, was heavily Quaker, northeastern Pennsylvania was dominated by the Dutch, who spread out from their Hudson river valley colony of New Amsterdam, across the northern New Jersey county of Sussex, and into Bucks county. Later Moravian Germans entered the region in great numbers so that the "Pennsylvania Dutch" dialect became as frequently heard as English.

Brodhead creek, which flows through the center of the township, was originally named the Analomink. This creek and its watershed were famous for brook trout when the Minnisink tribes camped and fished on these waters.

Peter LeBar was the first white settler to build a home in the area. His log house was built in 1730. Daniel Brodhead, whose family had come to the New York colony in the reign of Charles II, negotiated with the heirs of William Penn for a large plantation tract in 1734 and settled in the lower area of the Analomink, soon to be renamed Brodhead Creek in his honor. His Dansbury Mission, erected for use by Moravian missionaries, was attacked and destroyed by local Indians in 1755 during the opening phases of the French & Indian War. Fort Hamilton, a wooden stockade, was built in response in 1756, part of a line of forts built by the colonial government, but it fell into decay after the war. In 1760 Jacob Stroub settled there and built a large stone house. He built a stockade around it in 1776 and named it Fort Penn. His son, Daniel, founded the town of Stroudsburg.

"...Lower Smithfield, on the Delaware, above the present village of Stroudsburg, had but a few clearings opened in 1751, occupied by Charles Broadhead, Samuel Dupue, John McMichael, John Carmeckle, John Anderson, James Tidd, Job Bakehoren, and Henry Dysert. The were held under proprietory auspices." - from "History of the Lackawanna Valley" by Horace Hollister, 1869

"The Wind-gap, unlike the far-famed Water-gap in the same cluster of mountains, is a deep depression of the summit of the range, is quite level on both sides of the road for a considerable distance, and exhibits none of the majestic precipices of the latter. The earth is covered with masses of angular rocks, among which shoot up cedar and other trees and shrubs, chiefly of the coniferæ order; but the road, by industry, is made quite smooth. The hills rise on each side of the Gap to an altitude of eight hundred feet, clothed and crowned with trees. It was through this pass in the mountains that two expert walkers crossed to a spur of the Pocono when measuring the extent of a district of country northwest of the Delaware, for the proprietors of Pennsylvania, in 1737 . . . The turnpike road through the Wind-gap, and across the valleys and mountains, to Wilkesbarre, was made by [General] Sullivan for the passage of his troops in 1779, when marching to join General Clinton on the Tioga [this was the Sullivan campaign in revenge for the Wyoming massacre]. Before that time the pass was little more than a rough Indian war-path, and its obscurity made the hurried flight of the people from Wyoming over the solitary region more perplexing and dreadful than it would be now." - from Lossing's "Field Book of the Revolution"

Much of the previous information came from the site Search for the Parents of the North Carolina Helms Brothers.

The great majority of Dutch Americans married relatively young, before the age of twenty-five, and they tended to marry within their own ethnic and religious group. Their weddings were affirmations of the extended Dutch American family.

Before the wedding day the bride and groom's parents would host a party. The guests would bless the couple and wish them happiness. The bribal shower we know today originated in the Netherlands. If a Dutch bride did not have her father's blessing for the wedding, her friends would "shower" her with gifts to help compensate for the lack of a dowry.

As soon as an engagement was made public, the banns were announced in church for three successive Sundays, and the marriage was celebrated with dispatch. This was usually done on a Sunday amid the whole congregation as part of public worship and as a communal blessing of the union. However, the Reformed church distrusted ceremony and the church service was used for teaching and exhortation rather than for show. The Calvinist doctrine believed that sin was everywhere and that sorrow was unavoidable. The marriage liturgy began,

"Married persons are generally, by Reason of Sin, subject to many Troubles and Afflictions."

The Dutch ceremony was not an exchange of property between father-in-law and groom; the father of the bride did not give away the bride. Dutch women enjoyed stronger inheritance rights and a more elevated status than their English peers. In cases of Dutch-English intermarriage, the couples usually ended up Dutch Reformed.

After the wedding there was a communal feast which was, in its excess and boisterousness, decidedly un-Calvinist.

The name Kleyn is a form of klein, a nickname for a small man - Hugh Barents de Kleyn of New Amsterdam, for instance. Also, as Klein, Kline, Klyn, Klyne, de Kleyn, Kleyne and Cline.

The family may be either Dutch or German. An Ulderick Kleyn [Cleen], born in Staden, Hesse, in Germany, came to New York in 1640 as a soldier. On 28 July 1641 "Ulderick Cleen, jm Uyt Hessen" and "Aefje Pieters, jd van Amsterdam" were married in the New Amsterdam RDC. They moved to the Dutch community of Albany after 1642.

The following are the Kleyn's of Smithfield that I've identified so far. We know that Anna Kleyn was the daughter of Johannis Kleyn and Elsjen Leydekker of Kingston, Ulster county, New York. I tie Anna to Johannis and our Catherina as siblings through the Smithfield RDC and their shared witnessing duties. Margriet Kleyn may have been another sister because she too ended up in Smithfield having children in the mid 1740's, though that is a bit more tenuous. Kleyn’s, Klein’s, Kline’s, and Cline’s continued to live in Smithfield for another hundred years.

Joa: equal Johann. He could be the father of Johannis, below, if we push his date of birth back a bit. Otherwise he may have been an older brother or uncle.

"Perhaps this family [Thomas Hesson] belongs with Johann Jacob Klein and his descendents." - from "The Palatine families of New York" by Henry Z. Jones and Hank Jones

Johannes was born in about 1690 in Ulster county, New York. He first married Elsjen Leydekker. Elsjen was born in about 1695 and died before 1728. Johannes second married Angenietjen Bosch [Bush], both of New Marbletown, on 11 February 1728 in the Kingston RDC - from "Baptismal and Marriage Registers of the Old Dutch Church of Kingston" by Estelle Stewart J. King and Roswell Randall Hoes. Note that Thomas Hesom and Catherina Kleyn were witnesses at the baptism of Johannes Bosch and Mary Johnson's daughter in 1755. Dies this indicate a family relationship? Johannes children were,
(20) Anne 'Antje' Magdalena Kleyn (1714)
(20) Margriet Kleyn (c1715), perhaps
(20) Johannes Kleyn (c1720?), perhaps
(20) Catherina Kleyn (c1720), perhaps

Anna Magdalena, the daughter of Johannes Kleyn and Elsjen Leydekker, was baptized on 26 September 1714 in the Kingston RDC, Ulster county, New York. Witnesses were Harmen Bietser and Anna Magdalena [no surname given].

Anne married Thomas Brink [Brinck] in about 1740. Thomas Brink's first wife was Francis Schoonhoven and his second was Anne 'Antje' Kleyn, who I believe was Catherina Kleyn's sister. Thomas had originally come from New Marbletown, Ulster county, the grandson of of Lambert Huybertsen Brink, through his eldest son, Huybert Lambertsen Brink (see the Brink Family, below). Anna was his second wife.

Though Thomas Brink was of the generation before Thomas Hesom and Catherina Kleyn, I believe Catherina and Anne were sisters, mainly because they were having children at about the same time.
- 18 July 1741 Thomas Brinck and Antje Kleyn baptized their daughter, Rachel, at the Walpack RDC.
- In 1744 Thomas Brinck and Antje Kleyn baptized their daughter, Sara, in front of witnesses Dirck Van Vliet and Rachel van Keuren, syn H. vr. at the Walpack RDC.
- In 1746 Thomas Brinck and Antje Kleyn baptized another daughter, Jenneke, in front of witnesses Alexander Thomson and Arriaentje De Long syn Huys vr. at the Walpack RDC.
- In 1746 Thomas Brinck and Antje Kleyn, syn Huys vr. were witnesses at the baptism of John, the son of Thomas Hisson and Catherina Kleyn at the Walpack RDC.
- In 1748 Thomas Brinck and Antje Kleyn baptized their son, Johannes, in front of witnesses Johannes Kleyn and Catherina Kleyn at the Walpack RDC.
- In 1752 Thomas Brinck and Antje Kleyn were witnesses at the baptism of Thomas, the son of Niclaes Brinck and Catherina Decker at the Walpack RDC.
- 4 February 1752 they baptized their son, Thomas, in front of witnesses Thomas Swartwout and Jenneke Swartwout at the Walpack RDC. Note that Thomas Brink's mother was a Swartwout. - from "The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record."

She was born in Esopus, Ulster county, New York. Margriet first married Benjamin Eekerli [Ekele]. Their son Benjamin was baptized in the Kingston RDC on 4 September 1743, no witnesses named. Benjamin Sr. died and Margriet then married Jan [John] Gerritsz Decker, widower of Barbara DeWitt, on 8 November 1747 at the Lower Smithfield RDC. This was two years after Catherina Kleyn's Smithfield marriage to Thomas Hesom. Margaret was John's second wife. John had been born in Kingston, Ulster county, New York in 1688.
- 31 December 1749 Margriet and John were witnesses to the baptism of James McGomery at Lower Smithfield RDC.

He probably married Eva Brink.
- In 1754 Johannes Kleyn and Eva Brink were witnesses at the baptism of William, the son of Thomas Hisson and Catherina Kleyn.

She married Thomas Hesom in 1745 at the Lower Smithfield RDC.
- In 1746 Thomas Brinck and Antje Kleyn, syn Huys vr. were witnesses at the baptism of John, the son of Thomas Hisson and Catherina Kleyn.
- In 1748 Dirk Kermer and Jacomyntje Keyser, syn Huys vr. were witnesses at the baptism of Ann, the daughter of Thomas Hisson and Catherina Kleyn. The Keyser's may have been relations of the Kleyn's.
- In 1754 Johannes Kleyn and Eva Brink were witnesses at the baptism of William, the son of Thomas Hisson and Catherina Kleyn.

I group Anna, Johannes and Catherina as children of Johannes since it was common for siblings, or parents, to act as witnesses.

Four Dutch Reformed Churches in the Minisink were organized in the Delaware river valley in 1737 by the Reverend George Wilhelmus Mancius [Mansius] of Kingston, New York. They were,

The Mahackemeck church in the town of Deerpark, formerly known as Minisink, in Orange county, New York, at the northern end of the Minisink valley. It was about half a mile south of Port Jervis, near the junction of the Neversink and Delaware Rivers. It was burnt during the Revolutionary war. The present church is known as “The Reformed Dutch Church of Deerpark."

The Minisink church, pronounced Minnising by the Dutch, was eight miles south east of the Mahackemeck church in the present-day Montague township, Sussex county, New Jersey.

The Walpack [Walpeck, Waulpeck] church was also in Sussex county, New Jersey, about fifteen miles south of the Minisink Church.

The Smithfield church was about eight miles from the Walpack Church, in Northampton county, Pennsylvania, across the Delaware river. It is now known as the Shawnee Presbyterian church. In 1750 William Allen, a land agent and principal in the "Walking Purchase" fraud, granted five acres in Shawnee for use as a "Presbyterian Meeting House." Two years later, in 1752, a new church was built with native stone under the direction of Nicholas and Samuel Depui, and Abraham Van Campen. It was dubbed the "Stone church." This was about two miles away from the original log church. The rebuilding was probably an endevour in which all the members of the church, including the Heysham's, lended a hand. It was used by Presbyterians, Dutch Reformists and Lutherans - from "The Decker Journal" of October 1980. Today the site is still occupied by the Shawnee Presbyterian Church, rebuilt in the 1850's. For more information see History of Orange County.

The sermons at Reformed Dutch churches were notorious for their length, and the dreadful seriousness of their parson's delivery.

In 1741 the first regular pastor was Johannes Casparus Fryenmouth. He serviced all four congregations from his parsonage at Nomanock, near Minisinck village, in Sussex county, New Jersey. The first 20 baptisms at the church, from 1741 to 1744, were judged by the Classis of Amsterdam to have been unlawfully done. Those beginning in December 1744 were marked as "By me, Joh. C. Fryenmuth, beginning the lawful service."

Also as Fryenmoet or Freynmuth. Johannes was born in Switzerland in about 1720 and emigrated to America circa 1740. He married Magdalena Helena Van Etten on 23 July 1742 at the church in Port Jervis. By the way, Magdalena's sister, Jannetje Van Etten, married Manuel Gonsalus who was associated with Thomas Hesom's family, below. Reverend Fryenmouth performed the marriage of Thomas Hesom and Catherina Kleyn, and baptized their children John, William and Anne.

"He [Fryenmouth] was very popular as a preacher. So great was his popularity that quite a strife occurred between certain churches which wished his services. The churches of the Delaware and of Ulster county were the contestants. A correspondence took place between them of a very spicy nature, and evincing no little spirit of rivalty as to wealth and worldly standing . . . In 1756 an Indian massacre compelled him [Fryenmouth] to flee from his home, and he went to Raritan . . ." - from "A Manual of the Reformed Church in America"

Though never listed as the minister of this church, he preached and gave baptisms in Smithfield from 12 February 1758 to 26 November 1759. "He was below the middle size, of a vigorous constitution, abrupt in speech, but his language was clear and expressive. He was a man of much erudition, a thorough Calvinist, and an accomplished theologian." Other sources more bluntly call him a man of violent passions who once wore a sword into the church anticipating a violent reaction to his sermon. He was pastor of the Church of Hackensack from 1749 until his death in 1774. He also taught at Queens, now Rutgers, College.

After the treaties of Tadeuskund ended the Minisinck war in 1758, a new pastor, the Reverend Thomas Romeyn [Romain, Romien], was installed. "The Colonial Clergy of the Middle Colonies" by Frederick Lewis Weis says that Thomas was in the Minisinck in 1760 and his first baptism was given on 15 April 1760.

The Romeyn family had emigrated from Rotterdam in about 1661. Thomas was born at Pompton, New Jersey on 2 March 1729. He studied theology and graduated from the College of New Jersey in 1750. He was ordained in the Reformed Dutch Church in Holland in 1752. He initially preached in Long Island, then moved to the Minisinck, where he served from 1760 to 1770, his last baptism being given in October 1770. Thomas moved to the Fonda church in 1771. He died on 22 October 1794 at Fonda, New York.

Or Van Bunshoten. After Thomas Romeyn's departure in 1771 the churches of the Minisinck were unserved until the Reverend Van Benschooten [Benschoten] arrived in the fall of 1785, a period of fifteen years. He continued his services until 1795. One half of his services were in Dutch, the other in English. It was he that baptized Thomas Hesom's grandchildren, James Heysham Sullivan and Joab Heysham.

John Howey, c1715-c1782, immigrated from Ireland and was in Smithfield, Bucks county, Pennsylvania as early as 1738. In 1744 he had land "at the Round Meadow near the Bush Kiln [river]." His son, John, was baptized in 1745 in the Walpack RDC while his son Boudewyn was baptized in the Smithfield church in 1749. His homestead on the Big Bushkill river was burned during the Indian raids of 1755 and he fled south, living in Hunterdon and Gloucester county, New Jersey for a time. At one point he owned the land next to Thomas Hessom of Smithfield. Also as Howay, Houwy, Hooey, and Howeyus.

More than one creek is named Bushkill. The waterway of concern to us is the Big Bushkill. The Little Bushkill creek empties into the Big Bushkill which then flows into the Delaware river near the village of Bushkill, at Wallpack Bend.

The arrival of a new baby was an event of great happiness in the Dutch household. There were varying customs following the birth of the child, particularly the customs involving the baptism of the child and the celebration which ensued. According to the resolutions of the church, the child had to be baptized as soon as possible after birth, this usually meant about a week later, or when the mother was able to attend.

For the baptism, the child was dressed in a christening robe which was as costly as the parents' means would allow. The child's bonnet showed whether the child was a boy or a girl - six plaits for a boy and three for a girl. Once the baby was dressed, neighbors and friends were invited to come and visit, and light refreshments were offered. Then the christening-party started for the church.

The father had to be present at the baptism, and it was left to him to bring brothers or sisters as witnesses, provided these were members of the Reformed Church and did not stand under "censure" or excommunication.

Once the christening-party returned from church, the child was blessed by the father, and dressed in another outfit, called a presentation robe, to be presented to the friends and relatives who were invited to the christening dinner.

In the meantime, the berkemeyer, or large glass goblet with a cover, filled with sugared Rhine wine, or the silver brandy bowl, was passed around. The christening dinner was a very costly and elaborate affair and differed little from the wedding feast. During the dinner, the child was again presented to the guests, when songs were sung and speeches and toasts were made. Among these delicacies were the suikerdelbol gaan, or sugared roll, kraamvetjes, cakes made hollow and filled with sugar. Aniseeds covered with a coating of white sugar, rough for boys and smooth for girls, were also served. The kandeel pot, caudle cup or cinnamon cup, was never missing. This was a tall drinking cup filled with Rhine wine sweetened with sugar. In it was placed a stick of cinnamon, - a long one if the child were a boy and a short one if a girl. When this was handed, the sugar was stirred in the cup with the cinnamon stick by the person who presented it.

Uninvited guests sometimes entered the house on the sly on such occasions, for the more merriment and drinking the more honor for the baby. Being at a christening was long remembered, and in later years people often remarked to a young man or woman, "Oude Kennis, ik heb bij je nog een stik met suiker gehad", "Old friend, I had a sugar piece with you."

At the christening dinner gifts for the child were presented or promised. These presents were kept in the "show cabinet" where the bride's wedding gifts and the bridegroom's pipe were on exhibition. - from "Dutch New York" by Esther Singleton, 1930, and "The Dutch and English on the Hudson".

What in America was known as the French & Indian War, and in Europe the Seven Years War, began in 1755 and lasted until 1763. During this period the generally friendly, or at least not hostile, relations the Pennsylvanians had with the Indians broke down under the provocation of French insurgents and the long simmering anger over the Walking Purchase.

All through the summer and early fall of 1755 there were whispers of alarming disaffection among the Indian tribes. Inflamed by French provocateurs and emboldened by the English General Braddock's defeat in July 1755 by a combined French & Indian force in the west, they saw a chance to win back lost territory.

The thunderbolt finally fell in November with an attack on Moravian settlers on the Mahoning Creek.

"A letter from Bethlehem, dated December the eighteenth [1755], states, "that a party of Indians had gathered behind the Blue mountains, to the number of two hundred, and had burned the greatest part of the buildings, and killed upward of a hundred of the inhabitants; and that they threatened the uper Moravian places, as Christiansbrun, Gnadenthal, Nazareth, and Friedenthal." - from "The History of Pennsylvania" by Thomas Francis Gordon

27 November 1755. "The Dwelling-house, Meeting-house and all their Out-houses were burnt to Ashes, with all the Grain and Hay, the Horses, and more than forty Head of fat Cattle for the Use of the Brethren at Bethlehem and their other settlements." - The Pennsylvania Gazette, Dec. 4, 1755. - from "Extracts from American Newspapers, Relating to New Jersey. 1704-1775"

"Mr. Broadhead estimated the number of warriors at two hundred. This attack upon the settlement was marked by the same atrocity characterizing much of the border warfare. As all the Susquehanna and Lackawanna Indians except the Monseys [the Minsi tribe of the Lenni-Lenape, or Delaware] were disposed for peace in the spring of 1757, Mr. Miner [in his "History of Wyoming"] concludes that the Oneidas and Senekas [sic] from the lakes formed the war party." - from "History of the Lackawanna Valley" by Horace Hollister, 1885

"Another letter, from Union works, Jersey, of the 20th [December 1755], says, "the barbarous and bloody scene which is now open in the upper parts of Northampton county, is the most lamentable that perhaps ever appeared. There may be seen horor and desolation; populous settlements deserted; villages laid in ashes; men, women, and children, cruelly mangled and massacred; . . ." To this letter was annexed a list of seventy-eight persons killed, and more than forty settlements burned." - from "The History of Pennsylvania" by Thomas Francis Gordon

The region, long used to peace, succumbed to panic and the people fled, seeking safety in the south. It was reported soon after that the river, from Broadhead creek south to Easton, was deserted in the aftemath of the attacks.

"Colonel John Anderson, who was on his March towards Gnadenhutten [the Moravian Settlement] with some of the New Jersey Militia, and a Company from the Irish Settlement, . . . judged it improper to advance against so large a Body at that Hour, and therefore retreated back to the Gap of the Mountains, to secure that Pass till he should obtain further Intelligence." . . . and that the Deponent [Moses Totamy], upon the Credit of the above Report was removing his Family, from the Forks [of the Delaware] to Trenton for Safety." - The Pennsylvania Gazette, Dec. 4, 1755. - from "Extracts from American Newspapers, Relating to New Jersey. 1704-1775"

29 November 1755. "By three Expresses arrived from Northampton County within three Days past, we have Advice, That last Monday Night the French and Indians burnt a small village seven Miles beyond the Gap, and killed all the People but two; and Tuesday Night burnt a House above the Mountain, six Miles from where Delaware crosses Penaqualing, or Pequetin, Mountains, all in the aforesaid County." - from "Extracts from American Newspapers, Relating to New Jersey. 1704-1775"

Those who chose to stay despite the danger collected themselves together in some one house for a common defense. "After Indians began attacking homesteands in Lower Smithfield Township in Northampton County, for example, nine families gathered at Philip Bozart's dwelling, while "a great Number" of others convened at the farms of two other neighbors. These houses were frequently fortified in some manner and stood as makeshift forts, the main purpose of which was to protect women and children. Thus, even after they heard gun shots at a nearby house, the people at Bozart's house "were afraid to venture to go and see what had happened that Day, as they had many Woman [sic] and Children to take Care of, who it they had left might have fallen an easy Prey to the Enemy." - from "Friends and Enemies in Penn's Woods."

An inscription on a stove plate cast in 1756 memorialized the dreadful times:

"This is the year in which raged the Indian war parties." - from "Sweet Land of Liberty: The Ordeal of the American Revolution in Northampton County, Pennsylvania," by Francis S. Fox.

Molly was probably outside the house, perhaps drawing water for her mother, when an Indian raiding party attacked and seized her. During extended raids, as occurred along the Brodhead creek that day, the Indians would tie their captives to a tree, then come back for them as they made their retreat. If the settlers organized quickly and counter-attacked, the Indians would kill these captives and take their scalps to prove their participation in the raid.

The next few days would have been a horror to the 10 year old Molly. For those who have read "The Lord of the Rings," think of the capture of Merry and Pippin and their forced march across Rohan. The raiding party lived by its speed and stealth. Any prisoner who could not keep up with their killing pace, those who stumbled, those who slackened, were summarily tomahawked. Molly would have noticed and would have been terrified to show any weakness.

It is not known where the party took Molly initially, but it would not be out of the ordinary for them to have run the entire way to the French forts on Lake Ontario, either Niagara, on the west end of the lake, or Oswego, at the east end. There Molly might have been sold to the French as a house servant or field laborer, but may as well have been adopted into an Indian family to replace one of their own lost in battle, especially as she was young. Some female captives married local French settlers. Another film to consider is John Ford's "The Searchers" for the tale of a young girl taken by the Indians, and later rescued. Note the equivocal feelings evinced about a woman who had been "amongst" the Indians.

The initial Indian attacks on the Hoeth and Brodhead families in the winter of 1755 caused a panic. The Pennsylvania Assembly agreed to raise a militia and the militia members overwhelmingly voted Benjamin Franklin, a member of the Assembly, as their "general." The Governor and the proprietors, political opponents of Franklin, were not happy, but felt they could do little to oppose the popular Franklin. They appointed Franklin and James Hamilton "military commissioners" for the county.

The commissioners arrived at Easton, just south of Lower Smithfield township, on 23 December 1775. They directed that the first of a line of forts be constructed in what today is the town of Stroudsburg, on Brodhead creek, at the homstead of PeterLa Bar. This fort was named Fort Hamilton in honor of James Hamilton, Franklin's fellow commissioner, and was built in January 1756 by a team of volunteer militia under the command of Captains Trump and Ashton. This, and the other frontier forts, were rude affairs, more stockades than fortresses. Trump became its first commander.

A modern recreation of a frontier stockade with blockhouse

Attacks continued during the building of the fort and those families trying to return to their homes, even when under armed escort, did not escape the threat. The family of Hess was almost completely wiped out in this manner. About this same time a Palatine, while breaking flax on the farm of Philip Bossert in Lower Smithfield, was shot and killed by an unseen Indian. One of Bossert's sons ran out of the house on hearing the gun and was also shot and killed. Philip, himself, then appeared and exchanged shots with the enemy and was saved only by the arrival of his neighbors which caused the enemy to retreat.

Fort Hamilton was not considered a post of especial importance. While it was in a geographically important position, it stood in a more or less sparsely settled district. The sudden outbreak of hostilities in that vicinity caused an excitement which resulted not only in its immediate erection, but also in the building of Fort Hyndshaw just a few miles away, as well as the occupation by a garrison at Dupui's house, which was also in the vicinity.

Fort Hyndshaw was probably located at the mouth of the Big Bushkill river where it emptied into the Delaware, no one is quite certain. Note that the road from Fort Hamilton to Fort Hyndshaw led past Depui's, which was along the river and that we are told it was an "open road from Depui's to Fort Hyndshaw." Captain Van Etten had his homestead on Bushkill creek.

The fort was a seventy-foot square stockade, with two bastions, around the Hyndshaw home. It was located on Bushkill creek, south of present-day Bushkill, in Lehman township, Pike county, Pennsylvania. From January 1756 to July 1757 it was the extreme northeastern post garrisoned by Pennsylvania troops. It was evacuated on orders of Governor Denny and the men moved to Fort Hamilton. - from "Forts on the Pennsylvania Frontier, 1753-1758" by William Albert Hunter

He was born in Knightsfield, Ulster county, New York in 1720 and married Maratje "Mary" Westfael. He was commissioned a Captain of the militia by Benjamin Franklin and placed in charge of Fort Hyndshaw. He was later in charge of Fort Hamilton in Smithfield. In 1754 he was judge of the orphan court and was, in 1760, coroner of the county. He later moved to North Carolina.

He was born in about 1720 and was a contemporary of Thomas Hesom. He first married Hanna Varway, but she died. He then married Maria Depuy. He was a deacon and elder, and later an overseer of the Smithfield Dutch Reformed Church.

As early as 1755 James was an officer in provincial service, a Lieutenant under the command of Colonel James Burd. In 1756 he was a Lieutenant in Captain Wetterholt's [Nicholas Wetherholt] company, in charge of provincial forces stationed at Fort Hyndshaw. - from "Pennsylvania Archives." Late, in 1761, Captain James Hyndshaw was sent by the Governer to observe the Connecticut settlement in the Wyoming Valley and made a deoposition of his findings.

Commissary James Young, while inspecting the forts in that same year, made the following report, writing from the “Fort 10 miles above Depues, Commonly call’d Hyndshaw Fort.”

"June 23, 1756 - At 3 P. M. we sett out from Fort Noris on our way to Fort Hamilton. At 6 P.M. we came to Philip Bosarts a Farmer, 12 miles from Fort Noris, here we Stayed all Night, on our way to this house the road very hilly and Barran, past by three Plantations Deserted and the houses Burnt down, in Bossart's house are 6 Families from other Plantations."

24 June, Fort Hamilton. - At 4 A.M. sett out from Basarts [sic], at 6 Came to Fort Hamilton at ab't 7 miles from Bosarts, a Good Waggon road, and the Land better than any I had seen on the N'o side of the Mountain. Fort Hamilton stands in a Corn field by It Farm house in a Plain and Clear Country, it is a Square with 4 half Bastions all very Ill Contriv'd and finish'd, the Staccades open 6 inches in many Places, and not firm in the ground, and may be easily pull'd down, before the gate are some Staccades drove in the Ground to Cover it which I think might be a great Shelter to an Enemy, I therefore order'd to pull them down, I also order'd to fill up the other Staccades where open. Provincial Stores: 1 Wall Piece [probably a swivel gun], 14 G'd Muskets, 4 wants Repair, 16 Cartootch Boxes, filled with Powder and Lead, 28 lb Powder, 30 lb. Lead, 10 Axes, 1 Broad Axe, 26 Tomahauks, 28 Blankets, 3 Drawing Knives, 3 Splitting Knives, 2 Adses, 2 Saws, 1 Brass Kettle.

June 24, 1756 – At 8 A.M. I sett out from Fort Hamilton for Sam’l Depues where Cap’tn Weatherholt’s Lieu’t and 26 men are Stationed, when I came there his Muster Roll was not ready, I therefore proceeded to the next Fort [Hyndshaw] 10 miles higher up the River, at 1 P.M. Came there, it is a good Plain Road from Depue’s, many Plantations this way, but all Deserted, and the houses Chiefly Burnt. Found at this Fort Lieut. Ja’s Hyndshaw w’th 25 men he told me the Cap’tn with 5 men was gone up the River yesterday, and did not Expect him back these two days, they had been informed from the Jerseys that 6 Indians had been seen, and fired at the night before 18 miles up the River. – Provincial Stores, 11 Good Muskets, 14 Rounds of Powder & Lead for 30 men, 4 lb Powder, 30 Blankets."

"This Fort is a Square ab’t 70 f’t Each way, very Slightly Staccaded. I gave some direction to alter the Bastions which at present are of very little use, it is clear all round for 300 yards, and stand on the Banks of a Large Creek, and ab’t ¼ mile from the River Delaware, and I think in a very important Place for the Defence of this Frontier; at 3 P.M. I muster’d the people, and find them agreeable to the Lieu’ts Roll, Regularly inlisted. Finding here such a small Quantity of Powder and Lead, and this Fort the most Distant Frontier, I wrote a Letter to Cap’tn Arrend (Orndt), at Fort Norris, where there is a Large Quantity desiring he would deliver to this Fort 30 lb Powder, and 90 lb Lead, and I promised he should have proper orders from his Superior Officer for so doing, in the meantime my letter should be his Security, in which I hope I have not done amiss as I thought it very necessary for the Good of this Service."

"My Serj’t Leonard Den, with 2 men of, for subsistence to Sam’ll Depues, having got within about 2 milds of s’d Depues, s’d Sej’t was shot, the 2 men Return’d and inform’d me of it, where upon an alarm was beat, and the neighbours all gather’d to the fort; myself with 7 men went of immediately and found him Kill’d and Scalp’d, and intirely Strip’d and shamefully cut, that his bowls was Spred on the Ground, I immediately sent of 3 men to s’d Depues for a Wagon, which being come we carried him to s’d Depues, where we kept guarde that night . . . Early in the morning we Buried him in a Christian manner, & all Return’d to Fort Hyndshaw."

Attacks, mainly on isolated homsteads, continued in 1756 and 1757, the Indians "all painted and white Feathers on their Heads." In one attack the newly raised militia was heavily defeated. From a letter of Benjamin Franklin to the Governor:

"As we draw near this place, we met a number of wagons, and many people moving off with their effects and families, from the Irish settlement and Lehigh township, being terrified by the defeat of Hays company, and the burnings and murders committed in the townships on New Years Day. We found this place filled with refugees, the workmens shops, and even the cellars, being crowded with women and children; and we learned that Lehigh township is almost entirely abandoned by the inhabitants."

In April 1757 Andreas Gundryman, about 17 years old, went with two horses and a sleigh to fetch some fire wood that lay about 80 'perches' from Fort Hamilton, in order to bring it to his father's house, about 10 perches from the Fort. Two guns were heard to fire. Upon investigation Andreas Gundryman was found, just 300 yards from the fort, lying dead and scalped to the eyes.

In June 1757 George Ebert, 16, went with two wagons from Plainfield Township to assist the inhabitants of Lower Smithfield who had a few days before been attacked by Indians, to bring off some of their best effects. While working together they were attacked by fifteen Indians and 3 of the men were killed. The Indians then took the other two men hostage. The next day the Indians fell in with another company of about 24 Indians who had as prisoners Abram Miller, his mother, and Adam Snell's daughter. Coming to some Indian cabins they saw another prisoner, a girl about eight or nine years old. She told them that she had been a prisoner since Christmas. While Ebert and his friend were eventually able to escape, Abram Miller's mother and Adam Snell's daughter were both killed, being unable to keep up with the Indian party.

In the same year two soldiers of the garrison at Fort Hamilton were walking among the scrub oaks and were killed by a party of Indians in an ambush. Detachments of soldiers were also sent from the fort to guard the harvesters, but the soldiers were too few to perform the duties required of them. Needless to say, the settlers were alarmed and the government could afford them little or no protection. They wrote to the governor:

"The Petition of the Few Remaining Inhabitants of the Township of Lower Smithfield, in the County of Northampton, and in the Province of Pennsylvania:"

"That the Situation of the Petitioners being part of the Frontiers of the Province have for some time past suffered many and great Difficulties by the Excursions of the Savages, until your Hon'rs accession to this Province, and the Treaty held with the Indians at Easton, which afforded the prospect of a Peace, and gave your Petitioners encouragement to return to their Farms, in order to Plant and to Support their Distressed Familys in a peacable manner; But so it has happened, and please your Honour, to our inexpressible surprise, these perfidious murderers have renewed their Barbarities by killing, Scalping, and Captivating the Inhabitants in a most dreadful manner, which has obliged your honours petitioners to assemble with their Familys together for their Better defence, But as the Number of men now here will not be sufficient to defend themselves and Familys any long time against the Enemy, they must inevitably fall into their hands to be massacrey'd or desert the post now at _____, Either of which must be attended with fatal Consequences to the next Frontiers, and being well assured (under those dismall apprehensions) that the next under Divine Providence your Honour is our Protector, and therefore Desire that our deplorable Circumstances may be taken into Consideration, and that such relief therein may be Granted, as your Honour in your Wisdom shall direct, and your Honours Petitioners as in duty bound Shall ever Pray."

As the war with France and its Indian allies expanded New Jersey's Governor worked with the colonial Assembly to find means to combat the "Perfidious French with their Cruel Allies the Savage and Barbarous Indians." In March 1756 an Act was passed to raise a force of 250 men to support and replace the militia already in place "at the several Forts on the Frontiers."

Soon after reports were received of two Indian attacks, including one on the home of Anthony Swartwood. His wife and three children had been murdered and Anthony Swartwood and three of his children were missing.

The Act of 1756 had also authorized the construction of frontier forts. Four blockhouses were built in Sussex county along the Delaware River. By 1757 there were a total of six blockhouses: the largest, at Fort Johns, was the headquarters for the New Jersey colonial defenses, in Walpack township. Fort Nominack was to the north and Fort Walpack, at the old church, was to the south. There was also Fort Van Camp, in Pahquarry township, Fort Cole, at Port Jervis and and Fort Shipeconk, about 6 miles south of there. Eventually there would be a 14 forts and posts in northwestern New Jersey.

Towards the end of 1757 Pennsylvania sent a plea for assistance against the Indian "outrages" to the other colonies, but, in light of the Quaker Assembly's previous reluctance to fund a militia, New Jersey's Governor Belcher wondered, "if the people of Pennsylvania, who may readily raise twenty thousand or thirty thousand men, will do nothing for the defense of their country, or for saving the lives of their wives and children, I am afraid the Assembly of this poor little Province will not think it reasonable to send their people out of the Province."

Extract of a Letter from Lower Smithfield, to a Gentleman in the Jerseys, dated Jan. 22, 1756

"I am left in a deplorable Condition, by the Province I belong to, and for what Reason I know not, and what to do I know not. To leave all to Savage Enemies is very hard, to be left by my own Country, and to be forced to fall their Pray, is still harder . . . The Gap is way-laid, so that No-body can Pass, but what are shot at." - Samuel Depui

- from "Extracts from American Newspapers, Relating to New Jersey. 1704-1775"

Governor Belcher ordered a muster of the militia in Morris, Essex, Hunterdon, and Bergen counties against the French and Indians who are "burning and murdering at the Forks of the Delaware." New Jersey sent a 500-man regiment north to New York as part of the planned conquest of Canada and a further 200 to the defense of the frontier in Sussex county.

Hunterdon County was created in 1714 and was, at the time, the largest county in the state. It extended from the Assunpink Creek in Trenton to the New York state border. Old Hunterdon county was split in 1739, the northern part forming Morris County. Morris county was split in 1753, the western part, bordering the Delaware river, forming Sussex County. Sussex was split in 1824, the southern part forming Warren county. In 1838 Hunterdon county was split again, the southern part forming Mercer County, which included Trenton. Somerset was an inland county.

After 1757 the inroads of the Indians became less frequent. Efforts were made to bring about peace with the various tribes and the Delaware tribe was won over to the British side. As a result it was decided to abandon the Forts of the Minisink and the soldiers were moved south of the Wind Gap. In 1757 Fort Hynshaw was abandoned and in 1758 Fort Hamilton was also given up. The Mohawk, however, were still fighting on the side of the French and in June 1758 they attacked the settlements north of the ungarrisoned Fort Hamilton.

Despite these latter attacks, peace did return to region by the end of 1758. At about that time the Quakers helped negotiate a settlement with the Eastern Delawares that dramatically calmed the situation in Pennsylvania.

Beginning in 1758 the new British Prime Minister, William Pitt, put into action a strategy which dramatically altered the situation in America, and around the world, throwing the French onto the defensive and leading to the most sweeping victory in war in the history of England.

The American & French Revolutions. Napoleanic Wars. During the King’s fits of madness the Prince of Wales ruled as Regent (the Regency period). Also Elector, later King, of Hanover.

By 1800 the population of England and Wales had exploded to 16.3 million.

For five years the peace was kept, with only occasional attacks and reprisals. In 1763, however, the chief of the Delawares was killed by a party of Mohawk warriors, burnt alive in his own house. The Mohawk had been accustomed to look upon the Delawares with contempt as "women" and not true warriors, and were not happy with the Delaware's role in securing a peace. The Mohawk then blamed the death on local white settlers which incited the Delaware to break the peace. This occurred at the same time as the rising of Pontiac's War in the west.

Pontiac had put together a wide-ranging alliance of tribes, some of whom descended again on Northampton county, the outlier of Pennsylvania settlements. Smithfield was struck hard and many cabins were burned and their occupants killed. Refugees once again clogged the trails heading south. Panic spread as far as Philadelphia, where the Assembly met to address the danger. Attacks continued in the Smithfield region into 1764. The defeat of Pontiac in the west, and the effect of an aroused militia, finally succeeded in stopping the attacks, but not before more than 60 settlements had been burned.

There is an excellent old movie, "Drums Along the Mohawk," starring Henry Fonda and Claudette Colbert, and directed by John Ford, that gives a good feel to life on the frontier under the threat of Indian attack.

This was Emanuel Gonsales, sometimes as Gonzalez, Gunsaulus, or Gunsalis.

(18) Emmanuel Gonsales-Duk (c1670)

The suffix is sometimes Dolk or Duck and, while some researchers want to read this as Duke, I suspect, in line with Spanish surname practice, it denoted the family name of Emmanuel's mother. He was probably a Spanish Puritan or Huguenot who fled Spain, or more likely the Spanish Netherlands, for America. There were supposedly three brothers who came at the same time: Peter, Manuel and Richard, but there is no further information on the other brothers or their descendents. Emmanuel lived amongst the Dutch in Ulster county, New York. He first married Marritje Christoffels [Christophers] Davids. His second wife was Rebecca Westfall. Manuel died on 18 April 1758 and was buried in Wurtsboro, Sullivan county, New York.

The eldest son of Emmanuel and Marritje, he was baptized on 16 November 1694 in Kingston, Ulster county, New York. He married Rymerick Quick on 25 September 1719 in Kingston. He settled in Wurtsboro. His father, Emmanuel Sr., died while visiting him there and was so buried in Wurtsboro.

Emanuel is mentioned in many documents about the Minisink, usually associated with the leading men of the community. He first married Rachel Louw. His second wife was Jannetjen, the daughter of Jacob van Etten.

"March 23, 1750 Manuel Gonsales, widower of Rachel Louw, dwelling at Memmekatting to Jannetje Van Etten, young woman, born at Nepenack and dwelling at Nameback, married the 23d ditto." - from "Jacobus Jansen Van Etten" by Eva Alice Scott

Emanuel Gonsales was an associate of Redolphus [sic] Schoonover and Lieutenant James Hyndshaw, Thomas Hesom's commanding officer. In 1763 Lt. Hyndshaw and Emanuel Gonsales organized a petition of Pennsylvania's Colonial Governor, Andreas Digman, to obtain state assistance in the face of renewed Indian attacks. Hyndshaw recommended that Emanuel be designated the Commissary for the district during the emergency. Emanuel was also mentioned in the 1773/4 will of Bernardus Swartsworth [Swartwout] Sr., of Delaware township, as a friend. Bernardus was the father-in-law of Thomas Hesom's second wife, Elizabeth Brink. Emanuel was the exectutor of several Denmark family wills in the 1750's.

During the run-up to the Revolution Emanuel was elected to the Committee of Observation for Northampton county in 1774. Others included Peter Kachline, Jacob Arndt, John Wetzel, and Nicholas Depui Sr, the leaders of the community.

Emanuel Gonsales [could this be his son?] served in the Revolution as First Lieutenant of the 10th Company, Mamakating Precinct, of James Clinton's Second Regiment of the Ulster county militia. He fought at Fort Montgomery, as did John Hissom, Thomas Heson's eldest son.

The will of Manuel Gonsales, of Delaware township, was probated on 20 March 1789.

The word Brink means "park, square or village green" in the Dutch language.

He was born in 1638 in Wageningen, Gelderland, Netherlands. He married Hendrickje Cornelisse while in the Netherlands and before his emigration to America. He arrived in New Amsterdam in December, 1659 aboard the GELOOVE (FAITH). On 12 February 1696 he made and executed his last will and testament, which will was proved on 11 April 1702. He died in Hurley, Ulster county, New York.

The eldest son of Lambert and Hendrickje. He was born in July 1656 in Gelderland. He married Hendrickje Swartwout on 16 March 1679 in Kingston, New York. He died in Hurley, New York.

Thomas Brink was born on 6 December 1685 in Kingston, Ulster county, New York, the third son of Huybert and Hendrickje. He first married Francis Schoonhoven on 15 May 1729 in Kingston. ". . . Thomas Brink purchased 1,210 acres of land at Lower Walpack, just above the river bend Oct. 10, 1725, and donated and deeded 1737, to the "Christian people" of that community the church and burial grounds for the First Walpack Church, near the bend." - from "The Rosenkrans Family in Europe and America" by Allen Rosenkrans. Nicholas, James, Eva, Hendrickje and Franzintie were the children of Thomas and Francis.

Second he married Anne Kleyn, the sister of Catherina Kleyn, Thomas Hesom's wife, in about 1740. He died in 1761 in Montague, Sussex county, New Jersey. Rachel, Catherine, Sarah and John were Thomas and Anne's children.

He was the youngest child of Lambert and Hendrickje, baptized on 26 Jun 1670 in Kingston/Hurley, Ulster county, New York. He died on 2 May 1757 in Minisink, Orange county, New York. He was married to Geertruy Matthysen Nieuwkirk in about 1692 in New York.

Cornelius was born on 25 July 1697 in Kingston. He married Maria Cool (Kool) on 14 December 1724. She was christened on 20 June 1708 at the Kingston Dutch Reformed Church, Ulster County, New York. Her parents were Harom Kool and Cornelia Vanleuven. The Kools (Cools) had been in America since before 1647.

She was christened on 29 October 1732 in Kingston township, Ulster county, New York, or was born about 1732 in Walpack township, Sussex county, New Jersey, depending on your sources. She first married Bernardus Swartwout Jr. on 24 December 1753 in the Walpack Dutch Reformed Church, New Jersey. He died in 1768. She then married Thomas Heysham.

In the 1690s the western part of what is now Orange County, New York, as well as a 40-mile section of the Delaware River from present day Stroudsburg, Pennyslvania, north to Port Jervis, New York, was known as the Minesink. This name, Indian in origin, was given to this area by the Dutch and the Swedes who first settled it. Some say it refers to the zinc mines, while others say it refers to the Indians who lived there. Thomas and Bernardus Swartwout are named on the first land patent for the area.

The settlers would cross back and forth across the Delaware River from New Jersey, where it was already fairly well civilized and where a road had been built connecting the region to New York, to the Pennsylvania side. It was common for settlers to live in New Jersey and have their farm in Pennsylvania. It was not until the end of the Revolution that the Indian threat on the Pennsylvania side of the river subsided.

Also as Swartworth, Swarthwout, Swartwoot and Swartwood.

He was born on 1 June 1634 in Amersterdam, Noord Holland, the Netherlands. He married Eva Albertsen Bradt.

He was born on 11 May 1664 in Wiltwyck, Ulster county, New York. He married Jannetje Jacobus Coobes. The Swartwout family had acquired a patent for land in the northern end of the Minisinck, in an area today known as Deerpark, from the Governor of New York in 1697.

He was born on 31 October 1697 in Kingston, Ulster county, New York. He married Grietje Decker. This is in the counties of Orange and Ulster. Bernardus died on 24 March 1774 in Lehman township, Northampton county, Pennsylvania. He had writeen a will on 7 June 1773:

“In the name of God Amen. I Bernardus Swartsworth [sic] of the township of Delaware in the County of Northampton of the Province of Pennsylvania, Yeoman, being weak in body but of sound disposing mind and memory (blessed by God therefore) do this day being the seventh of June in the year of our Lord Christ one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three make and publish this my last will and testament in manner and form following (that is to say) . . .

Item I give and bequeath unto the five sons of my beloved son, Bernardus Swartsworth [sic], deceased, to wit Samuel, Anthony, Benjamin, Moses, and Geradus, twenty pounds Proclamation to each and every one of them severally; to be paid to them by my executors as they and each of them shall arrive to the age of twenty-one years. To Samuel twenty pounds, to Anthony twenty pounds, to Benjamin twenty pounds, to Moses twenty pounds, and to Geradus twenty pounds. And in case any one or more of the last mentioned brethren die under age, then my will is that the surviving brothers share and share alike . . .

Lastly I do hereby nominate and appoint and by these processes constitute and ordain my well beloved friends Mr. John Depue and Mr. Benjamin Depue my sole and only executors to this my last will and testament recommending to them the assistance to my good friends Mr. John Brink and Mr. Manual Gonsalin as proper persons to be aiding and advising in the process to whom I shall appoint as overseers to take care that this my last will and testament be actually fulfilled according to the true intent and meaning thereof in witness whereof I the said Bernardus Swarthsworth have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal the day month and year first above written
his
Berbardus B Swartsworth
mark”

The first husband of Elizabeth Brink. Bernardus, the younger, was born on 28 January 1727 in Kingston (or Rochester), Ulster county, New York (some sources say New Jersey), the son of Bernardus Swartwout Sr. and Grietje Decker. He married Lisabeth Brinck [sic] on 24 December 1753 in the Walpack Dutch Reformed Church, New Jersey. He died in 1768. Bernardus did not leave a will so his wife, Elizabeth Brink along with Jacob Swartwood, her brother-in law, and the eldest surviving son of Bernardus Swartwout Sr, filed for and were issued Letters of Administration to probate his estate. The total value came to 53 pounds, 16 shillings & 8 pence. Their boys changed the spelling of their names to Swartwood (Anglicizing it). After Bernardus’ death, Elizabeth married Thomas Heysham. Thomas then raised the Swartwood boys.

The children of Bernardus and Elizabeth were Samuel, Anthony, Benjamin, Moses, Gerardus, and, I think, Levi.

He was born in about 1754 in Lehman Township, Northampton county, Pennsylvania. There is a Samuel Swartwood in the General Muster Roll of the Eighth company, 6th Battalion of the Pennsylvania Militia of 14 May 1778.

He was born in about 1756 in Lehman Township, Northampton county, Pennsylvania. An Anthony Swartwood is listed as a Private in the Muster Roll in the Second Battalion of Associators in the County of Northampton and Province of Pennsylvania which is to component part of the Flying Camp of ten thousand men commanded by Colonel Hart and in Captain Henry Hagenbuch's Company 6 August 1776 at Perth Amboy. This was the same unit that William & Abner Heysham were in. From Perth Amboy the unit marched into the Battle of Long Island.

He was born in about 1758 in Lehman township, Northampton county, Pennsylvania. He died on 3 January 1776 [some sources claim 1778], a casualty of the Revolutionary War, probably while imprisoned in New York City according to Davis's 1877 "History of Northampton Co, PA." He appears to have fought at the battles of Long Island and Fort Washington in Captain Rundio's Company. William & Abner Heysham were taken prisoner at the same time and held in the prison hulks in the bay. Abner probably also died in captivity.

He was born on 14 March 1761 in Lehman township, Northampton county, Pennsylvania (other sources indicate Walpack, New Jersey). He was in the pay roll of Captain Christopher Keller's company of the Fifth Battalion of the Northampton County Militia commanded by Colonel Nicolas Kern on the expedition to the Wyoming Valley [Luzerne county] in August 1784. John Heysham may have been as well.

He married Mary Magdalena Arnold in about 1786. A Moses Swartwout was listed as a Federal pensioner living in Pennsylvania in 1820. He died on 11 September 1844 in Upper Mount Bethel, Northampton county, Pennsylvania.

He was born on 24 May 1766 in Lehman township, Northampton county, Pennsylvania (others, based on the below, say Walpack, New Jersey). He was christened in the Dutch Reformed Church, Walpack township, Sussex county, New Jersey.

He was cited in David Heysham's Declaration for a Pension as a stepson of Thomas Heysham. Not otherwise listed as a child of Bernardus Jr. Was he so young at the time of his grandfather's death that he was overlooked in the will? He was cited in the baptismal records of the Reformed Dutch Church of Smithfield on 5 April 1793 - A Levi Swartout and his wife, Rachel White, had their daughter, Mary, christened. There were no witnesses. More importantly, on 16 June 1791 Levi Swartwood and his wife, Rachel White, had their daughter, Elizabeth, christened. Witnesses were Thomas Heysham and Elizabeth Brink.

Levi apparently followed his step-brothers, John, Thomas and David Heysham, to Westmoreland county. In the 1800 census of Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania as Levi Swartwood, 26 to 44 years old [1756-1774]. Levi was, perhaps, 33 at the time.

In the 1810 census of East Huntingdon, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania as Levi Swartwood, 45 and over. In the 1820 census of Tate township, Clermont county, Ohio as Levi Swartwood [Smallwood in Ancestry.com]. In the 1830 census of Jackson township, Monroe county, Ohio as Levi Swathwood. Monroe county is just across the river from Tyler county, West Virginia. In the 1840 census of Perry township, Monroe county, Ohio as Levi Swartwood [Smartwood in Ancestry.com].

While not wide spread north of the Blue Mountains, slavery had existed in the Delaware valley since its settlement by the Dutch in the 1600's. Its later Quaker settlers were also not adverse to slave-holding, at least initially. However, worried by the propriety of owning another person and not wanting to appear worldly, by 1758 the Yearly Meeting had proclaimed that slave-ownership to be a bar to membership and in 1774 made it a cause for disowning. In 1778 serious discussions of aboliton began.

"Easton, Northampton County, Sept. 13, 1779. Committed to this Gaol, the 8th inst. William Sisko, a mulatto, who says he belongs to James Byers, living in Paxton Township, Lancaster County. His Master is therefore desired to come, pay the Charges, and take him away. Peter Ehler, Gaoler." - from an advertisement in "The Pennsylvania Gazette," September 15, 1779.

The early pioneers were a restless group, pulling up stakes frequently, continually moving westward in search of new land and greater opportunity. When they looked for a place to settle, they usually chose a heavily wooded plot. The belief at the time was that open, unforested land indicated poor soil. If trees didn’t, or wouldn’t, grow there, then the soil must be bad. The western prairies, now home to vast wheat and corn fields, where then called a desert for this reason. This choice dictated that the first few years on a site were filled with the backbreaking work of clearing the forest.

In the first year a section of trees was felled and a small crop of corn was planted amongst the stumps to provide a minimum of food for the family over the next winter. On the next year stumps could be cleared, the roots having begun to rot. Slowly a man could begin to clear enough land to produce a surplus for sale. In the Middle Colonies they grew wheat, barley, oats, rye, and corn. After a home and outbuildings were built, and the necessary fences were in place, most of the felled trees were burned, there being no ready market or way of transporting the logs.

American's were considered to be poor farmers by visiting Europeans. The American method of farming resulted from the differences in land value with the Old World. There land was expensive and labor was relatively cheap, so great effort was put into 'scientific' farming to increase and preserve the land's output. The aristocrats of the era took a great interest in modern methods and even King George III took pride in his farming. In America, in contrast, nothing was so plentiful, or so cheap, as land while labor was scarce and expensive, so little effort was put into preserving the land. After some years of intensive farming the land was played-out and the settlers moved on.

Wildlife was plentiful. Men hunted deer and smaller game without the restrictions of the Forest Laws of the Old World. Birds, such as pheasant and turkey, were also available in abundance. One report noted flights of pigeons so large that they darkened the sky and flew so low that men could knock them from the air with a stick. The early settlers also harvested fish from the sea and from streams. Brodhead creek was and is an excellent trout stream. Oysters were available in such abundance that they were considered a “poor man’s” dish.

Outside the few large cities, most houses were constructed of unsplit logs, made plentiful with the clearing of the land. They were rude dwellings with dirt floors and, unless the chinks were carefully filled, often drafty.

The women were always industrious. A woman's place was in the home, but it was a huge and necessary job. A man might marry for love, but he could not effectively run a farm without the aid of a wife. In addition to caring for the younger children, the wife maintained a vegetable garden and a flock of chickens, churned the butter, made all the meals [and in this era 'from scratch' meant milling the flour and plucking the chicken], spun and wove linen and woolen, sewed new clothes, mended torn items, washed the clothes by either beating them against stones in the river or using a simple washboard and tub, and saw to the family's moral upbringing. There were no hours when her hands were not busy. The idea that "cleanliness was next to godliness" was, in part, recognition of how hard cleanliness was to achieve.

For the common diet, milk and bread, and a pie, formed the breakfast meal, and good pork or bacon, and a wheat-flour pudding or dumplings, with butter and molasses were given for dinner. Mush, or hominy, with milk and butter, and honey, formed the supper. Chocolate was only occasionally procured and used with maple sugar.

When wheat and rye grew thick and tall on new land, and all was ready to be cut with sickles, the men, and many of the women and older chidlren, entered the fields. About twenty acres of wheat could be cut and shocked in half a day.

Rum was the common beverage. A bottle was handed about at all venues, each taking his draw from the neck of it, by a swallow or more. At weddings, and even at funerals, mixed and stewed rum, called spirits, was an expected and common entertainment. Rum was even put on toasted bread occasionally. Beer and ale were also brewed, often at home. Taverns were uncommon in the country. George Washington had his own favorite recipe for the beer he brewed at Mount Vernon.

The first settlers were accustomed to wear a strong and coarse dress, such as buckskin. It was used for both breeches and jackets. As times became more settled oznaburg cloth, made of hemp tow and flax, began to be used for shirts and coarse tow for knee-breeches. Stockings of cotton were usually worn with knee breeches, but farmers and other laborers usually protected these costly items with leggings of burlap or leather. By 1790 trousers were replacing knee-breeches. Most of these clothes were colorless. Dyes made from sumac berries or the hulls of walnuts or butternuts were available, but produced only a limited range of rust, brown or yellow grey colors. These were referred to as drab, snuff, liver or sad-color. The Colonial tri-cornered hat was seldom worn in the country. The English round hat of felt with a wide brim provided better protection from sun and rain and was to endure as the familiar slouch hat.

In England if the original name contained an "r" it was common for the nickname to contain an "l." Hence, Prince Harold was known as Prince Hal, Sarah became Sally and Mary was Molly, or Moll.

A second meaning for Moll is as a disreputable woman. As early as 1604 it was a synonym for prostitute and a moll house was a term for a brothel. Daneil Defoe's novel, "Moll Flanders," perhaps picked up on this shady connotation in the name for his loose-living heroine.

In June 1776 General Washington appealed to the Continental Congress for more troops. He wanted a 10,000 man strategic mobile reserve, or Flying Camp. The term Flying Camp was a literal translantion of the French camp volant. On 3 June 1776 the Continental Congress resolved, "That a flying camp be immediately established in the middle colonies." The Northampton Flying Camp were “special battalions of Pennsylvania Line troops recruited from the Pennsylvania Associators.” Other militia units from New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland and Virginia also created Flying Camps. Their duties would include protecting their state from invasion, protecting the Continental Army's supply lines, suppressing roving bands of Tories and acting as a ready reserve should Washington have need of reinforcements.

Pennsylvania sent some 2,000 Associators, many of who were quickly drafted into service by General Washington for the defense of New York. Of the Pennsylvania men, Heckman writes, “…some of these had seen service in border Indian warfare, and all of them were frontier hunters and sharpshooters…” Gallagher describes the Pennsylvania long rifle as the “preferred weapon of farmers,” who “could hit a target the size of a deer’s brain at 150 yards.” Experience gave the British great respect for the effective range of this showpiece of Pennsylvania German technology, some fearing to expose themselves to American riflemen at anything less than 300 yards.

The Flying Camp had a brief but eventful existence. It was fraught with difficulties almost from its inception and, never realizing its full potential, was disbanded by the end of November 1776, shortly after the fall of Fort Washington. For more information, see Dr. Francis E. Devine’s “The Pennsylvania Flying Camp, July-November 1776,” in the magazine Pennsylvania History (46: January 1979, pages 59-78).

Pennsylvania had no militia. The Quakers who originally founded the colony were by religion opposed to violence of any kind and would not authorize a colonially funded military. The Military Association, or "Battalion of Associators," was an invention of Benjamin Franklin created to act as a militia to defend Philadelphia against privateers, in 1747, and Indians during the French & Indian wars.

In 1774 the people of Pennsylvania were ordered to prepare for the worst. They started organizing companies for military use, and enlisting and drilling volunteers between the ages of 16 and 50. The Associators were the militia of Northampton county, existing before a Militia Act was finally enacted in 1777. The website of the Pennsylvania State Archives describes the Associators as “volunteers who comprised the Military Association, a civilian reserve designed to repel any invasion of Pennsylvania . . ."

The Association collapsed in the aftermath of the New York campaign and was replaced on the state level by a militia in 1777.

His last name is rendered as Kachline, Kechline, Kichline and Kichlein. Known as Peter, he was born in Nassau, Weilberg, Germany in 1722. He attended the University of Heidelberg before coming to America in 1742 and settling in Northampton county, Pennsylvania. He was a member of the Committee of Safety and of the first Constitutional Convention, and, later, was was chief burgess of Easton, Pennsylvania, where he died in 1789.

He commanded the Northampton Battalion of the Flying Camp at the Battle of Long Island, where they covered the retreat of the Continental forces, and saved the army from capture. He was wounded and captured, and was not exchanged until 1778. "One writer has said that 'Long Island was the Thermopylae of the American Revolution, and the Pennsylvania Germans were its Spartans.' He forgot to add that Colonel Kichlein was its Leonidas."

From "The Muster Rolls and Papers Relating to the Associators and Militia of the County of Northampton" -
County Lieutenants
John Weitzel . . . 16 May 1777
Peter Kechlein . . . 30 March 1780

Committe of Observation, chosen 21 December 1774
. . . Peter Kechline *also Standing Committee of Correspondence for the county.

Associators, 1775
Easton Company
Captain, Peter Kechlein, 22 May 1775
Lower Smithfield Company
Captain, Jacob Stroud, 22 May 1775
Lieutenant, Samuel Drake
Total rank and file, 127 men

Timothy Jayne, of Northampton, Pennsylvania formed the Kaltius Battalion during the Revolutionary War. He had 49 members in his company, all of whom were supposedly captured at Fort Washington, with only eighteen of them returning, the others having died on the Jersey prison ship. Captain Jayne was exchanged on 8 December 1776 and was commanding a Northampton militia company in 1778.

The British landed on Long Island on 22 August and from that date until the main battle there were serious daily skirmishes involving Pennsylvania riflemen. The Americans actually fought quite effectively in these skirmishes and caused a fair amount of trouble, especially to the Hessians at Flatbush. A Hessian officer involved in this skirmishing said of the Pennsylvania riflemen, “[they] have some very good marksmen, but some of them have wretched guns, and most of them shoot crooked. But they are clever at hunter’s wiles. They climb trees, they crawl forward on their bellies for one hundred and fifty paces, shoot, and go as quickly back again. They make themselves shelters of boughs, etc.”

The Americans formed a line on high ground some distance in front of heavy fortificatons they had built on Brooklyn Heights.

The British plan of battle was to heavily engage, and hold in place, the middle and right of the American line, where Kechline's forces were located. British scouts had discovered that the American left was not secure so, while the Americans were thus engaged, the majority of the British army would swing around the American's left, flanking them to fall on the American rear. The Battle of Long Island began on 27 August 1776 and, as contemporaries noted, the American's got a “drubbing” and were “prettily taken in.”

The battle began early with a surprise pre-dawn attack by the British. The Pennsylvania rife men fought well, displaying great markmanship and even withstanding withering fire in open positions, but the British were not really interested in forcing the Amerrican line. The outcome was determined when the British successfully entered upon the American rear and caused a panic. The "History of Lehigh County" states that “…there was great danger of the annihilation of the greater part of the American forces, when Kichlein’s men, with part of Lutz’s and Atlee’s commands stemmed the tide sufficiently to allow the demoralized troops to rally under the guns of General Putnam’s fortifications [at Brooklyn Heights].”

Once the Americans had fought their way back to their fortifications in the Brooklyn Heights area, the battle subsided because General Howe hesitated to storm these positions. Some have suggested that this hesitation was directly attributable to the catastrophic outcome of just such a head-on attack on the fortified positions at Bunker Hill. There the British attackers had been repeatedly mowed down in shocking numbers and were only able to take the American positions when the defenders’ gunpowder ran out.

On 29 August, General George Washington effected a brilliant, Dunkirk-like evacuation under cover of darkness and fog, recruiting boats from sympathetic locals and removing all of his surviving troops (approximately 10,000!) across the East River to Manhattan. The plan was betrayed at the last minute by Tories who observed the evacuation and sent a servant to inform the British. But British troops arrived only in time to fire a few desperate shots at the last boat disappearing into the fog. Legend has it that Washington himself was the last man to leave.

Kichlein and at least two of his four captains, Henry Hagenbuch and Timothy Jayne, were captured during the battle. Another, John Arndt, was wounded. Hagenbuch and Jayne were later released, on 8 December 1776, in a prisoner exchange.

For more on the battle, see Samuel Wirth: Historial Information.

After the defeat in Long Island the issue still remained whether to attempt to hold Manhattan in the face of the British Fleet. Failing to make the correct decision in time, it was soon too late to safely remove the garrison. Fort Washington commanded the highest point on Manhattan and most of the remnants of the Northampton County associators had been positioned there. During the battle the Northampton county men, under Colonel Baxter, initially fought outside the fort, behind earthworks on high ground about half a mile to the east. Greatly outnumbered in the British attack, they were driven back to the fort and Colonel Baxter was killed.

In the end their position was hopeless. Under continuous bombardment and outnumbered 15 to 1, their commander finally surrendered the fort.

This is in northwestern New Jersey, between Warren county, to the south, and New York, to the north. Its western border is the Delaware river. It is part of the Minisinck Valley.

The British took so many American prisoners at Long Island and on Manhattan that prison space became a premium. Every conceivable building was turned into a prison: three sugar houses, several Dutch churches, the Old City Hall, and Kings College [now Columbia] for a while. These soon became packed, and bad food and infectious disease quickly took their toll.

The British used the ships at Wallabout Bay, later the site of the Brooklyn Navy Yard, for naval prisoners on this side of the Atlantic. The prisoners included men captured on American privateers, merchant ships, French, Spanish, and Dutch vessels, and British Army prisoners of war. After April 1780, the JERSEY was the receiving ship where names were entered into records. At left is the monument at Fort Green Park to the prisoners who suffered at Wallabout Bay. The bones of a number of these prisoners are buried beneath the monument.

More Americans died in British prison ships in New York Harbor than in all the battles of the Revolutionary War. There were at least 16 of these floating prisons anchored in Wallabout Bay on the East River for most of the war and they were sinkholes of filth, vermin, infectious disease and despair. It is estimated that half of the inmates, who totaled over 13,000, died during their captivity. The ships were uniformly wretched, but the most notorious was the JERSEY.

Built in 1735 as a 64-gun ship-of-the-line, the JERSEY was converted into a prison ship in the winter of 1779-1780.