Dirck Straatemaker

Citations

1. [S210] Isora Collord, Ancestors of William Adams Collord and Rebecca Severns his wife (privately printed, ca. 1870), [pp 19-20].
2. [S1346] Charles H. Winfield, History of the County of Hudson, New Jersey (New York: Kennard & Hay, 1874), 40–41. Following the Communipaw or Pavonia Massacre of 25 Feb 1643:
   Dirck Straatmaker, in company with some Englishmen and his wife, who had a baby in her arms, came at an early hour upon the bloody field for the purpose of plunder. The surviving Indians, who now saw the soldiers filing off toward their boats, while the others tarried, fired upon Straatmaker's party, with what result the following certificate will show:
   "We, the undersigned, sergeant, corporal, and soldiers, at the request of the Attorney General, attest that on the — February, 1643, in the morning, after we had beaten a party of savages at Pavonia, behind Egbert Wouterssen's, the wife of Dirck Straatmaker, with a few Englishmen, arrived on the spot where the slain were lying, with a view to plunder maize or any other article. We declare solemnly we warned said Dirck Straatmaker and his wife and told them to go home, to which Dirck replied, 'There is no danger. If there were a hundred savages, none of them would hurt us.' Upon which the undersigned left the spot, according to their orders, to go to the house of Egbert. When they arrived there they heard a shriek; then the sergeant ordered some of his soldiers toward the spot, where they found Dirck, aforesaid, wounded (who died a while after of his wounds), and his wife dead. The soldiers saved the English, who had only one gun amongst them all.
   "Thomas Willet declared that Dirck aforesaid, being asked, 'Why did you not come with us when we warned?' answered,
   'I might have well escaped by running, but I did not wish to leave my poor wife.'
   "All which the undersigned declare to be true. Done 18th May, 1643, in New Netherlands.
   "Juriaen Rodolf, Sergeant,
   "Peter Petersen, Corporal,
   "Thomas Willet.''
   Footnote: "[The baby] was saved. He was named Jan Dircksen Straatmaker. Shortly afterward he was bound by the authorities in New Amsterdam to Claes Teunissen, with whom he had, on Feb. 28, 1659, been living for sixteen years. He was then in his seventeenth year. Minutes of the Orphan's Court, New Amst., 96. He must, therefore, have been very young at the time of the massacre. It is probable that from him came the family of that name which for a long time lived in Hoboken. He married Geesje Gerrits, Jan. 14, 1665."
   For more on this massacre, see http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/indianwars/articles/…
3. [S1344] Howard S. F. Randolph, "Tryntje Jacobs and Her Four Husbands", The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 56:3 (Jul 1925): p. 262. "We do not know when Dirck Stratenmaker and his wife came to this country, but we do know that they had land at Communipaw and lived there....the fact that there is no record of [their son Jan's] baptism at New Amsterdam suggests that they might have been recent arrivals."
4. [S1132] Charles H. Winfield, History of the Land Titles in Hudson County, N. J. 1609–1871 (New York: Wynkoop & Hallenbeck, 1872), p. 58. "The first Patent of Philip Carteret to Dirck Sycan dated the twelfth Day of May, One thousand Six hundred and sixty Eight for a Tract of Upland and Meadow lying at Mingackqua." Footnote: "This lot consisted of two tracts; 1st, beginning at a creek coming out ot the woods (this was Straatmaker's creek a little N. of the line of Chestnut Ave. in Greenville), extending 100 Dutch rods up into the woods (to Ocean Ave.), and 300 rods along the river = 50 morgens; 2d, a lot adjoining on the W. N. W. and N. E. to the creek still coming from the swamp and emptying into the Morris Canal by Enoch Michielse's Stony Point = 15 1/6 morgens. Dirck Straatmaker was the owner of this tract previous to 1643. He probably had his house on the bluff by the Central R. R. bridge, from which point he could see the field of the Communipaw massacre, where he was slain in February of that year. After his death the land probably reverted to the Dutch West India Company. It was given by Gov. Stuyvesant to
   Dirck Sycan, June 16, 1654. He sold it to Enoch Michielse Vreeland, Feb. 13, 1679, for 4,900 guilders. There must have been some claim, however, set up by the heirs of Dirck Straatmaker, for on March 18, 1()98, Vr-eeland obtained from Jan Dircksen
   Straatmaker, the son of Dirck, a quit-claim of all his interest in the tract, for £20. The tract was known by the Indian name Najacksick or Neyonsich, to which somelimes was added 'alias Pembrepogh.' "
   (Description, p. 59). Beginning at the Mouth of a small Creek (putting into a Creek called Sycan's Creek, which small Creek is the Southeasterly Corner of Dirck Claasen's Patent mark'd on the Map No. 17); Thence North twenty seven Degrees and thirty Minutes West twenty four Chains and seventeen Links to a Stake (being the Westerly Corner of said Dirck Claasen's Patent mark'd on the Map No. 17), Thence South forty two Degrees West sixty Chains and forty Links to a Gum Sapling mark'd with a Blaze and three Notches on four sides and V on East side (which Sapling stands in the Line of Lawrence Andrieses"s Patent mark'd on the Map No. 19) And from said Sapling runs South twenty seven Degrees and thirty Minutes East twenty nine Chains and forty eight Links to the Mouth of Straatamaker's Creek on Hudsons River or York Bay; Then along the said Bay or River Northeasterly to the Mouth of Sycan's Creek (the Mouth of which Creek is the place of beginning of Dirck Claasens Patent mark'd on the Map No. 16) then up the said Creek the several Courses thereof to the Mouth of the first mentioned Creek the Place of Beginning.