Tryntjen Van Kleeck

Notes:

Probably died young. (Not named in will).

Family/Spouse: Barent Lewis. Barent was born in 1710 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, NY; was christened on 3 Sep 1710 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, NY; died after 1789. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Antonetta Lewis was born on 26 Jun 1737 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, NY; died on 16 Mar 1810 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, NY; was buried in Freer Ground, Ferris Lane, Poughkeepsie, NY.

Notes:

Lived in Poughkeepsie, NY. Served in Dutchess County Militia during the
French and Indian Wars as Captain 1715, Major 1725, Lt. Col. 1737, and
Col. 1740. Justice of the Peace 1718. Representative to the Provincial
Assembly.

Source: History of Duchess County
Source: The Compendium of American Genealogy, p.115

Barent married Antoinette Parmentier on 27 Apr 1701 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY. Antoinette (daughter of Michael Pieterse Palmentier and Neeltje Jans Damen) was born before 27 Jul 1684 in New Utrecht, Long Island, NY; was christened on 27 Jul 1684 in Bushwick, Long Island, NY; died after 1749. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Source: History of Duchess County
Source: The Compendium of American Genealogy, p.115
Sponsors for baptism were Cornelia Damen and Jan Remsz.

Notes:

Source: The van Kleeck Family, Albert van Kleeck, 1909
Source: An Account of Barent Baltus, the Progenitor of the van Kleeck
Family in the U.S. and Canada, van Kleeck and van Benthuysen, 1958, in
NEHGS Library
Source: D.A.R. Patriot Index, p.701

Baltus first wife, Maritje Ten Eyck, was buried in 1676 in Flatbush as
"wife of Baltus Barentszen".

Baltus moved first to Albany then to Bergen, New Jersey, and in 1687 was
in Poughkeepsie where he built the first stone house and became one of
the largest holder of real estate in Dutchess County, New York. Baltus
was one of the first settlers of Poughkeepsie. His house was near what is
now the corner of Mill and Vassar Streets. It had very thick walls which
were pierced near the eves and gables with loop-holes for muskets to ward
off any Indian attacks. It stood until 1835 when it was torn down.
Adjoining the house was a family burial plot which remained until the
house was demolished. During the Revolution the house was the scene of
may patriotic meetings and the New York Legislature met there in 1788.

Baltus represented Dutchess in the 16th Colonial Assembly, which sat from
May 3 to July 21, 1715. He was elected to the 17th New York Colonial
Assemblies, which sat, at intervals, for eleven years, 1716-1726, but
served only from its beginning, June 5, 1716 to the spring of 1717, when
he died. He was succeeded May 4, 1717, by Johannes Terbosch. About 1776
some of the descendants of Baltus emigrated to Canada and formed a
settlement in Prescott County, Ontario, and named it van Kleeck's Hill,
but the great majority remained in Dutchess County and were loyal to the
cause of freedom.

Dutchess County
from: " The Concise History of Dutchess County"
Hope Farm Press & Bookshop 252 Main Street Saugerties NY 12477
914-246-3522

Although Dutchess was mapped out as a county in 1683, first legal
residence in the county was not established until four years later under
a land purchase from the Indians with confirmation of title by the
Colonial Governor. Robert Sanders, an Englishman, who was an interpreter
between the Indians and Europeans, and Myndert Harmense van Den Bogaerdt,
a Dutchman, purchased land embracing the present city of Poughkeepsie,
which is the county seat of Dutchess. As of June 9, 1687, Sanders and
Harmense ( for so the latter was known, rather than van Den Bogaerdt)
leased a large part of their holdings to Baltus Barents van Kleeck and
Hendrick Jans Ostrom.

This leasehold also marked the beginning of permanent legal residence
within the entire county, according to contemporary historians.

Dutchess County was not named after the Dutch, but as a compliment to the
Duchess of York. Her title was derived from the French word, duchesse,
and was spelled with a "t" until 1755, in which year Dr. Johnson, the
English lexicographer, dropped the "t," and also the final "e."

Lands upon which Messrs. van Kleeck and Ostrom agreed to settle were
described by the Dutch as "lying in the Lange rack" and "called
Minnisingh and Pochkeepsin." "Lange rack" was the broad expense of the
Hudson River extending north and south of the approximate center of the
shoreline of Poughkeepsie, a total distance of about ten miles. This
straight section of the river was called "the Long Reach" by Robert
Juett, mate of Henry Hudson's "Half Moon,"when Hudson sailed up the
river, in 1609. "Minnisingh" was believed to refer to high ground in the
Dutchess Turnpike east of the present Poughkeepsie, while "Pochkeepsin"
was one of the numerous spellings of the county seat.

This same colorful "Long Reach" of the Hudson contains the present
four-mile course for the Poughkeepsie Intercollegiate Regatta, annual
rowing event, which has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors to
Poughkeepsie's shores and Dutchess County. The course begins at Crum
Elbow, not far from the river estate of President Roosevelt; it extends
south to a point below the mid-Hudson vehicular bridge at Poughkeepsie.

One now widely accepted explanation of the meaning of the name
"Poughkeepsie" evolves from a story surrounding the first legal
settlement in the community. Johannes van Kleeck and Myndert van Den
Bogaerdt, sons of the original settlers, frequented a spot close to the
present New York-Albany Post Road, less than two miles south of the
present courthouse at Poughkeepsie. The Indians followed a trail to this
same point, known by the two boys as Rust Plaetz, and meaning Resting
Place. The Indians had another name for the spot, which was marked by a
spring, and, so the story goes, surrounded by cat-tail reeds, a small
stream issuing from the spring. They used three words to describe it:
uppuqui-meaning lodge covering, the name of the cat-tail reed;
ipis-little water; ing-meaning place; and freely translated, "The
Reed-covered Lodge by the Little Water Place."

The Dutch and the English settlers spelled the name phonetically, and it
appeared in various combinations of letters. In the van Kleeck-Ostrom
lease it was "Pockkeepsin." A more familiar later form of the word was
"Apokeepsing," resembling uppiquiipis-ing, until the "A" was dropped; and
out of Poughkeepsing there came the accepted name, "Poughkeepsie."

So much for the name of the principal city of Dutchess County. The date,
June 9, 1687, is now recognized as not only marking the beginnings of
permanent legal residence of white men in Poughkeepsie, but in the county
as well. Prior to that time there were undoubtedly transient residents in
the county, but there is no documentary evidence pointing to an earlier
legal white residence than that at Poughkeepsie. Early local historians
set forth that the first settler may have been Nicholas Emigh, or
Eighmie, presumed to have arrived at Fishkill, southern Dutchess, at an
early date. These historians conceded that authorities differed as to the
exact date of settlement, although one writer placed Eighmie in the
county as early as 1682. It remained for the late Helen Wilkinson
Reynolds, careful historian of the modern period, to lay before the
public the complete story of the van Kleeck-Ostrom lease and its
significance as fixing the time of the first legal white residence at
Poughkeepsie.

To be sure, early settlements in both Fishkill, to the south of
Poughkeepsie, and Rhinebeck, to the north, were contemporaneous with that
in the present county seat. Peter Pieterse Lassen, an ancestor of the
late historian, Benson J. Lossing, is known to have been living at the
mouth of Jan Casper's kill in 1688. In 1700, Hendrick Kip built a house
in Rhinecliff (town of Rhinebeck). All of the early settlers lived close
to the river; it was not until the early part of the eighteenth century
that the thickly wooded interior of the county was opened to home sites.

birth:
1. D-221:
2. D-236: Abstracts of Wills Filed in New York City, 1708-1728

other:
1. "of Dutchess Co.," executor of sister's (Mayken) will dated 23 Apr
1722,
proved 7 Feb 1723/5; D-236, ibid.

Baltus married Catrintije Jans Buys in Sep 1676 in Flatbush, Kings County, NY. Catrintije was born in 1654 in Long Island, NY; died in 1725 in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, NY. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY: Arrived 1663 "Spotted Cow". Magistrate - Bushwick 1679-1681.

Michael married Neeltje Jans Damen in 1679 in Dutchess County, NY. Neeltje (daughter of Jan Cornelius Damen and Sophia Fytje Martens) was born in 1664 in Brooklyn, Kings County (Brooklyn), New York, USA; died on 9 Apr 1707 in New York, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"...she was the daughter of Jan Corneliszen and Sophia (Martense) Damen,
and her father's uncle, Jan Damen, owned the Wall Street section of lower
Manhattan, ...in the 20th Century the most valuable real estate in the
world. Michael adapted well to the heterogeneous culture of the
metropolis peopled by Dutch, French, and English immigrants; while still
in his twenties he was a magistrate at Brooklyn in 1679 (and again in
1691), ...serving also as a Lieutenant in the Foot Guard.

He and his wife sold their mill at Bushwick in 1695, and their home there
in 1699, (NYGBR-54), joining his father at Kingston; not long thereafter
they settled at Poughkeepsie. The 1714 Census shows their household as
composed of one male over 60, two males 16 or over and one under 16; one
female between 16 and 60, two under 16, and two slaves. Since Peter (3)
then had his own domicile, the two males were presumably Jan and Michael
Jr., with Damen (3), the youngest, under 16.

Notes:

Barent Baltus was the progenitor of the van Kleeck family in America and Canada. As a young man from Lipstadt, in Westphalia, in the present Germany, he married in Haarlem, Province of North Holland, The Netherlands, Sara Pieters, a young woman of Haarlem. About 4 1/2 years later, 29 January 1636, Barent B., as a widower married Mayken Quiters, a young woman of Haarlem. During the period 1651 Barent brought his family to the Dutch colony of New Netherlands, Midwout/Flatbush on Western Long Island. That Barent died before 19 November 1659 is evidenced by the fact that on that date a suit was brought against his widow for payment of masters wages amounting to six guilders. From this it is inferred that Barent Baltus was in some way identified with a shipping or maritime business although no confirmation of this had been found. The origin of the name van Kleeck is unknown. While many of the old Dutch families derive their names from towns in Holland and from which the progenitor came, this does not hold true with respect to the name van Kleeck. The name is unknown in Holland and cannot be linked to any town, village, diocese or locality. van Kleeck as a surname first appears at the baptism of Peter, son of Baltus Barents, at Bergen, New Jersey, October 1685, and at the burial of a daughter in 1683, the father's name is shown as Baltus Barentse van Kleeck.

Barent married Maijken Laurens de Guijter on 29 Jan 1635/36 in Haarlem, Noord Holland, Netherlands. Maijken (daughter of Laurens de Zierikzee Guijter and Cathelyn Calawaert) was christened on 17 Aug 1611 in Haarlem, Noord Holland, Netherlands; died on 20 Oct 1647. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

BIOGRAPHY: ...born (say ca. 1630?), came with his wife Antoinette
(Terrin) and their nine-year-old son Michael to Niew Amsterdam (now New
York City) in 1663, on the ship "Spotted Cow." Apparently they had
originated in the city of Courtrai, Belgium and as Huguenots had been
driven by the Spanish invaders to Mannheim, Germany.

BIOGRAPHY: They settled at Bedford, Long Island, (part of present-day
Brooklyn), and conducted a grist-mill there. In 1670 the father was a
trustee of the town and in 1671 an overseer of Brooklyn. After a brief
interlude at Harlem, the family moved to Kingston, Ulster County, where
he died in 1701.

BIOGRAPHY: The only known child of this couple was Michael.

Pierre married Antonette Terrin in 1653/54. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

THE DAMEN FAMILY OF LONG ISLAND NY

Jan Cornelise Damen, was the common ancestor of the DAMEN family. In
1650 he left Bunnik, a village on the Ryn in Utrecht, for Long Island NY,
and married Fytie/Sophia Martens. The surname might be derived from
Demen, a hamlet in North Brabant where Jan most likely lived at one time.

On 29 Apr. 1655 he purchased a house and land adjoining that of Jan
Dirksen's in Brooklyn and by 1677 was keeping a tavern here. On 21 Aug.
1663 he purchased from Cornelis Hendrickse van Eens a farm on the West
side of the road in Flatbush NY. In 1667 he is recorded as a member of
the Reformed Dutch church of Brooklyn hailing from the Wallabocht. He is
on a patent of Brooklyn in 1677 and took the oath of allegiance there in
1687. In 1674 he apparently resided at Norman's Kil, and bought a farm at
Kyckuyt from Claes Claessen Smit. In 1686
he bought the main portion of the farm of Pieter Ceser Alburtis at the
Wallabocht.

He and his wife made a joint will dated 1 Sept. 1680 and probated 20 June
1707. Jan Damen voted at a town meeting in Flatbush NY on 19 Jan. 1703-04
and again on 12 Aug. 1704.

He was one of the signers of a petition in Brooklyn, New York in 1663:

"On the first of March in this year (1663), the following petition was
presented:

'To the Right Hon'ble Director-General and Council of New Netherland:
'Shew with due reverence and respect, the undersigned, neighbors and
inhabitants of the village of Breuckelen [Brooklyn], our Honors' obedient
servants, that there lies convenient to us a certain place near
Breuckelen fit to be erected into a new village, for our advantage, being
a woodland (as we) believe (is) known to your Honors, in which place
there is sufficient accommodation where twenty or thirty persons can have
a suitable place and lot; and as the valleys thereby furnish no nearer
place (than) those adjoining between the 3d and 4th kills, to supply the
cattle with fodder, and is also the nearest spot, therefore we, the
Petitioners, are under the necessity of turning to your Honors, humbly
praying and soliciting that the aforesaid requested place
may be granted to them, each his lot, as the valleys in the hay season
be far from here, and they seek the nearest, in order to bring in the
grass dry and in good condition (with God's blessing), for the
preservation of the cattle, and all that is annexed thereto, that
appertains to the farmers. Awaiting, therefore, a favorable answer, if
your Honors the Director-General and Council, in your wise discretion,
shall vouchsafe to grant the same, we remain your Honors' obedient
servants.

SOURCES:"REGISTER OF THE EARLY SETTLERS OF KINGS COUNTY, LONG ISLAND, NY
from its First Settlement by Europeans to 1700" by Teunis G. Bergen, 1973
pp 83-84;
ibid: pp 10, 51

"A History of the City of Brooklyn; including the Old Town and Village of
Brooklyn, the Town of Bushwick and the Village and City of Williamsburgh"
by Stiles, 1867, V. I, II, III pp 119-120.

"Revised History of Harlem: Its Origins and Early Annals..."James T. Riker

"Early Settlers of Bushwick Long Island, New York and Their Descendants"
Vol. 3, compiled by Andrew J. Provost Jr. 1955: pp 2, 24, 41

"Records of the Reformed Protestant Church at Flatbush" on microfilm
#0017663

"Utrecht Farmers in New Netherland" from M.S.F. Kemp's "Krommerijenrs in
de nieuew wereld" as edited and translated by John H. van Schaick, in the
New York Genealogical and Biographical Record of January 1996 vol 127, #1
and April 1996.

Jan married Sophia Fytje Martens in 1650 in NY, NY. Sophia (daughter of Marten) was born about 1640 in Netherlands; died in 1707 in Flatbush, Kings County (Brooklyn), New York, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]