Steven van Voorhees
Steven Coertse van Voorhees | |
---|---|
Van Voorhees coat of arms | |
Born |
Steven Coertse van Voorhees 1600 Hees, Drenthe, The Netherlands |
Died |
16 February 1684 Flatlands, Brooklyn, New York |
Nationality | Dutch |
Occupation | Farmer, brewer |
Spouse(s) | Aaltjen Wessels (d. 1675),[1] Willempie Roelofse Suebering (b.1619-d.1690)[2] |
Children | Coert Van Voorhees, Wessel, Marchien, Lucas, Hendrickje, Jan, Aeltje, Albert, Jannetje, Abraham[3] |
Parent(s) | Coert Albertse van Voorhees |
Steven Coertse van Voorhees (1600 – 16 February 1684) was an early Dutch settler in America and the patriarch of the Voorhees family line and namesakes.
In 1664, he was a magistrate of what is now Flatlands[4] and founder of the Dutch Reformed Church in present-day Flatlands, Brooklyn.[5]
Biography
Early life
Steven Van Voorhees was born in 1600 in Hees, a village in Drenthe, The Netherlands.[6] He was the son of Coert Albertse van Voorhees, of Hees,[6] and the eldest of seven children.[7] He married his first wife circa 1645.[1]
New Netherland colony
Van Voorhees left The Netherlands in April, 1660,[8] along with his wife, Willempie Roelofse Suebering, and 8 of their 10 children.
Records indicate the family immigrated to the New Netherland settlement on either the ship "Borelekre" (translated as the "Spotted Cone,")[7] or the "Bonte Koe," which means the "Spotted Cow."[2] The two children, both daughters,[2] who stayed behind would later come to America.[7]
Some sources indicate that the name of his first wife is unknown.[9] Others specify that her name was Aaltjen Wessels,[1] who died around 1675.[3]
Van Voorhees migrated to the Dutch colony of New Netherlands (present-day New York) in 1660, settling in Nieuw Amersfoort (present-day Flatlands), Long Island.[6] He purchased a tract of land on 29 November 1660,[8] from Cornelius Deriksen Hoogland for three thousand guilders. Of the nine morgen of corn land, seven morgen of salt meadow,[2] seven morgen of woodland and ten morgen of plain land,[9] the plot included a house and house plot, as well as brewery,[7] which he operated.[10]
In addition to being a farmer,[3] Van Voorhees was a magistrate of the Flatlands in 1664.[2] His name appears on a 1664 and a 1667 land patent.[3] He founded the Dutch Reformed Church in Flatlands, and he and his second wife were members of the congregation.[5]
Death
His will is dated 25 August 1677,[7] which has been called a "lengthy, odd document" in which he bequeaths his entire estate to his five surviving children.[2] In 1683, he was manager of taxes in Flatlands.[3]
Name origin and variants
The name "Voorhees" is the anglicised form of "van voor Hees" which means from "before" or "in front of" Hees,[11] a small village of about 9 houses and 50 inhabitants 1.25 miles (2 km) south of Ruinen .[12]
Steven van Voorhees' paternal grandfather, Coert van voor Hees, resided near the front of the village of Hees.[8][13]
Legacy
The Van Voorhees have a family coat of arms,[11] which was first published in America in 1880 by Elias W. Van Voorhees.[14]
Steven van Voorhees is considered the patriarch of a "pioneer family of Bergen County,"[15] and is considered the "founder,"[16] as well as the first American representative of the well-known Voorhees family line.[17]
Among his namesakes is Voorhies Avenue in Brooklyn.[18]
References
- 1 2 3 Van Voorhees Association, pg. 1.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lee, pg. 245
- 1 2 3 4 5 Harvey, pg. 83.
- ↑ The Daughters, pg. 100.
- 1 2 Starr Myers, pg. 327.
- 1 2 3 Aitken, pg. 103.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Baughman, pg. 553.
- 1 2 3 4 Lewis, pg. 209.
- 1 2 Beers, pg. 878.
- ↑ Brown, pg. 24.
- 1 2 Aitken, pg. 104.
- ↑ Lee, pg. 244.
- ↑ Baughman, pg. 550.
- ↑ Voorhies, pg. 15.
- ↑ Brown, pg 23.
- ↑ Voorhies, pg. 1.
- ↑ Ministry of Economic Warfare, pg. 200.
- ↑ Bernardo, pg. 173.
Sources
- Aitken, William Benford (1912). Distinguished Families in America, Descended from Wilhelmus Beekman and Jan Thomasse Van Dyke. Knickerbocker Press. p. 266. OCLC 4238467.
- Baughman, Abraham J. (1911). History of Seneca County, Ohio: A Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People, and Its Principal Interests. 2. Lewis Publishing Company. p. 969. OCLC 807045.
- Beers, J. H. (1897). Commemorative biographical record of the counties of Dutchess and Putnam, New York. p. 1159. OCLC 15743355.
- Bernardo, Leonard (2006). Brooklyn by Name. NYU Press. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-8147-9946-8.
- Brown, T. Robins (2000). The Architecture of Bergen County, New Jersey: The Colonial Period to the Twentieth Century. Rutgers University Press. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-8135-2867-0.
- Harvey, Cornelius Burnham (1900). Genealogical history of Hudson and Bergen counties, New Jersey. New Jersey Genealogical Publishing Co. p. 617.
- Lineage Book. 18. The Daughters. 1974. OCLC 1565970.
- Lee, Francis Bazley (1907). Genealogical and Personal Memorial of Mercer County, New Jersey. 1. Lewis Publishing Company. p. 432. OCLC 2920024.
- Biographical and Genealogical History of Morris County, New Jersey. Lewis Publishing Company. 1899. p. 808. ISBN 978-1-230-07650-8. OCLC 20473027.
- Netherlands Zone Handbook: Gelderland, Overijssel, Drenthe, Groningen and Friesland.no. 3. Gelderland. Ministry of Economic Warfare. 1944. OCLC 62624077.
- Starr Myers, William (1945). The Story of New Jersey. 4. Lewis Historical Publishing Company. OCLC 1116219.
- Voorhees, Amos Earle (1939). The John C. Voorheis branch of the Van Voorhees family in America. The Daily Courier. p. 71. OCLC 12772140.
- The Van Voorhees family in America: the first six generations. Van Voorhees Association. 2000. p. 1029. OCLC 608776468.