MrJumbo's Genealogy

Tjerck Claessen DeWitt born ca. 1618, Groot Holum, Ostfriesland died 17 February 1700/1, Hurley, New York	Barbara Andrieszen [family name unknown] born in Amsterdam [?], probably ca. 1635 died 6 September 1714, Hurley, New York
Aaggie DeWitt MVDW 14 TGE 14. xiii. Family 11. baptized as Aefje, 14 January 1684, Kingston (Wildwyck) - died 6 July 1726 (per Find-A-Grave) parents: Tirck Claasz, Barbara Andries witnesses: Lucas Andriesz (uncle), Cornelis Switz (brother-in-law?), Jannetie de Wit (sister) (Lucas Andriessen, who has a house in Manhattan but sails up and down the Hudson as a skipper, is the husband of Aefje Laurens, who is probably the baby’s namesake.) born in Kingston or Hurley, New York According to Gustave Anjou, she moved to Philadelphia. Buried there? Yes: See Find-A-Grave page. Pawling Cemetery, Schwenksville, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. This is a private family burial ground (judging from map), and Find-A-Grave has no photo of her stone. See Notes below.
(Lieut.) John (Jan) Pawling (Paling, Palingh, etc.) married 23 August 1712 in Kingston Jan Paling, j.m., and Aagjen de Wit, j.d., both resid. under the jurisdiction of the “Co. of Kingston.” baptized 2 October 1681 - died 5 May 1733 (per Find-A-Grave) His parents are Henry Pawling (I) and Neeltje Roosa. baptism record in Old Dutch Church, Kingston: John, baptized at Hurley 2 October 1681 parents: Henry Pawling, Neeltie Roos witnesses: Heyman Roos, Johanna Roos Find-A-Grave lists various siblings for John: Wintie (Brodhead, 1679-1771), Margaret (Anderson, 1680-1739), Albert (1684-1745), Henry (II, 1689-1739). See also Aagie’s nephew (MVDW 15, her eldest brother Andries’s son), Captain Tjerck DeWitt, who marries Jan Pawling’s sister Ann. On Find-A-Grave, Jan is listed as Lieutenant John O. Pawling, born in Hurley 20 October 1681, died 5 May 1733. His parents are listed as Henry Pawling (1650-1692) and Neeltje Roosa (1655-1745), both buried in Marbletown. Henry came from England with the Duke of York’s expedition in 1664; Neeltje was from Gelderland in the Netherlands. Evans (pp 6-7) says Neeltje Roosa, mother of Lieut. Pawling, is daughter of Albert Heymanse Roosa, one of the first schepens or magistrates of Kingston. That would make her sister of Ikee Roosa, whose daughter Wyntje Kiersted married Aagie’s brother Jan. Albert Heymanse Roosa was quite a character in old Wiltwyck, during and before and after the Second Esopus War. He served on the RDC Consistory (he was the whole consistory at one point), and he sounds as if he didn’t care much for anyone who was in charge of anything at any given time, so we find him frequently quibbling with the rulings of the Wildwyck town council, the War Council led by Martin Cregier during the war, the English military and civil leaders put in charge of the town, and anyone else with a shred of authority. He no doubt thought he was not quibbling, but raising serious concerns of general principle, but at one point he went far enough that the British administration banished him and his son from the town for a short time. For more on Albert (sometimes called Allert), have a look at the page of Aagie’s father Tjerck. Henry Pawling is also an extremely colorful character in Wildwyck history, and also appears frequently (at least about 50 times) in the story of Tjerck Claessen’s days in Wildwyck and Kingston. Henry was appointed British liaison to the local Esopus villages; the native-born villagers later came to the English to complain that Henry’s interactions with them mostly consisted of beating them. He got into a knife fight with Tjerck over a pig and wounded Tjerck seriously. (The pig, sadly, also did not survive.) Henry was appointed surveyor in charge of laying out lots and plots at Marbletown, when it was established as a residential area for the English garrison so they would not get into so many conflicts with the villagers of Wildwyck. He bought a brewery and tavern from Thomas Chambers, then bought himself the position of tax collector for breweries and taverns, so he was in charge of collecting taxes for himself. Interesting guy. Henry Pawling is frequently described as being from Buckinghamshire in England. Researcher Dave Ehst observes: “You will occasionally see a statement like ‘We learn from the Pennsylvania manuscripts, under “land grants or purchases,” that he [Henry Pawling] came from Padbury, Buckinghamshire, England.’ In fact, that seems to be an error. The name appears on one of the early maps of subscribers to William Penn for property in the newly platted Philadelphia. . . . After that (ca. 1683) map, there is no record of said individual; most likely he never actually relocated to the new colony. It is most likely that the Henry Pawling of the Hudson Valley [buried in Marbletown in 1692] is not the same” as the Henry Pawling of Pennsylvania who came from Padbury in Buckinghamshire. It may or may not be telling that Aagie and Jan did not get married until long after both of their fathers had died.
Henry Pawling MVDW 90 TGE 87. v. (sic) 1713-1763 baptized in Kingston 1 November 1713 parents: Jan Paling and Eegjen de Wit witnesses: Albert Paling, Neeltjen Rosa married Eleanor Hicks married Mary Hicks Evans notes, “It is probable [Aagie and John] had other chidren born in Pennsylvania.” True dat. Eleanor Pawling MVDW 91 born 22 February 1715 - died before September 1746 (source? See below) married Henry Pawling (Is this a confusion? Henry Pawling MVDW 90 married Eleanor Hicks, who died before he married Mary Hicks.) See Find-A-Grave page, which says she died 26 June 1778 Hannah Pawling MVDW 92 birth date - death date died young Deborah Pawling MVDW 93 birth date - death date married Christopher Ziegler see Find-A-Grave page: born 15 April 1719 Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania died 9 March 1777 Montgomery County, Pennsylvania buried in New Goshenhoppen Cemetery, East Greenville, Montgomery County various children listed, all Ziegler: B. (d. 1755), Catherine Pawling (Moyer, 1736-1786), John Pawling (1744-1777), Elizabeth (Bauer, 1746-1840), Barbara Pawling (Buckwalter, 1758-1857), Deborah (Longacker, 1761-1828) Per researcher Dave Ehst, Deborah became a Mennonite, and her descendants for many generations were also Mennonites. Rebecca Pawling MVDW 94 birth date - death date married Captain Abraham DeHaven John Pawling MVDW 95 28 August 1722 - 23 October 1789 married Elizabeth DeHaven (16 May 1723 - 9 December 1791) see Find-A-Grave page: Gravestone removed to Augustus Lutheran Cemetery in Trappe, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania children listed, all Pawling: Anna (Pennebacker, d. 1777), Hanna (Hiester, 1747-1822), Deborah (Twaddell, 1752-1806), Rebecca (Lynch, 1759-1840), Rachel (Reiff, 1764-1848) Joseph Pawling MVDW 96 1724 - May 1797 married 1746 Elizabeth
Notes According to Gustave Anjou, Aagje moved to Philadelphia. She is the sixth and last daughter named in her father’s 1698 will; she gets the standard 1/12 of his estate. She is not married when he writes his will; he notes that if any of his heirs should die while they are still minors, the remaining heirs should divide that person’s portion of his estate. Find-A-Grave says Aagie died in Perkiomen, a township in Montgomery County, which abuts the borough of Schwenksville, site of the first copper mine in Pennsylvania, in 1720. When George Washington camped in the area in 1777, he referred to a town he called “Pawling’s Mill,” which lets you know someone from the family built a mill here. Pennypacker Mills is a historic home on the east bank of Perkiomen Creek, built 1720 by Hans Jost Hite and bought 1747 by the Pennypacker [Pennebacker] family; according to the National Archives, it’s across the creek from where Pawling’s Mill stood on the west bank of the creek, which is today where Schwenksville sits. Montgomery County historians tell a somewhat different version: Hite (Hiejt) built the grist mill and the first section of the house. He sold the mill business to “the Pawling family that owned many mills in the Philadelphia region.” They sold the mill, house, and farm to Peter Pannebacker, who sold the mill back to Joseph Pawling in 1762 (but not the house or farm). The mill operated till 1898, burned, was rebuilt, flooded, was remodeled, burned in 1980. The Montgomery County site map locates the Pawling mill on the same side of the creek as the Pennypacker place, just closer to the creek. (On the linked page, look for GM, for “grist mill,” near the Pennypacker Mills parking lot.) The grave site as located by Find-A-Grave is on the same side of Perkiomen Creek as the Pennypacker place, about a half-mile south and across the smaller East Branch of Perkiomen Creek. Without knowing more, I would ordinarily guess that the grave site was close to the house where the Pawlings were living when they died. See also Mill Grove, 10 miles further south, on Pawlings Road in Montgomery County, just north of Valley Forge, on the south bank of Perkiomen Creek, best known as the home of John James Audubon, for whom the nearby village is now named. See also Pawlings Farm, part of the Valley Forge National Historic Park, on Pawlings Road not too far from the Audubon Center. Note that this very detailed and informative PDF links the Pawling mills and farms in this area to a different set of Pawling cousins, albeit from the same Hudson Valley family. The PDF draws from several sources, making it a bit tangled to decipher, but basically it says that “our” John Pawling’s brother Henry (II, 1689-1739) also moved to Pennsylvania, where he had a son Levi (born 1721 in Lower Providence Township, Pennsylvania, but married Helena Burhans 12 October 1749 in Kingston, died 6 March 1782 in Marbletown). Levi’s son (Capt.) Henry Pawling, who would be the third by that name in this dynasty, was born 22 April 1753 (or 1752) in Marbletown, died 26 June 1836 in Steuben County, New York. The PDF says Henry (II, 1689-1739) was the one who bought Walnut Hill from Edward Farmer in 1719, which became the Pawling Farm at Valley Forge. There are many Henrys in the family (not all listed here), and a lot of Johns and Josephs and Levis. Not every property record probably makes clear which Henry or John or Joseph or Levi Pawling bought a lot or sold it or built a house there. I would tread cautiously and double-check sources and reasoning before being too confident about which Pawling did which thing, but the family clearly was active in these parts. This is not the only intermarriage between the Pawling family and the DeWitts. (Aagie’s nephew Tjerck married John’s sister Ann.) This page on a Pawling family tree is also of interest.
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Sources I’m just beginning to list sources here. Apologies for not being more complete. I will continue to add to this list as I have time. There are many sources of information on the DeWitt family line, some better than others. Printed sources: The DeWitt Genealogy: Descendants of Tjereck Claessen DeWitt of Ulster County, New York; compiled by Mary V[eldran] DeWitt (b. 1895) (privately published; no year indicated). This volume includes only names and dates, no attributions or locations or other stories or information are included. It includes nearly 2800 DeWitt descendants, some with more details, some fewer. It also includes some information on spouses and their parents. The laboriously typewritten volume came from years of personal research, often onsite in Ulster County; the current location of notes from this research is not known, but some of them may have gone to the Genealogical Society of Bergen County (New Jersey), where Mary DeWitt grew up and lived much of her life. Baptismal and Marriage Registers of the Old Dutch Church of Kingston, Ulster County, New York (formerly named Wiltwyck, and often familiarly called Esopus or ’Sopus), for One Hundred and Fifty Years from their commencement in 1660. Transcribed and edited by Roswell Randall Hoes, Chaplain U.S.N., corresponding secretary of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, etc. New York 1891; original publication De Vinne Press, New York; available today from Higginson Book Co., Salem, Mass., 508-745-7170. Detailed information about baptisms has been filled in through the end of 1687, marriages through 1701. More information is available. Records begin 1660. Other baptisms may have taken place in Hurley and other locations nearby; also from time to time itinerant ministers would travel through and perform various rites, not always entered in the books. This is available online at archive.org. Thomas Grier Evans, The De Witt Family of Ulster County, New York (reprinted from the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, October 1886), New York: Trow’s Printing and Bookbinding Co., 201-213 East Twelfth Street, 1886. Available online from archive.org. Online sources: Record of early marriages in the Dutch Reform Church in Manhattan, available in printed form or online Record of early baptisms in the Dutch Reform Church in Manhattan, available online English translations of Dutch colonial records, also known as “The Kingston Papers,” available online. These are the Dingman Versteeg translations. The originals are available on microfilm from the Ulster County archivist, who can be found through the same link. A cross-reference indexing the archive pages to the microfilm frames to the pages in the printed translation can be obtained from Donald Lockhart, dlockhart at rcn dot com, who includes an entertaining introduction about the misadventures of the original manuscript records in the 1800s, before they were at last safely ensconced with the Ulster County archives. Also see The History of Kingston, New York, by Marius Schoonmaker (1888), a volume thick with detail and transcribed original records. Ulster County, N. Y., Probate Records, In the Office of the Surrogate, and in the County Clerk’s Office at Kingston, N. Y., compiled, abstracted and translation by Gustave Anjou, Ph. D., 1906. Privately published (?) in New York, but available at genealogical libraries (NYPL and others). Subtitle: “A careful abstract and translation of the Dutch and English wills, letters of administration after intestates, and inventories from 1665, with genealogical and historical notes, and list of Dutch and Frisian baptismal names with their English equivalents.” Introduction by Judge A[lphonso] T[rumpbour] Clearwater, LL.D. This is available in reprinted form. Note that there are two distinct volumes included in this work, sometimes combined into one physical book. I have added links to many sources in the Notes section above without adding them here. Reproduced herein: Wills of Tjerck Claessen DeWitt and his brother Jan, who died unmarried in Kingston, 1699 (1906 Anjou edition; see link above) Very cursory look at public records from Albany, NY, regarding Tjerck Claessen DeWitt and possible relatives. The Peltz Record (1948) The History of Ulster County, New York The Oberholtzer Genealogy Research assistance: Notes.
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