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

Jannetje DeWitt

MVDW 4
TGE 4. iii.
baptized 12 February 1662, Kingston, N.Y. (Wildwyck) - d. 1744
born in Kingston or Hurley, New York (baptized Kingston)
witnesses/sponsors: Jan Jansen, Jannetje Sebyns [her mother’s mother?], Elsje Jans
parents: Tierck Claesse de With, Barber Andriesse
Presumed buried in Kingston, New York; possibly buried in Rochester or Hurley, New York

Cornelius Swits

baptized 9 July 1651, Manhattan; will proved in Kingston, New York, 2 May 1738

Evans (p. 5; see Sources below) says Cornelius died in 1730; “Cornelius Swits lived at Rochester, Ulster County, on a sixty-acre farm purchased by him from his wife’s father.”

Marriage record not found in Kingston; they are married by the time her father’s will is written in 1698. That will stipulates that if Jannetje and Cornelius have no children, her share of her father’s estate should be equally divided among his other heirs. Evans says they had no children.

(Hoes’ transcription of Kingston marriage records shows no entries from 28 April 1689 to 19 April 1692. Domine Laurentius Van den Bosck of Kingston is gone; the new records are from Domine Godefridus Dellius, of Albany. Next records by a Kingston Domine are in 1695, when Johannes Petrus Nucella takes over.)

(Not to be confused with: 19 July 1717 Cornelis Langendyk, born N. Jork [York], marries Jannetjen de Wit, born Kingstown. First marriage for both. Banns posted 30 June. Because the same names are used so frequently in families, this can be misread. Jannetje b. 1662 would be 55 years old in 1717, so it seems unlikely that this is the same person. Jannetje and Cornelis Langendyk go on to have kids, in 1718 and beyond.)

His parents are Cornelius Claessen Swits and Ariantje Trommels (see Evans p. 5; other sources?).

Anjou’s compilation of Ulster County wills (see Sources below for full citation) includes that of Cornelus Swyts, Lantman, of Rochester, dated April 1735, written in Dutch (pp. 120-121). He names his wife Jannetie Swits as executor and says she will get all his land in Rochester on the south side of “Ronduyts Kyl,” and “all myn Slaven, Negers, Negerinnen, Negers kinders” and horses, cattle, sheep, swine, and poultry.

Anjou describes Cornelis’s father as son of Claes Cornelissen Swits, “a ‘Duytsman’, i.e. a German (and probably a Swiss, from the island of Schouwen, thence from Amsterdam to New Netherland).” (Schouwen is in Zeeland, in the Netherlands; Anjou may be guessing Swits is Swiss from his name. If the family is German, and Lutheran, they are a good fit for DeWitt children, since Tjerck and his siblings were also Lutherans.) Anjou says on 18 May 1638, grandfather Claes had leased a farm; he was a wheelmaker and was killed by “the Indians.”

By Anjou’s record, Cornelis Claesen (father of our Cornelis) was married in Manhattan to Ariantje Cornelis Trommels; she later married on 18 November 1656 Albert Leonards, of Amsterdam. Cornelis Claesen and Ariantje had children: Claes (1640), Apolonitje (1641), Jacob and Isaac, twins (1642), Jacob (1645), Abraham (1647), Apollonia (1648), our Cornelis (baptized 9 July 1651), Pieter (1653), and Cornelia (1655). Anjou says Cornelis comes to Kingston in 1678. I have not checked Anjou’s notes against any other printed records, but they can probably be verified against the same sources he would have used.

Children

Cornelis and Jannetje have no children listed in Kingston, but they are busy godparents:

14 January 1684: with Lucas Andriesz, Cornelis Switz, witnesses baptism of Aefje de Wit, daughter of TCDW and Barbara Andries. Also a witness to misc nieces and nephews 1694 (twice), 1695, 1701, 1706, possibly 1722.

30 April 1688 Cornelis Swits and Jannetje de Witt are witnesses to baptism of Klaes, son of Andries de Witt [her eldest brother] and Jannetje Ekbers.

17 March 1706 Cornelis Swits and Jannetie de Wit witness baptism of Jannetie, daughter of Rebecca Tizzo and Jurrie Quik (who does not appear at the baptism), and Beeletie, daughter of Leendert Cool and Annetie Dekkers.

2 Nov 1707 the couple witnesses the baptism of Marretie, daughter of Gysbert Oosterhout and Marretie Bogaart; 20 June 1708 they witness Sara, daughter of Jochem Schoonmaak [Jannetje’s sister Geertruy’s brother-in-law] and Anna Hossie (they married 28 April 1689).

25 March 1711, again as a couple, they witness the baptism of Cornelis, son of Jacobus Wynkoop and Jannetjen Bogardus.

19 Jan 1724 they are godparents to Abraham, son of Ysaak Van Aaken and Rachel de Wit, this time a niece of Jannetje’s [via her brother Jan], in Rochester (Ulster County).

Other baptisms in 1728, and one in 1739, list a Jannetje or Jannetjen de Wit; it could be her or one of her relatives with the same name.

Notes

Jannetje is the second daughter named in her father’s 1698 will; he mentions her husband, Cornelis Switts. It appears that by the time he writes his will, it is already becoming clear that they will not have children: She gets the standard 1/12 of his estate, but only on the condition that if she dies leaving no children, her share should be equally divided among his other heirs. This stipulation is not included for any of her married siblings.

The impression is that Cornelis Swits was respected; he is (for example) chosen as an executor for her brother Jan’s estate, as well as others.

Jannetje’s will appears in the Anjou collection of Ulster County wills (p. 127); she is named as Jannetje Swyts, “Wedevrouw van Cornelis Swyts van het Dorp Rochester” (widow of Cornelis of Rochester). Her will is dated 21 February 1737/8, and it is written in Dutch. She is “Swack Van Lichaem,” lying sick with probably the same illness that took her husband’s life recently (his will is not proved until May 1738, but she describes him as deceased in February). She survives the illness; her will is not proved until 3 June 1746. In the meantime she adds a few amendments to it.

Dr. Charles Gehring of the New Netherland Project translated the full will for Gage DeWitt, with notes, in March 2022:

Item.
In the name of the Lord, Amen. Let it hereby be known to everyone that today, the twenty first of February in the year of our Lord one thousand thirty seven and eight, I, Jannetje Swyts widow of Cornelus Swyts of the village of Rochester in the County of Ulster, being feeble of body but completely sound of mind and understanding, having faith in the Lord, knowing that it is ordained that all error must first die and being desirous to put all things in order, make this my last will and testament in the manner described below, annulling and rescinding hereby all previous wills or wills and testaments or testaments made by me, and recognize this alone to be my last will and testament and no other.
First, I commit my eternal soul into the hands of the living God, only hoping and trusting through the merits, suffering, and death of my redeemer and savior Jesus Christus, to be granted forgiveness and remission of all my sins and my body to the earth and a Christian funeral and expectation of a blessed resurrection on the last days; and with regard to such temporal state of land lying on the south side of the Ronduycks Kil [sic], goods, Negroes, horses, livestock, debts, gold, silver, minted or unminted; and what further accrues to my estate, as the Lord sees fit to loan far above my merits, I order and bestow as follows: Item, it is my will and desire that all my honest debts shall be paid in due time. Item, I hereby give to my deceased husband’s sister Aploniea Aken my one cow with the colorful trappings with appurtenances thereto and ten pounds in money, to her or her order or heirs. Item, I hereby give to my sister Rachel Bogardus my other cow with the reddish trappings with appurtenances thereto and ten pounds in money, to her or her order or heirs. Item, I hereby give to my niece Jenneke Wynkoop my large mirror and my large table, to her or her order or heirs. Item, I hereby give to [my] niece Cathariena de Duyster my cloak and black repper and a kaper and the half of the mutse that I wear on my head, to her or her order or heirs. Item, I hereby give to my niece Margriet Oosterhout a black upper-petticoat and a stoffe schort and a kaper and a gekwyte schort and the other half of my mutse that I wear on my head, to her or her order or heirs.

Item, I hereby give to my friend Ariaentje Hoornbeek my great kas, to her, her order, or heirs. Item, I hereby give to my niece Barber Tapper my bed-warming pan, to her, her order, or heirs. Item, it is hereby my will and desire that the remainder of my goods shall be sold to pay for my debts and if it falls short then it must be reduced by the aforesaid goods until the debt is completely paid and then must each of the abovesaid heirs each have so much less in proportion. Item, I hereby place as executors over this my last will and testament my cousin Egbert Dewitt and my niece Barber Tapper wishing that the same shall be followed and observed. Thus, done at my house on the day and year previously indicated. Sealed with sealer by Jannetje Swits, namely, her last will and testament—Jannetje Swits [mark] her mark [seal] signed and sealed in the presence of us—Maria Hoornbeek, Annetje hoornbeek, Cornelus Hoornbeek.

In the year one thousand seven hundred and thirty nine the twenty ninth day of May, I, Jannetje Swits, widow of Cornelus Swits, have reviewed the enclosed written testament that I made in the year 1737/8 and having well considered it myself and having found it to be very good regarding my sense and desires just as I made it; however, I still have more money and goods in outstanding bonds with interest and also in some gold that I did not bequeath in the written testament.

Item, thus it is my further will that everything that I did not bequeath in the written testament, that excess as said above, my niece Jenneke Wynkoop shall have, to her, or to her order, or heirs for eternity. Item, I hereby place Jenneke Wynkoop also as an executor together with the existing executor and that it and all parts shall be followed and observed. Thus, done on the day and in the year above. Signed and sealed by Jannetje Swits, this her last will and desires in the presence of us Jannetye [mark] Swits her mark seal Cornelus Hoornbeek Maria Hoornbeek Willem C. Kool.

[The remainder is in English]

Notes:
I have maintained the spacing between paragraphs to reflect the spacing in the original. The proper names are transcribed as recorded in the original.
Ronduycks Kil probably reflects the local pronunciation of the placename for the Ronduits Kil.
Only one dictionary, the Henry Hexham Dutch/English English/Dutch of 1675, lists the behansel (behanxel in the will) as trapping for a horse. Not even the Groote Woordenboek der Nederlansche Taal has this meaning for behangsel.
Work is pending on the wearing apparel indicated in blackletters, eg., a repper may be a wrapper or wraparound but unattested; a kaper is some sort of cap; a mutse is some sort of headgear that can be divided; a schort is a short jacket or petticoat but a stoffe schort could just be a cloth jacket or even a stuffed jacket. At this time period, English pressure on Dutch was growing and it’s difficult to tell sometimes when a word is actually English but in a Dutch phonetic configuration; a gekwyte schort could be loose jacket or something else entirely--it is unattested.

Pix

Scans of Jannetje’s will, at reduced size, provided by Gage DeWitt (contact Ulster County Archives for full-size versions):

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.

Reproduced herein:

Wills of Tjerck Claessen DeWitt and his brother Jan, who died unmarried in Kingston, 1699 (1906 Anjou edition; see link above)

Research assistance:

Thanks to Gage DeWitt and Dr. Charles Gehring for images and translations of Jannetje’s will.

Last Modified: Sunday, July 2, 2023

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