Sketch XLIV
The Old Wyckoff Homestead on Long Island
One of the oldest houses in the State of New York stands on Long Island, about six miles from Fulton Street ferry, Brooklyn, at a point known as Flatlands’ Neck. It was built in 1664, and is practically the same now as when built. The brick used in building the chimneys, fireplaces and side lining, and the shingles of best white cedar for roofs and siding, were imported from Holland. The roof shingles were not removed until 1890, when they were replaced with a tin roofing, and previous to 1819 no lath or plaster was ever put on the walls. The dining room has never been plastered or painted. The oak beams and flooring is the only ceiling, and from long wear, smoke from log fires and Dutch pipes, it long since assumed the color of walnut. The rooms are strongly suggestive of Dutch comfort and hospitality. The old house was built two hundred and thirty-two years ago, and has never passed out of the hands of the family. The present occupants are in possession of many choice old heirlooms, reminders of a time when pewter mugs for tea drinking, and pewter plates, eighteen inches in diameter and weighing several pounds, were in ordinary use as table utensils. In revolutionary times a large number of these quaint old table pieces were cast into bullets for the army. Four rods south of the house some trees mark the spot where two English spies were hanged before the American army was driven off Long Island. Originally, the estate was much larger than at present. It now consists of fifty-six acres and belongs to the estate of the late John Wyckoff, who died six years ago. Sarah Wyckoff, a sister of John Wyckoff, married Abraham A. Rapelje, also of Long Island, and the ancestor of the Norfolk Rapeljes.[1] Elizabeth Wyckoff, another sister, was the mother of the second wife of Oliver Mabee, of Vittoria.[2] Mrs. Mabee’s maiden name was Helen McGarren. The wife of Colonel Jacob Potts, a distinguished resident of old Charlotteville many years ago, was another sister in the same generation of this old Wyckoff family of Long Island.[3]
Originally, two brothers, Peter and Claus Wyckoff, emigrated from Holland to America. Claus settled in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and Peter settled at Flatlands’ Neck, Long Island. The grandchildren of Sarah Wyckoff-Rapelje may thus readily trace their grand maternal ancestry back through more than a dozen generations to this Peter Wyckoff, who is supposed to have settled in Long Island about fifteen years after the landing of the “Pilgrim Fathers” on Plymouth rock.[4] The Rev. Dr. Strong, in his “History of Flatbush,” published in 1842, says: “It is believed that a settlement was effected in Flatlands as early as 1630, and in 1634 the town appears to have contained a goodly number of inhabitants.” Two years ago the Brooklyn Eagle published a cut and minute description of this old family homestead; and, after a careful search among the family records, says: “There is no doubt the Wyckoff ancestor of the present family was among the first to locate, and hence the homestead has been handed down from generation to generation for at least 260 years, while the house itself is 230 years old.” The Wyckoff estate was originally purchased from the Cannabis Indians.
Peter Wyckoff, the grandfather of Mrs. Rapelje and Mrs. Potts, and the great grandfather of Mrs. Mabee, was a weaver as well as a farmer, and the shop where he had his loom is yet in fair condition. His second cousin, Garrett Peter Wyckoff, who owned two or three farms near Flatlands village, and died about twenty-six years ago aged ninety-five, was a carpenter. He built the great Dutch barn for Peter Wyckoff, the weaver, in 1809, and it is said this massive barn will endure for ages, barring accident by fire or phenomenal eruption.
During the struggle for independence, Governor Clinton made Major Hendrick Wyckoff a financial agent for obtaining specie loans from the people for the support of the cause of freedom. He was furnished with notes in blank by the Governor, and he filled them up with the names of the loaners and the sums loaned, as the money was paid into his hands. He had charge of all the money obtained in King’s County, employing several sub-agents, who procured loans and brought the money to him. To the English, this was high treason on the part of both money-lenders and agents, and punishable by death or a prison-ship dungeon. It is said that the sum of $200,000 was obtained in this way and carried out of King’s County, right in the face of the strictest surveillance on the part of the British, although at times Major Wyckoff was compelled to pass through their lines. On one occasion he was concealed over two days in a thicket of briars, from which he could see the English soldiers as they searched for him.
After the close of the war, Major Wyckoff became a merchant in New York. He died in 1791, at his father’s house in New Lots, aged fifty years. His funeral was attended by the Governor, by many military officers and a large concourse of people as a tribute of respect to a hero who had made himself an exile from home and braved every danger for the cause of liberty.
The present occupants of the old homestead have in their possession a large mass of old deeds and documents, some written in the Dutch language and some on massive parchment. There are no Indian deeds, as they were destroyed in 1684, twenty years after the English conquest, by order of Governor Dongan, and new patents issued, thereby acknowledging the British Government, and at the same time adding to the Governor’s revenue. Under the new regime the Dutch towns were obliged to pay a quit-rent annually, which, for Flatlands, was fourteen bushels of winter wheat. Among the old deeds is the following:
“Know all men by these presents, that I, peter g. wyckoff, of Flatlands, King’s county, have sold to peter r. wyckoff a piece of plain Land in said town, bounded east by John Lulofsen, west by the way, south by John Tunison, and north by peter K. wyckoff, containing about ten acres, and I do own to having received full consideration.
“In witness my hand and seal this 7th day of March, 1731.
“In presence of
“Pieter Guilliamsen, “Peter G. Wyckoff. [Seal]
“S. Gerritsen.”
Another paper is a slave “bill of sale,” dated July 1st, 1800, in which John J. Jeromus and George Lott sell a negro named Harry, his wife, Bet, and their female child, Peg, to Abraham Wyckoff for $450.
No data was obtained showing the history of the New Jersey branch of the family, except the simple fact of settlement made in Monmouth County by the original Claus Wyckoff. It is said that one Peter Wyckoff, a U. E Loyalist, migrated from Long Island to Upper Canada early in the last decade of last century, and settled at the foot of the mountain near St. Catharines.[5] He had married Catherine Plato in Long Island, and it is said his children were all born in Canada. When his youngest child, Peter, was three months old he returned to Long Island to settle up some business affairs, and was never seen again by his little family. He collected a sum of money and, as is supposed, was robbed and murdered on his way back. Subsequently, the young widow married John Clendenning, a miller, by whom she had one daughter, Catherine.
In the beginning of the new century the family moved up to Long Point settlement, where Mr. Clendenning obtained employment as miller in Colonel Ryerse’s mill at Port Ryerse. In the family were two sons—John and Peter Wyckoff; and two daughters—Margaret Wyckoff and Catherine Clendenning.
John Wyckoff was born about 1794, presumably in the Niagara settlement. His boyhood days, as were those of his brother Peter, were spent in the Ryerse mill in rendering such aid as they could to their stepfather, who possessed a weak constitution. When the war of 1812 came on the Wyckoff boys enlisted, and poor John lost his life at the battle of Fort Erie. David J. Wyckoff, of Woodhouse Gore has in his possession the red coat worn by his uncle John when he received the fatal shot. A little below the collar of the coat is a tell-tale perforation, which is painfully suggestive of the manner in which John Wyckoff lost his young life in the defence of his country. Although it shows that his back was to the foe, it does not prove that the handful of brave militiamen who were forced back upon Chippawa by many times their own number, were cowards. The lad who wore this old coat of faded red was the son of a man whose faith in the old empire could not be shaken by the misdeeds of passing politicians, or promises on the part of new-fledged demagogues of more favorable conditions based on untried experiments. These Loyalists had the courage of their convictions, and when the cause they so dearly loved fell upon their homes, involving them in hopeless ruin, they laid a new foundation in the wilds of Upper Canada; and when this new foundation was assailed by the same forces which destroyed the old, their sons marched to the front in companies and hurled back whole battalions of the invaders, preventing them for three long years from getting a firm foothold on Canadian soil.
Peter Wyckoff, the second son, was born in the Niagara home in 1796. He served in the war of 1812, although but sixteen years old when the war broke out. In 1815 he married Abigail Gilbert, and settled on land allotted him in the township of Malahide. In 1820 he purchased Lot 21 in the Gore of Woodhouse, where he lived the remainder of his life. He died in 1881 in his eighty-eighth year, having been married three times. By the first wife he had four sons—John, Isaac Gilbert, Peter and David; and four daughters—Amanda, Mary, Catherine and Abigail. By his second wife, Sarah Tomkins, of New York, he had two sons—David James and Joseph S.; and two daughters—Margaret and Elizabeth. The mother of the second family died in 1862, in her sixty-second year. By the third wife, Mrs. Eliza Olds, he had no children.
Isaac G. Wyckoff is one of the best known citizens of old Townsend, having been identified with the municipal affairs of that township for a score of years.
David James, half-brother of Isaac G., is the present occupant of the old homestead.
Margaret Wyckoff, only daughter of Long Island Peter, was born in 1792, being the eldest child. She married Isaac Gilbert. Her children are enumerated in the Gilbert genealogy.
Catherine Clendenning, half-sister of Margaret, married Ebenezer Gilbert.
From the time the original Peter Wyckoff came from Holland with his brother Claus, down to the present time, “Peter” has been a favorite family name in each succeeding generation of Wyckoffs.
[1] This reference to the wife of Abraham A. Rapelje can be confusing in the light of Rapelje’s land petition which stated that his father-in-law was Richard Vanderburgh, but Richard was actually Abraham’s step-father. Rapelje’s wife Sarah was nee Wyckoff, a sister of John Wyckoff.
[2] This is a reference to Oliver Mabee Jr., son of Oliver and Mary (Smith) Mabee, who married Helen Margaret McGarren at Vittoria, Charlotteville Township on October 30, 1872, their marriage reported in the Christian Messenger newspaper.
[3] The second wife of Colonel Jacob Potts was Helen Wyckoff, born on November 12, 1787, died on February 18, 1873, according to her gravestone in Old Woodhouse Methodist Cemetery where she was buried beside her husband.
[4] Wyckoff family ancestor Pieter Claesen emigrated from Holland to America at the age of twelve years and arrived at New Amsterdam (New York City) on March 4, 1637. He lived at Fort Orange (Albany) until 1648, when he settled on a farm near Bethlehem, Albany Co., NY. About 1644, he married Grietje van Ness and in 1649 moved to New Amsterdam. In 1652, he purchased land at Amersfoort, Long Island, afterwards known as Flatlands in present Brooklyn. Pieter’s eldest son Nicholas, born about 1646, was the ancestor of the Canadian family. Source: Harriet Walker, Isaac Gilbert, UE, p. 370
[5] The name of P. Wyckoff is recorded on a map of Louth Township, Lincoln County dated October 25, 1791 for Lots 4 and 5, Concession 8. He was again recorded there on a subsequent undated map. Source: Map of Louth Township, Lincoln Co. dated 25 Oct 1791 and undated map of Louth Township, Department of the Surveyor General, map numbers A15 and A17, Archives of Ontario.