A PARTIAL HISTORY AND GENEALOGICAL RECORD OF THE BANCKER OR BANKER FAMILIES OF AMERICA AND IN PAllTICULAll THE DESCENDANTS OF LAURENS MATTYSE BANCKER. Yita 111im m,rtu,rum in mtmoria viwrum ,11 p,tita. _;, Citm. COMPILED BY HOWARD JAMES BANKER. 1909. THE TUTTLE COllP~\NY PRINTERS BUTLAND, VERMONT PREFACE. The production of this work has been of the nature of a pro­ cess of evolution, which the writer has found necessary to bring to an abrupt close in the interest.a of self-preservation. When but a boy of flfte~n he became interested in inquiring about his ancestors concerning whom he was able to learn very little from his immediate relatives. This only intensified his curiosity to find out something about them. He at length happened on an old family Bible• that greatly stimulated his interest' and incited him to collect the family records. For years this was a mere pastime and the material accumulated slowly with no thought of its ever being published. About 1899 he stumbled upon the Records of the Dutch Reformed Church of Sleepy Hollow near Tarrytown and to his amazement found this a per.feet mine of information respecting his family. The search of various records in and about New York became fascinating and absorbed much of his leisure time. The accumulation of material grew rapidly until it became impressed upon him that it would be a misfortune if all that he had gathered should be lost as it probably would be lost forever. It was apparent that the only way to preserve it per.. manently would be to have it published. With the idea of pub­ lishing came the further idea of making the records as complete as possible for this purpose. At first this did not look like a large task as apparently only a few lines could be traced, and Bankers did not appear to be very numerous in the country. As the work proceeded, ho,vever, new lines were being constantly unearthed and the old lines were f01md to branch almost endlessly. The work grew in extent rapidly until that which was a pastime became a burden. The hours of leisure were no longer sufficient in which to do the necessary work. It demanded the time which should be given to rest and recreation. As a friend remarked the writer was like one who had taken into his home a lion ,s cub for a playfellow and now it had grown until it threatened to de- "See page 159. 4 TBE BANCKER GENEALOGY vour him. The only thing to be done under such circumstances is to destroy the lion. The compiler of this record has, therefore, found himself under the necessity of abruptly calling a halt, and of closing up the record with ell its imperfections and incom­ pleteness at once. With how much reluctance this decision has been made, only those who have been under the fascination of such a work can understand. It is with a feeling of the deepest regret that this record is put forth so imperfect and incomplete. Much more could be added with a little effort but time and strength are exhausted. With all its imperfections it is felt that the work should be published in order that what has been ac­ complished may be preserved. Every effort has been made to render the record correct and• accurate, yet it has not been possible to critically examine every source of information. Correspondents are frequently careless. The old family Bible has been stored away where it is inconven­ ient to get and a treacherous memory is relied on. Records are lost, and memory is the only source of information. Even origi­ nal records are sometimes faulty. Where the author wns in doubt he hos given a choice of readings. When records of the same event from different sources are inconsistent the one which from all the circumstances seemed most probable to the writer has been placed in the text while the others have been appended in a foot-note. In one or two eases he has placed a family in a given line on circumstantial and perhaps insufficient evidence. Where that hDB occurred he has indicated the uncertainty. As the work had its inception in the interest which the author felt in the history of his own family, it has resulted chiefly in tracing out the genealogy of the descendants of Laurens Bancker. In the course of such a research, however, it occurred necessarily that much material would be obtained of other families of the same name. In some cases these families were undoubtedly disconnected branches whose relationship may be established by later research, in other cases they were clearly independent families. It was at one time thought to make this treatise a history of the Banckers and Bankers of America, and such material was carefully preserved and added to at every opportunity with that ultimate purpose in view. With the abandonment of so elaborate a scheme it has seemed consistent and in some degree obligatory that this material should be in- PREFACE 5 eluded in the present publication. It has, therefore, been classi­ fied as far as possible and is included here as Parts II and III. The work as a whole may be regarded as a contribution to the genealogical records of the Bancker and Banker families and by no means as a complete monograph. If it shall be the means of preserving something of the family history which would other­ wise have been lost the chief object of the writer will have been accomplished. EXPLANATIONS. Owing to the constantly branching lines of a family gene­ slogy it is difficult to devise any system of arrangement that is simple and easily understood so that one can trace forward or back to determine collateral relationships withbut becoming con­ fused. Any genealogy will require some study to use it success­ fully. An effort has been made to make this us simple and natural as possible and to facilitate tracing by a simple system of numbering. The order of arrangement is the order of primogeniture. That is, in each family the eldest child and all of his descendants are placed in succession before the next eldest child and his descendants. This arrangement has the effect of bringing near­ est together in any part of the book those that are most closely related. The names of heads of families receiving special treatment are printed in small capitals. These are numbered consecutively throughout the work in the order of succession by a. prefixed number in bold face. The number in parenthesis following the name is the number of the parent and is to be used in tracing the ancestral line. In the lists of children in any family those with numbers prefixed have become the heads of families important enough to require separate treatment, and the number is the consecutive number under which they appear later in the work. Names not prefixed by a number may or may not be heads of families, but have not received separate treatment and will be found discussed immediately following .the list. In these list.s of. children the names have been spelled just as found in the baptismal and fam­ ily records. In other places the prevailing form of the name bas been used. 6 THE B~\NCKER GENEALOGY The division into chapters has been made for convemence of reference and while more or less arbitrary an effort has been made to maintain some degree of logical arrangement. The headings of some chapters are not to be too rigidly interpreted since they may contain more or less than their titles strictly in­ dicate; thus the Frederick Beneker family of Chapter V logically includes all of the five succeeding -chapters. The arrangement of the table of contents is intended to show the true relations of the several chapters. CONTENTS. lNTBOJ>UQrION 9 PART 1.-TRE LAURENS BANOltER FAMILY. I, L.\UHNS MATTYSSE BANOKD 21 JI. TnE CRANOKHEYT FAllULY 36 III. Tnk Ib:NDJUCK BANOKBR FAMILY 40 IV. THE BoEoKHOUT FA?tULY 47 V. THE FREJ>ERIOK BANCKEa FAMILY • 58 VI. TUE WILLIAM BANKER FAMILY OJ' PLATTSBUBGB 68 vn. Tum NEwoo»a FAMILY 91 VIII. THE JOHN BANKEB FAMILY 01' PLATTSBUllOH 98 IX. THE HENBY BANKE& FAMILY • 114 X. TUE BAKER FAl'tlILY •• • 125 XI. THE ADOLPH BANOKER, FAMII,Y • 142 XII. Tm: GRANT FAMILY • • 151 XIII. THE NATHANIEL BANKER FA:MJLY • 174 XIV. Tum WILLIAM BANKER, FAMILY 01' Room:STEB • 177 xv. THE VEJUTY FAMILY , • 186 XVI. THE JOHN BAN.KU FilflLY 01' 8CRA9HTIOOD • 203 XVII. THE TI?dOTllY BANKER FAMILY • 218 XVIII. THI: L'AMOREAUX FAMILY • • 217 XIX. THE JACOB BAN<nOl:R. FAMILY , 225 PART II.-TIIE GERRIT BANCKER FAMILY. XX. GERRJT BANCKER , • 239 XXI. THE EVERT BANClt:ER FAMILY • 244 XXII. 'rHE EVERT BANCKER FAMILY, Co11tin11ed • 260 XXIII, THE DE PEYSTU FAMILY 297 PART III.-DIVERS FAMILIES. XXIV. THE ABRAHAM BANKER FAMILY 011 Gosm:N • 309 XXV. TH.IC JOSHUA AND ELIZABETH BANKER FAllULJES • 318 XXVI. THE JOHN BANDB FAMILY OJ' GREEN COUNTY • • 327 XXVII. VARIOUS FAMILIES • 331 XXVIII. MJSCILLANIOUS NO'l'ES • • 351 SouROES 01' INPORKATION 365 INDEX OJ' PLAOJ:S 371 INDEX OF NAMES • • 384 INTRODUCTION. The Banckers and Bankers of this country are chiefly des­ cended from two Dutchmen who arrived here from Holland dur­ ing the period of the Dutch control of New Netherlands, now the State of New York. They were Gerrit Bancker and Laurens Bancker. The former arrived here about 1658 or 1654 and soon after settled in Albany. The latter was here before 1673 but the time of his arrival has not been determined.