The Vermilyea Family (Vermillera, Vermilya, Vermilye
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THE VERMILYEA FAMILY (VERMILLERA, VERMILYA, VERMILYE, VERMILYEA, VERMILYER, VERMILYEN) DESCENDANTS OF JOHANNES VERMELJE NEW YORK 1662 – 2021 COMPILED BY SANDRA VERMILYEA TODD 1 VERMILYEA GENEALOGY FIRST GENERATION 1 Johannes Vermelje1, (Immigrant), born in 1632 (baptized November 4, 1632) at Leyden, Holland, son of Isaac and Jacomina (Jacobs) Vermeille, (there are no family pictures from this period, but here are some line drawings depicting Dutch people during this time) married August 27, 1670 at New York Dutch Reformed Church, New York City, New York Aeltie, daughter of Resolved and Rebecca (Hendricks) Waldron who was born December __, 1651 (baptized at the New Church January 2, 1652) at Amsterdam, Holland, died at Lower Yonkers, New York in 1734. He died 1695/96 at Harlem, New York. The burial location of Johannes and Aeltie is not known. He was one of the original Patentees of Manhattan Island. (While certainly he was one of the Harlem patentees, Harlem is only a part of Manhattan Island, and there were no patentees of Manhattan as such.) (line drawings of early Dutch Settlers) Source Codes: #10, #149, #175, #404 and #725. Johannes Vermilye's worth was recognized by an appointment to command a military company in 1663. He was born in 1632 at Leyden. Coming to New Amsterdam in ripe man hood and uniting in his character the sterling traits of the French and Dutch, he was made Court Messenger in 1665, and Constable in 1667, being for this year also farmer of the excise; previous to which he had set up a brewery. August 27, 1670, then holding the position of Magistrate, he married Aeltje, daughter of Resolved Waldron; when he probably built upon land procured some years before, but which is first taxed in 1671. Mr. Vermilye took a leading part both in civil and church affairs. In the Political Crisis of 1689, he was chosen one of the committee of Safety, which on June eight of that year appointed Captain Jacob Leisler to be "Captain of the Fort" and on August sixteenth, signed his commission as "Commander in Chief" of the province. Taking a seat in Leiser's Council Dec. 11th, ensuing, he was sent soon after upon a embassy to New Haven. He continued a member of the Council till a sudden end was put to Leisler's rule by the coming of Col. Slaughter, March 20, 1691, by whose orders Liesler and his council (Vermilye included) were "committed to the guards" on a charge of high treason. The execution of Leisler and Milbourne, but two months later, seemed to Vermilye and his fellow prisoners similar fate. But after a painful suspense of seventeen months they were liberated by Governor Fletcher, on his arrival, and were pardoned by the King February 20, 1693. Vermilye surviving this trying ordeal but a short period, as he was deceased in March 1696, his widow sold out his lands at Harlem in 1715 to her nephew, John Delamater, and died at Yonkers in 1734. Source Code #10 The Vermelje and Waldron Families were members of the Harlem Reformed Dutch Church (also known as the Harlem Collegiate Reformed Church). Both Johannes and Resolved (Aeltie’s father) served as Elders. In 1686, they were among the financial contributors and contract signers for construction of a stone church; referred to as the second church, a replacement for the first church, a plain rough, 2-storied, timbered structure built between 1665-1667. The corner-stones were set with considerable ceremony on March 29, 1668; the first stone being laid by Resolved Waldron and the second by Johannes Vermelje. The first service was held on September 30, 1686. During the Revolutionary War, the church was 2 destroyed; the only surviving relic is its steeple bell, forged in Holland in 1734. See additional information on the history of the settlement of New Harlem and related articles in Source Code #374, Volume V, Number 2; Volume V, Number 1; Volume IV, Number 2; Volume III, Number 2; Volume II, Number 4 and Volume II, Number 2. Without question, the single most important chapter in the life of Johannes Vermilyea was his active role in what historians call Leisler’s Rebellion. Briefly, in the spring of 1689, when word had reached New York of England’s “Glorious Revolution” (the forced ouster, in late 1688, of King James II by Parliament, and the ascension of William and Mary to the throne), Jacob Leisler, a merchant and captain of the New York militia, organized (or assumed the leadership of) what amounted to a coup d’etat. He forced New York’s acting Royal Governor, Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson (appointed by James II), from power, and announced his intention to assume control of the colony until a new governor was named. On June 28, 1689, a Committee of Safety (of which Johannes Vermilyea was a member) named Leisler “Captain of the Fort” (i.e., Fort James, which controlled the entrance to New York harbor); on August 16, the Committee appointed him “Commander in Chief” of the province. Finally, in December, Leisler declared himself Lieutenant Governor, and formed a governor’s council, again with Johannes Vermilyea as a member. For the next fifteen months, he and his council administered the colony, by all accounts honestly, which was an improvement over their predecessors. Leisler and his followers believed themselves to be acting in the interests of the new King William III and of the Protestant cause (the previous Governor, like James II, was a Roman Catholic), but when the new Royal Governor appointed by William, Colonel Henry Sloughter, finally arrived in March, 1691, he had Leisler and his closest supporters, Johannes Vermilyea among them, arrested on a charge of high treason. (Leisler had many powerful enemies, especially among New York’s wealthy elites, and they worked tirelessly to bring about his downfall.) By early May, eight men, including Leisler, his son-in-law Jacob Milborne, and Johannes Vermilyea, had been tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. Leisler and Milborne were hanged on May 16; Johannes Vermilyea and the others lingered in prison for the next seventeen months, while supporters petitioned for their release. Finally, in the late summer of 1692, the new Royal Governor, Benjamin Fletcher (Governor Sloughter had died July 23, 1691) arrived in New York with instructions from the King to free them. They received an official Royal Pardon March 15, 1693/4 (i.e., 1694). There can be little doubt that the seventeen months Johannes Vermilyea spent in prison (from late March 1691 to September 1692) adversely affected his health; according to Riker, he was living April 1, 1693, when he purchased two pieces of meadow at Kingsbridge (transferred on the same date to Bastiaen Michaels Kortright, who had married his niece, Jolante La Montagne), but was deceased (undoubtedly at Harlem) by March, 1696. There is no probate record, or division of property, on file for Johannes Vermilyea, either in New York or Harlem town records. His place of burial is unknown, but most likely in the Harlem Dutch Reformed Church churchyard. Provided by Source Code #725. Abstract of Wills, Volume III 1730-1744: page 166: In the name of God, Amen, May 23, 1730. I Altie Vermillie, of Yonkers, in Westchester County, widow, being in health. I leave to my eldest son Abraham oe25, and one bed and furniture; “which said bed is my own proper lodging bed.” I leave all the rest of my estate to my children, Abraham, Isaac, Johanes, Rebecca, wife of Peter Bussing, Rachel wife of Charles Vincent, Hannah, wife of Johannes Odell, and to the children of my daughter, Sarah, deceased, wife of Tunis Dolsen. I appoint my sons, Isaac and Johanes, and my son-in-law, Peter Bussing, executors. Witnesses, Charles Warner, Edward Smith, Roger Barton. Proved, April 23, 1734. 3 Aeltie Waldron, widow of Johannes Vermilyea, died at Lower Yonkers (probably near Kingsbridge) in 1734. Her will, dated at (Lower) Yonkers May 23, 1730, names her eldest son Abraham (who was to receive her bed, a good indication that he lived with or near her), followed by sons Isaac and Johannes, and daughters Rebecca, wife of Peter Bussing, Rachel, wife of Charles Vincent, Hannah, wife of Johannes Odell, and the children (not named) of her deceased daughter Sarah, wife of Teunis Dolsen. (It is clear that the daughter Mary, who had married Peter Kierse about 1715, was also deceased by this date, apparently without leaving children). She names as executors her sons Isaac and Johannes, and son-in-law Peter Bussing. (The fact that the eldest son Abraham was not named an executor, and the fact that he appears not to have married, suggests that he may have been incapacitated in some way.) The will was witnessed by Charles Warner, Edward Smith and Roger Barton, all residents of Lower Yonkers. (The granddaughter of Edward Smith, Mehitable Betts, would later marry Abraham Vermilyea, Aeltie’s grandson; Roger Barton, who lived in the southeastern part of Lower Yonkers, would later sell his farm there to Johannes Vermilyea, Aeltie’s son.) Aeltie probably died shortly before April 23, 1734, when the will was presented for probate. The place of her burial is unknown. If not buried next to her husband in Harlem, she may have been interred in the Dyckman-Nagel ground, which formerly existed near the northern end of Manhattan Island, along 10th Avenue between 212th and 214th streets. (This cemetery began as a private burying ground for the families of Jan Nagel and Jan Dyckman, who were the first and second husbands of Rebecca Waldron (born about 1649), Aeltie’s sister.