ltuu irursru lit umily C!!aptaiu !\.lbrrt i;nrrisnn ]tau irustu ]Jnlumt 1 Abraham Pidersen, lJfolenaer lll'rauk .Allabru "ru.rahtgiral <tinmpauu Numbtr ill~rtr 3!1tst Jrnrtu-&rcnnh &trttt, Nrm lnrk Copyright, x 912, by FRANK ALLABEN GENEALOGICAL COMPANY DEDICATION To the Van Deursen Family in general, and, in particular, to my nephew, William Albert Van Deusen, who is pre­ paring himself to take up this work where I lay it down, I affectionately dedicate these volumes. PREFACE The compiling of this family history was undertaken with the object of preserving for future generations the results of nearly twenty years' gleanings in the field of genealogical research. The work has been done during the odd moments of a very busy life. It had its inception in the endeavor to learn when and from whence came the first of mv name to New Netherland, and then to connect with this parent branch that offshoot which, after the War of the Revolution, settled in Canada,* and of which I am a scion. It has been a fascinating work and full of pleasure; the measure of success which I obtained luring me on and on, encouraged as I was, also, by the assistance of the Reverend Roswell Randall Hoes, Chaplain in the United States Navy, and himself an able genealogist, who pointed out to me where to find rich harvests of data relating to the Dutch in America. In the military field I profited much from the experience of Dr. Charles E. Godfrey in his investigations of Colonial and Revolutionary military data, and I have sought to make my work a valuable book of reference to the family and others on this particular line. Also, daily contact for a number of years with Algernon Aikin Aspinwall, Esquire, of Washington, D. C., historian of the Mayflower Society and of his own family, kept the subject uppermost in my mind, and I paid frequent visits to New York and the towns and cities border­ ing on the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, in the upper counties of New York State, wandering along the frontier of Canada from Cornwall to Toronto, examining the records of church, town and county on my way, in all their lines. Soon I had a vast collection of data too valuable to be kept for my sole pleasure, and the problem of publishing it in per­ manent form confronted me. To undertake the cost unaided was out of the question with my means. At this juncture Henry Sayre Van Duzer, Esquire, then President of the Hol­ land Society of New York, volunteered material aid to back up his personal desire to have my material published; which offer was accepted. Thus the work began to take definite shape, and I realized the importance of still closer research *In 1791 this localitv became the Province of Upper Canada, and in 1867 the Province of Ontario. · vii Vlll PREFACE and the interchange of data with other investigators whose lines were allied with mine. In this I gratefully acknowledge the courtesy of William Becker Van Alstyne, M. D., of New York City; the Reverend H. Van Allen of Utica, N. Y., both of whom have considerable data upon their families who inter­ married with Van Deusens; Mrs. Elizabeth Allison (Crissey) Van Duzer of Warwick, N. Y., who rendered valuable aid in the research on her branch of the family, the Van Duzers of Orange County, N. Y.; also the assistance rendered by Mr. Dingman Versteeg, Archivist of the Holland Society and a native of Holland, who carefully read and corrected that part of my work covering the Dutch period; also the editorial work of Mrs. Ada F. De Laney of Brooklyn, N. Y., who has edited and revised the entire work. My visit to Holland in search of material is fully described in the Itinerary of my Journey, later on. I do not claim infallibility or completeness for my work. Both are open to the future; and as I have arranged for the further carrying out of the work later on, any corrections or additions to names, dates, or families will be gladly accepted for future use. In this light I commend the results of my labors to the kindly criticism of my readers. ALBERT HARRISON VAN DEUSEN. Washington, D. C., December 29, 191r. CONTENTS VOLUME I Page Dedication ......................................... • .. V Preface .............................................. vii List of Illustrations .................................... xi The Van Deursens in their Brabant home ................ xiii Itinerary of my Journey to Holland ..................... x:xxi Abraham Pietersen the Ancestor ........................ x:lix: First Generation ...................................... I Second Generation .................................... 5 Third Generation ...................................... I7 Fourth Generation .................................... 43 Fifth Generation .................................... ••• 77 Sixth Generation .................................... ••. I25 Seventh Generation ................................... 229 Eighth Generation .................................. • .. 377 ILLUSTRATIONS VOLUME I Page Coat-of-Arms Van Ducrscn .......................... Frontispiece Map of the Peel Landt.. xv Present Church at Deursen, North Brabant... xviii View of old Castle Van Deursen.......................... xxvii Old Windmill at Haarlem, Holland....................... xxxvi The Great Forest Street, Haarlem.. xxxviii Marriage Record of Abraham Pietersen and Tryntje Melchiors 1ii Certified signature of Judge J. W. Losecoat Vermeer........ !iv Interior of St. Bavo Church at Haarlem.. Ix Jan Van Deusen's house at Hurley, N. Y.................. 94 Fireplace in Christopher Van Duzer's homestead........... 107 Old coin trunk... 136 Conrad Van Dusen's Freemason certificate. x47 Caspar Van Dusen's saw................................ 152 011 Chu~ch at C_onger's Mill. ; . ;; .......... ;, . 154 Fairman s Mansion and Penns Treaty Tree . 176 Isaac Van Duzer. 2 o 1 Peter J. M. Van Dusen and wife. 263 Addison, Augustus, Albert H., Absalom and Abda L. Van Deusen............................................. 264 Captain Louis Sayre Van Duzer, U.S. N.................. 350 Selah Reeve Van Duzer................................. 352 THE VAN DEURSENS IN THEIR BRABANT HOME Ancient 11ap of the Pt'el Landt surrounding the tuwn and Castle oi Deursen. THE VAN DE URSE NS IN THEIR BRABANT HOME BY LOLLE PIERS DE BOER, L. L. B. (LEYDEN, 1905}; M. A. (YALE, u. s. A., I9IO} The ancient home of the Van Deursen family is at present a small village of 407 inhabitants, called Deume-les [near]­ Diest, in the South Netherlands (Belgian) Province, Brabant; commonly called South Brabant, in contrast with the North Netherland (Dutch) Province, North Brabant. It lies not far from the town Hasselt, on a little stream on 5° 5' E. Longitude of Greenwich and 51° 3' N. Latitude. In the Germanic tongue of the inhabitants themselves it is called "Doersen," and also by the Northern Dutch; but these· have the oe or o sound of the symbol eu and spell the name "Deursen" (For the history and the meaning of the name see Appendix. 1 to this article). The. earliest inhabitants of the country adjacent were a Celtic tribe, the Beiges, who came in contact with the Romans during Julius Caesar's Gallic warfare (Gaii Julii Caesaris: "de Bello Gallico Libri"). The name Deursen itself keeps the memory of these early Celts alive. The word "Dur" means "water," of which "Deursen" is a locative form, "a place by the water." The Romans found a large moor here and called it a "palus" (moor), from which the present name, "the Peel" or "Peel land," the surroundings of Deursen, is derived. The word also remains in the name of the village "Pael," a little east from Deursen. About the year 1800 (and still) the moor proper was about four hours long. The Peel land measures from north to south eight hours, from east to west six hours, the distance being measured by the ordinary walking of a man in one hour. Sometimes it is so many "pipes," i. e., the time allowed for the smoking of a certain sized pipe (J. Kok, "Vaderlandsch Woordenboek" [National Dictionary], 1791, XXIV, p. 2). After the breaking up of the Roman Empire, the Franks conquered the country in the fifth century; and at least the nobility here, among whom is found the family Deursen, can be said to be from pure Germanic, Frankish stock. The Peel land was, in the Carolingian times, A. D. 800, a xv xvi VAN DEURSEN FAMILY part of the jurisdictional region "Toxandria," which formed the greater part of what was afterwards the dukedom of Brabant. The breaking up of the Carolingian Empire (never a strongly united federation), A. D. 900, brought to light a great many more or less independent lords, of greater or less degree, who would be united under the rising feudal system. In 1196, during the time of the third crusade, we find mentioned a Hendricus a Doersne (Hendrick van Doersen). It is not unlikely that he was in the crusade, and that the cross in the Coat-of-Arms was taken up by him. During the next, the thirteenth century, members of the family are frequently found in the "meyery van's Hertogen~ bosch" (the majorate of Bois-le-Due), the part of Brabant in which Deursen lies, and where the lords Van Deursen kept up a kind of sovereign independency until the year 1325. On the 1st of March, 1325 (a date according to old Frankish custom), Govert Van Doorsen acknowledged for his liege­ lord Jan III, the noblest duke Brabant ever had, who, with rare perception for those times of the natural human rights, and far ahead of his day in his method of governing, granted on his deceased father's and his own initiative, a liberal Charter to his subjects in 1356. This Charter served the Dutch as a model in 1581, when they began their struggle for freedom more systematically. It was "a cornerstone in the bulwark of Dutch liberty," and, through its silent influence, takes a not inconsiderable place in the constitutional history of Western Europe and the rights of man all over the world .