OF THE • • STRYCKER FAMILY. COMPILED BY WILLIA!\1 S. STRYKER, OF Trenton, New Jersey. PRINTED FOR PRI\'.'" ..a\.1'E DISTRIBlJTION. CA~!DEN, N. J. : SINNICKSOS CH.£\V, PRI:-lTER, COR. FRONT AND ~[ARKET STREETS. 1887. PREF AGE. No one, in the :uidst pf the duties and cares of a busy life, ,vho seeks, as I have done, to record the names and history of one's ancestry, but must in stnne measure be impressed with the truth uttered by the wisest of n1en,-'' the glory of children are their fathers." It is also equally true in this i1npetuous age tha.t " an ungrateful generation neglects the n1en1ory of its fathers." The n1otive is then apparent which must actuate the n1ind of hin1 who atten1pts the often barren task of sin1ply n1apping out the line and pointing out, it rnay be, the sturdy worth of his fan1ily stock. In An1erica, with our den1ocratic tendencies, we too often lose sight of our progenitors and let each _generation come and go \Vith scarcely any record of the brave n1en and the good won1en, of those prominent in public life or those who adorned the ho1ne-circle, and think if we ourselves perforn1 what our hands find to do that then our full duty is done. To fill up the n1easure of what otherwise appears to n1e inexcusable neglect, to perforn1 an act which may be of son1e historical value is the sole_ purpose of this work. But a very few copies have been printed and it is intended to distribute then1 privately in the fan1ily referred to. Care has l;>een taken to state clearly where tradition only is given, but in all the rest of the data:o although there n1ay be and undoubtedly are errors, an honest endeavor has been made to verify everything by actual record. In many cases the genealogy, for lack of accurate infonuation, 4 PREFACE. has not been entirely finished up to the present date, but it is presumed sufficient is given to enable any one to complete without difficulty the particular branch to which they belong or in which they rnay be n1ost interested. This can easily be done by inserting a leaf and preparing the record therefor in the san1e style, adding a lett<:r after the nun1erical designation of the last person referred to, as-171 A, 171 B, 171 C, &c. The work n1ay also easily be interleaved for family photographs. It is suggested that two or three leaves for this purpose be placed between each printed page before binding. The con1piler of this \"Olun1e would be glad to be furnished with any new facts, any additional genealogy, any likenesses of the fa1nily, or to ha,·e any n1istakes corrected. No apology is really needed for the n1ore extended notice of such branches of the famil .,v as the ,Yriter is himself connected with. It is perhaps useless to state that this task could not have been perforn1ed had it not been for the published histc-ry of the Bergen fan1ily, and tl~e kindly aid constantly given by its indefatigable and accoinplishcd author, the late the Hon. Teunis G. Bergen, of Bay Ridge, Long Island. During his life he never ·wearied in showing n1e where to find a missing link. To the late the Re\-. Dr. Abraham 11essler, of Somerville, Ne\\" Jersey; the Rev. Edward T. Corwin, of ?\Iillstone, New Jersey; the late Judge Ralph \'oorhees, of Franklin Park, l\Iiddlesex County, New Jersey, and to very 1nany of the family name I am under great obligations for valuable aid and prompt and zealous searches in my behalf. \V. S. S. 1~RE~Tox, New Jersey, January, 1887. THE STRYGKER FAMILY. ·' He who ca.reth not whence he came careth little ,..,·hither he goeth. '' t.;: HE Str);cker fan1ily is of re1note antiquity in Holland. All 't' the several branches of the fan1ily in the l.7nited States, whose names, idc111 sonans, regardless of th~ spelling, which has been often changed and written Stryker, Str~:cker, Striker, Stricker, are deri,·ed directly fron1 this old Dutch parentage. Certain parts of the family have been seated near The f-Iague for over eight hundred years and another line near Rotterdan1. It appears that the prefix '·\:ran" in olden ti1nes was often ,,·ritten before the name, but it ,vas dropped, however, by the brothers who can1e to A1nerica. In St. Bavon 's Kirk, the Great Church at Haarle1n, which contains the grand organ, we find interred in the High Choir, ~ o. 3 7, the ren1ains of Dirck Strycker, who died September 2, 1677, who "·as Secretary to the ·court of Lav; in Holland. That he was a man of note and influence is indi<::ated by the official burial book and the tablets in that ancient edifice. From ~Iotley's history of the Dutch Republic we learn that one Hern1an Strj:cker, a n1onk who had abjured Ron1anisn1, created, in the year r562, a wide spread revival of religion among the masses of Helland. l\Irs. Charles, in her '' De­ liverers of Holland," gives considerable account of his labor;. His eloquence drew thousands to listen to him, and it is said he preached to fifteen thousand men in arms during the regency pf ..:\lva. In the pedigree of the family fourteen descents are given in I-Iolland up to 1 i9I. Several years ago the late Judge James 6 THE STRYCKER FAMILY. Stryker (305) obtained from Holland the coat of anns of the family, and much of the interesting inforn1ation here given con­ cerning it. · The coat-armorial is as follows: Pall of fqur, or and gules, three boars' heads, sable, armed azure. ·crest-out of a ducal coronet, a griffin's' head sable, between two paln1 branches in ofle vert. Supporters-T-i.\·o dragons, dexter side gules, sinister side or. There is a legend in the fan1ily that during the twelfth cen­ tury ., the brothers by this name were very clannish and consti­ tuted a strong body of valiant 1nen able and ready to defend their own rights "·ith their own good swords. A jealousy of the most bitter kind broke out bet\",·een them and another iamilv., equally renowned for prowess in combat. On one occasion the Van Str)rcker fan1ily received an invitation to a great feast at which it was proposed to con1e to some final settlen1ent of the feud \vhich existed between these rival parties. They accepted, at the same time suspecting some treachery. The secret was discovered beforehand and a plan arranged to meet it. The fea.st began and in the middle of it the servants. of the host placed upon the table three boars' heads. This was the signal agreed upon for the extern1ination of the \Tan Strj;cker family. They, however, rallied quickly at a certain portion of the room, were terrible when thev., acted thus on the defensive and turned the plot with deadly effect upon their opponents. This tra- dition has con1e down through the family and n1ay account for the boars' heads which appear upon the coat of arms. The n1otto of the fan1ily, which in English means "1Iost terrible at bay," has been Latinized "In extrenzis terribilis," and although it still preserves the legend referred to is of little value histor ically; .as few if any Du.tch families retain tbe motto, even though ii. may have been hereditary with those who first adopted it. It is understood it is never given with the coat arq1or in Holland. In the middle of the seventeenth century Jan and Jacobus \Tan Stry=cker received from the States General of the Netherlands a THE STRYCKER FA~IILY. 7 grant of land in the colony at Xew •.\.msterdam, upon condition that thev took out with then1 to A.1nerica twelve other fa.n1ilie5 - . at their own expense. This grant was dated in January~ 1643. It does not appear that the offer was finally acted upon until eight years thereafter, and then the younger brot_her Jacobus left the fatherland one year before Jan, and founded the old Knickerbocker fan1il .,\" of this name in and near New An1ster- da1n. There i~ a record, however, on Volume.I, page 437, of" Doc­ uments r~lati\·e to the Colonial History of the State of New York," edited by E. B. 0' Callaghan, where one of the nan1e of D. Str):cker, with other Dutch merchants, pe.tition the States General "representing that they have traded to all the Carri­ bean Islands and to Virginia for twenty years ; that fron1 a feeble beginning their business at present is a source of aston­ ishn1ent to the ,vhole world ; that now the Parliament of Eng­ land prohibit trade to the islands where they have colonies and particularly to the Virginias, and that they only give fron1 Oc­ tober 3d, 1650, to ~larch 20th, 1651, for us to take away our ships under p1in of forfeiture of ships and goods. They pray the Noble, High and ~Iighty the Lords, States General of the L7 nited Netherlands, that they direct their Commissioners to treat ·with the A.n1bassadors from England so that they n1ay be sa\·ed fro1n loss or be depri\·ed of a trade so advantageous.'' It is generally supposed that this n1an returned to Holland, as .no record can be found of hin1 after this date and no trace of any of his descendants. It n1ay however be, that this is the Dirck Strj;cker herein before referred to. Two facts may here be mentioned. In a hasty glance at this genealogical record the great longevity of the family cannot fail to be noticed.