Stephens Ancestry

Steven Jansen m. Maria Goosens
Jan Stephenszen m. Elizabeth Lucas
Stephen Stephenszen m. Marytie
Roelof Stephens m. Mensje Campbell
Albert Stephens m. Grietje Van Houten
Catherine Stephens m. Daniel Hawkhurst
Frances Hawkhurst m. Elijah Horton Cronk
Emma Teresa Cronk m. George Bartlett Hoffman
Minnie Lenora Hoffman m. John Schmieg
Florence Bell Schmieg m. Stanley Spartan Tumbridge

1. Steven Jansen (Coninck), with his wife, Maria Goosens, and child, are first found in the Dutch Records when they left New Amsterdam in March, 1649, and located in Fort Orange (Albany).

On December 29, 1663, they were granted a legal separation, both desiring it, and they stated that they had not lived together for eight years. She was given the custody of the apparently only child, over which the records show she had previously the sole control. (Early Records of Albany, Vol. 3, pp. 263-4.)

When Steven Jansen and his wife died has not been found, nor is there any evidence of the re-marriage of either one of them.

2. Jan Stevensz (Stephenzen), son of Steven and Maria (Goosens) Jansen, was born about 1649, as on December 18, 1661, Maria Goosens, his mother, bound him out to Cornelis Theunisz Hoogeboom in Albany for two years, to learn the art of making tile, and she stated he was about 12 years of age. She was to receive in payment eleven good whole beaver skins and one hundred guilders (Early Records of Albany, Vol. 3, p. 138).

His marriage in New York is recorded in the New York Dutch Church Marriages as follows: Jan Stephenszen, young man from Fort Orange (Albany) and Lysbeth Lucas, young dame from New Orange (New York), both residing here, married October 4, 1673 (New York Dutch Marriages, p. 37). In the 1680's his home was on Broadway.

He died in September, 1685, and on June 17, 1688, she, as his widow, married Jacobus Berry, her betrothal to him being recorded June 2, 1688 (New York Dutch Marriages, p. 64).

Issue, baptized in the New York Dutch church: Elizabeth, March 10, 1675; Elizabeth, September 11, 1676, witnessed by Goosen Stephen and Maria Goosens; Marytie, February 10, 1679, witnessed by Lucas Andrieszen and Aefje Laurens; Lucas, April 2, 1681; Jannetie, July 4, 1683; Stephen, July 2, 1685, witnessed by Nicholas Bayard and Judith Verleth.

By Jacobus Berry, his widow had baptized in the Dutch Church in New York: Deborah, February 17, 1689; Aefje, March 6, 1692; Samuel, March 22, 1696.

3. Stephen Stephens or Steven Stephens, son of Jan and Lysbeth (Lucas) Stephenszen, was baptized in the Dutch church in New York City, July 2, 1685. He married Martie (Maria), whose maiden name has not been found. They were living in Haverstraw, N. Y., in 1738, when on April 16, they witnessed, in the Dutch Church at Tappan, the baptism of Cornelis, son of Wm. Campbell, and where, on March 30, 1738, he was appointed ranger for Haverstraw.

4. Roelof Stephens, son of Stephen and Marytie Stephens, was born about 1721 and married, in Tappan, N. Y., Mensje Campbell, baptized in the Dutch church in Tappan, January 3, 1721. The marriages in that church for the period suitable for them are missing, but it is fair to assume theirs took place in that town, where her parents resided and he was living.

When he made his will, July 6, 1760, which was proven November 20, 1761, he calls himself of Haverstraw, and mentions in it, wife "Manche," sons Albert, the eldest, Stephen, Roelof, William, and daughters Mary, Elizabeth, Alche and also an expected child. The witnesses to the will were Lucas Stevenson, Niklas Stevenson and Lammerdt Smith, and the executors, Wm. Campbell and Abraham Stevenson.

Issue as per the church records of Tappan and Clarkstown, N. Y. Albert, born August 31, 1743; Maria, born September 6, 1744; Elizabeth, born October 9, 1745; William, born January 28, 1748; Stephanus, born February 14, 1751; Roeloph, born September 14, 1754; William, born July 7, 1757; Catlyntje, born July 10, 1760; Catlyntje, baptized July 10, 1770. The first four were baptized in Tappan, the remainder in Clarkstown, N. Y.

5. Albert Stephens, son of Roelof and Mensje (Campbell) Stephens, was baptized in the Dutch church at Tappan, N. Y., August 31, 1743, and married Grietje Van Houten, born there, January 10, 1747. They were without doubt married there in 1770, but the marriages for that period in the Dutch church have not been found. The following children were born in Clarkstown, N. Y., and baptized there in the Dutch church : Maria, born June 26, 1711, baptized July 6, 1771; Roeloph, born September 2, 1772, baptized October 11, 1772; Abraham, born August 23, 1775, baptized September 17, 1775; Joseph, born March 17, 1777, baptized March 31, 1777; Catrina (Catherine), born April 3, 1779, baptized April 18, 1779; Cornelis, January 31, 1786; William, born June 10, 1789, baptized June 28, 1789.

Albert Stephens left Rockland County, N. Y., about 1790, and settled in Mt. Pleasant, Westchester County, N. Y., where he made his will May 15, 1820, which was proven March 10, 1824, which shows that he owned a farm there and reserved a burial place on it for his heirs. In his will his wife is not named, pre-deceasing its making, but the following heirs are mentioned: wife of son Joseph and her daughter Elizabeth; children of deceased daughter Mary Hows, namely: Abraham, Sarah, Anna; children of deceased son Roelof John, Abraham, James; son John; children of deceased daughter Caty Hawk (Hawkhurst), namely, Margaret, Isaac, William, Fanny; children of deceased daughter Elizabeth See, namely: Burling, Abraham, William, Irving; son Joseph. The executors were his sons John and Joseph and the witnesses to his will were Samuel Youngs, Bishop Underhill and Allan Macdonald.

The son John does not appear in the Clarkstown, N. Y., Dutch baptisms, unless he was omitted from the copy available of the said baptisms. In 1826 he was living in New York City and conveyed, as per his father's will, part of his farm to his brother Joseph, reserving for the use of the family and heirs of his father, Albert, the burial place, "which is enclosed with a stone wall."

In 1827 John, as his father's executor, sold Isaac Van Wart what appears to be the remainder of the Albert Stephens farm in Mt. Pleasant. The farm of Albert Stephens was sold to what is now known as Kensico Cemetery. That corporation conveyed to the Roman Catholics that portion of it which included the Stephens Burial Ground, and what stones were then standing were removed to the Kensico Cemetery and are still in a good state of preservation, two of them being Albert Stephens, died February 28, 1824, aged 80 years and 6 months; Margaret (Grietje) his wife, died October 17, 1813, aged 66 years, 2 months and 17 days.

Albert Stevens (Stephens) served in the Revolutionary War in the 2nd Reg't of the Orange County Militia, under Col. Ann Hawk Hay (New York in the Revolution, p. 160); Documentary History of New York by Fernow, p. 481, shows he was a private under Hay in Onerdonk's Company.

6. Catherine (Catrina) Stephens, daughter of Albert and Grietje (Van Houten) Stephens, was born in Clarkstown, N. Y., April 3, 1779, and was baptized in the Dutch Church there, April 18, 1779. She married Daniel Hawkhurst, who died in Mt. Pleasant, N. Y., March 10, 1814, aged 40 years and 20 days. She died the same week he did, both of typhus fever. They are buried in the Rural Cemetery at White Plains, where his grave stone is still readable but hers is not.

See Hawkhurst Ancestry.

References:

• Family Records; Rural Cemetery, White Plains, N. Y.;

• Kensico (N. Y.) Cemetery;

• White Plains Wills, Liber K, p. 240;

• Deeds, Liber 28, pp. 112, 164;

• Harlem Register, p. 143;

• Clarkstown, N. Y., Church Records, baptisms Nos. 1253, 1518, 177, 352, 942, 1026, 1743;

• Calendar of Wills, p. 351;

• New York Wills, Vol. 6, pp. 120,121;

• History of Rockland County, N. Y., p. 253;

• English Mss., N. Y. State, p. 531;

• Tappan, N. Y., Dutch Baptisms, No. 973;

• Dutch Baptisms, New York, Vol. 1, pp. 118, 124, 136, 146, 159, 168, 189, 207, 234; Marriages, pp. 37, 64;

• New York Record, Vol. 9, p. 161;

• Early Records of Albany, N. Y., Vol. 3, pp. 138, 263, 264;

• Holland Society Year Book, 1686, p. 179.