Van Houten Ancestry

Roelof Cornelis Van Houten m. Gerritje Van Nes
Theunis Van Houten m. Tryntje Kuyper
Claes Van Houten m. Grietje Haring
Roelof Van Houten m. Catherine Nagel
Grietje Van Houten m. Albert Stephens
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. Roelof Cornelissen, progenitor of the Van Houten family, is first found in 1638, when he is mentioned among the immigrants of that year to Rensselaerswyck, but he later settled in Amersfoort, L. I. In 1648 he as a soldier, for wounding the corporal, was obliged to ride the wooden horse, two hours a day for three days, with a ten-pound weight fastened to each foot, and pay the surgeon's bill besides forfeiting six months wages.

In 1657, the Schepens of Amersfoort in reporting an assessment of two hundred and sixty-seven florins, named Roelof Cornelissen and his wife, Gerritje Van Nes, the daughter of Cornelis Van Nes, who obtained a patent May 23, 1659, for twenty-five morgens of land near New Amersfoort.

Their children in later years assumed the name of Van Houten, which indicates that Roelof came from Houten, a small village in the southeastern part of the province of Utrecht in Holland.

Issue: Helmigh, Cornelis, Theunis, Geesje.

2. Theunis Van Houten, son of Roelof and Gerritje (Van Nes) Van Houten, married in Bergen, N. J., December 23, 1677, Tryntje Kuyper (Treintje) from Minden, Holland. He removed to Rockland, then Orange County, N. Y., but prior to that on June 8, 1689, as one of the Committee of Safety, signed the Commission of Jacob Leisler as "Captain of the Fort" at New York, and on August 16, 1689, signed as Commander-in-Chief.

He was commissioned justice for Orange County by Leisler, December 14, 1689, and in 1704 was appointed justice at Tappan. In the census of 1702, taken by himself as justice of the Peace, he, with wife Tryntje, have in their family one male, six females and one negro woman with her child.

The baptisms of the first six of his children were recorded in Bergen, N. J., but on October 24, 1694, he and his wife became members of the Dutch Church in Tappan, N. Y., and the remainder of their children were baptized there.

Issue: Gerritje, Roelof, Annetje, Klaes, Jannetje, Vrouwtje, Kornelia, Johannis, Vrouwtje, Elizabeth, Pietertje, Grietje, Grietje.

3. Claes (Klaes) Van Houten, son of Theunis and Tryntje (Kuyper) Van Houten, was born in New Jersey, July 12, 1685, and married in Tappan, N. Y., October 7, 1708 (their betrothal dated there September 25, 1708), Grietje Haring, baptized September 8, 1688. This marriage is the first one recorded in the Dutch Church books. Their dates of death have not been found, but they were living in 1736, as they witnessed a baptism in Tappan that year.

4. Roelof Van Houten, son of Claes and Grietje (Haring) Van Houten, was baptized in the Dutch church in Tappan, N. Y., March 11, 1721, and married in 1742, Catherine Nagel. He was buried in the old Martinus Cemetery near New City, in Rockland County, which was set off from Orange County in 1798. He was a Deacon in the Dutch Church and in 1763 was on a petition for the incorporation of a church in the township of Orange. The Civil List of New York, page 356, states that he was a member of Assembly from Orange County, at its first session in 1777, September 1 and October 1, held at Kingston; January 5, April 4, January 22-30, held at Poughkeepsie; Deputy to the third convention of the Provincial Congress, May 14, 1776, and June 30, 1776.

The Supplement to New York in the Revolution, p. 154, states that Roelof Van Houten of Orange County, was a member of the Legislative Assembly held at Kingston, September 1-October 1, 1777, and at Poughkeepsie, January 5 and April 4; June 22-30, 1778; (p. 155) at Poughkeepsie, October 13, November 6, 1778 and January 28 to March 16, 1779; (p. 144) Chairman of Committee in' Orange County, 1776.

On May 11, 1790, Resolved and Claes Van Houten, sons of Roelof Van Houten, were given Letters of Administration on his estate. (Administrations, Goshen, N. Y., Liber A, p. 24.)

Issue recorded in Tappan, N. Y., Dutch Church : Resolved, born December 14, 1743; Grietje, January 10, 1747; Claes, November 13, 1749; Klaartje, June 15, 1755; Elisabeth, July 14, 1758; Tan, April 9, 1761.

5. Grietje Van Houten, daughter of Roelof and Catherine (Nagel) Van Houten, was born in Tappan, N. Y., January 10, 1747, and baptized in the Dutch Church there February 1, 1747. She married Albert Stephens, born August 31, 1743, died February 28, 1824. She died October 17, 1813.

See Stephens Ancestry.

References:

• History of Rockland County, N. Y., pp. 113, 199, 251;

• Calendar of Colonial Mss. (Dutch), p. 115, (English) p. 740;

• History of Paterson, N. J., pp. 233-238;

• New York Record, Vol. 27, p. 186;

• Land Titles of Hudson County, N. J., p. 375;

• Harlem Register, p. 141;

• Isaac Kool Genealogy, pp. 78-80;

• New York Dutch Baptisms, Vol. 1, p. 168;

• Baptisms and Marriages of the Dutch Church, Tappan, N. Y.