The Notebooks of Charles F. Mulks

1 The first mention in this country of Tjerck Claessen DeWitt, the ancestor of the DeWitt family is found the the Trouw Boeck or Register of Marriages of the Reformed (Collegiate) Dutch Church of New York City where it is recorded that on the 24th day of April 1656 Tjerck Claessen DeWitt van Grootholdt en Zenderlandt married Barbara Andriessen van Amsterdam.

Zunderlandt has not been definitely located, but it is probably Saterland a district of Westphalia on the southern border of East Friesland. Whether or not any of his family immigrated with him is not an ascertained, but it is probable that they did for in 1662 his sister Emmerentie DeWitt married Martin Hoffman at New Amsterdam and in 1669 his brother Jan Claessen DeWitt died unmarried at Kingston New York. For a short time after his marriage, he lived in New York (his first child Andries was born there) but in the spring of 1657 he removed to Albany where he had purchased a home and a lot. In September 1660 he exchanged his Albany property with Madame DeHutter for Land in Wiltwyck (now Kingston, New York)|"possession to be given May 1, 1661. He probably took possession as in September 1661 he appears as plaintiff in an action tried there.

From this time until his death he resided in Kungston and Hurley and some of the land which he purchased is still in the possession of his descendants. June 6, 1685 he claimed 290 acres of land lying upon the north side of Rondout Kill and known as 'Mombaccus' (in the town of Rochester) in Ulster County. This was laid out for him by Phillip Welles Surveyor and granted to him by patent. He died at Kingston February 17, 1700. His wife died July 6, 1714.

Andries DeWitt (eldest son of the above Tjerck Claessen DeWitt) was born in New York City in 1757 [sic] and in 1682 he married Jannetje Egbertson. For some years he lived at Marbletown Ulster County on a farm given him by his father but removed to Kingston previous to 1748.