The Doty Line, A Narrative — Seven

This is Chapter Seven of nine. We have wondered if Joseph Doty, Jr. moved from New Amsterdam, up to the Nine Partners area of the Hudson River Valley due to the influence of the family of his wife Geisje (Lucretia) Van Schaick. Perhaps he somehow connected with her family through the prevalence of the Dutch culture of Manhattan when he lived there? (His militia service was also was affiliated with the Dutch Burgher Guards).

Joseph also had his cousins Charles and Elias Doty from Oyster Bay, living in the Dutchess County area. So, it’s also possible that he and Lucretia could have connected through family, or the Dutch Reformed Church. Who knows, we’re just glad that they met!

Tintin struggles as he peers intently at a map of the Hudson River Valley. He is surrounded by clues and artifacts, piecing them together to try to puzzle-out the hidden locations.
(Image courtesy of Shutterstock).

From Wikipedia, The Adventures of Tintin is a series of 24 comic albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European comics of the 20th century. The country of Belgium was created in 1830, after it gained independence from the Southern Netherlands.

Let’s Talk About Place Names

During their lifetimes, our ancestors lived in a places that changed their name(s) quite a few times. This gets confusing. We have corrected the history in this chapter to reflect these transformations.

We have observed that many researchers have rather clumsily used inappropriate place names for locations mentioned in this history. Some of this is understandable, since two different countries clashed over who had control of the area. Be that as it may, many past record sources, and then more contemporary records, have not thought about this sufficiently. We are following them in time and have a longer view of how the area names and boundaries evolved. So let’s address this issue —

New Netherland vs. The Province of New York
The area was first known as New Netherland, a Dutch colony, until 1664. The English renamed it when they took control in 1664 as the Province of New York, after the Duke of York (later King James II).

New Amsterdam > Manhattan
First, it was called New Amsterdam, then the English changed the name to New York City in 1664, for the same reason cited above.

Fort Orange > Albany
Located on the upper Hudson River, it was named as Fort Orange by the Dutch. It was initially founded in 1614-1624 as a fur trading post. The English then renamed it Albany, designating it first as a settlement in 1664, a county in 1686, then as a city in 1686. It is the oldest city in New York State.

Early Autumn on Esopus Creek, by A. T. Bircher. (Image courtesy of The Old Print Shop).

Esopus > Wiltwyck > Kingston
This was a broad area on the upper Hudson River named by Native Peoples to describe a creek. The Dutch used this name because it was convenient to do so. In 1657, Peter Stuyvesant, the director-general of New Netherland, built a stockade to protect the Dutch, and renamed the Esopus village Wiltwyck. A few years later the English renamed portions of it as Kingston in 1669.

Kinderhook
This was a settlement which existed prior to 1651. First it was in Albany County, then this area became Columbia County in 1786, after the American Revolutionary War.

Ulster County
Derived from parts of the Esopus area by the Duke of York in 1683. Prior to that it was simply named Esopus. (Note: The Dutch were not very concerned about the names of interior settlements, since they concentrated mostly on extracting resources, such as beaver pelts from along the Hudson River). (1)

Manhattan 1660* (view from Governor’s Island), by L. F. Tantillo Fine Art.
(Image courtesy of the New Amsterdam History Center, via The Dutch Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art). *Technically, the location then is New Amsterdam.

The De Longs, and The Van Schaicks, Come to America

Both family genealogical histories for our 6x Great Grandmother Geisje (Lucretia) DeLong’s maternal and paternal lines begin in The Netherlands (Holland). These lines then cross the Atlantic Ocean to America in a like manner, with them then building new lives in a Dutch-controlled New Amsterdam (Manhattan), in a similar time frame. However, the two families then diverge slightly for a couple of generations, before coming together in the third generation. We’ll start with the De Longs, who are the paternal side. Please note that in all records there are several spellings for this family surname. Among them: Delange, De Lange, Delong, De Long.

The Paternal Line, the De Langes / De Longs —
During this period of history, it was completely normal for Dutch immigrants to enter America through New Amsterdam. We don’t know the amount of time this family actually stayed there, but it seems plausible that fairly quickly they chose to relocate again. This time, they moved northward up the Hudson River to the area known by the Dutch as Esopus. In that area, they are considered to be very early pioneers since that area was still a rough frontier.

Detail excerpt from The Provinces of New York and New Jersey; with part of Pensilvania, 
and the Province of Quebec,
by Thomas Pownall, and Samuel Holland, circa 1776.
(Image courtesy of the Library of Congress).
The lower orange circle indicates where the De Longs and the Van Schaicka certainly first entered New Amsterdam. The upper blue circle indicates where the De Long family was active; the upper green circle, where the Van Schaicks were active.

The first DeLange to arrive in America was Franciscus Adrianus (Arie) De Lange, born about 1627 in Leur, Etten-Leur, Noord-Brabant, The Netherlands — died April 17, 1699 in Kingston, the Province of New York. He married Anna (maiden name unknown).

In the next generation, the De Lange line continues on in the Esopus and (then the) Kingston areas. Adrianus Franciscusz De Lange, was born about 1650, in the same location as his father Arie — died before April 17, 1699 in Brabant, an area of Kingston, Ulster County, the Province of New York. He married first Rachel Jansen, date unknown. He married second, Anna (maiden name unknown), date unknown.

The Maternal Line, the Van Schaicks
For Geisje (Lucretia) maternal family line, we return to The Netherlands. This history begins with Niclass Laurenzen Van Schaick, born about 1633 in Utrecht, The Netherlands — died about 1688 at Kinderhook, Albany County, the Province of New York. He married Jennetjie Cornelis circa 1664, before they immigrated to America. She was born about 1642, (possibly) in Beverwyck, Netherlands — died February 8, 1728, in the same location as her husband.

Fort Orange and The Patroon’s House, by L. F. Tantillo.
(Image courtesy of the New York State Museum).

As with the De Longs, we do not know how long the Van Schaicks were in New Amsterdam. Some of the literature suggests a family connection — and that perhaps Niclass was the brother of Gerrit Goosensz Van Schaick, who was also born in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Known as Goosen, he was one of the original settlers in the community of Fort Orange > Albany. It makes sense that Niclass and Jennetje would live in the same area.

Often, other researchers have not captured the birth of all ten of Niclass and Jannetje’s children. Maritje Van Schaick, our 7x Great Grandmother was the last of their children, born about 1683 at Kinderhook, Albany settlement, (Albany County in 1686). After several generations in America, the DeLange/DeLong family is finally joined by marriage to the Van Schaick family.
(See our Research Observation in the footnotes).

Marriage Record of September 6, 1703 for Frans Arie DeLong and Maritje Van Schaick.
(Note that their names are spelled differently).
From the records of the Dutch Reformed Church in Albany, the Province of New York.

Frans Arie DeLong, born April 24, 1681, in Ulster County, the Province of New York — died May 29, 1755, in Beekman, Dutchess County, same Province. He married Maritje Van Schaick, September 6, 1703 She was born October 19, 1694, in Stuvesant/Kinderhook, Albany County [Columbia County, circa 1786] — died February 1758 in Dutchess County, Province of New York. Frans and Maritje (Van Schaick) DeLong had a large family of twelve children, with the eleventh being our 6x Great Grandmother, Giesje (De Lange/De Long) Doty. (2)

If the DeLange, or Van Schaick families were dressed in their very, very, very best clothes, their portraits would have looked somewhat like this. (Image courtesy of Nicole Kipar’s late 17th Century Costume history).

A Flourishing Family In The Hudson River Valley

The Joseph Doty Jr. family spent the arc of their lifetimes situated on either Long Island Sound, or within the Hudson River Valley. He was born in 1708 in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York Province — died about 1788 likely in Lansingburgh, Rensselaer  County, New York State.

Marriage Record of March 20, 1743 for Joseph Doty Jr. and Giesje De Lange.
From the records of the Dutch Reformed Church in Fishkill (Rombout Patent), Dutchess County, the Province of New York.

On March 20, 1743, Joseph Doty Jr., married Geisje De Lange* at the Dutch Reformed Church located in the hamlet of Fishkill, Rombount Precinct, Dutchess County, New York Province. She was born in the Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County, the Province of New York, about 1725, daughter of Frans Arie DeLong and Maritje (Van Schaick) DeLong. She died after 1773, likely in Lansingburgh, Rensselaer County.

*Geisje DeLong’s surname became anglicized to De Long (from De Lange). On many records, her first name is recorded as “Lucretia”. This was actually her nickname which she used for most of her life.

The Dutch Reformed Church in Fishkill, New York, date unknown.
(Image courtesy of ancestry.com).

Together Joseph and Lucretia had 10 children, who are listed below. The records cited are quoted from the The Doty-Doten Family in America (DDFA) book.
Note: All of their children were born in the Province of New York. We have made corrections to their birth locations.

The first five children, Ormond, Peter, Rebecca, Elizabeth, and Rhoda, were born in the Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County:

  • Ormond Doty was born November 24, 1746 in Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County. He died in South Wallingford, Vermont, November 18, 1826. He married Phoebe Vail; she died at the same location, May 1, 1830. “It is reported that during the Revolution Ormond Doty lived at or in the vicinity of Albany, N. Y.; that he was a Loyalist and was imprisoned at Albany for some time on that charge, but at the intercession of his brothers, who were Patriots, he was released on the condition of going to South Wallingford, Vermont, at that time a wilderness. He removed there with his family, where they settled and remained.”
  • Peter Doty was born about 1750 in Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County. He died in 1811 after a Will was written dated July 2, 1811. He married Catharine Overrocker, who died January 1820.“They lived Schaghticoke. N. Y. He was a prosperous farmer there. His Will, dated July 2, 1811, is on record at Troy, N. Y.”
  • Rebecca Doty (twin) was born about 1756 in Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess, New York. She married (1) John Irish; (2) Stutely Stafford.
    “She married first John Irish. He was killed as a British spy at Tinmouth, Vermont, during the Revolution. She married second, Stutely Stafford. They lived South Wallingford, Vermont.”
  • Elizabeth Doty (twin) was born about 1756 in Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County. She married Daniel Barheit.
  • Rhoda Doty (also known as Rhody), was born about 1759 in Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County. She married Jacob Stover.
    “They lived Schaghticoke. N. Y., and it is probable that descendants lived Schuylerville, Saratoga County, and Greenwich, Washington County, N. Y.”

    The next three children, Mary, Jacob, and Marian, were born in the same location, but renamed as the Charlotte Precinct, Dutchess County:
  • Mary Doty (also known as Polly), was born about 1763 in Charlotte Precinct, Dutchess County. She married Leonard Schermerhorn. “They lived Berne, N. Y.”
  • Jacob Doty was born about 1766, in Charlotte Precinct, Dutchess County. He married Zilla Berrie. “He is said to have lived in Albany or vicinity, during the Revolution, but afterward removed to Vermont.”
  • Marian Doty was born about 1768 in Charlotte Precinct, Dutchess County. She married Ephraim Putnam.

    The last two children, Lydia and Nancy, were born in a new location: Lansingburgh, Rensselaer County:
  • Lydia Doty was born in December 1769, in Lansingburgh, Rensselaer County. She married Daniel Shaw about 1783. Lydia died November 2, 1830 in Schaghticoke, also in Rensselaer County.
    (We are descended from Lydia and Daniel).
  • Nancy Doty was born about 1773, in Lansingburgh, Rensselaer, County. She married Mark Jimney. (3)
Hudson River Scene, by John Frederick Kensett.
(Image courtesy of the Beacon Historical Society via the Metropolitan Museum of Art).

The Dutch Words Were — Kromme Elleboog

While doing research for this chapter on the Doty Family, we encountered these odd-seeming place names in the Hudson River Valley: Crum Elbow, or Crom Elbow. They seemed like real head scratchers to us, but we’ve seen other odd things — such as trying to interpret quill-pen written manuscripts where the writer was implausibly scribbling away while experiencing a serious medical emergency.

Therefore, we were delighted to learn the following, simply because it made this aspect of our family history, that much more interesting. From the Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook of 1933 —

In the seventeenth century, while the Dutch held sovereignty over the valley of the Hudson, that is: from 1609 to 1664, they established settlements at three places,—one on the site of the city of New York, one on the site of Albany and one on the site of Kingston. They made no attempt to explore or to clear the forested regions on either side of the river between New York and Albany, chiefly because they were greatly concerned with the trade in furs, and the three settlements just mentioned did an active business as trading posts.

Ignoring the hinterland [the interior land areas], the Dutch plied the river in sailboats, learned to know the river well and had names for many of the sailing courses and for natural features along the shores.

In 1664 sovereignty over the Hudson valley passed to the English. They, after a few years, began to be interested in the regions east and west of the river and in 1683 the colonial legislature passed an Act by which those lands were laid out into counties. Coincidently with the creation of counties there arose an era of speculation in land, during which the desirable tracts along the river were bought up and ultimately opened for settlement.

In the course of the development, government officials filed documents and conducted correspondence in English and encouraged the common use of that tongue. It took just about a century for the English language to supplant the Dutch and, while the two were in use at once, original documents were recorded in which may now be found many instances of phonetic spelling, occasions when an Englishman tried to write down the Dutch words he heard in use about him.

An instance of such phonetic spelling and of partial translation is the place-name: Krom Elbow. The Dutch words were: Kromme Elleboog, meaning a bent or crooked elbow. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; Kromme was rendered in the records as: Krom, Krum, Crom, Crum and even Crown (K being a characteristic Dutch letter and C English), while Elleboog was translated in full into Elbow.

[Excerpted from from an article by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds,
in The Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook for 1933.]

The following bit of information from the excerpt above, became very important with the ongoing history of the Doty Family. “In 1683… coincidently with the creation of counties there arose an era of speculation in land, during which the desirable tracts along the river were bought up and ultimately opened for settlement”. (4)

The Nine Partners Patent in Dutchess County

“The Great Nine Partners Patent, also known as the ‘Lower Nine Partners Patent,’ was a land grant in Dutchess County, New York, made on May 27, 1697, by New York governor Benjamin Fletcher. The parcel included about four miles (6 km) along the Hudson River and was eight to ten miles (13 to 16 km) wide, extending from the Hudson River to the Connecticut border…

It was the ninth of fourteen patents granted between 1685 and 1706 which came to cover the entirety of historic Dutchess County [which until 1812 also included today’s Putnam County]. (Wikipedia, 9 Partners) Some modern writers also refer to the patent as the Nine Partners area.

The sepia rectangle shows The Great Nine Partners Patent, a land grant in Dutchess County, New York, as surveyed by Richard Edsall, circa 1740. [It is barely legible] The map which overlays the The Great Nine Partners Patent map is from the Dutchess Count Historical Society yearbook of 1939, and indicates the many land patents that were scattered over the breadth of Dutchess County.

Note also in the lower left corner of Duchess County is the hamlet of Fishkill in the Rombout Patent. This is the place where Joseph Doty and his wife Giesje De Lange (Lucretia De Long) were married.

The Crum Elbow Precinct
Encouraging settlers to move into the new counties that lined the Hudson River superhighway was very successful.“Prior to 1734, there had been little settlement in the area, but it proceeded rapidly thereafter. Settlers came to the area up the Hudson, but also from New England. When the legislature divided Dutchess County into precincts in 1737, the Nine Partners Grant was included in the Crum Elbow Precinct.” (Wikipedia, 9 Partners)

Observation: The Province of New York used many Precinct Names in this era, but not many town names. “Towns” were quite frequently scattered, and being very tiny hamlets, of not much more than where two paths crossed. Some modern researchers have developed a tendency to magnify and enlarge some of these characteristics of places / hamlets / crossroads in their desire for a sense of a “town”.

So the historical place naming sequence (generally speaking) is:
> Counties (commencing in 1683)
> Patents (for Dutchess County, from 1685 until 1706)
> Precincts (or Dutchess County, in 1737, and then ongoing as needed for an administrative function)
> Town names (This varies, but precincts were eliminated in 1788. From that point on, only town names were used).

Detail excerpt from The Provinces of New York and New Jersey; with part of Pensilvania,
and the Province of Quebec, by Thomas Pownall, and Samuel Holland, circa 1776.
(Image courtesy of the Library of Congress).

The area outlined in white (above) is the border of the Crum Elbow Precinct from 1697 through 1762. The Doty family lived within this Precinct for most of their time in Dutchess County. Seven years later, in 1769, the entire family relocated north to Lansingburg, Rensselaer County.

The Crum Elbow Precinct Is Divided Twice More
In 1762, the Crum Elbow Precinct was divided into two new precincts, called the Amenia and Charlotte Precincts. From that point forward, the Amenia Precinct was a separate entity. In 1786, Charlotte Precinct was divided again into: the Clinton Precinct and the Washington Precinct. Washington Precinct included the towns presently known as Stanford and Washington. Clinton Precinct included present-day Clinton, Hyde Park, and Pleasant Valley.

The later divisions of 1786 did not affect this family, because, in 1769, the whole family relocated to Lansingburg, Rensselaer County, which was the next county north of Dutchess County moving up the Hudson River.

The Doty family had lived in the Crum Elbow Precinct for many years, but we do not know exactly where. We likely never will know where unless some new records turn up. Some researchers have mentioned the Charlotte Precinct, but the Dotys only experienced that place name for about seven years before they moved. Some have mentioned the Clinton Precinct, but this precinct did not exist when they lived there. (5)

The Van Allen Homestead, by Henry A. Ferguson
(Courtesy of the Albany Institute of History & Art).

Literally Mending Fences Here And There

This was an era when there was no municipal government to take care of roads so that they were safe and passable. In addition, since many people had livestock, and boundary markers were generally a bit vague, someone had to pay attention to where the fences actually were. Joseph Doty was not alone in this role. Many of his neighbors had similar roles and a few interesting records do survive, such as —

In the book Records of Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County, New York, 1738… President Franklin D. Roosevelt (who knew he liked genealogy?), cited that Joseph Doty [Jr.] was:

  • Either an Overseer, or a Path Master of the High Ways in the Crum Elbow Precinct for the years: 1756 and 1759
  • Then the same role for the Charlotte Precinct four years later
  • The Delong family’s bridge (of his wife’s family) is also mentioned as being in the Charlotte Precinct in 1772
    (See footnotes). (6)

A Blacksmith, Probably in Good Circumstances

In the later 1760s, Joseph and Lucretia sold some of their properties in the Crum Elbow Precinct (which had recently been renamed as the Charlotte Precinct). There are two records which are written about in the Doty-Doten Family book, on page 505 — “Joseph Doty was a blacksmith, probably in good circumstances, his sons and daughters all being people of good position… June 5, 1767. Joseph Doty, blacksmith, of Crum Elbow, Dutchess Co., N. Y., mortgages land there. March 30, 1769. Joseph Doty, blacksmith, and his wife Cashea [Lucretia] of Charlotte, sell lots there, being part of nine partners, to Samuel Smith, Jr. of Jamaica, Queens Co., and Melancthon Smith of Charlotte.” The Precinct they lived in was populated by farmers and tradesmen. We speculate that Joseph may have learned the blacksmith trade during his time in Manhattan, perhaps as part of his militia service role.

From these old records we were able to learn his profession as a blacksmith. Also, we recovered an index record for the second land sale (likely due to the fact that we were fortunate to have a distinctive name such as Melancthon Smith to work with). The index indicates that the original deed is found on page 292, but the original record book is not cited. What’s more, we found a tax record for Joseph Doty of Nine Partners / Crum Elbow / Charlotte, for the time period of June 1754 – June 1768. This supports both his residency there, and the fact that since his tax record ends in June 1768, that there was change afoot. (See footnotes).

Dutchess County, Grantee Deed Indexes. (Image courtesy of Family Search)

Observation: Finding colonial era records in New York State is a very hit-or-miss affair, due to both the history of the area, and to be quite honest, the State of New York bureaucracy. They have not been very organized when it comes to digitizing older documents. We don’t have any records for when the Dotys first acquired property. So, we can only speculate as to when they left Fishkill, and moved north to the Crum Elbow Precinct. Does this mean that their residency there began about June 1754, as the tax records could imply? No, not really, because tax records for the years 1749, 1750, 1751, and 1752 are missing.

Records are quite scant. Censuses for population did not yet exist, nor did income taxes, and you cannot pay property taxes, unless you own property. (7)

Detail excerpt from The Provinces of New York and New Jersey; with part of Pensilvania,
and the Province of Quebec, by Thomas Pownall, and Samuel Holland, circa 1776.
(Image courtesy of the Library of Congress).
This map documents the family’s transition from the Crum Elbow Precinct in Dutchess County, to the new town of Lansingburg in Rensselaer County in 1769.

Where the Hudson Meets the Mohawk

In 1769, they moved to Lansingburgh [Village], New York, located further north in Rensselaer County. The specific area where they moved to was at first, very sparsely settled. This is where the Hudson River meets the Mohawk River. Just slightly north, across the rivers was the established community of Halfmoon, and the town of Albany was to the south. (Albany had long been established; initially as a Dutch trading post in 1614).

The book, the History of Rensselaer County records, “The purchase by Abraham Jacob Lansing on June 21, 1763, was followed soon after by his actual settlement. Two or three other families were already here… and several others soon followed. In seven years quite a settlement was formed. The map of the city plat laid out by Mr. Lansing was tiled May 11, 1771. The survey had taken place a year or two earlier, for quite a number of lots were sold in 1770, and the town-meeting that adopted the ‘proposals’ had met in January before the map was tiled.” This book does not record that they were purchasers of property there.

Initially the area was called the New City. A. J. Weise’s History of Lansingburgh records that there were an estimated 50 people living there in 1771, 400 living there in 1780, and that by 1790, the population had increased to 500 people. In 1788, the year that Joseph Doty, Jr. likely passed away, this enthusiastic description was written: “Elkanah Watson, a traveler, thus writes in his journal concerning New City, in the year 1788: “This place is thronged with merchants, emigrants, principally, from New England, who have enjoyed a very extensive and lucrative trade, supplying Vermont and the region on both banks of the Hudson,  as far as Lake George, with merchandise, and receiving in payment wheat,  pot [potash] and pearl ashes, and lumber.” (See footnotes). (8)

These two maps indicate the position of the ‘New City’ of Lansingburgh
near the town of Halfmoon, the Province of New York.
(Images courtesy of the Lansingburgh Historical Society).

Our story about the Dotys is nearing its final resolution with the Doty family name giving way to the Shaw family name in the next chapter. Be that as it may, we have one more chapter to go, where the Shaw name then gives way to the Devoe family name, of which we have much, much history.

Following are the footnotes for the Primary Source Materials,
Notes, and Observations

Let’s Talk About Place Names

(1) — nine records

Tintin and Snowy

The Adventures of Tintin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tintin
Note: For information on Tintin and his creator Hergé.

Province of New York
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province_of_New_York
Note: For the data.

History of Manhattan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Manhattan
Note: For the data.

Fort Orange (New Netherland)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Orange_(New_Netherland)
Note: For the data.

Verso of Bricher’s painting.

The Old Print Shop
Early Autumn on Esopus Creek
by A. T. Bricher, circa 1875
https://oldprintshop.com/product/147946
Note: For the landscape image.

Esopus Creek
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esopus_Creek
and
Esopus, New York
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esopus,_New_York
Notes: For the data.

Kinderhook, New York
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinderhook,_New_York
Note: For the data.

Ulster County, New York
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulster_County,_New_York
Note: For the data.

The De Longs, and The Van Schaicks Come to America

(2) — ten records

The New Amsterdam History Center,
via The Dutch Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Manhattan 1660 (view from Governor’s Island), by L. F. Tantillo Fine Art.
https://newamsterdamhistorycenter.org/fat-event/metropolitan-museum-of-art/
Note: For the panoramic artwork of New Amsterdam.

Library of Congress
The Provinces of New York and New Jersey;
with part of Pensilvania, and the Province of Quebec.
by Thomas Pownall, and Samuel Holland, circa 1776
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3800.ar104500/?r=0.402,1.183,0.673,0.371,0
Note: For sections of the map which indicate the areas of Esopus and New Amsterdam.

Franciscus Adrianus De Lange
https://www.geni.com/people/Franciscus-De-Lange/6000000002665615528
Note: For the data. (Use this file with caution!)

Adrianus Franciscuzs DeLange
https://www.geni.com/people/Adrianus-Franciscusz-De-Lange/6000000000115739032
Note: For the data. (Use this file with caution!)

Nicholas <Laurens or Gerrit?> Van Schaick
https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~rclarke/genealogy/page1/vschai-n.htm
Note 1: For the birth order of Maritjie with her siblings.
Note 2: She is listed as number eleven in the tracing, but looking closely, you will observe that she is child #10.

Nicholas Laurens Van Schaick (1633 – 1699)
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Van_Schaick-116
Note: This document (also) lists Maritje as his daughter.

New York State Museum
Introduction to the Fort Orange Educational Guide
Fort Orange and The Patroon’s House
by L. F. Tantillo.
https://nysm.nysed.gov/fort-orange-educational-guide
Note: For the landscape image.

Frans Arie DeLong
https://www.geni.com/people/Frans-DeLong/6000000002665613104
Note: For the data. (Use this file with caution!)

Maria Van Schaak
in the U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989
New York > Albany > Albany, Vol II, Book 2
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6961/records/2220205
Book page: 230, Digital page: 234/308
Note: For the marriage record.

Research Observation: Unfortunately, many, many, (if not most), genealogical websites and family trees have incorrectly identified Lucretia’s mother, Maritje Van Schaick. Often she is listed as the daughter of Iden Van Schaick and Isabel Bloedgoet. Iden and Isobel did have a daughter named Maritje, but she is not the Maritje Van Schaick who was born in Kinderhook, New York. In fact, it is completely implausible that this mother (Isabel), uniquely gave birth to Maritje in 1680s Kinderhook, which is about 130 miles further north, when all her other children were born in New Amsterdam.

Nicole Kipar’s 17 the century Costume Archive
The Painter’s Family, circa 1630-35
by Cornelis De Vos
http://www.kipar.org/archive/period-galleries/galleries_dutch_paintings1.html
Note: For the family portrait.

A Flourishing Family In The Hudson River Valley

(3) — nine records

(DDFA)
Doty-Doten Family in America
Descendants of Edward Doty, an Emigrant by the Mayflower, 1620

by Ethan Allan Doty, 1897
https://archive.org/details/dotydotenfamilyi00doty/page/504/mode/2up?view=theater
Book pages: 505-506, Digital pages: 504-506 /1048
Note: For the text.

Giesje De Lange
in the U.S., Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639-1989
New York > Fishkill > Hopewell, Fishkill and MarbleTown, Book 14
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6961/records/2028806
Book page: 127, Digital page: 33/56
Note: For the marriage record of Joseph Doty, Jr, and Giesje De Lange [Lucretia (De Long) Doty]

Fishkill NY Dutch Reformed Church
https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/tree/87441358/person/320142427851/media/ecda803e-41ca-42b7-afa8-374708585ea5
Note: For the church image.

Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs:
a record of achievements of the people of the Hudson and Mohawk valleys in New York state, included within the present counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Washington, Saratoga, Montgomery, Fulton, Schenectady, Columbia and Greene

Volume 3
Cuyler Reynolds, 1866-1934, ed
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101030753469&seq=170
Book page: 1058, Digital page: 170/680
Note: On the page, see the entry for Doty-Eaton.

(DDFA)
Doty-Doten Family in America
Descendants of Edward Doty, an Emigrant by the Mayflower, 1620

by Ethan Allan Doty, 1897
https://archive.org/details/dotydotenfamilyi00doty/page/504/mode/2up?view=theater
Book pages: 505-506, Digital pages: 504-506 /1048
Note: For the text, and for the brief biographies of the children.

Apparently, to this day this name is still used for streets in The Netherlands. (Image courtesy of: https://www.rtvdordrecht.nl/nieuws/de-kromme-elleboog-is-een-logische-straatnaam-voor-het-centrum).

The Dutch Words Were — Kromme Elleboog

(4) — five records

The Dutchess County Historical Society Yearbook for 1933, Volume 18
Kromme Elleboog
A Seventeenth Century Place-Name in the Hudson Valley

by Helen Wilkinson Reynolds
https://issuu.com/dchsny/docs/dchs_yb_v018_1933_masterfile/s/15204965
Note: For the text.

Hudson River Scene
John Frederick Kensett, circa 1857
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/11310
Note: For the landscape image.

Library of Congress
The Provinces of New York and New Jersey;
with part of Pensilvania, and the Province of Quebec.
by Thomas Pownall, and Samuel Holland, circa 1776
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3800.ar104500/?r=0.402,1.183,0.673,0.371,0
Note: For sections of the map which indicate the Great Nine Partners purchase and the Crum Elbow Precinct.

Timeline of Town Creation in the Hudson Valley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_town_creation_in_the_Hudson_Valley
Note: For the data.

The Nine Partners Patent in Dutchess County

(5) — three records

(Wikipedia, 9 Partners)
Great Nine Partners Patent
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Nine_Partners_Patent
Note: For the text.

Untitled Manuscript Map of Great Nine Partners Patent
in Dutchess County, New York

by Richard Edsall (surveyor), circa 1740
https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/140a7300-fcc4-0132-425e-58d385a7b928?canvasIndex=0
Note: For the map image, (Image ID 5376733)

Dutchess County Historical Society
18th Century Maps
by Author unknown
https://dchsny.org/18th-century-maps/
Note: For the DCHS 1939 Yearbook (map)

Literally Mending Fences Here And There

(6) — two records

Left: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1882 — 1945.
32nd President of the United States, and Right: Frontispiece for Records of Crum Elbow precinct, Dutchess county, New York

Records of Crum Elbow Precinct, Dutchess County, New York, 1738-1761,
together with records of Charlotte precinct, 1762-1785,
records of Clinton precinct, 1786-1788, and
records of the town of Clinton, 1789-1799

by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1882-1945, editor
https://archive.org/details/recordsofcrumelb00roos/page/n7/mode/2up
Note 1: Joseph Doty is listed as either an Overseer, or a Path Master of the High Ways in the Crum Elbow Precinct for the years: 1756 (page 28), 1759 (page 30); then for the Charlotte Precinct in 1763 (page 66).
Note 2: The Delong family’s bridge is mentioned in the Charlotte Precinct in 1772 (page 75).

The Making of the Hudson River School, The Improved Landscape
The Van Allen Homestead
by Henry A. Ferguson 
https://www.albanyinstitute.org/online-exhibition/the-making-of-the-hudson-river-school/section/the-improved-landscape
Note: For the painting.

A Blacksmith, Probably in Good Circumstances

(7) — three records

TuckDB Postcards
The Village Blacksmith
https://www.tuckdbpostcards.org/items/16508-the-village-blacksmith
Note: For the postcard image.

Joseph Doty
Mentioned in the Record of Melancthon Smith
Land – New York, Land Records, 1630-1975
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Z82J-HL6Z?lang=en
Note: For the land deed.
Book page: 2144, Digital page: Image 11 of 347

Crum Elbow tax lists: includes Nine Partners precinct, Crum Elbow precinct, Charlotte precinct, Amenia precinct, Clinton precinct, Washington precinct
by Clifford M. Buck
https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/296090/?offset=0#page=13&viewer=picture&o=info&n=0&q=
Book page 12, Digital page: 13/76
Note 1: Typed tax record for Joseph Doty of Crum Elbow, for the the time period of June 1754 – June 1768.
Note 2: Document identifier number 285952.

Where the Hudson Meets the Mohawk

(8) — five records

Library of Congress
The Provinces of New York and New Jersey;
with part of Pensilvania, and the Province of Quebec.
by Thomas Pownall, and Samuel Holland, circa 1776
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3800.ar104500/?r=0.402,1.183,0.673,0.371,0
Note: For sections of the map documenting the transition from the Crum Elbow Precinct in Dutchess County, to the hamlet of Lansingburg Village in Rensselaer County in 1769.

History of Rensselaer Co., New York
by Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, circa 1880
https://archive.org/details/historyofrenssel00sylv/mode/2up
Book page: 293, Digital page: 292/844
Note: For the text on the history of Lansingburgh Village.

Albany, New York
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albany,_New_York
Note: For reference.

The History of Lansingburgh, N. Y.
From the Years 1760 to 1877

by A. J. Weise, A. M., circa 1877
https://ia801209.us.archive.org/6/items/historyoflansing00weis/historyoflansing00weis.pdf
Note 1: Book page 39 — for the text regarding population statistics.
Note 2: Book page 11 — for the quote from the traveler Elkanah Watson.
Note 3: Book page 7 — For the description of the original town map, as follows,
“The Map is filed in the Albany County Clerk’s office, and is marked number 18. The following description is attached to it: “This Map describeth a tract of land lying on the east side of Hudson’s river, about eight miles above the City of Albany, and is layed out in a regular square for the erecting a City by the name of Lansingburgh; the lots are one hundred and twenty feet long and fifty wide. The streets are seventy feet wide, and the alleys are twenty feet wide the oblong square (the Green or Park) in the center is reserved for publick uses. Laid down by a scale of ninety feet to an inch. June 7, 1771. 
Joseph Blanchard, Surveyor. May 11, 1771. A. Jacob Lansingh.”

Lansingburgh Historical Society
Old Maps of Lansingburgh
https://www.lansingburghhistoricalsociety.org/old-maps
Notes: For the two map images, described accordingly on their website —
“Detail showing New City within boundaries of (unlabeled) Stone Arabia, and Iron Hill north of it. Cropped from ‘A chorographical map of the Northern Department of North-America’ (1780)”
and
“This Map describeth a Tract of Land […] Lay’d out in a Regular form for the Erecting a city by the name of Lansinghburrough”

The Doty Line, A Narrative — Six

This is Chapter Six of nine. The settlement of the Isaac Doty family in Oyster Bay, Long Island was the first step in their journey away from the Plymouth Colony. Time brought even more change… In this chapter we will be focusing on the son Joseph Doty Sr. and his wife Sarah (whose last name is unknown), and their family.

Seascape

In the same way that a wave returns the borrowed grains of a sandcastle back to their beach — once gone, we only see the newly smoothed surface. And like that, we know very little about the life of our ancestor Joseph Doty Sr., because records about his life are very scant, or perhaps, they have not yet been discovered.

Seascape Near Heijst, by Willem Roelofs, 19th century. (Image courtesy of Fine Art America).

Despite this, we do know a few things about his lifetime: He lived his entire life in Oyster Bay, Long Island, the Province of New York. He married a woman named Sarah (maiden name unknown), and he was the father of four children. Joseph died remarkably young, probably around the age of 36. When he died, his wife Sarah was pregnant with their fourth child. We know these things from the only meaningful record we have from this portion of his life — his 1716 Will.

Author Ethan Allan Doty tells us in his book, The Doty-Doten Family in America,
“His will is recorded at Jamaica, Queens Co., N. Y. , signed Joseph Doughty of Oyster Bay, made July 7, 1716, and devises his estate to his eldest son Joseph, to his son Isaac, to his daughter Sarah, and to his wife Sarah, and provides for a child in case his wife be with child.” It seems likely that his Will was written in haste, so something must have been going on with either his health or perhaps he’d been in a life threatening accident. We do not know.

We can infer from this document that his children were all born in Oyster Bay, and that their names are:

  • Sarah Doty, born about 1706, “She married John Jackson, probably the son of James Jackson and Rebecca Hallett.”
  • Joseph Doty Jr., born about 1708, (We are descended from Joseph Jr.).
  • Isaac Doty, born 1711, and who probably died young
  • Elizabeth Doty, born about 1716, most likely after Joseph Sr.’s death. [She] Married there 1730, Daniel Dunning (or Downing). Marriage license issued to Daniel Dunning and Elizabeth Doty of Queens County,
    N. Y., August 4, 1730”.

Interestingly, the document also mentions receipts, which are “When an executor or administrator paid debts owed by the estate and collected money from those who owed the deceased person, receipts were issued which were filed with the annual accounting and final settlement. Among these will be receipts signed by the heirs as they receive money from the estate”. (Family Search)

  • His widow Sarah, received receipts for her share of above, January 29, 1717. From this date it is safe to assume that Joseph Sr. most likely died shortly after writing his Will.
  • Sarah (Doty) Jackson, wife John Jackson, received receipts May 7, 1724. 
  • Joseph Doty Jr. receipts for 178£*, in full. May 6, 1729. 
  • Elizabeth Doty received receipts for her share, July 24, 1736.

*Observation: It is certain that Joseph Jr. received this money from his late father’s estate around the time of his 21st birthday. The value of 178£ calculates to over $44,500 dollars in today’s currency, (see footnotes). Cha-ching!

It also seems that property Joseph Sr. owned in Oyster Bay was eventually sold, about two years after he died. On “July 30, 1718, Jervis Mudge, Thomas Cirby and Joseph Carpenter, executors of Joseph Doty, deceased, sell to Isaac Doty, Jr., certain land at Oyster Bay, which is an equal one-third of land given by their father, Isaac Doty, Sr., to his three sons, Joseph, Jacob and James.” (1)

A Panoramic View of New York Harbor As Seen From Long Island, 1727 by Henry Popple, and issued in 1733. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia).

Manhattan Calling

We know that Joseph Jr. was soon living in Manhattan, and that he didn’t have to travel very far to get there. Why was he there? Of course, we don’t know for certain. Nevertheless, receiving the equivalent of $44,500 plus dollars when you are aged 21 years in Colonial America, certainly eased this transition.

In those days, despite the Dutch having first colonized the area, the population was a mixture of many different types of people. The English population eventually came to dominant governance. Wikipedia tells us, “By 1700, the Lenape population [Native Peoples] of New York had diminished to 200. The Dutch West Indies Company transported African slaves to the post as trading laborers used to build the fort and stockade, and some gained freedom under the Dutch. After the seizure of the colony in 1664, the slave trade continued to be legal. In 1703, 42% of the New York households had slaves; they served as domestic servants and laborers but also became involved in skilled trades, shipping and other fields. Yet following reform in ethics according to American Enlightenment thought, by the 1770s slaves made up less than 25% of the population.”

It was into this colonial admixture of European Dutch and English immigrants, and enslaved peoples, that Joseph Jr.had moved. (2)

The image on the right shows the short distance that Joseph Doty, Jr. needed to travel to relocate to Manhattan. (Note that the geography of Long Island is not very accurate).
Plate 27-A from, A Plan of the City of New York (and) A Plan of the Harbour of New York
by Author unknown, circa 1730-35, from Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Print Department.
Plate 32-A from, A Plan of the City and Environs of New York [Grim’s General Plan
by David Grim, circa 1742-44, from from The New York Historical Society.

All three map plates shown above are derived from the book, The Iconography of Manhattan Island, Volume 1, by I. N. Phelps Stokes, circa 1915.

The Burgher Guards

The Burgher Guard of Manhattan, also known as the Burgher Militia, was a citizen militia organized by the Dutch West India Company in 1640 to protect New Amsterdam (Manhattan) from external threats. These local militias were utilized to supplement the presence of the Dutch garrison, and were known as the Burgher Guards. These citizen-soldiers, composed of adult male residents, were responsible for maintaining order and defending the colony. Membership in the Burgher Guard was a sign of citizenship and was initially restricted to certain residents, excluding indentured servants and enslaved Africans. 

After the English takeover in 1664, the Burgher Guard was eventually absorbed into the English colonial militia system, with the burgher class-right transitioning to the English concept of freemanship. (3)

Captain Charles Laroex’s Company of New York City Militia in 1738

The world of 1730s Manhattan was still a far-flung New England outpost of the British Empire, and despite a century of colonization, the English were still trying to figure out how to govern the area appropriately. With regard to defense, it was not practical for England to maintain standing armies throughout the colonies. So, it makes sense that they carried over one of the same systems that they already knew —that of forming local militias.

These groups were a community-based force, with Companies drawn from specific geographic areas within towns. They varied in size, with a minimum of 24 men to form a company and larger companies including officers like captains, lieutenants, and sergeants. Their main function included maintaining order, providing local defense, and assisting in emergencies. The militias also played a role in town governance, with records of town meetings reflecting militia-related concerns such as fence heights, road maintenance, and care for the poor.

When we discovered that our 6x Great Grandfather Joseph Doty, Jr. had been cited repeatedly by other researchers as being a private in Captain Charles Laroex’s Company of New York City Militia in 1738, but no one had provided any support for this intriguing fact. We searched high-and-low to verify this. A big concern was the fact that the 1911 fire at the State Library in Albany, New York had destroyed many colonial era records. “The English volumes of Colonial Manuscripts included censuses, assessment lists, muster rolls, and other items useful to genealogists, almost all of which were destroyed by the fire.” (See footnotes, NYG&B) However, despite our concerns, diligence finally paid off.

Detail from an article titled Great War Marks End Of Burgher Guards, found on page 10 of the August 19, 1917 edition of The Sun newspaper. (See footnotes).

We first found confirmation that the Laroex Company did indeed exist. It is mentioned in an August 19, 1917 The Sun newspaper article, “…But the old burgher spirit could not be ‘snuffed out’, and as late as 1738 the Independent companies in this city were almost exclusively Dutch American. They were Beekmans’s, Laroex’s, Stuyvesant’s, Richard’s, Van Horn’s and Cuyler’s and the Blue Artillery”. (The Sun) Digging further, we found a book at the Library of Congress, published in Amsterdam in 1850, titled Breeden Raedt Aen De Vereenighde Nederlandsche Provintien. (It had been translated from the original Dutch). This book contained many records of 1738 Manhattan, as well as the full rosters the various militia companies. (4)

Excerpted from Breeden Raedt Aen De Vereenighde Nederlandsche Provintien. (Image courtesy of the Library of Congress).

The Fires and Riots of 1741...

As we had written about the population of enslaved people in Manhattan at that time, “By the 1740s, 20% of the residents of New York were slaves, totaling about 2,500 people… After a series of fires in 1741, the city panicked over rumors of its black population conspiring with some poor whites to burn the city. Historians believe their alarm was mostly fabrication and fear, but officials rounded up 31 black and 4 white people, who over a period of months were convicted of arson. Of these, the city executed 13 black people by burning them alive and hanged the remainder of those incriminated.”

Propagandist illustrations documenting the New York Slavery Conspiracy of 1741, taken from The Evolution of Slavery, Abolition in NY, and the NY Courts, The Lemmon Slave Case.

Comment: That text about the 1741 riots and lynch mobs is difficult to read, but sometimes we see that there is much cruelty in history. We don’t know if Joseph Doty was still involved with the Laroex Company militia at that time, or quite honestly, if he even was still living in Manhattan by 1741. If he was there, we wonder if perhaps these events influenced his decision to leave the city? (5)

In due course he moved up the Hudson River to the community of Nine Partners – Crum Elbow Precinct in Duchess County and by 1744 he was married.

Before we leave Manhattan and the Oyster Bay area, we thought it would be very interesting to take a look at the history of oysters in New York Harbor. It’s not with every ancestor that you get to delve into something so unique!

Slurp, painting by Pam Talley. (Image courtesy of Fine Art America).

Oysters and New York’s Past

It might seem obvious, but why was the town which Isaac Doty and his family lived in called Oyster Bay?

In 1609, when English explorer Henry Hudson sailed into the harbor of what later became known as New York City, he “could not have seen… [that there] were 220,000 acres of oyster beds below the surface on the harbor floor, constituting nearly half of the oysters in the entire world”. Later in time, on nearby Long Island, the early Dutch settlers referred to the area as Oyster Bay due to the vast number of high-quality oysters native to the region. Oysters became a staple of the colonial New York diet. (Untapped New York)

It was the Lenape people [Native Peoples] who showed the settlers how to harvest oysters from the harbor. “The local Lenape had been living off the reefs for generations. They would open the oyster shells by wrapping the entire oyster in seaweed before tossing them fire”.

Mine oysters – Dredging boats in the Chesapeake, from Harper’s Weekly magazine, March 16, 1872. (Image courtesy of The New York Public Library Digital Collections).

“Oysters were always popular and in high demand. Literal tons of oysters were eaten everyday. Worried that the supply might not last, the local government introduced a conservation law in 1715, banning the harvest of oysters during the months without an R, which lasts from May to August. The popularity of New York oysters [continued to] spread across the nation and to Europe, where large shipments of oysters were being sold. In order to meet the demand, the conservation law from 1715 was lifted in 1807, prompting the unsustainable harvesting of the oyster reefs. The supply was still not enough to meet the demand, and so oysters from Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey were brought into New York. These oysters were able to be sold as New York oysters because they were in the harbor for a short amount of time”. (Untapped New York, and the Billion Oyster Project)

Historically, oysters were deeply woven into the life of East Coast cities, as Charles Dickens described enthusiastically in his 1842 travelogue American Notes. He then “describes cellars serving oysters, pretty nigh as large as cheese-plates”. (BBC)

Eventually, pollution in New York Harbor decimated the viability of the oyster harvest. Recent efforts to revitalize the harbor and bring back the native oysters is ongoing. “That thriving population of oysters is long gone. But over the past 10 years, one of New York’s most ambitious rewilding projects has sought to revive its once-famous oysters, adding 150 million larvae across 20 acres of harbour since its beginnings. The goal: restoring the city’s coastal habitat, improving water quality and educating the public.” (BBC) (6)

Detail excerpt from The Provinces of New York and New Jersey; with part of Pensilvania,
and the Province of Quebec, by Thomas Pownall, and Samuel Holland, circa 1776.
(Image courtesy of the Library of Congress).

This map documents the family’s transition from Oyster Bay, Long Isand, to the Crum Elbow Precinct in Dutchess County, to the hamlet of Lansingburg Village in Rensselaer County.

Saying Farewell to Oyster Bay

When you eat a well prepared fresh oyster it should taste a bit like the sea… just a bit salty (and delicious!) We say this because, when we have been researching out ancestral lines, occasionally we come across an intriguing bit of family folklore that sometimes leads us down a new and exciting path. However, sometimes a fanciful story can lead us down a rabbit hole. Such is the story with a legend we encountered in the Doty-Doten book (DDFA) , and this story must be taken with a very large grain of salt. Like your food, you can immediately tell when it is just too salty.

Wikipedia tells us that “To take something with a ‘grain of salt’ or ‘pinch of salt’ is an English idiom that suggests to view something, specifically claims that may be misleading or unverified, with skepticism or not to interpret something literally. In the old-fashioned English units of weight, a grain weighs approximately 65 mg, which is about how much table salt a person might pick up between the fingers as a pinch.

On the left, Pliny the Elder, author of Naturalis Historia. He is also noted for dying in the AD 79 explosion of Mount Vesuvius, which buried the City of Pompeii. At right, a 1917 Morton Salt Company advertisement featuring the famous slogan, ‘When It Rains It Pours’ and an image of the Morton Salt Girl.

The phrase is thought to come from Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia, regarding the discovery of a recipe written by the Pontic King Mithridates to make someone immune to poison. One of the ingredients in the recipe was a grain of salt. Threats involving poison were thus to be ‘with a grain of salt’, and therefore less seriously.”

Ethan Alan Doty had written this, “The legend in the family was that Elsha Van Schaick was daughter and sole heir of an Amsterdam banker, and that she eloped with Francis De Long, who was a French officer. This story made it difficult to obtain full items [property?] of some branches, who were suspicious that they were to be defrauded of their share of valuable estate.”

Comment: What a great story! Even so, it’s just not true. We extensively researched the Van Schaick family. The closest this branch ever came to anything to do with banking was long after Lucretia’s lifetime. Another branch of the family is actually featured in a prestigious vanity book from 1881 titled, Contributions to the History of Ancient Families of New Amsterdam and New York, by Edwin R. Purple.* We suspect that this book was printed for Gilded Age Manhattan families who swirled in New York High Society circles.
* The perfect name for a writer of that genre. See “Quote or No Quote?” in the footnotes at the end of this chapter.

The Van Schaicks were indeed very early in New Amsterdam, and then Manhattan. Some branches of the family went into the Hudson River Valley, therefore the history truly develops from what branch of the family you belong within. Then, what was going on with this tale of a banking heiress and a French army officer? We came upon a well researched file about Lucretia’s father Frans DeLang, which covers this family legend. It states:

“In discussing the marriage of Joseph Doty and Geesje (Lucretia) De Long, the Doty Genealogy gives her parents as Frans and ‘Elsha’, the latter an obvious error and presumably confusion with Maritje’s youngest daughter Egge or Echa.” Lucretia’s mother was named Maritje Van Schaick.

“The story is also another of the 19th century attempts to assign a French heritage to a Dutch family. Frans was not a French officer, he was born to Dutch parents and in the new world. I doubt if Claas Van Schaick was an Amsterdam banker before emigration, and Maritje was not likely his sole heir.

“An even more inane version appears in the History of Danby (Vermont) which says Lucretia Doty was daughter of ‘Hielcha DeLong, the wife of Francis DeLong, a French officer. They say she let herself down from a two story building in Amsterdam in 1780, came to America, and settled on Long Island.’ So this puts American-born Frans in Amsterdam and eloping at the age of 99! I hope he didn’t hold her ladder.”

For an extensive history of the De Lange /De Lang / De Long family, please see the footnote for Frans DeLang at the end of this chapter. It is written by Delong family descendant Roy Delong, basing his observations on, “…the following notes from the late John D. Baldwin (50+ year Delong researcher). (Note various spellings of surname in this text…”). (7)

In the next chapter, we follow the Joseph Doty Jr. as he leaves Manhattan, and first ventures forth into Dutchess County. Then with his new wife Geisje ‘Lucretia’ De Long and their family, they settle in the oddly-named Crum Elbow Precinct in Dutchess County. Eventually, Life then takes them still further in their northward trek up the Hudson River Valley, and finally into Rensselaer County.

Following are the footnotes for the Primary Source Materials,
Notes, and Observations

Seascape

(1) — seven records

Fine Art America
Seascape Near Heijst
painting by Willem Roelofs, 19th century
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/seascape-near-heijst-willem-roelofs-1822-1897.html
Note: For the seascape image.

(DDFA)
Doty-Doten Family in America
Descendants of Edward Doty, an Emigrant by the Mayflower, 1620

by Ethan Allan Doty, 1897
https://archive.org/details/dotydotenfamilyi00doty/page/500/mode/2up
Book pages: 501, Digital pages: 500 /1048
and
https://archive.org/details/dotydotenfamilyi00doty/page/504/mode/2up?view=theater
Book pages: 505, Digital pages: 504 /1048
Note: For the texts.

U.S. Probate Records Class Handout
Under the subtitle: Distributing the Estate
https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/U.S._Probate_Records_Class_Handout
Note: To explain the role of receipts in a Colonial American Will.

Pounds Sterling to Dollars: Historical Conversion of Currency
https://www.uwyo.edu/numimage/currency.htm
Note: For the calculation of the inheritance value for Joseph Doty, Jr. from his late father’s estate when he was 21 years old.

Joseph Doty
in the Mayflower Births and Deaths, Vol. 1 and 2

https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/3718/records/37992?tid=&pid=&queryId=ab22e56d-3bb2-4c0f-b15c-cffa1c314979&_phsrc=ylI10&_phstart=successSource
Book page: 422, Digital page: 434/537
Note: For confirmation of birth date and his Will date.

Joseph Doty
in the U.S., Find a Grave Index, 1600s-Current
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60525/records/137781328
and
Joseph Doty
in the Global, Find a Grave Index for Burials at Sea and other Select Burial Locations, 1300s-Current
https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/60541/records/182712503
Joseph Doty
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/172015138/joseph-doty

Manhattan Calling

(2) — four records

A Panoramic View of New York Harbor As Seen From Long Island, 1727
by Henry Popple, and originally engraved by William Henry Toms
(who also signed it) & R.W. Seale, issued in 1733
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_New_York_City#/media/File:New_York_Harbor_Waterfront_1727_panorama_map.jpg
Note: This is an inset from A Map of the British Empire in America with the French and Spanish Settlements adjacent thereto…

History of New York City
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_New_York_City
Note: For the text.

The three map plates in this chapter are derived from the book,
The Iconography of Manhattan Island, Volume 1

by I. N. Phelps Stokes, circa 1915 —

Plate 27-A
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Print Department
A Plan of the City of New York (and) A Plan of the Harbour of New York
by Author unknown, circa 1730-35
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/IA_Query_”sponsor-(Sloan)_date-(1000_TO_1925)_publisher-((New_York)_OR_Chicago_OR_Jersey_OR_Illan)”_(IA_iconographyofman01stok).pdf
Book pages: 260-261, for map explanation

Plate 32-A
from The New York Historical Society
A Plan of the City and Environs of New York [Grim’s General Plan]
by David Grim, circa 1742-44
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/IA_Query_”sponsor-(Sloan)_date-(1000_TO_1925)_publisher-((New_York)_OR_Chicago_OR_Jersey_OR_Illan)”_(IA_iconographyofman01stok).pdf
Book pages: 270-271, for map explanation

The Burgher Guards

(3) — one record

New Amsterdam Stories
What happened to the burgher right after the English invasion in 1664? 
https://newamsterdamstories.archives.nyc/english-invasion#:~:text=The burgher right continued to, a sign of municipal identity.
Note: For research on the text.

Captain Charles Laroex’s Company of New York City Militia in 1738

(4) — four records

Journal of the American Revolution
Colonial Militia on the Eve of War, Prewar Conflict (< 1775)
by Michael Cecere
https://allthingsliberty.com/2025/04/colonial-militia-on-the-eve-of-war/
Note: For research on the text.

(NYG&B)
New York Genealogical & Biographical Society
The 1911 State Library Fire And Its Effect On New York Genealogy
by Harry Macy, Jr.
https://www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org/knowledgebase/1911-state-library-fire-and-its-effect-new-york-genealogy
Note: For the text.

Page 10 article titled Great War Marks End Of Burgher Guards, found in the
August 19, 1917 edition of The Sun newspaper.

NYS Historic Newspapers
The Sun, 19 August 1917
Article: Great War Marks End of Burgher Guards
https://www.nyshistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=suna19170819-01.1.72&e=——-en-20–1–txt-txIN———-
Newspaper page: 10, Filmstrip pdf page: 72

V. Extracts From A Work Called Breeden Raedt Aen De Vereenighde Nederlandsche Provintien. Translated From The Dutch Original by Mr. C.
A List of the Company [of Militia]
Belonging Under the Command of Capt. Charles Laroexs
https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/public/gdcmassbookdig/extractsfromwork00mely/extractsfromwork00mely.pdf
Book page: 213-214
Note: For the listing of Joseph Doty in the 1738 New York City Militia Company of Captain Charles Laroexs.

The Fires and Riots of 1741...

(5) — two records

History of New York City
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_New_York_City
Note: For various texts.

The Historical Society of New York Courts
The Evolution of Slavery, Abolition in NY, and the NY Courts,
The Lemmon Slave Case
by Hon. Albert M. Rosenblatt
https://history.nycourts.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/20200420-Lemmon-Slave-Case-Slide-Presentation.pdf
Note: For the images.

Oysters and New York’s Past

(6) — six records

Fine Art America
Slurp 
painting by Pam Talley
https://fineartamerica.com/featured/slurp-pam-talley.html?product=poster
Note: For the oyster painting..

Untapped New York
Aw Shucks: The Tragic History of New York City Oysters
by Thomas Hynes
https://www.untappedcities.com/history-new-york-oysters/
Note: For the text.

History of New York Harbor
https://www.billionoysterproject.org/harbor-history
Note: For the text.

The Oysters of New York’s Past
by Wenjun Liang
https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/1ce158b2123a4c9c9898278e98f015d5
Note: For reference.

The New York Public Library Digital Collections
Mine oysters – Dredging boats in the Chesapeake
from Harper’s Weekly magazine, March 16, 1872

https://iiif-prod.nypl.org/index.php?id=4018402&t=v
Note: For the 1872 image of the oyster farmers.

BBC
Oysters as large as cheese plates:
How New Yorkers are reclaiming their harbour’s heritage

by Anna Bressanin
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20241118-how-new-yorkers-are-reclaiming-their-harbours-heritage
Note: For the text.

Saying Farewell to Oyster Bay

(7) — eight records

Library of Congress
The Provinces of New York and New Jersey;
with part of Pensilvania, and the Province of Quebec.
by Thomas Pownall, and Samuel Holland, circa 1776
https://www.loc.gov/resource/g3800.ar104500/?r=0.402,1.183,0.673,0.371,0
Note: For sections of the map which document this family’s journey from Oyster Bay, Long Island to Rensellaer County, the Province of New York.

Encyclopædia Britannica
Pliny the Elder
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Pliny-the-Elder
Note: For the portrait.

Made In Chicago Museum
Morton Salt Company, est. 1848
https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com/single-post/morton-salt-co/
Note: An advertisement from 1917/1918, featuring the original iteration of the Morton Salt Girl and the “It Pours” slogan on the blue can.

A grain of salt”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_grain_of_salt
Note: For just a pinch of the text.

(DDFA)
Doty-Doten Family in America
Descendants of Edward Doty, an Emigrant by the Mayflower, 1620

by Ethan Allan Doty, 1897
https://archive.org/details/dotydotenfamilyi00doty/page/504/mode/2up?view=theater
Book pages: 505-506, Digital pages: 504-506 /1048
Note: For the text.

Contributions to the History of Ancient Families of New Amsterdam and New York
by Edwin R. Purple, circa 1881
https://archive.org/details/ldpd_6499396_000/page/n11/mode/2upBook page: 9, Digital page: 30/164

Professor Buzzkill podcast
Quote or No Quote? Who Said,
“If you don’t have anything nice to say, come and sit here by me”?

https://professorbuzzkill.com/2023/11/29/quote-or-no-quote-who-said-if-you-dont-have-anything-nice-to-say-come-and-sit-here-by-me/
Note 1: For the text.
Note 2: Gilded Age Society has some interesting stories —
“If you don’t have anything nice to say about someone, come sit here by me,” It was originally said by Alice Roosevelt, the eldest daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt. [From the Oyster Bay, New York social circles…]

By the time her father ascended to the Presidency, Alice Roosevelt was a prominent writer and well-known socialite in New York and Washington. According to the most solid evidence we have, what Alice said (or, more accurately, what she had embroidered on a couch pillow) was ‘If you can’t say something good about someone, sit here by me.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth

From all accounts, Alice Roosevelt was vivacious, intelligent, curious, and constantly in motion. She was known to come into the President’s office, unbidden, several times a day, to offer her thoughts and suggestions on politics and to make comments on social affairs. Apparently, this frustrated the President greatly. So much so, in fact, that, after multiple ‘Alice interruptions’ one morning, Teddy Roosevelt turned to an advisor and said, ‘I can either run the country, or I can attend to Alice, but I cannot possibly do both.’”

Frans DeLang
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/103424712/frans-delang?_gl=1*1hxjf0b*_gcl_au*MTM3MTk4NzE2Mi4xNzQ5MDYwMjEx*_ga*MTAxNTA3NTUwNi4xNzMyMjExNDYx*_ga_4QT8FMEX30*c2M1ZjIzNmVmLTZkNDEtNGRhYS05ZGEyLTQ1OTBlY2Q0OTZkOSRvNjkkZzEkdDE3NTQ3Njk1MzkkajM0JGwwJGgw*_ga_LMK6K2LSJH*c2M1ZjIzNmVmLTZkNDEtNGRhYS05ZGEyLTQ1OTBlY2Q0OTZkOSRvNjgkZzEkdDE3NTQ3Njk1MzkkajM0JGwwJGgw
Note 1: For three quotes from the text.
Note 2: The content of this extensive history is researched and excerpted from
“…the following notes from the late John D. Baldwin (50+ year Delong researcher). (Note various spellings of surname in this text…”.