Old Dutch Church NYC
Worship and Activism Since 1656
Port Richmond Congregants: The Vanderbilts
From Indentured Servitude to the World's Greatest Fortune in Six Generations
1st Generation - Jan Aertsen Vanderbilt 1627-1705
Jan Aertsen came to New Amsterdam in 1640 at age 13. Too poor to pay his passage, with just the clothes on his back, he was indentured, 12 October, to Peter Wholfertsen Van Couvenhoven for three years.
His last name, Aertsen, indicates that his father's name was Aert. He came from De Bilt, 3 miles east of Utrecht, Holland. Economic hardship like Jan's came from a combination of the 1637 tulip crash, bubonic plague, and The 30 Years War 1619-1648.
At age 16, in 1643, after participating in Indian fighting in the area, he completed his contract, and became free. In 1650 he married Annaken Hendricks, from Bergen, Norway. In 1661 he owned a farm in Flatbush - now enclosed within Prospect Park. Their kitchen would have resembled the image to your right.
Wykoff House Museum East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Built 1650s
2nd Generation - Aris Janse Vanderbilt 1653-1715
Aris was Jan's firstborn son. In 1677 Aris married Hilletje Vanderbeek. After Jan moved to Bergen NJ, Aris and his brother, Jacob, took over his Brooklyn farm. Eventually Aris bought 60 acres of forested swampy land on Staten Island, but never moved there. He died after 1711.
Vanderbilt was a solid dutch name and common around New York Bay
Generations lived out their lives on Staten Island as farmers or tavern keepers.
The earliest Vanderbilt
baptism was entered on
21 October 1713 for
Rem Van De Bilt's
daughter
Anna with
a Jacob Vande Bilt
as witness
A Jacob Vanderbilt earmark from 1725 was renewed by his grandson, also Jacob, in 1772
Adam Mott, Clerk
Paul Micheau, Clerk
3rd Generation Jacobus 1692- 1759 Our Congregants
Jacob Van Derbilt, Aris' fifth child, and his wife Neiltje (Elenor) Denyse were the first of the Commodore's branch of the name on Staten Island in 1715. In 1721 they moved to a large tract of land at New Dorp, which Jacob had purchased from his father, Aris, on May 19, 1715 and added to in 1719.
They worshipped at our Reformed Church at services held in the Voorlezer's House, which was located near today's Historic Richmond Town. They left the Dutch Reformed Church to become Moravians when our congregation moved north in 1680, to our present site in what is now Port Richmond.
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From our Voorlezer's book.
Baptism of 4th Generation
Cornelius,
and a sister
Antje.
At one time Jacob was one of the three elders in the New Dorp Church and a liberal contributor to that institution and to a group which was instrumental in bringing other Moravians from Europe to America.
Jacob, who died in 1760, and his wife, who died ten years later, had nine children, all listed as born in Port Richmond. At the elder Jacob's death Neeltje and the large family were left an estate of some 230 acres, a good barn and a well-built house, plus equipment, animals and slaves necessary for farming; but Neeltje had the estate auctioned off and gave each child an equal share of the proceeds.
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Jacob signed a will on 10 May 1759 witnessed by a group which included our congregants, Mary and Daniel Corsen.
4th Generation Jacob Aertse Vanderbilt 1723 -1768
Second child of Jacob and Neiltje. Born on Staten Island. Jacob married Mary Sprague.
They had eight children.
5th generation Cornelius, the Commodore's father, Born May 27, 1764 - Died 1832
Eighth and youngest child of Jacob and Mary Sprague. Buried in the Moravian cemetery
Jan's fourth grandson, Cornelius, was raised in the home of an uncle where he worked for his room and board. He was still a young man at the end of the American Revolution. The war destroyed Staten Island's legal records which meant his inheritance had vanished. He had no land of his own, little to support himself, and was most likely illiterate. He nevertheless became a successful farmer and sailor who owned his own land and operated his own boat, a periauger which transported goods to Manhattan.
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