Manuscript Group 77, Catharine Brinckerhoff (d. 1828) and George Brinckerhoff (d. 1827) Copybook, ca. 1765
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Manuscript Group 77, Catharine Brinckerhoff (d. 1828) and George Brinckerhoff (d. 1827) Copybook, ca. 1765, 0.1 linear feet / 1 volume
Call Number: MG 77
A copybook of poems.
Included is a poem by Catharine Brinckerhoff entitled, “Lavinia – A
Pastoral.”
Bequest of Ruth E. Fairchild,
1922.
The copybook seems to have been prepared
by Catharine and/or George Brinckerhoff, two of the six children of Catharine
Van Wyck and Richard Brinckerhoff of New York City.
Catharine Brinckerhoff married Harvey
Peters, also of New York, and resided in that city until his death in
1827. She then moved to Parsippany, New Jersey to be near her brothers
family. She died a year later in September of 1828.
George O. (also identified as D. or C.)
Brinckerhoff left New York as a young man and relocated to Mount Hope, New
Jersey. Once there he went into the iron and mining business with his
brother-in-law John Jacob Faesch. He married Euphemia Ashfield on January
12, 1793 and they had two daughters, Eliza and Euphemia Maria. The family
soon moved to Parsippany, New Jersey in 1797 where George Brinckerhoff was
appointed Parsippanys postmaster in 1817. He died in 1827.
The copybook was donated in 1922 as a
bequest by Ruth E. Fairchild, who was married to Dr. Richard Van Wyck Fairchild,
the grandson of George O. Brinckerhoff.
This volume seems to be the copybook of
George and/or Catharine Brinckerhoff. Though the inscription on the cover
of the book reads, “George Brinkerhoff 1765,” there is an entry near
the beginning of the volume that reads, “Composed by Miss Catharine
Brinckerhoff.” The book contains the copied poems of many different
authors and it is unclear whether George copied Catharine’s poems into the book,
or whether she owned the book herself. Either way it belonged to the
Brinckerhoff family.
The inside page of the copybook reads,
“Select pieces, Select Book pieces” and the volume itself contains
elegies, epitaphs, hymns, and satires. These pieces are written by such
authors as Langhorn, Milton, Gray, Young, Goldsmith and Homer. The only
date in the volume is the one on the cover, 1765.
Manuscript Group 65,
Ciphering Books: Includes a book belonging to Elizabeth Susan
Brinckerhoff of New York
Manuscript Group 868, Euphemia Maria
Brinckerhoff (1796-1882) Cipher book
Processed by Kim Charlton, November 1999 as part of the “Farm to City”
project funded by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission.
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