Manuscript Group 651, Schuyler Family (New Barbados Neck, NJ) Papers, 1724-1885

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Manuscript Group 651, Schuyler Family (New Barbados Neck, NJ)

Papers, 1724-1885, 0.25 linear feet / 1 small manuscript box

Call Number: MG 651 + folder number

Summary

• Biographical Note

• Provenance Note

• Scope and Content Note

• Related Collections

• Container List

Summary:

Deeds and indentures, articles of agreement, wills, receipts, and  a title search pertaining to the Schuyler family and its lands in New Barbados Neck, Bergen County.

Gift of Mrs. A. Pennington Whitehead, 1966.

Biographical Note:

These papers originate from the Arent Schuyler line of the Schuyler family.  Arent Schuyler was born in Rensselaerswyck (Albany), New York on June 25, 1662 and died in Belleville, New Jersey on November 26, 1730.  Although he was a merchant by trade, Schuyler participated in the military actions against the French and American Indians in Canada in the 1690s.  He moved from New York to Pompton Plains, New Jersey, where he lived until 1710 when he bought a large farm in New Barbadoes Neck, New Jersey.  His land had a significant deposit of copper, and the family became wealthy as they started to mine the metal.  Arent Schuyler married three times: to Jenneke Teller, to Swantje Van Duyckhuysen, and to Maria Walter(s), the daughter of Robert Walter(s) and Catharine Leisler.  He had eleven children, among them were Adonijah, John, and Peter.

Adonijah Schuyler (1717-1762) received two tracts of land from his father in Elizabethtown Point, New Jersey.  John Schuyler (1708-1773) inherited the homestead and the very valuable copper mines situated at New Barbados Neck.  He was a colonel of the local militia and horse regiment in Bergen County, and in 1735-1746, served as a member of the New Jersey Council.  He died on January 12, 1773.  Peter Schuyler (1710-1762) inherited a tract of land on the Rahway River near Elizabethtown, New Jersey.  He was a commander of the New Jersey contingent in the French and Indian Wars.  Peter Schuyler had one child, Catherine, who married Archibald Kennedy.

Provenance Note:

The collection was donated to the New Jersey Historical Society by Mrs. Pennington Whitehead in 1963.

Scope and Content Note:

The papers largely consist of land deeds dating from 1724 to 1885, which document land and property ownership in Bergen County, New Jersey.  The majority of these documents record transactions between members of the Schuyler and Sandford families, the latter of whom were also landowners in New Barbados Neck.  The head of the Sanford family at the time, Mayor William Sandford, had seven male children, among whom Michael, John, Peter, Robert, and Peregrine transacted land and property contracts contained in this collection.  Property transactions of Evert Duyckinck and Anna Ten Eyck are also documented.

The legal documents of the Schuyler family relate largely to deals with Archibald Kennedy, whose family’s affairs (both in New Jersey and New York) are reflected in the documents.  The collection also contains extracts from the will of Sarah Sandford, the mother of Mayor William Sandford; extracts from legal documents compiled into a history of Schuyler’s title to the land in New Barbados Neck; and copies of the will of Philip Schuyler.

Related Collections:

Manuscript Group 10, Hornblower Family Papers

Manuscript Group 23, William Nelson (1847-1914) Manuscript Collection

Manuscript Group 94, Elias Dayton (1737-1807) Papers

Manuscript Group 905, Ogden Family (Newark and Elizabeth, NJ) Papers

Manuscript Group 1508, Stoudinger-Alofsen-Fulton Drawings

Container List:

Processed by Irina Peris, December 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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