Abraham van Deusen Early New Amsterdam Leader
Dutch Colonist Owned First Mill and Served on Council
Aug 29, 2009 Rosemary E. Bachelor
Abraham Pietersen van Deusen (1607-ca.1670) was born in Haarlem, Holland to Pieter van Deusen/Deursen and Maria/Paulina Vincke, who were married there in 1591. He is believed to have come from a prosperous family with some connection to the Dutch West India Company.
Van Deusens Head for New Amsterdam
Abraham married Tryntje Melchior Abrahams (1611-1678) in 1629 at Haarlem. They had at least three children when they immigrated to New Amsterdam, probably in 1636. New York colonial documents indicate that Abraham Pietersen of Haarlem took possession of an island in Narragansett Bay near Rhode Island in 1636 for the Dutch West India Company and later records show him as owner of another island off the Atlantic seaboard.
In 1638, Abraham was referred to as the first miller in New Amsterdam. That would have been an important profession providing the means of support for a prosperous family.
Van Deusen Becomes a Leader
Van Deusen was appointed in 1641 to a council of twelve men to advise the New Netherland Director General about increasing hostilities with the Indians. This was the first, but short-lived, sign of a democratic government in New Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the council decided to wage war and the Indians tried to burn the Dutch fort down.
In 1643, van Deusen was named to a council of eight men appointed to petition authorities in Holland to send them a new Director General and some relief from their poverty and the Indian depredations. Consequently, the ineffective Director General was replaced by Peter Stuyvesant.
In 1657, this man who became ancestor of American presidents Martin Van Buren and Franklin D. Roosevelt, became a burgher, a position that once again marked him as a leader in the Dutch colony.
Line of Descent
- Teunis Mathew Abrahamsen van Deusen, son of Abraham, the immigrant, and his wife, Tryntje, was born ca. 1631. He married Helena Robberts at New Amsterdam (NY).
- Robbert van Deusen/Deursen was born ca. 1665 and in 1689 married Cornelia Martense van Buren at Rensselaer, NY; she was born at Rensselaerwyck, NY.
- Robert van Deursen (1700-1777) was born at Claverack, NY. He married Christina Roorbach in 1724 at Kingston, NY; she was born in Germany.
- Johannes van Deursen was baptized at Kinderhook, NY in 1728 and died at Copake, NY, ca. 1803. In 1753, he married Fytje Roorbach. She was baptized in 1734 in Columbia Co., NY.
- George van Deursen was born at Mt. Ross, NY, in 1757 and died at Copake, NY, ca. 1803. In 1778, he married Eva Bresee, who was born at Albany.
- Martin van Deusen was born in Copake in 1786 and died in1836. He wed ca. 1808, Elizabeth Taylor, baptized at West Copake in 1793 and died in 1816.
- Rev. Seymour van Deusen was born at Copake in 1810 and died at White Plains, NY, in 1900. In 1834, at Rensselaerville, N Y, he married Lydia Ann Mosher, who was born there in 1814 and died at White Plains in 1864.
- Mary Elina van Deusen was born at Prattsville, NY, in 1851 and died at Preston Hollow, NY, in 1876. In 1873, at White Plains, she married Albert E. Hinman, who was born at Middleborough, NY, in 1848 and died at Adams, MA, in 1889.
- Albert I. Hinman was born at Preston Hollow, NY, in 1874 and died at San Luis Potosi, Mexico, in1934. In 1897, he married Minnie W. Cline at San Antonio, TX. She was born at Cline, TX, in 1876 and died at San Antonio in 1929.
- Adolph Edwin Hinman was born at San Luis Potosi in 1903 and died at Corpus Christi, TX, in 1963. In 1926, he married Elizabeth McCready, who was born in Chicago, IL, in 1905.
- Bertha Louise Hinman was born at Houston, TX, in 1928. In 1952, she married Charles Francis Hoch, who was born at Brackettville, TX, in 1922. Bertie (Hinman) Hoch was living in Corpus Christi, TX in the 1980s when she submitted the above lineage to this writer.
Direct line male descendants of Abraham Pietersen van Deusen who still bear the van Deusen surname are eligible for membership in the Holland Society of New York.
Additional Source: Jameson, J. Franklin, Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, available as an online ebook from Project Gutenberg.
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