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Please refer to the information provided below the transcript, and in the following SUMMARY, for the most likely actual scenario based on available sources. "About the year 1756, John Tompkins, the oldest son of Baron Tompkins, left his home in the Netherlands, wishing to see the new world. He arrived in America and landed at New York, where there was a colony of Hollanders. This Colony was settled on what is now known as the Hudson river, but was then called North River. The prospective heir to a Baronetcy soon found friends among his countrymen. He formed acquaintance with Jacob Vandewater who had an only child, Magdelene by name to whom he was married about the year 1759. The following year a son was born to them, and was named Jacob. Two other children (Daughters) were born. The young couple still continued to reside with Jacob Vandewater, the daughter not wishing to leave her father who was quite an old man and all alone. About the year 1764, a letter came to John Tompkins from his home in Holland, informing him of the death of his father, and urging him to hasten home and take possession of the Estate, and assume the Tltle to which he was heir. As it was in the early part of Winter and the mother had an infant only a few weeks old, it was decided that the husband would go alone on the perilous voyage, which at that time with the slow sailing vessels would take at least four months. He would arrange his business and return or send for his wife and children. This arrangement was the more agreeable to Magdelene as she could thus remain still with her aged father. Accordingly John Tompkins sailed in the first ship that left New York bound for the Netherlands. Time passed and no letters or other news came from those who sailed in the ship. Anxiously the wife waited and watched for some account of the safe arrival of the vessel in which her husband had sailed. But no account of the ship having been seen after she left America ever reached her. After a time she wrote to her husband's family, but received no reply. And the years passed, her time being fully occupied caring for her aged father and fatherless children. She never married. Her father being one of the large landowners, her needs were well supplied. He owned a block of land six miles square on which a part of the city of New York now stands. During the Revolutionary war, her son then a lad of sixteen years, was drafted into the British Army and served seven years as a british soldier. About the year 1784, a portion of the Army was mustered out at the City of St. John in the Province of New Brunswick, and were given lands to settle upon, and one year's provisions and some farming implements. The lands were surveyed along, and fronting on the banks of the St. John river, and running three miles back from the river. Jacob Tompkins was among those who were given land in Carleton County, about 140 miles above the mouth of the river, and 50 miles above Fredericton, the Capital of the Province of N.B. He wished to return to New York to see his mother but his comrades persuaded him to accompany them up the river and make a beginning on the land granted him, assuring him he could go to see his mother the following year. He yielded to their entreaties and ascended the river and made a beginning on the land; built a house and secured a title and made a home among his comrades. Having made acquaintance with some other settlers, he postponed the visit to New York year after year. Although his mother wrote urging him to come to her, he still said he would go next year. In the year 1785, he married a Miss Mary Place and settled contentedly on the farm. His mother wrote many letters imploring him to come to her and promised him a competence if he would only return to his home. And he promised he would go next year. In this manner the years passed, and each year found his cares increased so that he could not leave his family. Ten children were born then his wife died. He married again, a Miss Connors, of Queens County, N.B. Three children came of this last marriage. His mother died pronouncing his name with her last breath. Although she never really possessed the title, she was called among her people in New York "The Baroness Tompkins" until her death. Elizabeth Barbara, second daughter of Jacob Tompkins, married James Sharpe(sic) of Northampton Carleton Co. Sept. 4th 1810. James Sharpe(sic) was drowned July 11th 1845. Elizabeth his wife died Feb. 27th 1859. Jacob Tompkins died Oct. 1843." |
RIGHT: The headstone on Jacob Tompkins' grave at the Northampton Kirk Cemetery, Carleton County, New Brunswick reads "In memory of / JACOB TOMPKINS / DIED / April 14, 1842 / aged 83 years / Whosoever believeth in me shall / not perish, but have eternal life"The following information is taken from available records (where known, the spelling from the original documents is shown):-
(a) Magdalena, daughter of Thomas Lieuwis and Anna Maria Van den Berg, was baptised on Sept. 11th, 1723.
(b) Casparus Westervelt, widower, married Magdalina Luis, widow of John Thompkins, on July 19th, 1767.
(c) One record states that in 1766 Magdalene Luis Tompkins, "wife of John Tompkins", joined the same church as Nellie Sypher, mother of Lodowick Sypher. If this is correct, then John Tompkins must have died (or been declared dead) in 1766 or 1767 for Magdalena to be called a widow when she married Westervelt in 1767 - refer (b) above.
(d) Johannis (=John), son of Zacharia Hille and Marytie Tonkins, was baptised Sep. 23rd, 1770 with Lodewyck Sypher and Cellie (=Sarah) Tonkins as witnesses.
(e) Lodewyk Seyfer married Sara Tonkins (marriage banns registered on Dec. 21st, 1770).
(f) Urya (=Uriah or possibly George), son of Zachariah and Mary, was baptised on Sep. 14th, 1772 with Tommie Lewis and Elizabeth Tonkins as witnesses.
(g) John Tomkins Sypher, son of Lodwyck Sypher and Sara Tomkins, was baptised Aug. 28th, 1774 with Petrus Weaving and Elizabeth Tomkins as witnesses.
(h) Magdalena, daughter of James Hill and Elizabeth Tomkins, was baptised on March 28th, 1777 with Jacob Tomkins and Magdalena Westervelt as witnesses.
(i) Lydia, daughter of Zachariah Hill and Mary Tomkins, was baptised the same day, March 28th, 1777 in the same church (no witnesses listed).
(j) A "Hill Family" book by Franklin Crouch (date unknown, but probably early 1900s) states that two sons of Uriah Hill married Tompkins girls - James married Elizabeth, daughter of John Tompkins of Dutchess County, NY (date not given) and Zachariah married Marytie (Maria), daughter of John and Magdalena (Lewis) Tompkins on Aug. 20th, 1769.
An extensive history of the Lewis family (Magdalena's ancestors) published in the "NY Gen. & Biog. Register" tells of Magdalena's great-grandfather, Thomas Lewis, being born in Belfast, going to Holland with two sisters (who died there), then sailing to New York. He married and had four sons. Over a period of years, members of the family went back to Ireland; one died at sea; there are stories of unanswered letters; finally an estate in Belfast is claimed by the oldest heir - one Barent Lewis (not quite a Baron Tompkins, but ....).
The point made here is that while many of the salient facts in Rebecca's "chronicle" have proved to be accurate, it may well be that she actually confused the doings of her forebears, attributing the deeds of one person to another. A first-hand example I can quote concerns my own father, Eric Allan Tompkins - he always maintained that his grandfather, Joel Smith Tompkins, came out from Canada on the ship "Maryanne". This later proved to be incorrect - Joel actually travelled on the Brig "AUSTRALIA" (especially fitted out for the gold-fields). We later learned that my father's maternal grandfather, Henry West, travelled out from England in 1854 on a ship named "Maryanne" . So my dad's information was right - up to a point - it just concerned the wrong grandfather!
Until quite recently, I had believed that Jacob's father, John Tompkins - with such an English name - just had to be English. Therefor, I doubted what Rebecca had written about our forebear John Tompkins being Dutch. But the following information has come to my attention.
Another hand-written "chronicle", this one sent by Ada Glasier Brown Grant to Marie Dow Armstrong Corbet (both descendants of Jacob) in 1933, states: "Your father's mother [Adelaide Tompkins] was a double cousin** to my mother [Maria Tompkins], their fathers [Aaron and William] were sons of a Mr. Tompkins [Jacob] who "came from Machias". He was Dutch, whence the short, clear-skinned, sandy-haired descendants".
**They were double cousins because two sons of Jacob Tompkins, Aaron and William Tompkins, married two sisters, Elizabeth ("Betsy") and Bathsheba Young, daughters of Joel Smith Young.
And in "The Book of Dow", published in 1929, compiler Robert Piercey Dow, in discussing the pioneer families along the Saint John River in New Brunswick on page 692, mentions the Teeds and Dickinsons in Lower Woodstock, the Brooks family at Southampton, the Phillips and Kearneys at Northampton and the Ways and Hillmans in Temple four miles below. He goes on to state, "The Tompkins, in spite of name, were a German family and came later, as did the Lutwicks". It seems that there was no real effort to differentiate between things Dutch and things Deutsch/German around that period - the term Pennsylvania Dutch for example initially referred to a German dialect, not to anything Dutch.
Further points of interest arise from the two previous paragraphs. That the Tompkinses "came later" is correct - Jacob didn't receive his land-grant until 1796, yet he'd received his discharge in 1783! Although his name appears in various records in the intervening period, just where he lived in the dozen or so "missing" years is a mystery. Maybe he spent time across the ill-defined border between New Brunswick and Maine - perhaps in the Machias area?
That's probably enough for people to ponder on for a little while, but I'll add one further transcript to support at least some of what's been stated above -
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When I originally set this page up in March, 1998, I intended adding here a list of Jacob's descendants, but I then decided - again because of download considerations - to actually prepare a separate webpage listing the first three generations of descendants (lifted straight out of my 1988 publication TOMPKINS FAMILIES OF CARLETON COUNTY, NEW BRUNSWICK) - click HERE to go there!.
Much of the material I have concerning the various Tompkins families of New Brunswick came from Stanley Corey of Green Valley, Arizona. Stanley, the doyen of New Brunswick researchers, sadly passed away in February, 1998 on his 90th birthday. Many of you will know of Stanley's work gathering information on the Tompkins (and other) families of Carleton and York Counties, New Brunswick.
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