Adoniah Schuyler

From The Peopling of New York City

Adoniah Schuyler

Adoniah Schuyler was a Dutch immigrant with 40 pounds wealth with no party affiliation. He was a slave trader in the East Ward. His slave, Lewis, was ultimately transported. (Based on Horsemanden's journal, Lewis was transported to Madeira.^[1]

During my preliminary research, searching for Adoniah Schuyler caused some frustration. Whenever I thought I found some good information on him, I would find the same information somewhere else but with contradictory statements. For example, I found an Adoniah Schuyler who was born in 1717 and died in 1763. His father was Arent Philipse Schuyler and his mother was Jenneke Teller. However, I found elsewhere an Adoniah Schuyler with the exact parents yet the birth year was 1705 and and the death year was 1763. To top it, I found other Adoniah Schuylers too. Basically, this guy was annoying. Also, I was not able to utilize the newspaper articles I found that spoke of an Adoniah Schuyler during eighteenth century until I found specific information on the Adoniah I was searching.

After searching some more on the New York Public Library's databases, I concluded the following: although there were many birth years for Adoniah Schuyler, his parents were either Arent (Philipse) Schuyler and Jenneke Teller or David (Pieterse) Schuyler and Anna Bratt. In some places, it said that the wife of Arent Schuyler was Swantje Dyckhouse (alternate spelling: Swantie van Duyck Huysen).^[2]

With the following approach I finally was able to figure out who the "real" Adoniah Schuyler was. I realized that looking for a specific piece of information that corresponds to the given facts about Adoniah in New York Burning was not the right approach for Adoniah Schuyler. Therefore, although there were many many files on Adoniah Schuyler and there seemed to be a lot people with the same name at the time, I decided to compare all the information side by side. After doing so, I concluded that there seemed to have been only 2 different Adoniah Schuylers with a lot of their information recorded incorrectly which led to a lot of confusion and many different files on them.^[3]

The first Adoniah Schuyler, who I thought was the person Jill Lepore was referring to, was an Adoniah Schuyler with the father Arent Aschuyler. The second one was an Adoniah Schuyler with the father David Schuyler. The many different files resulted from many different birth years recorded and the different names of the mother of the first Adoniah Schuyler. The birth years for the first Adoniah Schuyler ranged from 1705 to 1720 with most of them around the year 1708 and a few at 1717. The birth years for the second Adoniah Schuyler ranged from 1720 to 1727 with most at 1726. I decided that it was probably the first person I would deal with since the second Adoniah Schuyler would have been about 15 years old in 1741 and I am assuming that a 15 year old probably did not have his own slaves or have had a significant influence. With this solved, I finally was able to go on with my research on Adoniah Schuyler.

Adoniah Schuyler was born around 1706 in Elizabethtown, Essex Co., NJ (or New Barbados, NJ) and died Elizabethtown in May 1762 (or sometime in 1763). His father is Arent Philipse Schuyler and his mother is Jenneke Teller, also named Swantje Dykhouse (later when I visited the New York Historical Society I found that they are not the same person). Adoniah Schuyler was married to Gertrude Van Renesselaer (or Gurtruy or Geertruy) in 1734 or 1740 in Albany, NY. His children were Ranslaer, Mary, Swan, John, Peter, Adoniah, and Philipp.^[4]

After figuring out which Adoniah Schuyler I was dealing with, I was able to re-check the newspapers bearing the name I found on the American Historical Newspapers database at the New York Public library. I found an article, titled Receiver -General's Office, in Wall Street, that attributed a piece of land in Albany county to Adoniah and his sons. I also came across a few advertisements about the selling of Adoniah's property after his death. Two of them had the date 03-14-1763 and one was dated 04-25-1763 which was by his very one wife, Gertrude Schuyler. Therefore, it was certain that Adoniah Schuyler died before March 14, 1763. Based on these advertisements, it seemed that Adoniah Schuyler was quite wealthy. He had a new Stone Dwelling House of 2-stories high, a barn, an orchard, out-houses, a ferry, and about 50 acres of land.^[5][6][7]

After visiting the New York Historical Society, I was able to compile a significant amount of information on Adoniah Schuyler's father that explains how Adoniah Schuyler obtained the status and wealth he had in New York. Adoniah Schuyler's father, Arent Schuyler, was the 4th son of Philip Schuyler and Margarita van Slichtenhorst. He was born in Beverwyck on June 25 1662. He received a sufficient education for a business life and that's what he did. On November 26, 1684 he married Jenneke Teller, daughter of William Teller who emigrated from Holland in 1693 and had settled in Albany and was employed by the Dutch West India Company.^[8] After his marriage, Arent and his wife made a joint will, written in Dutch, that is still preserved in Albany today. Later, he was commissioned a captain and at times was active in politics as well. He also dealt a lot with the Indians of New York. For example, Arent commanded a militia in February 1693 when the French and Indians were driven from the Mohawk couny by Major Peter Schuyler. After being militarily active, he moved from to New York to Pompton.^[9]

After Jenneke Teller died in 1700 he marred a second wife, Swantje Dyckhyse in 1703 and made a second will which would divide his estate among all his children.^[10]He lived in Pompton until 1710 when he moved to a large farm he purchased from Isaac Kingsland on New Barbados Neck, east side of Passaic River. On this property, a negroe slave discovered a copper mine which made him extremely prosperous. He built a house and bought even more lands. Later, he gave this land to his eldest son, Philip. The lands he bough near Bordentown were given to his second son, Casparus. Lands on the Rahway at Elizabethtown were given to his son, Pter. Houses and lots in New York City were given to his daughters, Even and Cornelia. The homestead, with ists lands and parks, were for John. Finally, the lands at Eliabethtown were given to his son, Adoniah.^[11]

After his second wife died, he married a third wife, Maria Walter, daughter of Robert Walter and granddaughter of Jacob Lesler,^[12] and made a third will. With this third will, he gave to Adoniah his large house and tract and pieces of land, and the house and small pieces of land at Elizabethtown Point" which was on top of the previous lands he received. Additionally, ohn, Peter, and Adoniah would obtain the profits of the mine equally.^[13]

Adoniah Schuyler left the copper mine to be managed by his brother. Instead, he established himself as a merchant in New York City where he acquired great wealth and obtained a high social position. He later increased the value of his large estate at Elizabethtown Point by establishing a ferry to Staten Island.^[14] This led to the establishment of Staten Island Ferry Co.^[15]

It was said that Adoniah Schyler's slaves were so fond of him that they refused their freedom when Adoniah offered to let them go.^[16]He died around May 1762 leaving 7 children. Two of his sons, Renssalaer and Adoniah entered the British services. Renssaelaer became lieutenant in the British army and Adoniah,, who married Susan Shields of England became midshipman in the British navy and rose to the rank of captain. His other children were Mary, who married Captain Henry st John of the British navy, Swan, John, Peter, and Philip. His widow later married Robert Lvingston.^[17]Addtionally, from Adoniah descentds a distinguished naval captain: Captain Arent Schuyler Crownshield.^[18]