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John ProvostFrom The Peopling of New York CityJohn ProvostThrough my research at the New York Public Library, I was informed that the Provost family is one of the most prominent Dutch families and they have spread throughout the world. Through the genealogical database my research enabled me to come to the realization that among the common first names in the Provost family or Provoost family are John, James, and David. [1] This is so because of the Dutch tradition of naming children after their ancestors in order to honor and respect them. Therefore it is obviously difficult to deduce and find the one who I was looking for. But after comparing possible years of births and deaths, in relation to the slave conspiracy of 1741 as mentioned by Lepore, I concluded on one of the several thousand John Provost on the basis of the available information provided by Lepore. The Municipal Archive recorded that John Provost, also known as Johannes Provost was born on 28 Dec 1707 in Oyster Bay, Long Island, New York and died in 1781. Further I was able to come across the document that specified the marriage of John Provost to Elizabeth Youngs in Heampstead, Queens, New York on 23 May 1736.[2] They had two children, Samuel provost and Daniel provost. Through my research, I found that majority of the Provost family resided in New Jersey, and this is true up to today. John Provost obtained nearly 500 acres of land on Raritan Bay from the New Jersey Colonial Assembly.(Refer to map) To my surprise, after my trip to NYPL and finding out that Mr. Provost was born in Oyster Bay, LI, I was able to visit Oyster Bay along with my family the following week. Unfortunately I was not able to find any geneological center where I could have found any information on Mr. John Provost. While going through the information available at the New York Public Library, I followed the Provost family: Following their marriage, John Provost and his wife went to Stamford and resided there, and probably lived on the land that Elizabeth inherited from her father John Youngs. Being a wealthy landlord, John Provost was one of the members of the jury during the Horsemanden trials who were against the slaves and provided evidence that led to the atrocities that were done to the slaves.[3] Based on my previous journey into the life of lawyer John Chambers, it could be concluded that John Provost is one such landlord to whom Chambers was giving a fair chance to be a part of the jury. Although I was able to conclude that like any other member of the Provost family, John Provost was also an heir to a significant amount of property and wealth, it was difficult to locate much information on him. “We can learn little of the subsequent history of John and Elizabeth Provost…” but this slaveowner has also been elusive to the world, and still only very minimal information is available on them. References
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