Elizabeth Scudder Alburtus, Daughter of John and Mary King Scudder
Was the First Scudder to Marry into a Dutch New Netherland Family
and Was the First Scudder to Move to New Jersey.
Scudder Ancestress of Her Stewart and Udall Pioneering Descendants
By Margery Boyden, Scudder Association Foundation Historian
Scudder Association Foundation. All rights reserved
In the sense of being “the first to do a particular thing.” Elizabeth Scudder, the daughter of John Scudder and Mary (King) Scudder, was a “pioneer” among American Scudders when she was the first to marry into a Dutch New Netherland family. Her husband was John2 Alburtus whose parents were Pietro1 Alberti and Judith Jans Manje, documented in New Netherland by 1635 and 1642 respectively. Judith Jans Manje is considered second generation as she came with her father Jan Manje and his wife Martha Chambert.[2] A number of other Scudders later followed Elizabeth3 Scudder’s lead by marrying spouses of Dutch New Netherland descent, especially in the Scudder missionary family of New Jersey including Dr. John7 Scudder’s aunt Hannah6, siblings Eliza Ann7, Cornelia7 and Joseph7; and two grandchildren through his son Ezekiel8 who had two children who married women of New Netherland descent, as did Dr. John7 Scudder’s son Silas8 Downer Scudder. See endnote for names of many of these Dutch families.[3] No wonder there was also a strong tie to the Reformed Church of America among the New Jersey Scudders who were Presbyterians.
Elizabeth3 Scudder (John2, Thomas1 T) was the trendsetter when she married John2 Alburtus (Pietro1) of Brooklyn and Newtown, Long Island in another way. Elizabeth3 also appears to be the first American Scudder to marry someone of a different ethnic background. Her husband was the son of an Italian father, the first Italian to settle in New York,[4] and a Belgian Walloon mother who also had French in her background.[5] This gave Elizabeth3’s children a more diverse family tree, representing more different countries than any of the American Scudder family up to that time. Elizabeth3 was the first because she lived in the “melting pot” of New Netherland where from 1643, even before her birth, at the island of Manhate, (New Amsterdam) there were “four or five hundred men of different sects and nations” and “eighteen different languages” spoken.[6]
Later, as a widow, Elizabeth3 (Scudder) Alburtus again blazed the trail to do something new, for a Scudder, when in 1693 she married 2) William1 Lawrence of Middleton, Monmouth, New Jersey and became the first Scudder in the three branches of the American Scudder family to move to New Jersey.
Historical records of New York and New Jersey confirm that after 1700, a growing number of Scudders were living in New Jersey, mostly descended from two grandsons of John2 and Mary (King) Scudder, John4 Scudder and Richard Betts4 Scudder, and from some of the posterity of John2’s brother Thomas2 Scudder, Jr. of Huntington, Long Island, many of whom were important figures in defending New Jersey from the British during the American Revolutionary War. It is, however, Elizabeth3 Scudder, the daughter of John2 and Mary (King) Scudder,[8] who was the first Scudder to set foot in New Jersey in 1693 and in marrying a New Netherlander by about 1667.
Unlike many of her descendants discussed in this Summer/Fall 2021 issue, Elizabeth3 Scudder did not leave a journal or personal history to inform about her life. Her story must be reconstructed from historical sources that are available, including the town records of Newtown, Southold and Huntington and Queens County in New York, and of Salem, Massachusetts, and of Monmouth County in New Jersey. Local histories and family histories often have important facts to provide further historical context and insight, often supplying details that may otherwise be overlooked. Some of these compiled works, however, have also introduced some errors and discrepancies so it has been essential to review a variety of sources to resolve the conflicting data. Besides giving a biography of Elizabeth3, this article is also an opportunity to call attention to a few persistent errors and fiction about the Alburtus family that still circulate on the Internet or in old sources in print that more recent scholarship has shown to be in error.
This section about Elizabeth3 Scudder’s early life and her parents’ lives is abridged from the cited chapters in this author’s From Conscience to Liberty: Diverse Long Island Families in a Crucible that Gave Rise to Religious Liberty[9], from the author’s unpublished manuscripts and from articles in Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, 2019–2021. These contain citations that may be in addition to those given in this article’s endnotes. Those in yellow in this diagram highlight the relationships pertaining to this Summer/Fall 2021 issue of Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal.
Early Life of Elizabeth3 Scudder (John2, Thomas1)
The life of Elizabeth3 Scudder (John2, Thomas1 T) began at Salem, Massachusetts where her baptism is found on records of the First Church of Salem, dated 18:1 mo 1649.[10] This date is in Old Style dating from the Julian calendar and should be interpreted as 18 March 1649/50. The year 1650 would begin seven days later on March 25th, that being then considered the beginning of the New Year, a practice related to the Jewish and Christian holy days of Passover and Easter, respectively.[11] Unfortunately, the Scudder girls’ baptism dates were inaccurately interpreted in Scudder Searches[12] since its interpretation of the dates did not take into account the calendar then in use. Elizabeth3’s older brothers were born before their parents had officially joined the First Church of Salem in 1647[13] so there is no baptism date recorded for them as baptism was then reserved for children of members of their Independent (later Congregational) Church.[14] The parents were married in 1642. Later named in Newtown records as the eldest, Samuel3 was b. est. 1643 and John3 in 1645, as per his marriage license. Mary3’s correct baptism date is 4 June 1648, Hanna3’s accurate date is 19 August 1649 and Elizabeth3 is 18 March 1649/50, making Elizabeth1 the youngest which contradicts the old Scudder “T” number designations for the daughters in the family of John2 and Mary2 (King) Scudder.[15]
Originally the Scudder “T”, “J” and “E” numbers were invented to organize the many branches of the Scudder family during pre-computer days. Over time, as more original sources have come to light, birth orders of so many Scudders were discovered to be in need of changing and with computer technologies advancing, Chris Scudder, previous Scudder Association historian, moved to using the more standard numbering formats to compose family histories.
Both of Elizabeth3’s parents, John2 Scudder and Mary2 (King) Scudder, had been youthful immigrants with their parents. Although the younger generation had the same experience of leaving their homelands and making the same ocean voyage as their parents, they are not considered as the immigrant ancestors of their posterity and are included in the American Scudder (T) Line. As teenagers, both John2 and Mary Scudder were old enough to remember life in the Old Country as well as the rigors of establishing themselves anew in New England. Their parents had left England due to the religious discrimination and persecution that frustrated so many and would lead to the English Civil War.[16]
Elizabeth3 Scudder’s parents, John2 and Mary2 (King) Scudder, had been members of the Salem Congregational Church in Massachusetts colony, as was Mary2’s father, William1 King. King had been caught up in the religious excitement at Salem and Boston, and temporarily punished by the Massachusetts colony, because he was an active follower of Anne Hutchinson, the early religious reformer at Boston. William1 King later apparently “conformed” sufficiently to satisfy the leaders and remained in Salem until he died intestate in 1650, at about age fifty-five. But most of William1 King’s family, and the sons of Thomas1 Scudder, John2 Scudder, Thomas2 Scudder and Henry2 Scudder, along with other Salem families, removed to what they thought would be a more tolerant atmosphere in the British territory of eastern Long Island.[17]
The great majority of Massachusetts Bay colonists were yeomen, husbandmen, artisans, craftsmen, merchants and traders, from the middle class of England. William King had been a cooper, making wooden casks to transport commodities for the brisk New England trade. In the settlement of William’s estate, the oldest son William, Jr. was given “fourteen pounds for two oxen, in return for teaching his brothers their father’s trade of cooper.”(Records show that eventually all three brothers were coopers.)[18]
Why then would so many leave Connecticut and Massachusetts for Long Island in search of greater religious tolerance? David Hackett Fischer writes that most emigrants did not think in terms of converting others. “Mainly they were concerned about the spiritual condition of their own families and especially their children… Most immigrants to Massachusetts shared this highly personal sense of spiritual striving. Their Puritanism was not primarily a formal creed or reasoned doctrine.” Fischer quotes Alan Simpson’s phrase that it was the ‘stretched passion’ of a people who suffered and yearned and strived with an unbelievable intensity.’
That ‘stretched passion’ was shared by the great majority of immigrant families to Massachusetts. This truth has been challenged by materialist historians in the twentieth century, but strong evidence appears in the fact that most adult settlers, in most Massachusetts towns, joined a Congregational church during the first generation. This was not easy to do. After 1635, a candidate had to stand before a highly skeptical group of elders, and satisfy them in three respects: adherence to Calvinist doctrines, achievement of a godly life, and demonstrable experience of spiritual conversion.[19]
According to Fischer, the requirements were “very rigorous—more so than in the Calvinist churches of Europe. Even so, a majority of adults in most Massachusetts towns were willing and able to meet them.” Even in Salem, Massachusetts, like other seaport towns where there were lower rates of church membership, “more than 50 percent of taxable men joined the church in the mid-seventeenth century. Those who did not belong were mostly young men without property.”
This pattern of church membership reveals a vital truth about New England’s great migration. It tells us that the religious purposes of the colony were not confined to a small ‘Puritan oligarchy,’ as some historians still believe, and that the builders of the Bay Colony did not come over to ‘catch fish,’ as materialists continue to insist. The spiritual purposes of the colony were fully shared by most men and women in Massachusetts. Here was a fact of high importance for the history of their region.[20]
The religious beliefs of these Puritans were highly developed before they came to America. Revisionist historians notwithstanding, these people were staunch Calvinists.
…In summary, by comparison with other emigrant groups in American history, the great migration to Massachusetts was a remarkably homogeneous movement of English Puritans who came from the middle ranks of their society, and traveled in family groups. The heads of these families tended to be exceptionally literate, highly skilled, and heavily urban in their English origins. They were a people of substance, character, and deep personal piety. The special quality of New England’s regional culture would owe much to these facts.[21]
But these cooper sons of William King also had their “stretched passion,” and “personal spiritual striving.”William2 King, Jr. and his brother Samuel were later associated with Quakers. On 12 November 1659, William appeared before the general court at Boston with other Quakers. He was sentenced to imprisonment in the House of Corrections, fined, to receive fifteen lashes, and to be banished from the colony under penalty of death. When William returned without permission from Rhode Island, he was again brought before the court, where he apologized, and was thus permitted to remain in Massachusetts.
Migration to Southold, Long Island
After the death of William King, Sr., about October 1653, his widow Dorothy ____? King, conveyed property, and she with son Samuel2 and daughter Deliverance2 left for Southold, Long Island, to join her daughters: Mary2 (King) Scudder and husband John2 Scudder, Katherine2 (King) Swazey and husband John Swazey and Hannah (King) Brown and her husband Richard1 Brown. Dorothy’s sons, John2 and William2, Jr. remained in Salem.
By 1652, Elizabeth3’s family had moved to Southold, Long Island, by 1658 to Huntington, Long Island. Before June 1660, John2 and Mary Scudder chose to leave John2’s siblings in Huntington and the English jurisdiction to move thirty miles west to Maspeth (also known as Middelburgh), New Netherland. This town was later renamed Newtown after the English take over in 1664 and is now in Queens County. There John2 and Mary Scudder finally put down permanent roots and raised their family. Their arrival in town was only three or so years after the town was officially established by 1656. In the cases of Brookhaven, Huntington and Newtown, John2s name is on the records within about the first five years of the founding of these towns. With Salem and Southold, it was within about the first ten years of their establishment. This suggests character traits of John2and Mary Scudder which include not being afraid of hard work, resilience and bravery and not shrinking from making a change if it was right for their family. John2and Mary Scudder can correctly be considered pioneers and were sturdy enough for the difficult undertakings of repeatedly starting over in the building of their homes and farms in untamed wilderness, three times within one decade. Although John had now removed some thirty miles from his brothers, he retained contact with his family and some former neighbors.[22]
About the same time that Elizabeth3’s family had moved to Southold, in 1652 a group of “fifty-four English Calvinists from New England,” received permission from Director Stuyvesant to settle within the Dutch jurisdiction and they located between Mespat Kills and Vlissingen (now Flushing). On 11 November 1652 the land was confirmed to Robert Coe, Richard Gildersleeve and Thomas Hazard. (Coe and Gildersleeve were also patentees of nearby Hempstead in 1644.) The new jurisdiction of Middleburg included the area of the old Mespat colony destroyed by Director-general William Kieft’s tragic war in 1643/4. The 1656 tax list for Middelburgh, later Newtown, likely contains names of many of this group of fifty-four, although there were others who apparently arrived possibly from 1655. Newtown was known as Middleburgh under the Dutch, known first as Hastings under the English, and became Newtown which encompasses the area between the English Kills at Maspeth to present day Elmhurst in the borough of Queens. William Lawrence was one of these who appears on the first tax list for the town in 1656. Entitled “The Indian Rate,” it “presents a nearly perfect list of the male residents of Middleburg in 1656, four years after the town was planted.”[23]
Elizabeth3 Scudder’s family was at Mespat, part of Middelburgh, by June of 1660, as transcribed:
Elizabeth3 Scudder’s Husband, John2 Alburtus, and His Immigrant Parents
Pietro1 and Judith (Janse Manje) Alberti (Alberto) were owners of a farm on the East River at nearby Wallabout, at the time that a group of “fifty-four English Calvinists from New England,” sought to settle within the Dutch jurisdiction at Middleburgh, later Newtown.[25] Director Stuyvesant gave his permission and the company located between Mespat Kill and Vlissingen (now Flushing).[26] The settlement was near the head of Newtown Creek and less than 3 miles northeast of the Alburtus farm that was on Wallabout Bay, in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. This present-day map shows the distance:
Brooklyn Navy Yard at Wallabout Bay to the English Kills, Google Maps
John2 Alburtus would have been about nine years old at the time these English neighbors commenced their enterprise, and likely curious at their strange language and different customs. John2 Alburtus was the eldest child of Pietro1 and Judith2 Janse Manje, and only age twelve when he and his four remaining siblings were orphaned after a native uprising that destroyed their neighborhood. John2’s father Pietro1 was a native of Malamocco, Venice, Italy who jumped ship at New Amsterdam on 2 June 1635.
Elizabeth3 Scudder’s father-in-law, Pietro1 Caeser Alberto, was very possibly the first Italian to settle on Long Island, and probably in all of North America. Arriving 28 May 1635 in New Amsterdam with the ship de Coninck David, with Dutch Captain David Pietersen de Vries, he was the only Italian sailor in the crew.De Vries’ ship was a leaky craft by the time it reached the Americas, and finding insufficient facilities for repair in Virginia, had to make the unscheduled trip up the coast to New Amsterdam, in hopes of finding the much–needed skilled help among the Dutch. There Pietro1 jumped ship, having some severe differences with Captain de Vries, as revealed in a later New Amsterdam court appearance described here by Berne Pyke in his short biography of Pietro Alberto.
We first hear of him in 1639 and in an interesting connection. De Vries was back in New Amsterdam, this time not in his own ship but in a vessel of the Company.Again, he was bent on founding a colony, this time a patroonship on Staten Island. Alberto was planning a reception for him….In January, 1639 Alberto haled de Vries into court to compel payment of wages remaining unpaid from the 1635 voyage. De Vries, always belligerent, defended the suit on the ground that Alberto had deserted the ship—as indeed he had—and thereby forfeited the balance unpaid.Alberto was able to produce a witness to show justification for leaving in that de Vries had twice on the voyage threatened to set Alberto ashore, once in Cayenne and later in Virginia. The Court awarded Alberto ten guilders.[27]
Pietro1 melted into the little settlement by Fort Amsterdam. Thus, apparently “by accident,” Pietro1 began his colonial American life not in Virginia, but in what later became known as New York.
Although some may think it curious that a Venetian should be found in the crew of a Dutch vessel, during the Thirty Years War, The Republic of Venice and Holland had formed an alliance against the Roman Emperor and the Pope. The Dutch sent to Venice, a garrison of three thousand soldiers, with their own Dutch Reformed ministers. They were stationed on Pietro Alberto’s home island of Malamocco between 1630–1632, during the time that the Black Death was rampant in Venice.[28]
In only four years, Pietro worked his way from humble circumstances to economic sufficiency. On 15 Dec 1639, Pietro made a contract with Pieter Montfoort to build a house and make a plantation at the Waal-Bogt,[29] meaning “Bay of the Foreigners,” on the western edge of Long Island. The Waal-Bogt (Wallabout) part of old Breuckelen, also known as Marechkawick, was early settled by Dutch, including French-speaking Huguenots, from southern Netherlands. Pietro1 was from Venice, apparently an adventuresome fellow who left Italy with Dutch seafarers. But he planted himself comfortably among the Dutch of New Netherland, adopting their language and adapting to their way of life. Pietro married Judith Jans [Manje] in 1642 in the Dutch Reformed Church at New Amsterdam, recorded as:
1642 den 24 August, Peter Petro Alberto. J. m. Van Venetian en Judith Jans, j. d. Van Amsterdam.[30]
His 1642 marriage to Judith Jans Manje, descended of the French-speaking Walloons, but of Dutch citizenry, solidified his integration into the Dutch community. In 1644 Pietro1 still owned a lot on the Heeren Gracht (later known as Broad Street) in Manhattan. This street was also known in the records as the canal. By 1646, he no longer owned the lot.[31]
In 1643, the year that their son John2 Alburtus was born,[32] Pietro1 received a patent for the Long Island land he already occupied from the Director General and Council of New Amsterdam. In 1647 he received a neighboring tract. Pietro1’s biographer Berne Pyrke states, “The two farms had a river frontage of about 700 feet, and with the land of Michael Picet comprised the area now lying between Clermont and Hampden Avenues in modern Brooklyn. It is a certainty that Alberto was one of the first occupants of land on the Long Island shore of the East River, and he was one of the first producers of tobacco on Long Island.” Pyrke speculates, “It is a pleasing fancy that he derived his idea of becoming a tobacco grower and his understanding of the appropriate cultural practices during the month that the de Coninck David was berthed in the Virginias.”[33]
The births of the seven children born to Pietro2 and Judith were recorded in the Dutch Reformed records with their Dutch names, with at least the first two children being named in the Dutch naming pattern, for the maternal grandparents. Judith2 Jans was the daughter of Jan Manje and his wife Martha Chambart. Pyrke states that “The Manjes were probably Walloons, that ancient and interesting race of the French-speaking province of southern Netherlands, many of whom having fled into the northern Netherlands to escape religious persecution were ready immigrants to New Netherland. They constituted the first farmer element in the new province.” On the battlefield at Stamford, Connecticut in 1644, Jans Manje was one of the few Dutch casualties from Dutch Director Kieft’s Indian War, thus dying the year following the birth of his grandson Jan2 Alberto, as he was called in his baptism record. Manje gave his nuncupative will to Johannes de La Montagne, his commanding officer. De La Montagne appeared in court 11 Mar 1644 to confirm the disbursement of Manje’s property. Twenty days later Petro Cicero gave receipts, acknowledging his wife’s share of Manje’s estate.
After her husband’s death, Mrs. Martha (Chambert) Manje, John2’Alburtus’s grandmother, married Peter van de Linde of New York City. Manje’s many different spellings makes tracing him difficult.
In various branches of the family, the surname evolved from the Dutch spelling of Alberto to Alburtus and Burtus, and Burtis, and in some records as Albertis and Alburtis.
When John Alburtus was in his twelfth year, both parents died. Pyrke explains:
Both Pietro and Judith died shortly before November, 1655. From an allusion in the records to the ‘stewards of the dead and of the Indian sufferers’, in connection with the guardianship of the children, an inference has been drawn that they lost their lives in an Indian raid, to which their location on the Waal-Bogt might have exposed them.
There is no record of how the orphaned group were held together in their precarious situation following the deaths of both parents. Fifteen years or more later the records show that the daughters have married and the sons have moved from the Waal-Bogt up Newtown Creek and become established at Maspat Kills, where contact with the English community has Anglicised the Dutch given names: Jan has become John. Aert Arthur and Willem William. John, who married Elizabeth, daughter of John Scudder, early became a substantial property owner and citizen of recognized standing. Alburtis Avenue in Queens is a present day reminder of the rank of the family in Newtown two and a half centuries ago.[35]
The Orphans Court of New Amsterdam appointed two guardians, Pieter Linde (step-grandfather) and Isaac Kip (godfather for the youngest child Francyntje.) Pieter Linde declined serving due to his advanced age. A second guardian was appointed, Mr. Jacob Huges, Surgeon. But in time, he too declined. The following entry illustrates the orphans’ subsequent difficulties.
Whereas the guardians of the minor children of Pieter Cecer, alias Mallemock, dec’d. have several times complained, that there are no property or means to pay all the debts and collect what is due; that they have no money to support the children in their charge, who are often brought to their house, and whereas they have requested, that some other arrangement might be made: Therefore the Orphanmasters herewith order said guardians to take the estate, as far as it is known to them, to the stewards of the dead and of the Indian sufferers or to the Deaconry, who are to clear the estate and take care of the children. Done etc January 20, 1565.[36]
The spread of Englishmen throughout Long Island apparently did much, over twenty years’ time, to transform Pietro1’s eldest son Jan Alberto from a primarily Dutch identity, into an Anglicized John2 Alburtus, the respected farmer of the English community Newtown, Queens County, Long Island. Some kind individual, or individuals, must have intervened, as the later circumstances of the orphans seem to indicate. The father’s estate had been apparently preserved by guardians, as John2 and his siblings later sold the land in 1687 to John Damen, approximately thirty years after Pietro1’s death The children of Pietro married well and were of reputable standing in the community. The identity of the orphans’ benefactor, or benefactors, is hidden from view, but it appears they may have been raised among the English of Newtown, rather than at Brooklyn among the Dutch and Walloons, as all of the mature children lived at nearby Newtown after their majority. This is curious as they had Walloon relatives, and those originally appointed guardians were of that community. It was at Newtown that John Alburtus first appeared as an adult of record, on the Newtown rate list, 4 December 1666, having come of age. John’s property assessment value was in the top one third of the people on the list, interesting for an orphan boy just getting started.
The historical records that provide the proven facts of Pietro1’s story make it interesting enough by itself without the speculations promoted by Louis de Boer who gave Pietro1 another man’s christening date and parents. De Boer borrowed for Pietro1, the identity of Guilio Cesare Alberti, son of Andrea Alberti, Secretary of the Ducal Treasury of Venice and wife Veronica, and this error is all over the Internet. There is definitely conflicting data, for it is documented by letters he wrote preserved in the Documents in the Archives and Public Libraries of Venice, that Guilio remained in Italy where he followed in his father’s footsteps to replace him as the Venetian secretary. For example, “In May 1635, the true Guilio Cesare Alberti was serving as Venetian secretary, as his father had done. The letter is preserved in Venice’s Archives. ‘Letter dated 12 May 1635 Giulio Cesare Alberti, then the Venetian’s secretary, to Alvise Contarini, ambassador in Rome…”[37] showing Guilio was very much alive in Italy on that date, engaged in commerce as a representative of Venice. Meanwhile, New Amsterdam’s Pietro1 Alberti can be proven to be a different person by his having been documented at sea from 10 July 1634 to 2 June 1635 during which time he was a member of the crew of de Coninck David under the command of Captain David Pietersen de Vries. De Vries’s ship, with Pietro1 onboard, left Texel, Holland on 10 July 1634, to cross the Atlantic to the Wild Coast (Guiana), to the West Indies, whence he sailed up the coast to the mainland of Virginia”[38] before reaching New Amsterdam. With various records of New Netherland, and with J. F. Van Laer’s Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts and Captain “David de Vries’s Notes,” Pietro1 Alberti (Alberto) is documented onboard the de Coninck David from 10 July 1634 when it left Holland to June 2, 1635 when it docked in New Amsterdam and he parted ways with de Vries and life as a sailor.
In a suit brought by Pietro1 in January 1638 against Capt. de Vries for unpaid wages, Jacob Walingen, a fellow crew member, testified in behalf of Cicero Piere (Pietro1) that de Vries “had threatened to put Cicero Piere ashore at Cayenne and also in Virginia…” Pyrke describes the conflict between the Captain and Pietro1, who had complained about the ship’s poor and leaky condition, etc., and how Pietro1, thus feeling threatened, “jumped ship” to remain at New Amsterdam after it was finally brought safely to dock for repairs.[39]
After De Boer had created this inaccurate alliance for Pietro1 with the Andrea Alberti family, Berne Pyrke, warned about de Boer’s contortions[40] to try to justify making the sailor and New Netherland tobacco farmer Pietro1 Alberto into the Guilo Cesare Alberti of high birth. Pryke says:
Skepticism is in order when high birth is imputed to early settlers in New Amsterdam. In 1635 life was hard and drab and the rewards of effort meagre in that feeble community, struggling to complete its first decade of existence. In fact, it was doubtless one of the last spots on the planet where one should have searched for a scion of the proud House of Alberti, a notable family, of Gothic or Lombardic origin, widely spread in the South of Europe in the disturbed days of the Holy Roman Empire.[41]
It seems skepticism is indeed in order with the discovery of the letter written in Italy in May 1635 by Guilio himself, which is in direct conflict with Pietro1’s arrival in New Netherland’s harbor in May of 1635. Whether Pietro1 was “patrician or plebian,” he eventually acquired substantial acreage of land, enough to assist his orphaned children after his death.[42] Soon after John2 Alburtus became of age, a tax list of Newtown shows that he was paying a respectable rate for one so young.
On 4 December 1666 the Newtown rate list includes John2 Scudder, as well as his future son-in-law John2 Alburtus age. Scudder’s sons John Scudder, Jr. and Samuel Scudder did not appear, as they were probably not yet married, and still living at home. But other extended family members were listed, such as: Richard Betts, future father-in-law of John Scudder, Jr.; John Allen, future husband of John Alburtus’s sister Francyntje (or Francina); James Way, Sr., future father-in-law of John2 Alburtus’s brother Arthur2 Alburtus. Another future brother-in-law of Arthur’s, Jeremiah Burroughes, was brother of John Burroughs, who was also mentioned on the list.
Dated in 1667, John Alburtus purchased from Jonas Wood “of Elisebth Towne in New Jarsie,” land in Plunders Neck, adjacent to John Scudder, Richard Betts, William Britten, Robart Jackson.
Know all men by these presents that I Jonas Wood of Elisabeth Towne in New Jarsie have sold unto John Alburtus of Newtowne on Long Iland in Yorkshere a house and land liing at Mashpeth Kell which was formerly John Toes house & lo and bounded with William Brittens house lott on the south the highway on the east and north & Richerd Betts on the west & the other land lieth on the north sid of the land that was William Herichs & on the west sid of William Brittens land and an other lot lying on the west sid of the said lot which I Jonas Wood afore said have sold unto John Alburtus afore sd also a pece of medo at the South medo in plunders neck bounded with John Scuder on the south & Robart Jackson on ye north & on the west & the river on the est & by these presents I Jonas Wood have sould unto the aforesaid John Alburtus his heires sucsessors and assines the fords house & lands with all other preveledges & proffets what soever doth or may belong thereunto disclaiming any right from me or mine for ever to him the fore said John Alburtus his heires & assines for ever to have and to hold as his or there pro right of inheritance peacable to inioy with out let molestation or disturbance to the true performance hereof I do bind my self my heires & assines in witness here unto I have sett to my hand and seale this 19 day of March 1667
Jonas Wood
Sined sealed & delivered in the presents ofThis is a true copie
Jo: BurroughesBy me Jo: Burroughes
Richerd (R) Osborn Clark[44]
By 1667, Elizabeth3 Scudder married John2 Alburtus. The Scudders and Alburtus family members continued to acquire property and raise their families. The events of the tug of war over Long Island between the English and the Dutch revealed the persuasion of two of Elizabeth (Scudder) Alburtus’s brothers:
In early 1673 the startling news was received that England and Holland were again involved in a war. Just as the Dutch had surrendered New Netherlands so meekly to the Crown in 1664, now things were reversed. A Dutch squadron returning from a predatory visit to the West Indies entered New York harbor and captured the places. Although the inhabitants unexpectedly found themselves under their old masters, it was only a temporary interlude. However, during this brief period the newly appointed Dutch governor issued a proclamation to the various towns to submit to the Netherlands States-General and for the inhabitants to swear an oath of allegiance. Over a period of two months, August and September of 1673, twenty-one of the twenty-nine adult male residents of Newtown accepted the oath, some could not be found, and four scrupled to take the oath (i.e., were reluctant on grounds of conscience) but ‘promised fealty.’ The four who would not swear the oath were John, Jr., and Samuel Scudder, (John2 Scudder’s two sons) and their friends John Way and Nathaniel Pettit. Promising fealty or ‘declaring’ was the Quaker alternative for swearing under oath.[45] The colony returned to British rule within the year. The family continued to sink their roots into Newtown, and some into Jamaica and Hempstead.
At the young age of 48, John2 Alburtus died in April of 1691, having acquired a large estate at the English Kills. John2’s widow married William1 Lawrence of Middletown, New Jersey. John2 Alburtus left issue: William3, John3, Samuel3, Elizabeth3, who had married [Dr.] John1 Stewart, and Mehetable3 Alburtus who later married James2 Lawrence, son of William1 Lawrence.[46] In 1693, Elizabeth3 (Scudder) Alburtus would be the first Scudder to move to New Jersey.
Second Marriage
Elizabeth3’ (Scudder) Alburtus’s second husband, William1 Lawrence, was himself a literal pioneer by the definition of “being among the first to settle a new area.” Having just moved from Newtown, Long Island, Lawrence was one of the very first in 1667[47] to break ground and begin to build at Middletown, under the Monmouth Patent. This patent was granted April 8, 1665 by Gov. Nicholls to a group of Quakers and Baptists from Long Island and Rhode Island for the purpose of providing a safe haven from religious persecution, these men having been well acquainted with the urgent need. There is a significant story behind the goals of the Monmouth Patent and part of its impetus was the terrible persecution of Rev. Obadiah1 Holmes at Salem, Massachusetts who was a former Salem neighbor of Elizabeth3’s father, John2 Scudder. Holmes was banished in 1645. A detailed version of this story, by this author, is available in From Conscience to Liberty: Diverse Long Island Families in a Crucible that gave Rise to Religious Freedom[48] and appears more than coincidental to John2, Thomas2 and Henry2 Scudder’s decision to leave Salem and move to Long Island. As this story is outside the scope of this article, and available in context in the book, it is not repeated here. Rev. Holmes, a Baptist minister at Rhode Island and others of Rhode Island, along with his daughter Lydia and her husband, the Baptist John Bowne who were residing at Gravesend, Long Island and some of their Long Island friends, applied for the Monmouth Patent. The Baptists who moved there under the patent mostly settled at Middletown and the Quakers settled at Shrewsbury. Lawrence was a member of the Baptist congregation at Middletown.
The maiden name of William1 Lawrence’s first wife is not known by any record, but her first name was Elizabeth as shown by an early joint deed. They had eight children together before he became a widower. Lawrence had gone from a pioneering effort as one of the founders of the town of Middletown to become one of the richest men in Monmouth County. John E. Stillwell begins his chapter “Lawrence of Monmouth County,” (v. 3 of Genealogical and Historical Miscellany), by differentiating between several early Lawrence families. He states:
The one who first settled within the bounds of Monmouth County, was William Lawrence, an Englishman. He came to the Monmouth Tract in 1666, as appears in the Dialogue written by his son, William Lawrence. Nothing is known of his birthplace or parentage, if we except the single statement made by O, Callaghan that, ‘One William Lawrence, resided for a time in Newtown—a man of wealth, and of as much importance, as his cousin [sic?], (the sheriff), William Lawrence, of Flushing.*
Dec. 3, 1670 James Mills (formerly ship master and living in James river in Virginia) and william Lawrence came before mee this day to have a former sale of land made void wch is as ffolloweth…..Whereas James mills had fformerly received a bill of sale of william Lawrence sometimes an Inhabitant of Middleborough upon Long Island for his house and land there: wch said bill (beeing casually burnt by wch means the tenor and date of the said bill is unknowne: Therefore wee the said James mills and william Lawrence doe by these presents declare that all bills of sale of what tennor and date soever are by mutuall agreement of us (Viz: william and James are by these presents made void and of noe effect notwithstanding any Record in any town or court manifesting to the contrary.
In witness hereof they have hereunto sett there hands
Testified by mee JAMES MILLS
EDWARD TARTTE WILLIAM LAWRENCE
Town Book, Middletown, N. J.
Here it is distinctly set forth that he owned a house and lot in the village of Middleburgh, a Long Island village, now known as Newtown; further, the language of this memorandum suggests that, either in the Court or Town Books, there may yet remain a record of this transfer. The settlement of Middleburgh was effected, in 1652, by people from New England and the adjacent town of Hempstead. From one of these places, or perhaps from New Amsterdam, or Gravesend, L.I.,+ where the name of William Lawrence likewise appears, he may have come, but further research is needed to carry his history backward. His fellow townsman, William Lawrence, was an early settler in Flushing, whence he removed to Middleburgh. He came at the age of twelve years, with his brother, John, aged seventeen years and sister, Maria, aged nine years, to this country in 1635. They became distinguished men and their history, family and individual, has been fully dealt with by all Long Island historians.
There is a lot more available for the history of this other, different William Lawrence of Flushing and his family documented in detail in The Great Migration by the Great Migration project of the New England Historic Genealogical Society that completely distinguishes the differences between these two men who share the same name but have very different histories. [See Robert Charles Anderson, The Great Migration, v. 4, I–L, 263–268 with his brothers’ biographies preceding his.]
Stillwell continues about William1 Lawrence of Monmouth: “William Lawrence was born, by deduction, prior to 1638. He married at least twice.” Based on his name being on the 1656 Middelburgh tax list, implying that he was at least age 21, it is likely William1 Lawrence of Middletown, Monmouth was born before 1635. Stillwell provides a substantial history for him and includes a transcription of Lawrence’s will. Stillwell notes with interest the unusual antenuptial agreement for his second marriage and then says:
If other evidence was wanting the phraseology of the will would establish the fact that his present wife was one of recent date, for he returns to her ‘all and every part of the household goods and furniture’ that she brought with her, not the language he would use to a wife he had married fifty years before.
This second wife is known to have been Elizabeth, daughter of John Scudder of Newtown, L.I., whom he married in the latter part of 1693. She was then the widow of Jan Alburtis.* There appears in the Newtown Township Records, a record made in 1693, in the shape of antenuptial gift from William Lawrence to his prospective wife, wherein he deeds he a ‘house and land, at Middletowne, New Jersey, in consideration of my love and affection for her as I intend marriage with her.’
1693, Nov. 13. She assigned her power, as executrix, as give her by late husband, John Alburtis, of ye same town, to her son, John Alburtis. She affixed her mark.[49]
It is difficult at this point to resist posing this question, “Why did the widower William1 Lawrence return to his Newtown roots to propose marriage to the widow Alburtus? She would have been only about sixteen years old about the time he had removed from Newtown to New Jersey twenty-seven years earlier. The pre-nuptial arrangement and generous provisions Lawrence made for his new bride are very unusual for that era and suggest that he felt some kind of responsibility to care for her and for her minor children after John Alburtus’s death. To me, it raises another question. What was the relationship between these families at Newtown? There is no documentary evidence that reveals the answer. But, had Lawrence been somehow involved in the care of the orphan John2 Alburtus and his siblings long ago in Newtown? Lawrence did not leave Newtown until John2 was of age. Lawrence’s own busy history in Monmouth County does not suggest continuing association with the people of Newtown. Or was there some other hidden relationship to explain this somewhat curious riddle?
The children of John2 and Elizabeth3 (Scudder) Alburtus were 4th generation Scudders in America. Their histories will be included in future issues of the Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal but in summary they were:
*The history of Dr. John1 Stewart and his wife Elizabeth3 (Alburtus) Stewart and their family has enough material to fill its own volume which is in preparation by this author, but a short version will be included in a future article.
[1] A. Vanderdonck, Map of New Netherlands, 1656, https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/e99dfb50-79bb-0133-0c3b-00505686d14e.
[2] Berne A. Pyrke, “Long Island’s First Italian, 1639,” The Long Island Forum, (Reprinted from the Long Island Forum, 1943.
[3] These include Dr. John7 Scudder’s grandfather Nathaniel5’s daughter Hannah6 who married William Wycoff who was also a Van Dorn; and Dr. John7 Scudder’s older sister Eliza Ann7 Scudder who married Rev. Conover Schenck and his younger sister Cornelia7 who married Rev. Jacob Douw Fonda. Dr. John7 Scudder’s brother Joseph7 Scudder married 2) Rachel Ann de Witt; Dr. John7 Scudder’s son Ezekiel8 Carman Scudder had two sons, Myron9 Tracy Scudder and Frank9 Seymout Scudder whose second marriages were to women whose Dutch New Netherland ancestry can be traced to several Schencks and Wycoffs, and families of Strycker, Polhemous, Dumont, Van Cleef, Van Liew, Nevius, Vorhees, Hegeman, Gulick and more. Dr. John7 Scudder’s son Silas Downer Scudder married Marianna Vanderveer Conover, which name was originally Van Couwenhoven. Marianna’s lineage had Vanderveers, more Schencks, Van Dijkes, Hendricksens, and other New Netherland families.
[4] Pyrke, 3–8.
[5] Margery Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty: Diverse Long Island Families in a Crucible that Gave Rise to Religious Freedom, 1526–1664, v. 1, Part A, (Published by the author, October 2021), chapters 10–11. See book description at Scudder Association Foundation Family Store, Books, https://scudder.org/product/from-conscience-to-liberty/.
Also Pyrke, 10.
[6] Father Isaac Jogues, Introduction, Novum Belgium, 1646.
[7] Image from Middletown, Monmouth County Timeline, https://monmouthtimeline.org/category/cities-towns/middletown/.
[8] Margery Boyden and Clive Connor, “John Scudder, Son of Thomas Scudder (T) of Horton Kirby, Kent and Salem, Mass.: Married Mary King and They Were among Earliest Settlers of Southold, Huntington and Newtown, Long Island,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, Scudder Association Foundation, volume 3, no. 2, (Spring 2021), https://scudder.org/john-scudder-son-of-thomas-scudder-t-of-horton-kirby-kent-and-salem-ma/.
“John and Mary (King) Scudder: Religious Nonconformists and Pioneers of Four Towns at Long Island,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, Scudder Association Foundation, volume 3, no. 3, (Summer/Fall 2021)
[9] For Scudder history and family data pertinent to Elizabeth3 Scudder see From Conscience to Liberty, Part A, chapters 2, 7–8, 19 and family charts on pages 54, 147–149; Part B, chapters 20, 30 33 and Appendix I, family charts on 405 and 418–419 and Index. For more detailed historical context as background see chapters 5–8, 12, 19; Part B, chapters 20, 27–29, 33.
[10] Vital Records of Salem, Massachusetts, v. 2, Births, (Salem, Ma.: Published by the Essex Institute, 1918), 273. Abbreviation C.R.1 refers to church record, First Church. The dates are old style dating when the year begins March 25th. The months have often been wrongly interpreted and in old style dating mean that Elizabeth was the youngest, baptized on 18 March 1649/50 (old-style dating.) Old-style dating begins the new year officially on March 25th, but March is considered the first month. The Salem First Church states 18: 1 m: 1649 which means Elizabeth3 was thus baptized on 18 March 1649/50 rather than on January 18, 1649 as numerous sources have inaccurately interpreted, making her the youngest of John2 and Mary’s children. She therefore was baptized 7 months after Hanna was baptized 19 August 1649 (19: 6 m: 1649; Hannah was baptized about 14 months after Mary on 11 June 1648 (4 m: 1648). Image of the transcription is provided below. See also Massachusetts Vital Records, https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Salem/Images/SalemV2_B273.shtml.
[11] Samuel G. Barton, “The Quaker Calendar,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 93, no. 1, American Philosophical Society, 1949, pp. 32–39, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3143268.
[12] D. B. Scudder, “Scudder Family in America: The Beginnings,” Scudder Searches, Scudder Association, volume I, no. 2 (Summer 1989): 7.
[13] Richard D. Pierce, ed., The Records of the First Church in Salem, Massachusetts 1629–1736, (Essex Institute, 1974), 12, https://archive.org/details/recordsoffirstch00firs_0/page/12/mode/2up. After they removed from Salem by 1652, the word “removed” was entered into the record. The year 1647 refers to the year they joined the congregation.
Also, Boyden and Connor, “John Scudder, Son of Thomas Scudder (T) of Horton Kirby, Kent and Salem, Mass.: Married Mary King and They Were among Earliest Settlers of Southold, Huntington and Newtown, Long Island.”
[14] Those who had Presbyterian sentiments differed on this point, considering that “all of Abraham’s children” had a right to infant baptism and on the issue of suffrage that all freeholders should have the right to vote, not just Independents. From Conscience to Liberty, Part A, 207–208, 287 –288; Part B, other examples discussed in chapters 25–28. This was an issue that caused outmigration from Massachusetts to Connecticut and to Long Island.
[15] Janet Bitler and D. B. Scudder, “Original and Revised T Numbers: A Recapitulation, Scudder Searches, Scudder Association, volume III, no. 2, (Spring 1991), 6. Even this correction did not have Elizabeth3’s and Hanna3’s birth order accurate due to misinterpretation of the baptism dates in Old Style dating. Scudder Searches considers a 4th daughter, a Susanna Scudder who died in 1739, a very ancient woman. Without a specific record to connect her as a child to John2 and Mary Scudder, and because there were unnamed wives of Samuel3 I and Samuel4 II, Susanna is not confirmed as their child by a specific record and there is no other record of her so she is not included in this article.
[16] From Conscience to Liberty, Part A, chapters 1–8, 17–18.
[17] From Conscience to Liberty, Part B, Chapter 20.
[18] Sidney Perley, “Salem Quarterly Court Records and Files,” The Essex Antiquarian, v. 7, 26; From Conscience to Liberty, Part B, 404–405; author’s unpublished manuscript.
[19] David Hackett Fischer, Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 21.
[20] Fischer, 21.
[21] Fischer, 21–22.
[22] “John Scudder, Son of Thomas Scudder (T) of Horton Kirby, Kent and Salem, Mass.: Married Mary King and They Were among Earliest Settlers of Southold, Huntington and Newtown, Long Island, https://scudder.org/john-scudder-son-of-thomas-scudder-t-of-horton-kirby-kent-and-salem-ma/.
[23] James Riker, Jr., Annals of Newtown, (New York.: D. Fanshaw, 1852), 43.
[24] Town Minutes of the Town of Newtown, 1656-1688, v. 1, (New York: Historical Records Survey, 1940–1941), 27. Transcription was a W.P.A. project.
[25] Town Minutes of Newtown, 1656-1688, v. 1, vi.
[26] Riker, Jr., 26.
[27] Pyrke, 8.
[28] Pyrke, 6, 8–9.
[29] Dutch Manuscripts, v. 1, 12.
[30] Pyrke, 10; also “New Netherland New York Genealogy,” Church Records, marriages, Olive Tree Genealogy, https://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/church/rdcmarr1642.shtml.
[31] Henry R. Stiles, A History of the City of Brooklyn, v. 1, (Brooklyn, N.Y.: 1867), 83–84.
[32] Olive Tree Genealogy, Baptisms of 1643, “30 August; Petrus Petro Alberto; Jan; Pieter Montfoort, Abel Rederhas, Mattha Hagebaert, Marritie Frans,” https://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/nn/church/rdcbapt2.shtml.
[33] Pyrke, 9–10.
[34] Genealogical data is from: “Baptisms at the Reformed Dutch Church of New Amsterdam (1639–1730).” Pyrke, 12–13; Teunis G. Bergen, Register in Alphabetical Order of the Early Settlers of Kings County, Long Island, N. Y., (New York: . W. Green’s Son, 1881), 10; Riker, Jr., Annals of Newtown, 395–398; John E. Stillwell, Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, v. 3, 396. See also Alburtus Family Chart in From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, Part A, 270.
[35] Pyrke, 11.
[36] Berthold Fernow, ed., Minutes of the Orphanmasters of New Amsterdam 1655 to 1683, (New York: Francis P. Harper, 1902), 13. Further details in From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, Part A, 277–280.
[37] Thomas D. Hardy, Report to the right honourable the master of the rolls up the Documents in the Archives and Public Libraries of Venice, (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1866, 39). See discussion in From Conscience to Liberty, Part A, 249 fn 1 and 258, fn 31.
[38] Dates for this voyage are documented in David de Vries, “Korte Historiael Ende Journaels Aeteyckeninge,” in J. Franklin Jameson, Narratives of New Netherland, (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 199, 193–194 and in
J. F. Van Laer, ed., Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts, (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1908), 89. More details in From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, Part A, 253–258.
[39] Berne A. Pyrke, “Long Island’s First Italian, 1639,” Long Island Forum, 1943, 4–8; more detail available in From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, 249–284.
[40] Pyrke, 5.
[41], Pyrke, 5.
[42] Pyrke, 8.
[43] Town Minutes of Newtown, v. 1, (W.P.A. Project, June 1940), 79; Riker, Jr., 427.
[44] Town Minutes of Newtown, v. 1, 104.
[45] Riker, Jr., 88–89.
[46] Riker, Jr., 396.
[47] Edwin Salter, (Bayonne, N. J.: E. Gardner & Son, 1890), A History of Monmouth and Ocean Counties, embracing a genealogical record of earliest settlers in Monmouth and Ocean Counties, xxxv.
[48] Boyden, From Conscience to Liberty, v. 1, Part A, Chapter 19 and Part B, Chapter 20.
[49] John E. Stillwell,” Lawrence of Monmouth County,” Historical and Genealogical Miscellany, Early Settlers of New Jersey and their Descendants, v. 3, (New York: 1914), 396.
[50] See “John and Mary (King) Scudder: Religious Nonconformists and Pioneers of Four Towns at Long Island,” Scudder Family Historical & Biographical Journal, Scudder Association Foundation, v. 3, no. 3, Summer/Fall 2021, endnote 60 citing George E. McCracken, “William Graves of Newtown, Long Island,” The American Genealogist, volume 33, (1957), 36–44.
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