Skillmans of America

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Chapter 3: The Record, Vol. XXXVII, Jul., 1906, pp 167-173

(Continued from Vol. XXXVII, p. 96, of THE RECORD.)

9. BENJAMIN³	12. JACOB⁴	15. THOMAS⁴
10. JOSEPH³	13. BENJAMIN⁴	16. BENJAMIN⁴
11. OSIE⁴	14. JOHN⁴	17. JOHN⁴

George⁴ Skillman (No. 20), b. 1747, named at the close of the previous paper, it may be added, was the writer's great-grandfather. His full record will be given in due order. The names of his two uncles, his father's younger brothers, added, close up the present or third generation, and we then enter upon the fourth.

9. BENJAMIN³ SKILLMAN

(Thomas,² Thomas¹), b. 1710 bap. in Brooklyn. He was sponsor at the bap., 1737, in N. Y. (Ref. Dutch Church) of Hendrick V. de Water, 9th child of his sister Ann. With his brothers Abraham and Jacob, he was appointed executor of his father's will of 1739. His name also with Abraham's appears in a list (Newtown, May 26, 1755) of "owners of negro slaves." Benjamin's home from birth was the ancestral "stone house" (see Ante) of which the northwest corner, when the old Dutch Kills road (later, School Street, Brooklyn) was widened, jutted into the highway. These 78 acres fell to him as his share of his father's property, and this farm he sold, April 11, 1764, to Abraham Polhemus, (the deed being witnessed by Thomas,⁴son of Abraham³ Skillman), and removed to Kingston Princeton, N. J. Benjamin m. about 1731, Margaret, dau. of Samuel Coe and Margaret Van Zandt, his wife. Margaret Coe's grandfather, Capt. John Coe, was son of Robert,² and grandson of Robert¹ Coe, who, b. 1596, came from Norfolk, Eng., in the ship Francis to Watertown, Mass., in 1634, and to Boston the same year. (Huntingdon's Hist. of Stamford). The son Robert removed to Hempstead, L. I., in 1644, then to Jamaica in 1656, and finally to Newtown. Sam'l Coe, Margaret Skillman's father, removed to Haverstraw, N. Y., and d. there in 1742. By will, dated May 11, 1741, he left "Margaret, wife of Benj. Skillman of Newtown" £40.Benj. Skillman d. 1783, his wife earlier. By his will, June 5, 1777, probated Jan. 31, 1784, Jacob Skillman, Jr., Wm. Badcock, and Lemuel Scudder (great grandfather of the writer) witnesses; two sons and six daughters are named. Children of Benjamin³ Skillman and Margaret Coe his wife:

21	i.	Samuel⁴ b 1732.
	ii.	Ann, b. 1735, and m. at Dutch Kills her own cousin, Benjamin, 2nd son of Isaac of Harlingen, Somerset Co., N.J. He afterward was farmer and inn keeper for many years at Griggstown N.J. Ann d. March 3, 1795, and her remains lie in the Beekman burying ground at Griggstown. They had four sons.
	iii.	Margaret, b. 1737. To her was bequeathed, as to each of her six sisters, £6o, by the will of 1777 of the father.
22	iv.	Thomas, b. 1739.
	v.	Elizabeth, bap. Oct. 4, 1741, at Newtown Dutch Ref. Church, by Domine Johannes Henricus Goetschius, Abraham, Benjamin's elder brother serving as one of the sponsors, and the babe's grandmother, Annetje Aten, as the other.
	vi.	Mary, b. 1743.
	vii.	Sarah, b. 1745.
	viii	Mercy, b. 1747.

10. JOSEPH³ SKILLMAN

(Thomas,² Thomas¹), b. 1712; record of bap. is non-extant. Joost, as he was called, was lame in one of his feet from childhood, and much kept within doors at home in his youth, and yet had spent apparently a rather robust out-of-door life for sixty years. He was "a farmer" in Bushwÿck (heart of Brooklyn today), Skillman Street getting its name from this family, and the farm on which he spent his life he gave at death to his 4thson, John, by will of Oct. 1, 1767, probated April 18, 1772. The witnesses to this will were William Craambos, Peter Vandewater and Jno. Roosevelt, the executors being Sarah, his wife, Jacob Messerole, his brother-in-law, and his friend Theodorus Polhemus. By this will other small lots of land in Bush-wick were bequeathed to his son Joseph, and varying sums of money to each of the remaining members of the family. To his wife (who survived him), the testator devised "also the use of my negro Tom to wait on her during her life." All the heads of families of this generation of Skillmans were probably owners of slaves, though they never called them such; Abraham and Benjamin as well as Joost or Joseph were, and quite certainly the others. Thomas,² their father, in his will of 1739, gave his executors full power "to sell my negro man Sam and my negro woman Dorcas, as soon as convenient after my decease." In 1735 Joseph m. Sara dau. of Jan³ Messerole and Elizabeth his wife, of Bushwick. Sara was sister of Isaac Messerole who m. Catharine Skillman, the dau. of Abraham, Joseph's elder brother. Isaac and Sara here were grandchildren of Jan² or Jean Messerole, Jr., the "sucking child" (and only son) of Jean Messerole and Jonica, his wife, brought with them in 1663 from Picardy. Their grandmother was Maritje Coevert. Children of Joseph and Sara (Messerole) Skillman:

23	i.	Thomas,⁴ b. 1736.
	ii.	William, b. 1739? Governor Clinton (Dec. 22, 1780) p1edged the faith of his State (N. Y.) to persons advancing money for American prisoners (Rev. War) on Long Island. Of those who made the advance or cashed these pledges, never perhaps expecting a return, were Thomas Skillman and William Skillman, first of that forename in the family. There were 149 men of Long Island on this roll of honor, and all were paid eventually (1785 ?). (See N. Y, in Rev. as Col'y and State. Supplementary Vol. 2, p. 169). Undoubtedly William belongs in this family, but he has no further record.
	iii.	E1izabeth, b. 1741; m. May 28, 1762, her cousin, Albertus Van de Water, son of Hendrick and Annetje (Skillman) Van de Water of N.Y. City; was sponsor at bap, July 17, 1767 (Ref. Dutch Church, N. Y.) of Abm., son of Jeremia Brouwer and his wife Elizabeth, sister of Albertus. At same church their own dau. Petronella, was bap. Jan 27, 1775, "Lucas C. Quik en de moeder er getuigen" (witnesses).
	iv.	Sarah, b. 1743; m. (1) Oct. 13, 1762, John Hubbard; m. (2) March 26, 1773, Rich'd Smith; m. (3) March 23, l776, James Brush, of Huntington, L.I.
	v.	Mercy, b. 1745; m. June 19, 1773, William Conselyea, descendant of Jan de Conchilier, immigrant from Holland with wife and five children in 1662. (Doc. Hist. N.Y., Vol. III., p. 33).
24	vi.	Joseph, b.1748.
25	vii.	John, b. 1750.
	viii.	Antje or Anna Maria, bap. at Flatbush, Oct. 22, 1752, dau. of "Joost Skillman en Sara Miserol;" m. Sept. I, 1773, Benj. Brush of Huntington, L. I.

This closes our record of the third and brings us in proper order to the fourth generation of the descendants of Captain Thomas Skillman of Newtown, L. I. (Maspeth or Dutch Kills) and Sara Petit, his wife, and of their only son, Thomas and wife Annetje Aten.

11. OSIE⁴ SKILLMAN

(Jan,³ Thomas,² Thomas¹) b. 1730; m. (2nd wife) John Doughty, b. June 4, 1709. The Doughtys (Dotey, Doten) were from Cape Cod, descendants of Edw'd Doty of the Mayflower Company who m. Faythe Clark, b. 1619. Their son, Sam'l Doty, b. at Plymouth "on the High Cliffe," 1643; m. Nov. 5, 1678, Jane Harmon. Their son, Sam'l, b. 1679, m. 1700 (Piscataway, N. J.), Elizabeth, dau. of Sam'l Hull (son of Hopewell Hull) and Mary Manning, dau. of Joeffrey and Hepsaba Manning. John Doughty (he preferred Doty) was their 4thson. He and wife Osie Skillman lived at Basking Ridge, N.J. They had:

i.	Thomas Doughty, b. 1750; m. a Skillman and had ten children. A blacksmith, he removed to Farquier (or Culpepper), Co. Va., and 1805 to Kentucky, and there d. 1841, æ 90 years. His 5th child, Osie, m. Patrick Brady in Virginia, and his third child, Skillman Doughty, removed from Kentucky to Abingdon, Ia., where a dau. of the latter, Susan Doughty (1901) still lives.
ii.	Skillman Doughty, b. Oct. 17, 1755 at Basking Ridge; m. there Hannah Hayden, b. Dec. 4, 1762, and had five children. In the Rev. War he was in a Militia Regt. of Somerset Co., and also artificer in the Quart. Mast. Gen's Dept. Removed, 1810, to Romulus, N. Y., and d. there, 1840; wife 1850.

12. JACOB⁴ SKILLMAN

(Jan,³ Thomas,² Thomas¹), b. 1736. In will, 1772, item, to my loving son, Jacob, £100, and my negro wench, Dinah." With "Thomas Skillman, of Kingstowne" (brother-in-law) appointed executor; paid taxes (1790) on 200 acres in Amwell, Hunterdon Co., N. J.; afterward "removed to some German Settlement, near Allegheny Mts. Penn;" and later appears with family among early pioneers of Ohio (Miami Valley). He and wife Massa (Mercy?) had four sons. Other children may have remained in the east. These four sons were:

26	i.	Isaac,⁵ b. 1770.
27	ii.	Benjamin, b. 1776.
28	iii.	Jacob, b. 1778.
29	iv.	Abraham, b. 1782.

13. BENJAMIN⁴ SKILLMAN

(Jan,³ Thomas,² Thomas¹), b. 1740, and his mother's will (1772) gives "two sheep to him and his assigns forever." He paid tax on 220 acres (1790) at or near Mt. Airy, Hunterdon Co., N. J. Had:

30 i. Benjamin,⁵ b. 1773.

14. JOHN⁴ SKILLMAN

(Jan,³ Thomas,² Thomas¹), b. 1742, and, grown up, purchased or inherited the home-farm (253 acres or 1/2 the tract bought by his grandfather Thomas² for his father Jan³ and his uncle Isaac.³ This he sold April 30, 1768 (deed witnessed by Thomas⁴ Skillman, cousin, and Edw'd Van Harlingen), to Roelif Van Dyck for "£300 current money of the Province," and then with family removed to Loudoun Co., Va., (near present Leesburg). In 1763, John Skillman m. Catharine, dau. of Christopher Beekman and Sarah Cox, his wife. This Christopher Beekman was 3d son of Christoffel Beekman (son of Gerardus of Flatbush) and Maria de la Noy (b. Jan. 4, 1681; m. Jan. 28, 1704). Catharine's father d. at his home, near Griggstown, of smallpox, and Sarah, her mother, being made a widow, in 1766 became the 3d wife of William Allen, with her five Beekman children besides Catharine. All these Beekmans and Allens with other families, under the lead of John Skillman, after the sale of his farm, removed to Virginia, as said, the next year, 1769. William Allen d. and John Skillman was the executor of his estate, and a few years later, near the outbreak of the Rev. War, he himself died, his will being proved Feb. 10, 1777. The property was left to his wife "for the benefit of our Child'n." In the course of time the widow m. Jesse Edwards and by him had five other boys and girls. The children of John Skillman and Catharine Beekman his wife, in addition to a dau. who m. a Hegeman and removed to Evansville, Ind., were these five sons:

31	i.	Christopher,⁵ b. 1767.
32	ii.	Abraham, b. 1768.
33	iii.	John, b. 1770.
34	iv.	Isaac, b. 1772.
35	v.	William, b. 1777.

15. THOMAS⁴ SKILLMAN

(Isaac,³ Thomas,² Thomas¹), b. 1727 at Newtown; m. 1751 Mary, dau. of Gerardus Beekman (b. 1700) and his wife Catharine Van Dyck; granddaughter of Christoffel (b. 1681) and Maria de La Noy; great granddaughter of Gerardus (Col. and Dr.) of Flatbush, son of the ancestor of the family in America, Wilhelmus Beekman (wife Catrina de Boog) immigrant from Overyssel, later a Schepin of New Amsterdam. The family home of Thomas and Mary was at Harlingen. Thomas d. in 1809, and Mary in 1819. Their graves are in the Beekman burying-ground at Griggstown. Their children were:

36	i.	John,⁵ b. 1753.
37	ii.	Gerardus, b. 1754.
38	iii.	Thomas, b. 1756.
	iv.	Ann, b. Aug. 20, 1757; m. Abraham Van Pelt grandson of Johannes V. Pelt who was at Six Mile Run, N.J., in 1717, and great grandson of Teunis Janz Länen V. Pelt who, with wife and six children came in the Rosetree from Luick (Liege) Nederland, May 1663 and settled at Gowanus L.I. Abraham and his wife Anne moved early from New Jersey to Fairfax Co., Va. Around the original farm house on the banks of Bull Run the hottest part of the battle of that name was fought a century later. A son of theirs, an old man, made his home with relatives in New Jersey during the Civil War.
39	v.	Abraham, b. 1759.
40	vi.	Isaac, b. 1761.
41	vii.	Jacob, b. 1764.
	viii.	Catharine, b. July 30, 1766; m. Peter Voorhees, grandson of Peter (one of the first settlers of Blawenburg, N. J.) who was a son of Abm. Voorhees and wife (cousin) Leah Voorhees, grandchildren of Jan Steven V. Voorhees and Janet Kirshaw, all descending from the ancestral Voorhees, who, with wife and eight children came, April 16, 1660, in the Bontekoe from Drenthe, Holland, and settled at Amersfoort (Flatlands), L. I. Peter and Catharine joined by confession the Hillsborough (Millstone) Dutch Church (Ref.) in 1797. They had no children.
42	ix.	Joseph, b. 1768.
43	x.	Cornelius, b. 1771.
44	xi.	Mary, b. 1772.

16. BENJAMIN⁴ SKILLMAN

(Isaac,³ Thomas,² Thomas¹), b. 1729 at Newtown; m. 1751, Nancy (cousin), sister of Thomas⁴ who m. Sally, dau. of Jan and Anna (Hull) Skillman (cousins also), and daughter of Benjamin³ and Margaret (Coe) Skillman; and was a farmer and innkeeper at Griggstown. The Marquis de Chastellux, Member of the French Academy, and Maj.-Gen. in the French Army under Count de Rochambeau, travelling in America (Travels, &c., Vol. I.), says: "We stayed all night at Somerset Court House (Millstone Village) and then crossing the River once more and getting out of a horrible slough, we halted at Gregg Town. That night we slept at Skillman's Tavern, an indifferent inn, but kept by very obliging people." Benjamin's will, probated 1807, Cornelius Simonson, Garret Nevius and Jacob Van Doren, witnesses, names four sons and three granddaughters. Nancy d. May 3, 1795, æ 60 years, the graves of both being in the Beekman burying-ground at Griggstown. Had:

45	i.	John,⁵ b. 1752.
	ii.	Benjamin, b. Was left $10 in his father's will (1807) conditioned that it be "deducted from moneys which he owes me." There is no further record.
46	iii.	Thomas, b. 1756.
	iv.	Abraham, b. 1766; m. Catharine Voorhees, Harlingen, "upper part of congregation;" was witness to a deed, given Dec. 14, 1803, by his father to Francis Feurt of Franklyn township, conveying 26 acres; d. March 1, 1807; had one son, Abm.,³ who d. an infant, and three daus., Mary, Gitty, and Ida, to whom their father's share in their grandfather's estate was devised, Gitty (Gitty Ann) m. Thomas Q. Skillman (her second cousin, son of Isaac) and with the mother all the family removed to the Miami Valley (near Cincinnati), about 1816. Mary d. young, unm., and Ida m, - Ten Eyck and lived near Indianapolis. [Full name: Abraham Beekman, see No. 111]

17. JOHN⁴ SKILLMAN

(Jacob,³ Thomas,² Thomas¹), b. Feb. 15, 1733; m. June 15 1753, Nancy Paynter (second cousin), dau. of Wm. and Hester (Skillman) Paynter. He removed from Newtown L. I. to Kingston, N.J., preceding his father, and was both farmer and tanner, his home being in later years known as the Storey Place, then the Rutherford Place. Had ten children:

	i.	Margaret⁵, b, Dec. 10, 1753; bap. at New Utrecht, L. I. (parents credited to Bushwick), Jan. 27, 1754, name recorded as Magritta; m. Sam'l (second cousin), son of Sam'l, eldest son of Benjamin, then of Kingston.
47	ii.	Jacob, b. 1755.
	iii.	Abraham, b. March 13, 1757-8; d. inf.
48	iv.	Abraham, b. Sept 13, 1760.
	v.	John, b. April 26, 1762; never m.; inherited the homestead, which, at his death went to Dick, his nephew, eldest son of his own younger brother, Isaac. John W. Morrel of Green Point (Brooklyn), said (1875): "John Skillman, of N.J., from a place near a Theological Seminary (Princeton), a cousin of father, paid us visit of a week once, and with him was his nephew, Dick, who was to be his heir, he said. This John was the son of the John Skillman who m. his cousin Nancy." John W. Morrel was a grandson of Abm.³ Skillman, b. 1704. Among claims for damages in Rev. War. was one "to 6 tons of hay, to beds, tools, and 14 sides of leather taken from tan vats, belonging to John Skillman," was sworn to by John Skillman, Jr., before Joseph Olden, Esquire, Oct. 19, 1782.
	vi.	Thomas, b. Dec. 13, 1765; the only one of this family personally known by the writer. He lived on "The Ridge" about one mile southeast of Kingston Village. Had two children, William and Susan; both d. unm.
	vii.	Jane, b. Oct. 14, 1768; unm. and never moved from her birthplace; was housekeeper for her brother John and nephew Dick.
49	viii.	Isaac b. 1770.
50	ix.	Samuel, b. 1773.
	x.	Elizabeth, b. Aug. 31, 1776.

This John Skillman and his wife Nancy, had a strong attachment to the old church of their fathers; for though they lived near the Kingston Presbyterian Church, they travelled all the long and tedious road over Little Rocky Hill to Six Mile Run (now Franklin Park), and further, even to Three Mile Run where the church originally stood, to have their babes baptized among people of their lineage and language. Domine Johannes Leydt was pastor of the Dutch Ref. Church there at that period.

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