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Archiver > Dutch-Colonies > 2002-01 > 1010090198
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Subject: Re: [D-Col] Bunschoten
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 15:36:38 EST
Hello Evert and all,
I have been away over the holidays and just returned to the Bunschoten
discussion.
Evert, welcome to our list! I am very pleased that you have arrived since
several years ago I was in contact with someone from Bunschoten who gave me
the name and address of a non-email contact who spoke little English. My
inqueries were then placed on the "back burner" and I never did get around to
following up.
As Lorine and Dorothy mentioned, there has been a "mystery man" of sorts
named Gerrit Lambertsen from Bunschoten. He came as a youth (age 18) to the
New Netherland in 1663 as an employee for the Van Rensselaer family. Some
records have been found in the Albany NY area that are thought to pertain to
this same individual.
Some time between 1690 and 1693 an individual named Gerrit Lambertsen married
Antje Hooghlandt (a widow with three children....and also the mother of an
illegitimate son when she was 15) and settled in Ulster County NY. The
descendants of their children took the surname Teerpenning (later spelled
Terpening). Some think that this man was an entirely different individual
also called Gerrit Lambertsen and the son of a man named Lambert Huybertsen
of Wageningen Gelderland Netherlands. (This conclusion has been based on the
fact that Lambert's children and Gerrit share the same patronymic name,
Lambertsen, and that Gerrit used two of Lambert's children and their spouses
as sponsors at the baptism of two of his children) But there are many
questions around this. All of Lambert Huybertsen's children took the surname
BRINK (a name still found in Wageningen), there is no record of a baptism of
a son Gerrit, none of Gerrit's children carry names of Lambert's family,
Gerrit is not named in Lambert's will, none of Lambert's children use Gerrit
or his wife as sponsors at the baptisms of their children (although among
them they had about 45 children!). So this leads us back to the Gerrit
Lambertsen from Bunschoten and the question as to whether this could be the
Gerrit who married Antje Hooghlandt.
The surname Teerpenning is quite strange. Resaerch indicates that it is not a
name found in the Netherlands. It is thought to have been a word used to
describe this man relating somehow to "money for a travel". (Well, Gerrit
from Bunschoten had his passage paid for by the Van Rensselaer family).
...and he was also successful in collecting additional payment for a later
trip that he took to "Mohawk country" from his employer at that time. (this
was all documented in a court case) So it is possible that this Gerrit (of
Bunschoten) did receive at some point a "nickname" that stereotyped him that
was related to all of this money for travel .
Possibly with digging deeper into his roots some answers might be found.
1. Gerrit Lambertsen would have been born around the year 1645....probably in
Bunschoten. His father's name would have been Lambert. This is not a lot to
go on, but if there were church records of that year we might learn who his
parents were and possibly the family surname.
2. I am not sure which ship Gerrit Lambertsen came on in 1663. An earlier
researcher claimed it was the Bonte Koe but I have no evidence of this.
Evert, any help on this mystery would be very much appreciated!
Susan
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