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Subject: Sketch of Walter Wall and some of his descendants
Date: 1 Jul 2004 04:40:12 -0600

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Surnames: Wall, Applegate, Masters
Classification: Query

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SKETCH OF WALTER WALL AND SOME OF HIS DESCENDANTS
BY J. SUTTON WALL, OF HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, MARCH 31, 1905

Walter Wall was born near London, England, in 1619, and on September 2, 1635, he and his older brother Theobold embarked on a vessel called "William and John" commanded by Rowland Langram bound for St. Christopher's, one of the British West India Islands, where they seem to have arrived in due time. But owing to the unstable condition of governmental affairs in that region and the constant danger from violent windstorms Walter and a number of his English friends resolved to leave the island and seek a more tranquil abiding place on the mainland of our then new continent. Accordingly we next find him with a small English Colony located on the eastern shore of Manhattan Island in 1640 at a place called Drutil Bay, now within the city of New York where they made a settlement and called it "Hopton". An Indian war breaking out in 1643, this little band of settlers fled from their new made homes to the protecting shelter of the walls of the Dutch fort at New Amsterdam, now with!
in the city of New York, where they were found by the celebrated Lady Deoborah Moody and a small colony of her personal friends who arrived there that year from Lynn, Massachusetts. Lady Moody and her friends having left Massachusetts by reason of the religious intolerance and persecution then being enforced by the rulers of that New England Colony. It is said that Lady Moody was highly delighted at finding the little colony of her own countrymen in that then remote region. The two parties united and by invitation of Director General Lieft the Dutch Governor of New Amsterdam, they selected a place near the southwestern shore of Long Island for their future homes, which they called "Gravesend", a name no doubt selected in remembrance of their English place of embarkation nearly ten years before. Here they enjoyed a large measure of freedom from the obnoxious religious restraint of rulers and the murderous designs of the red men of the forest. The first patent was grante!
d to this little English colony by Governor Kieft in 1643, and a subse
quent patent was granted to them by the same Dutch Governor in 1645 for a larger tract at the same place. This last named patent guaranteed to the settlers "Liberty of conscience and freedom of worship". On a part of this land they laid out the town of Gravesend in 1645 in the form of a square covering sixteen acres in area, with two main streets called "Hyewayes" crossing each other at right angles in the center of the town. The whole town area was enclosed with a high palisade fence for protection against Indians and wild animals. The town plan consisted of forty rectangular lots, and forty farms radiated therefrom. Lady Moody became quite a ruling spirit in the colony and wielded great influence for their success and advancement in many ways. She was a lady of considerable means, highly accomplished, or strong commandinf force of character, and enjoyed the confidence and respect of Governor Stuyvesant, as well as of her English associates, to the close of her eventf!
ul life in 1659. A regular town organization was formed by the election of town officers in 1646. The old town records show that Walter Wall was granted a "Planters Lot" on August 10, 1645, the same year that the town was laid out and than on August 11, 1653 he bought lands and buildings of Lawrence Johnson. On September 22, 1654, he purchased Plantation Lot #14 Enum Benum and on November 9, 1658, he bought Plantation Lot #1 from William Smith. He married Ann................ at Gravesend, about 1646, but her maiden name does not seem to be known. They had children Rutgert (Roger), John, Maria (Mary) and Garrett. In the baptismal records of New Amsterdam two of these children are mentioned under date of July 25, 1651, namely Rutgert aged 4 years, and Maria 3/4 of a year. Thomas Applegate and family were also members of the Gravesend colony at that time, whose descendants subsequently married some of the descendants of Walter Wall in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Early!
in 1665, Walter Wall with a number of friends of Gravesend and a smal
l colony from Rhode Island removed to "East Jersey" now New Jersey, where they obtained a patent from Governor Nichols under date of April 8, 1665, for a large body of land covering the present county of Monmouth and part of Middlesex. this led to the establishment of the towns of Middletown and Shrewsbury, Walter Wall being one of the original settlers in the first named town. In the first division of town lots in Middletown on December 1, 1667, he was awarded Lot #4, and in division of outlands called "Poplar Fields" he was awarded Lot #21. In July 1670, a settlement was made with the original settlers for purchase money to pay off the Indians for the land, all of which had been fairly and honorable purchased from them. Walter and John Wall are named as paying their proportions of the purchase money wo required, and each was awarded a share of land. Walter Wall is also in the same year awarded fourth choice of "Meadow Lands" being Meadow Lot #35. He also owned a larg!
e tract of outlying land near Middletown, a portion of which was formerly known by the name of "Wall's Mill" where his great grandson, General Garrett D. Wall was born, who was a member of the United States Senate, Judge of the Court of Errors and Appeals, and was nominated for Governor of New Jersey but declined the honor in favor of his son-in-law, Governor Peter D. Vroom who was elected in his stead. Governor Vroom was the father of Judge Garrett Dorset Wall Vroom , now of Trenton, New Jersey. Walter Wall's son Garrett is also named in the records of Monmouth County as a man of prominence in public affairs in that county. On May 22, 1676 his name appears as a witness to a deed from Indian Chiefs to Richard Hartshorn for land at the Highlands of Nevisink, near Sandy Hook. He served as Town Treasurer of Middletown in 1697 and 1698, and in 1700 was one of the leading citizens who resisted the unjust demands of the English Proprietaries. On December 17, 1705, he and Ob!
adiah Bowne deeded four and one half acres of land to the Middletown B
aptist Church of which he and his were members. This is said to have been the first church of that denomination established south of Rhode Island. He married Pauline Masters, a daughter of Clement and Pauline Masters, of Shrewsbury, by whom he had children: John, Humphrey, Walter Garrett, Mary, Anne, Deborah and Lydia. He died in 1711, and his wife died April 12, 1732. They are buried in the old Wall Graveyard, located on his farm, about two miles west of Middletown on the crest of a high hill overlooking the Shrewsbury River and the lower Bay of New York, even to the coast of Long Island where was born. The old graveyard is well preserved and contains the remains of several generations of the Wall family.


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