SOURCE: RDC Albany, Albany, NY Marriage Records 1697, Nov. 12. Coenraadt Borgaart, y.m., and Geesje Van Wye, y.d., both l. at Kinderhook.
SOURCE: 1699 Oath of Allegiance
The name of Koenradt Bogart of Kinderhook was listed among the names of those pledging allegiance to King William of Orange.
SOURCE: 1720 List of Freeholders of the City and County of Albany
The names of Coonrodt Burgaret and his brother, John Burgaret, of Kenderhook were included in this list. Also listed in the 3rd Ward of Albany were: Isaac Borghaert, Cornelis Borghaert, Jacob Borghaert, and Jacob Borghaert, Junr. Isaac was undoubtedly a brother of Coonrodt and Jan; and the consistent spelling of the surname leads me to speculate that Cornelis and Jacob were probably also brothers [or relatives].
SOURCE: Pearson, Prof. Jonathan. 'Contributions To The Genealogies Of The First Settlers Of The Ancient County Of Albany, from 1630-1800'
Coonrodt Borghghardt was listed as living in Claverack in 1702 and later in Kinderhook.
SOURCE: Collins, Edward A. 'A History of Old Kinderhook,' 1914. [Page 100]
'Dutch fur traders plied the Hudson River one year after Hendrick [Henry] Hudson broached it in the "Half Moon" in 1609 to the shallows and bartered with the natives. Although Dutch sailing vessels returned to Holland in 1610 with a rich cargo of furs traded from the Indians in their newly discovered possessions, colonization was not immediately attempted. About 1613, a trading post with a fort, so called, and a few huts were established on the southerly end of Manhattan Island, and a similar post on Castle Island near Albany a little later. The Dutch West India Company of 1621 was purely commercial until 1629, when it inaugurated the feudalistic system of "Patroons" to establish colonies in "New Netherlands" to be of fifty persons to a tract sixteen miles long on a navigable stream. However, individuals could not gain title to the land until their contracts of service had been fulfilled.
Most of the families who came to Kinderhook [located just south of Albany] were freemen and would have none of the Patroon System. Thus, for more than 20 years the area was the head of free navigation on the Hudson and the territory nearest to Fort Orange [Albany] without domination of the Patroons. About 1638, New Netherlands was thrown open to free immigration and unrestricted trade. The Kinderhook District drew settlers of independent spirit and some means directly from Holland, and New Amsterdam, as well as freed colonists of the Patroons who were industrious and provident.
The Holland settlers loved the riverside and the banks of the Kinderhook and Claverack Creeks as building sites. The flowing waters were a sweet reminder of the Fatherland. By 1656, Kinderhook was one of the principal settlements on the river.
A map of tow tracts of a land grant of 3,590 acres surveyed prior to 1700 for Coenradt Borghardt and Elias Schaick in Land Papers vi, page 174, shows that a considerable portion was in Claverack.
Coenradt Borghardt, for almost every possible spelling of whose name there is ample authority, was long and prominently identified with the civil and religious life of the town. His home was not far from the brick schoolhouse on the Landing Road. Of him we will have occasion to write again.
We were greatly grieved to read in the Albany Court records that these great landowners, Elias and Coenradt, were in 1671 haled before the Court for "stealing Potatoes". We were pleased, however, to find that at the trial of the case, after the examination of four witnesses, they were honorably acquitted. But to moderate their joy they were charged the costs of trial. Their accusser was presumably impecunious and irresponsible.
Beginning in 1717, the "Trouw-Boeck" records of the Dutch Church show baptisms and marriages through the 1800's, except for a few missing years. Between 1717 and 1728, until the first pastor came, baptisms and marriages of Kinderhook were registered in the Albany church, whose pastor rendered service. Families in the southern part of the Kinderhook District are noted in the Claverack [Hudson, NY] church records. Children were usually baptized within a few weeks of birth.
The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Kinderhook, which had been a mission of the mother church at Albany since about 1677, became an independent organization in 1712, and for more than a century was the only church of Old Kinderhook. All baptisms and marriages were recorded in Albany until 1716, when the local records began. The records of 1716 speak of the existing church edifice as "very old" and much too small and states further that thefre were two volumes of Dutch records 1716-1800 which should be translated before the fading of ink.....'
Other Dutch families--Van Deursen Scharp, Val Alen, Van Buren, Van Hoesen, Huyck, Van Alstyne--are also mentioned.
SOURCE: Collins, Edward A. DD. ' A History of Old Kinderhook', 1914. Chapter: Who Was Who, 1664-1809 [p. 100]
The land grant of 3590 acres east of the creek, and partly in Claverack, to Coenradt Borghghardt and Elias Van Schaick. Coenradt Borghardt, for almost every possible spelling of whose name, there is ample authority, was long and prominently identified with the civil and religious life of the town. His home was not far from the brick schoolhouse on the Landing Road. Of him we will have occasion to write again.
We were greatly grieved to read in the Albany Court records that these great landowners, Elias and Coenradt, were in 1671 haled before the Court for "stealing Potatoes". We were pleased, however, to find that at the trial of the case, after the examination of four witnesses, they were honorably acquitted. But to moderate their joy they were charged the costs of trial. Their accusser was presumably impecunious and irresponsible.
SOURCE: Taylor, Charles J. 'History of Great Barrington [Berkshire] Massachusetts 1676-1882,' Town of Great Barrington, 1928. 'Numerous mention of Coenraat Hendrickse Burghardt is made in this publication. He acted on behalf of the settling committee of Housatonic Colony [now the area around Great Barrington, Berkshire Co., MA] to buy the land from the Indians in or before 1724. He became a prominent landholder in the Upper Township of Sheffield [now Great Barrington] and raised a large family. Of the first settlers of Great Barrington, a majority were English, several of them from Westfield and that vicinity, a few more Dutch from the state of New York. We are unable to determine the towns from which some the families removed to this place. The earliest settlers of the town, south of the bridge, were Coonrod Burghardt; Samuel Dewey; Samuel Dewey, Jun'r; Asahel Dewey; Thomas Dewey; John Granger; Samuel Harmon; Moses Ingersoll; David King; Stephen King; Moses King; Israel Lawton; Joseph Noble; Thomas Pier; John Phelps; Joshua Root, Joseph Sheldon; Samuel Suydam; Lawrence Suydham; Joshua White; Samuel Younglove; Samuel Younglove, Jr. Most of these settled here from 1726-1730; it is probable that none of them came later than 1733. Above the bridge, the forty proprietary rights in the Upper Township were, in 1742, owned by sixteen individuals, several of whom were non-residents. The early settlers in that part of the town were: Derrick Hogaboom; Hezekiah and Josiah Phelps; Joseph Pixley and his sons, Jonah, Joseph, Moses, John, and Jonathan; John Williams; Isaac Van Deusen; Jehoiakim Van Valkenburgh, John Burghardt, alias De Bruer; and Hendrick Burghardt. A little later came William King; Thomas Horton; Daniel Nash and his son, Jonathan; Jonathan Willard; and David Ingersoll. These last named appear all to have resided here as early as 1740. To these settlers, or to the owners of proprietary rights; house lots, with meadow and upland, were laid out by the settling committee along the valley of the river from the north line of Sheffield to the foot of Monument Mountain; and a few locations were made west of the Green River, in the southerly and westerly parts of the town. But with these few exceptions, the settlements were for the most part confined to the valley, and did not penetrate the more remoted parts of the town until 1753, or later.' Both Coonrod Burghardt and his younger brother, John 'De Bruer' Burghardt were proprietors of land rights when the Upper Township [1722-1742] was finally laid out [see p. 26]. Coonrod had 6 rights [2,400 acres]; and John had 4 rights [1,600 acres].'
SOURCE: Sahler, Louis Hasbrouck. 'The Van Deusens of Van Deusen Manor,' Berkshire Courier Company, Great Barrington, MA. 'In 1730 Isaac Van Deusen, the ancestor of the Van Deusens of Great Barrington, married Fiche, the third child of Coenreat Borghghardt, and, as the latter's life, abilities and successes did much to influence the lives of the former, and their descendants, it is quite right that a sketch of this worthy and honored man should precede that of the Van Deusens. Coenreat Hendrickse Borghghardt, or, as the name has since been written, Coonrod Burghardt, was born about 1677, probably in the vicinity of Albany, and was the son of Hendrick Coenreatse Borghghardt and Marya Janse Franse Van Hoesen, daughter of Jan Franse Van Hoesen and Volkie Juiriaanse. Coonrod Burghardt's maternal grandfather, Jan Franse Van Hoesen, came from a place called Huisen, near the Zuyder Zee, Netherlands. He was a commissioner for the Dutch West India company, and a resident of New Amsterdam before 1654, and afterward of Fort Orange and Beaverwyck. He was interested in shipping, and bought considerable real estate in the village and vicinity of Fort Orange, and also half the island opposite, which after his death, about 1667, was sold to Jeremiah Van Rennselaer. On June 5th, 1662, he bought from the Indians, for five hundred guilders, in beavers, several hundred acres along the Hudson river, in the vicinity of Claverack, including the site of the present city of Hudson. Coonrod Burghardt married, before 1698, Gesie Hendrickse Van Wie, daughter of Hendrick Gerritse Van Wie, and settled in Kinderhook, before 1700. He is mentioned as a prominent citizen of that place in 1702, and again in 1720, in the Documentary History of the State of New York. In December, 1702, Mr. Burghardt, and some of his neighbors, were summoned to appear before the Governor and Council, in the City of New York, and answer the charge of having employed Paulus Van Vleck, a religious teacher, who had been forbidden to preach by the former. As the season was unfavorable for traveling, Mr. Burghardt petitioned that the matter be postponed until spring, but it was not granted, so he, with the others, journeyed to New York, appearing before the proper authorities on March 11th, 1703, "acknowledged their error, and, submitting themselves thereon, were discharged, with a caution to be more careful for the future." Mr. Burghardt was extensively engaged in the fur trade, with the Indians, along the New England path, which extended from Albany to Boston, and passed through Kinderhook and the southern part of the Housatonic valley, which he had undoubtedly explored at an early date, and he was on friendly terms with them and familiar with their language and customs. In the spring of 1717 he and Elias Van Schaick applied to the Governor of New York for a license to purchase a tract of four thousand acres of land, south-east of Kinderhook, and west of the Westenhook patent, which latter included a large part of the Housatonic valley. The land was laid out in the fall of the same year, by a government surveyor, but it was immediately claimed by Henry Van Rennselaer, of Claverack Manor, upon the strength of an alleged prior patent, and this circumstance was followed by a controversy, which continued many years, and finally resulted unfavorably for Mr. Burghardt, however, it was probably in consequence of this that he connected himself with the New England settlers, in the Housatonic valley, which alliance proved of great benefit to himself and his posterity, In 1724 he was employed by the Settling Committee, of the Housatonic Colony, to purchase, from the Indians, land in the southern portion of Berkshire County, for the formation of the Housatonic townships, and he was so successful that he reduced the money value from 1,200 pounds, the price asked, to 460 pounds, the price given. On April 25th, 1724, Konkapot and twenty other Indian owners, met the committee at Westfield, Massachusetts, Mr. Burghardt acting as interpreter, and he was also one of the witnesses to the deed, which the former gave to the latter, with certain reservations, to a tract of land extending four miles east of the Housatonic River, bounded on the south by the Connecticut line, north on "Ye great mountain, known by ye name of Man-ska-fee-hunk," supposed to be Rattlesnake Mountain, in Stockbridge, and west on the New York line, which at that time had not been permanently settled. In 1725 the committee engaged Mr. Burghardt to measure the distance from the Hudson to the Housatonic rivers, at the nearest point, in the vicinity of the Housatonic Townships, but he was caused much annoyance by the Westenhook patentees, who claimed a large portion of Berkshire County. The history of this patent, which is too long to repeat here, was granted by the Governor of New York, which state, at an early period, before the line was established, claimed the western end of Massachusetts as far east as the Connecticut River. Mr. Burghardt went to Albany, and engaged a surveyor, but, as he did not appear on the appointed time, Mr. Burghardt again visited Albany, when he learned that the man had been bribed by the Westenhook patentees; he then went to Schnectady and employed another, but this one also disappointed him, for the same reasons, but nothing daunted, he went eighty miles farther, to Kings Township, and there secured the services of a third, by paying 5 pounds New York currency, and, with the assistance of Mr. Burghardt and one of his sons, the surveyor measured the line. In 1726 some of the settlers in the Housatonic Townships were molested, and sued as trespassers, by the Westenhook patentees, and lost their suits in Albany. The Settling Committee requested Mr. Burghardt to give bonds, for the damages and costs, which he did, and in consequence he had the trouble and expense of several trips to Albany and Westfield, and eventually paid 70 pounds to satisfy his bonds. Later he was employed by the committee to purchase a tract of land north of the Housatonic Townships, and for seventeen days he entertained "with great fatigue and trouble," at his home in Kinderhook, thirty-one Indian owners, who came from the Susquehannah country, in Pennsylvania. In 1741 Mr. Burghardt petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for reward for his services, in connection with the colonization of Southern Berkshire county, relating the various details pertaining to them, and although they showed that he had received some compensation, the presented him, in 1742, a tract of two hundred acres of land, in Richmond, north of Great Barrington. He removed from Kinderhook to the Housatonic settlement a little later than 1730, bringing nearly all his children with him. "The mansion house of the Burghardts, a log, Dutch looking structure, with a long sloping roof to the south," was near the corner, north of the Mahaiwe or south cemetery, upon a plot of several acres. It was occupied by the Burghardts for about one hundred years, and was torn down about 1840. Besides the house lands, he owned the meadow, now the Agricultural Grounds, two hundred acres in the town of Richmond, and several thousand acres of the finest lands in the present town of Great Barrington and Egremont, some being on the banks of the Green River. His six rights, of four hundred acres each, in the Upper Housatonic Township, he transferred as follows: Two to his son-in-law, Isaac Van Deusen, in 1743; three to his sons, Peter and Jacob, in 1746, and one to his son Hendrick, at an earlier date. He was a man of great intelligence, enterprise and public spirit, as well as of sturdy integrity, and, judging from his autograph, a man of good education for those times," and "appears to have been the most wealthy of all the settlers, and to have mantained an influential position among them. Mr. Burghardt died about 1750, and was undoubtedly buried in the vicinity of others of his family, in the south burial ground, at Great Barrington. It is to be regretted that no suitably inscribed monument perpetuates the memory of this sturdy patriarch, who may fairly be entitled to be called the founder of the Housatonic colony. '
Formation of the Town of Great Barrington
'In answer to a petition, from one hundred and seventy-six people of Hampshire County, the General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, granted in 1722, two townships of seven miles square, on the Housatonic River, the southern boundary to be the Connecticut line. For the purpose of making the purchase of the Indians, dividing the tracts, granting lands, admitting settlers, and so forth, John Stoddard, Henry Dwight of Northhampton, Luke Hitchcock of Springfield, John Ashley of Westfield, and Samuel Porter of Hadley, were appointed a committee to which Capt. Ebenezer Pomeroy was afterwards added, and they employed Coonrod Burghardt to negotiate with the Indians, and perform other important duties. The Indian deed included the whole of Sheffield, Great Barrington, Mount Washington and Egremont, the greater part of Alford, and large portions of West Stockbridge, Stockbridge and Lee, but the two townships only included the present towns of Sheffield and Great Barrington, a large part of West Stockbridge, Stockbridge and Lee, and a small part of Alford. The Indians reserved a tract south of the Great Barrington line, which extended from the Housatonic River to the New York line. In 1733, the Lower Housatonic Township, of five divisions, was incorporated as the town of Sheffield, and in 1743 the two northern divisions were joined to the Upper Township, and formed as the North Parish of Upper Sheffield.
In 1761, the North Parish was incorporated and named in honor of John Shute, Lord Barrington, brother of Samuel Shute, Governor of Massachusetts from 1716 to 1723.'
SOURCE: The New-England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1897, Volume LI, Pages 344-346 CONRAD BURGHARDT BIBLE RECORD
FAMILY RECORD OF THE FREEZE, SPOOR AND ALLIED FAMILIES. FROM AN OLD DUTCH BIBLE Contributed by Frederic H. Curtiss, Esq., of Boston, Mass.
During some researches in the western part of the state, I came across a copy of a very old Dutch Bible, which contained some genealogical data which I think worth preserving, and enclose herewith a copy. The Bible, which is owned by Miss Dorothy C. Rays, of Sheffield, Mass., was brought from Holland by an ancestor of her great-grandmother, Dorothy Freeze. It was published in Dordrecht in 1618.
It contains the following records:
Jacob Freeze married Rebecah Van Loon, Nov. 14, 1740. She was born Feb. 18, 1719. He died April 19, 1789. She died Feb. 14, 1799.
They had children:
John Freeze born Sept. 13, 1741 Rebecca Freeze born May 16, 1745 Jacob Freeze born Feb. 18, 1747 Dorothy Freeze born Nov. 10, 1750 Rachel Freeze born May 7, 1753 Abraham Freeze born Jan. 1, 1756 Maria Freeze born June 15, 1759 Magdalen Freeze born Oct. 30, 1761
Derick Spoor married Dorothy Freese, Dec. 25, 1777. He was born Nov. 15, 1754. They had children: Rebecah Spoor born Sept. 7, 1779 Sarah Spoor born June 26, 1781, died March 1, 1810 Nicholas Spoor born July 6, 1783 Jacob Spoor born Jan. 17, 1786 Lane Spoor born Aug. 3, 1789
A record of the marriage of Conrad Beorgheart: I was married Nov. 12, 1693 My daughter Mary was born Jan. 27, 1698 My son Hendrick was born Jan. 1700 My daughter Fyche was born November 30, 1702 My father Hendrick died June 16, 1703 My daughter Eyche was born October 20, 1704 My son John was born September 1706 My son Conrad was born 1708 My son Garrett was born 1710 My son Peter was born Jan. 15, 1712 My son Jacob was born My daughter Stinche was born June 10, 1718
Conrad Hendrickse Burghardt (b. Abt. 1670, d. Abt. 1750)
Notes for Conrad Hendrickse Burghardt: