Beeks line: David Demarest 1681-I don't know when

 We're back in or near Hackensack, Bergen County, New Jersey to take a quick glimpse of the life of David Demarest.  He was baptized October 3, 1681 at the Dutch Reformed church near there, the son of Samuel David and Marie de Ruine Demarest.  Samuel was an immigrant, but David's mother was born in New Harlem, in what became New York.  The Demarest family was Huguenot, (Protestant), and had fled their home to live in Germany when religious prosecution (France was Catholic, and these folks were Protestant) became too great to bear.  Because of the several different homes the Demarests had, their name is spelled a lot of different ways.  The records I've found for David most often (especially in church records) spell his name as Demaree or De Maree.  

The Demarests were a hard working family and they prospered in their new home near Hackensack.  It had been intended that this would be a home for French Huguenots and although a few families that fit that description settled there, it also attracted Dutch and other nationalities.  Unfortunately, the county was a heavy slave owning county in its early years.  We don't know whether the Demarests held slaves, but if they didn't, it was at least a system with which they would have been very familiar.  

David grew up working hard on his father's farm and perhaps in the family business, if his life reflected those around him.  He married Matie, sometimes seen as Martha, De Baun, daughter of Joost and Elizabeth Drabbe De Baun, on November 10, 1705, when he was 24 years old.  Matie had just passed her fifteenth birthday.  Their first child was baptized February 1, 1707, and they would go on to have 10 more children, with the last born in 1730.  Matie would have had to grow up very quickly, to deal with so many children.  The indications are that the couple did a good job of raising God-loving, patriotic children, with some children and more grandchildren involved in military service, particularly during the Revolutionary War.  

Other than church records of the baptisms of their children, I've found very little about David.  Some can be inferred by reading the book "Huguenot on the Hackensack", by David Major and John Major.  It was a sub-culture that was different, at least in the early years, from New England, or even Pennsylvania, which was not far away.  

The death date for David is frequently given as February 13, 1761, but that is the date his will was probated.  The will was actually written June 23, 1742, and refers to his wife, but she died in 1752, before he did.  So all we really know is that he died after October 26, 1752 and before February 13, 1761.  Since some of his estate was left as cash gifts, though, it seems more likely that it would have been closer to the 1761 date, as the adult children would have been eager for the funds.  I don't have an inventory, but he had given some lands away, or sold them, to some of his children earlier so this was not a poor man by any means.  Samuel declined to serve as administrator of his father's will, perhaps because he had moved from the area by then.

Did he serve in the military, or the militia?  How many languages did he speak (French and Dutch are pretty certain, but German? English? We don't know.) Was he the David Demarest who served as a justice in 1716 and again in 1722, and in 1743, or was this his uncle David?  There was a David Demarest who signed an oath of allegiance to the king and against the papacy in 1755, and this seems likely to have been our David.  We're left with many questions, as usual!

The line of descent is:

David Demarest-Matie De Baun

Samuel Demarest-Lea Demarest (yes, cousins)

Sarah Demarest-Benjamin Slot

William (Slot) Lock-Elizabeth Teague

Sally Lock-Jeremiah Folsom

Leah Folsom-Darlington Aldridge

Harvey Aldridge-Margaret Catherine Dunham

Cleo Aldridge-Wilbur Beeks

Mary Beeks-Cleveland Harshbarger

Their descendants