Matthys Barent Swaim 1621-1682, Immigrant

I think it's so much fun to write about our Dutch families, few and far between though they may be. This line brings in New Amsterdam, and early New Jersey, and Frederick County, Virginia, as well as North and South Carolina, none of which are our "typical" New England roots.  But then, by now we've learned our family has a varied background, which makes it both fun and more challenging to trace. 

But I digress.  This post is about the immigrant.  I must state that most of this information came from a 542 page book available online as a PDF, authored by Joe Mullane, Lloyd B. Swaim, and Marjorie Decker Johnson.  All the credit for the research, as well as my undying gratitude, goes to these folks who were so generous as to share their years of work with us, and all mistakes and misinterpretations are mine alone.

So how cool is it to have Dutch ancestors on Staten Island, before England took over the settlement?  I think it's very cool indeed.  Matthys was born in 1621 in Leerdam, Holland, to Barent Swaaem and Sybilla unknown.  He married, as his second wife, Scytje Cornelise in probably late 1658 or early 1659.  He and his first wife had several children, with only two surviving.  In 1661, the new family, including two sons and then toddler Anthony, arrived on the ship "St. Jan Baptiste".  They first had lodgings in block D, house 4 in New Amsterdam while looking around for land to occupy.  Matthys, along with many of the other passengers on the ship met with Peter Stuyvesant and two councilors on August 22, 1661 and asked that they have a village and land laid out on Staten Island, as they wished to settle there.  It was so agreed.

This was still very much frontier country.  Native Americans made frequent raids at the time, there were all sorts of wild animals (wolf, deer, probably the occasional bear or panther), and in addition to maintaining personal safety, the families there would have to clear land and make it their own.  Matthys must have been successful as a farmer and well liked, for he was elected a magistrate in 1673 and was involved in some court cases that included some of his neighbors.  Other than that, and the baptism of some of his children at the Dutch Reformed Church in New Amsterdam, we know little of his life.

At his death, probably in November of 1682, he had achieved a good life for his family.  His estate is valued in guilders and I haven't found a chart to convert that to English money of the time, but he had more furnishings in his home, more animals than many of our New England ancestors, and some pewterware. There is no mention of books in his inventory.  Matthys had survived adversity and given his family a good start in their life in the New World.

The line of descent, subject to paragraph 1 above, is

Matthys Barent Swaim-Scytie Cornelise
Willem Thyszem Swaim-Mary Larzelere
Elizabeth Swaim-Christopher Nation
Joseph Nation-Jerretta Vickery
Elizabeth Nation-Christopher Myers
Phoebe Myers-John Adam Brown
Phoebe Brown-Fremont Holbrook
Loren Holbrook-Etta Stanard
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants