Hendrick Meese Vrooman

Hendrick Vrooman (1618-1690) is my 12th great-grandfather. He was killed in the Schnectady Massacre.

Hendrick Meese Vrooman: The ImmigrantThe following information comes from The Vrooman Family in America compiled by Grace Vrooman Wickersham and Ernest Bernard Comstock, F.I.A.G. and published in 1949; pgs, 5-11. 

In New York Colonial Manuscripts, Vol XIV p 83-123, in the Manuscripts room of the New York State Library, is an account book giving the debit and credit accounts of persons who came to New Netherlands from 1654-1664 inclusive, and who were indebted for their passage money to Dutch West India Company.  The following entry is found on folio 87 of the account book. [The following is a translation in English]:

Henry Bartholomeus debit

For passage and board in coning hither, anno 1664, April 17^th, in the ship DeEendracht [Concord], Jan Bergen, Master 1.36.- for his 5 children of 15, 13, 11, 7, and 5 years . . . 126s.   TOTAL . . . . . .1 pound 162 shillings.

This Hendrick Bartholomeus was Hendrick Meese Vrooman, Meese [Meesen,] being the possive form of Mees, or Meus, a short form of Bartholomeus and indicating that Hendrick was a son of Mees or Bartholomeus Vrooman.  Mr. Van Laer, New York Archivist.

William J. Hoffman in the April number of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, 1936, has given us the following account of Hendrick Meese Vrooman’s family found in the church records of Leiden, Netherlands.  The name of Hendrick Meese Vrooman’s wife was not given, as the mother’s nane is not found in the Baptismal entries.

• Adam Vrooman, born about 1649.  On May 23, 1670, he made the statement that he was at that time about 21 years of age.  This also checks with the age given in the passenger list.
• Eve, born about 1651
• Johannes, bapt. Mare Kerk, Leiden Feb 15, 1653.  Sp. Pieter Meese Vrooman and Catharina Johannis.  [He is also referred to as Jan Vrooman.]
• Kathlyntje; bapt Hooglandsche Kerk, Leiden, Aug 5, 1657; sp Josyntje Rebouts, Maritje Bartholomeus Froman [Vrooman], a sister of the three brothers who came to America.
• Bartholomeus, Bapt Pieterskerk, Leiden, June 4, 1659; sp Maritje Bartholomeus Vroman.
• Hendrickje, bapt Hooglandsche Kerk, Leiden, Mar 20, 1661; sp Margarita Kannemans, Geertruyd Mentius.

Vro[o]man may be derived form “Vroom[e]man” meaning pious man or “vroede Man”, a wise man.

Traceable for many generations in the possession of the family in America is an heirloom, a wooden board bearing all the earmarks of great age, on which is painted an ancient coat-of-arms.  A small drawing of the arms represented thereon is shown opposite page 276 of Pearson’s “Early Settlers of Schenectady”. . . It is unknown if this board was brought from the fatherland or if it was executed in America.” . . .Hoffman in “An Armory of American Families of Dutch Descent.”

In the Historical Journal of the More family published at Seattle Washington, August 1910, is this record – no authority given:

“Hendrick Meese Vrooman [Froman, Vroman, etc] son of Bartholomeus Vrooman was born about 1618.  Married about 1648.  Geertruy Johannis, lived in Leyden.  His wife died and in 1664 he came with his children to Albany.”

At the time of the arrival of Hendrick Meese Vrooman in New Netherlands in 1664 with his five children, there were already two other sons of Bartholomeus Vrooman of Holland residing in the New World, Pieter Meese Vrooman and Jacob Meese Vrooman.  Peter Meese Vrooman is mentioned as one of the early inhabitants of Beverwijck [Albany] in 1655.  He was a master carpenter, surveyor and a millwright.  He was the owner of considerable property in Beverwijck [or Fort Orange] and a person of some importance.  In 1669 he was appointed magistrate of the colony of Rensslaerwijck which office he held until 1671.  He was married twice.  By his first wife, name unknown, he had a son Mattys Pietersz Vrooman, who married Maria Arnoutse Viele.  In the will of Matthys Pietersz and his wife Marya Vrooman dated April 4, 1684, the only child spoken of was a daughter Geertrude.  After the death of Matthys, Maria Arnoutse Viele Vrooman married Douwe Aukes, Feb. 4, 1685, by whom she had one child Margaret.  In the massacre of Schenectady, 1690 both children and their mother, Maria Viele Aukes, were killed.

The second son of Bartholomeus Vrooman, Jacob Meese Vrooman, married Elizabeth Lendt or Vanderlinde, the widow of Tuenis Cornelise Swart, about 1685.  Jacob was a carpenter and surveyor of Beverwijck [Albany].  In his will he spoke of no children but his wife who was to occupy the house by the bridge “formerly Domine Schaets.”  He died in 1691.  After his death his widow married Wouter Uythoff of Albany.

The first two brothers, sons of Bartholomeus Vrooman residing in the new world, left no descendants, and the Vrooman family in consideration here descended form the third brother, Hendrick Meese Vrooman.  The five children accompanying Hendrick Meese Vrooman to the New World in 1664 were:

·        Adam, born Sept. 14, 1649 in Holland.

·        Eva, born about 1651.

·        Johannes baptized at Mare Kerk Leiden, Holland, February 15, 1653.

·        Kathlyntje, baptized at Hooglandsche Kerk, Zuidzijde, Leiden, Holland, Aug 5, 1657.

·        Bartholomeus, baptized at Pieterskerk, Leiden, Holland, June 4, 1659.

·        Eva Hendrickse Vrooman born about 1651 in Holland who came to the New World with her father, Hendrick Meese Vrooman, in 1664, married Jochum Lambertse Van Volkenburgh and was a member of the Albany Dutch Church.  She died at Kinderhook in 1706.

Early members of the church in Albany 1683-1700 were Pieter Mees Vrooman, Folikje Vrooman, Jacob Mees Vrooman, Lysbeth Vrooman, Jachum Lamberts [Van Volkenburgh], Eva Jochum [his wife, daughter of _____Vrooman.]

HENDRICK MEESE VROOMAN

Born in Holland, son of Bartholomeus Vrooman came to New Netherlands in 1664, accompanied by his five children.  After living ‘behind Kinderhook” and in Lansingburgh, he moved to Schenectady.  About 1677, Pearson states that he purchased 20 morgans of land of the Van Curler Bourwery, a parcel of land commencing a little south of water street and extending south-westerly to or near the sand bluff, embracing the land covered by the canal and railroad tracts, being bounded, on the east by  the land belonging to the Veeders.  As there were then no public roads across the flats in this direction, Vrooman’s land was reached by a lane still in existence [1883] called Vrooman’s Alley, or lane, extending from Water Street South-westerly, nearly parallel to Rotterdam Street.  His Village lot on the north side of State Street, extended form Lang Gang [Centre Street] to within 49 feet of Given’s Hotel and extending back northerly about 500 feet.

In historical documents preserved by the state of new York is a “List of ye people kild and destroyed by ye French of Canada and their Indians at Skinnechtady twenty miles to ye westward of Albany, between Saturday and Sunday ye 9^th day of February, 1686 90 . . .and among the names is that of Hend Meese Vrooman and his son Bartholomeus.