Anthony Brockholst

Surname has also been reported to be Brockholes.

When the Duke of York commissioned Major Edmund Andros in 1674 as his Lieutenant and Governor, Lieut. Anthony Brockholst, in case of his death, was to succeed him in the government of New York and its dependencies. Of a Roman Catholic family in Lancashire, England, seated at Claughton for many centuries, he was "a profest Papist." He was a member of Andros' first Council, and in his temporary absence from New York in 1677-8, administered the government. He succeeded Sylvester Salisbury, who died in the winter of 1680, a.Commandant at Albany, and on the departure of Andros for England, in January, 1681, was appointed by special commission Commander-in-Chief, etc., of the New York Government, in which capacity he acted until the arrival of Gov. Dongan, in August, 1683. He was also a member of Dongan's Council, and in 1684 bore the title of Major. In October, 1688, he accompanied Gov. Andros on his journey to New England, and was left in command of Fort Charles (Pemaquid), Maine in March, 1689, from whence he was sent to Boston the following month. In January, 1690, Lieut.-Gov. Leisler ordered his arrest, but it does not appear that he suffered much on this account. On the 11th of Nov., 1695, Major Anthony Brockholst and Capt. Arent Schuyler, in behalf of themselves and their associates, Samuel Bayard, George Ryerson, John Mead, Samuel Berrie, David and Hendrick Mandeville, obtained a Patent (having purchased, June 6, 1695, the Indian title to the same) for 5,500 acres of land from the East Jersey proprietors at Pacquanac, now known as Pompton Plains, Morris County, N. J. He was afterwards reported in June, 1696, as one of the ten Roman Catholics residing in the city of New York, but in that or the following year he and Arent Schuyler settled permanently on their Jersey lands in the Pompton valley, on the east side of the river, and were, in all probability, the pioneers in that region of country. He was living at Pompton in June, 1705, but the time of his death is unknown. An allusion is made to the exemplification of Major Brockholt's will in a letter of Michael Kearney to Isaac Bobin, dated at Perth Amboy, Sept. 5, 1723, but where the original was entered of record we have been unable to ascertain. His wife was living April 8, 1722, and was at that date a sponsor at the baptism in the Dutch Church, in New York, of Anna dau. of Philip French. Anthony Brockholst and his wife Susanna Schrick had seven children baptized in the Dutch Church, at New York, and one in Albany. Beside these, they had a son Henry, whose baptism is unrecorded. Only Mary, Henry, Judith, Susanna and Jannetie or Johanna, of their children, were living in November, 1701, the date of Maria (Varleth) Teller's will. http://www.frostandgilchrist.com/getperson.php?personID=I10705&tree...

Purple, Edwin R., "Contributions to the History of the Ancient Families of New York: Varleth-Varlet-Varleet-Verlet-Verleth," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, vol. 9 (1878), pp. 113-125:

Anthony Brockholls (or Brockholes or Brockholst) was a soldier in the duke of York's horse guards and [before that] a dragoon in Barbados before going to New York in 1674 as second in command to Gov. Edmund Andros.

After the reconquest of the province, King Charles appointed Andros governor, specifying, at the same time, that in case of the death of Andros Lieut. Anthony Brockholes was to succeed him in his office. Brockholes, of an old Catholic family of Lancashire, England, was known to be a Papist, and would have been excluded from holding office, were it not that the "Test Act" of March 23d, 1673, did not apply to the British American Plantations.

Brockholes was an efficient officer and served the colony well, until the Leisler usurpation, when a price was set upon his head, and he and Arent Schuyler sought in New Jersey refuge from the storm. In 1696 they together bought five thousand five hundred acres of land, and large tracts in other parts of the State, extending in part from Paterson to Pompton, where Brockholes passed to the end of his days a very retired life. He entered a matrimonial union, so often fatal to the heritage of faith, espousing Susanna Maria, daughter of Paulus Schrick, a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, in which their children were all baptized. They were, of course, brought up Protestants, and his son Henry made a gift to the Dutch Reformed Church of Paterson "for one acre of land I give to the good will I owe, and the regard I have, for the low duch (sic!) Reformed Church of Holland." Pew No. I of that church belongs to his heirs forever. Henry Brockholes, or Brockholst, as the family later pleased to spell the name, was a member of the New Jersey Legislature in 1717. (The Catholic Church in New Jersey. 1904.)

links

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Brockholls