Abraham Snedeker

"In the name of God, Amen. I, ABRAHAM SNEDEKER, of the Precinct of Haverstraw, in Orange County, being now infirm. I give, devise, and bequeath to Abraham Thew all my real estate where I now live and my undivided right in the Pond Patent lands, and all lands that I may die possessed of. Nevertheless, subject to the payment of all my just debts and funeral expenses and the following legacies. I leave to Tunis Snedeker, son of my brother Johanes, £70; To Abraham, son of Harmanus Talman, my brother-in-law, £70; To the children of Peter Van der Voort, my brother-inlaw, viz., Peter and Neltie, wife of Joseph Johnson, each £50. I leave to Abraham Thew, my negro man “Tone’’ and a negro woman and her children. I leave to Abraham Thew and Elizabeth, wife of John Smith “at the Hook,” and Neltie, wife of Joseph Johnson, and to Neltie, wife of Jacobus De Klerck, my four bedsteads and bedding. I leave to my brother, Gerritt Snedeker, and to the children of my brother Johanes, and the children of my brother Theodorus, deceased, and to the children of my sister, Elizabeth Smith, and to the children of my sister, Altye Cortie, and to the children of Sarah Van der Voort all the rest of my personal estate. Provided that if Theunis Thew and Harmanus Cortie, who are now absent, do not return, then their shares are to be in the hands of Abraham Thew and his brother, John Thew. I leave to Abraham Thew the best yoke of oxen and cart and horses. “And it is my will that the yard or piece of Burying Ground shall not be sold by my executors, but remain for that purpose for the name and family of the Snedekers, with full right of ingress and egress.” I make Abraham Thew, David Pye, and Theunis Snedeker, son of Johanes, executors.

Dated June 24, 1771. Witnesses, Rem Remsen, Paul Hasler, James Paul. Proved, in New York, before Edmund Fanning, Esq., November 5, 1771."

• Source - Abstracts of Wills on File in the Surrogate's Office: City of New York, p. 454.

"Tunis Snedeker, who was a native of Hempstead, Long Island, 11V' ing there in 1710, is supposed to have been the father of Theodorus, Abraham, Tunis, Johannes and Garret. He came to this part the county as early as 1731, and bought the tract above referred to. He died August 3rd, 1750, probably intestate, for his sons gave quit claim deeds to each other for their separate tracts.

Johannes Snedeker’s part lay between the King’s Road and Demarest's Kill. The part of Garret Snedeker was 435 acres “strict measure,” and the deed signed by his brothers, Theodorus, Johannes and Abraham, dated May 20th, 1722, described it as:“Beginning at a white oak tree standing in or near a line of old marked trees which ran along that line north 44 degrees 15 minutes west to an elm tree standing by the highway.” Its Western boundary was the highway called the King's road. It was also bounded part of the way by the land of Johannes Snedeker, and its furthest extent north was a walnut tree standing the foot of the mountain above the Long Clove.

To Tunis, the oldest son and heir-at-law of Theodorus Snedeker who died in 1767, he deeded 388 acres, “bounded south by Rem Remsen, West by Garret Snedeker, north by the mountain, and east by Abraham Snedeker and the pond.” To Abraham he conveyed 403 acres, bounded west by Tunis S., north and east by mountains, south by John Ryder and the pond. The pond end is at a road leading from the King’s road to “Slaughter’s Landing” (Rockland Lake Dock). Tunis Snedeker sold 185 acres of his part to his younger brother, Theodorus, and when he died, in 1773, he left him all his lands. Theodorus Snedeker sold supplies from his farm to the British stationed in the Hudson river during the Revolution, was bought, his property confiscated and afterward sold by Samuel Dodge and Daniel Graham, Commissioners, to Jacobus Swartwout, of Dutchess county, August 18th, 1782. The original deed is now on file in the County Clerk’s office at New City.

Abraham Snedeker died in 1771 and left his lands to Abraham Thew, his grandson. In his will he directed that the family burying ground should not be sold, but remain forever for the Snedeker family."

• Source - Historical record to the close of the nineteenth century of Rockland County, New York edited by Arthur Sidney Tompkins (Van Deusen & Joyce, 1902), 454-5.