Engeltje Barentse Vrooman

DRC baptism, New amsterdam

1652 May 12; Barent Jansze, Christyntie Claes; Engeltje; Harmen Douwenszen, Lysbeth Cregiers, Tryn Hadders

Robert Livingston (1654-1728) offers a vivid account (and one-sided version) of an attack by the French and their Indian allies on the Dutch and English settlement at Schenectady in New York on February 8 and 9, 1690:

"The bloodthirsty people [the French and their Indian allies], then, to accomplish their evil purpose, according to their own statement made the journey from Canada to this place in 11 days.... They divided themselves into three troops and after they had everything well spied out and found that the gates were open and that nowhere there was any sentinel on duty and that on account of the heavy snow which had fallen the day before no one had been in the woods by whom they could have been detected, the full wrath of God was poured out over us. Having posted three or four men before every house, they attacked simultaneously at the signal of a gun. They first set fire to the house of Adam Vroman, who when he offered resistance was shot through the hand. After several shots had been fired, his wife, hoping to find an opportunity to get away, opened the back door, whereupon she was immediately shot dead and devoured by the flames.... His eldest daughter...had her mother's child on her arm.... Asked...whether the child was heavy...she said yes, whereupon [one of the invaders]...took the child form her and taking it by the legs dashed its head against the sill of the house, so that the brains scattered over the bystanders....

Killed with her young child in The Schenectady Massacre. It was an attack against the village of Schenectady in the colony of New York on 1690-02-08. It was carried out by a party of over 200 French and Sault and Algonquin Indian raiders that set out from Montreal to attack English outposts to the south, and was intended as retaliation for a series of devastating Iroquois raids for which the English had provided weapons and ammunition. Isolated northern and western settlements were the targets.

Late on February 8, when a scouting party reported that no one was guarding the stockade at Schenectady, a decision was made to attack at once, despite the bitter cold. The original target was Fort Orange (present day Albany), but when Schenectady was discovered to be defenseless the raiding party decided to attack here instead.

In the bloody midnight massacre which followed, houses and barns were torched and men, women and children were slaughtered. Many were in night clothing and had no time to arm themselves. By the morning of February 9, the thriving community lay in ruins — more than 60 buildings were burned and residents were dead, taken prisoner, or fled as refugees to the safety of the fort at Albany.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=73662062