Leffert Pieterse

In 1660, fifteen-year old Leffert Pieterse (1645-1704) arrived in New Amsterdam with his parents and three younger siblings. Within two years, his father and two of his siblings had died and his mother had remarried. No historical record remains describing how Leffert dealt with this personal hardship. But within a decade, he had married and started a family, acquired significant land and property, and emerged as one of the most prominent citizens of the small town of Flatbush.

By 1675, Leffert owned significant livestock, two horses, and 17 morgens of land. In 1687, he purchased fifty-eight acres of land in Flatbush, upon which the original Lefferts homestead would be built. By 1692, he was constable of Flatbush. At the time of his death in 1704, Leffert Pieterse was one of the largest landowners in Kings County.

http://www.brooklynhistory.org/exhibitions/lefferts/the-lefferts-cl...

• Member of the Dutch Reformed Church of Flatbush in 1677, Deacon 1680-1682.
• Named among the patantees of Flatbush on Dongon's patent of November 12 , 1658.
• Took the oath of allegiance in 1687 , after the final possession of the colony by the British, from which it appears he had been 27 years in the country.
• In 1692 was constable of Flatbush
• In 1703 one of the assessors of Flatbush,and in the same year served on the grand jury for the county.

From "Genealogy of the Lefferts family, 1650-1718" Teunis G. Bergen, 1878. https://archive.org/details/genealogyofleffe00berg

Leffert and five of his sons are detailed on:

Page 185-187 of "Register in Alphabetical Order, of the Early Settlers of Kings County, Long Island, N. Y., from ..." Teunis G. Bergen, 1881.

https://archive.org/stream/registerinalpha00berggoog#page/n190/mode...