Wessel Ten Broeck

Wessel Ten Broeck was born in probably Munster, Westphalia, Germany, in—say—1610. His wife was _____ _____ They had four children:

i. Wessel Wesselsen Ten Broeck was born in Munster, Westphalia, Germany, in 1636, and died in Kingston, New York, on November 25, 1704. He is thought to be the colonist who is recorded as coming from Münster, in Westphalia, in the ship Faith, in December, 1659. He married Maria Ten Eyck at the Dutch Collegiate Church, New York, on December 17, 1670. She was the daughter of Coentaedt Ten Eyck (of Amsterdam) and Marya Boelen. Maria died November 15, 1694; his second wife was Laurentia Kellenaer, widow in turn of Dominie Gaasbeek and of Major Thomas Chambers, Lord of the Manor of Foxhall. Shortly after his marriage in 1670, he removed to Kingston, then Esopus, where he applied for a grant of land which he received in 1676. He became a man of influence in the community and the house he built is now known as "The Senate House of the State of New York" in which the First Constitution of the State was adopted in April, 1777. The house is now a museum in the heart of Kingston.

ii. Dirck Wesselse Ten Broeck [#960]: He was born in probably Munster on December 18, 1638, and died in his Bouwerie in Clermont, New York, on September 18, 1717.

iii. Hendrick Wesselsen Ten Broeck was born in Munster. He resided in New York City. He married Jannetje Jans Van Breestede; they had 12 children, all baptized at the Dutch Reformed Church of the City of New York:

 1. Elsje; March 27, 1671

 2. Jan; April 30, 1672

 3. Jan; May 15, 1673

 4. Wessel; April 8, 1674

 5. Jan; September 18, 1675

 6. Hendrick; September 6, 1676   7. Andries; December 24, 1679

 8. Maria; April 19, 1681

 9. Geertrúÿd; September 29, 1683

10. Jannetie; January 31, 1686

11. Jannetje; September 16, 1688

12. Maria; April 11, 1690

iv. Cornelia Wessels Ten Broeck: She married on October 16, 1687, Dominie Laurentius Van den Bosch, fourth pastor of the Kingston Dutch Church. No children are known.

A note on page 247 of Ten Broeck Genealogy states that a Mr. C. H. Van Gaasbeek, Jr., maintains that Cornelia is the daughter of Wessel. However, the original papers of the legal proceedings of the Kingston Church authorities against Dom. Van den Bosch still exist and cast some doubt on this relationship, inferring that the wife of Dom. Van den Bosch was the daughter of Dirck Wesselse Ten Broeck, not his sister. Indeed, he has a daughter, Cornelia (1669–1729). If these two Cornelias are one and the same, the Van den Bosch was her first husband and Johannes Wynkoop her second.

On page 8 of Ten Broeck Genealogy is found:

There are many blanks in our early Colonial Records, especially relating to the names of those coming to New Netherland. The Records in Holland of the West India Trading Company were sold as waste-paper in 1821. This wanton destruction, combined with the silence of the family record on the subject, leaves us only the honored tradition that Wessel Ten Broeck, the one ancestor of the several branches of the Ten Broeck family in the United States, came to the Colony of New Netherland with Peter Minuit, the first Director General, in 1626. Whether he married in the Colony or in the Fatherland, and where his children were born, is not known; we cherish the hope that search of town and church records in Holland may soon be made.

Since Wessel apparently arrived in 1626 and his children Wessel and Dirck were born in 1636 and 1638, respectively, it is likely that he arrived single and married, say, 1634-35. I know of no examples in this genealogy of an early family delaying childbearing for ten years.