Stillwell
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Last Revised November 2003
Spendlove Genealogy
from
http://www.thehermitage.org/prevost_extra.html
Nicholas Stillwell after he arrived in Virginia in 1638 was able to acquire
a modest piece of land and then a somewhat larger tract on the York River.
Nicholas became a pioneer tobacco farmer and was named a tobacco inspector.
He was drawn into the militia, attained the rank of lieutenant and took part
in a number of campaigns against Native Americans. From his activities in
a series of engagements he was recorded as "Valiant Stillwell." When Nicholas
supported his commanding officer in resisting the transfer of Kent Island
in the Chesapeake Bay, where they both were involved with a trading post,
from Virginia to Maryland, Stillwell found himself in trouble with the colonial
authorities.
Consequently, in 1645 Nicholas sailed north to the port of New Amsterdam,
at the time still under the control of the Dutch West Indies Company. Shortly,
he was able to obtain a grant of land in Gravesend, located in the southwestern
section of Brooklyn bordering on the Outer Bay. Here he established a pioneer
farm and with his English wife Anne raised 11 children. Nicholas also became
a magistrate, again joined the militia and was involved in fighting Native
Americans up the Hudson River Valley in the Esopus area. He supported the
Dutch, who had given him settlement opportunities and advancement, against
the English takeover in 1664. He did, though, adapt to the new authorities
in New York, obtained a larger tract of land on Staten Island and moved his
family there. The children of Nicholas and Anne settled on Staten Island
and Long Island and in Monmouth and Cape May counties in New Jersey.