Stephen's Smith Family - Ancestors, Descendants and Cousins

Notes

Jellis Ingart

Other possible surname spellings - Inyard, Enyart, Enyard, Iniart other first names maybe - Giles or Yellis

JELLIS INYARD was born in Flanders on of about February 1, 1652.  If we are to believe he is the son of Carel and that he arrived in 1664, he was then the 12 year old child who accompanied his parents and siblings on their journey to the New Amsterdam Colony.  It was a journey that would change his life.

By way of a background, the Dutch first became interested in the American continent in 1602 with the charter of the United East India Company. In 1609, the company employed Henry Hudson to search for the northwest passage. Hudsons exploration took him to Newfoundland, thence to the New England coast, around Cape Cod, south to Virginia, into Delaware Bay and finally along what is now the Hudson River. The first Dutch settlement in the colonies was establised in 1613 in New Amsterdam [now New York], less than a year after Dutch merchants sent Frederick Christianson and Adrian Block to Manhattan Island to engage in fur trade. Many of the settlers were Huguenots who departed the French provices of the Netherlands because of religious persecution by the Catholics. In the 1600s the Netherlands was comprised of 17 provinces -- 11 northern, in which Dutch was the predominant language, and 6 southern, where the French dialect known as WALLOON was spoken. The Netherlands included all of what we know today as Belgium and part of what is modern-day France. The northern provinces were Holland, Utrecht, Zeeland, Friesland, Groningen, Overijssel, Ge lderland, Northern Flanders, Brabant, Mechlin and Limburg. The 6 southern provinces were Artois, Walloon Flanders, Cambrai, Tournai, Hainault and Namur.

Jellis occupied himself as a farmer and land-owner, having purchased land in Staten Island, N Y as early as 1687.  His first wife was Aetje [Alice], whose maiden name has not been learned. The couple was probably married in Richmond Co., N Y. We seem to first learn of Aetjes identity from a bill of sale in Staten Island dated 18 July 1692 [Book B, pg 174, Staten Island deeds], in which she is referred to as Alice, the wife of Jollis Inyard, Yeoman, but nothing additional is learned of her from that document. The deed conveys property to William George, yeoman, of Richmond Co., N Y, Jellis and Aetje had a family of at leat two sons and thre daughters, who survived to adulthood.

According to the PLANTERS PATENTS BOOK  [ No 7, p 179, S I H S Transcripts, Great Plains Fort, N Y] on 29 December 1697 Jellis Inyard and Peter Pieterson received tracts of land on the great plains on the north side of Staten Island in the rear of Cornelis Corsens land.  Nothing is know about his daughters Christina and Anneha. The records show Yellis as being a surveyor by trade; and in the various patents [land grants] his name is given in Richmond Co., N Y deeds as: Jellis Inyard, grantor deed 27 June 1692 recorded 18 July 1692;  Deed Jollis Inyart to William George, etc. Jellis evidently remained in that place the remainder of his life.

In about 1710 Jellis widow, Trient, married a man surnamed Baker -- possibly Nicholas Baker, who appears on the 1709 Staten Island, N Y census as being aged 45 years.  In August 1710, Triente acknowledged the contents of Jellis will and released any claim to his estate.

Andrew Smith V

To Andrew Smith may be given the honor of naming Hopewell township, and a short sketch of his history may not be out of place just here as he was the progenitor of a distinguished family in the early history of the township. In the deed of Cornelius Empson of Brandywine Creek, now Wilmington, Delaware, to Andrew Smith dated May 20, 1688, the tract is called "Hopewell," and when on February 20, 1699, application was made by the inhabitants north of the falls of the Delaware for a new township, they requested in the petition that it be called "Hopewell." There were three Andrew Smiths in succession, among the early settlers of Hopewell township, all of whom distinguished themselves; but in the published histories of the family they have not included the first Andrew, giving the credit of naming the township to the second.