The van Beverhoudts Take Manhattan

Bloomingdale, to be specific.

Regular readers may know that the van Beverhoudt line is my longest family line in the Virgin Islands.  While no one is sure when exactly they arrived, my 7th great grandfather, Claudius (Claudi) van Beverhoudt is recorded in the St Thomas landlister as residing on St. Thomas in 1693.  Descendants of Claudi are still living there today (and one of them is a regular blog reader!).  This is an unbroken string of van Beverhoudts in the Virgin Islands for 318 years!  So imagine my surprise when I discovered that Claudius’ son, my 6th great grandfather, Johannes van Beverhoudt, Claudizoon, and his entire family, shows up in the records of the Colony of New York around 1750.  In fact Johannes and his sons (including my 5th great grandfather, Claudius) were naturalized citizens of the Colony of New York.


First, let’s deal with the name: Claudizoon.  As I have written before, the van Beverhoudts were Dutch and the Dutch had a custom of taking a patronymic title from their fathers first name.  Since Johannes’ father was named Claudius (or Claudi), he used the appellation Claudi-zoon, or Claudi’s son, after his name.  This turns out to be extremely helpful in locating people at a time of particular unoriginality in naming choices. Of course, not everyone is familiar with this Dutch custom.  I have seen Johannes listed as Glaudizoon, Claudizoon, Glaudiz, and Glaudisz, sometimes as surnames.

Either way, this name has been instrumental in ascertaining his identity from among the plethora of Johannes van Beverhoudts (ok, well maybe not a plethora, but at least several).

My earliest knowledge of Johannes Claudizoon comes from a series of articles written by Henry Hoff and Kenneth Barta in the Spring 1983 edition of The Genealogist, currently published by the American Society of Genealogists.  This is one of a series of articles that trace the lineage of the De Windt families of the West Indies.  So far, this is the only compiled genealogy I have run across from the Virgin Islands.  Even if you are not related to the De Windts, I recommend that you get ahold of a copy and look at the sources used.  I found lots of great pointers and ideas just from the notes.  The series was begun in V3 No1 (1982), then V4 No1 (1983), then two articles in V6 No 1 (1985) and completed in V10 No2 (1989).  Back issues are available for $15 each. The ASG website currently has a special for Volumes 1-10, comprising 20 issues (2 per volume) and two special issues for $40 post-paid. (They tell me they ordered too many, so it’s a killer price).  I bought a set a month or so ago and I’m so glad I did.

1746 Membership Register of the Dutch Reformed Church in St Thomas

According to Hoff and Barta, Johannes Claudizoon was born on St Thomas and baptized in the Lutheran church on 9 Feb 1711.  He owned several properties on both St Thomas and St Croix and was a member of the Burgher Council.  He married 4 times on St Thomas.  The first and third wives were De Windts (which explains why he is in the articles).  His first wife, Dorothea De Windt, was my 7th great grandmother.  He married his fourth wife, Margaretha Langemack sometime before 1746 when she was received into the St Thomas Dutch Reformed Church and recorded in the churchbook (pg. 9, line 3) as “Margarita van Beverhoudt, born Langemath”.  It is likely that they were married around that time.

Extract from the Record

Then I ran across something unexpected in an on-line copy of The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, (The Record) Vol LXI No. 1, January 1930.  Many issues of the Record contained transcriptions of old registers.  This one contained an article entitled “Records of the Reformed Dutch Church in the City of New York”.  On page 74 there was an entry for new members for 21 Aug 1749:

“Johannes van Beverhoudt & Margarita Langemath, Egte L. van St. Thomas”. 

This says they transferred their membership from St. Thomas.  Apparently, between 1748, when Johannes was listed as a member of the Burgher Council on St Thomas and August 1749, he and his wife moved to the English Colony of New York. He apparently maintained his property in St Thomas after moving to New York.

1750 Naturalization in New York of the van Beverhoudts

There were other records of their presence in New York city over the next few years, often as witnesses at baptisms of other West Indies ex-pats, particularly De Windts.  Then I found a very curious document, the Colonial Laws of New York from the year 1664 to the Revolution.  Chapter 902 is a law granting citizenship to a number of individuals including Johannes Van Beverhout Gloudisz, and his four sons, including Claudius Van Beverhout (my 6th great grandfather) in 1750.  Keep in mind, New York was a colony at the time, so the citizenship was for the Colony of New York, not the United States.

Map of Herman Le Roy Farm area of Manhattan

Looking around in the New York area, I found more references to the family.  In the book The Iconography of Manhattan Island 1498-1909, v.6, p 115-116 I located a description of a piece of land referred to as “The Herman Le Roy Farm”.  According to the book, the westerly portion of the property was acquired by Johannes Van Beverhoudt Glouidisz about 1749.  This land appears to be west of Central Park, right by the Hudson River.  Johannes owned 109 acres on Manhattan Island, about where Columbia University is now located. It further states that he built a “stone house” on the property.

Johannes and Margaretha had a daughter Maria (b. 1750) in New York and a second daughter, Margarita (b. 1752), who was born 6 months after Johannes death in November 1751.  Following her husband’s death, Margaretha decided to sell the property and published an advertisement for the sale. The Iconography quotes:

1752, Sept. 25. "To be sold, A certain Farm situate at
Bloomendal, in the Out Ward of the City of New-York, between
the Farms of Adrian Hoogeland and Dennis Hicks, and
is bounded Westerly to Hudson's River, containing 109 Acres;
also a Lot or Piece of Salt Meadow lying on the West Side of
the aforesaid River, in the County of Bergen, The Farm is
pleasantly situated either for a Gentleman or a Farmer, having
delightful Prospects both up and down the River; and on it is
lately built a large Dwelling-House of 50 Feet in Breadth front
and rear, and 44 Feet in Depth, with Sash-Windows, Beausets,
Closets, and in all other Respects completely finished, with
Cellars under the whole House; Also a new Stone Kitchen, a
Farm or Out-house, and Kitchen, of Stone and Brick; a large
Barn new shlngl'd, two Gardens, one of near two Acres of Land,
indos'd with neat Pales and Board-Fence. Whoever inclines to
purchase the same, may apply to Mrs. Margaret Van Beverhout,
living on the Premisses, or to Charles Crommelin, in
New-York. Good Security for the Payment of the purchase
Money, will be preferr'd to ready Money."-The N. Y. Post-
Boy, S 25, 1752.

The house was purchased by Humphrey Jones and a deed was recorded by 25 Sep 1752.  The house became known as “The Homestead”.  In New York of Yesterday, Hopper Striker Mott shows a picture of the house that Johannes van Beverhoudt built, and although the drawing was made much later, it is believed to be an accurate representation of what the house looked like, although it may have been added to after Johannes van Beverhoudt’s death.



The “stone house” was clearly one of the mansions built in Bloomingdale, a fashionable residence in pre-revolutionary Manhattan near other well-to do families.

The house passed through several hands after Jones.  New York of Yesterday cites a series of owners: Jones, Kemble, and Ann Rogers before it became a female academy and purchased by Frederick Weber. Weber leased the property out and it became known as the Abbey Hotel.  There is an article entitled The Lost Abbey Hotel -- 101st Street and Broadway on the house on Daytonian in Manhattan, a blog dedicated to the architectural history of Manhattan. The house was struck by lightning circa 1859 and burned to the ground.

Following Johannes Claudizoon’s death, his son Claudius returned to St Croix where he was married in 1754 to Gertrude Magens.  They subsequently moved to St Croix around 1773, as I wrote n My Family Comes to St Croix in 1773.  Several other sons returned to St Thomas as well.  Margarita stayed in New York, marrying Nicholas Bayard in 1756 and raising her daughters Maria and Margarita.  When Maria van Beverhoudt married, she kept a detailed family bible of the births of her children and that bible exists today in a collection in New York.  But that story will have to wait until another day.