Nicholas Peterson III UE (bef. 1760 - 1846)

Born before 29 Jun 1760 in Schraalenburgh, Bergen County, New Jersey

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Elizabeth (Hazlett) Peterson — married about 1780 in New York City, New York County, New York, United States [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 1846 after age 85 in Adolphustown Township, Lennox and Addington, Canada West

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Rick Bowers [send private message]

Nicholas Peterson was a United Empire Loyalist.
UEL Status:Proven
Date: Undated

Biography

Nicklaes Pietersen--later Nicholas Peterson Jr. and after 1794 Nicholas Peterson Sr.--was born in 1760 in Bergen County on a farm near Schraalenburgh in the Hackensack Valley. His baptismal record (1760) was at the Dutch Reformed Church of Hackensack, probably because that church shared its pastor with the Pietersens' church at Schraalenburgh. Dutch was their language although mother Annatje Demarest was of the French Huguenot family that dominated the Valley.

Nicklaes was living with his parents in 1776 when he became a British messenger and took part in the British invasion of New Jersey. He was seriously injured in the head by the sword of a Continental officer. His boat used to carry provisions to the British was taken. He swore loyalty to King George in January 1777.

Under pressures of war the family moved to New York City behind British lines in 1778. There Nicklaes III along with his father and brothers became Associated Loyalists and fought irregularly, mostly foraging expeditions across the Hudson to Bergen County. He took part in the Battle of the Blockhouse (see accounts at Nicholas II, Peterson-2099 and at Major Thomas Ward UE).

In New York he married (Mary) Elizabeth Hazlett. With baby son Nicholas they accompanied his father and brothers to Lower Canada in late 1783 and, after a cold winter in tents at Sorel, in May-June 1784 to Adolphustown, Upper Canada. He was granted 200 acres in Concession 3 Lot 17. In 1788 he was compensated £18 on a claim of £32 for losses in the Revolution.

Nicholas (as his name came to be spelled) was among the settlement's first successful farmers. He was reported by his son William to have put in the first crop in Adolphustown and obtained a large yield in 1784. In 1785 Nicholas (and brothers?) went to Montreal and brought back some horses and three cows, the principal stock of the township.

In 1803 Nicholas exchanged land granted him in Sidney Township (Hastings County) in 1793 for the 200-acre Concession 3 Lot 14 on Hay Bay in Adolphustown near the Fredericksburgh line of his brother-in-law James McMasters and (at least by 1806) moved there (a move of less than a mile). In 1810/1811 he added at least the adjacent 100 acres of Lot 13. An 1836 map and 1845 deed show a sawmill on the property (one of Adolphustown's three). The Atlas (1878) has a handsome lithograph of his stone farmhouse and other buildings. With 12 to 16 persons, the household was among Adophustown's largest, 1800-1816. Nicholas and Elizabeth had 15 children of whom 13 were living in 1846.

Having belonged to the Dutch Reformed church, they became Methodists in Canada.

Elizabeth died in Adolphustown in about 1835 and Nicholas in 1846.

Notes

Omission of Nicholas's still-large household from the 1822 "annual return of the inhabitants of Adolphustown" is unexplained. Son David's household of four persons is listed that year.

Burial places of the family before 1922 are largely unknown. There was a family burial ground in the west 1/2 of Lot 13 or (more likely) east 1/2 of Lot 14, exempted in 1845 from a grant of those lots by Nicholas to his grandson Robert. The burial ground was west of a low meadow that was to be dammed and flooded. It has not been found (nor searched for?). Graves of Nicholas and Elizabeth and many descendants may have been there.

Sources

Anonymous, for Lt. French. Provisioning List at Sorel, 19 November 1783.

Braisted, T.W., 2007. Thomas Ward and the woodcutters of Bergen. pp. 130-141 IN: Karels, C., editor. The Revolutionary War in Bergen County. Charleston, SC: The History Press.

Canniff, W., 1869. History of the Settlement of Upper Canada. Toronto. 672 pp. http://www.ourroots.ca/.

Canniff, W., 1872. History of the Province of Ontario. Toronto. 672 pp. Available at http://www.ourroots.ca/.

Dutch Reformed Church, Hackensack, New Jersey, https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/371949/?offset=0#page=241&viewer=picture&o=&n=0&q= (born in Schraalenburgh but baptized in Hackensack; same pastor in both)

Herrington, W.S. 1913. History of the County of Lennox and Addington. Toronto: MacMillan, https://ia800308.us.archive.org/32/items/lennoxaddington00herruoft/lennoxaddington00herruoft.pdf

Keesey, R.M., 1957, Loyalty and Reprisal: the Loyalists of Bergen County, New Jersey and Their Estates. Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 311 pp. Published version (not seen): 1957, The Loyalists of Bergen County and Their Estates, Columbia University.

Kingston-Herald, 24 March 1846, obituary, http://www.sfredheritage.on.ca/deathsobitsPQ.html

Lamont, Katharine J. 1984, reprint 2014. Adolphustown 1784-1984. Adophustown Bicentennial Committee. 134 pp. (Reprints the Atlas's picture of Peterson farm.)

Leiby, A.C., 1962. The Revolutionary War in the Hackensack Valley. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. 329 pp.

Leiby, A.C., 1964. The Huguenot Settlement of Schraalenburgh. The History of Bergenfield, New Jersey. Bergenfield Free Public Library. 188 pp.

O'Hara, Lois. Land Transfers, Adolphustown: 1797-1999. (Excerpts sent in 2017 by Katharine Staples.)

Ontario Bureau of Archives, 1904. United Empire Loyalists. Enquiry into the Losses and Services in Consequence of their Loyalty. 1436 pp., pp. 449-450, 1035-1036, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QHN-13YG-9168?i=187&cat=520063

Peterson, Christopher, 2002. Peterson UEL Heritage Reclaimed. Unpublished. 22 pages. Ontario Genealogical Society, Quinte Branch. [Contains obituary from the Kingston Argus of 27 March 1846 and letters.]

Peterson, William P., 1878. IN: Illustrated Historical Atlas of the Counties of Frontenac, Lennox, and Addington, Ontario. Toronto: J.H. Meacheam & Co. p. 14.

Reid, W.D. 1973. The Loyalists in Ontario. The Sons and Daughters of the American Loyalists of Upper Canada. Lambertville, NJ: Hunterdon House. 418 pp.

Acknowledgment

Begun in 2012 by Rick Bowers-1628. Modified by Katharine E-173 and by Roger S. Peterson-2111.

[As of January 2020, 823 descendants of five generations in WikiTree; by child they number: Hannah 1 Nicholas 91 David 7 John 31 Jacob 46 Paul 28 Samuel 94 Mary 39 Elizabeth 59 James 134 Aleah 34 Letitia 178 Robert 1 Susan 2 William 78]