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Nicklaes Peterson II UE (1717 - abt. 1794)

Nicklaes (Nicholas) "Claes" Peterson II UE
Born in Bergen County , New Jersey, near Tappan, New Yorkmap [uncertain]
Ancestors ancestors
Brother of [half]
Husband of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Husband of — married 1748 in Tappan, Orange, New Yorkmap
Descendants descendants
Died about at about age 77 in Adolphustown, Lennox, Upper Canadamap
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Profile last modified | Created 7 Nov 2012
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Nicholas Peterson was a United Empire Loyalist.
UEL Status:Proven
Date: Undated

Contents

Biography

Nicklaes Pietersen (Pieterszen, Pieterz, and others) "II"--later Nicholas Peterson Sr.--was born in 1717 near Tappan, New York (but the farm was likely in what became New Jersey) and was baptized at Tappan Reformed Church 18 November 1717. He married Catharina (Tryntje) Mayer/Meyer around 1736 and by 1746 they had four children, of whom probably only Abraham (born 1741) survived infancy. Tryntje died circa 1746.

Nicklaes lived near Tappan and married Annatje Demarest there in 1748. They farmed near Schraalenburgh, New Jersey, perhaps nearer to Pascack, Annatje's home 7 miles west of the Hudson, where related Nicholas Petersons farmed into the nineteenth century. They joined the Schraalenburgh North Church in 1751 (she) and 1753 (he). Nicklaes and Annatje raised seven children, counting Abraham from Nicklaes’s first marriage.

Nicklaes was a tenant farmer, moderately prosperous. On a farm occupied from 1773 he cleared 20 acres, erected a house, “clover house, and barrick,” and had 2 horses and a cow. “His crops would have included apples, strawberries and vegetables which were sent to market in New York."

These were troubled times. Religious revivals split the Schraalenburgh congregation into bitterly opposed factions. Worse, America’s first civil war—the Revolution—split the population into parties that shifted with the warring winds. At first Bergen County was predominantly Loyalist; C.H. Winfield averred that only 14 families in all Bergen County sympathized with the rebels. “In short, the conduct of the Jerseys has been most Infamous. Instead of turning out to defend their Country and affording aid to our Army, they are making their submissions [to the British] as fast as they can.” But as rebel fortunes improved, many went to that side. A later count has only ⅓ to ½ of Hackensack Valley inhabitants as Tories or Tory sympathizers.

“New Jersey found itself from the commencement of hostilities to the treaty of peace a frontier state...exposed to all the miseries of border warfare.” “One-third of all the fighting of the Revolution took place on New Jersey soil.” “While their homes were looted, and their grain and cattle seized by regular troops, they were victimized by abandoned, irresponsible gangs whose sole object was booty, regardless of party.” The “Jersey Tories...became so desperate, and often depraved...that they plundered friends as well as foes, warred upon aged persons and defenseless youths...destroyed public records and private monuments, butchered the wounded...allowed prisoners to starve...Some companies of the Tory troops plundered far worse than did the British or even the notorious Hessian troops. ...Nor was the opposing side in this respect idle.”

The Pietersens suffered from the marauding “Patriots” but stuck with King George and were active in the Loyalist cause. In 1778 those not already enlisted escaped to British-held New York City. Life there was tough for the not-so-well-to-do, especially in winter. (The only time New York Harbor has frozen was in 1779-80.) The men served in militias later designated as Associated Loyalists, including Nicholas II, Abraham, Paulus, Nicklaes III, and Christiaen under Captain (later Major) Thomas Ward UE (see one account below). They crossed the Hudson repeatedly to Bergen County to fetch food and wood for the city. Regarded by the American side as a mere bandit, Captain Ward led what, from the British viewpoint, was successful guerrilla warfare. His Loyal Refuge Volunteers bought or stole firewood and cattle, gathered intelligence, and helped slaves and refugees reach British lines. In 1780 Ward built a blockhouse of logs at Bull’s Ferry (Weehawken or Bergen's Woods, now Bayonne)) on the Jersey shore to protect his woodcutters and it became the site of his best-known victory. On 21 July 1780 a force of 1800 Continentals under General Anthony Wayne tried to take the blockhouse and were repulsed with 18 killed by the 84 less-trained, less-well-armed Loyalists, including Nicholas II and four sons; of the 84 some six were killed. The Tories claimed that they had but one round of ammunition left when the Continentals retreated—but the Tories pursued them anyway, recovering the cattle taken. George Rex sent congratulations. “The British government rewarded the defenders...so handsomely that they were enabled temporarily to give up highway robbery as a means of livelihood.”

After losing the war the British felt obliged to support Loyalists who had served their cause and had lost their property. Some 5500 were transported to Lower Canada (Quebec) of whom many went on to Upper Canada (Ontario)—then a region of dense wilderness and swamps...the hunting grounds...of numerous Indian tribes, intensely cold in winter. Parts, including the Bay of Quinte area, in fact made fine farmland, and by 1791 the population of Upper Canada was some 25,000.

Most of the Pietersons sailed 8 September 1783 for Sorel Seigniory near Quebec in a contingent of 258 under Major VanAlstine. They spent the cold winter in linen tents. The muster of December 1783 gives 18 Petersons: Nicklaes II with Annatje, Abraham with Mary, Paulus and Mary, Nicklaes III and Elizabeth, Christiaen and Maria, teenagers Nicholas (son of Abraham), Maritje and Treinkie, and 5 younger children.

Adolphustown--Township 4--on the Bay of Quinte, on Lake Ontario’s north shore, was surveyed that autumn for these Associated Loyalists, townships 1-3 (numbering from Kingston) being granted to regular Loyalist troops and their families. Bateaux took the loyalists from Sorel through the rapids of the St. Lawrence to Adolphustown, 21 May-16 June 1784.

The Pietersen men—now Petersons—were originally granted 200-acre farms in Adolphustown. Nicholas II and Nicholas III stayed there, on lots 19 and 17 (later 14) of Concession 3 on the south shore of Hay Bay. The other sons moved to adjacent Fredericksburgh, and Abraham soon moved again across the narrow Bay of Quinte to what became Prince Edward County. The daughters married into Fredericksburgh and Adolphustown Loyalist families.

All were farmers. The British government provided each family with axe (a short-handled ship axe rather than timber axe), hoe, spade, and grain seed; for each two families a plow and a cow; for each four families a whip and a cross-cut saw; for each five families a set of tools such as auger, pick-axe, sickle. Also, for three years, coarse cloth for clothes, Indian blankets, shoes, and, for the needy, flour, pork, a little beef, a little salt, and a very little butter.

Home life—each log cabin with a large Dutch fireplace—and social life of Quinte Bay are described in engaging fashion by Canniff (1869).

The year 1787 saw crop failure and starvation, with the height of distress in early 1788.

Nicholas and apparently his whole Peterson tribe, having belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, in Canada became strong Methodists, except that Maritje joined her husband's Anglican church.

In 1784 the British government undertook partial recompense to Loyalists for properties lost in the United States. None of the Peterson claims of 1788 included real estate. Nicklaes II was paid £39 on a claim of £106. It appears that Loyalists who took part in the victory at the blockhouse in Bergen Woods were entitled to 600-acre grants as a reward, and we have letters of 1834 on behalf of Paul’s claim, but I do not think that Petersons gained any such land. Sons and daughters of United Empire Loyalists at age 21 (or at marriage, for girls) were also entitled to land, generally 200 acres; Petersons received many such grants, most of them enumerated by Reid (1973).

Nicholas "II" died in 1793-94, deducing from census records.

Footnotes

Tappan is on what became the New York-New Jersey border. Initially Nicklaes was probably, like his father, a tenant farmer on the Kakiat Patent, which was on both sides of the border. He and first wife Tryntje Mayer were married in and baptized their children at Tappan. He and second wife Annatje Demarest (of Pascack, New Jersey) were married at Tappan but baptized their children at Schraalenburgh, New Jersey (where a church was built in 1723). Annatje's family, Huguenot in origin, received grants and led settlement in the Tappan and Schraalenburgh areas; see sources for her greatgrandfather Des_Marest-47. But by force of numbers their language, French, succumbed to Dutch in northern New Jersey.

Seven of Nicholas's children are profiled here. Not further recorded are three children of his first marriage, namely Jacob born 9 Nov 1739, Annatje born 19 Aug 1744, and Nicholas baptized 7 Sep 1746; and three of his second, namely David born 4 Dec 1748, David born 27 Jan 1750, and Tryntje born 20 Sep 1742, for whom no sure, later records are found. The David born in 1750 may well have survived and might be the David Peterson who with Hannah ___ baptized four children in the Lutheran Church in New York City, 1769-1773. Daughter Annatje Peterson-2101, born by 1755, married John Anderson; it is not known whether they went to Canada--surely not with the rest of her family--nor even whether they were Loyalists.

The proportion of Bergen County residents who were Loyalists (a) varied greatly with time and (b) is subject to wide disagreement. Keesey 1957 (see Sources) said that the county "was a hotbed of Toryism," with the largest number of Loyalists in the state. But she also said that that number was 167--less than twenty per thousand whites. Other sources also vary widely.

There are several accounts of the Battle of the Bergen Woods (Bayonne) Blockhouse, in which Captain Thomas Ward's company of Associated Loyalists successfully defended a blockhouse against much larger Patriot forces. A contemporary account of the battle is included in Stephen Davidson's "A Loyalist Rogues Gallery: Part Three" (Loyalist Trails #2022-29, 17 July 2022), as follows:

A LOYALIST ROGUE'S GALLERY: PART THREE copyright Stephen Davidson UE Lorenzo Sabine did a great service to history when he published his 1864 compilation of Loyalist biographies. However, he sometimes leaned a little heavily on primary sources that had a Patriot bias. One example would be his description of Thomas Ward of Newark, New Jersey. Sabine said that Ward "lived by plundering" and that he associated with "Negroes and vile creatures of his own race". Although he does admit that Ward commanded a blockhouse on the Hudson River, he failed to include that the fact that the Loyalist had once bravely withstood the attack of nearly 2,000 rebels equipped with cannons. In fact, so great was Ward's contribution to the Loyalist cause that those in his company who settled in Quebec and New Brunswick referenced his name in their claims for compensation, knowing that Ward's name would carry weight. Alexander Sharp received a wound to his stomach during his service with Ward in 1780 making him "almost incapable of getting his living". Before settling in Woodstock, New Brunswick, Sharp served as a spy for the British and was imprisoned on three different occasions. William Harding's service included capturing rebels, and making off with 15 head of cattle while "with the Loyalists under Major Ward". At the Montreal compensation hearings, Joseph Allan testified that after escaping from a rebel jail in 1780, he joined Major Ward. He commanded a company in Bergen County for two years before joining the evacuation to Nova Scotia. He later settled along the Bay of Quinte. Nicholas Peterson joined the British in 1776 and served at "outposts with other Loyalists under Major Ward", including the blockhouse at Bergen Point. Peterson settled in Sorel [this is in error; he was in Sorel for only a few months]. The historian Todd Braisted has written extensively about Thomas Ward, noting among other things that he formed the Loyal Refugee Volunteers in New Jersey's Bergen County in November of 1779. The Patriot press always described Ward in the most negative of terms. In November of 1780, 100 Loyalists under his command were noted as going on a "picarooning expedition" to Newark, New Jersey in which they took "most of the livestock" and two prisoners. ("Picaroon" is an old word for "pirate".) However, the Royal Gazette, New York City's Loyalist newspaper, cheered on Ward and his men. In August of 1781, Ward sent out a party of men on horseback to New Bridge, New Jersey where they "captured three notorious rebels ... drove off their stock, and returned to the party without firing a shot". At month's end, rebel historians noted that the inhabitants of Hackensack recaptured cattle from "Thomas Ward's plunderers" and scattered the robbers. In July of 1780, Ward and his men withstood the attack that 2,000 Patriots made on their Bergen Point blockhouse. The following contemporary account of the battle appeared in a Loyalist newspaper a day following the attack: "Yesterday morning about nine o'clock, Generals Wayne and Irwin, with the 1st and 2d Pennsylvania brigades of infantry, Colonel Moyland's cavalry, and Proctor's artillery, the flower of Washington's army, consisting of about 1800 troops, with 6 six pounders, and one howitz, appeared in view of Col. Clavier's refugee post, on the Jersey shore, which was then commanded by Captain Thomas Ward; about 10 o'clock they advanced with their cannon, within 100 yards of the Refugee work, and commenced a tremendous cannonade which lasted till half past 11; they attempted to storm the abbatis, but were repulsed with the loss of about 90 killed and wounded among which are five officers. The loss of the Refugees is 4 killed, and 8 slightly wounded; no veterans could have behaved better on this occasion than these few Loyalists. And his Excellency the Commander in Chief, has expressed his thanks and approbation to this loyal band, for their spirited and gallant behaviour." A second newspaper added: "Thus the chosen Band of Washington's Army were repulsed by a few determined Loyalists: and we have Reason to believe the Loss of the Rebels much greater than has yet been ascertained and to add more to the Spirit of the Refugees, a Party, under the Command of the brave Captain Ward, pursued the Rear of the retreating Army upwards of 4 Miles, retook 20 Head of Cattle that were carried off from the well affected Neighbours, killed one Rebel, and made Prisoner of General Wayne's Servant, and another." The brave Loyalists received special notice from the British command. "The Commander in Chief admiring the Gallantry of the Refugees, who in such small Numbers defended their Post against so very considerable a Corps, and withstood both their Cannonade and Assault: desires his very particular Acknowledgement of their Merit may be testified to them. His Excellency requests you will give in a Return of the numbers present at this spirited Defence, that he may give Directions for uniform Cloathing and Hats being given them from the Inspector General's Office." When rebels attacked the same blockhouse two years later, they were also forced to retreat with heavy losses. (Bergen Point is today's Bayonne, New Jersey.) Braisted notes that Ward and his Loyal Refugee Volunteers finally abandoned their blockhouse in October of 1782 "and became the first Loyalists to set sail for a new life in Nova Scotia". The historian Wallace Hale discovered that Thomas Ward received a pension of £60 annually, and a grant of 500 acres of land in Nova Scotia, "where he settled with his wife and a child." As other sources document, the Wards sailed for Annapolis Royal aboard the Amphitrite shortly after leaving their blockhouse. The 360 passengers also included Ward's fellow combatants William Harding and Alexander Sharp who were mentioned earlier. The ship's manifest lists four Ward children above 8 years of age and 4 who were under the age of 8. On October 20, 1782, Ward was one of five Loyalists who penned a letter of appreciation to their ship's captain. "The Loyal Refugees who have emigrated from New York to settle in Nova Scotia, beg your acceptance of their warmest thanks for the kind and unremitted attention you have paid to their preservation and safe conduct at all times during their passage. Driven from their respective dwellings for their loyalty to our King, after enduring immense hardships, and seeking a settlement in a land unknown to us, our distresses were sensibly relieved during an uncomfortable passage by your humanity, ever attentive to our preservation. Be pleased to accept our most grateful acknowledgment, so justly due to you and the officers under your command, and be assured we shall remember your kindness with the most grateful sensibility." Thomas Ward's name then disappears from the historical records for the next 40 years, resurfacing in Nova Scotia's census of 1827. It registered him as a farmer in Wilmot, Annapolis County. Listed as Baptists, there were four males and four females in the family at that time. The historian Sabine would have put Thomas Ward in a Loyalist Rogues Gallery; but the evidence of the years of war puts him more accurately in a Loyalist Hall of Fame. Further stories of Loyalist "robbers and marauders" will be reviewed in next week's Loyalist Trails.

For other accounts of the Battle of Bull's Ferry see Braisted 2007, Burleigh 2011, Leiby 1962, and Piecuch 2022, cited below.

Nicklaes Pietersen II and four of his sons fought in the battle. They were highly commended for the effort but none received the 600-acre bonus that George III authorized as a reward. All settled in Adolphustown, Upper Canada, but Christian soon moved across a town line to Fredericksburgh and Abraham soon moved across the strait of Quinte to Hallowell Bay.

The Petersons among about 400 Associated Loyalists are said to have sailed under Major Van Alstine. Probably all but Abraham sailed under Captain Peter Ruttan, Van Alstine's second-in-command at the time. Ruttan's company largely comprised men from northern Bergen County. (The Petersons had served in Thomas Ward's company, but Ward elected to migrate to Nova Scotia/New Brunswick.) This profile formerly claimed that the Petersons sailed on "The Hope," but this was a 40-gun brig tasked with protecting the convoy and may not have conveyed Loyalists. ...Peter Ruttan, like the Petersons, was from Schraalenburgh. Nicholas II's wife Annatje was first cousin of Peter Ruttan's father. See Ruttan-107.

Sources

Records of the Reformed Dutch Church of Hackensack and Schraalenburgh, New Jersey, Published as Vol I, Part I, of Collections of the Holland Society of New York (1891) [Records 1686- 1801]. https://dcms.lds.org/delivery/DeliveryManagerServlet?dps_pid=IE937730 [marriage; church membership]

Holland Society of New York. 1891; reprinted 1998 by Bergen Historic Books. Records of the Reformed Dutch Churches of Hackensack and Schraalenburgh, New Jersey, 1724-1800. Part II. 386 pp. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89069297521;view=1up;seq=

Braisted, Todd W. 2007. Thomas Ward and the woodcutters of Bergen. pp. 130-141 IN: Karels, C., editor. The Revolutionary War in Bergen County. The Times that Tried Men's Souls. Charleston, S.C.: The History Press. 191 pp. And see Braisted's Bergen's Loyalists, pp. 65-76 in the same book.

Burleigh, H. H. 1965/2011, The Block House in Bergen Wood. Widely circulated address of 1965. Published in Dornfest, 2011, Military Loyalists of the American Revolution, Appendix, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. At www.uelac.org/PDF/The-Block-House-in-Bergen-Wood.pdf.

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

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

Davidson, Stephen. A Loyalist Rouges Gallery: Part III. Loyalist Trails #2022-29, 17 July 2022. https://mail.aol.com/webmail-std/en-us/DisplayMessage?ws_popup=true&ws_suite=true

Haldimand Papers, muster at Sorell, Quebec, 4 February 1784, http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_h1655/104?r=0&s=3 (Nicholas' household comprised 1 man, 1 woman, a boy under 6, and 2 girls over 10. Abraham, Paul, Nicholas Jr., and Christopher have separate entries with 6, 2, 3, and 2 persons respectively.)

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, Ruth 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.

Kelly, Arthur C. M. Reprint 1998. Baptism record of the Tappan Reformed Church, Tappan, Rockland County, NY. 1694-1899. Rhinebeck, NY : Kinship. iv, 290 pp.

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.

Haldimand Papers. Public Archives of Canada. Vol B-166, B-167, B-168: musters of 1783-1784.

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

Piecuch, Jim. 2022. Anthony Wayne's Repulse at Bull's Ferry, July 21, 1780. Journal of the American Revolution, 4 October 2022. Reprinted in Loyalist Trails 2022-41, 9 October 2022, see under "Publications" at www.uelac.org (This account has the Captain Ward's Loyalists of Bull's Ferry blockhouse "Loyal Refugee Volunteers," rather than the "Associated Loyalists" used above. Probably both are true.)

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

United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada, http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Info/detail.php?letter=p&line=216 (as of Feb 2019 lists Nicholas's first wife, Katarina Meyer, but not second wife Annetje Demarest who came with him to Canada)

Collections of the Holland Society of New York Adolphustown censuses 1794, 1795. At Napanee Museum and in part at http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/adolph01.htm

http://www.uelac.org/Loyalist-Info/detail.php?letter=p&line=213

Acknowledgments

Profile begun by Katharine E-173 in 2012, expanded by Roger Peterson-2011.





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Categories: United Empire Loyalists