Applegates Listed in Stillwell's Genealogical Works

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: Applegate Thomas_Applegate

From Stillwell, MD, John E. Historical and Genealogical Miscellany Early Settlers of New Jersey and their Descendants. Vols. I-IV. 5 vols. New York, 1916.

THOMAS APPLEGATE , the founder of the Applegate family in this country, was an Englishman, probably of Norfolkshire origin. His surname can be traced, with corruptions and variations in its spelling, due to time, euphony and the carelessness or ignorance of scriveners or recording clerks, from Applegarth and Applegath , (an enclosure for apple trees), to Applegate . The names Appleyard and Applethwaite were also applied to persons residing at or owning orchards. And the most ancient form was probably Apeliard , suggesting an early Norman origin.

Families of these various names were seated in England ; one, the Applegarth , at Rapley , in Hampshire ; another, the Apeliard , in Norfolkshire , who had among its earliest and most distinguished members Nicholas de Apelyard , Rogert del Apelgath , Jeffrey de Applegarth , whose estate was mentioned in 1199, and John Appleyard , who lived in the time of Richard II, 1377-99, and had a son, Sir Nicholas Apelyard or Apeliard . These families held many estates in Norfolkshire ; among them Rainthrop Hall, Mills Manor, Hals Manor, Testerdon Manor, etc.

In Norfolkshire there is found a striking coincidence of family names in the Appleyard family with those of the first Applegates in New Jersey .

Among the lords of Rainthrop Hall and Mills Manor was Bartholomew Apelyard , and, in 1419, a branch of the Appleyards came into the possession of Duaton Manor. Will Applegate , in 1481, bequeathed it to his son, Thomas , and named his mother, Elizabeth , and his brothers, John and Bartholomew . Bartholomew Applegate died in 1492.

The repeated use of the comparatively rare Christian name, Bartholomew , is suggestive, if not substantiative, of a relationship between Thomas Applegate , the Immigrant, and the Norfolkshire family.

In America , the name has also undergone changes. The last half has, occasionally, been lopped off and it has remained simply Appel; and it has also been spelled Appelgadt and Appelget , as is now the case in Middlesex County, N. J. ; but the Monmouth County family spell it--Applegate .

Jan Laurensen Appel and Arien , or Adrian or Adriaen Appel were Dutchmen and early settlers in New Amsterdam , and not to be confused with the Applegate family.

Adrian Appel was a resident of New York in 1701, and left a will devising his estate to his children. In 1671, Adrian Appel had recently been a resident of New York , but had removed to Albany .

Thomas Applegate was a member of the Massachusetts Bay colony, as early as 1635, when he was licensed to keep a ferry between Wessaguscus , (Weymouth ), and Mount Wooliston , (Braintree ). A year later he was turned out. Between 1635 and 1640, his name frequently appears in the Massachusetts Records. His wife, Elizabeth Applegate , seems to have been one of the unfortunate persons who suffered from the ecclesiastical tyranny of that puritanical age, for she was "censured to stand with her tongue in a cleft stick for swearing, reviling and railing." Perhaps these experiences prompted them to move to the more liberally conducted settlements of Rhode Island , where the name, "Appelgats Plaine " was given to their land and which their son, "Bartholomew Appel ," then of New Amsterdam , subsequently empowered Henry Timberlake , of Rhode Island , to occupy and which he alluded to, as formerly the property of my, (Appel 's), deceased father. By this I infer that Bartholomew Appel was the eldest son and heir of Thomas Applegate . From Rhode Island Thomas Applegate came to Gravesend.